Warning: This chapter may be a little out of whack since I have been lost as to where to go next. Please bare with me. Thanks.

It had been a month or two since Serena had found out that she was the moon princess and future heir to her mother's kingdom. The parents that had raised her had returned to Earth shortly after they all arrived on the moon. Serena tried to refuse to speak to anyone but Marina, but when she was ordered to join in on a conversation by either Luna or her mother, the duty drilled in her head since she was a babe, replied. She especially went out of her way to avoid Darien at all cost. Serena didn't take kindly to him knowing the family secret and keeping it from her when they shared all of their secrets together since they were little. She even tried to forget their secret hiding place in the caves along the beach's shoreline. Serena was starting to warm up to her new cousin though, who would visit her often and try to break the ice. Mina wouldn't have been able to do it without Marina's help. Marina and Mina became friends in a short time and when Mina wasn't around, Marina was constantly talking about the princess from Venus. Mina was surprised however, when she paid a visit to her cousin as princess one night, which she did most of the time. She was shocked when Serena joined in on the conversation she was having with Marina about different planets.

"I miss Earth." Serena stated.

"So do I." Mina replied.

Serena and Marina looked at the princess of Venus quizzically.

"How?" Marina asked.

"His snow-capped mountain hair, misty-gray colored eyes, thunderous height…"Mina couldn't finish when Marina started laughing at her. Serena still didn't get it.

"What is so funny?" she demanded.

"Your cousin doesn't miss Earth, just it's future ruler." Marina explained.

"What, Malachite!" Serena asked. Her question was confirmed when she saw Mina's blush. "Oh my Lord! You like Malachite?" Serena started laughing.

"At least I'm not in love with my own brother." Mina retorted. Serena stopped, a bit confused. It was now Marina's turn to laugh.

"You don't have to be around her that long to figure that out." Marina said.

Serena's face started getting red, "I am not in love with my brother!" she shouted.

Mina started laughing now. "You are too." she stated.

"Actually he's really not her brother, but just the way she gets jealous about him will tell almost anyone that she love's him."

"I grew up with them as my family. Of course I love him."

Marina had a grin on her face, "That's not what I'm talking about. Look at how much you dislike Lady Beryl."

"She's a Bitch!" Serena exclaimed.

"She is a Bitch." Marina and Mina said in unison.

"But you are always wanting his attention." Marina informed her mistress.

"You know that one day at the beach, she and Darien almost kissed." Mina told Marina.

"What!" Marina asked shocked.

"You saw that!"

Serena was on top of her cousin in a flash. Marina was laughing so hard that she wasn't quick enough to help Mina. Mina was able to hold her own for a while until Marina was there to help her. Serena got back into her seat. "This is just between the three of us, got it?" Serena ordered.

Mina had a smile on her face, "Actually, it's four. That is unless Lita told the others."

"What!"

"We'll ask her tomorrow." Marina said grabbing hold of her friend's dress before she could get up and find the princess of Jupiter. "I have an idea." Marina looked at Mina, "You good at scaling?"

In the dark, the trees cast shadows on the walls of the palace. A slight wind ruffled the leaves and made the shadows move as if they were alive. The breeze felt real, but you could tell it wasn't natural. Serena carefully made her way down the wall from her room. She found herself having a hard time climbing because the structure of the palace was a bit different then the one where she grew up. The light from the cresent Earth was just enough for Serena to see. She stopped for a moment when her cousin came buy her as if climbing down the moon's palace wall was child's play. "You've done this before, haven't you?" Serena stated.

"Multiple times in my life. I've spent a lot of time here." Mina answered.

When Serena, Mina, and Marina were on solid ground, Serena turned to Mina. "Why did you spend a lot of time here?"

"Well, before they found you, I was the only one left in the family that could take over the silver crystal and become the new heir. I never gave a decision about it, but I went ahead and trained just in case. I'm telling you now, it is a lot of work."

