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"SAILOR MOON ETERNAL'
The 6th Season of the Sailor Moon Saga
Chapter 44
"Into the Lion's Den"
"No... Please stop hurting my friends." She sincerely begs in tears. "You're right. They do deserve the wonderful chance to have their hearts stolen and be presented with a ring. But only by the one they love, who loves them back—just like I felt like the luckiest girl alive when Darien gave me this." Proudly displaying her left hand's heart circlet engagement and wedding ring intertwined finger, Serena's voice was calm and serene even in this moment of terror.
His mask falling away under her loving touch, the young woman gazes down to her destined chosen prince, and now beloved husband, Darien Shields, with nothing short of complete love.
She gently pets his unconscious head affectionately on her lap with the hand on which was the pink diamond heart engagement ring he had given her all those years ago. A single fallen teardrop directly striking the promise ring of love begins to glow with Serena's silver moon radiant heart energy.
Seeing, hearing, feeling their beloved Moon Princess' soul crying that tear of everlasting truth, enduring justice and eternal love to her dearest friends and sailor soldiers, in the moment she needed them most, her Sailor Guardians rally their support to their beloved leader.
One by one, all those scattered and wounded in the dark cavern around Eternal Moon amazingly stir. Sailors Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Star Maker and even Pluto—who felt her true love Time Lord's directive from their shared Princess across the annuls of Time itself within her secret hidden safe space of the Doorway—each close their eyes.
Elsewhere in the distance, alone in the dark unknown, Sailors Uranus, Neptune, and Star Fighter each halt in their desperate racing through the murky catacomb's bleakness. These outer soldiers, too, felt the urgent necessity to meaningfully pause to experience their pledged Princess, Sailor Moon's gentle heart's call to arms.
Every single sailor of this solar system and those from a galaxy far beyond who had embraced this Moon Kingdom's ruler as their own sensed their adored Moon Princess' pure heart singing to theirs with a new and exhilarating melody of eternity's crystal synergy.
Amy, Rei, Lita, Mina, Tara, and Terry, with Susan's heart wide open through him; Alex, Michelle, Sayer, and perhaps, one more Starlight who had lost his shining way as well, devote their total dedication to Sailor Moon. With utter selfless commitment, these special Sailor Soldiers each offer up their planetary guardian powers to this sparkling child of the Moon who had gathered their luminous radiance together as her team, as her friends, as her family.
And when her beloved Tuxedo Mask, this era's Serenity's own Endymion, opens his deep blue eyes to encourage hers with true love's forever loyalty, the magnified radiance of the Eternal Moon fills the dark expanse, engulfing everyone within in a blinding white light.
And every Sailor Soldier who loved the Moon Princess' shine, near and far, was immersed in that all enveloping illumination, taking their badly beaten and battered, energy drained Sailor forms to the next level—
—Eternal Sailors, glistening in pure ribbons of glowing light wrapping elegantly around their slender bodies in place of their Super Sailor uniforms. As each Scout is levitated with her guardian planet's purest energy engraved in hues upon their forehead, a galaxy of golden stars encircle them, assigning a new sailor outfit entirely to fit flawlessly around them.
Flowing in a beautiful design of full spectrum's glistening lame and gradient translucent organza, all this galaxy's, and a few beyond, Sailor Guardians were eclipsed in their Eternal Moon Princess' healing shine, forevermore…
The awesomeness of the collective extraordinary radiance also halts Opalson from doing anything dastardly for a split second. He had made the mistake of glancing into a powered up Eternal Moon's wet orbs, smiling with pride and love crystalline, before the Chaos deceived man was able to finally tear his eyes away.
"You cannot trick me with your comforting words, Sailor Moon! Her Majesty, Queen Metallia must be released for us to have our final revenge on this bright world you love so much!" Opalson raises his ring hand over the battle scene to send his gathered dark energy globe exploding over the soldiers.
"DARK OPAL GLOBAL RISE!"
"CRYSTAL FULL MOON CURATIVE ENCHANTMENT!" But Eternal Sailor Moon, stirred with all her dearly loved memories of romance and love for her one and only guy, who had enchanted her radiant heart, reaches deep down inside of herself to unleash her newest, crystalline Moon power that had before only been used for healing.
But that's exactly what this dank, long forgotten, underground subterranean catacomb at the center of the earth needed.
To be healed from the inside out.
The black nega-darkness fights her white moonlight, its darkness as strong as it was chaotically powerful. But the crystal refracted in all directions, as the radiant white light of the Moon, charged with pure love for and from her adored ones, brilliantly shines and sparkles its healing light of enchantment into the entire underground cavern.
It continues to glow and grow, spreading upwards and onwards as the radiance brilliantly breaks through the sinister dearth in an expanding burst. The ascending moonlight finds its curative way to pierce up through even the tiniest cracks of the ceiling in the dark recesses of the cavernous pit, bursting forth up through that spot in the sea floor where Uranus' space sword had initially punctured. In doing so, Eternal Sailor Moon's truest power—granted through the magic of friendship—was able to sustain the unconscious, energy drained citizens of the city above with her newly achieved 'Enchantment' of tender healing light as they were in a fight for their lives.
Though with such numbers of the population it was a massive undertaking, her pervading crystal moonlight cure was enough to keep every one of the increasingly growing weaker, vulnerable children and susceptible older victims, on the edge of death due to Metallia's relentless shadow drain, all alive and on the road to recovery.
The lustrous Moon Princess' innate goodness then erases the evil upgrades of the villains' deadly Chaos-infused weaponry as her own upgraded army of Eternal Sailor Soldiers now ward off every attacking enemy with effortless ease.
Enveloped in their specialized color luminance emanating around each new Eternal Sailor Scout in the shape of their planetary or star symbol, the empowered team automatically repel the charging, enhanced forces of evil, even down here in Metallia's dark lair where the wicked were strongest in their element.
"LUNAR REFRACTIVE CRYSTAL SHINE!"
Intensely powerful, an incandescent, refracting rainbow of each Sailor's generous donation contributes stunning, eternal star-powered dancing streams for their adored Princess Moon to wield against these fierce emissaries of her greatest foe.
But even this immense amount of refractive crystalline moonlight going head to head with Metallia's energy conquest of half of Tokyo's millions strong population could only manage to match and hold the enhanced Chaos shadows swirling in the malevolent cavern to an even draw, try as Eternal Sailor Moon might.
That is, until a sudden flash of some unknown, brightly blinding energy from out of nowhere reinforces Eternal Moon's glimmering crystal sparkle, until she was able to shove the blackness back down further into the unexplored cavern's depths from whence it came.
Lord Opalson was point-blank blasted by the strength of Eternal Sailor Moon's radiant offensive strike as Ruby, Garnet, Swanette and Dracon are thrashed against the cave's back wall with him, all their injured bodies being hurriedly teleported away by a nameless outside force.
"You stopped them, Eternal Sailor Moon! You saved everyone in Tokyo with your new power!" Eternal Sailor Venus, looking resplendent in her shimmering Sailor collar, willowy organza puffed sleeves and long white gloves accented by gleaming gauntlets and wrist bands of vivid, flamboyant orange shades, and golden stars affixed at every point.
