Twisted Nightmares

Prince Dimande was standing before her, paralyzing her with his powers, and Usagi had never felt more scared and helpless in her life.

Until she saw the shadows behind him—shadows emanating yet even more darkness and evil. Now she was terrified.

"Prince," the shapeless figure spoke in a raspy voice, and Dimande stopped just a hair's breadth away from her lips. His face contorted with annoyance.

"What is it, Wiseman?" He managed through gritted teeth. "This is the worst possible time—"

Why? Usagi's mind was already reeling. Why would he stop the prince just seconds before he could claim what he had wanted for so long? Weren't they on the same side?

"As much as I… understand your desire for her, I think I have a better use for her than just as something to decorate your bed," the faceless darkness spoke again.

"Watch your words," Dimande hissed. "What are you talking about?"

"I can make her… loyal to us. Then…" the beginnings of a chilling laugh echoed in the air, "then you would have her willingly come to you. All the time."

Dimande slowly smiled, and Usagi's blood turned to ice.

Usagi had no idea where she was or how much time had passed. She only knew that she was in a dark place, so confused and alone. She could hear, see, feel, taste, and touch nothing. It was like floating in an eternal abyss, and slowly but surely she could feel herself unraveling. Ceasing to exist with each passing second. How could she be sure she was still there if there was nothing for any of her senses to reach out to? It was neither hot nor cold, and even though she was pretty sure she was standing, she could not really feel the hard ground. The sensory deprivation was driving her crazy.

She tried to fill her thoughts with things she knew for certain, with people who meant the most to her. To remind her that they were real and to tether her to reality. But the thoughts soon turned depressing. Where was everyone? Where were her dearest friends… and Mamo-chan? Why hadn't they come to rescue her? Her memories were fuzzy, and she no longer remembered how she got there. All she knew was that she desperately wanted to go home.

When something finally flickered in the distance, the first change in the stagnant landscape—if the black nothingness could even be called that—she perked up. That was a person. That figure… it looked a lot like…

Yes! Joy filling her heart, she leaped to her feet and barreled into the girl that now stood a couple feet away from her.

"Ami-chan! Oh, I'm so glad to see you! I was so scared!" She encircled her arms around the blue-haired girl, her whole body relaxing in utter relief.

But to her surprise, she found violent resistance. Ami wrenched herself away and looked at her with disgust. "Stay away from me, Usagi," she demanded. Usagi's heart nearly stopped. Ami's voice had never been that cold before.

"But… you're here to rescue me, right?" she asked, her voice trembling.

"No. I'm only here to say goodbye."

"G-goodbye?" Usagi whispered. "What do you mean?"

"I'm tired of fighting all the time. It's really getting in the way of my studies. Getting in the way of my dreams," she glared at Usagi, who shrunk back in confusion and hurt. "I was on track to becoming everything I've ever wanted until you waltzed into my life and forced me to become a soldier. To fight for you. Do you have any idea how selfish you are, Princess?" she spat.

Usagi's eyes filled with tears. No, no, no. Ami would never say those cruel things. She must be brainwashed by the enemy! She didn't actually think those things… right?

But doubt was beginning to seep in. Ami was so nice, she was always helping her with her homework no matter how many times Usagi forgot or gave up on it. There were definitely times when Ami looked exasperated—only for the briefest of moments before she smiled again when she caught Usagi's gaze—which made Usagi wonder if her friend was ever truly upset. What if she really did feel all of these things she was saying now… and she had just been too nice to say them? Was she only fighting with her because she felt obligated to?

"Rescuing you, huh?" Another voice joined in, and Usagi gasped when she saw Rei appearing next to Ami. For a moment, her heart leaped with happiness, until she saw the cruel gaze Rei was giving her. Not the teasing kind, or the pretend kind that Usagi was used to. A chilling, cruel gaze full of hatred. The kind of look Rei usually reserved for their most vile enemies. And now it was directed at her.

"You really are useless without us, Usagi. Always in need of rescuing. And they say you're supposed to be our leader. But…" Rei leaned her face closer to Usagi, who instinctively stepped back. "You actually are the most useless of us all, aren't you? The weakest link. All you ever do is cry and wait for someone to save you."

"Th-That's not true!" Usagi cried.

"Of course it is. Look, you're doing it right now," Rei said with a condescending look. "Hard to believe you really are the princess and our future queen." She shook her head. "The world is going to be so screwed come Crystal Tokyo. No wonder it's a mess over there. No wonder Chibiusa—a little girl—had to travel through time on her own while her mother, the supposedly all-powerful queen, sleeps inside a crystal while the rest of us are battling to keep the enemy from demolishing everything. Some things never change."

