Chapter 16: The Ever-Expanding Web

Flanked by two tall, thin bodyguards, Queen Mars slowly glided up the wide wooden staircase, the floorboards creaking underneath the feet of the two guards, but somehow hardly releasing a squeak underneath the slippers of the Queen. She held her hands together in front of her, looking up at the thin red curtain at the top of the stairs.

Her ears, ever sensitive and accurate, could pick up a very soft voice coming from the room on the other side of the curtain. She couldn't hope to make out any of what was being said, so with a quiet urgency, she made her way up to the top of the stairs.

As she pushed the curtain aside and stepped through, she came out into a tiny balcony, overlooking a moderately-sized chamber. The balcony consisted of little more than three seats and handrails all around the edges, and the chamber had about six rows of pews. Every space on the long benches was taken, everyone's focus on a short, thin man with blond hair, wearing all black and standing on a dais at the back of the room. On the wall behind him was a sculpture of a circle with an arrow pointing out of the upper right of it.

"For days, upon days, upon days, I have prayed to the Kojiki. Practically all my waking hours, looking to the skies." The man on the dais held his right hand up in the air, head tilted back to look at the ceiling. He spoke in a soft whisper, voice carrying across the room thanks to the glowing pink crystal on his neck. "Desperately waiting, asking, begging, pleading, when? When would I be granted the means to save my flock? And finally, last night, I felt it."

Mars sat herself down in one of the chairs, eyes down on the man in black giving his sermon, grateful to see that it seemed her presence was currently unknown.

"I felt the touch of the elder Kojiki, last night. It was...warm. Made my whole body tingle. And then, they spoke to me. A gentle voice. A simple instruction." He slowly stepped down from the dais, towards his congregation. "They said...they felt pain. A sadness. A loss. And they told me...they spoke to me...they said, Markos, go, go relieve this pain." He gestured animatedly towards the pew to his right, up at the front row. "They told me, seek out this woman among your flock. You will know her when you see her. And save her."

Queen Mars couldn't help but roll her eyes, nevertheless watching Markos walk up to an elderly woman sitting in the first pew. He kneeled down in front of her.

"My dear, you are the woman that the Kojiki told me to seek out. I am sure." He put his hands out, grabbing her wrinkled appendages in his. "You have it, don't you? The Devil's Lupus. I can feel it. You have it?"

The elderly woman slowly nodded. "Y-yes."

"Ohhhhhh...my dear…" Markos spoke in such a hushed whisper it was almost scary that his voice was still allowed to carry across the room. Still kneeling in front of the old lady, he looked around at his congregation. "You've all heard of this? Devil's Lupus?" He closed his eyes. "Absolutely terrible disease. Skin rashes, face ulcers, sore joints, seizures. My dear." He looked down at her hands. "There are devils haunting you. There are devils in your body. And now, today, with the new gifts granted to me by the Kojiki, by their holy word, I will suck these devils out. I will banish them from you, forever. And I will do it with no knife, or laser, but with words, and the divine power of the elders."

Queen Mars closed her eyes, shaking her head slowly, but willed herself to keep watching.

Markos leaned in close to the elderly woman, pressing his forehead against hers.

"Leave this woman, devils." His almost-eerily quiet voice, echoing through the entire chamber, was bone-chilling. "Leave this woman, devils. Leave this woman, devils."

The entire room began to quietly chant this simple phrase after his voicing of it, creating a quiet, yet chaotic swarm of audio to fill the room in between Markos's quiet command.

"Leave this woman, devils. Leave this woman, devils." Slowly, his voice began to harden, being reinforced with additional volume and sternness with every syllable. "Leave this woman, and never return." He leaned back away from her, running his hands along her cheeks. "Leave, and should I ever see you again, you will be met with all the ferocity of my divine power, right into your heart!"

He got back to his feet, holding his hands up in front of him, as if he was gripping onto an invisible ball. He staggered backwards, face sweating and grimacing. Every person sitting in the pews was hanging onto his every word an action.

"And then you will be TOSSED, directly into the deepest circle of the underworld, left to ROT into NOTHING!" Markos was animatedly tossing his hands about, stomping his way down the aisle between the pews, yelling with an animalistic fury at the phantom object he held in his hands. "FOR AS LOOOONG AS I STAND IN THIS WORLD, AS LOOOOONG AS I HAVE BREATH IN MY CHEST, YOU WILL FOREVER BE MET BY THE FURIES OF THE KOJIKI ELDERS SHOULD YOU EVER HAUNT MY FLOCK AGAIN!"

Everyone was standing up now, practically smushing into each other as they crammed themselves closer to the aisle, everyone murmuring and watching Markos gesticulate wildly towards the door to the room, acting with an animalistic rage.

"NOOOOOOW LEAVE THIS PLACE, DEVILS! LEAAAAAAAAAVE THIS PLACE, DEVILS!" He kicked the doors open violently, causing them to swing wide, and with a rattling yell, tossed his arms forward with such force that his entire body swung around. Putting his hands out to his sides, he fell to his knees. "ANNNNDDDDDDD THEY LEEEEEEEEEFFFFTTTTT!"

"Praise the Elders!"

With the quick little outburst from one of the members of the congregation, the room all began to speak up with words of praise.

"He's done it!"

"Praise the Holy Shrine of Markos!"

"Thank the Elders!"

Markos slowly stood back up, slowly walking back into the room, exhausted and covered in sweat, entire face twitching.

Queen Mars tilted her head slightly, casting a disdainful look down at Markos, scowling.

"

Kunzite stood in the middle of the main room of The Qesem, hands behind his back and standing up straight, as Endymion slowly milled about, inspecting the array of eight equipment setups, each of them set out on an individual desk. Each desk had a plastic pipe above it, running up to the ceiling, as well as a collection of glass containers and tubing. Each table was bolted down to the floor.

