Well, what can I say? I'm so sorry this took so long to get out! There have been a million things going on at home, mainly being made redundant just before Christmas so I've been spending all my time fixing that but I'm still sorry it just took an age to get out! I'm not sure if I am completely happy with it but at the same time I'm glad I got it out (eventually). There isn't much mention of the girl's in this chapter and they won't be making an appearance until next time but I wanted to add a little something about her arrival back home and there is a slight bit at the end I wanted to include as well. As always I hope you enjoy it and I hope you leave a review!

Chapter Five

It had been a few days since the Beryl incident and Usagi was finally being discharged from the hospital (since her breakdown had led into a few more tests and 'talks'). Even though she had felt at peace when she had been asleep, she now felt the fear creeping back into her very heart and soul. She was skittish- even more so than when she had woken up- and she had been so plagued by nightmares that she had woken screaming so loudly the nurse on duty had almost had a fright herself. And as much as she hated to admit it the incident had shaken her more than she would care to admit and she hoped that no one else would realise it when she was finally allowed to leave this hellish place.

She turned her head to look down at the small bag that was on the bed next to her and sighed. She had been here for such a long time and yet she had barely anything with her. It was somewhat disconcerting...she had always thought that she would have all these cards and soft toys and balloons and yet here she was with only a half dead bunch of flowers and her own bag ready to leave. Well, that was enough to prove her theory right- there really was no one who cared for her- and she couldn't count the Outers because they had never really been there when she had needed them the most, and they had never really liked to get involved in the lives of the inner senshi....until now of course, when they had come back to Japan to discover their light of hope half dead in the hospital. She shivered at the thought of what they could have done- she doubted there would have even been an inner circle left if it had not been for the fact that she would have hated them for it.

Yes, they had forced her to become like this. Yes, they had not once come to visit her, and yet she could not bring herself to hate the Inners for what they had done. Perhaps her heart was too good for something like that- she didn't really think she was capable of hating anyone else anymore; she had used whatever was left on herself. She was too pure a person to hate someone else and had instead turned that hatred inwards towards herself. She hated the way she had been before this. Hated the fact she couldn't hate them for what had been said about her. Everything was true and she couldn't argue with them. She just wished that there had been a way to avoid all of this- if she had died on the day she had planned to then she would be avoiding all of this regret and intense guilt that racked her being every moment of the day. But if she had died who would have warned the senshi of the impending thread of Beryl? She might hate herself and not particularly want to see the girls but she would have to tell them- they were still senshi and it was their duty if not to her then the world itself to protect it from the dark forces that came from the evil woman.

Her dark thoughts were suddenly cut short as the door opened and she tilted her head upwards so she could look at the person before giving a small smile. "Hey," She commented before she slowly slid of the bed, pulling the duffel bag off at the same time. Her father gave her a smile back (although slightly larger) and held the door open for her, allowing her to almost run out of the room she had been stuck in for over three months.

"Ready to go home then?" He asked in amusement, not even realising that the only thing she was looking forward to was getting away from the white walls and disinfectant smell of the hospital. She was also incredibly happy to get away from the place that housed that vile woman- she had been plaguing her thoughts for the last few days, taunting her at every moment knowing that Usagi could do nothing about it. Yes. She was very glad to get out of this prison- so much so that she was willing to go back home to the lie that her mother had decided to believe. Suddenly realising that her father was still waiting for her to answer she gave a small nod and another smile.

"Yup, can we go already?" Her agitation was now obvious and he ushered her own, not allowing her to see the frown that marred his face. He knew that she had wanted to get out of this place ever since she had woken up but he had never really thought about how much. How was he to know about what had been happening within these walls? As far as he could tell it was because she had always been a very outgoing person who had always liked going outside and doing things with friends.....but now she had been stuck inside for months so it was only natural for her to want to get out. He had no idea about the threat that hung over her head, or the thoughts that spoiled her mind about what she was going to do about it, had no idea that Usagi being Usagi would try and stop a mad woman from taking over the world on her own not wanting to get the others involved.

"Sure, let's go fill out the rest of the paperwork and then we'll get going. I promised your mother I would pick up some ingredients for pancakes on the way home," Normally the thought of pancakes would have set her drooling and begging for them to get a move on but now she just wrinkled her nose up as she followed him down the corridor. The thought of food repulsed her these days. She had been on a drip whilst in her coma and even before she had been stuck in her white room she had stopped eating nearly as much as she had used to- and as a Lunarian and a senshi the lack of nutrients had helped her on her quest to die. She would never admit that of course- she didn't want people to know that by not eating she had been not only damaging her physical strength but also her mental health. It wasn't her fault that she had been an alien in one of her past lives and that had come back in full force when she had received her birth right. Usagi was still the princess, no matter how much she hadn't wanted it at the time and with that came all sorts of problems and responsibilities. Along with her birthright and powers she had inherited the bad things as well- she needed to eat more than the regular human since she had suddenly been affected by the intense gravity of Earth and she had to eat more to compensate for the extra activities. Of course the sleep thing spoke for itself- if people hadn't noticed a lot of the attacks were during the night and so she lost much of her sleep which those on the outside considered laziness.

