We do not own "Sailor Moon" nor any of the characters.
"SAILOR MOON ETERNAL"
The 6th Season of the Sailor Moon Saga
Act II
Chapter 33
"The Beginning of the End"
Late in the afternoon the next day, the girls met together at Serena and Darien's apartment to discuss the sudden attack on Molly. They came to no certain conclusions save for the one that belied this level of evil—the Negaverse. They HAD to be involved somehow. And that meant the Sailor Scouts would just have to defeat this new enemy.
After discussing these weighty affairs (and discovering that Serena's kitchen cupboards were bare of any energy-enhancing vittles) the five girls and two cats head down to Crown's for a little 'brain' food.
"Hi, Lizzie! Give me the biggest strawberry shake you can whip up!" Serena sings, her mental faculties in need of refreshment.
"And a double scoop chocolate banana whip supreme for me! Just the way you know I like it, Liz!" Mina plops down next to her friends in the circular booth, squeezing in and squishing Artemis in the process.
"You got it, gang! And I'm going to make your desserts extra special nice today! I'm in a really, really good mood! Just look at what my boyfriend gave me for my birthday!" Lizzie comes to them with a huge smile as she hugs the tray to her chest. "Look!" Lizzie pulls out a silver chain necklace from around her neck, displaying a sapphire jewel pendant hanging from it.
"Oh, Elizabeth, it's beautiful!" Amy says sweetly.
"You didn't tell us it was your birthday, Lizzie! We would've gotten you something, too!" Lita, almost sisterly, fingers the gorgeous gem.
"Well, technically it's not, not until December, but since my boyfriend's going away soon and all, he decided to give it to me now." Lizzie babbles, toying with the necklace.
"My birthday's in December, too! We sure do have a lot in common, Lizzie." Lita smiles.
"We sure do, 'Sis.'" Lizzie playfully squiggles her nose at her best friend that she hoped someday would be truly her real 'sister,' if big brother Andrew Paul could arrange that, please.
"Sis!? Ooh, ooh, Lita! Is Andrew getting serious!" Mina teases, poking at Lita while strangling Artemis who had poured the contents of the salt shaker down her dress as punishment for squnching him earlier. The close pair of Sailor V and her cat companion was as playful as ever, despite new marital status for Arty.
"Andrew? Serious? No way! He's a lot of fun to have around!" Serena totally misses the point—again—as Lizzie arrives with order of their ice cream.
And not two steps behind her, another Lizzie appears with another order of their order of ice cream.
"WHAATT?!" Lita jumps up as the two Lizzies catch sight of each other. Both throw their ice cream filled trays up in the air. (All of their gooey contents dripping all over a slow moving and unlucky bunny—namely Serena, of course.)
"IT'S ME?!" Lizzie shrieks (both of them) as both twin images race out the café door into the street.
"Is this place cursed or something?! Here we go again!" Rei complains, jumping out of the path of a slippery banana, now totally split as Serena slips on it, sliding through the store until she lands, SPLAT!, on her bottom.
"Didn't this just happen yesterday to Molly?!" Mina calls, running towards the exit.
"No time to sit around, Serena." Luna hops atop her head with an authoritative voice.
"Girls! Transform!" Artemis calls the alarm.
"RIGHT!" Amy, Lita, Mina and Rei rush past out the door, pulling their crystal wands as they do.
"Hey! Wait for me, guys! Oh, wasted ice cream is depressing!" Serena whines, slithering about as she pummels out the door after them, leaving a sticky trail of chocolate goo and squished bananas in her wake.
Feeling cold, icy fingers grip her heart, Michelle awakens with a start to find herself in Alex's spartan bedroom. Looking out the large window, she finds the sun high in the sky. But days melded into nights now and nothing seemed to matter anymore. She wanted only to sleep her pain away—to hide from this reality. Because her dreams were filled with him—with his sweetness and his beautiful eyes—and yet, so were her nightmares. In them, he was calling out—his light pleading with her to help, but she could never reach him in time…
"Are you awake, Michelle?" Susan's soft spoken voice comes from the other side of her bed. Michelle had not noticed the quiet woman sitting there until she spoke.
"Yes." Michelle answers simply, her own voice sounding strange to her ringing ears.
"How are you feeling, dear?" Susan comes over, touching Michelle's shoulder gently.
"Shouldn't I be the one asking you that? Susan, you're getting bigger every time I see you." Michelle tries to smile, this being the first time since she had returned from her two-month honeymoon, that her eyes even looked at the pregnant woman.
"Yes, the baby is due in just about two months." Susan massages her bulging stomach gently.
"Are you visiting a doctor regularly?" Michelle tries to make normal conversation—she tries to pretend that everything would be all right…and maybe if she does, Robin would appear back, just like normal.
"Yes, in fact, I'm supposed to go later today, when Terry gets back." Susan glances at her slender gold watch she always wore.
"Where are Alex and the boys?" Michelle feels distant, lost tears biting behind her eyes at the mention of 'the boys' to which her beloved was supposed to be a third part of. Even as she speaks, the young woman barely notices Susan's lip-biting silence, when a shrill shriek breaks through the quiet from somewhere down below, outside the window in the street.
The trained soldier she was, despite her condition, Susan rushes to the balcony's edge, seeing the danger below that she feared was happening to some innocent human.
"Michelle! Stay here!" Susan, even in her delicate state, even having a dreadful fear of insects, dutifully knows what she must do. Reaching to the air on the balcony, the guardian of Pluto watches a young girl below flee for her life from a shimmering blue, but hideously silvery scaled, half scarab bodied, half leech armed monster that had to be from the Negaverse.
"PLUTO CRYSTAL POWER! MAKE UP!" A very pregnant Susan transforms into a duly very pregnant Sailor Pluto as the purple mists of time swirl around her. Feeling the weight of her burden, she makes a Sailor leap down from the Three Lights' apartment's high balcony edge, landing perfectly on her feet, despite her large girth, to the street below.
The Sailor Scouts there seemed to be helpless, as they were caught strung together on a strangely silver gleaming, long and sharp, scarabaeinae insect-like oral appendage chain.
"PLUTO CHRONOS TYPHOON!" Super Sailor Pluto calls upon her power as she watches the scarab's deadly silver-blue bug mandible chain deteriorate around the girls' necks.
"Cough-cough! Cough-cough! Thanks, Pluto! But are you all right to fight like this?!" Massaging her choking neck, like the other sailors freed around her, Eternal Sailor Moon, ditz as she was, was still a caring person, especially about her dearest friends.
Pluto simply nods her head, gazing from face to face to make sure they were each all right.
