Chapter 20: The End of The Beginning
Melanite looked at Sailor Moon, calling on her powers, and watched as she turned into the Neo Queen of the Future Earth. He looked to his allies, as they nodded dismissively, surrounding the pair making sure no one else tried to interfere with the fight.
"Serena don't do it!" Darien yelled past them.
"I have to." She said in a voice that sounded aged and profound.
"You're too weak you can't win against me! You will fall just like my idiot cousin Diamond!" Suddenly Melanite was beaming with dark energy and blasted it at the Moon Queen. She hit him with a strong burst of energy as the dark and light energy wavered a war back and forward. She trembled, weak from her transformations from being back from the dark side, and also turning back and forward from the Neo Queen.
"Serena!"
"Stay strong!"
"You can do this!" The scouts all shouted words of wisdom blocked from the fight by the three remaining black moon clan.
"You won't win against me!" Melanite screamed out, sending a large amount of dark energy deriving it from the free standing dark crystals at her.
Suddenly the world seemed like it moved in slow motion. The white light from the crystal suddenly was over come by dark energy, and her friends watched as she was engulfed in it. When the chaos ended they looked desperately to see a tattered Queen on the ground, clutching onto the silver crystal.
"You cannot win! If you fight again you will die!" Melanite teased.
"Mommy!" Rini yelled out, and she started to cry. "It's all my fault!" Suddenly a tear that trickled down her face started to glow. "The rainbow crystal, it was inside of me all along!" She took it in her hands and she gained her princess apparel.
"Rini don't!" Tuxedo Mask pleaded.
"I have to." She said strongly and went over to her mother, as the three black moon clan watched in awe. She helped her mother to her feet again. "I won't let you hurt mommy!"
"I don't want to hurt you; I want my Wicked Lady back to me!" Melanite said.
"Well she's not here anymore." She nodded to her mother and they both raised their hands using their silver crystals.
Melanite tried to stop them, but his dark energy was no match for two Silver Crystals. Suddenly each of the dark crystals shattered around them, and Melanite was yelling for help. His three allies went to help him but were instead engulfed in the light. Just at that time, the Queen disappeared and Sailor Moon was in her place, before falling to the ground.
"Serena!" Tuxedo Mask and the scouts ran over to her.
When the light finally went away they saw that the Black Moon clan were not dead, but were damn close to it.
"We will not give up. We will be back when we are stronger, maybe not in Crystal Tokyo's Time, but soon after. I will get my Moon Princess back; the beautiful Wicked Lady WILL be mine." Melanite said, hanging from his allies as the scouts watched as they disappeared with all of the dark crystals.
"We won!" Venus yelled out.
"Don't say so just yet." Mars said looking over to Darien who was hunched over Sailor Moon. The scouts ran over.
"Is she okay?" Jupiter asked in a light voice.
"I don't know." He answered, his voice trembling. Her eyes were shut. "Serena please come back to us, you were so brave." He then kissed her on the lips. He looked at her hoping to see her blue eyes flutter back at them, but when they didn't his head dropped.
"Darien?" A meek voice said.
"Serena!" He said and was thankful to see those fluttering blue eyes.
"We'll get you to my mother's hospital as soon as we get through here." Mercury said.
"No really I'm fine."
"Like hell you are Serena, you just fought Melanite twice, transformed into not just Princess Serenity, but Neo Queen Serenity twice, and got blasted pretty good by Wicked Lady." Mars said.
"Sorry." Rini looked up at them with her big eyes.
"Awh Rini, she didn't mean it like that. We're just happy to have you back." Venus said reassuringly.
"Mercury is right. You'll feel better there." Darien said kissing her once on her forehead. "Let's go home."