sabina21: oh your about to find out. The final is coming up and it's going to be shocking all around, yet hopefully satisfying.

kera69love: There will be consequences to actions done and yes Mars has her own issues from the feline to deal with now.

smoon4409: oh hot water might be a little nice for her. Lol but yes there will be some very shocking moments coming up that will be altering all of their lives shortly.

3 reviews, nice, were getting towards the end here, there's going to be a few more shocking surprises coming up but they will be enjoyable…so let me know what you think! Read, review and enjoy!

The devil within ch.18

EvilEndymionPOV

I see Jadeite waiting for a clear signal that he can proceed forward. Presenting myself I make my presence known so I don't make them jumpy more than they probably are, nor do I want to activate Jadeite's reflex to strike out against me. He was stealthy, intuitive, and quick but he could also be a bit impulsive at times. It's what made him and Rei such a good match for each other in the long run.

"Relax it's just me," I alert them as he relaxes his stance at seeing me in the little bit of light that there is. Both Venus and Mars seem to be the most caught off guard though why I don't know as Venus keeps tight-lipped about it. She doesn't say anything but I do see visible tension between her and Mars. Not wanting to get into anything as we're on a tight schedule down here I begin to direct them around knowing we need to make our move now.

Especially since Malachite is keeping tabs on Beryl right now so I can make my move and not be caught off guard nor have her breathe down my neck and see what's going on. We can't get caught this far into it.

"Metallia's personal chambers, or rather where Beryl goes to 'feed' her energy…," I begin. "Are down those set of corridors." I point as I can tell that even Jadeite didn't know about them. There are definitely too many secrets Beryl is keeping around here.

"The things we did for that greedy woman," he mutters.

"Tell me about it..." I can see the expression on his face change just a bit. "You know what don't...not till later on," I add on.

He nods.

"You'll be able to tell you're close by the utter stench of death and decay," I mutter as I spot my beloved.

"This place already stinks of that," she utters, clearly getting the scent of it already.

"Trust me when I say this, is just what's radiating from behind closed doors. No Metallia is so full of evil that nothing that's living stays alive near her. Even the youma don't go near her. There's just this sense of dread and morbidity that lingers around."

Besides the obvious reasons. Beryl is the one that goes in the most frequently, and even then, she doesn't stay for too long. Metallia from what I gather likes her 'space'.

Feeling the need for some reassurance, I reach over and touch her cheek before saying, "I'll see you on the other side, I have some 'business' to attend to."

She nods even as I can tell she wants to kiss me one last time. It's a definite temptation as the last thing I want to do is deal with Beryl but it would honestly make me feel better if I could feel her lips once more. I swallow it so I can keep my mind sharp.

"Got to keep my head in the game," I tell her but that doesn't do much to convince her to not act on her urges. It's as if she can sense my own growing need to do the same as she pushes past Jadeite, reaches up, and gives me an intense kiss. I give in and reciprocate back. If anything, it helps to give me more focus. A reminder also of what we're fighting for. Not that I needed one but to feel her lips on mine as I leave to go confront the woman who ruined our lives once before gives me even more motivation. I feel more energized to do it.

I was already ready to do this, but any person before a big fight needs a little peep before going in. She was mine. When the kiss end's I put my forehead to hers, breathing in her scent, and tell her, "When this is over with, you, me, my bed for a whole week."

She blushes with a smile as I ignore the expressions of her friends and the sideways eyebrow of Jadeite, blocking them from my mind as I focus on her. "I'd like that."

I can't help but smile before I give in to one more kiss and direct them again before heading off. Malachite meets up with me as I see that he's already cleared a path. "We've got to do this quickly. The youma are getting restless since Beryl's been on the warpath. She's even edgier than usual...didn't know that was possible but I guess given the givens it is," he mutters to me.

I wave that off as it won't be long now. "That's not a problem. Cause in a little while she'll no longer be a problem," I assure him as we head over to where her private wing is at. As soon as we spot her Malachite begins to lean back but not before he hands me a blade that looks oddly familiar to me. I look at him as he says, "It's what she used to lead the rebellion on everyone."