"Sailor Moon, now's not the time for chit-chat!" The first to fully recover, a scratchy throated Mars snaps at the blonde when the fiery scout catches sight of a new attack about to be launched from the leechlike blue and silver creature moving back towards them.
"MARS FLAME SNIPER!" She shoots her burning arrow and it clashes directly into the silver chained mandible mouth zapping towards them and—
Energy explodes as the two powers meet. The monster's attack seems failed in the burning flames as the smoke clears.
That is, until, the silver row of chained teeth continues to attack, the scarab-leech monster lunging its icksome forked beetle tongue chain towards the grossed out females caught unexpected.
Terrified Super Sailor Pluto's body wasn't responding in its usual agility and all of them were just a moment too slow. The scarab monster's leeching tongue chain encircles them, pulling around the six women tightly and squeezing hard…
AHHHHHHH!
"STAR GENTLE UTERUS!" Super Sailor Star Maker's acid easily sizzles the insect creature's tightening tongue chain right in half as he dashes to his lady's side, catching her nearly fainted form as Sailor Pluto stumbles from the dissipating energy around them.
"You always come and rescue me…" Sailor Pluto buries her frightened face into his neck, clinging to him tightly.
"And I always will." He kisses her forehead tenderly. "Susan, be still, now. You know I won't allow it to harm you." Star Maker protectively holds his wife to his chest, shielding her from the disgusting, hissing insect enemy with a ferocious, angry look at the creature who dared to frighten and harm his precious, darling lady as he leaps away with her.
"Have no fear, my little one. Your papa has come to protect us." Susan caresses her stomach, whispering comforting words as she nestles her head into Star Maker's neck, who gazes at Sailor Pluto with such love and gratitude in his eyes at her words of confidence in him.
"STAR FURIOUS—"
"URANUS WORLD—"
Attacked from the two sides, the sapphire blue armored, scarab-leech monster was threatened to be smashed like a bug between Uranus and Star Fighter's raw killing energies, but it suddenly turns. Dashing in front of a knocked out Lizzie, it scoops her up and holds her in front as a human shield.
"STOP! Uranus, Fighter!" Eternal Sailor Moon screams out, throwing her arms out in front of them both, halting their building power attacks.
"Sailor Moon! Get out of the way! We have to destroy it! These monsters can't be healed!" Fighter screams out, with more emotion than she was used to seeing, even for him.
"Fighter is right! We can't be messing around anymore." Sailor Uranus moves to his side, backing her partner up with a no-nonsense hands on hips glare at Eternal Moon as the pair stand back to back.
"I know! But it has Lizzie!" Eternal Sailor Moon's compassionate heart aches as the blue-scaled creature cackles, an energy draining dark crystal appearing in her one long-nailed hand as she presses it to Lizzie's unconscious chest…
"—PUNCH!" Fighter's intense fist of blinding steely blue light zaps straight across the sky, nonetheless, finishing his brand new star infused power attack despite a shocked Sailor Moon's plea.
Super Sailor Star Fighter's focused starlight energy strikes the monster direct center on its scaled forehead. His target of the crystal sapphire pendant was hit dead on—cracking the gemstone off as the scarab monster shrieks in agony at Fighter's fury fist's shearing power.
It sinks to its knees and drops Lizzie to the ground before the gross creature fades into a wisp of black shadow sinking into the earth.
"FIGHTER!?" The Inner Scouts turn in shock to a huffing from the exertion Star Fighter to berate the rash Sailor Star standing behind them.
"You could have hit Lizzie!" Jupiter angrily growls as she rushes to her downed "sister."
"That was totally dangerous and uncalled for, Stupid!" Super Sailor Mars, never having much love lost on Fighter, twists her lip in annoyance at his violently risky disobedience.
"Fighter's aim is precise. The creature had to be exterminated. We know what we're doing." Super Sailor Star Maker snaps back at them in his fellow Starlight's defense as he rejoins the fray, with Pluto still in his arms.
"I couldn't just stand here and let that young girl's life be taken away like that! I had to strike first!" In a high-pitched scream, Fighter yells at them—the thoughts of life and death weighing heavily on his mind as of late.
"Let's go." Uranus says simply to Fighter as Maker continues to carry his pregnant Sailor wife in his strong arms, carrying her away from the scene.
"Like I told you before, you yourselves have to become stronger, willing to destroy the enemy next time, even if it means sacrifice. There's no room for hesitation. We don't get second chances anymore." Uranus advises over her shoulder as she and Fighter streak away.
"But…I'm not as tough as you guys are. If risking innocent lives is what it takes—I'm sorry, I can't." Talking to the now empty, wind-blown air, Sailor Moon looks up to the blinding sunlight to where the mature group of her sailor team had just vanished. She knew that Uranus was right, that the toughest battle was on the horizon. Yes, even she must be ready to stand and fight like a soldier, too.
But sometimes that price was too high for her pure soul to pay.
Nevertheless, this time, Lizzie was all right. And that was what mattered to her worried friends. They had calmed their hysterical buddy and convinced her it was all only a hallucination due to the sugar rush of the many sweets she and Lita had been busy making the past few days. In addition, the excitement of getting such a beautiful sapphire from her boyfriend, and his upcoming departure, set her up for a few mind zingers, they all assured her.
Lizzie, ditz as she was, finally accepts their suppositions and goes back to oozing about her gift proudly. She shows off its sparkling jewel once again, as if nothing had happened.
"Strange the way this new enemy is attacking us, isn't it, guys?" Amy asks, as she, Serena, Mina, Rei and the cats walk home. (Lita had stayed behind to keep an eye on Lizzie, arranging even a sleep-over at her apartment, though younger, she was a worried "big sis.")
"What do you think, girls? What's the connection?" Artemis asks, riding on Mina's shoulder.
"I don't know." Inner scouts leader Mina answers in a serious tone. "I think this is gonna call for one of our brainstorming all-nighters, Artemis, at Crown's. Like Uranus said, we have to toughen up and be prepared for anything." Mina says and workaholic Artemis shares a nod with Luna that told her he wasn't going home with her tonight.
"That's right. I've been getting really weird vibes from this enemy…like…like…we've been through this all, somewhere before." Rei's psychic abilities try to narrow down why she felt that way, but to no avail.
"So, until we find out who this new enemy is, we all have to keep on our toes. Right, Serena?" Luna, on Amy's comfortable shoulder, looks across to where the usually chatter-box girl had been keeping amazingly silent.
"Yeah." Serena sighs as her unfocused eyes look down to the ground, her distraught feet trudging away as she leaves the group at her and Darien's apartment lane.