"I decided this would work better than using the counterspace," Kunzite explained, Endymion running his hand over one of the ovens. "I removed the counters, obviously. Also, I organized the materials, the shelves over in the corner has been labeled and filled with all the substances we need for synthesization."

Endymion glanced over at the corner shelves, walking over to them. "What's the generator for?" He took a moment to glance over at a large square device on the floor a few paces away from the shelving.

"We'll need more power to run all these setups. Plus, we'll need to set up some cold air fans. Powerful ones. It'll get exceedingly hot in here when everything's running at once." Kunzite watched Endymion opened the door on one of the shelves, revealing neat rows of cans, boxes, and jars.

"Oh, beautiful!" Endymion enthused. "Look at all this Mestian rock!"

"Nephrite's network made it easier to acquire these substances in large amounts," Kunzite continued. "So long as we have his spies, I believe we will have no problem acquiring as much of them as we need."

"Whoa whoa whoa," Endymion suddenly gasped, looking down to his left, finding two large barrels standing right by the shelves. He quickly unlatched the top of the one on the right, peeling it up to find it full of brown liquid. He then undid the lid on the left barrel, finding it similarly loaded to the brim with the sickly-looking fluid. "Wait...this isn't…"

"Why do you think it took me four days?" Kunzite asked. "This equipment, those materials in the shelf, Nephrite's spies handled the acquisition of all that. I was procuring that second barrel."

"No way," Endymion said, quickly slapping both lids back onto the barrels and re-sealing them. "You told me boron fluid would be way too hard to get, how'd you get it?"

"I decided to take a shot at something, and it paid off," Kunzite replied. "After my first theft, security measures on all warehouses that held boron crystal fluid were increased significantly. Every warehouse, every planet. With one exception, an exception that didn't occur to me until recently."

Endymion blinked rapidly a few times. "Saturn?"

Kunzite nodded. "They've got bigger problems on Saturn right now, so...while it took some time to actually find a warehouse that had any...in fact, I'm rather convinced I got the only barrel on the whole planet...stealing it was rather simple."

"You know, sometimes I wish I paid you," Endymion mused. "Because I really should give you a raise."

"You told me to get more boron if the opportunity arose, so...I figured I'd at least take a look at things on Saturn. And it's a good thing I did, as it turns out. But, I wouldn't count on being able to get more anytime soon. Once Saturn reports the theft, I'm sure that the agency will get involved directly, which leaves us with...limited options."

"You've done great, Kunzite," Endymion assured him. "You, Nephrite, Zoisite...everyone. This operation doesn't go anywhere without you guys."

Thank you, Your Highness," Kunzite replied. "So, anyway, with this setup, we'll be able to produce about a hundred libras every batch. Batches take slightly longer than they used to, since we have to stagger things, and obviously there's more to do, more to clean. So, we go from...one-fourth of a day to...maybe add two minutas to it. Three at most."

"I want the ninety-nine percent purity," Endymion insisted. "No less. Every little fraction counts. If it takes us a little longer to clear contamination, then so be it."

"The way I see it, I can fly this ship out once every cycle, spin it up for two rounds, come back with two hundred libras, and even in Nephrite's most optimistic projections, we should be covered." Kunzite watched Endymion as he went back over to the two barrels, placing his palms down flat on top of either one. "I can pretty reasonably justify disappearing for a day every cycle."

"No no no," Endymion protested, drumming his fingers on top of the lids. "We need a marathon session. One long session in here, where all of these stations are running at all times. We just synthesize and synthesize until there's nothing left to synthesize. Easier to make one big excuse than a bunch of little ones."

"That's an option as well," Kunzite agreed. "So—"

"One hundred libras per batch," Endymion interrupted, forehead wrinkling in thought. "Estimate, eighteen minutas to complete one batch. Sixty minutas in one full day, so three and a third batches. If I'm recalling, you said that one barrel of boron fluid would provide enough catalyst for...twelve hundred libras, so twenty-four batches. Minus what we already used, minus potential spillage and overflow, call it twenty-three. So, twenty-three batches, three and a third batches a day, gives us...about six and nine-tenths days."

"Seven days of non-stop synthesizing," Kunzite said. "Maybe I can excuse it by saying that I'm spending some time on Jupiter with information brokers. Not exactly airtight, but enough to avoid suspicion."

"I want these furnaces running tomorrow," Endymion added. "We're going to need supplies, food and water. Obviously, imperium for the generator isn't a problem, so we just need enough oil to keep it running."

"Leaving only the question of, who will be my lab assistant?" Kunzite asked.

"Uh, me," Endymion said absentmindedly. "It has to be."

Kunzite's head recoiled back a bit. "N-no. Definitely not. It doesn't have to be you, and it will not be you."

"We don't have time to adequately train anyone else, Nephrite's going to run out of product in a matter of days. You and me are the only two people with any experience doing this, and we've already proven we can produce ninety-nine percent pure imperium. It's too big a risk to have anyone else, we're going to churn out nearly twenty-four hundred libras. Therefore, it has to be me."

Kunzite stared at his charge, looking absolutely bewildered. "Your Majesty, I don't think you're thinking this all the way through." He pointed down at the floor next to him. "To do what you're proposing, you'd have to stay on this ship for seven straight days, while it aimlessly floats through space. We're not flying to a grade ten hotel every night to sleep."

"Obviously," Endymion said, going over to one of the workstations and running his hands over the tube furnace on it. "I'm aware."

"That means sleeping on the floor. This floor." Kunzite looked over to the right wall for a second, then back to the Prince, tapping his boot on the steel ground beneath him. "Endymion, if I were to place a pebble underneath your mattress one evening, you'd wake up in the morning feeling like your hips had been dislocated."

Endymion's face wrinkled, looking vaguely offended. "No, no, I wouldn't. Don't be silly."

