A New Beginning and Old Problems: Part1
(PG-13)
by Terra's Daughter

Title: A New Begginging and Old Problems
Part 1: Information Overload 
Author: Terra's Daughter
E-Mail: TerranCurse@hotmail.com
Rating: PG-13

Disclaimers: Standard claims apply
Notes: New part this time and I hope it's a good one. I'm just going to
start out with Serena and Darien's relationship then I'm going to takeoff 
from there.
 	Your going to hear about Haruka and Michiru in thischapter and 
I'll go ahead and tell you that the scouts knew the pair before Berylwas 
dystroyed.
	Also your going to hear about Darien's friends and their are diffently
going to be a big part in this story. They have an idenity not really 
knowing to them just quite yet.
	I also introduced the new villains in the story in this chapter. Iwanted 
something traitorous and I thought this was going to be a pretty goodidea.
	Well, that's about it. Hope you like it and send all questions,flames, 
praises, or maybe ::coughs nervously:: money?	Until then, see ya!

Part 1: Information Overload

	They floated in space, or so they thought. They couldn't really guesswhere 
they were. They were weightless and seems to fall forever but withoutever 
landing or hitting anything. And they had been falling for a long time,but 
it never came to an end.
	They couldn't speak, but they could think to themselves. Never 
communicating to each other, they didn't even know that there wassomebody 
besides themselves.
	They just fell, speaking in their minds. Speaking about her and theirtimes 
together. How this had happened to them, how they had died, if theywere 
dead anyway. None of them could really be sure about weather they weredead 
or alive in a world of nothingness.	Didn't care really.
	Falling, thinking, it was their daily routine in a world where timewas of 
no consequence and nothing but they existed.
	But soon something else was beginning to come into their world,shoving its 
existence into their minds. It said the same thing over and over againas if 
trying to coax them into its hold.
	"Wake and belong. Wake and belong. Wake and belong." Nothing but those
three words. Soon they couldn't take it anymore, they wanted peace andif 
following these words helped to reunite them with it than they wouldgladly 
do it. No matter the consequences, they didn't matter to them anymoredid they?
	Eye lids fluttered open, but the eyes inside them didn't hold the same
love, the same happiness, excitement that they had before.
	No, this type of love, happiness, excitement was for something else, 
something that they had never thought of or experienced before.Something 
that had frightened them before, but this thing was now something thatthey 
needed, hungered for.	Death.
	Yeah, that was it. The hungered to do it, wanted it and they all knewthat 
they wouldn't have that same kind of peace as before unless theykilled. 
Killed her was more specific.
	A smile crept of their faces, the kind that had never passed overtheir 
lips before.	"Wake and belong..."
	Eye lids fluttered open to expose eyes to a new light, one ofdarkness. But 
they didn't really care, they had a goal, and no matter what happenedthey 
would succeed.
	Eye lids fluttered open to see their eyes again, all the colors of the
rainbow. Violet, hunter green, dark blue, and light blue.
	A gentle breeze swayed the trees and if you listened carefully youcould 
hear the chirping of birds. Darien whipped the sweat from his brow and 
breathed in another hot breath.
	"Great Darien, that was .47 seconds. You beat your old record by five 
seconds, way to go you set a new record." The man put a hand onDarienŐs 
back, smiling with a look of pride in his eyes.
	"Thanks coach, that 400 meter run is hard, I think I need to go sitdown." 
Walking over to a bleacher Darien slumped down onto the hard rocksurface of 
cement, putting his head in his hands.
	"Well... I see I have to go get a new student a uniform so I'll leaveyou 
here. Don't go anywhere!" He yelled over his shoulder.
	"No worries there." Darien mumbled, breathing in slowly Darien couldfeel 
his heart beat slow down and return to normal. Raising his head hesuddenly 
wished he hadn't. There standing in front of him was his newgirlfriend, 
Audrie. Sighing he put on his biggest smile, even if it wasn't real. 
"Audrie, HI!" Standing up he raised his hand in greeting.
	You might get the feeling that Darien didn't like Audrie, and youmight be 
right. It wasn't that she wasn't pretty, Audrie was one of the most 
beautiful girls in school. Brown hair that reached her shoulders, asmooth 
complexion, tan skin, and wonderful brown eyes. Yeah, she might bebeautiful 
but that was about it. To Darien, Audrie had an IQ of about 5 and maybea 
personality of 3.
