Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Only 16 ❯ The Discovery ( Chapter 1 )

Only 16
Chapter 1
Version 3.5
A Sailor Moon Fanfiction
By: Azurite - azurite AT seventh-star DOT net
Site: seventh-star DOT net

Disclaimer: Sailor Moon does not belong to me. This work is for entertainment purposes, and is not for-profit. Please email, PM, or otherwise message me if you'd like to post this elsewhere.

Spoilers/Setting: Sailor Moon R, Part 1 (Dub)

Rating: For Teens (T, PG-13)

First Posted: Sometime back in the 1990s, on SMRFF
Edits: 8/2001, 10/29/2008, 3/12/2010

Original Author's Notes: To Ryan and Cat, who were the first ones to email me about "Generations", my first BtVS fic, and my onee-chans, Sailor Peace and JLaLa: much love to you both.

Teen Parenting is not impossible nor rare. If you or someone you know is or will be a teen parent, tell them to tell someone else, be it friend, family, doctor or prenatal care specialist. I'm only adding this note for two reasons: 1) my health ed class just learned about this and from what I've heard, it's not fun, easy or worth the…pleasure; and 2)I like stories with some kind of moral, Sailor Moon or not.

2001 Revision Notes: Okay, first off, I've spell-checked and grammar checked all the chapters. Next, I'm going to hand-do all the formatting to a proper number of characters per line. Not fun, but for this fic, worth it. Still stuck on 10, and going to redo, and write more sub stories from the senshi profiles. Hopefully my muse will come back from wherever she is to help me with all that. Tell me what you think of the revisions, or just the fic in general. I haven't had feedback in a while.

2008 Revision Notes: Welcome to the first-ever HTML edition of "Only 16," my first ever major, multi-chapter fic for any fandom, and for my first (my beloved) fandom, "Sailor Moon." Some of the changes: more description, more prose, better grammar and spelling. Huzzah! I contemplated changing the names from the dub to the original, but I decided against it (with the exception of surnames: it's Serena Tsukino, Raye Hino, Lita Kino, Mina Aino, and Andrew Furuhat. The exceptions are those with known dub surnames: Amy Anderson and Darien Shields).

However, I won't use the dub term "Sailor Scout," (instead I'll use "Sailor Soldier," which is the more common usage; nowadays the "canon" term is "Guardian," but that's a rather flowery translation of "Senshi" IMO) and I'll be using "Serenity" in reference to Serena's past self. Plus, dub or not, "Sailor Moon" takes place in the Juuban district of Tokyo, in the Minato ward. "Crossroads" is a nice name, but completely meaningless and inaccurate. And I know that, in SMS, Usagi/Serena technically turns 16, but I believe that's only if you take into account that the entire first season of "Sailor Moon" didn't happen, and the Ginzuishou miraculously REWOUND time. That's always seemed a bit extreme for me, considering it broke AND killed Queen Serenity when she sent her daughter and the remaining Moon Kingdom survivors' souls "in stasis" to Earth to get reborn a thousand years in the future (nothing was fast-forwarded). Keeping that in mind, Usagi/Serena is 16 by Sailor Moon R, for the purposes of this story. The title won't make much sense otherwise. :PThere are a few other cosmetic changes that use the original names versus the dub, but only where the dub messes things up royally. That is, there's no Negamoon, but there is a Black Moon.

A lot's changed since I first wrote and posted this story more than a decade ago. For one thing, I'm not 16 anymore (I think I was a bit younger than that when I first wrote this story, too!) Being in fandom so long has taught me a lot. Life has taught me a lot. But a lot hasn't changed: teen pregnancy is still hard, is still a major issue, and is still something I firmly believe needs to be talked about one way or another. Part of me cringes a bit at the idea of taking my love of writing and "using it as a soapbox," but that wasn't and isn't my goal in writing "Only 16." I think, if anything, the most enjoyable fics are those that take an extraordinary universe like "Sailor Moon" and integrate reality into it—the drama that comes with our everyday lives. Sure, some of us may read fanfiction as an escape, but we also want it to reflect the darker, more serious side of the reality that the original author created. Naoko Takeuchi's characters have lasted as long as they have, from a manga, to an anime, to musicals, to a live action series, because of how three-dimensional they are. From "Sailor Moon's" beginnings in 1992 to now, those "Pretty Soldiers" or "Pretty Guardians" live on because of the fans, because of the fics, because of art.

"Sailor Moon" was my first introduction into fandom. "Sailor Moon" opened my eyes to Japanese language and culture. "Sailor Moon" is my last and strongest link to my late sister, and in a way, she embodied the traits I admire the most in every single Sailor Soldier. She lives on through me, through my participation in fandom, and through this fanfiction. It is because of her that I can proudly say I've been in fandom as long as I have, and that I have met the amazing people I have.

This fanfiction's revision is dedicated to her.

Thank you, Michelle, for everything.

Serena was shocked, to say the least. She had no clue how it all started, but she had a vague idea of when she started getting signs: earlier in the month at Raye's, she'd felt nauseous. But it was a different kind of nauseous than the time she ate three and a half cotton candy sticks at the amusement park, or the time she'd eaten a packaged day-old sushi set from the convenience store, or the time…well, it was just different!

"Raye, uh, I'm not feeling so good…" Serena had mumbled as she wrapped her arms around her middle, her stomach feeling as though it were performing somersaults inside her. She stumbled off to the bathroom, already knowing she was going to throw up. She distantly heard Raye grumble aloud about her probably having eaten one too many pork buns, but Serena's nausea was too overwhelming for her to feel annoyed that day.Some time after that first throwing-up incident, Serena found herself walking listlessly down the streets of Juuban. She wasn't really paying attention to the world in front of her, but as she kept to the streets nearest the park, the world around her simply wasn't of much concern. Instead, Serena had a greater fear, one that had been building slowly, ever since she'd visited her doctor about her continued nausea and vomiting.

"Miss Tsukino, I think you should go see Dr. Cunningham down the hall."

"Is something the matter with me?" As far as Serena could tell, her exam had been fairly normal: the doctor weighed her, measured her height, took her temperature, looked in her mouth, her ears, her nose, and poked her—a lot—to see if she was sensitive anywhere. Truthfully, Serena didn't remember her doctor having such sharp nails, which explained why she'd winced and yelped a lot more than she remembered doing at previous appointments.

"No dear, not at all. You're…uh, just of that age." Serena sort of understood what her physician was saying, and did as she was told.

"Well, you say you've been feeling sick. Have you been getting abnormal food cravings?"

"I'm always hungry," Serena said with a faint smile, her cheeks stained pink.

"Hmm. How old are you again, Miss Tsukino?"

"Only sixteen."

"Well, I'd like you to take this. It's a test."

"Test for what?" Serena asked, looking at the items in the doctor's hands.

The doctor took a deep breath. "I'm going to be frank with you Serena, because you look like a smart girl," Dr. Cunningham said, baffling Serena. No one had ever called her "smart" before. Not sincerely, anyway. "This is a pregnancy test. Have you ever been raped or sexually assaulted?"

"No, no…never," Serena murmured in shock. She didn't dare mention that she had never had sex at all, but there had to be a reason why her doctor suspected….

"It's all right. This is standard testing for girls around your age. Girls usually first become sexually active between the ages of fifteen and eighteen, and we like checking so that when and if something happens, they are prepared."

"Oh, okay." It was easy to say, but Serena walked away on wobbly legs and fear surging through her veins. Her grip on the items the doctor handed her was shaky at best, but somehow she managed to make it to the single-stall ladies' restroom without dropping them.

When she came back fifteen minutes later, the doctor took one look at her face and proceeded to lecture her (though the doctor probably thought she was "reassuring" her) that the test was merely standard, not special, not done because she showed some signs or said anything in particular about her symptoms, or, or….

'Standard, not special. Just standard.'

"Okay, I can call you or you can return here for the results."

Serena briefly thought of having the doctor call, but what if her dad—or worse, her brother—answered the phone? Even if the results were negative...?

"Serena, the test results came back…you're not pregnant!"

Serena found herself sweatdropping in embarrassment as she nodded.

"Yes to what?" the doctor asked, only faintly smiling.

"Um, I'll come in."

"One week from today, at, say, four o'clock?"

"Okay." Serena nodded and took her stuff from the table and left, praying she could survive the week without revealing anything to anybody—if there even was anything to reveal.

One week later, Serena had her results: She was five weeks pregnant. 'I'm going to be a mom. I'm going to be a mom,' she repeated in her head. 'But…' There, her train of thoughts ceased, careening into a pit of 'What-If's', 'Oh-No's' and other similar worries. She kept walking.

Across the street, Darien noticed Serena walking so haphazardly, and wondered if something was wrong. He was very tempted to go over there and ask her if she was all right, but...

'You can't. Remember, she's in danger because of you.'

When Serena finally got to the temple that evening, the girls were already crowded around Raye's bedroom table, discussing…something. Serena couldn't make out the words properly, she was too overwhelmed.

It was Mina who finally noticed Serena at the door.

"Serena! Hey girl, are you okay?" Mina had known Serena had had a doctor's appointment that day, but that had been hours ago. Mina had been one of the most worried when they discovered Serena had yet to return home, and that worry increased tenfold when they couldn't get hold of her via the communicator. At the time, there hadn't been any emergency—no attacks courtesy of the Black Moon lately, but they couldn't afford to rest on their laurels.

Mina worried that Serena herself had gotten caught in a fight solo, and had done something stupid like leave her communicator at home. But Luna had reported that she'd distinctly seen Serena put it in her bag that morning, and that if anything was typical, it was Serena simply having buried it so far in her bag that she wouldn't hear it beep. No doubt she was just 'spacing out' at the arcade, having forgotten entirely about the meeting.

"Serena? Snap out of it!" Lita said, shaking her friend and fellow Sailor Soldier.

"Yeah, tell us where the heck you've been!" Raye demanded. "No wait, let me guess, you were at the arcade and you 'totally spaced, way sorry,' and just now remembered the meeting when you caught sight of the new Sailor V game, or—"

"Raye, quit it!" Mina interrupted. "Can't you see Serena can't get a word in edgewise with you yelling at her like that? Besides, she had a doctor's appointment, didn't you, Serena? It probably just took a bit longer than usual, right? I hate those waiting rooms—"

"Now who's babbling?" Raye grumbled under her breath. Mina shrugged sheepishly and settled back onto her cushion, her eyes drawn back to Serena, who was still standing in the doorway, shivering in Lita's arms.

