2640/Wicked Ride: Moon Bride 2

Wicked Ride: Moon Bride 2
Date of Scene:	22 June 2025
Location:	Nega Moon Space
Synopsis:	It's time for the final confrontation with Wicked Lady, and people get a demonstration on why Mamoru has been insistent that no one draw her aggro for the past month. Let's have a heartfelt talk held at in the middle of an apocalypse that Wicked Lady is causing, and dive into the depths of her darkness. After the dust settles, all that remains of her is Sailor Chibimoon. Usagi and Mamoru can finally have the wedding they've yearned so long for!
Cast of Characters:	Chibiusa Tsukino, Usagi Tsukino, Mamoru Chiba, Veronica Perenna, Kazuo Saitou, Adora Rainbowfist, Zoisite, Hinote Kagari, Minako Aino, Haruka Tenoh, Hinoiri Kirara, Jadeite, Laura La Mer, Yuki Hoshino, Nephrite, Amanda Faust, Catra, Hotaru Tomoe, Takashi Agera, Madoka Kaname
Tinyplot:	BMC: Wicked Ride
Tinyplot2:	Black Moon Clan

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Chibiusa Tsukino has posed:
    The world within the stacked barriers of Rashmi's Time Space Barrier and Serenity's Nega Moon Space is a place of nightmares. The ground beneath their feet is no longer marble but softened cloth with too much give, like trying to balance on the air-filled canvas of a bouncy house as it slowly deflates.

    The water of the pond has become sparkling marbles, heavy and painful to fall upon, sliding underfoot, a hazard to anyone who crashes in, or gets to close. The pond was fairly shallow, nothing more than a few feet deep, but this seems like an endless pit.

    The Moon Palace is a pink and black monstrosity of a building, the once rounded curves are hard-edged and sharp, the Crescent Moon twisted upside down, shattered stones and rubble lining the too-soft walkway and sinking into the marble sea.

    The sky is a watercolor nightmare of mauve and pink, stars punched out holes, tears in space behind which a gnawing darkness lurks, and the Earth is a whirl of too many muted colors, and it is getting closer.

    It is so, so large in the sky, and it is turning black.

    A giant jar, large enough to encompass the entire battlefield, falls mouth down onto this twisted version of the wedding venue. It's the Curse Jar, or at least a replica of it, made large enough to rival several city blocks in width and a skyscraper in height.

    It's a sign of Wicked Lady's personal touch. It's only fitting after all, that after New Moon falls her sole heir takes over. The marbles in the pond all turn a soft black, matching the too-close planet up above.

    If one looks close enough, they might notice that out of the hole-punched stars come the ghostly form of tiny screaming faces, twinkling between horror and rage. Whatever incomprehensible monstrosity lies behind them, it's leaking through.

    All at once, on the heels of New Moon's purification, the barrier containing Wicked Lady shatters under the furious battery of her Luna-Parasol. Her pink trap-throne is in ruins, and the mahoujin meant to contain her have failed to do so. Lady is furious, and that fury has turned into a dark radiance that pours out of her aura, spreading a horrifying sickness that be seen and felt.

    Things are about to get a lot worse.

    Wicked Lady's shocked and angry red eyes lock onto the recently purified form of Princess Serenity. "You..." Her voice shakes. "You were supposed to support me! You were supposed to be with me! To stand by my side, forever!"

    With panicked rage, she looks over the Nega Moon Space, takes it all in. Her voice gets more shrill. "They even defeated our Jeep! How could you let this happen?" She goes silent for a moment, free hand reaching up to cover her face as her entire body shakes.

    Then, all of a sudden, she becomes still. "You know what? It's fine." Her smile is far too wide as she walks towards Princess Serenity and Prince Endymion. "I'm going to fix this. I'm going to make this all better. Really, this is what we wanted, right? All of these powerful magicals, gathered together all at once... it was all part of our plan."

    She flicks her parasol off to the side, and a few drops of blood splatter on the dark walkway. Whose was it? Maybe better not to ask. Her composure is restored as she struts up to her alt-mom. Her red eyes glow pink.

    "An army of the most powerful mahoujin in Tokyo, all here to honor me, and soon..."

    She reaches out to the Prince, briefly brushing her hand against his cheek. Try and stop me, Mamoru. I'm about to do something wicked.

Chibiusa Tsukino has posed:
    Breaking contact as she walks past her alt-parents, she stands silent with her back to the crowd for few tense seconds before turning around and opening her parasol to reveal its spiral pattern. She sits in the air, and floats higher, pointing the tip of her hypnotic umbrella as her eyes glow bright pink. As the canopy spins, the dark power emanating from her becomes almost... soothing, overpowering, and controlling at the same time. It crawls in at the corners of your mind, luring you, tempting you, drawing you in and spreading through you. The longer you keep watching her, and keep hearing the voice of your new Lady, the worse it gets.

    Make no mistake, this is a brainwashing attempt.

    Calm and warm, like a monster's imitation of a mother, Wicked Lady calls out to the gathered mahou, "... and soon, all of you will belong to me. Every single one of you will bend your knee before me, admire me, adore me, and serve me. Once I've gotten each and every single one of you under my thrall, I'll have my new mahoujin army give me what I most desire for my birthday."

    "Prince Demande's ashes. Maybe even Wiseman's too. Oh, and another toy car that I can youmafy. That would do it for this year, I think."

    One wonders if she wont end up getting most of those things regardless of how this fight ends. One might also note how hate-filled her heart must be for this to be her priority. More than anything one might hope that someone remembered to bring a smoke screen or ear plugs, and a lot of purification magic.

    Welcome to Stage Two.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Princess Serenity seems to stand taller than Usagi had, but that might just be the pale glow emanating from her skin, the lengthy fall of her gown and skirts, or maybe, it's the way her hair is growing before their eyes, pale as the moon itself, silken strands expanding, expanding, expanding, from the length already done up in odango buns.

It's taking a little time - a great deal of length had been cut, after all - but Princess Serenity has long hair, a fact imprinted in this very transformation. The growing of that hair is just a fact.

The Princess herself is hardly aware of it, for even though she's gathered herself for the fight she's still shaken by everything, rocked to her core by a month of being someone other than herself, but there's no time to process any of it, because there's that voice ringing out, her voice, and Princess Serenity looks up into those shocked, angry eyes, hears the pleading undertone to those furious words.

"And I will stand by your side," Princess Serenity declares and stretches out her hand. "But not like this, Chibiusa-chan. Not like this. New Moon is no more who I am than Wicked Lady is who you are! This isn't the way!"

It won't be enough. She knows that now from firsthand experience - the only way to reach Chibiusa in Wicked Lady will be with a judicious dose of purification, as much as it will be with their hearts reaching out for her.

Wicked Lady's panicked rage still and goes cold, and Princess Serenity reaches for her even as she stalks past, and is unable to make contact.

And then Wicked Lady is in the air, and the brainwashing attempt starts, a swirl of color and light that tries so very hard to press on the cracks in Princess Serenity's psyche, in her heart -

The Silver Crystal glows in her hands and light sparkles as she summons forth the Crescent Wand, placing the flowering Silver Crystal in the wand as it expands into a great staff.

"Not this time, Chibiusa. It's time for us to stand together, instead of running away."

With a swift motion, a circle of golden light is carved into the air, and silver beams race towards Wicked Lady.

"Moon Healing Escalation!"

An opening salvo.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
For just a half second, just while Usagi's getting her balance and switching gears, Mamoru cradles her with a look of unmitigated joy on his face, joy and relief buzzing through his fingertips where they're in contact with her skin--

--and then Serenity's sweeping up in her flowing henshin with her Ginzuishou in hand and oh, her hair, her HAIR is back!! And in her wake, the disheveled Tuxedo Unmask sweeps away to leave Endymion once more, spending some speed and energy reserve for more strength and armor. He stands up behind Serenity as Wicked Lady's final barrier snaps and she lets that wave of dark radiance spread from her like ink in water.

Oh Endymion is tense, but he doesn't reject Lady's touch as she reaches to brush her hand against his face. She's about to do something wicked, and he can't hide any more how much his heart is breaking for Small Lady, how much he hopes she won't remember all of this so clearly, how much he expects that they'll win, how much he loves her, love love loves her; his heart's reaching out for her, his power's locked on to her own soul, the connection between them poisonous as he holds onto it -- holds on to her with his heart and his soul and both of their connections to the earth above. "I can't stop you," he agrees. "But they can, and I can help Usako help you."

His hands rise to Serenity's shoulders and glow as he pours his strength and energy into her purification-- not a combo, but a buff. He doesn't attack, himself. "Baby girl, you'll get those things without brainwashing everyone. You'd know how much we all want the same things if you weren't overflowing with corruption. And you would get bored with an army of hype kids."

But what he's doing is, in fact, patiently strengthening the gold en-pink connection between them, giving her something that feels so familiar to grasp when and if she's ready to start resisting. He doesn't try to do anything with it, just-- braiding a rope ladder out of the abyss. For later.

In among the spiritual gymnastics, it's almost an afterthought, the mental shields he throws up against brainwashing, the shields he'll help Usagi with if she needs them.

Veronica Perenna has posed:
When Usagi becomes Princess Serenity, the other Princess Serenity literally vanishes into thin air. In her ethereal state, the Princess of Sarek lets the disguise fade, and jumps a bit further away, just enough she is not visible when she chooses to reappear.

She waits a minute, and then she returns to the physical world, making her way to the location of the fight. "I had a thing to attend to, but the Princess of Sarek is here to help as well!", she exclaims with a slight bow.

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
Kunzite straightens where "Sailor Moon" dropped him off, his cape flowing ragged behind him. And his eyes - closing, and then reopening a blank white as he lifts his hands. Not to attack, any more than Endymion is attacking. Not even to put his shadows around Wicked Lady.

Only around the Luna-Parasol, and its reinforcing curl of color. Holding back that portion of the hypnotic light.

"No," he says quietly. "We may love you. We may support you. We may even adore you, when you are yourself, not this - but we will not belong to anyone. Not like that."

Not again.

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
Adora had been here the whole time, enjoying the food, watching the fighting, trying desperately to make her stupid sword work through most of the fight and taking cover at the back of the venue. Her ability to focus is questionable at best most of the time. Towards the end of the fight against New Moon she /had/ managed to eventually transform and stuff was basically over. Which was ... probably for the best.

As Wicked Lady escaped, she was relatively fresh-ish.

The power of She-Ra meant that when the brainwashing started she was ... well, probably still a bit susceptible to such things, but the opening salvo of Moon Healing Escalation broke that. Partially because frankly.

...Princess Serenity is /really pretty/ and that circle of golden light felt... familiar. She-Ra gives a soft exhale, as she grips her sword with both of her hands. She can empower Princesses, right? Would her Aura be able to work with Princesses of /this/ world too?

A golden glow begins to surround She-Ra, ringing her body as she tries to extend her Aura.

...Which might find the other Princesses of Power that were there, like Catra who was probably still around here somewhere. Unfortunately it didn't /really/ extend to the other princesses. Sadly.

Hm.

"Well, that was a thought. Oh well."

She lifts her sword, which glows with a rainbow energy.

"...Wicked Lady, we shall beat you, and then we can all go together to beat up the others! That way we can all have /fun/ and /not/ feel awful because of the dark energy nastiness and my arm won't become all weird and skeletal!"

That's oddly specific.

Zoisite has posed:
Having witnessed the end of New Moon was a relief to him, only for his eyebrows to pinch when the trap broke, releasing Wicked Lady. Speech and all, as she floats up above all of them. The moment the Parasol opens with hypnotic colors was when Sailor Moon looked away quickly, the hairs on her neck standing on end.

Flames and petals surround her until the disguise was the uniform of a Shitennou; Zoisite. And his face was sour at the thought of Small Lady trying to brainwash any of them.

He had enough of that.

Teleporting away to be next to Kunzite, to monitor the fight from a proper distance and teleport in where he's needed. He has no shield to offer, merely attacks and a small healing charm he barely understood himself. That would have to do for now.

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Hinote Kagari was here. Then a very Wicked Lady showed up. And Hinote wasn't here, but Detective, Pulp Noir was. He's been helping keeping her at bay while the other folks did their jobs and that's been evident by the smoking tommy gun in his hands and the stream of magical brass casings around him as he starts firing again at that Umbrella, hoping to fill it full of magical shots.

"What kind of Burtonesque freaking attempt is this?" he says as he draws the rim of his fedora down over his eyes.

"Brainwashing...sorry I'm dryclean only." he insists.

Minako Aino has posed:
while the fight had been raging on against New Moon, Minako-as-Usagi had been working hard to try and help keep Wicked Lady trapped by that throne, much as she could. There were enough here that her role at the moment was distraction, and hiding Usagi/Moon/Serenity's identity from those who might still be unaware. One certain someone in particular.

Now that the throne trap had proven ineffective? It takes a moment for her to regroup with the changed situation inside the Nega Moon world. The only immediate decision she could come up with is that Usagi was not fit for this fight.

'Transformed' the next stage up into yet-another-Sailor Moon, MinaMoon steps forward into view when Wicked Lady starts her attempt at hypnotizing the mahou gathered.

"No! Wicked Lady! How could you think to deprive all those who care about you from getting to see you grow up? We've already missed so many of your birthdays! The only way we can right this wrong is if you go back to being our adorable little ChibiUsa so that we can be there for you as you grow up!"

The Odango-ed blonde finds herself wavering with a sudden lurching of her stomach at the sight of the Parasol twirling around however. From pointing dramatically she goes to doubling forward with arms around her stomach looking far more green than she ought to.

"Oogh okay maybe... Maybe don't do that..."

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
    External threat containment was going well. Princess saving went well. But now internal containment had failed. Wicked Lady was out, and attacking and two more Sailor Soldiers had shifted to join this fight.

    No longer in pretty dresses (but still admittedly very pretty, especially if you asked either of them about the other) the two outer Sailor Senshi make their appearance known from a suitably high place.

    Neptune avoids the hypnotic power of the umbrella by looking at it through here outstretched Deep Aqua Mirror, the magic of the hypnosis offset by the magic of the mirror. "Come on now, it's time to put your toys away, and behave. If you can't get clean of that dark energy I shall have to wash it off you."

