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 5: Song of the Damned

Tuxedo Kamen watched as Sailor Moon blinked her eyes as she waked. She put her hand to her forehead, sitting up and looking around with wide eyes. "Where are we?"

"My guess would be in Beryl's fortress," he answered grimly. "Do you remember what happened in the battle?"

"Vaguely. Very vaguely," she acknowledged reluctantly.

He sighed. "I don't remember much more than that myself. All I know right now is that we are somewhere we don't want to be."

In the silence, they heard clearly the sound of glass shattering across the ground. And the door opened slowly, as if it had never meant to. A tentacle reached in, forming into a hand. Sailor Moon screamed as it waved in her direction slightly.

"Queen Beryl orders your presence," hissed a voice that sounded like nails shaken in a glass bottle.

"Tell her to come to us," he told him arrogantly.

The tentacle gripped Sailor Moon's neck. "Come now or she shall die."

Left with no choice, Tuxedo Kamen stood up and followed the youma. As it moved away, it let go of Sailor Moon's neck. She staggered and coughed in breath, her chest moving like a bellows to take in air.

"Are you all right?" he whispered, cautiously watching his footing.

"Not as good as I could be, but I'll live."

"In a place like this, all we can do is hope for that."

Huge double doors opened without a hand to move them. With trepidation in his heart, he proceeded first, before Sailor Moon, into the room. A woman sat in a huge, grotesque dais made of bone. She smiled and beckoned them toward her. He frowned, but with the youma surrounding her and them, he didn't have much choice but to do what she had obviously told them to do.

"Welcome to my palace, Endymion."

If she had attempted to add some warmth to her voice, she had failed miserably. "Hello, Beryl. I could have done with a less physical invitation."

"I hope you weren't harmed."

"I wouldn't know. I was unconscious for the past hour and woke up in your dungeon cell."

"I shall have that youma punished then," she said insincerely.

He crossed his arms over his chest. "I'm sure."

She turned to Sailor Moon. "Princess Serenity, I'm sorry you must be exposed to what you must consider to be horrid, but you must be exposed to some reality in life."

The Senshi frowned. "I'm not as fragile as glass. I'm perfectly capable of handling the 'reality' you think I should be exposed to."

Beryl visibly struggled with her anger. "Very well. Endymion, will you join me tonight for a little after-hours talk?"

His eyebrow rose theatrically. "You must be joking."

Her ingratiating smile vanished. "I see, it must be the love you share that continues to make you despise me."

"What love? I despise you because you constantly try to destroy the Earth."

She looked between him and Sailor Moon and then burst out laughing. "I can't believe it! They don't remember!"

Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Kamen exchanged glances. "Well, whatever we don't remember it must be better than you," his companion told her smugly.

"You may be a princess, but I am a queen and no one speaks to me like that!" She snapped her fingers and two youma melted from the crowd and approached them. Sailor Moon gave them a scared look that changed to excruciating pain as whips lined with broken glass slashed into her back.

Her screams filled the silence of that dark place with horrible feelings. It ripped his soul. He didn't think there were any other feelings between them...but he knew no one should have to suffer that kind of agony, not at all. Especially someone as softhearted as her.

"Sailor Moon, are you all right?" he asked, kneeling next to her as they stopped whipping her.

He could see tears threatening at the corner of her eyes. She bit her lip and muttered, "It hurts."

Tuxedo Kamen glared at that queen sitting on her throne, trying to look regal. "You ugly hag! She only said the truth."

And then he felt that whip cut into his back. He sounded one cry of alarm and pain before he shut his mouth, not willing to give Beryl the satisfaction of knowing how much it hurt him.

"Leave him alone, cretin!" the girl beside him yelled, supporting him as he leaned over in pain.

She screamed in his ear as one whip left him and proceeded to slam into her back again. He linked their arms together, each radiating support of the other as one human being hurt next to another in unspeakable torture.

An hour later, he hit the ground inside that dank cell that he found preferable than that of Beryl's throne room. His coat torn to shreds, barely reaching past his shoulders anymore. Thankfully he landed on his chest and not on his back, which was bloody and torn. Sailor Moon was not so lucky. She landed with more force and timed so that she would land on her back.

