Hi All,

Please see the new chapter. Just roll with the punches on this one. And sorry for the whole many years later. I just needed to refocus this story. It seems to flailing. But I am trying something out.

Enjoy, Read and review. And hopefully I can get the next chapter up soon.

Thanks! PP

Chapter 24

Darien looked around his dank little room, the only source of light that was shining in, was from the entrance, where the sign was slowly rising to signal for a new day. Darien, wiped the tears that were involuntarily flowing down his face, and then ran his fingers through his hair. He could have sworn that the jolt that had woken him up was from the old pull that he received when Serena was reaching out for him. It was like electricity running through his body. It was calling through to his old power that he used to use to protect the earth. He hadn't used the power since the Sailor guardians had disappeared. Feared dead. Their families erecting funeral stones for them in the cemetery, the new order celebrated the days that those empty graves were established. Their family dragged away and assumed dead or imprisoned. And since that day he had hidden his power in hopes to keep himself safe and find out how to win this battle.

Darien walked to his bowl of water that was sitting opposite his bed, in his 3x4 meter room, and he splashed his face with stale water, in an attempt to clear his head. He went and laid back down onto his camping bed, and attempted to pull himself into meditation. But his mind wandered back to the day he realized he couldn't not find Serena's aura anywhere and truly needed help.

Wandering up the temples stone steps, Darien thought about what they had been through the past year to find Serena, the two teams had joined forces, they had a common goal, to find Serena. They met here everyday to discuss their goals, and to train. The girls were exhausted. From their battles with the evil plaguing the earth and their nightly ritual of searching for their Princess. This would be the first time that Darien would join them on their meditating session.

He knocked on the door of the temples meditation room. Where he heard Rei call out, "It's open" as the door was pulled forward by the now 13 year old Hotaru, she had let her hair grow out, but she was looking tired beyond her years, as if her childhood days were truly gone. He smiled at the girl and patted her on the head. In turn Hotaru flung herself around his waist. She had been doing that every time she saw him, hugging him around his waist, trying to comfort him in the only way she knew how.

Darien looked around the warm room. Lita was slowly unwrapping the binds around her hands, laughing at something that Amara had said to her, but the laughter didn't reach her eyes. and the smile plastered on Amara's face didn't last as long as it should of.

Darien sat down at the base of the fire, and closed his eyes, and tried to pull on his connections with his princess. Mina stared at the Prince from her corner. She felt the pain he was feeling, but he wasn't going to articulate this to them. He was trying to be that stoic champion that Serena wanted him to be. But Mina could still tell what was going on in the matters of love. She signaled to the rest of the team to take up position around the fire, and Rei started the session off with the traditional hand signals, with her fiery Mars power the fire flared, and as each of the girls power joined hers, the fire flared highest. As Darien's power finally joined the fire, it was lucky that this temple room had very high roof, otherwise they would have burnt half the temple down. Each of the girls opened their eyes, and watched the fire intensify, they were in awe. Darien still deep in concentration.

The girls went back to their meditation, lending their power to Rei. Darien then took control of Rei's power and guided it to the place that he needed it to go. He felt Rei try and pull the power back to herself so that she controlled the session. But Darien had the superior mental strength, and he had a mission, today he will find her, today he will bring her back to him. Her link with him was weakening almost non-existent. He knew where to look, and with the enhancement of their power, he could reach further into the universe.

After hours of searching each of the girls had to stop, their power was waning, Darien had commandeered too much from they, they had to break the meditation otherwise they could not battle tonight if they needed to. They stared at the man, who was still in his trance, desperation coming off him like a bad smell.

Rei left the room, anger radiating off her. When she returned she carried a bucket full of water. She stood over Darien, who still had his eyes closed, and poured the water over the man.

Darien shuddered and shriek under the attack of the cold water, and glared at the long haired female. "What the hell do you think you are doing Rei?"

"What am I doing? I think the question should be what are you doing?" Rei shrieked at the dark haired man. "Let's start with, you directed the power away from me, you took control of that meditation session. Without even consulting me. Who do you think you are? What experience do you have on this to become the leader."

Darien stood up, "You were looking in the wrong area. You needed to be shown the right area to look for, otherwise your searching is futile."

"What do you mean, looking in the wrong area?" Rei yelled, waving her hands angrily at the man.

"When I last spoke with Serena, her power originated from where I took us today. I also have the strongest link with the Princess, it would be common sense to use my guidance." Darien said pulling his fringe out of his eyes.

"What do you mean the last time you with Serena?" Mina interjected, stepping in between the feuding pair. "Darien, have you been speaking with the Princess."

