The Dark Lord closed his eyes in disappointment, feeling the life force of the
knight vanish.  A split second before, there had been a resurgence of moon
power, so it was not extremely difficult to figure out what happened.

The question remained as to how that kind of energy was summoned. With the
scepter destroyed, the princess should not have been able to gather so much
power.  On the other hand, the reports of her abilities might have been
misinterpreted, or she might have discovered a new strength in herself.

It did not occur to the Dark Lord to wonder if the scepter had been truly
destroyed, for no denizen of the Negaverse would dare lie to the master of
evil.  Only one has arranged for that to be done, and Kaneth's turn would
come.

But no matter, the Dark Lord decided.  To one side, the portal was complete, he
required no more help from the knight, no more distractions.  The Chosen was
helpless without his sword, the sailor scouts-

He frowned a little, but shook his head.  The scouts posed no threat to him.

Still, it would be nice to get rid of them once and for all, or at least create
a distraction for him to take advantage off.

He moved away from the inviting portal, moving down the line of crystals, to
one end, where a creature strove to free itself from a thin layer of
transparency.

The sword of the Shadow swung smoothly, the edge just barely nicking the
imprisoning shell.

The crystal split, cracks running from the impact around the creature.  The
Dark Lord had calculated the leftover shell to be destroyed with one blow, and
it worked.

A surge of strength came from the warrior trapped within, and the fragments
moved outward, then fell down to a heap at the monster's feet.  It looked
around with insane eyes for a moment, then seemed to focus on the Dark Lord.

"Master," it spoke, kneeling in front of the Shadow.

He smiled a little at the instant obedience.

"Go. Go to where the Sailor Scouts are, and destroy them."  This creature had
the ability to focus on a specific person and get there, which was one of the
reasons the Dark Lord had chosen him.

"I go!"

He leapt away into the darkness, where he would weave the spell that made the
portal.  The Shadow frowned a little, but knew that his own aura interfered
with the creation of gateways, so kept silent.

Now, he swore gleefully to himself, now it ends.

He turned back to his own portal.

Then he felt it.

*	*	*

Slowly, Lita approached the still smoking armor, obviously on guard.  But the
metal plates did not move, the charred black material continuing to lie on the
ground.  With a tense foot, Sailor Jupiter reached out, shifting a few of the
plates to reveal the creature inside.
The metal pieces slid aside almost effortlessly, separating under the green
boot.  Beneath-

Beneath there was nothing.

With surprise, Lita moved more plates, trying to see something, but to no
avail.  The only thing on the ground was a pile of metal armor, mostly charred
black by the powerful blast.
Serena turned to face Nakiad, the man letting her stand on her own. "Was he
disintegrated by the blast, with only the metal surviving?"

The other's mind seemed to be occupied elsewhere, but he answered. "Perhaps.
But there is a legend, an ancient story that the knight is no more than that."
He gestured at the pile. "As a figure in armor, he is a creature to be reckoned
with.  But once that armor is breached, there is nothing but an empty shell of
metal."  The Chosen shrugged. "No one knows exactly how much of that myth is
true, but it is known that the knight never took off his armor.  Never."

He was staring at the knight's last position, and Serena turned in time to see
the pile of armor began to glow slightly.  Surprised, Lita jumped back several
yards, landing next to the rest of the scouts. A wind seemed to gust up,
rattling the metal, and then it dissolved into smoke.  The gray gas lifted up,
leaving a circle of scorched earth behind.  

And nothing else.

Serena began to turn toward Nakiad. "What do you-"  She interrupted herself as
completed the turn.

He wasn't there any more.  A second ago, he had been standing behind her, now
he had disappeared as if he had turned invisible.  She looked over at everyone
else. "Did anyone see where Nakiad went?"

Ami held up a hand. "Wait a second, guys.  I'm reading something really strange
coming from the burned circle.  Everyone stand back."  They backed up several
yards, then waited.  For the second time that day, the air in front of them
distorted, this time forming into a ragged black circle hovering a foot off the
ground.

"It's a portal," Ami informed the others calmly.

"Get ready, Sailor Scouts," Luna said tensely, then looked over at Artemis.
The white cat seemed to be looking around as if searching for something, then
shrugged and turned to the portal.

The circle flashed for a moment, and the creature came through.

A warrior with the size and build of a lion appeared, snarling as it stood in
front of the gateway for a few moments.  The scouts got an impression of a huge
toothy mouth and powerful front legs before the monster seemed to blur in the
air, the features becoming difficult to distinguish.  It seemed to phase in
midair, moving a yard or so forward, then rematerialized.

At the same moment, the portal behind it began to close.

And a black shape appeared behind the creature.



It turned its head from the scouts, sensing someone behind it.  It was the
Chosen.  But before it could react, the man leapt through the portal,
disappearing.

