The Moonlight Densetsu Chronicles 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: Two months following the arrival of the Dark Kingdom to Sunnydale and her transformation to Sailor Moon, Willow Rosenberg and her friends face a new crisis, as the Shitennou come together to draw the Moon Princess out of hiding, neither they nor the Sailor Soldiers realizing how close to them the Princess really is.

The projectile flew through the air, flying past the monster to which it had been targeted before turning around and, on its return course, impacting against the creature's back. Knocked off balance, it collapsed to one knee as the projectile landed back into the gloved hand of the female who had thrown it, transforming back into the gold tiara with inlaid red jewel that had been on her forehead only moments before.

The girl was clad in a white leotard, blue skirt and knee length pink boots adorned with yellow crescent moons, red bows affixed to both her chest and the small of her back; her blonde hair done up in two decorative pigtailed buns, with barrettes and white ringed red circles decorating those buns. She raised one arm, calling forth her next weapon, a pink wand decorated with jewels and topped by a silver crescent moon. Affixing a battle pose, she spoke the phrase that would cause the tool to deliver one of her most powerful attacks.

Bursts of light emerged from the crescent moon on the wand at the command, slamming into the monster with enough force to cause it to howl in pain, each successive impact knocking it further back until at last it collapsed to the ground and disappeared in a flash of light.

Nodding her head, the girl turned to leave, only to stop short as she saw two people above her. One had platinum blond hair done up in a ponytail and wore what appeared to be a white military uniform with very little decoration other than a silver cape held on his person by epaulettes on his shoulders that were inset with green jewels. The other was a slightly older man with long red hair the same shade of his uniform, cape and jeweled epaulettes. The look on his face was the type she had seen in predators who had their prey in sight. Not an inaccurate description, given the fact that both he and his comrade were holding swords in their hands that they were currently pointing directly in her direction.

"You may have defeated our latest monster, Sailor Moon," the red haired man said. "But this one defeat does not mean that you have won the war. You cannot hope to halt the advance of the Dark Kingdom. We shall find the Mystical Silver Crystal and free Queen Metallia from her imprisonment. And when we do, no one on this planet shall be safe from us."

"That's what you think," Sailor Moon replied as the males leapt to the floor, swords in hand. Using the momentum of their fall, they propelled himself towards Sailor Moon, who ducked and rolled to avoid their first attack, turning to deliver a kick to the back of the blond that momentarily caught him off balance. Turning and letting out a snarl, he flexed the fingers of his left hand and sent a bolt of green energy towards his attacker.

Cartwheeling out of the way, Sailor Moon stole a moment to look around, hoping to see anyone that could help her deal with these people. Not that she expected anyone to show up. As far as these types of situations were concerned, she wasn't exactly on speaking terms with most of the people who were supposed to help her, and even if they were, they didn't know that she was here.

Or so she thought, for just when she had given up hope of finding rescue, she saw another person leap from the second floor to join the fight. This person was a female clad in a tuxedo, a cape affixed to her shoulders, long blonde hair flowing across it. Her identity was obscured by the top hat on her head and the white mask over her eyes. She held what appeared to be a walking cane in one gloved hand, which she twirled like a baton and pointed at both enemies. "She's correct, fiends. As long as the two of us live, the Earth will be defended from the likes of you."

The blond snickered. "Then…I guess that will have to change, won't it?" Raising their swords, the pair moved to attack the newcomer, the blond in the lead. His attack was blocked as the blonde raised her cane, stopping the strike that would have bisected her. Bringing the sword down to one side, the tuxedo clad figure slammed an elbow into the stomach of her opponent, crumpling him in half. Before he could recover, she brought her cane down across his back, knocking him head first into the ground.

Taking advantage of the opportunity afforded to him by the failure of his comrade, the one in red charged forward, shouting at the top of his lungs a howling fury of rage. Getting up off her knee, the blonde parried the attacks of the male like an expert swordswoman, which only served to increase the fury of his attacks. But it was all for naught for, as with his companion, he too was sent to the ground with a series of well placed blows to the gut and chin.

"Go back to your master," she said, pointing at both men as they got to their feet. "And let her know that her quest for the Mystical Silver Crystal will not go unchallenged."

Getting to their feet, swords in hand and snarls on their faces, the pair swept their capes up and disappeared from sight. Once they were gone, the tuxedo clad female turned to look at Sailor Moon, tilting her head in silent approval. "You fought well."

"I have to," Sailor Moon replied. "My friends…the ones I'm supposed to lead…we haven't been getting along that well lately. At least, not as far as the whole ‘save-the-world-from-evil' destiny thing goes. I mean, we all still get along well as regular people in school and everything. And it's…it's my fault that we can't get together on this mission. I'm supposed to be their leader, and I can't find it within myself to be the kind of person that sort of role requires me to be."

"But you must," the blonde replied with a nod. "I know you can be that sort of person. But you have to believe it yourself, Sailor Moon. Otherwise you will never be able to find the strength to convince yourself of this." Moving off, she turned as she reached the open window. "But rest assured. No matter what happens, you have at least one friend in this fight."

And with that, she leapt out the open window. Sailor Moon stood rooted to the spot for some time, watching the empty space where her rescuer had been. She soon found her attention drawn elsewhere at the sound of a very familiar voice.

Sailor Moon looked up as a bright light shone from her body, fading after several moments to reveal a young woman in her mid-teens, wearing a red t-shirt, faded blue jeans and sneakers, her elaborately designed blonde hair now a chin-length red. She took in the newcomer with an indignant stare, actually surprised to discover that she would come at all.

"She's not our enemy," Willow insisted, the tone of her voice as she said this showing the strain of one having done a task repeatedly and without end. Which was, in a sense, exactly what she was doing, for ever since the others had found out about the one who had saved Willow during her first battle, the five of them deciding to call her Tuxedo Mask for lack of any other means by which to identify her, they had begun to question whether or not she was really looking out for their best interests.

Although all were resistant to the idea of considering her as a potential ally, Anya was especially adamant about refusing Willow's attempts to convince them to see her as an ally, saying that, for all they knew, she could merely be a part of the enemy's plans against Earth, useful to them only as a means to lull the five of them into a false sense of security where they would come to depend on her presence whenever they battled, and then choosing to remove her from the equation when they decided that things needed to start getting serious.

Willow, being the good natured person that she was, took exception to this, trying to convince them all, and especially Anya, that if Tuxedo Mask really were an enemy, then she wouldn't have gone out of her way to risk her life the countless times that she had done so while helping them to battle the evil monsters the Dark Kingdom sent their way. While the others had at least been able to agree on that, Anya stated plainly that this information didn't negate the fact that she always seemed to wait until the last possible minute to make her appearance, and had never decided to reveal her true identity to them, which were valid enough points, at least in her opinion, to counter any argument to the contrary that she were anything other than an unknown factor in their fight, and could potentially be harmful to their mission.

That had been, if not the main thing, one of many that had driven a wedge between the five of them over the course of the past month. The sense of camaraderie that they had shared when they had first met, pledging to fight the enemy under Willow's leadership and the guidance of Luna and Artemis, the feline companions of the long dead Queen of the Moon Kingdom that were sent with them to the future to guide them along the path to their respective destiny, had long since faded, with no real discussion about where to go with regard to their mission to find the Moon Princess and the Mystical Silver Crystal she carried and only the barest hints of the friendships they had made before that day not so very long ago remaining.

It was almost as if the entire sense of friendship and bonding that had occurred that day had become a wool sweater, and the various arguments on how to find the Princess and the Silver Crystal, figuring out how to deal with the Dark Kingdom that seemed hell bent on finding both and using them in their plans for world domination and how the mysterious tuxedoed female fit into the whole thing became the curious person that had pulled at a loose thread on that sweater for so often that it had all but unraveled, leaving behind only a mess of string that would be nearly impossible to put back together again.

Luna and Artemis had tried the best they could to keep the five of them together and on task, but Willow had explained to them that what had happened between them was exactly the sort of thing that occurred when you got five different people together in a room and gave them a problem to solve: each person ended up having a different opinion on what to do about the situation that completely clashed with what another person had thought, which in turn clashed with the ideas that the others had. Eventually you would start to argue about what was the best course of action, to the point that you might even begin to just argue for the simple sake of arguing, completely forgetting the original reasons that you started arguing to begin with. Willow told them that all that could be done about it was to simply let the tiff that had developed between them run its course, in the hope that they could come to some consensus before anything bad happened.

"You keep saying that as if you're absolutely convinced of what you say," Anya said, bringing Willow's thoughts back to the present. "It's little wonder why we can't work together as a team when our leader is blind enough to miss the obvious."

"Like what?" Willow asked, her voice rising in frustration. "Do you really think that the person who's saved us more times than I can remember could be an enemy?"

"Yes, I do," Anya replied with a straight face. She turned away from Willow and began to walk away. "And if you truly wanted to be our leader, you would be willing to at least consider that."

Watching Anya walk off, Willow came to realize that she was right. She had never once been open to the idea of considering Tuxedo Mask as an enemy. But that was because, unlike the others, she had been there when the blonde had made her first appearance, saving her from an attack by one of the enemy, much like she had done not only tonight, but whenever she went up against the forces of the Dark Kingdom.

Walking off, Willow thought to herself, "If she were truly the enemy, would she have saved me then? Would she have saved me tonight? Would she have saved me all those times in between tonight and that first time?"

One final thought burned itself into her brain. "And if she were the enemy, would she continue to save me?"

Faith knelt on one knee in front of the pulsating purple form that was Queen Metallia, her arms outstretched; a large blue orb in her upturned hands. This orb contained the energy collected during her warriors' latest attempts to gather energy from the people of Earth, a task that was being done in order to accomplish the Demon Queen's rebirth; a task had been going slowly over the past month, but had been progressing quite well, in her opinion.

It would, however, progress much better and faster had her underlings managed to find the Mystical Silver Crystal, but after nearly a month of fruitless searching, they had appeared to be making no progress in finding it. How could it be possible that an object like the Crystal would be that difficult to find, especially when they had so little territory to traverse?

Even as the question crossed her mind, Faith realized that she knew the answer: those four warriors to whom she had entrusted the task of finding the Crystal, their combined power making them the strongest of all of those who loyally served Queen Metallia and herself, seemed to be more willing to spend their time and energy squabbling amongst themselves on how to accomplish the task of finding the Crystal than in actually doing it. This was one of the unfortunate side effects of the manipulation she had enacted on their emotions and minds, both through her words and the spell she cast over them in order to make them more subservient to her control. It made them loyal to her, yes, but it also made them more than willing to do whatever they thought was necessary in order to accomplish whatever goal she gave them, even if it meant stepping on the backs of their comrades and preventing them from accomplishing the very same thing.

Faith let out a small sigh as she spoke, "Oh, great Metallia, Demon Queen of the Dark Kingdom, I, Queen Faith, you most humble vassal, do offer you this energy we have collected in your name, in the hopes that it shall bring you power."

The contents of the orb made their way into the purple mass, which began to pulsate more quickly as it absorbed the energy. A face then began to form within the mass, its features becoming those of a creature that would cause untold horror and fright to those who gazed upon it.

Faith bowed her head to the face, mostly out of subservience to the true leader of the Dark Kingdom, but also to hide the fact that she was frightened to gaze into that face, its cold eyes and unfeeling features a manifestation of soulless being to which it belonged. This was an event unto itself, for there were few things that could frighten her as badly as an audience with Queen Metallia.

"Your gift pleases me, Faith," the deeply feminine voice of Metallia intoned. "But I must admit that…I grow concerned about your lack of progress towards reviving me."

"I know, my Queen," Faith admitted, knowing that to lie within Metallia's presence would not be wise. "Our best efforts to gather energy for you have met with…some resistance."

"I am aware of this, Faith," Metallia replied. "The Guardians of the Princess have been reborn on Earth, and seek to thwart my plans to rule this planet. This greatly displeases me, Faith. I thought that you would have done better with the powers I offered you. Perhaps I was wrong."

Faith bit her lip in order to keep herself from commenting on this. This was the game the two of them played. Faith may be ruler of the Dark Kingdom, but she was still answerable to Metallia in all things. She had to be, of course, for it was the Demon Queen who had granted her the abilities she had used to bring that destruction down upon the people of the Moon, especially the Moon Princess.

Faith gritted her teeth as she recalled the features of the Moon Princess, whom she greatly despised with every nerve and fiber in her being. The heir to the Moon Kingdom was the living embodiment of all that it stood for and all that made the people of Earth despise them: natural beauty unbecoming of any mere Earthling, near eternal life thanks to the powers of the Mystical Silver Crystal, and total ignorance to the thoughts and feelings of the people of Earth as they meddled in their affairs. Faith knew that Queen Serenity had decreed that, despite their people's mission to watch over the people of the Earth, they should not directly get involved with them, since it would only serve to cause the seeds of distrust that had always existed between the two cultures to bloom into something terrible that would eventually bring about their mutual destruction.

But she had apparently decided to make an exception in her daughter's case, as it soon became known among both her people and the Earth Kingdom that there was a relationship between Princess Serenity and Endymion, Crown Princess of the Earth. Faith had known from that moment on that she had a perfect opportunity to take her revenge on the Moon Kingdom, knowing that the hatred the people of Earth would have upon learning of the union between one of their most prominent members and the Princess from the Moon would be the spark that would ignite the confrontation between them that would see her fondest desire, that of Queen Serenity and her daughter dying at her own hand, come true at last.

Faith had indeed been the one who led the people of the Earth in their attack against the people of the Moon, and now led the Dark Kingdom, the remnants of that once mighty army, in their attack on the people of Earth during this time. But she knew that it was only because of her meeting with Metallia, who had come to her saying that she also sought the destruction of the people of the Moon just as much, if not more so, as Faith did, that she had able to do this. This bound Faith to Metallia, just as her command and control over the Shitennou, who had, during the Silver Millennium, been Princess Endymion's best friends and guardians, and whom she had manipulated to serving her, bound them to her. She forced them to serve her and do her bidding, just as Metallia forced Faith to serve her and do her bidding.

Faith would put up with this subservience for now, because, as most things that annoyed her did, it worked to her advantage, at least for now. But like most things, her amusement about the situation would fade, and she would seek to use Metallia's power for her own personal gain. For if there was one thing she craved, it was power. And Metallia's power was greater than any she had ever seen before, the offering she had been given merely a sample of the deep well the Demon Queen drank from.

That power would be hers, whether or not Metallia would want to freely give it away.

"Fear not, Great Metallia," Faith said, knowing that her pause wouldn't bring down the wrath of the Demon Queen upon her. Until she was at full strength Metallia could not strike out in force against anyone. And by the time that happened, she hoped to have it under her control. "My greatest warriors are even now searching for that which will bring you to full strength. And once you have it, we shall rule over this planet together."

"I shall rule this planet, Faith," Metallia's voice boomed, a sound that sent a shiver down Faith's spine. "And when I rule, those who have served me faithfully will be rewarded. And those who have disappointed me…or have betrayed me…or have stood in my way…shall be destroyed."

Willow walked up the steps to the front doors of Sunnydale High School, her movements hesitant, almost as if, despite her early arrival and little fear of getting detention for being late, she didn't want to go inside. Her mind was going over the events of the past two months, and how the dangers of the Dark Kingdom and the pain of her life as a Sailor Soldier had made school, the one place in this entire town where she thought that those two parts of her life could never reach her, had instead become the place where they had come together rather violently, the constant need for her to keep that part of her life separate from her, for lack of a better term, otherwise "normal" life making her existence a living nightmare.

It certainly didn't help matters much that three of the four people that had become integrated into both of those lives were also attending this school, and though two of them were at least willing to consider her a friend as far as normal life was concerned, the fact that the entire group had widely varied opinions insofar as how to deal with the enemy they were supposed to be united against made it nearly impossible for them to be anything other than politely civil towards one another.

Although true of all three of them, it was especially true of Anya, who very pointedly made a conscious effort to avoid Willow whenever she possibly could, regardless of whatever negative repercussions the teachers and the principal decided to enact on her. The fact that the two of them shared several classes made this especially difficult, and it led, on more than one occasion, to Willow doing the bulk of their project work while Anya sat back, giving no real indication that she had any willing desire to be in Willow's presence. It was bad enough that she refused to deal with her in the way that their roles as de facto and de jure leaders of the Sailor Soldiers required of them, but Willow had at least thought that they could get along outside of Soldier life. It quickly became apparent how wrong that assumption was.

It was only marginally better among the rest of the Soldiers, who two months ago had no idea that they were the reincarnations of the Princesses of four of the Solar System's planets during the period known as the Silver Millennium, nor that they, along with Willow and Anya, were tasked with the mission of protecting the Princess of the Moon, heir to the Moon Kingdom, from the evils of the universe. Since then, the four of them, who had, at the very least, shared a basic camaraderie and the slightest hints of a budding friendship when they first met, had their commitment to that mission wane to varying degrees.

Cordelia Chase, the only one of the five who did not attend Sunnydale High, was, by a wide margin, the one whose commitment to their mission had dropped the most, not only in significance, but in tolerance. Having been plagued by visions ever since she was a child, she was not at all pleased to discover that these visions, which had made her a target of suspicion and fear throughout her entire adolescence, were the faintest remnants of the memories she had of her time as Princess Mars, one of the Guardians of Princess Serenity. Although willing to be a part of the group at their first meeting, realizing what inaction on her part could bring to the others and the whole of humanity, the various problems the group had once they had come together as a unit, combined with the growing intensity of her visions and her dislike of them, led to Cordelia eventually deciding to exclude herself from the others in all things. Even to Willow, whom she had long considered to be the only person in town she could call "friend".

Winifred Burkle, who preferred to be known as "Fred", and Elizabeth Summers, who preferred to be known as "Buffy" and had transferred to Sunnydale High from Hemry High in Los Angeles, were somewhat more willing to accept their destinies as protectors of Princess Serenity, and considered Willow to be not only their leader, but also a dear friend. But despite all of that, the two of them couldn't come to an agreement as to how to deal with the Dark Kingdom and the threat that they posed to Earth. Fred had adopted what Willow called the "wait and see" approach, thinking that they should do their best to stop the Dark Kingdom from gathering energy while they searched for the Moon Princess in secret, never letting the enemy know what they were doing. In contrast, Buffy had adopted what Willow decided to call the "think first, ask questions when and if you ever decided to" approach, coming up with a plan that Willow figured most hard nosed military would put together when put in a similar situation: that the best way to develop a good defense was to go on a strong offense, and that the Dark Kingdom and those who served it should be wiped off the face of the planet before they could even think about finding the Princess, so as to minimize the threat to her life.

Willow's inability to come to a decision about which course of action to take had made the others seriously wonder whether or not she could act effectively as their leader. And Anya, as Willow expected, was quick to state that she should take over command of the group, citing that Willow couldn't even make such a basic decision as that. Luna disagreed, saying that the only way for Willow to gain the experience she needed to truly be their leader was to try the best she could to make the decisions she thought were best for the group.

For the past two months, however, Willow had found herself unable to do anything even approximating that, which led to the five of them, who had seemed so united in their common cause on a day that the redhead imagined now must have been long in the past, drifting away. And Willow knew that, no matter how hard she tried, there was nothing she could think of doing that would get them back together again.

As far as her scholastic achievements went, on the other hand, Willow had made incredible progress. Never really all that good of a student before meeting Luna and the others, she quickly found herself managing to become quite better at topics that used to confound her, especially English, Mathematics and Literature. At Luna's insistence, however, she was forced to fail a test every so often. When Willow had asked her why, Luna replied that in order to maintain her secret identity as Sailor Moon, she shouldn't strongly give off the fact that she was any different than anyone else, since the enemy would immediately take any indication of such as a sign that there was something going on out in the real world, and would immediately make her a target. Luna had told them all that Willow's first encounter with them had alerted them to the fact that there was someone on Earth who would stop them in their efforts, and that any abrupt change to the ordinary way of things would be seen by them as the revealing of the identity of those attempting to thwart their plans. Willow could readily agree with that statement, knowing that if the Dark Kingdom were ever to target her, then the lives of her friends and family would be in danger, as well.

And there was one person on this Earth she wanted to protect, and whose memory she fought for every single time she went into battle. The angelic, youthful face of Tara Maclay, whom she had been dating for the past eight months after a courtship of nearly a year and had recently revealed to her the fact that she was looking for the Mystical Silver Crystal, the object that both the forces of the Dark Kingdom and the Sailor Soldiers were looking for. Luna had said that it was somehow connected to the Princess, and that finding it would find the Princess.

When Tara had told Willow of her search for the Crystal, Willow had promised to keep it a secret from everybody else. That meant that she also had to keep it a secret from Luna and the others. Willow didn't want to expose Tara to the dangers of her new life, and she would fight as hard as she could in order to make sure that the Dark Kingdom never got to her. She had once said that she would do so even without the help of the other Soldiers.

Well, it certainly appeared that it would end up that way. The fact that she was fighting to protect Tara didn't make that seem important. If anything, it made her feel more…confident. Willow wasn't sure she'd be able to fight the Dark Kingdom if she was doing it to protect someone she didn't know, but doing it to protect Tara felt…strangely right.

Finishing her long walk up the steps to the door, Willow was happy to be greeted by Amy Madison, her best friend in civilian life outside of the other soldiers, and the one who had the somewhat questionable honor of being involved with the Dark Kingdom's first plot against the people of Earth. Not that she knew that, of course, thinking that the whole thing was just the result of possible heat exhaustion. Nor did she know that Willow was one of the people who had saved her that day. Luna had told her that their identities as Sailor Soldiers could never be revealed to anyone, lest the enemy find out that others knew who their opponents were in their daily lives and use that information to their advantage.

Amy walked up to Willow's side and moved to open the door. "I'm fine, Willow. You don't need to worry about me. I've long passed the point where I get those blackouts and headaches. What I want to know is if you're OK?"

"What do you mean?" Willow coyly asked, though she had an idea about what Amy was talking about.

"I mean the fact that we were supposed to go to the Bronze last week, but you cancelled at the last minute. I mean the fact that we were supposed to meet after school to study for a test on Tuesday, but you wanted to go see Tara instead. I mean the fact that I called you last night, and you never answered your phone," Amy explained as they walked inside the school and went to their homeroom class. "Will, something's going on with you. I can feel it. Is there something bugging you that you want to talk about?"

Willow sighed. "No, Amy. Nothing's bothering me." To herself, she thought, "It's just that I have to deal with an enemy that wants to use me, you and everybody we know as batteries to power their sleeping alien demon queen that wants to kill us all, and I'm one of the only five people on this planet that have any chance of stopping them, only me and those four other people can't seem to agree on how to do that, so I have to do it all by myself."

Amy sighed and looked around. "Well, at least you're on time today, so we don't have to worry about getting caught by Snyder again. Let's get to class."

Faith gazed down as the Shitennou made their way into her presence, their right hands to their chests as they kneeled on one knee in front of her, their heads bowed down out of respect. Normally this showcase of their devotion to her, manufactured though it was, would please her immensely. But these days, when their search for the Mystical Silver Crystal grew more and more frustrating with each passing day, she was not in the most pleasant of moods, and not even the sight of those four showcasing their loyalty to her, manufactured though it may be, could lift Faith's spirits.

