New Author's Note: This is to make up for not posting for a few weeks, I know that the next chapter will be better but I just wanted to get this up. Thank you a lot to the people who did review, ur words mean so much to me. So thank you and enjoy the chapter.

This is the ninth chapter of my fanfic. SOOO sorry it took me longer than I expected to get it up, but suddenly it was like I had a life! Work, friends, parties, homework…everything! But I promise to TRY to finish this before winter break ends, but I can't promise anything so please be patient! I've already got some of the next chapter done so hopefully I'll be able to post that soon. I'm not too proud of this chapter because it has a lot of paraphrasing and I don't like to do that. It seems more seven-year-old kid writing level than 16-year-old hopeless romantic girl level; I like to show what is happening through descriptions and character dialog, but you can't have everything so…oh well. I'm trying to have the next chapter have more dialog and happen in less time (so less broad descriptions). Please please PLEASE review to tell me how it's going and how you like it and what you want to happen next. I've already taken some of your suggestions into the plot in the future and am really looking forward to writing it. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon…well I don't!

Chapter 9

A Temporary Release

Serena lay awake for another hour after her friends left, crying. It had been beyond difficult to remain silent for those few minutes they were talking outside her room. She tried to muffle her sobs with her pillow, but she knew they were still pretty loud. A part of her felt better from crying, but another –larger- part still felt worse. It was as if the pain she'd been suppressing all week was now rushing at her and she felt as though she couldn't breathe. She wanted to keep crying and crying for eternity, hoping that maybe someday she'd just stop and not feel anything anymore.

Nothing was worth the pain that traveled through her body over and over again with each time her mind recounted all the memories of the break up she'd been suppressing. Every cold look Darien'd given her, every time Rini had said his name, every harsh word Darien'd said to her about not loving her ran through her mind over and over again that night. She didn't know when she fell asleep, but it must have been at least 2 a.m.

When she woke up in the morning she was startled by her reflection. Her hair looked like she'd been tossing and turning all night and her eyes were all puffy with her makeup run all over her cheeks. Looking at herself she thought Darien very wise to break up with a hideous creature like her.

She remained in her very depressed state as she got ready for school. She'd managed to cover the black circles under her eyes with plenty of make up and even she would admit she looked way better than when she'd woken up, but she still felt stupid and ugly inside. Now that she was not afraid to look back at her actions this week she saw how stupid and naïve she'd been.

'A demon must have been threatening Darien,' her mind mocked. She struggled to push those thoughts away and tried to think of the good times, but those only hurt ten times worse.

When she walked out of the house she saw just Amy standing at the end of her steps. She smiled a sad smile at Serena and gave her a hug when she got to the bottom. They walked in silence for a few blocks and in that time Serena began to feel embarrassed at the number of times she'd had to rely on her friends when she'd broken up with Darien. She'd still not suppress anything; but she knew she had to stop only thinking of herself even during times like these because they came way more often for her than it seemed like for the normal person. She decided, now that she was finally dealing with it all that she would try to burden her friends as little as possible. She would be as sad as she liked in order to deal with the break up, but she would try not to bring her friends down due to her own personal life, scouts or not.

She just wished it didn't all hurt so much. She closed her eyes as a tear started to trail down her cheek as they were approaching the school. Before she could even touch it Amy brought out a tissue and gave it to her.

She mumbled, "Thanks."

And Amy gently rubbed her back. She tried not to cry during school, but her melancholy look earned a couple "are you all right?"s from acquaintances. Her friends covered for her, but it still didn't help the pain at all. She breathed a sigh of relief when school finally let out and walked home with her friends.

A part of her was telling her to feel bad about causing the silence as they walked, but the rest of her was back to hurting so much she didn't care. After they reached Serena's home they offered to come inside, but Serena would have none of it.

"Go to Crown and have some fun! Please don't worry about me, I have Luna! Besides some of us should be having some amount of fun at least!"

She went to her room and sat on her bed just staring up at the ceiling. When Luna was nowhere in sight she took a deep breath and finished her homework. Once that was done she crawled into bed and let loose the tears that had been building all day. After a couple hours Serena heard Amanda come into her room,

"Serena! What's the matter? What happened?"

She stifled her sobs for a moment, took another deep breath and turned to face her cousin. Serena saw her looking at her with worried eyes. Before she even got the chance to say anything Amanda said,

"It's about Darien, isn't it?"

Serena just nodded. Amanda remained in thought for a moment before looking at Serena without smiling,

"I knew something like this was going to happen. He was too old for you and you were much too attached."

"Please!" Serena burst out, "Don't talk about him like he was a pet!...He broke up with me."

