Serena Dwyer Hey Everyone! This is Chapter 3 of Painful Memories. I'm not exactly sure yet how it's going to go 'cause I have a nasty habit of totally rearranging things. Anyway, I'll see how this turns out and hopefully I'll like it. If not....oh well! I might comment on the bottom on how things went....untill then.....enjoy! ~Serena You know the drill. You can see any of my other chapters for the disclaimer. I'm tired of writing it time and time again so from now on, please refer to previous chapters to find out that "HEY! She DOESN'T own Sailor Moon!" Sorry, was that too sarcastic? I'm just fed up with it....oops! Painful Memories-Chapter 3 ---Thursday--- "Can I take your order?" Selene asked from behind the counter. School had just gotten out and Selene had quickly rushed from school to get to her shift on time, just before the after school mob started pouring in. "Yeah, I'll have a double fudge sundae please." the raven haired girl said as she guiltily looked down at her waist. "Don't worry about it!" Selene reassured her while filling the bowl with icecream. "This'll work off with just 15 minutes of running!" "Great, thanks!" the girl exclaimed, relieved. She was about to say something else when a voice called to her. "Rei! Come on! We don't have all day you know!" "Coming!" Rei looked back almost apologeticaly. "Sorry." she said, "Gotta go." "No problem! See ya around!" Selene called as Rei went over to sit next to the others and Darien. 'I wonder if they're together now.' She thought to herself. 'I just hope she knows what she's getting herself into!' she thought back to when he shunned Serena after saying that he loved her and that they'd be together forever. 'Big joke *that* was!' she thought bitterly. But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't seem to totally hate him. Her mind was willing, but her heart was unable. Just as she shook herself mentally from her thoughts, a special news bulliten came on channel 32. "Two unidentified men are, as we speak, holding up the bank at the corner of Juuban and Main (E.N.-Sorry, I don't know anything about the roads in Tokyo!). Police are at the scene but are being denied entrance for fear of hostages." "Andrew!" Selene called out. "Can I take the rest of the day off? I'm not feeling well!" "Sure thing Selene!" Andrew told her. "But get well soon, like for tomorrow okay? We have a party rental!" "K!" She called over her shoulder as she hung up her apron and left. She was running down Main Street and was about two blocks away before it occured to her to change. She stepped into an alley before taking out her brooch (which she didn't wear for identification purposes), and calling out the magic words. "Moon Crystal Power!" The energy that she hadn't felt in over a year came rushing over her body and enveloped her in a spectrum of light. Gloves, boots, suit, skirt and tiara all came into place and the light resided, leaving the heroine that hadn't been seen in over a year, standing there, feeling refreshed and thrilled at the idea of preventing hurt again. Sailor Moon. When she arrived at the bank, she hopped up to the roof and opened a vent big enough for her to crawl through. She climbed through the tunnels with relative ease and made as little sound as one could, climbing through aluminum vent tunnels. She arrived on the scene where the two robbers were getting the tellers to fill the bags up with money, shortly after entering the tunnels and a few wrong turns. In all it took her about 2 or 3 minutes. 'The friendly bank tellers, willing to assist you in whatever you need.' Sailor Moon thought sarcastically. 'Well, here goes!' "Stop Theives!" she bellowed. "I am Sailor Moon, champion of Love and Justice! On behalf of the Moon I will right wrongs and triumph over robbers! And that means YOU!" she took a series of poses while thinking to herself. 'Man! I gotta get some new material!' The robbers laughed gruffly and motioned for the tellers to continue with a wave of their guns. "Sailor Moon ain't been around fer over a year!" one scoffed. "What? A girl can't take a vacation?" she asked. "Yeah, well, yer gonna be takin' a permanent vacation afta' this here bullet plants itself in yer chest there." the second raised his gun to aim at her chest. "As much as I appriciate the gesture, I really don't think that's neccesary. I just got back!" She laughed lightly as she took off her tiara. "Moon Tiara Magic!" The tiara-turned-disc flew through the air at an amazing speed and swiftly disarmed the two robbers. Then before what had just happened could register, she turned the rug by her into a rope with her disguise pen and after knocking them out with hand- to-hand combat, she tied them up. One bank customer had gotten out during the fight and told the police that it was okay to go in and that the robbers were being taken care of. The police entered just as Sailor Moon tied the last knot. After the robbers were taken away and all the hostages were safe and reassured, the police chief came over to talk to Sailor Moon just before she got ready to leave, seeing everything was okay. "Thanks Sailor Moon. We couldn't have done it without you." "Anytime!" She replied with a warm smile. "But, um....well...." "You want to know why I wasn't around for the past year?" she supplied for him. "Well, yeah." "I had a few problems that needed to be worked out. Hope you guys didn't mind." "Oh! No, not at all. Don't even think of it like that!" the middle-aged man stammered, talking to the teenager. But what could you say to the person who saved the city and the *world* a couple of times over? "I'll be around. See ya!" she called out as she took to the rooftops for, what she hoped, was a dramatic exit. The scouts and Darien stared at the t.v. screen, dumbstruck. "It can't be." Rei whispered in disbelief. "She's not a klutz anymore!" Ami stated. "She's grown up!" Lita exclaimed. "That year really had an effect on her." Mina said. "I've gotta find her!" Darien stood up and left. Across the room, Andrew saw the faces of Darien and his friends go white as a sheet as if they'd seen a ghost. They murmered amongst themselves and then Darien took off in a rush. Andrew, curious, looked up and followed their gazes to the t.v. screen to see what had caused such a fuss. There, on the screen, was a picture of Sailor Moon, smiling. That night, Sailor Moon stood on a rooftop across from her house. (Okay, so she has something with rooftops!) She looked at the window of her former room longingly. 