"It's… It's not like that!" Usagi shook her head forcefully. "I'm not… useless. You don't really mean it," she declared, trying to convince herself as much as Rei. Despite the pain in her heart, she tried to manage a smile. "You're just being mean again, aren't you, Rei-chan? You're just trying to get me to fight harder."

"Oh, but we do mean it," Mako's voice came from the darkness, and Usagi looked up with a smile, which died quickly when she saw Mako's face. Her most loving friend's expression held no trace of warmth, just like the other two. Mako's tall build, which usually gave Usagi a sense of protectiveness, now seemed threatening and menacing.

"How many times have I had to save your life? I'm the one who has to stand on the front line every time. The one who dies first. Remember D-Point?" Mako's face twisted in anger. "Why should we give up our lives for you over and over again for you, Usagi? When we could just get our own happy futures, safe and sound?"

Every word was like a knife that pierced Usagi's heart. "B-but… you're my friends," she said weakly. "And I'll protect you! I'll bring you back, always!"

Mako let out a mirthless laugh. "Protect us? Don't be ridiculous, Usagi. We've always been the ones who protect you. In fact, that has been our entire job description since we were born. We never had any choice in the matter. Well, not anymore," Mako said. "We're not your guardians anymore, Princess. Who cares if we were in the past? One lifetime of it that ends in a tragic death is enough. The point of being reborn is not to make the same mistakes, right? To get a second chance. And this time, Usagi, we want to live."

"Mako-chan… You can live with me!" Usagi was openly sobbing now. "I will save everyone! I always do!"

"Is that so?" Minako stepped into the circle seemingly out of nowhere, completing the group. Her hands were on her hips and she was staring at Usagi accusingly. "You know, I don't even hate life as a senshi that much before you came along. I was the great Sailor V, everyone's idol. I was the one saving the world. I was doing just fine on my own, then you came in and stole my thunder." She stared at Usagi contemptuously. "What did you do that for, huh? You just can't stand it if you're not the one in the limelight, can you? You have to ruin everything."

"No!" Usagi said, horrified. "I never even wanted to fight at all! I was happy being normal!"

But it was as if Minako didn't even hear her. "You just had to be the brightest star of all, Princess. And so you relegated me to a sidekick. Thanks very much for that, by the way."

"No, Minako-chan! I would never! You know I adore you! Everyone, please!" Usagi pleaded, now on her knees as everyone turned their backs against her.

"We're done with you, crybaby," Ami was the first to walk away.

"Goodbye, useless princess," Rei followed her.

"We're off to find our own happiness and dreams," Mako added.

"And I'm going to take back what's always been mine," Minako concluded.

Together, they moved into the darkness. Usagi yelled their names until her throat was raw and ran to reach them, but all she grasped was darkness. She cried and cried, feeling lonelier than ever.

"Everyone has abandoned you, Sailor Moon," a new disembodied voice whispered around her. "Nobody will save you. Nobody cares about you."

"No… I… I still have Mamo-chan!" Usagi declared out loud, clapping her hands on her ears.

The voice just laughed. "Really? Then when was he when someone else was about to claim you?"

Suddenly memories of her earlier close encounter with Dimande flooded her mind. Usagi didn't want to admit it, but deep down she had expected Tuxedo Mask to appear just in the nick of time like he always did and save her. But he hadn't. The prince could have done anything to her, and Mamoru apparently didn't care.

Maybe he can't come, her conscience argued.

But he would have found a way. He always finds a way, another, more sinister inner voice replied. Face the hard truth; the only reason he didn't come is because he couldn't be bothered. He has cut off his losses, just like your friends have.

"NO!" Usagi kept her hands to her ears, but the voices that planted doubts wouldn't stop. Everyone had left her. They had only stayed with her because it was their duty, and they'd resented it the whole time. She had made everyone miserable.

Nobody truly loved her, and it was all her fault they constantly suffered.

"It's all my fault…" she repeated, her thoughts coalescing into one.

She deserved to lose everyone. She had no one left.

And without the people she loved…

"Who am I?" she asked in a whisper, as now only silence descended.

Her tears dried up.

Only emptiness remained in her eyes.

Ami's relief when she finally saw Usagi again after she had been kidnapped by Dimande was visible. They were planning to storm the Black Moon's headquarters, working on ways to infiltrate it successfully. But now Sailor Moon had returned to them, appearing safe and unharmed, and although Ami knew this was too good to be true, she didn't care. Her first instinct was to run straight into her friend's arms, but something made her hesitate. She couldn't help but sense that something wasn't right, yet when her brain could not pinpoint what it was, she chose to push it away.

