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...

33. Chapter 33

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

SAILOR MOON ETERNAL

"The 6th Season of the Sailor Moon Saga"

Chapter 33: Damage Control

By HarukaKou

"Reports are streaming in all over the city of a strange sort of sleeping illness that has overtaken many residents of the Tokyo area. The cause of this outbreak is still undetermined and those unaffected are advised by the local authorities to stay calm and indoors. If you or someone you know is struck by this mysterious infirmity, know that paramedics on their way. But he overfill hospital are in short supply of medical personnel and ambulances are taking a while for the medical professionals to reach the victims with first aid, which is rumored to number well over the tens of thousands. And that amount is increasing with each –" The grave-spoken news anchorman on the radio is cut off when Artemis the cat turns down the receiver on Susan and Terry's large kitchen counter with his paw, his furry face creased and serious.

"This is terrible, guys. Half the city has been energy drained." Artemis states in frustration.

"It's more than that, Artemis. It seems everyone watching that program simply collapsed in front of their television set. Their energy has nearly been totally depleted, and even doctors with all their medicine can't awaken them." Luna shakes her dark indigo head in consternation.

"That's right. My mom says her hospital is having to refuse patients because they're so full up." Amy sadly adds.

"It's really bad, isn't it, gang? Everyone was too busy at my house see the show , but next door, all my neighbors and a lot of friends weren't so lucky." Mina says, a gloomy expression on her usually cheery face.

"I majorly know what you mean." Serena's high voice comes into the room, filled with dejection as she and Darian just arrive back from her parents' house. Serena needed to know if everything was all right with her family, despite the impossibly heavy traffic of others concerned about their own dear ones.

"Serena? Is everything all right with your folks?" Artemis asks at her shoulder, sensing the tears behind the blonde girl's blue eyes.

Serena shakes her head. All the tears roll down again, her wobbling mouth trying to answer but she was too overcome to speak.

"Serena's Dad and Sammy were watching. Mrs. Hart is nearly hysterical taking care of them, however –" Darian takes his wife's hand, squeezing it for support as he trails off, quiet at a loss.

"Sammy? No!" Tara softly whispers, biting her bottom lip and worry for her little boy friend as she goes to her Princess who grabs onto the young girl in a big teary hug.

"Where are the jerks that did this to everyone? Let's go kick their sorry as–" Entering the conversation, JunJun's eyes were blazing angry at the pain some baddies were causing her new friends.

VesVes, CereCere and PallaPalla all nod their colorful heads in agreement.

"It's not that simple, child." Terry's calm voice says seriously, his violet eyes beautiful even though the concern as he cradles his pregnant Susan close on his lap.

"With Metallia's energy level at what it is now, she can attack anywhere, at any place, and we haven't the power to stop her." He says after crosschecking over and over with Sailor Mercury for the past two hours that the Scouts' power level combined wasn't even close to that of the Queen of evil.

Terry feels Susan wrapping around his chest even tighter, and though the Sailor of Time was silent, he knew exactly what she was thinking, for he too felt it.

I wish there was more hope for you than that, my lady. For you and our child both.

"If only we knew where her Negaverse powerbase was currently located, maybe we could stop her at the source before she absorbs all that human energy. I'm pretty sure she hasn't yet, or I'd sense a spike. But its location has been shielded from my energy sensing devices. If only I had some way to pinpoint her location" Amy keeps on the trail, her brilliant fingers flying fast and furiously across her computer keyboard with one hand, a drafting bow compass making geometrical scribed patterns on the map with the other.

"We do." A wispy female voice says mysteriously as she enters the crowded kitchenette.

"Michelle? Where is it?!" Rei demands the question on everyone's mind as the teal haired woman gazes blindly with pain filled eyes out the window.

"Wherever Amara is. She may try to hide it from me but… I know…" Michelle softly trails off , leaving the group gathered astonished at her words.

"What?! Amara went to face Metallia, alone!?" Serena looks up from her tears, alarm for her headstrong, no-nonsense friend. But Michelle didn't seem to hear them, her own face a mask of pain and sorrow.

"Metallia?" She whispers the evil name, not seeming to know what was going on anymore as she turns her face towards the setting sun.

"No." She finally speaks, turning to look at them.

"She's gone to kill Robin." In all seriousness, Michelle's eyes turn crystalline, hard and cold and so very… lost… as everyone gasps.

And the sun slowly begins its descent downward, illuminating iridescent sparkles in her aquamarine hair, though she felt utterly dull inside.

---

The last rays of the sun catch gold in another young woman's hair, and Amaralexis steps from her Ferrari to make a long, hard glare over the disconcerting calm sea.

Familiar with the tailwinds of the ocean breeze, the many meaningful moments standing at the seaside embracing her beloved beside the shoreline had been marred by the pain she could still mentally trace on Michelle's face.

It was here, a mile or two out on the cool brisk waters on that day so long ago when everything began. It was when the person she entrusted her angel to had betReid that trust and had allowed himself be taken, changed, destroyed.

And in so doing, devastate something which Amaralexis Sokova held so precious.

"I didn't want you to come." Without turning, without even opening her eyes, the Sailor Soldier ruled by the planet Uranus knew there was another close by, someone else she had sworn to protect, and entrusted her own heart with too.

"I'm here for you, Ally. That's all there is to it." Sailor Starfighter joins Uranus at the edge of the cliff, standing beside her with such determination in his eye never to break that trust he had pledged to her.

"You don't know where I'm going with this –" Uranus turns her eyes to meet Fighter's, wanting to explain, wanting to tell him to leave this unenviable task she has set out for herself to do alone.

She wanted to scream in his head that he should not accompany her, he could not, if he knew what she was determined to do this day, this night, perhaps saving the world from tyranny that was trying to take control.

But more importantly, she would avenge the death of that beautiful soul she would always call her beloved Michelle.

"I do, Uranus." His blue eyes all serious, Fighter puts a finger to her lips, returning her gaze intently. "If we can't take back the good that was stolen away – then we have to make sure that the evil can't destroy anything else. I know what you intend to do to him." Sayer's heartbroken eyes look deep into Alex's undaunted green ones.

And she senses, through the pain and sadness, she was looking in the mirror image of a passionate fighter, the resolute soldier that no matter what the cost of or the her personally that they felt inside their own soul, this was a role they must play.

"Then let's go." Satisfied with his words and realizing once again why she had accepted him as her own, an extension of herself, Uranus suddenly makes the diving plunge off the steep cliffs, her perfect slender body streaking through the orangey skyline.

Silently downward she descends into the frigid December waters.

"Right." Though never making a high dive anything close to that in all his life, Sailor Starfighter was not one to run away from a challenge ever. Copying his sleek lover's form, Sayer just blindly leaps his after her, feeling a sudden gust of wind comfortingly carrying his transformative body the rest of the way to join Uranus beneath the deep abyss of the darkening waters below.

---

"No fair, VesVes!" Back at the Starr's rural, once very quiet house, the place was now bustling with energy. The particular kind of energy that applied to four decidedly different 'children' then poor demure Susan Starr was ever accustomed to dealing with.

Yes, there were times when Tara was younger that she would be a trying child. But never, never had she been so… vivacious. Tara's quiet demeanor, even in her worst moments when she was teething, was a far cry from JunJun's wild rudeness or CereCere's posh snooty, self-important ways, VesVes's brash bossiness or even little PallaPalla's inquisitive, nonstop questioning.

And the four of them combined into a chaotic rainbow, even though they had spent nearly all of their lives together, was something close to a mad house.

"IT'S MY TURN NEXT!" JunJun's piercing voice rouses the very timbers of the well built home as she and VesVes battle over a friendly game of Parcheesi.

"JunJun, please be quiet. I am trying to read!" Pointing her prim nose in the air as she looks up from her pile of gossip magazines that the pink haired girl just had to catch up on for the past few months of the juiciest bits out from rumor mill that the 'backward Amazon' was 'so terribly behind in'.

"Oh, that drivel again." JunJun spreads her terrorizing aim from an irked and finger-pointing VesVes to her favorite foil. The neon green haired child rips the teen magazine from where CereCere was gawking at the sorry pictures of some supposedly well formed 'ripped' muscleman.

"Yick! You think this guy's good-looking? He sucks!" JunJun comment, as always negative on everything , as she wrinkles her nose at the calendar stud , as if smelling something nasty.

"Well, he's not that bad." CereCere murmurs under her breath, grabbing the now toward a new half book, and flipping back to the page were at least the young man's impressive pecs were intact. "But if you must know, I much prefer something a bit more sleek and intellectual when it comes to men. Particularly an intelligent man in glasses." CereCere puffs up snootily, her eyes lighting as they wander over to one of the many photos of the famous rock group Three Lights that she and her little troop of friends were staying with.

"Don't get any ideas, Cere. That guy's taken." VesVes was in a foul mood now and also was one to comment on everything and give her opinion, no matter how rational for well received. All three pairs of girlish eyes travel to the tall, tall chestnut haired rockstar featured in the background of the photo on the mantelpiece in the living room with his arms wrapped around the woman they called 'Mrs. Starr'.

"Lucky, isn't she?" CereCere sighs at Susan's good fortune to marry a millionaire and rockstar, who just happened to be really hunky and hot, too!

"Enough of that drooling garbage, CereCere!" JunJun shakes her head disapprovingly. She was a more independent type who kept her head above any such bothersome troubles as boy chasing.

