Snapped

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Chapter 1
CLOSING THE DOOR

There's a saying that if a girl can learn to make good pancakes, she can learn to do just about anything. Rini frowned; Serena couldn't make a good pancake. But, she figured, she could make a good mess, which is always pretty cool. And this particular pancake-maker-failure could also fight for love and justice pretty well, and stand against a guy that four other Sailor Senshi couldn't touch.

Sure, Serena had needed Rini's help, but Rini wondered if just maybe the teenager might have beaten Rubeus without her around.

But one thing was for sure; there was a lot more to Serena Tsukino than one might first expect. There was a reason this girl had the Silver Crystal, after all; there was a reason she had a bunch of great friends; and there was a reason Rini would actually miss her, and her atrocious pancakes, when the time finally came to leave the 20th Century and go back home.

Which, of course, left her with one pretty immense problem. She'd stolen her mother's Silver Crystal, rendering her helpless in the future; and she'd stolen Serena's Silver Crystal, nearly causing the deaths of all her new friends and herself. Should she try again?

She put extra butter, about two sticks worth, on the next batch of pancakes to soften them up some, thanked the messy heroine, and decided that maybe there was a better way to help her mom besides stealing the Silver Crystal.

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"One, she was actually helpful—" Ami said.

"She had to help or we'd ALL be dead!" Serena fumed. "Self-preservation, right?"

Ami blinked momentarily at Serena's vocabulary [she knew that word?] but continued softly: "Two, she's a Lunarian like yourself—"

"Beryl was an Earthing like YOURself," Serena countered, then wondered if they weren't all 'earthlings' these days. But no matter. Having a crescent moon on your damned head didn't make you an angel.

"Mercurian," Ami corrected gently, although she got Serena's point. Pushing on anyway, Ami said, "Three, she's EIGHT. She wants to help her MOMMY. YOU said you'd help her save her mother." Ami knew this point would be Serena's undoing, since Serena didn't go back on her word. Unless it was about food. Or studying.

"I made her pancakes!" Serena nearly barked, wondering if Rei was ever going to serve the damned chocolate she'd promised, or if she was just going to let Ami continue to rattle off all the great things about Rini.

"Your pancakes were not the help she needed," Lita said with a chuckle. "You're lucky she lived through it."

"Oh whatever... YOU guys help her," Serena said. "I'll follow your lead, but I'm not taking point on this, and I'm NOT hanging out with her."

Rei, finally serving the chocolate, reminded Serena gently, "No Rini, no accidental run-ins with ~Darien~!" Rei forced herself to keep her smile even while wondering where she'd picked up that hideous sing-song voice.

Serena glared at the Martian Senshi. "And that's bad, WHY?"

There, she'd said it.

Rei rolled her eyes and reminded her friend gently, "You know he's still in love with you. —Maybe he's just been brainwashed." 'Again,' Rei left unsaid.

"Again," Mina added, rolling her eyes.

"Or just having PMS," Lita offered helpfully with a generous smile.

Ami whispered very, VERY quietly, "Guys don't have PMS, Lita."

"Some friends you guys are," Serena pouted.

Mina, taken aback, nearly squealed, "We've tried helping you get through this every which way we can, Serena! We told you to get over him; we've tried encouraging you to be patient with him... We're TRYING here! Last we heard, you didn't want to give up on him."

Serena harrumphed. "Well, maybe I was wrong." Glaring at the table of girls, she added, "Look at how many times I've been wrong before!"

"Not about people's hearts, sweetie," Mina offered gently.

"Yeah, just about your test answers in school," Rei said, lightly teasing. Then, more seriously, "Personally, I think you deserve better, but you're hung up on him. Sometimes I think your middle name must be 'self-flagellation'."

Serena stuck her nose up in the air, having no clue what Rei just said, but wanting to pretend like she did.

Ami whispered, "It's like 'glutton for punishment'."

And Lita whispered, "Which means you put yourself in positions to get hurt." And at Serena's baleful glare, Lita quickly perked up and asked, with great humongous hope, "Do you WANT to date someone else?"

