A/N: I'm really, really, really sorry for such a late update, you guys. It was totally and completely my fault…you see, last weekend, Harry Potter came out (WOOHOOOOO!) so of course once I got home from the bookstore at midnight, I read all day Saturday. I WOULD have started working on the chapter then, but my mom – who told me earlier on that I wasn't allowed to post another chapter of fanfiction until I finished (or at least started) the Huck Finn essay my English teacher assigned for the summer – found out that I, er, "accidentally" posted a new chapter of Don't Want U2C and grounded me from everything until I finished that goshdarned essay. I've finally done the essay – it sucks, but it's done – so heeeeeeeeere's Chapter 22!
1.) In the manga, Sailor Moon has an attack called "Moon Twilight Flash." I did NOT make it up.
2.) Everyone who complained about Zoi's gender, you find out in this chapter why I change it. Kind of.
3.) Sailor Moon wears her mask in my version.
Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, or Golden Grahams.
Subject to Change
Chapter Twenty-Two: When It Rains, It Pours
Something stirred in the shadows of Beryl's inner sanctum – someone observed the queen of the Dark Kingdom. But Beryl did not notice it. Her eyes were for her prey and her prey alone.
"Tell me where she is."
A pained cry, blistering the air. "I do not know!"
"You will speak, or I will kill him."
"No…he was like a brother to you…!" The voice rose into a scream as the sound of leather biting into flesh echoed in the yawning caverns.
Beryl's tongue snaked out to stroke her glistening fangs as she watched the delicious bruises and tears erupting on her victim's flesh. She WOULD tell her…
"Please!" The frail shape struggled to lift itself on its elbows from the cold flagstones. It collapsed immediately; after its long imprisonment and myriad interrogations, it was scarcely more than a skeleton.
"You will TELL me."
"I…know not…please…have mercy on him…"
Beryl's face twisted as her victim fell completely silent and still. "Metallia, the energy you have given me is gone."
"Then you should have used it more sparely," rasped a voice. "I have no more to spare you, Beryl. Send your generals out with a youma. When they are successful, then you will be able to play with your toy again."
Something that was not blood glinted red in the dark cavern. But it quickly vanished, along with its owner, who no longer had the stomach to watch.
Friday Afternoon:
When Serena and Darien entered the arcade, they were ambushed. Not by a cadre of youma or even Zoicite, but by a mass of frightened little elementary schoolers.
"Serena-onee-chan! Serena-onee-chan!" they cried, clutching her hands or little fistfuls of her school skirt. "There's a scary lady talking to Toki-onii-chan!"
Serena, patting one brown-haired little girl on the head, glanced towards the counter to see Motoki locked deep in conversation with Lita, waving around a plastic spoon like a sword as he spoke.
"You guys are crazy!" Serena exclaimed, squatting down to be on their level. She caught Darien's amused-looking gaze and made a motion to him to go and snag the counter booth before someone else could. Then she transferred her attention to the anxious-looking children once more. "Why are you guys so scared of her? That's Lita, she's one of my best friends!"
"But…" The redhead clutching Serena's left hand – Yasashi – peeked over the blonde's shoulder. "She's so big, Onee-chan!"
"You guys just think that because you're so used to me, and I'm a midget," said Serena matter-of-factly, squeezing Yasashi's hand. "Lita drinks a lot of milk, so that she can grow big and tall to protect her friends."
"You mean if I drink my milk I can be as big as her?" breathed Buji, a third-grader with a crown of curly brown hair and big brown eyes. Serena had met him a couple of months ago, when she and him had fought over who got to play the Mortal Kombat game first. They had ended up playing together at the same time due to a compromise of Motoki's, and Buji had been Serena's favorite ever since. She reached out to ruffle his tousled hair.
"Of course, Buji-chan! In fact, I bet you're going to be even taller than me in a couple of years!"
The sudden image of Darien snorting and saying, That won't take long popped into Serena's head. She smiled, shook it away, and stood up. "C'mon, you guys, let's go talk to Lita so you can see how nice she is!"
Serena marched purposefully up to the counter, the knot of children following close at her heels, though not without hesitation.
"Lovebirds," sang Serena, swinging Buji up into her arms with a grunt and plopping him down on the stool beside Lita. "Come out of your little world for a minute to talk to some of my friends."
Motoki blushed and Lita scratched her head. Her eyes swept over the gaggle of children that had followed Serena like ducklings. She shifted uneasily on her stool; all the enthusiasm that had made her glow when she was talking to Motoki had vanished
"This is Buji-chan – but you can call him Honey Bunny if you like, he loves to be called that – " Serena laughed as Buji scowled thunderously. " – and here's Hiro, and Mimi, this is Touya, and this shy one here is Yasashi. They wanted to meet you!"
"Did…they?" Lita mustered an uncertain smile.
"Yup!" Serena nudged Lita playfully. "Don't be bashful, they won't bite, Lita! Well, Buji-chan might."
"Onee-chan!" whined Buji. "I'm not a dog!"
"Of course not, you're a Honey Bunny!"
"Onee-chaaaaaan!"
"Aw, stop making fun of the kid, Serena." Lita elbowed her friend, loosening up. "He'll be able to beat you up when he gets older."
"You think so?" Buji's eyes widened eagerly.
"Oh, but Honey Bunny wouldn't beat up his favorite onee-chan," protested Serena.
"Honey Bunny wouldn't, but Buji would," said Buji darkly.
"Doesn't he just remind you of Darien?" whispered Serena happily to Lita. "Look at that scowl!"
Lita's eyes shot up. She looked down at Serena, who was now ruffling Buji's hair and giggling as he tried to fend her off, then at the dark-haired junior who was sitting in the corner booth, his hands knotted behind his head as he watched the scene with a smile.
"Serena-chan, if you don't stop, I'm going to ask Lita-san to be my new onee-san!"
The threat perked Lita's ears up. Something warm brushed the corner of her heart, and she jerked immediately from her intense scrutiny of Shields. Had the little booger actually said what she thought she'd heard?
"Lita-san!" gasped Buji, now breathless from laughing as Serena mercilessly tickled his ribs. "Be my onee-san, pleeeeeeeeease!"
"Sure," said Lita as nonchalantly as she could to hide the elation she felt warming her inside. She threw Serena a mock glare. "Back away from my ototo-chan, Serena."
"You guys are so mean." Serena pouted, then turned to Motoki. "Toki, can me and Darien get some soda and a milkshake?"
"Sure thing." Motoki took out a couple of glasses. "What are you and Darien doing over there in the back booth, hmm?"
"Like you're one to talk, Toki," Serena retorted. "Flirting with Lita instead of taking care of your customers. These poor children are starving, feed them!"
"Actually, I get the feeling I'm going to be seeing a lot of milk mustaches pretty soon," replied Motoki, watching the kids climbing all over Lita.
"So if I drink lots of milk, I'll be as tall as you?"
"Does ice cream work, too?"
"Baka, if ice cream worked, Serena-onee-chan would be twenty feet tall!"
Serena scratched her head and grinned and Motoki. "I'd better leave before my self esteem gets totally squashed, huh?"
Serena wore a grin like the Cheshire cat when she plopped down across from Darien with their dripping-cold drinks. "Am I good, or am I good?"
"You did an outstanding job," agreed Darien. "It was an ingenious way to get rid of the kids, although I didn't think you'd stoop so low as to dump them on your friend."
"What!" Serena's face donned an extremely affronted expression. "How can you say that? I wasn't dumping them on Lita, I was making her open up some more! She couldn't resist those cute little faces!"
"Oh." Darien reached for his soda and sipped thoughtfully. "That does seem more like something you'd do."
Serena sighed. "You're clueless." She turned around to look at the fifth-graders scampering onto the stools around Lita, who was arm-wrestling a red-faced Buji as the others cheered them on. "But I'm proud of my work. They love her!"
"The endorsement from 'Serena-onee-san' probably didn't hurt." Darien cackled. "You looked like a teen mother with all them swarming around you."
Serena flushed. "Twice in one day that I get accused of underage preganancy. Why me?" She twisted around, peering down at herself. "Do I look fat or somethign, like I've been pregnant?"
"No…."
Darien's voice sounded slight hesitant. She spun to look at him. "It's my legs, isn't it? I know they look fat, but it's because they're short like the rest of me, so it's not like – "
"You're not fat," said Darien sharply. "Your legs look like twigs. Now stop feeling sorry for yourself, we have to focus."
"Yes, we do." Serena nodded vigorously.
"We need to talk."
"Undoubtedly."
"We have to plan this out."
"You're absolutely right." Serena briskly whipped a napkin out of the dispnser and leaned across the table to pull a pen from Darien's breast pocket. "Now, if we're going to set Rei up with Asanuma, we – "
"SERENA!" Darien snatched the pen back from her. "That's not what I was talking about!"