"Why wouldn't that big lunk let us go with him?! It's dead boring down here. I wonder where he went." Mussing up her hair, much to vain Cere's horror, grumbling at being left behind if there was an adventure to others were enjoying it out there without her.

"Maybe we can find out from her." VesVes brainstorms to interrogate Susan on the subject.

"Oh yes! Let's go explore up there! Imagine! This is the private home of a real-life idol!" Moonstruck CereCere was excited to just look around the famous singer's private residence. Her wide-eyes so up the scenery of hallways and music rooms full of instruments on their way up the steps where Terry Starr's wife and PallaPalla were resting.

"Pretty pretty! PallaPalla wants one!" PallaPalla had kept herself busy playing with the many stuffed animals and dolls and toys adorning the nursery she was 'funning' with all at once.

And they are all still in good condition! The legs and arms and heads are still attached!

Unlike most of her toys after the sadistically rough and klutzy sky blue bun haired girl got through playing with them. That is, when the orphan little girl ever had been giving toys to play with.

"Of course you may have one, PallaPalla. I would like very much to share with you some of the toys my Terry has spoiled us with already."

Kind, pretty, and generous! PallaPalla likes her! Palla smiles the sheer joy of someone she didn't know very well at all being so very nice to her cow when people usually were not.

"Really!?" She asked, her big blue eyes bright and wide.

"Really." Susan responds with a sweet smile, putting down her sewing firm in – though she wasn't really getting much done sitting in the nursery window box, anxiously awaiting her husband's return. She touches the little blue girl's plump cheeks softly.

"Ooh! Ooh!" PallaPalla become so excited that she work to choose the toytown giving Susan a hug instead around her big fat tummy.

"You're a nice lady, Mrs. Susan. And a lot to hug!" PallaPalla declares cheerily, her face beaming as she tries to wrap her sure to arms around Susan's wide girth.

"Hey, lady!" Susan then here's the muffled voices of the rest of the little gang somewhere in the hall just outside of the nursery.

"She's called 'Mrs. Starr', JunJun." CereCere 's proper voice intones.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. So, where are you–ahhh!" Susan is startled to hear the young girl's scream as she rushes out to the hall in worry at the cry.

The tan-skinned woman finds JunJun, in search of the nursery door, accidentally had chosen to open the hall closet.

There, Susan had secretly been storing all those goodies that Terry kindly insisted on buying for her each and every day, though Susan 's delicate stomach was not able to handle such amounts of cookies and treats.

But the pregnant bilious woman could never tell him, for fear of hurting her generous husband's feelings.

So JunJun ends up in a pile of pirolines and candy and cookies that Terry had lavished over her for the past eight months of Susan's pregnancy.

"What kind of blinkin' fun house of this anyway?! Booby-traps everywhere! Damn cra—%#*$! &%$! Oh, bloody he –#'%*&!# $%!" Foul mouth JunJun was trying to free herself as she angrily cries every swear word never before uttered in this peaceful household. It would make even Sayer and Alex blush for the sorts of things this neon green haired little imp was foully spouting from the bottom of the pile of treats she had been buried in.

"Whee! Cookies! PallaPalla wants some!" PallaPalla excitedly comes trotting out from behind Susan as CereCere and VesVes giggle at JunJun's predicament, total and utter pandemonium ruling the day.

Yes, Terry, you're right, as always my love. They do take my mind off my troubles. But I wish you were here, laughing with all of us, right now…

Susan pauses in her enjoyment of the childish laughter if only for a few moments of diversion, as she begins to help clear up the mess with the rowdy Amazonesses jabbing noisily at one another.

---

Cooling waters swirl around the two fighters as the ace swimmers shake off the bone chilling cold of the sea tides they were cutting through the currents of. Fighter merely follows Uranus' lead as she swims with the sleek speed of a shark, in twice as deadly a mood, until the indomitable woman finds what she had been searching for.

The Sailor Soldier of Wind and Earthquakes and Speed sends her golden beam of mighty energy careening across the underground corals and crevices of the ocean floor until she hits the exact spot determined by her every sense of disturbed nature.

And the energy bubble suddenly appears, conforming around Uranus. The quick thinking soldier tugs a disoriented Star Fighter inside the underwater bubble with her. The pair descends into a large cavern through the teutonic crack she forced open in the ocean, that magically seals above them again, as if swallowing them both up whole.

"Whew! Is that how you usually knock on a cellar door, U?" Comes the low whistle Fighter huffs out, not long after catching his withheld breath when he and Uranus were unceremoniously dumped on the damp cold earth of an underground antechamber, both soaking wet.

"Quiet." Uranus cautions the noisy Fighter, already on her feet and looking this way and that in the depths of the dark, subterranean sea cave. "It's as if I've been here before." Uranus touches the edge of the cave wall, her bond with Michelle so strong, Alex could feel her beloved's very thoughts, her every dream, and right at this moment, her deepest nightmares, with a sense of this place pervading her very being.

Michelle has been here, Alec muses to herself, knowing her dearest friend and cousin's bond with a certain someone was still that strong.

And now that bond must be severed. Uranus could also feel a great sense of evil saturating every crack and crevice of the earthy cavern, making her skin crawl.

"So which way do we – Ahhh!" Sailor Starfighter's high-pitched scream pierces through the dark cave, Uranus glimpsing his attacker one moment too late as Fighter is zapped away.

Uranus gets a flying kick in before she too is accosted by a familiar, undesirable voice.

"Welcome to our humble abode – luv." The Sailor of Rebellion hears Lady Ruby's nasty hiss in her ear.

Obviously recovered from their last pitched battle when the redhaired woman had suffered a major loss, it seemed the knife wielder had the upper hand this time as the two sworn enemies teleport away together…

---

Fizzling into appearance on a throne room floor, Uranus finds itself being forced by Lady Ruby's crimson gloved hands to her face on the cold hard ground. Even as she struggles fiercely against Ruby's strength enhanced grip, Sailor Uranus feels the hair on the back of her neck stiffen when a pair of tall black leather boots step directly in front of her.

Her eyes dart up to see through the murky darkness whom she already knew would be their wearer.

"Thank you so much for coming for a visit, Sailor Uranus. Out swimming, I see? I'm sure you'll be staying a while to dry off, won't you?" With a small raspy chuckle at the end of his snide remark, 'the Heir' enjoyed looking down on this tall, irritating sailor soldier with a smirk painted over his face.

Alex doesn't even dignify him with an answer, her blazingly defiant eyes conveying the message of pure hatred for him enough, to which Robin purses his lips down at her with utter annoyance in his pale green eyes.

"You didn't really think you could sneak into our base and not be detected, did you? Are you that much a fool?" He states more than asks, giving Uranus a haughty look behind a pair of evil drenched eyes.

"Oh? Is this your base? I suppose dirty and foul-smelling suits you perfectly." Uranus rubs in the query, raising her eyebrows innocently to disguise her next move to both this demented Robin and deranged Ruby.

Then, quick as the wind and just as powerful, she does a springing back flip, smashing Ruby in the back of her head with her yellow high-heeled boots and decking Robin with the nasty woman's unconscious body hard.

Pinned and stunned on the ground for a moment, Robin reaches for the green emerald top button of his jacket. But Uranus was too fast for them, crunching him with a mind-clouding fist in the face as she shoves him up against the crackly rough-hewn cavern wall.

"I trusted you once and you destroyed the woman I love with all my soul. For that I'm going to put an end to you –" The Soldier the Sky raises her hand to the heavens, damning her own impure soul as she calls upon her home star planet for the forbidden power to kill.

And I won't regret my life to protect you, or our princess.

"URANUS SPACE SWORD BL –" She begins to cry out for her deadliest close range attack.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, Uranus." Alex couldn't believe the smugness in the voice of the man she was about to pummel with every last ounce of energy within her, nor the snide smirk of confidence evident on his cocksure face.

"And why no –?!" Uranus keeps her space sword swung high over Robin 's head, mere centimeters from detaching his neck with pure energy.

"FIGHTER!" The heart she thought cold and uncaring skips a beat as Uranus watches in horror her other partner screaming in agony as Dracon and Swanette cruelly pull at Sayer's female Sailor Star Fighter body in opposite directions.

Fighter had been strapped down to a wooden board frame that was being slowly and painstakingly scorched with an evil energy lit torch by that rotten son of Ruby. Garnet's cackle at another's pain was as malevolent as his wicked mother's.

"Gotcha."

In her split second moment of inattention of wanting to run to Fighter and rescue him, Uranus turns her glance back to Robin, to find him no longer in her grasp. Somehow it was quite the opposite. Uranus was roughly grabbed and strong-armed around her neck and thrust vengefully into Fighter, until both of them were screaming at the searing heat of flames bursting of their bodies.

"Rob?! Rob, don't you remember us? Don't you remember me?!" Sayer fights back the pain calling at his brother, wishing desperately for Robin to recall the past, where no matter how much they bickered and annoyed each other, they still cared about one another as brothers, as family.

"Remember you? Yes, I remember you." Robin walks up to the pair and motions for Garnet, Swanette and Dracon pause at his halting hand.

The silver-haired young man looks at the scorched and bruised Fighter in the eyes until Sayer's hope soars, certain he would see some good again in Robin's eyes if he looked and pleaded hard enough.

"You never did understand me, did you, Sayer?" And with that, the Heir turns his back and flutters his hand for his three minions rejoin their attacks again.

