The youma was vanquished, and Venus breathed a sigh of relief. She was starting to wonder if it was a coincidence that now these monsters were appearing, they were always in close proximity to Usagi. Had the enemy found out about her yet? But if so… wouldn’t they have targeted her more directly? In light of all the attacks, she felt even less inclined to drag their princess into this, but she knew she couldn’t just leave it alone. Usagi had seen Jupiter and Mercury transform—it was too late to fix it. But if Usagi started hanging out with them, she’d just keep being in danger. And she hadn’t remembered yet—she was defenseless.

Venus massaged her throbbing temple. She wasn’t left with a lot of choices, was she?

“It seems not, and it’s probably for the better. We shouldn’t force the memories, but maybe we can explain to her that we’re… well, what we are. But maybe without all the Silver Millennium things.”

She moved slowly back into the arcade, and saw Usagi talking to Luna. Oh, great. So that jig was up, too.

“U-Usagi-san…?” she called out softly, the foreign name feeling strange on her tongue. She had been Serenity to Venus for millennia. And Venus didn’t know if she could handle her princess looking at her like she was a stranger.

Mars listened as Jupiter and Venus discussed telling the Princess everything. Mars didn't agree with the thought of telling the Princess the truth because then she might awaken. That could cause more trouble for everyone in the long run and the appearance of the Silver Crystal could lead to their destruction. Whatever Venus decided, Mars knew it would be a good choice. 

She heard Venus make the decision to tell her what they were, senshi. So Mars followed Venus back into the Arcade to the Princess and Luna. It looked like Luna was talking to her, so that cat was out of the bag... Mars watched as Venus walked to the Princess and called her new name. This was going to be hard for both her and Venus, they didn't want to lose her again and Mars was scared to see what would happen when she found out about their existence as senshi.

Luna gave her a tired look when Usagi picked her up. She loved the princess and all, but she could be a bit unfocused at times. 

"Regular cats don't talk, so I didn't either," she said. "I didn't want to stand out with my skill." Honestly, was she just a novelty on this planet? She was a proud Mauian, not a fancy pet. She wiggled out of Usagi's grip while she was distracted, and edged around the counter's corner to check on the battle. She hadn't heard much noise after they took the youma back outside.

"I think it's over..." Luna said, turning back to Usagi. The monster was dust, leaving only the senshi standing in the street. At Venus's call, she took a few steps into the open. "Come on, we need to get out of this place before it collapses on us!" Luna sprinted out of the broken building, leading Usagi to the other girls. 

"Venus, we should find a more secluded place to sort this out," she said as she came up to her. "After that attack, they could send another youma our way if we don't leave while we have the chance."

Hearing someone call her name, Usagi was distracted [/size]from trying to spot Makoto and Ami. When Luna told her it was time to go, the young girl only nodded, following her cat out, uncharacteristically quiet. As they approached the other girls, Usagi couldn’t help but feel that she was suddenly out of her depth.
 
So the one that had spoken to her was named Venus. Usagi filled that name away for later.
 

“How did you know my name?” she asked, blurting the question out as the thought occurred to her. How had she known Usagi’s name? As far as she remembered, she hadn’t been introduced although it was possible that Ami or Makoto told her…

Mercury followed behind Venus and Mars, glancing at Jupiter for some hint of reassurance. They were in so much trouble - Usagi could awaken any second now, and if that happened...their mission was a failure. And it would be Mercury's fault.

So many things could go wrong in the next several minutes that it made Mercury's head spin. There was too many uncontrolled variables in this mission, too many diverse outcomes. Their first priority would be getting Usagi to safety, but where would they take her? Surely not her house - if the enemy was watching, they would practically be telling them exactly where to find the princess. Maybe...their ship?

Mercury was snapped out of her thoughts by Usagi's question. She immediately jumped to answer: "I told her. We'll answer your questions soon, but right now we need to get you somewhere safe, alright?" Mercury turned to Venus. "The base?"

A more secluded place? But the only place she knew of was…

Well, they probably needed to bring Usagi there anyway. At this rate, what Venus really wanted to do was keep Usagi there where she would certainly be safe, since clearly being out in the open was no longer a good strategy. The Dark Kingdom was closing in, and soon they would certainly figure out that she was the princess…

When Usagi asked how she knew her name, Venus smiled sadly, having to resist answering the only way she wanted, Because you’re my princess. Because I know you better than anyone else.