"Well, regardless, you've never known anything but sheets imported from Neptune, and every mattress you've ever slept on has been carefully calibrated for you specifically. You spend one night sleeping on the floor in this ship, you're going to be in agony for the next year."

"Hey, can you back it up a bit?" Endymion said, voice just a little whiny. "Do I look like one of those teenage singer girls who gets carried everywhere they go by servants?"

Kunzite took a half-step towards Endymion. "Either way, this process is going to involve tending to the workstations constantly. We're talking about seven straight days of carving out a sleeping schedule around whatever downtime the process allows us. Uh, two minutas sleeping, then getting up to dampen the catalyst bed. A minuta-and-a-half sleeping, then getting up to inject the tubes with drayan gas. Repeat ad nauseam." He pointed both of his index fingers at Endymion. "You are not cut out for that sort of thing, not even close. When was the last time you didn't get at least fifteen uninterrupted minutas of sleep? When you were two?"

"Okay, I get it!" Endymion snapped. "Yes, I...maybe I've had a bit of a gilded upbringing. I could do without you mocking me about it."

"I'm not mocking you, Your Highness," Kunzite insisted. "All I'm saying is that you would be beyond miserable here. Nothing but survival rations and plain water for seven days? Maybe the occasional piece of fruit?"

"I will find a way," Endymion said assuredly. "We don't have a choice, we're on a tight schedule."

"I can think of three perfectly fine choices off the top of my head," Kunzite countered sternly, crossing his arms over his chest. "I need a lab assistant, not a head chemist, any of your other three generals will be fine."

"Okay. For starters, I wouldn't trust Jadeite to make one of those...little volcano things with baking soda and vinegar," Endymion argued. "So, no."

"Jadeite is plenty smart, and more than qualified for assisting me with this. And if you don't like that, you have—"

"None of them have experience with this process," Endymion continued to press. "Nobody does but us. It has to be us."

"Your Majesty. It could be a nineteen-year-old academy student who's completed their level three chemistry courses at a mediocre academy," Kunzite implored. "I could fly to Jupiter and pick a random person out of their population and odds are they would be fine."

"That's not true, and you know it." Endymion went back over to the shelf, opening one of the doors up. He began counting the rows of silver circular cans on one of the middle shelves. "This is a complex, precise, demanding process, and the slightest deviation or misunderstanding can result in a loss of purity or even a complete loss of a batch."

"Yes, and I will be there to assure that that doesn't happen." Kunzite lazily pointed a finger at one of the ovens on the workstation to his immediate left. "And even if you don't accept that, Zoisite is one of the most intelligent people in the galaxy, so ask him to accompany me and there will be nothing to worry about."

"I know Zoisite is smart, but he has participated in zero successful synthesizations of ninety-nine percent pure imperium." He put his hand up to his chest. "I have two. We're going to be running eight setups at once, I don't want someone with no experience trying to learn the process on the fly while juggling eight different workstations. I'm your lab assistant, and we start tomorrow, that's final."

Kunzite ran his right hand down his face, wincing strongly. "Well, we haven't even addressed the biggest problem, so let's get to that. How are you going to justify a seven day long disappearance to anyone? Most namely, your wife and your father?"

Endymion hesitated a bit, gaze flinching down towards the floor. "I'm...I'm working on that."

"How far along are you in the process of...working on it, exactly?" Kunzite asked. "Because I have to tell you, I'm not seeing a way to spin it. You've already gotten yourself in dangerous waters with Serenity once recently, and no excuse in the world is going to make her okay with you being gone for seven days when she's a couple cycles away from giving birth!"

"Yes," Endymion begrudgingly admitted, nodding. "She won't like it. She'll pout about it, whine about it, probably be mad at me for awhile. Might do something immature to express her anger. And then, give it half a cycle, maybe three-quarters, she'll be completely fine, she'll barely remember this ever happened, and life will go on. I don't need her to like it, I need her to believe it. And then I will deal with the fallout later."

"Believe what?" Kunzite asked, tilting his head curiously. "What are you going to tell her?"

Endymion clenched his jaw a bit. "Okay. Here's what I'm thinking."

"

Queen Mars gently rapped her knuckles on the rectangular brown door in front of her, then put her hand back at her side and waited.

Beats later, the door gently opened outward, revealing a small room with a desk and assorted plants and pictures along the four walls. Standing right before the young Queen was none other than Markos, the blond-haired priest. He practically jumped in shock at the sight of royalty in front of him, but quickly gathered himself enough to bow.

"Wow! Wow, I...I did not expect this!" Markos exclaimed, backing away quickly as Queen Mars slowly entered the room, looking around at the fancy, finely organized decorations all around. "Queen Mars! In my shrine, in my office! Wow! Truly the Kojiki smile on me today!"

Mars said nothing, slowly moving towards a chair positioned in front of the desk, looking down at it.

"I...oh, this must mean nothing but good things, I...I have drawn the attention of the Queen of Mars! Praise to the Elders!" He clapped his hands together violently. "Have you heard of my works? Seen my miracles? You must have, why else would you be here today?"

Queen Mars slowly squatted down into a sitting position on the chair, staring straight ahead at the space just behind the desk, looking for all the world as if she couldn't hear was Markos was saying to her.

"Oh, I...you know, this Shrine, I'm fast outgrowing it. This is truly fortuitous timing, that you would approach me now!" Markos quickly ran behind the desk, crashing into the large plush seat behind it, eyes on the Queen. "I...I don't know if you've seen any of my services, if you haven't we can certainly arrange for you to see one, uh...tomorrow morning?"

Mars placed her arms on the armrests of the chair, putting her back up straight.

"I...Your Highness, you really should have given some notice before you came here, I...I could have prepared for your arrival, you deserve so much more than just...just knocking on my office door." Markos gave an awkward grin.

"Your shrine is being shut down. Effective immediately," Mars said simply.

