We do not own "Sailor Moon" nor any of the characters.
"SAILOR MOON ETERNAL"
The 6th Season of the Sailor Moon Saga
Chapter 37
"The Cold Shoulder"
Amy Anderson found herself strapped to the computer monitor more and more often as of late.
The information her device had to offer on the data of the past few battles turned up the same results over and over: 'Enemy Unknown.'
But Amy was sure, for something was itching in the back of her intellectual mind, that indeed, this enemy was one known to them. The style and attitude of the attacks, the acquiring of energy for some dark purpose—just all seemed so...familiar.
Amy stretches her aching neck. Her hours upon endless hours of nothing but computer research was showing its signs at 2:00 AM. But Amy could not give up—she would not.
It could mean all the difference to the next target if we just knew what it's all about!
Her razor sharp mind was a caring one, too. Her compassion for her fellow man's well-being was overpowering, driving her to continue study, even into this late hour.
With all of the input Terry and Susan have explained to us and the battles we've already seen, you'd think the enemy would've shown us his or her hand, but yet...we have no solid evidence of who's masterminding these attacks. No, I'm wrong—
Amy picks up from her neat desk a dark crystallized jewel. Its beautiful gleam belied the deadly purpose behind it.
This gem, we've figured that it is through gemstones and jewelry that the victim is chosen, sought out and a double of them is created to drain their energy. So far as we know, it's chosen Molly, Lizzie, and nearly every Scout, save for Alex and Susan. But they've been touched by the battle through the attacks on Sayer and Terry...
…and then there's Michelle, maybe with her being in and out of consciousness—poor girl—Maybe that has something to do with it, too.
And so…Amy switches off her VR vision glasses, lifting her tired eyes from the computer screen.
...That leaves me...
She recalls yesterday's Scout meeting. They seemed to be having those more and more often of late. She remembered how Serena had begged her to come and stay with her and Darien, knowing that Amy was the last Inner Soldier not to be targeted.
'Serena...I couldn't! My mom just went out of town and if I'm not home to answer her phone call, she'll be worried sick! Don't worry, I'll be really careful.'
Amy remembers saying that, swearing to Serena that she'd lock up every piece of jewelry in the house, along with the doors and windows, too.
...Sigh...It's very sweet of her—of all of them! Even offering to come over here to stay. But I can't let this enemy get to us. I don't want them guarding over me. In all probability, it may never even attack. I just have to figure this all out and I work best alone.
Amy thinks, trying to justify her decision, but truly in her conscience, she didn't want to inconvenience anyone on her behalf alone.
Alone. A studious life is often spent that way. Amy allows herself to sit back and enjoy a late night sandwich break as she studies the printed out results of her latest row of tests and scans of the gemstone.
But I really don't like being alone.
Amy gazes out the window. The happiness of the past few peaceful years, especially this last one, were spent with someone special.
These years have spoiled me. My duties are clear, but still...I want to see you, Greg.
Amy sadly thinks of the hectic past few weeks of shutting him out again.
RRRinnnnngggg!
As if reading her lonely mind, the phone suddenly rings, jolting Amy out of her reverie with a start.
"Hello? Anderson Residence." Amy answers as she always does—polite and exact. Her heart was soaring with anticipation that it could be Greg, or if not, maybe her Mom again.
"Sailor Mercury?" A deep voice—a powerful voice of a well-spoken man came over the line. An accent so slight it was almost undetectable was heard asking for her from the other side of the receiver.
"Sailor Mercury? I don't know who you're talking about. You must have the wrong number. Who is this, please?" Danger signs shoot up in Amy's mind as she listens carefully, doing her best to seem unknowing.
"Are you alone?" The man asks, his voice frightening.
Amy's first instinct is to hang up the phone and call for help, but what the voice says next stops her in her tracks.
"Don't hang up. I know the address of your boyfriend." He says, threatening her.
"I don't have a boyfriend. Please leave me alone." Amy lies, her stomach sinking.
"Greg Mueller, Anniversary Mansions, Apartment 4A, Suginami-ku-" He rattles off the info of an address.
"Stop! What do you want?" Amy says, unable to bear it any longer.
"A simple information exchange. That's all, my dear."
Amy already didn't like the way this stranger talked down to her, as if he were royalty or something.
"I don't know anything! Please leave us alone!" Amy says desperately.
"Oh, but I think you do. At the docks in 15 minutes. It's only a few blocks from where you live. It is quiet tonight, isn't it. There're only a few lights on at such an ungodly hour, don't you think? And I can monitor your communication transmission, so don't even think about telling the other Scouts. You must come alone."
The chuckling voice proved that he was spying on Amy's window.
Click!
The connection is severed and Amy is thrown into complete consternation.
He knows where Greg lives! He might hurt him and it would be all because of me and the information he wants of what I supposedly know! What does he think I know?! And who is he?! Is this all a trap to just get me there? But the threat to Greg is real, so I must go...
With a few final rushed clicks on her keyboard, Amy is off and running, tugging on her coat as she flies out the door. The computer screen in her room was still aglow as an emailed message is sent out...
'DANGER. ENEMY AT DOCKS. INSTRUCTED BY PHONE TO COME ALONE. THREATENED GREG - KNOWS HIS ADDRESS. SEND HELP, I'LL BE CAREFUL. - AMY'
Silently unnoticed by her stalker, the message is broadcast to someone Amy knew she could rely on...
Two o'clock in the morning was a strange time for a studious young girl to be out at the docks, walking alone, but strange times called for strange measures. Amy, now readied in her Super Sailor Mercury form, tries to bolster herself as she treads carefully nearer the empty, eerie dockside into unknown dangers awaiting her there for certain.
Who is this new enemy that can know so much about us? Like my home phone number and Greg's address? And what could they possibly think I know? I don't like this—I don't like this at all! This rash of attacks are all so pinpointed to we Sailor Soldiers. It's like somehow the enemy knows us from somewhere before...sometime before...
Mercury can't help but keep having these same recurring thoughts as in her gloved fist she tightly clutches the dark crystal she had been studying.
Maybe this is how they tracked me down so easily.
She glances down at the dark object glimmering in her hand, when in its glint, a similarly dark shadow appears from behind a crate of boxes.
I sure hope they got my message and back up will be here soon. I'm going to need it!
Amy cringes at the thought of fighting a new enemy all alone.
"Sailor Mercury! It is an honor to finally meet you. We've heard such great things about you." There was a definite something reminiscent in that voice that had been eating at her since the phone call.