"Catch you guys later." Serena says lacklusterly, the usual bounce in her step was missing as she and Luna disappear into the Maisons building.
"What's wrong with her?" Artemis asks, quizzical at the girl's sudden mood change.
"Well, Sailor Uranus was a little tough on her, and you know how much Alex's opinion means to Serena." Amy answers.
"Not to mention Sayer's. Boy, was he acting weird! Talk about punchy! Get it, 'Punch'-y? Heheheh." Mina smirks wickedly, with a giggle trying to put a funny view on this upcoming grave situation. But it doesn't work—even on her, as she looks up to the sudden cool winds hitting her cheek, the clouds suddenly masking the bright sunlight.
"Did you guys catch the uniform alteration of Star Maker and Star Fighter?" Ignoring Mina's pun, Amy had studiously noted her favorite tall, smart and handsome idol and his fellow Starlight's 'Super Sailor' powered up forms.
"You mean the extra armor at their wrists and shoulders? And what was that new 'Furious Punch" attack all about? Doesn't a new power-up have to come from Sailor Moon?" Lita adds another question about the two Sailor Stars they had just encountered for the first time in three years.
But Serena's not really their Princess, is she?…Rei ponders the thought to herself.
"I wonder why Alex was so stern with Serena? And where was Michelle? I thought those two were joined at the hip! The lucky gal and her dreamy Robin must be back from their beyond romantic, two month long honeymoon already, right? Anywhos…Uranus and the others were so, I don't know, jumpy and serious. It was way weird." Mina sighs. The Outers were never, by any means, a light-hearted group, but still…Venus felt there was something more from the 2 Outers and 2 Starlights they had just seen that wasn't forthcoming…
Only two Starlights and no Neptune?…hmm…odd…Again, Rei's intuition starts to gnaw at her, with only a stone cold brick wall going up when her extrasensory mind tried to reach out towards fellow psychic Michelle. And when Rei spiritually sought out the third Light, Robin Starr, what she sensed was confusing…
On their way home, Uranus and Star Fighter sprint ahead, calling back to Star Maker and Pluto to come to their penthouse apartment to recuperate, since it was closer than the country house.
Maker nods in agreement as Pluto, still in his arms, begins to kiss his neck and jawline, unable to resist doing so, being in such close proximity to him, even out in the middle of the city, with bystanders looking at them curiously all around.
"Darling, while I am enjoying immensely your attentions right now, I…" Star Maker clears his throat, trying to find the right words to say to her. "…I want you to know…you don't have to feel you need to be…intimate…with me while I'm in this form. I won't be offended at all—it's completely understandable, entirely expected…and I—I…" He trails off, finding Pluto's ministrations too overwhelming for him to think, or talk, straight.
Sailor Pluto breaks off her kissing of his jaw, smiles coyly up at him, and says "Are you asking me to stay away from you?"
"Of—of course not! I—I just want you not to be embarrassed or…confused…or…disappointed with me…"
She takes his chin in her gloved hand. "Darling, hear me once and for all. I love you, Terry Starr—ALL of you, every aspect of you. There is nothing about you I don't love! Look at me! I'm in love with you, Sailor Star Maker!" She forces him to look her squarely in the eyes. "Do you doubt it?"
His eyes widen but grow soft and a gentle smile appears on his features. "Never. I adore you, my angel." And he kisses the palm of her gloved hand as she smiles and closes her eyes in true contentment, leaning her head on his shoulder, as they reach the building and travel in the elevator up to Sayer & Alex's apartment.
"Susan, beloved." Star Maker gently lays the pregnant Sailor Pluto on the spare bed in the apartment once they reach it. "I don't want you to come into battle any longer. You're not strong enough. You may harm yourself transforming." Maker says as he reverts back to his natural form.
"But darling, I still have to do my duty as the Princess' guardian." Susan, though quiet obedience to her husband came so naturally, knew her purpose here on this Earth and understood her mission full well, as she also de-transforms.
"Susan, promise me." It's all Terry had to say. His eyes were transfixed upon her in that way she could never say "no" to.
"Yes, my lord, I promise you." Susan gazes back into Terry's compassionate violet eyes. "I don't want to harm the baby, either." She lowers her chin, her eyes resting worriedly at the round tummy holding something so cherished to her—to them both—which was squeezed a little too hard during the battle earlier.
"Not just the baby, my precious." Terry holds Susan's delicate hand to his chest. "I don't want you in even the slightest bit of danger. If something should ever happen to you, my lady, I wouldn't…" He shakes his head, not even wanting to consider the thought. "You are my entire world…"
Terry trails off, his eyes filled with such worry and anxiety for her safety—there was such love in his gorgeous eyes. "…I'll do everything for the both of us. I'll take care of it all. Don't worry." Terry kisses her two delicate hands.
"You are too good to me, my darling. I couldn't live without you, either. You are my everything." Susan was on the verge of tears at her husband's deep concern for her well-being. She was unable and unwilling, to argue with the truth in what he was saying. And even though duty was calling to her subconscious, Susan agrees to do as he requests, she knew she would always obey him—he knew what was best, as they found solace in each other's arms, despite the storm brewing outside.
"Are you two lovering in here? Just because this used to be your old room, Ter, doesn't mean you can just take advantage of a situation." Sayer's usual quip comes in, disturbing the couple's sweet embrace.
"You must learn to knock, Sayer." Terry chides in his older brother way, though not really surprised by Sayer's doings.
"Old habit." Sayer nonchalantly shrugs it off, as he always does, sidling up to Susan and sitting on the bed next to her. "How're you feeling, Susie?" He reaches towards her stomach and lays a hand on it. There was a curious look on his face at the wonder happening within her.
"I'm fine, thank you." Susan smiles at his sweet, boyish ways, though a tiny bit embarrassed to have another man touch her like that. But Susan was quickly accepting this dark haired boy as her brother.
"How is Michelle?" Terry asks, as Sayer brings his ear away from Susan's amused tummy, listening for baby gurgles and such.
"Michelle?" Sayer's smiling face is transformed into a quiet, serious one. "Michelle's not so good. She's kind of…um…" Sayer starts to say when his words are cemented by Michelle's sudden scream out in the hall.
"STOP! I don't want this! STOP! Go away!" One minute, she was calm, lying in her bedclothes, her unclosing eyes unfocused out the window at the battering winds beating against the window outside. But the next minute she jumps up in a flash, racing through the apartment's hallways like a mad woman.
