AN: Guys, I only got one review for the last chapter, and that one wasn't until three days after I had posted. I was sorely tempted to keep this one to myself for another week in hopes it would get the point across. Reason I didn't? I'm ready to finish this thing. We're looking at another chapter or so before the end.
Disclaimer: Saturn hasn't dropped her Glaive yet, so the world hasn't ended and I don't own a thing.
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"You were so different in the Dark Kingdom," she whispered to him.
The pressure of the Daimons against the shield was increasing and Mercury's strength was beginning to run thin. Zoisite was the only thing holding her up as he wrapped his arms around her waist and let her lean into him.
"I know," he responded, tone just as soft.
"Yes, of course you do. You know everything, don't you." A smile was the only real indication she was joking. "We never really discussed it. Except how much it hurt."
"I prefer not to remember."
"You haven't moved on."
He couldn't honestly deny it. She was right, after all, and she tended to know as much. Her eyelids fluttered for a moment as he tightened his grip.
"Mercury, you have to be strong."
"I'm trying. Talk to me."
"What do you want me to say?"
"Tell me everything. Wash it away from both of us so it'll be over for real."
"Mercury-"
"Zoisite, please."
"Very well." He let his own eyes close. "You know of my life before my capture at least in part. That I had finished high school and was preparing to enter university."
"Mhmm."
"I already told you of my relative isolation. You might have expected a dramatic story, but really it was not. I was home alone late one night when the witch appeared.
"You know the lengths Beryl went to in order to possess us in the Silver Millennium, but it was not the same. She was assured now. There seemed to be no doubt in her mind that she would succeed. She had taken Jadeite already, and he was and is stronger than I.
"Lacking my memories as I did, I did not recognize her, but I knew her for what she was. There was no doubt in my mind that she was a creature of pure malice. I could feel her darkness and ill intent before she made a move."
"You always were so clever."
"Not clever enough or I would have fled. Her youma were still few; she would not have wasted one in pursuit of me at least until she had found Nephrite. I asked her what she wanted."
"And?"
"I imagine you can guess. She taunted me and enjoyed my confusion. Oh, she knew my weaknesses well enough. I could not abide not knowing even as my fear mounted. She asked me a question: Did I know her? And she swore that if I could answer correctly she would leave me alone and never return.
"There was nothing I could do. I shook my head and admitted that I did not know, and she smiled. Before I could even think, my home was gone. When I saw the place, I realized that I did know it, and her. My memories reawakened in time to meet my doom."
"Zoisite…"
"Mercury? Mercury? Hold on. Stay with me."
"I'm so tired…"
"You must hold on," he urged. "Stay strong."
She didn't respond. Her arms were shaking, as were her legs, and it was exceedingly clear to him that she would not remain conscious much longer if her power continued to be expended at the current pace. A Daimon lunged at them, but the shield fortunately held well enough to deflect it. Still, it had come too close.
The young general let his mind trace trails almost forgotten, relying on old memories and some educated guesswork. Eventually he found what he sought and latched on.
/Mercury, can you hear me?/
/Zoisite?/
/You are slipping too far. Come back./
/I- I can't. I can't!/
That left only one solution in his logical mind, and he put it into action before he could consider the potential consequences.
He dashed around so he was facing the weakening Senshi and pressed his lips to hers.
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The room showed definite signs of battle. There were scorch marks littering the various surfaces, and only the control panel Mistress 9 was zealously guarding remained intact. The floor and walls had cracks running every direction. Here and there, little craters had been left by the combatants being hurled into that surface.
The three Senshi and Tuxedo Kamen sported several small injuries. Mistress 9 didn't even seem winded.
"There is nothing you can do," she said flatly. "You've lost."
"I'll never give up," Sailor Moon answered.
They closed again. Sailor Moon tried to use her tiara to cut away the strands of hair Mistress 9 kept using for offense and defense, but they only darted away from each attempted attack. Instead, the villainess managed to hurl Sailor Moon back across the room. Tuxedo Kamen managed to catch her with only a matter of moments to spare.
