Tokyo, Modern Day
The youmas rushed past Nephrite straight toward Sailor Moon. Chairs went up into the air and the screeching of table legs against the tile floor made Nephrite's ear's ring. He summoned his magic and transformed into the Shitennou knight he truly was, sending bolts of black lightning toward his enemies.
The girls howled and scattered, Sailor Mars hooking Ami by the arm and Sailor Moon grabbing Naru.
"We have to get you out of here!" Sailor Moon helped Naru to her feet. "You have to leave!"
Something about all of this just wasn't right. Naru knowing the story of the Moon Princess, Ami's brilliant flash of light, Sailor Moon arriving just at the right time at this very school: They were all connected. Despite his failures as a Shitennou, in his life before all of this, he was a scientist, and every good scientist knows there's no such thing as coincidence. Usually where there is smoke, there is fire.
His youmas pounced again, lunging at Sailor Moon. She cried out and fell to the floor, her hand slipping from Naru's arm. Now was his chance. He bolted across the room and a lick of flame shot out so close it grazed his back, burning the ends of his hair. He latched onto Naru's waist, hoisted her up and darted toward the big windows in the back. Without thinking twice, he curled Naru into himself and covered his face, and a single bolt of black lightning shattered the glass into thousands of little pieces.
He was airborne, clinging onto a hysterical Naru who begged and pleaded to be released.
"Masato!" She shrieked. Nephrite deftly touched down on the ground and started into a sprint. "What are you doing?"
"Silence!" He hustled across the courtyard, zipping past confused onlookers until he was well across the adjacent park. He hung onto Naru like a rag doll, her limbs flailing all around as his feed pounded against the floor. It was only when she started screaming he was forced to stop.
"Stop that!" He lifted her up under her arms, his nails digging into her back. Tears lined her big eyes and she bit her lip. "Quiet down, I demand it!"
"Masato," she quivered. "Why are you doing this?"
He shook his head. "Don't pretend as if you do not know." He towered over her. "Tell me–how do you know Sailor Moon?"
She blinked. "I know her just as everyone else does–"
"Don't lie to me!" He growled. "I will kill you if you lie to me."
She gasped and tried wiggling away from him, but he was much stronger than her. She was telling the truth. Why on Earth did he think that she knew Sailor Moon? Naru's mind started to race. It was odd that every time a malevolent force came to Tokyo, it had a way of finding her in particular, but Naru attributed that to bad luck.
"I don't know." She held back tears. "I really don't, I–"
"Nephrite!" Endymion came tearing across the lawn, dressed head to toe in his armor. Not far behind him were Sailor Mars, Sailor Moon and now another–Sailor Mercury. It appeared Nephrite's two youmas had proved far too weak. He grimaced.
"Nephrite?" Naru repeated. She furrowed her brow. "Is that…is that your real name?"
He looked down at Naru, her dumbfounded face full of hurt. Maybe, before he met Beryl, he might've felt bad about what he had done to her. Young girls are so impressionable, he thought, and based on Naru's expression as he looked into her eyes, her heart was breaking into thousands of microscopic shards, all leaving painful scars as they cut. But Nephrite had given up his life as a man the moment Beryl came back into his life. Now he was focused on one thing and one thing alone–avenging his people–and to do that, he needed energy.
Even this energy.
Slowly, he moved his hand up to her face, letting his fingers slide across her cheek. He looked deep into her eyes and saw red flush across her cheeks. Tears still hung on the tips of her eyelashes.
He took a deep breath and felt her energy depart from her body, swirling into the air until it landed into Nephrite's control, channeled through a black crystal Nephrite always kept in his pocket. As he sucked the life out of her, he felt flashes of her emotions: Fear, of course, but also love. Anticipation, too, burning anticipation that was powerful and strong. She was a young girl brimming with life and a false understanding of what it meant to truly love someone.
She had been infatuated with him: With his looks and his money and his presence. All that energy was more than any one person Nephrite had targeted yet, and at first, it was satisfying. Now he wouldn't need to go back to Beryl and grovel to keep his life, he would have enough energy to satisfy her–at least for now.
But then, something changed. Looking at her it was hard to ignore that each drop of her energy into Nephrite's crystal ignited a painful truth.
Was this the man Nephrite truly was? Would Masato do something this low? The past few months of being Nephrite had started to take their toll. Long gone was the unassuming academic, the man interested in life beyond Earth. He used to be kind, did he forget that? He used to care about logic and reason. In Naru's presence, flickers of his old life started flashing before his very eyes. The old Masato would never manipulate a young girl like this, he would never draw her away from her friends and suck the life out of her.
This was beyond reprehensible. And for what? To serve someone he didn't really trust? To bring back a kingdom that she would surely try and usurp? Nephrite thought himself better than his brothers in arms, but truly he was just as naive. To save the Earth Kingdom they needed to harm Earthlings. It made no sense.
His grip released but Naru's dazed look remained.
"Stop right there!" Sailor Moon's voice boomed. "Let go of my friend right now!"
Nephrite heard her, but didn't stir. He stayed looking deep into Naru's eyes.
"Hey!" Sailor Moon shouted once more. "Did you hear me?"
Endymion crouched, his hand firmly on the hilt of his sword. "You can't stop us, Sailor Moon!"
