Facets of Kunzite
The Sun has barely woken, the soft grey light of morning filtering in between the heavy black drapes of his bedroom when he opens his eyes before the rest of the world. Normal, he thinks with a frown and shifts to his other side for a change of scenery and his pale grey eyes are greeted with a landscape of hills and valleys more beautiful than any sunrise before it. He has yet to see a better, more beautiful morning and longs to capture this for all time. For once he doesn't get up and begin routine like the robot everyone assumes he is, and props himself up on an elbow lazily to fully absorb the view before him.
The sheets just barely drape over the wide curve of her hip, breasts bared in perfect swells that pucker under the cold flow of the air conditioner. Her waist is small and deeply curved and toned creating soft artistic lines that make him wish he could draw more than a stick figure. Her hair is wild like spilled gold across his pillows, full lips puckered with every slow rise and fall of her chest. She is perfect and no being alive has any right to tell him differently. Of course she's peaceful now as we all are in the deepest realms of dreaming and not the utter whirlwind that calls herself Aino Minako by day. She's all gold against the dull interior of his apartment muddled by the grays and blacks, harsh steel and stone he gravitates toward.
Surprisingly, or not, he's no better than Mamoru in the way of interior design but her colorful clothes dot his floor and he can't help but think that some day soon his house will be draped in color and life and he can't wait. It brings the memories forth of a time far displaced from now when her sunny gold, orange, and red countenance rivaled the pale Kingdom of the Moon she once belonged to. She's always stood out like the brightest star in the sky, his Sun, his Morning Star who absorbs all the dull lifelessness around her and fills it with rebellious light.
Outside looking in, he and Mina wouldn't appear to make sense to a lot of people. Even in the closest circle of their friends there were questions though unsurprising that the former Moon Princess would gleefully point out their oppositions in Silver and Gold with proverbial hearts in her eyes. Khai, or some might know him as Saito, or more recently Kunzite again- is a serious, very accomplished, and sturdy man. Some would say harsh or cold, perhaps too stern. A workaholic. This is a portrait of himself painted time and time again by those who don't know him well and even some that do. Then they see him with Mina who always stuns people with her beauty first, and baffles them with her demeanor.
She's so full of life and love, so warm that others are drawn to her in ways they are repelled from himself who is too wrapped up in his job or duties, present or past, to show any modicum of emotion. To the outsider Mina is scatterbrained, another beautiful blonde who likes to shop, gush over the latest trashy manga, or follow the idol of the hour. She appears far more confident than she really is, she's blunt and speaks before her brain can process what she's saying so she misspeaks often. Truly her brain just has so much to process at any given moment that she comes off as an airhead, certainly not the kind of woman the man he is painted as so often would have the patience for. Sometimes, he'd admit, he doesn't.
Regardless of what people say about him, he defies them now as his lips tug into a slow smile with the barest brush of his hand at the gold fringe around her eyes so he can better see her face. She snuggles into the pillow a little further and her hand shifts to reach for him without success or the faintest hints of waking. Yes, to the onlooker Mina is the embodiment of chaos wrapped in all of the beauty of the Universe while he is looked at as a silent calm, a sturdy wall of a man built for the exact purpose of weathering her storm. It doesn't make a lot of sense to people, and most people don't truly see them, not even their friends.
What they have in common is obvious to most. Their militant devotion to their duties, their tunnel vision on the two royals they've failed more than they're proud of, that they lead respective groups in service of those royals. To everyone else that's it. Duty, that's all they have in common and it's bullshit that they are grossly misunderstood as people. He knows that memories still haunt her the way they haunt him and that the longer they stay together the more night's they'll spend comforting the other because of nightmares. He knows that just behind that trillion watt smile of hers is someone that struggles with PTSD and depression because her life has been so much harder than most people can comprehend. He's the reason for a lot of that trauma. He knows just how brilliant she is, not in a book smart kind of way but she has common sense like no one he's ever met and a strategist and soldier that rival the very best. Her most impressive trait has always been her determination, Aino Minako refuses to give up and she will try and try no matter how many times she fails until she gets it right. He keeps in mind that even though she's determined, failures have weight and Mina is not immune to it.
Khai fingers a lock of her hair, he's basked in the glory of this hair over the expanse of many lives and it's here that he chuckles to himself lightly in recognition. He never questioned anyone when they told him she was different, always shifting and changing like the seasons. They didn't know, not the way he did, that between the two of them she is the steady one, an unchanged Goddess from a time and place unrecorded in human memory. They still regard him as Kunzite which is fine in his mind except he's the one that's changed. He's changed more times than he cares to remember or even think about most days and yet it's always him their friends reach out to when they need some unwaivering, reliable person. She's the last person they call and he has to chuckle to think she'd be a more consistent option.
In their first life, the classic tale of a Moon Princess and Earthen Prince during the days of the Silver Millennium, Kunzite is a cold, harsh man. He's had little joy in his life being thrust into the life of duty and responsibility in his boyhood and he is bloodied in war before most boys are dubbed a man. Before Elysium his lands are fraught with these wars that hardened him, famine and poverty that drove him to be a better King than his father. When he is summoned to Elysium he becomes an even harsher General because he knows love for the first time in his life when he is placed in charge of Endymion. He lives for his duties, takes them too seriously, and refuses to fail his future King.
