Chapter 09: Making Dolos Proud

With a tiny little click, the plain white paper envelope landed on the desk surface in front of Kasios. He stared at it for a beat, then looked up to his right.

A tall, thin man with pale skin and blonde hair stood there, next to him, towering over the Earth King thanks to Kasios currently being seated in a plush leather chair. His hand dropped back to his side after following through on the little flick to put the miniature paper container on Kasios's desk.

Kasios reached forward, grabbing it and prying the edge open. He dumped the contents out onto the desk in front of him, a few tiny little crystals, clear with a slightly hazy tinge, pouring out.

"Okay, what do we got?" Kasios asked, poking one of the crystals with his right index finger. "Forgeries?"

King Kasios, as the fifth-highest ranking member of the twelve-man council, had a private office that, while it was no match for his chambers back on Earth, was quite the lavish and fancy residence. An octagonal room, seven of the eight walls devoted to assorted charts and data graphs, with a mahogany desk near the back, the furthest away from the one wall that was entirely a door back out into the rest of the station. Chandeliers of crystal hung from the ceiling, a reminder of home.

"No, King Kasios, that's...that's genuine," the man replied as Kasios bent down to look at the crystal better.

"For the last time, Kasios, it's Kasios," the King grunted. "I'm not a King here, how many times do I have to say it? And how the hell is this genuine, it...it doesn't even look real."

"Ninety-one percent pure," he added. "Refined."

Kasios picked his head back up, looking over at the man across the desk from him. "That's impossible."

"That's what everyone else said," he admitted. "But they've run every test we can run on Imperium, and there's no questioning it. It's real, and it's...spectacular."

Kasios blinked, a look of stunned disbelief taking over his features. "Parabolic?"

"Yes."

Kasios reached up behind his head, scratching at his short mane of black hair, slowly looking around the room. "I...Naxos, buddy, where did this come from? How wasn't I informed that we found something like this?"

"We just found it," Naxos explained. "As in, today. We didn't refine it."

Kasios practically jumped out of his seat at this, rocketing up to his significant full height, chair falling backwards and tumbling to the floor behind him. "You gotta be kidding me!"

"Routine bust," Naxos said. "Some guy on a street corner, making it a little too obvious, we picked him up, took him in to grill him, and...he had this."

Kasios looked around the room yet again, as if in a daze, eyelids fluttering as he blinked rapidly. "You're saying that...this stuff turned up on the black market?"

"I'm afraid so," Naxos said hesitantly. "Which implies that there exists a black market Imperium chemist, an extremely talented one with access to high-quality materials and a sterile environment, who—"

"—has himself a supply of raw Imperium that exceeds...ninety-nine percent purity," Kasios finished, putting his hand up to his forehead. "What did the slinger have to say?"

"Nothing," Naxos said. "And he had less than a sextula on him, so I doubt he'll feel obligated to say much, he's at least smart enough to know we can't stick any more than a Class E offense." He grimaced. "We didn't even catch him selling it, we can only pin him for possession. He'll be back out on the streets in...twenty days, maybe less. Five hundred cred fine, no way he gives up anything to get out of that."

Kasios grimaced. "We won't even be able to get him up here before we have to let him go."

Naxos nodded. "I just wanted to give you a heads up, the Grandmaster is about to call an emergency meeting about this." He pointed down at the loose crystals on the desk. "And you'll probably have to answer some questions."

Kasios flinched a bit. "What do you mean?"

Naxos reached forward, tapping one of the tiny crystals. "This was picked up in Librum."

Kasios looked as if he had just gotten punched in the temple, practically staggering back. "Librum, that's right by the capital." He put his fist up to his mouth, resting his index finger on his upper lip. "Right next to me. Might as well be my backyard."

Naxos nodded. "Now, Your Highness, I'm not...accusing you of anything, obviously. Nobody here would, ever. But, it came up in your territory, so, there will be some—"

"I get it," Kasios said, putting his hands on his hips, nodding. "Yeah, yeah, I get it. Thank you, Naxos, I...I appreciate it."