Until Prince Dimande materialized beside Usagi, casually encircling his arm around her shoulder, and she didn't even flinch. She didn't seem to mind at all. Her eyes remained focused on Ami and the others, and she was not looking at them with a smile. She was looking at them with contempt.

Aggression toward us + apparent alliance with an enemy.

Result = Illogical.

Ami's brain failed to compute this. Usagi would never switch sides. She was the hero, the world's best soldier of justice. There was nothing that could corrupt her.

So despite her brain's analysis that what she was seeing was 100% impossible, she moved forward anyway.

And encountered a wall.

Mako's smile was wide when her gaze landed on Usagi.

She was going to hug her friend so tightly and never let her out of her sight again. It had been her fault that Usagi had been taken. Mako was supposed to protect them all, most especially the princess. And she had failed so completely.

She couldn't wait to ask for Usagi's forgiveness.

But the warmth that seemed to always radiate from Usagi was gone. The love that had attracted Mako like moth to a flame was nonexistent. There were only cold, distant eyes, and with one look at them Mako realized that her Usagi had disappeared. She'd always known that love so well, the one thing that had rescued her from her loneliness and brought joy back to her life. It was no surprise when she easily noticed it when it was no longer there.

Her heart shattered.

Minako had been beating herself up nonstop over this. How could she not have seen it coming? Moreover, how could she not have prevented it once it actually started happening?

She was the strategist, the leader. She was supposed to be able to think on her feet, rely on her instincts, and pull magical rescues out of thin air. She should have come up with at least ten different possibilities to deal with any crisis, and yet when Usagi was suddenly taken from her from under their noses, there was nothing she could do.

She had frozen.

Since then she hadn't stopped thinking about all the things she'd done wrong. And all the things she could've done to stop it. Use her Love-Me Chain to pull Usagi back. Attack Dimande and break his hold over Usagi. Not get distracted by falling Chibiusa because she knew, she knew Mako would get her.

Now, when she saw the result of her slow reaction, she felt like all she wanted to do was give up. Because the moment Dimande appeared beside Usagi, making her new supposed allegiance shift clear, Minako knew they had lost. They were nothing without Usagi, and if the enemy had managed to corrupt her—the most pure of them all—then what hope did the rest of them have?

But Minako was a soldier who adapted. She was a person who could turn her emotions on and off as necessary. So when her entire being told her she should give up because everything had been lost, she flipped the switch. She shoved the despair away and forced logic to take the forefront. She needed to get the rest of them to survive this. Whatever difficult battle awaited ahead of them—even if she had to battle her own princess—Minako knew she was the only one she could count on to make the difficult choices. Whatever it took to save everyone.

So when Ami moved toward Usagi, Minako stepped forward a split second later to block her way.

That was not a good move in this situation; one that would endanger Ami.

And she could not let anyone else fall through her grasp.

Rei was the first one who noticed.

She hadn't even seen Usagi appear yet, but she knew it a split second before everyone else's realization dawned on each of their faces.

It was akin to her sixth sense, but also not really. It was the bond that she shared with Usagi. She felt it when it broke—not just cracked, but broke.

It felt like someone had yanked her heart right out of her chest.

Then she saw Usagi's form appear, with those hard, cruel eyes that didn't even seem to recognize Rei as anything other than an enemy that needed to be eradicated, and she knew her premonition had come true.

Mamoru was having a very strange déjà vu.

He didn't remember all that he did when the Dark Kingdom brainwashed him into turning against Usagi, but he sometimes had flashes of feelings and images from that time. He remembered clutching Usagi's neck by one hand, the desire to murder her all-consuming. How his mind had narrowed into that one thought; kill Sailor Moon. How his vision had tunneled until her death was all he could see.

Mamoru didn't like reliving those dreams.

But when he saw Usagi that day, it was like looking into a mirror. The emptiness, the coldness that he once felt was all there, inside the one person he never thought would succumb to it. Usagi was the brightest star. She was the one filled with endless love and hope. There was nothing that could possibly turn her into… this.

Nothing.

And yet.

The girl who had rescued him time and time again in so many ways was now the lost one.

Mamoru was the first one to speak. "Usako…?"

Maybe his voice would break the spell. Maybe she would look at him and remember her love for him, and how much he too loved her. Maybe all she needed was a kiss, like in the fairy tales she loved so much. Just one true love's kiss to return her to the Usagi he knew and loved.

"Don't call me by that childish name." Usagi's stare remained the same, and when she finally spoke, her voice sounded so different they all had to wonder for a moment if it was really her speaking. Gone was the childish, playful lilt that was ever-present, gone was the warmth, or the joy, or the determination. All that was left was a spiteful snap, sharp and harsh.