"Then what were you talking about?" Serena crossed her arms, as though to say What could be more important than getting Rei and Asanuma together? Which was probably what was going through her mind, come to think about it.
"When I say 'Dark Kingdom,' does it a-ring any bells?"
"Oh, them." Serena looked away, making a face. "Do we have to?"
"Yes," said Darien firmly, gently taking the napkin out from under her restless fingers. He uncapped his pen and wrote a list outlining the topics they needed to cover:
1.) new general
2.) weird behavior of Senshi – Rei always did seem a little unbalanced, but were they always THIS psycho? Is there something I should know?
3.) any clues to Silver Crystal – or that princess, I guess
4.) Lita
He underlined this last item several times, and as he finished and capped his pen, he felt the back of his neck prickle, and the hairs there stand on end. He glanced nonchalantly over his shoulder to catch Lita's green eyes once again fixed suspiciously on him.
"Your friend's staring at me, Odango," he muttered out of the side of his mouth. He gave Lita an innocent smile before turning back to Serena. "I don't know if I trust her."
Serena stopped slurping her milkshake – which was brownie-fudge flavor, he noted smugly – to look at him. "Why not?"
"Well…" After a moment's hesitation, Darien related to her the story of how Tuxedo Mask had encountered Lita on Tuesday night.
Serena's reacted exactly how he had predicted she would. Her eyes grew wide as dinner plates, blue and concerned, and her hand covered her mouth.
"Oh, poor Lita," she breathed. "So that's how she got that black eye. Who was that horrible guy? She said it wasn't her boyfriend!"
"You're missing the point," said Darien impatiently. "Seijou kicked Lita out for fighting, and I caught her fighting with that guy in the alley. She seems alright so far, but what if she drags you into trouble?"
"That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard of," Serena declared, glaring at him. "You yourself said it was that guy who was bullying Lita, not the other way around. And I haven't seen Lita do anything violent since I met her."
"I know she seems like she wouldn't, but you thought that Ami and Rei were yoru friends, too, and look what they did – "
"That doesn't have anything to do with this!"
"It does! People can change, Serena – "
"Exactly! People can change! Maybe Lita got into fights at her old school, but she's changed now! She's not going to up and punch me, Darien!"
Darien was breathing hard. "I don't know that."
The look Serena gave him was incredulous. "You don't know that? What does it matter if you know it?"
"It matters because I have to protect you!"
"From adolescent girls?" Serena adopted a frightened expression. "Ooh, how noble! I notice that you haven't been trying to protect Motoki from her."
"Serena…" he growled, leaning towards her.
"What's going on here?" A hand suddenly landed on the table between Serena and Darien, whose faces were only inches apart. Both flushed as they realized this, and shoved themselves back in their seats.
"I asked a question, pretty boy," Lita growled at Darien.
Darien blinked, then returned the tall girl's scowl. "I was telling Odango here that I'm not sure she should hang out with you."
Serena shot up and grabbed Lita's arm. "Ignore him, Lita, we'll go talk to Toki, come on, Darien's just being a jerk – " she threw him a scathing look over her shoulder – "he's acting like Seiko."
The retort Darien had readied fell from his lips. Realization rushed into him like a flood of water. But…
Lita pried Serena's fingers from her arm and placed her other hand on the tabletop, looming over Darien. "You think I'm gonna beat her up, Shields?"
It took a moment for Darien's mouth to form the words. "Based on what I've heard about you track record at Seijou, it seems like a possibility, yes."
"Oh, so you're a guy who likes to gossip, huh? Very manly, Shields." Lita's lip twisted. "In fact, you just reek of manliness."
Darien colored slightly. It was true, the scent of that damned cologne had yet to fade.
"Let me tell you about another guy whose manly pride got him into trouble," snarled Lita quietly. "He was messing with a freshie, I told him to knock it off. He wouldn't listen, so I busted his lip for him. He thought he'd be smart and catch me in an alley for some payback, and he got a little, but I gave as good as I got, till some fruity vigilante wannabe showed up and knocked him out. I fainted – " Lita paused here for a moment, her own neck flushing slightly with embarrassment. " – and the next thing I know, I'm in a cop car, and that bastard's outside telling the cops I jumped him and knocked him out. The cops told the principal, I got expelled from Seijou. End of story."
Guilt roiled in Darien's stomach. It was his fault that Lita had been kicked out of her old school – if only he had told the 911 operator that a girl had been attacked by a guy, instead of just saying that there had been a fight…Serena had been right, Serena was always right…
"The only reason I told you this," said Lita very quietly, still glaring at him, "is because I know you care about Serena and you just don't want to see her get hurt, and neither do I. She's the best friend I've ever had, and I'm not stupid enough to risk that. Capiche?"
Darien nodded stonily.
"Good."
Lita turned to go, but her exit was blocked by the arms Serena threw around her middle.
"Thank you, Lita," hiccupped Serena, voice muffled by Lita's shirt. "That's the – hic – nicest thing anyone's ever – hic – said about me!"
Lita looked down at the blonde head in obvious consternation, at loss as to what to do. After a moment, however, her face softened and she patted Serena's head. "You're welcome." She leaned down and whispered into Serena's ear. "Now you go talk to him, okay? Don't get mad at him. He was just trying to protect you, Serena."
Serena loosened her grip, looking up. "Are you – hic – sure? He – hic – hurt you…"
"As if a scrawny Mathlete like him could hurt me!" Lita wrinkled her nose and pushed away from the blonde. "Stop insulting me, Serena!"
Serena giggled and sniffled, tripping back over to the booth where Darien was staring at the tabletop. Lita watched and returned to the counter.
Serena and Darien resumed their conversation as though nothing had happened, though for the first couple of minutes an atmosphere of awkwardness hugn over the table. They covered everything that had happened from the very first time each of them had transformed a couple of months ago – amazing how it had been such a short tiem ago yet it felt like a lifetime! – with considerable relish and sympathy, depending on what was called for.
Serena was rather confused by Darien's narrative of his dream princess's behavior.
"But Luna always says she's so sweet," she murmured after Darien's lengthy complaint of how whiny and demanding she was when she ordered him to find the Silver Crystal.
"Yeah, well," said Darien, pounding the ice at the bottom of his glass with a straw. "Obviously Luna hasn't been telling the truth about a lot of things."
This sent Serena into a thoughtful silence until Darien – slightly disconcerted by her uncharacteristic quiet, and rather missing her chatter – nudged her leg with a foot. At which point the conversation started up again, this time on why the new general had seemed so focused on the color of her hair.
All in all, it went pretty smoothly…but since this IS Serena and Darien we're talking about, they did hit several snags. Some bad and some enlightening…
Conversation Snag #1:
"WHAT? ZOICITE KNOWS WHO YOU ARE!"
Serena mumbled something.
Darien's eyes bulged. "AND your parents are gone!"
"No, but that's better!" Serena insisted. "Don't you see, that means the Dark Kingdom can't hurt them to get to me – well, it means that they'll have to work a little harder to do it, at least – "
"It means that you're alone at home, unprotected!" Darien was fuming. "I don't want – you can't – urgh!"
He exhaled noisily. Serena couldn't very well come over to his place: that would be entirely improper. And she couldn't go to Ami's or Rei's because they thought that she was the enemy –
"Don't you think that I can take care of myself?" demanded Serena. But there was a touch too much emotion in her voice. Darien smiled ruefully when he heard the slight hitch in her voice: she always tried so hard to keep a happy face on.
And he'd let her, because that made her happier than having to argue with him. But that didn't mean he was going to sit back and do as she said. Nope, nope, nope…
Conversation Snag #2:
"Let me get this straight. You think that Miss Lanai is the Moon Princess?"
Serena twiddled her thumbs. "Well, it makes sense, sort of. I saw her wearing that crystal necklace, and she was telling us all those stories…"
Darien grimaced because she was right. Once he thought about it, Miss Lanai did seem to meet a lot of the Moon Princess criteria. But – the woman drew a mustache on her upper lip, for God's sake! How could she be royalty!
He thought harder, causing Serena to laugh at his severely-creased face. He ignored her, comparing Miss Lanai's and the dream princess' voices in his mind. They didn't sound at all the same (for one thing, the dream princess didn't have a French accent) – but he was basing this on a dream. Well, several dreams, but still. There was really no proof that Miss Lanai was not the Moon Princess.
There was none that she was the Moon Princess, either. He told this to Serena, who merely shrugged (clearly disagreeing with him) and changed the subject.
Conversation Snag # 3:
"Wait a second. Rei lit your tuxedo on fire?"
"That's what I said, Odango, take the cotton out of your ears."
"Shut up," said Serena absently. She twirled a strand of hair around her finger thoughtfully, staring into space. "I had hoped that maybe – now that I'm not there anymore – they would have gone back to acting normal…"
"What happened to them?" asked Darien curiously. "They didn't use to act like that. I remember the first time you brought Rei to the arcade, she was really shy and – well, not psycho."
