"Sailor Nova?" Dani asked Cypress.  The Astros had detransformed after their battle with Cuchillo and were gathered in a park near the scene of the battle.  "So that girl that said that she helped kill Cuchillo, she was Sailor Nova?"
     Cypress nodded.  "Yes she was.  Remember I told you about the one Astro that was kidnapped by the Death Ladies and taken to Darkdeath to work under them?  I’m almost positive that that’s who she was."
     "But how can you tell?" Sara asked.
     "Well, there’s the obvious fact that she called herself Nova?" Lilia said.
     "Oh," Sara replied, giggling.  "She actually said that she was Nova?"
     "Yes, remember when she was introducing herself?" Cypress said.  "She also looked exactly like Sailor Nova, and she referred to herself as…I don’t remember, but she mentioned something about ‘dark snow’ in her battle speech.  And Sailor Nova’s attacks revolved around snow."
     "Okay, we figure that this girl is Nova…now what?" Ryan asked.
     "I don’t really know…" Cypress said.
 
 

     Meanwhile, in the Death Ladies’ lair on Darkdeath, a girl was crumpled in a heap in one corner of her room, sobbing.
     "Why?" she asked no one in particular.  "Why him?"
     "Are you still mourning over the loss of that freak Cuchillo?" Nova walked into the room where the girl was sitting.
     The girl looked up at Nova and glared at her.  "He wasn’t a freak, Nova.  He was…he was…"
     "Whatever he was, he’s dead now," Nova replied insensitively, causing the girl to cry harder.  "Honestly, Soldara.  You may be a soldier, but you’re nowhere near as brave as one."
     "Shut up, Nova," Soldara snapped.  "You don’t understand.  No one understands."
     "What I don’t understand is why you are so attracted to Cuchillo," Nova said.  "He’s weak, he’s stupid, he’s dead…"
     "You are so insensitive Nova!" Soldara cried out.  "He’s not as bad as you say, honestly, once you get to know him…"
     "I didn’t want to get to know him," Nova shuddered.  "You’re as stupid as those humans with their foolish love."
     "I don’t care," Soldara replied insolently.
     "You’re such a space case, Sol," Nova said, stalking out of the room.
     "NOVA!!!" a high pitched voice rang out down the hall.  Nova stopped, wondering what the Ladies wanted this time.      "NOVA!"
     "Oh for goodness’ sakes," Nova muttered.  "What is it this time?"  She walked down the hall into the Death Ladies’ chamber, kneeling before them.  "Yes, what do you want?"
     "Nova, we have something important for you to do," Diabla informed her.  "You will go to Earth and find out the Sailor Astros’ identities.  Once you find them, find out who has the Sapphire Star.  Is that clear?"
     "Yes," Nova confirmed.  "Find out the Astros’ identities.  I’ll get to work right away."  She disappeared through a black portal that suddenly opened up behind her.
 
 

     Nova walked down the hall of the high school.  She was sure that this was where the Astros went to school, Avalon High school.  She was going to pose as a fifteen-year-old student in that school named Moira Black, since fifteen was approximately how old the Astros were, she guessed.  It was very humiliating for her, trying to act like a human.  But she had to, it was part of her mission.
     She entered one of the classrooms, trying to act as human as possible.  When she went in, the teacher smiled at her and then at the class.  "Class, this is the new student Moira Black.  She moved here from Canada.  Moira," the teacher turned to Nova and gestured toward an empty seat in one row.  "You can sit there, next to Shiloe Jefferson, okay?"  Nova nodded, taking her seat.
     "Hi!" the girl next to her, whom the teacher had introduced as Shiloe, said.
     "Hello," Nova replied coldly.  Shiloe turned to face the teacher, and Nova studied her closely.  "She looks familiar," Nova thought.  "An Astro?" she wondered.  But she dismissed that thought, thinking that if Shiloe were really an Astro that she would have recognized Nova.
     Sighing, Nova slumped down in the uncomfortable seat that she was assigned, waiting until the bell rang.
 
