Moonlight Dreams
Part 2
By Veronica

The scouts were at the temple with Reeny. Ami and Rei were feeding the birds while Mina and Lita were talking about guys in general. Reeny had already told them about Darien and Serena getting back together. Reeny was now playing hopscotch. Suddenly the peacefulness was broken.

Serena ran up the path to the temple. "He’s gone!" Serena screamed.

The scouts looked up. Lita said, "Who’s gone?"

"Darien! I went to his apartment and it was broken into and there was blood on the floor and…glass. There was glass on the sidewalk and in the apartment. He is gone!" Serena cried out to them, still breathing heavily.

"Come on, you guys. Let’s check this out." Mina said realizing that the others might have more success.

The scouts were shocked as they laid their eyes on the disaster zone. Everyone started to look for clues. Ami analyzed the blood.

"Yes, this is indeed Darien’s blood." Ami said sadly.

"Well what about the piece of cloth?" Lit asked.

"This was torn from Tuxedo Mask’s jacket. There is also a piece over there from his cape." Ami answered.

"Wait a second. Why would Darien transform into Tuxedo Mask in his own apartment?" Rei pondered out loud.

"Perhaps he was attacked by something." Mina suggested.

Serena sat in the corner holding the picture of Darien and her in her hands. She felt a great void where her love, Darien, had existed. Serena cried silently at losing her love that finally admitted his love for her just yesterday.

Lita walked around the room. She found a piece of crystal on the floor. "Hey, what’s this?"

Ami took it from her and analyzed it with her pocket computer. "It seems to be a piece of a crystal. I can’t trace the substances in it. All I can tell is that it is not from this world."

"What are you saying? That this is a piece of something sent by the Negaverse?" Serena said, drying her tears quickly.

"Yes, it seems to be a weapon of some kind. I’ll have to work on it but give me a few minutes." Ami replied quickly.

Serena got up and Lita came over and talked to her.

"Don’t worry Serena, we’ll get him back." Lita said with determination in her voice.

"I lost him once before to the Negaverse. Why must I lose him again?" Serena whined.

Just then Ami waved her hand and motioned everyone over to her. "We have problems." She said.

"What?" Rei asked.

"That piece of crystal was a piece of a weapon. The weapon consisted of a lot of complex elements including some dangerous to humans. If Darien fought with someone that used this weapon, he could be seriously injured just by a scratch." Ami said without lifting her head. She continued, "Wherever he is now, he’ll be too weak to try to escape. He has no chance to fight anyone at this point."

Serena’s eyes became wide with fear. "Where is he, Ami?"

"I don’t know." Ami said, admitting the defeat that she could not help with that problem.

Darien awoke in a chamber. His eyes felt like they weighed a hundred pounds. He looked around and was wide-awake. God, my head hurts, he thought. In fact his whole body hurt he realized. He looked down to see himself as Tuxedo Mask. What happened, he tried to remember. He attempted to get up but let out a groan of pain. Darien fell back to the cold floor. He gasped as he suddenly remembered what had occurred. There was a huge wound in his left side that was still bleeding but not as bad. The worse part was the fact that it hurt to breathe nevertheless move. What am I going to do, he thought.

Just then a figure came through the door on the opposite side of the room. Darien then understood why he had been brought here. The figure came into view.

"The great Tuxedo Mask lying on the floor, helpless as a child. The words mean so much to me." The figure bellowed triumphantly.

Darien struggled to sit up but slumped back down. "What do you want with me?"

"What do I want? You should grasp the fact of who I am. I am your nightmare!" The figure laughed.

Darien squinted to catch a glimpse of this person. She was hiding in the shadows.

"I was once your loyal subject. I followed you everywhere you went. A thousand years ago, you once loved me. Then you let me go and you fell in love with her, Princess Serena. I loathed seeing you two together. You were supposed to love me and me alone. That’s all done with." The figure smiled and came out of the shadows.

"Bethany?" Darien’s eyes went wide. "I thought you were dead!"

