Endymion stepped over the mangled corpse of a former Dark Kingdom
general and stood over Jadeite. Reaching down, he pressed his fingers
against Nephrite’s neck. “Oh no. Oh shit. Shit.”
Jadeite pressed his hands over his face and rubbed. “He’s dead,
isn’t he?” His voice cracked mid-sentence.
“There’s no pulse.” Endymion hid behind technical terms, even as
his head ached from emotion.
Jadeite stared down at his hands, his eyes devoid of their
characteristic spark. He swallowed hard several times. “No. No way. This
is bullshit. This wasn’t supposed to fucking happen. Endy, this wasn’t
supposed to happen!”
“It wasn’t supposed to happen the first time around, too,”
Endymion whispered, tears pooling in his lower eyelids. The mental
image of Matt, alive, well and smiling as he took a drag off of his
cigarette, bounced around in the confines of his skull. << I’m sorry,
my friend. Thank you. >>
<< It was an honor, my Prince. >> Nephrite’s voice echoed back.
Jadeite stood suddenly, staring off into space. He looked like
a bloodhound that had just picked up the scent of game across a field.
“What’s going on?” Endymion inquired.
His voice was a strained whisper. “Did you hear that?”
“Hear what?”
“SHH!” Jadeite hissed, focusing on the ceiling. “Something’s
here.” He turned his head to Endymion, never once lowering his gaze.
“Something, I just can’t tell what.”
“What-“
“Get out,” Jadeite interrupted, his face darkening. His hair
darkened until it was the color of coal tar, his eyes deepened into
orbs of cobalt. Endymion watched as his face wavered and then slipped
into the features that he saw in the mirror every morning.
“No,” Endymion gasped, realizing Jadeite’s plan. “Jadeite, I
can’t let-“
“GET OUT!” Jadeite shouted in Endymion’s voice. He grabbed his
Prince’s arm and all but threw him back in the passageway. “Go! Find
the others! Get out of here!”
“I’m not leaving you!”
Jadeite’s expression was downright murderous. Endymion had never
seen him this way, and he found it extremely unnerving. “Endymion,
your Princess needs you. Go to her.” He raised his hand and blasted
the rock above the entranceway, collapsing the structure and blocking
the doorway with rubble.
Endymion stared in disbelief at the blocked doorway. “Thank
you, too, Jadeite.” With that, he turned on heel and ran.

* * * * * * * * * * * *
“Cop killer…I know his family’s grievin’…

-Ice T & Body Count
“Cop Killer”

“God, I hate these heels!” Mars screamed, throwing fire over her
shoulder at the advancing youma.
“Now’s not the time to be complaining about footwear selection,
Mars,” Jupiter panted, slinging Luna over her back like a sack of potatoes.
“You think I want to battle in pumps? If it was up to me, I’d be
kicking youma ass with the toe of my brand-new Sketcher.”
Jupiter flipped a handful of lightening backwards. “What I wouldn’t
give for Mercury’s visor right about now.” It still hurt to mention
Mercury, and Jupiter’s stomach fell whenever she though of her friend
lying on the ground, lifeless. Luna hadn’t uttered a word since they
had barreled out of the throne room, but a steady stream of water
ran out of her ruby eyes like a broken faucet.
They ran on, occasionally firing an attack into the wave of
youma, reducing the bunch by a few members. Mars had her head turned
when the three of them ran through the dark spot.
Jupiter experienced the shock of her life when Kunzite, Zoicite,
and Sailor Moon suddenly popped up directly in front of her, and by
their equally astonished expressions, she knew that it was quite a
scare for them, too. “Holy shit!” She regained enough of her bearing
to bark out a warning. “Run, guys! We’re being chased by youma!”
Kunzite grabbed a flabbergasted Mars before she had a chance to
collide with his arm. She let out a muffled squawk as he thrust her
towards Sailor Moon. “Mars, you and Zoicite get the Princess out of
here. Jupiter and I will hold them off.”
Mars nodded, squelching a million questions about the rest of
the group’s whereabouts as she lifted Luna off of Jupiter’s shoulders.
“Come on.” The trio took off down the corridor.
Bolts of lightening crackled off of Jupiter’s skin; her eyes
were slits of green fire. “Ready to do some damage, Kunzite?”
He straightened his injured arm, thankful that it had healed
enough for him to hold a sword without assaulting him with a thousand
needles of pain. “Let’s get it on.”
They attacked with the fury of a hurricane, cutting down rows
and rows of youma, green leaves and lightening slashing through the
air along with a white boomerang that cut anything in its path in half.
The ground shook from the impact of stray magic and dead youma falling
to the wrath of two severely enraged soldiers.
Jupiter gave a shout of jubilation. “I think we’re getting
somewhere!” The horde of youma had thinned to a mere ten or fifteen
that remained standing, unaware that they was a lost cause. She sent
another Oak Evolution tornado-ing towards a clutch of purple-skinned
females, shredding the flesh from their scalps.
“Damn right we are. These guys are almost no challenge.” With
a swing of his sword, he felled the last youma. “Alright, let’s go
find the others. Endymion, Nephrite, and Jadeite are still missing,
and where’s Mercury? Is she going after Beryl, too?” He ran his sword
through the ribcage of an injured youma writhing on the ground.
“Well? Jupiter?”
A chilling laugh caused his head to snap up. Zoycite smiled
from behind Jupiter’s head as he pressed a crystal spear against her
throat. “I’m sorry, Head General, but Mercury’s nothing but a memory
now, just as this overgrown Amazon will soon be.”
Jupiter had lost her bravado and was beginning to sob, tears
running down her terrified face. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, gasping
when Zoycite jabbed the tip of his spear into the delicate skin of
her neck.
“Let her go,” Kunzite growled, internally panicking but
determined not to let Zoycite find out. Jupiter’s life now depended
on him. He clutched his sword in both hands, holding it up and
away from him.
Jupiter saw Malachite skulking out of the shadows behind him,
and her throat seized up as she repressed the urge to scream.
Zoycite jerked her towards him, his grip on her arm like an iron
vice. “Don’t say a word, Sailor brat, or I’ll cut your goddamn
throat.”
Jupiter closed her eyes momentarily as a wave of tranquility
washed over her, wiping away her fear like the tide washes away
lovers’ names etched in the sand. Everything melted away, Zoycite,
his lethal crystal, Kunzite, Malachite, the Negaverse, the world.
Serena’s face swam behind her eyelids, the face of her Princess,
the one person she had sworn her life to protect. << This is
for you, Princess. I wouldn’t do anything less for you. >>
She opened her mouth, unaware that she was smiling. “KUNZITE!
BEHIND-“ Her words were cut off as the crystal neatly
sliced through her vocal chords.
Time seemed to slow for Kunzite; he watched as blood erupted
out of Jupiter’s throat like a burst water balloon. It was an
eternity between Jupiter slumping to the ground like a rag doll
to him swiveling around and deflecting a pair of boomerangs that
were on a collision course for his head.
Malachite gloated at him. “Looks like Jupiter’s out of
the picture.” He drew a sword, longer and thinner than Kunzite’s.
“Annoying Sailor Brat. Maybe if she hadn’t said anything, we
might have let her go.”
Kunzite didn’t respond as he kept his eyes trained on
Malachite. Malachite laughed. “That arm looks a little bad, w
hy don’t I remove it for you.”
“Bring it,” Kunzite snarled, rushing at his opponent. He
drew first blood, slashing a deep gash into Malachite’s arm.
“Now we’re even.” He swiveled around, surprising Zoycite, who
had been sneaking up on him, and stabbed him in the stomach.
Zoycite emitted a high-pitched scream and dropped his sword.
“Malachite!” The effeminate general whimpered; his face
screwed up in pain. Studying him, Kunzite was honestly surprised
that he had ever compared the Dark Kingdom general to his friend
and comrade. Zoycite was as willowy as a southern debutante, his
facial features exceedingly female. Zoicite’s build was much broader
and developed, and his face, although pretty-boy, was definitely
masculine. Zoycite looked like the only thing that he shaved were
his legs.
Kunzite hardly noticed Zoycite staggering off to the side,
holding his gut and sniveling. << One down, one to go. >>
Malachite’s face was a block of pure malice. “You’ll pay for
that.”
Kunzite grinned back arrogantly. “I’ll be the one collecting.”
“Prove it, Head General.” His right arm drooped a little as
he swung his sword in circles.
Alarms went off in Kunzite’s head. << Right hand. Right
hand! >> “I know where you came from,” he spat, ignoring the
sharp pain in his elbow. “You’re right-handed. I’m not.”
Zoycite was groaning in the corner. Malachite glanced at
him briefly before trying something different. “I can kill
cops with either hand, General.”
Kunzite nearly froze. “What?”
Malachite chuckled. “Shot him right in the head. I knew
better to aim for the flak jacket, even though I could have
killed him regardless. The people of Earth weren’t aware of
our existence back then, so I made it look like he was just
another pig dusted off on the job.”
“You’re not getting to me,” Kunzite said,


