A/N: Yay, the last chapter! I'm excited and nervous both! It took me a while to come up with an ending; I hope this is good enough! Now, on with the fic!
Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon; everything else (besides this story) is copyrighted to the brilliant Naoko Takeuchi.
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Chapter Eight: Power of Love
A fire began to burn deep inside Serenity. Never before had she felt such hatred as she was feeling towards the Dark Kingdom's Queen. Her dislike towards Beryl had begun as a small flickering flame. But now the Queen's cruel words echoed in her head.
Once I'm through with you I'll have everything you hold so dear and precious, starting with your beloved Prince.
Her words caused an unknown roaring rage to posses her; and now, there was only one thing Serenity wanted to make clear to the Dark Queen, she was playing with fire now, and when you play with fire, you're bound to get burned. Serenity's sapphire orbs bored into Beryl's ruby ones.
"Still making empty promises I see," she finally voiced as she faced the Dark queen head on, "I think I recall hearing those exact same words a thousand years ago."
Beryl was now seething with anger.
'How dare she?!' she thought furiously as she watched the Moon Princess stare back at her intently, her gaze never once faltering.
'How can such a small wretched girl think she can match up o my power?! I have Queen Metallia by my side!'
As Beryl's anger increased, a dark purple aura began to pulsate around her.
"Oh great Metallia!" she shouted as she threw her arms into the air, "I call upon your mighty dark power, lend me your strength; with your power I shall destroy what is left of the Silver Millennium, finally conquering this world and making it ours!"
A black lightning like energy began to surge from the Dark Queen's hands; with a cynical smile, she thrust her hands forward. Upon impact, the four inner senshi were knocked unconscious, leaving Tuxedo Kamen and Serenity hanging to consciousness by a mere thread.
The tuxedo clad man held onto Serenity as if his life depended on it.
'I will protect her,' he vowed, 'Nothing will ever harm my Princess again.'
Suddenly, the Ginzuishou began to glow one more. Its warm light surrounded Tuxedo Kamen and transformed him into Prince Endymion.
Once again, the lovers faced Beryl, determination dominant in their faces.
"Give up Beryl; you are fighting a loosing battle, "said Serenity.
The redhead's ruby eyes flashed viciously, "I'll never give up Moon tramp," she hissed, "Not until Endymion and the Ginzuishou are mine and you're DEAD!"
The sorceress spread her arms out to the sides; black energy beginning to collect between them.
Serenity faced Endymion, "It's now or never," she said.
Endymion nodded as he watched his Princess step forward. Serenity held the Crescent Moon Wand before her and closed her eyes. She then felt Endymion's hands rest on her hips, his body pressing against her from behind.
"I'll be with you no matter what," he whispered into her ear.
Seeing the intimate hold that Endymion had on Serenity caused the redhead's anger to grow more.
"Die Serenity!" she yelled, causing her collection of dark energy to shoot forward.
Serenity and Endymion both centered their power on the Ginzuishou. Finally, the Moon Princess' eyes shot open and the crescent moon sigil on her forehead began to glow.
"In the name of the mighty Selene, I shall punish you! MOON CRYSTAL POWER!"
A blinding beam of light shot out from the Ginzuishou and clashed with Beryl's dark one.
Beryl watched in satisfaction as her dark beam outmatched Serenity's
"Still think you can defeat me Serenity?" she taunted, an evil cackle escaping her lips.
The Moon Princess did her best to ignore the redhead's comment; but as she watched Beryl's darkness consume her light; she couldn't help but let doubt seep into her resolve.
'I can't do this alone,' she thought as she closed her eyes once more, "I need everyone's power; Mercury's tranquility, Mar's feistiness, Jupiter's strength, and Venus's love.'
Suddenly, she felt a power surge through her. Opening her eyes, she found that her senshi had risen and were standing on either side of her. One by one, they each placed their hands on the Moon Wand.
"We're here for you Princess," they said in unison. \
She also felt Endymion's hold on her tighten, "Like I said, I'll be with you no matter what."
As their powers combined, each of the senshi began to glow their respective colors and their tiaras disappeared, only leaving their planetary symbol glowing proudly on their foreheads.
Serenity felt happy tears sting her eyes; she could feel her friends' and lovers' love and dedication running through her veins.
The Ginzuishou's light intensified, finally cutting across Beryl's attack and hitting the sorceress directly.
"No, this can't be!" she screeched as the Silver Crystal's light burned her body, "Their love for that girl is actually destroying me?!"
Slowly and painfully, the redhead's body began to deteriorate, her howls and screams of agony echoing as her burned body fell in ashes to the cold marble ground.