	Audrie was one of those people who could talk about her hair for dayson 
end and that had to argue about anything at all. Something that Darienhated 
in a girl, lets face it, the only reason he was with the girl wasbecause it 
made his status at Kenwood Private climb up the scale.
	"Hello Darien." Audrie leaned over and kissed him on either cheek."How are 
you?"	She also tried to be a sophisticated snob, and somehow succeeded onone 
high level.
	"Great, I just beat my old record by five seconds." Darien wrapped hisarm 
around her, kissing her on the forehead. Quickly, he pasted a smile onhis 
face and tried to have a good time as Audrie's friends began to circlein.
	'Like vultures coming in for the kill.'
	"So your name is... Serena?" The man looked over the papers on his 
clipboard. Looking up he smiled at the young girl. He had alreadygotten her 
a gym uniform of gray tie shorts and a black tank-top.
	"Yes, sir." Serena smiled back at this teacher, getting a good feelingfrom 
him. "And excuse me for my curious nature but what is your name?"
	"Oh, I'm sorry my name is Kate Foster, but you'll have to call me 
Mr.Foster, school rules."
	"Okay. So, what are we doing today? After sitting down for two periodsI 
feel like moving around." Stretching her legs a bit she received asmile 
from Mr.Foster.
	'Eager little vixen isn't she.' "Um, we're doing our annual fitnesstest. 
We just started today so you can catch up pretty quickly."
	"Great, let's get going." Following the man outside of the gym theymade 
their way to the track, looking around Serena caught sight of a boy. Darien 
sat with his obvious girlfriend, after sizing them up she came to the 
conclusion that they didn't match at all. Darien seemed like the one tohave 
fun, while this girl was one to brush her hair in front of a mirror. He
needed someone more his type, someone who knew what fun was and how tokeep 
him happy.	"This is it."
	Serena was snapped out of her thoughts with the quick statement.Looking 
around she noticed the track in front of her. "What's the event?"
	"The 400 meter run."
	'This'll be easy, four years of running away from youmas I guessreally did 
help in the end.' Smiling she looked at him sort of quizzically. 'Let'sgive 
him a surprise shall we?'	"So you want me to run around this track one time?"
	Mr.Foster looked at her, "Yeah, the track is 400 meters long and youhave 
to run it one time. Got it?"
	"Yeah," Putting her feet in the foot-stands Serena got into position. 
Looking over her shoulder she asked quickly, "Tell me, what's therecord 
time here at this school?"
	"Ugh, .47 seconds, just made today in fact. Now, on three."	"One...	Two...
	Three!"	Serena took off and began running as fast as she could, the energy of
her life pumping through her veins. She could feel her heart beat racingmore 
quickly every second. A warmth spread up through-out her body. Shecould 
feel her strength coming more every moment, the warmth of her energylulling 
her to let go and let it swallow her entirely.
	Serena was a little scared that her body was glowing like it didsometimes 
when she was really pushing it. Somebody surly would see her then and 
somehow she didn't think they would take the excuse of sun glinting offher 
somehow.	"So, I told her that if Stacey wanted to go to the countryclub then
Stacey would have to ask me herself. Don't you think I was right?" Audrielooked 
over to the spot where Darien was, but he wasn't there anymore.
	Well, his body was but his mind was else where. Following his line of 
vision she noticed that quite a few people had gathered aroundMr.Foster and 
were watching something on the track.
	Rising from her position on the bleacher she walked over to the group,
Darien in tow. There she watched as a girl ran at lightning speed,looking 
over to the stop-watch the teacher held Audrie read the time. ".27seconds, 
there's no way!"
	Darien couldn't believe his eyes, this girl was maybe 50 meters awayfrom 
finishing and if she kept up this speed she would surly beat hisrecord. Two 
losses in one day wasn't what he wanted, but at the present moment itdidn't 
look like he had much of a choice.
	'I can do this, I can get this done.' Serena said it over and overagain in 
her mind, her heart pumping, her legs beating the soft tar of thetrack. 
Seeing a group of students waiting for her to cross the finish line, a 
feeling of pride over took Serena and she couldn't help the smile that 
crossed her face.
