Chapter 12
As the sun reached the middle of the sky, a grouping of fifteen youma appeared on the battle field. Makoto, clad in her forest green and pale pink uniform stepped out in front of them, sword in hand. The youma stood still, pulling out their grotesque looking blades to attack. A sudden mist set over the group, silhouetting the figures, and blinding them from the details of the person next to them.
"Jupiter Thunder!" Makoto yelled, summoning a focused lightning strike on a group of three confused Youma, turning them into a pile of silver mineral dust.
"Aqua Rhapsody!" shouted Mercury from the far left of the field, only striking a single youma with her attack.
Makoto watched as a gigantic black shadow appeared behind where Ami was. Before she could shout out for Ami to run, the beast doubled back as if hit a wall that was invisible to see. Makoto turned back to the fight, taking out two youma with one sweeping arch of her blade. Ami ran up next to her, winded with sweat rolling down her face.
"The dragonborn and the others have the dragon under control," she said kicking the youma in front of her. Suddenly Ami and Makoto looked up to see that every youma that they had destroyed regenerated, "Makoto, I have a bad feeling about this."
"Well, all we can do is keep fighting," Makoto said swinging wildly at the monsters as they attempted to best her.
Ziosite watched as Makoto and Ami fight the seemingly endless number of youma as the Dragonborn, Sailor Uranus, and Sailor Neptune struggled and defeated the first dragon. Moments after the dragon feel, and the injured Uranus and Neptune lumbered to the castle door way the second wave of dragon and youma appeared on the opposite side of the battle field. Drawing his sword he charged for the youma that had once followed his every command. Rei passed him wearing her bright red and blue uniform, in a moment, stopping just in front of the monsters to release a ball of fire, taking out the five youma that stood in front of her. Ziosite ran behind her slicing the remaining beasts. They regenerated quickly, giving Ziosite only a moment to catch his breath before attacking another set, allowing Rei to use her flame attack to d
The dragonborn could see the dragon on the other side of the field. He could shout from where he stood, but Ziosite, and Rei would be caught in the cross fire. He rushed forward, hoping to make it to the dragon before it could attack Rei or Ziosite during their battle. Half way to the beast the dragonborn could see the charged attacks of Pluto and Saturn hitting the side of the dragon, luring it away from the other battle. With a sigh of relief the dragonborn shouted, using an unrelenting force to knock the dragon to the side, distracting the beast once again, giving the two women another chance to attack. With a flash of bright light the dragon was turned into a pile of over sized bones.
"Dragonborn!" the green haired woman called Pluto yelled, "The barrier is failing we have to try to keep it up!"
The three rushed past battles back to the castle, rushing past a newly developed battle.
Kunzite stood with Minako, watching and waiting for Nephrite and Jedite to appear on the battle field. Endymion and Serenity waited in front of them, with any luck, Beryl would arrive separately from the other two. They watched as the dragonborn rushed panicked toward the second dragon as Sailor Saturn and Pluto attacked from a distance. As the second dragon was killed in a bright flash of light, Beryl, Jedite and Nephrite appeared in front of them on the castle steps. Pulling out their swords Jedite and Nephrite stepped forward to attack the King and Queen. Kunzite stepped forward and barred their attacks in a fluid motion pushing the two back past Beryl and to the bottom of the staircase.
"Kunzite!" Nephrite gasped in shock, looking up at the man that he had thought dead only moments before. He's alive! I don't understand this.. does it mean that he's a traitor like Ziosite? Why does it seem like they aren't traitors, and I am.
Nephrite's thoughts were interrupted by the low swing of Minako's sword threatening to slice through his exposed throat. Looking over he could see Jedite and Kunzite in a heated battle. Blocking Minako's swings was difficult, her skill level matched Kunzite perfectly. Her calm demeanor caused his skin to crawl. Those two were matched in battle, leaving Nephrite and Jedite the only option of dodging their attacks. Jedite wasn't as lucky, getting clipped by Kunzites blade every swing. He's too young to be in this kind of battle, Nephrite thought taking a quick glance at the younger man, he was too young to be one of the generals, he was too young to have fallen in love. Kunzite stopped dead letting Minako's sword strike him in the shoulder. Nephrite sunk to the ground, blood trickling down his arm. Everything is a lie, he thought, I AM the traitor.
"Minako," Kunzite yelled as Minako brought her sword above her head to swing down again, "Leave him be, he knows the truth."
