Hi everyone! I'm back after my year long (or longer) hiatus. I apologize, this has been one of the hardest stories I've had to write simply because it hits close to home and is sometimes quite depressing, but here I am again, to continue Only in My Dreams. Thank you for your continued support.

Thanks to: PhantasyDreamer, Hotgirlow, sailormoon-is-eternal, chocolatelover1, abananasurplus, MegTao, Butterfle, CharmedSerenity3, sailorceb, daianapotter, SiLvErMoOnWiNg, Ginny Potter W, ffgirlmoonie, Usagi-Tsukino-uf06, Caytlyn Rose, merangelgal, supersaiyanx, v1cky84, Allison, Goddess of the Moonlit Sky and SulliMike23 for reviewing the last chapter

Title: Only In My Dreams
Author: Crystal Saturn
Rated: T
Chapter: 10- Romanticide

"Stay in my arms, forever." He held her close to his chest.

"I wish I could," Serena sighed contently. "You're the only one who believes in me. You're the only one I can trust with my feelings and my deepest, darkest thoughts. You're here for me."

"I always will be, Princess. I'll always be with you, watching and waiting. Stay with me Princess. Don't leave me."

"Prince Endymion," Serena looked up at her ethereal prince. She felt a little odd about having such a relationship with a figment of her imagination. "I feel safe when I'm with you, but this is just a dream." Her words echoed across the valley and as she uttered the last syllable, time completely stopped. The wind died down, letting the grass become still. Clouds remained motionless in the sky. The twittering of birds disappeared and silence blanketed the vanishing scenery. Endymion remained emotionless and silent as he too, began to slowly slip away from Serena's grasp. "No, Endymion, please don't go. I didn't mean it like that." She attempted to grasp onto his arm.

"Just a dream…" His voice faded into the silence as he vanished before her eyes, leaving Serena sitting, surrounded in darkness. Her world had disappeared. She closed her eyes, opening them to a frenzy of colour, her real world. Glancing over toward her alarm clock, Serena had ascertained that it was quarter past eight in the morning, and she was going to be late for school again. She rushed into the bathroom in an attempt to make herself presentable for school. As she did, she couldn't help but feel an uneasiness coming from within her chest. She felt rather melancholy and lonely, like she had been jilted. There was something odd about today. Time seemed to be going slower than usual. Serena ran back into her room, clad in her school uniform, after brushing her teeth and grooming her hair in her trademark style. She reached for her book bag and turned to run downstairs for a quick breakfast before bolting to school. As she did, she caught a glimpse of the time on her alarm clock. Eight sixteen.

The clock on the classroom wall seemed to stop whenever Serena took her eyes away from it. She was hungry and the day seemed to pass by excruciatingly slowly. Glancing out the window, she watched as another class had their sport lesson. Ignoring her own teacher's repetitive monotonous drones, she watched as the students outside split up into teams and began their basketball game. Dribble, dribble, pass, shoot. Pass, dribble, pass, pass, shoot. Serena rubbed her eyes in disbelief as the energetic movements and passes began to slow down as if someone was playing with the playback of a video. The basketball itself seemed to defy gravity as it leisurely launched and became suspended in the air. Serena looked around. There was not a movement in the classroom. Miss Haruna stood at the front of the class, her eyes semi closed in mid blink and her mouth gaping wide open, annunciating a word she read from her Shakespeare playbook. Every student was perfectly still. The clock on the wall had stopped ticking. Time had completely stood still.

Serena's heart began to pound in her chest as she started to panic. What was happening? Who was behind this? Why was this happening? Why was she the only one who wasn't frozen in time. A million questions raced within Serena's mind within the span of a second. Her heart sunk as the silence gave way to the sound of heavy footsteps. It was coming from the silent hallway and heading in her direction. She gripped the edge of her desk, desperately unsure of what to do. The footsteps stopped right outside the classroom door. Serena could see the silhouette of a tall figure from the small window on the door. It reached and slid the door open with ease, letting himself in, eyes glued to Serena.

"Endymion?" Serena breathed a sigh of relief. "What are you doing here? What's going on? Are you… are you really here or am I dreaming?" She stood up out of her seat to greet the tall armour clad man. He placed a hand on her shoulder to preserve the distance between them and to prevent Serena from coming any closer or moving away.

"Princess, I've requested on numerous occasions that you stay with me, for your own protection, but you refused my request every time. It's too late now. You've put yourself in harm's way. This is no longer a dream." His stern, cold demeanor made Serena anxious.

