Title : Wipe Out
Fandom : Sailor Moon (anime) Dark Kingdom
Pairing : Kunzite / Zoisite
Rating : a bit of violence and hints of sex
Copyright : Zoisite, Kunzite, Sailor Moon and the rest are the property of Naoko Takeuchi and Toei Animation, if I recall.

Author's comment : still playing with my favorite pairing. This one will be a bit longer than I'm used to, but it's all planned down and most of it is written already, so updates should be regular.

Reviews and beta welcome.

Chapter 1 : Confusion

The pain awakens me, then fades into a dull throb. A bright light stabs my eyes even though they're closed. Then it fades, too. I hear girls voices speaking in a language that sounds like mine, but slightly different. They wonder what's going on. I wish I knew, too.

I open my eyes in a place that went dark again. My sight is blurred, but I recognize right away the closest human shape, and my heart jumps in my chest.

Tall, wearing a gray uniform and a white cape.

Lord Kunzite. At least I'm not surrounded by enemies, unlike I'd first thought upon hearing the alien voices.

I try to sit. My limbs are numb. What happened to me?

My sight is getting better, and I can see past Lord Kunzite. Five girls are standing there, looking as surprised as I am. I remember having seen them in Lord Kunzite's projections during strategic briefings. The Moon Senshi. Except, the Senshi were four. There is another one behind these four, who looks a bit like Princess Serenity.

"Kunzite-dono?"

He looks at me with his face as indecipherable as usual. He doesn't seem too pleased, though. Are we in trouble? But I doubt the Senshi could defeat him, even together. His voice is deep and toneless.

"Shiro".

That's my name. I have a thrill, like each time that Lord Kunzite calls me directly this, and not "soldier" or something as anonymous. I never understood why he singled me out and took me under his wing.

Of course I fought very hard to prove myself worth of belonging to his army, and I'd spent my short life training. To be able to defend myself, and be able to kill. So, I'm good at it.

But until then, it had always made people hate me more. More than just because I'm a half-bred. Lord Kunzite never cared. He doesn't look very Japanese himself anyway.

My thoughts are confused and I try to focus on the situation, to be able to help if I can.

"The Senshi?..."

"Don't worry about them."

He gives just a glimpse at them, and I notice now the dark glimmer in the air between us and them. He rose an energy shield, so they are not a threat. I've never seen anything able to go through that sort of shield.

Reassured, I turn back my attention to him and my look falls on his hands. I gasp. The usually white gloves are reduced to shreds stained with green blood, and his skin is burnt and crippled.

I want to be by his side but I'm afraid to hurt him, so all I can do is to get closer and babble.

"Kunzite-dono, your hands?"

He looks down to them, flexes his fingers deformed into claws. My heart sinks, I can nearly feel his pain... but he doesn't show any. He just has a small wince as he conjures a yellow glow around his wrists.

An unpleasant voice storms.

"Kunzite! Why is this scum still alive? Bring me back the Ginzuishou!"

A giant image of Queen Beryl's head now floats in the air between the Senshi and us. She is furious. At Lord Kunzite? What for? He's her best Tennou.

"I won't."

What? Why has he said that? The Queen has no mercy and she was irate already!

"You dare? I am your Queen!"

"You're not. My Queen is Metallia, and you're no longer leading us for her glory. You're leading the Dark Kingdom to its defeat because of your petty whims, and I won't fight that hopeless battle for you any longer."

Lord Kunzite is defying her? Why?

"Die then!"

She storms a bolt at us, but Lord Kunzite holds me close and the room around us vanishes in a flash.

When my sight gets clear again, we are outside, at night, on the roof of a weird square building made of gray... it doesn't look like stone and it's not wood? There are huge metal constructions around, and light dots as far as my eyes can see. The air smells of smoke, burnt things and filth, and resonates with scoffed sounds of horns and others I don't recognize.

I snuggle against Kunzite instinctively.

"Where are we?"

I don't realize right away that he is hugging me back. He looks around slowly and replies :

"I'm only stopping here so I can locate... Here it is".

We teleport again. He made me travel along with him a few times like this, but I don't get used to it.

We arrive at the foot of a hill covered with pine trees. He raises a hand (still burnt, despite the spell he used) and the air trembles in front of us. We walk forward, facing an invisible resistance, then it fades, too, and we stumble on the other side.

Now we can see a big mansion on top of the hill.

"Can you walk up there?"

Lord Kunzite's voice is softer than I recalled. What happened to me that would make him worry, when he looks more badly injured than I am?

"Hai, of course."

I just feel sore, but walking actually helps to fade the pain.

As we reach the door, he stops and uses a spell again. He doesn't explain what it is, but I see his eyes glowing briefly.

We enter a wide room that goes up until the roof, with stained glass as windows, and nothing inside but a padded chair.

Lord Kunzite sighs.

"Not big on furniture, Nephrite?"

With a visible effort, he concentrates to conjure up a simple bench. I'm worried. In the past, I've seen him creating a hundred of canons out of nowhere, without seeming half as tired as he does now.

We sit on the bench. Since that Lord Kunzite hasn't released me, I assume he doesn't mind me sitting by his side, even though it's a bit weird for me.

"May I help you with your hands?..."

He doesn't reply right away, and I wonder if I've been too bold - he never needed help, he's the most powerful Tennou after all.

"The spell should be doing it..." his voice trails off as he looks at his hands. "But it doesn't seem to work that well."

He concentrates, the yellow glow appears again and turns into white as it intensifies... The crackles on his skin smoothen, flesh grows back a bit, and he regains mobility in his fingers. But his hands remain dark brown and painful looking.

