A/N: Slight OoC. Maybe more than slight. I don't know.
Disclaimer: Me? Own Sailor Moon? I wish!
Why We Can't
Chapter Four: Away From Her
I have wished for the same thing every night since these nightmares first invaded my subconscious. Wished over and over and over again, that we could just to return to what we were before, to go back…
To that one night.
The light that poured down from the sky was blue, as blue as her wonderful, open eyes. It lent an ethereal sheen to her skin – no, she looked ethereal without it. Which made sense. She was, after all, from the moon. But she was here now, with him, where she belonged – he smiled.
"Darien?" She bumped her forehead against his and smiled adorably. "Whatcha smiling at?"
"What else?" He brushed his lips across hers, then leaned back against the tree trunk on the sturdy branch they were perched on. "You."
She giggled and crawled into his lap, picking up his hand and beginning to study the lines of his palm curiously. "How'd you know I wanted to see you tonight?" Her voice held laughter, but also sincerity.
"Because you want to see me every night, of course." He played with her hair as she played with his fingers, curling and uncurling them one by one.
"Well, aren't you the mind-reader," teased Serena, bending her head backwards to look up at him.
"Only one of my many talents."
"Ooh, someone's ego definitely needs puncturing."
"Hmph. See if Tuxedo Mask ever whisks you off on a romantic adventure again." He said in a hurt voice, turning resolutely away from her. "It used to be that girls appreciated it their superhero stalkers. Ah, of only those golden days of yore were here once more. Hey, I'm a poet – "
" – and you didn't know it," Serena finished, rolling her eyes. "Please, Shields, you can't rhyme worth a dime."
He put a hand to his heart, affecting a heartbroken expression. "If my lady continues to hurt me so, I fear I will fall from this leafy bough."
"Stop making such a scene, you drama queen," countered Serena, eyes twinkling.
"Uh…I can't think of anything, this sucks – maybe I'd have better luck if I was wearing my tux?"
"I wouldn't mind," said Serena, leaning her head against his shoulder. "I think this rhyming game is getting kind of lame."
"You're right. I think these rhymes might drive me insane." He wrapped an arm around her, threaded the other through her hair, cuddling her close. They sat, still and warm, for a moment, but he couldn't resist one more – "Plus, it looks like it's going to rain."
"Darieeeeeeeen!" she squealed, elbowing him in the chest. "You're such a nerd!"
"So I've heard." He grinned.
"No! Stop! Or in the name of the Moon, I will punish you!" She pulled away from his arms and struck a pose.
"Buns…" He laughed and grabbed her hand, yanking her back down into his arms. He propped his forehead against hers again; it was one of their favorite positions. "What would I do without you?"
"Read until your brains all rotted out," answered Serena matter-of-factly. She grinned and kissed him. "Aren't you lucky I found you?"
He lifted an eyebrow. "You found me? Are we forgetting something, Meatball Head?"
"Nope." She shook her head resolutely, rocking back to sit on her legs. A few leaves brushed her hair as she moved, and he reached over to brush them out of her hair as she resettled her nightgown. "If I hadn't failed that test and thrown it over my shoulder, we never would've met."
"Maybe so, but if I had just ignored the test paper instead of insulting you, we never would have gotten to know each other."
"Yeah, but if I – " Serena stopped in mid-sentence, and began to chew on her lip, which alerted him to the fact that some serious thinking was going on in her head. "Darien? Do you really think that we never would have met? Like…if you hadn't called me Meatball Head, or… if the Dark Kingdom hadn't come back, and we hadn't needed to find the Silver Crystal?" She stared at him somewhat fearfully.
He laced his fingers through hers as he himself pondered the question.
"I…I don't know, Buns." He frowned at his own uncertainty. "I…think we would have. I mean, we still would have been Serenity's and Endymion's reincarnations, even if we hadn't known that we were…so we were destined anyways, right?" He squeezed her hand.
Serena sighed, scooting back over to sit beside him, instead of in front of him. Her head went to its customary place in the crook of his neck, and his chin lowered to its established resting place on top of her silky hair. It was like magnetism, or gravity, the invisible force that drew and bound them to each another, determining the destinations of their motions.
They sat secure and content in the embrace of each other's arms, watching the moonlight splinter against the wind-swept surface of the lake.
There was tranquility and happiness that night.
I can still remember every detail of that night. The faint scent of Bun's botanical conditioner, the impossible silkiness of her hair against my skin, the chill bite of the night wind as it shivered through the leaves of the tree, her comforting warmth in my arms. These details are so clear that sometimes I think that the shards of moonlight shattering against the lake must have engraved the memories of that night onto my mind.
