Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon, nor do I own the works of H.P. Lovecraft or August Derleth.

Chapter 11: Nightmare's End

With Grete's power, Rei and the others were easily able to return Takashi and all of the human members of the Foundation safely to Earth. They had gone back to Kyoto where Rei's whole insane journey had started. Thankfully those who had been under the influence of Thurin-Xa's mind control didn't seem to be suffering any ill affects. Many of them also had several gaps in their memories relating to the Foundation. Takashi for instance hadn't even remembered inviting Rei to Kyoto in the first place and thought when he first woke up that she had come to pay him a surprise visit.

It seemed the only true casualties of the Cydonia Foundation had been all of the poor souls that Dr. Higgins had transformed into Thurin-Xa's Dragon's Teeth and Kaidou. Rei felt very sorry for Kaidou's death. The team had gone back to the Foundation's compound to retrieve Kaidou's body. Grete left the body out in front of a hospital, feeling confident the medical examiner that did Kaidou's autopsy would discover he had died from a brain tumor. Rei of course wished they could've done more for Kaidou, but of course there was little they could do since they couldn't reveal much about what had happened.

The only member of the Foundation who retained most of his memories and his true motivations had been Dr. Higgins. Virginia assured Rei and the others that she would make sure Dr. Higgins would pay for his crimes. When they had gone back to the compound for Kaidou's body, Grete had also managed to collect all of the data on Dr. Higgins's experiments for Virginia to give to the authorities. With this information in hand, Virginia felt confidant that Dr. Higgins would likely face jail time, and that any remnants left of the Foundation would soon be demolished. Rei only hoped her father wouldn't get pulled down with the rest of those still involved with the Foundation.

Rei and Jun meanwhile decided to spend the rest of the week at a hotel in Kyoto. Rei of course had been through a great ordeal and needed time to recover, and Jun needed time to figure out what his next move should be in getting his old life back. Of course staying with Rei in her room, Jun had not had much of a chance to think about his plans for the future, at least not during the night. He and Rei had spent the last few nights making passionate love well into the AM hours. What happened back up in Phobos and Deimos Castle had caused the floodgates of Rei's passion to open.

On the last day of her little vacation, Rei awoke after having gotten a full night's sleep. In fact when she looked at the clock on her nightstand she found that it was just past 10:00 AM. She heard Phobos and Deimos squawking in their cage in the next room, in their normal bird forms of course. Jun meanwhile was standing in front of the large window of the room wearing a white hotel bathrobe, looking out at the view of the city with a cup of coffee in his hand.

Jun noticed that Rei was up and smiled. "Good morning."

"Good morning," Rei responded. "I can't believe I slept so late."

"Well you haven't been getting much sleep at all lately," Jun pointed out with a cocky smirk as he came over and sat on the edge of the bed. "Besides, you're on vacation so it's not like you have to get up early. Hell, I've only been awake for about half an hour."

Just then there was a knock at the door. Jun went to get the door while Rei got out of bed and put on her own robe. Upon opening the door, Jun saw Grete standing on the other side, still dressed in her bodyguard outfit.

"I hope I'm not disturbing you," Grete spoke. "Might I come in for a moment?"

Jun stepped aside and allowed Grete to enter. Rei meanwhile had finished tying her robe and came over and meet her.

"Good morning Grete," Rei greeted. "What brings you here?"

"I came to say my farewells," Grete answered. "Now that we've stopped the one who would be Cthugha's herald, my mission here is complete and I must now rejoin my team."

"Well, thank you again for everything."

Grete nodded. "There are two other things I must tell you before I depart. I wanted to warn you both to remain on guard. Though we may have stopped Cthugha from being released, the stars are still right for the other Great Old Ones to rise up. The alignment will last for a while longer still, so be ready to fight again if you must."

"We'll do that. What's the other thing you came to tell us?"

"The whereabouts of the rest of the Shitennou."

