Part 7 Battle of the Band!

"Are you getting jittery, Nephlyte?" Jadeite asked, putting a hand on the shoulder of the fellow ex-general. He jumped.

"No, not at all," Nephlyte replied, his teeth chattering.

"How do I look, Mina?" Jadeite asked his girlfriend. She giggled, taking in his collarless suit and new Beatle cut.

"Absolutely adorable," she told him, kissing his cheek. Jadeite looked like he was about to melt.

"Oh, cut it out, you two!" Nephlyte shouted. "M...M...Molly?"

Molly strode into the backstage area. "I just wanted to check on everything."

"Molly, how do I look?"

"The Bee Gees would be jealous. How long did it take you to squeeze into those pants, Nephlyte?"

"Do you need any help getting that drumset set up, sweetikins? You look tired," Malachite told his wife. All of a sudden Zoisite was in his face.

"Tired does not even begin to describe the way I feel!" she screamed. "You try carrying around 10 pounds of kicking 'fun' on your stomach and see how energetic you are!"

Malachite winced. "I'll be right there to help you, Zoey-chan."

"Hey...guys!" Jake didn't look quite as spaced out as usual as he ducked through the curtains onto the stage. "Yo, the kids are showing up! It's about time to get this show on the road!"

"I...ah...don't think we're quite ready yet," Nephlyte replied, as he and Mina attempted to rescue Jadeite from the tangle of cords he'd managed to find his way into.

"Huh? Ready for what?" Jake said, looking around. The entire Negaverse band got sweatdrops, and Kate appeared to drag her brother away, whispering soothingly. Her hair was pink today.

"Oh, Darien, this dance is going to be absolutely wonderful!" Serena gushed, clinging to her boyfriend's arm. She was wearing a pink party dress with enough frills and ruffles to scare away Rini. Well, maybe not that bad....

"Uh...yeah," Darien replied. He was dressed in his tux, but without mask, cape, or hat--he'd considered wearing the mask, but he'd already been seen with Serena enough that there was no point in hiding his identity anymore. But one good thing about being Tuxedo Mask was that he never needed to go shopping for formal wear.

The two of them stepped out of Darien's car, followed by the debonair pair of Greg and Ami. Greg's surprise return to make his second cameo in this story was enough to make Ami relent and attend the dance, and she looked quite pretty in a long, silky blue dress that came to her ankles, with a slit up the side.

"It was really very nice of you to give us a ride to the dance, Darien," Ami said politely.

"Hey, no problem," Darien said with an uncomfortable smile, his hand behind his head. I'm the only one of Serena's friends with a driver's license...hey, why not make me the official chauffeur of the Sailor Scouts? Next out of the car were Lita and Ken. Lita was wearing the green dress she had admired at the mall, and Ken wore a dress shirt and tie with a pair of khakis, and carried something in his right hand.

"The weather is perfect. Why are you carrying an umbrella?" Lita wondered.

"If there's one thing you've taught me, Lita, it's that one must always be prepared," Ken replied, rolling his eyes a bit. Lita giggled.

"Oh, Ken, you're so romantic!"

"Hey, you finally made it!" Mina ran out to meet them. She hobbled a bit in the narrow skirt of her long orange dress, and the spike heels she wore didn't look very comfortable either, but she was still grinning with a cheerfulness that only Mina could accomplish. "You all look very nice--Lita, that dress is even passable on you." A hint of iciness crept into her voice, but she banished it quickly. Lita rolled her eyes.

"Why are you here so early?" wondered Serena.

"I've been doing stage crew." She winked. "I hope you're all ready for the concert of the century!"

Darien winced. "If it's anything like the practicing of the century, I think I'd better just go home now."

"Has anyone seen Raye?" Ami asked. "I thought she was coming..."

"I'm sure she'll be here soon," Lita replied, looking around. "Oh well, let's get in while the refreshments are hot!"

"FOOD!" Serena dashed in, dragging Darien behind her.

Little do they know they are being watched, by, not one, but two malignant forces!

"Oh, Steveite, this is going to be such a magical night. Look at all the stars--the crescent moon--not a cloud in sight." Klausite sighed in bliss. "It's wonderful."