…even though he was back in that hospital in Boston,
swinging his feet under the blue plastic waiting room chair
as his mother sobbed on the shoulder of a uniformed policeman.
The place was filled with uniforms, all of them with their
heads bowed and their eyes bloodshot. Mike, his father’s partner,
sat down next to him, his face red and swollen like someone
had recently scrubbed it with a washcloth.
“Look what I gaht,” Kevin had said, holding out a red-
painted, metal toy car. “I have a blue cah like this, too.”
Years of California had diminished his accent to a shell of
its former self, but at the age of four, it was as thick as
head on a glass of Killian’s.
Mike had stretched a tight smile under his pencil-thin
mustache. “That’s great, Kevin. I have to tell you something.”
“Why’s Mommy crying?” Kevin stared directly into Mike’s
eyes with such intensity that Mike nearly lost his nerve.
“Uh, well, that’s what I have to tahlk to you about. Um,
something happened today and your Dad got really hurt…”
Kevin had only retained that single conversation from the
entire experience, that and how his mother had completely shut
down after the funeral. She would sit at the kitchen table for
hours on end, weeping, with a box of tissues and a carton of
Marlboros, smoking one after the other and stuffing Kleenex into
the pockets of her robes.
“Leave me alone for a little while, please, Kev? Go play
or something.”
Two years had passed that way, Kevin playing by himself
while his mother tore the phone out of the wall and dead bolted
the front door, trying to cut off the outside world so she could
be alone with her pain. It took an older woman in a maroon suit
and a piece of paper to get into the house and sit at the table,
prissily waving away clouds of smoke from Marie’s burning cigarette.
She asked why Kevin wasn’t enrolled in school, why he wasn’t up
on his immunizations, why the phone and cable were turned off,
over and over until Kevin wanted to throw her out of the house
so his mother would stop crying. The following week, he boarded
a plane for the first time and landed eight hours later on the
other end of the United States, where it was sixty five degrees
in mid-March, as far away from that hospital waiting room as
he could geographically get.
* * * * * * * * * * *

