Chapter Thirty-One
LadyPrin
Disclaimer Applies.
"Serena, your Scouts! Contact them!" Endymion cried.
Serena shut her eyes and opened the link between her and her friends.
The pain hit her with so much force she stumbled back and would've fallen if not for Endymion's hand still holding hers.
All the Sailor Scouts pain, even if they felt it only briefly, had built up against the barrier that Serena had built. When Serena took the barrier down, the pain exploded upon her.
All the pain was gone in a split second, but an echo of it still remained deep within Serena's heart.
Serena looked up at Endymion with tears streaming down her cheeks.
"They're dead." She muttered.
Queen Serenity had started walking swiftly toward her daughter when Serena had stumbled back holding a hand to her chest.
When Serena muttered those words, Serenity was close enough to hear them.
Serenity tried to contact the Outer Scouts as well, but only Neptune and Urnus answered.
Serenity turned to address the crowd as Neptune and Urnus made their way to her across the floor.
"Friends, please be calm. We need you all to return to the portals that will take you all home. Beryl is attacking again."
The crowed gasped.
Alan used his energy to summon his sword, while Ann got her energy ready to be summoned should she need it.
Sammy would have unsheathed his sword, but he hadn't bothered to bring one. He didn't think he'd need it, and he didn't have a magical dimension pouch to put it in.
Serenity continued.
"Those who wish to flee, please do so with all haste. Those who wish to fight, guards please arm them, but all know this. Only two Sailor Scouts will be here to fight with you. The others are no longer among us."
A deathly silence fell upon the crowed as they all moved in different directions.
Neptune and Urnas transformed and conferred with Serenity for a moment.
Then they left, as Serenity turned around to see Serena crying on Endymion's chest.
"Endymion." Serenity spoke, and Endymion looked at her. "You are the Earth's Prince, you should go back to Earth and gather your defenses."
"Is the Earth being attacked right now?" Endymion asked quietly.
Serenity conferred with the Crystal.
"No. Beryl has just started attacking the outer reaches of my Kingdom. She is so far ignoring your planet." Serenity informed him.
"Then my place is here, beside my fiancé." Endymion stated firmly, arms wrapped securely around Serena.
Serenity smiled sadly.
"Then I put her in your care. Protect her as best you can." She said.
The whole palace shook then, as a tremendous boom echoed through the air.
The candles and lanterns fell and broke, setting fire to the drapes, curtains, and tablecloths.
"Take her someplace safe to wait this out!" Serenity cried as she put most of the flames out with her power.
Endymion looked around and then gently, but quickly lead Serena up the staircase to the second floor.
"Where are we going?" Serena cried as she picked up her skirt and started running faster.
"To your room!" Endymion answered in a yell, as a piece of wall came flying across the hall and smashing into the other side of the corridor, barely missing them by inches. "You're mother put a protective spell around your room. So long as she lives, no attacks can get in, and even if the whole palace gets turned to ruins your room shall still be standing. It took a lot of power to put cast that spell, so only your room was done, so once you're in there, stay there okay?"
Serena hesitated and then answered.
"Okay!"
They reached her room and had just made it through the doors before the whole hall outside her room was blasted away, leaving dust and rocks falling all around the doors.
Once the dust and rocks settled, Endymion took a chance and leaned out far enough to see what was going on.
A big ball of dark energy had been hurled straight through the middle of the palace, cutting it in two. There was now no way for them to get out of her room, they were cut off.
Another boom crashed a little ways from her balcony.
Endymion stepped in front of Serena, holding his cape around her to shield her from the burning red light that flashed through the room. It was so bright that they could still see it though their eyelids were closed.
After a few minutes their eyes quit seeing red splotches of color, and they breathed a sigh of relief when they realized they were still holding each other.
Abruptly the noise outside seemed to dim.
"Such a happy sight." A mocking voice said softly.
Endymion jerked his head up, and Serena twirled around to see Beryl standing in the doorway that once lead to a hall.
Endymion made a quick movement that put Serena behind him.
Out of his own dimension pouch, Endymion withdrew his sword.
"You're probably wondering how I'm able to be here. Well, though attacks cannot destroy this room, nobody cast a spell that stops an enemy from just walking in. It's amazing what simple little things one misses when they're trying to protect another." Beryl laughed as she walked a few steps into the room.
Endymion slowly moved Serena back.
Beryl studied them for a moment.
"It's only the Princess I'm after, you Prince Endymion can go. If you hand her over I'll leave your planet alone. It's the Moon Kingdom I've wanted all along anyway." Beryl said softly, her red eyes staring straight into Endymion's deep blue ones.
