She wrenched her hand from Morpheus' and whirled away from the car.  Darien crossed the intervening steps in a heartbeat.  Then she was in his arms, her own wrapped around him as tightly as his held her.  His lips were upon hers as hungrily demanding of her as she was of him.  Their physical forms pressed against one another as close as they could force them.  His mind reached for hers, prepared to bludgeon his way through her shields if it were necessary but they were already dropped and her psyche was entangling itself with his desperately.  He demanded everything of her, her heart, her mind and her soul.  She was his and he would not let her refuse him.  She gave willingly and in return he offered her everything that he was, had been and could be.

Their merging was not a physical one but purely mental and in it he found the identity of the nameless emotion that had dwelled within her eyes.  Love, she loved him with all of the passion that was in her and he was breathless from the force of it.  That did not mean he was not equal to it, anything but.  He felt the power within him rouse, purer than it had ever been before.  It poured into her and she soaked it up as if she were a desert and he the rain.  She took everything he had to give, unquestioningly and would have returned it.  He could have taken her then, in front of her old teachers, his friends and her supposed soulmate.  He could have claimed her forever as his own but he did not.

He could have fought when Artemis pulled her from his arms but he released her feely, if not willingly.

He could have stopped them when they bundled her into the back of the car and he knew that she would not have objected.

He could have kept her but he did not even try.  Instead he watched without a word as the black BMW stole her away from him.

She had given him her heart, freely in its entirety and he should have been exultant.  She returned his love for her but in the end it made no difference.  She was not his to love.

***

Andrew looked at his sister in concern.  She had not said a word since Artemis and Luna had brought her to the command room hidden beneath the arcade.  He was told that she had not said a word since Artemis had been forced to tear her from Darien's arms.  No, she had retreated within herself and now Morpheus kept a hawk-like vigil over her catatonic form.

Her blue eyes were blank as they stared into nothing and her pale face lax.  Everything he had feared had come to pass and worse than he had believed possible.  For all of her strength his sister's heart was so very fragile, as was the mortal's whose own lay entwined with hers.  He had wanted the two to be happy, he wanted for them to know the same joy he did but instead their agony of yearning pierced through even the most powerful of his shields.

"What are we going to do?" he asked of them all and received no answer for none of them knew.

Next to him Rita hugged him tightly and he returned it feelingly.  Luna and Artemis' knuckles were white, so tightly did they grip each other's hand.  The four stared helplessly at the pitiful heap of gold and silver in the Divine Star's grasp.  There was nothing they could do.  For all of their power and all of their love for her, Serena had to fight this battle on her own.

"Couldn't we have left them together?" Rita asked, "It's not the first time one of us has loved a soul that was not their soulmate."

"We could not risk it," Artemis sighed.  "The chance that they would be bound together was just too great."

"Love isn't about sex though!" Rita burst out, "They could have-"

"You didn't see them together," Luna interrupted, "Sooner or later they would decide to give everything up for their love."

"But it's their decision isn't it?" Andrew demanded and his fellow guardians looked at him aghast.  "Oh come on!" he cried harshly, "She has a right to choose her own path doesn't she?"

"I thought you agreed-" Artemis started, shocked.

Andrew shook his head.  "I do but…  She's so alone!  How many others have ever been forced to wait so long for completion?"

"Luna and I for one," Artemis returned immediately.

Andrew shook his head again.  "No offence Artemis but it was your courtship that took so long.  You were less than two centuries old when you actually met her.  Usa is nearly a solar millennium."

"Elysion would have been older than that when she was born if he had lived."  It was the first time that the Lunarian had heard the Star speak and his words caused only further distress.

"No, he wouldn't," Andrew denied, "If he hadn't been killed then she would have been born earlier.  As it was she held off physically incarnating as long as she could."

"So you believe her pain is Elysion's fault?"

"Yes!  No!  I don't know!" Andrew pulled away from his mate and began to pace.  "All I want to know is where he is!  He found her during the Darkmoon Crisis so why has he not come for her?  Why is he leaving her to suffer like this?"