	They came closer and closer until she could see their astonishedfaces. One 
face caught her eye as it had only a few moments ago. His face made herfeel 
invincible, those blue eyes and that ebony hair, it felt like she was 
running towards him, just towards him.
	Darien saw her, Serena, that was the girl that was running. Shewatched him 
while coming closer by the second, and for some reason he had thisaching 
feeling to open his arms and wrap them around her body. Shaking hishead he 
heard the cheers and congratulations when she crossed the white line.
	".37 seconds, a new record! Congratulations Serena your the new school
record holder." Mr.Foster hugged the girl and smiled at her. "Youshould 
think about joining track."
	"Thanks Mr.F, I'll think about." Breathing hard Serena made her way toa 
bleacher. Sitting down she slumped over, her head bowed and her armsleaning 
on her legs. Serena slowly began breathing in slowly exactly likeDarien had 
earlier that morning. Slowly she soon felt her heart beat slow to anormal 
pace. But suddenly it began to race again, the hairs on the back of herneck 
began to stand on end and a buzzing in her head became quite clear toher. 
Looking up Serena saw Darien kneeling in front of her.	"You all right?"
	"Yeah, thanks. Is there something you wanted?" Serena peered at him,trying 
desperately to stop her heart. "Why am I feeling this way?"
	"I just wanted to tell you that I thought you were great. I mean, nobody's 
ever beat me in track before." Darien felt a sort of tingling in hischest, 
but dismissed it as a side effect of running so fast.
	"Well I guess today is your day of bad luck." Rising she began to walk
towards the showers. "Now if youŐll excuse me I'm starving and I thinknext 
period is lunch." Curtsying Serena left him behind, but for some reasonshe 
felt a certain loss.
	Darien looked after her, Serena was strange you had to say that. Butthere 
was something about her that he found quite familiar.
	"Hey Dare!" Looking behind Darien saw his best-friend since before hecould 
even remember.	"Hey Justin!" Justin walked up to Darien and the two did that
mysterious handshake that guys do. (Probably to show that they at least do have
some brain cells in that big head of theirs. ;P)
	"Where's Zach?" Darien asked impatiently, a plan forming in his mind.
	"Well thank you for attention your highness." Justin swooped down intoa 
deep bow, seeming very familiar somehow.
	"That's not what I meant, I just have to ask him to do a...favor forme. 
That's all." A smile crossed his lips and Justin knew exactly what kindof 
favor he wanted to ask.
	"You know every time you call for a "favor" Zach gets in some kind of 
trouble." Justin smirk as the two began to walk towards the gym.
	"No, no, no, my dear friend. Every time YOU have him do a "favor" hehas 
gotten in trouble. But I wouldn't call hacking into the electricalsystem 
for the school and making the sprinklers go off in the girls' lockerroom 
just so you go in and take pictures, a favor." Darien smiled at the 
remembrance of that little event.
	The whole school had been in an uproar, Justin had been smiling theentire 
time the two were in the principle's office and was still smiling withthree 
weeks detention. And the one thing Darien remembered the most was whathe 
said that afternoon in his bedroom. "I got to keep the photos."
	"Yeah well, what can I say. I never listen to the angel on myshoulder, I 
just do what the voices in my head tell me to do. Well, I know Zachsaid he 
was going to the computer lab to do a little work."
	"Good, then he just got a little more." The both began to walk towardsthe 
lab, each taking his turn to talk to the other.
	"NO! Don't do that, please don't do that." Zachary banged his head onthe 
table in front of the computer he was sitting at. Looking back up atthe 
small square piece of hell he growled at it.
	The blasted thing had blown up again, this time while he was typinghis 
extra credit mythology paper. Zach had just lost the last ten pages hehad 
managed to type during his free time, and the best he had thought hewould 
ever type.	Banging his head again he didn't hear his two best-friends coming
through the door.
	"And I thought I was pathetic." Darien smirked looking at his friend.
	"Ha Ha Ha!" Zach turned around to see the two of them standing alittle 
ways away. "You know, I wouldn't be laughing at you if you just lost anhour 
of work."	"Sorry, we didn't mean to be mean." Justin moved over until he sat
next to Zach.	"So what are you doing here?" He asked Justin.
	"Can't a friend just come see a friend?" Darien leaned on the table, 
crossing his arms.
	Zach seemed to be thinking about it for a minute. "No." He saidsimply.