"Hold still a moment," he murmured. "Let me make sure you're okay."
She shook her head and struggled out of his grip. "I have to keep fighting. I have to save her!" She pulled out her weapon. "MOON SPIRAL HEART ATTACK!"
None of the four of them expected what came next. Mistress 9 collapsed, slumping on the floor. Her breathing seemed weak and shallow.
"Sailor… Moon…" she whispered.
Her voice had changed- they knew it had. Rather than the harsh tones of Mistress 9, it was the soft syllables of a young girl that crept from her lips.
"Hotaru?" the Moon Senshi asked. "Is that you?"
"Sailor… Moon…?"
The blonde shrugged off her mate's restraining hand and darted over, kneeling at her side. "I'm here, Hotaru-chan. Tell me what I can do to help you."
"Why does Sailor Moon trust her?" Uranus hissed sharply.
Tuxedo Kamen kept his eyes fixed on the pair. "Because she'll trust someone even when they've given her every reason not to. And in the end, it generally pays off."
"Grail," Hotaru coughed. "Sailor… Moon… use the Grail. Use its light."
Neptune and Uranus ducked around Sailor Moon to attack, but the smaller teen shot to her feet and took the blows instead. She crashed to the ground several paces away, hurt but alive, and just as quickly slid back over to their enemy's side.
"Use it how?" she asked.
Tuxedo Kamen grabbed the other two Senshi and hauled them back. "Don't even think of hurting her again. She obviously knows something we don't."
"She doesn't know anything!" Uranus shouted.
"It does seem foolish to trust Mistress 9 so easily," Neptune admitted.
"She always has her reasons."
"But is she right?" she asked.
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Zoisite had remade his bond with Mercury to give her his power, but even that was not enough. There were too many Daimons, and the warriors were few. Every attack brought the monsters closer and closer to their vulnerable forms. If the shield failed, it was unlikely they would survive.
A shockwave spread through the ranks, pushing the Daimons continually nearer. The Senshi braced, but when it hit there was nothing to be done. The force of it threw all of them back, breaking their connection and leaving them isolated save for their Shitennou partner.
Zoisite hovered protectively over Mercury's still body, forcing the monsters back whenever one dared to get too close. He could sense his brothers doing the same for the other girls, all of whom had fallen unconscious from the loss of energy and the backlash of their shield breaking.
There was nothing else that could be done except fight to keep themselves alive.
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It wasn't that Sailor Moon trusted Mistress 9. It wasn't even that she trusted Tomoe Hotaru, per se. She didn't really know the girl, and she had never met the Sailor Senshi that was her other identity. It was that she hoped she might have found the answer.
That and a promise she had made on the most terrible and wonderful day of her life.
I will. I won't leave you trapped here.
Saturn had given them all a second chance at life, and she wouldn't repay that by taking hers now. Not when she hadn't done anything wrong.
It was achingly obvious that Mistress 9 was trying to trick her into handing over the Grail. And she was going to oblige.
She extended her hands and let the beautifully formed chalice appear in her palms.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Uranus shrieked. "DON'T LISTEN TO HER!"
"Sailor Moon!" Neptune cried. "Stop!"
"Usako…"
She turned her head enough so that she could see them, and she gave Tuxedo Kamen a small, secret smile. One that promised everything would be okay.
It had to.
And she let one strong wish pass from her to the blessed object before she set the Grail in Mistress 9's hands.
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It was too much. The Daimons were too many.
A second wave of power from Infinity Academy threw all eight of the warriors back, leaving them for dead as the monsters swarmed past the battle lines they had fought so hard to maintain.
They didn't even glance at the wounded soldiers as they prepared a rampage against the vulnerable city.
Kunzite alone managed to maintain consciousness, and that only through supreme force of will. Power drained, all he could do was check to be sure everyone survived before he pulled Venus close with a silent vow that he would die before anything else hurt her. Too much on his overtaxed strength, he followed her into the darkness.
Jadeite shifted in front of Mars to protect her, but even as he took the majority of the damage from the shockwave she struck her head on a protruding piece of debris. They were slumped on the ground together, unmoving save to breathe.
