We do not own "Sailor Moon" nor any of the characters.

"SAILOR MOON ETERNAL"

The 6th Season of the Sailor Moon Saga

Chapter 31

"The Whispers in the Night"

Somewhere across the distance, a limousine pierces through the dark starlit night. A dream-filled couple secretly alight the pier to climb onto a massive cruise ship that sets sail for two of them alone on a voyage to sail around the world, together as a married couple for the first time.

After several stolen kisses under the silver moonlit night and gently crashing ocean waves, the soulful young pair embarks on yet another journey into the wondrous unknown. As the French virtuoso invites her man from beyond the stars to join her with a pair of come-hither eyes, they go hand in hand below deck, into their spacious estate cabin.

Michelle Moreau Starr turns to Robin Starr with a soft smile of giddy triumph as the cruise ship gently rocks onto the ocean's moonlit waves and the voyage begins…

"Do you remember the first moment?" Michelle's mind reaches out, not having to go far to find the man she had just married, in mind, in spirit, as she moves across the cabin, draping her filmy shawl over the cabin's ornate divan after tantalizing it under his neck flirtatiously.

"When our souls first touched?" Robin knows exactly of what his new bride was speaking of. That encounter had left an indelible mark on their lives, as he becomes entranced in her alluring blue eyes. Michelle's hand reaches out to him, just like that first night and his hands swiftly respond the same way to touch fingertips…

"When our souls first touched." Michelle repeats in a sweet whisper, full of awe, of inspiration—of love—for her husband as she comes close to him, and he, for once, does not pull away, taking her hand softly in his, entwining more than her fingers in his.

"Did you mean what you said, my dearest?" Michelle's thoughts whisper as she touches his cheek with a caress of her soft lips. Their eyes lock in the dimmed lighting, as their hands slowly face their palms to one another, meaningfully, just meeting again, both feeling the energy, the love, the longing between them beginning to resonate…

"Every word." Robin reaffirms the vows he pledged to her as his hand reaches out to hook around his aquamarine mermaid's slender back to release her silk dress straps to flutter to the floor of the swaying ocean vessel.

Together, inside the realm of their minds, Robin takes hold of her offered sparkling body and soul that was trembling in an anticipating joie de vivre. Holding her breath, Michelle casts her net to capture him, too, delicately, softly, sensitively as they bring their souls to each other, holding each wave of their spirits close to the other's heart all the while, merging on a celestial plane beyond all understanding—beyond all, save for them alone.

And the unadulterated, full disclosure of each of their no longer separate hearts and souls made Robin Starr dare to break free of his selfish nature to give Michelle Moreau everything he knew she had been longing for, and all the barriers between them finally fall.

All of me, Michelle.

Exquisitely hearing his heart's song serenade her soul, Michelle's dreamy eyes flutter open in ecstasy to find herself being carried away on the physical plane as well as their now communal psychic one to the luxurious waterbed of the cabin state room. This once reticent-to-look-beyond-his-own-mysterious mirror, shooting starlight had crossed the universe to finally complete her once solitary heart with his singular shine at last. And he even surprised himself to enjoy how marvelously they two fit together on each and every plane.

"Robin!" Awash in his pale lime glow that had sensitively moved in to envelop each one of her senses, one by one, Michelle's every thought, every feeling, every desire echoes out his name. She feels him entirely thrill through her as this special, extrasensory young man from another galaxy allows himself to merge so comprehensively with this like-spirit soldier of Neptune, intuitively sensing her needs.

Robin Starr could no longer tell if it was his own mind driving his unforeseen, zealous actions or if it was her more focused one now in control that made it all that much more gratifying.

"I guess it doesn't matter anymore, Michelle. You and I are now and forever one soul…"

"You do love me…'" Tears in her eyes as she sensed the honest message of his raw emotion on yet this new and exciting third plane he was bringing her to, this daughter of the water never before felt such intense emotion in either of them, though previously she believed she knew all about her lover so thoroughly already.

At the same time, Robin never realized before what was missing in his life, but now he knew that he had found everything in her.

And this aqua 'mermaid' was utterly filling the dark spaces of his heart up with her irrefutable radiance to make him feel complete at last, as they two swim in perfect sync, side by side on the soft watery waves.

"…You are what had been missing in me…"

"Was that my thought…or yours? I can't tell the difference anymore."

"I do love you, Michelle..." Robin breathlessly whispers aloud in response, trying desperately to distinguish one corporeal reality from the other psychic one existing so vividly in their fully linked minds. Plus, there flowed behind the soul's mirror that of a third, intangible astral plane that crossed their merged cosmological essences together now, too.

"In every reality, we are we, Michelle. And that's all I care about now."

For once in his selfish life, Robin found he cared for someone more than himself. For her, this Sailor of the Star Healer had found a slow, cool passion intensify to an incredible inferno within him, reflected in their mirrored souls so exquisitely by Michelle's embracing heart, that he responds to in kind.

You're the other half of me…

'You're the other half of me.'

"You're the other half of me."