Bizarre as it may seem, my most vivid memory of that night is not of Buns. Not directly. No, what I remember most clearly is the color of the moonlight that spilled onto her face.
It wasn't silver.
It was blue.
Don't… The mental plea seared into his subconscious like fire-hot brands. He bolted across yet another rooftop, leaping another divide of air, landing in a crouch, leaping up and running again, another leap, another crouch, more running, he was going too slow, too slow –
Oh God.
Oh God.
Don't let this be happening.
…Darien…
Don't let me be too late!
He saw the Senshi, stances tense and fearful. He saw Rubeus, muscled arms clamped tight around something that struggled weakly in his grip.
It was her.
"Tuxedo Mask!" The shouts rang out from three of the Senshi below him. His teeth gritted as his veins boiled with fury – they couldn't even protect her properly, and now they were shrieking like a bunch of bloody banshees, tipping Rubeus off to his presence –
But no matter. Even as the alerted red-haired man spun in mid-air to meet him, his cargo swinging limply in his arms, Tuxedo Mask's cane crunched into his face.
Blood spurted. Like a fountain –
a fountain, he could remember a fountain, crystal-clear water bubbling forth from it, her laughter bubbling in his ears as they planted roses in the royal gardens –
GET AWAY FROM HER!
GET AWAY!
AWAY!
Tuxedo Mask's arms loosened around the precious bundle he clutched in his arms, his physical body flinching away from her even as his psyche did. The instant he landed on the gravelly pavement of the roof, he let go of her. His gloved hands flew up to his head, squeezing. A choked scream escaped his throat as he scrambled backward on his knees, away from her. GET AWAY!
FURTHER!
He let out another sound of anguish, lurching jerkily to his feet. From between his trembling fingers and through his tear-blurred eyes, he could see Rubeus a few feet away, stumbling towards the body lying in the pool of golden silk. Dim pink spheres flickered in his hands; they kindled Tuxedo Mask into motion.
The Senshi watched as a black blur slammed into Rubeus, hurling him to the sidewalk ground two stories below with a sickening thud. Then, much to the horror of the hiding spectators peeking out from around corners and trashcans, the admired masked hero of Tokyo began to ram rose after rose into the man's slack mouth.
"Tuxedo Mask!" Sailor Mercury gasped shrilly and deactivated her visor, leaping down from the roof. She was swiftly followed by Mars and Jupiter. "Stop it!"
"Cool down, Shields," ordered Jupiter in a low voice, seizing his wrist as it jerked backwards to conjure another rose to add to the bouquet of roses currently using Rubeus' throat as a vase. "The jacka is as dead as he's gonna get. You can't make him any deader."
Jupiter's voice held a blade as she spoke. This Earthling, Tuxedo Kamen, Darien Shields, was the man who had torn her best friend's heart out for no reason; this was the Terran pig whose seduction of her princess had begotten the apocalypse of the Silver Millennium and the deaths of billions. Jupiter had felt fear, moments ago, as she watched him relentlessly rip Rubeus' throat like a Bellevue escapee, but now she felt only icy, sharp-edged hatred. She dropped his wrist in disgust.
Tuxedo Mask dropped the rose still in his hand. His hat was long-gone, but that made him no easier for the Senshi to read; he still wore his ever-present mask and stony face.
"Is she alright?"
Jupiter frowned and glanced him over, checking him for some injury that might have caused the harsh rasp of his voice and the way his words hitched in throat, as though he were in pain. She could find none.
A golden blur flashed in the corner of her eye. She pivoted to see Venus in a crouch between her and Tuxedo Mask. Sailor Moon flopped like a lifeless doll across her shoulder. Humungous yellow and green bruises were already becoming visible against the pristine white of her neck. Jupiter hissed. Tuxedo Mask stumbled away.
"You'll take care of her?" His words were squeezed out with effort, like the last of the frosting from a tube of icing.
"Of course we will, you bast - " Jupiter began furiously, but stopped as she realized irritably that the black-clad man wasn't even listening to her. His dark eyes, behind the mask, were directed at Venus, who nodded at him with the most infinitesimal movement of her head. Before she had even finished moving, he had melted away into the shadows.
"What the hell, Venus?" Jupiter demanded, advancing on the orange scout and transferring their princess from Mina's shoulders to her own. Her muscles, quivering with barely-contained fury, were none too gentle, but she was too agitated to rectify that. "You're not siding with that waste of flesh!"