"I know." Serena scrubbed angrily at her forehead. "Ami, neither. For the first few weeks after I met them, everything was totally normal, but then – it was weird, we just went to school one morning and Ami had to touch all the doorknobs, and she started counting how many strands of hair were in one of my ponytails, and she burst into tears when she lost count. At first, I kinda thought, okay, it's just stress, because we had fought a youma the night before and come out of it pretty bad, the youma even got away. But then we went to Rei's house after school, and Rei was transformed and using her fireballs to burn up leaves one at a time – "
"No, no, wait, I think you've got something!" interrupted Darien suddenly. "You said the youma got away?"
"Yeah. Yeah, it did." Serena's voice rose slightly. "You're right! It didn't really seem to attack us either, which got Ami really confused and mad, because all it did was make these leather couches appear out of thin air. But then the couches sprouted, like, arms, and they caught both of the girls in them – and they, like, glowed or something for a minute, but since it let them go a second later, I didn't think anything about it!"
"Then that's it!" Darien's eyes sparkled. "And because it didn't get dusted, it's still able to exert control over them."
Serena suddenly jumped to her feet and began to stuff all of her things into her backpack.
"What are you doing?"
"I have to tell them all this!" Serena zipped up her bag and grabbed her milkshake – she was never one to waste food, that girl. "They don't know that a youma's controlling them – "
"You can't tell them this!"
Serena nearly fell over in shock. "Why not!"
"Because! They want to kill you, remember?"
"But I've got to tell them – "
"No way! You're not going anywhere near that cat or Rei, Serena, and that's final. Now sit down."
In all truth, Serena wanted nothing more than to do just that. Rei and Luna scared her more than she had ever thought they could be capable of – bitter bile rose to her throat when she thought of what they might do if she were to approach them. But even if they weren't anymore, they had once been her friends. And they were Senshi, and fellow human beings besides – as Sailor Moon and as Serena Tsukino, she owed it to them to tell them what she and Darien had figured out.
Her hopeful heart pointed out that maybe the youma was the reason Rei, Luna, and Ami had deemed her an enemy. Maybe once she alerted them of the youma's existence, their friendship would be mended and everything could go back to normal, and she could introduce them to Lita and set Rei up with Asanuma and everyone would be a big, happy family again.
As happiness lit in her blue eyes, Darien knew that her idealistic side had taken over. He had to intercede now, before it was too late. "Serena," he blurted out, "I don't trust them not to hurt you! Please, promise me you won't go near them?"
Maybe it was the tiny, nearly unnoticeable break in Darien's voice as he spoke these words. Perhaps it was the way he wouldn't look at her as she spoke, but turned his head so that he faced the window and a handful of silky black hair fell over his eyes. Or the hesitant way in which his hand slid carefully, cautiously, over hers on the tabletop.
Whatever it was, it knocked the words of protest straight out of Serena's mouth, like shock stealing the air from a pair of lungs. Goosebumps raced along her arm, up to her shoulder, and a shaky breath trembled out of her lips.
And she couldn't bring herself to deny him.
So she promised.
But she didn't mean it. She crossed her toes inside her Mary Janes and felt miserable as she watched the relieved smile break out across his face.
It should have occurred to her that Darien had always been able to tell when she lied, and that there was no reason for this occasion to be any different.
They left soon after that. Motoki, who got off work early on Friday nights, had gone with Lita to the grocery store. With Asanuma absent and the arcade mainly populated by younger kids, there was really no reason to stay.
Darien insisted on walking Serena home. In fact, he didn't plan on her being ANYWHERE alone for the next week, but he was careful not to relay this to her. She was already annoyed enough.
"Do you think I'm going to walk into a pole and knock myself out?" Serena stomped ahead of him in the falling dusk. "I can walk home by myself! I do it every day!"
"That was before, Odango."
"Before what? Before Zoicite found out who I was? Sorry, buddy, you're a little late."
Darien smiled a smile that bared all of his teeth. "Before I knew who you were and that Zoicite also knew."
"Hmph." Serena still wore a disgruntled expression, but she slowed down to fall into step with him. "You know, it doesn't make sense. Why does the guy always work the girl home? Why doesn't the GIRL walk the GUY home once in a while? It doesn't make any sense."
"There's a certain logic behind it," said Darien, smiling, "when you take into consideration the physical difference between males and females." At Serena's so what? look, he elaborated. "Men are better equipped to protect themselves, while girls – I'm not calling you weak, Odango, I'm just explaining!" He danced out of the way of her stomping foot, holding his hands out in front of him with a devilish grin. "If you hurt me, I'm not going to explain it to you anymore."
"Fine," said Serena, folding her arms. "I know what you're saying, anyway, I just don't like it. Just look at Lita! She could kick your butt!"
Darien fingered the side of his face where Lita's punch had crunched into his skull. "Gee, it's nice to know you have so much confidence in me."
"Well, you can throw roses better than her, anyhow," comforted Serena, patting his shoulder. "I think. Hey, we're here!"
Darien looked up. They stood in front of Serena's neat white two-story. The empty driveway reminded him of exactly how many lines of protection stood between Serena and the Dark Kingdom – or the Senshi.
One.
Him.
"You wanna…come in?" said Serna awkwardly. Her father would freak if he knew she was inviting a high school boy into the house, but he was miles away – and this was Darien, after all. Tuxedo Mask. He'd never hurt her. Or anything else. Yuuuuuck!
"No, I've got to get going," answered Darien, a little too quickly. "Thanks?"
"Where to?" asked Serena curiously. It never entered her mind that such a question might be rude, because she was asking out of interest and not nosiness, and this was what Darien liked about her. She nosed her way into people's lives without ever asking – if she had had the sense of propriety other girls her age did, they never would have become friends.
Friends.
"I've got to do something for a friend." Darien pushed her up the walk. "Go on, I want to see you go in before I leave. Lock the doors, close the windows, and don't answer the door – "
"Darien, I'm not three."
"You sure act like it sometimes," Darien retorted. "And you're going to trip if you keep walking backwards like that."
Serena stuck out her tongue at him and turned around to face the front door. She reached a hand into thin air, and Darien watched bewilderly for a moment as her pale hand disappeared. Then it re-emerged with something metallic glinting in it, and he realized that she must have been reaching into her Sub-Space pocket.
"Bye," called Serena as she tugged off her shoes in the open doorway. "Call me if you see any youma!"
"Better yet, I'll drop in on you," muttered Darien under his breath, but threw her a wave of affirmation.
Once the front door closed behind the set of golden ponytails, he walked causally to the end of the block, hands in his pockets. Then, placing his hand on the trunk of a looming oak tree, he glanced around and leapt up into his branches. Rose petals showered down onto the patch of grass he had just vacated; then a black shadow leapt down and crept its way back to Serena's house.
Lady Luck smiled on the tuxedoed youth: a tree stood just outside the window he assumed was Serena's (because it was the only one from which any light could be seen). He shimmied easily up into its branches, found a comfortable niche, and leaned back against the trunk, ready for a looooooooong night. No way were any of those Dark Kingdom sadists getting past him.
A few minutes later, the soft yellow light extinguished itself. A mere second later, the curtains pulled themselves open – Tuxedo Mask jerked up in surprise, then realized that Serena had moved them, for she was curled up on the window seat in a set of frilly pink pajamas, with a glass of water and some sort of food in her hand. His first thought was amusement – did that girl EVER stop eating? – then ire, because she had flagrantly disobeyed his words about not opening any windows, then paranoia. Had she spotted him?
He shrank back into the foliage, willing his eyes to focus on her to detect any sign that she had sensed his presence. His excellent superhero vision determined that there were white bunnies decorating her pajamas and that the food she was dipping into the glass of water was graham crackers.
Eventually, Tuxedo Mask decided that she hadn't seen him, because she had done nothing but stare drearily out of the window. If she HAD thought he was there, she would have called his name crossly and scared all the squirrels from the tree.
Concern swept over him as he watched her listless form. Apprehension coiled in his stomach. Why did she look so lifeless? Was it the Senshi? Finding out that he was Tuxedo Mask? Was she disappointed? Was she frightened? Afraid, despite all her bold words, that Zoicite would come for her as she slept?
His limbs twitched; if that was the case, he could rectify it, he could lift the fear from her shoulders. If he told her he was here, here to protect her –
But no. He firmly forced himself back against the tree trunk. She would make him leave if she knew he was there. Or she would try to make him leave, at least. And she would fuss that he was losign sleep because of her – no, it was better…this…way…
"…ren…crys…it…find…tal…"
Serena flailed her arms, trying to claw the thick, clinging fog from her body. "Who are you?" she screamed out to the disembodied voice. "I'll help you, but you have to talk louder!"
