Chapter 55: The Prisoner's Dilemma
A/N: Well that was the longest delay yet. Sorry everyone, a lot has been happening in my personal life (most of it positive, however) and it's just been taking up time. Going to really try to speed things up in August since a few things have been cleared, but only time will tell.
"
Magellan Castle still managed to radiate the necessary sophistication and style that a royal's abode needed to, despite the rather difficult times the planet had fallen into financially. There was a certain standard that any respectable palace had to maintain in order to be taken seriously, and the Venus royal family was nothing if not aware of their public perception and how to present themselves.
Still large and majestic, carrying with it a powerful aura of mysticism, Magellan still demanded the respect of the rest of the universe. Just looking at it, you never would have been able to guess that the Kingdom was in decline, or that the relationships between those who currently lived inside was quite rocky.
Up in the northern wing of the structure, Princess Venus was in her private quarters, sitting on a chair in the middle of the room, bouncing a small rubber ball down hard against the floor, angling it so it hit the far wall, and arced up through the air back towards her. Each time, she caught the ball, only to throw it again, an almost hypnotic pattern of little thuds sounding off at regular intervals from the impact of the ball.
A rather banal game to play for a Princess, perhaps, but Venus had found her capacity to truly enjoy herself within the confines of Magellan Castle to be more and more limited as she got older. Something this mindless was about the best she could manage unless she was forcing herself to pretend. Being more and more aware of the state of her Kingdom, how her parents viewed her, and what it meant for her future just had a way of really gnawing at her, particularly when she was here. Of course, she dared not spend all of her time elsewhere, as the last thing she needed was to raise suspicions.
Just as she had worked herself into a rhythm, she suddenly stopped, turning her head to the right as she caught the ball in her hand, listening intently. Quickly, her gaze was affixed to the door out into the main hallway of the castle, barely detectable sounds of disturbances outside. To virtually anyone else in the universe, or in virtually any other domicile in the universe, it would have been beneath notice, but Princess Venus's senses were heightened due to a combination of genetics and training, and she also knew that there was no reason for anything to be out of the ordinary outside her room right now. There shouldn't be any disturbances right now, and after nearly two decades living here, she knew that for a fact.
Thinking quickly, she dragged her feet back underneath her chair, slipping them into the orange flats she had discarded there. With a whirl of her right arm, she whipped the rubber ball towards her door with as much strength as she could muster. The ball generated a significant noise on impact, even managing to shake the heavy piece of wood a bit.
She gave herself only a beat to listen, hearing the faint exclamations of surprise from multiple people who were clearly gathered right outside her door, before leaping to her feet. She had no time to consider the details of what might be happening, and with a series of rapid strides, was across the room, over towards the corner of the room that functioned as a boudoir, busy-looking furniture around a massive fireplace.
As she slid on her knees into the mouth of the fireplace, she heard the door be violently slammed open behind her. She knew better than to take even the tiny amount of time and focus that she would need to turn around and look, pressing her fists hard into two of the light red bricks near the floor. A segment of the brick barrier slid back, and she wasted no time before slipping into the hidden shaft.
"Stop her!" The array of heavy footfalls behind her made it clear that her suspicions were founded. As quickly as she had disappeared into the shaft, she moved the brick panel back into place. Even if they were able to open it behind her, none of them had a chance at moving as fast as her. Working on pure muscle memory owing to the pitch-blackness of the shaft, she rapidly slid downward on a steel ladder.
"
"Does anyone know where this goes?!" one of the palace guards asked loudly, pointing at the just-closed panel. "Where does this come out?!" He bent down and ducked into the fireplace, forcibly ramming the butt of his slim black rifle against the bricks, hoping to dislodge the panel.
"Only the King or Queen would know." The room now played host to half a dozen of the Magellan Castle guards, each bearing a black plasma rifle and spreading out warily in order to quickly take stock of what they might be up against. The sentry closest to the door turned around, looking through the threshold where a further-half dozen guards were standing just outside in the hallway. "Pass it along!"
The sentry closest to the Princess's bedroom door grabbed his collar, pulling it up slightly towards his mouth. "She got out, a hidden space behind the fireplace!"
"
"Your Highness, where does that lead?"
King Venus winced, slapping his palm down on the metallic surface of the console in front of him. He and the Queen were both inside a monitoring room, a simple four-walled chamber with one of the walls being covered in a grid of monitors. The royal couple was focused on one particular screen, which was showing the hallway right outside their daughter's room.
"How the hell did you idiots let her get to the fireplace?!" the Queen yelled. "What happened to luring her?!"
"She was already running before we even opened the door, we had to rush in!" the palace guard replied through the crystal-clear audio connection.
"That...that shaft can go anywhere!" The King answered. "It has more than ten possible exit points, maybe...maybe more."
"What do you mean, maybe?!" Queen Venus rounded on her husband, who cowered away a couple steps. "This is your castle, isn't it?!"
"U-uh…" the King averted his gaze.
She scoffed, then turned back to the screen. "Close down the whole palace! Nobody in or out!" She shook her head. "Morons!"
The King sighed, stepping over towards the console in front of the monitor array and pressing his finger down on a black button along the right side. "Um, Grandmaster Orion?"
"Yes, I can hear you," the head of the agency replied through the just-opened connection. "I trust she's now in your custody?"
"Mmm, well...she's contained inside Magellan Castle," the King said uneasily. "We've had a little problem, but everything's under control."
Orion sighed. "Your Highness, problems are what I was hoping to avoid when I asked you to let your guards handle the arrest."
"I'm not...not entirely sure what happened, she slipped away, but she'll be apprehended any moment now!" the King assured. "She won't be able to get out of the palace, so...it's just a matter of time!"
"Hmmm...well, the Galactic Imperium Agency appreciates your cooperation, as always, Your Majesty," Orion replied, sounding less than convinced. "I just want to reiterate that the accusations against Princess Venus are quite severe, and bringing her into agency custody is of utmost importance."