"I've been meaning to ask you about them," Jun responded. "Just what is going on with my friends?"

"They are with the other members of my team performing similar missions," Grete answered. "General Kunzite is currently in England with Sailor Brunhilde, General Nephrite is with Sailor Sigrun in a little town in the American state of Nebraska, and General Zoisite is with Sailor Eir investigating a school called Miskatonic University."

"Wait a minute…this places are where Minako, Makoto and Ami all are!" Rei realized.

"By design. You see…the other Shitennou have essentially the same mission as Mr. Aragaki."

Jun frowned. "I hate to tell you this, but your little plan probably doesn't have a shot. Sure Rei and I may have had some secret forbidden romance in the past, but I doubt there was anything happening between my friends and Rei's back then. Your comrades are pimping out mine for nothing."

"I don't know. Kunzite might have a shot with Minako," Rei remarked. "Even if there was nothing going on between the during Silver Millennium, Kunzite is her type: handsome and breathing."

"Please understand this plan was not mine," Grete told them. "My comrades and I are only acting under the orders of Lady Freyja. In any case, I feel confident it will all turn out well for your fellow Shitennou. Now then, I really must be off. I do hope we meet again one day soon."

"Again Grete, thank you for everything," Rei responded.

Grete nodded and left the hotel room. As Jun shut the door behind her, a flash of silver light could be seen coming from the crack beneath.

"She really is a good person," Jun remarked.

Rei nodded. "We better get ready to meet with my father. It's about time he knew about us."

"We've got over an hour until we have to meet with your dad," Jun pointed out as he placed a hand on her shoulder. "Until then, how 'bout I help you relax a bit?"

Jun then pulled back Rei's had and gave her a passionate kiss on the side of her neck, causing her to let out a deep moan. Rei immediately gave into the pleasure she was feeling and let Jun turn her around and remove her robe. Soon after, Rei took off Jun's robe, and the two of them wrapped their arms around one another as they met in a passionate kiss. Without realizing it, the two of them had moved over next to the window. Once they had finally broken for air, Jun turned Rei around and pressed her against the windowpane as he entered her from behind.

Rei's breasts and the palms of her hands were pressed tightly against the window as Jun plowed into her, his hands grasped tightly onto her hips. For one fleeting moment Rei was concerned someone on the street below might see her and Jun, but she found she didn't care that much. Every now and then Jun would slap the side of Rei's rear, causing her to cry out with pleasure. Over time their bodies became covered in sweat, and eventually they climaxed together in one blissful moment. Rei could feel a massive amount of Jun's essence bursting into her.

When they finally came down from their high, Rei turned around and embraced Jun. The two of them shared a few more light kisses next to the window.

"We should probably shower off before we meet your dad," Jun suggested.

Rei nodded. "I'll meet you in there."

A little over an hour later, Rei and Jun went down to the hotel restaurant to meet with Takashi for lunch. Takashi had told Rei he had to leave the city for business later in the afternoon and had something to discuss with her before he left. Rei had a pretty good idea what it was her father wanted to talk with her about, which was why she insisted to Jun that he come with. They found Takashi sitting by a table near the window.

Takashi looked up from his menu and saw them arrive. "Ah! There you are Rei. Of course I don't know why you had to bring that friend of yours with out. What was your name again young man?"

"Jun Aragaki, sir," the blond responded as he sat at the table with Rei.

"Yes, well…Rei, the reason I asked you here was to tell you about this friend of mine with the ministry of agriculture. He has a nephew just about your age who's quite handsome, and this morning it occurred to me that…"

"Father, I'm going to stop you right there," Rei interrupted as she held up her hand. "The reason I brought Jun with me to lunch isn't simply because he's my friend. He's my boyfriend."

Takashi's right eye twitched upon hearing this. "I'm sorry, what did you say?"

"He's my boyfriend. In fact he and I are passionately in love with one another. While nothing is set in stone yet, I imagine that in a few years, Jun will become your son-in-law."

