Chapter 41: Outlet

AN: As of the most recent chapter, this is now officially the longest story I've ever written, both in chapter count and word count. So I want to say thank you to everyone who has stayed with me for all these months. It means a lot to me, and I feel honored to have had so many people stick with me through 40 chapters.

"

"Did you ever think you'd see the day?" Nephrite tossed the lid of the large silver suitcase open, a cleanly-folded white jumpsuit inside. He grabbed the collar and pulled it up in front of him. "Me, majority owner of a tech company?"

Kunzite gently pushed one of the black joysticks on the center console of The Falconeri to the left, getting the ship to twist slightly. Out in the middle of deep space, hanging dormant, the Class A starship was casually drifting about, a few million dolichos away from Mars.

"It's not that unreasonable," Kunzite replied, tapping a button on the console to bring an overlay up on the front windshield. "You might even call it predictable. Unqualified son of a wealthy family, those sorts of people always end up owning a big company and hiring smart people to actually do all the work."

"Hey, somebody has to count the money," Nephrite countered, unzipping the back side of the jumpsuit.

"Just let Zoisite drive things." Kunzite turned away from the front window, looking back at his fellow Earth general. "He was born for something like this."

"Maybe, but I'm worried about him," Nephrite said. "He's working himself so hard to keep everything running, doing the work of ten people by himself. He might be smart enough for it, but that doesn't mean he can actually do it without burning himself out."

"We'll deal with that issue if it becomes one," Kunzite said. "Okay, remember, if anything goes wrong down on Deimos, we abort. No improvisation, no guesswork, either we stick to the plan or there is no plan."

"I'm pretty confident in my ability to plant a few explosives, you've got the hard part of this," Nephrite said.

Kunzite pulled back the left side of his uniform, reaching his right hand into the pocket on the side of it and pulling out a small pistol made of wood. "It's a bit of a—"

A little trilling sound interrupted the conversation, Kunzite twisting his head back over towards the center console. A little blue light was blinking from the top of it.

"Hold on," Kunzite said, quickly walking up to the front of the ship and leaning over the main controls. A second, identical trill sound started, but before it could finish Kunzite pressed a button along the top edge of the panel. "Hello?"

"Go home, Kunzite."

It was as if all the air got sucked out of the room instantly. Nephrite blanched, staring up towards the center console where the voice had come from. Kunzite's shoulders drooped, and the moment the call was disconnected, he reflexively leaned forward to look out the front window, trying to find something out in space.

"What the—" Nephrite muttered, dashing over to the left side of the ship and looking out the window there.

Kunzite quickly powered the ship back on, mashing away at the dashboard. "Aborting," he said under his breath, the ship's engines springing to life. As fast as he could safely do it, Kunzite swung The Falconeri around to the right, then punched in a jump. Within mere beats of receiving the call, the ship screamed forward through space, ripping across the galaxy back towards Earth.

"

Kunzite stabbed the tip of the steel rod into the small recess of the rectangular red box, tapping the other end of it to prompt the tip to rapidly spin to the left. A large screw spun free from the box, falling to the floor with a gentle clink after several rotations, leaving Kunzite free to open the top of the box to expose a collection of neat wiring.

Nephrite, with a grunt and no small amount of effort, ripped a heavy sheet of steel armor off the side of the partially-deconstructed Falconeri, exposing the inner shell of the starship.

"They bugged my ship once, we know that," Kunzite grunted, carefully pushing the wiring to the sides in order to look behind it. "However they managed it, we never figured it out."

"Cronus has spies inside the palace?" Nephrite questioned. "That's what it would take." He jammed a crowbar-like object in between the next armor plate and the inner shell, a flood of sparks spitting from the end of the tool as the armor was slowly detached.

"I can't put anything past him," Kunzite called out loudly. "And how else could he have done that? How else could he know to contact me at that exact moment?"

A violent, shuddering series of knocks cut the conversation short, as both large, young men turned towards the locked steel door that provided the only way in or out of the sealed-off section of the palace hangar. The high-ceilinged, eerily-lit, slightly pungent chamber was surrounded on all sides by towering metal walls, providing maximum privacy.

