Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Forbidden Hearts ❯ Forsaken Destiny ( Prologue )

Disclaimers: As much as I may want to claim ownership of these two productions, I can't because both Sailor Moon and Yugi-oh belong to a whole lot of different companies that I can't remember the names of at the moment. Any characters that appear in this fic that are not a part of either original series, belong to me so don't take them without asking first.

Forbidden Hearts
Prologue: Forsaken Destiny
By Princess Star Neko
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Serena stormed up the steps leading to her house, pulling out her keys she unlocked the front door and slammed it shut behind her as she sat down and started to yank off her shoes in anger, before rushing upstairs to her room and flung herself onto her bed.

_Why can't they understand?!_ she thought irritably, as she punched her pillow angrily, as tears started to pool in her eyes, _I don't want to be the moon princess._ She thought as she reached up to rub at her eyes, _I never did. It's not who I am anymore. But they don't care about that. All they care about is damn Crystal Tokyo existing, while anything that doesn't go with their precious plans can go to hell in their eyes..._

"Serena is that you? Dinner is almost ready, dear." Irene's voice called from with in the kitchen. "Are you okay? What's wrong?"

Serena turned her teary eyed gaze towards her bedroom door to see her aunt standing there with a concerned look on her face as she stared at the blond girl. She was wearing a white apron, she had her violet hair pinned back into a ponytail.

"Just had a bad day, is all," Serena said, as she sniffled a bit, trying to bluff her way out of it, "I finally broke up with Darien today." Serena said with a small sigh, as she leaned back into the sofa's cushions. "The jerk wouldn't leave me alone."

Irene placed a reassuring hand on her nieces shoulder, before giving her a light hug, letting Serena bury her face into her shoulder, "Well you won't have to deal with it any longer, once your father comes and pick you up at the end of the week."

"I can't wait to finally get out of here," Serena mumbled as she returned her aunt's hug for a few moments, before finally pulling away from her, "I've waited a long time to go back home and live with dad again." Giving her aunt a worried look as she realized what she had just said, "Not that living with you guys hasn't been bad."

"It's all right, Serena, I know how you feel, and I'm glad to see your excited to go live with your father again." Irene said as she stared back at her niece who had become more like a daughter to her over the years she had been living with her family. "From you've told your uncle and myself, you deserve this chance to get away from everything."

Taking a deep breath, she forced a grin on her face as she changed quickly the subject, to something more appealing, "Did my dad call back yet with his flight schedule?"

"Yes, he called about an hour ago, and said he'll be here to pick you up at the end of the week as planned." Irene came into the live, a surprised look on her face at hearing her niece call her that again after all this time. "Are you all right dear?"

"I'm fine. I'm just thinking." Serena said, as she remembed what had happened just an hour ago when she broke up with Darien. It hadn't been a pretty sight.

~Flashback~

Serena sat on the couch in Darien's apartment as the two-watched tv together. It's been a month since the battle against Galaxia, and Susan had informed all of them that Galaxia's threat would be the last one the senshi would have to face before Crystal Tokyo came into existence.

_Now's as good a time as any,_ Serena thought silently to herself as she glanced over at her boyfriend as the movie ended, her expression becoming serious.

"Darien I have to talk to you," Serena said as she glanced towards her boyfriend, "I think we should break up, Darien,"

"You can't be serious, Serena!" Darien exclaimed as he stared at Serena in disbelief, searching her eyes for any sign that she was joking.

"I'm dead serious, Darien," Serena said as she stared directly into her ex-boyfriend's eyes, "I don't want to be with you anymore."

"What about Crystal Tokyo, and Rini." Darien demanded, as he glared at the blonde girl, "You can't do this."

"Just watch me. Your wrong, because I can do it." Serena said sternly as she glared at Darien, with a fierce look in her eyes, as she scowled at him "I don't care. Darien, I tried, really, to love you since everything that's happened first started." she said, as she removed her engagement ring, grabbed Darien's other hand and dropped the ring into his open palm. "But, I just can keep lying to myself anymore."

"Serena, I'm sure we could still work this out," Darien pleaded, as he stared down at the discarded engagement ring in his hand, before staring back up at her, "I know you love me."

"For awhile I did love you," Serena admitted with a slight shrug of her shoulders as she stood up from the couch and started gathering her things, "but I don't anymore. I can't continue living a lie for something I never wanted in the first place."

"Darien, I want you to be honest with me," Serena said, her expression softening a bit as she stared at her former boyfriend, "Did you ever truly love me for myself, or did you love me because I was the reincarnation of the Moon Princess?"

"What kind of question is that?!" Darien exclaimed, after a few moments of his mouth opening and closed, as he stared in stunned disbelief at the girl before him, before a determined look came to his face, "Of course I always loved you. I wouldn't..."

"Don't even bother to lie, Darien." Serena said, cutting into whatever excuse he was trying to come up with. "I already knew it." Serena said as she stood up, and straightened her hair, "You can't even look me in the eye and say it?"

"... It doesn't matter," Darien insisted, as he pleadingly at her, "You can' do this. We're destined for each other. Crystal Tokyo is proof of that."

"Tough. It's not going to happen, cause I don't need it." Serena said as she started to walk towards the door only to be stopped when Darien suddenly grabbed her arm. "What are you doing!"

"Tell me one thing," Darien said desperately, "Is there another guy involved? Is that why you're dumping both me, and everything else?"

"Yes there is another guy." A small blush appeared on Serena's face.

"So you've been cheating on me with another guy" Darien demanded, as anger filled him at this "is that why you want to break up with me so badly so you can be with him?!"

"You wish." Serena said, shaking her head as she yanked her arm out of his grip, "Darien, I wouldn't exactly call it cheating, since the last time I saw him was over seven years ago. I was only a child back then. Both of us were, when we first met." Frowning a bit she looked Darien directly in the eyes as she continued, "All I do know is that I love him more than anything. Even more than you."

