Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Sailor Moon.

:& & &:

Kiss of Eternity

Chapter 1

An Encounter

The ripples gradually grew as Serena stepped into the silver lake. Placing both feet into the water, she smiled placidly. She released the skirts of her dress, allowing them to get wet in the cool water. Looking up at the sky, Serena's eyes began to sparkle with the reflection of the stars. The moon is so beautiful tonight, she thought to herself. As she gazed at the night sky, then around her, she pictured the one thing that would make this moment perfect. She sighed, contented with her thoughts. Serena looked down to gaze at the water, stopping to see something glittering next to her feet. She bent down and picked it up, it was a pendant. The silver exterior was shimmering from the lights reflecting in the water.

"It's so beautiful," Serena whispered, awed by its stunning beauty. She touched it, smiling at the little treasure. "It's in the shape of an angel. The shape of hope."

Serena gasped as two strong hands closed around her waist. She turned her head around as far as she could without moving the rest of her body. Her mix of surprise and fear subsided, and was replaced with joy as she looked into the eyes of the man.

"Darien, I was just thinking of you!" she laughed as she put her hands upon his.

Darien whispered into Serena's ear. "Really, good things I hope," he paused, looking down, watching the hems of her skirts drift around her in the water. "What are you doing out here alone?"

"It was getting hot in the ballroom, so I decided to take a walk."

"Oh, yes, it's so nice here. It has been so happy and peaceful since you restored the Moon Kingdom."

"Yes, it has," Serena sighed, drinking in the atmosphere.

"Huh?" Darien shifted under Serena's hands; feeling a cold object in her hand. "What's that?"

He moved to lift her hand and looked at the pendant.

"Oh," Serena giggled. "I found it in the water, just before you snuck up on me."

"Oh," he gazed at it a little longer then whispered softly. "It's beautiful, just like you."

He bent his head to the side more and reached her lips. They both closed their eyes, wishing the moment would never end. Darien pressed a little harder against her lips before he moved away. He gently turned her around to face him.

He stared longingly into her eyes, "Serena,"

"Yes?"

"Serena…"

"Yes?"

"Serena!"

"What!"

:& & &:

"You silly girl! Wake up!" her mother spanked her legs lightly, getting her attention. "You're going to be late for school if you don't hurry!"

"What!" Serena exclaimed as she stumbled out of bed and rushed past a blackish cat that seemed to support a rather large sweat drop. Mrs. Tsukino left the room promptly muttering something or other about migraines and a certain individual's sleeping habits. The cat rubbed its paw against a crescent moon shape on its forehead. Its intense eyes following the wailing girl as she tried to quickly change into her school uniform and gather school necessities. As she was piling the last bit of her unfinished homework and study guides into her book bag she caught a quick glance at the cat's unwavering stare.

"Luna, why didn't you wake me? Goodness, is that all you can do? Stare, stare, stare! Ugh! Sometimes I'd think you were a normal cat!"

Amazingly, the cat spoke back, "Well, I did try to wake you," Luna paused to stretch her claws in irritation. "All you did was turn over and have a lovey-dovey conversation with Darien. Then your mom came in."

With an annoyed grunt, Serena opened her door and ran down the stairs. She grabbed her usual piece of toast, stuffed it into her mouth, and tried to say "good-bye" to her parents as she left the house. She sprinted down the sidewalk, stumbling every few steps. I'm going to be so late! Man, I know it's going to be detention hall again! Serena continued on, rushing across the street, not waiting for the walk sign. As she was half way across, a red sports car turned the corner almost hitting her.

Surprised, Serena stumbled back and fell on her butt. She whined loudly, about to get up and give this guy a piece of her mind. She looked at the guy standing over her trying to help her up.

"Why don't you watch…Darien!" Serena gasped.

"I'm so sorry Serena," he said, worry creasing his forehead, "are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm okay," Serena took his hand and stood up.

"What are you doing here, shouldn't you be in school?"

"Oh, no!" she gasped, picking up her book bag about to rush off.

"Hey, let me give you a ride."

