Howdy! Hope this finds you in good spirits! I'm doing pretty good… now that my computer is cooperating with me. Aren't they annoying little things sometimes?

Well, this is a shorter chapter than what you may be used to from me, but hopefully it's interesting. ;)

AprilSailormoon: Yay! You don't know how happy I was to hear that my explanations are appreciated! I was worried that people were going to get annoyed with me… so thanks for your encouragement! And I encourage you to watch more Inuyasha! I love that show!! :)

Kairinu: Why thank you!! ::blush:: I try…. :)

Jabba1: Thank you! Glad that I'm giving some good info (err… hopefully my memory is good enough for it to be all correct… he he…). I think it mostly is though! ;)

hatami: Thank you! Glad ya like it! ;)

Err… yeah, my smiley face therapy went down the drain, didn't it? Hee hee… oh well, I'm happy, so what?! :)

All righty… onto the fic!!

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They traveled for the next three days searching for the snake demon who was rumored to have a shard. The demon was moving away from them, but they were slowly catching up, for Kagome was beginning to sense the shard it had. In those three days they all got to know each other better, and learned each other's stories. Serena and Darien each felt guilty for not trusting the group with their secret, but each felt it was best not to say anything after keeping it silent thus far.

After lunch on the third day Serena maneuvered herself so that she and Miroku were walking together at the back of the group. She got some weird looks from her friends, but she just smiled back. She had always been good at reading emotions and even though Miroku was good at hiding his, she knew that there was something bothering him and she was pretty sure she knew what that something was.

"So to what do I owe this pleasure, Lady Serena?" Miroku grinned down at her.

"I wanted to talk to you about something." The grin vanished from his face once he saw the serious look on her face.

"What is it?"

She sighed. She hated to be so up front, but it needed to be said. "Why do you hide behind your wind tunnel?" He looked down at her, obviously puzzled. "You know what I mean. You approach every young woman and ask her to bear you your child in hopes to continue your line. Yet you refuse to ask the one woman who is willing to carry your child." She glanced at Sango pointedly. "Why?"

Miroku did not answer her for several minutes. He just looked straight ahead with an unreadable look on his face. After awhile he looked down at his cursed hand and sighed.

"Every time I use the wind tunnel it grows. It never used to do that before, but it happened to my Father several years before his wind tunnel sucked him in. He rarely used his wind tunnel, Serena, and I use mine all the time." He sighed again. "I won't last out the year. I would be lucky to last the next few months. So the reason I do not ask Sango to bear my child is because I love her too much to do so. I would be gone before she gave birth to our child. No one would be there for her, to help her raise our child. So I ask anyone but her. I know no one will actually agree, I do it just to chase Sango away. If she does not fall in love with me, then it will not hurt her when I am gone."

Serena took this in. She had no idea that this was what was burdening Miroku. She now knew his hurt ran deep just below the surface of his cheerful façade.

"Do you really think that Sango will be happier after you are gone if she does not know that you loved her? Why can't you both be happy during the time you have left? Is it really worth it to keep it all bottled up inside? Because it's too late Miroku, she already loves you. There is no chasing her away."

Miroku looked down at her for a moment, and she could see the pain in his eyes. She stopped in her tracks and watched him walk ahead, and around a corner until everyone was lost from sight. She could not understand Miroku. Why could he not let his love for Sango show, or let her love him? Why could love not conquer all?

She was broken from her thought completely when someone grabbed her wrist and pulled her into the bushes. She was about to scream but when she saw who had grabbed her all that came out was a squeak.

Her captor was a tall woman who had long black hair with natural green highlights. In one hand was a staff, but what had caused the squeak was that she was wearing a sailor scout uniform.

"Wh- who are you?" Serena asked.

The woman gave a slight bow. "Sailor Pluto, the Guardian of Time."

"Guardian of Time?"

"Yes. I do not have much time to talk, so I will get right down to it. When you and Darien fell into the well you went off into a very unlikely timeline, one that I did not foresee. One that may be difficult to get through. I can tell you this: You can trust everyone that you are with, especially Darien. Also, you must trust your instincts."

"My instincts?"

"Yes. You must trust in your instincts; trust in yourself."

Serena nodded, still confused. A question came to her mind. "Sailor Pluto? Do you know if my friends are - the scouts - are okay?"

"Yes, they are doing fine. Things were - questionable - for awhile, but they were joined by Sailor Venus and things are better. They miss you though," she said, smiling slightly. Then she seemed to sense something. "I'm sorry, I have to go. Tell no one you saw me. It was a pleasure to meet you, Sailor Moon." She bowed again.

