Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon.

A/N: This chapter contains LOTS of innuendo and adult themes! Though why am I warning you all; I'm sure this is the moment everyone's been waiting for :-D Thank you to: Kitkino86, Silvermoonlight9, a rose by any other name71591, Walks in Faith, mae-E, PriestessHelene, Mibz, neoearthqueen30, merangelgal, Shinigami9999, anokas2757, catchastar101, BiGgEsT. bOoKwOrM. iN. tHe. wOrLd, and Usagi of Feudal Moon Era.

Saving Bonds of Love

Rated T

Part 20: "Womb of Power"

The day was dying, sky becoming a sea of smeared crimson and gold. Here and there, streaks of pink and violet permeated the other colors. Above the ocean the horizon resided, showcasing a partial sun waning into twilight's embrace. Either side of it sported deep periwinkle, presaging the night to come.

Eleven friends stumbled through beach sand up to their hotel, giggling and laughing through exhaustion. In the back, Usagi and Mamoru ungainly cavorted, tripping through the thick dirt whilst they attempted to embrace during the whole odyssey. Unremittingly, they gave each other lingering pecks and star-struck gazes, acting very much like love-drunk newlyweds. Occasionally, a whispering fit overtook the pair, to the distraction and annoyance of some of the others. However, those irate few said nothing. They just rolled their eyes and plugged their ears.

Couples, Usagi imagined they were thinking of her and Mamoru. The blonde resisted the urge to chuckle at their ignorance of what she and he were planning.

"Pretend you have a stomach ache," Mamoru insisted almost inaudibly, and Usagi shook her head fiercely.

"You know me, I'm a terrible liar! They'll never believe me."

"I'll play along; act all worried and such," the ebony-head replied briskly. Usagi stared up into his eyes, smiling at a glimmer of humor coloring his midnight flecks.

"You'd do that anyway, wouldn't you?"

Mamoru just hummed nonchalantly, and she swapped his shoulder. "Alright, alright. Anything to get some alone time with you."

"Good. Because it's very difficult when Rei-san is constantly breathing down our necks."

Usagi laughed, eliciting a glance backward from one curious fire priestess. The sun-kissed flaxen head just waved docilely at her blissfully unaware friend. She toppled back into the strong grip of her paramore, sighing goodbye to the sound of the frothing surf. The magically endowed throng continued upward until reaching their respective rooms, when the transcended royals set their scheme into action.

"Game night in our room!" Makoto called, flinging an exuberant arm into the air. ChibiUsa cheered, and Haruka shrugged with a coy grin in place. Usagi exchanged an unnoticed glance with Mamoru, and he nodded. The one named Sailor Moon opened her lips and let out an almighty moan.

"Uuuugh, I feel like crap! Mamo-chan, my stomach hurts!"

Everyone pivoted to stare soliticiously at their leader, concern in the orbs of each Senshi present.

"What, swallow too much seawater when you were jumping your boyfriend?" Rei sang gibingly, the lone female who lacked total compassion for Usagi. Aforementioned teen glared daggers her way, then replied,

"Maybe I did swallow some water. It would explain why I'm gargling so much inside."

"Eeewww, we did not need to know that, Odango Atama!" ChibiUsa howled, covering her ears. Everyone made similar comments and expressions, beginning to usher themselves into the Inners' room. Ami alone looked back and waved at Usagi.

"Feel better soon, Usagi-chan! Mamoru-san, aren't you joining us?"

"Nah," the ebony head answered non-commitally, shrugging. "I want to make sure Usako's okay. Besides, I'm pretty tuckered out myself."

"Alright, well... enjoy your sleep," the pedantic wished, her innocent mind refusing to wind down any other roads. She could never have expected the chuckling that ensued after her departure.

"Ooooh, that was too easy!" Usagi hissed gleefully, latching onto her boyfriend's arm as they carefully shut their bedroom door. "Perhaps I am a good liar?"

"Nah, it was all me," Mamoru gloated, pumping his chest.