"If you were only a child when you met him, then how can you tell if you love him?!" Darien demanded incredulously, not believing what he was now hearing, "You just said so yourself, that you haven't seen him in eight years."

"Darien, it doesn't work that way. When I first met him all those years ago, it just clicked. I didn't understand the feeling back then, but I do now." Serena said sadly as she stared into Darien's dark eyes, "Remember how you once told me years ago, that you used to have dreams about Moon Princess coming to you asking you to free her?"

"Yes, of course I do." Darien said irritably, eyes narrowing as he stared back at her as he ran a hand through his hair, "She… you haunted my dreams as far back as I could remember, even before I actually met you. Why are you asking me this after all this time?"

"I have dreams just like that." Serena said, giving him a small smile, "Only neither you or Prince Endymion were the ones in them."

"I still don't understand what dreams have to do in this matter." Darien insisted.

"Darien you just don't get it, do you?" Serena said, shaking her head ruefully as she glared at the older boy standing before her, "The dreams have never stopped. Not once in all these years since my so called destiny with you was discovered." She said with a sigh, before continuing, holding Darien's gaze as she spoke. "If my destiny belongs to anyone, then it's to the boy that haunts my dreams. I'm sure it's the same boy who I met all those years ago, because the dreams didn't start until after I met him. He's whom my heart and soul cry out for, not you. Never you."

"But..." Darien started to say, only to be cut off when Serena held up a hand to silence him.

"Don't interrupt. You brought it up, so you may as well let me finish," Serena snapped, giving Darien a look that sent chills through his body silenced him, "When he appears in my dreams, it feels like a missing part of me has returned, and I feel... complete. Something I never felt with you." Sighing a bit, she continued, "He's the one I want, and I won't give him up for something I never wanted to begin with. As far as I'm concerned, Destiny and Crystal Tokyo can go hang themselves."

"How can you be so selfish?" Darien demanded, his voice becoming harsh as anger and frustration filled him, "The world needs you. I need you. We need Crystal Tokyo and. This is just like you. Thinking about your own selfish needs and wants just like always. When will you ever..."

SMACK!!

Eyes widening in shock, as he raised one hand to gingerly touch his flaming cheek, Darien stared back at Serena, the surprise and hurt evident in his eyes.

"Don't call me selfish! Is it really hard to believe that I don't want the same things you guys wanted?!" Serena snapped, her eyes burning in anger, as she glared angrily at him. "Just exactly when have I ever been selfish in the past couple of years that all of you have known me?!"

"Well there was the time..." Darien started, only to have his words cut off again, as he ducked when Serena raised her hand to slap him again.

"Wrong. This is one of the other reasons why I'm leaving. You guys don't give me any slack. I'm really getting sick of this charade." Serena muttered under her breath, as her glare darkened.

"What charade?" Darien asked.

Serena waved him off, completely ignoring the question, as she continued speaking, "The world might need Crystal Tokyo and the Moon Princess, but I don't need it." Serena said, giving Darien a pitying look, before turning away from him as she walked towards the front door. "Find someone else to love. And if Crystal Tokyo somehow does wind up still existing in the future, then you, and whoever you marry, can have full reign of it without me. As far as I'm concerned, I'm a commoner now."

"If you truly never believed that things wouldn't work out between us, then why did you even bother to stick around for so long," Darien said bitterly, as he watched the love of his life start to walk out of his life, pain filling him as it felt like his heart was going to break with each step she took towards the door.

"The only reason I even stuck around was because the world needed Sailor Moon to protect it, and now that Sailor Moon is no longer needed, I'm out of here." Serena said, as she stopped a foot from the door, her hand resting on the knob, "Goodbye Darien. And don't bother calling me again."

With those words, she unlocked the door, and pulled it open and slipped outside.

~End Flashback~

Unknown to the two women, a pair of dark brown eyes was listening into the conversation from the top of the stairs.

"Serena!" Luna exclaimed as soon as Serena came into the bedroom. "I just got off the communicator with Raye, who says that Darien called her and told her what you did! What's this nonsense about you not wanting to be the Moon Princess anymore?!"

"Look Luna, it's not nonsense. I never wanted to be the Moon Princess in the first place. Nor do I love Darien." Serena said as she flopped back down onto her bed, lying on her back with her hands resting behind her head as she stared up at the ceiling, "I broke up with Darien, because I don't want to live out the rest of my life in a lie just because of my supposed destiny with him."

"You can't throw away your heritage, it's your destiny to become the moon princess, and rule over the earth with Darien at your side." Luna jumped onto the bed and climbed onto Serena's stomach, a low growl coming from her throat, "What about Rini?! She'll never be born!"

"Don't care." Serena announced, as she flung one arm over her face.

"How can you be so selfish?!" Luna exclaimed, "As your advisor I'm telling you to get back with Darien this minute! The fate of the world is more important than your silly little needs." She said as she started pacing around the room, "It's your destiny to be with Darien and rule the world with him. I insist that you do so this instant."

_All right, that's it._ Serena thought as she glared at the black cat, as Luna continued on with her monologue, "Luna get out."

"What?!" Luna said incredulously, as she stared at her young charge.

"I said get out." Serena repeated, her tone becoming cold as she pushed herself up into a sitting position, nearly throwing Luna off of the bed, but Serena grabbed her by the back of the neck and carried her out of her room and down the stairs. "If you can't accept my decision, then you are no longer my advisor."

"You... you..." Luna squawked as she struggled to get out of Serena's grip with little result, as the girl kept a strong grip on the feline's neck.

Irene and Sammy came out of the kitchen to see what was going on, and was now only stood silently in the hall as they watched Serena march straight for the front door.

