Crystal Tears Chapter 7: General Suspicion
by Aisuru
aisuru_chan@yahoo.com

*****

Queen Beryl's generals were seated at a highly polished table in an extravagantly furnished conference room somewhere in the bowels ofthe Dark Kingdom. One of the chairs was empty, but none of the generals thought about that very much. The removal of Jadeite from their numbers had left each of them responsible for more Dark Kingdom
citizens, but other than the increased workload there were no personal regrets concerning Jadeite's fate.

"Anything to report?" Kunzite said, beginning the meeting. There had not been any incidents as a result of Jadeite's eternal isolation. Even if his citizens had been especially loyal to him, which they weren't because of his over-involvement with a purple-eyed child, a new fear of Queen Beryl sufficed to stifle the complaints of the most loyal. Kunzite suspected that all was quiet in the Dark Kingdom, and their only concerns would involve aiding Nephrite in planning his upcoming energy-gathering missions.

Nephrite cleared his throat, looking uncomfortable. "I believe that there has been unauthorized creature summoning in Tokyo," he stated.

Kunzite was shocked. This was no minor infraction of Dark Kingdom policy. Creature summoning was an energy-intensive process, and if Dark Kingdom citizens thought they could just teleport to inhabited earth and cause disruptions, then the Dark Kingdom energy reserves would suffer. "And you didn't think this was important enough to mention before?" Kunzite said angrily.

"Well, sir, I only felt the trans-dimensional rift open while meditating earlier today. I teleported to the location of the rift to investigate, and found myself in a park in the center of Tokyo. There was extensive fire damage to the park, and the humans were gossiping about a dragon attack."

"A dragon?" Zoicite asked. "I thought those were mythological!"

"They are, in this dimension," Nephrite answered, annoyed at Zoicite, "Like I said, it must have been summoned from another dimension." He returned his attention to General Kunzite, his commander. "Whatever caused the damage was gone before I arrived. What I felt must have been the creature being returned to its own plane of existence."

"Did you notice any residual Dark Kingdom energy in the park?" Kunzite asked. Residual Dark Kingdom energy might help lead them to the culprit.

"It was hard to tell, sir," Nephrite answered. "I think the Sailor Senshi were involved in stopping the beast. The aura of their powers remained in the air." Nephrite paused before adding, "That is why I didn't call for an emergency meeting. I could neither confirm nor deny that the summoning came from within the Dark Kingdom."

"That is even more reason that I should have been alerted!" Kunzite bellowed. "Did it not occur to you that the possibility of someone outside of the Dark Kingdom having these powers is more important than one of our own using powers without authorization?"

Nephrite shook his head ever-so-slightly in the negative, keeping his eyes on the tabletop.

Kunzite sighed. "We need to open the channels of communication between us," he said after a moment. "Jadeite's failures can in part be attributed to the secrecy he used with his energy gathering missions. We should learn from his mistakes."

Nephrite jumped at the chance to draw attention away from himself and towards Jadeite. "Maybe we should analyze what we do know of Jadeite's mission," he suggested. "I really don't know much about the strategies he used or what he was up against when it came to the Sailor Senshi. Anything we can uncover would be useful to know as I plan my upcoming missions."

"I don't know anything about Jadeite's mission," Zoicite muttered with a scowl. "It was like he was hiding something from me."

"Well, what do we know?" Kunzite asked.

Nephrite thought for a moment. "I know he always used those stupid youma," he said. "He must have used illusion spells on them, because the few that I saw looked remarkably like humans."

Then Zoicite remembered something he had overheard Jadeite say: "I think he mostly targeted women and adolescents. Something about them having a lot of emotional energies that were easy to collect."

"That makes sense," Nephrite interrupted. "I plan to take energy from one human at a time as they reach their energy peaks. From my preliminary research, adolescents are full of the energies of rebellion, competition, and romantic love."

"Didn't he collect energy from large gatherings?" Zoicite asked rhetorically. Then his eyes grew wide. "How did he manage to collect the energy from so many humans at once? The very best youma can only gather the energy from a few humans at a time, but he always collected a significant amount of energy before the Sailor Senshi interrupted his plans!"

While Zoicite pondered this, Kunzite changed the direction of the conversation. "The Sailor Senshi -- that is something Jadeite discussed with me. They appear to be adolescents themselves, which angered Jadeite endlessly. He said that two of them called upon the powers of the planets Mars and Mercury for their attacks, which are mostly elemental in nature. One has limited mastery of fire, the other of water -- she creates some sort of blinding fog. The third senshi, the one that appeared first, appears to fight with discs of energy. Oh, there is also a man that they call Tuxedo Kamen. He throws roses that cause temporary disruptions in the flow of the battle. Jadeite thought the roses had a brief stunning effect on the youma."

Nephrite laughed. "Do you mean to tell me that these dreaded Sailor Senshi, the ones that caused so much trouble for Jadeite, are composed of three girls and a man that throws flowers? I'm relieved. I thought they were going to pose some sort of threat, but I think I will be able to handle them."

