Well, the long wait is finally over. This is the last and final chapter to "The Dream". It's taken me 5 years to finish up this story, but at least I kept updating it, right? Yeah, I know you guys are pretty much wanting to find me and rip my head off for making you wait so long, but here it is, the final chapter! Please read, enjoy, and review!

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Darien reached the end of the stairs and ran towards his father's study. He saw Nephlight standing in the doorway. He turned around when he saw Darien running towards him. Nephlight caught his friend before he got inside the office. He blocked Darien's view of his father. "Maybe it's best you shouldn't see him this way." He said, having trouble holding Darien back now. Darien looked up at his old friend with a look of mixed emotions. "Maybe it's best you should get out of my way! I want to see what has been done to my father!" He said, knocking Nephlight out of his way and quickly stepping into the office.

He saw a puddle of blood coming from underneath the desk and still flowing out to the middle of the room. Darien moved behind the desk to see the murdered body of his father. His body lay spread on the floor, the room showed signs of a struggle, and more spattered blood on the walls. His father's neck looked like it had been ripped out from the middle. Nephlight watched his friend bend down to his father's lifeless body. Nephlight moved forward from his place at the doorway to stand at his friend's side.

"I'm so sorry this happened Darien. If we had only known someone was out to get him, if we had only known to protect him, we could have posted guards at every door and window..." He trailed off as he watched Darien scoop his father into his arms on the floor. Darien put his head against his father's cold one, and began to cry. Nephlight could faintly hear the sobs from Darien, but he still heard them. Lita appeared in the doorway and walked over to where Nephlight, Darien, and Darien's father's body lay.

Lita moved past Nephlight and moved to hug her brother as he cried. Darien let go of his father and gently lay him back on the floor. He let Lita take him in her arms and comfort him. Darien was now having trouble controlling the sobs that came from him. "It's okay brother. No one will think any less of you if you cry." Lita said as she felt him hug her tighter. She suddenly heard him cry harder into her shoulder. She hugged him back tighter and closed her eyes. She looked up at Nephlight a moment later. He looked rather lost, not really knowing what to do for his friend. Vampires really didn't ever suffer loss too often or cared this much about a loss.

"I'm...going upstairs to check up on Rini and Serena." He said as Lita nodded and went back to trying to comfort Darien. Nephlight turned and left the study and walked up stairs to Darien's bedroom. He opened the door slowly. He walked in to see Serena laying on the bed sleeping peacefully with the sheet wrapped around her. He walked over to the crib and leaned over. His eyes widened when he looked in.

"Holy shit..." He said as he began to feel through the soft sheets for signs of her. He even picked up all of the sheets, thinking she had buried herself in them, since she liked to do that a lot. He put them back down when he didn't feel her or see her. He looked frantically around the room. He didn't find her. He then looked to the now closed doors of the balcony. He knew he couldn't open those doors because of the sun, almost instant death for vampires. Nephlight ran out of the room and closed the bedroom door behind him. He made his way back to the study, finding his wife picking up her brother, blood tears streaming down his face and smeared from him rubbing them away.

Nephlight had a panicked look on his face, Lita was the first to notice. "What's wrong Nephlight? Something wrong with Serena?" She asked as she walked with her brother. He shook his head. "Worse, Rini has gone missing." He said simply. Lita gasped and Darien's head shot up from his depressed state. "What did you say?" He said in a rather dark and dangerous voice. Nephlight stared at him, not knowing what else he could say or do. "Your daughter has gone missing." He said plainly again.

Darien tore himself away from Lita and began to search the house for anybody, intruders, creatures, Rini, especially Rini. Darien ordered Lita and Nephlight to search the inside of the house, since they couldn't go out in daylight, while he searched the outside of the mansion, top to bottom. It was near sun-down when they met up in the middle of the mansion.

"We've looked everywhere, Darien. There's no possible place she could be! She's a baby, she can't even crawl yet! Serena is still in her room, but Rini is still missing. What should we do?" Nephlight asked, a little panicky. Darien ran a hand through his hair shakily. "I don't know. I just don't know. All I know is we have to find her, at all costs. Call up some of our other family and friends. Maybe they can help..." He trailed off as he heard, from somewhere in the house, laughter. A dark evil laugh he recognized filled the room.

