Serena sat bolt upright in bed, breathing hard and sweating very little. A chill ran down her spine and she looked to her left, then to her right. Chibiusa was asleep beside her, and the little girl's warm body beside her was comforting.

"Why do I keep having this nightmare?" Serena whispered aloud. She covered her face with her hands a moment as she tried to control herself.

This was the fourth time she'd had the dream in as many days. In the dream, Serena was spying into her mother's bedroom. This was not her mother on earth. This was always her mother from the moon kingdom. She was discussing something with their sage, Alana. The bedroom door was cracked just a little bit, and Princess Serena could always see into the brightly lit chamber just enough to see her mother's back and Alana's tired expression.

"…going to have to put a spell on him." Princess Serena heard her mother finish.

"I'd have to advise against it, my Queen. If you were discovered—"

"Alana," Queen Serenity interrupted softly, her voice sad, "what other choice do we have? He cannot overcome this lost love on his own. If we help him a bit, he will be in better spirits when he meets my daughter."

Alana sighed wearily. "You cannot make two people fall in love, my Queen."

"I know," Queen Serenity paused a moment and clutched the Moon Scepter a bit tighter, "but I can help them along, can I not?"

At this point in her dream, Princess Serena would step back from the door and a hand would rest on her shoulder. She would turn around to face Darien. However, it wasn't really Darien. This form was a rotted zombie Prince Darien, holding out some kind of necklace to her, blank eyes staring. Then, in a choked voice he would croak,

"I love you."

And then blood would come gurgling from his mouth and she would wake up screaming.

Serena did not understand what this dream meant, nor did she understand what her mother, Queen Serenity, was planning. She could always remember this dream very vividly; she always remembered every detail and every word that was said. Serena had never spoken of it to anyone, but she thought that if she were to speak of it, now would be as good a time as any.

Serena thought she should go to Setsuna because of Setsuna's vast knowledge of all the things that have happened, are happening, or will happen. The only problem Serena saw was that Setsuna made her a little uncomfortable. She would never admit it to anyone, but it was very true. Something just emitted from Setsuna in waves that intimidated Serena, and she wasn't exactly sure what it was.

Serena ultimately decided that she would talk to Raye. Raye had interpreted dreams for the scouts plenty of times, and she was usually bang-on. Serena relaxed upon this solution and rested her head on her pillow again. She did not dream again.

=-=

Setsuna sucked in a breath of air and then exhaled in a shuddery sigh. She had of course known that there would be some kind of intense confrontation, but she did not want it to be now. She sensed that Darien had been expecting it as well, and there was something else.

There it was again, that "something else." Setsuna recognized that this had been quite a theme in the past week or so. She had been at a loss of words to describe the things she saw on his face, and sometimes the things she heard in the sound of her own voice. One of those somethings was probably what prevented her from speaking now. Words that she wanted to say were just too dangerous. What they held was just too frightening to try to convey properly.

"Tell me," Darien said.

"What?" Setsuna was surprised to hear that she did not sound afraid.

"Tell me what you are thinking. What are you thinking right now?"

Setsuna raised her eyes to him and suddenly, all the fear and nervousness was gone. Setsuna looked deeply into his grey-blue eyes. The moon reflected off them, making them seem deeper. In that moment, Setsuna found much clarity in her thinking and in her sight. She could see every fleck of grey and the darker flecks of cobalt shining in his eyes in that slit of moonlight across his eyes. Setsuna opened her mouth and the words flew fluently, brilliantly, like flashes of light.

"If you don't know now, Darien, you will never know. I shouldn't have to tell you, and, in a way, I'm perfectly sure that you know what it is that I'm going to tell you. If I talk long enough, eventually, some part of you is going to remember it. Want to know why? Because what happened is not something that anyone is bound to forget. You are supposed to remember. And when you do, what you choose you make with that knowledge is your choice."

Setsuna held out her hand and a flash of gleaming golden light in the shape of a hand mirror formed there. The light was so bright, Darien instinctively brought up a hand to shield his eyes, knowing that this kind of light would not damage them.

The light slowly faded and in her hand, Setsuna clutched Michiru's Deep Aqua Mirror. Her eyes narrowed, her body not moving, her arm extend upward until she was holding the mirror to him. "Will you take it?" she asked him. "Can you face the past?"

"I'm not sure that I can," he whispered, almost positive she hadn't heard him.

She nodded to prove that she had.

Darien took a few steps toward her, and reached out to the mirror. He grasped it by the top. Setsuna's gaze did not waver from his. There were no more tears in her eyes. She had become the Keeper of Time. This was the real Setsuna. This Setsuna did not hide behind a mask of tears; a mask of grief. She was strong and purposeful. Another part in her that he thought was beautiful. Another part of her that he went even so far as to say that he loved.

Setsuna looked down at the mirror, and Darien followed suit. He saw the reflection of two sets of eyes, hers red and his grey blue, and then they began to just fade away. Darien saw two silhouettes. The silhouettes of a man and a woman.