Here you go the next chappie, sorry it took so long to put it up, ive been away earning some pennies. I hope you like it alot, lots of love bobs xxxx

Chapter 8

The body of the princess plunged to a watery grave; the only sound that could be heard was the cry of her prince. Prince Darien lay helplessly watching his true love as she crashed into the icy cold water below. He could do nothing to save her; he hadn't held onto her tight enough, he hadn't pleaded with her to hold on longer.

He heard hurried footsteps behind him, but he didn't need to turn around to see who it was. The scouts stopped a few inches from the edge of the cliff, two each side of the prince.

"What happened?" Sailor Mercury asked worriedly. She aimed the question at the prince but he didn't seem to be answering. "Darien, answer me!" Sailor Mercury's anger appearing from behind her soft and kind exterior. But once again no answer came.

Sailor Mercury walked around Sailor Jupiter and grabbed hold of both of Darien's shoulders and yanked him up onto his knees. She turned him so that she was standing directly in front of him and then knelt down to look into his eyes.

"Darien, please, you have to tell us, where's Serena, where is our princess?" Sailor Mars asked, trying to sound calm as to coax Darien out from a kind of shock phase. But Darien wasn't even looking at her as he answered.

"She still loved me after everything I did." He replied simply as tears began to fall down his cheeks for the first time since he had dumped Serena. Sailor Mars kept a firm grip on his shoulders and tried to ask him again.

"Darien, I don't know what happened, but you need to tell us where Serena is so that we can help her." Sailor Mars said, unaware of the ripples still present in the icy water below.

"No one can help her now. Even I wasn't enough." Darien replied. More and more tears seemed to appear and his voice turned from unaware to shaky and frightened.

"Was it a Youma Darien? Where did it take her? What did it look like?" Sailor Jupiter asked, walking around to the side of Sailor Mars and trying to persuade Darien to tell them what had actually happened.

"No one could describe what took Serena… it doesn't really have a form… it only takes a hold of a person and when it has you… there's no going back…." Darien answered, pausing in between words so that he could try and compose himself the best he could to tell the girls what he had to say.

"This isn't making any sense Venus, he's just talking in riddles and not giving us anything we can go on." Sailor Mercury said, looking at their current leader, eyes pleasing with her to think of something.

Sailor Venus looked at the heartbroken prince and thought for a while, he had been lying over the edge of the cliff, both arms over the edge in fact, so he must have been holding something or someone…

That cry must have been when he…. He….Oh God!

Sailor Mercury had asked for something, and Sailor Venus had figured it out, but she didn't want to believe it and she couldn't be sure, maybe the Youma flew away with Serena over the edge of the cliff and merely knocked Darien over. That had to be right, she couldn't tell the girls the alternative… it would break their hearts. It couldn't be possible that their princess could survive powerful energy attacks from all of the previous Youmas and then not be able to save herself from falling off a cliff.

"I think we had best search around the woods for any sign of a Youma or a struggle, surely an energy ball would leave energy signals or something. I will stay here with Darien, the rest of you search for some clues to where Serena has gone, I will try and get some info from Darien." Sailor Venus said, hating giving the others orders, but she had to do it!

"Okay." They all said and split off into the trees.

Sailor Venus turned back to Darien, seeing that he had again fallen on his front since Sailor Mars had left him.

"Darien, now that the girls are gone I need you to tell me what happened! Where is Serena?" Sailor Venus said and knelt down by his side. He looked over at her and his eyes were so watery, it was as though he was looking right through her.

"Gone." He said simply.

"Darien, what do you mean by gone? Where is she?" Sailor Venus asked, moving forwards a little on her knees and watched as Darien looked over the edge of the cliff at the freezing water. Sailor Venus gasped, she was right, she didn't want to believe it but Darien had just confirmed it.

"You don't mean… Darien please tell me you're joking." Sailor Venus pleaded with him, grabbing hold of one of his shaking hands.

"Why would I lie about the one person that ever meant anything to me?" Darien asked his voice once again on the verge of breaking it was as though he was a teenager and his voice was breaking for the first time.

"I cant believe she is dead, I wont believe she is dead! Darien how can you just give up on her like this? Don't you love her?" That was the wrong question.

"HOW CAN YOU QUESTION MY LOVE FOR HER? I WOULD RATHER DIE AN INFINITE AMOUNT OF TORTURED DEATHS THAN SEE HER DIE! I LOVE HER MORE THAN ANYONE OR ANYTHING, SO DON'T QUESTION MY LOVE FOR HER!" Darien screamed at Sailor Venus, clearly he had had to get that off his chest for a while.

"Darien, there is no point in shouting at me, it's not going to get Serena back any quicker. Now tell me, how did she fall over the edge?" Sailor Venus asked once again, hoping that this time Darien would tell her something that would lead to a conclusion of how she fell.

