Chapter Twenty

About three or so weeks later, with no further Negaverse or Arab terrorist attacks taking place, it was now Thursday, January 24, 1991. Sylvia was with several of her friends eating lunch at school. They were talking about a party that her family and friends were planning on giving her the following evening. Sylvia was trying to find out how many of her school friends might be able to attend such a party. Liz said, "I think I can make it, Sylvia. But my Dad might want me to spend the weekend with him and several of my other relatives in Bristol, I think. He seems to be really wanting to go there of late, for some yet-unknown reason."

"I see. And do you really want to go?"

"No, even if it might possibly mean more time with Thomas, I don't. For I don't want to miss your special celebration day, if I can possibly avoid it at all."

"Why is that, Liz?"

"Because, my little Israelite friend, we're best friends. And we're girls. Boys are nice, of course, often, but I think it's so great that we're girls. They can't really dress up like we can, can they?"

"Why can't they?"

"Because, Syl, they don't often look as good as we do, I think, due to the fact that we can, as girls, often wear more jewelry and related items than they can."

"What else?"

"We can wear makeup more than they can, often, unless they're actors, of course. They don't look good in pink, normally, either, for example. Almost any color might look good on us, while the same thing isn't generally true for them."

"But they make more money working than we do, I believe, in their careers, generally. Even for the same kind of work, right?"

"True enough, a lot, if not all, of the time, Sylvia," said Liz. "But you must also consider that they can't bear children, which means they can generally work much more while we're with child than we often can. But I'd rather have children than have too much money in my life. Too much money can cause a lot of problems, if not handled in a Godly enough manner by a lot of people."

"I see. And how many children would suit you then, Liz, if God gives you at least that many? If not more?"

"Eight to ten."

"Wow, BIG family, wouldn't you say?"

"I suppose so. But I want a lot of kids, if possible. How many do you want?"

"Four to six, maybe, as far as I can tell well enough in my life right now."

"I see. And who might be the lucky guy?"

"I don't know for sure."

"You don't know, or don't want to say?" asked Liz, with a sly grin of some sort here and now. None of her table-mates saw that grin of hers besides Sylvia, in fact.

Sylvia blushed almost imperceptibly, before answering a few seconds later, "Both, perhaps." But Liz barely spotted the very brief blush, without letting Sylvia know she had. Liz secretly resolved to try to find out just who Sylvia might currently be interested in at least a little bit, if not a lot, just as soon as she could do that well enough somehow.

Eventually, Sylvia and the rest of her current table-mates had to leave the applicable school cafeteria and go to their next classes. No matter what they might be, they all had to do that then, just the same.

The following day, right after school ended for the day, Rolando asked, "Miss Wakefield, could I see you tonight, perhaps?"

"I really don't know, Mr. Volois. I have plans for the evening with many of my friends and relatives, since it is still my birthday, as you know."

"Do you have a date tonight to this engagement yet?"

"No. Why do you ask?"

"Because I was going to try to spend it with you, if I could, Miss Wakefield."

"I see. Well, my engagement is expected to be over by 8, I think. Do you think we could meet at the library or the mall by 8:30, after it's over?"

"I think we might be able to do that, Miss Wakefield."

"What should I wear then?"

"Wear your best currently-available dress. I'm taking you out tonight, if I can, and we're going to try to enjoy ourselves as long as we can do that well enough."

"Okay. I'll see what I can do for us both in that regard." Shortly after she said that, they both parted from each other again for at least a while, if not a long while here. As they both parted, she suddenly thought, "God, please let there be absolutely no trouble with anyone tonight at all, if it is Your will that there won't be. For I really do want to have a really pleasant birthday tonight in my life. But only if it is Your will that I have one, and not just mine, at least, of course."

When she got home from school, her parents said, "Sylvia, we have just decided to have you marry someone in the near future. You will be meeting them tonight at your party. It seems that they have made a suitable offer for your hand in marriage, and we have decided to accept it on your behalf."

"Without consulting me? Outrageous! Why would you have done this, without even letting me know beforehand?"