"Tell them I'm performing maintenance and that the specifications of this ship are classified," Kunzite said, continuing to search through the wires.

Nephrite put the rod up on his left shoulder and ran over to the door, a thick steel plate of minimal features beyond the bolt lock and knob. The brunette general pulled the bolt out and turned the knob, cracking the door open and peering through. He opened his mouth, but whatever he had to say never got out.

The heavy door was quickly whipped open, admitting Prince Endymion, Zoisite, and Jadeite. Kunzite looked up, scrambling to his feet in a hurry before realizing who was intruding on his work. Nephrite shut the door behind the trio.

"O-oh," Kunzite said, straightening his posture out a bit as the Prince rapidly approached. "Your Highness."

"We need to talk," Endymion said, looking rather distressed.

"Right," Kunzite said. "I suppose it's probably obvious, but the mission was a failure. We aborted before—"

"We have bigger problems right now," Endymion said breathlessly.

Kunzite was taken aback slightly, raising an eyebrow and dropping the large screwdriver to the concrete floor at his side. "I doubt that."

"No no, Kunzite, really, we've got a real problem here," Endymion countered. "He knows! Kasios, he's...he knows."

The impact of that statement was enough to get Kunzite's mouth to drop a couple of finger lengths, provoking an instinctive reflexive reaction of panic. Quickly, however, the absurdity of the statement motivated the opposite reaction.

"N-not us!" Zoisite chimed in quickly. "He doesn't know about us!"

Endymion squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head back and forth. "R-right, sorry, yes, not us."

"I was wondering why you weren't in restraints right now," Nephrite said dryly, rejoining the conversation.

"I meant about Cronus, he knows about Cronus," Endymion clarified. "He...he's figured it out."

"Ah," Kunzite said, putting his open palm out towards the Prince. "We should probably go somewhere a little more secure before we continue."

"

"He knows, and he's got a great bead on the situation," Endymion said darkly, hunched over, elbows resting on his knees and hands steepled from his seat at the foot of the bed. "I mean, he's got a dead read on the situation. He thinks Cronus is...thinks he's been operating for over a decade, thinks he's using Soranus and Galen to move materials, I mean, everything he told me, he's right on point."

Kunzite's tiny private chambers were just barely big enough to hold five people, the quintet of palace dwellers enough to make it feel rather cramped and inadequate. Kunzite, Endymion, and Zoisite sat along the outside edges of the bed, Jadeite took the desk chair, and Nephrite leaned against the rightmost wall.

"He knows it," Kunzite said. "But he can't prove it. I have that right?"

Endymion scoffed. "No, he can't prove it right now, but...that just means he's not going to rest until he can. Trust me, my father...he's not going to quit. Not for anything. Short of Terra descending from the holy plane and telling him that Cronus is innocent and that he should be looking elsewhere, he's going to spend the rest of his life trying to prove it."

"He has nothing to go on," Nephrite mumbled. "And what can he even do without the agency backing him up? You said it yourself, nobody else on the council agrees with him, there's no official investigation, he has no resources to fall back on. He's one man."

"That all just makes him more convinced that he's right," Endymion groaned. "And, actually, he does have one resource." He pointed both his thumbs at his chest. "Me."

Kunzite tilted his head slightly, looking over at the Prince. "You? You're helping him?"

"I...I didn't know how to say no without sounding suspicious," Endymion said lamely. "You know, he's got a real way of being forceful when he wants something. Believe me, I didn't want it." He rummaged around in the right pocket of his pants. "But I didn't see a choice." He removed a glass cube with a green marble rattling around inside. "He wants me to...plant this on him so he can track his movements. I bought some time, but in a cycle, he'll start pressing me if I haven't done it yet."

Kunzite squinted down at the marble. "He actually wants to involve you like that?"

Endymion shrugged. "I tried to tell him it would make me uncomfortable, but he wouldn't back off, and...I mean, the agency probably gave specific orders to drop it. I'm all he has."

Kunzite slowly nodded, still staring at the green orb inside the glass case. "Well, at least this means he doesn't suspect you."

