Disclaimer: all and any Sailor Moon character belongs to Naoko Takeuchi. I just own the idea for this story. So don't sue me, but please don't steal either!

28

The window's ledge gave way to the bed right next to it, in a beautiful set of white and wood and feather pillows. The sunlight poured into the room, the curtains wide opened, casting a golden halo that gave the place a certain warmth to it, and it all seemed like a scene from a dream.

There was a girl sitting by the window. Her hair was loose, cascading down her shoulders in waves; the light from the window making it seem like burning gold. The light played with her eyes, bringing out the golden specks in their depths, losing against the normally reigning green.

But the warming light of the slowly dying sun didn't seem to reach those eyes, lost in some point up in the color changing sky.

Men had been coming and going for what seemed like an eternity, walking into the private chambers and calling out a name; whispering, begging, praying, crying. But ever since they first opened up just as dawn broke, those same green eyes remained glued to the sky, ignoring everything and everyone around, lifeless.

It didn't matter how many times the man called out to her. Their tears and desperate calls met deaf ears as the girl just sat there, hugging her knees; the slow and lethargic back and forth rocking on her seat her only movement. She simply remained like that, sitting by the window, watching the clouds roll by and the sky change colors, from day to night and back again.

Two days went by, and still, the girl would not move.

The world outside was slowly crumbling, chaos was taking over the entire land, and still, nothing seemed to affect her. Nothing disturbed the unfeeling expression of her delicate face, and nothing turned green orbs away from the sky. Nothing, not even when the men stopped coming to her side, or when the last one left behind followed them as well, swallowed by darkness as the figure hiding in the shadows dragged him down the one way road to hell.

There was no way to tell how long it had been there, that figure, lingering in the shadows. It was there now, just like it had been, waiting, haunting, taunting, when the first two men disappeared. No one could see it, for it existed on a different plane, only crossing the threshold when there was no one else in the room but the unmoving girl perched by the window.

Night fell and the light from the fires burning everything outside reached her. Chaos had taken over the citadel now, the fires spreading all around and casting eerie shadows into the chamber, illuminating unaffected eyes.

It was then when the figure crossed the threshold. Hair as red as the burning fires outside, fed by the forsaken souls and all the sins and crimes of the universe. The purple dress hugged an unnaturally slender body, far too tall and thin to be human anymore. A skeleton like hand reached out, caressing blonde curls, and the girl backed away against the window, resting her forehead against the inexplicably cold glass.

And still, her eyes remained glue to the sky.

"Look what they have done to you," the figure whispered; the voice coming out as a hissing mockery bathed in pure, putrefying hatred. "The once great King of the South, belittled and humiliated," it hissed, taunting. "Stripped of honor and pride, reduced to nothing but a pathetic little girl."

The sky cleared out, clouds giving way to the stars. And the demon-like figure smiled, already knowing what those dull eyes had been gazing at long before it would show up in the night sky.

"It's all their fault," it pointed; long, claw-like fingers hovering over blond curls, a black fog emanating from those fingers, now enclosing around the girl's unmoving form. "Those Moon witches, they did this to you."

The men came back then, appearing out of thin air, all three of them standing behind the human-like creature in the purple dress. A satisfied, wicked smile came to blood red lips; an almost insane look falling into bottomless red eyes.

"Join me, Zoisite," the creature hissed into the girl's ear once more. "Join me and your brothers, take your revenge for what they have done to you, to this Kingdom," she taunted. "The Moon must pay."

The fog had encircled the girl almost entirely now. And as it finally consumed her, as it found the forgotten soul captive somewhere in there, eyes still gazing up at that white bright orb up in the sky, a single tear fell down a pale cheek.

.-.

Long, slender fingers moved fast across the keyboard, typing the words dancing in her mind.

The paper wasn't due until next week, but there was something about Lord of the flies that truly inspired her. There was something about it, about the descent into savagery, about being ripped off of innocence that just called out to her. It was terrible just as it was fascinating, and it hit a nerve she never knew she had until now.