 

     "Hey, guys?" Shiloe asked the other Astros as she sat down at their table.  "Did any of you see that new girl Moira?"
     "I did," Ryan offered.  "She seems kind of weird to me."
     "She’s very quiet," Dani observed.  "She doesn’t ever say much during class.  I have math with her and all she said during the entire period was ‘hello,’ to me, since I sit next to her."
     "I sit next to her in music," Michelle said.  "She plays the clarinet like I do, and actually, she’s very good at it."
     "She seems familiar to me, does she seem that way to any of you?" Lilia asked them.
     "Sort of," Shiloe said.  She looked across the room to see Moira sitting at a table by herself.  "She’s sitting right over there, actually.  Want to go sit with her?"
     "Sure!" Sara agreed.  They all trooped over to Moira’s table and sat down.  Moira, surprised by the sudden flood of people sitting at the table, made a face and scooted over.
     "Hi!" Shiloe said to her.  "You’re the new girl, Moira, aren’t you?  I sit next to you in science, don’t I?"
     Moira was stunned for a moment, but after a while answered, "Yes, I think so."
     There was a pause, and Shiloe said, "Oh, I’d better introduce everyone…Guys, this is Moira Black.  Moira, these are my other friends."  Shiloe pointed to each person as she said their name.  "Daniella Wood, Sara Riker, Lilia de Larke, Daphne Colinas, Ryan McAlistair, and Michelle Weston."
     "You forgot one," Moira put in.
     "Who, me?  Oh yeah.  I’m Shiloe Jefferson," Shiloe said.  "We just came over to sit with you, since you were all by yourself over here."
     "Oh?" Moira was surprised.  "That’s…terribly nice of you all."  She shuddered slightly, but it went unnoticed.
     "Hey, would you like to come to the park with us after school?" Sara jumped in.
     "Huh?  Oh, um…no thanks.  I’ve got…um, well, I’ve got homework!" Moira said, trying to think of an excuse to not go.  "The Ladies would expect me back after the school day is over," she thought.
     "Oh, that’s too bad," Sara said.  "How about tomorrow?"
 
 

     Once the school day was over, Nova slipped out of the school’s back doors and hid behind some bushes to return to her normal form.  "That was the most embarrassing thing!" she muttered.  "Disguising myself as a human.  Who would have thought I’d lower myself to this?"
     Then, looking across the field, she saw a group of girls playing softball.  "A perfect target!" she said to herself.  "One of them might be a Sailor Astro.  I’ll go investigate."  She sneaked over to the bushes behind the softball field.  Muttering something under her breath, a cage appeared around the softball players.  Some of them screamed, some tried to escape but found that they couldn’t.  Nova stepped out of the bushes.
     "Okay, humans!" she announced.  "I know that one of you is a Sailor Astro.  Whoever you are, show yourself!"
 
 