Naxos nodded back. "Alright, let's go."

"

Princess Mercury crunched up a perfectly-round little pearl of a white powder between her thumb and index fingers, letting the particles fall into the tall, thin glass goblet, quickly disintegrating in the light yellow liquid within.

"You have to try this," Mercury said, pointing at the white pearl in front of Zoisite, right next to the base of his cup. "Trust me, it...makes you feel like you're floating."

Zoisite picked the little sphere up in his fingers, looking it over. "I must say, I didn't expect you to be some...connoisseur of alcoholic beverages," Zoisite remarked bemusedly. "I knew your talents and skills to cover a wide breadth, but wine?"

"Well, in my family, anything worth doing is worth doing right," Mercury remarked, watching Zoisite drop the powder ball into his drink. "And if you're going to drink a little, you may as well make the experience worth the while."

Mercury picked up her glass, lifting it to her lips, pausing for several beats to inhale the aroma before she tilted it back.

"Now, just let it...kick in," Mercury said, leaning her head back and closing her eyes. "The first pulse is the strongest." She gave a little shiver, curling up a bit before sinking back into her chair slightly. "Mmmmm…"

"Should we...really be getting inebriated while we're handling these negotiations?" Zoisite asked, looking at his glass for a moment.

"Well, the way I see it...if we both make sure we drink the same amount, we'll both be equally inebriated, and everything will work out," Mercury suggested with a playful grin.

Zoisite nodded, and then took a sip from the glass.

He set the cup down, blinking rapidly and hunching over at a bit, shuddering. "Mm, you've got a point. That's certainly something."

Mercury nodded. "And, of course, no negative side effects. No brain cell damage. Shame it's so expensive and hard to make, or else it'd be replacing half the galaxy's illegal drugs."

Zoisite swallowed down. "Um...Mercury. I, um...I have a little request of you." Zoisite took another drink from the little glass, giving him a little shiver of delight.

"Go right ahead," Mercury said, putting her nose over the mouth of her goblet and delicately sniffing.

"Um...you know, there's one little experience in my life, that...I wish I could have back. One thing that I've done, that...I feel like passed me by without me really appreciating it the way I could have."

Mercury, who had reached over to pick up her blue pen, had her hand frozen right before grabbing it, turning to look at Zoisite.

"And, I'm wondering, if you could...help me get this moment back," Zoisite said, stumbling a bit over his words.

"Whatever are you talking about?" Mercury asked, putting her left elbow on the desk and placing her hand on her cheek. "I...if there's something I can do to help you, sure, but I don't see how—"

"I...I've been allowed entry into the Mercury Palace vaults," Zoisite rushed out. "I don't know if you knew, but...back when I was being educated here, they let me in."

Princess Mercury stiffened up slightly, breath hitching subtly.

"I mean, it was...obviously just an attempt to get me to...stay here instead of going back to Earth, I get that...hey, look at what we might let you check out one day if you stick around, that sort of thing. Didn't work, obviously, but...when I was in there, I really felt something." She leaned in closer to Mercury. "The...the combined knowledge of all the universe, in one room, I...I felt it."

"Oh, yes, I...I think I know what you're talking about," Mercury agreed, nodding. "Being in that vault, it's...invigorating. To think about all the things that are surrounding you in there, being right next to so much knowledge, it's...it's something. But...what are you asking for?"

"I feel...like I maybe didn't fully appreciate the experience, that time." He frowned a bit. "I was distracted, and…I don't know, I feel like I maybe missed out on something. Do you...do you think that, maybe...I could get back in there?"

"Ummm…I, I don't know about that," Mercury said, glancing away from Zoisite and nervously folding her hands on the desk in front of her. "That's...that vault, hardly anyone gets inside. And unless you're a direct member of the royal family, there has to be a very good reason."

"Well, I don't think my reason is a...bad reason, at least," Zoisite commented. "It's at least above-average, right?"

Mercury grimaced. "I'm not...I'm not sure, Zoisite, that would be a difficult sell to my mother."