"In fact," Serena continued, ignoring the audience she was gathering, as she used her free hand to unlock the door, "since I officially gave up the role of Princess of the Moon, I don't need you anymore anyway, so you can just find yourself a new home with one of my former guardians right now. I'm sure one of them would be willing to take you in." then unceremoniously dumped Luna on the cold hard concrete outside. "Goodbye Luna."

With that the door slammed shut in Luna's stunned face.

Leaning against the front door, Serena took a deep breath to calm herself down, ignoring the stares she was getting from her relatives.

"I take it Luna didn't take the news of your breakup with Darien very well, right Serena?" Sammy asked as he came over.

"You guessed right, Sammy." Serena said sadly. "But it had to be done. Plus Luna had to go anyway, since I won't be needing her anymore when I leave here."

"Are you okay, Serena?" Irene asked as she walked over to her niece and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"I'm fine, auntie," Serena said as she gave her aunt a reassuring smile, "I think I'll go call my dad, and see what he's doing."

Rushing upstairs, she entered her room, and picked up her phone, and dialed her father's business number.

Much to Serena's irritation, the phone rang seven times on the other end before it was finally picked up.

~...~

"Um, Hi, I would like to put through with Maximillian Pegasus, please," Serena said, still sniffling a bit as she spoke, while trailing a finger through one of the long strands of her hair. 'I should get my hair cut...' she thought to herself.

~...~

"Just get him please." Serena said, in an authoritive voice, "He won't mind the interruption to his meeting."

~...~

"If you want to keep your job you will patch me through to him, now." Serena said, grinning a bit when she hears the indignant gasp from over the phone, as she started to feel more like her old self again after all this time, "He'll want to talk to me, because I'm his daughter."

~...~

"Trust me. I am who I say I am. Try and see it my way. If I'm lying about my identity, he'll just be mad and might yell at you a little," Serena said, cutting into the woman's dialogue, as irritation filled her, "But if you don't patch me through, he'll probably fire you once he does hear from me and I tell him how you've treated me..."

The line became silent for a few moments, as Serena's words sank in, as the secretary tried to weigh her options.

~...~

"Just, tell him 'Bunny's' on the line, and see what his reaction is. And tell him that I said it's important that I talk to him," Serena said sat on the edge of her bed, and bent over, and reached underneath the bed pulling out a medium sized black box with a padlock on front.

~...~

"Okay, I'll wait then." She said, shifting the cordless phone to one ear, as she looked around the room a moment. As she waited for the line to be picked back up, Serena fiddled around with the dial on the lock, until she finally had it open.

Removing the lock, she pulled open the lid of the box, to reveal a whole assortment of Duel Monster cards, stuck in hard plastic single card cases to protect them from harm.

"It's been too long since I last played with these." Serena thought sagely as she looked down fondly at her prized cards, as she started shuffling them in her hands, only to be interrupted by the secretary's frantic cries on the phone.

~...~

"I'm still here. What did he say?" Serena said as she leaned back on her bed and listened, as a slight smirk appeared on her features, as she listened to the secretary's frantic voice explain what had happened, "See I told you he'd be willing to talk to me."

~...~

"Yes, I'll wait for you to patch me through to him." She said just as she pulled out a Duel Monster card from her deck, and a small grin appeared on her face saw which card it was. 'Hyozanryu'

The card had a picture of a terrifying white crystal dragon, with an orange chest and belly, with glowing red eyes. Printed on the edge of the bottom of the card with a emblazoned star.

"Hello old friends." Serena said with a wishful smile on her face as she waited for her father to pick up the line, as she searched through the rest of her cards and pulled out all of her best and favorite cards, and pulled out two extra Hyozanryu cards, and two Blue Eyes White Dragon Cards.

~Domino City, Pegasus Corp~

After hearing who was on the line, Pegasus cut the meeting short, telling the board members to take a fifteen minute break before returning to the board room.

"Hello? Bunny dear, how are you darling?" Pegasus asked once the phone had been patched through, "what can I do for my favorite daughter today?"

A giggle could be heard from over the line. "I'm your only daughter, dad." Serena's said cheerfully.

"True, but that doesn't mean I love you any less than before." Pegasus teased, before becoming serious, "What's the nature of this call Bunny? Is everything all right over there?"

"Yeah, everything's going just great." Serena said, her voice becoming irritated, as she spoke, "I finally broke the news to Darien that our relationship is over and he didn't take it too well."

"I'm glad to hear that, you deserve better than the likes of him." Pegasus said in a reassuring voice, "I must admit though, that even though I never personally met him myself, I had a feeling that I would have never liked him to begin with."

"I just bet," Serena said as a soft giggle could be heard from across the phone lines, "Is there anyway for you come earlier? I want to get out of here as soon as possible."

"Sorry pet. But I don't think I will be able to, even though I do want to do so." Pegasus said, a sorrowful note in his voice, as he ran a hand through his silver hair, "I'm busy getting things ready for the big Duel Monsters Tournament I'm starting on Duelist Kingdom."

"A tournament?" Serena asked, her voice becoming excited at the news, as she looked down at her cards.

"I knew that would catch your attention." Pegasus said, as a huge grin appeared on his features, before continuing, "Yes a tournament. It's to help celebrate your return to the fold, along with a few other reasons. I hope that you've been keeping up to speed with your deck all these years."

"Of course I have dad. I'm always the first in line when a new deck comes out in the stores. Plus with the unopened starting card boxes you send me also help." Serena said, a slight smirk appearing on her features. "I let Sammy and his friends have whatever's left over in the boxes."

"That's good to hear. It's nice to hear that your sharing the cards with your cousin and his friends." Pegasus said, "Now stop beating around the bush and tell you old man what the problem is, and I'll see if I can make it all better. That's the reason you called isn't it? Not that I'm not glad that you called, because I am."