Kunzite once again found himself frustrated by ignorant cockiness in the generals under his command. "It is foolish to underestimate an opponent," he said with a glare at the other generals. That is when he realized that Zoicite's thoughts seemed to be elsewhere.

"Zoicite!" Kunzite yelled. Zoicite blinked, coming out of his thoughts. "What is so important that you zoned out during a strategic meeting?" he asked angrily.

Zoicite blinked again. "Um, sorry," he said, "but I still can't figure out how Jadeite was able to collect energy from so many people at once. Granted, he didn't keep most of the energy he collected due to Sailor Senshi interference, but, from what Queen Beryl says, the energy he would initially collect were vast. That is why she was so frustrated when he failed to destroy the senshi."

"He probably had a talisman or something to focus the energy of those gathered," Nephrite guessed.

Zoicite snorted. "No talisman has that sort of power, unless..." he stopped speaking suddenly, his face turning an unflattering pink in his sudden anger.

"Unless what, Zoicite?" Kunzite asked.

"Unless he was using highly advanced gems!" Zoicite sputtered angrily, knocking his chair over as he stood up. "Jadeite didn't have the ability to make such gems. One of my apprentices must have been aiding him behind my back! I'll kill them all!"

"Sit down!" Kunzite ordered. Zoicite just barely remembered to right his chair before obeying. "Before you kill off all of your apprentices, which, by the way, are really the property of the Dark Kingdom and should not be killed off on a whim, let us think about this rationally." Kunzite was suddenly remembering the Dark Kingdom child that Jadeite had been so protective of, the child whose only talent was gemology. He also remembered that Jadeite's first energy collection mission had occurred in a jewelry store, where he had drained the energy of customers -- customers that were probably buying gems! There must have been a reason that Jadeite had kept Amethyst so hidden and the details of his missions so secretive. "Give me time to test out a theory I have," he told the other generals. "If my theory is correct, Jadeite had no need to involve himself with Zoicite's apprentices."

*****

It was hours after Amethyst's summoning of the dragon, but it seemed like only moments had passed when her healing sleep was interrupted by a cold, cruel laughter. Immediately awake, she bolted out of the bed, looking at General Kunzite, who was standing on the other end of the bed. "Did you often frequent Jadeite's bed?" the general asked, his voice heavy with implication, his ice blue eyes darkening a shade.

Amethyst wasn't sure what he was referring to, but she felt uneasy under his gaze. "No, sir," she replied when she had regained some of her composure. She ran a hand over her dress, smoothing out a wrinkle, avoiding his eyes. "I always slept in the adjoining room," she added, indicating to what General Kunzite knew was only a closet. "I am not so young a child that I cannot sleep alone."

General Kunzite laughed again at her interpretation of his comment. He then informed Amethyst that the Dark Kingdom citizens under General Jadeite's leadership had been divided among the remaining three generals, and that she was being reassigned to him. "Jadeite was very fond of you, very protective," he told her, eyeing her as one would a new possession. "I am interested in knowing why."

Amethyst kept her eyes lowered and angry, refusing to meet his gaze, as if a glance in her eyes would tell him all of her secrets.

"He said children should be hidden from adult citizens," she had answered in a small voice, feigning innocence as to the nature of his question, which she knew was an interest in her powers and not Dark Kingdom sociology.

"Of course," Kunzite said with concealed sarcasm. "I had forgotten. There aren't very many children in the Dark Kingdom."

"Not many?" Amethyst asked, eyes wide. "I thought I was the only one!"

"You are, my dear," he answered. "Why is that, I wonder?" Amethyst managed to hide any reaction to his reminder that she had killed all of the other children. It wasn't something she liked to think about. All of their memories swirled in her mind; their ambitions, their rivalries, their concerns -- she knew them all.

Then Kunzite spoke again: "Tomorrow you will begin training under my direction."

"Training?" Amethyst asked. "What will I be trained in?" She was worried that she would be unable to conceal from General Kunzite how advanced several of her abilities had become.

"You will be trained in energy projection. It is a special talent of mine, but I train all citizens under my command in at least the basics of energy projection, whether they have a talent for it or not. The ability to control energy aids in the development of many other abilities," he answered her. Then he added, "Jadeite once informed me that you were unable to teleport safely on your own. I will come by tomorrow to fetch you." Then he gave her a twisted sort of smile; "We can't have you associating with Dark Kingdom citizens, now, can we?"

*****

Author's notes:

I hope all of my readers enjoyed that heavy dose of the Dark Kingdom. I know this chapter isn't as long as some of my others have been, but I have been busy outlining the story to its end! I think that I will be on a one-chapter-a-week schedule for the remainder of "Crystal Tears" so I can get some deadline-fast-approaching work done for school. PLEASE email me at aisuru_chan@yahoo.com with questions, comments, encouragement, or flames -- well, maybe not flames, but constructive criticism is always welcomed... I said CONSTRUCTIVE!