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"SAILOR MOON ETERNAL"
The 6th Season of the Sailor Moon Saga
Chapter 32
"The End of the Beginning"
Somewhere deep under the ocean, on the depths of the sea green floor, a small crack parts the waves with a profound reverberation. Sea creatures scatter at the strange sight as a large energy bubble travels through the opening subterranean expanse into a hollowed cave beneath. Magic seals the ocean's currents out as the same magic seals the energy bubble within.
Dark magic.
Have I drowned? Did I die? Michelle, I miss you already. Robin's groggy mind awakens as the energy dissipates around him, landing on a built-up altar of sorts in the center of the large cave's antechamber. Trying to reach out to Michelle, automatically missing their bond, Robin finds he cannot establish contact as he glances around warily.
Other than the altar, the room was empty, save for two thrones erected at the head of the cavern. There, seated in the damp, cold cave, contrasting with the dim light and dingy surroundings, a high-bred royal looking couple sat. Bejeweled and sparkling in glimmering blue-green, a lady sits on the right. Her body was beautiful and she had a tempting look on her face. She wore a flowing gown and seemed to be bored. Her blue-green aqua hair (Aqua hair—Michelle, I miss you!) was sequined with a wispy illusion veil, held in place by a large perfect jewel of aquamarine on her forehead as her enchanting eyes seem to dare and engulf anyone in just once glance.
At her side was her King, of that Robin was certain. The commanding presence in white with a purple cape flowing. His shoulder length white hair and stately pose, the very air about him and his dark violet eyes would strike fear into the heart of any normal man at the very sight of him.
But Robin was no ordinary man.
"Why have you brought me here?! What do you want?!" Angry, despite facing the unknown, Robin's short temper threatens to cause trouble between him and the older king, while the Queen seemed intrigued by him. Her bored look became quite interested as her eyes rested upon him.
"Be quiet, boy." The king commands. His voice was as imposing as his large size. He stands.
Robin was still unafraid, able to go toe to toe with many a man taller than he, with his own sharp wit and unfailing strength of character. But at this time, he decides to obey the order and listen to the man, biding time to find his way out of this situation.
"I am King Pearlrellion. She is my beautiful Queen Aquamarianna." The King respectfully nods to his queen. "Why you are here, you ask? You, my boy, are here at her request, at her delight." Pearlrellion mysteriously says to Robin's inquisitive ears and squinting eyes.
"And who is SHE?" Robin twists his lip, trying to read the pair, but finds they are psychically shielded somehow from him as he stalls for time.
"She?" Pearlrellion laughs as if he were explaining something well-known to a child.
Robin takes offense, angered until the next words nearly knock the wind from him.
"She is Her Majesty, Infinite Sovereign of all Darkness and Evil, Queen Metallia." Pearlrellion laughs again at Robin's shocked expression. His cackling laughter echoed through the cavernous walls.
"Metallia!" Robin, though just a young child when his parents were killed, remembered the name well. It seared straight through his soul, the evil woman—more a creature of darkness—that killed his family, threatened to destroy all life on his home planet, were it not for his adopted mother's salvation of him when he was a tiny child. She, too. was at bitter odds with the legendary epitome of all evil, Queen Metallia, until the evil being was banished by the Queen of the Moon of this far off solar system.
Banished to earth it seemed, but not contained any longer. This was the intense evil he had been sensing as of late—this was the sweltering voice beckoning to him in the dead of night.
For not only was Metallia an ancient foe, a lifelong enemy to all good and right and true—she was also, by some strange fate, Sailor Star Healer's paternal grandmother.
Healer's beloved father—Metallia's one and only son, forged in the shadows on the dark side of the blazing sun spots—had become a good and honest soul, converted when the generous Princess of the Star Healer had given the heir to Chaos her undying love, despite his vile heritage. And Robin Starr now was left, after the great battle of light and dark fought in the Sailor Wars—through all the destruction and death she herself caused his family—as Metallia's one and only descendant and heir.
"QUEEN Metallia!" A voice booms from the very depths of the cavern. It was deafening to their ears as a red light begins to glow intensely. At first, it was just as a small glimmer, then suddenly bursts into a flaming inferno contained in a stone orifice carved into the center of the subterranean throne room.
"Blood of my blood, child of my disobedient child. Look on me, I command!" Her voice echoes loudly into Robin's terrified ears. This, the contemptible, hissing voice of his every childhood nightmare. This, the putrid vision of the horrible monster of dread who appeared one day and destroyed his peaceful homeworld and family in one terrible, unending nightmare…
"I don't care who you are! You don't command me, you spiteful devil!" Robin's fear turns to seething anger, the memory of his sweet dying mother and resolute father and twin brother, too, he had almost forgotten until of late, fires his soul against her, facing her down no matter what the consequences may be. "My father was a good man. You tried to keep him in your wicked ways, but you couldn't! So you killed him! You killed my family! You horrible monster!" Unafraid to speak his mind, Robin's sharp tongue fearlessly holds no bounds.
This intense anger had built inside since he was a small child, impressionable and hurt, his world destroyed when this guardian of the Star Healer was a mere five years old. It grew along with him into a passionate disdain as he fought Galaxia's threat and theft of his second homeworld.
And now that fierce, vehement loathing takes hold of Robin's very being in a way he never knew was in him. Until now, as his fists clench with a lime green aura of pure hatred stemmed from deep, deep inside that seizes the energy flow his sweet Princess Fireball had moved heaven and earth to send to each of her beloved brethren just moments before his capture…
"That's right! That's right! Heir to my Evil! Lash out at me with hatred! I see it in your eyes! You have inherited my vindictive anger! And through your anger I see my evil intent take root! You have great potential, my little one. You will be the perfect addition to my forces, Dark Sailor of the Star Healer!" Metallia's scratchy voice sings in wicked glee at her target's delectable venom and rancorous malice being unfurled for her benefit.