Markos's smile glitched off his face, twitching downward sharply.

"I...I'm sorry?" he prompted.

"You heard me," she said.

"Um...who?" He glanced about the office slowly. "Who is shutting me down, exactly?"

"Me," Mars answered, keeping her face flat and emotionless.

"Um...you know, Your Majesty, I'm really not looking to...uh, go work for another shrine. And, I mean, if you want me to come to the palace, I'm honored, really, and...maybe we could work something out, but what I really need is to expand what I have. I've...I've been working on building this practice for six years now, it's...it's really grown, every service I give, I have to turn people away because we don't have enough room, the pews are crammed, you...if you saw my sermons, you'd know what I'm talking about!" Markos bit his lower lip. "If you want me to...come work in the palace, then...well, I guess I can't turn you down, but...I've worked hard on this."

"You're not going to go work for another shrine. And you're not coming to work in the palace," Mars said sternly. "You're done."

"Um...Your Highness, I'm still a young man. I'm just getting started, I'm looking to...to grow exponentially. To guide as many people as possible into the light. To use what the Kojiki have given me to grant salvation. I...I'm just not sure I understand what you're getting at, here."

"I must admit, I have some degree of...admiration for your showmanship and theatricality. I suspect you'd be quite good at a number of other professions. Circus ringmaster, maybe. But I just can't have someone like you representing my faith." Mars slowly folded her hands together in her lap. "It makes the rest of us look bad."

Markos swallowed down hard, lazily glancing down at the floor. "I...I don't understand. What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that you have no gift. No connection to the Kojiki. And I'm sure that that fact upsets you, and I'm sorry for that, but pretending to have it is not acceptable. Not while I run this planet, not while I represent our belief system to the rest of the galaxy." Mars crossed her right leg over her left knee.

"Q-Queen Mars, if you came to one of my sermons, I think you would—"

"I've been to your sermons. A few of them. You're a stage magician. Well, there's another job that might be good for you, but...well, yes. If I had to hazard a guess, I would say that the Kojiki have never spoken to you once in your entire life. Physical, mental, spiritual, none of it."

Markos ran his right hand over his mouth, grimacing for a moment before managing to flatten out his expression. "Your Highness, with all due respect, you have just recently taken the throne, and your father seemed perfectly comfortable with letting me work for years. In fact, if you look up on the wall behind me, I have his signature on a certification, so maybe before you make any rash accusations—"

"You and my father both have something in common, Markos. Specifically, you don't give a damn about my faith. You two have just gone about expressing that in very different ways." Mars didn't even flick her eyes up to the certificate on the wall that Markos was trying to point out.

"Okay, I...I have to say, I'm rather offended. Maybe our styles are different, but I've been working tirelessly on building this shrine up for six years, it is my life, there is nothing else in my life but this. For you to come in here and...and accuse me of having no gift after all I've done for my flock, it's...it's insulting, honestly." Markos scowled a bit. "I'm sorry, I respect you and your considerable powers, I know who you are and what you represent, but I have to defend myself here. Ask anyone in my flock what they think of my abilities." He leaned back in the chair, glaring over at the Queen.

"And I feel truly awful for every last person in your flock for thinking that," she said shortly. "Now, your act may have flown under my father, but it won't fly under me. I want this shrine cleared out by tomorrow."

"Okay, okay!" Markos exclaimed, putting his hand out towards Queen Mars. "If you were right...if what you said was true, then you'd already know!" He put his right index fingers to his temple. "If I had no gift, you'd be in here right now, swimming around in my mind, learning everything about me. I'd be an open book before you, I'd...I'd have no choice but to comply! But the fact that you have to come in here and talk to me, tell me what to do, tell me how you feel, that in and of itself proves you're wrong!"

Mars gave a tiny, almost playful smile. "I can't read you because you've had suppressors injected. Another curious move for one with the gift, by the way. And you've done an excellent job of burying everything about your past before this shrine opened, so, credit to you there." She stood to her feet. "But, if you insist...I have more than one way of reading a person."

Slowly, she moved around the desk, sweeping around the simple wooden surface. Cautiously, Markos stood up, warily regarding the Queen as she approached.

"Uh, what...what are you…" Markos unconsciously took a couple steps away from her, towards the wall right behind him. She just kept walking towards him, forcing his back against the wall. "Hey!"

Mars reached out, snatching his left wrist in her right hand and gripping it tightly. She looked straight into Markos's eyes as he flinched back.

"You come from a family of seers? Both your parents had the gift?" Mars began, not dropping her hard glare right at Markos's face as she spoke. "Yes, that's it. Who pressured you into it? Mother? Father?" She paused. "Father."

"W-what the hell are you doing?!" Markos snapped, trying to rip away from the Queen, averting his head to the right.

Mars just twisted his arm a bit. "Stop that. Okay, father, then. He wasn't happy when you never showed any potential, was he?"

Finally relenting, Markos turned back to look at Queen Mars, looking rather disoriented and afraid. "You don't—"

"Beat you? Yes, of course he did. Eventually, you got the idea to fake it, just to get him to stop hitting you, when you were...twelve?" She looked right into Markos's eyes. "Thirteen? Fourteen? There we are, fourteen. What'd you do, Markos? Get your friends to pretend to be injured and then you'd heal them? That's an easy one."

Markos now looked horrified, face sweating like it had during his earlier sermon, as he wilted under Mars's accusing glare. "I—"

"No, no, you needed a splash. Too small for you to just do it to some random person, you needed something of significance to get your father off your back. Let me just say, I sympathize with that, I hate my father and am beyond thrilled that he's out of my life now. Regardless, what nonsense did you pull off to earn the respect of enough people to start your own shrine?"

Markos's face twitched at several spots now, clear and obvious terror in his expression.