Beryl stared at Endymion and Serenity ignoring the fighting around her. She could hear Kunzite yell that Nephrite knew the truth and she could feel her control of Jedite slipping. Her plan had failed up until now, but she still had enough power to cripple Endymion's powers. Reaching into the well of energy that she had saved from Metaria and Aldwin, she pulled the energy up letting the dark rage reach its peak.
"You will pay for doing me wrong," she said not much louder than a whisper, "You will pay for choosing HER over me!"
She let out the dark flash of energy that contained itself in the dome that the dragonborn and Pluto had created in hopes to prevent this from happening. The force it's self swept the battle field turning the youma into a massive pile of ash and causing Senshi and shitennou to double over in pain. Endymion, Serenity and Beryl were left standing, weapons drawn but none willing to make a move. Suddenly Jedite shot up sword drawn and pointed at the back of Kunzite necks. Minako gasped, still unable to catch her breath.
Beryl was the first to attack, slicing down at Serenity's ankles. Endymion blocked her, pushing her back but compromising his position. She swung up, knocking Endymion's sword up, causing him to lose his footing. She swung again nicking his shoulder and lightly slicing his torso. Serenity screamed swinging wildly with her own blade, her wild swings knocking herself off balance and onto her back.
"First your queen will die," Jedite said to Minako deep blue eyes wide and amused, "And then, you'll watch your lover die."
Minako's stomach twisted her heart hard and heavy. "That will never happen." She said, struggling to push herself up. Minako grabbed onto the belt around her waist, "I won't let this happen!"
She pulled off the chain and whipped it at Beryl, "Venus Love Me Chain!" She yelled as the end of the belt wrapped around Beryl's thin neck. Minako pulled her backwards onto Jedite. The two flew backwards; Jedite falling hard was knocked unconscious, and Beryl sat slightly phased. She stood looking at Minako with a deep welling rage. Kunzite looked up to see Minako and Beryl standing face to face, the rest of the field was flattened, most were still laying unconscious on the ground. Behind him he could hear Serenity crying, and Endymion moaning in pain.
Beryl swung at Minako, cutting her upper arm. Minako winced from the pain but kept standing trying to find the strength to attack again. Laughing Beryl lifted her blade to attack again, but slowly enjoying the look of fear that spread across Minako's pretty little face. With a slight rush of adrenaline Kunzite pushed himself off of the ground grapping onto his blade. He charged at Beryl who seemed to only be paying attention to Minako, and not noticing him. With a quick thrust, Kunzite jammed his blade into Beryl's stomach, causing Beryl to stumble back in shock.
"No," she whispered looking down at the blood covered blade. The dark energy that she had yet to release exited through the wound as a purple mist, evaporating into the afternoon sun. Endymion watched as she doubled over, turning into a golden mist much like the dragons had. A clarity entered his mind, letting him know that the darkness that had blocked the past from him, and the others. He watched as the smoke of battle cleared, and the magic barrier lift from the field.
"I suppose the Dark Kingdom has returned to the Golden Kingdom then?" Serenity asked behind him, tears still running down her cheeks.
"Yes, now that Beryl's gone, and Metaria's powers have scattered, the Dark Kingdom's gone," He answered watching Pluto and Saturn help the other's back to the castle.
"I suppose that we can give everyone rest," she said standing up, "And clean up."
"Yeah," he stood, holding his shoulder.
Nephrite stood and watched the sun set from the palace doors. Staring blankly at the landscape he didn't notice the footsteps coming from behind him. "Are you alright my friend?" the nord man asked looking toward the mountain where he first entered the Kingdom.
"In shock I suppose," He answered after a short pause, "It's hard to believe that up until now everything was a lie that only changed because of the portal between your world and our own."
"Life has a tendency of changing everything we know with one event," the man said, "I never intended for our worlds to cross paths, but not only was I able to defeat the enemy of my world, but help you to regain your own."
"I guess life is a funny thing," Nephrite said, "Thinking about it, how will you return to your world?"
"It seems the woman you call Setsuna has the ability to open a portal back," he said staring off into the distance, "But she needs some time to recover from the battle first, so I will stay here until she can return to full strength."
"Ah," Nephrite answered at a loss for anything more to say. He turned back to the sunset that spread across the sky in hues of purple and yellow. It's nice to be home, he thought with a thin smile.
A/N: Stick around for the Epilogue that's soon to be written and uploaded! ALSO Thank You to Victor of Twin Fangs & rvbchurch62 for leaving reviews.