The warrior sighed mentally, preparing to go back through after it, then a
thought reached it, a command that leapt between dimensions.

<Leave him to me.  Take care of the Sailor Scouts.>

For once, the wishes of its superior were the same as its own, the creature
thought.

Grinning to itself with satisfaction, the warrior turned back to the scouts and
concentrated. In slow motion, it saw a blast from their leader, Sailor Moon,
approach its chest.  With a slight effort, it spun itself away from the attack,
leaving the beam behind.

This is going to be fun, it thought.

*	*	*

Slowly, Nakiad breathed in the air, getting used to the smell of the fog that
drifted everywhere. A slight glow in one direction drew his eyes, a familiar
mental force pressing against his mind.

The Dark Lord knew he was there, there was no way to hide something like that
from powers of their magnitude.  But he was waiting for the Chosen to come to
him.
Nakiad shrugged silently to himself, and started moving forward.

As he did, he felt something strange in the palm of one hand. Without realizing
it, he had reached behind to the harness on his back.

It was empty mostly, the two swords staying back in his house.  They would have
been useless in the conflict, without their power, and there was nothing he
could do with them.  Besides, he had thought ruefully, I will not need them for
what I am planning to do.

But the swords were not his only weapons.  Below them, rarely noticed, was a
knife also made of Maraki, a blade he had found long ago, already on earth.  Of
the scouts, only Mina had seen the weapon, and at the time she had other things
to worry about.  So no one inquired as to what happened to it after the swords
were destroyed.

Now his hand, trained for centuries, automatically reacted to the presence of
danger, reaching for the best weapon available.

For a moment, he let the hand stay there, thinking.  Theoretically, the knife
could kill the Dark Lord, but-

With an angry thought he forced his arm down, back to his side.

He would do what he came to do.

The fog ahead of him parted slightly as he continued, the blue glow
intensifying in a line that stretched into two directions.  Then a single step
brought the glow into view, the fog ending in a line as if a curtain was
holding it back.

And in the center of the clear space was the Dark Lord.

The Shadow had obviously picked the spot in which he stood carefully while
Nakiad had been coming.  He was standing so the glow of a crystal illuminated
him from behind, making him look that much more dark and forbidding in
contrast.  To either side, the crystals seemed to stretch out forever, a
monster seemingly ready to leap from each one.
The Chosen approached slowly, halting a dozen yards away.

"So," the Dark Lord began, "you have come."  The black figure paused, then
shifted its stance a little. "Nice trick in getting here.  But getting out is
the hard part.  You see, the only way to leave is through there."  With a
sudden gesture, he pointed to one side.

There, hidden before by the fog, an object was revealed by the retreating
vapors.  A flat black circle, it was a tear in reality.

A gate.

Nakiad felt out with his mind, though he knew what he would find.

It was a portal back to the Universe.

So, Shadow, you do have the power, the Chosen thought calmly.  He forced his
emotions still, warned by the Guardian about this.

The Dark Lord seemed to notice. "So, you have been expecting this."  He paused,
then seemed to shake off any doubts. "So much the better."

He suddenly shifted forward, striding toward the Chosen until the crystal
directly behind him was hidden from view. "All you have to do to get home is
get through me."  Nakiad smiled grimly.  From the point of view of the Shadow,
that was an empty promise.  Either they would die together, something almost
impossible.

Or Nakiad alone would die.

He smiled to himself.  Hopefully, he had a third option.

"So, Chosen, face me now, once and for all."

He looked at the Dark Lord calmly, keeping his hands by his sides while the
other's strayed slowly to the scabbard across his back.

*	*	*

Serena watched with astonishment as the black figure that could only be Nakiad
disappeared in the portal.

Good luck, Chosen, she thought clearly as the portal closed behind him.  Her
newfound ability brought a startling calm to her, as if she was already a
queen, regal and ready to make decisions.  She looked at the creature in front
of her.  It was a warrior for the Negaverse, and had to be destroyed, she knew,
but somewhere deep inside, she also understood that it was a creature.

One that deserved pity.

And a clean end.

With a free thought, she released the power within her in a beam, lashing out
at the furry monster.

And it blurred as the blast approached, leaving the point of impact.  Serena's
blast went wide, destroying a tree while the monster phased through the air too
fast for anyone to follow.  From there, it screamed shrilly at them, and a
blanket of white needles of power appeared, then threw itself at the scouts.

They scattered out of the way, and various attacks launched themselves at the
source of the blast.

A split second later, four roses, several rings of fire and a blast of
lightning knocked a hole in a grove of trees.

The monster, already on the other side of the glade, hissed at the scouts,
launching another attack, but only caught Tuxedo Mask's cape that time.  Then
it blurred almost without pausing, not letting the scouts get a solid lock on
it.