"Foolish brother. Haven't you learned anything by now? I was the one who was to have all that you have now. I was destined to be the King of all vampires, not you. I was the one who was supposed to have a mate first, not you. I was the one who was supposed to be known throughout the land, not you!" The voice said with a bit of anger in it. Darien growled, knowing full well who it was now. "Kato, you cowardly son of a bitch, where is my daughter?" From within the shadows, Kato smirked, showing a fang at the side of his mouth. "She is safe and still very much alive, for now. I will give her back and leave you be only if you agree to my demands."

Darien, Lita, and Nephlight continued to look around for Kato, but could not find him. They stood back to back to back in the middle of the room, so that if he attacked, they'd know where he'd come from and where he went to. "Which are?" Lita asked as she tensed up, ready for a battle. "I demand you hand over your rank to me, Darien, along with the mansion, your wealth, and everything that comes with your rank. And in return, I will not harm your sister, your brother-in-law, nor your precious Serena and Rini. Oh and I will return your daughter to your arms safely. All this under the condition you never return and you outcast yourselves from the vampire society."

Darien growled and glared at no one in particular, since he couldn't find Kato. Kato laughed again. "Then I guess I have no choice but to kill you all, starting with your sister and her mate , then Serena, then your daughter, and then, of course, you." He said as he laughed even louder. All three of the vampires heard Kato move, they just still couldn't see him. Darien moved quickly. "Nephlight, go upstairs and protect Serena. Lita, continue searching for Kato and I will do the same." Lita nodded as they split up and took different parts of the house as Nephlight quickly made his way upstairs.

Lita moved through the corridors of her half of the house, checking every room carefully for any sign of Kato. She moved for a while until she heard a swift movement behind her. She turned around quickly but nothing was there. She turned back around to face forward. She sighed. 'I'm getting paranoid and that's unusual for me.' She thought to herself as she continued walking through the dark hallways. It was now sun-down as she could tell. She suppressed a yawn trying to escape past her lips. She knew she was really tired, since her brother kept her up to help search for his missing daughter. She was worried about her niece since she was now in the hands of her disowned, demented brother, but she couldn't help but think about sleep. Her thoughts were stopped when she felt another swift movement behind her.

'Damn it! I'm getting way too fucking para...' Her thoughts trailed off as she turned to see a pair of red glowing eyes in front of her, with fangs and a face directly in front of hers. She jumped back a bit, not in fright though. She glared at the figure. "Kato, I thought I told you to never return here!" She said with force. Kato walked towards her, his eyes fading to his normal brown coloring. "You know how I am with authority sister, the only authority that I choose to obey and listen to is my own. You knew I was never really good with other people having power over me when I know I have much more power than they." Lita stepped back again. She wasn't scared of him, she just wanted to be at a safe distance for her to defend herself if he attacked. After all, she did see what happened to her step-father.

"Why did you kill my step-father and what have you done with Rini?" She asked, keeping her eyes trained on him. Kato looked at her and smirked, continuing to move towards her slowly. "Isn't it obvious? If I did manage to kill Darien, his mate, you and your mate, and there was no one left to take the place as the king or queen of all vampires, then Darien's father would have no choice but to take his place back as king, then I would never be king as long as he lived." He smirk widened.

"An eternity is a long time, my dear sister, both in life...and death." He said as he disappeared in literally only a split second. Lita thought the darkness was playing tricks on her eyes as she looked around the darkened corridor for him. She felt a tap on her shoulder and she turned around. As soon as she did, she felt the sting of Kato's punch to the side of her face. She was launched into the air, and hit the wall at the end of the corridor. Some of the tiles from the roof above came down as her body fell to the floor. She landed face first onto the floor. She tried to get up, but struggled. 'I've never seen my brother with this much power...' She thought as she looked up to see Kato walking towards her with those red eyes again. Her vision started to blur and she felt herself losing consciousness. The next thing she knew was her head laying back down on the ground and then darkness.