Amy's mercurious mind suddenly realizes who it is before she even gets a full glimpse of him in the cloudy, half moonlit night.
"Sapphire?!" Mercury asks in shock. He was wearing different clothes and his hair shined a bit blacker than blue, but the mysterious man standing before her was Sapphire of the Dark Moon Family, whom the Scouts had sparred with what seemed ages ago.
"And who exactly is 'Sapphire,' luv? A nom de guerre you go out charming the ladies with, Opalson?"
From behind another stack of boxes, a tall woman appears. Her cockney English or possibly Australian accent from what Amy heard so far, was tinged with jealousy. Her striking red hair blazed even in this dark night. Its style was something undeniable for Amy not to recognize again.
It's just like Rubeus'! Her mind comments in confusion, not comprehending how the Dark Moon Family, when all but the Four Spectre Sisters had met with a tragic end, could still be here.
"Are you jealous, Red?" The man asked the woman in a playful, teasing way.
"Very." 'Red' answers wearing no-nonsense looking army fatigue pants. But her vest was by no means regulation. It hung open, held together in just the places designed to display most of her ample cleavage for all to see.
"No, Sailor Mercury." The dark haired man takes a step closer to Amy. "I am not—what ridiculous name did you say? 'Sapphire?' My name is Opalson, Lord Opalson, and I have come to request of you a favor." He says haughtily, offering a false smile.
"What kind of 'favor'? Surely there must have been a better way than threatening a girl on the phone." Mercury says indignantly as she tries to bide her time.
"Perhaps." Opalson nods, cocking his head. "But my wife here didn't think you would take too kindly to this request if I had asked it in a more civil manner." Opalson's knowing smile rests on his red-haired companion.
What could they possibly want with me? Mercury's mind was screaming.
"So just in case you have a few thoughts on the matter, we've brought a little 'insurance.'" Lady Ruby flings her clenched fist open towards the dock area.
There a wooden crate hung dangerously high over the rough waters, and strapped to it was the figure of a dark haired young man. His arms and legs were pinned, his mouth bound and gagged—even from a distance, Amy could clearly see who it was.
"GREG!" She shouts, her heart catching in her throat as she races to the edge of the smashing waters. "Greg!" Mercury's agonizing cries come out, tears biting behind them.
"You said you wouldn't hurt him if I came! I'm here! I've held my end of the bargain! Let Greg go!" Amy angrily shouts at the couple who had zapped and then reappeared next to her.
"And we won't harm him, luv." Ruby smirks almost in a sneer. "As long as you give us what we want."
"Well, what do you want!? Let him go!" Amy feels her heart being wrenched within her at their evilly smiling faces.
"All we want is information. Give it to us and we will release your beloved. If not..." Lord Opalson trails off, and with a nod at his wife, she suddenly, with a flick of her hand, makes the crate Greg is strapped to, rock back and forth violently over the unusually crashing waves coming into the port.
"STOP!" Mercury screams. "What do you want?!" She pleads, willing to do anything right now to gain Greg's release.
"Where is Queen Metallia's heir?" He asks, with a serious accusing look in his eye.
"Who?!" Mercury asks, though the name of Metallia sends chills up her spine.
"Metallia's heir! Whose former existence on this planet was that of one 'Robin Starr.' Return him to us now." Opalson's words strike horror into Amy's heart.
The heir to legendary Queen Metallia is Robin?! Robin?! How can this be?! He didn't die? He was taken and corrupted by...
"Metallia is anxious for her heir's return. He was last seen with you Sailors. Where have you hidden him? Tell us now or this boy here goes to a watery grave." Lady Ruby says, threatening, holding a powerful hand out towards Greg.
"I—" Amy starts to say. If I tell them I know nothing of his whereabouts, they'll probably just kill Greg! But I don't know where Robin is. What do I do?! What…!
"I'll take you to him!" In a split moment, her path is decided. Mercury was, above all else, beyond her other skills, a sharp cookie—one whose razor sharp mind would not be outdone by any enemy.
"Smart girl." Opalson says, talking down to her with his royal airs.
"But you have to let Greg go first!" Mercury makes a stipulation, as she crosses her fingers behind her back so they don't realize this was all just one big bluff.
As soon as Greg is released, I'll blind them with my Ice Bubbles and we'll go get back up, once Greg is safe—
Her mind's calculations are suddenly cut off.
"Very well." Opalson's smirk looked strange and eerie as his dark black eyes glow.
RRRIPPP
The wires and ropes suspending the crate in the air suddenly tear apart at Lady Ruby's command. Her cruel laughter rung out in the darkness as Amy's heart froze when she watched Greg descend down into the ocean.
"Don't move, Mercury!" Ruby shouts, grabbing the stunned Sailor by her arm. "As you can see, that crate will remain buoyant only until I command it not to. Your little boyfriend is safe as long as I will him to be." She chuckles with an evil smirk as the crate bounces up and down on the waves instead of sinking. Greg seemed to be secure as he struggles on top of it. Amy saw him shake his head for her not to abide by their wishes for his sake.
But what else can I do?
"So then, take us to the Heir now, before my wife's patience grows even shorter." Opalson commands.
"All right." Amy concedes, as her worried eyes lock with poor Greg's. She bit her lip and led the pair off.
I just hope I'm doing the right thing...
Mercury knew that her new plan would only work if that someone had picked up her message earlier.
On this sleepless night, Terry Starr cradles his pregnant wife in his arms, glad she, at least, was able to drift off, though he himself was often haunted by the thoughts of an over taxed mind and aching heart. Ever since this morning he had felt something deep inside that made his soul cry out for what he has lost, especially, and it put him in quite a melancholy mood.
But you have comforted me, my Susan, through these hard times. You've been there for me...
Terry strokes his lady's slumbering form, gently caressing her stomach lovingly. I just wish our baby could've met her uncle. He was never much on children, but nonetheless…
He feels a tear fall from his violet eyes. Robin's loss caused a depression that would often set upon his compassionate heart. Suddenly, a soft knock on the bedroom door breaks the silent night.
"Terry papa…" He hears Tara's small yet urgent whisper through the door. She was often up late at night. Terry and Susan both knew, despite their packing her off to bed at a decent hour, that the child was still awake.
'Dreaming,' she would always say but more likely, having those visions of hers that she would opt not to share with them.
Terry believed this fragile child that he has grown to have a fatherly pride in possessed her own mysteries. As softly as possible, he slides out from the bed, careful not to disturb Susan, and pulls on his robe as he opens the door.
"Tara, dear?" He asks in his deep throated whisper.
