I joined this list mainly so I can get reviews on my Sailor Moon fan
fiction. It was my start at getting back into writing. I sent (I believe
under my normal pen name, "Hino Rei") the Black Ice fanfics, and this is the
episode after the fourth of those, the climax of the first 4-ep story, "The
Mirror Cracks".

I'd appreciate C&C, just expect to get e-mail back from "Hino Rei" if I'm
using Netscape not Eudora as my mail reader. I'm on the "Looney" Sailor Moon
ML, and that's what I've been going as there for going on two months now.

Anyone who's familiar with the series should realize that I play fast and
loose with names. Some of my new villains had to have English names, so I
decided to go with the DIC dub names for the most part. Attacks are mostly
written with the Japanese names, though, because they're generally cooler.
The exception would be the Sailor Moon attacks, which are the English versions.

If you haven't read Black Ice 1-4, maybe I should re-post it, but anyway,
here's a quick plot lead-up:

Jadeite, a villain from way back, was de-frosted from a polar ice cap (I
wrote South, but it should have been North; an early mistake) and proceeded
to try to get revenge against the Sailor Senshi (Scouts). He began to form
his own team of warriors, known as the Dark Senshi, who are, by the way,
young men. The first of these, "Frost", was creating a clone of Serena to
use as a weapon. Jadeite was impatient and eager for revenge. He terminated
the project (or so he thought) and fought Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask alone.
They nearly defeated him, but not quite... he might have finished them off
if Frost hadn't suddenly appeared and stabbed him through the heart with an
ice spear. Frost is, at such times, absolutely heartless.

Another new character is what is essentially a Tuxedo Mask counterpart, a
ninja dressed in black (auburn hair, hazel eyes) with a mask over her mouth,
not like Tux's mask at all. On someone's suggestion I began calling her
"Bishoujo Mask".

That's really all you need to know. This fanfic was the longest episode I've
written yet, so it's in two parts. I hope I measured it correctly. If not,
tell me. This first part ends with SM dodging knives and the second part
begins with a Darien scene.

BTW, as the title suggests, it has romantic themes in it. This is Sailor
Moon, after all. One last thing, I was still experimenting with putting
phrases before introducing the speaker when I wrote this. If you don't like
it, it's not something that happens often in my later fanfics. It was an
experiment in style.

JB


"As The Rose Turns"

The night was beautiful... mist in the air, starlight shining bright over
the serene landscape.

>From the balcony, exquisite gardens and finely crafted fountains could be
seen below, among the misty shadows. Far above, a bright light shone.. the
reflection of the beautiful blue sphere, covered in white mists as those
encircling the ground tonight, the sphere known as the planet Earth.

Everything seemed distant... from another time, another place...

This was the time of the Moon Kingdom, during the time of peace and
prosperity known in posterity as the Silver Millenium. Standing on the
balcony, facing the soft lights of the palace, was a mysterious man, dressed
in black, except for the red lining of his black cape, blowing softly in the
wind. A gloved hand was extended forward, an invitation. This man wore a
finely crafted mask... the mask of a prince. The Prince of Earth, Prince
Endymion.

A girl, dressed in a beautiful white dress, walked toward him, graciously
accepting the invitation to dance with this, her one and only love. Dangling
behind her were the two tails of her hair, hair arrayed in the style of her
mother, the Queen. This was Princess Serenity, the Princess of the Moon, the
balls of her hair holding the tails that bobbed slowly behind her graceful
steps.

Their gloves of pure white snow touched... then, they began to dance, dance
slowly in the mist of the calm, cool night.

And so they danced...

An eternity away, Serena watched them dance...

The Princess twirled in the soft glow of the palace lights, completely
entranced by her Prince. Her steps flowed perfecty, being a master of the
art of dance. She was heiress to the throne, and master of many refined
arts. In many ways, she represented nothing less than perfection. They
continued the dance in the starlight...

Serena began to bang her hand on the barrier that separated them, a barrier
of transparent, lifeless glass, across which her cries went unheard and
unanswered.

The lovers continued to dance...

Serena cried for the Prince...

