Sailor Moon Eternal

by SetsunaKou

This is a full length novel over 1000 pages long of the 6th season of Sailor Moon, our 'Eternal'. The Wedding of Serena & Darien is attended by some familiar shooting stars cutting across the night sky, finding loves of their own in the Outer-most unlikely places. Romances blossom for the Inners, as a dangerous new enemy's threat could destroy Earth & the Sailor Guardians of it...

26. Chapter 26

We do not own "Sailor Moon" nor any of the characters.

SAILOR MOON ETERNAL

"The 6th Season of the Sailor Moon Saga"

By Haruka Kou

Chapter 26: The Beginning of the End

Somewhere deep under the ocean, on the depths of the sea green floor, a small crack parts the waves. Sea creatures scatter at the strange sight as a large energy bubble travels through the opening expanse into a hollowed cave beneath. Magic steals the ocean's currents out as the same magic seals the energy bubble within. Dark magic.

Have I drowned? Did I die? Michelle, I miss you already. Robin's groggy mind awakens as the energy dissipates around him, landing him on a built-up altar of sorts in the center of the large cave's main room. Trying to reach out to Michelle, almost automatically missing their bond immensely, Robin finds he cannot establish contact as he glances around warily.

Other than the altar, the room was empty, save for two thrones built up at the head of the cavern. There, seated in the damp, cold cave, contrasting with the dim light and dingy surroundings a high-bred royal looking couple sit. Bejeweled and sparkling in glimmering blue-green, a lady sits on the right. Her body was beautiful and she had a tempting look on her face. She wore a flowing gown and seemed to be bored. Her blue-green aqua hair (Aqua hair—Michelle, I miss you!) bunned haired was sequined with a wispy illusion veil, held in place by a large perfect jewel of aquamarine on her forehead as her enchanting eyes seem to dare, engulf anyone in just once glance.

At her side was her King, of that Robin was certain. The commanding presence in white and purple cape flowing. His shoulder length white hair and stately pose, the very air about him and his dark violet eyes would strike fear into the heart of any normal man at the very sight of him. But Robin was no ordinary man.

"Why have you brought me here? What do you want!" Angry, despite facing the unknown, Robin's short temper threatens to cause trouble between him and older king, while the Queen seemed intrigued by him. Her bored look became quite interested as her eyes rested upon him.

"Be quiet, boy." The king commands. His voice was as imposing as his large size. He stands. Robin was still unafraid, able to go toe to toe with many a man taller than he, with his own sharp wit and unfailing strength of character. But at this time, he decides to obey the order and listen to the man, gathering his way out of this situation.

"I am King Pearlrellion. She is my beautiful Queen Aquamarianna." The King respectfully nods to his queen. "Why you are here, you ask? You, my boy, are here at her request, at her delight." Pearlrellion mysteriously says to Robin's inquisitive ears and squinting eyes.

"And who is SHE?" Robin twists his lip, trying to read the pair, but finds they are psychically shielded somehow as he stalls for time.

"She?" Pearlrellion laughs as if he were explaining something well-known to a child.

Robin takes offense, angered until the next words nearly knock the wind from him.

"She is Her Majesty, Queen Metallia." Pearlrellion laughs again at Robin's shocked expression. His cackling laughter echoed through the cavernous walls.

"Metallia!" Robin, though just a young child when his parent's died, remembered the name well. It seared through his soul, the evil woman-more a creature of darkness—that killed his family, threatened to destroy all life on his home planet, were it not for his adopted mother's salvation of him when he was a little child. She too was at bitter odds with the legendary Metallia, until the evil being was banished by the Queen of the Moon of this far off solar system. Banished to earth it seemed, but not contained any longer. She was the intense evil he had been sensing as of late—she was the voice beckoning to him—for not only was Metallia an ancient foe, a lifelong enemy to all good and right and true, she was also, by some strange fate, Robin's paternal grandmother. His beloved father, a good and honest man despite his heritage was her one and only son. And Robin now was left through all the destruction and death she herself caused his family, her one and only descendant and heir.

"QUEEN Metallia!" A voice booms from the very depths of the cavern. It was deafening to their ears as the red fire light glows. At first just as a glimmer, then suddenly bursts into a flame contained in a stone orifice carved into the center of the throne room.

"Blood of my blood, child of my disobedient child. Look on me, I command!" Her voice echoes loudly into Robin's terrified ears. This, the voice of his every childhood nightmare. This, the vision of the horrible queen who destroyed his peaceful homeworld and family….

"You don't command me, you spiteful witch!" Robin's fear turns to seething anger, the memory of his sweet dying mother and strong father and twin brother, fires his soul against her. Facing her down no matter what the consequences may be. "My father was a good man. You tried to keep him in your wicked ways, but you couldn't! So you killed him! You killed my family! You horrible monster!" Robin's sharp tongue holds no bounds. This anger inside a small child, impressionable and hurt, his world destroyed when he was a mere five years old. It grew with him with a passionate disdain, a fierce hatred that takes hold of his very being in a way he never knew was in him.

"That's right! That's right! Heir to my Evil! I see it in your eyes! You have inherited my anger! And through your anger I see my evil intent. You have great potential, my little one. You will be the perfect addition to my forces, Sailor of the Star Healer!"

"Being a Sailor is my mother's birthright, I need no other from the likes of you, Creature from Hell!" His eyes flash, Robin defiantly raises his fist to her, throwing that fact in the evil queen's face. The queen angers at the mere mention of his mother. She was the small, innocent with the beautiful mint green eyes who had corrupted her faithful and only son, turning him from his evil destiny promised to him and each of his descendants.

This Queen Metallia, despite her fierce anger, was a wily creature—one who knew her way into spreading her wickedness. Seeing potential in this young one as well to become greatness—to be her arm in this bright world, for she still was sealed away, in a fashion. That contemptible white Moon Queen! He would help her turn it dark, as it was always destined to be. Yes, there was something in Robin's eyes that intrigued the Evil Queen, like a blazing inferno, coldness locked within. Yes, yes, my little one, you are the one I need!

"We will speak again later when I request it, after your conditioning. King Pearlrellion, Queen Aquamarianna, see to my protégé." And in a wink and a flash, the red glow of fire burns out as suddenly as it came.

"You shouldn't speak to the Queen in that manner, my Handsome one. She may become angry with you." Queen Aquamarianna smilingly sidles up, not looking particularly fearful herself of the said Metallia, as her face looks amorously at Robin.

"SHE angry with me! Listen, I don't know who you two are, or what your role in this is—" Robin turns from Aquamarianna's tempting gaze to the silent, stoic King standing across from them.

"Our role, my young firebrand?" Pearlrellion smirks with a knowing little chuckle. Robin's eyebrows knit at the man in anger, his fist still waving. "Our role is to rule the world of course, and release Her Majesty, the Queen Metallia from her prison."

"Just like that, huh?" Stating his worldwide aspirations so easily, Robin looks in astonishment. He was so engrossed with the King's words though, he doesn't see Queen Aquamarianna's presence behind him, pressing something cold and crystalline to his neck, until it was a moment too late.

"Sleep well, handsome soldier." She coos as Robin slides into unconsciousness, hearing their laughter as he goes.

Looking after both Sayer and Michelle all night, Alex relaxes next to Michelle, after she finally falls into a grieving slumber. She tenderly strokes her curls. Her face was sweet and needed her strength, like a baby. But Alex feels so helpless to do anything to comfort the broken souls of those she loves the most.

Just drifting to sleep, Michelle cuddled close in her arms, Alex snaps awake at the sudden agonized screeching echoing through the otherwise silent walls of her home, generating from the woman beside her.

"Robin! Robin!" In a nightmare, Michelle screams uncontrollably, her arms thrashing about in the bed as she tries to grab onto something that she seemed to not be able to reach. "ROBIN!" Michelle continues to tear so wildly and forcefully that Alex fears she may harm herself. "AHHHHHHHHHHH!" Michelle screams, the horrifying sound, the beautiful features of her face contorted in such pain as she clutches her heart.

SLAP!

Alex whacks her cousin across the face in an attempt to stop her violent nightmare. It works, as Michelle's eyelids flutter slowly open.

"Ally? Is 'Chelle…?" Sayer is awakened by the ruckus, and was also worried for his new sister-in-law as he leans in the doorway.

"She's all right…..Shhhh, Michelle, it's just a nightmare." Alex rocks the sobbing cousin in her arms. Michelle's tears seep right into her soul.

"Ally?" Sayer crosses the room, caressing his wife's worried cheek, grateful for having her caring. Their eyes meet in that knowing way. Alex kisses his hand on her cheek.

"Go back to sleep." She orders him as she rocks Michelle softly, laying her back down with another sedative. Michelle falls back into a disturbed slumber.

"Can't I stay with you guys?" Sayer whimpers, not wanting to be alone this night. "I'm lonely." He smiles a small sad smile.

"Come on." Alex smiles too, scooting over as Sayer sneaks in beside her. She puts an arm around him and then the other around Michelle. Both of them fall asleep close to her heavy-hearted chest.

Not getting a wink of sleep the rest of this night, Alex listens carefully to Michelle's soft, tortured murmuring. She called his name over and over, and then something that catches Alex's ear.

"Robin no! Don't! Metallia! Don't!"

Why would she utter THAT name in her dream? What does the Queen of the Dark Evil, the Negaverse herself, have anything to do with this tragedy? Is the shrimp still alive?

Alex silently wonders the deep thought as Michelle clutches her. She senses that Sayer's dreams too were filled with disturbing nightmares.

My poor babies. You've affected us all, shrimp. Alex places a comforting hand on each of their hearts. In here, you've touched what's important—in here. Please, God, if you're listening. Give them some peace. I love them both so much.

Alex gazes back down at the two sleeping faces that depended so much on her. Oh, come on, shrimp! If you're out there to find, I WILL find you—for them.

She brushes the black and aqua curls with tender fingertips.

---

Across the miles in another grieving household, husband and wife there too cling to each other for comfort in a raging emotional storm.

Terry, heartbroken over his lost brother, and Susan consoles him, though he tried to be strong for her, not showing his pain. Susan awakens deep in the night, feeling her husband's soft tears fall to his pillow. She tries to kiss them away, sweetly clinging to her darling Terry, wishing there was some way she could reverse time and bring his brother back. But that was simply not within her power, and heartbroken silence takes over their usual happy home.