Somewhere on the back of her mind the worry over being paired up with a complete moron in her physics class was still there. And although she knew having to work with one of the most promising football stars of school -who only showed up in class because he had to if he wanted to keep on being on the team at all, but had no interest in learning anything whatsoever-, would inevitably translate as her doing all the work unless she wanted her perfect grades to suffer, she just couldn't let go.

It was late, probably around midnight, and she was already dressed to bed, wrapped around the gray Henley she used to sleep and her oversized and overused red plaid flannel pants. But she was too absorbed. If only she could find the right way to make her point and…

A sudden movement to her left interrupted her line of thoughts, and green eyes turned away from the screen and to her closet.

The table lamp illuminated only her desk, and the nightlight from the streets poured into the bedroom from the opened window; the branches of the tree just outside casting an intricate pattern of shadows over the floor and walls. Other than the small pile of clothes she had discarded only a few hours ago, the half opened door of her closet and the -kind of eerie- shadows from the tree, there was nothing there.

Shaking her head and chastising herself for watching one too many terror movies involving creepy trees and unanimated objects taking a life of their own -and really, other than a threat to Mr. Football Star's complete ignorance, her books could hardly count as a potential weapon of any kind-, she turned back to the screen. Maybe she was more tired than she thought…

Taking a deep breath, she forced her head into working again, trying to jump back into her previous train of thoughts.

Zoisite…

If the foreign name wasn't enough to startled her, the way it seemed to be whispered right into her ear surely did. Her heart did an acrobatic jump inside her ribcage just as she did one of her own on the chair, suddenly scared out of her mind as she turned around.

Her eyes went wide opened in pure shock as blood red eyes stared right back at her. The terrified scream that wanted to erupt from her throat never came as darkness surrounded her entirely and everything around faded away. And then…

Then darkness came.

.-.

The chocked, strangled gasp died in her throat before ever making it past her lips. Blue eyes flung open to the darkened room and she blinked up at the ceiling, letting out a shuddering breath in a vain attempt to force her suddenly heavy heart to beat normally once more.

She noticed the trembling of her own hand as she reached up, rubbing her chest; it felt as if someone had just stabbed her.

Someone did just stab her. Only, it was more of a sword going right through her.

An ice sword, unforgiving, cutting through her flesh and the ice burning as it penetrated her abdomen. And she could still vividly recall the way it felt as the tip of the sword made it past nerves and flesh and organs, all the way out to her back.

But it wasn't that memory what shook her awake. Maybe because she had already died a couple of times on this lifetime, maybe because the feel of her starseed being ripped off her chest felt that much worse and was so unbearably more vivid than the memory of a sword cutting through her a lifetime ago. For whatever reason -she wasn't quite sure which one, and she honestly didn't want to take her thoughts down that particular road and analyze it-, she had grown somewhat dull to the memory of Zoisite's ice sword delivering that last, final blow.

Her heart felt heavy and hollowed, and it wasn't about the twisted irony, the absolute end, tragic and irreversible and just so, so unfair, though noticing it was inevitable. Because, really, how fair was it for two people who had claimed to love one another, so sweet and tender and real, to end up facing one another in a desperate, fierce fight, killing each other? That in itself was heartbreaking and painful, even if she didn't harbor those feelings and emotions anymore. She still had a heart; it was impossible not to be moved -saddened, brokenhearted, angered…- by the way it had all ended.

But that wasn't what bothered her. It wasn't the end, nor the fight, nor the way those forest green eyes had looked up at her, warm and candid and loving, what now left her with a heavy, guilty heart. As harsh and desperate and raw as that last battle had been -weren't all last battles like that?-, it wasn't her last dying moment what troubled her now. Though that one memory always managed to shake her wide awake, it was the suddenly fresh memory of Zoisite's last words back then what now left her with this heavy feeling around her heart.

She had thanked her.

With a small, sided smile, sad and broken and hauntingly grateful, the frosted blood -proof of Mercury's last blow having been both accurate and deadly- filling her mouth as green eyes suddenly turned warm and soft and human again, the blonde Shitennou had actually thanked her. And that only now remembered moment and the realization that came with it left her with a heavy heart and an unendurable sense of helplessness and sadness, and… shame.