"Michelle! MICHELLE! Don't torture yourself!" Alex chases her from the bedroom, worry written on her face at Michelle's sudden hysterical outburst. Ranting and raving, as they all watch with concern, Michelle breaks Alex's strong grip, determined to escape from someone. Her aqua hair was flying askew, her eyes faded as if she were not all there, as she races into the room at the end of the hall. The others chase after her, not wanting her to be alone, not with the memories which came with that room…
Hurrying in, they find poor Michelle sitting on the floor, her head buried in her knees and her arms wrapped tightly around herself in a ball.
"Michelle…?" Alex halts the others with a hand in the doorway. She slowly approaches her beloved partner across the room that was now used only for storage of old things such as trophies and awards.
Yet, someone's bed still remained, as well as a dresser and other furniture once used by someone who lived here.
"Michelle." Alex repeats at her no-reply. Only Michelle's beating chest and trembling showed any movement at all from the figure of the woman kneeling now on the carpeted floor.
"Amara. I can feel him. This used to be his room. Please, can I stay here? Please." Pleading, Michelle's eyes still had that unfocused quality about them, unsettling Alex as she gazes on her cousin.
"Of course, Michelle. If that's what you really want." Alex places a firm hand on the trembling shoulder as Sayer appears kneeling beside them.
"Sure, 'Chelle. We'll get it fixed up for you, right away. It's a real mess now, I know. Ally just throws her junk everywhere." Sayer smiles, meeting Alex's eyes with Michelle's for a long second. Alex sees in Michelle's blue gaze HIM as she rises shakily. Terry steadies her on her feet as she gets up, drifting over. Everyone watches her in silent worry as she walks straight forward to the wall that she and Robin had hung that portrait she had painted for him so long ago it seemed. It had only been a year and a little bit, but forever had passed in between.
Michelle was determined to hold onto that forever, going with her every sense within, despite the belief of the world without.
Seeing the "painting" she had made just for her beloved, that day he first moved in—that distant happy day—Michelle reaches out. She touches the exact place on the invisible portrait where two soulful hands were touching, above and beyond anything, as she reaches out to him, and for a brief moment, she could feel his warmth, his energy…his shining love surging through her in a burst of light.
And that is the moment, Michelle collapses unconscious to the floor.
A battle rages.
Good and evil spar over one star-crossed soul, tearing at it to its very core. A fine balance between goodness and wickedness—a soft tread all humans must tarry upon. But the mark was set long ago on this true soul, the line drawn with an overwhelming honesty—the need for rightful justice and unwavering devotion to that which he loved the most. And it was because of her and her alone that he had held out this long against the odds opposing him on the ominous side of evil.
"Michelle, Michelle! I'm still drowning! I'm drowning again in this darkness! It's trying to consume me! I won't let it take me, because…I want to be with you again. I want things to be right again. But still, even in this, even though I cannot physically or even psychically feel you anymore, I know you're out there, praying for me and believing in me. Help me now, Michelle. Bring me back to you...I love you..."
Robin's unconscious body still had a comprehending soul and the soul knew what was being demanded of him—of what this evil monster expected from him, as he reaches out in a final spurt of energy to she whom he loved so dearly. She was the one who had made it possible for him to never be alone again.
"Shun away from these weak thoughts, my heir. You need her not. Love is such an unimportant trifle in this world. Join with me. It is I who will never leave you. For evil is always within you." Queen Metallia's scalding voice grates into even Robin's deepest thoughts and in his soul. She was determined to take hold of him—mind, body, heart and soul on her inception of him to her own dark forces as she reaches her cold grip over him even tighter.
"Stop! I don't want this! STOP! Go away! THIS IS NOT WHO I AM! GET AWAY FROM ME!" His soul cries out in agony as the goodness is stripped from him, piece by piece, until only one thread remains—the one even powerful Queen Metallia finds herself wrestling with, to extract from him. It was so ingrained within him, so cherished and valued, and held onto—his love for Michelle.
For love was the most powerful force on this Earth—on any planet, throughout every distant star. Even into the realms of space and beyond—love was the center of it all, when it is true and binding. And that Metallia did not understand, could not ever understand. In her evilness, her wretched ways, she knew nothing of love. She only knew what to do to it—and that was destroy it at its source.
Sifting through Robin's dying mind, picking up bits of information she needed, the Queen of Darkness no longer had to delve far to break down the barriers. His weakened mind had done everything to try to erect a shield around his thoughts of the human called 'Michelle Moreau' most of all.
Metallia almost laughs at how easy it was going to be as she seeds her evil thoughts—her every wicked whim and wile—through that bond which still existed between her new heir and that frail female he held onto so dearly—the woman to whom he, even to this very last moment, was calling out to for his psyche's stability.
But even more than that, this stubborn Sailor of the Star Healer was reaching for her deep ocean of love.
SLAM!
Clamping down hard, Metallia sends that fatal pulse of evil energy through that link—that bond she had forced herself into. Her raw power travels directly into the woman known as Michelle—into her brain—and would certainly cease her existence on this world. The surge of dark energy would definitely kill…
That is, had it not been for, with the last final stream of goodness, Robin proved himself stronger than even Metallia, stronger than her take over, and his love stronger than any force—good or evil. He lashes out at the vile creature about to destroy the one he loved more than any other in this universe.
CRASH!
On the psychic plane and somewhere beyond, where good and evil clashed, Robin intercepts her attack on Michelle, using every last bit of everything in him to fight the monster within him, cut Metallia off from Michelle with such power and overwhelming strength.
Suddenly awakening across the miles, Michelle tries to reach out, feeling the storm as well, wanting to help him. The raging inferno of wills, of raw psi energy coursing, sends her into a deep unconsciousness. With a hatred stemming from his own childhood memories, made extreme in defense of the soul he loved, through this desperation, Robin unleashes a new power exuding from within him.
He hones the new power surge donated by his Princess Fireball into a dissimilar one that could affect the wicked monster trying to dominate him. Sailor Star Healer, with all that was in him, prepares to battle against Metallia herself again, having gleaned a perception of his enemy to alter the tactics of his first failed attack on this wicked creature.
Princess…Mother…Sailor Moon… Michelle…Give me the radiance I need to defeat this menace…
From the internal depths of his desperate to live soul, Robin siphons the fullness of his inherent true psychic potential that he had sensitively felt existed inside of him, but was always hesitant to unleash the untapped capacity thereof. But in his last ditch extreme effort to keep a hold of not only who he was, but his lifeline to Michelle protected, and all that was dear to him in the light, this lost child of the Star Healer may have just unlocked in the darkness one Pandora's box that was never meant to be opened…
"STAR HEALING MAELSTROM WORM!"
