Author's Notes: Just a quick piece to say thank you for reading, for starters – I find this story really rather amusing myself, but it's good to know the nonsense I produce is worth reading for others, too! Secondly, this is the first full chapter I have written in a long time…the other chapters were written quite a while ago, so here is hoping that this is going to flow all right. All feedback in much appreciated, and – thank you again for coming along for this ride.

Nine: Somewhere A Clock Is Ticking

In which plans are made not to go awry/princesses are called to duty/choices are made and turned upside down and/friendship, love and duty are all a girl's best friend.

"What is this?" he asked as he turned over the stone in his hands; he held it like it was a small piece of the universe – infinite and incomprehensible.

"I have changed my mind," the queen said, and from the way she spoke – low and amused – she knew the explanation of the nature of her gift would amuse her greatly. "You are to locate Zoisite – and this will aid you in making him once again useful to us."

"This stone?" he asked; it was a fine specimen of zoisite, indeed, but despite the matrix of its elemental structure Kunzite did not feel the power emanating from it that he would expect from one of Metallia's toys. "It feels empty."

"It is empty," she granted, and as he raised his eyes she added smoothly: "It will bend his will to yours."

Comprehension came easily as he realised that it was not what was within the stone that was important – rather, it was what it currently lacked that was significant. "You want him to stay with the senshi," he said, slowly and thoughtfully; the understanding of what she intended was dawning upon him, and unconsciously his gloved fingers began to curl about the stone.

"Very good," and her smile was bloodless despite the fangs it revealed. "He will be of more use to us if he is a part of what they are."

"An insider."

"Precisely." Anybody else might have sounded pleased with the way a subordinate had followed her thoughts; Beryl, however, merely regarded it as mere common sense. "The range on this particular stone is short and it has far more power when used in this realm, where Metallia's power exists in all forms to amplify its energies. However, if you use this stone upon him out there, and command him to return to this realm, he will do so. Once here, we will make him mine again in all ways."

Kunzite watched her facial expression carefully, but she was impossible to read; even as a master of the poker face himself it was hard to see beyond the cruel lines of her lovely features. "You wish your traitor returned to you, my queen?"

This time she flashed her teeth only momentarily as she smiled; if not for the restrained malice in her eyes, she might have appeared very beautiful. "I do."

"I will seek him," he said, one hand to his left breast as he bowed forward; the stone was cool in his gloved palm. Unspoken was his desire for knowledge of why he would chose to do such a thing in the first place, but even though his eyes were directed to the floor Beryl saw something in them all the same.

"I do not want you querying him as to what makes him stay with the senshi." Her voice was hard, her long fingers stilled over the orb beneath them. "At this stage I believe it was the moon-stick's work that left him believing that throwing in his lot with them was what he should do."

Of the four shitennou, only Kunzite could hold his head so high as he questioned her judgement. "I thought you believed he had betrayed us."

"Our Great Ruler thinks otherwise," she said, and tapped one red nail against her chin. "His mind is unstable. I do not wish to place any more cracks in it by making him examine what it is that they have done to it."

"And thus not create more cracks in his weakened state?" he asked, only just restraining the irony.

"It is a gift from Metallia-sama herself," she said, quite suddenly; the out-stretched arm pointed directly to the stone he still held over his heart. "Do you not trust our Great Ruler?"

Many of Beryl's words were laced with barely-tempered violence, with withheld malice; these, however, were more dangerous than usual. "I trust her with my entire existence," he said strongly, and once again she smiled. It was not joy that made her so; it was satisfaction in the exercise of her beloved power.

"Then use the crystal as I bid you." As he was already bowing to her, he could not see her expression at all as she added: "You are not to seek counsel of your own from Metallia-sama; she sleeps, and she dreams. You have her orders, and she wishes you to fulfil them as I bid."

"As you say, my Queen."

"As I say." And the look that she gave him suggested she felt the disdain only mostly hidden by his veneer of cool clear ice.

"And what will you have Jadeite do?"

"I believe he has already found a way to distract himself." A look of concentration flickered across her face briefly, and then she said in a clear voice: "Jadeite. Present yourself to your Queen."

There was only the briefest of delays before red energy gathered to Kunzite's right, and the blond man appeared. He was already bowed, straightening after a moment of deference to his ruler. "You called for me, my Queen?"

"What have you done with the girl?"

Jadeite purposely didn't look at Kunzite, even though the stronger shitennou's head snapped around to stare at him. "She is still unconscious from the spell I placed her under. When she recovers I will take appropriate measures to make sure that she remains docile and in our hands."

"The girl?" asked Kunzite, unable to not voice the question.

Jadeite's eyes and words were bland as he nodded to his left. "Sailor Moon."

"You brought Sailor Moon into the Dark Kingdom?" He couldn't have masked the incredulous tone, even if he had wanted to.

"I have changed my modus operandi since the last time I undertook missions for our great rulers," Jadeite said rather diplomatically, tilting his head so that his eyes were near-unreadable in their shadows. "I think we are all agreed that in recent past they were…less than successful."