"Because something quite major has now forced us to do that, Sylvia. We have no choice now, it seems," said her father.

"Can you tell me their names, at least?"

"No, we can't. You will be present at your party, or else people might get hurt, according to the person we're being forced to marry you off to now. It's a long story, but you need to be there tonight for at least a little while, if not all night," said her mother.

"This is unrighteous!"

"That may be so, but we still have no choice, just the same. Be there tonight," said her Dad, in time.

"Fine. But you will have much to answer for later, if at all possible."

"We understand. I hope you can eventually forgive us in time for this, Sylvia. But if you don't do so for at least a while, if ever, so be it," said her mother.

Five minutes later, Sylvia headed straight to her room and began packing up all her things as best and as quickly as she could. As she was doing so, her siblings soon came into her room, with her permission, and began to help her. With all their help, she soon had her van loaded with a good portion of her stuff. She took everything to the cavern, and quickly unloaded it with Kiena, Tatiana, Mary, Naomi, and Joelle's help, at least, if not any of their animal allies' help as well. Two more full van loads later, her room was completely empty back at Wakefield Castle of anything belonging to her. And anything else of hers anywhere else in or around Wakefield Castle was loaded into her van as well, for that matter. No matter what it might be, in fact. She quickly dropped off all those things of hers in the cavern, and set off for her party.

By the time she got there, it was nearly 6:45, the time scheduled for her party earlier. All her closest friends and several of her relatives were there by the time she arrived outside a specific Jerusalem-area restaurant she'd only rarely visited in the past, if ever before at all. As soon as she pulled into the parking lot for it, she got a really, really bad feeling starting to show up for her. And it had all the signs she'd come to recognize of the Negaverse's presence, for that very matter. She made quite sure that if she might need to transform all of a sudden, she'd be able to do so quite easily enough. God willing, of course. She secretly notified all her fellow Scouts and their animal allies of the situation too, just as securely and as quickly as she could do that at all. They agreed to do what was then necessary and possible for them all at a moment's notice, if they could somehow do so well enough. No matter what it was, they still did so.

Promptly at 6:45, she arrived at her parents' table in that restaurant. Four people were present with them when she did so. All were currently wearing business-style clothing, except for one woman with red hair and a long floor-length strapless and shoulderless dress with a bat on the front of it. The other three at her parents' table were an auburn-haired man, a blonde-haired woman, and a white-haired man. The four with her and her parents at their table introduced themselves as Athania Mullins, Troy Hawley, Nekanala Warkley, and Ikoray Hardin. But those names weren't actually their real names. They told her parents that they were cousins requiring the presence of spouses for them to each receive their inheritances. And that "Troy" was the one who needed to marry Sylvia to receive his.

Sylvia soon realized that the four were not actually normal human beings, and notified secretly all the necessary people and animals as best as she could. Even while she pretended to play along with her parents and their table-mates at present here. After a while longer, she excused herself from their table, saying she needed to check her appearance, among other things, and headed for the nearest available ladies' restroom there.

As soon as it was safe enough for her to do so, she activated a robot device that another Scout had secretly hidden in the restroom's roof, and eventually sent it back to the required table in that restaurant. Then she slipped through the roof, and into an air duct above it. She quietly moved through that air duct for a little while, until she was able to slip out of the restaurant's back well enough. She ducked briefly into an adjacent abandoned warehouse, scrambled her Scout signs, so that the Negaversers couldn't detect her powering up, and then became Skyhorse again when it was safe enough for her to do so here well enough. This, of course, was for all the obvious reasons, in fact. And she did that just as she could do that here, by the way.

Five minutes later, at most, she appeared at the main entrance to the restaurant in question, and said, "I am Sailor Skyhorse. It has come to my attention that a certain young woman, whose birthday it now is, has now been promised to someone without her prior knowledge and consent. That is wrong, and I shall not permit her life to be ruined in such a way, if I can possibly avoid it at all. Those of you here who are her parents have much to answer for. But those who will have the most to answer for here are those forcing them to marry their daughter off to them without her permission. I now know who you are, and what you are, in fact. Four of you are Negaversers. Specifically, you are Queen Beryl, General Nephlyte, General Zoisite, and General Malachite. Your plan to capture this young woman will fail, and it will fail totally. Come forth, and reveal yourselves, Scouts and allies, if you so choose!"