"You know me so well, daddy." Serena said, a real smile gracing her lips this time as she took a deep breath, "Well you see..."

"Come on, where is it?!" Serena wondered silently to herself as she dug through her card box, in search of precious item. "Ah ha! Here it is!"

After making the phone call to her father and hanging up after talking with him for half an hour, Serena went back to rummaging through the box, before finally she found what she was looking for as she pulled out a small black ring box from the bottom, that fit right into her hand, and flipped open the lid.

The box opened to reveal a small gold ring resting in the center. It looked like your average everyday ring, except for one slight difference. In the center top part of the ring was what looked an eye carved into it.

"It's been a long time since I last saw this thing, I almost forgot all about it," Smiling a bit, Serena pulled the ring out of its casing, and raised it into the light to get a better look at it. "Things haven't been the same without it on my hand.

Slipping it onto her middle finger on her left hand, smiling to herself as the ring fit perfectly on her finger, like it had been made for her.

A slow smile appeared on her face as she stared down at the shiny ring, before looking back down into the box, and see's an old family photo lying on the bottom.

Reaching into the box to retrieve the picture, she looked down at the smiling family in the picture. A man with long silver hair and brown eyes dressed in a blue suit sat in a cushioned seat with his arms wrapped around the waist of a sickly looking blonde woman dressed in a white dress and a straw hat resting on her head. Sitting in between the two on the edge of the seat was a little blonde haired girl with her hair down in a ponytail, dressed in a navy blue dress.

Serena remembered the day the picture had been taken. It was just three days before her family had been informed of the seriousness of her mother's illness and how everything had changed since that day.

"Mom. Looks like I'm going to finally keep my promise..." Serena thought to herself, as she remembered the day her mother died, and the promise she had made.

~Flashback~

"Mommy, don't die please?" Chibi Serena pleaded as she sat next to her mother's hospital bedside, clutching her mothers hand in her smaller hands, as tears ran down her face, "You get better, and you me and daddy can have a party."

Maximillian Pegasus had stepped out of the room to give his wife and daughter some time alone, while he spoke with the doctor to see what else could be done to help his ailing wife.

A month ago, Cecilia Pegasus was dying from a rare strain of a virus. The symptoms she had exhibited had all pointed to being the flu, but when the illness hadn't past after a certain number of time, it was already too late.

The doctors they went to all said the same thing, that at this late into the stage of the illness, there was no hope that what medicines they tried would help much except dull whatever pain she might experience, and gave her just a few weeks left to live. So now all the young family could do was wait for the end to come.

In the short few weeks since the illness had been diagnosed, Cecilia had become weaker and weaker, unable to even walk just a short distance before having to sit down to rest, until she finally became bedridden. Luckily for everyone, it didn't seem to be contagious, so Serena was allowed to come visit Cecilia whenever she wanted.

Cecilia Pegasus gave her daughter a small smile, as she reached out to touch her daughter's cheek to brush away her tears, deeply saddened that her six-year-old daughter had to be here to watch her die.

"Don't cry, my little Bunny. Though I would have loved to watch you grow up. I can already tell that you will break a lot of boys hearts when you grow up."

"Don't talk like that, you'll get better, you'll see." Serena said matter of factly, as she clutched tighter to her mother's hand, feeling Cecilia give her hands a weak squeeze, causing more tears to pour out of the little girls eyes, "I don't want you to leave me. Daddy and I need you..."

"I'll never really leave you, as long as you keep me in your heart. It's my time to die." She said, her voice barely coming out in a whisper as she struggled to speak, "Can you do me a big favor?"

"Okay..."

"Serena's you have to be a big girl and try to understand, that I won't be getting better." Cecelia said, sadness filling her voice, as she raised one hand to brush it through Serena's blonde hair lovingly, knowing deep down that this probably would be the last time she saw her daughter in this lifetime. "Watch out for your father for me will you? Make sure he stays out of trouble, while I'm gone for me."

"Okay..."

"And here, keep this ring for me." Cecilia said as she lifted her hands up pulled off a gold ring from her right hand, "I've seen how much you seemed to like it when I bought it at that bazaar in Egypt that I took you to a few months ago, and I want you to have it. Just think of it as an early birthday present."

"But..." Serena whined, sniffing a bit as she cupped her hands in front of her, and her mother dropped the ring into her open palms, Serena looked down at the ring she now held, "You should keep it. When you get better."

"Serena," Cecilia said, a low sigh escaping her lips, as she stared at her daughter sadly, her eyes softening as she saw the pent up tears in Serena's eyes, "I've already told you I'm not going to get better any time soon. It's something you will have to understand when the time comes."

"But..." Serena whined, as she clutched the ring tightly in her small fists, as tears started to well up in her eyes again, then let out a squeal of fright when their was a sudden flash of light from outside followed by the low rumble of thunder. A few minutes later the sound of rain could be heard hitting the rooftop and windows.

"Your still afraid of thunder?" Sighing a bit, Cecilia held out her hands towards Serena, who immediately jumped onto the bed and into Cecilia's waiting arms for a hug. "What am I goning to do with you Serena? I've told you before that lightning won't ever hurt you."

"But it's so scary!" Serena whined as she wrapped her arms around her mother's waist, "Don't leave me, mommy."

"Come on let's not talk about something so sad anymore, ok? I won't be leaving you for a while just yet." Reaching down with her free hand, she gently ran it through her daughters golden hair, "What do you say that we just keep each other's company until the storm is over, all right?"

"Okay." Serena said, then let out another squeal when the lightning flashed again, burying her face into her mother's chest.

"How about I sing for you?" Cecilia asked kindly as she reached up to rub her daughters head to try to calm her down, "Do you think that'll get your mind off the thunder?"

Serena only nodded her head silently, not bothering to look up, as she curled in closer to her mother's body.

