A/N: This chapter was seriously one heck of a hard thing to write. But I always believe that all good ideas come when waited for. I'm glad I didn't rush it... most of it wrote itself today. It felt great! There's nothing better than a horrible writer's block breaking because of one good idea. Thanks to everyone who's had the patience to wait for it. Speaking of updates, man this place has been updated. Interesting layout, eh? :p Idk, I like it. :p

Disclaimer: All rights are reserved to Naoko. I do not own Sailor Moon, but the story is all my creation.

Summery: She came once, sucked under the spell of Endymion's eyes. She left, forgetting everything. Now she's back, learning it all over again... but this time, she's running for her life from the beginning.

Elf Dawned Book 2: By Chance...

Chapter 8

The next morning I had finally decided on my plan of action. Forget the past, as the girl in the market had suggested. Forgive and forget, and don't try to remember. All trying to remember had done so far was mess everything up, just as she had told me it would. I was in Elf City, my house ransacked, Aunt Rose missing. Endymion was hurt, I was going crazy, and sneaking around wasn't fun.

The first thing I would do is apologize to Endymion.

I knocked on his door, not really expecting an answer since he was usually out in the mornings, practicing, and so I was surprised when a voice croaked for me to enter.

I opened the door and peered inside curiously, shocked to see that he was still in bed with some breakfast sitting untouched on his nightstand. That's when I remembered his feverish look the night before.

"You look awful," I said, coming in and closing the door soundlessly behind me.

"Thanks," he muttered, rubbing a hand over his forehead. "Did you need something?"

"I- no," I shook my head. "I was here to… say… thanks for last night."

He looked at me from between his fingers, disbelief plain on his face. "Well… you're welcome, Serenity. It was my pleasure."

He looked exhausted and defeated, as if seeing me had tired him out more than anything else. I felt a pang of guilt.

I took a deep breath. "I was also going to apologize for being such a pain."

Silence greeted me as soon as the words were out of my mouth.

"You are?"

I detected some hope laced within his question, and nodded. "I realized I wasn't exactly pleasant to be around, especially since you had done next to nothing wrong as far as I remember…"

He cringed, and I bit my tongue. I was curious, yes, but I had decided not to act on it. And I wouldn't, even if it broke me.

"Apology accepted." He paused. "Come sit with me, Serenity. I hadn't had a chance to talk with you, and now would be the best time, I suppose."

I went hesitantly to him and sat on the edge of the bed. My aunt, if she were here, would disown me. I was in a guy's room, on his bed, with the door closed.

Endymion reached out and pulled me to him, and I lost my balance and fell beside his hot, feverish body. He wrapped his arms hesitantly around me, and gave me a quick look to confirm that it was ok. Surprisingly, I found that it was.

No, she would kill me first, and then bring me back to disown me.

I tried to ignore that pang in my chest. Aunt Rose would be fine. I wouldn't be surprised if she had already whipped the blood-coated demon and returned to the house, baking cupcakes and teaching him to waltz.

"You ok?"

I nodded, his voice bringing me out of my thoughts.

"Then why are you crying?"

Crying? I reached up to touch my cheeks, finding moisture there. I had been crying. "It's nothing."

"If it made you cry, it's not nothing to you," he whispered, pulling the hair that fell onto my face back and running his hands through it. "Tell me. I might not be your best friend right now, but I would love to be…"

I managed a smile. I just couldn't shake of this poor, miserable woe-is-me façade, it seemed. "I'm just worried about my aunt, is all."

He smiled encouragingly. "You know we'll find her, right, Serenity? We're doing the best we can, and we don't have very many leads. But now that he has your aunt, we might be able to find him. Or he will find us. In any sense, he wants you, and now that he has your aunt, he has something to draw you to him. He won't kill her off if she serves him a purpose."

"Are you sure?" I asked. For the first time in what seemed like a long time, I felt hope that my aunt was indeed all right.

"Positive."

"Thanks, Endymion."

He closed his eyes, his thumb making circles where it rested on my hip. "Are you wearing your necklace?"

My hand reached up protectively for it. "Yeah, I am. I don't see how this protects me, but I'll take your word for it."

He sighed, a smile playing on his lips. "Go have breakfast, Serenity. I'll be here all day if you need me."

"But-"

"Go. You need some breakfast."

When I moved to get up reluctantly, his arm didn't release me. I tried to get up again, but ended up bouncing back onto him. "Endymion-"

"Yeah, I know. It's just so hard to let go of you," he mumbled into my hair, making goose bumps stand up on my arms and warmth flood to my cheeks.

"I could stay here…"

"No, no, you should go."

He released his grip on me slowly, and as I started to get up he trailed is hand across my back and caught my hand, entwining our fingers together and looking at them. Then he gently let them go and closed his eyes again, a smile playing on his lips.

I walked self-consciously to the door and turned back once, to see him watching me. I smiled at him and walked out, only to bump into a maid. "Oh!" I cried, catching her towels as they began to fall, "Sorry."

