With unwavering resolve the Shitennou stand ever-ready to defend the Earth from danger. Whether the enemy is wrought by the hand of man or hails from distant stars they are always on guard to form the first and last line of defense against all who would bring ruin upon the world. No great stories are told and no songs are sung of their mighty deeds for the Shitennou's righteous work must always remain unknown to the public which so often takes their labors for granted.
Adins Presents
"My Four Kings"
Today's Episode: Highway to the Danger Zone
The Four Kings Bar and Grill was closed and its proprietors were sitting at home around their kitchen table after a particularly trying day. Zoisite was bending over in his chair scratching behind the ears of William Shatner, the Labrador retriever that had inexplicably wandered into their home a few weeks ago. Nephrite was cross-armed in his chair looking as grim as possible as was his nature and Jadeite fussed near the stove pouring scalding hot water into four identical black mugs for tea. Kunzite settled down at the table across from Nephrite after returning from the bathroom and heaved a heavy sigh. Tea was brewed, passed around, and silence settled for a long while. It was a partially awkward silence, but also purposeful as Mamoru was lying sprawled out on the couch in the adjoining room, still unconscious after the episode at the restaurant.
"Maybe we should wait to do this until tomorrow?" Jadeite suggested meekly.
"No fucking way." Was Nephrite's immediate reply; he had not stopped staring at Kunzite since the elder king sat down at the table.
"Hey, don't cuss around my dog!" Zoisite said in a half-hearted attempt to lighten the mood, something which was rare in his case, but it did little good. William Shatner yawned and lay down across Zoisite's feet.
Kunzite wordlessly started the conversation when he reached into his pocket and produced the kinzuishou, the Golden Crystal, and placed it on the table in front of him. The multifaceted gem sparkled as though it reflected sunlight even in the dull glow of the illuminated ceiling fan. Acquainted as they were with the magical stone, the Shitennou were always brought to silent reverence in its presence. It took a lot of effort to speak on such a topic so near to their nature.
"The last time the four of us all got together like this it was on the night we found out about Endymion and Serenity." Jadeite remembered as he sipped at his tea. He too tried to inject some humor: "Nephrite broke a lot of stuff that night, I remember."
"Funny, because I seem to recall a few weeks later the Dark Kingdom appeared and wiped Elysian off the map." Nephrite responded, ignoring Jadeite's revelry, "I remember Kunzite telling us that Endymion had fled to the Moon and left us behind to die."
"He didn't flee; he left to protect the Moon. We stayed behind to give him a fighting chance to escape." Kunzite interjected with a disapproving glare aimed at the auburn-haired King.
"BULLSHIT!" Nephrite thundered and slammed a fist off the table, "You told us Endymion had betrayed the Earth to the Dark Kingdom. You said he abandoned everything and decided trying to get his rocks off with a spoiled underage Moon Princess was a better way to spend the last days of Elysian."
"Nephrite." Kunzite interrupted with a stern glare which his colleague returned with equal intensity, "We came to an agreement a long time ago about the choices our Master made during the old days."
"Yeah, there's no reason to drag our wounds through the salt again." Jadeite added.
"This isn't about our Master, you asshole!" Nephrite continued, "You were our leader. You called the shots and you were the one who convinced us that Endymion had double-crossed us all! You practically led us by the collar to Queen Beryl!"
Zoisite shuddered and turned his head away from Nephrite. Jadeite pondered the inside of his mug for a long time as the two eldest Shitennou bored holes into each other with their eyes. There was no touchier subject among the four kings than the horror of their own betrayal. The Silver Millennium was practically ended by their hands. They had bought Endymion the time he needed to escape, but when they were found by the conniving she-witch Queen Beryl it was the Shitennou themselves who renounced their loyalty to Endymion and began to hunt their former Master down.
"Don't think for a second that anything you're saying right now is changing my perception, Nephrite." Kunzite told his accuser in an icy voice, "I took responsibility for the things I said and did a long time ago, but you, all of you, have wills of your own. It wasn't my decision that we should join Beryl's crusade, we all decided it together."
