Beauty and the Beast: Serena and Diamond's Tale

Rated: PG

Genre: Drama/Romance

Disclaimer: I thought I told you… I don't own Sailor Moon!

Summary: A twist of the classic French fairy tale with a taste of Sailor Moon R. Can the curse of the Negamoon be destroyed by true love, not lust? Serena x Diamond. Read and review please!

Author's Note: Thank you all for the reviews. Sorry for not updating lately. I have a job over at the nearest amusement park, and I only get one day off. But hey… Money is needed for college, right?

Chapter 2: Crystal Tokyo

It was a long and treacherous trek through the Time Warp, but Sailor Pluto was able to guide the Sailor Scouts, Tuxedo Mask, Luna and Artemis, and Rini and her Luna P ball to safety. They reached the streets of Crystal Tokyo, but it was not a pleasant sight. The entire city was quiet, dark, and unsafe. Not a soul was found amidst the darkness.

"This is it, you guys," Rini said. "This is my home."

"Is this what Tokyo will look like?" Sailor Moon asked. "I'd want to kill myself before I live here."

"This was from the battle against the Negamoon, Serena," Rini explained, "and we lost."

Tuxedo Mask took the little girl in his arms and said, "It'll be okay, Rini. We'll find a way to bring Crystal Tokyo back to full speed."

Rini hugged him tight. "Oh, please do!" she wailed. "It's so lonely here these days."

"I bet," Sailor Venus said. "I mean look at this! People must be frozen within these crystal walls, including your friends from school."

Rini wiped away her tears and then replied, "I have no friends here, Sailor Venus. Only the Sailor Scouts."

"Why's that, Rini?" Sailor Jupiter asked.

"Yeah, everyone has friends!" Sailor Mars added.

"Because everyone at school hates me," Rini replied, her voice full of mockery. "I'm a rich, spoiled brat who gets everything she wants just because she's the king and queen's daughter."

"Rini, it's okay to have older friends, especially us," Sailor Moon said. She took Rini from Tuxedo Mask's grasp and held her hand. "Don't worry. We're gonna stop the Negamoon from attacking your home again! Now where do you live?"

"Apparently, she lives there, Serena," Sailor Mercury said, pointing to the giant Crystal Palace in the center of downtown Tokyo. "I mean it's must be where her family lives."

"I do live there," Rini said. She led the Sailor Scouts to the front entrance of the giant structure and pushed the crystal doors open. Not a sound was made when she entered the main hall. "Hello?" she asked, her voice echoing in the shadows. "Is anyone home?"

The Sailor Scouts looked around their surroundings and began to tremble in fear. It was so dark and creepy for a castle in the future. And to hear only Rini's voice in the entire building gave Sailor Moon the creeps. "Rini, I think we should just leave," she quickly blurted.

"No, Daddy's here," Rini replied. "He's coming."

"But where is he?" Tuxedo Mask asked.

"Right here, Darien." The caped crusader looked behind him and saw what appeared to be a hologram of his future form staring back at him. He too wore a tuxedo but of lavender from head to toe. He also wore his trademark white mask covering his blue eyes. In his right hand, he carried his powerful crystal staff, not a red rose.

"Daddy!" Rini rushed over to the king and hugged him. "I missed you!" Although he was just a projecting image, she could feel his touch from his hand on her head.

"I missed you too, sweetheart." He looked up at Tuxedo Mask and Sailor Moon. Then, in a gentle voice, he asked, "How can I thank you for protecting my daughter?"

"Your daughter?" Tuxedo Mask asked.

"Yes."

"Are you… Me?"

"Darien, there is so much that you need to know what will happen to you and Sailor Moon when Crystal Tokyo is born."

Tuxedo Mask eyed the man with some suspicion. "I've heard your voice before." He thought about visions of losing Serena on their wedding day… Visions of a city like Crystal Tokyo… Visions of a blonde queen like his beloved Serena trapped in a crystal coffin… "You sent me those dreams! You're the reason why I broke up with Serena!"

