Moonlight Densetsu by SithLordWiccan

Rating: PG-13
Uber-Setting: Sailor Moon
Disclaimer: Willow, Tara and other Buffy characters belong to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, the WB, UPN, 20th Century Fox and others. Sailor Moon concepts and characters belong to Naoko Takeuchi.
Distribution: The Mystic Muse: http://mysticmuse.net
Through the Looking-glass
Feedback: Much appreciated and much requested.
Spoilers: None
Author's Notes: For more information about Sailor Moon, check out its entry on Wikipedia.
Pairing: Willow/Tara

Summary: Willow Rosenberg and her friends fight in the name of love and justice against the forces of the Dark Kingdom led by the evil Queen Faith.

It was the time of the Silver Millennium, and the people of the Moon Kingdom were at peace. Ruled over by Queen Serenity, it was their chosen destiny to watch over the people of the planet Earth, and to help their evolution over the course of time. This was made possible by the fact that the people of the Moon had extremely long life spans, and could live for countless centuries.

Though it was their mission to protect the people of the Earth, those who lived in the Moon Kingdom were expressly forbidden from directly interacting with them. Because of this, a rift began to grow between them, intensifying when it became known that Princess Serenity, daughter of the Queen, had fallen in love with the Crown Princess of Earth, a blonde woman named Endymion.

There were many who were opposed to the union between them. One of them was a young woman named Faith, who had come to despise Princess Endymion and wanted, in any way possible, to make her life miserable. She was granted the ability to act on her wish when a powerful being, known only as Metallia, contacted her and, wanting to instigate a conflict between the kingdoms of Earth and the Moon, gave her untold power. Using these newfound capabilities, Faith rallied the people of the Earth, including Endymion's dearest friends, into a furious frenzy and led them in an attack against the Moon Kingdom.

It was during that battle that Faith crossed paths with Princess Endymion, who was determined to protect her love no matter the cost. Despite a valiant effort on her part, Endymion quickly fell to the blade of her opponent. Distraught over the loss of her one true love, and unable to contemplate a life without her, Princess Serenity took her own life.

By the end of that bloody day, the Moon Kingdom had been all but eradicated, Metallia's and Faith's greatest wishes fulfilled and their goals reached beyond their wildest expectations. Their happiness was short lived, however, as with her dying breath, Queen Serenity used the power of the Mystical Silver Crystal, the most cherished artifact of her people and the source of their longevity, to seal both of them, along with their followers, away in a pocket dimension, and to transport her daughter and her love, along with her entire court, to the future, where they would be reincarnated and able to live out their lives without the threat of either Metallia or Faith looming over them.

Unfortunately, doing so would make them unaware of their former identities or their past. However, knowing that there may be a time in that future when either Metallia or Faith would grow powerful enough to break free of their imprisonment, Serenity entrusted onto her two closest confidants, the felines Luna and Artemis, the task of finding the Princess and her guardians in order to ensure the protection of the people of themselves and their adoptive world should evil be allowed to return.

As she faded from existence, Queen Serenity's last thoughts were of her daughter. She had never harbored any ill will towards her, even when both her people and those of her love opposed their union. It was with Endymion that her daughter had been happier than she had ever seen her. And it was for the sake of that happiness, more than anything else, which brought Queen Serenity to the decision to do this. As long as her daughter was safe, nothing else mattered.

Those words piercing through her fog clouded mind, Willow Rosenberg let out a horrified squeal and shot up out of bed, looking at the alarm clock on her nightstand and surprised to find that it was five minutes past eight.

Fumbling out of bed, she made her way hurriedly into the bathroom, discarding her clothes as she went until she had arrived fully nude in the shower, emerging from it only after a few minutes of bathing herself and drying off to the best of her ability given her haste. Thankfully, a neat pile of clothes had been laid out on the toilet seat for her. Dressing quickly, and silently thanking her mother for being nice enough to do that for her, she reached for her backpack, which liked the clothes had been brought by her mother to the bathroom for her, and made her way into the kitchen.

"Mom, why didn't you come check on me when I never got up in time for breakfast?"

Her mother, as calm and patient a woman as Willow had ever known, looked absolutely flustered that her daughter would even ask such a ridiculously obvious question. "Willow, you can't expect me to be able to check on you every day and wake you up. You've got to start learning to be more responsible. And besides, you wouldn't sleep that late if you didn't spend all night on the internet chatting with your friends." Planting her hands on her hips, she added, "When are you going to grow up and accept some responsibility for your actions?"

Willow would have liked to argue with her mother about that, but she also knew that she didn't have the time, so she simply grabbed her lunch bag from the counter and made her way out the door. Hopefully if she ran quickly enough, she would be able to get to the bus stop before it arrived.

Unfortunately, her hopes were soon dashed as, having made her way halfway down the street at an all out run, she saw the all too familiar shape of the bus passing right before her eyes.

Sighing, she slumped against the wall of a nearby building, determined not to make a spectacle of herself. It wasn't the first time that this had happened to her, and she knew for a fact that it wouldn't be the last. But in this instance, she would at least try to make an attempt to be calm about what had just happened and not act like the crybaby that her supposed best friend Cordelia Chase often said she was.

But no matter what, she couldn't help it, and soon the tears began to flow. She told herself that what she was doing didn't make her as much of a crybaby as Cordelia thought she was. After all, everyone had their ups and downs in life. It just seemed that her life was much more down than up. But at least she was good in school…well, not as good as she wanted, but it wasn't like she failed a lot of tests, just one on the average…every week. But she wasn't flunking out. That was something to be thankful for. And she had a good heart, truly caring about the people she was lucky to call friends.

Even Cordelia, despite the fact that she was mean to her more often than she would care to admit, though Willow noted that it usually wasn't without a good reason, and almost always because she truly had Willow's best interests at heart. And as much as she complained about it, it wasn't like Willow was ungrateful about it. After all, it was truly a sign of the friendship that the two of them shared.

And Cordelia, for all of her teasing, never let herself forget how grateful she was for that friendship. There were few others in town that would treat her as Willow did, often considering her to be particularly strange, spreading rumors around town that she got visions and spent all of her time at an old hotel communing with the dead. But Willow had never played towards the crowd, and had made a rare effort and tried to be friends with the girl. And as surprised as she was at her rather uncharacteristically bold attempt to do so, she was equally surprised to find Cordelia easily relenting, telling Willow later on that of all the people she had known in her life, the redhead was the only one who would be friendly towards her without any hint that she was condescended to.

Letting go of the past, Willow was about to prepare herself physically and mentally to make the long distance run she would need to make in order to get to school on time, when she heard the sound of voices somewhere nearby. Voices that she couldn't recognize, yet voices that sounded as if they were being mean to someone.

Hearing the tone of those words immediately put her on edge. She had often heard words shouted at her and at others in a similar manner, and if there was one thing she couldn't stand, it was seeing the helpless getting picked on by people who truly should know better.

Running towards the sound of the voices, she saw a group of school aged children attacking what appeared to be a rather large cat. Her ire instantly raised, Willow ran towards the kids, flailing her arms about to catch their attention.

The kids, looking up from the cat to find someone much larger than they were coming at them, immediately scattered in different directions. As they ran around the corner, Willow found herself left alone with the cat. Now that the kids had gone, she was able to get a better look at it. Getting down on her knees, she gave it a cursory glance. From a distance, it didn't appear to be anything other than an ordinary run-of-the-mill black housecat.

But up close, she was able to pick out an interesting, and quite distinctive, feature: a golden crescent moon affixed to its forehead.

Reaching out with one finger, Willow gently brushed it across the crescent moon; thinking that there was no way that it could be real. But after several moments of rubbing her fingertip against it, she had to accept the fact that it was a permanent marking. But what was strange was that, although there wasn't any evidence of the crescent moon being affixed to the cat by glue, tape or some other adhesive, there was also no real evidence that this was a tattoo or some other marking to the cat's forehead. For all appearances, it was as much a part of the cat as her fur and tail were.

And she couldn't quite tell, but it almost felt as if the cat was using it to…call out to her.

Willow chuckled slightly, realizing the impossibility of what it was she was thinking about. As she did, her head found itself looking down at the wrist where she had hastily strapped her watch mere minutes ago, and immediately became aware of how late she was truly going to be if she didn't head off to school right now. Getting to her feet, and hoping that the suddenness of her action didn't frighten the cat, she rounded the corner and ran down the street as fast as she could.

Seeing the young woman depart, the cat walked towards the edge of the street, looking down it at the departing figure with a glance that, were she a human being, would almost be described as curious. She had definitely felt something from this young woman. When she had brushed her fingertip across her forehead, the cat had picked up something from her. Something that felt almost familiar.

But the cat realized that what she felt could mean anything. She could be the one she was looking for, but it was just as likely that she could be an enemy.

She would have to follow this girl and learn more about her in order to be sure one way or the other.

"You're going to be late again, Willow. Snyder's going to have your head if he finds out."

Willow had ran all the way to Sunnydale High School, finding her best friend Amy waiting at the steps for her. The pair had then made their way inside, trying the best they could to get to their homeroom class without drawing the attention of the rather stern authoritarian of the school. It would be bad enough that Ms. Calendar was going to chew them out for being late, but Snyder was in a whole other league. They certainly did not want to face his wrath.

"This is the seventh time you're late this month, Willow," Amy hissed through clenched teeth. "And you know that Snyder's just looking for any excuse he can get to have you suspended. Do you really want to give it to him?"

"Of course not," Willow huffed in reply. "But you know what they say, Amy. You're only in trouble if you get caught."

