Author's note: Thanks for your reviews. I hope you enjoy this chapter. I wanted to bring you this update and I admit I haven't read through it before I published it as it's now 2:30am. We see a little action and more interactions between characters. Let me know what you think of it in the reviews - I'm keen to hear your thoughts as I'm not sure I love the last section but it is important for the next chapter. - R

Chapter 26

Serena knocked on the door, wringing her hands together anxiously as she waited for the door to swing open. After a pause, there was a shuffle behind the door, a bang then the door was pulled open by a very dishevelled looking Darien. She blinked, staring at him with her mouth agape at the sight of him. Her eyebrows pushed together as she considered the state of him, his hair sticking in every which way direction as if he'd had the most restless sleep in the world, his shirt twisted round his body, his clothes creased and his face looking wiped. She took an involuntary step back.

"Darien, are you okay?" she asked.

He stared at her then appeared to shake out of the trance he was in.

"Serena? What are you doing here?"

"I came to see how you are after I left you yesterday," she explained.

"Oh," he responded, shaking his head to perk himself up a little. "Yes, I'm quite alright, thank you. Have you just come from school?" He peered at her sailor uniform.

"Yeah," she nodded, her eyebrows pushing further together. "Darien, are you alright? You seem really out of it."

Darien pushed his hand against his forehead and yawned.

"Yeah, I'm sorry," he apologised. "I've been asleep all day. Weird."

"Did you miss school?" she asked, her eyebrows now lodged in the ceiling.

"Well if I didn't, I must have a dashingly handsome twin out there somewhere," he teased with a twinkle in his eye.

She rolled her eyes with a smile.

"Do you feel any better for the rest?" she prodded.

"Actually, yes," he replied. "Still a little wiped but I'm sure coffee will kick that right out of me."

"A chocolate milkshake would do that better," she said playfully.

"I'm sure the crash would be the equivalent of going down a slide once the sugar rush wears off," he chuckled.

"But it's so worth it!" she insisted.

They smiled at each other and Serena saw some of the colour in his cheeks again. It seemed a little playful banter had restored the Darien before the library episode. Honestly, it had scared her more than she'd let on.

"Ah, this saves me knocking on the door," a deep, but gentle voice interrupted them.

They both looked down the corridor to see Killian approaching them, the usual dull, bored expression on his face. All of his emotion seemed to be held in his eyes and this was one feature that everyone who knew of him unanimously agreed on. Darien raised his eyebrows at the surprise visitor.

"Killian, hi," he greeted. "How are you doing?"

"Wondering why you ditched today," Killian returned. He glanced at Serena. "Hey, Serena. How are you?"

"Good," she nodded. "I'm always good at this time. School's over." She grinned.

"Some things never change," Killian chuckled.

Darien's eyes were flicking between them, confusion etched into his features.

"Have you two been hanging out or something?" Darien asked wryly.

Two heads swivelled round to look at him, perplexed.

"It's just that you said that some things never change," Darien explained.

"Oh," Killian laughed.

"Well, he's dating Mina," Serena elaborated, cursing them both for being so familiar with each other and not considering how odd that would appear to Darien.

Darien nodded slowly, then turned to Killian.

"So, why have you come over anyway?"

"Like I said, you ditched, that's weird, what's going on?"

Darien's eyes momentarily flickered to Serena and he shrugged.

"I felt unwell and thought it was best to stay home today," he answered.

"Well, you've got colour in your cheeks and you're stood on your feet, so get dressed," Killian ordered. "We're going to hang out with the guys."

Darien raised his eyebrows at Serena.

"See what I have to put up with?"

"Yes," she said flatly. "Great friends."

And with that, she pushed him back into his apartment, closing the door behind him, unknowingly causing him to trip up over the lamp that he'd accidentally knocked over when he'd come to answer the door to her.

Chad pursed his lips when he recognised the figure stood at the top of the staircase that led to the Cherry Hill Temple, bent over with his hands on his knees getting his breath back. Presumably, he was here to see Raye again. He still felt annoyed with her that she'd fobbed him off, ignored his concern for her and put her energies into this guy when he'd been here the whole time. It irked him more than he wanted to admit because it hurt. He'd loved her since he first set eyes on her and it killed him that after all this time, she didn't appear to reciprocate, until this guy appeared out of nowhere. He turned back to the job at hand sweeping up all the leaves at the front of the temple and resolutely ignored Jackson as he approached him.

