Malachite and Ami ran down the streets of the city. Unusual weather had been reported on TV and Radio stations, but now it was becoming a large problem as snow was starting to cover the sidewalks. They were sure to not miss a spot on the streets as they searched. Had Malachite known what Greg looked like it would be nearly as simple as a teleport, but it wasn't.

"Malachite, look!" Ami pointed towards a brown-haired kid running down the street.

"Is that Greg?" Malachite asked, ready to head after him.

"Yes, I think it is!" Ami began to type into her micro-computer, and was pleased with what came up. "That's him alright. You go on ahead! I'll transform and catch up in a moment. Something's wrong with this weather, and I don't just mean it's unusual. Something's causing it and I have to know what that something is!" Ami turned and ran off down another street. Malachite made haste in pursuing Greg.

"Hey! Wait up!" He called out to him, but that just made him run faster. "Hmph!" Malachite vanished into thin air, then quickly reappeared in Greg's path. But the boy turned down an alley, avoiding the former general. When Malachite turned to follow, he did not see him in the alley. "Just great. I lost him." Turning at the sound of footsteps, he saw Ami-now Sailor Mercury-running up to him.

"Where is he?" She wondered.

"I lost him when he turned down that alley. That would be a good place to start looking." The two took off into the alley without hesitation.

"Greg!" Mercury screamed as she saw him cornered by Prince Endymion.

"Ami! Get out of here!" He insisted. "Hurry!" But Mercury wouldn't hear any of it. Instead, she rushed in and stood defensively in front of her friend.

"You won't hurt him as long as i'm around!" She declared with confidence, no longer afraid of the evil prince.

"Hmph! Pathetic!" Releasing a wave of energy, he sent both of them flying to the end of the alley, just in front of Malachite. The attack felt much more powerful than normal.

"Sailor Mercury, get Greg out of here! I'll stall for time." Without waiting for an answer, the white haired shitennou leapt into action. "Hraaaa!" He launched a large ball of negative energy towards the prince, knocking him back a small distance.

Leaping into the air, Endymion slammed left foot first into the concrete ground, smashing it to dust and forcing Malachite to leap back in order to see. Emerging from the dust, he attempted to punch him in the face, but was skillfully blocked and countered. "It's a shame you betrayed Queen Beryl. With the Imperium Silver Crystal, you could have revived Zoicite by just merely touching something of hers." Endymion attempted to sway Malachite to re-join the Dark Kingdom of the Negaverse.

It was to no avail. "After the queen's act of murder, I will never serve under her rule again! And if it is possible to revive her, I will do it without the queen!" In rage, Malachite released a beam of negative energy towards the prince, who leapt over it with little problem. However, the destruction the beam caused decimated the foundation for a nearby fire escape. It came tumbling down, trapping Malachite underneath. "Rrrrgh!" He tried to lift it off of him, but such a large amount of metal was not easily moved.

"I'll be seeing you, Malachite. If the beast doesn't see you first." Endymion faded out of sight.

Malachite had had enough of Endymion's games! No more would he hold back simply because he was supposed to protect him. He would hunt that man down, and punish him severely. "HAAAAAAAAAGH!" In a scream of rage, Malachite released his anger in the form of an energy burst, blasting the metal trapping him into nothing more than a few specs of dust.

He angrily marched his way out of the alley, and pulled out his communicator. "Mina, this is Malachite. Endymion is heading after Greg and I have a good idea of where he'll be. Meet me at the fair grounds."

"We'll be there!" He heard the blonde reply from the other end. The communication cut out, and Malachite focused his mind on the fair grounds before vanishing into thin air, reappearing at the grounds.

As he had predicted from the path of negative energy he had sensed from the prince, Sailor Mercury and Greg were facing off against Endymion. "Step aside Mercury! It's not you i'm after!" He demanded again.

"Never!" She defied him with confidence. But she didn't have to fight on her own.

"You can count on it." Malachite leapt to Mercury's side, ready to fight full-force.

"Then I will kill you both!" Endymion drew his sword with one hand, a black rose appearing in the other. The showdown had begun, and there would be no holding back. Endymion was the first to attack, throwing his rose at Malachite. But the former general countered with an ice shard, sniping it out of the air. "Why you-" He could not finish his sentence as Malachite hit him right in the jaw, forcing Endymion to stagger back a bit.

Malachite formed balls of energy in his hands, then launched them all at once towards the prince. He managed to dodge, but the balls of negative energy decimated whatever they hit. Which included a light post, bulletin board, and a few bumper cars. "Stand still!" He fired a few more, tearing up the solid concrete of the fair grounds and some of the grass patches here and there.

"Hmph! Not even close!" Endymion flung a series of roses towards his target, but Malachite avoided them so they stuck into the concrete instead. Enraged, the prince attempted to slash him out of the air, but the attack failed to do any real damage other than a minor cut in his left arm, only further enraging the white-haired shitennou. "Aaaaaah!" He screamed in pain as an ice shard unexpectedly sliced through his wrist, making him drop the sword right into Malachite's waiting hands.

The former general attempted to cut his enemy down once they both landed on solid ground. But this only bent the blade against what was left the solid concrete ground due to his immense strength. "Ha! Too bad for you, prince!" Malachite taunted as he tossed the bent blade aside. It made a loud clatter as it hit the ground. "Naaaaaagh!" He shouted. Launching bolts of energy at the prince, his anger was rising higher and higher. At this point he was aiming for the kill without even knowing it.

