Hey all! Here's the next chapter!

Thanks to: Izzy K, midnightdove, angeljme, Miss Katrina Malfoy, Jessica, Guest, UnwrittenOpus, SailorMoon489, MissTexMex, and LoveInTheBattleField for reviewing the previous chapter


Title: Akai Ito
Author: Crystal Saturn
Rated: T
Chapter: 18- The War Inside

I am the war inside
I am the battle line
I am the rising tide
I am the war I fight

Serena pulled the apartment key out of her pocket and looked at it for a moment. She glanced up at the apartment door before deciding to put the key back away in her pocket. Raising a fisted hand, she knocked on the door.

"Serena..." The tall dark haired man answered and stepped aside, letting the blonde teen into the apartment. "Please, come in." He smiled warmly.

"I'm sorry..." Serena hesitated for a moment, feeling strangely embarrassed all of a sudden. "I didn't know if I should knock or use the key..." Her voice trailed away as she realised that she was mumbling. "I think I'll just knock from now on." She held the key out in the palm of her hand for Darien to take.

"Keep it." He shook his head as he covered her hand with his.

Serena shuffled into a pair of slippers as she strolled awkwardly into the apartment. It felt different now that she knew Darien was back, living in it. She felt so out of place and uncomfortable. A part of her almost felt as though her mere presence invaded his privacy and space. As though he sensed her unease, Darien reached out and held her hand in his for a moment before ushering her to a seat beside him on the couch.

"I know this must feel strange to you." Darien began, "It's strange to think about all that we've been through together... in various different forms." He added with a slight chuckle, gently caressing Serena's cheek with one hand. "But everything will be ok from now." She smiled, nodding briefly before leaning her head affectionately against his shoulder.

"Darien?" Serena turned her head slightly to observe the contours of her boyfriend's jaw line.

"Mmm?" He entwined his fingers with hers reassuringly.

"Do you remember what you said the night of our first kiss?" She asked, feeling a little insecure and remembering the note that Darien had left behind for her.

"Of course." The dark haired man lifted up her hand to his face, pressing his lips against her hand repeatedly. "I told you that you're the one that I want to spend the rest of my life with." Wrapping an arm around her shoulders, he brought her in closer to his body. "I told you that I'd fallen in love with you."

Serena's heart skipped a beat at the sound of his words. A broad smile spread across her features and lit up her cerulean eyes. "Darien, I love you." She wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing his cheek ever so gently.

"I love you too, 'Rena." Darien returned the kiss onto her left temple. Serena's smiled faltered slightly at the sound of her nick name. He had never called her that before. "You'll stay with me forever, right?" He continued. Serena looked up at the man beside her, trying to read his expression. His deep blue eyes darkened slightly and a strange glimmer appeared through his lowered lids.

"Darien," Serena began, feeling uncomfortable once again. "Darien, will you give me the Silver Crystal?" She watched as another strange expression flashed across his features momentarily, before he re-composed himself

"Serena, can't we just be together, for one day, without having to think about such things?" An exasperated sounding Darien ran his fingers through his hair. Serena took this opportunity to distance herself from the man.

"I wish I could... Darien." Serena rose to her feet, and paced toward the other side of the room.

"All I wanted was to spend the day with you, Serenity. Why are you making it so difficult? Don't you love me? Don't you want to be with me?" Darien rose to his feet, towering over the petite blonde. He struggled to keep his agitation in check as he felt her slipping away once more.

"I'm not Serenity." Serena tried her best to keep her voice from quivering and showing any hint of weakness. She knew he was no longer Darien. Somewhere along the line, his persona had changed back into Prince Endymion, and it terrified her.

"No, of course not." Darien lowered his voice, controlling it so it remained calm and composed. "Serena, I'm sorry." He began. "I just don't want to lose you."

"Darien, I think I have to go." Serena paced past the man who looked like her boyfriend, toward the front door. Shuffling out of her slippers, she quickly put her shoes back on. "It's getting late and mama will start to worry."

"Can I see you again tomorrow?" Darien asked as he watched the panicked bunny rush to flee the apartment.

"Umm... Sure." Serena plastered a smile across her face before dashing out the apartment and closing the door behind her.

He's not my Darien. He's still Endymion. Serena repeated in her mind as she rushed to tap the elevator button. Reaching the lobby floor, she was met by four familiar faces.

"I got the spirit reading." Rei blurted out.

"I got some readings on my computer too." Ami added.

