Chapter 52: Gambit

"So he's just making fun of us now," Kasios grunted, digging his index finger into his left temple as he stared down at the tablet screen laying down on the open desk space in front of him.

"Oh, don't take it personally," Naxos argued from the opposite side of the desk. "It's probably not even the same guy."

Now a few cycles removed from being the High King, Kasios had taken the opportunity to redecorate and rearrange his office on The Savery, toning down the more luxurious trimmings and attempting to utilize lighter colors and more modest decorations. Gone were the ivory carvings and jewel-studded blades, in favor of simple paintings.

Kasios's face wrinkled. "Why wouldn't it be the same guy?"

Naxos shrugged. "Tellu, Ptilol, Eudial, had to be one of those three. Or Cronus himself. Come on, relax a bit, we got the big fish."

"Apparently not!" Kasios exclaimed, bringing the butt end of his fist down on the tablet screen, cracking it and immediately getting the screen to go black. Naxos startled a bit, jolting in his seat. "The largest distribution network in the history of the galaxy gets ripped away from him, and...he snaps his fingers and finds another one! And on Venus, of all places?! The hardest place in the solar system to sell, and he just jumps right into it?! What are we even supposed to do about this, what measure can we take on Venus that we haven't already taken?!"

"Kasios, it's one dealer on a planet of billions!" Naxos said, sounding almost panicked. "We don't know what it means yet, it...it could be a couple of uncias left over from Cronus's operation, and someone just dumped it off on Venus to irritate us, or it winds up there by chance, who knows? Why get upset about it now?"

Kasios bit his cheek, tapping his fingers on the desk. "We don't know. Lot of that going around lately. Real sick of never knowing."

"Come on, Kasios. We picked up one dealer on Venus. It means nothing. Probably just had some leftover imperium from Cronus's operation and was trying to make some money. We have no reason to believe anything else is going on."

"It doesn't line up," Kasios grunted. "None of this lines up, why would Cronus ever even sell on Venus in the first place? It never made any sense, someone as smart as Cronus would have just not bothered trying on Venus in the first place. And we barely ever make arrests on Venus, it...it doesn't add up. It's almost like there was a second distributor just for Venus who's still active."

"How would a chemist be able to work with more than one distributor?" Naxos said, face wrinkling up. "Kasios, you think Cronus would have been okay with that?"

"Probably not," Kasios begrudgingly admitted. "I don't think he was okay with being blown up, either, but it still happened." He shook his head. "No, we need...we need to investigate Venus, somehow. I have a feeling a ton of imperium is moving there and we have no idea because they've found a way through the tracking system we installed there." He rose to his feet in a single motion, scooping up the cracked tablet in his right hand as he swept around the desk. "Could be thousands of libras a cycle."

"Kasios, they'll never agree to that! Orion'll be annoyed to hear it, our apparatus on Venus to catch black market imperium has spared no expense, there's nothing else we can do!" Naxos protested.

"That does sound like something he would say, yeah," Kasios said darkly. "But I have to try! No matter what's actually going on here, it's an undeniable fact that we haven't found the raw imperium supply, and we've got no leads on it. That's definitely a big deal." With that, he continued marching over towards his office door across the room.

"You know you broke that tablet, right?" Naxos asked, twisting his head around so he could watch Kasios out of the corner of his eyes. Kasios froze, suddenly lifting the tablet up in front of him, spying the chaotic arrangement of cracks across the front screen of the device. "Come on, slow down, don't march over there right now." Naxos stood up.

"Of course I knew it was broken," Kasios muttered, looking a little put-out nevertheless.

"Let's just present something at the meeting tomorrow," Naxos suggested. "It'll give us some time to decide exactly how we want to present this."

"We? Us?" Kasios repeated, raising an eyebrow as he dismissively tossed the ruined tablet to the side. "I feel like you're using some words that you're not meaning to use."

"The way I see it, Kasios, you're going to need all the help you can get if you're actually going to try to convince Orion to put more resources into monitoring Venus," Naxos said wryly. "And if you happen to be right on this one, I'd like to get some credit."

Kasios sighed. "It just...bothers me. People want to act like the case is closed because we got Cronus, meanwhile there's a giant mountain of pure imperium still out there."