"Okay, thank you!" they got back into his car and drove off to her school. Darien gave Serena a quick kiss on the lips and watched her rush off to class. He laughed at the thought of Serena always being late for school and headed for work.

"Hm, late again, Serena?" Ms. Haruna glanced up from her desk not sounding at all surprised.

"I'm so sorry!" Serena breathed trying out the old excuse once again. "I was up late studying, and I couldn't see my clock, it was so blurry..."

"Stop! That's enough of your tired excuses!" Ms. Haruna interrupted curtly. "You have detention, that's all there is to it, now sit."

Stumbling to her seat, Serena almost whined out loud that she had just gotten her fifth detention that week! The school day dwindled on very slowly, sucking the energy out of her. When lunch came around Serena was having an awful day: failing tests, getting yelled at by more teachers, getting teased, getting yelled at some more…

"Lita! Amy! I'm so glad to see you guys!" she called, waving to gain their attention. "You won't believe the day I've had!"

The two didn't bother to look up at her. Amy was staring at Lita with a sweat drop, while Lita obviously stared after another "He-looks-like-my-old-boyfriend-Fred" boy again. Serena joined Amy with a sweat drop as well but had to admit…he was a bit cute. As she stared the thought was then smacked out of her head by an imaginary Darien yelling at her for checking out another guy. She shook herself out of it and looked at her two friends. Shaking her head at Lita and her obsession with the image of some boy named Fred. Sighing, she shook both girls out of their trances.

After recalling her day, they both showed her the appropriate sympathy, but Serena knew what was coming next. "Serena, even though I sympathize with you, it could have been prevented. If you had skipped the arcade and had just done your homework, none of your teachers would have yelled at you, and you would have gotten more sleep, and probably would have been on time, avoiding detention, and no one would have made fun of you…" Amy continued on not noticing that Serena was dazing off, and Lita had gone immature on her and was mocking Amy with her hands. Amy stopped to turn to her, "You should heed my advice as well, Lita. It would do us all good to be prepared for the finals, which may I add, are in just a few weeks!"

"Yeah, just a few weeks!" Lita and Serena chirruped in unison. "Then we will be in high school! Wow!"

They all laughed together and headed for their last class together as the bell announced the end of lunch. Gym wasn't that bad, at least they had Ethan in that class. He was so fine! They entered the locker room prattling on about random subjects. As they opened their lockers and took out their physical education uniforms, Lita looked up with a knowing grin. The two girls cast questioning glances at each other then back at her with the clear expression saying "spill" written all over their faces. Lita gave one last mysterious smile and turned to face them directly to give the full effect.

"Well," she began, clasping her hands behind her back, giving a little stretch, "I think Ethan might like me." Her two companions' jaws dropped, both completely speechless. "Oh, please say something," Lita's face creased with nervous agitation.

The two girls coughed then began to speak, "That's so cool! We're so happy for you! Isn't that right Serena?" she gave her a sharp poke in the ribs with her right elbow, trying to be as discrete as possible.

Serena broke out of her shock, "Oh, oh! Yeah, that's right," she smiled reassuringly.

Lita frowned at their lack of excitement to her news. Her disappointment welling up inside. She almost turned to hide the hurt from them, but a smile crawled onto her face, "I get it, you're jealous," she grinned.

"Heh heh heh, us? Jealous?" Serena winced trying to look less guilty of the accusation, "No way!"

"Serena's right, we're just so happy we're speechless," Serena nodded in agreement and gave a side-glance to Amy, she's so good at cover-ups, I know she likes him too. Poor Amy, I'd die if I didn't have Darien and Ethan liked Lita, not that she does not deserve him of course.

:& & &:

"Did you see her flirt tirelessly with him? I'm glad she was able to find someone cool." Serena said sincerely as they walked away from school. Amy had been kind enough to pick Serena up after her detention and walk with her.

"Yes," Amy replied softly.

Mmm, poor Amy, she is so lonely. Serena broke her train of thoughts as a flyer on the window of a baker's shop caught her attention.

Annual Baking Festival

Come volunteer by selling food and you'll get free food as a thank you!

