Chapter 2 (I wrote this so much better earlier, but word closed on itself, and didn't pull it back up, so I had to rewrite it, made me sad, I had 2 pages. So it's not as good.)

"How did you convince Beryl to let you go for so long? You lied to her and said I would let you go for so long, didn't you?" Kunzite growled.

"I did not." Usagi pouted. "I only told her you agreed, and asked her if I could for a longer length of time. She agreed. No lying went on."

"You are a little manipulator." Kunzite looked over her small form and broke out in laughter. "It seems that Zoicite taught you well."

"I learn from the very best." Usagi smiled back at him and hugged him. Kunzite looked around before scooping her up in a hug, nobody else could see this softer side of him. Usagi may very well fit in, she had no powers of her own, but she picked up the very best parts of the generals and Beryl and yet she had the ability to pick up parts of people's emotions, even when it was a slight change, and he hadn't met anybody with that ability yet.

"If anything goes wrong I won't hesitate to pull you back to the safety of the base." He set her down. "I'd do anything to protect you."

Kunzite was her favorite general, she didn't let anybody else know this, but he was always so strong and there for her. She had connections with the other generals, but Kunzite would always remain her favorite.

Kunzite started walking. "Jadeite's due home soon."

Usagi ran to catch up to him and then fell into synch with his long strides. "Really? Speaking of Jadeite why is he always so distant in the beginning?"

"Well the senshi hurt him, physically and emotionally. With you here, he snaps out of it emotionally a lot faster than physically but his good will repairs itself to help his physical repairs as well. Nobody is very happy when they are in pain."

"Is it just the senshi who are bad or are all humans bad too?"

"Don't worry so much." He looked over her and noticed how she was looking down. "You will fit in well, if not, you'll just be a lot nicer human." He didn't think or look around as he hugged her. "We'll pull you out with a word from you."

"But you didn't answer my question." Usagi looked up, hesitant now that she got her way, the ramifications of going to the real world hitting her.

"The senshi are evil, and I can't talk too well for the actual human race, I never stopped to ask them what their favorite color is." Kunzite started walking again. "Besides, as you said, they can't be that bad if they can create such beautiful works of art."

Usagi and Kunzite headed to the training grounds where the new youma were growing more powerful. It was sad, they were such beautiful ladies and they'd come back broken and defeated, to die a slow death here or they wouldn't return at all. Jadeite told her in one of those rare moments when he discussed the real world with her, and his battles with the senshi that they'd attack before anybody could deflect the attack and he couldn't recall his girls fast enough to save them. He'd often stay to try and help them but he sometimes got injured in the action.

She surveyed the girls going from weak to strong in a few short weeks. They trained to learn how to adapt to the surroundings to use it to their advantage. All the work they went through to gather energy was wasted along with their lives. It made Usagi sad to think about it all. Nephrite explained to her however that they were not really alive, they were clay molded and formed into shapes given life by Metallica so they could gather energy to feed it to Beryl and in turn give it to Metallica. It was a full circle of life. The senshi just destroyed them though with no thought to the consequences. Usagi hoped she could help sway them over, to see that it wasn't that bad.

"Jadeite's back." A voice whispered in her ear.

Usagi turned around and looked at the brown eyed blond haired man who was leaning against the wall with his arms folded across his chest, looking nonchalant.

She whirled past him to go find another blond haired man this time with blue eyes.

Jadeite was just stepping off the platform when a yellow blur launched itself at him, thin arms wrapped around his neck and equally thin legs around his waist. "Hi." He laughed. "You're cutting off my breath."

Usagi relax her grip around his neck and buried her head into his shoulder. "You're back!"

"Miss me?"

"Terribly!" Usagi struggled to shift so her legs were higher and tightened them so she wouldn't fall as much.

Jadeite carried her down the steps, anybody else and this would be conceived as something negative. But she was innocent and sometimes he wished she wasn't quite so innocent, but he didn't care so much, he enjoyed these greetings. She was as light as a feather, but with his super strength he'd be able to carry her if she weighed five hundred pounds. "Did you enjoy my gift?"

"It was so sad, but amazing." She told him, looking him in the face.

"I figured it was innocent enough, and one of the best for a while from Hollywood." He winked at her. "So you excited to see me?"

"Very much so." She giggled. "It's kind of boring without you around sometimes."

"You're her favorite." Nephrite teased from the entrance, he was leaning against the archway.

"Am not." Jadeite had to let his little pipsqueak down, it was different when other people were around.

"He's not, I don't have a favorite, Neph."

"'Sagi's going countryside." Nephrite spoke again to Jadeite.

"No."

Usagi looked at him wide eyed, she blinked a few times but her eyes remained wide the whole time he didn't say anything.

"Well she is. Both Kunzite and Beryl agreed to let her go for as long as she wants to and you know how Usagi is when she doesn't get her way."

"I'll just have to convince them to change their minds. It's for the good of Usagi, she's not going to the country. She's not safe there." Jadeite took Usagi's shoulders. "You are not going."

"I am going." Usagi was surprisingly chilly as she said it to him.

"No."

"I am." She said in a huff and she turned around and as she brushed past Nephrite she surprised him with her surliness. "If I had a favorite, at this moment it isn't you."

"Usagi!" He called after her as she tromped down the hall to her room. "I've never seen her so assertive."

"I guess she really wants to go." Jadeite sighed, he blew it, but he'd make it up to her later. He agreed with Nephrite though, that was way out of character, insisting on going, usually when somebody said no and they meant it, she dropped it, but she refused to listen and this time she got mad.

"Did you hear what she said to me? I'm not her favorite."

"Please, her favorite is and always will be Kunzite."

Nephrite had to agree with that point, Usagi thought she was hiding it, but it was obvious because she deferred to Kunzite over everybody else, even Beryl and he was the first one she went to if she wanted permission.

She went to the others if she wanted other information or for other reasons but Kunzite was the one she took sides with for the most part.

"I should go talk to her." Nephrite pushed away from the wall.

"I'll see you later." Jadeite walked away, he was going to go through his general routine when he got back from the country, to try and get back on track in the base.

When Nephrite found Usagi she was sniffling as she talked to Zoicite. "I don't know why he was so mean to me."

"He cares about you, we all do, and we know the true horrors of this world." Zoicite comforted.

Arms wrapped around her and a chin rested on her shoulder. She turned her head so she could look at Nephrite. "Yes?" She pouted.

"I'm sorry about earlier, I didn't mean to hurt your feelings."

"You talk when you shouldn't."

"It's a fault of mine." He agreed. "All of ours actually, yours too."

A wry half grin spread across Usagi's face. "True."

"Forgive me?" Nephrite asked silkily.

Usagi shrugged. "I guess, if you help me convince Jadeite to let me go without much argument."

"Deal." Nephrite looked at her before his eyes rose to Zoicite's. "Are you going to help us as well?"

"Sure." Zoicite laughed, his warm brown eyes twinkling. Usagi and Nephrite both knew something was going on in his head and they grinned at each other.

O-,-'---- -----'-,-O O-)------ -----(-O

EAN: I just thought it was good to tell all of you who are familiar with my other works, that I wrote all of this on 2/23/2005 so it is by no means some of my later work, and sometimes I think my work during the '04-'06 period is some of my best work.... But that also being said... I do have a pretty good idea on where I was headed with this. I just was dusting off some of my old cds that had my writing on it, and I came out with this... Also, I might be adding more to the story I wrote where they've been gone for twenty-five years. If at the very least I'll be brushing it off and fixing the disasterous summary of a first chapter or two. I know I didn't go into details back then, but it was more because I wanted to get to the good part.