-Episode 08-



   Trish wandered home through the crowded sidewalks as the sun began its final descent in the western sky. She received a few odd looks on her way, since it had been several hours from when the schools had let out and she was still in her white and blue uniform. Most sane students rushed home to change into more comfortable clothes right after school. Uniforms made things so complicated, Trish thought as she went. Back in Florida, one could do whatever they liked after school because they were already in comfortable clothes.

    Schools were also easier in Florida. The government didn't expect students to be geniuses, or if they weren't, to devote their lives to studying. They centered their system on helping the idiots, and that made everything easier. Trish sighed; of course, things were always easier when one could understand more than half of what was being said. For the first time, Trish began feeling a trickle of melancholy. She missed her family, she missed her home, she missed her friends, and strangely, she missed her school.

   She felt tears sting her eyes and she quickly squeezed them shut, shaking her head violently. This wouldn't do, thinking about everything she wouldn't see for another year, that would never help things. Trish opened her eyes again and choked back a laugh; one of the numerous things her exchange organization had drilled into her from day one was that homesickness would come, and not soon after she arrived. And it had, right after the time of excitement and curiosity that the organization had also predicted. She chuckled as she thought about the first day after arriving at her host family; if the organization had predicted that kind of excitement, she wasn't quite so sure she would've come.

   The blonde switched her school sack to her other shoulder as she stretched. She had felt a sort of euphoria the first time she transformed and used her powers, despite the shadow and the fear it caused. The second fight, too, but after that fear became more prominent. And now the only other senshi of her team were ready to kill each other and would only listen to her. What was she supposed to do? One of the last things she could do was be the peacekeeper.

   For a brief second, she imagined herself hijacking a car or robbing a small store, things that would immediately get her sent back to the US. But she knew she didn't have the guts to do it, or the guts to just leave two senshi who couldn't cooperate to save the world on their own. If Luna was right, then that was what the three of them had to do. Trish had enough doubts about just the three of them doing it, let alone the two. She couldn't leave, but she didn't want to stay.

   Her thoughts wandered off from that point as she recognized a certain redhead emerge from a café up the street. She briefly hesitated running forward as she considered delaying the eventual apology she'd have to give, but that would only make it worse. With her melancholy thoughts pushed to the back of her mind, she bounded forward.

   "Hi Trish-chan!" Victoria greeted, spotting the blonde as she neared.

   "Hallo Victoria-chan!" Trish returned, smiling. "How are you?"

   "Okay," Victoria shrugged, than raised an eyebrow. Tapping her foot and with her arms crossed, she asked sternly, "and where have you been?"

   Trish fought the red embarrassment creeping onto her face. "I'm so sorry! Brekke asked me to meet at the same time in front of her school, and I couldn't be in two places at once..."

   "So you chose the person who'd beat you up if you didn't meet her there?" Victoria laughed softly, uncrossing her arms. "Well, at least I understand your reasoning. Tell me next time you decide to stand me up, though."

   "You were already gone..." Trish protested, pouting. "And I don't know where you live or where you went or anything..."

   Victoria raised both eyebrows, then preceded to rummage around in her brown purse for a few seconds. She pulled out a scrap of paper and a pen and scribbled a series of numbers on it before holding it out to the blonde.

   "My cell number," Victoria stated. "So you don't have any excuses for making me wait a long time."

   Trish took it, glanced at the neatly written numbers, and then shoved the paper into her pocket. Then as an afterthought, she ripped a piece off a sheet of paper in her sack and scribbled out her host family's number on it.

   "My family's number," Trish explained, handing it to her. "They shouldn't mind if you call."

   "And I will," Victoria nodded. "I may act like I know about everything that's going on, but I really don't have a clue. You need to tell me what you know."

   "But you know about that Pyramid the shadow was asking about," Trish blinked, tilting her head.

   "We'll talk about that, too," Victoria stated, almost coldly, as she glanced at her watch. "But I need to go now. My parents are expecting me to be home in the next half-hour and it takes about that long to get there from here."