Morpheus looked down at the disguised Lunarian in his arms.  "I think…" he began unsurely but never got the opportunity to finish.  Serena had awoken.

"You knew."  Her voice was flat but her eyes were bottomless pools of pain.  "You knew!"  She struggled to free herself from him but he refused to release her.

"Yes I knew," he admitted.

Andrew frowned but, before he could go to help his twin, both Artemis and Rita were holding him back.  Reluctantly he agreed to let the scene play out.

"I know you.  I know everything you have been and will be.  I knew that there was only one soul who could cause such devotion in you and I knew when I saw you with him that I was not wrong."

Andrew's frown deepened.  He did not understand what the Star was saying but apparently his sister did.  He kept his peace and listened.

"Why?"  Her voice was hoarse with anguish.  And Andrew suddenly understood.  Everything clicked into place for him and he too wanted to know the answers to the teeming questions behind that single word. 

"Well Morpheus, why?"  Andrew should have felt something about challenging a Divine Star so frankly but all that he found when he looked was determination.  It was his twin's life the old god was playing with and he wanted answers.  The other Lunarian guardians watched the two future Stars confront the ancient one in silent disbelief.

Eyes so dark that only Serena could see the blue in them regarded them all thoughtfully and after a moment the pale face nodded.  "Were you aware that the Fall was engineered to kill a single mortal?"

Andrew's eyebrows rose of their own accord.  All that death… all that destruction…  "You're joking right?"  Behind him Luna and Artemis slowly nodded.  They had known? 

Morpheus shook his head.  "No I am not.  A young Star was born to mortal parents and he was to have been my Guardian.  I named him Elysion, though that is not the name his parents knew him by.  In due course he would have taken my place as Lord of Dream… he would also have been the mate of the Speaker's own heir and thus he had a critical part to play in the Renewal.

"However there were complications."

"Complications?" Serena's voice was brittle and Morpheus took a seat and pulled her down with him.  For a moment she was stiff at his side and then she softened and melted against him.  For a moment her brother was reminded of the way she had unconsciously curled against Darien even when semi-comatose.  Her appearance shimmered and it was Serenity who accepted the comfort of Dream's ruler.

"Complications," Morpheus repeated and stared at Andrew as he did so.  The Lunarian sighed and followed his sister's example.  He released his illusion of humanity and pulled a chair nearer to the one his sister and the god shared.  What was to be said would be done so between equals, Star to Star, with no barriers that might hinder communication.

"Elysion was a Star yet he was also born to a mortal line filled with obligations.  He was literally born a guardian and until he had fulfilled the duties that involved I could not claim him as my own.  So I arranged one hundred of the local years for him to see to his familial responsibilities, then I would come for him and his mortal life would end.  This provided Kaos with an opening.  Elysion was mortal and would remain so until the last hour of that century had passed so the Darkheart arranged for his death.  His handmaiden, a Darkstar called Metallia, and the sorceress Beryl who served the Darkstar much the way a Guardian serves his or her Star, were sent to ensure that Elysion did not survive his mortal span.  They began a war and, more than twenty years early, Elysion did perish as did the majority of life in the sector."

"The Fall," Tranquillity summarised in two words.

"Aye," Morpheus agreed, "The Fall.  They incurred the Speaker's wrath but it could not be proven that Elysion was their specific target and so the transgressors could only be given a punishment fit for the crime of destroying civilisation.  Thus they were limited and imprisoned…"

"Until the reincarnates were reborn to finish the job," Luna concluded.  "But that did not change anything for you.  Your heir was dead and you were angry, so you locked Dream away from us until he was returned to you.  The twist is that Elysion never passed through Death and so Lord Thanatos could not return his soul to you."