"I hope you and I will get to know each other quite well, pops," Jun spoke as he flashed his charming smile.

For a few moments it looked to Rei as though her father was on the verge of having some sort of stroke, but eventually Takashi regained his usual composure and rose from his chair. "I, uh…I believe I should go ahead and get ready for my departure. Rei, we'll…we'll discuss this more later."

With those words, Takashi quickly but calmly walked away form the table. Rei let out a heavy sigh of relief and sunk back in her chair as soon as he was gone.

"You know…I don't think he likes me much," Jun remarked.

Rei laughed. "Well, he's just going to have to accept you. The man's been involved in my life so little that he doesn't have the right to tell me who I can and can't date."

Just then Rei's phone buzzed. She took the device out of her jacket and discovered that she had gotten a text.

"What is it?" Jun asked.

"It's a text from Haruka," Rei answered as she looked at her phone. "She's actually one of the Sailor Guardians from the outer planets, Sailor Uranus. Anyway, Haruka and the other Outers rented out this mansion in the Tanba Mountains for a few weeks. She's invited myself, Usagi, Mamoru and the rest of my friends to come stay with them."

"Sounds like you'd have fun. And you could use some more rest."

"You're coming too you know."

Jun blinked in surprise. "Seriously? But, uh…I don't think I'd be very welcome among the rest of your friends, given our past."

"I'm sure Mamoru will be happy to see you at least, and I'm certain Usagi will accept your presence. As for the others, they'll just have to deal with it."

Jun shrugged. "Well, if you say so. I just don't want to cause trouble for you."

Rei put a hand over his. "I joined the flame of my life with yours. You and I belong to each other now. We may have our difficulties, but nothing will ever pull us apart again."

Jun smiled and planted a kiss on Rei's lips. Rei returned this kiss, and soon they were so lost in one another that they didn't notice at all when the waitress had come to take their order.

Back in the wasteland of Cydonia on Mars, the dismembered pieces of Thurin-Xa's body had thawed and were soon being pulled together by an invisible force. Slowly the pieces seared themselves together with black flames, and eventually Thurin-Xa was whole again and sitting up on the ground, feeling exhausted. Putting his body back together that time had taken a lot of his energy, and he still hadn't fully recovered from Rei and Grete's combined final attack.

"Princess…you and that Valkyrie may have thwarted me, but you could never destroy me," Thurin-Xa spoke. "I am the eternal flame that burns to serve as the beacon for Great Cthugha, and I cannot be extinguished by the likes of you! Soon enough I will go to Earth and release Cthugha upon your precious new world. Once that happens, all of you will finally be burned to ash!"

THE END…FOR NOW

Afterward: That pretty much wraps it up for this story. It's been a slightly longer journey than I thought getting here, but it's been an enjoyable one.

Before going further, I'd like to give a big thanks to my Beta Reader for this story, masterray5. His help during this story has been invaluable, and I honestly don't think it'd be as good as it turned out if I didn't have his help. Recently I learned that masterray5 is recovering from COVID-19. I pray he recovers quickly and without complication.

I would also of course like to thank all of you who read and/or reviewed this story. There will of course be a sequel to this story shared by my previous tales, Bride of the Yellow King and The Witch of Glenwood Manor.

The events started in this story will continue in Revenge of the Old Ones

Before that though, I still have a story covering Mercury and Zoisite to work on, along with a story focusing on the Outers. I'm afraid it'll be a little while before either story is up though. We're getting into a time of year when it's hard for me to get much writing of any kind done, and this year of course is already proving to be especially difficult. I'll admit it was a little struggle for me to get this story wrapped up. So I've decided to take a little break from this project for at least the next month as I ride out what will likely be a very turbulent holiday season. But I assure you all it won't be too long before I'm back to work on this series.

Until we meet again, have a safe, happy, and hopefully stress-free holiday season.

~The Count