Chapter 24: Comes Forth in the Thaw

Cyprine snapped the white wooden door shut behind her, ensuring privacy for her and her boss within the pristinely clean and organized office. Given his immense status and wealth, Cronus's office up on the tenth floor of Galen Laboratories was actually fairly modest, a simple square room with a few shelves against the right wall, an oak desk, and a massive window that took up the entirety of the back wall, giving a view out into an urban landscape.

"Any positive results on Oberon?" Cronus asked as soon as the door had been closed.

"It's already been claimed," she said darkly. "Agency's already moving in on it, too late for us to do anything."

"Mm." He glanced down at the desk surface in front of him. "Well, keep chasing leads on the moons of Uranus, there seem to be a healthy number of potential imperium veins there. We need another cycle or two worth of product to tide us over, we have effectively nothing in storage."

"Already working on that." Cyprine crossed the room, putting her palms down on the surface of the desk and bending over a bit, staring at her boss. "Sir, I've tried to be patient in this matter, I truly have, but I need to understand exactly what it is we're doing here. When, exactly, are we going to be allowed to go clean up Tuxedo Mask?"

Cronus's face wrinkled, and he gave Cyprine a slightly judgemental look. "Clean up?"

Cyprine repressed an annoyed sigh at her boss. "Cronus, we got his product. We got what he had. We should get rid of him now, he should be made to answer for Mimete."

Cronus frowned, leaning back in the cushioned chair, propping his right elbow on the armrest. "Cyprine, did you miss the part where he's the Crown Prince of Earth?"

"I know who he is!" she said firmly.

"So, what are you suggesting? That we just have a Prince assassinated?" Cronus spread his arms to his sides. "You think that'd be a good idea? Risk everything I've spent the last ten years building to kill a Prince?" He tilted his head back to look up at the ceiling. "How do you propose we even do it?"

"We could do it," she assured him. "Just let me and my sister do it, we can make it look like an accident. Money's no trouble, we have plenty of contacts, and we're owed favors, we could get him."

He shrugged. "Maybe you could. Maybe. If you had my blessing and co-operation. Even then, it's honestly unlikely. And, to be clear, you do not have my blessing or co-operation. In fact, you have my explicit order to not go anywhere near the Prince. I've given you this order before, and it still stands. We have need of him."

"So what, we just turn the other cheek about him ratting Mimete out?!" she hissed. "Cronus, sir, I understand why we'd want to acquire as much of his product as possible, but now that we've done that, he's no longer useful to us! Mimete was one of us, and I can tell you that the others all want to see the person who caused her death in a bodybag just as much as I do!"

Cronus sighed. "Mimete was mentally unstable, paranoid, and unreliable, and it was rapidly getting worse. Prince Endymion's actions spared me the need to put her down myself, I was days away from putting a bullet in her head." He gave an incredulous look. "You know she gunned down two of her most loyal lieutenants in the street for absolutely no reason? Just out of pure paranoia, she killed two people who had been nothing but loyal to her for years! The insanity of something like that!" He shook his head. "Endymion just saved me needing to put her out of her misery."

"Yes, you!" she pointed at Cronus. "You were going to put her down! You, who took her in, had her raised, had her trained, enhanced her with abilities and traits beyond any normal human, gave her purpose in life, you were going to put her down! That's the way it was supposed to be! You should have been the one to kill her, out of respect. Just because she wasn't trustworthy anymore doesn't mean we should be okay with some rat getting her wacked by agency pricks!"

"Either way, he is most certainly still useful to us," Cronus said sternly. "In fact, without him, I'm quite confident everything we're working towards will fail. In case you haven't noticed, this galaxy isn't exactly flush with sources of raw imperium for us right now, we barely have enough to keep our network running. And before long, we won't even have that. Meanwhile, we made nearly two billion creds in pure profit off of what he sold us in about six days, how are you not seeing his immense value to our operation?"

"What, you think he'll actually come and work for you?" she asked. "You just said it, he's the Prince! He just got married, just had a kid! I mean, there has to be a reason why you haven't already approached him, I thought it was because you realized that someone like that would turn you down!"

He steepled his hands in front of his face. "The child complicates things, yes. I'm waiting as long as I can afford to, he'll be more amenable to my proposal the older the child is."

She squinted in confusion. "The kid's barely two cycles old right now. No way he'll agree to spend so much time away from her anytime in the next few years. And, even ignoring that, he's the Prince of Earth! He's not going to come work for us."

"We may have to increase our planned offer," he admitted. "But I'm prepared to do that. If he declines to work for me, then we can pursue a deal for just his product and his formula. And, despite what assumptions you might make about him, for some reason, he did decide to get involved in this business in the first place. Something is driving him. Maybe it's not need of money, but for some reason, he considers imperium smuggling to be a worthy use of his time."

