Crimson Moon: Part Five
By: SalrAnime
Here is ANOTHER part to this series, it's getting pretty long, and I don't see the end coming very soon. Normal disclaimers apply.
Darien opened his eyes to Serena's smiling face.
"Good morning sleepy head"
"Good morning"
He touched her face; she responded by lightly caressing his hand.
"You stayed the whole night..."
"I told you I wouldn't leave"
She rested her head on his chest under his chin.
"Serena...I..."
She gasped when strong arms pulled her away from him. He reached out for her, but he couldn't touch her. Her screams echoed in his ears.
"I will have her Prince of Earth...She will be mine!" The familiar green eyes and snow white hair made Darien leap into action. He wouldn't let him have his Serena.
"Shigo! NO, let her go!" She screamed his name, but he couldn't move to help her.
"Serena...SERENA!!!!"
He woke up in a cold sweat, still in Serena's bed. She looked at him with worried blue eyes.
"Darien, what's wrong, are you ok?"
"Nothing...just a bad dream...your brother'll be up soon, I should probably go" He stated while rising from the bed.
"No, it's ok, he never gets up before noon...I'll go make breakfast" Darien winced at the thought of actually eating her cooking. Last he checked, she could eat anything cooked, but when it came to actually doing the cooking...
"I'll go cook, you just stay here and relax, you've gone through a lot this week, just take a break" Darien smiled at Serena's confused face a he gently, yet firmly pushed her back into the bed.
"But, I should make it, you're my guest" She insisted.
"It's no problem, really" There was NO way he was going to get stuck having to eat her cooking.
"OK, I'll be down in a few minutes" She finally gave in. About thirty minutes later, Serena was stepping into the kitchen as Darien was just finishing breakfast, when the doorbell rang. Serena looked at the door momentarily puzzled.
"Who could that possibly be? Mom and Dad shouldn't be back yet. " Serena slowly walked to the door, and opened it to see four familiar girls with four very pissed faces.
"Where have you been, meatball head!?" Raye screamed at the top of her lungs, immediately stepping closer into Serena's face.
"Yes, we've looked everywhere for you, I even skipped cram school looking for you" Ami's usual bright smile, was replaced with a motherly frown. Serena noted that she seemed slowly to be encircled by the girls.
"I've been going to the arcade everyday waiting for you to come in" Serena rolled her eyes at Mina's "sacrifice" knowing that she probably spent the whole time playing Sailor V and flirting with Andrew.
"I was beating up every guy in town trying to find you" Lita smashed her fist into her open palm in a very intimidating way as she too took steps closer to Serena. The poor blond was trapped. All her friends were worried, tired, and pissed at her for doing it to them.
"I haven't..."
"Don't say you haven't been gone long, Serena" Raye cut off her attempt at an explanation.
"You haven't been in school for the past three days!"
"Ami's right, you're always late, but three days is a lot" Lita cosigned on Ami's earlier observation.
"Yeah, and your parents didn't notice, but you never came home Wednesday night, did you?" Mina had one eyebrow raised as if she wanted to imply something about her not returning home at night, but she let it drop instead.
"I got...uh..."
"The only reason your parents weren't going crazy looking for you is because Rei covered for you" Once again Ami sounded more like someone's mother than the super genius she really was.
"Yeah, meatball head, I told them you were sleeping over at the shrine"
"And I, being the actress I am, pretended to be you on the phone so they never knew" Mina dramatically raised her hand to her brow as if she were going to faint, before turning her attention back to Serena, and letting her face regain the scowl it held before.
"It isn't that far of a leap, Mina, you two are exactly the same" Lita said matter of factly.
"And what's that supposed to mean, Lita?"
"Nothing, just that you took the arcade search while the rest of us took the town" Obviously, Lita was a little peeved that Mina got more flirt time than she did.
"I was just as worried as you, your just jealous, because I spent more time with Andrew" The blond and brunette were standing almost eye to eye with Lita just a few inches higher.
