A/N: Many thanks to A_Reptile_Dysfunction for beta reading this fic for me. You can check out her work under the names areptiledysfunction1107 on tumblr and A_Reptile_Dysfunction on Ao3.
Chaos smiled through Metalia.
Extending its gigantic talons it unleashed another barrage of crackling dark energy. A wicked laugh resounded from its jagged maw as more of the alabaster palace was reduced to rubble. Beryl joined her great ruler with a cackle of her own.
However, a few moments later Metalia noted that Beryl had become distracted. Turning its dark attention towards its servant, Metalia soon spotted Beryl confronting a pair of youngsters. The boy was the handsome Earth prince that Beryl so deeply desired. The girl was the Moon Princess she so deeply despised. It'd been Beryl's feelings towards the young lovers that'd made her so malleable for Metalia.
In exchange for her allegiance, Metalia had promised her power and the opportunity to make the Earth prince hers at last. Of course, Metalia knew that wasn't particularly likely, but it didn't care so long as Beryl served its purpose.
Now though, it appeared Beryl had finally wised up. Endymion could not be hers. His heart would forever be Serenity's. With that, Metalia's servant implored her supreme ruler to strike down the lovers both.
Metalia was all too happy to oblige.
It extended another talon and unleashed a great force of energy upon the heirs of Earth and its Moon, sweeping the couple into the sky. To Metalia's amusement the youngsters struggled against the wind carrying them, managing to grasp one another's hands.
Another wicked grin broke across Metalia's visage.
Opening its mouth, Metalia fired a mighty bolt at the lovers, striking them dead.
A chorus of cackling erupted from Beryl and her forces. The noise was so loud that Metalia almost failed to detect an agonised scream.
Too late it shifted its attention to the source of the scream. However, by the time the entity laid eyes upon the culprit her screaming had ceased.
Instead, Queen Serenity was silent as she knelt amidst the rubble, a strange item in her hands. A moment later she was on her feet and raising the item above her head. A small silver light emanated from the item. However, it soon grew brighter with the Queen's next words.
"MOON HEALING ESCALATION!"
The silver light was now blinding and Metalia could feel a searing, burning, sensation tearing through its ebony form. Simultaneously, it was becoming rapidly harder to maintain concentration or indeed any thought at all. Despite the experience, with what she quickly realised was mounting dread, Metalia deduced that very essence was coming undone!
A similar effect was taking a hold of Beryl and the Dark Kingdom's forces, all of whom were literally unravelling before Metalia.
As Metalia slipped into nothingness the image of the silver haired Queen illuminated by similarly silver light burned itself onto its memory.
Chaos scowled through Beryl.
Minutes earlier Beryl had implored her great ruler to infuse its own energy into her so that she might smite the reincarnated Moon Princess. Pleased that Beryl had at least dispatched Endymion and the other Sailor Senshi, Metalia had agreed.
Now, master and servant were one, a beautiful and terrible flower blooming amidst the barren Arctic desert, observing the puny Princess march towards them across the icy tundra.
Beryl/Metalia didn't hesitate. They struck out at the girl causing the water beneath the ice to gush upwards. The cold was so intense that the small mountain of water flash froze, forming a glistening spire of ice.
Beryl/Metalia smirked in satisfaction.
The smirk was soon wiped from their face when the tip of the ice spire glowed and suddenly split open forming a flat platform of some fashion. At its centre stood the Princess, her Senshi uniform replaced with her white and gold royal gown. She looked exactly as she had millennia ago when Metalia had first struck her down.
It was time for history to repeat itself.
Beryl/Metalia extended their giant arms and unleashed their dark power upon the Princess. Through the sparking bolts they could just make out the Princess extending her own arms, along with the item grasped in her hands.
It was the Moon Wand, the Silver Crystal affixed to it.
For the most fleeting of moments, fear crossed Beryl/Metalia's heart. Then it abated. The Princess was no true warrior. She was a far cry from a Queen. She wasn't even a woman yet. And she never would be.
