Title: "Savior"

Fandom: Sailor Moon

Characters: Kunzite/Zoisite
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon and am making no money here.

Theme: Kneel

"Kneel before God."

"But—"

"Demon child!" There was the sound of a blow connecting with soft flesh. "Subjugate yourself to God! Even He won't save you, but pray that your mother can ever cleanse herself of the taint of bearing you!"

The door flew open with a loud crash. The priest looked up, partially aborting a blow to the child's head.

Kunzite only had eyes for the girl cowering under the alter. She was the prettiest thing he'd ever seen, even thin and in brown, much-patched, homespun peasant clothes. He had known ever seen he'd sensed the trail this morning, but now he had no doubt this was the one. This last member of his Shitennou.

"You. You're the one. You're coming back to the capital with me. Bad enough when Jadeite died, but with Zoisite caught in the accident the palace has been in an uproar."

The old Jadeite had been female and a beauty in her day, but she had been as old as the palace walls as long as Kunzite had known her and just as tough.

Old Zoisite told me we Shitennou tended to beauty as well as strong magic. Somehow I was expecting a tough old whipcord merc like Jadda, not this slip of a girl.

"You don't want anything with this one, my lord." Kunzite looked up in surprise, having completely forgotten about the priest who had hurt his new Zoisite. His glare could have melted iron, but the priest continued on with the equal heat of righteousness. "Demon spawn, that one. No father that was anything human and now those witch powers. It's an abomination to God and should be drown for the town to be purified."

"This child is needed in the service of King Endymion III. I am Lord Kunzite, second to only the king himself."

"And let the palace be corrupted worse than it already is consorting with the Lunarians and their ilk. That demon's legally bound to the temple and the law protects the temple."

Damn it, he was right. Kunzite growled. Not even he could reacquisition a temple acolyte and from the way the girl cringed on her knees before the alter, from him, the priest, and the holy signs themselves, the locals had a similar view of the girl as the priest and would not be sympathetic.

Kunzite racked his brain for how an acolyte could be released from their vows without personal absolution from a least a bishop. He could think of one cause for immediate release.

"Then, witness this," he said to one of the soldiers who had followed him in, "you," he turned to the girl, "will you come with me to be trained as Zoisite in the King's Shitennou?"
"Yes," came a squeak somewhere between fear, surprise, and a decision that things could hardly be worse.

"With that consent I thereby declare, by the power vested in me as the Lord Kunzite, her my bride. She is my property now, not the temple's," he announced as he grabbed up the girl. She flinched as his grasp met with bruises on her wrist.

He dragged her out the door before anyone else could recover, hoisted her onto his horse, climbed up behind her, and kicked his horse into a gallop out of town.

"I'm sorry we can't stop for you to say goodbye to your mother. Even though I handled this legally like Endymion would want me to, I do think we should be far from here… if only to stop me from doing anything the king would make me regret," he added after a moment.

"It's all right, my lord," came a small voice eventually. "She's better off without me."

Kunzite tightened his grip on the reigns in anger. He did not want to know what they'd done to her to make her really believe that. He might be tempted to turn his horse around and do those things he would regret.

"You're better off without them. No one will make you go back now." He tried for something lighter. "You're my bride after all."

After a long pause she asked hesitantly, "You can do that?"

"I can."

"Wow. I knew city royal folk had power, but I never th'ght they could turn a bastard demonson like me into a lord's wife. Maybe God was listin' when I prayed for you."

There was something wrong with that statement, but it took Kunzite a minute to work it out.

"Demon son? You're—Maybe we should ride faster." Make the king deal with this.