Chapter 9 – Recovery, Revelations and Remembrances

"Are they going to be okay?"

Usagi, even though she was fighting off the draining effects of using the Moon Tier, was pacing anxiously as Mamoru and Ami knelt over Sailor Mars and Sailor Jupiter. The bright blue of her eyes was dimmed in concern and enormous dark shadows, a sign of her emotional strain, were visible there, vivid against the translucent paleness of her skin. The others had transformed back to their civilian forms as soon as they reached the security of the Crown Arcade's dark basement, aka Central Control, but it looked like the two unconscious women were stuck until they awoke.

Before Minako could answer, a grinding noise above them had her whirling, henshin wand in hand. A darker, deeper blackness was faintly visible in the dim light. Two pairs of reflective almond eyes glinted bright green in the darkness as two beings made their way down the staircase through the hidden passage beneath the Sailor V game.

"Are they going to be okay?" demanded Luna, unintentionally repeating her ward's words, as she scampered toward the two senshi with Artemis hot on her heels.

"What happened, Minako?" questioned the white guardian cat, circling round to his own ward, looking to her as the leader.

"I don't know." Minako wrung her hands together agitatedly. "At least not all of it and I don't think we will until they wake up. Rei-chan used her communicator and said there was a wraith, but it was gone when the rest of us got there, though there were plenty of signs of battle, and they were freaking out at being handcuffed to two men in some kind of white military type uniforms."

"Handcuffed?!" Luna sucked in a scandalized breath which made Minako blush miserably. The red tint was even strong in the dim light. Artemis shot her a knowing, disapproving look.

"I'll explain about that later," Minako muttered defensively. "It's not really important now. What's important was that they were both furious and completely panicked. I mean REALLY panicked. Like hysterical. I've never seen Jupiter that scared before…ever."

She shivered, sinking down onto an extra chair that was stored in the basement. Anything that could scare her Amazonian friend that badly had to be a doozy.

Luna leaped up onto Minako's lap, sticking her fuzzy feline face right into the blonde's. "And then what happened."

"There was a third guy in white," admitted Minako. "He was all about Mercury, but the first two men made him come over and do…something to Mako-chan and Rei-chan." She scowled. "I know you're going to think I've been watching too many old TV programs, but I'd swear he did a Star Trek Vulcan Neck Pinch type deal on them. It knocked them both out." She growled low in her throat like a mama grizzly and clenched her fists in her lap, looking over at her two still friends. "I swear, if I get my hands on them…"

Soft hands covered Minako's and she looked up into the face of her princess. "It's not your fault, Minako-chan. You rescued them. I saw you. You got them uncuffed from those men, even without a key. It was amazing."

Minako burst into a flood of guilty tears. "B…but y…you don't understand. It's my fault they were with the men…in the first place….Usagi-chan." She buried her head in her hands, sobbing loudly.

Mystified, Luna and Usagi exchanged glances. Artemis leapt onto a nearby table and whacked Minako lightly in the head with his paw, giving a paternal growl. "Explain."

Sniffling, the remorse-filled blonde nodded. "Well…it was a kind of an ice-breaker for the Valentines Day party. We kind of handcuffed random couples together. I cuffed Rei-chan and Mako-chan to those men. It's all m…my fault!" Her wailing reached a fevered pitch, making Luna cringe and flatten her ears against her head.

In an enraged flurry of white fur, Artemis launched himself at Minako's face, pummeling her repeatedly with his paws. "HOW COULD YOU BE SO IRRESPONSIBLE?! BAKA!"

"Artemis!" Luna snapped warningly. "This isn't helping. She leapt from Minako's lap and slipped over to Ami's side, nuzzling Sailor Jupiter's pale cheek with a cold nose. "Are they hurt?"

The little bluenette shook her head. "From what I can see and what my computer's telling me, they're just sort of…sleeping. I think the one man," she flushed faintly remembering his intent bright green gaze, "used a pressure point technique on them. They'd probably wake up on their own given a few hours, but it may be more important that we can question them now. So if Mamoru-san and I can just hit the proper points in the right order we can probably bring them around."

The tuxedo clad man, still dressed as he had been for his aborted romantic date, nodded. His fingertips were pressed against Sailor Mars' throat as he took her pulse for the umpteenth time since they'd arrived at the safe house.

