Chapter 22: The Circle of Life
Princess Serenity leaned back on the chaise, holding her right hand up by her side, Kristen holding the small appendage in both of her hands and gently massaging it with her strong fingers.
"It was so nice meeting someone like that," Serenity said. "Someone who genuinely cares about how her children are raised and wanting to be involved." Her face clouded slightly. "So many of these wealthy mothers just hire people to handle everything with their kids, it's almost disheartening to even think about. But this woman, married to a man who owns a platinum mine, basically printing money, she's got one midwife! And she barely lets her do anything either, she wants it to be all on her."
"Does that mean we should be planning on looking for new jobs soon?" Delia came over towards the reclined Princess, holding a white tray with assorted cups on it in both of her hands.
Serenity giggled as Delia set the tray down on a nearby table. "Not at all. A royal baby is still a royal baby. Just don't expect me to disappear for cycles and leave you all to…"
She winced, her sentence fading without being fully expressed. She blinked a few times, left hand quickly coming up to rest on her inflated stomach. Her eased smile disappeared, and she looked down at her belly.
"Your Highness?" Kristen asked, releasing Serenity's hand and letting it fall to her side.
"I...uh, I just...hm," she mumbled. Suddenly, she sucked in a massive breath, her muscles contracting, legs folding up towards her body and arms crossing over her chest. "Oooooh!" she groaned, face wrinkling as she took on a pained expression.
Endymion, who had been reading a book on the bed, looked up as Serenity started to take a series of rapid, in-and-out breaths. Kristen and Delia just stared, all three of them thinking the same thing but not quite ready to say it.
Serenity blinked rapidly, hands on her stomach. And then, she gave a loud moan of pain. Immediately, both midwives stood up, and Endymion practically flew up off the bed.
"I think this is it!" Delia said, looking over at Endymion, who was already reaching over to a rectangular piece of equipment on the bedside table. He twisted a knob on the top of the grey device, then lifted it to his mouth.
"It's time! Everybody in! Not a drill!" he said firmly, before setting the short-range communicator back down on the table. The two present midwives were assisting Serenity in standing up, guiding her as she waddled over towards the bed. Endymion kneeled down and reached underneath the bed, pulling out a rolled-up white sheet. Quickly, he shook it out of its roll, laying it flat atop his sheets length-wise.
"Right here," Endymion urged, the two midwives leading the clearly-pained princess over to where her husband had indicated. "Oh, beautiful, let's get it done, right here!"
The bedroom door swung open, four men toting large leather cases quickly entering, followed by four women. Their movements were hurried, yet controlled and measured, easily spreading out amongst the massive room. The four men, Dennis leading them, closed in on Serenity as she was being laid out on her back.
"I've seen enough women go into labor in my time to have a pretty good feeling!" Kristen said, backing off to allow the four doctors to take control of the situation.
"So, we're doing it right here?" Dennis asked. "You good with that, Your Highness?"
"Y-yes," Endymion said quickly. "I'd be honored, actually."
"Alright!" Dennis clapped his hands together, approaching the pained Princess. The three other present doctors bent down to the floor, setting their large leather cases down and popping them open to reveal assorted medical equipment and paraphernalia. "Gentlemen, let's get this Princess out into the world!"
"
Claus closed his eyes and leaned his head back, letting the frigid chill of the early morning wake him up. The cold snuck past his large grey jacket, seeping through the fabric and blasting away at whatever bits of skin they could find. Even as it made him wince, it also brought life to his tired mind and body.
The concrete jungle of a city surrounding him was also just starting to wake up as well, the street before him hosting a few wheeled vehicles sweeping by, the hovering speeders above practically asserting their dominance over their inferior predecessors.
The crowds were just beginning to filter out onto the streets, yet another day of dealing imperium on the orders of the crown before him. He was already thinking about all the money he'd be making, when suddenly, a black van braked to a halt on the street right in front of him.
He didn't give it much of a thought at first, and before he could give it enough consideration to be concerned or suspicious, he was suddenly hit by a figurative freight train of energy, right between the shoulder blades. He couldn't even shout before his nerves were stimulated to the point where he passed out, falling limp.
The two tall men who had come up behind him caught him as he slumped over, one of them putting a metallic rod back inside their trench coat, and pushed him over towards the van. The side door to the vehicle slid open, and they pushed the unconscious imperium dealer inside.
"
One of the doctors placed a purple apparatus, a mouthpiece mounted onto the side of a round bulb, into Serenity's mouth. She bit down on it, taking in a deep breath from the bulb.
"We're looking good!" Dennis said enthusiastically. "Contractions are getting longer and more frequent, so we're definitely getting closer!"
Endymion was kneeling over by the side of his bed, right arm reaching out towards his wife, holding her hand in his. Every now and then, she gave it a firm squeeze, enough to make him wince slightly.
"I didn't think we'd go straight to these kinds of contractions," Endymion said, looking down at the four doctors keeping busy. All of them wore white aprons over their fronts, as well as gloves.
"Labor is unpredictable," Dennis said. "That being said, I think we're getting quite close." He looked over at the Prince. "You still want to, Your Highness?"
Endymion hesitated for a split second, but then nodded.
The door suddenly flew open, the High King of Earth practically sliding into the room. "How are we looking?!"