“I will explain everything once we get out of here. Will you come with us, please? We will keep you safe, I promise.”

Mercury had suggested the base, which was pretty much what Venus had thought of when Luna brought it up. “Yes. Let’s get into this alley and detransform so we don’t attract attention on our way there,” she directed them to a side alley beside Crown. If the enemy saw four senshi traveling together with a civilian, that would pretty much be like pointing a giant arrow to Usagi saying ‘HERE’S THE PRINCESS’.

“Mercury, scan to make sure there are no enemies watching before we proceed,” she instructed.

Usagi silently regarded the blonde in front of her. She seemed sad, and felt drawn to her in the same way that she had with Ami and Makoto, knowing instinctively that she could somehow make it better, but she not knowing how to exactly. 

“I trust you,” she said, smiling. She knew deep in her heart that she could trust these girls with her life, but chose not to think about it too much, her attention drawn to the mention of a ship. 

“Ship like space ship?” she could feel the excitement of a seeing a real life space ship bubble up, feeling herself bouncing on her toes, unable to keep still. This was so cool! It almost seemed like that manga she had been reading a few months ago where there were heroines who had arrived on earth to protect it from the evils of the universe.

Mars was very hesitant about bringing Usagi into their world. Things were difficult for her and Venus without being able to be in her life, but bringing her into it this way was a scary thing for Mars. What if Usagi was going to go through the same fate as the princess had. The enemy is back and they were after power, after this girl who's the reincarnation of Princess Serenity. How were they going to explain what was going on without bringing her into her old life? Without putting her in danger?  Mars shook her head and looked at Venus, she knew that if anyone could figure this out, it would be Venus, she trusted her with her life.

After checking to make absolute sure there were no enemies around, the senshi dropped their transformations and took Usagi to Juuban Park. The park was partially a forest, and deep within the clusters of trees was a small cave. To onlookers, the cave was just an empty rock formation, but in reality, it had become the entrance to a makeshift hideout a year ago. 

Deep inside the cave was where the ancient Silver Millennium space vessel had been parked, and when the group approached, the air shimmered as the cloaking device disabled itself. The ship was about as large as the first floor of Usagi's house, and its silver metal had been rusted to a degree by the strains of time travel. It was sleek and curved, like something out of a sci-fi film, and shaped like an over-sized jet fighter. There was a small glass dome towards the front, and the wings were flat and had a sharp, curved edge to them. Two large thrusters were built behind the tail. Marked on the side was the ship's name in a script that was unreadable to anyone from Earth. The S.M.L-Phoebe was a self sustaining vehicle, able to charge its engine with sunlight, and built with healing chambers, beds, and a food pantry for its occupants.

A hatch hissed and unsealed itself, and the oval door on the ship's side slid open to reveal a white cat with a golden crescent on its head. The cat's eyes widened when they fell on Usagi.

"Don't worry, Artemis, she's supposed to be here," Luna said. He relaxed the fur on his back, but still looked stunned. 

"What happened to our plan? I thought we were going to try and keep this all a secret?" he asked. What if the princess awoke?

Venus walked into the ship as the door opened, finding Artemis in the control room as expected. The cat immediately looked alarmed at the sight of Usagi, but thankfully Luna explained the situation quickly.

“We couldn’t stick to the plan. A monster ambushed us at the arcade, and the choice was between transforming on sight and letting her die. You understand why we had to choose the former.”

She glanced at Usagi, wondering what she was thinking about all this. “The memory is still intact, however,” she added, to let Artemis know that beyond knowing the girls were senshi, Usagi still had no idea who she really was. “We should keep it that way, right?” she asked of her advisor.

Mercury stayed close to Usagi, keeping her eye on her incase anything should happen. She felt as if the teenager was a ticking time bomb, and it was only a matter of time until she awakened as the princess. Everything they were doing was dangerous. They couldn't just keep Usagi locked in here until they managed to defeat the Dark Kingdom, so how could they possibly protect her if she did happen to awaken? 

Different theories and strategies began to form in Mercury's head, and so she stored them away for later discussion. Right now, she needed to focus on what Artemis and Luna wanted them to do about this. No doubt poor Usagi was as confused as ever, but what all could they reveal without triggering her memories? Should they lie?

Mercury looked at Artemis for guidance, hoping he had some idea in his head.

Artemis nodded, looking more tired than the average cat should. 