Willow and Amy, at hearing the voice, paused and slowly turned around. Sure enough, the rather assuming figure of Principal Snyder was standing in the hallway behind them. He began to walk towards them, withdrawing a small notebook and pen from his breast pocket.

"That's one detention slip for you, Miss Madison," he said, handing a piece of paper to Amy before writing another one and handing it to Willow. "And I do believe that's eight for you, Miss Rosenberg."

"I know, Mr. Snyder," Willow said, her voice that of a hushed whisper. "It's just that…my alarm clock…"

"I don't want to hear it, Miss Rosenberg," Snyder said, cutting off Willow's argument, one she knew wasn't about to count a great deal. Then, in a much softer tone of voice, continued, "I know that you have a lot of potential Miss Rosenberg, but you need to stop using it so irresponsibly. When are you going to realize that the only way you are going to succeed is to take charge of your own life and make something of yourself?"

Willow sighed and allowed herself to be taken down the hallway towards her class, knowing that no matter how much she tried to convince herself otherwise, Snyder, much like her mother had been, was right. The only way she was going to make something out of her life was to take it into her own hands and make something useful out of it.

But what could she really do about it? There was nothing that spectacular about her. There was nothing that set her apart from the rest of the school. For that matter, there was nothing about her that set her apart from the state, country or world, for that matter.

She was nothing more than a mousey little geek. What did it matter if she didn't get good grades nor had cool friends? Who would really care?

The morning had passed by rather uneventfully. Ms. Calendar, her homeroom teacher, had, as expected, not been impressed to find that Willow had been late for class again. Willow had tried to apologize, but hadn't been able to find the words she wanted to say that could make things better. And to put the icing on the proverbial cake of badness that this day was fast becoming, she had been given back her last Math test to find that she had gotten a thirty five.

"Mom's going to kill me," she whispered as she made her way to her desk, watching as Ms. Calendar walked up to Winifred Burkle, the school's resident genius, and was not entirely surprised to watch her say that the slim brunette had gotten the best mark in the class. Winifred took it all in stride, saying that it was no great accomplishment on her part, but Willow knew that the young woman must be enjoying every minute of it.

There was also the introduction of a new student to their class, one Anya Jenkins, whom Willow could see was nothing but the living perfection of beauty, and thus was someone that wouldn't take notice of her unless she happened to get in her way by accident.

"I don't know what I'm going to do, Amy," Willow moaned, sitting with her back to the wall of the school, her test paper in hand.

"Calm down, Willow," Amy said, taking the test from her friend's hand. "It's not like it's the end of the world or anything." She then got a chance to look at the test, and her face visibly contorted into one that mixed surprise and shock.

"I know," Willow snapped, snatching the paper back from Amy's hand and letting it drop to the ground as she buried her face in her hands. "I thought I had studied enough to prepare for that test because, hey, you know me. Math's one of my favorite subjects. But then when I get in there and got handed the test, it was like getting handed a French test when you had spent all of your time studying for a Spanish one. What was I supposed to do?"

Suddenly, from out of nowhere, a young man with black hair and inconspicuous clothing emerged from around the corner. "Hey, Willow. I heard you did pretty badly on the latest Math test. If you want, I could tutor you and make sure that you're ready for the next one."

Letting out an exasperated groan, muffled as it was by the fact that her face was still buried in her hands, Willow made her frustrations pretty well known to the newcomer. Willow Rosenberg getting tutored by Jonathan Levinson? How embarrassing would that be?

Amy, apparently thinking along the same lines, walked up to the newcomer. "Get a clue, Jonathan. Willow doesn't need to have her brain overloaded with any more stress right now, especially when it comes from the likes of you. What she needs to do is calm down and try not to let this situation eat away at her too much." Walking back to Willow, Amy grabbed her by the hand and dragged the redhead to her feet. "And I know just the thing that can help. Come on."

Willow allowed herself to get dragged to her feet, letting out a sigh. "OK, Amy. But wherever it is you're taking me, don't expect me to enjoy myself."

Jonathan watched the two girls depart and shook his head. They would rather go off on some little adventure than study? What was wrong with them?

The place was enshrouded in darkness, the only sound the faint dripping of water somewhere in the labyrinthine cave which had been her home for countless millennia. The throne in which she sat had been carved out of the stone wall, and was an impressive sight to behold. A sight that, due to the angle in which it rested relative to the surrounding area, would instantly cause any who wished to be in her presence to feel submissive and subservient, a design influence intended to make sure that those who did wish to speak to its occupant, or even to be in her very presence, never once questioned who was truly in charge.

Yes, this place had been her home for countless millennia, but that would soon be coming to an end. And if there was one thing that pleased Faith more, it would be to bring revenge to the descendants of those who had placed her here.

Looking down from her throne, she saw the four individuals whom she had summoned, each of then on one knee out of respect to their Queen. They were, at one time in the distant past, the most loyal friends and guardians of Earth's Crown Princess, Endymion. But she had used the magicks granted unto her by the great Queen Metallia to usurp her dominant will over of their minds and bring them under her control. They, like her, had been sealed away after the battle which should have been her crowning achievement. And they, like her, had waited long to exact their revenge.

Of course, had she not taken the precaution of keeping them under her spell for all of these centuries, they would have turned on her almost immediately, their loyalty to their former Mistress, despite what she had done, as unshakable as the stone walls that surrounded her. Thankfully, her control over them had never wavered in all of this time, and thus they remained as she had made them: her most loyal warriors and the instruments through which her revenge would be enacted.

"Come forward," she spoke in a hushed whisper, though in this place, even the most quiet of words carried with it the weight of an anvil.

The four approached their Queen. Their leader, a deathly pale man with long dark hair, wearing the clothing and sword that signified his rank among the others, spoke, "All is in readiness, my Queen. We have put into motion the first of our attempts to gather the energy of the people of Earth for your purposes."

"Very good," Faith mused, a wicked smile on her lips. "In the meantime, we must also divert our attention to finding the Mystical Silver Crystal. Its energy will help us immensely." Looking at her four subordinates, Faith broke out into a smile. "But which of you is worthy enough to be entrusted with this task?"

"Let me, my Queen," one of them spoke up. "I shall do my task for the simple pleasure it would bring to you, and not to further my own ambitions."

Faith gave the man a cursory glance at the man, whose dark hair was cut short, perfectly framing a rather ordinary face that would appear to be attractive only to the most shallow and vain of women. His style of dress indicated that, among the four, he was the least in rank. And she knew that his power matched that rank. Yes, Xander certainly would accomplish the task for the love of his Queen, but his talents were clearly not suited for a mission of this importance. Finding the Mystical Silver Crystal was of utmost importance to her, and was not a task to be handed out to her least experienced General.

"No, let me, my Queen" said another of the men, his long red hair and feral countenance giving him the appearance of a fearsome predator, his style of dress indicating that he was superior only to the one who had first spoken. "With all due respect to my comrade, his power pales in comparison to my own. I shall be able to find that which you seek within days, whereas my comrade would require months, perhaps years. But, like my brother, I too shall do this in honor of the one that I serve faithfully."

"No!" came the retort from the one whom had yet to speak, his platinum blond hair tied in a ponytail and dressed quite casually, at least in comparison to his comrades. He too wore the uniform of the others, but did not go to the trouble of decorating with useless adornments or unnecessary pieces. It was clearly a statement of his modesty towards the one he served, his deeds rather any trophies choosing to speak for themselves. "Oz may have some power, my Queen, but I have been trained by the great Angelus. You know of his strength and his prowess. He has served you faithfully, as have I. Allow me to prove my worthiness to you and our cause by giving this task to me."

"Spike is correct, my Queen," Angelus spoke, giving his comrade an appreciative glance. "However, I would be remiss if I did not point out that for all of his talents, he lacks my…patience. It is for that reason that I would like to recommend myself for the task of locating the Silver Crystal. It may take some time, but rest assured that I shall find it."

This comment brought about a retort from Spike. "With all due respect, my friend, we have not the time for patience. You heard our Queen yourself. She wishes the Crystal to be found now, so it must be found now. And since I clearly have all of your skill and none of your restraints, I do believe that would make me most suited for the task."

"What you would call restraint, my dear Spike, I would call caution," Angelus responded.

"Caution did not help us on that glorious day so long ago," Xander pointed out. "In fact, it was the suddenness of our attack which brought about our victory."

"Yes, Xander," Oz snorted. "A victory that cast you, me, our Queen, and all our followers to this barren wasteland for countless centuries."

The argument between the four continued for several more minutes, and Faith allowed them the opportunity to banter between themselves. Although she was irritated when they argued, there were times when it pleased her immensely. It kept them at the top of their games, and ensured that none of them could fully trust the others. There was the anomaly that Angelus had seen fit to teach Spike all that he knew, but in the end, even that served her purpose. It made Spike powerful, Angelus cautious, and herself amused.

Gradually, however, she came to be annoyed at the proceedings such as they were and, raising a hand, sent a burst of energy into the wall directly above the heads of her underlings. Nothing powerful enough to cause the cave to collapse around them, but enough to catch their attention, and bring it back to the place where it truly deserved to be.

"Enough," she stated. "The four of you are my most powerful warriors, you all know this. Any one of you is worthy of this task, but I still require our current operation to gather energy to be monitored." Chuckling slightly, she gestured towards Xander. "Xander, my dear, will you see to that?"

"Anything to please my Queen," Xander responded, bowing her heard in respect, though it was obvious from his body posture that he was greatly displeased with being handed a task that he presumed to be beneath his exaggerated abilities. Faith didn't particularly care about how he felt, knowing that once she gave him a task, he would complete it to the best of his ability.

