Brekke watched the progress of a line of ants up the brick wall as she waited for Victoria, urging the creatures on as they attempted to lift the head of a large, black beetle and bring it back to their nest. The ants were only a few inches away from their destination when the redhead tapped on her shoulder.

   "What is so interesting?" Victoria asked, leaning around the black-haired girl for a better look. She cringed when she saw the long line of ants and muttered under her breath, "of course."

   "Took you long enough," Brekke grumbled, turning away from the insects and crossing her arms. "What were you doing, fixing up your hair? Chattering with your friends?"

   "No," Victoria returned coldly, and the two began walking. "I was waiting for her. She was fixing her hair." The redhead waved towards a short girl just then walking past.

   The girl had pitch-black hair held in a braid that hung down between her shoulder blades and was even shorter than Victoria. She walked with a spring, as if she were about to take off running, and was with two other girls, both brunettes. They were all chattering together. Victoria and Brekke fell into step a good few feet behind them.

   "What about her, then?" Brekke asked after a few minutes. "Why are we following her?"

   "I think she's Kairos," Victoria stated bluntly.

   Brekke looked at the redhead sideways, and then pointed at a passing boy, also with black hair. "I think he's Kairos." She smirked and nodded.

   "Really, Brekke," the redhead groaned. "She very well could be."

   "And so could he!"

   "Except for the small problem that senshi can't be boys?" Victoria sighed.

   "Says who?"

   "Says Luna," Victoria returned. "And anyway, I know Kairos is a girl. I know she has dark hair in all of her reincarnations, is almost always short, and well...it just feels like that's her. It looks like her, too. I think."

   "I have dark hair, I'm short," Brekke shrugged. "Why aren't you putting me in the pot for who could be Kairos?"

   "Because you're already Mikos, and you're a blithering idiot."

   "So if you weren't Ypsos, you still couldn't be Kairos?"

   Victoria blinked once and then swung at the other girl's head with her school bag. Brekke jumped out of the way, so instead of the bag connecting with her head, it bashed into a passing girl's, effectively sending her toppling to the ground. The redhead gave a distressed cry and quickly hurried over to help the girl up as Brekke stood aside and laughed.

   "I'm so sorry!" Victoria exclaimed, shooting a glare at the black-haired girl, who was doubled over with mirth.

   The girl didn't say anything, but accepted the offered hand and climbed back to her feet, a position which made her practically tower over the redhead. She had short, black hair which soon revealed itself not to be black at all, but a variety of colors as she stooped back over and retrieved her dropped bags. Her face was scarlet with embarrassment as she hastily bowed and then hurried off.

   Brekke had stopped laughing and recovered herself by then to watch as the strangely-colored head disappeared into the crowd. She looked sideways at Victoria, who was still staring after, and then wrinkled up her nose and snorted.

   "Good going, Vic," she smirked. "Now that makes it how many children you've frightened today?"

   Victoria glared at her, but didn't make the mistake of swinging her backpack again. Instead, she turned around and scanned the crowd ahead for the girl they had been following. Luckily, she had stopped with her clique in front of a display window not too far away. Brekke and Victoria continued their following.

   The first day of such, other than the redhead beaming the tall girl, was uneventful. So were the days after, and every such day, the two met up at Victoria's school and followed the girl around. In the school itself, the redhead kept a watchful eye on her. A few days later, when they finally found Ora, sitting on the windowsill of Trish's hospital room, they persuaded him to kept an eye out from above. At least, whenever he wasn't "trying not to help us," as Brekke put it.

   Trish remained in the hospital for six days as her body rid itself of the tranquilizer and then proceeded to recover. The doctors were amazed that she did as well as she did, and one even jokingly mentioned to Victoria that he doubted she was human. After her fifth night there, her host family was allowed to take her home. By then it was Thursday, and although Trish protested greatly, she wasn't allowed out of the house until after school on Friday.

   She was dressed and out the door before her host mother could change her mind. In front of her house waited Brekke and Victoria, arguing like usual. The blonde giggled and waved as she trotted up to them.

