Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Crystal Dreams ❯ Chapter 11

<b>Author's Notes</b>: WA-HOO! Good news to all! I have a CD burner of my own! Yes, pity me, for I have JUST rejoined the twenty-first century! Why am I telling you this? For one specific reason: this whole time I've been writing my fanfics, I have ALSO been constructing a soundtrack to my SM fanfics! For those who are interested, I am willing to mail, at my own expense, a CD with this music! No, it's not all Sailor Moon music, but it IS music that is already pre-made...all I'm doing is organizing it onto a CD for playing while you read!;) Thus far, I only have the soundtrack for Crystal Dreams ready. If you're interested, lemme know, and we'll work something out!

Thanks go to Heimdal88ed for his harsh, yet fair, critiques. Unfortunately for him, I will continue to use the little bits that annoy the spit out of him.;):P

<b>Disclaimer:</b> There are many things in this world I don't own...the senshi, Endymion, Urawa, and Sephiroth are just a few. Don't sue, for you will be laughed at.

<b>Chapter Eleven</b>

"Son of a...!" Neptune uncharacteristically whispered as her eyes finally focused on the horror that replaced their enemy.

It could have once been called a dragon...judging from its size and shape. But its skin was badly rotted, revealing it's skeleton in several places. Thankfully, much to the relief of the queasier combatants, nothing further was visible.

Serin helped his niece to her feet, who stared wide eyed at this rotting creature, which stared back at its enemies, growling low in its throat. Finally, rearing its head back, the creature let loose a rumbling howl that shook the stone walls around them, making everyone duck instinctively.

Endymion was quick to act, throwing one of his infamous rose missiles, which embedded itself into the creature's neck. Surprisingly, the attack made it stumble back a step and a half as it growled in shock. Peering at them closely, the dragon seemingly grinned, and then inhaled slowly.

Both Mercury and Serin knew what was coming, and screamed, "GET DOWN!" to the others as they followed their own advice. Fortunately, no one was left in the path of the dragon's blast of dark breath, which sizzled furiously against the far wall.

Sailor Moon was quick to respond afterwards, jumping up and firing off a Spiral Heart attack that struck the beast's left flank, eliciting a roar of rage from it's mouth. It's eyes glowed a deep red as it spread its decaying wings and began to flap them furiously, sending powerful gusts of wind through the room. Sailor Moon, Mercury, and Endymion were unfortunately blown against the nearest wall, crashing heavily before they slumped down, only semi-conscious. Neptune, Mars, Usa-chan, and Serin managed to avoid the gusts by staying down, or low to the ground.

Finally, the wings quit flapping, and returned to their resting positions, prompting a counterattack from Mars, who quickly shot off a Flame Sniper attack that pierced the creature's neck. Another howl erupted from the dragon, which was followed by more as Neptune and Serin both hammered at the beast, driving it back, and keeping it off balance. Unfortunately, it still seemed quite willing to fight, as evidenced by it's lunging bites and intermittent blasts of it's dark breath.

A shout from behind caught Neptune's attention, and she saw with relief that Sephiroth, Hotaru and Venus had arrived. Both senshi were about to join in the fray, but Sephiroth placed hands on their shoulders, holding them back...which caused the water senshi, along with the two new arrivals, to frown.

This moment of inattention proved costly, as the dragon attempted to lunge in for another bite, this one to devour her whole. Everyone present screamed in fear as the creature snapped it's jaws shut...or attempted to, anyway. With a closer look, it became obvious why.

Serin, with a burst of speed that was almost unearthly, had managed to get in the way of the dragon's maw, and was even now holding it open with the tip of his sword plunged into the roof of the dragon's mouth. Straining heavily to keep the maw open, he screamed out, "Do something, QUICK! I can't hold this forever!!!"

Sephiroth glanced around, biting back a vicious curse. He knew how to easily defeat this creature, but Urawa was nowhere to be found...and he had no way of casting the necessary spell...