"Together, huh?" Nephrite asked cockily, "I guess that's why once we got to the Dark Kingdom you were still in charge, right? Queen Beryl didn't even consider rearranging the ranks, you were always top-dog! You even led the charge against the Moon and commanded the battle where our Master died."
"I don't need to be lectured about this by you, Nephrite!" Kunzite shouted well on the verge of completely losing his temper, "I know what I did. The pain I have to deal with every single fucking day reminds me of that, so I don't need you to spell it out for me."
"No, I think you do!" Nephrite countered, "You've always been the one making decisions for the group and look where it's gotten us."
"Nephrite, open your fucking ears!" Kunzite roiled and his voice pitched higher, "I am not to blame for everything! Take responsibility for your own actions! If you followed me blindly into the Dark Kingdom because I was the so-called leader then every argument here is void! You could have opposed me; you could have stopped me, but you didn't! You agreed with me and together we committed that great communal sin." Kunzite paused as his words echoed through the kitchen. "I'm not denying what I did in the past or trying to make excuses for myself. I fucked up royally… and you Nephrite, you Jadeite, and you Zoisite all fucked up right along with me! You seem to forget we all had parts to play in our mutual betrayal, we each had our own macabre little specialties in the Dark Kingdom, or do I have to remind you of that, too?"
"Don't do it." Jadeite uttered in a dark voice which startled Kunzite who was not used to the younger king speaking so forcefully, "I still wake up some nights thinking I'm lying on a cold slab of rock in the Dark Kingdom. I can sometimes hear the youma's voices echoing in the caves… I have enough nightmares of my own to deal with, thanks."
"Alright, say for a moment I believe you." Neprhite began anew, "The great and powerful Kunzite is repenting for past mistakes. How does stealing Endymion's birthright and keeping him in the dark to his true purpose absolve you from anything?"
"This isn't just my penance, Nephrite. There's a reason all of us are sitting here. Alive." Kunzite explained as his gaze fell down on the kinzuishou, "As for this… I had hoped by keeping it safe and separated from Mamoru that we'd be able to avert another disaster."
"What disaster?" Nephrite asked, "You've seen what Mamoru is like these days. The biggest disaster I can think of is a car accident. Oh wait… that already happened!"
"And you spent the entire aftermath drunk out your mind." Zoisite reminded him, "You drown yourself in liquor because you're so wracked with your own guilt over what you did in the past that you can't even face it."
"Sorry Zoisite, I'm not the cry-myself-to-sleep every night type." Neprhite sarcastically replied, "And this isn't about how I deal with my shit, it's about why Kunzite has been carrying the Golden Crystal around all this time instead of our Master."
"No, that's not what this is about." Kunzite said with a shake of his brow, "You can keep trying to redirect everyone's anger at me, Nephrite, but the fact of the matter is none of us have been wanting to own up to past mistakes before now."
"That's bullshit—" Nephrite started to argue but was cut off.
"The Silver Millennium was destroyed because we didn't stand by Endymion when he needed us. The world was brought to the edge of ruin again because of what we did in the Dark Kingdom." Kunzite elaborated taking each of the Shitennou's gaze in turn, "It's been years since that day and there is no logical reason why the four of us were brought back if not to be given the chance to protect Endymion again."
"Then why take the kinzuishou, Kunzite?" Zoisite asked with pleading intensity, "Mamoru is the steward of this planet. The Golden Crystal is his direct link to the energy of the Earth. They're part of each other; without it he isn't complete."
"You keep telling us you want to keep him safe, just look at him!" Nephrite ordered and pointed towards the living room where Mamoru slept, "Have you ever known our Master to be such an idiot? He barely functions as a social human being. You ever stop to think maybe that's because he's missing some vital part of himself?"
"I'm tired of forcing my Master into a role he shouldn't have to fill if he doesn't want to!" Kunzite argued back, "He's had to command wars in the past; he had to abandon a normal life to fight against the Dark Kingdom. Is too much to ask that he just be allowed to live his life?"