Now spaced periodically in and around the restaurant, wherever and whenever possible, were Renaissance, Trinity, Mir, Israel, Judah, Moonlight Serenade, Isaiah, Vladephrad, and Yeshua, at least, if not anyone else as well. They all became visible enough within a minute or two after Skyhorse asked them to show themselves. Right after they did, several hundred, if not at least four thousand, monsters of assorted sizes, whether big or small, then did the same, at the Negaversers' command, for that matter.

Two minutes later, a fierce battle began raging in full earnest, when Beryl made a certain signal with her hands to the assembled Negaverse monsters. As soon as it did, things heated up rather quickly indeed. Several civilians were soon seriously, but not fatally, wounded, once the battle began here. Among them was Liz, in fact. Skyhorse saw this and went full-bore very quickly on the monsters who saw fit to attack Liz like they did, if she'd not already done so by that time. They were destroyed almost immediately afterward. Several more monsters met their demise right after that, thanks to Moonlight Serenade's impassioned defense of his once and future mistress while she was battling towards where her parents, sisters, and brother were elsewhere in the restaurant. The battle continued for at least a good twenty minutes, if not more, before the Pilgrim could finally join the battle as well. And when he did so, he was not alone. For two more animals and fifteen other human females were with him, as a matter of fact. All fifteen human females were currently in civilian dress, but that wouldn't remain the case much longer, if the two other animals could do anything to change that well enough here.

Two minutes after they arrived on the scene with their human companions, and after conversing very quietly with the oldest of them, the animals both did some acrobatic maneuvers quite quickly indeed. And they began rapidly initiating the fourteen youngest human females with them as superheroines, as they needed to here and now.

Three minutes later, at most, fourteen new Scouts began joining the battle as well. The new Scouts were, of course, Moon, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Venus, the now-sighted Corona, the now-hearing Eclipse, Pluto, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Sedna, Orcus, and Quaoar, in order of them joining the fight that was now raging here. All of the new Scouts' uniforms had appropriately-colored skirts that were each about knee-length, more or less. Mercury soon shrouded the area with a "Mercury Bubbles Blast" attack, while Moon, Mars, and Pluto did a combination attack made up of their lowest-powered attacks at present. Which had been their highest-powered attacks at the time of the Moon Kingdom's fall, in fact. Moon combined a "Moon Tiara Action" attack with a "Dead Scream" attack from Pluto and a "Celestial Fire Surround"-style attack from Mars several times. Jupiter and Venus double-teamed at least four others in very short order, as did Corona and Eclipse, and Uranus and Neptune. Saturn periodically helped draw monsters' attention long enough to allow other Scouts to attack them easily enough here, shrouding herself in a cloak as dark as the night whenever necessary so they couldn't find her easily enough to attack her at all. Scouts like Sedna, Quaoar, and Orcus, for example. Even the oldest woman present among the Scouts' human reinforcements fought when needed. And she was masked.

When about twenty dozen or so monsters were still able to fight in the restaurant against the Scouts now present in it, the four main Negaversers began trying to come up with a suitable enough plan for escape back to the Negaverse, to the best of their current abilities. This was given the fact they were now fighting several increasingly mad Scouts, animals, and many humans, obviously enough.

It was now just about 7:55 pm, local time, and thousands of Negaverse monsters had been destroyed already by everyone then fighting them. But there still were many more monsters yet-to-be destroyed, just the same. While others were engaging the enemy just as well as they then could, the Pilgrim did what he could to evacuate and/or take care of as many people from and around the area as possible. He successfully evacuated most of the human civilians from it well enough. Often with the help of several animals and the masked woman. But he wasn't able to evacuate all of them, for just as he was about to evacuate Sylvia's family from the scene, he was knocked down by assorted debris that had been loosened by effects of the battle here. He lost his transformation almost immediately, and was revealed to be Rolando. Skyhorse saw him lose his transformation from ten feet away, and shouted out his name at the very top of her lungs as best as she could now. Rolando was now unconscious as well.

