She slowly and quietly opened the closet door and poked her head out.

"You there! Who are you?" called one of Beryl's troops when he saw her.

She squealed in mock fright and ran off, hearing the man that had spoken tell his buddy to inform Beryl that the woman had appeared before taking off after her himself. She slowed down a bit to let him slightly catch up to her, and made for the nearest flight of stairs. As she passed more stunned guards, they made failed attempts to catch her and ended up leaving one man to show the way while the other chased her. She was getting quite the following as she careened down stairways, making her way to the lowest floor.

Briefly a thought entered her mind that she could fall and snap her neck, thereby ruining her plan and dying a coward. She giggled a little madly at this while holding at bay the anguish that would surely overwhelm her if she faltered even the slightest bit.

When she finally reached the floor of her destination, she flung herself down a small corridor and into a room and promptly locked the rather plain–if thick–door behind her. She backed away from the door warily as the soldiers began to pound on it, their shouted threats barely audible. Satisfied, she turned around and walked to the center of the dark room. When she began to get closer a silvery, pulsating light began to glow from an object floating above an approximately waist-high pedestal, lighting the room with its warm power.

Reaching the pedestal, her lips curled into a slight, if bitter, smile as she looked at the platinum scepter crowned with a moonstone lying on the pedestal's surface. She looked upon the most important artifact that existed on the moon–in the entire solar system!–and felt great sorrow. This was the queen's scepter, and would have passed to her in its own time had she not been so foolish. Now she was the queen, for whatever it was worth, and she reached out and picked the beautiful thing up. Immediately the precious metal warmed in her hands and the moonstone shone with a light that pulsed in time with the large moonstone that had first begun to light the room.

The crown jewels of the kingdom, hidden away in a seemingly non-descript room on the lowest floor of the palace.

They were hers. She closed her eyes, bringing the stone on the scepter to rest on her forehead, allowing it to send soothing calm through her body that was so tight with pain and regret. A few tears escaped as the forgiving light encompassed her in its warmth, acknowledged her as the new queen.

The queen that would destroy the kingdom and these precious objects to keep them from falling into Evil's hands.

They would be here soon, she hoped, and then it could all end.

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She never even noticed when it grew unnaturally quiet outside the room. She was sitting cross-legged on the floor, the moonstone on the scepter glowing softly and still resting on her forehead, a peaceful expression on her lovely face.

When he broke the door and entered, he was struck by her beauty and how amazingly calm she seemed as she opened those big sapphire eyes of hers and lifted her gaze to his. Deep inside he felt a tug of affection where his heart was–had been, at least, before Beryl had appeared. She had been beautiful the first time he had seen her and was now impossibly radiant, the moonstones' brilliant glow limning her figure and making her appear to be an angel as she stood. Her hair flowed unbound past her knees in all it's silvery-blonde glory.

He stared dumbfounded, seeing her as though for the first time. The aura of wildness and self-consciousness had disappeared to be replaced by utter surety and knowledge, and he knew what she was going to do.

"No, Sere!" he gasped despite himself, his sword dropping uselessly from his hands. He couldn't touch such perfection, would not sully his hands with the death of something so pure, though he knew that they were both dead anyway.

She smiled serenely and her gaze slid smoothly from his to a spot over his shoulder.

"Beryl," she said softly, her voice filled with such power as to almost hurt him to hear it. The power of the queen, the power of knowing that death is imminent and peacefully accepted for the greater good. He had once been good, but his heart had been twisted to evil. In the face of her purity, he felt unclean and violated, unworthy of the love of this woman, unworthy of even daring to love her in return, if for these last few moments only.

If he had been able to tear his eyes away from the near-blinding image of the woman he had betrayed so utterly, he would have seen Beryl's skin blanch to an even sicklier shade of grey.

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She knew what was coming, and could do nothing to stop it. She had lost so unexpectedly. Who knew that the cowardly princess would have the courage to bring about the downfall of her own kingdom to save the solar system from Beryl's evil clutches? Snarling, she vanished from the room, quickly gathering up her Generals before the foolish girl actually went through with it.

All of her Generals save one, that is, and she knew with a pang of–what, regret?–that she had lost Endymion for good. She had to accept this loss, but when she rebuilt her army she would be back! She would not give this up so easily!

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When Beryl had vanished and the soldiers run off to try to escape in vain, she walked to him and he fell to his knees.

"Endymion," she whispered, laying a hand on the top of his head as he began to weep uncontrollably. "Endymion, you know why I must do this?"

He wrapped his arms around her legs, grieving the love that he was sure he had lost.

"Do you know?" she asked again.

He nodded against her thigh and she closed her eyes, allowing herself to feel a twinge of pain as she stroked her fingers through his hair as she had so wanted to do. Then she pulled herself from his grasp and turned her back to walk towards the hovering moonstone. He watched her through his tears as she raised the scepter above her head and brought it crashing down onto the glowing orb, causing both to shatter into a million pieces.

Just before the unleashed power exploded she turned back to him and mouthed, "My love..."

And then there was no more.

Alright, the story is finished...I don't know, I'm contemplating adding a mood-lightener, but I'm just not sure. We'll see.

I read back through these chapters and noticed that I got myself all screwed up on tenses occasionally...and for that I apologize! I'll have to go back through and edit those, so it'll be easier to read.

Thanks much to Eternal Senshi, you have no idea how much I appreciate your reading my story, and I hope you liked it!

Now for a confession of my own...I know next to nothing about Sailor Moon. Heh. Saw a couple episodes and the movies years ago, but that's about it. Please let me know how I did!