"I, I…" Serena stuttered, trying to find her voice.

Mina exchanged a worried look with Amy. This wasn't like Serena: not at all. Something bad had definitely happened. But it wasn't as if Serena looked any worse for the wear, really, so what…?

"Serena," Mina chuckled nervously, "come on, the suspense is killing us. What's up?"

"I, I…" Serena stuttered again. The words just wouldn't come. "Hey guys, guess what I found out? I'm mysteriously pregnant, even though I've never slept with anyone! Nope, not even Darien, not even before he put me through heck and back again by forgetting about me, remembering me, and then dumping me because he doesn't want to be ruled by the destiny or the memories we all fought so hard to recover. Nope, not even him!"

Yeah, that'd go over real well.

"Maybe we should let her be guys, she looks kinda sick, " Amy remarked.

Lita cautiously removed her arm from around Serena's shoulder, but she guided Serena to a cushion, where she sat, still staring ahead at no one, at nothing, her lips feeling as though they'd been glued shut by fear.

'I can't tell them. They'll think I'm crazy, or not fit to fight—and what about Dad…and Mom? I don't even know how this happened, how can I tell them?' If it had been something else—anything else—Serena might have been glad for the excuse not to fight the newest villains on the block, not to come to meetings at the temple every day, not to "keep an eye" on Rini, the little nuisance who'd ingratiated herself with everyone in Serena's life, leaving Serena herself as though she were all alone.

But this was different. This was a real child, a real life. The same kind of life she'd sworn to protect, no matter what evil there was, be it the Negaverse or aliens or the Black Moon or whoever! Except it was hers. Her child. A life growing inside her!

"Serena?" She couldn't tell whose voice it was, if it was Raye's or Amy's or maybe all of the girls', talking in unison like they sometimes did. They were all best friends, they could do that. But…how could she tell them? She knew what they'd say:

"Ugh, Serena, how could you?" Raye, looking at her with disgust.

"Wow, and people tell me I'm boy-crazy. Serena, I didn't know you had it in you!" Mina, rolling her eyes and grinning.

"I thought you'd grown up a little, Serena." Lita, shaking her head in disappointment.

"You never do learn, do you, Serena? There are consequences to everything!" Amy, pushing her glasses up her nose and refusing to even look at her.

Not to think of Luna, Artemis, her brother, her mother, her father…! Serena's heartbeat quickened in her chest, and she felt the room squeezing her in. Her lips opened, and she felt the burbling of a scream coming on.

'I have to get out of here!'

She didn't even notice the tears dripping down her face, the concerned expressions on all her friends' faces, or the shock that followed immediately after, when Serena bolted to her feet and dashed out of the bedroom and beyond the temple grounds, long out of earshot by the time anyone had found their voice to call her name.

The next afternoon, a Sunday, Serena had thought her situation over…somewhat.

'I can't tell anyone…yet. I mean, I don't know anything, so how can I answer their questions? I'll have to—to get a job, and study harder so I don't drop out, and get a test, so I know who the father is…' Was that even possible? To get a test to find out who the father was without the father himself knowing? And what if there wasn't a father?

"Congratulations Miss Tsukino, you're carrying an alien baby!"

Serena cringed. Maybe this was just some crazy mistake. Pregnancy tests could be wrong, and even doctors screwed up sometimes, right? But could she really take that chance? She'd already gotten her friends suspicious, and she couldn't just go back there, "back to normal" and pretend nothing had happened: not if she really were…! And if she really were, then what? Maybe this was something to do with the Silver Crystal, or her past as Princess Serenity, or—or any number of things. And none of them were things Serena she could talk to a soul about. They'd all say she was crazy. Irresponsible. Stupid.

She sighed deeply and shook her head sharply once, her ponytails snapping in front of her face with the abrupt movement. 'One thing at a time.' Serena inhaled deeply and then exhaled, then proceeded to march into the Crown Center Arcade. She could only hope that what little she'd managed to form into a "plan" would go off without a hitch.

"Hey Andrew!" Serena greeted with as much enthusiasm as she could muster. It didn't work, because Andrew saw her forced smile, and Serena knew it the instant his own smile dropped a millimeter.

"Hey Serena. How's it been? The arcade's been kind of lonely without you! You've been gone a couple of days."

"Oh yeah…flu bug," Serena lied. She winced inwardly; she hated lying to her friends. But Andrew—she'd been lying to Andrew from almost Day One. He didn't know she was a Sailor Soldier, didn't know why she'd stopped crushing on him, didn't know why she was always exhausted. Maybe this would be the first step in changing all that.

'He'll probably be the first to know, if this works well.'

"Too bad. You're feeling better, right?" Andrew asked. His smile had returned, but there was something odd in that smile that Serena couldn't quite place. For an instant, she was afraid: did he know? How could he know? Was she showing already, somehow, someway? She was only five weeks in, according to the doctor….

"Oh yeah. In fact, I wanted to ask you something."

"Yeah, shoot."

"Well, um…see um…you need help with the arcade, right?" Serena asked, motioning to the 'Help Wanted' sign in the window. Andrew's younger sister Lizzy was gunning for acceptance into the same school Raye went to: T.A. Girl's School, an elite private school with a very small freshman class, because most of the students were continuing students from the school's "escalator" elementary and junior high system. As a result, Lizzy felt she couldn't work the arcade anymore, not with her need to study and pass the high school entrance exam.

Once, Serena might have been a bit concerned about that, too. But now she had to think about the next 31 or so weeks as "the big picture." She had to focus only on finding a way to support herself and a child by the time she was ready to tell everyone—and ready for her world to fall apart at the seams. Serena, used to being dubbed the 'eternal optimist,' suddenly found herself thinking wryly that there was simply no other way to look at her situation. Her father would probably disown her, her mother would refuse to speak to her, her friends would all deem her irresponsible as a friend and as a Sailor Soldier, and—and that was all there was to it. Serena had only to focus on graduating junior high and getting through the next several months without ending up on the streets.

"Yeah. You offering?" Andrew asked, smiling genuinely.

"Yeah. I'm in the need for money, and well, my parents aren't exactly teller machines, ya know?" That was the way to go, Serena decided. Make light of it, like you always do. Pretend there's nothing wrong. You'll be able to tell him when you're good and ready, not before.

Andrew laughed heartily. "Well, all I'll need is for you to fill this out," he said, reaching behind a counter to retrieve an application. "And since you're a student of my ol' alma mater, I know they're cool with part-time jobs. And your parents will be too, right? Wait, don't answer that—they're probably the ones that told you they're not bank tellers, right?"

Serena laughed sheepishly. Well, they hadn't told her that recently, but…. "Yeah, something like that," she said lamely.

"Right. And I guess since I know you like a little sister, there's not much of a need for an interview. But this is serious business, Serena. I'm hoping you wouldn't be asking if you didn't know that."

"Oh, I know. I won't be sitting playing games while I'm here."

"Nope, you'll be fixing machines, cleaning screens, mopping, and probably beating up a lot of coin slots." Andrew laughed. "Most of it I think you've already got down."

"You bet!" Serena grinned. She retrieved a dark pink pen from one of her skirt pockets and started to fill out the application. It indicated right on there that pay would be between 800 and 1000 yen an hour, and that wasn't much for a part-time job. Serena wasn't a member of any after school clubs, but Raye would probably throw a fit if Serena's sudden decision for a job interfered with potential "study" meetings at the temple. They'd tried meeting at the arcade and parlor in the past, but it was just too noisy most of the time. There was simply too much of a chance that Sailor Soldier business would be overheard.

And…it wasn't enough for monthly rent in Juuban by any stretch of the imagination. Where would she get the money for that?

Her pen started to leave droplets of glittering pink ink on the application, so Serena stopped that train of thought before it could derail her completely. 'Worry about it later,' she told herself resolutely. 'One step at a time, remember?' And so far, the first step was a success.

"All right, perfect," Andrew said, skimming over Serena's application. "Everything looks good—I'd say you're hired."

Serena beamed, smiling the brightest she had in more than two weeks. "Thank you so much, Andrew! You don't know how much this means to me!" She reached over and swept the taller man up into a tight bear-hug, while Andrew returned the hug lightly and ruffled Serena's hair.

"No problem. Just don't get any grand ideas about buying me out, okay? My dad owns this place and I plan on keepin' it in the family!"

"No worries, Andrew!" Serena smiled. "So, when do I start?"

"Hm, how about tomorrow after school? Around three-thirty or four?"

"Sounds great. I'll be here." Serena started to head to the door, but Andrew called back to her.

"You're not going to stick around and play a few games? I'll even let you start using your employee discount!"

Serena smiled. "Tempting, but I think I'd better study up on my computer engineering first if I'm going to be getting my hands dirty and fixing any games! See ya!" And with that she swept out of the arcade, her steps light and her smile true. She left a flabbergasted Andrew in her wake, who wasn't quite sure whether Serena had been serious about studying computer engineering or not. The very possibility was mind-boggling.

A thousand years ago….

She heard his steps before he'd knocked, and she smiled to herself, whirling across her room, pretending to be absorbed in something or another. She wasn't. She was practically tingling with delight, with anticipation, with excitement. Oh, she knew he was coming. And she wanted to revel in his presence for every precious second she could, because the sensible, learned side of her (the side that was pleasant to visiting diplomats and seemingly-attentive to all her teachers: the side that the rambunctious, curious Princess Serenity often squashed into obscurity) told her that it simply wouldn't last.

Not her relationship with Endymion, oh no. That would last forever, and no supposedly-sensible part of her would believe otherwise. The whole of her believed that. But as Serenity glanced out of her room's terrace door, admiring the bright lights and the still water, and the absolutely perfect view of Earth, suspended in the midnight space like a giant sapphire flecked with emeralds and diamonds, she was reminded of how fragile it all was…all the peace. Everything she took for granted.

Well, if it was all going to fall apart any day now, she might as well enjoy it while it lasted!

Endymion hesitated outside her door. She heard him shuffle his feet, stop before knocking. He was nervous, and Serenity could tell without even seeing his face. She smiled as she answered, back to the door.