The two girls silently read the rest to themselves. Serena was ecstatic, bouncing with joy, "Come on, Amy! This is the perfect opportunity to get free food! Not to mention that food makes people happy, and you look like you need it."

Serena regarded her friend's face with concern.

She nodded, "Sure, why not? It'll be good for my college transcripts anyway." Smiling she allowed the bubbly blond to yank her by the arm to the designated place. The flyer has said to go sign up below the radio tower by 6:00 pm on February 21, which was today! Glancing at her watch, Amy noticed that Serena was in a hurry for the soul purpose of food, rather than to be there on time.

"Wow! Amazing, this place looks great, not to mention smells good too!" Serena drooled making it almost difficult to understand her. "Where do we start?"

Amy giggled, taking her arm gently, leading her to a desk labeled Volunteers, "I knew that…heh heh."

"We'd like to sign up to volunteer…" Amy trailed off looking at the boy sitting in front of her. He looked up, acting surprised. His hand ran through his thick hair, "Greg, I didn't know you were going to be here!"

He blushed, "Hey Amy," smiling he looked from her to her companion. "Hi there Serena. How are you guys? It's been a while." Serena elbowed her with a big wink. She knew coming here would improve Amy's mood, but this was just excellent! She could volunteer and pig out with out needing to worry about Amy! Greg would keep her company.

"So, now, which booths would you two like to work in? I've got a sheet here to…" Greg carried off in mid-sentence and stared, "ummm…"

Amy turned to look over her shoulder to see what was so distracting. As she did she performed a genuine "anime faint."

"Serena, you don't eat the food now!" Serena blinked, noticing the two onlookers.

"Oh, heh heh heh!" she laughed scratching her nose, trying to look as casual as possible, not realizing the evidence was all around her mouth.

"Hm, anyway, here is the sheet of booths to choose from. Yeah, and I'll be working in the 'Bread Booth'." He bent his head down and blushed a little after saying that. Amy, however, noticed since his neck was turning red as well.

She giggled, "Oh, well, would you mind if I worked in the same booth?" she blushed a little, but stopped as she remembered, "Oh, wait, I think I should work with Serena since she was the one with the idea…"

Choking on the remaining food she was chewing, Serena jumped in, "No, Amy! You should join him! You'll have much more fun with him!" Serena winked and left the two where they were to take a look around.

Amy and Greg stared after her, speechless. Amy turned to the paper and signed her name next to Greg's under the "Bread Booth" category. Amy then took the liberty to sign Serena's name under the "Cheese Cake" column.

As she signed, Amy decided to start up the conversation again, "I might not have known you were here, but you knew we would be coming, didn't you?" Greg blushed at this but didn't reply. She laughed, "I knew it. I've wanted to see you too. Don't worry, if I could see into the future, I would probably have done the same thing. I know you're not stalking me or anything."

Greg looked up relieved and smiled. "Well, that's done," he said and placed the papers in a folder. "The sale will begin tomorrow at twelve o' clock. It would be a great help if you and Serena baked some food to sell tomorrow too. I know I'd love to buy some."

Amy blushed, this was a little too mushy, she wasn't used to this. "Okay, thank you for telling me. I'll see you tomorrow." With one last wave she turned and pulled Serena from all the food she was eyeing. Greg waved back, but as they slowly went out of sight, his smile faded and he thought of his true job at hand.

:& & &:

"It's almost time. The princess of the fallen Moon Kingdom, and the future queen of the earth, will soon perish by my hand." The beautiful young woman mocked the word future as she uttered her sentences with venom. She crushed her little mirror she was holding with one bare hand. Her black hair fell to cover one of her eyes, and she brushed it out of her face with the same delicate hand. As her hand brushed it out of her vision, she felt it touch her face. She looked at her hand and saw a tear; it was mixing with the blood the glass had brought forth.

"Why am I crying? I don't feel pain…" she raised her eyes to look into the flames. They changed color so quickly there was no chance to see what color they had been before. They burned a deep red, seeing nothing at the moment. All she could see was the moment she would get her sweet revenge. That's all that mattered. The queen would pay.

