A/N: This and the next chapter are the first "episode," if you will, of the next season, where the action – well, as much action as this story ever gets – begins. It takes place after the Fiore arc, which serves as a sort of prologue, making it the equivalent of the Sailor Moon R season, where the Black Moon appeared. Those of you who are familiar with the season – which you all better be – also know that a certain pink-haired spore also makes her appearance…as does a certain chasm between Darien and Serena. Allow me to say that I HONESTLY did not intend for this chasm to occur in STC – in fact, a huge motive behind me beginning the story was that I wanted to change a lot of stuff I hated from the canon, and one of my biggest beefs was the Dare-Sere split in R. Alas, life throws curveballs…

Hi JadeEye reporting for duty! Heres the first chapter for Season 2 Of STC. Expect another chapter in a day or two. Oh. and just so you guys know these chapters that I will be posting up are chapters that she has had for a while, so after ch 4 I don't know how long it will take to get updates up. Just giving y'all a heads up. Please show some love to EightofSwords and leave a review. Oh yeah, can you guys please spread the word that STC is back up and running. Eight would really like it if you did. Ja ne!

Disclaimer: Even if I owned SM, they would have made me surrender the rights anyway for not meeting deadlines. I'm sorry the story takes so long!

L

Subject to Change

Season 2

Chapter One: Back to Square One

L

Motoki took a slurp from his root beer float. "I hate…clowns," he finished, taking another slurp.

His and Asanuma's heads swiveled expectantly toward Lita. "I hate…" She thought. "Underwires."

It was two hours past closing time at the Crown Arcade and Fruit Parlor. Two full days of freedom remained before school started up again. Motoki, Asanuma, and Lita were tryign to forget that impending doom by intoxicating themselves with root beer and a pointless game Asanuma had initiated, dubbed by the inventor himself as "I hate dot dot dot."

It was a mark of how late it was and how many root beers they had drunk (Asanuma: 5, Lita: 5, Motoki: 7) that Motoki did not turn red as a beet at what Lita had said, and that Lita had mentioned bras in front of two teenage boys at all. Instead, thanks to the root beer, they just chuckled a little and waited for Asanuma to take his turn.

Asanuma had just finished his fifth glass; he crooked a finger at Motoki and winked. Motoki heaved the new two-liter of root beer at his friend and dug the ice cream scoop into the vanilla to plop a scoop into Asanuma's glass.

Asanuma slurped up the foam hissing at the top of the glass and snorted as the bubble exploded in his nose. "I hate…" he announced, "Darien Shields. That bastard."

"Amen." Lita burped.

"I know…right?" Asanuma held out a hand to high-five Lita. She aimed carelessly, and only their pinkies collided. "Oh well…"

Motoki hiccoughed suddenly. "Aw, c'mon, guys…" Another hiccup. "You can't – "

"Bastard hasn't answered any of my phone calls!" Asanuma hit a fist on the counter, shaking the two-liter. "Not the doorbell either…" He burped, then grinned, pointing at Lita. "Ha ha! Beat you! Ow!" he exclaimed after Lita kicked his shin.

"He never answers when I call either," said Motoki mournfully, amidst a few hiccups. "And they never come to the arcade anymore…"

He looked at the calendar on the wall behind the counter. The past month was filled with pink and red X's. Each day Serena didn't come to the arcade had been marked with a pink X, the days Darien hadn't with a red X. The past three weeks were solid bars of red and pink X's.

Lita had remained conspicuously silent, slurping at her root beer. She finished the fifth and poured a fresh glass.

Motoki looked at her a little blearily. "Doesn't she talk to you, Lita?"

Lita paused in the middle of scooping ice cream. She hiccupped. "Sometimes."

"It's not…" Asanuma belched again, "right. They're supposed to be together. They didn't even fight. It was just that one…burp…day!"

"They looked so serious." Motoki stirred his float, the ice cream melting into the soda. "And then Darien left…and never came back."

"Serena neither." Asanuma shook his head.

Lita rested her chin on the counter and watched the bubbles climb to the surface of her soda. Up…pop. Up…pop. Up…pop. Serena and Darien…pop.

"Do you think they weren't meant to be, Lita?" Motoko sounded a little miserable, and the hiccup that punctuated the end of his question/sentence only added to the wretchedness.

Lita moved her head so it was her cheek instead of the cool counter instead of her chin. She didn't know what to tell Motoki. It wasn't just that she thought – she knew they weren't meant to be. Serena had told her about the princess…

"I slept in until nine o'clock today!" Lita reached her arms above her head, stretching them with a popping noise, and yawned. "I NEVER sleep in!"