Smiling a bit Cecilia reached for the covers, and pulled them over herself and Serena's bodies to keep them warm, as she tried to think of a song to sing, before glancing back down at Serena. "Any requests before I begin?"

"Once Upon a December." was Serena's immediate reply.

"All right if that's what you want to hear," Cecilia said, as she smiled down at her daughter, as she started to sing.

"//Dancing bears, painted wings, things I almost remember, and a song someone sings...//"

Sniffing a bit, Serena lay down on the hospital bed curled against her mother, listening silently as her mother sang her favorite lullaby, as her mother held her in her arms, rubbing her back reassuringly, as she continued singing.

"//...Someone holds me safe and warm. Horses dance through a silver storm. Figures dancing gracefully, across my memory...//"

Smiling a bit, Serena started to doze off as she listened to the lyrics as they were sung to her, when she started notice that her mother's voice seemed to trail off and stop all together just as it was getting to the good part of the song.

"Mommy? Why did you stop singing?" Serena asked, as she pushed herself into a sitting position to look at her mother, her hands accidentally bumping into her mother's body as she did so, and her eyes widened a bit at what she saw.

Cecelia's eyes were now closed, her expression calm and passive a small smile gracing her lips, as if she was only simply sleeping.

But when Serena took her mother's hands into her own, she could feel the coolness coming from her mother's still body. On closer examination showed that Cecilia's chest was no longer rising.

"Mommy? Come on and get up. Please." Serena whispered, as she stared unbelievingly at her mother's body, as she reached over to try and shake her awake, with no results. "Mommy?"

After a few seconds, the tears were back as she finally realized that her mother wouldn't be waking up again any time soon.

"MOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Her screams brought her the household running to the bedroom, with Pegasus in the lead, and he was the first in the room, and took in the situation.

Pegasus felt his own eyes began to water as he realized that his wife was gone, but knew that his first priority at the moment was his grieving daughter, and rushed forward to sweep the six year old into his arms, holding her tightly to his body, as they shared their pain of the lost of the one they both loved together.

~End Flashback~

"Dad changed since mom died." Serena thought, as she put away the picture and started looking through the rest of the things in the box.

Since the day her mother had died, over the years Serena had worn the ring around her neck with a chain linked through it, keeping it with her at all times.

Until her arrival in Tokyo where she finally placed the ring in the ring case and his it at the bottom of the box she bought to store her cards in.

"It's time I start keeping my promise to mom." Serena said determinately, as she leaned back onto her headboard, still looking at the picture of her family sadly.

~A week later~

The scouts were all gathered inside of Raye's temple, as they held an emergency meeting. Susan was guarding the Time Gates, while Alex, Michelle and Hotaru were out of the country attending one of Michelle's concert's so weren't in attendance.

"I don't know what's wrong with that girl. How can she be so unreasonable?" Luna fumed angrily, as she paced along the floor. "She kicked me out of the house, after I ordered her to get back together with Darien."

"Excuse me, but which of you lady's is Raye Hino?" a brutish sounding voice demanded from the doorway causing everyone in the room to jump in fright.

Everyone turned to look at the open doorway, to see ten men dressed in black suits wearing sunglasses casually walk into the room like they owned the place. Nine of the men carried long tubes (it's the kind that you put rolled up posters, etc. into) in different colors in their hands.

"Who are you?! And what are you doing here?!" Raye exclaimed, worry in her voice, as she took in the men's appearance with trepidation.

"Look girly, I'm here to do my job. And I want to leave here as soon as possible, if you don't mind," The leader said with a sneer, shrugging his shoulders as if to say it didn't matter, "Now I said which of youse are Raye Hino? The old timer outside said we could find her in here with three other girls and some guy."

"And this is the only room we've looked in that matches his description." One of the other men said.

"I'm Raye Hino. What do you want?" Raye said, uncertainty in her voice as she watched the group of men, as the leader turned his gaze towards her.

"I'm here to deliver a package to you from Serena Tsukino." The leader said, as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a medium sized box with an envelope taped to the top, and handed it to the fire senshi, before nodding towards his cohorts to leave the tubes they were carrying. "Those tubes are for all of you too. Have a nice day."

Without another word, the group of men left the room as quietly as they had entered it.

Raye looked down at the box in confusion, not knowing what to do, while the others looked at the pile of tubes that the men had been left behind.

"Hey this one has my name on it!" Mina exclaimed, after walking over to examine the pile in open curiosity, eyes widening as she bent over and pulled out an orange tube from the pile, and immediately started fiddling with the top to try and open it, "I wonder what's inside?"

Hearing this, Lita also stepped forward and glanced down at the pile, before her eyes stopped on a dark green tube, that had her own name printed neatly on the side, and quickly pulled it out of the pile. "This one has mine on it."

Soon all of the gathered senshi had gone through the pile of tubes and claimed the ones that had their names written on it. Mina, Lita was busy trying to get the top off of the tube she had claimed earlier.

Raye sat in a chair with her red tube resting in her lap as she removed the letter attached the box, and had just finished tearing it open, then let out a loud gasp of dismay a few seconds later, as she read the letter to herself.

"Hey, Raye! What does that letter say?" Lita said as she looked up from trying to get the top open on her tube, when she heard the fire senshi gasp. "Is something wrong?"

Instead of answering, Raye simply handed the letter over to Amy who took the letter, and read it herself, her expression becoming sadder by the minute as she read the letter again just to make sure she was reading it correctly.

"Well what does it say?!" Darien demanded.

Looking sadly at everyone in the room, Amy started reading it outloud.

Dear Minna,

I'm leaving today to go live with my real father who I haven't even been able to visit in the last three years because of everything that's been going on. But now that everything's finally over, I'm going back to live with him.

If you're wondering, Irene and Ken Tsukino are my aunt and uncle on my mother's side of my family, who took me in six years ago when my father sent me away for my protection. I don't know when, or even if we'll all see each other again, but I'll keep in touch when I can.