"Being a Sailor Soldier is my mother's birthright, I need no other from the likes of you, creature from Hell! STAR HEALER, MAKEUP!" His livid eyes flashing, Robin throws that fact in the evil queen's surreal, intangible energy of an ugly face as he instantly transforms into Sailor Star Healer, prepared to fight the fearsome word-destroying monster, even here in some unknown cavern, all alone.
But I'm not alone. Even if I can't reach you right now, Michelle, I know you're out there! I have to escape back to you!
Princess, help me! Send me your shine to defeat this! Please, answer me!
He gratefully receives her response, though at first faint and struggling to break through the millions of light years between them. As a psychosomatic conduit between the three Starlights and their Princess Fireball, Robin suddenly senses his strength at its peak. In this moment, he knew it was his greatest chance for freedom from this abyss, as Robin defiantly raises a spiteful hand out at the glowing menace hovering a few feet in front of him. Exquisitely feeling the galvanic volt of newly established soulful energy from his Princess about to unleash from this increasingly powerful, extrasensory soldier's fingertips, Healer's telepathic emotion was as intense as it was incensed.
I'm going to make it back to my Michelle, you putrid creature!
"STAR MENTAL FLUX BEAM!"
Queen Metallia's pulsating, fiery visage was staggered to be pummeled backwards by the sudden forceful attack. Super Sailor Star Healer's concentrated radiation conductive current of mental muscle was about to penetrate the evil being's innate force shield of dark energy that this mistress of Evil had forged over many millennia which few had ever tried to challenge.
After the first surge of electromagnetic shock meant to shut down brain synapses hits her hard, infuriated Metallia's red energy lips then curl into a pleasantly surprised, wicked smirk at the promise of this devastating supremacy within this intriguing star soldier. She was more than determined now to find a way to tame and control this effective young creature who could facilitate at last her ultimate goal of universal dark dominance.
"You are indeed her child." Metallia whispers, impressed by the degree of focused defense she required to hold at bay this Healer's vehement attack. Healer's powerful flux beam of radiation was not able to be fully dissipated, just deflected, after being swallowed up into her thick blanket of dark energy.
Soon, Healer's high voltage beam was reverse course directed back at the thin, frail humanoid who dared to attack her, sending the Sailor Starlight skittering across the cave with a high pitched shriek. But battle worn soldier Robin Starr was right back on his feet again, no defeat in his wide green eyes, only anger.
Those eyes…Impressive…You are my Heir…
Not hers, anymore…Mine…
The begrudging entity of pure evil had become angered and resentful at the mere mention of this rebellious child's maternal progenitor. The last Sailor Star Healer was just as small an innocent soldier with beautiful mint green eyes who had corrupted her faithful servant and only son, whom the Queen of Darkness had named 'Chaos' for his ever vascillating heart. The pathetic woman who hailed from a tiny, distant star had dared to turn the heir Metallia had groomed, from the power of his evil destiny promised to he and each of his descendants.
"Please, Sailor Star Healer, I cast no aspersions against your mother. She was a formidable opponent, one who had excellent taste. Please rest easy for now, child of light. Your time will come to serve me." Metallia's mixture of shadowy condescension and opaque mist compliments confuse Robin enough for him to pause in vaulting at her another round of his new psychic radiation attack, his physical body feeling weak.
"I'll never serve you!" Nonetheless, his scratchy high voice yells rebelliously through the dark cavern back into the hideous face of his undamaged enemy, although still panting from the great mental exertion his intended target had survived the first volley of, with no apparent damage taken.
Perhaps that was more because this psychotic target had no rational cerebral signature at all whatsoever for his extreme new power to leech on to eradicate. She was simply an insubstantial force of elusive pure evil, hidden in profound ebony darkness.
But despite Healer's tenacity of a zealous, new energy attack beam that surpassed any he had exhibited previously, his Super Sailor Starlight form, under the shadow of phasing darkness battering him, begins to flicker back to his human male body. Robin Starr's knees begin to buckle from where he had just stood rigid and undaunted before his formless enemy.
Queen Metallia, despite her fierce anger at this son of a star's defiance, was a wily creature, too. She was one who knew her way to sneak into spreading true wickedness over the entire universe for far too many eons, whether it took a dose of deceitful honey more than her natural depraved vinegar.
Seeing potential in this young one to become greatness—perhaps even greater than his imprudent father, for the power of the psychic plane that foolish Star Healer inheritance had added into the potent mix—could be her arm in this blasted bright world, for she still was sealed away, in a damning fashion.
That contemptible white Moon Queen!
Yes, this half-child of light and dark would help her turn that detestable Moon Kingdom black again, as it was always destined to be. There was something in Star Healer's eyes that intrigued the Evil Queen, like a blazing inferno which held a deep coldness locked within.
Yes, yes, my little one, you are the true one I require at long last! Metallia considered the latent power held within this already pure star energy filled being, who also could harness the all-prevailing force of mind control, where all darkness secretly festered.
You are far more worthy of me, shadow of my shadow, than any of those past failures—Beryl…Diamond…Pharaoh 90…Nehelenia…Galaxia—all whom I had attempted to utilize across the galaxies. But, alas their puny, substandard weakness aborted my vengeance, time and time again.
But you, you are strong from deep inside that fathomless soul that has the capacity to cleave to the great magnitude of my darkness within…Even to the extent of the celestial plane now…Oh, the raw possibilities to spread my malevolence there! You will be my finest emissary!
