A/N: Hey, Guess wut??!! I actually updated!!! Eh... da format isn't exactly wut it shud be.. buh.. o wells!!! Nothing to say aside from dat... except thx for all the reviews n dat chapter 10 is up... I'm starting to wonder how many chapters this story would have.... I'm getting tired... heh... well enjoy!!

Goodbye, My Love- Chapter 10

"Wait, so you're telling me that I have to get back to Tokyo tomorrow?!!" Serena was dumbfounded. How could so much have happened in Tokyo when she had just left... If she goes back now... then coming to New York would be a waste.....

"What about Darien...." Serena asks herself in a barely audible voice. However, the ever attentive Rei heard it as if she had yelled. Actually, Rei would've known Serena was asking herself that even if she hadn't said it. Almost right away, Serena heard a long sigh on the other side of the phone. She didn't know what to think of it, but it probably wasn't a good sign. Anxiety and dread washed over her in huge waves as she waited for Rei to say what her heart had already guessed.

"He's already here. He's in Tokyo. Darien is just next door to me in the Hino Shrine." Even though Serena had almost been completely certain this would be what her best friend would say, nothing could stop the gasp that sounded from her mouth. Serena covered her mouth as she froze, unable to think of anything at the moment.

'HE's in Tokyo. That means you're going to see HIM again!! Be happy, Serena!! Be happy!!' However, nothing could cover the feeling of dread that leaked into every inch of her body. She couldn't believe this. She had escaped him so many times, but now she would be forced to work with him, to fight along-side him, AGAIN.

'Like how it was before he had left.' Serena wasn't sure if she should be happy or angry. Happy that she would have a reason to defy herself and be with Darien. Angry that she would be forced into being with someone she didn't really want to see all that much at the moment. You could say, after all the years, and her resolve to find him, she was still bitter towards him. She could still remember that night, when he had left her there, crying her heart out, begging for him to not leave her.

Serena didn't know how long she stood there unmovingly, expression blank, hand covering mouth and tears sliding down her face as unbidden memories resurfaced. When she did come back to the world, it was from Rei yelling at her to talk to her.

-------------------------( Tokyo, Japan-Hino Shrine)-------------------------

Rei knew she would take this news badly, but she hadn't thought of waiting for hours, well actually3 minutes, for Serena to talk again. The other girls had left to let her talk to Serena in peace, like she had requested. The silence droned on and on. Eventually, she got tired of the silence and started yelling into the phone for Serena to give her some response. A few minutes of yelling later, she finally got a sentence out of Serena.

"S...Sorry, Rei... I just.... spaced out..."

"I can tell." Rei didn't mean to be so blunt, but she couldn't help it. The silence was just killing her.

"Well.... What should I do now?" Serena asked in a quiet whisper. Rei sighed, while thinking that she had been doing way too much of just that lately. Sighing.

"Well, Serena. You could come back to Tokyo and we could help you work this out."

"No! No... I c-can't, I'm sorry..." Rei heard the terror and uncertainty in the voice and sighed yet again. 'You would have thought I was telling her to go hand herself in to the police. However, I don't think she would be nearly half as scared if that was the case...'

"Please, Serena. We need your help. We can't win this fight without you...." Rei was sounding desperate now, trying in vain to get through to Serena. She knew telling the blonde about Darien's presence would have this affect on her.

"I can't, Rei... how would I act around him..." Serena's voice sounded so small, so vulnerable. Rei couldn't stand it anymore.

"Stop it, Serena!! When did you become such an idiot for love!! Stop being a coward already!! What can you do in New York if he's not there!! You know you still have feelings for him and you also know, just as well as I do, that the feeling is mutual for him!!! Why can't you just face it already!! Come to Tokyo and work things out with him!! Unless you're too scared!!"

Rei was completely out of breath, however she felt good after the outburst. In the back of her head, she knew this wasn't what she was supposed to do. But whenever she tried to comfort Serena, she just ended up blowing up in her face. It was always like that. It wasn't that the blonde really made her so furious, it just it pained Rei to think that she couldn't do anything to help her. This was something that Serena had to figure out on her on and all Rei could do was to talk some sense into her.

"Rei...." Rei could almost picture Serena on the other side of the line, biting her lower lip and trying unsuccessfully to keep her tears from falling.