"My Queen, we bow before you in obedience and await your commands," one of them intoned. This man was clad in black with a red cape affixed to his body by the epaulettes inset with white jewels that rested on his shoulders. Both the cape and uniform were trimmed in gold, his long dark hair flowing loosely on his shoulders and down his back.

Faith rolled her eyes in disgust. "Obedience, you say, Angelus? And yet the four of you cannot manage to accomplish the simple task I have given to you. I cannot imagine the difficulties the four of you could have in locating the Mystical Silver Crystal."

This was a lie, of course, and both Faith and the others knew it. One of the Shitennou, a youngish looking young man with short cropped dark hair that complimented the dark purple uniform he wore, spoke, "We are deeply sorry for failing you, my Queen. We have tried our best to locate the Crystal, but our efforts have been thwarted time and time again by the guardians of the Princess."

"Yes," Faith stated with an expression on her features akin to that of one who had just been told the one thing that would displease her more than anything else on this world could. "And I would have thought that the four of you would have been capable of dealing with them." She passed her glance to the one clad in white. "Especially you, Spike. I would have thought that you would have readily taken whatever opportunity came your way if it meant that you would have the opportunity to kill them, given how one of them managed to embarrass you so…easily."

"It was not that easy, my Queen," Spike growled, his head still bowed and hiding the expression on his face that indicated how deeply Faith's words had wounded him, almost as much as the attack that girl had dealt him. Even after all this time, he still did not have it treated, preferring to carry it as a symbol of that which would consume him as much as the search for the Crystal would: the death of the one who had dealt him this blow.

"And to think that Angelus trained you," the final member of the Shitennou spoke, his red uniform and hair making him the living representation of the fire that burned deep within his heart. "Perhaps his efforts were for naught. After all, you could barely handle that Sailor Soldier we faced not too long ago."

"You didn't appear to have any better luck dealing with her, either," Spike snapped back.

This exchange brought about another of the arguments that the four of them always seemed to have while they were in her presence and their meetings went from discussing their plans to debating over how to carry them out. It was typical male posturing, and Faith usually found it amusing for quite some time before she grew annoyed.

This time, however, she was far from amused by their antics, and made that apparent to the four of them by slamming her staff down, sending a shockwave through the ground.

Their attention back on her, Faith clearly set out the situation for them. "I grow weary of your constant and pointless prattling. I have allowed it up to this point because it amused me, and kept the four of you on your toes. But now things have changed. Queen Metallia will tolerate no more delays, and neither will I. The four of you will have to work together as one in order to accomplish your goal."

"Work together?" Spike flustered, raising his head. "With them? You cannot be serious, my Queen."

"Have you known me to be anything but, Spike?" Faith asked, an icy tone in her voice that left little indication that the matter was to be discussed in any way.

Fait sat back on her throne and looked at the four one at a time. "Now, can I assume that one of you has a plan that can be carried out that will see the Silver Crystal end up in our possession?"

Angelus raised his head, a faint smile on his face. "As a matter of fact, I do."

"Then perhaps you can tell us this plan," Faith said, her tone of voice making it perfectly clear that it was not a question.

"Certainly, my Queen," Angelus said. "The reason that the Sailor Soldiers have been able to thwart our plans is because our work in draining the people of the Earth of their energy makes them come to us with the advantage of surprise and stealth on their side. If, however, we were to do something that would draw them out in such a way that would give us the advantage, we could get them together and wipe them out in one fell swoop."

"The four of us will traverse Sunnydale and capture people at random," Angelus explained. "The sudden disappearance of so many people is sure to attract the attention of the Sailor Soldiers, especially if we were to capture one or more of the people to whom they are related, either by blood or by friendship."

"And when you have gathered them together, you will force them to turn over the Princess?" Faith asked, comprehension dawning on her face as she began to understand what Angelus planned.

"Yes, my Queen," Angelus nodded. "The thought of seeing so many people in danger will surely compel them to trade the life of the Princess for the lives of innocents. And then, once we have the Silver Crystal, we will simply slaughter them all."

Faith let out a chuckle. "I like this plan, Angelus. You and the others may proceed with my blessing."

As the four got up and moved to leave, Faith allowed a smile to form on her face, realizing that, when pushed, the Shitennou could truly come up with a plan that appeared on all levels to work without a flaw. Then again, since nothing is completely flawless, there may be some small imperfections to their plan. But even then, the imperfections may prove to be of some worth…in some way or another.

Faith would find a way to make them work to her advantage. After all, even failure brought about the opportunity for success.

To all appearances, the two felines in the room didn't appear to be anything other than your garden variety cats, nothing about them betraying the fact that they were anything but, at least from a distance. Upon closer inspection, anyone taking notice of them would see that each cat bore a yellow crescent moon on their forehead, the mark of those who served the Moon Kingdom in the time of the Silver Millennium, and who today were those chosen by Queen Serenity to guide the reincarnations of her daughters' chosen defenders.

It was that very issue that they were discussing at that very moment, the black furred cat speaking to her white furred companion. "I'm worried, Artemis."

"I am, too, Luna," Artemis replied. "It shouldn't be taking this long for them to come together as a team. Even in the old days, when they had their disagreements, they always managed to put them aside and come together as a team when confronted with a very real threat to the life of the Princess. We know the Princess' life is in danger…"

"I know that the Princess' life is in danger, Artemis," Luna replied indignantly, knowing full well what her companion meant by that statement. "But no matter how much it might help, we simply cannot allow the others to know that Willow is the Princess they are sworn to protect, especially Willow herself."

"Why not?" Artemis asked. "I would think that enough time has passed since we've been together to make that piece of information something we should feel more comfortable discussing. And in any case, if what you've told me about Willow is true, then we may not be able to keep it a secret for much longer, anyway."

"I know," Luna sighed, turning away to look at the wall. Although Willow had never spoken to her about any recovered memories of her time in the Moon Kingdom, the fact that she had slowly begun to become better at her studies over the past two months greatly concerned her. Princess Serenity had, after all, been highly intellectual and nothing if not an overachiever when it came to her studies. Luna took it as a sign that her memories as Princess Serenity were working their way to the surface, even if Willow herself was unaware of them. She had hoped to wait for a more convenient time to talk to Willow about this, but fate was apparently having other plans. If Luna was correct in her assumptions, Willow could regain her full memory in but a matter of days.

She dreaded what would likely happen once that occurred. Seeing how close to them the person the other Soldiers were supposed to be protecting was, they might actually look past their differences and come together under Willow's leadership as they should have done right at the start. On the other hand, since she had kept a secret of this magnitude from them, it might very well end up being the thing that caused not only the great rift already present between the Soldiers, but may also cause Willow herself to abandon the fight, seeing Luna as little more than someone who put her life at risk quite unnecessarily.

Just then, the door to the room opened, and Willow walked inside, backpack slung over one shoulder. Grateful for the distraction, Luna asked, "How are you feeling today, Willow?"

Sitting down at the table in the center of the room and dropping her bag down beside her, Willow let out a deep breath as she replied, "About as well as can be expected, seeing as how I'm lying to my friends about what I do when I'm not in school, I can barely speak to my other friends without having them want to know how I plan to deal with the enemy, and to top it off…"

Willow trailed off unexpectedly, Luna seeing that she was about to say something, but seemed almost reluctant to do so. Wondering if it was somehow related to their mission, she asked, "What is it?"

Willow blinked and rubbed her eyes, trying to clear her head. "It's nothing, Luna. I've just been having…having a rough couple of days."

Luna grew concerned at that. This was the first time that Willow had given any real indication that she may be remembering her past. And as much as she didn't want to talk about it right now, there appeared to be no better time than the present to do it. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"Try us," Artemis said, coming over and leaping onto the table in order to look Willow directly in the eye. "We can be surprisingly understanding when it comes to understanding something others tell us that may shame us to reveal." He turned to look at Luna at this, and the black furred feline was thankful that Willow hadn't picked up on it.

Luna's eyes widened noticeably, and Artemis tried not to look surprised. "You…you do?" he asked.

"Well, I think I do," Willow clarified. "I mean, I might not be sure, because I could be jumping to the wrong conclusion. And I've done that before, and I don't think I want to do it again, especially when it involves something like this. I mean, what if she's not the Princess? That could be embarrassing. We wouldn't want to go up to this person and say 'Hello, you may be the reincarnation of a Princess that once lived on the Moon that needs to be protected from an evil organization that wants to use the Crystal you carry to destroy us all…"

Artemis chuckled, and even Luna, despite herself, had to be amused. Realizing that the two cats were laughing at her expense, Willow stopped herself and said, "Like I said, I may know who the Moon Princess is, but I'm not sure that I should tell you…"

"Then perhaps you shouldn't," Luna said before Artemis could interrupt. Willow clearly didn't want to reveal that she knew that she was the Moon Princess, which was perfectly fine with her. Of course, she was assuming that Willow did in fact know she was the Princess, which was a rather incredible leap in logic. But there was no one else Willow could suspect as being the Princess, so there didn't appear to be any problems. "I mean, I don't think that it's necessary to reveal the identity of the Princess quite yet, at least not until we can get you and the other Soldiers working together."

"Not to mention that there's been a high amount of people disappearing throughout town lately," Artemis added, his tone of voice clearly telling Luna that he was displeased with how Luna had just conducted herself. "We have to assume that's something the enemy is doing in order to draw you out into the open."

Willow nodded. "I've been thinking about that, yeah. We've got to do something about that."

"The attacks seem to happen at random," Luna noted. "And they appear to happen mostly at or near areas where large groups of people congregate. Is there anywhere you can think of that they might strike next?"

Willow mused about it for a moment. "Well, there is a swimming competition this afternoon at the rec center for the regional championships. Fred's going to be there. Buffy and I were going to go down there after I came and talked to you."

"I don't think the others would be as grateful to see you as I would," Willow said, getting up and picking up her backpack, heading towards the door. Pausing as she opened it, she gave Luna and Artemis one final look. "Besides, cats hate the water. You'd be out of place there."

Willow stepped out of the room, closing the door behind her. Looking at the spot where she had been, Luna and Artemis turned to look at one another, sharing a look between them that bordered on irritation.

Willow walked down the street, an expression on her face that any passersby choosing to take notice of her would no doubt interpret as one of shocked surprise. It was an assumption that was not far off the mark, but the reasons behind it were something beyond the comprehension of the majority of the people of Sunnydale, most of whom lived in ignorance to the danger they faced.

Especially the one who, unbeknownst to her, could very well be the focal point of the entire battle Willow was fighting.

"And I almost let it out," Willow thought, still shocked about how close she had truly come to revealing to Luna and Artemis her suspicions about Tara, and how she thought that her girlfriend might be the Moon Princess they were looking for. True, she had no real knowledge to support her claim other than Tara's own words, which neither confirmed nor denied it. All that she had said was that she was looking for the Mystical Silver Crystal, but only after she got Willow to promise her that she could not tell anyone about it.

It was a confidence Tara had chosen to divulge to her, knowing that Willow could possibly look at her quite differently than she had in the time that they had been together. And truth be told, Willow did look at her quite differently than she had before, but instead of a crazy old woman talking nonsense, Willow saw a person of royalty, and someone who was quite obviously unaware of this fact.

Willow knew that she had to keep her suspicions about Tara a secret, not only from her, but from Luna and Artemis as well. If they, or if her friends, found out, they would want to get her involved in something that, regardless of her former life, did not concern her now. And there she had been, coming as close to blurting it out as she ever had in the two months since first learning it.

As much as Willow knew keeping her assumptions a secret was the right thing to do, there was something gnawing away at the base of her skull telling her that, at some point in the not too distant future, she would have no other choice but to let Luna and Artemis know what she suspected. It was something she knew she couldn't avoid, but at the same time, she knew that she couldn't betray Tara's confidence, even if she did it to keep her safe. It was that commitment that, until recently, had been so familiar to her when it came to doing her schoolwork: doing what she thought was best to get what she wanted getting locked in an eternal battle against doing what she knew was right in order to get what she knew was needed.

Willow had always hated that part of herself, especially when it came to the surface during times like this, when what appeared to be the fate of the entire world hinged on her decision. Only this time, she knew that it wasn't a joke: the entire world did hinge on the decision she had to make.

She realized it was selfish of her to think of her dilemma in terms as limited as what would happen between them if she were to reveal Tara's secret. After all, it wasn't just her life and Tara's that were in danger, but those of the entire planet. Willow had been telling herself that keeping Tara's secret wasn't selfish; but her way of making sure that her girlfriend didn't suffer while she led a double life as Willow Rosenberg, normal, average, everyday High School student, and as Sailor Moon, the Sailor Soldier of Love and Justice, leader of the Sailor Soldiers, defenders of the planet Earth against the evils of the Dark Kingdom.

"Tara could never know what it's like to lead a life of mystery and secrets in the name of protecting the innocent," Willow thought. "I mean, she knows a lot about living a life of secrets, seeing as how she never talked to me about her past before…well, before. That's why I can't tell her about this. I know how much she's already gotten involved in my fight, and I can't let her get any more involved in this than I fear she may already have."

But, as she stopped at a red light, she had cause to wonder if that line of reasoning wasn't just as selfish as what she had thought of before. After all, not telling Luna and Artemis about her suspicions of Tara might have been her way of protecting Tara, but assuming at all that Tara needed to be protected was not giving her the credit she deserved. Willow knew that Tara had a troubled life growing up, having lost both of her parents at an early age and having been forced to live on her own ever since.

But despite all of that suffering, she had never once complained about it. Willow had always known that Tara was strong enough not to let things like that get under her skin, and by even for a moment thinking that she needed protection, Willow was dishonoring everything about Tara that she had come to know, not to mention everything the blonde had done for the whole of her life.

Tara had never given Willow any indication that she needed anyone's help to do anything, and Willow doubted that she was going to start now.

But that still didn't answer the question about what she should do: should she keep Tara's secret, and run the risk that the enemy would find out and capture her? Or should she tell Luna and Artemis, and betray the confidence that Tara had given away so freely and without a second thought, even if it was done in order to protect her from a threat against her life that she wasn't even aware of?

Willow didn't have the answer to that question, and as she brought her fingers up to brush the heart shaped brooch that she wore around her neck, she knew that she was highly doubtful to find an answer any time in the near future. Whether or not she truly was the Princess, Tara was in danger. And that meant that she would fight with all of her being to protect her, even if she did it alone.

Her thoughts drifted to Cordelia, then, and Willow wondered what she was up to at that moment. They hadn't talked in weeks, and it was painful for the two of them to be separate. Before this, they had been such good friends; now Cordelia wouldn't give her the time of day. It was sad to see a lifetime of friendship flushed away due to circumstances that neither of them could control.

Cordelia sat at a table outside the Espresso Pump, mildly sipping at a cappuccino she had ordered nearly an hour ago. The drink had gone cold some time ago, so its value as a warm drink had long since vanished.

Not that it mattered, since the soothing effects that came from drinking it were about the only thing these days that made her visions seem anything resembling comfortable.

Her head beginning to hurt, Cordelia put the book she was reading down and rubbed her temple, taking another sip of her drink in order to fight the growing headache she was beginning to feel. After a few moments of painful torture, her headache faded.

Its cause, however, burned itself into her brain, where it was unlikely to be removed from anytime within the near future.

It had been like this since she was little, though throughout the whole of her life, she was worried about what it meant. But now she knew the truth. These visions she had were the memories of her former life trying to reassert themselves after having been buried for so long.

Even two months later, Cordelia still had trouble believing that she was a Princess, especially since she had always dreamed of being a Princess when she was younger, imagining herself living in a castle in some faraway land and having royal subjects to order around.

But she was a Princess. But she was not a Princess of a foreign or fairy tale land, but a Princess of one of the planets of the Solar System. And instead of having subjects who worshipped her, she was charged with protecting the Princess of the Moon long ago. And these blasted visions she had, which had plagued her since childhood, were of that time.

Cordelia always resented it, and learning that they had been intentionally given to her (despite the claim she had been given that it was an accident) didn't make her feel any better about it. And to make things worse, she had been hostile towards Willow, who was her only friend and who had not deserved to suffer her wrath.

She hadn't wanted it to end up like that, but her visions had gotten progressively worse in the two months since they had met. And that, combined with the fact that the five of them couldn't come up with some sort of plan that could defeat the enemy, had finally sapped away at Cordelia's resolve, making her choose to break her friendship with Willow and her commitment to the mission to which she had been entrusted, despite the fact that doing both was extremely dangerous not only to her, but to the others.

Looking down at her wrist, Cordelia saw the red bejeweled bracelet she had been given all those months ago. Even though she felt so negatively about what happened, she couldn't bring herself to take it off and throw it away. She knew that it had something to do with the fact that there had been times since she left when she had thought about going back, apologizing for her part in what had happened and giving her solemn promise to never let it happen again.

But she couldn't do that, no matter how much she wanted to. Who knew how the others felt about her now? And, more importantly to her, who knew what Willow felt about all of this? After all, of all of them, hers was the voice she missed the most.

Looking up in barely contained surprise, Cordelia saw Anya at the door, looking directly at her. "Oh, great," she thought irritably. "Now there's one voice I'd like to never hear again."

Making her way over to sit down in front of Cordelia, Anya affixed the brunette with a stare. "I've been trying to get into contact with you for the past few weeks."

"And now you've found me," Cordelia replied irritably, reaching for her cappuccino and taking another sip, this time to calm her nerves about the upcoming confrontation. "So what do you want?"

"You know what I want to talk about," Anya stated matter of factly, and Cordelia grimaced. This was the topic she hadn't much wanted to talk about, especially to Anya, who, of all the others, was the most vocal proponent about what they had to do in order to accomplish their mission. Cordelia suspected that it had something to do with the fact that she resented playing what was essentially second fiddle to Willow in regard to who actually led the team in that mission, especially since Willow had no real ideas on how to accomplish it.

"I don't want to talk about it," she replied, picking up her book and all but telling Anya that the conversation was over. "I didn't then, and I don't want to now."

"You're going to have to, though," Anya pressed on, clearly not taking the hint. "How long do you think you can continue to play the wounded child and give us all the silent treatment?"

"I'm not sure," Cordelia replied, looking up from her book, her words all but dripping with sarcasm. "But just between you and me, let's just try and see."

Anya frowned. "Listen, Cordelia, you don't like those visions, fine. I didn't like having my memories of the Silver Millennium restored either, at first. But when I realized that it gave me a duty and purpose more important that being vain and having material goods, I realized that it made me someone special. Not that I particularly dislike the idea of having material goods or being vain, but I know that I have a higher calling. We all do, whether we wanted it or not."

"I don't want it," Cordelia stressed, not bothering to look up from her book this time. "And this conversation is over, whether you like it or not."

Anya sat dumbfounded for several more seconds, then got to her feet. As she turned away to leave, she whispered, "Willow misses you, you know."

Turning around, Anya said, "Willow misses you. After you left, she talked to us all the time about whether or not you're going to come back. She told me that you two were friends before all of this, and that she was the only one you ever felt comfortable around, even if you did hide the secret of your visions from her."

Anya looked away, mostly to hide the tears that were beginning to form in her eyes. "She goes out there every night, fighting to protect the people of this town from the Dark Kingdom. And she does it all out of the goodness of her heart, despite the fact that there are some of us who don't deserve the treatment she gives us."

"Especially the two of us, who have cut ourselves off from her completely," Cordelia finished.

Anya nodded and moved to the door, stepping outside of it without another word or look back.

Cordelia sat in silence for several more minutes before putting her book inside her purse, withdrawing the cell phone she had received from Luna, slinging the purse around her shoulder and heading for the door. As she walked, she dialed the number for Willow's cell phone, but received no answer.

"She's not answering," Cordelia said after her third attempt to contact Willow failed. "I wonder what she and the others are up to right now. No doubt she's probably with the others at some big event having the time of her life."

Willow didn't want to feel that way, but there was no denying that being at the rec center watching the swimming competition was one of the most boring experiences she had ever had to suffer through. She knew, however, that it was one of the few ways in which she could enjoy the company of her friends without having the shadow of their work as Sailor Soldiers hanging over their head, so all she could do was suffer quietly on the inside while giving Fred all of her support on the outside, and hope that her indifference to the situation didn't make her enthusiasm as manufactured as she feared it would be.

At least Buffy appeared to be having fun, though Willow suspected that it had more to due with the fact that there were so many well toned and half nude men also taking part in the competition. Even at an early age, Willow had never liked boys in that way, so it was somewhat funny to see Buffy be as boy crazy as she was, going on and on about how any attractive boy she met resembled, at least in her mind, anyway, her old boyfriend Parker. Buffy had even compared Parker to Riley Finn, who was always at the Bronze whenever Willow and Buffy went there, whether it be for Soldier business or just have fun on their own, and to Buffy's amusement, he had taken more than a passing interest in her

But while Willow found it amusing for Buffy to go on and on about how Riley and other boys she knew reminded her of Parker, she had to admit that it did start to get annoying after a while. She never really told Buffy to stop doing it, though, because Buffy was having so much fun doing it, and to tell her to stop would just be insensitive. And she didn't want to be so insensitive to Buffy, knowing that, with Cordelia apparently going out of her way not to talk to her, the blonde was the only person she really felt comfortable talking to amongst the four remaining members of the group.

That didn't make Fred someone Willow didn't like to be around, though. The fact that she was here was more than enough proof of that. But for the longest time, she had seen the young girl like most of the people she knew did: someone whose math talents and study habits made her appear to be too conceited to either talk to anyone else or attempt to be anyone else's friend, making her the object of jealousy and scorn of pretty much the entire school save her teachers. Willow, who had until recently failed pretty much every single math test she had ever taken, had always resented Fred for the apparent ease with which she did her work, even if she had always taken the awards and accolades in stride, saying that it was no big deal.

Of course, it wasn't until after Willow had gotten to know Fred better that she learned the true reason why she did so well in school: she was so painfully shy when it came to dealing with other people in social situations that she couldn't muster up the courage to talk to others. And the thing that frightened Willow the most was the fact that Fred said that she preferred it that way, because the last thing that she said she wanted was to have her hopes to have a person in her life she could call "friend" dashed in such a painful manner.

"That must be why she stays with me," Willow had thought when Fred has told her this. "She must be so willing to consider me a friend as far as our civilian lives go to look past the fact that, like the others, she can't come to see me as the leader of the Sailor Soldiers." It was this revelation that made Willow decide to try and do everything she could to live up to the image of the friend Fred wanted her to be, even if the redhead knew that she couldn't live up to the image of the leader that Anya wanted the others to see her be.

As she saw Fred emerge from the locker room and head to her place at the starting position, Willow tried to put her thoughts of the situation the five of them were enmeshed in to the side and simply try and enjoy herself as she watched her friend compete. It may not be all that exciting, but it was preferable to thinking about things that made her feel unhappy.

Being bored, at least when compared to being unhappy, seemed more preferable. At least being bored didn't allow the opportunity for overanalyzing a situation you had no control over.

Tara ran her index finger across the surface of the locket briefly before moving to open it, the faint melody it played whenever she did so springing immediately to life and filling every one of her senses with its beautiful harmony and haunting familiarity.

The star shaped locket was surprisingly light for such a large object, and though a beaded chain was attached to it, Tara never considered wearing it in public. It was far too precious an object to her to risk losing it by accident. After all, it was the one thing she had that could possibly help her remember her past.

