No one questioned Serena nor blamed her, rather they looked at her with sympathetic eyes, knowing her hurt and her guilt. Two days after the soldiers searched the forest she sat upon her bed watching the candle burn away, hypnotized by the red and purple flame. Amy was laid back upon the bed next to Serena, counting the rings in the wood and calculating the tree's age. Raye sat on the floor doing tricks with candle flames while Mina watched. Lita was strewn out on another bed, staring off into space and keeping her thoughts concealed carefully behind her eyes.

Serena blinked and took her eyes away from the candle to gaze at her friends, each of them alone with their own thoughts, and the silence dared her to break the spell it had cast.

"What are you thinking about?" she asked Lita.

The entire room jumped, save Raye who was too wrapped up in the magic to care. Lita looked up with sad green eyes and sighed.

"A boy."

This caught the attention of all the girls, Mina especially. Amy sat up as Raye sat down on her bed, while Mina sat anxiously on Lita's bed, her eyes showing her excitement to have a romance within the tree.

"Who? Who?" she asked with full, attentive eyes.

Lita looked away, and blushed. She closed her eyes, imagining the perfect face of Ken, and then took a breath to speak. She didn't notice how the rest of the room held their breath too.

"Ken."

Mina squealed with pleasure, but while she, Amy, and Raye smiled upon imagining the cute couple, Serena frowned.

"But he's Temple faith," she whispered, though no one heard her. They were all too busy putting Lita through an inquesition. She wondered if he'd made it safe.

"I miss him so much!" Lita exclaimed, holding back tears.

"You're not alone," Raye said. "I, too, miss a boy." She paused, then answered the questions in their eyes, "Chad."

They all giggled save Serena. Temple faith again.

Mina spoke up, "Andrew."

Temple.

Amy blushed and whispered, "Greg."

Temple.

Serena cringed in pain. How crushed would her friends be if these boys turned out dead? Or imprisoned? Their hearts would be snatched away and broke into pieces. Why was the world so cruel?

"How about you Serena, any boy in your heart?"

Serena looked each of her friends in the face and shook her head.

"No one."

Her friends resumed talking and the tree melted away from them. They were out in the sunny fields with the wind in their hair, and the sky in their eyes. They were chatting about everything as usual, messing with the weather, laughing when someone told a joke. They returned to who they used to be.

And Serena stayed the same. She remained quiet, alone in the tree room, and her words echoed through her head.

"No one." No one would help them, no one cared for them, no one warmed her heart. She was alone, even seperated from her friends and the voices of the Moon. She curled herself up in a ball and closed her eyes.

A face appeared behind her eyelids, an ivory face with ebony hair. Shadowed sapphire eyes were set above a most perfect nose, and full pink lips. His chin was strong and his shoulders were wide. His armor identified him as an Earth soldier.

She zoomed forward into a new place. An open clearing was spread before her, trees lining each side. Earth soldiers marched in straight lines along side her, the sapphire-eyed man rode up on a horse, and surveyed the Lunarian land. She reached up and grabbed his hand. It was warm while she was cold.

============================

A shiver traveled down Darien's spine as he watched a hand appear out of nowhere and touch his own. He held his breath as he followed that hand to an arm and a shoulder and finally a face. He pulled his horse to a stop and looked down upon the Lunarian Princess.

She looked different to him this time, her eyes looked and she herself was more solid. His troops stopped marching and gazed at the pair as he slipped from his horse to stand next to her.

"What is it, Princess?" he asked.

"Princess?" she echoed him, and cocked her head in question. She scanned him with her eyes and gasped.

============================

The golden vines wrapped around his dark blue armor, a cape drifting down from his shoulders, a large sword at his side. He was more than a general. There were four of those coming forward through the troops. No, he was the commander of this army and that meant he was royalty.

She gasped and bent down on one knee, bowing her head.

"Why are you bowing?" he asked. Why should royalty bow to royalty? A little bob of the head would do, just an acknowledgement. But bowing as if she was a citizen was unheard of.

She looked up at him with full blue eyes, clouded with question.

"You are the Earthen Prince, are you not?" she asked. Her voice was empty and sounded as if it was far away and echoing back to their ears.

He nodded.

"But you yourself are royalty of this planet."

She stood abruptly, and looked straight into his eyes. He felt suddenly nervous under her gaze. She questioned him, and questioned her past. She'd known of the Queen's death, she possessed the same magic, she heard the Moon whisper. Could she be... Could the Queen be...

"Serena! Serena!" was yelled in her ears, and Serena could suddenly feel her body. Her vision started to pull away as the Prince reached forward for her. She disappeared from his sight, and opened her eyes in the tree room.

"You weren't breathing Serena!" Mina said. Her eyes showed relief and the remnants of worry.

"Don't worry us like that," Raye scolded her.

"The Earth's Prince is here," Serena said, ignoring their comments. "I saw him and the troops of the Earth."

"A vision?" Amy asked.

"No," Serena said. "It was more than that. I was there. He saw me, they saw me."

The girls pondered this, while Serena pondered the man's words. Princess? Was it possible?

============================

Darien lurched forward to grab her, but she was gone. The troops rubbed their eyes and pinched themselves. His generals walked forward wide- eyed.

"Your Highness, who was that?" Malachite asked.

"Better question," Jedite said, "What was that?"

Darien looked into the gray sky for an answer, but could come up with only his own.

"That was a Princess of the Moon. A ghost? A vision? I don't know. But she's visited me before, and she'll come again."

He remounted his horse.

"Let's continue forward."

And they did.

============================

Late that night, when the stars glittered in the sky like diamonds lost in velvet, an orange blaze burned in the forest. One of the Moonrisen faith that lived within the forest hurried to investigate as he heard a woman's scream. He heard a man's voice raise as well, commanding troops. Silver blasts and golden beams exploded around while lightening cackled in the air. It suddenly rained and smoke began to rise eerily.

He saw troops seize an old man, and a young boy. A woman was dragged away along with another man, but five young girls stood in the flames, yelling, but their voices were drown out by the fire and thunder. Soldiers dropped upon being struck by lightening, or by one of the blasts of magic. And though he was quite certain these girls were in the flames, they did not burn. One seemed to throw the flames in fact, and everything was chaos.

But someone fired an arrow and one girl dropped.

Author's Note: Who is it? Who is it? I know! ^_^ Please review and you will know soon too.

Until the next time,

Ai No Senshi