We followed him, I don't know why we followed him but I wasn't about to argue with him. He had a dangerous glint in his eyes and was carrying Hotaru's body as he continued down the hall. Somehow he knew where he was going, making small turns and pausing now and then to get his bearings, soon we ended up in the ballroom. He stopped there and laid Hotaru on the ground by the door, then we all continued inside. Sitting on the throne was a dark, handsome man about Endymions' own age, he had a terrible aura of dark energy around him and he laughed as we walked in the door.
"So I see you've found my little playroom he said, I'm so terribly sorry for your little friend, Hotaru was it and of course the other one, Raye. She was quite nice let me assure you, all curves and muscle she was even good unconscious."
He laughed as though he'd made some terribly funny joke and seemed surprised that we did not laugh along with him.
"What a luscious young woman, too bad she won't wake up isn't it and you even tried to heal her with that puny little crystal didn't you. Well, when this is all over perhaps I'll have time to entertain all you lovely young women the same way, I assure you you'll enjoy it once I've broken you. And this young gentleman here," He said pointing at Endymion "He's got a secret even he doesn't know about. But I'll let you all figure that one out, now who do I get to kill first?"
I glanced over my shoulder and saw Serena and Mercury conferring, probably getting the stats on his power. Uranus was gently laying Raye's body down beside Hotaru's at the door. Lita, Mina and Adam were with Serena, adding information only they could know from their time in his possession. I powered up and decided to check out his powers on my own.
"Neptune Deep Submerge!"
I yelled, throwing my attack towards him. He didn't even look up, he just sat there as It got closer and finally raised a finger and flicked the attack back at me! I was so surprised I just stood there until Uranus jumped up and tackled me, dodging the blast.
"You shouldn't have done that Neptune!" Uranus scolded.
"Sorry, but at least we know now that one of us alone can't beat him." I said smiling. "Thanx for your timely save as usual." I smiled up at her and she couldn't help but return the smile.
The soldiers all gathered together in a line and we began our attacks.
"Jupiter Thunder Dragon!"
"Venus Love-chain Encircle!"
"Mercury Aqua Rhapsody!"
"Mercury Tidal Sword!"
"Uranus World Shaking!"
"Neptune Deep Submerge!"
We combined our attack and sent them hurtling toward the dark prince as he laughed. He stood up, put his arms out in front of him and suddenly all our attacks disappeared! He laughed with glee and said
"My turn!" And six black balls of energy raced toward us, we didn't even have time do dodge, the attacks struck us full force and knocked every one of us back into the wall. Our attacks didn't even touch him and when he sent his It looked like no effort at all to create all SIX energy balls! How strong was this guy anyway? We tried again this time we had split into two groups, there were two lines of soldiers three soldiers with two behind them being shielded. When he launched the energy balls at the front line they would take the hits and the back line would attack thinking he was weakened right after an attack. We readied ourselves and then the front line attacked "Mercury Tidal Sword"
"Jupiter Thunder Dragon"
"Uranus World Shaking"
Just as their attacks were cut off the dark prince yawned as he sent out another three energy balls, we waited until the balls left his hands and then the back three attacked as the first line was struck by the energy.
"Mercury Aqua Rhapsody"
"Venus Love-chain Encircle"
"Neptune Deep Submerge"
This time our attacks seemed to strike him, but he stood up laughing, he had shielded himself again.
"I applaud your strategic genius girls, but I must tell you no one in this pathetic little group could possibly kill me! You're all so weak, I'd hate to destroy such beautiful young women and such powerful young men, join me and I'll let you live. All of you I promise, I'll even revive the little Hotaru and The beautiful Raye. When you joined me you beautiful young women surely wouldn't mind giving yourselves to me freely, you might even enjoy it, I love to give pleasure to those who obey me. As for you young men you would be the generals of my great army, lifted high above the rest as you helped me conquer the universe, although I suppose I'd have to kill that Endymion, he's practically worthless to me. Well, what do you all say?"
A chorus of "No way you Pervert!" rang from each throat, simultaneously and the dark prince laughed and applauded. Suddenly, in the middle of his applause his eyes darkened to black and two black spheres of energy hurtled toward Jupiter and I. Another two balls from his hands hit Mercury, Mercury Knight who had been standing beside her and Venus head on.
Damn it! I thought as I saw Neptune and Jupiter pulled into the strange balls, the stood in the energy and tried their attacks, each one being absorbed into the spheres.
"There are ways young women should act when in the presence of men such as I" the dark prince laughed.
Suddenly both Jupiter and Neptune were naked, their uniforms torn from them and thrown outside their cages of energy. The two continued to attack their prisons and the dark prince laughed once again, Neptune and Jupiter screamed as their transformations were painfully reversed and their henshin sticks fell through the energy balls and hit the floor with such force that both were broken in two. Neptune and Jupiter collapsed on the floor of their cages breathing hard, the planet symbols on their foreheads softly fading, they were no longer sailor soldiers. The prince held up his hands toward the cages and they glowed with a red intensity. The two in the cage screamed and writhed in pain as the red glow surrounded them, engulfing them.
"There, bad little girls should be punished, as for the rest of you your poor little friends are no longer any help to you. Shall we continue? Alright then I guess it's your turn." He laughed as he strode out onto the floor and stood beneath the cages holding Lita and Michiru. Venus was so enraged by the sight of her friend helpless and hurt that she launched her own attack.
"Venus Love-chain Encircle" she screamed.