"There's an urgent message from Mercury!" Tara says, with fear in her purple eyes. "I was on your computer, doing some research for my school paper. I'm sorry, I know I should've asked first." Tara looks up at him meekly as they hurry back to the library, but that smiling look in Terry-papa's eyes told her it was all right and that he knew she was probably doing more than just school research. Tara blushes in guilt at her and Sammy's often after-midnight chats online.
"It's all right, Tara. It's your computer, too, after all." Terry says as he sits at the desk, calling up the emailed message that Tara was speaking of. He reads it over, as she stands over his shoulder with a look of worry etched on her pretty face, as they both reread the short message of danger together.
Susan had heard their stirring and soon comes in to join them.
"Susan, you stay here. I'm going." Terry says in a flash, meeting her eyes as he jumps up from his seat, softly brushing his wife's cheek with the command.
"I'm coming, too!" Tara says with determination.
"Tara, I think it would be best if you didn't accompany me to the docks—" Terry starts to say as he pulls out his feathered transformation headset. Being the chivalrous man he was, he didn't want to have the young girl's safety to worry about in the face of this unknown danger.
"And I think it would be best if you would listen more than tell us 'girls' what to do,
O-Gallant-Commander." A deep voice comes in the door in its annoyed tone and indignant way. Terry, Susan and Tara turn to see a ripped up Super Sailor Uranus along with a beat up Super Sailor Star Fighter, leaning in the doorway.
"Alex, Sayer! Thank goodness you're back!" Susan says a hasty greeting but Terry, upon meeting his brother's eyes is taken aback by the pain and sadness he finds there instead of the usual jovial look.
"What's happened, Fighter?" Terry asks, worried, crossing the room and taking Fighter's shoulders firmly in both his hands.
"Ter...Rob's alive." Star Fighter's voice was devoid of the emotion his brother would have expected to come along with those longed for words.
"He is?! Where—?!" Terry starts to ask, overwhelmed with questions. Susan rushes to his side, but Uranus' sharp words cut him off abruptly.
"There's no time for that now. You saw what Mercury wrote. We'll explain on the way. Tara, suit up and attend to Fighter. You're coming." Uranus, as she always does, takes charge. Defiantly, the tall, imposing woman didn't show her own painful broken wrist and arms one bit. As leader, she should never show weakness before her team, and that imperative Uranus took very seriously.
"Susan—" She starts to order her sailor soldier subordinate.
"She stays here." Terry declares, exchanging a fierce look with Uranus, who looks to Susan's subservient gaze at her overbearing husband.
I'll have to deal with that problem later. Alex's independent mind thinks as she turns for the door.
"Whatever." She says, offhandedly, throwing Terry an angry look over her battle-damaged shoulder. "And we're not going to the docks. We do exactly what Mercury says. She knows what she's doing." Super Sailor Uranus shoves Terry's edict to Saturn in his face, proving her authority while he and Tara complete their transformations.
"Neptune?" As they do, Uranus turns to ask her silent partner, who, unnoticed by the others up till now, was standing behind her in the hallway.
"Amara, I can do this." Super Sailor Neptune's emotionless, monotone voice replies to the unasked question.
"Then, let's go." Outer Scout chief, Sailor Uranus leads the way out of the rural house, stealthily moving her team into the tension filled night.
Sailor Mercury walks steadily back in towards town. Her two watchful 'companions' were on each side of her as they suspiciously scan the area. It was quiet in this part of town at this early hour of the morning, but Ruby suddenly feels as if they were being led into a trap.
"I don't like this, Opalson. Make the girl tell you where we're going, luv!" Ruby says, getting itchy, and her accent thick.
"You heard the lady. Where is it, Mercury?" Opalson demands, his dark eyes forboding.
"There. In that apartment building—the deserted one." Mercury points, revealing the location, for she knew Ruby's patience was near the limit.
"Directly across from that of your little Greg? How convenient." Ruby comments slyly, feeling in her bones that something was afoot.
"Yes, very." Opalson prys out the dark crystal hiding in Mercury's hand and holds it up towards the building in question. "You won't be needing this, my dear." Opalson smiles as he studies the gemstone for a moment, smirking at its sudden bright flashing. "Thank you so terribly much, Sailor Mercury, my sweet. But your use has come to a tragic end." Obviously satisfied with the readings he believed were that of what he was searching for, Opalson grasps Mercury by the neck, on the verge of squeezing.
"Wait, luv! There may be more Sailor ants teeming inside! We can use this weakling for a hostage in trade." Ruby uncharacteristically stops her husband's strong arm.
"Yes, of course, Red. You are correct once again—" Opalson begins to say when a beam of laser light flashes from atop the building, directly hitting Opalson's arm.
The thin, small, mousy looking sailor scout, underestimated by her enemy, uses the moment's diversion to land a solid kick with her skinny leg into Opalson's shin and the other into the red haired woman's face as she spins and launches a 'Mercury Bubbles Blast!'
Mercury's spray of bubbles sends up a fog, blocking the view of her attackers as she quickly moves away.
"You'll pay for that, tiny!" Lady Ruby takes none too kindly to her face being both kicked, wet and cold. "I just let your boyfriend drop to the bottom of the ocean!" She huffs through the mist.
"Oh, no! Greg!" Mercury whispers but her intellect had been preparing for this. Her powers were, all this while, charging, for she knew what she had to do to save the life of the young man she was destined to be in love with.
"Mercury! I call upon your guidance! MERCURY ICE RHAPSODY!"
She shouts as her musical strains play an icy harpsichord across the miles, Greg's floating crate sinking as he is just about to sink in, too. Suddenly, it all freezes over, stopping his descent into the cold, rushing waters. With frozen 'fingers,' the bonds holding Greg down, just enough for him to make a skidded dash over the frozen icy surface before it totally collapses.
"Thanks, Amy! You're the best." Greg smiles at the dock, knowing just whose handiwork his rescue could be credited to. He just hoped that she would be okay, battling those Negaverse sleaze where she was. "Good luck, Sailor Mercury." Greg says as he looks out towards the section of the city in the distance, suddenly erupting in a light show.
Greg is safe. Thank God…
Sailor Mercury's closed eyes and slight smile show her relief. She felt it deeply as she presses her precision hand over her heart.
"Ahhhh!" She suddenly screams as she feels a sharp object pressed to her neck.
"Call off your playmates now, Mercury. We're going in." Opalson commands as, out of nowhere, he had produced a dagger at Mercury's throat.