The child would die here. Her last thoughts would be the cold realisation that she could never truly harness the power of-
Beryl/Metalia's attack splintered, the blast deflecting around the Princess. A glowing barrier surrounded the girl, the source of which seemed to be the wand in her hands.
Beryl/Metalia's eyes widened in disbelief and she unleashed another, far more powerful attack. The girl buckled against the force of the blast, but she remained on her feet, her barrier intact.
Then, slowly, Beryl/Metalia sensed their attack being forced back upon them. Staring in disbelief they saw the barrier grow until it formed a glowing dome around the ice spire. Rage pulsing through them, Beryl/Metalia drew upon the deepest reserves of their power and threw everything they had against the Princess.
They could barely see her now, and yet they could tell some kind of change was happening within the girl. It wouldn't be long now. The girl's resolve would break, she would die, they would have the crystal and then this filthy world would-
A great silver light flashed from the spire, consuming and dissipating Bery/Metalia's black bolts of energy.
Beryl/Metalia were utterly transfixed as the light inched ever closer to them. Every fibre of their being burned as the light consumed the gigantic body.
They knew it was over.
Beryl's consciousness faded first, leaving Metalia all alone. As everything that was Metalia came undone, Chaos had just enough time to gaze through the dazzling silver light and spot the body of the Princess.
Her image was hauntingly familiar. But Chaos knew she wouldn't survive this. The Princess had won this battle, but Chaos would win the war in the end.
Even if it took another thousand years…
Chaos stared down through Death Phantom.
In the guise of Wiseman, it had played the long game carefully, masterfully orchestrating events to bring things to this point. It might've lost time and the useful pawns that were the Black Moon Clan, but it'd all been worth it.
The Malefic Black Crystal was in place, its power giving Death Phantom a foothold in both the 20th and 30th centuries. In the best case scenario it could rewrite time and reshape the Earth into its own dark image. In the worst case scenario it would simply do that from the future.
But first, there was the matter of pest control.
The Sailor Senshi inevitably stood in its way. More specifically Sailor Moon.
But she was nothing.
To be certain, she'd won their previous encounters. But the Sailor Moon confronting Death Phantom was a far cry from the one who bested Pharaoh 90, Nehelenia or Galaxia. She was but fourteen and had not yet been fully formed by years of battle. Those battles were in her future, a future Wiseman would ensure would never come to pass.
True, she'd somehow managed to defeat Metalia, but that'd been some kind of fluke. And besides, Beryl/Metalia hadn't possessed the power of the Malefic Black Crystal.
This time Sailor Moon would fall for good.
Had it possessed a face, Death Phantom might've smirked as the girl summoned the tiny speck of light that was the Silver Crystal. That bauble might've seen her to victory before but its power was dwarfed by its ebony counterpart.
Still, seeing Sailor Moon struggle before she fell would make victory all the more satisfying. Wiseman raised its crystal ball and summoned a spiralling column of black and purple energy, unleashing the blast upon the blonde child.
However, the blast didn't quite have the intended effect. Whilst Sailor Moon no longer stood before it, Death Phantom was frustrated to find in her place Neo-Queen Serenity in her full royal attire. For a moment Death Phantom wondered if the Queen had swapped places with her younger self somehow. Reaching out with its dark power though confirmed that this was still a mere adolescent standing in its way. But she'd somehow merged with her future self, as though the girl's body were possessed by the mind of the woman she was destined to become.
Almost in uniform the Queen and the phantom raised their respective crystal artefacts above their heads and began blasting energy at each other. Dimly, the part of Death Phantom that was once Metalia was reminded of their duel at D-Point. Then as now, the Moon Princess/Queen had raised a barrier to resist the black bolts of energy that threatened to incinerate her.
But unlike then, Chaos would triumph. It had to.
Should it fall this time it could not adopt a new form. The Death Phantom was its final gambit. That was the main reason why it had to resort to manipulation as Wiseman as opposed to assuming a position of open dominance as it had as Metalia or Pharaoh 90. It had despised feigning loyalty to the Black Moon Clan, loathed the patient lies it'd had to spin to get them to follow its agenda.
