So it's all come to an end…I suppose this is a happy and sad occasion…Thank you to all my readers and reviewers who have supported me when I wanted to ditch this story (thank goodness I didn't, huh?) and I hope you find some of my other stories as interesting!

Peace and love you!!

Hrauthor87

Oh, and I don't own Sailor Moon or its characters. Just thought I should put that on there…

Chapter Ten

The earth was rumbling, forcing them to attempt to keep their balance.

"Look!" Lita cried as a black wall of energy blocked their escape routes. "We're trapped."

"So is she," EJ returned with deadly calm.

"But she's not here," Raye exclaimed, her body, like the others', on guard.

EJ smirked slightly and drew his sword. "Yes, she is. She's hiding and waiting. I can feel her."

Mina touched a hand to his arm. "Where is she?"

"Shh. She's going to-"

He was cut short by the hissing sound and collapsed with the rest of the others. Though he couldn't hear them, he was somehow aware that they were yelling in terrible pain. Fearful pain.

Then he was immersed in a thick, cold and wet fog. "Mina? Mina, where are you?"

No response. Fear slicked through him. She could be hurt, could be dying. Where was she!?

His eyes flashed in anger. This had to be one of Beryl's tricks. Break them down so they wouldn't fight. Reach out for her with your mind, he thought. He had to try.

There was a glimmer in his mind, a flash of light and he pushed harder. He could feel sweat falling on his face and ignored it as he pushed with all his might and surged to his feet.

Mina stared up at him, fear in her eyes as she was brought to her own feet. "I thought I'd lost you! You were kneeling in front of Beryl, saying you didn't love me and-"

He took her in his arms. "I do love you and you'll never lose me. Help the others. Wake them up." He let her go and began to wake up the others, starting with Serena and Darien.

Soon, they were all standing once more and scanning the shadows for movement.

"It's quiet," EJ muttered. "Too quiet." He kept his grip on his sword light and ready as his own body was. "Don't think, everyone. Keep your mind blank."

Beryl let out a cackle as she appeared behind her son and had a dagger to his throat, a thin trickle of blood falling down. "Hello, my son."

He was silent, knowing if he talked he'd be even more deeply cut. But he let out a thin amount of breath when the clouds above opened up and heavy rain poured down on them. This was going to suck, he thought grimly.

"You betrayed me and I have no tolerance for traitors. Ah-ah-ah," she murmured when the Scouts stepped towards them. "You come any closer and you're pretty prince here will have his throat slashed."

He snarled and winked at Mina. Then he whirled, felt the skin on his throat cut as he blasted his mother at the middle with rapidly shot and powerful energy blasts. As she flew, slammed against the energy barrier and shrieked as her body was repeatedly shocked until she fell limply to the ground, he hurried to heal his cut.

Mina rushed at him, slipped on the mud. Any other situation and it would've been funny as he caught her and righted her. "You idiot, you could've been killed!" she exclaimed over the thunder.

"We'll argue about my battle tactics later," he replied when he saw Beryl get up from the other side of the battlefield. "You don't have the decency to die, do you?" he yelled to her, sword flashing when lightning struck nearby.

"I am immortal! You cannot kill me!"

Poison, his mind told him. You are filled with poison because of her. "Serena!"

She jogged up to him. "Yeah?"

"You can heal me. I need you to heal me from her poison. When I was born," he explained rapidly, speeding his words up when Beryl began to rush towards them, "I was automatically poisoned with her blood. Heal me and get rid of the poison and she'll be mortal."

Beryl was livid and it showed as she ran towards him, fingers convulsed into claws. "YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS!!" She screamed and instead of attacking him, she used her magic to blasted the others into unconsciousness and shatter his sword.

"Bitch," he snarled as he blocked her magic blow with one hand, used the other to heal Serena and Mina. He needed her help badly. "You never know when to give up, do you?"

She smirked. "I could say the same thing for—hey!" She looked down at her singed arm, hanging useless at her side. "How is that possible?"

Come on, come on, he thought as he heard Serena begin to stir and focused on Mina. "Blood can destroy blood. Or in this case, injure." He blasted a leg and saw her struggle to stand up. "I'm going to kill you slowly so you know the pain that you've caused everyone else. When you know it, I think you'll finally deserve death."

Serena sighed and stood, her healing wand in hand. "Are you ready, EJ?"