He hisses between his teeth.

"Damn crystal. It won't get any better than that with magic."

I shiver.

"Could it heal normally then?"

He looks up to me.

"I don't know. Maybe. I've never had to wait."

Well, I have never used magic to heal wounds, so that would be where I can help.

"Can you conjure balm and fabric strips? And I will do my best."

A slow smile forms on his lips. I must be sounding funny to him. But an assortment of ointments and bandages appear on my lap.

I carefully remove the stained shreds of his gloves from his hands, then apply one of the balms on his skin and massage to help it penetrating.

"Tell me if I hurt you."

"You won't. The first spell I did was to remove sensations while it hasn't healed."

"Oh."

So he doesn't feel anything I'm doing.

Too bad. Because I do.

His hands are warm and strong despite the injuries, and I've never touched him for so long and so closely before.

I don't want to look at his face because I don't want him to notice the effect he has on me. It's so ridiculous. I only wanted to become a warrior and he wanted one he could trust. We were just helpful to each other, and it worked fine.

So why did I have to start feeling that way about him? Especially as it's hopeless. I never saw him show much emotion about anything or anyone. And he only has women around him - well, youma.

I've got to stop thinking about that.

"What is this place, Kunzite-dono?"

"It belonged to another Tennou, who's dead now."

"Is it in the Dark Kingdom?"

Silence. I look up after a few seconds, fearing I've said something wrong. He stares at me intently and whispers.

"I don't think it would be very wise of me to get back into the Dark Kingdom after defying Beryl... I chose this place because Nephrite protected it with defensive spells that prevent people from locating it easily, or to detect magic used within its shield."

I blush.

"Gomen, it was a stupid question."

"It's all right. You have a lot of information to catch up with. Many things changed since... What is the last thing you remember before today?"

I try to recall. My memory is extremely confused, but the last striking thing I heard was...

"A Tennou died. Tanzanite. He was killed on the battlefield and you called me to tell me. And... That's all."

He keeps silent for a while. Then he looks aside.

"That's what I thought."

I'm waiting for him to tell me what happened next, but he doesn't seem to be about to do it. It's like he forgot I was there, and I feel lost. I have to know and ask frantically.

"Kunzite-dono? Please? What happened to me? To you? How did Nephrite die? And if this place isn't the Dark Kingdom, then what is it?"

He winces and I realize I'm grasping his hands in my panic. He holds mines back.

"Hush, Shiro... This place is your world, but a lot of time passed since you last remember. The Dark Kingdom won the battle against the Moon Kingdom, but Queen Serenity used the Ginzuishou against us. We were sealed into sleep for centuries."

Centuries? It can't be.

"It's not that bad, Shiro. You'll get used to it. And it's not like if you had many things to regret from the old world, is it?"

What a strange thing to tell me. It's true that I didn't leave anything behind me that I'd miss. But then, I never had anything much to care about.

"I'll show you the world as it is now."

"But how come you know about it? Why haven't we been awakened in the same time?"

He pauses.

"You're human. The Ginzuishou has more power on you that it had on me or other Tennou."

It rings true, yet I guess he's trying to lie to me. But why, I don't know. And what he's hiding from me, I have no idea.

"The Senshi were reincarnated to fight us. All the other Tennou were killed. If we have any luck, the Senshi will keep Beryl busy until she gets killed, too, and she won't be able to find us."

It doesn't make sense. What he tells me about the Senshi, and the Ginzuishou defeating us, it does. But the only aim Lord Kunzite ever had was Metallia's victory. So why defying Beryl, knowing that the petty woman wouldn't let him get away with it?

He did let slip a few critical comments about Beryl before, but I would never imagine that he could turn his back to Metallia, even against Beryl.

But he won't tell me. He just talks about how the outer world changed while I was dead, and conjures up images to show me while I finish nursing his hands.

I'm not really interested by the outer world. It was never a very welcoming place for me before, and I doubt this will change now. It's noisier, and it smells of unnatural odors, and there's a lot less trees and flowers. Less quiet places to hide, too.

Also he says samurais no longer exist, and men in arms have less rights than before, and they don't even use swords anymore. Which means that my only talent is useless here. I don't see how I could make a living.

Well, there's always the other talent... The oldest one that will always exist. The one people always wanted me to use. But I sacrificed all I had to become a soldier precisely because I couldn't take any more of it.

Lord Kunzite tells me not to worry about it. That he will take care of everything and his magic will supply to our needs.

What I don't get is the "our". If he won't fight for Metallia anymore, of what use can I be to him? I would understand if he wanted a servant, because a powerful lord like him must have one, but it doesn't make sense when he says that he is going to take charge of all.

He uses other spells to conjure two futons, and weaves something that must be another layer of protection around the house. Then he wishes me a good night and I stay here, confused by the events and by his behavior.

I even wonder if he really is Lord Kunzite. Maybe it's a trick. It could be a youma pretending to be him, to fool me?... But as far as I remember, I don't have any vital information that would be worth such an elaborated plan.

Then again, maybe Lord Kunzite's enemies don't know that. They might be thinking that he trusts me more than he does.

But... It's way too complicated to explain it all. And why bother making up such a lie when torture would get them the same results faster?

I watch Lord Kunzite sleeping for a while in the dim colored light filtering through the stained glass, then I drift into sleep, too.

to be continued...

If you want more details on what happened before the fic (though this will be explained in time inside the story and is significantly different), it's loosely based on an alternate version of my fic A Different Choice