Second Chances - Chapter 2, by Athena PG Serena felt as if her world had just come to a stop. She looked at Ami, not realizing that her face betrayed how devastated she felt. "What?How?When?" Raye came up and in an awkward display of emotion, enveloped Serena in a hug and then said, "Her name is Kimberly. He met her at work. I read the engagement announcement in the papers. The wedding is in about seven months. We haven't seen him since you left." "Yes," Ami said sadly, "It was strange. After you left, the youma attacks stopped, almost suddenly. And well, I've tried to talk to him a few times, at the library, and he'd act like I wasn't even there." But Serena didn't hear her story, she couldn't. She was so overcome with grief that she could hardly move. Tears that she couldn't feel began to spill over her lovely face. She felt as if she had just died inside. It was so strange, it wasn't like she had been planning on getting back together with him, hell, she had been with Marcus up until a few months ago, 'but I wasn't going to marry him either' she told herself. Her guardians heard all that was said and they saw the look of anguish on her face. Each one had a murderous expression on their face. They looked at each other and knew that they were all thinking the same thing.....Prince or no Prince, they were going to kill him for hurting their Princess! Slowly Serena began to back up as if she needed to put some distance between herself and the words that were just spoken to her. She stopped when she bumped into something hard. She didn't have to look up when protecting arms folded around her to know that was into Michael's embrace that she had stumbled. Then suddenly, she straightened up, wiped the tears from her eyes and smiled warmly up at Michael as he released her. Then she turned to the others and said, "So, anyone want to eat?" Everyone agreed, relieved that Serena had gotten over her shock so soon and they headed off together towards their favorite hangouts. ************************************************************************ Two weeks later, Serena was sitting in her office going over some details from a crime scene from a case that she was profiling, when the phone rang. "Hello? Tsukino here." she said distractedly into the phone. "Serena! Hi!" came the cheery voice on the other end. "Uh hi. Umm, who is this?" she said, a little annoyed now because her concentration was disrupted. "Serena! It's Lita! Jeez!" "Lita! Oh hey girl!" she said happily back into the phone, albeit a little embarrassed, "I'm sorry, I was really into a case that I'm working on and I was really expecting the lab to be calling me with some results. What's up?" "It's OK. Listen, I was going to have a girls night at my apartment tomorrow. No offense, but Luna and Artemis have been dying to talk to you and everytime you come around, you bring one or all of those guys with you. What gives?" Serena laughed and said, "None taken. Yeah, I suppose I'm due for one of their lectures, huh?" Lita was laughing on the line as Serena continued, "Well, let me check my schedule and make sure I don't have any meeting scheduled late that I would have to come back for." Serena was looking at her day planner when Lita asked, "What do you mean, 'late meetings'?" "With the Bureau in Quantico, VA. You know, with the time difference and all, sometimes I have meetings late at night because it's extremely early there. Nope nothing planned, so I'll be there. What time?" "Around seven. Is that too early for you?" "No that should be fine. If I run into any delays, I'll give you a call. Should I bring anything?" "No way! I'm cooking! But....did you happen to pick up a copy of "Titanic" before you left America?" "Am I Sailor Moon?" "Oooh goodie!!! Please bring it! We'll eat and cry!!" "O.k., I'll see you tomorrow. Bye!" she was still smiling when Marcus knocked on the door and walked in. He noticed her smile and said, "What are you grinning at, little one? You look like the cat that just got away with eating the canary." "Oh nothing, I'm just going over to Lita's tomorrow for a girls night." "Aw, you mean that we can't come and see our lovely ladies again?" "No! I was told that Luna and Artemis want to have a chat with me and of course they can't do that with you four in tow, now can they?" Marcus chuckled as Serena continued, "Marcus, why can't I tell them? They already think that it's odd that I live with four men who in one way or another follow me around." "Because Serena, we want them to fall in love with us, the humans, not the warriors first. But after all, it is fated, so it may not make a difference." "It makes a difference. Just look at Darien and me. He didn't love me, Serena, he was doing what he felt was duty and he got tired of it and decided, the hell with fate!" she said, totally unaware of the bitterness that radiated in her voice. "Serena, you can't believe that. What about the future? What about Rini?" Serena stood up, cleaning up her desk as she responded even more bitterly, "But I do believe it Marcus! This is my future! You are looking at it! I may not be the Champion of Love anymore, but I still believe in Justice! As for Rini, I guess that somewhere along the line, I'm gonna have to go and force one last fling with Darien or maybe it will be fate that my daughter doesn't exist. It kills me to say that, but it appears that all our hard work will be in vain. I'll protect mankind from the negaverse, but I will never be queen." "Never say never." Serena merely looked at him with an expressionless face. ************************************************************************ Meanwhile in another part of the universe, a man with long black hair and stormy gray eyes stared into a crystal that he held in his hand. The image he saw in it was Princess Serena as she had been during the Silver Millennium. His name was Aries and he was the evil ruler of the Dark Planets. He smiled his twisted smile as he gazed at the lovely Serena, soon she