Chapter Eight: The Final Battle

"You did it!" Amy cried as her handcuffs gave a click.

Mina had been the twisting the hairpin in the cuffs for fifteen minutes and just as she'd been beginning to lose hope she'd done it.

The handcuffs popped open and fell away from Amy's wrists. The blue-haired girl stood and rubbed her wrists. "Remind me never to wear bracelets again!" she declared as Mina set herself to work on her own cuffs.

A short while later...

"This is the end, Mu!" Fargo cried, his heart soaring with a great fury but also a rush of exhilarating energy – this, ALL of this, suddenly felt so RIGHT.

Fargo felt sure that everything that had happened to him, all that he had been though, since he had arrived, uninvited at the fateful party at the Moon Kingdom had been meant to be; for the sake of an innocent, beautiful woman he had come all of this way to look evil in the eye and say, "Your day is done."

The red-haired youth knew in his heart that HERE was where he belonged at this present moment in time – in a way it had always been his destiny to battle Mu to the finish.

"You're right. This is the end of your miserable life!" Mu's voice boomed as he raised his power and his eyes took on their golden glow. "Now die, Fargo!"

"Wait!" a voice cried.

Everyone looked at the other side of the balcony where Sailor Mercury and Sailor Venus had appeared. After getting out of her handcuffs Mina had worked together with Amy and managed the smash out the door of their room. They had then found and searched Merula's room and found their Communicators and Transformation Pens in the drawer of a dresser. Wasting no time Amy and Mina had transformed and had gone straight there.

But something was strange – there was no doubt that the blue-haired girl WAS Sailor Mercury, she looked, sounded and FELT like her, but as she stared at her comrade Sailor Moon wasn't at all sure about what she was seeing...

Sailor Mercury stood beside Venus, her gloved hands clenched intensely down by her sides, trembling slightly – she was wearing what struck even Sailor Moon as a particularly gaudy and unsuitable dress.

It may have been her imagination but Mercury was sure that she could feel the fabric of the gown tightening around her body as if preparing to fight against letting her go...

"Mercury my dear! I see that you have made it here to watch your would-be husband die!" Mu sneered.

"You're wrong, Mu," Sailor Mercury replied quietly. "I have come to say farewell to you. I am free of the bonds that once tied me to you."

Now to anybody not involved in this confrontation it might have sounded like it was an easy thing for her to speak those words – but all of the time Mercury was holding onto her will, holding onto HERSELF as she felt HIS will gathering up and snaking out, invisibly, towards her...to snatch her very soul from her.

Fargo was watching her curiously. She seemed to be taking the fact that she was his bride very well. Too well in fact for it to be natural...

I'll deal with it later, he decided.

Mu's face contorted with fury.

"Come here." He whispered in a deceptively quiet voice – it had never occurred to him that the normally quiet and shy girl who he had so devilishly drawn into his web would be able to resist his will without help from her friends.

Mercury faced him quietly, her eyes of crystal blue shining with pride and defiance.

"Never, Mu." She whispered with steel in her voice.

Mu choked as his rage nearly drove him insane.

Fargo waited for the Emperor's anger to reach its maximum before he spoke.

Sailor V was grinning. Atta girl! She thought.

Fargo spoke when he saw that the time was right.

"Princess Mercury is lost to you, Mu," He said in velvet tones. "She was never destined to be yours and will never be."

That was the stick that broke the camel's back - Mu's eyes filled with murder and hatred as he realised the truth in Fargo's words.

"You...you lowly scum..." the Emperor whispered in a low, choking voice. "You filthy wastrel..."

"Fargo is more than you will ever be." Mercury spoke loud and clearly. "I would far rather be his than yours."

Hmm, would you? Fargo thought. He just couldn't silence the doubt in the back of his mind...

"Shut your mouth, wench!" Mu roared. "Or..."

"Don't threaten her, Mu," Fargo cut in. "The power is no longer yours."

"Treacherous wench!" snarled the former tyrant, beside himself with fury as he faced the prospect of losing the ultimate prize that he had spent so many centuries coveting and waiting to seize for himself - Sailor Mercury's hand in marriage. "That witch Serenity had no authority..."

