Sole Author's Note: Set during the beginning. I used English dub names because that was the last one I watched, and I didn't want to make a fool of myself by messing up any Japanese formalities or aspects of the culture. I hope that doesn't impede your enjoyment of this fic. Also, I know when Usagi's birthday is - to age myself, the SNES game gave the sailor soldiers' info. at the end. Either way, just don't think too hard about any of that stuff. This is is all for fun.

I don't own these characters.

When Serena's nightmares begin to affect all aspects of her life, she sees one person to turn to: Tuxedo Mask.

Edited 3/19/17 - I figured the best way to clear up any confusion you guys had was to make things even more confusing! Enjoy!

Dead

Chapter 1

The rain was coming down in those persistent, stringing drops that make your bangs stick to your forehead. Serena Tsukino was currently in the form of her alter ego, Sailor Moon: Sworn Defender of Justice and All Things Good. But she didn't feel like much of a sworn defender lately, and the all things good part was iffy, too.

She was standing on the edge of a building overlooking the docks. Her hair, long blonde pigtails, blew carelessly in the wind, and she could feel the harsh zaps of the rain against her skin, even through her gloves. She could barely hear the waves crashing aggressively against the shoreline rocks, the distant clock tower chiming midnight, her ears instead assaulted with the constant, drumming sound of the drizzle.

The fight had gone about as well as was to be expected. Amy and Raye had thrown the red, busty monster for a loop when they'd attacked together, and somewhere in all of that chaos, Serena had been able to use her tiara to disintegrate the bitch.

After the monster was ash, Serena walked slowly over to the debris, dropped to her knees, and let the dust seep through her fingers.

"Sailor Moon, I'd be careful. The readings on that material show that it still possesses a great deal of dark energy," Sailor Mercury said before turning off her visor.

"Come on!" Sailor Jupiter exclaimed. "We're running around killing these things, and we're not allowed to revel?"

"When you revel over another creature's demise, it attaches to you. It makes you look ugly," Sailor Mars said pointedly, and Serena wasn't surprised when she looked back and saw the priestess staring at her disapprovingly. She stood and spoke curtly.

"Our mission is to stop these things at any cost. I know you don't like the way I do things, but let's not pretend that your gloves are clean." To accentuate her point, she gestured to Mars's gloves, stained with soot after her fire attack.

Her eyes lit up. "It's hardly my problem that I have to bust my ass to fight so you can get here in time. Need I remind you that you were late! Honestly, it's one thing to be late to our meetings, but we were out here all alone!"

Somewhere in her tirade, Serena feared she might have a point. The four teenage girls - and that's what they were in that moment, not Sailor Scouts, not superheroes, not anything special at all - were standing underneath the moon in the middle of the park, in the middle of the frisbee golf course. Alone.

Serena wanted to cry, and desperately. Nothing was going right. But for some reason the tears wouldn't come. Raye continued to stare at her defiantly.

"Where were you?"

Serena knew she couldn't lie, and the answer she gave wouldn't be what they wanted to hear.

She sighed. "I was trying to take a nap."

Raye's mouth dropped open in shock, and she heard what sounded like both Amy and Lita exhaling, Lita muttering, "Oh shit."

Raye regained her composure fairly quickly. "We will see you at the meeting tomorrow afternoon, Sailor Moon." She made like she was going to leave, then turned back around. "That is, if you can wake up in time."

Raye left, and then Amy, sending an apologetic look by way of big blue eyes. "See you tomorrow, Sailor Moon."

Lita was last, and she slapped her on the back and told her not to worry about Raye, and then Serena was truly alone. She heard the rumbling of thunder in the distance, and she hated thunder. But she didn't feel like walking home.

So she bounced around from building to building as the rain grew stronger and stronger and then she spotted them. At the docks. The seven men were all dressed in black. They were carrying crates from one boat to the next. She didn't know what they were exchanging exactly, but she knew it couldn't be good. Especially in weather like this.

Before she could even think about it, she had dropped down to the roof of the boat the men were coming out of.

"Anything I could help you boys with?" she said as commandingly as she could. She didn't have a lot of experience with non-magical monsters, but she felt like she needed to do something. Anything.

The rain had begun to dissipate. The men could see her outline at the very least. One of them let out a low whistle.

"Now, what's a pretty thing like you doing out in rain like this? How about you just head on home and get a good night's sleep, dearie."

Sailor Moon felt her face flush in indignation. "How dare you! I am Sailor Moon, and in the name of the moon, I shall punish you!"

Before she could even realize what she was doing, she jumped down to the dock and in one swift motion, she kicked the man in the face. Serena had never thought much of her physical prowess before, but he fell to the ground almost instantly and the two men beside him stepped back. It took her a moment to process what happened, when suddenly one of the guys yelled at her.

"You're a real fucking bitch, you know that?!"