First to recover as she raced up to congratulate her panting Princess, the Sailor of Light and Love, Eternal Sailor Venus, her grin literally glowing, shimmered right down to her double rolled pleat skirts of Venus' shining orange lame and pale melon satin with glittery ribbon streamers waving where she stood in her tall heeled white boots before Serena. As were Eternal Sailor Mercury awash in soft icy blue hues; Eternal Sailor Mars alight in intense fiery red tones; Eternal Sailor Jupiter was striking in verdant green tints; and Eternal Sailor Saturn, too, glowing in lovely bright violet shades, all gathered around like a rainbow in their own individual color schemes to compliment Eternal Sailor Moon, and thank their true blue friend.
The other Sailor Scouts, inspired by their leader's shining light and healing love which wiped away all their terrible battle injuries, proudly smile at Serena before admiring these new and improved sailor uniforms that somewhat matched hers now, adorning their own lithe bodies.
Eternal Tuxedo Mask included, who stares in wonder at his new black bo-staff that sported a gleaming crystal rose as its extendable topper now. He masterfully spins it to immediately use its dream-supported magic to conjure up a beautiful bouquet of romantic red roses to offer his weepy love.
"Yes, thank goodness! They're all going to be all right! Oh, Darien…I was so worried if I even could do that!" Sailor Moon breaks down in a puddle of tears of happiness now that it was over, as she runs straight to her beloved's strong arms, burying her face in his gorgeous bouquet of velvety roses. "Ooh, so soft to touch and you smell so good, Muffin! I could eat you up! Heeheehee!" Then the overwhelmed young woman crumples into his equally sweet smelling, and velvety smooth, enhanced to be Eternal, Tuxedo chest, causing Darien to puff up with pride at how he could make his eternal bride giggle through her fountain of tears.
"But we did it together, everyone! Thank you." The winged heroine generously pronounces over Tuxedo Mask's now gold caped and fancy trimmed tails shoulder with that big bright Serena smile that could envelop the whole world. All the Inner Scouts nod and grin back as she thanks each of them with a hug for their support that made this day's incredible success possible.
"No need to thank us, Sailor Moon. It is our sworn duty to lend our strengths to your call. You were the beacon of light channeled to cut through these obscure shadows." Emanating an aura of cool composure, from the iridescent feather headset now integrally part of his Sailor Star outfit, to the stylish, shiny blue-black leather vest with a cool, tall collar was now hanging open over his Sailor collar and decidedly more masculine orchid sport bra that had replaced the Starlight's former bikini type wear, Eternal Sailor Star Maker was looking quite the handsome dream boy in his upgraded Eternal uniform. Standing strong, with Maker's signature spiked orchid armor at his wrists and tall blue-black booted ankles which had sprung sparkling wings as well, Terry Starr's duty and vow to protect this galaxy's Moon Princess had been proven by this latest transformation Sailor Moon's shine had graced all of her beloved guardians with.
"Did anyone see which direction Fighter went?" Eternal Sailor Star Maker was still always concerned for his siblings, and was particular about rash Sayer's welfare, now that Robin had been corrupted because he—who had spent his entire young life watching over the other two since they were kids—had not been vigilant enough.
"I believe he followed Uranus that way." Tuxedo Mask points down the shaft within the cave that had unfortunately collapsed soon after Fighter disappeared down it. Now donning an eye mask which was smaller, sleeker, black trimmed in gold and stars on each side, Tuxedo Mask untangles himself from his clingy wife to admit what he thought his keen eyes saw to the only decent Sailor Starlight he actually liked and respected personally. Healer had proven to be treacherous and unreliable, and Fighter was…well, shall we say, that capricious Fighter was unashamedly still a rival for Darien's bride's affections, despite supposedly owning a tepid relationship with the difficult soldier of Uranus.
The envious husband in Darien was secretly gratified to see that his only real challenger ever for Serena's heart had leapt up from his wife's secure lap earlier to search for his own missing one sometime during Eternal Moon's blinding, healing power surge.
"Maker, wait, please." The Prince of the Earth calmly holds a gold trimmed velvet glove up beneath his velveteen tuxedoed arm out to halt the tall and astute Star soldier on his team, who dutifully obeys Earth's Prince and future King. Darien saw and valued Terry's rapid trigonometry equations already being calculated in his genius head on how best to clear that particular cavern passageway which had collapsed when Metallia had reclaimed her lackeys, without endangering the rest of the area where the Scouts were at presently. Tuxedo Mask may not have had any siblings of his own, but he understood Terry's admirable desire to watch over his erstwhile, distinctly troublesome brethren, no matter how Darien personally felt about them.
But the thought-provoked, dark-haired man was also adept at sensing when his beloved Moon Princess had something on her mind, Serena was an open book to him by now, after so many millennia. So, as Tux was not certain if this skirmish down in this depraved antechamber at the center of the earth was yet over, all members remaining were possibly still required to be present.
After all, as the old adage goes: 'United we stand…'
Star Maker was still torn though, as Terry's protective older brother eyes look back to that collapsed shaft rubble. His caring heart was about to make a request of Tuxedo Mask to be excused when the feather headset that had mystically stayed affixed to his ear with this new Eternal version of his Star Maker outfit starts to vibrate.
"Maker? If you can hear me…It's Fighter. I can feel Uranus up ahead. I'm going to her. We'll get out of here all right, don't worry. Take care of Sailor Moon for me."
The short, clipped message in Sayer's unmistakably confident, smooth voice comes in clear through the star-powered microphone headset on Maker's left ear. His fellow Starlight's confident tone—that had astonishingly figured out that their new Eternal get-up's microphone actually worked, who figured Sayer had that much foresight?—gave Terry some comfort, particularly if Fighter was with capable Sailor Uranus.
And Fighter's compassion for the Moon Princess made the tall Sailor of the Star Maker respect his wish, which was now their shared duty as sworn guardians of this shining world, too, as Maker focuses on doing as Sayer asked.
Have no fear, Brother. I will protect your dear friend and mine in your absence.
"Take care, Fighter. Come home safe." Eternal Sailor Star Maker whispers into his own headset microphone, having the reassuring feeling that his brother could hear him, through this special new connection between them. And now that his once slapdash sibling had taken on more responsibility in his maturity, i.e. marriage, Terry was increasingly trusting in Sayer's growing independence and good judgment as an adult man now—perhaps Alex was rubbing off on him a bit.
In a good way… I pray for this brother's safety, Lord.
Then, with a nod to Tuxedo Mask, he takes his place beside Sailor Saturn to attentively listen to their leader, Eternal Sailor Moon's soft words.
"But at the end, guys…even with all of your help…I—I don't think I did it…At least not alone." As she looks around from face to face of her Sailor Team present, Eternal Sailor Moon suddenly speaks more quietly, cryptically, hopefully glancing around the dim cave, as if searching for one face that wasn't there. That is, until her crystal clear eyes stop in the darkness to a hidden shaft of the cavern where she could have sworn a diamond white pearl had gleamed at her at that important moment, through that inky blackness…
"Robin?" The first and last word on her lips every night and day escapes the thoroughly drained woman. He was the first thought in her woozy head as Eternal Sailor Neptune awakens from a long sleep, it seemed. Groggily weak from the intense abuse her psyche had just been subjected to, Michelle's exhausted eyes open to be welcomed by total stark gloom and cold nothingness.