"You!?" Usagi exclaimed, then covered her mouth when realizing how her voice carried. "Oops."

"Yes, all me," Mamoru sighed, batting his eyelashes to be funny. Usagi snorted at how out of place the gesture was. She pushed him onto the bed when he was least expecting it, then jumped onto his waist. They rolled until Mamoru was leaning over her petite frame. "Grr, don't try that with me, Usako. I'm much stronger than you."

"Oh, really?" Usagi said, attempting to wiggle free. It was futile. "Well... well... just watch me!"

Mamoru laughed, but the tenor suddenly became very husky as her squirming did interesting things to the lower half of his body. He knew Usagi had to be able to feel it too. She froze; a wide-eyed, deer in the headlights expression eclipsing her features. The ebony head tried to read it, but the emotion other than shock burgeoning on her countenance was difficult for him to decipher. Mamoru groaned, preparing to pull himself away lest he inadvertently tread down the road his hormones so desperately wanted to travel. Suddenly, Usagi lunged at him with her lips. Then it was his turn to become statue-like as the blonde sent fluttering kisses across his neck. She felt him swallow, and stopped in confusion when Mamoru did not respond as readily as she had.

"Mamo-chan...? Aren't we...?"

"Usako," Mamoru said gruffly, gently taking her hand into his. He pushed them up, then sat her chastely down next to him on the mattress. She sported a constricted, turpid face, and wrung her fingers in nervousness. It broke his heart to see her so unsettled and doubtful- as if this was a rejection, instead of a moment to reconsider. "You know I want to do this as much as you. I've wanted to... forever, it seems like. But you were always just too young, and... and you still are young. This is technically illegal and... while we know it's meant to be... I just worry... that it's too soon for you, you know? That... you're only doing this because I want to-"

"Mamo-chan," Usagi cut in briskly, revelation dawning in her eyes. "I suggest you just stop right there."

"Er, what?"

"I'm not as innocent as you think. I have hormones too; I've fantasized about us doing 'it' more times than you'd believe. My God, you think you've had to wait? What about me, surrounded at school by bragging teenage girls who've already made love to their boyfriends more times than fingers I have on one hand! It's so difficult, waiting to be legal; to be deemed old enough in your eyes. But sweetheart, I've been ready! I want this just as much as you!"

Usagi's argument was visibly swaying Mamoru, but the man still had one last issue to broach, and he blushed while voicing it,

"But Usako... you could get pregnant! It's not like I carry condoms around in my bag; I've just never been that sort of guy who thinks they're gonna score the girl that night..."

Usagi stifled a giggle. No, he must certainly was not! Mamoru was the sort of guy one might expect to be seen wearing a chastity belt, preaching chivalry and love and peace for all...

"Mamo-chan, what are you worrying about? ChibiUsa's not supposed to be born until, what, a thousand years from now, after the great ecological disaster? We've got eons of love-making before one of our encounters spawns the little spore!" Usagi said reassuring, cerulean orbs sparkling vibrantly. She inched closer to Mamoru, beginning her trail of upward pecks once more. The raven-head shivered.

"This is the first time..." he began, but embarassment choked away the rest of his intimate disclosure of nescience. Usagi reached his lips, arching a hand into his black locks.

"Don't worry," she whispered. "Me too. So we'll experience it together, learning as we go..."

Mamoru sighed softly, but the underlying presence in his voice was rougher; a feral growl, almost. He moved into action, refusing to let the night become a one-sided pleasure spree. A caress to Usagi's chest sent her into spasms, while a gentle nibble into her ear lobe provoked a lusty moan. They were both journeying down a path neither of them had walked down before, and it was both wonderful and frightening. Mamoru did not know it was even possible to love someone; to want them this much. He longed like he longed for air to be inside of his Princess; to feel their spirits become one physically, rather than just emotionally.

The pair discovered the other's body all over again, testing places and sensations; revelling in pure unadulterated love. Fire raged sweetly sometimes; desperately and achingly other times. It became an insatiable drug; one touch, and an area became inflamed. One stroke, and groaning accompanied an involuntary shiver. Usagi felt herself growing more and more aroused by Mamoru, listening to his sighs and feeling his throbbing. She knew she was going to explode; her body was becoming so hot that combustion was almost expected.