She nodded her head and readjusted the towels with one hand while holding the pile with the other, then walked past me into his room.

"Would you like me to draw you a bath?"

"Yes, ma'am."

The door closed and I couldn't hear anymore.

I ate breakfast with the girls. We had some amazing pancakes topped with blueberries, and some bacon, which they swooned about. Apparently bacon is rare for them. I wondered how they'd feel about sausages.

I didn't go to Endymion's room after breakfast. Instead I went down a few halls and into the closet with the sun button and the secret room. I pressed the button, shut the door behind me, and entered the room.

It hadn't changed much since the last time I was there. The desk was tidy now; my guess being that Endymion had finished sewing the book together.

The intricate sun symbol in the middle shone brightly from the actual sun streaming through the window. There were also books scattered at the base of one of the shelves, and a dust sweeper was placed where the books had once stood. There was also a new picture on the wall, but I wasn't sure which one was new since I had only seen the wall-art once. I could just tell there was a new one because there used to be a space where there wasn't, and all the pictures had been moved.

I went to the book case and started going through the books, looking for the mostly-blank one that had secret messages in it, but it wasn't there. I found the Bloodhound book easy enough, though. I leafed through that one for a few minutes, and then put it back. With one last glance, I left. The book wasn't there, so I had no reason of being there either. I wondered, not for the first time, if I had hallucinated the book up from the sheer fright of everything that had happened.

As I made my way to find Endymion, I passed by a strange man with silver hair that matched his eyes. He was wearing a white robe that reached the floor, speckled with various odd signs. One of his sleeves was propped up to his elbow, where he was examining one of the many various tattoos on his arm, running up and under the sleeve. The artwork on his skin was so elaborate and smashed together that one turned into another and warbled into a mess.

It was as I was staring at him that his eyes lifted and met mine, and a metallic smell filled the air, thick and needy. His eyes were empty sapphire. Dead, I realized. He smiled.

My blood ran cold and I turned and ran like a skittish mouse down the hall. It wasn't before I turned the corner that I looked back, but he was gone. There was nothing in the space where he had been. I couldn't help wondering if it was a trick of light.

"I've checked and double checked, your highness, but the only footage I have is Serenity walking down the hall."

"And you're sure you have the right hall?"

The burly man with a long beard nodded. "See, here? She's walking out of your room, down this hall, and into the broom closet. A few minutes afterwards, she's walking back down this hall, and she stops, and then continues walking until she reaches your room. Here she walks into your room, and the rest I believe you know."

"That doesn't make sense!" I cried, elbowing past him to play the footage again. "I swear I was running down this hall because the guy – he was there!"

I felt two strong hands grab my shoulders and push me back until I fell into the hard wall that was Endymion's chest. "Shh, it's alright. Here, see, we believe you." To the guard he said, "Could this creature manipulate the footage?"

He shrugged. "I don't believe so. You see, cameras are a sort of mirror. Light goes through them to produce a real image. There is no way of bending the light when it's entered the camera. It's possible that he manipulated her mind, though. Bending light on a live object is a lot easier, because the brain follows light rays as it would see logically continued. If he tricked her brain into following a different set of light rays… well, that could very well have shown her a different set of images than we see here."

"In other words, brain washing?" Endymion inquired.

"But I ran. The video shows that I walked."

The guard shrugged. "Manipulation can make things seem a lot different than they are."

"But running has nothing to do with light-"

"Yes, yes it doesn't. It's more of an action… We need to look into this." The guard looked exhaustedly at the screen. I could see the wheels in his head spinning, trying to find the missing pieces of a puzzle he might never solve.

Endymion's thumb started to distractedly rub my arm where it rested. "It's alright, you can take a break. Report to me if you have found anything."

"Yes, my lord. I will."

When we left the small conference room, I tugged on his arm. He stopped and turned back to me. "We'll figure out what happened, Serenity."

I nodded. "Yes, and I just thought of something. I was in town yesterday with Mina and the girls and I ran into this girl… she read my future, I think…"

"A fortune teller?"

"An elf."

Endymion's eyebrows furred as he considered the possibilities. "Well, I reckon you're talking about Amelia, but I thought she was an empath. I suppose her gift could have grown, to be able to see that much farther into the realms."

"I think we should pay her a visit today, if you know where she lives. She might be able to help us."

He nodded, a smile forming. "Yes, it might give us some perspective… Go get yourself ready, I have to take care of a small thing first. I'll meet you at the front."

Ten minutes later I was sitting on the steps at the doors, waiting for Endymion to show up. It was a nice day, very breezy. If there were plants in this area, they would have been open and singing. But there was sand and sand and more sand everywhere. These odd green leaves stuck out in some places, and I somehow knew they were mint leaves. Odd, I thought. Mint leaves growing in sand… Well, perhaps it's possible…

"Ready to go?"