That's when it hits me. Her sword. I take the blade as he tells me, "It can do a lot of damage but make sure you get in and make sure the first strike is all that's really needed. We don't need her calling for help in any form. A killing blow if you will." I nod at his words. "Of course...she will suffer, before her death, and in death she will only know sorrow and pain." He nods as I slip the sword onto a sheath on my back.

I'm tempted to ask WHERE he got it from but decide against it. We have a deadline to hit and no time to ask anything additional. As he heads back out, content to wait till were inside her room to move back in and keep the door and corridor secure I walk forward. I go up to her, and not bothering with pretenses tell her.

"Highness…," she looks at me, slightly surprised to see me there as I usually don't come into this area.

There's a hopeful yet curious as to why I'm down her corridor expression on her face. I don't even want to know what images are coming up as hopeful as it'd make me sick. I do see though that she gets a secret pleasure out of hearing me call HER highness, this will hopefully be the LAST time I talk to her as if she is one, or worthy of the title. Her tone then changes as if realizing why I could also be down this way.

She now appears happily surprised to see me yet this doesn't dissuade her from what she also really wants. It's not just me either. It's obvious that while she would love to have me at her beck and call like a lovesick slave she is still very much power hungry and driven by that to rule everything she desires. Everything she felt she was denied when in reality she never had a chance for it at all.

"Have you found the crystal yet?" she asks. There's a greedy, 'don't tell me of yet another failure' warning in her eyes.

"Yes, I thought you'd like to see it privately in your chambers first." I motion with my hand to her door as she nods knowing were not exactly in the best placement outside in a hallway to conduct this business. If she only knew that I was leading her to her own death.

I see Malachite waiting to get into position as he sneaks upwards towards the big ass door to her room that I close. Once I'm inside her bedroom I see that it's even more gaudy and ghastly than the rest of the dark kingdom. I fight to keep my face expressionless at the sheer appearance of it. It's huge, to say the least, way bigger than mine for obvious reasons that I choose to not get into.

Her bedroom is the size of my apartment alone, something that even Mamoru can't disagree with. Though he feels like she has it so big and gaudy as if she were a guy that was making up for what she didn't have. I keep my disgust from my face at the over-the-top displays I see as I go further into her bedroom.

"Let me see this crystal," she demands, hands out for me to give it to her after she closes the door.

Thanks to our connection as brothers, I can sense Malachite now outside the door. Ready to take down any youma she manages to call out since she can send for them mentally as well as verbally. I pull out from my own powers the fake that we planned to give to her a while ago. My powers are now strong enough to give it the same appearance, feel, and energy signature of the silver crystal.

The energy signature was the toughest part as I had to match it bit-by-bit from when Usagi was training with it in my presence. Yes, she might not agree with it and Luna would probably blow a gasket at the idea of it for sure but it was a small price to pay for making sure this plan would work. Her face literally took on the appearance of a greedy, delusional, Cheshire cat who finally got what she wanted.

She barely pays me any heed or attention, which for her when I'm around is a first considering what she wants from me as she marvels at it like the precious gem that she thinks it is. The real one is an incredible power precious crystal, this fake piece of glass just looks like the real McCoy.

"I can feel it's warmth...it's energy…," If she only knew... "How did you manage to obtain the silver crystal?"

She may be asking me this but her eyes are nearly glued to the fake as she examines and enjoys its presence. If she looked any less fascinated by it she'd see a glimmer of the knowing expression on my face as I work to keep my mask up. I know she initially dismissed and said not to the idea of 'seducing' Moon for it, especially when she realized I'd actually have to be 'intimate' with Moon to make it work, but it was going to be my only option in explaining how I have this crystal present.

Besides I just needed an excuse that will keep her attention long enough to do what I wanted to do. So I tell her, "I seduced the moon princess as I initially proposed and after she fell asleep, I snagged it from her."

This seems to be the only thing to make her eyes pull away from the glowing crystal. I can see the initial contempt towards me for going against her wishes in them clear as day. Her jealousy rearing its ugly head.