But what did she need?

What was that light, popping sometimes behind her lids, drawing her onward and upward to some unexperienced plane?

"Oh God... oh Mamo-chan... give me... oh God, I need..."

But she did not have the proper words. How could she ask him for that which she was ignorant of?

"Oh Usako," Mamoru panted, hands dancing down her bikini, trembling and stumbling for the strings. Usagi was just as insistent; just as clumsy with his bathing suit. She knew what was going to come next; she was not totally benighted. A tiny spark of fear was borne into her mind, but she erased it quickly. She trusted Mamoru; she knew he would not hurt her. He would be gentle.

As their clothes slipped free of their bodies, an inferno erupted in Usagi's abdomen. She tried to hold back a pleasured cry as their bare skin connected. It was a sensation she'd never had the chance to savor in all her sixteen and a half years. Mamoru, so hard, prepared himself.

"Usako... are you sure..."

"Do it! Oh please, do it Mamo-chan!" Usagi gasped. She was going to die if something (what!?) didn't happen soon; if all this pressure and dizziness did not culminate, somehow. Mamoru descended with a little noise from the back of his throat, capturing Usagi's lips in the process. She lunged into him, establishing their union with as much joy as her lover. Together, they began a dance as old as the sea, currently rocking and beating in a motion similar to their own...

Sephrelenia pulled free of Sailor Moon's brain, but the images continued coming even as the Moon Princess found volition was hers once more. She relived the last part of the memory once again, which was nothing new- she'd recalled it every night since. A climax so blinding; so pleasurable and so mutual... the undescribable sense that her and Mamoru were finally one; that no human could ever steal that from them. They'd lost their virginity, and to each other in an act foretold by the stars; presaged by their past and fufilled that night with such love and tenderness. Sailor Moon shivered, suddenly disgusted that Sephrelenia had shared in her and Mamoru's private experience.

"So you did it," Sephie sneered. "You knew my plans and you impregnated yourself with her."

"H-huh?" the White Princess murmured, head spinning. She couldn't fathom the possibility Sephrelenia was broaching with her; it couldn't be true.

You didn't have protection, though.

"No, you're lying... I'm not- not pregnant. No..." Sailor Moon whispered, almost to herself. Sephie snorted, and she shoved her hand against the shocked one's forehead, as if searching for confirmation. This time, she journeyed not into the blonde warrior's brain, but down through her body. Down... down... down...

Sailor Moon went slack, gasping. Her vision was no longer of the vaulted chamber room, but of a dark mass. She was seeing... what Sephrelenia was seeing. In her body! The Dead Moon Princess stretched out her consciousness so they were little tentacles, parting the congealed black substance mentally, but not tangibly. And then, they were inside.

Looking at a group of clustered cells, living and breathing from a tiny cord.

The shape resembled a fetus, almost.

And then the implication hit Sailor Moon, and hard.

It was a fetus.

A tiny, living, breathing organism was inside of her. A baby. Her daughter. ChibiUsa.

Sephrelenia pulled free, smug and irate all at the same time. She howled in frustration as Sailor Moon laid a hand over her stomach. She was speechless, but Sephrelenia was exactly the opposite.

"YOU'RE PREGNANT!" The words echoed around the room, greeted by chilly silence. None of the Senshi moved; none of them breathed. They were as motionless as their leader, stuck in their own personal shock. "Dammit! All of my plans, gone awry because of that stupid BABY! No wonder the little bastard wouldn't start blinking out of existence when I stabbed Mamoru-san; she exists twofold in this room!"

Sephrelenia slapped Sailor Moon full across the face, panting heavily. Her navy colored eyes flickered from one side of the room to another, then came to rest on the frozen figure of Usagi. She forced her lips into a wild smile; orbs dancing madly in renewed excitement. "I was going to do this the hard way, but I guess you'll just have to die first. Say bye-bye to baby!"