"And she will be in agency custody shortly," King Venus said. "Believe me, I have no intention of breaking with my relationship with the agency for any reason. I take your accusations against my daughter seriously."
"Well, I'll be in contact in ten secundas or so, I hope this will have been resolved by then." The audio feed cut off, King Venus withdrawing his finger.
"I always knew it'd end like this with her!" Queen Venus snapped to nobody in particular, eyes glued to the screen showing the hallway right outside her daughter's bedroom. "Of course, I didn't imagine it'd be this extreme, but...wish I could have done something before it got out of hand!"
"Unbelievable," the King muttered, twisting his head all around the wall of monitors, watching as the palace guards were all alerted of the situation, and began bustling all about in an attempt to search for the runaway Princess. "Hundreds of imperium dealers, maybe thousands, working under her? How long has this been going on?!"
"Clearly, we weren't strict enough on her!" Queen Venus spat. The aged beauty reached forward, hitting a black button along the side of the console, right next to the one her husband had just been utilizing. "I want her found, now!"
"T-they're doing their best," King Venus said meekly.
The Queen spun around and pointed an emphatic finger towards the exit door behind them. "You need to be out there, telling the guards where the hidden shaft's exits are! Move it!"
"I-I don't...I don't even...well, some of them—"
"Go!" The Queen demanded, enough to get her husband to scurry out of the room.
"
"You know, after we dug up Cronus's scheme, I really didn't think I'd be able to get my excitement level up for any more busts. But this is a beautiful sight."
Naxos almost looked proud, standing on the sidewalk, hands on his hips, observing the large hovering vehicle parked along the side of the road. A silver craft perhaps a dozen paces in length, glass panes running along both sides to allow for an easy view inside, a majority of the inside seats were filled with passengers, silently pondering their suddenly bleak futures. A pair of uniformed lawmen were escorting a middle-aged woman up the ramp into the craft, also assisted in the act by a pair of metal cuffs around her wrists, fastened to each other by a pink band of energy.
"Ah, it's not like anyone you're picking up over there knows anything we care about," Kasios buzzed into Naxos's ear, the tiny little plug feeding a flawless audio feed to the high council member.
"It's criminals off the street, Kasios," Naxos countered, turning to glance over his shoulder as the doors to the prison facility behind him opened up to reveal another pair of lawmen, these ones escorting a restrained teenage male out towards the hovering vehicle. "Criminals off the streets of Venus, Kasios, when exactly are you going to start gloating about that? An entire network of imperium dealers working on Venus, you were the only one who suspected a thing!"
"Hey, believe me, I'm thrilled," Kasios acknowledged. "It's probably a lot more fun down there though, picking up dealers like you're scooping up rice. You have no idea how close we were to nabbing Princess Venus, that would have been the real prize."
Naxos sighed, passively watching as the teenager gave a futile struggle before being pushed into the vessel by the two lawmen. "You know, I never trusted her. I didn't want to say anything, since I know how'd it look, but...why would a woman like that want to join the high council? I didn't buy it."
"Ahh, maybe we were a little too eager to get a future Queen on the council," Kasios suggested. "Well, I guess we shouldn't assume her guilt yet."
"She pretty much ran away, so I feel pretty comfortable making some bold assumptions," Naxos replied, glancing down the street, at the large crowd of onlookers gathered behind a cordon, watching the procession of prisoners be herded. "And let's face it, it makes sense, how else could a distribution network operate on Venus?"
"Maybe everything's just a big old misunderstanding, and the Princess has a perfectly valid excuse for it all," Kasios said tiredly, a laugh hanging at the end of the statement to make it clear he didn't find it to be especially likely. "You coming back up to The Savery?"
"Yeah, this transport's almost loaded, I'll be coming up with the prisoners," Naxos answered.
"You really want to share a ship with hundreds of criminals? Sounds like the start of a movie, be careful in there."
"I'll be fine," Naxos assured him. "Just make sure The Savery is ready to receive everyone. And hey, cheer up. Remember, we got all her lieutenants. That's worth something."
"Yeah, The Angels, or whatever stupid thing they were called," Kasios agreed. "If we're lucky, they might even be able to cough up meaningful information on Tuxedo Mask. Stay safe."
The audio connection was cut off, a dull tone quickly giving way to silence, as Naxos turned his full attention back to the convoy of imperium dealers being forced into the transport.
"
Endymion rapidly paced back and forth, spinning around a full half-circle every few steps, moving with such manic energy merely watching him was a tiring endeavor. Kunzite, however, was doing so dutifully, eyes skating back and forth to keep up with him from his seat at the foot of his bed.
"After all of her antics, of course she's the one who would find a way to ruin it all!" The High King grunted. "Doesn't she realize that we're affected by this?! What is taking her so long?!"
"Your Highness, please, calm down," Kunzite urged. "She got away. We know that. The agency could never arrest or kill her and cover it up, so she must have gotten away." He glanced over at a white communicator disc on his bedside table. "I'm sure she'll remember, we discussed this possibility more than once. I told her, if anything happened and she was on the run, she could call this communicator. She wouldn't forget that."
"Oh, yes, she got away, obviously that's the only concern here! It's not as if—"
The communicator started vibrating back and forth, immediately halting the High King's diatribe. Kunzite leaned over, grabbing the disc, considering it cautiously.
"Make sure it's actually her," Endymion warned.
"Nobody else has this frequency," Kunzite assured him, nevertheless taking a moment to settle himself before stamping his thumb down on the center of the disc. "May I have one of those, madam?"
Endymion gave his general a bit of a curious look as the two waited for a response from the other side of the newly-opened connection.
"You might find them too salty, your Lordship," Princess Venus's reply came, a mild buzz in the audio that belied a flawed connection. Kunzite gave Endymion a terse little nod. "I assume nothing's happened on your end yet?"
"Forget our end, what the hell happened?!" Endymion demanded, bending over towards the disc.
"Oh, you," Venus said, immediately sounding rather put-out.