He whispers over and over in all three planes of her soul, making Michelle feel so very complete.

Because she felt the exact same way as her soul mate from the stars.

"Thank you, Robin dearest, thank you." Grateful to God for this beautiful destiny, Michelle sighs audibly, opening her languid eyes, alight in the moonlit-only dark cabin as her curls bob up at him softly.

"You're worth everything to me, Michelle. You are my priceless work of art." Exhausted Robin whispers as his silver head rests against hers, wrapping a familiar arm around her small waist.

Michelle's spirit and heart bursts with love for her perfect mate, her every wish fulfilled by his soul's deep reflection. Locked in one another's arms, minds, souls, the telepathic pair had indeed discovered a sensational new facet to their soulful bonding that satisfied both sensitive beings on every level imaginable on this special, tender night.

As gently as the soft ocean waves, days and nights of sweet love pass for the newlyweds. Their honeymoon sea voyage stopped at many a distant foreign port, far off lands becoming intriguing worlds of wonder for Robin and Michelle to discover beautiful things together. But more glorious than the pyramids of ancient Egypt, more dazzling than the famed Taj Mahal, more awe-inspiring than the Great Wall of China, more cherished than the Roman Coliseum they two strolled through hand in hand, more sparkling than the glimmering beaches of Spain—were their true hearts revealed and shared, freely given to each other.

Nothing was more beautiful, more sacred than that to these two joined souls.

These precious times together, as the idyllic weeks with Michelle flew by, proved to Robin why he fell in love with this Princess of Neptune. It was her being's artistic beautiful glow, her deep soul's endless shine, her tender heart's empathic warm embrace from within that his once empty, egocentric heart found so alluring. Her ocean waves brought his destined-to-be-alone soul such peace that Robin Starr had almost totally forgotten about the chaotic whispers of when he was a child.

Robin had begun to doubt they even existed beyond his nightmares, until recently again.

Though, at times, this unique offspring of the long forgotten cataclysmic star that dared to bend the darkness, perceptive Healer felt that ancient turmoil still tiptoed around the edges of his soul.

His devotion since the beginning for his Princess Fireball, his close bond with his adopted brothers raised together, his meeting and friendship with Sailor Moon's light, all contributed to his ability through the years to press on despite the underlying anger and angst inherently contained within Star Healer.

But it was his link with Michelle's deep soul that gave Robin the drive to fight back the forces reinitiating to rage within him that he had kept secret for so long. For her, Robin longed to run from the beckoning of them, to erase the uncertainty in his mind that he was where he should be in this universe.

Most importantly, Sailor Star Healer wanted to shelter his beautiful Sailor Neptune from the storm he sensed inwardly may soon be coming. He was secretly horrified that he could do nothing about it, to stop it, nothing but wait and hope the darkness on the horizon would melt into the ocean.

The ocean Michelle so generously opened the endless possibilities of to him with her warm ocean embrace of love.

Never let go, Michelle…please…

Asleep on ocean waves, wrapped in each other as the sea crests rolled in on one clear, moonlit night, the smile of love Michelle brought to his lips slowly faded as Robin heard those voices once again interrupt any good dreams.

Voices? No, there was only one voice now, faint and echoing though his soul.

Who are you?! …Princess, why can't I contact you? I need your help right now. I feel like I'm losing myself—but I can't! I want to be here, to stay with Michelle forever. I won't leave her! I want her always—but the voice, beckoning to me—I almost can hear it now. What is it trying to say to me?

A sudden jolt awakens Michelle, as the ocean grows choppy and rough, outside her cabin window. She could feel it, sense it—a warning, a premonition of some sort…

"Robin dearest, are you awake?" Michelle whispers into her love's silvery bangs, gently, so as to not startle him. Inside, she was more than a little frightened herself, this great sea was her guardian and she knew things were wrong. "Robin?" Michelle repeats into his mind, at his lack of response to her spoken word. Sensing him awake, innate worry begins to crawl into her psyche, though she couldn't explain why. His mind was wide open to her but she finds difficulty in touching his presence within, he seemed a thousand mental miles away…

This daughter of the water internally employs all her focused psychic capacity to extend her resonating oceanic currents to ebb her psychologically lost-at-sea lover's spirit back toward her like a sweeping morning tide…

"Michelle…" Finally, the reply comes through a sea foam mist in a small, whispery strain straight into her heart, though Robin's high voice was distorted.

"Robin dearest, where were you right now?" Michelle gently asks, prodding into his mind, digging at his soul for the answers. She didn't give a thought that it was an intrusion, for there was nothing they as husband and wife didn't share with each other, now that they were one.

'…please…please, don't let go of me…' His mental voice was so small, so diminutive in spirit Michelle could almost not make out his pleading message. The gifted clairvoyant utilizes every ounce of her forged psychic link with her lover to delve in through the somewhat clouded depths of his mind, his heart, his…

"Michelle, I love you!" Robin suddenly roars awake in a cry aloud, unconsciously breaking off her inquisitive traipsing though his mind. With these frantic words, he abruptly pulls her close to his throbbing chest tightly, breathing heavily, as if just having escaped a vivid nightmare.

