Looking for a refuge in the heartbreak

[frostbound_moon]

As if things couldn't get any worse. Serenity's sitting on another park bench, somewhere else, feeling clubbed inside and out all over again. She'd thought that Makoto, Endymion (and who had that mysterious other girl been?) might have understood her pain. But instead, they've come at her with even worse revelations than before, and to make matters

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[selene_queen]

"Serenity. My daughter." She greets her daughter, and her alternates, this way each time, because the most important thing to her is to be able to see Serenity again.

"You are sad," Selene says softly.

[frostbound_moon]

Well, have a sobbing Serenity in your arms, Selene, crying like her heart's about to break.

Which it has. Several times over.

[selene_queen]

Nonplussed, Selene does the only thing she can. She gathers Usagi into her arms, and holds her tightly until the crying subsides.

[frostbound_moon]

It takes Serenity a while to calm down, and she's still got tears in her eyes, though the sobs have subsided a bit. "Mother," she whispers. "Oh, Mother, please, tell me they're wrong!"

[buntails]

"Another alternate? How did I-" She sees Serenity's face too late to stop the initial cheerful rush, but Usagi stops cold.

"Hey... what's wrong?"

[frostbound_moon]

Serenity looks up at her, her face ravaged with pain. "It's all so wrong!" she sobs, burying her face in her hands.

[buntails]

She knows many things that are wrong. She's lost all her confidence in the nexus, somewhere between the countless friends and even Mamorus who hate her for- she's not even sure what, and the ways she's been letting her friends down because she's lost the ability to be confident in herself in battle, to distinguish who calls themselves friends from who calls themselves foes. It makes her role impossible. She can't fight when she's not sure.

And there's no one to talk to, for her, because she can't burden them with these things. She has to be stronger, able to handle it herself. So she prepares herself for another blow as she tries to find a smile for her alternate.

"Tell me what happened?"

[frostbound_moon]

Serenity wipes the tears away as best she can. "I've been told some terrible things," she whispers. "About me - us - and the ginzuishou, and I want to know if they're true."

[pink_is_back]

A shadowy figure watched from behind the bench, leaning against a nearby tree. It wasn't the first time she'd encountered an Usagi, but this one seemed quiet, much quieter than was usual. Black Lady kept her distance for a time, watching, studying what the blond was up to, but the longer she stood there the more she grew bored just watching. While remaining within the shadow of the tree, she turned her head in Usagi's direction and spoke up.

"Something wrong?"

You did NOT *dies laughing*

[frostbound_moon]

Serenity's head snaps up at the sound of that voice. I know that voice.

She insisted

[pink_is_back]

Black Lady pushed herself away from the tree, arms folded across her chest. She walked slowly around the park bench, dressed in a plain black turtleneck dress and matching black stockings. It wasn't unlike something Hotaru might have worn, which might have been intentional. "Well?"

I saw!

[frostbound_moon]

Serenity tries her hardest to calm down, but it's impossible. "It's ... everything's just gone so wrong," she finally admits.