“You didn’t even exist back then.”
Malachite raised one eyebrow. “I didn’t exist back then? Of course
I existed; I didn’t die and be reborn, as you did. I’ve
resided in the Dark Kingdom for over a thousand years.”
“So why?” Kunzite demanded, landing blow after blow on
Malachite’s sword. “How?”
“I’m much more than just a Dark Kingdom general,” Malachite
said, his voice jarringly smooth. “I can exist in more than one form.
The Dark Kingdom has survived this long by stealing human energy.
When we couldn’t physically go out and drain our victims, we would
let someone else do it for us. Humans release their entire store of
energy when they are killed.”
Kunzite saw it then, saw it in the flat glint of Malachite’s
eyes. Metallia was in him, just as she was in every being of the Dark
Kingdom. They didn’t exist independently; they were vessels for pure
evil, evil that existed in so many forms but still was just one entity.
Metallia. She was evil. There was no way to kill her, because evil
had existed in the world since the beginning of time, and even if
they got her this time, she would be back.
Faces and names raced through his head. Hitler. Nero. Stalin.
Pol Pot. McVeigh. Caligula. Pinoche. Bin Laden.
Charles Green. The man convicted of shooting his father, who
was presently awaiting execution on death row.
“My God,” he breathed, thinking of the evil that would never
be destroyed, just recycled thousands of times in thousands of different
forms.
“God,” Malachite scoffed, seemingly amused by the very idea.
“A foolish notion created by foolish minds. Did your gods save the
earth when the Dark Kingdom invaded and the entire planet was wiped
out? The Goddesses couldn’t save even one single, pathetic planet,
much less the entire solar system. They bled to death on the palace
stairs along with the idiot common people who had elevated them to
deity.
Where was your higher power when you died in the camps, hmm?
Did you pray to your God to save your life then? If you did, he
obviously wasn’t listening, or never cared in the first place.
Or maybe he never existed.”
<< This is way too much for me to take in at one time. >>
Kunzite rightly thought as he ducked out of the way of purple
boomerangs. He pushed all of the new concerns out of his mind,
just as he had always done, in almost every life he had existed
in, and simply fought.
He pushed them away: the camps, where he had died before
being born as General Kunzite of the Silver Millennium. They
had all died in those camps, even Endymion, only he wasn’t a
prince then, none of them were, they had just had the misfortune
to be living on Earth during the reign of a maniac. He had prayed
then, prayed to die rather then watch another one of his friends
be executed seemingly at random, or seeing hundreds of bodies
being burned in pits, all the time with that hated brand on his
hand, the one that marked him as a Magic Person. He had prayed
to be one of those incinerated bodies.
He was forced to take the defense as Malachite viciously
attacked, slowly advancing him almost against the wall. Throwing
his sword into his good hand, he pulled his boomerang out and
slashed it at Malachite, tearing a hole across his chest. Malachite
gasped, blood pouring down his body.
Kunzite lifted his sword. “See you in hell,” he said, and
then wondered why he suddenly couldn’t breathe anymore. He staggered
back; a warm waterfall spilled down his front. << No. I have to
help them. Venus. Endymion. Serenity. >>
Zoycite stumbled over to Malachite, still grasping the
jagged ice crystal, which was soaked in blood. “Is it deep? Did
he hurt you?”
Malachite shook his head and grasped the other man’s hand.
“It’s nothing.” He grinned at Kunzite, who had sank to his knees,
one hand pressed against his bleeding neck. “Thank you, my love.”
“Anytime,” Zoycite smirked, laughing out loud when Kunzite
finally slumped over, his eyes remaining open in death. It had
taken less than a minute for him to expire, but the entire time,
Kunzite hadn’t believed he was dying.

* * * * * * * * * * *

“NO!” Sailor Moon screamed. “NO, GOD, PLEASE!” Zoicite and Mars
caught her as she stumbled and fell in their arms. Her face
crumpled as she began sobbing so hard her chest ached.
“Sailor Moon!” Mars hauled her up by one arm. “This isn’t
the time to break down. Get a hold of yourself!”
She lifted her head, her eyes speaking of unimaginable
grief. “Mars, they got them both.”
“What?” Zoicite asked, silently pleading for her to report
something different that what he thought.
She gulped. “They’re dead. Jupiter and Kunzite. They’re gone.”
Mars shook her head, refusing to believe. “How do you
know?”
<< I can’t tell her. I shouldn’t have even said this much. >>
“I can sense it,” she explained simply, not knowing what else
to say.
Zoicite was choking up. “Sailor Moon? Who else did you
sense dying?”
She hugged him. “Artemis. Nephrite. Mercury.”
His stomach turned into a block of ice. “No.”
“I-I’m can’t do this anymore, I can’t!” she sobbed. “I’ll
just give Metallia the crystal, I’ll surrender! I can’t have
another one of you die on me!”
Mars repressed the fresh wave of nausea that assaulted her.
“No, you’re not. That would be the end of all of us. That would
be the end of the world.” Her nerves picked up. “I sense something
coming; it’s definitely evil. We’re in danger here.”
Zoicite put himself back together, even though his expression
was still devastated. His green eyes shone with anguish. “Princess.
You have to get out of here.”
She pushed him away. “No. I’m not leaving you guys again.”