When he meets Venus for the first time he has no clue how to read her. Only feels betrayed by himself and perhaps his duty to the Prince when he urges to weep and worship her beauty out of pure vanity. A knee jerk reaction to a being so beautiful it burns his eyes to look at her with all her tangible power that even glitters through her playful blue eyes. She is more than forbidden to him, as are the actions of her Princess and his Prince so he finds himself locked in a strange partnership of discretion with Venus. It takes time and the more time that passes Kunzite becomes relentless to know her, he tells himself it's because she's his only company those nights. He doesn't understand in the moment just how dangerous knowing Venus is, how doomed he is to love her more than the waking world around him.
He finds her soul reaching for him, brushing fingers or arms as they walk and talk in ways that wrench his heart open before he has a say. Kunzite decides it's her soul that makes her so beautiful, how she cares more for her Princess than herself and finds that maybe she cares just as much for his Prince with no reason for it. The General becomes utterly entranced by her in the most forbidden of ways in this first life. He should not even be speaking with her let alone kiss her the way he does but Kunzite decides that death is a welcome exchange for the brief moments he's allowed to be with her, a worthy price to pay.
They resist each other, or try at least up until now because orders are orders and they both have duties to tend to. They cannot be sloppy or lax in them or their work to unite Earth to the Silver Millennium will have been in vain. He tells himself he's not working so hard to unite them for the promise of being with her, a lie they both tell themselves. She makes him weak, Venus claims him in an act of defiance of her titles and Kunzite is the first to ever taste her. The fool can't see that it was more an act of love on her part because neither dare to say this aloud. Most of their story remains between them, a secret they acknowledge in present day that speaks in heated or knowing glances instead of words. To others it is mere speculation of their Silver Millennium affair.
Beryl happens. A bile inducing memory that shakes him to the core like no other thought or monster ever had. She is a demon that haunts him still, a darkness within him he is certain lie just beneath his skin. A threat that sometimes seeks to claw its way back out through his pores because he still has her old dark powers that he refuses and seeks to only use the power that is naturally his alone.
The rest is history as they say. Khai catches himself frowning, a dark look that he tells himself isn't him anymore in attempt to suppress the bile churning in his stomach. He remembers best the final moments. How Venus' determination allowed her to deliver him on the blade of her sword, a final act of love he realizes because she fought so hard to reach him through the darkness. Mina would tell you that it was a failure, but in the end it was Venus to lift the veil and claim him in death. The purest form of love.
As though she could feel his descent into the well of painful memories, he catches her brilliant blue eyes as they flutter open and her features spread into a smile that forever takes his breath away. Khai smiles back, accepting the deliverance of her light to bring him back from the darkness that often seeks to claim him back. He watches her from his propped elbow, shifting her hair behind her ear with a gentle, loving caress that trails down over her soft skin. Venus was new to him in that first life that was full of pain and raw love even when he failed to read her. She was always the actress with plastered smiles, iron clad determination and someone who loves with everything that she is, and she is Love Incarnate after all.
Mina shifts to him, taking his palm in her hand and kissing the heel before she presses it to her heart. It's beating rapidly, the first morning in this life she wakes up beside him in a new and scary turn of their relationship. She's still too groggy to sleep, still far earlier than she would normally be awake. The sheets fall from her body as she sits up, pressing him back against the pillows with a gentle gesture of her fingers through his own longer silver hair. He knows she wants to prove her love to him again as she had many times the night before and Khai can only hope he can keep up. She is still Venusian, she still speaks best with her body.
It is here in the silence of the morning, the curtains drawn tight to keep the Sun from stealing her away from him, that she gazes at him with such intensity, that age old determination and passion that allowed the cold Commander to fall in love with her. Mina settles into his lap, reaching between them for the part of him that she wants and kisses him so tenderly that he begins to feel the eternity in her every touch. She moves into him with the grace and prowess of a warrior, she is familiar to him always and he wonders if he is still familiar to her, or if he has changed so much. It is different this morning, today their eyes lock between loud gasps and pants for breath and they don't break until the little death claims them.
He loves her. Khai wants to tell her this but it's still too soon, there's too much to figure out. He figures he will bide his time, enjoy these nights and mornings until one day he bursts with it and cannot breath another breath until she knows that she is still the other half to his soul. He's practically a stranger to her now- certainly not the man he once was so he gives her time and gives in to her kisses and soft exploration of her hands on his skin. Khai knows it rattles her that he smiles so much now, laughs and even teases her. He thinks she might even enjoy it which gives him hope. Hope isn't dangerous for them anymore so he allows it for once. It's heaven to have his Venus again. To belong to her alone while the rest of the world gazes at her longingly, only privy to her chaos when he knows just how very steady she is.
It's been a long weekend so Tuesday as it comes around is far more exhausting than it needed to be. It's dark when Khai finally makes it home after one of the longest days of his life. He's failing to release the tension of the day with each deep exasperated sigh that exits his lungs. The lights are off and he is greeted by the calm silence of his home that people seem to think he enjoys. He scoffs to himself, discarding his suit jacket to the nearby chair and disposing of his fine leather briefcase those same people think is an extension of his arm. He is a private man sure, but those who think he is still the man, that hardened Commander of the Silver Millennium are wrong. He scoffs again because there are those who know nothing of their past and paint the same image of him. Not many people see certain facets of himself because they matter little to the seemingly silent and stoic Khai. He likes his circle small and he reserves that warmer side of himself for certain people. Chances are, those that don't know this side of him never will.
Khai stands in the foyer briefly, allowing his pale grey eyes to slowly adjust to the barely tangible light from the glass doors of his balcony until he can barely make out the shapes and outlines of his furniture in the dark. The silence is eerie. He shivers lightly and turns the lamps on with a casual flick of his finger against the switch. Khai frowns and steps further into the silent room, the sound of his tossed keys hitting the marble counter of the kitchen like thunder in his ears.