Mina looked at the monster, breathing heavily.  Her beam had missed twice, but
she was not only thinking about that.

Somewhere, she felt that Nakiad had found the Dark Lord.  What would happen
next she did not know.

Or perhaps she knew, and feared.

Luna glanced over at Mina, a worried expression also on her face.  But the cat
was looking at the monster, wondering what they were going to do about it.

None of their attacks were so much as slowing its charges, and the needles were
almost impossible to avoid.

Only luck had kept the scouts away from injury, and the black cat knew from
experience that luck does not play favorites.



"No," Nakiad answered simply.

For a moment, the Dark Lord seemed simply to have been astonished.  Then he
recovered. "So, you fear to fight me without your swords.  I can understand
that.  But if you do not-" he gestured toward the portal expansively.  The
Universe will be mine, he did not need to finish.

No, Shadow.  You want to get rid of me because you do not want the slightest
chance of me coming back again.  Well, I'm not going to give you the
*satisfaction*.

"No," he refused once more. "I am tired of fighting."

Again, the other stared. "What, not even a simple struggle?  Are you going to
merely give up, after nearly defeating me two times?"

"I *have* defeated you two times."  Nakiad reminded himself to remain
calm.  The Dark Lord was trying to goad him, trying to figure out what trick he
was playing.

The Shadow snarled. "A fluke that will soon be corrected.  Very well, then.  If
you will not fight, then I will strike you down where you stand, and no one for
a millennium will rise to defend the Universe against me."  Nakiad did not
respond, which seemed to infuriate the Dark Lord. "Well, what does your
Guardian think of that?"

You'd be surprised, the man thought calmly.

I might have a chance, he thought, looking at the other.  He is arrogant now,
overconfident.  Perhaps, if I can lull him off guard, I can use the knife to-

No.

I have had enough fighting.  The Chosen have had enough fighting.  It is time
for it to end.

"Very well, then," the Dark Lord's hand seemed to blur for a moment, and a
blade appeared in it.  Unlike the other two times they had fought, the sword
did not appear, but was merely drawn very quickly, the Shadow not having the
energy to place it in a bubble universe.

The sword, the same sword that Nakiad had fought against twice, the sword that
was stronger than almost anything else, shone eerily in the blue light.

It danced a bit in the other's grip, as if he were expecting a sudden attack,
and Nakiad forced himself to hold still.

He looked at the other with a strange peace that suddenly came over him, a
strength that came from deep inside.

This is right, he thought.

This must be.

The sword came toward him.



"Venus Meteor Shower!"  She launched a volley of energy at the place where the
creature had just been, destroying a small garden of flowers. Well, she thought
with sudden dark humor, they were going to demolish this park anyway, might as
well help out.

Then she had to dodge out of the way of a hundred energy needles.  She felt
several graze the skin on one arm, and winced in pain.

Then she felt something once more, a feeling that came from so deep inside her
that it was not her own.

"No," she whispered as the feelings hit her, imprinted themselves on her
consciousness.

"NO!"  She felt the other scouts turn toward her.

"You promised," she begged him in her mind.

You promised to try to come back

<Trust me.>

*NO!*



With a smooth, fluid motion, the sword sprung forward, guided by the black hand
that held it.

Nakiad waited for it calmly, patiently.

It came toward his chest, directly for the center where it would cut the heart
in two, one of the few sure ways to kill him.

It *would* kill him, he knew.

Hold still, he thought to himself.

And he did.

The blade seemed to blur into a single arc of metal, coming straight at him.

Then it hit.

He felt the pain lance through the center of his chest, the blade penetrating
his skin, then his ribs.

Hitting the heart.

For several moments he wondered about how little pain there really was from the
blow. 

The memory of the agony of feeling his swords break made this seem almost
pleasant.

For a moment, he felt his body try to resist the blow, try to heal, but he
forced it to relax.  He did not wish to take long to die, not now.  He felt
himself grow light somehow, even as he started to collapse to the floor.

For a moment, he stared up at the black figure over head, and then, somewhere
deep inside, he smiled.

You can't hurt me anymore.

The world dissolved into blinding light.



The Dark Lord watched with a strange feeling deep inside as the Chosen looked
straight at him.  Slowly, the other slid down from the sword, gracefully as if
he were made out of feathers.

With a jerking motion, the Shadow disregarded the strange emotion.  His enemy
was dead, finally and forever.  It would be a thousand years before another
Chosen would have a chance of challenging him.

He started laughing as he turned toward the portal, leaving the prone form of
the Chosen behind him.



"You promised-" Lita heard Mina whisper, then something else she couldn't make
out.

Then the orange scout shrieked.

She collapsed to the ground, huddled in a ball, as if trying to escape a fate
she knew had already happened.

