Standard disclaimers apply.
And now . . . the finale.
Chapter 17
Serenity went colorless.
But Demando and Queen Serenity had agreed with Endymion. It was the best course of action; three to one. In her heart, Serenity knew they were right.
Endymion caught the White Prince's attention. "Once I challenge the sorceress, you and the Princess retreat to the palace with the Queen. The senshi will chose themselves what they will do and will aid me when they are ready."
He started to move out of the protective ring, but Serenity locked gazes with him. He paused, held her hand and kissed the back of it affectionately. Her heart flooded with relief: he had forgiven her.
Then he burst through the shield, drawing the flashing fierce blade at his side. "Beryl! Leave off your cowardly bullying! Your fight is with me!" He held up his other hand and a crimson rose appeared there. With deadly and rapid accuracy, he threw the metal-tipped rose like a dart toward the grimacing witch. She only just moved enough for the sharp weapon to sear a large gash into the demonic flesh of her upper left arm. Her eyes blazed with anger as her boiling black blood gushed out. Endymion smiled morbidly. He had caught her attention all right.
In moments, the sorceress had sped over the surface of the water to confront the Prince on the shoreline, mere feet away from him. But Endymion did not falter. He stood strong and fierce, eyes narrowed at his enemy.
The Sailor Senshi linked hands, and in a last burst of energy, teleported themselves and the three royals into the secret underground fortress beneath the palace. Although it gained its protective energy from the weakened ginzuishou, it was also unknown to the enemy, and therefore the safest place to recover.
The senshi collapsed on the cold floor.
Only Pluto remained standing, though she was leaning heavily on her staff. "Gather your strength quickly, soldiers. The Prince can only fend her off for so long without help."
They nodded and bravely struggled to their feet, one by one, leaning on each other for support.
Queen Serenity turned her daughter aside and placed her hand over her chest. "We must start at once on the silver crystal."
Serenity looked at Demando for approval, who nodded silently.
She then touched her mother's shoulder lovingly. "You can help me now, Mother, but when the time comes, Demando and I must do this alone."
The Queen's eyes rounded fearfully.
Serenity squeezed her shoulder comfortingly. "In order to neutralize the two gems into compatibility, we must dissolve all complications."
The elder woman's eyes brightened knowledgeably. "You've done this before."
Her child smiled. "You've taught me well."
The queen's eyes misted fleetingly. But she shook herself, closed her eyes, and concentrated on lending her life source to the ginzuishou. Serenity did the same.
Demando was less sedentary. He paced back and forth, eyelids lowered and brow furrowed, cupping his hands with palms toward his chest held out in front of him. He felt his way through his connection with the jakokuzuishou. His use of it before had always been limited. Now he struggled to channel it within himself. Unlike Serenity, he had no one to help him focus the power. He didn't notice when the senshi departed to rejoin the battle.
No one knew how long they stayed there. Finally, a great force shook the underground fortress, and startled Demando and the two Serenitys out of their self-imposed trances. The Princess stretched, as if waking from a long sleep, looked around for Demando. He was standing unmoving at the other end of the room, eyes turned upward toward the ceiling. Lowering his gaze, their eyes locked. Automatically, she stood and went to him. Entwining their fingers before them, they struggled a little while more, testing. This time, aware of the third living presence, they gently nudged the sleeping soul. With their guidance, it immediately found its hold on the mystical jewels as before.
Her eyes flew open. "Do you think . . . will it work?" she whispered.
"It must." His grip tightened on her hands. "Without its help – I don't think we will have enough of a grasp on the sacred gems. Serenity . . . are you sure the child's not being harmed?"
She felt into her with the mysterious maternal link. "No," she said positively. "It's – natural to it. Don't you see? It is connected to both the ginzuishou and the jakokuzuishou, physically and spiritually."
"Because we are?"
"Because we are."
He reached out and timidly touched her middle. He swore to himself the instant her perceived any danger to his wife or child, he would get them out of harm's way. "I love you, you know."
