A sacrifice in the name of Love.

As Chaos left her alone, up there at the Tokyo Tower, Shinrai knew that he was going to explain to his fellow elven why he saw what he'd seen. And she was sure he'd say him not a lie but what really happened back in the Gold Millenium.

Now, would she do the same? Was it necessary to tell the truth? All the time she has to keep this secret just to herself, no one to share her doubts, or the confusing dreams when she didn't realize they actually were her memories.

There's a moment when souls can't stand anymore what is inside their hearts, we need friends or someone we trust to free our spirit, to be who we truly are. Chaos was going to do it, and Shinrai was feeling that she needed someone to speak with.

And there was just one person she could talk with the truth.

* * *

Mayhem reached the end of the hallway and turned into a small study, one of the many common rooms available for all the Elves to use, if they were so inclined. Needless to say, they almost never were.

He quickly walked through the room, it was not his destination, and he brushed aside a heavy blue curtain and stepped out onto a small balcony. He liked his rose garden best, but that was the first place anyone would look for him, and he felt like being alone. And if the garden was his favorite place, this was a close second.

In this realm of constant change, the view from this balcony always stayed the same, for some reason Mayhem didn't know, and didn't care to think about right now. It was nighttime at the moment, and a half moon cast it's wane light down upon him and across the ocean the balcony overlooked. Far below, high waves crashed against jagged rocks, and the washed out, white light danced on the surface of the water.

He laughed softly to himself as he leaned up against the railing to stare out over the water, letting the music of crashing waves sooth his whirling thoughts. His eyes narrowed and a playful ocean breeze tugged at his hair slightly. His emotions felt like the elements all around him, mixed up and chaotic. Ever since he had been released from his Pandora's box by the bewitching Senshi of water, he had felt his hard earned control slipping away from him, bit by bit. This terrified him, although he would never show it. Everything in this new world moved so quickly, and he found himself longing for the world he and the others had lost, so many centuries ago.

During the Golden Millenium, everything was constant, age-old customs prevailed, and he had been comfortable with that. He hated change, which made it all the more ironic that his best friend thrived on it.

In fact, Mayhem would endure much discomfort to see Chaos happy. Almost against his will, memories surfaced of the years before the Court of Chaos even existed, and he let himself drift in the past.

He left the class early. He already knew all about teleportation from practicing on his own, and the instructor certainly could not teach him any more. Chishiki couldn't help it if his natural talent for magik put him ahead of almost all his classes. It was also the reason the rest of his classmates shunned him. They envied his power, but at the same time it scared them. He could understand all their reasons, even better than they could themselves, but that didn't mean it hurt any less when they whispered behind his back.

So once again, he was out here in the apple orchard, his sanctuary on the school grounds. It was currently out of fashion with everyone else; they much preferred to hang out near the school buildings. This suited him fine, the solitude he found here gave him the strength to face another day.

*

Walking deeper into the orchard, it was easy to see signs of neglect. The grass grew think and long, as did the branches overhead, obscuring most of the sunlight. Chishiki made his way to the middle of the grove, to a place he had cleaned up with his magic. He settled himself in the middle of the little clearing, putting his arms over his knees, and resting his head on them, he soon tuned out the rest of the world. But not long after this, a strange, haunting melody wafted across the clearing, not intruding upon his peace, but nevertheless, capturing his attention.

Slowly he stood, and walked towards the source of the music. Stopping at the base of one particularly large tree, he looked up to see a young man sitting on one of the sturdier branches, his eyes closed, playing a wooden flute.

Chishiki blinked in surprise. This was the last thing he ever expected to see out here. He recognized the boy, a new student recently come to live and study at the school. But he hadn't talked to him. He assumed that the other students would quickly tell him about Chishiki and his freakish gifts.

The boy finished the song and lowered the flute from his lips, opening his eyes. He looked down, to see Chishiki staring up at him. He grinned suddenly and waved. "Konichiwa!"

Startled, it was all Chishiki could do to stammer out a greeting of his own. The silver-haired boy pushed himself off the branch and easily levitated to the ground. Again Chishiki was surprised; that magik was a full year and a half above the level he remembered this boy to be studying in. Quickly he tried to regain some sort of control.

"What are you doing out here? No one ever hangs out here."

The younger boy laughed. "And yet I find you out here."

Chishiki sighed and decided to get this over with. "I am the only one. Everyone else stays by the buildings."

"But I'm not everyone." The boy quickly countered. "And I don't like being around them all the time. A person can only listen to so much insane gossip before getting homicidal urges as I'm sure you can well imagine."

In spite of himself, Chishiki felt one corner of his mouth tugging up in a smile. This boy was definitely not like all the other spoiled Elven children here. Maybe...

"If you don't want to stay with them, perhaps you would like to talk with me? I can guarantee that I do not gossip."

The boy nodded, his face once again breaking into that infectious grin. "Hai! If anything I create whatever it is they wish to bore themselves gossiping about. I knew right off that you were the other most interesting and powerful person at this otherwise amazingly dull school."

That caught Chikishi again by surprise. "You know how powerful I am? Yet you aren't scared of me, like the others?"

He shrugged. "Why should I be? I'm just as powerful, only a bit younger. I just don't let on about it; prodigies never get to have any fun once their talent's discovered."

"Fascinating." Chishiki said dryly, and sitting, he motioned for the boy to do the same. "Please, sit Hi--" But the younger boy cut him off with a wave of one hand.

"Call me Chaos." He said as he seated himself near the older, black-haired boy. "Hiiro was just a formality of my birth."

Chishiki sat for a moment, digesting this piece of information. "Chaos?"

'Chaos' nodded. "I've always thought people should be able to choose their own names when they are old enough. No reason to keep a name that's totally unsuited to you. Names are meant to be what other people call you. A true name belongs to the one who gives it, and in Chaos I find nothing more fitting of myself than that."

Chishiki thought over this, while they sat in silence. Hiiro--no, Chaos had become somewhat of often-lamented teacher's lore in terms of his games. Already so young yet so involved in driving everyone around him insane. And yet he pulled it all off without revealing the true extent of his powers.

How fitting to be Chaos, indeed then.

And what about himself? Alone, solitary, respected and feared. Playful yet cunning, exact to the precies detail. If as colorful a names as Chaos had chosen, would just a title suit him? Abruptly a dark smile grew on Chishiki's face. Finally he said "You could be right. So, you can call me...Mayhem."

Chaos laughed with delight. "That's perfect, just perfect!!" His laughter spread to 'Mayhem' and soon both of them where clutching their sides and gasping for air. "Well, Mayhem." Chaos said after they had calmed down. "The school if not the world has become our playing field. What sort of trouble would you like to stir up first?"

*

Mayhem woke from his reverie with a start. He hadn't thought about that day in decades, at least.

That afternoon had been the start of his friendship with Chaos, and he hadn't regretted a minute of it. Joining his friend's 'Court' when it was barely more than a dream, and not the most powerful force of Elven mages ever. And not now, even after their defeat and imprisonment in the Pandora Boxes for so long. After all, without Chaos, he would still be plain old Chishiki. Dead with the rest of his race.

He chuckled humorlessly. He wondered if Ami would ever understand the importance he placed on her, even using his 'real' name when they had met in the library.

The melancholy look in Mayhem's eyes faded quickly, as he heard voices enter the room behind him. Chaos and...Riot, if he was not mistaken. It was so hard to tell them apart by voice alone. Mayhem closed his eyes briefly. "I've brooded long enough, anyway," he muttered to himself. Pushing away from the railing, he turned and grasped the cloth separating the balcony from the room.

"So you two will keep this to yourselves, then?"

"Of course, Chaos. You have our word."

Riot tilted his head, eyes flashing in recognition of a fellow Elven lord. "Ah, good evening, Mayhem. I trust your time alone was profitable."

Mayhem looked to Chaos, who only nodded in response. "What's with the brooding expression, Chaos?" he inquired, drawing out an Elven tarot.

"If I didn't know any better I'd think I was looking at myself." He released the card, letting it float up to eye level and then flip around for Chaos and Riot to see. The image of a lone knight with a broken sword flickered into being, numerous ghostly specters rippling around the hero with devilish and leering expressions. Runes for "Haunting" were inscripted at the base of the card.

Mayhem let an edge of the card rest upon his index finger, the card twirling of its own will and life upon it. "Still sulking over the masquerade?"

Chaos sighed. "Hai hai--in a manner of speaking."

"Speech is for someone who wants to hide what's behind their eyes, something their body movements betray," Mayhem countered.

"Yes, but that is the essence of what it means for these humans to be...well, human," Riot countered. "Their lives are fragile like glass and they are quite possessive of holding the world as they know it close to their hearts."

Mayhem's eyebrow raised in mild curiosity. "And just what have you been up to then, might I inquire, Riot?"

Riot chuckled, wagging a finger at Mayhem. "Trade secrets, Mayhem. It would spoil the game if I gave away the ending, ne?"

Both Elvens paused as Chaos walked past the two, still there in the conversation yet lost in his own thoughts at the same time.

"Chaos, daijobu?" Mayhem asked. "I know for a fact this is unlike you to be behaving so quietly."

With a nod Chaos turned around, hands in his pockets and eyes directed to the ceiling. "The past day's been too...melancholy for my tastes as of lately. I've had a few unexpected surprises to deal with."

He sighed, shaking his head. "And here I've been thinking them through and thinking them over, and realizing I have been wasting my time for the past few hours in just thinking. But this can't be me! I'm the Elven Playking! I should be out painting the town red, blue or whatever other color I want with a large illusionary paintbrush!"

He spun around, making another grandiose pose as he caught his second wind. Numerous crystal illusions appeared hovering around him, each one glowing a different hue.

Riot grinned. "That didn't keep him down too long."

"You know," Chaos remarked, sauntering down the corridor and then slowly following the underside of an archway until he was completely upside-down to the other Elven. "When I'm in need of inspiration, nothing does it for me better than rearranging furniture! Whaddaya say?"

Mayhem snatched his floating card, glancing over in Chaos' direction.

"You're not going to make the room upside-down again, are you?"

"Oh please!" Chaos scoffed, waving it aside. "Would I do a petty repeat of something as grand as that?"

Mayhem and Riot lookd at each other. "He's going to put everything sideways on the wall," they chorused, nodding in a playful exasperation.

"Too late," Chaos replied smugly, stretching back in an enormous armchair modeled in the resemblance and form of a butterfly, his hands resting leisurely on the 'wings'.

Mayhem and Riot looked around to discover that the floor had now become the wall and that there was what appeared to be a study on the walls. Numerous other butterfly-shaped chairs had been set up, as well as an exquisite table crafted from silver, the four legs actually incredibly detailed griffons, their heads supporting a tabletop of crystal clear glass.

"Gravity around us is so very arbitrary," Riot remarked.

"You have little to complain about," Mayhem said. "You and Ruckus spend half your time prancing around like this."

Chaos opened up his palm, and upon the table a set of china appeared. Polished gemstones adorned three cups, each cup with a different rune meant to be used by the three Elven lords present. A tea kettle with steaming water lifted itself from the table and started to fill the empty cups. It was somewhat surreal to what tea pour itself sideways to the real floor and yet not spill any of the liquid at all.

"Green tea?" Chaos inquired, gesturing to the steaming cup as he gently popped a small, floating crystal only to have a tea bag fall into his hand.

Riot laughed. "I see even over a few thousand years some things still never change, Chaos."

"Hai hai," Mayhem added, taking a seat upon another butterfly chair.

"So then, what shall we talk about?"

Havoc yawned as he appeared in the room, arms over his blade & Hysteria behind him. His yawn turned into a small "Huh?"

He was on the wall of the realm, and the others were on the floor, or was it the other way around?

Havoc shook his head twice to clear it. "Let me guess. Chaos re-arranged the furniture himself?"

All three elves grinned at him.

Havoc smiled back, lodging the blade in the wall and began twirling a pair of glasses on his finger. His rhythm wasn't as great as the others though, and he soon dived for the pair as the almost hit the floor.

The males laughed.

"Well, you have to admit, you really have an inability to keep things swinging," laughed Riot.

Havoc's reply was a yawn.

"The concert was *that* good, ne?" asked Chaos, a coy smile on his lips. "I trust you didn't turn the amphitheater into the next Lunar Crater."

"No, but we had a run in with-"

Hysteria shook a bag at Chaos. "Oooh, Chaos-chan! Hysteria had the most kawaii time at the kawaii concert until some reaaaaaalllllly un-kawaii monsters starting making all the kawaii human-chans fall asleep!"

Mayhem raised an eyebrow, as Chaos put up an arm to deflect the bag Hysteria was shaking at him. "Asleep?"

"Uh-huh! Then the ugly monster-chans attacked the kawaii 'lil singers on stage! Hysteria-chan had to stop all that un-kawaiiness, ne? Ne? Ne?"

