A/N (12/26/16): This is my first Sailor Moon fanfiction in over a decade. It's set a year and a half after the events in Sailor Stars, when the scouts are starting their last year of high school. I know that everyone has their own preferences with the English/Japanese names and use of Japanese phrases and that sort of thing. I am going with what is comfortable for me-Japanese names and probably very little in the way of additional Japanese for the ease of readers.

I would love feedback on this story as I publish the chapters. I have written quite a bit of it already (the prologue and 13 chapters), and it would be great to hear your theories and any ideas you might have. My plan is to publish a chapter about every week.

Six Months Ago

The park was almost empty. Sayuri walked along the pathway just like she had for the past year on every morning she had been able to get out of the house early enough to enjoy a solitary walk. She wouldn't have to keep an eye on the time today, since it was a day off from school. She hugged herself tight as protection against the February cold.

A pair holding hands walked near her, their whispered voices, full of affection, made her feel even more isolated among the snowflakes.

She hadn't always been like this. Up until a year ago she had found it easy to make friends. She'd been decently popular, too. But after that night when she'd woken up in a cold sweat she'd been knocked off balance. It was almost like the wires of her mind had been crossed and tangled. School was harder, her brain slow to understand the new information her teachers put on the board.

Her attention was disrupted in other ways, too. Her friends noticed it. That, and the fact that she sometimes gave into a crippling grip of anxiety that she'd never before experienced. Sayuri didn't remember being a paranoid person before that night, but now she was slow to trust and quick to reject others.

So, over the past year her life has morphed into something entirely different. Sayuri didn't even know what she wanted to do with her life anymore. She couldn't get over the feeling that she had already failed so much that she had sealed her fate as a failure. What, exactly, she'd failed was beyond her. But in the end it didn't matter to her. She felt the regret so completely that she didn't question it.

Sayuri reached the edge of the lake. There was a railing that reached her waist. She leaned against it, peering into the still water. The snowflakes that fell to it were gobbled up by the warmer water and disappeared instantly. She wished that she could do the same. She wanted to just slip over the railing and have her whole body vanish under the surface. Her parents complained that they didn't know what to do with her anymore. She supposed she shouldn't blame them. Not when she didn't know what to do about herself.

"You look lonely," said a quiet voice. Sayuri froze. She hadn't heard anyone on the path behind her, and the breaking of the silence unnerved her. It took her a moment to relax enough to see who it was who was speaking to her, but when she looked behind her she only saw an orange and white striped cat.

"How funny," she said, frowning. Her mind must have been playing tricks on her. She stared at the cat for a moment and then went back to watching the lake. What would a cat know, anyway?

"Don't you feel lonely?" said the same voice, a woman's voice. Sayuri turned around faster this time-but it was still just the cat. The cat was staring at her with an expectant sort of look on it's face. "Well?" the cat said. And it was the cat, there was no mistake about it. Sayuri didn't understand how this was happening. Perhaps it was a dream. But the cat was opening it's mouth and the words were forming on the feline lips just as they would on a human.

"You can't talk," she said.

"I can," said the cat. It walked a few steps to her. Sayuri realized that there was a white crescent moon shape on it's forehead. "My name is Dysis. I know who you are. You are Sayuri."

"Yes," said Sayuri, pressing her back against the railing. "But... How do you..."

"Because I have been looking for you," said the cat. "I've been looking for a very long time, for thousands of years. I had begun to think that I would never find you, but after your star seed returned to you I finally was able to narrow down my search. And now, here you are. Finally."

"Star seed? What? Why were you looking for me?"

"There will be plenty of time to explain," said Dysis. "I would rather we go somewhere warmer to talk, as there is much you have to learn. I simply ask that you trust me."

"Trust a talking cat?" said Sayuri, incredulously. She pressed a palm to her forehead. This could not be happening.

"It's the only way you'll know what's happening to you," said Dysis. "You've changed, haven't you? You're no longer the same person you once were. I imagine you're still struggling to find balance within yourself..."

Sayuri stared at the cat. Dysis looked pleased with herself and nodded at Sayuri once before heading out down the path in the direction that Sayuri had come from. Sayuri hesitated for only a moment before following the cat.