"Aye, but he found his way back to me on his own and the remaining years are near completed.  Even if they were not, the time has come for him to discharge his duties as a mortal Guardian and free himself from them in any case.  When that is done then his power will fully awaken from the veils I laid across them.  Then and only then will he be free to come to you Precious Lady.  For only then will he be safe from Kaos' machinations.  Already he unconsciously anticipates the completion of his ancient task and his real power grows restless.  The true gold of his power is showing through its restraints and all that is need is…"

"For me to accept the Imperium Silver Crystal and free him from his duty as its keeper," Serenity finished.

Tranquillity nodded.  If Darien truly wanted Serenity then he would have to relinquish his mortal self for only as Elysion would he have the strength to stand by her side.

***

They looked at each other wordlessly.  They were together yet they were a thousand worlds apart.  She smiled suddenly and her fingers traced his lips.

"I know you now.  Do you know me?"

He opened his mouth to answer but her fingers pressed his lips back together.

"Good, then trust me beloved.  Our time is not now but it will come.  I swear."

She moved her hand from his lips to his neck and pulled him down for a world-shattering kiss.  "The next time we meet, it will be for real." 

With that promise she faded from his arms and left him with the memory of her touch and scent to help him keep faith.  He smiled suddenly and chuckled.  She would keep her promise he knew it.  Until then… well he would not wish his lover to be disappointed upon her return.  Until then he would just have to seek other dreams of her that, though less real, were slightly more amenable.  Practicing was such a chore!

He laughed again and wandered off into Dream. 

***

Kian stared into space while Jyp flipped through photos on the opposite side of the table.  Neither spoke.  It had been less than a day and not one of them did not feel the oppressive atmosphere in Darien's apartment.  It was as if all the joy in him had left with Serena and they all worried for him.  Kian and Jyp had elected to remain with him for the night and the fact that he had accepted their presence wordlessly had made them even more fearful.  The silver-haired man had not an inkling as to how to handle Darien's bleak depression and his mind worried at the problem like a dog with a bone. 

"Hey, I don't remember taking this one!" Jyp said to himself softly.

Kian blinked.  "What?"

Jyp looked up apologetically.  "Sorry Kian.  It's just I found my camera this morning and I got the film developed but one of the pictures looks to be overexposed and I'm pretty sure I didn't take it."

Kian blinked again and straightened.  "Can I have a look?"

"Sure."

Kian accepted the small rectangle of paper and looked at it with slowly rising hope.  Jyp was right when he described it as overexposed even if it seemed to be in the strangest way but the image was still clear.  Kian ruefully acknowledged that he had no photographic talent in the slightest but there she was.  She was washed out, her skin too pale and her hair as much silver as gold, her face looked at little strange and there was a hint of something gold on her forehead but it was otherwise as he remembered it.  A beautiful sleeping blonde and her startled cat, clear as day and perhaps something that would help Darien.

Kian stood and hoped.  A strange thing for him to do but he did not care. 

"What are you doing?"

Kian smiled tightly at the younger man.  "I'm going to show this to Darien.  Maybe it'll knock him out of his funk."

Jyp's eyes widened.  "Okay," he said incredulously, "You do that and I'll stay here.  At least one of us should survive the night that way."  He shook his head as Kian ignored him and continued to walk out of the kitchen.  "Darien is touchy" Kian heard behind him.  "And I don't mean in a touchie-feelie kind of way…"  The blonde's voice trailed off into incomprehensible muttering behind him and Kian ignored him.

He transversed the dark hallway easily, the spotless and sparsely furnished apartment easy to navigate even without light.  When he reached the bedroom door he knocked softly and waited.  When he received no answer after a minute he tried the doorknob and found it unlocked.  For a moment he hesitated.  Should he?  Memory of his friend's shattered eyes in an emotionless face decided him and he turned the knob.