"And I adore you, my dearest one." 'Tell me what's wrong.' Michelle buries her head, skimming the surface of his soul and tries to wrap her delicate, extrasensory fingers around something that was different than before, deep inside…

"You are so gorgeous, Michelle…so beautiful…Take me, please, Take me to your perfect ocean…I want to stay with you tonight…" But Robin used all his mental prowess to set her mind at ease with sweet, calming whispers of yearning love instead, as he softly loses himself in her gentle waves stabilizing himself there in her shining aqua mists. The silver-haired singer was desperate to present his violinist with his sensitive love again on all three planes, perceptively fulfilling all her needs and desires on every level of his tender devotion, where she, his lifeline, was all that mattered in the world.

After an hour or so of peaceful, tender love with her Robin, it seemed everything was all right. It felt so right, as Michelle so longed for it to be, and she believed it so readily. Her trust in him was so strong, so complete as she lets herself lose all doubt.

As the night wears on and he drifted off to a more tranquil sleep in her arms, Michelle prayed that the troubles she had sensed mirroring the darkening rough seas just outside the vessel would now leave her man alone at midnight. Michelle reaches out with her powerful mind to calm the seas with silent Neptune energies focused through the mirror at their bedside. Her guardian planet powered magical embrace had drawn her Robin back to her before, Michelle was almost certain of it. So she would continue to wish for his soul's choppy sea to be tranquil this night.

She may not have been fully aware of how much her prayers meant, but Michelle was Robin Starr's only anchor he held on tightly to, as his soul denied the calling once again this night. His Healer's heart was determined to stay right where it was, in the arms of his aqua angel, as the Chaos soul within fights off the dark whisperings of turmoil festering deep inside his soul…

A few days spent in Greece, a week or two on the Caribbean, the months float by as Robin and Michelle enjoy the splendor of the "good life." The sheer bliss of being a young, married couple adrift on the sea, lost in each other as the waves roll leaves Robin feeling so complete. Michelle felt safe in her adorable husband's arms, loving to show him off to all the important circles they traveled beside.

But his soul which she had embraced within herself, was by far the most beautiful port of call they had traveled to together. Tender words and kisses and love on so many different simultaneously satisfying planes filled the honeymoon that was all too quickly about to come to an end.

"The past two months have flown by so quickly, didn't they, my love?" Michelle whispers, feeling pangs of sadness, into Robin's hair as they both gaze over the endless blue seas on their journey back home.

"Mmmh." Robin murmurs softly, the ocean breeze blowing through his silver hair.

"They were pure heaven, Robin dearest, weren't they?" Michelle giggles girlishly, her happiness complete as she sneaks her hands into Robin's jacket, when she notices his attention was not on her.

"Dearest? What are you so wrapped up in that you're not paying proper attention to me?" Michelle coquettishly teases him with a pouty face, following his gaze out over the calm sea and the land on the horizon. She wondered what he could possibly find that was more tantalizing than what she was offering.

"Michelle." Robin's scratchy voice was serious and grave, making Michelle stand up straight. Concern started to overcome his features. "If something…happens…I want you to know—" He starts, his eyes troubled and foreboding. Michelle reaches out to his soul for comfort when suddenly the cruise ship rocks violently from stern to stern. Those above deck were tossed to and fro, screaming and panic stricken crew just trying to hold on for dear life.

"Robin!" Michelle screams as she is thrown overboard, caught completely unaware by the unexpected tumult rising from her beloved friend—the ocean.

"Michelle!" Robin, despite a blow to the back of his head as he was thrown against the ship's metal deck, leaps to her rescue with amazing speed, her outreaching hand is grasped by his strong one. The dark waters below threatening to swallow her, Robin lifts Michelle with one hand, with an unbelievable spirit of strength. "Hold on!" He holds her close in his arms as the swishing waters continue to thrash the poor vessel back and forth. The captain of the ship's frustrated comrades could be heard bellowing from the loud speakers, ordering everyone below deck, to safety. The sudden, ferocious storm was battering the entire craft with dark pelting rains and vicious winds.

"Robin, what is this!?" Michelle speaks directly to his mind, knowing their voices would be drowned out in the deafening winds.

"Michelle—hold on!" Robin's mind echoes through her as a wave of black water crashes over, drenching them with its ice cold waters. The ocean was her specialty, a very part of who she was, and her pain-stricken mind wonders why she didn't see this coming. She knew from instinct, this wasn't merely a storm threatening them. She could feel Robin's warmth despite their soaked clothes around her as they huddled together on the deck. Michelle steels herself, ready for anything, knowing she could face any storm, any hardship, as long as Robin was at her side. She reaches out to his soul, needing him so desperately. Michelle's over-sensitive soul was always seeking out another for strength, though she never realized it as fear grips her heart.