Spiteful Dracon and pitiless Swanette beat up on Sailor Starfighter like a pair of cruel bullies.

"See what your so-called love has made you, Uranus?" Robin sneers in Alex's face as Ruby and her son hold the strong willed woman down by her arms and legs with energized power that even the dominant Sailor Soldier could not shake them off.

"It has made you we –" The word 'Weak' on his smirking lips, Robin is suddenly jolted away by a powerful attack from behind, knocking him down to the ground.

Now was his turn to kneel at the foot level of his attacker, as his angered gaze traveled up a pair of aqua high-heeled, long legs.

"—strong." Sailor Neptune stands firmly over Robin, finishing his sentence with her arms crossed in a no-nonsense position. "Love makes us strong." She reiterates succinctly in her melodious voice as her blue eyes stare down upon the man she loved.

"Sailor Neptune." Robin whispers spacily, meeting her gaze. Michelle searches those eyes and reaches out with her mind as she always did, wanting so badly what was right before her to be what he once was again. Involuntarily she holds out her palm towards his upturned one…

But no. Instead of taking the offered hand of compassion with gentleness, Robin grabs her ankles and throws her hard to the ground as he leaps up stand.

Lording over her, he reaches down and touches her cheek. He then viciously grabs a hunk of her curly hair, making Neptune scream in pain. Tears spring to her eyes as he viciously drains her energy.

"NEPTUNE!" Uranus yells in horror, kicking and punching at Ruby and Garnet to get free. But her struggles only further their ruthless cackling instead, both mother and son obviously powered up by Metallia's evil strength.

Sailor Uranus' mighty struggle was proving fruitless and she felt a failure to be unable to save either of the two people she cared most for the world…

"MARS FLAME SNIPER!" An arrow of pure flame firesuddenly interjects, hitting Robin squarely in the chest as he is sent flailing back, forced to let go of Michelle's yanked mass of curled hair.

"JUPITER OAK EVOLUTION!" The flurry of punishing electrified leaves pull no punches on their one time member as Jupiter blasts Robin with all of Nature's might.

Meanwhile, Sailor Star Maker and Venus run to free Fighter and Uranus as Saturn, Mercury and Tuxedo Mask held back their captors in surprise attacks of staffs and glaives and ice water flying.

Robin? Awakened under the crossfire zinging across the room of both good and evil pulling out all the stops, Michelle forces herself conscious enough to crawl to where Robin had just been hit for the third time by a punishing "Venus Love Me Chain", making his black leather clad body limp and weak, his eyes closed in pain.

"Robin, dearest! Are you alri –ahhh!" Neptune was shocked when Robin's eyes suddenly snap open with pure evil intent. Then he quickly grasps her trusting form down with him to the ground until the two of them vanish into thin air.

"MICHELLE!" Through all her pain and danger surrounding, Uranus stands, blindly taking off down the dark cavern corridor, running on sheer instinct to lead her straight to Michelle.

"STAR GENTLE UTERUS!" Maker's acid burns at Dracon 's new shield, but the scouts found their opponents all geared up with new energy defensive weapons that would not go down so easily.

"You like Dracon's new toy, girl? Then you love mine!" Swanette presses a jeweled button on her busty chest, and from her back springs a set of sharp edged metallic wings.

"They're just what I've always wanted! And much more useful than your useless feathers, Eternal Sailor Moon!" The tall, pale woman taunts, unfurling her new wings to stand horizontal on end until they shoot a new set of deadly, tinny screeching tips towards the sailors with the force of titanium metal launching the poison.

"Watch out!" Venus, Mercury and Sailor Moon all dance out of the way just in time until Saturn throws up of silence wall around the injured Star Fighter whom Star Maker and Jupiter had dodged out of the line of fire.

"Out of the way, Swanny! Ruby is on her way!" Lady Ruby seemed to enjoy the battle she raises her Ruby impressed gauntlet into the air to launch her new attack.

"VENUS METEOR SHOWER!" Venus rapidly raises her hand first, shooting blinding light at the evil woman before Lady Ruby is able to release whatever evil power those shiny gauntlets held.

"You'll pay for that, luv!" The red headed vixen growls ferociously in anger of being thwarted as she shakes her bedazzled head to clear her intense light clouded vision.

"MERCURY ICE RHAPSODY!" Mercury adds her ice streams to take her out once and for all, but Ruby clenches her gloved fists first.

All the energy swirling around the room is abruptly sucked into her ruby quartz gauntlets. With the release of her hand, Mercury's powerful blast is flung icily back in her enemies' direction.

"AHH!" Sailor Mercury is first to be frosted by her own chill power doubled back at her.

"These guys are even stronger than last time! Metallia's power must be increasing!" Sailor Mars reasons as blast for blast the whole team is unable to stand up against her minions now equipped with canceling out power.

None of them actually were able to comprehend what fighting Metallia herself would be like.

"You better believe it! Can I use it now, Mum?" Garnet looks to his bad example parent as he whips out a handheld videogame looking object from his back pocket as wildly whacks an unsuspecting Tuxedo Mask in the back of his head with its charging energy and the masked hero crumples to the floor.

A broken bone, badly burned Sailor Starfighter painfully stands to shield Sailor Moon in Darien's place from the radiation beam emanating from the boy's power weapon. Sayer recoils to his knees as he is weakened from the energy drain, with Jupiter and Mars going down hard too as they run to help.

"Guys!" Sailor Moon calls out in horror as, one by one, her friends fall to these powered up enemies.

"Such manners, son. Didn't your mother teach you how to treat a lady?" From out of nowhere, yet one more voice enters the struggle, as Lord Opalson sizzles into place behind his son and wife.

"Sure, Dad. You blast 'em." Garnet answers, hitting the control of his videogame with even more vigor.

"But son, the best way to steal their heart is with a ring. After all," Opalson holds up his hand in the large room where a single, huge ancient black opal shines distinctly on a ring on his finger in the dim cavern light. "– Every girl loves to be at the receiving end of a priceless bejeweled ring. Only, in this instance, they'll be the ones kneeling!" He simpers wickedly as his opal ring unloads dark waves of energy, pulling the gravity out from beneath the last few remaining sailor soldiers standing. Saturn and Maker fall to their knees, struggling against the G-Force emanating from his dark ring.

"Maker! Saturn!" Eternal Sailor Moon gasps in horror as her entire team - her best friends - all succumb to the evil Dark Moon enemy's attacks.

"You must learn with experience, my boy, to blast the most powerful ones first and not just the front-line grunt soldiers." He says in all training seriousness, Lord Opalson shifting his sight to the blonde child of the bright side of the Moon.

"Now, for you, Sailor Moon. I'm certain all of your bountiful wasted energies will be put to good use once we've absorbed you into the Negaforce. Queen Metallia will be pleased to have this final spur of energy she requires to rule the universe, via you, Moon Princess." Opalson raises his arms up and begins the leaching of energy from the downed sailors.

"No. Please stop hurting my friends." She sincerely begs in tears. "You're right. They do deserve the wonderful chance to have their hearts stolen and be presented a ring by the one they love. Just as I felt like the luckiest girl alive when Darian gave me this." Showing her left hand's heart circlet engagement and wedding ring intertwined finger, Serena's voice was calm and serene even in this moment of terror as she gazes down to her Darian, petting his unconscious head lovingly on her lap.

And that halts Opalson for a split second, he making the mistake of glancing in her wet, smiling with pride and love crystalline eyes before he was able to quickly look away.

"You cannot trick me with your comforting words, Sailor Moon. Her Majesty, Queen Metallia must be released for us to have our final revenge on this bright world." Opalson raises his ring hand over the battle scene to send his gathered darkenergy globe exploding over the soldiers.

"DARK OPAL GLOBAL RISE!"

"SPARKLING FULL MOON SILVER RADIANCE!" But Eternal Sailor Moon, stirred with all her beloved memories of romance and love for her guy fulfilling her heart, reaches deep down inside of herself to unleash her new, radiant power.

The black nega-darkness fights her white moonlight, its darkness strong as it was powerful. But the white light of the moon, charged with pure love, brilliantly shines and sparkles its light into the entire underground cavern, until a sudden flash of bright energy reinforces the blackness back.

Opalson is point-blank blasted back as Ruby, Garnet, Swanette and Dracon are thrashed against the back wall with him, all their injured bodies being hurriedly teleported away by an unknown outside force.

"You stopped them, Eternal Sailor Moon! You saved us all with your new power!" Sailor Venus stumbles up to congratulate her Princess, as the other Sailor Scouts, inspired by their leader's light and love, slowly come to.

"In the end, I – I don't think I did…at least not alone." Sailor Moon says cryptically, glancing around the dim cave until her eyes stop in the darkness to a shaft of the cavern where she could have sworn a diamond white pearl had gleamed at her through that inky blackness…

---

"Robin?" The first and last word on her lips every night and day escapes the first thought in her woozy mind as Michelle awakens from a long sleep, it seemed. Groggily weak, her eyes opened to be well-planned by total stark blackness and cold nothingness with not a trace of his tender presence in her psychic mind anymore.

Like my heart since you've gone. Michelle sighs softly as her tormented mind reaches out to the bleakness of his.

Why can't I find you anymore, my dearest? Where have you gone? Michelle could not physically move, though unbound by chain nor strap nor prison of any sort. She was held by some metaphysical aspect of another more powerful mind controlling hers to remain subjugated.