Seconds later, all the monsters, Negaverse leaders, Scouts, and the Scouts' allies, whether human or not, stopped fighting. Skyhorse went over to where Rolando was being shielded from attack by Yeshua, Moonlight Serenade, and the masked woman as he himself was doing the same for her parents and siblings. She checked him and her family out, and then asked, "Yeshua, will he live?" Her family's present members were sleeping under him, after a stray monster attack had put them all to sleep before the Pilgrim could evacuate them well enough.

"He still lives, and will still live for many years in the future. At present, he is unconscious. He will wake up later in his bed, not yet remembering he is also the Pilgrim, if you don't kiss him," said Yeshua.

"And if I would kiss him, he will remember fully the fact that he is also the Pilgrim?"

"Yes. He will remember that, and he will remember fully the past he had from the days of the Silver Millennium, if you kiss him here. And you will do the same as well. The other Scouts who have just shown up here don't yet fully remember their pasts from that time, and that will remain the case for them all, whether or not you kiss Rolando here."

"Should I kiss him not or kiss him, Yeshua?"

"The choice is yours. I leave it fully up to you. He will live, in any case, however, Skyhorse."

"Understood. I shall not kiss him right now, then. For it wouldn't likely be fair to him to kiss him without his knowledge or consent while he's like this. Please see that he and the rest of the rest of my family gets out of her safely enough and easily enough, then, Yeshua." She said this as she placed her hands on Yeshua and Rolando's heads for a little while. Much healing energy passed to Rolando and Skyhorse from Yeshua while she kept her right hand on Yeshua's head and her right on Rolando's. It restored her to full strength as a Scout, by the way. When she felt Rolando and her strength had both been restored well enough at the current time, she removed her hands from Yeshua and Rolando's heads completely.

Twenty seconds later, Skyhorse said, "Queen Beryl, Generals Zoisite and Malachite, take your monsters and leave immediately, or die. I shall not permit your presences any longer in this place at this time. General Nephlyte, you shall not be allowed to leave, however. Sailor Scouts and the masked woman, please leave. And take your two cats with you, please, when you do. For I don't want to have to protect you and them while I battle Nephlyte here. Serenade, Isaiah, Vladephrad, and Yeshua, you should leave now as well. I will not need your help any longer in this battle if I don't have to protect anyone else at all in it."

Five minutes, at most, later, Skyhorse and Nephlyte were then completely alone in the restaurant. The restaurant had taken almost enough damage in it to make it quite susceptible to eventual structural collapse. Both fighters soon met in the approximate center of what still was left of the restaurant for a few moments, to discuss conditions for their battle to the death. They discussed them briefly, and then prepared themselves for the battle to come here.

Ten minutes after they'd been left alone in what was left of the restaurant, they began battling with each other using whatever means or items were then available to them here. They battled each other until about 8:55 pm or so, local time, before Nephlyte began to tire considerably. As soon as he began to do so well enough for her to notice easily enough, she began stepping up her attacks on him. For she'd basically only attacked him a few times with attacks meant to mainly probe for weak spots in his defensive techniques, reserving most of her energy for defensive purposes, before then.

He didn't do very well defending himself after she began stepping up her attacks on him. For he'd foolishly wasted at least a considerable amount of energy attacking her earlier with attacks that weren't quite as effective against her as he thought they'd be. By 9:30, she had him trapped in a storeroom of sorts, and in a corner there.

Nephlyte tried to get away, and reverse his current circumstances. But he was now doomed to die for what he'd done in and around Jerusalem while in charge of the Negaverse's operations there. Especially because they had drawn her friends and several of her relatives into such a situation quite needlessly, as far as she was then concerned in her life.