Over Robin's back, she freezes when she sees a black tendril slowly rise from the chaotic, crashing sea, snaking across the bow, heading straight towards them…

"Robin!" Michelle squeaks out a scream as the tentacle wraps around him, ripping him from her arms as he is dragged to the end of the ship and over the bow of the vessel, where the surprisingly strong-for-his-lean-body-mass young man catches hold of the bowsprit edge.

But the fearsome creature only tightens its tentacles' suction around a screaming in pain Robin Starr, threatening to descend with him into the briny deep…

"Michelle!" Robin's mind calls out to hers for help. Michelle's courage mounts, her strength increases at his call. She flies to him, grasping the railing's edge as the monstrous creature plunges into the water, and she just catches a glimpse of its revolting horror as she holds onto the steel post. It was the only thing standing between them and certain death as she squeezes Robin's one hand in hers firmly.

The monster resurfaces, his one tentacle still wrapped around Robin. It mystically splits into two as it tugs at its intended target. Easy prey onboard an open deck, ocean going vessel to a dark creature of the sea, were it not for another creature of the sea—a sailor guardian—whose inner power is suddenly released upon it with every ounce of strength within her. Unable to transform fast enough during the sudden attack, Michelle uses her intense powers of the mind on the beast instead, confusing it long enough for it to let go in shrieks of mental pain.

"Michelle!" Robin's mind calls out to her as she desperately tries to pull them both back up over the wave thrashed bow. "Michelle, you can't pull us both up! Let me go!" Robin speaks from his heart.

"NO!" Michelle screams in defiance, gripping his hand tightly, pulling up, pulling—but the task was impossible, a dark gravity beyond the tentacle seeming to be weighing her mate downward.

"Michelle! You know it as much as I do! You can still escape! Save yourself!" Robin desperately argues with her, seeing her slender hand's grip slipping from the ship's railing. He knew that if she kept hold of his hand, both of them would soon be sent to their demise beneath the crushing ocean currents.

"Robin, I won't let you go! I won't!" Michelle cries out in protest, her screams able to be heard above the ocean torrents, as the monster returns, battering the sides of the ship in fury at the pain Michelle had caused it. It tries to knock the dangerously, dangling couple from holding on with flailing tentacles and fierce roar that shakes the vessel from stem to stern.

Both Robin and Michelle see its power that beyond any earthly creature, threatening to blow a hole straight through the ship's starboard side. The lives of the innocent crew members aboard were not prepared for that deadly impact.

"Michelle, the creature only wants me. You can sense that as well as I. We can't endanger the lives of everyone on this ship for just me. You have to let go. Let me go." Robin's soul commands. Tears spring to Michelle's eyes as her weak fingers begin to slip from the edge of the railing.

The ship rocks violently, a screeching of metal could be heard as the vessel could take no more battering…

"Thank you, Michelle. I'm not alone anymore." Resigned to what he must do, Robin sees what's happening and knows it was all his fault. All those innocent people could not be lost because of him. And no matter how badly he wanted to be with Michelle, he loved her too much to have to make her choose between what was right and what she loved…

"NOOOO!" Michelle silently screams within as she feels Robin's mind enter her being, and caress her soul for a split second, just before he turned off the control of her left hand—the one gripping his so tightly, that would otherwise, never let go of his, even if it meant her own death. She watches in horror her beloved soul mate's final smile in her eyes with his beautiful green ones, as he slips beneath the dark waves. The creature's shadow beneath the dark water swirls around where he disappeared, swallowing Robin Starr up entirely.

"NOOOOOOOOOOO!" Michelle tries to let go, she wanted to jump in with him, be with him, even if it meant dying with him. But somehow his control remains. her right hand was unable to extricate itself from the railing. Proving his mental prowess had grown by leaps and bounds, Robin had given his last ounce of strength to Michelle, making her arms pull herself up by no action of her own. He knew her so well, so completely that he would have to do this for his emotional partner, even as he descended into a watery grave.

"Noooooo, Robin!" Sprawled across the deck, looking, searching the dark waters for a sign, her mind loses contact with him. And Michelle's wails could be heard across the distance in utter pain and sheer agony, as she reaches out to another for help—that someone who could always make things right.

Calmly speeding down the highway, on their way to meet the happy honeymooners back from the long ocean voyage, Alex smirks at her husband's chattering. Suddenly, she cries out in pain, gripping her head. "Michelle!" Alex Starr screeches, the sound terrifying to the ears of the other occupant of the red Ferrari she was driving as she holds her head in agony. The race car driver steps hard on the gas pedal, flooring it to send the Ferrari accelerating at its full, exponential speed.

"Ally, what's—!?" Worried, Sayer begins to ask beside her as the car accelerates forward. But then, he, too, suddenly grips his head in pain, as does Terry in the sedan behind them. Susan holds onto her husband to support him as he struggles to remain steering and driving the vehicle. Tara's eyes become frightened in the back seat as Susan grips the wheel as well with her other hand.

"Hurry, my darlings, hurry! Healer—Healer needs you!" Princess Fireball's willowy voice could abruptly be heard echoing through the skies, filled with anxiety and worry as Sayer and Terry, both receiving her same signal simultaneously, perk up at their dear leader's communication.