Serena blanched, but after a moment's thought, she said, "I WISH I wanted to date someone else." And that was the absolute truth. What she wouldn't give to be able to get over Darien. Dammit, if she ever had a daughter, she wouldn't let her hook up with such a ..a ..a jerkface! Sometimes Serena wished she could air those thoughts, but they always flittered away before they left her mouth. Somewhere deep, deep down, she STILL believed Darien loved her, even with all the evidence to the contrary.

Mina smiled at Lita. "There are SO many cute guys out there, Sere... you know, maybe if you could meet someone else—"

"There IS no one else," Serena said sullenly. "And even if there were, who's to say he'd be any nicer than Darien? Or that he wouldn't fall in love with someone else later on?"

Lita laughed, "That happens all the time, Serena! That's what makes it fun! You get to run through lots of boys until you find the right one!"

Rei slashed a finger across her throat at Lita, telling her silently to shut up before Serena went on about already having FOUND the right one.

Too late.

Serena moaned, dropping her head on the table beside her hot chocolate: "I found the right one. He just HATES me."

"He's mean to you," Ami concurred. "I'm not sure I'd want the 'right one' either if he were that cruel." And, having lived through these arguments over and over the last few weeks, quickly added, "—even if there were a GREAT reason for him being that cruel."

Serena shrugged. Sat up. Drank her chocolate. "Maybe I should be a lesbian."

All four girls looked up, shocked, and then burst out laughing. Which Serena found contagious. Lita finally asserted, with glee, "TRUST me, you're going to like boys just fine." Beat. "I'm thinking someone closer to your own age."

Mina sneered, "Screw that." And when she had their attention, she said, "I'm thinking someone just as mature as your ex-'prince', but more ...fun-loving. Someone who couldn't be mean if his life depended on it. Preferably someone who could satisfy all your deepest desires for chocolate sundaes…?"

"Oh, no!" Serena laughed knowingly. "He's got Reika; and I'm not even crushing on him anymore! That was AGES ago!" And seeing as how he was Darien's best friend, she'd rather die first.

Rei said wryly: "Yeah, a whopping six months ago whoooo! Yeah, Ancient. History."

Serena rolled her eyes. "None of this has ANYTHING to do with Rini, by the way. I'm still stuck with her; she's still GOT to want my Silver Crystal." She deadpanned: "I say we kill her."

The other girls laughed lightly at Serena's joke, but Lita gleamed and said, "Okay! Off with her head!"

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Emerald's Figurine at the Sweets Shoppe!

Days later, after Serena and the girls had suffered Emerald's flu, Rini had begged for an outing. Even though Rini had been pretty cute as a nurse, Serena still wasn't so interested in hanging out with the monster nightmare. The twit was talking about Darien non-stop, for one. Not once did Rini mention that the dashing Darien wasn't anywhere to be found on the UFO, of course. Just that he was the most perfect blah-blah-blah...

Serena finally had it. She knelt down in front of Rini and said, as kindly as she could muster, "Look, Rei really wanted to hang out with you today and take you to that new sweets shop, so let's head over to the shrine—"

"What are you going to do?" Rini asked, thinking this was supposed to be THEIR day.

"I'm going to the arcade. Wouldn't you say I deserve a bit of R&R, Rini?"

"But I thought you didn't have any money?" Rini retorted, feeling a bit hurt.

"Well, I really sorta don't, but Andrew lets me run a tab sometimes until I get my next allowance."

"Then I'll go with you to the arcade!" Rini smiled.

Serena smirked. "Andrew's great, but he doesn't let me run up THAT much of a tab, sweetie." Serena felt like she could choke on the term of endearment, but the kid was sort of getting to her, and she didn't want to particularly hurt her feelings. She just wanted some alone time. Well, alone from Rini.

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That didn't last long. Serena hadn't even gotten past the borrowed tokens before her communicator went off. Her head dropped to the counter, painfully, and Andrew laughed. "Come on, kiddo, what's wrong now? Just go play your games while I whip you up one of my new concoctions, the Tsukino Special—"

Serena had hopped up and waved sullenly at Andrew on her way out: "I've been summoned. But don't worry; I'll be back!"

