Queen Beryl’s throne room

General Molls was kneeling before Queen Beryl, describing her failure with the black rose attack on Princess Serenity and how the new Scout had used a rose to transform.  Through this lengthy explanation, and the annoying groveling, Beryl looked at Molls with contempt.

"You have failed us General Molls.  When you SWORE you’d be the one to help us finish off the retched princess Serenity.  How should we treat this?"  Beryl said in a low, evil voice.

All General Molls did was cower before her Queen.  This pleased Beryl no end, so she decided to give Molls another chance.  Molls WAS her best General.

"You have one more chance Molls.  DON’T fail us!"

Two Days Later, In the Forest Beyond the Castle

Alara and Serena walked slowly through the trees, the rest of the Scouts following along in normal forms.

"I heard that a *new* Scout just popped in during that meeting a few days ago.  Who was she?" Alara asked.

Serena made a noise like a wounded animal, "We don’t know yet.  Amy wasn’t able to get a scan so we may never know!"

Alara’s smile was cut short as a Negaverse portal opened a few feet in front of her.  Just as the others automatically reached for their transformation wands, she wondered if she should change too.  THAT question was answered when Molls stepped out to greet them.

MOON CRYSTAL POWER!!
MARS POWER!!
MERCURY POWER!!
VENUS POWER!!
JUPITER POWER!!
BLACK CRYSTAL ROSE ACTIVATION!!!

As Alara transformed right after everyone else, only Sailor Moon didn’t see her transformation.

Alara was slowly engulfed in a wave of black rose petals.  As they slowly went from her head to her feet, they revealed Black Rose.  The first noticeable change was that her hair was loose like Mars’ and she had a black rose on her forehead.  Next you could see she had on small, black rose earrings and black lipstick.  Around her throat was a silk band of black.  Her sailor outfit was next and it was ALL black and lacking in bows and the normal gloves.  She had only thin strips of black silk at her wrists.  Finally, she had on black ankle boots like Jupiter.

The petals finally vanished and Black Rose stood there with the other Scouts.  Even Moon had finished her transformation and was staring at Black Rose.

Black Rose ignored the other Scouts and snarled at Molls, "I beat your group before.  Wanna try again?"

Molls just laughed and sent a pure wave of evil energy at Black Rose.  But Black Rose ABSORBED it!

JUPITER THUNDER DRAGON!! went flying at Molls along with MARS FIREBIRD STRIKE!!, VENUS LOVE CHAIN ENCIRCLE!!, and MERCURY ICE STORM BLAST!!

As Molls sidestepped the first three, she got caught by the ice storm and flew back into a tree only slightly stunned.

With a snarl of rage, Molls launched herself at Mercury who was shoved out of the way by Jupiter.

Sailor Moon retrieved her Moon Scepter from her subspace pocket and aimed at Molls.  But the scepter wasn’t the only thing to come out.  What appeared to be a very large, very black, key fell out also and landed on the ground.

As Sailor Moon called out MOON SCEPTER ELIMINATION!!, Black Rose bent down and picked up the key.  The black, crystallized rose appeared before her and gently landed at the top of the key and became one with it.

Molls was easily withstanding Sailor Moon’s attack as she stood there with her shield up.  Sailor Moon was beginning to fall as the energy was sucked out of her for the attack.

Black Rose, on seeing her sister loose so much energy, held the key aloft and shouted "DARK MOON KEY!!", then pointed at Molls, who was laughing, and shouted "DESTROY!!", sending a blast of energy at Molls that was fifty times stronger than Sailor Moon’s attack.

Molls’ shield lasted only a few seconds under the barrage of energy then fell.  Molls screamed for even less time before she disintegrated into dust.

Sailor Moon finally slumped to the ground, her scepter falling to the leaves as her hands went limp.  Jupiter caught Sailor Moon before she could get close to the ground.  With a grunt, she lifted Sailor Moon to her shoulder and began to head for the castle.  The other Scouts just stood there and stared at Black Rose, who seemed fine even after the use of such power.

Black Rose de-transformed, the key shrinking with the rose until it was no larger than a normal key, and began to sway.

Mercury whipped out her visor and computer and began scanning Alara even as Mars grabbed her as she passed out.

Later, at the Castle

Alara slowly woke, but kept her eyes shut.  She just KNEW that if they found out she was fine, they’d be yelling for hours.  So now was the perfect time to rest.

As she lay on the bed in the infirmary, she could hear Amy muttering over printouts.

When Alara decided that she was fine for now, she quickly sat up, opened her eyes and looked around.  Amy was frowning over a printout, Lita, Mina, and Ray were watching Alara so they saw her sit up.

"How are you?" Lita asked softly.

Alara smiled and stretched a bit.  "I’m fine I guess," she said.

Ray began to scowl.  "You shouldn’t have done that.  You really scared us."

Alara looked down at her hands.  "I’m sorry.  It’s just that when Molls didn’t die and Serena was loosing energy, I HAD to do something!  I just HAD to!  I am a protector!  HER protector now."  She didn’t even glance at them because she was afraid that they were mad at her.

Lita gave a small chuckle, causing Alara to look up.  "I know how you felt.  If I was powerful enough, I would have trashed the bitch too."

Alara smiled halfheartedly at her, then glanced around for Serena.  "Is she going to be all right?" she glanced back at Lita, looking for answers.

Lita smiled slightly, "She’s fine."  Ray just scowled but Mina spoke up. "She didn’t even look at you… she just left the infirmary to talk with the Queen."

Alara looked at Mina, "Maybe I should talk to her…"  Alara looked puzzled.  "But, why wasn’t she worried about me?"

Lita gasped and grabbed Alara’s wrist, making her look at her.  "Don’t EVER say that.  She’s your Sister!  She loves you!"

Alara just pulled her hand back and rubbed her wrist, then slowly got up off the bed and began to walk slowly to the door without stumbling too much.

She nodded at all the Scouts and left the infirmary and headed for her room where she could be alone.

Back in the Infirmary

"Why’d you tell her that Mina??  She didn’t have to know!" Ray yelled.  Mina just looked down at the floor.  Amy came out of her office and approached them with a deep frown.

"You guys?  Alara *wasn’t* supposed to be a Scout," Amy said quietly.

"Then how did she get a hold of the Moon Key??" the others shouted together.

"What I mean is, she doesn’t get energy from the Moon like Serena.  She used her *own* energy!"  The others just stared.  NO ONE had that kind of energy… or did they?

Just then, the alarm went off… Beryl was attacking.  It was the Last Battle before they met in a new life, in a new time, and with new hopes.