"What is it?"  Lita yelled to Darian, who was next to her trying to nail the
creature with a rose.  He looked worriedly back at the green scout, then
grimaced, seemingly in pain.  He reached into his suit with one hand, grasping
something inside.  With a jerk, he brought it out.

It was a rose.

It was also black.  Not the kind of black the prince's roses were when he had
been brainwashed, but a burning, dark black.

The kind that was in shadows.

The kind that the Dark Lord was.

Darian stared at it in horror, then let it go as if it was burning his arm.  It
dropped the short distance to the ground, embedding itself in the concrete.

Mina sobbed loudly, once, and the creature seemed to notice her for the first
time since she collapsed.  It blurred toward the orange scout, seeing an
helpless target.

At the last moment, a barrage of roses and electricity forced it to change
direction, but not before a cloud of white nails leapt at the helpless scout.

Lita and Darian reached her together, the prince throwing his cape over them
all as the blast hit.  The cloak was not just ordinary cloth, it stopped the
penetrating power of the needles, they shattered against it. But Lita could
feel the burns of the needles even through it, and by the expression on
Darian's face, so did he.

"No, no, you promised, you *pro-*"  Mina froze in mid-sob. "No," she
whispered, then shook her head. "No, he meant it this time, I felt it.  Then-"
She paused, then resumed crying.

"We're losing her," Darian muttered as he picked the girl up easily, leaping
away to the protection of the other scouts.

"We are also losing the battle," Luna told him grimly.  The creature's
unpredictable movement made hitting it almost impossible, so far an unreached
goal.  All of the scouts, however, carried the burn and slash marks of the
energy needles, either on their suits or on their flesh.  Even the two cats
were burned in several places. "And if that is any indication," Luna added
sadly, nodding at Mina, "we just lost Nakiad as well."

Artemis looked at her and sighed, hanging his head.

But he did not disagree.

The scouts scattered as the monster blurred toward them once more.



He turned away, laughing, toward the portal, then paused.  For a moment, he
wondered if he should let the creature destroy the scouts, the fight was going
well as far as he could tell.

No, he thought, I am going to finish that pleasure myself.

He moved once more toward the portal, then paused again.

A strange feeling washed over him, something unlike anything else he had ever
experienced.  It was not hate, or anger, or jealousy.

It was-

Impossible, the Dark Lord swore, resisting the impulse, and moved toward the
portal once more.

But his will was not in it, and slowly, he relented.

He turned, ever so slowly, coming back up to the dead Chosen.

Here lay the warrior who was able to defeat me twice, he thought, and here he
lies dead through no merit of mine.

He died like a coward, a part of him raged, as the coward he is.

He died without flinching, another part said calmly, and he deserves it.

And he had to give in to that part of himself.

Slowly, as if resisting every motion, he drew himself erect before the
warrior.

As if repeating a motion he had seen but never done, he joined his two hands
together in front of his chest, one hand around the other fist.

Slowly, the Dark Lord, master of the Negaverse bowed to the Chosen.

Just once.

A relief of being done with it came over him, along with something else he
ignored.  With a motion, he started to turn back, when he felt something behind
him.

"So, even you are not entirely without honor."

The voice resonated behind him, a voice he recognized.  But the Chosen was
dead, his form lying in front of the Shadow.

Then what? The Dark Lord thought as he turned.

Behind him, there was nothing but the gateway.  But slowly, something began to
take shape, some kind of concentration of energy forming between him and the
portal to the Universe.

A human figure was taking shape out of stray beams of white light, flowing into
a single coherent form.

The slivers of white light finally finished in a single form, flowing along the
figure and making the outline change as if it were made out of liquid. But the
face remained unmistakable.

It was Nakiad.



Pain lanced through her, both emotional and physical.  She felt the attack of
the creature, felt Darian and Lita save her life.

But she did not care.

For she knew that Nakiad was dead.

Even when she struck him down herself with the crescent beam, she never felt
this kind of anguish.  Somehow, some place deep inside of her knew he would
survive.

That certainty was gone now.

She knew he was dead.

Then something else, another feeling went through her, a strange one.  It was
as if somehow, Nakiad's death was being changed in some way.  Not reversed, but
altered, as if it no longer meant the end it should.

Swallowing hard, Mina looked over to the other side of the glade, where a
single rose burned black on the green grass.

Along the base of the rose, where it touched the ground, a touch of white was
coming back, fighting the black.

The darkness remained there, seemingly impossible to erase.

But a white light was covering it, rising slowly from the ground.

It wasn't over.

She opened her eyes wider.

Not yet.

She saw the creature launch a strike at Serena, saw the princess about to come
under a hail of fiery nails.

"Venus Meteor Shower!"

The meteors leapt forward, slamming into the wave of nails, distorting it.  The
princess glanced at Mina and smiled, then leapt out of the way of the rest of
the blast.

Mina sighed.



"You are dead," the Dark Lord pronounced in a tone of finality.

