Meower. Enjoy your reading, I don't own anything except my twisted mind, and please comment on the sick twisted mind of mine.

The citrine of the tortured

Both landings jarred me, be I refused to let me think that I was in pain, when serenity had labored breathing, shaking visibly, and nearly collapsed as she made her landings. The first one, she had gotten up, and spoke of the evil spreading, but with the second landing, Serenity had kept her eyes open enough to glance at me and replace her crystal. As we sat their, one of us unconscious, me temporary lost, and the neighbors' reactions ran through my mind. It wasn't like I actually cared, but loud surprise sounds could give people heart attacks.

For a few moments, I did just sit there, but finally, I stood up, and brushed myself off. The only thing I could do for Serenity was to make her comfortable and the best place I could think of was my own bed. It was inappropriate to use it, also, with out her consent, so I would be sleeping on the couch for a few days. My clock toning five, reminding me that this planet had time, and now that I think about it, better air, I wondered who would keep me from my sleep this morning. I decided to first get Serenity to a better spot than in the middle of my floor, and then find out as I would be woken up.

Around eleven, a normally sensible hour to wake someone up if they haven't been to the moon that night, Andrew called, telling me that since I didn't pick up my phone, he would come over to bother me. I groaned as I pushed the 'erase' button and went back to sleep. Andrew came and woke me up roughly an hour later. I met him at the door wearing my last layer of clothing, which happened to be my pjs, well, the bottoms anyway, and a growl to my voice. Of course, he was annoying and cheerful.

"Andrew, you have roughly ten seconds to say why you are here, give me a reason to not kill you now, or leave. 10……9…" Andrew was laughing for my expense, and for a minute, I felt like Serena did whenever I teased her. "Sorry, sorry, Darien, but I thought that we might sort out your girl problems with a brilliant idea I had last night. That and your favorite female heroine are on TV." The last part was serious, comparatively. I blinked at him before moving out of his way. Closing the door, I was trying to figure out the connection of why I thought Andrew was wrong about that. Looking towards my bedroom door, I saw that I had Sailor Moon with me, and that she couldn't be on TV.

That made me awake enough to understand how to turn on the TV and sit down somewhere in front of it. "Why are you so tired this morning? Did you have a guest last night?" I made a motion for him to shut up as the announcer's somber voice told of who just spoke and what happened between them. Finally, the announcing that Sailor Moon would be the next to speak. "Due to inabilities to make it to her own Senshi's memorials, the said leader Sailor Moon has sent us a tape of her own speech. This is the first time anyone will be viewing this." I found my temper rising to how they put down Sailor Moon, but was intrigued to see the video start up.

First, she began in shadows, solid, thick, shadows. "Greetings, citizens of Tokyo. I am here for the same reason as you are, to mourn a great loss. Many have said how be we were, or how useless we really were, and some have praised us beyond our own abilities. Since I cannot be here, I send it in another form, one that some will have fun trying to get answers off of. I wish you luck. Most of you have never seen a transformation, or if you did, you are lucky to be living. Tonight, as the evil that destroyed my comrades builds, I give you all a treat."

Here, there was a pause, and even from the TV, we could feel pressure building. The use of the word 'treat' was very interesting to find out. I saw energy waves began to grow from the shadow figure with the shadow voice. "Dark Moon Prism Power!" I am shocked that she would leave her self open for such a chance to see who was behind the mini skirt. The dark energy rolling off of the film was strong, even so many miles away. "Observe me and my costume." She steps into the dim light from the audible storm on the video. We do. I had know that they have alter egos, but to tell everyone else? People began to shift uneasily, from what we can here from the masses. "Yes, we walk among you, or did walk among you. Also, a few may remember our old costume. This is documented proof of what your defense cost us. The dead forms of my senshi are another kind of proof. However, take this as you will, for I have come to speak about them, and their lives."

