Chapter 4: The Briefing
Serena ran all the way home, afraid that if she stopped, she would break down and run back to Darien. Why had he been so cold to her? All she did was try to return a few of his things and that was it. If anything it was a nice gesture. Some girlfriends keep their guys' stuff and never even give them back. So why was Serena the evil one now, what had she done wrong?
"I can't think about him," she said out loud as she rounded off her street while running. She wasn't paying attention to the regular ditch in the sidewalk and her foot caught itself in the hole.
"Oh no!" she cried as she watched herself hit the ground and skid across the cement. Now her knees were skinned and her elbows scraped. She only added more wounds to her broken body and spirit.
"Oh now look what I've gone and done," she said to herself. She didn't want to cry but she still felt the oncoming tears.
No, she thought if I cry now then I'll never stop. She picked herself up and trudged her way to her house. When she arrived, she silently walked up the stairs, trying her best to contain her emotions. All she did was set herself up for a letdown. She was crazy to think Darien would actually be kind to her. It was so strange, however. Why did he act this way all of a sudden? Even if they did break up, couldn't they have been friends?
I don't understand, I thought we'd be together forever, she thought. Serena slapped herself. You're doing it again! Stop thinking about him, it's not worth it. I have to show him that I can do just fine without him even if I really can't.
Darien pounded his fist on the end table in his bedroom. He hadn't really meant to be so nasty to Serena, but his old nature just came out. It didn't matter; she had to hate him, no matter what. In order for him to figure out what was going on, he couldn't have any distractions or endanger Serena in any way. He had to be out of her life so that she'll be able to fight what's out there better. In the end, he'll just end up distracting her too. How would they be able to concentrate on the enemy if they were infatuated with each other? It broke his heart to see Serena like that and he knew that she could never be truly angry with him for long, but he had to figure out a way to make it so.
Darien was so deep in thought, he hadn't realized that Rini opened his bedroom door and crept in.
"Darien?" she asked quietly with her hands fidgeting behind her back. He turned around at the sound of her voice. He wiped the tears from his face and spoke to her.
"What is it Rini? Something wrong?"
"Yeah Darien, something is wrong. Tell me what's wrong; it isn't like you and Serena to fight like that? Why did you break up with her?" Darien was surprised at the randomness of her question. Somehow children were better at judging people than adults were.
"Well…nothing's really wrong, it's just that Serena and I decided to separate for a little while. You know, like take a break from each other, that's all," he replied.
"Darien, please don't lie to me," she pleaded, "I know something else has got to be wrong or else the both of you wouldn't be acting like this. You were never really mean to her before and now both of you are just either sad or angry, never happy. What happened?" Darien smiled. Rini was indeed an intelligent child to see that Darien's answer wasn't the whole truth. Still, he didn't quite believe that Rini would be able to handle the truth. After finally getting peace and a stop to people trying to kidnap Rini, she needed to be happy and not burdened with the possibility of danger again.
"Rini, I don't think you'd understand, it's more of a grown-up thing, but I'm sure everything will be okay in the end," he assure her. Rini wasn't quite satisfied with his answer, but she knew not to press it any further. If Darien wanted her to know or if she really needed to know, he would've told her already.
"Okay Darien," she sighed and walked slowly out of the room and shut the door softly. Darien was relieved that she didn't ask any more questions. He didn't have any answers to them yet and would avoid Serena until he did.
Serena, hang on; it'll only be a matter of time…I promise you.
(Meanwhile)
Emerald heard her own footsteps echo in the empty, narrow hallway. For some reason, Wiseman had asked her to come meet with him about something very important.
For his sake this better be good, she thought. When she reached the end of the corridor, she made a left into a room lit with only two candles on the black walls. It seemed like the whole room was made with the dark crystal material. It was beautiful and yet eerie at the same time. Strange, she never saw this room before.
"Wiseman?" she called out, hoping for a reply. When all she heard was a cold silence, she called out again.
"Wiseman? Are you here?" Don't tell me I came all this way for nothing. If I did, I'll make sure he pays ten times over! She turned to leave in disgust when she saw the Wiseman right in front of her. She didn't even sense his presence and it frightened her.
"WISEMAN! You-you startled me," she said. He chuckled softly in a sinister tone, which sent chills down Emerald's spine.
"Did I? My apologies Emerald," he chuckled some more. Now he was just irritating her.
"What is it that you want Wiseman? Don't tell me I came all the way down here for nothing," she snapped.
"Why no of course not," he replied, "I am to brief you about your mission, and I'll make it quick."
"Mission? What mission? I wasn't informed about anything like this," she said, baffled.
"Diamond hasn't told you?" he inquired, "Well you are to capture Sailor Moon."
"Sailor Moon? Are you out of your mind?" she asked, "Why do you want me to capture Sailor Moon? She's been nothing but a pain in our side, why should I, o the Prince can swoon over her in real life?" Wiseman was overly pleased to see this as her reaction.