	Justin smiled, looking over to Darien he smirked at him. "Then youhaven't 
lost your intelligence by being around us just yet. Actually Dare hereneeds 
you to do him a "favor".
	Zach looked at Darien skeptically. "As long as it has nothing to dowith 
sprinklers and girls' locker rooms." Again the boys began to laugh,after a 
few moments though Darien quieted down.
	"No, I just want you to pull up a student's file for me."
	"That," Zach turned around to the computer, seeing that it had cameback up 
he began to get on the hard drive. "I can do." Typing and clickingquickly 
Zach soon began to hack into the school's system.
	Darien moved behind him, resting his hand on the table. "Good, now Iwant 
you to get the file for a new girl, Tsukino Serena."
	Zach almost choked, "You mean THE Serena Tsukino, the one you've beengaga 
over since she became Japan' top?"	"That'd be the one."
	Zach began to type ferociously, "Let's see..." He murmured. "Ahh,Serene 
Tsukino. Now, what do you want to know?"
	"Um, I guess anything you've got on her." Darien leaned closer lookingat 
the student picture of the same girl that had beat him in both fencingand track.
	"Okay, here it is. Her entire name is Serena Usagi Tuskino, she'ssixteen, 
born June 30th, 1983 in Tokyo, Japan. She has a mother, father, and alittle 
brother. Um, she's been Japan's reigning country champ two yearsrunning 
and...that's about all."
	Darien sighed, he had wanted to know more about her. Turning hemotioned 
for Justin to follow. "Thanks Zach. We'll se ya later."
	Zachary looked a little bit more around the small screen, a smallpicture 
in the right corner catching his eye. Clicking on it a list ofnewspaper 
articles flashed into view.	"Whoa, wait a minute!"
	Darien turned around to see Zach waving a hand in the air, but lookingat 
the computer screen the entire time. "It seems she HAD a family."
	"What do you mean?" Darien walked over and again leaned over getting a
clear view.
	"My Japanese is a little rusty, but it seems Mr. and Mrs.Kevin Tsukinoand 
their son Sammy Tsukino died two years ago. They were killed in a carcrash, 
the two adults were killed instantly and the boy died three hours laterat 
Tokyo Central Hospital."
	"Man that's harsh." Justin, who had just come up behind the pair, sankinto 
another empty chair.
	Darien stared at the screen, completely taken by surprise. How in theworld 
could that be the same girl that he had met just this morning.
	"And that's not all." Zach's statement cut through Darien's thoughts. 
"There's another article here: GIRLS DISSAPPEAR WHILE ON WALK
	It says the four girls: Rei Hino, Ami Minzuino, Lita Kino,and MinaAino 
dissappeared from sight after they had gone on a nightly strolling thepark. 
Witnesses say that they saw seven girls go into the park but they never
returned home. Police could never find the bodies of the girls and soongave 
up on the search after a few weeks.
	And you won't believe it, it seems our friend Serena was one of theseven 
girls that went into the park that night. She and two others were found
later after the police arrived."
	Three boys felt a certain sympathy, but Darien felt as if his hearthad 
broken in two. he felt bad that this had all ahppened to her and he was
never there for her.
	"It says that when people passing the park heard fighting and sawlights 
coming from inside the park they called the police. When the policearrived 
they found Serena and the other two, Haruka Tenou' and Michiru Kanzaki,(I 
don't know her real last name.) unconcious on the ground, but there wasno 
evidence of the other girls. Serena was diagnosed with three brokenribs, a 
broken leg and had a deep slash in her stomach.
	Um...a follow up clipping says that she was in coma for a least a week
where she would sometimes scream out loud and cry for the girls,supposedly 
her friends and her dead family. Doctors didn't know what was wrongwith her 
since nobody had ever seen this happen with a coma patient.
	Her other two friends also went into come but they came out of it.They 
also displayed weird activity in the way that when their hands weretorn 
apart they went into spams and wouldn't stop unitl the hands werereunited.
	One night a nurse on night watch heard Serena and went to see what was
wrong, she states that Serena was levitating off the bed and seemed tobe 
fighting someone. While doing so the nurse says she could hear herscreaming 
a name over and over again as if calling the person, "Endymion" waswhat the 
nurse is said to have heard.