"Curse a plant and cause it to wither? Walk on water? Raise the dead?" She waited for a reaction deep in Markos's eyes. "Raise the dead! Wow, you went all out! You got someone to pretend to be dead, only for you to revive them. Who was it? Hm?"

She gave his arm a shake, Markos now starting to leak tears out of his eyes as he slowly slipped down against the wall.

"Brother? Sister? Best friend? Cousin? There we are, cousin," Mars said with finality. "Must have really blown everyone's hair back, pulling that off. And on that miracle, you built your practice. And everything was going just perfectly for you, until my father gave me the throne. How hard was it to bury your past like that? Must have taken some effort, but, of course, you had no choice. After all, any Kojiki-sensitive individual worth a damn knows that you can't bring people back from the dead, you'd be exposed as a fraud instantly if word about that spread around, and unlike my father, I'd actually care enough to stop you!"

Markos gave a helpless little squeal, slowly drooping to the floor, openly sobbing now under Mars's string of accusations.

"I think I've seen everything I need to see," Mars said, turning away from the broken Markos, who sat on the floor in defeat. "Rest assured, you are far from the only charlatan who has been allowed to run amok on my planet under my father, and you are far from the only one I will have to shut down. You're simply the first I've found." She looked around the room, listening to Markos weeping behind her. "You shut down by tomorrow evening, and I won't press charges."

With that, she slowly walked back towards the lone door to the room, the only sound in the room his sobbing.

"

"Prince Endymion, please, I am sure there is a better way than this," Kunzite begged, putting his right hand out towards the chest of his charge. "This is such a bad idea, there simply has to exist a better way."

"Well, we don't have time to find that better way," Endymion protested, glancing down the hallway, then back in the opposite direction. "We're running out of product, we need to get The Qesem up in space and running."

"Involving your father in this deception is inviting disaster, Your Highness. If we need to take some time to come up with a better justification for you disappearing for seven days, then we need to take that time. The worst that will happen is that Nephrite's crew will be inactive for a few days, that's...it's not a big deal."

"It'll work!" Endymion hissed. The two men were standing very close to each other, speaking in hushed voices. "It...it allows me to give different stories to Kasios and Serenity, and gives my story more credibility with Serenity. I know my father, he'll...he'll go for it."

Kunzite scratched his fingernails along the bridge of his nose, squeezing his eyes shut. "This...Your Highness, what makes you so sure that your father won't react poorly to this? You have no guarantee of what he'll think, he could easily get very upset! And then what?!" With an exasperated sigh, Kunzite gave his head a quick shake. "Okay, okay, I...it's your call, just let the record show that I think this is a terrible idea."

"Alright, I'm going, just...just sit tight. I can spin this, I can get him on board, just...trust me." He turned to the right, straightening the front of his shirt, marching off down the wide, ornate hallway. Kunzite simply turned around and leaned up against the wall, crossing his arms over his chest.

Quite sure that he could feel the heat of Kunzite's glare on his back, Endymion steeled himself as he stalked down the large hallway. After perhaps twenty paces, he broke off to the left towards a green and blue door. He knocked softly on the wooden rectangle, waiting perhaps half a beat before getting a response.

"Who is it?"

"Uh, dad, it's...it's me," Endymion said, taking a moment to soften his face up a bit.

"Come on in," Kasios instructed, prompting the Prince to pop the door open.

The King's bedroom was very similar to Endymion's, with the same sorts of fancy designs and decorations everywhere, matching the style that the rest of the palace mostly maintained. It was noticeably bigger, and Endymion knew that some of the valued objects in here were an order of magnitude more significant than those he had. A bedroom fit for a King, truly. The King in question was sitting at his desk in the far corner of the room, back turned to his son.

"Hey, hey dad," Endymion said, adopting a slightly meek manner, slowly ambling forward across the carpet.

"Hey there." Kasios spun his chair around. "Say, uh, you want to have dinner together tonight? I'm dying for some pork, ribs maybe, that sound okay to you?"

"Yeah, yeah sure, I'm all for that," Endymion said softly, absentmindedly glancing about. "Sure. How's it...how's it going?"

"Oh...well, not bad I suppose," Kasios replied, turning back to his desk. "Agency business, it's...well, I don't want to bore you with it, but some stuff is happening lately. Stressful. I need good stuff to start happening or the council is going to start putting some pressure on me, and I don't need that, so...you know. What's up?"

"S-sorry to hear that," Endymion said, coming up right behind his father. "Um, I'm...dad, I, I need your help with something."

"Something up with that bookstore deal you were working on?" Kasios asked. "You need more money?"

"N-no, Zoisite already finalized that, we're good there. The bookstores are ours, that went great." Endymion fumbled his fingers around in front of him. "It's...I need your help with something else. I…" his face faltered a bit. "I...I don't really know how to say this, but...I'm scared."

After a short pause, Kasios spun back around in his chair, Endymion slowly backing off towards a different chair up against the wall right next to the desk. "Scared?" Kasios repeated. "Of what? Financing a bookstore?"

"No, no, nothing...nothing with that." Endymion sat down in the chair heavily. "I...it's Serenity, I...I think...I'm not sure what's been going on with me lately, but, the closer we get to the birth, the more, just...incomplete I find myself feeling."

Kasios could only wrinkle his face at this proclamation, wheeling his leather chair away from the desk a bit. "Well, son, I have to say I...I don't know what to say to that. I don't really know what it means, actually."

"You know I love her, right?" Endymion said, putting a slightly shaking hand down on the armrest. "God, I love her, more than anything, but...I mean, I don't know…I'm starting to regret the way I've handled things with her."

"Um...go on," Kasios prompted, giving an uncomfortable little glance to his left.

"We started, uh...you know, seriously seeing each other when I was still sixteen. Just before I turned seventeen, I remember. And then, just before I turn twenty, we get married. Now, before I turn twenty-one, she's going to give birth to my child, I...maybe I went into things too fast." Endymion slouched over a bit, resting his right hand against his forehead, using his right elbow to prop himself up. "I went steady with her when I was sixteen, never once broke it off, now...now we're just together forever, and...I don't know, dad."