Riot rolled his eyes. "Didn't you though?"

"Ow!" said Chaos, as she hit him on the head. "What do you have in there, knives?!"

Hysteria giggled. "Gomen nasai, Chaos-chan!"

"It's a human," yawned Havoc.

All eyebrows shot up, as Chaos grabbed the bag, and reached in. He pulled out a brown-n-white-bunny.

Chaos tried not to laugh, as he held the squirming bundle by the ears.

"THAT's a human?"

"At least for a another two hours." said Havoc.

Hysteria clomped unto Chaos's arm. "Oooh, may Hysteria-chan keep the kawaii 'little bunny-chan, please? Please? Please?!"

With each please, Hysteria was cutting off the circulation, 'causing Chaos to drop the rabbit. It went off helter-skelter, first smashing into the table, then off side-ways down a hall, towards the Twins's realms.

Riot's eyebrow twitched, as HYsteria un-clomped herself, and tore after the rabbit.

Havoc smiled, then said, "I've have all the fun I've wanted. Oh, Chaos, remind me tomorrow to wake up for school, wanna talk to you on the way about the concert."

Chaos was still in surprise from the rabbit, massaging his arm.

Havoc leaned on his blade, and was gone from vision.

Chaos was still in surprise from the rabbit, massaging his arm. "I wonder if making it Hysteria's pet would be considered cruelty to animals?" he muttered.

Havoc leaned on his blade, and disappeared.

Mayhem blinked as they watched Hysteria frantically chase down her rabbit. "Well, that was... interesting."

Chaos nodded. "You know, I think I know that rabbit, er, human."

Riot's ears perked up at this, "Oh? Who is it?"

Chaos waved the question aside, "Oh no one of importance. Now what were we supposed to be talking about?"

Riot casually sipped on his green tea while he pondered the question. The warm liquid rolled off his tongue and down his throat, soothing and healing all at once. Drinking tea had always been a tradition in the court, at least it was until Hysteria started turning them into 'kawaii little tea parties'. Still, it had been a long time, and the tea was exceptional.

"Well, " Riot started, "I suppose we should take a moment to discuss Lady Mercury's future with us. Speaking of which, an illusion to convert her to elven would be helpful Chaos."

Chaos nearly choked on his tea. "Make her elven?"

"Hai." Riot replied ever-so casually.

Chaos took a moment to consider the news, an array of emotions fleeting across his face. Looking back to Riot he only chuckled in amusement. Chaos pulled a crystal from his mandala and tossed it to Riot.

"That's a new one. Sounds fun. That crystal there is attuned to Ruckus and your's magik, and so can only be removed by you or I." Riot nodded and tossed the crystal into the air where it promptly disappeared,

probably for his brother.

Mayhem arched an eyebrow, "Concerning Lady Mercury..."

"Worry not, " Riot interrupted, "once she joins our kind and is taught a few things, you'll get your turn."

Mayhem nodded absently and sipped from his own cup of tea. A few moments passed as the elven lords enjoyed a good cup of green tea, the sound of crashing waves could be heard not so far away. A light bulb appeared above Chaos' head and shone brightly.

"Something come to mind, Chaos?" Mayhem asked.

The light bulb vanished and Chaos nodded enthusiastically. "I was just thinking about how little we know of the twins' early years, hmm Riot? Ravage I hand-chose much like everyone else in the Court, yet you two just appeared and rather exquisitely dethroned her of her title."

A smile tugged at the side of Riot's mouth, it had been a long time, a very long time. Memories of an almost forgotten childhood surfaced from their place of resting.

"As you might already know, my brother and I were separated at birth when the sanctuary fell under attack." Riot began as his eyes glossed over.

"It was in the time of the Bloodwar, where the Orcs of legends past raided our cities and killed our brethren." Riot lost connection with this reality, and slipped into the next, into the Reverie where he re-lived his memories. He spoke calmly and as if he were far away. The two elven lords listened with rapt interest as he told his story.

*

Music and laughter disturbed the serenity of the forests as elves everywhere celebrated and rejoiced. Springrite; the spring time solstice marking the new year. The snow of winter past had melted away, the flowers were in bloom, and life returned to the forests. Throughout all villages of the land, wherever elves were found, so was found merriment and a time of kinship. A time for song and romance, of friendship and delight, it was the vernal equinox; spring. Killian skipped merrily up the hill, a playful smile on his face. He stopped short when he noticed someone was here with him. That childish grin reappeared on his face and he paced up to the waiting female elf. From the folds of his robe he pulled out a small round berry.

"This is for you, its a fey berry, used to make feywine. Its delicious, try it." Killian said as he handed the berry to Eliara. She blushed slightly as Killian looked out to where everyone was celebrating.

"They say if you eat this on Springrite, that your wish will come true and you'll fall in love."

Eliara suddenly gasped and pointed behind Killian.

"Look out!" she screeched in alarm. Killian turned in time to be knocked over by an Orc, easily three times his size. He turned to Eliara and picked her up by the chin.

"You will be a play thing for me and my friends," the Orc said in a raspy voice as he chuckled evily.

"Bastard!" Killian rose to his feet, a green aura collected about his body and glowing brightly. A look of surprise adorned the Orc's face, but he simply grinned an evil grin.

"Take care of this nuisance."

Killian turned just in time to catch a ball of fire in his chest. He flew to the ground charred to a crisp as an Orcish mage chuckled over him.

Eirik laughed heartily with his father, the festivities were coming along nicely and he doubted anything could ruin it. His skin suddenly tingled and burned slightly, he turned to his father with a worried, questioning expression.

"Quickly, fetch my sword." his father commanded.

Eirik took off in a mad dash to their dwelling. He heard shouts arise from behind him as he ran as fast as his small legs would take him. He leapt over tree limbs and vaulted past families with equally worried looks.

He hurried back with his father's sword, the best in the land, crafted by the finest elven blacksmiths and enchanted by elven mages. But he was too late, the breath of life torn from his father's body. A large Orc stood above his father's corpse, his axe dripping with elven blood. Eirik cried out in anguish and leapt at the Orc leader, brandishing his father's sword. The leader simply laughed and struck Eirik to the ground unconscious.

Days later Killian sat atop the hill, near the old oak tree, tears streaming down his face. The village laid before him, burned to the ground and all inhabitants dead. A wandering Orc noticed the elven boy weeping upon the hill and stomped towards him, holding a rather large scimitar. Killian looked up without fear and just sat there, unwilling to resist death. He awaited the blow that would send him to

Arvanaith, to where his family were now. It never came.

Killian looked up to see a smiling male elf, with hair as white as snow down to his waist. His eyes were a blue so deep and true, that is pierced the soul.

"Cry not little one, your days are not yet numbered. There are great things for you in the future, should you be willing to accept."

The male elf snapped his fingers and a red gem appeared before Killian, floating in the air. With rapt interest he reached for the stone and took it in his hands. The elf boy felt something breaking free, a power within himself that he never knew. He looked up to the elven man with curious eyes.

"You are without past, and so without a title. You will be called Ruckus."

'Ruckus' nodded solemnly, "Who are you?" he asked.

"Call me uncle Puck." he smiled.

The two stood up and walked away from the scene of carnage. Somewhere not too far away, a small elven boy woke from a nightmare. His whole family had been killed by an orc raid, and now he was their prisoner. Looking around Eirik realized dishearteningly that it was no dream. He laid in a dark and smelly cell, a large gash upon his forehead. He could hear grunts and orc laughter somewhere outside his cell, but he was unsure. Eirik stood up and walked to the edge of his cell, grasping the bars he shook at the locked door to no avail.

"Its no use small one, those bars could hold a centaur captive!" the Orc jailer laughed at Eirik's puny attempts. The Orc went back to polishing his sword when he darted from the room at the sound of battle in the next room. Moments later a band of elves released Eirik from his cell. His father's sword was given to him and the Orc leader was held to his knees before the elven boy. With hatred in his eyes he plunged the sword into the heart of his father's killer.

The leader of the elven band took Eirik aside, "What is your name boy?"

"Eiri... no... all of my connections to that name have been severed, my name will be Riot." the boy answered.

The leader's eyebrow shot up at this, "Riot?... Well, 'Riot', I am Malissin Ariessus and you will come to live with me. You will learn the ways of combat, and of ancient secrets in magik."

Riot nodded and the two left the orc stronghold together.

* * *

It was the evening. The door of the house opened and darkness filled the entire place. The violet haired girl sighed. She was tired. it had been a long trip from to Japan. Some tears sprouted from her beautiful sapphire eyes, she couldn't believe her parents were dead, and she was not.

She put her small briefcase on the floor. "Shinrai are you home?" She sobbed.

No response.

The girl went upstairs, to her sister's room. "Where are you, Shinrai. Don't toy with me...not now" The girl cried.

"Why? Why did they have to die?" She sadly muttered. "This is not fair, this is not fair!...Now Hisoka, it's just you and Shinrai. No one else."

Hisoka brushed her straight hair with her fingers. She had cut it just after that stupid accident at Côte d'Azur. She used to have it the same length her older sister had. And now it was as long until the place her neck met with shoulders. It was a symbol of how her life would change from now on.

"Shinrai…we're alone now…"

* * *

It was late afternoon. Scott Morrow sat morosely under a maple, his thoughts on Amy (or Airashii, as you may know). Somehow, he never thought that she was that type of person. 'Then again, I've never been lucky in love,' Scott thought with a bitter laugh. 'Who would want to date an ignoramus like me?'

From a distance, Scott heard a voice singing, this voice was different, inhuman, but strangely beautiful. Scott felt his vision change; everything was growing fuzzy, and his troubles seemed to melt away. Without thinking, Scott rose in a daze, and began walking towards the direction of the voice. Airashii was telling Lisa about the shopping facilities in Tokyo when she noticed the expression on her new friend's face change. Lisa narrowed her eyes and seemed to strain her ears.

"What is it, Lisa?"

"I hear someone singing," Lisa murmured gently. "The singing is familiar." Airashii strained her ears to listen, and indeed, she heard an otherworldly voice singing from a distance. It was familiar to her too, and Airashii soon realized that she knew that voice. It was the same one that was singing to Hikari-hime a couple weeks before!

"I've got to go," Airashii said darkly to Lisa, who looked surprised. Before Lisa could say anything, Airashii dashed off at high speed. Scott continued to move in a zombie-like state, until he stood at the foot of the central square at Fairview Park. The voice seemed closer, but Scott didn't see anyone. Although he wanted to ask who was singing, he couldn't. His whole body was under the control of the mysterious voice. He moved towards and into the stone fountain in the middle of the square, until the water was sprinkling over his head. This cleared his mind.

"Huh? Where am I?"

From out of nowhere, a girl with long black hair, a white dress, and a harp stepped in front of him. Scott was amazed by her beauty, but something about her cold smile frightened him somewhat. He just stood there, staring at her.

"Dark Warrior, take the key and release yourself!"

Suddenly, the water transformed into something black and sticky. It rose around Scott's body and encased him in a stone fist. Scott wanted to scream, but he was too frightened to utter a word or make a sound. The ilver key symbol burst in a flash of light on his chest, which put Scott in incredible agony. Energy began draining from his body as the key within Scott opened the Second Malignant Gate, and revitalized the Galaxy Dark Warrior.

Tranquility laughed triumphantly. She had done her job well. All she had to do was wait for this cream puff to be drained of all his life force, and then, the real fun would begin!

"Stop right there!"

"Who's that?!" Tranquility yelled, spinning around. She was annoyed that the simplicity of her plan was being thwarted. Seeing the two shadows emerging from the tree irritated Tranquility even more. They were Sailor Senshi, but ones that she hadn't seen before.

"Why, if it isn't our little friend, Tranquility," Sailor Oak said with a mocking smile. "Since when did you start hanging with people like him?"

Sailor Flame sweatdropped. "Oak!"

"Sorry, I can't help it if I'm a little sarcastic. Still, it's pretty strange, isn't it, for someone as refined and elegant as Tranquility to hang with someone like him. Looks like she's up to something."

"Well, you're too late," Tranquility hissed petulantly. "I've got Scott under the grip of the Galaxy Dark Warrior. You might as well kiss him goodbye!"

"Galaxy Dark Warrior?!" Both Oak and Flame looked at each other, confused. Obviously, they've had no insight on the Malignant Gates from the other Elementals.

"Now that you're here, I might as well take care of you as well! I call upon the Devils of the Galaxy Dark Gate!" Tranquility raised her arms into the air, and from out of the ground, stone golems started to rise and form themselves into mindless rock soldiers. With a simple motion, Tranquility sent them charging after Oak and Flame.