Just like on that day when you made me stay away…

Oh Robin, dearest! I want to see you now! Can't you change back to who you were again, for me? Don't you love me any more?

Michelle surprised that her innermost thoughts are interrupted by another's sudden voice in her head.

Why do you keep asking me these foolish things? I know you not. You are but a mere human and I am a god. The Heir's scratchy voice enters her thoughts, clear and biting in its stinging sharpness.

Robin! Dearest! Michelle was excited to hear his voice inside her psychic mind once again. But she strangely felt somehow invaded by its intimacy for the first time.

Stop calling me that! I am not your 'dearest'! His temper even shorter than ever before, Robin Starr angrily lashes out at the woman before him with a mental tirade.

Yes you are! You love me! You love – Tears begin to fall from Michelle's hysterical eyes, seeing no caring soul staring back at her in those beautiful green orbs she once could have drowned in the depths of.

SLAP!

Robin's then patience runs out as his quick hand connects with her cheek so hard that it leaves a bright red mark there.

Two sets of eyes meet for half a split-second until Robin dismissively turns away.

"Now, be quiet. She'll be here soon enough." He orders aloud, turning back into the darkness.

"She?" Michelle whispers aloud back at the foreboding sound of the single word said in disdain.

Your beloved Sailor Uranus. I will prove to you that love is weak. We are all alone in this universe. There is no such thing as love. No one to count on but yourself. She will not be be able to save you. And then I will be rid of both of you annoying creatures, once and for all.

The Heir's terrible words invade her head once again, and Michelle closes her eyes that were painful from crying. She tries desperately to free herself, focus on warning Alex of the trap he had set for her, stop all of this madness and then –

– And then just die.

---

Michelle?! You're close, aren't you? In her own mind Uranus searches for the soul of another, sensing a spike of danger. She felt Michelle's presence was nearby somehow, though their link was being blocked, distorted as Amaralexis runs through the confusing catacombs.

She ignores the aches her body was feeling as Uranus flies into certain danger, deeper and deeper into Metallia's evil underground lair.

There. That darkened corridor. Michelle is in there.

As certain as she was of everything, Sailor Uranus kicks the door in. Even in the pitch black darkness she could make out her beloved's slender form slumped on the floor against the rear cavern shaft wall.

"Michelle!" Uranus dashes to her without a second thought, Michelle trying desperately to stop to warn Amara, knowing a trap had been set, and that she was playing right into his hands.

But neither words nor thoughts were able to be spoken to her darling Alex, try she might, for he was mentally blocking even that.

I must! Amara! Amara!

"AMARA! Don't come any closer!" Defying the odds, the strong-willed young woman does manage to get the words out - for her beloved partner she could do anything - just in the nick of time. Neptune warns Uranus as a devastating volley of laser cannons explode from every direction of the room.

Agile Uranus, alerted to the danger for her senses to prick up, aptly dodges and weaves until she is at Michelle's side, tugging at her to leave.

"He doesn't love me, Amara! He doesn't love me anymore…" Michelle collapses in distressed tears on Alex's chest as Uranus gathers her up in warm arms.

"Shh. Shh…" Silently swearing at men in general and Robin Starr in particular, Uranus looks for an exit. Damning it all, she realizes that her way in was a one-time deal that only she herself could have accomplished with much physical exertion of her active body. It couldn't be done in reverse with Michelle needing to be carried.

Just then, Alex hears a door in the darkness creak open directly in front of her.

She eyes it suspiciously.

"He's giving us an invitation, it seems." Uranus says aloud, staring at the open door. "You stay here, Michelle. I'll handle him." The tall golden blonde woman says, her every sense tingling with danger, putting the aqua girl down to the ground gently.

"No, Uranus. I'm going with you." In her Sailor Neptune persona again, Michelle stands tall and firm, the tears burning in her eyes evaporating because her best friend, her cousin, her soulmate needed her.

And they would be, as they always have been, destined partners, side-by-side, watching each other's backs and being each other's strength.

"Michelle." Uranus puts on her sternest voice – which worked on nearly everyone – except on this special young woman who knew Alex better than she knew herself.

"You need me. I need you. I'll be strong." Neptune takes the first step forward into the unknown, Uranus swiftly at her side.

As soon as the two sailors enter inside the door, it slams shut behind them.

Uranus and Neptune find themselves moving down a dark hallway that led out to somewhere unknown. Somewhere where it was bright at the end of the dark tunnel.

No, it was still dark out, there was just something bright and shiny and blinding, a single pulsating –

Star.

Dimensions change, warping their surroundings, their senses as Uranus and Neptune spin, taking a back to back defensive stance together as suddenly the ground gives out beneath them.

With flailing arms, they grab onto the edge of the familiar lighthouse tower overlooking the sea they were just moments ago in a catacomb beneath.

"Do you like the view…Michelle?" Robin's voice comes from out of nowhere high in the sky as Neptune and Uranus fight against gravity to climb up without falling.

"The ocean, the cliff, the cloudy night guy. Not a star in it, is there? No, that's wrong. I'm here. I am here, all alone. You realize that Metallia has offered me rule over this world? But do I need this sorry excuse for a world?" Robin asks with a smirk as his green star lands to transform into his human form before their eyes at the edge of the lighthouse.

"You don't know what you want, do you?" Uranus poses the question, biding her strength for a moment or two before going for a grab at him.

"Oh yes, Uranus. I do know that. I want you to die." Robin looks down and smashes his foot down hard on Uranus' hand hold knuckles.

"Argh!" A low pitch bellow escapes Uranus' mouth as she bites down hard on her split lip, drawing blood. But still she doggedly hangs on by one bleeding knuckled hand.

"Robin! For heaven sakes, stop! Please!" Neptune cries, feeling her partner's pain. "Leave her alone! If you're going to harm somebody, let it be me! You can't hurt my body anymore than you already have scarred my soul." Neptune says looking up to their silver haired attacker pleadingly.

"If you insist." Robin decides to finish both of these tiresome soldiers off at once, fully prepared to smash Neptune off the lighthouse edge as well –

"Don't you dare touch her!" Uranus, in an amazing burst of strength and speed for Michelle, grabs onto Robin's leg, sending him spiraling down in surprise at her quick move during his moment of inattention.

With no time for a quick dimension shift escape, a winded Robin flies off the edge towards the rocky crags below…

GRIP!

A warm hand grabs onto his wildly flailing, stretched out one and suddenly halts his deadly descent. It was a hand that felt so right, so familiar, as if Robin had done this all before, a lifetime ago, as he looks up into the sea of blue eyes, where kindness, caring and love for him still abounded…

"Neptune! Let the monster go!" Uranus demands, already giving up on Robin's soul, seeing him now only as a deadly and dangerous enemy who could never be trusted again.

"No." Michelle whispers as the gaze between her and her lost soulmate is broken by Alex's cold words.

The Heir remembers his place once again, who he was again, though he had lost hold of that dark, cold certainty for a second of being adrift in the warm ocean of her eyes.

His disoriented arm grabs out for Uranus' leg, not caring for his own life anymore, rather desiring to strike the detested Sailor Soldier down with him at least.

But that masochist fate was not meant to be, as a darkly gloved arm wraps around a descending Uranus and she uses the opportunity to kick Robin away from her with a powerful thrust.

The shocked Heir of Metallia's darkness falls downward without so much as a sound towards the sharp rocks amid the crashing waves below.

"Starr." Uranus whispers in Sailor Star Fighter's ear, not too sure if she was glad he had followed her scent as only he could like a lost puppy now. There were regretful tears in his eyes after witnessing the horrific scene he had played a minor role in, as Star Fighter pulls both Uranus and Neptune up to the ledge safety.

And the three of them kneel at the edge of the lighthouse tower, staring down.

"Robin, my dearest, I failed to bring you home again." Michelle whispers, moving close as she could to the edge of the sheer drop, closing her eyes that begin to fill with the sea of wet tears that would not spill before.

"He's not down there." Alex reassuringly concludes of the unmarred landscape below as she wraps her crying partner up in a warm embrace, pulling away from the ledge.

As she meets a blackened, scorched skin Sayer's trembling eyes over Michelle's shoulder. Deep inside, Uranus knew that this new enemy, who was once so much more than a friend, was surely still out there, alive.

'Til next we meet.

---

"Hey, can we get out of here now? This place gives me the creeps!" Sailor Venus peeks around the corner of the cave, its vast dark emptiness with the likeliness of evil danger around every nook and cranny was giving her goosebumps.

"Don't whine, Venus! Sailor Moon's got a backbone for once, so don't scare her off, okay?" Sailor Mars gives her jumpy companion the evil eye she was so famous for.

"Hey! I've always got a backbone, Rei!" Serena snaps, back to her regular bubbly mode as she sticks her tongue out at her quarrelsome companion. "I've just got a hunch this time that we're not done here yet." The special girl with the powers of the Moon settles down under her husband's masked, raised eyebrow.

"You mean, besides Uranus, Neptune, and Fighter missing? What else are we looking for?" Jupiter asks, worried for her friends, but knowing that Amaralexis was reliable in the way of taking care of things herself as not to be too worried.

Calculating their route, Mercury looks through her VR visor at their surroundings as Sailor Star Maker and Sailor Saturn watchfully take up the flank.