She mumbled the last part. Amanda gently rubbed her back,

"Oh sweetie, I'm so sorry. If makes you feel any better I totally think you were too good for him."

"Then why did he break up with me?" Serena cried out in annoyance. She was tired of hearing that bullshit sentence of comfort people said to people who had been dumped. Wasn't the person who was too good for the other be the dumper in the break up. People could keep saying that, but if she really was such a 'great catch' then why couldn't she hold on to the one man she loved with all her heart?

What could she have done that would make him dislike her so much? Amanda lightly kissed her forehead and got up,

"Do you want me to bring you up some spaghetti?"

Serena slowly shook her head; she didn't feel hungry at all. Amanda nodded and gave her a sad look,

"Okay, well I'll make you some cookies and put the left over spaghetti in the fridge, eat it when you're ready okay?"

Serena nodded and turned away. Once she heard the door close tears started falling again. She knew it was going to take a while to get it all out of her system, making her feel better about her previous decision about waiting until after her uncle left. At least today she wouldn't have to worry about Rini irritating her if she stayed in her room.

A little later in the evening Luna came back and made her go downstairs and eat a few bites of spaghetti. That night Luna curled up next to her for the first time in a while and nuzzled against her as Serena cried herself to sleep again. Serena continued this pattern for the next week, the scouts didn't call her for any demon attacks, a fact she was slightly miffed by, but didn't get angry at them again.

Luna stayed with her at night and the others rotated meeting her in the morning. She thanked them over and over again for how supportive they were, but they acted like they thought she should be expecting nothing less. She got up early one morning and met Lita outside Lita's house, but the scout of thunder made her promise not to do it again, stating that they would wait for her.

She felt very guilty about this fact and became more determined to not be such a burden. After she had gotten most of her crying out she was able to suppress it easier in public, she began to start venturing out in public again. She even made a couple trips to Crown with them and tried not to ruin the mood by being depressed.

She was less depressed and though she didn't realize it at first, her pain was becoming softer and softer as the days wore on. After three weeks had passed they finally let her fight again. At the first one she felt perhaps she shouldn't have come back so soon, for the sight of Tuxedo Mask sent her pain right back to her.

But Rini kept getting into trouble and running off. Darien would always help find her, and Serena felt a sharp pain in her heart with every cold look he gave her. Rini and Serena's relationship got more strained as the days wore on. After an especially aggravating day at school Serena finally snapped at her, and in retaliation Rini took off. Serena called all the scouts and rushed out of the house.

She found Rini after an hour talking to her toy, but what amazed Serena was that it was actually talking back. Something touched Serena's heart when she heard Rini confide in the ball,

"…Serena hates me!..."

Serena knew she'd had better relationships, but she didn't hate Rini, something inside her just wouldn't let her. Therefore anger filled her being when she heard one of the Black Moon Sisters threaten Rini.

After that the rest of the scouts showed up as well as the other Black Moon Sisters. Serena's eyes widened when a tall, red-haired man suddenly appeared in front of her.

"Who are you?" she demanded.

He just laughed at her. Serena stepped in front of Rini. He sneered at her attempt to look imposing,

"Who I am is of no consequence to you. Now hand over the little brat and I may let your friends live!"

Serena glared at him and stood her ground, "There's no way that's ever going to happen, negatrash!"

He just smirked and hit her with an energy shot. Serena felt physical pain fill her body as she pushed Rini out of the way. She fell to the ground, trembling and could hear the others call out her name, but one voice stood out.

"Sailor Moon! Help me! Don't leave me! Please, get up!" Rini cried as she sobbed into Serena shoulder.

Serena pushed herself up and brushed a tear off Rini's cheek, "Don't worry. I won't let them take you!"

But she was soon hit with another blast of dark energy from Rubeus again and fought to stay conscious. She felt Rini shaking her shoulder crying,

"Wake up! Wake up!"

She felt her eyes close and was about to pass out when she heard Rubeus's harsh voice in her ears, "Come brat, time to go!"

Anger welled up in Serena and she pushed her eyes open and made herself stand she saw Rubeus's eyes widen as she moved Rini aside and exclaimed,

"Get away from her! No one touches her without going through me! And I'm gonna take you down, asshole!"

He laughed at her and gathered up his energy again, "Please give me a break, you can barely stand, I'm from the future where the Negaverse is the ultimate power. I've seen the future and you're not in it! So get lost or feel the full wrath of the negamoon!"

He was about to send his energy down on them when a single rose flew in front of him. Serena turned and saw Tuxedo Mask a few yards away. He taunted Rubeus for a few moments before Rubeus unleashed his energy on Darien. Serena couldn't hold in her scream,

"No!"

