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Chapter 2 – Ideas and the Bad Night

Monday, of course, went terribly for Serena. She finally woke up Monday morning after hitting her snooze button four times and saw her unfinished homework sitting on her desk. Sighing, she quickly got dressed for school and then sat down, managing to finish it. Of course, she was running late, so she packed her things up, grabbed toast for breakfast and dashed out the door. She managed to not run into Darien this morning, but she didn't manage to be on time to school. She dropped off her homework before standing in the hall like her teacher had ordered. The only bright spot was Lita bringing lunch for her since she knew Serena tended to forget her own.

After detention, Serena skipped the Arcade and went straight home. She was glad to notice Luna was out when she went into her room. She excitedly pulled out all four stones and laid them out on her desk. After an hour and a half, her first three ideas hadn't worked. Serena grew frustrated and knew her fourth idea would take more planning. Her silly idea came next, and not surprisingly, begging the stones to "Come out, come out, wherever you are" didn't work. She chuckled and put the four stones away.

Moving on for now, Serena pulled out her homework and managed to only get a small headache working on it, finishing it before dinner. Dinner, which consisted of grilled meats and her father grilling her again. She almost yelled out that she was Sailor Moon. She knew he was right, and she needed a plan. He had no idea the real reason she struggled to come up with what she was going to do with her life. She knew it looked bad to him, and that made it worse. She wasn't trying to be lazy. In fact, she worked very hard. He just didn't know.

Sighing, she went up to her room and locked her door after dinner. She then proceeded to close her window. She pulled out the stones and concentrated on them, trying to feel their energy. She struggled for thirty minutes before she decided to try to feel the individual energy rather than the combined energy. Slowly, she began to feel the energy coming out of the Jadeite. Once she could sense his presence in the stone, she leapt for joy and cut her connection to the stone. Groaning, she sat back down and tried to reestablish the connection. Once that was done, she was stuck on how to proceed. She just couldn't figure how to get that energy out and into a living human. She heard Luna scratching on the window, and she put the stones away before opening the window for Luna.

Luna had apparently talked to Raye about the youma attack yesterday and had quite the long discussion with her regarding Serena, her duties, and how she spent too much time with Darien. Deep down, Luna was terrified. Serena's connection with Darien seemed incredibly strong, and Serena had a history of suicide when faced with his death. Luna desperately wanted Darien to not be her world so that, if something happened to him, there wouldn't be a repeat of one thousand years ago.

Both the Sailor Scouts and the alien cat went to bed frustrated and sad. Neither knew what the other was truly thinking, and neither even had tried to figure it out.

The rest of the week went by quickly. There was one more youma attack at a concert Molly had gone to. Serena tried to point out to Luna that her third youma location had been correct. Luna just shook her head. By Thursday, Serena and Darien met at the Arcade twice. Darien bought her a shake and himself a coffee each time. Both sat quietly stuck in their own thoughts.

By the time Friday rolled around, Serena had decided she was going to surprise Darien at his apartment when he got out of his last class. She was feeling so hopeful since, together with the silver crystal, she was forming a plan on how to restore his Generals. She decided she needed to figure out a way to convince her parents she needed to go away for a long weekend after she graduated soon. Then she could spend time, and mostly energy, pulling them from the stones.

She had hurried home after school deciding the first order of business was a cute outfit and the perfect makeup before heading over to Darien's. She scoured her closet and tossed things on her bed. Finally deciding on what to wear, she put on the cute top and short skirt. She smirked in the mirror and touched up her makeup. She then grabbed her school bag knowing Darien would want to study together before going out to dinner. It was cute to her how seriously he took schoolwork. She didn't mind indulging him. Especially since he rewarded her with kisses.

Darien sighed while entering his apartment building, walking right past the door man who just shook his head. He was exhausted from lack of sleep due to his horrible nightmares he had been having every night. He pressed the button on the elevator and waited for it to open. He wondered what Serena thought of him trying to avoid her lately. He had only hung out with her twice this week, and they barely talked. He saw her at two youma fights, but he left right afterwards trying to avoid a conversation. The door dinged. He went in and pressed the button for his floor. He realized he couldn't take his dreams anymore and hated what he had to do.

Serena waited in anticipation as she heard the door unlock and saw Darien walk into the apartment. Her smile fell when she saw the look in his eyes. She rushed over to him, wrapped him in her arms and kissed his cheek.

"Darien, you look exhausted! We should order in tonight, and I should leave early so you can get a good night's rest."

"Serena, that isn't what I need." This was it; this was the end. He was breaking up with her. He knew he just had to push through. He couldn't take one more night of her dying in his arms on their wedding day. The joy at the beginning of the dream leading into absolute horror and blood. He couldn't watch the blood pour from her mouth as she died in awful pain one more night. He had to end things, and save her. He had to save her life and let her grow old and be happy. Even if it absolutely killed him.

"So, what do you need?" She reached up and kissed his chin.

"I need you to move on. I need you to leave. I realized this week I just don't love you anymore. I just can't keep this up. I can't keep us up."

"Darien, this isn't funny."

"And, it isn't a joke. I need my key back, and I need my life back."

"What did I do wrong? I can fix it. I can fix us. I would do anything for you. You're the love of two lifetimes for me! Please… please tell me what I can do."

"You can give me my key back and leave."

"I'm so sorry. Please forgive me."

"For what?"

"For whatever I did wrong that made you not love me anymore."

"You didn't do anything. It's just over. We arejust over."

"But, you're Endymion!"

"No, I'm Darien, and I asked you to leave."

Darien almost cracked when he accidentally looked into her eyes. The pain and sorrow there floored him for a minute. He sucked in a breath and stayed strong. He contemplated how he was going to get through the next thirty seconds it would take for her to leave. He was so distracted that he only noticed she had pulled out her key when it hit him in the chest and fell to the floor.

Serena turned and slammed the door behind her, sliding down on the other side silently weeping. After a minute, she stood up, flicked her hair back and dried her tears. She very dramatically thought about how she was walking out of this apartment building for the last time. She got down to the door man and managed a small smile to say goodbye. She then turned left to head home to a night she knew would be full of tears.