Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon or anything affiliated with the trademark….although I do want to have Darien all to my self! He's so scrumptious!

A/N: This is actually my first try at writing fanfiction. The story feels a bit slow to me, although I don't know if that's the case or not. May just be the fact that it's taken me so long to write it! I've read this chapter over and over and OVER . So perhaps that's why I feel like the story progresses so slowly. But I would really like to hear some feed back if/when you lovely readers get a chance to read this story

I'm giving this story a T rating because it has a few curse words but nothing too serious. It's a short first chapter to set the tone and background of the story. Hope you enjoy this first bit!

Chapter 1

Skull and Rose

Serena's POV

Star Date: January 23, 2164

"Ugh dammit! Another blown mission," said Serena furiously as she ripped her comlink from her ear.

If there was one thing Serena Tsukino hated, it was failure. Through all of her 27 years, she had never failed at anything, especially capturing a wanted criminal.

"Systems online," she said to the intricate computer system as she entered the debriefing room on the moon's military complex.

"Give me the latest reports on Darien Shields."

"Last spotted in the Dalaran Star system headed towards Dagan Sharp. His fighter jet seems to be in bad condition due to what looks like a blown engine on his starboard side," the computer reported.

Good. At least he didn't come out of that fight completely unscathed, thought Serena as she looked at the report with both satisfaction and frustration. She really wished this assignment would be finished. All she needed to do was capture Darien long enough to turn him in to the Lunar authorities. Then she would be free for her long overdue vacation.

Serena was the head of the Peace League's military division, given the task of keeping all governments and criminals in check. The League didn't belong to any particular planet or government, it was an organization created to make sure no singular planet became too powerful or partook in too many illegal activities. And as of the moment, the person at the top of the Peace League hit list was Darien Shields, arms dealer, thief, and assassin extraordinaire. He's known among the League and the ruff raff as the most vicious criminal in the solar system, and every government wanted him dead as he isn't very particular about who he sells weapons to or who he's paid to kill, as long as he gets his cut of the profit in the end. Aside from being completely consciousless, he has the money to buy himself the best equipment with which to evade the League. All these things made Serena's job all the more difficult and infuriating.

Earlier that morning, Serena had been making her routine patrol of the outer Dalaran Star system when all of a sudden her cruiser's homing scanner picked up movement from a meteor and before she had time to investigate the issue, red lasers started flying toward her cruiser. And while she was dodging the lasers, a transport ship and fighter lifted off from the meteor. The transport turned in the opposite direction while the fighter flew straight at her, guns lobbing off one shot after another. As Serena flew closer to the ship, she realized just who was piloting the fighter when the distinct rose and skull symbol appeared on her close up monitor. In that instant, she targeted the ship and fired all her laser cannons.

As if this was a common occurrence, the other ship twisted and turned and evaded each of the four lasers while returning four of its own. Serena then had to do everything she had been taught in flight school to evade the well placed beams, though one grazed her tail as she pulled her cruiser upward into a flip. Then she jerked her cruiser to the right and fired her cannons again just as the other fighter let off another round of shots. She didn't have enough time to fly away from the shots and two lasers hit her wings, blowing off her main engines, and as a last resort, she shot a tracking bot onto the other ship before her ship became completely immobile. She thought this was the last thing she could have done for the Peace League before her ship was blown to smithereens. And as she sat in the cockpit, she waited for the final laser that would blow her ship in half and incinerate every sentient object inside, herself, to be precise. But the shot never came...

What the hell?

She turned her head trying to look out of her cockpit and saw the other fighter flying in the opposite direction.

What is he thinking?

She waited until the ship was no longer in sight before she breathed a sigh of relief, then cursed the other pilot and sent an emergency signal to the Peace League headquarters for help.

"Don't let him get to you, Serena. It's not like you're the only one who hasn't caught him, " said Rei, Serena's second in command, as she sauntered into the room with Ami, Lita, and Mina in her wake. "And with the $250 million bounty on his head, I'd say he's doing a pretty damn good job dodging capture, so don't take it too hard."

"Yeah Serena, he can't run forever," Ami chimed in.

"Thanks guys, I'm just ready for my vacation. It's been so long I don't even know what a vacation is anymore!" Serena said with a long face, then promptly chuckled.

"Well, at least we're getting closer, right?" asked Mina. "You were able to attach the tracking device onto his ship. That'll lead us to his location! We just have to wait for him to land, then we can swoop in and capture him and he won't be able to fly away!"

"And with the best squad of Peace Keepers, and by that I mean the five of us of course, we'll catch him in no time. All we have to do is bid our time and wait for him to land. Then we can put Darien Shields out of his miserable existence, ...and maybe even steal some of his equipment…." Lita whispered under her breath.

A/N: Awaiting your judgment. Please be gentle though *Cringes* No flames please, only constructive criticism if you can. This story is going to be short I think, perhaps only about 6-8 chapters so I hope I'll be able to fit all the content into this story! I am also available as a beta reader if you would like for me to beta anything for you. I just reuploaded this story onto as the first time I upped it, it took out many of my section breaks and the story was one big run on. So here is the updated version. I hope everything in the document reads appropriately now :)

Happy Chinese New Year!

Dymontgo