So, I decided to be nice and give all of you guys a super fast update. The reviews spurred me to do it, so you guys know the drill!

Also, from this point on, the story shifts into something slightly different than what it's been, and I'm hoping that you all like it!

Remember, I definitely don't own Sailor Moon. Unfortunately I only own Scott (whose name has no definite reason, it just came to me).


Chapter 8: Emerging Darkness

The darkness billowed around him, causing his heart to race in fear. What was going on? There was something unnatural about it. Scott shivered as he hurried, almost running down the street. He had been keeping an eye on Usagi when the darkness had begun to press into him.

As the cold darkness pressed closer, he took off running, not caring about how he must look. He didn't like it. It was as if the darkness was permeating him, forcing him to relive things he didn't want to.

He suddenly came to a stop. He had run himself into a dead end.

"Stay back!" he called into the darkness where he could see a figure, "I'm armed!"

He waved the knife in front of him dangerously. But he wasn't stupid. He knew that whoever was there wouldn't be affected by the knife. What he was facing wasn't human.

It wasn't the Senshi or prissy Tuxedo Kamen either. Those guys were good. And he'd rather have them be here than whoever it was up there.

"Look at you," a hauntingly familiar voice called, "Shitting yourself at the dark," the tone was horrific, but he knew it, it spoke to him in his dreams, "And you think yourself strong."

"Who are you!?" he called, still backing up slightly, he didn't like this person- this thing. It was evil.

"Oh, you know me," it called, stepping closer but the darkness still covered it, "I'm a part of you, just as a part of you are me"

"What are you talking about?" he asked shakily

"You've done quite well in my absence," it said, ignoring his question as it continued to approach him, "But you lost her. That I can't condone"

"I- I didn't mean to," he stuttered fearfully as he could see the figure clearer. It was a man, "She escaped despite my precautions, but I'm planning on-"

"Your plans are futile," it spat, anger exuding at him, "You are weak. The Senshi and Endymion will take you down no problem"

"No, I-" He tried to speak bravely, trying to tell that whoever this thing was that he wouldn't be bullied.

"It's alright," the man said coldly, telling him it was anything but alright, "I'm here. I will take it from here"

"Who are you?" he repeated finally. He knew the answer. This man had been in the back of his mind for all of his life, and now it was finally here to claim what was his. Usagi would stand no chance against him now. His fear vanished. What was there to be afraid of? He'd only be accepting what had been coming for months now. And Usagi would finally be all his.

"I am Courat," the man said, the darkness filtering away from him and a suit of armor was visible, "I am your past self. And I am here to claim Serenity for myself"

The darkness vanished from around him and a face was visible.

Scott gasped. It was a carbon copy of himself.

The darkness charged at him suddenly and he gave a shriek of surprise as it launched itself into him.

Memories rushed through him, reminding him of all he had forgotten in the past. How could he have forgotten? How had he lived without these memories? But then, they had been a part of him ever since he had been born- and they had affected how he lived.

No wonder he had an obsession with Usagi.

Serenity

He fell to his knees, his hands gripped tight. He would make her his- and he'd make the others suffer for taking her from him.

"We shall have her," he laughed to himself

"First," a cold voice said to him, "We shall punish those who took her from us"


Usagi awoke with a gasp, sitting up in fear. Something was wrong. More wrong than it had ever been. The darkness swirled before her, warning her of an immediate danger. She stood, walking over to her curtains and peeking through. Dark clouds billowed over the distance, warning them of a dark presence.

Dammit. Just when she needed her powers, they had to go and be destroyed.

It had been a few days since she had escaped Scott and things had generally been better. Especially since she wasn't locked up with a psychopath rapist.

Her parents hadn't taken it well and were currently beating themselves up for not knowing. It was worse for them because they thought they had condoned Scott doing it to her by allowing him to live with them. She told them not to blame themselves, that she didn't hold it against them, but they barely listened to her. She continually tried to make them feel better, but there was only so much she could do.

Shingo was, to say the least, broken about it. He had thrown himself into her arms the second he had heard about it, crying how he was so sorry and how he should have seen it and protected her. Her heart went out for him. He didn't deserve to have to live with stuff like this. Then again, nobody did. But Shingo barely left her alone anymore. It was as if he was trying to make up for his past misdeeds by her with taking care of her needs now. She had also tried to make him feel better. But that worked even less than it worked on her parents. Maybe it had to do with him being her brother. She loved the little squirt and always had and always would.