   "What took you so long?" Brekke grumbled, cutting off the redhead's retort in mid-sentence.

   Trish simply laughed and the three of them began walking. They were silent for a while, Brekke and Victoria watching the blond curiously as if afraid she might shatter into pieces. But the blonde, despite being a shade paler than normal, seemed quite alright, and even twirled about a few times, her head back, eyes closed, and arms wide, greeting the sun.

   Finally she broke the silence with, "where exactly are we going, anyway?"

   Brekke grinned. "We're observing someone."

   "Observing who?" Trish blinked and looked around them.

   "Not right now," Victoria chuckled. "We're going to meet up with Ora soon, and he'll take us to where she is currently. Most likely the park, since she tends to go there with her group on nice afternoons after school and giggle at boys."

   Brekke shivered. "I really hope Victoria is wrong about this girl; can you imagine having such an empty-headed leader?" She paused momentarily and looked sideways at the redhead. "Though for a while we did, didn't we?"

   "Yes," Victoria nodded with a smirk. "Those were dire times when you proclaimed yourself leader."

   Trish knew where this was going and quickly interrupted. "Why're we following this girl? Who is she? Or, well, who do you think she is?"

   "Ah," Victoria stated, clapping her hands together. "I had a strong feeling at first that it might be Kairos-"

   "Kairos?" Trish blinked, confused.

   "Yes, the fourth member of our little group," the redhead nodded.

   "I doubt it," Brekke shook her head. "We've been watching her for what, a week now? And she hasn't done anything at all interesting, hasn't been attacked, hasn't even been embarrassed in front of everyone!" She threw up her hands, and then suddenly looked thoughtful. "Come to think of it, nothing at all has happened the past week. No attacks, nada."

   "Strange," Victoria tapped her chin. "I wonder why. I wonder what they're up to."

   "They liked attacking nearly every day," Trish put in. "Like clockwork. If something didn't happen one day, you could expect something the next. And now they've been quiet for a week? That's completely unlike them."

   "Yesss," Brekke hissed softly and tented her fingers. "They're probably plotting, waiting, and working behind our backs. And they're probably following us right now!" She turned completely around and pointed to the nearest person, who just happened to be a short blonde with her hair up in pigtails, placed precariously in balls atop her head.

   Usagi waved cheerfully and bounced up to them, taking Brekke's strange action as a greeting. Brekke blinked and then pouted as both Trish and Victoria burst into giggles. The short blonde tilted her head, confused.

   "Konnichi wa!" She trilled then asked, "what's funny?"

   "Nothing, nothing," Victoria reassured her, abruptly halting her mirth.

   Usagi nodded and then saw the other blonde for the first time. She jumped into the air and then waved wildly as she bombarded Trish with questions. "Are you okay? What happened? You've been gone for a week! Rei tells me that you were attacked by a thug, is that true? Why are you so pale? When did they let you out of the hospital? Will you be going home? Will you be going to school on-"

   "Mund zu," Brekke ordered matter-of-factly as she clamped a hand on the short girl's mouth.

   Trish glared accusingly at the redhead and Brekke. "You didn't tell them anything?"

   "They never asked," Brekke shrugged, hand still over Usagi's mouth.

   Victoria made a guilty face and looked up into the nearby tree as she replied, "well, that, and I didn't exactly come across them at all. Oh look! There's Ora!"

   The black-haired girl let Usagi go as she gazed up into the tree. "Where?"

   The mockingbird came dropping down through the leaves and branches with a loud squawk, and landed with a plop on the pale blonde's shoulder. He chirped and nibbled affectionately on her ear, then jumped back into the air, circled the four once, and shot off down the sidewalk. They blinked once, and then ran after, plowing through the other people on the paved walk.

   Ora finally slowed down when they reached the entrance to the park, and let them walk, hopping from tree to tree as they went. It was a beautiful day, and thus there were many people about. In the distance they even heard a band playing.

   "All right then, Trish," Victoria stated, and waved her arm at the four of them. "We're mostly here. Why don't you answer a few of Usagi's and our questions and tell us what happened that night?"