Contrary to those tho liked to assume that Khai was less than a silent gargoyle, he would have rather been greeted by the obnoxious sound of K-Pop blaring through his speakers while she is in his kitchen trying to make him dinner and successfully summoning a youma with her disastrous culinary skills instead. Every light in his house would be on, random bits of her clothing- her yellow sundress or bright red underwear would be strewn in random places throughout the house and she'd be dancing around in nothing but one of his shirts, which would no doubt be filthy from whatever she was trying to cook. She'd be so happy to see him that she'd sweep him up in her whirlwinds and pounce on him immediately. She'd jump into his arms, wrapping herself deliciously around him until they were clawing at each other on his couch, distracted enough that whatever terrifying meal she tried to make would burn and he'd have to order take out instead.
This scenario was not the case of course, no flicker of red or gold in sight, it's empty without her and it always has been. Khai flips on the TV for some background noise, stepping toward the bar working the knot of his tie while he pours himself a glass of bourbon. There's some nonsense gossip show on about some idol and he leaves it because it's probably the last channel she watched before she left the other day. He rolls up his sleeves, watching for a moment and realizing he has no clue who the artist they're gossiping about is and rolls his eyes at the teen-like banter of it all.
With drink in hand, he breathes a sigh when he slips through the sliding glass door of his balcony greeted by the crisp breeze of the evening. The gentle ripples of it through his hair remind him of how gentle her fingers can be and it makes him ache for her. They are still new to each other this time and he thinks she looks at him like he has two heads sometimes when one of his very evident differences makes itself known to her. She is still very hesitant with him but no less passionate when the occasion calls for it. The ache only intensifies at the sight of Tokyo Tower and how it lights up the city's skyline, a view that many people envied came with his apartment and he'd sooner gaze longingly at a brick wall for all the memories it brings forth.
Their next life is confusing. Like a bad dream he feels he'll never wake up from because it's this life- the same one where Khai comes home from work and stands peering at a tower that strikes awe in many but torment for him. Yet this life, whatever it is, does not belong to him. He feels trapped inside of himself and angry for it because anger is easier to believe in than all of the truthful possibilities that actually are occurring. He is ancient, and evil- infused with thousands if not millions of years of poison from Metallia's essence and his duties lie with the Demon Queen Beryl. He is charged with babysitting one of her pets, a great honor that she chooses him to lead the Dark Agency even if the agent he's charged with is a complete idiot. They are sent to London with a purpose, but the ancient Commander is unable to shake the feeling that he isn't himself. That he is lost or trapped somewhere else just beneath the surface of skin that is his. And isn't.
Beryl gives him a new identity, stolen from a boy named Khai Zoltan. He is old, and has not aged a day since the Silver Millennium so they use magic to make him much younger and he takes this guise because orders are orders. It makes sense since they tell him the Moon Princess they seek is younger still and they are to keep an eye on the local school systems or for anything out of ordinary for the mundane lives these humans lead. Metallia needs energy, part of Beryl's primary mission so as if he doesn't have enough to worry about with locating the Moon Princess, and making sure that Danubrite doesn't do anything stupid as he is known to do. He must see to it that they gather an immense amount of energy for the primary mission. Kunzite has always excelled at his duties and so he tells himself it will be easy.
He allows Danubrite to carry out his idiot plans. Kunzite feels his skills are better used elsewhere and takes the chance to aim at quickening their pace by overtaking local gang activity to help boost the amount of energy they gather because energy from the fight is twice as potent. He takes on the code name of Saito because there is something about the name Khai Zoltan that makes him feel sick and wrong. It's strange that he feels anything really, his emotions have been so far removed from him that he feels it best to only use the name on paper and go by Saito the rest of the time. This is the first oversight he probably shouldn't have made since Kunzite was the worst kind of villian. Powerful, cold and ruthless. He steals energy, kills people, even transforms living beings into youma for the purpose of gathering energy and leaving them presumably for dead and feels nothing for it. He's no longer sure if he is alive or dead or what he is anymore because he's so displaced from the human race. Yet that name, Khai Zoltan, stirs something within him he'd rather not explore.
It's the guise he takes, this younger man, that allows him to find the connection. Lost in the spry youthful body of the teenage boy he poses as that isn't so muscled and hard worn that he feels like new. It's so easy after a while to become lost in his own charade even if his mission remains his number one priority. He attends school sometimes, mostly searching for any sign that the Moon Princess might make herself known, but his homeroom teacher is this beautiful blonde woman named Okappi. Her hair is the color of the sun and her eyes this warm blue shade that he's not certain he's been looking for until he meets her. Of course this goes nowhere, even if he is a grown man in a boy's body. She's a good teacher, she really cares about people- but for the first time in centuries he feels the cold sting of heartbreak. It only further serves his purpose as the Dark Kingdom General.
He takes up the guitar, becoming more resolved every day that the Moon Princess is nowhere to be found. Not in any of the local schools anyway. He even sings to himself in the scant amount of spare time he has on the beautiful tree lined boulevard lined with parks and shops that would be so charming if he hadn't claimed it as his gang's turf. Saito is opposite his Dark Kingdom counterpart, he is young and charming, a gentleman when he isn't killing and gathering energy, or lost in the throes of the hunt for Sailor V. One thing he agrees with Danubrite on, is if the Moon Princess were anyone it would be her. However, there is something about the tone of her golden hair that sets him on edge. He hasn't seen her in person yet, just the few tabloids of London's Lass, or the Victorious Sailor V floating around that makes him think she's familiar. The only telling sign is the mark of the Moon Kingdom she bears on her forehead but she hides her eyes behind a mask so Queen Beryl wants her kept alive until they can confirm her identity.