The girls were…crushed with what had happened. They blamed themselves, which was to be expected. They blamed themselves for everything that went wrong in her life. They would probably curse the paper that gave her a paper cut, and then blame themselves for not knowing it would give her a paper cut. She had tried to talk to them, tried to assure them that it wasn't their fault but of course, they wouldn't listen to her.

Minako was ordering everyone around in trying to find Scott- in what seemed like to Usagi, an effort to keep everyone busy. She was thankful, but she feared Minako was becoming obsessed.

Ami was probably the best out of the group. Maybe because she had accepted Usagi's reason for not telling them- or maybe because she just didn't hold grudges. She still greatly blamed herself for not realizing it, what with being the smartest. And was still trying constantly to make up for it by working her ass off to figure out a way to recreate the Silver Crystal. So far she had come up with nothing, but still constantly continued. She barely slept anymore, trying to keep up with school and the Crystal business. And no matter how much Usagi told her off, she went back and did the same thing every night.

Rei beat herself up the most, what with knowing what was wrong and not telling everyone about it and everyone was still slightly cold to her. They felt like Rei had let them down and although Usagi had tried her best to get them to forgive Rei, it was a lot like trying to hurry snails down the road. They would forgive her when they could, and she was only irritating everyone with her attempts.

Makoto was a lot quieter nowadays. She remained quiet during their talks, barely commenting on what she would have jumped on pre-Crystal loss. Usagi also sensed a frigidness between her and the others. She hated seeing Makoto this way, and she knew she had let Makoto down by not allowing her to protect her. She was sorry, very sorry for it all and she had tried to tell Makoto. But Makoto had only accepted her apology and gone away. Usagi didn't know what she could do to make it all better.

Mamoru was basically attached at her hip for whenever she wasn't in school. And when she was in school, he'd be off looking for Scott. He had apparently taken a leave of absence from his work so he could do so. She tried to get him to go back to work, but he refused, saying he had more than enough money to tide him over for as long as he wanted. She loved having him around, but it was getting hard to have time to herself.

First thing they had done after she had gone to him was call the girls and her family. And then they'd called the police and told them the address and what had happened. The police had found the house vandalized- something she figured Scott had done when she had escaped- but empty. Everything of Scott's had been gone and they figured he had run for it.

But she knew he hadn't. There were times when she sensed he was near- but whenever she set Mamoru on him, he would inexplicably disappear. He was a master at doing that apparently and it scared her. It only assured all of them that there was more than they could see in Scott. He definitely wasn't just another mortal.

Ami had done some research and discovered that Scott Tsukino was adopted, something even her own father, whose brother had said he was Scott's father, hadn't known. They couldn't figure out who his birth parents were however. It looked like whoever it was had put him up for adoption right after his birth. It made her feel slightly better to know she wasn't truly related to him.

His child life and adult life had been inexplicably filled with accidents. All of them peaking at his adoptive parents' – Usagi's aunt and uncle's- mysterious deaths. It was after that he came to his uncle to beg for a place to stay, saying he needed time to get himself to his feet. But he hadn't told him that his parents had left him a great sum of money in their will. The information Ami had gathered was that he had a first rate education, insane amounts of money and resources, and a great knowledge of martial arts and defense techniques.

A fighting machine.

Which only scared her more. He was capable of a lot- without even the whole weird aura that Rei could sense and couldn't at the same time. She was still clueless as to how he had knocked her unconscious in her Senshi form. She was sure that she had cast her anti-evil spell, which had saved them countless times in the past- but after that, all she could remember was the darkness suffocating her. There was something in him, Usagi knew, that gave him power. He wasn't who he seemed.

And she had a feeling the coming darkness had everything to do with him.

School life had improved greatly with the addition of the Three Lights. The attention had been taken off of her disappearance and onto the presence of the international wonder band. And Seiya, Yaten and Taiki mixed well with her and her friends. There was something about the three of them that the girls and her found very comforting.