"Well, the attack on the moon came and Queen Beryl took her revenge. I, on the other hand, was swept into a vortex formed by the Imperium Silver Crystal. Because of that, the last image of you I had was you and Serena, holding each other even in death. The vortex sent me into an abyss, where I spent years bottling up the anger I felt towards her for taking you away. Then, all my anger was released at once. The Wiseman took me in and said I was a vital asset to him. He has helped me find my way here. To my surprise, I find Sailor Moon and a disguised figure in a tuxedo fighting against my youmas. I sensed something there and here you are. Reborn again into this world to love me once more…or not." She shrugged her shoulders and smiled wickedly at Darien. She wore a dark purple dress that came down to her thighs. Black boots came up to her strong thighs. Her hair hung down and flowed down her back into a sea of golden sunshine. Her eyes were lavender and glistened at him. She still looked the same to Darien.

"The Wiseman cares not for you or any else for that matter. You were good and kind when I knew you." Darien said kindly.

"When you knew me…ha! You cared for me and then threw me away when you were done. You changed me. All these years I have watched your death over and over in my mind, but yet, instead of me holding you, it was her, Serena." Bethany screamed with hatred in her eyes.

Darien struggled to remember. It was true that he loved her at one point but that was long ago. They had only been friends. She had always reminded him, when he expressed his love, that she could never by anything more than a friend. Darien didn’t need to wonder who gave her these evil ideas in her head.

Darien’s pain grew suddenly worse. He grabbed his sides in agony. He felt his insides lurch and sway. Bethany watched him with little expression.

"By the way, Darien, the Wiseman gave me a new name as well. I’m called Nexus." She grinned at him.

Darien shut his eyes and winced at his pain. "What is happening to me?" He asked out loud.

"My own special poison. You see, Queen Beryl had it all wrong. Instead of trying to control your mind and fight Sailor Moon, you just take Tuxedo Mask out all together." Nexus laughed out loud. "You really did put up a valiant fight though."

"What…actually…did happen?" Darien slowly made out. He wanted to keep her talking.

"Did you forget? Well, I sent a youma down to capture some good energy. But you showed up. I was curious about who the masked man was so I went down to investigate. You fought and defeated my youma and started on your way home, still in your tuxedo outfit. I followed you, realizing that Queen Beryl had told me about a masked man that saved Sailor Moon all the time. You saw someone in your apartment, started to fight and your mask fell off. I recognized you right away and realized that I needed to take you away from that place. You resisted and I took out my lovely dagger. Yes, that’s why you feel the way you do. I now know why you protect Sailor Moon, Darien. She is your lovely sweetheart, Serena" Nexus gushed towards the end. She turned away and lifted up something. Darien could not see it but sighed.

How could I let myself be captured? Darien thought. Serena’s identity is known and I can barely manage to breathe!

Nexus turned around and held up a glistening object. It appeared to be a dagger. "This is the thing that has left you weak and helpless in my care. It’s called the Jealousy Dagger. It was formed by my jealousy over all those centuries ago. It is as powerful as that crystal Serena has. My dagger has left you sick. The only thing that can make you better is the dagger. Cool, huh?" Nexus chuckled.

Darien realized that there was nothing he could but wait until Nexus finally decided his fate.

Serena was very worried. Ami had just finished scrutinizing the crystal and found out that it is as powerful as her Silver Crystal. Lita came over to Serena and put her hand on Serena’s shoulder.

"Don’t worry. Everything will work out." Lita said as calmly as possible.

Rei and Mina continued to search through the apartment for clues. Rei suddenly lifted up something. "What’s this?" Rei exclaimed.

The scouts walked over to Rei. Luna stood by the door with Artemis. Ami used her pocket computer to assess it carefully. Ami had a frown on her face.

"It appears to be a vortex accelerator." Ami said firmly.

"What?" All the scouts exclaimed simultaneously.

"It is a piece of crystal that will allow a person to travel to a certain place in another dimension. This is the key to getting Darien back." Ami explained.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s go." Rei demanded.

"It’s not that easy. This could lead us to a dimension where we could not come back." Ami sighed.

"Can you find out where the crystal leads to?" Serena asked.