"We're on track," Dennis answered. "I don't think this labor will be much longer at all, actually." He picked up a square grey device and placed it on top of Serenity's stomach, moving it around. Another one of the doctors watched a small handheld screen that he was holding up, the information on the screen changing whenever the device was moved.
Endymion separated his hand from Serenity's, standing up. "Kristen?"
The blue-haired midwife of Princess Serenity, having retreated to the background of the room after the beginning of labor, immediately stepped forward. "Yes, Your Highness?"
"Suit me up." He walked over to one of the open cases on the floor, which had a stack of medical aprons and surgical gloves in it. The woman quickly walked forward, kneeling down by the assortment of protective gear, lifting one of them up and unrolling it.
"You know how to deliver a baby?" Dennis asked, as Serenity began to start loudly groaning again, reaching up to pull the breathing bulb out of her mouth.
"I've read about it and watched it being done," Endymion answered as Kristen helped lace up the apron over his neck.
"Just be careful when you're holding the baby when she comes out, she'll be slippery," Dennis instructed. "And I'll be standing right behind you if you need help."
"My father delivered me," Endymion said, glancing over to look at Kasios as Kristen helped fit the rubber gloves onto his hands. "Seems only right."
Serenity, panting in the aftermath of another sizable contraction, gave a weak little smile. "I didn't...I didn't feel...anything different earlier!"
"Sometimes, stage one of labor is barely distinguishable from the previous cramping," Dennis acknowledged. "But stage two, well...it's unmistakable."
Endymion rubbed his gloved hands together, taking in a deep breath and huffing it out. "Alright," he growled, widening his stance slightly to steady himself. "Serenity, you've been carrying her for nine cycles, my turn for a little bit."
Serenity nodded, placing the breathing bulb back into her mouth.
"
Claus had been dimly aware of the vehicle he had been shoved into lurching back and forth, but being aware of it was about all he was capable of right now. Body and mind still recovering from the powerful shock he had been given, he couldn't even open his eyes to get some idea of his surroundings. In fact, he only became aware of the fact that he was drooling out of the side of his slightly open mouth after several secundas. And by that time, the van was braking to a screeching halt, the doors sliding open, and his limp body being dragged outside.
He finally forced his heavy eyelids up, at first blinded by the early-morning light that made picking up on details impossible. After a few beats, the concrete ground and brick walls became clearly visible to him, as he was pulled down what appeared to be an alleyway. He didn't have control of any of his more meaningful muscles, just barely able to move his neck around now. He tried to vocalize something, but failed to get anything out.
He saw a few other large men gathered together in the alley, along with two people laying on their backs on the dirty concrete ground. He was unceremoniously dropped to the ground, the force of impact just adding to his already significant pain levels.
Adrenaline was causing him to regain control of his body a bit faster than otherwise would have been possible, fear of what these men might do to him managing to motivate him enough to crane his head back to look over at what he might be facing. With some effort, he managed to get his twitching arms underneath him and prop himself up slightly. Just as he was going to try to push himself up, he froze cold on getting a second look over at the two laying on the ground.
They were both wearing casual cold-weather outfits, large jackets and thick pants with brown boots. However, both were lacking a particularly important feature that people generally tended to have. Neither body had a head attached to them. Now noticing that disturbing fact, he was able to also take notice of the significant amounts of blood pooled up around their shoulders.
Terror seized him as he put two and two together, and he began fighting like never before to get to his feet. His attempts, however, were quickly halted as the collection of standing men came over to his prone body and gave him another zap with the prod. Knowing that he would likely never be waking up again, he collapsed to the ground, fading into blackness.
"
"Alright, Your Highness, once you start feeling this urge to begin pushing, just start pushing," one of the doctors instructed. "You'll certainly know it when it starts happening, it's unmistakable."
Kasios watched as his son bent down by Serenity's spread legs, arms crossed over his chest. Queen Serenity was watching from behind him, looking over from behind his shoulders, hands nervously clenching on the High King's forearms. Endymion's four generals had also made themselves available, standing over by the closet door, wanting to be present but not overly close to the bed.
"Good thing this room's so big," Kasios muttered, glancing around at the significantly-sized crowd that had spread themselves around. "Any more spectators, and she'd need to be giving birth in a handball stadium."
"Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!" Serenity gasped. "She wants out!" Her right hand, searching for some form of comfort in the absence of Endymion's hand by instead squeezing down on the hand of one of the doctors who wasn't immediately occupied.
"Push away!" he instructed. "Endymion, Your Highness, get ready!"
Serenity, with a series of verbalized groans and grunts, began to exert herself, placing pressure on the child inside of her to exit. Endymion watched, looking for some sign of his daughter, ready to put his hands forward to assist as soon as she made herself visible.
"Alright, that was a good one!" Dennis said. "Take a rest, gather yourself, and then push again!"
"I was in labor with her for twelve and a half minutas," Queen Serenity said quietly into Kasios's ear. "How long has it been for her? Three?"
Serenity began another series of primal grunts, straining herself. Endymion's eyes went wide as a tiny bald head suddenly began to force its way out.
"We've got a crown!" the Prince said, putting his hands forward to support the newborn's head as it slid out.