Meanwhile, upstairs, Nephlight heard a crashing sound from another part of the house, the part he was sure Lita was in. Nephlight moved away from guarding Darien's bedroom. Darien was downstairs in the middle of the room near the staircase that Nephlight was quickly making his way down. "What's going on? You're supposed to be protecting Serena!" Darien said as he caught up with his friend as he headed for the doors to Lita's half of the house. "I know I know. It's just...I heard something crash from Lita's part of the house. I think something happened to her." Nephlight said as he started walking faster. Darien kept up with him. "Look, it's probably nothing. It's probably just all in your head..." He said but Nephlight cut him off. "You know if you heard strange noises coming from the room that Serena was in, even if I were still guarding it, you'd still bust your way in to check on her." Darien thought for a moment and then nodded to his friend to go check on his own beloved. Nephlight nodded back with a little smile.

Darien watched as he friend ran towards the corridor, but as soon as he passed, the doors slammed behind him. Darien quickly got to the doors and tried to open them. 'Locked?' He thought as he tried to jerk them open, but found to his surprise, he couldn't. He stared at the doors, confused. 'These doors are just regular oak and glass, I should be able to rip them open, no problems...' He thought to himself as he stood there. He suddenly heard sounds of what sounded like a struggle. He started banging on the door, demanding to know what was going on in that hallway. He suddenly saw a splatter of blood against the darkened glass window of the door. Darien's eyes widened as he desperately tried to rip the door open.

After a few minutes of trying, the doors flew open and what he saw sickened him and angered him. He stood at the entrance to the corridor, looking at the bloody pile on the floor at the end of the corridor which was his step-sister and his brother-in-law. They were both still in one piece but they were covered in blood and neither one of them seemed to be breathing or moving. It seems Kato had laid Nephlight next to his lover to die. Darien now looked around his surroundings, not wanting to end up like his sister and brother-in-law. Then, one thought came to mind quicker than a flash of lightening. 'Serena...' He thought to himself as he rushed quickly to their bedroom.

"Serena!" He called out as he burst into the room. He looked to their bed. She wasn't there. 'That mother fucker must have gotten her too!' He thought to himself as he looked around the room for any sign of her. "Actually, my dear brother..." He heard the unmistakable voice of Kato as he looked to the balcony. Kato was standing in the doorway of to the balcony with a bundle of sheets in his arms. Darien knew exactly what was in those sheets, his beloved daughter, hopefully still alive. "She wasn't even in this room when I came to perform my deed. I have had yet to find her, but I will in due time, I can assure you of that." He finished the sentence with a smirk on his face.

Darien glared at him, hard. He couldn't even stand the sight of him, let alone knowing that his daughter was in the hands of a murderous traitor. Darien made a quick movement towards him, but when Kato held out the baby towards the balcony railing, Darien stopped fast in his tracks. "I very much doubt your daughter is at the age of flight yet and I do hope she lives to see that age." He said, smirking at Darien. Darien stood there, not knowing what to do without getting his daughter hurt or killed.

"I know she will live to see that age!" Said a voice from outside on the balcony. Kato barely turned around right before a boot came straight into his face, knocking him over and making him loose his grip on Rini. Serena was quick in her movements and caught the baby. Serena looked down at her daughter, who was cracking a smile and a small laugh when she saw her. She looked like she had been crying for a while. Serena looked down at her with a reassuring smile. "Don't worry darling, you're safe now." She very gently gave Rini a kiss on the nose. Kato looked back to see Serena with Rini. He got a maddened look in his eyes. "No, you're not fucking up my plans this time, bitch!" He said as his eyes turned a deep red and he pulled out a sword from under his black cloak. Serena glared at him as she used one hand to pull out her sword from behind her.

"I apparently fucked them up once already, once more won't hurt." She said as she watched Kato get up and come quickly towards her with the sword pointed directly at her. She moved just as fast and blocked his attack. He bared the sword down on hers, as if he was trying to break hers. "You won't win. You'll be ashes to ashes when I'm through with you." She said in all seriousness on her face and in her voice. He smirked. "And you'll be sliced up and begging for mercy when I'm not even though with you!" He said as he moved and tried to attack again. She moved away from him and ran towards Darien with Rini. "Here, take her and go!" She said as she kept her eyes on Kato.