	When doctors went to investigate she was back on her bed and sleeping 
soundly. The nurse then was sent off duty to recuperate but stillswears she 
saw Serena floating." Zach leaned back in his chair, frowning hecouldn't 
help but feel sympathy for Serena. She had been through a lot and shewas 
only sixteen. Not to mention she had gotten herself into the Unsolved 
Mysteries show.
	Darien moved towards the door, feeling himself close to tears. "Ugh,thanks 
Zach. I-I'll see you guys later." Darien quickly exited the room andmade 
his way some place far away.
	Serena plopped the tray on the table, sinking into a chair she lookedover 
the meal. School pizza, green beans, and mashed potatoes, washed downwith a 
nice gulp of chocolate milk. She began to take slow and steady bites,making 
sure that nothing evil lurked inside its depths.
	' remember when we used to sit underneath the willow tree outside,that was 
our tree. Lita would cook those rice balls and-and Ami would read herbook 
and Mina woul-' Serena felt the oncoming tears stinging her eyes withthe 
remembrance. Bowing her head she tried to stop the oncoming flood.
	'NO! I won't cry, I promised myself that I wouldn't cry for them.' Andshe 
hadn't, she hadn't cry for them, but she also couldn't remember thelast 
time she had cried for anything since that month.
	"HEY!" Serena snapped out of her thoughts, looking across the tableshe 
found a girl sitting in front of her.
	The girl had sandy blond hair that reached a little above hershoulders, 
bright green eyes, and a smile that could blind anyone. She wore theuniform 
for this school like all the other girls at Kenwood Private. A darkblue 
blazer with the seal of the school on the front, a white button downshirt, 
a short dark blue pleated skirt, tights and black Mary Janes. Serenastill 
hadn't been fitted for her uniform, she was heading that way thisafternoon.
	By the girl's attitude Serena thought the girl had to be part of a pep
squad around this school. The girl extended her hand across the table,"Hi, 
my name's Casey Baldwin."
	"Hey, mine's Serena Tsukino, glad to meet you." Grasping her hand thebegan 
to shake hands in a greeting.
	The girl's face lit up even more, if that was possible. "I know whoyou 
are, I saw you run this morning. Word gets around fast here, I can'tbelieve 
it's your first day and you already hold a record."
	"Great, but I don't see what is so astonishing, I really didn't doanything 
that important."
	" would, you ran the 400 meter in .37 seconds. You beat Darien Chiba,no 
bodyŐs ever done that before."
	Serena felt the smile cross her lips as she remembered Darien. "Well, 
somebody needed to beat him at his own game for once. Say, do you know 
anything about him?"
	Casey looked thought for a moment, she seemed to be thinking thingsover in 
head as she stared at Serena. Finally coming out it she put forth allthe 
imfo she had on the guy. "Well, he's the most popular guy in 11th gradeor 
the whole school for that matter, not to mention he dates the mostpopular 
girl here, Audrie Simpleton. Darien has his own little group of peoplehe 
hangs with, mostly boys of the "in"crowd. Um, Justin Bradshaw, Kevin 
Hallowell, Zachary Wells, and Nathan Gellar.
	He's California's fencing champion, not to mention the best runner at 
Kenwood Private." Casey smiled at Serena, a twinkle entering her eye."Well, 
until now that is."
	"Anything else?" Serena was dying to know more about this boy, alittle 
fact that made her wonder why.
	Casey smiled at Serena, taking in the whole picture she made. Blondhair 
that was put up in a style of twist and turns on the back of her head, 
letting the rest fall to a little past her butt. Blue eyes that seemedto 
sparkle and a smooth complextion that probably had never heard the wordzit 
before in her whole entire life. All in all she was probably the most 
beautiful girl that Casey had ever seen in her life. She could evenrival 
that of Audrie, and Serena could proabaly get Darien away from thatlittle rat.
	The idea occured to Casey that Darien and Serena would make the most 
wonderful couple this school had probably ever seen in her life. Butdid 
Serena like Darien that way? Why not test the girl out, from the waySerena 
had been dieing to know more about Darien Casey was positive that shewould 
get a nice little answer of denial. "Ah, you've already fallen for him 
haven't you?"	Serena looked appalled, "Me? No way, why in the world would I like
that pig-headed jerk?"
	"Oh, I don't know. Maybe because he's handsome, and sweet, smart,funny, 
etc. But your right, why would you like him?"