"You should do this out of loyalty to your prince. It is his orders that you capture her and bring her here alive," he said, "and my job is finished so I'll leave you to plan your attack." He disappeared and Emerald let out a groan of exasperation.
"This is just great," she said sarcastically. "I still have to please Diamond, but in doing so I'll ultimately just give him what he wants…Sailor Moon, it doesn't matter what I do, I'll no longer be in his favor. I cannot fail this mission." Unbeknownst to Emerald, Sapphire was in the room during their meeting. He had been suspicious of the Wiseman so he decided to watch his every move. The meeting hadn't seemed out of the ordinary, but he felt sorry for Emerald.
"And I'll be here to make sure that you won't fail," Sapphire stepped out of the shadows and into view. Emerald whipped around.
"Sapphire? What are you doing here?" she asked obviously startled again.
"I've been ordered to help you on your mission so if you fail, I'll take most of the blame, but if you succeed, I won't partake on the credit. It's a win-win situation for you Em," he said. "Trust me, it won't be so hard to catch her, she is a twit after all."
"But why should I even go along with this anyway, I don't want her here in our home," she said stubbornly.
"Of course, I don't want that either, but Diamond isn't going to change his mind. Listen I have a plan that'll work out for the both of us," he offered.
"Oh yeah, and what's this?" Emerald asked, her eyes showing interest.
"Diamond only ordered for you to bring her here alive. He never said anything about keeping her like that. When she gets here, we'll take her crystal and present it to Diamond. He'll be so infatuated with that for a while, he'll forget about Sailor Moon. If we kill her now, then there won't be Neo Queen Serenity in the future. Without her, we won't be exiled and we can return to our time and live happily again." Emerald liked the idea, but she still didn't see how Sapphire would benefit directly from this. For her, she'll have Sailor Moon out of the way and Diamond would be hers again, but what about Sapphire?
"Sapphire how does this work out for you? I know it helps me, but I don't see how it will for you," she said.
"Quite the contrary Em, this works out for me perfectly. With that sailor brat out of the way, Diamond will be able to think clearly again and be with you. Everything will be back to the way it was except we'll be happy and Wiseman will be out of our hair because we've succeeded," Sapphire answered. Emerald nodded in understanding and she grinned at Sapphire's ingenious mind.
"Now that we know what we're going to do once we get her, let's concentrate on how we'll get her here in the first place," Emerald suggested.
"I've already figured that out. We'll have to engage the Sailor Scouts into a battle and kidnap her while she's weak. From what I understand, she isn't in the most optimal fighting state so this won't be so hard. They all think that we're after Small Lady already, so we'll just let them keep thinking that to throw them off. I'll open up a portal to our world and all we have to do is make Sailor Moon go through it," he smirked maniacally.
"How do you suppose we do that? You shouldn't underestimate her little army; they always protect her, including Tuxedo Mask. After all, she did eliminate Rubeus," Emerald said skeptically.
"We'll have a lure for them. We'll set up another scheme that has them running to save 'the people' and use one of our fiends to distract them a little bit. While they handle this, you take a hold of Small Lady and that'll bring their attention to that. I'll use the energy we collect from our 'scheme' to open up a portal and while everyone pays attention to you, in goes Sailor Moon," he explained. Emerald was ecstatic at the mechanics of his plan; it was a really good plan. They usually haven't used more than two people in a mission and using three would throw them off, it was perfect.
"Why Sapphire, I have to say that I'm truly impressed with this little plan of yours, but whom will we use for this?" she asked.
"Again, I've thought ahead and found the perfect scheme along with the perfect minion to pull it off," he said and them made a beckoning motion with his forefingers to the shadows. "Fortuna, come out and prepare for the mission."
A slender figure materialized from the shadows in the room. Her whole body was navy blue and looked as slick as running water, but perhaps her most prominent features were her eyes and hair. Her hair was silver and flowed past her waist. When she opened her eyes, she revealed a beautiful set of amethyst irises. She wore a white dress that barely past her knees with high slits up to her thighs. There were no sleeves, but only three straps on each shoulder and there was a boot that reached up over her lower thigh and another that barely breached her ankles.
"Emerald, I hope that you are grateful for all that I've done for you," he said. She nodded and led the subordinate out of the room with her. Sapphire sighed; he really didn't plan for Emerald to be asked to capture Sailor Moon. In fact, he was going to do it himself and hope that Emerald would oblige in helping him. However, this seemed to work out better for him now that Emerald was at his mercy. He wanted to help her, it was so unfair what Diamond was doing to her. Leading her on so that she could do his bidding, it was so wrong, so depraved. One day, he'd show Emerald that she didn't need Diamond and that a real man was right here under her nose.
Author's Note: So what'cha guys think? I know I haven't updated for a while, but that'll change. The more reviews I get, the more incentive I have to write faster! ^_^ !