Afterimage

And if I'm falling

I'm falling like a stone

In my nightmares

You still hold me

[Sting]

"That was when I passed out."

Darien broke off his story as Serena shifted to get more comfortable, dangling her long legs over the arm of the couch. He reached up to rub at his shoulder. Even after all these years, it still twinged occasionally where he'd been stabbed by the crystal shard.

"I don't remember what happened after that, or how long I was under Negaverse control…"

Darien fell into the darkness.

He cried out as he fell through the fire and darkness and dreams, the sound breaking and disappearing in the inky heat. He was caught in the searing pain and he was all alone again. Always alone …

"No!" Serena's cry followed him down into the sunless depths, catching at him as he sank. How could so much heartbreak and love be for him?

Something else responded to the despair in that lost voice, and rainbow fire ripped across the darkness, showering sparks across his vision. And then the seven rainbow crystals, so bright that he could see them even in this nightmare dark, exploded into silver brilliance.

Darien flung up an arm, blinded by the white hot light that flared brighter than the sun for an instant and left him staring at the dim afterimage of Serena standing protectively over him, the Imperium Silver Crystal made whole from rainbows in her hands and radiant with power.

In the sudden blaze of glory she was more than the schoolgirl he knew and the uncertain superhero he protected. She was incandescent, a royal gown spilling around her feet, and he could smell the heady scent of roses. Then that too was gone.

"Three months," Serena said quietly, her fingers knotting themselves with his. "Three long, horrible months."

He blew out a soft breath. "It just felt like a nightmare that wouldn't end."

The darkness was more profound than ever before. Something dragged him down into the impenetrable depths, something that refused to let him remember how to wake, and he felt the panic rising. He felt strangely unreal, and lifted a hand, turning it in the darkness as if surprised that he still had a hand. It felt as if his body was a long, long way away. After ten years of searching he'd found everything he'd been looking for, so why was he still lost?

Darien tried to force down the cry of despair that was welling up in his throat as he turned blindly in the empty black void. There was nothing to see, to hear, to touch.

Nothing, and he was all alone.

"If only I hadn't been stupid enough to let Zoicite distract me," Serena said bitterly. "Those were almost the worst moments of my life, when you collapsed, and then all it took was a second while Malachite grabbed you, and I couldn't even stop him."

Darien tightened his arms around her. "But you got me back."

Then she was there in the darkness beside him with Serena's blue eyes, Serena's smile.

"It can't end here!" he cried. "Not when I've just found you."

Her smile brightened.

"You're not going to lose me that easily," she whispered, and she shone in the darkness for him like a galaxy of stars. "You found me in the darkness and set me free, love, and now it's my turn. Hold fast, and I will find a way to bring you back."

Darien closed his eyes, the darkness forgotten in the touch that was warm sunshine and pure magic as her lips brushed his. He heard the dear, familiar giggle that stole his heart.

"Wait for me," she breathed, and then she was gone.

"I should have been faster," Serena muttered.

"I knew you'd find me, and what was a few more months of waiting? I'd been waiting for you for all my life."

"For your princess, you mean," she said with studied indifference.

Darien watched the top of her head as she picked at the edge of the leather cushion with her free hand. Without the thought of her, he would have gone mad alone in the darkness.

"I waited a thousand years to be reborn with you," he said softly, his thumb tracing patterns on the back of her hand. "Heck, I fought monsters for you. I fell in the lake. I let Peggy talk me into modelling because it meant that I got to be near you. I hated Andrew with a passion for a while because you smiled at him." He sighed. "I'd always thought of myself as sane and logical, but in the space of a few weeks you had me going nuts. I even went to a doll show with Raye to try and make you jealous," he added, making the supreme confession.

Serena tilted her head back to stare up at him.

"A doll show? You? So all that stuff with Raye was just to make me jealous?" She pouted, and Darien resisted the urge to lean down and kiss that piteous, and insincere, expression. He could see the wicked little gleam in her blue eyes. "And I thought you hated me, for the longest time – you always acted like you couldn't stand to be in the same room with me, and I don't remember you ever opening your mouth without insulting me. What was all that, with the meatball jokes, and picking on my maths?"

Darien grinned faintly. "You were so cute when you got mad. And I would have said anything to get you to look at me with those big blue eyes of yours."

Serena thought about that for a moment. "Oh."

She settled back against his shoulder, tucking her feet up under her on the couch.

"So you weren't disappointed, then?" she asked in a tone that tried to be casual and failed miserably. "When you found out that she was me?"

"Disappointed?" Darien almost laughed. No, disappointment had not been among the bewildering array of reactions at that moment. Relief, yes. Confusion, revelation, terror, delirious joy. And blinding pain, of course.

"Since I first met you, I've done every stupid thing under the sun." His wry smile was hidden in her hair. "And I've had more amnesia than just about anyone else in medical history, but it's all worth it for this." He lifted their joined hands, until the lamplight caught in the facets of Serena's heart-shaped ring. After everything he'd put her through over the years, he still couldn't believe that she'd agreed to marry him.

"I would have waited for ever for the chance to be with you like this."

Serena turned in his arms, her golden hair spilling like heedless sunshine over them as she reached up to touch his face with gentle fingers. The brilliance of her smile was almost blinding.

Her sigh was warm and sweet … "Love you …" as her lips met his, and once more, Darien was lost in the taste of vanilla and roses. All that was left of the world was the woman in his arms, and the magic when she kissed him.

Yes, he would go through it all again for this.

Darien looked into the sightless void, deeper and darker now that her light was gone, but he wasn't alone.

Princess Serenity.

Sailor Moon.

For her, he would wait forever.

He held out his arms to the darkness, an unbidden smile dawning in his midnight eyes. She was there for him.

"Serena."