"Maybe," Naxos corrected. "You can't know that."

"It's only the entire galaxy depending on it," Kasios said. "Alright, we'll...we'll present my theory tomorrow. It's not as if we have any other leads on cleaning up Cronus's empire."

"

Queen Serenity winced, leaving her eyes closed for a bit longer than necessary, before slowly looking over to her right. Endymion was standing there, a folded-up sheet of paper in his right hand, held out towards her.

"Destroy this after you're done with it," Endymion said. "Just be sure you record everything."

After a brief pause, that seemed to imply some consideration of defying her husband, Serenity reached forward and took the paper.

"Vitally important that we don't lose track of where we're hiding our money," Endymion added. "I'm sure you know that."

The Queen was laying back in a reclined position on her bed, Endymion looming right next to her, his significant height on display as he towered over her. It was another typically quiet afternoon in the Earth Palace's main bedroom, a stark contrast to both the massive criminal empire that was spreading across the galaxy from it and the mental state of the Queen.

"Our parents will be coming by tonight for dinner, by the way," Endymion added, turning away after Serenity took the slip of paper. "I'm going to be trying to make dinner with my father a regular occurrence, three or four times a cycle, now that things have settled down. Up to you if you want to do the same with your mother." His words carried an air of cold professionalism that you wouldn't have expected for a conversation between a young married couple.

"Um, Endymion, what about...what about my mother?" Serenity blurted out as Endymion started to walk away from the bed. The High King slowly looked over his shoulder, casting his wife a condescending, confused glance.

"I mean, if you want your mother to have dinner here on a regular basis, you can—"

"No, no! That's not...sorry, let me back up," Serenity said, trying to sound friendly and cheerful, putting her open palms out towards her husband. "I meant, uh, Chibiusa. My mother loves her, it's mutual, really. They can't get enough of each other! W-what if, maybe, Chibiusa lived with my mother for awhile?"

Endymion's expression immediately became weary, a judgmental glare that instantly gave away his quick dismissal of the mere suggestion.

"I think they'd both like it," she continued, despite the inevitability of his reply. "And, I know...I know your opinion of this, but I...I'd feel better about it. I don't feel safe right now with her here. Just, as long as we're still doing all of this, she shouldn't be here!"

"What is wrong with you?" Endymion asked in what was halfway to a snarl. "I already told you, Chibiusa is safe. We're all safe. I'm not having my daughter grow up on another planet."

"My mother lives on the Moon!" Serenity said lamely, giving a half-hearted point up towards the ceiling. "Not that far away, we could see her every day if we wanted to! It's not even a big deal!"

"Serenity, our daughter is staying here, with her parents, who love her and know how to raise her better than anybody else. I don't want to have this conversation again," Endymion said firmly. "The only people I am currently in business with are Kunzite, Princess Venus, and Princess Mercury, so unless you suspect that one of them might want to hurt our daughter, you have nothing to be concerned about."

Obviously eager to end the discussion at that, Endymion quickly spun away and marched towards the nearby bedroom door, leaving Serenity to slowly close her eyes and tilt her head back.

She waited for the door to slam shut before opening her eyes again, twisting her head around to visually search the bedside table to her left. Immediately, she found it. A silver dagger with a golden hilt, studded with rubies, gifted to her by Princess Venus what felt like three lifetimes ago, was sitting in an iron display rack.

"

"You know, deep down, I wasn't really planning on giving up the throne until I really started feeling old," Kasios said, looking over at his son over the remnants of a course of duck meat with assorted vegetables. "I didn't want to say anything to you, I didn't know how you'd react, but I really didn't think I'd step down until after I felt like I physically and mentally couldn't do it anymore."

"Isn't that what happened?" the elder Serenity asked, seated to Kasios's right, rubbing a cloth napkin over her lip before placing it back in her lap.

"Not exactly, I...I just mean, I thought I'd be pushy sixty by the time I finally was ready to give it up. I just sort of imagined myself being the sort of person who had to be dragged kicking and screaming to retirement. But this really does feel right." He shook his head. "I had questions about you, I'll admit it, but...you're doing great."

"It hasn't even been a year yet," Endymion pointed out. "Plenty of time for me to mess things up."