   Trish nodded reluctantly and began where she had left Brekke's apartment. As she told of the man and then the shadows, she watched the eyes of her friends slowly widen. She trailed off as she ended with falling unconscious and glanced at the redhead.

   Victoria quickly took up the story. The others hadn't heard her part of it yet, Brekke had only gotten the shortened version back in the hospital, and she hadn't wanted to tell it until she first heard Trish's. She'd hoped that knowing what had happened before would clear up the question of what exactly the shadows were up to, but she was only even more confused.

   "...and they left without hardly glancing at me," she stated, eyebrows furrowed. "They left Trish hanging there in the air with this glowing thing. They couldn't've been done with what they were doing." She shook her head. "I don't understand. They could've easily taken me on…"

   "You're a frightening sight," Brekke said knowingly.

   "They want something," Usagi commented as Victoria glared at the black-haired girl. "Something that Trish didn't have."

   "And that's why they didn't hesitate to leave," Trish nodded. "Could be."

   Victoria shook her head sharply. "No. I would bet an awful lot that they had found what they were looking for. They looked ready to take it and leave when I arrived."

   "Maybe it just wasn't very important," Trish said. "I mean, what would I have of any importance?"

   "Could be a form of energy," Usagi spouted. "We've had all sorts of monsters trying to steal energy or talismans or something."

   "That's what I'm afraid of," Victoria muttered, ignoring the short blonde. "I have a bad feeling that they're after something of importance that you do have." Her voice dropped down to a whisper. "Remember I was telling you about the shards of the Pyramid?"

   Trish's face lit up, however Brekke's darkened in annoyance. "What Pyramid? Have you two been plotting behind my back?" She asked.

   Victoria, not in the mood for a fight, quickly explained what she knew about the Pyramid. Then she paused, closed her eyes, and took a breath. "But now I think I know where the pieces are. And they seem to know as well."

   "Where?" Brekke and Trish asked at once.

   The redhead didn't have her chance to share her thoughts as Ora had abruptly appeared before them in a shower of sparks, chittering excitedly. He continually darted towards their left before taking a perch on Trish's out raised hand.

   "What the heck does he want?" Brekke asked darkly.

   Trish ignored her and looked at the people passing them to their left. There was a group of chattering schoolgirls, a couple, and a lone girl. Ora brought her attention back to him by sharply biting her finger. He lifted both his wings deliberately and let them drop slowly before repeating once more. Then he proceeded to peck at the blonde's hand.

   "What was that?" Victoria blinked.

   "Why's he pecking at his shadow?" Usagi wondered blankly.

   Ora stopped pecking, gave a sharp trill, and launched into the air. Trish abruptly caught on to what he had been trying to convey.

   "Two! Two shadows!" Trish cried softly and jerked her head in the direction of the couple. "He's warning us that there're some here!"

   "Oh?" Victoria glanced over at the couple as they slowly distanced themselves from their group. "Well, then we'll have to inconspicuously follow them." Her voice rose back to its normal level. "Come on, girls, it's closer to the café this way."

   They fell into step behind the couple and the lone girl, the group of girls having verged off onto another path. Staring at the shadows of the couple Trish could tell there was something odd about them; they seemed to have depth at times and if one of the two stopped, sometimes their shadow would keep moving for a split second.

   "What're they doing here, do you suppose?" Brekke whispered. "Are they after Trish again?"

   "I don't think so," Victoria stated. "They would've noticed she was right behind them by now."

   "Maybe they're just scouting out the area," Usagi commented.

   Brekke suddenly snorted and tapped the redhead on the shoulder. "Hey Vic', don't you recognize that girl in front of us?"

   Victoria glared at the black-haired girl before focusing her attention on the loner between them and the couple. She sighed as she realized it was the same girl that she had clubbed in the head with her schoolbag. The tall girl seemed to be looking for a place to sit and read the thick book in her hand.

   In the next moment she had found what she was looking for; an open patch of grass underneath a big, shady tree a bit away from the main path. She headed off towards it. And so did two shadows.