:& & &:

"Ah-choo!" Serena sneezed as they walked though the gate to the bake sale.

"Bless you! Don't drop the cookies!" Amy helped right the tray in Serena's arms as they approached the information booth to ask where their designated stands were. Amy laughed, "You know what they say about sneezing, don't you? They say that if you sneeze, someone is talking about you behind your back!"

Serena gave a shocked look, "Are you serious? That sucks, I wonder who it could be?" they looked at each other and laughed.

"I wouldn't worry about it, I'm sure it's just a silly superstition." Amy smiled reassuringly. Serena nodded in agreement.

"…Amy, do you think you and Greg will become anything more than friends?" Serena blushed a bit at asking this question. She knew how Amy was not that open about her feelings when it came to this type of subject. "I mean, well, would you want something more to happen? You don't have to answer if you don't want to."
Amy gave a little smile, "I don't know, I really do like Greg, but I don't want anything to come between our friendship. You know how intimate relationships can sometimes ruin a friendship. I don't think I would want to risk that, but I don't know how he feels either."

Serena stared, shocked. She could not recall a time when Amy had confessed something like this before, "Oh. Well. Would you like me to find out? Ha ha! Serena the match maker to the rescue!" she was about to rush off and find Greg when Amy placed her hand on her shoulder.

"Please, don't do that," Amy pleaded her with big eyes.

"Oh, but Amy!" Serena was about to complain, but stopped when Amy gave her a look.

"I'm sorry, I know you love this type of thing, but I think this is a problem that should stay between Greg and me. Don't worry; I'll be sure to ask you for advise." Serena swallowed as she nodded, Amy's face looked like it was holding back a lot of pain. Amy really likes him, she always has. Perhaps today will be a good day to find out where they stand with each other.

The two scouts in disguise stopped at the booth to ask where to go next with their goodies and where their posts were. As they talked with the secretary at the table they saw a bright flash out of the corner of their eyes. They turned around, surprised, and saw the three remaining scouts as well as Darien standing with a camera in his hands.

"Hey guys! You didn't tell us you would be here!" Mina said with pure, bubbly excitement. "I was wondering where you two had gone off too, but I figured you would be here, Serena, since this is all about food." Serena laughed as she bounded over to Mina to talk about all the delicious food. Raye shook her head as she looked up at Amy.

"Hey, Amy, what's up? You seem a bit quiet." Raye walked over to her and placed her hand on her shoulder.

Amy looked up as if breaking a daze, "Oh, I'm sorry, just thinking." She laughed to reassure her and they walked over to the rest of the group.

Serena was hanging onto Darien and was begging him to join her at the Desserts booth while she volunteered. Darien nodded and let her drag him away while they waved good-bye to the rest of the group.

"So, you guys are volunteering, huh?" Lita asked Amy.

"Yeah! I bet you guys could still sign up! I'm working in a booth over in the "Bread Booth" with Greg…" she stopped as all the excited gasps arose. Oh, no. I shouldn't have said that, now Mina is going to give me her nudge, wink, and squeal. Sure enough, all three came as expected. Amy blushed, "Okay guys why don't you try and see if you can still volunteer. I'll see you a little later!" she ran off to escape the madness of her friends.

"Hee hee," Mina chuckled as they headed to the desk to inquire about remaining posts. As they got their booth a thought popped into Mina's mind, "Hey, guys, don't you think it's a bit weird that there has been no sign of any negative vibes for a long time? I guess I'm not used to this, but I also kind of miss the whole 'saving the world' bit."

The other two nodded in agreement, "Yeah, it is a little boring when we are not kicking Negaverse booty! It is our destiny after all. " Raye frowned thinking about it, "Don't worry guys, remember, we'll have a lot of work on our hands in the future. Don't forget about the Dark Moon situation. They will keep us holding a barrier for a long time!" the other two laughed and agreed.

"At least we know we will win!" Mina giggled.

"What do you mean? We always win!" Lita interjected.