It was amazing to here her speak about the fallen senshi, to even show private and public TV clips of each of the senshi. Still, she gave no direct clues, or any hints to who was really in costume. Well, only the acute or the ones actively looking found any hints. The cold, dark way she says her conclusion makes me feel glad to be on her good side. There was a definite change from the old Sailor Moon to the new Sailor Moon. "I care nothing for what you think of me or us now, even if we once did care, but I am not going to have your blood on my hands. The evil that took out the senshi who are being remembered here today is growing, and Tokyo will be its victim. My protection will not matter from here, for as history will repeat itself; I would die in the process. Someone needs to live on with a living memory of what you see now. The best protection I can give you is to be true to your heart and soul. As corny as it sounds, the evil will take root all of our souls and with that it will win Tokyo. That is the only way to take on a city of this magnitude, because there is strength in numbers, and large numbers will over whelm it. This is my final statement to the citizens of Tokyo, and possibly, the world." The crowd is stunned. How dare she act so cold towards them? People ask that, in masses. I just smile, and even laugh at how the announcer gives the intro again for Sailor Moon, and then for the next person.

I turn off the TV before I picture blowing up the insulting, undeserving crowd in the service. Andrew just sits back, wordlessly. I get up and head towards the kitchen. "Do you want something to eat?" I hear the chair creak and see Andrew come into the kitchen, giving me the look 'I-know-your-hiding-something.' For some reason, however, he does not say anything like that first. "No thanks Darien, I already ate. Why do you think she was so cold? Wasn't she bright and perky before?" I begin to make my own toast. "Andrew, deaths can do that to a person." I feel Andrew nod. "Yes."

Now, as I give him his coffee, he corners me for answers. "What are you hiding? Shouldn't you be feeling betrayed or something, like she was hiding something from you?" He was implying how I could probably pass as her number one fan. "No, she was only telling the truth and not trying to lie to the public. And I am hiding something, but if you would know, you would face death more than you already do now." I stare at him for the last half of the statement before turning back to get my toast. When I return, Andrew is pale, curios, and staring at me strangely. "What did that mean?" I concentrated on eating my toast. "Well, talked to her this morning, and by you having solid facts and semi personal information of her, via me, the evil that is slowly taking over Tokyo might use that as a excuse to take you prisoner for info or plain execution."

Andrew now just looked pale. He apparently had been expecting a more mysterious, or a less blunt answer. I shrug. "Hey, you asked me a question." Andrew nodded. "Yeah, I did." He looked at me. "You are in danger as well?" I nod, and get a coffee refill. "Yes. Want a refill?" He looked at me with one raised eyebrow. "You are fine with this?" I go back to the table. "No, but what else can I do?" I left much off of that ending, and Andrew caught that. He leaned forward, with an evil glint in his eyes. "What aren't you telling me?" I took a drink of my coffee, and then took my plate back over to the dishwasher. "It depends," I said between actions, "how much you want your chances of death or torture to increase." Andrew tried to laugh it off, but saw that I was serious, but really thought about his answer.

"How high are the chances for knowing someone with close connections to her already?" I lean against the counter top. "Pretty much to the level I am at." Really, it couldn't make anything worse for Andrew, and he does keep his mouth shut with important stuff, so it would really have no effect. "I can't get much worse, so tell me already." That cheerfulness is kind of gone now, and Darien silently disagreed with Andrew's last statement.

He did ask, I reasoned, and then went to the living room, just for the sake of movements and stalling. When all settled, Darien sighed, to begin the nights narration again. "You know who 'stole' the fallen senshi?" Darien locked eyes with Andrew and mentally told him 'don't be stupid.' Andrew's expression told him that he understood, but Darien was not awake enough to smile. "Well, she came to me Christmas eve, asking me a few questions that pertained to the issue, and what could happen badly, and so, she gave me an hour to get down to a meeting spot. There, the bodies of the fallen senshi were wrapped and waiting, and as soon as I was ready, she teleported us off and I gave the defense against space hazards….

"…and right after she warned me of the spreading evil, we teleported in my living room, and she promptly passed out, like she said she would." There was silence for a moment, and Andrew looked like he was still swallowing it all. "Well, looks like you had an interesting night." I laughed at the whole situation, not really feeling anything. Andrew gave me an odd look, one mixed with envy, understanding, and something bittersweet. We sat there, not really knowing what to do now. "May I see her?" I gave him a look. "You can, but it isn't like she is dying or anything." I stood up, and waited for Andrew to stand up before opening my bedroom door. "No, she is only recovering from dying." We both knew how right his statement was.

