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: Sorry for the long wait, but I revised this chapter a bit, so I hope the wait was worth it! Review, please! And thanks to those who did!

TheGoodWitchoftheNorth

Chapter 4

Almost an hour after Diamond's childish tantrum outside of her bedroom, Serena walked the halls in search for food. She began to regret not having dinner with him in the first place. Her stomach was growling with every step she took. "Oh, why didn't I just listen to him?" she whined.

She walked by the throne room, but she stopped as she felt a strange presence come from behind the crystal doors. Diamond told me not to go in there, she thought, but he made me mad today already! I don't care if he kills me! And besides, what is he hiding from me? Darien? The girls? Rini?

She opened one door and stuck her head inside, looking around the dark room. Her heels hit the glassy floor lightly as she slowly explored her surroundings. Her eyes found Diamond's throne, empty and yet inviting. She sat down and noted to herself the wonderful feeling she was experiencing. A glass of wine was already prepared on the left arm of the throne for the White Prince, but she simply ignored it for she was underage. On the right arm, there appeared to be a control panel similar to a remote control. Curious, she pressed the red button, thinking it was the Power button to turn on a television.

It instead brought up the holographic image of Neo-Queen Serenity. "Why does he have a picture of her?" Serena asked aloud. Then, she suddenly realized she also meant herself in her question. Did Diamond kidnap her because she would one day be the queen of Crystal Tokyo and wife of Endymion? Was he hoping to alter the future by doing that by making her his forever?

"That pervert!" she hissed. "He's gonna regret this!"

"Oh, really?" Diamond's angry voice filled the room as he magically teleported himself next to Serena. His eyes locked with hers in an evil glare. "I thought I told you not to come here!"

"You are an obsessive pervert!"

"And you will learn not to stay out of other people's business. You should also learn to listen to orders when they have been given to you!"

"I will, but not from you!" She leaned up and spat at his face. His anger grew and knocked the glass of wine off his throne, shattering into a million pieces. "Get out!" he yelled.

Serena was frightened from Diamond's wrath and ran down the halls searching for an exit out of the dark kingdom. She found a set of crystal doors and broke through them with a crystal chair. Climbing through the hole, she went into the depths of Nemesis from the outside. It was a cold and dark world, and shadows were lurking around every corner as she walked through the dark forest, hoping to find a way to leave the planet.

The wind blew violently, and the shadow figures surrounded the Moon Princess, pulling on her pigtails and her dress. They were going to tear her apart for trespassing through their woods. She cried for help, but she knew no one would listen to her pleas.

But someone did hear her. She saw a burst of dark energy destroy one of the shadows. Diamond used his sword to cut some of the figures down into nothing, but a figure leaped on him and wounded his arm with a poison sting. He took his sword and stabbed the shadow, terminating it at impact. The other shadows saw the strength of the White Prince and slithered away through the trees, never to come back.

Serena saw Diamond collapse to the ground. He must have been poisoned badly, she thought as she lifted him back onto his feet and carried him back to his palace. She couldn't believe that after seeing his anger minutes ago, he would save her from the shadow creatures. What came over him? Regret? Fear? Love?

She noticed Sapphire and Emerald were waiting at the entrance of Diamond's home for their prince to come back, but when they saw Serena with a wounded Diamond in her arms, they were concerned about their leader's condition. "Is he all right, Serenity?" Emerald asked.

"Not really," Serena replied. "He's been poisoned. Is there something we can do?"

"I have something to cure him," Sapphire said.

They took Diamond to his study and gave him some medicine to heal him. But the scar that was left from the stinger was covered in dried blood, and it had to be cleaned off. Sapphire and Emerald left the couple alone, and Serena, removing his coat, treated it with care, although the White Prince felt some painful spasms run through his body. "Ow!" he yipped as she first touched it with a wet rag on his exposed skin.

"Sorry!" Serena apologized. "I didn't mean to hurt you."

"Leave it alone!"

"The scar must be treated, or you'll have an infection, Diamond."

"Well, be gentle with it next time!"

"I will be as gentle as your mother." Serena looked up and noticed Diamond eyes turn from a dark violet to a dark blue color, as if he was expressing his sorrowful emotions. She somehow knew she had said the wrong thing at the wrong time. "Did I hurt your feelings?" she asked, tending to the scar carefully.

"Yes. You brought up Mother into the discussion," Diamond replied.