"Motoki's been working you hard," said Serena beside her. She was swinging a shopping bag back and forth and Lita pushed her cart to the checkout counter. The swinging seemed forced and unnatural, as though Serena needed to be doing something with her hands, as though she wasn't used to having them free. Lita wondered if this was the first time she'd been to the grocery store without Darien.

"Not really." Lita snuck a sideways glance at Serena as she said it. "You'd know if you came to the arcade once in a while."

The cheery smile on Serena's face faltered.

"Darien hasn't been in in a week, you know." Lita leafed through a magazine as she spoke, showing Serena she wasn't watching her. "You could come in."

"Motoki and Asanuma were his friends before they were mine," Serena said, smiling at the elderly cashier as he run up the totals. "I'm not going to evict him from his own headquarters."

Lita made a face, putting the magazine back on the shelf. "Huh?"

Serena took her change back from the chasier and bag back from the bagboy. "He stopped going because he knows I'm avoiding him. He was makign it easier for me by not going. But that's not fair to him."

"What I still don't get is why you're avoiding him," grumbled Lita. To the cashier, she said, "Oh, I want those kept out of the bags."

The cashier handed Lita her deluxe size bag of M&M's. Lita tore a corner open and poured out a rainow handful, offering it to Serena.

"Thanks." Serena let Lita pour the handful into her smaller hand, popping a couple into her mouth.

Lita sighed, shooting a sideward glance at Serena again. Apparently she hadn't picked up on the prompt to tell Lita why she was avoiding Darien. Probabyl she had and was just ignoring it. Lita kicked back another handful of candy, frowning fiercely.

After a silence punctuated only by the beeps of the register and "have a nice day" of the cashier, the two girls walked outside.

High summer had plopped down with the vengeance of an obese man, spilling heat over Tokyo that smothered its inhabitants like folds of fat.

"Ugh." Lita put a hand on her abdomen. "I think I can feel the M&M's melting in my stomach." Sweat had already appeared in beads on her face. "It feels weird."

Serena, still on her first handful, grinned a little. "It probably looks like a chocolate fondue pot in there."

"Ooh, no imagery, please," groaned Lita.

"You should stop wearing tank tops," observed Serena, who was herself still wearing one of the long-sleeved shirts she'd worn all summer. "You're going to get sun cancer."

"Skin cancer, you mean." Lita unchained her bicycle, slinging her bags into the basket behind the seat.

"Oops." Serena poured the rest of the M&M's into her mouth and clambered onto her own bike, tugging at the hem of her shorts. "They're basically the same thing anyway."

"Basically," agreed Lita, tucking some hair behind her eat and kicking up the kickstand. "But my thought is that I can just transform and heal any cancer, don't you think?"

Serena shrugged, examining her own kickstand before she moved it up. "Maybe."

Lita shifted on her seat to peer at Serena. "You stil haven't changed yoru midn about transforming?"
Serena shook her head. Her bangs had grown long, to her mouth, and they whipped her face. "No."

Lita nodded and began pedaling. Serena followed her. When they reached a stop sign and braked beside each other, Lita said, "You know, it's been almost two weeks."

The pedestrian sign lit up, and they began pedaling again. It was three more blocks before they reached another stop sign.

"Are you ever gonna tell me?" Lita said.

The next stop didn't come until Serena's house. Lita braked in front of the gate. Serena, too, halted, and peeled her helmet off, putting a foot down to prop herself up on the bike.

She looked up at Lita with her serious blue eyes. Lita caught a breath. She was finally going to tell her –

"Fiore didn't realize what he was doing."

Lita did not blink and frown the way she felt like doing, but instead nodded slowly. Then, carefully, she said, "It seemed like he did."

Serena dismounted from her bicycle. "He didn't."

She hung her helmet on on of the handlebars. "When Kisenian came into me, I found out everything she'd done to him. He didn't realize what had all happened until Kisenian was takn out of him. The person doing all those things to us and Dar…Darien wasn't even Fiore. It was Kisenian."

"Well," said Lita, still picking her words carefully. "He couldn't help it."

"No," Serena agreed. "You can't."

Lita dismounted from her own bike. "What did she do to you, Serena?"

Serena didn't speak for a moment. She kicked down her kickstand. Then she began. "The second she's inside you, you practically don't even exist anymore. She finds out everything about you by turning into you. You find out everything about her by turning into her. Nothing's sacred at all."

Serena stiffened as though bracing herself and looked up at Lita. "Kisenian didn't have any knowledge about a Sailor Moon existing. She knew about a Senshi for every planet here, right down to their attacks and what kind of food they liked, but she had never heard of a Senshi for the Moon."