He nodded and picked up his sword, which had pieced itself together. He dashed to the side and held it up, angled away his eyes so he wouldn't be blinded when the lightning struck his blade and made it glow with ethereal power. Moving quickly, knowing she was rapidly recovering, EJ stabbed his mother in the middle and held her there with a steely grip at her throat.

"NOW!!"

Serena nodded. "Moon…Cosmic…Healing…Power!"

He forced his eyes to stay open as the golden waves crashed onto him, sending his blood warm as his skin began to glow. So this is what it felt like, he thought as the poisonous evils in him were washed away.

Beryl let out a mighty screech as her immortality was ripped away with a whooshing sound. Then the pain, the fiery pain, flashed in her as her skin began to peel away to reveal razor sharp bones and teeth. Her last sound was a guttural gurgle before her bones fell to the ground and vanished.

Mina moaned and looked up at EJ when he picked her up, back in his plain clothes as she was. "What…?"

"She's gone. For good this time," he said.

"How?"

"I sacrificed my magic that was evil so our ties were severed. With that connection to life gone, she was simple to kill. The credit goes to Serena for helping, though," he continued as the others slowly stood and de-transformed.

Serena blushed when Darien swept her up in a joyful kiss. "But you did most of the work."

"Maybe, but it doesn't matter." He grinned down at Mina and kissed her. "Come on. I have to go see my dog."

Mina laughed. "He's missed you."

"I'll get him a big steak," EJ promised and with that, they had disappeared.

The End

WAIT! I'M NOT DONE!!

Did you really think I'd leave it at that??

Epilogue

Serena fluttered around excitedly, her lavender bridesmaid dress shining in the overhead light. "I can't believe you're actually getting married! It seems only yesterday that we graduated!"

Mina laughed softly and smoothed what could have been an undetectable wrinkle in her wedding gown. "Technically it was a month ago. A month…" She sighed dreamily and looked down at her engagement ring. "I'm getting married today."

Amy smiled and offered her a tissue when her friend's eyes filled. "You'd better not start crying. There are photographers here."

Mina sniffled and nodded. "Okay, you're right. I'll cry after." She laughed and dabbed delicately at her wet eyes. "Thank you for all being here."

Raye chuckled and fought back her own tears. "You made all of us bridesmaids. We should thank you, right?"

"No, I mean for everything. For being my friends and supporting me throughout everything with EJ."

Amara shrugged and tried not to be completely uncomfortable in her dress. "Hey, what are friends for, huh?"

EJ shifted slightly in his tuxedo in front of the gazebo as the three-piece orchestra played softly. It was only right that they were going to get married at the cherry tree park. So much had happened here.

Darien smirked at him. In a few months he would be in his position. "Dude, you okay?"

Tommy nodded when his client—his friend—looked at them. "Seriously, you look nervous."

"I'm a little nervous, yeah. Jittery, I guess."

He nearly jumped out of his skin when the music signifying the bridesmaids and such entering began and smiled at the Scouts as they filed in and took their places. He could hear the few guests murmuring and went deaf and blind to them when the wedding march began.

His heart soared when Mina, dressed in a simple and elegant white gown that trailed the ground for only an inch and left her arms bare, started walking towards him. His eyes simply glowed with his love and his smile was full and ridiculously happy by the time she reached him and was helped up the steps by her father.

"Who gives this woman to this man?" the preacher asked.

Mr. Aino cleared his closed throat. "I do." He kissed Mina's cheek and let her be taken by the hand by EJ.

"Dearly beloved, we are gathered here…"

EJ caught the tear sliding down her cheek. "I love you," he mouthed.

Another tear down her cheek and she caught the one that had slipped from his eye. "I love you too," she mouthed back and smiled.

The photographer snapped a picture.

"Emerson Jasper King, do you take Mina Elizabeth Aino to be your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold in richer and in poorer, in sickness and in health, 'till death do you part?"

He smiled. "I do," he said, his voice breaking as another tear slid down his cheek.

Another picture taken and Mina felt her heart leap as he slid the simple golden band with three stones, a diamond, emerald, and ruby, lining it; the past, the present, and the future.

"Mina Elizabeth Aino, do you take Emerson Jasper King to be your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold in richer and in poorer, in sickness and in health, 'till death do you part?"

She was fully crying now, but happy tears. "I do. I do, I do, I do!" She slid on his simple gold band onto his own finger.

The crowd chuckled and cheered when they were officially proclaimed Mr. and Mrs. Emerson J. King.

"I love you," he murmured before kissing her.

Everything was perfect.

Really, this is The End now!