Final Battle
Aremes was thinking about something that had come to his attention when he had agreed to become immortal. When they gained their powers and immortal blood, they took on the names that they had before as well. What if Usagi was the same way? She didn't act like the Usagi he knew anymore, but a lot wiser, older and sadder. He also couldn't feel the bond they had very well, because both of them had changed so much in the past few weeks. Coming up beside her, he wrapped his tail around her and noticed for the first time she no longer had hers. "What happened to your tail?"
"It disappeared when I became Cosmos."
"Meaning what? You're not Usagi anymore?"
"No, I'm not."
"Then why do you let us keep calling you that?"
"Because you never asked me what my name was." She tried to pull away, but his tail gripped tighter and he growled in slight warning.
"What is it?"
"Aresta, which means Dawn-Star."
"You've become a little too distant with me since you gained the power of the senshi."
"I have not become distant, but the one everyone called. Sailor Cosmos is the last person that should have been called into battle, because I was meant to stand alone and guard the universe after this, to never be with the people I've known or cared about my whole life."
"Do you remember the life of Usagi?"
"Yes, because she is me, only reborn. My power remains hidden as she is reborn into a new life after dying. The day I was to be called, was the day I lost all ties with my heritage. Do you know why I have an eight pointed star on my head instead of a crescent moon?"
"No."
"Because I'm not Saiya-jin or Lunarian. That is only who I was when I was reborn to Selinity."
"What are you then?"
"The Queen of the stars, or the messiah of the universe."
"Will you ever become Usagi again?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"Once the crystals reunite with the silver crystal, they cannot be separated ever again. That was a onetime deal."
"How will the other senshi become Sailor Senshi again."
"They can't nor do they really want it. I've read their minds about the issue and all of them seemed relieved of the duty. Maybe a little sad that Usagi has grown up and no longer needs their protection, but they need to be set free and given a different task when we go back to the future."
"What about us?"
"What do you mean?"
"You don't seem to need me any longer either."
She looked at him, and for a moment the sadness left her eyes to smile at him. Turning to him, the tip of her wings brushed his nose and she laid her soft lips on his mouth. "I will always need you Kakarot." That wasn't his name any longer, but the soul in him was still his, or was that because of the truth and justice that existed inside of him. "Besides, I'm not giving up my two babies, nor am I going to deny their father."
"Do they have the same powers as both of us?"
"They have the potential, yes."
He looked at her neck and noticed she no longer had a mark their and growled in jealous possessiveness. "What happened to the mark on your neck?"
"Hmmm. I guess it healed back up."
Aries was trying to figure something out. "How come, none of us know much about you? You can't be related to any of the gods if what you say is true."
"That's because I'm not. I am a star that was born when the universe was. There is more than one universe, but because it is so big, none that I know of, have ever reached the end of it except for myself."
Everyone blinked and looked at Sailor Cosmos. "How old are you?" Piccolo asked.
"Hasn't anyone ever told you that it's not polite to ask a lady how old she is? I'm older than twenty thousand years if that's what you want to know, and if we live through this battle, I'll give you a history lesson that isn't in the books on any planet."
"I have a question," Raven said. "Do you know how the war between the gods happened and who confined Erebus to begin with? Rumor has it that Hades and Zeus did, but they can't remember the events to clearly. All they knew is that he couldn't be released without the aid of a family member to do it."
"That's because their memories have been blocked of the incident. The events that took place during that time were painful and there was no way they would be able to forget and learn to live with the suffering they had caused each other. At the end of the battle, I was barely able to shine and that is how I ended separated into nine different crystals of the universe, with the silver crystal being the strongest. I chose the one person I knew could take care of the silver crystal and who her protectors would be from generation to generation. In the mean time, I chose a person to reside in, and every time she died, I was reborn into a different time and different race. The last time was inside of Serenity and I knew she would be the one to release my power. When she was reborn into the future by her mother, I did not choose a different person to rest in."
"You know something," Dion growled, "everything we thought we knew we don't, and the further we go the more things change."
"That's a part of growing up," Cosmos said.
