2Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon. The manga/anime is rightfully owned by Naoko Takeuchi.
A/N: Warning – Do NOT scroll down to the bottom of the story. Read the whole story first and you will find out who the people are at the end. Some of you may know, and some of you may not. That was my whole point in writing it.
I'm warning you guys, don't do it, or little alien fairies are gonna get ya.
Well, anyway, hope you guys enjoy. ;)
I was too late. I wasn't able to save her in time.
I should've believed them when they told me she was running out of time.
I should've believed them when they told me that her life - that her life was connected to a black rose.
That cursed, black rose.
They told me that whenever the rose lost a petal, her heart would slowly become weaker.
It all started when she was born.
She was born on August 26, 1993. She was such a sickly baby, with a disease no one had ever heard of that continuously attacked her heart. Her parents tried everything that they could think of to make her better, but nothing seemed to work.
They went to every hospital and asked all the doctors there of what they could do to keep their daughter alive. Every one of the doctors turned them down, sad that they couldn't be of much help.
It had been a few days, and she was slowly becoming weaker. Her parents were starting to give up hope, until one day, a witch came to their house and made an offer that they couldn't refuse.
She told them that there was a way she could save their daughter, but it came with a price. They didn't care what the price was; they were just grateful that they had found someone that could save their baby girl.
The witch then presented them with a rose. Now, this rose was unlike any other rose they had ever seen. The color was pitch black and had a mysterious aura surrounding it. The power that the rose had was able to keep their daughter alive for a long period of time and keep the disease sealed as well.
But, there was a catch: she had to find someone that would love her as much as she loved them before her 21st birthday, and if that were to happen, then the rose would disappear, and she'd be cured forever. But, if she was not able to find someone to love before then, the rose would become cursed, and the petals would start to fall one by one each day. Also, her heart would get weaker with each fallen petal, and she would eventually die when the last petal fell.
Her parents had agreed with the witch and watched as she cast a spell that would connect their daughter's life and the rose together. Once the spell was complete, the rose shrunk until it was small enough to fit in a jar that was big enough for a necklace.
The witch placed it around their daughter's neck, and they all watched as she began to get better. The girl's mother had tears in her eyes because she would be able to watch her daughter grow up and live the life she was born to have.
The couple thanked the witch and began to focus all their attention on their baby.
The witch watched the happy family with dark eyes, smiled, and left without a sound.
A few years had passed, and the girl had grown to be an adorable 8 year old. Her parents had told her about her disease as soon as she was able to walk and talk and was smart enough to understand what people were saying. They also told her about the rose necklace that sat above her chest. At first, she was shocked that her parents would trust a witch to heal her, but then she finally accepted the fact when she found out what the conditions were, both good and bad.
When alone, she would always go on mini adventures and meet new people. They had always asked her why she had a rose the color of the night sky in a jar around her neck, but all she did was smile and tell them that it was a gift given to her on the day she was born. The people began to see her as their precious one because she was always so happy and could cheer anyone up.
She made many friends on her adventures, but there were only four who became her closest friends. These four were all girls who were the same age as her. And like all the others she had encountered, these girls had asked her the same question about the rose. But unlike the other times, she told her new friends the real reason about why she had it.
After she finished her small tale, her friends had promised to protect her and to keep her secret forever until she found the right guy.
So, the five of them had become the closest of friends, you might even say they were sisters, and were all deemed inseparable from the day they had met. They all looked out for each other, but the girls had to keep a closer eye on their friend. They made sure to keep her away from anything and anybody that would bring or cause harm to her.
More years had passed, and all the girls had grown into five beautiful 18 year old women. By this time, the youngest of the five women was looking and feeling a lot better than when she was a baby. Although, she still had not found that one person who would break her curse.
But one day, something unexpected had happened. The young woman was on one of her usual adventures when she had suddenly come across someone that she had never met in one of her favorite meadows.
As she got closer to the person, she realized that it was a young man. He looked to be about a couple years older than her and was very handsome. She didn't want him to ask her about the necklace, so she hid it in the lining of her coat before she approached the young man.
The young man didn't seem to know that anybody was there until he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around and saw the young woman. He couldn't believe his eyes; she was the most beautiful person he had ever seen in his life. He could tell that she was very wise beyond her years by just looking into her eyes.
They continued to stare at each other until the young man had asked her if she wanted to sit and talk with him. She smiled and sat down next to him, both not knowing that this little meeting would put an impact on their lives forever.
Since that day, the young woman had trusted this man and knew that he would be the one to break her curse and to free her from that horrible disease. They would spend every day together, getting to know each other and having fun. They talked about everything they could think of, but she knew that it wasn't the right time to tell him about the rose. She knew that she would have to wait until a few months before her 21st birthday.
Her friends had noticed how close she was with this man. They kept out of harm's way and just let her be happy. They knew that they would have tell him when the right time came about her disease and curse.
Two years had passed, and after many days of spending each moment together, the young man had finally asked the young woman to go out with him. She was so happy that she began to cry tears of joy and nearly smothered him with her soft kisses. After that, they went to their meadow and spent the rest of the day together.
Months went by, and time was running short for the cursed woman because her 21st birthday was in three short months. Her friends began to worry because they could sense that she was starting to become weaker, and that she and the young man had not confessed their love for each other yet.
So, they all knew that something had to be done, and quick.