"Of course not, Jupiter," answered Venus in a weary voice. "I'm just…" she sighed. "Look, we gotta get moving. People are getting interested." She gestured to the civilians emerging from their hiding spots. "Your place, Mars?"
"No, mine," Mercury interrupted. "My mom's working night shift, and we've got the materials at home if Sere – Sailor Moon should need medical attention."
"Right-o. We're off, then."
Get a grip, Darien. He clutched his head tight, trying to will away the excruciating migraine thrashing like an agitated cobra in his skull. God, it hurts. And the constant jolting of jump and run, jump and run, across the rooftops wasn't helping. He finally decided to stop, and dropped down right there on top of some skyscraper.
They almost took her. His sweaty, gloved fingertips massaged his equally perspiring forehead, kneaded his eyeballs. He was going to take her away. And he almost hadn't stopped them.
The Senshi hadn't been able to do anything – they never had been able to do anything, though…he could remember in the past life, when Beryl had come after them with the generals. It had been Serenity who interposed herself between Mercury and a leering Zoicite, Serenity who grabbed the dagger from Mercury's belt and taken the corrupted man's life, Serenity who had sullied her hands with murder for the sake of her friend. In the end, it was never the Senshi protecting their princess; it was Serena protecting them. And him – he was the one who was supposed to protect her. Fine job he was doing of it! Letting her cry herself to sleep every night, letting her get beat up and tossed around by youma, nearly letting her get kidnapped by lecherous Black Moon henchmen – Darien's fists clenched to match the knotting of his stomach. The list went on and on; ever since those dreams had come and he had deserted her in order to protect her, it seemed as though she'd been getting hurt more than ever before. Or maybe that was just his hopeful side trying to convince him that he didn't have to stay away from her –
AWAY. AWAY FROM HER, ENDYMION. YOU WILL BE HER DEATH.
A muffled scream escaped his throat. His hands buried in his hair. That voice! That cursed, damned, omnipresent voice! The same voice from the dreams, the same voice that kept up a running commentary of her death as he helplessly watched her blood leak away, night after night. The voice that surfaced whenever his thoughts lingered too long on her, when he caught a glimpse of her hair or a whiff of her scent, when he felt her transformation and morphed into Tuxedo Mask, when he held her in his arms – which was all too rarely as of late!
YOU WILL BE HER DEATH.
But he couldn't be! He protected her, he didn't hurt her…
Oh, like you're not hurting her now? An image of Serena curled up in bed, face sticky with tears, surfaced in his mind, superimposed over an image of Serenity, face sticky with blood. For the past one thousand years, you have been nothing but pain to her.
AWAY. AWAY FROM HER, ENDYMION.
"How is she, Ami?"
"No internal bleeding that I can discern." The blue-haired girl clicked her computer shut, sliding into the breakfast nook beside Lita. Rei scooted over to make room; Mina rose and began to pace. "Various bruises, but none worse than the ones on her throat. If we have her transform when she wakes up, and sleep in her Sailor form tonight, they should all be healed by tomorrow morning."
"Lucky it's Friday," commented Lita. "Mina, you've got her mom covered?"
Mina merely nodded, finishing her dialing on the phone and retreating around a corner to tell the usual lie about a study-session-turned-sleepover to Serena's mother.
"She will wake up, won't she, Ami?" asked Rei as Mina left earshot.
"She will, but she needs sleep." Ami opened her laptop again. "Badly. She's suffering from an intense case of chronic fatigue."
"Cause of him." Lita's voice was a growl, her fists clenched on the tabletop. Sparks arced across her skin.
"Calm down, Lita, your're interfering with my batteries," said Ami irritably as her laptop's screen flickered. "Go put that energy to something useful, like cooking up some food. We're going to have to force something down Serena's throat when she wakes up; she hasn't been eating properly."
Lita stood, cracking her knuckles. "Anything in particular I should make?"
"Proteins and carbohydrates," answered Ami absently, pushing her glasses up onto her nose as she surveyed something on her computer screen. She began to clack away at the keyboard, her fingers blurring across the keys. "More of the former than the latter. Her body's going to need the protein to heal, and she needs energy, both to use and to store away."
"Gotcha." Lita disappeared into the kitchen. "Fity omelettes and twenty pancakes coming up."
Rei moved over to Lita's vacated chair for a better vantage point of Ami's computer screen. Her eyes scanned the scrolling lines of data, then flicked to the blue-haired Senshi. "What's in your head, Ami?"
"I want to know why Rubeus went after Serena," replied Ami, continuing to type, though her rapid speed slowed slightly. "The Black Moon has only ever expressed an interest in Rini before."