A flash of light burst in the air. Metal clanged against metal: Sailor Moon's tiara sailing through the sky and being cut down by Endymion's blade. Endymion lunged forward with his fist, barely missing Sailor Moon's core. Then, the youmas came bumbling up, occupying Sailor Mars and Sailor Mercury in a flurry of flame and ice. Around Sailor Mercury's body was a glowing blue aura–precisely the one he had seen from Ami.
It all made sense. He and Endymion had managed to interlope themselves with at least one sailor scout entirely by accident, and Naru was telling the truth. She was not one of them, or at least, she was not one of them yet. They, too, had been brought back through reincarnation because they were once on the Moon.
Visions of the castle filled his mind. His life had once been so peaceful on Earth, hadn't it? That was the worst realization he could have had at that moment. Everything used to make so much sense until the eclipse. That was when the tide turned against the Moon Kingdom and that is when Beryl appeared–fresh faced and ambitious–at the Earth Kingdom's court. Coincidences, he thought. An odd coincidence.
A flash of a memory came to him. Blood covered the floor and the King was slumped over dead. Endymion kneeled in front of the throne cradling his head while Jadeite gently consoled him. And in the shadows was Beryl, rivers of black makeup pouring from her eyes but a smile on her face.
Why was he doing this? Why was he really here?
"Get her energy!" Endymion shrieked at the youma as it knocked down Sailor Mars. The monster careened its head toward Naru–still locked in Nephrite's gaze–and bolted. The youma's clawed hand extended out right toward Naru's chest and without thinking, Nephrite shielded her from it.
The claw tore through his abdomen, ripping through his skin and then muscle. Ligaments broke and then he felt the distinct pressure of a bone cracking–each rib bending and breaking alarmingly fast–and suddenly it was very hard to breath. Black crowded his vision and the last thing he could see was Naru's eyes go wide.
As he collapsed to the ground, he heard Endymion screaming no, no, no.
The youmas were dead and so was Nephrite.
Endymion fled like a coward before grabbing Nephrite's still-warm body from the ground. He retreated to the D Point using Beryl's dark magic and watched as his friend continued to bleed out on the floor.
Beryl lamented that Nephrite was gone too soon, but didn't waste even a tear on his tragic demise. Instead, she placed a hand on Endymion's back and tried to soothe him. Her touch made Endymion's stomach turn.
He laid awake that night in the crystal chambers Beryl had outfitted for him, his eyes examining every single crevasse of the splintered ceiling. His hair was still damp from his shower where he scrubbed off Nephrite's blood. Underneath his nails there was still traces of it, and as his fingers curled against the back of his head, they began to twitch. Nephrite sacrificed himself for Naru, but what for? He had said himself he was using her, that he had no attachment to her.
The door to Endymion's room creaked open and in came the distinct sound of clicking heels. Beryl.
"My darling, how are you?" She walked over to Endymion's bedside and sat. Endymion didn't even look at her.
"Fine," he said curtly.
"I know it's hard dealing with Nephrite's death–"
"It's not just him," Endymion spat, quickly sitting up so he and Beryl were face-to-face. "It's Jadeite, too. They're both gone and you don't seem the least bit concerned by that."
"I am," she cooed. "I really, really am. But you have to understand that often these are the consequences of a dangerous mission. We're at war Endymion, Nephrite and Jadeite knew the risks associated with restoring our Kingdom to its former glory."
Restoring the Earth Kingdom had proved pointless thus far. His friends were falling left and right with no meaningful progress. Would the others die too in an attempt to gather enough energy?
"What is the point?" Endymion frowned. "I understand that restoring the Earth Kingdom is important, I really do, but I just can't–"
"The Moon Kingdom still threatens this world, Endymion." Beryl reached out and grabbed his hand. Her skin was icy. "Do you want them to take over the world again? Do you want the people of Earth to fall victim to that once more?"
He raised an eyebrow. Beryl's story was getting harder and harder to believe. When it came to their missions, it seemed Sailor Moon only stepped in to save Earthlings from having all their energy zapped out. Beryl always droned on about the ends justifying the means, but it was beginning to feel counterintuitive to Endymion. Sailor Moon was the Earth's apparent protector. Perhaps this was all a big misunderstanding.
"I worry this is all for nothing," Endymion said quietly. He shook his head. "I feel like we're on the wrong side of history here."
"My darling." Beryl reached out and caressed his cheek. "Need I remind you about the carnage the Moon Kingdom subjected us to? What they did to you and your family? The Silver Millennium Crystal has the power to destroy everything, Endymion, to wipe out the people of Earth in the blink of an eye. We just cannot allow them to erase the rich history of our planet–the rich history of your family."
He had heard all the stories from Beryl about their tyranny, but he himself just could not quite remember. Every night he begged for even a glimmer of a memory to return to him, a small vestige of truth that he could hang onto when his mission seemed wrong. Visions of his former life did sometimes come back in flashes, but nothing ever too concrete. All he had was Beryl's version, and the more time went on, the more he wondered if she was telling the whole truth.
"Why, you and I both know that your father was assassinated in cold blood." Beryl dragged her thumb on the tip of Endymion's ear. "That a blonde assassin came in the night and we all found him there, slumped over and dead. Do you not think it's possible that Sailor Moon was the one who killed him?"
Yes, he thought. He knew that was what he was told, but he himself didn't remember it. He wanted so badly to just remember what really happened. Then maybe it would make killing Sailor Moon just a little bit easier.