   Victoria smiled, bowed, then left without further word. Trish waved and stood where she was as she watched the redhead walk off the way she had come. She continued standing there a while after the other girl had already disappeared from sight, a smile on her face; Victoria was much more respectful than Brekke. Maybe the redhead would be able to solve the feud herself.

   With that thought, Trish turned and left for home, ready to collapse into sleep when she got there. Communicating in another language was a draining affair by itself, let alone with all her other worries.



   There wasn't a Conti Trish anywhere in the phone book, not even a Conti. Miffed, Nex left the phone booth and the unconscious woman who had been using it before her and disappeared into the stretching shadows of evening on the other side of the street. She watched the humans stroll by, oblivious to her presence there, as she thought.

   Just because the girl wasn't in the book, didn't mean she wasn't in the city of Tokyo. She had to be there, since despite many misconceptions, the senshi were mostly human themselves, and thus restricted. All of the senshi had to live in the area. Perhaps the girl wasn't in the phone book because they only put adults in there, and by human terms, the senshi were definitely not adults. Nex blinked her eye; if the senshi were children, than they would be going to the daily holding institutions. Schools, they called them, and sometimes children stayed in them well into adulthood.

   The schools probably also held records of the children that went to them, so as to make sure they weren't running rampant on the streets during the day. The Shadow floated down the sidewalk, sticking close to the wall. She had somewhere to start now, and maybe she'd be able to find the child relatively quickly.

   As it turned out, Conti was listed in the records of the second school Nex visited. She found it humorous how easy it was to access the files on their computers; their lack of security was so severe, it was almost disconcerting. The files even revealed where the girl was during the day and as Nex headed there, she allowed herself a small grin.

   The door was locked, but that was no matter; the main doors had been locked as well. Nex flattened herself out and slipped in through the gapping crack underneath the large, wooden door. It was a talent most of the Shadows possessed, but few knew quite how to use it. Inside were rather a few wooden fixtures set in rows that appeared to be seats with flat surfaces attached. In the front stood a larger wooden, flat surface, with a detached chair.

   Nex slipped over to it, staying close to the walls out of habit rather than necessity. On top of the desk, in plain site, was a piece of paper with numerous lines drawn across it horizontally and vertically creating boxes. Inside of the boxes were names, one of which happened to Conti's. It took the Shadow a few seconds, though, to make the connection between the boxes and the wooden fixtures. When she did, she grinned even wider and quickly slipped over to the one designated for Conti.

   She slid underneath and discovered a metal frame fixed to the underside of the wooden surface, a perfect place to stay out of sight and out of touch. She stuck herself in there, expanding so she wouldn't fall, and then settled back to wait. It would be much worth the wait to discover who the Conti girl really was, and especially what she knew about the Pyramid. Kaisha would be very pleased.



   Trish yawned as she slipped into her desk, the only worry currently on her mind being the unfinished questions on some Japanese literature she had neglected to read the previous night. It was her first homework she had not completed, and it did not sit well in her gut. Her spirits lifted slightly as Usagi tumbled through the door late, grinning nonetheless.

   "Tsukino," the teacher sighed. "You know where to be this afternoon."

   "Aww, but Haruna-sensei! The bus was late! And there was this really mean girl!" Usagi protested, looking distraught.

   "No excuses," the teacher shook her head. "Get up earlier, Usagi."

   Usagi groaned and plopped down into her desk, propping her elbows up on the wooden fixture, and sighed melodramatically. Trish chuckled at her and the pig-tailed blonde glanced sideways at her, a grin on her face.

   "The bus really was late," Usagi whispered.

   "Of course it was, Usagi-chan," Trish returned knowingly.

   "Would you like to join Tsukino after school, Conti?" The teacher asked, raising her eyebrows at the two girls.

   "No, no, I don't, Haruna-sensei," Trish quickly stated and firmly shut her mouth.

   The rest of the morning went quickly and without much interruption, but the kids still stampeded through the door when the bell announcing lunch rang. Usagi and Trish were part of the last group out and were too involved in discussing their plans for the afternoon to pay attention to the small shadow which slipped out from underneath the pale blonde's desk and followed them out.