Erebus was almost finished taking out another planet, increasing his control on the realms of the universe, to turn everything into nothing but shadows. As he was about to travel on, he tensed and felt two familiar powers. One was his desired queen to submit beside him as he conquered everything. The other caused him to rant in a rage of fury. Unlike all the Gods, he remembered her and was bent on making her pay for imprisoning him in the shadows for so long. Quickly he sped through the darkness, insanity clouding his mind as he saw nothing but red, blood and vengeance. He didn't know who the rest of the group was, but they never saw him until he struck the one person he hated above all.
"It's about time you appear, coward! For over thirty millennium I have waited for you to come back so I can kill you slowly." Erebus saw two males coming towards him and sent a wave of invisible energy at them, that wrapped itself around the two and trapping them. He didn't think it would hurt them, but it would be long enough to take care of the woman under him. Aries readied his arrow to shoot at Erebus's back, when he made a surprise move and flipped over, holding Cosmos in front of him.
Everyone froze as Cosmos looked down at her stomach where Erebus back would have been and was seeking to her knees. "Cosmos!" Raven shouted. She put her hands to the ground and concentrated her energy. The ground began to shake and sped towards Erebus. As spikes began to sprout he jumped in the shadows to reappear behind Raven and to send her unconsious into the darkness. Walking back up to Cosmos, he grabbed one of her wings and pulled so hard that one of them tore, causing her to scream in pain and agony.
Aremes and Dion who were almost out of the black energy bubble they were in, heard Cosmos scream. Feeling her dying, Aremes screamed in rage and disengaged the bubble to smash his fist in Erebus's face. Dion took one look at Cosmos, and white-hot anger took control of him, as he dived into the new power he had. Without realizing he was doing it, he sent forth his own shadows, and added to the attacks of Aremes.
Shadow Moon ran up to Cosmos and lifted her head. "Cosmos," she whispered. Blood was everywhere and staining the senshi uniforms. Her wings were no longer silver, coated in a deep rich red. "Please answer me."
Her silver eyes had lost a lot of their shine as she opened them to see the violet ones of Shadow Moon's. "You have to help defeat him. The others have the strength to get his energy down, but the one person he doesn't expect to be much of a threat, is you." Cosmos closed her eyes and concentrated. "Take this." A sword appeared and landed in Shadow Moon's hands. It had a star in the middle of the blade, a crescent moon on the tip and glowed silver. "This blade is the sword of the stars, Esophoros and is capable of killing your brother." Too weak to talk anymore, Sailor Cosmos closed her eyes and sunk into a darkness that she didn't fight.
"You're supposed to be the strongest senshi!" Shadow Moon cried.
Aries sent a ray of light that was beautiful to watch, but as it grew closer to its target, the heat was 1000X stronger than a normal flame. As Erebus battled Aremes, Dion and the shadows directed at him, he received the hit head on and screamed as he felt the flesh on his face, and arms melt away. With an effort he put up a shield and with rising anger, he started to redirect his attack and it was going to hit him, when an unexpected friend threw her back to the blow and shielded him.
"AHHHHHH!" Cosmos screamed, feeling the remainder of her clothes burn.
"Cosmos, you disappoint me. Since when have you cared about the immortals and their stupid little creations?" Evil insane laughter shook his being as he watched Aries carefully lower Cosmos's no longer breathing body to the ground.
"Stupid Onna," Aries whispered, giving his son a sympathetic glance.
Aremes sank to the floor and cradled his mate close, tears of agony streaking down his face. She was his world, he felt no need to continue without her and welcomed death to take him soon.
Chronos did something he would normally never do, but he threw a time freeze at Erebus, hoping this would help confine him long enough for everyone to combine attacks and destroy him. "That trick isn't going to work on me this time Chronos!" Erebus dodged out of the way and then did something that caused the time god to sink to the ground clutching his head and thrash around. He didn't know what was happening, but it felt like his head was expanding and contracting as tight and loose as it could go. "I think having your brains explode on the inside and then splatter all over the ground would be fun to watch."
Putting his dead mate down, Aremes snarled and glanced at his brother. Nodding, they put their hands next to each other and focused their energy to where it formed into one, "FINAL KAMEHAMEHA BLAST!" Dions ability to control the darkness and Aremes's ability to control light combined together to form a blast so huge that everyone moved out of the way by several hundred yards.