	Smiling Serena stared at the girl, running a hand through her hair she
began to giggle softly. "I think Shakespeare said it best, 'Oh, how Iloath 
thee, let me count the ways.' That is exactly how I feel about DarienChiba, 
I loath him for everything he is worth."	"Uh-huh?"	"Yep."
	Casey smiled, "Yeah, you and every other girl here."
	"Well, it's good to know we agree on the same things."
	'Why? Why do I care so much about what happened to her?"
	After leaving the others in the lab Darien had walked to the quad inthe 
center of the school to sit under one of the big, shady willow trees 
outside. It was one of the luminous ones, so no one ever came throughits 
branches to sit under it. A place of solitude and silence. But not this
visit, this time Darien was battling an inner emotion. Even though hedidnŐt 
know what that emotion was.
	Love? No, that couldn't be it he had just met the girl, there was noway he 
could be in love with her.
	It wasn't recognition for what she had gone through, Darien had amother 
and three sisters. His father had died later on after his littlestsister 
was only a month old. But he had gotten over with the help of is slewof 
other relatives. But he had never been alone like Serena was now.
	Then again, he had a feeling of closeness to Serena. An emotion thatmade 
him feel connected to her, like he knew her, knew this girl inside andout. 
Knew every inch of her soul, every inch of her body.
	Darien knew the way that Serena loved to have fun no matter the 
consequences and the way no matter the person she always embraced themwith 
love and happiness. He had felt her warmth over take him again andagain, 
had waken up beside her just happy that they were together, nothingelse.
	"Then what is it?"
	"What's what?" Darien looked up to see his friend Kevin walking intothe 
foliage, pushing back the branches as he made his way in.
	Darien smiled, "Nothing, I was just thinking about things."
	Kevin walked over and sat next to his friend, looking him over hecould 
tell something was bothering him. Darien had this face were his eyesclouded 
over and even though he was smiling you could tell he was troubled.'It's 
his smile.' Kevin thought, because if Darien Chiba's smile didn't reachhis 
eyes he wasn't really smiling at all.	"So, which part is making you feel down?"
	Darien gaped at him, Kevin had always known when something was wrongeven 
if it was pitch black and you couldn't see anything, he could tell justby 
your voice or how you acted at that given moment. And he usually gavein and 
told Kevin, Darien could always talk to him no matter what thesituation. 
But how could you explain this?
	Darien sighed showing that he had given up. Kevin smiled victoriouslyas 
always nobody could tell him no.
	"I met this girl this morning..." Darien then began to explained howhe had 
met Serena and what Zachary had told him. The information spilling fromhis 
mouth, and each word like another stabbing wound to his heart.
	"So now, I can't stop thinking about her. It's like-the way you take alick 
of ice cream and then you want more but it's all out."
	"So you want another lick of Serena?"
	"No!" At this Darien jumped to his feet and began to pace in the small
space that was open to him. "I mean that...it's like I-no, I want tolearn 
more about her. I want to be around her more than anything. But that'sjust 
not possible! I've only known the girl for less than a day."
	Kevin looked at his friend quizzically, watching as he paced, his eyes
clouded over in confusion and his brow scrunched in thought. It wasalmost 
laughable, the great Darien Chiba was worrying over a girl that hadsomehow 
been able to capture his attention for more than five minutes. That had
never happened before!	"Man you really have it bad for her don't ya dude?"
	"NO!! I mean at least I don't think so. Can't you do what you usuallydo in 
times like these?"	"And what would that be?"
	Darien gazed at his friend, 'Did he have to have a memory lapse at atime 
like this?'"Tell me what's wrong and then fix me Dr.Frued"
	"Okay, let me think about this a minute Um... you're head over heelsfor 
this girl and the only thing to do is tell her and see what she says."
	Darien smiled at Kevin, then began to laugh harder than he had everlaughed 
in his life. He began to hold his sides at the immense pain in hissides. 
Staggering outside the branches of the weeping tree Darien left hisfriend 
behind, making his way to his next class. The idea of him "head overheels" 
for Serena still echoing through out his mind, the absurdity of it all 
making him laugh the more.
	Kevin stared after him the whole time. "And this is why I keep tellinghim 
to see a phyciritrist, he really needs to work on his denial."