"Yes, of course. That's one of our main goals," Artemis said. They had to defeat the Dark Kingdom and preserve the Princess's Silver Crystal at all costs, even if she had to stay mostly ignorant. It was the only way she'd be completely safe. He looked at Usagi, changing his expression to a more cheerful one. 

"Sorry for dragging you into this, but to sum up what's going on here as simply as possible, we're, um... aliens. We came to Earth to protect it from things like the monster you saw today. They work for an organization that wants to destroy this planet, and we're trying to find and defeat them. This ship is our home base, in a way."

There was another talking cat? Usagi could barely contain her excitement, rocking on her feet as she took in the sights around her.
 
“Aliens?” she blinked, her attention refocusing on the white cat in front of her. “I thought aliens were supposed to be green and tiny with really big heads and big black eyes. You don’t look like that. Are you wearing a disguise?” Her words almost blended in her excitement.
 
“Wait, how do I know you’re really aliens?” The girls looked as human as Usagi did and the cats, well, they could be robots, right? Really, really good robots. “If you’re really aliens, where are you from?”

Artemis managed to tell the truth to Usagi without divulging the critical information, which was quite impressive of him. But this had always been kind of Artemis’ thing, so Venus wasn’t really surprised. She turned to Usagi, wondering how she would react to any of this. Normal people would probably be skeptical at the word ‘alien’, but then again, Usagi had just witnessed a lot of supernatural things today and she was talking to a cat.

Venus couldn’t help but giggle at her words. That was the Serenity she knew; naïve and always so full of wonder. She was achingly reminded of how the princess used to make her laugh in just the exact same way.

“Don’t believe everything you hear about aliens. I’m originally from Venus,” she explained.

She wondered if she should have said they were from the Moon instead, but she worried mentioning that might trigger Usagi’s still slumbering memories.

"G-green with big black eyes?" Artemis asked, extremely confused. What sort of alien was she referencing?

Luna covered her face with a paw in exasperation. She should have expected Usagi to bombard them with questions like this. "They're only disguised to look young enough to go to school," Luna explained. "And for the purpose of blending in more smoothly with the other people in this area."

Jupiter looked slightly offended by her description. "We don't look anything like that..." she said crossing her arms. What kind of weird rumors were going around Earth now? "I guess we're sort of disguising ourselves, but we don't look very different from this. I still get stared at anyway..." Looking into a mirror and seeing a watered down version of of herself was a little frustrating. Before this, she was confident in her physical appearance, but being judged over and over again by her "peers" did wear down her self esteem a bit after a while, especially when he couldn't fight back much. "And I'm from Jupiter." There was a hint of pride in her voice.

Watching the Princess interact with the others, asking them questions about where they were from as if meeting them for the first time, only made Mercury think about how long it had been since they had been together and happy. It shouldn't have been like this. If they hadn't failed in their mission—if Serenity had survived—they could hear her cheerful voice and see her bright smile every single day, always directed at them. With everything that had occurred with the monster they protected her from, Mercury struggled to compartmentalize her thoughts—to distance herself from Serenity.

It was so, so hard.

So apparently they weren't going to lie, but they also weren't going to reveal much. Usagi hadn't remembered, and they needed to keep it that way. Mercury opened her mouth to speak, but her voice died out in her dry throat. She glanced away from Usagi, wondering how much she might say accidentally. She remembered Venus' comment from earlier. She was supposed to keep the blonde away from them, but all she did was draw her closer. Mercury wasn't sure there was anything she could say now that wouldn't make it even worse.

“Wait, if you’re from Venus, and you’re from Jupiter,” Usagi said pointing to both senshi’s in turn, “Does that mean you’re from Mercury and you’re from Mars?” How was that even possible? Usagi didn’t know a lot about planets, but she did know there wasn’t any life on them…right? Were these women just pulling her leg?
 
Her mind going over everything that they had said, she remembered what Artemis had said. “Those people you mentioned, why do they want to hurt Earth?” Before today she hadn’t even know aliens existed, so how was it that they were coming to destroy her planet?

"They're trying to conquer it, like they had done so long ago," Artemis said, frowning at the memory. Queen Metallia would not rest until she had completely enveloped this word in darkness, their princess with it. And with the Silver Crystal, the Dark Kingdom would gain the power to do it. "The Dark Kingdom is thirsty for power, and they won't hesitate to crush everyone here to get it." Jupiter gave the cat a look, and he quickly backtracked. 