"And what good would using the girl as a bargaining chip for the remaining nijizuishou do, given that we have not yet calculated a fashion in which to remould the ginzuishou itself?" Kunzite asked coolly, crossing his arms over his chest. "You do realise that you are drawing them into our realm – for in my experience of those senshi they will not take the appropriation of one of their own lightly."

Jadeite raised an eyebrow. "Are you saying that you are made nervous by the thought of the senshi in the Dark Kingdom, Kunzite? Given that we would have the tactical and sorcerous advantage—"

"The nijizuishou are useless alone," he interrupted, the smooth voice of a man unaccustomed to being ignored. "And rejoining them is a process more suited to the light than the dark. While it is possible for us to rejoin the facets, it will place a drain on Metallia that would be tactically inadvisable if the senshi decide to storm the Dark Kingdom."

"Do you think they would really get far?"

One corner of his mouth twitched down slightly; it was the equivalent of a dire frown for the cold man. "I would not underestimate them, Jadeite. It could be said that that is the reason why you failed so often in the past – as you yourself so eloquently noted."

"I understand your concern," the blond noted, rather gamely; the light tone of his voice made something inside Kunzite begin to keen a low warning. The man had not been so easy in his speech before the sojourn in eternal sleep. "But I have in mind something different to what you have stated."

"…go on."

"I will take the nijizuishou to the senshi and tell them that we must have the ginzuishou in return for the life of Sailor Moon."

He arched a silver eyebrow, and though it was a compliment it was not intended lightly. "You impress me."

"I thought it a potentially useful plan," he said, extending his hands forward in a gesture not unlike a shrug. "It takes the burden of regeneration from our limited energy supply and ensures the success of the process as it will be performed by one of the original creator bloodline."

Beryl apparently had tired of their banter; her tone was near-bored when she snapped her own two cents: "So when will you undertake this mission, Jadeite?"

Jadeite bowed his head again, his eyes calm as he raised them. That alone was enough to make Kunzite tilt his head, narrow his eyes; he had never seen him so calm in the face of Beryl's harsh manner. "I will, with your majesty's permission, take our demands directly to the princess herself."

"But how will you find the princess?"

"I know her Terran identity."

The words were as stinging as the crack of a whip, but more disturbing in that they promised far worse if the answer was not to her liking. "And why was this information not shared with us earlier, Jadeite?"

"It was only recently brought to my attention, and I did not think that targeting her directly would be in our best interests at this stage. We need her alive and well to regenerate the ginzuishou."

"And could she not have done that here?"

"I suspect the energies of this realm would have impeded her too much. She is young, and uncertain in her powers. It is better if she does it outside and brings it to us."

"Very well," she said slowly, but her eyes were speculative as she reclined backwards in her throne. "We will deal to her when the ginzuishou is ours."

"It will be so, my Queen."

"Give the girl the crystals and the ultimatum, Jadeite," she said, with a flick of one hand that declared him dismissed. She then turned to her second remaining shitennou, yellow eyes dark. "Kunzite. Make ready your charge. Even if those girls bring the ginzuishou in here with the full intention of using it, a traitor in their midst will lower their chances even further. They can't win, but there's no harm in stacking the odds further in our favour."

"Agreed," Kunzite said softly, wondering all the while what it would be like to feel his hair running through his fingers once more. His distraction meant he missed the look Jadeite was giving him, though Beryl did not.

"Jadeite?" she snapped, and he turned to her with the first evidence of ill-ease he had displayed during this audience. "You do realise the price of your failure?"

"Yes," he said, and he swallowed hard.

Oh, in the name of Terra, do I ever.

"Usagi's missing?"

Rei was pacing erratically across the floor, the slap of her bare feet against the wooden porch as relentless as waves against rock. "We have to do something. Hell, that bastard Jadeite probably got to her!"

Luna rubbed her temple with one paw, sighed. "I'm so sorry I let this happen. I…if I'd been more careful…I should have taken her home, I know that. It just…seemed more important to go to the arcade, get on to Central Command."

"Luna, you can't blame yourself," Ami said, rubbing the cat's head soothingly; the gesture was almost as comforting to her as it was to the actual cat. "We'll find her."

"Of course we will!" Rei said, stopping to whirl back around and face her comrades. Her hands were held tightly about her upper arms, the knuckles near-white – but her face was a mask of utter calm. "But not on our own."

"…what do you mean?" Mako asked, already looking like she wished she wasn't asking it.

"Sailor V." At the blank look Mako gave her, she sighed and rolled her eyes skyward. "She's the princess, right? She's strong enough to sort this out." And then she was staring at Mamoru, who in turn decided to find the blossoms on the distant trees really rather interesting.

"Rei-chan, we have no idea where Sailor V is!"

"Like that's going to stop me," she replied to Mako, running one slim hand back through her hair. "It's her fault, you know. If she'd just stayed here…if she'd let us all be one….but no. She has to run off on her own, and now look what has happened to Usagi! She should be here. I won't let her stay out of this."

