Hi there, everyone! Sorry for the new chapter update – although I AM more than halfway through the newest installment of Revelations! Something about the flow of this story is a bit off, so I'm going back and doing some edits now that my life is a bit less hectic. Nothing major – and I won't say anything more in case this is your first visit.

Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon nor do I profit from this in any way. Other than the ego boost from reviews. So, Yeah.

Love always, Elle.

PROLOGUE: Setting the Scene

"Venus, watch out!" screamed Sailor Mars. The blonde heroine turned just in time to see a burst of dark energy heading toward her. She cursed and leapt away without a second to spare. As she landed, she turned on her heel and sent her own attack flying back at the Youma.

She gave a satisfied smirk as the Youma struggled against her Love-Me Chain, crying out as the golden sparks burned its gray skin. Or scales? This Youma was a whole different breed of ugly. It was a snake-like creature which also had four arms and seemed to be made of pure muscle. It was also super charged with dark energy, much like the other creatures they had been battling all week.

"Try this on for size, Co-Brat!" yelled Sailor Moon, trying to draw the Youma's attention away from Sailor Venus.

"…Really?" smirked Tuxedo Mask. Serena glared at him, but with his crooked grin and twinkling midnight eyes, she could hardly be angry at him. And she had to admit, that was pretty lame, as far as tough-talk went. However, it was the best her exhausted brain could come up with.

"What?" he asked innocently. He lad leapt over to stand beside her, warily eyeing the Youma-snake which had cocked its head in their direction. "How about we finish off this sucker? Though," he whispered huskily, his arm sliding around her and pulling her close, "that's an awful lot of snakeskin to waste. How about, when this is over, we make you a little something out of it? I'd love to see you in something like that… ouph!"

Serena had just elbowed him in the ribs. She was glaring up at him again, but this time she was blushing. She could feel the familiar butterflies in her stomach and her heart was beating fast, but this wasn't the time or the place.

Darien seemed to take the hint and ran a hand through his unruly black hair, rumpling it even further. "Right. I guess we'll just have to save that for later. Finish off old co-brat and let's get this over with."

He knew the elbow was coming this time and blithely avoided it, chuckling the whole time.

"Hey you two, any day now!" yelled Sailor Mars, this time annoyed. "In case you don't remember, this is the fourth night this week that we're missing sleep for these bastards! Just finish him off so we can go home!" Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Venus nodded in agreement, although they were grinning. Sailor Mercury was still clicking away at her computer, trying to find the Youma's weakest point.

Sailor Moon had the good grace to look sheepishly at Sailor Mars. However, she was brought back to the reality of the situation when the Youma began to charge up another burst of dark energy – this time aimed right at her. She knew she had only seconds to react, but with all of her training, she didn't feel the slightest bit panicked. Rather, she just felt tired. So tired, all she wanted was to curl up in bed and sleep for hours…

She gave her head a quick shake to clear her thoughts and forced her eyes to open. Running toward the Youma, she summoned her Moon Spiral Heart Rod and began to channel her energy through it. As the scepter began to glow, she started to yell out her attack. This Youma didn't stand a chance!

"Moon Spiral Heart Attaaarrrrgh!"

As she was racing forward, her foot caught on.. well, it was hard to say. One moment Sailor Moon had been charging toward the Youma and the next, she was sprawled face first on the ground.

"Get up, meatball head!" Sailor Mars yelled. Her voice had an edge of panic. The Youma had finished charging its attack and held a ball of dark, crackling energy in each of its four hands. Sailor Moon was now at point blank range.

Realizing this, Sailor Moon jumped to her feet, bones aching. Her warrior's mind was running through her list of options at lightning speed, but it looked bleak. The snake-like Youma was smirking at her as it tossed a ball of sizzling, black energy it one of its hands.

In a split second, the creature had sent all four blasts directly toward Sailor Moon. She skillfully raised her Moon Rod to protect herself; four flashes of white light merging into one has the blasts collided with her own protective energy shield.

As the last blast hit, Tuxedo Mask was right behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist in an attempt to carry her to safety. However, the Youma saw this and violently grabbed Tuxedo Mask's arm. This caused him to unceremoniously drop Serena and she found herself face first on the ground for the second time in as many minutes.

However, this time she didn't waste a second in springing to her feet. Tuxedo Mask was still the Youma's clutches. She had to save him!

Before she had time to do anything, the Youma hurled her prince more than forty feet through the air. She watched, horrified, as he landed with a sickening thud. Tears threatened to completely block her vision, but she knew what she must do before she could attend to her breaking heart.

"Sailor Moon! FINISH HIM!" screamed Sailor Mars.

Her words were unnecessary. Sailor Moon had already fired off her attack, turning the Youma into dust. Before the Youma's ashes even hit the ground, she was running to Tuxedo Mask's side.