"We will speak again later when I request it, after your conditioning, my Heir to darkness. King Pearlrellion, Queen Aquamarianna, see to my protégé." And in a wink and a malignant flash over where Robin was now slumped to the floor, the red glow of cold fire burns out as suddenly as it came.
"You mustn't speak to our Queen in that manner, my handsome one. She may become angry with you." Queen Aquamarianna smilingly sidles up, not looking particularly fearful herself of the said Metallia, as her lovely, model quality face looks amorously down at Robin, pouring her many charms out over him as she pets his mussed coif of silver hair coyly.
"SHE, angry with me!? Listen, I don't know who you two are, or what your role in this insanity is—" Incredulous in his anger, Robin lifts himself up from the ground he was on to turn from Aquamarianna's tempting gaze to the silent, stoic King standing across from them.
"Our role, my young firebrand?" Pearlrellion smirks with a knowing little chuckle at the angry, smaller man. Robin's eyebrows knit at the tall, similarly pale haired man in anger, his fingertips in a fist still unwavering. "Our role is to rule the world of course, and release Her Majesty, the Queen Metallia, from her prison."
"Just like that, huh?"
King Pearlrellion states his worldwide aspirations so easily, that Robin looks back at him in astonishment. He was so engrossed with the King's words though, he didn't see Queen Aquamarianna's presence creep behind him, pressing something cold and crystalline to his neck, until it was a moment too late.
"Sleep well, beautiful soldier." She coos as Robin slides into unconsciousness, hearing their malignant laughter as he goes.
Looking after both Sayer and Michelle all night, Alex finally relaxes next to Michelle, after the poor girl at last fell into a grieving slumber. The golden haired soldier tenderly strokes her beloved's aqua curls. Her face was sweet and needed her strength, like a baby. But Alex feels so helpless to do anything to comfort the broken souls of those she loves the most.
Just drifting to sleep, Michelle cuddled close in her arms, Alex snaps awake at the sudden agonized screeching echoing through the otherwise silent walls of her home, generating from the woman beside her.
"Robin! Robin!" In a nightmare, Michelle screams uncontrollably, her arms thrashing about in the bed as she tries to grab onto something that she seemed to not be able to reach. "ROBIN!" Michelle continues to tear at the shredded sheets, the clawed bed frame, the bruised walls so wildly and forcefully that Alex feared she may harm herself. "AHHHHHHHHHHH!" Michelle screams, the horrifying sound, the beautiful features of her face contorted in such pain as she clutches her heart in a panic attack unbearable for Uranus to witness.
SLAP!
Alex whacks her frantic cousin across the face in an attempt to stop her violent, cruel nightmare. It works, as Michelle's groggy eyelids flutter slowly open.
"Ally? Is 'Chelle…?" Sayer was awakened by the ruckus in the opposite bedroom from this one that Robin once occupied when he had lived here. The dark haired Three Light, stirred from what little sleep claimed him, was also evidently worried for his new sister-in-law as he leans in the doorway in nothing but his red shorts.
"She's all right…Shhhh, Michelle, it's just a nightmare." Meeting her lover's anxious eyes with her own, Alex rocks her sobbing soulmate in her arms as Michelle's tears seep right into her soul.
"Ally?" Sayer crosses the room, caressing his wife's tense cheek, grateful for having her caring. Their eyes meet in that knowing way as Alex kisses his warm hand on her cheek.
"Go back to sleep." Alex orders him as she rocks Michelle softly, laying her back down with another sedative. Michelle falls back into a disturbed slumber.
"Can't I stay with you guys?" Sayer whimpers, not wanting to be alone this night. "I'm lonely." He smiles a small sad smile, missing her warmth and strength in these tough times more than she'd ever know.
"Oh, all right, you hopeless whelp. Come on." Alex smiles the first smile she had in hours at her 'baby wolf,' scooting over as Sayer sneaks in beside her. She puts an arm around him and then the other around Michelle. Both of them fall asleep close to her heavy-hearted chest.
Not getting a wink of sleep the rest of this night, Alex listens carefully to Michelle's soft, tortured murmuring. She had called the shrimp's name over and over with every emotion possible, it was heartbreaking, even for Alex, who never much cared for the person Michelle had chosen. But it was someone else's name that catches Alex's ear.
"Robin, no! Don't! METALLIA! Don't!"
Why would she utter THAT name in her dream? What does the Queen of all Dark Evil, the Negaverse herself, have anything to do with this tragedy? Just to haunt Michelle's nightmares?
Could the shrimp still be alive?
Alex silently wonders the deep thought as Michelle clutches her. She senses that Sayer's dreams, too, were filled with disturbing nightmares.
My poor babies. Looks like you've affected us all, Shrimp. Alex places a comforting hand on each of their hearts. You've touched what's important—in here. Please, God, if you're listening, give them some peace. I love them both so much.
Alex gazes back down at the two sleeping faces that depended so much on her, and saw only a world of hurt and pain and sorrow written on each slumbering, stunning feature.
Damn it, shrimp! If you're out there to find, I WILL find you—for them.
She brushes the dark navy and aqua curls simultaneously with tender fingertips.
Across the miles in another grieving household, husband and wife there, also cling to each other for comfort in a raging emotional storm.
Terry Starr was heartbroken over his lost brother, too, and Susan consoled him as best she could, though he tried to be strong for her, not showing his pain. Susan awakens deep in the night, feeling her gentle husband's hard-fought, soft tears fall to his pillow. She tries to kiss them away, sweetly clinging to her darling Terry, wishing there was some way she could reverse time and bring his brother back. But that was simply not within her power, and heartbroken silence overtakes their usual happy home, too.
