Chapter 5 : If You Like It Then You Shoulda Put A Ring On it

Serena woke in the bed. She remembered passing out after hearing the news that Wise Man had been killed…Rini? Had she really done that? She never knew Rini as a fighter…she never knew she even had powers like that. I guess being a future moon princess would have given her such…but this? She didn't even know if she could have destroyed the Wise Man with the other scouts, let alone on her own. She looked at the moon broach that had remained in her hand. How could it not work against these dark crystals? How could she not use it or transform? Were the scouts not looking for her? Where was Darien when she needed his rescue? Oh Darien! She clutched the broach closer to her over her heart. How did it get like this?

"Moon Princess, I see you have awakened. I hope I did not leave you too out of breath for our last encounter?"

His monotone voice rang through the room. Prince Diamond had returned.

"You didn't." She said as sharply as she could. She didn't want him to think he had gotten the best of Sailor Moon.

"Then I presume your best has yet to come." He said as if reading her intent behind her words. "You know Moon Princess; ever since I saw your blue eyes I cannot shake a certain feeling that I knew those eyes well before the future; well into our pasts. That your face, even as Neo Queen Serenity, recollects some past that I have yet to reconcile nor remember."

She just stared at him. She never would have known a man like him in her past as a princess. Neither would he be in her future.

"It seems however, I cannot avoid this. I must apologize for my hasty actions from before." He walked closer to the bed, although he said he was to apologize his voice remained as monotone as ever. "It seems that I became carried away; having you here, in the flesh made me feel so … happy."

She returned his words for a hard glare. Happy? He should improve on his apologizing skills. He held out his hand to help her off the bed. She just stared at it with the same look.

"If you really must know, I have never truly felt love. My mother died when I was still a young man, as far as I can remember. Wise Man was deceptive, and my brother, who was all that I had; is gone." He cringed again at the memory of his brother's death.

Did he genuinely feel for his brother? Had he really never felt real love? She stood up herself, and looked at him hard, remaining a distance away. It seemed his violet eyes always had a purple haze; she could never tell with him. "Join us on the Earth! Catsy and her sisters live in harmony with us!"

"However tempting, I want the Black Moon Clan to live on. We were stuck on Nemesis; but now your Earth offers so much more…but really…that is not my point. Maybe we can live in harmony; accept my apology please. Here is a token of my pure resentment for my actions…a ring fit for a princess."

She looked to see a ring in the fingers of the dark prince. He walked closer to her and presented it to her in his hand. She looked at it. It was silver and it spiraled in twirls around the band of it. There were small diamonds held in the silver band bordered in crescent moons. In the centre was a rectangular cut dark purple jewel….an amethyst? Bordering it where more diamonds, encircling it.

"Do you really think I am that naive Prince Diamond?"

He looked back at her. Had she really figured it out? Had he really underestimated this blond haired goddess?

"If you are trying to propose, I have already given my heart to my Prince Darien!"

He smiled. So she hadn't exactly.

"Although tempting, I am not proposing. Just a mere token of my apology; but if you do not accept it I cannot force you to. Nor can I force you to forgive me…" He started to walk away, and left the ring on the bed. "You know, the ring was my mother's…Amethyst. It is one of the few things I still have of hers."

She looked at the ring he left on the bed and back to Prince Diamond. His back was towards her, arms crossed. Did he really want forgiveness? I mean his mother's ring…and not an engagement…maybe if she accepted his apology she could convince him that life on earth is possible…if of course he didn't take it over?

He was looking at the girl from the corner of his eye. She was staring at the ring. He wondered what reason she would use to take the ring, after all he had pushed himself on her, and she had only given him tough glares between the sudden desperate beg for him to join the sisters on the Earth…

"If I accept your apology, will you listen to me?"

He looked over at the girl now holding the ring in her fingers.

"Listen to you?"

"Listen to why you shouldn't take over our little planet that you want so much; how Wise Man has only lied to you?"

"Of course it is the least I could do…"

"Then I will…but scouts will be here soon, and …"

"Your Tuxedo Mask…I know."

"Then if I can try to convince you, that I can get Rini back somehow… I accept your apology." She looked down and put it on her ring finger, of course on her right hand, not her left… nothing
happened. So she didn't need to worry…

"Well then, before we have our talk; I would like for you to meet my new Black Moon clan…consisting of Wicked Lady, my cousin Melanite, Emerald's sister Morganite, Alexandrite and Peridot."

Her eyes opened wide. "Your cousin? I thought you said you had no family?"

"My cousin is family, a more distant part of my family...you'd like him; Wicked Lady does. But you see there is another new member of the Black Moon clan that I have yet to mention…"

"Who?"

"You."

She was about to protest when she felt strange. She looked at the ring on her finger, it was glowing and she noticed a dark crescent moon in the middle of the amethyst crystal.

He walked up to her. "You will be mine."

She looked up at him, her mind blanking, and her eyes turning a glazed over blue. This time his mind control would work.

It would.