Silent tears were slipping from Usagi's cerulean eyes, dappling the concrete floor. "You can find out the proper pressure points, can't you? Ami-chan?"

"I'll try," she answered, bending over her mini-computer and running it down the length of Jupiter's body, scanning her. When it beeped, she smiled triumphantly and reached down, pressing three fingers firmly against a spot on her friend's throat with her thumb at a point somewhere near the collarbone. "Gotcha. Mamoru…tap her on the other side, just like I'm doing and up at the spot where the base of the skull meets the neck."

A low pained moan issued from the brunette on the floor as the man complied. Usagi squealed like a stuck pig and snatched up Luna, whirling the poor cat around as she danced with glee and then began to hop up and down like some sort of demented bunny on crack. "She's going to be alright! Mako-chan's going to be alright!"

"Jeeze…keep it down odango for brains," whined Sailor Jupiter in weary tones. "Oh my aching neck and head. I think we had too much sake…" She let out a pained yelp as Minako, sobbing in relief, leapt from her chair to fling both arms around her, engulfing her in a hug.

Mamoru and Ami were busy repeating the same technique with Sailor Mars and they slapped hands in triumph as a pair of smoky violet eyes fluttered open and she sat up, groaning. "Owwww…"

A soggy-eyed Usagi flung herself and Luna at the dazed fire senshi, knocking them back to the floor, Luna sandwiched uncomfortably between the two women.

"Never do that to me again, Rei-chan!" wailed the future queen. "Never, ever, ever!"

"Okay," gasped Rei, trying to unlock her best friend's arms from her neck so she could breathe. "I won't, if somebody will explain what on earth…" She broke off as the memories of the night's events came back to her and the blood drained from her face, leaving her the color of a dead fish's pale belly.

"Where is he?" she demanded fiercely, her hands bunching so tightly into fists that her knuckles went white beneath her gloves. "Where's Jadeite?! I'm going to kill that man!"

That man and his fellows were seated around a table, eying one another warily.

"So what the hell was all that about?" The speaker, whose green eyes were glittering as he reached for his drink, paused with the bottle halfway to his lips. Left alone, but for the salaryman, they'd opted to leave before he could come fully to and ID them. After that, they'd decided to do what came naturally. First, get the sad remains of the handcuffs off and then decompress with a few cold ones while they tried to sort out the massive changes that had come over their latest lives. Fortunately Zarek had his own apartment, conveniently liquor stocked, not far from the college. He'd also had tools to get off the cuffs.

Neil pinned the lankiest of the Shitennou, Zoisite, now known to him as Zarek Veridian, with a purely disgruntled look. He was absently fingering the emerald studded gold tiara he'd retrieved from the bushes before they'd left. He could almost feel the hidden power singing through the ornament. The thought that she would definitely be back for it was an infinitely satisfying one. And after all, Mercury, who'd taken her, would fix whatever it was that ailed her, wouldn't she? He had to believe that. The alternative was too unpleasant to contemplate.

"Like I told Jed at the time, if I knew, I'd have fixed it. All I know is there was magic in whatever that Moon Tier thing was and all of a sudden, poof, I remembered a bunch of stuff and realized that I had my princess attached to my wrist. But she was a helluva lot less happy to see me than I was her. But whether it was that magic or something related to the monster we fought or something else altogether, I don't know."

"Don't mention how unhappy the princesses were," growled Jed, with a pained look in his aquamarine eyes. He shifted uneasily in his chair and its straw seat squeaked alarmingly making Zarek frown. "Rei has a very sharp temper and a sharper knee, you know. Damn but she came close to making me a soprano."

Both Neil and Zarek winced in sympathy for their compatriot's purely male complaint.

"And the cuffs? You guys into some kinky new games in this lifetime or what?"

A ruddy flush stained Neil's cheekbones and he glared at Zarek, then cast a significant glance toward a handbag and coat which were hanging off Zarek's bedroom door. "Since you had a ladies purse and coat with you, you probably shouldn't be casting stones. Or have you taken up cross-dressing as a hobby?"

"Bite me," Zarek snapped. "Those happen to belong to Mercury-chan."

"Oh…so you just happened to be carrying her purse?" taunted Neil, making Zarek's nostrils flare with temper. "Cute."

