Was the pep talk enough to break Jet’s hold on Molly? Read and find out!

Sailor Moon is copyright (c) 1992 Naoko Takeuchi/Kodansha, TOEI Animation. English Language Adaptation (c) 1995 DiC Entertainment

... And Death Shall Have No Dominion
by Bonnie S

Chapter Eighteen - Solaris Comes Up Rosy

* * * * * * * *

Molly and Serena were heading off to school one morning when they noticed a fancy manor house. A limousine pulled up and a handsome guy stepped out. "Ooh, who's the guy in the tuxedo?"

Several girls went into the house. "Oh . . . So what is this place?"

"Oh, don't you know? It's the Rose Finishing School, and those girls are taking the Princess Seminar," Molly offered.

Serena thought a moment. "Huh? Oh yeah. Countess Rose, right? That elegant woman? Oh, she's opened a finishing school?"

"Yeah. She's related to royalty, I hear, and she's gonna make over those girls so that they'll act just like princesses. Isn't that cool?" Molly chuckled. “Thankfully, momma’s giving all of us those kind of lessons.”

A bell rang out in the distance. Both girls shrieked. "AAH! OH NO! WE'RE LATE!"

Luckily for them, their faithful youmas were on hand. All six surrounded the girls and teleported them near the school inconspicuously.

“Thanks, gals!” Molly grinned as she took off running for class.

“You six are real life savers!” Serena chuckled and added on before following Molly.

As their charges rushed into the building four of the youmas took their daily defensive positions around the building, while the other two returned to the finishing school. None of them had like the odd vibrations the building had been giving off. After scanning it closer, they reported to Neflyte - who was working at his and Molly’s business … Stanton International.

Given all of the preliminary research, he didn’t like it either. Without a second’s hesitation, he picked up the phone and scheduled an off campus lunch meeting with the Scouts.

“Looks like the Negaverse is at it again,” Neflyte began once all of the girls were settled about the office. “There’s a finishing school that Molly and Serena went by on their way to school today.”

“Oh yeah, the one ran by Countess Rose. Is that why you called this meeting?” Serena spoke up. She was really starting to blossom in Scout meetings into the leader Neflyte remembered her as in the past.

Neflyte nodded with a smile on his face. “The youmas we assigned to watch over the two of you got bad feelings from the place. Two went back after they saw both of you safely to school and made scans of the building. The readings are far too strong for this to be a coincidence or dark energy residue.”

“Then we’ll just have to get in there and find out what’s going on!” Luna said.

* * * * * * * *

Luna went to the Crown game center and contacted Central Control. "Come in, Central Control. This is Luna. Password: The cat who chases his tail leaves a circular trail."

The scratchy and robotic voice of the mainframe computer came over the speaker as the screen lit up. "Identity verified. What have you got to report, Luna?"

"Seems like I'm just . . . chasing my tail," Luna sighed. Just when everything had turned out perfect (finding the Moon Princess and her Prince at the same time) the Negaverse pounced and tore poor Serena up. Despite her determination to free Darien, the poor kid was still having dreams about him at night.

"A sensible cat like you?" The computer’s compliment made Luna chuckle and blush. "Well thanks, but I don't understand why the Negaverse still has the drop on us when three of the Generals have returned and proven themselves loyal and true to Princess Serena."

"Well yes, they are loyal. However we don’t know everything there is to know about the Negaverse and its minions. Not even the Generals can tell us who might attack us next, but . . .” Suddenly the screen before Luna went on the fritz. Had the Negaverse found her Communications base? "Oh, due to technical difficulties . . .”

"Doh!" The screen cleared to reveal a picture of Artemis seated in front of a control box! "Mmm? What? Artemis?!"

"Ha, ha, ha, ha. Uh . . . this is kind of embarrassing, uh . . . . So, uh . . . how's it shakin', Luna? Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha."

Luna, however, saw red! She had never been so hurt, angry, or embarrassed in her life. She had told him all about her feelings for him and how desperately she had missed him the entire time they had been apart! Not saying who he was before he and Mina had rejoined the group for security reasons … that she could understand. But they had been together for nearly two months now!

"You're the one that's going to be shaking, Artemis. Why didn't you tell me you were Central Control?!"

"Well, uh . . .” Artemis tried hard to come up with some reason. Luna was growing impatient and fast. "That's not an answer!"

The white cat then started to sound like the old Serena because the truth was he didn’t have any excuses to give. "Uh, uh . . . because I guess you never asked, I-I guess."