“Yes, you are,” Mars said, grabbing her arm and pushing her
down the hallway. “You’re our only hope, Princess. You’re our only
chance at beating this thing.”
“But-“
“GO!” Mars screamed. She thrust Luna into Sailor Moon’s arms.
The cat hung limply, endless tears streaming out of her eyes.
“Please, I know you love us, but we have to protect you! Get out
of here!”
Sailor Moon turned and unsteadily started running, tears
pouring down her face. “I love you guys,” she whispered as she
ran, clutching Luna in her arms. “I love you all. I promise that
I’ll fix this. I’ll bring you all back. I love you. I love you.”
It became a chant for her, almost a prayer. “I love you. I’m doing
this for you. I promise I won’t fail you. I love you.
I love you.”
Meanwhile, Mars and Zoicite prepared themselves for the literal
fight of their lives. “Stay away from that side,” Mars warned,
pointing to where the ground jutted up in strange piles. “That’s
where I planted to land mines. Once wrong step and you’re flambéed.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Zoicite said wryly, his concentration
ripped to shreds at the news of his beloved’s demise. << Oh God,
Mercury. You can’t be dead. Please don’t be dead. Wait for me,
please. I’ll save you, I promise. >>
Malachite and Zoycite apparated in mid-air, and, to Mars’s
personal pleasure, both were battered and bleeding. “Oh look, it’s
what’s left of the cavalry,” Zoycite sneered, running one hand around
Malachite’s waist. “I don’t think these two will be much of a challenge.”
“Think again, asshole.” Zoicite’s ice crystals sailed through
the air, each the size of a baseball bat.
Malachite held one hand up, and the crystals shattered against
the dome that had popped up. “Pitiful. At least I gave the other
two a fighting chance, but I don’t think I’ll play that fairly
this time around.” He waved away a wall of flame. “Nice try, Mars.
You’re not hurting.”
“FUCK YOU!” she screamed. “Flame Sniper!” Her flaming arrow
went down in just that: flames.
A blast of dark energy sent them both flying against the
wall. “You OK, Mars?” Zoicite groaned, pulling himself off of
the ground.
She rubbed the back of her skull, where a goose egg was
forming. “I’ve been better.”
“Me too.” They threw themselves sideways as a barrage of
dark energy pounded into the spot that they had lain just moments
ago.
“Just to warn you,” Mars coughed, waving away clouds of
dust. “They’re going to try to mess with you psychologically to
get you off guard. They’ve already gone through my mother’s death
and my father’s abandonment, and everything else in between.
Hope you don’t have any skeleton’s in the proverbial closet.”
“Uh, well-“
“But he does,” Zoycite interrupted. “In fact, Zoicite,
wasn’t the linen closet your choice of hideouts when your father
came home?”
“Here it comes,” Mars groaned, desperately hurling fireballs
at the Dark Kingdom generals.
Zoicite threw more crystals. “It was a coat closet, thank
you very much.”
“A coat closet, then,” Malachite shrugged, sending a wave
of energy that sent Mars and Zoicite to their knees. “You would
hide while your father beat your worthless drug addict mother so
badly she had to crawl back to her bedroom. ”
“Zoicite, don’t fucking listen to them!” Mars warned. She
gasped as dark energy invaded her lungs.
“They found you in the closet when she overdosed, didn’t
they? You saw the entire thing through the crack in the door.”
Zoicite attacked with renewed vigor, trying to bury the
image of his mother lying motionless on the kitchen floor,
partially naked, a needle dangling loosely from her arm. He had
watched her for hours through that crack in the door, waiting
for her to move. The officer who found him hiding in the closet
broke down in tears.
“You saw the whole thing, didn’t you, kid?”
Zach had nodded.
Mars’s voice broke through his thoughts. “Zoicite! I’m
serious! Don’t fucking listen to them!”
He shook his head, snapping out of it. “You’re right, Mars.”
They were thrown against the wall again, this time hard
enough to crack it unevenly. “We can’t keep this up much longer,”
Zoicite groaned. “Got any ideas?”
Mars set a new personal record by firing several Flame
Snipers at once. “Just one.” She ran it by him.
Zoicite was aghast. “That’s-“
“Yeah, it is.”
Mercury’s face ran through his head. “We have no other
choice, do we?”
“Not really,” Mars confirmed. << Oh God, I’m sorry, Serenity.
I have to do this. Tell Jadeite I love him. >>
He sighed. “Well then, let’s bring down the fucking house.”
They stood together, two warriors facing two demons. “You’re
going straight to hell, bastards,” Mars hissed. Zoycite chuckled.
“Ready?” Zoicite whispered.
Mars lifted her chin, her eyes proud. “Let’s.”
“One.”
“Two.”
“Three!” She poured every ounce of energy into her Flame
Sniper, and fired it under Zoycite.
<< For you, Amy. >> Zoicite’s ice crystal pierced the ground
under Malachite at the same time as Mars’s flaming arrow impacted
under Zoycite. They both threw bulls eyes, each attack hitting
one of the burnt mounds that Mars had buried earlier.
Malachite and Zoycite were incinerated in the explosion,
which then proceeded to take out half of the ceiling along with
the Dark Kingdom generals. The rubble set off a chain reaction,
setting off other land mines like car bombs.
Zoicite instinctively pulled Mars to him as the ceiling
above them collapsed, foolishly thinking that his body could
protect her from the ton of rubble raining down on them. They
squeezed their eyes shut and clung to each other, seeking
comfort in the final moments of their lives.

