Author's Note:

The normal disclaimers here of course and that I'm certainly not doing this for money.

There are a few elements that are exclusive to the manga, as you will read, but those only involve character differences than from the anime, such as the Shitennous' relationship. Also, the Golden Crystal, which Mamoru has.

If you need to contact me, my email is Guardian4@atlantic.net. Please put fanfiction or something in the subject line so I know what you're emailing me about. And if you're a really nice person (if this pertains to a certain fanfiction that I've done) you might want to put the name of the fanfiction you're referring to somewhere in the email.

All names are like the Japanese say them, last name first. So Kunzite's name would be Kail Rainer in America, but in Japanese it would be said Rainer Kail.

Army of Immortals

Chapter 3: Zodiac of Wrath

"Mamoru-kun, wake up! You're daydreaming while walking. Bad combination," Jayden said while shaking his head.

Mamoru blinked a few times and laughed, a bit self-deprecatingly. "That is a bad combination, isn't it?"

Kail shook his head. "Well at least we know which one you like."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"You're head over heels in love with Tsukino Usagi," teased Neil.

"Actually it isn't love," contradicted Zayn. "I don't think so anyway. I would classify it as attraction, yes, or perhaps infatuation. You know Mamoru-kun has never shown much interest in women."

"Ever the analytical," muttered Jayden.

Zayn shrugged.

"Did you guys catch the paper today?" Mamoru asked. "Did you read what the reporters are saying now?"

"What?"

"They're now saying Jayden has a relationship with Sailor Venus and that Sailor Moon doesn't like that."

Jayden rolled his eyes. "Please! Where are they getting this stuff from?"

As they turned the corner, they spotted a woman with a camera around her neck cornering a poor girl with red hair and a bow. When they got closer, they heard her saying, "Come on, I know they've saved you a few times! Surely you saw or heard something?"

"What are you harassing her for?" demanded Kail in an extremely hard voice.

The woman turned around with a frown on her face. "This girl has been saved by the Sailor Senshi at least three times and she claims she doesn't know anything about anything dealing with them or the Earthen Knights. She claims that she's always unconscious."

"And you don't believe her?" responded Neil immediately. "Why not?"

"Because no one in his right mind would be unconscious when the Sailor Senshi and the Earthen Knights are involved."

Mamoru rolled his eyes. "I seriously doubt she chose to be attacked in the first place, much less that she chose to be unconscious. Leave the girl alone."

"Excuse me?" she demanded, advancing angrily on the black-haired man.

Immediately Kail was at her and placing himself in front of Mamoru. "Get lost."

She frowned up at him, huffed, and left, casting the girl a look of something near hatred. The girl managed to straighten from her flattened position against a wall and bowed to them. "Thank you very much. My name is Osaka Naru."

"Don't worry about it. Reporters are all the same," Mamoru told her and they moved on.

"You conveniently forgot to tell her your name," commented Jayden.

"You noticed that, did you?" He smiled.

"Don't you think we should do something about the relationship between us and the Senshi?" asked Zayn lowly. "I mean, wouldn't it be better to work together against Beryl and Metallia? Earth needs all the help it can get."

"Okay, tell me when we have time to contact them, and how to do it without all the reporters," Neil told him.

Zayn was silent for a bit. "You're right about that."

"Those girls had to be the most beautiful creatures on this planet! They can't be real! They can't be human!" Jayden muttered, staring up at the sky with a lost expression on his face.

"I'm sure they're human," Mamoru said, pondering. "It's not like they're from other planets or anything. Besides, there's more than looks."

"I know that! But I didn't even get a chance to talk to that Hino Rei. Zayn dragged us away before I could." He leveled an accusing stare at his blond friend.

Zayn glared back. "And you think I didn't want to stay and talk to that Mizuno Ami? I would have loved to, but I had to save Mamoru-kun's image. He was so busy drooling that in another minute he would have drowned the girl in it."

"Hey!" He punched him in the arm lightly.

"I think we were the only ones who didn't make fools of themselves," Neil commented to Kail.

Kail laughed. "Well I never make a fool of myself, especially not in front of beautiful, gorgeous women like Aino Minako."

"I thought so," Jayden said. "Did you even look at that girl Hikaru again after you saw Minako?"

He blushed a bit. "Well, okay I'll admit that I didn't…Besides, she looked more interested in Mamoru-kun."

"Everyone is always more interested in Mamoru-kun. Why is that?" his friend complained.

"It's not like I asked for that."

"I guess it must carry over from that regal thing you have going on as Endymion."

Kail kicked him hard. "Shut up! There are reporters everywhere. If they even catch a whiff of that sentence, we're so screwed."

Jayden rubbed his leg. "I get it, I get it. Jeez, you didn't have to kick me all that hard."

Neil stopped suddenly and looked up at the sky. "Metallia has sent some youma through, near the amphitheater. And it's a strong one."

Kail ran with his friends to a secluded area to henshin to their more powerful forms: the Earthen Knights.

They never once considered that perhaps it was a trap.

For the first time since the two groups were aware of each other's presence, Sailor Venus found herself fighting back to back with one of them. His silver hair reached down to his shoulder blades and he wore a silver mask. She wasn't quite sure, but she thought he was Knight Kunzite.