He thought that was better than saying nothing at all. Nonetheless, he found out that he was wrong. "Oh, give me a break."

For two hours the pair went over the plan the group had come up with at their lunch meeting. As they started to call it a night, Artemis cleared his throat. “Ah, Luna … what I said before, about you being a sensible cat … Um, I meant it.”

“Goodnight Artemis,” Luna snipped as she cut off the transmission on her end. She was still hurt by his deception.

* * * * * * * *

The next afternoon she and Serena were perched in the limb of a tree next to the finishing school. Luna was still irritated about the night before.

Countess Rose read a poem to the girls seated around her for tea. Serena was impressed by the poem, but then let out a major scream. Luna didn’t see anything wrong. "What is it?"

"They've got chocolate cheesecake, my favorite." Serena whined.

"Oh Serena . . .”

Luckily the youmas and the Generals could clearly hear Serena and knew that they weren’t in trouble. That was what Luna thought until they heard a man below her and Serena. "Ahem . . .”

"Young lady, I strongly suggest using the door for a more graceful entry." One of the Countess’ attendants had spotted them in the tree!

But to make it worse both Luna and Serena fell from the tree into the courtyard! It didn’t seem to faze the man. "Now, may I help you, miss?"

"Yes, I hope so. I'd really and truly love to take your Princess Seminar course. Please, please, please, please, please . . .” Serena begged.

Luna wasn’t the only one who wanted to groan at Serena’s choice in timing her flake episode.

"I'm sorry, miss, but we only accept young ladies who are recommended by our members." The guy didn’t seem too impressed with Serena.

"Oh, I see. Um, well . . .” Serena thought fast for some way to get in. She didn’t want to let everyone down her first mission after finding out her royal heritage. She grabbed up Luna and held the cat between her and him. "Ask her. She'll recommend me for double sure."

"A recommendation from a cat is folly." The man looked as if he was within a minute of physically throwing Serena out of the courtyard with Luna following shortly after.

Countess Rose had come out to see what was happening for herself. "What an amusing young lady, Charles. In this instance, I think we can make an exception."

"But . . .”Charles was about to argue, but Serena cut him off. "Oh, thank you."

"It'll be nice to have such a vivacious young lady in my seminar, but there is one condition." Countess Rose smiled.

Serena looked stunned for a moment (remembering the plan was for her to be her old flaky self), and then started rambling. "Oh? A condition? You mean, I'm clumsy. I'm not too good at table manners, or any manners, actually, but hey, outdoor sports, hey. I'm an ace . . . if I don't have to run." Countess Rose took Serena’s nervous blabbering in stride. "Well, no real lady likes to run. Charles, get the discus."

"Yes." After a few moments, he returned with a discus in his hands. That grabbed all three General’s attentions. Why a discus? "Here you are."

"What?" Serena was surprised too.

"The countess greatly enjoys the discus throw, so if you want to join the seminar, you must demonstrate your skill level for her," Charles explained as if it was painfully obvious.

Serena got her confidence back in force with this. "Hey, no problem. This I AM good at."

She readied herself as if she was aiming for an enemy. "Here . . . goes."

The discus left her hand, flew into the open window, skimmed between two of the girls, turned around and returned to Serena’s hand. Seconds later the ribbons that were in those girls' hair snapped and fell out.

"Bravo." Charles seemed impressed at last. As he and the Countess applauded Serena, Rose smiled. "Excellent. You've just been accepted into the Princess Seminar."

Serena couldn’t believe it! She had done it!

* * * * * * * *

While Serena got changed and joined the other girls, the Generals left the youmas to guard the Princess. Zoicite knew when Neflyte was on nerve edge. “She’s not any member of the Negaverse that I remember.”

“That’s because she really is a human named Countess Rose. I remember her from a party one of my suppliers gave about a year ago. But, did either of you recognize the power signature that surrounded her?”

Malachite nodded with a grim look on his face. “Jasper. I figured he would have peeved off Beryl into killing him by now.”

The three quickly teleported to Neflyte’s office at Stanton International, where Molly was on the phone with a supplier. It still amazed the two lower generals just how natural she was to being Neflyte’s business partner.

“Mr. Rostol, I’m sure that you could get more for the pieces from other dealers. Yet, will you be able to expect that new deal to hold? Whenever sales lessened you always knew that my fiancé and I have stood beside you. Yes, I know. Thank you. And you have a good day as well. Goodbye.” Smiling, Molly got off the phone and relaxed back into Neflyte’s chair - not noticing that her husband and friends had teleported into the room.

