Author's Notes:
If you need to email me, contact me here: Guardian4@atlantic.net. Please put fanfiction in the subject line so I know what it's pertaining to. I don't own Sailor Moon. It is the property of Naoko Tacheuchi.
Crystal Hearts
When The War EndsChapter 10: Ice Frontier
"Will the barrier keep all enemies from attacking again?" asked Chibiusa, walking along beside Pluto to the teleportation room.
"Unfortunately, no. Only that enemy, but we can defeat anything else. Don't worry about that."
Chibiusa smiled, but it disappeared a moment later. "Are you going now?"
Pluto looked down at the young girl. "I'm sorry, but yes. The Outer Senshi have a duty to do and that is to guard the outer perimeter. You know we come back every few weeks."
"But it's only been a week since the war ended! Can't you stay a little longer? I hardly got a chance to talk to you and Hotaru-chan."
"I'm sorry," was all Pluto could think to say to the downtrodden look on her face.
When they entered the teleportation room, they noticed the other Senshi, Shitennou, and the Royal Family waiting for them. The golden star glowed on the floor as it always did when it sensed the imminence of a teleportation. The blue crystal of the walls reflected the golden light, making the shadows jump around the room.
The Outer Senshi took up four points on the star, leaving the top point empty. It was traditionally for five people, specifically for the Inner Senshi and Sailor Moon, as it had been designed for that so long ago in the Control Room under the Crown Game Center before Crystal Tokyo had been created. Once the city had soared, they had shifted the teleportation pad to the palace.
With one last goodbye, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, and Saturn glowed with their signature color and disappeared. Chibiusa slowly left the room first to find Diana.
"I think it is time to let the survivors know the war has ended," Endymion said.
They had left a week open in case there were a few stragglers of creatures that hadn't been destroyed, but they had found nothing. Now that they were sure the war was over, they had to tell the people in the palace that were waiting for news.
Neo Queen Serenity and King Endymion left, followed by the Inner Senshi. Quietly, the Shitennou trailed after, staying a discreet distance behind.
They gathered all the survivors in the largest room in the palace, the throne room. There were many scared and confused faces looking back at the monarchs. A moment of silence filled the room and then they announced that the war was over. For a moment, it was still silent, as if it hadn't sunk in yet, but then small ripples of voices began. Soon there were loud cheers from every corner of the room.
The crowd began a haphazard exodus toward the outside, where they hadn't been for six months. The Kings moved out of the way, but someone knocked into Nephrite. He looked down just as the person looked up.
It was a beautiful young woman with long, bright red hair tied back, a pale aquamarine bow tying it together at the nape of her neck. Her eyes widened in shock and tears pooled in her eyes when she stared at him. She whispered something he didn't hear and he asked her to repeat it.
"Sanjouin-sama? Sanjouin Masato?"
"I'm sorry, but—"
"I KNEW it was you," she said and hugged him tightly. He lifted his head and looked around helplessly. His eyes connected with Jupiter's gaze and he realized she had been watching him. There was a strange look in her eyes, besides the ever-present suspicion, and as soon as he looked at her she turned on her heel, abruptly leaving the room.
The woman linked her arm with his and looked up at him with love and longing. He didn't want to hurt her, but he had to tell her that he was not the person that she had apparently mistaken him for.
"Excuse me, but my name is not Sanjouin—"
"I know, I just didn't know if I could call you that now after all that had happened before. Nephrite, how are you…" She trailed off and shook her head. "It doesn't matter. You're back and that's all that does."
Nephrite stared down at her head in shock. How did she know him? He had no idea who she was. He glanced appealingly at his friends, but they were gone. Only a few people remained in the room, most still in the process of leaving. There were no Senshi left either.
"Nephrite?" came the voice of an angel.
He looked behind him and so did the woman. It was Neo Queen Serenity. "Yes?"
She smiled. "Naru-chan, do you mind terribly? I really must talk to Nephrite for a while. It is important to the rebuilding of the world. I promise you can have him back, I know you've waited so long."
The woman looked a bit downcast, but said, "All right, Usa—Serenity."