I turned around and saw Endymion coming down the stairs, a bundled cloth in his hands. I raised my eyebrows.

"If we're going to include some innocent person into this battle, it'd be rude not to bring a gift." He unwrapped the cloth and inside there was a crystal globe. "It's a seeing globe. I remember getting one for my birthday one year but since I'm not fortune telling, this would much better serve Amelia. Ready to go?"

I nodded.

Amelia's house, or, I guess, cottage, was close to the castle, about a ten minute walk. There was a nice garden out front that had lots of bright flowers. It was strange to suddenly see color when you've walked so far in sand.

"Amelia's brother, if I remember, had a gift directly linked to flora."

I nodded, and we both walked to the front door. Endymion knocked.

"You think she'd help us?"

"How can she say no to me?"

I shook my head at him with a grin. "Just because you rule this place doesn't mean she'll help."

"I was referring to my charming good looks and attitude."

He knocked on the door again.

We stood out there long enough for it to get awkward before Endymion turned to me. "Maybe she's not in."

I stepped off the porch and walked to a nearby window. "The lights are on. I think this is the bedroom-" my voice caught.

"What's up?" He walked up behind me.

"Is she sleeping?"

He looked over my head inside the bedroom. Then he knocked on the glass several times. When the girl I recognized from the day before didn't so much as stir. Endymion moved away and started looking around the yard.

"What are you doing?"

"Trying to find something to break the window."

"What?" I said, shocked. "You can't do that! It's her house-"

"Serenity, I can replace the window. But I don't think Amelia is alright."

I froze in my spot, and watched as he picked up a giant rock from around the bed of the garden and threw it at the window. Glass shattered everywhere and Endymion grabbed another rock, using that one to smooth the edges before climbing through the window. I looked around, worried that the neighbors might see, but then realized I was with the Lord. I quickly followed him inside.

"Is she-" I stopped talking, partly due to the smell, and partly because of what I saw. She was lying there, and from one side she looked perfectly normal. On the other side, she was missing an arm. Her clothes were tattered, and underneath them were what looked like bite marks. She had so many of them, you wouldn't have been able to tell who she was if the other half was the same. She was mostly rotted, although I'm not sure how…

I turned around to look at something, anything, and ended up looking at her hand, three fingers missing, holding a jar of a pair of eyes. A note on the jar said: She won't be seeing the future now, will she?

I jumped when something touched my shoulder, but it was only Endymion. "Alright, stay calm. Let's get out of here. I'll call some people to clean this up and give her a burial." I nodded, because if I spoke I'd probably puke.

He steered me towards the front door and we were walking towards it when I heard a crunch. He and I looked down to see a finger.

I think I fainted, I'm not sure, but I don't remember getting out of the house or walking back to the palace. I woke up after a dreamless sleep, for the first time, but covered in cold sweat. I got out of bed and went to my dresser, looking at myself in the mirror. I didn't resemble the me that I knew. My hair was knotted and stringy; I had bags under my eyes. I was torn and worn, but not defeated, I realized. The more this thing provoked me, the madder I got. I wanted to fight it, before it got more people I love, or killed the ones that tried to help me or had the potential to. But what was I supposed to do?

I remember Amelia saying something about me not having the power anymore. I was weak.

That had to change. Whatever power I had somehow lost, it was time to get it back.

I went to my drawer and took out some scissors on a whim. I walked back to the mirror and grabbed a handful of locks, then chopped them off at the waist. For a minute, I just looked at the hair in my hands in shock, not believing I had actually done that. But for once, my mind was completely blank. There was a small buzzing where my thoughts usually swam, an eerie blankness. My hair would grow out again, but for now, it was only annoying me. I cut the rest of my hair, lock by lock. When I was done, I stepped out of the mass of hair and looked at myself. It looked awful. It was long on one side, short on another. If only my Aunt Rose could see me now… she loved brushing my long hair in the mornings. Humming meanwhile, telling me funny stories…

I felt empty. The hair in front of me wasn't my hair… it was something else now. It wasn't mine. My hair was now tickling my elbows, making my head light, not tangling in my dress. It looked awful, dreadful… unladylike. I took the scissors and put them on my locks again, only this time at the shoulder, but I couldn't do it. How easy it would be, just to cut that one lock, and the rest would have to follow… just snap my fingers together.

I put the scissors away and collected the hair on the floor. Then I went and took a shower, washing my hair with a lot less shampoo, taking much faster than usual. I came out and brushed it out, donned a new dress, and picked up my cape.

Amelia was a psychic. She would have seen her own end, would she not have? It wouldn't hurt to go and see if she'd left anything that might help us.

I was walking down the hallway when I heard a small voice call my name.

"Frost?"

"Where are you going?"

I smiled. "On a mission. Want to come?"

Her smile was all the answer I needed.

I placed her on my shoulder, and opened the doors.

TBC

A/N: Worth the wait, you think? Hopefully the inspiration keeps coming. Fingers crossed!