Jed was not embarrassed by Zarek's earlier question, and he declined to get involved in the slanging match between the other two men. He did, however answer the question. "It was a Valentines party ice-breaker and nothing to do with us," he explained. "It was just pure chance that we happened to be cuffed to the ladies at that party." Thoughts of fiery violet eyes came to him and he amended his comment. "Or maybe it was fate. Hell, I don't know."

Neil rubbed his temple, trying to stave off his incipient headache. "Was tonight the first time either of you remembered the past…our past? Because it was for me, and I don't know what the hell to think or to do next."

"Can't you ask the stars?" Zarek muttered, then pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head in disgust. "That's stupid. Why did I even say that? Stars are just balls of burning gases that don't signify anything."

Without knowing quite why, Neil scowled, feeling unaccountably insulted.

"No, they're not."

The scientist frowned inquiringly at the blond to his left. "What are you talking about, Jed? You mean you believe in that astrology crap?"

Jed shook his head. "I don't know what I believe, but I remember that he…" –he jabbed a finger in Neil's direction– "…can divine from them. Sometimes. Just don't ask me how."

Spring green eyes slid to Neil, searching for an explanation. The brunette man shrugged. "I think he's right. The memories are there, but kind of fuzzy yet, like they're not all set into place. I'll try it before I turn in and see." He paused for a moment. "We're not complete, are we? I definitely remember us being called Shitennou. But that means four, not three."

The three men around the table shut their eyes and thought hard, screwing up their faces in concentration.

"Silver," mused Jed. "Silver hair…eyes too. Powerful."

"He was the leader, I think," Zarek muttered, rubbing a hand over his face. "Quiet but authoritative."

"A stone name like ours. K…K…," Neil finally said, his eyes snapping open as the name came to him. "Kunzite. If we're all here and alive, then where the hell is Kunzite?"

Jed looked alarmed. "Hell! If he's like us, he could have been born anywhere. I was from the states, you were from Canada. Zarek said he was in Europe. He could be anyplace on the face of the earth."

"But if he's like us," Zarek objected, "he'd probably be drawn here since this is where he's supposed to be. Under a compulsion, maybe, that he might not even understand, but couldn't deny. I don't know about you guys, but I just sort of woke up one day with the knowledge that I had to come to Japan. I didn't particularly want to, but I couldn't fight it. It didn't even make sense, scholastically speaking. But I had to."

"It was the same with me," admitted Neil as Jed nodded understandingly. "But if so, we still don't know where he is."

"Well make with the star talk mojo, then, and maybe we'll find out." Jed waved a hand airily toward the miniscule balcony that clung to the side of Zarek's apartment.

The building itself, Neil noted, was not particularly high by Tokyo standards, surrounded by much larger structures on all sides. Which would not help him much for stargazing, even if there wasn't too much light pollution to see anything. Still, he had to try. "Okay, but I'm not promising anything."

As he disappeared out onto the night, a frown furrowed Zarek's brow and then he grinned and winked at Jed. "So do you think he'll jump?"

"Maybe. If Jupiter tries to fry him again you might want to put your balcony off limits." A haunted look came into Jed's eyes. "I don't understand it. They weren't just pissed off at us…well, Mars was. But they were really afraid too. She even called me a murderer. Said I killed HER. But you know I'd sooner cut my own hand off than raise it toward her in anger…"

Zarek's smile froze in place, but he gamely tried to encourage his new-old friend. "Hey. We'll figure it out. Pretty soon you'll be back in her good graces and your fights with her will just be for the hot make-up sex. Again."

Jed sighed, managing a weary, half-hearted smile. "You say that like it's a bad thing…"

The sound of the balcony doors banging shut drew both blond heads, one coppery and one golden, toward their dark haired companion, who came in looking a bit dazed, as if his head was still off roaming the mysteries of the cosmos.

"Well?" demanded Jed in his usual subtle fashion.

"That was…weird," Neil said, dropping back into his chair and dragging a shaky hand through his tangled mop of hair. "I could hear them. The stars. See them too. Clear as bells and super bright, like a neon sign. They wanted to know why I hadn't spoken to them in so long. They were kind of ticked at me. Said they'd seen me watching for years but being too standoffish to chat."