As Andrew came in behind me, I moved to find a blanket to cover her, and then sat down next to serenity, on the bed. She was lying on her stomach, for I really didn't want to risk hurting her or her wings for any other position. Andrew watched as I put a piece of silver behind her ear that had fallen out of braid. He smiled, like he had been given a gift. "What, Andrew?" Again, his expression was bittersweet, not at all matching his light tone. "I actually get to see the feared Sailor Moon and not be dying or running for my life." I chuckled at this, and then pictured a pissed off Sailor Moon in frenzy. "I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of her power." I smiled, thinking of how much pain that would mean for the receiving end of her power, but dropped it as I remembered I was on the receiving end of her rejection. Andrew has to be a weak telepath, I swear. "She rejected you, didn't she." I twitched my nose in thought, and motioned for him to go back into the living room. We both gave a final glance back at the angelic sight before I closed the door.

"No, not in her actions, in fact, she was the one to first move in." Andrew sat down and looked confused. "'not in her action?'" I answered him from the kitchen. "She said that if her destiny hadn't already been made, things could have been different." Those things had been the edits I made to the night, and Andrew now realized it. Coming back into the living room, I sat down again. "So I take it you can't make it to the New Year's party?" I looked up at him and shook my head. "No, actually, I probably can, since she said that she had 'a charade to do' on the day that we leave." "'a charade?'" I shrugged. "She said if she didn't keep it up, people would suspect something." We remember back to the video clip, and said that the senshi had had alter egos.

Andrew was thoughtful. "Have you ever thought that Sailor Moon was Serena?" He suspected what I had suspected in the beginning, but I had dismissed it. Though, new connections were bringing up those thoughts. "Yeah, I have…Drew; do you want to become a partner in crime with me?" Andrew backed off into the back of his chair. "Darien, what have you been doing lately?" I stood up to go get my metal case with 'my chem. experiment' in it, and brought it over to the coffee table. Andrew eyed it suspiciously. "You know those warnings from earlier?" Andrew nodded. "Well, you can't get in any deeper." He looked to my bed room door. "It has to do with the senshi?" I nodded. "Yes and their identities." Andrew began to be a little scared. "Hey, her mom is helping with clues." "Ah, so you are getting safe in with the mom?"

I opened up the case, assuming he said yes. "Any family dinner plans?" I went to go get my microscope. "No," I yelled from my closet, "because her family is dead." Andrew was quite grasping the fact I talked to the ghost of Sailor Moon's mother. "Well, now you are in it anyway Andrew, and you can help me I think." I wanted him to verify some connections I had made but was afraid they were wrong. He moved to the spot next to me, to see what I was doing. I moved onto the couch behind me. "Judging by what you see, can you come up with any ideas?" Andrew was examining my charts, mentally making theories. "Are these charts the proven stuff you have?" I nodded, and knew that he felt it. "What are the clues her mother gave you?" This further proved that Andrew should have continued with his job as a detective for the government. "A goes with Mu, and that they were always around me." Andrew nodded, and got out a piece of paper and a pen. The clock rang 2. Motioning me to come down on the floor, he began his theories.

"Now just humor mea minute Dare." He wrote 'Serena' and on the other half of the paper, 'Sailor Moon'. "Now, what was Serena like before the holidays? She was bouncy, perky, happy, all of those things, and most importantly, wore her hair in two buns." He was writing this all out as he spoke. "Sailor Moon, judging by the clips, used to be like that to, but more confident. Remember how she and her friends wore the same watch, and could recite all of the known bios of the sailor senshi?" Andrew was looking at me, and I did remember those notes and conversations. "Well, now think about how she, Serena, was afterwards. Her hair was in a bun, and more silvery. Things smoked, literally, when she was around, like that plant. She was worn, and exhausted. She looked paler, and sadder. Sailor Moon became darker, more serous, and yet became deadlier. Her costume literally changed."