Morning dawns on the family of a young man who grew to believe in infinite dreams. The grieving who loved him most didn't want to awaken to the nightmare that reality had become. But sleep would no longer claim some. Terry tried to grasp some comprehension of it all as he looks out at the lavender rising sun skyline. That too, the only place where Alex finds respite. She looks up to the sky and closes her eyes, trying to harness the messages she was receiving from her Guardian the wind, sensing an evil break on the morning horizon.

Metallia…Michelle said 'Metallia' several times in her sleep. Are you part of this somehow? Alex's soul could feel the presence of evil all around, in the very air. It was coming from the earth and sky around her.

"Robin! Don't let go! Let me hold on!"

Alex races back into the apartment bedroom to find Sayer cradling Michelle in his arms, a needy, not knowing what to do look on his face.

"Michelle." Alex perches on the bed beside him, exchanging a pain ridden glance with her husband. The look in Michelle's teary eyes hurt her to the core.

"I shouldn't have let go! I should have been stronger. I could have saved us both! Why did I have to let go!" In pain, Michelle blames herself for that which Robin took out of her control. Her broken spirit turned fault on herself, though Alex knew none of it could be true. She knew Michelle so well.

"Michelle, stop this! It wasn't your fault. It wasn't." Alex shakes her trembling cousin. Her eyes were fierce in Michelle's beseeching ones. The sad look in them suddenly grew wild and hysterical as she begins a scream that could tear your heart out.

"RRRRRROOOOOOOBBBBBIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNN!" Michelle lets out a heart-wrenching screech as Sayer turns away with tears in his eyes. Alex holds onto Michelle tightly. Her wails could be heard all the way into the depths of your soul.

Somewhere deep in the Earth, the silver-haired young man tries desperately to open his eyes. He hears a faint cry whispering to his heart and his mind races on how to escape the torture-to go to that cry, to go to her, to hold her. Michelle! Robin's heart screams as it is being ripped from his soul. Dark power exerts it's evil energy over his paralyzed body, leaving Robin unable to move, unable to even think-he could only still feel. And he felt her. He felt the woman he loved. He could touch her soul, reach out to her, to be with her and love her again, despite the evil overtaking his mind as he tries to fight it.

"MICHELLE!" In a final burst, Robin uses all that was good left within him to call out to his beloved. Her sweetness, her presence were the last thing he feels as the man he once was slips into unconsciousness and the world he once knew becomes darkness.

"Strong-willed, isn't he, my King?" Queen Aquamarianna turns from her vigil over the young man's conditioning to her husband seated on his throne.

"I see you are impressed by this boy's fire, are you not, my Queen?" Jealous, King Pearlrellion motions for the beautiful woman to take her rightful place next to him.

"Impressed? Perhaps I have a weakness for men with silver hair, my love." Coyly, Aquamarianna runs a hand through her jealous lover's shoulder-length hair.

"Yes, well, remember our mission, my Queen. I will give you the world to control at my side. That is, IF you do not betray me." With a commanding voice, Pearlrellion threatens the woman he had lost his heart to once, long ago—before she had become the seductive creature that Metallia's evil power had turned her into. But Pearlrellion himself did not see the change entirely as it was. He too, seduced by Metallia's power, that day she came to him. He was once a simple businessman with a simple name and simply lifestyle, whose weak will had been turned by others less scrupulous than he to foreign trade in the black market. Fine art and jewelry were his specialties. He lavished his sweet little wife with exquisite sapphires and emeralds and diamonds, until she spoiled for them. Greed had overtaken them both, to a small, petty degree until that day when Pearlrellion traded with a mysterious Asian for a singular ivory white pearl ring, accompanied by a sparkling perfect aquamarine gemstone necklace. The enigmatic woman would not explain their origin, but Pearlrellion's morals were long gone. He didn't care from whence they came, only needing, only desiring to have them for himself.

And he acquired the jewels. He presented the necklace of aqua to his wife, keeping the pearl ring for himself. But as both of the greedily slipped them on, upon gazing vainly in a mirror, they were mystically changed, absorbed in Her Evil promises of power…

"Hi Hi!" Serena sings out merrily to the group of friends gathered around her as they walk towards Crown's together. They were all totally unaware of the impending darkness about to descend upon them.

"Aren't you gonna whine that I'm late, Rei?" Serena blinks in disbelief as Rei's usual "greeting" is absent.

"Oh, yeah, Serena, you're late." Rei hurriedly covers up her inattentiveness with a smile, but her heart wasn't in it. Serena, along with the rest of the girls traveling beside their usually vigorously hasty friend Rei, blink in shock.

"What's wrong, Rei?" Lita asks, concerned.

"Nothing." Rei averts her eyes. Should I tell them about this weird feeling I'm getting? I don't want to scare them. What if I'm totally wrong? It's been nearly 2 years now since our last trouble with Galaxia and things have been so peaceful! What if I'm just getting jumpy? My psi abilities are probably rusty from not being used. I better go and talk about this to-

"I wonder if Robin and Michelle are back from their-" Mina starts to say giddily, strangely picking up Rei's wavelengths perhaps. The mere mention of their names causes Rei to nearly double over, recognizing on some psychic level that there was something amiss….

"Rei? What is it!" Amy rushes to her friend's side as they all enter Crown's otherwise empty café.

"I—don't know-" Rei starts to say, catching her breath, just as a scream is released into the air inside the café.

"Trouble!" Lita sounds the alarm as Molly's familiar form comes racing past them out of Crown's café where they had planned to meet her for lunch.

"Serena! Help me!" Molly's New York accent rings through the street as she flies past as fast as her feet would carry her. Her face was frightened as if she had seen a-

"Serena! Help me!" Like an instant replay, Molly races out of Crown's again, right before their very eyes, and Serena and the gang all blink twice, rubbing their eyes as they stick their heads out the door and watch Molly run down the sidewalk, terrified, being chased by….herself.

"Molly!" Serena, asks in confusion.

"There's two of her!" Mina explains the obvious inexplicable event.

"What's going on!" Lita shouts.

"I don't know, but I'm going to find out! It's been a long time, but - Molly needs our help, guys!" Serena was no fighter by any means but she was a loyal friend, and the minute any dear one was in danger, Serena is ready and willing to be there. And her companions, her Scouts, were right at her side.

"MOON ETERNAL-"

"MERCURY CRYSTAL POWER!"

"MARS CRYSTAL POWER!"

"JUPITER CRYSTAL POWER!"

"VENUS CRYSTAL POWER!"

"MAKE UP!"

The girls thrust their power sticks high in the air, as Serena's heart locket release it's energy and the five heroines begin their transformations, each aglow with sparkling planet energy. All of them were powering up to face whatever bad guy was out there. They would fight for love and justice no matter how content they had become. The enemy had seemed to stay away…until now.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" A high-pitched scream reverberates from the park that Molly had ducked into for escape from the doppelganger trailing her. But the mirror image of herself attacks, suddenly from out of nowhere, pinning the poor, frightened girl to the ground.

"Who are you! What do you want!" Molly was no autumn leaf scattering on the ground, as she struggles in the grasp of her assailant.

"Your energy, Molly dear. The truest form of energy—love energy and I'm going to take your place in this world and keep on spreading her darkness until there is no more sunshine! Do you think your sorry excuse for a boyfriend will even notice the switch through those thick glasses of his?"

Molly (the fake Molly, that is) cackles as she reaches out to the girl pinned beneath her.

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

Molly's eyes follow her attacker's to the diamond pendant she was wearing around her neck. It suddenly turns black and inky right before her eyes as does her double's eyes, turning black and cold, her face enhanced, distorting hideously.

"Surrender your love energy!" A lizard-like voice to match her green shaded, putrid features, her dark hair was full of sharp points, and where eyes were, crystal clear diamonds appeared. And the monster, who just moments ago was Molly, grabs the real Molly, pressing a dark gemstone to her heart, as Molly feels her energy start to slip away….

"STOP RIGHT THERE, UGLY!" A familiar voice comes from behind a park bench.

"Who dares call me ugly!" The green creature spins to where the voice was emanating from.

"I DO! How dare you pretend to be a pretty girl when you're really a hideous monster! I am SAILOR MOON! Champion of Love and Justice! And on behalf of the Moon, I'll punish you!"

Transformed in all her winged glory, Eternal Sailor Moon stands tall atop the park bench.

"And for spoiling this fall day, too, in the name of Mars, I'll chastise you!" A flame with red fire, Sailor Mars jumps atop the bench too.

"For ruining the peace we've been enjoying, in the name of Mercury, go soak your head in ice water, Creep!" Mercury joins her two comrades in cool blue.

"For hurting our innocent friends, for Jupiter, you're gonna get it!" Greener than any flora on the autumn scene, Jupiter agilely alights beside them.

"And for making us late for our well-deserved ice cream break, Sailor Venus will give you divine punishment!" Orangy Sailor V hops up as her companions give her strange statement crooked smirks, all wiping off their faces as the off balanced weight on the ancient bench teeters it back and forth…

CRASH!

A pile of screaming justice seekers go flying backwards, as the bewildered creature attacking Molly looks at her would-be adversaries with a question mark above her ugly face. And she turns back to draining her victim, unimpressed by this weakling display.

"AHHHHH!" The monster screeches as red rose flashes across her face, stabbing at her hand holding the dark gemstone, sending it and the attacker flat across the sidewalk ground.

Perched high in a tall oak tree as the autumn leaves drift down from its stately boughs, a dashing figure in a black tuxedo appears, his imposing figure commanding the attention of all around.

"Such a lovely girl doesn't deserve to have her radiance fade away like the ending life span of the falling leaves. Move away from her, creature!" A man masked in a tuxedo calls out with authority as effortlessly, he leaps down from the high tree limb, in between an unconscious Molly and the monster.

"TUXEDO MASK!" Sailor Moon happily calls, but her wings were still trapped beneath somebody's big-

"Get off me, Mars!" Sailor grumbles, shoving her red friend.

"You're such a klutz, Sailor Moon!" Mars treated her leader just the same as she treated her friend in normal life.

"You say nasty things still, Mars! Even after all this time!" Sailor Moon's tears were on the verge of spilling, for she too, was the same as always.

"That's because you're still the same, whiny crybaby, Sailor Moon!" Sailor Mars stands over her friend, hands on her hips.

"Some things never change, do they, Mercury?" Jupiter wryly smirks at the quarreling pair.

"Not in our lifetime, they won't." Mercury answers with a sigh.