"Of course it's me, as if what happened today doesn't affect me?!" Endymion snapped. "You do realize that, right?"
"
Princess Venus cast a tired look around her. A half-dozen basic, hut-like structures surrounded her, with wide concrete paths splaying out in four directions, off into the distance, cutting across long, barren desert landscapes. A row of communicator stations were set up at the corner of the four-way, Venus standing in the third stall.
Her typically long mane of hair was tucked up in a large bulbous hat, doing nothing to flatter her, although it did serve to make sure she looked nothing like the Princess who was currently the most wanted person in the galaxy. Her similarly-forgettable long jacket was nothing like the fashions she had grown so accustomed to on Venus, but to the sparse population of the tiny supply outpost she had found herself in, it would allow her to be beneath suspicion.
"Not as much as it's affected me," Venus assured him with a resigned tone to her voice.
"Where are you?" Kunzite asked, the connection just a tad rough and unclear on her side as well.
"Somewhere far away, I better not say any more," she explained. "Luckily, I was in the palace when they came for me. I was able to slip away."
"...well, what happened?" Endymion demanded. "Do you have any idea how many of your dealers just got shipped up to The Savery? The agency basically sent a force large enough to invade the planet!"
The Princess sighed, leaning her forehead up against the side of the stall wall. "Aphrodite got busted. Somehow, I don't know, my Angels are supposed to be well-insulated from the actual ground operation, but...they managed to pin something big on her." She glanced around again, re-confirming that nobody was observing her from any of the nearby structures. "And she rolled over!" she admitted grimly. "Coughed up an entire segment of the distribution network, all the other Angels, and me in exchange for immunity."
"Wonderful organization you've got over there," Endymion grunted. "Who else made it out with you?"
"Nobody," Venus answered. "I barely got away. As far as I know, everyone else who Aphrodite handed over is either on The Savery or headed there."
"You sound awfully calm!" Endymion accused.
"
"We've been sitting here all day, trying to decide if we should be jumping on the first flight to Jupiter to go hide out on the artificial plant farms!" Endymion was leaning over Kunzite's body, mouth practically biting down on the disc in Kunzite's hands, he was so close to it. "You were careless, and it's about to cost us everything, you realize that?!"
"I prepared for this possibility," Venus grunted. "This might be new information to you, but it's generally accepted that being caught by the authorities is a realistic possibility when someone does things that are unlawful."
Endymion slowly pulled back a bit from Kunzite, still visibly fuming. Kunzite straightened himself up a bit. "Your Highness, what now?"
"First, you can stop calling me that," Venus answered wryly. "I'm not a royal anymore. My parents will have removed me from the line of succession by now, I'm sure."
Kunzite's cheek twitched. "S-so, that's it, then?"
"If there's another way, I'd love to hear it," Venus said bitterly. "If the agency's smart, they'll be able to scoop up the rest of my dealers in the next few cycles just from rattling cages. And the rest of my underground resistance will probably be rooted out along with it. It's over."
"It's over for you, maybe," Endymion snarled. "Your...your angels know about me! They're in agency custody, what do you think happens next?! Did you plan for that?!" He again resumed rapidly pacing back and forth.
"Yes, actually," Venus answered.
"
The just-deposed Princess rapidly tapped her fingertips on top of the stall, self-consciously tugging at the front of her jacket. "Don't worry, you're going to find yet another way to evade all consequences for your actions. The streak is alive."
"Walk me through that, why don't you?" Endymion ordered. "Aprodite gave up your entire operation in exchange for avoiding prison, which means your remaining...angels only have one worthwhile card to play. Me!"
"They know how this works, same as everyone else," Venus explained. "They go to prison, they keep quiet as long as their financial commitments are fulfilled outside. We hold up our end, and trust them to hold up theirs."
She could almost hear Endymion's face turning a darker shade of red through the long-distance connection. While waiting for the inevitable argument, she turned around, spotting a middle-aged woman emerging from the north-most building, and giving her a quick smile before turning away.
"So, I'm left to assume that, for some reason, you didn't have this arrangement with Aphrodite?" Endymion questioned sharply.
"Of course I did." Venus paused, feeling her own momentary flash of anger at being betrayed by someone she trusted. "She flipped regardless. P-perhaps she acted out of fear, or decided that it wasn't worth a life in a cell on The Savery. These things happen sometimes."
"So, you lose everything because you were depending on buying the silence of your imprisoned lieutenant, and now you expect us to make the same bet?"
"
The High King had now snatched the disc out of Kunzite's hands, holding it up right beneath his chin. "I don't know if you realize this, Venus, but your entire operation has been an abject mess and failure. If you want to tie yourself to it and let it pull you down to the bottom, that's your business, but I've survived in this world by not leaving things up to chance."
"I wish I could laugh at that," Venus said haughtily. "This is how things are done, buddy. Just because it doesn't work every time doesn't mean there's any better way."
"Most criminals get caught," Endymion spat back. "Maybe things like this are why."
"There's no other way," Venus countered, the connection buzzing for a moment before restoring back to acceptable quality. "It's not like we'll be able to do anything to get them off. Paying them off is the only way."
Endymion rubbed at his face, grimacing. "Venus, if you're not willing to do what needs to be done, then I'm more than happy to. Trust me, your lieutenants knew the risks when they got involved."
"I appreciate that, but you won't be doing anything," Venus retorted. "I forbid it. Those are my confidants, and I trust them."
"And that's worked out so well for you, hasn't it?!" Endymion hissed, sitting down heavily on the bed next to Kunzite, face twisted in a rather ugly expression.
"I'm not having this discussion with you. And you don't even know their real identities, so you can't do anything about it."
"
"I don't want to have this connection open too long, so let's get to next steps," she said. "Are you still there?" Venus threw yet another paranoid glance all around her, checking every direction.
"Y-yes, Your Highness," Kunzite said cautiously.
