{{{ Prologue }}}

"SHUT UP… just-shut-up."  Waiting until the room was quiet, the petite girl continued.  "Thank you, now if you don't want me here just say so, but stop harping on me.  I try, but you people don't seem to notice that.  For Gods Sakes.  A few simple words.  Tell me right now you want me to go and I will.  Or stop pestering me.  So, do you really want me to just go?"

"Yes… yes I think we do, all you seem to be doing is bringing the rest of us down," mumbled the raven-haired teen.

With a slightly disbelieving look, the blond-haired girl squared her shoulders.  "Fine… I'm going.  You won't ever have to deal with me again.  Farewell Senshi.  Farewell, for now the lives of the people of this city, and ultimately the planet, rests entirely on your shoulders.

Quietly removing her sceptre from her subspace pocket and placing it on the table, she turned and walked away, out of the shrine, out of their lives.  I'm handing over the reins, drifted back sombrely on the soft breeze.

*~*~*~*~*

{{{ Chapter One }}}

A few moments later, the four teens left in the room began to regain their voices.  "So does this mean I'm leader now?" began Raye.

"No."  Answered Mina firmly.

"No?  Well who is then?  Or are we not going to have a leader?"  Asked Raye.

Regaining her own voice, Ami entered the conversation with, "Every true team must have a leader… it's one of the first rules of group adhesiveness and autonomy…"

"I'm going to be leader Raye."  Mina said with a sad look on her face.

Not noticing the look, perhaps still 'basking' from her achievement in getting rid of the 'ditz', she said loudly in disbelief, "We're not going to go from one ditz for a leader to the next."

"I'm not a ditz Raye," she said quietly, sadly with a slight command in it.  A voice the others had never heard her use.  A solitary tear ran down her face, as the other three stood in complete silence, mouths agape staring at her, not quite sure what was happening.

"Mina?" asked Lita, "What's wrong?  Please."

Standing tall and proud, the princess of Venus squared her shoulders.  "There is much you don't know.  One thing being that by your last action Raye, you have made all of our lives more difficult than you can imagine."

"Yeah sure," scoffed Raye.  "I just saved…" she began again, before she was silenced completely by the look on Mina's face.

"You have just sentenced us… to some of the hardest years of our lives.  Due to her absence, many, many innocents may die.  And we will have to live with that."

"What?"  Began Ami, but not being able to finish, she just looked to Mina in question.

Sighing she sat down.  "I don't know everything… but I have many more memories than you three do.  She was… is our only hope of finding the princess…."

Pausing at the sharp intake of breaths from the others, she then continued, "She will find the princess… when she comes back, she will bring her."

"Umm… Mina… I don't think she's coming back…."  Whispered Lita.

"She will eventually… in the mean time… we just have to learn to live, to fight… to survive without her…"

"I don't want to always sound like the uncaring one, I mean I liked the girl… but it's going to be easier to survive, easier to fight without her fighting."

"Raye, you know the saying you don't know what you've got until it's gone."

"Mina, you mean…. No wait, you got that one right," said Ami in amazement.

"Of course I did Ami… anyway, Raye… you have no idea what she did in battle, you saw her faults… the surface of her fighting… she was not as graceful as she should have been, no…. and she always got in trouble, yes… but the amount of sheer power she channelled through the sceptre every time, every fight… you can never compare to that…. Never."

"But she left us the wand…."

"Which none of us can use… and even if we could… it would be nothing compared to her… all of us together may have the same amount of power as she does…. May."

"But… how come she never said anything????" Asked Lita with a strained look on her face.  "She never even hinted that she put effort into it."

"She didn't want to be a hero… she didn't even want to fight… but she drained her energy every night.  Then she went to school the next day… got yelled at by teachers for falling asleep in class…. she got detention.  Then she came to our meetings to get yelled at by you…. And Luna… before going back home to get yelled at by her parents for bad grades, coz she couldn't stay awake in class… then going up to her room for a few hours sleep before her day began again with a new fight and a new complete drain of her energy."

"When you put it like that Mina…"

"Yeah Ami?"

"We sound evil."

"….. You mean I sound evil Ami…. Me…."

"No Raye… not you…."

"Mina…." Began Lita, her voice rising in anger… "How could you not have said anything, we could of cut her some slack."

"Even now, you don't realise what you've lost… if I had told you, you would never have understood.  Besides, I think its better this way… she doesn't want to fight… and for the moment she doesn't have to."

"That's true… and her life was always in danger…" added Ami.

"Yeah.  And so we just all fight a little harder, and Raye's right, at least we don't have to worry about looking after her…" said Lita.

"You didn't look after her… Tuxedo Kamen did," Mina said.

"Even so, now he can fight more," argued Raye.

"You don't realise do you…" asked Mina in disbelief.  "We've almost lost him too."

"What?  You don't think he'll fight with us now?"  Questioned Ami in disbelief.

"Of course I will…"

"What?" Asked all the girls, jumping in surprise… turning around, to see none other than Tuxedo Kamen there.  After all they were at the temple, as civilians.

"Tuxedo Kamen-sama," breathed Raye, not even bothering to try to pretend they weren't senshi.  Who knows how long he'd been standing there.

"Mina is right in everything she has said…the senshi of the moon did not want to fight, but she fought anyway, bravely and hard, you will soon realise what you have lost.  I am not happy that you would do what you have to a 'friend' but I will still fight with you."

"Why?"  Asked Ami sadly, "After what we've done."

"This is not about you or me…. But about this world… my world…. And I will fight for her forever."

"Her?"  Asked Lita.

"My mother Earth, my planet," he answered with a sigh before turning on his heel and walking out.

"Ohhhhhh," said Lita.

"See Mina… he'll still fight with us…" Assured Raye.

"I said almost lost him…."

Furrowing her brow, Lita mumbled, "He just said…."

"His passion has gone, not completely but partially, a person always fights better when they have a passion for the fight."

"He wants to protect Earth."  Said Ami

"He also wanted to protect Sere…"

"Really??"  Cried Raye in disbelief.

"Yes… and beyond that… he came when she was in trouble.  He knew where to find us, and when we were fighting, by following her, he can feel her transform and he has an invisible link to her.  To 'track' her with.  He won't know when we're in trouble now, and he won't always know where to find us…and hence… we've almost lost him too…"

"By the Goddess," swore Raye.  "What have we done?"

"The only thing we could do… what I believe destiny wanted us to do…"

*~*~*~*~*

{{PREVIEW}}

[AN: As the next chapter begins, we have skipped some time.  The senshi have been fighting for years, without Moon, who left the country soon after they kicked her out of the senshi.  The senshi know who TK is, but not that he is the prince.  TK knows he is the prince, and who the princess is, but he has not told the senshi.  Youma have been getting stronger, as have the senshi as they continue to receive more powers.  Though the senishi have been becoming more powerful, they are finding the fights becoming more difficult.]

{{{ Chapter Two }}}

{Many years later…}

What should have been a crisp and clear autumn night suddenly turned horribly wrong. 

The quiet whispering of the trees leaves and the occasional hooting of an old barn owl where the only sounds the young couple heard.  Looking over the tranquil lake with the beautiful clear reflection of the setting sun, the entire grove just oozed with romantic clichés.  That was probably why this young couple, like many others before them, had come here to sit on the soft grassy hill and cuddle quietly.

Everything was calm and quiet… normal. 

Everything except the red smoke slowly drifting across the lake…

Coming Soon… :-)

Please Review… or email me… let me know what you think…