Kunzite grows angrier at each failed attempt but looks forward to killing Danubrite when this is all over. He goes by Ace and is not under Beryl's influence, he is there by his own wishes. Kunzite is convinced that the younger man is fueled only by selfish obsession, and secrets he's not been made privy to which doesn't lend a lot of trust between them. He hates Ace, and secretly roots for Sailor V to turn him into the pile of blackened goop she leaves the rest of his youma as. Kunzite only wishes to be reunited with his three brothers, who are a task force scouring the planet for certain energies that might lend more solution to their search for the Silver Crystal. He certainly feels no calming or healing essence from London, something the all powerful stone is said to radiate, so he works harder at ending this fools mission. His talents are best served elsewhere.
The day he meets her, the fight is more brutal than normal. Saito works harder to gather more and more energy as Sailor V seems to be gaining ground on Ace and his idiot plans. He hopes this is over soon. It's a beautiful day, the sun shining in London between breaks in the city's ever looming grey clouds. Fists are flying in the Boulevard this afternoon, bones cracking and echoing against the buildings with pained screams and grunts. Blood splashes against the brick walkway and of course it is here that she manages to get caught in the crossfire. Normally Saito would not care- would inadvertently turn her to a youma or strike her down himself for the added energy boost. A voice whispers in his ear, a familiar voice that he feels obligated to obey that tells him to protect her. The voice is gruff and laced with urgency that alarms him and so Saito ends the fight abruptly, with a loud resounding command.
One of the thugs had slugged her in the face hard. She's left crumpled against the walkway in a pile of blonde hair and a familiar school uniform while all the gang members scatter. They are afraid of him, as though they can perhaps sense that he is not human, not anymore. She's coming to when he walks toward her, unsure of where that voice had come from. It sounded almost like himself but he'd never cared for anyone else but his three brothers. The girl grows pale at the sight of him when he kneels in front of her to assess the damage. He remembers thinking she's really pretty, an average teenager really with freckles on her nose and wide almond shaped eyes that match the midsummer sky. There's something familiar about the girl like a song he is familiar with, but really wants to learn how to play and sing.
She introduces herself as Mina Agape and wrinkles her nose at her last name in distaste. He thinks it's fitting, and she captivates him immediately. They barely speak but there is a notion that she'll be dangerous to him. Something in the way she so openly stares at him with admiring appreciation, her wide and gracious smile when he helps her to a bench and gets her some water in case she is hurt. She doesn't cry though her cheek is swelling and turning purple before his eyes, she takes it like a soldier. Saito, Kunzite's guise, can feel something primal and familiar rise within the ancient part of him that this girl who is no older than thirteen or fourteen is far too young for. This is perhaps when Saito realizes that something is off about him, that he is split in two.
The longer they sit on the bench, half in silence and half in general discussion about her uniform and how he attended that same school the more beautiful she seems to become. It fills him with something more thrilling than the fight, the radiance and determined confidence in her eyes makes him want to know more about her. Saito tells her as a warning to stay away from the Boulevard and there's something in the smile she gives him that tells him she won't listen. And she doesn't.
There's no fight today, not yet. Just a boy with his guitar beneath his favorite tree on the boulevard and a golden girl in yellow trying to hide in a bundle of white flowers. She is young, but her body is toned and lithe, perhaps too developed for a girl her age and it stirs something within him the way her yellow dress hugs her curves. That part of him tucked away and trapped feels dirty about it, but the dark beast inside him froths at the mouth and decides that he wants to claim her. They talk and sing and Saito feels nothing of the evil within him when she's around, even when he tries to claw himself to the surface because he's forgotten a fight. They almost kiss, broken up by the urging cries of one of his gang members who call to him and forces him to abandon the beautiful girl beneath the tree.
It's supposed to be the biggest fight yet. One to draw forward the masked powerful girl named Sailor V since Danubrite was becoming more and more useless with each failure. It works to no surprise, she identifies the other gang leader simply called the Ring Master as a youma immediately. Just as Sailor V is about to use her powers on her, just as he is about to morph back into Kunzite and drag her through a portal to the Dark Kingdom there is a splitting pain in his head. A symptom of a lead pipe to the face really, one that Saito hadn't counted on and blamed himself for dropping his guard but the world went black immediately.
He wakes up later to gentle slaps on his cheek from one of his thugs. It's rage inducing and he has a mind to pummel him except his head begins to throb and ache, eye burning with the blood that pours into it. She's there suddenly, practically pushing a dangerous gang member to the side with concerned determination laced through her baby blue eyes. Saito blames a concussion for the way he allows her to drag him all the way to the school. It's vacant on the weekend of course and he's impressed with the grace in which she breaks in and in a short dress at that. Clearly it's not her first time.
Mina is full of surprises, he doesn't realize until they enter the dimly lit nurses station that she's carrying his leather jacket and guitar case for him. She sets the items down and hops up onto a tall counter, her knees spread a bit too far apart but she gestures for him to come closer. He struggles to not allow his hormones to take it a certain way as he takes the few steps toward her while she rummages through drawers in search for the supplies she needs. The counter top puts her at eye level with him, and without any sign of fear she begins to tend to his injury. Saito examines her face, so tensed with concentration and she chews on her bottom lip in a way that's almost familiar.