"Oh but she DID have the right, Mu," Broke in Fargo with a serene smile - Mu was practically choking with rage and frustration as he realised that all of his scheming and anticipation of the arrival of this night had now all come to nothing, his plan to forcibly wed Mercury dashed by the actions of Queen Serenity, who had at the very end succeeded in defeating him. "You kept YOUR word by sending the girls to the future, Mercury kept HER word by agreeing to your bargain and I kept MY word to Queen Serenity by marrying Mercury FIRST so that your 'right' became as they say in a court of law 'null and void'. We're ALL men of our word...well 'cept for Mercury, who is, of course, a lady...and WHAT a lady at that."

Mercury felt a rosy blush filling her cheeks...not the same kind that she'd felt whenever under the covetous and desirous eyes of Emperor Mu.

Mu's eyes blazed at first Sailor Mercury and then Fargo in hatred. Then he transferred all of his attention to Fargo.

"Well, Fargo, do we fight over this lady's honour? I use the word 'lady' very loosely of course." He sneered, an antagonistic look suddenly on his brutish face as he longed to wreak vengeance upon the one who he saw as being the root cause of his downfall.

Fargo's eyes narrowed but he kept his cool - activating his levitation spell he rose into the air.

Mu used his mental power to follow him. Fargo and Mu stood in the air twenty feet above ground. Fargo dropped into his fighting stance as Mu began to power up...

Meanwhile, on the balcony, Sailor Universe had stepped directly in front of Sailor Mercury.

"At last! I can kill you at last!" Universe breathed in ecstasy.

Sailor Mercury faced her coolly.

"I don't think so." She snapped.

"You will," Universe sneered. "This time there's nothing holding me back!"

"You'll have your hands full!" Sailor V declared, joining Mercury. "This time you have two of us to deal with!"

Mercury's eyes narrowed. "I can handle her on my own, Venus!" she snapped.

"You?" Universe laughed mockingly. "Handle me? You can't handle anime on your own!"

"Keep pushing, Universe!" Mercury snapped, suddenly restless from all of Universe's taunting since the day they had met.

"Man! I'm sick of your little toughie act!"

Mercury's eyes narrowed into slits. She could feel the intense anger flaring up inside her long before it spilt out.

"You're sick of me! You arrogant witch! You abduct, strip, tie-up and humiliate me all for your own selfish reasons and you're sick of me!" she yelled. "Well I'm sick of you and I'm not going to take it anymore!"

Raising her hand and pulling it back she punched Sailor Universe full in the face. Stunned, Universe sprawled on her back and was out cold on the floor.

Venus and the other girls' jaws all hit the floor.

Sailor Mercury dropped her fist again, breathing heavily. "So...there!" she gasped.

As Fargo moved quickly to avoid a blow from his enemy's gloved fist Mu grinned at him, hovering arrogantly in the air, ready to face him.

"What kind of man would fight for an empty-headed hussy, a social misfit, a brutish slut, an arrogant glory-hound and a fickle wench who cares nothing for him?" the former tyrant goaded.

Fargo fought back the tide of fury that these words ignited within his soul.

It was true that he had sacrificed his freedom for Amy who didn't love him but it didn't matter. He had not agreed to help Queen Serenity for love. Fargo had done it because he had seen no reason why Mercury hadn't deserved his help. Doing all he could for her was all he could ever have dreamed of.

"Sailor Moon is full of heart, Mars is proud and righteous, Jupiter defends those who need her help, Venus fights for justice, not glory and Mercury..." Fargo stopped as her name caused his voice to falter at the edge of his lips and he realised that he still wasn't ready to face his feelings about HER. "You tried to force Princess Mercury to love you," He went on. "She never loved you - she was terrified of you. Who could blame her?"

Mu scowled darkly and tried to slam Fargo with a mental blast.

Hmm...can't take what you dish out, eh? Fargo chuckled inwardly as he swerved out of the way. "Now what kind of a man would try to force himself on a beautiful lady?" he provoked out loud. "You know Mu, I don't think that you're a man at all!"

Mu snapped again and with a bellow of rage he assaulted Fargo with a second far more powerful mental blast. Fargo needed to be quicker to dodge this one but he managed it just in time.

Whew! I'm actually fighting someone who can smack me around with his mind! Gotta be crafty or I'm finished...

Slowly Fargo began to gather his power little by little...

"Oh, come on Mu...that shot missed me by a mile! What are you anyway...something vaguely resembling a man or an especially slimy slug?" he taunted.