As she knelt down beside him, she could see his chest rising and falling with his labored breathing. Golden, healing sparks were already working their magic around a scrape on his head. Sailor Moon gently lifted his head and saw that he must have knocked himself unconscious on the rock he had landed on. He was lucky to be alive. Her stomach dropped at the thought. She had already lost him too many times. He had to be alright.

"Sailor Moon, don't touch him!" yelled Sailor Mercury as the others crowded around the couple. "He may have injuries, it's best not to move him until I can scan him!"

"Oh!" inhaled Sailor Moon, gently placing Tuxedo Mask's head back in the grass.

"How is he?" asked Sailor Jupiter. "It looks like he's going to have a goose-egg on his head in the morning – that rock is huge! He'll be lucky if he doesn't have a concussion! …I mean, I'm sure everything will be fine!" She gulped and took a step backwards as she saw Sailor Moon glaring up at her. Despite being nearly a foot shorter than her, Sailor Moon could be intimidating as hell.

"Well," said Sailor Mercury, snapping her computer shut, "He doesn't appear to have a concussion, although he's sure to have quite the headache in the morning. No broken bones or anything though, so it should be safe to move him."

"Where should we take him? Back to his apartment?" asked Sailor Venus.

Sailor Moon nodded. "That sounds like a good idea. Sailor Mercury, do you know how long until he'll wake up?"

"With his healing powers working full force, he should regain consciousness within an hour or two… which means we should probably move him now. The sun's coming up, and people are always jogging through this section of the park."

The Scouts glanced to the sky and saw that the darkness was slowly fading. Yet another sleepless night. No one spoke the words, but they all wondered how many more would be in their future.

xxxxxxxxxx

"Ugh! Darien weighs a ton! Serena, you should start doing the cooking. Then he won't eat nearly as much!"

Serena turned to Rai with her hands on her hips. They had just succeeded in carrying Tuxedo Mask from the park to his own sofa and had finally let their transformations fade. Even with five of them, it was no easy feat. "For your information…"

She was cut off by Mina, "Oh hush, you know lover boy is all muscle! I wonder which one is the biggest…" She raised her eyebrows suggestively at Serena, who turned bright red (along with Ami).

"SHUT UP!" She screeched. It was a testament to the strength of the double pained glass windows in Darien's apartment that they didn't shatter. Darien, however, was not immune to Serena's screech, despite the fact that he was practically comatose.

"Aarrgh," he grumbled, his eyes squinting in the brightness of his living room and lifting a hand to his throbbing head in a vain attempt to protect himself from all the noise.

"Oh Darien!" sobbed Serena, at once forgetting her previous plan to push both Mina and Rai off of the balcony with two well-executed maneuvers. She threw her arms around him and sighed with relief.

However, her relief was short lived, as Darien tensed and roughly threw her off of his chest.

"Did I hurt you?" she demanded, her expression half worried, half wounded.

Despite her outward childish behavior toward Rai and Mina, Serena had been silently beside herself with worry about Darien. Her own carelessness was to blame for his injury. It seemed like he never tired of coming to her rescue, and she could recall a few times when she had saved his life, but nevertheless she worried that he viewed his role as protector as a chore. Not that he never did anything to give that impression – in fact she was sure she would have felt it through their connection if he did. Still, she worried…

His expression wasn't doing anything to abate that worry. Darien slowly pulled himself into a sitting position on the sofa. He rested his head in his hands, and Serena couldn't help but notice not only a grimace of pain but also confusion.

She reached out across their connection to see what the problem could be, but when Darien felt her energy, he pulled away and sat bolt upright. Suddenly he looked around and saw the other girls standing in his living room.

Clearing his throat, he tuned to them. "Hi girls," he forced a smile, "Thanks for taking care of me. I'm fine though, really. I appreciate you bringing you back here, and I'm sure you gave everyone who saw you a laugh (at this his lips actually did curve into a smile), but I think it'd be best of you all cleared out and let me get some rest."

Ami looked about to protest, but Darien met her gaze and insisted that he was really fine.

The four Scouts agreed, knowing that Darien was in good hands with Serena, and headed towards the door, wishing the couple a good night. They were almost outside when Darien noticed that Serena was still perched on the floor next to him.

He looked down at her, his gaze almost as harsh as his tone, and said, "Really, Serena, I'm fine. Please just go."

"Wh-what?" She stammered. There was an audible gasp from one of the Scouts, but this barely registered to the shocked blonde. She had been spending almost every Friday and Saturday night with Darien for almost a year now, with her mother under the impression that she was staying at one of the girls' houses. This was the standing arrangement, and it had never been broken before, not even for battles far worse.

"You heard me… leave," Darien said again, this time outright glaring at her. Then, noticing the four girls still standing there, he put on a forced smile and continued, "Really, I just need some rest and I'll be fine. Thank you all again for making sure that I made it back here in once piece," he added again, pointedly looking at Lita, Mina, Rai, and Ami – avoiding Serena's gaze.