They kiss, an inevitable event really since she's just so beautiful and so close. He knows she's inexperienced, surprised to hear himself ask her if it's okay before he kisses or touches her further. It doesn't go too far, she doesn't allow it, and it's with great effort that he pulls apart from her. Saito should have been afraid of punishment for his great blunder earlier at the fight, but somehow he's not. He and Mina goof off, perform a concert for no one on the empty gymnasium stage and he walks her home later. He can almost see the hearts in her eyes when they kiss goodnight. She's the bold one this time, it's almost painful to watch her walk away.
He's late to his meeting with Beryl who is of course waiting for him in his chamber when he returns for the night. She's angry already, she's not showing signs of it yet but Kunzite has been with her since the Silver Millennium's fall so he knows what to look for. He's in trouble already so he asks her if perhaps she tires of him, would like to find a new toy to play with. Not that he'd ever want to subject any of his brothers to her treatments, but Danubrite was more than disposable to him. It's a fight he won't win so he lies down in wait for what is to come. She shackles him, she doesn't always shackle him, sometimes he goes willingly out of defeat or sheer boredom.
Punishment for the old Shitennou is call The Lifting of the Veil. None of them have suffered it often, death is a better alternative. Beryl does this during the throes of her own passion. It's when she releases whatever hold she and Metallia have on him, the floodgates of memories open and he can be something of the man he used to be again. He remembers his Endymion, his Venus, the fall, his betrayal, the blood and carnage of their last encounter as though it only happened yesterday. Beryl uses magics on him, familiar black magics to prevent him from growing soft and becoming useless to her as she rides him, enjoying his struggles beneath her as it only serves to thrust up into her harder. He screams and moans his torment, begs and begs to be released from this cruel punishment. Tears he had not been able to shed as a man are stolen from his cheeks with her serpent's tongue and Kunzite begs for death while she continues to steal what humanity or pride he has left.
The knowledge that he had kissed his Venus just hours prior were perhaps all that kept any modicum of sanity within him while Beryl sighs and shutters out the endings of her climax on top of him. He doesn't enjoy his because it never comes, he only focuses on Mina. She could be no one else but his Venus, the way her smiles were forced sometimes and she held the air and countenance of a soldier. She does things her own way and nothing can take that from her. No one else could have that much beauty and passion. Beryl is snapping something at him, he only glares back defiantly with grey eyes instead of the clouded blue her black magic makes them. He is not released, the bed becomes a coffin and he will spend however long she deems worthy being re-infused by Metallia's essence and left alone with his horrifying memories.
True to his word he knows her. Kunzite is reassigned and has a short amount of time left in London. Danubrite somehow confirms that Sailor V is a decoy and Zoicite gets strange readings from Tokyo,Japan where the Shitennou will be dispatched next while Danubrite stays behind and cleans up the Sailor V mess. Saito is able to spend one more day with her, he still carries some memory with him and it's enough to nearly break him. He is a puppet, not in control and the beast within him is back with a vengeance but even he is somewhat rattled by her presence. The night before he is to leave is the night he returns to Beryl and begs for her to take him completely, to erase Kunzite entirely to this demonic General. It's the only freedom he knows how to seek, and so Beryl does just that until there is nothing left of him.
It is here that Tokyo Tower happens. He's not sure how much time has passed on Earth, he doesn't care. He's more curious about the Silver Crystal's power once it is in Queen Beryl's hands and Metallia can exact her revenge on the reincarnated Moon Princess. Sailor Venus has joined the four girls who have been nothing but a thorn in their sides. He hears her plead to him, her eyes so determined and impassioned appear more worn and rattled than the others. Kunzite's not sure why that matters and it pisses him off so he throws blast after blast at her which she endures with an almost impressive resilience.
Kunzite takes an open shot at Sailor Moon, common sense tells him she'd probably be the Moon Princess they're looking for since clearly the girl he now knew to be Sailor Venus was not who she said she was. Tuxedo Mask foolishly blocks Sailor Moon and gets himself killed. A casualty he doesn't care about until the mask falls from his face and the Moon Princess revealed. He doesn't focus on the white clad woman cradling his head, but the careless black hair and handsome features of the man in her arms. Kunzite knows this man, his pale blue eyes shifting only briefly to Venus who begins to plead with him again. There's a flicker of recognition and he wills the tuxedo clad man into his own arms without thinking. There's something on the surface he thinks, and it almost takes him over but Beryl's hiss in his ear snaps him out of it.
Kunzite is victorious for now, Beryl pleased with his work he steals the body of this man. Nephrite, Zoicite, and Jadiete all agree that this man is familiar though none of them have ventured from the Dark Kingdom in so long that they don't know where they could have met him. The man isn't dead as he initially thought, but Beryl infuses him with Metallia's essence too and he's different from them. He has memory he won't share and Beryl tries to keep him from the Shitennou. There is something in his name that resonates with them. Endymion joins their ranks, and Beryl begins to sigh the name repeatedly during Kunzite's nocturnal sessions with the witch.
The story has been told. It's Venus that brings him back in the end, that final battle as she cries out to him to remember. Remember what matters most to him in the world, his Endymion. Her. She calls him to the light and Kunzite resurfaces. He delivers himself to her sword once more, an age old promise she does not want to keep but he forces her because he is dead either way. Kunzite died during the fall of the Moon Kingdom, he cannot be saved.
Khai releases a shuttering breath, the sound of glass shattering on the concrete floor of his balcony bringing him back to reality and had he not been gripping the railing he would have fainted. Glass crunches under his shoes when he fall back against the balcony door, breathing hard in efforts to not black out. His phone vibrates impatiently in his pocket, the screen blinding him, forcing him to blink away the welling tears in his eyes and fight back the memories that so often seek to claim him still.