"Guys! We're coming!" Mercury obediently calls out as the knife tightens to her neck. The three of them enter the lobby of the empty apartment building.
"Tell them to bring the Heir down here, now. No tricks—or else." The dark man commands when they reach the first floor lobby.
"'Heir,' we want nothing to do with. 'Tricks'? There's no guarantee. The 'or else,' now there's something you can bank on, losers." A deep, low voice penetrates the shadowy darkness within the deserted lobby. It just registers in Ruby and Opalson's ears when a blast of hot wind slices an energy blade across Opalson's arm that was clutching at Mercury.
The precise blade sends both the dark man and his knife flying backwards, shrieking in pain as he lets Mercury fall to the ground.
"Invited by the New Age. I am the Soldier of Rebellion! Sailor Uranus! Ready to dazzle you." Crossing her arms, golden Super Sailor Uranus leaps down from the balcony overlooking the first floor to stand eye to eye with her new opponent.
"And again the same. I am the Soldier of Embrace, Sailor Neptune. Ready to charm you." The words were her usual entrance but there was something lost in Neptune's blue eyes that mere consciousness could not revitalize in her soul.
"Ahhh, the infamous, but unseen, Sailor Neptune. Allow us to introduce ourselves at long last. I am Lord Opalson, and this is my wife, Lady Ruby." Opalson says with a wry smirk and a forced bow. "You are the one that the Heir was last seen with that we were told to watch out for."
Quickly and unexpectedly, like lightning, the dark haired man rushes Neptune, pinning her to the wall.
"What have you done with him?!" He asks angrily right in Neptune's face.
"Never mind him, it's yourself you should be worried about." There was no humor in Uranus' voice. The thunder in it instead was darkly threatening to any man who so much as dared touch her beloved Michelle, especially the state she was in now.
May God have mercy on your soul.
Faster than the wind, the emissary of Metallia's evil soon finds himself shrieking in pain, caused by the fury of a single woman in the split second of a torrential kickboxing style pounding. Fists and kicks and feet flying, Opalson was soon writhing on the ground in a pile. His bones were bruised and broken, his black eyes were filled with an insulted anger. But even brighter flaring than his anger was the anger of his wife.
Lady Ruby was more than a little distressed at how her husband was so brutally taken down before her eyes by this feral lioness of a Sailor Soldier. She was livid so that her red fiery hair seemed to flame even hotter as her entire being burned crimson.
A wild animal herself when aroused, Ruby starts attacking Uranus with a mixture of erratic bursts of sizzling energy added by physical nail scratching punches and pointed heel kicks, like a clawing mad woman. Uranus' more controlled power hits match Ruby's blow for blow, but Alex soon realized that this crimson cat was by no means a 'lady.'
But then again...neither am I.
Broken arm and wrist bones or not, the sheer will force of the angered Sailor of Uranus pulls out all the stops. Her mind numbing speed sends her entire body flying forward towards the animalistic woman attacking her. She knocks Ruby out with an unforgiving uppercut fist, instantly bloodying her nose, turning the wicked female's face red to match the rest of her nasty features.
Witnessing his wife's beating, Opalson manages to stand, holding up the dark crystal he had taken from Mercury earlier, up into the air.
"DARK CRYSTAL! Creatures of the night, come forth!" He commands, releasing the strangely shaped shadows from the walls. They eerily become animated, extricating themselves from the wall. Two or three of them grab at Super Sailor Uranus as she stands, pulling her by her painful appendages away from the wall and then melting back into it forcefully as she screams from the crushing pain of her frame colliding with the brick and concrete.
"STAR SERIOUS LASER!"
"STAR GENTLE UTERUS!"
As one, the two Starlight attacks from above make perfect aim, scattering the shadows attacking Uranus. She sinks to her knees on the ground, gasping for the air that had been literally smashed out her body.
"U! Ally, HOLD ON!"
Unable to make her nearly crushed lungs work, winded Uranus feels Fighter's thin arms around her as his lips wildly attempt to perform something akin to CPR on her, sharing with her his breath, at least.
"Uranus! Can you hear me?" Anxious Neptune's curls were at her shoulder as Uranus' dazed mind, supplied with Fighter's extra, star-powered oxygen boost, starts to snap back from the fierce assault.
"I'm—huff, huff, huff—fine. Watch out!" She manages to push Fighter and Neptune hovering over her both out of the way of the incoming shadow. But the dark forces of blackness stretch themselves even further, grasping around them nonetheless. Fighter, Neptune, are grabbed suddenly as well as Maker, Mercury and Saturn, even as they each begin to fire off their respective attacks.
It knocks the wind out of the group as the shadows hold them all captive mid-air, strangling the life out of them, threatening to crush their bodies into the solid walls as in the same fashion they just did to Uranus.
"Now, Uranus, since Neptune won't speak and you were present with her at the time in the mountains when Metallia's Heir approached you, my sources say; Where is he?" Opalson asks, lifting Uranus' chin in his gloved hand as more shadows wrap around the golden Sailor Soldier's downed form threateningly.
"Let me at 'er! I'm gonna break her bloomin' nose, too!" Fiery Lady Ruby gets up angrily, shaking her fist at Uranus. But Opalson halts her, so Ruby just turns and crosses her arms in frustration.
"The way he's treated my Michelle, I hope he's burning in Hell." Uranus vents her angry soul fiercely at the man—the despicable bastard—who had caused Michelle such pain and heartbreak, and even had the nerve to rub it in Michelle's face that the traitor didn't care for her anymore.
"It's useless." Opalson decides, after a long look in Uranus' angry green eyes. "They know nothing. This has all been a waste." He sighs in disappointment. "No...at least I will gain their energy for Queen Metallia. That should at least, please her vexation over her missing, precious 'Heir' somewhat."
Opalson puts his hand up and the shadows stop their crushing of the tortured soldiers, instead merely holding them, limp and weakened. Lord Opalson takes the one dark crystal in his fist, opening the hand a moment later to reveal, in place of one, now six dark gemstones that he levitates out towards each Sailor Soldier.
The dark gems begin to glow a beam of energy draining light towards each struggling heart. Lady Ruby suddenly sticks her hand out, grasping the crystal in front of Uranus in her bruised hands.
"This one's energy isn't worthy of Her Majesty." Ruby's voice drips with sarcasm. Her true loyalties lay with no one but herself. "I want Uranus' death to be rippin' painful." Ruby states, anger filling her demented eyes.
"Just as you wish, Red." Opalson smirks at his wife's often wild and deadly side. My brother always told me to be wary of this urge in her, but I find it invigorating.