The lovers slowed. The Prince held the hand of the Princess, and looked at
her for a very long time. Then, they drew closer... Endymion wrapped his
cape around the Princess, and then they were very close... yet Serena's
frantic cries went unheard. Then, they looked into each other's eyes,
longingly. Serena hit the glass silently, desperately... and then, they
kissed...

A silent, tear-filled scream erupted from the depths of Serena's soul.

---

"NOOOoooooooo..."

Serena shot straight up from her bed.

It was 2:13am. The window was open, and a warm breeze blowed through the
room, the drapes moving quietly. Serena had been lying in her bed, but now,
her blankets shoved aside, she was sitting straight up from her bed,
panting, her right hand clutched over her chest, over her frantically
beating heart. The dream had frightened her, shaken her. Yet she was not
sure why...

It was if the Princess wasn't her, that they were two different people, that
she wasn't even there... that it never happened... that it was never...
meant to be...

Lying restfully on the carpet, Luna's ears were suddenly perked, her head
turned towards Serena. Luna wondered what was wrong, but suspected that it
was not good.

---

A world away, she awoke. That dream...

The room was quite different. The walls were a mixture of black shadows and
dark green vine-like growths, an organic structure within one of stone and
earth. A soft white light illuminated the sleeping chamber. This girl, too,
had the same distinctive hair style as Serena, the same shining blue eyes,
the same light hair color. Indeed, the similarities did not end there. She
had Serena's nose, cheeks... and everything else, as well.

This was a clone, created from a sample of Serena's blood. She was
biologically identical to Serena, though her advanced development actually
made her older than Serena by about three years. This was a fully developped
young woman. The question no one really knew was what was on the inside,
inside her soul... a soul that had been instilled into her, not born from
her own experiences.

She herself was only just over a week old.

But that dream...

She did not understand its meaning. She knew some of the history of the Moon
Kingdom, and about the Prince. She felt, though, as if she had been there,
dancing, a long, long time ago... yet, was she? Had she? She knew only one
thing: she was very interested in that masked man. She fancied that perhaps,
just perhaps, she loved him...

---

A little later...

"Serena, WAKE UP!!"

"Uh? Oh.. sorry." Serena was more spaced out than usual. Yes, it's possible.
You see, Serena hardly got any more sleep that night, and now, her teacher
standing above her like Mount Fuji, and in a bad mood, Serena was barely
concious. Her thoughts were not coherent, certainly not enough to make sense
of today's lessons. So, Serena barely managed to stay awake long enough to
avoid detention. Well, not quite. But that was a long way away.

Bouncing between assignments and naps, Serena survived until lunch hour. She
dragged herself besides a cherry tree. She had her lunch box, but she wasn't
hungry.

And THAT worried Luna.

Luna didn't know what to do. Serena was really down. She decided to run off
and find Amy. Maybe she could get to Serena; she knew that she wouldn't get
very far. Something was bothering Serena, and that bothered Luna, too. She
wanted to help... but how much advice could a cat give?

Molly was just around the corner, though, and saw Serena not eating her
lunch. So Molly sat beside her, and tried to make the most out of the
situation. "Hey, Serena," she said in a friendly, unassuming way, "aren't
you hungry?" Serena just sighed. Molly went on, "Serena, something's
bothering you, right? I can tell..." Serena sighed again. "Come on. What's
the matter?" Molly asked again.

In his usual way, Melvin broke up the moment, popping up at the oddest
places and times. "Hi, Serena. Molly, I was looking for you. Let's do
lunch!" Molly started to shake her head... Serena said, "Yeah, you guys go
on. I'm not really hungry anyway..." Serena started to get up. Before Molly
could protest too much, Melvin grabbed her arm, and started to pull her off,
as she protested, "But," though this went unheeded. Serena was already gone
ahead. Molly stopped and turned to Melvin, scolding him, "Melvin, you
shouldn't have done that!" Melvin wasn't sure why. Well, that was Melvin.
"That's the first time I can remember Serena not being hungry." Molly looked
back, worried. Well, she was gone now, so there was no point sticking
around. Had to make the best of it.

---

"Amy." The girl turned around at the sound of her name, pausing from her
typing. Amy was, as usual, doing some extra work on her computer, eating her
sandwich in what Lita called world-record preformance. Of course, Lita
didn't approve, being one who believed that food should be savored. Amy just
considered it food for the mind, and the body, and nothing more. Her real
enjoyment wasn't eating, it was everything else.

