AN: Hey guys, just thought I'd give you a quick update on the writing front. Nightmare in Dreamland (a genre and style I have never before tried!) is in outline mode, where I'm establishing the plot and subplots and the general arc of the story, and my NaNoWriMo work from '09, Protecting Serenity, is being edited for the first time since then. Hoping to have it done and out to you guys by this NaNo. At this rate though, I might be splitting it in half to become two separate stories. But we'll see. Are you excited? You're excited. I can tell.

Also, the song I am currently obsessed with (small quality and length of preview aside): Live Like There's no Tomorrow by Selena Gomez. I'm so excited!

Many, many, many thanks go to my wonderful BFF (best beta forever!), Kaitlyn Fall, for.... well, betaing this story! ;P


Luna jumped on Amy's bed, stepping over the girl's legs to read what she was writing in a thin, blue notebook.

"What's this, Amy?" she asked as her eyes skimmed the page. Amy capped her pen and tucked it into the spine of the notebook as she closed it.

"Today at the arcade, the Sailor Scouts and I had a discussion about the behaviour of Serena, and noticed Darien was acting strange too. It is our hypothesis that Darien is Tuxedo Mask, who was hit by the same attack on Friday night as Sailor Moon."

"What attack?" Luna's hackles rose. "I wasn't informed Sailor Moon got hurt."

"But that's just it, Luna! We never realised! Sailor Moon threw her tiara at the monster at the same time it threw something at her. When the monster was destroyed, we thought its attack had stopped too, but it exploded right in front of Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask. We didn't realise until this morning that it may have something to do with Serena."

Luna blinked. "Did you say Darien is Tuxedo Mask?"

"We believe so," Amy said with compressed lips. "But we will have no way of knowing until the next fight, when I can scan his vitals with the Mercury computer and compare them to Darien's sample."

"We don't know if Tuxedo Mask is a friend or foe," Luna said.

Amy nodded. "Perhaps if we can figure out his identity, we might be partial to what his agenda is. Why is he after the rainbow crystals? What does he plan to do once he's got them all? Is he somehow linked to the Moon Princess?"

Luna walked to the bottom of the bed and curled up, missing the comfortable fluffiness that Serena's bed usually brought.

"So you plan on watching Serena and Darien until then?"

"We're not sure whether the effects will wear off on their own or not, so we're trying to figure out a pattern."

"Have you any ideas yet?"

Amy shook her head and reached for the lamp switch. "Not yet, but I suppose it is still early days. I just hope this doesn't go on for too long. This new Serena is..." She struggled for the right word.

"Inform me when you have solid data," Luna's voice rang out in the dark.

"Goodnight, Luna."

"Goodnight, Amy."


Monday morning

Serena woke up early, showered, dressed in her school uniform, had breakfast, brushed her teeth and walked leisurely out the door. Her family could only stare after her, wondering if an alien had taken over their beloved Serena.

The slow walk was uneventful. Serena glared at the happily singing birds, the bright blue sky, the passing businessmen as they hurried to work, basically anything she saw. She'd never realised how annoying the sound of the birds was. And the possibility that one could drop its dinner from last night on her at any moment only worsened her thoughts towards them.

By the time she got to school, she had twenty minutes to spare. Pulling out the homework she'd done last night, she began to go over her maths, rechecking all her answers. And this was how Amy found her ten minutes later.

Amy beamed with pride before remembering that this was unusual for Serena. She sat quietly at her desk, pulled out her notebook and jotted the notes down.

"Hey Serena!"

Amy and Serena looked up as Lita waltzed in several minutes later, following a number of their classmates. Amy watched as Serena shrank into her seat.

"Hello, Lita," she greeted, fear underlining her tone. Amy also wrote this down. As Lita folded herself into a nearby desk, she shot Amy a look. Was that weird or what? Amy silently passed her the notebook.