His eyes lit up in surprise, and he turned to Hotaru. "Hotaru, stay close to me. I have an idea, but you have to trust me!" he spoke urgently. His love turned and looked at him with more than a few questions, but she simply nodded, gripping her glaive tightly. Turning to Venus, he said, "Go ahead and attack...try to keep it as distracted as you can from us. Hopefully, that will keep Serin safe as well." The senshi of love shortly nodded, and began charging up an attack. Seeing that as their signal, Hotaru and Sephiroth raced along toward the dragon, getting ever closer to it's rotting body, even as Serin cried out in strenuous pain now and again.

The dragon, for its part, wasn't standing still, which would have been ideal. Even though it didn't have much room to maneuver, it was still thrashing about as much as it could, howling at the inability to swallow its painful morsel. Of course, the attacks that the other senshi were throwing at it didn't help matters.

Finally however, they reached it's body, and Sephiroth again spoke with a quick, urgent tone to his voice. "Hotaru...use your healing touch on it...use as much power as you can."

Saturn turned to look at the swordsman with an incredulous look to her face, but before she could speak, he pleaded, "Please...trust me."

Biting her lip briefly, the senshi of silence finally nodded, and then whisked her Glaive away, placing both hands on the dragon's side, fighting down the nauseating feeling of touching decaying flesh. Focusing her thoughts, she began letting her natural healing powers flow into the creature's body.

At first, nothing seemed to happen. But with no warning, the dragon suddenly blinked, and its eyes widened as its body trembled. A scream of pain and anguish burst forth from its mouth, shooting the paladin out of its mouth to roll across the floor awkwardly, coughing as he waved his hand in front of his nose.

Another scream accompanied a growing point of light that emanated from the monster's body, which grew brighter and brighter...until it finally burst out, disintegrating the vile creature.

Hotaru staggered back in shock, finding Sephiroth's arm instantly there to support her. Turning to look at him, she saw a knowing grin which she returned before giving him a brief, loving kiss.

"Serenity?!? Serenity, answer me!"

Endymion's panicked voice reached them all, prompting everyone to rush to their queen. She lay trembling on the floor, clad in her royal gowns now, making short, wheezing inhalations. This, naturally, did not help the other's state of mind.

"MOM!"

"USAGI!"

"USAGI-CHAN!"

"What the hell...?!? What IS THIS?!?"

At that moment, fortuitously enough, a team of medics arrived, led by Uranus and Jupiter, who were not quite recovered, but stubborn enough to get to their ruler and friend. Urawa trailed in behind the medics, gently pushing the other senshi away, save for his wife, as he began checking Serenity's signs manually, while Mercury did the same with her computer. Waiting anxiously, her friends stood nearby as the medics prepared for a speedy transfer back to the medical room, some clutching to their significant others, while the remainder simply hugged themselves in fear.

After several agonizing moments, both Urawa and Mercury looked at each other and blanched, before Mercury turned to the nearest staff member, and said, "Get her into the emergency ward, immediately! We don't have time to spare. Make sure everything's ready for her arrival, and take the utmost care!"

The staff member nodded, and began talking into his transmitter, while his cohorts took strategic positions around the queen's body, gently grasping her. Mercury took hold, looked at the others, and said, "Alright, one two THREE," lifting her quickly and flawlessly onto the gurney that had just been wheeled in. Seconds later, the straps were in place, and the staff arrowed out of the chamber, taking Serenity with them, Endymion and everyone else following close behind.

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It was a somber setting in the waiting room, with nearly each of the senshi pacing nervously like caged tigers. Once, Serin even told them to sit down, since they were making him even more nervous, but the resulting glare from Mars and Uranus shut him up in short order. Sephiroth, for his part, leaned back looking unconcerned, but kept his mouth shut: even though he'd been exonerated(for the most part), he didn't think it wise to tempt fate.

Finally, a weary Ami emerged from the room, drying her hands as she exited. Immediately, she was surrounded by her friends and comrades, all pelting her with questions.

"How is she?"

"Is Serenity okay?!?"

"Mom's gonna be alright, right?"

"She's okay?"

Ami quickly held up a hand for silence, which everyone gave her after a mere second had passed. Taking a deep breath, she said, "She's...she's getting worse."

Stunned silence pervaded the room, which she took to further explain before anyone else could speak. "As near as I can tell...it would seem that whatever the...the fake Sephiroth is doing with the Ginzuishou, it's reacting negatively to Serenity...if this continues..." She blinked, pulled off her glasses, and sobbed, "She...she could die within a day."