"Famous last words," he yelled after her, laughing at his own cleverness. As the girl took off, though, a frown crept onto his features. He hadn't seen her in eons, it seemed, and she certainly wasn't the same sweet, bubbly thing she'd been just several weeks ago. Or was it months, now? Ever since her cousin came to town and Darien dumped her.

He set the fudge chunks for Serena's drink aside was taking more orders when a news bulletin came on about a problem at the new sweets shop in town. He bit back his desire to do a happy dance, because even though the last thing he needed was competition from this new, popular confection shop, what really struck him was the nature of the 'attack'. It occurred to him that the clients being turned into pastries sounded just as outlandish as the UFO sightings a few weeks ago. "Man I HOPE we're not getting a new batch of monsters."

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Sailor Moon burst into the pastry shop at the ready, and immediately saw the confection-making droid dodging Sailor Mercury's attack. Rei was stuck in a ..a doughnut. A doughnut that Serena couldn't help but think looked mighty delicious. "Finally a droid I could get along with!" Sailor Moon announced in awe —right before she heard the most hideous laughter of all times. Her attention turned towards the floating, green-haired woman who happened to be close to a jelly gumdrop with Rini inside. 'Hmm, I could get used to Rini that way,' Serena thought—

A rose flew through the air, stunning the droid: "SAILOR MOON! Use your Halation attack!"

Once her eyes rolled right again, biting her lips from saying "DUH, YA THINK?", she started her attack —and got drenched in pudding. Fury pulsed through her veins as she licked it off. But then, despite the dire situation, a bit of glee filled her soul: "Oooh, yummy!"

"SAILOR MOON—!" Tuxedo Mask urged, looking anxiously from her to the gum drop. "NOW, dammit!"

Of course. Tuxedo Useless was here to referee her along, and get mad when she didn't get it right. What if she didn't show up one day? AND WHY DIDN'T THE COOL DROID HIT CAPE BOY?

All of that took a second of thought: she was powered up again and unleashed her attack on the droid, almost sorry to see her turn to stone and drop to the floor. Immediately, all the yummy pudding was gone, and the girls were upon her excitedly talking about Sailor Mercury's cool attack and the free cakes—

The green lady — Emerald, she called herself — was apparently pissed at this turn of events, and the girls gathered round to launch an attack on her. But Emerald unleashed a laughter that would be the end of them all, Serena was sure, and then made some stupid speech and took off.

"That's our new enemy," Jupiter said, despairing. Hadn't they just polished off one? Weren't they here to celebrate?

But the Rini came up and started hollering about something. Serena wondered under her breath if Emerald might be Rini's long lost mother, but instead of voicing her thoughts, turned around and took off. She had a yummy milkshake and tons of Sailor V action ahead of her, and she'd be damned if the brat was going to get to her today!

Unfortunately, the paparazzi were following her. She had to leap on a rooftop and go in the completely wrong direction before she could find a safe place to detransform, and then she realized she was over ten blocks from the arcade.

And it had promised to be such a good day.

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Senshi Meeting—A New Order

"He asked about you," Rei smiled.

Serena looked around the table; they were all smiling. Giggling. Serena's mood was FOUL, though. She shook her head and said, "What, are you guys blind? Deaf? Did you hear what he said to me at the sweets shop?"

Ami offered, "What he always says?"

Serena bit back furious tears. She would not cry over that baka anymore. "Come on, I know I'm stupid—"

"You're not stupid, Serena," Ami interjected quietly.

"But seriously, I have, like, TWO attacks. Tiara. Halation. Did I really need to be TOLD what to do like some kind of ..of DROID?" She stood up suddenly, angrily. These were supposed to be HER friends; HER protectors. And all they could do... "You GUSH over him because he orders me around like some kind of human weapon?"

"We're hardly gushing!" Lita said, shocked at Serena's swipe at them. "We were —I don't know, teasing? I thought you'd LIKE to hear that he wanted to know where you were off to! He's getting more and more transparent! HELLO!"