Serena was frozen, still looking up at him. The depths of her cerulean eyes revealed nothing but hurt and confusion.

Seeing her looking like this, he felt a tug on his heart. She was his love, his soul-mate, his princess. The only thing he hated more than seeing her in pain was being the one to cause it. But then the images from the vision he had had while knocked unconscious replayed themselves.

Serenity's head was thrown back in ecstasy. Her hips moved wildly, in perfect harmony with his.

The moon shone brightly in the night sky, and a cool breeze swept through the rose garden, filling the air with a sweet fragrance. The sounds of their passion were the only thing to break the peace of the summer night.

Her lips met his in a fiery kiss, one that left them both breathless. Finally, she cried out and shortly after they were still.

Serenity wrapped her arms around his neck and he kissed her deeply.

"I love you," she whispered, gazing into his bottomless eyes.

"And I you," he replied with a smile.

Endymion watched the couple from the shadows, his mind overcome with fury, his heart overcome with betrayal.

Serena saw Darien's eyes soften for a moment before they turned back into a furious midnight blue. They were a stranger's eyes. They held no light or no love.

Shakily, she stood up and took a step backwards, tripping over the coffee table as she did so. She would have landed on the floor if it hadn't been for Darien's subconscious reflexes. He caught her in a cold embrace and released her as soon as she was stable.

Serena felt as though her world was closing down around her. What was wrong? Was he finally tired of saving her? From playing the role of her white knight? Normally, she would have tried to gain the answers from their soul-link, but, remembering what had happened only moments ago, she decided against it.

Instead, she forced a smile, "Alright, it does look like you need some rest. Call me in the morning. I love you." She said the last few words in a whisper.

"You too," Darien replied, and began to walk Serena and their audience to the door. Serena walked on unsteady legs and turned around as soon as she was outside, only to see Darien close his door without another glance toward her or the girls.

Serena felt her eyes fill with tears. She kept her eyes on the ground as she hurried towards the elevator. For once, the girls kept quiet. They exchanged glances, but didn't say a word about the exchange that had just taken place. Sure, Serena and Darien had fought before. But this seemed different. This seemed permanent.

But none of them said a word. Their only acknowledgement came when Ami squeezed Serena's hand as her princess's tears silently began to fall.

xxxxxxxxxx

Serena emerged from under her fortress of covers and groaned. It was Saturday, yet the sound of her alarm blaring had woken her from her comatose state. She sighed. With last night's battle and her exhaustion from every other battle this week, she must have forgotten to switch it off.

After a period of peace, the Youma attacks had been starting up again. This time they were worse than ever. She had barely made it back to her room on Friday morning before her alarm clock went off, signaling the third sleepless night that week. And not only were the frequencies of the attacks increasing – these Youmas were the strongest they had ever faced.

In fact, just last night, Darien had taken a bad hit protecting her. She and the girls had been forced to carry him back to his apartment.

Darien!

As the memory popped back into her head, she was overrun with guilt. If she hadn't been so careless, so irresponsible, he wouldn't have found himself being thrown halfway across the park.

They never should have left him last night. She never should have left his side. Why did she? Last night was Friday…

She gasped as the rest of the night came flooding back. The look in his eyes as he ushered her out of his apartment, his cold embrace, his words…

"You heard me… leave."

Unease gripped her heart. She bolted out of bed – and swore as she tripped over her sneakers and landed sprawled across the floor.

From where she landed, she could see her cell phone, which she had casually thrown on the floor after finally getting in last night as the sun was brightening the sky. She scrambled for it and flipped it open. There were a few texts from the Scouts and Molly, but nothing from her prince. Fighting off her growing sense of panic, she punched in his number. What had happened last night to make him act so coldly?

Serena managed to maneuver herself into a sitting position as she listened to the phone ringing, praying he would pick up. No such luck - her call reached Darien's voicemail. She vaguely registered his familiar voice, telling her to leave a message. However, her blood ran cold when she reached out to him over their connection. She couldn't find his usual golden warmth. Instead, she felt nothing. She felt broken.

Slamming the phone shut, Serena scrambled to put on the closest clothes in reach – a crumpled school uniform that she had discarded right next to, and with as much care as, her cell phone. With her shoes barely tied, she flew down the steps and out into the sunlight, slamming the front door behind her.

Her brother Sammy, who had been having breakfast in the kitchen, smirked after her. This was Serena, after all. It wouldn't be the first time that she thought she was late for school on the weekend.

I hope you enjoyed the first few scenes! If you are re-reading, only slight cosmetic changes were done to this chapter. Some edits will be very much more in depth.

Reviews are always very much appreciated. As always, thank you for reading!