New chapter! So, this was mostly done when I'd posted the first chapter, but the last 300-400 words were annoying the heck out of me! But it's done now. :)

Disclaimer that I don't own anything belonging in the Sailor Moon universe goes here. :P

Chapter Two

Darien was sitting on his lounge, head in his hands and bemoaning his life (probably), while Serena sat on a barstool in his kitchen, her uber-updated Sailor communicator on the bench in front of her. (she'd popped back through the bubble briefly to retrieve it, ignoring the strangled noise Darien had made at her doing that so nonchalantly) She was scrolling through it, trying to see if it would still connect with the older versions here in the past. So far it seemed to be working, she found the communicators of the girls quite easily. Even Mina's, which apparently wasn't connected with the others just yet.

"So…," she mused, unaware of Darien's gaze suddenly focusing on her. "Moon, Mercury, Mars, and Jupiter. But no Venus yet. Hmm."

She hacked into her past versions communicator, glad that Amy had taken the time to teach her this. She giggled at the things her younger self had put in there. Luna found out about Serena's messing with it about a week before they defeated Beryl, and gave her one heck of a lecture about abusing Scout business only things. Her communicator, which was like mini laptop of sorts, sleeker than the usual sort you found, bleeped at her, and she saw a Scout communication come up.

Serena hit a few buttons, then a two way communication came up on her screen. There was Raye's furious face, and her own, younger, pouting one.

"Serena!" Raye yelled. "Where the hell are you? You were supposed to be here for the meeting twenty minutes ago!"

"Gimme a break, Raye!" younger Serena whined, and the future one winced at the decibel. Was she really that annoyingly loud? "I just got out of detention, so I'm on my way! Sheesh! It's not like the Negaverse is attacking, or the alert would have gone off!"

"That's not the point, meatball brains!" Raye snapped. "Just get over here, alright?"

"Fine, fine," young Serena said, and the communication shut off.

Serena sighed. Raye really hadn't changed much over the years. Sure, she was more mature now, both of them were really, but they still enjoyed their arguments every now and then. It wasn't mean spirited or anything, it was how they expressed their sisterly love. Sister bickered after all, right?

"Raye's a Sailor Scout, isn't she?" Darien asked from right behind her, causing Serena to almost jump out of her skin.

"Uh… sure," she said, then closed her communicator and stuck it in the pocket of her skirt. "You finished having your mental breakdown over this yet?"

Darien huffed and glared at her. "Can you really blame me?" he asked. "I've spent this whole time looking for the princess, and it was you all along."

A thought seemed to occur to him. "Do the Sailor Scouts know?" he asked. "Did you know?"

Serena shook her head. "We all found out at the same time," she told him, and he seemed at least slightly mollified by this.

"So Raye is… Sailor Mars, I presume?" Darien asked, and Serena reluctantly nodded. "Then… Amy must be Mercury, and Lita would be Jupiter then?"

"Yeah," Serena admitted. "You know, when we sort this whole time bubble thing out, you should probably forget that you ever knew this."

Darien shook his head. "I doubt I could," he murmured, looking down at her seriously. "So, who's Sailor Moon, then?"

Serena raised an eyebrow. She would have thought that would be obvious. "I am," she told him matter-of-factly.

"Really?" Darien asked a bit disbelievingly. "You are? Klutzy Meatball Head Serena is Sailor Moon? Wait, forget I asked. With the amount of times I've had to save you, I'm really not all that surprised."

Serena punched him as hard as she could with the back her hand, her left hand, which was closest to him, and scowled. "Shut it, Darien!" she snarked at him.

"Ouch!" he grunted. "What the hell is on your hand? That hurt."

Before she could react, Darien grabbed her hand and brought it up where he could see it. He froze as soon as he saw her engagement ring. "Who gave you this?" he asked in a tone that implied he kinda didn't really want the answer.

Serena pulled her hand back. "My fiancé, obviously," she told him.

"Who on earth proposed to you?" Darien scoffed, and Serena would have felt insulted, even heart broken, if it weren't for the fact that she'd seen a small flash of jealousy at the word 'fiancé' in his eyes. (this Darien really was so easy for her to read!)

"My devilishly handsome, wickedly smart boyfriend, of course," she told him, waggling her fingers at him, before turning away.

Serena returned to where the bubble in the middle of his apartment was, wondering if she should just go now. So much had already been said, and there were likely other things that would come out the longer the portal remained open. When she returned, she'd contact Amy, get her to analyse the thing, then maybe they could close it. Either that, or get a hold of Sailor Pluto, since this was right up her alley.

She reached out to touch the bubble again, hearing Darien call, "Wait!" and then grab her shoulder as she connected. The white light flashed again, and when the spots had cleared, Darien was with her now in the future.

"What did you do that for?" Serena asked, but didn't wait for an answer as she pulled her communicator back out and dialled up Amy. "Hey, Amy? Can you come over to Darien's, please? Joe's on duty, so he'll just let you right up."

"I'm in the middle of something, but I suppose I can be there in ten minutes if it's important," Amy told her.

"It is important," Serena said. "Best wait til you get here before I explain, though. It's a doozy, I'll tell you."

"We'll be there soon," Amy said, then switched off.

Serena sighed and put the communicator away. She turned to find Darien snooping through his 'future apartment'.

"Find anything interesting?" she asked.

"…Place looks the same as ever," Darien said.

"Don't I know it," Serena muttered, the said louder, "Well, snoop to your heart's content. It's technically your apartment anyway."

Serena grabbed the manga she'd been reading before this whole thing had happened, picking up right where she'd left off. She heard Darien wandering around, before he eventually came out and sat before her. He was silent awhile, until Serena deigned to look up to see him watching her speculatively.

"Yes?" she asked after he'd still sat there staring at her.

"So, why are you house sitting for me?" he asked.

"You went to Kyoto for a medical seminar," Serena told him. "You've been studying medicine at Tokyo U, and one of your professors suggested that going to the conference would be a good way for you to make important contacts."

Darien looked both surprised and pleased at that information. Serena knew that he'd wanted to be a doctor for the longest time, and she supposed having it confirmed this way for him, knowing that he was actually chasing that dream…

"Yes but… Why you?" he pressed.

Serena frowned. "What do you mean by that?" she asked a little defensively.

"It's just… you declared me your 'mortal enemy' the other day," Darien said, "for the fifth time in the last month. The younger you, that is."

"Exactly."

Darien blinked. "Huh?"

"The younger me," Serena told him. "For me, you've been a good friend for a long time now."

"…A good friend?" he asked.

"Well, more than a good friend," she admitted.

He frowned at her. "What do you mean by that?" he parroted her previous words.

Serena opened her mouth to answer, but was interrupted by a knock at the door. She leapt up and rushed over, yanking it open to reveal Amy. She grinned.

"Come in, come in!" Serena greeted.

"Sorry we're late," Amy said, explaining at Serena's confused look, "It's been more than ten minutes."

"O-oh, that's alright," Serena said. "You know I've got no issues with lateness, really."

Amy giggled as she stepped in. "Oh, I know," she said. "But you also know that we do."

"Who's we?" Serena asked, starting to close the door, then 'eep-ing' when it was pushed open as someone else was on the other side.

"We would be me and Amy."

Serena opened the door wider to reveal someone she knew and trusted, but realised that Darien probably wouldn't respond all that well to. And indeed when she turned to look at him, he'd tensed up, anger, confusion, and a little bit of fear (for her and Amy, maybe?) at the sight of the man who'd accompanied her friend. He practically growled out the man's name.

"Zoycite."

So what did you think? Review please!