would be his. He had been waiting for this moment for over 1000 years! Finally, that damn Prince of Earth has left her unprotected. He would go and claim her as his Queen. It would be simple really, for the stupid Prince had already done the hardest part for him....he turned the Princess against himself! Now he, Aries, could go in and steal her heart and her power and together they would rule the universe! Slowly the image in the crystal blurred from the Princess of the Silver Millennium to the Serena of modern day. He drew in a sharp breath...How could she look even more beautiful now than she did so long ago???? Was it possible???? Slowly he raised a large trembling hand and tried to touch the image that the stone had created, but his hand went through it, almost as a premonition of what was to come. But instead he thought, 'Soon my love, soon you will be MINE!!!" "Draco!" He bellowed. Suddenly a tall man with long purple hair and purple eyes materialized before him and bowed. "Yes, my lord?" "Are the preparations ready for our attack?" "Yes my lord. Everything is in place. I have secured you a position with that agency that the future Queen works for...The FBI?" Aries nodded his head in the affirmative, "also, I have our troops standing by ready to attack periodically to draw the Sailor Scouts out and destroy them once and for all!" "Excellent! We leave immediately! Nothing will stop us this time!" ************************************************************************ The day after the 'girls night' was Saturday and thankfully, Serena didn't have to make a trip into the office. Instead, she was sitting in the food court at the mall with Raye and Mina. They were waiting on Marcus and Jason to join them for lunch and then some shopping. As the girls sat there talking, Jason came up behind Raye and playfully put his hands over her eyes and said, "Guess who?" Raye playfully batted his hands away and tried to be annoyed when she responded, "Jason! Get serious would you!!!" but the effect was lost when Jason planted a loud wet kiss on her lips. Ray promptly forgot about being annoyed. Marcus was more serene when he greeted Mina with a warm kiss of his own and Mina sighed. Serena smiled as she watched her friends, but somewhere deep within her, a sadness welled up and could not be pushed back down. She was happy that her friends had found each other again. The girls still had no idea who the guys really were, but it was obvious that fate had taken over in such a short amount of time. In addition to these two couples, Michael was attached to Lita's hip and when he wasn't designing, he was with her. Even the shy Ami and Greg had found each other. It wasn't an impossible feat, after all, they are both brainiacs! They constantly consulted each other on various cases and read books together. It really was rather cute. Serena didn't really see why she couldn't tell the girls about their guys. 'I doubt that it would hurt anything.' she thought. But now more than ever, Serena felt totally and utterly alone. The scouts now had her guardians and she had no one. Jason caught the look on Serena's face and let go of Raye. Then he went over to Serena and took her hand and quietly asked, "Are you o.k., little one?" Serena, startled out of her thoughts, smiled at him affectionately and said, "I'm fine." But she saw the look of pure jealousy on Raye's face and she immediately pulled her hand free of Jason's grasp. Hastily she stood up and said, "Uh, why don't you guys go along without me? I'm really not that hungry and I have a lot of work to do." "What? Wait Serena!" Mina called after her and said, "I thought that you needed a new dress?" "No, I really don't. Michael can make me a dress for that dinner that I have to go to next month in DC He'd be crushed if I wore something else. I'll see you later, o.k? Bye!" She hurried off before they could stop her again, but she could feel Raye's eyes boring into her again. This was going to cause all sorts of problems. She'd been on the brunt end of Raye's jealousy before, and it was not fun. 'Maybe I should look into getting my own place.' she thought. Just then a shrill scream tore through the air and startled her out of her thoughts. Serena looked around her and saw nothing. Then she heard the scream again and realized that it was coming from below her. She ran to the railing to see what the commotion was. There in the middle of the crowd below stood two mean looking youmas. 'Oh my God! I've got to do something!' she thought anxiously to herself. Frantically she looked around for a safe place to transform and then ran towards a dark hallway. She laughed at herself on the way there and thought, 'Jeez, I feel like Clark Kent looking for a phone booth!' But then she was all business. "Moon Crystal Power!" In a flash of silver light appeared Sailor Moon with her large Crescent Moon Glaive in her hand. Then she disappeared in another shower of silver light and reappeared down below where the trouble was. But Sailor Mars and Venus were already on the scene. But they were distracted by the sight of the "new" SM and then stunned by the energy that the two youmas threw at them. By this time both Malachite and Jedite had also made their way onto the scene and screamed as they saw their loved ones go down. "NOOOO!!!!" and started to attack the youmas, but to no avail. Suddenly they heard a voice cry out, "Moon Distortion.....Strike!!!" And were able to get out of the way just in time as SM distortion waves came barreling through. They looked up to see SM standing not too far away with her Glaive in a battle stance. "Go help them!" she cried out to the two warriors. Then she directed her full attention to the two youmas who were quickly recovering from her distortion waves. The nastier looking of the two youmas looked at SM and said, "Who did that? Who are you? We will destroy anyone who gets in the way of King Aries!" and he launched one of his attacks at SM and she easily dodged it by