Kneeling in front of the table on which she had placed it, Tara let out a sigh, the melody the locket was playing bringing to mind feelings and faint traces of memories she knew she had experienced at one point or another in her life, but for some reason could not recall now. It was frustrating how much this really bothered her, especially since there was a long period of time in her life when it did not.

But recently, things like this brought to the surface the memories of the dreams she had when she was younger; dreams which had begun to come back to her in the past two months, more forcefully and more clearly than they ever had before.

And there had also been her nocturnal activities as the mysterious tuxedo garbed figure that assisted Sailor Moon in her fight against the enemy she faced.

Tara found her thoughts turning to the blonde heroine she was helping, and wondered, not for the first time since meeting her, if she, her missing memories and her search for the Mystical Silver Crystal were all connected somehow. It certainly couldn't be a coincidence that the return of her dreams and Sailor Moon's first appearance both occurred at the same time that an enemy appeared from out of nowhere and made its intentions to destroy the Earth clear to both of them.

Closing the locket, Tara decided that the best way to clear her mind might be to let something else occupy it. Getting to her feet, she went to the closet and opened to, seeing as she did so the top hat, dress shoes, walking cane and white mask sitting on the top shelf, along with the tuxedo ensemble that, though out of sight to anyone else who might have opened it, she knew was hanging off to one side.

"I'm living a double life, and I can't tell Willow about it," she thought. "She could never understand what its like to lead a double life and deceive the one you love that you're doing so. It was bad enough that I told her about my search for the Crystal, but at least she understood everything about that and didn't consider me crazy. But I could never tell her this. Not only would she think I was insane, it would put her into danger. And…I don't want to risk hurting or losing her. Finding the Crystal and regaining my memories is important, but her friendship and the love that we share are more important to me than anything in this world. I'd gladly put Willow ahead of everything else, even if it meant I could never remember my own past."

Withdrawing her shoes and coat, she put them on and walked out of the house, hand reaching into her pocket to retrieve her keys.

After an hour at the mall, Tara had to concede that perhaps coming here hadn't been the best way to make herself feel better. In fact, it appeared to do everything it could to make her feel that much worse.

It wasn't something she could blame on herself, however. With Christmas just a few weeks away, families throughout the town were preparing to spend the holidays together, buying gifts for their loved ones, getting food together to fix a holiday feast certain people would no doubt spend three months exercising off, and generally being nice to one another.

But all of the yuletide cheer she saw simply reminded Tara of what she didn't have: a family of her own to spend Christmas with. Sure, she had Willow in her life, and she would never be ungrateful for that. But there were times and situations that the love of a family was preferable to the time one could spend with a girlfriend. And it was at this time of the year, more than any other, that the thought of having no family to go home to deeply hurt her.

Deciding that the best way to make herself feel better was to buy something for Willow, she walked into the nearest jewelry store and took a moment to look around, seeing if any of the jewels triggered something in the back of her mind that might make her think any of them was the Mystical Silver Crystal. After a moment of fruitless searching, however, she gave up and decided to look for something that would be the best gift to give Willow.

A few moments later, she found it. A small promise ring embedded with a 2 karat diamond. It was nothing fancy, but it made Tara's heart smile. Willow had never been the type to appreciate girlish things like this, but Tara knew that if she gave it to her, Willow would no doubt make a big fuss about it, which was more than enough to make her happy.

Paying for the ring and accepting the box as it was handed back to her, Tara turned to the shop's entrance and began to walk towards it. Halfway there, another person entered. The newcomer had long platinum blond hair that hung loosely around his shoulders, and was clad in a long dark duster over equally dark pants and shirt. As she walked by him, Tara couldn't help but feel that there was something familiar about this person, even though, to the best of her recollection, this was the first time she had ever seen him.

Shaking the feeling off, she walked out of the store and headed to the parking lot, wondering if Willow would come to visit her today, and if she did, whether or not it would be an appropriate time to give her the ring.

Spike took a look back as the blonde woman left the store, thinking for a moment how familiar she looked. Then again, that could mean anything, since he had seen dozens more like her in his time here, some of which were currently held prisoner by him and the others, Angelus' plan apparently working better than he had thought.

At least, it was working as far as it served draining energy to give to Queen Metallia. The plan's other intended desirable effect, the drawing of the Sailor Soldiers into their web, had apparently not worked thus far. It was especially frustrating for them to have accomplished so much in this plan, yet have very little to show for it.

His arm ached at that moment, and he was instantly reminded of the fact that one of them had bested him in battle. This infuriated him as much as the failure of his and his fellow Shitennou, since of the four, he was the first to be directly attacked by the Soldiers. He had vowed ever since then that he would make the one who did this to him suffer, but he had to play by the rules of this plan and not expose themselves until the Soldiers exposed themselves first.

The man on the opposite side of the counter noticed him then, and said, "Hello, sir. Is there anything I can do for you?"

"Yes," Spike replied, resting his hands on the countertop palm downward. "There is something here that you have which I require."

Spike chuckled and looked down at the countertop. Then, with a quickness that gave the other man little time to react, the blond was over the countertop and behind the clerk, grabbing at his right arm with one hand while clutching the man's neck in the other. Before the clerk could react to this, Spike sent his upper body slamming into the countertop, the glass display case cracking at the sudden impact.

"Your energy," Spike snarled, disappearing, along with the clerk, a few seconds later in a cloud of white rose petals.

"I feel guilty about leaving without Fred," Willow told Buffy as the two of them left the rec center and headed off down the street.

"She'll be fine," Buffy reassured her, though her tone of voice betrayed the fact that she was as unsure about whether or not what they were doing was the right thing to do as Willow was. But it couldn't be helped. While she and Willow had watched Fred doing her relays, her cell phone had gone off. Luna was on the other end, and told the two of them to come back to the Secret Base for a meeting.

"Maybe we can get Luna to call her again later," Willow said, knowing that she was trying to justify walking out on Fred, something she thought she would never have to do. She hoped that Fred could understand that it wasn't done intentionally just to snub her, but that Sailor Soldier business had come up while she was busy. She would understand that…wouldn't she?

"Maybe," Buffy replied, her tone once again betraying her uneasiness about the situation, though she said nothing more about it.

The two walked in silence all the way to the Bronze where, after flashing their Bronze Passports to the young man at the counter, they walked to one of the nearby doors and into the room that, to most of the other patrons of the nightclub/entertainment lounge, was nothing more than a simple empty storage room. In actually, however, when Willow or her friends opened it, the empty storage room became the Secret Base, the room Luna and Artemis said was the place where they could discuss strategy and generally get together and relax.

Willow had been there earlier in the day, and even then, she didn't exactly like it, as it was here that she had the most vocal arguments and disagreements with Anya and the others. That didn't exactly give her a lot of fond memories about the place, and from what Luna had told Buffy, it sounded as if there was more of the same to be had on this occasion.

So Willow wasn't all that surprised to find waiting for her at the table in the center of the room not only Luna and Artemis, but Anya as well. What was surprising, however, was the identity of the one sitting beside her.

"But…But I thought you said that you didn't want to have anything to do with us anymore," Willow blustered, trying to figure out what was going on. Realizing what she said, she quickly amended, "Not that I'm not glad to see you, because, well, we've been friends for a long time and it's always nice to see you, but I got the impression that when you said you didn't want to be with us anymore, you also didn't want to be friends with me."

"I didn't," Cordelia agreed as she got to her feet. "But then Anya told me how much you missed me, and that made me realize that by staying away, all I was really doing was hurting you, not only as far as our lives as Sailor Soldiers go, but also as your far as being your friend in real life goes. And that made me realize also that you've had to deal with a lot recently, and that our friendship shouldn't be sacrificed because I didn't agree with it. So I decided that if you can make personal sacrifices for the benefit of all of us, then so can I."

Willow smiled and ran at Cordelia, arms outstretched, enveloping her best friend in a hug, trying vainly to fight back the tears that threatened to come forward; an urge that she saw Cordelia fail spectacularly against. Willow looked at Anya over Cordelia's shoulder and silently mouthed, "Thank you."

"You owe me," Anya mouthed in reply, letting Willow know immediately that even though the rift between her and Cordelia had just been patched, there still existed a rift between the two of them, one that was not likely to be as easily mended, nor likely to be so anytime in the near future.

But that didn't matter to Willow right now. All that did matter was that Cordelia was not only her friend once again, but was also back on the team. That made having to deal with Anya a lot more bearable, since Cordy would now no doubt side with Willow on anything, making the odds in dealing with the blonde, who still fancied herself as leader of their group, slightly better than two to one did.

"While I'm happy for this reunion," Luna interrupted, bringing them all back to the present. "I must say that I'm concerned that one of you is missing. Why isn't Fred with you?"

Luna sighed, turning to look at Willow. "She's still at her swimming competition?"

"Very well," Luna said. "This news is too important for you to know to wait until she's arrived to tell you. One of you will have to tell her later. Now, I assume that you've all heard about the reports of people disappearing?"

Willow and the others nodded in the affirmative, Anya saying, "Do you think this is some attempt by the enemy to draw us out?"

"It's the only explanation that makes sense," Luna confirmed. "And that's exactly why I think that it would be a good idea for the five of you to be on your guard from now on. There's no rhyme or reason to the enemy's movements. They appear to be striking at random, choosing targets that have no discernable pattern. It would appear that they are doing this in the hope that one of their victims is someone you know."

Willow found her attention at that moment shifting from Luna's words to her memories of Tara, her still unproven yet unquestioning belief that she was the Moon Princess making its way to the surface. The thought of Tara ending up a prisoner of the Dark Kingdom frightened her for many reasons, not the least of which was the fact that they might be able to force the Mystical Silver Crystal from her. But it was mostly due to the fact that Tara, as an innocent in the battle she and her friends were fighting, did not deserve to have her life be put in danger that way. That was, after all, why she fought so hard when she had no help. But to find out now that all of her best efforts might have been for nothing…

Willow's attention abruptly refocused to the present when she heard Luna's voice, realizing that she had been trying to talk to her. "Willow, are you all right?"

"Are you sure?" Anya asked, her tone indicating to Willow that she asked out of genuine curiosity, and not out of what appeared to be an apparent opportunity to capitalize on Willow's perceived lack of leadership skills and assert herself as the leader.

"Yeah," Willow answered, moving to sit down. "It's just that…I've got something to tell you all."

"Please forgive me, Tara," she thought to herself. "But the only way I can protect you is to reveal your secret."

Fred stepped out of the locker room, clad once again in her shirt, pants and coat, plastic bag containing her wet swimsuit in hand and knapsack containing her schoolwork slung over one shoulder, looking towards the stands to see if Willow and Buffy were waiting for her. She had seen them earlier just as she was about to perform her first relay, and had been happy to know that they had come to watch, just as Willow had promised her. But her face fell sharply when she realized that her two friends were no longer there.

Fred smile returned, if fainter than before, at her silent mention of the word, knowing that this was the first time in her life where she could feel right about using it. Even back home in Texas, her natural talents with Mathematics had made her distant from her fellow classmates, which made her family's decision to come to Sunnydale all the better, as far as she was concerned. She had hoped for a new life here, and for a time, she wondered if that would be possible, given that everyone at school was no more willing to accept her than the people she had known at school back home.

Then two months ago, her entire life had changed. Not only did she actually gain some friends, but she also came to learn that she was a superhero, sent from the past to defend the Earth in the present from an evil force that threatened its future. The thought of all of that impressed her a great deal, certainly, but not nearly as much as having friends for the first time in her life. And it was that sense of friendship that kept Fred connected with Willow and Buffy while Cordelia and Anya had gradually distanced themselves from the group, perhaps never to return.

Fred knew what it felt like to be alone, which was why she stuck by Willow no matter what happened. And the three of them had done their best over the past two months at repelling the forces of the Dark Kingdom. Or, at the very least, keep them from succeeding in such a fashion that would mean the end of the world. Their decreased strength, combined with their internal problems, kept them from working at their full potential, which meant that, unless the five of them could start working together again, all the three of them could do was simply delay the inevitable.

Walking out of the rec center, Fred made her way idly down the street, looking up into the sky as she wondered where Willow and Buffy had gone. For a moment she thought about giving them a call and asking what they were up to, but she realized that if she did so, it might make her seem clingy and dependant, and she didn't want to project that anymore than she knew she already did, since that was indeed how she felt on the inside most of the time.

Willow had her own life to live. And Fred knew that, no matter how she might feel about it, she couldn't be a part of it all the time.

"Maybe they're at the Secret Base," she wondered. "Willow wouldn't just leave me all by myself unless there was something important she had to take care of. And what could be more important than Soldier business? Maybe I should go there and…"

She shivered at that point, realizing how cold the surrounding air had become. But as she became aware of the blowing snow and freezing wind, she realized how little what was going on had to do with a change in the weather.

A few moments later, the blowing snow and winds formed a tornado from which emerged a man in black with a red cape, holding a sword sheathed within a scabbard in one hand. Giving her an appreciative stare, he smiled faintly.

"Such a pretty little thing, you are. I almost feel bad that there's nothing you can do to stop me." Withdrawing his sword, the man pointed it directly at her. "Almost."

Fred dropped her knapsack and affixed a battle stance, knowing that this had to be one of the agents of the Dark Kingdom. If that was true, there was only one thing she could do to protect herself. Thankful that she had strapped on her bracelet when she had changed, she moved to transform.

Willow had to admit, the others had taken her news far better than she expected them to. But that didn't mean much when what she had expected was a lot worse than what she had been given, which, when she thought about it, wasn't all that great, either.

Willow nodded again, her head moving slightly less than it had the last time, almost as if she were ashamed to admit it.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Cordelia asked before the others had a chance to say something that could make Willow feel worse. "If we had known you knew who the Princess was, we would have stuck by you and forgotten the petty differences that came up between us."

"I know," Willow admitted. "But…but I thought that it would be easier for her if she…if I…if I didn't let you guys know I knew who she was."

"Why not?" Luna asked, taking in the conversation with a great deal more interest than she normally would have, given the fact that she knew Willow's memories were coming back faster than the others. And that the only thing that made sense at this point was that Willow had found out for herself the fact that she was the Moon Princess, deciding not to reveal that knowledge to the others for her own reasons, much like Luna had done when they had first met the others and explained the situation to them. She couldn't tell what Willow's motives were, though she suspected that they were similar to her own: that the knowledge she had was not something that needed to be discussed at the present time.

But apparently, what Artemis had said earlier in the day was right. If Willow knew for certain that she was the Princess, there was now no way that they could continue to keep it a secret.

"Because…" Willow began before stopping herself, feeling the tears began to well up. "I made a promise that I wouldn't tell anyone. Not even you guys. I…I just wanted to protect her without letting her know how much danger she was in."

The others agreed, though Luna noted that Artemis clearly displayed some concern about hearing that. Tilting her head to indicate that she wanted to speak to him in private, the pair made their way out of the hearing range of the others. "What's wrong?"

"You know very well what's wrong, Luna," Artemis said. "Willow wouldn't think about protecting the Princess if she thought she herself was the Princess."

I'm saying that Willow clearly thinks that there's someone else who is the Princess. We can't let her go on thinking that, Luna."

"You can't be serious," Artemis stated, his features indicating he clearly did not like what Luna was thinking. "You can't think that letting Willow and the others believe someone else is the Princess is a good idea. Aside from the fact that it's not right to the others, you can clearly see how badly this is eating away at Willow. She's been through too much in the past two months, and we're not completely faultless in giving her those problems to deal with. We can't sit idly by and expect her to go through this, as well."

"I know," Luna sighed, admitting defeat in this particular argument. "But like you said, she's been through too much lately. Don't you think it might be a good idea for her to get this off her chest, just so she can be at peace…at least for a little while?"

Artemis nodded, and the two moved to rejoin the conversation between the others. "So, Willow," he said. "I think you can agree that telling us who the Princess is would be a better way for her to be protected rather than keeping her identity a secret from the ones sworn to protect her."

Willow nodded in understanding. "OK, then. I'll tell you who she is, but only if all of you can promise me that you won't make a big deal out of it."

"OK, then," Willow said, mentally preparing herself to do the hardest thing she would ever have to do in her life. "I'll tell you what I know."

Angelus hated to admit this, but he was indeed surprised about the events that had transpired in such a short amount of time. This plan had been enacted with the hope that it would draw out the Sailor Soldiers. He never in a thousand years would have believed that this plan would be successful in actually capturing one.

But here she was. This young girl, appearing no different than the others he and his comrades had captured one moment, had revealed herself to be one of the five whose capture was the ultimate goal of this plan. Even more surprising was the fact that this one, despite her obvious weaknesses in the face of a superior enemy, appeared to be holding her own.

Angelus knew, however, that she couldn't last. Whenever she had fought before, she had always been in the company of either their leader or their leader and at least one other, and never served any real purpose in any of their conflicts other than to provide distractions that would give the others the opportunity to attack whatever monster the Dark Kingdom sent their way. He could also feel the emotional turmoil that this one was going through at the moment, and knew that this would make her far more useful to their cause than he had first imagined.

They said that friends could be one's own worst enemy. Well, if all went as well as he expected, he would find out how true that statement was very soon.

Fred sent the attack, one of her most powerful, directly at her opponent, hoping that it would be good enough to inflict some harm. But her hopes faded when he brought his sword up and deflected the attack with ease.

Gritting her teeth, she tried again with a different attack. "Mercury Aqua Mist!"

This wasn't one of her more powerful attacks, and she knew it. It was, in all honesty, little more than a defensive tactic used so that the enemy would be distracted, giving Willow or Buffy enough time to do some other attack that would be more powerful. So she wasn't at all surprised to find that it was deflected as well.

Her opponent smiled. "I'm impressed. You are holding your own quite well, despite the fact that you're all by yourself."

That comment stung, but Fred refused to let it get under her skin too much. "We're just as powerful apart as we are together."

"Are you?" the man asked, his smile showing that Fred's words amused him more than concerned him. "You don't appear to be all that powerful without them. Perhaps if your friends were here, then I would have already retreated."

Fred couldn't help but admit to this fact. If Willow and Buffy had been here, this…person, would have already been defeated, leaving them free to go about their own business. "Maybe, but I'll still be able to beat you all by myself."

The man raised his free arm and wagged a finger. "I don't think so." He then brought up his sword and ran his other hand across the blade, the action giving the weapon a purple tinge. His smile, which had never wavered during the entire battle, suddenly became, if possible, more lecherous. "In fact, I would daresay that this battle…is over!"

With that declaration, he swung his sword, casting the energy directly at Fred. She tried her best to fight it, but her defenses were too worn down from the fight to put up any real resistance, and she collapsed to the ground.

"Why?" Fred thought as she began to lose consciousness. "Why have my friends abandoned me?"

Willow walked up to Tara's door and moved to knock on it. She hesitated as her knuckles touched the door, her thoughts replaying the events of the past several hours. After she had told the others about her suspicions about Tara, they agreed that it would be a good idea for one of them to go to her and explain everything to her. Though Anya said that she was more than willing to do it, Willow had quickly interjected with a resounding rebuttal to that, saying that if anyone had the right to tell Tara about this, it was her.

Willow had come to that conclusion for a number of reasons. For starters, she knew that it would be better for Tara to hear this from her rather than Anya, since the blonde was anything but tactful when it came to sensitive situations like this. More importantly, however, was the fact that it had been quite some time since Willow knew the swimming competition had concluded, and even longer since Fred should have at least contacted them, so her safety swiftly became of paramount importance. However, they all agreed that talking to Tara was equally important, so it was decided that Anya would take the others to find Fred while Willow went to talk to Tara all by herself.

Willow was worried about Fred, but she was slightly more worried about having this conversation with Tara. Talking to her had always been something that made Willow feel pleasant, even when Tara gently admonished her over her bad grades and decisions in life. Never in the time Willow had known her had Tara's voice ever made her feel uncomfortable.

Willow knew that belief was about to be shaken to its very core, though how badly that was going to end up being was something that was in question. Willow had no doubt that the minute she became aware of the fact that her secret had come out, Tara would feel betrayed about the fact that the redhead had chosen to tell her secret to others. But she didn't know that Willow had done it for a good reason, one she might not understand, but a good reason nonetheless.

On the other hand, even when given that knowledge, Tara might not react to that bit of news as well as Willow hoped she would. On the contrary, Tara would most likely consider that news as a sign that she was being made fun of, the very thing she had hoped to avoid. One way or another, things were about to get very awkward between them.

Taking a deep breath, and realizing that the inevitable couldn't be put off any longer, she knocked on the door. It opened a few moments later, revealing the smiling form of Tara. "Hi, Willow."

"Hi, Tara," Willow said, her voice cracking a bit, no doubt due to the cold. "Can I…can I come in?"

"Of course," Tara replied, opening the door and allowing Willow to enter. Willow took off her coat and left it on the armrest of the stairs as she made her way up them into Tara's living room, the blonde moving into the kitchen. Willow smiled faintly as she watched Tara's retreating form. This was the ritual they had always gone through whenever they were here, Willow sitting down in Tara's living room as Tara made her girlfriend some tea and a small snack.

But as she sat down on one of the chairs, Willow knew that this time would be different. Immediately beginning to fidget, Willow knew that her nervousness was all too apparent, and she knew that Tara would immediately pick up on it, making any attempt to dance around the issue for as long as she could a useless endeavor.

Coming into the living room with a cup of tea, Tara noticed Willow fidgeting, and grew concerned. "Willow, what's wrong?"

Willow felt her stomach tighten, and decided that she should just get it over with before things got any worse. "Tara, I've done something horrible."

Tara's expression immediately softened into a look of compassion as she came over to kneel beside Willow. Gently bringing the redhead's head around, Tara looked into her emerald green eyes. "Whatever it is, Willow, I want you to know that you can feel comfortable talking to me about it. I'm sure that it isn't as bad as you think it is. If you had a good reason to do it, I'll understand why you felt you had to do it."

Willow let out a breath, Tara's declaration letting her know that, as far as talking to her about this was concerned, she wouldn't be upset. "I…I…I talked to somebody."

"What's so wrong about that?" Tara asked, clearly surprised that something like that would upset Willow this much.

Tara was still confused for a moment, but realization dawned on her face quickly as she realized that there was only one subject that Willow could be talking about that would make her this upset. Getting up as quickly as if she had been struck by a live wire, Tara made her way over to the window. "Willow, you promised me that you wouldn't tell anyone about that."

"I know," Willow said, getting up from the chair and moving to join Tara at the window. "But…but I had to do it. You said that you would understand why I had to do it if I had a good reason."

Tara turned to look at Willow, and the expression on the blonde's face shook Willow to the core. In one single look, Tara had managed to convey hurt, sadness, and most importantly of all, betrayal. Willow immediately grew sick at seeing her girlfriend look like this, knowing that there was perhaps no explanation in this world that could be good enough to justify what she had just done.

"Why?" Tara asked, her voice catching, as if she didn't want to say that. "What reason could you possibly have to tell somebody about my search for the Crystal?"

"What?" Willow asked, realizing then that Tara had misunderstood her about what it was that she had done. "No, Tara. I didn't tell anyone about that. I promised I would never tell anyone about that."

Tara looked away, the sight of Willow making her feel uncomfortable. Not only had she betrayed her trust, but now she was trying to say that she hadn't done it at all to begin with. Tara knew that she shouldn't have trusted Willow with her secret, even though she believed the redhead to be the most trustworthy person she knew. There were few people that Tara could trust with as important a secret as her search for the Crystal was, but Willow had been one of them. Now she had proven herself to be no different than anyone else. It made her sick.

