"We'll just transform – no armor. We're not going into battle," Mars told them. Venus stood by looking a little lost, her eyes shining oddly.
"Aren't we?" Jupiter muttered and got a sharp look from Mars.
"We are," Mercury said, "but it's a battle of intellects. We won't need extra physical protection." She looked across the room at the young man poring over last-minute papers, brushing the bangs out of his eyes and wearing small reading glasses. "He's our armor now."
"Is he everything I said?" the king asked Mercury quietly.
She turned to him and looked thoughtful. "Yes, Endymion. He is. I bow to your superior judgement," she gave him a small smile and curtseyed. He smiled back at her.
"Get a hold of yourself," Mars hissed to Venus. "We need our leader right now."
"I'm sorry," Venus replied, ashamed. "I'll try."
Mars gave her a small smile, trying to look comforting. "We miss you, Minako. It'll be up to you to make the decisions today. I honestly don't want your job."
She nodded. "Okay."
"Ladies," Zoicite approached them, bowed low for the royal family, and looked at them all directly. "Shall we go?"
They climbed into a fortified limousine, Luna and Artemis accompanying them and Mercury checking the area for monsters as they traveled. Zoicite was looking out the window, distracted.
"You gonna be okay?" Jupiter asked him, smiling. He looked flustered, then smiled back.
"I just wish Ami had agreed to come. I'd feel better if I had her at the table."
Mercury sent him a quick glance, then went back to her mini-computer so quickly that Jupiter knew she was listening.
"You have a crush on her?" she twinkled. "She is a sweet girl. And single."
He blushed and stammered, "She . . . um . . . she . . . She wouldn't like a guy like me," he laughed a little. "She's too smart."
"You're smart," Jupiter pressed. "Why don't you ask her out? I guarantee it'll be the first time in ages."
He looked curious. "You know her?"
"Everyone at the castle knows everyone else. We have been working together forever."
"Enough of that," Mercury cut in, relieved. "We're here."
The turnout was massive. These women weren't just superstars or royalty – they were legend. Virtually unseen legends. Fan clubs waved signs, cults cut themselves and let their blood drip onto the sidewalk as the limousine passed, and both rich and poor had to be forcibly held back from the courthouse.
The press was ravenous. As Luna told the young women to stay close together and walk straight inside, the people edged up close, ready for pictures and questions.
They piled out of the limo and moved like a single being -- Jupiter's hand on Zoicite to keep him from getting lost -- up the stairs and inside the building.
Venus led.
They had to wait outside the courtroom for a few minutes and the reporters snapped photos of them from the front stoop, but a line of police kept them from getting any farther. Venus was tapping her foot and avoiding looking at the prosecutor on the other side of the hallway. She felt a hand on her shoulder and Mars smiled at her, pressing down to stop her from moving.
"Don't let them see your fear," she whispered as the men down the hall started toward them.
Zoicite intercepted the men and Mercury watched him carefully. They'd talked about this in the study, and she felt bad that he had to do it all himself.
"My clients request that you do not speak to them outside of the court room. They are under the persuasion that your intentions here are less than honorable." He matched them look for look and found himself facing Chief Harris after the other men had backed down.
"Zoicite," Harris said, shaking his head and looking like he wanted to spit at something. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm at work," he replied, eyes cool as green glaciers.
Harris looked incredulous. "You aren't representing these . . . these . . . monsters against me, are you?"
"I would appreciate you keeping all derogatory remarks against my clients to a minimum, sir, or I may have cause to accuse you of slander."
Harris turned purple. "This is the case you couldn't help me because of? You wait," he said, loud and resounding in the quiet corridor, and everyone turned to look at him. "You wait until your mother hears about this -- you," he shook his finger, "are not my son."
And, purple, he stalked off to sit down.
Silence.
Zoicite's shoulders were tense as he turned, his eyes apologetic.
"Zoicite . . . Harris?" Mercury asked. She knew his last name because she'd read his file, but she hadn't put the two men together.
He shrugged, still a little sheepish. "Does this change anything?"
"Do you want it to?" Luna asked him. She was imperial and commanding as usual, but there was some sympathy in her eyes.
