AN: Written on the Train. Probably needs editing. But here it is. Am considering getting a Beta.


Usagi sighed and sat down on the floor of the gym. "I really don't know, guys. I've thought about it a lot, but I'm not sure how it is that I use the Ginzuishou without it draining me. It's not something I have to think about it. I just do it." She closed her eyes, half expecting one of Rei's outbursts, knowing that if it came it would be an expression of frustration rather than real anger.

When it did not come, Usagi opened her eyes slowly and peered up at her friend. Rei was leaning against the wall of the gym, her own eyes closed. Usagi blinked and looked at the others, all of whom were sitting or standing in postures that suggested frustration and perhaps even defeat.

They'd only been working at trying to control their various crystals for a couple of hours, but the problem seemed to be more fundamental then even controlling them. None of them seemed to be able to even call on the crystals – except Usagi, and none of Luna or Artemis' carefully thought out plans seemed to produce any results either.

Rei slowly opened her eyes to see Usagi staring at her with an expression of amazement. The newly red-headed Priestess smiled slightly at her Princess. "You're stressed enough, Usagi. I know when not to take frustration out on you."

Usagi sighed and nodded, "I guess that's the measure of how bad this is, huh?"

Jay chuckled. "Nah. She'll just vent it all on me later." He winked to Usagi, hoping that his bit of humor would lighten the mood a bit.

While there was no real need for the guys to be there, they were there to support the others, at least that's what their story was. The truth was that they were concerned that if the ladies did tap into their crystals, they'd need to be carried home unconscious, like Ami.

"I think we're all frustrated though. And we've been at this for a couple of hours now. I suggest that we call it a day." Michiru's voice was calm, a fact which reassured Usagi. If the situation was not bad enough that it had broken Michiru's calm or Haruka's steady protectiveness, then perhaps it was not as bad as she feared.

Haruka smiled a bit, the concern fueled anger of earlier having been burnt away. "I'm afraid that the answer may not be something that we can reach through careful practice." The tall blonde ignored the scowl she was receiving from Kevin. She had liked the Shitennou before, and she had been glad to welcome them back once it was clear that they would not be hurting the other Senshi again. However, Haruka was not the kind to be even remotely intimidated by the leader of the Shitennou. "I think that we may all have to go through our own… 'stupid' mistakes before we can even consider gaining control." She smiled as she referred to her earlier rant.

Luna nodded, "I think that Haruka may be right. I was hoping that the exercises we remember from the Silver Millennium would be of help, but I think it might require an emotional trigger for you to be able to access the crystals outside of battle."

Kevin's jaw tightened, and he felt Minako gently slip her hand into his. "There's still time before the final battle. We'll just hope that no more than one of us is out of commission at any given time."

"I still don't like this."

Everyone was surprised when it was Mamoru who answered Kevin's continuing disapproval. "At this point, Kevin, I don't think any of us do. However, I'm not sure that there is anything we can do about it. And even more, I don't think that there is anything else we can or should try to do about it right now. We're all exhausted. Even if we were able to access our crystals, I think that we'd find ourselves too tired to be able to control them."

Usagi nodded and stood up, leaning into Mamoru, "So, even though we're not in charge of training, I'm declaring us done for the day. All of us."

Neither Minako nor Kevin argued with Mamoru or Usagi's reasoning. A fact which caused Neil and Makoto to exchange a look. Makoto grinned and Neil nodded.

"Well, it seems that our commanders are out of ideas too. I don't hear either of them protesting the royal decree." It was well known that both Minako and Kevin would completely ignore an order if they thought that it would protect their charges.

Makoto grinned, "So, since Neil has one of the two biggest places and the kitchen I'm most familiar with, why don't we all head over there. We can eat and relax."

Hotaru looked at her mother's who nodded. The young girl was tired, but an evening of hanging out with the others and enjoying Makoto's cooking was enough to elicit a squeal of happiness from the usually quiet teen.

Minako grinned, "Good! That's settled then. And Usagi and I can make the desert!"

"NO!" Minako frowned as several voices quickly shot that idea down.

Usagi giggled and offered a solution that she hoped would placate the other woman. "We can go check on Ami while Makoto cooks."

