Author's Notes: Okay, okay, I know I have a few other stories that I should be updating before I start a new story, but this story has been a year and a half in the making. A lot of you have been wondering what happened to Serena after HBOL finished, and it took me a while to figure it out. But, I started brainstorming this story back in October and decided to write it during NaNoWriMo. I finished it – sort of (I'm still not happy with the ending) – and now I'm giving it to you as an early Christmas present. I hope you like it!

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Sailor Moon, and this story is rated M for a reason…although not really an issue in this chapter…

Balancing Fate: A Hell Bent On Love Tale

By: afallenblackrose

Chapter One:

Endings and Beginnings

A misty fog swept over the silent city, covering everything in its path. Out on the fog covered street there walked a lone figure – a man in his late twenties, with hair as black as a raven's wings and blue eyes that rivaled those of the deepest oceans. In his hand there was a crimson rose, its thorns still attached to its green stem. The man took no notice of the fog as it swept around him, his head was already clouded over with his own thoughts – most of which centered on a woman that he used to know. Or at least a woman he thought he used to know.

He tried to shake his head of these thoughts, something he'd been trying to do since he had first met her, but it was to no avail as he entered the city's cemetery. The path he was walking had become so familiar to him that he didn't even have to think. His feet lead him to where he needed to go with no conscious thought from him. As he arrived at the desired tombstone he lent down and laid the rose that he held in his hand onto it. His fingers ran over the letters engraved there and shook his head.

Serenity Anderson

June 30, 1986 – July 21, 2010

Beloved daughter and friend

Serenity Anderson was more than just the words on the gravestone. She was a daughter and a friend, but to the man standing there, she was also so much more. Not that she had ever given him the time of day, and not that he really knew who she was.

The man sighed and leaned against a nearby tree. The first day that he had met Serenity, he thought for sure an angel had fallen out of the sky. She was so beautiful, her hair as golden as a halo, that he couldn't believe that she was just a human being. A twenty-three year-old, who was looking for employment even though she only had a high school diploma and some college – she had currently been taken night classes. The position he was hiring for didn't really require more than that, but still everyone else who had applied was working their way through medical school or nursing school at the least. But there was something about her that made him want to give her a chance. So he did.

They had worked together over six months, before he finally caved into their flirtatious banter. He asked her out, but she turned him down. She didn't want to mix her personal life with her professional one. He respected her decision, and told her that if she ever changed her mind, he would be there waiting. And he had stayed true to his word. But something had changed a few weeks after that. At first he thought it was because he had made things awkward, but when the bags under her eyes began to darken and grow – he decided to take matters into his own hands.

He began following her after work, and at first, he felt like a stalker because she went to her apartment and to the local community college for her night classes. But one day, she deviated from her normal pattern. She went to the hospital – the cancer ward. His heart beat fast in his chest. Not Serenity. Not the picture of perfect health. He waited in the hallway, not sure if he could handle seeing her like that. She walked out a half hour later, her cheeks glistening with tears.

He wanted to call out to her, but he remained there frozen. Eventually he walked away from the wall, and into the ward. A nurse brightened at seeing him.

"Well, well, if it isn't Darien Shields," she said. "How can I help you today?"

"I was wondering about a patient of yours," he replied. "Serenity Anderson?"

The nurse typed the name into her computer, but shook her head. "Not Serenity, but her mother Ilene is here with stage three brain cancer."

His heart started beating again at its normal rate, but now he understood why Serenity had been acting so strange over the last few weeks. Finding out her only living parent had cancer would take the winds out of your sails and then some. He couldn't imagine dealing with that. But why hadn't she told him about it? He would have given her time off to spend with her mother. He would have even made it paid time off.

Paid the word sent another thought to his head. Cancer treatments weren't inexpensive – they could even set the richest of families back a few hundred grand. Serenity didn't really make that much at his office, and he knew that she was also paying for school, the rent on her apartment and other various bills. So how was she paying for the medical costs?