So I add on, "It was the best option over any other and it clearly was, as it's now in your hands." Her jealousy is rising up more now at a slightly alarming rate as her eye begins to twitch now too.

"Did you say after she fell asleep?" I nearly gulped realizing my own slip and smiled a charming one of indifference.

"Did I say sleep? I mean to say I snagged it off of her corpse." I had to swallow back the bile at referring to my beloved as a corpse.

It sounded so wrong and disturbing yet it did the trick as she was no longer questioning the word slip. Instead, she refocused which was the key goal. "Did you at least kill the moon brat?" she asks, eye twitching continuing as I see her anger rising. "Make her suffer?"

I see the expression changing in her eyes. How much she wants my beloved to be dead. To see her suffer. Eradicated from this or any other world. The amount of utter hate and contempt she holds for such a wonderful person is practically unfathomable. Yet I'm looking at her face and see the amount of it in her eyes. She hates Serenity to a degree of personal loathing. It's then that it hits me. The moment my Serenity...my Usagi entered my life, fell in love with me and I with her, Beryl developed an overwhelming hatred towards her.

We've always known she hated her to a degree when Serenity and I got engaged but we had no real idea of the leveling depth that Beryl was at. She's been holding onto her anger and jealousy all this time. The moment she and I were to be married Beryl sought revenge for being denied what she wanted, and saw Serenity's death as a means of getting what she wanted for good, no matter the cost.

It hadn't mattered that Serenity or I would have said no. Rejected her regardless. Not to mention in true fashion I had in fact told her I wasn't interested. In fact, I would have happily set her up with someone else if she had been able to let go of her feelings toward me. Yet she refused and this is the result. In her mind's eye, the only way to get what she wanted, to secure her 'love' and the power she craved was to do what she did and eviscerate my love, remove her from life in the process.

My moon princess, my innocent love, was the object of her every hateful thought. Beryl saw her as nothing more than a pebble in her shoe that she needed to get out of her way. It was sad really that Beryl couldn't let go and move on with her life. Here she was a thousand years later AFTER she destroyed TWO kingdoms, living in the negaverse and thriving off of the darkness waiting for the chance to rule and make others suffer.

In a way, it's almost, almost comical how between then and even now, as a Senshi, my Serenity still found a way to get in her way and stop her from completing what she tried to do back then. I could still see the jealousy that was trying to break free from behind her eyes. She still held onto so much anger with it that she was preventing herself from moving on and letting go when this was all over.

I could see in her eyes how she wanted to know the details of how I killed the moon princess...as if she wanted to revel in it like a victory of her own. To visualize it for herself, hearing the gory details of how I did it as if she was the one who ripped her life away. Of how I ripped away the life from Serenity. Perhaps even enjoy the twisted sense of 'I got your own prince to kill you, he's mine now…suffer'.

That for her was probably poetic justice in some form. I can see it so easily now that behind that jealousy, behind the hate leaves in its wake a resentful shrew that would actually enjoy seeing my beloved suffer a fate worse than death for daring to love and be with me when SHE had her sights on me and believed I cared for her in that manner when the reality was I saw her as not only no more than a friend but barely saw her like that at all.

I harden myself up to her, putting cool steel in my gaze and resolve, and without missing a beat tell her, "I left her body practically mangled beyond recognition."

My voice as emotionless as I've ever been with it. I had to be to get those words out. The very thought of doing that to her was incomprehensible. Yet it was needed. This is the moment of truth after all. There's a smug, satisfied expression on her face that hits me at how much pleasure she's getting from this. It's utterly disgusting to see her appear so happy about Serenity's death.

Whatever good that Usagi thought was in this woman at one point has been wiped out a long time ago and in its place is a jealous, insecure, vicious, manipulative, selfish person who didn't care about anyone but herself and who she served. She's even worse than the obvious youma we've faced thus far. Even her over done, trying to be Haute features couldn't hide how twisted and ugly she is on the inside.

"Tell me in detail what you did to her," she orders as she momentarily takes her eyes off the crystal."

I arch a brow and ask, "What more detail can come from 'mangled corpse'?"Ttrying to avoid giving her vivid details about events that NEVER happened.