Urawa immediately stepped out after that revelation, and put a comforting arm around her shoulders, which prompted her to turn and bury her face in his chest. The other senshi, for the most part, stood in slack jawed shock, while Endymion turned and slammed his fist into a wall, screaming, "DAMMIT!"

Urawa, while still consoling his wife, looked over at Usa-chan and Endymion, and said, "She wants to see you, Endymion and Usa-chan...alone. It was her specific order," he added helplessly, upon seeing the questioning gazes of the other senshi. The king and princess both nodded silently, and then stepped into the room to speak with Serenity.

Uranus, upon hearing that, shrugged and turned her gaze on Sephiroth. "Fine by me...there's something else that needs to be done anyway." Calling her Space Sword into her hand, she stepped forward quickly and placed the tip of her weapon on the swordsman's chest. In a level, icy cold tone, she said, "Call me crazy, but I have a hunch you know more than you're telling us, Sephiroth...so you have two choices: Come clean, or so help me, I will kill you outright...and don't think Hotaru will stop me, either."

A gasp from Hotaru preceded a plea, which was cut short by Sephiroth's upraised hand. Matching the sky senshi's glare, he said, "I was planning on coming clean anyway...this is something everyone NEEDS to know about." Looking over the entire room, he began, telling them everything: his past from his home dimension, his fateful bid to be a god, how he had ended up here with little memory of where he'd come from. Finally, he told them precisely what Aeris had told him about the unique bond shared between him and his other half.

"That's...wow," was Mars' comment when he had finished.

"Awfully convenient explanation, too," Uranus retorted with an 'I'm not buying this' tone. Still, Sephiroth could see the grudging acceptance in her eyes...that, and the fact that she had put her Space Sword away.

"What I don't understand is what this...Aeris meant by fighting from the heart..." Serin commented.

"We can worry about that later. Right now, we've got to find out where he is, and get the Ginzuishou back. If we do that, we can save Serenity," Urawa spoke up.

Ami, naturally, was quck to point out a problem. "But we don't know where he is...and we have no effective method of searching in the time we have!"

"That's not a problem...I know where he is."

Everyone turned to Sephiroth, shocked at how he could have known...until the light bulb clicked.

"OF COURSE! They're two halves of the same coin! What one knows, the other does as well!" Jupiter exclaimed.

Ami nodded, turning to the swordsman. "Where is he, then?"

"At the NORAD ruins we discovered. He's managed to overload the generator there, enabling him to burrow deep into the core. His plan is to get into the core, and suck up every bit of this planet's energy with the Ginzuishou. He's about ready, so we don't have much time," he declared, finally standing.

Uranus stopped him by holding out a hand to keep him from going any further. "Wait."

Neptune frowned at her mate. "Uranus..."

"Don't any of you get it? He can be used by his other half just as easily as he's doing it. If we take him with us, we might as well strap big neon signs to our backs saying 'BAKA' on them," she pointed out.

"But if we DON'T take him, we can't win," Hotaru protested. "Killing the evil half means we kill Seph-kun as well...and I won't have that! The only way we can really win is by bringing him along."

Serin nodded. "I'm inclined to agree...I can't say I don't see your point, Uranus...but something tells me it would be a BAD idea not to bring him."

Seeing no support whatsoever in her idea, the sky senshi finally backed down, sighing in defeat. "Alright...but I still think it's a bad idea."

"What's a bad idea?"

Everyone turned to the door, seeing Endymion and his daughter stepping out from Serenity's room. Though he was obviously in pain, he seemed calmer than before...as did Usa-chan.

'If all goes well, we won't have anything to worry about,' thought Sephiroth. Aloud, he said, "We were just discussing out plan of attack." Quickly, he highlighted the points he had told the others. When he finished, Endymion's firm voice answered, "I want in."

Serin shook his head. "Not a chance, Endymion. You're needed here..."

"FUCK that!!!" Endymion shouted, slamming his fist against the door. "My wife is DYING in there, and you want me to sit here and watch her waste away!?! I won't have it! I want a piece of this bastard, and I will have it!!!"