"NOOOO!" Sailor Moon screamed, shielding her stomach as Sephie tried to land a punch on her soft skin. "Please, no!" Her gaze unconsciously flew to Chibi Moon, staring at her future mother with terror scribed all over her features. Two gloved hands framed the pre-teen's ashen countenance, and silent yells fought to escape her open mouth. So defenseless, even now. But there was one way to ensure her safety...

I won't let Sephrelenia harm me! I must protect my baby, at all costs! Sailor Moon thought desperately, turning her back when Sephie tried kicking her abdomen next.

"Face me like a soldier, Sailor Moon! Or are you a coward?" Sephrelenia goaded, slamming her to the ground with a swift backhand. Sailor Moon rolled over and began crab-crawling away.

"You wouldn't hurt a baby, would you? I'm trying to protect what is most dear to me, and if you lay a hand on my stomach-"

"Empty threats!" Sephie hollered, shooting a dart of sizzling blue energy toward the future Queen. Sailor Moon dodged it skillfully, pulling herself upright in the same breath.

"Silver Moon Crystal Power... KISS!" A corresponding streak of sheer alabaster evacuated from the Sailor's rod, flaring out towards Sephrelenia with the speed of a freight train. Sephie grunted in exertion as she warded it off, momentarily stunned by the attack's strength. Sailor Moon began to lose hope; with the Senshi locked away behind an electrical barrier, her paramore bleeding his life away on the floor, and her attempts at assailing not tenacious enough, she feared the worst. She had wanted to accost Sephrelenia by herself, but suddenly she realized: Moon Princess or not, she was simply lacking in the power to kill Sephie. The girl before her was admittedly too great an adversary. And to add onto the unfavorable odds, Sailor Moon was now having to fend for two.

One thing was certain, though. The Moon Senshi was not going down without a fight.

Sephrelenia charged at Sailor Moon, emitting a strange war cry as she swirled her fingers. Sailor Moon instantly imagined a lasso being conjured from thin air as indigo energy gathered at the swishing tips. But the teen was ready.

"Silver Moon Crystal Power, Kiss!" She was afraid to use the actual Silver Crystal, should it prove deadly to the growing child in her womb. No wishful dream of salvation could have tempted the Light Princess into incurring possible ramifications upon her system. The girl knew all too well how weak the Crystal made her. What if it chose to zap the necessary adrenaline from ChibiUsa instead?

The snowy blitz enveloped Sehprelenia, and again the woman faltered before throwing it off. Sailor Moon felt a miniscule sliver of hope burgeon in her heart. Would a barrage of Silver Moon Kisses be enough to seriously handicap the Dark Princess? Could it work?

But Sailor Moon had opined too soon. Her inattention was her downfall. Sephrelenia raced from out of the ghostly fog, on the offensive. She caught the distracted Senshi by the neck, dragging her to the wall and shoving the teen against it roughly. Sailor Moon panicked, writhing in an audacious plea for oxygen. Sephrelenia let out a sibylic laugh as the Sailor Senshi screamed behind the pair. Moon could feel her eyes popping and vision worsening- the pandemonium was a distant uproar now. Despite her ailing cogency, Sephrelenia's baleful mock penetrated clearly into what was left of her consciousness.

"This is it, Princess Serenity. I'll have my revenge and you'll never get to greet that blissful future of yours. Prepare to meet Endymion; I'm sure he'll join you shortly..."

The world was falling away; breaking into little unintelligible pieces that grew dim and dark with every failed gasp. No air was expanding her lungs, and the dizzy, blinding pressure was unbearable...

I tried. Oh God, I tried. But I wasn't strong enough... I'm sorry, everyone...

The abyss was beckoning her forward, cold and icy...

Fresh, hot anger erupted unexpectedly in the pit of Sailor Moon's stomach. She started, flung back to the reality of deafening sound and color.

What-?

