"Oh great ruler Queen Metalia, awaken."

The watery shadow flared into Beryl's sight like a lava lamp and addressed the tuxedo-clad young man lying comatose at Beryl's feet. "Endymion…how I missed you."

Beryl smiled at her words. Nobody missed Endymion more than Beryl did. With Metalia's blessing she intended to make up for lost time. In bed. "We never imagined that the former prince of the kingdom of Earth would be reincarnated in this era."

The shapeless mouth spoke again. "Heal Endymion with the power of darkness immediately."

"Yes, my Queen," Beryl said trying to conceal her overwhelming joy. She didn't add that that wasn't all she was going to do. She'd make him a creature of the Dark Kingdom and tamper with his mind. Fill it with false memories so that he'd be a newer Endymion. A better Endymion. A loving Endymion. An insatiable Endymion.

She could hardly wait to wake him with a kiss, but first she had to deal with the two numbskulls that brought him there.

-%-

Zoisite stood outside Beryl's chambers, gazing forlornly into his silver hand mirror. His precious little mouth looked sad as his fingers touched a fresh scar on his cheek. "I'm going to die with this ruined face."

Kunzite stroked his hair. "You're not going to die, Zoisite. And your face is not ruined. You've never looked more beautiful."

Zoisite looked up at him with big innocent eyes. "Then why did you order me to get revenge on Tuxedo Mask for what he did to my face?"

Kunzite felt himself overcome with rarely expressed emotions. "I-I Don't know why I said that."

Actually, he did know why he said it. He said it because he knew who was to blame for that. Kunzite. He had caused the accident out of sheer thoughtlessness. He had abandoned Zoisite at the precise moment when he was blind to Endymion's attack. All he had thought about at that moment was getting the crystals to Beryl so they would be rewarded. It simply never occurred to him Zoisite would be injured.

He'd wanted to apologize, but to accept the blame would be no different than admitting Zoisite didn't occupy Kunzite's every waking thought. To Zoisite, love meant obsession. A constant, neverending fawning obsession. Kunzite did his share of fawning over Zoisite, but anyone with eyes could see he was far more used to being the fawnee.

So rather than admit he wasn't as needy as the younger man, he deflected the blame away from himself. When he had told Zoisite to get revenge, he'd hoped to erase his role in the accident from Zoisite's mind.

He should have realized the high-strung youngster had never blamed him to begin with. That he would twist Kunzite's offhanded remark to mean "Kill the man who disfigured you to the point where you are no longer worthy of my love." He should have known. But it was too late to do anything.

The door was pulled open by the two guard youma to admit them to a private audience with Beryl. Zoisite gave his fringe one last fluff before tucking the silver handmirror into the front of his jacket. He looks like a frightened little girl, Kunzite noted sadly. Kunzite drew the smaller man into his arms and gave him a reassuring embrace, mindless of the youma who looked on without emotion.

"Don't worry, Zoisite. I'll protect you. I'll intervene on your behalf, even if she kills me for it."

Zoisite gave his lover a sad look and then sighed. "Oh, well. Let's get this over with."

-%-

"You awakened the princess and lost the silver crystal. That was a grave mistake, Kunzite."

Kunzite bowed his head. "Yes, I have no excuses. Fortunately the princess has just now awakened and does not have full control of the silver crystal. Please give me a little more time."

"Very well, I'll leave it to you." She looked up and eyed Zoisite with her beady red eyes. "By the way, Zoisite. I presume you are ready for the worst?"

Zoisite raised his hand. "Please give me another chance," he said with an impassioned voice, but the look of resignation never left his eyes.

"You disobeyed my order and tried to kill Tuxedo mask didn't you?"

"That's…because-"

An eerie glow surrounded the orb on Beryl's staff. Her hands caressed the orb and then they rose to strike. "Did you think you could fool me with your lies?"

Zoisite's mouth fell open in horror at his impending demise.

"I take responsibly for that," Kunzite said in a hurry as her talon flexed around the orb and she smiled a cruel smile. "Please wait."

"Kunzito-sama!" Zoisite screamed as he was blown back by the force of the blast.

Kunzite looked back, dreading, and yet already knowing what he would see. His lover lay in a unmoving heap, wisps of smoke rising from his crumpled gray uniform. It tore at Kunzites heartstrings to see it. For several moments Kunzite just stared, feeling as if half his soul had been ripped from his body.

He wanted to turn back time. To make it so that this moment had never happened. But it did happen. Zoisite trusted him and he'd led his little love right into the slaughterhouse. He couldn't even repent. He had to die with a soul as warped and as evil as Zoisite's if there was any hope for them to be reunited in the afterworld.