"Please, Tara," Willow continued. "I never told anyone about your search for the Crystal. I just…I just…"

Taken aback slightly, Tara took a moment to compose herself before replying. "What…What do you mean?"

"I…I..," Willow stammered. "When you told me about your search for the Crystal, you said that you had dreams of somebody telling you to search for it. I thought that…that…because you had those dreams, that the person you were talking about…might have been yourself."

Tara, who had begun to believe Willow despite herself, now found herself doubting the redhead once again. Not bothering to turn around to address her, she asked, "So…what, Willow? Do you think I have a split personality or something? Do you think that I could be imagining all of this?"

"No, Tara!" Willow insisted. She tried to continue, but realized that there was only one way that Tara was going to believe her. And that was to tell her the truth. "Tara, I know how important it is to find the Mystical Silver Crystal because…because I'm looking for it, too."

Tara turned to look at Willow, but before she could say anything, Willow spoke again.

Tara stood rooted to the spot as Willow's body was enveloped in a light so bright that she had to bring her hand up to shield her eyes. It faded quickly, and Tara looked in surprise at the person who now stood before her. It was still Willow, but she had changed. Where before she had worn a t-shirt and jeans, she now wore a leotard and skirt combination that looked similar to the school uniforms Tara knew Japanese girls wore. Her red hair was now blonde, done up in two buns on the side of her head from which trailed pigtails. A red bejeweled tiara rested on her forehead, pink bows on her chest and back, and pink knee length boots.

Smiling faintly, Willow said, "I'm the beautiful Sailor Solider of love and justice, Sailor Moon. And in the name of the moon…" She paused, realizing that a change in her attack phrase was needed at this moment. "And in the name of the moon, I'll explain everything."

Standing in front of Angelus, Oz knew that he was speaking for the others when he voiced that. A glance at each of them all but confirmed this, though why they did not speak, he did not know.

Looking down, he saw the reason for this declaration laid out on the stone slab in front of them all. It was bad enough that their leader had chosen to bring the Sailor Soldier he had decided to capture here, but to utilize her in the manner that he had just finished describing did not make any sense.

"I can assure you that she can be conditioned to suit our purposes," Angelus said as if the worrisome complaints of his comrade were of no concern. "She is already in a state of emotional turmoil, no doubt brought about by the friction between her comrades. All she needs to be turned to our side is to be exposed to the power that Queen Metallia possesses. She will then become the instrument that will bring about the Sailor Soldier's destruction."

"This cannot end well, Angelus," Xander spoke up after the moment of silence that preceded his leader's assertion. "Even if this were to work, we have no guarantee that she will be compliant enough to do our bidding. For all that we know, she could end up seeking to destroy us as well. I do not think that is such a good idea, and neither would our Queen."

"Really?" Angelus asked, moving towards Xander, who became aware after a few moments that both Oz and Spike were backing away. Before he could do anything about it, however, Angelus had his sword up, the sharpened tip perilously close to his throat.

"Luckily, I don't need your approval for this," the elder warrior said, his gaze cold and unfeeling. "Neither do I need Faith's." He turned to the others. "And I especially do not need yours."

"She would approve of any plan that brings about the defeat of the Sailor Soldiers," Angelus stated, looking at each of his comrades. "You all know that they are at odds at the moment. That alone assures their eventual destruction. Can none of you deny the fact that by having one of their own fight for us, their own internal strife would accelerate that much quicker, allowing us to strike directly at their heart and rid ourselves of their interference one and for all?"

He watched as Oz and Spike seemed to accept this, but noted that Xander remained unconvinced. He would no doubt report this little incident to Faith, acting like a dog blindly obeying the orders of his master without question.

Angelus wasn't surprised. Of the four of them, Xander was the one who appeared to be completely loyal to her, without any hints of deception or subterfuge marking his action. He knew not how much of the reverence Oz or Spike held for Faith was true and how much was an act, nor did he particularly care. To him, they were no different than Xander: blindly following the orders of a power mad woman who couldn't see past her own ambitions to look at the big picture, even if they did so only to mask their own ambitions and goals.

That was why Angelus capitulated to Faith like the others did, at the same time plotting to usurp her power and make it his own. But unlike the others, he was patient. All he had to do was bide his time until Faith managed to find a way to control the power that Metallia had at her disposal. Then, when that day came, she would perish at his hand. And he would then take up the mantle of King of the Dark Kingdom and lead them against the people of Earth.

With him in command of the forces of the Dark Kingdom and the power of Metallia at his side, those who could oppose him would be eliminated without mercy.

Angelus longed for the day when he would expunge the Earth of all humanity. It would be on that day that he would reign unopposed, secure in the knowledge that there was none who could defeat him.

Tara sat in surprise as Willow, who had reverted back to her original form, explained to her everything that had happened in the past two months: how Luna had come to her saying that the world was in danger of being overrun by the forces of the Dark Kingdom, how she and four other girls had come together to join forces in combating them, and all about the battles she had to fight, many of them by herself, with only a mysterious tuxedoed female assisting her.

She didn't need to hear any explanations from Willow about that, because, unknown to the redhead, she was that mysterious tuxedoed female. Tara knew now that she could tell Willow about that without fear, but knew also that, from what Willow had told her, her friends might not look at her in the same way. It would perhaps be for the best if that remained a secret, at least for the time being.

"So," she said once Willow was finished. "When I told you about my search for the Crystal, you thought that, because I knew about it, I might be the Princess of the Moon Kingdom?"

Willow nodded. "I've wanted to tell you for a long time, Tara. But I…I didn't think you would believe me."

Tara smiled faintly. "I understand, Willow. I know how difficult it can be to keep a secret from the one I love."

The pair sat in silence for a minute or so before Tara got to her feet. "Where are you going?" Willow asked.

"I got you something," Tara answered, hoping that the change in topic wouldn't seem so abrupt. "For Christmas, I mean."

"I know," Tara replied. "But…I wanted to. Christmastime isn't a…isn't a good time for me. And I thought that the best way I could make myself happy was to…to make you…happy."

Willow blushed, knowing that this was another of Tara's habits: doing anything possible make her happy, even when it wasn't needed. But something sparked in the back of Willow's mind, making her realize how inappropriate Tara's gift was. "But Tara, Christmas isn't until Monday. You can't give it to me yet."

"I know," Tara admitted. "But I want to give it to you now so that…so that you have it with you. If it would make you feel better, you don't have to open it now. You can wait till Monday."

Tara left the living room and walked down the hallway to her bedroom. As soon as she was out of sight, Willow let out a sigh of relief, the weight she had accumulated from having to keep her dual nature from Tara for the past two months leaving her with that expelled breath. Now there would be no more secrets between them. She closed her eyes and allowed herself to relax.

Her moment of relaxation was brief, as she became aware of a faint buzzing sound somewhere nearby. Thinking that it was a bug that had managed to get inside Tara's house, Willow paid it no mind.

Willow's eyes snapped open when she heard Tara's voice, realizing that it was her cell phone that was causing the buzz. Withdrawing it from her pocket, he opened it up. "Hello?"

Something about Cordelia's voice immediately had Willow on edge. "What's wrong?"

Willow crinkled her brow in confusion. "What do you mean, 'you found her stuff?' Didn't you find her?"

Cordelia didn't reply, but her silence was all Willow needed to hear. "I'll be right over." She closed her cell phone and got to her feet, looking at Tara with an apologetic stare. "I'm sorry, Tara. I have to go. It's…"

"Soldier business?" Tara asked, and Willow noted that it was not only done in a kindly fashion, but with the faintest hint of a smile on her face. That melted Willow's heart immediately, knowing that there was now more of an understanding between the two of them than there ever had been before.

"I'm sorry, Tara," she tried to explain, but stopped as Tara brought a finger to her lips, her free hand working something into Willow's own.

Willow smiled and ran down the stairs, grabbing her coat from the armrest as she did so. She worked her shoes on as fast as she could and ran out the door. Halfway to the street, she paused as she remembered the package Tara gave to her. Bringing her arms up, she opened her palms and looked at the box Tara had put into her hands. She opened it to find within a ring embedded with a small diamond.

Willow's eyes watered over as she smiled, sniffling a bit. "Thank you, Tara," she whispered as she put the ring on her finger, replaced the box in her pocket and began to run towards the Bronze.

Tara watched from the window as Willow ran off, then moved to her closet when her girlfriend was out of her eyesight. Opening, she withdrew the tuxedo ensemble, along with the shoes, hat, mask and cane. She got dressed quickly, leaving the mask for last.

She paused as she moved to put it on, taking at look at it and realizing for the first time the danger she was now about to put herself in. Before now, it didn't seem to matter that she was risking her life to protect Willow, because she had thought that Willow wasn't involved in the fight. But now that she knew that the redhead was more involved than she ever would have suspected, Tara felt different about donning the guise of Tuxedo Mask. She had done it in order to protect Willow from an enemy she knew nothing about, which she had thought she had accomplished incredibly well up until now. But now that she knew the risks of doing so, it didn't feel right for her to do it anymore.

"I can't do this anymore," she thought. "It isn't right. I can't continue to risk my life to protect Willow, because she will never stop risking her life to protect mine."

Putting the mask on over her eyes, Tara came to a decision as she left her home.

Willow was nearly out of breath by the time that she got to the Bronze and so tired from her exertion that she forgot to take out her pass and show it to the attendant at the counter. Luckily, Riley was the one who was there, and Willow knew that he was a lot more polite about her slip up than others would have been, and after fumbling through her pockets to withdraw her wallet, and withdraw her pass from it, she made her way into the Secret Base without further incident.

Entering the room, she saw Buffy, Anya and Cordelia sitting around the table, Luna and Artemis on it. And all five of them were looking at what had been placed upon it: Fred's knapsack and a plastic bag Willow could see contained her swimsuit.

"This was all we found," Buffy said as Willow approached; no emotion whatsoever in her voice as she gestured to the bags. The blonde's head was downcast, and Willow could immediately tell that she felt guilty about what had happened.

"It wasn't your…" Willow began to console Buffy, then stopped when she realized that she herself wasn't entirely blameless for what happened, either. "It wasn't our fault," she amended. "We couldn't have…we couldn't have known that this might have happened. And even if we did…we don't know if there was anything that we could have done about it." She suddenly perked up. "Besides, we don't know that Fred is actually captured. For all we know, she could have gone off somewhere in such a hurry that she dropped her stuff and left it behind and…and…I'm reaching here, aren't I?"

"Kinda," Buffy admitted. "Besides, if she did go off on her own, why didn't she contact us to let us know?" She buried her face in her hands. "It's our fault this happened."

"It doesn't matter who's at fault right now," Anya bluntly interrupted. "All that matters right now is that we find her and get her back."

"Agreed," Luna said before anyone could comment on the rude tone of Anya's words. "Without any proof to the contrary, we can only assume that she was captured by the enemy. No doubt they saw her as nothing more than a random passerby whom they could take advantage of. Since she revealed her Soldier identity to them, it must have opened up a situation wherein the idea of capturing her proved too inviting a situation for them to willingly pass up."

"But if they did capture her, where could they have taken her?" Cordelia asked. "I don't know about anyone else, but I'm not up for walking around the entire town trying to look for her." At the glances of the others, Cordelia clarified, "It'll take too long to look for her that way, and it would put all of us in danger, too."

"Now that they have one of us, the enemy won't feel the need to act in secret anymore," Artemis surmised. "It's most likely that they'll use Fred as bait to put into action some large scale plan in order to draw the rest of us out of hiding. They know that we won't pass up an opportunity to rescue her."

Willow slammed a clenched fist down on the table, startling the others. "Well, I don't plan to let them get that opportunity!"

"And what exactly do you suggest we do, Willow?" Anya asked. "I mean, you're supposed to be our leader and everything, so why don't you come up with a plan to rescue her instead of standing there and spinning on your wheels letting the rest of us try to figure something out?"

"Leave her alone!" Cordelia snapped, her calm finally leaving her and glaring at Anya. "Can't you see that she's in pain over this? She doesn't need to deal with another round of you trying to assert yourself and be the boss of us at the same time that she has to deal with you disputing her ability to lead us!"

"I may not have agreed with Willow's leadership of us, but at least I stuck around," Anya snapped back. "Where were you when she was putting herself in danger every night?"

Cordelia was stung by Anya's comment, but thankfully Buffy interrupted before she could say anything. "You've never helped us out," the blonde said, her face contorting into an expression of abject disgust. "All you did was come here every day and tell us how we should be doing our jobs. Did it ever occur to you that maybe we're not like you, and that we can't devote our entire lives to the success of our mission?"

"Why should I act like I have a life outside my life as a Soldier?" Anya shouted. "It's not like I have anything else in my life to look forward to!"

The others fell silent and looked at Anya as her head immediately turned down to the floor, their expressions immediately growing a great deal softer than they had been mere moments before. After a few moments of silence, Anya brought her head up and looked at each of them in turn; giving to them in a whisper the explanation she knew they deserved to hear. "I…I was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor some time ago. I…I have six months, perhaps a year left to live."

"And that's why you've been pushing all of us to work harder?" Cordelia asked, quickly realizing something else. "Why you've…you've tried so hard to get me to take a more active role in the mission?"

Anya felt the tears well up in her eyes as she nodded slightly in response to Cordelia's question. "I don't have a lot of time left, and I want to make sure that before I…before I…leave, the mistakes of the past can be prevented from happening here in the present."

The group became uncomfortably silent at that, none of them daring to look at the others. Luna broke the silence a few moments later by saying, "We can't afford to deal with this now. There will be time later to do so once we've found Fred and brought her home."

The others nodded in agreement, getting to their feet and moving to the door at the opposite end of the room. As they reached it, they all turned to look at Luna and Artemis one final time before Willow opened the door and led the group out of the room.

"Good luck, Sailor Soldiers," Luna whispered as they left, an unshed tear forming in her eye.

Faith looked up from her throne as Xander made his way into her presence, right hand on his chest in subservience, and immediately grew disgusted by his appearance here and now. It didn't take much thinking to surmise why he was here; of the four Shitennou, he was always the one that sought to curry favor with her by informing her of the activities of his brethren. Not even Oz, who, like Xander, also conducted his work out of genuine love for her, did resort to that sort of underhanded trickery. And despite her disgust of his tactics, there had been times when she had allowed him to do so, enjoying the feeling of allowing him to believe that doing this was what pleased her, even though the times when it actually did were rare.

But Faith knew that whatever he had to say now, she was going to find it neither pleasing to hear nor amusing to twist to her advantage.

Faith immediately grew annoyed and raised a hand, cutting off Xander's words. "I do not care to hear about whatever petty problems you have with him. Be gone from my presence and be thankful that you are too valuable to me at the present time to properly punish you for disobeying me."

Faith's eyebrow rose slightly, betraying her interest in a topic she had just stated her disinterest in. "Oh? And how does he plan to do this?"

"He has captured one of the Sailor Soldiers, my Queen," Xander replied, his head still lowered, almost as if he could not risk looking into the face of his Mistress, who no doubt would be displeased by this news. "He believes that, if she were to be turned to our side, she could be influential in bringing about the destruction of the others. I fear…that once he is done, Angelus may seek to use her to overthrow you and take the power of Oueen Metallia for his own."

Faith rested her head in one hand, mulling over this news with more interest than she had previously wanted to show. Angelus acting on his own was very worrisome, indicating that the power she had over him was slowly beginning to fade. More interesting than that, however, was the news that he had captured one of the Sailor Soldiers and sought to make her an agent of the Dark Kingdom. Foolish Xander believed that this was an act on his comrade's part to be an affront to her power.

Faith had no doubts that it very well could end up becoming this. But that would come to pass only if she allowed it to happen. And Faith was too clever to allow her followers to do anything to harm her. Especially if she could somehow make it work to her advantage.

"Thank you for informing me of this development," she said, a wicked smile crossing her features. "I shall be on guard against any…deception. As for Angelus' plan…I shall allow it."

Faith chuckled. "Clearly you cannot see the clever fiendishness of Angelus' plan, my dear Xander. Having one of the Soldiers fight for us will indeed prove to be most…destabilizing to the others. By having her fight for us, and showing that one of their number can be convinced to do so, we can show them all how powerless they are to stop us." She got up from her throne. "Tell Angelus to bring her here. I shall see to her…reeducation personally."

Xander didn't like the thought of what Faith was planning, but he clearly enjoyed the prospect of being punished for disagreeing with her even less. "Yes, my Queen."

As Xander moved to leave, Faith allowed a slight chuckle to escape from her, a chuckle that soon became a deep, hearty laugh. Angelus' plan may have been one he had hoped to enact for his own ends, but it would become more beneficial to her in the long run.

Not only that, but it had given her an idea about another way to hurt the Soldiers that perhaps could be more effective at causing their downfall than all the power her followers could muster. After all, direct attacks from without by her warriors had failed more times than she would care to admit.

Perhaps it was time to consider a different approach. Perhaps it was time to have someone deliver a subtle blow to the heart of the Soldiers; someone who could work her way into their confidence over time, and tear them apart from within when she wished it.

Someone who would be the last person they would suspect of being capable of doing so.

Willow walked in silence beside Anya, the two of them walking down the street towards the park. She had said to the others shortly after they had left the Bronze that the easiest way to find Fred would be to split up in order that they could cover more ground. Cordelia and Buffy quickly agreed, and said that they would go together to check the downtown area, leaving Willow all alone with Anya for company as Willow decided that they should check out the park. It was Willow's assumption that Fred had gone there after her competition, and that someone had stolen her belongings from there, leaving them where Buffy and the others had found them, which would also explain why Fred hadn't been able to contact them. It wasn't exactly the most sound explanation, and not exactly one that held up under scrutiny, but Anya didn't seem to mind, other things obviously being on her mind

Willow turned to look at Anya, who, much like she had been ever since leaving the Bronze, was doing everything she could to avoid having to talk or look in her direction. Willow didn't exactly blame her for doing this, knowing as much as she did that her declaration had changed the relationship between the two of them.

Willow also knew that Anya wasn't going to be the one to discuss it, since she was as vulnerable now as she had ever been. That meant, whether or not she liked it, Willow had to be the one to get them talking about it. There had been a time when Willow would look forward to tearing Anya apart over some flaw in her character, of which she had plenty. To do so now felt wrong, but at the same time, was essential.

"Why didn't you tell us about your…" Willow paused, searching for the appropriate word. "Your…condition."

Anya waved a dismissive hand, clearly telling Willow that was a topic she did not want to discuss. "What difference would it have made?"

Willow spun on her heels to look Anya directly in the eye. "It would have made a big difference, and you know that. If we knew that the reason you were being so confrontational towards us about how to do our mission was because you only had a short amount of time in which to accomplish it, we wouldn't have fractured the way we did. Cordelia wouldn't have run off on us, Buffy and I would have been more agreeable to your point of view, and Fred…"

Willow sniffled, trying in vain to hold back the tears that threatened to burst forward as the mention of Fred's name. "Fred wouldn't feel so…alone."

Anya blinked and affixed Willow with a cold stare. "What? Are you saying that all of this is somehow my fault?"

"No!" Willow shouted, immediately recognizing the tone in Anya's voice and going on the defensive. "I'm not trying to dump this all on you."

"It's my fault," Anya stated matter-of-factly. "I've known a lot more about what's going on than the rest of you do. And I've known it for a lot longer than you do. I think that's what makes me feel so…determined to see the enemy defeated. And I didn't want to tell you why I felt that way because…because I thought that you didn't need to know."

She looked over Willow's shoulder, seeing the nearby shops displaying their Christmas wares. "I wasn't always like this, you know. There was a time when nothing mattered more to me than making money, marrying a nice man, and having lots and lots of children. But then…" She chuckled. "God, I never thought about it till now."

"Last year, I was living in New York," Anya explained. "I had gone out to do some last minute Christmas shopping for some friends. I was on my way home when I heard a voice. I looked around for who was talking to me, and found Artemis coming out of the alleyway, telling me all about my past life, the duty to which I had been sworn to uphold and the mission to which I had been predestined to accomplish since my rebirth on this planet. I knew that to do so, I had to leave my friends, my family, and my entire life behind.

"At first, I treated it like a game," she continued. "Something I would do in my spare time for fun. But then I learned that…that I only had a short amount of time left to live. It was that, combined with being on the move for so long trying to find both the enemy and you and the others, that I started to grow bitter about my situation, so when I finally ended up finding you all, I couldn't allow myself to see you as friends I could enjoy in civilian life, but only as people who couldn't do the job our former lives as Soldiers required of us."

Anya let out a small laugh. "And I had no idea that the four of you would be so different. I think that's why I knew I had to do all I could to get all of you together on the same page, even if it meant ruffling your feathers. Who would have thought that I could fail so spectacularly at that? And who would have thought that I would find all four of you in the same place?"

Letting out a small whistle, Anya moved to sit down on a nearby bench. "Time really flies when you're not having fun."

Willow moved to sit down beside Anya. "So when did you find out about your…condition?"

"About a month or two after meeting Artemis," Anya answered; her head tilted towards the snowy ground. "I knew then that I had to completely devote myself to the mission, even if it meant I couldn't have a normal life."

Anya lifted her face to look at Willow directly in the eye, and Willow could see the tears running down her cheeks. She then looked away, saying, "I'm sorry, you know. I didn't want to be so harsh with you. I guess you think that makes me a bad friend."

Had she not the knowledge of Anya's impending fate, Willow would have to agree with her statement. Now, however, it made all too much sense why she behaved the way she did. "No," she whispered, lifting a hand to Anya's cheek and turning her head back around to face her. "That's what makes you a good leader."

Anya smiled, sniffling a bit. "Willow, there's more to being a leader than being single mindedly devoted to a mission or goal. You have to look out for the people under your command. You have to make sure that they feel loved and wanted and that the time and effort they give is not taken for granted. I've never done that. But you have."

"I'm saying that I was wrong," Anya answered. "There's no one better suited to be our leader than you."

She smiled, and Willow returned the smile, knowing that a bridge had finally been built between them; a structure bringing together a gap that had been shattered for far too long. Combined with the bond that she shared with Cordelia and Buffy, Willow knew that it finally meant that they were strong enough to face any threat the Dark Kingdom could throw their way.

But it had happened too late, for by capturing Fred, they had already inflicted upon them the greatest harm they could imagine. But Willow knew that wouldn't last forever. They would find their missing link, and when they did, the chain that was their collective friendship for one another would be forged anew, stronger than it had ever been before.

"We'll find you, Fred," Willow promised herself. "I swear it. We'll find you…and bring you home."

Faith held a white rose between her thumb and index finger, watching its petals with interest. The rose was an indicator to the magicks that Queen Metallia, at her request, was using to turn the Soldier Angelus had brought to her to their side, and the magicks that both she and the great Demon Queen were using to craft the one that would work its way into the Soldier's lives and destroy them from within. Once the petals of the rose changed completely from white to black, Faith knew that both would be ready to be unleashed upon them.

But first, there was another plan that had to be enacted. Turning, she looked at the Shitennou, arms crossed against their chests once more in obedience, awaiting her command to carry out her will.