Darien stared at Mina, then realized his error, he had broken Serena's promise, a promise that he shouldn't have been able to reveal. He deflated, and dropped to his knees, "I don't think it really matters anymore Mina."

Mina stared at the man, confused by his current deflation but ranted. "What do you mean it doesn't matter anymore. Of course it matters Darien, if you have been speaking with Serena, we could have helped you. But instead you kept it to yourself."

"Mina, IT DOESN'T MATTER ANYMORE!" Darien Roared.

Mina stepped back, concern establishing on her face. But it was Hotaru who spoke next, softly and with determination, "What do you mean Darien?"

"I shouldn't have been able to tell you that secret. She made me promise that I wouldn't tell you that I had spoken with her, but now that I am able to speak her secret, she must be ... " Darien trailed off.

Hotaru's eyes widened, and Ami gasped, and Michelle wrapped her arms around her body, and leant into Amara who had wrapped around Michelle. Mina and Rei stared at each other, and Lita grabbed a cookie, and shoved it into her mouth, tears glistening in her eyes.

Trista muttered the words that everyone didn't want to hear, "The Princess is dead."

Darien brought himself back to reality and looked outside the opening of the dilapidated room.

Darien, stood up from his pose and stretched his legs. He couldn't go on believing that Serena was alive. It had been several years. The earth had lost so much. It had lost its prince, it had lost the guardian of the moon. Any power he tried to use, it was tracked by the enemies squads, the others had died because of this. But he was able to hide his powers because he was born to earth, this didn't mean he could just walk about the streets. Everyone was tested, for days until they either never returned or if they survived the days of torture they were implanted and then they were tracked. Darien had skilfully avoided being captured, as in the beginning he was not able to control the release of his powers, and the stress that he would have to endure he wouldn't have been able to hide his powers.

Moving away from the doorway, he went to the bag under his bed and pulled out a golden star locket. He opened it and let the melody play. He closed his eyes, and sat on the floor and thought about his princess. He sat and wondered some more about what woke him up this morning. Could Serena be reincarnated, would this bring the Sailor Scouts back?

Darien thought back to the day of their deaths, they were fighting against the strongest of monsters they had ever encountered. Mercury, Mars, Jupiter and Venus were trapped in an electrical cage. The outer Scouts had had already been captured by the negaverse, feared dead. Darien had just stood there and watched. If he had transformed to help he would reveal his true identity and they had agreed that they wouldn't risk that, so he stood helpless with the other civilians that had been trapped by the monster originally. Watching monster, wanting to do anything to help, but couldn't. He also had to follow the directions, if this situation did arise, who ever could get away needed to get away, and continue searching for a way to save the planet. He saw his opening and disappeared into an alley way, and hid on a fire escape. He had watched the girls disappear and the civilians get herded away.

Days later there was an announcement in the town square. He watched from a perch on a roof top. If he got too close he would have been captured.

Set in the middle of the square was what was gallows, the wooden stage was massive. With a blink of an eye eight girls appeared on the stage, their hands were tied to their front. Their outfits were torn, and dirty, like they had gone through days of pain. Around their necks were thick ropes, tied in tight knots, and were attached the the long wooden bar above their heads.

Each of the girls faces were strong and stoic looking, all except Saturn, tears were streaming down her face, but the rest of the face was a mirror image of the other 7 girls faces.

"Welcome to this afternoons entertainment," A deep booming voice came from no where. "This is just a little bit of joy we wanted to show you all. These girls you see in front of you, they are traitors to the Queen. They were trying to stop us from doing good things for this town." The faces in the crowd were in shock and horror, "So it is our civic duty to show you the punishment that they will receive and to reassure you that these criminals are off out streets for good."

Darien gasped, and conjured a rose from his pocket. He needed to help his friends. But he wouldn't be able to reach them in time to help, he had let them down. But he was still going to try. He transformed, if he was to be found damn it to hell, he was going to still try, they were part of who Serena was, even though she was gone. Darien started to jump down from the roof. But on his second jump.

He heard screams from the crowd and what he saw froze him to the spot. He saw 8 lifeless bodies hanging on the ropes.

The booming voice came through, "And that my friends is how your queen will keep you safe from the traitors. They die."

Darien pulled himself back to his reality. All of this was his fault. Fresh tears flowed down his cheeks, he let the guilt flow from his face. He heard a scraping of the door to his hiding place. He quickly jumped to his feet, into a defensive pose.

"You wouldn't punch an old friend would you Darien?" giggled a female voice.

When he saw who was standing in his doorway, he dropped his fists and whispered, "But you're dead"