Disclaimer: You can take Sailor Moon from the girl, but you can't take the girl from her Sailor Moon! Or... something like that...

Author's Note: Big hugs and kisses for all you lovelies who reviewed last chapter! That's mali86, TropicalRemix, Roxypockets1, MJ3030, CandyBurst, Moon Bunny, Lmx3108, Astraearose-silvermoon, kk bk, TinkStar87, eskalations, Celestial Cat, and PowerStealerRogue. I know this chapter isn't terribly long, but hopefully it answers a few questions... while posing a couple more ;P Enjoy!

Anomaly

~Chapter 16~

"Rei-chan, hon, you are going to wear a hole into the floor the way you're pacing."

Rei glanced up with a wan smile, eyeing Makoto who was sitting in a chair near the closed bedroom door, where beyond Ami was doing her best to bandage up poor battered Yuuichiro. The brawny girl was reading a manga with legs crossed, the only indicator she was not completely at ease the way her foot kept bouncing up and down without cessation. It was clear they both had a lot of pent up energy and frustration, but whereas Makoto could put it towards catching up on the latest magical girl issue while they waited for news, Rei couldn't seem to do anything except brood. Brood and walk. She sighed loudly, and Makoto graced her with a knowing look.

"Worried about him... or her?"

"Both."

"Well you know Minako-chan would call us on comms if anything was amiss. And I never saw anything during my morning shift."

"Yes... I still wish she would get back already and give us a report though, I'll feel much better."

Makoto laid down her manga, furrowing her brows. Her voice was uncommonly serious as she insisted, "Tell me again. Your vision."

Rei came to a halt, throwing her hands onto her hips and obsidian-violet eyes heavenward. "Mako-chan, we've all gone over this a hundred times now-"

"Yeah, but what if we missed something. What if you've forgotten or repressed something and this time, it comes to the surface-"

"I've told you everything I remember. The fountain, the image I saw in the water of that weird orb and Usagi half dead... the voice saying she's in grave danger and not to let her fight at all costs..."

"But not to let her fight though," Makoto repeated, musingly rubbing her lips with a finger. "That just seems so... so suspicious. Completely counterproductive to what we need right now. You don't think your premonition could be manipulated, do you?"

"The wisdom of the Great Fire is unbendable to the will of others. It would not lie to me," Rei told her firmly. "Usagi is in danger, and we have to protect her - at all costs."

Makoto didn't disagree with that, but she was still pondering over the details of Rei's fire reading. "You didn't recognize the voice?"

The priestess' face scrunched as she concentrated inward, but the foreboding warning she'd received was no clearer than it had been last night. "No... the voice was weak. Garbled. Like a... like a long range transmission losing strength. But it was so familiar, Mako-chan. I swear I've heard that voice before. I just can't remember where."

She growled at the futility of memory but was saved from further interrogation by the sound of a door opening. Ami stepped out into the unofficial 'waiting room' they'd created in the hallway outside Yuuichiro's bedroom, wiping her hands of the blood and grime that had collected there. Makoto jumped up from her seat and Rei was swift to join her.

"How is he!?"

"Still unconscious, but stable. I've managed to stop the bleeding and wrap his wounds, but... there's something rather disturbing about them..."

Whatever Ami was going to say next was interrupted by the sudden entrance of Minako, bursting into the hall in typical graceless fashion. She bent over, panting, clutching a stitch in her side. "She's - she's on her way. Coming up the stairs. I had to beat her here. Didn't want her to realize she'd had a tail-"

"Was she alright? Did anything happen?" Rei pressed, barely managing to suppress the panic welling inside her at the thought of harm befalling another dear friend.

"No. Nothing," Minako shook her head. "Not so far as I could tell. I lost sight of her once she went in the house, but Luna was with her there, and she didn't seem overly concerned when they left."

