End of the Millennium
A Xian Shade Production

Author's Notes: Finally, the battle of the Silver Millennium! Things
are looking bad. Can the avatar of Death and Death itself avert the
war? I think we know the answer to that already.

Now then, whoever you are, Mr. or Ms. (or even Mrs.) anonymous
reader, I appreciate that I have a constant reader that comes back
every time I post a new chapter, but really, could a review hurt? Your
presence every time I read brings warm fuzzies, but at the same time
it irritates that I don't 'know' my readers personally. You probably
won't even read this, like everyone else doesn't, so I'll get to the
disclaimer already.  :P

Disclaimer: I do not own any aspects of Sailor Moon or Phantasy Star.
If I did, this would be an anime, or manga, or both. Thanatos, Ares,
Chronos, Aljus, King Marcus, and the worthless one are © Xian Shade
and may not be used without my permission. People failing to follow
this rule have broken Xian's Law #849, paragraph 3, line 2: Don't fuck
with my shit.


The Path of Finding Destiny, Chapter 26:

The two living creatures of destruction from Saturn watched from afar
as the god of war himself struggled in the grip of darkness, a
malicious enormous two-dimensional shadow being.

"-Foul spawn of the profound! You have no idea what you're getting
yourself into!-" Ares roared at the creature, managing to free his
arms from its grip as well as his communicator. "Attention, legion of
Mars and Jupiter, clear a seventy-five million cubit radius from the
monster! My spirit will be with you after this, so fear not, and
continue to fight the good fight in the name of peace, and for the
glory of the Silver Millennium!" his voice came through the
communicator, most didn't understand what he meant by that, but all
obeyed. Unable to crush him, the beast decided to swallow him whole.
"-You're not devouring me as easily as the last three planets! Do you
hear me?! I am the perfect soldier! I am carnage given form! I am the
destroyer of cities, countries, and worlds!-"

"-I-AM-WAR!-"

As it ignored his shouts, it also ignored the red aura that was
growing in its hand, Thanatos observing Ares' hand movements with
horror. "-ARES, NO!-"

'-Do not fear, big brother... this being must be stopped, because even
father's crystal cannot complete such a task. I'm taking this thing
with me to the cauldron of darkness.-' Thanatos heard Ares' calm and
collected  voicethoughts. '-Tell Reianna I am sorry... I don't think
I'll be rejoining her for the dance.-' his hands' movement suddenly
stopped as it was about to close its mouth over him.

"~SUPERNOVA-STOOOOOORRRRRRRMM!~"

With a cry of triumph, a fiery blast erupted from Ares like an
explosion and swirled around the creature, its light output growing to
rival that of the sun, becoming too much for the defending armies to
even look at, and Thanatos shielded the Saturnian princess from the
blinding light behind his cloak as the massive flame attack enveloped
their foe and swirled about. When their vision cleared and the fiery
spell dissipated, there was no sign of their leader, and
unfortunately, the dark entity was unscathed.

--------------------------------------------------------------

What do you do when the man who controls all war dies in the middle of
one?

If his body were still intact, Thanatos knew he could help his brother
Ares recover. But something of this nature was just impossible to fix.
He was gone. Totally and completely gone. His physical body was ash.

Never had he thought it possible for a child of destiny to die.
Certainly, he knew all things COULD die, but he hardly believed Ares
would ever meet his destroyer. The man was a juggernaut.

Apparently, so was his opponent.

The warriors of Jupiter and Mars had rejoined the fray, raging and
hacking at the monster all around its shadow-like body. Was this the
darkness Noah spoke of? It did not appear to be like the creature Falz
at all. Its massive hands swiped at the marching warriors, knocking
hordes of heavily trained and battle-ready men and women aside with
each strike, spiralling out of control into outer space, swatting at
them as though they were the merest of insects. What was worse, the
fighter's weapons didn't appear do be doing any noticeable damage.
After all, how do you fight a shadow?

With light.