Mu choked and hurled a third and vast mental blast that was so badly aimed that Fargo sidestepped it in the air with the greatest of ease.

"Y' know, it occurs to me that slugs don't have bones to break...that won't do at all! Okay, next guess – are you a biped humanoid male or a scummy plague-carrying rat?"

"Got it!" Venus cried as Rei's cuffs opened – the blonde Scout had been working diligently at freeing her friends and her task was now all but completed.

"Thanks!" Rei whipped out her Transformation Pen. "Mars Star Power! Make Up!"

"Hey how come YOU'RE so good at picking locks all of a sudden, anyway?" Serena exclaimed, still cuffed and waiting for her turn to be released.

Sailor Venus winked. "Well you've GOT to know these kinds of skills when you're a world-renowned crime-fighter, y'know." She grinned. "But seriously, it's just something I picked it up from a friend in England..."

Though she didn't say anything Serena realised who she meant – the young London Police Woman who had been like a sister to Mina but eventually had broken her heart.

"Your turn, Serena!" But as Venus turned to unlock Serena's handcuffs something whizzed down from the air and cut the chain in half! Startled, the girls looked at the floor.

A red rose.

"Sorry for being a little late. I just got back and got the scoop from Luna and Artemis." Tuxedo Mask apologised as Serena gave a squeal of delight.

Meanwhile Fargo grinned as he looked down at the new arrival. "Hu-ZZAH! Relief's arrived!"

Mu glanced down to where the Scouts were standing, a look of angry irritation on his face at this distraction...however the annoyance was then driven from his vindictive mind.

Mu's glaring eyes moved over the figures of Sailor Moon, Mars, Jupiter and Venus...and then as his gaze fell upon the bold and dashing face of Tuxedo Mask the golden-haired villain felt the world crumbling around him for the second time in such a short while. For a moment he forgot all about his now cold determination to wed Mercury and his current duel to the death - what he saw, the face that lay behind those silver sunglasses was enough to drive his attentions away from the lust and the schemes that had been all that he had focused upon for centuries and fill him a momentary blinding panic.

"Not him..." the former tyrant whispered as his once arrogant face drained, leaving him white-featured. "Not NOW..."

Mercury's eyes widened and her lips parted in shock as she gazed up at the horrified villain and realised the truth - it had just become all too clear to her what had bothered her earlier that night when Mu had revealed that he had once been the Emperor of Earth and now at last she realised just who else he was.

"Of course..." she whispered, breathless, to herself as her mind reeled at what it had just worked out. "Of course! Mu is..."

Mercury followed Mu's almost terrified gaze and arrived upon the face of Tuxedo Mask - and now that she knew what she was looking for her searching, intent eyes found it there as clear as the day. The face was gentler, not as sharp and not at all sly and cunning but the similarity of the two of them was...

Mercury's heart was pounding as she realised just what this all meant but she shook her head and the sense-shattering revelation to the back of her thoughts - she could think about it later - if she actually had a future.

Mu's jaw had hung open like that of an exhausted fox as his own mind had reeled - then Tuxedo Mask wryly remarked:

"Say, what are you staring at? You look like you've just seen a ghost!"

Mu's teeth clenched as he snapped.

"Damn you all to the fire of hell!" he roared as his hatred consumed him entirely and he dug his black-gloved hand deep into the pocket of his white trousers. "Each and every one of you...DIE!"

From his pocket he whipped a large bulging pouch that was tied closed by several pieces of knotted string - with a sudden icy feeling in the pit of his stomach Fargo felt sure that he knew what was inside.

"No!" the red-haired youth soared straight at the tyrant, desperate to prevent him from releasing the contents of the pouch...

However Mu was just one step ahead of him - his golden eyes blazed with fire and Fargo went spinning back the way he'd come as the strongest mental blast yet hit him head on and sent him crashing into a wall. As Fargo struggled to stay in the air Mu tugged wildly at the pouch with both hands and suddenly the material came apart with a loud tearing sound.

A shower of small glimmering black pearls rained down on the Sailor Scouts and Tuxedo Mask from above and as each of them hit the floor they shattered and from them a plume of evil dark smoke was released...

The girls and Tuxedo Mask had covered their heads with their arms but now, as literally thousands of pearls showered the foyer and broke, releasing clouds of vapour, they watched...they were suddenly no longer the only occupants of the foyer. Clutching his side and breathing in pain as he struggled to remain air-born Fargo stared down apprehensively - this was just what Mu had done in the Temple of Dark Moon and now he had used every last one of them...