"Sailor Scouts, watch out!" Tuxedo Mask, who had been trading blows with the monster, while the girls were wasting time blabbering, shouts a warning as the monster jumps back, it's eyes lighting up with dark energy as it charges.

"Stick pin attack!" It calls out with a raspy voice, opening the golden cloak it was sporting, and a multitude of fairly large sharp spears jut out towards her opponents.

"Whhhhhaaaaaaaaaaa!" Shrieking as they avoid the pointed objects, the Scouts all make it through, unstuck somehow. Tuxedo Mask had to rescue poor Sailor Moon as Venus and Mercury plucked pins from her Eternal wings.

"That's it, Monster! You're toast!" Sailor Jupiter angrily shouts at her attack.

"JUPITER OAK EVOLUTION!" A flurry of energized leaves strike out at the dark creature, who in turn, uses its hair pins to block each leaf's blow. It's hideous hair flowed around its distorted head as it cackled.

"It's strong!" Jupiter indignantly stamps the ground at her failed attack.

"Jupiter, watch out!" Venus calls as the creature starts to attack back.

"VENUS LOVE AND BEAUTY SHOCK!" Sailor V sings out with a wink and kiss, which the creature deftly avoids. "She's fast too!" Venus shouts, moving out of the path of another stream of pin daggers.

"What do your readings say, Mercury?" Venus asks as she watches Mars too try to get a reading of the psychic sort on the evil monster.

"Inconclusive as yet. There's just something familiar about its mode of attack, but I can't pin it down." Mercury works furiously on her hand held computer.

"Good choice of words, Mercury." Mars says sarcastically upon opening her concentrating eyes.

"AKUU RYO TAISAN!" Mars calls out suddenly, throwing a temple paper on the unsuspecting monster's forehead, atop the diamond pendant pin.

"EVIL CREATURE BEGONE!" She screechs, as the monster freezes stock still.

"All right, Mars!" Jupiter congratulates her on the stopping of the fierce creature.

"There! Now's your chance, Sailor Moon!" Tuxedo Mask commands of the small, frightened girl hiding in his embrace.

"Right!" Sailor Moon calls out with determination. The moon shines full as the Soldier of it begins her most powerful healing attack.

"SILVER MOON CRYSTAL POWER KISS!" Glistening and shining, magical feathers scatter across the frozen in place monster, fluttering around as its energies build until it ends with a flourish and….

Nothing happens, save for the monster awakening from Rei's spell. Threatening, and angry at its shocked attackers, it's about to strike again.

"Why didn't it work!" Sailor Moon cries in disbelief. Her power kiss was as yet the pinnacle of her energy manifestation as the dark creature produces a large, deadly tipped spear from nowhere, it seemed.

A flash of energy zips past the astonished scouts, riding on the wind, a sword of light bursts through the skies.

SMASH!

The energy blade strikes into the head of the monster, splitting it asunder. But as blood flows, the creature's physical form transforms into a glint of a shadow with a shrieking final cry, sinking away into the earth. The only thing left behind was the diamond pendant, that was fastened to it's now non-existent forehead.

"It didn't work because you can't heal creatures of darkness, Princess. You can only destroy and send them back to where they came from." Soaring in with the wind, Sailor Uranus stands before them. Her face was as strong and serious as ever, but looking a little…worn…and stranger than that—she was alone.

"And how do you know this, Uranus?" Tuxedo Mask asks in his demanding tone (that never washed over too well with this independent minded sailor).

"I KNOW." Uranus gives him a simple reply, along with a pair of rebellious eyes, that warn him off of any further inquisitions.

"The battle is coming, Princess. A great, fierce battle. You need to prepare for obstacles far worse than this. Stand ready." And as quickly as she appears, Sailor Uranus mysteriously departs. The soft autumn breeze suddenly becomes heavy and gale-like as it swirls around them.

"What was that all about?" Sailor Venus twists her lip at the enigmatic wordings.

"Come on, let's get Molly inside." Level-headed Sailor Jupiter, lifts the traumatized but otherwise in good condition young woman towards Crown's again.

"Is she all right?" Sailor Moon asks in worry.

"Yeah, I think she's just shook up." Jupiter replies with a small smile.

"What did Sailor Uranus mean by 'worse obstacles'?" Sailor Mercury asks, her sweet face muddled with concern.

"And why did she come alone? It's really weird to see Uranus without Neptune by her side. Never mind Pluto, Saturn and now the Starlights too. That groups seems inseparable from one another, I thought. I wonder what's going on. This new enemy seems really dangerous." Venus reasons out for once with a clear head, taking her leadership Scout role seriously.

Neptune…Starlights…Their names whistle through Mars' psyche as she quietly strides along the group. Why are my senses going wild at the mention of them? Something is wrong. Something is VERY WRONG. Rei silently keeps her thoughts to herself as the group detransforms, going back into Crown's. Venus' words from a moment ago send up a red flag in Rei's sensitive mind.

Danger. Red flashing.

"Ow, my aching head!" Molly jerks back from her unconscious state, holding her hands to her head. "Whaat! Where's that monster gone!" She jumps up with a start from the Crown's café booth she was laying prone on.

"Calm down, Moll! There's no monsters here silly!" Serena smiles sweetly.

"Huh? Was I—uh-dreaming?" Molly looks at her friends gathered around the table in disbelief. The scene did indeed seem normal with shakes and banana splits all around.

"Maybe you were having one of those over your body experiences!" Mina wackily brainstorms, her blue eyes gleaming with interest in everything weird. (And ending up saying it wrong, of course.)

"A what!" Molly's jaw hangs down.

"An over and out of your body experience! You know when your mind leaves your physical form and your aura goes drifting out to spy on unsuspecting people who can't even see you!" Mina excitedly retells the latest episode of "Unsolved Mysteries". (One of her favorites.)

"Mina, that's totally illogical!" Amy giggles it off, to calm Molly's growing fear from Mina's "exciting" tales.

"You probably just dozed off while you were waiting for us. And that sci-fi horror flick we all watched last night came back to haunt you." Lita offers.

"I don't know. It sure seemed real." Molly shakes her head.

"Well, maybe if you tell us your nightmare, Molly, it's supposed to go away." Rei expertly digs into how this monster came about without alarming Molly's suspicions.

"Good idea, Rei. I heard that really works." Lita agrees, seeing Rei's tactics.

"Well. I was waiting like you said, Lita. And you guys were so late - as usual. So I was going to order a vanilla prune shake when I noticed my diamond pendant pin was missing. I just put in on my blouse earlier. So I started to panic—that pin means a lot to me, you know?" Molly pauses in her tale, to gaze down, her eyes glad to see her pendant firmly pinned on her collar where she had put it.

"That's the one Melvin gave you as a going-away present, isn't it?" Serena remembers the day so long ago it seemed, when Melvin had asked her to come to the jewelry store to pick out a prize for his departing sweetheart.

"Yeah." Molly smiles down as she fingers it thoughtfully. "Well, so back to my story. I thought I lost it. So I panicked, you know, like you do. I retraced my steps, I was sure I had it when I came into the café. And I—remembered that I just combed my hair in the ladies' room, so I went back there."

"And you found it! Isn't that great when you find something you'd thought you'd lost! My cat Artemis takes all my things and hides them all the time, I'm sure." Mina's ditzy mind drifts from the subject.

"Mina, be quiet! We're listening to Molly's nightmare so it goes away." Rei scolds.

"Okay, I'll be quiet." SLURP.

Mina purposely sucked at her straw just to be noisy.

"Go on, Moll." Serena smiles at her friend encouragingly.

"Yeah, well, I found it on the floor. And I was so glad to see it. I dusted it off and held it up to the light to see if it was scratched or anything. But luckily it wasn't and I was thinking about the day Melvin gave it to me and then-" Molly blushes slightly at the mention of her boyfriend.

"And then?" Mina, as if she didn't have any inkling of the outcome of this tale bites hard on her poor straw in expectation of the story's climax.

"And then I looked in the mirror and was gonna put my pendant back on, when someone was suddenly standing next to me. I didn't hear anyone come in so I was a little weirded out, but not too weirded out cause I was so razzled looking for my diamond. But—the girl standing next to me, in front of the mirror, was me! Wearing my same clothes and everything!"

"Ooh, scary!" Serena and Mina clutch each other's hands in fear.

"Yeah!" Molly nods, her eyes large with fright. "I—I mean, SHE—turned to me and said 'Hi, Molly.' And it was my voice, too! 'Give me that pin!' She said. Well, I was shocked, so I said 'No way! Who are you?' And she said, 'I'm you, Molly and that pendant belongs to me!'. I couldn't believe it, so I just got scared and ran. But there was nobody in the café, not even Lizzie! So I kept running, right out into the street. And I turned and saw she was still following me. Oh, I was scared out of my wits! I ran and ran to the park—"

"Wait! You forgot the part where you saw us and yelled to me for help." Serena adds to the story. Lita and Rei both slapped their palms over her mouth, but it was too late, Molly had already heard.

"Yeah, that's right, Serena! So I'm not only just dreaming! You saw it, too!"

"No, er, uh, Molly. They say that good friends already know what the other is thinking even before they think it, that's all. Go on with your story. You're in the park." Serena covers with a wave of her hand.

"Right." Molly nods. "Well, I'm running and running and then my doppelganger knocks me down and says it wants it my energy or something, but I can't remember too well since I was screaming so loud. And then I—I mean the fake me—turned into a hideous monster and grabbed at me and—that's all I can remember. I guess I fainted." Molly shrugs at the five girls listening in rapt attention.

"No, that's probably when you just woke up, Molly." Amy says convincingly.

"Yeah, we just found you here in the booth napping when we came in a few minutes ago." Rei can tell a little white lie if it meant setting another's mind at ease.

"You guys really think so? It was only a dream? But it was so intense! But I guess I've had these kinds of dreams before." Molly asks, doubt of her own senses beginning to take over, as the girls had planned.

"For sure, girlfriend!" Mina waves her hand in the air to beckon Lizzie, who was too busy chatting with a cute new customer than pay attention to her frantic waving. "Coming here would make anyone fall asleep waiting for attention in this popsicle stand!" Mina whines loudly, catching Lizzie blushing at that cute guy. Oooh, I've gotta check him out myself! Ooh, what would Kenny say?

Lizzie scurries over to take Mina's order for a third ice cream sundae.

