Promise of the Rose

Serena smiled as she inhaled the flowers. "Forget me not", she sighed.

After she had arrived at Darien's apartment this morning, he surprised her with a trip to the city greenhouse, a place bursting with luscious, healthy, flowers and plants.

"What"? Said Darien, startled. Recently he had been thinking...thinking...about his past. He didn't know why, but something just didn't seem right with the earth.

And whenever he felt something was wrong with the earth, it was always connected to something. This morning he had gone deep into the power of the golden crystal, lying on the warm grass in the backyard.

And he felt it, then, that whatever was off kilter with the earth had to do with his past.

"I said, Forget-me-not," Serena chirped, unaware of what Darien was doing. But unawares to the both of them, Serena's friends, Raye, Amy, Mina, and Lita, had decided to go the green house too.

Coincidence? I think not. Serena's 'cousin', nicknamed Rini, had known of Darien's plans earlier, and told the girls to bring her to the green house so she could spy on Serena. She didn't want her Darien hugging or kissing that klutz Serena!

I mean obviously, Rini was a better woman than Serena. She was smarter, wittier, and sharper. But I digress.

"It means, true love, in the language of flowers" Serena continued. Okay, so she was a little thick.

Darien turned and laughed. "Heh, the language of...oh" he quickly trailed off when he saw what Serena wanted.

She had her rosy pink lips all puckered up, those deep sea blue eyes closed tightly, hands clasped together. She wanted to kiss him. In public. Oh boy.

Darien grunted quietly and looked around, making sure no one was looking. As he leaned in for the kiss...

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Unbeknownst to Darien and Serena, Rini suddenly squealed, "Oh yuck, Serena's getting kissed!"

Also behind the bushes, were all 4 of Serena's friends. They were no better than Rini, spying on her like that!

They each tried to get Rini to shutup in their own wacky ways, because while Rini thought kissing was gross, the girls wanted to see their friend in action!

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Darien closed his lips over Serena's and held her close. Serena moaned happily and weaved her fingers through his hair as they kissed.

If one were behind the bushes, one would hear 4 teenage girls sighing "aaah" and one 6 year old (in mind and body) going "Ew! I'm going to put an end to this!"

Rini grabbed the nearest leaf to her left, for it had a caterpillar on it. Snickering quietly, she inched up to Serena...closer...closer... Then she put the innocent lil' caterpillar on Serena's shoulder!

Over in Alaska, Eskimos looked up curiously as a high pitched squeal seemed to emanate from the sky. Then they sighed and kept eating their fish.

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Once the girls had apologized to Serena and Darien, the large group decided to take a walk in the outside garden of the greenhouse.

Suddenly, the sky began to darken to a light pink and dark purple hue, while silky red rose petals danced from the clouds down onto the earth. Darien groaned slightly as his girlfriend and future daughter began squealing and trying to catch the petals.

Suddenly, a man seemingly appeared out of nowhere. Everyone stopped what they were doing and kept a sharp eye on him. He looked harmless, but...looks can be deceiving.

He swiftly walked up to Darien and began to talk like they were old buddies. "Darien! It's been so long!"

Darien squinted his eyes in confusion. "Have we met?" Upon hearing this, Serena moved up so she was in front of Darien. 'I will protect him' she thought furiously, even though anyone could say that her 4'11" frame was nothing compared to this mans height.

Fiore turned and looked at her. In his closed mind, all he could think of was Darien. And the Kisenian blossom he was working with seemed to say,"Threat...destroy...destroy!"

With a cry of rage Fiore swept forward and shoved Serena forcefully to the ground with one fist. As everyone recovered from the initial shock, Fiore began to back up slightly.

"Thank you, Kisenian" he muttered quietly. Then he laughed loudly and disappeared in a flurry of rose petals again (A/N: remind you of anyone?)

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Later that night, the girls were hanging out at Raye's temple. When Artemis began surfing the web, they stumbled upon a curiously large asteroid. It was extremely hollow, so it would probably burn out before it hit the earth.

But at the same time, these girls had dealt with enemies before, and that strange, foreboding feeling that came with a new enemy seemed to come with that asteroid...and that man...who hurt Serena today.

Flashback

"His name is Fiore" Darien stated. Mina glanced up at him, then back to Serena, who was sitting up on the cot. After Fiore had left, the girls brought her to the first aid station in the front of the greenhouse.