Given they were all seated on the porch, save for Rei, by the time the raven-haired girl had disappeared down the stone staircase they were barely on their feet.

"…what does she think she's doing?" Mamoru said, incredulous; although he himself had tried to talk Zoisite into creating an entrance into the Dark Kingdom the moment he had heard the news, he wasn't at all sure where Rei thought she was going. At least his idea had had some chance of success, the general helpfulness of his shitennou notwithstanding; not one of them had any idea where the elusive princess might be.

…she wouldn't even tell me. What does that say about this "relationship" you want to pursue with her, then…? Perhaps the past…it really is better off left in the past.

Usagi's laughing face floated into his mind, and without thinking he clenched his hand into a fist so tight he felt the skin break.

"I dunno, but I'm going with her." Mako stood up, grabbed her baseball cap from the railing she'd snagged it on, and brushed off her shorts. "Call us if you find out anything, okay? I don't think we'll get anything much, but well, Rei-chan's a bit of a pitbull." Her expression was wry as she flipped them a wave, and then sprinted off across the courtyard.

"I'm going back to Central Command," Luna announced, and though her voice was strong her entire small body seemed wracked with exhaustion as she stood, stretched. "If I stay on the line there's more chance of me getting through."

"What if I run the connection through my computer?" Ami said suddenly, looking up from said little device. "Or Usagi-chan's communicator? Then you can stay here and we can work it out together."

"I don't think it would work. I know you know your way around these things like nobody else does, Ami-chan, but the way my link with Central Command is set up…I'm not sure it would work easily." The crestfallen look on the girl's face had the cat touching one paw to her knee, her dark eyes gentle. "And you've got enough to worry about right now. You just do what you can, Ami-chan."

"It's okay, Luna. I understand."

Zoisite, who had chosen to opt out of much of the conversation – at one point Mamoru had even checked him to make sure he wasn't sleeping, so unusual it was – stretched out his long legs with a frown. "You know, I never would have pegged Rei for being Usagi's knight in shining amour. Isn't that your job, Endymion-sama? Oh, wait, you've got a princess now so you don't need to worry about her anymore, right?"

Mamoru swung around, wondering now why he had ever wanted Zoisite to join in the conversation. "Shut up."

"Hit a nerve there, did I?"

He swallowed hard, counted to ten – neither action calmed the hot blood beginning to course through his veins as he stared at the slender man watching him from the opposite end of the porch. "Stop it or I'll hit you."

"Zoisite-san, please!" Both men swung around to see the blue-haired senshi staring at them both with a mixture of misery and pity in her eyes; she was actually very near tears. "We don't have time for this!"

"I'm sorry, Ami-san." And Mamoru didn't even both to hide his surprise at the easily offered apology, or the way Zoisite moved closer to the girl; he was frowning over the little LCD screen of her computer without even being asked to do so. "Is there anything I can do to help you?"

"Well…you must know how you got in and out of the Dark Kingdom."

"Are you suggesting we go in there?" Mamoru leaned back with a whistle; he might have all but come to blows with Zoisite over the same question in his apartment not two hours before, but this was unexpected. "Ami-san, no offence meant, but you're the last senshi I'd have expected to say that."

"It might be our only choice," she said softly, still jitter-bugging her fingers over the small keys. "I don't see how Usagi-chan is going to get out on her own."

"But it might be that they're using her as some sort of a bargaining chip," Zoisite pointed out slowly, eyes narrowing as he leaned over Ami's shoulder and followed her string of code. Even as he spoke, he pushed a few buttons of his own. "We might all be better off waiting for them to tell us what they're planning to do with her."

"And what if they don't tell us?" Mamoru snapped, unable to keep the hostility from his tone.

"Do you know how to get in there?" Ami asked Zoisite, craning her neck around to face him as her fingers stopped dead. For a moment he looked surprised to be so close to her; as soon as that moment passed, he leaned backward and raked tired fingers through his mussed hair. Mamoru had to admit that although he was half-convinced Zoisite didn't give a damn about Usagi, the fact that he had come to this meeting looking like he'd been dragged through a bush backwards was enough to convince him that he was probably thinking of someone not himself.

"I used to make gates, Ami-san. And those gates are just…worm-holes, I suppose. I would fold reality to create the shortest space physically possible between point A and point B. It wasn't an easy thing to do and the gate is always inherently unstable and they usually fall apart fairly rapidly."

"You're implying that Beryl was making a stable gate," Mamoru pointed out sharply.

"Perceptive, but wrong," Zoisite said, and his tone was flat as he added: "Beryl is making a stable gate between there and here."

"Oh my God." Ami's small hand pressed to her mouth, her eyes wide above it. "What is she planning to bring through it?"

"The end of life on earth." Mamoru's voice was as flat as Zoisite's, but his eyes blazed dark blue fire. "That's it, isn't it?"

"An army or ten, sure," and though the flip of his hand was a glib gesture, his own eyes were pained. "Darkness to cover the earth."