   Victoria held out her arm in front of the other three, pointing at the gray blurs that swept across the ground from the shadows of the couple to the shadow of the tree. The group exchanged glances, some of surprise, before hurrying behind a particularly wide tree nearby.

   "They're following her?" Brekke hissed, looking out from around the tree.

   "Apparently," Victoria nodded and looked relived. "Then my theory must be incorrect."

   "Theory?" Trish blinked.

   "About where the shards might be," the redhead explained. "I thought it could be that each of us is carrying a piece, but if they're going after that girl, then that can't be."

   "Couldn't she be the other one of your group?" Usagi asked, confused.

   "No," Victoria shook her head, smiling knowingly. "In every incarnation she looks about the same, and that can't be her. I just know it isn't."

   They watched from behind the tree as the girl sat herself down at the base of the tree and opened her book. Two shadow lumps slowly approached her.

   "Shouldn't we do something?" Trish wondered. "I mean, we can't just stand around."

   "Right," Brekke stated and rubbed her hands together. "Let's transform and kick some shadow butts!"

   But Victoria shook her head. "No! Not where everyone can see us!" "Where then?" Brekke shot back. "If you haven't noticed there aren't any convenient porta-potties or phone booths standing around!"

   "Then we wait until there's no one around!" Victoria snapped.

   "Um," Trish interjected. "They're not waiting for that."

   The two stopped bickering and glanced around the edges of the tree to see the shadows now in their normal, more human shapes, and standing in front of the girl. Trish recognized them both. The shorter one, Nex, had the blood red ruby hanging in the air. The girl still seemed to have not noticed and remained absorbed in her book.

   "Screw you," Brekke growled at the redhead and held up her black stone. "Mikos star power, make up!"

   The others followed suit, albeit Victoria a little reluctantly. They pounded out from around the tree a few seconds later. The whole area in front of them was bathed in red light. The girl remained fixated to her book.

   "She can't be that freaking oblivious, can she?" Sailor Mikos wondered as they sprinted.

   "No," Platos pointed at the now visible dart sticking out from the girl's neck. "She can't."

   Mikos stopped abruptly and raised her hands. "Well then. Aqua shock!"

   Her attack whizzed past the other senshi and knocked the ruby red crystal out of its place in the air. The two shadows, startled, turned as one to stare at the approaching herd of senshi.

   Sailor Moon stopped and posed. "I am the pretty sailor soldier, Sailor Moon! In the name of the moon, I shall punish you!"

   "Yeah, 'zactly," Sailor Platos nodded. "Leave the girl alone and we won't hurt you."

   "What about you leaving usss alone and we won't hurt you?" Nex hissed.

   "If you just plain leave, we have a deal," Sailor Ypsos stated, arms raised, a faint red glow already coming from between her fingertips.

   "We can not continually allow you to interfere," Nex stated. "Thingsss won't get done that way." She turned to the other shadow. "Interficio, pleassse ssstop them from interfering."

   Interficio nodded, his eight red eyes glittering happily. Two blades appeared in his hands and he launched itself forward at them. Taken slightly by surprised, the four scattered.

   The shadow leapt at the closest senshi, Mikos. She darted backwards towards the other three who had reformed quickly. Interficio's blades swept through the air previously occupied by the black senshi. Growling, the shadow rammed one of them into the ground in front of him.

   At the same time, the four senshi were summoning their powers. "Cyclone inferno! Aqua shock! Bloody acid! Moon princess halation!"

   The attacks sped towards the shadow, or at least where he had been a split second before. Interficio sailed over their heads in a leap and with that motion skewed the ground with his other blade. Before the attacks had even reached where the first blade stood there was a flash of light and suddenly the four senshi were surrounded by flickering translucent swords, soaring through the air in a tight circle that encompassed them and the two normal swords.

   The attacks bounced back. All four senshi threw themselves to the ground as they hit the other side of the sword barrier and continued to rebound from one side to another until they fizzled out a few seconds later.

   "What the hell?!" Sailor Mikos cried, jumping back to her feet and glancing all around in distress at the barrier. "Where the hell did that come from?!"