Neflyte grinned a moment, seeing how apparently easy Molly took to her new life. “So, you talked Rostol into sticking with us?”

His voice made her jump in surprise, which made all three Generals chuckle. “Neflyte! Of course I did, but did you have to spook me like that?”

“No, but you’re cute startled.” Neflyte winked as he sat in his chair and pulled her into his lap.

Zoicite rolled her eyes as her lover did the same in the chair in front of the desk. “And here I thought she was always cute in your eyes.”

“Molly is. In fact …” Malachite broke into Neflyte’s contemplation of Molly. “I think we have serious business to discuss.”

Molly saw the serious looks on their faces. “I guess Serena got into the seminar.”

“Yes. Now we just wait for Jasper to strike.” Neflyte’s muscles tensed beneath her fingers.

Molly knew full well that the assignment was dangerous. “I think that the girls and I should crash it to keep an eye on her.”

“Oh, No you don’t! I came close to losing you once, not again!” Neflyte ordered. He instantly hated any plan that put Molly in any kind of danger since nearly losing her so many times.

“Neflyte, I’m better now. And this is my job.” Seeing that he wasn’t going to move an inch on the subject, Molly threw her ace on the table. “I’m scared to death of losing you! But do you see me saying ‘no, if Neflyte could get hurt there is no way he’s in on the plan’? We both have dangerous jobs, but we are also there for each other and our friends.”

Malachite smiled at the little flame as she took his commander down a few notches. “You know that she’s right, Neflyte. I could do the same with Zoicite, but I don’t because I know that I will do all I can to guard her. Plus, it’s a good plan.”

“Fine! But that doesn’t mean that I have to like it! And it doesn’t mean I can’t help.” Neflyte spoke with a tone that left no room for questioning his decision.

Malachite looked at Zoicite and knew what his friend was feeling. “In that we agree, my friend.”

* * * * * * * *

While the girls at the finishing school practiced their discus throws, Countess Rose watched them from a second story window. Actually she was more specifically watching Serena. "She's very good. Mister Jasper?"

"Maybe she's our girl. Sailor Moon's tiara turns into a discus when she throws it. That'd explain why she's so good." Jasper too was watching Serena from the shadowed side of the window.

"Funny how she can be so exceptional at this but so clumsy at everything else. The girl is most certainly not princess material, but I still find it difficult to believe she would fall into our trap so easily," Countess Rose said.

Jasper however remembered the last report about the Scout leader. "Hmm. I don't. Sailor Moon can be very gullible."

The rest of the classes were slightly boring (as she had gone over most of the it with Queen Jessica), but Serena hunkered down by remembering that she had to see what was really going on in this school. The Scout leader had taken to acting like her usual flaky self at first … to show that she needed the training - though, in reality, Serena and the girls learned more with Molly’s mom than what was covered in this class. She knew that she had to seem like the Sailor Moon that had been around all the time before Neflyte returned to their side.

On the last night, Neflyte had managed to get himself and Malachite in as dancing partners for their ladies. Molly felt more at ease with Neflyte as her partner, it was very much like the nights they would only dance with each other throughout all the parties at the various Palaces. And Zoicite remembered how many parties she wasn’t able to dance with Malachite, but he always made it up to her later that night. Still dancing with him now was more than wonderful for her.

"Stand up straight, young ladies. Gracefully, now. One, two, three. One, two, three. With the music. This is our last class in the Princess Seminar. Those whose shoulders I touch shall graduate," Countess Rose called out to all on the dance floor.

Wisely, Serena had gotten a few lessons from Jessica about how to dance. While she was uncertain of herself, she still danced nicely.

"So, how's it going, Serena?" Raye asked as she and her partner moved next to Serena. Soon the group was together in that area.

"Huh? Raye, you guys are all here?"

Amy smiled as she spoke up next. "Yes. We had to see what this was all about."

"Yeah, Serena," Mina smiled.

Zoicite winked as she and Malachite nodded. “Plus dancing is something you girls would all have fun practicing.”

“We are all here to show you how much we believe in you.” Malachite smiled as he twirled a giggling Zoicite.

Molly chuckled. “And to give you any support you might need.”

Countess Rose began picking girls. "You pass, and you. Congratulations. And you, too."

Eventually all of the Scouts were picked except for Serena - looks like her acting was a little better than she had really intended. So far the seminar was legitimate. "All right. Everyone who passed may go into the drawing room, where I will present the certificates."

