*Theme song: Never Surrender, by Stan Bush*

Tal Rasha placed the Viper Amulet atop the Staff of Kings. He then carefully placed the staff within the top of the Horadric Cube. Surprisingly enough, despite the fact that the staff was dimensionally longer than the box, the staff continued to go downwards into the Horadric Cube. After it descended far enough, Tal Rasha closed the lid of the cube and waited a moment. The inscriptions upon the cube, written in ancient Horadric, glowed briefly, and then faded. Tal Rasha slowly opened the lid of the box and reached inside, pulling out of it a staff nearly the size of Sailor Angel's. It was made of a thin metal pole and a lantern-like top with a golden jewel inscribed into it.

Angel: It's beautiful.

Tal Rasha: And it is your ticket into the Canyon of the Magi and to Duriel. I must warn you, Titans: do not take him lightly. Unlike your last battle with him, he now has the power of the Eternal on his side! Only by separating Andariel and the Eternal that she possessed did Lucy and Davros successfully defeat her. You must implement a similar strategy in this case.

Tyrael: We shall, my friend. Mark my words: within the next twenty-four hours, Duriel shall no longer draw breath from this earth!

Tal Rasha: Brave words, Tyrael. I can only hope they are correct.

Tal Rasha closed his eyes and bowed his head in silence, then slowly released the Horadric Staff from his grasp. The Staff floated in midair, then quickly formed a blue energy vortex behind it. The Staff was immediately sucked into the vortex as heavy winds started blowing within the Arcane Sanctuary.

Moonshine: This is our bus, folks!

Angel: Into the fire, guys!

And so, Sailor Angel, Sailor Moonshine, and Tyrael leapt into the vortex. It quickly closed behind them. Tal Rasha smiled.

Tal Rasha: Good luck, my friends. Not that you'll need it, of course.

Rei: This is NOT what we need right now!

Hotaru: I know. I shouldn't have told him about it.

Rei: It's all right, it's all right. We just need to find a way to save this bill before your boyfriend manages to convince every Senator from here to Great Britain to boycott the bill!

Rei and Hotaru were now meeting in Rei's office. Rei, Chief of Staff at Crystal Tower, was now talking to Hotaru, who had informed Rei of what had happened the previous night with her boyfriend. Rei began to pace back and forth, trying to figure out what to do.

Hotaru: Should we just put up a fight? Try to get the bill passed without the help of a few key Senators?

Rei: Those few key Senators are exactly what we need to win this bill. We need the welfare bill, and I'm not going to allow a bunch of drug lobbyists to beat me down!

Rei suddenly was interrupted by a phone call. She walked back over to her desk and picked up the phone.

Rei: Yeah? No, I haven't been watching. I've got this problem with Hotaru- oh, okay, I'll turn it on.

Rei hung up the phone and grabbed a remote control that was sitting on her desk. She aimed it at the TV in the opposite part of the room from her and flipped it on. The image showed Amara sitting beside the Senator from America, who was practically growling with anger as the two glared at one another. The Senator was a female who wore a beige business suit and had dark brown hair. The two were appearing on the political talk show 'Capitol Beat,' where Amara had been sent to argue over issues of Christianity in the thirtieth century.

Senator: Well, my dear Amara, it's quite obvious to me that you don't believe in any God I pray to!

Amara: Lady, the God you pray to is too busy being indicted for tax fraud!

Hotaru and Rei gasped and exchanged glances.

Rei: Oh, shit!

Angel: As usual, we're surrounded.

Moonshine: Do we have a headcount?

Tyrael: About twelve Slinger Cats...

Angel: Twenty Gargantuan Beasts...

Moonshine: And a dozen or so Skeletons.

Angel: Seems like a pretty light load for us.

And the group was telling the truth with their conversation. The three of them had just walked out of the portal only to be met by an army of demons that surrounded them but took no action in attacking them.

Angel: You know, usually by now, something tries to kill us.

Moonshine: And yet all they're doing is standing there...

Voice: TITANS!