Luna was already through the door, and then hopped once and leapt onto Amy's
table. Amy asked, "Luna, where's Serena? Isn't she with you?" Luna told Amy,
"That's what I came here about. Serena hasn't been eating." Amy seemed quite
surprised at that. "What is it?" Amy asked, "Is she on a diet?" "No," Luna
answered, "nothing like that. I'm not sure what's wrong. She's been having
nightmares, I think. She could use some cheering up, and a good meal." Amy
thought about it, and saved her work on her computer, grabbed another bite
from her sandwich, and picked up everything, walking through the door with
Luna right behind.

---

Now, Serena was sitting besides Lita, eating a muffin somewhat reluctantly,
at Lita's insistence.

"Serena, you've gotta eat! It's for your own good." Lita felt like a nanny
or a mother at times like this, looking out for other people. She felt like
Serena really needed a good kick in the rear, though. Not eating? Serena?
What a concept. Well, she couldn't resist Lita's cooking, so that problem
was solved, sort of. Lita couldn't get anything else out of her (although
that was partly because Serena' s mouth was completely stuffed at the
moment, with crumbs falling all over her skirt).

Well, Serena seemed to enjoy the muffins, so Lita was smiling again, too.
"Gosh (munch, munch) these are (munch) really GOOD! (munch, munch)" she said
(munch, munch). She was feeling better already.

---

While Amy was trying to find Serena, she heard someone calling her from
close by. She turned, and smiled; it was her friend, Christopher. "Hello,
Amy. How are you doing today?" Well, she really should be finding Serena...
"Oh, just fine. How are you?" Luna waited as patiently as she could while
Chris and Amy traded pleasantries. Chris asked her where she was going, and
Amy asked where she could find Serena. Well, Chris said, "I don't know..
wish I could help. Well, see you later. Bye," he said.

Amy found Serena shortly after. Amy, Lita, and Luna had a little talk
afterwards; no one could figure out what was really wrong. Lunch hour was
almost over, so it would have to wait.

---

The coin turned over and over in the air.

Then it fell back to earth, due to the inevitable force of gravity, into the
hand of the one who threw it. In his late teens, with dark, greased hair,
completely black sunglasses, dressed mainly in black with an open leather
jacket and an expensive red shirt, he expressed confidence with his every move.

The coin was heads. So what?

"Yeah. This might be a good day after all."

---

Darien was laying back in his seat, one of his elbows lying upon the table,
the other arm stashed somewhere. Where was not particularly important.
Darien was sitting at a table in the local arcade. He was lost in space,
thinking about many things, including the dream he had the night before.
That dream bothered him, for some reason. It wasn't the only thing bothering
him, though.

He and Serena had gone through a lot together, and apart from each other.
Still...

Darien didn't realize that his old friend, Andrew, who worked at the arcade
regularly, had walked over to his table. Andrew said, casually, to Darien,
"Hello, Darien. What's up?" Darien hadn't seen him coming, and was surprised
to see him. Darien looked up at Andrew; Andrew then said, "You're usually
the one sneaking up on everyone. Mind if I sit down?" Not much of a
question, really, Darien thought, saying, "Yeah, sure."

So Andrew sat down, an expression of some concern on his face. "Darien," he
began, "you look like something's bothering you. You're not normally this
spaced out; so tell me, what's wrong?" It wasn't easy for Darien to respond.
Never one to openly discuss his feelings, Darien kept mostly to himself,
particularly about personal matters - and that's what this was. Darien
looked down, at first, and then glanced around, thinking to himself. Then he
turned his head back to Andrew, and told him, "I don't really want to talk
about it..."

This left Andrew to do some guessing. "Darien, you haven't been in much
lately, but I was wondering if you ever patched things up with Serena," he
asked. Darien snapped out of his previously clouded thoughts, somewhat
surprised by the question. This one he could answer. "Yeah, I - patched
things up with her." He could say that. He could say a lot - but not to
Andrew, or anyone else. So, he went on somewhat vaguely, "It's not that -
everything's okay between us now. Really."

