Crystal Tears Chapter 2: An Unusual Partnership
By Aisuru


Although Jadeite would never have believed it, so thorough was his brainwashing and reeducation by Queen Beryl and her minions, he had not been with the Dark Kingdom very long when the battle on the moon resulted in the thousand-year sleep. The Dark Kingdom was all he knew, and he knew it well. He knew that Dark Kingdom citizens, as the humans working in league with the Dark Kingdom were called, despised Dark Kingdom children as everything weak was despised. They were tolerated, however, because much like the rogue dark spirits that were trapped and molded into youma, children with potential could someday become powerful warriors. They even had their uses as children, usually as scavengers of the energy and belongings of the weak. Even knowing this, Dark Kingdom children were regularly preyed upon by the more insecure Dark Kingdom citizens.

Few children were born in the Dark Kingdom, most being captured and reeducated, but children born in the Dark Kingdom were always taken away from their birth mothers and put in children's training camps, where the older children led the younger children and only the strongest survived.
Children were indoctrinated with Dark Kingdom propaganda, learned the skills they would need to be useful Dark Kingdom citizens, and practiced developing their talents, often on each other.

Now there would be no children's training camps, Jadeite knew, because there was only one child in the entire Dark Kingdom. As the only surviving child of the long sleep, she would be an object of suspicion whether
Zoicite kept quiet about the mental massacre or not. Alone, she might not survive the day, and Jadeite saw in Amethyst a potentially important asset. He would have to protect her himself. This is how Amethyst became the first
child in Dark Kingdom history to reside in the private rooms of one of Queen Beryl's own generals.

As Amethyst followed Jadeite to his quarters, she hid her growing anticipation by raising her chin stubbornly and pointedly ignoring the hostile looks of the Dark Kingdom citizens that stood at attention as Jadeite passed by them. Jadeite seemed to ignore her as she quickened her pace for
a few steps to keep up with his longer stride. The gentle, patient Jadeite had disappeared as soon as they had left the awakening room and were around other citizens. This Jadeite, what Amethyst came to know as her Jadeite, didn't return until he had barked an order to his second in command that no disturbances would be forgiven and slammed the door to his residence in a display of impatient authority.

As soon as the door had closed with a heavy thud, the Jadeite she had awakened to reappeared. "Well, Amethyst-chan," he started with a twinkle in his eye, "Welcome to my humble home."

Amethyst was startled by his sudden change in demeanor. Amethyst-chan?" she questioned in a soft voice, having no memories of being addressed in an endearing manner.

Jadeite laughed, a carefree laugh that he couldn't express in front of the other generals or those working under him. Amethyst dared a hesitant little smile in return.

"So, Amethyst-chan," he began, keeping his tone purposefully light as he sat on a couch, motioning for her to sit in an overstuffed chair. "The computer indicates that your natural talents lie in the realm of gemology.
Did you make that one?" he asked, pointing to her closed right fist which still held the purple energy storage crystal she had used before her thousand years of isolation.

Amethyst nodded, opening her hand to reveal the little purple gem. It had a slight glow due to the still-trapped life energy it held. After only a moment's hesitation, she handed it over to Jadeite's outstretched palm.

Jadeite studied the little gem closely. "Simple design, rather common actually, but it has held the energy well," he stated, and he set the gem down on a side table. Then the looked up at Amethyst. "Make another one," he said, his voice taking on just enough of an edge that she knew this was an order.

Amethyst hesitated only a moment, but the look in Jadeite's eyes suddenly chilled her, and she knew she had to obey. She closed her eyes to begin the crystal formation, wondering vaguely if he knew that it had taken
her hours to create that little purple gem. She gathered energy from the surrounding air, and the temperature around her dropped several degrees almost instantaneously. She then envisioned the crystal she wished to create, an exact replica of the little purple energy storage crystal she had
made over a thousand years before.

She channeled the energy into the formation of the crystal, guiding the intricate lattice of molecules, elements taken from the dust in the air around her, exploring newly assimilated but never before used knowledge
in the process. Her eyes were still closed, and her hands moved in intricate patterns through the air as she worked. She started to make modifications to the crystal, allowing it to hold more energy while making it more compact in
size. This bond she broke, that one she restrengthened, until she was satisfied with the result she envisioned in her mind.