Neflyte and Malachite didn’t like the girls going out of their sight but with Zoicite with them, Neflyte felt a little better. The pair guarded their Princess jealously from the girls’ former partners. To make things look better, and keep the young men away from her, Malachite and Neflyte had agreed to take turns dancing with Serena.

The drawing room held statues of young ladies. All were lined up on either side of the room and were of various life sizes. The eerie sight had all of the graduates spooked.

Amy had to fight off the urge to break out her computer and scan the evil energy she felt in the room. "Whoa, what's all this? This is major weird."

"What's with all the mannequins?" Lita asked. As Rose walked into the room she said, "You'll soon find out."

Shutting the doors behind her Countess Rose chuckled. "They're not mannequins at all. They're really young ladies. Lovely posture, hmm?"

"Countess Rose?!" Molly gasped in shock as the Countess turned into a Nega-monster.

Lita said, the shock in her eyes, "Oh no, girls! She's from the Negaverse!"

"Enchanted. I am Polyte Societi, and I'm so pleased to make your acquaintance." The monster introduced herself. Shells that were all over her outfit opened to reveal pearls. A split second later, those pearls shot out green wax that began hitting the girls.

Luckily Zoicite and the other Senshi had dodged the blasts of wax and huddled close together. In a flurry of cherry blossom petals all of them were back in the dancing hall. Neflyte and Malachite rushed to their loves with Serena close on their heels, shocked that Zoicite had risked their cover. However they were able to see on the face of all of the girls that something had forced them into it.

Before the girls could explain, Polyte Societi showed up and turned Charles and another guy into wax figures. "'Scuse me, gentlemen."

Serena whined fearfully, "Ooh, got a bad feeling about this."

"I'm sorry. You didn't pass the Princess Seminar, but that means one of you's actually Sailor Moon, for she'd never pass my course," Polyte Societi explained matter-of-factly.

"Uh, uh, uh, why's that?" Serena tried to play dumb. This would be one bad time for her to get herself caught.

Polyte Societi explained as if the reasons were obvious enough. "Well, Sailor Moon is a clumsy, flaky, scatterbrained doofus who'd never in a million years have what it takes to make a lady."

"So she's clumsy," Mina snapped. She didn’t like having her friend put down by an enemy. Raye came in next, "And she's not always flaky."

"Ooh, OKAY, SO I'M NOT PERFECT, BUT YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE MY FRIENDS!" Serena snapped in a moment of poor judgment, revealing her true identity.

"Ah, so YOU'RE Sailor Moon. Nice meeting you, girls." Again the Nega-monster shot its mannequin wax, but the group scattered and avoided the dangerous goop. That is, until several blasts came too close to the Scouts and the Generals.

"WATCH OUT!" Luna and Artemis cried out as they jumped down from above and clung tightly to the monster’s face. "Oh no! I can't see."

Taking their chance, the group jumped out the window. While the Generals changed into their Moon Kingdom Uniforms for the first time in a battle together, the girls all changed.

"MOON PRISM POWER!"

“MERCURY POWER!”

"MARS POWER!"

"VENUS POWER!"

“JUPITER POWER!”

“SOLARIS POWER!”

Only then did the group notice that Polyte Societi had followed them out (thankfully too late to witness the transformations). She threw the cats off of her with a "Get off me, please."

The group had quickly repositioned themselves to the second floor balcony during that break. The Nega-monster looked around for a moment. "Where did those misfits go?"

"Up here, you polite piece of Negatrash!" Moon shouted. "For all the clumsy girls in the world, I will punish you. I am Sailor Moon!"

All of the rest followed in line introducing themselves.

"We'll triumph over evil . . .” Moon pointed at the monster as the rest finished for her. “. . . and that means YOU!"

"Such a pleasure to finally meet you young ladies and traitors. Now to turn you all into wax; please, take this!" The monster shot, but the group scattered.

Mars prepared a warm welcome. "Not so fast! MARS FIRE IGNITE!"

The wax encased her fire without melting! Venus came up to bat next. "VENUS CRESCENT BEAM SMASH!"

But her attack was encased as well! "She waxed my beams and Mars's fire. How are we gonna stop her?"

"I really don't know, but what do we do if I can't stop her, either?" Moon half asked herself.

"I'll open my own wax museum, starting with you Sailor Scouts and you traitor Generals too," Polyte Societi threatened.

"Oh no! I don't look good in wax," Sailor Moon whimpered.