The figure made of light looked at him for several moments before replying.
"Yes.  And No."

Then the Shadow seemed to step back a little as a look of realization washed
over him. "Of course.  Get out of my way, Guardian.  You can not harm me by
yourself with some visual trick.  I have found who you really are, so give it
up."

Again, a pause. "It is true that I am Guardian, in a way."  The figure seemed
to glare at the Dark Lord. "But not the whole truth.  I absorbed Guardian
before coming here, knowing I could not fight you physically.  But with his
energy inside of me, combined with the energy I had over you because I did not
need a portal, I was able to make myself immortal as part of Guardian.  He is
part of me now, all the Chosen are.  I know their thoughts, their memories.  I
have all the combined experiences of the best warriors in the Universe."

He paused, then finished. "And you can not harm me any more."

Snarling in rage, the Shadow drew its sword in a single motion, lashing out
against the figure.  The blade penetrated all the way through, leaving a slight
trail of red in its wake which swiftly disappeared.  Nakiad winced a little,
but that was all.  Calmly, he continued to look at his enemy.

"We are more alike than you think, than anyone believes.  I know you through
the eyes of thousands of warriors, and I *know* you.  We are both tools
for our universes.  You were created to destroy us, having no choice in the
matter."

"And I was created to stop you.  For eons, we have struggled, you have
struggled against us, each trying to kill the other." He paused, then looked
with his glaring white eyes at the Dark Lord.

"Why?"  He asked the single question.

The Dark Lord paused in mid swing. "Because that is who I am," he snarled.

The Chosen seemed to sigh. "For a long time, I thought that was enough of an
answer.  But it isn't."  He looked at the other. "You have to be stopped."

The Shadow seemed to grow smarter. "If I can't hurt you, then neither can you
hurt me."

"I do not need to," the other replied, moving forward a little. "You must
stop," he said persuasively.

"I do not know *how*," the Dark Lord snarled through a grin as he lunged
and struck at the other again.  The Chosen ignored the pain, only wincing a
little.

"Then I must teach you," he answered calmly.

With a single motion, he changed his shape, gathering into a single point,
flowing forward, directly at the Shadow.  He struck into the middle of the
others chest-

And continued into it, moving until he was inside the other's body.

With a harsh cry, the Dark Lord collapsed to the ground, dropping the sword and
huddling there.

His eyes, wide open, saw nothing.



Mina's eyes flared as she felt that something was happening.  She felt
suggestions of what it might be flitting away around her consciousness, but it
was difficult to put together a picture.

Then she understood.

If Nakiad could not fight the Dark Lord physically, he might be able to stop
him on the inside.

Mina closed her eyes in grief, knowing he could never survive, without even a
body to come to.

You must do what you must do, she thought quietly.

And so must I.

Good luck, she thought as she struck out at the creature once more.



Two forces strove against each other, one light as the sun, the other dark as
night.

They clashed, sparks of energy flying from one to the other, edges getting worn
away, melding around each other, trying to surround the other and destroy it.

Nakiad concentrated on the fight, forcing his energy to flow at the other's.
He had to defeat the Dark Lord here, he had no choice.  With his full strength
of will, he tried to force the dark force away from him, out where it could not
survive.

It was not working.

The black energy responded too strongly, springing back, striking the Chosen,
damaging him.

Slowly, so slowly it was almost unnoticeable at first, Nakiad was being forced
out.  The hate of eons gave the Dark Lord power, a hate fueled by the battles
he had had, by the things he had done.

Nakiad struck back, but his attack was snuffed out before it had a chance to
land.

If he was forced out, he would no longer have anywhere to go.  He might not
even be Guardian any more, without any energy to fuel him.  And so he would
merely dissipate, floating forever through the universes while the Dark Lord
could take over his own Universe.

Never! He swore, screaming at the other, and strove against the other even
harder.

The battle only got worse, as if the Shadow was using his own power against
him, and Nakiad felt himself losing.

There was nothing he could do.



Mina felt him begin to lose, sharing the emotion of defeat, but it was
difficult to distinguish those feelings from her own.  All of the scouts were
hurt to some extent, Mina herself bleeding from several major wounds.

One of Serena's arms was hurt so badly that Ami had to freeze it a little in
order for the princess to be able to stand the pain.  Serena was now far
removed from her princesslike display of power, her inner courage obviously
fighting with the fear of the monster.

The creature, on the other hand, seemed not to have been damaged at all, easily
blurring through the air, herding the scouts into a single area, then launching
a thousand needles at them.

Slowly the blasts from the scouts and Darian's roses became less frequent as
they began to exhaust their powers.

Still the creature came, relentless.

You're our only hope, Nakiad, Mina thought as she struck out again.  We can't
win this without you.