"…renity…can't…need it…help…"
"I'll help you!" screamed Serena, tears pouring down her cheeks. She had no idea why they were falling, but they streamed into her mouth, salty on her tongue. "Where are you?"
"…ity…the crystal…!"
Serena stumbled over something in the fog and landed hard on her stomach. She cried out and leaned up on her elbows, the salty wetness now gushing over her tongue. Funny, it seemed to flowing out of her, not into her…but no time to think about that, she had to help the voice! "Where are you!"
A scream tore Tuxedo Mask from his sleep. He nearly fell off the tree branch, his limbs trembling and sweating as though he had just finished riding the Tour de France. He shoved his discomfort from his mind and scrambled as far down the branch as he could to squint into Serena's now closed but not curtained window.
Serena was crouched on her hands and knees at the foot of her bed amidst a mountain of tangled sheets, blankets, and pillows. Her hair hung down around her like a golden curtain as her shoulders heaved.
Serena lifted her head and a hand, which she used to scrub vigorously at her mouth. What in the hell was wrong?
She sat back on her haunches, grabbing a blanket and pillow. The former she wrapped around herself like a medicine man's shawl and the latter was hugged in her arms as she shut her eyes tightly and rocked back and forth. Eventually, she sank back onto the mattress and lay motionlessly, her chest moving up and down slightly.
Tuxedo Mask crawled slowly back to where his branch met the tree trunk. His mind spun. How long had this been going on? Did Serena do this every night, or was this the first time? She had had a nightmare, that much was obvious. He, of all people, knew what the aftermath of an intense nightmare looked like – in fact, Serena's scream had woken him from a nightmare just now –
His spine stiffened, then relaxed. No, that had just been a coincidence. He had nightmares every night, and it was no surprise if she did, too, with all the horrors she had faced as Sailor Moon. But what had this nightmare been about? And how could he ask her about it without revealing that he had spent the night outside her bedroom?
He suddenly kicked himself. Some guard he was! He'd fallen asleep! It served him right that that he'd had another nightmare – although…
His eyes narrowed thoughtfully, reviewing the dream. It had been different… the princess who usually sounded so whiny and breathy when she ordered him to find the Silver Crystal had been screaming this time. Not screaming the way someone did when they were angry, but screamed the way someone in a horror movie did when a knife-wielding maniac ripped open their shower curtain.
The way Serena had screamed just a few minutes ago.
"I need to think," Tuxedo Mask murmured, rubbing his temples. "Too much is happening at once…"
Warm yellow sunlight streamed across Serena's bed when she woke up the next morning. Her sleep had been haunted by restless dreams that swirled with fog and echoed with the same disembodied voice. She had tossed and turned in her cocoon of blankets, not daring to get up while it was still dark, and eventually, she must have fallen into a deep, true slumber, for it was now eleven o'clock in the morning!
She pushed some tangled hair out of her face and slid out of her blankets, padding over to the window and pressing her cheek against its sun-heated surface.
Last night's nightmare had not been a new one. That dream usually assaulted her at least once a week. All she had been able to glean from it so far was that the voice in the fog needed her to find a crystal.
This made sense – she was Sailor Moon and finding the crystal was her mission.
What didn't make sense was that the disembodied voice was male. Why would a male be asking her to find the crystal? And who could it belong to? As far as she knew, there were no male Senshi, and the princess certainly wasn't male…unless something had been seriously screwed up in her reincarnation.
Serena groaned, opening her eyes. That would just open a whole new barrel of monkeys. How much more impossible would it be for us to find the princess if we had to search for girls AND guys?
She decided to push this from her mind. At the moment, she had more important things to accomplish – like breaking her promise to Darien and approaching the girls.
Serena grabbed her favorite outfit – the blue jumper with the white hooded tank top beneath – and locked herself in the bathroom to take a shower. As she slathered shampoo into her hair, she pondered.
Last night's nightmares, though not new, had been unusual in that she had never had more than one in a single night. Normally, she only had one a week. What had changed? Would it continue? She didn't think that she could handle it if they woke her up every night – especially on school nights.
But there was no use worrying about it when she couldn't do anything about it. She really had to concentrate on was Ami, Rei, and Luna – and Darien. She would have to make sure he didn't catch her trying to tell them, otherwise she would be in HOT water.
As long as she avoided the arcade, she would be fine, she decided. He usually went there Saturday mornings to keep Motoki company in the early morning before the crowds came.
It would be easier to avoid Darien than it was going to be to approach the Senshi. Serena would have liked to talk to Ami first, but she had no idea where the girl lived. Shame painted her cheeks as she realized this – after all, Serena had called the genius one of her best friends!
Instead, after Serena stepped out of the shower, towel-dried her hair, and shimmied into her clothing, she ran to the telephone and dialed Ami's number. She was met by a busy tone.
She stood beside the phone for a minute, chewing her fingernails and trying to muster up all her courage. She crossed slowly to the refrigerator, still mustering, and pulled out the last doughnut in the box her mother had left. She took a bite of its chocolaty, sprinkled goodness, and felt herself straighten. She could do it. She could do it!
Serena crammed the rest of the doughnut in her mouth and raced out of the house.
The dark figure crouched in the oak tree totally escaped her notice.
Tuxedo Mask leapt down from the tree branch once Serena had vanished. He immediately assumed that she was headed for the arcade – after all, where else did the Odango ever go? – and de-transformed into Darien before heading towards home for a change of clothes. Odango Atama would be safe at the arcade for half an hour.
"Malachite!"
The pale-haired general strode quickly into his queen's throen room and knelt. "Yes, my queen?"
"I want energy, Malachite!" Black lightning crackled around Beryl's body. "NOW!"
"You shall have it, my queen. Have you any special orders?"
"No! Just get it!" snarled Beryl. "Send out a youma at once!"
"I shall." Malachite swept quickly from the cavern into a smaller chamber. He wiped a gloved hand across a smooth section of the rock wall. It glowed green for a moment, then an image resolved slowly within it.
"Let's see what Sailor Moon is up to, shall we? Can't have her interfering…"
The image was slightly wavery, like something viewed through undulating water. But it was easy enough to discern: two Senshi, one with the beautiful golden locks of Sailor Moon, the other with the long, darker hair of Sailor Mars. The latter was shooting her infamous fireballs at her leader.
"Very nice…very nice…it seems the plan is coming to fruition perfectly. Now, shall we make it a little more interesting?"
Malachite snapped his fingers, once, twice.
Two youma appeared behind him. One held a clipboard, her chest shaped like a medicine cabinet. The other was little more than a green blob with four long suckered tentacles.
"Yes, Master?" the second gurgled.
"Psychotica, remove yourself to this location immediately." Without turning to look at the youma, Malachite pointed at the image in the wall. "Your function is as distraction and destruction." He paused. "I should inform you, Denizen Psychotica, that if your excellent work with the Sailor Senshi continues, Queen Beryl is considering a promotion for you. I shall come to watch your work today and report back to Her Majesty on it. Watch yourself."
Once a pleased Psychotica had vanished, Malachite turned to the blob youma.
"You are to go to this location," he said, summoning a new image in the rock. People milled around excitedly with toys and cotton candy in their hands; it appeared to be a fair of some sort. "Our queen wants energy. Use the lambda strategy and take no hostages."
Rei glanced up from her sweeping of the temple steps when Luna suddenly let out a hiss. The cat's black fur was standing on end; her tails tuck straight up in the air; and her teeth were bared.
"What is it, Luna?" asked Ami timidly from where she sat typing on her mini-comp.
Before Luna could reply, the cause of her consternation dashed into view. Golden ponytails glinted in the noon sun, as did the brooch peeking out of her pocket.
"You!" snarled Rei, dropping the broom. She stepped in front of Ami, who had scrambled to her feet.
"No, you guys! Listen to me!" Serena walked tentatively up the steps, her hands spread non-threateningly at her sides. "I have to tell you something."
A growl halted Serena's ascent.
"You aren't telling them anything." Luna's whiskers trembled with the bass of her voice as her eyes bored into Serena's. "Traitor."
"No! I'm not!" cried Serena. "You guys – Ami – you have to believe me! I'm not working with the Dark Kingdom!"
"Stop lying, Sailor Moon," spat Rei. "Luna's told us all about what you've done. You've never been on our side at all, all this time we thought you were our friend, but you were waiting to betray us. Not anymore!"
As she spoke, sparks had been shooting from Rei's fingers, brighter and faster. Now they consumed her, whirling around her in a tornado of flames. When they died away, Rei stood in her Senshi fuku, eyes flashing.
"Mars….Fire…IGNITE!"
"REI! No!" Ami lunged for her partner. "You'll kill her – "
"I don't care," panted Mars bloodthirstily, eyes glued to Serena as she dove out of the way of the stream of fire. "Let her die, the witch. Mars…Fire – IGNITE!"