"Hi, Chad, right?" Jackson hedged, knowing full well how the apprentice thought of him.

"Yep," Chad replied shortly, continuing to rake the leaves into a pile. "After Raye, I presume?"

"Yes, but actually, I'd like to speak with you, if you have a moment?"

Chad looked up at him in shock, taken aback at his unexpected request. What could they possibly have to talk about? Intrigued, he nodded and raked up the last of the fallen leaves in a pile and stabbed his rake over the top of the pile to prevent them from being blown all over the place again. He followed Jackson over to the bench that sat under the large tree where Phobos and Deimos tended to nest, sitting himself down tensely.

"I know this is a little odd," Jackson started, "but I wanted to talk about Raye."

"Whatever for?"

"Right, I'm just going to come out with it. We can be straight with each other, right?"

Chad shrugged, which Jackson took as a yes.

"I know that things have been tense between you for a while and I suspect – well, I know – that I may have had something to do with that." Chad glared at him, raised his eyebrows with a sigh and stared out across the grounds. "Look, I'm really sorry about that. I didn't want to come between you."

"But you did anyway," Chad interrupted. "I'm the one who has been there for her. I'm the one who has been here. And she pushed me aside in favour of you."

"She has a big heart," Jackson continued. "And I know you know that. She may act tough, but she's easily hurt. She is very fond of you – anyone can see that. But we can't force affections to go where they don't want to."

"That's easy for you to say if you have them," Chad grumbled.

"It's not a competition," Jackson argued. "I'm not saying I have them. Raye doesn't allow herself to love because she puts everyone else above herself. I'm not sure either of us will ever be able to comprehend just how much. Raye has been through a lot and I'll admit that I've been part of the experience. We've known each other for a long time but it doesn't mean that I've been close to her. She's closed off."

"Yeah," Chad agreed, his features finally softening. "I've noticed.

"I know that despite how angry and annoyed you feel with her because she's not particularly constant, you still care for her," Jackson told him. "If you didn't care, you wouldn't have put up with how she has inevitably treated you in all this time. Her temper is legendary. Believe me, I've had it, too. Don't be angry with her because I came back into her life. It's really not her fault that she's here one day and absent the next. She doesn't want to live like that, but that's just how her life goes."

"Why does it feel like you're telling me you know more about her than I ever could?" Chad frowned.

"Because she was the one who saved me when I had my accident," Jackson revealed. "That's how she got so injured. And I knew that I'll be hard pushed to find another with as pure a heart."

Chad blinked, surprised by this revelation.

"She never told me the details," he murmured.

"I suppose she didn't want to relive it," Jackson shrugged. "Don't freeze her out, mate. She feels it deeply, she just won't show it to you." He blew air into his cheeks and ran his fingers through his short, blonde hair. "I don't know if she'll accept a relationship with me, but I respect her decision either way. And I feel that deep down, you feel the same. If you dislike me, or hell, even hate me because you feel I came into your life like a wrecking ball, then fine. But I know you'd rather have her in your life than lose her because she couldn't be what you wanted her to be."

Chad continued to stare out over the grounds and Jackson noted that he was nodding minutely to himself. He turned to look up at Jackson through his long bangs.

"As much as I hate to admit this, you're right," he admitted. "I know I've been unfair to Raye but when she turns her light off on you, it's like you turn to dust."

Jackson bit his lip and said nothing. He knew all too well what that was like. His eye caught sight of long raven hair blowing in the breeze and the bright red hakama, unmistakable features of the priestess of the shrine. He watched her face jolt in surprise at finding Jackson and Chad together then proceeded to cross the grounds towards them. Chad's head shot to face her direction and he got to his feet.

"Hey, what are you two doing?" she demanded.

Chad glanced at Jackson and turned back to Raye.

"I'd better get back to work," he announced. "It was good talking to you, Jackson."

He put his hand on Raye's shoulder as he passed her and went back to dealing with the leaves. Raye watched him leave, perplexed, and turned back to Jackson.

"Something I said?" she asked, noting the warmer temperature between them.

"No, but it may have been something I said," he replied, patting the empty space next to him which Chad had just vacated.

Raye took him up on the offer and sat down next to him. Intrigued, she gestured for him to continue.

"We had a guy to guy talk," he told her.

"Is that code for 'we talked about you'?" she asked tartly.

"He needed reassurance that he's not second best," he replied, ignoring her. "He realised that there's more to you than being a pillar of ice."