Prince Dimande smirked in triumph. "She's not your princess anymore. She belongs to me now."

"Don't talk nonsense," Mako stepped forward, having had enough. Her instinct told her to break something to fix Usagi, and right now Dimande's face seemed like a very good place to start. She lunged toward the prince, her fist raised to connect on just the right angle. He was making no move to defend himself whatsoever, and Mako was already expecting the impact.

What she didn't expect was the familiar call of "Moon Tiara Action!"

What she expected even less was for the burning pain that sliced through her hand when the tiara-turned-deadly-projectile made contact with her skin.

Mako gasped and lost her momentum, falling hard to the ground. Concerned and surprised shouts came from her friends, but Mako barely heard them. She just stared in disbelief at the tiara now lying beside her, very familiar yet alien at the same time. Because it didn't belong there. It didn't belong anywhere near her. Every time that attack phrase was called, it usually resulted in an enemy being vanquished or hurt.

It never, ever resulted in a hurt senshi.

A hurt friend.

Mako looked up at Usagi, who showed no remorse or guilt at all. In fact, her expression had twisted even more into something gruesome; something Mako never thought possible to see on Usagi's face. "You'll have to get through me to get to him," she stated matter-of-factly.

Mako had been brokenhearted before, but not like this. Never like this. She knew now—it was like an epiphany of the worst kind—what a broken heart truly felt. All of those silly crushes she had with boys, the one love affair that had resulted in her being rejected by her senior… those were child's play. This… this was more like the day she found out her parents died.

Strong arms pulled her to her feet and away from Usagi. Mako only half realized it was Minako from the bright orange skirt on her line of vision, because everything else had blurred. She couldn't even stand up properly; the shock of Usagi's attack had taken all the fight out of her. Just like that. With a—relatively speaking—small flesh wound.

But the pain reached so much deeper than that.

"Usagi, this isn't you. Please remember. We're your friends. Dimande has confused you," Minako was saying now. Then, visibly steeling herself, she added, "We don't want to fight you. But we will if we have to."

Ami gasped audibly. "What are you saying, Venus? We can't fight her. We're her guardians."

"I did say the part where I don't want to, didn't I?" Minako's voice turned gentle, but still cautious. "Usagi, don't tell me you've completely forgotten us. We're your best friends." She stood before Mako now, half shielding her from Usagi.

"We love you, Usagi," Ami added, though her voice trembled slightly. "You're being manipulated by the enemy. Please remember who we are."

"Oh, I know exactly who you all are," Usagi gave a short, humorless laugh. "You all secretly despise me. You pretend to be my friends, but behind my back, you hate me. You feel like I conned you into fighting and trapped you into being soldiers. You blame me for stealing your normal lives away from you. Well, I'm going to liberate you all now." She raised her hand, and her Moon Rod appeared. "In death."

"Usako, no!" Mamoru yelled, but it was too late.

"Moon Princess Halation!"

So this is how each of those vanquished enemies feel, Rei thought numbly as the powerful blast of energy threw all of them across the room. Painful screams echoed all around her, but she found she had no voice. She found she had nearly nothing left. The blast felt like a powerful blow that could easily kill them in a couple more tries, and she suspected it wouldn't take very many attempts. For a moment, she just lay there as her entire body hurt from head to toe. She was used to pushing through pain, but not like this. Not both physically and mentally at the same time. She was strong, but she had never been forced to fight her best friend in the world before. She had never come face to face with her worst nightmare; the only person she knew who embodied the ultimate light and hope turned into the complete opposite.

Rei looked all around her and saw that everyone's spirits had been broken. Their princess had attacked them. Her closest friends and the man she loved. With intent to kill.

Then she felt someone's hand on her ankle. Rei turned her head and saw Minako, her eyes burning. "Mars," she said as she fought to get up. "Rei. Snap out of it," she ordered, in her leader voice. Rei looked at her uncomprehendingly. "You need to snap out of it right now," Minako repeated. "I know this is hard, but you're the one who can save her. We all know this. So snap out of it, get up, and fight with me. Usagi needs you." Her expression was pleading. "Help me get her back."

The haze that seemed to be enveloping Rei since she saw what had become of Usagi slowly lifted. With it all the pain come surging in; the pain she'd been holding at bay by way of denial and the pure refusal to deal with it. But Minako was providing strength in her gaze alone, and so Rei grabbed her hand, and together the two of them stood up. Slowly the others joined in, borrowing strength from each other and standing once again, united.

Determined to get back their missing piece.

Four senshi and a prince stood together, facing off against their most beloved princess.