Jupiter and Nephrite tried to stand tall, despite the fact that she had only just recovered from the shield's breaking. She had lashed out with the remainder of her power as the Daimons swarmed by, and she had passed out with at least the satisfaction of having rid the world of a dozen of the creatures. Nephrite did the same, and he collapsed with her. Their hands were clasped.
Zoisite struggled to defend Mercury from the first group of monsters, but he had put a great deal of himself on the line to give her his power, and he was exhausted. He fought until he couldn't stand. As he slipped to the ground, his last act was to curl protectively around her so that he would defend her even as they awaited the end.
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She had failed.
Mistress 9 cackled triumphantly as she held the Grail aloft, enjoying the misery of her opponents. The power it emitted as she did threw all four of them back.
"Sailor Moon… After I greet Pharaoh 90 I will give you a special choice to continue living as a body for a Daimon."
"Hotaru-chan! Hotaru-chan, you can hear me, can't you?"
"Why?" Sailor Uranus muttered as she slowly got to her feet.
"The Grail was not yours to do with as you pleased!" Neptune shouted.
Tuxedo Kamen said nothing. He would stand with her no matter the outcome.
"HOTARU-CHAN!"
Mistress 9 winced, and for a moment there was hope. It faded quickly.
"It's no use. No matter what you do, it's too late now."
"Hotaru-chan or this world… I won't let either go!"
"Why don't you give up?" she asked. There was no malice in her voice. Not even the slightest bit of a threat. To Mistress 9, the battle was over. "This Grail is an extremely pure crystal among all pure hearts. Love, hate, happiness, anger, sadness… All elevated to the highest levels. To win against Pharaoh 90 after he takes in the Grail, you'd need to find a pure heart crystal that surpasses it. There's no way you can win!"
With that, she shoved the Grail into a receptacle on her control panel. She laughed as a burst of awful dark power poured from it and out of the school entirely, creating a black column overhead. The building and the Grail itself shattered.
A dome of light formed, and random bursts of energy jettisoned from the sides. Wherever they touched, everything was destroyed.
"Yes, this way, Pharaoh 90!"
A spiral of red was descending, and though Sailor Moon couldn't see what it was she could guess. It was the harbinger of doom.
"Look! See where your methods of idealism got us!" Uranus yelled.
Her response was to draw the Spiral Heart Moon Rod.
"MOON COSMIC POWER!"
A bright pink beam shot from the weapon, going straight past Mistress 9 and toward the advancing entity. It made contact, but nothing seemed to happen.
A moment later, her attack was countered with a larger beam of red. The force of Pharaoh 90's power sent her flying back as the Rod spun away. Tuxedo Kamen caught her, but the force of it sent both of them to the ground.
"You, who cannot even undergo the second transformation, cannot stop the silence. The world for the master and myself shall now begin."
No one expected one of the horrible attacks to erupt at Mistress 9's back.
Sailor Moon interposed herself between the energy and her foe with no regard for her own safety. Tuxedo Kamen followed her lead, sheltering Mistress 9 as she absorbed the attack.
She was hurt. She knew that even as it happened. Any lesser being would have been destroyed without a question. But she still had that small hope, that desperate wish that the seed she planted with the Grail survived and that her pain was not for nothing.
"I'm sorry," she whispered. "Hotaru-chan…"
Sailor… Moon…?
"Hotaru-chan…"
A silver glow began to pulse around Mistress 9, but an instant later a dark aura seemed to snap over it and smother it.
Chibiusa… I'm so sorry, Chibiusa-chan.
"Be gone already! Your life doesn't matter!"
Maybe not, but there are other lives that do!
Without any other warning, the purple sigil of Saturn marked Mistress 9's forehead. She seemed to come apart, leaving the heroes alone in the collapsing building.
"The revival of the warrior of ruin?" Uranus whispered.
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"I'm so sorry, Chibiusa-chan. I wish that all of this hadn't happened. I wish there was something I could have done to stop it. I wish I had been strong enough to fight her."