"Come in!"

The door opened without a squeak; it was Endymion's boots on her room's marble floor that she heard, click-clacking.

"Serenity."

It was only her name, but something in the way Endymion said it seemed to make the ambient temperature of the room rise a great deal. Serenity couldn't pretend to be ambivalent anymore. She spun around and launched herself into Endymion's waiting arms. She decided not to bother with any of the dangling bits of words she'd tried to come up with, things to prompt Endymion into talking, into asking that all-important question. She kissed him instead.

Endymion drew her easily into his embrace, but the moment his lips met hers, Serenity knew there was something wrong. He was being chaste with her—delicate. Too delicate! He was treating her like some sort of porcelain doll, and they'd been together long enough (a smattering of months that both felt like eternity and like nothing at all) for him to know better. Why…?

She decided to push her luck, just a bit. She opened her mouth against his, slid her tongue along his lower lip, tightened and lowered her grip so his hips were pressed firmly against hers. She smiled against his lips when he groaned just loud enough for her to hear. She took this as indication to continue, to do more, but then Endymion stiffened in the wrong way against her, and pushed her away.

"Endy, what's wrong?"

"Serenity…" He seemed to be catching his breath, but as it had been her doing most of the work and not him, this made Serenity that much more suspicious. He wasn't even meeting her narrowed gaze, his only words since his arrival having been her name. Well, this was his opportunity to start talking, if that's what he wanted! She wanted to fight against the tears gathering against her lash line, wanted to run to her bed and scream into the pillows. Lately nothing had been going her way, and to have Endymion add onto all that…?

'But the look in his eyes, his smile, oh dear…' She remembered that look on her guardians' faces. The girls only looked like that when they were about to tell her something bad, like she had an extra hour of lessons, or her mother wanted her to attend an audience with some boring planetary officials from the Andromeda system, or….

"Serenity, I want to ask you something."

'What if he asks me if he can see other girls? I should have known! It's like Mars said, he doesn't really love me, he just wants me because I'm a pretty princess or for my kingdom and its power—what if he only wants me for power?'

"Yes, Endymion?" Serenity pronounced softly, not giving away her true emotions. This was in her lessons: be dignified, be graceful. Even if you don't like what you're hearing, don't show it. Don't give them the power.

"Serenity, I—I…" Endymion, Crown Prince of Earth, stuttering. Serenity fought back a smile, but it still curved her lips ever-so-slightly. He'd never been a talkative young man in the time she'd known him. But his speech had become more stilted, even in private, ever since his mother's murder a few months ago. She'd been the one he'd turned to then, not his personal guards, not his grieving father. And the young man who'd always seemed to set himself apart, to close himself away, opened up to her in a way Serenity never could have predicted. And with each secret told, with each memory of his mother revealed, their connection grew stronger, their bond deeper. She knew it, for she felt it, deep in her soul.

It had become easier for them to speak after that. None of the awkwardness, none of the stupid, stilted formalities. For him to suddenly have reverted back to that—that boy—was frightening Serenity more than she could bear to imagine.

Suddenly Endymion gripped her arms above her elbows and led her to her bed. She was the one that plopped down on the mattress, looking bewildered and upset, while Endymion, who always seemed to direct his gaze elsewhere whenever she deigned to look at him, stood before her. Then, quite suddenly, he dropped to one knee, and Serenity knew that the next moment would either make her the happiest she'd ever been or the most desolate.

On any planet, throughout any solar system, in any galaxy, she knew this truth: men only dropped to one knee before a woman if they worshipped them in love or were begging for their forgiveness. Serenity could only hope that, for Endymion, it was the former and not the latter.

And then his eyes met hers.

"Will you marry me?" Endymion asked, bluntly, simply. Serenity still looked at him, her eyes scrutinizing him. But there was nothing in her own cerulean eyes to indicate she'd heard him. The words seemed like something of her imagination; she'd been so ready to believe he was begging her forgiveness for a transgression she would not want named….

That was when Endymion reached into a pouch he had tied at his belt, and withdrew something sparkling. Once the haze in her vision cleared, Serenity knew he wasn't begging forgiveness.

"Oh my, Endy…" Serenity gasped. She'd been prepared to be mad at him, to show him all her Lunarian grace and dignity and the so-called icy demeanor she and other Lunarians were supposedly known for on Earth. It all left her in a breath, and now she was fighting back new emotions.

It was a Terran tradition, the ring: a man would give his beloved a ring to symbolize their eternal love. His ring to her, and a ring from her to him, upon their wedding day. The only reason why Serenity even knew about it was when she asked about the unique ring Endymion suddenly started wearing on a chain around his neck. He'd never worn anything so ornamental before…before the death of his mother. After hours of conversation about the late Queen (one-sided, really, but Serenity was more than happy to be the listener for once, especially if it meant he'd stay longer, just a bit longer…), she'd dared to ask after that ring: was it his mother's?

Yes: yes it was. It was old—his mother's mother's mother's…going all the way back through the family, hundreds or maybe even thousands of years. Any other ring of that age would have been tarnished and likely missing more than a few of its gems, but Serenity could tell that it was well-cared for. Untarnished, perfectly intact, almost new in appearance.

Close-up, she realized why countless queens had cared for the ring. It was simple in its beauty, but awe-inspiring at the same time. A silver band twined around a gold one, and set where the two met at the apex of the ring was a stone both unlike anything Serenity had ever laid eyes on, and familiar enough to quake her soul. It looked like the Earth itself.

Not a sapphire nor an emerald, not an opal nor a moonstone; this was something altogether different, altogether special. And Endymion was giving it to her.

"Serenity, please, make me the happiest man alive, and marry me. I love you," Endymion whispered.

"Endymion," Serenity breathed, taking his hand in her own.

When they stood, Endymion still held her small hand in his own expecting an answer. The delight that had tingled to Serenity's toes before his arrival returned, filling her to overflowing. Gone was the controlled, dignified, sensual, regal princess.

"YES, YES, a million times YES in a moon minute!" Serenity squealed, leaping into his arms.

He failed to wrap his arms around her, but Serenity didn't care about that; she was going to burrow herself into him until she couldn't tell where he ended and she began. She was going to melt into him and stay wrapped around him forever and ever, to make up for lost time, for all those clandestine meetings cut short, for all those times they'd each made excuses because of their guards, because of their parents. For once, this was perfect, this was right.

But it seemed more than a minute had passed, and Endymion still hadn't hugged her back. "Endy?" Serenity asked worriedly. No response. "En-" Serenity was cut off this time by the warmth of Endymion's mouth on her own, but this time, he was most definitely kissing her back. Serenity made him wait a few moments before she eagerly reciprocated.

"Mmm…" Serenity found herself moaning slightly. Endymion pulled away slightly, having leaned over deeply into Serenity so that her top half was almost entirely splayed out upon her bed.

"Serenity, I love you." Something about the roughness of his voice but the contrasting tenderness of his touch, of his lips just then, against her wrist, against her palm, on the front of her hand made Serenity feel warm and liquid inside.

"Oh Endymion, I love you too, now and forever." She couldn't help crying as he slid the ring on her left hand's fourth finger—part of that Terran tradition, again, but Serenity fell in love with it even more as she admired that Earth-stone on her finger, symbolizing her eternity with Endymion, with Earth. Tear after tear started to track its way down her face, and Endymion wiped each one away, first with one finger, then with his hand, then with his lips. He kissed her chin, her cheeks, her brow, her nose, and finally—finally! Serenity thought, agonized by the duration he'd made her wait—her lips.

The short kisses became deeper, and Endymion had no compunction with teasing her by kissing her everywhere but her lips repeatedly. When his kisses met her neck and trailed lower, Serenity knew there was no going back. And why ever would she want to? She'd stopped thinking about the past, about peace, about war, about her guards or his, about anything but the man before her, over her, on her and then, finally, blissfully, in her.

And the universe shifted.

Serena woke up from the intense dream, sweating and breathing heavily.

'Did we…' Serena thought, once the haze cleared from her mind. It sure would explain a lot…okay, maybe nothing at all, but it was the first conclusion Serena jumped to when she put that and the fact that she was pregnant together.

'But that was then, and this is now. Darien and I never…'

And it wouldn't make a difference anyway, would it? Darien only wanted to escape the past, escape the supposed destiny the universe had laid out for him. Forget the fact that he'd been searching for his memories of the past nearly his whole life, that being reborn couldn't change the bond between them, that…

'This is stupid! Not even worth thinking about! It's just a dream, and even if—by some crazy chance—it weren't, Darien wouldn't care. He's out of your life, Serena. Move on. Be a big girl. You'll need to. You're on your own now.'

Serena shook her head resolutely, determined not to tell anyone until the time was right, and went right back to sleep.

Two months later, Serena found herself staring wryly at her reflection in the mirror. She was starting to show, and before long, Sammy would be making fun of her, her mother would act suspicious, and her father would disown her. Time was running out.

She'd been lucky so far, hiding the very first signs with stylish peasant tops, layers of sweaters, and her winter school uniform top. But it wouldn't continue so easily, not as the weeks rolled on.

'Weeks. I'm thinking of everything in weeks now.' That was a change. It wasn't "two months," it was "eight weeks." Even though she'd learned terms like "trimester," every time she went to the doctors, it was "weeks along" and "weeks left," and "by this week" or "that week." She supposed that, in the past, she'd only lived a day at a time. That was how she'd always been: doing what she wanted then and there, because why not? While her attitude changed after she'd become Sailor Moon, the need to live on a day-to-day basis hadn't. She couldn't afford to change that part after her first transformation, because she never knew when there'd be another attack. She never knew if she'd survive another battle.

Now, she knew she could—no, she would—live another day, another week, another two weeks. She had to, because it wasn't just her anymore.

She had to acknowledge that ticking clock within her now, that countdown that had mysteriously begun thirteen weeks ago. She'd have to find a way to get a place soon, find a way to tell Andrew (and pray that he'd let her keep her job), and find a way to tell her parents. Those were the priorities.

Serena turned to the side, wondering if she would have to "suck in" were she to wear this top. She hadn't bought any maternity clothes yet. At night, she was making do with sweat pants and baggy sweaters.

And the girls? Or Darien?

'No. Not now. Not yet.'