Rei nodded, "Make sure that Zack is taking care of himself too." Rei knew the man she considered to be a younger brother. Knew that he would be taking good care of Ami, making sure that the blue-haired physician did not get dehydrated, that she did not stay in one position long enough to get bed sores, that she was clean. She did not, however, trust him to spare any thought for himself while he was looking after her. He might be the Peacock they all teased him for, but she had a feeling that he was probably neglecting himself.


Ami tried to remember going to sleep, but the last thing she remembered was being in surgery with Mamoru, working on the little girl. She decided that she must have been tired from the operation and went to take a nap. Content with that theory, she opened her eyes.

The first thing that she saw was the nightstand. The clock caught her attention, and she realized that it was not hers. Blinking, she looked around the room and realized that she had again woken up in Zack's bedroom. She frowned at that, trying to remember what had happened.

She started to sit up; however, she found that she was weaker than she should have been upon just waking. Sighing, she forced herself to sit up and then leaned against the headboard. "Did I get drunk?" She could not remember having had anything to drink, but then she could not seem to remember a lot of things.

She heard a chuckle and looked to the door to see Zack, "No, Nymph. You didn't get drunk. However, all you've had to drink for the past little bit is the little bit of water I could get into. You need to drink some water before you dehydrate." He came all the way in and handed her the glass of ice water he'd went to get when he had noticed that she was starting to stir.

Ami took the water and drank deeply. It was only when she sat the empty glass on the night stand that she got a good look at Zack. Her Peacock looked rather rough –or at least rough for him. His shirt was rumpled, and his hair looked like he had been running his fingers through it for a while. However, what caught her attention the most was that there were deep bags under his eyes. She glanced to the chair that was by the bed and back to him.

"You've been sleeping in the chair. Why?"

Zack chuckled, "I wanted to be able to take care of you, hun. That's all. And I was not sure you'd appreciate me taking a nap in the bed with you."

"Oh." Ami accepted his answer, but she still frowned. She closed her eyes and tried to reason out what had happened. "Did I get sick? I mean, you said I wasn't drunk, but you still felt the need to watch over me."

"You don't remember?"

Ami shook her head, "The last thing I remember is that I was in surgery with Mamoru. It was going well, but then her heart rate started to drop. I remember the nurse saying that we were losing her…"

Zack sat down in the chair and gently took Ami's hand. He was not entirely sure how to tell the woman he loved what had happened. He had finally decided that she had made the right decision – and a briefing from Usagi and Minako and then another one from Kevin had verified his conclusion. "Do you remember anything else?"

Ami frowned for a moment, having forgotten what they were talking about briefly. Instead, she was thinking about how much she would like for him to hold her rather than just her hand. His question had not even fully registered in her mind. "Hold me."

Zack blinked, "What?"

"Hold me. Please."

It was not the request itself that had Zack confused, though while he had held the small woman several times, she had never once asked before. What had caught him off guard was where they were. "Ami, you do realize that you're in my bed right?"

Ami smiled and chuckled, "I'm not that confused, Zack. I know exactly where I am. And I would like for you to hold me, please."

Zack grinned and got up from the chair, moving gently onto the bed with Ami and positioning himself so that she would be leaning on him rather than against the headboard.

Ami closed her eyes and leaned against his chest, just enjoying the closeness and the feeling of his arms around her when she remembered what it was they had been talking about. After a couple of moments, her eyes flew open and she turned to look up at Zack. "Oh! I… remember. I saved her."

Zack chuckled and nodded, "And about scared me to death. Not to mention Mamoru. But yes, you saved your patient. Mamoru told me that they've run some preliminary tests, and it looks like she's going to be all right. She'll get to grow up."

Ami smiled and leaned back again. "I'm not sorry. I mean, I'm sorry that I scared you and Mamoru, but I'm not sorry."

Zack grinned, "I would have been surprised if you were, Nymph. While you were recovering, everyone met. The consensus is that you did nothing wrong."

Ami rolled her eyes, "I'm so very glad that everyone approves of my actions."

That caused Zack to laugh in earnest for a minute. "Oh, my Nymph." He leaned down and kissed her.

