Strong Destiny, Weak Heart

I Stand Alone

Chapter 16

Disclaimer: I wish I could take credit for Sailor Moon! Alas, not my creation, only this story is.

Previously on Strong Destiny, Weak Heart:

"If that is your decision, we shall meet again, and not on as good terms."

"I understand. I'll be waiting."

"Until next time 'my prince'." And with that, Alum, the old man left. He rushed over to the training grounds, to prepare for the battle ahead.

And now the continuation...

Chapter 16

Darien had been training for hours when Rei showed up after realizing he wasn't anywhere else. She saw the concentration on his face and worry covered hers. It had been years since she had seen the look on his face that now consumed his features. As she watched him train, she debated with herself whether she should stop him and ask what was wrong, or not. She wondered if he had run into Serena, or had a dream about her. When it came to this total concentration, she was always the reason he tried to drown himself in his training. She finally decided to confront him, but not mention the birthday party until a 'safer' date. When he was at least more 'stable'. She watched, with a frightened look as he dodged, parried, and attacked the cyborg without restraint. This is why she preferred to not watch him train. This side of Darien, frightened her. She knew as soon as he realized she was there, he would ease up, but the way he had the killer intent, was something she couldn't get passed. After a few months of watching him train, she was not only letting him 'grieve' but also get stronger, by letting him train alone. She couldn't keep watching him, it caused her pain, the determination in his face. The look of, 'it's either going to be me or you, but one of us isn't going to make it' made her skin crawl. "Darien?" She called loudly, trying to be louder than the noise of the sword and metal clashing. He easily heard her, but didn't slow down. Instead her voice seemed to have the opposite effect and urged him on. "Darien?" She tried calling louder.

"Yeah?" He called back without stopping. This caught her off guard. Usually he stopped to talk to her, whatever was troubling him was serious, that much she could tell.

"I, I just...can we talk please?"

"Isn't that what we're doing right now?" He was hit with a lightning beam through his right shoulder, but recovered, she watched as the wound quickly healed, he had been struck right at the gap of his shoulder and arm armor. She couldn't turn away, but she didn't want to see anymore.

"Darien please stop!" That did it, she didn't realize she had tears in her eyes until she felt his hand wipe them from her face.

"I'm sorry, I just don't really have time to take a break right now." He said as he put his forehead to hers. Her powers over the years also increased, although she made Ami promise not to spread the news. She and Ami both thought it best if they had this 'edge' with Rei's powers. When she was in contact with another person, she was able to get a picture, glimpses really, of anything in the past week that person found 'eventful'. At first she only could 'sense' if the person was troubled, then Ami dove further into her abilities and she found she didn't need the flames to tell her things, she had the powers within herself. Her powers were far greater than she'd imagined, over two years of practice and she still had only been able to scratch the surface of her abilities. Still, a week of glimpses was far better than just a 'bad feeling'. Ami's theory was, once she controlled it completely, Rei would be able to focus on just one emotion the person was feeling, find out why they felt that way, and see any memories linked with the emotion, weather they were a week old, or a lifetime, possibly several. For now Rei would have to settle for the glimpses, it wasn't hard to convince Ami to keep it a secret, she liked having something just between them. They were the two closest to each other and un-boy crazy of the four.

Rei tried to find a way to bring up Alum without giving away that she had read his thoughts. "Darien, why are you training so hard? What's wrong? This isn't about Serena..." It was more a comment then a question.

"I, no. Rei, relax, I just feel tense lately, that's all."

"You're lying."

"Rei please, I just...I need to train. Alone."

"Why? I thought you knew you could trust me, why are you pushing me away?"

"It's not that I can't trust you, it's that...*sigh*...I'm trying to keep you safe."

"I can take care of myself. From what?"

"See? That's the kind of attitude I DON'T trust."

"Well how do you expect me to react when you're keeping me out of the loop!"

"Even if I tell you, you won't stay out of it! This is my battle." He glanced at the sword at his hand, and for the first time in a long time, felt like himself again. He couldn't hide the fact that he was actually looking forward to what was to come.

"Darien, you're scaring me! Why would you chose to face something alone when you don't have to! You sound like Serena when she'd rush off to save someone without telling us!" She quickly clasped her hands over her mouth.

"I know I do. I've never understood her more than I do now. I can't explain this Rei. It's just something that I have to do...alone. I'm going to be busy for a while so don't bother looking for me again."