She smiles giving me more of her attention. "The ones that I ask of you. That moon princess is the reason for so much bloodshed after all."

I barely twitch as I recall one of the lies that she shoved into my mind as 'truth' when she was trying to brainwash me. "She's the reason that the Terrian kingdom fell. Her and the lies spread by the white moon people. The ones we fought hard against in the past."

I nearly smiled at the sheer audacity of her lies. She really was laying it on thick. "The war," I mutter as she smiles wickedly, "Exactly."

Her eyes stay with mine/ "She's already caused us all so much pain and suffering, the least that little moon bitch deserves is to receive the very fate that she earned from her crimes against us."

I couldn't help but think…funny considering that's what I was thinking…about you. She looks beyond me towards her bed, "She prevented us from being able to consummate our relationship…"

Her eyes leer at me. I have to physically repress my gag reflex from activating at the thought of that.

"What a monster," I choke out. I couldn't even press that fully out in response and for a moment I feel that she'll catch onto my inability to say it regarding my beloved yet she doesn't as she grins in delight.

"Which is why I want to know the exquisite details of how you put that miserable, jealous bitch out of her misery."

I nearly roll my eyes at her under my eyelids…projecting much? I think to myself. "Let's just say when I ripped into her throat, saw the life leave her eyes there was nothing more than shock and fear in her depths." An utter lie but one that was making Beryl happy to hear as she listened with acute interest. I can only guess how things would go down IF that were to have happened cause realistically speaking, it wouldn't.

Not in this lifetime, not in any universe…I couldn't kill my love. I would rather rip out my own soul. Come to think of it, if I did somehow manage to hurt her enough to mortally wound her, say if I HAD been brainwashed and she couldn't heal me, it would be like killing a piece of me as there is no me without her. Not the full me. That's when we both hear big, loud alarm bells going off.

There must be something that Jadeite or someone else tripped while in the area. I never myself went inside the chambers due to how strong Metallia's reach and powers were. I didn't want to tip her or Beryl off in the slightest to what I was doing and that's just become a glaring, possibly HUGE miscalculation on my part. I didn't think the area would be 'booby trapped' or anything considering how far down into the dungeon area it is.

O.O.O

Moon POV

We get closer to the tunnel where Jadeite is leading us to. It's dark, dank and frankly besides smelling moldy, has a creepy edge to it. I'm trying to shake the feeling of someone or something watching me. I've already looked back often enough to have Mars push my form forward to keep going. Yet I can't help but feel the hairs on the back of my neck standing up.

"We should be getting close," Jadeite says lowly.

We're tip-toeing so lightly you can barely hear the heels of our boots clicking on the rocky ground beneath us. I'm stuck mentally in the midst of many emotions right now. Between anxiety over what could happen to us all if this doesn't pan out as Endymion planned, making me wish I'd spent a little more time with my family back home just in case especially as I feel a sense of grown dread that we're NOT alone down here.

Not to mention my natural fears of where we are and what we're going to be doing, were down here to kill the root of all of this. All of our problems cause my anxiety to rise up and makes me wonder why it has to be us. Why we were gifted at the Senshi to stop this, yet I know the answer to it all. It doesn't matter that we're only teenagers, that we might live for the rest of our lives fighting or we may die here tonight, we have to fight cause there's no one else out there that has the power to do it.

We have to fight to rid the world of Metallia and rid the earth of her evilness. Of what she is and extinguishing her from our world. The last part makes me mentally pause. Like a calming balm on my soul, I know in my heart of hearts why these next few hours will make or break us all. Why does it have to be us? I close my eyes and feel my heart rate slow down and beat more confidently…if that were possible.

This will work, just as Endymion planned it. Speaking of a confidence booster in this whole mission…Endymion is entrusting us to help carry out his plan as he carries out his end of the bargain and I have all the trust and faith in him to do it. He's quite frankly the only one who could get close enough to Beryl, besides me in a close quarters combat experience to perform a killing move on her.