The two powers crashed again, but the white was forced back, the black steady
as a rock.  Nakiad could not win, not even in this type of fighting.

He suddenly felt Mina's mind, through the gap between universes.

<We can't win this without you.>

And a realization went through him.

He was still fighting.

Not physically, perhaps, but still.

For eons, the Chosen fought against the Dark Lord, strove and died for the
Universe.  All to hold back a single overshadowing black force that was pure
evil.

Or was it?

A thousand voices in his head screamed at him that he was, an uncounted number
of Chosen wishing nothing but for the Dark Lord to die.

With a sudden effort, Nakiad disregarded all of their voices, stopped
listening.  He looked at the black enemy with the memories of a thousand
battles, but with the mind of a single person, a person whose love was still
alive.

And he found the answer, as hard as it was to admit.

No.

The Dark Lord had been created by the Negaverse, made for a single purpose, to
fight.  He had been given nothing but rage and hate as emotions, and so he did
the only thing he could.

He had struck against his makers, destroying them, then turned on the Universe,
and continued for as long as he existed, unable to turn away from who he was.

He was a tool, Nakiad thought with astonishment.

Just as the Chosen were tools, used by the Universe to hold back the Dark Lord,
then allowed to die, the vicious circle continued forever.

Both created to fight, to know anger and hatred, neither given a real choice
over their destiny.  Each alone was not whole, for without one there could
never be the other.

He thought at the other, knowing he could hear, remembering the words he had
said once before.

<We are more alike than you think, than anyone believes.>

No, he thought.  We are more than similar, Dark Lord.

We were created by opposite Universes, but our creators managed to do the exact
same thing to both of us.

We are the same.

Without each other, we are nothing, and so we seek each other out, fighting for
all eternity.

That is why when a Chosen dies another must take his place. That is why if you
die, I must die as well.

Because we are one.

Opposite faces of the same coin.

You cannot fight evil, for in a battle, hate will always triumph.  That is what
a battle is, an ongoing hatred.

There is only one way to fight evil.

And that is not to.

*Not to.*

With a single thought, Nakiad let go, allowed the black wave to wash over
him.

He let the Dark Lord win.



"No," Mina whispered.  She held one hand against the blood leaking out of a
wounded leg as she turned to the rose embedded in the ground.

The battle had been reflected on the fragile flower, and now, the white that
had covered part of it was swamped over by the black.  In a split moment, the
rose began to burn darkness like the night.

She felt several needles graze her, but did not really think about them.
Around her, several of the scouts were on the ground.  Darian was limping, one
hand not moving.  The two cats, covered with burns, were lying on the ground,
unconscious.

"Nakiad."  She whispered his name into the night like a prayer.  Please, tell
me you know what you are doing.



He did not know what he was doing, not mentally.

But he was right.  Somewhere inside his heart, he knew he had done the right
thing.

The black wave washed over the white, covering the blinding power of the
Chosen, leaving no trace of it.

But as it did, it absorbed it.

Ever so slowly, almost impossible to notice, the black stopped being black,
turning slightly gray.  Then more so, and more so, until it was balanced
between black and white, completely neutral.

And Nakiad felt the Dark Lord.  Not just his emotions, not his thoughts, but
everything.  All the memories of eons of bitterness washed over him in a
moment.

Anger, hatred, despair.

Killing each of the Chosen, remembered as vividly as the death of Nakiad.

Eons of living for one thing only, to destroy the universe.

Striving for only thing, only one thing.

Never any peace, never a true chance for anything.

*Pain.*

For what seemed like a long time, Nakiad felt the other's pain, let the waves
of hatred and bitterness wash over him.

He listened.

*	*	*

A single black figure knelt by a portal, in a universe that held only pain.

Until now.

Slowly, the figure opened its eyes.

The person looked up into the sky.

His face was calm, composed, relaxed.

It was Nakiad, both in face and body, differing only in clothes.

"*I forgive you*," he whispered.

Thousands of creatures dying by my hand, all the Chosen gone forever- and yet
not gone, surviving in Guardian.

"I understand."

A strange light crossed the face of the person.

"*We* understand."

"We have never had a chance to choose what we will become."

"Until now."

For a long, long moment, the world seemed to hold still with the figure,
motionless.

Then they chose.

Inside, the gray exploded into blinding white light.



Serena lifted her head from the ground with astonishment as she felt something.
A wave of light that was not light, of invisible good washed over everything.
It was as if every object in the world turned bright to some inner eye that she
had, as if something truly new had been created in the world.

And the creature they were fighting paused in mid blur, stopped in its
tracks.

Slowly, it raised its head into the sky, shrieking a question.

To one side, the rose embedded in the ground flared suddenly and ignited with
the fire of a sun, blinding everyone for a moment with brilliant white light.

As if her emotions were linked to the flower, Serena's spirits suddenly soared
up, and she felt new strength and hope infusing her.