"Darien, whatever you're about to face, you don't care what the outcome is going to be do you? You are either going to win or die trying!"

"I couldn't think of a better cause then saving the land I love, and the people."

"Do you realize what you're saying? You'd rather die than ask for help! You can't be serious! We can't let you do that!"

"That's why I'm not telling you what's to come!"

"And you don't think we'll figure it out!"

"You haven't noticed it yet have you? Besides, saving the Earth is probably the last thing on Serena's mind right now. She has other...distractions."

"You think she doesn't care about you anymore? Is that what this is about? She still cares about you! We ALL do! I know we don't matter compared to her-"

"You know that's not true! Look, this is something I have to do, I have to face, alone! There's no way I'll be able to explain it to you, not now. I don't have the time to worry about how you guys are doing, or if you'll be hurt. I'll need all my strength."

"You don't have to do this alone! We've all improved vastly! Even Serena! You can't just toss us aside like we don't matter!"

"This isn't your battle! What aren't you understanding! This isn't your typical 'battle for Earth' this is a battle of EARTH! Do you understand! This isn't about aliens protecting the planet for the weak humans, this is about humans protecting what's rightfully theirs!"

"A-aliens...?" The tears streaming down Rei's cheeks were hard to miss, but she didn't realize they were there. She stared at him, unable to believe what she'd just heard. Did he really call them that? "We were born here..."

"Reincarnated." He corrected. "You guys were 'reborn' here, but you're not from here. No matter how you look at it, you're all aliens. At least to 'real' humans.

"Darien, how could you- why would you-" She couldn't complete a sentence. Her anger was starting to rise, but her hurt won out. She just turned her back and ran back to the temple, crying the whole way. He couldn't hide the fact that he was happy she had run off. Finally he could go back to practicing in peace. This wasn't a game. This was going to be a kind of 'final battle'. His chance to really prove, not only to Alum, or to 'Earth', not even to Serena, but to himself. Prove that he wasn't just backup, or the 'boyfriend' although he no longer had the later as a label. He was a force to be reckoned with, he was Prince of the Earth, and future King, rightful King of Earth at that. He was determined to be King again, or die trying. This was the first day of his hard core training, that wouldn't stop until he was King of the Earth.

The next day Rei called Ami first thing in the morning. She asked Ami to come over so Rei could tell her what had occurred the day before. Ami agreed and shortly arrived to Rei's temple. Rei told her everything. Ami couldn't believe her ears. "But you're sure this old man you saw is a threat?"

"Ami, the only thing I'm certain I caught was that he was Beryl's father, and that he's over a thousand years old! We can't just overlook this!"

"But you said yourself he looked frail...still, the fact that he's related to Beryl is enough to give me chills. What do you think he's planning to do?"

"Who? Beryl's dad or Darien?"

"I don't know, either of them, both of them. We have to figure out what's going on. There hasn't been any signs of asteroids or anything, how did he get here?" Just then Ami's words made Rei realize what Darien was trying to tell her.

"...not a fight for aliens..." Rei quietly remembered.

"What?" Ami said, confused at Rei's comment.

"I don't know if there is anything we can do..."

"What are you talking about! You call me, frantic, and tell me we have to do something, but now you're having second thoughts! We can't avoid this, we're sailor scouts-"

"It's not our fight Ami! All we can do is back him up, it's best if we don't tell the other scouts about this." Rei said calmly.

"Are you insane! We can't let Darien go at this alone! You said you saw the whole world suffering in Darien's mind! If he has that much control of the world now, then Darien-"

"We can't take this from him Ami! Don't you see? Alum is Beryl's dad! What species was she?"

"What kind of question is- oh, I see." Ami quickly put the pieces together in her head and caught up with Rei. "So if we try to protect Earth, Beryl's dad will just use it to prove the 'aliens' are trying to take over and possibly get more followers." Rei nodded in agreement. "So that's it then? There's nothing we can do? Do you really think we'll be able to keep this from Serena?"

"Well, I know I can. Not like I see her that much anyway."

"Still, we have to tell the other scouts, if only to warn them to not get involved. I don't see Serena interfering if she's too busy trying to protect Reagan."