Cordelia and Buffy walked out of the library, their spirits no better now than they had been when they had first entered the building. They had been everywhere downtown that Fred might have been, and it was now inevitable that they would have to reach the conclusion that Fred had not gone off on her own, but instead had been captured.

"So, what do you want to do now, Cordy?" Buffy asked, glancing towards her dark haired companion, and was surprised to discover that Cordelia was looking off in the distance, the glazed over look in her eyes telling Buffy that wherever it was she was looking, Cordelia would probably have better luck finding it through a telescope.

Cordelia sighed, her shoulders slumping with the act. "I dunno. Let's…let's meet up with Willow and Anya and head back to the Secret Base."

The pair walked down the street back towards the Bronze in silence for several moments before Buffy exclaimed, "You're keeping something from us, Cordy."

Cordelia turned away, looking inside one of the nearby shop windows. "I think you know."

"But it's different for me," Cordelia replied, the tone of her own voice shocking herself into silence for several seconds. After taking a few moments to calm herself, she continued, "She always wanted me to…to get more involved. Always forcing me to do things I…I didn't really want to do. That was mostly why I decided to leave you guys."

"…of the visions?" Cordelia finished. "Yes, I did. I didn't want to tell you the truth that it was because of Anya that I wanted to leave, and figured that giving you a more believable reason would have been better for you to understand."

"I see," Buffy admitted, though she had to admit to herself that she really didn't. Why would Cordelia think that lying to the others would be a good way to make them feel better? "So…when she told you that Willow missed you…"

"I believe her," Cordelia admitted. "It was the first thing she said to me that didn't sound like she was trying to subtly coerce me into doing something I didn't want to do. At least now I know why she did it, along with why she did those other things."

Buffy nodded in reply. "And with Fred…" she paused, unable to make herself say it what it was obvious both of them knew. But she noticed then a tear make its way from down Cordelia's cheek, and knew that, even without saying it, she understood what it was that she was trying to say.

Amy leaned back against the hard plastic chair, absently munching on a French fry as she stared out the window at the crowds of people going to and coming from the mall across the street. She shivered a bit as she recalled the events that had taken place there no too long ago, remembering how much she had been frightened about what happened there that day.

And remembering also the fact that Willow had seemed rather reluctant to talk about it, not only the day after it happened, but nearly every time that she had brought it up in conversation since then. It wouldn't bother her as much to see Willow acting that way if it wasn't for the fact that it was also around then that her behavior began to change. Having known Willow since junior high, and knowing that she had a weakness when it came to the academics, it surprised Amy to see that Willow was beginning to take her schoolwork more seriously, consistently improving her marks to the point where she had gone from being nearly average to an honor roll student in less than a month, seemingly without any real effort on her part.

"It must be because of all that time she spent with Fred," Amy thought as she took a sip of her soft drink. Why Willow would knowingly choose to hang around with a known social outcast like Fred was an idea that she simply couldn't wrap her head around. True, neither she nor Willow were exactly on the high rungs of the ladder of social popularity, but at least there were those among the student body of Sunnydale High with which they could feel wanted and loved. But in all the time they had known her, Willow and Amy had always assumed that Fred was simply an island alone in the vast sea of students that went to the school.

Setting her drink down on the table, Amy looked out the window again, seeing the sky beyond the mall begin to darken as the dim light of the winter afternoon transited to the full dark of night. Looking down at her watch, Amy figured that she probably shouldn't stay out that much longer. Her mother would no doubt be worrying about her.

Amy thought about her mother then, knowing that what had happened two months ago had changed the relationship between them. Before then, Catherine Madison had never really paid too much attention to her, preferring instead to focus on her career as a local stage performer. Amy had desperately wanted to have a relationship with her, the kind that she thought every teenage girl should have with their mother.

It was that, more than anything, which overrode her suspicion about her mother's motives when she had suggested she help out in the performance she was doing at the mall that day when she and Willow had gone. It wasn't until it was too late that she realized the true reason why her mother had been acting strange all day: it hadn't been her mother at all, but some strange alien creature that had shoved its hand into her chest and drained away all of her energy, sending her into unconsciousness.

Her next memory was waking up in the hospital, seeing through the fog of her mind Willow's face looking down on her. After taking the time to talk to her about what had happened, Amy had gone to her mother's room. And it was there that mother and daughter promised to one another to spend more time together and to get along better than they had before.

"Who would have thought that it would have taken an attack against both of our lives to make us realize how much we truly mean to one another," Amy thought as she reached to take up another French fry.

It was the last conscious movement she made, for as her fingers reached into the pile of fried golden sticks, the wall behind her exploded inward, sending chunks of brick and glass flying, one of which impacted square against the back of her head, immediately knocking her to the table and sending the remnants of her meal scattering to the floor around her.

Standing near the ruined building, oblivious to the cold surrounding him and the cries of pain emanating from those trapped inside, Angelus smiled and turned to look at his comrades, seeing in their eyes the fire burning within his own heart. This direct assault was exactly what they had been waiting for, knowing that it would draw the remaining Sailor Soldiers into a confrontation that, given the capture of one of their comrades, they would be completely unprepared for.

He silently cursed Faith, the soulless witch seeing fit to take the one they had already captured for her own purposes. He also cursed Xander for being weak enough to actually inform Faith of his plans despite his warning, but knew that it wasn't his fault for doing so. Faith had him wrapped around her finger so much that it was impossible for him to even contemplate going against her.

It didn't matter who was at fault, to be honest. Let Faith have Sailor Mercury. Soon enough, he would have the other Soldiers in his possession, and through them, the Princess and the Crystal, as well. And once he had them, nothing would be able to stop him.

Drawing his sword, Angelus swept it across the area. "Level it all. Show no mercy."

Tara watched from the cover of a nearby alleyway as the four men blew a hole in the Doublemeat Palace and moved to set about causing destruction to the surrounding area. She was sure that one of them was the person she had spotted earlier in the day, and even more sure that he, along with the others, had been someone she knew…or had known, at some point in her past.

That didn't make sense, though. Even though she couldn't remember a thing about it, Tara knew that her past had been a kind and peaceful time; and a time where she had been as she was now: a goodhearted individual not prone to violence or irrational thought, never acting on random impulses or against her moral code. She could never knowingly associate herself with people like them.

But Tara realized that, at the moment, it didn't really matter who they were or what connection they had to her distant past. All that did matter was that they were causing harm to the innocent, and that meant they had to be stopped by any means necessary.

"This is for you, Willow," she thought as she brought up her walking cane and began to head towards them. "What I do now, I do so that you may never have to do it again."

Buffy and Cordelia had called Willow and Anya, letting them know that they had no luck in finding Fred. Willow responded likewise, saying that, since it was beginning to get dark, it might be a good idea to call it a day and for all of them to head home, picking up where they left off tomorrow. But Buffy could pick up on one important fact from how Cordelia described her tone: Willow was just as doubtful about whether this was the right thing to do as they were. She knew as they did that while it might be beneficial to them, it would more than likely harm Fred in the long run. The longer it took to find her, the more unlikely they were going to find her.

"I feel so useless," Cordelia moped as Buffy slid her cell phone back into her pocket.

"Don't feel so bad," Buffy replied, her face brightening into a wide smile. "Hey, let's head down to the mall. Bet that'll cheer you up."

Cordelia smiled faintly at that, knowing that Buffy's reasons for suggesting this were more out of a need to cheer her up more than a desire on her part to actually go, a trait she no doubt inherited from Willow. "She has a way of bringing that out in people," Cordelia thought.

It took the two of them only a short amount of time for the two of them to arrive at the mall, and they had gone but five minutes before they came to realize that there was something out of the ordinary. The first hint was the fact that, despite the fact that Christmas was mere days away, the mall was hauntingly empty. The second hint came when they rounded a corner and saw that most of the people that were in the mall had congregated around a jewelry store that had been taped off, mall security and police working inside trying to solve the mystery of what happened to the shopkeeper inside.

The third and most obvious hint came when they heard a large explosion coming from somewhere outside.

Making their way through a crowd that was quickly doing its best to be somewhere else, Buffy and Cordelia made their way outside and tried to find the spot where that explosion occurred, swiftly finding it at the remains of the Doublemeat Palace across the street, and finding there also the four individuals that were no doubt responsible for its destruction.

"Man, I knew the food at the Doublemeat was bad, but I think blowing it up was a bit much," Buffy commented, both she and Cordelia giggling slightly at that, and stopping when they realized the seriousness of the actions being displayed in front of them. Swiftly reaching into her pocket, Buffy withdrew her cell phone and pushed the redial button.

Willow sighed. "Buffy, if you're calling me because you've found out about a twenty percent off all shoes and shirts sale…"

An uncomfortable silence followed Buffy's comment before Willow replied, "We'll be right there."

Buffy put her cell phone back into her pocket and rolled her eyes, not exactly surprised that Willow had thought she would be calling her about a sale.

Moving to join Cordelia under cover and out of sight of anyone who may be watching, Buffy turned to look at her companion and nodded. Cordelia nodded in reply, joining Buffy in raising her arms to transform to their Soldier forms.

A few blocks away, running as fast as they could, Willow and Anya raised their arms.

At the Secret Base, Luna, who had until moments before been sleeping quietly on the floor, suddenly found herself wide awake, her eyes widening in shock and fear.

Moving towards Artemis, Luna tapped his sleeping form with one paw. "Artemis? Artemis, wake up."

The white furred feline stirred and mumbled something Luna couldn't hear, but otherwise gave no indication that he had heard Luna's words. Annoyed, she swatted Artemis over the head. "Wake up!"

Grumbling, Artemis opened his eyes and got up, giving Luna an annoyed look. "What?"

"We have to go," Luna said, moving towards the door. Artemis watched her go, and could tell that whatever it was that was bothering her, it was serious and immediate.

Luna turned back to look at Artemis, her expression that of a person knowing that she had run out of time. "It's happened."

Luna couldn't bring herself to say it, knowing that Artemis would once again chew her out over it. Instead, she simply said, "Things are going to change, Artemis. And we have to be there when they do."

That was all Artemis had to hear, and the two of them made their way from the Bronze towards the place where their lives, and the lives of the Soldiers, were about to be fundamentally altered.

They had done their best to prevent it, but their time had now run out. All they could do was to make sure that the transition occurred with as little problems as possible.

This was the first thing to cross Amy's mind as she came to, shaking her head to clear the fog from her mind, and becoming aware of the fact that her lower body was in pain. Grimacing in pain, she turned her head to find that her right leg was trapped under a chunk of debris that had until moments before been a part of the wall behind her.

Turning her head to look around, Amy came to discover a new revelation about her recent experience. "Ah. Not only knocked unconscious, but also trapped in a burning building and nearly exploded, too. Great."

From her prone position, Amy found herself staring directly at the counter, noticing that one of the employees was still around. Unfortunately, the young woman was sprawled against the soda machine, no doubt blown back there by the force of the explosion. The impact was strong enough to shatter the machine, causing its contents to spill onto the floor. It was also sufficiently strong enough to cause the body to contort itself into a position that no human form should ever be able to pull off. It left little doubt that the young woman was dead.

"Just like I'll be if I don't find a way to get out of here," she thought, grunting with effort as she bent over and tried to free her leg from the weight being pressed down against it. Collapsing as her first effort failed, she wondered for a moment what the pain she felt was coming from. If it was because of the rock holding her down, she could probably find a way to free herself, assuming she could get it off of her. If, on the other hand, the pain she felt was because her leg had gotten broken…well, she would have to deal with that problem if and when that proved to be true.

But Amy knew that even if she were completely paralyzed from the waist down, she would do anything she could to get out of here. Nothing in this world was about to keep her here longer than she had to.

Heaving with all of her strength, Amy tried once again to free her leg, and once again came up short. Letting out a frustrated groan that morphed into a choked cry and dissolved into barely restrained sobs, she collapsed to the floor once again, slamming a clenched fist on the ground, oblivious to the fact that doing so brought it dangerously close to the shattered remains of the window she had been sitting beside.

Through her tears, Amy could see someone enter the Doublemeat through the hole that had been blown in the wall. At first relieved that someone had apparently noticed the explosion, called the police and was coming into the ruined building to look for survivors, her spirits immediately dissolved when the form resolved itself into the shape of a young man in a strange red uniform holding a sword, the tip of which was pointed in her direction.

The newcomer chuckled. "I had hoped that there were some of you that were foolish enough to stay, but I hoped that you would have been unfettered, as I do so enjoy an opportunity to hunt my prey." He raised the sword high, preparing to bring it down on her neck. "Not that I don't like it this way, of course, but I would have preferred you put up more of a fight."

Amy sobbed, her reaction a mixture of the pain she still felt, but also including her knowledge of her impending fate at the hands of this person, and the fact that there was nothing she could do about it.

And that was when she heard the voice from across the room, a voice that she couldn't recognize, but one that promised hope and freedom from this situation.

Angelus watched with barely contained amusement as the vehicles made their way towards him, the only things in the immediate vicinity to be approaching him; all others swiftly making themselves scarce. He wasn't aware of who the people were inside those vehicles, but his experience as a warrior had led him to conclude that there were only two types of people who would approach him in this manner: the truly brave and courageous, or the stupidly foolish with a wish to die.

They certainly were brave and courageous to confront him in this manner; now it was time to see if they were stupidly foolish.

The vehicles came to a stop a few feet away and formed a loose blockade, uniformed men emerging from them. Angelus smiled broadly at this display of force, confirming to him that these men were indeed stupidly foolish. They were certainly that if they could believe even for one moment that those pitiful devices could stop him.

Still, there was a humorous element to all of this, and he was fully prepared to indulge them…if only for a moment.

"All right, buddy!" one of the men, obviously the leader of the group, said, his weapon directly pointed at Angelus' head. "Put your weapon down!"

Looking down at the sword he held in his right hand, Angelus gave it a quick heft, more out of a desire to see the ones before him startled at his movement than anything else, and did as he was told. After all, these fools had no way of knowing that this wasn't his only weapon.

"This is too easy," Angelus thought as he brought his hands up towards his head in compliance with the man's wishes. He watched as two of the other men stepped forward from under the cover of their vehicles, one of them moving to remove something from his belt.

And with a swiftness that caught them and the others off guard, he brought his hands down and sent a massive bolt of energy directly at them.

The men in the immediate path of the projectile scattered immediately, running as fast as they could away from the area. Their comrades held their composure, however, and at their leader's command began to discharge their weapons.

Angelus watched as the small silver specks made their way towards them, bringing one hand up to stop the incoming fire. They slowed down, came to a dead stop and, bereft of their forward momentum, clattered to the snowy ground.

The others chose that moment to withdraw, any hints of containing the situation having fallen with their spent firepower. Angelus watched them go, laughing as they showed their true colors.

And that was when he heard the voices from behind; voices belonging to those whom he knew would be of more sport than those who had just tried to attack him.

The smile on Angelus' face widened further as he reached down to pick up his fallen sword. Yes, Faith may have taken Sailor Mercury, but now that the others were here, they had granted him the opportunity to do whatever he wished to them.

And what he wished more than anything else in the world at that moment was to see them dead by his own hand.

Buffy and Cordelia sent their attacks, a condensed ball of lightning and sphere of fire respectively, at the enemy the police had distracted. Having seen one of the enemy head into the ruins of the Doublemeat, and knowing that they couldn't afford to wait forever for Willow and Anya to show up, they had decided that then was the best time to come out into the open, hoping to take them out before they could cause any more trouble, even though the three to two odds weren't that better than four to two.

But their hopes were dashed when they watched their opponent bend down to retrieve his sword and bring it up to block their attacks. It surprised them how fast he had been able to do that, though they didn't allow their surprise to show, though the look on his face indicated that, were they a few seconds earlier, their combined attack would have worked.

It pained Buffy to realize this, though she consoled herself by being glad that the police had scattered, making their job all the easier. "The less people that are around, the better it is for us." She gave a look at Cordelia, then to herself, adding, "Not to mention that we'd have a hell of a time trying to explain this to anyone who might recognize us."

"Too slow," came the expected retort from their adversary, a smile on his lips that took the bulk of Buffy's and Cordelia's patience to resist wiping off. "And too late. Our leader has your friend under her power, and nothing you can do will save her."

"Oh, I certainly wish you to try," was the reply, the man spreading his arms out as if to dare Cordelia to advance. "Though I wouldn't hold your breath to succeed, and even if you do, I highly doubt you'll be able to breathe at all by the time I'm done with you."

That broke through Cordelia's calm, and before Buffy could warn her, she was rushing forward to strike that smug look of calm satisfaction off his face. She never made it, however, as a few feet into her stride, she was knocked off balance by a blast impact directly in front of her which sent her sprawling into the snowy concrete.

Buffy snapped her head around and found the source of Cordelia's distress nearby, not entirely surprised to find it coming from one of their opponent's comrades. This one, the one in white with platinum blond locks, she knew to be the most dangerous of the four.

"You're too easily amused," Angelus," this one said, obviously directed to the one Buffy and Cordelia had been facing. "I've told you before about the foolishness of taking the slow approach when dealing with our enemies. It leaves you too open to ambush."

If Angelus was offended by these words, he didn't show it, at least not by his facial expression. But from the way his body had suddenly become more rigid and stiff, Buffy knew that the words had deeply struck him, and knew that she and Cordelia had only a few seconds to take advantage of the opportunity afforded to them here.

She looked down at Cordy, who had gotten to her knees, and nodded. Cordy nodded back and moved to get up when a scream came from within the Doublemeat. Buffy turned towards the ruined building at the noise, Cordy doing likewise. This, however, left them open to attack by the two men who, noticing their split second distraction, took advantage of the opportunity to blast them backward.

Falling to the ground and managing to turn it into a shoulder roll at the last possible moment, Buffy saw Willow and Anya out of the corner of her eye. Despite the pain from her fall, she allowed herself to smile.

Tara blocked the strike to her side with her walking cane, the effort of doing so causing her to wince. For a fleeting moment, she wondered in surprise how much this was beginning to tire her. Never before had she felt this way when facing off against the enemy.

It suddenly came to her why she was behaving this way: her mind wasn't focused on the matter at hand, but on the words Willow had spoken to her earlier in the day. Her best attempts to keep her mind on the fight certainly weren't helped by the fact that the person she had to rescue was Willow's best friend, who several seconds earlier had let out a shriek of pure terror as part of the ceiling above her collapsed, striking the ground dangerously close to where she was trapped.

Tara knew that she couldn't have her attention divided as much as it was for much longer, but knew also that she couldn't focus exclusively on one at the expense of the other. If she devoted her time to defending herself against her opponent, Amy would be left defenseless, and no doubt would be killed. If, however, she let her guard down for even a moment to rescue her, Tara would be leaving herself vulnerable, and would doubtlessly be killed herself.

It wasn't that great of a choice, and it reminded Tara of the fact that, regardless of what happened, it was to be her last fight. It had been a painful decision for her to come to, but she knew that she had no other choice; she couldn't knowingly put herself in danger night after night to protect Willow, not when she was doing the same thing to protect her. Of course, Willow was unaware of the fact that Tara had done this, and Tara was going to make sure that she would never know.

"I can't continue to do this, especially since I'm a princess," Tara thought, allowing herself to smile faintly as that thought crossed her mind. "I never really thought that I was a princess, but if I am, I guess I have to start acting the part. No acting like Xena for me. I've got to start being all dignified, refined and feminine like."

Blocking another blow and forcing her opponent back, Tara's grin widened. "In other words, exactly the opposite of how I truly am. I mean look at me. I'm wearing a man's tuxedo. How butch is that?"

Sword impacted against walking cane once more, and Tara gave her enemy an icy stare. She knew that she had to do something in the next few moments to save both herself and Amy; otherwise the building would collapse around them. Looking around, she began to conceive a plan that, while dangerous, would fulfill both goals if she were to pull it off.

Allowing herself to get knocked to the floor, Tara twisted her body, leaving her back exposed and letting go of her cane, letting it clatter to the floor beside her. As she heard footfalls behind her, she looked ahead and saw the battered remains of one of the molded plastic chairs in front of her. Reaching out, she grabbed onto the back of the chair as she heard the male speak.

"It's so typical of women. You always think you can best a male stronger and faster than you are."

"Oh, I don't know," Tara commented absently as her gloved fingers tightened around the chair. "I think women have one advantage over men."

Getting to one knee, Tara twisted her upper body around, bringing the chair she held around with all her strength to slam it against his side, sending them stumbling to the countertop. Leaping to her feet, Tara moved to take advantage of her opponent's momentary lapse in judgment. Grabbing him by the scruff of his neck, she tossed him through the ruined doors nearby and out onto the parking lot beyond.

"We can always coerce big, dumb men to be where we want them to be," she muttered under her breath, taking a few moments to compose herself before moving over to Amy. "Are you OK?"

"Oh, I'm fine," Amy replied, her response so dripping in sarcasm it wasn't impossible for Tara to imagine it being a doughnut she could dunk into her morning coffee. "I'm pinned down in a burning building with a possibly broken leg, fighting the urge to pass out while a woman in a tuxedo battles some strange guy who wanted to take my head. It's a shocking event for most people, but just your average day for me."

Tara bit her lip and chose to ignore Amy's comment, lest any rebuttal on her part accidentally give Amy a clue as to the identity of her rescuer. Instead, she moved to the debris pinning Amy's leg down and, after working her cane into a gap between her leg and the debris, bore down to lift it off Amy's leg. Tara watched as Amy crawled away and, as soon as she saw her safely away, released her hold on the debris.

As Tara and Amy made their way towards the exit opposite the one that Tara had thrown her opponent out of, Tara gave a glance back towards the hole blown in the wall on the opposite side of the building. And saw through it a familiar blonde pigtail form, along with three others, confronting the other three men outside.

Faith stared intently at the rose, whose petals had finished their shift from white to black. A smile faintly appeared on her lips as she snapped her fingers, the rose disappearing with her gesture.

Luna and Artemis made their way down the street as fast as their paws could take them, but Luna knew that it was pointless for them to try and exert themselves this much. No matter how fast they went, she knew that they wouldn't arrive in time to prevent Willow and the others from coming to great harm; harm that she and Artemis had tried so hard to protect them from; harm that none of them, especially Willow, deserved to be placed into.

Luna couldn't help but chastise herself for what she had led the others into; she had thought it would have been for the best of all concerned to keep Willow and the others ignorant of everything they needed to know in order to fight the forces of the Dark Kingdom. Even Anya, who Artemis said was more knowledgeable in that area than the others, didn't know the whole story, especially the true role that Willow played in all of this. If he had known what she had planned to do once they had all gotten together, however, Luna had no doubt that he would have told her more, if only to provide for her a reason to explain her consistently bad attitude towards the others, making the pain of revealing her medical condition to the others far less obvious than it had apparently been.

Luna promised herself that, if Willow and the others managed to survive their current crisis, she would explain everything in exact detail to her and the others, and try to get them to understand the reasons why she felt she had to keep this information from them. She knew that the others would probably understand, but Luna had no doubt as to how Willow would react to this: even though she had taken her duty as a Sailor Soldier to heart, this new piece of information would cause her to question why she had been manipulated into putting herself in very real danger night after night, by the one person that she believed had no reason to question her role as the leader and had supported her without doubt throughout all the recent problems she had to deal with.

She and Artemis rounded a corner and came to a complete stop, surprised and shocked by what they saw. Lying against the wall of the building, her head slumped to one side, was Fred, her eyes closed, but otherwise looking unharmed.