The royal couple and their most recent predecessors were gathered around the cozy, yet still spacious circular glass table in a private dining room up on the second floor of the Earth Palace, specifically designed for small gatherings. Just right for four people and a multi-course dinner, the room's walls and ceiling were covered entirely by a mural of a colorful garden.

"I'm really happy I decided to just take the plunge," Kasios continued. "I could have easily just not said anything, ignored that nagging voice in the back of my head telling me to simplify my life and focus on the things most important to me. Probably had been ignoring it for years without even thinking about it, in a way, but...I finally wised up. And I think everyone's better off for it."

"Well, I'd like to think I'm doing okay so far," Endymion said lightly. "I wouldn't say I'm doing better than you."

Kasios shrugged. "I did almost bankrupt us not that long ago, so it's really not as high a bar as you're probably thinking."

"I have to admit, I was wrong too," the elder Serenity confessed, staring over at Endymion. "I had my doubts about you as a King, but...the crown suits you."

Endymion idly played with his fork for a moment. "It hasn't even been two years since that day on the Moon, when I announced our marriage." He glanced to his left, where Queen Serenity was sitting, choosing to stare at her half-eaten dinner instead of participating in the conversation. Not even two years, it's...unthinkable how much my life has changed in that short a time. The things that have happened since then, it feels more like two decades."

"And through it all, you've come out on top," Kasios said, reaching over and putting his hand on Endymion's right shoulder. "Thank you for proving yourself worthy of the throne. Without that, I wouldn't have been able to do this."

"You're quiet tonight, honey." The former Queen gave a slightly caustic look over towards her daughter. "Lot on your mind?"

"S-sure," Serenity answered. "There is."

"You know, now that I can focus all my attention on my agency work, I really feel like I might be able to finally nail this Tuxedo Mask case once and for all," Kasios continued.

"I thought Cronus was the head of that snake," Endymion said casually.

"Well, a snake doesn't store his venom in his head, does he?" Kasios said with a slightly animated tone. "It's the venom that's valuable, that's the stuff you want."

Endymion scratched the side of his head. "Actually, I'm pretty sure snakes store their venom in their head."

"Oh yeah?" Kasios asked. "Ah, well, anyway...we still don't have so much as an uncia of raw imperium to show for it. And I can't shake the feeling that someone is still out there, trying to rebuild with the scraps of what Cronus left behind. It's not over yet."

Endymion nodded. "Well, you're usually right about these hunches. The galaxy will certainly be a better place when you've closed that case."

"We should do dessert, anyone up for it?" Serenity suggested cheerfully, again glancing over towards her daughter. "Um, are you not...hungry?" She gave a mildly disapproving look at the remains of her daughter's dinner.

"Oh, just...not really in the mood for meat, dessert sounds good." Queen Serenity got to her feet. "I'll be right back, I'm just going to pop over and...use the facilities. Uh, when will dessert be here?"

"Oh, let's say...ten secundas?" Kasios suggested, Endymion taking the prompt to stand up as well and head towards the intercom hidden in the mural behind him.

"Okay, I...I will be back in ten secundas!" Serenity said, scampering off towards the door on the southern wall of the room, her mother giving her an odd look as she retreated.

"Hm," she mused as her daughter closed the door behind her on the way out. "I hate to even ask, Endymion, but—"

"Have the pie up here in ten secundas," Endymion said, leaning in towards the wall as his right hand's index finger pushed a small button nestled in among the pastel paints.

"Yes, Your Majesty," a tinny voice replied.

"What was that?" Endymion asked after turning back towards his mother-in-law.

"Um, her, I just...again, I don't like even discussing it, but she's not doing that thing where you, uh...you know, after you eat, you go...you know, lose it?" she asked, scratching her right temple and looking visibly uncomfortable.

"Oh, no, you don't have to worry about that," Endymion said easily. "Trust me, nine times out of ten, there'd be nothing left on that plate." He indicated Serenity's placemat.

The elder Serenity swallowed down hard. "Endymion, I...I'm sure she wouldn't be able to completely hide what she's doing if she's actually doing it, so I'm just going to ask." She cleared her throat. "Do you get the sense that she's doing anything to set up a coronation party?"

Endymion spun himself back into his seat at the small table. "Not really, no. I'm not really expecting much of anything to happen there, honestly, might just let it go without doing an actual party."