"Don't forget we're here on business," Steveite replied. "Let's just get this done with quick, and we'll have time for a date after." He winked, and Klausite smiled back.

"Yeah. But where could those sailors be? The only people here are junior high school students," he said. Steveite let out an exasperated sigh.

"Did it ever occur to you, my dear Klausite, that Sailor Moon and her pals just might actually be junior high school students?"

The blank look on Klausite's face was answer enough.

In another shadowy corner, Mellotron and Garth waited. "We hope that you've set up everything correctly," Mellotron said.

"Everything's ready to go," Garth replied. "A flip of this here switch," he said, indicating a switch on an amp that was connected to his guitar, "and we override the school's speaker system with waves of Nega-energy! Those Sailor Scouts won't know what hit 'em!" Before the two villains could indulge in too much maniacal laughter, though, they were interrupted by the sound of screeching tires, as a black sports car swerved into the parking lot. A dead silence fell over the school.

"To protect the world from devastation," a voice said out of nowhere. "Whoops! Wrong intro."

The doors of the car opened and shut, and two figures stepped out, the darkness hiding their identities, other than that one was considerably taller than the other, and one seemed to be male, and the other female, if their voices were any indication. They stepped in front of the headlights, as if they were spotlights, and struck silhouetted poses. In the distance, someone giggled.

The smaller of the two shot this person a glare, and shook her long black hair back over her shoulder. The taller looked at the shorter over his sunglasses, and the shorter gave a nod.

"You're ready?" she asked.

The taller one laughed. "The question is, is Crossroads Junior high ready for us?!"

And then all the lights in the parking lot came on, spoiling the effect. Rei and the still-blond Chad stood there, grinning a bit sheepishly. They were both dressed in black, with sunglasses, and looked like they had walked right out of a movie.

"Are you protecting us from the scum of the universe?" someone wondered.

"Hey! Ami and Greg have disappeared!" Lita announced.

Mina grinned and winked. "Those two!"

"Let's go in," Rei muttered, dragging Chad and looking rather upset after her plans had been foiled. After all that rehearsing…

Inside the school gym the former generals seemed to finally be getting their act together. Jadeite plugged in the final microphone and grinned. "Testing," he said. "John, Paul, George, Ringo. Testing."

"Does he have to do the cheesy accent?" Zoisite muttered to Malachite.

"Whaddaya mean, cheesy?" Malachite replied with a British accent that was even worse than Jed's. Zoisite clapped a hand to her forehead—and felt her baby moving. It seemed to be feeling strange today…

"Hey, you're a great crowd." All of a sudden, Jadeite's feet were surrounded by screaming adolescent girls. He grinned—then saw the look Mina had aimed at him, and gulped. "Um…Are you all ready to dance?"

He was met by resounding applause and more shrieks from the girls around him.

"We love you, Jed!" someone yelled. Another girl swooned, and they poured punch on her head to revive her.

"Um….Zoisite?" Jadeite blushed and looked back to the drummer. She nodded.

"A one, two, one two three four!" she counted with her drumsticks, then started playing.

[Hear Battle of the Band]

She started with an Eastern, Indian-type song, but Nephlyte soon tired of it. "What this dance needs is some real music!" he shouted, and started some disco. The dancers all looked at each other strangely after this abrupt change of beat, but soon caught on.

"Disco's not what they need! We need some good old-fashioned Rock'n'Roll!" He struck up a more Beatly beat, playing his accordion like a madman. Malachite kicked the cord from his amp and played some chords on his piano. It sounded like "Imagine" at first, but went beyond that. The room fell silent, listening to him.

After he'd played through it once, Zoisite joined in, then Nephlyte, and finally Jadeite, singing because his amp was unplugged. He wiped a tear from his eye when it was done.

"Malachite, that was beautiful," Jed said.

Then the amps gave off a loud blast.

"Did you do that?" Nephlyte said, looking accusingly at Zoisite. She shook her head and shrugged.

Then the screaming began. Rei groaned. "Looks like we've got company!" she cried out.