Serena rested her head against Endymion's back, using the Crystal to channel all her love straight into Endymion.
With all of Serena's love streaming into him, Endymion's resolve strengthened. He held his sword up high, and snarled at Beryl.
"Oh, well, it was just a suggestion anyway." Beryl said lightly as she flicked her hand at them.
Dozens of large ice shards flew at them.
Endymion pushed Serena out of their way, and they pierced the wall of her room instead.
Serena flung her hand at the doors to her balcony and she pulled Endymion through them. The Crystal shut the doors behind them, and they crouched down on one side of the doors.
They saw Beryl appear floating over the edge of the balcony.
She laughed as she landed lightly on the floor.
"Doors, ha! They can't stop me, but I think you knew that already." She said mockingly. "Why don't you give up now? Look around! The Moon Kingdom is in total ruins! All the Sailor Scouts of this Kingdom are dead, including Neptune and Urnus now. Queen Serenity is holding her own, but how long will that last? All the civilians are dead. They say a Kingdom is only a Kingdom if its people make it so. Its people are dead, this Kingdom is no more. If you continue to resist, I'm just going to kill you off the hard way. If you give in, I'll make it quick and hopefully painless, I mean I wouldn't know how painful dying is, I've never dead."
"But I have, five times over." Serena told her angrily, referring to the pain her friends had felt as they died.
"To me that's wonderful news!" Beryl smiled evilly at her.
Endymion withdrew four roses from his cape and flung them like darts at Beryl.
Beryl tried to fling them away, but she was too slow.
She cried out in pain as they pierced her skin, but none managed to pierce her heart.
"Now this annoys me so much!" Beryl stated in a snarl as she ripped them out, her skin quickly healing the wounds.
Beryl flung both her hands at them, and even bigger ice shards rained down at them.
On one side of them was the railing, on the other the wall, they couldn't move to the left or right.
So Endymion flung his arms wide and prepared to take them to protect Serena.
Serena realized what he was doing, and thrust her arms over his shoulders, one on either side of his neck. She opened her hands palms out, and a big white barrier erupted in front of them.
The ice shards shattered as they hit it.
As the last one shattered, the shield went down, and Serena slumped against Endymion's back.
"I can't do that again." Serena muttered to Endymion as she tried to get her breath back.
"You don't have to. I'll protect you this time." Endymion muttered back.
"Endy . . ." Serena said softly, but Beryl had already let lose another ice shard attack.
"NO!" Serena cried as the shards hit Endymion in the chest.
He fell back against her, pinning her between him and the railing.
She managed to crawl out from underneath him.
She ignored Beryl as she raised Endymion's head onto her lap.
Her tears splashed gently upon his face as she carefully removed his light gray mask that had once been pure white.
"Endy." She whispered to him.
He opened his eyes once, staring at her, but not seeing her.
"Sere—" He started to mutter, but he never finished.
His eyes closed, and his head fell to fell to one side.
"No." Serena whispered repeatedly as she held his head to her chest, washing his hair with her tears, and rocking him gently back and forth.
"Well, this is even better than I imagined!" Beryl snickered. "So far I've killed off everybody you love dearly, except your mother of course. Don't worry though; I'm off to kill her now. Then I'll come back for you once you've had a chance to feel the pain of everyone that you hold dear being dead."
Beryl disappeared in a flash of red light.
Serena opened her eyes and stared unseeingly at the floor of the balcony.
Everyone, the Inner Scouts, the Outer Scouts, Kenji, Ikoku, Sammy, now Endymion, everyone was dead except for her mother.
She still held hope that her mother would defeat Beryl. She knew that the Crystal still had enough power to do that.
Her mother may yet survive, but would she be able to live her life while everyone she knew was dead?
Serena knew that she herself wouldn't be able to. The pain was too much to bear already.
She gently laid down Endymion's head, and stretched herself out beside him.
She gently tapped into the Crystal's power long enough to summon herself a dagger of her own. Its silver blade glinted in the red light of all the fire that burned around her balcony, it's gold hilt felt cold in her hands.
"I hope you destroy her this time mother." Serena whispered as she rested the point of the dagger in the middle of her chest, right above her heart. "For the people of Earth who are still living, and for those of us who aren't."
She took one last look at Endymion's peaceful looking face, and pushed the dagger in.
She never cried out in pain.
Her last breath flew from her mouth, as she slumped onto Endymion's chest, her left hand laying gently in his opened one.