Serena didn't know if she could take her friends cutting her off completely. She'd already made the mistake of doing that once, with Molly and Melvin, and now the two of them seemed quite content without her. It was a mistake too far in the past for Serena to rectify, and even if she made some pathetic attempt at it now, there'd be no guarantee Molly's reaction would be any less disgusted or disappointed than what Serena imagined the Sailor Soldiers' would be.

It wasn't as if she could hide it from them—the girls, that is—forever, but Serena still didn't know what to do or say to them. She still didn't have the answers they'd want, and that was after eight weeks of contemplation. Part of her thought was if they found out somehow—by accident, maybe—it might be easier. Save her the trouble of saying anything at first, of starting the awkward conversation. But despite the time passed and the few battles with the Black Moon fought, no one noticed anything. And Amy with her all-purpose super-computer and visor never noticed anything. Maybe because she'd never had a need to activate the visor in battle these days. If there was anything to be grateful to the Black Moon for, it was being straightforward. Even if their droids had particular strengths or weaknesses, it didn't take a genius with a super-computer to figure them out.

But it might just take one to figure out how the heck Serena was going to get her own place without her parents' help or knowledge.

Serena had scoured the classifieds of a half-dozen papers over the past two months, flipped through countless apartment magazines, and even bothered to go to the library (not the one at school, though; that would be too suspicious) to look at online ads. Though there were a number of places available in both Juuban and the neighboring district of Azabu, they were simply too expensive for Serena to even fathom. In fact, they all seemed that way, which made Serena wonder what her options would be if she couldn't somehow find a place.

Serena scowled at her reflection and then headed out the door of her bedroom. Today was a full work day at the arcade, and even if she couldn't explain to anyone just why she'd taken on the part-time job, her parents were at least pleased about it. Despite it being a "frivolous" choice of employment, her mother at least approved of her initiative, and doing something she enjoyed, and spending time with nice people. Her mother had stopped inquiring after Darien though. Serena hadn't explicitly mentioned the break-up, but she supposed something in her demeanor must have made it clear to her mother enough to not lump Darien in with the other "nice" people that Mrs. Tsukino considered Serena's friends.

And speaking of Darien, today was a fairly likely day that he'd be at the arcade. He'd shown up there fairly regularly most Saturdays and Sundays. The first week, she'd started on a Monday, and had made it a whole six days without seeing or even thinking of him—much. Then on Saturday, while Andrew had been showing her how to get coins unstuck from their slots on a Sailor V game, he'd showed up. Andrew had been standing above Serena, surveying her progress as she worked a flat piece of metal into the delicate inner workings of the coin slot, trying to nudge a 100 yen coin down its proper path. The moment the coin slid free and the machine came back to life, Andrew bent down.

"Good job! You'll get used to the grease, but in the meantime, here." He bent down and handed her a rag from his apron pocket. Serena wiped her hands gratefully and made a mental note to get an old handkerchief to carry around with her for that very purpose. "Looks like Darien just showed up. Want to take a break and say hi?"

Serena froze midway through cleaning her left hand's ring finger, which had an odd proliferation of grease on it except for at the very base. She stopped looking at her finger, wondering why the grease had failed to cover her whole finger there as it had the others, especially since she didn't wear a ring. Instead, she stared at the video game's guts, the wires and lights and metal and wished for an instant that she could be like that: simple, mechanical, easy to fix.

"He didn't tell you?" Serena finally said, softly, lowly, so the customers behind them wouldn't hear. Andrew shot Serena a confused look and a nod—probably in Darien's direction as he walked toward the parlor half of the game center, completely unaware of Serena's presence—before squatting back down.

"Didn't tell me what?"

Serena sucked in a breath. She hadn't wanted this, hadn't planned this. Rather, "this" wasn't part of the rest of the unplanned mess that her life already was in. She didn't need the added stress of Darien failing to tell his best friend that he'd broken up with her. That would just make things awkward, wouldn't it? For an instant, Serena felt a stabbing of white-hot rage toward Darien; how dare he put her in this position? What did he expect to gain from this? She couldn't afford to think hopefully, to imagine that if Darien hadn't told Andrew, his best friend in the entire world, that maybe he hadn't really wanted to break up with her, that he'd screwed up somehow and was, in fact, at this very moment, contemplating ways of asking her to come back to him.

Serena shook her head. It was stupid to think that way, especially now.

"Darien broke up with me over three months ago," she said plainly. Serena gave herself a mental pat on the back for that one: she'd handled it well. Hadn't been a crying ball, hadn't been shouting. She'd just stated the facts, as they were, as they would always be.

'This is good. If I can just keep this up, then I really will be able to…maybe someday, move on…' The words sounded fickle even as Serena thought them. Get over the person she'd been destined to be with for two lifetimes? Move on from dying for him, for his world?

'One step at a time,' Serena reminded herself, even as her heart seemed to clench in pain. She hoped she wasn't wincing now; she didn't need to show it to Andrew. She wasn't going to play for his sympathy and put him between her and his best friend. She wouldn't do that to Andrew; he'd been too kind to her.

"Whoa," Andrew said, leaning back on his haunches. "News to me."

Serena swallowed, trying to think of a decent reply, a way to be mature about all this, but the words she'd been keeping inside burbled forth anyway. "I'm surprised myself, actually. I would have thought…well, I figured he would have told you."

"You and me both," Andrew said quietly. "Hell, if he'd even been thinking of it, I would have—" Andrew stopped himself abruptly, and Serena had a sinking sensation she knew what he was going to say.

"Warned me?" she asked with a wry grin. Andrew frowned, looking at her, as if the expression on her face were all wrong. "No…" Serena trailed off. '"No, you wouldn't have," or "No, I wouldn't have listened to you anyway?" Both? Neither? "I used to be indecisive, but now I'm not so sure?"' She gave up trying to think of the right words to say and just shook her head.

"It doesn't matter now, it's in the past." She tried to keep her voice steady as she said it, but for some reason, she hiccupped midway through the word 'past' and started crying. She cursed herself mentally; this was an awful time to get emotional, for her to be having these mood swings into sudden and abject depression, but she couldn't help it! The doctor had warned her about this, along with the very wide range of ways morning sickness could manifest itself. It seemed as if fate decreed that Serena go through every single one, along with every single mood swing known to humanity.

"Serena, I…" Andrew seemed to fumble for words, and for some reason, him doing that made her cry all the harder. She stood up and mopped her face with her apron before daring to speak.

"I'm sorry. If you don't mind, I'll take my lunch now."

"No," Andrew said, rising to his feet. "But—"

"I won't go to the parlor. I'll be back in an hour," Serena said, refusing to elaborate. She wouldn't go to the parlor; she couldn't be near Darien. And she couldn't explain to Andrew that she was sorry for telling him in the first place, even though he should have known, whether through Darien himself or simple observation thereof. But she couldn't start faulting Andrew—he was one of the last rocks left in her life, and he wasn't even 'hers.' She couldn't come between him and Darien, and she'd probably done just that by telling Andrew nothing more than the truth.

'Hurricane Serena strikes again,' she thought despairingly as she removed her apron and headed out the back door. An hour and a bowl of steaming ramen later, all this would be forgotten, Darien would be gone, and Andrew would probably never speak of it again, right?

Serena told herself this would be so, nodded firmly, and headed off toward her favorite ramen restaurant only a block away.

Hours later, Serena was wiping the monitors of two video game screens at once while using her foot to direct a sponge on the floor to wipe up a soda spill. A local newspaper lay open on a nearby stool to the classified section. Serena was idly glancing at the available apartment rentals, making a mental note of which ones to circle for later and follow up on. She was so absorbed by the description of one nearby apartment that she didn't even notice Andrew approaching her from behind, awkwardly scratching the back of his head and walking slowly only to stop and then start walking toward her again.

"Uh, Serena?"

Serena snapped out of her stupor and pushed her foot just a little too far, sending the sponge shooting out from under it with a loud sploosh. She tipped forward and almost fell, but Andrew caught her, both arms wrapped around her midsection. Serena glanced up at him, swallowing nervously before whispering "Thanks."

Andrew didn't let go of her immediately, and for the briefest of instants, Serena felt cold terror slice through her core. Andrew wasn't just looking at her, he was looking through her, like he never had before. But just as suddenly as the feeling lanced through her, it faded away. Andrew's grip on her lessened and Serena found her footing—and found Andrew's gaze directed at the apartment listings in the newspaper.

"I wanted to talk to you about earlier but…what's this all about?" Andrew picked up the newspaper.

"I…uh…" Serena hesitated. She'd been thinking about telling Andrew for some time now, but not now—not like this. But what could she do? "I'm actually looking for a place." Honesty was the best policy, right? She had nothing to gain by continuing to lie to Andrew, especially not about something like this.

Andrew drew closer to her, and Serena found herself swallowing another acidic lump that had somehow worked its way into her throat. Her gaze darted around them, but there were no customers in sight.

"Why, Serena?" His voice was soft, barely above a whisper, but Serena could tell he wasn't demanding an answer out of her, wasn't accusing her of anything. He wanted to know because he was Andrew, the closest person she had to a big brother now, a dear friend, and he cared! But he was looking at her with a new softness in his eyes that she'd never seen before, not even when he was looking at Rita, his girlfriend. Serena didn't know what to make of it.

'I—I have enough stuff that I'm not sure about, don't I? I can't have this too! He either knows or…or I'm going to tell him, right now.' It didn't matter how he'd figured it out: if it was because he'd grabbed her just now and felt the swell of her belly, or if he'd noticed her wild eating habits and even wilder mood swings, sending her crying into the back room or growling at every stuck coin.

"I—I'm…" The words were there, but they just wouldn't come.

Andrew took a deep breath and gently gripped Serena's shoulders, his expression suddenly clear and full of concern. "Serena, are you pregnant?"

Her eyes widened and she froze in his arms, still as a statue. It seemed to be answer enough for Andrew, who dropped his hands to his sides and stood ramrod straight.

"There were a few signs, but I never really put them together, never would have considered—" He sighed and shook his head, now looking angry. When his eyes opened again, he still looked mad, but at himself, not her. "First, it was you wanting to get a job, even when you seemed so busy before." Andrew scoffed. "You know, Darien may have gone out with you, but that doesn't mean I knew anything about you: whether you were in any after school clubs, how you met Raye or Mina, or why you've always looked so tired on those days when you could come in."