Because, while she had delivered her last, desperate attack to the Dark Kingdom's corrupted, soulless servant, it was the loyal Shitennou the one who had died right next to her own dying self; hurt and exhausted beyond repair, no longer proud but broken and ashamed, and human.

The Zoisite that died up there, in the still burning ruins of the Moon Palace, had been human.

She had been the executioner and not the other way around, as she had always believed. She had delivered that last attack with every intention of ending an enemy, only to end up murdering a helpless, broken human being.

She murdered her, and the woman had thanked her for it.

A soft moan, sleepy and slightly troubled, forced her out of her own thoughts and she turned to her right, only to find Rei shifting uncomfortably in her sleep. There was a frown on the Miko's face, and Ami wondered if maybe she had picked up on her discomfort; Rei had always been extremely sensitive to everyone's emotions, after all.

Not sure if Rei's powers were able to sense her even in slumber, but still not wanting to disturb her friend, she silently got off the king sized bed they were sharing for the weekend.

The sound of the waves crushing on shore reached her from the wide window, and for a moment she thought, so many people claiming it to be the perfect lullaby couldn't be wrong. And she had to give it to Michiru; it was quite soothing, indeed. But right on that moment, the never ending song of the sea -as the violinist would often call it- wasn't quite working its magic on her; there was too much noise, too many worries and troubles and doubts in her head, and this unbearable sense of guilt that just wouldn't go away.

Sleep wasn't going to come anytime soon, she knew. And a warm cup of tea to try to put her thoughts in order as she watched the crushing waves sounded like a good enough idea.

With her mind made up, she picked up the white sweater and threw it over her sleeping shirt, stepping out of the room. Not entirely familiar with her surroundings but trusting her memory, she slowly made her way down the hallway, one hand against the wall to make sure she wouldn't reach the stairs without noticing.

A curious frown came to her features when, halfway down the stairs, she noticed a light was on somewhere down there. Silence reigned all around the house; it was the middle of the night, probably around three or four in the morning, but it seemed someone was wide awake and out of bed already. But as she reached the end of the stairs, she barely had time to wonder who it might be; if the silver laptop resting on the coffee table wasn't enough of a clue, surely the Spiderman screensaver on it was a clear giveaway.

The absence of the laptop's owner only served to perk her wondering curiosity up, and after a quick look around the deck outside discarded that possibility, she followed the only reasonable place left, venturing into the kitchen.

She found her there, standing by the counter. Wearing a black hoodie, hood on and hiding blonde curls, and blue boyshorts with red trim on legs and waistband and Superman's logo on it, the sight of the final ensemble would have made her laugh, or at least smile, if it weren't for the fact that the end result only served to call attention to rounded hips and bottom, and left long, perfectly shaped legs bare and exposed.

It made her unreasonably nervous, eyes taking in every curve and shape of that slender body before she caught herself. Blushing furiously, she shook her head, forcing her eyes back to the blonde's straight back. A voice inside her head pointed out the obvious, reminding her it wasn't such a great idea to be around the girl right now; she was still shaken -troubled, confused, hurt… she wasn't quite sure of how she felt yet-, and she honestly didn't know how to react to it all.

But as she thought of all the reasons as to why she didn't want to be around her right now, her brows furrowed when noticing the girl in question seemed to be frozen in place.

The kitchen's lights were off, with only the one from the living room pouring in, illuminating only a portion of the kitchen and leaving the rest in semi darkness. And there she stood, staring at some point on the shadowy side of the kitchen.

What was she doing, this late at night? And what was she staring at?

Zoe hadn't notice her presence at all until Ami spoke up, her voice barely a whisper as she called out the blonde's name, so the surprised jump, turning around and facing her, half hanging herself off the counter as she stared at her didn't quite surprise the bluenette. What did surprise her was the complete and utter terror that flashed through forest green eyes right before they focused on her.

"Holy shit!" the blonde exclaimed in a hiss; all color drained off her face as she reached up a hand -slightly trembling, Ami noted- to rest it over her chest. "Don't do that!"