Neo Queen Serenity and Nephrite walked slowly down the corridor leading to the front entrance of the palace, talking all the while.
"Do all your subjects call you Serenity? I should think they should call you Your Majesty. So much has changed since…" He trailed off, disappointed.
Serenity smiled. "Actually, Naru-chan is a close friend of mine from when I was younger. Everyone I don't know that aren't close to me, such as my family, friends, and Senshi, does call me Your Majesty or something like that. Things haven't changed all that much, Nephrite."
"If you don't mind my asking, but who was that woman exactly and why did she seem so certain she knew me? What did…? How did…?" He just couldn't bring himself to say 'I'. That he had done something like what he had heard he had done to the Senshi.
She got a sad look on her face. "I know you don't remember of what I speak and I know it wasn't you who did that, not you as a person, anyway. Well, we'll call the King in Beryl's army Lord Nephrite, all right?" He nodded. "After we defeated the evil Jadeite in Beryl's army, another King emerged. He made an identity to live by in the human world only so he could carry out his plans. That name was Sanjouin Masato. Now, Lord Nephrite met up with Osaka Naru, my friend, in his disguise. Naru-chan immediately fell in love with him. Apparently there were a few problems between Lord Nephrite and another King we hadn't yet seen by the name of Zoisite. When it became apparent to Lord Zoisite that Lord Nephrite had fallen in love with Naru-chan in return though he didn't know it, he used Naru-chan as bait. Lord Nephrite, in order to catch me as Sailor Moon, for at this time no one, including me, knew I was Princess Serenity, told Naru-chan he was from the Dark Kingdom, but wanted to leave. He lied to her when he said he wanted to leave, but she believed him.
"She had no idea that I was Sailor Moon, though I knew her of course. He had realized this. Trapping me with an illusion, I was forced to transform and he found out who I was. It was only myself, Mercury, and Mars who were the Sailor Team at this point in time. When Lord Nephrite saved Naru-chan from harm, they hid. Lord Zoisite, however, found them. He wanted a crystal from Lord Nephrite and he tried to take it by force. He killed Lord Nephrite and disappeared. Mercury, Mars, and I had just arrived in time to destroy Lord Zoisite's youma. Lord Nephrite said he wished he had time to date Naru-chan, but he didn't. When he died, Naru-chan was really upset. Eventually she started dating other men, but she never married because she's always been in love with Lord Nephrite. Keep in mind that you and Lord Nephrite look exactly the same even if your personality and such is not. She believes you to be the same King in the Dark Kingdom that she knew turned good, actually because of her."
Nephrite was silent for a moment, thinking about this. How would he explain to this Naru that he was not who she thought he was? Would she believe him? "When Naru hugged me, I saw Jupiter watching me. She had a peculiar look in her eyes then abruptly left the room. Why? Does she think I would harm Naru?"
Serenity laughed. "I do not presume to know what goes on in Mako-chan's head." He forced his face into a puzzled look at the name, but she just laughed again. "Do not try to fool me, Nephrite. I know very well that you know our civilian names. I know Endy told you. He wouldn't have been able to help himself. He loves you all like brothers."
"And you are not angry with him?"
She shook her head. "No. I would have done the same if the situation was reversed, but I cannot say that for the Senshi. Give them time; I think they will come around."
They had come to the castle door and with a smile at him, Serenity left. Nephrite stood for a moment and then turned down a left hand corridor to think about what Serenity had told him. He didn't want to hurt Naru, but he didn't want her to believe a lie either.
He sighed. Thinking so deeply, he didn't hear someone calling his name until they clapped a hand on his shoulder. Startled, he whirled around. Jadeite blinked at him. "What's up with you? I called your name five times."
"Just thinking."
"Mmhmm. Well, I don't know what you did, but Jupiter is sure in a right mood now," he said dryly. "I'd stay away from her if you value your life. She's pissed."
Nephrite cocked his head. "Jadeite, walk with me. I have to ask you something."
Jadeite followed his brown haired friend, worried. Nephrite never usually asked questions of mortals; he always consulted his stars. "What?"