Seiya was a great comfort to her nowadays. He made her feel safe whenever he was around, a lot like Mamoru did.

Whenever she wasn't with the girls, she was with Seiya. He was quickly becoming someone she could depend on when she needed a break from all of it. With him, she was just a normal girl and he was just a normal guy and they would hang out like old friends. He didn't push her like the others did to learn about what had happened during her absence, just accepted it as a part of her life. She was quickly growing to love him dearly.


Mamoru hurried around silently, turning corner after corner. He was sure he had seen the figure go in the alley. However, when he reached the end of the alley, it was revealed that there was nothing.

That was the darkness began moving around him- warning him of an evil presence. Mamoru cursed at himself. He had walked right into a trap.

"Who's there?" he called, his hand tightly on his transformation rose. He didn't want to reveal himself as Tuxedo Kamen immediately.

"Hey, Mamoru," a voice called, sounding ominously familiar from the exit of the alley, walking closer to him, "Remember me?"

He grit his teeth angrily, recognizing the voice, "Scott," he spat coldly

The figure was illuminated as he stepped closer to Mamoru, revealing himself to be exactly who Mamoru thought he was, "Thanks for following me, it made my job a lot easier"

"As it did for me," Mamoru hissed as he launched himself at Scott, his hand in a fist as he punched Scott in the face.

Scott barely flinched, his face amused as he watched Mamoru come at him again.

Mamoru roared in anger as he aimed a kick at Scott, however, Scott dodged it, giving Mamoru a punch in the gut, sending him flying into the trash cans behind him.

Mamoru's eyes narrowed. He had been sent flying almost ten feet. Nobody human could hit that hard.

"Ah," Scott said, raising a hand in warning as Mamoru went to transform, "No powers"

Mamoru laughed disbelievingly. Scott believed he could stop him from transforming? Like hell he could.

He transformed in a barrage of petals and he launched himself at Scott, his cane raised to attack. Faster than a speeding bullet he was at Scott, and his cane flashed down to slice at him- when suddenly a hand shot out and grabbed it.

"I said," Scott spat, snapping the cane from Tuxedo Kamen's hand, "No powers" and with that he flourished Kamen's cane and smacked Kamen on the head with it, sending Kamen reeling backward.

"What?" Kamen gasped, staring at Scott, "This isn't possible, you're only mortal"

"I would guess not," Scott said, watching him calmly, "Now, how about sitting still for a bit"

"What do you want?" Kamen spat, knowing that Scott had led him here for a reason- and it wouldn't end well for one of them. For an instant, he was sure it was him that would lose, if what had just occurred was a precept to what would happen in the future.

"I want a lot of things," Scott said, twirling the cane in his hands, "I want world domination, I want to punish those who have hurt me," he looked at Tuxedo Kamen coldly, "But most of all, I want Usagi"

"Well, you can't have her," Kamen spat, rage boiling within him

"Really?" Scott asked, the shadow of a grin on his face, "I can't? I thought I'd had her dozens of-"

Kamen didn't wait for him to finish his statement before red flashed before his eyes and he launched himself at Scott once more, not caring of what powers Scott seemed to have, the desire to protect Usagi's virtue blinding out everything else- well, that and he couldn't bear to hear Scott's words.

Scott twirled the cane expertly and dodging Kamen's punch, he slammed the cane against Kamen's leg, causing Mamoru to fall to his knees, "Since you won't listen like this," he spat, hitting Kamen again, this time on the shoulder, "I have no choice but to take you"

Kamen roared as he struggled away from the cane, hating how his own weapon was being used against him, "I am going to kill you," he spat, "You aren't going to touch Usako ever again"

Scott sneered, "Says who? Little prick Tuxedo Kamen?" and he launched a kick at Kamen before he could blink. The kick hit Kamen like a ton of bricks, making him fall to his knees again, in a grunt of pain, "I could care less about what you think, Endymion"

Kamen's eyes flashed to Scott's face where he saw something stir, a long past distant memory.

"Good night," Scott spat before he slammed the cane down on Kamen's head, "Hope you enjoy the darkness" Everything went black before him immediately, the last image before his eyes the beautiful face of his love.

"It's time for some revenge," were the last words he heard, almost a whisper, malice dripping from it evilly.


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