"Okay…" I was beginning to see what Andrew was seeing. "Now think of Serena's friends." I pictured them in my head, and said their names as he wrote them down. "From here, we can only go on physical differences, mainly. Lita: tall, strong, brown hair, likes flowers like roses, defensive of her friends, and the air around her was charged with electricity. Sailor Jupiter: tall, brown hair, always in a pony tail, had thunder/lightning attacks, first to go in attacking if attacked, physically strongest of the group, wore rose earrings." These two were written side by side. "Now, Ami. She had these qualities: blue hair, short, smartest of the group, had a job at the best computer company in Tokyo, and always had some sort of computer with her, and she was always cold physically. Sailor Mercury: short, blue hair, gave out the tactics, had ice attacks, used a computer as an item at first. Reye was temperamental, a priestess, long black purple hair and eyes. She could also sense auras and sold purification papers, along with not getting along with Serena. Sailor Mars had purple hair and eyes, used purification papers on monsters, if she didn't use fire attacks. Also, she had a habit of disagreeing with Sailor Moon."

I began to think about that Andrew has been obsessed longer than I was, also sharper in a freaky, stalker sense, to. "The last person in her little clique is Mina, and the last sailor senshi is sailor Venus. Mina was bright, bubbly, but also if they needed a leader, she was it. She appeared right after the new sailor senshi appeared. Also, she was a blond haired, blue eyed angel, well at least to all who could accumulate drool, and mostly male. Sailor Venus came in as Mina moved to the area, blond haired, blue eyed, and the self proclaimed goddess of love, and leader when Sailor Moon was down." I stared at him, trying not to think of him as a stalker, but as an obsessed fan. "Do you have a life?" Andrew grinned back at me. "Nope."

He turned down now to write down two more names, 'Artemis' and 'Luna'. "Do you remember Serena's cat?" I thought about it a minute. "Yes, 'Luna', wasn't it?" Andrew nodded. "Yes and Sailor Moon had the identical cat, who spoke, with the same crescent moon on her forehead. I think a black female cat body was found in the senshi slaughter, but dismissed as a poor cat that got caught in the crossfire. Another cat body was a white one, with a crescent moon just like Luna's. You probably wouldn't know this, but Mina had an identical cat named Artemis. I saw if a few times at her apartment." Andrew cautiously looked away. "You were at her apartment?" He stared at a corner. "We were going out for two years." This was very amusing, but, it wasn't the current point.

"So do you see what I am getting at?" He was looking at me with a straight face. "Yeah, I do Andrew…so do you know who N, U, and PL are?" Andrew became annoyed at this point. "I don't know, Darien, the only people who I have even thought about being N, Neptune, by following the trend of the roman gods, was that race car chick/guy, what ever she is. I think she was a couple with Neptune, N, who has that odd colored green hair that only that music artist 'Michuru' had. Also, the piano accompaniment to the violin was played by the race car chick." I was thoroughly impressed. "Wow, Andrew you don't have a life. Do you know who P or Pluto was?" Andrew leaned back against the couch. "I didn't see anyone more than a few times that hung around the girls, except this woman, with the oddest color eyes and dark green hair. Plus, you saw her more than I did." This was a lot to think of. The clock now rang four, causing Andrew to jump. "Ah, Rita wanted me to come over for dinner!" I laughed as Andrew yelled a hurried bye, grabbed his coat, and ran from my apartment. I stopped as I looked over the list, contemplating what just happened. It all made so much sense, that it was bothersome to think I did not see it. Then again, I did not have the kind of sight that Andrew had. I had pure magical vision, not true seeing vision.

As I looked at the chart longer, I must have spaced, for I heard a scream in the back of my mind, as if someone was trying to get into my head. I closed my eyes, to give more of a focus to my 'listening', and found that a highly powered telepath with minimum control was entering my head. Even with my lack of sleep, I knew the only telepath I knew was Serena, I could tell that the power source came from my bedroom meaning…I opened my eyes, and hurried to my room. Even though she had said that she could not be woken, something was causing her to have to move, like she thought that she was in danger, and caused her to tense up, and occasionally thrash. I really didn't know what to do now, but I followed my instincts, even if it was doing squat for Serenity herself.