Serenity grimaced. "You know, I told her! I told her not that long ago, she needs to put something together, she didn't seem to understand how big a deal it was!"

"I'm not too worried about it," Endymion said quietly. "To tell the truth, we've been...having some problems lately. N-nothing too bad, but I don't think she's much in the mood to be doing something like that for me."

"Well, whatever it is, it shouldn't be bad enough for her to just ignore an event of this magnitude!" Serenity said. "I'm...I'm sorry if that's the case, Endymion. She should be able to put things like that to the side for a little bit and realize how big a deal this is."

"Hey, maybe we should do it," Kasios suggested, looking over at the former Queen. "Endymion shouldn't have to plan his own party, let's put it together. Needs to happen quickly, or the moment will be gone."

Serenity nodded. "I...I'll nudge her again first, she really should be the one handling it."

"

Queen Serenity leaned up against the lavatory's door, pressing her ear to the wooden surface, listening carefully. Just down the hall from the private dining chamber where her husband and parents were no doubt conversing about her odd behavior, Serenity was counting down beats in her head.

Twenty-four beats to a secunda, about four secundas had passed since she had left, meaning dessert would be arriving in about a hundred and fifty beats, at which point they'd start wondering why she hadn't returned yet. She shuddered a bit, her brain still fighting to convince her to back out before it was too late and simply head back to the dining room. But somehow, even though that was still a viable option at this point, she felt as if momentum had built up to the point where this was the only way forward.

She quickly walked over to the towel cabinet by the sink basin, opening the hinged door to expose a stack of pristine white towels. She lifted all of them up, exposing a hidden item underneath. The silver and gold dagger. Feeling slightly nauseous, she picked it up by the hilt, watching the light reflect off the blade as she tilted it around.

Replacing the towels and closing the cabinet door, she returned to the door, again pressing her head to it so she could listen. She had maybe five secundas before someone would come looking for her.

"

"Where is that girl?" Serenity wondered aloud as the floating silver tray was pushed into the room by a middle-aged female in palace uniform. "What's taking her so long?"

"She should just be down the hall," Endymion pointed out, standing up as the tray was wheeled up to the table. "I'll go check on her."

"No, no, you stay, I'll go," Serenity said, quickly maneuvering around the waitress and purposefully marching out of the room.

Just as the former Queen turned the corner out into the hallway, the waitress pulled the silver lid off the top of the tray, exposing a large, golden-brown pie, revealed from a puff of rising steam.

"Oh yes, there we go," Kasios said, rubbing his hands together. "Anyway, son, Seiya and his crew, make sure you cozy up with them. Their technology is going to be key in order to quickly turn the results of the deep space program into actual goods and resources."

"Oh, trust me, Seiya's my new best friend," Endymion said with a smile. "If anything, we—"

A shrill, sudden shriek killed the conversation in an instant, both men immediately falling silent and turning their attentions to the open door leading out into the Earth Palace hallway. The waitress, who was just about to start cutting the pie up into portions, also stayed her blade just a finger-length before cutting into the dough.

The High King stood up and immediately bolted for the door, practically sliding out into the hallway, looking over to his left. His mother-in-law was standing a couple dozen paces down, looking through the lavatory door on the left side, hand clasped over her mouth in shock.

"

Serenity was frozen in place, eyes as wide as the full moon. Right in front of her, clearly visible beyond any ability to deny it, was her daughter, back turned to her, head twisted around over her shoulder to look back at her with a shocked expression of her own. She was holding a fancy, decorative, yet clearly functional dagger in her right hand, the sharp edge coated with blood. And her left wrist, held up in a way that displayed it right to her mother, was a bloody horizontal cut, streaks of the sickening red substance running down her forearm towards her elbow.

The two stared at each other for several beats, the elder one not even reacting to the series of rapid-fire footsteps down the hall to her left. And then, eyelids fluttering, the Queen's body crumpled, going into a dead faint.

Her mother was snapped out of her thunderstruck state and dived forward towards her daughter, hands out, trying to catch her head before it hit the tiled floor. She managed to prevent the worst of impact with the ground, awkwardly catching her enough to slow her fall, the razor-sharp blade clattering against the tiles loudly as it slipped from the Queen's hand and bounced away.