"Maybe that's not what he wants?" Jadeite thought aloud, "Maybe if he knew the whole truth about who he is he would choose to fulfill his role. Steward of the planet or not, he has the right to make up his own mind."
"There's no reason we can't guard this planet in his stead. We've been doing it for years!" Kunzite stated and shrugged his shoulders, "Even if it takes four of us to replace Mamoru."
"Yes, we've been doing a great job of safeguarding the Earth." Nephrite huffed, "Terrorists kill a hundred people a day, wars are still raging over land and religious disputes, Global Warming is still running rampant. People are still starving and dying for lack of common necessities."
"Not even Mamoru has control over those things." Kunzite corrected him, "He controls the primordial energy of the earth, maintaining equilibrium within the natural world. The Golden Crystal provides the power to do that so there's no reason, collectively, that we can't do the same thing."
"We can't claim ownership of the Golden Crystal. It didn't come to Endymion because of great deeds or because he asked for it." Zoisite reminded the assembled kings, "The Earth chose him. He is the only one who can unlock its true power. It's the only reason the four of us are even still sitting here."
"The Golden Crystal is Mamoru's strength." Jadeite added, "Without it he wouldn't have been able to join with the senshi and defeat the Dark Kingdom."
"I believe it's the bond that Endymion and Serenity share that led to our master becoming the keeper of the Golden Crystal in the first place." Zoisite spoke in an affectionate tone, "The Earth and the Moon were always at odds in the past, but when the two of them come together there is nothing more powerful in the universe. The kinzuishou and the ginzuishou magnify the power of their love ten thousand times."
"That's very poetic, Zoi." Nephrite said dismissively, "But we're not talking about their cosmic love story, we're talking about why—" Nephrite abruptly stopped mid-sentence and his face twisted into a sneer directed at Kunzite, "Fucking Christ, I just figured it out."
"What?" Jadeite asked expectantly.
"You!" Nephrite accosted Kunzite and pointed at his face, "You're trying to keep them apart!" Kunzite said nothing and Nephrite continued his assault, "It didn't dawn on me before when you said it because I was so caught up in the Golden Crystal fiasco… you're trying to keep Endymion and Serenity from getting together again!"
Zoisite wordlessly agreed with the accusation and asked, "Why, Kunzite? I don't understand."
"That girl Usagi that Mamoru met holds the ginzuishou." Kunzite said after a long silence, "She is the Princess of old, Sailor Moon, and the greatest danger that exists to our Master's safety."
"How can you say that?" Nephrite asked in utter amazement, "She died in the fight against Beryl as well, all the senshi did! They were brought back just like we were. Why? So we could duke it out again? Earth versus the Moon, just like the old days?"
"Each time those two have been together it's ended in disaster!" Kunzite shouted back.
"Oh my sweet Christ, you hypocrite!" Nephrite cried out throwing his arms up, "You just said that we were to blame for what happened, that we betrayed Endymion and fucked everything up. Now you're saying it's because the Prince and Princess wanted to do a little bump-'n-grind?"
"All I know is their bond is dangerous!" Kunzite repeated his argument, "I took the crystal to prevent them from remembering who they were! All of us, Mamoru, the senshi, we could die and come back a hundred times and I'd do the same thing!"
"No, Kunzite. Nephrite has a point, odd as those words sound coming out of my mouth." Jadeite stated and Nephrite rolled his eyes at the remark, "You're turning Endymion and Serenity into a scapegoat."
"No, I'm—" Kunzite started but Jadeite boldly cut him off.
"Queen Beryl is dead. Metalia is gone. There's none of the ancient evil left to cause any great calamity again!" Jadeite argued, "Hell, Mamoru and Sailor Moon were the ones who destroyed the Dark Kingdom. We shouldn't be trying to keep them separated! Now they can be together without having to fight some terrible evil!"
"They managed to find each other without the help of the Golden Crystal." Zoisite reminded them, "I think no matter what we do they are destined to be together. Keeping the kinzuishou from Mamoru now is just delaying the inevitable."