But there was still a tiny trace left of his tender presence that she has clung to, keeping so dear in her telepathic mind that he had so violently ravished apart. Their severed bond, her husband's betrayal of her most vulnerable inner secret place he was once so welcome a part of, a trust so destroyed, not many women could attest to have any love remaining for such a faithless mate.
But Michelle possessed a soul deeper than the bottomless oceans she commanded. She still cherished the one who came from the stars when she called out for him, through destiny they shared to become the other half of each other's heart. Her Healer would return to freely swim in the sea of her soul again, no matter how much maltreatment and agony and pain she must suffer to retrieve what had been stolen away.
Robin dearest, I need you near again…
Almost daring to reach out to her mental attacker again nonetheless, Neptune closes her eyes tightly. But the chaotically invasive violation of her cruelly trampled upon psyche being so forcefully seized and callously harsh wrenching open earlier replays in her palpitating head relentlessly, making the telepathic female a little uneasy to open herself up again.
No. That was not you. That was not my sensitive soulmate then, my dearest one.
Your presence felt so distant, so altered, so broken…so chaotic…
…Like my heart since you've gone. Michelle sighs softly, her profound, endless love for her hurting partner wiped away all the psychic treachery and physical pain he had caused her.
But I will NEVER give up on you. No matter how much it hurts me. She culls her tears as her yet undaunted, tormented mind fearlessly reaches out to the bleakness of his.
Why can't I find you anymore, my dearest? Where have you gone? Neptune had already conceded that she could not physically move, though unbound by chain nor strap nor prison of any sort. She recognized that she was being held by some metaphysical aspect of another more powerful mind controlling hers to remain subjugated.
It was Robin's cerebral signature that had become so much more powerful than she could ever have imagined now.
Just like on that horrid day when you compelled me to keep away from helping you…from saving you from this…
Oh, Robin, dearest! I want to see you now! I know you only did what you did to me because your mind has been warped by chaos. By evil…
But not your pure heart. It still exists, secreted away deep down, hidden beneath. I know it! She couldn't alter your beautiful soul. It still belongs with me! Can't you change back to who you were again, for me? Don't you love me any more? The tears Michelle had been controlling spill down her cheek in a single drop that splashes to the ebony pool her floating midair body was hovering over.
'Love?' What a foolish emotion. Now you're boring me, Sailor Soldier. I've only brought you here for one purpose, Sailor Neptune.'
Out of the abrupt silence, Michelle was surprised when her innermost thoughts, that had been her only companion now for months, were interrupted by another's sudden voice entering her head without her even being aware of his presence in the area, watching her.
His uniquely spectacular, one-of-a-kind gorgeous soul's voice.
'Robin, dearest?! Where are you?! Please, won't you come back to me?'
Michelle was instantly drowning in a sea of tears, feeling so close and yet so very far away from the distant tone in her true love's detached, disdainful mental signature that so brusquely brushed hers away from any meaningful connection.
'Why do you keep asking me these foolish things, woman? I know you not. You are but a mere human and I am a god.' The Heir's scratchy voice enters her thoughts, clear and biting in its stinging sharpness as his tangible form sizzles into appearance before her wet-eyed gaze.
'Please, Robin! Dearest!' Smiling with hope, Michelle was excited to see her beloved in a reality beyond her nightmares, to hear his actual voice inside her psychic mind once again speaking to her civilly and not merely razing through.
But still, she strangely felt invaded by his chaotic personal space intimacy.
'Stop calling me that! I am not your 'dearest!' I belong to no one but myself since I was born! I am alone in every universe!' His temper even shorter than ever before, Robin Starr angrily lashes out at the woman before him with a mental tirade as he mystically floats over the ebony pool to hover at eye level beside Neptune now.
'Yes, you are my dearest! You are not alone! I love you! You love me! You were born to love me and I, yo—' Unable to move her arms out to embrace him, tears threaten to fall from Michelle's hysterical eyes. She saw there no caring soul staring back at her in the dark mirror of those beautiful green eyes she once could have drowned in the depths of.
SLAP!
Robin's then patience runs out as his quick hand connects with her cheek so hard that it leaves a bright red mark there.
Her already battered mind was still not prepared for her once soft and sensitive spouse's harsh physical abuse now as well.
You never once touched me with anything but gentleness before…What have they done to you…?
Two sets of eyes meet for half a split-second until Robin dismissively turns away, shutting off their mental conversation tersely.
"I've explored your mind—which had so much potential, had you not been so entrenched in the idiotic folly of so-called 'love'—to the extent I desired—eh, required—enough. We have no more use for you other than this, Sailor of the deep ocean. Now, be quiet, or I'll use my vast mind's prowess to permanently silence your tongue. She'll be here soon enough." He orders aloud coldly, turning back to float down and disappear into the catacomb's darkness.
"She?" Michelle whispers aloud back at the foreboding sound of the single word said in disdain.
'Your beloved Sailor Uranus. I will prove to you that 'love' is pathetically weak. We are all alone in this universe. There is no such thing as love. No one to count on but yourself in this inscrutable waste of time called life. She will not be able to save you. And then I will be rid of both of you annoying creatures from this despicable solar system, once and for all.'
The Heir's terrible, miserable, dissipated words coarsely invade her ringing head once again, and Michelle closes her dry eyes that were painful from tears which would not fall from this daughter of the water's shattered soul's mirror.
But fighting against her overwrought emotions he had transferred to her which wished to just surrender all hope, the spirit of Sailor Neptune tries desperately to free herself, nonetheless. She knew she must focus on warning Alex of the trap he had set for her, stop all of this madness and then—
And then just die.
Michelle?! You're close, aren't you?
In her own mind, newly Eternal Sailor Uranus in all her golden and yellow hued glory, searches for the soul of another, sensing a spike of danger in Neptune's already so badly abused and battered heart, mind, and soul. She felt Michelle's presence was nearby somehow, though their link was being blocked and distorted as Amaralexis runs through the confusing catacombs as fast as her long legs would carry her.
She ignores the aches her body was feeling as Uranus flies into certain danger, deeper and deeper into Metallia's evil underground lair, straight into the lion's den.
There. That darkened corridor. Michelle's in there.
As certain as she was of everything, Eternal Sailor Uranus kicks the door in. Even in the pitch black darkness she could make out her beloved's slender form slumped on the floor against the rear cavern shaft wall.
"Neptune!" Uranus dashes to her without a second thought.
But Michelle was trying desperately to warn Alex, knowing a trap had been set, and that she was playing right into his hands.
But neither words nor thoughts were able to be spoken to her darling Amara, try she might, for Robin—having full access to Neptune's mind, wide open to his powerful extrasensory ability now—was mentally blocking even that.
NO! Please, God, I must!
Amara! Amara! STOP!
"AMARA! Don't come any closer!" Defying the odds, and her captor's overwhelming psychic control, the strong-willed young Soldier of Embrace does manage to get the words out of her dry, psychologically sealed mouth.
For her beloved Sailor Soldier partner she could do anything.
And just in the nick of time, too.
Neptune warns Uranus as a devastating volley of lime green blasts surge deadly voltage from a damning electromagnetic grid that ran from cavern side to side, and the floor as well to explode from every direction of the room at the expected trespasser.