"And?" Jed was not particularly interested in the hurt feelings of heavenly bodies unless one counted Rei's, and that wasn't the case this time.

"Hmmm…" Clearly Neil was still off in the ether somewhere.

He couldn't take it anymore. Jed slugged Neil in the shoulder, jolting him out of his contemplative state. "Wake up, star dreamer!"

"Dammit Jadeite!" snapped Neil, lapsing into very old habits, then looking startled at his own words. "God this feels familiar." And it did. Although he'd only known the two other men for a short time, one for a few scant hours and the other for less than forty five minutes altogether, it almost felt as if he'd known them his whole life.

Zarek laughed easily at the befuddled brunette. "It does feel kind of like coming home, doesn't it? So spill, old friend. I trust you kissed and made up with your stellar friends. So what great insight did they give us?"

Though his crack resulted in a dirty look from Neil, he did get an answer to his question. "They did say that Kunzite was alive and close, but they couldn't tell me where."

"Well that's encouraging," Jed said.

Neil rolled his eyes toward Zarek, who smirked in understanding. "Jed. Let me remind of something you appear to have forgotten. Close by astronomical standards is measured in terms of light years."

"Fuck!"

"However…"

"I hate it when you do that. I think I've always hated when you did that. And stop laughing Zarek, or I'll pull out your girly ponytail! Buzz cut, I swear. Or a Mohawk in day glo orange."

"Ahem…did you want to hear this or not?" Neil grinned at Jed, who finally shut his mouth. "Okay then. I do think he's near in the sense that he's probably in Japan. But I can't really pinpoint it or explain why. It's just a vague sense. Still, I think we'll find him. But more importantly, does the name Endymion mean anything to either of you?"

Jed's eyes practically bulged out of his head, standing out like turquoise marbles. Images of dark hair and deep blue eyes, almost navy in color, danced through his fatigued brain. "Endymion…Endy…"

"Hell…" Zarek choked on his beer, spewing the golden liquid across the table. "The prince. Gods! I can't believe forgot him until this very second. Cripes! What kind of guardian am I anyway?"

"One just like the rest of us, I guess," mused Neil, whacking Zarek on the back so hard he nearly shattered the smaller man's spine. "Just call us the amnesia brigade. He's alive too. So I guess our course is clear. We have to find him."

"Hell yes," said Jed, running a hand though his hair nervously until it was a swirling mass that looked like the aftermath of a tornado that had run through a wheat field. "That's our sworn duty."

"And fix whatever went wrong with the senshi too," added Neil, drawing a strongly affirmative nod from Jed.

"Definitely," agreed Zarek. A yawn he couldn't quite control slipped from him. "But we'll have to do it tomorrow, guys. Frankly, even before tonight I've been burning the candle at both ends, living on caffeine and not much else. I need sleep or I won't be able to protect the prince or the senshi from anything more fierce than a bad science grade."

The yawn was catching, as they so often are. Soon both Neil and Jed were trying to stifle them, realizing for the first time just how exhausted they were after the battle. Adrenaline letdown was a bitch.

"It's going to be a long walk back to the dorm," Jed groaned, hanging his head.

"Well, if you want, I've got a sleeping bag and a couch," offered Zarek, flipping open a closet door and pulling out the sleeping bag in question and a ratty looking throw and extra pillow for the sofa sleeper. "You fight it out and whichever of you wakes up first in the morning, make the coffee or else. G'night. Sleep tight. And don't let the youmas bite," he added, not quite sure from where the word had popped into his brain.

With that he stumbled off to his own room to dream uneasily of chess boards populated by blue eyes princes, princesses with soft blue curls, white knights and strangely twisted little pawns in the hands of a red-headed witch.

Too tired and drained to fight much, Jed and Neil soon sorted out the sleeping arrangements and snapped off the lights, plunging the room into darkness.

"You know, whatever…else we do, there's…one more thing I want." The comment from the dark was extremely broken drowsy, but firm, as if it had to be said before the speaker could really get to sleep in any kind of peace.

"What's…that?" The sleepy question was broken by an audible yawn.

"I…want…back…mmm…zzzzzzz…" The remainder of the sentence was destined to be left unspoken as Morpheus claimed the speaker before he could even finish the sentence, lulling the man off to slumber and dream of his own sweet personal goddess.