Both Xander's and Spike's heads turned to look at one another, then towards Faith. "With all due respect, my Queen, I do feel that my talents would go to waste assisting Xander. He clearly isn't worthy of either this task or your love. I do believe that my skills would be of better use finding the Silver Crystal for you."

"And I do believe that I have made up my mind," Faith stated flatly, bringing the argument to an end before it had a chance to even begin. "Spike, you and Xander shall handle the task of gathering the energy while Angelus and Oz begin preparations to find the Silver Crystal. Do I make myself clear?"

Faith's eyes sparkled with intense passion, a passion that was tainted by the ferocity with which that passion came. Her warriors would accomplish their tasks without fail, she knew. And with their help and the power of Queen Metallia at her disposal, the Earth would quickly fall under her heel.

Willow and Amy had spent the past few hours since leaving school at the mall, stopping in every store to try on all the different kinds of clothing and jewelry the shopkeepers had to offer. Or to be more correct, Amy had done all of that. Willow, meanwhile, had spent a great deal of her time alternating between watching Amy and feeling sorry for herself, wondering how she had managed to get to this point in her life.

Ever since she was younger, she had always felt as if there was something holding her back from reaching her true potential. Even though she had always tried to give her best effort in everything that she ever did, since the age of ten, it had always gotten increasingly difficult for her to do so.

The end result of all of this left her faltering in certain situations and in certain circumstances where she found herself unprepared or overanxious, which often left her blind to the fact that she was doing so until it was too late for her to do anything about it.

Like this math test, for example. Taking a look at the paper once again, she couldn't believe that she had failed on it. She had studied throughout the night, trying to make sure she understood all of the formulas and concepts. By the time she had, it was near two in the morning, by which time she was too tired for her to continue any further. And since she had gotten too little sleep that night, she had slept in, had been late to school again, and had very little time to relearn everything before the test had been handed out.

Closing her eyes, she tried to will herself to make the grade appear different than it was. But no matter how hard she tried, it remained the same, the bright bold red of the number burning its way into her heart and infesting her with a cold feeling of self-disgust. Frustrated beyond belief, she crumpled the paper and threw it over her head, not particularly caring where it landed.

Turning at the sound of that voice, Willow found herself staring into the face of a young woman in what looked to be her late teens, with long blonde hair that reached down to the small of her back. Clad in a T-shirt, skirt and open toed sandals, she was the last person Willow wanted to meet in her current state of mind.

"Oh! Sorry, Tara! I didn't mean…" she began, only to stop as Tara reached down and picked up the paper ball. Willow swallowed as Tara smoothed the paper out and looked at what was written on it.

Feeling her face flush, Willow looked down at the ground. "I'm sorry, Tara. I mean, I thought had studied enough, so I was able to convince myself that I knew enough about the subject matter that I didn't need to study any further. Of course, it was also near two in the morning by then, so I really couldn't stay awake any longer. But when I woke up, it…I dunno. It all just…left my memory. And I tried to go over it as best I could before Ms. Calendar handed out the test, but it just wouldn't stick…"

Willow felt guilty about baring her soul towards Tara like this, since there was very little about the blonde's own life that she had chosen to reveal to her that made Willow think she had been granted the right to do that. Having spent the majority of the past year bumping into each other randomly in the street, the two of them had decided that if they were going to be meeting in the most random of places, they should try to meet in more controlled circumstances. And even though they had gone out on a few dates and had been generally friendly towards one another in the six months since deciding to do this, there was little about Tara's life that Willow had come to learn about, particularly when it concerned her past. Tara didn't seem to want to talk about it, and Willow wasn't pushy enough to ask her to do so, knowing that when the time came, Tara would decide to do so on her own accord.

Moving to sit down beside Willow, Tara handed the paper back to her. "Willow, I know you don't like to hear this, but I can feel that you have a special destiny. And if you don't apply yourself, you're going to let it pass you by. You have to work hard, Willow. It's not like that destiny is going to walk out in front of you."

"I know," Willow sighed as Amy came over, holding a shopping bag in one hand and an ice cream in the other. Accepting the frozen treat, she looked up at her best friend. "How's your mother?"

"The same as she always is," Amy replied, tilting her head towards the food court, where a older woman was busing entertaining the crowd with a variety of magic tricks, each of which drew applause from the audience mostly consisting of kids age five to eight, the parents of said kids looking as if they would like to be anywhere other than where they were.

"Mom wants me to stay and help," Amy continued, looking at Tara with a curious glance, almost as if she were afraid to leave Willow alone with her. "Are you going to be OK, Willow?"

"See you tomorrow, Amy," Willow said as she and Tara walked out of the mall and towards Tara's car. She sat in the back in silence as Tara took her home and made sure that the redhead got inside without any problems. Willow was happy that her mother was not home. It was a more common occurrence than she would have liked to admit, but one that proved to be rather thankful in these circumstances. And to her credit, Tara did ask if Willow wanted her to stay until her mother did come home, and perhaps for some time afterward in order to make sure that Willow felt comfortable after her mother chewed her out over the test.

Smiling, Tara left the house, leaving Willow pretty much all alone and to her own devices. Burying her face in her pillow, she let out a muffled cry, hoping that it dissolved much of the self pity she felt like an ocean wave cresting a sandbar, and hoping that there was something she could do in order to make herself feel better.

Suddenly Willow couldn't help but feel like she was being watched. Turning, she looked around the room, finding nothing out of the ordinary. Convincing herself that it was just her imagination running away with her, she turned over on her bed, lying flat on her back and stretching out to her full length, letting out a deep sigh, the heavy weight of the pressure that had been built up during the day leaving with that breath.

Willow started at hearing the voice, one she had never heard before. Looking around the room, she quickly found the only thing that could have been the source of that voice: the black cat she had encountered earlier in the day, which was sitting on the windowsill, Tara having opened it before she had left.

"Hey! You're that cat I met earlier today. But wait a minute. You…you can talk?"

"Yes, I can, Willow. And I've been looking for you for quite some time. I'm glad that I've been able to find you."

Leaping onto the bed, the cat made its way over to her. "Now listen, Willow. We don't have much time, and there's much I need to tell you."

Anya had walked home from school after the final bell, a rather concerned look on her face. She had only been in town a few days, today being the first attending her new school and she thought that being there would have made things clearer to her. It didn't make any sense. She had been told that she had to be here for a reason, but to all appearances, there didn't appear to be anything out of the ordinary.

Stepping inside her house, she found the person who had sent her here waiting for her on the stairs. She knew that he would be here, of course. He would have been waiting anxiously for any news she had to report. That made it all the more sad for her to know that he wasn't likely to be terribly happy about what she had to say.

"Did you see anything while you were at school?" the white cat sitting on the steps asked.

Anya, clearly taking things in stride and appearing for all the world as if the sight of a cat talking to her was commonplace, responded, "Not really, Artemis. Are you sure that this is the place?"

"I'm positive," Artemis replied. "There's definitely something going on in this town, and since we haven't been able to locate your companions, I guess that means that we're going to handle this on our own."

"As usual," Anya groaned. At Artemis' indignant look, she added, "I'm not ungrateful that you reawakened my memories, Artemis. I'm really not. But when you had told me that we would have to look for my fellow Soldiers as we did this, I was under the impression that I wouldn't be doing it by myself for the rest of my life. "

"And you won't," Artemis reassured her. "I do sense evil in this town, but I can also sense four distinct forces of good nearby. Are you sure that there was nothing out of the ordinary while you were at school?"

Anya shook her head as she made her way upstairs, Artemis falling into step behind her. "I'm sure." She paused. "Although…there was this girl…"

"I'm not too sure," Anya clarified. "But when I was in class, I could feel as if I had known two of the kids before, even though I've only been in town a week. Now, I suppose that I could have seen them some time during the week and never realized it, but I'm not too sure."

"I think that it would be a good idea to find out whose these two people are," Artemis said. "At least until we've found the others, we have to treat any suspicious people as if they were the enemy."

"So…" Willow began, the newly acquired information she had just been handed settling inside her brain. "Let me see if I understand this. I'm a superhero, and I was placed on this Earth in order to protect a Princess from some great evil that's broken free of its imprisonment and is about to rain destruction down upon us all."

"And there are others out there just like me, only they don't know it because, like me, they have no memory of it."

Willow flopped down on her bed, the information she had just been handed clearly too much for her to take. "I must have had a more stressful day than I thought. Now I'm imagining talking cats, evil kingdoms and myself as a superhero."

"I'm afraid it's no joke, Willow," Luna said. "The forces of the Dark Kingdom have arrived on Earth, and you're one of the few that are capable of defeating them."

Sitting up and getting into a cross legged position, pausing for a moment to wonder why the question had even coalesced in her mind, Willow asked, "Suppose for a moment you're right. How exactly do you expect me to fight them?"

"With this," Luna answered, the crescent moon on her forehead shining brightly and firing a beam of light in front of Willow. Within moments, a small heart-shaped brooch attached to a chain appeared in front of Willow. Willow reached out to pick it up and, despite the questionable situation being played out in front of her, looked at it with genuine curiosity.

"This brooch will allow you to transform into the Guardian of the Moon, the Soldier of Love and Justice, Sailor Moon. And as Sailor Moon, it is your sworn duty to defend the people of the Earth against the evil forces of the Dark Kingdom."

As much as she admired the brooch, Luna's words immediately snapped Willow out of her curious state. She couldn't allow herself to believe for one moment that this could turn her into some sort of superhero. Unable to control herself any longer, she let out a laugh. "I must be crazy. I have to be crazy. There is no way that this can be true."

"I had a feeling you might say this, Willow," Luna admitted with a sigh. "I would like to convince you that this is true, but I know that I can't force this upon you. The choice to walk down this path will have to be one you make on your own." Leaping onto the windowsill, she turned to look at Willow once more. "I will be waiting when you are ready to believe me."