"Yeah, I guess it was a nightmare." Molly smiles with a sigh at herself under Serena's friendly gaze. Everything seemed so perfectly normal around her as the girls chat merrily. Molly soon joined in the fray, her adventurous afternoon "dream" all but forgotten.

The afternoon passes as they all gab jauntily, save for one raven-haired psychic whose gnawings inside told her that everything from now on, would be far from normal or perfect…

---

Deep within the Earth, beneath the sea floor, a transparent white pulsating light stops abruptly in its orb, hovering above the two thrones in which two people sat.

"It seems our first attempt has ended in failure." Queen Aquamarianna almost smiles, with a sarcastic tone showing just how much she really cared about this mission.

"Do not consider this so smugly, my Queen. She who has given us great power needs this energy to be awakened for her purposes." King Pearlrellion chides his flighty wife.

"I am aware of this, my King." Aquamarianna, besides being a woman who bored easily, also was one who knew how to keep on her husband's good side with her flirtations. "Was it not I who suggested to seek out this truest form of energy—love energy—for her Majesty, Queen Metallia?" Aquamarianna muses as she dabbles at his silver white hair amorously.

"Indeed you have, my beautiful Queen. You are as intelligent as you are lovely." Pearlrellion was not totally immune to her caresses.

"Pearlrellion! Aquamarianna!" Suddenly a voice booms from the dark abyss—a commanding voice—HER voice.

"Your Majesty." Down on their knees, this royal looking pair bows before the blazing inferno swirling abruptly before them.

"I almost felt an energy surge! Why has it ceased! I demand more of you!" Metallia's voice drips with evil.

"Forgive us, Queen Metallia. It was our first attempt only and has already met interference with those known as Sailor Soldiers. They do not seem worthy opponents, but we were taken by surprise by their appearance. It will not happen again." Pearlrellion confidently says. He had watched the whole thing through their shadow emissary's eyes at the failed battle until the creature was destroyed.

"See that it doesn't, Pearlrellion. Those Sailor Soldiers are the bane of my existence. But they will never stop me, if am to awaken and put you both in your rightful places, where all the royalty of the world will bow down to you, as they always should have." Metallia knew just how to push this couple's buttons. Power hunger and greed were the "diseases" that had overtaken them both.

"Yes, my Queen." Pearlrellion and Aquamarianna answer in determined unison.

"When will my heir be ready to assist you in my dark mission?" Metallia demands. The King and Queen move to where a certain silver-haired young man was being mystically transformed with the aid of raw evil energy supplied by Metallia herself.

"Soon, Queen Metallia, soon." Pearlrellion looks down at the boy Metallia had promised so much of to him. He secretly doubted the small looking boy's potential, despite Metallia's assurances. And that was not all his jealous heart doubted as his eyes rested upon his Aquamarianna's eyes gazing down at the boy. Her aqua eyes were alight and a wanting smile upon her lips.

"Come, my Queen. Let us choose our next victim." Pearlrellion firmly takes hold of his wandering wife's arm, the two of them leaving the antechamber with a respectful nod at the beacon of light shimmering still in the center of the room.

"Awake, blood of my blood. Awaken soon to wreak the havoc I have planned for this bright world. We will turn it to the darkness it yearns for! You and I only, my heir. Those fools are unworthy of ruling at my side." Her cackling echoes through the underground cavern. Metallia's wicked betrayal reaches out her icy hand to touch Robin Starr's soul with her evil intentions….

---

Late in the afternoon the next day, the girls meet together at Serena and Darien's apartment to discuss the sudden attack on Molly. They came to no certain conclusions save for the one that belied this level of evil—the Negaverse. They HAD to be involved somehow. And that meant the Sailor Scouts would just have to defeat this new enemy.

After discussing these weighty affairs (and discovering that Serena's kitchen cupboards were bare of any energy-enhancing vittles) the five girls and two cats head down to Crown's for a little brain food.

"Hi, Lizzie! Give me the biggest strawberry shake you can whip up!" Serena sings, her mental faculties in need of refreshment.

"And a double scoop chocolate banana whip supreme for me! Just the way you know I like it, Liz!" Mina plops down next to her friends in the circular booth, squeezing in and squishing Artemis in the process.

"You got it, gang! And I'm going to make your desserts extra special nice today! I'm in a really, really good mood! Just look at what my boyfriend gave me for my birthday!" Lizzie comes to them with a huge smile as she hugs the tray to her chest. "Look!" Lizzie pulls out a silver chain necklace from around her neck, displaying a sapphire jewel pendant, hanging from it.

"Oh Elizabeth, it's beautiful!" Amy says sweetly.

"You didn't tell us it was your birthday, Lizzie! We would've gotten you something, too!" Lita, almost sisterly, fingers the gorgeous gem.

"Well, technically it's not, not until December, but since my boyfriend's going away soon and all, he decided to give it to me now." Lizzie babbles, toying with the necklace.

"My birthday's in December, too! We sure do have a lot in common, Lizzie." Lita smiles.

"We sure do, Sis." Lizzie playfully squiggles her nose at her best friend that she hoped someday would be truly her "sister."

"Sis! Ooh, ooh, Lita! Is Andrew getting serious!" Mina teases, poking at Lita. (While strangling Artemis who had poured the salt shaker down her dress as punishment for squnching him earlier.)

"Andrew? Serious? No way! He's a lot of fun to have around!" Serena totally misses the point—again—as Lizzie arrives with order of their ice cream.

And Lizzie appears with their order of ice cream.

"WHAATT!" Lita jumps up as the two Lizzies catch sight of each other. Both throw their ice cream filled trays up in the air. (All of their gooey contents dripping all over a slow moving and unlucky bunny - namely Serena, of course.)

"IT'S ME!" Lizzie shrieks (both of them) as both twin images race out the café door.

"Is this place cursed or something! Here we go again!" Rei complains, jumping out of the path of a slippery banana, now totally split as Serena slips on it, sliding through the store until she lands, SPLAT, on her bottom.

"Did this just happen yesterday or what!" Mina calls, running towards the exit.

"No time to sit around, Serena." Luna hops atop her head with an authoritative voice.

"Girls! Transform!" Artemis calls the alarm.

"RIGHT!" Amy, Lita, Mina and Rei rush past out the door, pulling their crystal wands out as they do.

"Hey! Wait for me, guys!" Serena whines, slithering about as she pummels out the door after them, leaving a sticky trail of chocolate goo and squished bananas in her wake.

---

Feeling cold, icy fingers grip her heart, Michelle awakens with a start to find herself in Alex's spartan bedroom. Looking out the large window, she finds the sun high in the sky. But days melded into nights now and nothing seemed to matter anymore. She wanted only to sleep her pain away—to hide from this reality. Because her dreams were filled with him—with his sweetness and his eyes—and yet, so were her nightmares. In them, he was calling out—his light pleading with her to help, but she could never reach him in time….

"Are you awake, Michelle?" Susan's soft spoken voice comes from the other side of her bed. Michelle had not noticed the quiet woman sitting there until she spoke.

"Yes." Michelle answers simply, her own voice sounding strange to her ringing ears.

"How are you feeling, dear?" Susan comes over, touching Michelle's shoulder gently.

"Shouldn't I be the one asking you that? Susan, you're getting bigger every time I see you." Michelle tries to smile, this being the first time she returned from her two-month honeymoon, that her eyes even looked at the pregnant woman.

"Yes, the baby is due in just about two months." Susan massages her bulging stomach gently.

"Are you visiting a doctor regularly?" Michelle tries to make normal conversation—she tries to pretend that everything would be all right…and maybe if she does, Robin would just appear back, just like normal.

"Yes, in fact, I'm supposed to go later today, when Terry gets back." Susan glances at her pocket watch she always wore.

"Where are Alex and the boys?" Michelle feels distant lost tears biting at her eyes. Even as she speaks, barely noticing Susan's lip-biting silence, when a shrill shriek breaks through the quiet from somewhere down below, outside the window in the street.

The trained soldier she was, despite her condition, Susan rushes to the balcony's edge, seeing the danger below that she feared was happening.

"Michelle! Stay here!" Susan, even in her delicate state, dutifully knows what she must do. Reaching to the air on the balcony as she watches a young girl below flee for her life from a hideous monster that had to be from the Negaverse, and the Sailor Scouts there seemed to be helpless, as they were caught strung together on a chain.

"PLUTO CRYSTAL POWER! MAKE UP!" A very pregnant Susan transforms into a duly very pregnant Sailor Pluto as the purple mists of time swirl around her. Feeling the weight of her burden, she makes a Sailor leap down from the high balcony's edge, landing perfectly on her feet, despite her large girth to the street below.

"PLUTO DEADLY SCREAM!" Sailor Pluto calls upon her power as she watches the chain deteriorate around the girls' necks.

"Thanks, Sailor Pluto! But are you all right to fight like this!" Eternal Sailor Moon, ditz as she was, was still a caring person, especially about her dearest friends.

Pluto simply nods her head.

"Sailor Moon, now's not the time!" Mars calls out as she catches a new attack from the blue and silver creature coming towards them.

"MARS FLAME SNIPER!" She shoots her burning arrow and it clashes directly into the silver chained sword zapping towards them and—

Energy explodes as the two powers meet. The monster's attack seems failed in the burning flames as the smoke clears, until….the silver strand continues the attack towards them—the girls caught unexpected.

Sailor Pluto's body wasn't responding in it's usual agility and all of them were just a moment too slow as the silver chain encircles them, pulling around them tightly and squeezing hard!

"STAR GENTLE UTERUS!" Sailor Star Maker's acid sizzles the tightening chain in half as he dashes to his lady's side, catching her as she stumbles from the dissipating energy around them.

"Susan." Star Maker holds his wife to his chest, protectively shielding her from the enemy with a ferocious, angry look at the creature who dared to harm his darling lady.

"STAR SERIOUS—

"URANUS WORLD—"

From the two sides, the blue monster is threatened to be smashed with raw killing energy, as it turns. Dashing in front of a knocked out Lizzie, it scoops her up and holds her in front as a human shield.

"STOP! Uranus, Fighter!" Eternal Sailor Moon screams out, throwing her arms out in front of them.

"Sailor Moon! We have to destroy it! It can't be healed!" Fighter screams out, Uranus at his side.