As the Ginzuishou's light dimmed, the inner senshi let go of the wand, just as Endymion released his hold on Serenity. But as soon as his hands left her hips, the Moon Princess slumped forward. The Terran prince managed to catch her before she hit the floor; a light surrounding them both and leaving them as Tuxedo Kamen and Sailor Moon once more.
"Usako, Usako?! Wake up!" he coaxed as he shook her small form.
A small ghastly figure suddenly appeared.
"Q-Queen Serenity?" he gasped.
The small holographic figure smiled, "Do not worry yourself Prince of Earth," she said kindly, "My daughter will be fine after a well deserved rest, she merely used up too much of the Ginzuishou's power."
The inner senshi crowded around the small silver queen.
"Queen Serenity, what are you doing here?" asked Venus bluntly.
The queen chuckled softly as the other three senshi sweat dropped at Mina's lack of manners.
"I merely appeared to congratulate you all for defeating the Dark Kingdom and for keeping my daughter safe." The queen faced each senshi and Tuxedo Kamen with a sad smile.
"Tanks to you all, I can now rest in peace." Queen Serenity's figure began to slowly fade away.
"Wait, Your Highness, will we ever see you again?" asked Mercury anxiously.
The silver haired woman gave everyone a final smile, "No, you probably won't," she said, "But remember, I'll always live in Serenity's, no, Usagi's heart; so now farewell dear soldiers, farewell noble Prince."
With a flash, queen Serenity was gone. There was a moment of stunned silence; which was broken by Tuxedo Kamen.
"Sailor Mercury, can you find a way out of here?"
With a curt nod, the blunette clicked on her visor and opened her mini computer.
"It seems that the tower has returned to normal," she announced, "All we have to do is take the elevator down to the ground floor and we're home free."
Tuxedo Kamen nodded in return and stood, carrying sailor Moon bridal style, "lead the way," he said.
After the long trip out of Starlight Tower, the group of girls faced the tuxedo clad man.
"Well Tuxie boy, we'll take it from here, we'll make sure that Usagi-chan gets her rest and gets home safely," announced Jupiter.
As the brunette stepped up to take the Moon senshi from Tuxedo Kamen, the upperclassman stepped back.
"No!" he exclaimed.
Jupiter along with the other girls blinked in surprise, and then they all raised amused eyebrows.
"A little possessive aren't we?" asked Mars teasingly.
Tuxedo Kamen's face began to flush bright red
"I just want to be with her when she wakes up," he said stiffly, "I think there are a lot of things we need to discuss."
The inners exchanged amused glances and burst into girly giggles.
Tuxedo Kamen stifled a groan, 'Great,' he thought, 'they probably think I want to do something WRONG with Usagi!'
Suddenly Sailor Venus' cheery tone broke his thoughts.
"Oh just let him take her back to his place," she said with a sly smile, "Besides, Usa's parents are still out of town, who knows when they'll get another chance to be alone together?"
With a wink, she began to walk away, immediately followed by her fellow senshi.
Tuxedo Kamen glanced at the sleeping angel in his arms.
"C'mon Usako," he whispered, 'Let's get out of here."
With that he took to the rooftops and made his way home.
From around the corner, the sailor senshi watched the upperclassman disappear into the night with their Princess.
"Are you sure that was a wise thing to do Mina-chan?" asked Ami as the four girls detransformed.
"Yeah," answered the love senshi, "I trust Mamoru-san, Usagi-chan will be safe with him."
As the four girls made their way to the temple, Rei couldn't help but laugh.
"What's so funny Rei-chan?" asked Makoto curiously.
The young miko faced her friends, a small sparkle gracing her violet eyes.
"Usagi-chan may be safe with Mamoru but I'm not sure Mamoru will be safe if Usa's dad ever finds out that his little girl spent the weekend with an older boy!"
The girls all burst into giggles.
"Well, this calls for a little blackmail!" said Makoto rubbing her hands mischievously, "Mamoru-san better be VERY nice to us if he wants us to keep this quiet!"
Ami shook her head disapprovingly.
"Oh Mako-chan you'll do no such thing!" she scolded lightly, "Let Mamoru and Usagi deal with things on their own."
The girls all gave the ice senshi small pouts.
"Aw, Ames, you take the fun out of everything!" said Makoto.
