[FFML][SM][TEASER] Dark Side of the Moon

                           "Dark Side of the Moon."

                            A Sailor Moon Fanfic.
                                    -by Ben Gibbons.



                                  CHAPTER 1

	It's a beautful day. The sun is shining and a cool breeze is blowing. Usagi and Naru are walking through Ichinohasi park talking and eating ice cream. Usagi, true to form, was licking away at a mile a minute. "Mmm, ice cream... I love... ice cream..."
	"Really, Usagi," giggles Naru. "Slow down. It's embarrasing." A sly grin appeared on Naru's face. "If you keep eating like that, you'll end up as fat as Sailor Moon."
	This has it's desired efect as Usagi splurted out a mouthful of ice cream and started coughing and rubing tears out of her eyes. "Wh... What did you say?!"
	Naru held back the urge to burst out laughing, hiding her grin by skipping on a few steps ahead of Usagi. "Oh," she said in a carefree voice. "Everyone's talking about it."
	"They... are?" asked Usagi in a worried tone, running after her friend.
	*Got you!* "Don't you know?" she asked in just the right tone to inflame Usagi's curiosity.
	"No! Tell me tell me tellme tellmetellme!!"
	Naru motioned her closer "Well, I really shouldn't tell you this, but..."
	"But what?" Usagi whispered eagerly.
	"Well..." Naru leaned even closer. "Your ice cream is dripping all down your hand."
	"HUH?!" Usagi fell flat on her face. She was up immediatley and started licking her melted ice crem from her hand and wrist. "Oh no! My ice cream!" Then, without a break, worked her way up the side of the cone and proceeded to wolf down the rest of her ice cream. Then all of a sudden she started yelling, "OWW, OW OW OWIE OWIEOWIEOWIE!!" and jumping in around in tight circles.
	"Usagi! Are you all right?" Naru asked worriedly. After a few seconds, Usagi calmed down. "Usagi. What happened?"
	"Oh, it's nothing. My teeth just got cold from the ice cream, that's all. Come on, Naru." she said, running ahead. "We're going to be late for dinner at my house."
	Naru sighed before running after her best friend. "At least being late all the time keeps her from getting fat from all the food she eats."

**************

	"So tell me..." asked Usagi. Usagi and Naru were walking back to Naru's house after dinner at Usagi's It's nearly dark and they're walking just a little faster so Usagi wouldn't have to walk back to her house in the dark. "are you and Gurio an item now?"
	Naru's face turned an interesting shade of crimson and she brought her hands to her face to hide it from Usagi. "Usagiiiii... It's not like that at all."
	"Sure it is." replied Usagi in sly tones, nuging her friend with her elbow. "And I'm sure you don't like it when he calls you the most beautiful girl in the universe." She grinned as Naru's blush deepend. "And *I* know that you sometimes make special lunches, just for him."
	Naru stopped and stared wide-eyed at Usagi. "You... You know about that?" she stammered.
	"Ee-yep."
	"Oh. Well, I guess you could say we are. Sort of... I mean, he *is* really nice when he's not telling everyone how smart he is. And when I can get him to talk about something besides the internet, he's really fun to be with. And when he takes his glasses off, he has the cutest puppy-brown eyes. And his lips are so soft and warm..." She trails off as her blush deepens even further and she get a far away look in her eyes.	
	"You mean you've *kissed* him?! Umino? Eeewwww!"
	"Usagi!" Naru said, slightly annoyed. "Be nice. You just... don't know him the way I do." she huffed and walked off ahead.
	*'Don't know him the way I do'?* Usagi shivered as an image popped into her mind. "Now there's a picture I didn't want to see." she mumbled to herself before jogging to catch up with Naru. "You really like Umino that much?" she asked seriously.
	Naru looked sideways at Usagi to see if she was still teasing. Seeing that she wasn't, she smiled slightly. "Yeah. I do."
	"That's good," said Usagi softly. "It's good that you have someone like that. Everyone should have someone they care for." Usagi thinks of Mamoru and herself. The two friends continue on in a comfortable silence.

***********

	She was standing in a palace courtyard. Radiating around her were gracefull geometric garden beds, filled with bright, fragrant plants and flowers. She looked around her. She was sure she had never been here before, yet it all seemed so familiar to her. Before she even lifted her head, she knew what she would see. Hanging in the pale yellow-pink sky was a beautiful blue and white cresent. The Earth. "I know this place. Where am I?"
	"You know where you are." said a soft voice behind her and she whirled around to face the speaker, an ethereal figure that was just as familiar as the courtyard, yet just as unknown. It was tall, and vaguely feminine, but she couldn't be sure. It kept drifting in and out of fucus and it's clothes and hair swirled around it as if moved my a breeze only it could feel. "You have only forgotten."
	"Where am I? What is this place?" she asked. "Why does this all seem so familiar?"
	"This place," replied the figure, gesturing around them. "This palace," it gestured to a glittering outline of a majestic palace that she hadn't noticed before.  "This used to be your home."
	"My... My home?" she looked around her again. "You mean I used to live here?"
	"Yes," said the image before her. "You, the princess and her Senshi. You all lived here... before the end. Before the darkness came that ended it all." A glittering tear formed and drifted down it's face before being blown away in a sparkling trail.
	"Princess...? Darkness...? Who are you? Why am I here?"
	"You are here because you are the Second."
	"I'm the Second? I don't understand. The Second what?" 
	"You will remember, if the need arises." The world seemed to blur and distort before her, fading away. "Do not forget." the figure called, it's voice growing distant. "If anything should happen, you are the Second." And the world disappeared into balckness.

	Osaka Naru gasped and sat up in bed. She was breathing hard and her head felt funny. The windows of her bedroom were open and a cool breeze drifted in, cooling her sweat-soked face. 
	The digital clock on her nightstand read 3:27am. 
	"Wow," she breathed after she had her breathing under control. *What a strange dream. I wander if it means anything...* she thought, before lying down and falling back to sleep. 
	By morning, it would all be forgotten...

*****************