"What do you mean, Endymion?" She gazed up at him, attempting to decipher his cryptic message, but before any more could be said, he vanished and time resumed as normal.

"Serena Tsukino! What are you doing standing up in the middle of the soliloquy? What is the matter?" Miss Haruna frowned, a little taken back by the sudden interruption.

"Sorry Miss Haruna, I thought I saw a spider." Serena mumbled quietly, her head spinning from disorientation as she sat back down and remained quiet for the rest of the lesson.


The same event began to happen as soon as Serena left the school grounds, on her way home. She felt queasiness in the pit of her stomach and as she walked along the footpath, she noticed the cars beside her begin to slow down. The motion of the blossoms on the trees began to make her feel dizzy and, oddly enough, seasick. As she watched her surroundings warp in a sluggish manner, she failed to see the man turning at the same corner at that exact same moment. She marched into him with quite some force and in a scene that seemed to be out of a slow motion daydream, he began to fall backwards from the force, unintentionally pulling her down with him as a reflex. Even though all this was occurring at a snail's pace, Serena was effortless to stop it. Darien had his eyes shut and an arm around her waist, bringing her down on top of him. He must have reached out to steady himself. Just before the two bodies made impact with the ground, time stood still.

"So this is him?" Endymion stood beside the two. Serena attempted to wriggle out of Darien's grasp but to no avail. "This is the one."

"Endymion, what are you talking about?" Serena turned her head to face the prince.

"He's the one you spend your time thinking about, instead of me." Endymion turned his head away in disgust. "I've seen enough." He waved his hand and disappeared again, letting time resume its natural course. As they fell, Serena's head struck Darien's chin, causing him to bite down on his bottom lip. It began to seep blood and swell.

"I'm so sorry, Darien." Serena quickly reached into her bag and pulled out a clean handkerchief, applying a light pressure to Darien's lip.

"It's fine, Meatball head. There's not a day that passes where Cyclone Serena doesn't leave a trail of destruction, right?" He groaned slightly at her touch. Her serious eyes met his playful ones, and her expression softened. "Really," Darien began to reassure the concerned girl. "It'll be fine." At that moment, they both came to realize that Serena was still sitting, sprawled across Darien's lap. One of his arms was still resting on her waist. Before they could make any awkward movement to correct the situation, Serena's communicator began to wail loudly, giving Serena the perfect excuse to leap off Darien's lap and tug to lower her skirt.

"It looks like you're needed." Darien gently took hold of the handkerchief. Serena nodded, subconsciously reaching for her transformation brooch.

"Are you coming?" She nervously peered over to the man who was also her masked hero. Still feeling slightly awkward, she continued to tug on her skirt, trying to pull it down to cover more of her legs.

"I'll be there shortly." Darien nodded. "But the girls need you, now." He encouraged. He liked to make a fashionably late entrance, but more than anything, he liked to give Sailor Moon the opportunity to defeat any monsters or demons without his assistance. He knew she had the will and the power to do so.

Serena waited until she was out of sight before she dared to transform. She raced in the general direction of the park, where she could see a small cloud of dark energy begin to form. Stealthily, she dodged through the trees and shrubs until she came to the battle ground. Already, she could see Sailor Mars and Sailor Venus tied to nearby trees, their eyes closed in unconsciousness. Sailor Moon felt an uneasiness as her muscles began to feel weak. Her knees almost buckled under her weight. She felt as though the closer she got, the more her energy was weakening. A bright light hurled toward the two remaining Sailor Scouts as they attempted to attack. As Sailor Moon arrived, all four Sailor Scouts; Mars, Mercury, Venus and Jupiter were trapped, tied against trees and drained of all energy.

"Ah, see, I told you. I wasn't after any of you. In fact, all I wanted was your leader here. Sailor Moon." The dark clouded entity began to take shape, forming an armored man with broad shoulder. As he emerged from his cloud of darkness, Sailor Moon clutched at her chest, dropping to her knees, immediately feeling a surge of negative energy coursing through her.

"Prince Endymion? You're the Knight of Darkness, but why?" Sailor Moon gasped for breath, positioning a foot firmly on the ground in an attempt to rise.

"Pretty little princess. Aren't you just precious? Miss Sailor Moon, or as you like to be known as, Serena Tsukino. Yes, I know all about you Sailor Moon. I see everything. I know everything. Even the tiny little things that even your friends don't know about." The apparition smirked, knowing full well that Moon would not have the energy to fight back. She was weakened in his presence.

"Why are you doing this to me? You can't be Endymion. Who are you?"