"You really think the person on her mind to protect will be Reagan over Darien?" Ami put her head down. She had kept it to herself, over the past two years she believed that Serena and Darien's relationship was more and more unlikely after the bond Reagan and Serena had formed. Everyone agreed, but they tried to keep it from Rei and Darien. "Ami, are they that serious!" Ami just nodded in conformation. She couldn't lie to one of her oldest friends. "Wow, I never thought- I never could force myself to believe- Serena and Reagan huh?" She finally forced herself to finish a thought.

"We should tell the others as soon as possible. Let's call them now."

"Okay."

Soon all the scouts except for Serena were gathered at the temple and had the situation explained to them by Rei, carefully excluding her mind reading abilities. They were in shock to say the least. They had long since believed they had gotten rid of Beryl and any evil that came with her.

"Oh wow! I just had a crazy thought!" Mina said, after a few moments of silence. "What if he thinks HE'S the good guy and WE are the bad guys!"

"Mina that's ridiculous-" Lita started to say, but then suddenly Ami cut her off.

"Now hold on, Mina may be on to something...go on Mina, what makes you think so?"

"Well, if Darien called us Aliens, I doubt he got that all by himself. I'm sure that's something Alum may have told him. And if he's as old as he claims, then it would make sense to see us as bad guys. After all, Darien never killed Beryl, Serena did, and we helped with what we could. With that in mind, it's also a known fact, Beryl was in love with Darien, but he turned her down."

"Okay, you're just saying stuff we all already know." Lita said impatiently.

"Just stay with me for a minute. In his mind, Serena possibly 'bewitched' Darien into loving her, and now that she's with Reagan, he thinks Darien will turn against her too. Maybe he already asked him, and he turned him down. If not, he's training for his reaction when he does turn him down. Either way, Alum thinks he's doing the right thing."

"You know what? You may have something there!" Ami beamed at Mina.

"Course I do! When it comes to emotions, you can count of me!" Mina said while pounding her fist to her chest with pride.

"So is the plan really to do nothing?" Lita asked, already hating the man for ruining their peace.

"Yes, we don't have much choice right now. We have too little information, and we can't be blind to the fact that we're not wanted. Rei, how is Darien's training? Do you think he'll do well in a battle?"

"That's an understatement. I've never seen him so determined. You should have seen him guys, he looks like he can take on the world!"

"He may have to." Ami said glumly. No one liked the idea of Darien going into battle alone, but they did trust the man.

Rei looked up at the others, with sad eyes. "Are we really 'aliens'?"

"No! This is our home too! We were born here!" Lita said, angry at Rei's doubts. "What's with you Rei? You used to be the one to have to snap someone out of a trance like the one you're in now!" Lita said, but this time her comment was laced with concern.

"I- I don't know Lita. I guess his words are just hitting home. All other humans' former lives were also on Earth. Only the people from the Moon and the scouts are the ones with memories of lives not from Earth. And even then, at least they don't remember them." She was once again trying not to tear up. "We really have no steak in this battle. Both sides will be people of Earth. There's nothing we can do. Even if we support Darien, we can't be sure that it won't backfire on him, having aliens on his side. I just, I feel so helpless!" She said, defeated. The girls all realized her hurt and pain, but they also realized what she said was true. Just then Mina's phone rang. With no one having anything else to say, she answered it.

"Hello?"

"Hello, Mina? It's Reagan, I thought we were going to meet up today and talk about theme's for Serena's party with everyone?"

"Oh crap! I'm sorry Reagan, I completely forgot!" Rei shot Mina a death stare when she heard the man's name. "Um, I'll meet you at the Arcade as soon as I can okay?"

"Actually, can I meet you guys at Rei's temple? I don't want Serena to catch me here, it's the first place she'll go if she's bored."

"Um, I'll call you back." Mina quickly said into the phone and hung up. "Um, Rei, can we talk about Serena's birthday plans here?" Mina said with a smile for the raven haired beauty.

"You have got to be kidding me!"

"C'mon! It's the only place we can think of that Serena won't just 'pop up' at! Please! We could use a break from all this serious talk anyway!"

"Fine." Rei said, realizing they could all use something to lighten the mood for at least a little while. Mina was back on the phone before Rei even finished the word.

"Hey Reagan, c'mon over, we're all already here, bring your best ideas!" She quickly said over the phone and hung up once again.

A/N: Reviews are like giving cookies to the author, and I could always use a snack! ;)

Special Thanks/Mention: xx Twilight Princess xx, Ami-chanMercury98, PrettyVchan, inufan155687