"I'm not asking you to sell it to your mother," Zoisite insisted. "You have access to that vault, same as her, right? You're in the royal family and you're of age."

"W-well, I...yes, yes, I do, I...I have access, but, that...she wouldn't like it if I didn't have a good reason to let...someone else in," Mercury said slowly. "I'm just, I feel for you, I understand your position, but...I'm just not sure it's a good idea."

Zoisite swallowed down hard. "It would mean an awful lot to me, Mercury. I...I'm asking. It just, it excites me. I've...done so much reading and research in my life, sometimes it feels like I know just about everything, and...you don't get that kick of excitement and the...the thrill of learning something new anymore, it...it's a drag. And, I mean, I know that vault contains things I don't know about, things that barely anyone knows about, so...it's like an itch, you know?"

Mercury reached forward to stroke her fingers along the stem of her glass. "I know exactly the feeling, I...I completely understand, but...okay." She turned her body towards Zoisite, squaring up with the Earth general. "I see what you're getting at, I know what you're trying to suggest, and...I do owe you, like I said, and I'm not...disputing that or trying to go back on that, I promise. It's just, this particular thing, it's...it's a very big thing. I can already tell you, if my mother knew, she wouldn't approve of it."

"I'm not asking your mother, I'm asking you," Zoisite reiterated. "Believe me, I wouldn't be pushing this point if it didn't mean a lot to me." He put his hands out to his sides. "I know the Queen of Mercury would never let an outsider like me in that vault, not without a plasma cannon pointed at her head. That's why I'm asking you."

Mercury bowed her head a bit, folding her hands up in front of her and resting her forehead on them. "If she found out, she wouldn't be happy...there could be consequences."

"Well, if I may, I can assure you that if the King found out about…" he gestured down at the stack of documents on the desk. "...this, then he wouldn't be happy either, and there would definitely be consequences."

Mercury rubbed her hands together nervously, closing her eyes and sighing. "I...I know I must be coming across as very ungrateful right now, and I swear, that doesn't sit well with me, it's not at all how I want you to perceive me."

"I don't think that," Zoisite comforted. "Believe me, I know I'm not asking for a box of chocolates here. I was just...hoping that this was my one opportunity to...you know...atone for my past mistakes." Zoisite shrugged. "But, if you can't do it, you can't do it."

Mercury exhaled slightly. "I...I…"

Zoisite feigned as if he had lost interest in the discussion, reaching to pick his pen back up and turning to a document.

"Later tonight," Mercury finally said.

"Hm?" Zoisite looked back up.

"Later tonight, um...we'll go," Mercury said, lifting her glass back up to her lips and taking a large drag from it.

"To...the vault?" Zoisite asked.

"Yes, yes, the...it's only fair," Mercury said, voice a little shaky. "No, I...I asked you to stick your neck out for me, if I deny you this, then I'm...I'm being a brat." She nodded to herself. "And I'm not a brat, I'm...I'm not." She took in another deep breath. "And...I'm eighteen now, so I can do this if I want to. She wouldn't like it, but...well, so it is."

Zoisite gave a small smile. "Thank you, Mercury. I appreciate it."

"Little later tonight, we'll go, I'll...I'll let you read something from the back section, even."

"Back section?" Zoisite repeated.

"Uh, the...well, you know this, I'm sure, we...have some things down there that you can't find anywhere else," Mercury explained. "Uh, all kinds of stuff, some, uh...stuff about the galaxy before recorded history, I'll...I'll let you see it."

Zoisite's right hand clenched into a tight fist, the general hiding it behind his leg. "That sounds lovely. Thank you, Mercury."

"

Right behind the Earth Palace, an entire heredium of space had been carved out for the horses and horse-related activities, a rich green field of grass that gave the majestic animals all the room they needed to run around, even coming with a round dirt track and some jumping obstacles. It was an especially nice day, clear and clean with a nice warm sun beating down on everything beneath it. Princess Serenity was using the day to trot around on a small horse, pure-white without a single spot on it's body of any other color. Grinning, goading the steed into a gentle walk around the large, fenced-off field, she reached forward to run her hand along the horse's mane.

