i think of you and i see me
i'm the one i thought i'd never be
i feel dirty - no purity
desire and yearning in your heart
no mercy for you, no mercy for me

He floats in what seems to be an endless sea of darkness; the only sources of light are the countless stars peppering the sky around him.

Everything is deathly silent, and yet, it's not a tense silence. It's more like the serene kind of silence that one would encounter on a warm midsummer's night - the kind of tranquility that can lull them into a gentle slumber that one would never want to awaken from.

It's the kind of silence that she would generate.

He isn't quite sure where he is; this place is nothing like he's ever seen before, except for the realm of dreams that he frequently inhabited. Is he dreaming? Is he awake? He doesn't know. He just gazes up into the void above, an odd sense of peace overcoming him. He stays there and closes his eyes, basking in the stillness for an immeasurable length of time - the opportunity to relax in this manner comes so rarely to him that he takes full advantage of it whenever possible.

Eventually, his eyes open again and he surveys the landscape again. The stars beneath him have disappeared, leaving an infinite expanse of blackness in their place. Now, instead of floating through the depths of space like he seemed to be doing before, he gazes up at a star-filled sky that melds with the darkness below, obscuring its horizon from view.

The night sky is one of his favorite things, but something appears to be missing from it tonight...

The moon.

He is confused; the last time he saw the moon, it was at its first quarter. It wouldn't be time for him to set out to cast nightmares on humanity for quite a while yet. So, where has the moon gone?

For reasons unbeknownst to him, he finally moves from his spot in search of it. No matter how fast or slow he hovers, the stars above him fail to change their position. He starts to wonder if he's even moving at all, when suddenly, something comes into view in the distance. As he draws closer to it, he quickens his pace, his own curiosity taking control of his actions. And once he realizes just what it is, he stops short.

It's her: his opposite, his counterpart, his moon; the dream to his nightmare, the light to his darkness.

She hovers in front of him, eyes cast to the same sky he had been gazing at before. Her body is engulfed in a golden glow, and she doesn't seem to have a care in the world - is she the one exuding the feelings of serenity that had been washing over him this whole time?

He slowly approaches her, making not even the slightest sound - he doesn't want to disturb the silence. As he closes the distance between them, she turns her gaze down towards him, locking her fuchsia eyes with his.

And suddenly, the peace that had overwhelmed him before is replaced by fear.

His cyan eyes bore deeply into hers as if he were being pulled in by gravity. There's something about the gentleness lying within her magenta depths that tugs at his heartstrings, and to be quite honest, it terrifies him. As someone who is so adept at striking fear into the hearts of others, he finds himself completely disarmed by how scared he is at the moment. Why is he feeling like this? If anything, she should be the one scared of him, not the other way around. But the more he searches her eyes, the less fear he uncovers; he finds kindness and acceptance and hope; he finds tenderness and benevolence; he finds - dare he think it? - affection.

They say that people are afraid of things that they don't understand. They're afraid because they don't understand them; he knows the concept of fear like the back of his hand, so for him to actually become afraid of something is quite the amazing feat. But he knows exactly why he's scared: he doesn't understand kindness or acceptance or hope; he doesn't understand tenderness or benevolence; he doesn't understand...

She smiles - a beautiful sight, moreso than the boundless sky above them - and his heart begins to quake with terror.

The moon turns away again and closes her eyes, and the glow surrounding her body begins to intensify. He squints, unaccustomed to the light emanating from her body; before long, it's as bright as the sun and everything around them inverts: the darkness becomes a blinding white, and the now-black stars in the sky fall below them as if they're in a reverse dimension of sorts.

He blinks several times in a desperate attempt to clear his vision. However, once he can finally see properly again, he almost wishes he couldn't.

Her eyes are still closed and she is no longer glowing. Her hover falters for a few seconds, and then she starts to fall.

The fear returns, tenfold this time; his throat constricts painfully as he watches her plummet toward the dark stars beneath them. If one could even call them stars anymore - they're pulsating now, expanding themselves into what seems to be an abyss of sorts; they reach up with black tentacles that are just waiting to catch her, to drag her down into the deep darkness.

He panics. She shouldn't be sucked into the darkness, she's the last being in the universe that deserves such a fate! Her heart is so strong and so pure that it's almost as if light itself would be torn from the world if she were to succumb like this. Although he'd been frightened, he'd seen into her soul only moments ago - he'd felt her heart.

