-Chapter 14-

Serena woke up in a sweaty mess. She looked around. Where was she? Oh, no... The dream! It's going to come true! She hopped to her feet and bounded for the door. She frantically struggled to get it open, but it was locked from the outside. She was trapped. She banged on the door, hoping someone would hear her. After awhile of this, no one came. She gave up. This was just like at Seiya's-WAIT! Could this be the room Seiya wouldn't let her go in?

The last thing she remembered was drinking a milkshake with her friends. She turned when she heard the door open. Who was it? Was it Seiya?

Amy was the first to walk in, followed by Lita, Rei, Mina, and lastly, Andrew.

Serena sighed and ran up to them. "Amy! Where am I? How'd I get here? I had this dream that I was flying and I fell and these dragons wanted me to choose which one of them I should go with, and there were these voices!"

Amy looked over at Rei, "You can read others' dreams, right? I want you to do that with Serena. Find out what her dream was about."

Rei nodded and ushered everyone else out.

Then she began her dream-reading with Serena as her client.

"Alright then, Serena. I want you to tell me your entire dream from start to finish." she started.

Serena took a deep breath and said, "Okay. First I was flying in the sky on angel wings."

Rei took mental notes of these things. Flying usually meant someone was living a carefree life.

Serena continued, "But everything was gone when this darkness blocked it out."

That could mean she was entering her subconscious thoughts.

"A voice was there. It told me I already knew where I was at when I asked it. I looked around and I was with my family. But then they all dropped to the ground."

A flashback of her family's death.

"I ran toward them but the darkness re-appeared."

She was re-entering her subconscious thoughts.

"I remember feeling all these emotions rush through me. I hated the voice."

The voice was a person she hated.

"It kept repeating my name, and I thought at first that it was trying to find me in the darkness, so I kept trying to guide it with my voice, saying, 'I'm here!'. But it said it knew where I was, then it asked me if I knew where I was. I thought I might be in danger, so I asked it if I was. It repeated me. It soon sounded like there was a thousand different voices echoing my words. I tried to find it, but it was too dark to see. I saw someone's outline, but it turned out to be smoke and it drifted away."

She was lonely and needed someone there with her.

"The voice asked me who I was as it returned to just one voice again. I said I was Serena, but it told me, 'No! Serena is the girl who-' and then it cut off. I could feel the fear it radiated. I somehow knew I was in danger. The voice ran away."

She was scared.

"Then a new voice called my name. I didn't know who the voice belonged to, though. I just remember feeling scared."

She was afraid of another person, too.

"I remember...I kept wanting to run away, but I was so scared I couldn't. I cried. I wanted the voice to know it was scaring me. It just said, 'Cry, Serena. Cry. Scream. Be tortured. Be afraid.'"

The voice was Seiya, no doubt.

"Suddenly a light shined down a few yards away from me. I was scared of that, too. I remember I felt drawn to the strange light. I didn't know what it was. The light and the voice were trying to pull me towards them."

The light represented safety, and Serena's uncertainty of it.

"The light stopped shining."

She couldn't get to safety.

"And the voice told me to come to it. I did."

She had no choice but to go back to Seiya, because the safety she'd been seeking had disappeared.

"Before I knew it, there was a single white dragon in front of me. It was crying. I asked it what was wrong, and it replied, 'Why...? Why, Serena...?' then it flew above me and circled overhead. I felt fine with the dragon being there, though. I didn't feel like any harm could come from it."

The white dragon represented Serena's body. It had been beaten by Seiya, so now her body was asking her why she didn't go to safety when she had the chance.

"Two more dragons came out of the darkness. I didn't like them. They scared me. One was red and the other was blue. The blue one demanded that I come with it, but the red dragon protested and said I shouldn't; that if I did, the blue dragon would harm me."

The red dragon represented her new form of safety, Darien. The blue dragon represented the same foe, Seiya. But she didn't like either dragon?

"The white dragon was trying to choose between the red and blue dragon. She didn't want either of them but was lonely. She kept looking at me, watching to see which dragon I chose to go with. The dragons started circling me, but weren't flying."

She was going to have to choose between Darien and Seiya.

"I was about to choose one, but then the white dragon interfered, saying I shouldn't trust either dragon."

She didn't trust either because both could hurt her. She didn't want to take any chances.

"Suddenly the white dragon told me to run, that I was in grave danger. The two other dragons flew off, and I fell through the darkness and into a fire pit. I can still feel the pain... The flames devoured my body, and I became a soul. I watched as the flames continued burning my body. Then I woke up to find myself here."

Serena was unable to reach safety in time. She died.