"I love you." A simple message as though she knows. Mina often does.
"I love you too. Please come over."
"I'm already here."
He exhales slowly, making his way to his front door. She's waiting for him on the other side, taken aback by the wide eyed horror on his face and chews her bottom lip nervously. She takes his hand in her smaller one and urges him back into the apartment, her blue eyes shifting to the open balcony and shattered glass. The TV blares some obnoxious show he'd never watch in a million years without her present, out of place in the business man's apartment.
"Sit." She commands gently, pressing a hand to his shoulder to make him sit on the couch while she goes to the bar and pours him another bourbon. Her hand brushes his when she hands him the drink and Khai merely sits while she grabs his broom and cleans the mess on his balcony. Her friends would expect her to make a bigger mess of course, but he trusted her, knew that she was better and more than they ever gave Mina credit for. She silently put the items away, closing the sliding glass door and shutting the curtains to block his view of the tower before she nestles beside him on the couch. Her arms lace around his torso, head resting at his shoulder while she contently finishes watching the show with him. She says nothing else, she doesn't need to.
Mina drags him to the shower with her, it's erotic but they only wash each other with exploring hands. His eyes scarcely leave hers and it's as though she understands how dirty these memories make him feel, as though her hands are the only ones that can get him clean. She borrows a shirt and pulls him to bed, he can't hold it in anymore and buries his face in her chest. It surprises her, he knows, but he cries into her with iron-like arms gripping around her waist. She kisses his hair, her hands rubbing his back and holding his head to her while he rides out his panic attack. Khai can't bring himself to feel ashamed of anything but what has caused his breakdown. Actions he had no control over, the thousands or million times that Beryl used his body for her sick pleasures, how he's hurt so many people but mostly Mamoru, Mina, and sweet forgiving Usagi. Khai feels guilt that Mina has been through so much worse and he was never able to be there for her, not like this.
She pulls his face to her, kissing him gently and he says a silent prayer for each press of their lips. He vows to die before she ever feels another ounce of pain again, that he will be there to soothe away the pains of her past, that Aino Minako will never be alone again. Khai will never know how this powerful girl is still the same unwavering woman Venus had been when she's been through so much. He's been host to the blackest of souls, the coldest of evils and she still loves him- even if he has not been forgiven completely. She still understands him, knows exactly what he needs when she wraps herself around him to sleep. She doesn't let go of him all night, and the nightmares don't return that evening.
Khai Zoltan woke in this life alone, reborn on the same timeline of his last death. If you can call waking up in a hospital after being in a coma for several years a rebirth. It felt like death really, to have your early life interrupted by this different life you remember and don't at the same time. He finds his entire family has died so there is no one to confirm or deny that distorted memories of a life in London, a beautiful girl, and stranger events that have taken place. All he has is a guitar case with the instrument, a ton of song lyrics and music and a High School Diploma from some school in England with his name on it. Yet he's told by doctors he's been confined to this bed for years in a coma with seizures. There was a period, the most recent times, that he felt trapped inside himself.
Dreams are the easiest way to explain it all away but he didn't have this scar in one of his brows before, didn't know how to play the guitar but he does now, never owned a leather jacket but the one with his things at the hospital is worn out. There is physical evidence to go either way and it scares him. He's a good man, and fortunate is a small word in relation to the life he had before all of this. It's now in present day that he feels guilt for it, he feels so much guilt for it all and tries so hard to not feel anything but just that. Fortunate.
He is born in Turkey. His Mother's family is wealthy and like all boys he thinks his Mother is the most beautiful woman on the planet. Dark and mysterious like so many women of the Middle East but she's magical and musical and he adores her just as much as he looks up to his Father. His Father came from Dubai, an accomplished business man who took a job for her father. It was a love at first sight story and Khai was born shortly after their wedding, just before his Father started his own Brokerage Firm and moved them to America.
Khai looks up to his father even if he is absent from them often. He works harder than anyone he's ever seen and yet when he can join them for the occasional dinner or weekend outing he is warm and loving and so tired. As a child he thought his affection for his Mother was gross, but as a man Khai recognizes that he treated his Mother like a Queen and it makes him ache. His father taught him the value of hard work, that he will have to work hard when he takes over the family business to help it grow into whatever Khai wants it to be. He can only promise to honor his Father's legacy to which his father explained that as his son, Khai was all the legacy he ever needed. He also made Khai promise him to make time for his family when he chooses to have one- the only regret he'd ever have was not making more for him and his mother.
Khai's Mother is the most loving, ethereal woman alive. She encourages Khai's crazy dreams of Golden Goddesses and magic gold pearls, Moon Princesses and Princes in hidden castles by giving him mythology books and letting him tell her his dreams of such things upon waking. He has a healthy enough imagination. She teaches him all about generosity, education, and above all kindness. Like any parent, she's firm when she needs to be and Khai learns to be patient and disciplined. Both parents teach him to be strong and unwavering because New York is a hard place to live and the world is a huge place that isn't kind to weakness.
Khai has had a childhood most people would envy right up until the moment he grows ill. It's unexplained, they know he has a pigment deficiency of some sort based on the strange color of his hair and eyes but he is strong and handsome otherwise. His father sends them back to Dubai to care for his parents who are aged and ill, and he stays behind in New York to run his firm and make sure they can afford the best care possible for their son. Khai would never see his Father again.