Serena shook her head, headed for the door. Luna hissed at her to wait, the meeting wasn't over, but Serena turned and said, "I shouldn't have to put up with him anymore!"

"He SAVED you!" Luna argued. "From that dream! Just weeks ago!"

"No, wait," Rei said patiently, but sternly, to the cat. "Serena's right. He's always ordering her around, and then copping an attitude. Ever since he broke up with her, he's been cruel." Beat. "And I don't think HE'S the one who saved us all from Rubeus and TOOK DOWN the UFO!"

"Right," Serena said, somewhat mollified. "His little girlfriend did it — I'll give Rini that. She pulled the crystal. And I've said I'd help her if you guys led the way. And I know he'll be fully involved with that. But I'm really supposed to put up with his rudeness just because he woke me up from a dream? HELLO! I wouldn't have HAD the dream if he hadn't been so mean to me!"

After a quiet moment, Ami said, "Maybe she's got a point. The nightmare she was stuck in was about Darien, after all."

Serena held a hand up, offering peace. "I don't mind if he shows up to help, but one of you needs to inform him that I don't need his stupid instructions. And if you think I do, one of my Senshi can do it."

Luna said, "Serena, I think you're being a little cruel yourself, now." Before almost losing Serena to that dream, Luna might have agreed with Serena; but she felt like Darien had done Luna a personal favor by saving Serena from that nightmare. Something didn't add up with Darien; they all knew it—

"Luna, he's called me ugly, stupid, weak, fat... I won't even go on. I finally accepted he didn't want to be with me. ALL I asked was that he wasn't mean. And he's completely failed. —Oh, except that one time he woke me from a dream he was STARRING in. And even THEN he was mean afterwards!"

"You KNOW he's pushing you away for a reason—" Luna argued valiantly.

Serena stomped towards her cat: "And now I'm pushing HIM away for a reason. My SANITY. I give up! I'm throwing in the towel! There is now a person on this planet that I don't CARE to get along with." She looked up at her friends: "You all can be friends with him and Rini; you can marry him for all I care. I'm DONE, though. If you want to be my protectors, keep him AWAY from me."

After she left, Lita smiled at the group and said, "Cool!"

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The next day, Rini was texting her like mad. Where was she. When would she be getting home. At first, Ami did the responding, but true enough the number of texts got to be ridiculous. "You don't think Rini's in trouble, do you?" Ami asked.

Serena stood in front of Lita, then took a hard kick to the ribcage. And didn't flinch —outwardly, anyway. When Lita hugged her to congratulate her, Serena started breathing again, albeit with a heavy rasp of unadulterated pain. "Ouch," she coughed.

Lita said, "But at least you LOOKED good while taking that hit! If that old lady thinks she can get to us—"

Serena looked over at Ami, who was still brandishing the phone, and said, "Turn the phone the hell off."

Ami blushed at the foul language, and Rei whistled lightly. "Looks like our angel of light has learned a few maritime metaphors."

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"She didn't mention you at all," Rini said, munching on the cookies he'd set out for her.

Darien shrugged, "Well, it would sure be nice if they could clue us in on who Emerald is. How she fits in with Rubeus."

"Yeah, I hope there aren't any more UFOs," Rini sighed. She thought she could probably get that UFO-powering crystal out again, if need be, but these enemies were smart. And strong. Thoughts of which started to remind her of the destroyed Crystal Tokyo she'd fled last month.

"Don't worry, kiddo," Darien said, sitting close by her to give her a hug. He hated it when she worried.

He was a little surprised when she jumped away from him and ran to her beeping phone.

"What'd she say?" Darien asked, trying to act uninterested. No, BEING uninterested. Except insofar as it affected Rini, who had been clinging to her phone like life support, waiting for Serena to respond. No matter how often he'd consoled her that they must be busy training, Rini didn't seem pacified.