   Nex was stiff, sore, and bored almost mindless by the time the humans started leaving the room at such a rate that suggested they were feeling much like herself. At least she could move about during the long wait the shadows went through for their master to wake up. She didn't have much time to dwell on it, though, for the young humans moved quickly and she couldn't afford to lose track of the Conti girl in case it was time for them to go home.

   It apparently wasn't time for the humans to go home yet, though, because they flocked outside to the sunlight and then stopped, fanning out and finding places to sit. Quite a few continued across the yard and entered another building, presumably a feeding place of sorts, since the others were opening bags and boxes full of edibles. The group she was following (she began to even think of them as her group) joined up with two other girls underneath a very convenient, shady tree.

   The demon slipped from her tight spot behind the shorter blonde and hopped from shadow to shadow until she made it into the foliage of the tree, stretching out happily. Just below her were a brown-haired human and the Conti girl sat next to her. Nex listened intently as the four girls chattered about seemingly pointless subjects, their favorites seeming to be the opposite gender and the elders of their race.

   Nex found herself tuning out after a while of this, her single eye drooping in the cool the leaves around her offered. All sorts of creatures made noises, from the feathered bipeds to the smaller, greenish creatures with six legs, all trying to compete with the mutterings of the humans. The noises mixed together into a soothing white noise that made it very hard for her to listen to the girls below. Her thoughts drifted to wondering what the others might be up to at that time.



   Trish was happy to be leaving the classroom and enjoying the brief respite they gave them every day, which they titled "lunch." She followed Usagi out to their favorite, shady spot where Ami and Makoto were waiting for them. They exchanged greetings and began chattering away as they munched on their packed lunches. Trish, for the most part, remained quiet and listened for a lull in the conversation.

   She had decided during class that to outright ask the other girls about how to get to such a faraway place as an orbiting bit of rock during a meeting would seem slightly suspicious. Instead, she would try to ask one of them during lunch, or at least when Rei wasn't there. For some reason, she didn't want Rei to know about her asking such a question; the priestess was already wary enough.

   As the break neared it's end, Trish finally picked up on the lull she had been waiting for, and before she had time to doubt, she promptly tapped Usagi on the shoulder.

   "Hmm?" Usagi mumbled through a bite of her sandwich.

   Trying not to wrinkle her nose in disgust as the bits of food dropping out of the other blonde's mouth, she quickly asked, "Usagi-chan, you remember the other day when we were discussing the possibility of going straight to their base?" She waited for Usagi's nod before continuing on, "how would you go about that? I'm just curious..."

   Usagi brightened, happy to be of help, and swallowed what she had left in her mouth. "We'd use a Sailor Teleport!"

   "And what's that?"

   "It's where we all join hands and build up the power to teleport somewhere," she beamed.

   Trish looked blank. "Oh. Okay, thank you." She decided to run that answer by Brekke before trying to get more information.

   "You're welcome!" Usagi smiled, and returned to her sandwich.

   The pale blonde had a thoughtful expression on her face as she leaned back and finished the rest of her bag of chips. But before she could think too long, though, the irritating bell rang. The four girls grumbled and gathered up their stuff.



   Another bell jolted Nex out of her stupor. Startled, she glanced frantically around, having forgotten where she was and what she was supposed to be doing. When she remembered, she looked down at the base of the tree, but the girls were already gone. Cursing herself, she dropped from the branches to the tree's shadow stretching across the ground. Unfortunately, the cursed sun was just descending from its highest point, glaring down against the dirt and leaving no other shadows between the tree's and the building's, around fifteen meters away.

   More than annoyed, she glanced around the courtyard, but there were still quite a few humans milling about, none near enough to be of use. Already entering the building was her group of girls and she couldn't afford to loose them; she hadn't paid any attention to where the room was in the large building. With no other alternatives present at the moment, Nex glanced around once more, making sure most of the humans weren't paying any attention to anything but their fellow humans, and darted across the distance.