"Hey, that's not fair!" Oak gasped and leapt into the air as one of the soldiers slammed both of its fists into the ground. She landed behind him, and delivered a harsh kick to the head. It did very little, except annoy it, and Oak felt a sharp pain jolt up her leg, numbing it. The soldier, noticing Oak to be incapacitated, snarled and grabbed Oak by the waist. He then spun her around three times, and tossed the screaming Senshi into the air.

"I've got you!" Sailor Flame jumped up and caught Sailor Oak without much problem. Sailor Oak let out a sigh of relief as Flame set her back onto the ground.

"Are you hurt?"

"No. My leg's okay. Great, physical combat won't work on those guys. They're hard enough to withstand any force put upon them."

"Then we'll have to try our attacks. I'll go first." Sailor Flame closed her eyes, and a red star appeared on her forehead. "Flame..." A red wind began to form in a ring around all of the rock soldiers, who were advancing towards them. "Fire...Spin!" Suddenly, the wind ignited, and surrounded all of the rock soldiers with a deadly fire tornado. Tranquility was knocked to the ground by the explosive force.

"That should do it...huh?" Sailor Flame squinted against the light of her own flame, then her mouth dropped open. Not only were the soldiers still marching towards them, they were unaffected by Flame's attack!

"Great, they won't die out against fire, and that probably means my powers wouldn't work, either. What are we going to do?"

"These guys are just a distraction. Our target is really Scott. I'll go after him, while you hold these guys off."

"No problem..." Oak gulped. "I hope." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. A green star flashed on her right hand. "Razor Leaf...Whirlwind!"

Many green leaves spun around Sailor Oak, and were charged with a jolt of green energy. They took on a glossy sheen, and shot towards the army of rock soldiers. They spun and slashed, and although they didn't cause any bodily harm, they distracted them a little.

Flame took this opportunity to head to the charging Dark Gate. She leapt over the army of rock soldiers and landed behind Tranquility, who was guarding the Dark Gate and a dying Scott with her bow and arrow. Tranquility wasted no time. She fired one of her silver arrows at Flame, who dove out of the way.

"Geez, take it easy, Robin Hood wannabe! Flame..."

"Not so fast!" Tranquility extended one hand, and Flame was frozen in place.

"Whaaa..."

"You won't get away from me that easily..." Tranquility's voice dropped to an ominous pitch. She slowly tensed her bow, its arrow planning to hit its frozen target.

A sharp string of flute notes resonated through the air. Tranquility gasped, as an invisible force knocked her bow and arrow out of her hands. Another string of notes released Flame from her paralysis. Flame dropped to her knees in relief.

"Tranquility, stop," a calm voice said. Tranquility turned around to see two girls standing behind her. They looked like normal girls, but for some reason, they caused a ripple of fear within Tranquility. They each had animal companions; the taller one had a white wolf with five tails, while the shorter one had a blue bird with a long, sparkling tail that looked like strands of ice. The girl with the bird was holding a silver flute.

Flame widened her eyes. "Estella?"

Tranquility's surprise faded, and her cold mask renewed itself once again.

"So, cousins, you've come to avenge Megami's death?"

"You're misusing your talent, Seishi," Estella said, her calm voice never wavering. "Grandmother wouldn't have approved that."

Tranquility began to laugh hysterically. "And since when do I take orders from that old hag? She gave me a gift, and now I'm using it the way I want to!"

"Then I guess we'll have to silence you," the taller girl, Lisa, added. Her voice held a sharp edge. "For good."

"Let's see if your high words can withstand the power of Tranquility!" Tranquility made a quick motion with her hands, and a golden harp appeared in front of her. Closing her eyes, she strummed the shiny strings with a silken movement, gaining intensity every second, filling her harp with her own spiritual energy.

Lisa closed her eyes, and set her hands as if they were lying on piano keys. She played one note, then another, and a silvery keyboard appeared before her. Her fingers created a haunting melody, and the song, like Tranquility, was a means of channeling her spiritual energy. Without knowing it, the two girls summoned and seized control of the element of wind. Estella stepped back as a rush of gale-force north winds buffeted her sister. Tranquility was also under the same strain, with Lisa's south wind. The two were caught in a stalemate, as each tried to outdo the other.

'Come on, you can do it, Lisa,' Estella thought. She wanted to intervene, but she knew that this was a personal score Lisa had to settle with Seishi.

Meanwhile, Sailor Illuminessence was viewing this battle from her position in the tree. She turned to see Scott unconscious, his face a chalky white.

The Dark Gate had consumed nearly all of his life force. She bit her lip, remembering how she had treated him earlier. 'This isn't fair,' Illuminessence thought guiltily. 'Even he doesn't deserve this.' A thought came to her mind. 'Maybe I can take his place. I'll feed the Gate with my own energy. It's the only way I can save Scott.' Illuminessence thought about the mission she needed to complete, but right now, it didn't seem so important. Her life would mean nothing if she didn't help someone. At the moment, Scott needed her help.

Sailor Illuminessence leapt down from the tree and advanced towards the fountain. A couple of rock soldiers stood in her way, but the silvery aura she kept around herself blasted them away. Illuminessence bit her lip, then leapt into the fountain.

The energy field quickly grasped at her body, trying to knock it away, but Illuminessence fought against it. 'Stupid Dark Gate, can't you see I want you to take my energy?!' Illuminessence managed to fight through the shield, and dropped, exhausted, at the base where Scott was entwined. Her body shaking, Illuminessence used most of her effort to reach for Scott's forehead. As soon as her hand touched it, she was shocked with a dark force that took everything out of her. The black slime receded from Scott's body, and proceeded in wrapping around Illuminessence. Scott was thrown onto the ground, where he lay, moaning. Flame quickly came to his aid, but as she knelt beside Scott, she watched in horror as the Dark Gate consumed Illuminessence completely, and, satisfied with its new energy source, disappeared.

Lisa, with one eye open, saw this happen, and felt a great burning rage within her heart. She knew that Illuminessence was indeed Airashii, the girl she had met earlier. Just knowing that another life had been lost due to her cousin Tranquility upped her power even more. With a cry, Lisa slammed her hands over as many notes as possible, creating a dissinent crashing sound. A huge tornado formed, and smashed into the already-weakened Tranquility. Tranquility screamed and fell to the ground, her harp broken once again.

"I'll finish you..."

"No!" Estella cried and grabbed Lisa's hands. "She's not worth it. It looks as if we can't reform her. Airashii is already lost. Let her go."

Lisa's eyes still blazed with anger, but her hands began to shake. She crumpled to the ground in a fit of sobs, Estella holding her. For a second, Tranquility, who was watching, felt a pang of sadness for her opponent. Just seeing her cousin again rekindled many fond, warm memories. She shook her head to clear it, and her heart grew cold once again. With one disdainful glance at the couple, Tranquility turned and disappeared.

"How's Scott?" Miyuki asked Kirei a few minutes later.

Kirei finished inspecting the unconscious boy and turned to answer Miyuki's question. "He's fine. Just weak, that's all. That Sailor Senshi got to him just in time."

"Yet another life was lost," Lisa said bitterly, clenching one fist. "I knew this was going to happen."

"What are you doing here, anyway? Who are you?" Miyuki folded her arms and glared at Lisa, who glared back.

"Lisa, stop it," Estella pleaded. She sighed and shook her head. "We're Seishi-chan's cousins. Like Seishi, or Tranquility, as you call her, we have the abilities to control certain powers with music. It was a gift that our grandmother passed onto us when we were young. We've recently moved here after hearing of Megami's death and Seishi's disappearance. Through Lisa's visions, we discovered that some group, called the Raiders of the Dark Blood, have gained control of Seishi and her power, and thus, have transformed her into Tranquility."

"We came here to avenge Megami's death and to rescue Seishi," Lisa finished. "However, as you can see, we were unsuccessful."

"She was more powerful than we anticipated," Estella commented.

"What was that being that devoured Sailor Illuminessence?" Lisa demanded.

"I have no idea," Miyuki admitted. "I've never seen anything like it."

"Well, I know one thing," Kirei predicted, looking down at Scott. "It's sure powerful, and I have a feeling that this was just the beginning."

*

June gasped and opened her eyes, her meditation broken. Tanrei and Sarah were beside her when she returned into the real world.

"What is it, June?" Tanrei looked concerned.

June spun around to face Tanrei, and the grim light in her blue eyes put a fear in Tanrei's heart. After a moment of silence, she spoke softly.

"The Second Gate, Tanrei...the Gate of the Dark Warrior of Galaxy...it's been opened."

*

Dark smile was playing in his face. It had been pretty fast, more than he expected. Now, he was ready and he knew where she was.

"I'll kill you..."

* * *

Usagi was confused. HE had been at the concert, and for an odd reason, maybe that unexplained thing that was called destiny, she decided to talk to Seiya that day. And the meeting ad battle was inevitable.

What was that battle about? She didn't know, she really didn't care at that instant. All her mind was busy with other thoughts.

"Princess of the Silver Age..." A female voice called her.

Usagi slowly turned her head to look at the beautiful woman behind her.

"Shinrai..." Usagi said quietly. She was expecting her, somehow she was.

"Usagi-chan, can we talk?" Shinrai smiled softly. Her vibrant honey eyes, were covered with a shade of sadness, a shadow Usagi was surprised to discover, a shadow just like the one her own eyes owned since she had finished her relation with Mamoru.

"Of course" Usagi answered, turning to face her completely.

Shinrai brushed her hair with her fingers, it was more a nervous gesture than anything else, so she was afraid of what her words could do, of the reaction after her confession.

"You, Usagi-sama, as heir to Serenity's line, you will know my biggest secret" Shinrai stated, more respectfully than a few moments ago, and also too calm comparing what she was really feeling.

Usagi blinked. What kind of secret could own an Ancient Light Senshi that she must know?

* * *

The atmosphere in the room had become grim. Yet Riot chuckled in spite of the story he just told. That was the nature of their games; sometimes you won and sometimes you lost. Such as it was in life, and they all had their own tales to weave. The past was the past and very little cloud be changed, so why not look on it with an almost amused grin rather than a melancholy sigh? It certainly made the world more interesting.

"Whatever possessed me to name myself Riot, I still do not know."

Chaos grinned, "Perhaps you just needed to find yourself, hm?"

Riot nodded and looked to Mayhem.

"So what happened after that? Surely there is more to tell." Mayhem asked.

"Hai, indeed there is, but for another time.."

"I'm impressed the very first Playking visited your brother though," Chaos remarked. "Puck isn't the type to about flaunting his status or his powers. I myself have only seen him on two occasions...and those were centuries apart."

Mayhem stood up and bowed slightly, "I think I shall retire for the evening, its been a most, enlightening night." Chaos nodded and grinned. "Indeed it has, and it may yet still prove to reveal hidden truths."

Lord Mayhem thought about this for a moment and then disappeared from view. Riot stood up and motioned for Chaos to follow him.

"Chaos...."

Chaos abruptly stiffened, slowly turning his head as a whisper echoed across the corridor. She was calling to him. "Shinrai...."

Riot glanced over his shoulder. "Chaos?"

But Chaos had already vanished, and Riot could sense that he had left the illusionary palace altogether. To be with *her* again. Perhaps tonight he would finally decide where his loyalties layed. To commit to one was to betray the other.

Yet he had his own issues to contend with. Riot took his own leave of the corridor, disappearing into darkness.

* * *

"Long ago," Shinrai started "There was a perfect age in our galaxy ruled by Queen Placidity. One day, the reincarnation of the first Moon Goddess, Phoebe-sama, appeared with a warning and a necessity. Warriors were required for a future battle. And because of that, the Sailor Senshi were created."

She looked at the sky, the history she was telling seemed like an old fairy tale for a minute.

"As foretold, the war among Sailor Senshi and elves, helped by the Dark Blood Clan, started. You already know that, ne?"

"Hai" Usagi nodded.

"And I, as guardian of the Decrescent Moon, fought against them...and in one battle I confronted the one called Chaos."

"Lord Chaos..." Usagi repeated the name.

"We tested skills against each other and I won that very first time. His deep emerald eyes...I had never seen someone with such impressive gaze....and he was a handsome one, too" Shinrai smiled, that was one of the sweet memories, she recalled the events in her mind as if they just happened a few minutes ago.

"Next time we fought, it was even more fiercely. At the end we were angry and tired...and we finished that encounter kissing each other..."

Usagi opened her eyes in surprise. Had Chaos and Shinrai? Lovers?

Shinrai guessed the question in her mind. "Hai, we were lovers. A romance we weren't allowed to have, but still did. Meeting once and once again...but one day he stole the Kinzuishou"

"Golden Imperium Crystal..." Usagi muttered silently.

"He tried to use his magik to control it, using one of his spheres, but instead he released a deadly power. At that moment I appeared. I wanted, I tried to stop the inevitable, I beg him not to continue, but he didn't listen to me...he turned his back on me...I did everything I could, but it was useless, the Crystal's power claimed my life and the entire Aurora...Mars twin planet, now the Asteroid belt."