To answer his question he followed her again the next day. Also like the other day, she didn't go straight home, but she didn't go to the hospital or the community college either. She met a blonde man – wait, no it was a woman – at her friend Andrew's arcade. They talked furiously for over a half an hour, and when the conversation finished, Serenity looked very frustrated. She bid her good-byes to the blonde woman and her friend Andrew before leaving for her apartment. Once there, Darien was getting ready to leave for his own place, when he saw her leave again.

And this time he had to do a double take. For the woman walking out of the apartment wasn't the Serenity he had come to know and develop feelings for. Instead of playing down her sexy side, she flaunted it. She was wearing a tight black mini dress, her hair, which she usually wore in pigtails, was down and her face was overdone with makeup. Not to mention she was wearing her thigh high black stiletto boots. Darien had to remember to close his mouth and wipe away the drool.

Where the hell was she going looking like that? He didn't know, but he followed and cursed when she walked into a club. There was no way that he would be able to follow her in there. So he stayed in his car and watched the entrance for her to exit the club, hopefully alone.

But she didn't leave alone. She left with a man with blonde hair that was almost white. Darien didn't like the look of him at all, but then again he always had a jealous streak. He breathed through his mouth as calmly as possible and followed the black SUV through the streets of the city. They stopped at a hotel and he gritted his teeth together. What. The. Hell.

The two walked into the hotel, the man holding Serenity's hand and giving her the look that just screamed that he knew he was going to get laid tonight. Darien punched the steering wheel and tried to calm down. She had told him that she liked to keep her personal life separate from her professional one, but did that mean she had to sleep with that man? For some unknown reason, Darien didn't like the guy and it wasn't just because he was going to sleep with Serenity. He couldn't help but think that he had seen the guy before. Was he a celebrity? He had to be, why else did he travel with an entourage?

Considering he had a feeling that he knew what those two would be doing, he had some time to kill. He searched the city's newspaper, until he found what he was looking for. It was a picture of the man that Serenity had walked into the hotel room with. He swore. The man was Diamond Chambers, the dirtiest businessman in the whole damn city.

What. The. Hell. He couldn't help but think again in anger. Didn't Serenity realize who this man was? And if she did, then what the hell was she doing with him? She wasn't…the thought went through his head unbidden. The way that she had been dressed that night, the woman she had talked to earlier that day. Oh, my God, he thought. She wasn't sleeping with him for money? Right? That was just ridiculous! He knew that she was hard up for money right now, but she wouldn't stoop to that level… Would she? Oh, Serenity…he thought with pity.

He sighed and watched the door, hoping to see her soon. But what he saw sickened him. It was Diamond, and he was leaving the hotel alone. That was it. Darien couldn't take anymore. He got out of his car and ran up to the man, avoiding his bodyguards with ease.

"You! What did you do to her?" He screamed at the blonde haired man.

"What did I do to who?" The man retorted with a cocky smile.

"Serenity," he hissed.

"Oh, was that the little whore's name? Well, I can assure you I didn't do anything to her that she didn't want me to. Except for maybe one thing." His cocky smile remained on his face as he handed Darien a card key. "You might want to go check on her. Make sure she's okay. She didn't look too good when I left her. But I have a business meeting, so tah." He got into his SUV and took off leaving Darien staring after him, before he dashed into the hotel. He glanced at the card key reading the penthouse suite as he rushed to the elevator.

Elevators took forever. It didn't help either that he wasn't the only one on board. Finally, after he was sure he was going to punch the next person who came on, the elevator emptied and he was the only one going up to the penthouse. The elevator stopped, the doors opening and he rushed into the suite. There were three rooms and he rushed to the doorway of the first one on his right. It was empty. The second one was the same. The last one though, made his heart stop.

Laying on the bed, still and pale was Serenity. Darien walked further into the room and to her side. Her chest wasn't rising. He felt for a pulse at her neck, but there wasn't one. She was dead. He stepped away with a hand pressed to his mouth. Tears that he refused to let fall were pooling in the corner of his eyes. How had this happened?

It took a few minutes before sanity came back to him and he dialed 911 from his cell phone. When the cops came, they escorted him out of the room to ask him questions. Not that the questions lasted long, a man whispered into the cop's ear and the cop nodded before telling Darien that he could leave. It wasn't until a few days later that Darien questioned why. The shock and pain was too much. Even going to her funeral was painful for him. But not as painful as it was for her mother.