"Girls..." Serena's almost whispered, a little relieved that all the attention was away from her now.
"Lita does have a point though, you and the meatball head are a lot alike" Raye once again managed to make things worse just by speaking.
"Girls..." Serena got a little louder this time, peeved that Rei wouldn't stop calling her meatball head.
"Now your ganging up on me too Rei!?" Mina made a face like a trapped puppy that was going to get ran over by a car.
"GIRLS!!" Serena screamed this time, gaining the attention of all the girls, and immediately wishing she didn't.
"S...St....Stop f...fighting, I'm f..." She was trying not to stutter, but she was scared shitless, Raye looked like she was going to fry her to death with her stare any minute now. But then, of course Mina would spot the only guy in the room, and make Serena's situation go from critical to CRUCIAL.
"Hey Serena, what's Darien doing here?" Serena took a swift glance over to Darien, and saw the top of his ebony hair peaking from behind the kitchen counter. He sighed loudly and Serena could hear it all the way in the living room as he rose to his feet and left his ineffective hiding place.
"Hi guys..." Serena almost felt more sorry for him then she did for herself. He looked like he was facing a firing squad! Mina got a sneaky look on her face, and nudged Serena's arm as if implying something, but Serena ignored her friend, and quickly began to form an explanation for Darien's visit. As if there was an explanation for having your sworn enemy in your house when you both have obviously just woken up, and you're still in your oh too cute bunny pajama's and matching slippers, but she was going to try anyway.
"He...uh...he came over to show me his great cooking skills...yeah that's it" Serena stopped her nervous laughing when she saw Rei starring at him. He was still in the kitchen, behind a counter, and was watching them argue, but was shocked when Rei stopped talking and just starred at him.
"Darien?" She asked as if she wasn't quite sure if it was really him.
"Yes, Rei" He felt nervous under her gaze, it was like she knew something about him was different.
"Have you...changed something? " It was weird she knew, but ever since she was a child, she could feel when things weren't quite right, and this was one of those times.
Serena quickly jumped into action. Trying to draw Raye's attention away from Darien.
"New haircut! That's all Rei, you guys hungry?" The four girls all forgot about Serena's recent MIA status, and remembered they had all skipped breakfast to bitch Serena out.
"Sure!" The girls said in unison, they could find out what was really going on with Serena later.
"You both have black holes for stomachs..." Lita whispered under her breath, not completely willing to let her argument with Mina go so easily.
"Shut up Lita!" Mina growled back too hungry and tired to truly argue back.
Darien and Serena made the plates together in the kitchen. While the girls went to the dining room and chatted about the real reason Darien might be over Serena's house. Serena let her head drop in defeat. 'I knew they wouldn't buy it'.
"Rei knows something..." Darien stated firmly.
"She's a shrine priestess, she knows everything, she's psycho or something" Serena tried to make it seem like it wasn't that big of a deal, but the truth was she was a little worried too. Could the shrine priestess really sense that Darien was a vampire.
"I should get out of here before I raise any more suspicion" Serena nodded in agreement, and lead out to the dinning room with a stack of pancakes and a bottle of orange juice in one hand, while he held a platter of scrambled eggs and bacon.
"This looks like I cooked it...Darien did you make this?" Lita was the first to state the obvious. There was no way Serena cooked it.
"Yeah, I cook from time to time, and speaking of time, I should.... "
"You know Serena didn't make it, she'd burn the whole house down!" Lita cut Darien to take a cheap shot at Serena.
"You're no better a cook than me, Mina" Serena shouted back, not completely believing she let those words come from her own mouth!
"Girls, please calm down and eat" Ami tried to be a peace keeper, but with this bunch...there was no peace.
The girls were arguing, while Rei was still looking at Darien.
"Aren't you going to eat, Darien?" There was something different about him, but she just couldn't quite place it.
"I actually should be going...I have a mid-term to study for"
"It isn't mid-term time..." Darien had no come back for Rei, she had just caught him a lie that he couldn't get out of. He was relieved when he heard the doorbell ring.