    "She means with Deep Submer-" Uranus begins to explain, but she's looking at the mirror and starts to step in that direction before Neptune sighs and smacks her on the back of the head. "-Ow!"

    "You have to look at her in the mirror, dear. Hypnotic evil umbrella."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Cure La Licorne had been with them, joining in, fighting, shocked admittedly to find out that New Moon was Usagi... and kind of annoyed that she was so shocked by it. And very, very happy to get out of the banana peel.

And the fight had been brutal, and exhausting. And now they were going into round two. And you know what? Chibiusa was right. They did like her. They even adored her. She was kind of a cute little twerp. But you know what?

Sometimes you showed you cared with hugs, kisses, headpats. SOMETIMES you showed you cared by punching some sense into the jaw of a brat who REALLY needed to learn a bloody lesson. And she was grateful to those who punched her, and hopefully Chibiusa would be grateful to her.

She did, however, have to avert her eyes and reach up, clasping her flames in her fist, focusing on what drove herself forward. They DID care about her. And they WERE going to give her what she wanted... For the RIGHT reasons.

But not in the way she demanded them. Well. Except the car. She was a bit young for that, still. Maybe she could like, give her the scooter or something.

Jadeite has posed:
A mother's lullaby - soft, soothing, sweet-

Jadeite laughs as he slams his hands down and lets ice spread across one of the the black and goopy pools - hitting ice won't be IDEAL if someone falls, but he doesn't think anyone here wants to go into the dip. "Chibi-Usa, that's not gonna work on people whos mothers are as indulgent as yours!" he cackles, then smooths his face over with a gloved hand. "Sometimes loving someone means stopping them when they're doing something foolish - and as one of your uncles, I can't get you any toy cars until I know you're not going to hit anyone with it!"

Laura La Mer has posed:
Laura was one of the mahoujin working to keep Wicked Lady trapped. That day the song of Chanteur, lighting the path to happiness, regaled the barrier with its purifying energy, keeping the darkness of Chibiusa at bay.

That's really the only thing she wanted to try. Purifying whales are both meant for dealing strong strikes to enemies, and she doesn't think potent tail-whacks would have been very helpful for the barrier. So, song it is.

Besides, she is not going to be outdone by another singing mermaid.

To be honest, she kinda needed the ring showing her the path to happiness, because at seeing Chibiusa in the prison, even corrupted by the darkness and wicked, her heart wasn't fully in it.

She really wanted to jump ahead to the part where they could have Chibiusa back, just like she had always been, but she knows that would never work. She has to be steadfast, and determined, as she always is, for Chibiusa too, not just herself.

"Well, wouldn't you know, Chibiusa? I am at your side right now, and that's because I want you back by my side. As soon as you return to being Chibiusa, we will have to run another boardgame soon, or raid Meiou-san's cosplay closet again. And any problem you have had, we will smash them in the face together, alright?", she winks brightly at the pinkette.

The Ring of Happiness shines brightly, and it unearths the fun times they have had together, and the fun times that are sure to come, and that bond pushes back against the hypnotic influence of Wicked Lady's umbrella.

Yuki Hoshino has posed:
The last thing Yuki remembered was telling New Moon to stop evilling around and get on with marrying her boyfriend already. Then there was a blast, and a wall, and merciful darkness.

No, not that kind of darkness. Just normal unconsciousness.

Waking up is less than pleasant. She's a bit unsteady, but at least her Barrier Jacket seems to've held. The pink and black scenery is a less-than-delightful assault on the senses, however.

"Okay, look, I know I told you you looked cool that way, but that doesn't mean you repaint the entire Moon pink and black, okay?"

What's that spinning - oh. An umbrella. And the *other* pink and black girl. An even cooler-looking one. Maybe this whole pink/black thing isn't so bad after all....

Nephrite has posed:
To follow Kunzite, Nephrite's gloved hands move into a particular motion and sign, and his own blue gaze grows blank as shadow flies out towards the Parasol. In aid against the light that Kunzite was helping to warp, and the gravity-like drag at the Parasol came about from his own power as shadow took hold of object.

The attempt, bizarre as it might seem, is to collapse and close the parasol if he can. Partially or fully. But she's very strong.

Sailor Mercury, too, has come running from the ruins of the throne, already visibly exhausted from having held the Lady back thus far. Desperate to stop this, lifts both hands and streams of water draw toward her palms to gather into swirling orbs.

"Mercury Aqua Mirage!"

The water is hurled forward not at Lady, but at the Parasol-- swirling into a mass and freezing solid.

But the way she flaters to pant, hand still outstreched, it is clear that she's already spent a lot of her strength. "Please, Chibiusa-chan, don't--"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    She's back. Usagi's back.

    Amy breathes a sigh of relief...

    She has questions. Both for Usagi, and things like 'why didn't evil you's Labyrinth go away', but. There is so much ahead, and this breather may only last seconds. First: She retrieves the grief seed and holds it to her soul gem again. Second: She--

    Oh. It's still almost a sixth corrupted, and Melone's grief seed can hold no more. Amy frowns slightly and puts the grief seed away. Mentally reviewing every time in the fight she maybe could've tried to conserve magic.

    It's still manageable. She can still take plenty of youma down like this. But if Wicked Lady is like Beryl... Well, Riventon had a grief seed, didn't he? And Madoka and Homura are out there outside the Labyrinth which uh, hopefully Usagi can drop now that she's no longer New Moon. And then they--

    Is that a jar?!

    Amy is uneasy being in a jar. For lots of reasons.

    Wicked Lady is mad. "She IS on your si--!" Amy protests, but Wicked Lady is shouting.

    "Plan?" the Puella Magi echoes, standing and slipping the grief seed into her belt pouch. Didn't she say their plan was to brainwash all of us? Amy thinks to herself.

    The umbrella has a spiral patt--NOPE NOT FALLING FOR THAT LOOK AWAY.

    She still has to hear the voice though.

    She once thought agency was all that seperates her from an animal, all that makes her her. Part of what makes anyone human. She hasn't specifically re-evaluated this philosophy, though she has a vague feeling things are a bit muddier and more complicated, but she doubts rethinking would conclude the opposite. But this feels bad for so many reasons besides that.

    Like, Wicked Lady is sounding extraordinarily creepy in a way that just raises her hackles.

    The situation reminds her of countless terrible stories.

    It's also, just, y'know, on the face of it, bad?

    And it especially grates on her, that Wicked Lady would demand such with no care for them in return.

    And is Amanda still Amanda if she's mind-controlled? ...maybe, which is damn far from yes in this case.

    Endymion points out she'd get bored with an army of hype kids, and Amy feels a shudder at the thought of people being thrown away.

    "You. Want. Toys." She clenches her fists and turns towards Wicked Lady, but doesn't look at her because duh. "And you think that makes you fit to be Princess of the future? If you don't see your subjects as people, you are not ready to inherit."

    Amy shakes her head. "I was a fool to think all these kingdoms just might be a good thing. A benevolent dictator is a single point of failure."

    ...She's not sure how to attack without looking at her target, though. Damn. Hopefully someone can fix that.

    Despite herself, she does burst into a short laugh at Pulp Noir's 'dryclean only' joke. And then turns to look at Neptune. "Wait, will that really wor here? But I don't have a mirror!"

Chibiusa Tsukino has posed:
    No matter what she says, no matter how desperate the plea, Princess Serenity still cannot reach Wicked Lady. Still can't reach Chibiusa. Maybe it will always be that way, and maybe it should be. Could a toy ever truly reach its owner? Could it every truly make that kind of connection? No, there's no such thing. Just the love between a child at play and her playthings. Adoration, kindness, but no real mutual understanding.

    Because Princess Serenity could never understand.

    A golden bind wraps around her heart, and she knows it. She allows it, because why not? Mamoru should always know of her love, the feelings that she has for him. They both seek connection with each other, even if they disagree on what form it should take, and she grants him what she denies her mother. Wicked Lady has all confidence that this will not interfere with her final victory, because Endymion is at least partially right. He can't stop her.

    Yet the brainwashing isn't working as well as Wicked Lady had hoped, even if it's working about as well as anyone could expect. She doesn't have the advantages here that she had when she first corrupted Usagi. Sure, this is a world full of darkness, but it's not one on one, and not everyone is as emotionally vulnerable to Wicked Lady as Sailor Moon was in that moment.

    Minako gets nauseous. Haruka and Michiru looks at her only through a mirror. Cure La Licorne and Amy both look away. All of this seems effective, in of itself.

    Wicked Lady pouts at Jadeite. "You try to run someone down one time and people never let it go. Look, just because I'm going to run someone over, that's no reason not to let me have a car!"

    To Cure La Mer, she says, "Oh, you're always like this! Look, if you want to play board games with me, all you have to do is let my Will into your heart! We can play all sorts of games, then!"

    To Amy, all she can do is shrug. "You're only saying that because the brainwashing hasn't settled in yet. Look into my eyes and you'll see things my way soon enough!" she taunts.

    Pulp Noir's bullets make a resounding impact as they ricochet off the Parasol, but while the bullets are magical this canopy is harder than any shield. Kunzite, Nephrite and Mercury block, close and freeze the Parasol, interrupting any further attempts. Yuki, who was almost falling for it, never gets fully brainwashed since the attempt was stopped halfway.

    No comment is made on Veronica's or Zoi's dropping of their disguises. Wicked Lady already knew the truth behind Usagi's various identities, and the ruse wasn't meant to fool her.

    The Brainwashing isn't working, and Serenity is starting to Escalate the situation. "You're going to wish you -had- run away, dear mother. At least you will for the few minutes it takes for me to reclaim your mind!" Wicked Lady throws her frozen, darkened parasol into the air, and it shatters all bonds on it while turning into a bloodstained Luna-P at the apex of its arc.

    "Abracadabra Pon! Luna-P, once more... Do the needful!"

    Luna-P vanishes once more into a could of pink smoke. The silvery beams of Moon Healing Escalation reaches Wicked lady, only to be stopped by a mostly-spherical barrier in the faint outline of a catball. At the same time, a horrible wickedness washes all over the Nega Moon Space.

    The great globe in the sky that was once Earth turns, revealing a pair of cat ears, and then those bright happy eyes, and that unchanging smile. A Luna-P the size of an actual planet is smiling at the mahoujin from above, and looming ever closer.

    Each little black marble in the pond similarly begins to turn, revealing itself to be a tiny Luna-P. How many are there? Thousands? Millions? Billions? A countless number of Luna-P marbles, moving like a wave, float up from the pond and launch themselves at the mahoujin, each one exploding on impact.

    This is Wicked Lady's world now. You just die in it.

Zoisite has posed:
Oh Gods NO.

There's a snap from his fingers and as quickly as he could summon them, as many petals as he could, launching them out towards the swarm of Luna-P miniatures, hoping to explode as much as he could around the Prince and Princess, and others, leaving a smaller circlet around himself and Kunzite for protection--or as much of one he could afford.

Hopefully the explosions of his petals would trigger more than a few mini Luna-Ps to explode.

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
Oh. Huh. Luna-P is being needful apparently. Or... doing the needful? Hm. Alright. Some sort of ... spherical barrier... and also... cat-moon. Huh. There's /so many/ cats here, actually. Little Luna-P Marbles launching towards her, which She-Ra turns her Sword of Power into a shield, dipping down into a defensive position to catch the worst of the attacks as they explode around her.

As the wisps of explosive darkness and pink smoke fade, She-Ra stands once more though, looking towards Wicked Lady... and, well. She leaps.

There's no stopping the Princess of Power, after all. She's the Princess of Power. "Sorry, lovely Wicked Lady, but there's only one cat for me."

Both hands are on that shield, which was beginning to glow with brilliant rainbow energy.

"Rashmi Rampart!"

And with a resounding BONG!!!!!! that might... sound strangely similar to the activation sound of Rashmi's device. She brings shield down upon shield, as a blast of rainbow energy from that shield is unleashed, a shockwave of sound and energy resounding through the area. She'd aimed it so that an edge was hitting to maximize the potential damage to the barrier...

...With simple intent to hopefully make an opening for /others/ to attack.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
If there is one truth across timelines, it's that Serenity and Small Lady have ever found it difficult to connect to one another. To stretch their hands out and clasp each other tight.

Usagi had been jealous of the easy affection that passed between Chibiusa and Mamoru. In some ways, she still is. In some ways, that jealousy, that concern, that want to be as close to Small Lady as Mamoru was, contributed to her fall in that isolated moment on Crystal Tokyo. Wicked Lady had been kinder to Usagi than Chibiusa ever was.

It still hurts, now, to be rejected where Endymion is allowed to connect, but Princess Serenity does not falter.

"You're not getting back in my mind! If you want something, you need to make with the puppy dog eyes and the pleading the way any other kid would!"

The Catball shield goes up, deflecting her purifying beams away, light cascading around Wicked Lady, but failing to reach her. That's alright - Princess Serenity knew far better than to expect it to work that easily.

What she didn't expect was the Luna-Ps. The Luna-Ps everywhere - in the sky, on the ground, leaping for them -

"Endymion!"

Yeah, she's absolutely ducking under his cape for tank support, as she points the Crescent Staff directly at - the Luna-Planet!

"Moon Healing Escalation!"

This is not the lesson Majora's Mask is meant to impart!

There's an awful thud, thud, thud, coming from the frozen over pond, heavy and persistent, percussion more persistent than any concert drummer - Luna-P's, trying to break through to attack them.

"Why did our future selves give her that toy," she whispers, horrified.

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Pulp Noir watches his shots resound off the parasol and he looks up from the rim of his fedora once the danger of being brainwashed has passed. He gives a gruff sigh. What now? Oh.. Ohh that's a big cat face.

Ohhh that's a lot of smaller cat faces. He draws his trenchcoat around him as the smaller Luna-P's explode against it, burning, it scorching it, making it look ragged, as he moves, trying to otherwise avoid damage. Luckily, a trenchcoat does it's job and protects him from the dangerous elements.

