Author's Note: The title for this chapter is from the theme song to the movie, An Officer and a Gentleman. Those of you reading can kind of think of that song to the end theme of this whole story. The reason I chose this particular song is because it played in the same dream I had years ago that spawned One-Eyed Pete and his castle of the undead.

Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon, nor do I own The King in Yellow by R.W. Chambers or the works of H.P. Lovecraft.

Chapter 13: "Up Where We Belong"

As Minako slowly awoke, she felt the sensation of something pleasantly warm pressed against her body. She soon realized that an arm was wrapped protectively around her, and when she finally opened her eyes she saw Keisuke's sleeping face only inches from her own. Minako quickly blushed, then smiled as she remembered everything that had happened the previous night. She recalled how Keisuke had saved her from falling forever into the clutches of that unspeakable horror, and how they had fully embraced the love they had for one another. After a moment, Minako sat up just slightly and found that they were both somehow back at her hotel room.

"Good morning," a familiar voice spoke. Minako looked and saw that Keisuke had woken up.

"Oh. Hey there," Minako responded as she lay back down. "So, I guess all of that actually happened last night, huh? You were pretty amazing, by the way."

"I did okay. Though in the end I was hardly a match for that creature. If you hadn't stepped in, I might've very well died."

"Actually, I was talking about what we did after the battle."

Keisuke's face turned a deep shade of red. "Oh. Yes, well… you were very good too."

Minako chuckled and gave Keisuke a hard kiss on the lips. Keisuke deepened the kiss and in seconds they were making out. As their tongues once again started to explore one another's mouths, Minako could feel Keisuke's manhood hardening against her crotch. They rolled on the bed until Minako had Keisuke pinned beneath her, and then she broke the kiss and sat up, moaning as Keisuke's rod slid into her. Very slowly, Minako began to rock her hips, while Keisuke's eyes had become totally fixed on her.

As Minako gradually picked up the pace, she grabbed onto the headboard for more leverage. Then suddenly Keisuke grabbed firmly onto Minako's hips and began bucking into her from beneath. Minako's knuckles turned white as her grip on the headboard tightened. Eventually Minako's inner walls began to tighten around Keisuke's rod, and then at last they climaxed in one blissful moment. As they both caught their breath while coming down from their orgasms, they suddenly heard the growling of a cat inside the room.

Both of them looked to see Artemis standing in the open door. His back was arched and his fur was standing on end as he hissed; his glare aimed straight at Keisuke.

"Shit! Artemis! What the hell?" a blushing Minako shouted as she quickly dismounted Keisuke and covered herself with the sheets.

"No way am I just standing by and letting this go on!" Artemis declared. "Mina! What you and this guy may or may not have done last night may have been to save your life, but I can't let this go any further! Now say your goodbyes and tell Keisuke to get dressed and leave! As long as I'm here, I'm not…"

Artemis was cut off when a large pillow hit him in the face. Minako had thrown it out from behind her.

"Out! Get out!" Minako furiously ordered as she pointed at the door. "If you don't leave now, I'm throwing you out the window!"

Artemis opened his mouth to argue, but instead simply grumbled under his breath as he turned and left the room with his tail literally tucked between his legs. Both Minako and Keisuke let out a heavy sigh as he left.

"He's going to be a problem, isn't he?" Keisuke realized.

"Well, he was never one of your biggest fans," Minako admitted. "But he's just going to have to get used to the idea of you and me being together."

"Glad to see you two seem to be doing so well," a familiar voice cut in. Minako and Keisuke looked and saw Hilda sitting in the red chair in the corner of the bedroom in her civilian form, a cup and saucer in her hands and a pleasant smile on her face.

"Hilda!" Keisuke furiously exclaimed as Minako tried to cover herself more. "Just how long have you been sitting there?"

"Just long enough to see you hit mouse breath in the face with a pillow," Hilda answered while taking another sip from her cup.

"Who the hell are you anyway?" Minako asked.

"She's a Sailor Guardian from another planet," Keisuke explained. "Hilda, what're you doing here anyway?"

"I'm only here to inform you that your duty to me has now been finished. You'll notice that the little charm bracelet I put on your wrist to keep you in line is no longer there. You're free to go back to the life you had before that witch, Beryl tricked you into serving her again."

Keisuke looked thoughtfully at his bare wrist. "So… I completed my mission last night. I'm a little surprised though since I didn't actually defeat Hastur."

"Well… actually, that was never your mission." Hilda placed her cup and saucer on the small table next to the chair and tented her fingers. "Keisuke, your mission wasn't to defeat Hastur. It was to bed Sailor Venus, making it so that Hastur could never claim her."