"For the moment," Endymion replied. "For all I know, he's starting to wonder. That's why I came down to the hangar, he might have my communicator tapped." He looked around at his four generals scattered about the room. "W-we should all be mindful of that possibility for awhile, everyone. No discussions about any of this on communicators."

"What does Cronus know?" Nephrite wondered.

"Oh, he knows! They brought him in for questioning! Had him on The Savery, asked him for an explanation for Viluy, an alibi, so...so he knows." Endymion hung his head low.

"He knows that the agency had some questions, he answered them, and they were happy with his answers," Kunzite countered. "He doesn't know that Kasios still suspects him, Kasios certainly wouldn't give that away."

"Cronus isn't the kind of person who's going to leave anything to chance if he can help it!" Endymion insisted. "No, this...this is bad. Bad on both ends."

Jadeite gave an incredulous look over at his charge. "What are you worried about? It's not as if Cronus can have Kasios killed."

Endymion winced at the mere suggestion. "I...I don't know. Nothing can be ruled out. Cronus's wealth, influence, power...nothing is beyond his reach. And if he feels like Kasios is a real threat to expose him…" He shook his head. "I don't want things to get to that point."

"Okay, okay," Jadeite said slowly. "So, what if he did catch him?"

Endymion's head snapped up, and he twisted his body to the right to face Jadeite. "Is that a real question?"

"I-I'm just saying," Jadeite continued. "You said that Cronus was going to try to knock you off as soon as he felt like he could afford to, so...he can't do that if he gets caught, right? What if we let the High King take care of the problem for us?"

Endymion scowled over at his blond general. "Jadeite. If Kasios catches Cronus, he catches us! One way or another, Cronus setting foot inside an agency holding cell leads to us following close behind, we can not let Kasios find any real evidence!"

Jadeite gritted his teeth. "Alright, alright."

Endymion pressed his fingertips into his right temple as hard as he could. "The only solution, our only way out, we have to...we have to get Cronus out of the picture. After he's gone, we might have some cleaning up to do to make sure we don't get exposed in the investigation, but we have to get rid of him first." He looked back over to Kunzite. "So, our timetable is getting condensed. W-what happened today, anyway?"

Kunzite rattled out a sigh. "He knew we were coming. He actually called me, right before we were about to start the mission. We were still millions of dolichos away from Deimos." He gestured over to his right. "That's why I was...pulling my ship apart. He might have bugged it again, I don't see how else he could have my movements down that precisely."

"Get yourself scanned as well. Could be you he's tracking, not your ship," Zoisite suggested.

"So, speaking of people who know things now, Cronus now knows that we intend on killing him," Endymion said darkly. "Although, I'm sure he suspected it already."

"He's not going to let any of us anywhere near him," Nephrite grumbled. "He's got infinite resources, practically."

"Leaving us just...sitting here, waiting for the day when Cronus decides he's had enough of me," Endymion finished, tilting his head back. "So we just wait for a multi-billionaire to decide he has enough money that he can kill someone who is actively trying to kill him."

"We'll look into something less direct," Kunzite reasoned. "He still has to eat, it's not as if he's spending all of his time locked in a safe room."

The Crown Prince sandwiched his hands together, pressing his thumbs into the bridge of his nose. "Serenity can't know. No matter what. If she thinks that my life is in danger, she'll blow the roof off the entire thing. That's for starters."

"Perhaps the best move would be to inform Cronus of the situation," Zoisite suggested. "Make sure that he knows exactly what's going on. Surely, he won't bother doing anything as long as he knows the agency trusts him completely, regardless of what Kasios might believe."

Endymion sighed, then nodded.

"

Endymion slowly tilted his head back, closing his eyes and rolling his shoulders around. Kunzite dumped the final tray of refined imperium into one of the collection bins, getting all four of the containers filled to the brim.

The room was deathly silent, all the vats and ovens shut down, just two young men now staring up at the door up on the catwalk. It was pickup day, and due to the secrecy of this work, surely one of Cronus's remaining lieutenants would be making the pickup. There had already been a couple of these since Viluy's death, each of them as awkward and tense as you might expect, but had yet to rise above that.