Star Healer's truest power—his most devastating, most potent, most vindictive psi-force that combined every element of his life experiences through the people who touched it—literally takes the form of a psychic worm and begins to slowly, purposefully, slide its invasive way through every corner of her dark being, not only psychological, but on whatever astral plane level Metallia possessed also, in search of her weak point.
Healer's searing electron mental signature vehemently rips through Metallia's evil archetype persona. His newly formed 'maelstrom worm' snakes across with every vestige of light and warmth of truth and love he could gather and exude into the wicked apparition's raw awareness to conversely battle against her utter darkness and derisive contempt.
Sensing those called upon energies of intended good morph partway through into deliberate hate as Healer's righteous anger rose, the mother of all chaos starts to cackle in the cavern eerily.
Although her vivid red inanimate force wavered before her chosen heir's purest psychosis force, the evil Queen was glad to be more than a little affected by his unadulterated despise— his sheer hatred—for her.
PLINK!
A single teardrop falls to the subterranean cavern floor, the innocent wetness slipping into its ebony dearth without so much as an unheard splash upon the vast yawning pit where evil thrived unbound now.
"THERE! AT LAST! YOU ARE MINE, MY DARK KINGDOM HEIR! YOU ALONE ARE MINE! YOU WERE ALWAYS MEANT TO BE ALONE!" Metallia cackles at his surprise. "The seeds of hatred were planted against me and they have grown into full bloom with the dark energy I have given to you. Your angry soul gladly accepted. Awaken now properly, my heir. Awaken and be counted with me. Evil now is your only true master." The odious laughter increases its horrid sound as underground in the darkness somewhere a young soldier awakens. His green eyes were alight with nothing now, save for pure evil.
"I am alone. I was born to be alone…" The Heir's throaty voice echoes through the underground chamber with sullen derision in this damning, solitary conclusion…
High above ground, in a tall apartment building, its towering visage was bathed in the sunsetting last rays of light. But a golden haired woman notices the beauty not, though this was her favorite time of day. Evening was just quietly making its dusky entrance between light and darkness.
Between light and darkness. Closing her eyes, Alex Starr, for a split second prior to when Michelle had collapsed hours ago, had sensed through her own bond with her aqua treasured one, that conflict was enveloping Michelle's soul. A conflict from somewhere far away, without—and could not be any more from within.
Light and darkness, darkness and light. Alex's mind weighs heavily as she remains vigilant at Michelle's side. She had for hours now been watching Michelle as she tries to decipher what this insane world has done to her adored cousin—and from something Alex herself could not shield her from. And that's what hurt Alex Starr most of all.
"Ally? You go take a break. I'll watch 'Chelle a while." Sayer's quiet tread enters the room a while later. Alex had obeyed Michelle's request, despite her own recriminations, as to the wisdom of this decision. Michelle now lain on the bed in Robin's old room.
"No, I won't leave her." Alex gently touches the tender hand lying unconscious on the bed, of the person she had swore to always protect.
"Then, I'll stay with you." Sayer, with concern for them both, didn't want to be alone himself, now that Terry and Susan had left to claim a displaced Tara from her dinner at the Harts'.
Bringing a chair over, he pushes it up close to Alex, sitting next to her.
"If you'd like." Alex almost could smile at the sweet way he worked at trying to undo her clenched fists. She didn't notice before how white and blood drained they had become from hours of her nails digging tightly into her own palms.
"What happened, Ally? Why did 'Chelle…?" Sayer trails off his question, still holding her left hand he was massaging.
"I…I don't know." It was a lie, albeit a small white one. She herself didn't fully comprehend what was revealed to her in that moment. Alex kept this from Sayer's beleaguered mind, the horrors of reality she had just come to realize were starting to pass. She had seen plainly how the painful search for someone lost was also preying on her lover's mind, and now this.
Metallia. The Queen of Evil. Yes, I had sensed her presence for certain in Michelle's soul. But she wasn't alone. He was there, too. Only for a moment, a desperate moment. That shrimp appeared. He's alive. And Metallia has him. I have to find him and bring him back to Michelle. 'Cause if I rescue him, I'll be rescuing her. And I must protect her no matter what the cost.
Alex gazes at the sweet face in pained asleep before her. It's always been you and me, Michelle. I haven't forgotten. Suddenly she feels Sayer's warm touch on her stiffened neck. His strong fingers caress her cheek with sweet caring, shining and beautiful mournful eyes as they meet Alex's determined green ones.
You too, little puppy. I must shield you from this darkness, as well. I must and I will. But I have to do it alone. I know you won't like it, you probably won't understand it…but, I have to do this my way…If anyone is to pay this price, it has to be me.
Feeling the weight of responsibility for these two vulnerable souls she had come to love so deeply, Alex steels herself with the knowledge of what she must do—of the new mission assigned to her by painful destiny and unforgiving fate. She was prepared to do battle all alone with evil incarnate if that's what it took.
I'm not dragging you into this with me, Starr. This is my duty as a soldier…to tread this damnable path…that I do best alone. Decision made, Alex closes her eyes, pooling all of her profound warrior sensibilities to seek out and locate the lair of hell itself, that now resided somewhere far too near to those she held close to her heart.
The realization that Michelle may never awaken from this deep slumber, until this evil trying desperately to grip her was destroyed, Alex's eyes focus on the torrential rainstorm suddenly breaking from the dark, hovering clouds.
It will be destroyed. I will be the one to keep you safe.
Even if I lose my heart in the process, so be it.
Alex's green eyes ablaze, her Uranus planetary essence reverberates with the confidence and determination to fight against whatever unknown was coming ahead, even to sacrifice herself, if it meant safeguarding the ones she loved more than her own soul.
The dark clouds turn even darker as the rainstorm grows heavier in the twilight sky completely blocking any of the moon's illuminating rays. The child of the moon looks up from inside the safety of her high-rise apartment, searching the vastness for the guidance from Above that she so needed.
A pale green star brightly zips across the moonscape for a blinding split second, begging for attention in an almost beseeching manner, causing Serena's heart to literally shudder.
Did someone just call out to me? Someone who needs the moonlight…
But…it's as if a dark cloud is covering over the moon tonight, and I can't tell which dear friend needs my help…Who just called my name? Are you out there in that darkness, alone? I don't know where to find you, but I wish my spirit could be there for you!
Here I am again, a Meatball head. Danger's coming and I don't know how to protect my friends from it! I'm so stupid, but what can I do? My powers aren't good enough to beat this new enemy.
A small teardrop she could neither stop nor explain, falls from the blue eyes of the young woman perched near the window.
"Serena?" A bluish-black cat jumps up to the ledge beside the distraught young girl.
"Hey, Luna. Why does everyone look up to me when I'm such a silly crybaby?" Serena asks quietly.