The princess lifted her hand.

And released her power.

A blast of energy launched itself at the monster, joined by a shower of meteors
from another side, joined by fire, by lightning, and frozen air.

The creature never stood a chance.



Slowly, he got up, rising to his feet.

Slowly, he looked around as if seeing many things for the first time.
Overhead, for some reason, the clouds began to clear.  The fog around the line
of crystals slowly began to recede, making the aisle of clear air wider, more
visible.

To one side, a human figure was lying prone on the ground, not moving.

The man walked over to the body of Nakiad, the last of the Chosen.

For a long time, he stood there, not moving, then raised his arms.  Slowly,
repeating the same motion he had done before, he bowed.

But it was a deeper bow, more sincere somehow, as if paying homage to something
sacred. 

Slowly, he crouched, reaching out one hand to the figure lying on the ground.
At his touch, the body crumpled inward, as if drawn to the man.

Within moments, the body was gone, drawn completely into the figure.  At the
same time the man seemed to blur a little, the outlines of the body changing as
if altered by the form of the dead person.  A single knife remained lying on
the ground, and for a long time, the man looked at it, as if wondering what to
do.  As if reaching a decision, he looked away, deliberatly, leaving the weapon
in the dust.

The blade glistened with the reflection of the dark sky, the only thing marking
the place where the greatest warrior of the Universe died.

Once more, the figure looked around, this time at the line of crystals
stretching from side to side.  Slowly, as if he was no longer in a hurry to get
anywhere, he walked over to the spot where he lay so few minutes ago.

He bent down smoothly, picking an object up from the ground.

It was the sword.

The sword of the Dark Lord.

The blade reflected the blue light, but it no longer looked evil, as it did in
the hands of the Shadow.  Instead, it was merely a tool, something to be used
in whatever way its wielder wanted it to be.

The man slowly turned, walking to one end of the line of crystals.  Several
minutes later, he stopped, standing in line with the crystals, behind the last
one.

He raised the sword, pointing at the line, and seemed to concentrate.

The blade pulsed slightly, and the first crystal exploded into shards of glass,
annihilating both the prison and the creature within.  The next crystal
followed, and the next, the line of entrapped monsters disappearing in a
holocaust of blue splinters.

A minute later, all of the creatures ever entrapped by Queen Beryl were free,
and the plain stood empty.

The man sheathed the sword across his back, and turned to the portal.

His job there was done.

*	*	*

"Well, it seems we were lucky."  Luna sighed, settling down next to Artemis.
Around the two cats, everyone else was gathered in a circle, tending to their
wounds.  Fortunately, none of them were serious or life threatening, though
several looked bad.

"Yes," Serena greed, "we were, Luna."  Surprisingly, the princess had been able
to withstand the near loss without breaking down, demonstrating unusual
willpower.  It was as if her discovery of ability had given her the courage to
fight her fears, stop herself from being overwhelmed by their near loss. She
looked at Mina.

The other scout's eyes were still filled with tears.  She had refused to tend
to her own wounds, but did not resist when Ami had bandaged her leg.  It had
been almost half an hour since the inexplicable wave of light allowed the
scouts to destroy the creature, and they were beginning to lose hope.  Soon,
the sun would come up and they would have leave before people started to
arrive.

Rei looked up. "I feel something."  Around her, the scouts hid their winces of
pain as they prepared to fight once more, every one of them praying that they
would not have not.

A portal was forming in the air, in the same place that spawned the other two
monsters.  A black figure stepped through slowly, the portal closing behind it
soundlessly.

"I don't believe it."  Darian breathed, putting the rose he had taken out back
into his tuxedo. He had recovered the rose Nakiad had altered before, after it
had dimmed and returned back to normal several minutes before.

The black clad man looked up at the others.

The clothes were the Dark Lord's, as was the sword across his back.  But they
did not carry with it the malevolence that they carried before, instead, they
seemed to be only clothes, only a weapon.

And the shape of the body, and the face, were Nakiad's.

And yet at the same time, there was something in his eyes that screamed that it
was not only Nakiad that was facing him.  A new dimension of age had been added
to his gaze, a new measure of wisdom even greater than before.

There was something strange as well in the figure, something none of the scouts
had ever seen before in the Chosen.

Together, the scouts approached him as he stood waiting, calmly.

Mina was the first to speak, wiping away her tears. "You are Nakiad."

It was not quite a statement, but neither was it a question.  For a moment, he
paused, then nodded. "True.  But I am more than that."

"You've changed."  The others remained silent, watching.

He looked at her, but the expression on his face was not sad. "I am many
people.  I am Guardian, all the Chosen there have ever been, from Nemesis, the
first, to the last.  And I am the Dark Lord, as well, for his essence is deep
within me.  But you are talking to Nakiad, for he is visible and dominant."