Usagi listened to her carefully. This was something unexpected, something she never imagined possible.

"And the worst thing...is that I still love him" Shinrai confessed with tears in her eyes. "I don't care about his betrayal, my heart's stronger than my common sense and that's something I can't change. I can't change what I feel."

"Shinrai..."

"I beg for your pardon as the Moon Princess. I don't deserve the honor of being a Sailor Senshi and I don't think I'm able to be one of them anymore. My soul is crying his name and although I repeat many times in my mind that I wouldn't, if he asks me to leave my henshin behind...if he asks me to die because of him...I will." Shinrai cleaned her eyes with her hands, she cleaned her cheeks. So much tears were running through her face.

"Forgive me for my treason, Serenity-hime." Shinrai muttered. "I don't know what to do, you, as our leader, please tell me what you think."

Usagi was caught out of guar. She couldn't help but think how much Shinrai's situation was similar to her own. Two great loves that seemed eternal against everything and everyone. Two loves that were gone because of a betrayal. And twin souls suffering because they can't be without each other.

She sighed inwardly. She was thinking about Shinrai, but even more about herself. Love is the reason of living. There's no other thing that can fill our lonely lives completely but love. We're nothing, just sad spirits, without love…because we need love to exist.

She had become one of those hopeless souls and Shinrai was going to jump into that ocean of depression she was living.

That's why Usagi was caught out of guard. That's why she couldn't tell her an advice or a comment...because she was in the same problem and still didn't know how to solve it.

"Shinrai...I...I can't..." Those were the only words Usagi pronounced because then...

Then the someone else joined their conversation.

It was Chaos.

Ara ara," came a familiar voice. "So this is where I find you, Shinrai. And who's your friend?"

Usagi and Shinrai turned their heads as Elven magik spread across the park. One of the trees stirred to life without any help from the winds, branches and leaves rustling. The bark began to ripple and churn as if something was trying to break out from within the wood. Two slits opened up to reveal brilliant emerald eyes. Shades of brown slipped away to silver hair and pale skin. Chaos emerged from the tree, stretched out as if he were trying to swim through water.

Yet when gravity should have taken hold of his form he kept hovering in the air, gracefully carried over to the two ladies until his feet were at last freed from the tree and he could rotate his body to stand on the ground once more. Chaos looked down to Usagi, a faint recognition creeping into his expression.

"We've met before, ne?" he inquired, kneeling down to take her hand gently in his. Chaos kissed the back of her hand before giving Usagi a playful wink and then standing up again. "I know you were at my wondrous masquerade ball, yet where else have I gazed upon your beauty before, ne...Usagi-chan?"

"No games with her, Chaos," Shinrai cautioned, all too familiar with the games he'd play. She hadn't been the first Senshi he'd tried to seduce into leaving him alone to play his games. "Leave Usagi alone."

Chaos bowed slightly to Shinrai. "As you wish."

"You released Rampage in my room, when you were looking for your Court," Usagi answered. She immediately gasped and clamped a hand over her mouth, realizing too late that she had said too much.

"Ah, you were that girl!" Chaos remarked, an impish smile upon his face as he finally placed their first encounter. Yet moments later his expression darkened. "How do you know about my Court?"

He turned to Shinrai. "Who is she?"

Shinrai looked at Usagi with a graceful expression of surprise. All the questions he could ask...but he asked that one. She smiled, her lips trembling with a strange worry. It was an uncomfortable situation for her. One side, the princess of the Silver Age, from the royal line she as a Senshi was sworn to protect. Other side, the one she loved more than her own life....

"Well?" Chaos asked impatiently.

"I will tell you who I am," Usagi answered. Maybe if she told him what her secret identity was, the entire Court would stop playing games, and at least that problem would end. They would talk and arrange things. The Court already knew of certain Senshi's identities, such as Ami, Rei and Hotaru, and had yet to really act upon that knowledge.

"Usagi..." Shinrai muttered, she couldn't believe that Usagi would tell him the truth.

"This might shock you at first," Usagi continued. "but I think it can also help both sides."

"Both sides?"

Usagi doubted for a minute. Was she really going to tell him everything? It was perhaps necessary. " I don't think you're that bad as Sailor Earth told me...and we could be friends instead of fighting each other..."

She giggled nervously as the expression on Chaos' face revealed he was starting to understand. At the very least he was realizing she was a Sailor Senshi. But there was no telling what he might do, what games he might play, if he learned of her true power within the Silver Imperium Crystal.

'Why is she telling him this?' Shinrai thought as Usagi was speaking. It was something she really didn't expect to see happening.

"I am...I am..." Usagi took a long breath. "I am Sailor Moon...I am the Princess of the Silver Millennium and rightful heir to the Silver Imperium crystal."

Chaos visible stiffened, his arms crossing over his chest. "Princess? I'm in the presence of royalty? Well then perhaps it was just as well that I bowed and paid you tribute when I did. So, Usagi-hime, you were the one I by my good vow had to release from Riot and Ruckus' magik."

He began to walk around Usagi, leisurely circling her with the manner a predator might toy with its prey before moving in for the final kill.

Even if he didn't mean to do it, such an action was force of habit.

"My only question," Chaos said. "is why you're telling me all this. You realize I could have so much fun with a soldier but even more so with their princess. How brave of you, Usagi-hime...and foolish."

Usagi nodded. "Sometimes we must take a risk in our lives. I'm taking one with you, just as you took one with Shinrai a long time ago."

While his face remained etched in stone his emerald eyes widened and betrayed his demeanour. Chaos' arms were lowered to his sides as he turned to Shinrai. She cringed slightly under his gaze, part accusing glare and part unexpected betrayal.

"Ara, you've been talking too, have you?" he inquired. "My discussion with Riot was understandably a necessary measure considering when he appeared. By his word our affair would have gone no further than him and Ruckus."

He turned back, looking at Usagi. "But why you would tell her is a reasoning that escapes me." Chaos' eyes darted over to another section of the park; Rampage was lurking nearby, no doubt having sensed his sudden exit from the Court. Thankfully she had the presence of mind to leave him well alone.

Shinrai didn't look back at him, her eyes lowered to the ground. "I owe the truth to the Royal Family...that, and my heart was crying for help. Someone who could understand me, or just listen to me..." The tears filled her eyes. "I can't stand it myself anymore."

"Shinrai, you're not alone." Usagi hurried to say, then she turned her gaze to Chaos. There was a pledge in her eyes. "You see, Chaos? You see what I mean? We can't let this continue, people aren't toys."

"The potential for my Court now more than ever is at its peak," he stated. "We are poised on an edge of a world that has forgotten about the ancient lands and ancient lives we all once existed within. My magik as well as your own brand are far more powerful than anything these people could dream of. Imagine the games that could be played. That masquerade ball was merely the beginning."

"But there could be a way for all of us to stop the games, to stop the war. We should do something to be friends. I've fought in battle long enough, and I just want it to finally end. I want my world to be at peace," Usagi said. She really wanted to arrange things. She really wanted everything to be fine between elves and senshi.

Chaos shook his head. "My Elven lords and your soldiers were at one time the greatest of rivals, and still are today. Usagi-hime, whether or not you want to admit it you Sailor Senshi are the only equals my Court has left to face in the solar system."

"Why Chaos? Why can't you just forget everything and try to solve things as Serenity-hime says?" Shinrai asked, her eyes were still looking at the ground. "Please," she whispered. "No more games, Chaos. Why does it have to be like this?"

There was a silence between them. A silence with no response for her question. Shinrai finally lifted her head to face him. No words were pronounced as they stared at each other. Long ago, they had the same look to share in the secret places where they met to be together. But it was just a memory, something that lasted for a few seconds.

"You've been crying," he said finally, kneeling down before her.

"Crying?" Shinrai sadly smiled. "That's something I've done since the dreams started. And even more now that my memories of a past life returned. Chaos, why can't it be different?"

"Our lives are but a mere part of an endless waltz. We dance as our destinies see fit." He slowly stood, looking directly at Usagi. "We have our own loyalties and causes to fight for and fight against. I with my Court and you with your Princess. I have already chosen where I shall stand, and our battle shall never end even if our lives do, for then someone will inevitably stand in our places."

"And I want to stand with you!" Shinrai cried out.

Chaos froze.

"I told Usagi this," Shinrai said, her hand clutching at her breast. "If you so ask me to leave behind my henshin I would. Chaos, I would follow you to the ends of the earth if you asked me to. Chaos, I...I love you."

Usagi said nothing but just looked at her. Silently. Recalling all the words from her conversation. Love. Shinrai loved him and Usagi already knew it. Nothing would change her feelings about that. Loving someone is something you can't hide, you can't avoid. And Shinrai made her decision of leaving everything behind to follow her heart. Usagi had made her decision, too. She looked at Chaos.

His eyes were shaking.

Not those words again.

That face...it was the last thing he had seen before disappearing and letting Aurora explode. That was his last memory of Shinrai, seeing her tears run down her cheeks as she pleaded with him. He was reliving it once more, the ghostly screams reaching his ears.

"I'll do everything for you. I'd die if that makes you happy," Shinrai continued. "Please, stay with me...." A cool breeze danced with her light hair, honey eyes asking just for him. Nothing else.

If he remained with his Court then he was throwing away everything he had once held dear; there would be no one like Shinrai again and he would once more be haunted by her tear-stained face. If he remained with her then he was still throwing away he had once held dear; the Court of Chaos was his. He had created it, built it up, made it into the legend it was. Everyone in it were good friends and greater rivals. And the games were only just beginning again.

There was no easy way no matter how he turned. One way or another he would turn his back and leave something behind. "Do you know what you're asking of me?" he said quietly. "If we are to truly be together as you so desire I must give up my Court. I could no longer by the Elven Playking called Chaos."

"Just as I would no longer be Sailor Decrescent Light," Shinrai agreed. "I am willing to do that if it means I can be with you. Chaos, our battle is over. Let's spend the rest of our eternity as we once were: lovers and not fighters."

Usagi stared at them. Both were filled with sadness, both wanted to be with each other. But the price to pay was high and she knew that very well.

"Love makes many sacrifices," Usagi finally said. "I know; it's happened many times with me and my love. We cried, we sobbed, we hated our lives because of the pain. The pain hurts, Chaos; pain is something that reminds us of our hearts. But if we truly love then our souls will rise out of the embers of that pain and save us."

She smiled. Words sprouted directly from her heart, from her decision she made when looking at Chaos and Shinrai." All I've been feeling these last days is a deep sadness, and every thought showed me that I can't be without my love. It's something that's written, and cannot be erased. We are alive to love and nothing else matters. We must do anything to preserve that precious gift called love, so that's the only one that will last for all the eternity."

A crystal orb appeared next to him, Chaos staring at its smooth surface. He saw an Elven lord once with a simple name staring back. Sometimes in life we are given the time and chance to deliberate for hours, days or perhaps even our entire lives over the choices we make. Other times that luxury is not present. Chaos found himself in such a moment, one that he could not turn his back on and shrug off for a while as he entertained himself. If his future with Shinrai was left unresolved now, then it would never find an end.

And that would continue to haunt him forever.

Chaos closed his eyes, reliving his life once more. He saw his childhood and his powers developing. He heard himself choose a name, and that name was Chaos. He saw the prodigy Elven child that was himself conveniently hide his powers and then befriend Chishiki who would then become Mayhem, his first true friend and member of his Court. The Elven Court of Chaos rose to power, and there he saw so many games played by himself and his associates, his friends. Suddenly Sailor Decrescent Light appeared in the midst of his games and they fought...and kissed. The past became filled with hidden trysts and stolen kisses behind closed playing fields.

Aurora. He witnessed its destruction, and her along with it. He had turned away from someone who meant as much to him as being the lord of Chaos. The angst of his world after she was gone. The Pandora Boxes sealed him off not too long after her death. And then he found himself resurrected with a mistaken hand touching his seal. The rebirth of his Court one box at a time, and the glorious masquerade ball.

His near death experience with the Dark Warrior, and repaying the debt to the strange human who had dragged him from the battle. And then seeing her face once more in the crowd and learning what it meant to love again, what it meant to feel pain and sadness and fear all at once. Chaos reached up and pushed aside the crystal as he laid his hand upon it. It all came down to a matter of what made him feel the most alive.

For all the emotions, all the complications, what did he find himself valuing more?

And he made his choice.

Chaos turned first to Usagi, and then to Shinrai.

"I--"

Something stirred.

Something dark, evil and there among the shadows of the park. Chaos' verbal decision was cut short as a cold wind swept past the three of them. The winds were heralding a creature as dark as the midnight where it lurked.