Fred blinked twice and opened her eyes, looking over at Luna and Artemis, a confused expression on her face. "Luna? Artemis? Wha…What's happening? What's going on?"

"We've been looking for you," Artemis explained. "We thought that you had been captured."

"Are you OK?" Luna asked, clearly still surprised at finding her here, but realizing that her state of mind needed to be assessed.

Fred raised her hand to rub her eyes, drawing in a ragged breath as she got to her feet. "I think so. What's going on?"

"The others are out near the mall," Luna explained. "The enemy has attacked, and they're trying their best to stop them."

"I've gotta help them," Fred muttered, moving to head down the street, only to come up short after two steps and collapse to one knee.

Moving over beside her, Luna said, "No, Fred. You're too tired. You should go home and take care of yourself.

"They'll be fine," Artemis added, knowing that he was lying to her, but also knowing that in her weakened state, Fred wouldn't be able to make that much of a difference, and quite possibly could end up putting the others in more danger than they obviously already were. "When they've driven them back, we'll all get together and celebrate your return."

Fred nodded weakly as she placed a hand on her head, waving Luna and Artemis on with the other. "OK. OK, go."

Luna nodded and turned to Artemis, both of them making their way down the street once again. Fred looked up and watched them round the corner and head off.

And in the space of two seconds, her entire demeanor changed dramatically. Gone was her weary tiredness and exhausted composure, replaced by a strength that belied her form and previous state of mind. Also gone was the look of confusion and pain on her face, replaced by a cocky smirk and near feral gleam in her ice blue eyes, two drastic changes that, seen by those who knew her, would find very much disturbing.

Then again, was there anyone out there who truly knew her? Obviously there wasn't, for if there were such people, they wouldn't have allowed what had happened to her to take place. Not that she held any ill will towards the people who had done this to her. In fact, she felt very much indebted to them, finally allowing her to see through the web of deception of lies her former friends had ensnared her in, and she was determined not to allow herself to become once again trapped within it.

Tilting her head as she got to her feet, Fred made her way down the street Luna and Artemis had gone down, her expression changing from the dangerous smirk and ice cold stare that had been on it to a expression of neutral indifference; an expression that, in its own way, was even more chilling.

Willow didn't consider herself very large with the butch, but over the past two months, she had gone through a crash course in learning how to defend herself and, with the help of Luna, had been trained well enough to battle the enemy and cultivated within her the strength and courage it took to be able to do so without fear.

But that didn't exactly mean she was willing to take on the four strongest warriors of the Dark Kingdom, especially all at once. Willow had wondered why they had never gotten together and attacked her before, and had figured it out rather easily: they, like she and her friends, had been unable to work together, meaning that whenever they did attack, she only had to deal with one or two of them at any one time. But it had become clearly obvious that they had worked out their differences and committed themselves to the singular goal of destroying them all.

This made Willow all the more grateful that she and her friends had also managed to patch up their differences. She wasn't sure she would have been able to deal with this problem if she had been by herself. But Willow was beginning to realize that, alone or together, there might not be any way to deal with the enemy this time.

"If only Fred was here," Willow thought as she ducked a blow that would have separated her head from her body. "If we were at full strength, we would have already beaten them back." Putting on her resolve face, she delivered a roundhouse kick that sent her opponent, the one garbed in red, stumbling backward, his sword falling from his hand. Willow had gone after him once he had been ejected from the Doublemeat rather forcefully, assuming that he would be the easiest to take care of.

If that was true, then Willow did not envy the task given to her friends, for even in his obviously disoriented and injured state, he was more than capable of keeping her on the defensive. Willow knew she had to do something if she had any hope to deliver an offensive that would drive him back.

This thought came as she took a step backward, quickly finding her booted foot impacted against something slippery. Before she could do anything to right herself, Willow found herself tumbling backward and fell flat on her rear on a patch of icy road. Wincing at the sudden and painful impact, she tried to get back to her feet, but found her footing shaky and merely succeeded in once again falling, this time flat on her face. Pushing herself up, Willow found herself staring directly into the blade of her opponent.

"I have failed my Queen far too often," he snarled, panting as he raised his sword to deliver a killing blow. "I do not intend to fail her now."

Willow tried to get some clean footing, but couldn't get enough traction to right herself, and merely slumped down on her chest, resigned to her fate.

So it came as a surprise to her that several seconds passed where she didn't feel the blinding pain that she would have normally associate with having her head separated from her body. Opening one eye, she saw Anya's form kneeling in front of her, her arms raised and holding her chain up to block the strike that had been coming to Willow's head. Willow looked at Anya's face, and saw there a mixture of emotions: pain at her exertion in holding her pose, resolve to do so regardless of what happened to herself and, what surprised Willow the most, as Anya's head turned to look at her, a genuine expression of concern for her safety.

Taking the hint, Willow crawled out of the way as Anya got to her feet and drove the man back, following up on this by delivering a kick to the gut that sent him sprawling to the ground. Getting up, Willow made her way over to Anya, placing a hand on the other girl's shoulder. "Thanks."

Anya placed a hand on Willow's shoulder in return, then brought up her other hand and waggled a finger in Willow's face. "That's two you owe me, Will."

Willow was about to respond to that with a snappy retort when she recognized the smile on Anya's face, realizing that her words were more to break the tension over what had just happened than everything else. Smiling, she nodded and replied, "And I'll pay you back with interest, as soon as we're done here." Anya nodded and moved off. Willow moved off to join her, her confidence stronger than it had been mere moments before.

Tara moved towards the bus stop bench, Amy's additional weight keeping her from moving as fast as she would have wanted. Tara knew that she could be moving faster than she was, and there was certainly nothing more she would like to do at that moment, but doing so would put Amy in more danger than she already was, and she couldn't shirk her responsibility for her welfare now, especially when it was clearly obvious to her, if not to Amy herself, that had Tara not gone into the Doublemeat to investigate why one of the four attackers had gone inside, Amy would have been dead right now.

"But saving Amy and making sure she's all right has put Willow in danger," she admonished herself. "I can't let her come to any harm, but I just can't leave Amy here…can I?"

Tara let a frustrated growl escape her throat, realizing that yet another painful decision had been placed in front of her. She let out a sigh, realizing that there was no point in fighting these decisions when they occurred. She was a fighter against the forces of evil, and doing things like that came with the territory.

That thought, coming to her as she helped Amy onto the bench, made Tara rethink her earlier decision to take herself out of the conflict. Certainly her earlier decision to do so still rang true, but now that she had the opportunity to think into the future, she realized that it wasn't nearly as clear cut as she had believed it to be.

And it was especially not fair to Willow, who had doing the exact same thing even without the support of her friends, if what she had learned two months ago was any indication. Even if they somehow managed to patch up their differences and work together, Tara knew that Willow would need someone by her side who would support her unconditionally, and it wouldn't hurt if that same person could easily understand the problems that she faced.

Tara knew that it had to be her, even if it meant reneging on her earlier decision to take herself out of the equation and to let other people deal with the problem, even if it was someone like Willow, whom Tara knew could try to deal with the problem, but no doubt would succeed better if she had someone by her side. It would mean having to reveal to her fully her nocturnal activities, but she had no doubt that Willow would understand. After all, she had mere hours ago done the same, and Tara had not been judgmental about it.

That was what two people who were truly in love with one another did. They worked through their problems and found ways to support one another, even if it was about something as grandiose as saving the world.

"Go easy on yourself," Tara chided, getting back to her feet. "You don't want to aggravate your problem more than it already is."

"Oh, really?" Amy snapped back, her tone of voice all but spitting venom Tara's way. "How exactly could I be worse off than this?"

Tara turned her back to Amy before she responded. "You could be dead. Be thankful for small favors."

She walked away before Amy could respond, keeping herself from turning back to look at her one last time. Partly it was because, now that she was reasonably assured of Amy's safety and comforted with the knowledge that she wouldn't get herself into any more trouble, she could devote herself fully to protecting Willow.

But it was also to hide from her the pain and anguish she felt at having to be so cold towards her in responding. Tara knew that she had no right to be that way, as even though Amy's tone made it more than obvious to her that she deserved it, she also knew that it was more because she had, once again, gotten herself involved in a situation she clearly had no ability or desire to understand, and finally cracking from the pressure of having it happen one time too many.

The sad thing was, however, that while she clearly felt bad for Amy, Tara felt a whole lot worse for Willow. Amy had, after all, only been exposed to it in fleeting glances, never realizing the true danger she and the rest of the world faced. Willow, on the other hand, was right in the thick of things, night after night, and knew of the consequences of her actions should she falter in her duty, even for a moment.

Tara knew that doing that sort of thing, even with the emotional support she and her friends could provide, was not healthy, and was never more proud of Willow than she was at that moment. Anyone else would have cracked under that sort of pressure, but she, like herself, had within her the courage and strength to do the impossible in the name of doing what was right.

Those two words repeated ad nauseam within the confines of Willow's mind, serving no real purpose other than to drive her to the point of insanity, frogs and horses being the things that frightened her most in this world.

On the other hand, it had the fringe benefit of keeping her adrenaline flowing, meaning that, despite her tired state of mind, she was in no danger of being overwhelmed by the situation and make a mistake that could cost her dearly.

Risking a glance, Willow immediately could tell that her friends were less advantaged in that area; Buffy, despite apparently being on the same adrenaline kick she was, looked less likely to be able to keep that going, and Willow knew it was only a matter of time before her weakened state prevented her from stopping a fatal blow. Cordelia appeared to be holding her own; though Willow could see from the way she carried herself that she had twisted her ankle at some moment, the pain of which, despite her best efforts, was slowly but surely making itself more and more obvious, which meant it was becoming less and less easy for her to ignore it. And Anya, in an attempt to cover up the others' shortcoming, was doing her best to compensate, but Willow could see that, while it was succeeding for the most part, it was also wearing her out faster. And she wasn't sure, but there might have been more than one occasion where she appeared to be on the verge of fainting to the ground, her hand moving to her forehead before it happened.

"She shouldn't be here," Willow thought, dodging a blow to her midsection. "None of us should be here, but especially her. If we're not careful, we're going to be the one who end up killing her instead of that brain tumor."

Seeing the one known as Angelus moving towards her, Willow tried to cartwheel out of his way, only to find her hands, much like her feet had earlier done, impacting against the icy ground at an awkward angle and sending her skidding to the ground in a tangled mess of limbs.

Grunting, Willow pushed herself to her knees, finding that someone was standing in front of her. Preparing to defend herself, she lowered her defenses and allowed herself to become disconnected from what was going on around her as she looked up, her vision refocusing itself, and realized who it was in front of her.

Willow immediately enveloped the girl in a fierce hug, the emotional high she felt at seeing her return to them washing over her. "I'm so glad you're here. How did you manage to escape? Are you OK? Did you learn anything about our enemy while you were captured? Oh, I have so many questions I have to talk to you about and things I want to explain, but that'll have to wait till later. We have to deal with these guys first, so go find somewhere you can be safe until.."

It was only then, after her emotional high had receded, that Willow became acutely aware of how wrong the situation was. For starters, how she had acted in the past few seconds had left her vulnerable to assault from behind. And she, though thankful for the fact that they hadn't acted on it, still found it strange that they had not taken advantage of her lapse in judgment, knowing that her friends were not likely in any condition to stop them.

But more worrisome was the fact that Fred's reaction to the whole situation was entirely wrong. For starters, she had given no reaction at all. Though she had always known Fred to be logical to a fault when it came to sudden situations, Willow had always known Fred to showcase some emotion when it came to her accomplishments, even if it was merely bashful embarrassment at being treated as different than the rest of her peers. Certainly she should be rather happy at accomplishing something as monumental as breaking out of the Dark Kingdom's fortress all by herself.

And then Willow looked up at Fred's face and, her blood turning cold as she broke the hug and began to slowly back away, realized why Fred was showing no emotion at what was going on. One look at her face, seeing on it an expression of pure and utter disgust, magnified by the icy look of her blue eyes, immediately brought Willow to one inescapable conclusion.

No sooner had this thought passed through her mind than Willow found her throat caught in the vice like grip of Fred's hand and, with surprising strength, found herself lifted off the ground and sent flying through the air to land hard on the ground a good distance away.

Approaching the area from further down the street, Luna and Artemis watched with surprise as they saw Fred walk up to Willow and stand in front of her, wondering why she was here after having conceded to their wishes to go home and rest. Their surprise soon turned to shock, however, when they saw Willow, who had gotten to her feet and shown unabashed joy at seeing Fred here, had her outreach of friendship thrown back at her when Fred grabbed Willow by the neck, lifted her off the ground and send her flying through the air to land on the ground several feet away.

Willow pushed herself up from her newly fallen position and looked at Fred, scarcely allowing herself to believe that what had just happened had truly taken place. This had to be some mistake. Fred wouldn't have done this. Only one explanation made sense: that this was some monster assuming Fred's form in an attempt to goad her into lowering her guard, which she had foolishly done.

Cursing herself, she looked at the thing that had Fred's form and asked, "Who are you? And what have you done with Fred?"

"Nobody has done anything to me, Sailor Moon," Fred replied, moving towards Willow with a deliberate slowness in her step. Willow fought to get to her feet, realizing two things at that moment: this was indeed Fred and not some monster assuming her form, and that the deliberate use of her Soldier name was a clear indication that she no longer considered the two of them to be friends, something that Willow found more painful than the blow which had brought her here.

And certainly more powerful than the blow that Fred delivered to her midsection as she attempted to get to her feet once again, adding as she did so, "They've simply allowed me to see through your deception."

"My deception?" Willow wheezed, the breath knocked from her as she got to her knees, Buffy and the others, having stopped their attacks on the other enemies, moving to protect her from Fred's brutal assault.

"Yes," Fred replied as the others formed a protective bubble around her. "And I intend to make sure that you do not have the opportunity to ensnare me within it once again."

Fred crossed her arms across her chest, and Willow noticed for the first time that she still wore her transformation bracelet, but it was radically different than it had been before. While it still bore the blue jewel of Fred's bracelet, it was now black in color, held onto her wrists with straps which appeared to be leather.

Willow and the others watched as Fred's body was enveloped in darkness, reforming after several seconds when the darkness faded, to show her body in a completely different state of affairs. While she still wore her Soldier uniform, it was dramatically different than it had been. Her bows, originally blue ribbon, were now black lace, tribal designs decorating her boots, collar and tiara. While these were certainly dramatic changes, they were nothing compared to the way her body had changed with regard to her new outfit. Her pale skin had become a light blue, dark blue highlights on her forehead and framing her face. Her hair, normally a short cropped blue when in her Soldier form, was now long and straight, alternating between blue and brunette.

Her most striking change, however, was in her eyes. Though they were the same as they had been prior to her transformation, seeing them on her now, in the guise of the person that Luna had said was the Soldier of Wisdom, Guardian of Water and Knowledge, was even more chilling, suggesting little more than to literally rip the hearts from her former friends, much like she thought they had done to her figuratively.

The others approached her now, Angelus handing Fred an icicle he had plucked from the ice wall that had formed following her transformation. Taking it into her gloved hand, Fred held it to her side.

Willow wondered what Fred was doing, and found her answer as the icicle morphed into a dangerous looking sword, which Fred brought up and pointed at each of her former friends, addressing them one last time.

"Sailor Moon, Sailor Mars, Sailor Jupiter, Sailor Venus, look upon you new enemy. And know that as I strike you down, I shall become more powerful, and use my power to rid the world of your meddlesome presence. And once you're gone, who will be left to stop us from finding the Moon Princess?

Buffy and the others tightened their circle around Willow, prepared to defend her to the very end, but it was obvious to Willow that they had no idea what to do. They had to stop Fred and the others, but they couldn't attack them at the same time that they had to attack their former friend.

This bold declaration caught everyone's attention, and they all turned to look at the ruins of the Doublemeat Palace, seeing the figure emerging from it. A figure Willow recognized instantly.

Tara marched towards the assembled groups, her steps those of a woman having great confidence that what she was doing was the right thing to do; a feel that was far from the truth, as she was very unsure as to whether or not this was indeed a good idea. What she was about to do was the single most frightening thing she had to do, even more so than imagining a future for herself without her parents. But, like then, she had to be strong, to forget the pain those thoughts brought to her and focus on the task at hand, because more than anything else, Willow's life depended on what she did now.

And if she were to do this, she would do it without disguising her identity. She owed it to Willow to be able to do this, to show her just how far she was willing to go in order to make sure that she and her friends got all the help they needed in fighting these people.

"You shall not harm the Guardians of the Princess," she boldly declared, pointing at each of the males in turn. "I will do my best to see that you and you master fail. She turned towards Fred, adding as she pointed to her with the walking cane she held in her hand. "And I will help them to bring you back to where you rightfully belong."

"I am where I belong," Fred replied, raising her sword to counter Tara's gesture. "And I'll see you long before you have any opportunity to tear me away."

She brought her weapon up and stared directly into Tara's eyes, obviously challenging her to a fight. But before Tara could respond, someone said, "No."

Fred turned to look at the one who had spoken, finding Angelus looking down at her, a look of disapproval on her face. "You shall do nothing of the sort."

"Our Queen has invested a lot of our energy into your…education," Angelus explained. "And I do not think that she would enjoy having her efforts foolishly go to waste, considering that you are more useful to us alive than dead." Stepping forward, he brandished his own weapon Tara's way, a wicked smile forming on his face. "And besides, I would enjoy the pleasure of seeing how well this…person can do in facing me."

Tara returned his stare, a knot forming in the pit of her stomach as she wondered now if she had bitten off more than she could chew. But she didn't have any choice now that she was committed to this. Turning to look at Willow, she saw her looking at her, the expression clearly showing utter confusion and silently telling her, "What are you doing?"

"I'll explain everything to you, Willow," she thought. "I promise I will, just as soon as I deal with this guy." Returning her attention to the enemy standing before her, she added to herself, "That should give me time to think of something."

Willow stood dumbfounded as she watched Tara go head to head with Angelus, whom she knew to be the most dangerous, the most powerful, and most sneaky of the enemy's four strongest warriors. Her brain utterly refused to believe what was going on in front of her, and why should she try to believe otherwise? This wasn't at all like the Tara she knew; the Tara that was thoroughly incapable of acting in an violent manner; the Tara that was incapable of acting in a irresponsible manner; the Tara that was, for more reasons than one, the one person who shouldn't have gotten involved in all of this.

And yet, for some reason, it didn't surprise her at all to be seeing Tara like this. It made her recall the conversation they had months ago when she had said that she had engaged in some questionable activities to find out about the Mystical Silver Crystal. It may also explain why Anya was so reluctant to look at her as a friend. If the two of them had run across one another, and Anya had misinterpreted her actions as those the enemy would do, that would explain a great deal.

Willow tried to get herself to move, knowing that she had to help Tara, but the sight of the others, along with Fred, nearby, made that something that would be impossible, since they would stop anyone that tried to interrupt their leader. And even if she could take them all on by herself, there was no way that Buffy, Cordelia and Anya would let her, saying that Tara would need all of her concentration. That was something Willow couldn't help but agree with.

She also couldn't help but feel that what was happening here felt very much familiar, but she dismissed that for the moment, concentrating instead on telling herself that her beloved would be OK, knowing that she could do little more than watch and pray.

Fred grew increasingly disinterested with watching Angelus battle this newcomer. Unlike him, she held no feelings of honor for what she was doing, and no need to have her prove that honor. And that must be was why his comrades were apparently content to let their leader fight her all by himself, keeping themselves occupied by making sure that her former friends did not interfere.

It occurred to her then that, unlike the others, she was not honor bound to accept his leadership and remain uninvolved, since, despite his apparent beliefs, he held no power over her, and thus had no right to assume that nonexistent authority over her.

Looking at the one Angelus fought, she thought for a moment how familiar she looked, but shrugged it off just as quickly. It didn't matter who she was. All that did matter was that she was an enemy, and one that needed to be quickly disposed of.

She took a step forward, and was not exactly surprised to find a retort to her actions.

She turned to look at the source of the comment, and was not exactly surprised to find it coming from Xander. From what she had learned of the four of them, he was the one who was always questioning the actions of the others in front of their leader, always assuming that any suspect move was a covert attempt to usurp his Queen, a line of reasoning that also included questioning why she herself should be allowed to fight on their side. She smiled mirthfully, realizing that she now had an opportunity to do two very important things at once: perform a service for her new allies by eliminating one of her former allies, while at the same time embarrass the one who had questioned her inclusion into their inner circle by performing a service he and his comrades had been unable to perform themselves.

"I am going to do what none of you have been able to do," she replied. "What none of you seem to be able to do: eliminate all those who oppose our attempts to resurrect our glorious ruler."

Fred snickered to herself as she watched the expressions on Xander's and the others' faces darken at that, the three of them barely managing to hide the revulsion they felt at having their shortcomings pointed out to them. Turning around, she covertly moved off to find the best means of approaching that would make her undetected to all that could stop her.

Anya turned her head to find Luna and Artemis running towards them. Leaving Cordelia and Buffy to take care of Willow, she ran up to meet them. "What's going on?"

Anya angrily tilted her head back towards the fight. "You know what I'm talking about. Why did you let the Princess fight all by herself? And why did you feel the need to keep it a secret from us." She turned her attention to Artemis. "I'm especially disappointed in you, Artemis. You know what I've gone through, what…what I've had to do. Why didn't you think this was important enough to tell me?"

"Believe me, Anya, I wanted to tell you," Artemis replied, not bothering at all to hide his shame at being berated. "I truly did. But Luna said that was something that shouldn't be told until we felt that you were all together and could deal with that knowledge."

So focused was Anya on her fury towards Artemis that she nearly missed Luna's words. But when they finally registered in her mind, she found half of her anger split towards her, as well. "What?"

"Tara's not the Moon Princess," Luna clarified, the words coming from her through the last vestiges of the mental barriers she had developed in order to prevent her from saying what could no longer be kept quiet. "We…we lied to you all."

"You lied to us?" Anya repeated, her tone conveying all the emotion of one whose patience was dangerously thin, to a point where the slightest provocation could snap it in two and cause her to do something she might regret later.

There was a time when hearing this news would have made Anya angry that she had been used in this way, being sent on a mission whose true goals were kept from her, even if it was supposedly for her own good. And to be honest, learning of this did anger her a great deal. So it was all the more surprising that her concerns were placed elsewhere. "Did you ever stop to think about the harm you were doing?"

"So you just let Willow go along believing what you had said, knowing that you were lying to her hand over fist?"

"No, but we," Luna began, only to come up short as she thought about what she had just been told. "Wait, what?"

"You know what I'm talking about," Anya retorted. "You've let Willow go around Sunnydale for the past two months with the emotional baggage that her girlfriend was the one we've been trying to find, and she doesn't know that every reason she's been fighting as hard as she has, not to mention the reasons why she did so without our help, was a lie?"

"No!" Luna snapped back. "All of her efforts haven't been in vain. She's done very good work in protecting the Princess. It's just that…Tara's not the one she's been protecting."

Anya's question was abruptly cut off as she heard a bloodcurdling scream erupt from behind her.

Willow's initial surprise had long since faded, quickly replaced by the growing fear she felt for her beloved safety, and the disgust she felt about her own unwillingness to act to protect her. But more importantly, the growing and now unshakable feeling that this was not the first time what was taking place had occurred.

