With You Forever Serena watched Darein walk away from her. Her mind raced to digest the news. He didn't love her. It felt like her heart had stopped beating. Her large blue eyes stared at his retreating back. "But I still love you..." Serena whispered. "Why did you stop loving me?" Tears flowed down her cheeks. "Why?" Darien looked back over his shoulder at her. The broken look on her face broke his heart. Tears glinted on her cheeks. The sunset stained them blood red. Her whispered questions were shouts in his ears. Turning, he continued to walk away from her. Serena's knees gave out as he continued to walk away. Her bag fell from her lifeless hand. On hand rose shaking to her mouth where he had kissed her so many times. Her spirit leaked away from her leaving only a dry husk of a shell that had once been Serena. "You are why I am here." She whispered. "You called me." ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Darien woke up to see a strange face looking down at him with a clinical detachment. "...dead....no relatives....orphanage...no memory...." slowly the words filtered into his thoughts. "Where's Mom and Dad?" he asked softly. The doctor looked down at him. "They died in the accident." he explained. Darien shook his head, it couldn't be, they where his parents. "Get your rest." The doctor ordered and left. "I don't want to be alone. Don't leave me alone." Darien beseeched his parents in a heart rending whisper. "Please..." Down the hall, a little girl struggled with cancer that ate her body cell by cell. Her breaths were shallow and raspy. Next to her her parents silently held each others hands, sharing what comfort they could as they watched their baby fade away. A small murmur esacpes her mouth as her body surrendered her soul. "I don't want to be alone...." the small voice echoed through the empty space. A pillar of light formed and slowly solidified into a tall elegant woman with long silve pigtails and a blue-silver dress. A pair of fairy wings spread from her back. Slowly another person formed. She wore gold pigtails and had a pale pink dress, a pair of translucent butterfly wings arched from her back. A simple crescent adorned both of the foreheads. "Serenity?" the Silver haired one asked softly. "I can't leave him Mother." She whispered back. "He needs me." "I understand, if you ever want to come back..."She let the sentence hang unfinished. "He could no more leave me than I could leave him." "I know." she gave her daughter one last hug before Serenity left her once more. The little girl's parents still held on to the cold little hand as doctors and nurses silently packed up the equipment that had once been connected to the child. The nurse kept giving the parents sympathetic glances. "We have to take her now Mrs. Tsukino." The doctor said quietly. Slowly the child's eyes opened, then blinked like she was waking up from a long sleep. "Mama?" "Oh my....."Her mother collapsed into the chair her father just looked down at her stunned. "What's wrong?" she asked. "Can we go home now?" The doctor and nurses exchanged amazed glances as the little girl that had spent the last half of her short life in bed scramble to the side and slide to the ground. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Luna looked down each street as she passed it for her wayward ward. It was well past midnight now and Serena still hadn't come home. The other scouts had already been contacted and were out looking as well. A strange shape lying on the sidewalk caught Luna's attention. Cautiously she approached. The closer she got the more she prayed it wasn't Serena until there was denying who the the young girl was. "S-scouts. Get here quick." Luna stuttered as she called the Sailor Scouts. "I found her." The persistant ringing of the phone finally forced Darien to give up his pretense of sleeping. Sitting up he picked up the phone, prepared to tell Serena to back off. "What do you want?" he demanded. "Darien?" a hesitant female voice asked on the other end. "Its me, Rei. You better get down to the hospital." "Why, what's wrong?" Darien asked dropping the pissed off act. "Its Serena, I don't understand exactly what the doctors are saying but they don't think she has long." Rei voice shook with unshed tears. Darien's phone clattered to the ground. Darien staggered into the hospital waiting room. Serena's parents were nowhere to be seen. Rei and the others sat side by side on the plastic coated chairs. Worry was etched into their faces. "What happened?" Darien asked. "The doctor said she had a relapse. He didn't say of what." Lita explained. "Whatever it is has put her into a coma." Darien paled at the thought of truely losing her. "Please, Don't leave me." he prayed. A movement caught their eyes as the doctor reappeared. "Exactly what is wrong her." Darien demanded. "You must mean Serena Tsukino. Her cancer returned. I wish we had caught it sooner but..." the doctor shrugged. "Cancer! How long has she had cancer?" Rei asked in a thin voice. "All her life actually. She was declared legally dead when she was two but some how recovered. We tested her and found no evidence of cancer." Ami choked back a sob. "Why did it return?" "We don't know." "How long till..." Darien couldn't bare to finish his question. "Maybe a few hours if we are lucky. Now if you'll excuse me." The doctor forced his way past the group and down another hall. "What's wrong?" a young voice asked behind them. Turning they found Rini. "Serena's sick." Mina tried to soften the truth. "With what? Will she be alright?" No one answered her. Hearing Rini's voice Serena's mother came out of one of the rooms. "Oh, Rini, I am so sorry you are here for this." she gathered the little girl up in her arms. Behind her Serena's father appeared. He looked haggerd and centuries older. "Can we go in?" Lita asked. Serena's mother smiled gently and nodded. "I don't see how it could hurt." The five of them peered into the room. Serena lay hooked up to hundreds of machines and tubes. Oxygen forced in to her lungs caused her chest to rise and fall ever so slightly. She lay completely motionless. Her skin seemed translucent and the color of the bleached sheets blended with her skin. She already looked dead. "Serena...." Rei crept into the room to her friends side. "Why do you have to leave us?" The other scouts followed her. Ami and Rei stood on one side of the bed and Min and Lita on the other. Darien remained at the door. Silent tears trailed down their cheeks and land on the white sheets. The beeping of equipment was the only sound in the room. After a few minutes the girls left the bedside and walked out past Darien. Slowly he walked further into the room. He pulled a chair out from the wall and placed it next to the bed. Sitting in it he steepled his hands infront of his face. "Serena, I am sorry for lying to you. I do still love you. Its just...I have been having these dreams. I shouldn't of listened to them, I should of just... I am so sorry." His voice trailed off. "I love you so much. Sometimes at night I pictured us together, in the future. Now..." He took a deep breath and looked at the pale girl in the bed. "The doctor said you nearly died when you were two. You stayed because I didn't want to be alone. You gave me that rose." Reaching into his jacket he pulled out a delicate, dried rose the color of dark red wine. Gently he placed it on the bed next to her hand. "I am so sorry." A shrill beep coming from Serena's room brought the doctor and nurses running. Inside the room they found all the machines disconnected from the girl. The hospital nightgown was gone replaced by a long pale pink dress her hands were crossed on her chest, a bright red rose clasped within them. Half sprawled across the bed was a young man in strange black armor one of his hands resting on her's, his cape draped across the chair behind him, a sword was strapped to his waist. No breath stirred either chest.