A rose stopped the monster in her tracks. Tuxedo Mask had come to the rescue? Wasn't he still working for the Negaverse? "Good evening, Polyte Societi."

"Good evening, Prince Darien."

"At last. Tuxedo Mask. You've come to save us," Moon sighed in full hope.

Mars on the other hand still had her lingering doubts. "Don't be so sure."

“Mars is right, Princess. I still sense the Negaverse empowering him,” Neflyte reported grimly. All three Generals stood ready to battle their Prince to protect his love from himself - as well as protecting the Crystal from the Negaverse.

Tuxedo Mask ignored him and the others. "Sailor Moon, I want the Silver Crystal. I promise not to hurt you if you give it to me."

"You're not following Jasper's plan," the monster observed.

But Tuxedo wasn’t paying any attention to the youma. There was something about Moon. Inside he really didn’t want to hurt her, but he want to make his Queen happy at the same time. Why did he care so much for Moon? "Your choice, Sailor Moon."

"Oh no. Tuxedo Mask. But, you can't be. You're not my enemy." Moon refused to see what was before her eyes.

Venus swallowed hard before speaking so her heart would give her pain at seeing their friend so torn away. "You're gonna have to face it, Sailor Moon. The guy's with the Negaverse now. We've lost him. You gotta face it."

"STOP STALLING! HAND IT OVER!" Tuxedo snapped. He didn’t want to hurt the child. God, why did she have to make this so difficult? There was no way she would ever beat the Negaverse. Neflyte was proud when he noticed Solaris take a brave step forward. “Never! And that you can tell Beryl came directly from Sailor Solaris!”

"Tuxedo Mask! Get outta my way!" Jasper shouted when he appeared to see what was hindering his plan.

Tuxedo wasn’t impressed with the wimp Beryl had put in charge of this mission. "No one asked you here."

"I'm handling this myself! You're ruining my plan!" Jasper growled.

Zoicite laughed loud and hard at that. “Crying like a baby already, Jasper? No wonder it took all of us leaving for Beryl to grant you a promotion. You’re pathetic!”

“Shut up, you traitor! You have no say any longer,” Jasper spat. But then he shrieked as Zoicite’s blossoms cut his cheek several times.

Zoicite and the other Generals impressed Tuxedo Mask. They might have turned traitor, but they were worthy adversaries - unlike Jasper and the rest of Beryl’s commanders. "Ha, ha, ha, ha. Jasper, I'm only interested in the crystal, not a battle."

"Is that so?" Jasper spat as he wiped away the trickle of blood that was running down his cheek.

Poor Polyte Societi didn’t know what to do. "Well, uh, isn't it a lovely evening?"

"Destroy Sailor Moon!" Jasper roared.

Tuxedo was a little kinder in his tone of voice, but his expression left no doubt of how serious he was. "No! Get the Crystal!"

Jasper snapped at Darien’s indignation. "NO! SAILOR MOON!"

Neflyte whispered over to Malachite, “Can you imagine you fighting with the prince like that?”

“No, I wouldn’t be so lame as to let it go on like this,” he chuckled back.

Zoicite let her opinion be known just as quietly. “Darling, I wouldn’t have let you use this appallingly wretched idea of a plan. Though you must take pity on the Nega-monster. She looks as if her head is about to spin right off of her shoulders because of those two bickering back and forth.”

And they had. Polyte Societi just wasn’t sure what to do. "I don't know which order to follow. All this confusion is giving me a headache."

Sailor Moon spots an opening to use. "Poor thing, you seem very tired. How about a cup of cocoa to perk you up?"

The Nega-monster didn’t think twice as she sweetly reprimanded Moon. "Why, thank you, but better to say 'Would you like some cocoa?'"

"Ah ha!" Pulling out the Crescent Moon Wand, Moon went about healing the human within the Nega-monster. "MOON HEALING ACTIVATION!"

“Way to go Sailor Moon!” Solaris cried out, as Polyte Societi turned back into Countess Rose. Jasper scooted away, seeing that he was out of his league - as always.

Moon was pumped at this. "Okay. Now that we've got the Countess back to normal, it's time to start doing the same for my dear Tuxedo Mask. MOON HEALING . . .

Seeing what the wand did for the Nega-monster, Tuxedo Mask backed away fast. Besides what was one more day compared to over a thousand years. Moon seemed to handle the Crystal well enough for now. "Sailor Moon, you can keep the Silver Crystal until I see you next time. See ya."