He soon realized this though, as a golden beam intercepted his bolt midair and both dissipated in a near blinding flash. "Malachite! You can't kill him!" He looked over and, sure enough, Sailor Venus and Sailor Moon were standing there, Venus having been the one to stop his attack.

Malachite calmed himself, taking in a few deep breaths of air before returning his focus to Prince Endymion. Rather, where the prince once stood.

"Greg!" He heard Mercury shout, and on turning he managed to catch a glimpse of the boy being sucked inside the Star Crystal. With the last carrier captured it wouldn't be long before Beryl could unleash The Invincible Shadow.

"Why do you want him!?" Mercury demanded, small tears forming in her eyes.

"Why, to release the beast of course. Once it is free you will all be nothing but ancient history!"

Mercury wiped the tears from her eyes, she wouldn't give up. It wasn't too late to save everyone, and she knew it. "I'm warning you right now, let them go or face the consequences!"

Sailor Moon and Sailor Venus were about to rush in to help her, but Malachite knew that he couldn't allow that. "No, this is her fight. Trust your friend."

"What's gotten into him?" Venus asked Sailor Moon, this was a major change in Malachite's attitude and she wanted to know why.

"Oh please, what are you gonna do? Throw bubbles at me? Hahahahaha!" Endymion laughed at the opponent who dared to stand in his way.

"Mercury Bubbles Blast!" She didn't hesitate any further to create the thick fog that enveloped the battlefield. She knew, however, that this wouldn't suffice in completely stopping the prince. Sailor Mercury would have to take things into her own hands if she was going to defeat her former friend. She rushed forewards, and jabbed him in the stomach with her knee.

She grabbed hold of the Star Crystal in her opponent's hand, struggled to pull it free. "You stubborn little bitch!" The prince cursed, as no matter how hard he tried he could not shake her off.

"I may be a girl, but I am not a dog!" The incorrect use of the word had sent her over the edge in terms of anger. Normally it would not have offended her so much, but she had already had quite enough! With a final determined pull, she freed the crystal from his grasp and leapt back out of the fog. She landed safely on her feet in front of her friends.

"No! Queen Beryl's crystal!" Endymion shouted in anger. "You really are a stubborn little-" But he could not finish the sentence as Malachite socked him straight in the face. Knocking him out cold. All Sailor Moon and Sailor Venus looked at Malachite in expectation, but it wasn't he who had thrown the punch.

All eyes soon turned to Sailor Mercury, and they saw her standing proud and tall, a very rare sight to see. "I. Am not. A dog!" With a final anger supported burst of strength she threw the Star Crystal to the ground with everything she had, and it shattered into hundreds of thousands of tiny pieces. In flashes of their respective colors, the carriers were freed from the crystal and lay on the ground unconcious.

Her friends just looked at her with amazement. Nobody knew that, when pushed too far, Ami Mizuno could be so strong!

It was truly frightening to think that a normally timid girl could knock someone out with a single punch when pushed past her limits. The celebration was short-lived as Endymion's unconscious body vanished in a pink light, meaning Queen Beryl had brought him back to the Dark Kingdom. The Negaverse still had influence over him, something that a simple punch could not solve. It didn't take long for all eyes to refocus on Sailor Mercury, however. "Y-You just..." Malachite stammered, he was truly impressed.

"Ami! I can't believe you just did that!" Greg exclaimed, he had been fortunately awake to see the amazing feat.

Later that evening, Rei and her Grandpa sat in the room which housed the ever-burning fire. Malachite was there too, he had a lot of explaining to do if Rei couldn't handle it alone. "...and I'm sorry I didn't tell you. Really I am!" The priestess finished, hoping her elder would not be angry with her.

"Rei, I understand why you didn't tell me. You didn't want to put me in danger with this information." He sounded tired, although who could blame him? Being prisonor inside a tiny crystal wasn't exactly a good career choice. Then again, it wasn't a choice at all. "I'm proud of you, Rei. If it wasn't for you and your friends this city would be a burning mess by now!"

"Yes, unfortunately. That is indeed how the city would be." Malachite confirmed for them.

Even later that night, Malachite sat on the edge of his bed looking at the picture he had brought with him. "Zoicite...I wonder, could it truly be possible to revive you?" He asked no-one, unaware that Rei was watching him from the open doorway. He had been too lost in thought to notice.

The raven-haired teen finally spoke after a few moments of silence. "So, you two were closer than just colleagues?"

Malachite, for whatever reason, didn't seem startled by her sudden appearance. "Much more. I loved her, and she loved me. The day Queen Beryl executed her was..." He didn't finish, and instead began to cry. Wait, cry? He was the leader of the shitennou for crying out loud! How could he begin to cry so easily?

Well, it was rather easy if you had been holding back tears for weeks. Rei sat down next to him, and gently placed a hand on his shoulder. "Let me guess here. Since Serena and Darien were a couple back in the Silver Millennium, you and Zoicite were too?"

"I...Don't really know. I only have one memory of the Silver Millennium, and that is of the day that Queen Beryl lead her army against the Moon Kingdom." He admitted, but decided it was time to rest. "It's getting late, I'm going to sleep." He told her, and Rei gave him one final 'good night' before leaving the room.

Rei's question stuck in his mind for a while, and he looked at the picture again. Were he and Zoicite in love during the Silver Millennium? Or was there something missing?

He would find out soon enough.