He pulls her close, burying his face in her neck. "Thank God for you, Susan..." He murmurs, his voice breaking with emotion and weeping. Susan can only stroke his hair, trying to comfort him, and does the only thing she can for them all—she prays.
Dear Lord, help us…
Morning finally dawns for the family of the once introverted and lonely, now loved and lost young man, who grew to believe he could share in a beautiful destiny. The grieving, who loved him most, didn't want to awaken to the nightmare that reality had become, but sleep would no longer claim some who had escaped to it.
Alex Sokova Starr had lain awake all night, trying to grasp some comprehension of it all. Wandering out to the attached balcony of the high story building when her long, restless legs could stay quiescent no more, she gazes out at the lavender rising sun skyline.
That was often the only place where the soul of Sailor Uranus could find any respite, especially after yesterday's traumatic experience. Alex looks up to the sky and closes her eyes, trying to harness the messages she was receiving from her guardian, the wind, sensing an evil break on the morning horizon.
Metallia…Michelle said 'Metallia' several times in her sleep last night. Are you part of this somehow?
Alex's soul could feel the presence of evil all around, in the very air. It was coming from the earth and sky all around her, but nowhere definite at the same time.
"Robin! Don't let go! Please! Let me hold on! Please!"
Alex races back into the apartment bedroom to find Sayer cradling Michelle in his arms, a desperate, not knowing what to do look on his pained face.
"Michelle." Alex perches on the bed beside him, exchanging a pain ridden glance with her husband. The look in Michelle's finally teary eyes hurt her to the core.
"I shouldn't have let go! I should have been stronger. I could have saved us both! I'm a Sailor Soldier! Why didn't I transform immediately?! Why didn't I sense the darkness coming?! What good is it being the guardian of Neptune, if I can't even safeguard my own true love?! Why did I have to let go?'!" In pain with all the haunting questions that couldn't be answered, Michelle blames herself for that which Robin took out of her control. Her broken spirit turned fault on herself, though Alex knew none of it could be true. She knew Michelle that well.
"Michelle, stop this! It wasn't your fault. It wasn't." Alex shakes her trembling cousin. Her eyes were fierce in Michelle's beseeching ones. The sad look in them suddenly grew wild and hysterical as the distraught aqua maiden begins a scream so forlorn that could tear one's heart out, the denied deep wells of her sea blue eyes fiercely overflowing.
"RRRRRROOOOOOOBBBBBIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNN! NOO-OO-O-!" As the denied tears finally fall from her dry eye sockets like an endless ocean current, Michelle lets out a heart-wrenching screech of her beloved's name, coming to the unwelcome comprehension of what everyone else already sadly knew.
He was dead.
Gone from this world—her world—their world that the special gleaming star from another galaxy shared in the destined beauty thereof, if just for an ephemeral moment in time.
Sayer turns away from the heart-wrenching scene with tears streaming from his own troubled blue eyes. Giving her emotional lover leave to stare out the window's clouded starscape, Alex takes his place on the bed to hold onto Michelle tightly. Her wails could be heard all the way into the depths of the golden woman's crumbling earth soul that cried inside silently for her beloved partner's anguish.
"I'm all alone now…" Sounding so insecurely small and dreadfully distraught with her wringing hands and empty soul, Michelle whispers on Alex's chest that quiet realization. The ocean of her now un-dammed tears spill profusely onto her dearest friend, making Alex wonder if so great a love was worth so great a suffering.
Somewhere deep beneath the ground, a likewise suffering for love, silver-haired young man tries desperately to open his eyes. He hears a faint cry whispering to his heart and his mind races on how to escape the torture—to go to that cry, to go to her, to hold her tightly again forever.
Michelle! Robin's heart screams as it was being ripped apart from his soul. Dark power exerts its evil energy over his paralyzed body, leaving Robin unable to move, unable to process on his own, unable to even think—but he could only still feel. And he felt her. He felt the woman he loved. He could touch her soul, reach out to her, to be with her and love her again, despite the evil overtaking his mind as he bravely tried to doggedly fight it.
"YOU'RE NOT ALONE, MICHELLE!" In a final burst, Robin uses all that was good left within him to call out to his beloved. Her sweetness, her presence, her glimmering shine were the last things he felt as the man Robin Starr once was slips into a deep dearth of unconsciousness.
For the world he once knew was about to become utter darkness.
"Strong-willed, isn't he, my King?" Queen Aquamarianna turns from her vigil over the young man's conditioning to her husband seated on his throne.
"I see you are impressed by this boy's cool fire, are you not, my Queen?" Jealous, King Pearlrellion motions for the beautiful woman to take her rightful place next to him.
"Impressed? Perhaps I have a weakness for men with silver hair, my love." Coyly, Aquamarianna runs a hand through her jealous lover's shoulder-length pearlescent silver white hair.
"Yes, well, remember our mission, my Queen. I will give you the world to control at my side. That is, IF you do not betray me." With a commanding voice, Pearlrellion threatens the woman he had lost his heart to once, long ago—before she had become the seductive creature that Metallia's evil power had turned her into.
But Pearlrellion himself did not see the change entirely as it was. He too, was seduced by Metallia's power, that day she came to him. He was once a simple businessman with a simple name and simple lifestyle, whose weak will had been turned by others less scrupulous than he to foreign trade in the black market. Fine art and jewelry were his specialties. He lavished his sweet little wife with exquisite sapphires and emeralds and diamonds, until she spoiled for them. Greed had overtaken them both, to a small, petty degree until that day when Pearlrellion traded with a mysterious Asian for a singular ivory white pearl ring, accompanied by a sparkling perfect aquamarine gemstone necklace. The enigmatic woman would not explain their origin, but Pearlrellion's morals were long gone by then. He didn't care from whence they came, only needing, only desiring to have them for himself.