"Charming!" Raye exclaimed, elbowing him in the ribs.

"You know what I mean!" he defended himself. "I told him that you saved my life, explaining that's how you ended up so injured yourself. I suppose for him it may explain how I became a presence in your life… and a thorn in Chad's side."

"Great," she grumbled. "So it's going to be like the Spanish Inquisition. Like I don't have enough difficulty failing to explain away the weirdness of my life."

"He won't question you on it," Jackson assured her.

She looked at him sceptically but decided to trust him on it anyway.

"So, did you also tell him that while I saved you in this life, I have also killed you in the past?"

Jackson's head whipped round to stare at her. She raised an eyebrow.

"What kind of question is that?" he asked her blankly.

"You're not telling me that you forgot that I did that, are you?" she pondered in disbelief. "Honestly, Jack, you can't expect me to believe you've either a, forgotten it, or b, forgiven me for it?"

"Why not?" he shrugged. "You did what you had to. Why should it matter now? The Dark Kingdom had a strong sway on us and when channelling that energy for so long, we were strong. I don't blame you for doing your duty by your princess."

"How can you be so self-righteous?" she snapped.

"I live in the now," he returned. "What's the point in dwelling on what happened?"

"Because you're here to ask me where we stand," she sighed.

"What's wrong with that?"

"I can't give you the answer you hope to hear," she shrugged helplessly.

"And how would you know what I hope to hear?" He noted her pointed look. "Right, the psychic thing."

"I'm not a psychic!" she exclaimed, offended.

"Why can't we get back together? Give me one good reason why," he demanded.

"Because I didn't hesitate when I killed you," she cried. "I don't want to be put in that position again. To kill you because I have to as my duty calls for it. There is no space in my life to love, only to protect."

"And you think Serenity's life is to love and not protect? She does one because she does the other."

"You're going to use Serena in your argument here?"

"She is the best example we have," he argued. "At the end of the day, things are hopeless for her, again, and she's still waiting in the wings for Darien to return to her. She once killed him to save him. You did exactly the same for me. Evil was made, not born. It needed to be killed and you killed it. We are the four heavenly kings, not the four horses of the apocalypse."

Raye pursed her lips to stop herself from smiling.

"Besides," he continued, "Lita killed Nephrite instantaneously with a bolt of lightning. They're together."

"You still don't get it, do you?" she asked.

"What do you mean?"

"It's not about the fact I killed you," she denied. She took a breath. "I saw it before I did it. And when I meditate, when I sleep, when I close my eyes, I relive your death every time. The girls don't get that because they don't have the sight that I was born with. I can't get the sight of your skeleton off my mind. It's etched onto my brain and every time I look at you, it's like seeing everything that I'm capable of. And it's just too much, Jack."

She felt his fingers intertwine with hers as he took her hand and she attempted to pull away, but he held firm. He took her cheek in his free hand and turned her face to look at him.

"Listen," he said gently, "I'm not going to ask anything of you but just know, as none-romantic as this is, I simply loved you more for embracing what was difficult. Just because you're capable, doesn't mean that you'll be the monster. The four heavenly kings were the four horses of the apocalypse in the time of the Silver Millennium and we continue to feel that shame to this day. If you want me, you know where I'll be. I'm not going anywhere. I have all the time in the world. How could I be with anyone who couldn't walk through fire and not get burned? You're a goddess, Raye. Just let it go. I will meditate with you. Maybe we can get the images out of that overactive head of yours."

"Jack…"

She felt her communicator buzz in her pocket, and he released her hand as she retrieved it. She gave it a cursory glance and looked up at him with a particular fire in her violet eyes.

"So, are you ready to get back on that horse then? Amy just buzzed to request our presence now for a training session."

Jackson's face spread into a grin.

"Where the hell have you been?" Neal shouted as he approached Jackson who was stood with the girls. Killian and Zane were following him close behind.

Jackson glanced at Raye and shrugged.

"Well, that answers that then," Zane chuckled. He looked at Sailor Mercury. "So, how does this work?"

"Quite simple," she replied. She tweaked her fingers at her ear and brought her Mercury goggles down over her eyes and tapped into her Mercury computer. Unbeknownst to them, each of the guys were now sporting looks of awe and amazement on their faces as they watched the sailor soldier's headquarters turn into an arena. Mercury suddenly had the overwhelming urge to giggle. She glanced at the girls who were also transformed into their alter egos. "Do you want to give it a trial run?"