"
With a final swing of a razor-sharp machete, the head was separated from the body. Blood poured out of both separated body parts, yet again staining the concrete ground with a bright red puddle spreading in all directions. The executioner backed away before the spreading mess could ruin his shoes, quickly flicking the head away with the tip of his bladed weapon.
"Alright, let's get out of here!" one of the men ordered.
"Think that'll be an effective message?" The machete-wielding thug stepped over to the decapitated head and grabbed it by the top of its hair, picking it up and placing it up by the alley wall, right next to the other two.
"If it isn't, then I don't know what an effective message is anymore," the leader answered. With that, the half-a-dozen men scattered down either direction of the alleyway, putting distance between them and the bloody, macabre scene, knowing that any time now someone would be passing through to notice it.
"
"Wow." Endymion's right index finger slowly went down towards the newborn baby's face, stopping just short of her tiny nose. "Wow, wow, wow."
Serenity was holding the newly-born Princess in her arms, a cloth blanket wrapped around her tiny figure. She had stopped crying just recently, settling down into a gentle little slumber in her mother's arms. Only her face was visible in the bundle, eyes closed, gently breathing.
"She is perfect," Serenity said, exhausted from the ordeal, even if by all reasonable measures it was quite a short and simple labor.
Dennis, toting one of the large cases in his right hand after packing up, walked up before the High King. "All in all, an ideal birthing," he said, bowing his head slightly. "Congratulations on your new granddaughter."
Kasios, swallowing, gave the royal doctor a nod and a smile.
"Just keep her warm and let her rest. Both of them, actually," Dennis said, looking back over at the Prince and Princess. "Princess Serenity, you need rest after that, make sure you allow yourself time to heal. Me and my colleagues will return soon to do some basic checkups on both you and your new daughter. I'm confident you'll be feeling back to normal quite soon."
With that, he departed the room, leaving only Kasios, the three Serenities, Endymion, and two midwives left.
"So, Chibiusa it is?" Kasios asked, coming up closer to the bed and leaning over towards the infant.
"I'm on board for it," Endymion enthused. "Chibiusa."
Kasios glanced over at Kristen and Delia. "Now, I know you have a lot of experience with newborns, but this is nothing like anything you've seen before," he warned. "She's going to develop rapidly."
Delia pursed her lips, holding her hands together in front of her. "How do you mean?"
"Runs in the family," Kasios explained. "I'm a descendant of Aethlios, a man who was revered as a demigod back before the time of recorded history. I can't say I believe that, but he must have been a pretty spectacular specimen to get that kind of credit. And it seems like we still have a few drops of the old bloodline." He pointed over at his son. "He was crawling when he was two cycles old and talking at four. About the same for me, too."
Princess Serenity was mildly taken aback at this, looking over at her father-in-law. "No way."
"He never told you?" Kasios questioned.
"I thought he was making it up to impress me," Serenity said, looking at Endymion out of the corner of her eyes. "Huh."
"She'll amaze you with what she's capable of," Kasios said. "All of you."
"Alright, sweetie, you need some space?" Endymion asked, worming himself off the bed.
Serenity gave a little nod. "I feel good, really, just...it does take something out of you, that's for sure."
Endymion slowly trudged around the bed, looking a little shaky and maybe even frail, but an undeniable relief in his facial expression through it all. As he came around, walking next to his father, Kasios put his right arm out and clapped his hand on the back of Endymion's neck.
"Lunch?" he asked his son.
Endymion nodded. He was about to say something when he was distracted by a faint buzzing from his belt. He reached down and pulled off his communicator, peering down at the grey disc as he put it up in front of his face.
"What's up?" Kasios asked.
"Oh, just Kunzite. Wants to talk." He clipped the disc back onto his waist. "Probably wants to know my schedule for the next few days."
"
"I am sorry to have to bring this to you on today, of all days," Kunzite said darkly, leaning up against the side wall in his private chambers, Endymion sitting in the middle of the room on a chair with his head bowed. "But I felt it was better that you know about this as soon as possible."
Endymion slowly nodded, face wrinkled and mouth turned down in a little scowl. "You did the right thing."
The two were silent for several beats, Endymion deep in thought.
"Three dead?" Endymion asked. "Could there be more coming?"
"Possibly," Kunzite said uneasily, crossing his arms over his chest.
"You're sure this was related to the business?" Endymion inquired.
"Has to be," Kunzite affirmed. "Three of our street dealers, dragged into a back alley and decapitated? All three of them were selling in the same area, in territory that was previously occupied by another distribution network, it has to be a message. A warning."
Endymion sighed. "Make sure their families are taken care of. The three who died, I mean."
Kunzite nodded. "Two of them were recent hires, brought in just for the distribution. The third, however, was a member of Nephrite's spy network from before."
Endymion winced, giving a frustrated head shake. "I thought people were afraid of us! What happened to that? We've been selling in other networks' territories for several cycles now, nobody's even threatened us, and just one day, out of nowhere, they're publicly executing our dealers?!"
Kunzite shrugged. "The Bloody Spears incident was nearly four cycles ago. People tend to have a short memory, and there's little doubt that our recent expansion has threatened the very existence of other distributors. Desperation invites risk."
Endymion pursed his lips. "Do we have any idea who was behind this?"