Darien thought about that a little, his fingers to his chin like that statue
of a Greek thinker. He went on, "Okay, maybe you can help me." This took a
little explaining...

"Well, okay... what happened... was.." he paused here, while Andrew waited
patiently... "Yesterday, something happened. I had what I guess you could
call a near-death experience." That wasn't oversimplification - it was an
outright lie, in his mind. It wasn't an experience; it was a battle that he
and Serena nearly lost. He went on, "I saw my whole life flash in front of
me. It's something that really made me think..."

"You see, I really care for Serena." Andrew was caught back by this - it was
totally out of character for Darien to start talking like this. That's what
he wanted, though, as a friend; Darien had to tell this to somebody. "But I
have a hard time expressing my feelings for her, telling her how much I
care. She needs me, right now... but I don't know what to do. I'm not really
used to this..." Andrew added, "Not the romantic type, huh?" Darien thought
about that one. As Tuxedo Mask, he had been very "romantic" at times, but
really, he hadn't; it was just that the Senshi thought so. He concentrated
on the mission, and on helping Sailor Moon win their battles, because that
was what was important. He'd never considered himself the romantic type, not
really, but when he wanted to be, that was exactly what he was - or maybe
that was just Prince Darien, a long, long time ago.

Andrew took it all in, thought about it, and asked his friend, "So, what did
you have in mind?" Darien looked back, and didn't have a clue. Andrew went
on, "Well, why don't you ask her for a date? That should cheer her up."
Darien blinked, and asked, "What, is that all? You think that'll really
work?" Andrew thought he knew women fairly well. That was his opinion,
but... "Well, that should distract her. If you want to talk with her, just
take her out. And... you could always give her flowers..."

Darien exclaimed, "THAT'S IT! Thanks, Andrew! I owe you one!" Darien got up
and rushed out of the store. Andrew felt as if a tornado had just gone by,
and he was left behind. Well, he had work to do... he just wondered aloud,
"I wonder what he has in mind..."

Outside, walking along, Darien was beaming inside. "That's perfect," he
thought. "Wait'll Serena sees this! Then we can get together and talk. Why
didn't I think of this before?!" Somehow, Darien felt like he had been very
dense - it was obvious, he just needed someone else to point it out first.

---

A little later, school was out, and Serena was with her friends - although
the situation still seemed hopeless. She was down - that was for sure - and
no one really knew what to do. That was really because it was usually Serena
who cheered _them_ up, not the other way around. They were normally more
serious, and she was - well, not - and they'd never given this some serious
thought.

So, when Rei came along, she wasn't much help. She didn't know what to do,
either. Then, with Serena standing several paces away, Mina came along,
Artemis with her. She saw that something was up, and asked the rest of the
girls what was going on.

Amy said, "Serena's really down..." Lita added, "We don't know what to do.
We've tried cheering her up, but nothing seems to really work..." Rei just
stood there, in her private school uniform, looking worried, too. Luna asked
Artemis if they could help. Mina blurted, "Oh, no problem! You can count on
me!! I'll cheer her up in no time! I'll just take her on a shopping spree I
was planning..."

Artemis groaned, "No, not AGAIN..."

Mina started laughing. Then she ran by Serena, and asked, "Hey, there,
something on your mind? Except guys?" That sent Serena straight into a
bawling mode. She started crying on the spot. Mina was still smiling, eyes
closed with a huge grin on her face, but it was a forced grin. This wasn't
going exactly as she had planned. "Well, Serena," she went on, "what you
need is something to get your mind off of all this Senshi business. When I'm
done through with you, you'll forget all about it!" Serena just bawled, "I
don't wanna forget it! I just want to be left alone..." then she went on
crying some more.

Mina laughed a little, again, a forced laugh. This wasn't going anywhere.

This called for drastic action. Mina grabbed Serena by the hand, and yanked
on her, pulling her up. "Now, young lady, you're going to laugh by the end
of the day, and that's an ORDER!" Mina started pulling her off. Amy thought
that maybe this was excessive... but hoped it worked anyway... "Okay," Mina
said, "You're coming with me! First we're going to get you a chocolate fudge
sunday!" Serena whined a little more, but less enthusiastically, "But I'm
not hungry..." Mina said, "With a cherry on top! And those little nuts,
too!" Then Mina giggled. "Then, I'm taking you all around town! We're going
to bust into every store in the district!" Mina started laughing, and kept
tugging on Serena. The laughing was contagious, and Serena started giggling
- a little. That was a good sign. "Okay, let's go!"