"No faster than that!" Endymion called out, leaning up against the fence, standing just outside the horse field. "I'm serious, that's...that's fast enough, okay?!" He swallowed. "Can't take any chances right now."

"I promise, I'm just going to walk him!" Serenity called out, pacing the horse around. "Just like this, this won't hurt the baby!"

Endymion looked over to his left, Kunzite standing there right next to him. He twisted his head about, making sure nobody else was within earshot, finding the surrounding area satisfactorily vacated, before looking back at his guardian. "You don't think...Zoisite and...and Princess Mercury...did you get that sense? I kind of did."

Kunzite twisted his head around to look at Serenity slowly trotting around on the back of the horse. "Not really my area of expertise," Kunzite muttered.

"Hm," Endymion grunted, pursing his lips. "I mean...how would that work?" Endymion rubbed at his lip for a moment. "Think about it. Zoisite, King of Mercury and guardian of Earth King Endymion." He shrugged. "Don't know how that'd work, but...that's something."

"I wouldn't worry about it going that far," Kunzite said under his breath. "If it's going anywhere at all."

"Shit, was I...Kunzite, was I too brunt with him? Be honest, please," Endymion asked.

"What do you mean?" Kunzite questioned.

"He...I don't know, he kind of irritated me with his little rant, I can't lie, and then, trying to turn down my request, just, it didn't sit well with me. But...I just, even if he's just...friends with Mercury, then of course, asking him to do something like this…" he gave a sheepish little look, looking down at the ground. "...I'll...I'll apologize to him, when he gets back."

Kunzite didn't say anything, just glancing over at his charge as he spoke.

"I think I came off a little rough," Endymion said. "I'm, I'm just...I'm trying to really do something here. I wouldn't ask him to do something like this if it wasn't really important." He looked back over at Kunzite. "It's important, right? You see what I'm saying?"

Kunzite nodded.

"I'll apologize to him, I could have...been nicer," he muttered. "So anyway. I was thinking. The money."

Kunzite continued to glance around every now and then, a casual move that could easily be dismissed as someone stretching, but served to make sure nobody was around to listen in.

"It's, what, one point six million creds right now?"

"One point nine," Kunzite corrected. "I'm not taking the...injury settlement."

"Ohhhh...you are absolutely no fun," Endymion teased.

"I have no use for money beyond my duties, and my private accounts are more than enough to handle that," Kunzite insisted. "So, anyway, it's not exactly doing anyone any good under the floorboards at one of my safehouses."

Endymion chewed his cheek for a second. "We need a business of some sort. Should be easy enough to sell to my father, just...hey, dad, I'd like to try my hand at getting some real-world business experience, test my acumen, see if I can take a floundering little business and turn it into a money-maker." He nodded. "He'd definitely get behind that. Then we can...gradually wash the money through. And at a certain point, I go, I don't need this money for me, let's just...stick it in the treasury." He shrugged. "We just have to find the right business. Beauty parlor, hobby shop, spaceship maintenance and cleaning, I'm sure we can find something good."

Kunzite nodded. "It'll be a slow process."

"At first," Endymion agreed. "But, whatever investment we make is guaranteed to be a roaring success, so it'll be easy for me to justify continuing to acquire more businesses. Bigger ones." He tilted his head around. "Wow, dad, I'm really good at this, I'm gonna keep at it."

"That might bring in other complications, but...we'll address that when it's time," Kunzite reasoned.

"I think she's starting to get a little antsy," Endymion said suddenly, his gaze turning back to Serenity, off in the distance, slowly goading her horse to walk about.

"Hm?" Kunzite questioned.

"Just a sense I'm getting, she...she's just getting a little...uncomfortable with me spending so much time away." Endymion brushed his fingers across his upper lip. "She's...she's rather clingy, you know."