* * * * * * * * * * *

“Endymion,” the voice hissed in the shadows. Jadeite
turned slowly towards it.
Jedite drifted to the ground, his sword drawn. “So strange
of you to travel without your guardians.”
“I feel I’m less conspicuous without my entourage, thank
you,” Jadeite bullshitted. “I’m sure that if this was LAX or
something, I would think differently, but-“
Jedite pounced on him, sword swinging. “I know it’s you,
Jadeite. Your charade is pathetic, at best.”
Jadeite let his face return to normal. “I’m that bad? Damn!
How am I ever going to scam my way into the Playboy mansion if
can’t get past one Dark Kingdom fudge-packer?” He struck, nearly
slicing off Jedite’s sword arm. He fell.
Jadeite jumped on him, slashing wildly. Somehow, the Dark
Kingdom general managed to finagle out from under him, and they
resumed their fight while standing.
Jadeite ran at the wall and flipped over, Matrix-style.
<< Always wanted to do that. >> His sword crashed against Jedite’s.
“No one liked you in that family,” Jedite said, limping.
“The only person that loved you was your grandfather, and then
he died on you-“
POW! A blast of white smoke threw Jedite across the room,
frying off most of the flesh from his body like bacon in a pan.
Jadeite crept over, tensing himself for that horror-flick
moment when the presumably dead body would sit up and continue
fighting. << Freddy’s never dead. >> After a few uneventful minutes,
he prodded it with his toe, sword held to Jedite’s throat just
in case he decided to pull a Michael Meyers. Nothing happened.
Jadeite grinned, grabbed his junk, and thrust his crotch
at the fallen body. “Ungh! Talk is cheap, motherfucker. I fucking
kicked your ass! You would have had a better chance pulling a
gun and shooting me than pulling up all that shit. I’m too smart
for that.” He glanced over at Nephrite’s body, and the familiar
rush of unbearable pain rushed through his mind and formed
tears in his eyes.
* * * * * * * * * * *