Rini dropped the phone. "She says she'll be home soon." Beat. "Except it was Ami again." Rini knew there was no way Serena's texts were THAT clear. Rini knew Sere's texts like the back of her hand. They looked much like her own, more numbers than letters, and lots of cutesy symbols just to spread the joy.

Rini knew Serena was completely avoiding her, and had been ever since Rini had stolen her Silver Crystal. Rini couldn't really blame Serena, not anymore, but she could be hurt that Serena wasn't even trying to let Rini make it up to her. To be friends.

The she got an idea. "Darien, will you take me to the arcade?"

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One Friendship Revived, One Friendship Destroyed

All the girls had packed it in for the day to follow Serena to the arcade, and were all happily surprised to see Andrew's obviously bubbly reaction to Serena. It really didn't do much for Serena's demeanor, but they all noted Serena's small smiles and possibly flirtatious responses to Andrew's outright flirting.

"What the hell!" Rei asked in whisper, as they watched Serena and Andrew banter lightly back and forth. He'd named a special milkshake after her - a disgustingly overwrought triple chocolate confection that required a spoon instead of a straw to consume. And Serena had paid off her borrowed tokens, but Andrew had pushed the money back to her, saying it was an early birthday gift.

Then, to Rei's utter horror, SERENA playfully pouted that she'd hoped for a little more than some stupid tokens for her birthday.

THEN, Andrew TOOK HER FREAKING HAND and said something in a whisper that none of the girls could hear from their booth.

Lita said, "Oh the hell with this! I'm heading to the front lines, guys!" Eavesdropping 101!

Mina, grinning widely, followed in haste. Opting to play it a little more cool than Lita, though, she didn't hop right up on the counter to listen in. She stayed a full one foot away from Serena, acting like she was looking at the menu.

Rei played with her straw, not really liking the obvious flirting at all. Oh, she wasn't jealous or anything; Andrew had never been her crush, her type, or even someone she thought about much. Mina, Lita, and Serena had fallen at his feet, though. And then he'd hooked up with Reika, who, to the best of all their knowledge, was STILL Andrew's girlfriend.

And Rei didn't want Serena hurt, especially not so soon after what Darien had pulled.

Ami broke into her thoughts: "Look at this, Rei." She pushed her display across the table and said, "If you line up all the points the droids have attacked so far, not including the times they tried to get Rini, then you can almost make out a pattern! There are a few points missing, of course, and the sweets store point doesn't really fit in either, but depending on the shape of the pattern, we might be able to deduce—"

"Deduce what?"

Darien and Rini were suddenly at their booth, Darien looming over them with what could only be characterized as a fierce anger.

Ami shut her display and smiled at Rini: "Hello, Rini! How nice to see you today!"

"Oh cut the crap," Rini said, which earned her a little tug from Darien instructing her silently to behave. Rini ignored the lout, but whispered, "I know you were pretending to be Serena texting me."

Darien, ignoring the drama, looked directly at Ami and said, "If you have any idea where they're going to attack next, you should tell me."

Rei and Ami stared at each other, and Rei said, coldly, "We don't KNOW anything, Darien." And when he moved to sit down by Ami, Rei said sharply, "Serena's sitting there."

Rini plopped down by Rei and said, "Serena's at the counter talking to Andrew and the girls."

Rei closed her eyes, seriously not knowing how to handle this awkward situation. But she was surprised when Ami made a move. Ami stood up and gathered her things: "I've got to get going." Beat. "I think we ALL have to get going?"

Darien stood, looking disappointed on top of angry. "You've got to be kidding me. We've got a serious threat and you're not sharing vital information." Beat. "Thanks." He turned to look at the counter, ready to go ring Serena's neck for starting this silly drama over their breakup —and was surprised to see her gone. How had she left the building without him knowing?

He looked around the arcade, then glared at Rei. Who, surprisingly, was glaring back at him.

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Serena was in the back, in Andrew's arms somehow. Crying, as usual. She was so upset at herself for not being able to see Darien without losing it, but she was equally thankful that Andrew had been so quick on his feet to have Mina take over the counter while he dragged Serena to the back before Darien could see her getting upset.