"I know! But it has Lizzie!" Sailor Moon's compassionate heart aches as the blue-haired creature cackles, the dark crystal appearing in her one long-nailed hand as she presses it to Lizzie's unconscious chest…

"STAR SERIOUS LASER!" The intense beam of light zaps through anyway, hitting the monster direct center on its forehead—the target of the crystal sapphire pendant hit dead on as the monster shrieks in agony. It sinks to its knees and drops Lizzie to the ground as it fades into a wisp of black shadow sinking into the earth.

"FIGHTER!" The Inner Scouts turn in shock to the Sailor behind them.

"You could have hit Lizzie!" Lita angrily growls as she rushes to her downed "sister."

"That was totally dangerous and uncalled for, Stupid!" Mars, never having much love lost on Fighter, twists her lip in annoyance at his disobedience.

"Fighter knows what he's doing." Maker snaps back at them in his brother's defense.

"I couldn't just stand here and let that girl's life be taken away like that!" Fighter yells at them—the thoughts of life and death weighing heavily on his mind as of late.

"Let's go." Uranus says simply as Maker lifts his delicate wife and carries her away from the scene.

"You yourselves have to be willing to destroy it next time, even if it means sacrifice. There's no time for hesitation. We don't usually get second chances." Uranus says over her shoulder as she and Fighter streak away.

"I'm not as strong as you guys are. If that's what it takes - then I'm sorry." Sailor Moon looks up to the blinding sunlight, knowing that Uranus was right, that the toughest battle was on the horizon. And that even she must be ready to stand and fight like a soldier, too. But sometimes that price was too hugh for her soul to pay.

Nevertheless, Lizzie was all right. And that was what mattered to her worried friends. They had calmed their hysterical buddy and convinced her it was all only a hallucination due to the sugar rush of the many sweets she and Lita had been busy making. In addition, the excitement of getting such a beautiful sapphire from her boyfriend, and his upcoming departure, set her up for a few mind zingers they all assured her.

Lizzie, ditz as she was, finally accepts their suppositions and goes back to oozing about her gift proudly. She shows off its sparkling jewel once again, as if nothing had happened.

"Strange the way this new enemy is attacking us, isn't it guys?" Amy asks, as she, Serena, Mina, Rei and the cats walk home. (Lita had stayed behind to keep an eye on Lizzie, arranging even a sleep-over at her apartment. She was a worried "big sis.")

"What do you think, girls? What's the connection?" Artemis asks, riding on Mina's shoulder.

"I don't know, Artemis." Mina says in a serious tone. "But we have to be prepared for anything."

"That's right. I've been getting really weird vibes from this enemy…like…like…we've been through this all, somewhere before." Rei's psychic abilities try to narrow down why she felt that way but to no avail.

"So, until we find out who this new enemy is, we all have to keep on our toes. Right, Serena?" Luna, on Amy's comfortable shoulder, looks across to where the usually chatter-box girl had been keeping amazingly silent.

"Yeah." Serena sighs as her unfocused eyes look up to where she leaves the group at her and Darien's apartment.

"Catch you guys later." Serena says lacklusterly, the usual bounce in her step was missing as she and Luna disappear into the Maisons building.

"What's wrong with her?" Artemis asks, quizzical at the girl's sudden mood change.

"Well, Sailor Uranus was a little tough on her, and you know how much Alex's opinion means to Serena." Amy answers.

"Not to mention Sayer's." Mina smirks wickedly, trying to put a funny view on this upcoming grave situation. But it doesn't work—even on her, as she looks up to the sudden cool winds hitting her cheek, the clouds suddenly masking the bright sunlight.

"I wonder why Alex and the others are so, I don't know, jumpy and serious." Mina sighs. The Outers were never, by any means, a light-hearted group, but still—there was something more from the 2 Outers and 2 Starlights they had just seen that they weren't seeing…

---

"Susan, darling." Star Maker gently lays the pregnant Sailor Pluto on the spare bed in Sayer and Alex's apartment. "I don't want you to come into battle any longer. You're not strong enough. You may harm yourself detransforming." Maker says as he reverts back to his natural form.

"But darling, I still have to do my duty as the Princess' guardian." Susan, though quiet obedience to her husband came so naturally, knew her purpose here on this Earth and understood her mission full well.

"Susan, promise me." It's all Terry had to say. His eyes were transfixed upon her in that way she could never say "no" to.

"Yes, darling." Susan gazes back into Terry's compassionate purple eyes. "I don't want to harm the baby, either." She lowers her chin, her eyes resting worriedly at the round tummy holding something so important to her—to them both—that was squeezed a little too hard during the battle earlier.

"Not just the baby, my precious." Terry holds Susan's delicate hand to his chest. "I don't want you in even the slightest bit of danger. If something should ever happen to you, my darling lady, I would…"

Terry trails off, his eyes filled with such worry and anxiety for her safety. There was such love in his gorgeous eyes. "…I'll do everything for the both of us. I'll take care of it all. Don't worry." Terry kisses her two sweet hands.

"You are so good to me, darling. I couldn't be without you either." Susan was on the verge of tears at her husband's sweet concern for her well-being. She, unable and unwilling, to argue with the truth in what he was saying. And even though duty was calling to her subconscious, Susan agrees to do as he says, for she knew she would always obey him. They found solace in each other's arms, despite the storm brewing outside.

"Are you two lovering in here? Just because this used to be your old room, Ter, doesn't mean you can just take advantage of a situation." Sayer's usual quip comes in, disturbing the couple's sweet embrace.

"You must learn to knock, Sayer." Terry chides in his older brother way, though not really surprised by Sayer's doings.

"Old habit." Sayer nonchalantly shrugs it off, as he always does, sidling up to Susan and sitting on the bed next to her. "How are you feeling, Susie?" He reaches towards her stomach and lays a hand on it. There was a curious look on his face at the wonder happening within her.

"I'm fine, thank you." Susan smiles at his sweet, boyish ways, though a tiny bit embarrassed to have another man touch her like that. But Susan was quickly accepting this dark haired boy as her brother.

"How is Michelle?" Terry asks, as Sayer brings his ear away from Susan's amused tummy, listening for baby gurgles and such.

"Michelle?" Sayer's smiling face is transformed into a quiet, serious one. "Michelle's not so good. She's kind of…um…" Sayer starts to say when his words are cemented by Michelle's sudden scream out in the hall.

"STOP! I don't want this! STOP! Go away!" One minute, she was calm, lying in her bedclothes, her unclosing eyes unfocused out the window at the battering winds beating against the window outside. But the next minute she jumps up in a flash, racing through the apartment's hallways like a mad woman.

"Michelle! MICHELLE! Stop!" Alex chases her from the bedroom, worry written on her face at Michelle's sudden hysterical outburst. Ranting and raving, as they all watch with concern, Michelle breaks Alex's strong grip, determined to escape from someone. Her aqua hair was flying askew, her eyes faded as if she were not all there, as she races into the room at the end of the hall. The others chase after her, not wanting her to be alone, not with the memories that came with that room…

Hurrying in, they find poor Michelle sitting on the floor, her head buried in her knees and her arms wrapped tightly around herself in a ball.

"Michelle?" Alex halts the others with a hand in the doorway. She slowly approaches her beloved partner across the room that was now used only for storage of old things such as trophies and awards.

Yet, someone's bed still remained, as well as a dresser and other furniture once used by someone who lived here.

"Michelle." Alex repeats at her no-reply. Only Michelle's beating chest and trembling showed any movement at all from the figure of the woman kneeling now on the carpeted floor.

"Alex. I can feel him. This used to be his room. Please, can I stay here? Please." Pleading, Michelle's eyes still had that unfocused quality about them, unsettling Alex as she gazes on her cousin.

"Of course, Michelle. If that's what you really want." Alex places a firm hand on the trembling shoulder as Sayer appears kneeling beside them.

"Sure, 'Chelle. We'll get it fixed up for you, right away. It's a real mess now, I know. Ally just throws her junk everywhere." Sayer smiles, meeting Alex's eyes with Michelle's for a long second. Alex sees in Michelle's blue gaze HIM as she rises shakily. Terry steadies her on her feet as she gets up, drifting over. Everyone watches her in silent worry as she walks straight forward to the wall that she and Robin had hung that portrait she had painted for him so long ago it seemed. It had only been a year and a little bit, but forever had passed in between and Michelle was determined to hold onto that forever. Going with her every sense within, despite the belief of the world without.

Seeing the "painting" she had made just for her beloved, that day he first moved in—that distant happy day—Michelle reaches out. She touches the exact place on the invisible portrait where two soulful hands were touching, above and beyond anything, as she reaches out to him, and for a brief moment, she could feel his warmth, his energy…his shining love surging through her in a burst of light. And that is the moment, Michelle collapses unconscious to the floor.

---

A raging battle. Good and evil spar over one star-crossed soul, tearing at it to its very core. A fine balance between goodness and wickedness—a soft tread all humans must tarry upon. But the mark was set long ago on this true soul, the line drawn with an overwhelming honesty—the need for rightful justice and unwavering devotion to that which he loved the most. And it was because of her and her alone that he has held out this long against the odds opposing him on the ominous side of evil.

"Michelle, Michelle! I'm drowning! I'm drowing again in this darkness! It's trying to consume me! I won't let it take me, because I want to be with you again. I want things to be right again. But still, even in this, even though I cannot physically or even psychically feel you anymore, I know you're out there praying for me and believing in me. Help me now, Michelle. Bring me back to you. I love you."

Robin's unconscious body still had a comprehending soul and the soul knew what was being demanded of him—of what this evil monster expected from him, as he reaches out in a final spurt of energy to she whom he loved so dearly. She had made it possible for him to never be alone again.

"Shun away from these weak thoughts, my heir. You need her not. Love is such an unimportant trifle in this world. Join with me. It is I who will never leave you. For evil is always within you." Queen Metallia's scalding voice grates into even Robin's deepest thoughts and in his soul. She was determined to take hold of him, mind, body, heart and soul on her inception of him to her own dark forces as she reaches her cold grip over him even tighter.

"Stop! I don't want this! STOP! Go away!" His soul cries out in agony as the goodness is stripped from him, piece by piece, until only one thread remains—the one even powerful Queen Metallia finds herself wrestling with to extract from him. It was so ingrained within him, so cherished and valued, and held onto—his love for Michelle. For love was the most powerful force on this Earth—on any planet, throughout every distant star. Even into the realms of space and beyond—love was the center of it all, when it is true and binding. And that Metallia did not understand, could not ever understand. In her evilness, her wretched ways, she knew nothing of love. She only knew what to do to it—and that was to destroy it at its source.