"I know . . . and I love you."
His eyes sparkled, and her heart leapt. His smiles were so few and far between. "I know." Yes, he could die with that knowledge.
Queen Serenity approached wearily. "It's now or never," she gravely informed them.
"Are you ready?" he asked the angel.
"With you . . . I can do anything."
* * *
"Jupiter oak revolution!"
"Mercury aqua rhapsody!"
"World shaking!"
Saturn slashed with her scythe. Her attack was not to be used until they ran out of all other possible options – until all was lost.
The soldiers maneuvered deftly around her. The scowling menace could not concentrate on a single target. There were too many of them. The damned prince had succeeded in draining her, giving her a substantial wound in her side with his hateful sword, and now she had less energy to deal with the others. It was no matter. She was stronger. All she need do was out last them, until they completely ran out of their source of power. Then all it would take was a single devastating blast.
The pool of glowing, shadowy miasma funneled down from the fiendish, formless entity hovering over her, keeping her stocked with just enough energy.
Beryl marked the exact moment when the ginzuishou assaulted her. She hadn't even seen it coming. She was thrown back onto the grown, completely vulnerable to the senshi's attacks. For several minutes she couldn't move, being bombarded on every side. Stinging pain drowned her senses. In a bust of pure evil will, she rose to meet her adversary. Walking toward her, a poignant, shifting effigy of light – the Princess. She was taken aback. She had expected the Queen, not the fey big with child. The young woman approached her. She glowed with the excruciating light of the ginzuishou. Each light step betrayed reality – she seemed to float just above the ground, proceeding almost leisurely. Beryl scowled. There was not an inch of fear in Serenity's entire body. For the first time, Beryl felt doubt.
Smoldering blue eyes scorched her. The witch barely perceived and managed to fend off the soldiers' attacks. Panic flew up from her to Metallia, but she only received a sharp, reprimanding jolt in response.
Beryl cackled. "You can't fool me, little princess. I know the ginzuishou is weak. You're trying to hide it with a bluff. A good try, but you forget with whom you're dealing!"
"I have not forgotten," the Princess spoke steadily. The form of the wraith-like Queen appeared behind her, indistinct in the smoke of battle, a pinnacle of might and reassurance.
In the sky, ships from Nemesis swept and maneuvered like graceful black birds with outstretched wings. The distant clashing of metal weaponry, the reverberating sound of explosive projectiles, and the evanescence of power blasts were muted due to distance of separation.
Sorceress Beryl regarded the senshi of the moon suspiciously. She knew something Metallia didn't.
A lull in the battle followed. The attacks of the senshi and the Terran tapered off, but Beryl was much too on edge to shift her focus from Serenity to assail them. She watched as the Princess called forth the contemptible gem. It formed in her hands, radiant and searing. Distracted as she was, Beryl's surprise was boundless when severe pain bore into her back instantaneously, carving into her life source and sucking it away.
Her ear-splitting howl was that of a wild, vicious animal.
Prince Demando was behind her, standing tall and confident, his right arm extended forward, fingers spread to devour her power. His ice-white hair whipped around his face in an eddy, but the wind did not waver him. His Mark glowed a purple-black light. His eyes flashed full of warning.
Beryl spun around and slashed at him, but he moved nimbly out of the way, and resumed draining. The witch's pain was making her careless. Another jolt from Queen Metallia fixed that. She focused a fatal blow on the prince. The jakokuzuishou absorbed it without difficulty, but the man's body was having a hard time containing all the malignant power. It scraped at its insides, making his body tingle painfully.
Skillfully, Serenity drew the fiend's attention away from her husband with the silver crystal. She aimed at the point already weakened by Prince Demando and worked away at it. Beryl cringed. She sent a carelessly flung bolt at the Princess, but the Queen interceded, knocking the energy away like a toy.