But luckily Tuxedo Mask evaded it and landed in front of her. She cursed her heart for feeling calm with him standing to protect her. He sent an attack of roses at Rubeus as Rubeus sent his energy. The explosion still would have hurt them, but Tuxedo Mask put his cape up in front of them for protection.

Darien's feelings were confusing him. His heart lifted when he heard her cry "No!"

She still cared about him! The voice in his mind, telling him to stay away from her, cursed him and told him he had to get her to hate him if she'd ever move on. But he didn't want her to. The feeling of her being so close to him was painful. He wanted look into her eyes and tell her everything, but somehow he was able not to.

After she defeated Rubeus with her scepter he quickly fled the scene, telling himself that he couldn't even come to battles now. It was too risky with him wanting to tell her and hold her so badly. He knew he wouldn't be able to stop himself if he got too close to her again. He promised himself that he'd stay completely away from now on. His dreams, that he thought would go away now that he was committed to staying away from her, wouldn't cease. They came every night, as if to remind him in case he should ever forget the sight of her screaming in agony with him helplessly looking on.

Serena sighed as she looked out at the playground. She was supposed to be paying attention to the scouts' meeting concerning what to do about Rini, but she found her mind wandering to its favorite topic; Darien. Last night had been the first night she hadn't cried herself to sleep and she felt very proud of that fact. Of course the rest of the scouts and Luna didn't know that she had continued crying after that first week after her uncle left.

She was able to hide it from Luna, and hadn't told any of the scouts. The pain was still there, but it was getting less and less each day. It had been probably better lately because she hadn't seen Darien. Darien…his name still poked holes in her heart, but they were less big and painful than before. She tried to tune back into the meeting, but found she just couldn't.

She had stupidly thought that Rini would be nicer to her after saving her, but Rini didn't know she was Sailor Moon so she had been just annoying as ever. Serena found she couldn't even be in the same room as her most of the time because her talking of Darien had increased tremendously since Serena'd saved her life.

Serena just thought in her head 'no good deed goes unpunished' and sighed again. Today hadn't been a good day to begin with. She knew she wasn't going to make it better by thinking about Darien, but she couldn't help it. She accidentally mumbled, –loudly-

"Why did Darien break with me and start avoiding me?"

Everyone turned to her, frowns on their faces. Luna turned to her,

"Serena, I realize that you're still having problems with that, but today we're trying to sort out Rini's problems so could you please try to focus?"

Serena nodded and hung her head, embarrassed. That was the first time Luna'd scolded her since the break up. She'd forgotten how inadequate she could feel when she'd disappointed her cat-guardian. Unfortunately this wasn't the only problem she was going to have that day. Just when she was about to share her input of the situation, they all suddenly heard a loud motorcycle nearby. Serena's mind just wouldn't think straight with all the noise and before she even turned she cried out,

"Would you cut out that racket?"

Her heart stopped when she realized who it was when the driver lifted his helmet up. Darien's eyes almost looked startled to see her, but she couldn't be sure because the cold indifferent look came up swiftly afterwards. But that wasn't what made her heart stop. Seated right behind him, clinging to his waist was another girl. The girl looked surprised as she realized Darien was staring at Serena. Serena knew she shouldn't speak to him, but she couldn't help herself and walked over,

"Darien, who is this? A cousin of yours?"

Her face froze at his response; "Since when do I have to tell you where I go or who I'm with? Get a life."

The girl behind him clung to him closer and asked, "Who is this girl, Darien? Do you know her?"

He just coldly glared at Serena, "Just some girl I know."

And with that they sped off. Serena felt the world spin around her as her legs gave out. Pain was spreading through her entire system as loud and strong as it had been the first day after the break up. She was just some girl he knew? She didn't even earn the title 'ex-girlfriend'? Tears started to fall down her cheeks as her breathing became uneven again.

Amy ran up to her, "Oh Serena. Are you gonna be okay?"

Lita followed after and said, "That's it, I'm gonna kick his ass!"

She was about to walk away to do it when she turned around and saw that no one was stopping her.

She looked at Serena and asked, "Seriously, do you want me to do it?"

Serena forced a laugh and said, "No, that's okay. I'll be fine. I just…have to go."

With that she picked up her things and was about to hurry off when Raye stepped in front of her, her eyes full of concern, "Are you sure you want to be alone right now?"

Serena tearfully nodded, "Yeah, I do. Hey, don't worry about me; I'll be fine, really. It was just a shock, seeing him move on that fast. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, I mean I always guessed there was another reason he broke up with me. Now I know."

And with that she hurried off and didn't stop until she reached her bedroom and broke down sobbing all over again. Images of him with that girl filled her mind and made her sob all the louder into her pillow and it felt like all the healing she'd done had never happened as she softly calmed her breathing down.

Please Review