"Oh, what?! Don't go. Oh Tuxedo Mask . . .” But to Sailor Moon’s disappointment he had already disappeared.

Now that Countess Rose was her true self, the mannequins turned back into young ladies. All of them saw a set of familiar silhouettes in the high window. The Sailor Scouts and their Guardian Generals stood waiting for Sailor Moon to come to grips with losing Tuxedo again.

The setback didn’t break her hope. In fact it strengthened Moon’s resolve to free her love. "Tuxedo Mask, I WILL get you back."

* * * * * * * *

The group moved to a park near by, ironically it was the same park where Neflyte had nearly lost his life. This made Solaris draw all the closer to him, she still hadn’t healed enough to face the place.

“Oh, poor sweet Molly’s afraid. Maybe I should get daddy to chase the shadows around you some more, stepdaughter.”

Neflyte growled as Jet walked out of a patch of shade. “Leave her alone Jet!”

The monster only chuckled at the threat. “Or what, you’ll kill me? Not possible, buddy boy, and you know it. Oh Rudy dear, guess who I’ve found for you!”

Solaris gasped slightly but held her ground as her father came forward to wrap Jet in his embrace. She was tired of being ruled over by them and her fears. “Everyone back off. The two of them are mine alone!”

The rest were nervous, but did as their friend ask - Neflyte remaining the closest to Solaris.

“Well, baby girl finally ready to give her daddy what she’s got?” Rudy licked his lips, making all of the ladies cringe and the guys growl.

Solaris stood firm. “Take a good look Negatrash. Because all of this you’re never going to get!”

“Oh, is that so?” Jet smiled and then raised her palm towards Solaris. It took all of Neflyte’s will power not to attack, but he knew that his Molly needed this confrontation. He prayed with all of his heart that she would beat Jet and regain her true strength.

For a few moments nothing happened, and then Jet began to look annoyed. Solaris grinned proudly. “What’s wrong Jet? Got bumped off? Better check with your Dark Energy Provider.”

The Scouts and Generals all chuckled at that. Solaris was going to be okay.

Looking over at Rudolph, Jet grinned as if nothing was wrong. “Darling, teach your little girl to respect me.”

“Whatever you say beautiful. Come here Molly.” Rudolph sent out ribbons of dark energy towards Solaris.

Right at that moment Molly could feel something new building up within her body … a new power and attack. She smacked both of her fists together as her eyes shut tight and yelled out, “SOLARIS …”

“ … SOLAR FLARE … ” she added as she raised her linked fists above her head with the palms facing the sky. “… ERUPT!”

At that moment she opened both of her hands, which enveloped her body with a bright light that became a fiery pillar above her body, before pointing towards Rudolph and Jet. That sent the pillar hurtling straight towards the pair.

Both were hit with the blast, which sent them flying back a few hundred yards. Jet didn’t take kindly to it, but the Scouts and Generals were applauding and cheering.

Neflyte sent to her mind. ‘I knew that you could do it, my love. And you have proven me to be right again.’

Jet was growling in shock, anger, and pain. For the first time in so long she felt real pain! “I WILL MAKE YOU PAY FOR THIS YOU LITTLE BITCH!”

With that the pair was gone. Solaris didn’t care about the threat to her safety, because she had proven to Jet that she was not the wimp Scout! Turning around, she rushed into Neflyte’s arms, giggling at her accomplishment.

“I did it, Neflyte! She has no hold over me any more!”

“I knew that you could do it, Molly. You are too strong to let a piece of gutter trash like Jet take you down.” Forgetting himself in the moment, Neflyte spun around in his happiness with Molly in his arms. Moon and the others all agreed and congratulated Molly. Artemis couldn’t help but give one wisecrack. “You gave her quite a sunburn, Solaris!”

“Nice and crisp by the look of her,” Luna added on with a chuckle. That combination sent the others into tears of laughter.

Amy of course brought up the obvious, “And you’ve found a new power within yourself as well.”

“Yeah, Amy’s right. And it looks like Jet stands no chance of beating you, Molly,” Serena grinned as she clutched her friend tight to her chest for a moment.

“Let’s start making plans to save Darien and take Beryl down!” Molly beamed.

This was the lover Neflyte adored, and he was ready to completely die rather than watch her suffer through any more assaults as they had only just gotten Molly through.

* * * * * * * *

How was that?
Molly is a wiz with Bar-b-que bats on the grill! LOL!!!

* * * * * * * *

return to Index / go to Chapter 19

The Nephrite and Naru Treasury