His Mother becomes a round the clock nurse for he and his grandparents. She spends most of her time at the hospital with him, only going home to rest after one of his seizures that would land him in a coma for a few days at a time. She'd be back within the hour the hospital called to tell her that he was awake. Khai doesn't remember this time well, he's just cusping adulthood at this time and trying to keep up with his school work between times of unconsciousness. One day he doesn't wake up.
During this time, his Grandparents pass away either from age or illness as they tend to do. His Mother falls asleep with a kettle on, leaving the gas running and the house burns down. She of course doesn't make it. It's a year, maybe more before his father takes his own life in his office in downtown New York. The firm is a success, and yet without the promise of his Son who has been declared brain-dead waking and the death of his wife, he just sees no reason. Khai still loves his father, even if suicide is a grave dishonor on the Zoltan name.
Khai wakes when he is twenty five to the inheritance of an empire. He hesitates to take it but it's the only way to restore honor to his name, and he hopes it would bring his Father peace. He continues his education since according to doctors and their billion tests, he wakes up with the IQ of a well educated thirty five year old man and he has work to do. Parent's lessons in mind, he works hard. He's a serious man, perhaps too much for the limelight his wealth, good looks, and success land him. He hates it and avoids attention at all costs but it opens the doors for him to the mot beautiful women in the world, all blonde hair and blue eyes and completely wrong. He's not sure what he's looking for but all it does is satiate a primal need and make him feel used and unimportant. Actions his Father would have strongly frowned upon, but Khai is young still, simply searching for something.
He's drawn to America, enrolling at Harvard University seemed foolish but he was running out of pretty blondes to waste his time and grew bored biding his free time with them and the many songs he'd sing to himself with his guitar as soothing as that is for him. He meets Zaki immediately, a quirky young man with long strawberry blonde hair and the greenest eyes he'd ever seen. They swear they know each other and Zaki moves into the house Khai rented that very night. The two are best friends immediately and Khai begins to feel things click into place.
Nigel comes next, a rogue from Maine who felt the draw as well and he is a sloppy but welcome edition to their household. He's a mountain of a man with a construction company, a loud booming voice and the warmest brown eyes and smile of anyone Khai had ever met. He's irritating as hell but he can't help feeling more complete with Nigel around. Jeison is an accident. Right time and place never described someone so well, or maybe it's this uncanny intuition he has that he knows the magnetism they feel and the source of it. They are introduced to Chiba Mamoru later, they begin to remember immediately the name Endymion.
The first months were the hardest. Memories coming at the least opportune times as though there is any good time to remembering his own betrayal of the one person he cared most for in the whole world and murdering the woman he loves and her friends. Lifetimes of bloodshed and darkness, rape and powerlessness. He'd been made to feel so powerful but the contrary had never been more true. Khai is weak, and loves someone he could never touch, and still can't because she remembers, and Venus never forgave easy. He took solace in the knowledge that he had changed. He wasn't that cold General anymore, certainly no evil Commander of some murderous kingdom pretending to be some normal boy while he slaughtered dozens at a time- he was only Khai Zoltan.
Even now, years later the memories come in though all of the important ones are remembered, sometimes resurfacing in night terrors or the least convenient of times during board meetings and consultations. Khai has dedicated his life to atoning for his sins. Donating large sums of money to third world countries, using his firm to build better financial lives for people, small acts like buying coffee for the person behind him or giving tokens to kids at fairs, helping old women carry groceries. He tried to be a better man and was actually proud of how different he was.
Khai knew he could lighten up some. He was very serious, always had been, but when it counted, he was reliable. Always there when needed even when cold Kunzite would have brushed it off because duty was more important. He laughed at things his past incarnations would never have, he was a smart ass, told jokes, smiled proudly where he would have stupidly refrained before. He enjoyed good company, performing his music with the band they formed, he was generous, kind, patient and steady now. He attributes this to the parents he had this life, that perhaps he never had before.
He remembers their first meeting well. The other former Shitennou insisted that they make their presence known to the Senshi so that if sighted on the street they aren't killed or mistaken for an enemy. Nigel also owned a woodwork shop two doors down from Makoto's cafe so his hand is forced into allowing Usagi and Mamoru to announce them. It goes about as well as he expects but he does not expect for Mina to walk away amidst the chaos that did break out. She slips away in silence after a momentary exchange where she locks eyes with him. They are hard, and speak of her determination though he doesn't know what makes her so. He sees the defiance in them, the denial, and understands he stays unforgiven. He doesn't expect for her to rush into his arms though he wishes she would.
Her beauty is stifling, and after seeing her he needs to know her even if he promises himself he'll stay away. She ignores him, avoids him while the rest of their friends are at least civil toward himself and the others. No one is quick to forgive, the fact that they do at all baffles Khai. He knows that she gave up scholarship money for Makoto to have her cafe, that she is a secretary because something is coming in their future that she's preparing for. She has dreams but chooses her duties to Usagi instead of pursuing them. He knows she is more forward and yet judging by the distance in her eyes she is still just as good at masking her pain for joy as she always has been. He still sees hardly anything but Venus and wonders if she's truly changed at all. She's flighty but he knows now that her mind processes so quickly that she seems less intelligent than she is. Part of the Dark Kingdom's downfall was underestimating her. Beryl learned that first hand when it was Venus to deliver her death blow. She still handled everything like a warrior, even serving guests at Makoto's cafe and he was railed to hear she even handled lovers like a warrior. Never committing, just taking what she needed and moving on with the grace of a warlord.