Kasios scratched at his left temple. "I mean...I didn't commit to your mother until I was twenty, so, I kind of get it, but...I gotta say, son, I thought that's what you wanted! Y'know, the way that...you are, the way you think about things, I thought you were a one-woman kind of guy!"

"I...I thought I was too, but...God, maybe I should have had more fun while I was young!" He wiped his left hand across his forehead, shifting uncomfortably in the chair. "I...I never thought I'd find myself wanting more than Serenity, I thought she...she completed me, but...lately, I'm just finding myself...oh, Gods."

Kasios got to his feet, cautiously approaching his son. "Hey, son, I...nobody else is going to hear about any of this, I promise. Not going to speak about this to anyone, whatever you tell me, you've got my word. Just give it to me."

Endymion nodded, sniffling a little bit. "Just...she's so clingy and needy and...lately, I've just been irritated by all the weird things she says, the odd behavior, how...clingy she is, it's just starting to get on my nerves! I used to find it endearing, I loved it!"

"Yeah, I thought you loved all that about her!" Kasios agreed. "I...son, maybe you're just having some little mood swings right now. Give it a few days, sometimes the mind is a weird thing."

"It's been brewing for awhile," Endymion protested, wiping his hands up near his eyes. "I've been trying, so hard, to bury it, but...I just think back to those...three cycles when I was sixteen. Jadeite starting taking me to Venus to...you know, sample the local flavor."

Kasios's lip curled down a bit. "Thought you weren't really into that."

"I…" Endymion shook his head. "I didn't think I was either, but now...you know, a few years later, I'm wondering if maybe I judged things too fast. Maybe it was a mistake to commit when I was so young! Maybe I should have just had a little more fun when I was younger. Now I just...I'm starting to feel suffocated!" Endymion slumped over a bit more in the chair. "I want so badly to bury this, to...to be rid of this feeling of...I don't know how else to describe it, other than loss!" He shook his head, starting to tear up a bit.

"Uh…" Kasios looked back and forth, almost resembling the look of shellshock over Endymion's words. "I...uh...wow. Okay."

"I feel...so awful about this, trust me, I...Serenity doesn't deserve any of this, doesn't deserve me getting annoyed by her, I know I'm not...treating her in the way that she deserves right now, and...I...I don't know if she's even really noticed yet, you know she tends to be positive about things. But, if I can't...stop feeling like this, it's going to be a real problem. And I love her more than anything, and I don't want to do that to her." He hung his head down, wiping at his eyes again.

"Hey, hey, I...uh...son, I...you'll be okay," he said, going up next to him and awkwardly patting the top of his head. "You'll...you'll be okay."

"I need to do something about this," Endymion said, voice getting choked up a bit. "I have an itch that I need to scratch, and...I need to scratch it, or else it'll get worse. If I keep trying to bury this, it'll just fester, I'm convinced of that now." He looked up, eyes red and cheeks stained with tears. "I need your help to...to rid me of this."

Kasios's mouth dropped open a bit in shock, recoiling a bit. "Son, I...what do you want me to do? I mean, I don't know what you're trying to suggest, but...you're married now. And you're about to be a father, there's...I don't know what you think I can do here."

Endymion raised a shivering hand up towards his father slowly. "I...I need to burn it out. Burying it, it won't work, I can't...it's just getting bigger. But I think...if I could just burn it out, I could get rid of it. Just, give me...a handful of days away to...indulge myself, just get it all out of my system, and then I can be done with it."

"What?!" Kasios's eyes bulged. "Whoa whoa whoa, what...are you crazy?! Endymion, you...you're married! Indulge yourself, you...son! Get yourself together! This isn't like you at all!"

"I know!" Endymion cried, looking up at his father pleadingly, tears in his eyes. "I know, this...I don't know where this came from, and I hate it, but...I can't just run from it anymore! I...I need to go away for awhile, go burn off this feeling, and...it'll just be the one time, I p-promise! I'll get it all out, just...I'll need a few days, and it'll be done!"

"Do you have any idea, the scandal that would cause?!" Kasios put his hands on his hips. "The Prince of Earth suddenly heading off to Venus to plant his seed in a bunch of random women, just cycles after his marriage? Scandal might not even do it justice!"

"K-Kunzite would be with me," Endymion said, wiping at his cheeks again. "I've already gone over it with him, he's got all kinds of disguises for me, things I can wear so I'm not recognizable, he's...I'll be discrete, I promise. I'll be safe too, of course. That won't be a problem, but...I need your help."

"Um…" Kasios pursed his lips together tightly. "Okay, listen. Maybe you need...like, a therapist, or something?"

"I've had Zoisite acting as my therapist lately, he...I've tried to work through it with him, but it's not working. And if he can't get it, I don't trust any therapist to have any better luck. No, I...I need your help selling a story to Serenity, to explain why I'm going to be gone for awhile. I need you to…" he started tearing up again, sniffling loudly. "Help me lie to my wife."

Kasios sighed dramatically, spinning away from his son and walking a couple steps away. "Oh, son, what is wrong with you?"

"She won't believe me, I...I know what I'm going to tell her, but it'll only fly if you back me up on it. Just...just help give me a little credibility, and I'll do the rest." Endymion nodded, body shaking. "That's all I need."

"Uhm...Endymion, listen." Kasios spun back around to look at his son. "As far as I'm concerned, you're an adult, and you're smart enough to make your own decisions. If you want to commit adultery, that's your call, I'm not interested in telling you what you can and can't do, it's your life, and...whatever. But, you want me to help you, I...son, I don't know how I feel about that."