The girls nodded and as one seemed to let out a relieved exhalation of air, but the unspoken question still remained... If not now, when? And more importantly, why? Rei caught Makoto staring at her, and she frowned, fully aware of the doubts still swirling in the other's mind, likely given validation by the lack of anything resembling danger striking Usagi thus far. But she believed the vision, believed in her own prophetic abilities as much as she believed in the power of the Great Fire, and if it was foretelling the doom of their small blonde princess then they were damn well going to keep eyes on her at all times until the threat had passed. No one had witnessed what Rei did; no one else had the image of their beloved leader so devoid of life she was almost a husk seared forever into their mind. Rei shuddered.

She wasn't going to let that happen.

oOo

Usagi was feeling much better by the time she arrived at the shrine. She could almost shake off that the pain spell had ever happened, and tucked it back into far recesses of her mind for further consideration later. Right now she was most concerned about Yuuichiro. He hadn't looked good at all when draped over Jupiter's shoulders. She was just entering over the threshold when she nearly ran headlong into Grandpa.

"Ojii-chan!"

"Why hello Usagi-san," the short bald man greeted as he fell into a deep bow. "And little miss Luna."

Usagi suddenly remembered that Rei was going to tell her grandfather the truth about being Sailor Mars, and she wondered if the priestess had gotten around to doing so. Observing Grandpa now, as he came up out of his bow, he gave nothing away. His features were calm but for a polite yet vaguely vacant smile. Fairly normal, for the daffy, senile old priest.

"Er, you wouldn't happen to know where-"

"Second hallway to the left," Grandpa answered without prompting. "Good to see you well, Usagi-san."

"Right. Thanks. You too," Usagi replied, feeling a little nonplussed as he floated away. She exchanged a look with Luna and shrugged. The pair made their way into the makeshift waiting area, and greeted the girls. "Rei-chan, I just saw Ojii-chan. You didn't tell him, did you?"

Rei actually looked a mite affronted, but it wasn't at Usagi. "The old coot says he already knew. He's known for years and kept quiet! Not a single word, ever. And here I thought I was so clever at covering my tracks!" she scoffed. Usagi thought of her own mother's response.

"I think sometimes you just can't beat a parent's - or guardian's - intuition," she said with a half-quirk of the lips. But then her expression grew serious as Ami stepped forward. "You have an update on Yuuichiro-san?"

"I do," Ami returned, ocean blue eyes cloudy with discomfiture. "And you should probably prepare yourselves. The details are a little bit... gruesome, to say the least."

There were more than a few loud swallows and nervous exchanges.

"Yuuichiro-san's wounds appear to be... self-inflicted. Arms, legs, stomach... he... well, it looks like he carved the same words over and over with his own switchblade. It was still on his person when I searched his pockets."

"That's awful," Usagi choked, the disgust so intense she was almost nauseous with it. Minako reached over to grasp her shoulder, perhaps just as much for her own sake as Usagi's. Her expression was equally as horrified. "Why would he do that to himself?"

"Or who would make him do that to himself," Rei added, a fierce anger spitting fire and brimstone in her eyes. "He certainly didn't gain superhuman abilities of his own volition!"

Ami shook her head. "He hasn't fully woken yet and probably won't for a little while, thanks to the strong cocktail of painkillers I slipped him. But I agree with Rei-chan. There's no way anyone, especially Yuuichiro-san, would willingly do something like this to themselves. Some of the cuts were pretty deep. It's awful."

"What did he write?" Makoto whispered, the question tinged with morbid curiosity. Everyone stared at Ami, who frowned, revealing their first clue since this whole mess began.

"I am the Anomaly. Over and over and over again."

Author's Note: Back in Chapter 12 Usagi sees a flash of green in the street as she sits out on her doorstep. Now we know that was a sneaky Jupiter ;) So... the girls are hiding that they're shadowing Usagi, Usagi is hiding that she's having mysterious pains... my my my. This little game of deception can't go on forever. Or can it!? xD Our girl is in definite danger. Any theories?

Next chapter, Yuuichiro finally wakes up and Usagi still misses Mamoru. Like a lot. Also we're way overdue for cute mother/de-aged daughter stuffs. Stay tuned!

Until then,

AngelMoon Girl