When he learns all she's endured, between his abandonment of her as Saito- probably the closest thing to normal teenage heartbreak she'd ever endure though he suspects she knows that it was him. He learns about Adonis, or Danubrite as he knows him and how she fell in love with him, his plan working perfectly up until the moment she was forced to kill him. How her memory came back all at once and nearly killed her, leaving her rendered catatonic and completely traumatized for weeks. Khai knows she has severe PTSD, and so her cold demeanor toward him, her inability to forgive makes sense to him. Even if her hiding her feelings from even Usagi doesn't until he realizes she simply doesn't want anyone to worry about her. She has failed as much as he has and the weight is much heavier for her. Khai has at least been able to change.
He has a few encounters with her. Some pleasant and others not. They begin a sort of dance around each other and soon as he thinks he's reached her on some level she stays determined to push him away. It's the only time he does not admire her determination and thinks she's being a fool. Still- he hasn't really forgiven himself, never has, so he can't expect her to. He only wants her to acknowledge that he is on her side so he can continue to atone for all he's done. He sees a darker side of Mina- one that rubs her own sexual conquests in his face, unapologetic that he somehow still loves her because he understands her actions and behaviors even when he doesn't agree. Mamoru says it best. That Mina is an exposed nerve, sore to the touch and fragile though it would appear otherwise by her frightening acting skills. She doesn't fool Mamoru, and she certainly doesn't fool him. The rest are content to live with her masked pain, and it bothers him.
Khai smiles, remembering how they got where they are now when he meets her for lunch later. She wears a baby blue sun dress that was clearly made for her the way it brings out the gold of her hair and the sandals she wears elongates her legs. He can't help the smug pride as the world stares at her, men long for her, and she is made entirely for him and him alone. She kisses him, in an almost lewd fashion, far too much for his normal taste in public but he becomes used to it easily because when she kisses him the rest of the world fails to matter. She takes his arm and they decide to get some food at one of the food trucks parked near the park entrance by picnic tables. He smirks to himself at the defeat in some of the other men's eyes when they are seen together.
Khai remembers the night well. They were playing a set at their usual dive bar, he was singing as he usually does but felt low because he knows it's her birthday and she's there celebrating with everyone. From nowhere it seemed she appears behind him, singing a song that was too relevant to their situation and he felt his soul burst into light. She leaned on him, sharing his mic and they sway to the music together as their voices entwine and fill the air. They leave together directly afterward. Khai is hardly aware that Nigel practically pushes him off the stage and ends the set and he ends up walking with her through the streets and they talk. He has pleaded his case to her on more than one occasion. He never expects forgiveness but she invites him over for coffee.
Progress is slow from there, though she kisses him and they ache for each other he knows she needs time. Khai is not the old Shitennou Kunzite- he understands she is more fragile than she wants him to know and so they sleep and take it slow until she he feels she is truly ready. This is only days ago now, that she came over to his place and proclaimed her love. They waited long enough and he finds she is as insatiable now as she ever was. They make love and it's enough to free him entirely.
"I love you." He speaks plainly, taking her hand from across the picnic table and kisses her knuckle like an old diplomat. She giggles and it's musical to him.
"And I love you silly. You've been thoughtful lately... and by that I mean you've been as spacey as I am." She makes a face at her blunder, they've been around each other for nearly a year but only officially together for a few weeks so she knows in detail how he normally acts. She's not wrong, Khai has had a lot to think over the past few days. Sometimes like this moment he sees her draped against a different backdrop, so similar to his gardens in Elysium with the white blooming trees around them. He's spent since the morning she woke up in his bed thinking of how very different he has been in all incarnations and how similarly chaotic she has been. Mina surprises him every day with a bold act of passion, or getting so happy she can't stand it over something that happened in a manga she's reading that he finds himself interested where he wouldn't be normally.
He's impressed with how much progress she has made on events that are coming for them in the next century. She's blown him off for Usagi enough that most boyfriends would be jealous and insecure by now but he's always understood her. They were the same that way. Khai tells her constantly she should accept the modeling contract they relentlessly offer her where she works but as always Mina is determined in her greater purpose to Crystal Tokyo. He admires this, and they work together using his own resources. They still partner well together in work, as well as love. He is happy his changes over the incarnations have only been good ones- so Mina tells him.
"I have been." He responds plainly, lacing his fingers with hers across the table. "I just want you to promise me you'll never change." She laughs again and releases his hand so she can take an abnormally large bite of her food which sparks amusement behind his own grey eyes.
"Have I ever?" She raised her brow, speaking over a mouthful and he chuckles, raising his own brow back at her. He reaches over with a napkin to wipe the broth from the side of her mouth and an adorable flush creeps over the freckled bridge of her perfect nose.
"No. You haven't." He responds, she looks ashamed for a moment before warmth spreads to his features and he smiles. Mina spends too much time fighting the Venusian incarnation of old, an identity crisis she's had since her awakening after London. She's only now coming to terms that she is one and the same. "Just please...don't ever change who you are. I love you too much to lose any part of you."
He swears he sees tears well in her big blue eyes, noting how she fights them back and nods with a happy smile on her face. He has his way of knowing when it's genuine now, he's always known. Tears never suited Venus, or Aino Minako, and Khai was further validated that this girl had always been the same. His Sun, his Morning and Evening Star, and the only constancy of any of his own incarnations. He is further validated that in all of his own facets and lives that it is Mina who always brings him back into to the light, driving him into the best of Kunzite's incarnations. Not many men can say that they are able to hold the other half of their soul and know that because of her, he is truly a better man. For this, Khai will always call himself the Knight of Purity and Affection. He is Kunzite, the most fortunate man alive.