The Moon Princess bit her lip and decided it was best for her to keep her mouth for the rest of the evening. She continued to tend Diamond's scar, but he continued to talk about his mother. "She died when I was very young, right after Sapphire's birth," he explained. "The delivery was too much for her to bear. I don't speak much about her because my brother feels guilty as if he's to blame for her death. In fact, she was not ready to have another child, but Father wanted to have more sons."

"Why was she not ready?"

"She was too thin for being pregnant again. She was just not meant to bear offspring. Being the stubborn man he was, Father made her conceive a child once and then twice."

"Was she pretty?"

The White Prince merely nodded his head and replied, "Very pretty indeed. Sometimes, I feel she is looking down on me from the heavens like an angel or a goddess of the universe. But I don't have a picture of her here. I can see her when I close my eyes, and I feel so light." He looked down at Serena and found his arm bandaged up. "You're done already?"

"Yes," Serena smiled. "See? I told you I would be gentle."

"The pain faded away."

"It sure did." She grabbed the basin and the rag and stood up onto her two feet. She turned toward the door and then said, "By the way, thank you for saving me."

A smile crept onto Diamond's face for he knew she accepted the fact that he was not much of a monster. If he was, he would have left her to the shadow creatures in the Negamoon forest, but he loved her too much to let her suffer such a death. It's about time she realized that I am not completely evil, he thought. "You are welcome." He watched her stroll out of the room, and then he quietly added, "Serenity."

Back at Crystal Tokyo, Tuxedo Mask found Rini crying in her bedroom, burying her face into her pink pillows. "Rini," he called. "Rini, what's wrong? Are you still mad at me?"

"Go away!" the little girl cried. "You don't deserve to be the king of Crystal Tokyo! I can't believe you did it, Darien! I thought you would give up your life to keep Serena!"

"Rini, I didn't mean for that to happen!"

"Traitor! If you love my mommy so much, you get her right now!"

Tuxedo Mask turned his gaze away from his future daughter and said in a solemn voice, "I can't. I'm a coward, and I'm too weak to fight Diamond. He's so powerful… Only Serena can defeat him. She's got the strength to do it. I don't."

Rini saw the masked man sit on one of her chairs at her tea table and stare at the ground confused and saddened. She hoped off of her bed and sat on his lap. She felt his arms hold her with his cape shielding them as if something evil would come. Instinctively, she buried her face into his black coat and began to cry. "I miss her, Darien," she sobbed.

A tear rolled down from the man's face for he somehow knew it would be a while before he could see his precious Serena again. "I miss her too," he said, looking at the crescent moon shining bright from the window. At that moment, he vowed he would go to the darkest regions of Nemesis to rescue the woman he loved.

The four Sailor Scouts, on the other hand, stood outside the bedroom in silence. They wished they too could have stopped Diamond, but they didn't want to destroy the future by having the Earth Prince be killed before his time, for they knew Serena wouldn't want that to happen.

But unlike Darien, they had the urge to help the Black Moon family rather than go and fight them in order to save Sailor Moon. After all, the four sisters were healed by the power of the Silver Crystal, and they were once part of the Negamoon. Sailor Venus broke the quiet atmosphere and said, "Maybe if we leave tonight, we could find Serena before Darien does and use the Silver Crystal to heal them. I'm sure they mean no harm."

"But, Venus, you're forgetting one thing: Diamond has the Silver Crystal, not Serena," Sailor Mercury reminded the Sailor Scout of love.

"Mercury is right," Sailor Jupiter agreed. "Diamond is not the kind of person who would give up something so precious and valuable for anything but his own use."

Sailor Mars, on the other hand, noticed Tuxedo Mask walk out of Rini's bedroom and waved her hand at the trio as if she was telling them to be quiet. Turning to the Earth Prince, she asked, "What now?"

"I'm going to Nemesis," he replied. He walked past the girls and then added, "Now."

"Now? But Darien we are not ready!" Sailor Mercury protested.

"You're not coming! You're staying here to protect Rini! This is my battle!" Tuxedo Mask argued.

"But Serena needs our help too!" Sailor Mars said.

"As the prince of Earth, I demand you four to keep an eye on Small Lady! Do I make myself clear?"

The girls looked at each other and, lowering their heads, they replied, "Yes, your majesty." They watched him turn around and, like a majestic official, he strolled down the hallway at a steady pace into the darkened regions of the Crystal Palace. They glared at him and continued to talk about their journey to Nemesis against Darien's orders.

They too planned to leave for the dark planet that night.