"You did well, Sere." Mina shook her fists with nervous excitement. "I think he totally believed that you believed that he was Darien."

"We should head back to the temple to talk about this." Lita cut in. "It might not be safe here." All five girls nodded and agreed to stagger their exits so as to not look suspicious to anyone who happened to be looking out from their eighth storey apartment balcony window.

. . .

"I don't like this." Serena paced back and forth across the temple room as Rei poured five cups of green tea. "We're playing a dangerous game, and I don't know if I can do this for much longer." She paused in mid thought and sat down at the table with the rest of the girls. "He... he's too good."

"What do you mean, Sere?" Mina took a loud, cautious slurp of her tea.

"Sometimes I swear it's like I'm talking to Darien." Serena wrung her hands together nervously. "The real one." She added before rising to her feet again in an attempt to rid herself of some of her nervous energy. "The things he says, the way that he looks at me sometimes, it's like he remembers. It's like he was there."

"There might be a reason for that." Rei placed the tea pot back down on the table before moving over to the temple fireplace. She knelt down before the roaring fire and immediately they settled into low lying lapping flames, timid under the Miko's watchful gaze. Clasping her hands together in a prayer-like manner, Rei began to recite a mantra under her breath. "Flames of Mars, reveal to us the one who resides within Darien Chiba." The flames leapt high into the air, seeming to dance into a thin veil. Although the fire burned bright, the temperature in the room immediately dropped and an eerie mist seemed to seep from the fireplace.

"Sometimes you really scare me with your supernatural stuff, Rei." Lita shuddered slightly.

A violet hue illuminated the room from the fire. Two piercing yellow eyes appeared within the flames, seeming to glare straight at them. It wasn't much longer before the image of a scarlet snarl also followed.

"Endymion." Mina gasped under her breath.

"The Dark Kingdom." Ami corrected.

"Serena..." An anguished cry called out from the fire. His voice sounded strained and distorted over the crackle of the fireplace. "Help..." The flames rippled like molten liquid as the image of Darien reaching through the flames emerged, piercing through the apparition of the dark kingdom phantom.

"Darien?" Serena leaped toward the flame, reaching her hand out, stopping barely an inch away.

"He's there." Rei confirmed. "But his spirit is weak."

"So the Dark Kingdom is using his memories to get to Serena." Mina mused out loud, trying to piece together all the pieces of the story. "But they have the Silver Crystal, so what more do they want?"

"They can't unleash its full power without Serena, since she's the last remaining descendent of the Moon Kingdom. She's the only one who can handle the full power of the Silver Crystal." Luna appeared from the hallway of the temple. She slowly pawed at the thin room partitions before finally managing to squeeze through an entrance. "By the way, thanks for waiting for me."

"Sorry Luna." the girls collectively lowered their heads at the sight of the guardian.

"What do I have to do to get Darien back?" Serena interrupted impatiently.

"Our main priority is keeping you safe, Serena." Luna attempted to reason.

"My main priority is getting Darien back." Serena returned with a determination never seen before by the other girls.

"It's risky," Lita weighed up the pros and cons in her mind. She empathised with Serena's passionate heart, but knew that her role and duty was to protect her leader, the Moon Princess, at all cost. "You said it yourself. This is one big dangerous game, and the stakes are high. If we lose, the world, the future, all the ones we love, it will all be lost to the darkness."

"My readings indicate that Endymion still has the Silver Crystal. There's still hope of getting it back." Ami interjected, holding up her mini-computer as evidence. The scans of Endymion's form showed a high reading of energy coming from his coat pocket.

"Rei, what about Akai Ito? Does the red thread still connect us?" Serena began to formulate a plan in her mind. A look of determination spread across her face; she was not prepared for Rei's response.

"No..." Rei lowered her gaze. "Not that I can sense. It seems that the thread connecting you with Darien has been severed."

"That's not possible, is it?" Mina perked up, "They're destined. Rei, you said that the red thread would bind destined lovers forever."

"I'll get him back." Serena leapt to her feet, unaffected by Rei's revelation. "I won't abandon him."

"Where are you going?" Rei followed suit, also rising to her feet.

"I need to see him." Serena grabbed her coat as she slipped her shoes on.