The fury rose; firey like a volcano frothing in anticipation of the burst. Sailor Moon could feel it pulsing through her veins; like an inferno racing over her body and out her jerking appendages. She knew, somehow, that something paranormal was occuring. This was not her wroth. She had been dying; about to pass on... she'd had no control over herself; her emotions.

But something did now.

And the core of that power was clumped firmly in Usagi's abdomen.

ChibiUsa... was fighting back?

The brilliant and stormy current within her crescendoed, and Sailor Moon shrieked as her skin seemed to explode. Sephrelenia was launched backward, scraping harshly against the stone floor in a mighty skid. She came to rest next to Mamoru's dorsicumbent figure, and did not move. Moon, on the other hand, collapsed. She was trembling from head to toe, all the while hyperventilating and clawing at her burning dermis. The blaze gradually ebbed to a nasty inflamation, but a hazy glow still surrounded her stomach. Sailor Moon looked over at Sephrelenia, stirring on the ground, and back to her midsection. The light winked at her before extinguishing itself, as if saying, "I'm here, Mama, and I don't want to die. Here's your chance."

Sailor Moon bolted over to Sephrelenia just as her enemy sat up disorientedly. Now it was her turn to screech aggressively, flinging herself onto Sephrelenia just as the blunette reached for Mamoru's fallen sword. They both scrambled to claim its handle, Sailor Moon multitasking as she also tried to keep the blade away from Mamoru's prone torso. Sephrelenia managed to swindle the saber, and she let out a yell of triumph. She viciously stabbed at Sailor Moon's side, but the warrior rolled off quicker than the tip ascended. Sephrelenia growled, stumbling up to deal another blow just as the prostrate teen kicked out at her. Already unsteady, the Dead Moon Princess began to topple over, arms waving like wild windmills to balance herself. Sailor Moon took advantage of Sephie's first blunder, and delivered a swift, flying boot straight into her nemesis' back. The daughter of Nehelenia grunted, forced forward even as her sword-laden arm buckled at an awkward angle. She fell over, twitched, and closed her lids.

Sailor Moon gaped, not believing her own eyes even as she observed the painfully twisted expression Sephrelenia bore.

That one kick, by some miraculous turn of events, had caused Sephrelenia to pitch forward onto Mamoru's sword. It now stuck out, half-plaintively and half-gloatingly, out of Sephrelenia's back. If one were to rotate the woman, they would have seen exactly where the saber pierced: directly into her heart.

Three small rivulets of blood escaped from the ancient rapier's tip, making a perilous odyssey down to the floor.

Sephrelenia, the last Dead Moon native, was dead the instant Endymion's weapon sliced through her vascular organ.

A/N: Wow, how action-packed! I think this is my first major final battle; not sure I've ever written one so intense before! How'd I do? Well, there's only one or two chapters left... undecided as to whether I'll include the epilogue in chapter 21 or 22... Hmm. Anyway, reviews are greatly appreciated! As always, the more who review, the faster I'll attempt to update!

A note: Perhaps you caught it, perhaps not, but Minako's strange hot flash/faint from an earlier chapter is alluded to. I almost verbatim put the Love Senshi's words into Usagi's mouth, and my reason is thus: In the chapter where Minako has that freakish hot spell, she is actually feeling the effects of Usagi and Mamoru's intense love. As the Senshi of that element of sorts, she has an uncanny ability to sense intense emotion, and, well... there was a lot of fresh love energy in Usagi and Mamoru's room that night :-D

Plus, ChibiUsa is encompassed by moonlight briefly in that same chapter, and it was just to symbolize her creation. Only Setsuna caught it, but since she already knew what was happening... well. Maybe it's incentive to reread the story (:-D), but I actually insert lots of little hints about Usagi's pregnancy and the battle to come throughout the fic. You just have to go back and read between the lines, now that you know where the plot has evolved to. All her fainting and throwing up; Rei's comment that she seems different the morning after... it's all there. The mood swings she kept having were also indicative of the little life growing inside her. I know the early pregnancy signs might seem far-fetched and a little too soon, but I'll even explain THAT tidbit in a future chapter!

Bye!

AngelMoon Girl