Opalson smirks as he tightens his fist and the energy drain begins on the other five Sailors.
"Are you ready to die in agony, Sailor Uranus? Huh, luv? I can't hear you." Ruby chuckles in Alex's face, unsheathing her husband's dagger, bejeweled in opals. She displays it in front of Uranus with an evil look in her red eyes...
A single red rose zings across the room, stabbing Ruby's daggered hand that was just millimeters from Uranus' ear. Ruby screams, swearing, but looks up at the balcony.
"JUPITER THUNDER CRASH!"
Zaps of lightning explode, lighting up the dark first floor of the building with electrified energy, forcing the shadows to shrink back in pain.
"MARS BURNING MANDALA!"
Ruby's shocked hand sizzles as she flings the molten dagger, now glowing red with Mars' fire blast, away.
"VENUS LOVE AND BEAUTY SHOCK!"
Smack! Right in the head, an orange-gold energy heart aims right for Opalson's cackling face.
"Guys! Are you all right?!" Sailor Moon's concerned voice could be heard in the darkness as each Scout rushes to their downed comrades' sides.
"Well, you won't be, Blondie!"
From behind, Eternal Sailor Moon hears a familiar male voice. Her clumsiness and oversized wings were rarely able to get out of the way in time and this was no exception.
"Sapphire?!" Sailor Moon shouts in recognition as the man's dark blue hair and eyes come into focus. They light up with a deadly black opal energy burst aimed directly at her stupefied form…
SLAP!
Serena was glad to find herself unsizzled, though knocked down flat on the ground, beneath the long, lean arms and leather legs of her rescuer.
"Watch what you're doing, Meatball." Star Fighter whispers in her ear as he rolls with her across the ground, athletically avoiding Opalson's repeated eye socket energy blasts as the Sailor Starlight embraces her tightly in his familiar, muscular arms.
A dozen red roses then fan out, thorny sides up, as Tuxedo Mask, the defending Prince of the Earth was more than angered at this confusingly recognizable enemy who was obviously trying to catch the team off guard by resembling a converted ally of the past.
As a man and the husband of the desirable Princess of the Moon, Darien was also a little miffed at Fighter's intimate proximity to his wife once again, even during battle as he swoops in close to the tightly bound pair.
"Now, Sailor Moon!" Tuxedo Mask calls out, giving Serena-who was scooting out from being pinned from underneath an all hands on deck, tactile Star Fighter— the signal. She produces her tall Moon Tiare before the Sapphire look-alike's face.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you, pigtails!" That red haired woman's nasty voice sings out as a red bubble begins building in her hands, expanding in a split second as it encircles the Soldiers, beginning to close in on them.
Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, Maker, Venus, Mercury, Uranus and Neptune—even Fighter and Tuxedo Mask were on the edges of its scope, all captured in its wake. All try by might or power to break out of the energy field cage, but to no avail. Each Sailor was sizzled by the fiery wall keeping them in it.
"Who are you?!" Sailor Moon calls out desperately, trying to figure out how to release her captured friends.
"Submit to us your energy or they all die!" Lord Opalson states with a smirk.
"Hurry, blondie, decide! My energy orb won't hold out forever! If you hold out any longer, they just might all be toast..." Ruby threatens impatiently. She didn't even fully comprehend the immense power bestowed upon her by Metallia that day when she and her husband made the deal with the dark devil. It was a great power, indeed, fully realized by the malicious woman's mean spirits. The Soldiers within found each of their own powers useless, even combined as they attempt to get out themselves.
"Fight them, Sailor Moon! Never mind us!"
Serena has the choice placed before her once again. Once again, Uranus' self-sacrificing, commanding voice rings in her ears, loud and clear—but Serena does not have to make the heart-rending decision this time herself.
"PLUTO CHRONOS TYPHOON!"
Just then, a soft, eternally timeless voice enters through the darkness. The resulting mists of time swirl around the enclosed red sphere, battering against it until both it and the evil woman controlling it, collapse.
As it dissolves, the Soldiers seem to explode from the inside out onto the scene, releasing their pent up powers each was just itching to unleash on their captors:
"VENUS CRESCENT BEAM!"
"JUPITER OAK EVOLUTION!"
"MARS FIREBIRD STRIKE!"
"MERCURY ICE ILLUSION!"
The fury of the combined Inner Scouts was more than enough to pulverize the two evil emissaries already thrashed by Pluto's typhoon.
Opalson decides, despite his wife's protests, that now might be a good time to make a hasty exit. He shields her fallen body as they both back into a shadowy corner.
"SPARKLING FULL MOON—"
Eternal Sailor Moon begins to shout her newest, most powerful attack but is cut off by the evil pair's dissipation into the air shadows.
"We will return, Sailor Scouts! And when we do, we won't be playing around like today! We let you off easy as a first greeting! You won't be so lucky next time!" Lord Opalson's words, along with his wife's cackling, set a melancholy mood over the triumphant team. Each of them did indeed feel that, as close as the battle was this time, that next time may be just what Opalson said...
The battle over, at least for this time, Maker turns to his beloved Sailor Soldier of Time, who amazingly made their rescue possible. Coming down from her adrenaline rush which had made this save physically possible at such a tender time, a very pregnant Super Sailor Pluto stumbles painfully under the great weight of her bulging stomach.
"Susan darling, I instructed you to stay home." Super Sailor Star Maker chides his very expectant wife as he rushes to her and encircles her over-exhausted, with-child body in his strong, long arms, easily carrying her.
"I know, my beloved, but I felt you were in pain and I couldn't stay away! Please, forgive me." Sailor Pluto took her promises to her husband very seriously. But if it meant the difference between life and death for he and the others—she just couldn't...
"Next time, please listen. You must promise me." Maker takes her chin in his hand, not caring if it meant his death or the safety of a thousand worlds, as long as his Susan was safe. It wasn't selfishness—it was true love protecting what it held most dear.
But that kind of overbearing love was something that Sailor Uranus could never swallow as she watches Maker de-transform back to his male form.
Men.
"Get off me!" Harshly, her strength returning, Uranus sends a clinging to her—after he'd been extricated from Sailor Moon by a jealous Tuxedo Mask—Super Sailor Star Fighter flying as she brushes her own sorry excuse for one off like an unwanted dust bunny. She was one person who would never obediently submit to a 'Master', content to have a man's protective hand over her, as Susan seemed to be.
"Why should she promise? Who are you, her boss!? You have no right to tell her what to do, just because you're her husband!" In an angry mood, the past few days had wreaked havoc on whatever patience there was in her soul. Alex would put up with Terry's domineering ways no longer.