Agile Uranus, alerted to the danger for her excellent senses to prick up, aptly dodges and weaves like a golden butterfly on the concise wings of eagles through the electrically charged grid. In perfect sync with her element in this moment she needed her planetary guardian most, the Sailor of the Sky miraculously races on Uranus' turbulent winds to rise to Michelle's levitating side over that bottomless dark pool she was hanging over.
Glad to find Neptune not physically injured, and un-tethered by anything but her besieged mind, Uranus tugs at her partner's mentally disturbed and outsider-enforced, paralyzed body to leave.
"He's so changed, Amara! He doesn't remember our beautiful destiny anymore…" Michelle finally collapses in distressed tears on Alex's chest as Uranus gathers her up in warm arms.
"Shh, shh…" Silently swearing at men in general, and Robin/Star Healer in particular, Uranus looks for an alternative exit other than her amazing somersaulting flight through the electromagnetically charged field. Damning it all, Uranus realizes that her way in was a solo, one-time deal that only the strong and fit woman herself could have accomplished with much physical exertion of her active body. It couldn't be done in reverse with Michelle needing to be carried through the merciless firing crucible, as well.
Just then, Alex hears a door in the darkness creak open directly in front of her.
She eyes it suspiciously.
"He's giving us an invitation, it seems." Uranus says aloud, staring at the open door. "You stay here, Michelle. I'll handle him." The tall, golden blonde woman declares boldly, her every sense tingling with danger, putting the aqua girl down to the ground gently.
"No, Uranus! I'm going with you." In her resolute Eternal Sailor Neptune persona again, Michelle gathers her every mental capacity to resist the Heir's dominant subjugation, to stand tall and firm with determination. The tears burning behind her distressed eyes evaporate because her best friend, her cousin, her other beautiful destiny soulmate needed her now to be there for her.
And they would stand, as they always have, as destined Sailor Guardian partners, side-by-side, watching each other's backs and being each other's strength.
"Michelle." Uranus puts on her sternest voice—which worked on nearly everyone—except on this special young woman who knew Alex better than she knew herself.
"—You need me as much as I need you. I'll be strong. For you." Neptune takes the first step forward into the unknown, Uranus swiftly at her side.
As soon as the two Sailors enter inside the dark catacomb's ebony door, it slams shut behind them.
Uranus and Neptune find themselves moving down the eerie, dark hallway that led out from the cavern to somewhere unknown—somewhere where it was bright at the end of the long, black tunnel.
No, it was still dark out, there was just something bright and shiny and blinding, a single pulsating—
Star.
Dimensions shift, warping their surroundings, their senses skewed as Uranus and Neptune spin, taking a back to back defensive stance together as suddenly the dark ground gives out beneath them.
With flailing arms, they grab onto the edge of a familiar lighthouse tower overlooking the sea they were just moments ago in a catacomb beneath.
"I thought you would enjoy the view. Is it not breathtaking…Michelle?" Using her first name in a very intimately personal, yet somehw insolently hurtful way, Robin's high, scratchy voice comes from out of nowhere and everywhere.
"I wanted to thank you for that delicious energy I borrowed from you earlier." Still feeding off Neptune's shining power boost from when his cruel mind had forcefully raped hers, the Heir had transformed to become a brightly pulsating, lime green star now, lording over them and all those on this despised planet. "Perhaps I will spare you to exploit the rest of your mysterious energy to savor again later, once we're alone…" Seeming to take sadistic pleasure in the ascerbic taunting more now that loathsome Uranus was in earshot, Robin Starr's true power in the cosmos as the star 'Healer' floats high above them.
His cruel laughter twinkles as the star coldly taunts in the inky black sky while Neptune and Uranus struggle against the cloyingly thick darkness' gravity to climb up to the lighthouse's ledge without falling.
"The ocean, the cliff, the cloudy night sky. Not a star in it, is there?" The vivid light green star pulsates above the two women as it poses questions in an almost bored soliloquy.
"No, that's wrong. The most brilliant star of all is here. I'm here." Arrogant, conceited, superior and annoyed—all the traits Robin had held in already too high a degree in his prior world of idols, of boys, of humans, was infinitesimal compared to what he believed was his rightful place now, as the pinnacle amongst stars.
"I am here, all alone. You realize that Metallia has offered me rule over this world? But why would I waste my time here? Why would I need this sorry excuse for a planet for anything?" The Heir asks with a smirk as his blinding green star lands to transform into his chosen sleek black leather clad human male form before their eyes at the edge of the lighthouse.
"You don't know what you want, do you, loser?" Struggling Uranus poses the challenging question, biding her strength for a moment or two before going for a grab at him.
"Oh yes, Uranus. I do know that. I want YOU to DIE." Robin looks down and smashes his black booted foot down hard on Uranus' hand hold knuckles.
"Argh!" A low pitch bellow escapes Uranus' mouth as she bites down hard on her split lip, drawing blood. But still she doggedly hangs on by one bleeding knuckled hand.
"Robin! For Heaven's sake, stop! Please!" Neptune cries, feeling her partner's pain as she could not reach to comfort Alex for fear of her own falling. "Leave her alone! If you're going to harm someone, let it be me! You can't hurt my body anymore than you already have scarred my soul, my dearest one." Neptune cries out, looking up to their silver haired attacker pleadingly.
"You and that 'Dearest' nonsense again! I am not your anything! If you insist on wasting your vast astral mind so worthlessly on foolish mortal love, Neptune, I should put you out of your misery." Something stirred in him by her words and deep sea eyes, and the chaos in his soul rebels against this mystifying Sailor of Embrace. The Heir decides to finish both of these tiresome soldiers off at once, fully prepared to smash Neptune off the lighthouse edge as well—
"Don't you dare touch her, beast!" Uranus, in an amazing burst of strength and speed for Michelle, grabs onto Robin's leg, sending him spiraling down in surprise at her quick move during his moment of slight inattention.
With no time for a quick dimension shift escape, a winded Chaos Star Healer flies off the edge towards the rocky crags below…
GRIP!
A warm hand grabs onto his wildly flailing, stretched out one and suddenly halts his deadly descent. It was a hand that felt so right, so familiar, as if Robin had done this all before, a lifetime ago, as he looks up into the sea of Neptune's blue eyes, where kindness, caring and unfailing love for him still abounded…
"NEPTUNE! LET THE MONSTER GO!" Uranus demands, already giving up on Robin's soul, seeing him now only as a deadly and dangerous enemy who could never be trusted again.
"No." Michelle whispers as the gaze between her and her lost soul mate is broken by Alex's cold words.
The Heir then remembers his place once again, who he was again, though he had lost hold of that dark, cold certainty for a split second of being adrift in the warm ocean of her eyes.
His disoriented arm grabs out for Uranus' leg, not caring for his own life anymore, rather desiring to strike the detested Sailor Soldier down with him at least as Robin viciously grasps her limb with fierce, bruising fingers, causing Alex to fall as well.
But that masochist fate was not meant to be, as another darkly gloved arm wraps around a descending Uranus, pulling her–and therefore Dark Healer who was still squeezing her leg obstinately–up with the inconceivable strength of a star.