"We can't confirm anything, but it would be reasonable to assume that we can pin this on the distributor who formerly sold on that territory." Kunzite swallowed. "So, we're looking at the network formerly run by Mimete."
Endymion nodded. "So, what do we do now?"
"The way this was done, it feels like a warning shot. If this was war, we'd have a lot more bodies by now. So, we're being given the opportunity to back off. We can take it. Withdraw all of our dealers from selling in rival territory, go back to where we were working before. We can still have expansion, just not to the magnitude that we had." Kunzite pushed himself off the wall, adjusting the buttons on the front of his uniform. "That's probably the most viable option."
Endymion stood to his feet. "Sure. Of course, we'd also be sending the message that we can be picked on with impunity. The people who attacked us this morning might just decide to keep pressing us until we get wiped out completely. And, not to mention, we'll be losing the respect of our dealers, and quite possibly the fear that kept our recent hires in line."
Kunzite nodded. "Reasonable concerns."
Endymion's nose wrinkled. "So. Suppose we fight back? Stand our ground? What would that entail?"
Kunzite sighed. "We'd have to kill some of their dealers. A lot of them. Enough to let them know that fighting with us isn't worth it. And then we'd actually have to hope that they accept that and back off. They could just as easily take it as an invitation to start slaughtering our dealers en masse."
"But it's possible?" Endymion asked. "It could be done?"
Kunzite reluctantly nodded. "Me, Nephrite, maybe a few others with experience, we could sweep through the town where our men were killed. Identify imperium dealers, assassinate them. Issue being, we'll have difficulty identifying which network a particular dealer belongs to, so we'd almost certainly end up killing a few dealers who are uninvolved in this little turf war. Not to mention collateral casualties."
Endymion nodded. "It'd be messy."
Another extended pause in the conversation, Kunzite becoming visibly uncomfortable, a fact luckily not noticed by his charge.
"Your Highness, I really advocate that we step back. We could cut back on the dealers, stop using the customers as sellers. You're right, we won't be able to trust them, so let's just stop using them. We go back to the original areas we were selling. I know it's not exciting, but we were making good amounts of money even then. We could start expanding again, slowly. Maybe work on absorbing small distribution networks into ours."
Endymion slouched over a bit, staring down at the carpet. "Like I said, if we back down, it could be the end of the whole thing. Maybe everyone starts taking shots at us, until there's nothing left."
"If we fight back, we might get that too," Kunzite countered. "We're outnumbered, Your Majesty. Badly. Probably twenty times over. If they decide to wage a war, we won't be able to stand up against them."
Endymion chewed on the tip of his thumbnail.
"It's not an easy decision to make," Kunzite admitted. "Of course, it is your decision, nobody else can make it. I just want to make it clear that I believe our best chance of survival is a tactical retreat."
The Crown Prince sighed, then gave a reluctant nod. He walked off towards the door to the bedroom, seemingly carrying a heavy weight on his shoulders yet again.
"So, which is it?" Kunzite asked, trying to mask the fact that he was rather scared of hearing the answer.
Endymion sighed. "I'll think about it. I'm just...I need to think about it. We should have at least some time, right?"
Kunzite thought for a brief moment. "A few days. Five, at most. At that point, something will have to give. I imagine that the next warning shot will be far more emphatic."
"And in the meantime, our dealers will lose their nerve," Endymion grumbled. "You'll have my decision within five days, I just need to think about this." He turned back around to the door, putting his hands behind his back anxiously and marching over towards it. "This is not what I wanted to be thinking about today, that's for sure."
"
Kasios frowned as he looked into the small, dark room through a large window panel, a one-way window that was a mirror on the other side. Naxos stood at his side, observing the interrogation as well. The room could not have been much more plain, with a single chair right in the middle of it and a second chair against the left wall. The middle chair was occupied by a middle-aged woman, her wrists in steel cuffs that were attached to the ends of a long metal chain that was looped through a thick bolt on the floor. A short, fat man with blond hair was leaning up against the far wall.
"How many times am I going to have to say the same things?" she asked. "Just tell me the number, so I can stop expecting every time I say them to be the last time, please!"
"Cassandra, I really don't think you're getting this," the man said sternly. "For some reason, you're just not understanding what we're offering. It's the dream package to end all dream packages. You are sitting on a massive bargaining chip here, Cassandra! It's time to play it!"
"I've been up here for, what, twenty days now?" Cassandra asked, absentmindedly running the chain back and forth on the bolt, stretching her arms in either direction. "And every day, you pull me in here, you threaten me, you make me offers, and...nothing is going to change!"
"Cassandra, you've done a very, very bad thing. What you've gotten involved in, it's as illegal as it gets." He approached her. "You're looking at twenty-five years up here, minimum. You'll probably never step outside this space station again. But you've been given a free pass on all of that, all you have to do is take it!" He crossed his arms over his chest. "Give us the supply, the person in charge, the chemist, and boom, you're getting away with it! You can be out of here, clean and free, in a matter of days!"
"I would give anything and everything that I have to be out of here," Cassandra said tersely, looking down at the giant bolt in the floor that kept her anchored. "But I don't know about any supply, or person in charge, or chemist. I don't know about any of that, because I am not, and have never been, involved in imperium smuggling!"