Willow, who had long since given up any hope that what was going on was a figment of her imagination, simply buried her head in her pillow once more, determined not to let the cat's words get any further under her skin than they already had. After several moments, she picked up the brooch and moved to throw it out the window, only to pause as she saw something lying on the windowsill.

Putting the brooch down, Willow picked up the phone and looked at it just as she had done with the brooch. It looked like any number of novelty cell phones she had seen before, but there was something about this one that felt…different. Almost as if…it belonged to her.

Sighing, she put the phone down beside the brooch, hesitated a moment, then moved to close the window itself before crawling into bed. Despite everything that told her how ridiculous the past few minutes had been, she simply could not let herself do something as equally ridiculous as throwing away those two objects.

Willow didn't know how she knew this, but she knew that they would be useful in a short amount of time.

And maybe if she had a quick nap and allowed herself to calm down, things would start to make sense.

Amy was having fun being her mother's magical assistant, but she soon came to be bored with the whole affair. It wasn't as if she didn't like being around kids or helping her mother, but it was almost as if she had been at this for hours without rest.

A glance at her watch during a quick break revealed to her why that was so: she had been at it for several hours. In fact, it was an hour after the mall was supposed to be closed. And yet, to all appearances, it was exactly like it had been when she and Willow had first arrived. The crowd remained as they had always been, as if they had been put into a trance and were unaware of the fact that time was passing them by.

As she joined her mother behind the makeshift puppet stage, she decided to ask her why things appeared to be acting so strangely. "Mother, what's going on, here? Why does my watch say that it's past 7:00, but it still looks like mid-afternoon? Why do all of those people look like they've been hypnotized?"

Her mother let out a laugh, something that greatly unsettled Amy. Her uneasiness began to grow as she saw her mother change right before her eyes. Her features began to shift, her body morphing into a strange, alien form and her blue eyes becoming a deep crimson red. Within moments, a strange creature that bore no resemblance to her mother at all stood before her, one clawed hand reaching out at her.

The monster watched in pleasure as the young girl collapsed, the energy drained from her body. It went around the stage, seeing that the entire crowd had fallen suit, some slumped against the chairs, others lying atop themselves in piles on the floor.

Queen Faith would be most pleased by the amount of energy that they had been able to gather this day.

The two Generals made their way towards the crowd, staring down at the helpless bodies. "Excellent, Magda," Spike said. "Our Queen will be most pleased at the amount of energy we have been able to gather."

"We should be able to gather enough soon to release Metallia very soon," Xander added.

"Indeed," Spike said. "At the rate we are gathering energy, there will be no one that can stand against us before too long."

The three looked up, finding a young woman standing precariously on the second floor guard rail. She was dressed in an orange skirt and white leotard, a blue bow with an orange jewel in its center on her chest and an orange bow on the small of her back. Her long blonde hair, held back by a red bow, partially obscured it from sight. She wore a tiara with a bright orange jewel on her forehead, a chain around her waist and orange shoes on her feet. The newcomer's face was obscured not only by a red mask over her eyes, but by the fact that her right hand, gloved to the elbow like her left, was currently placed before it, two fingers extended and framing her right eye.

The female leapt to the ground and erected a dramatic pose. "I am the Soldier of Love and Beauty, Sailor Venus! And in the name of Venus, I will punish you!"

Willow woke with a start, some instinct she couldn't describe immediately telling her that something was very wrong. Reaching over for her clock, she realized immediately what it could have been.

"Almost midnight?" she whispered. "I've slept through most of the evening? But that can't be what's wrong. Unless…"

She thought back to earlier in the day for a brief moment, remembering the last words Luna had said to her before she had left.

Willow wasn't entirely sure she was ready to believe everything the cat had told her, but she also knew that there was no other person who could help her figure out what it was that she was feeling. As she reached over to pick up the cell phone, she was surprised to find that as her fingers brushed against it, it began to ring of its own accord. Quickly moving to open it before the sound of the ring could awaken her mother, who certainly had to be home by now, Willow said in a hushed whisper, "Hello?"

Wondering for the briefest of moments if she was imagining this entire situation, if this was some sort of weird dream or waking nightmare and if what she was about to do was something that she would regret later, Willow quietly got up, got dressed, and made her way out the window.

As she did, she unconsciously grabbed the brooch that Luna had left for her, almost as if some part of her mind knew that she would need it.

Fifteen minutes later, after a hurried run that had left her nearly out of breath, Willow was outside the mall, brooch in hand and Luna at her side, watching as the most incredible scenario played out in front of her. Someone dressed in the most ridiculous outfit Willow had ever seen was fighting against two others in equally strange clothing and a creature born straight out of her worst nightmares.

"What's going on in there?" Willow asked, the question flying from her before she realized how stupid it sounded.

Luckily, Luna didn't appear to mind, shaking her head slightly as she replied, "The Dark Kingdom has struck the first blow. But it appears that things may not be as bad as I feared. It seems that Artemis was able to awaken one of the Princess' Guardians."

Willow and Luna turned and saw an entirely white furred cat with the same crescent moon marking on its forehead as Luna appear out of the shadows. "And it seems like you were equally successful, Luna."

"Indeed I was," Luna nodded before looking up at Willow. "Though if you ask me, I would have preferred to have been in your place."

"Yours appears to have fully accepted the Sailor Soldier way of life," Luna said, gesturing with her head up towards Willow. "I can barely get this one to wrap her head around the fact that she has a special destiny."

Despite the ridiculous scenario playing out in front of her, with a battle going on inside the mall and two cats talking to one another, Willow couldn't help but feel exasperated, hearing that word again making the situation feel no different than the countless other times that Tara, Amy, her mother and her teachers had used it when talking to her. "Everyone's always telling me that I've got a special destiny and that I need to live up to my potential and accept it. Well, I would truly like to do that. I really would. I just have a hard time accepting that my destiny is to protect the world from evil."

"She thought as such once," Artemis said, clearly speaking of the one currently engaged in battle. "But she has come to accept her new life, as will you."

"There is no time to waste, Willow," Luna said, bringing the three of them uncomfortably back to the present. "Get in there and help Sailor Venus."

"But how?" Willow asked, clearly wanting to help whoever was inside, yet unsure as to how that could be accomplished.

Willow, clearly left with no other viable option that seemed reasonable, decided to do as Luna said. Placing the brooch around her neck, she effected a battle stance that felt completely out of character for her, and prayed that whatever was about to happen would be enough to help the one inside.

Three to one odds were definitely not something that was a good thing to have in a fight, especially if you happened to be on the losing side. Which made Spike all the more glad that, despite the inexperience of his comrade, they had managed to do serious harm to the one who had claimed that she would stop them in their task.

Truth be told, in the first few moments after she had arrived, it seriously appeared as if she would truly be able to best them. But the odds, clearly not being in her favor, had forced the blonde to overexert her abilities, stretching her nearly to the breaking point. Since that time, the three had been able to overcome her, putting her in serious danger. Yet despite the impossible odds she faced, this person continued to valiantly fight against them, almost as if she expected to win despite the odds.

"Quickly," he shouted. "Let us finish her off before anyone else comes to interfere with our plans."

The three villains, along with their fallen foe, found their attention drawn upward once more at the sound of that voice, seeing a female that the villains noted had certain features that reminded them of their newly beaten enemy. This newcomer had blonde hair much like her, and wore a similar outfit that also included elbow length gloves and decorative bows, but that was where the similarities ended. The newcomer's blonde hair was done up in two pigtails on either side of her head, supported by two small buns and decorative barrettes that gave the person the appearance of bunny ears. Red circles with white frames were affixed to those buns, and a red jeweled tiara lay on the person's forehead. And whereas their first enemy had worn orange shoes, this one wore pink knee high boots.

"Queen Faith didn't tell us that we might be facing this much opposition," Xander spat.

"Queen Faith didn't expect us to have any opposition to face," Spike retorted, drawing his sword and pointing it at the newcomer. "I demand to know who you are."

Affixing a battle pose much as their fallen opponent had done earlier, the newcomer said, "I am the Beautiful Soldier of Love and Justice, Sailor Moon. And in the name of the Moon, I shall punish you!"

"I don't believe this," Spike growled. Turning to the creature, he pointed to the newcomer. "Magda, Xander, eliminate her!" Looking down at Venus, he smiled. "I'll take care of this one."

"Yes, Lord Spike." The monster nodded and leapt into the air, hand extended and ready to strike, Xander moving to follow.

As the two departed, Spike looked down at the body of his opponent, the tip of his sword jabbing into her side. "Such a pitiful creature." Raising his sword to deliver a killing blow, he was surprised to find himself thinking how easy this was.

He suddenly became aware of how wrong that feeling was when the girl opened her eyes and leapt to her feet, unwrapping the chain she had around her waist and snapping it towards Spike's weapon arm as if it were a whip.

The tip of the chain impacted against Spike's arm, causing him to drop the blade in his hand and clutch at his wounded extremity with the other. Letting out a snarl that was half due to the pain and half at his disgust over how quickly the situation had turned, he reached out to pick up his sword with his uninjured arm, turning to face the girl once more.

But in the brief moment that he had been distracted, she had apparently decided to take the opportunity to depart.

Letting out a growl that ended in a series of curses, Spike created a portal and teleported back to the Dark Kingdom. He silently hoped that Xander and Magda would be enough to deal with these interlopers, and knew that he, much like them if they survived, would have to face Queen Faith over this failure.

Willow couldn't believe what she had just done. One minute she had been confident and brave, prepared to give her best effort to help the one Luna called Sailor Venus. The next, she was giving her best effort no to try and get attacked by a vicious monster that seemed hell bent on killing her.