She sighed, but finally gave the reluctant nod that she knew her boss was looking for. "Alright, we do it your way. But the day he's no longer useful to us, it's important to me, and to the others, that we get the chance to do right by Mimete. When that day comes, I'm going to remind you of that."

"I am sure you will," Cronus said, getting to his feet. "But for now, put it from your mind. There are much greater stakes in play right now." He gave her a meaningful look. "Mimete deserved better, certainly. But far more important a consideration right now is that Endymion may very well be our only point of contact with the ultra-pure product. And without that, I fear that everything I've done over the last decade, everything we've worked tirelessly on, will have all meant absolutely nothing."

"

Princess Serenity crossed her legs underneath her, grinning as Chibiusa began to purposefully crawl along the carpeted floor. As Kasios had indicated, she was advancing with tremendous speed, doing things that some babies twice her age weren't yet doing, both mentally and physically.

Wearing a pink onesie, she scooted along the floor on all fours, seemingly heading somewhere, cooing and babbling the whole way. Serenity quickly got down onto her hands and knees as well, following.

"Oh, do you have somewhere to be?" she asked playfully as the burgeoning toddler sped into the back left corner of the large bedroom. She pursued her daughter all the way over to where the walls made a corner, stopping just short as Chibiusa began to start thumping her little hands down onto a particular spot on the carpet.

Serenity's grin faded as she watched Chibiusa lightly pound down onto the ground below her, almost looking as if she did actually have a specific goal in mind. Serenity scratched at her left temple, looking rather confused.

"Really?" she muttered to herself, Chibiusa giggling and chortling as she continued beating onto that one particular area of the carpet. Serenity put her right hand up to her chin, watching her.

She went over to her daughter and gently picked her up at the waist, quickly moving her a few paces away from the spot before setting her back down. In short order, the infant crawled right back to the same spot, pushing her tiny fingers into the carpet fibers as if trying to dig down into them.

"No way," Serenity whispered, eyes widening in shock.

Suddenly, she heard the click of the bedroom door behind her. Scrambling to her feet, she bent down and picked her daughter up, taking her into her arms and turning around. Kirsten was approaching, a porcelain tea cup in her hand and a cheery smile on her face.

"And how's the little girl doing?" she asked, quickly closing the distance between her and the two Princesses and putting her finger up towards Chibiusa's chin. Chibiusa giggled and gurgled as Kirsten lightly tickled her neck.

"Oh, she's just amazing," Serenity said, absentmindedly looking over her shoulder at the back left corner of the room again. "Um, Kirsten, you've...been around a lot of babies in your time, haven't you?"

"Most certainly, Your Highness," Kirsten replied, nodding sagely.

"Well, let me ask you something," she said, struggling to find the proper way to phrase her question. "Have you ever heard of a baby...knowing where they were conceived?"

Kirsten's little grin flashed off her face at the bizarre inquiry. "Um...wh...what?"

"Instinctively, I mean," Serenity explained. "Like, they just find themselves attracted to the place where...you know...the mother and father did it? Somehow, they just know where it happened, and they find themselves interested in it? Like, they just know somehow, that that's where it happened?"

Kirsten blinked a few times. "I...I've never heard of such a thing. I'm fairly confident that that's not something that ever happens, Your Majesty."

"Oh, o-okay," Serenity said, nodding. "I was just wondering."

Kirsten swallowed down, lowering the tea cup slightly towards her waist. "Um...might I ask what made you think of asking something like that?"

"Oh, it's nothing, really, just...she was...oh, forget it." She jutted her face out towards Kirsten. "Alright, go ahead."

Putting the odd question from her mind, Kirsten lifted the tea cup up to Serenity's lips, pressing it to her mouth and tilting it back so she could quickly pour the contents into her throat.

Chibiusa, for her part, continued to happily fidget about in Serenity's arms, making all kinds of happy baby noises. Serenity looked down at her, and then glanced over her shoulder, back at the spot on the floor that had fascinated her so.

"

"So." Grandmaster Galen pointed up at the map of the solar system being projected onto the wall at the head of the long table, fully populated with council members. "We now have reports of the clear imperium on Mars, Phobos, Deimos, Jupiter, Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, Saturn, Titan, Rhea, Iapetus, Tethys, Uranus, Titania, Oberon, Ariel, Umbriel, Miranda, Portia, Halimede, Psamathe, Sao, and Neso. Not exactly the finest two cycles in the history of the agency."

Kasios sighed. "Knew it."

"How in the world did Tuxedo Mask manage to build a distribution network across the entire galaxy that fast?!" Orion asked, looking wide-eyed at the map, which had little blinking red dots on almost every single planet and moon displayed.

"Oh, no chance he did that," Naxos said quickly. "He must have hooked up with established networks."

"Or an established network," Kasios said under his breath.