"Because you're the sacred Moon Princess. The chosen one they've all sworn their lives to protect. Me too, you know." At times a slave-driving boss, and at other times a motherly morale booster, Luna was all that and more to the young princess.
"But Luna, what if I can't do this anymore? What if my powers aren't enough to stop whatever's happening this time? What then? Alex is right…I have to be more prepared. But how do I do it, Luna?" Serena whimpers, sinking to the floor on her knees.
"Serena." Luna commands her attention, though she knew the time for this maturing, already married and settled-with-the-prince-of-her-dreams young woman to be her student was drawing to a close, Luna herself having recently taken that similar important step with her long-time partner, Artemis.
Yet, as long as she still needs me to answer her questions, I will oblige. I know you would want me to stand in as the caring mother you wished to be and were denied this time around, Queen Serenity. Serena needs your strong hand…
"Sit up straight, with dignity, like the true Princess you are, Serena. You wouldn't want the others to see you like this, do you? Sailor Uranus may have a harsh tongue, but she only wants you to be ready. All of the Scouts do. You can stand up for yourself, so you won't be hurt, so one day you can fulfill your role as Neo-Queen. It's because you are important to them, because they all truly care for you—not because they want you to feel bad. You can do this if you believe in yourself, and them as well. Confidence, young lady. Isn't that what Darien has been trying to teach you all the time?" Luna tries to perk Serena's emotional spirits with the mention of the love of her life.
"Yes." It worked, as Serena smiles, brightening at the thought of her husband, who was due back home soon from work, in fact. "He's going to be home soon." She dries her tear-stained face and catches Luna's concerned gaze in the corner of her eye. "Thank you, Luna!" Serena scoops up her furry companion in a squishing hug.
"SeReNA!" Luna ekes out, having the breath squeezed out of her. "I just heard the door close, didn't you?" The poor cat understood Serena's ditzy emotional outbursts, but sometimes she was just too much.
"Darien!" Tossed aside and unceremoniously dumped to the floor, Luna slinks away, cracking her displaced bones back into place. She slithers to her own private room of the apartment which Luna shared now with Artemis, as Darien generously sectioned his flat to give the double newly married couples some much needed time alone.
"Darien! Darien!" Like a little child, Serena rushes through the hallway, nearly knocking the same cactus down that she did every time, racing to welcome her love home with an embrace.
"Calm down, Serena. I'm all wet. Forgot the umbrella, and the storm hit suddenly." Darien's calm, sweet laugh was music to Serena's lonesome ears.
"Whad'ya get me? Huh? Huh?!" Playfully, Serena coos at him, digging into Darien's pockets in search of hidden prizes which might be inside. (And occasionally, there were.)
"Well…" Darien walks along into the living room, dragging Serena along with him. He carelessly tosses his wet jacket onto the chair. "I just happened to run into Rei on my way home from work and we got talking—" Darien seemed eager to drag out his story.
"Rei? I think you bump into Rei too often." Serena begins to pout, remembering Darien and Rei's former "relationship" and…
"Darien!" Serena's ditzy mind jumps from one thought to the next as she grabs hold of the beautiful opal ring—its pinkish, platinum shades in the shape of a familiar heart. "My ring!" Serena kisses the opal she'd been so worried about for weeks, since she first realized it was missing.
"Rei found it in the pocket in one of those kimonos you wore for the program. You didn't happen to think you lost it, did you?" Darien's smile was enough for Serena to see that he wasn't angry with her scatterbrained ways, as he slips the lost ring on her finger—the same left hand he did before, what seemed so long ago—a promise of the lifetime they would spend together…
"Me? Lose my engagement ring? Oh, no! Not me!" After a long relieved gaze at the beautiful heart ring, Serena's big grin looks up to her tall, eyebrows-raised husband. Her eyes close on her sweet baby face as Darien leans down to kiss her smiling lips.
"Be truthful, Meatball head. You did lose it."
Darien stops quizzically, looking down at his youthful wife, critically studying the unmoving lips etched in a sweet smile, knowing the voice who had just said those words was unquestioningly hers.
"Wh-what did you say, Serena?" A logical man, Darien could not explain how his less-than-skillful-at-conjuring-wife could have learned to throw her voice.
"I said, I didn't lose my engagement—" Serena, perhaps not hearing the voice, or more likely, thinking it was her conscious berating her fibbing, repeats her last vocal sentiment. The innocent smile was still shining up at Darien until…
"You lost it, you liar! You don't deserve such a nice ring! Here! Give it to me!" Her voice, her hand, her face—even down to the same exact dress was the same. Serena finds herself in surprise turning to gaze into the crystal blue eyes of her exact duplicate double!
"WHAAAAAAAAT?!" Serena screeches, backing against the couch behind her in shock.
"I said, 'GIVE IT TO ME!'"
Even in her worst moods, Serena could never be as threatening as her doppelganger was at the moment as she moves in toward the real Serena, reaching for the hand that the ring was now on…
SLAP!
Her attacking hand is thrust away as Darien moves in between the two versions of his wife.
"Who are you?!" He demands, authoritatively in that 'Prince of the Earth' commanding voice.
"Who am I? Muffin, don't take that tone with me! You know who I am, don't you?" From forceful to playful, the second Serena runs a sweet finger up a suspicious Darien's chest. The loving smile on her face was pasted there until suddenly, her small hand jumps to his surprised neck, squeezing around it with unbelievable strength—well beyond anything Serena could ever muster.
"How do you like it, Muffin!? Remember when you did this to my little neck, you big, strong man! Well I DO!" With amazing power and speed both, Serena #2 squeezes the shocked man's neck even harder, rushing with him out onto the open balcony. Her little, yet powerful hands were still wrapped tightly around his thorax.
"STOP! STOP!" Serena #1 races after them, pounding on herself (well, you know) trying to loosen the seemingly unbreakable arm from its grasp around Darien's poor neck, but it wouldn't budge.
"Leave him alone! Who are you?! How do you know all this about us?! Put him down!" Serena screams as the rain pours down on the three of them. The evil Serena was threatening to lift Darien's form over the balcony's edge.
"If you insist, Meatball head. You're next, after all. That is, after I get rid of—"
WHAM!
Kicked flat, dead center in the gut by the dark haired man, the wind was knocked out of the yellow-haired doppelganger, her spaghetti pigtails whipping around fast enough to get whiplash. But it was still not enough to release her unyielding grip, though Darien manages to get a little loosening around the neck, enough to breathe out a few short words.
"Serena! Get—out of here! Run!" He commands his soaked to the bone little wife, her safety the most important thing to him.