His tommy gun dropped, he reaches for his revolver and draws it out amongst the chaos and aims carefully down the barrel as there's a magical charge along the barrel...

ansi(+xterm248,"A SHOT IN THE DARK...!")] he calls out as a powerful called shot rings from the gun towards the shield Wicked Lady has up around her.

Nephrite has posed:
Spell uttered and released, a swirl of wind whips around Nephrite powerfully and aids the redirection of the attacking cat-balls away from him, Endymion, Serenity, and those immediately nearby. Caught in the cosmic wind, many do explode around him, some close than not when they collide with each other, peppering him with some heat and shrapnel as his arms raise to block.

Then, he is in the air, flying to draw more of the Mahou-seeking toys his way and evasive.

Sailor Mercury barely manages to draw her arms up, pulling a sheet of thick ice into being to act as a shield, but it isn't quite enough to shield anyone else. It barely shields her, as several Luna-P's shatter through and explode upon ice, and each other.

Battered and blasted, Mercury is sent flying back.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy does snrk at the sheer un-selfawareness of 'just because I'm going to run someone over is no reason not to let me have a car.'

    But when Wicked Lady speaks to her, she inclines her head further. "You're a spoiled child." Amy continues, disappointed, "The girl who tried to save her world and bravely weathered being hunted by the Black Moon Clan even though she was powerless, was far more mature than you."

    She lifts her head but doesn't quite look at Wicked Lady because duh. "You have no plan. You see now brainwashing won't work, and if it did how will society work? Your mother turned us into toys but she hadn't planned out some toy-topia. Is this what dark energy does to us?"

    Clearly some people are able to plan despite Dark Energy though, so that doesn't add up... Ah well. Not important right now.

    "This can't last. And if everyone is toys -- or afraid of becoming them -- you'll have no friends."

    And then things get

    Amy stares into the sky in shock. "Oh god that's WAY creepier than Majora's Mask I'll remember that forever thanks!"

    And then it gets worse. "Ack!" She stumbles back, she didn't expect the marbles to explode, and she can't feel pain but she can still numbly feel her body moving.

    She turns towards the luna-P-ool and suddenly has and shoulders her artillery cannon, firing once an airburst to try and take out many of the marbles in the air, and then again to see if exploding the pool can set them off prematurely.

    And she winces as she realizes she reacted too fast, with the last attack she used, and she doesn't hear Coco's song anymore. Corruption ticks up. A fifth now.

    She has to fight smarter... she's smart, isn't she?!

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
A bind on her heart that was always there in some form or other, whether from Mamoru, or King Endymion herself, a connection that it would be so easy to fall back on, a connection always willing to pick her up when she falls, kiss it better if she's hurt... every once in a while, it feels expressly like a hug--

--but then OH. OKAY. This is what's happening now! "Here!" he calls back to Usagi.

Endymion lunges out from behind Serenity and flings open the side of his cape that Serenity's not ducking into, an open red flare that spills more red into the mix: dozens of roses at once, petals-first, seeking to explode still more batches of Luna-P marbles like the ones Zoisite's handling. "Elysian Glittering Rose Bomber!" It also fills the air briefly with glowing golden glitter and still more petals as each rose explodes.

When he sees the planet-sized Luna-P headed for them he lets out a disbelieving little laugh, "It was cute?" he hazards.

Jadeite has posed:
"I wasn't allowed back on the moon for a LONG time after what I did! Sometimes when we're naughty, we have to experience consequences! It's part of being in a family! When we hurt each other, we apologize and figure out how not to do that again! This includes brainwashing and aggressive driving!" Jadeite yells as he backs away from the pond - cracks are already starting to spread as thousands of tiny Luna-Ps slam against the thick ice. He's bought them some time to not be attacked by the pool of tiny menaces, but it looks like they can't be defeated, only contained - it'll be faster to stop Wicked Lady.

Also, it's like seeing a bunch of ants crawling on a skull and it's super creepy.

He gest to the other pool and tries to ice it over too, but the Luna-Ps are coming too fast - instead, Jadeite creates an ice shield over his head that he keeps regenerating, then runs to Endymion and Serenity to assist with Kunzite's shields. "Next birthday, you should get her something less likely to murder us. Like a porcelain doll from the 1800s, or gasoline and a lit match.

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
Kunzite's head snaps back as his shield's broken, but he recovers in a moment, lacing his arm and his tattered cape around Zoisite to add a second layer of protection to the sakura petals. A breath later, and there's a curl of shadow around them, faint hints of lightning lancing through it to take out the Luna-P-etites that make it past the petals, absorbing the explosions. He's taking a moment ot breathe, to keep that smaller shield up while he steadies himself to do more ... and while he purifies the energy he's taking from the volatile marbles. They may be tiny. They're still evil.

... oh.

"What's needful, Luna-P?" he calls up toward the sky. "To do what she says? Or to see her safely home?"

(Why else would Usagi's and Mamoru's future selves have given her that toy?)

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Cure La Licorne sighed and shook her head. "Chibiusa!" she yelled out. "This isn't what you want! Trust me, I've stood where you've stood! You think it will make you happy, that the power, that by bending things to your whim will bring you joy, but it *won't*. All it does is make things worse! It's a never ending cycle that you keep chasing, over and over until you crack!" she yelled.

Granted... The giant Luna-P... if that wasn't a sign of 'having cracked', what was?

And huh. Nice. She-ra named an attack after Rashmi. Way to go, Rashmi. You were a friendshipping now.

"Because it is really, really hard to say no to that kid when she asks?" Licorne offered.

"Stellar aspirational EXPLOSION!"

She leaped into the air before a great ball of purifying flame appeared, which she then SPIKED at the approaching giant Luna-P! Hoping to help heat it up and, well... burn away SOME of that dark energy!

Yuki Hoshino has posed:
Yuki continues staring at the umbrella. Watch the pretty lights. Just accept your Queen.

Then she can't see it anymore. She blinks. Rubs her eyes. "What the...."

The Pink One is speaking again. Ranting. *Whining*.

That won't do. "Argent Dawn! Give me some danmaku!"

<<"AURORA LANCER!">>

Octagonal mirrors circle around the young Knight, producing a string of lights as they orbit her. None of them, however, end up being launched at The Pink One.

<<"Threat detected. Auto-defensive fire.">>

And all those little darts get launched into the barrage of Mini-P Marbles.

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
    There is a giant Luna-P in the sky and Uranus does not like this at all. It's visible on her face, it's visible to Neptune who puts a hand on her shoulder. "It's a distraction. We're in a Barrier, and it's meant to distract you."

    "Well, it's working!" Uranus grumps, but she steels herself. She's seen worse. Not MUCH worse, but worse.

    Of course then the marbles come in after everyone, and Neptune turns her mirror around. "Aqua Ward!" she yells, and the balls swarm in and impact a giant blue shield that's water in visual but solid in truth.

    "I really have had enough of that ball..." Uranus grouches from behind the ward as the smiling catballs impact it.

    "Then do something about it." Neptune suggests. "Or about the child throwing her toys around."

    "Fair enough." Uranus acquisces. Well, she can't stab a child, even an evil child, certainly not when that child is Usagis or An Usagis, not when she's a Moon Princess too - but...

    Sailor Uranus rushes out the moment the storm of exposive Luna-Ps is over and just tries run as though she's going to grab at the grown-kid. "You're going to get a spanking, behaving like this!"

5tBut in truth she plans to stop short and find cover - it's a distraction ploy, with everything else going on, to divert attention. Much like the giant Luna-P is still distracting her. That's where she got the idea from.

Catra has posed:
Catra has just finished being in a fight. A really, really big fight. The feline is tired, sore, her knees hurt (they're much better now but there's no amount of magic healing that will make them not hurt), and she's burnt. You'd think that since the Spirit Ember makes her LESS BURNABLE that that wouldn't be a thing, but apparently she can still do it to herself if she tries hard enough.

But, New Moon is defeated and Usagi Tsukino is back, so everything is fine now, right? Even accounting for her recent haircut? Everything is fine.

No, as it turns out, it's not, because Wicked Lady has escaped her confinement and there's another battle raging. And Wicked Lady is Chibiusa, who is the person that Catra actualyl gives a damn about and is the reason she's in this mess in the first place.

But Catra has already done her part. How much more is she supposed to fight?! Surely other people can handle this.

So why is there are golden aura gathering around her, making all the aches and pains fade away and making her feel just... stronger. Like she's recharged and she can do it all over again. She slowly gets up from where she was kneeling, tilts her head until the bones pop, and starts walking towards--

She-Ra.

Oh well now it all makes sense.

So, drawing Powersend once again (might as well enjoy it while she's still got it) she wreaths herself in blue fire -- which does nothing to hide the golden aura -- and charges forwards to rejoin the battle.

"Hey Adora!" she yells in passing.

Chibiusa Tsukino has posed:
    The combined efforts of Yuki, Amy, the Shitennou and Neptune do a lot to stem the tide of the swarming Luna-P marbles. They are fragile, volatile, and there's only so much they can take before they're set off. There's just one problem with this: They are all gathered together in that ball pit that used to be a pond, and they are close enough to cause a chain reaction.

    That bottomless pit becomes a flaming inferno in the flash of a second. The heat is more than enough to turn Jadeite's already cracked barrier into steam. The hellscape that roils beneath the battlefield is one that you do not want to fall into.

    Yet that does not mean that all of the Luna-Ps down below are gone. Giant catballs, as wide as Kunzite is tall, with their unchanging smiles engulfed in flames, rise out from the infernal depths and bounce onto the too-soft once stony path standing over the fiery abyss. They bounce their way towards the mahoujin, shaking the soft ground with each hit, leaving spots of fire in their wake.

    Wicked Lady stares dispassionately up at She-Ra as the Princess smashes her shield into the catball barrier. With a frown, she responds, "Only one cat for you? Oh, she'll be mine too soon enough. Let's be honest, she's not really ready to join your team yet, and I'm a far better overlord than whatever they have going on in Obsidian. Bunch of jokers, really." Then she smirks at the catgirl as she comes up. "Oh look, here she is. Welcome back to the party, Catra! You missed the first chance to become my slave, but there's always another time!"

    Pulp Noir's bullets add to the attack, and the combined efforts cause the barrier to crack more and more. Wicked Lady smirks at him. "I bet you've never seen a night as dark and stormy as this! If you thought I would go down as easy as a derailed roller coaster, think again!"

    Then Uranus comes in for the grab, which luckily happens just as the two others smash through and shatter her shield. As the Outer grasps her arm, Wicked Lady shakes her head. "Ah, our noble defenders from the outer reaches. Maybe you should've stayed far away from this. I'd have come for you sooner or later." With unnatural strength and a twist of her arm, she breaks the grip and leaps away, landing and standing ont op of a burning catball that bounces around the battlefield.

    She notices Mercury on the ground and comments, "You know what they say, my dear. Snitches get stitches! You'll know better than to pry into my secrets once you've accepted my rule."

    Amy's comments on her maturity get a roll from her eyes. "So what if I don't have a plan? I'll figure it out as I go along. It's worked out for me so far! You can't rely upon rigid plans. You gotta improvise!"

    La Licorne gets a tch noise, followed by, "I suppose you would know about that, wouldn't you? Making everything worse is what you do best. Yet even knowing you're nothing but trouble, I'd still allow you to have a valuable role to play as my underling. There's no end to the trouble we could make together!"

    To Cure La Mer, Wicked Lady smirks darkly, "For what it's worth, I did enjoy our time as friends! I'll enjoy it even more when you're my subjects. I'm sure Sharon will understand, when I come for her next. Turnabout is fair play, after all!"

    A flaming catball each goes after the two Cures. It's probably best if it doesn't hit home.

    Lady's burning ride comes to a stop before the shitennou and gathered royals. She crosses her arms and looks down upon them all. "Such faithful knights. You always were the fun one, Zoisite. Nephrite, you always thought a little too highly of yourself. Jadeite, you try so hard, but all you're doing is delaying the inevitable! And Kunzite, dear Kunzite... Luna-P is loyal to me, and me alone! She doesn't care what my parents have to say."

Chibiusa Tsukino has posed:
    Then those red eyes, no longer glowing pink at this stage, turn to Endymion, her father, "And even as your knights move to protect you, you move to protect your princess. Always so loving and kind. You were fine just as you were when you were listening to me and doing what I said. I don't really like you like this, but don't worry. Soon I'll make everything better."

    Then there's Serenity, and Serenity gets the harshest glare of all. "Was that really all it took? Me being kind to you? Surely a worthy princess should know better than to fall for such shallow mockeries of affection. I've always hated you. I've always coveted what you had from the start! My birthright should be the same as yours! No, it should be better, because you're not fit to sit in your throne."

    Yet now she gets to smile. She gets to reveal something about Luna-P that will probably haunt them all even more.

    "As for the toy... you didn't! No one got her for me. She's one of a kind, because Luna-P's magic is my own! All of my despair, my rage, my resentment... I didn't want to deal with it, so I made a toy to help me forget."

    "As for why she took the form she eventually did, who knows? Maybe she filled the void for me that the missing Shitennou left behind, or maybe she was simply holding onto my sadness for me. Which is good, because I need those harsh feelings. They only make me stronger!"

    Serenity and LaLicorne are both attacking the Luna-Planet, and Wicked Lady looks up at it. "Yet you all want to destroy her, even though she only existed to make me happy. To make me feel better. Fine... but if the existence of Kyubey wasn't enough to teach you this lesson... be careful what you wish for!"

    And then that giant Luna-Planet shatters, becoming a storm of massive catball meteorites. They rain down on the battlefield, shattering the giant Swear Jar surrounding them, ripping apart the path over the inferno. Destruction rains from the heavens, and as for the devastation the fallen Luna-Planet leaves behind...

    Well, let's just say you should all be very, very grateful that you're all magic.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"No, Small Lady," Princess Serenity answers, and her voice is soft, and they are still so close to her, and that harsh glare is weathered like a storm sent from Jupiter. "That wasn't all it took. And maybe you do hate me! You're allowed to - what child doesn't hate their mother sometimes?"