   Safely in the shadow of the entrance, Nex made another dart to behind the shortest blonde and allowed herself a sigh of relief. She had only heard one loud exclamation of surprise and more than likely, the human would simply think it was their eyes playing tricks or maybe the shadow of a large bird. Either way, the main point was that her group was none the wiser of her presence. She followed them back without further incidence and waited out the rest of the day underneath the Conti girl's desk.



   Trish sat near the front of the public bus in her jean shorts and canary yellow sleeveless shirt, watching out the window for the stop that would bring her only a block away from Victoria's school. It had all ready taken her half an hour to drop by her home and change out of her uniform and meeting up with the redhead would probably make her quite late for the scheduled meeting at Rei's shrine that afternoon, but she didn't worry too much. Usagi would still hold the record.

   Underneath her right arm, stuffed between the edge of the seat and the wall of the bus, was Nex, who was wondering if she should've just stayed at the house. She was pleased to know where the Conti girl lived, but still rather disappointed at herself for missing the midday conversation. As the blonde talked little and the hours passed, Nex became more and more certain that she had missed something important. So to make up for it, she was crammed once again into a small space.

   Trish leapt to her feet as the bus rolled to a stop and she bolted off, thanking the driver in a slur of words as she trotted down the steps and onto the sidewalk. Ahead of her, leaning against the brick wall of the school, the blonde quickly spotted the redhead. She skipped the rest of the way to Victoria's side and waved.

   "Hallo Victoria!" She greeted cheerfully.

   The redhead finally looked at her and waved back, the mask of apathy dropping to be replaced by a grin. "Hullo Trish. Nice to see you."

   "Yeah, you too," Trish nodded and the two started walking down the sidewalk.

   "Where to?" Victoria asked. "I assume you want to discuss things."

   Trish shook her head. "Actually, I was going to go to Rei's shrine."

   The redhead raised an eyebrow at her. "Who?"

   "She's Usagi's friend," Trish quickly explained.

   "Who?" Victoria blinked and lifted both eyebrows.

   Trish laughed with embarrassment. "I guess you haven't met them yet, the others. There are more of us than just me, you, and Brekke. There's a whole other team."

   "Oh!" Victoria exclaimed, grinning again. "Them. I haven't even fought with them yet, let alone met them, but I know about them," she ended with a shrug as Trish looked at her inquisitively. "How, though, your guess is as good as mine. Like how I know that bird following you is the same one from the other night..."

   Trish turned instinctively and caught sight of the mockingbird just as he flitted into the nearest tree to them. Smiling, she turned back around and kept walking.

   "Considering he's basically the only mockingbird on this side of the world, that shouldn't be very mysterious," Trish giggled.

   Victoria laughed. "You're right, he is too conspicuous for this area, but what can we do? Paint him black like a crow?"

   The indignant chirp from behind made them both burst out laughing, drawing quite a few stares from the other people around them. Stifling their chuckles, they walked on a bit in silence, looking into the windows of the stores they passed as they went, with Nex safely nestled in their elongating shadows behind them, caused by the conveniently setting sun almost directly ahead.

   It was in this fashion that the pale blonde spotted her black-haired counterpart staring out at the crowd from a window seat in a small café. Victoria saw her as well and with a smirk tapped on the window. Brekke snapped out of her trance and glared at the redhead, said something, and proceeded to flick her off. Victoria simply laughed back and walked away, purposely holding her head up. The black-haired girl followed the other's progress with a hateful look before noticing the blonde still standing in front of her.

   A look of exaggerated hurt filled Brekke's face and she brushed away imaginary tears. Trish couldn't help but giggle at the girl's antics. Brekke beckoned her inside but the blonde shook her head no. Pouting, the black-haired girl waved her hand in the direction Victoria had gone and then at the blonde, holding up her hands questioningly.

   Trish chuckled and shook her head. She held up her watch and mouthed "later." Ignoring Brekke's further gestures to come inside, the blonde hurried to catch up to Victoria, who had made it to the end of the block. She had stopped, though, and leaned against the wall, watching and waiting. Trish waved at her and jogged the rest of the way.

   "What did she want?" Victoria wondered as they started up walking again.

