When it was over, the mirror vanished with a flash of light, and the two of them were left together in the middle of his dark apartment. Setsuna stood in silence and waited for him to say something. A cloud had covered the moon and she could no longer read his expression. He didn't say anything for a very long time, so she suggested, "Now why don't you tell me what you are thinking."

Darien finally raised his head from its lowered position, and Setsuna was a little surprised to see a tortured expression as the clouds passed and the moonlight hit his pale face a moment. "It's true," Darien told her, "you're the woman in my dreams. It was you all along. You're the woman I gave the necklace to. Oh, god." Darien put a hand to his head and staggered back to the couch. He sat down on it heavily. "My god, Setsuna."

Setsuna's hard defense against the entire situation deteriorated a little then, and she found herself wanting to break down and say, "There are more secrets, Darien. You didn't love Serena all the way on your own, they helped you to it, and the Queen, she kept putting spells on you to keep you in love with her. You could have done it on your own, I knew you then and I know you now, but the Queen didn't trust you. She and your father arranged your meeting and then the Queen made you fall in love with her!!"

She did not let anything like those words escape her lips, instead she held her head up a little more and rebuilt the defense against the sadness and the tears and the pain.

"They weren't just dreams. I tried to pass them off as that because I didn't know what else to do. I know what the future is, I know so far into the future and I'm still with Serena, even then. I didn't want to believe that there were other threads, or other times, or even other instances. For a long time, I wondered if my memory had been erased. I never thought about you. It was like you had been completely erased from my mind. Sometimes, though, I only have to touch you and everything starts to come back to me." Darien was looking at her now, long and hard as he spoke. His hands were limp between his legs, which his elbows rested on. His shock seemed to have gone a little from him. Setsuna realized seeing this that she had been right. Some part of him had known about it.

"It only lasts a second," he continued, "but it's still there. It took me so long to figure it out, Setsuna, because I didn't want to believe that there was anything else." Finally, he looked away, off looking now at nothing. "Now, I'm not really so sure. If these other threads exist, I just might have to pick them up. Do they need to be fixed? Can I really pick up all of your pieces?"

Setsuna sighed a little, and all of her old love for him rushed over her like a wave. Feeling coursed through her like a flash flood, and for a moment, she was completely vulnerable. She took a few seconds to collect what was left of her rock hard defense and she asked him austerely, "What are you asking me to do?"

Now, there's the real question, Darien thought, leaning back and putting his hands behind his head. That's the question for me and for her. What, exactly, do I want Setsuna to do about it? Here she offers me a choice. All of this is destiny. I know that I'm with Serena in the future, but how does Setsuna play into all of this? I can't just stop loving her.

"I can't just stop loving you," he said aloud, his gaze falling to her once more. This time, he did not pass on to some other currently meaningless object in his small living room with the big windows. Their eyes locked and stayed locked; no one tried to look away.

"I think you're going to have to. You have her. Serena, she's per—"

"Perfect?" He interrupted, his tone changing to a slightly cruel one. He leaned forward and said, "you don't actually believe that, do you? Don't tell me that she's perfect as a futile attempt to get my mind off of you. You showed me the truth. You can't go back. And don't try to tell me you've lost your old feelings for me, because I suspect that you had them all along."

Setsuna's lower lip tried to tremble, but she absolutely refused to let it. "How could you not tell?!" She spat, "I always hung around waiting for you, I always stared at you when I thought no one was looking, and I had to have these memories all by myself!" As she told him these things, these things that were somehow horrible to him, her voice rose in a crescendo. Darien found himself unable to restrain the need to go to her and he did so. Darien pulled Setsuna to him in a tight hug.

"It's all right, now," he whispered softly to her. His lips brushed against the soft skin of her ear, and some of her hair tickled his face. The tears that she had been working so hard to keep back at last spilled over her eyelids and coursed down her cheeks.

"It can't be," she said softly. "It can't ever be all right." She believed that he knew that, as well. He took her by the chin and lifted her eyes to his.

"But it can. It can be all right at this very moment," he leaned down closer to her, "please, Setsuna, let it be."

Everything about the moment was incredibly wrong, but it was also incredibly perfect. Her heart glowed with a certain warmth, something she remembered from so long ago. The feeling was like a visit from her oldest, dearest friend. Love. Setsuna loved Darien with all of her heart, and she never wanted him to let go of her. She never wanted to be anywhere else but that where she was.

"Darien," she breathed.

He suddenly exhaled and his hand slipped into her hair, and there was a look on his face of utter wanting and astonishing love. She felt his hand unbuckle her clip, and her hair went spilling down to her hips. The clip clattered to the floor. "I love you, Setsuna," he said. Setsuna stood there with him a moment, his hand holding some of her hair against her head, his other arm around her waist, tears glittering in his eyes.

"I love you, too, Darien," she said. "I love you."

They kissed.