Erebus screamed in rage as his plan to kill Chronos was thwarted. "Who are you two?" He said as he battled the wave coming at him.
"We're the twins you murdered when we were only two months old," growled Aremes in complete hatred of Erebus and everything he stood for.
"What? How are you still alive?"
"Thank your sister and Chronos for that. However, we can't tell you how we're still alive. Call it life insurance," Dion sneered.
"I will kill you and make sure there's nothing left to save!"
Shadow Moon who had been watching over the battle going on, looked at Cosmos laying on the ground and then the Star blade, Esophoros. Suddenly everything she had been hiding from came to the surface. 'You're a loser, never to be trusted. No one will love you or give you aid when you call for it. Forever, will all hate you for letting me go and only I can make it right again.' Shadow Moon held her head and moaned. She watched as Aries added to the attack of his sons. They were the only three left fighting as Chronos, Sailor Cosmos, Piccolo and Raven were down. Images of Sailor Cosmos, Raven and Amazon blurred in front of her vision.
'Hey, Shadow Moon. For what it's worth we're sorry for the past. You should have told us. Erebus, manipulated us all,' Raven said.
Sailor Cosmos was next. 'You don't hate me,' Shadow moon asked her when she was rescued from her brother. A gentle hand cupped her chin to have a sad smile of love cross her face.
'I cannot hate what is good deep down and for something she did not do. If you had it to do over would you have released your brother, knowing what he's done to all those you cared about and loved?'
'No.' "No!" she shouted out loud. "He doesn't control me and never has. I've allowed him to scare me for twenty thousand years and it will happen no more! I am queen of the shadows and submit to no one!" Standing up, a new purpose blazing in her eyes, she walked behind her brother who was concentrating on the attacks of her sons and mate. Lifting the sword, she plunged it deep into his body and added her own attack. "Shadows Possess!"
Several shadows traveled through the blade as Shadow Moon rolled out of the way. Erebus screamed, forgetting the blasts aimed at him. She cried as she watched her brother being destroyed inside and out, but knew they had no other choice. "I'm sorry brother, but you wouldn't change and I can't let you hurt people anymore." She shed tears in anguish and went over to Cosmos and rested her limp head in her lap.
Aremes, Dion and Ares all sighed in relief, but not for long as they looked at all their fallen comrades. Walking over to her, he picked up her torn and bleeding body and couldn't help but let tears fall down his face.
"We need to get back into the mortal realm so we can help her."
"Is there anything we can do for her Shadow Moon?" Raven asked.
"I don't know, but we have to try. This wasn't her fight, yet she came anyway, and she saved me from a fate worse than death."
Aremes looked up. "There is a way to save her, but we need the combined power of my sons, Dion's sons, Ares, Chronos, Raven, and Shadow Moon to save her." They nodded and picked up their comrades. Chronos was still unconscious and would need a few days to recover himself. "Mom, grab my shoulder and focus on where you want to go. I can get us there that way and much faster than walking through the darkness for a few days. She won't live that long."
Everyone connected somehow to Aremes, disappeared to appear in the room where the remaining warriors awaited the outcome of the battle. "What happened?" Haruka shouted running up to her friend.
"I need Trunks, Goten, Gohan, Turles and Bardock to come here. Combine your energy with myself, Dion, Ares, Shadow Moon and Raven and direct it at Sailor Cosmos."
"Dad," Gohan asked, "Do you want us powered up?"
"Yes. I want you to go to as high as you will and give as much energy until you are down to being a Super Saiya-jin again. After that pull out and let the others keeping giving their energy."
Gohan, Trunks and Goten all changed into Super Saiya-jin two, while Bardock and Turles transformed to Super Saiya-jin. There was no telling how much power and Dion used to power up, but it was enough to throw several of the occupants in the room to a wall and hold them there for a long while. Ten people concentrated their energy into Cosmos through their hands resting on her.
Aremes was scared they wouldn't be able to save her, but he refused to give up and not let her prophesy come true about standing and dying alone happen. 'Don't you give up on me! Usagi or Aresta I don't care! Don't you leave me alone! Fight for your children, fight for those that love you! You're not alone anymore, so quit acting like you are!' He shouted through their mind link.