"Serena... just come back... please... you know nothing will happen if you don't talk to him... I can see how miserable how he is and I know you must be just as miserable. He still cares for you, Serena. There's no doubt about that. Just give him a chance to make up for his mistakes. Give yourself a chance, Serena. Everyone wants to see the old, forgiving and cheerful Serena again." Rei held her breath, wishing with all her might that her last sentence had gone through to Serena.

"Ok..." It was so faint, Rei almost thought she hadn't heard it at all.

"What did you say?"

"I said... OK. I'll come back." Rei let out the breath that she hadn't known she had been holding.

"Thank GOD!!"

"No, thank you Rei... Thank you for talking some sense into me, as always." Rei smiled, the first smile for a long while.

"No problem, Serena. I'll always be the one to do just that, always."

"Alright then, I'll see you in a few days. I'll try to get tickets for the earliest flight. At latest, I should be in Tokyo by the day after Tomorrow. I'll fill you in on the details when I actually find my ticket. K?"

"Now, that sounds like the Meat-Ball Head."

"HEY!!!" Rei laughed at the response and soon later, we hear Serena echoing it. Everything was going well. Serena had agreed to talk to Darien and soon they would all be united to fight another baddie.

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Serena had just placed the phone back in its cradle. She raises her head, a happy smile still on her face, in time to see Max come out of his room.

"So, you got everything figured out, I'm guessing?" He had just heard Serena laughing a minute before and had guessed, with relief, that it was safe to come out of his room. Seeing the big smile on Serena's faced made him all the more relieved.

"Yup! I'm going back to Tokyo in a few days!" Serena chirped as if it was the most normal statement ever. However, Max was staring at her, wide-eyed.

"WHAT?!! But, you just got here!! I thought you were at least gonna stay for a few months... Why are you going back so suddenly?" Serena walked over to him and grins.

"I just realized someone important is waiting for me back in Tokyo. Sorry, Max. I really do want to spend some more time with you... Hey, wait a minute.... Don't you have a break coming up?? Why don't you come back with me?!! I'm sure you haven't been in Tokyo for ages!!!" Serena smiles at her ingenious plan.

"Um... I don't think that would be so good... I was thinking about catching up on some work...." Max states uncomfortably.

"During the break??!!" Serena rolled her eyes. "You are impossible. Come on!! It'll be fun!! I promise. You can meet my parents, sure you haven't seen them for a long time! And you can meet all my friends, see the school I used to go to, my house, o yeah... the arcade I was obsessed with......"

"OKOK... I get it... you really want me to go don't you?" Max stares into Serena's baby-blue eyes to find his answer. And most certainly, he found it. It was so clear in her eyes. Max smiles.

"OK. I'll go." And all hell went loose. Serena started screaming and jumped onto Max, hugging him to the point that he almost couldn't breathe. All the while, he was laughing and hugging her back.

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They were in the airport now. It has been a day later. Serena had found two of the cheapest tickets to Tokyo that she had ever encountered. So pleased was she of her bargain, she had used the extra money to take Max out to dinner the night before.

It was the most fun the two had ever had. Max had gone out to dinner with Serena many times before, but this time it had been different. This time, Serena was actually smiling, really smiling. And she looked so much better with that cheerful expression, he couldn't stop thinking. Remembering yesterday's events, Max still couldn't wipe the grin off his face.

Currently, Serena was busy looking around the airport for directions to Gate 28 with Max following with that idiotically boyish grin on his face. Getting the directions, Serena turned to face Max and almost laughed out loud at the grin Max was still wearing. It seemed as if it would never leave his face again. He seemed so cute at the moment.

'He almost looks like an excited young boy on the verge of his greatest adventure." She smiled to herself. Snapping out of her reverie, she suddenly noticed the time.

"We should get going. The plane will be leaving soon!!" And so, Serena raced off, with Max not far behind, to her gate just in time to board the plane not unlike every morning of her teenage years when she would just barely make it to her school.

---------------------------( Tokyo, Japan-Airport)-----------------------------

Serena and Max had just arrived at Tokyo. Max was taking in the sights around him. He seemed to find a certain little toddler very amusing. Serena, meanwhile, was looking all over for a familiar face, namely, her friends' faces.

And, after a while, she did find them. All four of her friends were there, their eyes searching for her as well.

"Hey! Over here!!" Taking her luggage with her and motioning for Max to follow her, she hurried over to her friends. Once there, the watergates opened up as she hugged each of her friends one by one. Soon, the girls realize that a young man had accompanied Serena.

"Hey, who might this hotty be?" Mina asks. Max blushes at her comment.