     After school, Lilia went out to the field behind the school building for softball practice.  She was doing a few practice swings before the rest of the team got there when she heard a voice behind her.
     "Hey, Lilia!" the voice said cheerfully.  Lilia turned to see her friend Kaylie Showalter standing behind her.
     "Hey, Kaylie," Lilia replied.  "Ready for practice?"
     "As ready as I’ll ever be," Kaylie laughed.
     Soon after, the other players arrived.  They were halfway through practice when, out of nowhere, a cage surrounded them.  It wasn’t a cage of any tangible material, but a cage of energy that glowed a light red color.
     "Hey!" Kaylie protested.  "What’s going on?"
     "Probably another scheme of the Death Ladies!" Lilia thought.  "But I can’t transform.  Not in front of everyone."  Lilia sent a telepathic call for help to the other Astros.
     Then Nova stepped out from the bushes.  "Okay, humans!" she yelled at them.  "I know one of you is a Sailor Astro.  Whoever you are, show yourself!"
     Lilia went pale.  "Nova…" she thought.  Again, she tried to call to the other Astros by telepathy.
     "Come on, I know one of you is an Astro!" Nova apparently became frustrated.  "Just transform already and show yourself, or else I’ll have to zap all of your energy!"
     This caused the other team members to become very scared.  A girl stepped toward Nova angrily.  "Listen, lady," she began, "I have no idea what you’re talking about.  Just leave us alone and let us out, okay?"
     Nova responded by sending a laser blast through the cage.  The laser attacked the girl and she fell against one wall of the cage.  "I bet you’re Sailor Zephyr, aren’t you?" Nova asked the girl.  "Just transform, and I won’t have to hurt you or your friends."
     "I’m not Sailor whatever, okay?" the girl shouted.  "I don’t know what you’re talking about, and I’m not an Astro or whatever you keep calling us."
     "Yeah, right," Nova said.  "I think you’re Zephyr.  Why don’t you give me the Sapphire Star, or I’ll suck your energy until you have none left?"
     "I think not," a voice said.  Nova turned around.  On top of the backstop behind her was the real Sailor Zephyr, along with Spica and Inferno.
     "Zephyr?" Nova was astounded.  She looked from the girl that she had thought was Zephyr to the real Zephyr, and back again.  "But how…"
     "Stop picking on innocent people, Nova!" Spica demanded.  "Or I’m going to have to do something about it."
     "Oh, gee, Sailor Spica, I’m terrified," Nova mocked.  "Poison Ice!" she shouted.  A cloud appeared above her and snow fell into her hands.  She extended both hands toward the Astros up on the backstop, and blocks of red ice flew toward them.  The Astros jumped off of the backstop, the ice narrowly missing them.
     Spica took out her sword.  "Release them, or fight me," she told Nova.  "And suffer the same fate as Oscurio."
     "Yeah, whatever," Nova replied.  She grabbed Spica, lifted her up, and threw her against the fence that surrounded the baseball field.
     "Oh my…" Inferno gasped.
     "She’s…too strong to fight against…" Spica groaned, struggling to get up.
     "So we won’t fight," Zephyr decided.  "We’ll just attack her instead."  She raised her Star Scepter.  Cypress had made a new one for her since her last one had gotten destroyed.  "I wonder what this does…" she thought aloud.  "Oh well, I’ll never know until I try, right?  Mind Dazzle!"  A burst of light exploded in front of Nova, and she began to hallucinate as an effect of the attack.
     "No!" Nova screamed, fighting against monsters that weren’t really there, that she was only imagining.
     "So that’s what that attack does," Zephyr said.  "She’s hallucinating, isn’t she?"
     "Better hit her while she’s vulnerable," Inferno concluded.  "Inferno Lava River!"  But by that time Zephyr’s spell had worn off and Nova was no longer seeing things.  So she could clearly see Inferno’s attack as it flew towards her.  She jumped out of the way and the attack hit the cage instead.  The cage disappeared and the softball team was free again.
     "What the…hey!" Nova was recovering from the shock of Zephyr’s attack, just in time to see the cage disappear.  "How’d you do that?"
     "None of your business!" Sailor Inferno told her.
     "Ohh, you Astros make me so mad!" Nova yelled at them, frustrated.  She disappeared into a black portal behind her.
     "Hey, it’s Sailor Moon!" one girl exclaimed, seeing the Astros.  The other softball players (except for Lilia) swarmed around the sailors, asking them for autographs.
     "Uh, we’d better get going now," Zephyr said.  The Astros broke free of the crowd and ran off, followed by the softball players, who thought they were Sailor Moon.  Lilia just stayed behind with Kaylie.
     "They’re all insane," Kaylie concluded.  "Everyone knows Sailor Moon doesn’t exist, right?"
     "Right," Lilia said, smiling inwardly.  "I guess being a savior of the world has a price," she thought.  "A bunch of people asking for your autograph and thinking that you’re Sailor Moon."