Forbidden Creation
Chapter 2

Rated:  G
Disclaimer:  Don't own.  Don't sue.  ^_^
Genre:  Romance/Alt.Reality

AN's:  Hope ya like.....have you figured it out yet?  ^_~

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It was a long, long time before Serena broke that kiss.  However ridiculous it was to wrap
oneself in a fantasy she did it anyway, begged whatever true creator there was to let it last
forever....stretch it to eternity....bliss.

But wrapped breathless in his arms in this paradise of trees was almost as lovely.  He was
looking at her with changed eyes.  

"You...you...I don't understand but..."  He managed brokenly.

"Shhh."  She soothed, stroking his face gently and leaning up to kiss him again.

"Mmmmmm..."  He murmured as his eyes drifted closed.

When she pulled away he followed, eyes still closed, leaning close to begin again.

"How do you feel?"  She asked softly.

"Like nothing else is real but you..."  He whispered, catching her about the shoulders and waist
and pulling her into another kiss before she could reply.

~How does he know?~  Her mind kept crying.

She pulled away this time and pushed him back, "You know I'm leaving tonight."

His eyes grew pained and she winced, "Must you?"

She nodded as he reached for again, gripping her arms, "But you'll come back right?"

She shook her head no and his eyes widened with horror, "You're not coming back?"

"I can never come back."  She said sadly.

"Then I'll go with you!  Wherever you go!"

She watched him with agony biting her heart.  The process he was going through was usually
beautiful and easy.  Now, because of her, it was painful and terrible.  But then, soul bonding
should be impossible here....

"You can't.  You can't come with me.  This is goodbye.  Oh, now don't you see why I avoided
you?"

"You knew?  You knew all along?"  He asked brokenly, still gripping her arms.

"Yes."  She managed, tears starting again.

He pulled her fiercely into his arms, "I won't let you go.  I won't let you leave me.  I love
you.  You're everything to me."

"You can't mean that."  She said softly.

"I mean it more than anything else I've ever done."  He bit out harsly.

She cried and cried into his chest.  

"Tell me the truth!"  He demanded, "Tell me the truth and tell me why you have to leave...
without me?"

"I can't."  She said brokenly, "I can't tell you the truth and I can't ever come back."

"No!"  He cried, his voice full of pain.

~How can he feel so much pain?~

"I won't let you go!  I swear!"  He clutched her tightly, as if physically keeping her
there would work.

She wrapped her arms about his neck and struggled to meet his face,
"I'm sorry love."  She said with utter sincerity, "I'm sorry..."

She leaned up and kissed him deeply, till she knew he was lost and then she gingerly reached
up and touched his head as she said, so softly he never knew, "Sleep."

And he collapsed limp in her arms as tears fell from her cheeks.  She gathered him
into her arms with unnatural ease and touched the closest tree before they both disappeared
in a burst of light.

She laid him gently on his bed and then took to writing a letter to him, that she left with
Grandfather to give to him.  Then she tucked something bright under his pillow, kissed
him softly and left, choking back a sob of agony.

When Darien awoke he jumped up, looking wildly around.  
~Why am I in my room?  What's happened?~  And then with horror ~Where's Serena?~

He flew down the stairs and crashed into his Grandfather, "Where is she?  What day is it?  What's
happened?"

"Whoa-a, my boy.  You've been out cold all day, collapsed yesterday in the woods.  Serena got you
home.  It's Friday."

"Where is she?  Where's Serena?"

"She's gone.  Left last night.  She was sorry you didn't get to say goodbye, but she left this
for you."  He offered the letter which Darien numbly took before turning slowly and going
back to his room.

He sat on his bed reading it with disbelief.

"Darien,
	I'm sorry I had to leave you sleeping.  I had to go.  I couldn't stay.  I never wanted
to hurt you.  I was never meant to meet you.  But now that I have we will be connected
forever.  I know you know that.  I can never tell you the complete truth, only pieces.  The 
pieces I want to give you are these:  I love you.  I will always be watching over you.  And....I 
put a star under your pillow....since we both love the sky.
						Goodbye
							Serena"

Darien read it over and over.  ~I was never meant to meet you.....I can never tell you the
complete truth.....what did that mean?~

Finally he got up slowly and reached under his pillow.  What he pulled out shocked him
through.  In his hands, hovering over his skin, was a pulsing light, tiny, like the stars
in the sky.