Sifting through Robin's dying mind, picking up bits of information she needs, no longer having to go far to break down the barriers. His weakened mind had done everything to try to erect a shield around his thoughts of Michelle. Metallia almost laughs at how easy it was going to be as she seeds her evil thoughts—her every wicked whim and wile—through that bond that still existed between her new heir and the woman he held onto so dearly. The woman who he, even to this very last moment, was reaching out to for help. But even more than that, for her love.

SLAM!

Clamping down hard, Metallia sends that fatal pulse of evil energy through that link—that bond she had forced herself into. Her raw power travels directly into the woman known as Michelle—into her brain—and would certainly cease her existence on this world. The surge of dark energy would definitely kill…

That is, had it not been for, with the last final stream of goodness, Robin proved himself stronger than even Metallia, stronger than her take over, and his love stronger than any force—good or evil. He lashes out at the vile creature about to destroy the one he loved more than any other in this universe.

CRASH!

On the psychic plane and somewhere beyond, where good and evil clashed, Robin intercepts her attack on Michelle, using every last bit of everything in him to fight the monster within him, cut Metallia off from Michelle with such power and overwhelming strength.

Michelle tries to reach out, feeling the storm too, wanting to help him. The raging inferno of wills, of raw psi energy coursing sends her into a deep unconsciousness. With a hatred stemming from his own childhood memories, made extreme in defense of the soul he loved, Robin unleashes a new power exuding from within him—one he never had before as he battles against Metallia. Pausing in the battle as she moves, she was not even a little affected by his pure despise for her.

"THERE!" Metallia cackles at his surprise. "The seeds of hatred were planted against me and they have grown into full bloom with the dark energy I have given to you. Your angry soul gladly accepted. Awaken now, my heir. Awaken and be counted with me. Evil now is your only true master." The cackle increases its horrid sound as underground in the darkness somewhere a young soldier awakens. His green eyes were alight with nothing now save for pure evil.

---

High above ground, in a tall apartment building, it's towering visage was bathed in the sunsetting last rays of light. But a golden haired woman notices the beauty not, though this was her favorite time of day. Evening was just quietly making its dusky entrance between light and darkness.

Between light and darkness. Closing her eyes, Alex, for a split second prior to when Michelle had collapsed hours ago, had sensed through her own bond with her aqua treasured one, that conflict was enveloping her soul. A conflict from somewhere far away, without, and could not be any more from within. Light and darkness, darkness and light. Alex's mind weighs heavily as she remains vigilant at Michelle's side. She has for hours now been watching Michelle as she tries to decipher what this insane world has done to her adored cousin—from something Alex herself could not shield her from. And that's what hurt Alex most of all.

"Ally? You go take a break. I'll watch 'Chelle." Sayer's quiet tread enters the room a while later. Alex had obeyed Michelle's request, despite her own recriminations, as to the wisdom of this decision. Michelle now laid on the bed in Robin's old room.

"No, I won't leave her." Alex gently touches the tender hand lying unconscious on the bed of the person she had swore to always protect.

"Then, I'll stay with you." Sayer, with concern for them both, didn't want to be alone himself, now that Terry and Susan had left to claim a displaced Tara from her dinner at the Harts'.

Bringing a chair over, he pushes it up close to Alex, sitting next to her.

"If you'd like." Alex almost could smile at the sweet way he works, trying to undo her clenched fist. She didn't notice before how white and blood drained it had become from hours of her nails digging tightly into her own palms.

"What happened, Ally? Why did 'Chelle…?" Sayer trails off his question, still holding the left hand he was massaging.

"I…I don't know." A lie, albeit a small white one. She herself didn't fully comprehend what was revealed to her in that moment. Alex kept this from Sayer's beleaguered mind, the horrors of reality she had just come to realize were starting to pass. She had seen plainly how the painful search for someone lost wasalso preying on her lover's mind, and now this.

Metallia. The Queen of Evil. Yes, I had sensed her presence for certain in Michelle's soul. But she wasn't alone. He was there, too. Only for a moment, a desperate moment. That shrimp appeared. He's alive. And Metallia has him. I have to find him and bring him back to Michelle. 'Cause if I rescue him, I'll be rescuing her. And I must protect her no matter what the costs.

Alex gazes at the face asleep before her. It's always been you and me, Michelle. I haven't forgotten. Suddenly she feels Sayer's warm touch on her stiffened neck. His strong fingers caress her cheek with a sweet caring, shining and beautiful mournful eyes as they meet Alex's determined green ones.

You too, little puppy. I must shield you from this world too. I must and I will. And I have to do it alone. If anyone is to be sacrificed, it has to be me.

Feeling the weight of responsibility for these two vulnerable souls she had come to love so deeply, Alex steels herself with the knowledge of what she must do—of the new mission assigned to her by painful destiny and unforgiving fate. She was prepared to do battle all alone with evil incarnate if that's what it took. Alex closes her eyes, pooling all of her deep sensibilities to seek out and locate the lair of hell itself, that now resided somewhere far too near to those she held close to her heart.

The realization that Michelle may never awaken from this deep slumber, until this evil trying desperately to grip her was destroyed, Alex's eyes focus on the torrential rainstorm suddenly breaking from the dark, hovering clouds.

It will be destroyed. Ablaze, her soul reverberates with the confidence and determination against whatever unknown was coming ahead.

---

The dark clouds turn even darker as the rainstorm grows heavier in the twilight sky completely blocking any of the moon's illuminating rays. The child of the moon looks up from inside the safety of her high-rise apartment, searching the vastness for the guidance of the celestial bodies above had always given her.

Here I am again. Danger's coming and I don't know how to protect my friends from it! I'm so stupid, but what can I do? My powers aren't good enough to beat this new enemy.

A small teardrop falls from the blue eyes of the young woman perched near the window.

"Serena?" A bluish-black cat jumps up to the ledge beside the girl.

"Hey, Luna. Why does everyone look up to me when I'm such a silly, crybaby girl?" Serena asks quietly.

"Because you're the sacred Moon Princess. The chosen one they've all sworn their lives to protect. Me too, you know." At times a slave driving boss, and at other times a motherly morale booster, Luna was all that and more to the young princess.

"But Luna, what if I can't do this anymore? What if my powers aren't enough to stop whatever's happening this time? What then? Alex is right…I have to be more prepared. But how Luna?" Serena whimpers, sinking to the floor on her knees.

"Serena." Luna commands her attention, though she knew the time for this young woman to be her student was drawing to a close. Yet until then…

"Sit up straight. You wouldn't want the others to see you like this, do you? Sailor Uranus only wants you to be ready. All of the Scouts do. So you can stand up for yourself, so you won't be hurt. It's because you are important to them—not because they want you to feel bad. You can do this if you believe in yourself, and them as well. Confidence, young lady. Isn't that Darien is trying to teach you all the time?" Luna tries to perk Serena's emotional spirits with the mention of the love of her life.

"Yes." It worked, as Serena smiles, brightening at the thought of her husband, who was due back home soon from work in fact. "He's going to be home soon." She dries her tear-stained face and catches Luna's concerned gaze in the corner of her eye. "Thank you, Luna!" Serena scoops up her furry companion in a squishing hug.

"SeRENA!" Luna ekes out, having the breath squeezed out of her. "I heard the door close, didn't you?" The poor cat understands Serena's ditzy emotional outbursts, but sometimes she was just too much.

"Darien!" Tossed aside and unceremoniously dumped to the floor, Luna slinks away, cracking her displaced bones back into place as she slithers to her own section of the apartment, giving the married couple some much needed time alone.

"Darien! Darien!" Like a little child, Serena rushes through the hallway, nearly knocking the same cactus down that she did every time, racing to welcome her love home with an embrace.

"Calm down, Serena. I'm all wet. Forgot the umbrella and the storm hit suddenly." Darien's calm, sweet laugh was music to Serena's lonesome ears.

"Whad'ya get me? Huh? Huh!" Playfully, Serena coos at him, digging into Darien's pockets in search of hidden prizes that might be inside. (And occasionally, there were.)

"Well…." Darien walks along into the living room, dragging Serena along with him. He carelessly tosses his wet jacket onto the chair. "I just happened to run into Rei on my way home from work and we got talking—" Darien seemed eager to drag out his story.

"Rei? I think you bump into Rei too often." Serena begins to pout, remembering Darien and Rei's former "relationship" and…

"Darien!" Serena's ditzy mind jumps from one thought to the next as she grabs hold of the beautiful opal ring in it pinkish, platinum shades in the shape of a familiar heart. "My ring!" Serena kisses the opal she'd be so worried about for weeks, since she first realized it was missing.

"Rei found it in the pocket in one of those kimonos you wore for the program. You didn't happen to think you lost it, did you?" Darien's smile was enough for Serena to see that he wasn't angry with her scatterbrained ways, as he slips the lost ring on her finger—the same left hand he did what seemed so long ago—a promise of the lifetime they would spend together…

"Me? Lose my engagement ring? Oh no! Not me!" After a long relieved gaze at the beautiful heart ring, Serena's big grin looks up to her tall, eyebrows-raised husband. Her eyes close on her sweet baby face as Darien leans down to kiss her smiling lips.

"Be truthful, Meatball head. You did it."

Darien stops quizzically, looking down at his youthful wife, critically studying the unmoving lips etched in a sweet smile, knowing the voice who had just said those words was unquestioningly hers.

"Wh-what did you say, Serena?" A logical man, Darien could not explain how his less-than-skillful-at-conjuring-wife could have learned to throw her voice.

"I said, I didn't lose my engagement—" Serena, perhaps not hearing the voice, or more likely, thinking it was her conscious berating her fibbing, repeats her last vocal sentiment. The innocent smile was still shining up at Darien until…

"You lost it, you liar! You don't deserve such a nice ring! Here! Give it to me!" Her voice, her hand, her face—even down to the same exact dress. Serena finds herself in surprise turning to gaze into the crystal blue eyes of her exact duplicate double!

"WHAAAAAAAAT!" Serena screeches, backing against the couch behind her in shock.

"I said,' GIVE IT TO ME!'"

Even in her worst moods, Serena could never be as threatening as her doppelganger was at the moment as she moves in toward the real Serena, reaching for the hand that the ring was now on…

SLAP! Her attacking hand is thrust away as Darien moves in between the two versions of his wife.

"Who are you!" He demands, authoritatively.

