Warning: Rated "M" for a reason. Chapter contains language.
A/N: After you read this story, tell me whether you'd prefer me to continue working more on this one, or Return in Kind. They are both currently about the same length (although not in chapters). I initially had this one written with Chapter 1 and 2 as a single, long chapter, but decided it would work better as two different chapters.
Once Upon a Hundredfold
Chapter 1
She couldn't even scream anymore. Her throat felt raw and hoarse. She tried to lift a hand to her neck but discovered that her body refused to move.
Curiously, she felt no pain. She could've sworn that a moment ago her body felt positively on fire, but now she felt nothing. No pain, no agony, just a soft sense of lethargy and sluggishness in her limbs. She tried to take a deep breath and felt liquid fire pooling in her stomach. She would've screamed if she could.
Okay, easier not to breathe. It's okay, I should be fine…
She felt a dull sense of throbbing in her gut and shoulder and panicked for a moment. My baby! I hope the baby is okay… Alone...So alone. Where is he? Why isn't he here?
She remembered angry words and shouting, and her own sense of bewilderment and confusion. But it was easier to not think of such things. It was much easier to follow the beckoning darkness, and the comfort it advertised.
Distantly she heard a feminine voice, calling out and shouting. She couldn't understand or quite decipher the words correctly, but the voice sounded distinctly familiar. She felt cool and soothing hands touch her face and neck. She tried desperately to open her eyes and see who it was but she was just so tired
Time to sleep. I wonder what time it is… Goodnight my baby. I'll see you in the morning… Goodnight…
Darien seethed beneath his helmet. He raced down the freeway at a breakneck speed on his motorcycle and simply lost any police cars that tried to chase him down.
He couldn't even think in his fury. His mind seemed to be a red haze of anger and excruciating pain. All he could see was Serena's beautiful face. Her lying, cunning face.
He saw her face and its beautiful blue eyes, so seemingly honest and pure, tell him that she loved him. Saw her face as they made love and climaxed together. Saw her face in pictures which showed her and his enemy in bed together.
Conniving little bitch.
Even now he saw her face in anger, in confusion, in shock as he told her that he knew everything. The previous exhilaration and excitement on her facing melted off and his heart just ached remembering that face. How dare she deny it? How dare she claim innocence when he had evidence in his hands?
God, he was such a fool. Like a stupid boy mooning after his first love he had believed her, trusted her. He should've known better.
His gut twisted in agony and pain. When one of their secret facilities had been infiltrated and attacked by Diamond's men, Darien had wondered how he might've learned of its location.
Now he knew.
He'd left behind a clearly furious and shocked Serena. But he had to leave, least he wrap his hands around her slender and beautiful throat. As much as he hated her at the moment, he just couldn't bring himself to hurt her. And he hated himself for it, for his weakness.
He'd been driving for almost an hour now, and his speedometer was nearing 180. Traffic was slow and near empty at this time, so it wasn't as dangerous, but his gas tank was nearing empty.
His blazing anger and fury had finally begun to fade away, leaving in its place an icy cold stillness. He could've killed and slaughtered a dozen men at that time and not even blink an eye. He seriously considered it, to just storm into Diamond's main facility and kill as many men that would dare to face him, until he could face Diamond and watch the life slide out of his eyes. But Darien wanted something worse. No, Diamond and that whore Serena would suffer. Diamond would die an excruciating painful death at his hands, but Serena would suffer for the rest of her life. It would be the price to pay for betraying him to such extent. For fooling him, for lying to him, for making him fall in love with her.
Even now his chest felt like it would explode. He would've gladly put the world at her feet, would've died for her… Just as he thought she would for him. He'd loved nothing as much as he had loved Serena, but she took his love and used it for her own twisted ways.
His heart was frozen in his chest, just as it had been before he met Serena. Serena with her heart melting smile and beautiful eyes.
Maybe he deserved it; for being such a fucking stupid bastard. He'd sworn to never trust a woman again, to never fall in love, and against his better judgment, he'd gone against his own words. And look where it got him.
Darien took the next exit and looked for a gas station to fill up his tank. He would go home, and if that bitch still dared to be there, he would make sure that she left and never came back.
He paid the man in the store, the cashier clearly wary of Darien's killer and dark mood. As he waited for the tank to fill, he took out the manila envelope he had stuffed into his inside jacket pocket and took out its contents. He wanted to see them again. He wanted to punish and torture himself with the image of Serena's beautiful writhing body, punish himself for being such a stupid fool.