"Enough of that, I'm not a royal any more," Venus said, managing to sound slightly more matter-of-fact this time. "I didn't have time to grab very much, all I have is what happened to be on my ship at the time. My plan is to disappear somewhere on Neptune or Jupiter and live out my life in seclusion, but I'm going to need a severance package. It's going to be expensive to disappear for half a century."
"What do you need?" Kunzite asked.
"One billion creds," she answered. "I'll be arranging for my angels to be paid off with that money as well, so you two won't have to concern yourself with that."
"
Kunzite glanced over towards the High King nervously, who was still hunched over, scowling deeply. After several beats, however, he gave a jerking nod.
"We can do that," Kunzite answered.
"I'll be calling this frequency some time in the next few days with a location where we can meet. It'll be at least two days for me to scope out a good meeting place. Get me the money, and you'll never see or have to worry about me again." She cleared her throat. "Next time you hear me calling in, please listen carefully, I might not want the line open for more than a few beats."
"I'll be listening for your call," Kunzite said. "And I'm sorry things went this way. You worked very hard to give yourself this opportunity, it's tragic that you won't be able to see it through."
"I always understood this was a possible outcome," Venus answered quickly. "I have to go."
The moment the connection ended, Endymion rocketed up to his feet, unconcealed disgust on his face. "You need to talk to her! She's hanging us both out to dry!"
"Your Highness, what, exactly, do you have in mind as an alternate solution for Venus's angels?" Kunzite asked, drawing a derisive snort from the High King.
"Oh, don't even play innocent with me, Kunzite, you and I both know there's only one way to handle this situation safely," Endymion said, a hint of hostility in his voice. "Four young women facing life in prison, and I'm the only card they can play, every single secunda they still draw breath is an unacceptable risk." He pointed at Kunzite sternly. "She doesn't have to like it, but before we go our separate ways, she needs to tell us what we need to know so we can silence them!"
"She'll never agree to that," Kunzite said. "Even if it's me, you know she won't condemn her lieutenants to death after they've been serving her loyally for years."
Endymion's nostrils flared, clearly wanting to protest this fact to his general, but quickly realizing that he was almost certainly correct. "So, what do we do?"
Kunzite sighed. "Obviously, the names we've known them by are pseudonyms, I've always suspected as much. The agency isn't going to just publish any more information than they have to, so locating them within The Savery is going to be difficult, much less attempting to have them killed."
"Even on her way out, she inconveniences us at every turn," Endymion said bitterly. "And she has the nerve to try to tell me how things should be done in the criminal underworld."
"She does have a point," Kunzite offered up lamely. "Paying off imprisoned collaborators is typically what is done in these situations. And it works most of the time."
"Not when the person in jail is facing a life sentence!" Endymion pointed out. "No, you...you need to make her understand. She's no longer a part of the decision-making in this operation, she lost that right."
"We should be careful, Your Highness," Kunzite warned, looking slightly intimidated by his charge. "She has nothing to lose anymore, and is capable of taking us down with her if she wants to."
Endymion's eyes flashed, but quickly reverted to normal as if he had forced himself to swallow down a budding seed of anger. "She'll get her money," he said, words fraught with tension nevertheless. "I'll pay her off, she...she's entitled to that," he admitted. "And it's in everyone's best interest that she's able to successfully disappear. But her lieutenants have to be taken out before they can flip. And if she's not willing to assist us in doing that, then I need to know that I have your full cooperation in finding another way."
"Of course, Your Highness." Kunzite got to his feet, standing straight up and squaring up towards Endymion. "My concern is, and always will be, your interests. Not anyone else's."
Endymion gave a hurried nod.
"Just, understand that she's almost certainly not willing to give up her lieutenants, no matter who is doing the asking," Kunzite added.
"Just as long as you understand that, regardless of her stance, we have to do what we have to do in order to survive," Endymion countered.
"
Not too long after Endymion had taken the throne, all four of his generals had their personal quarters moved into rooms far more befitting of their status. Gone were the days of the quartet spending private time in small, purely functional chambers that could have been mistaken for a large broom closet. Now, all four of them had significant rooms, stacked next to each other just a few dozen paces down from the master bedroom of the whole palace. It was entirely unnecessary, given how little time the generals usually spent in their quarters unless they were sleeping, but the new High King felt that it was important for his most trusted advisors to have personal rooms that indicated their massive importance in his Kingdom.
Endymion, with an evasive look cast around in all directions, placed his hand on the golden knob of Kunzite's door, letting a deep breath loose before twisting it. Quickly sliding into the room and quietly shutting the door behind him, he scanned the room as fast as he could.
Kunzite had been somewhat resistant to the idea of being moved to a fancier room, since his previous quarters had served his needs perfectly, so perhaps it was no surprise that he had done rather little with the additional space. The room carried with it a default feel of majesty and elegance due to its high ceilings and gold trimmings, as well as the marble walls, but the room was undeniably sparse, with large areas of unused space in virtually every direction. The walls were barren, and everything in the room seemed functional, with a focus on simple patterns and basic designs. A few cabinets against the walls by the bed, wooden surfaces in the far corner for a small circular seating arrangement, and not much else. It looked rather wasteful, in truth.
Most importantly, however, nobody else was in the room. Even though the High King knew full well that Kunzite was far away right now, over on Venus in an attempt to research alternative ways to assassinate prisoners held inside The Savery, there was still that slight paranoia in the back of his mind. Now, it would be a simple matter of deleting the logs from the registry, and it would be as if he had never been here at all.
Endymion made his way over to the bedside tables, still cautious to not disturb anything. If anyone in the galaxy was capable of detecting a slight change in his surroundings that nobody else would, it would be Kunzite, and he was also one of the rare individuals in the universe who could even trace it back to Endymion specifically. With a gloved right hand, he pulled open a drawer built into the side of the table, revealing a neat, well-maintained stack of documents, basic equipment, and of note to him, a specific communicator disc.