"But why would anyone want that?"

There was something very off in Zoisite's gaze as he turned it to Ami; Mamoru had to admit he understood some of Zoisite's expression. Only the senshi could ask a question as simple, as innocent, as pure as all that. One might as well ask the sun why it shines, or the sky why it rains. "Metallia feeds off negative energy, and the deaths of millions of people by the means Beryl has devised…there will be enough for her to feed on to keep her satisfied for hundreds of years to come. After that? They'll move on. She's a parasite, a vampire of negative emotion. Beryl's just her servant."

"Her avatar?"

"No, her servant," Zoisite corrected Mamoru, his tone very sure. "I've never know Metallia to act through Beryl. I doubt she could hold her." And then, quite abruptly, he pushed to his feet and hopped lightly down to the ground. "I'm going for a walk."

"…are you sure you want to go by yourself?" Ami asked; her hesitation screamed that she wanted to ask him why he was going now, but yet she let it go.

Oh, Ami, Mamoru thought, in something very close to despair. He was my loyal shitennou once, but…why is it that you want to trust him, to help him the way you do? It is all in the past. We are in the future. Who says that what went once will come around again…?

"I'm just going down the street. It's not like you won't be able to hear me screaming."

"Just let him go," Mamoru said quietly, and Zoisite raised an eyebrow before he turned and disappeared. It might have been a thank-you, but Mamoru wasn't interested in working that out. Instead he took the shitennou's vacated place at the Senshi of Mercury's side, and looked to her computer screen. Almost immediately he winced; how had Zoisite understood anything of the garbled lines of numerals and letters before him? "…Ami-san, do you think you'll be able to use any of that information he's given you?"

"He's very smart, you know," and Mamoru couldn't help but roll his eyes skyward; he hated being shown up by the guy, his master or not. "I'm not sure sometimes he realises how smart."

"What makes you say that?"

"He doesn't…you might think he's really arrogant, but I think he just…he's never been given opportunity to realise how special he can be, just by being who he is."

She said all that with her eyes firmly upon the screen; it made them hard to read, but the faint tremor in her fingers had him sighing inside. "You really like him, don't you Ami."

The deep blush that coloured her pale cheeks was all the evidence he needed. "What?"

"Look," Mamoru said tiredly, wondering how on earth he had got shafted with this job, "he's…Ami. I know he was once one of my guard, and I believe that Usagi-chan did something amazing for him with that moon-stick, but…it's not over. Until the princess and the ginzuishou end all of this, I want you to be careful around him."

"I am careful!"

The squeak in her voice might have made him laugh, under other circumstances. "I just don't want to see you get hurt."

"I am careful," she repeated, but this time it sounded like it was directed more at herself than at Mamoru. Before he could call her on it, however, she raised her voice and looked to him with a melancholy twitch of her lips upward. "We're just responsible for him now, you know? And I think that at heart, he's really a good person. Really."

He looked at her for a long moment – and the only reason he eventually spoke was because he had realised that even if he stared at her forever, he'd never understand her. "…sometimes the faith you girls have scares me," he said – but he could not stop the slow smile. "But mostly…I'm glad for it."

She smiled back at him, her hand briefly warm over his. "So am I, Mamoru-san."

He was three blocks away from the shrine when he heard the voice behind him. "Zoisite."

The syllables of his name, enunciated so carefully in that cold voice, sent shivers down his spine – and although he stopped his forward step, he did not turn. "Leave," he said; his voice was soft, but it did not tremble.

"Do you believe you are in any position to be giving me orders, Zoisite?"

"I don't have to listen to you," he said softly, and even as he tried to fight the urge he found himself turning, turning back to look at the man on the path behind him. "Get back before I call for help."

Each step closer was as smooth as silk, the steady push forward of a glacier as he moved out of the shadows that crowded about him like servants, like lovers. "Do you think they'll answer?" he asked, almost idly; the pale eyes were sharp, tinged with disdain. "And really, Zoisite, I thought I trained you better. Surely you could hold your own long enough for help to realise that you needed it."

He never knew how he managed to hold his voice as steady as he did. "I mean it."

Kunzite shook his head; the long silver hair rippled like living crystal, like moonlight stolen from the Moon Queen herself. "Do you really think that without their leader those inept girls could do anything to hurt me?"

"You're not enough to stand up to the princess," Zoisite said quietly, his spine straight; Kunzite had ceased to move forward, standing some four feet from him, but he was already calculating escape routes that might give him some cover from any attack. Staying and facing the man was out of the question. It would have been so even when he had been Metallia's little flunky.

"With her ginzuishou, perhaps," Kunzite mused aloud, taking up Zoisite's gaze and not allowing him to look anywhere but directly into his eyes. "But without? She's just a girl with a short skirt and a few lightning bolts." He took one step closer, one hand raising from his side. "Zoisite."

Of course he opened his mouth to scream for the senshi.

Of course it never happened.