Rei nodded, eyes narrowed as she followed Ami's train of thought. "Rubeus said Sailor Moon was important…to his prince."
"It's bad enough that Rubeus has a prince, much less a prince with an interest in Serena," stated Ami. "Based on our past experiences, this prince character is likely to be at least twice as powerful as Rubeus."
"Do you think that was his voice? The one telling Rubeus to get a move on and bring Serena back?"
"That conclusion is quite probable, but not very significant." Ami pinched the bridge of her nose. "Rubeus seemed slightly confused by Mina's resemblance to Serena. Did you notice that?"
"Yeah. But again, don't have any idea what to make out of it. He wasn't ogling her like he was Serena."
Ami bit her lip. "It's possible…that this prince's interest in Serena is, ah, purely hormonal, Rei. What do you think of that theory?"
"I think it's extremely disturing." Rei's eyes narrowed to slits. "And if any guy – this prince dude, or Darien, or anyone – lays a finger on Serena, I'll personally rip out their intestines and feed them to Phobos and Deimos."
"Hear, hear!" shouted Lita from the kitchen, over the sound of sizzling. Her laughter joined Rei's, and it was not a reassuring sound. "Serena's already put up with enough crap from the pig."
"Guys! You'll wake Serena!" scolded Ami. "And Mina's still on the phone with Mrs. Tsukino!"
"Not anymore, Ames." Mina appeared from the hallway and replaced the phone in its cradle. "Lita, come in here a sec. The four of us've gotta talk."
"Coming. Just lemme flip this last pancake. Okay." Lita emerged from the kitchen, untying her apron. A frown sat on her lips. "Ready to talk."
"We have a…little problem." Mina rubbed one long calf against the other, twirling the phone cord around her finger. "I couldn't get in touch with Serena's mom because she was at that dinner party that Serena mentioned."
"Oh, yeah!" Lita frowned. "I forgot all about that."
"Me, too," added Ami, while Rei nodded. "Who did you talk to, then?"
"Sammy. Which was fine, he said he would tell his parents when they got home that Serena was over here. But he said that Rini's really lonely, and she wanted one of us to come get her."
"And what did you say?" Rei groaned.
"Um…that one of us would go get her." Mina attempted an innocent smile. It was not returned.
"Stupid! Stupid Mina!" Rei flicked the blonde in the head with none of her usual gentleness.
"Really, Mina, I must concur with Rei," said Ami with a frown. "How are we going to bring Serena out of her depressed state with Rini around? You know how she snipes at Serena – even worse than Rei. Serena does not need those sort of attacks on her right now."
"I know that, I know that!" Mina held up her hands palm out, sobering suddenly. "But seriously, you guys – what about how Rini feels? A little girl without her mother, all alone with Serena's brat of a brother, in the middle of the night with Black Moon scumbags after her."
"Hmm, let's see." Lita lifted her hands, cupping them and raising them alternately up and down, as though they were scales she was weighing. "Princess who we were reborn to protect…" She lifted one arm. "Or pink-haired brat who hurts said princess's feelings every chance she gets." She lifted an eybrow. "Ooh, hard choice, Mina."
"Guys." Mina's voice was quiet as she looked from Ami to Rei to Lita. "What would Serena want us to do?"
"Going to Ami's house with Mi-na, to make fun of Sere-na," Rini sang as she skipped down the sidewalk as few steps ahead of Mina. "Because Sere-na's a hy-ena –"
"Rini."
The little girl stopped and twirled around, pink pigtails bouncing. Her bright, innocent smile was in glaring contrast with her song. "What, Mina?"
Mina sank down in front of Rini, eyes searching. "I don't know what you have against Serena, Rini, and at the moment, I don't care. But you are going to promise me that you won't say anything mean to her tonight or tomorrow. Got it?"
"Who died and made you queen?" demanded Rini, crossing her arms. "You can't boss me around! I can be as mean to the Meatball Head as I want!"
"Fine." Mina stood up and pointed back down the street from where they had just come. "Then go home."
"I – "
"Now."
"Fine!" Rini pouted. "I won't be mean to Serena, okay? Now let's go!"
A/N: If you're one of those people who like to comb pieces of writing for literary devices, hope you have fun with this one. There's definitely a big piece of foreshadowing here, but I think a lot of people are going to miss it.
In your reviews – please leave some, I'll love you forever! – please tell me
a.) what you think of my Sere/Dare interaction in the first part
b.) Darien's inner turmoil after saving Serena
c.) the Scouts' attitudes
Lots of love!