Title:  Welcome To Reality

Chapter Title: When all hope is lost

Summary: Serena Warren, now fifteen, graduates the tenth grade with honours and is offered a chance to go to Japan on a student exchange program. Here, she realizes that the reason her dreams seemed so real is that they were.

Author: Silver Sparklze

Reason For Writing: This story was written as a challenge set by Sage: The Dark Dryad.

Author's Notes: I have tried to translate the Japanese next to the words, but even so, anything written in bold will be translated at the end of the chapter if not already translated.

~The Arcade, Tokyo~

For all her calmness of just moments ago, Serena couldn't help but gulp when she saw Mina and Lita walk into The Arcade. A small part of her hoped they wouldn't see her, but she knew they would. That was her luck.

"Serena-san, hello." Lita said frostily. Mina didn't even bother to talk to her.

"Hello, Lita-san." Serena said weakly. It was then that Mina noticed Darien. She blinked, and seemed to stop breathing. Slowly, her colour changed from healthy tan to pink, then red.

"Er…breathing is good." Serena offered. "Oxygen needed for life." Mina let out her breath in one swoop.

"Darien-kun," she said, "what is she doing here with you?"

"Sere-chan and I are on a date." Darien replied.

"This is the date you were talking about?" Mina cried angrily. "You little slut!"

"Hey, don't call me a slut." Serena snarled. "Just because we have our differences, that does not give you the licence to call me a slut. You want a fight? Fine. I'll meet you at the park tomorrow after school. Sound good? Sorry, Darien-chan, suddenly I don't feel like this. I'll see you later." Serena got up, and kissed Darien softly on the cheek, putting ¥50 one the table before walking out…

~Platypus Enclosure, Tokyo Zoo, Tokyo~

"Well, well, well. Fancy seein' you again, pet." Serena whirled around, looking around her wildly. She saw nothing but a platypus swim by. She was in the Platypus Enclosure at Tokyo Zoo, and it was extremely dark.

"Who's there?" She called out, cursing her voice for sounding so pathetic.

"'S me, luv. Or don' you remember? Probl'y not, 'm guessin'. You were kinda spacey." The voice chuckled, and Serena finally placed it.

"You." She hissed.

"Me," Invisible-Man agreed. "'S the matter, pet? Not pleased t' see me? 'M 'urt, really I am."

"Why would I be pleased to see you? A, your evil, B, you cut off some of my hair, and C, you're supposed to be dead." Serena ticked off the reasons on her fingers.

"Sorry, t' dis'point. Kinda hard t' die 'f you ain't 'live in the firs' place."

"Imagine that." Serena said sarcastically. "ETERNAL MOON POWER!"

"Oh, no you don'." Invisible Man snarled, grabbing Serena's transformation brooch, "'m not goin' t' be conflagrated again. 'S damn painful." Serena scrambled to grab her semi-transformed clothes, which were now falling apart. Invisible-Man watched, or whatever.

As she struggled to keep the clothing on her body, her communicator fell out of her pocket. It immediately dialled up the rest of the Scouts, calling them to the Tokyo Zoo, sending out the distressed signal. Invisible-Man didn't notice, and neither did Serena. "Now," he said, "time for some fun. You had your fun last time, this time, it's my turn."

Shadows wound around Serena's ankles, shackling them to the ground, before moving upwards and grabbing her arms too. Serena's clothes fell to the floor in tattered shreds, her, leaving her wearing nothing but her plain cotton bra and panties. Invisible-Man chuckled. "Well, well, hello Miss Priss." Serena blushed wildly, wishing that the floor would swallow her up. "Now…wha' t' do?

"Hmm…in honour of your deceased…'twin'…I think 'll 'ave the Das'ardly Duo take care 'f you. 've got places t' go, pe'ple t' see. Bu' firs' gotta make it fair, don' I? Wouldn' be any fun otherwise." Invisible-Man clicked his fingers, and the shadowropes fell away. "Ta, ta, pet." Invisible-Man vanished, leaving behind Serena's brooch, and two women with black hair, black eyes, and dark skin, ready to fight her.

"Hello," they said in multi-tonal voices, "we are the Twins. We are here to kill you."

"Over my dead body." Serena growled, grimacing when she realised what she'd said. She grabbed her Kaleid Moon Scope off the floor, and brandished it with determination…

***

"Hiya!" Serena whacked one of the Twins over the head with the Kaleid Moon Scope, and dodged out of the way just as the other one leapt for her. She winced when a few strands of hair were yanked out of her scalp, and gulped when the first Twin grabbed her as she moved. Her head jerked up when the second twin punched her in the face. It was then that she caught sight of the Scouts, standing in front of her, watching. Not all of them. Only some. Pluto, Mars, Jupiter, Venus, and Uranus. Help me, Serena pleaded in her mind, please…

But they just stood there, watching. Slowly, Serena began to lose the battle with consciousness, her wounds becoming too extensive for even her heightened healing to deal with quickly. Serena knew she was going to die if she didn't do something quickly. She had just about resigned herself to her fate, when a voice inside her head shrieked at her.

*No!*

Wh-what?

*You are not going to die! I forbid it!*

Something seemed to take over her body, and Serena was no longer in control. Whoever had taken over rammed her knee into Twin One's stomach, then jerked her head to one side when Twin One went to hit her again, wheezing, instead hitting Twin Two. Twin Two let go of her arms as she fell to the ground, and the spirit that had taken over Serena's body promptly thwacked Twin One over the head with the Kaleid Moon Scope, this time hard enough to knock the bitch out.

The spirit then left Serena's body, the blonde feeling a bit disorientated. Nevertheless, Serena refused to allow the Scouts to see her weakness, and so knelt down, picked up her clothes, and gave them a mock-salute. "Thanks for all the help." She said sarcastically, before walking off…