In an incredible power share combo stemmed from true love for her, Uranus feels some powerful raw energies surge through this familiar hand, straight into her body's conduit. Closing her eyes, all at once Alex understood what her lover was offering her with an daring new power attack that the confident Starlight visualized they would deliver as one 'perfect' soldier'.
Eternal Star Fighter's energy merges into Eternal Uranus' as the now wholly joined partners eternally coalesce their abilities together into one exhilarating fighting spirit—
"FIGHTER URANUS PASSION ROUNDHOUSE KICK!" In a celestial tango of heavenly lights circling around the pair in ideal formation tandem, two voices then call in unison with fused passion through the sky they both commanded. Eternal Sailor Uranus uses this combined opportunity granted by her rescuer's ambient steel blue power glowing unpredictably in her, now pooled with her own planetary golden yellows, for an impressive, forceful kick to her atttacker.
Star Fighter's shared strength coursing through her veins gives Uranus enough furious fervor momentum to kick even this vengeful Chaos Heir's dominant grip away from his unrelenting hold on her leg, with the potent thrust of a Star added to the Wind at her back.
Shock eyed at the totally unforeseen and sudden, equalizing display of star power which alone could not have knocked this most 'brilliant star' away, but for the landmark combo attack, the bloodied mouthed Heir of Metallia's darkness falls downward without so much as a sound towards the sharp rocks amid the wildly crashing waves below.
"Starr." Heavily breathing in his fragrance, drinking in his touch, Uranus whispers in Eternal Sailor Star Fighter's ear as Sayer presses his familiar, hot teary eyes against her neck in sorrow more than triumph for their remarkable new power's victory.
Uncertain if she would have survived—never mind overpower her nemesis—without his coming, Alex was not too sure if she was glad Sayer had followed her scent, as only he could like a lost puppy, for the pain this confrontation has caused him now.
Just as Alex knew since the beginning it would devastate her too emotional, heart-on-sleeve spouse, as much as she tried to spare him of it.
There were regretful tears streaming down Sayer Starr's trembling blue eyes after witnessing the horrific scene he had just played an unwanted, yet necessary role in. In that moment, Fighter's intense compassion had palpably siphoned his Starlight strength through the soldier whose heart he was one with, his U, to save her life—even at the cost of someone else he loved dearly.
Biting back those tears manfully, Eternal Sailor Star Fighter pulls both Uranus and Neptune up to the ledge to safety with utmost caring for this inseparable pair he has come to love so deeply as his own, now irrevocably joined.
And the three of them silently kneel at the edge of the lighthouse tower, in shell-shocked horror at what terror they had just done and witnessed and lived through due to that evil cretin, staring down over the damning jagged rocks and roughening seas splashing over them.
"Robin, my dearest. You're so alone…and I have failed to bring you home again." Dejected, Michelle whispers, moving as close as she could to the edge of the sheer drop. Then the unconditionally loving soul closes her eyes which begin to fill with the sea of wet tears that would not spill before until she was in the safety of her cousin's strong arms.
"He's not down there." Not so forgiving of the torment that monster had razed over her tender-hearted partners, Uranus coolly concludes at the unmarred landscape below. Curses unspoken on her lips, she wraps her incessantly crying, distraught partner up in a warm embrace, pulling Neptune away from the ledge.
With all that was in her, Alex silently re-avows to herself that next time she would not fail to exterminate that wretched Heir for what unforgivable torture the miserable insect was dragging her beloved through.
And this precious shining star, too. Alex's livid eyes meet Sayer's drawn, trembling eyes over Michelle's shoulder, swearing to protect his tender spirit as well from that irretrievable lost soul of a beast before he brought either of them any more pain.
Eternal Sailor Uranus gives Eternal Sailor Star Fighter a respectful nod for her fellow soldier's timely strength and audacious power share when it was most needed, even through his own emotional hurt.
This is how tough we must be. Deep inside, Uranus sensed that Metallia's dreadful, heartless Heir, who was once so much more than a friend, was surely now her greatest enemy. And he was still lurking out there, yet alive, every nerve ending of her warrior's heart told her so.
Until next we meet, my Nemesis...
"Hey, can we get out of here now? This place gives me the creeps!" Eternal Sailor Venus peeks around the corner of the cave, its vast dark emptiness with the likeliness of evil danger around every nook and cranny was giving her goosebumps.
"Don't whine, Venus! Sailor Moon's got a backbone for once, so don't scare her off, okay?" Eternal Sailor Mars gives her jumpy companion the evil eye she was so famous for.
"Hey! I've always got a backbone, Rei!" Serena snaps, back to her regular bubbly mode as she sticks her tongue out at her quarrelsome companion. "I've just got a hunch this time that we're not done here yet." The special girl with the powers of the Moon settles down under her husband's masked, raised eyebrow.
"You mean, besides Uranus, Neptune, and Fighter missing? What else are we looking for?" Eternal Sailor Jupiter asks, worried for her friends, but knowing that Amaralexis was reliable in the way of taking care of things herself so as not to be too worried.
Calculating their route, Eternal Sailor Mercury looks through her VR visor at their surroundings as Eternal Sailor Star Maker and Eternal Sailor Saturn silently but watchfully take up the flank.
"Don't know, exactly. Just a feeling I got before that somebody… Somebody here needs our help." Eternal Sailor Moon whispers thoughtfully. Though excavating through a scary Negaverse tunnel, with all kinds of creepy crawlies scurrying around in the dark definitely was not Serena Shields' cup of tea, having everyone with her, including her darling protector, Darien right by her side, she would be brave.
Because she had heard, though very faint, a cry for help out of the darkness that this agent of love and justice had to be right there, ready with the light of truth.
"There is someone behind this door, guys." Intuitive Eternal Sailor Mars warns as Eternal Tuxedo Mask carefully pushes the huge double doors open to peer in through his filigree gold mask.
It was a bedroom, large and sprawling, and—unexpectedly—decoratively bright for being connected to such a dark, dank Negaverse catacomb, replete with sparkling gems and precious metals adorning every piece of the ornate furniture.
But the centerpiece of all the beauty and elegance was a woman, dressed in the finest fabric wrapped around her loosely, with her long, long teal hair flowing all around framing her lovely sleeping face.
"Queen Aquamarianna!" Sailor Moon whispers, moving closer to this peaceful woman in slumber.
"Is she still unconscious after that last battle?" Jupiter asks in compassionate concern for the older woman as all the Scouts gather move into the room to investigate their former enemy, who had seemingly reformed.
"Yes." The reply comes with the silent slamming of the door behind them they had all just entered through.
The form of a man, fully garbed in a handsome royal suit all of pearlescent white and silver, with a long white and royal purple cape to rival Tuxedo Mask's new velvet gold one, materializes before their stunned eyes beside the opulent bed.
"My wife…" King Pearlellion, in true gentlemanly form, speaks civilly to the Sailor Scouts, meeting Sailor Moon's gaze with a small, bowed head.
He moves forward and kneels to the floor, kissing Aquamarianna's sleeping palm softly, before he rises.
Pearlellion's elegant steel blue eyes gave Serena that eerie déjà vu feeling all over again as he locks his orbs with hers particularly.
"…is dying." He whispers, showing no emotion in his calm, monotone voice, but the pain could not be disguised from his stately features. "She has been dying for a very long time, and I fear, now, in this weakened state, she will never awaken again."