"Is today the day?" Endymion said under his breath, putting his hands on his hips as he stared up at the door.

"Don't think about that," Kunzite said. "Just focus on making sure we deliver a clear message for her to hand off."

Endymion, however, couldn't stop thinking about it. His fear always escalated on pickup days, feeling like it would be a perfect time for Cronus to end their partnership, with no batches in progress and with one of his lieutenants in the area anyway. Suddenly overcome by a wave of emotion, he turned away and took a few steps across the lab, going behind the large silver vat and pulling out his communicator.

Quickly, fingers trembling, he tapped several buttons along the outer edge, bringing up the hologram right above the center of it. As quickly as he could, he brought up the frequency for Princess Serenity's communicator and slapped his fingers on the center button. Taking the small earpiece out of the side, he gave it a little yank to dislodge it, and then stuck it in his ear.

"C'mon, c'mon," he muttered, impatiently tapping his foot on the concrete floor. After several moments, however, all he received was a series of dull tones, indicating that he was being sent to a recording. "Shit."

"Leave a message for the recipient and they will get back to you as soon as possible."

"Uh, Serenity, sweetie, it's me," Endymion said, stumbling a bit through his words. "Um, I just...I just wanted to talk to you real quick, but, uh...well, I just wanted you to know that...well, I love you."

With that, he ended the call and pocketed the communicator, pulling out the earpiece and tossing it in after it. He came back around the vat, looking up just in time to see the door open.

Ptilol stepped through, immediately casting a disdainful look down at the two Terrans down below. Endymion frantically looked her over, trying to find some indication of whether or not she intended on doing anything more than taking the imperium.

Quickly, she marched along the catwalk, crossing it as fast as she could without moving frantically. Endymion cleared his throat as she began to spin down the spiral staircase.

"We need to discuss something," Endymion said, standing up straight and doing his best to project confidence. She seemed to completely ignore him, getting down to the floor and going over to the collection bins. "It's very important that what I'm about to say reaches Cronus."

Ptilol was wearing a clear scowl, obviously not interested in engaging in conversation with the Prince.

"I know the agency questioned him about Viluy's death," he continued, plowing on despite her overtly ignoring him. "And I'm sure that he's concerned. So I wanted to get us both on the same page."

Ptilol began tapping buttons on the lip of the first container, priming it so he could check the weight.

"The agency doesn't suspect Cronus in the slightest. There's no investigation, he's not a person of interest, they're not even looking in his direction." Endymion slowly came over towards Ptilol as she moved to the next container. "That being said, my father is a different story. However, he has no evidence at all. No proof. Nothing he can take to the agency to persuade them to see things his way. Right now, his only option is to conduct a personal, private, secret investigation, with practically no resources. He's not going to be a problem for us."

Kunzite loomed behind Endymion's shoulder, prepared for the situation to go south fast.

"We all want the same thing here. None of us want my father to find out about our operation. And I'm the only person he feels comfortable confiding in about any of this. I will make sure he discovers nothing. I'm the only asset he can use in his investigation."

Ptilol, satisfied with her check of the imperium weight, activated the large cargo elevator that the containers were stationed on. Slowly, the platform rose up, Ptilol jumping off it back onto the floor.

"Um, there's just one thing, though," Endymion said, quickly following Ptilol as she purposefully moved back towards the spiral staircase. "He...he wants to spy on Cronus's movements. See if he'll go somewhere or meet with someone that he can use to get the agency to officially investigate."

Ptilol, a few steps short of the stairs, halted midstep, then turned to look at the Crown Prince, for the first time acknowledging that she was listening.

"H-he gave me this," Endymion continued, reaching towards his right pants pocket. Ptilol made a move towards her hip, prompting the Prince to slow down. With deliberate, careful movements, Endymion exposed a glass box with a green marble in it. "It's coated with a radioactive material that he can track, he wanted me to plant it on Cronus. I-if I don't do it, he'll probably try something else." He held the box out towards Ptilol, who jumped back a bit away from it. "At least this way, we can control what he sees. But this needs to be delivered to Cronus."