   Interficio waved from the other side of the barrier with a grin before joining Nex, who had recovered the crystal and had it in place again. Sailor Platos inched towards the barrier, watching with an odd sort of horrified curiosity as the girl began to glow as well and rise into the air, as she must have. Her head tipped back and a silvery mist began to form. Platos hardly noticed the others standing, just as fixated as herself, beside her.

   "We have to do something!" Sailor Moon cried, distressed.

   "We can't," Sailor Ypsos stated. "Whatever we do will be reflected back at us."

   "There has to be something!" The small blonde looked around frantically. "She'll die if we don't!"

   The mist had begun to take shape. Slowly it hardened into a small, four-sided pyramid and darkened to a glistening black. Nex reached out to grab hold of it. Three things, though, happened at once before she could.

   The girl fell back to the ground, the ruby stopped glowing and fell as well, and Ora appeared in a shower of sparks in between the shadow and the shard. The pyramid was knocked away and lost its hold against gravity. It fell to the ground, bounced, rolled, and landed next to the girl. Ora, in turn, flew through Nex's face and disappeared again.

   "Where does that bird go?" Sailor Mikos asked no one in particular.

   The bird appeared again a second later above the shard. He grabbed it with his claws and made an attempt to drag it closer to the girl. Unfortunately, the girls had to watch as Nex grabbed him and chucked him at the nearest tree. All four senshi winced as he struck and fell to the ground, most definitely unconscious.

   Interficio grabbed the shard and held it up triumphantly. Nex waved happily and grinned with her thin slit of a mouth, three silvery fangs showing.

   "Thank you for your time, then," she called. "It wasss nice. We will mossst likely sssee each other again, no? Until then, my friendsss!"

   However, before they could leave, something red streaked by and knocked the shard out of Interficio's translucent hands. All eight eyes blinked in surprise and quickly searched for the culprit. Behind her the rose quivered where it had imbedded itself into the dirt.

   A voice spoke up from the trees nearby. "Such an unfair fight I have not seen in ages and will not let it end without first being equaled out!"

   Sailor Moon was staring up into the trees to their right, her eyes big and glowing. "Tuxedo Kamen!"

   "I am Tuxedo Kamen!" Platos could finally see the masked man, standing in the lower branches of the tree. He turned his gaze on the little blonde. "Sailor Moon! You must heal the girl!"

   "But I can't!" Sailor Moon whined. "It'll bounce back!"

   Sailor Platos had returned her own gaze to the girl momentarily and gave a slight jump. The shard was gone! But neither of the shadows had it. She blinked. Considering where the rose was, it must have fallen and rolled in the direction of the girl. Did that mean it was safe for now? She didn't dare bring her hopes up.

   "Just do it when I saw 'now'!" Tuxedo Kamen ordered, sounding somewhat exasperated.

   "What, now?" Sailor Moon asked, raising a crescent moon-shaped wand that Platos had never seen before.

   "No...now!"

   "Ack! Moon healing escalation!"

   An overly glittery attack streamed from her wand and at the barrier, no, through the barrier and towards the girl. Both shadows jumped instinctively out of the way, although it hadn't been necessary. All watched as the girl was enveloped by the glitter.

   Color returned to her face, the dart dissolved from her neck, and she began twitching. A few seconds later her eyes flicked open and looking quite dazed she sat up. As she noticed that everyone was staring at her, her face swiftly turned a deep shade of red. A chirp made her look down beside her at the mockingbird that also had received a dose of the glitter.

   "How'd that work?" Sailor Moon managed to get out after a few more seconds of silence.

   She looked up into the tree but Kamen was already gone. "Drat."

   Sailor Platos looked from the disappointed Moon to the confused girl to the irate shadows. Mikos seemed to have done the same.

   "Hey, girl!" She cried. "If I were you, I'd run for my freaking life!"

   The girl just stared back at her. "Am I dreaming?"

   Sailor Mikos slapped herself on the forehead. Ypsos yelled, "DUCK!"

   The girl ducked as a dart flew past. Nex hissed angrily and began loading another one, but now the girl had stood up, with the bird cupped in her hands. She looked frantically around for a way to run and ended up crying out surprise as she noticed her hands were empty.