"Don't know, exactly. Just a feeling I got before that somebody… Somebody here needs our help." Sailor Moon whispers thoughtfully. Though excavating through a scary Negaaverse tunnel, with all kinds of creepy crawlies scurrying around in the dark definitely was not Serena Hart's cup of tea, having everyone with her, including her darling protector Darien right by her side, she would be brave.

Because she had heard, though very faint, a cry for help out of the darkness that this agent of love and justice would be right there, ready with the light of truth.

"There is someone behind this door, guys." Intuitive Sailor Mars warns as Tuxedo Mask carefully pushes the huge double doors open.

It was a bedroom, large and sprawling, and decidedly – unexpectedly decoratively bright for being connected to a dark, dank Negaverse catacomb - with sparkling gems and precious metals adorning all of the ornate furniture.

But the centerpiece of all the beauty and elegance was a woman, dressed in the finest fabric wrapped around her loosely, with her long, long teal hair flowing all around framing her lovely sleeping face.

"Queen Aquamariana!" Sailor Moon whispers, moving closer to his peaceful woman a slumber.

"Is she still unconscious after that battle?" Jupiter asks in concern as all the Scouts gathered move into the room to investigate their former enemy who had reformed.

"Yes." The reply comes with the silent slamming of the door they had all just entered through.

The form of a man, fully garbed in a handsome royal suit all of pearlescent white and silver, with a long white and royal purple cape to rival Tuxedo Mask's, materializes before their stunned eyes beside the opulent bed.

"My wife," King Pearellion, in true gentlemanly form, speaks civilly to the Sailor Scouts, meeting Sailor Moon's gaze with a small bowed head.

He kneels on the floor, kissing Aquamarina's sleeping palm softly, and then rises.

His elegant steel blue eyes gave Serena that eerie déjà vu feeling all over again as he locks his orbs with hers particularly.

"…Is dying." He whispers, showing no emotion in his calm, monotone voice, but the pain could not be disguised from his stately features.

"I'm so sorry." It was said with genuineness, despite the man and his wife being their enemies. Serena feels pity for him, because any fellow human being deserved at least that.

"Sailor Moon." Pearellion never wavers from the gaze, Serena finding herself entranced in his pale blue eyes. "The life inside my beloved Aquamariana is fading. By my own hands. By my own foolish hands!" Showing emotion that he usually refrained from, Pearellion wrings his own stained appendages, staring at them and the damage they caused to his beloved one.

Though it was entirely by accident, and he intended to destroy Sailor Neptune with his powers, Pearellion would totally blame himself for his misdeeds to his dying day. The Scouts gathered watch his sincere regret with sadness on every one of their faces.

"Don't blame yourself, Pearellion." Kindness the heart of her soul, Sailor Moon steps forward, putting a compassionate hand on the man's arm.

But he shakes it away.

"No. Queen Metallia has sustained the weak life left in her. For that reason I must be grateful and loyal to the bitter end." Pearellion's voice returns to being emotionless, as he remembers his promise to Metallia in payment for keeping his wife in this half-alive status, the child growing inside of her sustained as well.

So, constrained to defy the forces of evil, King Pearellion reaffirms his sworn pledge of eternal loyalty and allegiance to the Queen of darkness again.

To which Pearellion was always a man of his word, if nothing else. After a long silent pause overtakes the room, the King lashes out at the Sailor soldiers whom Metallia had insisted were really to blame.

'Your wife's downfall was all their fault! All of them! They must be punished!' Hearing that raspy rant play in his head, Pearellion grabs the feather tips of Sailor Moon's wings from behind her shoulder. He vehemently wrenches her eternal wings by her back and tosses her towards the rest of the gang who were completely taken off guard to take a defensive stance.

"Leave the presence of the wife you have taken from me! Begone!" Anger at himself warps into vengeance upon them. Pearellion sends a terrific volley of blasts in the sailors' direction.

Jupiter, Mars, Venus and Mercury, along with Saturn and Star Maker in the rear, instinctively move in front and to the side flanks of their Princess.

Tuxedo Mask covers her with his cape as the team, caught unawares, are all blasted back against the back wall.

"Everyone!" Sailor Moon watches as her friends fall before her, even her own Darian as he slumps in her arms from the sheer force of the white light impact, Serena left the only one standing.

"Sailor Moon. For what you've done to me, I want you to know what it feels like to lose those you love the most!" Crazed with anger, Pearellion's tense hand begins to form an energy encasing that, once released, would have the power to destroy the downed Sailor Scouts to punish them for Aquamariana's unconcious state.

"For you, my love." King Pearellion's wild eyes dart to that of his unconscious mate for a second as he raises the energy orb up high, preparing to launch it at the seven sailor soldiers who were hurt on the ground…

"No! Aquamariana wouldn't want you to!" Sailor Moon cries, trying to reach out to his cold heart, knowing from the few short moments she last saw the aqua haired Queen that the goodness in her soul had overtaken the evil. "Please, King Pearellion! Think of Aquamariana! Would she have wanted you to do this, really? You're blaming us for something that you have done! But it wasn't only you! It was Metallia! She's controlling you! Aquamariana knew that in the end! She didn't want you to be with Metallia anymore, I'm sure she didn't!" Serena cries out, her eyes full sincerity and empathy as she locks them with Pearellion's.

Sailor Moon takes a step closer to him, again bravely standing in front of her companions to shield them in some small way.

"Aquamariana?" Pearellion pauses in his attack, holding the blazing power at bay as his troubled heart considers Sailor Moon's words when he suddenly hears his wife's again in his head, replaying the scene when they had been together, just mere hours before she was—

'Pearellion, my love. Please must we stay here? We don't belong in this place. Remember before when you and I were free out in that beautiful, bright world? Don't you remember, my dearest, when we didn't have to battle and fight and bow down to anyone else? I want to do that again, Pearellion. I want to be free like that again. Please, let us leave here.'

Aquamariana had begged her husband to leave Metallia's lair for the surface. But at the time, at that moment, Pearellion would not listen. His subconscious did recognize her pleas, while his angered thoughts were busy planning his evil ambitions.

Why didn't I listen to her then? If I did…If I did… Oh my beautiful one, is this path we have chosen the wrong one? Looking at this girl before me, I remember your sad eyes, too. Why does everything we are doing feel wrong now? Pearellion stares into Serena's crystal clear blue eyes with a shaken heart.

"Please, King Pearellion. Let me help you. Let me help Aquamariana!" Sailor Moon's Eternal Tiare appears in her hands when she felt that this evil King was no longer beyond her goodness to reach. And maybe, maybe with his help, in some way she could do something for his wife to…

"PEARELLION!" That frightening voice thunders through the chambers and King Pearellion stiffens just when Serena was certain he was ready to accept her aid.

"Pearellion! There are intruders in our midst! Destroy them! Destroy them all now! Or has your loyalty to me wavered?!" Evil Queen Metallia's dark and scratchy voice booms as she uses the question more as a threat.

Her dark energy swirling around Aquamariana's unconscious head that was keeping the long, wavy haired beauty in stasis dissipates slowly around and her steady breath becomes shallow and strained.

"No, wait, my Queen! I will be rid of these invaders momentarily!" Pearellion hurriedly assures Metallia as the energy ball in his hands, that was fluctuating at Serena's words, builds again, even larger than before.

Blindly in fear for his wife's very existence in the balance, Pearellion releases its power upon the Sailor Scouts full blast –

But was it really blindly?

"SILENCE WALL!" Sailor Saturn, time on her side as Sailor Star Maker stands tall beside her bracing her for support, has just enough time to put up her 'Silence Wall' shield.

King Pearellion's attack could go no more perfectly than if it were aimed, as its energies, seeming to zero directly in on Sailor Saturn, bounces and absorbs into her wall, diverging all of the deadly streams of white light from the rest of the team.

They quickly come to, taking their battle positions in the interim.

"Terry-papa!" Tara shrieks in pain as she holds her wall up around the awakening Sailor Scouts. But it was proving too much of a strain, as the powerful energies focus directly against her.

The special soldier of death, little Tara Tomoe was fighting for her life to keep her wall up with all her might, but even she begins to sink to her knees.

Star Maker comes up from behind to hold her fragile, petite body up, willing her his strength. That sustains the superlative wall for a while, until both of them fall back screaming when more sets of new energy add to Pearellion's already punishing blast.

Saturn's Silence Wall breaks apart as she and Maker are battered down to their knees.

"Saturn! Maker!" Sailor Moon shouts as Lady Ruby, Lord Opalson and their son Garnet enter the fray with Swanette and Dracon bringing up the rear right behind them.

"Not able to handle these weaklings on your own, brother? For shame." Lord Opalson comments sarcastically as he takes a defensive position next to his seemingly reluctant sibling. Opalson always believed that it was cowardice on Pearellion's part that was stopping him from destroying these weak humans, nothing more.

"We'll clean up for you then, luv." The detestable lady Ruby takes a step forward, smirking nastily as she looks down at the scouts with Garnet, Swanette and Dracon backing her claim up at her sides .

"RUBY DAGGER SLICE!" Tuxedo Mask's bo staff matches Ruby's dagger blow for blow.

"FEATHER TIP CUT!" Feathers fly versus the "VENUS LOVE AND BEAUTY SHOCK!"

"DARK THUNDERSTORM BREAK!" Surges against "JUPIER THUNDERCLAPS ZAP!"

"GARNET MELTING FUSE!" rages an inferno towards "MARS FIRE IGNITE!"

"OPAL GLASS SHATTER!" clashes with "MERCURY ICE STORM FREEZE!"