There was nothing left for him to do other than force his grieving heart to serve Beryl and Metalia long enough for a suicide-by-sailor-senshi. Forgive me, Zoisite. He said wordlessly. I didn't deserve you. I never told you I how much you meant to me. How much I loved you.

He turned back to Beryl.

Where Beryl once sat, there was a Beryl-sized, Beryl-shaped pillar of charcoal behind her orb.

"B-Beryl," Kunzite said without comprehension.

"Beryl, Beryl, Beryl," a familiar voice echoed in a mocking tone.

A warm glow flooded through Kunzite's heart, but he couldn't smile. He was afraid to trust his crumbling mind. He spun and saw Zoisite staggering to pull himself upright. His green eyes, no longer frightened, narrowed in accusation.

Kunzite allowed himself to smile with joy, but his smile evaporated as he saw his lover's face distort into a snarl. "Yes, Kunzito-sama. By all means let's cry out for your precious QUEEN BERYL. And not your little concubine! Whom she just attempted to MURDER!"

"Zoisite," He'd never seen his little lotus blossom this angry before. He wanted to console him, to tell him the right things. Yet part of his mind was paralyzed with relief just knowing he was still alive and the rest was trying to puzzle out how Zoisite had survived a blast that had incinerated Queen Beryl with its backlash.

The answer came soon enough. Zoisite yowled in pain and crouched as he pulled the mangled and smoking mirror from his jacket and dropped it on the floor with a clatter. "Oh, please, don't bother to help me up. I'm fine. Just a few broken ribs as well as third degree burns over 15% of my body. But I'm sure I can heal myself with the bare smidgen of magical energy I have left before I burn myself out completely."

Before Kunzite could do anything a pink glow surrounded Zoisite and he drew himself up to his full height. "See? All burned out now. No more floating about in rose petals for at least a month, I'm afraid. I'm soooo glad you are here to protect me." His voice dropped to an oafish octave. "I take responsibly for that-no. wait. Don't kill him- Arggh!" Zoisite ducked back dramatically and shielded his face with his hands. "Oh well, too late…" Zoisite stared daggers as Kunzite. "You call that intervening? It sounded more like groveling. It's a pity she didn't give you more time like you asked, because you could have dropped a note in her suggestion box. That would have really made a difference."

Kunzite seeped in fear, heartbreak, and self-loathing. "It all happened too quickly."

"Ha! And what is with this Please give me another chance? ME, you said. SINGULAR. As in not US! As in NOT ZOISITE!"

"I wanted to keep you safe. I couldn't risk almost losing you again," Kunzite muttered.

"Great idea!" Zoisite raised his hands to the heavens as he walked over Beryl's blackened corpse. "I could have sat on the couch with Beryl all day while we brushed each other's hair and talked about boys. She always did enjoy my company, especial when I was just sitting around not working my ass off for her. We would have had a grand time painting each other's toenails and trading cake recipes!"

"We didn't have to stay here," Kunzite said weakly. "We could have slipped off through a hole in time and space to somewhere where Beryl would never find us."

Zoisite snapped the blackened fingers from Beryl's staff. "You want to know the absolute best time to slip off through a hole on the universe to live in another time and place? It was BEFORE she killed me and not AFTERWARD!"

Zoisite seized the staff and leaned upon it like a walking stick.

"You're trembling."

"Of course, I'm trembling. In the past day alone I've been in about a half dozen fights, and that doesn't even count the fight we had to get me into the sailor costume. I've had my face torn open, I've been tied up and hanged by my wrists. I've been blasted to oblivion and back by a pair of hags. All for you! Not that you care. It will be a miracle if I'm ever able to fight again, but with this," Zoisite nodded at the staff, "I won't need to."

Then he turned and gave Kunzite a cruel smile over his shoulder. "Oh and by the way, you tinsel-haired freak, I think it's about time we started seeing other people. Frankly, I've been looking forward to my retirement from your relentless plowing. I know you've wanted to swing from the other side of the trapeze for the past few centuries. As of now, I'm more than happy to let you."

Kunzite's eyes welled with tears at these cruel words. Through sheer force of habit, he willed them into retreat. "You don't mean that. You can't mean that."

"I can't?" the boy's brows rose. "I'm sorry to inform you of this, but as of this moment, I can do whatever the hell I feel like doing." He lifted the scepter above his head. "The queen is dead. All hail King Zoisite."

Then he grinned at Kunzite and gave him a wink, "But if you promise to be nice, I'll let you be my lackey."