"I thought it was for your own good," the king explained. "But I might as well start from the beginning. Yes, I am what Darien will be in the future. My name is King Endymion, and Rini is my only child. I am the king of Earth and of Crystal Tokyo. Besides Sailor Pluto, we are the only two people left in this city.

"A while ago, we were besieged by the power of the Dark Crystal, which was in possession of the Negamoon. The Inner Sailor Scouts did their best to protect Crystal Tokyo, but the Black Moon family was so strong and powerful. Unfortunately, they were severely defeated.

"My wife is their prisoner of war. She was placed under their spell in a glass coffin made of crystals, and we could not break her free from her fate. The Sailor Scouts recovered, but they guard the last generator of our home.

"I, on the other hand, am just a holographic image of the king. I put myself to sleep so nothing would happen to me if I were truly alive while my wife is still unconscious. As for Rini, I think the stories I've told her about the Sailor Scouts took over her mind, and she believed they were true."

"And that is why she came to the past for our girls' help," Luna concluded. "It all makes sense."

"She does have a big imagination just like her mother's."

"Your majesty, may we see a picture of your wife?" Sailor Moon asked.

The king hesitated and then nodded his head. He tapped his staff on the crystal floor, and an image of the queen slowly appeared. The girls stood in awe. The woman was very angelic as if she was praying to God or some other supernatural being. She wore an elegant long dress with her golden hair styled like Sailor Moon's. On her forehead glowed her family insignia…

The golden crescent moon.

"That's… That's Serena!" Darien exclaimed.

"That's Neo-Queen Serenity, my wife… She was also known as Sailor Moon," Endymion said.

Sailor Moon gasped at the thought of her future husband. "You're trying to tell me that…"

"I'm going to be married to…" Darien continued.

"Him?"

"Her?"

"And Rini will be our child?" they asked in unison.

"Yes. It's hard to believe, isn't it?" Endymion chuckled.

Sailor Moon remained speechless, but she watched Tuxedo Mask stroll out of the Crystal Palace into a secluded place he instinctively knew: the rose garden. She tried to join him, but Endymion grabbed her shoulder. "No, Sailor Moon. He needs to be alone, needs to work stuff out," he explained.

"But I want to be with him!"

"Sailor Moon, he might stray away from you again if you confront him," Sailor Venus warned.

The Moon Princess sighed and nodded her head. She did not want to be separated from her true love once again, especially over another ordeal from the future. "Yes, you're right." She walked back to her friends but gave the rose garden one last look over her shoulder.

Tuxedo Mask, on the other hand, sat down on one of the cement benches and let out a long sigh. He couldn't believe that he would marry Serena, just like during the Silver Millennium before the Negaverse attacked the Moon Kingdom. Funny thing of all, he did not believe in destiny unlike his childish yet loving girlfriend. If he had the chance, he'd find himself another girl than to follow some old silly fairy tale that was yet to come to life. Or was his life just another fairy tale with somewhat of a happy ending?

He saw a rosebush filled with dozens of red roses, his favorite kind. He took one from a branch and held it in his hand, examining it like he was unfamiliar with it. As he was about to take a sniff of its beautiful scent, he was suddenly hit by a burst of dark energy. Once he regained his senses, he looked up at the shadow looming over him.

There stood before him Prince Diamond of the Black Moon family, leader of the legion known as the Negamoon. The man had his arms crossed against his white jacket and a smile full of pure evil. There was also a glint in his eyes that spelled trouble for the Earth Prince.

Tuxedo Mask stood up, brushed himself off, and then looked at the White Prince with piercing eyes. "What do you want?" he asked.

"I am here to claim a prize I should have had a long time ago."

"Who are you?"

"They call me the Beast for my nasty personality, but I am really the White Prince of the Black Moon family." Diamond came closer to Tuxedo Mask until he had his shirt collar in his hands. "You may call me Prince Diamond."

He tightened his grip, cutting off most of Tuxedo Mask's circulation in order to breathe, but then he relaxed his muscles and merely smiled wickedly. "You are not as hard as I thought you would be. You haven't even made a single move yet. You're just letting me defeat you all over again."