When she opened her eyes, a tiny purple stone floated lazily between her outstretched hands. The stone was no larger than a two-carat diamond, but it was more powerful than any she had watched the older children make. She
allowed her gaze to be swallowed up by the little stone; it had a beauty in its power and an entirely separate beauty that had nothing to do with power, a beauty that was rare indeed in the Dark Kingdom. It was some time before she remembered that there was a world outside the intricate little gem. She lifted her eyes to Jadeite's gaze.

"That is an enchanting stone, Amethyst-chan," he said in a quiet voice, stripped of all emotion. "And quickly made as well. Could you make another one?"

Amethyst was surprised to realize that she had the strength to make another one, that in fact her hands itched to create again. She nodded and closed her eyes, beginning the gather of energy, when Jadeite reached out and grasped her wrist in a painfully tight grasp. Amethyst gasped and
looked up at the General in surprise and fear.

"Amethyst," he said, his calm voice and expressionless eyes masking a danger Amethyst felt and understood. "Do not show your talents to anyone but me. Understand?" When Amethyst just looked at him, he gave her a good shake. "Do you understand!" he bellowed.

Amethyst gave a little cry of fright. "Yes, sir. I won't let anyone know what I can do! I promise, sir!"

Jadeite let go of her suddenly, and she fell back against the chair, rubbing the injured wrist. He gave a nod as if nothing had happened out of the ordinary. "Continue," he said in a smooth, non-threatening voice.

Amethyst closed her eyes quickly, haunted by a stolen memory of Jadeite losing his temper when a youma was found to be defective. The man to whom the memory belonged watched as his coworker was devoured by a youma of his own creation at Jadeite's direction. She let her unsettled state be her energy as she formed the next crystal, a little more powerful and a little more beautiful than the one before.

When Jadeite finally left Amethyst, the side table by the couch in his quarters was littered with precious little gems. The gems were truly beautiful, Jadeite recalled, dozens of perfectly formed stones in all the hues of the precious and semi-precious jewels humans desire. What made
the gems all the more beautiful, at least by Dark Kingdom standards, was their incredible power. One or two of these gems could not only quickly drain the nonessential energy from the wearer, but could also channel their darker energies - energies like greed and selfishness - towards temporarily controlling them. This extra feature of the gems was one that Amethyst had thought up herself; she had "remembered" the complicated technique, and incorporated it into the gems after Jadeite had told her the purpose of the
stones.

Amethyst had made several dozen of the stones, indistinguishable by human technology from diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires, garnets, aquamarine, and, of course, amethysts, before she had finally sapped the last
of her strength.

"You are a dedicated little soldier, aren't you, Amethyst-chan," Jadeite had murmured softly as he picked up the collapsed child and carried her to a small room accessible only through his bedroom, where he thought she
would be the most safe. He gently laid her on a bedroll, covering her with a soft blanket. "I'm sorry I had to threaten you so," he told the sleeping child, tenderly brushing a purple-hued lock of hair out of her face. "If
Zoicite ever realized that your gemology skills so greatly surpassed his, even I could not protect you," he explained. In sleep, with the too-adult eyes closed to the world, he could almost pretend that she was just a child. "What other secrets do you hide, Amethyst-chan?" he asked before
he rose and left the room.


*****


Author's Notes:


PLEASE email me at aisuru_chan@yahoo.com with questions, comments, or encouragement (or criticism if you really want to) -- or leave me a review. Or both. Remember, my author name is simply Aisuru (not Aisuru-chan). I know, I know, you still haven't seen the senshi, but I'm trying to develop the relationship (not like that, you hentai!) between Amethyst and Jadeite.

Don't forget, Amethyst is MINE!!! I have worked really hard to develop her character, so please don't steal her. As you have probably guessed, this will be on the long side, but I have already written the ending, so don't worry that I won't finish it (like I have done with "A Love of ... Science?" on my webpage).

Once again I need to thank Aisuru-chan for editing my story (yes, I changed it after she edited it. This isn't an on-going thing; she edited the prologue through Ch. 2 at the same time). I would also like to thank my Koudanshi-chan, who will edit this story for me because he loves me so much, even though he has ABSOLUTELY NO INTEREST in Sailor Moon. Poor sweetheart. Don't worry, I am trying to work with him.