"I have some idea." Serena said looking at Marina. Marina smiled her reply.

"Let's get out of here before we are caught. We have to go this way." and Mina led the two girls away from the palace.

The moon wasa third quarterin the night's sky on the planet Earth. Only a few clouds in the sky added depth to the purple-black ceiling. Serena motioned for Marina and Mina to come forward after everything was clear. The girls were about to go down a secret passage when Marina stopped them.

"Um, Serena, if you don't mind. There is something I need to do. Is that okay with you?" Marina asked.

Serena looked at Mina and then shook her head, "I guess not. Why were are you going?"

Marina didn't answer, instead she just turned and left. Mina tapped Serena on the shoulder, "What was that about?"

Serena had a smile on her face. "I think Marina secretly likes someone."

Serena and Mina came up to the hidden door to Malachite's room. Serena put a finger to her lips to keep Mina quiet. They could tell that there was more than just Malachite in his room and Mina gave Serena a look that asked if she knew who the voices belonged to.

"Malachite, Darien, and Jedite." Serena whispered. The girls each put an ear to the door to listen in on the conversation.

"Man, I sure can tell you that things are pretty quiet here without Serena around to argue with."

"What are you talking about Jedite? You are still here so things are not quiet around here."

"Are you calling me loud, Darien?" Jedite asked.

Darien laughed and said sarcastically, "Oh no, I would never do that."

A loud bang was heard and some items being knocked off of a shelf hit the floor. Mina made eye contact with Serena, "I can see where you get your practice with tackling. Are they always like this?" Serena nodded her answer. They then noticed that things got really, really quiet. The girls looked at each other, the wonder of what was happening was in their eyes. Then the door suddenly opened and they both fell to the ground, Mina on top. On her way to the floor, Serena caught a quick glimpse of Darien and Jedite still gabbing the other's neck. Malachite was laughing at the sight.

"Serena, you should be a bit more graceful in what you do." Malachite told her as he knelt down to get a better look at her. "Who is your friend?" he asked as he moved the long blonde hair out of Mina's face. He gave a smile that Mina found enchanting.

"H…hello." she managed to say.

"Mina, get off of me already, you are squishing me!" Serena demanded.

"Serena? What are you doing here?" Darien asked.

"I wanted to come to Earth for a visit, what does it matter to you?" She replied rudely. She then turned to Malachite, "How did you know that we were there?"

Malachite pointed in the direction of his main door just as she heard someone's voice, "Guilty."

"Marina!" Mina and Serena exclaimed.

"I thought you were going to go see a boy or something like that." Serena said.

"I was, but he wasn't home, so I figured that I would tell them that you were here." smiled Marina.

"Well you are a party pooper." Mina told her.

Malachite held out his hand to Mina, "Want to go for a walk?" he asked her. Mina smiled, a bit red in the face,and gave him her hand and the two walked out of the room and into the main hallway. Jedite looked to Marina and pointed to the door. She nodded her reply and they left. Serena started to turn and leave out the secret passage when Darien called out to her.

"Serena, what's wrong?" he asked.

"Nothing." she answered not stopping.

"You're not going to stay and talk?"

"There is nothing to talk about." and she shut the door behind her.

Serena walked out into the courtyard and stopped to look at the moon. It was funny how much it felt familiar, but at the same time it felt like years since she saw it from this view. The longer she stared at it, the more she found that she wanted to cry. Serena soon dropped to her knees, unable to control the tears any longer.

Mina and Malachite were coming up on the courtyard when they heard Serena's sobs. "Serena." Mina whispered as she started to go to her, but Malachite grabbed her arm before she had a chance. Mina had wondered why on Earth he kept her from going to comfort her cousin. Then she noticed what he had. Darien was not far behind and he was walking up to Serena. Malachite pulled Mina into the dark protection of the trees.

