"I thought you had to meet your boss."

"I did."

"What are you doing here, then?" Serena pushed past him, moving quickly toward her bedroom. He sighed a moment, then diligently followed.

"I stopped by to see Rini."

"Short meeting?" She began to remove the books and magazines from her pink shopping bag and arrange them on her cluttered desk. "Quickie with Carla?"

"Don't be snide," still, guilty.

"If you just came here to see Rini, say so. I could have come with you. You didn't have to ditch me." Serena thought of the balled up picture in her pocket; the deep eyes, the dark hair, the grim smile. "You didn't have to lie."

His hands were on her shoulders, unsteady. "I know. I'm sorry."

"You don't have any reason to talk to her alone."

"Is it wrong to want to see her by myself?"

"No." She shut her eyes tightly, hands on her desk. "Just suspicious. Just weird. Especially with the whole Carla thing." Serena shrugged him off and turned to face him. "Is something up?"

Darien looked at her for a long time. Her eyes were so big and so blue. He remembered loving her, for all her insecurities. That time seemed so far away, in light of all the new information, new discoveries. Was it wrong, he wondered? Had he been wrong to go to Setsuna, to follow the past? The future? Should he be even considering disrupting time as they knew it?

"I can fix everything," he said, without thinking.

"I didn't realize anything was amiss," flatly. Darkly.

Darien said, "nothing is, not really. I guess I just need some time to get used to this idea. I guess Rini should go back to the future. I guess we should just get everything sorted out." He started to walk away.

"What are you talking about?"

"I need some time. I need to get my head on straight, my thoughts in order."

"You're been acting weird. I guess that's what all this is about, huh? The wedding? Rini still being here?" Her tone was strange, unidentifiable.

"I need some time," he said again, shutting the door behind him.

From the haze, he emerged. Tall, thin, lanky. She surprised him when she did not come to him, did not smile, did not tear up. Did not even move.

"Setsuna."

"You shouldn't be here."

"Rini wanted me to come."

Setsuna looked away. "It's over. I wanted to make certain it was over."

Angrily, he said, "over? Bullshit! What's with this charm, then?!" He snatched it from his neck, threw it across the marble to her.

She frowned. "I had hope."

"Hope?! Hope?!"

"Once!" She glared at him, "but I realize now that things have to change, have to be over!"

"What's happened to you?" he took a few steps toward her, but he did not dare to touch her. She seemed so far away. "What's happened to you in all this time?"

"What do you want from me? Here, I am alone. I can check in every now and again, but I don't live as you do. I have resigned myself to this!"

"I love you, Setsuna!" His voice seemed to echo across ages. "I love you! I came here because I have not forgotten, because I can't forget, no matter what! I refuse to believe that you feel the way you are saying!"

Her eyes closed, he wondered what she could have been thinking. "I want to change everything."

He almost hadn't heard her. He took her limp, cold hand. "Change?"

"Erase all this."

"What do you mean?" Desperation.

"I mean… I want you to go back in time and make it so that you and I never meet, not until later."

Darien gripped her hand tightly, knowing that it hurt her and not caring. "What? What? We can be together! We can fix it all! I don't want Serena, I don't want that future!"

"You're selfish!" She spat, trying to pull her hand away. He didn't not do her the favor of releasing her, only pulled her closer, grabbed her by the head and forced her to look at him, at his eyes.

"Setsuna! We can change what is written!"

"No! What about Serena? What about our friends, the lives they know, they expect? Fix it, fix it!"

"Even if I went back in time," his voice was a low growl, denying his feelings, "Rini would never exist!"

"Then use magic in the future to change the star seeds! Give her mine!"

Darien was holding her so tightly, but she did not struggle. "You're crazy," he whispered to her, "you're crazy with loneliness. You don't know what you're saying—"

"And I guess you like feeling the way you feel?" she said, her voice shards of glass. "I supposed you like it? Give Rini to her, not to me—give her the star seed. Fix this."

"I'll still know! You'll still know!"

"Have Raye perform the incantation again! I don't want this! I don't want this responsibility! I want everything back the way that it was before this mess! Why did you ever have to touch me?!" Setsuna tore away from him, raised her staff.

"I'm sending you back. I'm sending you back and you can think about everything."

"No!" He cried, "listen to me! Nothing will change! Everything will still mean the same!"

"Go to her, you love her. You are going to marry her."

"I haven't bought her a ring."

"Buy one." Tears fell freely from her eyes, but her expression was stone.

"I can't."

"Please."

"I won't."

"Please. Remember what it was to love her before me. Remember, for me."

"You were the first." Light began to blind him. "You were the first!!"

[This is my first chapter in almost two years. I plan to finished. So many things have changed; interests, age, mindset, style of writing. It will be difficult to get back into this. I would like to re-write it, but I've found it's difficult to make fanfiction into fiction. Thank you for your consideration, thank you for appreciating my story. I am going to try to finish it.