Andrew raked a hand through his hair and stared at the floor, his gaze only rising a fraction. "Then I noticed how you tied your apron."

This surprised Serena, and she found herself fingering her apron ties, but unable to utter so much as a peep.

"First it was high on your waist, but then you got lower and lower on your hips. Heck, you even stopped having shakes and sodas during your short breaks, and when you did eat here, it was always something," Andrew made a face that almost had Serena giggling were it not for the sheer seriousness of the situation. "Sensible," Andrew finally said, almost derisively. "Totally unlike a junior high girl who shouldn't have to worry about her figure at all."

Serena would have beamed with happiness at the compliment were it not for the fact that she felt like a sinking ship.

"And then…" Andrew shook the newspaper at her, just once. "This?" He shook his head. "The places in this are all small and overpriced." He tossed the newspaper into a nearby trash bin, much to Serena's astonishment. She glanced from her discarded newspaper to Andrew, her mouth forming the shape of an "o."

"I've got a place to show you," Andrew said.

Serena stared at him for a long minute, too afraid to blink lest everything that had just happened in the past few minutes end up being something she imagined. Was this really happening? Someone being understanding, not making judgments about her age, about the fact that she was pregnant, about whether or not Darien was the father of her child or if her parents knew?

She could feel one of those awful mood swings bubbling up in her again, but Serena simply didn't have the willpower to stop it this time. She burst into tears and gratefully let Andrew draw her into his arms, which instead of feeling restricting, felt safe and warm and right.

Unbeknownst to both Serena and Andrew, across the street, Darien had a perfect view into the arcade where they were standing, embracing. He wanted to know why, but a face ot unlike the one buried in Andrew's arms right now stopped him.

No, he was doing the right thing by staying far away.

Serena was still smiling at the look of utter shock on her mother's face when she came downstairs without having been awoken by an alarm clock, Luna, or her brother hollering at her…on a Saturday!

Her grin seemed contagious, as Andrew smiled just as widely at her when she met him on the top landing of an outdoor staircase at an apartment complex that she vaguely recognized as Andrew's own.

"Hey! Glad you could make it."

Serena rolled her eyes. "You think I'd sleep in?"

Andrew chuckled and tugged at his t-shirt collar. "Well…"

"So, where's this place you've got to show me?" Serena leaned toward him and smirked playfully. "You're not planning on offering your place, are you?"

Andrew's cheeks burned a suspicious shade of pink, but he shook his head. "If it came to that, I wouldn't mind subletting, but—" Andrew cut himself off and started down the stairs. "But hopefully, it won't come to that. Besides, you're going to need more space than I've got in my shoebox of an apartment."

Serena blinked and sealed her lips; was Andrew serious? She hadn't expected him to be so serious, to be so kind, to be so…so understanding. Andrew was always the older brother figure Serena felt comfortable with, that she could trust (for the most part), but that would always make her feel better by telling a joke and offering her a strawberry milkshake. Suddenly he seemed so much older, so much wiser, and something else Serena couldn't quite name just yet.

"Anyway, you've just got to remember two words: play along."

With that, Andrew tugged her down a short flight of stairs and led her to a door that opened before they even got in front of it. An older woman opened the door, a cigarette hanging out of her lipsticked mouth.

"This the one, Furuhata?"

Andrew nodded firmly. "Yes. Mrs. Yamato, this is Serena. She's a freshman with me at K University, and has been looking for a place. I know you've got that lovely studio down a floor that's getting dusty…"

"A freshman, huh? You don't look it," Mrs. Yamato said, taking a long drag on her cigarette and exhaling the smoke from the corner of her mouth.

"I get that a lot," Serena said with a nervous smile. "I'm from a family of pretty petite ladies, so…" Serena trailed off purposefully, hoping Mrs. Yamato wouldn't keep interrogating her.

"What're you studying?" Mrs. Yamato asked, taking a different tack.

Serena swallowed. "Anatomy, at the moment," she lied, perhaps a little ironically. "I'm hoping to get into pre-med by the time I'm a junior." She chanced a quick look in Andrew's general direction, only to find him staring at her wide-eyed with his mouth hanging open a little. When Mrs. Yamato's gaze snaped toward him, he quickly masked his expression of surprise.

"You a responsible girl, Serena? Pay your rent on time?"

"Actually," Serena admitted, "this'll be my first time away from my parents. But much as I love them, I think it's time for me to be independent, and part of that is being responsible and paying my rent on time."

This seemed to be magical words for Mrs. Yamato, who nodded sagely. "Well, you sound good. Let me show you the place and you can tell me what you think."

Serena beamed at Mrs. Yamato, who chuckled and stubbed out the remainder of her cigarette on a nearby railing before tossing the butt into a soot-covered ceramic bowl near her door. Andrew grinned back at Serena and offered her his elbow, which she happily linked her own arm through as they made their way down another flight of stairs to what would hopefully soon be Serena's new home.

"Well, that went great!"

Serena smiled wanly at Andrew and spun slowly, looking at her new apartment. It was larger than she ever could have expected, and she had no idea why grumpy Mrs. Yamato was being so understanding or at least…nice. Neither she nor Andrew had revealed Serena was pregnant, but they'd cross that bridge when they got to it. She, just like everyone else, would have to find out sooner or later.

"Usually people say that when they're being sarcastic, but…you're being honest, aren't you?"

"Yeah, of course!" Andrew exclaimed. "I can't believe we pulled that off!" Andrew heaved a sigh. "Nursing, huh? Are you sure you don't want to change your fake major to acting? You did a great job!"

Serena frowned. "I hate lying, but until I get this emancipation thing figured out…" she trailed off. "I can't thank you enough for this, Andrew."

Andrew smiled at her warmly. "You don't have to thank me, Sere," he said softly, his eyes trained on her.

Serena turned to face him, sunset bleeding into the room through the uncovered windows behind her. Though what Andrew saw was her distinct silhouette, what Serena saw was an incredible friend with a slightly red face and an incredible smile. A friend she'd just openly admitted she hated lying to, but…that she was lying to, with each passing minute.

The weight of her transformation brooch weighed heavy in Serena's pocket, even though it had been a while since she'd had to use it. It didn't matter how long it had been since she'd last transformed into Sailor Moon: it was who she was, not just what she did. And that meant she couldn't keep hiding it anymore.

"Andrew, there's something I've got to tell you—"

"Serena, you don't have to."

"No, I do, really—I can't keep this any longer—"

"You have to tell your parents first," Andrew interrupted, and effectively took the thought of admitting the truth right out of Serena's mouth.

"You're right," she admitted softly. "It is time. But I—I don't know what I'm going to say! My father will probably kill me, my mother will be so disappointed in me, I—"

"I'll go with you," Andrew said bluntly.

Serena shook her head. "And what? Take responsibility for something that's got nothing to do with you? Andrew, I can't let you do that!" The thought of him sitting where Darien should be, of him squeezing her hand and facing her father's stony gaze and her mother's tears stung painfully. Years ago, the thought of having this conversation hadn't even crossed her mind. But in recent months, she'd thought about it a lot, practically every day, terrified of the prospect of it sneaking up on her the way this whole pregnancy had.

It hadn't—yet, and for that, Serena knew to count her blessings.

"And I'm supposed to watch someone I care about do something hard on her own?"

Serena squeezed her eyes shut and sat down slowly on the hardwood floor that made up the apartment's entryway. "Andrew, I do appreciate everything you've done for me, but—"

"Serena—" Andrew interrupted again, but this time Serena cut him off, staring up at him sharply, her blue eyes brilliant in the dying sunlight.

"Darien's not the father," she said bluntly. It was a truth she hadn't told anyone yet, and it felt as though a great weight had been lifted from her body.

Andrew's eyes widened, and his knees seemed to give, and soon he was sitting in front of her, knee to knee. "Your—father?" he croaked.

"No! No, no, no!" Serena exclaimed, astonished that Andrew would even suggest it.

"Your brother, then?" Andrew mumbled.

"No—" Serena sighed, suddenly feeling defeated. The weight was back on her shoulders, and it was time again for the lies to end. But what were the right words? What could she ever say?

Suddenly, as if the sun had suddenly risen again, the weight Serena felt shifted into her pocket, and her hand with it. If she couldn't find the right words to say, then she would know what to show Andrew so he would understand. Three simple words, and hopefully then, everything would make sense to him.

She rose to her feet and pivoted away from Andrew. She didn't know how to introduce what she was about to do, if there were even any words worth saying. 'Don't tell my friends I did this'? or perhaps 'Pay attention, but don't look 'cause in a second I'll be naked for about one tenth of a second'?

"Andrew—" The words got clogged up in her throat again. She wanted to thank Andrew again, to tell him that he was the closest thing she had to a best friend now, that she loved him in a way different than she'd ever known. Maybe the words would come easier after this was all said and done.

She gripped the Crystal Star compact in her pocket and withdrew it in one fluid motion borne of plenty of experience making this exact same motion.

"Moon Crystal Power!"

"Do you mind—I mean, letting them think that you're—"

"I don't mind," Andrew said, squeezing Serena's hand.

They had just left Serena's old home having told her parents (thankfully, both Sammy and Rini were at school and would be told the truth—or something like it—by the Tsukino parents after they came home) a half-truth about the situation: that Serena was pregnant but keeping the baby and had both a job and a new home secured. Needless to say, it wasn't a one-sided conversation: Mr. Tsukino quickly grew angry, first at Andrew, then at Serena, while Mrs. Tsukino stared in shock and then burst into tears.

As for Luna, she hadn't been at the house at the time Serena and Andrew had showed up, either. She was likely out and about with Artemis, but as soon as she returned home and overheard what Serena's parents were talking about, she'd probably go to the girls. There wasn't a whole lot Serena could do about that, though, and all she could do at this point was wait.

"You think—you think it might have been easier if I'd just told them the whole truth?" Serena said, stopping halfway down the sidewalk from her house, letting go of Andrew's hand. She gripped her brooch with her other hand.

"And put them in danger, too? I think you took enough of a chance with me, Serena," Andrew said, having turned around to face her and grip her shoulders, a gesture that was becoming increasingly frequent between them. He met her gaze, and she met his, and she knew he was being honest with her.