"Oh, yeah!" Mina giggled getting a bit hyper from all the chocolate cupcakes that she had been pilfering from the plate they had brought. Raye, now realizing this, took away the plate, and letting her violent nature take over, smacked Mina in the back of the head, leaving an impossibly large bump. Lita laughed at this and led the two quarreling girls to their selected booth.

"Yay, I'm glad we get to work together! Hm, I wonder how Serena does it. She just eats and eats, and never gets fat, one day Darien will be sorry he let her near that one cake. Heh heh heh." Raye laughed evilly at her own observation. The other two scouts stared with little crickets chirping in the background.

At this, the brunette leaned over towards Mina with narrow eyes, "I don't think you were the only one stealing sweets." Mina laughed at this and fell over with a big hiccup.

"Ha ha hic….ha…hic…ha ha haic," now Lita was the only sane one at the table.

"Hi! May I help you?" Lita coughed to hide her thoughts about her two companions from this potential customer. She looked up at the face and drooled, "Yes…you are dreamy…(coughs) I mean, may I help you?"

"Ahem, well yes, I'd love to buy a couple of those glazed doughnuts from you," Lita leaned over with glee, He'd LOVE to buy something from ME!

"Here you are! That will be one-ten please," he dropped the money into her hand and brushed it while doing so. She giggled madly. "So, are you from around here?"

The man replied uneasily at the girl's attentiveness, "Well, um, yes, I actually like to visit the radio tower a lot."

"Really…" she paused as she took a breath and rested her chin on her clasped hands. "Wow, that's so interesting. So, what's your name?"

At this he was very uncomfortable with the tone this young girl was using, "Um, Mark." He took a step back getting some distance, "Well, it was nice talking with you, um…"

"Lita," Her eyes were glazed and Mina and Raye had time to stop laughing and eat some popcorn while watching their friend look ridiculous in front of another Fred look-alike.

"Um, right. Lita. Well, see you around."

"Hee hee! Bye-bye! Nice you meet you! Come back again soon!" Lita called as Mark half walked, half ran back to the radio tower. "He loves me…"

The two audience members fell over after that statement and lay there for a while too stunned by Lita's ignorance to move.

At that moment Raye righted herself. "I sense a corrupted presence."

The serious expressions took over the three girls instantly and they all sat silent, looking into the crowd. They all were attentive to each person they could see. Then Raye saw her: a woman that seemed to reek with negative energy. Raye was about to take out one of her repelling charms but changed her mind to find out what its intention was. She remembered the first time she met Serena. She had injured her thinking she was some sort of demon when it was actually their new helper at the temple. She didn't want to make another mistake like that.

Out of nowhere power sticks appeared in their hands. As they continued to watch the potential enemy, Serena, Amy, and Darien came over. They all felt the presence too. Serena looked up at the figure, trying to size up what they were going against. She didn't look armed, but most never do until they are ready to strike. The woman stopped in her place feeling she was being watched and stared at nothing, seeming to concentrate only on her thoughts.

I know you can hear me, Sailor Scouts. You need not reveal yourselves. I intend you no harm, at least, not yet. The sailor scouts looked at each other, she was using telepathy! When she paused she turned her head right in their direction. No need to hide behind there, I know what all of you look like. Queen Serenity, you will pay for what you did. Until then, it's nice seeing you again, so young, so helpless. How you will suffer. With those last words she disappeared unnoticed.

The sailor scouts looked at each other, she was using telepathy! When she paused she turned her head right in their direction. With those last words she disappeared unnoticed.

Who was that? She seemed so familiar…if only she hadn't hid her face behind that veil.

"Serena, do you know who that was?" Raye asked. "Didn't she seem… like someone we all knew?" she looked at the others a little bit shocked.

"Hm, looks like we get to be sailor scouts again…" the three girls sighed as they

thought of their conversation only a few minutes before. They sat worried, knowing that they really would rather be bored than have to risk the safety of the world and the people they loved the most. They all stared at Serena as she looked blankly at the ground, while

Darien embraced her in a protective hug. "We always win!"That was true, but something about this enemy...she could not help feeling there was something truly horrible coming.