The door swung inwards and he opened his mouth to speak but words failed him.  Darien was sprawled fully dressed across the bed.  His eyes were closed, his face was calm and his chest rose in the steady rhythm of sleep but that was not what had shocked Kian.  It was the sight of a luminescent being he could only describe as an angel hovering over the sleeping form that struck him speechless.  Even as he watched she laid down a dark object in Darien's hand.  A spark of light was cupped in her free palm and in its soft glow he saw her bend over and gently caress the sleeper's lips with her own.  In his sleep Darien smiled and relaxed.  Then she pulled away from him, rose from the bed and turned to face Kian.

Kian gasped loudly.  He knew that face.  Strangely alien though it was, glowing silver with delicate features and a brilliant golden crescent mark between her brows, he knew it.  She looked at him, the endless depths that he'd sensed were now plain for him to see. 

He reached out, tentatively, cautiously, afraid that he would scare her away with a thoughtless gesture.  With a gentle smile she laid her hand in his and let him draw her closer. 

"My name is Serenity."

He regarded her in awe.  She brought his hand closer to her for a more thorough examination and he remembered the photograph that he had held, forgotten.

She looked carefully a picture in his hand and her smile grew slightly rueful.

"That's the thing with illusions.  They're so easy to trip up."

"Is that a problem?" he asked quietly.

She shook her head and moved backward towards the bedroom balcony.  His hand still caught in hers, he followed her.  She stopped at the threshold.  Her hair became molten silver in the moonlight and the colour was leeched from her leaving an ivory statue.  Wings of purest white began to spread behind her.

"Keep him safe for me?"

There was no need for her to name who she meant.  Kian knew.  "Always," he promised her.

Lightning-quick, she stretched on tiptoe and kissed his cheek with a touch as light as a feather.   "This one you did not have to steal," she whispered to him and he blushed, chagrined for a reason he could not explain.  Suddenly she stiffened at something she saw behind him and then she was gone in a rush of wind and feathers.

Kian whirled to find Jyp standing in the doorway, dumbfounded.  His mouth opened but before he could say a word a shadow detached itself from the wall and hissed, "Forget!"  The silver-haired man did not have to look to know that the bed was now empty. 

Jyp slumped and Kian found himself the focus of Darien's silent regard.  He did not say a word for what could he say?  What could be said about what he had just seen?  Had just learned?  About what would happen now?

They were on a precipice, Kian could feel it, and one wrong word or gesture here would do unmeasurable damage.  He retreated into silence.  Darien searched him for some unknown sign and Kian felt as if he were under an unimaginably powerful microscope.  Wordlessly he handed the younger man the photograph and for a long moment Darien just stared at it.  Then he looked back up and Kian relaxed.

"I'm going home," Darien told him, "Back to Tokyo."  He moved away from the door and reached to the floor.  Kian tilted his head as Darien straightened a white feather in his fingers.  "There's no reason not to now."  He stoked the feather tenderly and then abruptly dropped it. 

"I'm going with you," Kian responded calmly and Darien raised an eyebrow.

He walked back to the door and grasped Jyp's shoulders.  Kian grabbed the blonde's legs and together they hauled him to the bed. 

"Why?"  There was no resentment or anger in the younger man's voice, only curiosity.

Kian smiled slightly.  "I made her a promise."

Darien nodded and gestured to the door.  They walked out of the room together, leaving a bespelled blonde man asleep on the bed and a floor littered with several feathers and a photo that neither needed.  Serenity's image was already burned into their minds.

***

In the corridor of time Rini looked up from an image of the past wide-eyed.  "You really left him there?"

Her mother nodded solemnly.  "I had no choice.  We loved each other madly but he was not ready for the position that loving me would put him in.  I would not risk having him hurt so I left."

Puu smiled.  "Everything turned out for the best though Rini.  Both of them came through it stronger for the experience."

"They weren't very happy though."

"No Munchkin, we weren't."  Rini squealed at the sound of the new voice and her mother stiffened.

"Endymion Elysion what do you think you are doing up and about?"

The black-haired, blue-eyed Star smiled cockily at his wife.  "I'm fine Meatball Head, don't worry so much."