"I-I know," Endymion said weakly. "I know it's an awful thing, but...there's nothing I can say to her, by myself, that'll make her accept me disappearing for six or seven days. But, if you can back me up, she'll have to."

Kasios groaned, rubbing his forehead. "Wow. Son, I'm sorry you're having such a hard time right now, really, but...there's got to be a better way to deal with this."

"I...I want to believe that there is, but...I just k-know it, I'm days away from doing something I really regret with her, and then...I mean, that won't make me f-feel better, I'll just be stuck like that, maybe forever! I...doing this has to be better, not j-just for me, but for her, than just...letting it brew inside me for the rest of my life, r-right? I go off for a few days, just get it all out of my system, come back, and buckle in for the next sixty years!"

Kasios glanced up at the corner of the room, uneasily shifting his weight. "Son...I love you, but...I don't know if I can do this, I—"

Endymion buried his face in his hands, now openly sobbing. "I...I detest myself so much for f-f-feeling like this, I'm such a pathetically weak man!"

Kasios blinked rapidly down at his son, mouth still gaping open slightly. "U-uh…"

"Gods, I'm pathetic, I can't believe the feelings I've had for the last cycle! I'm so ashamed, I...I want to be rid of them! F-forever, I w-want them gone! I need them gone, I...I don't…if I don't do this, I don't even know what's going to happen, but...oh, I want this marriage to work, so badly."

Kasios stared at Endymion as if he was growing a pair of heads out of both of his shoulders.

"Oh...oh, dad, please...please, I need help!"

"Uh...uh...I…" Kasios stuttered, looking almost like he was scared. "Son...I...I…"

"

Endymion walked down the hallway, wiping at his cheeks and eyes feverishly with both hands, moving purposefully away from his father's bedroom, Kunzite still leaning against the wall right where he had left him. As he rapidly stalked past his guardian, he fell into stride alongside him.

"He went for it," Endymion said in a low voice, casting a quick look behind him over his shoulder.

"Oh, wonderful," Kunzite said dryly. "Your father thinks you're about to commit mass adultery cycles after getting married, that's...that's phenomenal news. I'll plan the party."

"Well, it worked," Endymion insisted. "He's going to help with Serenity as well. When the opportunity arises, I'll...put his mind at ease about this after we get back. I'll...tell him that I chickened out and we just went fishing or camping or something."

Kunzite's forehead creased. "Why is that...somehow less believable?"

Endymion gave Kunzite a caustic little glare. "Alright, now we just...tell Serenity."

"Okay, let's...go over our story one more time," Kunzite instructed, the two of them still briskly walking.

"

"Survival training?"

Endymion's bedroom was atypically-crowded, with four individuals standing in the middle of the large carpeted space. Serenity was standing, hands on her hips, looking at the three tall men standing in front of her. She had a look of confusion and bewilderment on her face.

"Y-yeah...it's a thing that male members of the Earth royal house have to...go through," Endymion said quietly, fidgeting around with the front of his shirt. "You go out in the wilderness for a few nights, go out into deep space with no power, you...learn how to hunt and forage for food. Those kinds of skills." He nodded.

Serenity just gaped over at her husband for several beats. "This...this is a joke, right?"

Kasios stepped forward towards Serenity's left side, hands on his hips. "Noooo...no, it's a thing."

"Um…" Serenity swallowed, looking over at Kunzite intently, as if trying to find some sort of crack in his face that would expose this as a rather exhausting comedic routine. "I...in what circumstance would Endymion...or, any royal, for that matter, ever need to know about things like that?"

"Well, hopefully never," Endymion said casually. "I mean, obviously. But, crazy things happen, and...you know, the life of an Earth royal and direct heir to the throne is obviously very valuable, so, if something does happen, I need to know how to...uh, survive."

Serenity blinked a couple times, looking like she was still waiting for an announcement of this all being an elaborate gag. When no such announcement came, she just stared up at Kasios.

"It's a tradition. I did it, my father, grandfather...twenty generations of our family, at least. Probably since our family took the Earth Kingdom." He jerked his head over towards Endymion. "Strictly speaking, he should have done it before he turned twenty, but...well, we kind of all forgot about it. And frankly, yeah, it's...there's some stuff that he really should know."

"L-look, Kunzite's going to be with me the whole time," Endymion assured his wife, pointing his right hand over towards his elder general. "Obviously, with him, I'll be completely safe, there's no danger involved. I'll be back in one piece in...probably six or seven days."

"Six or seven days?" Serenity repeated. "You're going to be gone for...seven days?"

"Yeah, uh...no communication either, really very little technology at all, it's...oh, boy, sounds like hell," Endymion said, scratching the back of his neck. "I'm dreading it, but...what am I, gonna break hundreds of years of family tradition?"

"I've...I've never heard of anything like that," Serenity protested. "If this is a joke, then it's really gone on too long, I...I can't honestly be expected to believe—"

"Look, we all kind of forgot about it," Kasios tried to explain. "It's just not something that comes up that often, literally once a generation. I, I really want him to do it, I...I think it might be good for him, and...he needs to do it now. Can't do it after...or, at least, it wouldn't be a good idea to do it after…" he gesticulated over towards Serenity's belly.

"I leave tomorrow," Endymion said. "This is, this is the last one, really, I promise."

Serenity gave a glassy glare up at her husband. Endymion quickly closed the small gap between the two of them. "Look, Serenity, it's just going to be seven days, maybe not even, and then—"

"You...you said that this sort of thing was done. In the temple, you told me—"

"And I meant that when I said it, I promise, but...this, this wasn't even in my mind. And hey, one time thing, obviously." Endymion shrugged. "So, just...I mean, we've got your squad of midwives all hired and moving in, so you'll have plenty of help from them, and...there's no chance of you giving birth before I get back if I leave now, so...may as well just do it."

Serenity rattled in a large breath, still looking back and forth between the three men, waiting for some other shoe to drop.