Rei nodded. Now she understood everything. She got up and told Serena to wait there a second. Then she went outside the room and told her friends about the dream.

"The dream was pretty intense, that's for sure. I think it was trying to warn her about the future. In her dream, she died because she couldn't reach safety from Seiya. Darien, you were there, too. You were a red dragon. But she didn't trust you in her dream. She told me she was scared of the red dragon. Seiya was a blue dragon. She was scared of him as well. She was a white dragon. And the white dragon told her she couldn't trust either of the other two dragons. It's my assumption that she's scared of all men because of what Seiya had done to her." Rei explained.

Darien looked down, "Oh... I see. I kind of expected she'd be that way, but for her dream to say it to her?"

Andrew looked at him. "Don't feel bad. It's Seiya's fault, if anything! And besides, she's scared of me, too."

"Darien, I suggest you be mindful of everything that's happened the next time you go in there." Rei advised.

Darien nodded.

"That Seiya's some piece o' work! The nerve of that guy... He makes me wanna puke up blood!" Lita angrily stated.

"Same here, but for now we should focus more on Serena and less on Seiya. Poor Serena doesn't even know what's going on!" Amy mused.

"Yeah..." Lita gave. Amy was right, no matter which way you turned it.

"The entirety of Serena's dream showed everything just went downhill after her family died." Rei said.

"Woah! Wait! Serena's family died?" Darien asked, shocked. He thought Serena just left her family to live with Seiya, but it turns out her family had died, and she had nowhere else to go but Seiya's place.

"Yeah. They died, and the day after, Serena went to live with Seiya. She had nowhere else to go to, and she couldn't pay the taxes for her family's home." Mina said.

"I had no idea..." he said, remorse evident in his voice.

"It's not your fault, Darien. Serena's parents and brother were going to go get some new clothes. Serena wanted to come, but had a huge homework backup. She had to stay home and do her homework. Her parents and Sammy, her little brother, were on their way to shop when they got hit by a drunk driver. He was driving an eighteen-wheeler truck. Everyone, including the drunk driver, was killed." Lita explained.

"Ever since then Serena's been blaming herself for their deaths. She keeps thinking she should've been there with them. But it's been hard on her because she hasn't had any time to mourn over them. With her problems with Seiya, she's got almost no time for herself." Mina added.

"She's been trying to be strong about everything, but she's hurting inside." Think of that as Lita's continuation of Mina's comment.

It wasn't long before Rei had to go back in the room Serena was in because she still had no idea how she got here or where she was at.

Serena looked up to see Rei come back in. "So?" she asked.

"The girls and I think it's best if you stay here, in Darien's apartment." Rei broke the ice.

"WHAT? Bu-" Serena's sentence was cut off by Rei's dismissive hand-waving.

"None of us have any doors that lock from the outside, and Darien's a boy. He can protect you from Seiya. And if he can't beat Seiya, then he can stall him at least long enough for you to get away."

"Rei, I-" Again with her dismissive hand signals...

"Listen, Serena. We all know this has been really hard you, especially after having lost your family," she said sympathetically, "I lost my mother and father as well. That's why I'm living with my grandfather at the temple. I've been able to get over that, but not forget it. No one expects you to forget, Serena. You don't have to forget. Just don't let this ruin your life. We've pulled you away from Seiya so you can start over, the right way. You have a home. And your friends are your family now. Don't throw away this opportunity we've given you by going back to Seiya. That's also the reason this door has to stay locked. As your friendly family, we aren't going to let you pass this up. Don't you get it? You're safe now."

Serena thew herself into Rei's body and cried. In turn, Rei smiled a motherly smile and patted Serena's back, a gesture that said, "It's okay now..."

Serena kept crying and saying she wanted her family back, she wished none of this had ever happened.

Rei could only respond with, "I know, I know... It's hard, but we can pull through this together, okay?"

Serena nodded her head, not releasing her grip on Rei's shirt. "I hate Darien, Rei... He's such a jerk... Why do I have to stay with him...?"

"I told you, Serena," she answered softly, "He can protect you better than we can."

"But you're Sailor Scouts..." she whined.

"True, but we all lost our power sticks in a fight. Well, except Mina." she explained.

"What-What happened to Mina's...?" Serena asked.

"It's a funny story. She thought Artemis had it. Artemis didn't have it, so he gave her a thong instead!" Rei chuckled, remembering the night they'd all slept together.

Serena smiled. That was so like Mina... And she didn't think Mina even realized it.

"You feeling better?" Rei asked.

Serena nodded, knowing Rei had helped her. But none of this changed the fact that she was till afraid of Darien. This was going to be a hard time for her...