Title : Wipe Out
Fandom : Sailor Moon (anime) Dark Kingdom
Pairing : Kunzite / Zoisite
Rating : a bit of violence and hints of sex
Copyright : Zoisite, Kunzite, Sailor Moon and the rest are the property of Naoko Takeuchi and Toei Animation, if I recall.

Author's notes : Zoisite narrating, and some more action, and the plot moves forward (who said "finally!"?...). It's a chapter I had fun writing because I could get the snark and psycho back in Zoi instead of just the "love puppy" angst...

Also some familiar characters appear...


Chapter 5 : Revelation

Lord Kunzite is more distant this morning. That just confirms what I guessed. I don't even dare to offer him to renew his plasters, even though his hands look only slightly better.

We don't talk much while getting ready, except when he gives me a dagger to defend myself. I'm a bit disappointed, because it's hardly a protection.

But according to him, no one wears weapons in this country by now, at least no one I should have to deal with. And I am not to show this one if I want to stay out of troubles.

Plus, he enchanted it with a shield spell and a poison one. So that should be more than enough, for the few danger I might encounter.

Then we go out like yesterday. He lets me order at the fast food restaurant. I half-heartedly try new things out of the menu, hoping it will please him.

I don't think he cares much about food. It's just part of his "training plan to get rid of Shiro", I figure. Or he has a mission for me. I don't know. I don't understand.

After a breakfast spent in a long uncomfortable silence, he tells me to visit the town by myself. He says Beryl shouldn't be able to track me down because of the protecting spells he cast on us both.

I'm unable to fake enthusiasm. I just nod and do as I'm asked, leaving him to wander aimlessly across the streets.

I barely pay attention to my environment, trying to figure out what to do with my life if Lord Kunzite leaves me.

The future is painfully empty. I never felt a lot of commitment to my own time. But at least I understood it, and knew what to make of it.

I don't know this world. There is no room for me here.

I look at boys my age walking around me, trying to guess what they do for a living. There are more young people outside today. Some have hair of all kind of colors, more eerie than Lord Kunzite's own.

I hear them talk of girls - nothing changed here -, lack of money and that educational organization called university, crappy works I don't get the first word of. None of that really appeals to me.

While I pass by a temple, I see offerings in front of it. It gives me a goal for the day. If we're going to part, I should find a farewell gift for Lord Kunzite.

I have no idea of what to offer him, though. He can conjure up anything he needs. And there isn't much that he needs, to begin with.

They do have a lot of toys making noise or lights and supposedly being useful, but I don't think Lord Kunzite would like any of it. He likes sober, dark things better.

sigh

Dark, fearsome things. Totally the opposite of me. I wonder why he accepted to buy the Jaguar car.

Well it's not exactly the kingdom of the dark and the fearsome, here. I find all kind of shiny pretty things, but hardly anything fitting a Tennou's temper.

I'm musing hopelessly at that when I see the reflection of those girls in a window pane. A short red-haired one who points in my direction, looking very agitated, while her friend with long blond hair tied in two stupid odango-looking ponytails tries to calm her down and drag her away.

The red-haired one escapes from her grip and runs towards me, calling out loud.

"Stop him! He killed a man!"

Uh oh.

I look around to see if people actually believe her, reach to the dagger in my jacket to silence her. Then I remember that Lord Kunzite asked me not to attract attention.

I push the red-haired girl and run away while she's down. I hear the other girl's shrieking, in an unpleasantly familiar voice.

Oh dammit. The stupid odango hair? She's probably one of the resurrected Moon Senshi that I saw two days ago, the one that looked like Princess Serenity.

Is the red-haired girl one, too? That would explain how she might have recognized me. I may have killed someone she knew in her previous life.

The streets here are crowded enough to offer a good protection and to lose oneself easily, but not too crowded that it would prevent me from rushing. The problem is that I do attract attention by doing so.

I slow down to enter into a big clothes shop, and try to hide among the hanged articles. As I crawl in a semi-closed corner, I realize that this would be a perfect gift for Lord Kunzite. A Senshi's head. Possibly two.

I hear the annoying girls' voices as they come into the shop.

"He can't have gone anywhere else!"