The crystal left Kunzite's hand, shimmering like a tiny mirage packed in on itself; now barely three feet from Zoisite, the light that exploded from it was concentrated solely on the slender man alone. There was nowhere for him to go, and like a deer in headlights he was frozen, waiting for the inevitable.

"Listen to me," Kunzite said in a low voice, every word careful in his incantation. "Hear my voice."

Zoisite's eyes fixed on the shimmering lump of zoisite levitating some inches above his gloved hand, yet there was consciousness in those washed-out eyes. "No," he breathed, but it was a mere whisper, without force; an empty gesture with no motion.

"Hear me," he insisted, in a voice that near crooned; Zoisite's eyes fluttered under the weight of the hypnotic words, even while he obviously fought viciously against the power of his suggestion.

"I don't want…!"

"What you want is what I want, Zoisite. Hear me now, and obey." Kunzite smoothly adjusted the lines of the spell, let more magic flow through the crystal; the body he held immobile jerked as if it had been hooked to an electric current. It was so strange, Kunzite mused, to see him this way – dressed in the style of the humans he had always regarded with such disdain. And all his hair, it was tightly braided away from his face; where were the silken waves Kunzite remembered so well?

"Hear me," Kunzite said, pushed more of the energy taken from Metallia through the crystal, and into the shitennou himself. "Hear me."

Zoisite moaned, hands clenching into fists. Kunzite was surprised to see the resistance; Zoisite had never been weak, but he was needing to put more power into the crystal that he had originally intended. With the beginnings of reluctance, Kunzite channelled further energy through the conduit – he knew surely the pain would be starting now. As he expected, Zoisite gasped, arched his back – and yet it was not the pain his former lover was in that shocked him. No, it was rather that the movement brought back a body-memory that had Kunzite's own flesh crawling with sudden warmth, traitorous body set alight by the beauty of the slender figure before him.

"There is much you must remember, Zoisite," he said, voice low and careful, as commanding as the pull of the earth on the moon. Inside his heart was beginning to clench, his body beginning to yearn for something more…but on the outside he was as stone. "But what you must remember most is this – you are of the Dark Kingdom. You are of Metallia."

"No," Zoisite said, but his clenched fists began to loosen.

"Do not resist."

The husky voice was agonised. "I must!"

"You are mine." The words escaped before he could stop them, the words that held the most truth and therefore the most power over this man. "Mine."

The momentary slip was in fact the best thing he could have done; Zoisite's eyelids, which had drooped as his mind had fought to reject the suggestions given, snapped open. "Yes."

And ah, there it was – the weakness, the line of cleavage along which all breaks would occur. "What was said to you in crystal song – disregard it. Hear only my voice, and know that you are mine."

"Yours," Zoisite said; his eyes were open and yet he seemed to be dreaming while awake. The expression therein was soft, tinged with mixed memory and desire. The jolt that skipped through Kunzite's heart when those eyes turned to meet his was electric.

"What I command of you must be."

"And so shall it be," Zoisite said, and he smiled.

"Will you come, if I release the hold upon you?"

The smile turned deeper, the younger man looking up from beneath long, dark lashes. "I will come to you, only you, always you."

Kunzite could scarcely hold back the tremor in his own voice as he lowered the stone, dropped his grasp on the invisible energy lines that had held his partner still. "Come to me, Zoisite."

There was no hesitation as he stepped forward – only perfect trust. "Kunzite-sama," he said softly, and then he was in his arms.

"…Zoisite." The body was as fragile as blown-glass in his grip, all long limp limbs; they entwined about him like the Spanish moss, like ivy about stone. "Zoisite, you will hear every word I say and you will remember."

"I will," he murmured, whispering the words into the line between throat and jaw; Kunzite swallowed, tightened his grip as Zoisite smiled against his skin, ghosted his lips across its warmth.

"But only in the deepest part of your mind," he said, and his voice was hoarse; he knew he was digging his fingers too tightly into Zoisite's hip, into Zoisite's shoulder, and yet he could not stop. "No-one must suspect, but you are mine still. Mine always. Do you understand?"

"Always and forever yours!" And the joy in that voice made it very hard for him to speak.

"They have lied to you." Zoisite's face was still buried against his chest, but Kunzite clearly heard the small sound of regret, of disbelief. "They have tricked you. I will not do the same. Know that we will bring the darkness across this world, our great ruler will triumph."

Zoisite sighed, pressed impossibly closer. "I want only you."

"You must do your part," Kunzite commanded quietly, and found himself with Zoisite's hair tangled about his fingers before he even realised he was stroking it. "Come with the girls into the Dark Kingdom. Encourage them. Aid them…and when you are back in this place, then I will come to you, and we will be together."

For the first time he looked upwards, meeting blue with green. "Always?"

The simple request, the little teasing smile about those lips…Kunzite, the perfect cool and calculating high king of the Dark Kingdom, could not resist the temptation to kiss him. He crushed his lips to those of the willing man before him, yanked off his gloves without even thinking of the consequences.

"Only yours," Zoisite breathed against his lips. "Only ever yours!"