It hurts, sure, but it's something she can accept - because she knows, even better than Wicked Lady, that that hatred isn't all she feels. And as horrifying as it is - to know that Luna-P in all her horrifying, smiling visage, had come from Chibiusa herself... it also proves that the protective, loving nature of the Catball Toy, that always sought to protect Small Lady and her smile, is a part of Chibiusa's own true nature - that there's love and care deep in her heart.

"Chibiusa-chan, you can lie to yourself, but you can't lie to me! After the time we shared, I know so much more about how you feel!" How could she not, with her mind pressed and contorted into the shape of Wicked Lady's very own favorite toy, her closest ally, her fondest friend? "I know that you just want to be strong enough to not be scared! I know you just want us to stay with you! I know you just want me to stay with you. To put you first. To be proud of you...."

Her voice trails away, as she thinks of it, a little girl living through the apocalypse, both her parents thrust into responsibilities beyond their reckoning, and that same little girl forced to share them with the world forever more, cast in the shadow of her mother -

"Well, I can speak for your mother! I might not have given birth to you, but I love you, and so I know she does! Chibiusa-chan, I am proud of you! I'm proud of the girl you were! I'm proud of the woman you'll be! I don't regret the time we spent together, because it was time spent at your side, when you needed me!"

The Luna-Planet explodes, and more Luna-P's come bouncing forward, as the lakes burst into flames and steam on either side, and Nega Moon Space is truly becoming something hellacious now, but though the heat pinks her skin, Princess Serenity refuses to retreat.

There's no way to escape it all. There's no way to retreat. The meteoric pieces of planet strike, and Princess Serenity is battered, bruised, and unwilling to stay down - even as the long skirts of her dress burn, even as the edges of her hair ignite and have to batted out, as her skin bruises, she gets back up.

"This misery might be a part of you, but it isn't your true self! Luna-P might have held those feelings for you, but only to protect you - not to imprison you in them!"

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Cure La Licorne blinked as the sun hits the ball like a big evil-ball surprise and its meteor shower.... And-- Okay, she could deal with that. "Nobody is going to be your slave! And I didn't tell you my mistakes so you could follow in my mistakes or try to take them as a challenge! I wanted you to be better than me! I didn't want you to have to make the same mistakes I did!" Licorne yelled. "But when I did, others helped! And you know what? Sometimes help hurts but it's what we NEED!"

She looked up at the approaching fireballs, okay, she could handle this. It wasn't so--

"THE TARTARUS, ADORA?!" WHY WAS SHE CATCHING STRAYS?!

And then she ate a meteor.

And she was going to need a moment, from her crater...

Laura La Mer has posed:
Laura plants her arms confidently on her sides when Wicked Lady quips back to her. "Right you are, I am always like this, the one and only smartest beauty in all of Grand Ocean. And I want you back as Chibiusa, so best bet on getting right on all that excess dark energy."

But the time to dally has come to an end, and La Mer is certainly eager to get into the action herself, and she tightly grips her make up pen in hand readying it for an assault from Chibiusa.

There is little she can say in front of the giant Luna-P, except that for a second she freezes at the look of it, her eyes frozen wide at the spacial Luna-P. It's something majestic, all the way up there in front of them.

They are definitely not left needful of Luna-Ps themselves, after Wicked Lady commands the cat ball to do the neeedful themselves, as Chibiusa seems to be fond of saying. "But this is a sign of my friendship too, and I am as determined to rescue you as your Luna-Ps are numerous."

She leaps and flies and kicks the lot of them whenever they come for her, focusing on a defensive stance, because, really, there are so many of them, and they really pack a punch. Wicked Lady definitely can't be accused of resting on her laurels.

She has to consider which ones to fly away from, which one to block, which ones to dodge, which ones she won't be able to save herself from. Many times she thanks her henshin armour, pushing past the pain undeterred.

"I believe that Sharon would agree, but she wouldn't limit herself to that, you know, Chibiusa?", the pink-blue-haired girl smirks sharply. "After all, by comparing yourself to her, you should be aware of what's coming, right?" There is no stone that can be knocked out away from her, but there is a golden heart that deserves to be embraced in there all the same.

"Have a taste!", the Pretty Cure declares, stirring with her pen the disk at the center of her Compact, and twisting water gathers in a recurve pattern, flowing rapidly inside the Mermaid Aqua Pact. "Pretty Cure Swirling La Mer Stream!", she shouts, pointing at the villainess, and her huge rotating beam of water erupts out of the Pact, aiming to clear a path through the many Luna-Ps.

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
Alright, things looked like they were... more or less progressing well, sure, she'd just appeared in front of Wicked Lady and probably made a /huge/ target of herself, plus having to quickly scramble back out of the way as best as she could from the follow-up attacks. And then she heard it.

Hey, Adora!

...Huh those are some really conflicted feelings there. Well, whatever.

"Hey, Catra! Welcome to the chaos!"

And Wicked Lady rebuffs her as her shield bashes against that barrier. Which also was when Catra popped up. Oh gosh the timing for Catra to pop up is always weird like that agh! Whatever it's fine!

What's more important is that that barrier is down now. And ... jeeze it really is just so much chaos around, so many people ganging up on Wicked Lady, and the fact she was just kind of ... Handling it right now...

It's a bit intimidating.

"Despair, rage, and resentment don't help you, don't make you feel better!" She-Ra actually calls out in response.

As the Luna-Planet shatters. And flaming catballs fall from above.

...She's kind of glad that she already had her Sword of Power in shield form, and she starts ... Enduring the devestation.

It's not pleasant, even when she deflected or blocked one of those falling meteorites, it still tended to harm her with the sheer power of the devestation, and some of her clothes were starting to burn in place a bit, especially the armor pieces that were being broken off.

She gives a slow exhale, before standing.

Hmm. Wicked Lady was controlling things, so she... had an idea. A plan.

It's a stupid plan. What to call it thought? What to call it though... hmm...

Her eyes flicker between Catra...

And then Cure La Licorne.

And the Shield of Power quickly becomes a Spiked Whip of Power, a small spiked sphere on the tip of it.

Which she whips towards Wicked Lady, her arm and hand.

"HINOIRI HEIST!"

The attempt of that whip to wrap around Wicked Lady's arm, finishing with it striking her hand with an explosion of rainbow energy -- followed by a hard YANK with all the strength of She-Ra.

Yeah this plan might go poorly.

But removing some of her vantage point by pulling her away from that flaming sphere might be a good idea.

...Also it puts her in punching range.

Zoisite has posed:
"Kunzite--" It was a quiet exclamation when he was wrapped under the defensive cover of the cape, hearing and feeling the heat of the cherry blossoms and his boyfriend's shield defending them from whatever small black Luna-P marbles made through. Zoisite wrapped his arms around Kunzite, his energy always there if it was needed for the taking. He would never deny his beloved such a thing.

Once there was a reprieve, he presses a kiss to the older Shitennou's cheek, appreciative of the care given to protect the two of them. "We're going to dance so much during the reception, I know it." Whispers, before looking up at Small Lady as she called out to the Knight of Earth.

And his name was the first to be uttered. The fun one. Was that how she saw him? For a second, it almost made him guilty for being as mad as he had been at her for running out of the Crystal Palace like she did. Yet, this was not the time to let his guard down.

"Small Lady, far be it from me to tell you what to do. I enjoy mischief, and if you set anything on fire I would cover for you. But trust me when I say this--you'll feel very silly once this is over. I do not like to be owned by anyone." His green eyes looked sharp at the pink lady, sympathizing some with her grief.

Then, his attention is back to what was approaching them as quick as falling stars. Gods--

"Sakura Conflagration!" As before, another blast for petals, as many as he could provide, pointed directing at some of the meteors headed their way in the attempt to explode them--make them more manageable for shields.

Jadeite has posed:
Jadeite thickens his ice shield as the enormous Luna-Ps begin to fall and uses it to bounce oncoming catballs back intot he void which they came from - Kunzhite's shields help keep away the worst of any subsequent explosions. And when the meteorites start raining down, he shoves more shields into the air to bounce the biggest of meteorites away -

The rocks keep on raining down on them, and Jadeite grunts in pain as the smaller ones batter him, tearing at his uniform with bruising force.

"Of course I have to delay it! You'd feel like a real jerk if you actually committed vehicular manslaughter like this! The longer I can stall for your parents, the more they can reach out to you! Feelings of despair and loneliness are the worst - but lashing out at other people isn't going to make you stronger! Sometimes you have to deal with the feelings you don't like - like an adult would! You want to be acknowledged as a grown up by the rest of us, don't you? Then act like an adult - and face your feelings rather than taking it out on parents who love you enough to try and help you!"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    She just wants this to stop. Amy felt it earlier, too, when New Moon brought them into her Labyrinth and turned the pocket world against them.

    But there is no stop. The pages keep turning, the world won't pause, or save. Reality keeps happening, because that's what reality does.

    But her mind is quickly distracted again when Uranus threatens a spanking and Amy whirls, "Hey! Not cool, Uranus! ...I mean, we're hitting her now, but it's to stop her, not just to inflict suffering..."

    Meanwhile, at least blowing up the marbles worked. That might've been worth the magic, then. But it seems it only opened a portal to hell and luna-P balls are floating out like cacodemons-- oh, they're bouncing, that's a completely different attack pattern.

    She fires her rocket launcher (suddenly in her hands) and the rockets do move weirdly slowly and work on old game physics because she was thinking about that.

    At least at first. If shots keep missing she switches to Quake 2 slightly faster rockets and then to something rifle-patterned that shoots homing minimissiles.

    "You're not an overlord! Well, maybe you are, but like, one of the petulant Disgaea ones. This is some Zetta-tier 'got so mad about his prophecied defeat he destroyed himself and made the prophecy come true' Overlording."

    The words to La Licorne, though, make her mad. "HEY! You can't say that to her!"

    CRACK! Goes the recoilless rifle firing at Wicked Lady. "This is the big strong overlord? You just want to hurt people, emotionally and physically."

    CRACK! "Seriously?! Sharon showed you exactly why not to do this!"

    And then Chibiusa turns on her parents, and... holy shit. Dark Energy can make you a jerk but there has to be a kernel of real feeling behind it, and... oof. Amy's struck frozen and speechless for a moment hearing her friend's daughter say that to her mother.

    She doesn't know what to begin to say.

    Reality keeps happening.

    "We don't want to destroy her! That's not literally her, she's not planet-size!"

    And then the Puella Magi is left frantically dodging meteors, propelling herself around the battlefield with explosions and somehow managing. "See?! She's not destroyed at all! You're the one using your beloved toy as a weapon and not caring if she breaks!" And despite everything, Amy winces a little after the words are out of her mouth, because if Luna-P really is what Chibiusa cares about most in the world, that was maybe a little harshly put, though true.

    And during all this frantic catball-dodging... she keeps trying to aim at Wicked Lady and then has to stop aiming to rocket jump instead, or she fires off a hurried shot that travels off into the distance, whizzing by Wicked Lady completely. Drat!

    It probably makes Wicked Lady look a little cooler, too. Double drat!

    At least Usagi managed to weather the emotional storm. Amy feels some relief at that.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"You're not the boss of me," Endymion tells his daughter dryly, and then she rips into Serenity and unconsciously, his hand lifts to cover his heart for a split second as his face twists in dismay. His mouth opens to retort, to deny it, to get indignant because it's hard to remember she's developmentally and emotionally five, but he swallows it, having passed his dealing-with-dark-energy willpower check.

And of course-- always-- Serenity can speak for herself. Usagi can weather the attack and dish it back, even in this hellscape.

The prince crouches next to his princess, his bare hand touching the cloth ground, and he stares at the bouncing catballs approaching them even as meteors start raining fire from above. He'll trust his Shitennou and his friends to shield him from that as he swallows his fear and thrusts his awareness into the surface beneath their feet and oh, oh, no matter what's actually there, if the Moon can hear his prayer amplified by their proximity to the Crystal Tower-- "Tuxedo la Smoking Lunar Mare!"

His focus is on the ground beneath the bouncing catballs, where they'll hit next.

Yet: something rings through his awareness as he comes up for air, and he turns back and stares at Wicked Lady, then Amy, and he says, "If that's her magic then she might be planet-sized."

Catra has posed:
As it turns out, there is a lot of fire, as the bottomless pit becomes a flaming inferno. Which, to basically anyone who gets hurt by fire, that would be a problem. Catra looks at it, burning away there and threatening to burn people, which sure is unfortunate.

Lightbulb

Catra can help here. That's what the hero-people do, right? They work together and sometimes instead of attacking the dark general or monster or whatever, they just do something helpful and defensive to keep everyone else safe. Which, up until now, has seemed like a really weird concept.

So instead, Catra slows her dash to a walk, which puts her in a perfect position to, without loking at the fire, just throws her free hand up palm out and instead of using the Spirit Ember to make fire, for once, she just does her level best to diminish it -- here, there, and everywhere else that it's breaking out on the battlefield.

"Nope," she comments, still without looking. Even if she is going to do something protective, she's still going to do it with style.

"Hey, Hinoiri," she adds, casting a nod in her direction.

As she's focusing on the fire, she looks up towards Wicked Lady, and sends one of her doubles in her direction; no fire, no blazing eyes, just a pretty real looking version of Catra.

"Hey kid," she greets her. "Look, this has been fun, and I totally get wanting t obe strong enough that people can't hurt you. I did the same thing for a long time. But trust me; it eats away at you until there's nothing else left. I promise you'll be much happier if you let it go. ...And next time you want some rebellion I'll take you for a motorcycle ride to get burgers again, totally without your parents' permission. PRomise."

Nephrite has posed:
"I think highly of myself because I have something called pride!" Nephrite issues back, something in him stretched thin enough to snap. "And that comes from strength that is built and earned! It's not shallow thing!" He's lucky to be a flier, he thinks, but he swoops in closer to Wicked Lady, Serenity, and Endymion again-- Kunzite and Zoisite are providing some cover, and so is he.

"Chibiusa-chan! I know were trying to be strong and fix things-- I know how impossible that must have felt, after everything I saw, and the shadow you must've felt stuck in! I know that you're trying to get us all to 'do the needful' against an enemy that you want gone more than anything, and I want that too! I am so, so angry at them-- with you! For you!"