"No!" Ami screamed, nails digging into Rei's arm. "Rei, you'll get arrested, you'll be sent to prison, given the death penalty – "
"If it's for my princess, I don't care." Mars sent another stream of fire at Serena, and another. She dodged again out of the way of the first, but the second caught the end of one pigtail.
"There's a girl," said Luna approvingly, eyes glowing as she watched Serena cry out and stomp on the smoldering hair to extinguish it. "That's how a true Senshi talks. Are you a true Senshi, Ami?"
"I…" Ami glanced helplessly at Serena, who had drawn herself to her feet again and was staring at them, eyes wide.
"Please! You guys! There's a youma, it's controlling – "
"Mars Fire IGNITE!" Serena was cut off as more fireballs charged towards her. She wailed and stuffed a hand in the air.
"MOON PRISM POWER!"
A globe of blue and pink light swallowed her up, absorbing Mars' fire. Then Sailor Moon stood there, staring at her Senshi.
"You guys HAVE to listen," she panted. "There is a youma – "
"RIGHT HERE!"
Necks cracked as their heads spun to see the voice. There, at the foot of the temple steps, stood a very familiar youma.
The one they had fought and failed to defeat.
"Did you miss me, darlings?" cackled the creature, pushing its square-rimmed spectacles down on its nose. An armchair appeared behind it and it plopped down in it, crossing its legs professionally. "It's been SUCH a long time since your last session… tell me, Mars, how are you feeling? Not bottling up your anger anymore, are you?"
"You should be dead!" shrieked Mars. "We already fought you! Mars…Fire…IGNITE!"
"Oh, now, none of that." The youma vanished and reappeared a few yards away, safe from Mars' fire. "In fact, I think it's time you took a little rest."
The youma flicked a hand, and a leather couch appeared behind Sailor Mars. Arms shot out of it and clamped her to the cushions. She let out a scream that cut off as soon as the leather couch shot into a floating, horizontal position and the arms turned into ropes that tied and gagged her.
"Now…who goes next?"
"Get rid of the blue girl," spoke a deep voice. A white-haired general appeared, floating in the air above the youma. "But leave Sailor Moon alone. After all, why would we hurt one of our own?"
Sailor Moon's jaw dropped. Malachite gave her a cold smile.
"I – i – it's true," gasped Ami, eyes fastened on Sailor Moon in disbelief. She stumbled backwards, right into the waiting arms of another leather couch.
Sailor Moon's knees buckled beneath her. She fell, hard, to the pavement.
"Well, looks like it's just you and us, Miss Tsukino." Malachite disappeared and rematerialized directly in front of her. She tilted her head back to squint angrily up at him. "I don't believe we've ever met before. I'm General Malachite."
"I don't care."
"Of course you don't." Malachite crouched down to look her eye-in-the-eye. She leaned away. "Queen Beryl has not taken back her invitation, you know."
"I'm not joining you," spat Sailor Moon.
"Your Senshi already believe that you belong to our ranks."
"They're confused! Because of YOUR stupid youma!" Sailor Moon pointed an accusatory finger at Psychotica, who was filing her nails in her armchair.
Malachite smirked. "Psychotica has affected them, yes, but we had nothing to do with them believing you were a traitor. That must have come entirely from them."
"But – "
"No more excuses." Malachite stood. "You have two choices. Join or die."
"I'm not joining you!"
"Excellent." Malachite smiled down at her. "I hoped that you would say that. Queen Beryl wants you kept alive, but this is one case in which disobeying her will be worth it."
Sailor Moon forced herself to her own feet, glaring up at him. "What did I ever do to you?"
"You took her away from me."
A sword appeared between them, its hilt gripped in Malachite's hand. Its tip was just beneath Sailor Moon's throat, she felt the coldness radiating from the metal. "She took her away…"
The sword traced a line of agony down Sailor Moon's white neck.
Blood suddenly spurted onto Sailor Moon's white fuku. A growl exploded from General Malachite's throat, and he yanked out the steel-tipped rose that had just speared his wrist.
"Damn you!" he bellowed, wheeling around to search for the rose's thrower. "WHERE ARE YOU?"
Sailor Moon, watching him shout, felt arms wrap around her waist and knew where Tuxedo Mask was. She also knew that she was in big trouble.
They landed in a tree branch with a rustle of leaves. Wincing, Sailor Moon twisted slowly in Tuxedo Mask's arms to face him. The icy fury that covered his face did not surprise her.
He leaned forward to speak directly into her ear so that Malachite and the youma would not hear him and also so that he could watch them through the gaps in the leaves.
"You," he breathed frostily into her hair, "deliberately broke your promise to me."
Sailor Moon cringed, her fingers curling more tightly about his vest. "I – I know, but – "
"You promised me, Serena." His voice was still deadly soft, warming the side of her face despite all its coldness.
"Darien, I had to – "
"I'm angry, Serena. Not just angry, my blood is boiling. Boiling. Do you feel how hot my blood is?"
Sailor Moon didn't know about his blood, but she had to admit that his arms were quite warm, wrapped around her as they were.
"Are you going to ask me why I'm angry, Serena dear?" His breathed words stirred the hair around her ear.
"Because – because I broke my promise…"
"I'm mad because I was so stupid. I can't believe I ever thought you wouldn't try to tell them – "
"Does that mean that you're not mad at me?" whispered Sailor Moon.
"It means that I'm furious with you."
"Oh." Sailor Moon pulled her head away from his, resting her cheek on his shoulder instead. "We have to go save Rei and Ami."
"Where's that cat?"
"I don't know. I haven't seen her since the youma showed up."
"Scaredy-cat," Tuxedo Mask muttered, and Sailor Moon stifled a giggle.
Without warning, Tuxedo Mask suddenly launched them out of the tree. Sailor Moon, who had felt his body tensing for the movement, was ready.
They landed on the steps again, in front of an incensed Malachite and Pscyhotica.
"So you finally decide to show up again," sneered Psychotica. "You're just in time, I was deciding what disorders your friends should eb inflicted with next – "
"Let them go!" ordered Sailor Moon, stepping away from Tuxedo Mask.
"I don't think so!"
"I do!" retorted Sailor Moon, grabbing her tiara. "Moon…Tiara…MAG – whoah!"
"Oops!" cackled the youma as a leather couch shot into existence and swept under Sailor Moon's legs, knocking her to the ground. "Again!"
The leather couch zoomed towards Sailor Moon again, about to plow through her. Sailor Moon froze and squeezed her eyes shut tight, hands open and ready to grip Tuxedo Mask's vest as he scooped her up and bore her to safety, which he did several seconds before the leather couch would have plowed into her.
But then something bad happened. The couch followed, and one of its arms reached up and batted Tuxedo Mask's leg, throwin off his landing ability. Instead of reaching the temple roof, as he had intended, they lost altitude and tumbled towards the ground.
And landed on something soft.
Tuxedo Mask realized a split second before Sailor Moon what had caught them. He quickly threw her off of him.
"Oh, DARN!" The youma pouted disappointedly as Sailor Moon sailed through the air and landed on the pavement. "I meant to get both of you! Oh well, one if enough!"
The arms of the leather couch Tuxedo Mask had landed on locked around his struggling form and transformed into ropes. A moment later, the ropes pulsed with ominous reddish light that completely covered him.
"Tuxedo Mask!" shouted Sailor Moon, scrambling to her feet and rushing towards the couch.
"Hmm." The youma tapped her chin with a pencil. "What shall I give him? He seems to be fond of stealing Sailor Moon away every time my master wants to kill her – ooh, yes, that will work nicely!"
She scribbled something on her legal pad, and the reddish light flared, then disappeared. As did the couch, and the couch's arms, until only Tuxedo Mask remained.
"Tuxedo Mask!" cried Sailor Moon in relief that he was still alive, then quickly took a few steps back from him. What disorder had Psychotica given to him?
Tuxedo Mask's eyes opened and flitted around. They landed on the Dark Kingdom general. Then, like a panther surreptitiously stalking its prey, he slid smoothly into the shadows, padding towards Malachite.
"Psychotica," called Malachite, eyeing Tuxedo Mask. "What is he doing?"
"Just watch, Master."
Malachite obligingly stood still, and Tuxedo Mask darted forward from the shadows and snatched the jewel-studded shoulder fastening of Malachite's cape.
"My…preciousss…" he mumbled, stroking the object and ignoring everything else around him.
Malachite shot his youma a look. "I can't say that I'm impressed, Psychotica."
"But Master," whined Psychotica. "I have made him a kleptomaniac! Will this not impede him in future battles?"
Sailor Moon's fists clenched uncertainly. What was she to do? Ami, Rei, AND Darien under the youma's control! She had only one weapon, and it hadn't worked very effectively against Psychotica last time they faced off.
But she had no other choice.
"Moon Tiara MAGIC!"