He sighed. "Lady, we have four imperium smugglers on the record implicating you as their point of contact in their distribution chain, and we found a libra of imperium in an apartment registered to you on Io. The time for denial is over."
"I do not have an apartment on Io!" Cassandra snapped. "Look, sir, I have done bad things. I know that! I will be the first to admit I have made decisions that paint me in a negative light, and may even make me a bad person! I have stolen millions of creds from Jupiter, I took advantage of a unstable and messy regime, and I refused to be honest about the state my family was in. I confess to all of that, and I would happily face consequences for it. But this is not me." She sighed. "And if you don't believe that, then all I can ask for at this point is that you let me live out the rest of my days in peace in my cell, because dragging me in here every day to ask me the same questions over and over is wasting both of our time!"
The man shook his head. "Cassandra. The millions and millions of creds that you've made working with Tuxedo Mask? You can keep it. All of it! We don't care, we'll look the other way while you go spend it on whatever the hell you want to spend it on! We genuinely don't care! You've got a free pass, you can go live in a luxury apartment on Mercury or Neptune if you want to! I can't believe we're actually offering a deal like that, I've never seen us make that kind of offer to anyone, and that's what you're looking at! And the people you worked with, they'll be in here, unable to get anywhere near you! If that's not good enough for you, we can set you up with a new identity, where nobody will ever be able to find you!"
Cassandra didn't even bother responding to this, ducking her head down, staring at the floor.
"Well, either she's an incredibly good liar, or I believe her," Kasios said heavily, turning to look over at his fellow council member. "Can't decide which one."
"She's convincing," Naxos agreed. "Been incarcerated here for three-quarters of a cycle now, getting grilled every single day, and not so much as a crack?" He nodded, lips tightly pursed. "I don't know how she's doing it."
Kasios scratched the top of his head. "Shit. You know, I'm starting to think we got played."
"How do you mean?" Naxos asked.
"Means I think she might be telling the truth," Kasios explained. "She might not be involved."
"We've got four separate dealers implicating her and an apartment under her name with the clear product, how can she not be involved?" Naxos asked.
Kasios scoffed. "Separate dealers. Interesting term to use, given how they were practically joined at the damn hip." He reached up to pick at his lower lip. "I'm thinking they were coordinated to finger the wrong person."
"That only explains half of it," Naxos pointed out.
"Not like Tuxedo Mask is running low on funds," Kasios reasoned. "You have enough money and the right contacts, you can frame anyone." He scowled. "The four we had incarcerated, try to look them up in Hoboken, I'll bet anything they're nowhere to be found now."
Naxos sighed. "So you don't think she knows what we want?"
"I'm not sure she knows anything," Kasios replied, turning away from the large window. "Or maybe she does, and she's not giving it up, which leaves us in the same position. After all, the last twenty plus days since we got her, the clear stuff is still being dealt all over Earth like nothing changed."
Naxos's forehead wrinkled. "You'd think there'd at least be a hitch in the chain if one of your big players got tossed in prison. You've got a point there."
"Shit," Kasios repeated. "This was it. This was the one. This was our shot to handle this, keep it contained to Earth." He shook his head. "We needed her to spill. Now I've got people on Earth getting their heads cut off in back alleys over turf disputes like we're on Saturn!"
"You're sure that was an imperium smuggling thing?" Naxos asked.
"Sure as I can be," Kasios said begrudgingly. "It's not enough to just have people shot now, you've got to actually behead them? You know, Earth is a civilized society! People are supposed to act reasonably! We've evolved past things like chopping heads off to send a message, but I half-expect to wake up every morning and hear that half the planet is a warzone now over this imperium! This ninety-nine percent stuff, it's completely changed the complexion!"
Naxos pursed his lips. "Well. There's always—"
"It's already being done," Kasios said bitterly. "I'm heading back to Earth tonight, and I'm drafting up some new laws. It'll take maybe a day for it to get filtered out to the local governors, and then we'll basically be Venus."
"It's for the best," Naxos comforted the High King, reaching over to put his hand on his shoulder.
"Always rolled my eyes at the way the current regime on Venus does things, never thought I'd start to see things their way," Kasios mumbled.
"They're strict," Naxos admitted. "But sometimes, strict is the way to go."
"Strict," Kasios repeated. "That's not the word a good chunk of their population uses. Or a pretty good portion of the population of the entire galaxy." He looked over at Naxos. "They prefer 'fascist'."
"Look, Kasios, you're not copying the entire Venus playbook word-for-word, you're just cracking down in one particular area in a way similar to what Venus has done," Naxos insisted. "Yes, Venus goes too far, but that's because they come down hard on everything. You're just adopting a no-tolerance policy on imperium smuggling, in response to a dire situation, temporarily!"
Kasios nodded. "I guess." He began to slowly walk towards the exit door, on the other side of the room from the window. "Still going to result in a lot of people getting handed some long sentences who don't really deserve it." He pressed his palm into a panel next to the door, causing it to slide open. "And I'll lose the ability to pardon them once they're up here."
"Maybe you can work something out with Galen," Naxos suggested, following the High King out of the room.