It's true. He cannot let it dip into hatred, he must be better than that-- above that-- but it burns in his like a dense, white hot star; this rage. He let's it gather in his palm. "But those dark feelings don't make us stronger. Luna-P is impressive, but it isn't your only support--"

Neprite looses a blast of starlight up towards a falling shard, a thrown blow that disintegrates it into stardust. "My strength is already yours, for however long it lasts, and I give it willingly. You don't have to prove a damned thing to me or anyone here!" He gestures wide, "Listen to your parents. We all know you're capable of becoming so much more off your own back. You've already grown so much! Just knowing that you exist is such a joy, a relief-- it gives me hope, Chibiusa-chan!"

Some small spike of guilt pierces him, sapphire eyes sincere. "I'm sorry I've never told you that! I just want to help you keep growing into the Lady you're supposed to be! I want to celebrate your birthday next week, and then fight these bastards with you! You need to put this crap where it belongs-- beneath you!"

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
Kunzite murmurs back to Zoisite's whisper, "As much as you feel like putting up with my clumsiness." He's smiling, just for that moment. Not clumsy in comparison to most people. But few people aren't, in his eyes, clumsy in comparison to Zoi.

Which is why, when Zoisite doesn't choose to teleport them to a safer part, Kunzite's urge is to sweep him down, cover him with his body. But no. Zoisite needs to see what he's doing. And if Zoisite isn't moving them, they're in a safer place. So he follows Zoisite's cast upward, silent, because with the Hinoiri Heist impromptu naming echoing in his ears, he doesn't want to risk whatever comes to mind for this one - for throwing what might be cool-pink fireworks, the explosions from the miniature Luna-P's sent to help deflect the meteors from above away from the gathering. They might be too close to Wicked Lady in this moment for the meteors to strike. Maybe.

That still leaves the six-foot-wide burning catballs. Maybe Jadeite can douse them. He hopes.

"There's loyalty to your words," he returns aloud to Wicked Lady. "And then there's loyalty to your heart. We miss you, Small Lady. You're so unhappy like this."

-- And then there's Catra.

Well. Jadeite is also dousing. But Catra promising a motorcycle ride --

This is not a time he should be grinning. Oh, well. He doesn't have to do what he should all the time.

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
    Uranus had intended, originally, for her grab to be a distraction aspect, but in the moment of hecticness, she actually got an opening she could take - at least as safely as anyone could take an opening to grab someone who is entirely dosed up on Dark Energy.

    But in the end she still only succeeds at distracting her anyways - powerful as Wicked Lady is, Sailor Uranus has her grip wrenched from her - she can feel the strength the woman-child pulled away in the friction of her gloves - and is now on top of a burning catball.

    "We're not staying out of any more battles to protect our world. And... children really shouldn't play with fire." Neptune says, shaking her head. At Chibiusa or Uranus? (Both. For different reasons.) "It isn't safe."

    She calls upon the crashing waves of her Guardian Planet, in all of this firestom, she can still feel the strength of the sea, collecting it into a watery sphere with a ring. "DEEP SUBMERGE!" she calls as the collected condensed blast of water energy rushes out, to put out the fire properly. And then some.

    Uranus stands up, wringing her hand before calling upon her sword. But she's still not going to be swinging it into a Moon Princess - just in her general direction, because she thinks the strength of the woman can take a few hits, now - that it'd be necessary to weaken her so that she can be brought back to adorable. As she swings the magic blade, cutting waves of wind energy rip across the battlefield towards Wicked Lady. "SPACE SWORD BLASTER!"

Yuki Hoshino has posed:
The Knight of Dawn keeps up the bombardment, switching targets from the marbles to the meteor-P's, determined to do what she can while the other fighters focus on the Pink One.

(There's still something telling her to *like* the woman, to look up to her, but she's mostly shaken it off by now.)

"Come on, kid," she yells, "Smarten up! Think about it! Think about how much you love your parents, how good it feels to be loved by them! Focus on that, not on *whining* about how you can't have *candy* for dinner!"

On a whim, she reaches into a pocket and produces a packet of Reese's Pieces that she hurls in Wicked Lady's direction. "HERE! Have some candy! Sit yourself down and eat it and just be a kid!"

She doesn't know Chibi-Usa, or for that matter just about anyone involved, but she knows how *she* feels about *her* parents, and what she'd feel if something happened to them.

Chibiusa Tsukino has posed:
'Despair, rage and resentment don't make you feel better'

    Wicked Lady shoots back to She-Ra, "Maybe not, but venting does!"

    Hearing La Licorne's words, Wicked Lady frowns at her from atop her high horse-- high catball? Whatever. "Your only mistake was--" Licorne gets hit. "Okay, so you made two mistakes. The first was resisting my brainwashing. The second was failing to dodge that. You're avoiding the wrong things!"

    La Mer is responded to with an all-too-sweet smile. "You know... that's a good point. No matter how this turns out, we'll go right back to being friends! I just think it'd be better if you joined me, not the other way around!"

    Zoisite thinks that she'll feel silly? "Hmph. We'll see how silly we both feel after all of this! Do you really think you have the upper hand here?"

    Jadeite actually makes her wince. "You-- you dare speak to me that way? How--" She realizes that she's losing her cool, and she immediately adopts the most insincere smile. Yet surely by now people have noticed just how shallow her chill is. "You want to hear about my feelings? I'll--"

    A stray rocket from Amy whizzes by a little too close, cutting off her response. "No. I don't want to hurt people. I want to make the world better. The problem is that you keep making it worse, and I have to stop you!"

    Endymion destroys the ground further, and to his credit he does send a fair amount of the evil bouncing giant catballs flying into the air. One of them ruptures and flies around like a deflated balloon, and it's a real good thing it falls directly into the abyss.

    Princess Serenity calls out to her, and truly, who knows a child like their parent? Yet even as her future mother hits several nails on the head, Wicked Lady still wants to push her away. "Your pride... your attention... these things are comforts, but they aren't the underlying problem. How can I make you understand the wounds you've yet to inflict upon me? All I wanted..." She trails off, not fully finishing that sentence.

    To Nephrite, "Don't you get it? I'm tired of you being strong for me. I want to be strong on my own. That's what I've always wanted. That's why I stole the Silver Crystal to begin with! That's what this whole thing has been about!" There was a time, no less than a few hours ago, when Wicked Lady would have delighted at Nephrite saying that all of this was beneath her. But here, with her emotions so bare and raw, there is no room for insincere preening. There's only the dark, bitter truth. She glares at him, wanting to believe what he says, but dismisses it. "I never wanted the Black Moon Clan, but I did always want power."

    Kunzite receives a grim, bitter laughter followed by a smirk, "You miss me? But I'm right here! You say such strange things!"

    Sailor Neptune's Deep Submerge hits the flaming catball that Wicked Lady has been riding on, leaving an opening for She-Ra to wrap her whip around Lady's wrist and give her a good yank, immediately dismounting her. The clearly refined and elegant dark general flails and yelps as she suddenly is brought down to the soft ground, where she totally had a witty retort to La Mer's speech but it gets forgotten when she gets a faceful of water beam.

    After gasping for air, Wicked Lady complains, "What is this, a water park?" A moment later, with choice comedic timing, a Reese's Pieces packet bounces off of her head. She blinks at Yuki and demands, "What even was that?"

    Then Uranus is coming at her with the Space Sword, and Wicked Lady suddenly realizes something about what she just said.

    "Hey... that's right. Luna-P was my magic... this whole time wasn't it? That means..."

Chibiusa Tsukino has posed:
    A catball appears in Uranus's path, intercepting the edge of her sword, and there's something different about this one. It's the right shape, the right size, with just the right amount of creeping malice coming from it. This Luna-P is the real one, and it's now cracked open, turning not into pink smoke but a black miasma. Wicked Lady reaches out for it with an unsettling look in her eyes, saying, "That's right... come to me. My power, my magic... reveal yourself to me." The smile on her face is not right as the catball melts away, revealing her true form.

    "At long last... a crystal of my very own. The Wicked Moon Crystal."

    Wicked Lady cradles it in her hands, the dark thing that it is. Similar yet different to the Silver Crystal, dark and cloudy instead of clear, opening like a rose instead of a lotus. Proof, finally, that she is both Serenity and Endymion's daughter. She laughs. She laughs so hard she could almost cry. As she holds it in her hands, her entire henshin seems to change. Her pink twintails get slightly longer, dragging against the ground, and her slitted dress turns into a long flowing black gown, a mirror of Serenity's own dress.

    "You know... I think we need a change of scenery."

    As waves of darkness pour out from her new crystal, the world she just recently destroyed gets remade, or more like replaced. The landscape twists and shifts until it resembles the Crystal Palace, yet softer and plushier and a bit more dark and horrible. Within the reflections of each crystal lining this hallway, one sees not their own face, but Luna-P's staring back at them.

    "You wanted to hear about my feelings? Let me share them."

    "I have seen things. Things that no child should ever have been allowed to see. I pretended I didn't notice the horrors around me, that I couldn't figure out what it meant whenever I saw an empty home where a family should be. I pretended because the adults around me couldn't bear the thought of a small child like me actually being able to comprehend such horrors."

    "Yet even that kindness came with a certain insincerity... with them lying to me, and me to them... And even though I wanted to grow up, even though I wanted nothing more to be seen as heroic as my own mother..." A tear gathers in the corner of her eye. "... at the same time I wanted nothing more than to run from such a horrifying reality. To remain a child forever, blissfully ignorant of the world around me..."

    Looking down at the Wicked Moon Crystal with a frown, and with tears rolling down her cheek, she says, "... I never really was, though. I knew why people loved peace so much, especially the older ones. I knew full well why they were all too happy to unite under one kingdom. It wasn't just for protection. It's because violence is always a net loss, and it only ever goes one way."

    "That's why... I don't want to be violent towards you. I just want to be in charge. To rule you. To guide you to a better future." Suddenly, the Wicked Moon Crystal erupts with dark energy. Waves of corruption emit from it, pulse after pulse, filling this space with horrifying power. It's not just simple hypnosis this time. This is an attempt to corrupt the very soul.

    Granted, Amy actually finds herself immune to this. For reasons that should be a little bit obvious, she is being spared the corruption. Instead, a crystal prison attempts to form around her to trap her. "Stay out of this," Wicked Princess warns her. "I'll tend to you in a moment."

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
"Sorry, it's the first thing I could think of in the moment!" She-Ra calls back to Licorne. Which probably wasn't the best apology, and a part of her knew she only kind of meant the apology? Which felt weird and wrong but whatever this isn't the time to try to unentangle really complicated and confused emotions that she didn't even recognize or know what they meant. Right now it's time to help subdue a big evil girl to return her to being a cute smol girl who is moderately trouble but generally good.

Ahem.

And then she hears Catra talk to Wicked Lady. And... to others, to some degree, also helping people and just... generally... being kind of cool and decent? When did she get cool big sister energy like that???

"...This world has really been good to her."

The words were more whispered to herself than anything, but also being distracted by someone else... was... not the greatest idea. Not when you have a whip connecting you to a dark general.

Wicked Lady was tugged to the ground, and then she... she pulled out a Dark Crystal. And... shockwaves of corruptive, consuming dark energy washes over her. Fills her. Tries to take over her.

A flash in her eyes as that darkness enters into her body. As they try to corrupt her very soul, but there was a problem with that. The eyes that turn on Wicked Lady are not the eyes of someone under control.

Those are the eyes of someone LOSING control.

Going /berserk/.

And the whip becomes nothing more than a pair of heavy gauntlets on both of her hands as She-Ra walks towards Wicked Lady, her footsteps calm and quiet, but with an air of someone who was anything but.

Her fists lift and begin to glow with golden energy -- not the rainbow energy -- as she steps towards the Wicked Lady. Each wave of dark energy makes her slide back a moment, but her approach is ... unending.

"Rogelo"

And she starts to just. Beat on Wicked Lady. Each strike seeming to gather in power as that golden glow on her hands grows brighter.

"Rampage!"

It is a series of attacks that just CONTINUE, a right hook, a punch with a left hand, bringing both hands to SLAM down at Wicked Lady.

These attacks would continue until she, inevitably, also is purified.

...At which point she would promptly stop with an awkward look.

Did she still have /that/ much negative emotions inside of her? Ugh.

Zoisite has posed:
Green eyes watches her, fingers still clenched to Kunzite's uniform in one form or another as Wicked Lady responds to everyone, and the meteors are staved off for now. Then pink and black smoke poofs into something that quickly grabs Zoisite's attention, the same way the earrings of the Black Moon Clan did.

A black crystal. Not the real Silver Crystal that should be held between her hands.

And the relentless waves of dark that it immitted. Like sickly sweet venom trying to seduce him once more. Zoisite shakes his head, teeth clenched.

"Prince Endymion! Princess Serenity! Aim for the crystal!" He calls out. It was the only thing that he could attack without harming the future heir they all cared for.

"Sakura Conflagration!" Pinpointed this time, surgically, a wave of petals speeding towards the black facetted gem.

Chibiusa Tsukino has posed:
Wicked Lady frowns at the mirror image of Catra, saying, "If you understand, then submit already. Nobody will be hurting anyone when I'm in control!"

Catra has posed:
"Submit?! Me!? When have I ever done that?"

Catra stretches, cracking her neck bones once more as she pushes the inferno away; and maybe, just maybe, there's a bit of that old Catra in there still, the wicked Catra who delights in showing other people how strong she is.

Well, she does still like to do that, so that hasn't really changed. The only thing that's changed right now is that Catra is burnt out from the previous stage of the fight and the fact that her connection to the Spirit Ember is still forming, shall we say.

The feline Stops pushing the fires away; hopefully they've dminished enough now, and she drops down to one knee (which hurts).

"Thing about control," she gasps, "The harder you fight to gain it, the faster you lose it. Trust me, I have experience."

Catra holds Powersend in front of her, with the tip planted in the ground as she pants, watching the fight progress.

"Now give this nonsense up... or I'm going to have to force the issue."