Ptilol simply stared down at the encased marble, giving away nothing other than a general distaste with her expression. Endymion, not sure what else to do, just kept his arm extended towards her.

"P-please," Endymion said. "My father might abandon his suspicions if he gets to track Cronus for awhile and doesn't find anything incriminating. This is the best chance we have."

With a quick-twitch movement, Ptilol grabbed the cube, then marched over towards the nearest counter, just a dozen paces to her left. She slapped the glass down on the corner of the table, then turned back around to resume her previous directive of ascending the stairs. Endymion, mildly confused, watched with wide eyes.

"So, we'll just leave it there?" Endymion asked, slowly twisting his neck around to follow Ptilol along the catwalk. "You've got it under control? You'll pass all that along?"

Ptilol didn't answer, instead going over to where the giant imperium bins had been lifted to, busying herself with pushing them into the loader built into the wall for transport out to the hangar.

"

Cronus held the glass cube in the fingers of his right hand, thumb on one of the points, and index finger on the opposite one.

"He must be rather convinced of my guilt to actually conscript his son into helping him," Cronus said thoughtfully, tilting the glass around and prompting the marble to roll about within.

"The Prince was insistent that High King Kasios has no evidence," Ptilol insisted.

"Which will make him very eager to find some," Cronus countered. He turned to his right, looking over towards Eudial, who was seated against the leftmost wall of the office. "How confident are you in your knowledge of the Galactic Imperium Agency's activities?"

Eudial straightened her back up. "I feel very confident that the agency does not consider you a suspect or person of interest. High King Kasios is on an island here. With all the sources and leaks we have inside the agency, I don't believe it's possible they could be running an investigation without me hearing about it."

Cronus pushed a breath out of his nose, setting the cube down on the corner of his desk surface. "For over a decade, we operated without being suspected by anyone. One person is one too many. Particularly this person."

"I'm not really seeing what he'll be able to do," Eudial continued. "He has one resource to lean on, and that resource happens to be working for us. We'll just misdirect him for a little while and he'll have to give up."

Cronus bowed his head in thought. "The war won't be settled for some time. Half a year at best, possibly a year. We need to keep running until then. After that, whatever we have to do to survive, we do, but until then, we have to remain operational. We'll trust Endymion to throw Kasios off our scent for now. But if he gets close, we do what we have to do. Nothing can stop us from bringing a quick end to this war. Nothing."

Tellu slowly tilted her head to the right. "You said that killing a Prince would be overly difficult and impossible to get away with, now you mean to kill the High King?"

"Circumstances have changed, we're much closer to our goal now. And no amount of risk is too much if the alternative is being exposed to the agency. But, hopefully, it never comes to that." He waved his right hand over towards the door to his office, back out into the main hall of the Neptune branch of Galen Laboratories. "Tellu, you have your instructions. It's imperative that this mission is a success."

The tall, slim woman rose to her feet and gave a quick bow towards her boss. "The 17th Legion will be no more by the end of tomorrow." With that bold proclamation, she turned to her left and marched towards the door.

"And I'll be sure that Kasios has nothing to work with," Cronus said, tapping his finger on the glass cube.

"Um...sir," Ptilol began as Tellu departed, subconsciously pressing her knees together and clenching her hands in her lap. "I, uh...I've been wanting to have a little discussion about something. I know it's an awkward topic, I've been trying to put it off, but...I just want to go ahead and deal with it now."

Cronus remained stoic, staring Ptilol down with an intimidating glare that was almost enough to get her to abandon her plan. But she resolutely plowed on.

"Um...Cyprine," Ptilol said quietly, looking over at Eudial out of the corner of her eyes. Part of her wished the redheaded psychic wasn't here and that this was a private conversation, but she supposed that this involved her as well, potentially. "I just, I want to talk about what happened with Cyprine."

She swallowed the building lump in her throat as Cronus just waited for Ptilol to elaborate. This felt like a mistake, but she knew she wasn't going to be able to just stay silent on this forever, and now was just as good a time as any other.