Laughing, the youma waved her hand and teleported to Malachite's side a few feet away from her original position. The tiara spun through empty air and swung back around to its mistress. Sailor Moon's lower lip trembled as she replaced the tiara on her forehead. She didn't have any other attacks! How was she going to save her friends?
"Oh, Tuxedo Maaaask," sang Psychotica, waving her pencil around like a conductor's wand. "What is that shiny thing on Sailor Moon's chest?"
Sailor Moon gasped and whipped a hand up to cover her brooch. Tuxedo Mask caught sight of it before her fingers completely covered it, however, and he was soon stalking towards her with a happy, blank little grin playing on his lips.
Sailor Moon backed away. "Uh – uh – T-t-t-tuexedo M-m-mask…you d-d-d-don't want m-m-my brooch…"
If Tuxedo Mask takes my brooch, I won't be able to transform into Sailor Moon or use my tiara, and then I'll NEVER be able to save anyone – PLEASE, Darien, don't take it, don't take it –
Tuxedo Mask reached out. His fingers closed around the bejeweled gold circle.
Metal shattered, spraying outward in a rain of shrapnel that shredded Tuxedo Mask's mask and tore up his face.
Sailor Moon's forehead felt hot, almost painfully so, but she cried out and ripped her own mask off her face, shoving it onto Darien's to replace his ruined one. Her fingers tried to swab the blood from his face, but the material of her gloves only caught and snagged on the shards of golden metal – it was her tiara that had exploded, she realized – embedded in his skin.
At this realization, Sailor Moon panicked. She lifted a hand – the one that wasn't clutching Tuxedo Mask's wrist to keep him from pulling away her brooch – to her forehead, expecting to feel bare skin.
Instead, there was something smooth and round, like a jewel. She followed it and felt a filigree surrounding it – this was a new tiara!
The moment the thought hit her, her mouth opened.
"MOON TWILIGHT FLASH!"
White light exploded outwards, forcing her to squeeze her eyes shut tight. She raised a hand quickly, scrabbling blindly across Tuxedo Mask's face to cover his eyes also lest he be blinded.
Eventually, the dazzling light faded away. Sailor Moon tentatively opened her eyes, peering over Tuxedo Mask's shoulder at the courtyard.
Psychotica was nowhere to be seen, though a pile of dust sat on the pavement near where she had last been. Rei and Ami lay sprawled on the ground in their civilian forms, breathing regularly, but unconscious. Malachite was on his hands and knees in the middle of the temple courtyard, retching.
And Tuxedo Mask… she looked down to check on him. He, too, appeared to be unconscious…but wait, were his eyelids fluttering open?
"Tuxedo Mask!" Sailor Moon squealed as his blue eyes opened. She swooped down and hugged him tightly. "You're back! You're back!"
"Yeah…" Tuxedo Mask blinked groggily at the masses of golden hair surrounding him. He flexed his muscles experimentally and realized that one arm was in a really weird position…pressed between his chest and Sailor Moon's.
He turned red suddenly and jerked away from Sailor Moon. "I – oh, man – uh – sorry about that – "
"Zoicite!" shouted Sailor Moon, staring past Tuxedo Mask in horror.
Tuxedo Mask spun – at the same time moving in front of Sailor Moon. His eyes took in the scene before him: unconscious Senshi, heaving Dark Kingdom High General, and furious-looking Zoicite stalking towards the said general.
Zoicite shot Sailor Moon a venomous look. "My Queen will have her vengeance for this, Sailor Moon." She turned back to her ally. "Malachite, you fool."
At the sound of the voice, Malachite looked up, his pale hair dripping with sweat.
"Zoicite?" he said hoarsely. "What happened? Where's the prince? I thought we were – " He paused suddenly and scrutinized Zoicite more closely – more specifically, scrutinized Zoicite's chest more closely. "What happened to you? Did Jadeite dare you to dress up as a woman again?"
Serena dragged Darien into the arcade a while later. Motoki took one look at them and brought over two extra-large Mountain Dews. Darien's was gone within two minutes, and Motoki brought two more, which he quickly slurped down.
Zoicite and Malachite had both vanished quickly. Tuxedo Mask had de-transformed, then re-transformed so that he had a new mask. He gave Serena her old one back, and she promptly began to panic over all the blood that was trickling down his face from the shrapnel.
Tuxedo had laughed at her. This made her certain that he was hysterical, and she was about to run inside the temple and call 911. Tuxedo Mask had grabbed her, still laughing, and healed himself using his psychometry. At the sight of the golden sparks shooting out of his pores, Serena nearly fainted – and of course, that was when Luna had to show up…AND when Rei and Ami woke up.
Luna pounced – apparently, Serena's hope that it was the youma's influence causing them to think she was an enemy was not to come true.
Tuxedo Mask snatched Sailor Moon out of the way just in time. From there, they went to the arcade, where they were now.
"Spill," said Motoki.
Serena and Darien exchanged Looks. Serena, remembering Darien's myriad insistences that she could not lie worth a cow, kept her mouth shut and began to slurp down her soda.
"Well, you see," began Darien, relieved that Serena had interpreted his Look. "We bumped into each other at the park – literally, you know Odango – and decided to, er, race around the lake."
"You raced around the lake," echoed Motoki blankly.
"Yup."
"You do know that the lake is six miles around?"
Darien nodded. "That's why we're so thirsty," he said, taking an exaggerated sip of his soda.
"No wonder you're about to keel over!" Motoki laughed. "Well, that's a relief. For a minute there I was afraid that you guys might have been in that youma attack at the carnival – "
"Youma attack at the carnival?"
"Yeah! Didn't you hear about it?" Motoki's eyebrows shot up. "There's almost fifty people in the hospital because the Sailor Senshi didn't show up!"
Serena cringed at the accusation in Motoki's voice. "But no one died, right?"
"Yeah," said Motoki sadly. "There was a bulletin on the radio, they said three people died. One of them was just a little kid – four or something. He was there with his grandparents." Motoki's fists clenched. "And after those people died in the attack at the movies just last week… It's like the Apocalypse or something."
"Yeah. Yeah, it is." Darien stood up and headed for the door after throwing some money on the counter. Serena did the same. "We gotta go, Motoki, see you."
"Wait!" called Motoki. "Have either of you guys seen Numa today?"
"No, not today," answered Serena, feeling her insides tighten with worry. She glanced up at Darien. "Have you?"
Darien shook his head. "I…uh…wasn't home long today."
"Well, I'm going to call him," said Motoki decisively. "He didn't come in yesterday. I'll call you if I can't get a hold of him, Dare."
Darien nodded distractedly. "Okay."
Several corpses lay in the throne room, proof of Beryl's attempt to vent her fury at what had taken place in the youma battle. Not only had she lost her control over the Senshi Mars and Mercury, but her best general's brainwashing had been undone. All by that moon brat!
"My Queen?" Zoicite's hiss accompanied her figure appearing in the throne room doorway. Pinioned before her was Malachite, his expression guarded.
Queen Beryl turned from the youma whose skull she was twisting slowly, enjoyably from its spine. Blood dripped from her fingers and the ends of her hair.
"YOU!" spat Malachite, spotting her. "What have you done to our prince, witch?" And what had she done to his head? It felt so foggy, as though he'd just gone through the Terra-Luna teleporter without a gravitational adjuster… Had he been drugged?
"Shut your mouth, Malachite," ordered Beryl carelessly. "You have no idea what you have come into. Would you like to know, or shall I just kill you now?"
Malachite subsided reluctantly, throwing both Beryl and Zoicite poisonous glares.
Beryl crossed the cavern to sit down tensely in her throne. "Zoicite, leave us."
Zoicite let go of Malachite and crossed to the chambers' exit. A shadow shifted behind her, unnoticed by any of the three.
As the general closed the doors behind her, Beryl smoothed down her blood-soaked slip. "You remember that you were the bodyguard of the Prince of Earth? And that I and my forces had come to attack the Earth's palace?" At Malachite's icy nod, she continued. "I too remember that day. You will recall that you, Zoicite, Nephrite, and Jadeite had shepherded the prince to the teleportation room of the palace. You managed to teleport the prince just as I entered, and then you destroyed the teleportation device to keep me from following him. Is that the last memory you have?"
Malachite nodded slowly. To his surprise, it WAS the last memory he had. In fact…it was one of the ONLY things he could recall…that and Minako…
Beryl laughed throatily. "That day was a thousand years ago."
"But – how?" A pained grimace etched itself into Malachite's dark face as he thought. One thousand years – there was still a chance that Minako still lived, she had, after all, been subjected to the power of the Silver Crystal…all of the guards of Princess –
His mind faltered. Princess who? "Is – did you – " He stopped, not sure he wanted to know the answer.
"All in good time." Beryl chuckled maliciously again. "I enslaved your minds that ay in the teleportation room. Using magic, I wiped your minds free of the loyalty and love you held for Prince Endymion and bound you to my will. You then accompanied me when I attacked the Moon Kindgom. In fact, you, General Malachite, led the invasion force."