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
Kunzite echoes Zoisite - not striving to reach the crystal. But striking out with his reserves of energy, that cool-pink lightning (never quite Wicked Lady's color, never quite that) shearing and crackling across the space Zoisite's petals begin to clear. Lashing out at the corrupting darkness, as if to drive it back from himself, to reject it; to drive it back from Zoisite, to help keep that venom away. Rubeus gave him practice. He can't play the trick he did with the black dust; but he's had practice refusing the corruption. And he will not strike out this time. Not at Jadeite. Not at Wicked Lady.

But he can help to clear a path between Princess Serenity and her otherself's daughter's soul.

Jadeite has posed:
"Of course I dare!" Jadeite yells, and he puts all his power into shields to keep darkness from battering Endymion, Serenity, Nephrite and himself. His so called pointless endurance WILL continue - it must, because that is the only way his friends will get their child back.

"You don't want insincere kindness anymore, right? You don't want to be stuck between being a helpless child and an adult facing the horrors! You want to be like your parents, and better than your parents! You want to be taken care of and take care of others!

"Those are normal feelings to have! All of us have felt something like that! It's normal to want to be a safe child and an active adult! It's normal to lash out about it! Growing up sucks, especially if you put it off because there was a bunch of violence and dark power - "

"But let me be blunt! You're being a jerk! You won't let us take care of you as a child, and you won't take responsibility for your actions as an adult! You're going to be cringing at all this once you get back to normal, and I can guarantee that because I already did this! And you've seen how cringy I was when I was hit with dark energy!" Declaring eternal loyalty to Neo Queen Serenity, almost blowing up an arcade in pursuit of attacking Rubeus -

"You can be a child and an adult at once if you want! That's what being a teenager is about! But cut the brainwashing out! You don't need that to make us love you! We loved you from the moment you came into this world!"

Nephrite has posed:
"And I do think you're strong, Chibiusa-chan," Nephrite states firmly amidst everything, "I just know that you can and will be be even stronger still, without all this--"

He's buffeted already by the dark waves, but he doesn't stop trying to get through with the others. He's gathering his strength again, drawing his sword to cut against the onslaught-- forged in the Golden Kingdom with an ever sharp edge. The wind whistles against it and is cut. Starlight gathers and glows bright.

"But you can't be expected to handle everything on your own... not because I think you're just a kid. But because I wouldn't expect even your mother to do that. Nobody should have everyone look to them alone for an answer!"

In a flourish, he brings about the sword in a mighty slash to fight back against the Darkness, gloved hand bracing blade, cutting against it to force her to burn through that vile power.

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
    "GAH!" Uranus shouted at the sudden arrival of another, realer, Luna-P. She scrambled back on hands and knees for a moment before kipping up more elegantly. She still doesn't like that thing. Neptune lands after her attack (and some dodging) to once more give her hand on Uranus's shoulder. Which is well and good as the storem of Dark Energy is coming. The two of them tense, and for a moment, the waves overtake them. "We want a better future." Sailor Uranus begins.

    "A better future than the past we lived in or the future we saw in your world." Neptune adds, the two of their voices seem almost drone like for a moment.

    Until Neptune's hand slips down Uranus' arm, and the two of them grip each other's hands and stand through it. Finding strength in each other to resist.

    "But we're going to find it together. All of the Sailor Soldiers..." Neptune begins.
    r"All of the Earth Court." Uranus adds, with a look towards Endymion and the Shitennou.
    "All of our friends and allies." Neptune continues, looking around.
    "It's not about who rules. It's about who is happy. And all of us should be happy." Uranus says. "And you're not happy right now, we can feel it."

    "But we... all of us... together... we will fix it! And you will be happy too! But nobody ruling over anyone else like a tyrant - that won't make people happy. Now. Let's bring you back... Together!"

    Uranus and Neptune exchange a quick glance as they both channel their respective energies into their hands and bring them together; a shell of wind, then water erupts around them, before the two of them dive forward to try to make it through the dark energy, through Wicked Lady's defenses in their two-person scale form of Sailor Planet Attack. OCEAN GALE DUET!

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Oh, my baby, our Small Lady," Endymion's voice is aching; he takes a step forward, reaching out--

"No!" the prince yells, looking back, "That's hers! That's hers, it's not like the others--"

And that's when he's standing close and he has no inherent defense, no practice, at resisting the contagious kind of corruption. The kind he can just avoid picking up? Yeah, his willpower is great for that. Willpower doesn't do anything this close to the source, and Hematite's left standing where the prince was a second ago.

His mouth closes with a snap. He closes his eyes. Everyone is doing the good speeches, everyone is flinging their everything and giving it their all, and he's gotten goddamned dark energied again. "Chibiusa! I managed to resist this stuff for a whole day and night while I was on Nemesis and beat to hell, and this?"

His eyes snap open and he starts stalking toward her, up through the air. "Actually--" the stalking stops being stalking pretty fast, and Hematite bats away dangerous things that fly at him, just climbing an invisible hill until he's hovering next to Wicked Princess. "That's good. I was looking for an excuse to hug you for this part, sweetheart."

He locks eyes with Princess Serenity on the ground, and his gaze is soft, and then he winks at her.

Then, Hematite, floating at the same head-level as Wicked Princess, just reaches out to hug her.

They can get purified together. And also Ocean Gale Dueted.

Yuki Hoshino has posed:
"What was that? You really have to ask? It's right there in your hands, girl! It's candy! You eat it, then you run around and by hyper and annoy your parents! You've got the 'annoy your parents' part down, so why not?"

But, it seems, it will be to little avail. Waves of darkness spread across the land, forcing her to her knees.

There's something strangely, disturbingly, soothing about this darkness. Something telling her to just give in. But that's not something she's so ready to do just now.

She grunts as she pushes herself up, getting back to her feet, and stepping closer as if wading through a massive windstorm. Her eyes are still darkened, but she still doesn't appear to have given in.

She lifts her hand, a gleaming blue octagonal field pressed between her and the waves of darkness.

"No," she says. "Just... no. Look, kid... just... eat your candy."

Zoisite has posed:
A gasp, and Zoisite quickly flicks a finger to correct the directive of his attack, turning it only into a circlet so no impact and resulting explosion would occur, pushing away as much of the dark waves instead. As long as it helps, that's all it matters.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy groans as Wicked Lady pulls 'no the problem is you you're making it worse.' on them. "That's Textbook villain shit! Come on, you've seen nine hundred years of stories, you know this!"

    The wounds not yet inflicted on Chibiusa? "Then don't blame them for it. Aren't you better than those Black Moon idiots?!"

    The talk to Nephrite makes Amy briefly hang her head (and then resume dodging meowteorites). "That I can understand. It sucks, not bein' able to make things better. There might be more to life but if that's what you really end up wanting I dunno what to advise. ...Have you tried maybe being as teenager first? This is wild, I tell ya." (when Jadeite brings the subject up later, she nods and points at him.)

    At Endymion's clarification, Amy shrieks one word of disbelief-wait-actually-could-it-be-true:

    "WHAT?!"

    And then it gets worse. A crystal of her very own. Oh no.

    Since the the meteor stmeowrm is over, she has a moment to catch sight of her 'reflection' in a crystal pillar and double-take. She holds her hand to her face. "That's creepy." She turns towards Chibiusa. "But like, that's nothing against you! It's not your fault your power is creepy! It's all the rest we have a problem with!"

    And then Chibiusa shares her feelings.

    She knew. She had to, after so much time. Amy nods.

    She wanted to run. Amy looks away. The quiet life she wishes she could have would require similar ignorance, unless everything is fixed first, wouldn't it.

    And then corrupting waves. And a crystal. For her own good. A surprising show of caring from Wicked Lady.

    Amy's not sure she can complain. She's not sure breaking the crystal around her wouldn't make everything worse. She just stands there for a few seconds.

    "...You see. You can be reasonable." She mutters. Then she bangs a fist on the crystal prison once. "You can be reasonable! Show everyone that kindness!"

    "How d'you think I feel? You think I don't know? We all have that moment! When we learn people are being horrible to eachother halfway across the world and we can do nothing! It feels wrong, and we get used to it, until the wound scabs over and people tell themselves learning to ignore it even when it's right in front of them is part of becoming an adult and they're wrong!"

    "I've been so worried about what all my new friends have to face even if we save the world from all the magic stuff! I brought back what I can from the future but it's not enough, it's going to be so hard, but we can immanentize that eschaton instead of giving up! Although some days we'll need to rest and have lives too!"

    She sinks to her knees in the prison, fists still pressed against the walls. "You weren't allowed to grow up. You didn't feel you could and that's messed up. I was forced to, and yet not allowed in other ways. And even now I look out at a world that will demonize me unless I pretend to just be a normal little girl, and I suck at pretending to be what I'm not."

    Her fists drop to her sides and she looks up at Wicked Lady. "But the answer isn't to force other people to be what they're not. That's what was done to you, and it's what was done to me, and so many others, and sometimes it's by accident but so many times it's just reccuring cruelty, 'I suffered and so must you. I couldn't be myself so neither can you.' Some relish it, some believe the hurt is right, and you want to make the world better but you're falling into the same trap."

    "You can't make things better this way, Usagi Serenity! A world shaped by people who see others as their toys to force into the right mold is how we got here!"

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Cure La Licorne managed to, with great effort, kick off the meteor that had buried her. Burning, hurt, exhausted, battered... And not eating ANY more orbital bodies today, she pounded her fists togethers. "You know what?"

"You may be a moon brat, but I'm a sun-brat. But I've got the power of MERMAIDS behind me, too!" she yelled, before pulling out her heart rouge wand. She held it up... "Scorching ray piercer!"

Rays of sunlight formed into purifying blades of sunlights, descending on the moon princess. "And it's time you realize... This will never be the way, the path forward. We're always going to come for you. If you're in danger, we'll be there to help. But that means even if it's from you!" she yelled.

There was no victory pose, because, well... hers wasn't THE finisher, this time. It was adding to it. THAT was the trick to it, THAT was the way to escape the silly lil dance at the end, now she knew the secret sauce!

Laura La Mer has posed:
La Mer shakes her head at Wicked Lady's remark, an expression that presents a mix of smugness and judiciousness. Somehow. "Well, I see you truly can't see, under that fog of dark energy. I am still your friend, you silly. I am not fighting for your friendship, I am fighting for your happiness. Why do you think the ring has been shining all this time?", she retorts, showing her the hand with Chanteur's Ring of Happiness.

"I wish it could be a water park, it would be so much more fun, don't you agree? At least you guys have the Mare Serenitatis here. Totally hit me out of left field that. Good job on you guys of the Silver Millenium, preparing the stage for me all those years ago", she smirks, with a tone that would however be hard to be taken seriously however.

"What's that now!?", she raises a finger almost as if she had some objection to a midfight powerup, because really, she thought that was their hallmark. Since when do villains get even better midfight? Is that really happening?

Well, yes, and in a way that made a lot of sense too. Because it is true that Chibiusa and the catball have always been very bonded together, and considering how the Mermaid Aqua Pact was too quite innocuous-looking when she received it, she really should have seen it coming. "Well, my compliments to you, Wicked Lady. You really know how to make things get really tough", she flips her hair back as if they were discussing the weather. Despite her expression just a minute earlier having clearly betrayed her astonishment.

"You are putting it to very good use", she looks around at the Wicked Plushie Crystal Palace, and she is actually quite sincere about the sense of dramatic timing, being back to when they lost Chibiusa, and her very own home. Though Laura sees it more as a way to rectify what they should have been more careful about. Perhaps that's why she sounds so happy about it.

The Mermaid Pretty Cure stops and listens with a tilted face when the pinkette ascended to Serenity's role lets out all the feelings she has been keeping bottled up, and she almost sees echoes of the Mermaid Queen's own words through Chibiusa's, those words she rejected herself, and La Mer gives Chibiusa a sympathetic expression.

"Some things are hard to face, and you have been put in a hard position, Chibiusa. I can see why you would want to forget. Grand Ocean has been doing nothing but wanting to forget for thousand of years. But that is also my resolution as a Queen candidate, to stop it now, and let people accept what happened, and grow past it, together. I see you the same way. Now that you are here, you are not alone anymore. Let us be the rock on which the waves of your solitude break, Chibiusa."

And waves of corruption are coming at them, so this is the chance to turn a metaphor literal. "You said something about a waterpark, right?", she remarks chipperly. "How about I show you a very special ride? Wanna try it later?" It really helps that what she has in mind is the best chance she has to break through the waves of corruption, because they would have to get through her ride first before getting at her.

"Marine Heart Swirl Ring! Charm Up!", she smiles as she stretches her arm upwards, and a blue sphere expands from the ring on her arm and engulfs her, making her change form into the Excellent Tropical Style. "Five powers, roar through the seas!", she shouts, the ring projecting a blue heart above her from which the Marine Ring's whale squeals. The bioluminescent whale comes out, and the mermaid jumps inside of its mouth, swimming in the shimmering waters, a guide for the purifying whale.

The giant cetacean whimpers as it has to fend through Wicked Lady's most powerful attack, and there are times its forms starts slipping away. "Let's not quit now, we are almost there!", Cure La Mer urges it, and with one last strenous effort of the two of them, the whale reaches the barrier, hitting it with a purifying tail whack. "Pretty Cure Marine Beat Dynamic!"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
There's a split-second where Princess Serenity's expression crumbles, at the thought of what Chibiusa endured - at the thought of what her daughter from another life survived, too young to help, too old to forget. The end of the world. The end of everything that was, and yes, it was the start of something new, but hadn't it been such a long roar, to that new, hadn't it cost so much?

Of course she wanted to run away from it all. She should have had a childhood full of laughter and joy, she should have gotten to skip rocks and hunt for bugs and bake cookies, should have gone to school and toddled off on her first errands, should have held hands with her friends as they rode the bus for the very first time, should have run home with permission slips for school trips and gone camping -

She should have been happy.

(It is in this moment that Usagi Tsukino knows that she will do better. She will do more. She will never, in all her days, with all her power, let this be the world her daughter grows up in.)

(She has been warned.)

The Crescent Staff vanishes from Princess Serenity's hands, and the Silver Crystal, shining and clear and not truly white, but seeming so for the purify of the crystal, is in it's lotus form. Light builds, faint at first, but brightening.