"I fear you may desperately require this new awakening of energy, which I am sending you now, my beloved ones, for I feel all three of your hearts are at last prepared for it. You will need these fresh strengths which the great love for each of your new partners'—Uranus, Pluto, Neptune—has uncovered, my Fighter, Maker, Healer, in order to face this deadly threat which has disrupted not only our communication and ability to travel across the galaxies, but the fabric of time and space itself! Only through our deep bond, along with my Field Marshal Brigadier General Jarrod's caring support to strengthen my heart and Prime Minister Evelyna's curative assistance to bolster my soul, could I accomplish this message from my end, and make this power transfer to you now at this difficult time. Please embrace all I can offer you from afar to battle this coming darkness, my three precious sailor soldiers..."

"Awaken the true love now existing in your hearts…"

Princess Fireball's celestial message crosses the universe to devote to Sailor Star Fighter. Sailor Star Maker and Sailor Star Healer each a new power-up of pure star energy the new love in their hearts for their chosen sailor guardians of this solar system had awakened. The three wandering sailor soldiers' Princess, filled with a burst of love energy of her own, intuitively felt that they needed and were ready for this special power expansion at this moment in time.

As the scent of Fireball's olive fragrance fills the two vehicles, two of the three shooting stars indeed receive the glowing energy boost from their adored Princess, their sister, whose love for her cherished sibling soldiers was infinite enough for her to transfer her shine to them now.

'Princess!' Where he was holding on tight in the passenger's seat of Alex's fast moving race car, Sayer's heart burns with Princess Fireball's communication. He gasps as an intense energy which traveled on starlight through the cosmos and galaxies, permeates straight into his guardian star being, expanding his powers. Sailor Star Fighter emerges in a blinding pale blue starburst of lasers, a pair of pale steel blue translucent armor sleeves appearing at his shoulders, multiple golden buckle matching collars springing to his ankles and wrists, as well as a jeweled heart inset magically embedding itself into his glowing center star brooch. Feeling that the surge of raw power flowing through him had some connection to her, beneath long eyelashes, Fighter looks up from where his leather-clad female form now sat in the passenger's seat to the driver of the red Ferrari.

The unfazed golden haired woman who had already transformed into golden yellow Super Sailor Uranus at the wheel didn't give her power upgraded companion a single glance as she drove like a focused madwoman down the highway. The professional, racing like the wind soldier was so completely one with her well-tuned vehicle and that of her partner as well, that Uranus expected no less of Fighter than to join her.

'Princess?' Behind their speeding wake, even driving as fast as his sedan could to try to keep up with the Ferrari recklessly hurtling at over 200 mph in front of his car that could barely crack 130 mph, Terry's brilliant mind was trying to grasp every sentiment behind Fireball's deep words spoken directly to his heart. He gazes emotionally to his Susan in the passenger's seat the split second before he, too, accepts the overwhelming intergalactic power surge that penetrated his star-blessed body from the heavens above.

"Awaken the true love now existing in your hearts…"

Just to make certain of safety for his wife and charge in the speeding car he was driving, responsible Terry places his hand over Susan's to steady her delicate hands on the steering wheel with one single look and shake of his head, which commanded her that she was NOT to follow suit and transform as well.

Despite his own conscientious, gentle man's innate anxiety to step into this unwanted role as soldier again, Terry Starr synergizes with a new acidic voltage running throughout his body. As the automobile shifts into high gear, so does Terry, his male form shifting into that of the impressive long-legged female, who was now upgraded, like Star Fighter, into this new improved model of Super Sailor Star Maker. The star soldier had been enhanced with extra wisteria spiked metal armor materializing at his ankles and wrists, as well as with sheer armor sleeves at his shoulders. Unfazed, Maker's four inch high heels still step on the gas pedal, as he fully regains control of the wheel without a blink, in the driver's seat. He was shining a radiant lavender lightshow of additional celestial power which still took Susan's breath away as she watched his new transformation with awestruck eyes.

Observant Tara, in the rear bench seat, takes her cue to become Super Sailor Saturn. The silent sailor of death and rebirth sensed her fellow guardians needed her help, though any of them didn't know what degree of peril loomed ahead, they each could feel it nearing.

As the wind picks up, the Ferrari boldly leads the way, streaking red down the highway at unbelievable speed toward the ocean vista ahead, its dark horizon foreboding the danger awaiting them all…

'Princess…'

Robin! Robin! Michelle sobs onto the deck, her heart breaking as she finds his mind—suddenly more powerful than she ever felt before—somehow still controlling her, rooting her body to the ship with his concentrated telepathic grip. Michelle struggles against it, wanting to jump in to rescue him, to find him, to be with him.

Unexpectedly, Michelle's mental struggling ends—and she was now back in full control of her own mind again.

