Chapter 18 – The end of a world

On that same second a table landed next to them.

"Hop on!" Trunks shouted. The girls stared at him. "C'mon, we don't have all day… erm, night."

"Okay, this is really weird," Star Healer remarked as the table whizzed above the shadows that were trying to leap up and attack them but they were already too high.

Uranus grinned slightly. "Been there, done that. Where did you get that table, Trunks, and where on earth did you get that idea?"

"We're in a city, there are a million tables in here," the kid said. "And Dad said that they could handle it without me. My fist is burnt anyway, remember? Watch out, the demon…"

The demon had found a hole in the siege and attacked the table with a powerful blast. Trunks was quick enough to pull the table aside but it still struck Star Fighter and would've hit her over the edge if Uranus hadn't grabbed her hand and pulled her back.

"Don't take it personally," she said with a frown, "it was just a reflex." Trunks flew a little higher with the table. The sky was still grey, the world was still black and the only sources of light were the demon surrounded by the Saiyans' constant attacks and Sailor Saturn's gleaming Glaive.

"Saturn, is it going to take long?" Neptune yelled down. "We may not be able to hold on much longer!" The other scouts had started attacking the demon again, ignoring the fact that they were standing high above the ground on a flying table. There were more important things right now.

"I've almost got it," Saturn's distant voice replied. Surprisingly it was easy to hear, even though she didn't sound like yelling.

"What's your big plan?" Uranus demanded. Saturn probably smirked, even though they were too far away to see her face.

"You'll see it soon enough," she said.

The demon realized that if it wouldn't act quickly, things would get really sticky for it. Suddenly it found a chance, broke out of the energy shield that was attacking it and dashed right towards Saturn. Trunks reacted fast and sent the table in front of it. Five powerful attacks knocked the demon back and it almost fell down.

"It's time. You're too late," Saturn said. She raised her Silence Glaive and now a hemisphere of bright light appeared all around her. The demon gasped.

"No! Have mercy! No! Noooooooooo!"

"Typical," Trunks commented, looking down at the demon. "They must all be watching the same cartoons."

Uranus and Neptune gasped too. Now they finally realized what Saturn was up to.

"Hotaru, are you out of your…" Uranus didn't get any further. Saturn's voice filled every little corner of the deformed city as she called:

"Death Reborn Revolution!"

And slammed her Glaive right into the ground. It cracked. In the matter of seconds the whole ground was covered with cracks and it started to collapse. Some buildings were already falling down. The bright hemisphere around Saturn turned bigger and bigger.

"Now what's happening?" Trunks asked, looking at Uranus and Neptune. He had never seen the two girls so frightened.

"The end of the world, that's what," Uranus replied, still having some sarcasm in her voice. "This is the attack she's never supposed to use. Because it destroys the whole world, including her."

The hemisphere widened more and more. I was warm and extremely bright. Trunks turned around and flew away as quickly as he could.

"Don't even bother," Neptune remarked, balancing on the whizzing table and giving a quick glance at the hemisphere. Even though Trunks was flying extremely fast, the bright sphere was catching up quickly. "You can't escape that attack. Nothing can escape it."

"I'll try anyway," Trunks snarled and accelerated. The five girls were forced to crouch down and grab the sides of the table.

"Fool," Uranus muttered. Then she looked up into Trunks's eyes. "You'll have to escape this planet in order to escape the Death Reborn Revolution. Can you do that? And can you assure me that you have a place to escape to in this twisted nightmare? Besides," she looked over her shoulder to see the bright energy sphere which was already touching the table, "you're not fast enough." Her eyes were surprisingly calm as she stood up – Trunks had slowed down – and turned around to face the hemisphere. Neptune stood up too. She wasn't sure why Uranus was suddenly so tranquil since the girl had been terrified just a moment ago but she trusted her friend.

The hemisphere covered everything. And then…

…Michiru opened her eyes. She blinked, looked around and tried to figure out where she was. It sure didn't look like Heaven. As a matter of fact, it looked like… the front yard or the Capsule Corporation's main building. It was early in the morning, the birds were singing and everything seemed to be back to normal.