Saturn stood over Chibiusa in the clearing. The broach in her hand sparkled. She released it and watched as it drifted back to its place on its mistress's blouse.
"Chibiusa-chan, you're all right now…"
She began to fade from view.
"Thank you, Chibiusa-chan. Thank you."
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"Pharaoh 90 is gaining power," Neptune said quietly.
"Now we have no means to stop the Silence," Uranus grimaced.
Another shock ran through the building, and it collapsed entirely. If the four of them hadn't been something more than human, they would never have survived.
"In the end… Everything we did goes to waste…?" Uranus asked.
"This is the end," Neptune stated as she pressed one hand to her bleeding arm.
"Are you satisfied with this, Sailor Moon?"
She didn't move from her position, kneeling where she had first fallen. Tuxedo Kamen ran his hands up and down her arms, but he got no response.
"ANSWER ME!" she shouted before falling to her knees in pain.
Sailor Moon.
That finally drew her attention. Sailor Saturn appeared on one of the shattered pieces of the building.
"Thank you for protecting my body. It's all thanks to you."
Her voice held the same sort of ancient power Pluto's did. She didn't seem like a young girl any more.
"Sailor Saturn…" Neptune whispered.
"Hotaru-chan?"
"I am no longer Hotaru. I am the only one who can save the world from the Silence now. Leave everything else to me."
"Wait! I'll go with you!"
"No. To defeat Pharaoh 90, you need to enter its core and make it all disappear at once. I don't know about Super Sailor Moon, but now that it has the power of the Grail I don't think you can even enter. This is my job now."
"When you defeat Pharaoh 90… what will happen to you?" Sailor Moon asked.
"The reason I am called the Senshi of Destruction is because I am given enough power to destroy a planet. However, when I use that power… I will also…"
A long silvery weapon appeared in her hand as Sailor Moon cried.
"You can't!"
The Glaive was pointed under her chin as she got to her feet and reached for the younger warrior.
"Farewell."
With that, she flew back into Pharaoh 90 and vanished from view. Flashes of purple light erupted several times across the surface.
"Hotaru-chan!"
She ran forward, but a burst of energy hit her back. She fell into Tuxedo Kamen's arms, crying. With a great deal of effort, she got up again.
"CRISIS, MAKE-UP!"
Nothing happened. Without the Grail, she couldn't become Super Sailor Moon. It didn't stop her from trying again.
"CRISIS, MAKE-UP! CRISIS, MAKE-UP! CRISIS, MAKE-UP!"
She fell forward, pounding the ground with her fist as Tuxedo Kamen reached for her again. She just shrugged him off and continued, tears pouring down her cheeks.
"Please, transform! CRISIS… MAKE-UP…"
Sailor Moon…
It was Mars' voice.
Sailor Moon…
Mercury.
Sailor Moon…
Jupiter.
Sailor Moon…
Venus.
A murmur of gentle whispers she couldn't understand, but she knew their voices. It was the four Shitennou.
Uranus and Neptune, standing behind her and her mate, looked on with sad eyes as the gems of their tiaras flared.
The moon on hers began to glow in each of their colors as she began to calm down. A dart of silver flew in front of her before sinking into her broach.
"CRISIS… MAKE-UP!"
Her bright pure heart burst into view as she transformed to Super Sailor Moon, but it never moved from its place in front of her henshin broach. Her blue eyes lost their focus and seemed to go blind.
Farewell…
And she forced herself into the darkness of Pharaoh 90. It exploded outward moments later, as the sun began to creep over the horizon to shine down on the devastation.
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AN: I cannot say how much I've struggled with this part. Of all the things in Sailor Moon that bothered me, this has to be pretty much the biggest one. Even Usagi in all her ditzy glory would not give up the Grail when Mistress 9 had already said that she would use it to summon Pharaoh 90. So I spent a lot of time struggling to come up with a reason she would. If it's not clear yet, don't worry. I'll explain next chapter. Readers, I beg you: review. I hope you believe me when I say I'd really like to hear what you have to say about this story. Till next time!