"So what, Tuxedo Mask arranges for Mimete to get killed, and then whoever Mimete was working for decides to work with him?" Timon said with some degree of incredulity. "Doesn't seem likely to me."

"Who knows?" Kasios tapped his fingers on the table surface. "Maybe the ringleader captured Tuxedo Mask and is forcing him to work for him. Maybe he killed him and took his product. Maybe he doesn't know that it was Tuxedo Mask who ratted out Mimete. Maybe it wasn't! So much we don't know." He scowled down forcefully.

"Meanwhile, we didn't manage so much as a single arrest related to the clear imperium after the law change on Earth," Galen continued. "It's been long enough, I think we can safely call it. This person snapped his fingers and all of his product just disappeared off Earth, instantly. Meanwhile, that woman we've got up here for life isn't saying a word, and I'm starting to question if she ever will." He shook his head. "Put it all together, and there's no doubting it, we've now got a galactic issue on our hands, and we're not exactly working on any good leads."

"I just can't understand how he managed to clear out of Earth that fast," Kasios muttered, putting his hands up behind his head. "There's just no way he should have been able to get word out that quickly, and we had our patrols tripled when I made the announcement. Just impossible that we didn't get any of his dealers."

"Well, it happened," Galen stated. "This is now the number one priority for everyone. Every single member of the high council, take note. Tracking down this Tuxedo Mask, or whoever it is who's putting the ninety-nine percent pure imperium in play, is now the top priority for all of us. Odds are good that he's either linked up with, or has been absorbed by, the interplanetary imperium kingpin that we've theorized might exist."

"Well, there's your silver lining," Jorja reasoned. "Whenever we do take this Tuxedo Mask down, we'll get to nail the biggest distributor in the galaxy at the same time." She shrugged. "Two birds with one stone."

"Birds doesn't even do it justice," Galen remarked. "With one bust, we could cut half the imperium smuggling in the galaxy out completely. Maybe more."

Kasios sighed. "Well, we've had such an incredible success rate on finding this interplanetary kingpin before, I can only imagine we'll just do so much better now that he'll be making money exponentially faster."

"Nobody said it's going to be easy," Galen admitted. "In fact, it most certainly will not be. But, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow just got a lot bigger. The jackpot might very well be enough money and imperium to run the agency for centuries. If that doesn't incentivize you all to go get it, I don't know what well."

Kasios closed his eyes. "I wanted to get him before he spread across the solar system," he muttered. "I wanted to be the one to bring him in."

"Doesn't matter who brings in him," Naxos assured the High King. "All that matters is that someone does. And with all twelve of us, and all the hundreds of thousands of people working for us, focusing all of our efforts on getting him, I'm sure we will."

Kasios nodded, still frowning.

"

Isis set a small square wooden box on the floor in the middle of the tiny space station, a faint little muffled thud on contact with the metal ground. "Videos and pictures, Your Highness. You know what they say about cameras."

"They add fifteen libras?" Inanna joked, going over to the crate that Isis had just brought into the station with a small crowbar.

"They don't lie," Isis answered. Inanna popped the wooden container open, exposing a small collection of round silver discs laying in a foam bed. "You wouldn't believe what I had to do to get this. So many people, so many places, so many favors promised."

"Can't wait to see it," Inanna said, looking down at the discs. "Or, is it disgusting?"

"I was...happier before I saw them," Isis admitted. "But they're pretty definitive. However bad they say Solomon is, he's worse." She glanced across the circular room. "So, when do we move in on him?"

Princess Venus got to her feet. "We're not even close to ready to move on Solomon."

Isis's face flinched a bit. "Princess, we now have hard evidence of him engaging in sexual acts with children, what more do we need?"

"We have hard evidence of him engaging in business transactions with a man suspected to run a child sex operation, that's very different," Venus countered. "Nothing he can't hire the greatest law experts in the galaxy to worm out of. And do you even think most people will care about that? Think of all the people he's helped get rich, they won't care what he does in his spare time. I already said it, we need to bury this guy. From every angle. Make sure he can't just run away and hide from it. We need his illicit business dealings, his blackmail, his extortion, infidelity, murder, obstruction of justice, everything he's got." She pointed over at the collection of discs. "We come at him with that, he quietly resigns from the council and purchases a private small moon around Neptune to retire. We need to be able to take that route away from him."

"Do we have time for that?" Inanna asked. "The clear stuff's been popping up almost everywhere lately. He's found a way to sell his product all across the galaxy now, isn't that a huge problem for us?"

"It doesn't matter as long as he can't sell on Venus," the Princess assured her lieutenant. "And he can't. Hasn't been a trace of the stuff over there yet. As long as we can offer him something nobody else can, we're fine."

"He's got a finger on almost every planet and moon in the solar system now," Isis pointed out. "Why would he even care if his product reaches Venus?"