Kunzite pushed him back, up against the wall; the slender body pressed against him, underneath him, was driving his dulled senses mad. The thick red-blond hair he remembered so well felt like heaven beneath his bare skin; digging his fingers into it, he loosened the tight braid he had worked it into and released every strand.

This was no time or no place to remember what it was to be with this volatile creature. But his body would not separate itself from his mind and he felt like he was losing control as Zoisite moaned into the kiss and tightened his grip on Kunzite's arms so that his nails dug in deeply.

The silken shirt beneath his questing fingers was very different from the harsh fabric of the uniform he remembered; but even though the tactile sensation of it was much preferable, it was still in the way. He was undoing buttons with his mind even as he slipped cold fingers against the burning skin, Zoisite's breathing quickening into short sharp gasps as he did so.

What are you doing? The rational part of his mind questioned, even as his body took over.

Zoisite was not complaining, coming to life as he was under the touch of his lover. But when he started making a motion downward, Kunzite's mind snapped into place.

"Enough."

The feral eyes widened as Zoisite took in the greater meaning of that single word – but he understood that it was meant. Still, he would not have been Zoisite if he had not still challenged him. "I don't want to be apart from you. Don't make me leave!"

Kunzite's aching body wanted nothing more than to acquiesce – but that was not the way of the highest shitennou of them all. "You know what will be done must be done."

"Let me stay!"

"Zoisite." With the flick of one powerful wrist, Kunzite had the pointed chin in his fingers and forced Zoisite to look up at him. Yet those wide eyes…he felt his resolve waver. I thought he had betrayed us, and part of me knows he did no matter what Beryl says. I should forget him. He is of no real use, but he…he…

"You will do what I ask you to."

Zoisite stared at him like he could stare right into his soul. "Then ask me to stay."

"I am asking you to go," Kunzite said coldly, but he could not hold the ice back from melting; he was after all far too close to a creature that burned far too brightly in his mind and soul. "I will wait for you to come back."

"Kunzite-sama," he said, but it was a sigh; he was looking away as he mouthed the words. Kunzite couldn't let him turn away, and stopped him by pressing lips over his again. The kiss lasted too long and he knew it; his heart was skipping and it was all wrong.

…it was supposed to be for Metallia, that I wanted him. Metallia, so that we could…we? I wanted all of this. It was for myself, all along!

"Go back to your little moon-people, Zoisite," he said, pressing him away with more force than he had intended. "Go to them – but come back to me."

"I'll bring them to you," he said as he walked away – but then he turned, looked back. His slim silhouette, half-turned in the lengthening shadows of evening, was coquettish and inviting. "But the most important thing I'll bring back to you is me."

The stone was too warm in his clenched hand as Kunzite watched the only creature he craved walk away from him again.

The girl was mutinously eating when he returned to her. He saw no point in beating about the bush, and so he asked bluntly as he sat down in front of her: "Do you have your moon-stick?"

"Like I'd tell you!" she snapped back, spraying crumbs all over the table. He had to admit he was impressed; not only by the range, but also by the tone of her voice. He'd expected tears and shrieks, not smart-assery from this one.

"Look, Usagi-san," he said, quite unable to keep his amusement out of his tone, "you might not have a lot of reason to trust me, but you're going to have to." He leaned back in his chair, propped his boots up on the table, and extended his arms in mock-apology. "I'm not giving you a lot of choice here."

"There's always a choice," Usagi replied with a pout, looking down at the food before her. She looked like all she wanted to do was go back to eating, but had only just realised who had given the food to her.

He watched her dilemma with a grin he didn't bother to hide, even though he made sure his voice was utterly serious as he pointed out: "I just want you to make the right one."

Usagi suddenly blew out a long breath, one hand twisting about her left ponytail. "But…it's just…oh, it's…dumb!" She picked up a riceball and pulled it into two frustrated halves; she continued to speak around the food in her mouth. "I don't know what you're doing, but—"

"I'm helping you defeat Beryl."

Usagi promptly choked on the riceball, which Jadeite found really rather gratifying. "What!" It was easy to see she was taking him seriously now, given she had shoved the food aside like so much maths homework. "Why would you want to do that!"

"Because I remember everything."

The blue eyes widened, her hands clenching about the edge of the table. "…remember…everything? What, like the Silver Millennium and the war and Queen Serenity and the princess and everything?"

"Yes," he said, and once again had to fight the urge to laugh. If anything was worth the effort and the pain of what he was going through, what still lay before him, it was being able to do things like this.

"…so why are you fighting against us?" she asked, and he figured it was fair enough; he still would have preferred it, however, if she'd lower her voice a little. As he remembered things, she'd spoken with a fair bit more decorum back in the day. Ah, well…the past reflects on the present, but it doesn't control it…

"But the princess said you used to be on our side!"

"I am on your side."

"Yeah, like snatching me off the street sure proves that!"

He stood then, counted off twenty quick paces before turning back to her with even eyes and no smile. "I brought you here because I need your help, Usagi-san."