Beryl panicked. Like a cornered animal, she spun round and round, the warriors surrounding her from all sides. She blasted the precious and quickly draining energy at poorly-aimed targets. Metallia tried to resume her vice-like grip on her mind, but the panic had already claimed full occupancy. Beryl foolishly squandered Metallia's power. The Queen of the Dark Kingdom withdrew her connection completely. Now the sorceress had nothing with which to defend herself. The ginzuishou, even weakened, was too much for her. Its light poisoned her black soul and she screamed and crumpled to the ground, face down into the mud.
Beryl was dead.
But Metallia was only irked.
Now was the true test.
Experienced in the way of torture, Metallia pulsed feverishly with anger and growing energy. So much of it was wasted. Well, she would make them pay.
She hovered over them, a black suffocating canopy. Whereas Beryl's attacks could be focused, hers came down in an outburst of thick, piercing rain. Fortunately, the senshi were just in time to knock the blast off of themselves and the others. The second blast however came too soon after. They did not have the time to reiterate. Demando intuitively bent over Serenity forcing her down with him so he could better shield her. The miasma drowned his being, and he momentarily blacked out. But the jakokuzuishou drank eagerly and he recovered shakily, his breathing heavy.
It had to be now. The others were taking too much damage to survive for much longer, and Demando was quickly deteriorating. Serenity helped him stand, the ginzuishou hovering above them, waiting expectantly. She held his elbows to support him, and their heads tilted up and to the side toward the Enemy.
"Evil cannot win," Serenity said with a faraway voice. "It has no creativity. It has no originality. It can only borrow and distort what is good." She looked at Demando. "Let's beat her at her own game."
They entwined their fingers as before, standing straight as the ivory columns of the Lunar palace, though she was significantly shorter than the man. It seemed as if their attention was turned solely to each other, as if the world meant nothing, as if there wasn't even a world outside of them. To Metallia it might have looked like they intended to surrender. Really, they were conditioning the jakokuzuishou and the ginzuishou to combine in one fatal blow – they had only one chance; if they missed it, the malicious wraith was sure to catch onto their game and make adjustments accordingly.
Somehow, the gathering power was too great to be concealed. It slipped and revealed itself. Metallia realized in the depth of her inhuman heart the actual gravity of the situation. If she had at any time been more than a monster, then what she felt then were the shreds of fear. She could not discern her threatener. It was neither the golden woman nor the silver man, but something so akin to them she swore it was both. Of course her fiendish soul could not comprehend the actual overwhelming power of true love, and what naturally resulted from it: the extension of humanity, the embodiment of that love in a separate, living individual.
A tremendous cloak of shadow, she descended. She had to kill them before they succeeded in what they intended to do. From all expanses, the people stopped and stood still. A great rushing sound temporarily deafened the masses, and the Ayakashi sisters stopped and looked like the rest of them. In his ship at his post, for a moment Rubeus once more dropped his concern for his own safety. Saffir, having himself entered battle, and bleeding, clutched at his wounded shoulder and reached his mind out to touch his brother's. He had his own vague connection with the black crystal, and threw it, he sensed Demando. But the power was too much for him, and his own consciousness was expelled from the balanced yin yang force. Esmeraude felt the rush of energy flowing from the jakokuzuishou and galloping to the Moon. The senshi braced themselves for the immanent clash. Prince Endymion stood by the Queen ready to offer her himself for her protection. The elder Serenity watched on in awe.
In a flash of light and swarm of shadow, the adversaries collided. For a blinding moment, no one could see, and there was nothing but smoking, black wisps and streaks of light where Serenity, Demando, and the descending Metallia had once been.
The universe held its breath.
* * *
Serenity felt herself drifting back into consciousness. Somehow, she perceived that she was sleeping. In this dream-state everything was dark, but it was not an empty darkness like Metallia's, but warm and comfortable, like a womb. She stroked her stomach, feeling. The baby stirred. Relief flooded her from the tips of her fingers down to her heels. The child seemed to stretch, tired, but un-perplexed by the great battle in which it had just participated.