Outrunning normal criminals proved to be only slightly less challenging than outrunning monsters from another dimension. She jumped over them, using the ropes to swing herself from boat to boat, but they were surprisingly nimble and kept up with her fairly well. She had just decided that she'd had enough running for the day when she felt a tug on her heel. She had been caught by an angry looking bald man with a scar around his right eye. She tried to kick him out of the way, but he refused to let go and clutched her ankle with such force that she let out a pained cry despite herself.

"I got her, boys," he said, and she felt herself being pulled down from the last ship was on. With a laugh, the man threw her down onto the dock.

"You think this is really Sailor Moon?" another man asked as he lit a cigarette. "The one that always saves the day?"

"Nah," someone else chimed in. "She has to be some little girl in costume playing pretend."

"Oooh, don't say little girl in costume or you'll get me all excited!"

"Keep it in your pants, Ringo!"

Serena, for her part, didn't take her gaze off of the scarred man. He noticed, and simply leered back.

"How did you get it?" Serena asked, and the man laughed. He pointed at his eye.

"This old thing? I got it in a brawl. You should see the other guy." He leered even more. "Why? You digging it?"

Serena laughed this time. "No, no. As a matter of fact I was trying to study it so that I could give you a match."

At the stunned silence, Serena took her opportunity and ran, this time further on to the pier, out to the edge of the water, which wasn't exactly the smartest move, and she was looking back at the men chasing her, wondering why she had decided to do any of this in the first place when she tripped on one of the crates, causing its lid to break off and its contents to spill out. Bags of white powder. Drugs. Or at least that's what Serena assumed because it wasn't exactly her area of expertise.

The first to approach her reached out to grab her, and, without thinking she picked up the lid of the crate and slammed it against the side of his face. She heard his nose crack and saw a spatter of blood before she felt a hand grab around her waist. She slammed her foot down hard and the hand let go. She continued to force her way through the remaining men, pulling no punches.

The last one awaiting her was scar Joe and he was smiling. She smiled back before dropping low and kicking his feet out from under him. She slammed the crate lid onto his bald head, and the lid shattered, leaving a still, bleeding man before her.

Without even knowing what to do, Serena dropped the crate lid pieces into the water. She then went home.

When she stepped into her bedroom window, a black ball of fur greeted her immediately.

"Serena!" her cat/mentor, Luna demanded. "Do you know what time it is? Do I need to remind you that—"

The cat paused from where she had been approaching the young sailor scout, and slowly lifted a paw to touch the girl's skirt. "Serena?" She now sounded thoroughly confused. "Is that… Is that blood?"

"It's fine, Luna," Serena said, swatting the paw away. "It's not anything to worry about."

"Not anything to worry about?!" Luna exclaimed. "You look terrible. If you need to go to the hospital, hurry, de-transform, and I'll go scratch your parents' faces and wake them up!"

Serena simply yawned and sat down in front of her window, removing her Sailor Moon boots. "I don't need to go to the hospital." And then, to Luna's shock, Serena left her room as Sailor Moon and walked into her bathroom.

Luna followed hurriedly after her, and once the door was shut, she spoke as calmly as she could. "Serena, what are you doing? It's not safe to walk around in your sailor suit. You must keep your identity a secret from your family, for their safety even more than yours."

Serena scoffed. "Oh, please, Luna," she said. "What time does it have to be? 3 am? No one's awake in this house." She began adjusting the faucets and turned the shower on, stepping in wearing full Sailor Moon regalia.

"Why are you doing that?" Luna hopped onto the bathroom counter. Serena sighed.

"Because this blood isn't mine. And I wasn't sure if it would go away when I de-transform."

"The sailor suit only repairs itself after battles with youma," Luna said slowly, like Serena didn't already know that. She began scrubbing at a particularly tough stain around her shoulder. "Serena…" Her cat pleaded, and it was a weird tone to hear from her, "Tell me you weren't hurt. Did… did men do this to you?"

Serena had been expecting Luna to berate her, not look at her with worry. "I said don't sweat it. It was a bunch of guys down by the docks."

"The docks?! At this hour? How did you wind up there?"

Serena turned the faucet off and stepped out of the shower. She closed her eyes and felt a magical weight remove itself from her, and she knew she was back to normal, back to her schoolgirl uniform.

"I don't know how I wound up there, but I guess I did," she said, leading the way back to her bedroom. As she closed the door, she turned off her lamp, the only source of light now coming from the moon shining through her window as raindrops continued to splatter against it.

"So that's what happened, then? You ended up at the docks with some men who were looking for trouble?" Luna sounded completely unconvinced, and Serena chuckled.

"Really it was more the other way around." Serena didn't think it was possible for a cat to gape, but that she did. "Shut your mouth, it was fine. I just needed to let off some steam."

Serena slid into bed, not even bothering to change into her pajamas. Luna obediently jumped up on the edge of the bed, giving herself a good stretch before curling up. "And you're sure you're all right, Serena?"