“I don’t think so!” Venus screamed, throwing her Love-Me
Chain across the room and hooking Beryl by her waist before she
could disappear through a dark spot.
Beryl whipped around, hand extended, blasting black
lightening at Venus. It met with a golden heart in midair, and
the two powers crashed together, battling for dominance. Beryl
poured her strength behind her lightening, teeth gritted with
effort, and when the golden heart advanced back a few feet, she
let out a squawk of triumph. She poured more energy through her
hands, and the heart disintegrated and flew apart like paper.
Beryl was halfway to celebrating when she realized there
was no body left behind.
“Behind you, you dumb bitch,” a voice whispered right in
her ear. Something heavy hit her in the back, and she fell to
the ground, crying out in pain.
Venus stood above her like an angel, but her expression
was hard and blank like no other angel ever stained on church
glass. She held the tip of her sword against Beryl’s throat.
“Don’t fucking move.”
Beryl’s face turned cold again. “How fortunate for you,
Venus, you’ve managed to catch me off guard. Be assured that it
won’t happened again.” A sword, as black as Venus’s was white,
materialized in her hand and she struck.
Venus easily gained the upper hand. “When did you learn
sword fighting, Beryl? I didn’t think court ladies were taught
much more than ballroom dancing and knitting those irritating
lacy doily things.”
“There’s much to me that you would never understand, Sailor
Brat.”
“I know that you’re not very good,” Venus replied, striking
Beryl’s sword out of the way and kicking her in the stomach.
“And don’t you ever, EVER talk down to me again! You’re two whole
years older then me, Beryl. Don’t think you’re above us in any
way.”
“Aren’t I?” Beryl laughed. “Look at me, look at my position
during the Silver Millennium. I was nobody; I was merely there for
decoration in the palace! I don’t think that the King even knew
my name. And I alone ascended to the throne of the Dark Kingdom;
I conquered the solar system and destroyed the Moon Kingdom and
Queen Serenity. I became the most powerful being under Metallia,
and I still continue to reign even after the Silver Millennium
became a distant memory.
And what happened to you, Venus? You were a goddess back
then, you had mortals building temples to you and praying and
sacrificing to you. You were worshipped, all of you. And now
you’re nothing more than a bunch of silly girls, so insignificant
that I could never even find out your identities. I created disasters
in every major city around the world, waiting for you to come to
me. I knew you would be protecting the Moon Princess.”
Venus struck with her Crescent Beam, singeing off a lock of
Beryl’s maroon hair. “You have no power, Beryl,” she sneered. “The
only reason you became anything was because Metallia was looking
for someone as empty and as hateful as the High Leader to cause
mass destruction again, and you were just in the right place
at the right time. I guess she decided to keep it in the family.”
“My grandfather was a great man,” Beryl said, swinging her
sword over Venus’s head, causing her to duck lest she lose her
cranium. “Metallia blessed him just as she blessed me.”
Venus outright laughed. “Blessed? You have got to be kidding
me; your grandfather was a fucking monster. He had the blood of
four million Magic Persons on his hands.”
Beryl fought back Venus’s blows, her composure slowly chipping
away and more of a scared girl was being revealed. “They were
collateral. The High Leader sought a pure Earth.”
“Bullshit. The only good things about his reign were Selene
taking everyone to the moon and his overthrow. I wish I had been
born earlier, during his second reign on Earth, when he came back
as that German guy. It was sick the way he built the camps in the
same place as during the Cleansing. I would have loved to been
alive back then, so I could kill him with my bare hands.”
Dark energy swirled in Beryl’s hands. Venus kissed her palm,
sending another heart hurling towards Beryl. This one struck her
head on.
Beryl dropped to her knees, one hand pressed against her
forehead and her face screwed up in an expression much like anguish.
Something flickered behind Venus’s eyes, and in that instant, she
remembered her secret rendezvous to Earth, and what Beryl was like
before Metallia’s poison infected her.
<<Why now? >> her mind cried. << Why am I remembering this
now? Why does this have to be even harder? >> She remembered Beryl’s
face lighting up whenever Endymion was mentioned, the way her eyes
sparkled like a prism held to the sun when she lost herself in
thought. Venus remembered the young Beryl, the noble Beryl, and
the Beryl who helped her search the gardens for the Moon Princess.
<< “Oh, I saw a girl with silver hair just like that! She was
wandering around the gardens, staring at the flowers like she’s never
seen one before! Here, let me show you the way.” >>
“I hate you,” Beryl rasped, green blood leaking out from the
corner of her mouth. “I hate you all. I can’t think of anything more
I’d like to do than kill you all.”
Venus held her sword in front of her. “Why are you filled with
hate, Beryl? We never meant to hurt you.”
“Yes, you did!” Beryl suddenly screamed; the insanity that
had been simmering under her skin came rushing to the surface. “I
thought you all were harmless, even the Moon Princess! I never imagined
that you would steal all that I wanted in my life, the very reason I
lived! I never thought you’d steal Endymion away from me!” She burst
into hysterical sobs and covered her face with her hands, temporarily
abandoning the fight.
“You girls had everything,” Beryl sobbed. “You were goddesses on
top of being princesses. You were rich, beautiful, smart, and had half
of the Earth worshipping you. You were loved. You had lovers. What could
you possibly understand about being invisible?”
“It wasn’t all like that,” Venus weakly offered, even though she
knew that Beryl was speaking the truth. What had she been lacking in
the Silver Millennium? In retrospect, she had been comfortable, beautiful,
admired, revered. Lonely until she met Kunzite. Bored until she had
discovered the Earth. Frustrated only when she had to pose for paintings.
“Yes it was!” Beryl gasped. “You were Magic, too. You could make
anything happen.”
“No!” She broke in. “Beryl, it wasn’t like that! I couldn’t do
anything I wanted at anytime! I couldn’t break laws.”
“I prayed to you,” Beryl whispered. “I prayed to you, Venus. I
prayed that you would give me Endymion.”
She swallowed, remembering the whispered incantations floating up
from her Prayer Fountain. << “Venus, help me, please. I’m in love with
someone, and I think he loves someone else…” >>
“What if it was Serenity who was praying?” She pressed her lips
together. “What if someone was praying to take Endymion away from you?
Would you want that?”
She actually felt a shimmer of humanity pass through Beryl as the
dark queen’s face wavered and tears dripped down her chin. “You don’t
know,” the Dark Queen whispered, wavering back into Beryl the scared,
confused girl for a moment. She turned her face to Venus’s. “What other
choice did I have? How was I supposed to feel?”
Venus stepped up to her. “You were jealous. You let that jealousy
get out of control.”
“But I loved him! I loved him more than anything in the world!
How could that be wrong?”
“Your feelings weren’t wrong, your actions were.” Venus crept
closer, one eye on Beryl’s sword.
A limp, trembling hand rose and wiped Beryl’s overflowing eyes.
“I’m not the monster you think, Venus. If all I care to do is love, how
can I be a monster?”
“You’re not a monster,” Venus appeased her. “Metallia is the
monster; you’re merely a pawn.”
Beryl reached out her hand. “I prayed to you, Venus. Will you
help me now?”
Venus tilted her head slightly, puzzled at this new turn of
events. Beryl was young again, sobbing, holding out her hand to seek
forgiveness. << Is it my place to forgive her? >> Venus whispered in
her mind. Two or three agonizing seconds ticked by. Venus choked back
the tears in her own eyes. Her heart poured forgiveness, whereas her
body refused to acknowledge Beryl’s plea for mercy.
<< Love your enemies. >> She held out her hand to the fallen
queen, stretching out until their fingers were inches apart. It was
a surprisingly touching scene: the Dark Empress, battered and bleeding,
reaching out for help from the Golden Senshi.
Venus’s eyes closed, and then the tears came. With one swift
thrust, she shoved the sword into Beryl’s chest, using more force
the blade encountered bone. Beryl let out a single squawk of surprise
as blood, red now instead of green, spurted between her lips. Venus
tried to avoid meeting her eyes but couldn’t; they were wide and
surprised, the look of a deer that hadn’t yet realized that it had
been shot. She choked back a sob as the light dimmed from Beryl’s eyes
and she uttered one last question.
“I p-prayed to you, Venus.”
She yanked her sword back and let Beryl slump to the ground.
“I’m sorry,” she sighed, her voice clotted with sorrow. “You killed
my Princess. You killed my lover. I can’t forgive you for that,
even if it wasn’t your fault.” She slowly backed away, and then
took off running.
* * * * * * * * * * *