Neo-Queen Serenity glared at her soulmate and warned ominously, "Frog-face…"

"Now I'm only a frog because my princess hasn't given me my kiss yet.  When she does I'll turn into a handsome prince…"  He smiled at her crookedly.  Rini saw her mother's irritation vanish in a rush and hid a smile.  Her parents were always doing that to each other.  She, however, was harder to placate. 

"Papa, you have to be more careful!  You were very hurt."

He swept her into his arms and hugged her.  "I'm fine Munchkin and next time I'll be more careful."

Rini rolled her eyes as she returned the embrace but before she could reply her mother answered for her… from out of the mists!

"Personally Spore I wouldn't let him get away without making him promise that there wouldn't be a next time, but that's just me." 

Her mother gasped at her father's side and Puu spat a very bad word as the figure in the mist resolved into a younger Serenity.  Her skin was paler than normal and her feathers were all freshly grown but otherwise there was little difference between the two, aside from their eyes.  Both shone with wisdom and compassion but only the Queen's showed contentment.

"Usagi!" Puu growled.

"Hey Sets," an unrepentant Usagi chirped and she casually strolled up to the small gathering.  The picture of the past that was still imprinted in the mist near them caught her eye and she frowned as she took a closer look.

"Great, my life is what passes for a soap opera in Limbo?  I'm better than TV.  Simply brilliant!"  She turned away from the image with another frown and then examined Rini's parents.  They frankly returned the inspection and Rini found it more than a little strange to see the two almost identical Lunarian woman looking each other over.

Puu did not particularly care for it either.  "Usagi what are you doing here?"

"Not much," was the reply and Rini could hear the green-haired Law Keeper begin to grind her teeth.

Serenity hid a small smile and Rini wasn't the only one that noticed.  Her father leaned closer to his wife and whispered, "You knew this was going to happen?"

"It's been a thousand years.  I can't remember everything that I've done in that time!"  Rini's father stared at her mother silently and Rini had to bite back a smile of her own as her mother sighed and gave in.  "Fine!  I had a little bit of reason to believe that she going to turn up sometime in the near… 'future'."

Puu whirled.  "You what?!"

Serenity shrugged in a manner that reminded Rini very strongly of the Usagi of the past who was now grinning widely.  "It had to happen at some point Setsuna, why not now?"

"After all Sets," Usagi added flippantly, "The Speaker has to be able to walk all Realms, including Chronos'.  I imagine you'll be the one teaching me how."

"What?" the other Guardian repeated but Usagi ignored her in favour of her future self.

"You know it's really weird seeing you like this."

"Me?  What about you?"

"What about me?  My feathers have all grown back now so I'm perfectly normal so what's wrong?"

"There's nothing wrong I just hadn't realised how skinny I was before I had Rini."

Endymion interrupted then.  "If I'm not wrong Usagi's skinny because she still hasn't regained all the mass she lost fighting the spears.  Why won't you believe me when I say that you didn't get fat?"

Rini noticed that her father had slipped into calling the two Usagi and Serenity to keep them separate just as she had.

"She does believe you," Puu interrupted dryly, "She never thought she was fat, she just liked you telling her she wasn't."

"Setsuna!" Both Serenity and Usagi exclaimed.

Magenta eyes stared at them innocently and Serenity muttered something about spoilsports.  Usagi, however, was more philosophical about it and Rini realised that it was because her fun was still in the future for her.  The younger of the blonde Lunarians winked at Rini.

"You know Spore, I thought you were Toki's granddaughter or something, I had no idea that you were my daughter.  The thought spins me for a loop!"

Puu sighed again.  "Is there a reason you're here Usa?  Aside from general mischief making tendencies of course."

Usagi melodramatically put her hand to her heart.  "I'm hurt Sets-"

"Usa…"

"All right, all right."  The blonde smiled in a good-natured manner.  "Just wanted to ask Mr. Elysion there how exactly he came to be reincarnated without any help from either of my parents?  I assume that you have figured it by now."