Emerald eyes widened. "Shinrai, get down!" he shouted, leaping towards her.

The park suddenly exploded in a fiery ball of light that bathed everything in dancing colours of yellow, orange and crimson. Usagi screamed as she was thrown backwards from the blast, tumbling onto the grass. Groggily she opened her eyes and lifted her head.

"M-Masaka," she whispered, recoiling.

The ground just a few feet away from her had been reduced to ash, an enormous but shallow crater having swallowed up the grass, trees, and whatever else might have been there. Usagi frantically looked around for Shinrai.

And she found her fellow Senshi safely away from the blast. Yet Shinrai was more concerned with Chaos, who was wincing as a tree branch poked out from his ribcage.

"I'm fine," he said through gritted teeth. "Daijobu; I saw *that* one coming." Taking the bloodied end of wood in his hands he simple pulled it sideways out from his body, his chest rippling like the ocean as the branch was effortlessly removed.

"So, here you are Princess of the White Moon?" A dark voice said somewhere in front of them.

Shinrai lifted her head, searching the park. "Who are you?" she asked. "What do you want?"

"No one of your concern. I've come to claim the life of the Moon Princess."

The man appeared, shadows starting to reveal a masked face. Black armor accented the red evil eyes glittering behind the mask, a demonic laughter echoing across the room.

Chaos stiffened, slowly turning his head to face the warrior. "That scent," he growled. "I know this magic. I've felt it. I've tasted it with my own blood running from my lips." Two crystal illusions appeared in the air, hovering next to his face. Their smooth ice-blue surfaces abruptly changed hues to become a dark crimson.

"You're one of those party-crashers from my masquerade ball," he stated. "Oh, I must have done something right in a pervious life to get a chance for payback like this...Can't imagine what the hell that was, though."

"Such clever dialogue," The Dark Warrior smiled sarcastically in response. "Useless in the end, but clever none the less."

"Dark Warrior..." Usagi whispered. "But how? Who opened the Malignant Door?"

"We don't need this." Shinrai took out her henshin and yelled, "Light of Moon! Decrescent Gold Power Make Up!"

Usagi blinked as Shinrai transformed. Shinrai was using a golden and silvered fuku very different from the ones she already knew. It was a Light Sailor Senshi fuku. Sailor Decrescent was staring at the Disbalance Warrior with angry eyes.

"No, Sailor Senshi, you can't harm me." The Dark Warrior stated. "No more than this meager magician can."

"Oh, that hurts," Chaos retorted, sarcasm dripping from his every word. "Really, it does."

Instead of giving an answer or a comment, Sailor Decrescent opened her palms and revealed a golden light. She moved her right hand and leg tracing a Decrease Moon. "DECRESCENT EXTASIS EXPLOSION!" she exclaimed.

A fierce light erupted from the decrease moon, forcing everyone to shield their eyes.

"I don't recall you ever using *that* trick," Chaos remarked, arms in front of his face. "Impressive, though, I must admit."

"With you around there wasn't a need to," Shinrai answered, a playful smile on her face in that moment as she looked at Chaos.

The Decrease Moon exploded in front of the Dark Warrior. But as he expected, it didn't do anything to him. Not even a small wound was visible.

"Shimatta," Sailor Decrescent muttered.

"What the hell is with you?" Chaos exclaimed. "What are you, a galactic cockroach?!"

"I'm more powerful than you could ever imagine," the Dark Warrior stated.

"Your friend said the same thing at the masquerade," Shinrai countered. "That was right before he was destroyed."

The Dark One chuckled, arrogance in his powers seething from his laughter. "See that victor here, soldier? I told you. I'm going to kill the princess and no one will stop me."

Sailor Decrescent Light stepped in between the Warrior and Usagi. "I will not let you harm our princess."

"Hey, what about me?" Chaos cut in, dropping down from the skies to stand face to face with the Dark Warrior. "We've still got a score to settle." One of his eyebrows raised up as he looked at the muscular stock of the warrior. "And just what kind of steroids have you been pumping?"

The Dark One leaned into Chaos' face. "Your childish charades will do nothing but delay the inevitable."

"Yeah, well the illusion is quicker than the eye," he shot back.

The Dark Warrior grappled onto his neck, hoisting Chaos' feet of the ground and slamming his back into a wall. Upon impact Chaos exploded into a geyser of water, the tidal surge smashing into the warrior and sweeping him back across the battleground. Ripples in the water surged and pooled together to grow and form the image of Chaos.

"Not bad," the Dark Warrior remarked. "Futile, but not bad."

"I was too cocky last time," Chaos stated. "I got careless. And I'm not about to make the same mistake twice."

Without waiting for a response, there was a snap of the Elven lord's fingers and a thick cloud of dark mist pulsated out from behind him. The mists began to swarm and close together to create form and essence.

The creation was that of a fiersome dragon-beast.

"Tear him to shreds--after you've ripped out his heart to show him how black it is," Chaos instructed. Its immense demon wings beating in the air, the dragon let out a horrific screech and plummeted towards the

Warrior, claws and teeth gleaming in the pale light as it spewed forth fire.

"You can't fool me with these petty tricks!" the Warrior snapped, launching a volley of his own powers. Within seconds the dragon-beast exploded into a rainfall of sparkling glass powder.

"I am even more powerful than the Warrior you've met before, idiot,"

The Dark one laughed.

"I wish I could say I was impressed," Chaos retorted coldly, smashing his palm into the earth. "But I'm not!" Upon contact the ground broke apart, an underground magik tearing apart the grasses as it streaked towards the warrior, red light punching through to the surface. The Dark Warrior snarled, sending up a barrier that caused the attack to be stopped dead cold. "You would be wise to keep your mouth shut, Elven! I have killed people far more younger and smarter than--!"

"DECRESCENT SHORE!" Sailor Decrescent interrupted him, sending another attack.

"Shut up!" The Dark Warrior yelled, with one hand he stopped Sailor Decrescent's power and set it back to her. Sailor Decrescent screamed as her own attack struck her body, collapsing.

"Are you OK?" Usagi asked, catching Shinrai in her arms.

"He's worse that I thought," Shinrai answered.

Meanwhile the Dark Warrior turned his attention back to Chaos. "Ready to give up?" He grinned.

"Ha!" Chao scoffed. "I don't know the meaning of the word 'surrender'! And even if you handed me a dictionary right now I wouldn't even bother looking it up!"

The Dark Warrior gave Chaos a confused look. "What?"

Chaos shook his head. "I can't live down what your previous associate did to me at my own game. Either I go all the way, or I die trying."

"An acceptable offer," the Warrior answered solemnly, raising a hand that was alive with crackling magic. "You shall die along with the princess. How ironic that an Elven would die protecting a human."

"That's beside the point I'm about to ram down your throat!" Chaos snapped. He met the challenge, letting a mandala of crystals glow and summon their own magik. Both powers were creating massive fields, each one sending down a shower of sparks when magic struck against magik.

"You see? Everything you try to do it's useless. You don't have the power to defeat me." The Dark Warrior grinned, eyes wide in psychotic lust as the raging magiks smashed into each other.

"SILVER MOON SHADE!" An unexpected attack surprised the Dark Warrior. He jerked back his hands as a burst of energy managed to punch through his field and cut him across the cheek. The magic died down abruptly as the Dark One tried to regain his senses.

"So, you've decided to play too, ne?" Chaos remarked, lowering his own barrier as Shinrai approached. He leaned back a little more as he saw Usagi now changed into Sailor Moon and joining their ranks. "Ne,

Princess, you're gonna fight as well? I thought it was unladylike for royalty to get your hands dirty in something like this."

"I will not let you fight him alone when it's me he's after," Sailor Moon answered and although she knew that she maybe couldn't do anything, she would help Shinrai and Chaos.

"That makes things easier," the Dark Warrior snarled, rising up to wipe away the blood rom his face. "Taste the power of the Malignant forces!" A tidal wave of dark energy flooded past him, raging torrents of crackling magik converging on the trio. Chaos winced. "The next few seconds of this will not be pretty."

"Look out!" Sailor Decrescent yelled.

Sailor Moon jumped and avoided the attack. Chaos grabbed Shinrai and then tossed her into the air, crouching down and forging an illusion that shielded him from the blast. The Dark Warrior's attack exploded, yet the haze and smoke was abruptly pushed away to reveal Chaos perfectly intact.

Chaos held out his arms and with a dramatic pose caught Shinrai in hands. He winked at the slightly stunned Senshi. "Still got it, ne?"

"Now's not the time to show off," Shinrai scolded him.

"Hai hai," Chaos sighed, letting her down.

"That was good, Sailor Senshi. Let's see what you can do with this," The Dark Warrior angrily said, summoning another attack to hurl at Sailor Moon.

"Hey!" Chaos snapped, catching the Dark One's attention. "We haven't finished our game yet, my friend. The masquerade might have been business." Emerald eyes narrowed. "This is personal."

He gave a loud shout as another field was erected, churning emerald hues dancing around him as he sent it rushing towards the Dark Warrior.

"The Elven lord of Chaos challenge you to a game, warrior! Winner decides the princess' fate!!"

With a laugh the Warrior forged his own field and once more the two powers clashed violently, the earth being torn apart from the confrontation and the air becoming alive with their energies.

"Chaos..." Decrescent whispered. She was afraid of what would happen. When angered he was liable to be extremely volatile. And with his own powers seemingly unable to penetrate the Dark Warrior's defenses, his recklessness would only be intensified.

The Warrior abruptly pushed harder, his powers sending Chaos sprawling across the earth. Chaos rolled back onto his feet and right up the trunk of a tree, vaulting away as the Warrior plunged from above to drive a clenched fist into the ground. The Dark Warror barely had any time to react before Chaos was in front and then behind and then all around. Yet every attack Chaos made with his illusions and his magik was promptly smashed by this creature.

They took to the air, their bodies twisting left and right, going upside-down and backwards as magik met against magic and sparks rained down almost as furiously as the bolts of energy sent out from their assaults. Chaos dropped to the ground alongside the two Senshi before lunging for the Dark Warrior once more. Yet as his feet left the ground he erupted into a horde of spinning crystal orbs that converged upon the Warrior.

The Dark One's lips turned upwards into a cold smile, and then delivered a burst of energy. The crystal illusions were shattered by the creature's powers, and Chaos felt his own cry cut off as warm blood that was his own flooded down his chest. And that never stopped him from charging, the distance between the Elven lord and the Dark Warrior growing closer every second.

"Baka," the Warrior said, opening his palm and leveling a burst of energy with Chaos' chest.

Angered eyes of emerald never even flinched as the creature's attack was driven through his chest, the surge of magic tearing through his back and driving forth a geyser of scarlet blood across the air. Chaos' body dropped back to the ground, the Elven lord feebly trying to rise up.

"Chaos!" Shinrai cried out.

"Pathetic," the Warrior snarled, dropping to the ground and smashing his foot into Chaos' back. Chaos gave a strangles gasp as a hideous crack! echoed from his body. Then his face slumped into the dirt and he grew still.

The Dark Warrior cackled, turning to Sailor Moon. "You see, Princess, your fate now lies with him."

"'Excuse me."

The Dark Warrior turned his head as a finger tapped him on the shoulder. Seconds later Chaos' fist was rammed into his face. The Dark One barely had a moment to recover before Chaos drove a fierce punch to his chest, a crystal illusion amplifying the strike and blasting the creature into the nearest solid object.

"Surprise!" Chaos anounced, an evil smile on his face. "Didn't see that one coming, did ya? I'm not about to make the same mistake I did at the masquerade, you fool!"

"Kon chikusho," The Dark Warrior snarled, pulling himself out from the indentation in the side of a tree. "You'll pay for that."

Chaos laughed. "You know, for most villains, right after they say something like that their death is pretty much instantaneous."

The Dark One howled with rage, his energies starting to manifest themselves again.

"He shouldn't be doing this," Sailor Moon said quietly. "He shouldn't be pushing for a fight. Chaos can't defeat this warrior."

"What do you mean?" Shinrai asked, as her heart was beating furiously within her chest. Beating worriedly.

Usagi thought back to the events of the masquerade--the very events that Chaos had missed. "Only the chosen warrior can destroy this monster. No matter how much we try we can do nothing in the end."

"And who is the chosen warrior? Who is it?" Shinrai desperately asked.

"I don't know." Sailor Moon looked back at her.

Meanwhile The Disbalance Warrior came closer to Chaos. His red evil eyes possesed by dark magik, the Dark One fired a volley of fireballs at Chaos. Chaos easily ducked them--only to discover the Dark Warrior right behind him.

"Shin'ne," the Warrior hissed.

Chaos gasped as something hot and painful smashed into his back, sending him tumbling forward. He rolled across the ground, limbs failing as he tried to right himself. Fingers gingerly reached back to feel the scorched remains of the back of his shirt and vest.