Endymion instantly recognized the soft, distant sobs. “Serena?”
“Endy!” she gasped in reply, throwing one arm around her
beloved, shifting to keep from squashing Luna against his armor.
“Oh God, I was so worried about you…” She dissolved into hysterical
tears.
He rubbed her back. “Shh…I’m OK, don’t worry.”
She buried her face against his chest. “Endy, it’s all falling
apart-none of this was supposed to happen; I don’t know what to do…”
“Shh,” he hushed her again, debating whether or not to break
the news to her. “We lost Nephrite.”
“I know,” she whispered, her throat constricted to the point
where she could barely inhale. “We got ambushed. They’re all
gone now.” Her face folded. “I killed my friends.”
Endymion hugged her tighter to him, placing his chin on top
of her head. “No. No, you didn’t kill them. It’s not your fault,
of this I’m sure.”
She turned her face away. “They died for me. Because of me.
It doesn’t matter, though, because I’m going to fix this, Endymion.
I swear, even if it kills me in the process, I’m going to right
everything that went wrong. I’m going to make up for all of this,
I swear on my life.”
Luna momentarily lifted her head, thus completing the first
animated movement since Artemis’s death. Her maroon eyes ran with
constant tears. “We’ve fallen. Again.”
“Luna, I wouldn’t count us out just yet.” The trio whipped
their heads around, shocked out of their stupor by the familiar,
usually cheerful voice.
Jadeite and Venus emerged from the shadows, bruised, dirty,
and both looking completely and utterly whipped. Venus’s face was
creased in lines of either exhaustion or sorrow, and Jadeite looked
as if he was carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders.
Their swords were smeared with blood.
“Jadeite!” Endymion exclaimed, absolutely astounded at the
sight of his friend, who he had all but given up on. “Holy shit!
I thought you were dead!”
“Venus!” Sailor Moon threw herself into the Senshi’s arms.
“I was so worried about you! I couldn’t lose you, too!”
“What?” Her voice came out as sharp as a ginsu knife. “Who
did we lose?” She braced herself for the worst.
Sailor Moon’s face was puffy from crying. “Everyone. Everyone
except you two.”
Jadeite’s heart fell to his stomach. “No. That can’t be true.”
Raye’s face burned in his mind’s eye, her violet eyes and confident
smile. “Please tell me you’re making all of this up.”
Venus’s expression was unreadable. Sailor Moon studied her,
almost fascinated by her friend’s complete lack of emotion surrounding
the circumstances. << She’s choosing duty over love. Again. She’s
keeping herself together just for me. >>
Her admiration turned to mild disgust and an enormous amount
of self-hate. << I don’t deserve her, or any of them. I’m not
worthy of this kind of loyalty. >>
She locked eyes with Endymion and knew he felt the same way.
“Don’t worry,” Sailor Moon hiccupped through her tears. “I’m
going to fix this all, Venus. I promise.”
The taller girl didn’t even blink. “I know you will,” she murmured,
sounding totally unconvinced, her heart wrung of its emotions like a
towel from the laundry.
“No, Venus, I really mean it! You see, I didn’t tell anyone,
but-“
“What was that?” Jadeite interrupted her, spinning around and
snapping to attention.
“What was what?” Endymion echoed, trailing his eyes around
every nook and cranny around the cavern.
Sailor Moon tuned her ears to the sudden silence, and nearly
fainted with fright when she heard it again: the sound of something
wet and heavy scraping against the stone floor.
“Oh no,” she moaned, swaying as her knees turned to jelly.
“No.”
“What the hell’s that?” Jadeite exclaimed as Metallia scraped
her way towards them, a shapeless mass of swirling, dark red bulk
punctuated by the occasional swirl of dark energy.
Endymion thrust Sailor Moon behind him, afraid more for her
than for himself. “Stay back.”
She placed Luna on the floor. “Luna, get out of here.”
She didn’t run, instead, she faced Sailor Moon with her eyes
brimming with fearlessness. “No, I’m staying. I can’t believe I
let myself get caught up with grief when it’s my duty to protect you.”
Sailor Moon almost kicked her in frustration. “LUNA NOT
YOU TOO! I’m not letting another person sacrifice themselves for
ME!”
Metallia seemed to swell; her entire bulk filled the cavern
from top to bottom. Sailor Moon was too scared to run from the black
monstrosity, her legs locked together like links in a chain.
The dark being sucked in a breath and spoke. “The crystal.”
Her voice hissed and echoed in true horror-movie fashion, but the
sentence still came out like an order. Instinctively, Sailor Moon
reached up and encased the precious object with her palm.
“Give it to me.”
“No,” Sailor Moon gasped, grief choking her voice as she
remembered Mina and Raye’s screaming match the previous night.
<< Venus is right; it’s too valuable. >>
Two tentacles extended out from the black mass and shot past
her. She whirled around, following the arms. Metallia had wrapped
them around Venus and Jadeite like a constrictor around field mice,
pinning their arms to their sides and covering their mouths. “Give
it to me, or they die.”
Venus attempted to shake her head, but her neck was pinned
by the monster’s tentacle. She opened her hand as it was squeezed,
and her sword clattered to the ground as it was released.
The tinny sound amplified in Sailor Moon’s mind until it
seemed like a deafening roar in her already tortured mind. Little
lines of sanity stretched and tore as she watched her friends, her
family in everything but blood, being tortured by the embodiment
of evil.
“No more,” she whispered, her face reflecting the white glow
that had begun emanating from the crystal pinned to her chest.
Endymion saw it happen, saw her form ripple and change and
her fuku melt away like a mirage, and white material flowed around
and enveloped her.
He placed a hand on her own shoulder, dimly aware that he
too was glowing, awash with golden light that could eclipse the
sun itself.
Unnoticed in the background, Venus suddenly went limp, and
Jadeite ceased to claw at the tendril covering his airways and lay
still. Luna leapt at it, scratching and biting, until she too was
thrown off by Metallia and hit the wall, unmoving.
Princess Serenity reached up and pulled the crystal off of
her chest and held it in front of her, her arms fully extended. She
felt it morph and change, and then she was holding a moon wand in
front of her, the Silver Crystal sparkling in the center like the
Hope Diamond.
Metallia drew back a few feet, suddenly afraid of the new
power that the little girl was wielding. The air crackled, and a
bolt of black lightening jumped off of her mass and headed for the
couple.
A beam of pure silver light met it halfway, and Serenity’s
arms shook with the incredible effort of keeping it steady. She
felt the tears running down her face as intensely as she felt
Endymion’s hand on her shoulder, lending her his power. She felt
his love for her pulse through her in a separate current of
energy, the feeling so intense that she felt she could conquer
the monster with it alone.
<< I love you, Endymion. >>
The crystal’s power continued to flow. Serenity felt
disembodied; she felt like she was flying without ever leaving
the ground, her mind elevated to planes of existence that she
hadn’t even been able to fathom. She felt like she was falling,
between worlds that she could never have conceived. She felt like
she was floating, drifting through and between matter, a feat
unaccomplishable by the physical body. She smiled.
In the back of her mind, she wondered if this was how her
friends had felt when they died.
She felt them as if they were there with her, smiling,
lending her their power. She experienced her friends in a way
never thought possible, and caught snippets of sensations of
their lives, minute experiences from years past.
The grinding texture of California sand.
The popping flash of cameras.
The smell of rain.
The taste of cigarettes.
The slip of a knife.
The smooth white steps of a shrine.
The stinging fall onto Astroturf.
The twinge of guitar strings.