"I'm aware," Kunzite said. "If you're suggesting she's getting suspicious, then perhaps we need to change the way we're doing things. You have other generals who are honor-bound to serve you, Your Highness, use them."

"N-no, not that, it's just...it...it kills me," Endymion said under his breath. "All of this, everything I'm doing...it's for her." He nodded. "I mean, you see that, don't you?"

Kunzite glanced over at Serenity, who was cheerfully stroking her horse's mane again.

"I...she deserves so much better than what her Kingdom has become," Endymion continued to whisper. "She deserves a grand Kingdom, filled with all the riches and splendor of the galaxy. A beautiful palace, coated with crystals and jewels of every kind. Vaults overflowing with riches. The respect and admiration of every man, woman, and child alive." He tilted his head back to look up at the skies. "She deserves all of that."

Kunzite held silent, arms folded over his chest.

"I just...she would never understand, would she?" Endymion said wistfully. "She wouldn't get it. I just wish she could, just...look at what I'm doing for her, and say, he's done it all for me. Because he loves me so much." He frowned. "But...she couldn't see it that way, could she?"

"Probably not," Kunzite said delicately.

"Well...it doesn't matter," Endymion reasoned. "She's going to live to see the Moon shine again. Maybe I can't...make it the supreme power in the galaxy again, but...I'm going to make it a Kingdom to be proud of again. Whatever it takes. Whatever I have to do."

"

Princess Mercury carefully placed the long match into the circular bulb of glass, placing the small fire at it's tip on a round black fuse inside. The fuse caught fire, the flame quickly spreading until the lantern had enough fire within to illuminate everything within a small radius.

She grabbed the handle on the lantern and turned around, presenting it to Zoisite. "We project a very strong field inside this vault. No technology of any kind works in here. So we're back to using fire."

Zoisite took the lantern in his right hand, reaching his left hand out towards the long match in Mercury's hand, the flame at the end of it still weakly dancing about in the air, smushing it between his thumb and forefinger. Mercury's eyes widened a bit as Zoisite's fingers pulled away, leaving behind a charred, smoking, extinguished match tip.

"H-how did you do that?" Mercury asked, looking at the dead match.

Zoisite gave Mercury a curious look. "What do you mean?"

"Well...doesn't that hurt?" Mercury tossed the dead match into a small bin on the floor by her feet.

"Sure it does, a little bit," Zoisite admitted.

"Well...well what's the trick?" Mercury asked, grabbing her own lit lantern off the table next to them. "How do you do it?"

"The trick?" Zoisite pursed his lips. "Uh...not minding that it hurts." He turned to look out at the large, towering chamber, dark and dreary, and yet, to Zoisite it could have just as easily been filled with the rarest jewels in all the universe.

Symmetrical wooden bookshelves rose up to the ceiling in neat little rows, seemingly every shelf loaded with books of varying sizes and shapes, reading material to last an eternity. Zoisite wouldn't have minded 'accidentally' getting locked in here for awhile, assuming he had enough matches to keep the lanterns going.

"Alright, all of these shelves...probably mostly things you know, these readings are available on other planets, places...just, not all in one place," Mercury explained. "Now, the back wall, on the other hand...therein lies the real treasure."

Passing by the many polished wood shelves, padding across the floor, the two quickly came up to a much smaller set of shelves, lined up against the back wall of the room, these ones similarly loaded with reading material. Zoisite staggered just a little bit as he walked, Mercury noticing the slightly askew gait but not addressing it. Everything was labeled, clearly in alphabetical order, making it all easy to find.

"Now, what I'm about to do...there are several portions of my mind that, even as we speak, are begging me to not do. I...letting you in here at all, that's one thing, but...this part, here...I mean, I can hardly believe I'm doing it. W-what I'm trying to say, is…"

"I'll boost the livestock imports," Zoisite said, giving a tiny little burp.

"Thank you," Mercury said, opening her mouth to say something else but deciding to hold it back.

"And we can scratch the mine inspection," he added quickly.

"I…" Mercury twisted her head over to look at the Earth general. "...really?"