"B-but don't worry about that! We're here to handle it before they get the upper hand."

"But for innocent people like you," Jupiter said, "it's best that you stay as far away from our fighting as possible. That's why we disguised ourselves." She hated lying to Serenity at all, even if they were now telling half truths, but maybe now she wouldn't dig any deeper.

Mars was frustrated and confused, bringing the Princess into this was so risky, it could awaken her old memories and she could die again. She never wanted to see that, she didn't know if she could even survive her dying again. The girl spoke to her and she was suddenly snapped out of her thoughts. "Yes I'm from Mars." She said. Jupiter and Artemis were both explaining the situation to the girl as best they could, but it was only partial truths. Lying was the best choice at the moment, although Mars hated lying to the princess, she understood that the others did too and this was painful for them all.

She could only nod, silent, when the Princess addressed her, correctly assigning her home planet based on her sailor soldier title. It was too much to speak; she couldn't trust herself not to say too much. Once again, Jupiter mentioned the importance of keeping the blonde away from them. It was for her own safety, of course. All part of the necessity to prevent the tragedy from before.

Mercury reminded herself of that over and over again. She repeated it internally like a mantra, trying to ward off the yearning to be near their dear Serenity once more. It was all she could do to keep herself together.

All of these lies. Mercury vaguely heard them echo in her ears as Artemis and Jupiter tried to answer the seemingly-harmless question that in fact could ruin so much for all of them. This part of her life, everything on Earth, it was just a web of lies with filament after filament threaded in around those already set. She could feel them fencing her in, hedging her on all sides, restricting the space around her tighter and tighter with each additional deceit. Suffocating her.

She glanced away, fists clenched tightly, torn between her desire to get rid of this stress and send the blonde away and to unleash so many years of pent-up regret and guilt by rushing crying into the arms that she knew, even now, would embrace her.

Venus winced as Artemis said the bit about the enemy already conquering the world long ago. Maybe that was too much information? Was mentioning Dark Kingdom even safe? She had no idea how easily reawakened Usagi’s memories were, and what if it just took one word, or one name…

“She’s right,” she told Usagi, longing to put her hand on her shoulder, or better yet, embrace her the way Venus really desired. “For your own protection, you need to stay away. Run the moment you see one of them and let us handle it. And please…” she glanced at the others. “Do not tell anyone about us. It is incredibly important for us to keep our true identities secret.”

Usagi nodded in understanding when Makoto…Jupiter?...what was the right thing to call her? She would figure out what the appropriate thing to call her was later. Either way, when her friend said that innocent people should stay away from the fighting. She had been near it earlier, and had been terrified out of her mind, despite the fact that she had been fascinated with the fighting, find out that her friends had powers and an intense desire to make sure they were okay. She wasn’t sure she wanted to be involved in another fight, so many things could go wrong so quickly, yet at the same time, she felt drawn to it, wanting to join her friends.
 
She felt torn and didn’t know what to do about it.
 
“I promise I won’t tell anyone about you guys!” she said, turning towards Venus. Even if she wanted to, which she didn’t, who would believe her anyway. Suddenly realizing that she didn’t know Mars or Venus’s name, she quickly hatched a plan to learn them.
 

“But you have to do something for me first in order for me to do that.” She paused for dramatic effect for a moment before continuing. “Jupiter is Makoto-chan and Mercury is Ami-chan,” she pointed to each young woman in turn, “but I don’t know what to call Venus-chan and Mars-chan.” Pouting slightly she looked at the remaining two women. She needed something to call them if they wanted to keep their identities secret.

Venus was relieved when Usagi agreed to keep their secret. When her princess’ gaze slid toward her, her heart ached with longing once more. And then the pain changed into something worse when Usagi declared that she had no idea who their names were.

For as long as she had remembered, she had been called Venus. That was what she now considered her true name. Not her birth name, the name long forgotten, the one that hadn’t been spoken in millennia. She was Venus, the princess of her planet, the embodiment of love and beauty. Minako was not her name, it was her fake identity. It felt ironic to be presenting it as her true name to the princess who had always known her as Venus. Another punishment for failing to protect her the first time around.

Smiling sadly, Venus answered, “You can call me Minako. Aino Minako.”

Her ‘name’ had never felt so fake on her tongue.