As each wispy trail of darkness faded away every one of Mu's skeletal warriors were revealed, standing tall and extra disgusting in the well-lit hotel foyer - everybody could see their bleached bones and crumbled flesh but their sickened horror was quickly driven away by the sheer number of them.

Rows on rows now stood in front of the Scouts and many more pearls were falling, causing more and more of the skeletons to appear...suddenly realising something Tuxedo Mask glanced sharply around and his suspicion was confirmed as he saw more of the undead warriors materialising behind him.

They were surrounded by the skeleton warriors!

"Oh god!" shrieked Sailor Moon as she backed away and bumped into Tuxedo Mask, instinctively wrapping her arms around him before realising who he was.

"Sailor Scouts...you will all die at the hands of my entire resurrected Imperial Army!" snarled Emperor Mu. "The last remaining living reminders of Serenity's Kingdom will die...all of you!"

At the word 'die' the skeletons had all began to close in on the Scouts and Tuxedo Mask, chilling grins fixed eternally on their lifeless faces.

"Form a circle!" Sailor Moon ordered her fellow Scouts. "Don't let these things get close!"

Venus gazed frantically up at the balcony, where Sailor Mercury still stood, "Come on Mercury...we need your help!" she called desperately.

As Venus appealed to her, Mercury turned on her heel, determined to join her friends...only to find herself blocked and stranded by a row of the skeleton-warriors - evidently it would not do for the bride of Emperor Mu to be scratched up and perhaps even killed before the wedding...

"Sparkling Wide-Pressure!" Jupiter bellowed as she hurled her lightning-ball attack into the middle of the skeletons...only for it to fizzle away into nothingness the moment it touched the bare bones, leaving the skeletal frame untouched and totally unharmed. "Huh!"

"Jupiter - it's no good!" Mercury called down as she clutched the balcony-rail. "You can't hurt them because they're already dead! They have no nerves to feel the pain!"

"Oh great..." muttered Sailor Moon.

"You have to destroy them completely!" called Mercury. "That's the only way to stop them!"

The Scouts herded together below looked at each other and without a word between them they nodded - they knew what they had to do...

"Sailor Planet Power...ATTACK!"

The colossal attacked created when the Sailor Scouts combined their powers momentarily flooded the room with an intense light - the girls sent the incredibly powerful energy right into the midst of the horde of skeletons and were rewarded by a huge explosion, wiping most of their advancing enemy out instantly...however as the smoke died down they saw with chagrin that the majority of the undead warriors remained intact and still on the offensive.

"There's...there's just too many!" panted Venus, whose shoulders sagged with the exhaustion of the effort. "Without Mercury's energy we're just too weak to take them all..."

Mars looked upward as if to heaven.

"It all...rests on...Fargo now!" she murmured, half-despairing, half-praying.

"Damn..." muttered Jupiter, her eyes downcast.

"Die!"

Fargo pulled himself straight up into the air, sliding out of the path of the mental-blast only just in time. As a gaping hole appeared in the wall he spun around in the air like a cannon-ball and landed back in the position and stance that he'd occupied a second ago.

"Maybe some other time." He quipped as he prepared for the next assault...

Slowly his power was nearing its maximum. Just a few more minutes and...

Mu's eyes looked desperately around the lobby below. His gaze became fixed on Sailor Mercury who stood at the edge of the balcony looking down on the others. She had her back to him and had not noticed that he was looking at her.

Breaking off his psychic assault on Fargo Mu suddenly dropped straight down and landed on the balcony just behind Mercury.

"Look out!" Sailor Moon screamed.

Mercury whirled around and gasped as she saw him standing there.

"Won't you reconsider my proposal?" Mu asked with an unusual mildness in his voice – slowly and subtly he began to gather his telepathy, this time seeking to use it to gently persuade her rather than command her. "Think again and choose me over Fargo, Princess. After all you know that I'm the only one who can give you what you need."

From out of nowhere a golden circlet appeared in his gloved hands – Sailor Mercury's tiara clattered to the ground as the evil tyrant offered a beautiful crown for his bride to wear as she sat beside him for all of eternity.

"Never!" Mercury cried, her voice seeming to echo around the lobby – the sign of Mercury on her forehead BURST into light.