"I know she made a mistake. And I know it was costly, and even now we're paying for it. But I just have to question the decision to...I mean, she had been with you for over ten years. Did it really have to come to that?" Ptilol shifted in her seat slightly. "I just have to understand, why did things have to go that far?"

Slowly, Cronus raised both his hands up in front of him, gesturing towards the open space in the desk right before him. He shook his hands a couple times, doing nothing to clarify what he was trying to indicate.

"Well?" he asked.

"I...I, uh…"

"I'm just assuming that you've invented or come across some sort of time machine that will allow us to travel back before I made my decision with Cyprine, and stop me? Maybe some sort of potion or spell that can raise the dead?" He shrugged. "Without any of that, then what's the point of bringing any of this up? Surely you wouldn't bother asking me if I regret my actions, when you have no way of undoing them?"

"U-um—"

"Which would make this a waste of time for all of us. So, what's your solution?" Cronus waited for an answer to his doubtlessly-rhetorical question.

"S-she was put in a difficult situation and things happened she couldn't have possibly seen coming," Ptilol continued. "I'm just not sure why...I...I just want to know, sir. If you could go back, and make that decision again, what would you do?"

"Really?" Cronus asked judgmentally. "A hypothetical? That's what you feel so urgently about asking?"

"I-I just feel like we could use her right now, she could be valuable, and...I, I don't know, sir." She bit her cheek. "I guess what I want...what I'm trying to say is—"

"Ptilol," Cronus said. "I know what you want. I know exactly what you want. And I don't have time for it." He clenched his mouth. "You want me to admit that I made a mistake. That I was wrong. That I shouldn't have killed Cyprine, that I'm regretting it now. You want me to say all that, because it'll make you feel better, for me to admit that I wish I hadn't done it. Nevermind the fact that even if I did admit any of that, it would do nothing to bring her back." He shook his head in disappointment. "You should be better than this, Ptilol."

Ptilol tensed up more than she was already tensed, sensing his quiet vitriol.

"You're not a child anymore, you're supposed to be above this. Cyprine made a critical error in judgement. An error that cost Viluy her life, and forced us to be dependent on someone unreliable. An error that prevents us from severing our ties with someone who is actively attempting to kill us, and brought suspicion on us. We're so close to achieving the goal we've worked towards for the last decade, and she has jeopardized it all with sloppiness. I can not tolerate sloppiness, not now, when so much hangs in the balance. I made my decision, Ptilol. And if you disagree with it, if you would have made another one, then you are free to keep all that to yourself. Because I don't care. The only thing that matters now, the only thing that should be on anyone's mind, is bringing the civil war on Saturn to an end. Is that going to be a problem for you?"

"Ahh…" Ptilol exhaled, clearly getting the picture that she wasn't going to get anything else out of this. Slowly, she got to her feet. "No, sir. No problem."

"Eudial, you're dismissed as well," Cronus added, not taking his eyes off Ptilol. "Everything goes forward as normal."

As the redheaded lieutenant obeyed his dismissal, Cronus opened the drawer on the right side of his desk, drawing out the concealed compartment. Quickly, he grabbed the glass cube off the desk surface and set it into the drawer. Just as fast as he had opened it, he slammed it shut.

The next secunda was occupied by the two young women departing the office, both of them intimidated into silence by Cronus's harsh monologue. They were both quite eager to leave his presence, in fact.

As soon as he was alone, Cronus gave an annoyed grunt. Slowly, he pulled the drawer back open, eyes now studying the assorted contents instead of dismissing them. He focused in on one object on the left side of the compartment, which he had just barely noted in the back of his head the first time. A golden locket, about the side of his thumbpad, with a thin golden chain looped through it. He picked it up by the chain, quickly lifting it enough so the locket was dangling in front of his face. With a reflexive glance to either side of him, he pressed his right hand's thumb into the face of the locket, which got the oval-shaped object to pop open.

A tiny, circular photograph was inside the piece of jewelry. A simple picture of a face. Round and soft with short black hair and big purple eyes, it was clearly the face of a very young child. He sighed, gently tapping the photo with his finger.