Taking mental note of exactly where it was and how it was oriented, the High King grabbed it, fingers working quickly to twist the casing in just the right spot to detach the top part of the device. The wiring and internal circuitry exposed, Endymion gently pushed one of the tiny connectors to the side to expose a blue-glowing chip. Grabbing it firmly between his thumb and forefinger, he yanked it out, cautiously placing the tiny piece on the table surface.
A few beats later, the chip had been replaced inside the disc by an identical-looking one produced from Endymion's left side chest pocket. Even someone as savvy as Kunzite would never be able to tell that a swap had been made, unless he actually attempted to place a call to the device's former frequency from another communicator. The frequency that Princess Venus knew to call was connected to the chip that Endymion had just removed, meaning her inevitable call would instead go to whichever device the High King installed the chip in.
The High King replaced the outer casing of the disc, snapping it into place, and put it back in the drawer just as he had found it. It was close to a perfect crime, with absolutely nothing left out of place, and nothing for Kunzite to suspect for now. If need be, Endymion could always swap the chip back in later to cover his tracks for good.
Departing the room by the same simple path by which he had entered it, Endymion was relieved to have the nerve-wracking task behind him, and to now be out in the hall of his palace, a place where he had every right to be. He clicked the door shut behind him, now planning to make a beeline for his personal terminal to strike the record of this intrusion from the logs. However, things weren't going to be quite that straightforward today.
"Oh, good."
Endymion couldn't even try to suppress his panicked jump and hurried spin to turn around, relaxing only slightly when he saw that the source of his scare was his mother-in-law. The elder Serenity had just come around the nearby corner, and was now rapidly closing the distance between her and him.
"Jeez!" Endymion exclaimed, shaking his head back and forth rapidly. "You...Gods, you should call ahead before you come here, what are you doing here?"
"S-sorry," Serenity said timidly. "I didn't want to call, I didn't want my daughter to know I was coming. Are you okay?"
Endymion clutched at the front of his uniform near the chest area, but quickly shook it off, straightening up and taking on the regality that was expected of someone like him. "Y-you just startled me, I'm fine."
She nodded. "Can we speak somewhere more private? I...I need to talk to you about something?"
Endymion, of course, nodded, although a vague sense of foreboding gripped him at the sight of her grim, serious expression. "C-come with me, we'll...we'll find somewhere."
"
Endymion snapped the heavy wooden door shut behind him, immediately turning to face his mother-in-law. She had not dropped her stern look, and was right up in front of him.
"Endymion, I'm...I'm not looking to make anything worse or even r-really get involved. I just want to know, I want to understand what's going on here," she began.
"W-with what?" Endymion asked, still visibly uncomfortable, the tiny chip in his chest pocket feeling like it weighed a few dozen libras. Of course it was impossible for the elder Serenity to have any comprehension of what it represented even if she saw it, but he didn't care for having any evidence on his person while he was around someone outside the circle of trust.
"I...I think I know what might be going on. I just want to confirm it." She put her hands out towards the High King. "I promise I'm not going to throw a fit about it. I don't really consider it my business, and you two...well, you need to resolve this on your own. I just would like to know, was there some sort of infidelity?"
Endymion actually felt some relief as his mother-in-law veered into a topic of conversation that was only tangentially related to his illegal activities. However, he still wasn't exactly expecting an encounter like this, and hadn't prepared for it.
His shoulders sagged, and he wilted back a bit under her gaze. "S-Serenity, er...mother, I'd really rather not do this."
She gave an annoyed grunt. "I already said I'm not here to get upset! I just...look, Chibiusa's been living with me for awhile now, I feel like I deserve to know what happened to cause that!"
Endymion glanced to the side of the small study, clearly uncomfortable. "It's something that's best off being kept between as few people as possible."
"Well, let's say I'm one of those people," Serenity pressed. "I'm right, aren't I? Don't make me ask my daughter."
Endymion turned away from her a bit, putting his right hand up to the bridge of his nose. He thought for several long beats, thinking on his reply. "This really needs to not spread."
"I understand, just...you fooled around, right? That's what this is about? She's upset because of that?" she pressed.
"No, actually, I didn't," Endymion answered slowly, trying to give his mind the maximum amount of time to think this through. "But you are correct."
"I don't follow," Serenity said, sounding a little prickly and impatient, folding her arms over her chest.
"There was infidelity." He gave a dramatic half-turn back towards her. "But it wasn't me."
She cocked an eyebrow his way. "You can't expect me to believe…"
"I assure you, I dearly wish it had been me if it had to be anyone," he said. "I'm not going to get into the details, but suffice to say, she had a...moment of weakness, and had a short-lived relationship with another man. Very short-lived. But...the emotions around that event are such that she's not herself."
"Serenity slept with another man?!" she inferred aloud, still looking completely unconvinced.
He scoffed. "T-take it up with her if you're so insistent on not believing me, but that's what happened!" Endymion shook his head. "You can't possibly be more upset about it than I was. W-well, I...obviously, I forgave her, I...I'm not upset at her over it anymore. It's just, I think the guilt is still affecting her."
Finally, the older woman softened up a bit, her stance easing up and her arms dropping to her sides. "Endymion, you...that's why she's depressed? That's why she tried to...tried to…"
"I think it's all related. She really loves me, I'm...I'm sure you know that. Her doing something like that, it's really brought her down. It's something she's having a hard time working through."
"No, no, I...I can see that," Serenity admitted. "Wow. I never would have guessed."
"It's very important that this never gets out to the public," he reiterated. "It's embarrassing, honestly."
"Oh, believe me, I completely get that," she agreed, exhaling deeply. "I don't have any reason to want to." She blinked a few times. "Umm...I'm sorry to ask this, but...well, who with?"
Endymion tensed up.
"Y-you actually don't have to answer that, if you don't want to," Serenity added quickly. "I...I'm just—"
"Jadeite," Endymion answered.
"Oh, Gods," Serenity said, face twisting up a bit. "Really?"
"I wouldn't lie about something like that," Endymion said stiffly.
"Oh, I...I believe you," she said throatily. "How did you...I mean, I'm surprised you're able to talk about it so frankly."