Thanatos had only transported himself to the battlefield, not really
knowing where he was until he saw the world below. They were nowhere
near Pluto: they were floating near Venus, which was in close orbit to
Earth's moon at that time. Thousands of powerful beams of light energy
streaked up from the surface, piercing and striking the monstrous
shadow at numerous points. The Venusians were launching their
offensive strike from upon the planet, every person that was able was
firing at the creature from the surface. An inhuman screech bellowed
from the creature as it launched energy back at Venus, the surface
going yellow from an explosion of lava from within the planet.

"You there, Solider!" Thanatos shouted to a general of Mars who had
fallen back to direct his troops.

He turned about. "Thanatos! Lord Ares is dead! What can we do now?!"

"You can do what you've been trained to do all your life, soldier!
Lead these troops! Now, what has happened here?! You were supposed to
hold the enemy at Pluto!"

"This thing is unstoppable! Nothing we do seems to hurt it! What's
worse, its pushed us back to this point, and we can't get around it to
attack the troops behind! They're using this thing as a shield! It
completely enveloped Neptune, Uranus, and Saturn! All three worlds are
just gone, nothing but wild atmosphere now!"

"...no..." Thanatos growled, not understanding why he couldn't feel
the spirits of soldiers that were destroyed in the war. He looked over
to the princess, who stared blankly at this 'invincible shadow', and
knew what she was thinking... she knew what she had to do already, he
could tell from the look in her eyes.... a look of determination. If
that thing were able to withstand Ares' sacrificial attack, it would
be able to defeat him as well. If he let out most of his energy to
destroy it, he would be tapped out and unable to fight... the rest of
the galaxy's forces would have to do battle with the remaining army
behind. But if Saturn's Princess did it, he could stop most of the
army himself, and the remaining troops could handle whatever got by
him. "Princess, I won't ask you to stop this thing, but the energies
within you and your glaive can shred this monstrosity. I know we
haven't been close this past decade, but you were given these powers
for a reason, whether we were meant to know that reason or not. If
there's a fate we can make, it can be done through you. I believe in
you to do the right thing." he placed his hand on her shoulder,
looking down to her with the eyes of a man who was sending his own
child to her death. "Just know that even though we were not together
long... I am proud of you, and I am sorry for hurting your father."

Looking up to him for a moment of brief wonder, it appeared there was
emotion flickering in her cold gaze. But as if to refute it, she said
nothing and simply floated away from him, and before the massive
shadow. Instantly, it stopped attacking the other troops and slightly
backed away from the short pale girl. Even an unstoppable entity like
this could recognize its doom when it saw it.

"Get your troops out of there! Get everyone you can to make a stand at
the moon kingdom! NOW!" Thanatos shouted to the general and through
his communicator, and many of the troops retreated even before the
command was given. He turned back to see the princess brandishing her
glaive.

"I may die upon this day to stop you, but stop you I will." she said,
only loud enough for both to hear. "No monster, no matter how
powerful, can escape the power of death itself. I will try to make
this solar system safe, at the cost of my life." She rotated in place,
the glaive moving hand over hand in a spin at different angles, a
symbol tracing in the vaccum in front of her. "Prepare yourself for
oblivion! Death Reborn Revolution!"

Thanatos slid far enough away from the attack to avoid the onslaught,
and he watched as the glaive's edge dropped to her feet to complete
the symbol, its explosive power tore through both creature and
princess, its pieces spreading and scattering from the devastating
attack. Closing his eyes, he muttered one last apology to her
now-drifting soul for asking such a sacrifice. He remembered the move
that Ares once taught him, which he in turn had taught her: the Chaos
Strike. A single move which could segment any opponent into seven
sections. He hadn't anticipated she would amplify her power through
such a move, but it seemed to do well to destroy the gigantic shadow,
and to reveal the baffled army behind. They were untouched by the
blast.

And he froze when he locked eyes with Zoicite.