Quietly and quickly, Nephrite outlined what Serenity had told him. "What do you think I should do about this Naru? I don't have the slightest clue what to do."
Jadeite leaned against the wall of the corridor and Nephrite stopped walking. "I don't know, Nephrite. I think you should ask Kunzite. He's always been the type to know what to do about dilemmas like this. Or you could even try Endymion. I mean, he lived then and he obviously knew her so he might be able to give you some sound advice."
Nephrite smiled. Jadeite might not be able to give advice, but he was always right when it came to telling someone who to go to get good advice. "Thanks, Jadeite."
"Welcome. Now come on. Don't stay inside, come out."
A quiet week passed, although it was filled with much physical labor as they tried to rebuild what had been destroyed. After much negotiating, the Shitennou had finally succeeded in getting the Senshi and everyone a day off. Jadeite and Nephrite, on Jadeite's suggestion, had taken a stroll outdoors. Jadeite felt concerned because Nephrite had yet to ask Kunzite, Endymion, or the stars his question. For the most part, he steered clear of Naru, which did not take care of the problem.
"Nephrite, you can't just keep avoiding her. She's really upset when you do," he told his friend gently.
Nephrite sighed. "I know. I just don't…I don't know. I don't want to deal with it right now. But unless I do, I can never really start on a good relationship with Jupiter."
"Jupiter? Do you like her or something?"
"Well, not like that…okay, maybe like that. For right now, however, I'll settle for the fact that she stops glaring at me or looking at me suspiciously wherever I happen to be."
"What about Mars? Seems to be the same with her."
"I know. I'm going to see if I can't do that with her as well. Jadeite, I'm really tired at being treated with suspicion from the Senshi wherever I go."
Jadeite exhaled noisily. "I understand that. It's really bad on the nerves and it bothers me, not to mention the fact that it makes me angry. I'm not the person she fought so why is she always watching me so distrustfully? Can't she, Jupiter, and Mercury give us a chance?"
"Yeah, I noticed that. Venus doesn't glare at us whenever we pass."
"Neither does Mercury," he pointed out.
"Yeah, but do we see her all that often? About once every five days. She avoids us like the plague."
"Like your doing to Naru."
Nephrite sighed. He wanted to hit Jadeite for being so blunt, but it wouldn't change the fact that he was right. They walked in companionable silence for a while.
The sun beat down on their heads, warming them. It was December and getting colder. Just the other night, he was almost certain it snowed a little. Footsteps behind them made them turn. Sailor Mercury, or rather Mizuno Ami, walked up to them purposefully. The Senshi's wish was strong to generally avoid the Shitennou, so it came as something of a surprise when she approached them.
"Yes?" asked Nephrite politely.
"Could you find your friends and meet me in the infirmary?" she asked.
"Why?"
"I want to run a few tests." With that, she strode back into the palace. "And be there in five minutes," she called back.
Nephrite and Jadeite looked at each other and sighed. It wouldn't do much good to argue, so they tracked down their friends.
They found Kunzite first, talking with Endymion. When they explained what Mercury wanted them for, Endymion gave them a pitying look. When asked what it was for, he said that they would find out soon enough. With a bit of apprehension settling in their gut, they went in search of Zoisite.
When ten minutes of looking yielded no results, they began to give up on him. They were already late for meeting with Mercury as it was and they had heard that she prided punctuality. They were walking down a corridor of the palace when they actually ran into him. He was just tying his hair back in its usual green band when he caught sight of them.
He had no more than time to greet them when Kunzite grabbed his elbow and began dragging him with them without even breaking stride. Jadeite and Nephrite smiled at each other and shook their heads. Kunzite's ability to concentrate on the matter at hand to the point of excluding even talk amazed them sometimes and it also gave rise to many of their great jokes on Kunzite's behalf.
Mercury was right annoyed when they showed up ten minutes late. She wore not her fuku, but a pair of black slacks, light blue shirt, and a white overcoat that came down to her calves. One by one, she called them in alone until Zoisite was the last left. He came in, slightly nervous. He had been struck speechless at the beauty of her more than once and he had no idea what to say.