"I'm so sorry." It was said with genuineness, despite the man and his wife being their deadly enemies. Pure-hearted Serena feels pity for him, because any fellow human being deserved at least that.
"Sailor Moon." Pearlellion never wavers from the gaze, and Serena finds herself entranced in his blue eyes. "The life inside my beloved Aquamarianna is fading—by my own hands. By my own foolish hands!" Showing emotion that he usually refrained from, Pearlellion wrings his own 'stained' appendages, staring at them and the damage they had caused to his beloved one.
Though it was entirely by accident, and he intended to destroy Sailor Neptune with his powers, Pearlellion would totally blame himself for his misdeeds to his dying day. The Guardians gathered watch his sincere regret with sadness on every one of their faces.
"Don't blame yourself, Pearlellion." Kindness the heart of her soul, Eternal Sailor Moon steps forward, putting a compassionate hand on the man's arm.
But he shakes it away.
"No. Queen Metallia has sustained the weak life left in her. For that reason I must be grateful and loyal to the bitter end." The King's voice returns to being emotionless, as he remembers his promise to Metallia, so long ago now, it seemed, in payment for keeping his wife in a mostly-alive status, that being one of the driving reasons he had to join the Queen of Evil's tempting forces.
Unbeknownst to him, the child growing inside of her since then must now be sustained as well.
So, constrained to defy the forces of darkness for that all-enveloping motive of love, the King had to reaffirm his sworn pledge of eternal loyalty and allegiance to the Queen of Darkness again.
To which Pearlellion was always a man of his word, if nothing else. After a long silent pause overtakes the room, the King lashes out at the Sailor Soldiers whom Metallia had insisted were really to blame.
'Your wife's downfall was the Sailor Soldiers' fault! Not I! I only have been sustaining her! Now all of them! They must be punished!' Hearing that raspy rant play in his head, Pearlellion grabs the feather tips of Eternal Sailor Moon's wings from behind her shoulder. He vehemently wrenches her eternal wings by her back and tosses her towards the rest of the gang who were completely taken off guard to take defensive stances.
"Leave the presence of the wife you have cruelly taken from me! Begone!" Anger at himself warps into vengeance upon them. Pearlellion sends a terrific volley of dark Negaforce blasts in the Sailors' direction.
Eternal Sailors Jupiter, Mars, Venus and Mercury, along with Eternal Saturn and Eternal Star Maker in the rear, instinctively move in front and to the side flanks of their Princess.
Eternal Tuxedo Mask covers her with his velvety black and gold cape as the team, caught unaware, are all are blasted back against the back wall by Pearlellion's impressive amount of vengeful power.
"Everyone!" Eternal Sailor Moon watches as her friends fall before her, even her own Darien as he slumps in her arms from the sheer force of the white light impact. Serena was left the only one standing.
"Sailor Moon. For what you've done to me, I want you to know what it feels like to lose those you love the most!" Crazed with chaotic anger, Pearlellion's tensed hand begins to form a pearlescent energy encasing that, once released, would have the stolen energy power to possibly destroy the downed Sailor Scouts, to punish the alleged malefactors for his Queen Aquamarianna's forever unconscious fate.
"For you, my love." King Pearlellion's wild eyes dart to that of his unconscious mate for a second as he raises the power-packed energy orb up high, preparing to launch it at the seven Sailor Soldiers who were lying hurt on the ground…
"No! Aquamarianna wouldn't want you to!" Sailor Moon cries, trying to reach out to his cold heart, knowing from the few short moments she had last seen the aqua-haired Queen that the goodness in her soul had overtaken the evil. "Please, King Pearlellion! Think of Aquamarianna! Would she have wanted you to do this, really? You're blaming us for something that you've done! But it wasn't only you! It was Metallia! She's controlling you! Aquamarianna knew that in the end! She didn't want you to be with Metallia anymore—I'm sure she didn't!" The Moon Princess sincerely cries out, her eyes full of earnestness and empathy as she locks them with Pearlellion's trembling in anger ones.
Eternal Sailor Moon takes a step closer to the King, right into the lion's den, again bravely standing in front of her companions to shield them in some small way, as her tender heart would always do.
"Aquamarianna?" Pearlellion pauses in his attack, holding the blazing power at bay as his troubled heart considers Sailor Moon's words. That's when he suddenly hears his wife again in his head, replaying the scene when they had last been together, just mere hours before she was—
'Pearlellion, my love. Please, must we stay here? We don't belong in this dark and dingy place. Remember before when you and I were free, out in that beautiful, bright world? Don't you remember, my dearest one, when we didn't have to battle and fight and bow down to anyone else? I want to do that again, Pearlellion. I want to be free like that again. Please, let us leave here'
Aquamarianna had begged her husband to leave Metallia's lair for the surface. But at the time, at that moment, Pearlellion would not listen. His subconscious did recognize her pleas all the while, even when his angered thoughts were busy planning his evil ambitions.
Why didn't I listen to her then? If I did…If only I did… Oh, my beautiful one, is this path we have chosen the wrong one? Looking at this girl before me, I remember your sad eyes, too. Why does everything we are doing feel so wrong now? Pearlellion stares into Serena's crystal clear blue eyes with a shaken heart.
"Please, King Pearlellion. Let me help you. Let me help Aquamarianna!" Sailor Moon's Eternal Tiare appears in her hands when she felt that this evil King was no longer beyond her goodness to reach. And maybe, maybe with his help, in some way she could do something for his wife, too…
"PEARLELLION!" That frightening voice thunders through the chambers and King Pearlellion stiffens, just when Serena was certain he was ready to accept her aid.
"Pearlellion! There are intruders in our midst! Destroy them! Destroy them all now! Or has your loyalty to me wavered?!" Evil Queen Metallia's dark and scratchy voice booms as she uses the question more as a threat.
Her dark energy swirling around Aquamarianna's unconscious head which was keeping the long, wavy haired beauty in stasis dissipates slowly and her steady breath becomes shallow and strained.
"No, wait, my Queen! I will be rid of these invaders momentarily!" Pearlellion hurriedly assures Metallia as the energy pearl in his hands—that had been fluctuating at Serena's words—builds again, even larger and brighter in luminosity than before.
Blindly in fear for his wife's very existence in the balance, Pearlellion releases its power upon the Sailor Guardians full blast—
But was it really blindly?
"OUTER DOME WALL!" Eternal Sailor Saturn, time on her side as Eternal Sailor Star Maker stands in his beloved Pluto's place beside her Outer Sailor partner, with Pluto's Garnet Rod mystically appearing in the hand Maker had arrogantly held out. With Susan sending her energies via her Time Lord husband's bond, Pluto and Saturn's new Eternal powered up combination with their talismans crossed, a defense shield phases around the vulnerable soldiers in a protective purple and violet haze dome.
Maker smiles encouragingly as he braces the small girl up for support, with just enough time to throw up this new, impressive force shield together.
King Pearlellion's attack could go no more perfectly than if it were aimed, as its energies, seeming to zero directly in on Eternal Sailor Saturn, bounces and absorbs into the domed wall she and Pluto had conjured.
The gleaming pearlized energy diverges all of its deadly streams of white light towards the rest of the team.