She really had given him a star.  She was magic.  How?  Who was she?  What was the truth?
Tears rolled down his cheeks as he stared into the tiny white light and somehow, he knew,
somewhere, she was crying too.

He stayed in his room all day, staring at the star, trying to figure it out.  When night fell
he carried the star down to the beach, sitting in the ivory sand, listening to the tide
lap at the shore.  

But tonight the sea provided no peace, it only mocked him, whispering of the truth but never
telling.  He grew angry till he jumped up, flinging the star into the air.

"Never again?!" He cried, "I can't live with that!  Where are you?!  What is the truth?!"

And for the first time, he ran into the sea, deeper and deeper as though the touch of it
would reveal everything to him.  

"Answer me?!"  He cried angrily, desperately.

And on the otherside of the sea, Serena sat at her desk, sobbing into her arms as a wide
screen flickered in front of her.

"So real....so real but it can't be."  She murmured.

Behind her, in the doorway, her Grandfather watched her--though she never knew.  He smiled
a little sadly and then left her.

Serena meanwhile, cried until suddenly she heard no more sound from the computer.  She looked 
up in sudden horror.  Darien was drowning!  

"Oh Gods no!"  She cried and threw herself into the pod next to her, hastily lining up her
arms and legs and calling out, "Download User Serena NOW!"

And in a rush of silver liquid that simply suspended itself in the air, her body was encompassed.
And then she was in the sea, diving down to find him as he sunk to the bottom, her letter 
clutched in one of his hands.

She grabbed him about the waist and shook him to see if he was conscious and for one, strange
moment his eyes flickered open and met hers, in the deep, silent water and they stared at 
one another.

Then she was pulling him up to the surface and dragging him to the shore where she laid him
back as he choked.

"I won't let you die!"  She cried angrily at him, "Never, do you understand?"

His eyes grew foggy and he passed out then, watching her beautiful face fade away.

When he awoke his Grandfather sat at his bedside, the smell of chicken soup engulfing the room
as Aunt Ilene--not doubt busy at work downstairs--worked away.

Darien tried to sit up but his Grandfather pushed him back, "Easy, easy there.  You nearly
drowned!  Rest."

"Grandfather?  What?  I thought I saw Serena...that she saved me....but she's gone right?"

Grandfather frowned, "She'd downstairs boy, getting you some soup."

"What?"

Grandfather shook his head, "You must've swallowed a lot more sea water then I thought."
He left as Serena appeared in the door way with soup.  She closed the door gently behind
her and walked over.

He tried to get up but she stopped him this time, "No, rest."

"How did you--?  What....what's going on?"  She touched his lips gently to quiet him, handing 
him the steaming soup.

"Your family thinks I never left.  And yes, I saved you from drowning."

He stared at her, "How?"

She sighed sorrowfully, "I told you I'd be watching over you.  I won't ever let anything
happen to you.  But I can't--I musn't see you like this."

"I don't understand.  Serena, tell me the truth."

"I can't."

"And you're going to leave again?"

"Yes."

"No!  You owe me the truth!"

She turned away sadly and moved towards the door, but he lept out of bed with a strength
he didn't know he possessed and bounded over, pinning her against it.

"No!"  He said fiercly, his voice low, his eyes desperate, "I want the truth.  That star...that
star was...I don't know...and in the woods, you put me to sleep...how?  And the sea, you watch
me from it don't you?  What does it all mean?"

She tried to shake free, tears squeezing out her eyes, "No..no..no.."

"Tell me!"  He shook her violently, "Please!"

She looked up into his eyes at 'please' and froze.  She must've recognized something staring
out of them for in the next instant she said, "Alright."

He stopped and simply held her still, waiting.

She looked up tearfully at him, "I-I told you I was sent here to be punished right?  But I never
told you why..."  Her voice was low and fearful.

He nodded, "What did you do?"

"I broke a rule....I created something forbidden...."

He watched her face and felt his gut tighten fearfully....a feeling of impending horror gripping
him, "What?"  He asked softly.