"No, I think you'll find the question of your true self more befitting of this situation. Serena Tsukino, let us take some to take a good hard look at the real you. I want to unravel the real you, starting at the top layer. You're the crybaby of your group. The klutz. The constantly happy, nonchalant, ever hopeful, failure of a student. No matter how hard you try, you know you'll never pass your classes." The Prince watched comfortably as Sailor Moon squirmed and flinched. "You're the fall back girl at your place of employment. Everyone relies on you to fill in their shifts and you'll happily take on as many hours you can, because you don't want to disappoint anyone. It's a pity your laziness and lethargy is getting in the way though. You've slipped up a number of times haven't you, Miss Moon? In fact, you've slipped up so many times now that your manager is thinking of letting you go. You've let her down. You've let the whole team of staff down."

"That's not true." Sailor Moon gritted her teeth as she languidly attempted once again, to rise to her feet.

"Oh, but that's not even the tip of the iceberg. Serena Tsukino, the disappointment of a daughter. She can never wake up on time for school. She has to be told a number of times to complete her chores. She constantly comes home with appalling report cards. She can never get along with her younger sibling. More often than not, Serena Tsukino is a burden to her family." Prince Endymion seemed to relished at the sight of the once strong warrior being brought to tears by his mere words. Tears began to spring forth from her eyes as the words hit a number of nerves.

"Then there's Sailor Moon. The joke of a Sailor Scout who is unworthy of the title of leader. The weakest link in the chain of powerful heroines. The one who can never make it on time to essential Sailor Scout meetings. The one who, until recently, lost her own ability to vanquish monsters. Mars would make a much better leader than you, Sailor Moon. In fact, anyone would be better than a wailing, clumsy fool who constantly has to be rescued by her beloved masked man." A glimmer out of the corner of the Princes' eye distracted him and with a flick of his wrist he had surrounded the object of his attention in a cloud of dark energy. A deep voice groaned from behind a tree. Prince Endymion sneered at his prize. He motioned for the cloud to emerge and approach.

"Miss Moon, of all the agonies and failures you've experienced so far, I believe this one is your most painful." Endymion released the figure in the dark cloud just as vines emerged, binding his hands behind his back and his feet together, rendering him unable to move. His lip was still swollen from when she had run into him. He gazed over to the weakened Sailor Scout through his mask.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't help you." He whispered solemnly. Sailor Moon shook her head as another tear seeped from her eyes.

"I don't understand." She shook her head and alternated glances between Prince Endymion and Tuxedo Mask.

"Sailor Moon, you're in a catch twenty two situation aren't you? On one hand, you want to prove your strength as a warrior of love and justice to your precious Tuxedo Mask by defeating all these monsters all by your little self, but on the other hand, if that were the case, then there would be no need for him to rescue you. Lucky for you, you're a complete and utter uncoordinated failure as a Scout anyway. You couldn't win his heart. He obviously shows no interest in you or he'd be around longer after the battle to see if you're alright."

"That's not true." Tuxedo Mask gritted his teeth as his binds began to tighten painfully.

"Oh but there's more. The icing on the proverbial cake. If it weren't enough to be jilted by the tall and handsome masked hero, you also find out that you're not good enough for his alter ego either. Yes, Serena Tsukino, who would have thought that Darien Chiba would be the apple of your eye? Who would have thought that you would fall in love with the one man who criticized you the most? It must hurt to know that the two men that you have been secretly harboring feelings towards are, in fact, the same person, and he, in either form, would not even come close to considering you as a friend, let alone a potential romantic partner. Breaks your heart doesn't it?"

"You're wrong. I don't know what you're talking about. Darien is my… friend." Sailor Moon clenched her jaw and steeled herself. Tightening her fingers into a fist, she collected all her energy and shakily rose to her feet. Reaching into the air, she summoned a new wand.

"Moon Healing Escalation!" She cried out as the wand began to react, sending beams of light energy towards the dark Prince. His form shook in disbelief as it dissolved, taking the binds that restrained the Sailor Scouts and Tuxedo Mask with him. Whatever small amount of energy Sailor Moon was able to muster up was consumed by the power of the new wand. Sailor Moon fell into an unconscious state into Tuxedo Mask's arms, de-transforming into her powered down state of Serena Tsukino. Tuxedo Mask held Serena's fragile body in his arms, checking over her to make sure she wasn't hurt.

"You're important to me too, Serena, Sailor Moon."

That's it until next week. Please review and I'll see you all soon.

Crystal Saturn