The other girls watched in amazement as Mina literally dragged Serena off to
have a good time. They had their doubts...

---

"Mmmm... Mmm.. MMMM...." Serena was stuffing her face with oh-so-gooood
chocolate fudge ice cream. Mina was sitting across from her, smiling, not
eating much of it, since she figured that Serena would have a big appetite.
She wasn't wrong, either. Serena was really enjoying herself now - what girl
wouldn't? She was splurging on sweets like she hadn't done in a while.
Fighting youma all day can get on a girl's nerves - and her stomach. That
was Mina's theory.

So, in between spoonfuls, Serena said to Mina, "Thanks a lot, Mina. This
really does make me feel better. I just LOVE chocolate FUDGE!!" Mina smiled,
again, adding, "No problem. What are friends for?" So, she thought, this was
a good time to ask, "So what's been bothering you? Is it Darien?" Serena had
another gulp, then started to explain, although still in an upbeat way.
"Well, I had a really, really bad dream last night. In it, Darien was Prince
Darien, on the moon, and was dancing with this other girl - who looked just
like ME - and I couldn't do anything about it. I yelled, but they wouldn't
stop - they didn't hear me. I woke up when Darien kissed her. It's silly, I
know... but it really scared me. Do you understand?"

Mina understood... but thought, "A girl who looks just like her? Could it be
the clone? They've never met each other..." She said to Serena, "It's
probably just anxiety about this whole alter-ego thing. You shouldn't worry
about it. Darien's yours forever." Yeah, but... Serena thought... "Yeah,
but... we've been apart so much before, and..." Mina cut her off. "Okay, so
you've had your share of bad breaks, and then some. But you always got back
together, right?" This was true, and that fact made Serena feel much better.

Mina said to Serena, "Hey, we're not done yet! We've got lots to do today!"

---

Darien was sitting in front of a rose bush, with both red and white roses,
scissors in hand. This rose garden was one of his favorite places. The park
here had nearly been demolished a year or so ago, but the construction
workers hadn't gone ahead with the plan. They never publicly explained why.
They probably didn't want to have to explain that they were attacked by
killer squirrels. What a day...

That was a long time ago. The rose garden was still here, and he came here
often enough to help tend to the garden, when he had time. It was a hobby of
his, sort of. So he had permission to take just a few for the bouquet he was
preparing; of red, pink, and white roses. Maybe he should have gotten all
red roses. No, not really. Maybe all pink. Well, that wasn't his favorite
color, anyway. No, he'd leave one white rose in the middle, and the rest
would be pink and red. That would work.

---

Meanwhile, Mina, Serena, and quite reluctantly, Artemis were moving all
around town.

At the moment, the girls were in a cheap china shop. Serena was looking
around, thinking of gifts she could give to Darien - if she could afford
them. Mina was somewhat skeptical of the quality. She lifted a little white
cup up, and held it high, looking at the bottom. She read: MADE IN TAIWAN

Mina thought to herself, "Why is it, they call it china in England, when
it's made in Taiwan? Well, we make better china than this here in Japan."
She looked at some more fine print, and read, aloud but not loudly,
"UNBREAKABLE". Mina was right beside a table, and she held the cup above the
corner, and hit it on the table. The stupid thing broke into a hundred
little pieces.

Shopkeeper (chasing the girls out of the store): "OUUUTTTTTTT!!!"

---

Later, the girls were in a beauty salon. Mina said that Serena could use a
little make up now and again. The two sat down, while Artemis was sitting on
Mina's lap. The woman who ran the salon told them to wait a minute while she
finished with a client. When the client came out, though the client was not
quite ready to walk out the door, she looked like... like... a Medusa! She
looked worse than some of the youma they had trashed. Mina just screamed,
and jumped up, Artemis flying a short distance before landing on all fours.
Well, he was _used_ to this sort of treatment. Serena just stood frozen for
a moment, then Mina pulled her by the arm (not, thankfully, by the hair!)
and they both ran out of the salon in horror.