"No…" rasped Malachite. "But…Minako…"
"Ah," smiled Beryl. "I thought we would come to that." She stood and began to descend the steps of her dais. "I killed Prince Endymion and moved on to find the lunar Queen. I was unable to locate her, but you, Malachite, came to me and told me that you had found the Moon Princess beside Endymion, a sword in her belly. It was your opinion, you said, that she had stabbed herself. This was good news to me, and as a reward for your wonderful tidings, I bade you enter the Lunarians' palace with me.
"Inside, we found skirmishes going on everywhere. Among them was your beloved, Sailor Venus. You did not recognize her then, of course. She recognized you, but she did not know that you had been brainwashed. The first clue she got that something was wrong was when you caught the Mau warrior, Artemis, by the throat and held a knife to his neck."
"I killed Artemis?" Malachite wanted to vomit all over again. Artemis had been the closest thing he had ever had to a father, and Sailor Venus' adoptive parent besides.
"Not quite." The smile on Beryl's face grew wider. "She killed Artemis."
"WHAT?"
"I gave her a choice: she had to kill Artemis or I would kill you. Because of the bond you two shared– and it was no light connection, considering that she is the Goddess of Love – she chose to kill Artemis."
"Where is she now?" demanded Malachite hoarsely. Oh, Gods, his poor Minako… "Take me to her!"
Beryl's eyes narrowed. "Do not presume to order a queen, Malachite. Especially not one who holds the life of your soulmate in her hands."
"She is alive, then?" Such a relief poured through Malachite as he had never known. Minako would be able to explain this whole messy nightmare to him. As long as he could see Minako, it would all be alright.
"She is…here. Whether she is alive or not…that depends on you."
A cold chill ran down Malachite's spine. He followed Beryl through a door and down a winding staircase of stalagmites. Eventually, they emerged into a yawning cavern of a room. A huge orange air-filled membrane hung from the ceiling at one end, a strange black shape twisting within it.
Beryl headed towards this membrane, much to Malachite's dismay. She stopped a couple hundred meters short of it, however, and reached out to a craggy section of the wall, stroking it with gnarled fingers.
The dark rock began to undulate beneath her touch, and within a few seconds, a whole chunk of the wall peeled away.
Three objects were revealed behind this wall. Rather, to Malachite, they were three people.
A huge crystal, as tall as Malachite himself, was on the edge of the row. Contained within the crystal was a blonde youth – Jadeite, the youngest of Prince Endymion's guards. His eyes were wide and frightened, his mouth stretched in a scream.
Beside the crystal imprisoning Jadeite was a pedestal of onyx, upon which sat a single green stone of zoicite. Malachite, thinking back to the empty-eyed, hissing general that had dragged him into Beryl's throne room, realized that this must be all that was left of the Zoicite he had known during Silver Millennium.
Last was a coffin. Rather, it was not so much a coffin as a shallow basin of the same stone as the cavern's wall. Within it lay a bloody, battered body, so emaciated that its rib cage jutted out and its limbs were no thicker than the diameter of Malachite's thumb.
The body would have been unidentifiable if not for the handful of golden hairs poking from its liver-spotted skull and for the orange stone glinting in the tiara that encircled its forehead.
It was Sailor Venus.
It was Malachite's poor Minako.
Beryl watched his stricken expression with delight.
"I was so impressed by her slaying of her own guardian that I decided to keep her with me. You, Malachite, knocked her out, and you carried her down into this sanctum of mine and laid her in this shallow grave. She loses more and more of her life and being the longer she stays down here, but I have kept her in a suspended state that has kept her from dying completely. I wake her every now and then and have some fun with her, as you can tell – "
Beryl gestured airily to the abraded, slashed, bruised, bleeding paper-thin skin covering Minako's bones.
" – but as it takes considerable energy to wake her, I don't do it often. However…"
She paused.
"However, I have need of her now. And since I cannot control her alien mind the way I can your weak mortal one. Which is why I need you. She will trust you, she will do what you tell her. So I give you a choice, Malachite – either I kill her once and for all and you continue to work for me, or you continue to work for me, and she lives, but works for me. You'll have her back, Malachite. Either way, you stay with me. Wouldn't you rather do so knowing that your beloved didn't die because of you?"
It was a quiet walk home. The streets passed by in a blur; neither one was aware of much. They were too deeply submerged in their own thoughts. A car could have run over them and they would not have noticed.
Suddenly, Serena jerked to a stop. Darien was startled out of his musing and looked down at her. He suddenly became aware of a warmth around his fingers and glanced down to see that he was holding Serena's hand.
"We passed my house," said Serena with a faint smile. "I just realized."
"Oh." Darien blinked and turned around. Sure enough, they were two houses past Serena's white two-story. "Sorry about that."
"Not your fault," said Serena, tugging him forwards. "It was both of us. You wanna come in?"
It was like déjà vu of the night before. Only…the starless sky seemed much darker.
"Okay," said Darien, and followed her inside.
Serena shoved a frozen pizza in the oven and they grabbed sodas, then plopped down in front of the TV.
Her legs dangling over the arm of her father's favorite armchair, Serena dug around in the cushion for the remote. She tossed it to Darien, who sat comfortably on the couch.
He clicked through channels until they found a movie that wasn't too scary for Serena or too mushy for Darien, then sat back and ate their steaming slices of pepperoni pizza. For a while, they discussed the battle. Darien pinpointed the shattering of Serena's tiara to the minute his hands touched her brooch. They pondered what that might mean until Serena suddenly squealed and pointed at the television.
"I love this part!" she exclaimed, and immediately abandoned all thought of the battle, leaning forward intently to watch the television.
Darien smiled slightly and did the same.
They made it through two more movies before they fell asleep.
On Sunday morning, after considerable blushing when they woke up in the Tsukinos' living room with the TV still on, Serena and Darien decided to head to the park.
Or rather, Darien – unable to face the prospect of a day spent following Serena around like a hentai – asked Serena if she wanted to go to the park and study for the day. She didn't look too enthusiastic about the studying part, but she agreed.
So after a breakfast of Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Golden Grahams ("That's Sammy's favorite," confided Serena gleefully. "Finish it off so he has to eat corn flakes when he comes back. He HATES corn flakes!") and a quick stop at Darien's apartment so that he could change clothes (A/N: I thought it might be nice for me to mention that in MY story, when one transforms into Tuxedo Mask or into a Sailor Senshi, the transformation has the same cleansing effect as though you've just taken a shower, so all Darien had to do was transform into Tuxedo Mask, then detransform back into himself in order to be all clean and fresh-smelling like we love him. Likewise for Serena.), they tramped off the park and claimed a picnic table beside the lake.
Darien looked up from his meiosis worksheet after a couple minutes and saw a yawning Serena doodling in her notebook.
"Odango," he said sternly. "Is that schoolwork?"
Serena turned blue eyes on him with an offended expression. "Who do you think I am? You? Of course it's not homework!"
"Maybe you missed the little part about us coming here to study?"
Serena shook her head mock-disappointedly at him, hair bouncing. "Darien, Darien, Darien. I think you've forgotten who exactly you're talking to. I'm Serena, Serena Tsukino, remember? I don't do homework!"
"When you're at the park with me, you do."
"No, I don't."
"Yes, you do."
"No, I don't."
"No, you don't."
"Yes, I do – hey!"
Darien laughed triumphantly and snatched her notebook out of her grasp. He shoved her math book into her face. "Work!"
"No!" Serena shoved the textbook away.
"Yes!" He pushed it back to her.
"I won't do it," said Serena stubbornly, crossing her arms.
"I'll buy you a sundae if you do."
Serena's eyes sparked with interest. "Promise?"
He rolled his eyes. "Yes. But you have to do all your homework."
"Deal." Serena grabbed her math book from his hands and began to work industriously, pausing every once in a while to chew on her eraser and glower at sloppily-scrawled numbers.
By eleven o'clock, Darien had completed both biology and history and moved on to Trig. He was quite pleased because the homework for that class had been very light this weekend: only one worksheet containing fifteen problems.
Serena, on the other hand, wore a scowl. Her geometry homework was now tucked safely in her folder, but her other assignment for the weekend – re-reading Romeo and Juliet and picking out five pieces each of foreshadowing, metaphors, similes, and personification – was driving her bonkers. Her teeth gnashed as she glared at the small text of the book, the old-fashioned words and tiny letters all blurring together in her head. How could she have EVER thought that Romeo and Juliet was romantic? It was the WORST STORY IN THE WORLD!
After ten more minutes of trying (in vain) to comprehend the insults Mercutio was hurling at Tybalt, she couldn't take it anymore. Romeo and Juliet was slammed shut and stuffed into her bookbag.