"I-I'm sorry," she apologized, her surprise at the blonde's -a bit extreme- reaction making her stutter a little. "I didn't mean to…"

"Damn… you scared the shit out of me!" the blonde interrupted, obviously still shaken.

She couldn't remember a time when she had seen her this scared. Not as Zoe, not as Zoisite -from either life time-; she had never seen her like this and yet she knew, without a single doubt, the young woman had been, if only for a fraction of a second, positively terrified beyond words.

"I didn't mean to…" Ami tried to apologize again, but the blonde raised a hand up, successfully shutting her up.

"Word of advice," Zoe started, the previous fear now replaced by exasperation, "never sneak up on someone who's freaking terrified of the moving shadows!" she finished in an aggravated exclamation; a hand waving around as if pointing at something.

Moving shadows?, Ami wondered, frowning lightly.

She remembered Masato saying something about moving shadows once. But just like right now, and sensing it had something to do with Beryl and one particularly unpleasant memory or another, she had kept her mouth shut, not asking the question that burning at the tip of her tongue.

It must be something serious, she mused, if Zoe was this shaken, even if she was now disguising her previously crystal clear terror with exasperation.

"What are you doing up?" the girl asked, completely changing the subject.

"I couldn't sleep," Ami answered, shrinking her shoulders, walking up to the cabinets and grabbing a cup.

She really didn't want to get into the details as to why she was unable to fall back asleep; not with the main object of her current distress standing right in front of her. But the blonde seemed to be satisfied with just that.

"I know just the remedy for that," she said, opening the fridge and offering to make some warm milk to help her get back to dreamland instead.

"What about you?" Ami asked, only now noticing Zoe had been in the middle of making coffee when she had stopped to stare at… whatever it was she had been staring at when Ami walked into the kitchen.

"Jei lied," the Shitennou stated, in a grunting, accusing tone.

Remembering something about snoring and the threat of Jei's life ending by Zoe's hand and a pillow, Ami let out a small, sympathetic laugh. Zoe chuckled, shaking her head.

"To his credit, it was more of a loud breathing than actual snoring," she corrected herself. "But it's still quite annoying when you're wide awake and unable to sleep, staring up at the ceiling and listening to him," she said, and then proceeded to breath soundly in demonstration of her fellow Shitennou, making Ami laugh again. "I didn't want him to pick up on me being awake, annoyed and…" she trailed off, vaguely waving a hand on top of her head. "So… I figured it was time for me to get out of bed," she finished, with a nod of her head as she gently and patiently stirred the warming milk.

"Shouldn't you be making some of that for yourself as well?" Ami inquired, tilting her head to a side in a curious manner.

"Nah," the blonde said, shaking a shoulder. "I don't really sleep much, anyway, so I figured, might as well be productive."

"That explains the laptop," the bluenette pointed out, nodding her head. "And the coffee."

"Hey, I need this, ok?" Zoe defended herself. "It's vital medicine. You, on the other hand," she said, filling a cup with the warmed milk and then handing it to her, "need to go back to your beauty sleep."

Unwelcomed, a blush spread across her cheeks. Thankfully, the reigning semi darkness hid it for her -either that, or the blonde simply didn't notice. "I think you're mistaking me for Minako," she teased, trying to hide her embarrassment behind her joke and her cup of warm milk.

"Fine, brain sleep then," the girl corrected herself.

"Now you're just trying to get rid of me," she noted, only half joking.

Maybe the blonde had had some bad trip down Memory Lane herself… What were the odds of them having the exact same dream? Did she remember at all those last moments?

God, I hope not

"Wha… Of course not!" the blonde exclaimed. "I just… I'm trying to be nice, here!" she defended herself. "Aren't you tired? I mean, don't take this the wrong way, but… late night drunken singing doesn't quite seem to be your scene."

She had to laugh at that.