Luna had said that she had been chosen to be a great warrior. But if there was one thing she was feeling at this moment, it wasn't the heart and soul that a warrior should possess. Indeed, every instinct of her being cried out and told her to run away from the situation as fast as she could.

But she knew that she couldn't. She had to stand and fight. But how could she do that when she felt more afraid now than she had ever been in her life?

The monster had seen fit to emphasize that point by taunting her mercilessly. "Come here, little one. I promise I will make this quick and painless."

Letting out a frightened yelp, Willow dove under a nearby table and tried to crawl away, only to quickly find her path blocked by a second individual. Squealing in fear, she scrambled to try to find somewhere else to hide.

"What do I do?" she said as she came out from under cover and ran towards the doors she knew to be locked, effectively trapping her. "What do I do?"

Willow looked up to find Luna perched precariously on the armrest of the flight of stairs nearby. "Luna," she said in a panic. "I don't know what to do. That…that whatever it is…it's too strong."

"Don't worry," Luna said. "Look within yourself. Find the power that lies within your heart, and you will know what to do."

Willow gave the cat a curious glance, wondering what exactly it was that she was talking about. She was about to reply when she could feel something deep within the pit of her stomach. An almost primal instinct, as if she had left her body and left all control of her higher body functions to the darkest part of her mind. The part of her that subconsciously told her to be cruel to animals, that told her to do naughty things and to fight back against those who had picked on her.

Willow had fought the voice before, telling herself that she was better than that and that she didn't have to resort to her most basic instincts in order to win an argument with someone else. This time, however, the voice could mean the difference between life and death.

So she did something she had rarely done before: she listened to the voice, allowing the power she felt deep inside her to flow from her in waves.

And with that, Willow was on her feet, moving about in ways she had never before been able to do. Dodging the attacks of the monster, she performed a back flip, sending the toe of one of her boots directly into its chin, knocking it off balance. She followed this up by delivering a swift roundhouse kick to the creature's midsection, knocking it to the ground.

Reaching out with one hand to prepare herself to deliver another blow. Willow felt some of the energy she had found coalesce itself into an object which formed in her hand. Bringing her arm down, Willow was surprised to find a strange looking pink wand in her hand. It was decorated with little jewels and was topped off by a silver crescent moon.

Without knowing how, Willow knew that this was a powerful item, and that it was definitely needed now. Affecting a defensive stance, Willow let out a breath and spoke the phrase she knew would activate her newly acquired weapon.

Light emerged from the wand, cascading itself over the monster, who let out a terrible shriek that took all of Willow's willpower to withstand. Within moments, it had been wrapped in the light, the scream fading as it shifted back into the recognizable form of Amy's mother, who collapsed to the ground unconscious.

Looking at the wand in shock, almost as if she couldn't believe that she had been responsible for what had just happened, Willow let out a squeal. "I…I did that?" Surprise soon gave way to unbridled excitement, and she jumped into the air. "That was cool!"

Coming down the stairs, Luna paused as she reached the bottom. "Well done, Sailor Moon. I knew you could do it."

Willow turned to look at Luna, allowing a smile to form on her face. Unfortunately, this left her back exposed to the remaining enemy, who, seeing his foe exposed, withdrew a small knife and threw it at her.

Willow turned to find the knife coming at her, and knew that she wouldn't be able to move out of its path in time. She closed her eyes and prepared for the end, but was instead surprised to find herself knocked off her feet and sent sprawling several feet away, safely out of the path of the incoming knife.

Opening her eyes, Willow looked into the face of her rescuer, a person she quickly discovered to be a female clad in a tuxedo, with a top hat on her head and a cape draped across her back. Willow couldn't tell who she was, as her face was obscured by a white mask over her blue eyes.

"Ye…Yes," Willow managed to stammer out as she looked for the one who had thrown the knife. Finding him gone, she brought her attention back to her rescuer, fighting to control a blush that threatened to turn her face a deep red.

With a nod, the tuxedo clad figure began to walk away, the cape billowing behind her. Willow moved to follow, watching as she walked down the hallway towards the open window nearby, obviously how she had managed to get inside. Willow couldn't figure out who this person was, but there was something about her that felt somewhat…familiar, as if, despite the fact that she had never seen her before, they knew each other.

The person turned, tilted her head, and smiled, if ever so slightly. "A friend." And with a tip of her hat, she stepped out the open window.

Willow stood rooted to the ground as Luna approached, looking down the hallway at empty air.

Willow nodded. "Yes, Luna. It's just that…that person. She saved my life, and I don't know who she is."

"I think that it would be best not to dwell on that," Luna admonished. "We have more important things to worry about."

"Indeed we do," came the voice of Artemis, coming towards them, the one Luna identified as Sailor Venus at his side. "I think that it's time for our Soldiers to reveal to themselves their civilian identities."

"I don't think that's a good idea, Artemis," Venus said. "From the look of things, she isn't exactly the type of person I could see being worthy of my trust. You saw how she handled herself in battle. If that's the type of person whose hands I'm expected to put my life in, I'd rather work on my own."

"But you have to look beyond appearances, Venus," Artemis replied, his tone of voice neutral. "Remember how you behaved the first time you had to face an enemy."

"That was different," Venus scoffed. "I was facing petty criminals and thieves. That allowed me to prepare for this sort of battle. I had the experience that allowed me to handle what happened here tonight." She gave Willow a glance that appeared to be positively disgusted. "She doesn't."

"But she will," Luna said. "And the best way to help her will be to have the help and support of her fellow Soldiers. And in order to trust one another, I think that the first thing that the two of you should do is reveal who you are in your daily lives."

Venus reluctantly nodded, a light shining from her body as her Soldier uniform reverted back to her civilian clothes, Willow's uniform following suit. Several seconds later, the two were back to their normal selves, looking across at the person in front of them, almost as if they couldn't believe who they were looking at.

Willow and Anya sat across from one another at a fast food table outside the mall, neither of them willing to comprehend the fact that the other was a superhero. Anya had trouble believing that Willow, who had appeared for all the world to be the least interesting person she had ever seen, had been one of the forces of good that Artemis had felt. And, in Willow's case, that there were still three others like them in this town, that they would have to find them and that the five of them together would have to combine forces in order to defeat an enemy that most of the rest of the world remained largely ignorant about.

Willow would have very much preferred to remain part of that ignorant world, but she no longer had the option of making that choice. For better or for worse, she knew about them, just as much as she was sure that they were now aware about her. The only thing to do would be to stop them without having anyone else come under harm.

"You'll get used to it," Anya reassured her, though from her tone of voice, Willow could tell that she wasn't entirely convinced of what she was saying. Willow didn't really blame Anya for thinking that. She had been at this for far longer, and it was clearly obvious that, used to working on her own, she wasn't exactly liking the prospect of having to work with others, especially if they were to be like Willow had been. The redhead realized that she had inadvertently raised the bar for her unknown companions, and that made her feel uneasy. It was just like her to cause trouble for other people, and given the situation in which they would find themselves, that wouldn't be good at all.

Before Willow could say anything, Anya added, "But the question is, what do we do now?"

Sitting nearby, Luna and Artemis looked at one another before the dark furred cat replied, "We have to find your comrades." She looked at Willow. "Artemis tells me that there might be at least one of them at your school. I'll accompany you tomorrow and help you find her."

"And Anya and I will look around town," Artemis added. "We'll try to find the other two."

"And when we've found them all, we'll all meet together at the park at three o'clock," Luna finished. "We'll explain everything we know to all of you then."

"Wait a minute," Willow said, silently admonishing herself for interrupting Luna. "Anya can't go into town. She has to come to school with me."

Artemis shook his head. "There's nothing that we can do about that. We'd work a lot faster at this if we were to split up."

"And besides," Anya said. "I can make up some sort of excuse for not being there. I'll just say that I have cramps or something. That seems to make people more accepting towards me being late. And I guess since we have a lot of work to do tomorrow, we should both go home and get some rest."

Anya got up and moved off, Artemis falling into step beside her. Willow got up slowly shortly afterward and moved off as well, Luna falling into step beside her. As they walked home, Willow silently apologized to herself for bringing to Anya's attention the fact that she had to be at school with her.

The blonde's response had confirmed one important fact: getting along with Anya was not going to be easy.

"I'm sorry you don't like being in there, Luna," Willow whispered to her backpack, which was placed on her desk. Normally choosing to sit near the front of the room, she had instead opted to sit at the back this day so as to be able to talk to the cat that formed the bag's only contents without having the whole class look at her strangely.

Luna's head emerged from the open bag, looking somewhat distressed - or at least, as distressed as a cat could look. "I know, Willow. But if this was the best way to get me in here, then I guess I'll just have to suffer quietly."

Willow faintly smiled as she reached to zip up the backpack (leaving an air hole for Luna), and to put it down beside her desk as gently as she was able as the remainder of the class began to file in, followed by Ms. Calendar.

"All right, class," Ms. Calendar said. "Before we get started, there is one thing I wanted to address. Miss Burkle?"

Willow watched as Winifred got to her feet and made her way to the head of the class, looking rather embarrassed as she did so. Willow must have guessed that she had done something wrong. Rather selfishly, she thought, "Guess Little Miss Smarty Pants have some flaws after all."

Ms. Calendar walked over beside Winifred, smiling as she wrapped one arm around the young girl's shoulders. "Due to her impressive results on yesterday's test, Winifred Burkle has been chosen as one of the district's top math students, and will be receiving a special award from the superintendent this weekend. Let's give her a round of applause, everybody,"

The class, including Willow, began to clap, though Willow was soon distracted by the fact that her bag was beginning to rock. Thankful that the class, showing their appreciation of Winifred's accomplishment, hadn't noticed, she raised her hand.