He wanted to scream and tear Beryl apart for what she did to them. True, their comments were insolent and intended to be hurtful, but he doubted that even if they were on their knees and praising her would she have left them unscathed.

Sailor Moon whimpered and rolled over onto her stomach. Her gloved hands clenched and she attempted to pull herself to the bed.

"Don't move, Sailor Moon."

She froze and he put his hands over her back. His healing ability wasn't great, unable to heal something life-threatening or something as bad as their backs, but he could at least take away some of the pain and ensure there would be no infection setting in. Who knew what was in this cell, after all.

Her muscles loosened a bit as some of the pain left her. "Thank you," she whispered.

He managed to get to his knees and help her to the stone bed, where she laid down, head pillowed in her arms. "Aren't you going to heal yourself?"

Tuxedo Kamen smiled. "My body's doing that already, I just extended some of that extra healing to you so it could help you heal a little bit faster."

He ran his hand over her hair as she shook with sobs. "It hurts so much. I wouldn't have been able to survive it if you hadn't been there. I miss my Senshi."

"I miss my Knights," he agreed. "But we're both here together and we'll get out of here together. I have no doubt that they will come for us. After all, now they have a legitimate reason to work together, don't they?"

"We should work together to get out of here," she whispered, looking at him.

"I agree. For starters," He held out his hand, imitating a formal introduction, "I'm Chiba Mamoru."

Her eyes widened. "Chiba-san?"

He blinked as the light in her tiara flared a bit, allowing him to see beneath the glamour that protected who she was. "Tsukino-san?"

"Then the Knights?"

"Then the Senshi?"

They laughed a bit at the irony. "I wonder what will happen when they find out who they are?" she pondered.

"I wish I could be there," he agreed. "But I don't think we have to worry about our rescue. I think Venus and Kunzite will make absolutely sure we get back."

"What did Beryl mean? What do we not remember? I think it's a pretty big feat to remember that we're the Prince and Princess, don't you?"

"I have no idea what she was babbling about," he commented. "But I have a feeling it wasn't nonsense."

She looked up into his eyes and he couldn't tear his gaze away. It was the same as when he had first laid his sight on her. She was drawing him in, steadily down to the center of the universe, silently explaining things that could never be understood in a thousand lifetimes.

He coughed a bit and looked away. She blushed slightly and gazed at her arms.

"If I remember correctly, Metallia wants the Ginzuishou. Do you have it hidden?" he asked urgently.

She looked around, especially the small set of bars in the wooden prison door. Leaning in close and whispering, "It's in my subspace pocket with my wand."

"Can she access it at all?"

Sailor Moon shook her head. "Only a Senshi. So, theoretically, as Mercury constantly explains and I never get, a Senshi can grab my wand and the crystal from my subspace pocket through their own, since she thinks they're all connected seamlessly. Does that make any sense to you?"

He sighed in relief. "Perfectly."

"What about your Golden Crystal?"

He imitated her, looking around and dropping his voice. "It's much the same thing with the subspace pocket. It's inside my cane."

"You're cane? What can that thing do anyway?"

Tuxedo Kamen smiled. "Well, on one end, it can extend into a blade. On the other, it has a small compartment that I have hidden the…crystal in."

"Do you think we're being monitored through that crystal ball of hers?" she whispered, their faces inches apart.

His eyes were wary as he managed to look around without moving his head. "Doubtless."

"Can she hear what we just said?"

"I don't know. We can only hope she didn't."

"I'm going to try using my communicator."

"Don't bother. I already tried when you were still unconscious. We must be in an entirely different dimension because anything other than that and the Knights' communicators would normally work."

She sighed, deflated, and dropped her head back onto her arms.

He ran his hands comfortingly through her hair. "Let's get some sleep. Our bodies will heal faster."

"What if the youmas come back?"

"I'll watch out for them."

"But you need some sleep."

"When you wake up, I'll get some sleep while you watch."

"But I sleep so long…"

"I'll be fine," he assured her and she smiled, falling asleep almost instantly.

He painfully settled himself on his stomach on the other stone slab that served as beds and alternated between watching the door and Sailor Moon.

End Chapter 5