Lita's eyes skimmed the two pages. Nodding, she passed the notebook back and ripped out a blank piece of paper from the back of her workbook, hiding it in her textbook. She'd do the same. The bell went and Lita waved them a goodbye as she headed off to her own class, which Serena pretended not to see. She passed Miss Haruna on her way out, as the teacher sashayed in.

The lesson began, and homework was called for.

"And I don't suppose it's worth asking you if you've done your homework, Serena," the teacher sighed as she leaned over the blonde. Serena's hand shot out, holding the papers. Miss Haruna blinked at both the action and the annoyed look on Serena's face. She carefully scooped up the papers.

"Thank you, Serena," she said quietly, heading past the fuming student to collect Molly's.

As the day progressed, it was clear that Amy and Lita weren't the only ones watching Serena. Classmates stared in open surprise as Serena not only answered questions voluntarily, but went up to the board and wrote her answers on it. Students in the hallway began moving out of the blonde's way as she ploughed through the halls, instead of her usual skipping and laughing. It was like Serena was no longer Serena; everything about her was different. Her very aura radiated disapproval and annoyance. By the time the bell rang, signalling the end of the day, the entire school's population had learned to steer clear of the brooding blonde.

She'd already left for the arcade by the time Amy and Lita met at her locker. Lita held up her paper, where every inch of the once pristine-white page was now filled with messy scrawls of notes. "Wanna compare notes?"


"Muffin!" Serena's grumpiness lifted the moment she spotted the older man. She ran into his awaiting arms and hugged him fiercely. "I missed you!"

He gave her an Eskimo kiss. "Not as much as I missed you, Meatball Head."

"Oooh, I love it when you call me that!"

Andrew leant over the counter, his elbows slipping on the overly-clean surface. "Seriously guys, I thought you were joking on the weekend.... Are you really together?"

The glares shot his way had him snapping upright.

"Of course we're together!" Serena huffed as Darien pulled her away from Andrew.

"And to insult us by insinuating we were joking..." Darien growled.

Andrew waved his hands. "Sorry, didn't mean to offend!"

Darien turned to Serena. "Come on, baby, let's go hang out somewhere else."

The pair marched off indignantly, leaving Andrew scratching his head. "Er..."

Several minutes later, three of his usual customers entered.

"Hey Andrew," said Lita, before scanning the arcade. "Have you seen Serena or Darien today?"

Andrew pointed back out the door. "Yeah, they just left."

Lita, Amy and Raye traded glances. "Did they say where they were going?" Amy asked quickly.

When Andrew shook his head, their shoulders dropped.

"We'll have our usuals then. Thanks Andrew."

The arcade employee set to the task, watching from the corner of his eye as the girls slumped into a booth. Once upon a time, his customers had sat at the counter, happily chattering away about whatever. But now... Now it seemed like every conversation was private, everything was a secret. He'd noticed it first when Serena had stopped bringing her redheaded friend in, and begun hanging out with Amy. Now, the whole group preferred the booths, always whispering or talking in hushed voices. They probably didn't think he'd noticed how they would straighten up and zip their lips as he approached them. But he wouldn't say anything.

It was probably just teenage girl stuff anyway.

But even Darien had distanced himself, moving from his initial spot in the quiet corner to the closest stool to the door; always as if ready to run out. And sometimes he did.

Andrew blinked when the kettle clicked, signalling it had finished boiling. It was sometimes dangerous to ponder life's mysteries in the kitchen.


"Isn't that just beautiful?" Serena sighed happily, watching as the sun began its decent below the horizon. The sky began to blend into a soft pinky-orange tone.

Darien grinned, watching the smile blossoming on the girl's lips. "I can think of something else that's beautiful right now," he said. Neither commented on the cheesiness of his statement, simply enjoy the other's company.

After having spent the afternoon lazing about in the park, talking and giggling, touching and just watching the world go by, the pair finally felt at peace. It was a stark contrast to the fast life of their alter egos.