They ask around if I've been seen. I nearly rush out of my hid in frustration when a saleswoman tell them that she's seen a girl fitting the description walking in my section.

But I bite my thumb and creep a few departments farther, moving closer to the door in a detour. I wait until the girls walk away from the door, then I stand up and run towards it.

Right away the saleswoman points at me and warns them. I turn my head to give them a mocking smile as I pass the door and rush outside.

They follow me, as expected. I could distance them easily now, but I make sure to let them see me from far each time I could lose them. We gradually leave crowded shopping neighborhoods and reach ones with smaller streets.

I dive into a very tight passage between two houses, and wait out of it just at the corner. After a while I hear the girls' footsteps.

"Naru-chan, wait! It could be dangerous!"

The Senshi is more sensible than I thought, but her friend isn't. I don't know who I killed to make her so determined, but it was certainly someone she loved.

Good. That makes her careless. She barely slows down as she steps into the passage. I can hear them both panting.

Poor little things. Not much of a soldier's training, uh?

Just as a hurried breath comes to my ears, I turn around the corner, wraps my arm around the girl's chest and hold my dagger against her throat.

They both shriek. The Senshi faces me with a helpless look on her face. She seems to be about to cry.

So, it's the red-haired one I have in my power. And the Senshi cares for her so much that she won't try anything. Perfect! If she would just stop struggling in my arms...

"Don't make a move, neither of you. Or I kill her!"

The Senshi seems torn between anger and concern for her friend. Is that the fearsome Senshi defending the Moon Kingdom? How come the Dark Kingdom lost against them?

That Naru girl still tries to free herself from me.

"I don't care! You killed Nephrite, I want to see you die!"

What? What's that non-sense? I burst out laughing.

"Nephrite? You've got the wrong person, I didn't kill him. I would have done it if I could, though."

Yet something stirs in my mind, but I don't have the time to think about that now.

"Crescent Beam!"

That was a shout from behind me. I turn around to face the danger and I'm hit by something. Naru escapes from me while I try to gather my balance.

"Shabon Spray!"

A fourth voice coming from the same direction. I'm struck by what feels like a freezing wave and fall down, paralyzed.

"Are you okay, Naru-chan?"

I can't move and I can't see, but I hear footsteps gathering around me while the stupid haired Senshi starts babbling. Four... Five.. Six girls, counting my ex hostage and her friend. Naru calms down the blonde.

"I'm fine. Oh, you're the Sailor Senshi? We're so lucky that you arrived just in time! How did you know he was there?"

Uh? Are you blind? Your friend is one of them, silly!

"Oh, we, uh, were called."

From the voice, that's the one who did the Shabon Spray attack. She doesn't lie very well.

"Is that really Zoisite? He looks different."

Zoisite? Who's that? It's a fifth girl who's been speaking, with a lower voice.

"It's just because he doesn't wear his uniform, and his hair is shorter than the last time we saw him. But it's the same vicious rat, I recognize his face. And he attacked Naru, right?"

Sixth girl. Whoever Zoisite is, she doesn't like him, and she talks rudely. Naru replies :

"N...No, he didn't attack us. But I'm sure it's him. Didn't you hear what he said about Nephrite?"

"Precisely. He said he didn't kill him. And isn't it strange that he didn't use any of his powers? But..."

Shabon-girl sounds more reasoned than the others. It bugs me that apart from her, they all think I am this Zoisite. Though...

"Here. My VR computer tells me that the biological patterns match, but not the energy ones. He's human. Oh no!"

I feel like if I've been drenched into a river of ice. And that's not just the effect of her Shabon Spray. My heart just froze. I don't hear what they say next even though they discuss what they're going to do with me.

The pieces just arranged into a pattern that makes sense suddenly. The four years missing. The fact that I was supposedly sealed by Metallia while other regular soldiers were not affected. Lord Kunzite's behavior.

Well, no, THAT still doesn't make sense. But it's a bit less surprising that he'd do all that for me if I was a Tennou, and not just some bug of a human being.

I sense a weight and a shadow falling on us suddenly. The girls must suffer from it worse than I do, because I hear them shouting and dropping around me.

I feel lifted from the ground and hear my lord's voice, but I'm still paralyzed.

"What have you done to him?"