"It took some time," he admitted. "But I do love her. And I believe she loves me."
Serenity huffed out a large breath. "I mean...I suppose Jadeite is rather handsome."
Endymion didn't even have to pretend to turn towards his mother-in-law and shoot her a dry, caustic look, which was more than enough to get the former Queen to catch herself.
"S-sorry," she stammered. "Don't tell Serenity I was here, I'm going to be leaving now."
"Mmm," Endymion grunted, turning around to pop open the door. "My father doesn't know. I'd like to keep it that way."
She nodded, quickly making towards the exit that Endymion had just opened up. The moment she was out of the small study, Endymion let loose with a small sigh of relief. The chip in his pocket remained hidden and undetected. And, by and large, he had even managed to avoid lying, impressive given he had to spin all of that up on the fly.
After giving Serenity several beats to put distance between her and him, he re-emerged from the side room and resumed his original objective.
"
Venus stared down at the small notecard she had just written herself, pinching the bottom left corner between her thumb and forefinger. She wore a determined scowl, sitting right in the center of a small bed in a small apartment, legs crossed in front of her. On the blanket right in front of her was a brand new, just out of the package communicator disc.
She had rented out a room at a low-tier hotel on the southern hemisphere of Neptune, having pawned off one of her rings for enough creds to make ends meet for the time being as she darted around the outer planets, trying to stay one step ahead of the authorities and avoid detection. Even though she had always planned for this possibility, it was still proving quite the arduous task to evade detection. She needed her severance package if she was going to last much longer. Fortunately, she had finally managed to scope out an appropriate opportunity to acquire it.
She picked up the disc, hands shaking a bit with nerves. Even though there should be absolutely no concern around using a brand new communicator to contact one that had specifically been taken off the grid, there was certainly that paranoia around having the connection be traced. It was so incredibly unlikely, especially in the handful of beats she planned on having the connection open, but it kept running through her mind.
And then, it passed, and she started dialing in the proper frequency.
"
The moment Endymion felt the disc vibrating against the right side of his chest, he got to his feet and beelined towards his closet door. It was a bit of a trek from his main desk, but he wanted to guarantee himself absolute privacy in this moment. Yes, his wife was the only person in his massive bedroom with him who could possibly hear any of this, but if there was ever a moment to be overly cautious it was now.
He had put the chip into a communicator disc of his own, keeping it on his person at all times over the last two days, each minuta that passed without it ringing adding to the High King's concern that things would stretch on long enough for Kunzite to start to get suspicious. Luckily, however, it seemed that the deposed Princess was finally making the promised contact before that moment came. With any luck, he would be able to cut Kunzite out of the loop entirely and cover his tracks before his finest general even suspected a thing.
Ripping the door open and stepping through, he securely shut and locked it behind him before going to his inside chest pocket. The brand new, never-before-used disc jittered around in his grip for a beat or two, and then, he pushed the center button.
"Go," Endymion instructed, also pushing his thumb into a tiny blue attachment on the outside rim of the disc, pushing a button that would activate a recorder.
"
After a bit of a wait that had Venus thinking she might have to hang up and try again after a minuta or two, she heard the click of the connection and the verbal prompt of the High King.
"Uranus, eastern hemisphere, eight-hundred twenty-one point sixty-one, ninety-four point oh-four, tomorrow, midday," she recited off the notecard in her hand. The moment she had gotten it all out of her mouth, she jabbed her thumb into the disc center, ending the call, not wanting to spend a single beat on the line longer than he needed to. Unlike her prior conversation, this one actually gave information on a location she was planning to be, meaning it would be trivial to intercept her if it was tapped.
She quickly vaulted off the bed, making for the lighter in the cabinet, intent on destroying the notecard.
"
"Uranus, eastern hemisphere, eight-hundred twenty-one point sixty-one, ninety-four point oh-four, tomorrow, midday."
Satisfied, Endymion re-pocketed the disc from where he had withdrawn it, then turned around and pushed the door open back into his bedroom. "Serenity!" he announced loudly as he marched across the room. His wife lazily twisted her head from her prone, face-down position on the bed, a location she seemed to be spending more and more time on in recent days. Her will to do much of anything beyond her arrangement with Endymion to assist with his enterprise was practically gone.
"I know, I know, I'll talk with Zoisite about opening things up to account for the new money coming in," Serenity said tiredly, little energy in her voice.
"Not that," Endymion said, still crossing the room rapidly. "Although, yes, do that, but something else. About tomorrow."
She looked over at him with tired eyes.
"I'm going to be out for most of the day tomorrow. You're not to tell anyone that I'm gone, and if anyone asks, I was here all day," Endymion said.
"Mm-hmm," Serenity grunted, offering up a slight nod.
"Anyone," Endymion repeated. "That includes my generals. All of them."
"Sure," she deadpanned.
"You're not going to ask what I'm doing?" Endymion asked.
"I don't want to know," she answered immediately, turning away from him and settling back down on the bed.
Endymion couldn't help himself, and offered up a little smirk. "You're figuring it out."
"
It was almost getting pointless for Endymion to even have his own ship at this point. He was finding it less and less common for him to have opportunities to utilize The Bastion, as he needed to move in a less recognizable ship most of the time in order to avoid suspicion. Today was no exception, as he had just driven a secret, secondary ship halfway across the galaxy, while The Bastion remained tucked away in the palace garage. This particular starship was unmarked and unremarkable, perfect for being beneath notice as it covered so much space on its way out to Uranus.
There was only one passenger on board the Class-B starship, the High King himself, the spacious cargo hold more than enough to carry the only thing he had taken with him, a large metal container that rather resembled a coffin. The young monarch had buried his nervousness deep as his vessel went into a landing pattern above the coordinates Venus had given him the previous day. Now, he exuded only a calm confidence. This despite the fact that he was clad in his tuxedo and cape combination, which was undoubtedly a bit too theatrical for this particular task, but Endymion felt it necessary to disguise himself just in case there ended up being third parties in the area.