Serena chewed her lip as her mind ticked over. She really wanted to tell Darien about Sailor Moon, but she also knew it was her duty to keep him safe as a civilian. If someone found out Darien knew who she was, she would be putting him in a lot of trouble.

Meanwhile, unbeknown to her, the man beside her was thinking the exact same thing. So both kept their mouths shut, simply leaning into the other and enjoying the moment.


Tuesday

Tuesday passed almost identically to Monday. Serena's mood had not lifted, and the Scouts were getting edgy.

"What if a Nega-monster turns up?" Mina worried in the afternoon, chewing on her fingernail. "Who knows what Sailor Moon will be like on the battlefield!"

"Well she can't be any worse than she already is," Raye commented dryly as she tossed a pillow over her shoulder. "It's not like that body can hold any more klutziness."

"Raye..." Lita sighed in a warning tone. She turned to Amy.

"Any ideas yet?"

The girl shook her head, her short blue hair swishing around her face like the ocean tide. She was getting frustrated, because she had the pieces, but she just couldn't join them together. "All my data is insufficient at the moment."

"Well have we tried anything?" Raye asked. "Have you tried tempting her with her favourite things?"

Lita nodded. "I made her chocolate cake today. Didn't eat it."

"I offered to buy her some doughnuts after school," Amy added. "She didn't want them."

"I called her last night and asked her if she wanted to go shopping with me this afternoon," Mina grimaced. "And she told me she had homework. Can you believe that?"

Raye scoffed. "A likely excuse."

"No Raye, it's true." Lita nodded with Amy. "She handed it in both today and yesterday! I saw it before class."

Mina stroked her upper lip, as if she had an imaginary moustache. "How straaaange."

"So what are we suppose to do?" Raye cried, throwing her hands up in the air. She hated this feeling of helplessness. It was like watching a car about to crash. Knowing the inevitable, but knowing there was nothing she could do to stop it.

"And what do we know about Darien? Are we any closer to knowing whether he's Tuxedo Mask?"

As Amy opened her mouth, a familiar beeping began. Amy's hand dived for her bag, scooping out the youma-detector and bringing up the digital map.

"We've got trouble, guys."


"And that's why you want to be a doctor?"

Darien nodded, before realising she couldn't see it from her position. "Yup," he said cheerfully. Serena was lying with her head on Darien's stomach as he toyed with her hair. "Well that's a very noble answer," she grinned up at the blue sky, watching as a lazy cloud drifted by.

"And what about you, Meatball Head? What do you want to be? An ice cream flavour taster?"

Serena laughed and batted his leg. "Then I'd have to taste all the bad experiments, and it'd put me off ice cream for life! No." She fell into a thoughtful silence. "I don't know what I want to do once I'm out of school. They're already pushing us for subject selections now, but I don't feel a particular pull from any of them."

"You don't have even an inkling? What do you like to do in your spare time then? Besides reading manga and haunting the arcade, I mean. Could you turn a hobby into a career?"

Serena made a face at the mention of what she did in her spare time. Usually she loved being Sailor Moon, but even it had its drawbacks. "Oh, I don't know! All my time just seems to disappear! Poof! I don't know where it all goes!"

Serena could feel Darien's deep chuckle beneath her head. She rolled onto her side and leaned on her elbow, face inches away from his. He stopped laughing and gazed seriously into her eyes.

"I'm so glad to have you, Darien," she said sincerely. "I have no idea why I never saw it before."

Darien quirked a grin and reached for her face, tenderly rubbing his thumb along her jaw, tracing her lips, cupping her cheek. "And I'm glad I have you, Serena," he said quietly, eyes roving her face, memorising each detail. "I just wonder why it took us this long to see past the insults and arguments."

Serena closed her eyes and leaned into his touch. "Darien..."

But before she could utter another word, the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end.

The Negaverse.


Thanks for reading guys; Hit and Visitor counts make me happy that people, somewhere in the world, take enjoyment from what I've written. Please don't forget to review!

xo