Beryl had planned it perfectly, right down to the last detail. She was a woman of spontaneity and passion, but something within her sensed impending doom. And above all else, she longed for victory. She knew her enemies and her allies, and knew how she would ensure her triumph.
Her timing needed to be perfect. She watched the cycle of the moon with a hawk's eye, and recorded her own cycles with equal precision. It was only when she was sure, when she knew that there could be no other outcome, that she called upon him.
Her dark Terran Prince leaned in her doorway as casually as he could with her lying nude on her bed. "I should have known this wasn't a social call."
She sniffed, tossing her ruby red hair over her bare shoulder. "As if I have time for such frivolity."
Endymion raised a brow, amused. "But you have time for sex?"
Beryl leaned back on her pillows, arching her back subtly to make her chest more pronounced. She chuckled throatily when she saw him swallow. "You consider sex a frivolity?"
He shrugged. "I wouldn't know."
Beryl had no patience for subtleties. She felt no shame when she spread her legs wide, splaying herself out like a common whore. She lowered her voice and queried, "Care to find out?"
It was amazing how little prompting men needed for such things.
He had not been a gentle lover, nor a particularly good one, but that didn't matter. After all, it wasn't really the act she was concerned with. It was the result.
Beryl had raked her nails down Endymion's blood, spilling his blood on to her sheets. It was enough to set him off, shuddering and shaking above her, spilling his seed into her. She would not climax that night or any other night she chose to spend with him. It mattered not. She knew within days that her goal had been achieved.
The Sailor Senshi came hunting for their deaths at D-point soon after. Jupiter, Mercury, Venus, and Mars had been easy to kill, but Sailor Moon made it through by good fortune. Beryl had just gotten Endymion back under her sway after a minor mishap; the spell was fresh and a little rushed. That was a mistake on her part.
Losing him again had been surprisingly easy. The Ginzuishou had been useless against her magicks, inexperienced and weak as the Moon Princess was. But a mere locket, a trinket, a cheap souvenir of a long dead love was enough to eradicate her spells entirely.
Beryl had wanted to kill them then. She had nearly conjured the spear when she remembered her plan. She stood stock still, silently fuming as the Prince struggled to his feet, his arms around his precious Princess.
"Beryl," he addressed her informally, making her wonder how much he remembered of his time in the Dark Kingdom or if he was that disrespectful. "You have done the Earth and the Moon a disservice in your misdeeds. I have seen you slay the Sailor Senshi, and I have been victim of your binding magick for far too long." He drew his sword, pointing it in her direction, though he was too far away to do any damage. "Lay your arms down, and your death will be swift."
Beryl merely smiled.
"Slay me however you wish, Endymion," Beryl said. "Just know that when you do, you will be killing the mother of your unborn child."
Endymion seemed briefly put off by this information, blushing green. She knew then that he did remember their nights and looked on them with nothing but shame and revulsion. It insulted her and nearly made her reconsider. But he had shaken it off, preparing to charge and calling, “Liar!”
Then the princess, her arch-nemesis, stopped him.
“Mamoru!” she cried, her high voice choked with sickness and tears. “You can’t!”
Endymion was filled with consternation and was unable to meet her gaze. Beryl could see why. It was so pained from what she had already endured and so tortured with what she was going through at that moment, it must have been terrible for him to look at. Beryl thought it looked quite beautiful, though not so beautiful as if they had been empty of all life.
“She’s--" he began.
“But what if she isn’t?” Sailor Moon asked, swallowing what may have been bile. “If you did… Then there’s a chance--"
“No!” he shouted, covering his ears, screwing his eyes shut, and letting his princess know what he had done. “No, it can’t be! It can’t be true!”
Sailor Moon looked away from him, turning to face Beryl. The woman who had killed her friends. The queen who had tried to destroy the world. The peasant who had destroyed her kingdom so many centuries before. Her ultimate enemy.
“I won’t let you kill her,” Sailor Moon said resolutely.
Endymion looked up in shock. “What?! You can’t just--"
“We’ll keep her,” Sailor Moon insisted, turning away from both of them, unable to look at Endymion’s disgust or Beryl’s amusement. “We have no choice but to keep her.”
And so they did.
Sailor Moon sealed away Beryl’s powers, nearly killing herself in the process. The threesome remained at D-point for several days until Sailor Moon was able to transport them back to Tokyo under her own power. There she informed the proper authorities of the deaths of the other four, personally apologizing to their families. She was slapped in the face more than once. That left only Metallia to deal with, and that was a force Sailor Moon could not deal with on her own. Artemis was of no help in this matter, but Luna was able to hold it together long enough to promise that if there were possible allies, she would find them.
But Beryl knew that she would not be able to hear the end of that story. Locked away in a mental asylum, cut off from her magick, and most often strapped to a bed, she knew that she would not live long. She had just enough strength to carry her baby to term, but no more than that. She supposed she should have been more furious with this outcome. But seeing the torture in Serenity’s eyes every time she visited Beryl, which was often, was enough to placate her.
Another comfort was the baby she carried in her womb. She knew that Endymion and Serenity planned to raise the baby as their own or as some relative as soon as it was born. Endymion had been there only once, just long enough to tell her that he will not allow her to poison the baby anymore than she already has by sharing blood with it. Beryl did not respond at all, for by then she had already known that she would have no choice in how the baby was raised. She sometimes thought Serenity knew of her impending doom. She had a tendency to grab Beryl’s hand suddenly. It burned and made her writhe, but Serenity didn’t seem to care about the pain it caused Beryl.
Her return did not go as she had planned. She had lost all her Shitennou, the princess still lived, and she was in no position of absolute power. But she had not lost. The guardians were dead and Metallia still breathed somewhere in D-point, waiting for some other lost soul to take up the torch. And Beryl knew that someday, someone would come along and take up the banner for the Dark Kingdom.
After all, she had already named her child Adauchi, for vengeance.