Lita listened but didn't say anything. She was still trying to figure out where this was going.

"Mina – Sailor Venus – never recognized me. She thought I was here to kill the Moon Princess. Helios – he was alive in the Silver Milennium when the Moon Princess was alive, too, and he had never heard of a Sailor Moon, either. He thought I was here to hurt Darien. So did Kisenian."

Lita chewed on her cheek. She saw now where Serena was going – she though she was a danger to Darien because no one remembered her as a Senshi in the Silver Milennium. And that was – ridiculous. Of course it was.

She flashed a convincing smile at Serena. "Helios was super-sheltered in Elsyion, though," she pointed out. "He doesn't even know what the Moon Princess looks like. I'm sure it doesn't mean anything. Plus, he didn't seem to have any problem with you when I saw him. He called you "dono!" Lita paused. "Besides, you don't have to avoid Darien just because you weren't a Senshi in the Silver Millennium. Right now and what you do now are what matter. And I feel like Mr. Rogers…" She rubbed her neck.

Serena smiled at her, but it had all the genuineness of a dummy. "You're right, Lita."

"Really?" said Lita suspiciously. "So you'll stop avoiding Shields now?"

Serena's smile stayed in place, but it brittled. "Lita…if Motoki had a friend who was a girl, and he shared some sort of weird mental connection with her, how would you feel?"

Lita blinked. "Well, I don't think I'd have started dating him in the first place if he had a girl he was that involved with."

"Well, but if you did. I mean, if you knew for sure that you and Motoki were MEANT to be."

"Then I think I'd be wondering why that girl had the weird mental bond with him and I didn't," said Lita. "I'd also wonder if they were long-lost twins, if you know what I mean."

Serena groaned a little. "I wish Motoki hadn't shown you Star Wars."

Lita grinned a little but sobered. "Serena, what is this about?"

Serena twisted her hands a little. "Okay, suppose you're the Moon Princess, I'm the girl, and Darien's Motoki," she said. "Do you get what I'm talking about?"

"No, wait just a second." Lita held up a hand. "I'm trying to make Darien fit as sweet, darling, considerate, loveable, social, kind Motoki – "

"Darien's kind," said Serena a little defensively.

"Well," said Lita. "I'm not really good with analogies, Serena. They're Toki's cup of tea. Why don't you just say it straight out?"

Serena stared at her for a minute, eyes wide and desperate. "Look, Darien's the PRINCE!" she finally said, her words bursting like popping balloons. "He's supposed to be with the Moon Princess, Lita! And I'm the girl with the weird rope bond with him who didn't exist in the past! Let's picture it – the moon princess finally comes along, and here I am – 'Sorry, Your Highness, I was just keeping him warm for you!' " Serena let out a strained laugh. "Do you get it, Lita?"

"No, I don't," said Lita firmly. "Look, Serena, in the first place, all Darien's ever said about the princess has been negative, at least as long as I've been around. It's not even just that he doesn't care about her; he actually dislikes her. You've heard him, he says she's annoying! And – " She cut off Serena as the blonde tried to say something. "And in the second place, back in the Silver Millennium, it doesn't sound like the prince and princess were all that old, so what's to say it wasn't just a case of Nick and Jessica? THIRD, Shields isn't Endymion. He's Darien, who just HAPPENS to be the reincarnation of some guy named Endymion. They're not the same person. And fourth, Darien likes YOU more than anyone else. He loves Motoki and Asanuma, but he's obsessively protective of YOU. So I don't get why you're all of a sudden pretending he doesn't exist for the sake of a princess he doesn't love and who, furthermore may I add, may or may not ever show up?"

But Serena was shaking her head. "No, Lita, you don't understand – "

"Then tell me so I CAN understand, Serena!" Lita gripped her friend's shoulders. She was close to snapping. "How am I supposed to understand if you won't tell me the whole story?" She shook Serena by the shoulders. "Serena, God, you're my best friend, but if you won't tell me, I'm gonna go ask Shields!"

Serena let out an unhappy laugh. "You must really be desperate."

"I am," Lita said, softening at the wretched sound. "Serena, please just tell me."

"There's a prophecy about the Moon Princess." Serena looked down at her hands, which were a rainbow of the colors from the M&M's melting in her palm in the heat. "It's the reason Kisenian Blossom came here. She wanted to kill Darien – the Moon Princess, too, if she could find her, but her main goal was Prince Endymion. The prophecy said that the only person who would ever be able to defeat Chaos was the Moon Princess. But to do that, she has to be with her soulmate…"

Serena trailed off and looked at Lita miserably.