She heard their voices, too.
<< Go. >>
<< Now, Serenity. >>
<< Send this bitch packing. >>
<< Forehead! I know it sounds weird, but aim for the
forehead! >>
<< Dude, she doesn’t even have a forehead! >>

She let the power rush out of her body. “Get off the
Earth, you evil thing,” she whispered.
Metallia was whimpering now, desperately. She threw more
energy at the diminutive girl, only to have it fly back at her.
“NO!” she barked, drawing in the ends of her body as
the silver energy drove into it, burning and tearing.
“GET OFF THIS EARTH!” Princess Serenity screamed. “IN
THE NAME OF THE MOON, REMOVE YOUR FILTH FROM THE FACE OF THIS
EARTH! BEGONE!”
A burst of silver light, like a star exploding,
temporarily blinded them, Metallia gave one last, ear-splitting
howl, and the cavern went dark.
Serenity blinked, night blind in the instantaneous darkness.
“Endy?”
He released her shoulder, which he had been gripping the
entire time. “I’m right here.”
“Oh GOD!” she sobbed, falling into his arms. “Did we do
it? Is she gone?”
“Yes,” Endymion replied, his voice cracking. “She’s gone.”
She pulled out of his embrace, frantic. “She’s not gone
forever; she’s going to come back!”
“We’ll get her when she comes back, too,” he said, his
stomach still tied into a knot bigger than any Boy Scout could
tie. “But we’ve lost most of them, I don’t know how…”
Her smile practically lit up the cave. “No, we didn’t lose
them!” She laughed softly as she held up the crystal. “My mother
showed me how to catch them, how to catch their souls and encase
them in the crystal! I caught Venus and Jadeite and Luna, too,
because they died right before we attacked Metallia. And now-“
She held up the crystal. “All I have to do is release them.”
Princess Serenity smiled, and lightly brushed the palm of
her hand over the crystal like her mother had instructed, releasing
whatever had been trapped inside out. It glowed silver for a split
second, and then faded.
“Hmm,” she mused. “That was pretty quick.”
Endymion reached out and grabbed her hand, and pulled her
to him. “I love you,” he whispered, brushing his lips against her
ear.
She shivered from the sensation. “I love you too, Endymion.
I’ll never stop loving you.”
Their lips met, and they didn’t part for a long time. Finally,
Serenity pulled away, brushing off her white princess gown, which
had stayed even though Metallia hadn’t. “C’mon, let’s go get them!”
She started running, Endymion following, wondering why Venus
and Jadeite were still laying on the ground.
“Venus! What are you sitting down for?” Serenity chirped,
rushing to her friend’s side. She playfully kicked Jadeite’s leg
as she knelt down. “Venus, come on, I know you probably got the
crap kicked out of you but we have to go get the others before they
start wondering where we are! They’re alive-Venus?” She shook the
blond senshi’s shoulder, gently at first, then more vehemently.
“Venus! Answer me! Venus!”
Sailor Venus’s head lolled loosely on her shoulders. Serenity
shook harder, repeating her friend’s name with more and more
desperation. “Venus! Wake up! You’re supposed to wake up, please,
please, please oh God oh no, no please no, no, VENUS! WAKE UP! I
ORDER YOU!” She released her hold on Venus’s shoulders, and her
body slumped against the wall. “Endy, what happened why didn’t it
work what’s wrong please tell me, oh no please God no…” Her body
shook as she started sobbing, her chest so tight it felt like a
giant hand was squeezing it. Her stomach began aching, and she
leaned on the wall to keep from vomiting. “Why didn’t it work?
Luna…” She picked the cat guardian’s lifeless body and pressed it
to her face, letting it absorb all the grief that forced itself
out of her body through her tears. “Luna, I’m sorry, I don’t-know-
what-happened! Mother, what happened? Why-why didn’t it work?”
Endymion wanted to comfort her; in the back of his mind, he
knew it was what he should do; it was standard etiquette for any
human being with an iota of compassion, but at that moment, his
mind cloudy from shock, he drowned Serenity’s sobs out for just
an instant. Slowly, he raised two fingers to Jadeite’s neck and
pressed, too hard at first, desperate to feel a pulse vibrating
under the skin like a miniature firehose.
Nothing. Jadeite’s lips were blue.
<< That’s easy. He just suffocated. >> Nothing existed in his
mind, no emotions; all that remained was black and white procedure.
He pulled Jadeite down to the floor and tipped his head back.
<< Pinch the nose. >> He opened Jadeite’s mouth and breathed
for him. The air rushed back out almost immediately.
<< Start chest compressions. >> There was too much force behind
the first attempt; something cracked underneath his hands. << Oops.
Broke his ribs. >>
He continued the same simple steps, counting in his head,
ignoring Serenity’s hands on his arm. “Hang on, Serenity, I’m busy.”
She was still sobbing. “Please, Endymion, leave him alone. Stop
it.”
Endymion didn’t stop. “I can’t bring Venus back; her neck’s broken.
I can bring him back.”
“No, Endy-“
“He just suffocated. I can bring him back.
“Endymion, stop! You’ve been doing it for a half an hour!” He
jerked his head up; unconvinced until he saw that the tear stains on
her face were dry and cracking, and that her eyes were so puffy she was
hardly recognizable. He pressed his hands against Jadeite’s neck again:
he was cold to the touch.
“No.” The word fell from his lips and echoed in the cavern. “No.
Serenity.”
“Please, let him go,” Serenity begged. Endymion allowed himself
to be swept into his embrace. “Let him go.”
The pain lanced through his body with the speed of lightening,
and he broke down as collapsed in her arms, sobbing. Fresh tears flowed
down her face, and they swayed back and forth, together in their pain.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Serena nearly collapsed; having forgotten that one would teleport
back to the same spot that one had departed from, it seemed like a nightmare
when they reappeared in the middle of the guys’ living room. She reached
down and picked up a mostly empty glass of generic soda, a half-circle
of lip-gloss staining the rim. In the back of her mind, she remembered
Lita swiveling approximately ten thousand layers of Chap-Stick on before
taking a drink, and she swayed on her feet.
Darien circled the room, futilely attempting to collect his bearings
while on the brink of losing it altogether. Every object in the room
seemed to ruthlessly mock the very concept of death. The crumbs piled
on the counter waited for a hand to sweep them into a cupped palm and
dust them off into the garbage can. The Playstation’s controllers lay
twisted on the floor like spindly tentacles, waiting to be picked up.
Matt and Kevin had abandoned their game of pool, leaving several random
balls randomly lying on the felt. Darien picked one up, the cue ball,
spotted with blue chalk that rubbed off on his fingers. He turned it over,
listening to Serena’s quiet sobs in the background, the pain slowly
rising from his stomach until he thought he’d choke on it. His fist
clenched around the hard sphere like he was trying to crush it into
powder.
He whipped around and threw it as hard as he could. Right into the
face of the television.
Serena screamed when the screen shattered, spraying the carpet
with glass and sparks. She had never seen Darien like this, ever.
“Stop! Darien!”
He didn’t hear her. Everything he could lay his hands on, he
destroyed. He threw another billiard ball threw the window, a few
into the kitchen, and used the rest of the ammunition to gouge holes
in the drywall. One hard stomp broke the coffee table in half. In frenzy,
he ripped apart the couch, threw lamps across the room while they were
still plugged in, kicked chairs around until their legs snapped off.
Serena was sobbing. “Mamo-chan, please stop.”
He didn’t hear her, but instead moved into the kitchen to continue
his rampage. He swept the empty liquor bottle collection off the top of
the refrigerator, feeling a strange kind of satisfaction as the industrial
glass shattered into oddly shaped pieces. A pile of clean plates was
next to die, and the telephone, complete with the hated answering machine
that had started everything in the first place. Anything Darien could
lay his hands on was ripped, smashed, or otherwise destroyed.
Serena picked up Amy’s navy Bryce sweatshirt up off the couch and
pressed it to her face. It smelled like Downy dryer sheets and Aquau
de Gio. It smelled like Amy. Her grief swelled until she felt she would
vomit. “Oh God.”
Darien suddenly stopped at her words, and turned slowly, like he
had just noticed her for the first time. Serena lifted her head. “Mamo-chan?”
He crossed the space between them in less than three seconds.
Serena shrank back from the look on his face; he was either going to
hug or hit her. “Mamoru? What are you doing?” His hand darted out
and grabbed the crystal around her neck. “Mamoru!” He stared at it in
his hand for a moment, his face completely expressionless as he studied
the priceless object.
Then he threw it, as hard as he could, against the wall. << Zach
would have been proud of that one. >>
It shattered. The fragments twinkled for a second like a thousand
points of light, and then disappeared, leaving behind nothing but an
irregular dent in the wall and a hysterical Serena.
“MAMORU! What did you do?!” She screamed, backing away from him.
“What did you do? That was all I had of my mother!”
He turned to her, his eyes completely expressionless, blank as a
clean slate. His mouth opened, wanting to give birth to words that never
came. “Usagi-“
“You’re scaring me, Mamo-chan,” she whispered, gripping Amy’s
sweatshirt like a child clutching a comfort object. “Please stop, please,
you’re scaring me.”
The red haze that had been encompassing Darien’s brain slowly
dissipated, and he saw for the first time how small and scared she was.
A new emotion added its way into the grief/anger/frustration melting
pot: guilt. He reached his arms out to her.
“Usagi.” She fell into his embrace, and they sobbed together,
for hours, until they fell asleep on the couch among the rubble, holding
each other like shipwreck survivors.

**********************************************************************

don't panic! There is an epilogue! It will be out soon!