Serena Dwyer Hey! Well, first of all.....THANX FOR ALL THE E-MAILS!!!! I love getting responses, and all the ones I've been getting in response all throughout Painful Memories are great! Secondly, this is one of my fav. chapters! It's not that long, but one of the best ones to write. Anyway, before I give anything away, have fun reading! ~Rena (Hey, in case you haven't figured it out yet, I don't own Sailor Moon or any of it's characters!) Chapter 7- Painful Memories ---Monday--- Selene walked to school early the next morning. When she saw Molly and Melvin, she called to them to wait up. "Hey Moll! What's up?" she asked once she had caught up to the couple. "Oh, nothing much, Melvin just gave me a summary of his report on the mating habits of earwigglers." she rolled her eyes. "So Selene....any good offers lately?" Molly asked mischeviously as she nudged her friend. "No, not since last week when Chris asked me out." she said with a smile. "I think they finally go the hint.!" "Why do you keep on turning them down anyway?" Molly asked her friend. "Is it true that you have a long distance relationship?" "You might say that." Selene said secretively. Molly didn't prod any further. She knew it would be useless. Her new friend was very secretive about her life and couldn't be forced to reveal anything that she didn't want to. "So Selene," Melvin began as he whipped out his laptop from his schoolbag. "Where did you come from?" Selene knew what was coming. Everytime a new student came to school, Melvin had a full report on them by the end of the week. He must have been devastated when nothing had turned up on "Selene Dwyer". Now he was desperately trying to get information by going to the source herself. "Oh, a small town in Newfoundland, Canada." she replied casually. "Really? How come you speak Japanese so well?" Molly asked, amazed. "Well, I was born in Japan, and my parents are originally from Honshu, but when I was small, we moved to Newfoundland, and we stayed there for a while, but then we started moving around again. Now mt English is getting worse, but is still conversational, but I always kept my Japanese roots because of my parents, but I guess I'll always think of Canada as home." Selene lied. By now, Melvin was typing furiously on his laptop. "Who are your parents?" he asked another question after finishing up the response. "And how come no one ever sees them?" "My parents are Mom and Dad, and no one ever sees them because they are always away on buisness trips." she responded smartly. "Well, I gotta return this book to the library. I'm outtie!" With that, Selene left, pleased that she had been able to fool them so easily. "Hmmmm....you know, she's a lot like Serena at times." Melvin said. "Oh, get real Melvin!" Molly told him. "She's Selene! You're still hung up on her, aren't you?" she asked. "No! Never! No way!" Melvin exclaimed. "*You're* my girlfriend! I wasn't even thinking of her!....Well, not really......She was a good friend!" he said defensively. "Yeah, anyway, we've got homeroom in ten minutes, let's go." Molly said, only half believing him. Ami handed in her homework as she looked at Selene, across the room. With a few modifications, Ami programmed her computer to look past the disguise, and she was now positive that Selene was Serena. Although this was going to be hard, Ami vowed to protect the wishes of her princess, and friend. She just wasn't sure how long Serena could keep this up. According to her computer, whatever she used to become "Selene" was draining her energy. Unless she gave up the charade within another few days, she'd never be able to be Sailor Moon again. Even a one day vacation from being Selene might buy her an extra few days. The scene at the temple showed that being Selene was getting to be too much for Serena, and now fainting would happen more frequently in the next few days. She'd have to keep an eye on her. (That night) "Supreme Thunder....Crash!" Jupiter cried. Electricity flowed out of her fingers towards the droid. Her friends staggered to their feet behind her, she not doing that much better. Tuxedo Mask, in an effort to finish the droid, pulled out a rose. As he was about to throw it, the rose wilted and died. 'Sailor Moon's been gone too long.' he realized. He had noticed his roses becoming weaker, but he had never thought it would come to this. The droid laughed evilly and flung a black orb of energy at the group. It hit and injured them severly, throwing them to the ground, unable to get up. With another evil grin, the droid raised it's hand to bring upon the last fatal blow. "Hey Hammerhead!" a voice came from somewhere above the droid, causing him to stop and look up. "No one picks on my friends and gets away with it!" She took a series of poses while she spoke, in order to buy her friends some time to recover. "I am Sailor Moon, champion of love and justice! On behalf of the moon, I will right wrongs and triumph over evil! And that means you!" "Yeah, I've heard of you." the droid sneered at her. "You're going to be taking a permanent vacation after this Moon Brat!" "Why does everyone say that?" she asked, exasperated. "I just got back, get over it! Moon Septre....Elimination!" The droid screamed and faded out of existence, turning into a pile of dust. With a satisfied nod, Sailor Moon turned around to face her friends. "You guys okay?" she asked. "Yeah, thanks Sailor Moon." Rei said, struggling to get to her feet. Sailor Moon walked over to Tuxedo Mask to help him up. As she reached out to him, she saw the wilted rose he held in his hand. "Your rose!" she whispered in disbelief. She put her hand out to touch it and when she did, it sprang back to life, red and in full bloom. "Darien, I-" She was cut off by a kiss. It felt so right that she didn't pull away. Her arms went around his neck and his around her waist. Then, realizing what was happening, she pulled away. "Darien, I....I can't." she turned and ran, tears streaming down her face. 'He deserves so much better than me.' she thought to herself. 'If he still loves me after all I've done to hurt him, then I'm not good enough for him. He could do *so* much better. Like Rei. Rei is so perfect. *She* would never hurt him like I did.' 'She hates me!' Darien thought. 'But that kiss felt so right! What have I done? Is she going to leave again?' The scouts just stared in shock, they couldn't belive what they had just seen. Back at her apartment, Serena was crying. 'What was I thinking?' she asked herself. 'I shouldn'y have come back, I'm not ready, I have to leave. I can't handle it!' Serena got out her suitcase and started packing, throwing everything in. She'd leave tonight, she had decided to take a plane for a quick exit. She wasn't as strong as she thought she was. She'd take another year, or maybe a bit longer, and then she could return. She just needed a bit more time. Then, she caught a glimpse of one of the pictures she was putting away. It was one of Rini, her future child. One that wouldn't be born if she left again. She began to cry once more. "Why does everything have to be so difficult????" she yelled up at the Moon. "I thought you sent us here so things would be easier!!!!" She began to unpack. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ So, what did you think? E-mail me with comments! My e-mail addy is serena_dwyer@hotmail.com Well, hope to hear from you! ~Rena ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com