"Who am I? Muffin, don't take that tone with me! You know who I am, don't you?" From forceful to playful, the second Serena runs a sweet finger up a suspicious Darien's chest. The loving smile on her face was pasted there until suddenly, her small hand jumps to his surprised neck, squeezing around it with unbelievable strength—well beyond anything Serena could ever muster.

"How do you like it, Muffin! Remember when you did this to my little neck, you big, strong man! Well I DO!" With amazing power and speed both, Serena #2 squeezes the shocked man's neck even harder, rushing with him out into the open balcony. Her little, yet powerful hands were still wrapped tightly around his thorax.

"STOP! STOP!" Serena #1 races after them, pounding on herself (well, you know) trying to loosen the seemingly unbreakable arm from its grasp around Darien's poor neck, but it wouldn't budge.

"Leave him alone! Who are you! How do you know all this about us! Put him down!" Serena screams as the rain pours down on the three of them. The evil Serena was threatening to lift Darien's form over the balcony's edge.

"If you insist, Meatball head. You're next, after all. That is, after I get rid of—"

WHAM!

Kicked flat, dead center in the gut, the wind knocked out of her, but it was still not enough to release her unyielding grip. Darien manages to get a little loosening around the neck, enough to breathe out a few short words.

"Serena! Get—out of here! Run!" He commands, her safety the most important thing to him.

She shakes her head, tears in her eyes.

"You're gonna pay for that, Muffin! Eat pavement!" Serena's evil double coughs out, holding the soaking wet man over the edge—and lets him go…

"STOP!" Serena screams at the top of her lungs, stretching across the balcony railing, grabbing Darien's flailing hand in an unbelievable save with her right hand. Her left hand extended out to her double, the ring on it ripe for the taking, as Serena #2 grabs the hand greedily for the object she wanted…

Strategy…Is that what I've learned? That's what you've been trying to teach me, isn't it? Maybe I am getting better. Hold on, Muffin! Here we go!

Scattered thoughts zap through Serena's mind as the invader does as she is expected to, grabbing the hand with the ring. Serena uses this momentum of the pull backwards and Darien's descent downwards, with a little bit of luck and ingenuity combined, to send the fake "her" flying over the edge of the railing, letting Darien's strangling neck go in the surprise with a short Serena-ish squeal as she falls. She disappears into the dark, hailing rainstorm below.

"Hold on!" Serena cries out to her husband, she wasn't quite strong enough to hold on to his hands much longer in the rain.

"Got it!" Darien grunts as his strong hand extends itself over to reach the balcony's railing. He pulls himself up, landing in a soaked to the bone heap on the balcony. Serena falls down next to him, enveloping him in a huge hug.

"Darien, I was so scared!" She sobs, adding to the moisture already drenching his chest.

"Serena… cough, cough…are you all right?" Darien asks, looking into her eyes for confirmation. Reflected in her eyes was concern, relief, fear. Darien knew his wife well enough to instinctively know what was happening in the sky behind him. He didn't need his own eyes as he watches hers dart up towards whatever was behind his back.

Leaping as he scoops up his frozen stock-still wife in his arms, Darien and Serena are just missed by a stream of blasting hearts exploding pink, iridescent light on the balcony. It's radiance burned a heart shaped hole into the cement floor.

"You thought you were done with me so easily, eh, Moon Princess? Gotta say, you're not the same wimpy girl I was told you would be, Sailor Moon." Taunting with her words, standing high on the dark raincloud, a very busty "angel", more of a demon though pale pinks, replete with white feathered wings to hold her high on the pounding rains. She swoops in towards the couple, evil intent evident though, opposite of the angelic wings and melon pink flowing hair, and her beautiful though empty eyes.

Dodging attack after attack, Serena skitters across the balcony as Darien rushes the creature, attacking it physically with his only weapon—a broom handle left on the balcony by Serena earlier. He expertly holds the creature back, and Serena knew this was her cue.

Ignoring the scary thunder crashing about her, she raises her hand to the sky.

"MOON ETERNAL MAKE UP!" She starts her call, transforming herself into the winged eternal Sailor Soldier amidst the flurry of feathers and sparkling light she was growing more and more accustomed to again.

WHACK! Right on the head with the brush end of the broom, Darien smirks as he lands a hit on the creature's contrary head.

"How dare you touch me with that filthy thing! Just because you're not wearing a tuxedo, you should still act like a gentleman!" With a pout, she reminded him of Serena's ditzy ways somehow. The creature rubs her head, pointing an accusing finger at the poor man defending his home, his wife, as the monster angrily yanks a small, dark jewel from her chest. She shrieks along the balcony, rushing towards a taken aback Darien, grabbing him and pushing him flat down on his back. "Just for that I'm going to drain your energy too! Imagine you messing with my hair!" Taking the dark gem, the winged intruder presses it to Darien's struggling neck.

"Stop right there, Monster! You better put him down if you know what's good for you! I am Sailor Moon, champion of love and justice! And on behalf of the moon-"

Eternal Sailor Moon steps out. Her radiant eyes the only brightness in the dark night.

"I'll punish you. Yeah, yeah. I've heard it all before." The angel rolls her eyes. "Why don't you ever change those sorry lines into something cooler, with more zip to it?" She asks on the side as she pauses in her attack on Darien to comment.

"How do you know so much about me!" Indignant at the monster's continual knowledge of things Negacreeps usually don't know about, Sailor Moon puts her hands on her hips. She also forgetting that they were in the midst of a battle.

"Because I know you, Serena. I couldn't be here if you didn't give me life." Holding up one finely manicured hand, the angelic creature displays the opal heart ring on her left hand. "And besides, I have other sources." She cackles mysteriously.

"Hey! That's my ring! You thief! Give it back!" Sailor Moon cries out.

"Oh, this ring? I wonder how much energy the man who gave it to you has? Hmm? He should be a prize? The Prince of Earth—sworn to protect you. Only fools would protect an airhead like you! You're such a worthless creature!" Masterfully, the creature reaches out, ripping back the silk shirt and connecting the dark crystal to Darien's chest, right over his heart.

"No! Stop!" Running to help him, Sailor Moon is thrown back after colliding smack into an invisible forcefield. Only the rain's torrents made the heart-shaped dome around Darien and his attacker visible.

"Darien! Darien!" Serena bangs at the forcefield as she hears the peals of ditzy laughter from inside the bubble. She sees Darien—her love, her life, her important one—laying only semi-conscious, reaching his hand out to her as his life is ebbed away. His energy was draining, leaving his body…

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Sailor Moon screeches from the bottom of her heart. No pain was felt more intensely, no love stronger than what she and Darien had together. It was something she would NEVER let go of.

Suddenly from somewhere within her heart, a small light grows, growing flashing and then exploding into brightness. It echoed through her soul, the words, the energy, newly born of her spirit—of the need to protect the one she loved beyond love. To keep him close to her, safe forever. The rain suddenly ceases, the clouds part to reveal a shining light—

"SPARKLING FULL MOON SILVER RADIANCE!" The resounding words aglow with confidence by the Princess calling the moon to lend its support, feathers and light glimmering all about her, surrounding her. Thousands of silver-white light beams combine together into a single, powerful beacon of light piercing through the darkness. The revealed full moon above rained its power down upon her, as Sailor Moon aims at the monster attacking her beloved prince.

The brilliance breaks through the barrier as if it were nothing but an illusion. Directed at the unsuspecting evil angel, she explodes with a dazzling, silver-white light from every pore of her body. The evilness was wiped away save for one tiny shadow of a shadow, retreating down in through the cracks of the balcony floor.

"Darien! Darien! Are you all right! Oh, Darien!" Rushing to his prone body, Eternal Sailor Moon lifts his head, cradling him in her arms as her teardrops fall on his unconscious cheek.

"Sailor Moon, you…were wonderful." Darien's dark blue eyes open, sparkling at his beautiful rescuer.

"I knew you could do it. I believed in you. I always have. Here." Darien's weakened fingers reach for his chest as he lifts the object that was dropped there when the creature was destroyed.

"On my heart, as you will forever be, Serena. I'm so proud of you." He slips the ring back onto Sailor Moon's gloved finger, Darien smiles weakly, gazing up at her shining, fresh in the moonlight beauty. She, who he knew was the chosen one this earth he was so a part of, needed. He too needed her brilliance, her shine and her love, as the rain falls no longer this night. The radiance of the reflection of intense light from the balcony that night seen and awed by many occupants of Tokyo, stretching its beam around the country, even reported to be seen in lands far distant, across seas and oceans. For there was no glimmer more dazzling than that of the light of true, true love.

---

"Yet another failed attempt, Queen Metallia. As I told you, the boy would make no difference to our mission." King Pearlellion's bold with jealousy words are calmly stated as he addresses the evil queen in her underground labyrinth.

"Such impudence, Pearlrellion! Remember who gave you those vast powers! You think yourself so highly! I WILL TELL YOU how this mission is to be led. You err in your insignificant thoughts. The power of the legendary Moon Princess has been revealed. Now see the mission laid before you by no work of your own. My heir has chosen well—far better than you, Pearlellion."

Stinging words echo through the dark cave as Metallia's voice resounds with majestic indignance at the King's intolerable questioning of her orders.

"The choice was perfect. That girl is filled with pure energy we can tap for you, Metallia." Another voice enters the dark, shadowy room. A younger voice, not half as loud or biting as the evil Queen's but still, somewhere in that voice, could be heard the presence of raw evil.

"It was your weakling shadow who failed us, Pearlellion." Dressed in an all black leather suit, tight fitting around his well-formed muscles, trimmed in mint green chains laced around his arms and neck, tall leather boots cover his pants up to his thighs as the young heir to Metallia's evil ambition strides out before them. His garb, though powerful looking and male as intended, was a haunting reflection of the uniform he once wore when he was on the side of good instead of evil—when he was the Sailor known as Star Healer.

"Do not challenge me, boy." Pearlrellion's anger gets the better of him despite Metallia's presence. Just who was this young rapscallion who waltzes in on Metallia's coattails, attempting to usurp the power she has promised him?

"Pearlellion!" Metallia's voice hits the cave like a crash of thunder, her anger rising.

"Metallia! I need not your protection as much as I need not this young boy's criticisms! If you dare to challenge me, "King", then there will be only one outcome." Like a raging inferno, young Robin Starr's eyes blaze with contempt at the taller man he was glaring at. His shorter stance didn't take away anything from the raw power glowing, bathed in a mint green light behind his threat.