And he acquired the jewels. He presented the necklace of aqua to his wife, keeping the pearl ring for himself. But as both greedily slipped them on, upon gazing vainly in a mirror, they were mystically changed, absorbed in Her Evil promises of power…
"Hi, Hi!" Bright eyed and bushy tailed, Serena Shields sings out merrily to the group of friends gathered around her as they walk towards Crown's arcade together. They were all totally unaware of the impending darkness about to descend upon them.
"Aren't you gonna whine that I'm late, Rei?" Serena blinks in disbelief as Rei's usual "greeting" was absent.
"Oh, yeah, Serena, you're late." Rei hurriedly covers up her inattentiveness with a smile, but her heart wasn't in it. Serena, along with the rest of the girls traveling beside their usually vigorously harsh-tongue friend Rei, blink in shock.
"What's wrong, Rei?" Lita asks, concerned.
"Nothing." Rei averts her eyes. Should I tell them about this weird feeling I'm getting? I don't want to scare them. What if I'm totally wrong? It's been nearly 2 years now since our last trouble with Galaxia and things have been so peaceful! What if I'm just getting jumpy? My psi abilities are probably rusty from not being used. I better go and talk about this to—
"I wonder if Robin and Michelle are back from their—" With Luna and Artemis, just back from their own kitty honeymoon at her heels, Mina starts to say giddily. Did she strangely pick up Rei's wavelengths perhaps from their sailor team vibes?
But the mere mention of Star Healer and Neptune's names causes Rei to nearly double over, recognizing on some psychic level that there was something definitely amiss…
"Rei? What is it?" Amy rushes to her friend's side as they all enter Crown's otherwise empty café.
"I—don't know…" Rei starts to say, catching her breath, just as a scream is released into the air inside the café.
"Trouble!" Lita sounds the alarm as Molly's familiar form comes racing past them out of Crown's café where they had planned to meet her for lunch.
"Serena! Help me!" Molly's New York accent rings through the street as she flies past as fast as her feet would carry her. Her face was frightened as if she had seen a—
"Serena! Help me!" Like an instant replay, Molly races out of Crown's again, right before their very eyes, and Serena and the gang all blink twice, rubbing their eyes as they stick their heads out the door and watch Molly run down the sidewalk, terrified, being chased by…herself.
"Molly?!" Serena asks her best friend in total confusion.
"There's two of her!" Mina explains the obvious inexplicable event.
"What's going on?!" Lita shouts.
"I don't know, but I'm going to find out! It's been a long time, and I thought we were done with this for now, but—Molly needs our help, guys!" Serena was no fighter by any means but she was a loyal friend, and the minute any dear one was in danger, she was ready and willing to be there. And her companions, her Scouts, with faithful Luna and Artemis, also were right at her side.
"MOON ETERNAL—"
"MERCURY CRYSTAL POWER—!"
"MARS CRYSTAL POWER—!"
"JUPITER CRYSTAL POWER—!"
"VENUS CRYSTAL POWER—!"
"—MAKE UP!"
The girls thrust their power sticks high in the air, as Serena's heart locket releases its energy and the five heroines begin their transformations, each aglow with sparkling planet energy. All of them were powering up to face whatever bad guy was out there. They would fight for love and justice no matter how content they had become. The enemy had seemed to stay away…until now.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" A high-pitched scream reverberates from the park that Molly had ducked into for escape from the doppelganger trailing her. But the mirror image of herself attacks, suddenly from out of nowhere, pinning the poor, frightened girl to the ground.
"Who are you?! What do you want!?" Molly was no autumn leaf scattering on the ground, as she struggles in the grasp of her assailant.
"Your energy, Molly dear. The truest form of energy—love energy, and I'm going to take your place in this world and keep on spreading her darkness until there is no more sunshine! Do you think your sorry excuse for a boyfriend will even notice the switch through those thick glasses of his?"
'Molly' (the fake Molly, that is) cackles as she reaches out to the girl pinned beneath her.
"Ha ha ha ha ha ha!"
Molly's eyes follow her attacker's to the diamond pendant she was wearing around her neck. It suddenly turns black and inky right before her eyes as does her double's eyes, turning black and cold, her face enhanced, distorting hideously.
"Surrender your love energy!" A lizard-like voice to match her green shaded features, her dark hair was full of sharp points, and where eyes were, crystal clear diamonds appeared. The monster, who just moments ago was 'Molly,' grabs the real Molly, pressing a dark gemstone to her heart, as Molly feels her energy start to slip away…
"STOP RIGHT THERE, UGLY!" A familiar voice comes from behind a park bench.
"Who dares call me ugly!?" The green creature spins to where the voice was emanating from.
"I DO! How dare you pretend to be a pretty girl when you're really a hideous monster! I am SAILOR MOON! Champion of Love and Justice! And on behalf of the Moon, I'll punish you!"
Transformed in all her winged glory, Eternal Sailor Moon stands tall atop the park bench.
"And for spoiling this fall day, too, in the name of Mars, I'll chastise you!" A flame with red fire, Sailor Mars jumps atop the bench, too.
"For ruining the peace we've been enjoying, in the name of Mercury, go soak your head in ice water and repent, creep!" Mercury joins her two comrades in cool blue.
"For hurting our innocent friends, for Jupiter, I'll make you feel so much regret, it'll leave you numb!" Greener than any flora on the autumn scene, Jupiter agilely alights beside them, making the bench creak.