He shook his head. "No. I want to do this case. If for no other reason than it's right and I think that my father is picking on you guys." He shook his head, angry. "He never could stop picking on people."
"Seems like you have some issues with your father," Jupiter murmured as the doors to the courtroom were opened.
"A few," Zoicite agreed, smiling.
They trailed in, settling into their seats before selected TV cameras and court painters were allowed to enter. Just behind them sat supporters and friends like Luna and Artemis, and Venus noticed Kunzite, Jadeite, and a man with long, wavy brown hair sitting behind Chief Harris and the prosecutor. She saw Jupiter, on the other side of Mars, stiffen and whisper something to Mercury.
"All rise for the honorable Judge Kiame." The bailiff turned, straight, as the judge came in. Her shiny black hair was short and the eyes behind her glasses were sharp and to the point.
She looked down at the senshi for a long, assessing moment, then sat. Rustles and movement followed as everyone in the courtroom took their seats. "This is somewhat of a momentous occasion," she said, and the video cameras trained in on her. "I won't lie and say that I haven't been wondering about the Sailor Senshi myself – what you are like, where your loyalties lie – but I cannot give you leeway under the law because of your excellent service to the country and the world -- though I am mindful of it. Do you understand this?"
Venus nodded, calm and speaking for all of them. If there was any strain under the surface, only the other senshi knew. "We do."
"Good," she nodded. "And prosecutor. I understand that the plaintiff is our very own police chief – and I must warn him as well. If this turns out to be some sort of a witch hunt," she looked down at him severely from her place above the court, a look meant to make him sweat, "I will see that you never get reelected in this town for the entirety of your career."
Harris blanched a little but nodded just as solemnly.
She looked at the press. "I also understand that on a momentous occasion such as this, the people want to view all of the proceedings. However, if you so much as dare to make a circus of my court, you will be out on your ear without a peep of what's going on inside this room for the rest of the trial. Do you understand?" Uncertain looks and heads slowly bobbing. "Then we may begin." She sat back and called the lawyers to make their first statements.
"What do you do for a living, Mr. Smith?"
"I'm a private investigator," he replied, voice like dark satin.
"What projects have you been working on lately?"
"I've been gathering information on the Sailor Senshi for Police Chief Harris."
The prosecutor nodded. "And what information do you bring to us today?"
"Photographs, sir, of the tragedy." He lay a manila folder in front of him which the prosecutor picked up and placed in front of the judge.
"Your honor," Zoicite said, standing, "we were not informed that any photographs existed. We would like a continuance to take this and any other evidence we may not have been aware of into consideration."
The judge nodded. "Of course. Court adjourned until two 'o' clock tomorrow afternoon." She banged her gavel. "Will the lawyers please see me in my chambers?"
Zoicite nodded and gathered his papers, putting them into a briefcase.
"You will not bring out surprise evidence in my courtroom," she told the prosecutor when they three were gathered in her chamber, glaring at him from behind her little glasses. "Nor surprise witnesses. You are to show all of your findings to Mr. Harris here or I will hold you in contempt."
The prosecutor nodded, looking sour. "Of course, your honor."
"Good. Get out of my sight."
Nephrite went to the castle at night, knowing she'd be there, waiting. He wore his trench coat and knocked tensely on the door to the kitchens.
No one answered, so he tried the knob. It turned easily in his hand.
"Makoto?" he called. His voice was barely more than a murmur, though he'd meant for it to be strong and fearless.
"I knew," she said from the dark, "that I'd have to do this face-to-face." He couldn't see her because the lights were out and his eyes hadn't adjusted. It was eerie, listening to her disembodied voice coming at him from the darkness -- the only light came from the open door behind him. "But it's harder than I thought." She gave a small, cheerless laugh.
"Makoto, where are you?" he whispered. A light turned on then -- only an oven light, but he could see well enough to close the door behind him. She was on a stool facing the counter and looking at the wall as if it held something morbidly fascinating. Her face was shown in dark profile.
"I knew you were a detective, you know. But I didn't think . . ." she shook her head. "I couldn't have guessed you were trying to find damning evidence on the Sailor Senshi. I couldn't . . . I didn't think you'd use me like that." There was a low, broken note in her voice that made him stay where he was -- a guilt that paralyzed.