Princess Venus gave an aimless little nod. "Perhaps we'll have to...apply some pressure to get him to work with us. But once we're done with Solomon, we'll be well-positioned to do just that."

Inanna grimaced. "Everything was going perfect a couple cycles ago. He had no distribution, he would have jumped at the chance to work with you. How the hell did he manage to get his stuff out like this?!"

"It doesn't matter," the Princess insisted firmly. "It's actually good news, he wouldn't spread himself out like this unless he had a lot of product in reserve. Now, Anat and Astarte are currently trying to find leads on who Tuxedo Mask is so we can approach him, you two and Aphrodite need to be focusing all of your efforts to finding more dirt on Solomon. We have time, but not an infinite amount. Once we've got the pieces in place, I'm confident that I can get him to work with us, but it won't matter if those pieces aren't there."

Isis nodded. "So...any clue on who this Tuxedo Mask character could be?"

Princess Venus elegantly sat herself down in one of the chaises against the outer wall of The Genetrix. "Nothing solid yet." She gave a coy little smile. "Truth be told, I have a little bit of a suspicion, but...it's not based off of any actual evidence." She cocked her head. "And it's so absurd, I don't even care to voice it, lest I sound insane."

"Well, I'd certainly never accuse you of that, Your Highness," Isis said, bowing over at the Princess.

Venus glanced over at the wall to her right. "Never say never."

"

Princess Serenity hummed to herself as she ran the soft brown hair brush through her long, straightened-out blonde hair, working the tangles out of it and smoothing it. Even though she had plenty of servants who could accomplish the task of brushing her hair for her, and would probably do an even better job of it, Serenity had always found it to be rather calming a task to do herself from time to time. Her long, silky locks of hair were perhaps her most prized physical feature, something she was genuinely proud of, and taking care of it personally felt good to her.

Chibiusa, still with an abundance of energy that came to her thanks to her strong genes, merrily crawled about the bedroom floor at Serenity's feet, fingers digging into the carpet fibers as she learned more and more about her surroundings. After a few moments, she began propelling herself across the room, away from the bed, over towards the back left corner.

"Slow down, slow down," Serenity said, slowly pacing behind her daughter, not wanting to let her get too far away. It took Chibiusa a good two secundas or so to actually cross the room due to its size, but soon, she was back on that particular spot near the back left corner, looking down at the carpet, laughing to herself as she patted her hands down on it.

Princess Serenity just watched, absentmindedly running the brush down a large collection of her hair that was draped over the front of her shoulder. It was way too much to be a coincidence. Over and over again, Chibiusa would find this exact spot on the floor, and her fascination with it went beyond anything with any of her other toys. Other than her mother and father, in fact, it seemed like nothing piqued her interest quite like the patch of carpet that Serenity knew covered up the secret panic chamber.

Serenity sighed. "Really?" She looked around the giant room. Nobody else was around. Endymion was meeting with some of the local governors downstairs for a morning get-together, filling in for his father while he was up on The Savery. He'd be gone most of the day, in fact, for that purpose. No maids or midwives would be around for awhile, at least in terms of planned visits. "Are we really doing this?"

Chibiusa, oblivious to her mother's musings, just continued to lightly pound away at the carpet. Serenity dropped the hair brush to the floor, then bent over and picked her daughter up with both hands. She wrapped her arms underneath the small child to support her weight, and then quickly went back over to the bedside table.

"Well, I really wasn't thinking I'd have to have these kinds of conversations with you for at least a decade and a half," Serenity muttered, setting Chibiusa down on the bed and grabbing a bundle of pink straps from the table. "But, if my baby wants to go exploring, then who am I to deny her?" She began wrapping the strapped piece of equipment around Chibiusa's arms and legs, carefully positioning each little band to support her weight and safely carry her without hurting her. And then, after the small toddler was secured in, she looped the two long side bands around her shoulders, placing Chibiusa on Serenity's back, facing outward. Her legs and arms were free to fidget about, a freedom that she took full advantage of, squealing and yelping in delight as Serenity rounded the bed.

The Princess went over to the door, quickly locking it, knowing that the panic chamber was something not to be exposed to anyone outside of the family. And then, she quickly crossed the room back to the back left corner, eyeing that small square of carpet, hoping that she could remember how to open it.

After thinking for a moment, she ran her right heel down a small line in the carpet, applying firm pressure down into the floor. And then she went down on her knees, pressing her palm into a spot right by the line she had drawn.

Nothing.

"Hmm." She ran her fist down a line right next to the first one she had drawn, letting the bottom side of her hand press down into the carpet hard. Quickly, after making that line, she pressed her knuckles into a spot a bit over. With a satisfying little click, the hatch popped up. Serenity quickly grabbed the corners of the hatch and moved it over to the side.