After they broke apart, Ami frowned again. Zack started to make some kind of snide comment, but before he could Ami asked the reason that she had been frowning. "They met while I was recovering? Zack, exactly how long have I been asleep?"

Zack sighed. "I would not call of it asleep. It was almost like you were in a mild coma to start with. You drained yourself of all of your energy love. You basically left yourself just enough to live."

Ami frowned and repeated her question, "How long?"

Zack glanced at the clock, "Just over two days. But from what Haruka and Michiru had said, that was what I was told to expect."

"Two days?! What about my patients?"

"The rest of your office divided up the workload. They don't know what happened, but they are being very understanding and just want you to recover."

"Where there any attacks?"

Zack shook his head, "No, love. No attacks. I think we got rather lucky."

"So what was that about Haruka and Michiru?"

Zack grinned, "Well, apparently you aren't the first Senshi after Usagi to use your crystal. That's what you did by the way. You used your Mercury Sapphire." Ami nodded with a slightly irritated look in her eyes. "Ok, smartie. I guess you figured that out. Anyway, apparently, there have been instances where both Haruka and Michiru used theirs to save lives as well. Both of them were out for about two days afterwards."

"Oh."

"The others told me that they think, at this point, that to use your crystal outside of a battle requires some kind of emotional trigger. At this point, I'd argue that it almost has to be saving lives. They apparently spent several hours yesterday trying to figure out how to use and control theirs without draining themselves."

Ami frowned, "And they weren't able to?"

Zack shook his head. "They weren't even able to use them at all."

Ami nodded, "I suppose that makes sense." She was quite for a moment longer, resting against Zack. After a few moments, of him just holding her and stroking her hair, she spoke again. "In the Silver Millennium, we used them regularly. I don't remember it ever draining me to use the Sapphire. It was simply a natural part of who I was." She frowned, "Of who I am."

"So perhaps there are still memories that you ladies need to be able to access in your memories yet?"

Ami frowned. "I don't think so, Zack. I think it may be that there is something more that we need to do. I suppose using our powers to save a life is probably just the first step. Even with that, though, there is something that we need to do…" She shook her head, not sure what it was, "It should not drain us, Zack. The crystals are our birth rights. They're…. oh!"

"Nymph?"

Ami sat up, with such force that in her weakened state she caused herself to feel dizzy. "We're not supposed to pull on our own energy to use them! The Sapphire is, quite literally, my connection to Mercury. It's from Mercury. It should allow me to channel the energy of the planet and use it as my own energy."

Zack raised an eyebrow. "So that's why Usagi is able to use the Ginzuishou without it draining her. Her connection with the moon is strong."

Ami nodded, "Exactly. We've actually been to the Moon Kingdom. She's talked to her mother. She's reclaimed her heritage as the heir and future queen of the Moon. We've tapped into the powers of heritages in transforming, in attacks, even with the improved powers – my control of water for example. But there's something missing."

"Please tell me that you're not saying that we have to actually go to Mercury."

Ami smiled, "You're a doctor, Zack. A scientist. Think of it as educational. And as something that no one else alive has ever done."

Zack sighed, "Do you have any idea how hot is on Mercury?"

"Actually, the cities were always quite cool. I remember you being surprised, the first time you were there, that you had to wear a coat outside."

"And I remember you ice skating in the summer and swimming in the winter. But that was a very different time, Ami. Do you think it'll be anything like that now?"

Ami shrugged, "I don't know, Zack. I doubt it, since the atmosphere has been burned away. But, I need to go home. If I'm right, then it's important that we do this. If I'm wrong, then at least I will see what is left of my kingdom."

Zack nodded. As a Shitennou, Earth was his home. His powers were based here. Even when he worked for Beryl and Metallica, he had not been cut off from his home, not completely. "All right, Nymph. I'll go with you. But you need to eat before you go anywhere! And we should let the others know that you're awake.

Ami laughed, "Doctor's orders, Peacock?"

"Doctor's orders. And lucky for you, Makoto has been sending food so that you would have something good and fresh as soon as you woke up."

Ami smiled, "As long as she didn't let Usagi or Minako cook."