This seemed like a regular nightmare to her.

After Barren Pines, she had been plagued by horrible dreams in which Charonite starred in the villain role, choking her, laughing at her, wrapping his intestine whip around her. Where they was fire, there was the clichéd evil laughter all villains did in those movies, there were monsters that sported purple dreads and sunglasses, they was fear, and then there was nothing.

And so, it was no surprise to her that she was facing the General-King, his expression blank as they looked at each other. They both did nothing to break the silence; he looked at her, eyes unreadable by the sunglasses that were hindering them, and she merely blinked back at him. Her hands were clutching her crooked staff, and one of his was on his whip, but they both did not move, did not do anything. There was no movement, and there was eerie blank silence.

There was no one except the two of them.

"Or is there?" A voice asked her, and another man popped into existence right in front of her, except that there technically wasn't the tell-tale pop of Negaverse teleportation. It was that man with that neon glowstick blue eyes (like how she had described them to Kunzite) and he only smirked at her, plunging his hand into his own chest with ease and pulled out the Opal Crystal, eyes glowing brighter as he beamed at it. "Isn't it wonderful, Princess?"

Chronos wanted to move, to reach forward to grab it back from him. 'It's mine.' She wanted to say. 'Not yours.' She would have possibly said more if it wasn't for her limbs not wanting to move, and her lips unwilling to open to let her speak. She could only stand there, in horror as he held it in his right palm, and the other balancing that dark orb.

"It's too bright." Another voice said, and it was a female voice which she recognized. The owner of that voice appeared, and her pretty face was twisted into a condescending grin, her eyes glittering. The pink-haired girl that called herself Serenity lifted her arms and shot a dark beam right at her comrade, and Chronos was taken aback; what in Serenity was she doing, what could she have possibly meant...

But Wiseman caught the beam with the Opal Crystal and instead of shattering like Chronos' heart was currently doing at the moment, it absorbed the beam, and both of them laughed in delight as the blast faded and the man juggled the two items in front of her, letting her witness how the Opal Crystal slowly began to darken and then pulse with black energy.

Chronos would have screamed, but she was still allowed to do nothing.

"You have failed us all." Someone walked in, and was followed by an organized military march of footsteps. That someone wore a billowing red cloak and Chronos felt what seemed like ice run through her veins as Captain Aries directly addressed her. "You have corrupted us all." Slowly, one by one, from Aries to Pisces, the Zodiac Guards' eyes turned dark, the sides of the lips lifting up into a menacing grin.

Another person stepped forward, and Chronos recognized him as Sagittarius. "I didn't die." He said to his Princess, but there was a hole in his chest where his starseed was ripped out. "I was corrupted. You let this happen."

"I am disappointed in you." Now it was Zue that addressed her; the purple Maine Coon had emerged from behind the straight line which the Zodiacs stood. The double star on his head and his eyes slowly turned dark as well, and Chronos wanted to lunge forward, 'No, no, I can cure this, I can stop this...'

"Can you really?"

It was that voice.

That voice that she hoped would never appear like this. Not in a dream like this. Because she couldn't face him, not now, not ever...

"Because you failed." Eon said dismissively, and he was right besides Zue. He looked at her, and there was contempt in those dark blue eyes; an expression she had never seen before on his face, and it scared her more than anything else in the world. "You lost the Opal Crystal. You lost everything."

"Everything." Everyone else echoed mindlessly, even Charonite, even Wiseman, even Serenity, and Chronos shook her head wildly, realizing that now she could move herself, now at least she could protest...

"It's not going to make a difference." A voice said sadly, and then suddenly, all of them present were standing in a row, and Princess Serenity was the one in front of her, her silvery hair trailing down to the floor. She looked exactly as how Chronos remembered her, and she spoke her first word in this nightmare.

"...Cousin..."

"You died." Serenity said. "You couldn't find me. Why couldn't you find me? Did you hope to be the only Princess? Were you angry at me for being the Moon Princess, doing nothing while you were out there fighting deep in space?"

"I never..."

"It doesn't matter now." Serenity let her gaze trail away and Chronos started forward to grab her arm, to comfort her, to protest that she had never thought that way.

"She's corrupted." Everyone behind Serenity echoed darkly, and the Moon Princess' hair slowly began to grow as dark as shadows, and then it was her face, her shoulders, her body, her gown that turned dark. Chronos was so focused on her cousin that she almost did not notice that everyone else was turning dark as well, and she opened her mouth to scream...

"Not yet." A cold, resolute voice interrupted, and a woman strode right up to her. It was a green-haired woman, clad in her senshi fuku, except that it had more armor, armor resembling that of those on Aries' fuku... "It's not over, Chronos."

"It's only over when you're corrupted too." Wiseman chuckled, and he suddenly appeared besides past Chronos, his hand on her shoulder. "Isn't it, Princess?"

"And then it's all over." Past Chronos said, as she too, melted into shadows, she too, became a black figure, became a part of corruption. And when Chronos herself looked down at her hands, they were all black and blank and devoid of any lines, any fingernails...

Serenade screamed.