The hideous gown exploded around Sailor Mercury's body – and as shreds of silk and shards of jewel showered the balcony her Sailor Suit was revealed beneath, having been there the entire time...the fallen tiara leapt from the ground, circled its wearer like a discus and then returned to its place at her forehead.

As the crown that would have robbed Mercury of every vestige of her own free-will shattered in his hands Emperor Mu turned his face away in shock – however, a tiny shard of gold sliced into his cheek, leaving a long cut on his formerly unblemished face...however rather than blood a glaring golden light poured from the wound.

"Naïve fool!" Mu snarled, enraged once more – as he faced Sailor Mercury who had finally thrown off his remaining hold over her he covered his cut with his gloved hand and glowered. "What makes you think that Fargo will be any better than me?"

"Because he has to be," Mercury whispered. "He just has to be." And turning around she flung herself over the edge of the balcony.

The other Scouts screamed and closed their eyes as Mercury fell.

"The little fool..." Mu muttered, shocked despite himself.

But suddenly Mercury felt something stop her in the air - Mu watched in amazement as Fargo rose into sight from below the balcony, carrying Sailor Mercury in his arms. Her arms were around his neck and Fargo stood in mid-air staring down at Mu.

"I really don't think that that's any way to talk about a Princess." He snapped – inside he grinned ecstatically as he thought about what he had FELT just now.

One of Fargo's innate abilities was the power to sense the soul-energies of those around him as well as to track them which was how he had located HER so many times over the last day and night – and when Sailor Mercury had resisted Mu just then HER spirit had soared, leaving him breath-taken by the sheer magnificence of her courage and true nobility.

As he held her in his arms however a slight frown crossed his face – there seemed to him to be something about Amy that was just...DIFFERENT from how it had been the last time they'd been face to face.

But WHAT...?

Swooping down to the ground Fargo deposited Sailor Mercury with the others who were out of their minds with relief and then returned to his confrontation with Mu.

Fargo pulled for his power. Most of it had got away when he had had to rescue Mercury but with a few more seconds...

"This the end for you, you gutter crawling dog!" Mu snarled.

Mu began to gather together all of his power at once for one killing blow.

Fargo pulled harder. Come on!

Mu laughed as he gathered the power for the blast.

Come oooooon!

Venus yowled in fright as a skeletal claw gripped her shoulder - the skeleton that had surprised her wrapped its fleshless limbs around her as it grinned without mirth.

Sailor Moon gritted her teeth - this was it!

"And now...I win." Mu laughed as he pointed at Fargo with enough power to kill him instantly.

"No, I win!" Fargo screamed - he had finally reached enough power for his ultimate attack. "Light of Death!" he screamed, aiming his finger at Mu.

Fargo's fingertip crackled with energy - before Mu's shocked eyes Fargo's finger discharged a spiralling combination of three energy beams of immense power.

The beam hit Mu head on, punching a hole through his chest instantly. The light of the attack departed and Fargo dropped his power, gasping for breath...yet both sides of the tyrant's body now blazed with the golden light that now spilled out of him!

Mu stared blankly at the blazing hole in his chest, as if he could not believe his eyes – it is said that no man believeth in his own mortality.

Emperor Mu was no exception – as he gazed at his own ravaged chest, his eyes registered nothing but shocked surprise...as if the fatal injury were some unexpected problem that he had never dreamt of being troubled by.

With a gasping sigh, as his strength left him, Mu felt himself become light. Everyone stared breathlessly as a white glow of light surrounded the Emperor's body, engulfing him.

After all these centuries Emperor Mu was dying. And as the man who had ruled their fates during their lives and continued his domination over them after their deaths winced in his death-throes the millions of skeleton warriors below suddenly stopped their advance on the Sailor Scouts and Tuxedo Mask. Then to the amazement of the people who they had been about to kill they began to twitch...steadily the convulsions of the undead horde became more intense and violent and then all at once the girls realised that the spindly bodies of their foes were slowly coming apart!

Deprived of the source of their unnatural vitality each and every one of them was returning to the state that they had all been in before their 'revival'...death. An empty wail echoed through the foyer as their stagnant spirits departed from the world of the living, never to return again - in that exact moment they each exploded into dust which floated, stale and grainy to the ground.