He finally was able to meet the wonderful woman who had given birth to the beautiful woman he had known. Her eyes were full of pain and questions. The same questions he probably held. She was grateful to him for everything that he had done for her daughter. Darien didn't have the heart to tell her that Serenity had done more for him than he had done for her. He moved on to the other people who knew Serenity, but was brought out by an argument that had broken out between two of the guests.

It was Serenity's friend Andrew and the woman she had been meeting at the arcade that fateful day. Darien moved through the crowd with ease to get to the feuding pair. When he arrived he got bits of their argument.

"If it wasn't for you - "

"She knew the risks - "

Darien frowned but stepped in between the two of them.

"This is not the time, nor the place," he said with a gruff voice. "C'mon you two, let's take this elsewhere." He pulled them apart and led them away from the cemetery and Serenity's burial plot. As soon as they were a good distance away from the guests, he turned to Andrew and the woman.

"Now, what is this about?" He asked.

"It's because of Haruka that Serenity is dead!" Andrew exclaimed, fury radiating off him in waves. Darien turned to the woman named Haruka with a question in his eyes.

"What is he talking about?"

The woman grumbled and casted dirty looks at the sandy-blonde man standing behind him. "Look, I don't even know who you are, so I'm not going to tell you."

That made Darien angry. "I was Serenity's employer – she worked for me for over a year."

Understanding dawned on the woman's face. "Oh. So you're Darien. She talked a lot about you when we talked."

"I wish I could say the same about you."

"Right," she cleared her throat. "I'm not sure how much Serenity told you about what was going on in her life, but she was having some money problems because of her mom's cancer."

Andrew paled. "Sere's mom had cancer?"

Haruka nodded. "Yeah, it was stage three and really bad. The doctor's at first thought that she wasn't going to make it, but then they realized that if she got the tumor out of her brain after some chemo, she would be all right. So, Ilene started on the treatments. Well, they were really expensive, and they wouldn't do the surgery unless they were paid first, so Serenity needed to find the money. She dropped out of school, hoping that would help with the payments, but it wasn't helping.

"My significant other Michelle knew Serenity from school and she pointed her out to me while we were out on the town a few months ago. She had promise, so I approached her with a proposal and she accepted."

"What was this proposal?" Darien asked.

"Let's see…" she frowned. "How can I explain this without giving away too much?" She sighed. "I'm part of an organization who get called in when a situation or a person gets out of hand. And our 'clients' pay us handsomely for taking care of their problems without anyone noticing."

"I'm not sure I understand," Darien replied as he exchanged looks with Andrew who looked rather confused as well. "Are you saying that Serenity was part of this organization?"

"Yes," Haruka nodded. "I hired her, only until she had enough money to pay off her mom's surgery and chemo treatments. That was supposed to be the deal. But…" she sighed. "Then Diamond Chambers happened."

"Wait, so what exactly was it that Serenity was doing for you?" Andrew asked.

"Yeah, because when I saw her a few nights ago with Diamond Chambers she was all dressed up like some prostitute. I thought she was sleeping with people for the money."

"You saw her?" Haruka asked taken aback. "How is it possible that you saw her?"

"Serenity had been acting strange for weeks. I thought it had something to do with the fact that I had asked her out, but then I started following her and found out about her mom. Then I saw her with you, and that same night I saw her leave her apartment all dolled up."

"Why didn't you just ask her what was going on?" Andrew asked.

"I tried, but she didn't give me a direct answer," Darien replied. "But when I found out about her mom, I never got the chance to ask her about it, because how was I going to explain that? Oh yeah, I was following you around. No," he shook his head. "That wouldn't work."

"So you saw her that night with Diamond Chambers…" she sighed. "Then you know what they're saying in the coroner's report is a lie."

"What are they saying?" Darien asked.

"They're saying that she committed suicide," Andrew replied morosely.

"What?"