'If only I could go back.' she thought. 'It would be so easy then!' But she knew she couldn't. Not yet anyway. She quickly withdrew herself from that thought and remembered why she had come to her old house. '10 to 1 Rini stays in my room now.' She was right. A light was turned on and a small figure moved about in the room. Sailor Moon decided the only thing to do was a sneak attack. She didn't want Rini to be calling out to her parents and ruining everything. She jumped over to her house, snuck up behind the little spore, put one hand over her mouth, one arm around her waist, and took off into the night. While on the way to Serena's apartment, Rini realized that despite the fact that she didn't know who she was with or where she was being taken, she felt remarkably safe. In fact, she hadn't felt this safe since......'Could it be Serena?' she wondered. 'Did she really come back? Should I tell her she's my mother? No, the other's didn't catch on, plus, what would I say? Hey! you and your ex are my parents! Yeah, that'd go over REALLY well.' They arrived at their destination, and once they were inside, Sailor Moon put Rini down. Rini slowly turned around like if she were to turn around too quickly, the person behind her would vanish. Who she found standing in front of her, confirmed her thoughts she had on the trip over. "Serena!!!!" Rini cried as she flung herself into the older girl's arms. "Serena, you came back!!!" "Of course Rini! I couldn't leave you!" Serena told the pink haired child. "Oh Rini, I know. I know everything! But I don't see how you'll ever be born! Darien hates me and he's probably with Rei now and I'm not sure if I can even stand to see him now." "But Serena, he loves you! He always did! He said that he loved Rei to protect you, or so he thought. He had these dreams that told him to stay away from you or else you'd be killed. He had no other choice but to push you away, for your own good." Rini explained desperately trying to convince her future mother. "Oh My God! If he'd just *told* me! All this could've been stopped." She cried softly, not the wailing sobs of before. "It doesn't matter now. He probably hates me for running away and saying all those terrible things to him-" "No, I talked to him when they were having a scout meeting. He says he still loves you and now that he knows that the dreams were sent by his future self to test your feelings, he's determined to find you." Rini told her. Sailor Moon transformed back into Serena and wiping the tears from her eyes, she asked Rini, "How'd you like to stay with me tonight? I could call Mom and pretend to be one of your friend's mother's and ask if you could stay." "Sure!" "Okay, who should I be?" Serena asked. "Umm...How about Mrs. Takeuchi, Naoko's Mom!" (heheheh) Rini answered. "Okay, here goes nothing!" Serena picked up the phone after Rini had given her the number and before the first ring was even finished, Serena's Mom answered the phone, breathless. "Hello?!?" she answered, sounding frantic. "Hi, Irene? This is Lisa. I just wanted to let you know that Rini's here, all out of breath, worried about a project due tomorrow, and I was wondering, could she stay over here tonight so the kids could work on it?" Serena faked her best adult voice, which was pretty damn good, seeing as her Mom didn't catch on. "Oh sure!" Irene answered, sounding relieved. "I was just all in a panic, wondering where Rini had gone. You know, she's just like a daughter to me..." she stopped herself. "Does she have all the things she'll need?" "Oh, yes. Well, I'd better go help them out. Ta-ta now!" As Serena hung up the phone, she drew a deep breath. 'Oh God! I sooo wanted to tell her it was me.' Serena thought. Then, as if nothing was wrong, she put on a bright face and turned around to face Rini. "So, let's get ready for bed, okay?" "Ummm....Serena, I don't have my clothes here..." Rini said. "That's okay. I have some clothes that would fit you. I picked them up in Canada for you. Don't really know why, it was just sort of an impulse thing." Serena smiled. "What?!? You were gone all the way to Canada?!?!?" "Yeah. Like I said. I needed ot get away. It's really a beautiful place! Remind me to take you there sometime in the future!" she joked, getting a laugh out of both of them. The two got changed and into bed. Just before they went to sleep, Serena told Rini, "This has to be a secret okay? No one can know that you were here with me." "Sure Serena." Rini replied, too tired to ask why. "G'night" "Goodnight Rini." @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Okay, that's chapter 3. I'm about to start chapter 4 in about 30 secs (well, it'll be already started by the time you read this) and I have big plans! This one isn't going to have much fighting, but emotions will be running high. Sorry to all you action lovers out there, but to make it a bit better. There will be some fights against droids and maybe even a big battle at the end. I haven't decided if I want to keep it or not. Anyway, you guys tell me what I should do, and then I'll decide and I won't tell you to keep it a surprise! How's that? So are you voting for no big fight at the end to keep it focused on Serena and Darien, or do you want that little extra with a fight? Up to you! E-mail me and tell me! Or else I'll have to decide for myself. And we all know how disastrous THAT can be >:) Ja ne! ~Serena ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com