   Ora appeared in front of her, determinedly flapping his wings to keep his altitude against the dark purple stone clutched in his claws, which he soon dropped. The girl caught it instinctively. Ora circled her once and flew higher as she stared at the hourglass-shaped object in her hands.

   "DUCK!" Ypsos cried again.

   She didn't duck but jumped out of the way this time, glanced back at the shadows, who had decided to inch closer, and then seemed to have made up her mind. Screwing up her eyes, she held the stone in both hands above her head and shouted, "Kairos star power, MAKE UP!"

   All three Dimension Senshi's jaws dropped as the tall girl before them transformed. As she raised up onto her tiptoes the sky above darkened and a multitude of stars appeared. A ribbon, as if cut from the sky, came down and twined itself around her body, creating her fuku. Black gloves appeared with dark purple bands as knee-high black boots curled upwards on her legs. The purple stone attached itself to the middle of her front bow as she held out her right hand.

   The sky began to lighten again and the remaining stars dropped from it. They formed a glowing mass around her outstretched hand that elongated and solidified into a wooden staff, an orb attached to the top by three wooden branches sprouting from the staff. Inside the orb was a silver hourglass.

   The girl landed and opened her eyes, the staff held beside her almost as tall as she was. She smiled and turned towards the staring shadows.

   "Ssscrew thisss," Nex stated, finding her composure. "We'll sssee you at a later time."

   She grabbed Interficio's hand and before anyone could move, they were streaking through the sky, and then they were gone. The girl stared afterwards, looking dejected.

   "Um, hey," Sailor Mikos called. "I hate to annoy you, but could you PLEASE GET US OUT OF HERE?!"

   The girl looked at the barrier of swords, slightly surprised. "Um, okay." She stared blankly at the barrier for a further few seconds before a light seemed to go off in her head. She then proceeded to raise her staff above her head and back up a few feet.

   With a leap, she sprinted forward. "Aura Ora-!" She cried, and then leapt into the air. "WHACK!"

   Platos noticed the orb glowing briefly before it connected with one of the swords holding up the barrier. There was a loud CRACK and the blade shattered. The whirling translucent blades in the air paused in their orbits before dissolving and falling to the ground as dust. Meanwhile the girl had landed behind the group of senshi.

   They turned around to face her. The new senshi stood up from her crouch and held her staff loosely at her side, surveying the faces of the other senshi curiously.

   "Who are you?" Sailor Moon asked, blinking.

   The girl bowed. "Sailor Kairos at your service, your Majesty."

   "I was right!" Sailor Mikos cried and jumped into the air. She smirked at Ypsos. "You were wrong! You were wrong! I told you so!"

   Sailor Ypsos ignored her. "Glad to finally see you, Kairos."

   "Thanks for the help," Platos quickly put in.

   "Glad should not be the description," Kairos stated, surveying the group before her. "We have all been awakened now. The end is not far off."

   The three other senshi exchanged looks. "Is she always this dismal?" Mikos asked the red senshi.

   Kairos looked at the undergoing sun. "I can not stay. I must go. We shall meet again soon."

   "Huh?" Sailor Platos squeaked. "Wait a minute! Stay a moment!"

   "You can't go yet!" Ypsos cried.

   Sailor Kairos ignored her and dashed away before anyone could move. The three exchanged looks again as Sailor Moon stared after the fourth senshi.

   "What the hell was that?" Brekke asked later as they were heading home from the park.

   "She was pretty odd," Victoria stated, looking oddly worried. "That's not like her."

   "She's also supposed to be short," Trish put in. "I suppose we have to get used to her, though."

   "Man," Brekke put in. "We really aren't going to have a chance saving the world, are we?"

   "We'll deal." Victoria looked off into the sunset. "We always have."

   Kaisha didn't feel any better after screaming at the top of her lungs at the two shadows. Now all four were awakened and they still didn't have any of the pieces. They only had a limited time left to add to it. A week, at most.

   Well. Then it was time for her to take the matter into her own hands. She stood up and stretched her wings before heading to the hole in the roof.

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