"I'm not letting you do this alone, Serena." Darien said as Serena passed Rini to him. "You're going to have to. He wants Rini and he's not getting her!" She said as she turned to see Kato go out the balcony doors and to the roof. Darien grabbed her arm and jerked her back to face him. "Serena, although you have some energy now, you really don't have enough to put up with a long fight. You still need to rest. It's been less than twenty-four hours since I bit you. You need at least that to completely..." Serena jerked her arm away. "A little bit of fatigue isn't going to stop me, Darien. I promised him a death sentence and I plan to carry out that death sentence." She ran towards the balcony and started climbing from the side of the balcony to the roof. It wasn't an easy task in a long flowing skirt and boots, but she managed to do it.

When she got up to the roof, she saw nothing but shadows and darkness. 'Leave it up to the vampires to live in places dark and creepy looking.' She thought to herself as she looked around the roof for Kato. He had taken to the shadows, blending in very easily, aside from his glowing red eyes. Serena didn't seem to notice him though as she kept looking around for him. Kato smirked to himself. 'Looks like she hasn't gotten quite all of our strengths yet. She has our speed yes, but not our heightened senses.' His smirk grew as he moved out of the shadows behind her and prepared to attack.

Serena stood with the sword in a fighting stance, ready for him to come out at her, but not realizing he was right behind her. Just as he lunged at her, Darien came from the side, tackling Kato down. Serena turned around when she started hearing sounds of the scuffle. Kato and Darien were fighting and rolling around on the floor of the roof. Serena noticed Darien's fangs grew out completely, his eyes were on the verge of becoming red like Kato's. "You won't have their lives or mine." Darien said as he struggled to keep his brother at bay. Kato smirked. "I beg to differ, Brother." He said as he moved the sword between them and sliced Darien's arm.

Darien cried out in pain and fell back and off of him. His wound burned more than it usually would. He smelt traces of garlic and knew the blade was pure silver. Darien now lay on his back, holding his cut and bleeding arm. He hissed in pain as he watched Kato get up. He now stood above Darien with the sword pointed directly at Darien's heart. "Now you will die, brother." He said as he raised the sword to strike at Darien.

Kato stopped when he felt a sudden sharp pain overcome him. He looked down to see a wooden stake sticking out of his stomach and dripping blood. He turned to see Serena at the other end of the stake behind his back. Serena glared at him and shoved it in more. Kato let out a small cry of pain. The look of pain on his face turned back into a smirk as he turned around and pulled the stake out, throwing it away and over the ledge of the roof. Serena started backing away from him. He smirked once more as he advanced towards her.

"Don't you know anything? A real slayer would know to kill a vampire with a stake, they have to hit either a major artery or the heart, and you hit neither." He said as she stopped short of the edge of the roof. She looked down at the long drop and then back to Kato. "Now, my only tough decision is weather you should die by my sword, my hand, or by simply pushing you off this ledge. Hmm...decisions, decisions..." He said tauntingly at her as he stepped towards her again.

Kato looked past her to the horizon. It was near dawn! He had to finish this off quickly. While he was momentarily distracted, Serena quickly grabbed Kato's sword and turned it around so it pushed itself into Kato's stomach. Kato's eyes went wide as blood started pouring out and a horrible burning sensation swept through him. She ran past him, but not before she stuck her sword into the roof, also catching his cloak so he couldn't move. Kato turned to see Serena running towards Darien, who was trying to take care of his wound himself. Kato tried moving towards them, his breathing was not steady now and he was staggering in his steps.

Meanwhile, the sun was slowly coming up, the horizon changing from blue to an orange color. Kato turned to see the sight. His eyes went wide with terror as he tried to get away to a dark place, but found he couldn't move. He looked down to see her sword had his cloak stuck to the spot. The sun came up over the horizon a moment later and Kato screamed in pain as he began to catch on fire. He continued to scream as his body was being eaten away by the fire. After a few more moments, all that remained was a plie of ashes, which was swept away by the wind.

Serena let out a sigh of relief as she helped Darien to stand up. He winced a little in pain as she had accidently grabbed his wounded arm. "Sorry." She said as he forced a smile and shook his head. "It's alright. Just as long as you're safe, my safety is of no importance." He said as he switched sides and brought her closer to him with his good arm. Serena smiled and put a hand on his chest as she let him hold her there. They watched the sun-rise together, glad that most of their worries was gone with the wind.