Mina looked at him, without understanding.

He smiled, and the expression was clear as it had never been, a true expression
of happiness. Serena suddenly realized what was different about him, a
startling change from before.

In all the time they had known him, he had always been somber, grim, expecting
the worst.  He had always known that he was going to die, losing his love, and
somehow that made it impossible for him to ever truly express joy.

Until now.

His face was unchanged, his eyes wise as if he was the oldest creature alive.

But at the same time there was a new calmness in his eyes, a new relaxation
that had never been there before.

Serena smiled, realizing what it was.

For the first time in his life, Nakiad was at peace.

He looked at Mina. "And I love you," he finished.

Slowly, as if afraid for his frailty, she stepped forward.

And as if they had been separated for a thousand years, they embraced, together
again.

*Epilogue*

"The Dark Lord is part of me, just as all the other people Guardian was are.
The evil is within me, the hatred that was part of the Dark Lord.  But he was
never really evil, he just was never given a choice as to what he could
become."

Nakiad paused, looking at the scouts. "I gave him that.  And he accepted, for
if he had not, I would have never become part of him.  In the end, it was he
who made the crucial decision, and it was because of him that the Universe is
safe."

"For now."

"Now, I will have the darkness within me, but under control."

Artemis looked at him, frowning a little. "How long can you keep that up?"

The man looked back calmly. "For as long as I need to."  He seemed to look
through the cat at something far away, lost in thoughts for a moment.

Mina put her hand on his shoulder. "Come on, let's go home."

Behind her, several scouts groaned, and Nakiad seemed to notice their injuries
for the first time. For a moment, he closed his eyes, seeming to concentrate on
something, then relaxed. "I've called the minivan, it should arrive here in a
few minutes."  No one contested that claim. "I think the medical facilities at
my base are sufficient to deal with those wounds, unless," he turned to the
Princess, "you retain enough power to heal them."

Serena seemed to concentrate for a moment, then sighed, shaking her head.
"Sorry guys, that was the last of it." She smiled a little.

Ami looked at Sailor Moon, smiling a little. "In that case, I think we should
take up Nakiad's offer, don't you think?"

The scouts wholeheartedly agreed, and they turned away from the burnt glade,
slowly making their way toward the exit of the park with each other's support.


Behind them, a portion of the park was devastated by the powers that had been
released there that day.  But overhead, the sun rose gently, casting light over
the damage, making it seem insignificant to the beauty of the rest of the
park.

And with light came hope.

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

*Here ends Choice, the third and final part of The Chosen.*



Well, it's over.
Really.
So why are you continuing to read?
Well....
Ok, if you liked this series, there are several things that you should know.
I'm not yet finished with Nakiad, and I have a few ideas I will probably use as a sequel, a volume 2 of Sailor Moon: Light and Darkness.
But.
Time's expensive, and I don't have a lot of it.  If you really want me to write more, it is really not that hard to drop me a simple note.  I  like comments, they are good for motivation, as are compliments and encouragments.  Suggestions and ideas for things that could happen to the series in the future are very welcome, I could use them.  Basically, there are two reasons a fanfic writer writes.  One is because of the encouragement of having someone read something you wrote.  (the other reason is that a writer has no choice, something inside him makes him write.  at this point, my time pressures are overriding the second reason)  If you've written me about one of the other two parts, you can do it again, telling me what you think of the this one.  I would also like to know what you think of the new way of spacing everything out, whether you like it or hate it.  That will determine whether or not I might go back and redo the others as well.  Or, if everyone hates it, I might!
  put this story in the same format.
Just write.
Really, it's not that hard.
Just go to your e-mail service, 74367.2552@compuserve.com, copy and paste this address, and write a few lines.
That's all there is to it.
And when you e-mail me, you will be automatically placed on my mailing list, for any new information on further parts.  I am also starting the practice of sending everyone who wrote me any new parts that come out. 
<phew>
Anyway, if I recieve enough encouragemnt, I might think of a good story for a
sequel.  If I can't think of one... well, you might think of sending me a message to encourage me.. :-)
Also, if you really want to read something by me, I have written another fanfic on sailor moon.  It's a short satire that has absolutely nothing to do with L&D, but hey, it's better than nothing.  It should be available at http://penicillin.cyber-naut.com/~arteluna/, and you can always e-mail me for it.  If you are nice, and I'm in a good mood, I'll send if over :-).

I guess that's about all.

David 

PS 
Once again, any comments, questions, flames, whatever, should be sent to 74367.2552@compuserve.com.  Anyone who sends me comments or stuff automatically gets informed of any new parts or stories by me, and those parts/stories get mailed to you.  So it's a good thing. :-)  Also, I'm not on the fanfic mailing list, so any C&C that get posted to it about this story will not be seen by me.  Sorry.