"And for making us late for our well-deserved ice cream break, Sailor Venus will give you divine punishment! In the name of love, I'll punish you!" Orangy Sailor V hops up as her companions give her strange statement crooked smirks, all wiped off their faces as the off balanced weight on the ancient bench causes it to teeter back and forth…
CRASH!
A pile of screaming justice seekers go flying backwards, as the bewildered creature attacking Molly looks at her would-be adversaries with a question mark above her ugly face. And she turns back to draining her victim, unimpressed by this weakling display.
"AHHHHH!" The monster screeches as a red rose flashes across her face, stabbing at her hand holding the dark gemstone, sending it and the attacker flat across the sidewalk ground.
Perched high in a tall oak tree as the autumn leaves drift down from its stately boughs, a dashing figure in a black tuxedo appears, his imposing figure commanding the attention of all around.
"Such a lovely girl doesn't deserve to have her radiance fade away like the short life span of the falling leaves. Move away from her, creature!" A man masked in a tuxedo calls out with authority as effortlessly, he leaps down from the high tree limb, in between an unconscious Molly and the monster.
"TUXEDO MASK!" Sailor Moon happily calls, but her wings were still trapped beneath somebody's big—
"Get off me, Sailor Mars!" Serena grumbles, shoving her red friend.
"You're such a klutz, Sailor Moon!" Mars treated her leader just the same as she treated her friend in normal life.
"You say nasty things still, Mars! Even after all this time!" Sailor Moon's tears were on the verge of spilling, for she, too, was the same as always.
"That's because you're still the same whiny crybaby, Sailor Moon!" Sailor Mars stands over her friend, hands on her hips.
"Some things never change, do they, Mercury?" Jupiter wryly smirks at the quarreling pair.
"Not in our lifetime, they won't." Mercury answers with a sigh.
"Sailor Scouts, watch out!" Tuxedo Mask, who had been trading blows with the monster, while the girls were wasting time blabbering, shouts a warning as the monster jumps back, its eyes lighting up with dark energy as it charges.
"Stick pin attack!" It calls out with a raspy voice, opening the golden cloak it was sporting, and a multitude of fairly large sharp spears jut out towards her opponents.
"Whhhhhaaaaaaaaaaa!" Shrieking as they avoid the pointed objects, the Scouts all make it through, unstuck somehow. Tuxedo Mask had to rescue poor Sailor Moon as Venus and Mercury plucked pins from her Eternal wings.
"That's it, Monster! You're toast!" Sailor Jupiter angrily shouts at her attacker.
"JUPITER OAK EVOLUTION!" A flurry of energized leaves strike out at the dark creature, who in turn, uses its hair pins to block each leaf's blow. Its hideous hair flowed around its distorted head as it cackled.
"It's strong!" Jupiter indignantly stamps the ground at her failed attack.
"Jupiter, watch out!" Venus calls as the creature starts to attack again.
"VENUS LOVE AND BEAUTY SHOCK!" Sailor V sings out with a wink and kiss, which the creature deftly avoids. "She's fast, too!" Venus shouts, moving out of the path of another stream of pin daggers.
"What do your readings say, Mercury?" Venus asks as she watches Mars also try to get a reading of the psychic sort on the evil monster.
"Inconclusive as yet. There's just something familiar about its mode of attack, but I can't pin it down." Mercury works furiously on her hand held computer.
"Good choice of words, Mercury." Mars says sarcastically upon opening her concentrating eyes.
"AKU RYO TAISAN!" Mars calls out suddenly, throwing a temple paper on the unsuspecting monster's forehead, atop the diamond pendant pin. "EVIL CREATURE BEGONE!" She screeches, as the monster freezes, stock still.
"All right, Mars!" Jupiter congratulates her on the stopping of the fierce creature.
"There! Now's your chance, Sailor Moon!" Tuxedo Mask commands the small, frightened girl hiding in his embrace.
"Right!" Eternal Sailor Moon calls out with determination. The moon shines full as the Guardian of it begins her most powerful healing attack.
"SILVER MOON CRYSTAL POWER KISS!" Glistening and shining, magical feathers scatter across the frozen in place monster, fluttering around as its energies build until it ends with a flourish and…
Nothing happens, save for the monster awakening from Rei's spell. Threatening, and angry at its shocked attackers, its about to strike again.
"Why didn't it work?!" Eternal Sailor Moon cries in disbelief. Her power kiss was as yet the pinnacle of her energy manifestation as the dark creature produces a large, deadly tipped spear from nowhere, it seemed, ready to plunge straight into her unsuspecting chest...
A flash of energy zips past all the astonished scouts, riding on the wind, as an unheralded sword of light bursts through the skies at the speed and ferocity of a cyclone.
SLIIC—CCE!
The energy blade strikes directly into the head of the unaffected monster, cruelly splitting it asunder. But as blood flows, the creature's physical form transforms into a glint of a shadow with a shrieking final cry, sinking away into the earth. The only thing left behind was the diamond pendant, that was fastened to its now non-existent forehead.
"It didn't work because you can't heal creatures of darkness, Princess. You can only destroy and send them back to where they came from." Soaring in with the wind at her back, Super Sailor Uranus stands tall before them. Her face was as strong and serious as ever, but looking a little…worn, as her space sword talisman dematerializes in her gloved hand that clenches in a tight, pensive fist.
And stranger than all that—Uranus came alone.
"And how do you know this, Uranus?" Tuxedo Mask asks in his demanding tone (that never washed over too well with this independent minded Sailor).
"Believe me, I KNOW." Uranus gives him a simple reply, along with a pair of rebellious eyes that warn Tux off of any further inquisitions.