"Robin!?" She squeaks out in sheer horror, not only losing her mate's contact, but his sense of presence within her very soul entirely. The abrupt break in their link hits Michelle hard and she collapses again to her knees, knowing, but not accepting, what the disappearance of their bond meant, any lucid thought to transform into a sailor dashed to the sea cast asunder, like her heart…

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Across the psychic plane, the screams of a tortured soul reverberate though the souls of all empathic beings across the galaxy—Neptune's pain felt exquisitely, her agony unbearable. She clutches at the steel post, staring directly into the yellow eyes of the sea monster her mental exclamation had brought back to the ship's deck, empty-tentacled, and viciously angry and ready to lash out at the insignificant human responsible for causing it such pain a moment ago.

Dead inside already, Michelle simply stares into its ferocious eyes as the part serpent, part octopus, part apelike creature from hell itself raises its head and opens its razor sharp rows of teeth, about to devour this girl with the aqua hair and the hurtful mind. But in calm, frozen shock, Michelle does not move a muscle to get out of the way. Death didn't seem all that unwelcome at the moment, now that her beloved had been taken from her, ripping her soul apart…

"SPACE SWORD BLASTER!" From somewhere across the darkened sky above, out of nowhere and everywhere all at once, a deep voice screams out a fierce attack that directly strikes at the unsuspecting monster. Michelle only vaguely heard it, only slightly aware as the creature's tentacles are sliced right in half, pouring green blood everywhere on the deck, all over Michelle, as the infuriated body of the enormous sea monster shrieks in misery.

"STAR FURY PUNCH!" Backing his partner Uranus' attack up, a livid, heated blast of pure love and star-powered laser energy emanates from Super Sailor Star Fighter's now energized, furious fist. Lunging fearlessly at the foul beast whose slimy torso was half stretched out across the deck, still reaching to raze Michelle, Fighter moves like a streak in concerted love's anger from behind with a massive attack. The punishing, intensely focused direct contact of pure light repulsing darkness causes the huge creature severe pain. And, though way slighter in size, enraged Super Sailor Star Fighter amazingly sends the hideous monstrosity flying backward with his newfound power, to crash painfully backbreaking into the ocean's harsh surface hundreds of meters away with a thunderous splash.

"Michelle!" Super Sailor Uranus rushes to her beloved, lifting her trembling body from the deck into a warm embrace.

"What happened?!" Star Fighter dashes to their side, eyes darting about in fear to realize what had already occurred here on the devastated ship's deck. "Where's Robin?!" Fighter shouts, hoping his gut feeling was dead wrong.

"Amara…" Michelle whispers into Alex's chest. "Amara, he tried to protect me…" Her watery, yet not crying eyes were set adrift on the choppy ocean she once believed would never betray her, the soldier of the deep blue sea whispers in disillusionment, wanting this all to be a bad dream.

She wanted to wake up and Robin would be there too, sleepily smiling back at her, just like he had on so many wonderful days and nights spent traveling the world of their endless love together.

"No!" Star Fighter sinks to his knees, as Michelle's broken orbs told him all he needed to know concerning the well-being of his fellow Sailor Starlight, Three Light, and brother.

Comforting the woman sobbing uncontrollably on her chest, Alex feels helpless for once. She wished beyond wishing that the shrimp was standing here on the deck beside them, too, but the circumstances didn't look promising. Uranus scrutinizes over the windward side of the rocked vessel, into the deep murky waters her Michelle's eyes were hopelessly locked upon in search of one tiny, lost gleam of starlight...

"SILENCE WALL!" From out of nowhere, Super Sailor Saturn's small voice powers an indigo colored forcefield bubble to wrap around Star Fighter, Uranus and Neptune, when her keen purple eyes had fortunately spotted something the three grieving soldiers did not.

One regenerated, reattached tentacle of the believed blown out into the water, evil creature had crawled up the opposite edge of the craft, grabbing at anyone in its angry path. Inattentive Super Sailor Star Fighter, too gazing into the other side of the sea, was about to be swallowed up and crushed by it, just like his fellow Starlight, had Super Sailor Saturn not intervened.

Un-thwarted, the dark monster's entire form rises from the sea and lurches towards the deck, determined to take revenge on Fighter, even if it meant sinking the entire ship with its colossal weight as it begins to tear the vessel's structure apart…

"STAR CHRONOMETER STRIKE!" Behind the emotional trio Saturn's wall was shielding, Super Sailor Star Maker's low bass tone suddenly echoes a singular new battle cry, borne of his new power of love for his timeless lady, across the beleaguered pounded deck with his newly awakened power as well.

Tik. tok.

Star Maker's new power-up energy sent from his Princess had been woven together by the auspices that Time had granted this gentle soldier, fusing Maker's intelligent natural capabilities with that of his taken role as Pluto's partner Keeper of Time.

With it, a series of straight, arrow-like, glowing wisteria violet clock hands strike the enemy. Maker had pinpointed the awful arms, lugubrious legs, tormenting torso and terrifying tentacles of the sea monster, targeting the dark brackish body parts and appendages which were threatening to rip apart the cruise ship from stem to stern.

Tik. tok.