"Her wrists were cut and she bled out," Haruka explained. "No doubt, Diamond staged it that way." She said bitterly.

"You still didn't explain what she was doing with him that night," Darien said trying to get over the fact that Serenity's death was being ruled a suicide. It couldn't be true not after what he had seen that night.

"Serenity was a hired gun. She was there that night to kill Diamond Chambers."

"Wait, are you telling me that Serenity – the most angelic person in the world was shadowing as a contract killer? An assassin?" Darien asked in disbelief. How crazy of an idea! There was no way that the Serenity he had known could have killed people for money. There was just no way.

"That's exactly what I'm saying."

The three lapsed into silence not sure what to say to the other. How do you speak when it was revealed that the person they were there to mourn had been killed on a contract job to kill the other?

"So instead of Serenity killing Diamond, he killed her and made it look like she killed herself," Andrew said bitterly. "That means Serenity's job wasn't finished."

"Right," Haruka replied. "Diamond is still on the loose and the contract was never completed. I shouldn't have sent Serenity after him. She was still too green for a kill like that. But once she heard how much it paid, she wanted to do it."

"How much did it pay?" Andrew asked.

"Enough that it would have been her last job anyway."

"I'll do it," Andrew said out of the blue. "I'll finish the job on Diamond."

"What?!" Haruka and Darien exclaimed in shock.

"I'll finish the job on Diamond," he repeated. "Look, I know you're going to think that this is a crazy idea, but Sere's mom still needs that surgery and now that she's dead, how else is she going to pay for it? The life insurance policy Sere had isn't going to pay because according to the coroner it was a suicide. So what other option is there?"

Darien had walked away at that point. He couldn't be involved in the planned killing of another man, even though that man was responsible for killing the woman he had… He sighed as he continued to look at her gravestone. The woman he had what? He didn't love her; it was just impossible to love someone who didn't give him the time of day. But, yet….

He did. He loved Serenity. He still loved her, even though he had barely known her. But that wasn't anyone's fault but his own. He had been so hell bent on asking her out that he didn't take the time to know her. Didn't take the time to find out what her life entailed outside of his doctor office. He had been a fool. Maybe if he had taken the time he could have helped her out. If he had, then she wouldn't have had to turn to a life of crime to pay her mom's medical bills.

It was all his fault.

The only thing that made his grief bearable was the fact that Andrew had come through on his promise. A few months after her death, Andrew had killed Diamond Chambers in what the media had thought was cold blood. But, while on trial, he revealed his reasons for killing the crooked businessman. The cops had reopened Serenity's case, and found that the coroner had taken semen fluid from her body at the time of her autopsy. Considering that her cause of death were the cuts on her wrists, they hadn't looked at it properly. They had disregarded it. But they took another look and matched the fluid to Diamond's DNA.

They had also searched the nearby area and found the knife that he had used to slit her wrists. Serenity had not committed suicide. She had been killed by Diamond after he had raped her.

Darien closed his eyes as the memories played through his head. It had been three months since her death, but he still wasn't over it. He wasn't over her. How could he be? They said the grief was supposed to get easier over time, but it was just getting worse. He walked away from Serenity's grave and out of the cemetery. It probably didn't help that he was always there at her grave.

He needed to move on. But he couldn't.

As he walked down the street he glanced back towards the cemetery and stopped in his tracks. A woman with very familiar blonde hair was standing there staring at him. No, it couldn't be… He stopped and stared. It was really her. But how? A bus went by, blocking his view. When it passed, the woman was gone. He shook his head and continued on his way. He was seeing her now, that couldn't be a good sign.

"Darien Shields," Serenity's voice said from behind him. He stopped and looked around, but saw nothing.

"You're losing it, Shields. She's dead. She's not here anymore." He told himself out loud before he continued on his way.

If only he knew how wrong he was…

"Just admit it, Beryl. You are going to lose. Endymion will never be yours." Serenity kicked her squarely in the chest, sending her sprawling backwards. Before she had the chance to disappear, Serenity rushed her again. Only this time, I was there with her.

I came out of her body and grabbed a hold of Beryl. This shocked her.