Before Serena could respond, Sailor Pluto swung her staff, causing a door to appear. Without a backward glance she stepped through the doorway and both she and the doorway disappeared.

"Okay… that was weird," Serena said out loud to herself.

She was about to move back to the path, but suddenly the sounds of battle reached her ears. So instead she crept around the trees until she could see what was going on.

The demon they were fighting was obviously the snake demon from the rumors. It looked like a giant cobra, except this one had two heads. She looked around, and was glad to see that Darien was not in sight. Another quick glance proved Shippou to be missing too. She went back to watching the fight. Her friends seemed to have everything under control. Inuyasha had his sword, Tetsusaiga, out and it was glowing. He was probably about to use the Wind Scar attack they had told her about. But then everything fell apart.

The snake's tail snaked around and managed to grab Kagome up in it's grip; therefore effectively causing Inuyasha to stop his Wind Scar attack in fear of hurting Kagome. Sango threw her boomerang and managed to chop off one of the snake's heads, but the other head turned and spit something at her. Miroku pushed Sango aside and took the hit for her, but the snake just spit again a moment later and hit Sango anyway. Kirara then took the job of protecting the fallen warriors from anymore attacks. Inuyasha was now fighting alone, but could not make any headway in killing the demon. It weaved away from many of his attacks and even those that hit were quickly healed thanks to the Shikon shards. Inuyasha, on the other hand, was taking plenty of hits from the demon's spit.

Serena knew what she had to do, it was an instinct that she had to help or none of her friends would come out of this alive. Sailor Pluto told her to trust her instincts, so trust them she would.

"Moon Prism Power!"

It had been awhile since she had felt the power flow through her, and she was surprised to realize that she had missed it.

She leapt out of the bushes and landed a ways away from the demon. It was preoccupied with attacking Inuyasha, so she decided to distract it.

"Hey, you two-headed freak of nature! Why don't you try your luck with me!" Not her usual speech, but still effective. The demon ignored Inuyasha and started towards her. She reached for her tiara and tried to figure out the best place to hit it. Something… something told her to hit just below the junction of it's two necks.

"Moon Tiara Magic!"

The tiara hit true and the one surviving head and stumped neck separated from the rest of its body. Even though the demon was dead, the head was still hurtling towards her. With an "Eep!" she tensed to jump out of the say, but she was swooped up and moved before she could react. She felt comforting, familiar arms supporting her, attached to a very familiar black tuxedo.

He set her down, his hands falling to his sides. She looked up at him, he looked down at her. Each knew now without a doubt who the other was.

"Serena."

"Darien."

"WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON HERE?!" Their silent staring was broken by the confused half-demon's yell. They both whirled to face him.

Inuyasha was standing, unbothered by the blood running form his various cuts. Kagome was kneeling on the ground next to him, in obvious pain, but with two new shards for the jar around her neck. Shippou stood next to her, a comforting paw on her knee. Miroku and Sango were now standing, albeit painfully, on the other side of Inuyasha. Kirara was in her larger form, standing protectively in front of Sango.

Serena powered down with a smile on her face. Darien, taking her cue, was soon in normal attire too.

With a little smirk, Serena said, "Told you I could take care of myself."

"Hmph" she heard from next to her. She looked up at Darien.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

He looked down at her. "It means that it is laughable to think of you taking care of yourself."

"Excuse me?" Anger flared up in her eyes.

"You would be dead a hundred times over if it wasn't for me and the scouts saving your butt."

"And everyone in Tokyo would have their energy sucked dry a hundred times over if it weren't for my ability to kill youmas!"

"Ha! A child with a stick could fight better than you! You're a pathetic excuse for a Sailor Scout!"

"PATHETIC? You want to talk about PATHETIC, lets talk about those pansy roses you toss around! They couldn't maim a FLEA! At least I have some real powers!"

"Real powers? Why don't you use them sometime then? Maybe if you did your friends wouldn't get hurt all the time trying to keep their so-called leader safe!"

That struck a nerve. "You're an asshole, Darien! A cold hearted ASSHOLE! A pathetic excuse for a human being!"

She turned to the group of wide-eyed observers and said in a strained voice. "There's a hot spring we passed two minutes down the path, I'll be there," and ran off. Darien just stood there glaring at nothing in particular.

Kagome stood up painfully. "Come on, let's make camp," she said softly. "It's going to be a long night." Everyone nodded in agreement and started off towards a nearby clearing. Shippou was the unlucky one elected to coax Darien to go with them, but he came along willingly, still glaring into space.