"Oh, and need I add, this probably won't even work, and we'll just force Tuxedo Mask to withdraw his efforts on Earth and look elsewhere, making him all the harder to catch," Kasios added, rolling his eyes.
"Maybe. But we can't know until we try," Naxos said.
"I get it, this is the only way. I've had three other council members approach me in the last few days, and I know Galen's going to take control of this situation any time now." He leaned up against the wall right next to the door as it slid shut. "It's happening, with or without me. At least this way, I can keep one hand on the wheel."
"You're doing the right thing," Naxos assured him. "Maybe it's not the perfect thing. But the perfect thing rarely exists."
Kasios leaned his head back against the wall behind it, giving a resigned little groan.
"
Endymion stared across the room at his closet door, expression vacant and hollow. His right leg was crossed over his left, sitting on the left side of his bed. He was vaguely aware of his wife sitting up behind him, giving some soft little baby-talk, but was frustratingly detached from it.
He wanted to be right there with her, huddling up over his brand new daughter, taking full advantage of every single beat of her new existence. He was angry that he couldn't. That other things were occupying his mind at this moment. But he could not help but be distracted by the fact that the very future of his 'side business' that he has spent the last half-year tuning hung in the balance of his next decision.
"What's a matter?"
Endymion twisted his body around, forced back into the moment by his wife's simple question.
"Why do you think anything's the matter?" Endymion asked quickly.
"Oh, you just seem a little...how should I say? Detached? You're just a couple haplouns away from your daughter right now, I would think that you'd be a little more involved." Serenity looked back down at the tiny little face poking out of the bundled blanket in her arms.
"Uh, yeah," Endymion mumbled, crawling over towards his wife and daughter, kneeling down up close to them. "I just can't help but get lost in it all, you know?" He blinked rapidly a couple times. "It all happens so fast, one day I'm just a kid, then before I know it, I'm a man, then I'm a husband, now I'm a father, it feels like all these things just happened one after the other."
Serenity nodded. "I feel the same way, I suppose. I still don't really feel like an adult."
"So much responsibility on me, all at once," Endymion said, trailing off. "Enough to make you just freeze up. Get lost in it."
Serenity bent over a bit to kiss Chibiusa's forehead, Endymion watching, trying to will himself to relish in these moments.
"
The small, round, orange ball rapidly bounced back and forth across the black table, each point of contact with the wooden surface drawing a sharp little clack of sound. There was also a dull little thwack between each clack, the sound generated as the ball was hit back in the opposite direction.
Kunzite and Nephrite were standing at opposite ends of the table, each one holding a small blue paddle, using the flat end of the tools to hit the ball. The force of their smacks resulted in tremendous speed on the ball flight, only their finely-honed reflexes allowing them to keep it in the field of play. The break room was playing host to only the two generals for the moment, the lounging area and the little kitchen both unoccupied.
The little ball continued to speed back and forth, both large men moving from side-to-side and throwing their right arms out in all directions to keep the ball in front of them. Finally, Kunzite couldn't quite get his paddle up high enough and the ball bounced over his head.
"You're distracted today," Nephrite commented as Kunzite turned around and chased the bouncing little sphere down. "You didn't even try to back up."
"Guilty as charged," Kunzite acknowledged, looking down towards his waist. "Just waiting for the word from His Majesty, can't help but take priority over paddleball."
"What do you think?" Nephrite asked as Kunzite grabbed the ball off the floor and held it between his index and thumb.
Kunzite hesitated, staring down at the little orb in his right hand. "Honestly? I think he's genuinely conflicted, and that ultimately he'll tell us to go ahead with the revenge hits."
Nephrite shrugged. "He seems more inclined lately to take initiative and be the aggressor, I'll admit that." He blinked. "Do you really think he'd approve having us murder thirty to forty people, though? Knowing that at least some of them will be unrelated to our turf dispute?"
"It's not hard to justify," Kunzite said darkly, putting his left palm down on the wooden table, setting the paddle down on it. "They're all criminals, after all."
"Well, if those are the orders, then those are the orders," Nephrite said. "I mean, that point isn't without merit. They are criminals."
Kunzite grimaced, reaching up to rub at his right temple.
"You don't approve?" Nephrite asked.
"Oh, well...I just don't believe it serves our interests," Kunzite mumbled. "I think it'll be a very messy endeavor that doesn't solve our problems."
Nephrite nodded. "Alright, your serve."
Kunzite gave a frustrated grunt, picking his paddle back up.
"
"Kunzite, we have to stand up for ourselves here. We have over a thousand people walking the streets of Earth, working for us, putting themselves at risk in service to us, and they need to know that we have their backs. If we back off now, shrink in the face of opposition, we lose their respect, we might even lose their willingness to work for us. We have to strike back against...we have to have our dealers' backs and…"
Endymion winced, sighing. He slowly looked around the hallway of the Earth Palace, down both ends of it, finding nobody but himself around. Nothing but the silence of an uneventful midday keeping him company.
He reached down towards his waist, yanking the communicator disc off of it and putting it up to his mouth. After a moment, he lowered it again, gritting his teeth.
"Okay...Kunzite, I think you're right, scaling back and being more respectful of other networks is the way to go," Endymion muttered under his breath, pacing back and forth down the carpeted walkway. "We pull back our dealers, let go of the ones we brought on recently, and try to be a little more methodical. We can accept a little bit of monetary loss right now if...peace is better than war, and…"
He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.