---

Not far away, a shady figure was speaking to a young woman, a waitress,
inside a seafood restauraunt. The young man asked to see the chef. The chef
was in the back, he was told. Thanks, he thought, as he passed the waitress.
Tell me something I don't know. A stray ray of sunlight reflected off his
black sunglass lenses.

In the back, he spoke privately to the chef.

"Is everything going according to plan?"
"Everything as you instructed."
"Just make sure this works. Make sure you take care of the energy first; the
rest isn't important."
"As you wish."

With that, the young man left by the back entrance.

---

Serena was really tired, now, since she and Mina had hit just about every
store this side of Jubei. They hadn't sampled at the ice cream shops - she
was full - but they did try out some clothes at a clothing store. Not that
they actually bought anything. They'd seen plenty of dolls, even Sailor Moon
dolls, which really made them laugh. At least they got the hair right. What
else? Shoes, shoes, shoes... lots of them. Serena had never seen anyone
(besides her) step on so many feet in her life. And then there was that rare
bird shop - oh, did THEY get a talking-to about bringing a hungry cat in!
Those birds were really scared.

There were pet stores; although they weren't after pets; there were computer
stores, but, WHY? So they went around, and around... They even stopped at
another arcade (not the one Serena hung out at). It was really eerie seeing
Mina play the Sailor V game - of course, she breezed through! Artemis was,
for his part, bored out of his ears. He couldn't talk much because they were
in public. He had to listen to all this girl stuff ALL DAY LONG. He could
hardly take it anymore. Mina alone was bad enough - but BOTH of them? He
really envied Luna right now. She was with Amy.

They were both getting hungry. Mina said she knew this great place nearby.
They had the best seafood in the area, all fresh, straight from foreign
fishing vessels, flown VIP across the Pacific Ocean. (Mina always marvelled
at how fish got better seats than most people!) Artemis actually cheered up
on hearing this; maybe he'd actually get a good bite to eat.

While walking casually along the sidewalks, Mina said to Serena something
that really surprised the latter, "Serena, I think you're really lucky to
have Darien. I don't even have a boyfriend." Serena didn't really know what
to make of this. She knew Mina didn't have a boyfriend, but not that it
really bothered her. Serena replied, "I thought you'd be seeing guys all the
time. You're so pretty." Mina blushed, only slightly, enough to have the
obligatory "cute" look demanded by all girls at times like this. "I mean,
you should have lots of guys to go out with. Did you have boyfriends when
you were in England and France?" Mina answered, "Well, not really... I was
kinda busy, you know." Serena nodded in agreement. "But why," Serena
continued, "don't you have a boyfriend?"

No one else was closeby, so Artemis said, "Maybe because she's such a clutz."

Mina just looked down, somewhat indignified, and scolded him, saying, "YOU!"
Serena giggled a little at the joke. Looks like they had a lot in common
besides hair color and cute uniforms.

"You know," Mina said, "In England, they say that if a black cat crosses
your path, it's bad luck." Serena spontaneously broke up into a huge spurt
of laugher. That was really funny to her. It wasn't really _bad_ luck that
Luna crossed her path; she just couldn't disagree more with that stupid
thinking. Who were these English anyway? She said something about that, and
Mina replied, "Oh, they're not so bad, once you get to know them like I
have. They can be really nice people."

Serena stopped laughing and her eyes grew somewhat larger; Mina wasn't
watching where she was going, and neither was the guy walking towards them.

Mina bumped into the guy. Both of them mumbled apologies; the guy was
wearing dark sunglasses, and took them off when he was speaking. (This is,
of course, the same fellow who just visted the seafood restauraunt; I don't
want to be _too_ subtle.) Hmmm. This guy was _really_ handsome; nice, dark
eyes, dark hair, sort of like Darien's but shorter, in fact, he was shorter
than Darien, but built thicker. Serena thought he looked like just your
everyday hunk - really cool, in leather, with cool glasses.

Mina, for her part, was awestruck. This guy was just really cool, really
handsome. And she just walked right into him. What luck! (At least she
hadn't fallen head over heels for him - literally!) Mina hoped she could
make the most of it. After the pleasantries, she said, "Hi, I'm Mina. What's
your name?" The guy answered, "They call me Alex." "Cool," Mina said. Alex
said he really had to get going. Mina didn't really want to argue, but she
didn't want to let the big one get away, either. "Hey, where do you live?"
she asked.