They didn't know much about the Earthen Knights, other than they knew that Tuxedo Kamen was Prince Endymion. It had been a slip up, she was sure. During the first few battles with Beryl's youma, neither group had been doing so well. When a strike for Tuxedo Kamen would have killed him, she thought that it was perhaps Knight Jadeite that had called out 'Endymion!'

Then again, the Knights also knew that Sailor Moon was Princess Serenity. She herself had slipped up and called her by Serenity during a battle and situation much like when they had found out about Tuxedo Kamen being Prince Endymion. Those two were instrumental in defeating Beryl and Metallia.

There were very few memories, but she did remember the one thing that made Earth a very powerful ally, should they have done the peace treaties back in the Silver Millennium. It was the same thing that had made the Moon one of the most powerful planets. They had a crystal much the one that Princess Serenity now carried. She thought that it might have been called the Golden Crystal or something, but she was not entirely sure because her memories were so fuzzy.

Venus was fighting with all she had and it still wasn't enough to turn the tide. And there was something wrong with this picture. But there wasn't anything she could put her finger on. There were a number of youma for one, and for another, there was a strange pattern of attack to them, but she couldn't pick it out. Neither could Mercury, obviously, when she began to swear mildly.

And then there was laughing, laughing that chilled her bones. She knew that laugh. That laugh was the last thing she heard as she died on the Moon, when it fell, crushed beneath the feet of an undead army and youma, powered by a force that should not have existed, anywhere.

"Thank you for coming so easily to my trap, Sailor Senshi. And you as well Earthen Knights."

Venus looked up and saw a face in the sky, one that she wanted to see burning in hell for all eternity.

"Beryl," she muttered with enough hatred in her voice to send an entire city to its knees, cowering in fear of the wrath to be unleashed.

"You will address me as Queen Beryl, should we ever meet again, which is not likely. Also, you might want to say your goodbyes to your dear Prince and Princess. They will be coming with me."

Her head snapped down, her eyes searching for Sailor Moon. But there was so much debris in the way…so hard to see. When she finally spotted her, she wanted to yell out, but something held her tongue and she continued to search. What would be taking her Princess?

And then she saw it. A portal that was opened in the sky, tentacles reaching out and grabbing Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Kamen around their necks. With a movement that could only be described as a yank, their bodies dragged upward and through the portal.

"SERENITY!"

"ENDYMION!"

"I hope you find your new accommodations to be enjoyable," she said with triumph in her voice.

And then the face was gone, all signs of battle gone. Police were running toward them, but Venus wasn't paying too much attention to them. How was she going to get the Princess back?

In a rage, she jumped high into the sky and yelled, "Crescent Beam Shower!" A deluge of beams slammed into the earth. She landed breathing heavily and nearly crying. I FAILED, was all she could think.

"Fire Soul Bird!"

"Shabon Spray Freezing!"

"Supreme Thunder Dragon!"

Anger filled her friends' voices and their heavy breathing told them they were taking out their frustrations on the earth as well. A glance up and she saw that the ground around them scorched by fire, frozen by water, and shocked by lightning. Scored by anger and self-resentment, and there was nothing anyone could do to heal it.

Her gaze wandered to the Knights and saw they were taking the loss of their Prince even worse than they were taking the loss of their Princess. At least they had some semblance of control, limiting their rage to powers and not physical hurt.

It did not seem so for the Knights.

The silver masked one looked to be dying on the inside, such was the anguish on his face. His fist clenched tightly at his side and two small tears graced his cheeks. "Brother," he whispered.

The revelation was too much for her right then, so she ignored it. But was he calling Endymion a brother of the past or a brother of the present?

"Damn it, we failed!"

His hand slammed onto the steel railing and she looked at his mask, edged in blue. That must be Knight Jadeite, she thought seeing the bow at his back. The archer, the sniper, the ranger.

"I think we should leave before the police get here. Leave RIGHT NOW!" screeched one of the Knights with a green mask.

"Why? What will they do to us?" demanded Mars.

"They'll think we just killed six police officers," said the silver masked one.

Venus looked down and gasped in shock. "But they weren't police officers! They were youma! Mercury's computer scanned them as youma! They were youma, right Mercury?!"

Mercury stabbed down hard on the keys of her computer, frantically trying to make sense of her data. "They were youma, I swear it! But Beryl did something and every test that I now have says they're human! I have both files in front of me, right here! Both scans!"

"But they're not going to see that," said a burgundy masked Knight too calmly, as if he had no emotions.

"Sailor Senshi, Earthen Knights, you are under arrest for the murder of six police officers."

"But they aren't human!" Jupiter said hysterically. "They aren't human, they're youma!"

"Tell that in court!"

Damn, we should have left when we had the chance, Venus thought as they roughly dragged her hands behind her back and put cuffs on her.

Amid sirens and reporters, the two groups were shoved into police cars and brought down to the jail. For the most part, the two groups stayed together until they came to a split in the hallway. The Earthen Knights separated from them, shoved down the branch that had just opened up while the Senshi continued on, not by choice, down the same one as before.

The bars slammed closed behind them, the cuffs taken off, and they found themselves alone. But Venus could hear the catcalls and voices from the real criminals down the hall and most of them she knew she had helped put away when she had been Sailor V.

"What are we going to do Venus?" Mercury asked in a weak voice.

"About what?"

"About this jail cell! About the Princess! About Beryl!" hissed Mars.

"I don't know," she replied heavily. "I don't know."

End Chapter 3.