He stood there, in the middle of the empty hallway, for some non-trivial amount of time, trying to figure it out. He went over to the window on the left side of the hall, peering out the glass pane down to the field below. He rested his forehead up against the cool glass.
"Troubled?"
Endymion turned around, finding his father casually strolling past.
"Don't worry, me too," his father added, slowing his gait to a halt. "Crown lays heavy, sometimes."
"U-uh...yes," Endymion managed to force out of his throat. "It's nothing serious, dad." He placed his hands down on the little windowsill, using it to support his weight. "Just a decision I have to make. A lot of those when you're a brand new father."
"Uh-huh, I know all about that," Kasios said, nodding easily. "But hey, at least you're getting to make the decision."
Endymion twitched his neck slightly over towards his father. "W-what's that supposed to mean?"
Kasios rattled out a small sigh. "Oh, just...man, Galen would stick me in a cell if he ever knew how much I was blabbing about agency business."
"I'm your son," Endymion said, pushing himself off of the sill. "I'm sure they wouldn't be shocked by it, and it's not like anyone's ever going to find out from me."
"I know, just thinking out loud," Kasios said. "Things, uh, things aren't going so well with the whole Tuxedo Mask thing, so my hand's being forced."
Endymion reached up to rub at the side of his neck, feigning casual indifference. "Oh, well, that's too bad...must be kind of strange for you, huh? Down here, on Earth, nobody forces your hand into anything."
"Mm," Kasios grunted. "And it's the worst, when you know it's not even going to work, but you still have to do it. And on top of it, you know that doing it is just going to hurt you."
Endymion cracked a small grin. "Dad, what are they making you do? If it's so obvious that it's bad, how can they even want you to do it?"
"Oh…" he slipped his hands into his pockets. "I'm altering Earth laws regarding imperium smuggling."
Endymion's smirk fell off his face, and a clammy sensation shot into his gut.
"It's sort of a last-ditch effort to get our hands on Tuxedo Mask and his supply. Doubt it'll work, but it's all we have left."
"A-altering Earth laws?" Endymion repeated, unconsciously reaching up to the collar of his tunic.
"Yeah, t-the problem was, we weren't able to seriously threaten any of the dealers, because they were carrying such small amounts they'd get released within a couple cycles at most. That purity level really did change the game." He shrugged. "So now, we're cracking down hard. Minimum five year sentence for possession of any amount of unregulated imperium."
Endymion's mouth fell open every so slightly, and he quickly looked out the window to his right. "F-five years?! Wow, that's...wow. What was it before?"
"If it was just possession of a tiny amount, usually just ten days. Maybe fifteen. Depends on the lawyer." He swallowed. "And given that Tuxedo Mask is the only one with the ninety-nine percent purity, his product is easy to identify on sight, so that'll be good."
Endymion managed to force a frozen smile onto his face, turning back to look at his dad. "Wow, that'll definitely work, then! I mean, w-who wants to spend five years in prison? They'll be falling all over themselves to give up information!"
Kasios nodded rapidly. "Maybe. Gonna ruin a lot of lives that, quite frankly, don't deserve it." He put his hands up on his chest. "I'm as pro-regulation as it gets, believe me. Might be less than a hundred people in the galaxy more hardline than me. And even I'm not into breaking up families over trivial offenses. That kind of thing is why the King and Queen of Venus are so unpopular right now."
"Y-yeah, that...makes sense," Endymion said uneasily, reaching up to run his hand quickly over his forehead.
"Plus, this Tuxedo Mask is probably smart enough to just pull all of his dealers off the street as soon as the laws change." He hissed a bit. "So, as much as I hate it, I have to pull another dirty trick."
Endymion was silent, holding his hands behind his back, fingers fidgeting around rapidly.
"I've never done this before, but it's the only shot I have at maybe getting something out of this. I'm having the law changed and enforced at exactly the same time as it's been announced. Going to happen later today."
Endymion's mouth went dry. "T-the same time?"
"Yup," Kasios said. "Don't feel great about it, but this way, maybe we can actually get a few people on serious charges before they get pulled out. Gotta take a day or two to pull over a thousand imperium dealers off the street, right? If we could just nail two or three of them, maybe we'd have enough to lead us to the top of the chain." He chewed on the inside of his left cheek. "Feel dirty doing it, but it's better than going through all of this for nothing."
Endymion nodded. "Wow, uh...y-yeah," he said stiffly. "I think that...that people will understand." He reached up and patted his father on the back. "I, uh, I'm gonna run off, I think I just made a decision."
"Oh yeah?" Kasios looked up as Endymion began to slowly retreat, walking backwards down the hall. "What?"
"Uh, stars!" Endymion said quickly. "Star-themed mobile, for the crib!" He spun around, striding off down the hall, leaving his father to stand there and shoot the back of his head an odd look.
"Jeez," Kasios mumbled as Endymion disappeared around the corner. "I knew he wasn't assertive, but...man."
"
The disc on Kunzite's waist buzzed, and the white-haired general could not help but give a little groan. He was seated on the plush couch in the lounging area of the break room, Nephrite sitting on the armrest of the fat chair across from it.