I'm sorry for doing this to all of you, by simply leaving without a word to any of you, but I knew that if I did stop to talk to you guys before I left, you'd only waste your time trying to talk me out of leaving. But I'll say this now that there was going to be nothing any of you had to say that would change my mind.

I did try to tell you guy about how I felt about everything in person, but every time I tried to bring it up to one of you, you'd either tell me to stop being silly and that I was just nervous about what we knew was going to come, and would get over it in time.

The only ones of you who actually were willing to listen to what I had to say, and take me seriously were Mina, Hotaru and Artemis.

I finally stopped trying to explain things to you guys after awhile and decided to just act on my plans before it was too late.

Try to understand, but I can't live out my life like this. I thought I could at least try and do it and see where it lead to, but I long ago discovered that I really can't pretend to be who I'm not anymore, just to make everyone else happy, at my expense.

As I told Darien, the only reason that I even stuck around for so long before leaving was because Sailor Moon was needed to help protect the planet from dangers, otherwise I would have left a long time ago.

But by Pluto's own words, she said that Galaxia was the last threat that the Earth would have to face until the founding of Crystal Tokyo, so I'm taking my leave now since Sailor Moon is now no longer needed.

I know I'm supposed to be the reincarnation of Princess Serenity of the Moon Kingdom, and that I am supposed to rule Crystal Tokyo with Darien somewhere in the future, but I just can't do it. That's simply not me.

As far as I'm concerned, I did my duty to this planet simply by being Sailor Moon. That is all I'm ever going to be, nothing more.

I feel deep down in my soul that there is someone else out there waiting for me to find them, someone who is looking for me.

Before any of you say it, I'm going to tell you that this isn't something that recently happens, and this isn't just a selfish whim. I've felt this way for years, even before the entire Sailor Moon/Moon Princess thing started. It's a feeling that leaves an emptiness inside of me that I know deep down that Darien can never fill no matter how hard he tries.

I have to follow what my heart and soul tell me what is right, and not do what you guys think I should do. In the long run, all it'll do is wind up making both Darien and myself miserable for the rest of our lives.

I know it might seem selfish on my part, but I have to say it now. I don't care if it is my destiny to be the Moon Princess. I don't care if it's my destiny to one-day rule a perfect utopia somewhere in the future.

I don't want to live out the rest of my life because of who I was in a past life, when I personally haven't really had the chance to truly live this life. I want to see what else is out there waiting for me. I want to see if there might be someone else out there waiting for me to find them.

Ever since this all started, all you guys have been doing is trying to plan out MY future for me, based on what we saw in a POSSIBLE future, that I don't believe we should have ever seen in the first place. And for me, things just seemed to get worst when we found out about Crystal Tokyo.

I couldn't even be friends with another guy without the Outers jumping down my throat, reminding me about how it's my sacred duty to the universe to stay with Darien and to rule a perfect Utopia in the future.

If I show even the slightest interest in another guy, even if it's not in a romantic nature, you Outers would immediately start warning me away from him, and if that failed you'd resort to threatening him to stay away from me or else.

All of you know exactly which guy I'm talking about here. We were just friends, nothing more. But you guys tried to ruin things between us when nothing was going on between us. Seiya wouldn't have been able to take away my feelings for Darien when they never even existed in the first place.

Even Seiya understood how I really felt when I told him the truth about everything, including my feelings on this entire situation, though I could see that he was hurting over the news too.

In all these years that we've all known each other, none of you guys even once stop to ask me if this was what I truly wanted for myself, or that maybe I had dreams of my own that I wanted to follow, instead of being a princess. Well I do!!

And I plan to follow those dreams now instead of taking over running the life of a princess who's been dead for over a thousand years. Princess Serenity of the Moon Kingdom is dead and gone, so let her stay dead, and let me live out MY life as plain old Serena.

I'll miss Rini, but I've decided that not even for her am I willing to continue living a lie.

Don't give me that look! *laughs* Besides, I made a wish on the crystal to make sure that no matter whom I wind up with in the future, she WILL still be born no matter what. Maybe she'll look a little different from what we remember her, or maybe she'll still look the same, but she'll still be the same old little spore that we all knew and loved in our youth, so you will probably see her again sometime soon.

Minna, for years I've always been pushing you guys to follow your own dreams, to be what you guys had always dreamed of becoming, before this entire destiny thing happened. So now's the chance to follow your dreams without having to worry about protecting me.

It may have been okay at one time back in the Silver Millennium, but it's not anymore. Who says that my future with Darien is set in stone? I sure don't. I plan to live out the rest of my life on my terms, and you guys should do so too.

Darien - I'm sorry about doing this to you, but I believe it's for the best. Since the battle with Galaxia, I found myself slowly falling out of love with you over time, if I was ever in love with you at all. Hopefully there will be someone else for you out there who'll love you the way you deserve to be loved.

Amy - Follow your dream and become a doctor. But don't study so hard! Take the time to stop and have fun once in awhile, or else you'll miss out on a lot of things.

Mina - If you ever make it big as a singing idol, I'll be the first in line to buy your music CD, just you wait! And I want an autograph, girl.

Raye - I bet right now your busy cursing me out and calling me 'meatball brains' for doing something like this, but at the moment I don't care. I hope you follow your dream of becoming a Shinto priestess, and a songwriter.

Luna - You were my best friend and confidant over these past few years, and I'm sorry about how I treated you a week ago, but you wouldn't listen to a word I said and I finally had enough of it. I hope you can one day forgive me for not wanting to become the princess you wanted me to be, but it just wasn't meant to be.

Artemis - Take care of Luna for me, will ya big guy? I hope that whenever I come back, I hope to see Diana and any siblings she might have running around by then. ^_^v

Both lunar cats blushed simultaneously at that last message, much to the amusement of the humans gathered in the room.