"Take off your shirt," she said, barely glancing at him.
He gave her a confused look, but did as asked, taking off his cloak and vest as well. He held is clothing in his hands until she motioned for him to put them on a chair behind him.
When Ami turned around to look at Zoisite, she was immediately struck with how well formed his chest was. Blushing bright red at the thought, she asked him to lie on the examining table. Immediately her computer began to take readings, some of which were off the scale. His mental abilities paralleled to that of the greatest telekinetic power that she'd ever seen.
Just as she was about to speak, his voice lanced through the silence. It was low and thoughtful in tone. She listened but grew heartily embarrassed as he continued.
"Every waking minute of the day and night I am constantly bombarded by new memories and things that I had forgotten about. I even remember when I first met you back in the Silver Millennium. I hadn't remembered before, I guess, because it had been such a long time and I was disoriented.
"When I first saw you, you had just come to Earth as part of the guard for Queen Serenity. You wore your fuku of course and were a Senshi and you walked so proud. You were so beautiful under our sun, but it was nothing compared to seeing you on the Moon. I had never had the opportunity to meet you on Earth, you see, but when we went to the Moon a month later, I finally got to see you again and introduce myself."
"You can get off the table now," she whispered, blushing to the roots of her hair.
"I also remember thoughts and things about Kunzite, Nephrite, Jadeite, and Endymion." Ami felt her blush fade and she was heartily grateful that he changed the subject from herself. "We never thought of ourselves as serving a prince and us only guards. We always thought of ourselves as a family, friends forever, especially Kunzite and Endymion. There was no rank between us when we weren't in public."
Zoisite slid from the table and stared off into space. "I sometimes feel as if I don't belong here, in this time. But whenever I think that all I have to do is look at Endymion and you and I know that wherever my friends are is where I'm supposed to be."
He locked eyes with Ami, who couldn't tear her gaze away from the intensity of his green ones. "Listen to me, Mercury—"
"You can call me Ami," she interrupted quietly.
He smiled and whispered, "Thank you."
She turned back to the computer screen and pressed a few buttons randomly for something to occupy her hands and mind with. "Why do you thank me? It's only my name after all."
He shook his head. "It means you have given me trust and that I cannot tell you what it means to me. But Ami, back in the Silver Millennium, we had never had the chance of a relationship because we never met all that often even though we both expressed our feelings for one another. Please tell me we can have that relationship now. It is one of the few things that has kept me going these past couple of days."
"What about Kunzite?" she asked abruptly.
"What about him?" replied Zoisite, bewildered. "What does he—? Oh, I see," he said dully.
She looked at him, out of the corner of her eye. "You see what?"
"Do you love him?"
Ami whirled to look at him full in the face in shock of the question. "No, I don't, but I must know. What is your and Kunzite's relationship?"
"We're friends. I don't understand where—"
She sighed. "Sit down, Zoisite, and listen to me. By now you know most of the story about the Dark Kingdom. There were a few things, however, that were neglected to mention on purpose, one of those things being the relationship between yourself and Kunzite." Ami took a deep breath. "You and he were lovers then."
Zoisite sat abruptly down. He felt queasy down to the tips of his toes. "Ami, I don't know who it was you fought when you were younger, but I can guarantee you one thing and that is that I never have or will love Kunzite as anything more than a brother and a friend."
Ami turned away. She wasn't sure how she felt about Zoisite. Hermes had assured that he was no longer evil in his visits to her over the past week and she had taken his word for it, but that didn't explain what she felt. She knew she still felt anger at what he had done under the Dark Kingdom, but she also felt something else, something like what she had felt for Urawa. Do I love him? Can it hurt to find out if I do?
"Ami, please believe me," he pleaded. "My feelings for you are often the only thing that keeps me warm at night when I feel that I don't belong in this time."
"Every Sunday morning, all of the Senshi meet in the kitchen for breakfast. Just us as friends. I'm sure Endymion would like you to be there. Mako-chan usually cooks us breakfast," she said, stalling. "Sunday is like a rest day for everyone; a routine and right now, everyone needs to feel the comfort of a routine. Trust me; it's really interesting to be there on Sunday. We're just people then, not Senshi or Royalty."