"

Kunzite grumbled under his breath as he, once again, found the door into the luxury apartment unlocked. He tossed it open, quickly stepping inside and guiding the massive luggage container onto the front foyer before closing and locking it.

"Princess Venus, we—" Kunzite began, turning to sweep across the apartment in front of him. This one was colored with slightly more pastel tones, just a little more attention-grabbing and hard on the eyes. The layout was roughly similar, however, enough to where Kunzite didn't bother to actually take note of any of the details. Once again, the blonde Princess was not readily visible. He rolled his eyes, then made to enter the hallway to his right.

"Out here!"

He froze mid-step, head rotating to the glass balcony door on the opposite side of the main lounging room. It was cracked open, and now that he was specifically looking for it, he was able to make out the Princess laying back on a reclining lounge chair.

Quickly, he marched across the garish orange carpet, waving his right arm over at the luggage container to deactivate it and get it to settle into the floor. In short order, he was pulling the glass door to the side, opening out onto a modest-sized balcony, equipped with a white stone railing around the edges, a pair of cushioned lounge chairs, a grey stone round table between them, and potted plants in the corners. She was laying back on the right one, her orange high heels off and laying on the floor right next to the chair.

"I have it," Kunzite said quietly, scanning the outdoor terrace for anyone else. "Get inside."

"Is it going to run away if I don't get it right now?" she asked, not turning around to look at the white-haired Earth general, satisfying herself with simply looking out towards the sunset.

"The sooner we finish this transaction, the sooner we can go our separate ways and get back to work," Kunzite said.

"That doesn't sound like a very good incentive to me," Venus countered. "It's actually the opposite of a good incentive."

Kunzite sighed. "Your Highness—"

"What difference would it make, ultimately?" Venus asked. "Would something awful happen if you spent ten or fifteen secundas extra here?"

"I'm expected back at the palace, and I'm very busy," Kunzite insisted. "If you don't care to check the product, just tell me where the money is."

"Expected back by your Prince?" Venus asked, slowly twisting her head back around to look up at the increasingly-frustrated general.

"Perhaps," Kunzite answered tersely.

"Does he have you on a curfew?" Venus asked teasingly. "Does he spank you if you get home late?"

Kunzite grumbled.

"Just sit down for a little while. I won't bite," Venus said. "Maybe it'll do you some good. Besides, we're partners, aren't we? Maybe we should take some time to discuss how things are going, make sure we're on the same page."

Kunzite looked around, his natural inclinations forcing him to assume this was some sort of trap. He went over to the edge of the balcony, leaning over the ledge and checking underneath the platform the best he could.

"What are you afraid of?" Venus chided. "Do you have any idea how much money I'm making off our little arrangement? I don't want anything bad to happen to you."

Kunzite, considering her statement for a moment, shrugged, and then took a couple of quick steps over to the vacated chair. He sat down in it heavily, immediately looking off towards the setting sun. "What are we looking at?"

"Whatever you want to look at," Venus said. "Don't tell me you don't know how to relax."

Kunzite crossed his right leg over his left, looking over to his right at Princess Venus. Figuring his best move was to give her what she wanted as quickly as possible. "So, how's the distribution?"

"Great," Venus answered. "The planet's been starving for some black market competition for awhile now. I don't think I'd be moving it any faster if I was giving it away for free. In fact, can we boost the product amount to seven hundred?"

"I think I can manage that," Kunzite replied quickly. "Any problems legally?"

"Nothing big. Two dealer arrests so far, just...mistakes that should never have been made."

Kunzite startled into an upright position, eyes widening and face wrinkling. "Arrests?! You said—"

"Yes, yes, they're not...they're not getting picked up on the side of the street or anything like that, it's more...they trust the wrong people, it's not something that's going to happen over and over." Venus absentmindedly waved her left hand towards the general.

"If they get arrested on Venus, they get ten years, minimum!" Kunzite said. "How—"

"My people are solid, as long as their families are taken care of," Venus insisted, motioning for Kunzite to settle back down. "They knew the risks when they signed on, and they're willing to keep quiet. My dealers are in this for more than just money."