As they approached the desk where a smiling nurse was waiting with a clipboard filled with paperwork, Usagi happened to turn and lean on the desk so that she was facing down the hall and froze. At the opposite end of the hall, leaning against the wall with her arms crossed and a smirk on her face was 'Dr Valentine'. A look of panic flitted over Usagi's face before she jerked her head to look at her father. She didn't want to look at the woman...didn't want to acknowledge the fact that she was there because if she admitted that then she would have to admit that it hadn't been some sort of horrible nightmare. She didn't want to give anything away to her father either...as a human he would only get in the way if something happened and she couldn't bear with that guilt on top of everything else she was already feeling at the moment. She turned her head slightly so she could look back down the hallway from beneath her hair only to be confronted with nothing- Valentine was gone, hidden away in the building somewhere, more than likely draining some poor victims of their life energy. She shuddered once again and silently pleaded her father to hurry up with the papers.

"There we go, all done," Kenji turned to his daughter and placed a hand softly onto her shoulder signalling that they could leave. "Let's get you home." He missed the look of complete and utter relief that came into her eyes as he said those words and he was rewarded only with a nod and another small smile.

It didn't take long to get home, not even when they pulled into the store to get the ingredients for the promised pancakes, and once they pulled into the driveway they were welcomed by both Shingo and Ikuko. Usagi grimaced as she climbed out of the car and had to pull away as she was swept up into arms without warning- leaving her mother with a slightly affronted look on her face as she did so. She felt slightly guilty as she did so (again, something to be guilty about) but decided that in the end she just needed a little time. She didn't want to live a lie like her mother seemed to be living but she also knew that to keep the peace she would have to, not for her sanity but for her mother's.

Ikuko recovered quickly and decided to take the bag off her daughter instead, plastering a smile over her face as she did so. "It's so good having you home again and not in that horrible white building, I'm glad your home darling," She pulled Usagi along and into the house, her husband and son following behind.

"Yeah 'Sagi!" Shingo came up behind her and gave her a grin- this one a lot more convincing than his mother's- "I got a new game, do you want to play with me?"

Usagi thought about it for a moment before nodding her head slowly. "Sure," She looked at her mother who still held her bag before looking back to her brother, "Lead the way brat." Her brother only snorted and headed the way up the stairs to his room, his sister following behind albeit a little slowly.

Ikuko watched her children walk up the stairs before she turned to her husband, a smile placed firmly on her lips. "I'm so glad she's home! I've made sure that the sheets were all clean and that everything is exactly where she likes it." Kenji said nothing; he knew that his wife couldn't bear to think of what could have happened to their little girl, she wanted to live a lie instead of facing reality. He knew that living such a thing was never going to be a good thing- living a lie would only turn and backfire at some point...he just hoped it was sooner rather than later. He couldn't bear to see any of his family living behind something that was not the truth. "Now, to make those pancakes." He watched her turn and wander off into the kitchen before he himself turned into the sitting room to sit down and bury his head in his hands.

Shingo and Usagi entered the boy's room and Usagi looked around her with an almost fond smile. It was almost the same as ever- a great mess with clothes strewn around over nearly every available surface. It would have been laughable if she hadn't already known it was going to be there. She was glad that at least this had not changed, that her brother was still and always would be her lovable annoying brat of a brother and she was grateful that he hadn't changed anything for her sake. She would have loathed him if he had changed anything at all.

She watched as he set up the games console, turned the TV on and caught the remote as he tossed it to her before she pushed aside a great pile of what she assumed were clean clothes and perched onto the end of the bed.

"I'm gonna beat you you know...I've been playing this for the last week almost nonstop," He grinned at her and she scowled at him slightly, instantly relaxing her position as she got settled and he couldn't help but be inwardly dancing at the site. He had been warned by his father that for a while she might not get on well back at the house and that she might even keep pulling herself away from the family but now that she was here and sitting beside him he couldn't help but be glad that she was turning herself around and proving them wrong. Maybe she wanted to get better and this was her way of saying that she wasn't going to give up now, not after the last time....but then again, perhaps she was only doing this in order to learn how to live before she went off and did something silly again. Never mind, it didn't matter right now. Right now he had a video game to win!

It didn't take long for the food to be cooked, and it took even less time for it to be eaten (although not by Usagi since she had barely touched her plate). Once she had finished picking at the single pancake that had been in front of her for more than five minutes Usagi finally stood up and silently put her plate into the sink before she disappeared upstairs to her room, her family watching as she did so. Her mother frowned slightly but said nothing deciding to put it down to having eaten hospital food, her father knew of course that it was more than likely to do with the fact that she still wasn't eating as much as she ought to- he had been warned of it before he had left the hospital with her earlier that day but he had yet to try and bring it up with his wife knowing full well that she wasn't going to listen to him...his wife was so far into her denial he wasn't entirely sure she would ever listen to what he had to say about their daughter's mental and physical health and so all he could do for now was pray that she would get better through the help of those girls.