"The battle is coming, Princess. A great, fierce battle. You need to prepare for obstacles far worse than this. Stand ready." And as quickly as she appeared, Sailor Uranus mysteriously departs. The soft autumn breeze suddenly becomes heavy and gale-like as it swirls around them.
"What was that all about?" Super Sailor Venus twists her lip at the enigmatic wording of Uranus.
"Come on, let's get Molly inside." Level-headed Sailor Jupiter, lifts the traumatized but otherwise in good condition, young woman towards Crown's again.
"Is she all right?" Eternal Sailor Moon asks in worry.
"Yeah, I think she's just shook up." Jupiter replies with a small smile.
"What did Sailor Uranus mean by 'worse obstacles?'" Sailor Mercury asks, her sweet face muddled with concern.
"And why did she come alone? It's really weird to see Uranus without Neptune by her side. Never mind Pluto, Saturn and now the Starlights, too. That group is inseparable from one another, I thought. I wonder what's going on. This new enemy seems really dangerous." Venus reasons out for once with a clear head, taking her leadership Scout role seriously.
Neptune…Starlights…Their names whistle through Mars' psyche as she quietly strides along the group. Why are my senses going wild at the mention of them? Something is wrong. Something is VERY WRONG. Rei silently keeps her thoughts to herself as the group detransforms, going back into Crown's. Venus' words from a moment ago send up a red flag in Rei's sensitive mind.
Danger. Red flashing.
"Ow, my aching head!" Molly jerks back from her unconscious state, holding her hands to her head. "Whaat!? Where's that monster gone?!" She jumps up with a start from the Crown's café booth she was laying prone on.
"Calm down, Moll! There's no monster here, silly!" Serena smiles sweetly.
"Huh? Was I—uh-dreaming?" Molly looks at her friends gathered around the table in disbelief. The scene did indeed seem normal with shakes and banana splits all around.
"Maybe you were having one of those freaky over-your-body experiences!" Mina wackily brainstorms, her turquoise blue eyes gleaming with interest in everything weird. (And ending up saying it wrong, of course.)
"A what?!" Molly's jaw hangs down, even more vexed.
"An over-and-out-of-your-body experience! You know when your mind leaves your physical form and your aura goes drifting out to spy on unsuspecting people who can't even see you!" Mina excitedly retells the latest episode of "Unsolved Mysteries". (One of her favorites.)
"Mina, that's totally illogical!" Amy giggles it off, to calm Molly's growing fear from Mina's "exciting" tales.
"You probably just dozed off while you were waiting for us. And that sci-fi horror flick we all watched last night came back to haunt you." Lita offers.
"I don't know. It sure seemed real." Molly shakes her head.
"Well, maybe if you tell us your nightmare, Molly, it's supposed to go away." Rei expertly digs into how this monster came about without alarming Molly's suspicions.
"Good idea, Rei. I heard that really works." Lita agrees, seeing Rei's smart tactics.
"Well. I was waiting like you said, Lita. And you guys were so late—as usual. So I was going to order a vanilla prune shake when I noticed my diamond pendant pin was missing. I just put in on my blouse earlier. So I started to panic—that pin means a lot to me, you know?" Molly pauses in her tale, to gaze down, her eyes glad to see her pendant firmly pinned on her collar where she had put it.
"That's the one Melvin gave you as a going-away present, isn't it?" Serena remembers the day so long ago it seemed, when Melvin had asked her to come to the jewelry store to pick out a prize for his departing sweetheart.
"Yeah." Molly smiles down as she fingers it thoughtfully. "Well, so back to my story. I thought I lost it. So I panicked, you know, like you do. I retraced my steps, I was sure I had it when I came into the café. And I—remembered that I just combed my hair in the ladies' room, so I went back in there."
"And you found it! Isn't that great when you find something you'd thought you'd lost! My cat, Artemis, takes all my things and hides them all the time, I'm sure." Mina's ditzy mind drifts from the subject. "When he used to live with me, that is. Sigh." The dizzy blonde lets out an audible sigh, directed down pointedly at her former lifelong roommate who opted to move in with Serena at Darien's place now.
Just because Luna has to stay there, and Artemis, like, just got married to his kitty sweetie, forgetting all about poor, little ole Mina…
"Mina, be quiet! We're listening to Molly's nightmare so it goes away." Rei scolds the not-so-silently grumbling girl.
"Okay, I'll be quiet." SLURP.
Mina purposely sucked at her straw just to be noisy, with a purposed wrinkled nose of pouty jealousy down at the white cat who looked pleased as punch to have Luna's content paw rest on his as they listened raptly to the group talking of the incident.
Guess you guys make a cute couple. I love you too much, Artemis, to deny you that happiness you've been so patiently waiting for all this life—and the past one, too. Gotta set my sights on roping Kenny down now! The Goddess of Love won't be a loner for long! WINK!
"Go on, Moll." Serena smiles at her friend encouragingly.
"Yeah, well, I found it on the floor. And I was so glad to see it. I dusted it off and held it up to the light to see if it was scratched or anything. But luckily it wasn't and I was thinking about the day Melvin gave it to me and then—" Molly blushes slightly at the mention of her boyfriend.
"And then?" Mina, as if she didn't have any inkling of the outcome of this tale bites hard on her poor straw in expectation of the story's climax.
"And then I looked in the mirror and was gonna put my pendant back on, when someone was suddenly standing next to me. I didn't hear anyone come in so I was a little weirded out, but not too weirded out cause I was so razzled looking for my diamond. But—the girl standing next to me, in front of the mirror, was me! Wearing my same clothes and everything!"
"Ooh, scary!" Serena and Mina clutch each other's hands in fear.