Kunzite's suspicions remained raised as he eyed Venus. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that they're in this for ideology as well. They support my cause, and are willing to put themselves at risk in order to assist in accomplishing it." Venus turned back out towards the sunset.

"What cause might that be?" Kunzite asked.

She smirked. "Well, I suppose it would be rude to not share. I'm planning a coup."

"Hm," Kunzite muttered. "That would not have been my first guess."

"Don't worry, it's a moral coup," Venus assured him. "A non-violent one, too. It will be."

"Moral, non-violent coup," Kunzite mused. "Good luck with that."

"I'm serious!" Venus said, a hint of a pouty whine in her voice. "Y-you must see it, you're aware of galactic news and politics, my parents are destroying the Kingdom! These fascist policies, not only are they unpopular and immoral, they're...it's expensive. They're driving the planet into bankruptcy, and...the fact that I've managed to recruit tens of thousands of civilians into a...an underground rebellion, that should tell you all you need to know about their popularity!"

Kunzite gave a reluctant little shrug. "I suppose."

"A-and, they hate me! They're never going to let me have the throne, they'll die with their fingers clenched around the crown to keep it from me. This is the only way! By the time they die, the planet will be in ruins."

"So, we're funding a coup now," Kunzite mused to himself. "Yet another thing to bury a few dolichos underground when we're done."

"By the time they find out about that, it'll already be too late," Venus comforted him. "So, now you know. I need money to fund my non-violent takeover." She turned towards him again and pointed a finger at him. "A moral one! So, feel better."

"I wasn't feeling bad, really," Kunzite muttered.

"Okay, your turn," she prompted.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Kunzite said gruffly. "I didn't agree to anything."

"Oh come on!" she whined. "I actually want to know, how...I just can't figure it out, it's the one thing I can't solve. How the hell did Prince Endymion, of all people, wind up in a line of work like this? It doesn't make sense at all. Is he...is he funding a coup of his own?"

Kunzite slowly craned his body back into a semi-reclining position, lips sealed.

"I'll admit, the High King doesn't seem like he's ready to hand the throne over anytime soon. I just didn't see Endymion as someone who particularly wanted it right now." She shrugged. "Learn something new every day."

"It's not a coup," Kunzite finally relented.

"Earth Kingdom hard up for money, then?" Venus suggested. "I could believe it. I know from personal experience, a couple of bad choices by the head royal, and the treasury gets empty real fast."

"I don't know," Kunzite finally admitted. "It...it wasn't that, either. I just don't know."

"You don't know?" Venus said with some degree of incredulity. "You can't come up with a better lie than that?"

"It's not a lie. I'm following the orders of my charge. That's my job. So, if you want to know the reason why I'm doing this, then it's because the Prince ordered me to. As for why the Prince is doing this...I couldn't tell you."

"Prince Endymion is dabbling in one of the most illegal things in all the galaxy for no particular reason?" Venus asked rhetorically. "He just...woke up one morning and decided, this is just what I should do, this is what the son of a King should occupy his time with?"

"I'm still trying to figure it out myself, honestly," Kunzite said thoughtfully. "He...he says he's doing it to protect his wife. Protect Serenity. Um, doing it for the Moon."

"Oh," Venus replied, eyes narrowing. "Why didn't you just say that?"

Kunzite let out a sigh. "Because I don't believe it." He shook his head. "I—"

All at once, he caught himself. He couldn't believe he had opened up, even that tiny amount, to someone outside his direct circle of trust. Something about her mannerisms had managed to get through to him. In one sudden movement, he got to his feet.

"I actually do have to go now," he said quickly. "I'll bring seven hundred libras next time."

"Money's in the cabinet underneath the basin," Venus said quickly, turning to watch Kunzite quickly go back inside and slide the glass panel closed behind him. "See you!"

As Kunzite abruptly made his way back across the luxury apartment room, he hurriedly rubbed his face up and down with his right hand, forehead heavily wrinkled, as he tried to burn off his immense frustration with himself.