"I didn't take a chance with you, Andrew. I know I can trust you," Serena said quietly. Whether she could trust the Black Moon not to kidnap Andrew and hurt him and his family was an entirely other matter. In the meantime, she was goingto do everything she could to protect him, though it wasn't as if there'd been any recent attacks to protect Andrew from. Serena was decidedly wary about that fact: even without having talked to the other girls about anything Sailor Soldier-related lately (especially the fact that she'd told Andrew her secret), she did realize that the fewer small attacks that were happening, the more likely that they were building up to something big.

"You're right. I mean, it's one thing for me to tell them I'm pregnant, but if I told them I was still a virgin, an alien, and a superhero, I think they both would have had heart attacks."

Andrew chuckled. "You're lucky I'm so young and healthy, because when you finally told me that whole story, I almost keeled over, too."

"You know, that's not really the whole story," Serena said with a sly smile, beginning to walk back down the street with her arm linked through Andrew's. She was amazed she'd made it this far without throwing up or bursting into loud sobs herself, but she attributed that to Andrew's continuing presence.

"What, you're going to tell me now that Darien's part of this whole story too, and he's not really human, he's from Mars?"

"Actually, that's Raye," Serena blurted before covering her hands with her mouth. "I—I probably shouldn't have said that. I should have let her tell you. I mean, if I ever—they don't know either, and they're going to be even harder to talk to than my parents were…"

"Actually, I'd already figured that much out," Andrew said. "Just tell me if I get any wrong: Mina's Sailor Venus, Amy's Sailor Mercury, you just told me Raye's Mars, so that would make Lita Sailor Jupiter, right?"

Serena pursed her lips but nodded once, briefly. 'They're so going to have my head on a stick when they find out…!'

A short while later, Serena and Andrew were sitting in a sun-warmed part of her new and completely empty apartment.

"Do you believe in destiny, Andrew?" Serena asked, staring at the play of lights that her Silver Crystal created on the walls when the sunlight hit it.

"I uh…I don't know, actually. I guess I'm waiting to see what life brings me."

"Sounds like you do believe in it then," Serena teased. "Waiting for what life brings you, instead of seeing what you can bring to your own life?" She let out a sigh.

"'Why should my whole life be guided by what happened in my past?'…those were his words. I'll never forget them."

Andrew immediately became sober. "That what Darien said when he—No, you know what? He's a jerk, how about we never talk about him again?"

"Andrew!" Serena was genuinely astonished that Andrew would say something like that about his supposed best friend. Suddenly, she felt like she was driving a wedge between Andrew and Darien, all without even trying. She took a deep breath and said, "Andrew, he may have hurt me a lot by breaking up with me, but he's not a jerk for it."

"What—? Serena, how can you say that? He's been treating you like a jerk since practically Day One!"

Serena cocked an eyebrow at him. "And you've been friends with that 'jerk' since Day One, right?"

Andrew sighed defeatedly. "He wasn't that bad back then. He changed, and—not for the better."

"So while he was actually with me, huh?" Serena's chin dropped to her chest. "Things were good for a while. Then he went and forgot about me, and when he finally remembered, things were good again, until—"

"Until he decided to be a jerk again?" Andrew completed.

"…I'm sure he had his reasons," Serena said lamely, her voice barely above a whisper. Like so many things she'd said lately, it was easier to say the words than it was to actually believe them. But part of her still desperately wanted to believe in Darien, if only because all of their fights together, all of their trials and tribulations hadn't brought them to this point only for him to refuse to acknowledge what made Endymion as much a part of him as Serenity was to Serena herself.

"I'm sure," Andrew retorted. "Doesn't mean they were good ones. Hey—" Andrew edged closer to Serena, the look in his eyes shifting from angry to concerned. "Does he know? About—?" He put a palm on Serena's belly, and Serena could feel warmth spreading from there all the way through her. So far, he was the only one besides the doctors that she dared let touch her like this: the only one that knew and that made her feel safe, trusted, and loved.

"No," Serena said quietly. "I don't even think he has a clue how this all probably happened."

"'Probably'?" Andrew echoed. "I thought you said—"

"Virgin alien superhero. Yeah, I am. Andrew, remember how I said all of that wasn't the whole story?" She waited until he nodded slowly, watching as the confusion grew in his eyes. "I wasn't always Sailor Moon. Actually, Sailor Moon's not supposed to exist."

Andrew went from looking confused to looking absolutely flabbergasted. "What do you mean? I mean—a world without Sailor Moon? We'd be overrun with monsters!"

Serena smiled faintly. "A thousand years ago, Sailor Moon didn't exist because she–I–didn't have a reason to. The other Sailor Soldiers were enough. But then tensions with Earth got to a breaking point, and people that didn't like the idea of Lunarians being so long-lived decided to make a pact with a force they didn't understand and—and well, it led to their downfall. Everyone's downfall."

"'A thousand years ago'?" Andrew parroted.

"Andrew, I'm actually not just a virgin alien superhero. I'm also a princess."

Serena turned the key in the lock and settled on her couch after closing the door. She had just returned from work at the arcade, and was still marveling about the fact that she lived alone. This place was great.

Only a month in, and already, she had made friends with her neighbor, figured out a payment plan with Mrs. Yamato, and gotten acquainted with her surroundings. From her old house, she had her dresser set, all her clothes, and of course, all her jewelry, Sailor V posters and games, her hair clips, dresses…

'But no Luna.' Luna had indeed overheard Serena's parents talking about Serena's move-out, but luckily, there'd been some sort of unspoken vow not to talk about the fact that she was moving out because she was pregnant with, as far as they knew, Andrew's love child. So Serena had been able to meet up with the girls at Luna at an impromptu meeting at the temple and, without finding the courage to tell them the whole truth, did manage to say she was moving out of her parents' place—for their own safety. This explanation practically floored the girls, but there was beauty in its simplicity: there was no way they could argue against it.

And if there was any chance that the Black Moon could target the Tsukinos, Luna could stay with them as a guard. It was certainly easier than finding out if Serena could even have Luna at the apartment, let alone afford her within her meager budget.

Serena had come up with this argument with Andrew's help, though she had yet to tell the girls about why she was living in the same apartment complex as Andrew, why she was working at the arcade, and of course, that Andrew knew their secret. But they were slowly growing more accustomed to Serena being indepdent and on her own, and seemed to be liking the changes in her personality that living alone brought with it. Each time they stayed over for a sleepover, Serena grew increasingly tempted to just spill the beans and tell them everything: about the pregnancy, the dreams about her past as Serenity and being with Endymion, about Andrew and what he'd done for her and why she'd told him their secret…. She just hadn't gotten around to it. Yet.

It was kind of lonely, and rather quiet, especially when the girls weren't there for sleepovers. But since the lull in attacks occurred after the destruction of Rubeus, there had been no attacks, no reason for Sailor Soldier meetings, and thus, hardly any time to hang out.

Serena knew they were all friends for reasons beyond being soldiers together, and they weren't just her friends because they had to protect her in the guise of the princess. After all, she was friends with them all long before they became soldiers and before any of them remembered the slightest thing about the Moon Kingdom or its princess.

'And as friends, shouldn't they know?' Serena asked herself, patting her slightly swollen stomach. Serena reached for her phone to call the girls, and then hesitated. Wouldn't the best way to get their attention be to use the communicators? She pulled the small watch-like object from its place in her purse, and was about to push the star-shaped button when something beeped.

Serena pressed the buttons and heard a garbled voice and some heavy static.

"Sailor Soldiers…attack…Ichinohashi Park…Rini…"

Serena could barely make out Sailor Mercury's voice, but the main words: 'Rini' and 'attack' caught her attention in a net.

Serena didn't even respond, just headed to the area where her instincts—and that bright violet and golden light—told her to go.

Serena immediately transformed, and noticed the soldier outfit did nothing for her 'current situation'. Only the visually adept would notice.

'Please don't let Amy use her VR visor today...please…' Serena prayed, completing the transformation. She thought she'd been ready to tell the girls, but not like this. Not in the middle of a battle.

She arrived on the scene in time to see Rini's light show die down, and an evil droid take its arm away from its eyes, now that the bright light had died down considerably. The thing was about to attack Rini again when Sailor Moon interfered.

"Hey you! I won't let you attack innocent children, because in the name of the moon, I will punish you!" Sailor Moon completed her pose, and was sure to look for Mercury. She was nowhere to be found.

"Sailor Moon!" Rini cried, attaching herself to Sailor Moon's leg. Sailor Moon patted her pink head in reassurance, hoping to calm the frightened girl down.

'Don't look up, don't look up…' Sailor Moon prayed. It was more than likely Rini wouldn't care what she looked like, and if she did, it would come out in the form of an insult, but Serena didn't know. 'What if in Rini's time, children are given sex ed as early as four?' Sailor Moon pried Rini off her leg and kneeled down beside her, in order to make her stomach 'invisible'.

"Rini, where's Amy?"

Rini burst into tears suddenly, and Sailor Moon was presented with an angry droid, a frightened girl…and she was all alone.

"MUAWWAWWRR!" the female-looking droid yelled obscurely. This was the first droid that didn't talk animatedly.

"Sailor Moon, watch out for that droid's camera! It takes pictures of people and makes them disappear!" Rini cried from behind Sailor Moon's defensive position.

Something about that phrase stuck Sailor Moon as familiar and she suddenly knew why.

'One of Nephrite's monsters was like that…and in order to reflect the attack, I needed a mirror.' Sailor Moon, on instinct, grabbed her brooch tightly and sent Rini to a safe haven behind some bushes.

"All right Negasleaze, show me what you've got!"

"MUAAWRRRRR!" was the response as the droid charged, attempting a head butt. Sailor Moon slid out of the way, and the droid was stuck, horns and all, in a tree. Its head was covered in fur and leaves, and so it couldn't see. It launched an attack at Sailor Moon with its free hand, which Sailor Moon reflected with the mirror in her brooch. The fur and leaves flew, and the droid was weak enough to be dusted. But Amy!

Walking up to the droid and holding it fiercely by the horns, she demanded it tell her where Sailor Mercury was.

"Mwaawwwr!" came the weakened response. Groaning, Sailor Moon threw her arms up in the air. This was the chance the droid needed. It wedged its horns from the tree trunk and charged, capturing Sailor Moon in its grip. Sailor Moon struggled hopelessly, kicking and punching the droid. She landed one hit on its soldier, but it didn't seem to do anything for her release.