The dark prince made a tsk-tsk sound and threw her attack back at her knocking her to the ground. This time Serena stepped forward and raising her scepter began her "Moon Spiral Heart Attack!" throwing a wave of pink energy toward the dark prince, he laughed as though it was nothing and negligently flipped the energy away from him. Serena gasped and stepped back in alarm, it was an attack using the silver crystal and it had failed! This guy was super strong, where was he getting his energy from, and how was he able to deflect her most powerful attack?
"Uranus!" she cried and I turned toward her. "Watch out!" she screamed and I turned just in time to dodge a black energy ball, but I didn't see the one behind it as it crashed into me and pain rolled through me like a tidal wave. I crashed into the wall and fell to the floor like a rag doll. I was dying.
"No Uranus! You can't leave me" I heard Michiru yell and she fell to the ground in her cage crying for her love. Venus was down and Adam was holding her hand, trying to comfort her as she slipped farther and farther away from him, finally her hand slackened and he broke down over her still form, his sister gone at last. Lita and Michiru were trapped and no longer sailor soldiers, Hotaru was dead, Uranus and Raye were dying and both Mercury and Mercury Knight were unconscious. The only one left who could fight was me, Princess Serena, and what could I do, so far all my attacks had failed and I had no attack more powerful than the one that had been so easily thrown away. The dark prince laughed again as he walked back and sat on the throne he had unrightfully taken. The dark prince looked at me and smiled as he drew forth a terrible black sword, the hilt was black leather bound and the sword a void of darkness. The dark prince hefted the sword and held it facing the ceiling in front of me, his eyes began to glow an eerie red and a large black bolt of energy seemed to leap out of the sword towards me. Suddenly the knight who had saved me in the park was there in front of me, as the energy struck his body he made no sound, he didn't even look like he was in pain.
"NO! NO IT CAN'T BE!" shrieked the dark prince. He was terrified now, but of what Serena knew not. Endymion had disappeared she noted and began to understand. The knight in front of her began to turn toward her in the air no longer attached to the bolt of dark energy. A soft white light began to glow on his forehead and a white sword faded into existence, just like the planet symbols on the scouts and the crescent moon on her own forehead. The white mask over his eyes fell away and she recognized Endymion, or was it Darien! His outfit began to shimmer and he was bathed in a bright white light, Serena shielded her eyes but felt that she had to see this. When the light faded Darien stood there dressed in armor the same as what he had worn as the knight-protector, but this time it was all pure white even the sword attached to his side was white. He floated down to the ground and ran to her, tears of joy coursing down his face.
"Serena, my princess I love you I have always loved you. It's me, Darien I remember everything now, oh my love!"
I hugged him close to me as I whispered " I love you Darien." A movement behind him made him turn and I could see his eyes harden as he faced the dark prince. The dark prince cowered in fear, he knew the power of the white knight could easily negate his dark sword. Darien took out his sword and handed it to me, surprising both the dark prince and I.
"Serena, you have to do this alone." He said his eyes were staring off into space so I listened to him and took the sword, surprisingly it was light as a feather! "Take the silver crystal and place it on the hilt" he said. I did as he asked and was surprised to see the crystal sink into the hilt as though it belonged there! I looked at Darien and he nodded to me, I knew what to do, I had to battle the dark prince. The dark prince strode toward me, wings outstretched. I hadn't noticed he too had wings, but it was no matter, the final battle was about to begin. We circled each other and then he made a move, he lunged toward me and I countered with a cross blow, he thought this was going to be easy! He's dead wrong Serena thought and I turned to find Darien quickly but he was leaning over Uranus. I quickly turned back to face my foe and this time I made the move, an overhand slice, but he blocked and began another move. We went on like that for a while, I had almost no idea what I was doing, the sword seemed alive in my hand as though it was conscious. That's impossible I thought, but I continued to let the sword guide me.
I tore my eyes from Serena and walked over to Uranus, she was fading fast. I put my hands to the sides of her head and let my energy flow into her, she took a deep breath and opened her eyes. "Darien? But you're dead!" she yelled, but I continued on to Raye, I knew Hotaru was already dead. I did the same thing to Raye and she had pretty much the same response, happy and surprised to see me, then I moved on to Venus and once again healed her with my positive energy, somehow I knew what I was doing. I walked over to Mercury and her knight and revived both of them, the entire group that I had healed seemed to gather themselves into a ball and finally noticed the battle going on in the center of the ballroom. I sent two pulses of white energy toward the cages holding Lita and Neptune and let them float to the ground, I picked up their henshin sticks and fused them together again with a thought. I handed them their henshin sticks and they transformed again to join the group in watching Serena and the dark prince. The battle went on for hours and then Serena tried and upper strike and hit him in the face with the broad-side of her sword, he was knocked unconscious by the blow. I went over to her and kissed her, my touch instantly healing her minor cuts and bruises and relaxing her tired body. I took up my sword with the silver crystal and built a cage of my own white energy, tossing the dark prince into it I sealed it off and sent him to the negaverse, which was no longer occupied of course! Everyone was staring at me so I reversed my transformation and went over to them to hug everybody and we all ended up in one big crying pile on the floor.
We transported ourselves back to Jupiter and tidied up a bit. Hotaru's funeral was terribly sad and Serena and the rest of us stayed there a bit longer to offer our own tributes to Hotaru, who was sailor Saturn. Serena and I were married and we rebuilt the Palace on the moon with the help of the other planets, we're living happily now in a peaceful era with our daughter Reenie and all our friends. By the way Amy and Greg finally got married and have a beautiful baby boy they named Endymion! I'm so lucky to have my life turned around like this. Well that's my story, along with the others' help of course I was able to include everyone's point of view. Thank you for reading!
~ Darien a.k.a. The White Knight ~