"I wonder who that could be!" Serena said overly cheery, grateful once again for the distraction between Darien and Raye. Serena answered the door and immediately looked confused.
"What are you doing here?" Shukoroshi's sea green eyes looked back at Serena with worry.
"Have you seen Darien, he said he was going to fight Shigo last night, and I can't find him anywhere"
"Fight, Shigo?" She turned around, obviously upset.
"Darien, are you crazy!?" Shukoroshi let a sigh of relief escape his lips when he spotted the dark haired man standing in Serena's dining room unharmed.
Darien looked away from Serena, not knowing how to answer her question. She wouldn't understand why he was going to do it; there was no need in trying to explain, so he didn't. He simply let his eyes fall to the floor, not knowing where to begin.
"Serena, what's going on here?" Once again the petite blond was in the hot seat, and would rather burn than to try and come up with more lame excuses.
"Yeah, and who's that hot guy...he reminds me of my ex-boyfriend" Lita let her starry eyes blatantly check out Shukoroshi.
"Oh..nothing, just old school buddies you know...always have to settle old scores" Serena said while trying to shoo the two men quickly from her house. Then Raye had to get all priestessy again and ruin Serena's escape.
"Shigo...that's an odd name" Serena sighed again...Why could she just not SHUT UP!!!
"What do you mean, Rei?" Serena sighed yet another time. Why did Ami ALWAYS have to be the one to keep the question phase going longer?!
"It means after death...not exactly a name you would want to call your child" Shukoroshi grabbed Darien, and was immediately pushed away. Darien was still pissed about the other night, and he was really just getting sick of Shukoroshi trying to control him.
"Don't touch me, Shukoroshi I'm warning you!" Shukoroshi took a step back from Darien with his hands up in an offensive manner. He knew he was probably still made about the other night and he didn't want to make matters worse.
"That name as well, Shukoroshi...it means to kill ones master...Serena what's really going on" Raye caught Serena's eyes, forcing her to look back at her and tell her what was really going, but Serena said nothing. How could she possibly began to explain, all her friends would think she was crazy anyway.
Luna was awakened by loud voices downstairs, and descended the stairs to see what was going on. When she reached the bottom of the stairs, she saw the girls, interrogating Serena, and Rei starring at Darien and some guy with dark green eyes. The two men were on the verge of throwing blows. Now she knew Serena was keeping something from her.
Shukoroshi looked at Darien almost apologetically until, he realized that Serena was still in her Pajamas, she obviously had just woken up a few minutes ago, it was only 8:30 am, and Darien was still here....did he stay the night with her!?
"Were here all night!?" The question was really supposed to stay in his head in front of Serena's friends, but he couldn't hold it in, he told him not to get too close to her, but instead he slept with her the whole night...SLEPT WITH HER!
"Why do you care anyway...you aren't my master, you have no say over what I do!"
"DID YOU SLEEP WITH HER!? !" Serena just let her hands fly up in defeat as ALL of her friends gasped in unison and looked at her all at once with a "you did DARIEN!" look in their eyes.
"IT WASN"T LIKE THAT NOTHING HAPPENED" Serena yelled letting her usually small fragile voice give way to an exhausted angry one.
"Why would you want to know anyway, are you jealous" Shukoroshi suddenly flinched at his words. And Darien noticed. He was right, Shukoroshi had been in love with Serenity for hundreds of lifetimes, and even though he knew it was not meant to be, his heart still held on to the hope that maybe, just maybe one day she could love him too.
"You tell me to stay away from her, but I see the way you look at her, like you don't know when you'll loose control, it isn't me she needs to be afraid of, it's you " Shukoroshi felt slightly hurt by his words.
"I would never hurt her, I care for her more than you could ever imagine, besides I'm not your enemy Shigo is" The girls all glanced to Serena then back at Shukoroshi and Darien and sighed.
"It's just so romantic Serena, you have two guys fighting over you!" Mina the forever drama queen was to first to break a momentary and much needed silence.