"Serena," Ami quickly grabbed hold of her leader. A moment of silence befell the group of girls as they all anticipated Ami's next words. The timid teenager looked into Serena's eyes. She knew that a meeting now between Serena and Endymion would be dangerous. She knew that the risks were high; she had crunched the numbers herself and the stats did not look good, but there was something about the way Serena looked at that moment that made her rethink her warning. Ami knew that there was nothing that she could say to make Serena change her mind. She was now determined more than ever to win Darien back, but it wasn't just determination in her eyes. There was hope, desire, purpose and a strength like no other. All the girls could see it. "Make it somewhere public." Ami warned gently. "You'll be safer meeting him somewhere where there are a lot of people." The blonde teen nodded her head in understanding.

"Remember, you can't trust him. Don't let your guard down." Lita added.

"We'll stay on alert and wait for your call through the communicator. Let us know as soon as something, anything goes wrong." Luna hated the idea of sending Serena out as live bait, especially knowing how susceptible she was to falling for Endymion's charm and letting her guard down around him, but she also knew that there was no way to stop Serena now that she was determined. She just hoped that Serena had thought of some sort of plan.


"Hey..." Darien approached Serena who waited down by the lake at the nearby park.

"You're here." Serena smiled and sighed a small breath of relief as she ran up to the tall man and flung her arms around him, hugging him tightly.

"Why do you seem so surprised?" Darien choked out, finding it slightly difficult to breathe with Serena crushing his chest. "You asked me to come out; you said you wanted to see me."

"No, I know." Serena released her grip on the tall dark haired man as she pulled back and looked up into his midnight blue eyes. "It's just that... well... I missed you, and we left on such bad terms before. I just wanted to make sure everything was Ok."

"Everything's fine, Serena." He smiled as he reassured her and Serena found herself drowning deeper in the depths of his eyes. At that moment, she completely forgot about trying to find the Silver Crystal in his coat jacket. He moved to kiss her cheek, but Serena stopped him, placing her hand on his cheek to slowly guide him toward her lips. She leaned in, reaching up on the tips of her toes as she gently pressed her lips against his. Her heart pounded wildly in her chest as the electric impulses from the kiss jump started her soul. Her whole body tingled like it had done only once before and Serena knew for sure that this time, she was kissing Darien.

"Well, what do we have here?" The sound of a deep voice echoed across the lake. "It looks like we found the rogue warrior in the arms of the girl we sent him to kill."

"Kunzite." Darien lowered his gaze, pulling himself away from Serena.

"Darien?" Serena looked up at the man beside her. "How did he know we were here?"

"Of course we would know the every move of one of our own warriors, Miss Moon." Kunzite smirked as he hovered effortlessly in the air above the lake. With a wave of his hand, a burst of dark energy enveloped Darien's body, transforming him back into the amoured Prince Endymion. "You've done well, Endymion. Queen Beryl was very impressed. Now hand me the Silver Crystal so we can take both it, and its owner back to the Dark Kingdom."

"Endymion?" Serena slowly began to back away. "This was a trap all along…"

"Serena, no." Endymion shook his head in protest. "You asked me to come out here, remember?"

"You told them where we would be so they could find us and take me." Serena reached for her communicator, but before she could alert the others, Endymion grabbed hold of her wrist and pulled her in close. He held out the lustreless gem for Serena to take. She hesitated as she saw it. Dull grey in colour, it barely glimmered. A cloudy murkiness transformed it into an almost opaque looking gem, nothing like the one she knew.

"Take it." He ordered quickly.

"That's not-"

"Serena, you must take it." Endymion lowered his voice as he spoke with an urgency that sent chills up Serena's spine.

She shook her head slightly "That must be a fake. It can't be the Silver Crystal." Endymion pried open her fingers and placed the gem down roughly on her hand. A blinding light seeped from their fingers as they both transformed, memories flooding their senses.

A golden beam of light radiated from the crescent shaped symbol that appeared on Serenity's forehead. The memories of her past life on the Moon Kingdom took hold of her as she collapsed to her knees. Flashes of their first meeting and their forbidden love replayed in Endymion's mind as he felt the light of the Silver Crystal battle to cleanse him of the darkness within. His heart ached as his head pulsed, feeling like it was being spliced in two. He clasped at his head, cradling it as though it was going to explode from the sensory overload.

The pillar of light that emanated from Serenity's transformation pulsed high into the sky. It gained the attention of the Sailor Senshi who transformed immediately, ready for the battle against the Dark Kingdom.


. . .

That's it for this week ^_^ Another update will be ready next week, and I'll update Summer Rain in the next couple days. Please read & review!

Crystal Saturn