Hotaru, Alex, Michelle and Susan - Take care of yourselves, and sorry for not becoming what you guys had hoped that I would be. This apology goes especially to you Susan. Hotaru-chan, Don't let anyone give you grief, about you know what. Plus if you are still interested, I'll keep sending you more dueling decks to try out.

Sincerely,
Serena Tsukino
Formerly Known as Sailor Moon, and Princess Serenity of the Moon Kingdom

P.S. I hope you guys like the paintings. It took me the last two weeks to do them. Just consider it my going away present to all of you as a reminder of me. I have a lot of talents that you guys don't know about. Paintings just one of the things I inherited from my real father.

"Hey wait, what did Serena mean by 'paintings'" Lita asked a second later as she remembered the last part of Serena's letter mentioning it, as she glanced down at the forgotten tube in her lap.

"She must have been talking about whatever's in these tubes those men left for us." Amy said, as she looked down at her own tube for a moment, before glancing back up at the others. "Why don't we see what she was talking about."

Everyone nodded their heads, as they all turned their attention back towards the tubes and started working at pulling off the lids at the end of the tubes.

Mina was the first to get hers open. Dropping the lid onto the coffee table in front of her, she reached into the tube and pulled out a long rolled up sheet of paper. Looking at it curiously, she let the tube fall harmlessly to her lap, and unrolled the paper.

"Whoah!!"

Everyone turned to look at the senshi of Love in surprise at her outburst, to see she was now holding the paper with both hands, and was staring at what was on it with eyes as big as saucers.

"What's wrong Mina?" Raye asked, concern filling her voice as she tried to peek around Mina's shoulder to see what the fuss was about. "What on the.. Dang!"

"Come on you guys, what's wrong?" Lita demanded testily, having stopped trying to open her own tube, to look at the other two girls in open curiosity.

Silently Mina just turned the picture around to show the entire group what was on it, and gasps of shock could be heard around the room.

It was a double pastel painting of Mina. The image showed Mina in civilian clothes standing back to back with her alter ego, Sailor Venus, as they were surrounded by a myriad of colors of designs all around them. It even showed an image Artemis sitting on the ground in front of the two's legs. In the background directly behind the two, you could see the sign of Venus practically glowing in full view.

After seeing Mina's painting, the others quickly tore into their own tubes, pulling out similar long sheets of papers with paintings of themselves in both their forms, with their senshi symbol's in the backgrounds.

"These are beautiful," Amy whispered as she stared in shock at her own painting, "They look better than any painting I've ever seen before."

"I wonder where did Serena get these from." Amy said, as she looked over her own painting in awe, as she took. "I don't think it's possible for her to have done this."

"Want to bet?" Mina asked a second later, as she showed the others her poster, while pointing at one of the bottom corners of the poster. "Looks like she signed it."

On the bottom right corner, was Serena's signature, along with the image of a what looked like a rabbit with a moon symbol on it's forehead next to her name. As the rest of the senshi inspected their own paintings they could see that the rest of their paintings also bore the same thing in the corners.

"You girls should take a look at mine." Darien said, a few minutes after he had opened up his own tube, and pulled out two long rolls up sheets of paper.

Darien's painting was completely different than the rest. Instead of having one painting inside the tube it had two. The first one was of him in civilian mode, along with his three alter ego's.

Like with the girl's paintings, Darien's painting showed him in civilian mode standing back to back with Prince Endymion, standing in front of a castle. Above the two figures were headshots of Tuxedo Mask, and the Moonlight Knight.

The second painting had a picture of Serena standing by a lake, dressed simply in normal clothes, smiling sadly, with one hand raised up in a waving gesture.

"Looks like she was serious about leaving everything behind." Mina said as she looked down at the discarded items. "Do you think this means that she won't be coming back?"

"She has to come back. She said she would in her letter." Lita said adamantly, as she pounded a fist into her open palm. "If she changes her mind she'll come back."

"We'll just go look for her, and bring her back here, and make her see reason." Darien said, desperation in his voice, at the thought of loosing Serena with out being given the chance to fight for her.

"Why don't you guys just leave her alone." Mina asked, "She made it clear that she doesn't want to come back.

"Mina, she's just confused about what she wants. If we were to talk to her some more, we might be able to convince her to follow the right path..." Darien said in a patronizing tone, as he stared over at the blonde Sailor Senshi, "Don't you want Rini be born?"

"Yes I want Rini to be born. But if what Serena said in her letter is true, then it'd be at the cost of her own happiness if we force her into this," Mina said with sigh, before continuing, "If what she says about the wish she made on the Silver Crystal, it wouldn't matter who Serena winds up with, because Rini will still be born, no matter who her father is."

"Rini is just as much my daughter as she is Serena's, and I can't believe Serena would do this." Darien snapped, anger filling his voice.

"Everything depends too much on her for to throw it away now for a whim..." Luna said, only to stop when Mina suddenly slammed her closed fists onto the table, causing everyone to jump in surprise.

"Look at how all of you are acting right now! It's not a whim for Serena!" Mina snapped, as she glared at the trio in front of her. "This is the reason Serena wanted out, because none of you wanted to believe that this wasn't what she wanted."

"She should have at least told me what she was planning before she did this," Luna growled out as she started pacing around the room, "She always told me everything before, and always listened to my advice. I don't know where I went wrong with her..."

"You mean besides being a poor listener when your ward is trying to tell you something as important as how she really feels about everything?" Artemis' voice said from his spot next to Mina, his blue eyes narrowing in anger. "I'm surprised she didn't leave long before now."

"Artemis?!" Luna exclaimed, a scandalized look on her feline features as she stared at her future mate in shock. "What do you mean I didn't listen to her. I've always listened to her."