They were surprised to discover a large, purple bruise on Serena's chest, shaped like a man's hand. The nurse had just finished putting cream on it, to help it heal faster.

"Who's Fiore, Darien?"

End Flashback

Serena's question echoed in her head as she rocked Rini to sleep. Who was Fiore, and how did Darien know him?

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The next day, after school, the girls got together to go to the arcade, when Raye suddenly stopped. Using her psychic senses, she could tell something was amiss up ahead.

Suddenly she bolted into a sprint and everyone followed her. After turning the corner, they found tens and tens of civilians, sprawled lifelessly over everything; the street, cars, sidewalks, etc.

Mina bent down to feel one's pulse. "She's not alive" she announced sadly. "None of them are."

As everyone took a minute to weep for the lives lost, no one noticed a flower appear out of nowhere. It slowly grew into the shape of a human, until it took a form of a man.

He bore a strange resemblance to Fiore, except this man...had blue tinted skin, and long blue hair with 2 pink highlights. Just as Rini ran around the corner (being only 6, she couldn't run as fast as 14 year olds) he bent down, and picked her up.

"AIIIII!" Everyone swiftly turned around and saw Rini being held captive by this man. "Girls, transform!" Luna yelled.

"Moon prism power!"

"Mercury star power!"

"Mars star power!"

"Jupiter star power!"

"Venus star power!"

"I'm Sailor Moon!"

"Sailor Mercury!"

(etc, etc, introductions, speeches)

"Who are you?" Sailor Moon demanded.

"Why my sweet child," Fiore started, "Don't you remember me? From the greenhouse?" Everyone gasped.

"Kisenian!" Fiore barked.

Suddenly, the closed flower on Fiore's chest began to open up. "Quite a little welcoming committee. Thank you, Fiore!"

Fiore opened his palm and blasted Sailor Mercury to the side, then Sailor Venus.

"Mars..."

But before she could finish her attack, Fiore slammed his palms together, causing a blast of extremely hot wind to blow Raye into a glass window.

"You...weed!" Jupiter cried, enraged. She began to throw punches and kicks at Fiore, but unfortunately, he was better. Jupiter gasped as Fiore narrowly missed her kick and instead, punched her so hard in the stomach, she went flying and made a dent in a metal wall.

Rini started to cry and tried to wriggle away from Fiore, who was holding her that entire time. She was in shock a little, because she was sure that Jupiter would miss and accidentally hit her.

Fiore rolled his eyes and threw Rini threw a glass window. "THAT'S it, NOW I'm ANGRY!" Sailor Moon growled.

"Moon...Tiara...Action!"

But Sailor Moon was so angry, that she completely missed!

Suddenly Tuxedo Mask jumped down in front of Sailor Moon. He tried to reason with Fiore, to tell him that he was being controlled by something, but Fiore wouldn't listen.

Fiore just saw Sailor Moon as a threat, because all he wanted was Darien. Darien...Darien...not Serena... "This girl has you bamboozled, Darien!"

Fiore charged toward Sailor Moon with a sword, only to be blocked by Tuxedo Mask's cane. For several minutes, the only sound that could be heard was the sounds of clashing and clanging.

Finally, Fiore had enough. He roughly pushed Darien aside, then grew large red fingernails, aiming toward Sailor Moon. "Fiore! NOOOOO!" Tuxedo Mask cried.

He tried to jump in the way of Sailor Moon, but when Fiore had dropped his sword, it pierced through Tuxedo Mask's cape, and then the ground. So when Tuxedo Mask jumped up, he was immediately pulled back down.

Sailor Moon cried out in horrible agony as 5 long, sharp, nails drove into her, just under her breasts, in one long row. They all exited through her back, then were extracted back into Fiore's hand.

Fiore chuckled and licked some of the blood off of his finger. "Perhaps next time, Darien" he said, and teleported away. As soon as his sword disappeared, Tuxedo Mask scrambled up as fast as he could.

"SERENA!" he yelled, so loud, his voice immediately went hoarse.

Sailor Moon lay on the ground, gasping for breath. Blood lay in pools around her, staining her golden hair a reddish-orangish color.

Darien stooped over her and grasped her hand tightly. "Sailor Moon! Sailor Moon! Can you hear me?"