"Alright, Chibiusa, seems like you already have an idea of it, so...something really magical happened here a year ago," she said, scratching at her forehead, feeling incredibly awkward and maybe even silly, trying to have a quasi-serious discussion with such a young child. "Um, it wasn't planned or intended, but...maybe that makes it more beautiful." She sighed. "Wow, what am I even doing? How could you have any idea what happened down there?" She glanced over her shoulder. "And yet…"

She shook her head, rolling her eyes, and then bent down over the lip of the hatch. Down in the dark little chamber, a leather bag sat on the elevated seating portion of the room.

"Hm." Serenity stared down at the out-of-place bag for a moment, trying to figure out what purpose it could serve. After a moment, she crawled over to where the little rungs were, and scaled them down, Chibiusa gurgling happily all the while.

After getting down on the lower level of the little room, she began to delicately loosen the straps on her shoulders to unlatch Chibiusa from her back. She put the toddler down on the lower level after verifying that it was at least clean, and then turned her focus to the leather sack.

"Well, it would be awful boring down here as is, maybe he left some coloring books," she murmured. With a little shrug, she sat down next to the sack and began undoing the little straps keeping it closed.

Soon, she had the mouth untied and yanked it open, peering down into the sack and moving over slightly to use the light from above to see down into it. She recoiled slightly, the eased smile whipping off her face, and she gave a light gasp. After a moment of looking down into the large collection of crystals of assorted sizes, she reached down into the bag with her right hand and scooped a handful of the gems up.

She got to her feet, standing on the elevated side of the room, holding her palm out in front of her and trying to catch as much of the above light as she could. Closer examination revealed the gemstones to be pink-hued. She just watched them glitter, catching the light and sparkling in every direction, mouth hanging open ever-so-slightly.

She was snapped out of her shocked daze by a couple of anxious verbalizations beneath her, Chibiusa starting to get frustrated with being left to her own devices in an enclosed place. Quickly, Serenity closed her fist around the few little gems she had grabbed, then slid down to a seated position to pick her daughter up.

As soon as Chibiusa was up in Serenity's lap, the precocious infant quickly saw the opened bag. Like a moth to a flame, she was attracted to it and began reaching over towards it, trying to worm her way into a crawling position so she could get to it, seemingly quite excited. Serenity's left hand kept a firm grip on the back of her onesie, not wanting to allow her to get inside the bag or tip it over.

All the while, Serenity opened her right hand up again, staring down at the pink-tinted stones, eyes wide as her mind worked overtime to sort through her confusion.

She must have sat there for a good two secundas, before her face hardened into a determined little frown. She deposited the handful of gems into a thin pocket sewn into her casual tunic, reached over and cinched the bag closed, and then stood up, beginning to work on remounting the straps on Chibiusa to her back.

"

Endymion stared at himself in the small handheld mirror, examining the results of his just-finished hair trim. He ran his right hand through the thick black locks, sticking his tongue out slightly as he carefully checked for any unevenness.

"I'm conducting searches for a new laboratory," Kunzite said, the two of them standing in the middle of Kunzite's private chambers. "We need something bigger, that's certain. Class C, minimum. Maybe a D. But, getting a ship of that size to disappear without anyone asking questions about it, it's proving difficult."

"I'm confident you'll find a way," Endymion said quickly, tucking the mirror underneath his armpit and turning to his general.

"And hiding it will also be a problem. It's very important that whatever ship we use is thought to not exist by as many people as possible," Kunzite continued. "And I'm sure the agency is watching for ships disappearing after they discovered The Qesem. However, Your Highness, I want to say, I believe we may finally have found a permanent and viable method to continuing in this business."

Endymion tilted his head slightly. "That's more optimism than I've heard from you since I started this little project. That has to mean something."

"As soon as I find a new ship, I'll have Zoisite come assist me in synthesizing a batch, to make sure he's capable, though I'm sure he will be. We'll need bigger and better equipment, something that allows us to produce, say, seven hundred libras per batch. Moderately large tube furnaces, it's certainly possible. We'll be able to synthesize two thousand libras a day, which Cronus will purchase for two point two billion creds. Even if he only wants two thousand libras a cycle, we'll be at twenty-six billion creds a year. For approximately twenty days worth of actual work, we'll be able to make a genuine impact in the Moon's fiscal budget. All the while, Zoisite's little project is growing far faster than she could have ever anticipated, and before long we'll be able to wash money very quickly through it." He placed his hand on the Prince's shoulder. "All this to say, Your Highness...I had my doubt, I had reservations, and I questioned the logic of involving ourselves in this business, but today, I can honestly say, I think you were right."

Endymion gave a little shudder, and then a quick nod. "Well, sometimes I get lucky."