Blood started to spread along the white gaps between the floor tiles just as Endymion braked to a stop right in front of the door, mouth dropping wide at the macabre sight in front of him. Much quicker than Serenity had, however, he shook it off and dashed inside to help.

"

"Obviously, I have a little familiarity with this sort of thing," Kasios said somberly, tightly clenching his arms over his chest and leaning up against the wall right next to his son. "But it was such a...gradual thing with her, not like this. She didn't go straight from acting completely normal to attempting suicide just like that."

"I don't think it's particularly comparable to your late wife, Your Highness," Dennis stated, standing at attention in front of the current and former High Kings, the three men standing just outside the Earth Palace's royal bedroom. "Serenity's far more in control of her actions and aware of things."

Endymion just stood there, leaning up against the wall, head bowed and expression unreadable, the remnants of stress wrinkles on his forehead just barely visible.

"I'm sure walking into a scene like that was shocking," Dennis continued, turning towards Endymion. "But if it's any consolation, Your Highness, your wife was almost certainly not in any real danger."

Endymion looked skeptical of that claim. "Tell that to the blood all over the floor."

"D-don't get me wrong, Your Highness, it's difficult to know what else she might have gotten up to if left alone for even a few more secundas," Dennis added with alarmed quickness. "We are quite fortunate that she was found so quickly, but...she actually chose one of the least effective methods of suicides."

Endymion glanced up. "You don't say?"

Dennis raised his hands up in front of him, then dragged his right index finger across his left wrist. "Contrary to popular belief, going across the wrist like that really isn't effective at doing anything except drawing blood." He mimed stabbing a knife into his forearm and dragging it down towards his hand. "Much more likely to work if you go down the arm."

"Hm," Endymion said. "Doubt I'll ever need to know any of this, but...I suppose you learn something new every day."

"S-sorry, Your Highness," Dennis said.

"No, no, go on," Endymion said, unfurling his arms and twisting his head to the right to look at his bedroom door. "This might actually be important for me to know if this becomes a recurring trend with her."

"Her cut wasn't nearly deep enough anyway," Dennis explained. "I can't yet speak to her mentality, she may very well have wanted to succeed, but...she never had much of a chance like that."

"Keep this inside the palace," Endymion said, looking over at the head palace doctor. "I'm sure I don't have to say this, but I don't want the media picking this up."

Dennis nodded. "Of course, Your Majesty. In any case, she seems fine now. We'll have Diogenes do a psychiatric evaluation of her tomorrow, try to get to the bottom of it. In the meantime, try to keep an eye on her. I doubt she'll make another attempt, but it can't be ruled out."

The bedroom door slowly pushed open, the elder Serenity sliding out of the room the moment it was open enough for her to squeeze out. Endymion, Kasios, and Dennis all looked at her as she emerged, the events of the night clearly showing a heavy toll on her face.

"She's really tired," Serenity said in a low voice, delicately clicking the door shut behind her.

"Did she say anything about why?" Kasios asked, crowding up close to the former Queen, hands on his hips. "Maybe she'd say something to you that she wouldn't say to a doctor."

Serenity shook her head. "No, I...I couldn't get much out of her, really. She seemed...I didn't get the sense that she was out of her mind or anything." She shrugged.

"Diogenes will get to the bottom of it," Dennis said. "She might not even really understand it herself."

Endymion looked up over his father's shoulder as his mother-in-law. "If you want to stay here for a few days while we try to figure this out, you're more than welcome to. I can understand you might be concerned about this."

"Oh, I...no, actually, I can't," Serenity said softly. "She asked me to do something, I can't...I can't stay here. She asked me to take Chibiusa up to the Moon Palace."

Endymion's body shuddered a bit, and he immediately glanced over at the bedroom door, suspicions raised. "She did?"

"Yes, well...I think it's probably a good idea. Clearly, she's going through something, she doesn't want her young daughter around." Serenity nodded. "E-even having her in the palace right now, it...it might not be good for her. Until we figure this out and resolve it, it seems like it might be a good idea to have her stay with me."

The High King nodded. "Well, I suppose so. Just take a few of the midwives with you to help, Chibiusa is really familiar with all of them." He blinked a couple times. "Did...did she suggest it?"