"WHAT?" Minako and Keisuke exclaimed together.

"Hey! I was only acting under orders," Hilda told them as she raised her hands in surrender. "My mistress, Lady Freyja felt that this was the simplest way to thwart Hastur."

"And were you ever going to tell either of us the true nature of this mission I was on?" Keisuke asked.

"Oh hell no! If I had told you both from the start that you had to sleep together in order to foil the intentions of an unspeakable horror from beyond, not only wouldn't you have believed me, you would've told me to go to hell. Besides, the two of you clearly had a lot of baggage to work through before you could get to this point."

"Wait a minute… Hilda, when we first met, you mentioned that the other Shitennou were working with some comrades of yours," Minako recalled. "Do they have the exact same mission as Keisuke did?"

"Um… you know, it's probably best not to worry about what the other Shitennou are doing on mission with my fellow Valkyries," Hilda told them as she got back up. "In fact, maybe I shouldn't have told you about this aspect of the mission at all. Anyway, I actually came here for one more reason, and that's to warn you both that we're still in a dangerous time for your world."

"You mean Hastur wasn't destroyed?" Keisuke asked.

"No. That thing merely retreated back to its world when its plan to bed Sailor Venus failed, but the celestial alignment that allows Hastur to exist on our plane of existence isn't going to end for at least several more weeks. Your world is in the middle of a season of chaos. Hastur might very well come back to simply destroy this planet since it can no longer corrupt it into its own image. But Hastur is not the only malignant entity that we need to worry about."

"Are you saying that there are more… things like whatever the King was?" Minako asked.

Hilda nodded. "They are known on many worlds as the Great Old Ones. These creatures are so powerful that they are essentially deities. As we speak, my fellow Sailor Valkyries and the remaining Shitennou are dealing with the other Old Ones and their minions. At the moment, all we can do is hope to keep them at bay long enough to prevent them from ruining this world."

"Isn't there anything that can totally stop them? I mean Keisuke couldn't even wound Hastur, and I certainly didn't do any better."

Hilda looked thoughtfully out the window of the bedroom. "There is only one power that just might be capable of destroying the Old Ones once and for all. Sailor Moon might be the only being in this galaxy that can get rid of them once and for all. But of course it's only a theory." She turned back to face them both, "In any event, just be ready to fight again, for we've likely not seen the last of the Old Ones or their heralds. I shall take my leave now, but I'm sure we will be meeting again soon. Oh, and Keisuke? I left your things in the other room so you can get dressed."

With that, a blinding flash of silvery light filled the room and forced Keisuke and Minako to shield their eyes. When the light faded, Hilda was gone.

Minako let out a heavy sigh. "Well that was heavy. So we might have to go up against that monster all over again, and against monsters that might be even worse then the King."

"If we do, hopefully we can figure out some other way to defeat them that doesn't involve endangering Sailor Moon or the Prince."

Minako nodded. "Hey, Keisuke… about the other three Shitennou working with these Valkyries of Hilda's… if they're also working with Rei, Mako-chan and Ami, do you really think that…"

"Minako, my three comrades are honorable men. You needn't worry about them taking advantage of your friends in any way."

"Yeah. You're right. Of course… now that I think about it, if we had developed feelings for each other in our past lives, you don't suppose that there was also something going on between your men and the girls… do you?"

Keisuke chuckled a bit. "I'm certain we both would've noticed something if there was."

"Yeah. You're probably right."

Keisuke kissed Minako on the cheek. "I'll get dressed and make us breakfast. You just take a little more time to rest. After all, you've been through a lot."

Minako nodded. "Try not to let Artemis scratch you."

Keisuke then found and put on a bathrobe and exited the bedroom. Minako meanwhile turned onto her side and closed her eyes. There was a lot on Minako's mind at that moment, not just everything that had happened since she first came to the village to do the movie that had been nothing more than a trap, but also on everything that Hilda had just told them both about the Old Ones. It was a lot for her to take in. Eventually though Minako managed to put it all out of her mind and doze off.

It was early in the afternoon as Minako and Keisuke finished packing their bags. In a few minutes, a taxi was to come and take them both back to Japan. After all, there was no longer any reason for them to stay in the village now that the movie they were in had essentially been canceled.

"Well, I think that's everything," Minako declared as she closed her suitcase. "You all squared away too?"

Keisuke nodded. "This journey may be over, but I have a difficult journey of my own ahead of me. I may have back the life I had before Beryl dragged me into her darkness again, but I don't know how I can just walk back into it."