"Look, I wanna...take the blame for this one," Kasios spoke up. "This is me, I should have...had him do it awhile ago, before the wedding, maybe before the announcement even, I screwed up. Sorry. But, I mean...better now than later."

"Your husband will be perfectly safe with me, Your Highness," Kunzite chimed in.

Serenity, after several long moments, gave a tiny nod. "Okay."

"Again, I'm sorry, I know it's...hey, I hate it too, I want nothing to do with survival training for seven straight days, but it's just something I guess I need to do." Endymion scratched at his hip for a moment. "And, when it's over, it's over."

"Okay," Serenity said for the second time.

With an uneasy smile, Endymion slowly backed away. "Okay, I...I need to speak to Kunzite, in private, for a bit, about how I should prepare. Again, s-sorry, I just...needs to be done." Frantically, he walked backwards toward the bedroom door behind him, Kunzite and Kasios both slowly following him.

Taking what seemed like an eternity, Endymion found his way to the door, reaching behind him and fumbling around for the knob for a bit before giving it a quick twist. Disappearing from sight, leaving his wife standing there in a whirlwind of emotions that seemed to all be canceling out, leaving her expressing none of them.

With the three men out of the room, Kunzite closed the door, Endymion having quickly stormed down the hall, getting far away from his bedroom door. His general and his father rapidly went up to him, the three of them crowding together closely.

"Alright, we're good," Endymion said under his breath.

"That was good?" Kunzite questioned, looking over his shoulder. "Odd word choice."

"I knew she would be upset, but she believed it. She'll get over it, it's how she is," Endymion explained.

"Well, you're certainly putting that theory of yours to the test," Kunzite said, slightly caustically. "Also, I'm not convinced that she believed us, to be entirely honest."

"What choice does she have?" Endymion reasoned.

Kasios sighed, then reached his right arm up, grasping the back of Endymion's neck firmly with his fingers. "Let it be known that I had absolutely no fun doing that."

"I know, I...thank you," Endymion whispered.

"Also, let it be known that I only did it because you're my son, and I love you more than anything else in this universe, and...when it comes right down to it, I would do anything for you." He gave Endymion a little shake. "However, this had better be it. This had better not become a repeat occurrence. Next time you start feeling like this, I'll hire you an army of therapists, but not this again. One-time thing. This is your one."

Endymion nodded. "You've got my word, I'm...I'm done with it after this."

"And so help me Terra, if you get recognized out there, or knock up a girl, I will castrate you. Personally."

Endymion jabbed his index finger into Kunzite's chest. "He's going to be with me, he'll make sure I stay in line."

Kasios puffed his cheeks out, shaking his head slowly. "You know, I...you've always been a pretty good kid. All things considered." He gave a tiny smile, letting his hand drop from the back of his son's neck. "I guess you're making up for lost time now." He patted Endymion on the back. "You know, adultery does kind of...run in the family."

Endymion stood up straight at this, raising an eyebrow at his father.

"N-not me, obviously. Your grandfather though, I mean...wow, I've told you stories, right? Believe me, I only told you a tiny fraction of them. Great-grandfather too. Guess it skipped a generation." He spun away from the tiny gathering, walking off, back to his room.

"I'll give you this much," Kunzite said under his breath. "Neither of them have punched you in the face yet, so you're doing better than I expected."

"

"Alright, off to the worst experience of my life!" Endymion slung a small leather sack up, putting the strap over his shoulder. Wearing a gregarious smile, he waited for Serenity to get up off the bed. "Oh, it's going to be awful, I...I wish I could just...blow it off and stay here. But, uh, my dad would be disappointed, and, can't have that."

Serenity remained seated on the left corner of the bed, leaning back and supporting her upper body with her arms. "Okay."

Endymion's smile flickered away for a brief flash, but came back quickly. "And, hey, on the other hand, when I get back, I'll be able to...teach you how to start a fire from scratch. How to skin a rabbit after catching it and cook the meat. H-hey, maybe even the thing where...you purify your own urine so you can drink it."

She gave a curt nod. "Sure."

"Hey, hey, this is it, I promise, I made everyone promise. Kunzite, Kasios, everyone, I'm spending...pretty much all my time, gonna be here. In the palace."

"Okay." She still didn't get up off the bed.

"Uh…" Endymion sighed, glancing around his room airily. "Well. Goodbye."

She nodded. "Survival training." She gave her head a quick little tilt to the left before straightening it back out. "Hm."

Endymion quickly turned around, running his fingers along the strap on his shoulder, marching off to the door to the balcony. Within beats, he was out of the room, closing the glass-and-wood barrier behind him, walking off to the glowing blue platform that performed the function of an elevator. She craned her head up just enough to watch him step on the round platform, then quickly descend downwards, out of sight.

After several dragging beats of silence and inactivity, Serenity got to her feet. She sniffled a bit, a gloomy look on her face as she judged the large room that she now had to herself. Her right eye twitched a bit, and she reached up to rub at it.

Slowly, she swept over towards a small wooden counter space against the left wall, a shelf right behind it lined with various sized crystal glasses. Constantly twisting her head about, eyes and ears alert for any sign of a visitor, she crept behind the counter and opened a sealed drawer at her knees.

Her right hand submerged into the chilled compartment and came up holding a square, tall bottle that had just a little bit of brown liquid at the bottom of it. Reaching behind her to grab one of the round, short, fat glasses, she unscrewed the lid from the bottle and raised it up in front of her face to judge the small amount remaining inside.

She glanced back down to the glass, then the bottle. She unconsciously rubbed her stomach.

Finally, with a jerky twist of her wrist, she began to pour a small amount of the pungent brown liquid into the glass. She lifted it up to her face, and before her better judgement could take over, she put the mouth of the glass to her lips, downing the contents. With a little shudder and lurch forward, she slapped the empty glass back down on the counter.