About an hour or so after dinner was long over, she had been standing outside, contemplating the night sky with Masato, having one of their 'star talks', which inevitably always started with astrology but often drifted off into mythology, astronomy, to the arts of prediction and foresight -to which Ami's rational mind had a hard time fully accepting, though she did recognize it to be real, at least in some cases; Masato, Rei, and Setsuna being the proof of it-, and more often than not, ended up being a conversation about any given subject that had absolutely nothing to do with astrology to begin with. But their 'star talks' had suffer a slight change of surroundings; there had been no cups of coffee, no bells announcing the coming and going of costumers, and no Makoto dancing behind the counter, occasionally coming to their table to refill their cups. Instead, this time, and safely cocooned in Masato's embrace, openly using him as her very own human blanket, Makoto had joined them, silently listening to their conversation, occasionally giving an opinion of her own but otherwise just quietly enjoying the moment.

But then Jei came out, carrying a guitar he seemed to had produced out of thin air in one hand, and an opened and already half empty bottle of beer. With Minako and Usagi following right behind him, the blonde man took residence upon one of the chairs and proceeded to stroke the chords.

Soon everyone else followed, taking a seat around the table, bringing cold beer and good wine along with them.

To everyone's surprise, Jei turned out to be a talented player, though his singing wasn't; he had sang a couple of songs in different languages, with a good enough pronunciation but a terrible tone. Minako seemed to be the only one quite aware and already accustomed to Jei's guitar playing and off pitch singing, and was fast to jump right in, singing along with him. The repertoire of countless songs, both in English and Japanese, and some even in French or Spanish, was accompanied by one too many cups of wine and even more empty beer bottles that lasted until well past midnight.

Not being much of a drinker, she hadn't been among the more than a little tipsy bunch when going to bed. But staying up singing and laughing so hard her stomach and cheeks hurt, and after spending the entire day out on the beach, swimming, playing, laughing, with not a single moment to just sit back and relax except maybe for a little sunbathing on the sand -Minako had made it her personal mission to keep her away from all and any of the reading material she had brought with her for the weekend-, well, she had been long asleep before even hitting the pillow, completely exhausted.

Zoe had a point; she was tired. But sleep just wouldn't come to her now.

She watched as Zoe poured herself a huge cup of steaming, freshly made coffee, and for a moment she toyed with the idea of pointing out drinking so much coffee on a daily basis was more likely to end up gifting the blonde with an ulcer. But besides the fact that Zoe had probably heard that particular lecture one too many times already, and remembering her cardinal rules and the consequences of keeping her away from her daily fix of, Ami wisely chose to keep her mouth shut.

Her head was still lingering over several different issues anyway, her previous dream not being the least of them, and as a part of her wondered if it was wise at all to be around the one person who was causing her distress to begin with, another part was still curious about what exactly had caused that look of pure terror on the otherwise and usually confident girl.

In the end, curiosity won.

"What did you mean, about the moving shadows?"

Green eyes locked with her own blue ones for a moment, and she saw the blonde hesitantly switching from foot to foot as her gaze turned back to the more shadowy part of the kitchen. The ghost of fear flashing through Zoe's features, tamed and caged, but still there.

She was wary of the shadows, that much was obvious. And it made her regret her question immediately.

"Not here," the blonde finally said, shaking her head. "Let's go back to the light, shall we?"

With that, the girl made her way out of the kitchen and back into the living room, with Ami silently following behind. Making herself comfortable on the floor, right in front of her laptop and with the coffee cup nested in between her hands, Zoe pointed at the couch right behind her.

Accepting the silent invitation, she made herself comfortable on the far end opposite to the blonde so they could face each other. Carefully maneuvering her milk to avoid spilling it all over the expensive looking couch, she folded her legs under her and waited patiently for Zoe to build up the courage to talk about what Ami could only guess to be a very sore subject.

One that clearly still scared her.

As the blonde fooled around with her laptop for a while, picking up a few slow songs and putting them on the playing list, careful enough to keep the volume down to a minimum, Ami let her eyes wander around. Almost immediately, her blue eyes landed on the artfully made wooden chess set resting on the coffee table, and not for the first time since she arrived to the house, she wondered if it had ever been used for its real purpose, opposite to just being there as a piece of nice decoration.

"Nice, huh?" Zoe's husky voice forced out of her thoughts as she saw the blonde taking up a knight, inspecting the artwork. "I wonder if Jei would let me keep it," she said, more to herself than to Ami. "It's such a waste to keep it here gathering dust…"

A small smile broke into her features then, nodding her agreement. "I was just thinking that myself."