"Maybe it was perseverance more than luck," Kunzite lauded. "From now on, I think that we'll have an operation that you can just keep away from completely, invest none of your time or effort into, and do nothing but watch the money pile up. Soon, our biggest problem may be finding a place to hide our bags of pink diamonds." He gave a little smile. "Congratulations. We now have a viable, lucrative business model."

Couldn't have done it without you," Endymion pointed out, placing his hands behind his back and clasping them together. "Thank you, Kunzite." He pushed a large breath out of his chest. "I should go see Serenity, haven't seen her since I woke up. We both know how she can be about my extended absences. We should at least have dinner together."

He turned to easily stride away from his most trusted general, towards the door leading out.

"

Endymion had to resist the urge to skip down the hallway to his bedroom, practically filling up after hearing such praise from Kunzite. Less than a year ago, he was taking every opportunity to fill Endymion's little ambition with holes, and even question the Prince's sanity over his interest in it. Now, with his blessing, it seemed like he had the final bit of confirmation.

He was right. Everything that he had done to get to this point, all of the risks and the chances and the morally dubious actions had been proven justified. Through the hiccups and missteps, finally, now, they were on the precipice of something genuinely worth the effort, something that would actually help his Kingdom grow. Kunzite being willing to admit that much sealed it.

From now on, there would be no more need to disappear from the palace for extended periods, no need to come up with excuses to Serenity. Everything had been delegated out. There would be nothing left to do but count the money that came in. It was perfect. A perfect operation, with a perfect product.

He lightly hummed to himself as he approached his bedroom door, at the end of the hall, and sauntered in. From now on, his attention and focus could be entirely occupied by his wife and child, as well as his Princely duties. And despite how enamored he had become by the imperium smuggling trade in recent cycles, he had to admit, he was eager to give his loved ones the attention they deserved again.

"Oh, you don't know boring until you've sat through two meals with a slew of governors," Endymion announced upon entering, putting his hands on his hips and looking around his large room upon not immediately spotting his wife or child. "Their problems just seem so small when you're in charge of an entire planet, and—"

He trailed off, as his gaze leveled down at the floor, right at the foot of his bed. A large, rectangular suitcase was laying open, a collection of Serenity's outfits piled up inside of it. Right next to it, Endymion realized as he moved into the room to get a better angle of the suitcase, was a baby carrier, a sleeping Chibiusa nestled inside of it.

He only had a few beats to consider this odd sight, before his closet door opened. His wife emerged, carrying a couple of dresses in her arms. Endymion stood there, waiting for her to offer some sort of explanation, but despite the fact that she was clearly able to see him, she said nothing.

"Um…" Endymion blinked a few times, giving an awkward grin. "Serenity, what...what are you doing?"

"I'm packing a suitcase," she responded quickly, kneeling down by the large piece of luggage and placing the two dresses into it, folding them up neatly.

Endymion fought to not laugh at the absurd image of the Princess packing her own luggage, or at the thought of what she might feel she needed to pack for. "I can see that. Are you...practicing for something?"

She shot him a withering look that knocked the smile right off his face. "I'm going to the Moon Palace," she explained, voice hushed for the sake of the sleeping Chibiusa. "Chibiusa is coming with me. So is Kirsten. I'm taking a few things with me that I might need. Over the next cycle, I'll have people sent here to collect the rest of my things, and as soon as I can arrange for housing, I'll have the rest of the midwives moved up there as well." She sighed, looking down at the full suitcase before closing it gently.

Endymion took several beats to even find words at this series of proclamations, blinking dully. "I'm sorry, what?!" he managed.

"I'm leaving," Serenity said, getting back to her feet after tapping a little panel on the side of the suitcase. It began to levitate a couple finger lengths in the air, a blue little glow coming from the bottom. She also tapped the handlebar of the baby carrier, causing it to begin to hover as well. "I want you out of my life, okay?" She nodded firmly. "I want you out."

Endymion stared over at his wife. "Um. Hm. W-what am I missing here, exactly?" He began to slowly approach her, wearing a mask of casual indifference over his shock. "Sweetie, this isn't the animal kingdom, where males and females go their separate ways after giving birth, what are you even talking about?"

"I don't know how I can make it any more clear than I already have," Serenity said, putting her hands on her hips. "I want you out of my life."

Endymion put his hand out towards her. "Or, maybe, hear me out here, you're completely over-reacting to something and are going to feel very silly about all this tomorrow morning." He gave her a thin little smile. "That's far more likely, so why don't you tell me—"

"Why?" She blinked, starting to scowl a bit. "You want to know why? Because you're a liar."

Endymion had a minor facial tick at this, blinking down forcefully, but quickly suppressed it. "Okay, I'm a liar. What do you think I lied about?"

"I don't even know where to start with that," Serenity said, her voice somehow managing to ooze a malice that she had probably never had before. "But I guess it all started with one time you told the truth. Two billion creds worth of pink diamonds."