"Nope," Sailor Jupiter declined. "We jumped right in. So should they."

Neal raised his eyebrows at her and she winked back.

"Well, I suggest you guys power up," Sailor Moon suggested.

"This is going to be strange," Zane grumbled to himself.

They each brought out their respective crystals and nodded. In a beam of light, the four generals stood before the inner sailor soldiers. They stared at each other, the feeling a strange one as they looked at each other in their true forms for the first time in over a millennium. Moon flickered her eyes between the eight protectors and cleared her throat pointedly.

Kunzite then glanced at Jadeite and nudged him.

"You missed meeting Darien," he scolded. "I told him we were all going to hang out and you didn't show up."

"Sorry!" Jadeite apologised, holding his hands up as if in surrender. "I was… otherwise engaged."

"Sod that," Kunzite retorted. "Next time, be there. We're trying to integrate him into our group, not be absent."

"It's not like we were having a sleepover," Jadeite rolled his eyes. "Besides, what excuse did you make up when you all suddenly had to drop him like a hot brick to come here for training?"

The girls were all watching this interchange in silence then Moon decided she'd had enough.

"Alright!" she exclaimed in exasperation. "I'm sure when Darien learns the real reason why you're a rubbish friend," she pointed at Jadeite then pointed at the other three, "and you three ditched him, he'll forgive you for it. Now can we get on with this?"

The guys stood in line and looked attentively at Mercury. She blinked and shook her head.

"Anyway, how this works is that I basically programme the arena to be whatever I choose, and I create a monster with different abilities for us to train our reflexes on," she explained.

"Just please God, no candyfloss monster," Venus murmured, setting off giggles from Moon and Jupiter. Even Mars stifled a chuckle.

The generals looked at each other in bewilderment and Mars elaborated.

"Mercury refuses to acknowledge that she once created a monster made out of candyfloss," she told them with a smile. "Honestly, it was ridiculous."

"Excuse me!" Mercury uttered. "Do you mind?" She watched them all stand to attention and she nodded. "Alright, get ready."

She tapped into her Mercury computer and the arena suddenly went foggy. When it lifted, the soldiers found what looked to be temple ruins.

"Huh," Mars whistled. "You've really outdone yourself on the creepzoid factor."

"Wait," Mercury smirked.

"What is that noise?" Nephrite frowned, looking around the arena.

The buzzing only got louder and louder.

"Alright, get your game face on boys," Venus told them, cracking her knuckles.

Mars started chanting into the ofuda that she held in front of her face, an energy seeming to charge the air around her. She opened her eyes and threw the ofuda in front of her yelling, "fire soul bird!" releasing a fireball from her index fingers. The fire engulfed the ofuda, taking on the shape of a phoenix. The phoenix made a piercing scream as it glided forward and hurled a tremendous fire attack. They all watched as a swarm of millions of tiny buzzing objects came into view in the sky and then was instantly disintegrated by the flames. Mars smirked.

The Earth beneath their feet appeared to quake and shake causing the soldiers to hold their ground until Venus screamed and found herself on the floor, her leg caught in what appeared to be a bandage. Kunzite flung his hands out in front of him, blades of energy shooting from the palms of his hands flying through the air like a boomerang which caught onto the bind and tore it from Venus' leg. She quickly scrambled away. Then from behind one of the upright walls, a slow figure came into view, wrapped head to foot in bandages. What was so odd about this figure was that its ribcage could clearly be seen which was disturbing. Its hollow eyes stared at them, baring its teeth.

The rumbling of the Earth only seemed to get more intense and rubble started to fall. Nephrite noticed that one of the tall remains of what was once a building seemed to be cracking under the pressure. Immediately, he dived forward and landed on Jupiter, pushing her out of the way and they rolled over the rickety ground.

"Ah," she groaned. She looked back and saw the top half of the wall fall to where she was previously stood. "Nice reflexes."

Nephrite smiled, then expertly leaped to his feet, flipping over her form on the ground and he bounded off a rock and threw a kick at a second bandaged figure.

"Looks like we have mummies all over main street," Moon joked.

"Not the time, Meatball Brains," Mars retorted. She looked around with a confused frown. "Where's Jadeite?"

She ducked as a piece of debris flew through the air.

"Damn," she scowled as she felt something scratchy and rough round her neck.