As the ship settled down towards the surface of Uranus, the coordinates putting Endymion right up above a small clearing in a thick, large forest of well-aged trees, the High King eventually made out Venus in the ship's bottom-side camera, standing off to the west side of the opening in the tree canopy.
The ship completed the automated process of landing on the ground, and Endymion wasted no time getting to his feet. He could almost feel Venus staring down the ship's closed ramp, just waiting for him to emerge, every single beat that went by without her being in possession of her money causing her more and more stress. He wasn't entirely sure how he was going to navigate the new few secundas. But fortunately, with Kunzite none the wiser and completely out of the loop, all options were available to him.
Endymion threw the hatch down to the cargo hold wide open, tapping a button on a little fob in his right hand to prompt the large steel container down below to levitate up out of the storage space and next to Endymion. He pocketed the fob, then marched over to the back hatch, the coffin-shaped container following him.
His white mask and black top hat were sitting on a small platform right next to the back hatch, and Endymion quickly snatched up both items, completing his disguise in a quick flurry of movements that resulted in his hat being set atop his head and mask pulled down over his face.
He afforded himself a few more beats to mentally prepare for what was waiting for him outside the ship, then punched a large button on the wall right by the ramp. With a soft pneumatic hiss, it lowered down to the ground, Endymion disembarking the moment it touched down.
He was barely able to perceive Venus widening her stance a bit and crouching down as soon as they made eye contact, her defenses no doubt rising with each moment that passed with Kunzite not appearing.
"That's not very nice," Endymion said, his deep commanding voice carrying across the non-trivial stretch of field between the two. "I've come all this way just for you."
"Where's Kunzite?" she asked, craning her neck down a bit to try to look inside Endymion's ship.
"He couldn't make it," Endymion said, stopping a couple dozen paces away from the young woman. "He has responsibilities that are bigger than you. I don't know if that surprises you or not."
"You came here alone?" Venus asked, still highly suspicious, tilting her head towards the High King, clearly rattled by the unexpected.
Endymion shrugged. "Why wouldn't I?"
She seemed to have a response on her tongue, but it didn't make it out of her mouth. Instead, she cocked her head a bit at him, relaxed enough now to react to his woeful disguise. "Seriously?"
"You haven't exactly been a model of effectiveness since we started working together. You'll have to excuse me if I don't entirely trust your scouting," he retorted.
"That's not exactly what I meant." Dropping the subject, she glanced over at the large metal crate, floating a few finger-lengths above the dirt ground right next to Endymion. "My money?"
"As we discussed," Endymion said regally, turning towards the crate and reaching down to unlatch the lid. As the former Princess rapidly approached him, he slid the cover back, exposing a massive collection of currency bills.
"You think that thing on your hip replaces a bodyguard?" Venus asked, regaining her confidence, smirking. "Because trust me, if this comes to that, it won't help you."
Endymion sighed, turning back towards her after getting the container open wide enough. "I wasn't planning on using it on you."
"Are you sure?" Venus asked, clearly trying to goad him.
Endymion rolled his eyes, tugging his jacket back from his right hip, exposing the holstered plasma pistol resting there. With slow, deliberate movements, he pinched the grip and delicately withdrew it, letting it drop to the dirt at his feet. "Feel better?"
"No," she deadpanned, going over to the giant steel crate and looking down at the contents. "It's probably more of a threat to me on the ground than in your hand."
Endymion grunted, but passively watched as Venus studied her severance package. She pushed the lid back a little more to check the assortment of precious metals and jewels on the other side.
"Before you take this, I need something from you," Endymion said, placing his hand on the rim of the container. "Your lieutenants."
She scoffed. "Are we really going to do this?"
"I need their real names, Venus. This involves me, too," Endymion said sternly. "You know it's the right thing to do."
"I'm going to take care of them, like we agreed upon when I first started working with them," Venus said. "That's all there is to it."
"You're the most wanted woman in the galaxy," Endymion pointed out. "Suppose something happens to you."
She shot the High King a look. "Oh, yes. I'm sure you'd jump at the opportunity to pay them off if that happened."
He grunted, slamming his palm down on the rim of the container. "Dammit, Venus, this isn't a game! Your sloppiness got us here, this failure is on your end! I think you owe it to me to at least let me protect myself!"
"I don't owe you shit," Venus snapped. "If that's how you feel, then pack up and go on the run like I am!"
Endymion rolled his eyes, puffing his chest out a bit towards her. "I'm the most powerful man in the galaxy, Venus, I can't just drop everything and go hide for the rest of my life."
"I'm doing it!" Venus reached forward towards the open lid and slammed it shut with more force than necessary, Endymion quickly withdrawing his hand away from the container before the cover smashed his fingers. "If this scenario is unacceptable to you, you should never have gotten involved in the black market in the first place."
"I shouldn't have?" Endymion snapped back. "You shouldn't have gotten involved! You've ruined everything since the moment you forced your way into my business! Cronus nearly had me killed because of you, and now your entire part of the operation has imploded! Everything would be fine right now if you had just stayed in the beauty parlor where you belong!"
"You're the one who doesn't belong here," Venus countered deftly. "And you prove that every time you open your mouth."
"Oh, please, before you go, I just have to hear it," Endymion said snidely. "How is any of this a reflection on me?! Please, I implore you, tell me how you justify to yourself putting any of this on me!"
"You don't know the first goddamn thing about the way things work here!" Venus said, moving up closer to the High King, not at all cowed by her significant height disadvantage. "You think you can live in this world without taking on any risk, and that you can just guarantee success and safety! If that's what you want, you should have stayed above board and been a good little royal!"
Endymion's eyes narrowed a bit as she ranted at him, clearly bristling.
"This is how things are done down here. When your men go to prison, you pay them off and trust them to keep quiet. If things get too hot for you, you pack up and go on the run. That's how things work in this world. Not that I expect you to care about any of that, since you don't belong here."
"Funny. I don't recall having problems until you came along!" Endymion hissed.