Wicked Lady grows yet further, her hair lengthening, her dress transfiguring, no longer the sensual design meant to evoke her false maturity, but an inverse of Princess Serenity's own colors, her own gown, and her smile is not right.

Neither is the crystal in her hands, cloudy and blackened and cut in the shape of an opened rose.

Standing there, in the twisted Crystal Palace that is Wicked Lady's vision of reality, Princess Serenity stares down at her alternate daughter, and the light glows between her hands. Everyone's words flow past her, their power, their conviction. She hears them, and the glow strengthens. She sees them, and the glow strengthens.

Endymion recognizes what she herself realizes, and he calls out as she does, "That's her crystal! Don't strike it!"

And Zoisite calls away his attack, and Princess Serenity is relieved, and but she is building power just as her daughter is, and the waves of corruption crash around her, and their voice is so compelling, reaching, clinging.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
This time, Princess Serenity does not falter. This time, the power cannot take her - once exposed is twice resilient, for the moment. Prince Endymion is so close to it all, that truly, in the end, there's no surprise in her when Hematite takes his place, back in his version of the Shitennou uniform, his hair long, his face unamused. There is no fear in her at all.

After all, this is their wedding day. It only seems right that if all of her has been on display, that all of him be on display.

New Moon and Hematite.

Prince Endymion and Princess Serenity.

Tuxedo Kamen and -

There's enough light, enough attacks, enough bodies and powers being thrown about, that no one properly manages to get a glimpse, when Princess Serenity tips back her head, holding out her crystal still, and Sailor Moon straightens her spine.

"That's your crystal, Small Lady. That's your power. You've searched for it all this time, and it was right next to you, right where you needed it to be. This isn't who you are! You're not the shadow of your mother, you're not some twisted copy!"

The light in her hands is brighter than the moon, than the sun. It is the light of the cosmos, of creation. It is the ever-burning light of love.

"Small Lady, you are the future itself!"

And she takes that power, that glow, and fires, upon her daughter and her husband alike.

"MOON-"

It's a bright, dazzling light, spiraling lines of pink and white that expand in a cone -

"PRINCESS-"

With stars and crescent moons of pure energy that strike at Prince Endymion and Wicked Lady -

"HALATION!"

-with purifying light!

In that moment, Sailor Moon's tiara is a crown, the bow on her back impossibly large, like sweeping wings, and it will mean nothing, to most of them, but to Wicked Lady, she will see her - the shadow of Neo Queen Serenity.

Chibiusa Tsukino has posed:
    Wicked Princess's waves of darkness fill this cruel mockery of her home, corrupting and twisting even the very walls with her power. One might be tempted to think that things could not get worse, but as one can clearly see, they do.

    She-Ra punches against an invisible barrier that flares into existence with each strike, and as much as Wicked Princess acts like she doesn't care, she's running low on her reserves. The mahoujin have dished out a lot, and each smash causes the last bit of her remaining mana bar get smaller and smaller.

    Zoisite's flaming petals dance around the Wicked Crystal, the reflection of their flames blazing in its obsidian surface. She extends that same barrier around the Crystal, protecting it with all of her darkness, but it seems unneeded as he redirects his attack at the urging of the Prince and Princess. He's right to, of course. This is not the Malefic Black Crystal. It's something else entirely. For a brief moment, the crystal flashes pink, as if to prove this. The efforts of both him and Kunzite, two souls united, push harder against her, forcing her to spend yet more energy pushing back, creating a larger opening.

    "I suppose you and I are a lot alike, Catra," says Wicked Princess, reached by her words if not by power. "Both bearing similar pains, in our own unique way."

    Jadeite's defenses, also, help here. Forcing her to try harder, to spend more energy. Wicked Princess is starting to realize that the very moment she thought was her true victory might very well be her last gasp of desperation. "I loved you, too. All of you. Still do. That's why I need to take care of you. To protect you."

    Nephrite's sword strike, cutting against the dark wind, still helps. Even if it's his words that truly cut deep. "Yet she did. Everything was about her, Neo Queen Serenity. How can I even compare, when the old me couldn't even protect myself against an evil marshmallow? No. I need this..."

    Uranus and Neptune both call out to her, and it stings. "I'm not... I'm not a tyrant! Didn't my toys have fun with me? Didn't we all have a good time?" She says this, and then she immediately thinks of how tired Mamoru looked when he thought she wasn't looking. As she winces, she doesn't even have time to do anything about Ocean Gale Duet, which leaves massive visible glowing mauve cracks in her once invisible barrier. It's getting harder to maintain, not only because she's tired magically, but her rage is also getting spent.

    Endymion comes close, and he takes the darkness full force, and for once during this whole fiasco he actually gets corrupted for real. Wicked Princess looks up at Hematite with... sorrow? This isn't what she wanted, was it? It's what she did with New Moon, but... she had to, because Wiseman was watching, because she had to prove her loyalty to...

    As his arms make their way around her, she realizes and remembers, she only accepted this because she was afraid that 'no' meant instant death. The embrace pulls on her heartstrings.

    Yuki's urge to eat her candy gets a pouty response in return. "I'm not in the mood."

    Amy's prison was meant to contain her, but never silence her, which is maybe a sign that the tide in Wicked Princess's heart is turning. The Puella's impassioned speech connects with her in ways that it simply couldn't before, and she starts to really think about the way she's been acting. See people as toys? That doesn't sound right... but it's what she's been saying this whole time, right? "That's not... no... I didn't mean..." Her will is faltering, and Amy is reaching her. Everyone is.

    La Licorne insists that this isn't the way, "Then what other way is there?" asks the corrupted Princess. "Whether by light or darkness, all conflict is resolved by force. Who can truly be reasoned with, in the end?" Those searing blades of sunlight cut through her barrier, widening its cracks. No matter, she need only last a little bit longer.

Chibiusa Tsukino has posed:
    Cure La Mer's whale smashes through the remainder of the barrier, and the purifying magic of the mermaid precure strips off the last remnants of Wicked Princess's defenses.

    Wicked Princess looks down at the Wicked Moon Crystal as the teenage form of her mother calls out. This is her crystal. This is her power. She's not her mother's shadow, nor her twisted copy. She is--

    "The future?"

    Wicked Princess does not have time to process what that means to her, or what Sailor Moon means by it. She doesn't have time to think about the implications of that, or how it stirs her heart. It does, however, leave her vulnerable.

    The light of a mother's love, of Moon Princess Halation, washes over her, shines through her. Not only her own wounded heart and broken spirit, but also her very literal Crystal. As the light of Halation washes over that black surface, the darkness is stripped away, revealing a glowing pink within. Wicked Princess looks down at it, her eyes going wide as the light washes over her.

    Wicked Lady is gone. Only shining pink remains.

    The world shatters around them, dropping them in Rashmi's barrier.

    As the light of Moon Princess Halation fades, the person who floats in front of them with Pink Moon Crystal in her hands is neither Small Lady nor Wicked Lady, but someone else entirely.

    A fully fledged Sailor Senshi, complete with henshin, as the Pink Moon Crystal sinks back into her chest. Luna-P reappears at her side, bouncing happily, and even though its expression still hasn't changed, there's something subtly different about its nature. It seems... actually happy to be here, and slightly less subtly creepy.

    Sailor Chibimoon opens her eyes, and she's still crying, but at least her papa is here to hold her close. "Papa... mama... I'm so sorry!"

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
At first, nothing mattered to She-Ra other than continuing to beat on Wicked Lady -- the thing that had caused that pain in her heart -- that thing that was threatening her, her friends, people she even considered family in some cases. To ensure that she would never hurt anyone again -- a rage spurred on by more attacks, by this new person being somewhat in the way and the barrier holding her back -- and then.

...Then a dazzling light washed over them.

Then the darkness was shoved back out of her heart.

It's only as the rage that darkness had sparked started to cool that she realized that she'd been flickering somewhat, her right hand having become... skeletal for a moment, before returning to normal.

A soft exhale as all of that rage and that jumble of emotions she'd been feeling off and on through that fight are cleared away. It was a smaller effect, compared to other things, of course. As she moves away from where she had been. Truly, the moon is rather magnificent.

And the little moon... is...

So freaking adorable what the heck, that amount of adorableness should be illegal. It makes her think of a less hissy little baby Catra. D'aw.

She looks over Chibimoon a few moments, before awkwardly saying.

"...I uh. I'll let you focus on your parents but. Sorry for uh. Losing it there at the end." Eh heh.

And then she awkwardly makes her way over to a far-too-small chair to sit in. Still in She-Ra form. . . After a while she turns back /off/ her She-Ra form for now, instead becoming Adora as she sinks into that chair to just. Quietly relax for a moment. And enjoy watching the moment.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    All conflict is resolved by force. Amy shakes her head. "Not all. Some can be reached by words. But I don't have the answer for the rest. Maybe you'll figure it out, one day."

    And then... Everyone fights, and reaches out, and Chibiusa is a Senshi. "...Congratulations?" Amy's surprised, and the tenseness of wondering if they'd even win at least leaves her, and she drops from kneeling to sitting, just... breathing for a moment while her body catches up to things being OK now.

    ...Things are okay now, right?

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Cure La Licorne was... happy. Honestly. They'd done it... they'd saved her... Together. They'd really... actually... done it. Together.

As a team... She put an arm around Catra and gave her a hug... and well...

"Hinoiri Heist? Really?" she asked She-ra a few moments later, glowering. SHE WAS GOING TO REMEMBER THAT FOR A WHILE!

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
    Sailors Uranus and Neptune come to a stop after their attack assists in working their way through Wicked Lady's defenses, and still distant enough to not entirely 'ruin the moment' as it were - but once the child has been properly embraced and comforted by the father and mother she's so apologetic towards, the two Outer Senshi step forward, smiles wide.

    "I like you a lot better like this, kid." Sailor Uranus says, grinning. "As a Sailor Senshi, a teammate, like you should be - like you always were, even if the Dark Energy made you forget it for a bit."

    "...Sailor Saturn is going to love you." Neptune says, giggling. "All adorable and pink and Soldier-y."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy blinks. "Wait, so... her Senshi power was sealed away inside the catball the whole time...?"

Jadeite has posed:
The world becomes so bright that even when Jadeite closes his eyes, all he can see is light. The backwash of Moon Princess Halation washes over him like a warm summer breeze. For a moment, he could swear he can smell the flowers that once grew on the moon.

And then the pressure of the dark energy suddenly collapses. Jadeite collapses with it, nearly spent from throwing all his powers into his shields. He lets himself rest for a moment as Usagi and Mamoru collect their daughter, hold her, before gingerly getting to his feet and wobbling over.

"Welcome back. You're just in time for the big party," he says, throwing Chibi-usa a lopsided smile. "We've all been working our a - our butts off to get this ready."

Hotaru Tomoe has posed:
Sailor Saturn landed amidst them, tired, exhausted, slightly on fire, possibly an imprint of a Luna-P on her skirt, who knew? Either way... There was no way she could raise her glaive against her princess of little princess. And she knew that. So she'd had no choice but to aid against them in... other ways.

But now.... "Eeeeeee... She's so pretty... And cute... and pinnnnnk... eeeee..." and then just kind of... leaned against Uranus, the glaive going into storage space as two tiny hands clutched her fuku and held on. "... I don't... ever want to do... evil twin moons ever again though... They are the prettiest moon princesses when they're pink, not evil..."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    After a moment - after all the fighting has turned to embracing, after exhausted battlers have collapsed or broken down... a still in-white-suit Riventon pops his head up from around a corner. "Is it over, did everything end up okay?" he asks, before his gaze falls on Sailor Chibi Moon.

    "...please don't tell me, that's not who I think it is." he says. "Just because I said I didn't think she was ready for Dark Energy meant I thought she was ready for... ugh... fighting as a sparkle instead..."

Catra has posed:
Catra

Is being

hugged

How is she supposed to respond to this? It's a show of affection. Which is weird. When she was in the Horde the only person who ever demonstrated that she liked her in any way was Adora and then they were enemies and everything was confusing and now she's on Earth and she and Adora might not be enemies anymore and she's somehow wound up in a relationship with Hinoiri, and she has absolutely no idea how that actually happened and she has a lot of feelings that she has no idea what they mean (partly because they aren't feelings like rage or terror and she's just not used to that).

The Horde did not prepare her for any of this.

Maybe she should go to that nerd palace (aka Radiant Heart Academy) for a while. Just... she'll be skipping all the math classes. Also biology class because they might want her to dissect something and that's gross. She is so not doing art class either. Lame.

So she... sort of sticks her arms around Hinoiri, and looks over at Adora with a 'help me I'm confused' look on her face.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Oh, hold her close he does, and when the light clears, Prince Endymion's right there with her still. "Look at you, sweetheart," he murmurs, "power of your own, and taller! You'll be as tall as me, soon." Maybe the laughing at his own joke is quiet and a little damp, but who can blame him?

He opens the hug in the direction of Usagi, making c'mere gestures with his free hand; he's on one armored knee. Riventon pops his head in and the prince starts laughing, and it's still sort of, you know, before Usagi gets there he rubs his eyes on the back of his sleeve...

Yuki Hoshino has posed:
The Darkness... is gone. Yuki nods, and a small smile is visible for a moment.

She doesn't really know most of the other attendees, so it's hard to pick someone to engage with. And the former villainess of the piece is ... occupied. Pleasantly, *not* with nonexistence. Indeed, the reunion with the other Senshi is quite heartwarming.

And clearly none of Yuki's business.

At least, between her phone and her Device, she'll have plenty of reading material. Time to find a nice comfortable out-of-the-way seat and catch up on the next volume of something.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Sailor Moon takes a running leap towards Sailor Chibimoon, tackling her and Prince Endymion so that the three royals end up in a tangle of limbs on the floor.

All around them, Nega Moon Space has shattered, leaving them in Rashmi's yellow-and-black barrier, still damaged but far less dangerous than before. The waters of the two ponds are mercifully cool and filled with neither flame nor Luna-P copies. The soft light from the decorated sconces falls upon them.