"Y-yes," Serenity replied. "She did, she brought it up. But I think it's a good idea."

Endymion nodded. "Sorry about tonight, you two, this isn't what I wanted at all." He slid back towards the door, grabbing the knob.

"Ah, no, it's not your fault, not at all," Kasios said quickly. "Don't worry about it, son."

"If I wasn't here, it might have been a lot worse," Serenity pointed out, nevertheless looking highly distressed even having put some significant time between her discovery and now.

"I'll go be with her," Endymion said, slowly starting to turn the doorknob. "Uh, see you all soon."

Before anyone could bring up anything else, Endymion pulled the door open as quietly as he could manage, sneaking inside his room with a wave towards his parents and the palace doctor.

The royal bedroom was dimmed significantly for the benefit of the presumably-unwell Queen, all the lights either off or muted. Serenity was tucked in underneath the bed sheets, eyes closed and head resting on the pillows. The moment Endymion closed the door, he walked over to the bed, his approach making just enough noise to catch his wife's attention. She opened her eyes and tilted her head slightly to look at him.

"Dennis didn't think much of your techniques," Endymion said, sounding almost amused, a tone which he was able to convey even in the hushed tones he spoke in. "More or less thought it was the least effective way to try to kill yourself." He stood right at the side of the bed, looking down at her prone, mostly-hidden figure.

"I'll try to do better next time," Serenity said in what was barely above a mumble.

"Oh, come on, you already fooled the person you actually needed to fool, you don't need to fool me," Endymion said, propping his right knee up on the edge of the bed. "You knew."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Serenity said, turning away from him.

"Don't worry, your mother doesn't suspect a thing, probably still too shocked to even think about questioning it," Endymion said. "But come on. You go to the lavatory for ten secundas, and you've just barely made your first cut? You had enough time in there to do way more than that. You were timing the whole thing. And what was a knife doing in there?"

"Sorry that my attempted suicide doesn't meet your standards," Serenity said tersely. "Again, I'll put more effort into my next try."

"Lots of grief you put everyone through tonight," Endymion continued. "And all to get her out of the palace for a few days. Well, when she's back here, being raised and cared for by her parents, before the end of the cycle, let me know if you think it was worth it."

"She's not coming back," Serenity deadpanned. "Not until we're done with this."

Endymion sighed, turning away from her and sitting down on the edge of the bed. "You know, I can't decide if I should be furious or impressed. You did all of that just to get what you wanted. Sure, you didn't spend very much time thinking it through, and your little act was filled with holes, but...I didn't think you'd be capable of even that much."

Serenity rose up a bit, pushing the sheets up off of her body as she sat up to look at the back of her husband. "She deserves better," she said firmly. "Chibiusa deserves better than us."

Getting frustrated now, Endymion twisted around to face her. "Can you actually tell me what Chibiusa is exactly in danger of here? Please, really, give me one actual example. Are you afraid of Princess Venus coming here and hurting her? Because to be perfectly honest, you're closer with her than I am, so if there's something you know about her, now's the time to share!"

"It's not even the danger, Endymion, you don't get it!" Serenity said, pulling herself out from underneath the sheets, getting her hackles raised. "She deserves better than to live here, with us. Here, where people just...kill people, and don't even give it a second thought, just shrug it off."

Endymion groaned. "Serenity, we've been over this."

"She's still clean. She deserves a chance to stay that way," Serenity continued.

"And I suppose you're clean?!" Endymion snapped, twisting back up into a standing position. "I suppose you're the one fit to make that judgement?!"

Serenity looked incredulous. "Of course not. I...I'm not. I'm not any better than you. Look at me, I...I was out, I had everything I wanted, and I came back, I came back to help you! I can't stop you, I can't stop helping launder your money, of course I'm no better than you. I'm just as dirty as you. I've known about this for over a year, and I haven't even turned you in. But Chibiusa, she shouldn't be here. Shouldn't be exposed to any of this."

"Well, Serenity, you'll be happy to know that you've spared her that 'exposure' for a few days, but what then?" he asked, putting his arms out to his sides. "You're going to be evaluated by a doctor starting tomorrow, and the moment he concludes there's nothing wrong with you, which there isn't, Chibiusa is coming back."