She shakes her head, tears in her eyes as she reaches in her pocket for her transformation stick...
"You're gonna pay for that, Muffin! Eat pavement!" But in that same moment, Serena's evil double coughs out the threat, holding the soaking wet man over the edge by his choking neck—and prepares to let him go…
"STOP!" Serena screams at the top of her lungs, stretching across the balcony railing, grabbing Darien's flailing hand in an unbelievable save with her right hand. Her left hand—the desired ring on it ripe for the taking—extends out to grasp her double's wet long hair, as Serena #2 ignores the tug on her 'hair' and pulls the hand greedily for the object she wanted…
Strategy…Is that what I've learned? That's what you've been trying to teach me, isn't it? Maybe I am getting better. Hold on, Muffin! Here we go!
Scattered thoughts zap through Serena's mind as the invader does as she was expected to, grabbing the hand with the ring. Serena uses this momentum of the pull backwards and Darien's descent downwards, with a little bit of flying hair and luck and ingenuity combined, to send the fake "her" flying over the edge of the railing, letting Darien's strangling neck go in the surprise with a short Serena-ish squeal as she falls. She disappears into the dark, hailing rainstorm below.
"Hold on!" Serena cries out to her husband, she wasn't quite strong enough to hold on to his hands much longer in the rain.
"Got it!" Darien grunts as his strong hand extends itself over to reach the balcony's railing. He pulls himself up, landing in a soaked to the bone heap on the balcony. Serena falls down next to him, enveloping him in a huge hug.
"Darien, I was so scared!" She sobs, adding to the moisture already drenching his chest.
"Serena… cough, cough…are you all right?" Darien asks, looking into her eyes for confirmation. Reflected in them was concern, relief, fear. Darien knew his wife well enough to instinctively know what was happening in the sky behind him. He didn't need his own eyes as he watches hers dart up towards whatever was behind his back.
Leaping as he scoops up his frozen, stock-still wife in his arms, Darien and Serena are just missed by a stream of blasting hearts exploding pink, iridescent light on the balcony. Its radiance burned a heart shaped hole into the cement floor.
"You thought you were done with me so easily, eh, Moon Princess? Gotta say, you're not the same wimpy girl I was told you would be, Sailor Moon." Taunting with her words, standing high on the dark raincloud, a very busty "angel," more of a demon though in pale pinks, was replete with white feathered wings to hold her high in the pounding rains. The cruel angel swoops in towards the couple, evil intent evident though, opposite of the angelic wings and melon pink flowing hair, and her beautiful, though empty eyes.
Dodging attack after attack, Serena skitters across the balcony as Darien rushes the creature, attacking it physically with his only weapon—a broom handle left on the balcony by Serena earlier. He expertly holds the creature back, and Serena knew this was her cue.
Ignoring the scary thunder crashing about her, she raises her hand to the sky.
"MOON ETERNAL MAKE UP!" She starts her call, transforming herself into the winged eternal Sailor Soldier amidst the flurry of feathers and sparkling light she was growing more and more accustomed to.
WHACK!
Right on the head with the brush end of the broom, Darien smirks as he lands a hit on the creature's contrary head.
"How dare you touch me with that filthy thing?! Just because you're not wearing a tuxedo, you should still act like a gentleman!" With a pout, she reminded him of Serena's ditzy ways somehow. The creature rubs her head, pointing an accusing finger at the poor man defending his home and his wife, as the monster angrily yanks a small, dark jewel from her chest. She shrieks along the balcony, rushing towards a taken aback Darien, grabbing him and pushing him flat down on his back. "Just for that I'm going to drain your energy, too! Imagine you messing with my hair!" Taking the dark gem, the winged intruder presses it to Darien's struggling neck.
"Stop right there, Monster! You better put him down if you know what's good for you! I am Sailor Moon, champion of love and justice! And on behalf of the moon—"
Eternal Sailor Moon steps out. Her radiant eyes were the only brightness in the dark night.
"—I'll punish you. Yeah, yeah. I've heard it all before." The 'angel' rolls her eyes. "Why don't you ever change those sorry lines into something cooler, with more zip to it?" She asks on the side as she pauses in her attack on Darien to comment.
"How do you know so much about me?!" Indignant at the monster's continual knowledge of things Negacreeps usually don't know about, Sailor Moon puts her hands on her hips. She also forgot that they were in the midst of a battle.
"Because I know you, Serena. I couldn't be here if you didn't give me life." Holding up one finely manicured hand, the 'angelic' creature displays the opal heart ring on her left hand. "And besides, I have other sources." She cackles mysteriously.
"Hey! That's my ring! You thief! Give it back!" Sailor Moon cries out.
"Oh, this ring? I wonder how much energy the man who gave it to you has? Hmm? He should be a prize? The Prince of Earth—sworn to protect you. Only fools would protect an airhead like you! You're such a worthless creature!" Masterfully, the monster reaches out, ripping back the shirt and connecting the dark crystal to Darien's chest, right over his heart.
"No! Stop!" Running to help him, Sailor Moon is thrown back after colliding smack into an invisible forcefield. Only the rain's torrents made the heart-shaped dome around Darien and his attacker visible.
"Darien! Darien!" Serena bangs at the forcefield as she hears the peals of ditzy laughter from inside the bubble. She sees Darien—her love, her life, her important one—laying only semi-conscious, reaching his hand out to her as his life is ebbed away. His energy was draining, leaving his body…
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Sailor Moon screeches from the bottom of her heart. No pain was felt more intensely, no love could be stronger than what she and Darien had together. It was something she would NEVER let go of.
Suddenly from somewhere within her heart, a small light grows, flashing and then exploding into brightness. It echoed through her soul, the words, the energy, newly born of her spirit—of the need to protect the one she loved beyond love. To keep him close to her, safe forever. The rain suddenly ceases, the clouds part to reveal a shining light—
"SPARKLING FULL MOON SILVER RADIANCE!" The resounding words aglow with confidence by the Princess calling the moon to lend its support, feathers and light glimmer all about her, surrounding her, thousands of silver-white light beams combine together into a single, powerful beacon of light piercing through the darkness. The revealed full moon above rained its power down upon her, as Sailor Moon aims at the monster attacking her beloved prince.
The brilliance breaks through the barrier as if it was nothing but an illusion. Directed at the unsuspecting evil angel, she explodes with a dazzling, silver-white light from every pore of her body. The evilness was wiped away save for one tiny shadow of a shadow, retreating down in through the cracks of the balcony floor.
"Darien! Darien! Are you all right?! Oh, Darien!" Rushing to his prone body, Eternal Sailor Moon lifts his head, cradling him in her arms as her teardrops fall on his unconscious cheek.