"It's true, Luna. She said so in the letter. That was the reason why she kicked you out of her home during the week." Artemis said, as he glared at the black cat, his expression becoming serious as he continued. "I could tell how miserable our princess was, and I actually talked to her, instead of at her, the way you always did."

Luna sputtered a few minutes, as she tried to think up "That's not true. I always listen to what she has to say to me. I only had her best interests in mind."

"Only when it's something you actually want to hear. From what I heard from her, it was like you were trying to run her life for her, by trying to make her into something she didn't want to be, despite her protests." Artemis said, shaking his head ruefully, as he stared directly at Luna. "I was there most of the time when you did it to her."

"Why you." Luna started, only to be interrupted by Amy, who had decided to break up what looked to be a possible fight between the two cat's.

"Mina and Artemis are right, you guys," Amy piped quickly before anyone else could say anything. "After everything she's been through over the years, Serena deserves to be happy. And if she thinks she can't be happy being what we want her to be, then we shouldn't try to force her to do so."

"Yeah, you guys have to remember that it's her final choice to make on what her path should go. Not ours." Artemis said, as he looked everyone in the eyes, almost daring them to contradict him, before continuing, "If she decides to come back and become princess Serenity, it's still her choice, not yours. What all of you should ask yourselves is, what's more important to all of you? The creation of Crystal Tokyo, or the happiness of the girl all of you are sworn to protect since the time of the of the Silver Millennium."

With those words Artemis stood up and stormed out of the room in a huff.

"Hey, Rei. What's in the box?" Mina asked a few moments later, changing the subject for the moment, as the rest of the senshi and Darien lapsed into silence, as they were still getting over the shock of the paintings Serena had left them, and the lecture that Artemis had just given them.

Silently Raye pulled off the tape that sealed the box closed and opened it, peering inside. A few seconds later, she stood up and emptied out the contents of the box onto the coffee table so everyone could see what was inside.

Out fell Serena's transformation broach, which still contained the Silver Imperium Crystal. Next were all of Serena's different items that she had used over the years in battle as Sailor Moon. Including all of her communicators.

"I can't believe that she left everything behind." Raye said, eyes narrowing in irritation, as she stared down at the discarded senshi items in disbelief, as she reached forward to take the broach, "Including the Silver Crystal..."

"This should show you guys hwo serious she is about leaving behind her former life as Princess Serenity, you guys." Mina said sadly, as she looked around at the group.

"She didn't even take one of the communicators, so we could contact her." Amy said, as she looked at the scattered items on the table.

"I see that she took one of her senshi items with her," Luna said after a quick survey of the senshi items, "I shouldn't be surprised that out of all the things she took with her, it had to be that one."

"What's missing Luna?" Lita asked.

"The disguise pen's missing." Luna mused as she looked over the discarded items unhappily.

~Elsewhere~

Serena was lounging in a plush chair inside of a private silver jet airplane, sipping from a glass of lemonade the stewardess had brought her.

In the last couple of hours before leaving Tokyo behind, Serena had gone through a total makeover. Her once super long hair was now cut short, and hung just past her hips in a single ponytail. Her nails were now painted with rainbow colored nail polish.

Despite her father's objections to her chosen new wardrobe, Serena now wore a sleeveless red tank top shirt with blue bottom shorts, and a pair of white sandals with the laces tied around her legs stopping just below her knees.

While watching the on flight movie that was showing through hooded eyes, she felt one end of the headphones being lifted from her left ear, and glanced over to meet her father's brown eyes.

"Feeling better dear?" Pegasus' cheerful voice asked, "I hope you are enjoying the flight."

"Yes, daddy." Serena said, grinning up at her father as she sat up straighter. "How are the preparations for the Duel Monsters tournament going?"

"We will be heading straight for the island. The tournaments will officially begin tomorrow, when the boat arrives with the rest of the duelists, which will give us enough time to get you settled in and have you rested by tomorrow." Pegasus said cheerfully. "I thought you might want to get some rest before you start out."

"Rest is good." Serena said with a loud yawn, as she rubbed her eyes, "I'm going to need the next 24 hours to get my energy back, after the week I had."

"Then sleep for now, Bunny. I'll wake you up when we arrive at the island."

"Okay, daddy. And thanks again." Serena said with a slight smile, as she let her eyes close.

_I must admit, that it's great to have her back after all these years, I've missed her so much._ Pegasus thought sadly to himself, as looked down at his daughter, taking in her appearance with his single eye, as he reached over to brush back a loose strand of hair from her face, _She looks so much like her mother it's uncanny._

Glancing down at Serena's hands he saw the ring that rested on her left hand, and his single eye narrowed angrily, at it's reminder.

_I can't believe she's actually wearing it after all these years._ He thought angrily to himself, as he turned his gaze away to stare out the window to watch the clouds fly by, _If it wasn't for that blasted ring I wouldn't have needed to send her away to begin with._

To Be Continued...

Author's Notes:
I don't remember how many Blue Eyes White Dragon cards there were that Kaiba said had been released in the anime, but I'm saying that that there's more than the four that appeared in the anime in my story.

So what do you guys think of this? Do you like it hate it? What? Do you think I should continue writing it?

This is my first time writing a Sailor Moon/Yugi-oh fic, though it's mainly my first time writing about anything to do with Yugi-oh, so please be gentle.

Updated: March 18, 2004 - I made some corrections to the Prologue that I didn't notice before, and switched most of the paragraphs, in the scene where the Senshi first get Serena's goodbye letter, around. And added a few new scenes.

I also changed the number of years since she last saw the boy. I want her to be the same age as the rest of the Yugi-oh cast, so Serena's 16 years old, so she would have had to be nine years old when she first met him, and almost ten by the time she was sent away by Pegasus.

The lyrics from "Once Upon a December" is from the animated movie "Anastasia", performed by Deana Carter.