Once hit, each of the twelve seconds of time's clock hands eerily continue to tick down audibly. The enormous creature's gigantic body parts not only began to shrink in size by inches, and then by meters, with each passing second, but the dark creature itself also starts to deteriorate with the spinning hands of time moving forward relentlessly, aging its deteriorating molecules.

Tik. tok.

As the clock strikes twelve, the targeted body parts all shrivel up and decay until the deformed, distorting old monster's crippled by age torso, tentacles, legs and arms all turn to dust before their eyes in a cruel way which usually the gentle Star Maker wouldn't carry out. But this time, he was too angered in his heart for his dear brother's fate by this behemoth, and he vengefully left only its disembodied head intact.

The dark energy creature's growling, though now impotent head, plummets to the ship's forecastle in the powerful Time Lord Sailor Star Maker's wake as the small group all stare down at its hissing and sputtering in death with disgust.

"Robin…my Robin…"

Within Saturn's dissipating force field, Michelle's whimpering fills Alex's passionate soul with even more hatred for the remnants of the dark beast laid waste before them. Angered for revenge, Super Sailor Uranus stands tall to turn on its weakened form with her planetary sword's vehemence while a tearful Fighter takes Michelle from her into his arms.

"SPACE SWORD BLASTER!" Angrily, Uranus physically sprints up to the seething, body-less monster, slicing its oversized head precisely in two down its skull line with gory result. She relished the instant pain reflected in its bulging eyes—this was pay back for the horror caused to her Michelle as the creature's bloody, oozing out brains slip past her off the pitching deck into the deep tumult below at her wind's command.

Immediately, the skies clear to azure, the seas cease their broiling. Calm and silence, along with the sun shining as if nothing had just happened.

But it had. The empty hole in Michelle's agonizing soul told her this. His absence, the man she had fallen in love with—he who had become so much a part of her—was now gone. His very existence was erased from her soul. The piece of himself he had given to her was missing, leaving her listless and lonely. She was barely able to hear the voices of those worriedly littered around her.

"Michelle." After extracting a wobbly Michelle from a de-transformed Star Fighter, Alex gently holds her cousin's trembling shoulders, as Tara kneels down with her own shawl she uses to cover her Michelle-Mama's listlessly cold shoulders. Michelle clings to her Amara's strong embrace all the while, as Sayer and Terry both dive down multiple times into that deep sector of the sea. Only to return dripping wet and breathless from their distraught dives to attempt to recover Robin, empty handed.

"Michelle." Alex repeats more firmly, shaking the poor girl from her despairing reverie, anxious that Michelle was cutting herself off from reality.

"Maybe if we go down again…deeper…maybe…?" Sayer holds his head, shaking with sadness as tears of full realization start to stream down his burning cheeks.

"Sayer, it's been too long." Placing a hand on his younger brother's tense shoulder, Terry logically tries to reason with him as Sayer readies himself for another frantic dive along with the helpful, though shell-shocked, crew of the ship at the kind captain's order. "…too long—Oh, Robin…! Princess, you gave us new powers, but we failed him nonetheless. Please tell us what we must do now?" Even strong Terry breaks down in Susan's arms, pulling her close. She had just joined them by way of a smaller craft since Terry had told her to stay behind from the battle in her condition. She didn't have time to argue then, and felt it true what he said, that he and Tara would join Sayer and Alex already on the scene to handle the danger without her.

But this? How can we survive this?

Yet Terry's cries to his leader were not heard, as Princess Fireball was unable to re-establish contact once again, a dark aura spreading over the Earth's atmosphere. Only in the sudden urgency in the moment of danger was she able to break through to power them up, in a vain attempt to try to save Healer, despite it all.

"I don't care! I'll keep going down, all night if it takes it! Maybe he's all right! Maybe he's—Rob…" Sayer, too, breaks down, finally. He didn't realize just how much his persnickety brother had meant to him until, indeed, it was too late. Sayer wrings his powerless hands until a small, delicate one slipped in.

"Don't worry. Susan-mama told me that death isn't the end." Tara smiles softly, trying to be comforting with this ultimate question the child of death and rebirth was certain of.

"HE ISN'T DEAD! HE ISN'T! DON'T SAY IT!" Silent up to now, Michelle abruptly erupts like a geyser, her pent up emotions surging out in the vehement scream. She jumps up from Alex's arms, denying what her eyes, what her destroyed mind was telling her.

Her deep heart, though its mirror was broken in pieces, was certain of quite the opposite still—somehow feeling that her darling Robin was still out there…somewhere…if she just kept believing…

He had to be—she could not go on without him. I know he's not dead…Michelle puts her hand to her heart as everyone watches in silent sadness at Michelle's overwrought, yet unwept emotions.

"If Robin were dead, I would know it." Michelle whispers decidedly. Everyone saw that fierce belief shining in her eyes—and each wished they could believe it, too…

"I'm sorry, Ma'am, but we couldn't find a trace of your husband." Biting his lip, the captain of this much traveled vessel has seen many a port, survived many a storm, and never before had he seen such a sudden, ferocious downpour, never such a quick clearing up afterwards.