"Um…" Willow broke out in a panic, trying to come up with a reasonable excuse to get her out of the room. "Um…I left something in my locker."

Grabbing her backpack, Willow made her way out of the room and into the washroom. After taking a moment to make sure that she was alone, she put her backpack on the sink and unzipped it fully. "What is it, Luna?"

"Winifred Burkle," Willow answered. "Most of the student's call her "Fred" for short. She's the resident school genius and is great at just about everything, especially Mathematics." Her brow creased in thought. "Why, Luna? Is everything all right?" A sudden thought entered her mind. "Wait! Is she a monster, Luna? Is she one of those creatures from the Dark Kingdom like Amy's mother was? Should I try to find Anya so we can take care of…"

Hearing Luna say her name in that tone of voice made Willow's babbling come to a complete halt. "Sorry. But you were obviously distressed when Ms. Calendar was talking about her, so I naturally assumed that…" She paused, realizing the true reason why Luna must have been acting out. "Luna, you don't think…"

Winifred sat alone in the cafeteria, as she always did. Very rarely did anyone ever take the time to talk to her, and while she would never admit it, she preferred it that way. It wasn't as if she didn't mind company, but given the choice between spending time with others and spending time by herself, she would always choose spending her time alone.

So she was immediately on edge when she saw someone moving to sit down beside her out of the corner of her eye. Turning her head, she was surprised to see that it was Willow Rosenberg.

Winifred nodded, accepting the other girls' use of her more common nickname. "Yeah," she answered, her natural Texan accent making it sound rather rude. "Is something wrong, Willow?"

"Oh, no," Willow said, shaking her head. "I just wanted to talk. Are you doing anything after school?"

"Nothing bad, Fred," Willow said in reassurance before breaking out into a smile. "In fact, I daresay that it's the most exciting thing that you've ever experienced in your life."

Anya walked into the fitness center, holding Artemis in her arms. He had told her that one of the two potential Sailor Soldiers was inside this building. When she had asked him how he was able to determine that so easily, Artemis replied that he had felt her aura even across this vast distance, which indicated that whoever this person might be was at this very moment undergoing some sort of extreme physical stress.

Looking at the room's only occupant, Anya wasn't surprised to see why her aura had been high. Wearing a judogi, her blonde hair tied back in a ponytail and a sweat bandanna on her forehead, she was currently beating the proverbial stuffing out of a nearby punching bag. One look at the girl was enough to tell Anya that this person was the one Artemis had sent her to find.

Looking up, the blonde watched Anya as she made her way over. "Yeah, what do you want?"

"Well, my name's Elizabeth," the blonde answered. "Though most people I know call me Buffy."

Giving the bag a final kick, Buffy shrugged. "Not really." Giving Anya a look, she asked, "What is it that you want?"

Cordelia sat in the middle of the dusty room in a cross legged position, her hands clasped and index fingers pointing towards the ceiling. She had been trying to gain some control of her visions over the course of the past few months, but it seemed that in the past few days, they had begun to get worse. What had once been fleeting shadows of events she had never seen before were becoming longer, more explicit, and worse, much more painful than they normally were, and she wasn't sure what was causing them. Were they a dangerous side effect of some inoperable brain condition? Were they a gift from some higher power that had seen fit to bestow them upon her? Or were they simply a result of her overeager imagination running amok on her and causing her to see things that couldn't be real?

Cordelia didn't know for sure, but she wanted to try to find some way to control them herself before she sought out other alternatives. It was bad enough that people thought of her as strange. She didn't want to give anyone the opportunity to have their opinions validated by finding help from outside sources.

Of course, there was one person that would never think of her in that way, and for that she was eternally grateful. She had, of course, heard the rumors about her and her supposed visions, but simply chose to think of it as meaningless gossip, and forged a friendship with Cordelia regardless.

But just because Willow was such an understanding individual, that didn't mean Cordelia was about to tell her that all the stories she had heard were true, and how much they had affected her emotional, and now perhaps her physical, well being.

She knew, however, that there was going to be a time when she wouldn't be able to hide that from Willow. And when that day came, would she be able to look at her in the way that she had always been able? And more importantly, would she still call her a friend?

A dull throbbing began to build at the base of her skull. Thinking for a moment that it was another vision trying to assert itself, Cordelia soon became aware of the fact that it was her cell phone ringing. Letting out a sigh, she got up out of her cross legged position, walked over to the table where she had left it and picked it up.

"Willow?" Initially irritated at having her meditations interrupted, her anger dissolved once she became aware of what had caused it. "Hi. What's wrong?"

"Well, you know how you're always telling me that I have to work harder in order to achieve my true potential?"

"…and that's why we had to find you," Artemis said, Luna at his side and Willow and the others sitting in a circle around them. "Long ago, you were the protectors and Guardians of the Moon Princess. You all fell during an attack on the Moon Kingdom by the people of Earth, having been manipulated into doing so by a young woman named Faith, herself under the influence of an evil entity known as Metallia. Queen Serenity managed to seal them away, and with the last of her strength, also managed to teleport you all to the future where you would be reincarnated and able to live out your lives in peace."

"But the Queen knew that there would be the possibility that either Metallia or Faith would eventually be able to break free of their prison and try to take over the Earth," Luna added. "For that reason, we were sent to the future with you, to reawaken the memories of your past lives should they start to attack the people of this time."

"And I'm afraid that time has come," Artemis said. "The five of you will need to work together in order to defeat them if this planet has any hope of a beautiful future. And while we do this, we must also try to find the Moon Princess. Her safety is paramount, as well. As the Guardian of the Mystical Silver Crystal, the enemy will no doubt be looking for her, too.

The five young women had all sat in silence, listening to the cats speak of them of a past they no longer remembered, a present very much in danger, and a duty they must perform in order to ensure a perfect future for both them and the world. Willow and Anya, having already heard the basics of this tale from the pair, were able to take it in stride.

The others, as they had initially, naturally had a much harder time wrapping their minds around the absurdness of the story.

"Y'all gotta be kidding," Fred said. "I'm just a teenage math prodigy. Sure, it's makes me someone special, but I never thought that I would be anything but that. I'm not some kind of superhero."

"That's what I said," Willow said with a slight chuckle. "Trust me, you'll get used to it. Eventually."

"So is that why I've been having these visions?" Cordelia asked. "Are these the memories of my former life trying to reassert themselves?"

"Quite possibly," Luna admitted. "The magic Queen Serenity used to transport you all here should have left you with no memories of your time in the Moon Kingdom. But like all magic, and given the circumstances, it is not at all surprising that things didn't turn out as well as she had intended. It was certainly possible that one or more of you would remember…"

"So I have you to blame for this?" Cordeila snapped, getting to her feet. "You're to blame for all the rumors and childish name calling I've had to endure?"

"No, Cordelia," Luna said, her tone indicating clearly that she not only knew of the anger Cordelia felt, but greatly sympathized with it. "We could not have foreseen that. Please do not blame her for all you have suffered. The Queen simply wanted to make sure that all of you were happy in your new lives."

Sitting back down on the tree log, Cordelia rested her head in her hands. "Well, someone should go back and tell her that, in at least one case, she crapped out big time."

Willow brought the conversation back to the present. "Look, guys. I know it's a lot to take in, but think about it. The five of us are all that stand between this planet and utter ruin. You may think that this means we're all getting the short end of the stick, but think about what will happen to everyone else if we don't try. I can't really remember a lot about the Moon Kingdom or our previous lives, but from what Luna and Artemis said, it was really bad. And I for one don't really want what happened there to happen here, too."

Getting to her feet, she made it a point to look at each of them, even Anya. Willow knew that she still had doubts about her effectiveness not only as a Sailor Soldier, but also, having been told that she was to be their de facto leader, relinquishing some of the control she would have over the group, and figured that this would be the best time to make sure Anya knew full well how committed she was. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm not going to let the bad guys walk all over this planet like I do to the doormat each day when I get home. I'll defend this planet with everything that I got…even if I have to do it all by myself."

"Well said, Willow," Luna said, clearly proud of how the past twenty four hours had dramatically changed this young woman. She would be the one that the others would revolve around, so it was important that she made the effort to make the others see how important this situation was and the one who would show how much they were needed to stave off the oncoming storm.

She had apparently succeeded in her task, as Anya, whom Luna had noted last night seemed to be vehemently opposed to having her be a part of the team, got to her feet. "I still have my doubts, but if you can act like this more often, I'll be willing to side with you."

Fred followed suit. "I'm still not terribly sure what was going on, but if the world's in danger, I don't want to be left out in the cold while the rest of y'all try to defend it."

"I've had to deal with a lot of bad guys in my time," Buffy said, speaking for the first time as she got up and moved to join the others. "But none of them really wanted to go out of their way to try to blow up the world. These guys sound like all the bad boyfriends I've ever had. No way am I letting them walk all over me. And besides, I've always wanted to do everything I could to help the innocent. Count me in."

The four of them, along with the cats, looked at Cordelia, who appeared to be completely unmoved by Willow's words. Noticing that everyone was staring at her, she got to her feet. "Look, I'm not about to throw my life away to fight some enemy I don't even know in order to protect people I've never even met." Seeing the rather dejected and disappointed looks this brought from the others, she smiled. "Because I'm not about to let them think for one second that they can come over to our world and tread all over them, but us as well. And if they got a problem with that, they can just deal with it, because anyone who messes with the friends of Cordelia Chase has to answer to me." Her smile widened. "And I know people who can tell you stories about how bad an idea that is."

