"Dreaming of You"

"What happened?" groaned Sailor Moon as she sat up, or rather, attempted to sit up; there was no ground beneath her to support the change in position. As her eyes adjusted, she saw her new location: Crystal Tokyo. The sun was setting, bathing the entire city in a healthy orange. It was beautiful. She smiled, then gasped as she realized that she couldn't see her own body, nor feel her own motions. She could only see the scene in front of her, nothing else. She could feel the pleasant temperature of the late afternoon air and smell the relaxing aroma of the salty sea. But... what about her self?

"No..." came Darien's voice. Only, it sounded richer than she had ever heard it before. As if a fuzzy picture suddenly came in clear for the first time.

"Darien?"

"Serena?"

"What's going on?"

"It's happeneing again..."

The world suddenly shot forward, until Sailor Moon could see the inside of a crystal palace. On the stone terrace, adorned with magnificent orchids and carnations, stood a woman who appeared to be a much older version of Serena, in an elegant white dress. Beside her was Darien, a little taller, with a wiser expression than Sailor Moon had ever seen him have. They were leaning over the stone railing, softly talking to one another. The scene got slowly dimmer as the sun reached its resting place.

A flash of bright light erupted, obliterating the palace as the older Darien and older Serena were sent like projectiles in opposite directions. The second blast of light hit Serena in the chest and her white gown turned to black ash as her entire body burnt into nothingness in less than a moment. Darien was trapped under a block of concrete, witness to the scene. Tears rolled down his eyes, as he screamed out in agony.

"No!!!!!!!!!!!!!" came his scream. No, not his scream. The present Darien's scream. Sailor Moon watched as the image transformed into the realistic equivalent of a clips-episode. The years spent together by Serena and Darien flashed by as she was destroyed by evil. But the images were different... In these -memories?- Darien had never broken up with Serena. They had come together, forging their relationship just as she remembered... But in this... scene... they had stayed together... Everything was perfect forever...

"What is this..." Sailor Moon whispered.

"What?"

"What is this!?!"

"Again..."

"Tell me!"

"No... no..." Darien's choked voice echoed in Serena's consciousness.

"Tell me, Darien!"

"You're dead! You're dead! I killed you!"

"No! That wasn't me! Not yet! I'm still here!"

"You're dead! You're dead!"

"Snap out of it!"

"No!"

"I'm alive!"

"No... You're dead... Me... I... You... Gone..."

"Stop it!"

"I want to wake up..."

"We're both awake, Darien! We went through the passageway, then we fell!"

"Fell asleep..."

"No! Was... Was this some sort of dream?"

"Dream?"

"Listen to me! I-" Serena opened her eyes. She was in a small room, lying on several layers of white throw pillows. She rolled over to see a waking Darien, dressed in a white shirt and matching pajama bottoms.

"Serena... I didn't mean to..." he mumbled.

"I know..." she answered as she rolled over and hugged him tightly.

Rini floated in the space between the space and blinked several times. She saw Amy! She climbed the six-foot boulder and smiled at her friend who was sitting on top. "Amy!"

"Rini...? What are you doing in my cheesecake?"

"Are you asleep... I'm so glad I found you..."

"I don't think so; I've got two compositions to write before next period. One on World War I and one on hyperbolas, or perhaps it's hyperbolae. I'm not quite sure. Do you have a dictionary?"

"No... Please tell me... Did you find Luna Ball?"

"Luna Ball... Yes... A circle!"

"Amy! Pay attention... Did you and the other Sailor Scouts find Luna Ball?"

"I'm not sure... I used a new power... Then I had to write some compositions... Then you came along. You climbed this mountain. It's three miles high; you did a great job! If you had fallen, the resulting path might have been parabolical. What do you think?"

Thunder crashed in the distance and a blackness flashed across the mountain. "Black thunder... They're coming! The Negamoon is coming!"

"We'll go to the Aquabase!" Amy grabbed Rini's hand and an elliptical area of rock under them suddenly lurched downward, taking them with it.

"Is everyone okay?" shouted Raye as she stood up and brushed herself off. The surrounding light still accompanied her, and she slowly took in the scene around her. It looked like the set of a bad cartoon. There were stairs in every direction, some upside down, some inverted. Doorways were set in all the walls, some of which were actually ceilings and floors.

There was no reply. She asked again on her wrist communicator and only got static in return. "Time to find a way out of here..." she mumbled and opened the door nearest her.

"Raye?" asked Mina, who was on the other side of the door.

"Mina... Why are you upside-down?" Raye asked.

"I'm not upside-down; you are."

"You are."

"No, you are."

"This is weird."

"Yeah, can you come down here, please?"

"How?" pondered Raye.

"I'll pull you down!" Raye reached upwards and Mina grabbed her by the arms and tugged. "You're too heavy..." she gasped. "Try jumping while I pull!" This time, the plan succeeded and Raye came flying head first towards Mina's ground. However, Mina lost her balance and fell to where Raye had just come from.

"Well that worked out great; we're still not on the same floor, and now I have a splitting headache, too!"

"What now?"

"Let's try to find Lita."

"Should we split up, Raye?"

"If we do... we may get lost... However, we may wind up standing in the same direction. Either way, it's less stomach-churning than this."

"Okay, you go the way I came from, and I'll take those stairs!"

"Oh yeah. If either of us finds Lita, let's come back here, okay?"

"No problem!"