It was pretty obvious that she'd never thrown a punch before in her life, much less been in the kind of fight he was used to. Which begged the question, what kind of fight was she used to? She had said she was the last fighter left in her world. But she was extremely determined, and that helped.

"That's enough for now, Usagi," he called to her. "It's almost time for lunch."

She nodded briefly. "I'll need to get some more food. I'll--" Her voice broke off as she stared at the temple steps. "Iie. . .," she whispered. "Iie. . . Luna!"

Usagi crossed the temple courtyard at a speed Trunks hadn't seen her use in all of their practice so far. She fell to her knees beside the small broken black shape and tenderly gathered it in her arms.

"You make a pretty picture there, Sailor Moon," a woman's voice said. The speaker stood not twenty yards from Usagi, leaning against the red shrine gate. "You and Luna-chan."

"Healer," Usagi intoned softly, looking at the silver-haired woman in the leather hotpants. Usagi seemed to be totally insensitive of this other person, as if she were in deep shock.

"She tried to escape again," was all Healer said for a long moment. Then, "Fighter told me I might find you here. And our new arrival." She glanced over at Trunks. "Not entirely what I was expecting, especially not from someone who mysteriously crash-landed here less than two days ago."

"Healer," Usagi repeated as she slowly set down her friend's body and stood up. Her voice and her eyes were hard and ice cold.

"Are you finally ready to end this, Usagi?"

The tone in Healer's voice stopped Trunks as he was moving toward Usagi. The silver-haired woman sounded almost forlorn, as if she were asking Usagi to end this and kill her. Usagi had mentioned when she explained the Animates that without their Star Seeds, they had little choice but to obey Galaxia.

"I will stop you and Galaxia," Usagi swore vehemently.

Healer derisively snorted. "Only the Light of Hope can possibly defeat Galaxia, and she destroyed that long ago." She turned as if to leave, then looked back at the woman before her. "Unless ChibiChibi left something behind." In a yellow flash of light, she disappeared.

"Usagi?" Trunks asked softly. She turned towards him, a soft wondering but pained look on her face.

"Trunks, can you teach me how to use a sword?" she asked softly.

2 July 2000

Okay, don't kill me, people! I know it's kind of short, but my muses decided to take an extended summer vacation, so I had to do this one all on my own.

Not as much Usagi torture as I planned in here, but I decided to spread it out. He he! I'm evil!!!