"It might take awhile but I should be able to find it." Ami said, already starting on the tests.

Serena, Lita, Mina, and Rei all sat down on the floor in Darien’s apartment. It had been twenty-five minutes and Ami still had not found the dimension yet. Luna sat up to speak.

"You girls have to prepare for a big battle. If the thing that took Darien has this weapon that equals the power of the Silver Crystal, you are going to have to fight harder than ever before." Luna said resolutely.

"Luna’s right, you guys. This thing means business. This time you won’t have Tuxedo Mask there to help you. All your powers combined can defeat this thing." Artemis argued.

"I’ve got the location!" Ami cried out. She looked exhausted.

"Where is it?" All the scouts said, jumping up at her words.

"This vortex accelerator leads to a dimension that was apparently opened during the battle with the Moon Kingdom. It was never opened again until a couple of years ago. There is no civilization found in the dimension," Ami explained.

"What should we do now? Are we going to attempt to rescue Darien?" Rei asked.

"I believe that we should go for it. There is no real danger with traveling between the two dimensions. The only thing would be to fight the thing that stole Darien away." Ami replied.

"Be careful scouts. We don’t know what lies beyond our dimension." Luna said.

"All right! Let’s go for it!" Serena cried out.

All the scouts started their transformations. Ami held the crystal in front of her towards a wall in Darien’s apartment.

"We all have to focus our energy on the crystal for a portal to form." Ami explained. All the scouts gathered around Sailor Moon.

"Mars star power!"

"Venus star power!"

"Jupiter star power!"

"Mercury star power!"

"Moon crystal power!"

A sudden burst of light erupted from the wall. The light consumed the room. A vacuum sucked the scouts into the portal while Luna and Artemis grabbed onto the door.

The scouts regained themselves after their trip through the portal. They looked around at their surroundings. The sky was a deep red color with three suns and two moons opposite the suns. There were so many stars twinkling even though there were so many suns. The ground was dry and hard. It was a slightly gray color that reflected the light from the suns. There were no clouds. There was a huge tower in the distance. The tower rose above the flat expanse of land into the red sky. The light bounced off it as if it were glass. The tower was green and at the top of it was a golden flag.

"What are we waiting for?" Rei demanded.

"We shouldn’t just barge in, Rei." Serena blurted out.

"Standing around here doesn’t help." Rei said, getting annoyed.

"Calm down. Now is not the time to fight." Mina said to the both of them.

"We’ll go to the tower to see if we can get in since it looks like the only place that Darien could be." Lita said.

The scouts nodded in agreement. They all set off towards the green tower.

Darien shook his head slightly. I felt her presence, he thought. She’s here!

Nexus was staring out a window with her head down. She had changed her clothes into a green dress down to her ankles with golden slippers.

Bethany used to be real pretty, Darien remembered. The anger in her from the Wiseman has destroyed her personality so it didn’t exist anymore.

"Darien, it’s so pretty. You’ll love it here. But, if you want to go back to Earth we can go there as well." Nexus said sweetly.

"You’d let me see my friends again?" Darien exclaimed with surprise.

"Of course not! They won’t exist anymore." She laughed politely.

"What are you talking about?" Darien cried.

"The Wiseman just needed you out of the way so he could conquer Earth. You understand that the only thing that stops him every time is you giving Sailor Moon hope. Now it will be easy to get the crystal." She explained.

"The Wiseman is just using you. He will eventually turn against you for that weapon." Darien struggled as he pointed to her dagger.

"The Wiseman would never turn against me. I made it possible for him to take over Earth. Besides, he’ll have the Silver Crystal."

"Once he has the crystal, he’ll see you as a threat and turn against you for your dagger." Darien gasped out. He felt even worse than before.

Nexus turned and walked over to his spot on the floor. "Don’t worry, Darien. I’ll protect you." She then removed a piece of the dagger that was in his side wound. Darien groaned as it was taken out but then realized that he could breathe easily. He still could not stand up but he could breathe and speak better. Nexus smiled at him. "I told you that I’d protect you."

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