Serena heard a sound behind her and turned to find Darien standing but a foot away. "Go away!" she ordered and then stood up to leave. Darien wasn't going to be easily pushed away however, and quickly grabbed hold of her wrist. Serena wasn't ready to give in yet. She tried to tug her arm back, but he didn't budge on his hold. Serena then tried to use her other hand to pry his away, and he ended up catching that one into his grasp, also.

"What is on your mind, Serena?" Darien asked with a little bit of patience.

"I told you before, nothing."

"Serena!" Serena stopped at the harshness of his tone. She looked down, he waited.

"If you must know,…"

"Serena, it's the middle of the night, try to keep it down." Darien whispered.

"I don't give a damn what time it is. It's you! You're what's on my mind!" she yelled.

Darien was taken aback, "Me?"

"Yes you." She could tell by the look in his eyes that he didn't understand. "You kept it from me! You knew and never said a thing. After all the years of our secrets that we shared together, I've told you everything, and you didn't!"

"I never told you for the same reason everybody else didn't."

"Everybody else is not you. I didn't share things with them that I did with you. Don't you get it!" Serena continued starting to cry again. Not wanting him to see her tears, she tried to pull away again. Darien yanked her back and into him. He wrapped his arms around her and held her tight.

"I didn't want to tell you because I knew what it would do to you. Look at you. Admit it, it has torn you up. You are one tough girl, but you weren't when we were younger. You can't handle it now, never mind then. I kept it from you because I didn't want to hurt you Serena, and you of all people should know that."

"But it did. It still does…" Serena completely broke down then. Darien tried to sooth her as she let it all out on his vest. He didn't like her this way, and was determined to change it. He realized though that he made the first step to getting her old self back. Darien knew it would take some time, and he was willing to wait. The door he had been waiting for had finally opened a crack and he was going to put his foot in the way. As Mina was too busy watching the scene, Malachite noticed the shadow.

Her eyes burned like fire. She was determined to stop the princess from being around her Darien. Beryl stormed into the throne room and spotted her brother. "Diamond! There is work for you to do. Come with me to Mother." When Diamond didn't answer, she glared at him with the evil her eyes could possess and he immediately knew to obey otherwise pay the consequences of her wrath.

A bright flash of lightning, and a loud clash of thunder made Serena jump in her shoes. It wasn't far though because she was still in Darien's embrace. She looked up and saw the clouds looming over them in the sky. Darien moved and put one arm around her shoulder and pulled her along, "Come, let's not get sick from the rain." Darien was too late in his words. A downpour started and soaked them to the bone in a matter of seconds.

Inside, Serena sat in front of the fire, as chilled as could be. The palace was quiet, except from the pounding rain. Even though Darien had gone to fetch some clothes for her and knew he would be back shortly, she was afraid. The storm seemed to get worse and with each lightning strike and the noise it made, Serena flinched deeper and deeper into her seat. When Darien came back, she changed and jumped into his bed. He disappeared for a moment and came back in fresh, dry clothes. Serena was mostly hidden under the covers and he called out to her.

"What is the matter now?" he asked, a smile playing his face.

"The storm, or have you forgotten?"

Darien shook his head, "No I haven't. I just have never seen you hide like that before."

Serena made a face. "Stop laughing at me. You know how I feel about it. Darien didn't stop, but he did lay on top of his covers and put an arm around Serena. He started caressing her long hair.

"Go to sleep Serena. You must be tired."

"You wont leave me until the storm is gone?" she asked.

"Of course I wont. Have I ever?" He didn't receive a response from her, only light breathing that told him that she was already sleeping. He decided he would do the same. His last though was on how much he had miss 'his' Serena.

Okay peoples, I hoped you like it. It is 3:06 in the morning now and I am dead tired, but I promised that I would have a chapter up soon, and it has been a bit longer than that. Let me know what you think. Oh, yes, Megan Consoer, you gave a review, but your e-mail is not available, so thank-you for the review, and I hope you enjoy it. Everyone, I hope to start getting chapters up every week again soon. Thank-you all for bearing with me on this.