And never, never—though he'd seen many distraught widows and lovers in his long, sea-faring life—had he ever glimpsed such a woman whose deep ocean of soulful eyes were burning with such intense pain, yet without shedding a single tear.

"Are you the victim's family?" The Captain turns from those eyes that seemed on her own lost plane, not able to hear him, to the responsible looking woman she was clinging to.

"Yes." Alex answers, she never before this moment truly accepted Robin to be part of her family. A small smile almost comes to her face, as she reflects on how important the shrimp was to her. "Yes, he's my brother." Alex repeats. Michelle's lost eyes meet her for a long moment. No one could understand her as Alex did. Speaking of Robin so strangely endearingly and still in the present tense. No one, save for…

Robin. Michelle closes her eyes, not hearing the rest of what anyone had to say. The sympathy, the consolation was lost on her as she desperately tried to reach out to him as never before. Assuring herself over and over that he was still alive, that he was just closing his mind to her, hiding from her, teasing her. Michelle only wanted to feel him close, to hold him in her arms, to tell him over and over just how much she loved him. His last words echo back to her mind, as Alex lifts her in strong arms, carrying Michelle from the docked ship to the Ferrari.

Susan, despite her distressed, full tummy, held her grieving husband up, too, as they also returned to their car. Tara sweetly still clung to distraught Sayer's hand, leading him with her to the back seat of Terry's sedan at Alex's nod.

She needed to be alone with Michelle in the Ferrari.

"I'm not alone anymore." Over and over Michelle hears her sweet Robin's voice, sees his hand to his heart, that soft smile, those beautiful eyes…

"I'm not alone anymore." Michelle whispers aloud, his words searing to her core as she, too, holds her hand to her heart pounding in her ears. Alex drives along, eyeing her silently, concern evident on her golden features for her most important one.

"…Not alone." Michelle repeats, gazing out over the crystal sparkling ocean she was leaving behind. Robin was not with her physically right now, but never, never again would she be left without him inside.

"I finally got her to sleep." Alex comes out of the bedroom of her and Sayer's apartment, a weary, saddened look on her serious face. "She still hasn't allowed herself to cry yet."

"Poor Michelle." Susan whispers sympathetically, knowing she too would be this upset, this lost, if anything ever happened to Terry. No! Don't even think it! Susan's eyes fill with tears, her emotional state was delicate with the baby expected in less than 3 months. She tries to be strong for her grief-stricken husband, but cannot and she buries her tears on his chest.

"Susan..." Terry whispers. Just having her with him comforted him, despite the sadness overtaking him as he stroked her hair softly.

"What happened?! Who did this?! That monster didn't just come out of nowhere!" Sayer emote, his voice in pain as he searches for the reasons—and those responsible for Robin's…

"DAMN IT, ROB!" Sayer bangs at the glass window, threatening to break it with his angry fist at the no-answer situation as his feeling heart agonized his lost brother's name. This man of action wanted to do something—to lash out at something! Realizing he'd do anything to just have Robin say something sarcastic to him just one more time, Sayer unashamedly collapses to his knees in tears on the floor.

"Shh." Alex goes to him, kneeling down, wrapping her arms around her other emotional responsibility. She knew just how close the three brothers truly were despite the petty bickering and coarse words. Her Sayer loved that little shrimp, too. And in spite of it all, of his bad attitude, his snobbish sarcasm, his snide remarks, Robin was a part of their lives—of their unlikely family they'd all forged together through bonds of destiny. And it was hard, even for Alex, who never did get along with him, to accept the letting go.

Michelle in her shock and grief and true belief that he was still alive, seemed not only emotionally unable, but physically unwilling to let go. She insisted over and over as she drifted off into a medically induced sleep that her Robin was alive and that he would come back to her.

"Shh." Alex swears silently at the pain this difficult life caused both her beloved partners as she gazes out through the glass at the blinding sunset, feeling Sayer's tears stain her neck hotly. She cradles the grown man like a child in her strong arms as the sun burns into her embittered eyes.

Alex's eyes travel beyond the troposphere, the stratosphere, the mesosphere, the thermosphere, to the exosphere of the atmosphere that she commanded as sailor guardian of her home planet. But even beyond Uranus, to the God in Heaven above them all, she wished, prayed, demanded from the depths of her soul that somehow, through some miracle, unfailingly, her Michelle was right about the shrimp being alive still.

The soldier of the sky spies the small, vague silhouette of the moon just emerging beyond this world's horizon, giving her a sliver of hope in its underlying radiance, as yet unrevealed this whispered night…

Hello, Sailor Moon Eternal friends,

Could this be the last curtain call for Robin Starr of the Three Lights? I'd love to hear your reviews on this tragic end to one of our Stars and the romantic first Act of this story, with the promise of the second Act of this novel to be filled with the familiar Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon thrilling battles and exciting adventure along the cosmic path for our legendary team as they try to right wrongs and punish the greatest evil ever faced.

Thank you for reading! I hope to see your comments on the dramatic finish of the first Act of "Sailor Moon Eternal".

God bless you.

HarukaKou