In both panic and rage, Thanatos slapped his prosthetic arm's
communicator to the moon's signal. "Attention, warriors of the moon!
Your enemy is the royal army of Earth, powered by the forces of
darkness! The monstrous shadow at the head of the army is defeated,
but we face a massive army of darkness, as well as a tremendous dark
force! I will hold them as long as I can! Prepare to defend
yourselves!" He drew forth from the confines of the black space of his
cloak the weapon he never dared use in all the time he'd been in the
system, save for training the princess of Saturn. The deathscythe was
a powerful weapon that was only to be used in dire emergencies. This
was that very time. He could see the bloated, cloudlike version of
Falz floating above the armies. Indeed, it had evolved into something
more horrible than Noah described. Setting a silence wall behind him
to block the moon from stray blasts, he took off towards the army,
zipping between the magical attacks flying at him and deflecting from 
his defensive magic. 'Ares... Chronos... the alliance... all the
people of this system... especially you, Amilia... I won't let them
through without a fight. Tonight my friends, win or lose, death
fights for your lives!' his mind swore, flying into the fray of
monsters with a soul-rending roar, the arc of the blade coming about
and carving a path through the power of darkness.

The generals stayed wisely away, while they ordered droves of monsters
to take down the physical manifestation of death. They fell easily
before his scythe, a sharpened and gleaming destructive force that
sent the lot of them to judgement, slicing through every one of the
horrendous beings, their bodies posing no defense nor hinderance to
its swing. His free hand clenched whenever possible, casting his
strongest gravity spells to crush the armies and snap their bones. If
only he'd learned fire spells from his brother Ares, he could cast a
weaker firestorm that would devour the oxygen from the atmospheric
travel spell the army had cast, and they would all suffocate. In that
event, he could handle the Dark Force that seemed as large as the army
itself. Slashes and energy tore at his cloak, but he didn't care.
'They won't stop me... I'm going to save this solar system even if I
have to do it alone!' Looking above, he realized he had gotten close
enough to strike at the source. The being above. He remembered the
horrible monster Queen Laya of Venus once spoke of, a monster that had
destroyed the rest of their ships, and only theirs had remained when
they stopped it. She called that being 'Dark Force'. It seemed very
similar to the advanced-looking Falz above him.

Thanatos spotted a humanoid woman with long auburn hair and a purple
dress, who would be considered gorgeous were she not also powered by
this darkness and twisted by its power. He saw that she was directing
the monsters to him as well, staying close to the dark force. Perhaps
the mortal betrayer? For a moment his concentration snapped, and his
darker energies lashed out, a whirling vortex carving the surrounding
monsters in two as he flew up to the beauty that seemed to be
directing them all. He had sworn never to take a human's life, but
this had to be done. A look of horror overcame her features whe she
saw death rushing toward her, and she shouted something in a foreign
tongue. Before he reached her he was knocked back and once more
surrounded, but this time his situation was much different.

Seven identical beings danced around him, smiling demon shadows that
cackled and sneered, but did not appear to have physical form, having
two-dimensional bodies. He swung his scythe at the one before him, but
it simply bent backward, avoiding the slice altogether. He swung both
scythe and his fist repeatedly at the shadows all around him, using
every battle skill that Ares had ever taught him, but the creatures
would just bend out of the way, and strike at his blind side whenever
they could. His gravity spells were doing nothing to them either, not
even hindering their attacks. The insidious mocking laughter of one of
the generals grated at his nerves as he battled. He'd hoped it was
Zoicite so he could make good on his promise to reduce the man to
his base energies... but this was taking too much out of him. He could
feel himself weakening, but knew he had to be strong, to stop the
armies, to save his love. Another blow sent a reeling shock to his
brain: his mortal body just suffered back trauma. He would have
trouble walking when he was mortal again. Struck so hard that his
mortal body could feel it? Spinning about to meet his attacker,
realization appeared in his eyes, and he stopped slicing at the seven
shadows when they stepped away, looking in horror at their faces.

Each one bore the face of the very being the princess of Saturn
sacrificed herself to destroy.