Alex replied, "It's a fair ways away." Then he walked away.

That over, the two girls headed into the seafood restauraunt, which was closeby.

---

Rei was with Lita, getting some more cooking tips. Amy was in cram school.
She left Luna behind, though (Luna wanted to get some of the cooking while
she was waiting for Serena). Luna said, "I wonder how Serena's doing."
Suddenly, someone knocked on the door. Rei answered, and opened the door, to
see Darien standing just outside. Rei smiled, and greeted him. Darien asked,
"Do you know where Serena is?" Rei just went, "Um," at first, not knowing
just what to say. Lita put it plainly: "She was feeling down, so Mina took
her on a shopping spree. I don't know where they are now." Darien asked why
she was feeling down. No one really knew. Darien figured he should find
Serena for sure now.

---

By now, Serena and Mina were both seated at a table for two. The restauraunt
was nearly packed, but they got seats right away. They were being served
their meal of fish now. "Enjoy," the waitress said.

Artemis was ready to dig in. He smelled the fish, though, and didn't like
the scent... he concentrated a little longer, and sensed that something was
wrong. Mina was about to take a bite when Artemis leapt into the air and
grabbed the piece out of her hand. Mina was NOT pleased. She was really
upset when Artemis spit out the fish, and shook his head vigorously (not
wanting to talk in the room, even though it was loud anyway). Mina paused,
and then understood. She hit another piece out of Serena's hand, as her
mouth was opened fully, ready to consume the delicious morsel. Serena wasn't
happy either, but Mina explained, "I think something's wrong here..." Serena
glanced around. She couldn't see anything wrong, yet.

That changed soon. A few long minutes later, at least half of the patrons
were groaning, clutching their stomachs. Serena asked if it was food
poisoning. Since everyone was distracted, Artemis said, "I don't think so.
I'm getting a bad feeling about this..." Mina said, "Me too." All the
patrons, and even the waitress, then keeled over, groaning, knocked out.

Then, waves of black energy emerged from the victims, forming a ball of
human energy floating in the air.

The chef's door in the back was knocked open. Lying down in the background
were two of the chefs, but the master chef, with a large cutting knife,
emerged unscathed. The chef saw the two girls, and was surprised, saying,
"What? Still standing? My food should have knocked you out colder than a
frozen tuna." Mina stood up and said, "We didn't eat any of your stinking
fish!" Serena tugged on Mina's sleeve, asking, "Mina, maybe we shouldn't be
getting him upset..."

The chef's pupils turned a bright red. The chef's skin turned a pale blue,
like that of a fish; then his size increased twofold. His chop grew to
triple its normal size, and the Mad Chef emerged, laughing maniacally. Then
he gained a deadly scowl, screaming, "WHAT? YOU DIDN'T EAT _MY_ FOOD!
Blasphemy! Ingrates! I'll chop you up and put you in the freezer!" That
didn't sound good. "Then I'll feed you to the dogs!" That didn't sound good,
either.

"Oh yeah?!"

"Moon Crystal Power!"
"Venus Star Power!"

The two Sailor Senshi transformed into Sailor Moon and Sailor Venus.

Sailor Moon introduced herself, saying, "You use food to hurt people! Food
is for people to enjoy. I should know! (She draws strange looks from Sailor
Venus and Artemis here) I am Sailor Moon! For abusing food, I'll punish you!"

Sailor Venus then said, "It's bad enough you're a lousy cook. But stealing
people's energy, too? That's unforgivable. In the name of Venus, I'll punish
you!"

The monster just laughed. Then the Mad Chef swung his oversized knife,
slicing into the space that Sailor Moon just occupied, as Moon dodged left,
and Venus dodged right. Venus followed up with the words, "Venus Love-Me
CHAIN!" and used her gold chain to shatter the monster's axe into little
pieces. The Mad Chef howled, and then produced many small knives, and
started tossing them at Sailor Venus. Rolling over a nearby circular table,
she dodged about a dozen knives before hitting the wall, unscathed.

---