"Serena! Darien! Are you in here?" They heard a voice say from within their bedroom. They quickly made their way back down to their bedroom to see Lita and Nephlight standing in their bedroom. Nephlight had his arm slung over Lita's shoulders while she was holding on to him. They were both still bloody, but alive nonetheless. Serena quickly made her way over to hug Lita gently and Darien helped Nephlight to stay upright. After Serena got her hug, she quickly closed and locked the balcony doors, almost forgetting Nephlight and Lita weren't like them.

"Is that son of a bitch dead?" Nephlight asked, chuckling a little and then stopping when he felt a wave of pain hit him. Serena nodded. "Yeah, I killed him." Lita smiled at this. "Another reason why I'm happy you're my sister-in-law." She said as she laughed. Later, Darien and Serena helped Lita and Nephlight into the basement, where they buried themselves underground for a well deserved rest. Darien closed the door behind him as they left the basement. He looked at Serena and smiled, happy both her and his daughter were safe.

Serena instantly came into his arms and leaned up and kissed him and smiled back after the kiss. "Now, you know we're going to have to have a long discussion about your double life, Serena." Darien said with a smirk. She looked at him confused. "What double life?" He smiled. She looked so cute to him when she was confused. He leaned down very close to her face.

"The one where you're a vampire and the one where you're a slayer." He said and she blushed. "Oh, that..." She said as he smirked once more. 'God, why does he always look so sexy when he does that?' She thought to herself. "I think it's both bad for our race and bad for me." He said as he leaned in closer to her, making her blush more. "Why is it bad for you?" She asked, already knowing the answer. "Because it's a complete turn on for me." He said as he leaned in to kiss her passionately.

Before the kiss could happen, the whole picture went completely black. Serena opened her eyes and looked to the side to look at the clock beside her bed. It was noon. She sat up in bed and sighed. 'So that's it then? That's the end of it?' She thought to herself as she got up out of bed. She went downstairs, barely being missed by Sayia almost running over her and passing her to get breakfast. Serena then started running downstairs so she could get her breakfast done and over with so she could call Darien.

Later, Serena was upstairs in her room, picking out her outfit as she talked to Darien on the phone. "Yeah, it was really weird. And it felt extremely real, like the times before I found out I was the Moon Princess. Yeah, I know! And Rini was there, and Lita, and Amy, and you..." She went on and on telling him about it until he decided to tell her to meet up at the park with him.

About an hour later, Serena and Darien were walking through the park together. It was a bright sunny day. There were lots of little kids running around and families having picnics and lovers in random places. "So, what do you think of it all, Darien?" She asked as she looked up at him while they continued walking. Darien shook his head. "I'm not really sure actually. I can't tell you if it really was apart of one of our past lives before the Silver Millennium or not. It might have all been made up in just a random dream you had because I've never had any dreams like that." He said as she looked up at him now with a little pout. "So you think I made the whole thing up in my imagination while I was asleep?" She asked as he looked down at her and saw her pout, knowing she now knew he doubted her.

"Well, you do have an overly active imagination sometimes. Did you have sugar before bed last night, Serena?" He asked as she glared at him a little and clung to his arm. "I did not imagine this Darien! How could I have imagined this all two night in a..." She trailed off as she noticed something about Darien's teeth for a moment from the side. She gasped as she noticed it was a fang. It was there for a moment and then it disappeared. Darien heard her gasp and looked down at her with concern. "What's wrong Serena? Are you okay?" He stopped walking and stopped her and asked as she stared at him for a moment. He was completely normal. Serena suddenly smiled. "Yeah, everything's just fine. You're right. I probably just imagined the whole thing. Let's go get some ice cream!" She said happily as she pulled Darien along behind her to the ice cream stand. She smiled a little knowing smile to herself. Call it women's intuition but somehow, Serena knew that the dream wasn't just a dream, it was a part of one of her pasts, but she wouldn't argue the point with Darien.

After all, the man was going to be the father of her child in the future and the buyer of her ice cream supply!

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Yeah, I know the ending might have been a little stupid, but I hope the rest was pretty good. Well, this story is finally complete and I hoped you all enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Thanks to all of my fans and readers and reviewers!

Mackenzie