Little did she know that Sailor Mercury was released, for its weak spot was where she had hit it. The droid hadn't reacted much, for it was already weak, and it was too focused on its prey to think of the other pretty soldier.

Sailor Mercury awoke somewhat groggily, just barely remembering her call to the soldiers…a loud thump, and the salty taste in her mouth. There was a bright flash, and then she went black. Now she was lying on the soft, freshly cut grass of the park, and she heard noises.

"UNNGH! Let me go, Negatrash!" It was Sailor Moon, and from what Mercury could make out, the other soldiers hadn't arrived yet. Thinking perhaps her vision would clear once she activated her visor, she did so. Her vision was no longer blurred, as her deep blue eyes could make out the rapidly flashing scans of the droid and Sailor Moon.

Getting up and opening her pocket computer, Sailor Mercury scanned the droid again to find out what happened. Suddenly, she heard a soft beeping in her ear, where the microphone to the computer was connected. Looking at her findings, Mercury stared.

"Three life-forms?" she breathed. She looked up, deactivated her visor, and still only saw Sailor Moon and the droid. Her computer beeped again, and Mercury's heart lodged in her throat.

'She's—she's…' Even Sailor Mercury's genius mind couldn't complete the thought. It was simply too impossible to comprehend. Well, not impossible, but…completely unexpected!

"SAILOR MOON!" Mercury screamed, terrified about what would happen to her best friend, her leader…and the fetus, if the droid succeeded. The droid turned in surprise, allowing Sailor Moon the chance to knee it and squirm free. Mercury launched her Aqua Illusion attack, freezing the creature long enough for Sailor Moon to destroy it with a Moon Sceptre Elimination.

Sailor Moon collapsed to her knees and then to her side, unconscious. The energy drain almost triple the normal amount, and even with all the practice she'd gotten in the past year or more, it was simply too much for her body in its current state to handle.

"SAILOR MOON!"

"Mercury, what happened? Are you all right?" Jupiter yelled, just arriving.

"Yeah, everything's fine," Mercury found herself saying.

"Is she okay?" Venus asked. Mercury didn't tell them how Sailor Moon had been so completely drained, that because she was supporting another life inside of her, every time she transformed, attacked and was attacked, it drained her immensely.

"She'll be soon. Let's get her to some place warm," Mercury said, noting the cool breeze blowing through the park.

"Ungh…" Mars limped onto the scene, prompting Mercury to ask what had happened.

"We got attacked by another droid on the way here; that's why we're late. Both mine and Venus' arms got beaten, and Mars here is on a sprained ankle," Jupiter informed her.

"Oh dear, how are we supposed to get her anywhere?" Mercury asked, motioning to their leader. The girls shook their heads in response, not knowing what to do.

"I'll help," a distinctly male voice announced. The four soldiers turned in surprise, and were faced with Tuxedo Mask. He immediately went over to Sailor Moon, and picked her up. Jupiter and Venus tried to help, but their arms were too sore to keep lifting. As Mars couldn't walk very well in the first place, Mercury helped her as she led the way.

The foursome de-transformed, leaving only Tuxedo Mask and Sailor Moon transformed. The four girls hurriedly rushed the tall man holding his beloved into the lobby of the apartment complex that was Serena's home, hoping they would go unseen.

When they finally reached the elevator at the end of the hall, Tuxedo Mask broke the silence.

"Why are we here?"

"We're bringing Serena home, of course," Raye responded simply. Then she flushed scarlet, remembering that Darien didn't know that Serena had moved. In the darkness of the night, he also didn't recogize that it was the same apartment complex as Andrew's, though it wasn't as if he'd spoken very much to his supposed best friend in the past few months at all. In fact, Andrew was the furthest thing fromTuxedo Mask's mind that night as he shouldered his way into the elevator that he'd actually been in plenty of times before….

But he didn't say anything; he only looked puzzled. When the elevator chimed to say it had reached the floor Serena lived on, the girls rushed out.

They reached a door marked "630" and bearing a nameplate to the side that read "Serena Tsukino" in bold pink marker with a cute rabbit drawing beside it.

Raye reached under the pink welcome mat and pulled out a key. After manipulating the lock for a few minutes, she got it to open, and stumbled onto the off-white recliner Serena had in the main room. The other girls followed suit, with Mina and Lita going to the bathroom to tend to their arm wounds.

Tuxedo Mask took off his mask and hat, and lay Sailor Moon on the black leather couch beside the recliner. Amy started to scan her, hoping Darien didn't notice anything.

Tuxedo Mask looked around in surprise. This was definitely Serena's own apartment; her photos of her and her friends, posters of Sailor V and bouquet after bouquet of red roses—unfortunately few, if any of them were real—decked the walls and end tables.

But since when did Serena have her own apartment? It was a nice place, to say the least. Neater than Darien would have expected from Hurricane Serena, but still characteristic of her style. Contrasting black and white furniture, a checkered kitchen floor with black fridge and white countertops, a cream colored carpet and curtains leading out to the balcony, bleach-white walls and doors, and several glass cabinets to house her television, small figurines and books.

There were a few doors: one which he assumed led to the bedroom, one for the bathroom, and two more.

"Serena lets us stay here sometimes, because she's got two guest bedrooms, and the recliner and the couch fold out," Amy explained, seeing his inquiring glance. However, how in the name of Mercury she afforded this condo-like residence was beyond her.

"I think we better stay here tonight," Raye said from the recliner. Amy agreed wordlessly, and the other two girls emerging from the bathroom voiced their opinions.

"Yeah, she might get drained again or something, so we should keep watch."

"Everyone's room?" Mina asked. Mina and Amy each had their own sleeping areas toward the back of the apartment, while Raye preferred to sleep on the recliner by the fireplace and Lita on the long folding sofa.

"Yeah." Amy wanted to stay out in the living room, make sure that no one disturbed or found out about Serena's obviously private secret, especially Darien.

"Uh, Darien, why don't you help carry Serena into her bedroom, and I'll stay in there, make sure she's okay. You can have my room." Amy wasn't entirely sure this was the best idea, but it might be the smartest one—at the moment. She wondered if Serena would appreciate Darien in her home, so close to what had clearly been a closely-guarded secret. Surely Darien didn't already know, else he'd be showing a great deal more concern, right?

But Amy was never particularly skilled at reading people, and even as she scrutinized Darien's face from a sideways angle, she couldn't tell what he did—or didn't—know. So she had to act normal. As normal as they all were, being Sailor Soldiers and Serena's friends and…guardian. Or whatever Tuxedo Mask considered himself these days.

"All right." Darien gently hoisted Serena into his arms, the girl sleeping so softly and peacefully, one might think she was having a pleasant dream….

It was happening all over again, only this time more intense. She had flashes of when she and Endymion first met, first snuck past guards late at night to see each other, their first kiss…and then, the first time they made love. It was actually the only time, because if memory and dreams were serving Serena correctly, a mere three weeks passed between that date and the day of destruction. They hadn't exactly had time for secret rondevous after he'd announced his engagement….

The announcement had thrown his kingdom into an uproar: their prince, marrying a Lunarian? Or, "Our Prince, marrying so soon, when he has a kingdom to rule?!" or "Of course, a princess. No, our duchess was too low for him!"

It was all stuff and rubbish of course, but there was only one truly jealous person: Beryl. She had been a loyal member of the Earth's court for many years, and her parents before that. But perhaps out of her sadness, anger, jealousy and desperation, Beryl turned to the dark arts. It was one thing to discover "her beloved Prince" was engaged to a Princess…but to a Lunarian?!

And that year, when the sun's heavy activity released the great energy needed to spawn the evil known as Metallia, Beryl conjured her, and allowed her to feed on the doubts of humankind. Each human had doubts, and Metallia fed upon them, changing all people to the ways of darkness. Even Endymion's guards.

"Serenity, the situation is getting worse on Earth. I'm afraid I can't make it for your birthday…." Endymion had told her over communications. Serenity sighed, knowing this day would come. She had no right to be disappointed, the Earth people hated her, and never wanted this marriage to be, so they fought with each other over it until the Crown Prince was forced to stay on Earth, and resume his duty as ruler.

But Endymion did make it that day, despite the fights. They shared such a lovely time, but something nagged Serenity.

'I should tell Endymion the wonderful news, but something isn't right…' Serenity thought. There was that bad feeling in the pit of her stomach, which was slightly swollen and growing with child.

"Endymion, I need to tell you something."

Serena still slept peacefully, though her dream had come to a rather broken end. Darien deposited her in her bedroom, mentally taking note of everything present: a few books piled on an end table with a decorative lamp adorning the tabletop, a small bunny-shaped clock on her desk and another on her end table, shaped like a bird of some sort, various pictures of Serena and the girls, one of Serena, Andrew and Lizzy and another of her and Darien. That last frame was cracked in the far right corner, which Darien regarded as strange, but he didn't know exactly why.

'This is so…un-Serena-like,' Darien thought absently as he looked over the room. 'But then, you haven't really seen her, been with her, known how she's felt these past few months.' It was now January, five months since he had broken up with her…. Darien shoved the feelings aside and walked out of her room, leaving a perplexed Amy staring after him and his formerly sad gaze.

'He does still love her…' Amy thought, unfolding the spare futon Serena kept in her closet. She picked up one of Serena's books on parenting, and settled down into the futon-chair to read.

The perfect moment…Serena, swathed in delicate white silk, made her way slowly down the aisle of the church.

'Heel, Toe, Heel, Toe…' Serena said to herself in a soft breathy whisper. It seemed like hours later by the time she arrived at the altar. She was rather impatient, but for Darien, she would wait. She smiled as she thought how his eyes had nearly fallen out of his sockets on her arrival at the head of the aisle.

'I guess he likes my dress.' It was white, of course, with a tight fitting bodice that accented her curves nicely. Curled lace spiraled over her chest and to her shoulders, lightly covered with
small cap sleeves. Her arms were bare until her elbows, where the fabric gathered and collected in a mass of silk to form gloves. The dress slimmed to her hips, then flared outward in a cascade of white.

"You may now kiss the bride," the priest said. They'd only said a few sentences, and she'd practiced them so many times, they came without needing to think.