"You going to get that?" Nephrite asked, Kunzite putting off on grabbing it as it buzzed away by his hip.
Kunzite nodded, finally grabbing the device and lifting it to his mouth, eyes taking the briefest of glances to see that it was indeed the Prince hailing him. "Your Majesty?"
"Please tell me you haven't already started!"
Kunzite flinched a bit at Endymion's panicked, yet quiet, outburst.
"Kunzite?"
"U-uh, no, no, you said wait for your order," Kunzite answered, glancing over at Nephrite.
"
"Okay, okay, things have changed, new plan!" Endymion paced around the tiled, white room, the sink to his left having been turned on full blast, a loud stream of cold water being spilled into a basin and running down into a drain. "New plan, get everyone off the streets, get all the imperium back into safehouses! All of it! Immediately!" His voice was hushed, but conveyed obvious urgency.
"...back into safehouses?"
Endymion stuck his index finger into the water spout, catching a bit of the cold water and then rubbing it on his forehead. "My father is changing the laws, zero-tolerance policy on imperium smuggling, five years minimum for possession! It's happening later today, we need all of our dealers and cutters off the street and all the product out of their hands, immediately!"
"
Kunzite jumped to his feet, Nephrite doing the same. "Understood, Your Highness, I have Nephrite right here with me, we'll start on that right now." He replaced the communicator on his belt and the two large men began to hurriedly jog out of the break room. "How fast can we spread a message to your network?" Kunzite asked, the two of them marching down a long grey hallway after emerging through a steel door.
Nephrite grumbled. "This network wasn't exactly constructed to allow instantaneous message delivery to everyone, admittedly."
"Well, we're about to have a pretty definitive speed test," Kunzite said.
"
Cyprine's nose wrinkled a bit at the mildly-unpleasant stench of the public outdoor park, casting a disdainful look at a small rabbit speeding by through the bushes in front of her. No doubt it was the animals she could place a decent portion of the blame on for the smell.
The evening was just settling in, taking the place of the afternoon, the park having already seen their busiest time pass. The blue-haired woman found it to be satisfactory for her needs right now, sparsely populated enough to allow for a short meeting with her twin. All that was missing was the twin.
She spread her arms out to either side of her, resting them on top of the backrest of the bench, thinking about what she was going to say. It had been a hectic run of a couple days, having to oversee the withdrawal of tens of thousands of imperium dealers and the safe impounding of massive quantities of product, having been forced into a hasty retreat in light of the new smuggling laws. There had been a few troublesome arrests, to be sure, and it had been a very expensive ordeal, but it seemed as if any serious danger had been averted.
"Well, at least you're not in prison right now."
Cyprine looked up over her left shoulder, seeing Ptilol standing there, a look of bemusement on her face.
"So we can count our blessings there," the red-haired counterpart of Cyprine continued. "How was the shutdown?"
"Hectic," Cyprine mumbled. "And not without some degree of loss. But we'll survive."
Ptilol came up from behind the bench and took a seat on the left side of it. "Define degree of loss."
"Some dealers got arrested and are looking at more than a decade on The Savery," Cyprine explained. "They don't really know very much of anything to trade with, but we'll definitely have to pay their families off. We lost a decent amount of product as well. It's a blow, that's for sure."
Ptilol nodded, watching a young couple walk a dog along the path in front of them, pausing to allow them to go by.
"But, we got what we wanted, that's the good news. Maybe it wasn't because of anything we did, but Tuxedo Mask has withdrawn his network. And he'll be just as unable to sell on Earth as we are." Cyprine shifted a bit on the wooden seat. "So, what do we do now?"
"The laws were changed two days ago?" Ptilol asked.
"That's right." Cyprine nodded.
"Okay. Wait eight days before you do anything. If we approach him too soon, it'll be obvious that we were the ones trying to disrupt him. But wait too long and he'll probably start making headway on finding distribution on other planets, and we don't want that." Ptilol got back to her feet. "So after eight days, arrange for him to receive a message, through someone who was working for him. Presumably, they'll still be loyal to him."
Cyprine stood up. "Message?"
"Tell him that a veteran of black market imperium smuggling is interested in acquiring his product, and that he wishes to negotiate in-person. The shipyard for long-term parking near Heracles, two days after the message is sent." Ptilol thought for a moment. "Say that he's buying in bulk, and has enough capital for large purchases."
"So we are working with him," Cyprine said snidely, glancing down at the ground at her feet.
"We're buying from him, it's not the same thing," Ptilol countered. "Theoretically. I don't know what the boss is actually planning, none of us do."
"I don't like it," Cyprine muttered quietly. "Who is this guy, even? How can we possibly trust him?"
"How should I know?" Ptilol asked, shrugging. "All I know is that the boss knows a lot more about this than any of us. Or really, anyone else in the galaxy. For all we know, he's planning on leaving Tuxedo Mask in a hole in the middle of the desert as soon as he gets his product. Your focus should be on following orders, and trusting the boss."
"I trust the boss," Cyprine protested, the two sisters beginning to trek out of the park, following the concrete path. "It's this Tuxedo Mask I don't trust," she added bitterly. "Mimete trusted him, and look where she ended up."