"And I just...had this drycleaned," he muttered with a lopsided grin. He pushed off from the ground, freezing as he realized the Dark Warrior was now towering over his form.

"And now you die!" the Warrior proclaimed.

Suddenly the air behind him rippled, and enormous demonic skull opening its jaws and unleashing a hellish bellow lunging for the Warrior. The Warrior let out an angered shout as the teeth clamped down upon his arm, drawing blood.

Massive claws tore up the ground around, throwing earth in all directions. The demon-beast thrashed violently about, tossing the Dark Warrior like a rag doll before lobbing him across the battleground. The warrior's severed arm was left in between her clenched fangs.

"M-Masaka," Shinrai whispered.

What was Rampage doing here?

Chaos grinned as a set of claws moved beneath his armpit and hoisted him up. "Ara, Rampage-chan, you always did know how to make a hell of an entrance." He glanced over at the torn limb. "Oh, and I see you've taken a souvenir of this game too."

Chaos' smile grew sadistic. "I'll make sure to mount it in the den later."

"His pet? She is..." Sailor Moon asked herself as she recalled the first time she had seen the demon-beast. Of course she had thought it to be merely a dream, but it wasn't. "...Rampage" She finished.

Abruptly the Dark Warrior emerged, limping towards the others. Fingers clutched at the bloodied stump where his right arm used to be, thick rivers of crimson liquid pouring down his side. Sailor Moon winced at the sight, turning away. Sailor Decrescent Light was at her princess' side, still cautious. If the Dark Warrior was still moving then he was still a threat.

Chaos looked over to Rampage. "Can I borrow this?" he asked, taking the severed limb from the demon-beast's mouth. "Excuse me," Chaos said, waving the warrior's arm in the air. "But would you like a hand, Sir?"

The Dark Warrior's eyes narrowed. Suddenly his socket pulsated and bulged, enormous bubbles of what might have been flesh emerging out from his stump to form a new and perfectly intact arm.

Sailor Moon's eyes widened. "No...."

"Damn!" Chaos exclaimed, his jaw agape in stunned surprise. "That's the first time I've ever seen someone do that! You are one freak of nature, you know that?"

"You haven't see the half of it," the Dark One snarled.

Chaos and Rampage stepped back as the ground beneath them buckled and cracked apart, jagged pieces of the earth being thrown into the sky. The chunk of earth beneath Chaos crumbled, the Elven lord leaping onto another piece. Rampage grunted as she leapt to her own piece and was struck in the side of her skull with another broken lump of flying dirt. The Dark Warrior's guard was down as he began to send pieces of earth colliding into Chaos and Rampage.

"Let's see if even now this Dark Warrior can't be harmed," Sailor Decrescent firmly said. She held a

crystal that shimmered like a prism. "LUNAR TERRAE GOLDEN SHADOW!" The Prism glittered with power and sent some golden rings smashing into the Dark Warrior, but it was still useless.

"Why we can't do anything?" Sailor Decrescent asked to the skies.

The Dark Warrior turned his attention away from Chaos, walking towards the two Senshi. "I am one of the greatest warriors who ever lived. The one of the Element Galaxy. I can't be destroyed by such silly attacks, such power as mine will be defeated only by the 9 elementals together...or a single force powerful enough that I doubt any of you possess." The Dark Warrior seemed pleased with his answer.

"We must find that power, then," Sailor Moon said. "ETERNAL MOON SHADE!" She used the Millenium Winged Wand to send another attack.

And once again, no wounds.

"I'm getting tired of you two," The Dark Warrior stated. "Take this! DARK SPIRIT SCREAM!"

He cackled viciously as he sent two black fireballs to both Sailor Senshi. The Fireballs struck them directly at the chest. They screamed in pain and fell hard on the ground.

"Shinrai!" Chaos shouted, punching through another piece of rock. He snarled as he saw the Dark Warrior begin to walk to Sailors Moon and Descrescent Light.

"Now where do you think you're going?!" he shouted angrily, kicking off the flying chunk of ground and exploding into the air. A mandala of crystals appeared circling around him, each with a different Elven rune glowing upon it. The rocks trying to collide with him were suddenly shattered into dust.

Chaos' eyes closed, fingers moving into strange gestures, lips chanting barely audible words. Suddenly the orbs shot into every direction, scattering across the skies to form an enormous Pentagram that engulfed the area. Five seals, five magiks, five furies: all were at his call.

The Dark Warrior shook his head. "Tenacious even to the end, Elven. But tenacity will only take you so far."

"Oh yeah?" Chaos retorted. "I still have a few of those petty tricks up my sleeve...LIKE THIS!"

Emerald eyes opened wide in rampant ferocity. All his silver hair danced wildly around his face as gales rose up inside the throne room with enough force that the billows of winds could be seen as waves of misty grey.

A battle aura unlike any other erupted from his body, tearing the shirt and vest from him, fabric scraps incinerated upon leaving his skin. This blast send Usagi and Shinrai sprawling backwards onto the floor with a startled yelp. Even the Warrior backed away as the aura of hidden magik unfolded before them both.

Shinrai looked at the figure of the Elven lord now standing before them. "Chaos," she whispered.

A mark upon his forehead flickered, the rune strokes erupting into beams of searing white light. And it was the rune of Chaos, the pure unrefined magik of the last Elven Playking. Black smoke poured out from behind him, flooding the area and swarming around those caught up with the battle. It engulfed the Dark Warrior. It engulfed Chaos and Rampage. And then it swallowed up Shinrai and Usagi.

Everything became like night, dark and cold.

"Shinrai!" Sailor Moon called out, her body floating in a space that she could only think of as oblivion. "Shinrai!"

"Over here," came Shinrai's voice.

Usagi turned around only to find herself nose to nose with Shinrai. She shrieked and recoiled, Shinrai's image nearly engulfed by the darkness again. Yet Shinrai grabbed hold of her wrist, keeping them together. Finally a room started to emerge, shades of dust and sand with intricate carvings lining everything. There appeared to be no true ceiling or floor as she found her feet touching solid surface. As gravity set in once more, Usagi looked around and saw the hideously deformed extent of this realm.

Stairs and arches were amok, sideways and upside-down and backwards.

Each one seemed to slope a different angle yet perfectly intersecting with another. She could barely even tell which way was up; there were even stairs and passageways on the walls and the ceiling--provided they were the true walls and ceiling.

"Where...are we?" she exclaimed.

"Chaos' illusion," Shinrai answered. "He's sealed us within a fantasy, enforcing it with his own magik to make certain the Dark Warrior cannot shatter it and return us to Tokyo."

The room was silent, her voice echoing across the stairs and doorways. But as her echoed voice died out, another took its place. One of unrushed footsteps. He was there in the chambers, perfectly attuned to whatever had warped its dimensions. Usagi slowly tilted her head to stare up at him.

Chaos smiled as he stretched out his arms to present himself, standing on an upside-down staircase. His hair, his suit and even his cloak all acted as if gravity were pushing invertedly.

"Not bad, don't you think?" he inquired. "Welcome to my Hall of Stairs. We're outside of Tokyo now, hovering over the ocean where no one can try to break in. And now inside my illusion, anything becomes a weapon without leaving a trace of the battle in your world afterwards. We can do more damage this way."

With a swift leap he pushed off towards her, suddenly twisting around and descending. Yet he did not find a landing on the stairways or platforms, instead coming to a hovering stop in the middle of the playing field.

The Dark Warrior emerged, walking sideways along a wall. It appeared from the shadows of an archway, taking one small glance around the Hall of Stairs before pushing off the solid ground and finding new footholds in the air. The two opponents face each other in midair, hovering and circling over the two Senshi.

"My illusions aren't my only attack," Chaos stated, glancing over at the skein of stairways. "Elven magik in concentrated incantations form a barrier that nothing could ever dream of penetrating. Nothing goes out, nothing comes in."

Here they would remain undisturbed; he was the only soul who possessed the key to unlock the illusion. It would not disappear unless he destroyed this Warrior before it attacked Usagi. However magik was symbiotic with its summoner. The barrier would indeed drop if he breathed his last.

The Dark Warrior would go free if he killed the Elven lord. Chaos' feet came to rest back upon the floor. He leveled his icy gaze with the Dark One's own cold eyes. "Now we end this game," he stated.

* * *

With so many elves reminscing about their pasts, the court was eerily silent. Well, silent except for the soft sound of padded paws bouncing up and down on ancient tile floors. A little brown and white rabbit slowly hopping down the hallway. It seemed to be almost limping and looked very ill from the slamming it's been taking ever since Hysteria decided it was "oh, so kawaii".

It stopped in the middle of it's hop as the three hour time-limit on the spell wore off. There was a shriek of agony as the disorientation began again as the eyess started to return to the front of the face and the entire spinal cord rearranged to go from four legs to two. The sound was agonizing and started to return to a human voice.

"Ooooh....! My aching head! What were those morons thinking?" Michael said, softly reaching for his head. There was a massive bruise there from one of Hysteria's playful slams. He reached to touch it and the pain caused him to take a deep breath, which in itself was another bad idea, causing him to double over. Something was wrong with his chest and it burned!

It took him a few minutes to realize that his left arm was dangling at an odd angle. Upon closer examination, it was dislocated. He couldn't just wander around with a dislocated shoulder, so Michael

slowly lowered himself to the ground, put his feet against the wall, and pulled on his arms.

"YEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!" It popped back into place with a crunch. Tears ran down Michael's cheeks as he struggled with the incredible pain from both the chest and arm. Finally, Michael attempted to stand, but the large discolored spot on his forehead was also contributing to his disorientation. The fact hat his glasses were missing didn't help either.

"G-g-god, it hurts!" His voice was coming out in a hoarse whisper now. He couldn't drag enough air into his lungs to manage much more. He stumbled down corridors and into someone's room. There was a set of clothes that he put on becuase, for some reason, he didn't have any one when he changed back. They had some runes on them that seemed very familiar; in some way reminscent of the orb he got from that Chaos guy. Something was seriously wrong with him and he knew it was serious.

Leaning against a nearby wall for support, he started hacking up some sort of fluid onto the floor. He suddenly lost his balance and dropped to the floor again. As he tried to rise, his eye caught something. Now that he was closer, he could clearly see some of the fluid he coughed up was red.

Slowly, he moved his fingers over to the small pool and brought some of it to his eyes. He went cold. It was blood!

Trembling, Michael raised his other hand (ignoring the pain) to his mouth and came off with more blood. His eyes widened and he started hacking again.

"Oh . . no! No no no!" All that banging that happened when Chaos dropped him was worse than he thought. He must have a punctured lung! Forget getting even with the happy elf! If he didn't get some medical attention soon, his lung will fill up with blood and he'll drown!

Struggling to his feet once again, Michael tried desperately to keep moving. His vision was getting even hazier and his consciousness was slipping through his fingers.

In a fit of desperation, he balled his hands into fists and slammed his chest, forcing his injured to expell all the blood that he'd taken in so far. In the process, he nearly gagged from the excruciating pain. He bought himself maybe a little longer at the most with that act.

Unable to continue to stand any longer, Michael dropped to his knees and started to drag himself along the wall. Oddly enough, there was no real fear of dying here, only a fight to stay alive. A fight it was becoming apparent he couldn't win.

He was crawling now, trying to pull the weight of his body along the floor. Inch by inch by inch. Slowly, he stopped moving all together, breaths coming in short gasps. He sighed as best he could.

Where was that caped crusader when you needed him? And right now, Michael would be happy to see Mamoru OR Batman.

Michael's sight wasn't working anymore and he prayed for a miracle as his lung slowly started to fill with blood once again.

* * *

Chaos growled as another assault from the Dark Warrior sent his body spinning out of control, nearly flinging him overtop a flight of stairs. And yet as badly as he seemed to be losing, he had sworn to end this game one way or another.

Sailor Decrescent was scared of those words, of an end that might come to her life, and the life of her princess...however what she feared most was Chaos' destiny. That would mean his death that if happened--of all their deaths--and she wouldn't be able to stand the loss.

Sailor Moon looked at Sailor Decrescent with worried blue eyes. So she knew what thoughts were inside her mind. "ETERNAL MOON SHADE!" Sailor Moon exclaimed, sending her attack to the Dark Warrior, but he didn't move. There was no reaction in his body, instead he send more black fireballs to her. Sailor Moon screamed at one of them grazed her leg, drawing blood.

"Princess!" Sailor Decrescent shouted. Just one thing remained for her to try. "LUNAR TERRAE GOLDEN LIGHT!" She yelled with anguish. She was releasing her last power, her last hopes of defeating that monster. She wasn't fighting fiercely neither angrily; she was fighting desperately.