Sailor Moon cups Sailor Chibimoon's face and kisses her forehead.

"Look at you, Small Lady," she whispers, full of awe, "You're just as incredible as we all knew you'd be."

Everything is alright, now. The other threats that remain are a literal world away, and their family is whole, their friends are here, and -

"Hey, Mamochan, can we finally get married? Our flower girl's got the cutest outfit."

Zoisite has posed:
Letting go of his hold on the petals, they dissipate along with the rest of the dark that surrounded them, the illusionary world shattering into pieces and light filtering through. Seeing their Small Lady returned to her own self, safe and sound in her alternative parents arms was all he needed to see before taking a deeply sighing, leaning his weight onto Kunzite for just a moment.

"They're back... Good. Good." Mutters to himself, a little smile forming on his lips, hand discreetly offering a gentle squeeze, a glance of green eyes full of affectionate before turning his attention to the Royal Family and approaching them.

A gentle little flutter of petals conjures one of the precious bouquets he's been working on tirelessly for the ceremony. This one however was much smaller to the real thing, but special in its own unique way. Soft yellow dahlias, white camellias, red roses and in the middle, a pink rose. Baby's breath blooms glowing in a special light he had been working on in the shed, combining both present time flowers and those of Small Lady's future timeline. A small secret as he offers the bouquet to her.

"Welcome back, Small Lady." Whatever bitterness he had weeks ago was gone as he smiled at her. "You're just in time."

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
They're all right.

Kunzite exhales, careful not to let it be shakily, and lets his other arm settle around Zoisite for a moment, leaning his head down into the embrace. "Well done," he murmurs. "Are you all right?"

He's answered by Zoisite conjuring the bouquet, and he lets go smoothly to let Zoisite offer the bouquet without delay. There are still so many things to do. But parents - and uncles - have privileges, especially on a wedding day.

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
"Well it was an attack to steal something and I was thinking of when you were borrowing powers and stuff and...." Yeah Adora definitely was just making excuses in response to that one. It's fine. Everything's fine. She's definitely not thinking badly of Hinoiri at all. Yes.

And Catra seems to be struggling a little... and... looking at her imploringly, like she was asking for a question. The arms around Hinoiri are given a small, approving nod, and she just. Lifts her hand. And gives Catra a thumbs up. "It's okay. You're doing it right." She says encouragingly.

Yes. She's helping so very much right now.

And apparently it's marrying time too! Adora gives an awkward little cough before quickly standing up to get more properly into her place in the wedding profession. She smiles towards the family awkwardly, yes. This is a formal thingy! Of some sort! She could focus on that now and not her own similarly-confused emotions.

Laura La Mer has posed:
In those final moments the whale was Laura's best shot to go through the pure darkness of her attack. After all, that was Wicked Lady going all out, she needed all she had in turn to make sure she could reach it. While powerful, she is not sure she would have been able to sing the song of Chanteur enough for it to work out.

But all of them are hypotheticals that don't matter. What matters is that Chibiusa has been freed of the dark energy, and she has returned to being herself. She also has a loving family catching her in their warm embrace, and while it might take a while for her to calm down completely, this is surely an important start.

She watches silently with a smile on her face that heartwarming scene, her rainbow heart-wings shining quite a bit brighter in response to the scene. She can feel her heart lighten by their collective radiance. There will be time for anything else later.

She watches with curiosity how Chibiusa's height hasn't gone back all the way, but she knows time has always worked weirdly for her, this is probably just another sign of it, and something Chibiusa can be happy for alongside her own power.

Little bit of an unusual move to place it into Luna-P, but she assumes there was some important reason for it, some necessity that Chibiusa came into it. She looks down at the Mermaid Aqua Pact. Magic really likes working this way.

Chibiusa Tsukino has posed:
    Chibimoon is surrounded by family, her mom and dad are here, giving her a group hug, and this time Small Lady doesn't hold anything back from Sailor Moon.

    After all, she still remembers that being nice to her was such a rarity that it was a temptation. Maybe she's been a little too harsh to her. Just a bit. It's a reflection on how much she's been purified that she stopped seeing that as a point of condemnation and more a lesson on how to take better care.

    Amy was right. She's a bit more mature this way.

    "Oh! Flower girl! Right. Um..."

    She glances around. She finds the ruins of a throne. Who would bring such a weird thing to a wedding? Who would sit in it? Weirdo...

    Zoisite offers her a bouquet, and her entire face lights up as she accepts it in her hands. "Thank you so much!" She takes a moment to smell it before giggling up at Zoi. "They smell so nice, and they're so pretty!"

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    After all of this chaos, after the destruction of a strange dimension and the purification of not one but two Dark Generals, a lacey white Labyrinth portal appears and two young ladies emerge, followed by a tiny divine fairy whose belly is full of snacks. Homura is mostly awake. Madoka is trying to be, but leaning on her girlfriend for support. The black haired Puella calls out, "We're not too late, are we? Sorry we missed the end." She nudges her cuddle buddy and says, "Wake up, Madoka-chan. Kamiko's gonna do her thing."

    Kamiko, the tiny goddess Chara, full of energy thanks to being full of sugar, rushes back to the location of the wedding venue. Floating vaguely between where the bride and groom are meant to stand, but a little further back, she flails her tiny arms and squeaks loudly to get everyone's attention. For some reason, even though she's really small, her voice really carries today.

    "Okay! Okay. Like... I'm exhausted? But like... also relieved. I'd like to thank everyone who came here today to pull this off because wow. I think... I think we should do the wedding proper now before our bodies decide that it's naptime without our permission, okay? Let's all take a break, and when we're ready we can all get in position to do The Thing. The Wedding Thing, that we all actually came here for!"

    There's a few minutes of a break, time enough for people to stretch their legs, sit down, eat a snack, or go get flowers. Whatever they need to do to prepare. Then, once they are ready, and the wedding party is in position, Kamiko floats happily before the bride and groom and speaks again.

    "To all my cuddlies, snack-givers, and friends."

    "We're all here today to bear witness to the love of Princess Serenity and Prince Endymion."

    "A love that has crossed borders and worlds, time and lives. Not even death could part them, nor could darkness stop them."

    "Now today, against all the bad things, after everything that has come against them, today we celebrate a love story written in the stars."

    "Love between our dear friends, who have stood with us, and us with them, though so much."

    "Today these two soulmates begin a new journey. A journey of union, where two paths become one. One family, brought together by the sincerest power of the heart. By love."

    "Let's be honest. We've already seen the alternate universe where these two last like 1000 years together. We can be pretty sure they're are gonna make it."

    "Now, its time to exchange vows."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
After everything, after the months of distress, after the fights and the purification, after a whole lifetime, after the joyous occasion that was the setting-to-rights of...

...of his-- aaa! Wife! and alt-future daughter, and for that selfsame daughter's coming into her own as a Sailor Senshi--! And--!!! Wife what the--!! (So many people have made this day what it is, and sometime, maybe next week, he'll start writing thank you cards-- while helping Usagi with homework-- (maybe making her write the cards)) (what terrible fights, how proud he was of his shitennou, they didn't want to hurt Usagi, especially not on the Moon) how aMaZiNg Usagi is, how thoroughly captivating, inspiring, strong--

Endymion is once more standing at the top of the steps with Serenity, and she's perfect, and he can't think, and poor Usagi has to cope with Mamoru's buzzing emotions, flashes of images he tries to get control of as he blinks back tears, as he glances over all the people who have come for them, makes eye contact on occasion. His Shitennou he can't see anymore, but he can feel them behind him, he can hear Zoisite playing-- the dulcet slide of rosined bow across the strings of a well-tuned cello are as calming as the sense of focus he has from Kunzite, the confidence he borrows from Nephrite, the earnestness he takes from Jadeite, the pride from Riventon that he tempers.

This, this, this is the happy occasion to bless this space, our ancient dream becoming real, the sanctification and purification of the space that had once been fouled and ruined. This is the end of the past and the beginning of the future, and every single person here has been integral to this occasion happening. Someday he might be able to express the amount of gratitude he has toward all of his friends and family, past and present and absent but remembered.

The weight of the Moon's ghosts is lighter with every murmur as people quiet down, as Kamiko speaks, as Kamiko asks for vows. That weight is between their hands, the knowledge of it sturdily carried as they press on into the future.

Mamoru sniffs, and laughs, and takes a raggedly steadying breath. He addresses Usagi, Serenity, (secretly Sailor Moon!!) directly.

"So uh, today, I already did a lot of telling you what I love about you, which is basically everything. You know I don't make promises often, because I want to make sure I can keep them. These are promises I know I can keep.

"I promise to always do my best at talking things out, at keeping us and our family safe, at listening, at giving up on my kitchen ever being mine even once it's ours... I promise to make sure there are always snacks even if I have to hide them in my hat. I promise to help you with whatever I am able, I promise to be with you in sickness and in health but not in Dark Energy.

"I promise to be the home you can always find your way back to. Most of all, I promise to love and cherish you past the end of this life, and all the way through the next ones, as long as I last, no matter how many times we meet again."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
With the battle over, there's a flurry of activity - Rashmi's barrier drops to reveal an utterly pristine Moon Palace, not a single stone out of place, and there are henshins dropping, feasts being pulled from storage, decorations being pinned quickly back into place, outfits being restored -

At one point, Sailor Moon bounces up and announces that she'll go and get the bride, who had coincidentally disappeared after that battle. Oh you know brides, always needing to freshen up!

Princess Serenity returns just as the music resumes and there's a brief moment, as Sailor Chibimoon acts the flower girl, using a basket prepared with love and hope. There's a moment with everyone waiting, that Princess Serenity stands alone at the end of the marble path leading to the palace, a bride ready to walk herself down the aisle - but then.

But then, there's a hand in hers, and Luna stands beside her, ready to take the next step in a journey they had started together, advisor and princess, Luna and Usagi.

Once at the top of the stairs, Princess Serenity faces Prince Endymion, Kamiko their officiant, and all their friends, their family, and she giggles a few times, at Kamiko's loving, kind, generous words, and her eyes fill with tears in spite of herself.

Endymion says his vows first, and she would not be a famed and self-proclaimed crybaby if she didn't cry at her own wedding, hastily blotting at her cheeks with a handkerchief Luna not-quite-stealthily provides.

A part of her can't believe they're actually here. Can't believe this is actually happening. That even with the everything - the month as a dark general, the half a year of an enemy from an alternate future seeking revenge, the whole complete other lifetime - they've made it. Here. To their very own wedding day.

It's their day, dammit, and she'll cry if she wants to.

This is their new beginning. This is the cleansing of the ancient past, the restoration of her ancient home, and through his hands she can feel the Moon dreaming sweet dreams, the ghosts of this place that had been her home and then their final resting place flying away.

"Mamochan... this may not have been the wedding we dreamed of having, but when I look at everything here, everything everyone's done for us, everything you've done for us, I know this is the wedding we needed to have, because really, it's exactly what everyone probably expected from us."

"You told me all these wonderful things today, and I want to make everyone listen to me tell you how wonderful you are. Mamochan, I love you for your kindness and your jerkitude. I love you for being stubborn and I love you for being yielding, I love you for how generous and welcoming you are, and I love you for standing up for yourself and for me. I'll say I love you as much as I want, because we're getting married, and it's amazing. When we met, I thought you were the biggest jerk in the world, and all along you were protecting me. You've protected me, and supported me, and stood by me through everything, through tragedy and joy, and - and I know we'll stand together for the rest of time."

"My whole life, I've wanted to be a housewife, I've wanted to be a homemaker, I've wanted to find the one and make them mine and give them a place to come home too. I just didn't know, for all those years, that the person I wanted to make a home for was you. Is you. Will always be you. All the promises you've made me, I return, because - I promise to love you, from now and into forever. I promise to listen and speak, and never go cold on you. I promise to hold your hand when things are easy and hard, and I promise to always remember your ear plugs for the loud days, and I promise to smile with you, and laugh with you, and cry with you. I promise that we'll be a family, and to give you a place to call home wherever you are. I promise that in this life and every other, you'll have a home with me."

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    The pair give their vows, and it's... moving, actually. Even though Kamiko is supposed to be all official because of her position she finds herself being affected. She wipes a tear from her eye, and she sniffles, but that's all that she allows herself in this moment and even that feels like too much. Their close friends, in their beautiful moment. Kamiko isn't sure that her words have done them justice, but what words could?

    She gives the only words she has left to say on the matter.

    "And now it's time for me to say what shoulda been said like thousands of years ago. Words that are long overdue."

    "I now pronounce you... hubby and wifey! You may cuddle the bride... or kiss her if you want. I'm not a cop."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"I recall someone saying she didn't need permi--" Endymion starts before he's yanked down for a kiss, and he's smart enough to stop laughing and kiss back.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Of course she dragged him down. Of course she didn't let him finish those teasing words - there are rings on their fingers, and there are kisses to be had.

Just one, now, but so many more, for all the rest of their lives.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    (Minutes ago: "Oh right, the wedding! We can... dang, we can finally..." Amy changes back to the magical girl dress she arrived in. "Although uh... maybe we should take ten and heal up first?" Fortunately, Kamiko agrees!)

    Amy Faust is standing by in the audience and she can't stop smiling. From the moment Serenity appears at the aisle... and Kamiko speaks, and the couple face eachother here, on the moon, where things happened--

oh i found out a while ago, like a couple months. i was sailor moon in a past life and the world ended and everyone died.
what
we're going to succeed this time though!

    --they did it. Against everything, against the weight of eons and more apocolypsi than anyone should have to deal with, they did it. They took a world of tragedy and made a better future. Maybe, just maybe--

I've been so worried about what all my new friends have to face even if we save the world from all the magic stuff!

    --things really can change.

    Amy nods along at his comment about few promises -- her own philosophy as well. And she can't help smiling more at the sillier-sounding vows but also two dear friends have reached this point, finally...

    Serenity is crying from happiness and that's something Amanda can understand, now. Everyone's come so far to get here. The vows are so sweet they'd fill Kamiko for sure.

    They kiss.

    And Amy cheers, and claps! "Yeeeeeeeah!"

    She does it without hurting her hands! They've all come so far.