One Saturday evening, a month before her birthday, the young woman and her friends went to the park to discuss her situation with the young man. Once they arrived, they began to tell him about her disease, the black rose, and the curse.
When they finished, the only thing the young man did was laugh. He told them to stop playing around and just tell him what was really going on. They looked at him in shock. Did he really think that all of what they told him was a joke? The young woman's life was at stake, and he was treating the situation as if they were trying to pull a prank on him.
The young women tried once again to tell him about her problem, only this time, he began to get angry and told them to stop lying.
She had tears beginning to form in her eyes, not understanding why he didn't believe what they were saying.
He had had enough of this and told the woman that they were over. She gasped in shock, with disbelief and hurt clouding her eyes. She showed him the rose, begging him to understand and to not give up what they had. He still didn't listen and spoke with so much anger that it caused the young girl to have more pain in her heart than she already had, 'til she gave up and ran away, crying her heart out.
Her friends called out to her to come back as they watched her figure began to get smaller and smaller in the distance until they couldn't see her anymore. Once she was gone, they turned back to the young man and started to yell at him for being an asshole and for not believing them, and that now that he and their friend were over, she was going to end up dying because he could've been the one to break her curse.
After that, the young women left the man to think about what they said and ran off to find their friend to try to comfort her. The young man stood there in anger, not knowing what to do, and then left the park in the opposite direction of where the five women went.
The young women finally found their friend, crying in her meadow where she and the young man first met. They all sat around her and gathered her into their arms to let her continue to cry. They stayed in the meadow all night until she cried herself to sleep and carried her home to tell her parents the sad news.
A few days later, on the 1st of August, the young woman's curse started to take form, and her disease came back ten times worse than when she was a baby. And that was when the first petal had begun to fall from the black rose when the clock stroked noon.
The young woman had brought so much joy and happiness to the people and her town that when her heart began to falter with that horrible disease, each day started to become gloomy and everyone became sad because they knew that they were going to lose someone that was most precious to them.
She had stopped eating and drinking because she knew that it wouldn't make her any better. Her parents were worried about her so much that they couldn't dare to leave her alone. Her friends were worried, too, and couldn't leave her by herself either, so the six of them stayed by her side, day and night, watching her become weaker and weaker.
None of the women had heard from the young man since the day they broke up. They tried calling him when her disease first started, but he had ignored their calls, so they decided that he wasn't worth theirs or their friend's time anymore.
Day by day, the young woman's heart was beating very slowly to the point where it only beat every 30 minutes, and with each passing day, another petal had fallen.
Everybody knew that she was running out of time, since she only had a week left. Her parents had already started making her funeral arrangements, along with the help of the town.
The day before the young woman's birthday, her friends and parents decided to throw her a small surprise, so that she wouldn't be so sad when her time came. The rose was already down to its last petal, and once it falls, the young woman's heart would stop beating. Forever.
Her friends decided to call the young man one more time to get him to tell her that he loved her in order to save her from the curse. He told them that he still didn't believe them, but that he would think about it. They told him to make a decision quick before he lost her for good.
On the morning of her birthday, they all brought in presents that they had made or bought and placed them all around her. She smiled weakly in appreciation and thanked them all for their kindness, and for being with her after all this time. She told them not to be sad or to cry when she died; all she wants is for them to be happy and to live their lives when she was gone. They told her that they couldn't make any promises, but that they could try.
During her last few hours, all her friends and parents could do was just sit by her side and wait, until the clock hit noon, and the last petal had fallen, as the young woman shut her eyes forever.
Her mother was the first one to shed any tears, and once she had started crying, they couldn't get her to stop. I mean, what mother wouldn't cry over their first and only child who dies because of a curse and a disease?
The young woman's friends left her parents to grieve over her while they went out to the town to tell them that their precious one had died.
The next day, the young woman's mother and friends had dressed her up beautifully before she was placed in her coffin. She wore a pure white dress that flowed delicately around her feet and fixed her hair to where it spread out gently behind her on the pillow where her head would be lain. The last item that was placed on her was the necklace that she always wore with all the petals from the black rose inside.
It was then at the funeral that the young man had found out that his secret love had died, all because he didn't save her in time when he had the chance. Yes, he had loved her all that time, but he couldn't face her after what he had done. That was why he was there at the funeral to apologize to everybody for not being able to lift their precious one's curse.
Once everybody had said their goodbyes to the young woman, they sealed her casket shut and buried her deep within the ground.
On her gravestone, they wrote, "Here lies the one that was most precious to us all. We will always love and cherish her, and she will always be in our hearts. She will never be forgotten, and her story will live on for many generations to come." They didn't put her name on it for many reasons, but because they only wanted the people that knew her well to call her by her name whenever they spoke of her. And to the new generation, they would know her as the precious one.
So, now you know. I was too stubborn and upset to really do anything to save the one that I had loved. I regret not being able to lift her curse and to cure her with the love I had for her.
I still think about her to this day, and every month on the 26th, I would go to her grave and tell her all the things that I had never said before. And every year on her birthday, there would be a big celebration for our precious one to show that we still care and think about her every day.
She was the greatest person that could've ever graced our lives, and I will always remember her and hold her close in my heart.
And so, this is the story of how I, Darien Shields, could've saved my one and only love, Serena Tsukino, from the cursed, black rose.
A/N: Well, this is the end. Hope you guys enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Don't forgot to review. :)
See y'all soon. Jazzy, out. ;D