   Trish laughed. "She wanted me to go in and talk and was wondering why you were there with me."

   "What, she doesn't want you socializing with the enemy?" Victoria asked sarcastically with a smirk.

   "Oh, how awful that I fraternize with her enemy!" Trish cried, mimicking the redhead's tone and accenting it by slapping her forehead. "Ow."

   "My smart blonde friend," Victoria patted Trish on the shoulder. "It is not wise to hit oneself," she paused and grinned. "Let your friend do it!"

   Trish was wise enough to duck as the redhead took a good-natured swing at her head. She responded with a punch directed at Victoria's arm, which the redhead easily blocked and then grabbed the blonde's fist. She held it as Trish tried to free her fist, smirking. Trish tried with her other hand to pry off Victoria's, but to no avail. Finally, her smirk changed to a wide grin, the redhead let go. Whimpering, the blonde cradled her hand and glared at her friend.

   "Never underestimate the strength of an artist's drawing hand," Victoria advised.

   "I won't," Trish grumbled, continuing to cradle her hand.

   They walked for another few blocks in silence, the now bemused Nex still following. The two finally reached the edge of town, and on the top of a hill not too far away, Trish could spot Rei's temple. She pointed it out to Victoria and the two of them jogged the rest of the way to the base of the steps that led up to the actual shrine.

   They slowed down for the stairs but still got to the top panting and out of breath. As they reached the closed door, the blonde turned and scanned the trees until she spotted the mockingbird perched on the arch at the foot of the stairs, oddly between two crows. Ora burst into song as he saw her looking at him and Trish heard the redhead laugh beside her. Grumbling, she pulled open the door to the shrine.

   "U-sa-gi!" Rei yelled. "Where were you this time? Do you know how late...you...are...?" The raven-haired girl's voice faltered as she realized the blonde in the doorway was not the same blonde she thought she was.

   "Hallo minna!" Trish greeted cheerfully. "Sorry I'm late, but I thought you might want to meet Victoria."

   The pale blonde stepped into the room and sat down, Victoria following her in. Nex settled herself down into the shadow of the redhead as she took a place between Trish and Makoto, across from Rei. Minako was on Trish's other side, Ami between her and Rei, and both cats were asleep in a pool of sunlight from the open window. Before anyone could say anything, the shortest blonde came bursting through the door.

   "Sorry minna!" Usagi gushed. "I had to stay after school and-"

   "And then you went to the arcade?" Rei growled.

   "Na-! No!" The blonde defended,

   "Usagi-chan!" Rei cried. "You're so irresponsible! So im--!"

   "Who is she?" Ami interrupted, inclining her head toward the redhead.

   Rei snapped her mouth closed, clearly irritated, as Trish eagerly introduced her friend. "This is Victoria! She goes to a private school not too far from here, and has been here in Japan for a while. I just met her earlier this week and thought you guys should meet her too."

   There were a few moments of silence after that as the other four girls in the room simultaneously blinked. Minako leaned towards the pale blonde and broke the silence by whispering, "Trish-chan, this is a senshi meeting."

   "I know," Trish returned brightly in a clearly audible voice. "That's why I brought her."

   As silence fell again on the group and the four girls blinked, Rei suddenly stiffened, her dark eyes boring into the redhead. Before the pale blonde could explain what she meant, the young priestess waved her hand, silencing her.

   "I sense an evil presence," Rei stated, not taking her eyes off Victoria.

   "Dun, dun, duuun," Victoria intoned, remaining calm as all attention was focused on her and even the cats lifted their heads to stare.

   Rei got up and walked around to the redhead, scanning the area in and around where she sat. Victoria stood up as well, moving away from the searching raven-haired priestess. Trish saw the blue-haired genius flip open her mini-computer and begin scanning the area. Trish and Minako decided to get up as well and moved over to the other side of the table.

   The priestess frowned and looked up at the redhead, who met her gaze almost challengingly. She narrowed her eyes in return and slipped a piece of paper with black characters written across one side into her right hand.