"You?" She choked. "I thought I got rid of you too!"

"Looks can be deceiving," I replied and smirked. "This is for killing me and taking away my one true chance of happiness."

"No!" She tried to exclaim, but it was too late. She was thrown through the air, and disappeared only I didn't think that she was going to reappear this time. I stared at the spot where Beryl had been, not believing that it was over. I sighed in relief, knowing that I could finally find my peace that I had been searching for for over five hundred years.

But I was still looking at Serenity, even though I was supposed to have disappeared with Beryl's final demise. She looked at me with the same expression that was probably on my face.

"Serena," She whispered. We stared at each other, not sure what to do. We hadn't planned on this.

"I thought - "

"So did I," I cut her off. "But it didn't happen."

"Okay, so what does this mean?" Serenity asked, but she didn't answer me. Instead we both watched as a wall of flame arrived in the room. Well, this was going to be interesting. Endymion was going to see me for the first time in five hundred years. Only when the flame disappeared, and the person emerged, it wasn't Endymion.

"Sapphire!" We both exclaimed.

"Ssh," he replied. "I don't have much time before my great-great-great grandson arrives to retrieve you, Serenity. I'm assuming that Beryl has been defeated?"

"Yes, but I thought with her defeat that I was supposed to disappear too," I replied.

"That was the original plan, but plans change."

"So what am I supposed to do now? Stay down here?"

"No, you are no longer needed in hell," he said stepping towards me. "Fate has another plan for you, Serena. But you have to come with me."

"Go with you? But…" I trailed off and looked at Serenity.

"Serena, don't you trust me?"

I hesitated before I approached him. "Okay, let's go."

Serenity watched all of this surprised. Not that I blamed her. What exactly did Fate have planned for me? And why did it involve Sapphire? "Wait," she called out just as he put his hand on my shoulder. "Where are you taking her?"

Sapphire smiled and said, "Fate will be righted," before we disappeared in a wall of flame.

We arrived back at the cemetery in the land of the living. I looked around me and found that we were standing in front of Serenity's gravestone. Next to it stood a man I hadn't seen in five hundred years, but who I also knew wasn't the man I thought he was. It was Serenity's friend Andrew, but in another lifetime, he was also my brother.

"Whoa, Sapphire," he said a look of confusion on his face. "I thought you were sending Serenity back to Hell? What is she doing back here?"

"He did send Serenity back to Hell," I answered for him. "I'm Serena."

"Oh!" He exclaimed and gave me a sheepish smile. "It's nice to finally meet you. But that still doesn't answer my question. If everything is going dandy in Hell, then why is she still here? I thought she was supposed to move on?"

"That was the original plan," Sapphire said. "But Fate has other intentions for Serena now."

I frowned, still not sure that I completely understood what was going on here. I had gone with Sapphire to figure out Fate's new plan, but I was starting to wonder if what I had done was a smart move or not. What could Fate possibly have planned for me now? I had followed my doppelgangers' lives for years, and finally I had found Serenity. She was different than the others. But I didn't know how different until she died before she was supposed to. I thought I was stuck with nowhere to go, until I followed her soul down to Hell, where I ran into my former lover. He was now the Devil and he had chosen Serenity as his mistress.

But even as I watched Serenity figure out that there was something more going on, I knew that she was Endymion's chance for true happiness. A happiness he should have had, had I not died by Bethany's hand all those years ago. Now, that they were living their happily ever after, and Bethany/Beryl was gone, I should have moved on. But something was wrong.

"What does Fate want with me now?" I asked a bitter edge to my voice.

"Follow me," was Sapphire's only reply. I exchanged looks with Andrew who only shrugged. I sighed and followed him reluctantly. We walked with a quick pace before we ended up on an unfamiliar street. On that street, was an apartment complex.

"Okay, do you want to tell me what we're doing here?" I asked confused.

"Two things," Sapphire replied as we walked inside. "The first is that you now own an apartment in the building." We made our way to the elevator.

"What do you mean that I own an apartment in the building?"