And now, the thought that he could lose her to the darkness all but paralyzes him.

Finally, he overcomes his numbness and takes off after her. Just like before, it feels as if he isn't moving at all, no matter how desperately he might try to catch up to her. He futilely reaches out with a clawed arm, stretching out as far as he can in a vain attempt to grab onto her, even though the distance between them is so great.

At the same time, the nothingness below them continues to reach up to intercept her, and for a moment, it seems like it's going to win. Anguished tears fall from his eyes as he continues chasing, chasing, chasing after her - he can't let her fall, he won't let her fall; he wills for her to wake up and save herself just in case he is unable to. And that scenario begins to look more and more likely as the black tendrils wrap around her body, caressing her in a manner that only adds rage to his fear and desperation...

Darkrai awakened with a start. It took him several moments to realize that he was no longer chasing after his counterpart through an endless area of white, and was now resting within the depths of his own island.

It also took a second for him to notice that his heart was pounding frantically, and his brow was dotted with sweat. It had only been a dream - or in his case, a nightmare. Heaving an immense sigh of relief, he floated over to the shallow puddle that lay in the heart of the island and reached down into it, splashing water onto his face.

Truth be told, he didn't even remember falling asleep. As he attempted to bring himself back into reality, he mused upon this a bit: even he wasn't immune to his own abilities, and as a result, he didn't really sleep much. He was a god, he didn't exactly need sleep in order to function properly, so he usually tried to avoid it if at all possible, if only because his dreams were like the one he'd just awakened from.

There had to be some kind of meaning behind that nightmare, but he couldn't figure out what it was. It had painted such a vivid picture in his head and he remembered every single detail - the stars, the peace, searching for the moon, finding it. Locking eyes with Cresselia and feeling her spirit, and the fear that had pulsated through his veins as a result of it. The smile. The glow. Whiteness, falling, chasing, abyss.

His heart started to race again just thinking about it. In the several hundred years that he'd been in existence, he couldn't ever remember being as frightened as he had been in this dream. What was it that had horrified him so? Was it seeing the gentleness reflected within Cresselia's soul, or the fact that it had been directed toward him? Or was it... the feeling that had welled up within him as a result? Somehow, the idea of being accepted by her seemed to comfort him a bit, and only then did he realize what he was truly scared of.

Darkrai was afraid of losing her. The sense of peace that had overcome him in the beginning of the dream had surely been generated by her, and only when he was faced with the prospect of losing that peace, did fear begin to overtake him. Even now, when he was fully awake and back in the real world, the idea terrified him.

He still didn't know what that meant, though. He had no idea what would happen to him if she were to fall off of the mortal coil, or what would happen to humanity or even the universe as he knew it - they were two sides to the same forces. If the bearer of good dreams were to die, then nightmares would reign over all; all living beings would refuse to sleep and then eventually die out. If the full moon were to disappear, the new moon would become obsolete. Because both of them existed, the world remained balanced.

But maybe that wasn't the reason that Darkrai feared losing Cresselia. And the more he thought about it, the more confused he became.

Finally, with a groan, he pulled himself into a hover and headed out of his cave. Casting his gaze to the sky, relief washed over him when he realized that the moon was still in its first quarter, just as he'd remembered it being in the nightmare. That realization seemed to calm his heart a bit, but it didn't answer any of his questions. The only way he'd be able to straighten things out would be to talk to Cresselia.

Taking a few moments to steel himself and strengthen his resolve, Darkrai took off. Just like in the dream, he was searching for the moon - his moon - but this time, he didn't have to search among a vast expanse of stars for it, because he knew exactly where it was this time.

He was now en route to Fullmoon Island.

O hai what's this? Usa's writing a... chaptered fic? HOLY CRAP ALERT THE PRESSES. GET RIPLEY'S ON THE LINE!!11

Seriously, though. The idea for this fic popped into my head and now I can't quite unsee it. This will have three chapters, and these will finish off the fic challenge I've been doing all of these LunarEclipseshipping fics for. See my profile for more information.

Fun fact: Darkrai's nightmare in this chapter was inspired by a piece of fanart I found on a Japanese site. C:

I'm aiming to complete this fic before I leave for A-Kon next Friday. So you can expect the next chapter soon - possibly later today, provided that my writing drive is still in high gear like it was when I wrote this. :D

- Usagi