Endymion rolled his eyes and gave a little laugh. "Serenity, that was—"

She plunged her hand into the small side pocket of her tunic, ripping it out and holding it out open towards him, showing a small collection of little pink crystals. Endymion's heart almost leapt out of his throat.

"Please, just don't bother trying, it doesn't matter now," she hissed. "I found these this morning. Down in the panic room, in a bag. A lot more where they came from, too."

Endymion, visibly flustered, stood there looking rather stupid for several beats, trying to find some way out of this. "I—"

"I actually gave my old tutor a call, had him come here, asked him if they were real. Made up a story about how some real ones got mixed in with fake ones that I got to make toys for Chibiusa with, and I was trying to separate them out. Quite a fiction, you would have been proud of me, lying like that." She strided over to him, slamming her palm against his chest and pulling it away, letting the diamonds drop to the floor at his feet. "He said they were real. Some of the clearest and most beautiful he had ever seen."

"Serenity, we live in a palace, we're royalty, there are jewels everywhere," Endymion managed to get out, his voice wavering with a lack of conviction. "That's hardly—"

"Two billion creds worth of diamonds kept in a secret room underneath the floor?" she questioned. "Why would that be? What would make you feel like you needed to hide them?" She slowly turned away from him. "Spent a good chunk of today thinking about that, wondering. I wondered about a lot. Your extended absences, not being willing to tell me things...survival training. Oh, survival training, do you have any idea how hard I worked to force myself to believe that one? How much effort I put into convincing myself that you were worthy of the benefit of the doubt?"

"Serenity, we've been over that," he said, forcing his voice to firm up in an attempt to take control of the conversation. "It was an unfortunate bit of tradition I had to uphold, and...alright, look, just accuse me of something already." He spread his arms to his sides. "What is it you think I've done, you think I'm sneaking away to see another woman? Are we going to do this again?"

She nodded. "I was thinking that." She waved her hand over at the closed suitcase and baby carrier and they began to slowly float towards her. She headed out onto the balcony at the back of the room, opening the glass doors out onto the high-up ledge.

"Well, alright, let's do it again," Endymion offered.

"I've often wondered, over the last few years, whenever I'm feeling a little insecure" she admitted as she shuffled over towards the glowing, shimmering tube at the end of the balcony. "Why are you with me when Princess Venus is right there, more beautiful and desirable than I could ever be?"

Endymion rattled out a sigh. "Because I don't love her, I love you, and I am not—"

"But then, the diamonds. Those, they had to be involved somehow. So then I thought, not Venus. Mercury. They've got all those diamond mines over there, they cover practically everything in them. So, earlier today, I put it together." She turned around to look at Endymion's appalled expression. "You're having an affair with Princess Mercury, and those diamonds were some sort of...gift. Maybe part of some under-the-table deal." She shrugged. "Couldn't handle being with a woman who couldn't match your intellect, needed someone who could challenge you mentally. Lines up, doesn't it?"

Endymion practically looked offended. "Serenity. We can fly over to The Holy Gobekli Temple right now, and I can go put my hands on the Gobekli Tablets, and I'll swear as many times as I need to for you to believe it. I am not having an affair with Princess Mercury!"

She nodded, going over to the end of the balcony and putting her hands on the handrailing, little fingers digging into the marble. "I believe you." She grimaced, looking down at the ground far below. "I wish you were."

"W-wait," Endymion stammered. "What do you mean? What does that mean?"

She looked over her shoulder. "I tried to contact her three times this afternoon, she wouldn't answer. Finally, I left a message." She gave a disbelieving, nasty little smile. "I told her that I knew she was having an affair with my husband. Extreme, but I needed to get her attention. And it did, she got back to me after that. Audio-only, refused to turn on the hologram, not like her at all."

Endymion began to slowly wilt as he realized where the conversation was headed, expression falling.

"But, she gave me her word. No affair. And I believed her. Me and her have known each other for a long time, I don't believe she'd deny it on being confronted by it." She squinted, turning herself around to face the Prince. "But...the way she was talking, I knew that she knew something. So I asked her. I asked her, do you know what's going on with my husband?"

Endymion blinked, swallowing down hard.

"She's not nearly as good a liar as you are," Serenity said. "She started babbling something incoherent. I would have had a better shot at translating the things that Chibiusa says. Eventually, she just insisted she didn't know anything, and ended the call." She tilted her head. "Blocked my communicator, now I can't even get a call through to her. Thank you for that, by the way." She spun about and entered the glowing, translucent elevator, the suitcase and carrier following her. "Been my friend for as long as I can remember almost, and now she can't even talk to me."

Endymion hurriedly jumped into the elevator just before it closed and took off, whisking the three members of royalty and the large suitcase downward, the great speed of the lift, as well as the assorted bends and twists the course took, not felt at all within.