Every time she blinked, she saw the landscape around her change from the cold darkness of downtown Sunnydale to the ruined remains of a palace, a building she couldn't recognize, but felt more like home than her real home. Tara was here, too, clad in the armor of a warrior, clothing that at the same time seemed ill appropriate and perfectly acceptable.

But instead of the male form of Angelus, this person that had Tara's form was fighting a female clothed in a long purple dress, her brunette hair topped off by a golden crown, an appearance that was certainly at odds with the expert fighting skills she was showing off in fighting this person that looked like Tara.

It struck Willow how much this person that looked like Tara was different from the way Tara was now. Although Tara as she was now was certainly a capable fighter, more than holding her own against the one she fought, there was none of the confident swagger, the bold attacks and the almost egotistical way the Tara in her mind's eye conveyed as she fought her own battle.

"I really don't think that Tara would be capable of doing things like that," Willow thought to herself. "Then again, I never really thought Tara could be capable of doing the things she's doing now."

Turning towards Cordelia, she saw the pained look on her face as she rubbed her head. "You OK?"

"Yeah," her best friend replied. "Yeah, I'm fine. It's just that…I can't help but think…"

"Yeah," Willow replied as she brought her head back to the battle. "Please, baby. Please be OK." As she did so, she caught sight of Anya talking to Luna and Artemis, and realized that the two of them could be the only one who could help her to make sense of any of this.

Willow wondered for a moment why that thought came so quickly to mind. Luna had always been truthful to her, never giving her any reason to doubt that what she was saying was the truth. After all, she had never given any real reason why she should.

Just as soon as she thought this, however, her subconscious mind provided for her one case that verily disproved that.

Luna was waiting on top of the dresser when she entered the room. Willow could tell immediately that she looked troubled. "What's wrong?"

It did indeed make sense to her then. Looking back on it now, however, Willow had to admit that everything Luna had said that day didn't make sense. If her mother's years as a child psychologist had taught her nothing else, it was that thousands of people acted strangely every moment of every day, and that it would be incredibly difficult to make them rein in their natural impulses, even if it was for a good reason; and forgetting for a moment the fact that there was no real way to determine just how long this conflict with the Dark Kingdom would last, there was no realistic way that they could convince nearly six billion people to behave normally for any amount of time.

"I know Luna would only do it if she had a good reason," Willow told herself. "And protecting ourselves is a good reason. But how could she think for one moment that we could behave on a straight and narrow path without ever straying from it? It's human nature to grow and change and it's not something you can stop. What is it about us that makes that necessary?"

She then asked one other question: "What is it about me that makes that necessary?"

Buffy swung her head around quickly, finding that something was wrong. Noticing her, Cordelia turned to her. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know!" Buffy shouted back. "If I knew where she was, I wouldn't have said she had disappeared!" Calming down, she added, "But you can bet that she's up to no good."

When Willow didn't respond, Cordelia turned to her, finding her attention squarely fixed on the battle, giving no indication that she was noticing anything else.

Tara was trying her best, but it was becoming increasingly clear that her opponent was one step ahead of her. Willow knew she had to help, but no matter how hard she tried, her legs absolutely refused to move.

She watched as Tara blocked a strike, kneeling as the weight from the strike forced her down. Tara tried to hold her arms up, but Willow could clearly see them shaking, indicating that her best efforts were in vain. Very soon now, she would lose her weapon and be at the tender mercies of the one facing her.

The moment happened far too quickly, but to Willow, it went as slowly as a turtle's crawling walk. The sword was knocked away from Tara's hand, and without pause, the blade of her opponent was sent directly into her chest. Gasping, Tara turned to look in Willow's direction, her face pained with the failure of her effort.

She collapsed to the ground, the triumphant laughter of her opponent ringing through her ears. Willow blinked in an effort to clear her mind, the images she was seeing not what was taking place in the real world.

But as her vision refocused, she became very much aware of one fact: what had happened may have been a dream, but as she imagined it, it had also taken place in the real world, for while Angelus stood before Tara, the tip of his blade at her throat, Fred had driven her own weapon through Tara's back, and even now turned to look Willow directly in the eye.

"Look at this fallen warrior, Sailor Moon," she said. "This shall be you and your comrades soon enough."

Willow didn't hear the words. All she could hear was the sound of her own breathing and her own heartbeat, both of which were clearly getting out of control. The next thing she heard was an inhuman cry of pain, a noise that sounded unnatural to her own ears, and it took her a few moments to realize the truth.

It was a scream; a scream that came from her own mouth. Shoving Cordelia and Buffy aside as they vainly tried to block her, Willow rushed to Tara's side and turned her over. "Tara?! Baby?! Wake up! Please, wake up!"

Tara's eyes faintly opened, and Willow smiled faintly in reply. Perhaps things weren't as bad as she feared. Taking Tara's hand into her own, Willow tried to reassure her, knowing full well that what she was actually doing was doing her best to console herself.

"It's OK, baby," she said. "We'll…we'll help you. Make sure that you're all right."

Tara let out a chuckle that swiftly turned into a pained cough. "Don't lie to me, Willow. There…there shouldn't be any secrets between us."

Willow let out a mirthful chuckle at that, realizing the irony of Tara's words, an irony she herself must have realized as she added, "I…I guess it's kinda funny. If we had come to that conclusion sooner, maybe…maybe all of this could have…could have been…avoided."

Despite the situation, Willow found reason to chuckle at that. Her expression turned deathly serious, however, as Tara's arm went slack in her own and she fell back on the ground.

Gathering Tara into her arms, Willow tried to hold back in believing that the impossible had just happened. But no matter how hard she tried, she knew it to be true. Tara was dead, and there was nothing she could do about it.

Through the fog of emotions clouding her brain, Willow found a crystal clear image of a memory long forgotten. A memory of Tara…or rather, the person from her dream who had Tara's face; a person whose name she now knew.

Luna, Artemis and Anya rushed over as Willow made her way towards Tara's fallen body. Buffy and Cordelia, getting to their feet, looked to them, hoping to get some explanation as to what was going on.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Cordelia snapped. "Why didn't you tell us that the Princess was helping us fight the enemy?"

Buffy and Cordelia gaped at Anya in surprise at this sudden, and rather abrupt, answer. "What?"

"Tara isn't the Princess," Luna answered. "We let Willow…and you think she was because…because we didn't think you could handle knowing the truth."

"And what that would be?" Buffy asked, before Willow's cry brought her and the others' attention around to find Willow, who was still holding Tara's body, engulfed in a bright light, a light that drove Angelus and Fred back towards their comrades; they themselves shielding themselves from the light.

The light faded after a few moments, revealing a Willow whose appearance had dramatically changed. No longer wearing her Soldier uniform, she was now clad in a white dress, her blonde pigtailed hair reverting back to its natural red. And on her forehead…

"Yes," Luna said, seeing the look on the others' face as the truth dawned on them. "Willow is Princess Serenity."

Willow had no idea what had just happened to her. One moment, she had been so consumed by her emotional breakdown over what had happened to Tara that all outside sources of sensory immersion were automatically closed off to her. The next, she had been hit hard by a tidal wave of emotions and feelings, not only from herself and Tara, but Buffy's, Anya and Cordelia's. Even Fred, Angelus and the other enemies' emotional states were open to her, their feelings washing over her.

Intermixed with this swell of emotions was a second set of feelings; feelings that she knew also belonged to those present, but were different in such a way that it gave her pause to wonder whether or not the two distinct sets of emotions were indeed coming from the same people.

The wave of emotions and memories receded, being replaced by a feeling of tremendous power, power she knew could be used to help save Tara from dying of her wounds. Raising her arms, she held out her hand, palms facing one another, and focused her mind on channeling her newfound energy into a physical form through which it can flow.

The question came at Luna from each of the young women standing before her, and came at her with such surprise and ferocity that, even though she had been mentally prepared for this for some time, it still caught her off guard. "Yes," she replied.

An uncomfortable silence followed her confirmation, which gave the three girls cause to rethink what had happened over the past several months. Buffy looked back over the time she had spent with Willow, and found it difficult to imagine that she had been consorting with royalty this entire time. Cordelia felt incredibly guilty about learning this; the knowledge of this making her decision to leave the group more of a bad idea than she had convinced herself it had indeed been. Not only had she abandoned her friend, but she had also abandoned the one who needed her protection the most.

Anya, understandably, was the most upset, and was also the most concerned about where this new information would take them. More importantly, she worried about whether or not she and the others could trust Luna and Artemis ever again. But even though her mind was focused on all of that, she couldn't help but wonder how all of this was going to affect Willow. She certainly had been through a lot recently, and if nothing else, this was going to do little more than promise more of the same.

Suddenly wondering why the enemy hadn't acted on the inaction on their part, she quickly brought her attention back to the present, expecting them to be preparing to strike against Willow before she could do anything. She was about to warn the others to be ready for such an attack when she noticed that they were just as paralyzed into inaction as they were. For a moment, she wondered why it was that they weren't taking advantage of the situation.

And then she saw Willow raise her arms, palms facing one another, a small ball of light coalescing between her hands, reforming itself into the form of a large multifaceted jewel, its surface reflecting the light that surrounded it and the power that it contained within itself.

She realized what it was as she heard the choked gasps of surprise from Buffy and Cordelia, and Luna's confirmation of her curiosity.

Angelus hadn't the faintest clue what was going on. One minute, he had been content to let the young woman who rushed to the side of his defeated opponent, knowing that in a few moments, she and the others would follow her lead into the great beyond. The next, however, he found himself unable to move and saw, with one look to his side, that the others were similarly affected.

It was then that the light that had appeared grew brighter, engulfing all those present in its brightness. He tried to shield his eyes, but even despite that, it managed to penetrate his senses.

The moment it had done so, he felt a flood of memories flood unchecked, as if they were the water being contained within his mind by a floodgate. All of these memories felt so familiar, and yet strangely alien. One showed Xander and Oz engaging in an arm wrestling match, he himself leaning against a nearby tree watching the pair and offering each of them advice. It was a memory that was clearly not a falsehood, and yet he could not recall such an event occurring.

Another showed himself sparring with…no, it wasn't possible. He was fighting against the woman he had just defeated. But there was something different about her in this memory. She was wearing different clothing, her hair done up in a different fashion and her figure was subtly more muscular, but other than these trivial matters, she was indeed the same person he had just defeated.

A third memory came to mind, and though it was just as confusing, it soon brought about other feelings within him. He was at the ruins of a palace, the location of which escaped him. He was walking among the crumbled parapets and ruined fortification, behaving very much like the general of an army; obviously the army that had led the attack against this place. It was in doing this that he came across a most disturbing sight.

Strewn across the battlefield in front of him, bodies buried under the rubble, were his comrades. Spike was pinned down under a broken column, his sword lying mere inches from his outstretched arm. Xander and Oz lay nearby, pinned face up and face down under the ruins of what had once been a wall. He saw himself collapse to one knee, the sight knocking the breath out of him and shocking him more than he thought it would.

But not nearly as much as the guttural, inhuman noise that emerged from his mouth.

Angelus blinked, trying as hard as he could to clear his mind and thinks straight. None of these memories were familiar to him, and certainly did not gel with his memories of serving Faith faithfully, if reluctantly. But as much as those memories felt right and seemed true, these newly recovered memories felt just as, if not more, right.

The noise brought Faith before Queen Metallia, her pace fast, and yet hesitant at the same time. The Demon Queen was obviously upset about something; that much was obvious. Faith herself had begun to feel that something had gone wrong. It had been her hope that she could find out what this problem was and deal with it before Metallia found out about it.

That, apparently, was no longer possible. All she could do now was hope that whatever was wrong, it was not nearly as bad as she feared it was. Or, more accurately, the expected reprisal she would suffer at Metallia's hand was not as painful as she feared.

"Faith…," the raspy female voice boomed as she arrived in Metallia's chamber, kneeling out of respect and bowing her head in subservience.

Faith visibly relaxed, her entire demeanor changing in the blink of an eye as she realized that things were not as bad as she feared. "I am glad. She will be the instrument that brings about the end of the Sailor Soldiers."

"I had thought that the girl you had brainwashed would have been sufficient for that task," Metallia replied, a slightly chiding tone in her voice. "Do you fear that she may fail you in that task, as your other minions have failed you?"

Faith gritted her teeth, but kept her voice neutral as she replied, "They have not failed me yet, at least, not sufficiently to make their continued existence a detriment to our cause. Having the captured Soldier in our thrall will serve to weaken their resolve further, and this new element we shall introduce will break their spirits and shatter their remaining will.

Faith smiled faintly, relishing in the minor victory those words had brought her. Her happiness and good spirits were immediately darkened, however, as the room became engulfed in a brilliant white light.

Faith's question was cut off as Metallia erupted in a deep throated roar in response to the light. Whether it was because the light was harming her or energizing her, Faith could not tell. All that was apparent was that it was affecting her greatly, and there was only one thing that could do that.

"The Crystal! Its power has been unleashed, and is weakening the hold you have on your warriors! Bring them back before it is too late!"

Faith got to her feet and closed her eyes, using her powers to bring her warriors back as Queen Metallia commanded. She knew, however, that it was most likely too late. The powers of the Mystical Silver Crystal were beyond corruption, and once it was used in such a manner, there was little to no hope of reversing its effects.

As bad as it could be, Faith held out hope that it was not as bad as she feared. Even if it was, she knew that Xander and Oz would most likely continue to serve her, if only out of their misguided loyalty to her. And the power she had worked over Sailor Mercury simply heightened the anger she had already felt towards her former friends. With them most likely to remain under her control, she hoped that they would serve her long enough to find out who had used the Crystal and find an opportunity to snatch it away from her.

She simply hoped that her hold over them would stay together long enough to have that opportunity present itself.

Willow poured the energies she felt through the Crystal and over Tara, feeling her lover's wound heal itself under her gentle touch. Even in this controlled state, however, it washed out over the surrounding area, touching all that were nearby. For a fleeting moment, she wondered what effect it was having on those present, but dispelled it just as quickly. Nothing mattered to her more at that moment than Tara's safety.

No…this wasn't Tara Maclay. She was Princess Endymion of the Earth Kingdom of Elysion. Neither was she Willow Rosenberg, underachieving high school student that everyone but her knew had a special destiny in life. She was Princess Serenity, keeper of the Mystical Silver Crystal, daughter of Queen Serenity, and heir to the long destroyed Moon Kingdom.

Willow opened her eyes to find Tara looking back at her, a faint smile on her face. She also saw Buffy, Anya and Cordelia on one knee before her, eyes locked intently on her.

Letting go of Tara and setting her body back on the ground, Willow got to her feet, one question present, if faintly, on her mind.

Luna took a hesitant step forward, unsure of what was about to happen next. So much had happened in the past few minutes, and though everyone was clearly doing their best to go with it, she knew that the circumstances that called for that wouldn't last, leading everyone to ask questions and demand explanations and shout accusations at one another. "Willow?"

Hearing the voice, Willow looked down. "Luna?" She then brought her head up to look at the others. "Venus? Mars? Jupiter?"

"Willow?" Luna asked again, her voice radiating clear confusion at Willow's obvious lack of familiarity towards her friends.

Luna's tongue caught in her throat, only now realizing what was going on. "Princess?"

Willow smiled faintly. "It's good to see you, Luna." She looked towards the others. "It's good to see you all." Her forehead creased as she noticed something was wrong. "Luna, where is Mercury? I would have thought that she would be here with you?"

Luna hesitated, wondering how much she should say. Willow had obviously fallen deeply into the persona of Princess Serenity, and even though she deserved to know what had happened, there wasn't any possibility that, buried as deeply as it was, Willow's normal personality would be made aware of it. And there was also the possibility that, like Willow, Princess Serenity wouldn't feel comfortable learning about what had happened and the reasons for it.

Regardless, Luna knew she couldn't keep it a secret any longer. The truth had to be told. "She…was captured."

"The Dark Kingdom broke free of the imprisonment that your mother had trapped them in," Luna explained. "Artemis and I got you and your Guardians together in the hopes of stopping their attacks on Earth. We decided to awaken you as a Soldier first, reasoning that you would be best protected by fighting alongside the others. But there were some…complications. Even though for the most part you remained friends, you couldn't agree on what to do. That led to tensions flaring up between the five of you. Fred…Mercury always had confidence problems, and we tried our best to make her feel needed, but…but…"

"But despite that, the Dark Kingdom managed to capture her and manipulate her insecurities to turn her against us?" Willow asked.

"I…I told you that we had to find the Princess and keep her safe, but I kept from you the fact that the Princess was among you the entire time. I allowed you to believe that, even to the point where I allowed you to believe that Tara was the Princess, and all because I wanted to keep you safe."

"And if I hadn't done that, the five of you would have been able to come together much easier, Tara would not have been hurt and Fred would still be with us." Luna started to cry. "It's my fault, Princess. I've failed you."

Luna looked up to find Willow staring back at her, the faint smile still on her face. If she was upset at having been lied to, she certainly didn't show it. "You did what you thought was necessary in order to protect me. I would have expected no less from you."

Luna visibly relaxed. "Thank you, Princess. I'm glad that you agree with the actions I took to ensure your safety."

The look of appreciation on Willow's face disappeared, and her expression took on a hard edge. "I did not say that I agreed with your actions, Luna. Merely that I understood why you had undertaken them. That you chose to do so in the manner you did was very irresponsible of you."

"Your apology is neither requested nor required," Willow said, looking back towards Tara. "All that matters now is that Endymion has been healed from her injury. Once she has sufficiently recovered, we can get to work on formulating a plan to recover Mercury. After that…" She paused and raised a hand to her forehead.

Willow drew a haggard breath and muttered, "Fainting now." Before anyone could react, she collapsed to her knees and fell on her side, the dress she wore reverting back to her civilian clothes.

"What's wrong?" Cordelia asked as she and the others rushed to Willow's side. "Is she going to be all right?"

"I believe so," Luna answered, not exactly sure of how true that answer really was, but not wishing to aggravate an already tense situation. "The energies of the Silver Crystal must have really overwhelmed her."

"I'll say," Buffy couldn't help but quip, resetting Willow's upper body so that she lay straight on the ground. Anya, meanwhile, moved to Tara's side and picked up the small object lying beside her head and brought it over to Luna.

"Yes," Luna answered. "As the Princess, Willow was entrusted with its protection in the future. Now that it's been revealed, we'll all have to work together to make sure that the enemy doesn't get it."

"What about her?" Anya responded. "If she's not the Princess, she's not really someone we should be concerned about, right?"

Cordelia was about to respond to that when she looked over Anya's shoulder and found her voice caught in her throat. Buffy, Luna and Artemis followed her gaze, and likewise fell silent. Anya looked over her shoulder to find Tara getting to her feet.

"I think that what should be done, as far as I'm concerned, is not really any of your business," she said, obviously in response to Buffy's question. Realizing this, Buffy tried to cover her mistake.

"I'm sorry, Tara. I didn't mean it to come out that way. What I meant was…I mean…"

"I know what you meant, Buffy," Tara interrupted as she made her way over to Willow. "And like I said, it's none of your business." Bending over, Tara gathered Willow into her arms and started to walk away. Buffy and Cordelia moved to stop her, but stopped as Luna spoke up.

"Let them go. They've both learned a lot today, and they need to work it out on their own."

"In the meantime, we've got some things of our own to discuss," Artemis said. "We should head back to the Secret Base." He and Luna began to walk back down the street the way they had come, Anya and the others following after pausing for a few moments to watch as Tara's figure receded into the distance.

Willow awoke from what could only be described as a nightmare on a bed that was not her own. Taking a look at her surroundings, she immediately recognized where she was.

She went over her recent memory, her last thoughts before blacking out the sight of Tara's body being skewered by Fred's blade, and her shocked helplessness at seeing this as the life flowed out of Tara's body as quickly as she collapsed to the ground. Willow realized that the shock of seeing that had rendered her nearly catatonic, as she could recall nothing from that point on.

That explained her blackout and memory gap. It didn't, however, explain why she was here.

Moving to sit up, Willow wrapped her arms around her legs and began to sob. She had failed Tara. She had failed her friends. She had failed Luna. Most importantly, she had failed herself. "I wasn't strong enough to stop them. I wasn't strong enough to save Tara. She's dead, and I didn't do a thing about it. It's my fault! She's dead because of me!"

Willow snapped her head up immediately at the sound of that voice, telling herself that it was impossible for her to be hearing it. "It's not possible. It can't be true! It…it just can't be!"

But it was. Standing in the doorway, holding a glass of water in one hand, was Tara, her face a cheerful happiness that would have warmed Willow's heart had it not belonged to someone who by all rights should not be here in front of her now.

Even though this sounded entirely believable, Willow couldn't accept this that easily. "You…you can't be Tara. You've got to be one of the Dark Kingdom's monsters, playing weird mind games with me. Or maybe…maybe I'm still dreaming, and my subconscious is cooking up some kind of mental barriers designed to prevent me from accepting the truth…"

Willow knew that she was beginning to sound like her mother, and choked down the gag reflex that she had at thinking along those lines, even if they were certainly preferable to dwelling on the obvious. She then heard Tara…or whatever it was, begin to speak to her again, and brought her attention back to the words.

"Your name is Willow Danielle Rosenberg, the only daughter of Sheila and Ira Rosenberg. You've always wanted to have a younger sibling, and it really bugged you throughout your childhood, as you never had any friends to play with. Your best friend is Amy Madison, whom you've known throughout your entire life."

Willow thought it over. All of this certainly were things that the Dark Kingdom didn't know about, but that didn't prove conclusively that this was Tara she was talking to. "Nice try, but just because you know all of that doesn't mean that this isn't some kind of wonky, self induced dream I'm living out…"

"You're also Sailor Moon, defender of Love and Justice." Setting the glass down on the nightstand, Tara reached out and took Willow's hand into her own. Despite her reservations, Willow didn't immediately flinch or back away at the touch of Tara's skin against her own. Tara brought her fingers to the ring on Willow's ring finger. "I got this for you as a Christmas present. When you came over earlier today, I decided to give it to you early because…"

Tara hesitated, and Willow, who had begun to believe that all of this was real, found her beliefs shaken once again. She was about to wrench her hand free from Tara's grip when she finished her sentence.

"Because…I love you and wanted to give you something that would prove to you how much I do. I also wanted to give you something that would show you how much I was willing to do in order to be with you."

Understanding finally blossomed in Willow's mind and she leapt off the bed to envelop Tara in a fearsome hug. "Oh, Tara. I can't believe it. I…I thought that I had lost you."

"But you found me, Willow," Tara replied, running a hand through Willow's hair. "You've always been able to find me. Or rather, in this case, Princess Serenity found me."

"Luna lied to you," Tara said, her voice slightly pained. "I'm not Princess Serenity. You are."

"But why would she…" Willow began to say before stopping herself, the answer to her own question coming easily to mind as she recalled something she had thought of prior to her blackout. "Oh."

"You're taking this rather well, Willow," Tara observed. "If you don't mind my saying."

"Oh, sure," Willow said, chuckling mirthfully as she settled back down on the bed. "It's not every day you learn that you're actually the reincarnation of royalty." Realizing what she had said, she looked up at Tara. "I mean…well, you know."