Laughing good naturedly, the girls finally arrived at the Jinja; all of them looking forward to a well deserved good night's sleep…
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Scene: Mamoru's apartment, hours later…
As Usagi's eyes fluttered open, for the second time in the past twenty-four hours, she found herself in a bedroom that wasn't hers. It took her only a moment to recognize the blue walled room as Mamoru's. As she tried to sit up, she found that Mamoru was sound asleep in a chair by the bad and was using her as a pillow.
'He gave up his bed for me,' she thought as she felt her heart swell with tenderness, 'I guess he really does care about me.'
With a small smile, she reached over and ruffled his hair lovingly.
"Mamo-chan," she murmured as her fingers slid through his thick dark locks.
The gesture brought Mamoru to raise his head sleepily. Upon seeing the blonde awake, all sleep left him.
"Are you ok/" he asked.
Usagi nodded, her smile never leaving her lips.
Mamoru stood up from his chair and sat on the bed next to Usagi. Suddenly, he cupped her face with his hands.
"Usagi, will you be my girlfriend?" he asked seriously.
The blonde gazed into his azure eyes; seeing love, passion, desire, and tenderness in their depths.
With a fluttering heart, she leaned forward and pressed her lips to his. As she pulled away, she saw Mamoru grinning like a happy little boy.
"So, is that a yes?" he said.
Usagi rolled her eyes but snuggled into his arms.
"Yes Mamo-chan," she said.
"Good," he answered, and without warning, he pushed her back onto the bed and climbed over her and claimed her lips. His rain of short and sweet kissed slowly became longer, deeper, and more passionate.
"Oh Mamo-chan," she murmured as Mamoru began to trail butterfly kisses down her neck and collarbone.
He finally moved upwards and placed a final kiss on her forehead.
"I love you Usagi," he whispered as he nibbled softly on her earlobe, "I loved you throughout the Silver Millennium and I've loved you since I met you in this life."
He moved down to her neck once more and softly bit into her sensitive skin, running his tongue over the spot to soothe the pain. Satisfied to have marked Usagi, Mamoru kissed the spot tenderly.
Usagi shuddered in pleasure as Mamoru raised his head and finally locked gazes with her.
"I'll always love you," he said with a triumphant smile, "Because now, you're MY Usako."
Usagi smiled happily as Mamoru embraced her lovingly.
"I guess this is happily ever after," he remarked.
Usagi held a glint of mischief in her sapphire eyes.
"Not quite," she mumbled mysteriously as she began to fall asleep in Mamoru's arms,
"There's still one last bit of business to take care of…
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Scene: Juuban Park the next morning…
"Where could Minako be? Her letter said to meet her here at 11:30 am," said Umino in puzzlement as he scratched his head in wonder.
He glanced at his watch one final time and heaved a defeated sigh.
"I knew it was too good to be true," he mumbled.
He was about to make his way back home, when he suddenly saw a flash of golden hair.
"Mina?" he said hopefully as he whirled around.
To his disappointment, the golden hair belonged to Usagi.
"Hey Umino," she greeted.
Umino was about to say hi back when he suddenly noticed that Usagi was handcuff free.
"Hey, how did you get free?" he asked.
Usagi merely smiled innocently.
"Oh, that's not important," she said as she slowly began to advance on him.
"Um, Usagi? Are you ok?" Umino asked uneasily as he began to back away from the advancing blonde.
"Of course Umino, everything is just peachy," answered Usagi
Umino suddenly gulped in horror as Usagi pulled out a pair of shiny handcuffs.
"Usa, what are you doing?" he asked hoarsely.
A devilish smile spread across the blonde's angelic face. Without answering she lunged at Umino and clasped the cold metal around his wrist. Then she pulled him towards the nearest tree and clasped the other metal band around a low tree branch.
She finally gave Umino a final innocent smile and began to walk away.
"Wait Usa!" Umino yelled, "You can't just leave me here, have a heart!"
Before she was out of sight, she turned and gave him a mischievous smirk.
"Really? Too bad, those are the consequences of a game played!"
With that, she continued on her way; leaving poor Umino handcuffed to the tree.
As she skipped towards the Crown, she couldn't help but feel giddy. In a way, she should've thanked Umino; after all, his stunt had gotten her to admit her feelings for Mamoru. But then again…NAH! She preferred to make him suffer.
With a huge smile, she raced towards the café at a faster pace. Who knew? Maybe she'd run into a certain dark haired, blue eyed guy along the way….
FIN
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A/N: Wow, my first fic is actually completed! (sniffles) I'm actually kind of sad.
Anyways, I'd like to thank EVRYONE who took the time to review my story; I really appreciated all your comments and feedback!
Peace, Love, amd Joy; Shadow's Moon Hme