The Sailor Soldiers begin to come to, each scrambling to take their battle positions in the interim within Saturn's misty violet wall.
"Eek! Terry-papa! Susan-mama must have just fainted!" Sensing her fellow Sailor Soldier's weakening stamina as the purple mists of the magnificent dome begin to falter, Saturn shrieks in pain as she fervently holds her violet half of the sheltering wall up around the rest of the just awakening Sailor Scouts with great effort. Only because she had been so recently powered up with her Princess' Eternal energy was the young soldier able to fend off this fiercest of energy surges. But it was proving too much of a strain, as King Pearlellion's powerful energy focus was yet pressing in directly against her ever-weakening defensive shield.
The special soldier of death, little Tara Tomoe, was fighting with everything in her to keep her now lone wall up with all her might. But even the upgraded Eternal Sailor of Saturn begins to sink to her tall white booted knees…
"STAR CHRONOMETER STRIKE REWIND!"
In an unheard of daring, bold move—Terry was desperate to check on his overexerted precious bride but knew he could not abandon this vital battle for the sake of their teammates—Eternal Sailor Star Maker, with Garnet Rod he beckoned for in hand, aims the new version of his attack like an expert archer marksman upon Saturn's shrinking, nearly diminished violet force shield.
Star Maker then helps lift her weak-armed drooping glaive up high for her, as the powerful star wills some of his vast energized muscle to fragile, frail, petite bodied Eternal Sailor Saturn. In doing so, Maker lends Saturn his timely physical strength as well, all the while the Time Lord's 'Chronometer Strike' arrow continues its innovative count-up.
Showing his mettle as Time Lord, this clever genius, feels in his gut the surge of new eternal power shared by the Moon Princess to make impossible dreams plausible. This Eternal Sailor Star Maker brilliantly and concisely fashions his ticking down time's arrow to work in reverse, with the intent to recreate rather than corrupt, this time.
So instead of the intangible clock striking its deadly hands forward with the goal to ultimately deteriorate its target, they move in the opposite direction, backwards, to alternatively rebuild Saturn's 'Silent Wall' to be combined with Pluto's 'Dark Dome' again. And to this anxious Time Lord's relief, his adored Lady's thankfully restored vitality was able to contribute her energies once more to raise their 'OUTER DOME WALL!' to its original strength, and then some.
"Thank you, Terry-Papa." Finally able to breathe for a few seconds, reinvigorated Tara whispers up to her heroic Time Guardian with a smile, again able to proudly hold up her glaive high, by herself to keep up her end of the shared 'Outer Dome Wall' to defend the team.
"We'll see about that."
But that's when a dark opal energy orb adds fuel to the fire, so to speak, upon poor Saturn's now fully doused in dark energy Silent Wall.
And despite Eternal Sailor Star Maker's valiant attempt to stabilize it, Saturn was soon overwhelmed.
Both defending soldiers fall back when several more sets of nega-energy add to Pearlellion's already punishing blast, causing Saturn and Pluto's Outer Dome Wall to break apart. As Susan collapses in her Doorway, and Tara and Terry take the brunt as they are battered down to their knees by Opalson's expansion power.
"Saturn! Maker!" Eternal Sailor Moon shouts in horror as Lady Ruby, Lord Opalson and their son, Garnet, enter the fray with Swanette and Dracon bringing up the rear right behind them.
"Not able to handle these sorry weaklings on your own, brother? For shame." Lord Opalson comments sarcastically as he takes a defensive position next to his seemingly reluctant sibling. "We'll not let you off so easily this round, ladies." Opalson always believed that it was cowardice on Pearlellion's part that was stopping him from destroying these weak humans, nothing more.
"We'll clean up for you, luv, so as not to disturb you or your 'sleeping beauty.'" Ridiculing her ailing sister-in-law in her detestable manner, Lady Ruby takes a step forward. "And we'll wipe their asses before that silly Sailor Moonie can do her hocus-pocus on us this time! MOVE IN and SHOW NO MERCY!" Smirking nastily, her trusty flame dagger may have lost its chaos edge in the last skirmish, but her vindictive anger made up for the power loss.
The venomous female propels herself forward, slashing fire right at Eternal Moon as her son, Garnet, was at the rear, with Swanette and Dracon backing her claim up at both her sides.
"RUBY DAGGER SLICE!"
Defending his Princess, faithful Eternal Tuxedo Mask's new Eternal rose bo-staff matches Ruby's violent dagger blow for blow. Its crystal petals were apparently as unbreakable as his true heart for his Moon Princess as the gentleman does his best to de-claw the supposed 'lady' with his new "TUXEDO ROSE REVERSE!" that blunts her sharp steel with his crystal rose's 'thorns.'
"TUXEDO DUEL CROSS!" Next, the long stemmed rose Tuxedo Mask pulls from his velvet jacket lapel morphs into a rapier that had a dogwood hilt in the shape of Christ's Crucifix for this Eternal Earth Prince to ably duel Ruby's dagger with the righteous virtue of a Christian soldier.
"FEATHER TIP CUT!" Swanette's wildly flying poison feathers versus the Eternal empowered "VENUS SULFUR SMOKE!" go up in puffs of well-lit smoke, though the burnt feathers still relentlessly try to get past. So leader Eternal Venus appends her attack with an add-on conjunctive, double power play "VENUS ROLLING HEART VIBRATION!" that comes in pretty handy to vaporize the pointed projectile weapons in an orange flash of light and hearts mid air.
"DARK THUNDERSTORM BREAK!" Dracon's lightning fast attack is trumped by Eternal charged up "JUPITER FLOWER HURRICANE!" which showers so much pollen at his thundercloud it was soon grounded. He and Jupiter face off in their shared element, as she throws in a binary "JUPITER COCONUTS CYCLONE!" into the electrified green fray to physically pummel her suave opponent to hide his comely face.
"GARNET MELTING FUSE!" Garnet rages a dark red electrified inferno towards Eternal powered "MARS BURNING MANDALA!" ring of fire around the fuse source in order to diffuse the bad boy's manic high voltage meltdowns. The rotten kid's nonstop firebug lighting of fuses was relentless, but so was Mars, her twofold new attack of crimson red dances around to fight fire with "MARS SNAKE FIRE!"
"OPAL GLASS BUBBLE SHATTER!" Lord Opalson made the unintelligent calculation to clash with Eternal upgraded dual powered "MERCURY HYPER SPATIAL!" and its twin "MERCURY SPHERE GENERATION!" Eternal Sailor Mercury's wunderkind mind that could compute split atoms goes up against the wicked man in an incredible cerebral chess match, doubly expanding mental sphere for icy blue sphere.
In a true one-on-one confrontation, the five evil Negaverse emissaries and the five Eternal Sailor Scouts stand each other off, energy matching energy in cacophony of colliding noise and bright light flashes.
But even though the Sailor Soldiers were giving everything they had and more, they were only able to keep the battle at a standoff due to Metallia's vast darkness here within this subterranean cavern lair which gave the underhanded villains an endless supply of evil to feed upon, whereas the celestial light was dimmed…
"Pearlellion, stop this! Please!" Eternal Sailor Moon pleads with the King as the tall, white-haired man who reminded her so much of Prince Diamond from long ago, gathers his energy ball anew, aiming it towards his own standoff opponent.