He has trust in me here so that I can work with the Senshi, work with Jadeite to destroy Metallia. Both those reasons help to reaffirm WHY I need to be here. Why does it have to be us? Helps to calm my anxiety giving me a chance to breathe more properly, not that anyone could tell but my heart was starting to beat so fast I feared someone might hear it. No, the reasons I knew all along don't make my fear go away, not by a long shot.

It would be foolish to not feel fear considering WHERE we are and WHAT was about to do, add to the fact that Metallia is our toughest foe that we've had to beat to date, but it does help to put things into perspective. Metallia is pure evil. She's a demon that wants suffering to happen, knowing only sorrow and only pain, and wants to inflict that upon people for as long as possible, to rule the universe as such.

Beryl at this best is only a tool at her disposal. I briefly wonder if Beryl is even aware of how Metallia would handle her if she suddenly went 'good'. However, I think we all know that Metallia went to Beryl for a reason. There was no turning back for her. As for the demon Metallia had she at one point been a human with some inane structured background that could explain that she to was a victim in some way then I could at least understand her and when we dusted her, give her a new start.

Yet there was none. She was born a demon and from what Jadeite had imparted on us since his memories had been returned or resurfaced, she slipped onto earth solely to torture people, take energy from others, corrupt innocents or those that were 'vulnerable' and feeling vengeful which is probably how she got to Beryl. Metallia is the evil that I think even Beryl would fear and was headed straight to her.

Once we get into the area we slow even further down as we spot a couple of youma guarding her door. Do they know what they're guarding? We don't know…nor at this point do we care. We duck by the wall were at as we devise a small plan to dispatch the youma without setting off alarm bells. We don't need to be fighting off more than needed before Endymion and Malachite show up.

"Now what?" Jupiter asks.

Jadeite looks at her, giving a small smile, "My turn. I'll slice them up once I get close enough and give you guys a way inside."

Just as he goes to move Mars's hand comes out and grabs his jacket sleeve out of nowhere, shocking us. He looks back to see a mixture of worry and avoidance of being worried on her face like she can't decide but still reacted TO decide. I guess her heart didn't want to wait for the rest to make that call.

"Wait…your uniform is different than the rest of the generals, even if you had the face covering they would see you as being suspicious, it would risk your life…"

We look at her with minor smiles on our faces, trying to repress them. She squeaks out, "And our chances of avoiding setting off an alarm." She covers as her face grows a little red.

"Very true our uniforms do differ from each other," he agrees.

"Not to mention that Malachite has a different body type than you do he's more…" she tries to give a description.

I butt in with, "He's a tad more intimidating." He gives me a quirk of his brow with an expression of mild agreement, amusement, and resisting the urge to see it as a dig as it very well sounded like that. Realizing my own error I amend with, "Trust me though, it's better in certain situations to be less intimidating."

He turns his head more towards me as if waiting to hear what this reasoning is, "Meaning, Malachite would look WAY out of place trying to wine and dine, to do spy work, or get some basic information from people that are easily scared off. That's a failed combination that can result in failures. Whereas you can slip in unnoticed, you can be charming, delightful, wine, dine, do everything that Malachite would struggle at."

I hope this is coming out sounding more convincing to them than it does to me. He smiles.

"That's true to…not sure if I'd say it THAT way but I do see the validity to your point princess," he teases.

"How about I knock them down with thunder and you gut them afterward?" Jupiter suggests.

Jadeite nods his head in agreement, "Fair enough. You're up then 'lightning rod'." He motions her ahead of us. "Light them both up. The electrical current should be enough to temporarily knock them down long enough for me to kill them."

She nods and Mars sighs giving in, "Fine." She backs up as Jupiter powers up them the second she steps out, and sends two power blasts at them, both hitting their intended youma targets with rapid speed as they jerk and spasm uncontrollably. In the few seconds of time jadeite has he acts quick.

Jumping out around Jupiter he pulls out his sword and slices it into one across the front, from the neck down through the chest, sternum till it's effectively falling into two pieces on the ground. A bit gross but whatever. The other he slices across its neck effectively cutting it off. We leave out from the corner area we were just at and see the big massive door more up close that they were guarding so ineffectively.