"What?" the blonde asked, now looking up at her with a curious frown upon her face. "You want it too?"

"No, no that," Ami said, shaking her head, though the idea of having such a nice chess set was more than just tempting. But she would never feel comfortable taking such an expensive looking set, let alone asking for it in the first place. "I meant it feels wrong for it to be nothing but a decoration."

The blonde chuckled. "Yeah… Do you still play?"

Still.

The word, simple and usually so innocent, reminded her that it had been Zoisite the one teaching Mercury how to play chess. Inevitably, it reminded her of the feelings and romance that had develop in between chess matches and intellectual arguments, in between fetching a runaway princess and covering for her comrades -also runaways- as they met with their own lovers. And how it had all ended…

Shaking her head and trying to fight the blush that had just tinted her cheeks, she reprimanded herself for constantly acting like such a shy little child in front of the other girl.

"I was junior champion," she answered, forcing the blush off her cheeks. No, it had nothing to do with romance, at all. And it had not been Zoe the one teaching her how to play chess this time around, either.

Two blonde eyebrows shut up. "Impressive," Zoe conceded, nodding her head, and Ami was rewarded with an inexplicable sense of accomplishment. "Let me guess," she then added, tilting her head to a side as her trademark grin made it to her lips, "saving the world from the apocalypse once or twice stopped you from becoming the next world champion, right?"

"Something like that," she granted. "Do you play?"

The blonde frowned then, straightening her back and shoving her nose up in the air in proud manner. "Of course."

With no more words needed than that, they both agreed to test each other's ability and strategies with the board game. Getting off the couch and making herself comfortable on the floor, she helped the green eyed girl move her laptop and books to a side and set the board.

A nice, comfortable silence fell all around, with only the gentle sound of the waves kissing the shore from outside and the soft, enchanting music coming from Zoe's laptop to fill the room. And Ami fell right into it, a quiet but strong sense of blissful joy enveloping her when she realized, without much of a surprise, how much of a worthy opponent the blonde made; she hadn't played chess in quite a while, and though both Mamoru and Setsuna were both good players, she had played against Mamoru enough times already to be able to guess his moves, and Setsuna… well, she wasn't always around, and when she was, the tall woman was often quite busy spending some well deserved quality time with her family.

But Zoe was right here, currently as unable to sleep as she was, obviously as into the game as Ami was, and every bit the hard to read and predict opponent. It was enthralling, really, and Ami let herself get lost into the world of knights and pawns and queens.

"That's how she got to people."

The blonde's hushed words, sudden and unexpected, broke the rather nice atmosphere that had formed itself around them, pulling her out of the match entirely and making her look up. But Zoe kept her gaze down, looking at the chess set with that same faraway look Ami had seen in her only once.

"To us," the girl corrected herself. "That's how she was able to move around at all."

Ami just blinked, lacking an intelligent comment to answer with. And when green eyes finally looked up at her, one perfectly shaped eyebrow going up both in challenge and askance, she blinked again.

"Have you ever wondered why she took us?" Zoe said, not as much in question, but rather pointing something out. "Endymion, she wanted all to herself. But why us?"

A frown came to her features then, only now, after so many years, really wondering about that particular subject. It was a point she had never really dwell on, in part because there hadn't been time for it while it was all happening. But even after it was all over with, when memories from another lifetime started to finally make sense, she had wrongly thought the Shitennou's betrayal was all the explanation there was.

But if there had been no betrayal, as she now knew, and Beryl had taken them against their own will and all but ripped their souls out and corrupted them, why had she done so in the first place? Why had Beryl gone out of her way just to get them, when it Endymion was the one she was after all along?

It was a perfectly valid, reasonable question. One that had never really occurred to her until now.

"She had Metallia by her side, and the power to create as many youma as she pleased," Zoe reasoned, taking a pawn with long, slender fingers and inspecting it for a moment. "So what did she need us for? Why us?"

A heavy silence fell upon them then as Zoe made her move with the piece in her hands, silently answering her own question.