"...Prince Endymion," Lita finished in a whisper, a horrible pit forming in her stomach. "…Darien. So they're – "

"Soulmates," finished Serena. "In all caps, italics, underlined, bolded, neon lighting. Soulmates are still meant to be even after reincarnation. Kisenian knew it, and when she…entered me…I…found it out, too." She smiled a little, bitterly.

"Oh." Lita didn't know what to say, what to do. Her first instinct was to argue, but –

She pulled Serena into a hug.

Serena pulled away. "I'm okay, Lita." She smiled up at her but without meeting her eyes. "I mean, it wasn't like…" she trailed off. "Well, I've got to help make dinner. See you later, Lita."

She wheeled her bike inside and latched the gate behind her.

"Do you, Lita?" Motoki asked again. He didn't hiccup this time.

She forced her head back up off the counter and stood. "I think if they're meant to be together, they will be, somehow." What a lie. She might have believed it – if Darien hadn't been avoiding Serena the same was she was avoiding him. That, more than anything, seemed to cement the inevitable truth that Darien would be with the princess. Why else would he avoid Serena? Nothing else would make him avoid Serena… "I'm going home now."

"Al…" Asanuma burped, "ready?"

"Already." Lita put her glass in the industrial dishwasher, feeling a little unsteady on her feet and very, very bloated. She leaned over to peck Motoki on the cheek. "Asanuma, you better walk home tonight."

"Yes, Mother." Asanuma was slurring. She would hate to see him when he drank real beer…

"Bye, Leets," murmured Motoki, lifting his glass to her as she pushed open the door.

As the door clicked shut behind her, he and Asanuma looked at each other.

Asanuma burped. "She knows. It – burp – definitely has something to do with Senshi stuff."

Motoki did not reply, just stirred his melted float, aiming little static sparks into it.

Asanuma watched the sparks arc and dim. "Can you make crystals yet?"

Motoki shook his head, still stirring. Then he said, "There haven't been any more youma."

"Nope." Slurp.

"So maybe we should just tell them now."

Burp. "No way."

"But…" Motoki watched the soda swirl. "Maybe it would help, Numa. Like they'd have to put aside their differences to help us train…"

"We don't need help training!" Asanuma stabbed his straw into his glass. "We're doing fine on our own!"

"Speak for yourself," muttered Motoki. "I can't control mine at all."

"Cause yours is all physics-y," said Asanuma dismissively. "Conductors and not conductors and electrons and all that. Mine's just oxygen. Bam! Whoosh." He slumped progressively lower on his stool as he spoke, his feet finally touching the ground.

He stood, swaying a little. "I'm gonna go home now," he announced, as though to an audience, and walked toward the door.

Motoki sighed, standing also and taking both their glasses to put in the dishwasher.

"Hey."

Motoki turned around to see Asanuma poking his head in the door. "Yeah?"
"Don't tell…right?"

Motoki sighed again. "I won't."

A grin flashed across Asanuma's face. "That's m'boy!"

The chimes tinkled as the door closed behind him.

Motoki closed the dishwasher and sighed. He'd never thought it before in his life, but he thought he would be glad when school started this year. Surely they wouldn't all be able to avoid and tiptoe past each other once they were all on campus…

L

Michiru lowered her sunglasses to the edge of her nose as they turned onto a main street. "How quaint," she said in her soft, sweet voice that Rei could never gauge the true meaning behind. "That park, how adorable! A wonderful place to raise a child, don't you think, Haruka?"

"I don't think little Miss Rei would sit in a swing unless we handcuffed her to it," said Haruka, glancing at the rearview mirror.

Rei did not give her the pleasure of looking back. She continued to stare out of the window, at the familiar streets and the familiar pedestrians walking down them. That girl had gone to school with her and carried a bright pink bag, and that man had come often to the shrine to pray for his wife's health after she was diagnosed with cancer… there was the candy store that a youma had once attacked, and the tennis courts where another youma had turned Serena into a human tennis ball…and the phantoms that walked these streets, men in military uniforms and youma, a child running…

She sat forward suddenly, hand slapping against the glass of the window. The vision faded. She sat back, lowering her hand.

"Memory lane for you, isn't it?" Haruka had noticed, and now she gibed Rei, mistaking the cause of her sudden movement. "Just remember what we're here for."

"Now, Haruka." Michiru laughed. "Rei knows what will happen if she tries to contact her friends."

And there was the road that led to the shrine; they were approaching it, they were in front of it, they were passing it…

Rei turned away from the window and glared into the rearview mirror at the occupants of the front seat. "I already told you. They're not my friends."

Haruka met her eyes in the mirror. "I guess we'll see."

L