"Darieeeeeeen," Serena whined. She leaned forward to lay her head (and its considerable mass of golden hair) on top of Darien's worksheet, hiding it from view, and pouted up at him. "I'm so booooooooorrrrrred!"
"I can't see my worksheet, Odango," Darien informed her, tapping his pencil on her nose.
Serena smiled up at him impishly. "Exactly!"
"Odango, move." Darien pushed her head with a hand, but to no avail. She refused to move. "Please?"
"Nope." Serena laughed at the puppy look Darien gave her. It was obvious from her sparkling eyes that she was enjoying this immensely.
"What about your sundae?" Darien crossed his arms, certain that this would scare her into submission.
"I can buy my own sundae. I'm tired of doing homework."
"Okay." Darien leaned down suddenly, his nose brushing hers. She blinked up at him, slightly disconcerted by his dark blue eyes so close to hers. Why, their eyelashes were practically tangling! "What do you propose we do?"
Serena's uncertainty evaporated. "This!" She grabbed Darien's worksheet and darted away from the table.
Darien's jaw dropped in horror so genuine that it was funny. "SERENA! THAT'S MY HOMEWORK!"
"I know it is!" Serena stuck her tongue out at him and made a "thhhhbbbb" sound. "Whatcha gonna do about it?"
Darien stood still a moment, still dumbfounded. Then he burst into a run. Serena burst into a fresh explosion of giggles and broke into a run herself.
Pigeons scattered before them, dust was kicked up behind them – a sonic boom was heard that befuzzled many people – the space shuttle wasn't going up today, was it?
Serena had never seen Darien move so quickly before. She was running so swiftly that even her abnormally gifted (thanks to Sailor Moon) legs were beginning to burn. If she hadn't already known that Darien was actually Tuxedo Mask, she would have wondered if Darien did not also have some alter ego's strength and speed augmenting his own.
Darien, meanwhile, was gasping for breath. Sure, he was keeping up with Serena, but it was taking a lot out of him. That girl had legs the like of which he had never seen before – and he wasn't just talking about how great they looked in her Sailor skirt. He scowled as this thought occurred to him, and he gritted his teeth.
Then the unthinkable happened.
Maybe it was the shock of thinking such a thing about Serena. Maybe he just hadn't tied his shoelaces tightly enough in his hurry to get back to Serena that morning. Maybe it was just the universe playing a cruel trick on him.
No matter what caused it, here was the cold and painful truth: Darien tripped over a tree root.
It was a classical Serena moment…only it was Darien landing face-first in the dirt and sitting up a moment later to spit out grass and dead leaves.
Serena didn't notice it. She just kept running.
Someone else spotted it, though. And he nearly busted a gut laughing, toppling to the ground and clutching his sides as tears of mirth rolled down his cheeks.
Darien removed another blade of grass from his tongue. "Asanuma," he said sourly.
"Another one bites the dust! Another one bites the dust!" chanted Asanuma before collapsing back into hysteria. "That was the funniest thing I've ever seen in my life – well, except the time Motoki forgot to wear pants under his apron."
Darien, much to his surprise and Asanuma's, found himself chuckling as well. Maybe it was because he was so relieved to see his friend back to normal. He stood up and brushed off his shirt. "I guess it was kind of funny."
"Not funny, hilarious! You pulling a Serena!" Asanuma stood up, too, wiping his eyes. "Ooh, man…" His eyes sharpened suddenly and he peered around Darien – as though expecting to see something behind him – then patted Darien's sides.
"Why are you frisking me?" demanded Darien. He flinched and jumped away as Asanuma's hands became a little too friendly. "WHAT THE HELL!"
Asanuma grinned mischievously up at him. "I was looking for Serena-chan!" He eyes Darien speculatively, hands on his hips. "Shouldn't she be somewhere aroudn here? Like, attached to your hip or something?"
Darien gnashed his teeth, much like Serena had a while earlier. "Numa, if I hadn't been so worried about you, you would so be a bloody pulp right now…"
"Worried? About me?" Asanuma pointed at himself, expression clueless. "Why?"
Darien smiled tightly. So he was going to play that game, huh? "Maybe because you passed up a perfect chance to tease Toki and embarrass him in front of his crush on Friday night?"
"Oh, that." Asanuma flapped a hand dismissively. "I decided to let up on him for once, that's all."
"Sure you did." Darien knitted his hands behind his neck and set off down the sidewalk with Asanuma. "And it had nothing at all to do with a certain Rei Hino."
"Rei Hino?" repeated Asanuma innocently. "Who's she? One of Serena's friends?"
Darien resisted the urge to smash Asanuma's thick skull in. Actually, he wouldn't mind doing that to his precious Rei, either… "Stop being an idiot, Numa."
"I'm sure I don't have any idea what you're talking about, Darien." Asanuma's voice remained light and teasing, but there was a certain brittleness to it.
"Look," said Darien shortly. "I don't like Rei. She's been a witch to Serena, and I won't forgive her for that. But Serena seems to think that she'd be good for you and vice versa. You seem pretty hung up on her, Numa, and I want you to be happy. So just go try, okay?"
"You think I haven't tried? What do you think all those times I messed with her were? Dude, I even tried to ask her to the Christmas dance, but before I could even ask her, she pulled out a lighter and lit up my Spanish binder! She doesn't like me, man!"
The boiling bitterness in Asanuma's voice nearly forced Darien a step back. He stared at his friend with a mixture of pity and sympathy. He had had no idea that Asanuma had ever before tried to attract Rei's attention, but if that was the way she reacted… no wonder he didn't want to give it another try.
But hang on! At the time of the Christmas dance, Rei had still been under the influence of Psychotica! Her destruction of Asanuma's binder had been caused by her pyromania, not because she disliked Asanuma.
So how to tell Asanuma that he still had a chance – without giving it away to him that Rei had been under the control of a youma?
"Numa," he said carefully. "Serena…thinks that Rei has a crush on you. And if you can trust anyone's judgment, it's Serena's."
Asanuma snorted. "Didn't she and Rei get into a huge fight?"
"Well…yeah," Darien admitted reluctantly.
"Case closed." Asanuma shook his head, then donned a bright smile. "So, where IS Serena-chan? Feels like I haven't seen her in forever!"
Serena, still laughing crazily, was pounding down the sidewalk, unaware that Darien was longer chasing her. She heard footsteps behind her – Darien must be close! She had to escape!
Stuffing his worksheet into her pocket, she scrambled up into the closest tree. Swallowing her giggles, she hugged her branch and peered down through the foliage to see what Darien would do.
A head of black hair moved into sight beneath her – but it wasn't Darien's.
"Remind me why we're here again, Luna," sighed Rei's voice.
"Because you are Senshi." Luna's voice was as stern as ever. Serena clutched the branch, breathing as quietly as she could. "And this is as good a place as any to find our Princess. We have to find her before Sailor Moon or her allies do. Rei, you're on patrol around the playgrounds; Ami, you're in the gardens. I'll take the lake. Meet back here at five o'clock."
Luna's quiet footfalls faded in the distance, leaving Serena, Rei, and Ami (who had yet to speak).
Serena strained her ears to listen to anything her Senshi might say. It seemed as though they hadn't even realized that the youma they had fought yesterday had been controlling them.
"Are you alright, Rei?" murmured Ami's voice. "You look so tired."
"I'm okay." Rei's voice, unusually listless, replied. "I just…it's the…" She sighed. "Ami, do you know if Asanuma is taking anyone to your prom?"
Serena's eyes bulged. She choked back a gasp.
"I…well, no. I don't." Ami sounded rather confused. "Why? Do you – well, excuse me for being so presumptuous to ask, but – do you fancy him?"
Rei didn't reply, at least not vocally. Serena saw her ebony head moving up and down in a nod.
"Oh…my…I, well, I never knew. I'm sorry, Rei."
"I just wondered if you knew," said Rei sharply. "It's not anything important – he's just some guy. I don't really care."
But Serena, watching her two ex-best friends walk away, knew that she was lying.
A/N: PLEASE REVIIIIIIIIEEEEEEW! I want to know what you think about Dare, Sere, and the whole Dark Kingdom thing.
P.S. Nimbirosa, I HAVE read HP6, and I LOOOOOOOOOVED it! I knew that the person who died was going to die, but I was totally shell-shocked by who did it! I HATE SNAPE!
Um…moving on, I'm sorry that HTD seemed so Sere/Diamond-ish. It wasn't meant to come off like that AT ALL – I am most emphatically NOT a Diamond fan – I meant for it to show how empty and weird life would be if Sere and Dare weren't together. Please forgive me? (clasps hands pleadingly)
Giri-chaaaaaaaan! You're back! Yaaaaay! Have you started your Huck Finn essay yet? Mine sucks… Are you excited that school's starting again in a couple of days, or are you sad (like me) ? Most everyone I've talked to is thrilled – WHY?