"Don't get the wrong idea, as far as I'm concerned he can have meatball head" He said it out of anger, and as soon as he did, he regretted it. Serena's eyes filled with tears that almost spilled over, but instead she began to fume.
"DARIENYOUJERK!! I HATE YOU SO MUCH YOU HAVEN'T CHANGED AT ALL YOU EGOTISTICAL ASS!!!!"
Suddenly it was just like old times. Serena felt like Darien was looking down at her, and Darien was too confused by the way her almost tears made him feel to admit he was wrong so instead he said nothing once more. Darien turned on his hills and left the house slamming the white oak door loudly behind him. Shukoroshi, now calm apologized to Serena, promising he would be back that night to check on her, and followed behind Darien to try to calm things down before it got way worse between the three of them. They needed to stick together now.
Serena sat on her sofa and let her head fall in her lap for a moment of piece before....
"Serena, what's really going on?" Of course it was Raye.
"And what just happened between you and Darien" Asked Mina, not buying the complete outburst between the two earlier.
"I saw it too Mina, definite sparks flying" Stated Lita, also sensing some....tension...between the two.
"Lita, Mina, please there is a more serious situation here" Ami stated genuinely worried for her closest friend.
"Come on Ami, it was just a fight just like every other fight between a man and woman. nothing more than a lover's quarrel" Once again the drama queen managed to make everything sound romantic and lovely.
"There is something going on, or else I wouldn't have gotten such strong vibes" Raye stated bluntly, not trying to hide her somewhat odd ability to sense things.
Luna agreed with Rei. The others had all forgotten how strong her powers were, but she knew that Rei was rarely wrong. Luna watched Serena closely. She was definitely hiding something, but she looked so sad, that Luna felt no interest in revealing her secret.
"Then what did you feel Rei?"
"I'm not sure, Mina...it was weird, like Darien was something evil, but he himself was good..."
"What about the other guy?"
"He...he was....the same way...sort of "
"Hey Serena, girl are you OK?" Mina asked her as she sat on the couch still holding her head in her lap.
"I'm fine, I just don't want to talk about it "
"Serena what's wrong? You know you can always talk to us " It was Ami's worried voice this time, which tried to coax and relax Serena into sharing.
"Something is going on isn't it?" Lita asked noting the seriousness of Serena's usually goofy demeanor
"No...don't worry about me I'll be fine" Serena whispered.
"Serena tell us what's wrong, we'll protect you, we're your fr...."
"I don't want any of you involved in this...!"
"In what Serena?"
"Can you please leave now, I have to clean up" She was tired she just needed a break from the questions, since the girls had gotten there they had done nothing but argue. The truth was, she loved her friends, and normally she almost enjoyed their arguments, they could be funny sometimes, but right now just wasn't the time.
She walked to the door, and opened it motioning for all the girls to leave, but instead they all stood wide eyed at the man on the other side. Serena screamed when she turned to see Shigo's dark green eyes staring intently at her. Could this get ANY worse!?
"Wha...how did you find me?" She began taking shaky steps away from the man, but he just kept coming closer to her.
"True love will always find true love..." He whispered as he reached a cool finger out to touch Serena's soft pink lips.
"Hey, were you invited in? Get out of here now" Lita stated firmly noticing the fear in her friends' eyes. Sure the guy was cute, but he couldn't be good if he scared Serena so much she was truly shaking in her boots.
The man laughed at Lita's threat.
"It's so strange seeing warriors like you so weak now" He was sure of it, it was his princess and the Sailor Scouts, all stripped of their memories, and their powers. The once most feared group of women in the universe now stood before him as helpless as little girls.
"Weak!? I'll show you who's weak!" She began to lunge at the man thoroughly sure she could take him, but she stopped when Serena's shrill voice reached her.
"LITA DON'T!!!! He'll kill you"
Lita turned to her, finally fully realizing the gravity of the situation. This was no ordinary man, he truly was dangerous. The man began to laugh again.