   "Scan her," she ordered Ami, who nodded, still bent over her computer.

   Victoria opened her mouth and closed it again several times before growling, "What the freak?"

   "Hey, hey, guys!" Trish cried. "She's not evil! She's one of us! She's a senshi!"

   "Really?" Usagi brightened. "Wow! Another! Rei, don't annoy her. She can't be evil!"

   Rei glared at the short blonde. "We'll let Ami find that out. My sense is never wrong, there is something evil here."

   "Well, it's not her," Trish stated stubbornly. "She's one of us, Sailor Ypsos."

   "I thought she seemed familiar," Ami commented without looking up from her screen. "And it doesn't seem as if she's the evil, Rei-chan."

   "I told you so," Usagi said.

   "Then what is it?" Rei grumbled, ignoring the blonde.

   "It seems..." Ami hesitated. "It seems to be coming from behind her, actually."

   Everyone turned to look behind Victoria, which by then was actually in front of her, because she had swiveled around as well. They blinked as they realized that they were just staring at her shadow.

   "Ami-chan," Usagi whined, "it's just her shadow!"

   It wasn't until the short blonde uttered the phrase that it clicked in everybody's head. Makoto was first to have her henshin wand out of her back pocket and in her hand. But she didn't transform, the brunette just looked at Ami.

   "Well..." the genius trailed, blinking. "It doesn't seem to want to fight."

   "Maybe this is our chance to talk to them!" Usagi squealed.

   Minako tilted her head and leaned across the table towards the shadow. "Hello? Hello? Hello!"

   "Hmm," Ami muttered to herself, frowning, and immediately gaining the attention of the other's.

   "What is it, Ami-chan?" Rei asked.

   The blue-haired girl shrugged, looking puzzled. "It seems to have disappeared."

   "Nani!?" Makoto, Minako, and Rei exclaimed simultaneously.

   "It seems to have left," Ami stated, shrugging again. She returned her gaze to her computer screen and turned slowly around the room with it. "It even left the room."

   "Are you sure?" Victoria asked, tentatively stepping on her own shadow with one foot. Or at least attempting to.

   "Here, let me," Rei offered, and promptly began stomping on the redhead's shadow.

   Ami laughed. "That wouldn't work even if the demon was still here, Rei-chan."

   "Yeah, physical stuff like that doesn't seem to have any effect on them," Makoto nodded.

   Rei stopped attacking Victoria's shadow, but continued glancing wearily at it as the group settled back down. Ami continued to assure them that the demon was nowhere around them.

   At last, Rei simply settled back and sighed. "Well, I suppose you're right, Ami-chan. I don't sense a presence anymore."

   Thus, the meeting continued. Trish told the others about what had presided at the school's fair, but did not really mention the feud between Victoria and Brekke and certainly did not say a word about the meeting with Brekke the day before. She finished with bringing the redhead to the senshi meeting so that they could officially meet her.

   During the monologue, Luna and Artemis had left their spot in the patch of sunlight and clambered up on the table to listen. They had been awakened during the fuss earlier.

   "There's only one of you left to be found," Luna said solemnly when Trish had ended.

   Trish nodded as Victoria sighed. "And we have reason to believe she's already in town."

   "We do?" Trish blinked, incredulously.

   The redhead nodded. "She may very well be going to my school."

   "You'll have to watch her, then," Artemis stated. "We can't let her get hurt, and we still don't know what the enemy is up to."

   "You don't?" Victoria dropped her mouth open in surprise. "After all that's gone on, you still haven't figured it out?"

   Makoto and Rei both stared at her suspiciously as Ami asked, "well, have you?"

   "Well...no..."

   "Then why do you expect us to?"

   "Because," Victoria shrugged. "You've been around longer. Well, here at least. I'd've thought you had a system down by now, or something."

   The other girls stared at her incredulously.

   "Ah, never mind," the redhead grumbled, and glanced at her watch. "Well, I have to go. It's getting late and I never informed my parents about this little excursion, so I'll be going."

   "Me too," Trish chirped, getting up and following the redhead as she moved towards the door. "Bai bai!"



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