Namely Sailor Moon, as Serena's heart once again aches seeing the battle not going well for her fellow soldiers.
"Sailor Moon. You leave me no choice." With a concerned glance back to his wife, Pearlellion's cold eyes had something of sorrow in them for his actions as he lifts his sizzling energy pearl beacon above his head, high into the air—
And blasts it backwards at his own brother instead.
Opalson, Ruby, Garnet, Swanette and Dracon are unexpectedly rappelled away from the weakened Sailor Soldiers they were about to maliciously overpower with the intent to kill.
"Sailor Soldiers! Hurry! Flee now!" Pearlellion commands, his overwhelming love for his wife making the battle between good and evil within him sway towards the side of the just.
"PEARLELLION! BETRAYER!" Metallia's angry voice resounds loudly, as torrents of dark energy waves, cold and biting, encircle Pearlellion and pound into him, suffocating the poor man.
The King calls above the din to Sailor Moon who was selflessly trying to break through the dark aura to reach him.
"Sailor Moon! Take my wife away from here! Please!" Pearlellion's voice was no longer commanding, but pleaful instead as he made a heartfelt request to Serena while resisting Metallia's overwhelming forces as best he could.
The powers within him were not only of the Queen of Evil, but his own will and soul as well. That is why the wicked Queen who had seen the potential then in the white-haired King chose him.
But that was also the reason she was having some trouble taking him down now.
In her great compassion, Eternal Sailor Moon was indomitably moving towards him, but the dark waves were too fierce for her to break through.
"White Moon Princess! Leave me be! It's too late for me! The die is cast! Just take care of Aquamarianna!" Pearlellion uses the remainder of his mental strength and energy reserve of willpower to send a protective shield up over his wife, giving his life's energy to keep her alive and safe lest Metallia's wrath was unleashed upon her, too.
"Take her out into that bright world she so loved again!" Pearlellion begs, using his vast powers to blast a monstrous hole in the cavern wall, exposing the catacomb that served as the teleportation room and its platforms which were connected immediately to the Earth aboveground.
"But King Pearlellion! What about you?!" Sailor Moon quickly urges her fallen companions to escape as the battle between the King and his minions still serving Metallia becomes so fierce, the underground cavern begins to tremble and shake. She was the last scout to leave, of course, with Tuxedo Mask and Venus leading the rest, two by two from the crumbling cave.
"Go! Sailor Moon, I've seen your abilities! You can heal my Marianna, please grant her thie one last request for me and take her away from this darkness she so despisef!" Pearlellion deftly dodges yet another volley of missiles from all his compatriots' powers combined together. But they were no match for his unchecked potential. "And Sailor Moon, please tell my wife—"
Serena skids back from where she was dashing out of the way of a falling stone corridor that crumbles above her head as she strains to hear the battling King's final words.
"—tell her that I have always loved her!" With this final call, Sailor Moon could neither see nor hear him any longer as the entire cavern wall breaks in thousands of pieces, cutting her off from the ensuing battle within.
Eternal Sailor Moon could no longer see the visage of King Pearlellion anymore as a strong. velvet gloved hand yanks her away from being crushed as well by the rocky columns tumbling over. A bloodied Eternal Tuxedo Mask was carrying the unconscious, but still miraculously breathing Queen Aquamarianna in his arms, as looks down at his meatball-headed wife in relief.
"Let's get out of here, Sailor Moon!" Darien protectively drapes his golden cape over Serena's head, she feeling so very safe and loved beneath her Tuxedo's caring folds, though at the same time she was sad for Aquamarianna losing her own husband's security.
Serena races alongside her guy, the two of them keeping just ahead of the crashing rocks and stalactite stones falling down from the tremulous cavern ceiling.
The three just make it to the teleportation platforms that intellectual and computer savvy Star Maker and Mercury conclude were the Negaverse transportation devices to the surface.
Jupiter and Mars bravely offer to go first on Amy's say-so as they are quickly teleported away, then Star Maker, carrying little Saturn in his strong arms, with so much anxiety to return home to see his Susan was unharmed, rapidly steps up to the platform with a nod, and the two of them are zapped away.
Venus waits in place on the empty transporter, for she and Tuxedo Mask were set to teleport away next.
Eternal Sailor Mercury prompts Tuxedo Mask to join an arm outstretched Sailor V to help pull he and Aquamariana up onto the shaking platform. Their resident computer genius had to quickly reconfigure the foreign matter displacement device to be able to handle not only three, but four people now, too.
For the baby within Aquamariana must be accounted for as a sentient, living human being with his or her own heartbeat, who deserved the chance to live, as well.
Holding the pregnant Queen gently in his grasp, Darien just manages to make it to the platform before the entire ceiling comes down in the cavern right behind him.
"Sailor Moon! Sailor Moon! Stop this thing, Amy!" Tuxedo Mask cries out in terror at the frightening sight of the love of his life's perhaps final demise as his molecules were just starting to shift location.
"SERENA!" Darien's gut-wrenched cry wrings throughout the dark teleportation room until his prescient 'Tuxedo Mirage' eyes were able to glimpse, at the last possible second, that undeniable glow of moonlight shimmering back at him…
Cough! Cough! Cough!
But out of the ashes, Sailor Moon appears, soot and dust-covered, yet otherwise unscathed to rush in and give her worried, sighing-with-relief hubby a smiley, chokey thumbs-up before he totally disappears.
"Thank goodness, Serena!" A thankful Eternal Sailor Mercury lastly remained, her fast fingers hooking up the Negaverse teleporter to remotely work by her mini computer's command as she hugs the ditzy Moon Princess close to her.
Amy pulls her somewhat dazed friend on board, as Sailor Moon is the last to climb onto the teleportation apparatus before it was utterly destroyed.
The exploding catacomb below fades from Serena's stunned eyes, crumbling in ruins and smoke and total darkness, that soon turns into the wide open, last rays of sunlight…
Happy Summer Birthday to our Sailor Star Fighter!
I hope you all enjoyed this next exciting entry into our saga! Things are really starting to heat up as all our sailor soldiers march right into the lion's den of Metallia's evil!
On this 25th year since I wrote this Sailor Moon Eternal love story featuring the gleaming Starlight this HarukaKou came to adore, I want to celebrate my beloved Sayer Starr/ Seiya Kou's special birthday, July 30, rewriting a very special, emotional new chapter starring Uranus/Fighter's romance, in his honor (a few more story episodes from here where we are now in Chapter 50!;) inspired by his music, listening to gorgeous, smooth voice from the stars Shiho Niiyama's glorious, unforgettable voice beyond Heaven still singing our beautifully spirited Star Fighter's songs for us forever!
Otanjoubi omedetou to our good but naughty and teasing man from the stars that even tough Sailor Uranus could not help but fall in love with his seriously special shine and joy and affectionate caring! Definitely going to be sharing Chinese food lo mein with him for dinner tonight, Ally! ;)
God bless you all as we never forget our first true love for Sailor Moon! I'd really like to hear your reviews and thoughts of our Star Fighter on his special day!
Still Searching for your love every bit as much now as I did then, my beautiful, breathtaking, sacred shooting star!
Love, HarukaKou
"I've been taken in by it, keep showing me that smile of yours!"