"You've got no reason to be involved in any of this!" she continued, whipping her arms out to her sides, clearly using what she assumed would be their last ever meeting to get all of her thoughts out. "You didn't need money, you didn't need power, you had everything you needed your whole life! You had a golden, prosperous Kingdom that was going to be handed to you on a silver platter as soon as you were ready! You have no business in a place like this, you should have just turned over the imperium to the agency and just moved on with your life! But you just had to prove you were tough and strong, that you had what it took to be the man! Do you have any idea the burden of shit you've put on the people around you just so you could feel big and powerful?! And for what?! Things that you already had!"
Endymion's scowl widened a little, now showing a little teeth.
"You already had everything you could ever want or need handed to you, you should have just been happy with that! You started a vanity project for your own ego without understanding a single goddamn thing about what it meant, just so you could feel in charge." She got up even closer towards his face. "And that's your fault, not mine. You can't fool me, Endymion, I know exactly what you are. A little boy, wearing a mask, pretending he can control everything around him."
With that, Venus smacked her palm against the sensor pad on the side of the coffin, which would cause it to start to follow her around instead of him, and turned away from Endymion. She purposefully strode away, quickly making for the treeline, a mere handful of beats away from disappearing into the thick forest with the money, almost certainly to never be seen again. Endymion was rooted to the spot, staring her back down, his facial expression making no secret of the simmering anger brewing within.
Slowly, his right hand rose up towards his chest, his index finger closing in on the left side of his torso, finding a small lump there beneath his dinner jacket. He pressed the lump down hard, hearing the slight mechanical click beneath his clothing.
Venus, of course, didn't notice the High King doing this, as she was focused on getting back to her spaceship and putting as much distance as she could between her and this place. After a couple more steps, however, she suddenly started to stumble, staggering violently in an attempt to stay upright. Endymion smirked, watching as her confident, long strides became unstable little hiccups. Just before she got to the tree line, she fell forward in a heap. He quickly started approaching her, watching as her arms frantically tried to push herself up into a crouching position. With great effort, she was able to get up on her hands and knees, but soon flopped back down prone.
"I wonder," Endymion said, still closing the distance between him and her. "Would you have ever drank anything that I handed to you?"
Venus's head turned slightly, indicating that she had heard him, and she began trying to use her weakening arms to drag herself around. Before she could make much progress, Endymion stopped right next to her, kneeling down as he reached inside the left side of his jacket with his right hand.
He withdrew a rectangular white device, a tiny metal rod sticking out maybe a quarter finger length from the top side and a single black button on the front. He held it out in his palm and put his hand close enough to the ground for Venus to see it.
"Radio field transmitter," he said as Venus managed to twist her neck around enough to look at the device. "Cutting edge technology. I tied a specific frequency to a poison that I slipped in that bottle of Uranus swill that I got Kunzite to share with you. Sits in your system for three years, completely dormant and undetected until it gets exposed to the frequency."
Despite her increasing loss of control over her muscles, an angry scowl was unmistakably growing on her face. Her right hand made an attempt to swing over towards the transmitter, but Endymion withdrew it out of her reach before she got close to it. "Hngggfufh," she gurgled, no doubt trying to utter some obscenities towards the High King, but a trickle of blood spewed out of her mouth instead.
"Your lungs are flooding with blood. You've got about three secundas before the damage is fatal," he said in an unaffected deadpan as Venus purposefully put all of her strength into spitting a mouthful of blood out into the dirt in front of her to clear her throat.
"Asshole!" she managed, having difficulty with any further syllables due to her vocal chords also being affected by the poison.
"Save your strength," Endymion suggested. "I want those names, Venus. I have the antidote, you can have it if you give them to me."
A look of pure, unfiltered hatred on her face, Venus lunged towards Endymion with a sudden, powerful movement that spoke to her superb physical conditioning given the state of her body. At the same time, she purposefully discharged a large quantity of blood out her mouth towards him. The High King was able to jump back just in time to avoid the small flood of thick fluid, looking down at the messy puddle she had just created.
He sighed. "Well, I had to try."
"Piece of shit!" she gurgled out, voice becoming difficult to decipher as her throat got only weaker and weaker, but her expression communicating more than enough anger to make up for it.
"I'll find another way to get to your lieutenants, Venus. Won't make a difference," Endymion said. "If the rules that you follow lead to your failure, then the rules are worthless. A lesson you should have learned in the last few days."
Venus's control over her body was only getting weaker, and another mouthful of blood made it clear that she was doing no better internally. With a final rage-filled glare at Endymion that also gave away her immense frustration at being unable to fight back physically, Venus managed to drag her head around, purposefully facing away from him.
"You shouldn't try to come between a royal and his general," Endymion continued, amused as the fallen Princess in front of him seemed to be trying to make ignoring him her final act of defiance, unable to do anything more than that. "I always knew it would end like this. You actually thought you could make a pass at my general, in front of me, and get away with it." He shook his head. "Sorry it has to be like this, but I can't just—"
Mustering up every last bit of strength in her fading body, Venus cleared her throat yet again via a powerful spit that resulted in yet another bloody puddle. Breathing heavily, punctuating every few words with another clearing of her mouth, she forced out her final words.
"Shut...shut the fuck up... and lemme...let me die in peace," she managed, the effort it took to sound coherent approaching superhuman levels, again proof of her tremendous strength and willpower.
Endymion honored her final wish, watching as the last bits of life left her, her twitching body gradually settling into stillness as she drowned in her own blood. Endymion witnessed her passing without emotion, observing it impartially, knowing now there was no other way for this encounter to end. The rush of adrenaline he had expected to feel if things went this way was largely muted as well, a testament to how accustomed to stress he had become.
Once he was satisfied that she was gone, he deactivated the field transmitter. Smacking his palm on the side panel of the container, again commanding it to follow him. Leaving the blood-surrounded corpse behind, Endymion marched back towards his parked ship, mind already on the evidence he would need to destroy on his way back to Earth.