"Yeah!" Molly nods, her eyes large with fright. "I—I mean, SHE—turned to me and said 'Hi, Molly.' And it was my voice, too! 'Give me that pin!' She said. Well, I was shocked, so I said 'No way! Who are you?' And she said, 'I'm you, Molly and that pendant belongs to me!' I couldn't believe it, so I just got scared and ran. But there was nobody in the café, not even Lizzie! So I kept running, right out into the street. And I turned and saw she was still following me. Oh, I was scared out of my wits! I ran and ran to the park—"
"Wait! You forgot the part where you saw us and yelled to me for help." Serena adds to the story. Lita and Rei both slapped their palms over her mouth, but it was too late, Molly had already heard.
"Yeah, that's right, Serena! So I'm not only just dreaming! You saw it, too!"
"No, er, uh, Molly. They say that good friends already know what the other is thinking even before they think it, that's all. Go on with your story. You're in the park." Serena covers with a wave of her hand.
"Riiight." Molly nods. "Well, I'm running and running and then my doppelganger knocks me down and says it wants it my energy or something, but I can't remember too well since I was screaming so loud. And then I—I mean the fake me—turned into a hideous monster and grabbed at me and—that's all I can remember. I guess I fainted." Molly shrugs at the five girls listening in rapt attention.
"No, that's probably when you just woke up, Molly." Amy says convincingly.
"Yeah, we just found you here in the booth napping when we came in a few minutes ago." Rei could tell a little white lie if it meant setting another's mind at ease.
"You guys really think so? It was only a dream? But it was so intense! I guess I've had these kinds of dreams before." Molly asks, doubt of her own senses beginning to take over, as the girls had planned.
"For sure, girlfriend!" Mina waves her hand in the air to beckon Lizzie, who was too busy chatting with a cute new customer than pay attention to her frantic waving. "Coming here would make anyone fall asleep waiting for attention in this popsicle stand!" Mina whines loudly, catching Lizzie blushing at that cute guy. Oooh, I've gotta check him out myself! Ooh, what would Kenny say?
Lizzie scurries over to take Mina's order for a third ice cream sundae.
"Yeah, I guess it was a nightmare." Molly smiles with a sigh at herself under Serena's friendly gaze. Everything seemed so perfectly normal around her as the girls chat merrily. Molly soon joined in the fray, her adventurous afternoon "dream" all but forgotten.
The afternoon passes as they all gab jauntily, save for one raven-haired clairvoyant whose gnawing inside told her that everything from now on, would be far from normal or perfect…
Far within the Earth, beneath the sea floor, a transparent white pulsating light stops abruptly in its orb, hovering above the two thrones in which two people sat.
"It seems your first attempt at reconditioning this young man has ended in failure." Queen Aquamarianna almost smiles, with a sarcastic tone showing just how much she really cared about this mission.
"Do not consider this so smugly, my Aquamarianna. She who has given us great power needs this energy to be awakened for her purposes, and her purposes alone." With an insinuating raised eyebrow, King Pearlrellion chides his flighty wife as he gazes at the as yet resisting prone young man thrashing on the sacrificial stone before them in the subterranean antechamber.
"I am aware of this, my King." Aquamarianna, besides being a woman who bored easily, also was one who knew how to keep on her husband's good side with her flirtations. "Was it not I who suggested to seek out this truest form of energy—love energy—for her Majesty, Queen Metallia?" Aquamarianna muses as she dabbles at his silver white hair amorously.
"Indeed you have, my beautiful queen. You are as intelligent as you are lovely." Pearlrellion was not totally immune to her caresses.
"Pearlrellion! Aquamarianna!" Suddenly a voice booms from the dark abyss—a commanding voice—HER voice.
"Your Majesty." Down on their knees, this royal looking pair bows before the blazing inferno swirling abruptly before them.
"I almost felt an energy surge! Why has it ceased?! I demand more of you!" Metallia's voice drips with evil.
"Forgive us, Queen Metallia. It was our first attempt only, and has already met interference with those known as Sailor Soldiers. They do not seem worthy opponents, but we were taken by surprise by their appearance. It will not happen again." Pearlrellion confidently says. He had watched the whole thing through their shadow emissary's eyes at the failed battle until the creature was destroyed.
"See that it doesn't, Pearlrellion. Those Sailor Soldiers are the bane of my existence. But they will never stop me, if am to awaken and put you both in your rightful places, where all the royalty of the world will bow down to you, as they always should have." Metallia knew just how to push this couple's buttons. Power hunger and greed were the "diseases" that had overtaken them both.
"Yes, my Sovereign." Pearlrellion and Aquamarianna answer in determined unison.
"When will my heir be ready to assist you in my dark mission?" Metallia demands. The King and Queen move to where a certain silver-haired young man was in the process of being mystically transformed with the aid of raw evil energy supplied by Metallia herself.
"Soon, Queen Metallia, soon..." Pearlrellion looks down at the boy Metallia had promised so much of. He secretly doubted the small looking boy's potential, despite Metallia's assurances, and that was not all his jealous heart doubted as his eyes rested upon his Aquamarianna's eyes gazing down at the boy. Her aqua eyes were alight and a lustful smile was upon her lips.
"Come, my Aquamarianna. Let us choose our next victim." Pearlrellion firmly takes hold of his wandering wife's arm, the two of them leaving the antechamber with a respectful nod at the beacon of light shimmering still in the center of the room.
"Awake, blood of my blood. Awaken soon to wreak the havoc I have planned for this bright world. We will turn it to the darkness it yearns for! You and I only, my heir. Those fools are unworthy of ruling at my side." Her cackling echoes through the underground cavern. Metallia's wicked betrayal reaches out her icy hand to touch Robin Starr's soul with her evil intentions…