disappearing and reappearing behind them. Meanwhile, Malachite and Jedite had reached Mars and Venus and were pulling them to safety when the two scouts noticed the scout in black and silver. Confused, Mars looked at Venus and said, "Who is that? It looks almost like SM....but there's no way she could do all that." But Malachite answered her, "That is SM. She just grew up. Now I must go protect her." But Jedite stopped him by saying, "NO! She ordered us to stay with them. Besides, it looks as if she's got this under control. And the others should be here soon anyway." Malachite merely nodded his head and held onto Venus. But Mars and Venus's attention wasn't on their saviors, it was on SM for she had just disappeared and reappeared. "How did she do that?" Venus asked in awe, but no one answered. They continued to watch as SM called out another attack. Malachite and Jedite could tell what was coming merely by the way she swung her glaive around her in a high arc. "Crescent Moon Glaive.......DESTRUCTION!!!!!!!!" The two youmas were vaporized. Sailors Jupiter and Mercury had arrived by now and stood speechless along with Mars and Venus. Then Nephlyte and Zoicite materialized as well beside the other two generals. That's when the scouts seemed to notice them, and they noticed them all at once. Jupiter screamed at Malachite, "NOOOO! You're dead! You're dead!" and began to call upon her thunder, "Jupiter Thunderclap..." "STOPPPPP!!!!" Came Sailor Moon's anguished cry as she reappeared in front of Malachite with her arms out in front of her in a protective fashion. Quickly Jupiter pulled in her attack. Nine people stood motionless, just staring at each other. Finally Mercury was able to ask, "Sailor Moon?" SM nodded. "Why are you protecting him? He's our enemy and he should be dead!" SM immediately detected the fear in her voice and said, "It's o.k. Mercury. I'll explain everything. Just not here, o.k.? Let's meet at Raye's temple in an hour, o.k.?" Slowly all the scouts nodded in the affirmative. Then SM turned to look at her guardians and said, "Let's Go!" and they all disappeared. ************************************************************************ Meanwhile across town, Darien and his fiancee Kimberly had just finished their jog in the park when Darien suddenly grabbed his head and groaned as he fell to his knees. "Oh my God! Darien! What's wrong? Darien? Darien????" Kimberly frantically yelled as she held him in her arms, but Darien didn't hear her. He was too busy fighting off the transformation to Tuxedo Mask. 'My God!' he thought, "Sailor Moon! Serena! She's here! She's transformed! She's in trouble! But I can't go! Kimberly doesn't know! Serena hates me and she'll die if I help her!' Then as quick as it came on, he fought off the transformation and it went away. Again he groaned, but this time he was able to concentrate on Kimberly's frantic pleas. "Darien? Darien speak to me!" "It's o.k. Kimberly, I'm alright. I just got real light headed all of a sudden. Must have pushed myself too hard today." Slowly he stood back up and smiled down at his blonde fiancee, she looked almost like Serena. Almost. "Let's go home. I'm beat." Tremulously she smiled back at him and swallowed tears as she agreed and walked home by his side. ************************************************************************ An hour later at the temple, Mars, Venus, Jupiter, and Mercury all stood anxiously around waiting for Sailor Moon to arrive. Luna and Artemis sat nearby trying to figure it all out. "Are you sure you saw Malachite?" Luna asked "And that Sailor Moon put herself between him and you?" Artemis asked. "Yes, I'm sure." Jupiter snapped back at him. Then Mercury said, "But it wasn't just Malachite. It was Jedite, Nephlyte and Zoicite. They were ALL there!! And SM was with them!!! She left with them!!!!" Luna was about to answer, but was interrupted by a blinding silver light. Then the light dissipated and before them stood Sailor Moon and the four generals. "Sorry we're late, but I had to convince them that the cat was out of the bag, so to speak, no pun intended, and it was time everyone learned the truth." SM said a little too happily. "Sailor Moon? What happened to you?" Luna asked in an awed voice, "The girls said that you have these new attacks and that you didn't klutz out once." "Gee thanks, furball!!!" Luna rightfully looked extremely embarrassed and then SM told them all about Sailor Pluto and her training. "Well o.k., but that doesn't explain them!" Luna said as she pointed a paw at the four generals. "No. They are not a part of that particular story. They have their own story. They are my guardians." "Wait! I thought Luna and Artemis were our guardians." Venus said. "No, they are my councilors. You see, what my mother didn't tell us before was that Prince Darien of Earth also had four royal guards, just as I had you four. Malachite, is the head general of Darien's guard. They have transferred they loyalty and protection to me since Darien has removed himself from this picture." "Then you don't need us then." Jupiter said dejectedly. "You're wrong Jupiter! I need all of you! You are all that I have...all that I will ever have since the future as Rini told it will not come true since Darien has found another. He will not become my King and I will not be Queen!" "No, don't say that Sailor Moon. You will become Queen and we'll find away to bring Darien back....I promise!!" Mars cried passionately, but SM shook her head and said, "It appears that love will not be mine, Mars, at least not with Darien. He has made his choice and I will not be hurt again." "But if you don't have love, no one will!" "That's not true either, Mars. You see, these generals are not just my protectors, they are your soul mates, you true loves!" All four scouts gasped and SM nodded at the generals. Then in a magical swirl, all four transformed back to their human selves. The shock overwhelming to say the least. All four scouts screamed.