Chapter 9

Darien glared at Zoycite, moving in front of Sailor Moon.

"Get away from her!" he snapped, ignoring her protests from behind him.

Zoycite smirked. "You think you can stop me, do you? Ha, you can't even stand up straight on your own! You should have died that other girl when I personally knocked you down!"

"That was you!" he cried.

"Of course it was me, you stupid human!" she scowled.

Darien was about to give another heated reply when Sailor Moon put a hand on his shoulder. "Darien, don't!" she warned. "That Zoycite is dangerous; she's not from this world!"

His eyes widening, Darien whirled to face her, though still being careful of his foot. "H-how do you know my name?" he asked in surprise. "I didn't tell you."

Serena hesitated before answering. Oh great, I've done it now! I messed up! She could just hear Luna in the back of her mind, telling her that she had to start thinking before she said things, or she was going to get herself in big trouble one day. Finally she decided to look at him as if it were a stupid question.

"Because I'm Sailor Moon, that's how. Now please, just get out of here! Run! Get as far away as you can and let me take care of her!"

But Darien chose to ignore her warning, and turned to look at Zoycite again.

"Why?" he demanded. "Why did you do it? Why did you try to kill us? Why did you have to kill her!" he shouted, the tears in the corners of his eyes threatening to escape.

"To lure your fiend Sailor Moon here out, of course," she replied. But then she smirked, "That wasn't all though, Darien. No, I enjoyed it," she said taunting him. She laughed as something between a grimace of pain and a glare of anger appeared on Darien's face. "And it was so pathetic how upset you were over the death of that puny little meatball-headed girl!" she scoffed. "It was so hilarious! I haven't had that much fun in years!"

Now Darien was angry; more angry than he ever remembered being. He couldn't reach Zoycite, or he would have jumped her in a split second. Instead, he picked up the nearest rock. Zoycite laughed at his tortured expression.

"You monster!" Darien screamed, launching the rock at her, his tears flowing freely again. Zoycite only moved out of the way, and he didn't come anywhere near hitting her, but he grabbed a handful and continued to throw them at her. "How could you!" he sobbed as he tried to pummel her. "Who do you think you are! What did you think you were doing! Because of you, an innocent girl is dead! You-"

"Darien, stop!" Sailor Moon cried, stopping him before he uttered the curse he'd had in mind. "Don't make her angry! Get out of here!" she continued. And he did stop. He stood, glaring up at Zoycite in fury, teeth clenched and face wet. But it was already too late to keep from angering her.

"Why you little-!" she exclaimed. Growling in anger, she threw a beam of nega-energy at him.

"No!" Serena cried as Darien tried to get out of the way. But he didn't make it, his injury slowing him down, and it hit him in the shoulder, knocking him back to the ground. He went down with a cry of pain, then lay there, gasping, one hand on his broken ankle, hurting from the fall, and the other on his now injured shoulder.

"Darien! Are you okay?" Sailor Moon cried in alarm. She saw him nod weakly, but didn't hear his verbal answer if he gave one. Her attention turned back to Zoycite, who was moving in on her.

Sailor Moon raised her wand. "MOON HEALING-AH!" She cried out in mid-phrase when Zoycite knocked the crescent wand out of her hand. Wincing in pain as she gripped her now slightly scorched hand, Serena watched it skitter away across the ground.

"My wand!" she yelped.

Zoycite gave an evil laugh, and Serena gulped and began to back away from her in the direction the wand had gone. What she didn't notice was that very shortly in the direction she was going, the alley dead-ended.

"Sailor Moon!" Darien shouted-or rather, tried too. His voice was weak now, and the exclamation ended in a painful cough. Neither Sailor Moon nor her opponent heard him. Sailor Moon continued to back into a trap, and she was the only one who didn't realize it.

By the time Serena realized what she had gotten herself into, she was too far back to run to her wand without Zoycite being able to take her down easily. Serena screamed.

"AH! Somebody help! I don't wanna die! Tuxedo Mask, where are you!"

Darien watched, helpless, as Zoycite prepared to wipe out Sailor Moon with one deadly blow of energy. He knew he should protect her-he wanted with all of his heart to protect her-but what could he do? He couldn't transform into Tuxedo Mask in front of her, and he was probably too weak to do it now, anyway. Racking his brain as quickly as he could, finally he swallowed hard, realizing that there was only one thing he could do.

Meanwhile, Zoycite laughed. "Well, it was nice knowing you, Sailor Moon, but now I think it's time we said goodbye-for good!"

She raised her hands to deliver the killing blow, and Sailor Moon screamed again. Behind Zoycite, Darien staggered to his feet, sweat gathering on his face as he gasped from the pain in his ankle and shoulder, his chest heaving. But, ignoring it, he ran forward, under Zoycite.

The Negaverse general laughed as she released the burst of energy, but suddenly stopped and gasped when she realized that her plans had been ruined.

Serena barely had time to be shocked when Darien jumped in front of her before Zoycite's blast took him in the chest. He screamed in agony, and the sheer force of the blow knocked him into Sailor Moon and sent both of them flying backwards into the wall of the alley.

Darien moaned and fell to the ground, the front of his shirt and jacket now covered in blood and scorch marks.

"Darien!" Sailor Moon yelled, quickly forgetting about the resounding pain she was feeling from the impact with the wall. Quickly she knelt down beside him, but before she could do anything else Zoycite's voice interrupted her worries.

"You may have gotten out of it this time, Sailor Moon, but I'll get rid of you next time!" she cried. Then with that, she disappeared.

"Wait!" Sailor Moon shouted after her, but she was already gone.

Gulping, Serena looked back down at Darien. Lifting his body off the ground, she held him, calling his name.

"Darien! Darien, can you hear me? Darien!"

He groaned, "Not so loud…"

Serena frowned. Those words seemed familiar…Then she remembered. She had used them not long ago, when Raye and Darien were calling her, looking for her in the wreckage of the ferris wheel car on top of the roof. Slowly, the rest of her memories of what had happened before she blacked out came back. She remembered falling, the pain of the wounds she knew she'd had, Darien holding her like she was holding him now, both he and Raye begging her not to die…It helped some, but she still didn't know how her wounds had been healed, how she had gotten off the roof and ended up in the alley as Sailor moon, or why Darien thought she was dead. But that didn't matter at the moment, as tears filled her eyes.

"Oh Darien," she cried. "Why? Why did you protect me? You could have been killed!"

Slowly Darien's eyes opened, and he looked up at Sailor Moon through a haze of excruciating pain, struggling to breath.

"This city needs you, Sailor Moon," he rasped painfully. "The world needs you. Was I supposed to let you be killed? I didn't have a choice." Then his eyes closed again and he coughed, grimacing from the extra pain in caused. Hating that he was hurting so much, the tears in Sailor Moon's eyes started to fall, and she began to cry softly.

Hearing the sound, Darien opened his eyes again and smiled at her weakly. "Hey, it'll be all right. Don't cry over me. You don't even know me." But of course, he didn't know that she did.

Moaning, Darien's eyes re-closed a second time, but this time they didn't open again. He had lost consciousness.

How could things have changed so drastically in just an hour? Serena wondered sadly. Then, it had been her who was dying in Darien's arms, and now it was Darien who was dying in hers.

Collapsing into tears, Serena hugged his motionless body. "Oh, Darien, I'm sorry I get so mad at you," she wept. "I won't do it anymore, and I won't even say anything when you call me meatball-head, just please don't leave!"