"Susan, promise me." Apparent to any fool how faint her overstressed form was, she was paying the toll for her sailor soldier transformation and exertion, Terry repeats firmly. His eyes flash in defiance of Uranus' cold words against him, as he gazes only into his wife's eyes, dizzy and wincing with trying to hide her pain.
"Do not answer him, Sailor Pluto. You're a Soldier, still—no matter what that man tries to tell you." Uranus orders Pluto, while giving Maker a nasty glance. Alex was concerned for Susan's fragile health, of course, but it was an unnecessary mess that HE had gotten her into, after all. In Uranus' embittered mind, when it came down to it, a Soldier was still a Soldier, a duty was still a duty, that no man—no child he inserted—should ever be able to change.
Ever.
"Terry..." Her vexed stomach doing somersaults, Susan turns to him, her emotions also on the verge of spilling over at Alex's harsh words.
"Susan, promise me. Right now." Terry, the man that he was, takes charge of his wife's tormenting indecisiveness, for with child or without, Susan was the most precious thing to him in all the universe.
Uranus catches Pluto's eye with one long, hard stare. If it were Susan's choice, Uranus would say nothing, but the very thought of someone else controlling her—that was what set Alex's independent rebellion on edge.
Pluto breaks the gaze, nodding to her husband meekly. "I promise you." And she buries her face in his chest, sobbing with pregnant tears as she finds her only solace in his rigid stamina.
"Weakling. I knew this baby was a bad idea..." Uranus mumbles under her breath, but her self-determining mind was more angered at the overpowering man controlling, than the weak woman he controlled.
"Don't you ever say that again, Uranus! You have no right to speak to Susan in that way. Look how you're hurting her." Terry says, he himself fuming at this contemptible woman whom he once respected, but no more, after she had made Susan cry.
"You're the one hurting her with this acquired masculine 'shield of compassion' you raise over her, like she was some sheltered female who doesn't know her own mind! Let it be Pluto's choice! But you can't, can you? All you arrogant Stars are out for is power, isn't it? Power and control over a lonely woman who imprudently learned to depend on you, trusted you, gave so much to you. But one by one, you'll just betray us. What else should I have expected out of you three wandering stars who so readily abandoned your own princess for your own desires?!" It was blame-game anger stemming from much more than Susan's submission that framed the bitter words Uranus was spouting.
Far, far more, as Uranus' anxiety weary, sunken eyes look upon Neptune's spirit brutally broken—into which one of their alien ilk kind should have remained unwelcome.
Alex's own hard won trust was swiftly fleeting from these outside of this solar system's star soldiers. One had shattered the trust, the second stretching her…tolerance to its limits, and the third...
"Ally! That's not fair!" Fighter knew Uranus well enough by now to realize it was her impassioned temper speaking, as he tries to calm her. But his ill placed timing had quite the opposite effect.
"Shut up! Life's not fair!" Her lowest voice hisses right in his surprised face. "We're not playing around by your rules anymore, Starlights. This is our planet's battle. Maybe the toughest one we've ever faced, with one of yours whom we foolishly trusted, at the heart of it." Like an unrelenting gale of tempest wind, Sailor Uranus callously snaps at her own leather clad starlight soldier, the blame she had been holding inside now directed at the trio of aliens beyond their solar system who were at the despicable root of this chaos.
"And don't you ever call me by that ridiculous name on the battlefield again, Fighter." Giving her mate the cold shoulder, independent Uranus shrugs off his comforting hand placed on her arm before turning her infuriated attentions elsewhere.
"Do as you like, Pluto. Be the 'good little wife' he's turned you into. I want no part of that on my team." Susan bursts out into even more tears, as Terry strokes her hair at the same time he glares at merciless Uranus, but she only continues her tirade. "I defy anyone who would dare try to make me anything other than the soldier I was born to be." Uranus turns and kneels down, enveloping the inconsolably sobbing Sailor Neptune in her arms.
Michelle would often cry now. She'd just be sitting there and the tears would overflow. Her broken heart was unable to contain the emotion overwhelming her extinguished soul, and that, more than anything, pained Alex. The fact that she could do nothing to make things right again for her most cherished, ate up Alex's soul.
That monster hurt Michelle so terribly, so irrevocably, there is no going back.
What was I thinking? I should never have allowed this to happen, as accountable leader of my Outer Sailor Soldiers, I'm the one responsible for their safety, their well-being. None of this would have happened, if I'd stuck with my gut instinct to reject them. Alex reflects angrily at the state of things as they were that she, playing the guilt blame-game, knew she herself took a majority of the culpability for.
Susan's newfound defenseless frailty, Michelle's slowly self-destructing soul, and her own weak allowance of another into her heart—which was meant to be a solitary place where there should've only been one mission as a soldier alone...
"We were all better off without the three of you. I wish none of you ever came here. I wish you all would just go back to where you came from, and leave us alone." Anger building as she holds Michelle protectively close to her chest, Sailor Uranus allows the heated words to escape her venomous lips.
But in the moment she did, Alex realized just how hurtful what she had said was to one emotional heart particularly.
"Uranus..." There was that pain behind Fighter's eyes, a deep sadness she never intended to bring to him as his hand reaches out to touch her injured arm that he had bandaged not a few hours ago.
And yet…
"Get away from me! I don't need you anymore!" Lashing out, Uranus hisses coldly at Fighter with cruel finality in her hard eyes as she shrugs his caring advances from her arm.
I have a new mission to fulfill now and you can't do it with me. I won't be weak any longer.
"I'm leaving you."
There. I've said it. I've done it. You're far too emotional to ever be a 'perfect soldier' like me, Fighter. You're just too soft to do this my way...
"I want you out of my head, out of my heart—out of my life." Meeting Fighter's trembling, dark blue eyes, sharp-tongued Sailor Uranus tries to justify her cold words in her chaotic mind where all her obstinate defenses were shooting up.
Damning her broken wrist's pain that his demented brother caused, Uranus swiftly extricates the paired set of wedding rings from beneath her gloved hand. Symbolically, she smacks his silver band and the ruby ring he gave her into Fighter's utterly stunned palm.
Alex didn't exactly mean to equate her resentment of his traitorous brethren to her frustration at the perplexing loyalty of this fervent man with the starry blue eyes, specifically. It was just this whole damn, rotten life that's come crashing around her ears which had so affected her precious Michelle that forced Alex to revolt against it.