Garth and Mellotron ran in one door, wearing big fuzzy earmuffs to protect themselves from the evil music. Klausite and Steveite came in another door, with some big weapon-type thing they both had to carry.

"How was this thingie supposed to work again?" Steveite asked.

"What? I thought you knew!" Klausite shouted back.

"We're surrounded!" Mina shrieked.

"Scouts, transform!" Serena shouted. "Moon Prism Power!"

"Mars Power!"

"Jupiter Power!"

"Venus Power!"

"Where's Sailor Mercury?" wondered Sailor Moon.

"She's still gone somewhere with Greg," replied Sailor Jupiter.

"Well, we'll just have to fight without her. Stand back, nega-trash, cause the Sailor Scouts are here!" Sailor Moon announced.

"So glad you girls could make it," Mellotron replied. "But don't even bother trying. We're much too powerful for you!"

"Yeah right!" Sailor Mars replied. "Try this on for size! Mars fire ignite!"

The fire stopped just inches away from Mellotron and Garth. "Why did it stop?" Mars gasped.

"The wall of sound is too powerful for your crummy fire!" Garth drawled.

"I'll take care of the rest of the negatrash!" Sailor Venus replied. "Venus crescent beam smash!" It went straight for Klausite and Steveite.

"I'll finish 'em off!" Jupiter said.

"No, wait!" Klausite replied. "Just listen to me for a minute. I've been thinking…Steveite and I never really functioned all that well as enemies anyway. We'd be much happier on a date than causing you trouble, and I don't feel like being blown away, so, well, Steveite?"

"Live and let live?" Steveite finished.

"Sounds good to me, honey." They ran. "I know a really good restaurant…."

The scouts exchanged looks.

Malachite looked to Nephlyte. "Power chords?"

"Smooth groove, Malachite!" He struck a chord on the guitar that made the evil music wane, but only for a moment. It came back stronger than before. "Any more bright ideas?"

"Everyone! We need to sing!" Jadeite announced. "Um….but what?"

Who first started belting it out we'll never know for sure, but it sounded an awful lot like Darien. "In the town where I was born lived a man who went to sea. And he told us of his life in a Yellow Submarine!"

"WE ALL LIVE IN A YELLOW SUBMARINE, YELLOW SUBMARINE, YELLOW SUBMARINE…" The walls shook with its strains, until the evil amps exploded.

"You're not singing, Zoisite!" scolded Jed.

"That's because I'm going into labor, dumbass!" she screamed back. Malachite gasped, swept her up, and they rushed to the hospital.

"We all live in a yellow submarine yellow submarine…." Mellotron and Garth sang, their faces blank.

"Woo, all that singing made me thirsty. And I think that Chad spiked the punch," announced Darien. Chad grinned and kicked a bottle under the refreshments table. "I'm going out to the drinking fountain."

He walked out into the hallway and saw…

"Ami and Greg!"

They grinned sheepishly. "We simply had to keep up with our studies," Ami said without apology, not looking up from the book she was reading. "Did something happen in there?"

Epilogue

"Congratulations, Malachite. You're a father." The doctor shook his hand. "Been enjoying our free coffee, I see."

Malachite nodded, his teeth chattering. "V-v-very m-m-much, th-thank you."

"Would you like to see your little girl?"

"Y-y-yes." He followed the doctor into the delivery room, where a radiant and exhausted-looking Zoisite cradled something wrapped in a blanket in her arms.

"Isn't she adorable?" she asked. "Do you want to hold her?"

"She won't break or anything?" he asked as the baby was laid in his arms. The blanket fell away from her hair to reveal a covering of mint-green curls. "Green hair! Yes!"

"Honey, look." Zoisite pointed to the baby's ears.

"She's got ears! Wow!"

"No, you see…" She showed him the two little spots of gold hair, each right above one of her ears, perfectly placed to be worn like Zoisite's.

"Oh, no…"

"What will we call her?" Zoisite asked.

"What about Dacite?" Malachite suggested.

"Dacite. I like it." Zoisite smiled, and Dacite yawned and opened green eyes.

"Dacite…" Malachite repeated softly. "Dacite, you are going to lead an interesting life, indeed!"

The End