His mind wrapped everything together. The chaos strike, powered by her
death reborn revolution, shredded the monster into seven... each of
those seven were now battling him. It was no wonder the armies weren't
able to hurt the being: even the power of death couldn't destroy it!
What 'was' this monstrosity? But he remembered: they could be hurt.
Recalling its roar of pain when struck from Venus' blasts, he
concentrated on the complex molecular pattern of light energy, firing
a concentrated blast that exploded upon contact of one of their heads.
The shadow monster held its head, no longer smiling, a warbled look in
its eyes. He then realized why they'd stopped attacking, and why they
were smiling that evil smile. The seven shadow warriors were binding
him physically. He could already begin to see the faint outline of the
crystal seal forming around him, and he swung his scythe toward the
unmoving shadow before him, only to have it rebound.

He was too late.

When the seal was complete, the shadows dispersed, and the army moved
on to Earth's moon, but the 'Dark Force' stayed.

"-Greetings, Thanatos. I am Metallia. The Profound Darkness bids you
greeting as well.-" it spoke in the language his family used, and he
seemed baffled by its greeting.

'My mother... what does she have to do with this...?' he thought.
"-Why are you doing this? Why do you still fight creatures of light
when the war is over!?-"

"-You were never meant to understand the concept of war. Ares was born
with that gift. The war is only over when there is but one victor.
Creatures of light and darkness are still alive, therefore the war is
not over.-"

"-Then why did you have Ares destroyed? And Chronos? Why don't you
have them destroy me, too?!-" He shouted, bright green tears streaming
down his white mask. He was upset and angry. Not just at his mother,
but at himself. He'd sent the young princess of Saturn to her death,
and the rest of the people were going to die anyway. His only
remaining brother was Noah, and there was no guarantee he was alive
either. They hadn't spoken since they left for this system.

"-Ares was in our way, and doing us harm, when he should have been
impartial. Your brother Chronos was never found. As for you... mother
wanted to set an example for you. You should know better than to take
sides. You and Ares took after her, yet you choose to serve creatures
of light. As for you, she told us to instruct you in the ways of pain,
both physical and emotional. All four of you chose mates that were
creatures of light. At least your cowardly brothers Noah and Chronos
had enough sense to hide like the creatures of light they protect.-"

Thanatos rammed his metal fist against the sealed crystal with all his
might, but only made a small chip in its faceted surface. Apparently,
there were a few things in the universe even stronger than Laconia.
"-You even THINK about harming these people, and I will hunt down
every last vestige of your kind and wipe them from this universe!-"

"-Fool. I needn't think about it. It is already being done. Suffer in
your prison like your mother does, powerless to help your 'friends'.-"
the cloudlike monstrosity sneered and shunted down to the battle on
the moon, the power of tandle erupting from its bloated, cancerous
body, shredding the surface of the planet and its structures. Thanatos
pushed and pounded with all his might, but knew that there would be no
way to get there in time from within his prison. The seal was too
complete to move out as a mist, and his cloak couldn't pass through
the crystal if he phased out, or if he stepped into the dark space.
There wasn't even enough room to swing his scythe and open a rift into
Chronos' dimension of time to travel back out. He shook visibly as he
pounded at the crystal. He was going to lose them. He was going to
lose them all. The alliance. The worlds. His brothers. His friends.

Amilia.

A roar of rage echoed within the sphere of crystal, his scream shaking
and vibrating the atoms of the condensed crystal, much like it had in
the castle of Mercury, a power that creatures of darkness were infused
with, but still it refused to budge or crack. He screamed for so long
that he hadn't realized his prison had shattered from a massive
explosion of light energy from Earth's moon.

Seeing the blast of light dissipate, he had no inclination to move. He
feared what he'd find on the surface. It could have only been the
power of the moon's silver crystal, for light energy of that magnitude
wasn't capable from a normal creature of light, and certainly Chronos
wasn't capable of that either. Metallia was nowhere to be seen, and
the surface looked still from his vantage point. The battle was indeed
over. It had to be. Half the planetoid where the blast occurred was
now charred black.

But when he remembered that the darkness' greatest warrior had even
managed to evade destruction through his power, he sped off to the
moon. He had to be sure. Had to MAKE IT over.

------------------------------------------------------------------

How tragic to be a survivor to that massacre! Will he find nothing on
the surface, or perhaps the queen? What will Thanatos do now that he
has nothing?