"Well, sure, that sounds likely – I kinda need some proof here." She promptly crossed her arms over her chest and frowned, as if she thought it would make her look threatening; Jadeite had to suppress a snicker. No, it really would not do, to tell the girl on whose shoulders his life rested, that she actually looked like a constipated guppy. "What can you tell me that can make you sure you're really on our side?"

"I know who the Moon Princess is."

She took a moment to answer; when she did, it was utterly puzzled. "…well, sure, we all do."

"Perhaps," he granted, noting with pleasure the lines that appeared in her forehead as she considered that little conundrum. "The important thing, Usagi-san, is that I can give her what she needs to make the ginzuishou."

"The nijizuishou?"

"Mmm," he agreed, and counted off another twenty paces to keep him on an even keel before turning to her and adding: "But I need you to help, Usagi-san….because you have the ginzuishou."

Now she was really confused – and though it did send a flicker of disappointment through him, at least she appeared to have forgotten that he was the guy who had once tried to flatten her with some of Boeing's finest. "Um…that didn't make any sense to me."

He laughed – he didn't see the point in even attempting to hold it in. "It doesn't have to, at least not yet. I just need you to trust me, and do what I say when the time is right."

"Like what?" she asked, following his pacing about the room with trepidation.

"Follow me."

"…follow you where?"

"Back home." And he watched the flicker in her eyes, and nodded with a smile. "I will take you home, I swear."

"…you still haven't said anything to make me trust you yet," she said finally, her eyes troubled. That was enough for him; as long as Usagi saw him as a person and not a metaphor, he would be safe. That was how she had been, after all…and this girl held that woman inside her heart as surely as they all did.

"But remember, I did feed you."

She blinked, and then grinned at him so sunnily he almost took a step back from her – she was so bright! "…well, yeah, I guess you did."

Jadeite laughed again, because he didn't want to hold it in. "Usagi-san," he told her, utter affection in his voice, "you're not exactly the way I remember you to be, but…I can see her when I look at you."

"See who?"

"Your mother," he gave her, even though it was not strictly true. "I've got some reconnaissance to do. Stay here – I'll be back soon, and I'll tell you more then."

He then left Usagi alone with the food that she couldn't obviously quite decide if she wanted anymore. Curiously Jadeite paused outside the door…and found five prompt seconds later he'd lost the bet he'd made with himself already. Usagi was merrily chowing down again with no regrets,

He shook his head as he walked off down the corridor, but he understood the sentiment perfectly himself. Waste not, want not, after all.

"It took a lot of arguing, but Mako-chan's dragging Rei-chan back now," Luna confirmed as she closed Usagi's communicator. "She's not happy to hear that Sailor V is on her way…even though all she wanted three hours ago was the princess, now she seems to think that we should do all of this without her help."

"She's just upset," Ami said quietly; she could understand very well Rei's fear and frustration, even though she herself couldn't imagine ever reacting in quite the same way. "And worried about Usagi-chan."

"We all are." Luna's voice was flat, but Ami could still see the tremor in her large eyes. It seemed to be as much distraction as anything else that caused her to swivel her head and look over to the former Dark Kingdom shitennou. "…how's he now?"

Zoisite lay motionless on a divan that they'd procured from Rei's room, a cold compress pressed to his forehead as he answered for himself. "I think it's only getting worse."

Ami absently removed the compress, still typing on her computer as she pressed fingers to his forehead. "…still no fever. I think you're just over-stressed, like the rest of us."

"Mmm, but the rest of us aren't lying around moaning about it."

Zoisite hissed, sounding an awful lot like a tea-kettle experiencing an electrical appliance's equivalent of PMS. "Shove it, Endymion-sama."

"Come on, the princess doesn't need to come in here and see us all arguing like four year olds," Mako pointed out sensibly, causing everyone to look up in surprise. The brunette stood tall in the doorway, a mutinous-looking figure at her side. "Hey, guys. Brought you back a Rei-chan!"

"Thanks, Mako-chan," the raven-haired girl said dryly, but she didn't seem to be taking much offence at Mako's friendly jibe. "So where is she?"

"She's not here yet," Mamoru pointed out, resisting the urge to check his watch again. He'd been obsessively watching the hands move about the face since Luna's relayed message that the princess was on her way, but he didn't see the point in fanning the flames of Rei's obvious impatience.

"No worries about being on time, eh?"

"What did I just say, Rei-chan?" Mako's voice of reason was as firm as the bark of an oak, and just as natural. "Calm down, huh? We're all as worried about Usagi-chan as you, and if we're going to help her we really need to work together now."

"I know," she said, and sat down heavily. "I know. It's just…I can't take much more of this. We have to do something."

"We'll do something."

All of them looked up and over at the door again; even Zoisite raised his aching head to stare without comprehension at the owner of this new voice.

"…who are you?" Mamoru asked finally, the first to relocate his voice as they all stared at the slender girl in the unfamiliar uniform. She seemed faintly familiar, with large blue eyes and a shimmering curtain of pale blonde hair, but then…

"My name is Aino Minako," she said, and gave them all a deep bow. "I go to Shibakouen Junior High School."