She reached her hands up to the bind round her neck and felt what should have been a hand gripping her neck. Her eyes flickered over the simulated area to see the others in battles of their own with mummies that appeared all over the place. She saw Kunzite and Venus working together with their combination of light and dark energy blasts. Nephrite and Jupiter were in battles of their own – Jupiter using her nature based attacks while Nephrite exercised his control over electricity, occasionally getting into hand to hand combat. Mercury was tapping into her Mercury computer, prompting Zoisite on where to aim his attacks using fire after his powerful green energy balls weren't serving him well. Where was Jadeite? The four heavenly kings certainly weren't a patch on what they were, but their reflexes were good.

Mars concentrated and summoned fire in her hand, flicking her fingers so that it surrounded her. She flicked her wrist and the fire absorbed back into her hand. She reached up to the bind round her neck and whispered, "Mars snake fire." The fire shot from her fingers and took the form of a snake, engulfing and disintegrating the bandage. She turned and looked into the face of a mummy and her violet eyes widened.

Jadeite materialised out of nowhere and used his telekinetic abilities to bind the mummy with its own bandages, wrapping the loose dressing around its neck. It appeared to do nothing until Jadeite spotted a dangerously sharp rock and flicked his fingers to launch it at the mummy's head, impaling it.

"Well, that's awesome," Mars commented tartly, watching as the mummy merely reached up and pulled at the rock stuck in its head. She shot her hand out, the mark of Mars glowing in her palm, flames coming to life spreading up her arm until the Mars Arrow materialised against her flattened hand pointing towards the monster drunkenly flailing its arms at its head. "Mars flame sniper!" she cried, releasing the fiery arrow which hit the mummy bullseye in the scarab beetle that sat in its chest.

She watched in satisfaction as the mummy's face seemed to go blank and it turned to dust, leaving behind the bandages. She stared at Jadeite.

"Where the hell were you?"

"I'm a master of disguise, remember?" Jadeite reminded her. "I was here the whole time. No one could see me."

"Did you have to wait until I got the bandaged fiend off me myself?"

"I wanted to see if you still had that fire in you," he teased.

"Well, at least we know your approach is absolutely useless," she commented. She heard a screech of terror and her head snapped round. "Sailor Moon?"

Everyone's attention was now turned to the Moon Princess who was on her back, clambering over debris on the ground. Three mummies were gaining on her, their eyes appearing to glow a ghastly green as they did so. In the moment everyone's attentions were diverted, they were all caught by their own opponents, but not physically. They all suddenly started to cough up bugs and dirt which seemed to pour out of their mouths like a waterfall with each cough. Mars quickly brought out two ofudas and held them over Jadeite's mouth and her own, murmuring chants as she used them to counteract the attack affecting the others.

"It's like a plague," she mumbled to herself. "The mummies are causing this."

She looked around and realised that her mummy was the only one that was taken care of. No matter the powers that the others used, it wasn't enough to destroy them. She noted the dull scarab on top of the bandages of the mummy she'd annihilated, where once it was a bright emerald green.

"Moon!" she shouted, attempting to warn her.

But it was at that moment that the three mummies opened their mouths and hundreds of flies came out of their gobs, quickly filling the surrounding areas so that it was almost impossible to make out the figure of Sailor Moon. She shot her hands up in horror and a bright shining pure-white light fired from the palms of her hands. It was different this time. The light didn't just shoot out in the direction that Moon held up her hands, it burst out of her, briefly illuminating her body from the inside out, causing the flies to drop to the ground, taking out the mummies immediately in front of her and filling the rest of the arena with the blinding light. There was the distinct thump of bodies dropping to the ground and when the light died, Mars looked round to find a pile of bandages where the mummies once stood, with the dull scarabs sat on the top and all evidence of what the soldiers had been hacking up was gone, leaving them no longer incapacitated.

Mars ran over to Sailor Moon first with the rest of them close behind to find her unconscious in the middle of the circle of the flies. Venus glanced at Kunzite and took an involuntary step away from him in shock. He appeared to be glowing like the full moon at night.

"What on Earth…" she started, struggling to find the words.

The girls blinked when they looked at Kunzite then their mouths fell open when they realised the same was happening to Nephrite, Jadeite and Zoisite.

"What… what is happening to us?" Zoisite questioned, staring at his hands, an action mimicked by the others.

Little did they know that the light didn't just touch the simulated battle ground.