Usagi herself had finished climbing the stairs and was now pushing her bedroom door open ever so slowly, images of memories floating before her eyes which she blinked away, shaking her head as she did so. Now was not the time to be thinking of such things...she needed to figure out what she was going to do with herself now that she was out of the hospital and back into the real world. She paused and looked around her as she entered her room, closing the door behind her as she leant back onto it. It was the same! Everything was the same! Nothing had been changed in over three months (except for one or two things of course). Moving a step further into the room she paused again, hesitating as she tried to decide what she was going to do- she could either go back into her brother's room and continue on that game (she had been losing but only just) or she could stay in here and try and block out all of the painful memories that just didn't want to leave her alone. Finally she decided that she might as well do something with herself and moved over to the bed. Lifting the duvet up slightly she fingered the material for a moment or two, savouring the softness that she hadn't had in the room she had been in before she dropped it.

Stepping back once again she narrowed her eyes and then gripped the offending item and tore it from her bed, flinging stuffed animals and pillows around as she did so. Why was it the same? Why?! Angry tears prickled at her eyes and she angrily brushed them away with a fist before she moved to tear the duvet cover off the actual duvet itself before flinging it outside her room- closely followed by the stuffed animals and other memorabilia she had collected over the years.

After about ten minutes of angry throwing she stopped herself from destroying anything else and looked around her, her chest heaving as she did so. The room was still pink but at least now it didn't have most of the things from her past. She wanted to forget about it all, she didn't want to remember about those days...thinking about it meant she had to relive the nightmare of her life before the 'accident' and that meant having to relive every horrible comment and the pain that each had brought to her. She couldn't...no, wouldn't...think of those things anymore. She would move on with her life and she would make sure that this time she didn't give up. Oh it was going to be hard, she had no doubts about that but she would make it work. This time there was something worth fighting for and she had to make sure that she was strong enough to fight because this enemy wasn't one she could just brush under the carpet- no matter how much she wished she could.

Moving once again to the bed she sat down onto the mattress and pulled the coverless duvet up onto it as she did so, wrapping it around her as if using it to protect her from the outside world. Slowly she turned her head to the side and looked at the bedside table that held a small drawer. Her fingers itched to open it but everything else about her was screaming not to...opening that door would mean she was accepting something she had sworn she would never do ever again. Opening that door meant she would have to face something she had hoped she would never have to see again. Swallowing her fear she reached over and pulled the wooden drawer open and dipped her hand inside, pushing it underneath a few papers before her fingers clasped what she was after. Pulling it out she pulled her hand towards her and cradled it with the other, looking down at it with a mixed expression. She had missed the warmth the locket had provided her but at the same time she also knew that as soon as she accepted it back into her life again she would never be able to just live...she would always be bound to a fate and destiny she had never wanted.

She bit her lip and covered the locket with her hand, blocking it from view before standing up and moving to the window seat where she sat instead, keeping the duvet wrapped around her tightly. She couldn't do this but she had to. If she wanted to keep the people she loved safe then she had to do this. She paused again. The people she loved...she closed her eyes tightly, wishing she didn't have to think about any of this.

"I hate you," she whispered harshly to the locket as she uncovered it once again. She couldn't love this item but at the same time she knew her words were fake...like she already knew, she could never hate something no matter how much she wanted to (Beryl did not count). "But I don't have a choice..." Looking out of the window she made her choice and stood up, throwing the duvet back onto her bed before locking the bedroom door and then opening the window she clambered out, jumping over to the tree that was ever so conveniently next to her room and then to the ground.

Looking to her house as she walked away she bit her lip before shaking her head once more. She needed to do had to prove to herself that could do this, not only to her herself but to those around her. Bringing the broach back up she held it into the air and whispered the words that would change her life once again.

Across the city several people seemed to lift their heads at once as something familiar flooded into their systems and unknowing what it was they ignored it.

An hour later a journalist was running back to his studio, a headline story ready to roll out onto the sets of people across Tokyo.

Another half hour later and the news flash was showing everywhere.

"Breaking news!

The legendary Sailor Senshi have been well known to us all but until recently no one has known where the leader of this group of fighters had disappeared to. Tonight we have proof that she had returned. I repeat. Sailor Moon has reappeared and is back in action!"

Those watching the news were watching with mixed reactions and this time there was no doubting what that feeling had been from earlier. As they watched the young woman fight the youma alone it was with mixed emotions- some smiled, some stared and some cried. But on the lips of every one of them was one word. One name.

"Usagi."