"Y-yeah, whatever," Zoisite said. "We can ballpark it, no need to...actually go digging around down there.." He shrugged. "Just use the average yield of the past...five hundred cycles."

"Uh…" Mercury blinked a few times. "...okay, uh...thank you." She stepped forward, up towards the shelf, looking at the labels on the wood. "Alright, history. Ancient history. As in, before recorded history as the galaxy knows it began." She stopped, holding the lantern up. "There are things you can find about that era, if you really know how to look…"

Thankfully for Zoisite, 'I' came right after 'H' in the alphabet, meaning that it took only a quick scan from his eyes to find his target. A few spaces to Mercury's right, a thin silver book, the word 'Imperium' spelled out along the spine. He checked the nearby books, just to be sure that it was the only one that could possibly contain the information he had been told to take, but the neighboring books made no mention of Imperium.

"Well, you're from Earth, so maybe you'd like to learn a little bit about Earth, say, five thousand, ten thousand years ago?" Mercury suggested.

"Oooh, sure," Zoisite said, stepping to the side and reaching out towards the Imperium book. "Oh, here it is!"

Mercury's head snapped up as Zoisite whisked the book out of the shelf, quickly opening it up and peering into it, holding the lantern up to look at it.

"Uh, no no no!" Mercury said frantically, standing up and quickly reaching towards the book, Zoisite turning away from the Princess and using his body as a shield, rapidly flipping through pages. "Zoisite, please, it's not that one!"

"Oh, stop it, I'm sure this is the right one!" Zoisite said airily, trying to act as disoriented as he could, turning pages every couple beats, looking as if he wasn't actually taking in any information on any of the pages, but in reality his eyeballs were quickly taking in everything on the pages, deducing whether or not they held the information he needed, before he went on to the next one.

Mercury danced around Zoisite, trying to get around to the book, both of her hands trying to grab it. "Please, Zoisite, give me that, you can't look at that one!" she continued to plead.

Zoisite gave a dismissive little laugh, staggering over to the right, away from the shelves, trying to make it look as if he was nearly falling over. "Mercury, please, I think I know how to read a book title!" He turned another page, and his cheek twitched slightly as he almost immediately realized he had found his mark. The formula, ingredients and steps for taking raw Imperium and refining it into a usable energy source, spread out across two pages. Other than this cheek twitch, however, he gave away nothing to Mercury that he was actually paying attention to what was in front of him. His eyeballs spun rapidly over the pair of pages, taking in the small print on both of them, brain quickly sketching a copy of it in the time normal people took to read a sentence.

"Zoisite, I'm serious, give it to me, you shouldn't be looking at that!" Mercury continued, starting to clearly get agitated. Zoisite felt bad, as his actions were clearly upsetting the Princess, but his orders were his orders.

A couple beats later, Zoisite had memorized every single ink line and curve on the pages, words and pictures meshed together into a coherent formula in his brain. Quickly, he snapped the book shut, hands fumbling with the rectangular representation of knowledge as he turned the spine towards him.

"...oh." Zoisite said, lowering the book down a bit, allowing Mercury to quickly snatch it from his hands. His face fell. "...well, that's embarrassing."

Mercury spun around and slid the book back into the shelf where it had been. She turned back to Zoisite, a small scowl on her features. "What is wrong with you?!"

"Oh...oh Gods," he muttered, looking down at his open palms. "I think I...I must have had too much."

Mercury's frown disappeared, mouth opening a bit in surprise, large eyes blinking up and down. "U-uh...Zoisite, are you...are you…"

"Oh, Gods," Zoisite said, emotion building in his voice. "I drank too much, oh, I'm dead!"

Mercury glanced about awkwardly. "Z-Zoisite, I...I really don't think that you—"

"I, I have a bit of a sensitivity to alcohol, it's embarrassing, I try to pretend it doesn't exist, but...oh, the King is going to flay me alive when he finds out I was drinking during these negotiations!" He put his hands up to cover his face.