Like a true one-on-one confrontation, five evil Negaverse emissaries and the five Sailor Scouts stand each other off, energy matching energy in cacophony of colliding noise and bright light flashes.

But the Sailor Soldiers were giving everything they had just to keep the battle at a standstill…

"Pearellion, stop this! Please!" Sailor Moon pleads with the King as the tall, white-haired man who reminded her so much of Prince Diamond long ago, gathers his energy ball anew, aiming it towards his own standoff opponent.

Namely Sailor Moon, as Serena once again aches to see the battle not going well for her fellow soldiers.

"Sailor Moon. You leave me no choice." With a concerned glance back to his wife, Pearellion's cold eyes had something of sorrow in them for his actions as he lifts his sizzling energy beacon above his head, high into the air –

And he blasts it at his own brother instead.

Opalson, Ruby, Garnet, Swanette and Dracon are unexpectedly rappelled away from the weakened Sailor Soldiers they were about to over power.

"Sailor soldiers! Hurry! Flee now!" Pearellion commands, his overwhelming love for his wife making the battle between good and evil within him sway towards the side of the just.

"Pearellion! BETREIR!" Metallia's angry voice resounds loudly, as torrents of dark energy waves, cold and biting, encircle Pearellion and pound into him, suffocating the poor man.

The King calls above the din to Sailor Moon who was selflessly trying to break through the dark aura to reach him.

"Sailor Moon! Take my wife away from here! Please!" Pearellion's voice was no longer commanding, but pleaful instead as he made a heartfelt request to Serena while resisting Metallia's overwhelming forces best he could.

The powers within him were not only of the Queen of Evil, but his own will as well. That is why the wicked Queen who had seen the potential then in the white-haired King chose him.

But that is also the reason she was having some trouble taking him down now.

Sailor Moon was indomitably moving towards him, but the dark waves were too fierce for her to break through.

"White Moon Princess! Leave me be! It's too late for me! The die is cast! Just take care of Aquamariana!" Pearellion uses the remainder of his mental strength and energy reserve of willpower to send a protective shield up over his wife, giving his life's energy to keep her alive and safe before Metallia's wrath was unleashed upon her too.

"Please take her out into that bright world she loves again!" Pearellion begs, using his vast powers to blast a monstrous hole in the cavern wall, exposing the catacomb that served as the teleportation room and its platforms that were connected immediately to the world above.

"But King Pearellion! What about you?!" Sailor Moon quickly gathers up her fallen companions as the battle between the King and his minions still serving Metallia became so fierce, the underground cavern begins to tremble and shake. was the last scouts Aleve, of course, tuxedo mask and Venus leading the rest to buy two from the crumbling case.

"Go! Sailor Moon, I've seen your abilities! You can heal my Aquamariana, please grant her this one last request from me and take her away from this darkness that she so detested! And Sailor Moon, tell Aquamariana –" Pearellion deftly dodges yet another volley of missiles from all his compatriots' powers combined together. But they were no match for his unchecked potential.

Serena skids back from where she was dashing out of the way of a falling stone corridor that crumbles above her head as she strains to hear the battling King's final words.

"Tell her that I love her!" With this final call, Sailor Moon could neither see nor hear him any longer as the entire cavern wall breaks in thousands of pieces, cutting her off from the ensuing battle.

Eternal Sailor Moon could no longer see the visage of Pearellion anymore as a strong white gloved hand yanks her away from being crushed as well by the rocky columns tumbling over. A bloody Tuxedo Mask carrying the unconscious, but still miraculously breathing Queen Aquamariana in his arms, looks down at his meatball-headed bride in relief.

Serena races alongside her guy, the two of them keeping just ahead of the crashing rocks and stones from the tremorous cavern.

The three just make it to the teleportation platforms that intellectual and computer sappy Mercury, held up by Venus, concludes were the Negaverse transportation to the surface devices.

Jupiter and Mars bravely offer to go first on Amy's say-so as to simply collect, then Maker carrying little Saturn stepping up and the two of them are zapped away, Venus and Saturn teleport away next.

Sailor Mercury prompts Tuxedo Mask to jump onto the shaking platform where she had to quickly reconfigure the matter displacement device to be able to handle three living human beings, for the fetus within Aquamariana must be accounted for too.

Holding the pregnant Queen gently in his grasp, Darian just manages to make it to the platform before the entire ceiling comes down in the cavern right behind him.

"Sailor Moon! Sailor Moon! Stop this thing, Amy!" Tuxedo Mask cries out in terror at the frightening sight of the love of his life's perhaps final demise as his molecules were just starting to shift location.

Cough! Cough! Cough!

But out of the ashes, Sailor Moon just appears, soot and dust-covered, but otherwise unscathed to rush in and give her worried, sighing-with-relief hubby a smiley-chokey thumbs-up before he disappears.

"Thank goodness, Serena!" A thankful Sailor Mercury lastly remained, her fast fingers hooking up the Negaverse teleporter to remotely work by her mini computer's command as she hugs the ditzy Moon Princess close.

Amy pulls her somewhat dazed friend on board, as Sailor Moon is the last to climb aboard the teleportation apparatus before it is utterly destroyed.

The catacomb below fades from her eyes, crumbling in ruins and smoke and total darkness that soon turns into the wide open, last rays of sunlight…

---

After a moment of disorientation, Serena blinks her eyes against the bright sun set in the fresh air of the scenic shoreline overlooking the ocean that was proof enough that she and the rest of the Sailor Scouts were really back on terra firma.

Their struggles as yet were still mixed up and undecided – and now they had yet another victim – or two - of Metallia's wrath with them.

Sailor Moon flies to where Tuxedo Mask was kneeling with Aquamariana, tending to the unconscious woman, who was blessedly still breathing, but she was quickly fading now that Metallia's sustaining energy had been withdrawn.

"The baby's heart is still beating, for now." Amy's medical background that possessed a caring heart was reassured her quick calculations had been correct to accommodate the failing health pregnant woman and the delicate unborn child within her womb too.

"Thank God." Serena is tightly embraced by an emotional Darian – who was shockingly almost in tears behind his mask at the thought of losing her light in his life – as sympathetically she kneels down to see how Aquamariana was doing.

The Sailor Scouts gather around them, none of them quite sure how to make of what just occurred before their eyes.

That's when suddenly the sea roils. In the center of the ocean skyline, a mile or two off the coast, an explosion from within the ocean implodes like a huge watery fist rising in an angry torrent. Then it smashes down in a shockwave crash that sends the calm tide askew, the entire sea seeming to be at war with itself as the waves smash violently to and fro.

Pearellion… Sailor Moon wonders exactly what happened to the original Black Moon King who had stared down Metallia herself for them – but moreover, for his wife – as Serena's gaze returns to Aquamariana's lovely face that was quietly unaware of the chaos surrounding her, about to swallow her and her baby up too.

"Sailor Moon. You need to do this now." Tuxedo Mask, always giving his girl the imperative, looks his wife in the eye, sensing Aquamariana's imminently failing health. The tears behind his mask checked, Darian had long ago taken on the role of mentor to the brilliant young girl to accomplish what she knew she must do.

No matter how weak this woman was, there was evil still inside of her trying to destroy her from the inside out, eating away at her soul. It had to be dealt with before the consequences were irreversible.

That was what Pearellion had given his life up for, to bring Aquamariana up into the light from Metallia's evil darkness.

For you, Pearellion, I will try so very hard to do this! I must succeed! Serena closes her eyes, gathering her strength to silently accomplish this risky moon healing of a fragile person, with a child inside her yet, before she re-establishes what she had started that was the catalyst for the Queen's changing.

"MOON HEALING ESCALATION!" Eternal Sailor Moon says a silent pReir that everything would be all right before she circles her hopeful healing lunar energies in a large spiral of light over Aquamariana's dying form.

An evil shadow flees with an unearthly scream from her pale bluish-green body as the aqua jewel encrusted on her head disappears and the beautiful woman lying on pale sands of the beachfront.

Good had triumphed in this battle within Aquamariana as her shallow breathing becomes regular and her tightly closed eyes at peace again.

"All right! Sailor Moon! You did it!" Sailor Jupiter pats her friend on the back, everyone glad to have reached out an olive branch to save the soul of another.

But at what a cost.

Serena could not help but feel melancholy for the altruistic husband whose ultimate sacrifice may have indeed paid that high price. She and many of the others all wished that somehow Pearellion had defeated Metallia in that underground lair, had somehow sent her back to the imprisonment deep in the earth, and would come back to his true love Aquamariana again –

But hope and reality were often two very different things as the Sailor Soldiers of love and justice in this world were coming to know all too well.

---

Quietly now, December rolls in, the snowy peaks of the north mountains spreading a white layer of snow and frost down to the mid and lower regions of the country. The ice and cold sock in, just in time to create a perfect setting for the upcoming joyful Christmas holidays.

But 'joyful' Christmases were few and far between for the beleaguered city of Tokyo.

The usual bustling shopping centers and malls around this time of year were nearly empty. For in this victimized city, where not one household was left unaffected by Metallia's energy draining, there seemed very little to celebrate.

The hospitals were still jampacked with patients, though they were being treated with countless methods of the best doctors from far-off countries consulting together, with, still no positive results.

And this had hit home for many of the Sailor Scouts as well, as their friends and teachers and even family – Serena's own Dad and Sammy were alive but unconscious to her Mom's vigilant consternation – leaving them all with this depression hanging over them.