Minako smiled and took his hand. "Don't worry. We'll figure it out. I'm going to help you every step of the way. I'm sure Mamoru will be more than glad to help too. He's going to be thrilled to see you again."

"And I'm eager to see him again as well. Of course… I doubt that all of your other friends will be happy to see me back from the dead." Keisuke looked towards the couch. "I know one friend of yours certainly isn't."

Artemis had been curled up on the back of the couch, and the whole time he had been glaring at Keisuke. Thankfully though, he had been staying silent ever since Minako had hit him with the pillow earlier that morning.

"Well, I certainly don't think Usagi will have a problem with you," Minako assured him. "In fact this'll probably make her day since lately she's been trying to set me up."

Keisuke blinked in surprised. "And just how many of these suitors of hers have you gone out with?"

Minako chuckled. "Relax, every single one of them has been a dud. No reason for you to feel jealous."

"I never said that I was," Keisuke responded before clearing his throat.

Minako rolled her eyes. "Anyway, I'm sure the other girls won't have too much of a problem with you either. And if they do then tough."

"You certainly seem confident about all this."

"Well… not totally. A part of me still worries that our relationship might somehow interfere with our duty to protect Usagi and Mamoru, but I've decided that I'm not going to let that fear rule me anymore."

Keisuke nodded and took Minako's shoulders. "Whatever challenges we have ahead for us, we'll face them together."

Minako smiled, and the two of them leaned in for a light kiss. From his spot on the couch, Artemis began to growl.

"Say one word Artemis, and I'm shoving you in a pet taxi and making you ride to the airport in the trunk," Minako warned.

Artemis merely grumbled something under his breath and turned around on the couch so he wouldn't have to watch them.

Meanwhile, just as Minako and Keisuke were about to kiss again, Minako's phone began to buzz. The blonde quickly got out her phone and saw that she had gotten a text. "Oh! It's from Haruka."

"Haruka?" Keisuke asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Sailor Uranus. I totally forgot. You never met her, did you? You really missed a lot those years you were dead."

"I thought you said that the Sailor Guardian of Planet Uranus was a myth," Keisuke recalled, remembering a conversation from their past lives.

"That's what I thought at the time, but all four guardians of the outer planets were reborn here on Earth too."

"Even the guardian of Saturn? You said that she had something of a horrible reputation, if I remember right."

"Hotaru may have the ability to destroy entire planets, but she's actually a very nice little girl. Anyway, it seems that Haruka and the other Outers rented out a whole mansion in the Tanba Mountains for a few weeks, and she's invited me, Usagi, Mamoru and all the others to spend a few weeks there with them."

"Are you going to attend this gathering?"

"Of course! We both are."

Keisuke blinked in surprise. "Mina. I hardly think I have a place there."

"Nonsense. We both need a vacation after everything that's happened. And this seems like the perfect time for you to meet up with the others. Besides, Mamoru is going to be there too."

"Well then… I suppose it's a good thing I don't have any plans for the foreseeable future."

"Yay! I'm sure this trip is going to turn out great."

Suddenly there was a honking noise coming from outside the open window. Artemis quickly dashed across the room to the window to see what the noise was. "The cab's here."

"Guess it's time to leave then," Minako realized.

With that, the two of them walked out of the hotel room hand in hand, dragging their suitcases behind them. Artemis followed them closely, grumbling a little at the sight of Minako and Keisuke holding hands. The couple totally ignored Artemis though, just as they would ignore anyone else who might object to their relationship. Whatever challenges they had ahead of them, whether it be from the Old Ones or their own friends, Minako and Keisuke were ready to take them head on.

THE END

Afterward: Well, that does it for this story. I'll admit this fanfic probably wasn't my best work. I feel like it might've been better if I knew more about filmmaking and how the film industry works. I also think I might've made Hilda's character a little too harsh. Still, I'm fairly pleased with how this story turned out as a whole. I do wish that this story had gotten a few more reviews, but to those few of you who have been reading and reviewing it, I deeply thank you.

So needless to say, this story is only just the beginning of an entire series I plan to do. I'm of course going to do related stories involving the other Inners and Shitennou. The next story in the series will probably be about Sailor Mars and Jadeite, though that plan's not set in stone just yet. I'm also eventually going to do a related story to all this focusing on Sailor Saturn that ties into all of this.

This story and all the ones I've mentioned are going to have a single sequel tying everything together called: Revenge of the Old Ones

I can't say when that story will happen, but it will happen eventually. So until the next time I do a Sailor Moon story, please review and let me know what you think.