She apologized over and over to Andrew; and he held her tighter, telling her over and over that it was okay. "I'm in your corner, beautiful," he said lightly, kissing her wet cheek before holding her tightly again.

She took the comfort; reveled in it. Andrew was nice; Andrew thought about her; Andrew thought she was a good person. He was like a big brother to her, and she trusted him so implicitly. He'd put up with her silly schoolgirl crush without degrading her, like.. Oh, just the thought of Darien crushed her more.

What she didn't expect, however, was to find Andrew's mouth pressed on hers. She'd never been kissed by anyone besides Darien, and her first thought was that this man didn't taste like Darien at all. And then she felt guilty for WISHING she was kissing Darien, the man that so clearly never wanted to kiss her again. Shouldn't she try enjoying this kiss from someone who was obviously comforting her?

Still nearly sobbing, though now for more complicated reasons, her mouth opened for air. And Andrew's tongue invaded her mouth. It was warm, and loving; and she needed warmth, and loving. Suddenly, she didn't feel like she was kissing her brother; or like he SHOULD be Darien. Suddenly, she felt great love coming from Andrew, and she relaxed against his body and let him ravish her mouth. She reveled in his taste, so very different from Darien, but not in a bad way. Actually, that permeating coffee taste was missing; Andrew was all mint and vanilla. His kisses were —oh my God they were more demanding. She wasn't the one leading the way in this kiss; Andrew was. Andrew tasted her lips, her tongue, her face.. he deepened his kisses like he actually wanted to be kissing her. Was this what kissing was supposed to be like—?!

She jumped back suddenly, a picture of Reika entering her mind and slaying her soul. She looked at Andrew, who looked hurt, and she apologized profusely with one sobbed-out word: "Reika!"

Andrew drew her into his arms again, but kissed her forehead gently. "I'm sorry, Serena," he whispered. "I've taken advantage—"

And then the door flew open wide.

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Darien had burst in to tell her to call a truce between him and her Senshi. And had caught Serena holding Andrew, forehead to forehead. And he couldn't help himself: "Good LORD, Serena, he's with Reika!"

Serena nearly collapsed into Andrew's strong arms, who in turn glared at Darien and said, "She didn't do anything, Chiba. I brought her back here so she wouldn't have to look at you! And you can carry yourself out of here right now; this is private property—"

Darien nearly tripped over Rini in his bid to grab Serena away from Andrew. Ignoring the kid, he grabbed Serena's arm and said, "You're coming with me. WE've got some BUSINESS to discuss and we don't have time for your —your DRAMA!"

And that's when Darien caught a fist in his jaw. Upper cut, courtesy of his best friend Andrew, and Darien knew it was about the best punch Andrew had in him. Shaking his head, he moved to step towards Andrew and return the favor when Lita grabbed him from behind and said, "Get out of here, Darien. You're making a real ass of yourself." Beat. "Sorry, Rini."

Serena let go of Andrew and apologized again, shame covering her like darkness covered the Negaverse. To her utter horror, all her Senshi, her fake cousin, and Darien had all crammed into the room to witness her worst disgrace. No, they didn't see any kissing, but they saw Darien's accusations that she was FORCING herself on Andrew.

So even though Andrew held her wrist before she could slip away, she shook free easily and pushed past her Senshi before running out of the arcade at high speed.

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/AN/

I'm really interested in keeping Serena in character, even with just SLIGHTLY different circumstances (her visiting the arcade instead of wallowing in pity; having more vocally supportive senshi), she MIGHT decide to, oh, I don't know, grow a backbone. I'm starting the story after the girls take out Rubeus' spaceship, (after ep 76, or english ep 69, Invasion of Esmeraude), so they should have some major girl pride brewing. And Darien being a di€k SHOULD have encouraged the senshi to get Serena away from him... it's what friends do!

BIG THANKS to Jay FicLover (in the forums) for helping me understand some things about Rini (even though that's for yet another S2 fic I'm writing. Isn't it funny, my favorite SM fics are S1, but all the fics I write are S2, LOL!)