"Ami—"
She looked into his pleading face and smiled. "We can try, Zoisite. I'm not saying a relationship will work, but we can always try."
The smile he awarded her with made her blush. Zoisite stood up and wrapped his arms around her and she looked up into his sea green eyes. He pressed his lips gently to hers and automatically her hands touched his chest. His skin was as smooth as silk under her fingertips and very well muscled.
Her eyes closed and she knew this was right. She had only spent a year with Urawa and even then in that year, it had always been an off and on thing since they had never really seen each other all that often. But she would try to make this relationship work as best she could because she really did love Zoisite. But she didn't know if she could put the anger and sadness from what he had done before away. Yet it wasn't really him doing that. He's proven that. But either way, can I do it?
The banging of a door opening pulled them abruptly away from each other. Both looked into the face of a very shocked Jadeite. Half a second later, the door slammed shut again and Ami buried her burning face in Zoisite's chest.
She heard a chuckle and looked up. Zoisite had a smile on his face and was secretly amused by something. She didn't ask what had amused him.
"Come on, get dressed," she told him, her face still bright red.
He took her face in his hands. "Ami, I love you."
Ami looked into his eyes. "I love you too."
Jadeite leaned against the door, his eyes wide. That was not something one just walked in on! Zoisite wearing nothing but a pair of trousers clutching a beautiful woman in his arms and kissing passionately! And it being Mercury no less!
Mars jogged up to the door. "What are you doing here?" she asked suspiciously.
"I might ask the same of you."
"I've come for Mercury. She's late for a meeting with Serenity and the rest of the Inners and she's never late. Move."
"No. You don't want to go in there," he told her.
"Oh, and why not?"
"Because…because…Can't you just trust me on this one?"
"Of course not. What have you done that has merited my trust? Besides, this is business of the Queen's and Senshi. She needs to be there. Now move!"
Jadeite tried to stop her from opening the door, but she shoved her elbow into his stomach, effectively ending the struggling and shoving the air out of his lungs. His back hit the right wall of the corridor and she opened the door with an annoyed look at him.
"Ami-chan—"
Her voice immediately cut off as she stared. Jadeite had a glimpse of Zoisite with his shirt half-on before taking Mars by the shoulders and yanking her back from the doorway. His head appeared momentarily as he promptly shut the door again a moment later.
One look at each other and they went running down the hall. That was just not something they wanted to know about. Gasping for breath after running full out down three corridors.
"Now, was she helping him put the shirt on or taking it off?" questioned Mars.
"Far as I can tell, putting it on since I caught them with it off already."
"Oh, okay."
Locking eyes, they burst out laughing.
"I would never have thought of that of Mercury," he commented.
Mars abruptly lost her smile and good attitude. "Why not?" she demanded.
He gave her a startled look. "Well, she doesn't strike me as the type—"
"What type? The type that doesn't get a chance to be like every woman?!"
"I didn't say that!" he said angrily.
She matched his anger. "You didn't need to! Look, Ami-chan is a woman like everyone else and if she falls in love then I'm happy for her and if you say a word about that to anyone, I'll fry you into a crisp."
"I didn't say anything like that!" he said again. "I didn't insult her at all! You're making a big deal over what I didn't say and would never say! Keep in mind that the man she was kissing happens to be one of my best friends, just as you are with Mercury! You have no right to yell at me for something I didn't say! I would never have said anything like that about her!"
"Then what did you mean when you said you would never would have thought that of her?"
"I simply meant that I would have thought that the kiss would have been done under moonlight!"
"Oh, so now you're saying that the only thing in her head is emptiness and girlish wishes?!"
"I DIDN'T SAY THAT!" Jadeite bellowed. "Why are you always trying to find hidden meanings in everything I say?! Scratch that, I don't want to know. No wonder you don't have many friends. You alienate just about everyone!"
"Oh, and I suppose trying to kill people by stealing their energy dry is good friendship making material?" she retorted.
They glared at each other before stalking down separate corridors.
End Chapter 10