The flash of light that accompanied Rini's departure went generally unnoticed, except for the quick eyes of one Cassie Starr, a fifteen-year-old girl on her way to register for classes at Juuban Junior High. She frowned slightly in the senshi's direction, wrinkling her forehead as if to catch a long-lost, elusive tendril of a memory... Cassie shook herself and continued toward the school.

In another dimension, a pair of blazing red eyes snapped open. "So, princess," a gravelly voice rumbled. "It is time..."

Serena continued to bawl for several minutes after Rini left. As usual, Raye was the first to lose her patience with the young blonde.

"SeREENa, get a grip, will ya!? It's not like you'll never see her again, I mean, she is your daughter and all..."

Serena's wails died down to sniffles. "Raye, why are you always so mean?" she muttered half-heartedly, recognizing the logic in the other girl's statement.

Mina jumped up. "I don't know about you guys, but I'm starving! Who's up for burgers?"

Serena's face lit up instantly. "Wow, great idea, Mina! I could use a chocolate shake right now, actually..." As Serena continued to babble about food, the other girls exchanged a knowing glance, and Darien surreptitiously checked his wallet.

Some time later, the five girls and Darien, now accompanied by Luna and Artemis, all exited the Crown Café, ice cream cones in hand. Serena alternated between a double fudge cone in her left hand and a strawberry cone in her right. As she ate, Serena gave little squeals of delight, completely oblivious to her surroundings.

Her attention was wrested from her ice cream as another girl turned the corner ahead of her abruptly. Serena ran full force into the other girl, miraculously managing to save both of her ice cream cones. The other girl jumped to her feet quickly, gushing apologies.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, I wasn't paying any attention to where I was going, here, let me help you..."

Gathering her scattered wits and squinting up at the anxious newcomer, Serena righted herself and stood up with the strange girl's assistance. "It's okay, don't worry about it, I wasn't paying attention either."

The other girl smiled with relief, then cocked her head thoughtfully. "Hey, have we met? I have the strangest feeling that I know you..." She blinked and laughed to herself. "Now that doesn't make any sense at all, I couldn't possibly have met you before, could I?" She stuck her hand out at Serena. "I'm Cassie, Cassie Starr. Just moved here from America."

Serena grinned and grabbed Cassie's hand, misinterpreting the gesture. She dragged Cassie over to the others.

"Well, Cassie Starr, I'm Serena Tsukino, and this is Amy Mizuno, Raye Hino, Mina Aino, and Lita Kino. And that's my boyfriend, Darien Chiba." A little dazed, Cassie smiled uncertainly, and the others laughed lightly.

"Serena, take it easy! The poor girl probably thinks we're all psychos!" Lita grinned and reached out to shake Cassie's hand. "Nice to meetcha, Cassie!"

The girls all greeted Cassie, talking animatedly about her first day at Juuban Junior High tomorrow. Darien eyed Cassie warily; she did seem familiar to him -- perhaps they had met before... she seemed about the same age as the other girls, and her reddish-blonde hair hung past her shoulders. Her eyes were a piercing, clear green, and they seemed to take in everything as she looked at each of the girls, chatting amiably.

Suddenly, her green eyes turned to Darien, as if sensing his gaze on her. "And what about you, Darien? Surely you're not in junior high -- where do you go to school?"

Darien forced himself to relax and drop his suspicions of the girl. He grinned and ran a hand absentmindedly through his hair. "Nope, I'm a student at the Azuba Institute of Technology. I just sorta got tangled up with these girls here, and now I can't get untangled." He smiled down at Serena, ignoring her growls of protest and kissing her on the forehead.

An odd look crossed Cassie's face as Darien kissed Serena, a look filled with recognition and a touch of envy. It vanished so quickly that Darien started to doubt his eyesight, and Cassie smiled as if that flash of memory had never occurred. She turned to Serena.

"Since I'm new here, I wonder if you guys would mind showing me around tomorrow. I mean, I don't want to be a bother..."

Amy stepped forward, much to everyone's surprise. "It's no bother, we'll be glad to show you around. Most of us were new around here at one time or another, we can certainly understand what you're going through." Serena, astonished at Amy's newfound confidence, simply nodded.

Laughing and smiling, Cassie agreed, then dashed off for home. Amy and Lita stared after her for a moment, suddenly struck by the same sense of deja vú that Darien had experienced earlier. Catching the looks on the two girls' faces, Luna jumped from the ground to Serena's shoulder. "Looks like we need to have a sailor senshi meeting this afternoon guys. There's something about that girl..."

Luna's comment set off an argument between the cat and Serena, who insisted that Cassie could not possibly be a youma, they had just defeated the Dark Moon, it just wasn't fair...

Sweatdrops formed over the other's heads, including Artemis on Mina's shoulder, and they turned toward the Hikawa temple with a collective sigh.

Elsewhere, in a place far from the now peaceful planet of Earth, the first pair of blazing eyes was joined by a second pair of eyes -- this time a deep, smouldering orange. The same gravelly voice as before rasped, "Well, Blaze, I see that you have finally awoken. It seems we cannot say the same for our pretty Star Princess. You will take a youma to Earth and destroy the princess and these -- sailor senshi. You must hurry -- the seal is already weakening, and I want no resistance when we break free into their world..."

With an incoherent growl of assent, the orange eyes flickered and vanished.