And the uncertain status of their recent battle with the Queen of Evil Metallia herself, had made happiness this season a hard commodity.

Taking Aquamariana to live it at home with them, Serena and Darian watched the woman slowly recover, she regaining consciousness nearly a week after her husband had left her in their care.

"Pearellion?" Aquamariana softly whispered as she awakened, her eyes opening, scanning the room for her beloved husband. But he was not there, Serena feeling elated to have been able to heal her, and horrible at the same time that her husband's condition – if Pearellion was even still alive - was still unknown.

It was on Serena's watch that (the girls and Darian had been taking turns coming over and staying up 'round the clock, caring for the comatose woman) Queen Aquamariana should have awakened.

It was up to Serena for her to tell that her husband was not been seen or heard of since the team of Sailor Scouts even attempted to return to the underground base.

They found it totally vacated and nearly decimated from the destructive battle, with not a sign nor clue of who was victim or victor, or where any of those involved had disappeared to. And it was up to emotional Serena the tell Aquamariana all this.

"He's not here, Aquamariana." Serena explains slowly, gently touching the older woman's arm. "Please don't worry, you're with friends. It's okay, it's me, Serena." She gives her sweetest smile, which could always warm the coolest heart with her sincerity.

Although, feeling certainly safe with this young girl, Aquamariana begins to have the sense of panic setting in for her absent mate.

"What happened? Please tell me. I – I thought I… Didn't I die?" Aquamariana sits up sharply, holding her head at the dizziness that set in both within her head and her spinning thoughts. "The last thing I remember is… Sailor Neptune. She was in danger. I… I stopped Pearellion – I think…I was hit…" In confusion, Aquamariana suddenly touches her stomach, feeling extremely ill at some worry as she shakes the feeling off.

"Where's Pearellion? Please, I want to see him now." Totally unaware of the past events since her unconsciousness set in, Aqua Mariana wonders and worries again at Serena's nail biting, frightened expression.

"He asked us to bring you here, to heal you from Metallia' evilness." Serena began slowly, biting her lip, already seeing that change in this now sweetly soft-spoken woman she never would suspect was the haughty Black Moon Queen before.

"Yes, yes. I feel myself again. Thank you so much." Aqua Mariana gives her first hazy smile, Serena seeing the beauty that the woman once used for many other less on his purposes. "But tell me –"

"Aquamariana." Serena takes the elegant womanly hands in hers. "Pearellion fought Metallia to free us – for you – from her grasp. We've gone back there and looked hard– we really have! – but we haven't seen any of them since we escaped. I'm so sorry to have to be the one to tell you this!" Serena feels her own tears biting at her eyes suddenly springing but withheld still by the strong while lady in the bed before her.

"I see." Aquamariana whispers, her emotions going blank.

"I promise! We will continue to look for him everywhere, for as long as we have to! You've made it back to this bight, beautiful world. Everything will be happy again, you'll see!" Serena surely felt sorry, remembering how lonely she felt without Darian when he went missing and in danger, trying to instill the hope she herself was lacking of late.

"I trust you, somehow, Serena. Do you know that?" Aquamariana smiles softly to the young girl sitting at the edge of the bed as she sits up. "But… How can we ever be happy again? I almost can't remember the last time we truly were…" Her own regret setting in on her, Aquamarina tries hard to remember the good times with her husband.

There were good times… Long ago… There were… I remember those days so vividly, Pearellion.

She smiles to herself sadly at her reflection in the vanity mirror, where memories of a youthful Pearellion wooing her flicker by before there were thoughts of money, wealth or power, before selfishness and endless lies that allowed this all to happen…

Seeing the tears behind Aquamariana's eyes about to let the floodgates go, Serena jumps to her feet. Her own hopes were in need of some boosting today, mainly because she remembered there was Another greater than all Who could overcome anything at this blessed time of year.

"We'll be happy again, you'll see, if we believe!" Serena states with determination anew in her stunning blue eyes.

"Starting today! Let's go Christmas shopping. You and I and some of my good friends! How does that sound?" The meatball-headed girl defiantly dares depression to keep her down as she stands straight up, pointing a finger up in the air. Then she claps her hands before sneaking them into Darian's wallet from his pants' pocket as he sleeps in the other room.

Making comical shushing faces of secrecy, Serena causes Aquamariana to laugh a little for once as they clasp one another's hands.

"All right." The older woman wobbly stands to her feet as Serena helps her get clothed and ready to go holiday shopping.

Now that was something that could make any shaky female heart stout again.

I'll be strong and make myself beautiful because I know we'll be together again, Pearellion. I promise you, and the baby. She gazes into Serena's determined eyes and sees a reflection of what believing in true love meant shining in her own as well.

---

Lita is surprised when Serena out of the blue announces that she was off to go Christmas shopping, considering the serious nature of their strategy planning and intense meetings these past few weeks.

After all, they had just gotten back from their daily scuba diving scavenging through the underground ruins for clues, that taking up nearly every spare second of their time lately.

It left every sailor soldier tired and weary and irritable – Rei especially cornered that particular market, with Luna at a close second – with very little time for thoughts of the usually happy holiday season.

Sigh.

More than a little fatigued, Lita was still quick to go out her lonely door to see what Serena was up to.

Andrew was constantly busy now, being an intern at the local hospital and working on tests and studies on the overflow amount of patients day and night. That gave him only a little time to say short hellos and goodbye to Lita, who totally understood because she was every bit as busy with the Sailors on their mission.

Amy also was pretty shocked to hear Serena propose shopping of all things when the computer expert was calculating around-the-clock to try to find their enemies. Sleep was a very sparse thing lately, as Amy's computer scans continued to turn up empty on their enemy's new base or next plan of attack.

The strategizing girl just happened to be, at this moment, feeling her frustrated head about to split.

Maybe Serena's right. Maybe we should take some time off. Just a little shopping sounds nice. Studious Amy closes her laptop and puts on a coat to leave her apartment for the meeting.

"What do you mean you're going shopping, Serena?! You are the most sieve-headed, irresponsible –" It was obvious Rei was not open-minded for her fellow soldier taking some time off for fun. Everyone was working their buns off for over a week hunting down any signs of Metallia and her henchmen.

Rei's own part in the search was through her mind pounding headache plagued psi-scans, which were strangely – and maddeningly – turning up absolutely nothing.

"Wait, Rei! Serena might be giving us a secret message! Maybe she can't talk out loud! We really should go – just in case she's in trouble." Mina just happened to be at Rei's after a long day of planning strategy with Artemis.

He just claimed a few minutes ago to have to meet with Luna about some important battle details. Yeah, right, Artemis! More like important fishtails! You're just going to chow down and leave me here to stew with grumpy Rei!

"Sure, Mina! Don't think I don't know what the second-most-sieve-headed-blonde in our team is plotting about the dumb idea of some serious mall trolling!" Rei retorts, Serena not the only one to get the sharp side of her tongue via their phone conversation.

"Be quiet, Rei! I am the leader of this Sailor Unit! And we are going shopping!" Mina loudly announces, grabbing Rei's arm and the cell phone Serena was at the other end of.

"We'll meet you there, Serena! Don't you worry, your girls will be there to back you up for a Christmas shopping attack!" Mina giggles, the thought of new clothes and hair ribbons filling her overworked and underpaid model's soul with glee.

"I could see right through you two ditzes – Hey!" Rei complains, the very idea of spending her evening out frivolous shopping with Serena and Mina even worse than another five hours straight of fire reading at the temple without a break.

But maybe some shopping might loosen up my mental stress…

But before Rei even finishes her thought, she is dragged out the door by a crazed Mina wrapping a scarf around her mouth to muffle the complaints and scoldings.

Then the dizzy blonde leader of the Sailor Scouts leaves a short scribbled note for Artemis on the table.

'Hope you saved me some of that tuna for when we get back. – Mina P ^_* '

---

The unhappy storekeepers – hey, not only were their families and friends hopelessly energy drained and lethargic, so were their slumping sales – were a little rewarded by the Christmas-ing girls going on a shopping splurge tonight.

Maybe Lita and Mina were broke as usual, Rei a spendthrift, and Amy choosing her intelligent personal gifts wisely, but Serena did not disappoint. After all, she had Darian's full wallet in her greedy little hands that were very generous to the feeling low shopkeepers indeed.

Each girl, even Rei, though she would never admit it, was surprised to find herself enjoying normal life again and laughing a little. Mostly on Serena and Mina's behalf, where the two of them actually came to blows over some Christmas gift ideas stolen off one another.

Caught up in the Christmastime spirit the sprightly quintet brought, Aquamariana slowly warmed to the strange young women. During their noisy shopping, the Sailors bigheartedly shared their zest for life, and normalized the Queen to come out of her own doldrums and smile every now and then with them too.

Serena, over the next week or so, would continue to spread the holiday cheer, instilling its precious gift within her weary Sailor Scouts, her dear friends in unspoken ways. They all slowly were coming to appreciate her uplifting of their spirits.

And life all of a sudden, though difficult and hard when it came to making the tough choices, didn't seem half as rough whenever she was around.

Happiness was discovered to be something that you give to others, share the light of with others, not something you'll just find in dark corners. Serena was a master of giving, the girls now gathering for Scout meetings at their beloved Princess' apartment, where the tree was small but cheery, and there was warmth everywhere.