After every senshi had been formally "introduced" to Usagi, they made sure she returned home safely from their hideout in the park. 

The next day in school was uneventful, though everyone was talking about the Crown Arcade being closed because of a monster ripping it apart. There was word of strange women appearing to fight it as well, but the news cameras only caught blurry flashes of the incident. It was enough to start the rumors going anyway, and people were already guessing at what they were.

As soon as school left out, all four senshi ended up at the nearby mall with Usagi, having no need to pretend to not know each other now that she was aware of their secret. There wasn't much of a plan on what to do here, but there was a lot about Earth to experience here if they were up for it.

"So is this just some kind of big marketplace?" Jupiter asked, looking around at all the stores and restaurants. They were standing close to the entrance, though off to the side as to not block the flow of traffic. Nearby, a map of the mall was up for display, and a few sets of escalators led up to the second floor. 

There was a variety of things to do here, from riding the carousel and Ferris wheel, to playing arcade games, to looking at clothes, or even going to see a movie.

Mercury—no, studious Ami Mizuno—clutched the handle of her bookbag. The noise and lights of this shopping mall, filled with advertisements and the happy chatter of shoppers, felt too strange and discomforting. She couldn't feel at ease among all of these Earthlings. This world was not the one she wanted to be a part of. The only redeeming feature was that it was the home of their Princess, but even that had too much of the bitter memories of the past to really embrace.

She had worn her glasses today. The lenses were non-prescription, but sometimes having a layer of glass between the rest of the people here and herself felt better. Safer. That's why she had gotten them, and why she frequently wore them to school.

Now that they were here, with the Princess, Mercury just didn't know what to do or think. She couldn't quite decide if she was happy to be here or terrified to be here. Hopefully someone else would be making the decisions.

She wasn’t sure what to feel about this.

It was everything she had wanted; to be able to speak freely with her princess and be beside her, protecting her directly instead of from afar. But would this ruin the plan? Would this bring danger to the princess?

And she wasn’t Minako Aino, the girl who loved shopping and games, as much as she liked to pretend she did. She was Venus, and she had no interest in malls, and yet how odd would it be for Usagi to view them as aliens? Would she not prefer friends she could relate to? Must Venus also lie to her and pretend to be a girl she wasn’t, just to get the princess to like her?

Somehow she could not stand either idea; for her princess to look at her like a stranger, or to start their new lives and their new relationship on a lie.

"Yep!" Usagi exclaimed, answering Makoto-chan's question. "You can buy all sorts of things here from clothes, to CDS, to books, to candy and food!" She eyed Ami-chan when she said books, hoping that would perk up the blue haired girl who seemed to be uncomfortable at the mall. 

"Was there anything you guys wanted to check out first?" She was so excited to show them everything, but she wanted to make them happy and go check out what they wanted. She could come here at any time, today was about making her friends first experience at the mall a good one.

Her emotions seemed to be split almost evenly between joy and regret. Listening to Usagi's voice reminded her of their times with the Princess when the Moon Kingdom reigned over the solar system. The two sounded identical to each other, with an enthusiasm and desire to please that was achingly familiar to the blue-haired faux-student. If Mercury wasn't paying enough attention she almost pictured the blonde in her customary white dress, not this drab Earthling school uniform.

Even the emphasis on "books" was exactly the kind of thing the Princess would have said. It twisted something in Mercury's heart.

She remembered all the warnings, everything they needed to do to keep the Princess safe, but she just couldn't disappoint that eager face. Usagi was so young, so innocent... so sweet. Just like the Princess was in all of Mercury's dearest memories.

"I'm fine with whatever you want to do, Sere—Tsukino-san."

"Ami-chan!" Usagi cried when she heard her friend call her Tsukino-san. "It's Usagi-chan. U-sa-gi-chan! Not Tsukino-san." She made a face at the formal tone that came from Ami-chan's mouth. How were they supposed to be close friends if she didn't call her Usagi-chan? Mabye Ami-chan didn't really like her? She pouted at the idea but remembered that the other girl had saved her and had been spending time with her so maybe she was just shy? 

"What about you Minako-chan? What did you want to go see?" As soon as she finished speaking her stomach let loose a large grumble, signaling that Usagi had skipped breakfast that morning. The blonde had woken up late and in her panic to not be late to meet her friends, she hadn't had time to eat before she quite literally ran out the door. The sound from her stomach made her blush in embarrassment. Opps...