She met his eyes with sorrow, and regret and pain all at once, "You."  She whispered.

He stared blankly at her a long moment, "You....created me?"

She nodded, tears running down her cheeks, "Yes."  She said in a strangled voice.

"H-How?"

She gently took his hands from her shoulders and grasped them, "You-you said you had a restless
feeling all the time, like something was wrong?  That's because you live in a world that
my Grandfather and I built.  It's a computer simulation set to act as the year 2000 on earth."

He paled, "It's all a computer simulation?  None of it's real?"

She nodded again, "It's really the year 3000.  My Grandfather is a neuro-electronics genius.  He
created the means to make simple, artificial intelligence within the simulations."

"How?"

"By scanning something small.  A fingertip, a breath, a piece of hair and scrambling the DNA 
to create a simple, functional character.  Grandfather Chiba is modeled very much after my
Grandfather.  He also made Kenji and Sammy.  I made Molly and Aunt Ilene."

"And me?"

"Yes.  Usually only girls make girls and boys make boys.  You're in exception.  But you're 
completely different anyway.  You're more conscious then any other character before you.
You-you're alive."

"Why...why did you make me?"

She gripped his hands tighter, "In the year 3000 everything is peaceful and beautiful.  And
everyone spends their life with their soulmate.  We've perfected the means to find them and
created harmony with it.  Some soulmates are even found at birth and spend their entire lives
together.  Everyone, everyone has a soulmate."

Her eyes were wide and beautiful staring into his, "Everyone but me."

He frowned, "Why not you?"

She sighed, "No one really knows, but, my mother....she's from the Moon...half Goddess.  The 
Moon's people are never supposed to leave their planet but she did.  She fell in love with my
father on earth and had me.  They were both banished back to the moon and I was left on earth.
Raised by my Grandfather.  Some people think it's because of that."

He watched her quietly, waiting for her to continue.

"I was so lonely.  Oh you don't know!  I was all alone!  My Grandfather and I built this and
many other's like it.  They're very common in homes now.  He made only one rule.  I wasn't
ever allowed to scan my entire body in to create a character.  It was too much life, too much
soul."

Darien felt her trembling and instinctively pulled her closer, numbly, still in shock himself.

"He made this for me.  The trees in the forest are from my favorite storybook, the Manor too.
And when you said the sea sounded like a sigh, it's true.  It's my sigh.  He took the sound
and made the sea from it.  And the sand...it's the texture of my skin."

He watched her incredulously.  His entire world...it was her.....

She continued on feverishly, "Anyway, about a year ago....I was so lonely I just, I didn't want
to live.....I was...desperate.  So I scanned my entire body in and begged the computer to
make my soulmate.  It was very foolish...but....it made you..."

He stared at her, stunned.

"You're good at astrology and computer engineering and all that stuff because *I* am.  You have 
a lot of me in you.  But there's so much more.  You're so....intelligent....and sensitive to
the environment around you.  It's like you always knew.....and you do truly live.  Oh, I'm so
sorry..."

He pulled her close, "Don't be sorry....don't be..."

"I....I love you...."

He pulled away sorrowfully, "How can that be real?"

"Because you're my soulmate."

"Serena....I have no soul."

"That's not true....it's not."

He watched her sadly as she spoke in earnest to him.

"Show me."  He said softly.

"Show you?"

"What it really looks like..."

Her eyes widened but she nodded, stepping away from him, touching the wall, "Reveal the grid."
She said softly and suddenly everything disappeared except the two of them.  Blackness
and faint white lines were all that remained.

Darien fell to his knees.  Then he looked, pale and aghast at Serena, "I suppose you can
turn me off too?"

"No, no that's just it....you possess something no one else in your world does.  Look."

She turned to the wall again, "Mirror."  She commanded.

A mirror pierced the darkness and she pulled him up to stand in front of it.

"Look..."  She said and softly ran her hand over his face.  His body disappeared but a blinding,
bluish glow remained in the outline of his body.  He stared at it in the mirror.

"You have a soul."  She whispered, tears starting again.  Then she turned and shouted desperately
"Turn it all back on!  Please!"

And they were back but this time on the beach, at night and she threw herself into his arms.  
He clutched her tightly, tears running down his own cheeks, trembling.

