Chapter 4: The battle
Darien slowly walked into his bedroom to check on Serena. When he walked in, Serena was tossing and turning and talking in her sleep. Walking over to her, he sat down and touched her bare shoulder. Apparently his T-shirt was too big for her, but he didn't mind. He loved the way she laid so gently on his pillow, the covers wrapped around her, sleeping, yet having a terrible dream. He picked her up and held her in his arms, rocking her back and forth like a little child. He stroked her hair gently, tenderly soothing her. She quickly opened her eyes and jumped up, wrapping her arms around his neck. "Oh Darien, it was so terrible. It was so dark, and my mother was locked up and this little girl kept saying I was her mother, and…" Darien laughed whole-heartedly. "I'm sorry to laugh, but.. you a mother? That's kind of hard to believe, but.." He said with a tinkle of mischief in his eyes, "I wouldn't mind being involved in the process." Serena rolled her eyes and moved closer to him. "Well, that is pretty funny, the whole me being a mother thing, not the other thing." She said smiled and blushing at the same time. 'Goodness! I'm being very, very bold tonight! Well, that's ok. I don't mind, and apparently neither does Darien.' "Serena are you awake?" Serena slowly slipped out of the bed to her cat sitting on a branch near the window. Quickly she opened the window and the cat jumped into Serena's arms. She cuddled the cat in her arms, hugging her tight. "Luna, is something wrong?" "You and Darien are going to have to transform right away." After transforming, Tuxedo Mask climbed out his window and into the tree. Turning around, he reached out his hands and Sailormoon's hands and helped her on the branch. Luna jumped onto her shoulder and they all carefully climbed down. As they ran towards the high school, Luna explained. "Amy was there studying and the other girls just stayed there to keeps her company, when Zoicite came looking for you. She found out somehow that you're the moon princess." Sailormoon thought for a minute and said, "Wouldn't the evil within them be destroyed it Beryl's destroyed." Luna nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah Sailormoon. You're right. Good observation." Sailormoon smiled at the open admiration then said, "Wait, I remember. Before we destroyed her, she threw away her staff. Could it mean that her power was left within that staff?" Tuxedo mask and Luna thought for a minute and nodded in agreement. Sailormoon turned to Luna and said, "Luna, go find the staff, it's somewhere by where we were going to go to the ball. Darien and I can take care of everything here." "Right" And with that, Luna ran off, leaving Tuxedo mask and Sailormoon to fight Beryl's evil minions; together. Finally the reached the entrance to the school, but the girls were nowhere to be found. Sailormoon was about to say something when a flood of darkness surrounded them. Tuxedo mask grabbed Sailormoon's hands and pulled her into his embrace. After it subsided, the glittering streetlights shined in the distance to reveal Zoicite and Malachite holding the scouts. Sailormoon ran forward, ignoring Tuxedo mask's restraining hand, tears streaming down her cheeks. "No! Leave them alone! Take me! If it's me you want, it's me you'll get! Please don't hurt them! They're my friends and they don't deserve to suffer on my account. Just let them go and take me! I'm all yours!" She dropped to her knees waiting to be shot with a blast of energy, bracing herself. But nothing came. Zoicite laughed loudly. "Fool! What would we do with you? You're just a mere item to us, we just want the source of you power. We couldn't possibly care for you!" Sailormoon stood up baffled. "M-my source of power? I don't understand. What do you mean?" Now it was Malachite's turn to laugh, his cackling uproariously. "You've got to be joking! How can you possibly not know you own source of power?" He ran forward and clamped his over the crystal. Sailormoon put her hands around Malachite's wrist in an attempt to release herself, but it never helped. "Aaah! NO! Stop!" Malachite laughed, twisting and pulling on the crystal more. The force turned her scout uniform into a mess of flowing pink ribbon. Tuxedo mask couldn't bear it any longer; he had to do something to help her. He had to get Malachite's filthy hands off of Serena's sacred body. That was only for him, for them. The intimate touches, the secret words of love. He remembered it all on the moon kingdom how they would talk to eachother and love eachother long into the night. Her gentle lips on his and his on hers. Never thinking of what the next day brings, never caring. He pulled out a rose and threw it directly at Malachite's heart and he watched as the evil man crumbled to ground, groaning in pain, leaving Sailormoon weak and falling too. Tuxedo mask ran forward and caught her in his arms. "Serena, are you ok?" Serena weakly opened her eyes before bringing her hand up to his face and saying, "Promise me Darien, promise me you'll remember the time we've had together. Promise me. Thank you." Then slowly she let her eyes close. "No! Serena! My princess! Don't leave me. Don't leave me all alone. Please, wake up. Come back to me." Tuxedo mask looked up to see that all the other scouts came and he gently put Serena down and followed them. He wanted to stay with Serena, be with her, but he knew that he must fight, no matter how big the urge. Venus put her hands on her hips before saying, "Ok Zoicite, this is the last time you're going to do anything to hurt our friends!" The rest of them stood next to her and joined hands, combining their strength to destroy Zoicite.