undefined

Indifference

Black Beyond

Beep Beep Beep.

Usagi looked up from Bulma's shoulder, her tears stopped in pure shock at the sound. Through blurred eyes she took her communicator from her subspace pocket, wondering how anyone could have made a connection.

"Moon here..." She said weakly.

Ami's face showed up, a bit static, but the voice was clear, and Usagi could see her face well enough.

"Ami?" She gasped, and her sobbing stopped.

"Usagi... you look awful."

"Ami... how did you make the connection?"

"With some adjustments and a few pointers from Pluto. I wanted to talk to you. What happened... you've been crying!"

"Yeah... Ami..." New tears began to flow, but Usagi managed to keep her voice somewhat steady. "Diamond's here, Ami... I don't know how. But he's back... and he still wants me to be his queen."

"But he's dead! Usagi, I'm so sorry. Please, let me come there. I may be the weakest senshi, but please, Usagi, please. Pluto can find a way. You shouldn't have to face him. Let me help!"

"Can you get here?" Usagi choked out.

"Pluto will find me a way!"

"Just don't tell anyone where you're coming... wait, hold on." Usagi looked up at Bulma. "Can Ami stay here?"

"S-s-sure..." Bulma said.

"Usagi..." Ami's voice lowered. "Chibi-usa told me everything. I hope you don't mind. But I haven't told the senshi. They wouldn't listen, anyway. But... I'll be there as soon as I can. Oh, that creep will be under ice."

"Bye, Ami."

"Bye, Usagi. Tell them I appreciate it."

"Alright." Usagi slowly put her communicator up.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you about Diamond before. But it's..." She shuddered. "Just evil, what he is." She wiped the tears away from her face.

"Shh... it's alright, Usagi. We understand. We're glad your friend can come here. Maybe she can be of assistance..."

"I'm sure." Chichi finished. "But about Diamond. Why is he after you, Usagi?" Chichi carefully ignored the "That's only obvious," comment from her son, Gohan.

Usagi told them about the Black Moon Family, the conflict of which they were in, and then who Diamond was.

"Well... Diamond is... was, the leader of the Black Moon family. After we travelled to the future to free the Neo-Queen, he kidnapped me and took me to his palace." Usagi whinced. "I was unconscious before he knocked me... or something, but when I woke up, I was in one of the Neo-Queen's gowns, on a bed somewhere very close to the dark crystal. I know he didn't touch me... like that, anyway." She shot a dirty look at Vegeta. "When I woke up, Diamond tried to kiss me again, and after I got away from him, I tried to transform. But because I was so close to such a concentration of dark power, it wouldn't work.

I couldn't even use the ginzuishou properly. Tuxedo Kamen saved me... before anything happened. We went back to the palace of Crystal Tokyo, where the Neo- King made sure I was alright."

"Did he give up?" Goten asked.

"No. After we were told to go back to present, Tuxedo Kamen went into the Dark Crystal after Chibi-usa. You remember that. We followed him... and I was seperated from the others. Diamond has a brainwashing technique... he tried to brainwash me. But the scouts came just in time..." She began to cry again. "I didn't ask for any of this..." She sobbed. Jumping up, she fled the Capsule Corp.

"Should we follow her?" Piccolo asked.

"Yup. What if that Diamond guy tries to nab her again? I don't think she has the emotional strength to fight him." Gohan started out the door.

Especially the way Vegeta was.

She didn't like the subject of Diamond. She didn't like the idea of a man that she didn't love so deeply in love with her that he would kidnap her. It was.... it was just wrong, and she knew it.

But yet, he wouldn't give up. She knew she loved Endymion. She could love no other than Endymion. But Diamond couldn't accept that it was Endymion she was soul mated to... not him.

She sobbed again, and collapsed under the shade of a tree. So many memories. The senshi didn't know how stressful it was.

No. Ami and Chibi-usa and Setsuna. They knew. Haruka, Michiru, and Hotaru understood it.

Mamoru was completely oblivious. And the rest of the inner senshi... Venus, Jupiter, and Mars... just wouldn't even try to think about understanding.

Why?

"I can be strong... why is it only on the brink of death...?" Usagi put her back against the tree, and her exhaustion finally claimed her, sending her into a fitful sleep.

He just didn't want to loose his temper on Diamond. You had to have pity if that ever happened to anyone. Even a scumbag like Diamond, who had so boldly kissed Usagi.

"Usagi, I outta kill you for this..." He muttered, and almost tripped over the sleeping blonde, not seeing her until it was too late.

There you are!

"Excuse me?" He nearly wet his pants when a gloved hand tapped his shoulder. He spun around to see a beautiful girl about Usagi's age, with short aqua-marine colored hair and wearing a blue and white sailor fuku.

"Ami?" he asked.

"Oh... are you Gohan or Goten?" she asked. "And it's Sailor Mercury, in this form."

"I'm Gohan."

"Okay. Is she alright... she's just sleeping, right?" Her voice was worried as she motioned to Usagi.

"I hope so." Gohan murmured. "She ran out, after she told us who Diamond was and everything.

"Oh," Sailor Mercury glanced down at Usagi. "Diamond has always been a touchy subject for Usagi. I didn't know how hard she took it until Chibi-usa told me." Mercury sighed a long shuddering sigh. "No matter what she acts like, Usagi has been very in touch, but very out of touch, at the same time, with her feelings. Some things we cringe to hear, she can hear it over and over, and things we think nothing about..." Mercury made a sweeping motion at Usagi.

"Yeah. She told us." Gohan said. "Come on. We really need to get back before Diamond finds her. No offense, Sailor Mercury, but it took four of us to hold Diamond off Usagi." Gohan carefully picked Usagi up with both arms, as to not wake her.

"Hey... how did you know where Usagi was?" "I got here a few hundred yards away, so I got a reading on my visor and followed Usagi's signature. You and I arrived at the same time."

"Oh."

"To four million and some. Yes, I know." Usagi said, wiping her eyes again and she and Ami poured over the data Usagi had wrote down.

"Usagi... what is your best reading?" Ami asked. Usagi bit her lip.

"As Eternal Sailor Moon, the best I can hit might be a little over two million. As Sailor Selene, I might get to three million and some. As Neo-Queen Serenity, I really don't know. I haven't had much time to figure that out."

"Meaning you couldn't damage Diamond that badly." Ami groaned.

"There's always the ginzuishou..."

"As a last resort, Usagi. We still don't know how much you can use without killing yourself." Ami reminded her. "We thought we'd lost you, and it nearly killed Chibi-usa... from grief. Please, don't make me go back and tell your daughter you really are gone."

"That reminds me, Ami. Chibi-usa was still in existance. Didn't that give you a clue I was alive?" Usagi asked. Ami blushed.

"Actually.... Artemis had a theory about that." She said, unsure of how to explain. "Artemis said... that maybe it was Minako... that... you know..."

"Oh, really. Artemis and I will have a little talk when I get home. But then, we met the queen and Sailor Venus in the future. How can you explain that?"

"That's what I asked. Which shut Artemis up about his theory. Besides, I don't think Mamoru would have... you know... anyway." Ami's face was red.

"It's alright, Ami. Even I don't know how I survived. I mean, I wasn't limiting the ginzuishou. I just told it to defeat Water-dude It probably went up to full power in order to blast me all the way here. It's Earth... but a different Earth, in a different time."