"What's real?"  He whispered brokenly.

"You.  You are real.  And our love.  The feeling you have, the longing to keep me close, that
day in the woods, that was a soul bond.  It was never supposed to happen between us.  But it 
did.  It means you and I and what we have are real."

He was crying now, into her soft shoulder, "I could always feel it.  And then when I met you.."

"Shhh..."  She soothed, "When my Grandfather found out what I had done he forced me to enter
the system and spend a week at the Manor...to meet you..."

"And you fell in love with me?"

"Yes...but I loved you before that....you were always a part of me...."

The clung tight to one another a long time and then pulled back, staring into one another's
eyes.  He leaned down and kissed her gently, "What now?"

"I...I don't know..."  She whispered, "But I have to go....I can't stay..."

"But you'll come back this time?  Now that I know?"  

She nodded and he seemed content with this.  

"I have to go.."  She said softly again and he could feel her start to fade in his arms and
kissed her till she was gone all together...vanished from sight.

And back in her room, the silver liquid rushed up and away as fast as it had come, leaving
her gasping a bit.  She stepped off and walked to the desk....the rippling screen showed
the view of the beach from the sea and Darien stood, looking back at her a moment before
blowing her a kiss.

She laughed delightedly and watched till he'd walked back to the Manor before turning to see the
envelope sitting beside her with her name penned in her Grandfather's careful writing.

She started to open it when there was a knock at the door.  Tucking it in her pocket she
headed down the stairs and peeped out.  Her breath caught as she looked to see the Detectives
standing outside.  With a wave of her hand over the control panel in the wall she put the 
entire system into it's dormant state and encrypted it.  Now only she and her Grandfather
could reactivate it.  She scanned the premises for her Grandfather but to her surprise he
was gone completely.

Then she opened the door, "Hello....may I help you?"

"Are you Serena Tsukino?"

She winced at the use of her mother's moon name.

"That's my legal title yes."

One of the other detectives leaned casually in the door frame, "Your Grandfather home?"

She smiled insincerely, "No, I'm sorry, he's out at the moment.  Would you mind telling me
what this is all about?"

"We've reason to believe that he used his sensorium illegally."

"What?"  She asked incredulously, how could they possibly know?

Another Detective spoke up, "A soul bond formed that has no record, no explanation.  We've
traced it to here.  We think he's created artificial intelligence with a soul. Which is
strictly illegal."

They were all looking accusingly at her.  It was well known that a soulmate had never been
found for her--a half-alien girl forged of an illegal alliance between planets, disrupting
harmony where ever she went.  That was why she rarely traveled--and neither did her Grandfather.
~Where is he?~ She thought desperately.

"We're investigating right now, but if we find any reason to believe this is so we will shut
your system down, no questions asked."

Serena's eyes widened with horror--and anger--who were these men to hold her Grandfather
to the same rules, he invented the sensorium!  She glared at them and said nothing.

"When he gets in, get him to contact us immediately."  One the Detectives gave her a card and
tipped his hat before they all left.

She shut the door breathing hard.  Then she sat down on the stairs and pulled out the letter
he'd left her.  It was brief and left her rather confused.

"Serena,
	There is a way.
	   Use the Biotic Conductors and channel the energy through your body.
		
	Bayside Hospital
	2299 Rain Road
	Room 899b
				Love Grandfather"

The letter said nothing of where he was or why.  She read it over and over.  It made no sense.
There was a way?  A way to what?  What was at this hospital?

She thought of the Detectives....shutting down the system....it would kill Darien...
She shuddered.  ~Never...~

There was only one thing to do.  Take the Biotic Conductor and go to the hospital.
She climbed up the stairs to her room and began packing up the equipment.  She clasped a wrist
band about her arms with a row of lights on it (AN:  anyone see the Ewok movies?  The family
had wrist bands with lights showing their status remember?  It's like those) showing the
status of the system.  

As long as the computer was in it's dormant state Darien shouldn't be conscious and the 
authorities wouldn't detect his soul in the computer.  
In other words, he was safe until she could figure out what to do.

She sighed, a little relieved and headed for door when her screen caught her eye.
It held the same rippling image of the beach from the ocean....but standing on the beach,
waving his arms frantically....was Darien....

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