Even if it meant she had to burn every bridge she crossed to purge the cancer that caused her most beloved such tormented pain.
Let it burn…
But to emotive Sailor Star Fighter, Uranus' piercing sword attitude stabbed his heart very personally. As much as usually jovial Sayer wanted to believe it was just his love's pain pouring out, the words cut too hard to be laughed away. They burned a hole in his already fragile psyche that only had the strength of her love to hold him together in these tough days.
"U..." Star Fighter whispers the single initial, his kicked puppy dog eyes filling with tears. "I thought we had something..." Hands balling into fists, Fighter speaks after a long moment. She could barely hear his whisper as the wet-eyed Starlight takes off in a run out of the building and into the black night, all alone with his tears.
Her first instinct was to chase after him, bring him back and tell him what's really in her heart, but cold Uranus' strict soldier's mind overtakes where a tender heart might have once resided.
Like I said, I have to do this alone.
Duty now was the only thing her resolute, frozen heart should feel.
It's over, Starr.
Dying inside. Alex resists her legs as she gazes down at the fragile aqua beauty in her arms. Uranus' mixed up emotions clouded her judgment as she fights back tears that never come.
"Go on. Run." She whispers defiantly after him, though secretly feeling that a piece of her was physically being torn out.
You're better off without me. And I don't need your baggage. I have to take care of myself. I have to take care of Michelle. No one gets in the way of what I must now do.
Picking up Neptune and holding her close, without meeting a single gaze, Uranus gets up and wordlessly leaps away in the opposite direction of where Fighter had fled into the night.
It's time to say goodbye…
As a compassionately weeping Sailor Moon hugs Tuxedo Mask close, the Inner Sailor Scout audience stands mutely shocked, by not only the fierce battle they had just survived, but also by the emotional one just witnessed.
The sad soap opera was a bitter scene where the Outers and Starlights-who had become so close—seemed to be falling apart at the seams now. The speechless five Inner scouts and Tuxedo Mask had watched in stunned silence the confrontational melodrama played out before them.
"Prince, Princess." Without further ado, Super Sailor Star Maker nods simply as he leads Pluto and Saturn away as well, leaving Eternal Sailor Moon and the other Scouts to wonder what was their fate if the older, more experienced team they had always looked up for guidance was no longer there to be relied upon.
And with this new/old enemy looming on the horizon, fate would have to be smiling in their direction for the courageous group to have a shadow of a chance to be victorious, as the rain fittingly begins to fall down hard upon the unknowing city.
Endless miles down deep within the Earth, somewhere where neither rain nor sunshine ever dared enter, a white haired man stands tall over the unconscious form of a younger man whom he had covertly whisked away. He carefully eyes the prone figure, who had so much importance placed upon him by another.
Why does Queen Metallia put you in such high esteem, youthful soldier? Is it merely because you are of her bloodline? I can attest that that means very little in this world...
King Pearlellion thinks sourly of his own ties to the brother who was more enemy than ally.
Is it because of your ability then, perhaps? Could powerful Metallia be so interested in those of a puny mortal? Or is it something more?
No matter.
Pearlellion brushes off his own stray thoughts, along with the pure white hair from his eyes.
You have infringed on my rightful authority and that must be punished.
The king reflects on how this little man has challenged him time and time again.
You have had the audacity to attempt to seduce my wife. That is a crime that can never be forgiven.
Aquamarianna had a wiling way of pitting one man against the other to gain their favor and it has led her jealous husband to believe this untruth, if not in words, but in her actions—the actions of a rejected, lonely woman who vainly feigned a lover.
And for changing my status in Queen Metallia's eyes, jeopardizing the vast kingdom I have been promised—for all this, I will destroy you.
Pearellion's mind glows with angry evil thoughts as he raises one energy charged eyebrow. His granted powers were so immense that he need not move a muscle for havoc to be released as he aims it upon an unconscious Robin Starr.
"If you do that, my King, she will know." A sultry voice enters the dark chamber.
"I have shielded this room. She will not know it was I who did away with him. I will be left sole ruler again. But is it I you truly tremble for, my Queen?" Pearellion's great jealousy was the true source of his anger at the man lying below. For deeply buried in his heart was a love for his wife that was profound.
"On the contrary, my King, it is only you and you alone I care for. This boy means nothing to me. You are the true ruler of my heart."
Was it womanly wiles? Or was it the truth speaking? Pearlellion could no longer tell. He once believed he knew his wife's heart back when they were living as normal beings—back when he was only known as Mr. Pearellion and not as 'King.' But the evilness that has invaded his soul since those simple times had corrupted him, making him long for power. Yet even that craved power was nothing to that which his wife still held over him.
"Let us take him from here—in secret. We will pretend we have not found him, instead that he has returned on his own and masked himself from Metallia, turning on her for his own purposes. We will gain favor for retrieving him in her eyes. In his arrogance, the Heir will deny nothing and then perhaps she will lose trust in him. If you continue on this course, my love, if you anger Her Majesty, I fear for you." Aquamarianna slinks over to him, caressing her husband's chest as she embraces him.
"I will do as you say, my love, though I still doubt your all too logical reasoning." Pearellion looks into her aqua eyes.
"Doubt me not, my King. Tonight I will prove my heart is only for you." She seductively kisses her husband's lips and his jealous plans are stopped by a deceitful one hatched by a more level, feminine head.
Unawares, Pearlellion and Aquamarianna had been watched in the shadows by two pairs of curious, spying eyes.
"We must tell Her Majesty, Queen Metallia, immediately!" The orange haired young boy appears out of the shadows of the catacombs tunnel, speaking more to the blackness ahead than to the girl at his side.
"Topaz! King Pearlellion is your uncle! You'll get him in trouble!" Cattana's high scratchy voice couldn't believe her ears.
Family is family! I would do anything still for my sister, though sometimes I wish she never brought us here. I'm scared of the Queen...
Cattana's wide cat eyes glance around frightened of the dark cave, fearing that evil voice to boom out at any moment.
"I don't care if he is my uncle! Father will be ruler when he is gone! I'm sure of it." Even at the early age of fifteen, young Topaz was merciless. His father, Lord Opalson's strictness, and his mother, Lady Ruby's cruelty, ran rampant through his veins.
"Topaz, no! Don't, please! We have to all stay a family! I like your uncle. He's never been unkind to me and Queen Aquamarianna is so pretty! Please don't tell on them." Cattana, beneath the gaudy clothes and dark catlike hair, really did have a good soul—very deep inside, though tortured and confused in this dark world of evil she had been unwittingly plunged into.