"Er, uh…" Mercury swallowed a lump in her throat down hard. "Zoisite, I—"

"Oh, this is bad, I'll be demoted for sure, I just...I wanted to have a good time with you, thought it'd be harmless, oh, Gods," Zoisite moaned.

"Hey, hey," Mercury said, going up next to Zoisite and patting his shoulder. "N-nobody's going to find out about this."

After a short pause, Zoisite tilted his head over to look at the Princess. "...really?"

"N-no, it's...I understand," Mercury said slowly, still rubbing along the Earth general's back. "No, this'll be...our little secret. It's not a big deal, why make it a big deal?"

Zoisite nodded. "T-thank you. Thank you so much."

Mercury dropped her hand back to her side. "Neither of us are perfect, and...m-maybe you had a bad reaction to the powder, it...it's possible. And then it's my fault anyway, so...forget it."

Zoisite slowly bent down towards the floor, setting himself down on it in a sitting position. "Oh, I really...really shouldn't be letting things like this happen."

"Are you...do you need to sleep it off?" Mercury asked. "We can go."

"No, no, I…" Zoisite gave a little chuckle. "I think I...sobered right up, just now. Wow." He rubbed his face. "That's gotta be a record."

"Alright, well...here," Mercury said, turning back to the shelf and pulling a thick book from one of the rows. "Maybe this'll help cheer you up."

Mercury sat down on the floor next to Zoisite, opening up the black and gold book in her lap, Zoisite leaning over to look at it.

"Earth, pre-recorded history...let's take a look at some things," Mercury offered. "Oh, and Zoisite, I...I doubt that you were able to...absorb anything you saw in that book you grabbed." She turned to look at him. "But, if you did, just...put it from your mind, please. Let's just do everything we can to make it like it never happened, both of us."

Zoisite reached over to wrap his left arm around Mercury's shoulders. "Not a problem."

"

With a rapid series of strokes from a black pen, Zoisite filled a blank sheet of paper on the desk in front of him with detailed writing. Kunzite watched his fellow Earth general quickly write out a complicated formula, hovering over his shoulder.

"It was ten days ago you saw this formula, you said?" Kunzite asked.

Zoisite wordlessly nodded.

"If...if there's anything you're hazy on, any ambiguity or confusion on your end, just make note of it, and I'll figure it out," Kunzite instructed.

"Part of the reason I was recruited is because of my photographic memory," Zoisite said, voice stilted and flat. "If I can't remember a couple of pages out of a book, then what good am I?"

Endymion sat on the bed in the middle of Kunzite's private quarters, watching his two generals converse at the desk in the back corner. Hands on his knees, he silently waited for Zoisite's work to be done.

"And the Princess?" Kunzite asked.

"I think she bought it," Zoisite said quietly, still writing even as he spoke to his elder guardian. "And she can't tell anyone about it anyway, not without admitting she let me into the vault. As far as she's concerned, I had one too many glasses of wine."

Kunzite placed his hand on Zoisite's shoulder as the young general finished filling out one page and pulled over a second blank one, again continuing to elegantly scribble along it. "You've done well, Zoisite."

Several secundas passed in relative silence save for the scratching of Zoisite's pen along the blank paper. Finally, he stopped, gently setting the pen down on the desk. "That's all there was. Materials, procedure, that's all of it." He stood up straight as Kunzite gathered up the two sheets, looking them over. "Any questions, I'll do my best to answer them."

"If the need arises, I'll find you," Kunzite said. "You can go."

"We have four libras of product left," Endymion said suddenly, Zoisite snapping his head over behind him to look at his charge. "We deliver two in a couple of days, and then the last of it five or six days after that. Kunzite, I want to be able to present a sample made from this formula for that last delivery."

"Understood," Kunzite replied, eyes scanning the writing before him.

Zoisite turned around and began to walk across the room, taking large strides, but stopped several paces short of the door, freezing in place.

"Oh, yes, Zoisite, before you leave, I wanted to say something," Endymion said, turning his body to look at him.