"It's not healthy for a child to be around her parents when they're fighting all the time," Serenity suggested. "If my mother thinks we're not getting along, she won't want to send Chibiusa back here."

Endymion rolled his eyes. "Is that the best you can do? That won't cut it, and you know it! We are her parents, Serenity, we should be the ones raising her. And your mother knows that."

"Then maybe your doctor won't conclude there's nothing wrong with me," Serenity suggested, voice monotone and flat. "Maybe he finds there is something wrong with me. I can always hurt myself again, don't think I won't."

Endymion practically snarled, turning away from her. "Then maybe I just get you locked up and put under monitoring on the other side of the palace, and see to Chibiusa's care myself! Serenity, you're not winning this! You go to war with me over my own daughter, you try to take her from me, you're going to lose!" He got to his feet in a huff. "Come to terms with that, or come up with a better plan."

"

The steel and glass double doors slid back into the walls on either side, allowing just shy of a dozen people to filter out in a messy clump, out into the artificial and metallic hallway. Among this collection of individuals was Kasios, who was visibly not happy at the moment. Naxos was following close behind, both of them looking to take the first opportunity to break off from the herd.

"If it makes you feel any better, I don't think you did anything wrong in there," Naxos said the moment the two managed to split off into a side hallway, both of them briskly moving away from their fellow High Council members.

"It doesn't," Kasios replied darkly. "Not one bit."

"You made good arguments. I think some of the stuff you said hit home with Grandmaster Orion," Naxos continued.

"Well, that's wonderful," Kasios said bitterly. "Meanwhile, if I happen to be right on this, this Tuxedo Mask, or whoever, just has free reign to sell on Venus for the rest of eternity, and we're not even going to try to stop him!"

"Alright, alright," Naxos said, putting his hand on Kasios's shoulder, stopping him in the middle of a short hallway leading up to an elevator. "Hold on. We both knew that getting Grandmaster Orion to invest more resources into monitoring Venus was unlikely. So, last night, I did think of another idea."

Kasios turned to look at Naxos, then pointed down the hallway from where they had just come. "Well, I think your moment to bring up this idea was five secundas ago, inside that meeting room."

"No, nothing with the agency, this won't even involve them, you should be able to do this by yourself," Naxos said. "Come on." He jerked his head towards the elevator down the hall, then took off towards it.

"What do you got?" Kasios asked.

"I was just thinking about this guy, Tuxedo Mask. Obviously, when he was working with Cronus, that's how he was getting all of his materials. Galen Laboratories would just send out an order form, there'd be no questions asked, of course Galen needs chemicals of every shape and size in order to produce pharmaceuticals. But how is he getting those chemicals now, without Cronus?"

"Most of them wouldn't be too hard to get," Kasios said, the two adults stepping into the open elevator, Naxos pressing the button to send the carriage zooming towards Kasios's office aboard The Savery.

"What about boron crystal fluid?" Naxos asked. "We know he has to be using that, and you can't really just buy that anywhere. Unless he's harvesting his own boron crystals, he's probably getting it from a chemical warehouse."

"Sure. I don't see how that helps. Unless you want to spend the next ten years investigating every chemical warehouse in the galaxy in the hopes that one of them was stupid enough to not cover their tracks on inventory manifests." Kasios crossed his arms over his chest, still clearly somewhat smarting over being denied an investigation on Venus.

"You were High King until not that long ago," Naxos pointed out. "I imagine you've still got some pull with the big chemical plants. Taka Industries, SpoChem, Okwara Storage. They probably at least have some healthy respect for you."

"I hope so," Kasios said darkly. "What are you suggesting?"

"As long as you're willing to fund it personally, maybe they'll allow us to monitor their boron fluid supply," Naxos answered. "Beyond their inventory lists. If we can find out where this guy is getting his materials from now, maybe we'll be able to get a real lead."

Kasios thought for a moment. "I got some money saved up, I think."

"I hope you do," Naxos said dryly. "I've seen that retirement house on Mercury, something tells me that wasn't free."

"Alright, I'll...I'll make some calls," Kasios said, quickly looking far more eased than he had been a moment before. "That's...that's a good idea, Naxos. Thank you."