"I do," Tara answered, moving to sit down beside Willow. "And even now, it still surprises me."

Willow let out a breathy chuckle at that before realizing what Tara had said. "Wait a minute. I thought you said…"

"I said that Luna lied to you about me being Princess Serenity," Tara clarified. "I never said she lied to you about me being a Princess."

Willow knew that Tara had always been sensitive and carefully guarded talking to anyone about her lack of memory with regard to her past. It was only because she had trusted her that Tara decided to reveal it to her in the first place. And it was for that reason that she had told Tara about the fact that she was the reincarnation of Princess Serenity. If she could be this way after learning that everything she had been told was a lie, then that could only mean one thing. "So…when I said you were the Moon Princess…"

"You were half right," Tara finished, her trademark half smile, half smirk still on her face, obviously finding this information more amusing that she really should have.

Willow tried to sift through the jumbled influx of memories to pick out something specific. Several things came readily to her. "I remember…I remember Fred…Fred was instructing me in mathematics, and being surprised that I had taken to heart so quickly formulas and equations that even she couldn't figure out. I remember that Fred…Buffy…Cordelia…Anya…they were all my friends back then. And you…"

The image of Tara as she was back then formed in Willow's mind, as before nothing like Tara as she was now. It was still Tara, but enough about her was different that Willow could readily see them as two different people, even if they shared the same face.

"I know," Willow agreed, Tara's words bringing to mind the memory of that woman leading a massive attack on the palace that she now knew was more like her home than her actual home; seeing her friends fighting these people in an attempt to protect her and dying for their efforts. And the inhuman, triumphant cackling laugh as that same young woman drove her blade deep into Tara's chest.

"It won't happen again," Tara reassured Willow almost as if she could detect what Willow was thinking about. "We won't let it. We'll work together; you, me and your friends. We'll rescue Fred, and then send that woman and those who follow her back to where they belong."

Tara wrapped an arm around Willow, the redhead accepting the comforting touch readily. It just felt right, the two of them like this. Willow couldn't imagine why anyone would want to break them apart.

Anya knew that her words were bound to bring about shocked exclamations from those who sat around the table, but even that knowledge didn't help prepare her for how those assembled at it reacted.

"You can't make them break up," Cordelia said. "They've been together for a lot longer before this whole situation happened."

"And even if we can get Fred back, and I'm not going to lie to you and say that's going to be easy or even possible, we're going to need all the help we can get," Buffy added. "We can't tell them to separate without having a good reason for doing so."

"Because it was their love that caused the tragedy of the past life in the first place," Anya explained. "And I for one don't want to see it repeated here." She turned to Cordelia, a look of anger on her face as she shook her hand, which still held the Mystical Silver Crystal. "I would have thought being exposed to the power of this thing would have helped you stitch together those wayward flashes you had into full memories of your life in the past." Anya then brought her anger to Luna and Artemis. "You knew of this too, didn't you? Was this also some of the information you decided to keep from us for our supposed benefit?"

"We knew that the Princess and Endymion were likely to find one another in the future," Artemis said. "It was her mother's wish that they would find each other in this life and be happy. But we didn't expect things to go as badly as they have."

"I find that hard to believe," Anya scoffed. "Especially considering that it appears you have had a hand in guiding this ship as it headed directly into the iceberg."

"That's enough," Luna snapped. "Can't you see what's going on here? We're starting to fall apart and bicker amongst ourselves again. It was doing that which got us into this problem to begin with."

"Luna's right," Buffy agreed. "We let ourselves go our own ways and argue about what everyone else was doing so much, we couldn't help but allow the enemy to cut our noses off despite our faces."

Anya moved to sit down. "I know. It's as much my fault as anyone else's. I told Willow that doing what I was doing set me down a dark path, made me see things only in black and white terms. My…affliction certainly didn't help things much. But she's allowed me to see that maybe, just maybe, I can look on the bright side of things without things collapsing around me." She turned to Cordelia, an apologetic look on her face. "It's even made me realize that…having a friend can sometimes be more important than having a comrade."

Cordelia didn't know what to say. Of all of them, she and Anya had the rockiest of relationships since they all first met, and it would have seemed impossible that they could get along. And even though Anya hadn't said it, it was as close to an apology as she had ever come. She smiled and nodded, letting Anya know that she had gotten the message.

"So what do we do about this?" Buffy asked, picking up the Silver Crystal and examining it under the room's light.

"We need to give it back to Willow," Luna replied. "It does belong to her, after all."

"I don't think that's a good idea," Anya said, drawing irritated glares from all but Luna. At this, she tried to explain her thinking. "It's not that I don't trust her, but I don't think she needs to have any more pressure and stress put upon her."

"This coming from the one most responsible for dumping it on her in heaping shovelfuls," Buffy not so silently muttered.

"You can't judge her current behavior on what she's done in the past," Cordelia said, coming to Anya's defense. "At least she's trying to make up for it. What are we doing?"

The room became uncomfortably silent after Cordelia's question, nobody finding the courage to answer the question. The silence continued for several more moments before Luna spoke up again. "We should give the Crystal back to Willow. If there's anyone with whom it would be safe, it's her."

The others nodded in silent agreement, Buffy hand the Crystal to Anya, who put it into her purse. "Willow should be home by now," Luna continued. "Let's all go over there and do our best to cheer her up."

A surprise awaited the three young women and two felines as they traveled to Willow's home in the cold darkness of the winter night, arriving at Willow's home nearly half an hour later; for it wasn't Willow who answered the door at Cordelia's knock, but her mother.

"I'm afraid not," Sheila answered, her brow crinkling in thought. "Isn't she supposed to be with you?"

Cordelia looked back at Buffy and Anya, hoping that one of them could come up with an excuse to explain Willow's absence. "Um…guys?"

Buffy looked at Anya, at a loss for words. Anya stared blankly back, herself unable to think of an explanation. Just when the situation looked grim, Cordelia exclaimed, "Oh, now I remember!"

Cordelia stammered, trying as best she could to explain herself without making it sound too forced. "Well, she…I mean Willow. She…That is, we…we all got together for a…"

"A study date?" Sheila repeated, her tone of voice indicating that she wasn't at all convinced.

"Yeah," Cordelia nodded, hoping that she could quell Sheila's concern before it had a chance to grow to unreasonable levels. "The four of us got together to study for…for our trigonometry test."

"But today was the last day of school for two weeks," Sheila said, confused by why her daughter would get together to study with her friends when there wasn't going to be any school for the next fourteen days.

"Really?" Cordelia asked, a forced cheer in her voice as she turned to look at Buffy and Anya, her wide smile changing to an angered ‘what- the-hell-were-you-thinking' look. "I completely forgot about that."

Sheila's hardened expression softened somewhat. "Cordelia, I know that you and Willow are good friends, but even I would have suspected that you would have caught on to her strange behavior by now."

"Staying out all hours of the night, talking to her pet cat, spending all of her time with that…girlfriend of hers," Sheila rattled off Willow's supposed strange behaviors as if they were part of a list she had been keeping to catalogue her daughter in some medical journal, and those she was doing it to couldn't help but feel unnerved by how Willow's mother was treating her behind her back. And to top it off, it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what she meant by "that girlfriend of hers." It was all they could do to keep themselves from saying anything that would make the situation worse.

Realizing her bad manners, or perhaps realizing that she was speaking ill of her daughter in front of her friends, Sheila regained her composure. "Would you like to come inside and wait for her?"

The girls made their way inside the house and went into the living room, finding the television on and tuned to the evening news. They sat down as, to their surprise, the news turned to coverage of the aftermath of the battle they had just undertaken.

"Downtown Sunnydale is in chaos tonight, as local law enforcement struggles to contain and determine the cause of a massive attack on a local eating establishment and the surrounding area. Joining me to provide some details is one of the eyewitnesses to the assault, having just completed her statement to the police."

Buffy drew a hissed breath and looked at Cordelia as the camera panned back to reveal Amy standing beside the news reporter, realizing now that it must have been her that they heard screaming inside the Doublemeat as it started to go to pieces; the need to take care of the enemy making any attempt to rescue her impossible.

So how was it that she had managed to survive the ordeal, the footage proving what had be all too obvious at the time; that anyone trapped within was almost certainly a goner?

These were questions that the news reporter obviously had, as well. "Miss Madison, could you describe to us to the best of your recollection just what happened here?"

"Well," Amy began. "One minute I was having a quick pre- dinner snack and thinking about what to do on my winter break, the next I was sent flying out of my seat as the wall exploded in behind me. I woke up to find myself trapped under a block of wall as this strange guy with a sword…"

"Yeah, a sword," Amy repeated, all but annoyed that her story was about to be questioned; it no doubt already having been done so by the police. "Anyways, this guy walks up to me and is about to turn me into shish kebab, when…"

"Well, you're not going to believe me," Amy continued after a moment's hesitation. "But this woman comes into the building, wearing a nutty tuxedo ensemble, and proceeds to waste the guy who was about to kill me and get me out of there."

"That's, um…" the reporter said, his voice betraying the uncertainty he felt about Amy's tale and the fact that it was being broadcast to thousands, if not millions, of people. "That's an very interesting story…"

"I'm not making it up!" Amy shouted. "It's what really happened! Do you think that if it didn't, I wouldn't have suffered a broken leg?"

Whether by design or sheer coincidence, the camera panned back at the reporter's words to reveal that Amy, supposedly having broken her leg, was in fact standing on both feet, no evidence that she was using something to support her weight.

"Yeah, I know that I don't have a broken leg," Amy huffed, her words clearly being said not only to the reporter, but to those at home who, like the reporter, were beginning to doubt the validity of her tale. "I can't really explain what happened, but I was lying on a bus bench, fighting the urge to black out, when suddenly this bright light comes in out of nowhere and blankets the entire area. And the next thing I know, my leg's healing itself. Within moments, you couldn't tell that it was broken at all…"

"The Crystal," Anya breathed, her hand unconsciously gripping her purse tighter and looking at Buffy and Cordelia, whose injuries during the battle had miraculously healed themselves.

The reporter, meanwhile, in a not too obvious attempt to divert attention away from Amy, abruptly brought himself back into focus. "I'm sorry, miss. I'm getting word now that one of the security cameras from one of the nearby shops was able to pick up some footage of what happened. We've been given permission to broadcast it to our viewers at home. We apologize in advance for the poor quality of the video."

The screen then abruptly filled with static, intermixed with video of what had taken place hours before. Most of it was unwatchable, but there were certain moments when it could be clearly seen that Willow and the others were facing off against Angelus, Fred and the others. None of it was able to capture their names being spoken aloud, but the fact that it existed at all, and clearly showcased what was going on, was troublesome enough.

The heads of Anya and the others snapped around as they heard Sheila's voice, seeing her emerge from the kitchen and watch what was happening on screen. For a moment, the three of them realized that they had just turned into the proverbial deers in the headlights of an oncoming truck, Sheila no doubt watching what was playing out on screen and recognizing four of the people on it as her daughter and the ones currently sitting inside her living room. Knowing that there was nothing they could do to convince her otherwise, they prepared themselves the best they could for a dressing down.

Instead of delivering one, however, Sheila moved over to the coffee table, picked up the remote, and started to change channels. "The things they put on TV these days." She clicked through several more channels until she reached a station that was broadcasting an old "Simpsons" episode. "There we go," she said, setting the remote down on the coffee table, the edge in her voice loosening somewhat. "Personally, I find this program rather degrading, but I've studied enough tests to know that it's popular enough with kids in your age bracket."

The phone rang at that moment, and Sheila went off to answer it. As soon as she was out of sight, Anya glared at Cordelia. "Our age bracket? Who does she think we are? Laboratory specimens?"

"At least she only sees you as that," Buffy countered. "She actually knows me." At Anya's curious glance, she continued, "I came over here one time with Willow, and I swear to God, she never could say my name correctly."

"Bunny," Buffy sighed, drawing a laugh from Anya, which in turn drew an irritated glare from her. "It's not funny!"

"I think we have more important things to worry about," Artemis said at that moment, keeping his voice low so as to not attract unwanted attention. "We've been trying to operate under the radar of the local authorities, but this has made that impossible, and made matters more complicated than they already were."

"I didn't think that was possible," Anya muttered, no one choosing to point out her rudeness. It was, after all, exactly what they were all thinking.

"It's worse now, however," Luna said, her voice equally hushed. "Before, we've only had to deal with the threat that the Dark Kingdom represented to the Earth, but we can't continue to do that as effectively as we have been when we have to worry about dealing with them and reprisals from those we have to protect at the same time."

"With all that's going on now, it's enough to make you wonder how things could get any worse," Cordelia sighed.

Sheila chose that moment to reenter the room. "I'm sorry, girls. You're going to have to leave."

"That was Willow who called," Sheila explained. "She's at… her girlfriend's, and she's decided that, with the exception of Christmas Day…she's going to be spending the entire winter break at…her girlfriend's house." She sighed, and tried to salvage the situation as best she could. "You're all invited too, as well. That is, if you haven't anything better to do."

"Living on your own allows you to do whatever you want whenever you want," Buffy said. "Besides, it'll be nice to spend Christmas with some friends, having been on my own for so long."

"Guess you can count me in, as well," Cordelia added, not really wanting to say yes, but after hearing Anya and Buffy agree to come, not really wanting to say no, either.

"Excellent," Sheila said, clearly happy that her life had not spun totally out of control. "Anyways, I've got to call my husband and let him know what's going on. You girls can show yourselves out, can't you?" Without bothering to wait for a reply, she turned back to the kitchen and walked off, muttering under her breath, "Honest, I don't know what's gotten into her lately. If she wasn't doing better in school…"

Anya and Buffy turned icy stares on Cordelia as soon as Sheila was gone. Seeing them do this, Cordelia threw her hands up. "Yeah, I know. I'm sorry."

"With any luck, the enemy is having problems of their own to deal with," Luna said as the group moved to depart, Anya going to Willow's room and leaving the Crystal on her dresser, where it would be safe until Willow came to claim it. "And we can also hope that this experience has put them off doing anything overt against us in the future."

Faith kept her back turned as she heard her warriors approach, her decision to do so a choice on her part to keep them unaware of the worry she felt for what was most likely going on in their minds. She felt them stop short of her throne, and yet she still did not turn to face them. It was still out of the desire to keep them from realizing how worried she was, but was also due to the fact that she wanted to remind them who was their Mistress, and who held the power of life and death over them.

She would speak to them at her convenience, not when they demanded her to do so. It was a last, desperate attempt to hold on to some of the power she knew was, at this very moment, slipping away from her.

"My Queen," Xander said, obviously attempting to save face. "Please forgive us. We were…"

"Be silent," Faith spat as she finally turned around to look at her warriors. Xander and Oz were both on one knee, showing the respect to her authority that they had always given her. Mercury, while not doing likewise, at least showed some resemblance of respect to her. Or, at the very least, did not appear to have an awareness of what she and Metallia had done to her. Even if she did, Faith consoled herself with the knowledge that her latent insecurities towards her friends and the overpowering urge to act against them was stronger than the power of the Crystal could bury.

The same could not be said for Spike and Angelus. Both of them carried themselves with the air of men who would prefer not to be in her presence at all. One look at the two of them, and Faith knew that if they had the opportunity to do so, they would move to sever her head from her body. Faith knew they would never have a chance, of course, but the fact that the very idea was present in their minds distressed her.

Faith looked at each of them, making sure she had their full and undivided attention. "I am gravely disappointed in all of you. You have dishonored the name of our great leader, your own reputations, and worst of all, you have dishonored me." She moved to sit on her throne, her features transforming into pure unadulterated disgust and rage. "I should rid myself of your presence, and I have every right to do so."

She allowed a small smile to form on her face. "That is, of course, each of you could give me a reason to allow your continued existence." Truth be told, she did not want to give them this opportunity to save their lives since, aside from Mercury, their continued existence was detrimental to her plans. Thus her question served a twofold purpose: it would give each of them an opportunity to speak in their own defense to give their pitiful lives further meaning, while at the same time provide an indication as to how badly the energies of the Crystal had affected them.

Xander was the first to speak. "My Queen, I know I have failed you, but I wish to atone for that failure. I could hardly allow myself to do so were you to take my life, though it is well within your rights to do so. But I beg you, my Queen, grant me a reprieve in which I could bring about the destruction of your enemies."

Faith allowed herself to smile at that. As much as she despised Xander's devotion to her, it did indeed have its moments where it served her. He would do anything to please her, even stand by her as the very ceiling collapsed around them.

"I concur with my comrade, my Queen," Oz added, the tone of his voice telling Faith that what he was saying was more out of a desire to save his own hide and gain favor with her than anything else. "We have indeed failed you, but our failures only embolden us to work harder to accomplish your will. Their will come a time when our failures have made us stronger than our enemies, and on that day, we shall crush them like the insignificant bugs that they are. All we ask is that we be given an opportunity for that moment to arrive."

His words were those of a man teetering on the edge of the brink, and Faith knew this well. Nevertheless, it was a clear indication on his part to his desire to please her, and so she could rest easy knowing that half of her warriors were still under her control.

Now came the hard part. Turning towards Spike, she asked, "What about you? What reason could you give me to allow you to continue living?"

This reply caught Faith off guard; it was certainly not the response she would have expected from him, not when he was, among the five of them, the one with the most reason to hate and despise the Soldiers, perhaps even more so than Fred herself. "You do not know? How can you say that? Perhaps you have forgotten the injury one of their numbers dealt to you. Surely you still wish to see the death of the one who caused that to you."

The question caused a conflict within Spike's mind. It was certainly true that he wished grave harm against Sailor Venus, for she was an enemy to the Dark Kingdom and had bested him in personal combat, a feat few had been able to accomplish and survive to tell about it. But on the other hand, he was now beginning to realize that she had been in the right to do this to him, as he was on the side of evil, being manipulated to serve an evil force that sought the destruction of the new home of his rightful master.

No, he was not an unfeeling monster, in service to this wretched hag. He was an honorable warrior, one of the guardians of the Princess of Elysion, and he would not allow himself to be used anymore.

The ironic thing was, that at that very moment, the only way to ensure his survival and to seek out the Princess, was to continue to appear under Faith's spell. "Yes," he said, infusing his voice with more anger than he really felt, hoping that it covered up the fact that he was disgusted by the sight of the woman before him. "Yes, I do."

"Good," Faith replied, his response obviously pleasing her. She then turned her head towards Angelus, her eyes meeting his. It became obvious to the others that the moment this happened, a battle of wills had begun between the two of them. One thing was certain to the four who watched this: one way or another, there was going to be a problem.

Angelus crossed his arm over his chest. "I can't give you a reason why you should spare me. In fact, I haven't the slightest clue why you have allowed us to live this long."

Faith's eyes narrowed dangerously. "If that is what you believe, why should I not kill you and the others now?"

Angelus grinned, a sight that sent a shiver down Faith's spine. "You want to kill us, thinking that we are a threat to you, and justifying your decision to do so by claiming that we are of no further use to you. But even though you want to deny it, the fact of the matter is that we are still useful to you. And although it serves your purposes to kill us, we are more valuable to you alive than dead."

It was all Faith could do to keep her emotions under control; the most overt sign that she was angered by this being the growl that emerged from the back of her throat. It was true, every word of it. Though eliminating them was the easiest way to ensure her own safety, it was also the surest way to her own downfall, for with them gone, there were none among the Dark Kingdom that could be capable of dealing with the Sailor Soldiers, not even Mercury, who was more useful to her as a deterrent rather than a capable warrior.

Getting to her feet, she gave Angelus a cold stare before turning her attention to everyone else. "That is certainly true," she said. "However, the four of you are, at present, of no further use to me."

"What?!" Xander exclaimed, interpreting those words as an all but certain death sentence.

Faith smiled. "No, my dear Xander. I shall be allowing you and your comrades to survive for now. But you will not be needed to fight the Soldiers." She looked at Mercury, who nodded slightly in reply and turned to leave.

"No," Faith continued. "I feel that, after failing with the overt strike with the sword, a surgical strike with the dagger would be more…effective."

Willow walked up the steps of Sunnydale High two weeks later, reflecting on what had happened during the past fourteen days. She had been living at Tara's house for the entire winter break, the only time she had come home before yesterday being Christmas Day. And though her relatives were more than happy to see her, the fact that her mother all but ignored her made her feel as if she and Tara should have spent the day at Tara's own home.

Her friends had been uncomfortable as well, though they had the excuse of still being uncomfortable with what had happened days earlier. They were polite to her mother and relatives, of course, it being obvious that they were there more for her mother than for her, but they never bothered to talk to her directly, the only time they had done so was before the guests had arrived, when they had given the Silver Crystal back to her, Anya saying to consider it "an early Christmas present."

At least the Dark Kingdom hadn't done anything since their last attack two weeks ago. Willow and the others were prepared to believe that they had dealt them a near crippling blow from which they could never recover, but Artemis quickly set them straight on the situation: "Just because they have backed off doesn't mean that they've been beaten. They'll strike again, but they'll do so in a more subtle way, and we all have to be on the lookout for it when it happens."

It was clear that recent events had unsettled the four of them more than their falling out, and that it was going to take time for the trust between them, which had only recently begun to form, to make itself apparent. "I just hope it happens, soon," Willow thought. "This whole situation started because we couldn't trust one another. I'd hate to think how things could get any worse than this."

Willow rounded a corner heading for class, and caught sight of something that shocked her. Standing near a set of lockers at the far end of the hallway was Fred, talking to Jonathan and some of the other students, appearing for all the world as if there was nothing wrong. And as far as Jonathan and the others was concerned, that was certainly true.

But Willow knew better. "Fred? Here? This has got to be the Dark Kingdom's subtle strike that Artemis was talking about. I've got to find Buffy and the others. Maybe we…"

Before Willow could think any further, she was suddenly knocked off her feet as someone bumped into her from behind, papers flying everywhere as Willow hit the ground. She got up to her knees and tried to look for Fred, but she, Jonathan and the others had disappeared.

"I'm sorry," came a bubbly female voice from behind her. Turning, Willow saw a girl about her age with long blonde hair and blue eyes wearing a pink skirt and matching high heeled shoes move to pick up some of the dropped papers. "Are you OK?"

"Yeah," Willow replied, moving to assist the girl in collecting her belongings. "Are you OK?"

"Yeah," the girl nodded, picking up a final paper that looked like a schedule and giving it another look. "I was looking through this, trying to find my way to class when I bumped into you. I'm really sorry."

"That's OK," Willow said, a small pang of guilt forming in the pit of her stomach. This girl was apparently new to Sunnydale High, and met all of the requirements for not having any real friends. Willow could sympathize with her completely. For most of her high school tenure, she had been the same way. "What's your first class?"

Willow really didn't feel comfortable with that idea, but didn't really feel like saying anything negative that would hurt her feelings. Nodding, she accepted the arm and gave it a shake. "I'm Willow Rosenberg, by the way."

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The Moonlight Densetsu Chronicles
A Dramatic Surprise!
The Moon Princess Appears

by SithLordWiccan

Copyright © 2007

decepticons_4_ever@hotmail.com

The Moonlight Densetsu Chronicles A Dramatic Surprise! The Moon Princess Appears

by SithLordWiccan

Copyright © 2007

decepticons_4_ever@hotmail.com

The Moonlight Densetsu Chronicles
A Dramatic Surprise!
The Moon Princess Appears