Then there was an ear splitting crack of thunder and the light erupted into heat, which scorched the air.

When the heat had died down there was no sign of Mu. A silence descended on the room, other than Jupiter's shallow panting as she stood, her shoulders bobbing up and down and her heartbeat gradually slowly back to normal pace. She'd been punching skeletons left and right during the last stand and she had three crimson slashes across her cheek were one had got lucky and managed to rake her face before she'd nailed him.

Venus had fallen to her knees as soon as the skeleton that had grabbed her had disintegrated and now she gasped for the air she'd been deprived of while her lungs had been constricted.

The battle over, Sailor Moon turned her head to gaze at Tuxedo Mask for a long, single moment. Then wordlessly she flung herself into his arms and laying her head on his chest as he stroked her hair and held her to him she allowed herself to melt into the man she loved.

Standing apart from the others Sailor Mars tilted her head back to gaze upwards - she would never admit it to her friends but now that Emperor Mu was dead she felt a vague sense of loss. She knew that with him a living part of the history of their world, even though it had belonged to an age best forgotten, had now passed away forever.

"Mu...may you find redemption in the great hereafter." The raven-haired girl sighed beneath her breath as she shook her head tiredly.

Just as she was slipping away into sadness for the end of the long life of that poor misguided soul however Sailor Mars gave a shudder – she sensed another presence in the lobby.

Sailor Universe...? No...it didn't FEEL like her.

So then WHO...?

Whirling around on her heel she was just in time to catch the fleeting glimpse of a flash of black darting around the corner of the hotel doorway...and out of her sight.

"W-what?" Sailor Mars muttered, unsure of what she was fairly sure she had just seen.

"What's the matter?" Sailor Venus asked, her breathing back under control.

Mars stood, staring at the doorway for a while – she no longer felt that fleeting presence and though she was just TWITCHING to tell the others about it she kept quiet.

After all, what good would it do for her to worry them about something she wasn't totally sure she had seen? After all – hadn't they WON?

"...Nothing, nothing at all." The raven-haired Scout smiled as she turned and met the eyes of her friends. "Sorry about that – I guess I'm just feeling lethargic."

With a smug and triumphant smile on her face, Sailor Mercury reached down and picked up a pair of the Anti-Magic handcuffs that the Scouts had escaped from earlier than evening – turning, she headed upstairs with a steely glint in her eyes. After what she'd been through at the traitorous hands of Sailor Universe, she suddenly found the prospect of giving her enemy a taste of her own medicine very, VERY sweet indeed...however, as she arrived back on the balcony and stared at the spot where the purple-haired Scout had fallen mere minutes ago, she froze and her blue eyes widened with shock.

Sailor Universe was gone...

Her heart heavy and her limbs suddenly feeling exactly the same, Sailor Mercury returned to her friends...but her troubling news would have to wait.

For, as she glanced over Tuxedo Mask's shoulder, Sailor Moon's eyes happened to fall upon Sailor Mercury who stood quiet and pondering...and the leader of the Scouts gasped as if a lightning strike had hit her with a bolt of pure shock.

"M-MERCURY..." Sailor Moon gibbered, clutching Tuxedo Mask's shoulders tightly as she realised what she was seeing. "y-y-y-y-...YOUR HAIR!"

Sailor Mercury looked up, her face surprised as she wondered what was wrong – and as the others gazed at her each of them gasped just as Sailor Moon had done.

The Mercurian's normally short-cropped hair now cascaded around her shoulder and down her back, ending only beneath her skirt – her hair now gleamed and shone far more brightly than Sailor Mars's or even Sailor Venus's manes and was like a cloak weaved from the ocean itself.

The hair-growth elixir had done its job very well indeed – she had not felt her hair grow so drastically as she had sat in misery, loneliness and despair that night.

Fargo gazed spellbound at the bemused Sailor Mercury who was looking from face to face wondering why her friends were staring at her...she had no idea.

She looks like...the Lady of the Lake, he thought in wonder.

Fargo dropped back down to the floor and stood a short way off from the Scouts and Tuxedo Mask...for a moment he stood staring expressionlessly at up where the fallen tyrant had been moments ago, unable to believe that it was all over...then he turned to the others, grinning. "Topping night, huh?" Fargo said as a little of the familiar happy-go-lucky flippancy returned to his face. "Look on the bright side...I was fantastic and it was a bloody good laugh!"