"This is Max. He's the guy I've been living with for so long and he took great care of me." Max blushes even more if possible and Serena laughs.

"Oh? Well I think you deserve a thank you for treating our friend so greatly." Lita chirps. By this time, Max is as red as a tomato. All five girls burst into laughter. It seemed that they would never stop. Finally, Serena managed to stop.

"I think we should leave the poor guy alone. Hahaha..." The other girls agreed to Max's extreme relief.

"All right, so let's go!" Rei takes some of Serena's baggage and leads the group out of the airport. The other girls follow her lead by helping with the rest of the baggage. Once out, they decided that they would take two taxis to Rei's place.

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The two taxis had just arrived in front of the Hino Shrine. We see Rei, Serena and Max come out of one taxi while Mina, Lita and Amy came out of the other one. The luggage were slowly taken out of the trunks with the help of the taxi drivers. Meanwhile, Serena was having a mental breakdown. She knew, once she got inside those doors, she would see HIM. She knew she shouldn't delay her meeting with HIM since it was inevitable, but she just felt so scared. She didn't know what to do when she would see him.

"Serena, are you ok?" It was Max, caring as always. Serena managed a small smile.

"I'm fine. Don't worry about me. You should worry about the girls. Heheee.... I'm sure they've all got their eyes on you." Serena teased. Max blushes yet again and chuckles along with her.

"Ready to go in?" Rei looks to Serena and Serena realizes the double meaning behind her words. 'Yea... I'll be ok, Rei... thanks though.' Serena nods at her and Rei smiles. Then, they were walking. The walk up the stairs seemed to take much too little time to Serena. She had always thought it took forever to go up those stairs, but this time she wished it could take another few hours.

A while later, Serena can only stare as Rei pushes open the door. Behind it, stood a very disheveled Darien and two cats, one purple-black and the other white. Serena barely notices the two cats as she looks on with horror-filled eyes at Darien. She barely manages to duck her head before Darien attempted to look straight into her eyes. Her eyes were the "windows to her soul."

Serena was sure, with one look at her eyes, Darien would know everything. She had tried to keep her emotions in check every time she had saw him for the past weeks, but she failed to keep up the charade at this moment. Even with this "new" look, she could still feel herself getting hot. One look at him could practically set her ablaze.

She could almost picture herself kissing his full lips and being in those strong arms of his. With all the emotion one look at him could stir up in her, it was all she could do not to run up to him and loose herself in his midnight-blue eyes. Instead, she just acknowledged his presence and ran into a random room. This just happened to be the one that the other girls had already started to place her luggage in. Max was in the room just next to hers and Darien was on the other side, from what she could gather. 'So, I'm in the middle.... Great...'

(I'm not sure how many rooms Rei has, but just work with me here. N... I know it's weird that Serena isn't living with her family, but I just thought the story would be better if they all stayed at Rei's.)

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They had all done with the luggage. It was nearly 6:00 P.M. now. Mina, Lita and Amy had all gone back to their respective homes. They had all agreed, including the two cats, to the surprise of everyone, that since Serena had just got of the plane, they should have a rest before talking about the abnormal. All of this had been decided without the presence of Max, however.

Throughout the entire meeting, which only lasted 5 minutes, Serena had been trying to look anywhere but at Darien. Darien had been attempting to look only and solely at Serena and trying to get her to look back, without success. Eventually, he had given up and gone into his own room, eyes pleading desperately with Serena to talk to him. Serena had ignored it and gone to her own room, whispering a quick good night to Max, which had most definitely sent a look jealousy on Darien's face.

'Who is this guy to her anyway?'

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Darien

'Why can't she just give me a chance to apologize... I know I hurt her but.... God... She should know that I regret what I had done. How can she not see how much I love her? And, what's the whole deal with this Max guy. I don't get it? Is there something between them?' Darien grunts in anger. 'There better not. I might just not be able to stop myself from breaking a leg or two of his if he has got anything intimate to do with Serena...God, why is this bothering me so much anyway?!!! It's not like I saw them kissing or making out or anything like that...Sigh....' Darien decides he has to get some sleep, but knows that it's just an excuse to not think of her and a certain boy.

T.B.C.....

A/N: Alrighty... This chapter is done... Next one will have some battle sequences and some jealousy too!! Darien will certainly be seeing green. LOL..... well, Please!!! Review!!! Otherwise u don't get the next chap!! HAHA JK Laters!!

­-Teenslayer