Kunzite opened his mouth but Nephrite spoke first: "Face it dude, this is one deck that isn't stacked in your favor."
Kunzite's mouth remained open for a few moments before he finally closed it and looked down at the Golden Crystal. The rest of Shitennou remained silent, their breathing barely audible. The faintest glimmer of light within the facets of the kinzuishou called Kunzite's attention and he heard Zoisite gasp.
"Mamoru!"
The Shitennou looked up to see a bleary-eyed and disheveled looking Mamoru standing in the kitchen doorway staring more or less directly at the gleaming Golden Crystal. Jadeite was already standing in attention and Zoisite was on the edge of his chair. William Shatner got up and paced around Mamoru's legs, sniffing him, and laid down again right beside him panting happily.
"Are you alright?" Jadeite asked, finally breaking the awkward silence.
"I'm, uh … hungry." Mamoru said with the slightest confused grin as he ran a hand through his oily hair, "And it feels like someone parked a truck on my head."
"We'll get you some aspirin." Kunzite assured him as he sprang out of his chair, "And I'm sure there's something left over to eat. Zoisite, check the—"
Mamoru cut him off, "No, thanks. Really. I, uh… I have to get home. Is my car here?"
Kunzite stalled for a moment and answered, "Well… yeah. I mean, we brought it back with us, but why don't you just crash here for the night? We've got the room."
"No, I really just want to get back to my place and rest." Mamoru said, rubbing his eyes.
"Well then let us give you a ride!" Kunzite suggested and pulled Mamoru's keys out of his pocket, "There's no need for you to risk—"
"I don't want your fucking help!" Mamoru shouted which startled the Shitennou like nothing before. His face was red with anger, but still seemed twisted in confusion, "I just want to go home."
Kunzite nodded and walked around the table. Mamoru took his keys from the elder Shitennou's hand and their eyes met. The two men said nothing though they stared at each other for several long moments. Mamoru finally turned away and walked to the door.
"I'll see you guys later." He said in a melancholy voice as he walked out.
Kunzite watched the door as he heard the car's engine start and as the vehicle drove away. There was a fleeting hope in his heart that Mamoru would return, but he didn't. After staring at the empty doorway for what seemed like an hour Kunzite turned back to the Shitennou. His gaze fell on the Golden Crystall where it still sat on the kitchen table glittering madly though its light had faded again.
"Well, fearless leader?" Nephrite asked though much of the anger had left his voice Mamoru's abrupt exit, "What now?"
Kunzite didn't answer, for once not having one. There was nothing now to be done. The news was broken; the locks on Mamoru's memories were shattered. The Shitennou and their Master now stood divided and Kunzite at the center of it felt worse now than he did on the day he proclaimed his reluctant loyalty to Queen Beryl and the Dark Kingdom. This was not a betrayal of allegiance; it was a betrayal of trust which in the mind of the eldest Shitennou was the most despicable and unforgivable of all betrayals. Kunzite let the Golden Crystal lay where it was and wordlessly departed, climbing the stairs to his room without a sound.
After several long moments Nephrite sighed, "Fuck it." He stood from the table and marched to his room as well, closing the door with an audible, angry slam.
Jadeite and Zoisite were left in the silent kitchen save for the continued panting of the dog who lay in the doorway, cheerfully oblivious to its masters' pain. Zoisite got up and called William Shatner to his side, clipping a leash to the dog's collar.
"I'm gonna go take him for a walk and try to clear my head." Zoisite stated succinctly, "You want to come?"
Jadeite shook his head and remained his chair even after Zoisite and the dog were gone. He glanced up at the clock which read 1:00AM and sighed. Normally on a night like this he would already be in the living room with a bowl of popcorn ready to dive into a night of scrambled softcore, but he found no interest in that tonight. Indeed he found no interest in anything at all. He pushed his empty black mug away and laid his head down on the table resting on crossed arms. He was too tired and emotionally fatigued to even bother with climbing the stairs to his room. He slept sitting at the kitchen table that night and didn't dream about anything pleasant.