"Now that we've settled that, we should give the three of you your tools," Luna said, the crescent moon marking on her forehead shining for a moment before firing three beams of light towards Buffy's, Fred's and Cordelia's wrists. After a few moments, a bracelet appeared on each of them, looking quite similar to the one that they had seen Anya have on her wrist. But whereas hers had an orange jewel inset into it, Fred's had a blue jewel, Cordelia's a red jewel and Buffy's a green jewel.

"Those are your transformation devices," Luna explained. "Like Willow's brooch and Anya's bracelet, these will allow you to be able to transform into the Sailor Soldiers of your guardian planets."

"Say the name of your guardian planet and add 'Make Up'," Luna clarified, looking up at Fred. "You, Winifred Burkle, are the reincarnation of Princess Mercury, the Sailor Soldier of Wisdom, Guardian of Water and Knowledge."

Fred blushed at bit at hearing that, explaining to the others, "I've always loved the water, and I've been good at math since I was six. I guess now I know why."

Luna turned her attention to Cordelia. "You, Cordelia Chase, are the reincarnation of Princess Mars, the Sailor Soldier of War, Guardian of Flame and Passion."

Cordelia nodded. "I guess that makes sense. I've always had a little hotheaded streak within me, always sticking to what I've believed to be true." Looking at Willow, she added, "And being true to my friends."

"That's my name," Buffy insisted. "Well, the name that I let my friends call me by." She looked at Luna, then at the others and smiled. "I guess you guys have the right to call me that."

"Very well, then," Luna said. "You, Buffy Summers, are the reincarnation of Princess Jupiter, the Sailor Soldier of Protection, Guardian of Thunder and Courage."

Turning to look at Willow and Anya, still addressing the others, Luna continued, "These two you will come to learn as well. Anya was once Princess Venus, the Sailor Soldier of Love and Beauty, Guardian of Love and Friendship. And Willow…"

Luna paused, almost unsure as how she should continue. Although she had told the group that it was their duty to protect the Moon Princess, there was one very important thing that she had left unsaid: the fact that Willow was the Moon Princess they were sworn to protect. She knew that it was a fact that would eventually need to be told, but the five of them had been forced to absorb so much information in a short amount of time, and she could tell that they were all still trying to get used to it.

Although she felt this way towards them all, Luna especially felt concerned for Willow. She had been through this as the others had, and had seemed on the surface to accept it. But what would she do if she were to discover that, in addition to being the Sailor Soldier of the Moon, she was also the Princess of the long destroyed Moon Kingdom, heir to a legacy that she did not remember and keeper of the one thing that could make all the difference in this upcoming fight?

Making up her mind at last, and deciding that these were issues best left for another day, Luna continued, "Willow was, as I said before, your de facto leader. She led the four of you in protecting Princess Serenity from harm. And the five of you must do so once again if this planet is to have any hope of defending itself from Queen Faith and the forces of the Dark Kingdom."

"Now transform, Sailor Soldiers," Artemis said. "And reveal to one another your true forms."

The five girls nodded in apparent understand and moved to transform, each of them affecting a battle stance.

The five young women shouted their transformation phrases and felt themselves change into dramatically different people. For Willow and Anya, it wasn't as dramatic, having experienced it at least once already, though Willow had to admit to herself that it would take her some time to get used to it. For the others, they were as surprised as Willow herself had been the first time she had transformed herself.

Moments later, the five stood in their uniforms, Willow taking a moment to look at them in their new forms. The first thing that caught her attention was the fact that their hairstyles had dramatically changed. Fred's wavy black hair had become a cropped blue coif, Cordelia's dark hair had gotten longer, flowing down her back and taking on a purplish tint, and Buffy's blonde hair had become reddish brown and done up in an elaborate pattern, ending in a ponytail. All three of them were dressed in the same leotard and skirt ensemble that Anya and Willow were dressed in, with Fred's skirt and bows a light blue, Cordelia's skirt a dark red with purple bows, and Buffy's skirt a dark green with pink bows. Gems of the same color as their skirts could be found inset on the tiara's that all three of them wore on their foreheads and the bows on their chest. Their footwear was colored the same as well, with Fred wearing knee length blue boots, Cordelia wearing red high heels and Buffy wearing laced green boots.

"Wow," Fred said, looking first at herself, then at the others. "I feel…different. And yet…I feel as if this is…me. I mean…who I always was."

"Me, too," Buffy said, giving her clothing and the clothing of the others a glance with a slight smirk on her face. "I kind of like it."

"Me, too," Cordelia said, hands moving to the tiara on her forehead. "It feels as if all of this were…a part of me."

"We'll have to start training you in your powers," Luna said, approaching them and resting on a tree stump. "But we should give you all the opportunity to get adjusted to this information. We'll meet again on the weekend and start then."

The five women nodded in confirmation, their clothing and hairstyles reverting back to their civilian forms.

"Well…what do you think this enemy is going to do now that they know that there's somebody out there who's going to try and stop them?"

Faith was greatly displeased. And when she was as displeased as she was now, she had a well known habit of making sure those who had displeased her knew it.

That was a lesson that Xander and Spike were learning at this very moment, arcs of blue energy cascading from her hands and playing across their bodies, subjecting them to the most terrible pain they could imagine. Like true warriors, they did not beg for mercy. Which was a good thing as far as she was concerned, for her immense unhappiness at how they had bungled such a simple assignment ensured that she would not be in a giving vein this day.

After several more moments, she ceased her punishment, her enjoyment at inflicting such cruel pain on them running its course. Allowing them the time to compose themselves, she said, "Perhaps the two of you would care to explain to me how you were able to foul up such a perfectly routine assignment."

"Really, my dear Xander?" Faith asked with a look of unmitigated disgust on her face. "I would have thought that there was nothing in the universe that could defeat a warrior of your caliber." Turning to Spike, she added, "And of yours, Spike. I can see that all the time you have spent training with Angelus has been for naught."

Faith had chosen her words on purpose, knowing that she would get a rise out of both Xander and Spike for saying as such. This was a ploy that she knew would work well, for playing to their egos in this fashion would only serve to stoke the fires of injustice that burned deeply within their souls.

"It was not our fault, my Queen," Xander growled. "We had accomplished our task perfectly. But we were set upon by two young women."

"My comrade speaks the truth, my Queen," Spike spoke up then, the disgust at admitting this making the raw wounds on his arm where the chain had struck him sting all the more. He would bear a scar there for quite some time, but he would not allow himself the dishonor of having to subject himself to treating a wound he sustained in battle, even a wound given by a warrior of the caliber of his opponent, clearly inferior though she was. It would make him stronger, and strength was everything. Angelus had taught him that. "We were set upon by two warriors who claimed to be Sailor Soldiers. We fought them to the best of our ability…"

"What?!" Faith said, her voice rising to the point that her normally calm and seductive words came out in a furious shriek that made the normally stoic warriors before her quite frightened. "Did you say 'Sailor Soldiers'?"

"Yes, my Queen," Xander replied, daring not to lie in the presence of Faith, knowing full well the consequences that act would bring upon him.

Faith's face contorted into one of abject disgust as she settled herself on her throne. "So, even in this time Queen Serenity seeks to thwart my dreams." As Faith continued to muse on this, Angelus and Oz appeared from out of nowhere. Noticing them approaching, she turned her attention to them. "I trust you have better news to offer me?"

"Yes, my Queen," Angelus said, kneeling before Faith, Oz choosing to remain standing. Faith noted this, but made no comment of it. If the news that Angelus had to offer was truly good, she was willing to overlook this breach of protocol. If not, however…

Faith's disillusioned attitude vanished so quickly that it was hard for her to believe that it had ever been present. "Really? Where?"

"Somewhere within the town above us, My Queen. We have, unfortunately, been unable to locate precisely where."

Faith waited to hear more from her most capable warrior and returned to her foul mood when she realized that no other news was forthcoming. "That's it? You know that it is somewhere above us, but not exactly where it is?"

Faith could see from the look on Xander and Spike's faces that they were pleased by this bit of news. Having assumed that Angelus had failed in his task, they were expecting that he and Oz would be punished much like they had been. And indeed, nothing in this world would please her more than to see them suffer for failing her.

But perhaps, in this case, the best way to make them suffer…would be to praise them.

"Very good, Angelus. At least now we have a general idea where it is. Before now, all we had to work with was the fact that it was somewhere on this Earth. Now we can focus all of our attention on one place."

This praise drew a faint smirk from Angelus and Oz, and irritated glances from Xander and Spike. Faith looked at her four warriors and smiled inwardly. This declaration would polarize Xander and Spike, who clearly wished to atone for their recent failure by doing all within their power to be the first to find the Mystical Silver Crystal. In addition, it made Angelus and Oz aware of the fact that they had been the ones to narrow their search, and gain her approval for doing so.

Of course, now that they had a general idea about where the Crystal was, the four of them would trip over themselves in order to outdo each other in attempting to locate it, whether on their own initiative or working together.

One thing was for sure: thanks to this incident, none of them would be able fully trust the others while doing so.

Faith did not particularly care about the squabbling and petty bickering the four of them were likely to do. As long as one of them managed to bring to her the Crystal, whoever did so and however they accomplished it was none of her concern. For in the end, they would be as they had always been: a means to an end.

More correctly, they were the means to locating that which would bring about the end of the Earth. And the end to the lives of Serenity's chosen defenders.

"I had the craziest dream last night," Amy was telling Willow, as the two sat inside the hospital waiting room. "I dreamt that my mother and I, along with the entire audience of the magic show, had been attacked by some weird alien creature and that we were all rescued by two women dressed in what looked like sailor's outfits. Sounds pretty weird, doesn't it?"