I watch as Mars bends down to use her fire to cremate the creatures one by one. I glance at her, "We don't know if they can resurrect and I'd rather not leave a youma undusted." I make an understanding motion and hear Jadeite pull his sword back in place, "You all ready?"

I hear the girls confidently tell him "yes" but even he knows where this might end. I can see the need to take a moment and give in to something he wants to do but is resisting.

It occurs to me that he wants to be able to kiss Mars and as I look back at her, the conflict in her eyes reads like a similar want. She resists though, walks up to him, and puts her hand on the doors. "Let's do this," She tells him as he smiles and nods, "After you."

Yet we all are peak walking in at once. Nothing but silence hits us. Dead silence till we hear crackling going on. Like a flame of sorts burning in here. The evil feels even thicker than it did on the outside. The big double doors open just wide enough to slip the rest of the girls in before we step just a little bit closer inside. The quiet is a bit unnerving as we were expecting…well I don't know what we were expecting but the stillness wasn't it. We walk further inside and see a small path leading past a few stone-like structures. We slowly round a corner and see her.

I just know in my gut that we've located her. There's a prison that she's inside of. It glows both red and with a tint of orange and it is attached to a structure in the ceiling. The air is dark and thick with evil. You could practically choke on it it's so thick. It moves around like an endless fog as it moves on its own. There appears to be a stony near cave-like area surrounding this entire place and it seems to be that there's only one way in and out.

Back the way we came. I can feel sweat beginning to form. I take a few determined steps forward and feel the air shift around me. All at once, I hear sounds coming from in front of me, the glowing odd-looking orb attached to the ceiling moving around.

"I can feel the energy of the silver crystal getting closer," We hear the disgruntled voice come out. Almost as if it's underwater in a sense.

That's when upon further inspection when we get closer we see that she's been sealed away in a watery layout. No one speaks as Metallia says, "Beryl bring it closer to me. I can feel the warmth. Once it's in my possession I can bring you untold amounts of power that you've only ever dreamed of." Her voice becomes near shrill at the end. I stand up and with the Senshi not too far behind me I move forward.

I pull out the moon wand and confront Metallia. Seeing her now brings me back to odd flashes of the moon kingdom. Seeing her beginning to tear apart the kingdom I called home once.

"Beryl's not here anymore," I tell her announcing myself as I come upon her. "I however am and on behalf of the moon I will turn you into moon dust and destroy your evilness once and for all," I announce as she shrieks, "What?!"

I go to use the wand when out of nowhere a youma comes barreling in through the only set of doors. Like a ram, it runs straight for us, at a speed that's too fast to see and aims to hit me. I just barely dodge it as I flip it around. It tumbles over towards Metallia.

"Our Queen will rip you apart," It tells me as it prepares to use its powers on us. I ready my own weapon when I watch Metallia reach out and siphon the energy out of I wonder why she never did that before to any of her subordinates. I almost feel sorry for the youma as it turns to dust.

"Stupid," She tells it and uses the energy to break free from her cage. She then forms a dark ominous cloud over the entire area as she attempts to break free of the confinement of being in here.

"She's going to rupture this place. We need to kill her now!" Jadeite shouts.

"You?! You supposed to be in an eternal sleep!" she shouts and tries to attack him, he puts his sword up in defense at the hit and barely comes away with only a scratch. As we now see that he's using his nega-powers to infuse it. I then call upon my powers of the crystal as the Senshi follow suit and do the same thing with their powers. Before they can fully power up though the ceiling behind me crashes down and cuts us off.

"Everyone?!" I call out, partially terrified that the ceiling killed them all and pissed beyond hell that Metallia is being cowardly and trying to cut us off. When I look back at her she's trying to flee from the prison area we're in into the floor above. I can hear the Senshi working to break free of their current imprisonment. Knowing they'll waste more time and energy I try to call out but can barely hear them.

No time to waste I shout into the communicator, "Everyone she's escaping upwards. I'll follow, you guys take the door exit upwards, don't waste your powers trying to break free."

I leap upwards to follow Metallia as she's trying to escape. I manage to catch up to her in the throne room and deliver an attack from the moon wand. She snarls at me. Her cloudy floating form decided to hover over and around me.