Where was Demando? She was not worried. She sensed his resting awareness nearby, so close she might have touched it.
Serenity was sitting, but there was nothing beneath her. She curled up, bringing her knees to her chin as best she could, though the baby made that difficult. She buried her face into her knees. Presently, she felt a hand rest lightly atop her head. When she looked up, Demando sat down next to her and wrapped his arms around her. She leaned into him gratefully.
"Where are we?" When she spoke, she found her voice echoed as if they were in a closed space, though the darkness went on infinitely.
"I'm not sure."
"Are we – dead?" Strangely, she felt not the least panicked at the thought.
"I don't think so," he answered sensibly.
"Did we defeat Metallia?"
"I don't know!" he tugged at her nose playfully. "Why do you assume that I have the answers to everything?"
She was undaunted, catching his palm and kissing it gently.
There was a thoughtful pause. "Perhaps – though I'm not certain – I have the feeling that we're inside our own minds," he conjectured. "I don't feel the jakokuzuishou any more."
Serenity concurred. "Nor do I feel the ginzuishou. If I didn't know any better, I'd say that they're retreating to recover, having done what was required of them . . . what will happen now?"
He slipped his arms underneath her own and closed them around her chest, resting his chin in the crook of her neck from behind. "So many questions."
"I'm serious!" she scolded. "If we're not dead, then that means we're still alive. If we're still alive, then . . . there's so much left to answer to! What will we do? Demando . . . my baby's due in three months."
His arms dropped to her stomach. He spread his fingers over its roundness. "I'll find a way to be there. I swear."
"No matter what?"
"No matter what." Then he added with a smirk, "Even if I have to kidnap you again."
She hit his arm reprimandingly. "That was the most terrible and most wonderful thing that ever happened to me – if I never experience something so distressing ever again I will die happy."
"I'll make a mental note." Then he straightened, as if listening. " . . . They're calling us back. I – feel my brother."
Serenity felt Demando's tangibility slowly fading. Then, through her own senses, she perceived her mother's voice. Though she couldn't decipher the words, the sound of it was lulling and smooth, and also beckoning.
"Wait." She twisted round to hug him around his chest. "Just a little while longer."
He looked painfully down at her. "If I . . . never see you again – after the child's born – promise to love it enough for the both of us. And tell it . . . how you saved me. Promise me you'll tell it."
"I'll tell her – everything."
"Her?" He raised a single eyebrow. "How do you know the child's female?"
"A woman knows these things."
"Why can't there be such a thing as happily ever after?"
"Because," she said matter-of-factly, "if we were forever happy, we would forget to appreciate it, and it would become meaningless."
"Hm . . . so wise, even in such innocence. You're a gift to humanity, you know – you must be."
She was baffled. "What do you mean?"
He continued, still in riddles. "No one else could reach me. No matter what happens, love, don't change."
Her pulse fluttered, though it was not uncomfortable. He was never so open or direct with words. She knew that this must be terribly important to him, if he chose to voice it. "You want me to stay the same?"
"Just the same."
She sighed, relenting.
He placed his hands on her face, ran his thumbs over her soft skin, over her eyebrows and her eyelids, stroking her pouting mouth, memorizing everything about her. "You really are oblivious." The awe in his voice mystified her all the more, and her lips curved into a pretty scowl.
He laughed, a soothing sound.
Her love for him was more than a feeling. It was experience, it was action. It was the flesh of their unborn child. It was seeing him for what he was, completely, and loving him despite herself.
She returned his caress, holding his face between her hands. They touched noses, and she slid her face along his cheek, breathing him in. She felt him fading. But before she was left completely alone, she too drifted out of the womb-like in-between place to enter reality once more.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
What's the word I'm looking for? Oh yes: fluff! Sorry, hope you guys aren't too sick to your stomachs.