With cold eyes he examined the pictures once more dispassionately, under the gas station's bright lights. The pictures were of perfectly clear and crisp quality, not grimy or blurry at all. There were five pictures in all, all of which contained images of Serena and Diamond fucking each other. He flipped through them again, seeing that bastard Diamond holding Serena just as Darien used to hold her.
Her body was slim and alluring, her skin perfectly smooth and pale. Her waterfall of silver-blond hair tumbled down her back all the way to her hips where a small trio of moles adorned her back.
He ignored the ache that began to build in his chest and viciously stamped it down.
Wait. Moles?
From what he knew, Serena's body was pure alabaster perfection, not a single scar, mole, or birthmark adorning it. She'd often complained that she looked like a ghost, and wished she could tan properly. He moved to better light and brought the picture closer to his face. The picture was in perfect clarity, so it wasn't just a mere imperfection of the picture.
His heart pounding, he scratched at the picture, trying to remove the blemish.
It stayed. He looked the all the pictures, and in most of them, the same small trio of moles were on her back in the exact same spot on her back. He looked at Serena's face more closely and saw that her nose also looked larger and her lips looked thinner than they actually were. Her eyes were a stunning shade of blue... but dark. Too dark. Serena's eyes were a pale sky blue that sparkled like ice. And her ears. Her ears were pierced. Serena had never gotten her ears pierced before.
He couldn't breathe, couldn't think. He flipped through the pictures once more, examining each one carefully and thoroughly. With each minute that passed, that ache in his heart faded, and the muscles in his stomach began to loosen.
It wasn't her. Oh god, it wasn't her. It wasn't her. It wasn't Serena. Serena had never betrayed me. She had been telling me the truth all along. It wasn't her. She loves me.
"Thank you god." The words slipped through his lips in the barest of whispers. His mind was a whirlwind of relief and confusion and guilt. Oh god, the words he had said to her, the things he had accused her of. How would she ever forgive him?
He got back on his bike, prepared to race back home and grovel at her feet. She wouldn't make this easy for him, he knew. He hadn't trusted her and she knew that now. He wondered how long it would take, or if he could, win back hers.
Darien wondered who the woman in the pictures was. She looked remarkably similar to Serena, with only the slightest differences marking her as a different woman. Then he wondered how Diamond knew about the location of his facility, if Serena hadn't been the one to tell him. He clearly wanted to throw Darien off with the pictures, and perhaps even make him do something that he'd regret (which he'd almost done).
He had tons of unanswered questions, all of which paled before the mother of all questions cramping his mind: would Serena forgive him?
The only hope that Darien had was his faith in Serena's love; love that he'd never again doubt. God, to think that he almost lost her, and all because of Diamond's sick trick… It made the ache in his chest return with a vengeance.
Oh, Diamond would pay dearly- more so than before. He wouldn't die anytime soon, oh no, but he'd suffer until he wished he would. He had underestimated the extent of Darien's power and force; and he'd regret it for the rest of his life.
He felt his cell phone vibrate in his pocket, and pressed a button which connected his cell phone to the wireless headset wired into his helmet.
"Shields," he snapped into the phone. He was impatient to get home, impatient to find Serena.
"Darien? It's Mina. Oh god, something terrible has happened!"
He instantly thought of Kunzite, one of his most trusted men and Mina's husband.
"What is it? What happened?"
"It's Serena."
His body stiffened, and grew cold. The heat of his rage was replaced with numbness, and his heart began to thump in pounding fear. He couldn't even speak, breathe.
"She was attacked in your guys' bedroom. I'm on the way to the hospital with her right now. I called Kunzite and he's on his way," she sobbed, and her voice cracked. "Oh god, Darien. It's really bad. The paramedics don't know if she…" Mina broke, and began to cry harder.
"I-i-is she still alive?" for the first time in his entire life, Darien's voice wavered. He felt the waves of panic clogging his throat, cutting off his air.
"Yes, but barely. The paramedics don't know she'll live for much longer. Serena… God, Serena."
Darien clenched his eyes shut for a moment and took a deep breath. Terror was a new emotion for him, and he was beginning to learn just how crippling it was. "Just… Just stay with her Mina. I'll be at the hospital soon. St. Mark's?"
"Yes. But please Darien, hurry. If something should go wrong…"
"No, she'll be fine. She has to be. She will be."
Reminder: Please keep reading it! I initially wrote it as one long chapter, but decided to break it up. So keep reading :) .