"I told her I didn't love her anymore." Darien finally told Sailor Venus.

"What do you mean? Of course you love her, you have been together for over two thousand years." Sailor Venus said to him, moving just that little bit closer to the edge to look over. "You do… don't you?" She asked quickly.

"Of course I do, but I couldn't be with her anymore… you wouldn't understand…" He said. His voice was quiet now, and not quite sure as if he was thinking what he had done was what made the dreams come true.

"Try me, I've had confusing relationships before trust me!" She said, turning her head back to him and looking in his eyes.

"You'll think I'm stupid." He said and looked down at his hands.

"If its so stupid it wouldn't have caused you and Serena to break up would it? It has to be important." She said kindly, trying to show him that she cared.

"I keep having these dreams…" He began.

"Dreams? What kind of dreams?" She asked before he could continue.

"Dreams about me and Serena." He replied and paused for a moment before continuing. "About our wedding." He said, a little happier.

Sailor Venus smiled at this, she always thought of their wedding as special, it was their destiny to be together and once they were married they would be the King and Queen of the Universe.

"When I dream we are already married and are walking down the isle. Lots of confetti and flowers being thrown at Serena and us and she looks so happy!" Darien smiled as he remembered the look on her face, then looked back at Sailor Venus seriously, "But it wasn't to last… the short version is she dies because of me… I cant save her and she is in danger whilst being with me, so I did the only thing I could do."

"But Darien, surely if you had told her you could have sorted it out, instead of hurting her like you did! Do you know what you put her through?" She asked him her voice rising in anger as she thought of the sad face Serena always put on when she saw Darien.

"I couldn't tell her, I didn't want to hurt her or scare her!" Darien sobbed, trying to persuade Sailor Venus that what he did was right, and partly trying to persuade himself.

"Don't you think that Serena had a right to know why you were breaking up with her? Do you think she would have cared about some stupid dream? Darien think!" Sailor Venus shouted again, not really shouting at him, but shouting, as the thought of her friend and princess actually being gone frightened her.

Darien looked down at his hands and thought back to the last few moments he spent with her as a couple.

FLASHBACK

"No, Ahhh Darien please!" Serena giggled, trying to stop her 'mean' boyfriend from tickling her. "You win, you win, you are the sexiest person alive!" Serena shouted, trying to stop his flying hands from finding places on her torso.

"Only alive?" Darien asked sadly, as he continued to torture her nerves.

"Okay and dead! Who ever lived and will ever live!" She shouted at him again, trying not to look into his eyes because she knew he would be pulling a puppy dogface at her.

"But Serena I don't believe you!" Darien said, trying to sound serious even though inside he was laughing at the hilarious scene in front of him. He was taller than Serena by head and shoulders and broader built so it made the tickling of the fragile girl so easy. He could hold both of her hands with one of his and tickle her with his other.

"Please Darien, my stomach hurts from laughing!" Serena begged, trying to sag forwards so that he couldn't reach her stomach but he moved his hand around to her side so he could continue tickling her.

"Only if you promise to do whatever I tell you for the next five hours of your stay." Darien said to her and looked at her face change to shock at his order. "Or I could continue tickling you…" He continued and Serena shook her head wildly.

"Okay, okay, I will do whatever you say until I have to go home." She agreed and was released instantly.

Serena flopped on the floor relaxing her muscles after laughing so much. She looked up at Darien as he sat on his bed laughing down at her, a sly smile on his face.

She lay on her back, stretched her arms and lay there for a few moments just staring at the ceiling, she was breathing a little heavy but other than that she felt relaxed.

"Comfy?" Darien asked, looking down at her and smiling.

"Extremely!" Serena said back, turning her head from his sight and looked around the room at his apartment. She had been here quite a few times since they had been going out and it still amazed her how clean it always was.

"Don't get too comfy, my little slave, you will be obeying my every order in a few minutes." He said and stood up, looking out of his balcony window. Serena turned her head back to him and for an instant had dejavous. She didn't know if it was one of her past memories coming back or something that she had seen before but he looked different, troubled even.

"Darien?" She asked and sat up instantly, crossing her legs.

"Hmm?" He asked turning to look at her again, and saw the worried look on her face.

"What's wrong?" She asked and held her hand out to him for him to pull her up.

"Nothing." He said, heaving her small body off the floor with great ease and pulling her body so that she leaned against him. "Nothing whatsoever." He ended.

END FLASHBACK

He had not really made her do much, she couldn't cook, she couldn't clean or do anything like that so he mainly made her sit on his knee and bring him things and make him feel loved. She didn't really class that as punishment, but she got a little shy when he told her to take his shirt off and fetch a clean one from a drawer in his room. Unluckily she had chosen the wrong drawer and ended up with his Boxer's drawer. Then he hadn't helped her take his top off and once she had got it off he had pulled her on him and made her lay on his bare chest. Serena had always been a very shy girl.