Suddenly, he felt Tuxedo Mask's cane punch him in the stomach, and he abruptly threw the Earth Prince down to the ground. He only had a small wound, but he still wasn't expecting such attack from his enemy. Then, Tuxedo Mask threw six roses at the White Prince, but Diamond withered them away in his beam of dark energy, which then sent Tuxedo Mask flying a few feet away from his previous location. As he tried to stand on his two feet again, he was hit by another beam and another until he was down on his back, bruised and beaten, and pleading for mercy.

Diamond chuckled and walked over to the fallen prince, holding him down with pressure on one foot on top of Tuxedo Mask's chest. "So, the then-Earth Prince is begging me to spare his life. I don't know if I can do such a thing."

"Please!" Tuxedo Mask choked. "I'll give you anything if you would just please let me live!"

"Anything?"

"Yes! Anything! I'll give it to you!"

Diamond thought about the offer long and hard, but within a short moment he gave his final answer. "Serenity. Give me Serenity. Give me Sailor Moon."

Tuxedo Mask couldn't believe his ears. This madman wants my girlfriend, he thought. Over my dead body! "That's not what I had in mind, Diamond!"

"You said anything, didn't you?" Diamond hissed. "Are you going to take back your offer, little prince?" He pressed his foot down harder into Tuxedo Mask's chest. "Because if you do, I'm afraid I'll have to kill you."

"No, you won't!" Sailor Moon said at the entrance of the garden with her fellow Sailor Scouts behind her.

"Miss Moon, how nice of you to join us."

"Let him go!"

"I don't think I can do that."

"Do it or we'll make you!" Sailor Jupiter threatened as she prepared herself to attack the enemy with her Supreme Thunder.

"Uh-uh, ladies," Diamond said, shaking a finger at them. "One wrong move," he began. He then magically summoned a sword made of rough cut diamonds and held the tip of the blade against Tuxedo Mask's neck. "And your loverboy gets it," he added.

Sailor Jupiter let out a low growl, but Sailor Mercury held her back. "What can we do so we can let Tuxedo Mask live?" she asked instead.

Diamond said nothing but turned his gaze toward his captive prisoner. "Tell them, your majesty."

Tuxedo Mask gulped and then said to his girlfriend in a shaky voice, "Sailor Moon, go with him."

"What?" the Moon Princess asked.

"Just do it!"

"No! I won't go with that creep!"

"Suit yourself, Miss Moon." Diamond took the sword and lifted it high as if he was going plunge it directly into Tuxedo Mask's neck. Sailor Moon suddenly gasped and yelled, "Fine! I'll go with you! Just please leave him alone!"

The sword was lowed to its owner side, and Diamond triumphantly smirked. "Just like every good wife should be toward her husband," he said in a low voice. Still keeping his prisoner under his foot, his black moon on his forehead suddenly turned into a third eye. Its gaze locked with Sailor Moon's and cast a hypnotic spell on her. "Come with me, Sailor Moon," he commanded, extending his right hand in front of her.

Like a zombie, she walked toward him slowly, unable to hear her friends' protests. She took small steps and kept her gaze set on the White Prince. When she was close enough, she placed her small white-gloved hand into his, and the two of them suddenly vanished.

The remaining Sailor Scouts rushed over to Tuxedo Mask's side and helped him back up onto his feet. "Are you okay?" Sailor Mars asked.

"I won't be, girls," he said bitterly. "I gave up Serena." As he was led back to the Crystal Palace, he saw Rini standing with her Luna P ball in her arms, crying as if she saw something tragic happen. "Rini? Rini, what's wrong?" he asked.

"You're not my daddy!" she wailed. "Daddy never gives Mommy away to a bad guy! Why did you do it, Darien? Do you really love her?"

Tuxedo Mask was stunned to hear such harsh words come from his future daughter, but before he was able to reply, he watched the little girl run into the depths of the Crystal Palace, knowing that what he did was not the right choice.

I'm sorry, Serena, he thought. I should have just died right there. What was I thinking?

Please R/R! Thanks again

TheGoodWitchoftheNorth