Serena made extra sure of that, maybe not being the best hostess in the world. But at least being the brightest light in the room made up for it.

Aquamariana found out from this young girl what the true joys of life were all about.

That love and friendship and faith above all were the most important things, something that Aquamariana's selfish existance had not seen for a long while.

So now, when sites were staked out, Sailor plans and strategies were being set into place and data-collecting computer scans and maps were made, instead of the sad, depressed mood that frustrated even the most positive minded of souls, Serena had proven herself a beacon of light.

She had proven herself to be their leader, their friend, their inspiration, their Princess once again. Sailor Moon's endless friendship and eternal dreams gave them all back what this holiday season had been all about since the beginning, when a star in the eastern sky sparkled true.

The chance to hope in tomorrow.

---

Meanwhile, at the Starr household, much of the same festive spirit was all around already. The largest tree to be found was up and overflowing with decorations. Though many replacements had to be bought after all the ones JunJun and PallaPalla had broken along the way when they got into the holiday spirit.

The entire house smelled of cinnamon sweet bakings, Christmas cookie cutouts with sprinkles, creamy eggnog, and roasting chestnuts were always set out with the holiday music playing nearly nonstop.

It filled this home with such joyful strains, for Terry desperately wanted this time of year to be just like the last one he had spent on this world, just as happy as that first Christmas he enjoyed with Susan.

Terry would do anything to make her happy, Susan having a penchant to fall into melancholy moods of late. Though she tried to hide her sad or fearful emotions behind secret doors, her devoted husband could sense them coming.

To dispel those moments, Terry tried especially hard to bring the joy of this holiday season Susan first gave to him.

With no sign of Metallia or further incursions since the underground catacomb battle a few weeks back, perhaps there truly would be peace on earth this Christmas. After all, Terry often consulted with Amy and the rest of the Sailor Scouts on the latest findings that told him there was nothing upsetting to be found.

Perhaps Metallia was defeated that easily. Perhaps none of them need worry of the darkness ascending to the planet's surface anymore.

But despite Terry Starr's attempts to look on things with a rosy attitude, his logical mind knew in his heart that all was not right with the world.

The innocents of the city were still under some powerful form of unquenched energy drain, King Pearellion was still missing with a shadow of the Negaverse revenge hovering over the Sailor Scouts, and Evil Queen Metallia was still plotting her ultimate scheme of darkness that would not be defeated, because she could simply no longer be found.

And on top of everything after all of that, something was not right with his own family.

Things would never be right without Robin there to celebrate the Christmas season with them.

I doubt Michelle will ever be the same without him. And if Michelle isn't right… Then Alex isn't right… And if Alex isn't right, then Sayer…

In his clinical mind, Terry, at times, could sink to low spirits. His family, at one time the only two other people in the world who meant anything to him, the brothers he could rely – were no longer the same since Robin had gone. And Terry had not seen Sayer since he had that little spat was that beyond difficult woman.

The intelligent man could sometimes feel their absence in his soul acutely.

It was at times like this that his Susan somehow knew, she comforting him in small wifely ways, speaking to Terry softly, clinging to him unquestioningly. Hers was a love that proved to the dispirited man that there was always hope, and that he could go on for her and find it no matter what.

She and Tara, and now these four little girls as well, showed him that he had an extended family now. Though no one could ever replace what he and Sayer and Robin had, they could add to it, give him their affection, a connection of family he needed to face the day with a smile.

And it was his smile his Susan reveled in. Through her nearly nine months of pregnancy, her husband had stood beside her, held her up, pampered and spoiled her, given her his strength, his attention – and most of all, his love.

Thinking of these things as she slowly rises from her midday nap, Susan could smell the sweet scent of sugar greeting her.

The girls must be cooking sweets. She smiles to herself, putting her wrap on and gazing at her reflection in the mirror to adjust her hair.

"Oh dear, just look at this stomach." The womanly vanity in Susan was displeased to see her reflection to… large… Though she was still terribly thin everywhere else, her waist was rather bulbous.

But the woman who thought her life would be spent in solitary confinement forever was pleased to note that inside of that big pregnant tummy was the special angel that her wonderful Terry's love put there. Her eyebrows raise that she laughs at herself.

She was glad for this moment of peace at last, after all the months of combat, when she could even think of such mundane things. Though the days had been uncertain in the past, Susan knew that her due date was drawing ever so near and her baby – Terry's baby– must be born on a peaceful world.

She must! Susan thinks as she touches her stomach lightly with her hand to feel the child palpitating not too far beneath anymore. That's when another's curious digits from out of nowhere seem to easily wrap around hers, entwining his long fingers within.

"Terry darling." Susan smiles, leaning back to her husband's strong chest, his scent wafting over her mingling with the sweet sugar in the air.

"Awake already my love?" Terry kisses his wife's ear, then her forehead, then her cheek, and finally a rewarding smooch right on her rosy lips. "If you're still tired, maybe you should lie down some more –" He whispers in between frequent kisses, his gentle arms wrapped around her big tummy.

"No, I want to – smooch – spend some time with the children – smooch – for a while." She smiles up into his beautiful purple eyes between sweet kisses.

"Yes, I brought home some cookie mixes and other Christmas treats to make while I was out." Terry answers her softly, cradling her in his arms as he hums the haunting tune of 'What Child is This?'

"And some surprise presents too, I'm sure?" Susan teases, knowing her rich husband's proclivity to spoil females, which she found too adorable of him. "Darling, you spoil them." She smiles sweetly, happy he would be such a good 'papa. And this was good practice because he would truly be one soon.

If all went well… Susan could help be jittery of her first, only-dreamed-of-for-a-thousand-years, opportunity to be a mother. That's when her worried eyes are sparkled by a snaking around stream of amethysts that Terry encircles the clasp of around her thin wrist.

"Terry, you spoil me, too!" Susan felt so indulged, especially at Christmas time, with Terry bringing an expensive gift home every day since the beginning of the festive month.

Susan knew this real gold bracelet must've cost a pretty penny.

"You make Christmas giving special, my love." Susan admires her bejeweled wrist then lands a thankful kiss to her fine husband's cheek.

"You are my gift every day, my darling." Terry caresses Susan's cheek tenderly, the couple going in for yet another kiss when a loud clanging of pans and dishes and the chaos of screaming ensues from downstairs somewhere in the vicinity of the kitchen.

Terry and Susan pause, giving each other quizzical looks at the cacophony going on down there. But with a mutual shrug, they go for each other's lips again –

But the overwhelming scent of sweet sugar turns into an overpowering stench of burnt sugar, and the arguing becomes louder and more intense as many youthful voices scream back-and-forth at one another.

"Who set the stupid timer for the stupid cookies on this stupid %# !#%! thing?!" One angry cursing voice demands in so many saucy words.

"It was supposed to be taken out of the oven ten minutes ago. I'm afraid they're all inedibly ruined." A snooty one comments unnecessarily.

"I thought you said 'ten minutes more'!?" Another girlish voice defends their non-culinary skills.

"Oh, never mind that all! We should pick that pan up from the floor before it burns a deeper hole!" Another yells in warning.

"Ahhh! Our yummy cookies! PallaPalla doesn't like burnt cookies." The unmistakable childlike voice of PallaPalla whines.

"Shut up or I'll burn your Santa muffins too!" JunJun obviously retorts.

"That's not very much in the Christmas spirit, JunJun! We shouldn't get ourselves in a pickle just because someone doesn't know how to set a timer properly." CereCere rebukes another of the friends.

"Then you could just figure out how to make them by yourself next time!" Throwing down the bowl she was rinsing, VesVes gets all stuck up at her snobbish pink companion.

"My cookies." PallaPalla was kneeling on the floor weeping over the charred remains.

"Everyone! Please calm down! We have another batch of cookie dough, so we could get another pan and make up some more…" Tara's calming voice was trying to be peacemaker in the midst of the raucous kitchen.

"Be quiet when were arguing!" The quartet of voices silences Tara's singular quiet one.

"I think we better go down and smoothe the situation out for poor Tara." Susan whispers motherly, giggling at the high strung group downstairs.

"Yes. And I'll have to see about fixing that burned spot on the kitchen floor before we entertain again. But after one more indulgent present for me, all right, my Christmas lady?" Trying to forget his problems and live in the moment, Terry gives Susan the ultimate gift of his love.

The married lovers enjoy a very pleasant, tranquil kiss, despite the pans and dishes clattering downstairs, amid the smell of burning sugar and the Christmas countdown begins.

---

Konban wa, Greetings! Fellow Sailor Moonies! :)

'MOON PRISM POWER!'

Thanks for reading this installment of the Sailor Moon Eternal saga!
As promised, I finished typing out another chapter for my birthday August month!

I hope you enjoyed the tense battle and fun downtime sprinkled with romance and excitement galore that is our beloved Sailor Moon!

Just six more thrilling chapters left to publish 'til the end of this 1000 page long sequel novel I wrote ages ago on paper! But every year I promise to add another LONG edition to the never dull action-packed love story in the magically exhilarating world of Sailor Moon!

'Never give up, ganbaru wa!'

I'd love to hear your kind reviews as the climactic battle is building for the ageless Sailor Scouts and those they love in the city of Tokyo!

Sailor Moon is eternal love, Tomodachi!

God bless you!

Your forever Fanfiction friend,

HarukaKou

'STARLIGHT HONEYMOON THERAPY KISS!' ^0^