The Dark Warrior laughed at her petty intents. Nothing else she had to give could kill him. No more powers she had to wield. And that was something he was aware of.

Abruptly a growl echoed from a doorway located somewhere on one of the "walls". Rampage stalked out from the shadows, perpendicular to the Dark Warrior. Her eyes within the skull narrowed, the jaws opening just enough to let an ominous snarl escape from them. The Warrior whirled, unleashing a volley of energy that tore apart the stairs where Rampage stood. Stone fell to what might have been the ground. Yet the demon-beast was suddenly gone.

With a turn the Dark One glared at Chaos, Rampage's skeletal head neatly leaning on his shoulder. "Mere magicians, ne?" Chaos inquired. "Then let's see how you get out of this little slight of hand."

The Dark Warrior howled with rage, sending out his onslaught of negative powers once more.

"Arigato for the breathing space, Rampage!" Chaos exclaimed. "Now you might want to step back for a moment!"

He flung a series of crystals into the air, each one sending out a beam of sparkling ice blue light to form a netting that held back the Dark Warrior's onslaught.

Sweat was starting to trickle down his face and chest. "I can't hold this for long," he said over his shoulder to Sailor Moon. "If you have a plan, I'm open to suggestions right now."

She nodded, closing her eyes and focusing her own powers.

There was a way.

"Please," she whispered, sending out her plea beyond the rippling illusions of this battleground. "Everyone, give me your powers. Help me fight against this evil." There was no guarantee that she could reach anyone from inside an illusion, but she still had to try.

Her sailor fuku rippled in the winds, morphing into a silken white gown. From her back two enormous angel's wings. Her arms stretched out before her, she summoned the ultimate power she knew.

The Silver Crystal appeared in her palms.

She had become the Princess of the Silver Moon once more.

"Usagi, what are you doing?!" Shinrai snapped. "The other Senshi are sealed off from us; Silver Crystal power cannot be used. You don't have enough power to survive the crystal's magik! If it cracks, you'll die!"

"Queen Serenity once did this in the hopes we would find peace once again," she said quietly, the rages of the battle lost from her hearing.

A strange calm filled her, an acceptance of what was to come. To preserve the lives of her friends, her world, she would make the only sacrifice that could be made.

Chaos winced as the Warrior's attack broke a crystal orb, a stray bolt of dark magic smashing into a twiting staircase right beside him. "And what if that fails, Usagi? I've heard the lore of the crystal's power.

Hell, I've seen it in action! I'd rather commit seppuku then have to explain why I walked out of this alive and you didn't!"

A whole row of illusions shattered, a wave of black energy crushing the ground before them. The Elven lord leaped back onto the ceiling, silencing the attacking power with a blow from another crystal. Yet the onslaught shattered the illusion to pieces, the shockwave overtaking him.

He crashed to the ground, battered and bloody. His shirt was torn apart; whatever white had been left on it now stained crimson. Moments later a second blast of dark power sent him crashing into a staircase.

The impact cracked the rocks, Chaos' body convulsing from the shock.

Emerald eyes widened as a hellish storm of black fire swept across his form and swallowed him whole.

"Chaos!" Shinrai screamed. Rampage lost all self-control. Upon seeing her master, her friend lost like this in a black nightmare, Rampage hurled herself in a raging frenzy towards the Dark Warrior. And moments before the beast would have struck she was crushed, her essence ripped out from the snarling skull and snapping jaws. Fierce claws dug themselves into the ground in a hideous spasm, breaking apart and becoming like dust.

Usagi watched the life in those hollow black sockets fade, the eyes of Rampage retreating within to the shadows of its bone-like head. The skull became lifeless and crashed to the floor with a resounding thud.

It bounced into the air one time, and then exploded into a powder that blew itself to the ends of the Hall of Stairs.

"Rampage!!"

The flames of darkness died down, Chaos standing there unscathed. Yet the expression on his face mirrored the pain as he collapsed to his knees before the remains of the demon-beast, clutching a piece of broken skull. "I never meant it to end this way for you, Rampage," he whispered. "Shimatta, it was *not* supposed to end like this for you!"

"Damn Warrior!" Sailor Decrescent exclaimed.

"How could you kill her?" Princess Serenity said. "You're so cruel!"

"And you haven't seen anything yet, Princess of the White Moon," the evil warrior said, no mercy in his red eyes. He turned to Chaos and grinned coldly. "Shin'ne."

Chaos screamed in rage as he whirled from his place on the cold floor, flinging a tremendous gale of crystals towards the charing attack. The entire Hall of Stairs was bathed in fierce emerald light as his illusions unleashed their power--only to be shattered apart. Grey mists billowed out, suddenly forming a tunnel that followed the wake of the attack.

The Dark Warrior's attack was at its peak, easily punching a hole through Chaos' best defense without even blinking. Chaos' eyes never widened as he watched the frenized storm of magic streak through the air towards him. He had not the time nor the magik to retaliate. He watched with both a ferocious glare and a grim bracing for what might be his last breath of life. To think that the last of the great Elven Playkings would die here, like this.

The sickening rip of torn cloth and flesh echoed across a silence that seized the air. Blood sprayed out in an almost majestic geyser, droplets staining everything around them. Once beautiful eyes slowly closed. A heartbeat began to slow, doomed to stop.

Chaos could say nothing. His mouth was agape in shock and horror as Shinrai collapsed back into his arms, the blow meant for him now dealt unto her. Her form was so slender and small yet not without its own vibrancy that had first captivated his eyes in that first game so many millennia ago. And it was her silhouette now that convulsed, snapping back in shock and pain as the attack shot through her. The sounds of it puncturing her chest only to punch through her back echoed with a sickening ring in his ears. He could see bits of her fuku lost from her body, torn apart.

"SHINRAI!!!" he screamed, catching the fallen Senshi in his arms as she fell over. Her blood was all over him: his face, his hands, his chest. He laid Shinrai down on the floor, unable to speak or do anything but watch her.

"Daijo...bu," she whispered, reaching up to clasp hands with him, their fingers lacing together. "Chaos...I--"

He shook his head, a finger pressed gently against her lips. "Shhh," he interjected. "I...I can forge an illusion. Dammit, don't you die on me, Shinrai! I won't let you!"

"Chaos," Shinrai whispered, trembling honey eyes gazing into his own. And in that moment he realized that no illusion he could forge would save her life. He was watching her die once more. He had failed her again. He held her tighter than ever before, tighter than he could ever remember in that past life they once shared. He buried his face into her long silver-white hair, breathing in her scent. It was this scent he had been enticed with in that first game, and it was this scent that had haunted his games ever since.

He gently embraced her, cradling Shinrai in his arms. "I loved you, Shinrai-chan," he whispered. "I would have left my Court for you."

She nodded, fingers pressing softly against his lips. "Hai."

He leaned down and for the last time their lips met. Her eyes were closed, trembling with saddened tears. The tears fell down her cheek as she was silent.

And then she was gone.

"Oyasumi nasai, my Shinrai," he whispered.

Good night....

Chaos jerked his head up as a fierce crimson light swept over him. He had only enough time to bellow in rage as the Dark Warrior's fireballs engulfed him in a hellish inferno.

* * *

After Mayhem returned to his rooms, he remembered a question that he had wanted to ask Chaos. Nothing very important, but he headed for Chaos' rooms, hoping he was there and not still talking with the others in the sideways room. Mayhem didn't want to talk with them again tonight.

He paced slowly down the hallway from his rooms to Chaos'. Theirs were the closest together, and walking the short distance was easy enough. But as he turned the corner his foot came down on something soft. Startled, he quickly backtracked a few paces, looking down as he did so.

Steel grey eyes opened wide in shock and annoyance as he saw what he'd stepped on. A human man. Dressed in Chaos' clothing. Which he'd gotten from Chaos' rooms, no doubt, by the trail of blood leading from the man through the doorway...

Blood. That was not a good thing. Mayhem approached the man and gently turned him on his back. Even this simple motion made the nearly unconscious human groan with pain. Mayhem's eyes quickly took stock of his wounds. He looked at the man's face...it was familiar...and then his mind added the missing feature. Glasses! This was the same man that saved Chaos the night of the Ball.

Chaos had told him a little about that encounter later...and what did he say the human's name was.... Michael…that was it. And from the injuries, Mayhem guessed that this was the "kawaii rabbit-chan" that

Hysteria had brought in with her. Mayhem shook his head in sympathy. He'd seen part of the beating that the rabbit had taken...and he wouldn't wish that on anyone. Except maybe Carnage.

But Michael was hurt -very- badly, and Mayhem knew how much less damage their bodies could take. This human didn't look like he would survive even an hour.

That was not good. Mayhem was quite curious about this Michael now. And if he wasn't in such bad shape, he would have liked to ask him some questions. Mayhem couldn't heal, or even pretend to heal, like Chaos could with his illusions, but he could transfer energy.

Placing his hand lightly on Michael's forehead, he let some of his energy seep into the human. After a few seconds, Micheal's eyes opened slowly and tried to focus on the person kneeling above him.

~His eyes won't focus on me. That means he has a bad concussion. And he's not bleeding from anywhere, which means he had to have coughed up all this fluid....a punctured lung for sure.~ Mayhem's thought's raced furiously.

~But I don't know where to take him. Elves don't get sick and I don't know where the human Healers are housed in this new time!~

Michael's mouth moved like he was trying to say something, but no

sounds emerged. Mayhem took a chance and upped the power dosage a

little. This time, Michael was able to force a few words out.

"Hurt...please....hospital. I need...."

But even this seemed to take all Michael's borrowed strength, and he closed his eyes again, his breathing becoming even harsher, Mayhem could hear the blood gurgling in the back of the human's throat.

Grimacing over the painful tone of that sound, Mayhem pondered Michael's words. The "hurt" and "please" where fairly obvious...but what was this "hospital"? Mayhem closed his eyes too and thought back over the day...then it hit him, where he had seen that word before.

He had been wandering around, before he had gone to the racetrack, and passed by a huge white building with the word 'hospital' written on the side! Mayhem didn't think that the man would have used the little strength left to him to utter meaningless words. So this hospital was the best bet so far. He would take Michael there.

He frowned for a second...but after he left Michael with these healers, it might be difficult to track him down again. And without a doubt, this person was someone Mayhem would want to question later.

So again he put his hand to Michael's forehead, but this time he cast a spell. A Compulsion Spell. After Michael was healed, and Mayhem activated this spell, the human would fall into a dreamlike state and come to wherever that Mayhem was. It would be easy enough to get information from him then.

Michael whimpered a little, his hand clenching at open air. Mayhem debated the wisdom of picking him up, but decided that he really didn't have a lot of choice. Carefully he slid his arms under Michael, lifting him. This time Michael did cry out, and Mayhem winced in sympathy. He didn't know what to do...Michael would just have to endure it for awhile longer.

The silver cloud engulfed them both, seconds later it deposited Michael and Mayhem wearing his human disguise in front of the large, white hospital that Mayhem remembered. He looked up once again, reading the sign over the door. Tokyo Central Hospital. This had to be the place. Striding up to the doors, Mayhem said a silent word of thanks that humans had invented these wonderful doors that slid open on their own, saving him the trouble of doing it with his magik and provoking some questions.

He wasn't even half-way to the gleaming white Nurses Station, before one of them saw him carrying Michael's limp body and spoke quickly into a phone. By the time he -did- reach them, a flurry of activity drew his attention to one of the side corridors. Three humans where racing towards him, hauling a bed on wheels with them...

Mayhem immediately recognized the caring and yet haughty demeanor of a human Healer, and felt relief that he had, indeed, come to the right place. Then, Michael was taken from him and placed on the funny bed, the Healer grabbed his arm, asking him questions.

Who was he and how was his friend injured? Where did his friend get these injuries?

Mayhem gave his human name, and Michael's. He told them what he thought Michael's injuries were, and no, he didn't know how it had happened. He didn't think he could explain the whole rabbit/human thing to them. Tired of the questions, a quick wave of his hands and all the humans forgot his presence and ignored him. He walked back to the doors, casting one last look over his shoulder as the Healer and her attendants quickly wheeled Michael away.

Blinking in the bright sunlight. Mayhem wondered why he had even gone through all this trouble to save this human. Carnage would have just killed him on the spot and disposed of the body. After thinking about it for a minute, Mayhem had to conclude it was for two reasons.

One, his human had saved his best friend's life. He supposed that now this was repayment in part for that. And secondly, Mayhem hoped that if he were ever dying...someone would do the same for him...

* * *

"Shinrai." Princess Serenity whispered, a hollow emptiness growing inside her. At that moment she felt a deep shame for Chaos and the Sailor Senshi who had generously brought her life in exchange of the one she cared most about. So much they had loved each other in the past, but being at opposite sides had separated them. That had been Chaos' choice, and his mistake. And now that they had the chance to meet again, when they finally seemed to reconciliate and would be together, destiny--no, fate broke them apart forever.

