"Dreaming of You"

Lita sat on the bench tossing small pieces of bread forward. She could hear the wind whistling as it curved around the trees and propelled small cherry blossoms through the air, a rogue sakura petal landing in her hair every few minutes. Just a few days ago, the scouts had just a come back from the dream-like reality where Rini had been hidden, rescuing her before the Negamoon could get ahold of her. She smiled as the ducks fought good-naturedly over the crumb of bread, one losing its balance and splashing into the clear pond behind it. Everything was so serene, so calm, so peaceful, so perfect.

She picked one of the small, pink flowers from her brunette hair, and studied its innate beauty for a moment before blowing it away with an open palm. Before the cherry blossom reached the ground, however, the wind picked it up again and it flew off. Someday, when the Negaverse was finally defeated, this would be what the whole world would be like. Beautiful.

Raye, having departed from Mina several minutes ago, now stood before two doors, one blue and one green. Each had a small, silver knob. Raye slowly opened the blue door on the left and peered inside. It was a small room with five walls and five corresponding doors. Deciding she didn't want to get lost, she tried opening the green door and looked inside, where the same room was. Except that this room had a blue door, slightly open, across from her vantage point. Apparently, both doors led to the same room.

Raye sighed and entered through the pine green door, closing it behind her. The raven-haired girl stepped past the azure door, swinging it open. But to her surprise, the scene behind the door was not where she had just come from, but another identical room, with gold lines connecting the corners of the room and forming a pentagram.

"Okay, this is definitely the wrong way!" Raye announced to nobody in particular and headed back to the blue door, swinging it open violently. She stepped back as she realized that behind the azure passage was another identical room. Five doors: the blue one that she had just opened, an ajar pine door, and three others, scarlet, yellow, and pink, all shut tightly. Raye, getting annoyed with the entire situation, marched over to the green door and opened it fully to see another room. She went around the room, opening the red one, the yellow one, and finally the pink one, another identical tomb behind each doorway.

Raye, becoming quite frustrated, once more tried to contact Mina through her wrist communicator to only receive static again. "How am I supposed to meet her back where we came from, if I can't get out of here!?!" she screamed, her voice echoing from room to room and back to herself.

Mina climbed the stairs, noticing that its incline was gradually becoming less and less, until she was actually climbing down the stairs. "This place is weird," she mumbled, continuing to climb down the stairs until it descended into a rippling sea. "What now?" Mina wondered aloud. "If I go back, will I be able to find Raye? Maybe I should transform back into Sailor Venus... Will it even work? I mean, we were un-transformed when we fell..." She thought silently for a moment. "I guess it's worth a shot."

Mina pulled out her transformation pen and held it up, shouting, "Venus, Star, Power!!" Streams of golden light erupted from the pen, encircling her. The warm light surrounded her, transforming her. As it dimmed, Sailor Venus smiled and exclaimed, "It worked!"

She then turned her attention to the water beneath her. Far below, she could make out the bottom edge of the water, where a bright sun was shining. She took a deep breath and descended the staircase into the water.

"Darien...?"

Darien looked at her with his blue eyes, as if he were giving her permission to make her inquiry.

"Darien, was... was that the reason you broke up with me?"

"I..."

Serena grabbed his hand and clasped it tightly. She looked back at his eyes, tears quivering at the bottom of her eyes. "Is it?"

Darien inhaled slowly before answering solemnly, "Yes."

"So it's not really over?"

"Don't you understand!?!" he shouted, sitting up quickly. "It is over, because if it's not, you'll be destroyed! I had to break up with you! And it has to stay that way, or else the future will come true and you'll die, Serena! I can't let that happen to you! I..."

"You... what?" Serena cried, tears now rolling down her cheeks and leaving dark dots upon the white pillows beneath her.

"I... I love you! And that's why we can't be together!"

"But it's just a dream!"

"No, it's not just a dream! It's a prophecy!"

"What if you're wrong?"

"What if I'm not?!?"

"But what if you are? You're going to throw away everything because of a silly dream?!?"

"Until I know that you won't be obliterated like I saw, being apart from you is what I have to do."

"Fine!" Serena screamed, standing up. "I'll go away! Then we can both be alone like you want!" she cried, kicking the pillows as she ran across the seemingly endless field of the ivory cushions, a light mist eventually separating her and her love. "He can..." she began, but her speech was soon overtaken by her wailing and she fell to the ground sobbing.

Lita cradled the white duck in her arms as it quacked softly. She heard a splashing sound, and looked ahead to see a dripping-wet Sailor Venus step out of the pond. "Mina...?"

"Lita!"

"What were you doing in the pond?"

"Trying to find you!"

"Um, okay...?"

"C'mon!" Sailor Venus grabbed Lita by the arm and started dragging her toward the pond.

"Let go of me! What are you doing?!?"

"We've got to go back and find Raye, Serena, and Darien and get to Rini before the Negamoon does!"

"Uh, we already did that last week, remember?"

"No, we didn't."

"Yes, we did."

"Really? If so, where did we find her?"

"I don't remember..."

"And what happened after we all fell?"

"I'm not sure... Does this mean we're still there- I mean, here?"

"Yeah, hurry up and transform!"

"Weren't we already transformed before we fell?"

"Yeah, but I don't know what happened."

"Oh," Lita pulled out her transformation pen and held it up. "Jupiter, Star, Power!!" Bolts of lightning shot out of her pen and curved around her, shrinking to match her figure like a second skin. The bright electricity shot out and dissipated from Sailor Jupiter, causing Sailor Venus to blink. "I'm ready."

"Take a deep breath."

"Why?"

"We're going underwater."

"What?!?"

"Trust me."

"If I drown, I'm gonna beat you up."

"Take a deep breath and you won't."

"You'd better be right about this..." Lita sighed, taking a deep breath just before completely submerging herself in the pond.