"I might have," 'Mr. Elysion' chuckled.  "What would I get if I tell you?"

Usagi groaned.  "Oh great, he's become a comedian.  Look Frog-face I have had a really bad week and most of it is because of you!  I admit that the three days unconscious weren't your fault and you did save my life… several times, but I spent several days worrying about you or confused because of you!  In fact I think it's safe to say that my second trip to Earth was the most frustrating trip in the history of short trips and now the future you is-"

Rini found herself gently handed to her mother as her father went to the steadily steaming Usagi and shut her up.  Completely.  Rini watched curiously as her father thoroughly kissed the woman who would be her mother while the woman who was her mother watched on calmly.

"You aren't mad?" she asked.

Serenity shook her head with a small smile.  "No, that is me he's kissing after all."  Then Serenity's small smile turned into a small frown.  "I do hope she realises that she can't keep him.  He's mine.  Her Endy is still in the past."

Rini looked at her mother strangely.  She thought Pluto could be confusing; apparently her mother had a lot of potential in that department as well. 

Finally Endymion and Usagi broke apart but not by much.  For a moment they stared at each other, the tips of their noses almost touching, and he smiled at her.  "I came for you.  He will come for you.  I promise."

A small smile found its way onto the blonde's face and Rini realised that was what she had truly come to hear.  Rini's father chuckled again.  "Now was that all you wanted to know?"

Usagi flushed and she replied sheepishly.  "Well I really did wonder about the reincarnation thing."

Endymion smiled at her gently and Rini's love for her father grew as she watched him with her mother's past self.  "The crystal," he told her, "I was the last Keeper and there was no one else to protect it after I died so it trapped my soul within it.  When your father released the reincarnates' souls for your mother to send to be reborn it sort of 'piggy backed' the spell and caused me to be reborn as well.  It sort of reversed the process so that it was hidden inside me until I started to do magic and then I drew it out of myself.  That's pretty much it."

"Oh…"  Reluctantly she pulled away from him.  "I guess I should leave then."

Endymion nodded and let her go.

"We were going to show Rini how the rest of it happened," Serenity suddenly said and Rini saw both her father and Puu's eyes widen as they realised what Usagi's future self was about to offer.  "You could stay and watch it with her if you wish."

Puu made a strangled noise while her face became as red as her eyes.  Endymion just blinked, no longer surprised by his wife's whims.

Usagi looked thoughtful for a moment and then shook her head regretfully.  "No, staying here won't make it happen any faster.  I have to go and live it."  Rini's mother nodded and the Lunarian Guardian smiled at the small family.  "I guess I'll be seeing you in the ordinary manner next time."

Serenity nodded again and Usagi grinned.  "Ah well, at least one of us has access to him.  He is a great kisser isn't her?  I kind of wish that he'd let Lust win now…"

Rini blinked as both of her parents coughed slightly and Puu growled.

"Bye Sets!"  The younger Guardian disappeared into the mists and the elder turned to the Neo-Queen.

"USAGI!!!"

Serenity turned to her husband and Rini heard her whisper impishly, "At least I've got her to stop 'majesty'ing me!"  Then she sighed and turned back to the infuriated Guardian of Time.  "Sets, it needed to happen.  She needed to know that leaving him was the right thing to do."

Puu stopped growling but her eyes still glowed with aggravation.  "Why didn't you warn me?"

Rini's mother smiled angelically.  "But that wouldn't have been nearly as much fun!"  Puu glared and Serenity met her eyes smugly.  "Besides for showing Rini Darien's dreams you deserved it!"

Rini watched her father's eyes narrow.  "She did what?"

Serenity shrugged while Puu paled.  "She showed her some of the dreams you were having of me back then." 

Puu winced and protested, "It wasn't like you ever got to the good parts back then anyway so I figured it was safe enough."

Rini's father glared at Puu and then smiled sourly.  "Okay Sets, now I owe you one."