Darien lifted the tulle veil and gulped lightly. Serena smiled, a faint hue of rosy pink tinting her cheeks. Darien gathered her into his arms and kissed her with all the passion he could muster. Cheers were heard from the crowd of bridesmaids in the corner, and loud sobs from Serena's mother. After an eternity, they broke apart, and laughing, ran down the aisle.

Rice was thrown from every corner of the church, and bottles of champagne were popped and dribbled onto the floor.

"What a lucky girl," some girl commented.

'How right she is. I am the luckiest girl alive.'

Just as they were out of the church, the ground shook violently.

"Darien?" She looked at him while tightening her grip on his arm. He had a strange expression on his face, one that was calm and eerily dark at the same time. He was holding onto her hand as if letting go would make her fall into—into the chasm forming beneath their feet!

"Darien!" Serena yelled as the tremors became worse, and screams ensued as the earth crumbled around them. The ground between Darien and Serena split into two, and Serena yelled.

"Darien!" Her bouquet was lost in the rubble as she floated away into the light.

"Serena!" Darien screamed, terrified.

But she was gone, vanished from sight. But she was still there somehow, because she could still feel Darien's presence, could still sense him out there. She just couldn't reach far enough, couldn't get his attention. And in the meanwhile, Darien was wheeling around, staring into the chaos of floating rubble looking the most desperate and anguished she had ever seen him.

"Stay away from Princess Serenity!" a mysterious voice boomed. It made Serena shiver upon hearing it; it was both familiar and…not. It bothered her that she couldn't place it, but part of her didn't want to. She was afraid of what it might mean if she could.

"I WON'T!" Darien shouted back.

"You must, the very future lies in the balance."

"NO!"

"She will die…" the voice trailed off, leaving Serena to wonder if there was more to it than that. Of course she would die. Someday. But…if she was with Darien? If they got married? What was the conditional the voice was trying to impress upon Darien? And why him, why not her, as if all the decisions had to be left to Darien alone?

"SERENA!" Darien gasped, his face pale. Suddenly he wheeled around, and Serena felt him staring right at her, right through her…but he couldn't see. Whatever link they'd forged had suddenly and forcibly been broken, and all she could feel when his eyes swept over the space that she occupied was…cold. There was nothing anymore.

'No, Darien…' Had he given up on her so easily?

"You must stay away from her or she will die!"

"NO!" Serena awoke with a start and a scream.

Amy was immediately jolted out of her sleep, and the book tumbled to the floor under the bed.

"What? What? Serena, are you all right?" Serena's face was ashen, her eyes dark and hazy. She was still panting heavily, and was covered in a light sheen of sweat.

"Amy? Serena? We heard screaming, what…?" Lita and Mina asked, pushing the door open.

"SERENA!" Raye yelled. Like some sort of trained cat, she easily pounced over Mina and Lita in the doorway and right next to Serena's bedside.

"Serena?" Darien was there as well, which came as a surprise to Serena. At first, she thought his voice had been a dream, but there he was, in her doorway. But why? When Serena met his gaze, she realized two things at once: first, that Darien, while pale, did not look as if he'd been aroused from a restful sleep. If anything, she might have guessed he'd already been awoken, perhaps by a nightmare not unlike her own. The second realization was that if he was pale simply looking at her, then she must be quite ashen. Blood loss to the head couldn't be good for the baby.

She pressed her tongue to the bottom of her mouth in an effort to ease the sudden dryness that had flared up, but before she could think to formulate a single world, there was a sudden loud "crack!" from the corner. Serena knew too well where that sound came from, and her already-pale face lost a bit more color as she stared at the only photo of herself and Darien that she dared display. It was an image of them from not long before he'd broken up with her, sitting together, looking close and comfortable and—dare she think it—in love. But Darien wasn't sitting upright and smiling as he'd been when that nice tourist had snapped the photo for them.

No, when Serena looked at that photograph, Darien was half-sprawled over Serena's knees, limp and lifeless.

It was a warning.

"Darien…" Serena breathed. She hadn't planned to say his name, hadn't thought it through. But the shock of seeing him dead, as if suddenly her dream had come to life and it was his own refusal to stay away from her that resulted in this—this…!

She recognized that look in his eyes, too: that wide-eyed horror. She'd only seen it a few times before, and the most memorable wasn't even from this lifetime. He knew what she had seen, somehow, and he'd probably seen it too. Seen her same dream, or…'Or one where I died instead,' Serena thought. She could have doubted herself then, could have believed Andrew and gone with the convenient idea that Darien was just a jerk. But even though he'd broken up with her, he hadn't severed their bond yet—neither one of them could truly do that willingly—and she could feel his fear: fear for her, more than anything else.

"You shouldn't be here," Serena said, not even looking at Darien. She had to grip her comforter for the courage to say what needed to be said, because if she had been right all along and he'd broken up with her to protect her—'He could use a little work in his execution, but it's the thought that counts, right?'—then he was endangering them both by just being here.

She didn't want to die. She knew it was part and parcel of being a Sailor Soldier, that she'd given up her former life as a sheltered princess on the moon for this, for him, for Earth. But now that she was pregnant, that seemed to trump everything else, no matter how much it hurt emotionally.

"Serena—" Darien began, but Serena's gaze snapped up and she stared at him with eyes colder than he'd ever seen.

"Please leave."

The girls all stared at Serena, open-mouthed; she hadn't made mention of Darien at all in recent weeks, but they'd all taken that as a sign that she was moving on. But to not even acknowledge that he was there because a part of him still cared enough to save her—his former princess…?

"Serena, after you fainted after that droid attack, Darien brought you home. He's just here because he cares about you," Mina said softly, trying to placate Serena with a hand on her friend's shoulder.

The girls all blinked in surprise when Serena scoffed. She shoved the comforter off her bed and rose to her feet. Serena again refused to meet Darien's now-hurt gaze and instead glanced at Mina and Lita beside her.

"If he cared about me, he would have bothered to ask me how I've been doing the past few weeks, but he hasn't." There were plenty of other things she could have said right then, but Serena was still shaken up from the dream, from the realization that that was why Darien had broken up with her, and that no matter what, in the end, he was right: he didn't want his past as Endymion to have anything to the present and his life as Darien Shields.

'So be it.'

"I'm fine now, so you can leave," Serena said, looking up at Darien. Her stance indicated she would push Darien out of her apartment if she had to, but thankfully, it didn't come to that. Darien quickly covered his crestfallen expression with a stoic one, and he turned around and started heading for the door. Serena followed, if just to make sure he was really doing the right thing and staying far away—for all their sakes. Not just hers or even his, but the child that he would never know about.

'He wouldn't want any part of it,' Serena assured herself mentally. 'This isn't his child, it's Endymion's, and Darien's been pretty clear that he's not Endymion.' He may have been once, but…no more.

In the dimly-lit hallway just before her apartment door, Darien paused just before he stepped into his shoes.

"Serena…"

"I get it, Darien," Serena whispered softly. "I get it." To Darien's ears, she'd never before sounded so defeated, so hopeless. That was so uncharacteristic of Serena, the bright, bubbly, vivacious girl that yes, he, Darien Shields—not Endymion, not Tuxedo Mask, not the former Prince of Earth—had fallen in love with that it almost stung to hear. And if she really did understand?

"I don't," Darien said bluntly, his voice sharp despite its low volume. "Working at the arcade, living on your own…Serena, why?"

"You must stay away from her or she will die!"

That voice would haunt her for more nights than just this one, Serena knew. It was both frightening and familiar, and even if its dire prediction was just another trick courtesy of the Black Moon, Serena knew she and Darien couldn't take that chance.

"None of your business," she responded icily. She crossed her arms over her chest and waited for Darien to put his shoes on and leave. And he did, though not without audibly sighing and letting his heartbreak show in his eyes, for just a fraction of a moment.

As soon as the door closed and his footsteps retreated into the night, Serena collapsed onto her knees and cried.

It felt like hours passed before Serena finally crawled into bed again with Amy perched on a nearby futon. Amy had ushered the other girls back out to their own sleeping areas, assuring them that she would keep a close eye on Serena. Raye and Mina had both exchanged doubtful glances, but didn't counter Amy. In their minds, Serena had broken down in tears because of how upsetting it was to have Darien making a show of affection toward her, even if it was just because she was Sailor Moon and he had to save her. They didn't know what Amy did, and so even though they doubted Amy could talk about "love" without breaking into hives, they wouldn't stop her from trying.

After all, out of all of them, it was Amy who had known Serena the longest, Amy who had watched her grow into the heroine she was today from the very beginning, Amy who defended Serena's sudden decision to live on her own in order to protect her parents and brother from the Black Moon.

"Serena." Amy's voice was barely above a whisper, but she knew Serena wasn't asleep: her form was too stiff and curled up. She wasn't—probably couldn't be—relaxed at all, given all she'd been hiding inside the past several weeks.

"You know, don't you, Amy? Why I—why I did all that? Why I said what I did?" Serena sniffled and pulled a pillow closer to her face, as if burying herself in it might help her to disappear. She couldn't say the words, couldn't relive what she'd said and done over the past several weeks, lying to everyone because it was the "right thing to do." All she could do was pray that her best friends would forgive her.

"I do, Serena. I–I scanned you with my computer when I 'woke up.' I read three life-forms, and figured it out from there."

"And?" Serena lifted her face just enough to see a bright moon hanging in the sky just outside her window. It failed to calm her as it once used to.

"Serena." Amy understood that Serena didn't want to say it, didn't want to admit it…so she would have to.

"And you are three months pregnant with a healthy baby," Amy stated, careful that her words were quiet.

But unfortunately, not quiet enough.

"And?" Raye heard as she approached the door. It was Serena's voice all right, so she was awake. Raye wanted to make sure she was all right. She knew what Amy had said, but it was different from seeing the look on Serena's face, on hearing those words—so un-Serena-like!—echoing in her head, over and over.

There was a pause, and Raye realized that Amy and Serena were talking.

'It isn't right to eavesdrop…' Raye wandered into the kitchen nearby and filled up a clean glass with some water, but she still managed to hear Amy's response.

"And you are three months pregnant with a healthy baby."

Raye immediately dropped the glass she was holding and stumbled to the floor.

End of Chapter 1