The three turned, their weapons raised, to see who had called to them. A clearing had been made in the demons that had surrounded them. Approaching them now was Duriel. However, he wasn't look all that well. Chunks of his skin appeared to be missing, and the parts of him that were being hit by the sun seemed to be emanating smoke, almost as if they were on fire. His once evil-looking face was drooping, as he needed to support himself on a large tree trunk just to move.

Duriel: They do not attack because I do not command them to do so, which I have no intention of ordering.

Angel: And what, demon, has allowed you to spare our lives a little longer than usual?

Duriel: The process through which Osmoudon and Belial resurrected me was flawed. I'm dying, and there's no way, even with the Eternal's power, to revert my imminent demise. I am going to die.

Moonshine: So you want one last battle before the end? Fine by me.

Duriel: You misunderstand, Sailor Fools. I am giving you the Eternal.

The three stared at Duriel in bewilderment.

Angel: I beg your pardon, but it just sounded like you were going to give us the Eternal.

Duriel: Your ears are quite correct, Sailor. Belial and Osmoudon have finally informed me of their plan with the Eternals. They do not seek their power for personal use. They seek to break the boundaries between Heaven and Hell.

Tyrael: The Lord of Destruction tried this already. He who brings Chaos stopped him.

Duriel: True. But it is not the intent of the Prime Evils to allow the Lord of Chaos to roam freely to destroy, but to shatter the stone entirely. If the World Stone were shattered completely, nothing could stop the mortal plane and hell from merging together. Not even Lucifer.

Angel: And don't demons want the total destruction of mankind? I'm still fuzzy on why you want to help us.

Duriel: Dark as we may be, demons seek not to annihilate the mortal realms, but to conquer them. Osmoudon and Belial are INSANE. As much as we hate to admit it, demons like your plane of existence. And although I hope you all burn in the fires of hell when you die, I give you this gift to stop those madmen.

Duriel tossed the Eternal out of his hands, and it landed in the sand. All of a sudden, Duriel collapsed to the ground, his body suddenly deteriorating at a much faster rate under the hot sun. He chuckled a little as parts of himself burned away.

Duriel: Farewell, Titans! Victory is yours in this fight. Minions, withdraw.

And with that, Duriel burned away into the sand. The demonic forces disbanded quickly afterwards, each heading in different directions. The three remained where they stood, staring down at the Eternal. Angel and Moonshine exchanged glances.

Moonshine: Well, if this isn't a victory, I don't know what is.

Rei: So now we've got ten more things to add to the list of crappy stuff that marks our administration.

Rei sat at her desk along with the Senior Staff of Crystal Tower, which consisted at that moment of Hotaru, Michelle, and Mina. Amara was awaited back at the Tower as she traveled back from her spot on the show Capitol Beat. Everyone was looking down, feeling utterly bad about how the day had turned from hopeful to crappy in a matter of two hours.

Hotaru: We've already got hundreds of outraged citizens demanding apologies and reparations for Amara's comments. She successfully managed to piss of millions of Christians across the globe with her statement.

Michelle: The press is asking me if the Queen is going to fire her.

Rei: Neo-Queen Serenity hasn't decided yet.

Mina: Wait a minute, she's actually thinking about firing her?!

Rei: It's a distinct possibility, especially with the outcry so far.

Hotaru: We're going to have to do our own damage control. We can't show any secularization towards any religious groups right now.

Rei: Doesn't that mean we'll have to call off the Shinto Charity event?

Michelle: Yeah, but if we do, we'll piss of the Shinto community because we're appeasing Christians and not them.

Hotaru snapped her fingers.

Hotaru: I've got it! We can solve two problems at once.

Rei: How?

Hotaru: We get Congress to schedule the vote for the Welfare bill on the same night as the Shinto Charity event, therefore forcing Queen Serenity to stay here and monitor it's progress! At the same time, we manage to win the Welfare vote before the drug lobbyists have an opportunity to show their teeth.

Rei: Okay. Let's get to work people. It's a shame, really. Her majesty was looking forward to that charity event...

To Be Continued...