Darien stood in the shadows watching her after the battle, although he couldn't be with her he had sworn to protect Serena no matter what. With a heavy heart he watched her as she limped home and when he had satisfied himself that she was safe he reluctantly began the journey home. Feeling wearier than during the battle itself, he leapt from building to building on the short journey to his apartment although every leap felt like miles and his feet like lead.

Walking into his apartment from the balcony window he dropped his hat and mask on the floor with disgust – he hated living behind a disguise, it seemed his whole life was a lie. He draped his cape on his coffee table and slumped into a chair idly watching as the cape could resist the pull of gravity no more and slid to the floor, pooling in the darkness like another shadow. As he sat in the darkness of his living room watching the moonlight stream in through the open balcony doors, Darien felt part of the shadows too - for the light never touched him anymore. Many nights he had sat watching the moonlight glide across the floor as the moon itself had swept through the sky, but no matter where in the room he sat the light never seemed to touched him. The moon was her light. He laughed out loud to himself, a dry and false laugh, Serena was light he now realised: the sunlight loved her and the moonlight adored her. It was no surprise that since he had forced her out of his life the sun no longer warmed him and the moon despised him.

He conjured a rose from the air and although it seemed perfect - he knew that it was flawed. It performed its function as a distraction in battle but as he watched the petals began to wilt; he pulled off the petals in anger, like so many things it seemed to lack the life and beauty that would sustain it. He thought back to his confrontation with her and saw again the shock that ran through her eyes as she remembered his rejection; her hand had reached out to him in need. His resolve had crumbled when he saw the craving in her eyes and he would have swept her off her feet there and then was it not for the scream. He had heard her scream, not in reality but in his dreams, a haunting cry that tore at his soul. Unconscious images flashed before his eyes from his nightmare: Serena, torn from his arms as she cried, engulfed in flame but beyond his reach only hearing her death scream that always woke him screaming her name. As soon as he heard her scream echo in his head and knowing that he will be the cause of it, he hardened his heart and rejected her again. '…but my feelings have not changed' he heard himself say and knew it was the truth. "I've never stopped loving you, Serena." He sighed out loud. He sat brooding for the rest of the night and the pile of petals grew at his feet, and before long bitter tears joined them.