Sailor Moon tried to reply, but instead she coughed painfully and blood came flying out of her mouth. "Darien...I...ugh...ssss" she hissed and gripped his hand tightly.

Sailor Mercury, now conscious, ran over. "Darien, we are all detransformed, I want you to detransform her, than used your cape and tie it tightly around her chest. I already called an ambulance. The girls and I are thinking of a story for the police, okay?"

The rest of the day was just a blur for Darien, blurred by his own tears. The ambulance had come for Serena, but they wouldn't let him ride because of the seriousness of her condition.

Once at the hospital, they wouldn't let him see her, because he wasn't family. They said that he couldn't visit her until Saturday. Today is Monday. Today is Monday...

88888888888888 Forward to Saturday

Serena groaned slightly as she sat up, trying not to disturb Luna. She had clean white bandages wrapped around her chest, and she was wearing a light blue hospital gown.

Serena sighed. In the past week, everyone had been so nice to her, visiting, making calls, sending gifts, but...she still wasn't happy. She turned and gazed at the single red rose in a thin vase that was sitting on a table. Every day someone would send her a fresh rose, each one a different color...

77777777777 Flashback

Monday: A white rose, with a little card, written on it: purity

Tuesday: A pink rose: happiness

Wednesday: A blue rose: health

Thursday: A yellow rose: energy

Friday: A purple rose: calm

(A/N: I don't know what each color is for, so I made it up.)

77777777 End Flashback

Early this morning, upon waking, a nurse had bustled into her hospital room, changing the purple rose for a red one: love. The white, pink, blue, yellow, and purple roses were sharing a bigger vase, next to the thin one.

Just as Serena was about to lay down, her door opened again. She tried to peer around to see who it was, but the shadows covered his figure. Her heart pounded in her chest and she licked her suddenly dry lips. Could it be...?

"Hey Serena!" Darien cheerfully bellowed. "Did you like my flowers? But don't worry; I've got an even better present for you than flowers!"

Serena sighed, tears threatening to obscure her vision. "I don't care about presents Darien, I'm just happy to see you"

Darien swept forward and kissed Serena passionately on the lips, then started to bring out her present...

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Elsewhere, Fiore and the Kisenian blossom were still planning. "Now that I have destroyed that bimbo and her little girl scouts, I can keep Darien for myself! Ha! I can't wait to reach earth!"

"And once we've landed", said Kisenian, "I'll suck the earthlings dry in your memory my faithful servant!"

The two started laughing like crazy, and anyone who heard it would've been creeped out to hear a man's maniacal laughter mixed with a phony, metallic grating noise (that could be called laughter if you concentrated real hard).

uuuuuuuuu At the Park

Unfortunately for Fiore, the scouts were already planning to go to his planet and destroy him first.

"We're going to destroy that planet!" Venus cheered.

"Right! Let's make that planet mulch!" Jupiter agreed, (while slapping her palm into her fist.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" asked Rini. She jumped and joined the partly forming circle.

"Uh, Rini, you can't come" Mercury said with a sweatdrop. Then, as Mercury and Rini debated on why she couldn't come, Sailor Moon sat down next to Darien.

"Don't worry Darien, I'll be fine."

"But what about your injury? Does it still hurt? Do you need some more medicine? What about your attack? Don't you have to use your chest muscles? How- - "

"Darien, don't worry" Serena smiled, putting a finger to his lips. "I just took a dose of my medicine. And don't worry about my attack. I have the girls to help me!"

Serena smiled encouragingly and rested her head on Darien's chest for a few moments. She breathed in the wonderful scent of aftershave, while running her fingers over the smooth silk of his shirt.

"Sailor Moon! Time to go!"

Rini watched sadly as the scouts teleported away, gripping Darien's hand tightly.

"Mama...Sailor Scouts... come back safe you guys!"

Okay everybody! This is it for the story! I will put an epilogue in, but it will show up as a second chapter. So technically, the story isn't over.

When Fiore teleported away in a flurry of flowers, who does it remind you of : Zoisite!

Please review and tell me...was it boring? Were you expecting better? I think I found the problem with my stories.

I don't think my characters talk enough. Some fics I read, characters talk too much, but mine is the opposite.

I also think it would be better if I wrote a story in someone's point of view. Do you agree?

Cardcaptor eternity