"I'm sorry," Zoisite said quickly, still staring at the wall by the door.

Endymion was about to continue, but his words died in his throat at this. He blinked a few times, looking over at Zoisite's back. "E-excuse me?"

"I'm sorry, I...Your Highness." Zoisite spun around to square his body up towards the Crown Prince. "I just...my behavior last time we met was not acceptable for someone like me, and it's important for me that you know that my loyalty lies with you and only you."

Endymion recoiled just a hair, giving a subtle flinch in his facial expression as Zoisite spoke.

"I just, I want you to know that...what you need, what you want, that is and will always be my priority," he continued. "Everything else will always be less important to me, no matter who or what it is, and I feel like I've been less than clear on that, and...I'm sorry."

"Uh...it's...it's fine, Zoisite, really." Endymion tried to casually wave him off.

"No, it's...it's not, I don't want you to have any questions about where I stand. If you, if you desired it of me, I'd betray everyone in this galaxy a million times over," he said, voice just a touch neurotic in tone.

"That really won't be necessary," Endymion insisted, putting his hands out towards his most intelligent general.

"And...there can be no secrets between me and you, for any reason, and I know that, and, whatever you need from me in the future, please, do not hesitate to request it of me," he continued.

Endymion gave a slightly befuddled look, giving a glance over his shoulder at Kunzite, who was halfway between paying attention to his fellow general and reading the instructions he had just written up.

"So...there were several little concessions I made in the merger negotiations, in favor of the Moon," Zoisite admitted. "It was...necessary to build up enough good will for her to let me into the vault. I can go over those concessions with you, if you would like, and you can act in whichever way you see fit with that knowledge."

"I...I assumed that you'd have to do something like that," Endymion said casually. "And I, I don't particularly care, I have no interest in squeezing every last drop out of this union, I trust you didn't agree to anything crippling."

"I saw some...interesting labels in the vault, and she showed me some fascinating information about ancient Earth that even we don't have, and if you desire it—"

"Maybe, some...other time," Endymion said, feeling decidedly awkward as Zoisite's speech became even more frantic with each passing sentence.

"Akila!" Zoisite blurted out, going a little red in the face.

Endymion pursed his lips at the bizarre outburst. "What?"

"Akila, that's...that's Princess Mercury's birth name!" he said, glancing down at the floor and darting his gaze about.

"O...kay?" Endymion rubbed at his left temple with his fingers.

"She told it to me, and...no secrets," Zoisite said. "So, there it is, her birth name is Akila."

"You...it would have been perfectly fine for you to not tell me...I don't think I needed to know that," Endymion said slowly.

"Well, I...I need you to understand that, that...I'm your man, and nothing is more important to me than my service to you," Zoisite said, nodding rapidly. "That's all. M-may I be excused?"

Endymion's mouth fell open slightly. "W...what?"

"C...c-can I go, Your Highness?" He glanced over towards the door back out into the hallway.

"...yes, yes, sure," Endymion babbled, gesturing towards the door. Quickly, Zoisite spun around and rapidly marched over towards the door, flipping a switch by it and causing it to whip open with a quick whir. He stepped out, hair whipping around behind his head as he turned to the left towards his own private room. The door snapped shut.

Endymion just stared at the metal rectangle of the door for several long beats, squinting. "What...what was that?"

He turned back so his body was facing forward, looking over at Kunzite, who was going over the instructions still.

"Kunzite, did...what was that all about?" Endymion asked. "That was...weird, wasn't it? I've never seen him act like that before, I...I didn't even get a chance to say what I wanted to say to him. What's up with him?"

Kunzite glanced up, over the sheet of paper, to his charge. "As near as I could tell, Your Highness...I think he was scared."

Endymion looked vaguely repulsed for a moment. "Scared of...scared of what?"

Kunzite stared over at Endymion for a couple beats before going back to the formula in his hands. "You."

Endymion regarded this one word with shock, face tightening. He slowly looked back over his shoulder, staring at the door behind him, blinking every few beats.