What happened...
[This is what Chibiusa and Leto vanished to do for the plot, read to find out some of the latest developments.]
Leto jumped off the window and ran as fast as she could, leaving behind an angry Jadeite and Kousagi. Oh… what went so wrong? She couldn’t understand how Kousagi ended up in that state. And it was her fault, if she hadn’t given Kousagi that necklace this wouldn’t have happened. Leto still couldn’t understand, if the girl’s heart was so pure… There had to be something else.
She ran for hours, scared and confused. Everyone would be angry at her and blaming her, she needed to run away and find out a way to prove it wasn’t her fault. But how could she do that when she had no idea what had happened.
It got dark and she didn’t know where she was. Her legs and paws hurt, she was exhausted. She dropped on the floor and closed her eyes, only for a moment, she thought. When she opened her eyes again, a pair of feline red eyes were staring at her. Leto blinked and saw it was Diana, Chibiusa’s guardian cat. Only this Diana was older and looked angrier, this was not the cute and nice Diana she knew.
‘‘ Meow, who are you?’‘ She asked, but the cat started running away from her without an answer. Leto started following her but her tiny and tired legs failed her until she fell to the floor again, losing this Diana impostor.
- -
It was the sound of familiar laughter that caught Chibiusa’s attention. Ordinarily, leaving school meant going to hang out with JunJun and PallaPalla, maybe stealing Diana back from Minako-chan - but now… it sounded like she wouldn’t need to do that last thing?
She whipped about, turning her head this way and that. “Diana? Diana was that you?”
Her voice is pitched low, to avoid alerting the other students walking around. After all, most people’s cats didn’t follow them to school!
But there was no response, and Chibiusa knew she wasn’t hearing things. She put her hands on her hips, “Diana!”
Still nothing.
Worry buzzed in her ears. Diana had been laughing - it had to be Diana, she knew her kitten too well to mistake her for anyone else - but if she was fine and laughing then why was she so quiet? Why wasn’t she answering?
A flash of movement in the corner of her eye, that tinkling laugh, and Chibiusa catches the tail end of a grey cat, larger than her kitten friend, leaping over a fence, something small and pink collapsed on the ground behind her.
- -
A bit later, she woke up as she was being held by someone. Leto opened her eyes and saw it was Chibiusa. ‘‘ Did you see her, meow?! Did you see Diana? Meeow that was not her but-’‘ Then she remembered why she had been running away herself and tried to get away from Chibiusa, but she was too weak. ‘‘ It wasn’t my fault, meoow I swear! I had no idea- Jadeite wants to kill me and everyone must blame me but meow, I didn’t mean for that to happen.’‘
It turned out that Chibiusa didn’t blame Leto, instead, she helped the young kitty find shelter and would bring her food and water everyday. Leto explained what had happened with Kousagi and Chibiusa saw how sad, worried and scared the cat was for her best friend, there was no way she had given that necklace knowing it would harm her. But Leto was so scared of what people would do to her if they found her that she made Chibiusa promise that she wouldn’t tell anyone she had found her. At least, not until she could prove she was innocent.
And for that, they needed to find Diana… or who ever that was.
Chibiusa would wake up early in the mornings, bring Leto some food and then head to school. They would meet right after class was over and spent their afternoons and some nights trying to find the cat. Chibiusa told Beryl and her friends that she was working on a big project for school, since she promised Leto she wouldn’t let anyone that they were working together.
But it was so hard to find Diana, she was so sneaky and fast. Every time they thought they were about to grab her, the cut found away to escape and then they would spend days searching for her.
One night, when both Leto and Chibiusa were about to give up, they saw Diana sitting on a rooftop eating some food she had stolen. Chibiusa and Leto looked at each other, nodded, and in silence Leto started climbing up to the roof as Chibiusa hid and transformed into Sailor Chibi Moon.
‘‘ Meeow, we got you now!’‘ Leto said once she behind Diana. ‘‘ Now tell me who you are and meeoow where you come from. Now!’‘
But Diana wasn’t going to be caught so easily! With a quick thrust of her paw she launched her food into the smaller cat’s eyes, and twisted about, looking for an escape. She was tired, after so many days of being chased and spotted and having to hide, but she wasn’t going to be caught!
Leto pawed at her face, yelling,
“Chibiusa! Don’t let her get away again, meow!”
This time, they’d planned it better. Leto had approached from the front, Chibiusa from the back, and Diana would have to get past one of them to get away this time. The scrawny moon cat seemed to realize it too, looking at the pink clad sailor senshi.
“Small Lady! Let me go, and leave me alone! I just want to have peace, why don’t you and this - this abomination, this anomaly leave me alone?!”
Her voice was not as small as Chibiusa’s Diana. She was older, and lither, her eyes cold compared to Diana’s bright, cheerful gaze. She met the Senshi’s gaze with fierce eyes.
“Anomaly? Abomination? What are you talking about, Diana just talk to me!”
The cat scoffed. The senshi gripped her kaleidoscope rod.
“You just keep on chasing me, Small Lady, and barking your questions and demanding your answers with that yapping little kitten. She has your answers! Leave me alone!”
There wasn’t another chance for words, because the cat ran forward, darting between Chibi Moon’s legs before she could stop her. She was running for the roof. She was going to get away again.
“Not this time,” Chibi Moon growled, and lifted her weapon. “Pink Sugar Heart Attack!”
A beam of glowing hearts flew to strike the edge of the roof, breaking pieces of stone and cracking the brickwork. It was a warning.
It was a warning Diana ignored, leaping through the attack with a yowl of pain. She was trying to get to the other roof. It was the same trick she’d been using for weeks to escape them.
“Diana, no!”
She didn’t make it.
“Diana!”
Sailor Chibi Moon made it to the edge of the room in time to see a crumpled body fade into dust.
Leto followed her, she was so confused and she was shaking. ‘‘ Where- meow,did he just?’‘ She didn’t know what to say. She turned to face Chibiusa, who looked so heart broken.
‘‘ It wasn’t her, Chibiusa. It wasn’t the real Diana.’‘ Leto tried to calm down the girl, but Chibiusa was already crying.
After a while of just standing there and staring at the dust that had once been Diana, they decided to put it in a box. They had so many questions that they needed answers to but didn’t know where to start.
Chibiusa ran back home in tears carrying the box. Leto followed her trying to figure out what it all meant. Anomaly? What did that even mean?!