"I didn't," he started, but didn't know what he would say.
"You didn't betray me?" she asked, still deceptively calm. "You didn't use me so that you could hurt people I care about? Tell me you didn't, Nephrite, and I'll believe you. Make me believe you didn't lie to me. Please." The light caught in her tears and brought them out with a diamond-like brilliance that cut him.
"I'm sorry," he whispered.
"Get out," she said, bending her head and clenching her fists in her lap. When he tried to speak, she screamed it. "Get out!"
He did.
"Harris?" It was said with quiet intensity.
He cringed. He'd hoped Ami would take it better.
"When were you planning on breaking the news? Or do you like dragging everyone into your sordid family affairs?"
He brushed his bangs away, distressed. "I wasn't doing that!"
She turned, regal and pitiless in her blue dress, toward the window. "Of course, I don't just blame you. I've given the king a piece of my mind as well. If he thinks to win this by petty baiting and family feuds, he's stupider than I've ever given him credit for."
"Ami!" Zoicite was shocked. She dared speak about her king like that? And she'd said things like that to his face?! "Of course not. I'm not some toy lawyer, Ami. The king knows as well as I that this must be won in the courtroom -- fairly -- and that playing me off my dad isn't going to do anything but make him more determined. If anything, knowing my dad, he's twice as ready to put you all behind bars for stealing me out from under his case."
She gave him such a fierce look that he was taken aback. She seemed to grow taller, unearthly in her beauty and bearing. "Where do your loyalties lie, Zoicite?" she asked him in an imperial voice. "With your king or with your father?"
He took a step toward her, eyes burning, and said very firmly, "I have never loved my father. All my loyalties go to Endymion."
She looked at him for one more moment in that tall, royal way, and then seemed to shrink. Her voice, when she spoke, was soft, and her eyes were cast down. "I just needed to know."
He nodded, coming down from his adrenaline high. "Fair enough."
"I don't like that judge." Harris was brooding to Nephrite. He'd made the trip to Nephrite's apartment this time because his house was under heavy repairs. He and his family were staying in a nice hotel until it was finished. "She's too . . ."
"Unbiased?" Nephrite offered, cynical. Harris didn't seem to notice his bad mood.
"Yeah."
"Deal with it," Nephrite told him, sliding the police chief a glare. "Your stupid vendetta cost me a woman. Not worth it, if you ask me."
Harris stared.
"I'm done," he said as if Harris had a hearing problem. "Find someone else."
"One more job." Harris' eyes were shrewd and they sparked when they met Nephrite's -- like flint on steel. "I'll make it worth your while."
He didn't give in right away. "What is it?"
"The dead man's girlfriend. No one knows her current phone number or address, and I want you to find her. I want her to testify because of the sympathy she'll bring to my case."
Nephrite looked at him long and hard, then sighed. "All right."
Author's Notes: Please note that I am not a lawyer and get most of my information from Law and Order. grin So if there were any technical problems, I apologize.
I should mention that Phil looks about 17 but, because of his mental handicap, acts about 5.
And I tried to be consistent with technicals, such as age, but let me brief you on it. The Senshi, king, and queen are over 1,000 years old apiece (see: Crumble). Kunzite is 700 years old (see: Mystery) but looks 25. That means that in the first chapter, when Endymion asked Serenity to bring his generals back, they had been ruling for around 300 years, and that all of the Generals are the same age. Phil is probably about 500, since he's Zoicite's younger brother.
Everyone has been alive for a very long time, and that means that the senshi will probably not remember the generals as they fought them all those years ago. Memory tends to make things fuzzy. That, plus the fact that these men have their own lives and aren't trying to kill them makes it very unlikely that they'll be recognized.
Yes, I was waiting this long to bring Zoicite in as a lawyer. It was very much on purpose.
And I'm using the General's old names because I like them best -- no weird, mystical reason. I like keeping characters clear, especially since my fiance won't be able to tell them apart otherwise (I'm trying to help him differentiate between the four men, and suddenly changing their names would throw him totally off track).
Hope that helps.