"Sailor Moon, you…were wonderful." Darien's dark blue eyes open, sparkling at his beautiful rescuer.
"I knew you could do it. I believed in you. I always have. Here." Darien's weakened fingers reach for his chest as he lifts the object that was dropped there when the creature was destroyed. "On my heart, as you will forever be, Serena. I'm so proud of you." He slips the ring back onto Sailor Moon's gloved finger. Darien smiles weakly, gazing up at her shining, fresh in the moonlight beauty.
She, who he knew was the one this earth, he was so a part of, needed. He, too, needed her brilliance, her shine and her love, as the rain falls no longer this night. The radiance of the reflection of intense light from the balcony that night seen and awed by many occupants of Tokyo, stretched its beam around the country, even reported to be seen in lands far distant, across seas and oceans.
For there was no glimmer more dazzling than that of the light of true, true love.
"Yet another failed attempt, Queen Metallia. As I told you, the boy would make no difference to our mission." King Pearlellion's bold with jealousy words are calmly stated as he addresses the evil queen in her underground labyrinth.
"Such impudence, Pearlrellion! Remember who gave you those vast powers! You think yourself so highly! I WILL TELL YOU how this mission is to be led. You err in your insignificant thoughts. The power of the legendary Moon Princess has been revealed. Now see the mission laid before you by no work of your own. My heir has chosen well—far better than you, Pearlellion."
Stinging words echo through the dark cave as Metallia's voice resounds with indignant majesty at the King's intolerable questioning of her orders.
"The choice was perfect. That girl is filled with pure energy we can tap for you, Metallia." Another voice enters the dark, shadowy room. A younger voice, not half as loud or biting as the evil Queen's but still, somewhere in that voice, could be heard the presence of raw evil.
"It was your weakling shadow who failed us, Pearlellion." Dressed in an all black leather suit, tight fitting around his well-formed muscles, trimmed in lime green chains laced around his arms and neck, tall leather boots cover his pants up to his thighs as the young heir to Metallia's evil ambition strides out before them. His garb, though powerful looking and male as intended, was a haunting reflection of the uniform he once wore when he was on the side of good instead of evil—when he was the Sailor known as Star Healer.
"Do not challenge me, boy." Pearlrellion's anger gets the better of him despite Metallia's presence. Just who was this young rapscallion who waltzes in on Metallia's coattails, attempting to usurp the power she had promised him?
"Pearlellion!" Metallia's voice hits the cave like a crash of thunder, her anger rising.
"Metallia! I don't need your protection as much as I don't need this old man's criticisms! If you dare to challenge me, "King," then there will be only one outcome." Like a raging inferno, young Robin Starr's eyes blaze with contempt at the taller man he was glaring at. His shorter stance didn't take away anything from the raw power glowing, bathed in a lime green light behind his threat.
Instead of the anger she expected to see from Metallia at this, Queen Aquamarianna watched quietly from the sidelines of her throne. She was rather surprised by the cackling laughter suddenly echoing through the throne room. Metallia's anger ebbed despite her young heir's impudence towards both her and Pearlrellion—maybe because of it.
"He is what I knew he would be, as you are, King." Metallia's voice begins to wail again, utilizing this friction between men to get what she wanted from both of them. While she didn't need Pearlrellion any longer, his evil ambition could still be put to good use. "Energy. I require it. My young firebrand, o honored king, you both have the power to seek it out and capture it for me. However it is done, this is my demand."
FLASH!
In an explosion of gleaming light, Metallia makes her own powers of evil known, flaring what she thought was her authority over such things as life or death. Pearlellion bows his loyalty and homage as does Aquamarianna, who out of the corner of her bowing eye, notices he who does not bow. He was standing up, his arms firmly crossed in a defiant pose. Those dazzling green eyes were laughing at her husband's subservience. His mouth smirks at Pearlellion's weakness before Metallia.
Is it simply youth? Or it is confidence and knowledge in the power he holds? This requires further investigation…
After Metallia's presence dims to nothingness, Aquamarianna, a woman of wiles herself, who knew power and men very well, and how to connive and manipulate to her own advantage, makes her way over to the men she sees before her.
"Do you not fear Queen Metallia, young one?" Aquamarianna slinks (there was no other word for the way she was holding herself) towards Robin, her large aqua eyes blinking innocent as a dove at him with a question.
"There is nothing and no one I fear." Confidently, the silver-haired twenty-year old thrusts his chin out. His half closed eyes lazily regard first Pearlrellion, then the sepulcher in which Metallia displayed her evil energy before them only moments ago. Evil combines with the arrogance this particular young man always had more than a healthy dose of, making him a hostile opponent indeed.
"I agree with Metallia. He has the potential we require, my love." Aquamarianna then bats her eyes at her silently fuming husband.
"Potential, yes. But can you deliver, boy?" Pearlrellion had his own share of arrogance to vent on this arrogant—
"Your shadow minions, where are they? Your cultivation of evil is less than satisfactory. I will personally see to them and their targets, King, from now on. And then you will see results, believe me." Robin's right-in-his-face attitude was just too much. The king was about to lash out in anger when his queen stops him with her soothing caress.
"Remember, my King, he is only here to aid our mission. If he can assure our take-over of this small world, we should allow him to proceed with all speed. You deserve to be ruler over all, my king." She whispers into his ear, knowing how to push his buttons with the greed overtaking him.
"You are correct as always, my Queen. I will put up with him for now. Until we no longer require his services." Deceit was on both sides, for evil had no true allies. Pearlrellion was deceiving Robin for his power hungry use, Aquamarianna was deceiving Pearlrellion for her own ambitions, and Metallia was deceiving them all with the promise of power she intended not to keep.
The only one left remaining out of this loop, yet still immersed in it, through no fault of his own, was Robin Starr. The only one his stingingly truthful arrogance was deceitful to was himself.
There was something he feared though—not the common fear of these wicked henchmen's threats, nor that of imminent death promised in the darkness, nor his own ineffectual power loss at Metallia's evil hand, no. Still buried somewhere, shoved down deep, deep inside, was the little child—the one that cried out in pain for help, the one who was prepared to kill himself when his entire family was cruelly taken away from him.
It was the weeping heart of that lonely child who had reached out to another, far across the universe for completeness and love. For though buried down, hidden in his tortured soul, Sailor Star Healer still feared, most of all, being alone.
Though, at this moment, with Metallia's evil energies surging through his tense body, mind and soul—that was a fact that this wandering shooting star was even shielding himself from...if only to instinctively protect one ocean maiden from this ebony dearth his battered mind was drowning in...