"Your days of fighting for your version of the greater good are over." I narrow my eyes at her, "When I break free this willll be my chance to control the world, the truth of darkness. The concepts of what you think right and wrong are, they will be forever changed when I get to the surface and corrupt every living being on the planet."

Now I know where Beryl gets this crazy talk from as Metallia talks to me.

"Once the people of earth are fully infected it will only be a matter of time till I can get stronger from their energy. Feeding on it."

I shake my head at that. "It will be this way forward for every living being on this planet, in this universe for centuries to come…"

She cackles as I watch her face, her demonic face goes crazy creepy. "Those that survive my reckoning that is."

I shake my head knowing that THAT cannot happen.

"You, my dear princess have been fighting to save an idea, a picture from your past life that doesn't exist anymore, that has never truly existed, to begin with." I gave her a hard stare recalling the past that she stole from us all, the past that had led us here to this moment in time, and stated with as much conviction and force as I could muster in a stoic mode full of confidence that I felt to my core.

"Your days of being a force of darkness are what's over." This stops her smirk, even though it's minor, it's enough to make me continue forward strong in my words. "Your breaking free of that prison will NOT end in your favor," I tell her. I can see her getting upset cause right now, I'm not feeling the fear of dealing with her. I'm feeling the knowledge of everything that's happened to us all, knowing what NEEDS to be done. It fuels me. It drives me.

"No, if anything the only thing that will change is once YOUR dead there will be one less monster out in the world to hurt others," She snarls, "You have no idea what I am you pathetic Senshi of the moon. I've lived out many lifetimes during your death and I will be here long after your next death. There will not be a third rebirth for you…once that silver crystal is used up, I will take it and make it what the moon kingdom failed to realize in what they had with it, global domination!"

Her words do little to invoke fear in me as works her world out in my mind's eye saying, "Let's play this forward." She stops the preening as I continue, "Your version of this is you win, you get your way…"

She smiles.

"But here's where the snag comes in at. Your ideal world of darkness and death would never work," I tell her, though she's either ignoring what I'm saying or I'm telling her exactly what she wants to hear.

"You need life to live. To rule a world, a universe, you need a people, and cities to govern, to continue the growth of humankind. This what you desire will give you NOTHING but baron wastelands full of death, there will be nothing to rule over as Queen. So say you do win today, say you beat us, there is no throne for you to sit on, no version of there where you are on top of the world cause once it's destroyed, once the universe is dead there's NOTHING left to rule, nothing to be revived."

It's then that Metallia gets a grin on her smoky face. "Exactly…there will be silence…nothingness." I hadn't expected that response. "A stillness that only comes from death covering up everything, that is my truest vision. To have it surrounding me for all eternity…a black plague on the universe that no one can undo."

There was never any talking to this creature, this entity, but it did give me hope that maybe I bought myself some time. "I'm going to promise you one thing in this…you won't win."

Metallia actually gives me a smirk as if she's laughing at me and perhaps she is. "You think you can take me on, you pitiful, weak little moon princess. You…no, Queen Serenity, even she didn't have the full power to destroy me back then!"

I snarl back at her, "And your no Queen yourself." I can acutely feel her hate towards me. "Your nothing more than a pathetic demon full of hate who enjoys misery and the pain of others."

I level the moon want at her as I put on my best attack, full force into her. Hitting her in the center as I use my own energy to push it further. I can tell she wasn't expecting me to make the attempt, but I can also tell the moon rod alone is not enough. She actually looks down for a moment as I aim right below her mouth. Or whatever the breach is that I'm assuming is her mouth, "Is that the best you can do?"

She looks torn between annoyed and wanting to laugh at me. "That little toy is NOTHING compared to what I can do."

That's when I see that she levels out an attack towards me that is easily five times the power that the moon wand has. As soon as it comes near me, I send out a silent wish to the moon wand…please if this is it for me…for us…let me make it count…give me the power I need to eradicate her. We cannot let this evil roam free. We're all that's left.

I feel the ground shift beneath me as things go stark white.