"Nande, Trunks?" Usagi asked, her blue eyes locked on his.

"What just happened? It felt like almost all your power went out."

She leaned against the doorway, sighing, apparently deciding he wasn't going to give this up easily. "I detransformed. I'm exhausted, and I can't sleep like that."

That certainly seemed to be the truth; she didn't even seem to be able to stay on her feet, she was wobbling so badly. Now that he looked, bruises and what seemed to be burns covered her arms; her right ankle was a deep purple and very swollen. How did she hide this before?

"What happened to you?"

She sighed again and limped back in the bedroom, leaving the door open. "I had a little run-in with StarFighter. I'll be all right by morning."

"You sure about that?" Just from his own experience, he could tell that ankle was pretty bad off.

She glanced back at him even as she sat down on the bed. "It's not the first time something like this has happened. I'm sure."

"You're the only fighter here, aren't you?"

She nodded. "Everyone else died two months ago. All the fighters and everyone in the city, until the only ones left are me, the Animates, and her." Venom rolled off her voice with that last word; she didn't seem the venomous type.

"Who is she?" he asked, almost hesitant about doing so.

"Galaxia." Usagi's fists clenched in her lap, and her eyes squeezed shut. "She's the one behind all of this: the killings, the barrier, the Animates, everything." She paused, and a single tear slid down her cheek. "And she won't stop until this bright, blue world is hers, is part of her collection." Abruptly her face transformed back to the cheery woman he'd seen earlier. "The rest will have to wait till morning, or else I might fall asleep in midsentence."

That was a dismissal if he'd ever heard one, one worthy of any member of royalty. "Of course. In the morning, we'll talk, Usagi."

"Of course. Ja ne, Trunks."

She watched him leave the room out of the corner of her eye. Once he'd left her sight, she sighed softly, laying down on the bed that had once belonged to Rei. She'd thought he was from the future, but that now seemed to be rather unlikely. So what did that leave? No one from her time could break Galaxia's barrier, so that only left the past.

"How strange," she whispered aloud.

And tomorrow she'd have to explain everything. The destruction of her city (maybe her entire world; she hadn't been able to leave and find out due to the barrier), how the Inner Senshi had sacraficed their lives, the deaths of Pluto and Saturn, the almost-betrayal by Uranus and Neptune, the conversion of the Starlights into Animates, the disappearance of ChibiChibi.

ChibiChibi. . . The small girl had been such a comfort to her, almost like a living doll to keep away the monsters and the nightmares and the fear. Yet, even she was gone, and in the place Usagi knew she had been, a sword had been laying. Weak from nearly losing her Star Seed and so close to broken from the loss of everything she'd ever known or held dear within the space of a few hours, she'd merely brought the sword back here to Rei's temple and never tried to use it in battle.

They'd all been gone two months, since that one horrible night, yet this was the first opportunity she'd had to consider them. Haruka and Michiru - all of them, truth be told - would scold her for trusting Trunks this way, she acknowledged with a smile. Out of the ten Senshi of this solar system, she never thought she'd be the last one left. Dissolving into quiet sobs that tried to muffle into the pillow, she finally began to mourn for her friends.

In the main room of the temple, Trunks leaned against the wall and tried not to let the sound of Usagi's crying bother him more than it already did.

22 May 2000

Sorry it took so long for this chapter to get out, but I had quite a few problems and didn't want to give you anything that wasn't correct or as close to perfect as I can do. I know a lot of people have been waiting for an update on this story and I hope this does not disappoint. How badly did it suck?