That being said, it had taken a certain savage satisfaction in corrupting 'the Rabbit'. Twisting the heir to Chaos's eternal adversaries had been a delight. Almost as delightful as the pain it caused Sailor Moon and her beau Tuxedo Mask. Unfortunately, they'd managed to restore 'the Rabbit' to her old self. But it didn't matter because in but a moment the child would be as dead as her moth-
Chaos/Death Phantom/Wiseman had been so distracted by the battle, it had utterly failed to notice a second, much smaller silver light from several feet behind the Queen. Ensuring it maintained the pressure on Sailor Moon, the entity shifted its perceptions towards the light.
The glowing orbs that passed for its eyes widened in disbelief.
It was the Rabbit. She had somehow produced a second Silver Crystal and was holding it aloft just like her mother currently was. As its light illuminated her, her attire morphed into a white and gold dress identical to the one the Moon Princess had worn at D-Point so very long ago. The child brought the crystal forward, aiming its energy at the Death Phantom. Suddenly, Wiseman's black bolts began to be pushed back.
Just as Beryl/Metalia had done, Death Phantom summoned every ounce of evil energy it possessed and brought it to bear upon the two girls. The girls seemed to buckle slightly, but they did not fall. On the contrary they both began to levitate into the air, circling one another as they did so, the crystals held high above their heads.
Finally, they came to a stop opposite one another, their bodies in profile from Wisemans's vantage point. The Death Phantom tried one last time to annihilate the pair but its energy never even came close to them. The bolts simply petered out in the face of a giant silver wave of light emanating from the twin crystals.
Curiously, this time there was no pain. Chaos was however hauntingly aware that the silver light had reached all the way into the future and completely destroyed the Malefic Black Crystal. All that had constituted Death Phantom soon followed. All that remained was Chaos in its purest, and most vulnerable, form. It was little more than a snail without its shell now, totally helpless.
And the horrible silver light was still coming for it.
There could be no escape this time. No contingency plan. Chaos had well and truly lost the war.
But rather than despair at its inevitable destruction, Chaos was instead consumed by confusion and horror. Because, despite the brightness of the light eating away at its essence, it could still somehow 'see' its assailants.
There was 'the Rabbit', the white and gold dress flowing elegantly around her small body. There was Sailor Moon, her pink and gold crown glistening with the silver light, the 'wings' of her own dress remaining utterly regal. And floating between them was an older woman.
Like the other two, her eyes were closed in concentration, but her hands were not held aloft. Rather, they were extended outwards and touching the shoulders of the other two ladies. Unlike her allies, there was no hint of gold in her attire. Everything from her dress to her odango styled hair was starkly silver.
It was only then, before its evil faded away completely, that Chaos understood.
It had never been a match for the Silver Lineage.
A/N: This story, ironically enough, was inspired by a terrible Dragon Ball Z movie where Gohan and his brother Goten are in a beam struggle with the villain Broly and the ghost of their father, Goku, appears to add his power to the fight. The battle culminates in Broly being defeated by their attack, the iconic Family Kamehameha. I tweaked the idea slightly for the Family Silver Crystal Power attack, or whatever name you prefer to call it.
The second inspiration for this fic came from what imo is one of the coolest concepts from the manga, that Chaos was ALL of Sailor Moon's enemies at the same time. Meaning Usagi was kicking Chaos' ass over and over again in every arc.
The third inspiration for this story came from my realisation that, technically speaking, Wiseman (sometimes my favourite Sailor Moon villain) is chronologically the LAST Sailor Moon villain Usagi defeats, since he is both from the future and was (kinda) in the future at the time she beat him. Making the defeat of Wiseman the true 'final battle' with Chaos.
For the record, I first wrote this story in like February-March 2021 when I was suffering through major brainfog due to COVID-19 and also I innocently believed this story would be my ONLY contribution to celebrating Sailor Moon's 30th Anniversary.
Finally, just to let you know I am involved in a discord called 'Moonlight Legends' which is dedicated to sharing all sorts of Sailor Moon fanworks, including other fanfics. If you would like to join so you can share your own work, get help with your current projects or just connect to other fan creators shoot me a PM and I'll send you an invite. All are welcome!