Chapter 8

"What is this?" Serena whispered, staring at the back of her hand. Darkness pulsed beneath her skin, moving through her veins, throbbing in and out of existence. It felt wrong. It looked unnatural against the paleness of her skin.

Diamond took her hand, placing his palm against hers until their fingers were aligned. "It's the Dark Crystal. It's okay.' His own dark energy rose to the surface beneath his skin, pulsing in time with hers until he couldn't tell where he began, and she ended. "See?"

She stared as he curled his fingers in between her. He almost made it seem beautiful. But there was something wrong with that inky darkness. A chill went down her spine as she watched it throb in tune with his.

They were one and they were beautiful together.

How could something so beautiful be so wrong?

She let Diamond help her into a sitting position and then she turned her head. Wiseman. God, every time she saw him it was like seeing…

Seeing what?

"What happened?" The large crystal orb between his hands was cracked down the middle. What once was perfect and filled with power was simply a chilled piece of transparent stone that hung heavy in his hands. It took her a moment to realize that he was holding it. She'd never seen him touch the orb. Now it was just a dead weight.

Wiseman didn't so much as look at them. He simply turned and vanished.

"You did." Emerald snapped, drawing her attention across the room before she followed Wiseman's absence.

Silence hung heavily between them as their absence left her and Diamond alone. "She doesn't like me, does she?" It was hard to miss. Serena couldn't recall offending the green-haired beauty, but there was also a lot that she didn't remember. She shook her head, "I can stand." She said when Diamond would have taken her into his arms again. She hated feeling so weak. Whatever the Dark Crystal was doing to her, it left her lightheaded and breathless. She'd never doubted her abilities as Sailor Moon before, but she was uneasy at the thought that she may not be able to defend herself if the need arose.

She looked up at Diamond as she carefully slid herself from the table. She held onto him cautiously with one hand as she tested her feet. "I can't protect you like this." She felt hollowed out on the inside. It was overwhelming.

"I don't need your protection, Serena." He tipped her face up to his with a finger beneath her chin. "There's nothing here that would harm us." He swept her up into his arms before she could stop him. "Has it ever occurred to you that I don't need you to do anything? I simply need you to be."

Diamond left her in the gardens, but Serena didn't mind the solitude. As dead as the gardens were, there was a strange peace here. It wasn't hard to see that the hollowed out green life drew her as much as the silence did. She would never grow tired of looking up at the mass universe of the sky. Maybe it was because she was human that the multicolored universe overhead transfixed her. It was like looking into space. The million stars, the twirl of black and purple and white. Earth was beautiful, but this was something else entirely.

As colorful as the sky was overhead, the garden was the complete opposite. It was black and brown like the color of decay and death. The only thing that broke the color was the white fountains and stone benches, but even those were empty and dried with dirt. She hadn't yet had the chance to walk the twisted paths yet, but she supposed she wasn't ready to get lost in those yet.

I don't need your protection.

Diamonds words echoed in her mind. Someone had tried to murder him. The image was clear in her mind. The way she had cradled his body in her arms. That memory was as clear as day in her mind. It was just suddenly there. He did need her protection. SHE needed to protect him. The threat to him was real and he didn't even realize it. Or maybe he simply didn't want to see it. She couldn't see it, but she knew it was there.

I'm sorry I lied to you. I did love you.

Her heart clenched at the painful memory. Why did she remember that? She hadn't before, but it was stamped in her brain now. Why? How?

She'd been there.

I'm sorry I lied to you. I did love you.

What had he meant by that? Why would he say that? The memory was vivid, and she could almost see…almost… his assailant was right there. She could almost see him.

I'm sorry I lied to you. I did love you.

None of it was adding up. It certainly didn't make sense.

She shook her head as she let the memory slip from her grasp, sorrow taking its place as she sank to her knees. She lifted up the dead stem of a long-forgotten rose with two fingers. When was the last time this place had seen life? It was so hard and cruel and cold. The decayed leaves of the rose crumbled against her fingertips like fall leaves. It was perfect for the atmosphere of the Negaverse. But there was beauty in all things, you just had to find it.

Grow for me, please. Serena willed her own energy and that of her crystal into the decayed stem. Coolness spread beneath her fingers where she touched the rose stem, starting from the root of the stem and moving upward until she stared at the shiny quartz crystal that resembled a rose. The rose had bloomed against her fingertips, but it hadn't bloomed to rose red. Crystalized energy had taken its pace, eerily reminding her of Crystal Tokyo.

It was beautiful, the small crystal rose the only sign of life in the stark death around her. It was out of place, drawing in light from the stars above so that it twinkled in the darkness. She stood up, sadness in her blue eyes.

She didn't want eternal.

She didn't want a forever rose. Roses were meant to wither and die. That one never would.

She looked down at her hands and saw Crystal Tokyo. It was her destiny laid out for her all over again, even in this dark and barren place. Why was it so hard to accept? Her destiny was written in the moon and in the stars. Why did it feel so unfair to her?

Her past one unknown to her, but she knew her future without a doubt.

There wouldn't be a future if she couldn't protect those dear to her. She took her broach in one hand and stared at the Crystal in the center. Someone or something had tried to kill Diamond, and she knew without a doubt that whoever that was, was her enemy as well. Her fingers tightened around the broach, and she lifted it over her head. She had to try again. "Moon Crystal…Power …" She said the words breathlessly and felt the subtle flow of power, the vibration in her palm. Her world took a dizzying spin, and she stumbled to the side, catching herself against the dry water basin. She closed her eyes against the spinning weakness.

Nothing happened.

She lowered her hand and opened her eyes, staring at the Crystal. It gave off a faint glow, another light that stood out in the darkness. There was power in the palm of her hand. She simply couldn't…

She still couldn't transform.

She turned and lifted her dress, stepping over the stones and broken branches that littered the path. She hated this dress. It reminded her too much of a past in the Crystal Millennium and of a future where peace was just another liaison of control. There had to be a middle ground. There had to be—

She stared at the Sailor Scouts encased in eternal crystal.

How had she ended up here of all places?

Were they really her enemy? They all served the same cause. There was just so much and so little that she knew. So little that she remembered. And him. The man behind the mask. He stood there frozen in time in crystalized energy, a rose in his hand.

She didn't have to turn to know that he stood there. Diamond. "I loved someone once." The words came effortlessly, an admission on her part. "And then one day… I didn't." She had only ever said those words to Luna. "I should have told him." Duty required finesse and delicacy. And the truth. She turned finally. He just stood there, staring down at her, the expression on his face unreadable.

And then he did what he always did. He tipped her face up to his with a single fingertip. "I will always love you." He said, his voice low and her breath lodged in her throat when the inverted moon on his head shifted into a third eye. "Even in death."

"I should have told him."

It was an admission on her part. The truth.

The sound of crystal cracking filled the garden. It was small in comparison to the stretch of silence on the dead ground. The tiny crack of crystal spiderwebbed over the crystalized rose and then the tiny pieces of crystals fell off one by one. A red rose stood in its place, out of place against the dead planet.

-Your reviews mean the world to me-