And then, Usagi, in her Sailor Moon fuku again, looked back at black flames where Chaos had once been. The view was taken away from her as the Dark Warrior stepped into her sight and began to move closer.

"And now, Princess of the White Moon," he stated. "I shall kill you."

He was being consumed by the flames. And yet for all that he was being burned he felt nothing but the emptiness as he held her tightly in his arms. The world and everything within it was growing distant as sadness swept it all away from his soul.

"Shinrai," he cried, his cheek against hers. "I couldn't protect you again. I couldn't keep us together. I'm sorry."

"Chaos."

Emerald eyes stained with tears slowly looked away from her angelic form and into the heart of the shadowy inferno. They widened, new tears flowing down his face with what he saw. She was there before him, standing as if they had never parted. Wings with the color of snow spread out from her back, a flurry of feathers swirling around him.

Her eyes were still so vibrant, silently asking for his love in return for hers. Once before he betrayed those eyes. Never again. Never again....

Her lips never moved yet he still heard her words. "Please," her voice asked of him. "Save our princess. Usagi--no, Sailor Moon; without your magik she will die and our world will perish. Chaos, I cannot force you to help her. All I can do is ask."

He closed his eyes as he began to laugh quietly to himself. "Ara, so tonight will be my final game after all." Chaos' eyes slowly opened as he turned away from her. Through the flames he could see the Dark

Warrior closing in the distance to Usagi.

"I won't make the same mistake again, Shinrai," he whispered. "Wait for me and I'll join you soon enough. We'll never be separated again."

The Dark Warrior advanced calmly, a malevolent smile playing in his face. As he came closer, Sailor Moon felt a strange sensation of fear.

"Why are you doing this?" she demanded. It was more like a plea than a question.

"We, Disbalance Warriors of the Dark Blood Clan, are minions of a more powerful evil force," the Dark One said. "When a Malignant Door of Darkness is opened it is our mission to ensure that it remains that way, so our lord can enter this world. But, in order to fulfill this mission, we need to kill the guardian of that door, the Element."

Princess Serenity blinked in surprise. The guardians of the doors were the Elementals, and each one of them had to fight, just as Asahi had at the Masquerade Ball, against that demons.

"But you said that you're one of the greatest warriors, that only the 9 Elementals together, or a very powerful force, can destroy of you...so there's no guardian of this door, why are you after me?" Princess

Serenity asked back, nervously awaiting the answer.

A long silence.

"My mission is to kill the Princess of the White Moon. You are the leader of all the Sailor Senshi, you are the center of them. If you die there will be no hope." He grinned. "And I will relish this moment forever," he said, scarlet eyes showing how much he enjoyed the hunt and the kill, to take life and destroy all that breathed.

Suddenly the entire illusionary realm shuddered violently, pitching sideways and sending both Usagi and the Dark Warrior into a set of sideways stairs.

"Na ni?!" the Dark One exclaimed, spinning back.

The flames were still swarming around the Elven lord's form, raging out out control. The rippling air that held the fire back from sweeping across the entire gallery in a hellborne gale suddenly died, the flames fanning themselves. Forged into a new shape the flames opened out in circular formation, like the petals of a blooming flower. And there at its heart was Chaos.

The Elven lord growled, reaching up and touching the thick rivers of blood that were now covering his temple and running down his cheek and neck, onto his chest. His hands were soaked with blood...her blood. He stalked through the flames, his body tense as if possessed.

Sailor Moon gasped. "Chaos...."

He failed to answer her voice. His face was lowered to the floor, shadows of his shimmering silver bangs covering his eyes from her. Yet with every inch of his being he was seething, clenched fists trembling in almost uncontainable fury. He snarled, slowly raising his head to level a murderous gaze with the

Dark Warrior. "Get away from her. NOW."

"Oh, you're still alive?" the Warrior inquired savagely.

Something swept across the illusion, something with enough force to send cracks sprawling across the stairs and pillars, something powerful enough to cause the Dark Warrior to brace himself against the blast. It was magik borne of a different emotion.

One that demanded retribution no matter what the cost.

"For one brief shining moment I had the chance to live a life I once threw away," Chaos stated. "That life died with her...all because of you. You son of a bitch, even if I have to start it's pilot light so help me I will find a hell for you and send you there for all eternity!!"

And then he attacked. A battle cry that could have awakened the dead escaped his lips as he lunged for the Dark Warrior, his palms erupting in a frenzy of sparks and Elven magik. Chaos drove his fist forward, unleashing a surge of magik that tore through the ground.

"FOR BOTH OF THEM, YOU BASTARD!!"

The Warrior leaped aside and then pounced, yet his own attack passed right through Chaos' chest. A heartbeat later Chaos was right behind the Dark Warrior, raking down a blow upon the Warrior's head. The Warrior blocked with his other arm, wielding his own powers against Chaos' illusions with such rivalry to counter every move he could make.

They broke apart from the air, leaping backwards to respective sides of the distorted room. Chaos landed in a crouch a few steps away from Usagi, smoke rising up from the ground to catch his feet and soften the landing.

"Chikusho," he muttered. This warrior was even worse than the last.

Only that 'Day' element could defeat such a creature, and he wasn't it. In order to escape this illusion the Dark Warrior would indeed kill him.

"Chaos, open your illusion up," Usagi said. "If you let other Senshi in, then they can destroy it!"

"NO!" he snapped. "For what he did to Rampage, to Shinrai...I will never let it rest. I challenged him to this game and I alone shall finish it. There is another way to end this."

The Lifespark.

It was what bound his soul, every breath he took, to his Court. One of the most dangerous and complicated magiks of the Elven race was to perform the Lifespark, connecting their heartbeats together. Those who shared the bond would feel pain and death as one of them experienced it. This was the magik that had saved him at the masquerade ball when the first Dark Warrior had crashed his party. And now it was happening all over again, history repeating itself in events and simply changing the scenery of the playing field. This creature could see through his illusions, shatter his crystals like they were glass. He wasn't the one with the magik necessary to defeat this warrior--let alone kill it. Yet this time it would be different; this time the Lifespark would save another.

Chaos looked back at Sailor Moon. "Sayonara, Usagi-hime," he said. "It was fun while it lasted, ne?"

Usagi stared at him. "Wh-what are you saying?"

Without saying anything he grabbed her hand and pulled her against his chest, bending down to kiss her passionately albeit briefly on the lips. She was so taken aback by his actions that she never felt the single crystal orb be passed from his free hand into her body.

"Sailor Moon," he said. "My only regret now is that I'll never be able to play another game with any of you again. I won't disappoint, Princess. Enjoy the spectacle."

Usagi stared at him, unable to understand what it was he was talking about. There was something different in his eyes now; they looked so human, so much like the eyes of her fellow Sailor Senshi.

Chaos suddenly pushed her aside as a wave of crackling dark energy shredded the ground between them. His eyes narrowed as he stared up at the Dark Warrior hovering in the middle of the chambers. The Elven lord growled and then leaped onto a set of sideways stairs, racing up them and then leaping onto another set of stairs that ran upside-down along the ceiling.

The Dark Warrior watched this with mild interest. "Still trying to play games? Now it's time for this one to end." He stretched out an arm and let loose a volley of energy blasts at Chaos.

Chaos pounced, disappearing to evade the blasts as they reduced the stairs into falling pieces of debris. Usagi leaped aside as the chunks of rock crashed down next to her. The cloud of smoke cleared to reveal an empty hall of stairs.

"There's no place to run or hide, even in your own illusion," the Warrior laughed. "Come out come out, great Playking. Or are you afraid?"

Suddenly Chaos was right in front of the Dark Warrior. The creature recoiled in surprise yet moved too low. Chaos' fingers clamped down upon the warrior's face, thumbs pressing against the temples.

"Our hearts are joined," he murmured. "Our breaths have become one. My blood spilled shall run down your arms. My agony shall become your torture. The Lifespark has taken our souls and entwined them together."

The Lifespark to the others was severed. Mayhem, Carnage, Riot, Ruckus, Hysteria and Havoc would never again be concerned with their own powers being drained just so he could live. If he died, they would no longer die along with him. Yet he was not about to let it simply end there.

"What riddles do you speak of, damned Elf?" the warrior spat, shoving Chaos away.

A dark smile tugged at the edges of Chaos' lips as he hovered there in the air. "Look into my eyes...and watch your own death. Prepare for my Endgame."

The Dark Warrior laughed. "You can't kill me with one of your illusionary selves. I can see right through them!"

Chaos suddenly reappeared in behind the Dark Warrior, his arms wrapping around the Warrior's chest. Hands tightly clasped, locking them together. They flipped over, and then Chaos plunged them both headfirst towards the earth below.

"Who said I was an illusion?" he snarled.

"What are you doing?!" the warrior shrieked, frantically thrashing about to get free.

Chaos closed his eyes. "I shall redeem our love, Shinrai," he whispered. "I'm sorry for all I've put you through. Perhaps now we can find the peace in death that we never could in life."

Usagi's eyes widened as she watched the two figures plummet, a pool of magik gathering around them. Frenzied lights of blue and violet twisted and raged around the two forms, explosions of sparks raining down upon her.

Chaos' eyes were blazing as he opened his mouth to utter one last cry: "SHIN'NE!!!!!!"

A split second later, the two fighters hit the ground. And in that moment of dead calm, Usagi realized what Chaos had done.

The magik exploded and the Hall of Stairs was shattered by the monstrous explosion of white light. The entire illusion convulsed as the floor below her cracked apart, hot sulphurous steam rising up as flames burst to the surface. The stairs broke apart like shards of glass, their dimensions distorted.

Usagi screamed and threw her hands in front of her face as the magik exploded past her, the entire illusion shattering apart like the glass crystal it was. Yet another sphere appeared around her, its outline glowing as the shards of the other illusion crashed against its surface.

The illusion Chaos had given her with a kiss was now protecting her from the inevitable.

The entire illusion of the stairways buckled, falling apart on itself, lost within a blinding spectacle of fire and light. The realm imploded, everything being sucked into the core with the magikstorm. Silence reigned for an instant as all the fierce power died down. And then it exploded.

The Hall of Stairs crumbled and finally broke, the pure magik being unleashed in a fury never meant to be wielded. Despite being within the protective walls of the crystal Usagi could see nothing as the inferno stretched up into the skies, bent on destroying all in its path.

A shaft of Elven magik stabbed into the heart of the ocean and struck the height of the heavens, sending up a torrential flood that came down as a thick rainstorm as the skies were suddenly cleared of every last cloud. Tsunami's cascaded across the once peaceful surface of the waters, crashing violently into the surf of Tokyo's coastline. Had this illusion shattered within the city, it surely would have taken out numerous blocks and killed hundreds of people.

As the water turned to rain she was kept dry inside her own sphere, hovering a few feet over the water which rippled her reflection. The magik faded away forever.

Only a faint echo of glass shards being shattered to a million pieces was heard, it too dying into silence. Light was reborn, the blue skies now over her head and sunlight shining down from above. She could see once more, and yet some things she was unable to see. He was gone.

"Chaos?" she whispered, pressing her hands against the crystal and straining to see across the ocean for any sign of the Elven lord. At first there was nothing to see except the distant cityscape of Tokyo.

Everything felt like a dream inside her sphere of illusion. If she suddenly awoke would this battle have even taken place? Usagi cried out his name as he suddenly appeared before her. Yet he did not respond, as if she was merely a spectator.

It was an outline of the Elven lord, his colours faded around the edges and then dissolving into a ghostly aura. He was there upon the ocean waters, circular ripples radiating out from his place. Knelt down on one knee, his head was bowed as if expecting another.

And another came.

Shinrai appeared, walking slowly towards the Elven lord. She had upon her back the whitened wings of an angel, feathers blowing all around Chaos yet he patiently and penitently waited. Nothing would distract him, not as it had once before in the past.

Her hand reached out, fingers stroking the side of his face. Chaos lifted his head, their eyes meeting once again. He stood as she raised her arm, beckoning him to draw closer to her. This time he did not walk away. Chaos' hand reached up and clasped Shinrai's, their fingers lacing together. Their lips met in a kiss as her wings wrapped around them both and they were lost within a beautiful storm of snowen white feathers.

And there they faded away from this existence.

Life is an endless waltz of meetings and partings. Sometimes we can anticipate such partings. Other times they take us all by surprise. Death could be said to be the grandest illusion of them all. It is never truly an end, but merely the beginning. For two souls it was a second chance for a love that defied the war they found themselves in. Just as the battle is eternal, so too is love.

In the end it is all we have left to fight for.

And all we have left to die for.

Usagi bowed her head as the tears flowed down her cheeks. "Sayonara," she whispered.

Good-bye...