"Actually, I'll kill all of them if you don't come with me" Serena gasped, and almost began to cry when her little brother began making his way groggily down the stairs, slowly towards her.
"Serena, tell your friends to be quiet, I'm trying to sleep" She prayed that Shigo would just let him go back upstairs, get into bed, and dream his stupid little dreams safely, but it wasn't to be. Shigo's eyes fixed on Sammy, and he swiftly made his way to the small boy to quickly for anyone to see.
"No...no DON'T!" She screamed, but it was too late, Shigo had the small boy by his neck.
"Is he your brother? You don't want him to die, do you?"
Tears streamed from Serena's eyes unchecked. Why was this happening to her, why couldn't she do something to stop it? Although, she thought, I can stop it.
"I'll go with you, I'll go just leave my brother and my friends alone" The pleaded desperately.
"Very well" Shigo smiled triumphantly and released Sammy, letting him fall to the floor, unconscious"
Shigo reached for Serena, but his hand was kicked away by Rei.
"It won't be that easy!"
Rei was wrong, it was that easy. Luna watched as all four of the former scouts were beat into submission by one person. There was nothing she could do but watch. Serena stood breathless as her friends were all beat, she was helpless. Luna immediately regretted the decision not to give them back their memories, but their was nothing she could do now.
"Stop! You said you would leave them alone!" She screamed finally when air returned to her lungs.
"They interfered...if it is any consolation, they will all live" Serena was shocked by his coldness. She ran to help her friends, and her brother, but she was only able to take two steps before Shigo's arms wrapped tightly around her waist. Luna tried to follow where the man was taking Serena, but he was just too fast. She decided to stay by the girl's side until they came to, then they would go see Darien.
"Serena? It's late you..." Darien stopped mid sentence when he opened his apartment door to see Serena's four best friends and her little brother standing in the doorway. The four girls all looked frantic, and they were holding themselves as if they had been hurt. Sammy looked almost as if he was in shock, tears were pouring from he eyes, but he wasn't quite crying. Then one thought flooded Darien's mind suddenly. Where is Serena?
"What...happened?"
"Serena...he took Serena"
Darien grabbed Lita's shoulders, and was instantly frantic himself.
"Who, Who took Serena?"
The girls were in tears. Darien looked to them for answers, but instead was hit with accusations.
"This is because of you isn't it? What happened to you has something to do with Serena doesn't it!?" Raye pointed a shaky finger in Darien's direction as her tears began to flow. Serena was so sweet and pure and kind to everyone. Whatever that man was going to do to her, she didn't deserve it, and she hated anyone that caused it to happen; even if it was her long time crush.
Darien said nothing. Shukoroshi answered for him.
"Actually, what he is, is because of Serena, he has nothing to do with what has happened, it would have happened anyway...Darien, are you ready to leave?" Shukoroshi made the statement matter of factly as he grabbed his black trench coat and tossed Darien his usual green blazer.
"Yes" Darien answered simply. There was no need for questions, he already knew they were going to save Serena. "All of you wait here, we'll bring her back" He commanded.
"NO, We're going..." Ami uncharacteristically screamed. She had been quite up until now.
"STAY HERE! You'll only get in our way "
Ami said nothing, Darien's angered response surprised her back into submission.
"Shukoroshi, do you know where he would have her?" He asked her as he closed his apartment door and made his way down the hall with Shukoroshi following closely behind.
"I'm not sure, but I have an idea"
"I need more than an idea, we need to get to her...he wouldn't hurt her would he?"
"No, but he might change her"
Darien's eyes widened at Shukoroshi's answer, he found himself running faster. The two men ran down the dark streets of Tokyo, hopping that when they came to their destination, the woman they both loved would be safe, unharmed and still human.
To be continued...
Was it a little better? It looks like I'm coming a little closer to the end, but I still think there are at LEAST three more chapters coming in this series (WOW, never written one that was so long)Anyway, make sure you go to all my shrines on this page, so you can check out my other fics (although I only have like two more)