"Yes, Luna, I'm fine. I was just stressed is all. Raye really made me mad," she lied, deciding she needed some kind of excuse for her behavior. If Luna suspected the fib, she said nothing. After giving Serena one last thoughtful look, she nodded and then went to sleep. Serena could hear the soft murmur Luna gave off, and tried to sleep as well. But every time she closed her eyes, it happened.

The Dream.

And every time it got close to that dreaded part, she would open her eyes quickly, feeling a cold sweat on her neck. Resigning herself to another sleepless night, she chose instead to stare out her window, and she did, until the moonlight changed into the orange rays of morning.

Raye, Lita, and Amy were gathered around the table at Raye's temple, prepared for their meeting, which had been given an abrupt schedule change early in the morning by Luna.

"It figures that Serena's not here," Raye said as she poured her guests tea. "She can barely make it on time to normal meetings and now we're supposed to be here an hour earlier? My money's on her not showing at all."

"I think you're being a little unfair, Raye. We all have things we need to do, so any of us could have missed the message and gotten behind," Amy said diplomatically, whilst glancing at a pile of books next to her as if she were letting them down by not reading them.

"I, for one, hope Serena shows up because I've brought enough food to feed an army!" Lita said cheerfully, opening the white bag next to her and pulling out what appeared to be trays and trays of food.

"Ha! You weren't kidding!" Raye said, eyeing the food with a smile. "Now we'll have something to hold over Serena's tardy little head."

"Serena is not tardy," a voice interrupted the girls, and they turned to see Luna scampering into the room. She jumped on to the table and looked at the three girls before her. "I asked you all to come an hour earlier so that we may discuss Serena's concerning actions."

"You mean the fact that she's a ditzing out on battles, right?" Raye asked, and the cat shook her head.

"No, I mean the fact that she came home last night covered in blood because, in her words, she was looking for trouble and beat up a group of hoodlums at the docks."

"No!" Amy said with wide eyes.

"I guess it was weird that she was looking at the monster dust," Lita said. "I didn't think about it before."

"Hey, that's right! And last night, Raye, when you asked Serena why she was late, do you remember what she said?" Amy asked.

"She said she was napping." Raye scoffed.

"No, she said she was trying," Amy corrected.

"Good point!" said Lita. "Since when has Serena had trouble sleeping?"

"For the past week or so, I would wager," Luna said. "I've been feeling the bed shift during the night when she gets out of it."

"So, what, you think Serena's acting weird because she can't sleep?" Raye asked.

"She hasn't been her normal chipper self lately, that's true," Amy mused and a troubled look flitted across her face

"I don't know why Serena's been acting the way she has, but I have a feeling that approaching her about it would not go well. That is why I've set up this meeting," Luna said.

"Do you think it could have anything to do with the Negaverse?" Lita asked.

"I've not felt any Negaverse vibes from her, but we can't discount anything."

"I will check with the fire later," Raye said.

"Now I did tell you this, girls, so that you may help Serena; make her feel better and support her, no matter what her problem may be!"

The girls then discussed what they could do for Serena. Amy suggested helping her with homework, Lita said she would teach her to make her favorite food, and then Raye proclaimed they were really stupid, and what Serena really needed was someone to buy her the new Sailor V manga.

Serena was sitting on the bench at the park, watching the frisbee golf players with heavy eyes. She felt like someone had put a curse on her, and she would never be able to sleep again. Even as she stared at the place where the last attack took place, she felt barely anything at all. There were people hiking up trails on the cliffs. There was a playground over the hill, children laughing. Nothing.

Serena had skipped the last couple of her classes for the day, knowing that class would make her tired and she wouldn't be able to sleep. It was like having an itch she couldn't scratch. So, without even thinking about, she found herself on a bench. The sun on her face felt nice, and she lifted her head up to appreciate its warmth.

Her eyes were closed when she hear a familiar voice behind her.

"What's going on, Meatball Head?"

Serena opened her eyes and looked at the tall form of Darien Shields, a thorn in her side since the day they met. She contemplated a retort before sighing. It would be too much work. She returned her face to sky.

"What are you trying to do, fall asleep sitting up?"

Serena didn't look at Darien when she responded. "Maybe. I think that sounds kind of nice."

"Only a meatball brain like you would think that," Darien concluded, but his tone didn't sound teasing so much as confused. He went on, "Aren't you supposed to be in school?"

"Aren't you supposed to be in the arcade," Serena said, "drinking coffee and being moody?"

Darien laughed at that. "All right, Serena, you got me. I'll leave you alone." She could hear the footsteps walking past, and she decided to open one eye and ensure that the nuisance was really gone.

When she realized he was, she decided to sprawl across the bench. She knew a nap was out of the question (though she so desperately, desperately needed one) but she knew that the sun might feel nice on her thighs. She did, of course, have an hour before the scout meeting started, so there was no need to rush.