It took her until about 9:35 or so to finally be able to give him a killing stroke. Five minutes, at most, after she'd applied that stroke to him, and he'd died, his body had totally disappeared, after having been first reduced to mere dust, then to mere atoms, by very rapid disintegration of his corpse.

By 9:45, then, Skyhorse left what little was left of the restaurant, and went to the cavern in her van. She powered down on the way back to the cavern, in fact. She arrived there by 10:15 pm local time at the latest. When she then got there, Kiena and several others were all already present there. Those others were Mary, Tatiana, Isaiah, Naomi, Joelle, Moonlight Serenade, Vladephrad, and Yeshua. Isaiah was perched on Kiena's shoulder when Sylvia returned to the cavern.

For about the next thirty long minutes or so, then, everyone present discussed Skyhorse's battle to the death with Nephlyte. Eventually, they all got tired with doing so, at least at the current time. And Kiena asked, "Sylvia, when are you going home to Wakefield Castle again?"

"I really don't know, Kiena. Right now, I'm just so angry at my parents for trying to marry me off without my prior knowledge or consent. Even if they didn't actually have any idea that they were going to try to marry me off to Nephlyte, in the first place. Nobody chooses my future husband without my prior knowledge or consent except God. If they don't, then only I can choose my future husband, if I ever have one."

Mary said, "They might have had a good reason for trying to marry you off like they did."

"Even if, hypothetically speaking, they were being blackmailed for some reason, for example, Mary, there's still no reasonable enough excuse for what they did, and tried to do," said Sylvia.

"Yes, that might change your relationships with either or both of them permanently," said Tatiana, as she came over and rested a hand on Sylvia's shoulder briefly. Then she continued, "But they're still your parents, Sylvia, being blood of your blood, and flesh of your flesh. There's no way that'll ever change, at least in this time, if not in any others as well."

"A thousand years or so ago, you might have said the same thing to me before I went with my siblings the last time prior to the Moon Kingdom's fall, if I remember things well enough, Tatiana. You might have visited Wakefield Castle with several other Scouts prior to then, and witnessed a major fight between my parents and myself, at least, if not others as well."

"And do you remember what might have happened after that?" asked Tatiana.

"My siblings and I, as well as assorted other people there at the time, took all our various things and animals, or at least as many of them as we could, with us when we left Wakefield Castle behind. Some length of time later, we eventually made it to the Moon, and were there at the Moon Kingdom's fall. Of course, the Negaverse ruined everything and everyone they could when they came. We lost big time, as you can probably guess. If I remember things well enough, you and Sergei fell defending Queen Serenity while she was trying to find her eldest daughter and her beloved Prince of Earth. I held on longer, I believe, and fell near my own beloved about the time that Beryl blasted both the Moon Princess and her beloved, if I'm not too mistaken here. As I don't yet have all my memories back from that time, there are most likely at least one or two things that weren't exactly as they currently seem to have been to me, Tatiana. Whether or not they might pertain to the final battle on the Moon, I believe that things might not have been exactly as they currently seem to have been to me. I do, however, for instance, definitely know that at least three couples either were already engaged, or were about to get engaged. Which ones they were, I'm not sure of yet. But I do know this bit of information is totally accurate in its nature, just the same."

Sylvia conversed periodically with her current companions until about 11:30 pm or so. After which, they all began to leave the cavern behind again every so often. All except herself, of course. Serenade and Yeshua were the last to leave her alone there. And they both left by local midnight.

After they were gone as well from the cavern well enough, Sylvia completely secured the area of it as needed. Until about 2:30 or so, then, she attended to all her things as she saw fit to here. However, she began to tire considerably by 2. So she soon began to prepare for bed again. She was in her bed there by 2:35, and quite soundly asleep again by 2:50. She slept, and often dreamed more about her time in the days of the Silver Millennium, until nearly noon. And she only woke up again well enough when Kiena shook her awake in her bed as needed on the morning of Saturday, January 26, 1991. And Kiena had come there with that morning's edition of the Jerusalem Post in her hands, which had an article about the Scouts' latest battle on the front page, in fact.