Instead of the anger she expected to see from Metallia at this, Queen Aquamarianna watched quietly from the sidelines of her throne. She was rather surprised by the cackling laughter suddenly echoing through the throne room. Metallia's anger ebbed despite her young heir's impudence towards both her and Pearlrellion—maybe because of it.

"He is what I knew he would be, as you are, King." Metallia's voice begins to wail again, utilizing this friction between men to get what she wanted from both of them. While she didn't need Pearlrellion any longer, his evil ambition could still be put to good use. "Energy. I require it. My young firebrand, o honored king, you both have the power to seek it out and capture it for me. However it is done, this is my demand."

FLASH!

In an explosion of gleaming light, Metallia makes her own powers of evil known, flaring her authority over such simple things as life or death. Pearlellion bows his loyalty and homage as does Aquamarianna, who out of the corner of her bowing eye, notices he who does not bow. He was standing up, his arms firmly crossed in a defiant pose. Those dazzling green eyes were laughing at her husband's subservience. His mouth smirks at Pearlellion's weakness before Metallia.

Is it simply youth? Or it is confidence and knowledge in the power he holds? This requires further investigation…

After Metallia's presence dims to nothingness, Aquamarianna, a woman of wiles herself, who knew power and men very well, and how to connive and manipulate to her own advantage, makes her way over to the men she sees before her.

"Do you not fear Queen Metallia, young one?" Aquamarianna slinks (there was no other word for the way she was holding herself) towards Robin, her large aqua eyes blinking innocent as a dove at him with a question.

"There is nothing and no one I fear." Confidently, the silver-haired twenty year old thrusts his chin out. He half closed eyes lazily regarded first Pearlrellion, then the sepulcher in which Metallia displayed her evil energy before them only moments again. Evil combines with the arrogance this particular young man always had more than a healthy dose of, making him a hostile opponent indeed.

"I agree with Metallia. He has the potential we require, my love." Aquamarianna then bats her eyes at her silently fuming husband.

"Potential, yes. But can you deliver, boy?" Pearlrellion had his own share of arrogance to vent on this arrogant—

"Your shadow minions, where are they? Your cultivation of evil is less than satisfactory. I will personally see to them and their targets, King, from now on. And then you will see results." Robin's right-in-his-face attitude was just too much. The king was about to lash out in anger when his queen stops him with her soothing caress.

"Remember, my King, he is only here to aid our mission. If he can assure our take-over of this small world, we should allow him to proceed with all speed. You deserve to be ruler over all, my king." She whispers into his ear, knowing how to push his buttons with the greed overtaking him.

"You are correct as always, my Queen. I will put up with him for now. Until we no longer require his services." Deceit was on both sides, for evil has no true allies. Pearlrellion was deceiving Robin for his power hungry use, Aquamarianna deceiving Pearlrellion for her own ambitions, and Metallia deceiving them all with the promise of power she intended not to keep.

The only one left remaining out of this loop, yet still immersed in it, through no fault of his own, was Robin. The only one his stingingly truthful arrogance was deceitful to was he.

There was something he feared though—not the common fear of both King and Queen of death and power loss, no. Still buried somewhere, shoved down deep, deep inside, was the little child—the one that cried out in pain for help, the one who was prepared to kill himself when his family was cruelly taken away from him. The child who had reached out to another, across the universe for love, for though buried down, hidden in his tortured soul, Robin still feared being alone. Though, at this moment, Metallia's evil energies surged through his body, mind and soul—that was a fact that he was shielding himself from.

---

Early the next morning, the four Inner Scouts find themselves called to an emergency meeting at Rei's temple by Darien.

"Well, where are they? It's 6:00 AM! Darien's got some nerve waking us up so early and not showing up!" Rei, a real grump, especially in the morning, loudly explains her frustrations.

"Did he tell you the reason? My conversation with him was very brief." Amy, her nose buried in a textbook as usual, looks up across the little table she and her friends were gathered at.

"Nah, he just said it was something important." Rei sighs, sipping her tea impatiently.

"That's what he told me too, I think." Mina yawns, her face puzzled. "Was that what he said, Artemis? I was so sleepy, I didn't hear it at all."

BIG YAWN! to which Artemis responds in kind.

"Yeah, Mina, that's what he said." Slump! Artemis falls back down to the nice warm radiator beneath him.

"Here's some more biscuits and muffins, gang!" Lita rejoins the group, sliding the door closed behind her, while balancing a tray of goodies expertly, the tall young woman sets it sprightly down before them.

"How can you be in such a good mood so early in the morning, Lita?" Mina yawns again, just now beginning to mix her messy hairbow in her askew hair.

"I love mornings, don't you? Especially when the air is so fresh and leaves are so bright with beautiful autumn colors like they are today." Lita smiles as she gazes out the window, a dreamy expression on her face.

"You had a sleep over with Lizzie last night, didn't you?" Rei smirks knowingly.

"Ye-es." Lita smiles innocently enough.

"And her brother didn't stop by—by any chance—did he?" Mina catches on.

"Well, as a matter of fact, Andrew did." Lita nods. "He brought a movie to cheer Lizzie up since her boyfriend is moving away today. He stayed a while and we talked some after Liz fell asleep. That's all."

"Uh-huh." Rei and Mina exchange teasing glances, though both knew that with such a good guy as Andrew, even easily love-struck Lita was safe alone at midnight with him.

"You guys shouldn't do that." Amy's quiet voice suddenly adds. "Andrew needs his studying time for that big upcoming medical exam. He needs constant study. It's sure to be very difficult." A study-freak herself, Amy sympathized with anyone else's academic endeavors. She advised them to study! Study! Study! Until their brains were ready to melt.

"A-my!" The three girls around her sigh in unison at her.

"Besides, I don't see you and Greg studying all the time." Lita defends her "love life."

"Yeah, wasn't that you sipping ice cream shakes together with him on Saturday morning?" Rei raises a brow.

"Oh, you guys saw us!" With a small voice and a big blush, Amy looks down, pushing her large rimmed glasses up further on her nose as if to hide from her guilty truths.

Just looking at her, teasingly, Lita, Mina and Rei begin to giggle. Amy soon joins in as Artemis covers his ears. That's when the temple door slides open.

"It's so good to hear you guys laughing! I thought I'd never see you again!" Bursting into Serena-ish tears, Serena rushes into the room, throwing her arms around each of her dearest friends with a good old-fashioned sob.

"Serena, what's happened?"

"Why are you acting like this!"

"Get a grip, girl!"

"Let go of me, you stupid Meatball!"

"Don't be so hard on her, Rei." For once, Darien stands up for his whiny wife as he too enters the temple room.

"After last night's battle, I wouldn't blame her for a few spilled tears." Darien holds Serena, who clings to him most of all.

"BATTLE!" All four girls shout, rocking a poor, napping Artemis who falls off the radiator.

Twenty minutes of vivid battle replays, as only Serena could do, in her imaginative and descriptive way, later—the group looks to each other in consideration of the event Serena just retold.

"I myself wouldn't have bought all this if Darien didn't back up your story, Serena." Rei says snidely crossing her arms.

"What? You wouldn't have believed I was attacked!" Serena angrily whines in her high-pitched strains.

"No, we just wouldn't have believed that you single-handedly saved Darien, destroyed the monster and got a brand-new power all while it was thundering outside. Consider me impressed, girlfriend." Mina says, while Amy and Lita nod in agreement. Even Rei was secretly impressed though she would never admit it out loud to that Meatball-head.

"So, what does it all mean?" Lita asks, worry on her brow.

"What is the enemy after this time?" Artemis questions.

"And who is the next target?" Luna asks.

"I wonder, is it something to do with women's jewelry?" Rei asks, intuitively.

"Yes, that does seem to be the one common thread in each attack. Remember, Molly's pendant, Lizzie's necklace and now Serena's ring. All three Nega-monsters took their form in colors." Amy puts together logically as she types in all the factors in her mini-computer.

"Then why isn't everyone being attacked? There's loads of jewelry out there." Mina asks.

"Give me your ring, Serena. Maybe there's some kind of evil aura on it still." Rei takes the opal ring before the temple fire, whispering her forbidding chants over it. "No." She comes back to the table, handing Serena back the ring. "I don't get anything."

"Anybody got a piece of jewelry? There's only one way to find out." Mina bravely grabs Lita's neck, where a gold studded-with-diamonds cross hung and yanks it in her hands. She roughly gazes deep into the sparkling, though old, gems. She rubs it and shakes the cross about.

"Stop it, Mina! That belonged to my mom." Lita pulls it back, looking at it herself.

"Nope, nothing's happening." Mina comes to the conclusion quickly, then gets another brainstorm. "Maybe it only hits ditzy girls. See? Molly, then Lizzie and then…" Mina grins sheepishly as she grins at Victim #3, who in her own professional opinion, was the ultimate of ditzes.

"If we're going by that scale, Mina, then you're next for sure." Artemis grumbles snidely.

"What! What, Artemis! You're gonna get it for that!" Chasing the poor cat out into the hall with a rolled up newspaper, Mina dashes around Rei's room, knocking things carelessly about.

"Stupid Mina!" Rei calls out, shaking her fist at the departed, out the door friend as she gathers up the mess of things scattered about.

"All right, all right! All of you! Get out of here! You've got dance classes, Mina! Lita, you'll be late for the café, and Amy, well, I don't have to remind you." Rei smiles at the one girl, standing all ready at the door, her bookbag packed to go.

"Darien, off to work! Out! OUT!" Rei pushes the hustling gang out the door.

"I guess this meeting's over." Luna sighs at how it was so difficult to have a good conversation with all the gang present.

"Come on, Artemis." Luna drags the smashed like a fly against the wall Artemis out to go scout out the town for any sign of the new enemy.

"All right. Now I can go clean up the mess in here—" Rei smacks her hands together and looks down to find the room empty save for one smallish Meatball-headed girl who was hungrily scarfing down the remainder of the muffins on the table.

"Serena! What are you still doing here! Go home." Rei orders, pointing her friend out the door.

"Oh, Rei, you're so mean!" Serena starts to sob again.

"Don't start the waterworks again! All right, you can stay." Rei sighs as Serena immediately brightens up—

"And help me clean up this mess."

Serena's smile turns into a lazy frown as she stuffs the last muffin into her mouth. as her fingers wave a fond farewell to her hubby walking down the path outside the windowsill.