Topaz pauses his stride, squinting his eyes as he looks into hers.
"You just want yourself and your stupid sister and her good-for-nothing boyfriend to be moved up in Pearlellion's eyes, so that you and yours will be ranked higher than my parents and me! Isn't that it?!" Cold and calculating, Topaz was far too cynical for his years, and far too distrustful. He was only able to think in the ways of a corrupted mind.
"No! That's not it—!" Cattana starts to explain but Topaz would hear nothing of it.
"I'm going." He says, determined to oust his uncle, marching straight into the throne room, just about to swallow his fear of her and call out Metallia's presence himself. But then Pearellion and Aquamarianna come rushing in behind him, joined by Dracon, Swanette, Opalson and Ruby.
"We have found him, my Queen!" As good an actress as she was a seductress, Aquamarianna feigns the most innocent of shows.
"WHERE, PEARELLION?!" Metallia's voice echoes as King Pearlellion's powers hover Robin's still form into the throne room.
"We sought him out and have returned your Heir rightfully to you, my Queen. We tracked him down despite his hiding of himself from you. The lad could not be trusted, just as I believed. He turned against you until I subdued him for return—-and the punishment you find fitting." Pearlellion embellishes the false tale which maybe years spent with his storytelling wife had polished his long unused skills.
"My Heir requires simple reconditioning. It is only I who will decide who is to be punished or not, O King." Metallia's voice had traces of suspicion in it. She wasn't the Queen of Darkness for nothing.
"My Queen—?!" Young Topaz decides this is the opportunity to expose his uncle's treachery. He was certain his more deserving father, who appeared next to him before the throne, would be crowned in Pearlellion's place if he just spoke up.
But Topaz's words are cut off by Robin's sudden awakening outburst.
"MICHELLE! HELP ME!"
A tormented cry escapes his lips as he struggles from within the mind-altering casing that Metallia had just placed his unconscious form in.
"THAT NAME!" Metallia thunders, angered to the point of fury that she could not extricate entirely that part of her Heir's soul. "Seek out and destroy that creature! I require this 'Michelle," this Sailor Neptune's lifeless form brought to me! No one can out manipulate the Queen of Evil! No one!"
Metallia's wicked voice leers especially scratchy over the name that belonged to the menial being who inexplicably held some fascination over her heir still. The command was fierce with their mission known, as all of her emissaries scurry in fear from the shaking and cracking room.
The Queen of Evil's anger shivers the cavern to its foundation, leaving only her aura and Robin alone in her presence again.
"I will rid you of her, if it is the last thing I do, my Heir. You will be mine alone. Those of this bright world's shining will not be able to resist me. They realize not their true potential and cannot begin to grasp it without you as part of it. But you are part of me. You will always be a part of me. So there is no hope for this world, save for the darkness I will release upon it. Ha ha ha ha ha!" Cackling at her wicked plans, Metallia strengthens Robin's mind with twice the amount of her evil once again, wiping any residual memories of the wretched Neptune creature that might have seeped in incredibly despite her past efforts.
Glowing red with pure wickedness, Metallia gained confidence with each passing moment of the mind-altering transfer that enveloped her crimson ambient heir's form with her wicked intent as an inundated Robin floated mid-air before her.
"If all the rest of my minions fail," Metallia had very little faith in her current messengers of wickedness, they were merely pawns in the game she was playing—"then, perhaps, I will send you in, now with my full power at your command." Metallia is certain that next time, filled to the utmost brim with her worst evil energy, her Heir's role in her plans of destruction could never again be changed. His allegiance to her could not be reversed any longer by anyone.
"And when the time comes, you, my Heir of all evil and darkness, in my name, will be the downfall of her, that wretched Queen of the bright Silver Moon and this entire worthless world she loves." Metallia's cold words echo through the empty darkness pervading Robin's soul.
Late that night, when all of Tokyo was asleep, or at least should've been, Terry lies awake, deep in thought. There was one burning question in his mind of which he was sure he knew the answer...yet he wanted to hear it without so much as one tiny doubt.
As he held Susan, already emotionally and physically drained from what occurred that day, he looks down upon her with pure love in his eyes. She had grown so close to him that she could sense his uneasiness and gently stroked his neck and hair. She herself was asking the same question in her own mind.
"Darling, what is it? I know there's something bothering you. Is it Sayer?"
"I didn't mean to wake you." He tenderly kisses her forehead. "Go back to sleep now."
"Tell me what's wrong. I want to help you if I can."
"It's only...I..." Terry stumbles, unsure of how or even if, he wanted to tell her. But then, complete openness wins out as his beautiful Susan props herself up as best she could and gazes into his troubled eyes with worry.
"Do you...at all, regret that we—that I—came back to Earth that starry night over a year ago? Do you think I am 'domineering' over you?" Terry prods the question that someone had explicitly injected into his psyche, needing his beloved wife to tell him that she still wanted him near. If she was happy, then he could go on. He could keep up the struggle, if only for her, for their love, no matter what cruel things anyone else said or thought.
"Oh, my darling! How could you even consider that?! I need you, and I couldn't—wouldn't—go on without you. For me, there is nothing else but you." She kisses the side of his mouth tenderly, then touches her stomach. "You are not domineering at all! I know you are just protecting me—and Giselle. You're doing what's right. We need you, and I am so thankful for your care and love, though I have to admit... I, too...am wondering if you...now regret...returning to Earth...staying with me, now that you've lost so much here..." She quietly turns her face away, ashamed.
Terry takes her trembling chin in his strong fingers. "Susan, my own Lady, you must never think that! I have gained so much, so much. I am nothing without you—without your love. I will never regret finding the owner of my soul, my heart, my whole life. You are the missing part of me. Even if all else fades—if everything is taken away—as long as I have your love, then I am a content, happy man. Do you doubt this, my love, my life?"
"Of course not! When you speak to me, I believe and have faith in your every word, without hesitation. I trust you completely, I love you entirely—I belong to you eternally." She finishes as she buries her face in his neck, satisfied with his answer. "'As long as there is a forever, I will love you.'"
"'As long as there is a forever, I will love you.'" He pulls her closer, kissing her tenderly as he repeats their vow. "And I won't let anyone take you away from me—no one." He vows, knowing that in the end, if Susan was threatened in any way, he would do anything and everything in his power and more, to destroy that which would pose such a threat—no matter who or what it may be.
Even if it means having to fight my own brother. He thinks sadly, as he folds her tighter in his embrace, swearing never to let go of her precious light...