Oh. He sounds... pretty pissed. It makes me feel insanely happy. Shabon girl replies with pain in her voice.

"Shabon Spray... I don't know how it affects a human being... I didn't mean to kill him... I thought he had his powers..."

The low buzz of Lord Kunzite's gravity shields fades a little.

"He's not dead. Otherwise you'd be dead too already. Why don't you leave us alone, Senshi? We're not looking for troubles."

Not looking for troubles? No matter what you say, Lord Kunzite, we are their enemies. You even more than I was. Your kingdom plotted to fight the Moon Kingdom for as long as I remember.

And if I really was ever a Tennou... Then they are my enemies, too.

"You ARE troubles, all of you!"

Yes, loud one. And proud of it. Oh it's aggravating to have my tongue tied that way!

"It may be true, but I'd think that you would rather focus your energy on fighting the most dangerous threat than tracking down retired players."

I realize I had missed his sarcastic remarks. Another thing he seemed to have lost. I'm not unhappy that they're not aimed at me, though.

"Retired players? When did that happen?"

"In front of you all, silly girls. Don't you remember the Starlight Tower?"

Shabon girl calms down the discussion with her ever so reasonable arguing.

"We saw that, but why would we believe you? You always lied and plotted against us. It may be just a plan to fool us."

When Lord Kunzite replies after a few seconds, I can hear the smile in his voice.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence on our schemes, Mercury. However, you overestimate Queen Beryl here."

"You kidnapped my Tuxedo Kamen! Give him back to me!"

What's a Tuxedo Kamen now? Stupid hair's favorite fashion accessory?

I feel so left behind.

"I can't do anything about your Tuxedo Kamen, he's in the hands of Queen Beryl now."

Oops. So it's someone, not something.

"Is he alive?"

"I figure he is. She didn't want us to kill him."

Stupid hair lets out a joyous squeal. Even her friends sound annoyed by it. Shabon girl - Mercury - gets back to the point.

"We can't trust you."

"I don't want you to trust me. Just leave us alone and we won't get in your way. Live and let live."

That's when Naru intervenes.

"You can't let them go! Zoisite killed my Nephrite!"

'My' Nephrite? Wow, wait a minute? When did a Tennou become a fashion accessory for Earthian girls, too?

"Zoisite is dead. He lost his powers and his memory. He doesn't even remember what he's been. He's no danger anymore."

Whaaaat?! That's not fair, Lord Kunzite! Maybe I've lost whatever powers I've had, but I'm still a soldier, and a damn good one with that! Without the rest of the gang, I could have taken down that Senshi and her red-head friend!

"How did that happen?"

"You don't have to know that, Mercury", Lord Kunzite snaps back.

Damn. I wanted to hear it, too.

"Does it have something to do with you both leaving Queen Beryl's service?"

There's a pause after Crescent girl's question.

"Something else that's none of your business, Venus. Don't you have any sense of strategy? Your enemy no longer has any of her most powerful warriors under her command. You should be making plans to attack her now while she's weakened. Not discussing why said Tennous left her, or risking your precious lives to fight us while Beryl is planning the world's destruction! Grow up! You're never going to win this war otherwise!"

Hehe, I don't have to see them to feel the Senshi offended by that.

"You don't want us to win this war."

"I don't want Beryl to win. She is going to destroy the world, and now that we are no longer part of the Dark Kingdom, that means she will destroy us, too."

I don't know Beryl a lot, but I hate her now.

"Then why don't you help us to fight her!"

Mercury sounds very enthusiastic now. Bleah. As if we were going to fight by their side for any reason.

Longer pause.

"For the same reason that Youma and Shinma always fought for Queen Metallia. Because we are her children, and she gives us life and power. We will all die if you kill her."

My heart stops. Die?... Lord Kunzite? He... can't...

Oh no. Will I die too? Is my life tied to Metallia's still, or will I survive? I don't think he knows either. And it doesn't matter. Because if he dies, I won't have any reason to keep living.

That's why he was preparing me to live alone. He expects the Senshi to win against Metallia, and when they'll do...

The Senshi didn't find anything to reply either. Lord Kunzite sneers and adds.

"See, you'd be really wasting your energy fighting me or Zoisite."

Darkness covers us.


to be continued...