Sitting on the edge of my, I began say comforting things, and make comforting noises while stroking her hair. I remembered that that calmed down Serenity from the lunar trip. A few minutes later, she finally stopped tensing and relaxing, until she stayed tense, and in one position on her back. It sounded like she was trying to defend herself from an unseen enemy using spells that had no energy behind them. I took a risk, and went into her head, to see if any other wave length could be 'seen', and one was seen, even if it was faint. However, it was retreating back, to an unknown origin.

After that had been all settled, I watched her just sleep, or what ever was happening. She began to make a concentration face, even if it was for a brief second. Something about being in a trance made it's self remembered. A trance healed the soul or life source first, and then made it to the body. Those were healed by worst to least, so if the person had to wake up for any set time, it could, after all mortal wounds were healed. Knowing that she had three days plus physical sleep before her next 'charade', I decided to help her, or to at least try. If she would have woken up during this time, I probably would have been accused of taking advantage of her, or worse, and if seen, I still would have been accused of that, but, with a lock on the door, no one would enter without me knowing.

First, I took off her blanket, which was doing nothing anyway. She was the exact same position that I had first laid her down in. I actually saw bandaged underneath her black shirt, and felt more on her legs, using her aura as a guide. To move her as little as possible, I grabbed my bring-it-home medical kit that had a first aid kit for people with Ph. D in medical knowledge. Scissors cut the bandages, which had not been changed for a while with blood stains that had begun to show on the outside, and they fell limply to the side, revealing slashes and bruises galore.

She must have been healing before, because the worst of the slashes, the deepest, had begun to heal at an irregular rate. Most of the slashes and bruised continued over to her back, and down slightly before fading. I held my hands a few inches over the worst of the ones in front, under her bra, and some beginning underneath some under her ribs, they began to close, the slashes did, and the only things that didn't heal were the bruises on the skin and no deeper. This took at least an hour, but afterwards, I visibly saw her relax. Of course, I was tired, but that was normal for me, if not more extent. I pulled down her shirt again and covered her body up with the blanket, hoping I did something good.

Because of the magic use I was tired, but to tired to actually sleep, so I began to clean out my bag of travel stuff. The empty food bag pack was tossed with the rest of my luggage in my closet, stuff that I had bought in the random travel. The rest of the stuff in the other bag had been clothing and basic first aid stuff. Really, I hadn't brought much more than that and some toiletries. I shook out the bag again to make sure nothing else was in it, and surprise, my disposable camera was still in it. With the weight it hit the floor; I was surprised I did not feel it. I thought about what else was in the film besides the room in the lunar palace, and remembered nothing else on it. Thinking about developing the film, the threat of the current invader and who I suspected 'attacked' Serenity, and it not really being mine, besides the effect of the stuff on it was technically Selenity's, I crept back in my room and put it in her bag pack, hoping that she would not develop it in Tokyo or Japan. Besides, she said something about her leaving this area anyway with the invaders, and then she might be safe to develop it. With a glance back at the newly healed Serenity, I left my room, to go back to the couch. Putting away my little experiment and the newly made charts, I did lay down on the couch, hoping that sleep would invade me to make me sleep.

However, it did not come until I got up and picked up the chart Andrew made, and then got a picture of Andrew, me, and the girls. Andrew's arm was around Mina, Lita was smiling distantly at the camera, apparently partly looking at Andrew and mina, Ami was in the middle, looking like she just wanted it over, and I was next to her. I had my hands on Serena's, apparently catching her from Reye pushing her, and the camera caught Serena with an expression between surprise and a smile all the while her partly in my arms. It was the best picture I had with everyone. Everyone? Did I just call those four girls part of 'everyone'? Oddly enough, it sounded right. Looking at the written list, I saw the senshi, even moon, where the girls were standing, and that, to, looked right. I saw in the corner that it was dated about a year ago, and I could see how tired and semi weary everyone looked, well of the females. Still, I should have noticed this from the beginning. Especially when Usagi began to eat less and less, but still ate a lot. Finally content, my body let me put away the picture and chart, and let sleep take over. The rest of the day, and half of the second day, went by with out any different happening.

You know the speal…like? Hate? Chandeliers? Please tell me so.

This is chapter 11 of SAW 1 by Saturns Darkness