Ryo Sanada grins when he is finally released from the hospital, thanks to his armor it wouldn't take him long to get back in shape. The tiger blue eyed young man looks at the raven haired girl beside him, " Hotaru, why didn't any of the other girls come and visit me? "

Hotaru sighs at this question, vowing to make Sage pay for sticking her with picking Ryo up, " Well, Ryo, when the truth came out the Inners wanted Serena to stay with Darien, it got to the point where the hime went up to the roof of Crossroads Sr. High and was going to jump. I sensed her imminent death and called Rowen. With you in a coma he was the only one I could call to talk her down, he managed, and she promptly cut off all contact with the Inners, Amara, and Michelle, as they felt the same but they wouldn't dare question the hime. "

Ryo's eyes flash at this, " Who sent her over the edge? "

Hotaru takes him to the Time Gates and lets him watch the crucial juncture in time. Ryo's eyes are blazing by this time and he teleports straight to the Hikawa Shrine. The rest of the guys happened to be there and Raye's eyes widen, " Shit, you know. " Raye says.

" Damn straight I do, Flara. " Ryo snaps.

Mina, Ami, and Lita blanch at this, he had used her Silver Millennium name. Raye gulps as she faces down an angry warrior of Wildfire and Prince of the Earth, " Look, we were all led to believe she and Darien loved each other by Queen Serenity. I was nearly sick with self-loathing at the thought I had pushed my best friend to nearly kill herself. I'm eternally grateful to Rowen for being able to talk her down. " Raye says.

" Doesn't matter, Flara, her happiness should have been the most important thing to all of you, and not some supposed Utopia that would have ended when Rena destroyed the crystal to escape the glittery hell her life had become. Her future self and mine both warned us of what would happen if Serena and Darien were to marry. In that time line you guys managed to bully her into marrying him. This time she kicked his fucking ass to the curb and he got pissy about it. He tried to kill her with his damn red convertible and I shoved her out of the way! Would he have done that for her? "

Ami pales at this, " Oh no, what have we done, we told her to stay with him after he tried to kill her. No one told us that, we were only told that she tried to kill herself because of Raye's comments pushing her over the edge. "

Mina's knees give out and Cye manages to catch her, " No, what did we almost do? We're supposed to protect her and we tried to push her into the arms of the man who tried to run her down? "

" Dammit, I knew something was wrong that day, but Raye wouldn't hear any of it. She never let Serena explain anything though I know damn well that she was in battles before she came to help us. I'd see the signs of it, yet Raye would constantly bitch at her for being late. " Lita says, she was the only Inner who had tried to stop Raye that day, which is why she still got Christmas cards from Serena, though there was never a return address.

Raye blanches at this, " Oh, Ares, why the hell did I always speak first and never think? "

Ryo stares them all down, the other three Ronins keep their silence, knowing that Ryo had to do this, to impress upon them how grievous their mistake could have been. They had learned a harsh lesson that day and they would learn one today. Lita, however, had always stood up for Serena, had always been her champion, but Ryo had been her sounding board. The one she went to when she needed to vent and wouldn't judge her for it. She'd ended up crying in Ryo's arms more often than not.

It had infuriated Ryo to no end, but he couldn't reveal himself to them until after Galaxia had been dealt with. She'd had to give the illusion that she was still dating Darien. The best time she'd had was when she'd helped them with Talpa's first invasion. Her mother had sent her into Toyama on some errand, and Yuli just happened to be her cousin, so when Mia and Yuli had been captured by that soldier she'd transformed and freed them, making it so Ryo would destroy the soldier. She'd mainly protected Yuli and Mia, she'd also read Ryo the riot act for the stunt he'd pulled to retrieve Rowen from space. As she'd put it she could have just teleported up there and gotten him, no need to nearly kill himself to retrieve him.

" Is she all right? " Lita asks.

" No, that kusotarre has found her. You all will stay here, as I'm sure she'd want someone to stay behind and protect Japan. Hotaru can come with us because I'm sure she'd like to see Rowen. " Ryo states firmly.

Raye sighs sadly at this, " So we still can't know where she is. "

Sage looks at her, " No, you can't, as you no longer have her trust. I won't betray her trust like that, Raye, I may love you, but you still have a long way to go with your temper. Ryo at least acknowledges he has a temper and most of the time stays away from us so he doesn't say something he regrets. He has never turned his temper on Serena, and never will. He can control it most of the time. He meditates daily to do so. "

" I'm working on it, you know I am. " Raye says.

" If Serena ever wants to see you again she'll let you know, she may not even come to my wedding because of you and I can accept that, as the emotional scars she has run deep and she doesn't exactly have anyone she can talk to about all this that isn't connected to the situation in some way. " Sage says firmly.

Back in the lab Nick is going over the evidence gotten off of Mikina and his eyes widen at the trace report that Hodges had given him. Rose petal dust, what was that all about? Greg swings through and looks at the results, his eyes widen only slightly, and he hopes to hell that Serena's ex hadn't killed the Takeda's, because if he had then they were screwed. " Guys, the DNA came back to one Darien Shields. " Sara Grissom says walking in.

Greg hides his reaction to the picture hopes his invisible shadow will relay this information to Sailor Pluto, because there was no way in hell that they would be able to take him down, the guy would have killed him if not for Neflyte. He'd be bringing that Dalmatian a huge steak the next time he went out to Ms. Hades place. She ran a pretty cool operation.

Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon, CSI, or Ronin Warriors.