"A little," Willow admitted, fighting the urge to tell Amy that dream hadn't been a dream at all, but in fact had been very real. As she well knew, being one of the girls in question. But Luna had told the others that it would not be a good idea to reveal their secret identities to anyone, even to their friends and family, lest the enemy somehow manage to find out that there were people who loved ones knew the identities of the Sailor Soldiers and used that knowledge in order to cause either themselves or those they loved serious harm.

"How is your mother, anyway?" she asked, hoping to change the subject without making it seem obvious that was what she wanted to do.

"Not that bad," Amy replied, looking a little fatigued, but otherwise apparently unharmed by her experienced. "The doctors just say she needs some time to get a little rest, and she'll be as good as new." She yawned. "It's the same deal with the others and, truth be told, myself. It's like we were all too drained from the show to think clearly. I'm just glad that someone was able to come around and get us all to the hospital."

"That's nice," Willow said a little absently, her mind very much focused on other matters. It was hard for her to believe how much the past forty eight hours had changed her. Before two days ago, her biggest worry had been how to handle telling her mother about the latest in a long line of failed tests. Now she had to worry about not only putting herself in danger battling an ancient evil, but proving herself worthy of being the leader of the group of young women sworn to defend the Earth against that evil.

And while she had sounded confident the other day when setting the situation straight to all of them, enough time had gone by since to make Willow painfully obvious to the fact that much of the confidence with which she had used to say those words had been mainly due to her need to prove to them how dire that situation really was. Since, aside from Anya, none of them had appeared to take it any seriously than she did.

Now, however, with the others accepting the truth of what Luna had said because of her steadfast declaration to fight the enemy with or without their help, Willow began to realize that she wasn't nearly as confident about her words as she appeared to be when she said them, realizing also that it was only because she had put on, as she called it, her "resolve face", that she ended up sounding and looking confident and in control of the situation, when on the inside, she was little more than what she truly was: a frightened young woman.

She couldn't allow self-doubt to cripple her, however. Regardless of how she had done it, she had made her decision to fight the forces of the Dark Kingdom. And now that they had all decided to join her, the four of them would look to her for the leadership and guidance that they would need in order to do the best they could to help her.

All of them would need to have the confidence they had decided to place in her validated. Especially Anya. She clearly didn't like the idea of deferring control of the group to Willow, and would surely look for any excuse that she could in order to take it back. Willow was determined not to allow a situation like that to present itself.

Sighing, Willow got to her feet. Noticing this, Amy looked up. "What's wrong, Willow."

"Nothing," Willow admitted. "There's just…I've got a lot on my mind, and I need to talk to someone about it."

Willow smiled. Amy was, if nothing else, a true friend. But she didn't want to burden her best friend with her own problems, especially when she had to deal with other things right now. "No, Amy. I don't want to put too much on you right now. You've been through too much already. There's only one person that I can talk to who can help me with what I'm going through."

Willow walked up to Tara's house, a slight hesitancy in her step. So much had happened to her recently, and while Luna had said that she couldn't reveal it to anyone, there was one person she felt comfortable being around that made the fact that she had to keep a secret less troublesome. After all, Tara was certainly no stranger to keeping secrets.

And that was all Willow wanted to do with Tara, at least today. They didn't have to talk a great deal or do anything special like go out for mochas or anything. She just wanted to be with Tara, for as long as she was willing to have her over.

Knocking on the door, Willow waited several seconds before it opened, Tara's body framing the doorway. "Willow? Hi."

Smiling faintly, Tara opened the door and allowed Willow to come inside. Making their way up the stairs, Tara asked, "Can I get you anything, Willow? I was just making some tea, and I think I have some muffins in the fridge…"

"No, Tara," Willow said, reaching the top of the steps and moving to sit down on one of the chairs in the living room. "I'll be OK."

Tara nodded and made her way back into the kitchen, emerging several minutes later with a saucer and cup, which Willow noticed was filled with some of the tea Tara said she had been making. Taking the cup, she politely sipped at it as Tara moved to sit down opposite her.

A rather uncomfortable silence passed between the two of them before Willow, placing the cup back on the saucer, found herself saying, "Tara, how come you don't talk to me about your past?"

Tara looked at her, a neutral expression on her face. But Willow immediately knew from how her body posture had suddenly gone rigid that she had done something wrong, and scrambled to apologize. "I'm sorry, Tara. I shouldn't have asked…"

"No, Willow," Tara gently admonished, her face softening somewhat. "It's my fault. I've wanted to tell you for quite some time, but I feared that you wouldn't like me anymore if you heard about what I've had to deal with in my life."

"I could never hate you, Tara," Willow said, her words being said with honest sincerity. "No matter what happened to you before, I would always feel the same way I do about you now. And I always feel safe when I'm with you. Nothing about you will ever change that."

Tara smiled lopsidedly and then began to tell her tale. "Well, Willow, the earliest thing I could remember was waking up in a hospital bed. When I asked the nurse what I was doing there, I was told that I had been with my family, that we had suffered a serious car crash and that both of my parents had died."

"I'm sorry," Willow whispered, knowing how upset Tara had to be at delving back into her past, realizing now why she had not done so before now. She wasn't sure if she could have handled suffering a tragedy like that at such a young age. That Tara apparently had was a testament to the courage and strength Willow always knew the blonde had.

"Don't be," Tara replied. "The thing was, I couldn't remember anything about what had happened. In fact, I couldn't remember anything about my childhood prior to that point. It was almost as if that car crash had been the point at which I had truly come into existence."

Willow sat in silence as Tara continued speaking. "I was taken to the local orphanage and stayed there until I was old enough to get a job and be able to support myself." She sighed and rested one hand on her temple. "And to be honest, as bad as it all was, it never really bothered me all that much. At least until…"

"Dreams?" Willow asked, being reminded of Cordelia's visions and how Luna had said that they were the memories of her previous life. Did this mean that Tara was like herself, a reincarnation from someone in the past who had lived in the Silver Millennium with her and the others, had been killed during the attack by Faith and was now living out her life blissfully unaware of the fact that Faith had broken free and was now attacking the Earth?

She quickly dismissed that, telling herself that there was nothing about Tara that gave off the indication that she was some type of superhero. Then again, she had thought the same about herself, and she knew now how wrong that was.

She decided not to dwell on it that much. For all she knew, the dreams Tara was talking about were nothing more than repressed memories from her childhood. And she truly wanted to know what they were about. Deciding that the best way to find out was to ask, she asked, "Can you tell me about them?"

Tara shook her head. "You're going to think that this is silly, Willow. I shouldn't have told you."

Tara visibly swallowed. "Well, in my dreams, I see the image of a beautiful Princess. She tells me that if I want to find out about my past…my true past, I have to find something called the Mystical Silver Crystal."

Willow's eyes widened subtly, and she vainly tried to keep herself from otherwise visibly reacting to hearing that piece of news. It was rather difficult, given how much she was currently thinking about how Tara might be the Moon Princess that Luna had said they had to be on the lookout for.

Tara, thankfully, had either not noticed her reaction or simply decided to ignore Willow's change in demeanor, no matter how slight it had been. "And so I looked all over the world, did more research than I would care to admit, and even resorted to some rather…questionable tactics, but I was never able to find out anything about a Mystical Silver Crystal or how it could be connected to me. Eventually, I forgot all about it. But recently, the dreams have come back, stronger and more powerful than they were before. And I can feel that something has happened recently that has made it more important than ever for me to try and find it."

Getting to her feet, Tara moved to the nearby window, looking outside at the expanse of the city that lay beyond her view. "You won't tell anyone about this, will you Willow? I can't have people think I'm some sort of crazy old spinster with delusions of grandeur."

Willow swallowed hard, realizing what Tara wanted of her, but also realizing the rather dangerous position the question had put her in. Under normal circumstances, she would have had no problem deciding to keep Tara's secret. The two of them had been together long enough to be able to trust one another to do that. But now that she knew about the threat the Dark Kingdom represented to the people of Earth, the role that she and her new friends had in countering that threat, how the Mystical Silver Crystal played a vital part in all of that, and how Tara might very well be the thing that connected everything together, she was torn between the duty her role as leader of the Sailor Soldiers demanded of her and the duty that her friendship with Tara required of her.

She made up her mind. It was, after all, an easy decision to make. No matter what peril the world was in, and how much the others would berate her for doing so, she would make sure that Tara would not become involved in any of it. If that meant she would have to keep the fact that Tara was also looking for the Mystical Silver Crystal from Luna and her friends, then she would do it. And if it meant keeping from Luna and the others the fact that she might know who the Princess was, then she would do that, as well.

When it came to Tara, everything else was secondary. Even the fate of the world.

Getting up, she moved to join Tara beside the window. "I promise, Tara. I won't tell anyone about what you've just told me."

Willow returned the hug, the comforting warmness of Tara's body making her feel safe and secure. For a fleeting moment, she thought about how right the situation felt, almost as if the two of them had been together like this before. She shrugged off those feelings, justifying them as remembering how they had been like this back when they had first started dating.

Willow, however, could not shake the fact that, even with that knowledge, the warmness of Tara's body against her own, the smell of her perfume and the electric feeling she felt when Tara's bare skin touched her own were more familiar to her than she would normally expect them to be given how much time they had spent together.

Deciding that explaining these feelings could wait for another day, she simply allowed herself to be held by Tara. It didn't matter how familiar it felt. All that mattered was that it felt right.

And for now, when she knew that Tara's life, along with those of the people of the Earth, and perhaps the entire galaxy as well, rested on the shoulders of her and her friends, that was enough for her.

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Moonlight Densetsu

by SithLordWiccan

Copyright © 2006

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