"Serenity, I—" he said, his voice weakening again as he started to take on the full gravity of everything that had just been told to him, still frantically trying to find some way out.

"And, just to be sure, just in case I was being even a tiny bit unfair...I called your grandfather," she said as they were whisked off in the direction of the palace garage. "Should have done that a long time ago, but it just didn't even occur to me. But I wanted to see, maybe he could verify the survival training thing. If he could, then maybe that would provide some kind of foundation I could work with." She slowly shook her head. "Take a guess, Endymion. What do you think your grandfather said when I asked him about a tradition of male heirs to the Earth throne taking extended survival training when they're a young adult? Do you think he had ever even heard of such a thing?"

Endymion took maybe half a beat to try to come up with a verbal reply, but even he knew there was no point. He looked down at his shoes, nervously shifting his weight.

"Yeah," Serenity said, finality in his voice. "I don't care to untangle all of this any more than I already have." The lift came to a sudden stop, the translucent barrier that encircled the platform sliding open, allowing access out to the massive grey concrete chamber that housed the assorted royal ships and vehicles. Serenity began purposefully walking out into this giant chamber, going across the room to where her personal shuttle rested.

"Okay, okay," Endymion said, chasing after her, jumping over the hovering suitcase and coming up behind her. "Serenity, wait."

"The very least you could do at this point is stop insulting my intelligence by denying it," Serenity said in a low whisper. "I might not be smart, but I'm not nearly as stupid as you would need me to be."

"I'm not!" Endymion insisted. "Just, wait, Serenity, please."

She continued to take longer and longer strides, closing the distance between her and her Class A shuttle, The Lagomorpha, a stylized little ship with a fine silver color scheme.

"Serenity, I'm sorry, but don't do this!" Endymion begged, becoming frantic as she got closer and closer to leaving.

"There's a poison in this palace." She stopped, Endymion having to quickly plant his feet down hard to avoid crashing into her. She looked up over her shoulder. "I didn't realize how bad it was until today. And I'm through letting it contaminate me. I'm tired of all the lies. And so, Endymion, I want you out of my life. I think that covers it."

With that, she went over to the underside of her ship, hitting a large green button on a thick pillar right by it. A staircase began to unfold and extend out from the bottom of the shuttle. Serenity waited right below where it would extend out to, suitcase and carrier still floating right behind her.

Endymion, eyes wide and tone frantic, placed his hand on her shoulder. She turned slightly, pushing his hand away. "Serenity, wait." He put his hand out towards her, not touching her this time. "Look. I'll tell you everything."

He swallowed down hard, looking at the stairs uncurl out in the corner of his vision.

"Serenity, I'll tell you the truth," he promised, staring at her with wide, pleading eyes. "If you stay. If you say you'll stay. I swear I'll tell you everything. And then we can work through it from there. Just please, don't leave." His voice shook a bit. "I-I...you're right. I'm a liar, but I promise to tell you the truth from now on if you give me one more chance." He blinked down heavily. "I-If you're going to leave me, t-then...then you should at least know everything first. I'll tell you everything, just...just don't go."

She sighed, then looked up over her left shoulder at him. "Endymion. You're right. I don't know what it is you've been doing." She paused for a brief beat. "And honestly? Whatever it is...I'm afraid to know."

With that, she ripped her gaze away from him and climbed the stairs, suitcase and carrier following her up. Endymion didn't have it in him to even chase her up into the shuttle, just lazily backing away as the steps folded back into the base of the ship. Within a few beats, the ship was powering up, little streams of energy emitting from the engine exhausts. He backed away in time to avoid being hurt as the ship lifted off the docking base, then turned towards the opening steel garage door. He could only stare, still dumbfounded and shocked by everything that had just transpired, as it sped out of the garage and out into the evening sky, slowly shrinking into the distance.

He wasn't sure how long he remained there, watching the shuttle become a dot in the distance, then finally not being visible at all. He was still too stunned to have any other emotional reaction. Finally, with nothing left to watch, and the garage doors slowly easing shut, he stiffly walked away, aimlessly wandering back towards the lift to his bedroom.

"

END OF ARC TWO

A/N: If you've made it this far, congratulations, you are now done with arc two of five of my story! Thank you so much for sticking with me for this long, and I hope you are liking what you have read to this point.

So, to those of you in the know, I'm sure you have noticed that I've obviously cribbed a good portion of that last scene, and how could I not? It's really one of the most satisfying scenes in the entire show, and I wanted to use as much of it as I could as I believe it's just so damn effective and cathartic.

Now, just as with arc one, I will be taking a short break of maybe 10-14 days now that this arc is concluded. Arc three will start sometime in the few days after Valentine's Day. If you have any particular thoughts built up over recent chapters, now wouldn't be too bad of a time to leave them in a review or PM, and it would certainly be appreciated. :)

Again, thank you for getting this far, see you soon in arc three!