Just as it seemed everyone would buckled under that storm of rage, Sephiroth again stepped forward. "...Endymion," he began, catching everyone by surprise, "I can't say I don't understand your feelings. But we need all the time we can get to finish this. We want to come back to a total success...and the only way we can do that is if you remain here."

"But..."

"Listen to me," Seph cut the king off. "Having you here will make Serenity fight this...disease, or reaction...whatever you want to call it, that much harder. You can provide her with the strength she needs to keep fighting...no one else can do that as much as you. As close as she is to all of her friends, and vice versa, I don't think I'm out of line by saying that you have a bond with her that no one can match." Stepping forward again, he placed his hands on Endymion's shoulders. "You can get a piece of that bastard...by staying here, with your wife."

For a brief moment, Endymion appeared as though he would argue the point more. However, he sighed, and slumped, nodding in agreement. "Alright...I...I'll stay."

Urawa tapped a finger against his chin. "Come to think of it...it probably wouldn't be a bad idea for two others to stay beyond the king and princess...added incentive, I guess," he added with a shrug.

"I'll stay," Mars said, surprising no one.

"As will I. Just in case, there should be a doctor she would recognize as a friend," Ami added.

Uranus nodded. "Alright...let's get going to this NORAD site, then..."

With a chorus of acknowledgements, everyone save for Ami, Mars, Endymion and Usa-chan filed out. Shortly thereafter though, Sephiroth pulled Saturn back from earshot.

"...What is it, Seph?" she asked.

The warrior's expression was deeply troubled as he struggled to find the right words, weighing each sentence carefully. Finally, he sighed and decided to be blunt: "Hotaru...I'm thinking that maybe we shouldn't get married."

The senshi of silence nearly dropped to her knees, feeling as though she'd been gut-punched. Stopping and looking at her fiance with wide, disbelieving eyes, she stammered, "W...why?!?"

"Hotaru...all this time...when you thought you knew me, when I thought I knew me...it was a lie. You've only fallen in love with one half of a whole being...and if things turn out...I may not be the same." Sighing, he looked off to the side, his expression extremely sorrowful. "I'm not sure that I will be a man you want to love anymore."

*SLAP!*

The sound resonated through the halls, and Sephiroth staggered back, more from shock than the force of the blow itself. Holding his cheek, he looked at his love, who had tears running down her cheeks, and a furious look in her eyes.

"...DAMMIT, Sephiroth! Don't you EVER say that again! Do you think I'm STUPID! Do you really think I give and take my love like money? When I fell in love with you, it was because I truly, honestly LOVED you!!! I've already thought about this, Sephiroth, and you know what conclusion I came to?!?"

The swordsman could only manage a slow, silent shake of his head, still holding his cheek.

"It was that no matter what you look like, or no matter what happens, you will always be Sephiroth! And I will always love this part of you!" Flinging herself into his chest, she sobbed, "Please...don't ever say that again! I love you, Sephiroth...no matter what you think you ARE Sephiroth...and you ARE the man I will always love...no matter what!"

Slowly, his arms encircled Saturn's waist, holding her close as she continued to softly cry against his chest. 'Idiot,' he thought to himself. 'You should have known better than that...you shouldn't have doubted the power of love...'

Shaking his head at his own stupidity, he leaned against a wall, still holding his fiancee...as long as she wanted him to, he would...and no force on earth could stop him from providing this little comfort.

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Around a corner, Uranus smiled slightly, and nodded her head in approval, earning an amused glance from his mate.

"What?" the sky senshi asked.

"It's just odd...a minute ago you were ready to run him through, and now...you really want him in the family, don't you?" Neptune asked with a light chuckle.

Uranus blushed. "Well...yeah, maybe. It'd be kind of nice to have a son...even if he was an in-law. And, he's a pain in the ass at times, but..."

Neptune outright grinned at that. "Well, some of us can be more than others..." she finished with a wink.

"Funny...that's not what you said last weekend," was the teasing reply.

A playful sniff was the only answer Neptune gave, as her look returned to the two lovers. Shooting a look at her own lover, the water senshi asked, "Should we break them up?"

In an uncharacteristic move, Uranus shook her head. "Let's give them a few more minutes...it might be..."

"...The last time they have together," Neptune finished sadly.