"Okay. Why aren't we blown into little pieces and how the heck did we get back in here?" Vegeta demanded. "Don't tell me that it was just some stupid dream!"

"Stupid dreams don't burn people's hands," Trunks remarked, looking at his burnt palm. "Where's Hotaru?" He looked around. "I think she's the only one who knows what happened back there."

"And I think she has more than one question to answer," Seiya declared, getting up and looking around. "Where the heck are we?"

"My day just keeps getting better," Haruka grunted, getting up too and taking the flowers from her back pocket. "These didn't seem to help after all. Hotaru, where are you?"

"Here…" Hotaru was sitting on the grass a few feet away, breathing hard. "I'm glad it worked. I saw no other way."

"So it wasn't a dream," Goku commented, looking around. "What happened, Hotaru?"

"She destroyed the world – the world of nightmares," Haruka said before Hotaru could open her mouth. "I realized the whole point of her plan a couple of seconds before the destruction. It was indeed the best and only way but it wasn't very foolproof. I'm surprised that we're still alive. After all, we were in that world and we should've gone down with it."

Hotaru nodded. "I admit that it was a very wild guess, I had no idea if we'd survive the attack or not. But I saw no other way. We've tried everything before, you know that. Luckily, we just got transported back here. For some odd reason these three," she looked at the Three Lights, "came with us but I honestly don't know why."

"Let's ask someone who knows." Haruka suggested and pulled her Space Sword out once again. In a few moments a couple of bright white feathers floated past them and Pegasus was standing in the middle of the yard.

"You couldn't have found a worse time to call me," he said. "Well?"

"Having a busy day?" Haruka asked back. Pegasus snorted.

"Hotaru just destroyed the whole world of nightmares. It'll take me days to build it all up again. Sure, I'm glad that you finally got rid of that demon thing that bothered you but hey, I'm the one who has to clean up afterwards…!"

"So it's finally gone?" Gohan asked. Pegasus nodded.

"The last time it disappeared, it went back to its world and started plotting revenge there. But now its world is gone with it. I need to build a whole new world with whole new nightmares. Not exactly my job but there isn't anyone else to do it." He sighed. "The reason you didn't go down with that world is simple. You weren't part of that world. You didn't belong there."

"Those heavenly flowers didn't help us there," Haruka said. "Why?"

Pegasus smiled. "They helped you protect Michiru, remember? They're not meant to do more; fight or destroy. They're supposed to protect the ones that you…"

"Yeah, got it already. Can you tell us why these," Haruka gestured at the Three Lights, "came with us?"

Pegasus shrugged. "Must be because you fought together, I don't see any other reason. Can I go now?" Without even waiting for a reply he disappeared, leaving a few feathers floating behind.

"In short, all we had to do was to blow the world up," Vegeta remarked. "If someone had told me that a bit earlier, we would've spared ourselves a lot of trouble."

Now Hotaru smirked. "There's a big difference between just blowing a world up and completely annihilating it."

"Not when I'm blowing it up," Vegeta claimed.

"When you Saiyans blast something, you generally just break it into molecules," Hotaru said and stood up. "I fight with different powers. I don't break things, I turn them into nothingness. I couldn't have done it without you, however," she added with a smile. "My fighting techniques need a lot of powering up. That demon could've wiped me out in seconds if there hadn't been for you. Thank you all for that."

"Okay, so we finally did it. I want breakfast!" Goten announced.

"Bulma's still missing," Vegeta said, looking around.

"She's probably upstairs, sleeping, like the rest of the city," Trunks guessed. "Hey you three…" he looked at the Three Lights, "weren't you girls just a little while ago?"

"It's a long story." Yaten looked around. "Where are we and how do we get back home?"

"You're on another planet and we should all get home in a few days if something unexpected won't happen again," Michiru said. "It looks like you'll have to stay here until then," she added with a smile.

Haruka snorted. "Perfect."

"Hey everyone!" Bulma pushed the kitchen window open. "Breakfast is ready!"