"Just the way it sounds, Serena. You have an apartment in the building, in fact," he said stopping in front of a door and got out a pair of keys. "This is your apartment." He opened the door and ushered the two of us inside. The apartment was already furnished with the basic necessities a couch, appliances, and as I opened the refrigerator and cupboards, food and drinks. I closed the door and looked at him with a question in my eyes.

"Why would I need an apartment? I'm dead."

"That's the second thing," Sapphire replied as he sat down on the aforementioned couch. "This is going to take a lot of explaining, so please, have a seat." He ushered to the chair next to him. I sat down and motioned for him to continue.

"During your time following Serenity, do you remember the man that she worked for?" He asked.

"Darien Shields?" I countered. "But what does he have to do with this?"

"Everything," he replied. "You see, five hundred years ago, you and Endymion were destined for each other. But Bethany got in the way of that by killing you. When he found your body and me, he thought I had killed you, like you wanted me to tell him. He killed me in turn, and became the Devil fulfilling the other part of his destiny. However, the part that involved you never came to pass, even though Fate tried every few years. Something would always intervene."

"But how could they try and put the reincarnations of myself together with Endymion's reincarnations if he had no heirs?" I asked my confusion mounting by the minute.

"Endymion did have an heir," Sapphire replied. "Bethany was pregnant with his child, that was why she was so angry that he wanted to marry you."

"So, Endymion's line still continues?"

"Yes, which is how Darien Shields is involved. He's Endymion's many times over great-grandson."

"Which means that Darien and Serenity were supposed to be together, but because she died…" I felt as if a light bulb went off in my head. That was what he meant by Fate being righted. Since Endymion and Serenity were together, that left only Darien and me, but there was only one problem. "But how can this work out, when I'm dead?"

"That's what I'm here for," Sapphire replied. "I can do a spell that will give you back a physical body."

I sat back in silence as the severity of the situation hit me. Fate wanted me to end up with Darien. To do that I would get to come back to life, but…something nagged on my mind. The same problem that Serenity had with Endymion that had caused her to leave Hell; Darien was in love with Serenity and because we looked so much alike, even if I got Darien to fall for me, who was to say that what he was feeling wasn't just left over of what he felt for her?

"Serena?" He asked drawing me back to the present.

"You realize that if I agree to this, this is going to be really complicated?" I countered. "I mean, how do we explain to Darien that I look exactly like Serenity? Or hell, even to her mother?"

"Easy. You're Serenity's identical twin sister, who has just returned from America after hearing about her sister's death," Sapphire explained.

"Well, you just have this all figured out, don't you?" I scoffed. "How long have you known that this might happen?"

"I've had a feeling since I felt your presence," he explained. "So? Will you do this or not?"

"I don't really have much of a choice here, do I?" I sighed.

"You always have a choice, Serena. You could say no and finally move on. Or you can say yes, and have the opportunity to be alive again. To live your life and have that love that you died for."

"Well, when you put it that way…"

"Good," Sapphire smiled. "I'll start on the spell right away."

As Andrew and Sapphire left the apartment, later on that night, he turned to the former Devil and laid into him.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" He exclaimed letting the anger he had let fester for the last few hours come out. "I thought once you let Serenity go back to Hell you were going to move on! Why are you still meddling in these people's affairs?"

"Because Fate needs to be balanced, if it's not things in this world could become catastrophic."

"But why do you need to be the one to help balance out Fate? Why can't Darien do this on his own?"

"And how would he do this on his own? The love that has been predestined for him died prematurely, the only way that the balance can be restored is with supernatural means. My supernatural means."

Andrew looked at the man before him with questions in his eyes. This man looked like he had more invested in the coupling than just the balance of Fate. He frowned trying to figure out what else the former Devil had to gain from everything before he froze.

"Ah," Sapphire said with a smile. "I see you finally figured out what else is going on here."

"Yes, but it doesn't make sense…"

"It does, when you think about the years."

"The years?"

"It's been over five hundred years since Endymion killed me," Sapphire said. "And my reign only lasted five hundred years. It is time that Hell has a new king."

Author's Notes: Well, what do you guys think? Is it interesting? Would you continue reading it? Let me know in a review and I'll update soon!