"But who are you?" Rei asked, even though something in her voice seemed to suggest the name was on the tip of her tongue; only some peculiar spell seemed to stop her from ripping away the veil.

"I'm Sailor V." She tiredly tossed her long blonde hair, and for the first time they all noticed the small white cat sitting quietly by her feet. "Minako is my real name. This is who I really am."

"You changed your mind fast," Rei couldn't help but point out, sharp question in her tone.

"There's no point in hiding anything anymore. It's all too late for that." Her school case was held limply in her hand, and the small cat looked up at it with a sigh before speaking himself.

"We've got a lot to talk about, you guys."

"Like we didn't last night!" Rei seemed unable to help the words, although she didn't look like she objected to the way Mako then elbowed her.

"The situation has changed and we must adapt to it," the white cat said briskly, ignoring the exchange; in fact, he seemed to have eyes only for the blonde princess under his charge. "We have some disturbing news."

"So do we," Luna said quietly.

"We're aware of Usagi-san's predicament," he said, and closed his eyes briefly. "But there is something far more dangerous at work here."

"More dangerous than Usagi being in the Dark Kingdom?" Rei said, and this time Mako didn't try to get her to calm down – as it was, she looked like she was on the verge of shouting something similar herself. "Where the hell have you been anyway, princess? Attending a ball?"

Minako seemed unmoved by the anger of Rei and Mako, the disbelief of Ami, Luna and Mamoru. "Getting these," she said quietly, flicking the latch of the school case; a moment later, she upended it and its contents tumbled out in a sparkling rush.

"Oh my God!" Ami's hands flew to her mouth. "The nijizuishou!"

The three missing nijizuishou lay before them in a quiet pile; Minako only knelt before them in silence, her hands on her knees. She did not have to ask for Rei to bring out her own, nor for Ami and Mamoru to do the same.

"We have all the nijizuishou," Rei said softly, looking at the shimmering indigo crystal in her own hand. Was it her imagination, or did is gleam brighter in the presence of all its fellows? "We have all the nijizuishou!"

"But how did you get them?" Luna gasped, as entranced by the scene as they all were.

Minako brushed one hand over her eyes, and for the first time they all noted the dark circles under her eyes. "I was given them."

"By who?" Mamoru asked, his own two crystals held lightly in either hand.

"The shitennou of the Dark Kingdom named Jadeite."

Ami cast a look to Zoisite, who had since gone back to staring at the ceiling with the compress firmly on his aching head. Nothing about his stance suggested anything of what he might be thinking of the situation thus far. "…why would he do that?"

"Because he's the one who took Sailor Moon."

"Shit," Mako breathed; she reached out one hand towards the crystals, drew it back before touching them; it was as if she feared they might burn her if she got too close.

"But still, why would he do that?" Ami asked.

"A bargain struck." Zoisite's flat voice gave the answer; when they turned to look to him, he was yet still lying on his back on the divan. "He wants you to form the ginzuishou, and then use it as a bargaining chip for the safe return of Sailor Moon."

Minako nodded, pressed her lips together. "Correct."

"Oh, geez," Mako said, suddenly as pale as Minako herself. "We can't…we can't give them the ginzuishou…but we can't leave Usagi-chan there!"

"Rescuing her would also be out of the question." Zoisite's face was pale and drawn in the glittering colours of the crystals, and still he would not look directly at them. "Not one of us would come back alive."

"Speak for yourself! I say we go right in there and get her back!"

"Rei!" Luna sounded aghast. "I know you're upset—"

"I can't believe you think that it's not our place!" she shouted, standing before them all with her feet planted wide and her hands in fists at her sides. "Usagi needs our help! Sure, she's a ditz and a klutz and sometimes a downright baka atama, but we can't just leave her to them! What about duty? What about loyalty? What about friendship? What about love?" She then spun to focus the considerable power of her blazing violet gaze on the still-seated Minako. "Well, princess?"

She was calm even under the powerful gaze, hands limp on her lap. "Rei-san, please."

"Don't give me that crap," she snapped, and promptly dropped to one knee in front of the blonde. Her face was all but in Minako's as she said clearly and furiously: "You're the princess, aren't you? We were born to protect you, but it seems to me lately that you're perfectly capable of looking after yourself. So, if that's true, why don't you use some of that power to look after those who only wanted look after you?"

"Rei-chan, c'mon, this isn't helping," Mako objected, one hand reaching out to rest on Rei's shoulder. "I know you're upset about Usagi-chan, but screaming at the princess isn't going to fix anything!"

"Yes it is, Mako-chan." The hand was pushed roughly aside as Rei indicated the crystals upon the floor with a vicious swipe of one hand. "Form the ginzuishou. Now."

"Rei!" Luna cried; her white counterpart only watched the proceedings from Minako's side with silence.

"I mean it!" Her eyes flashed fire still, but they shimmered with something far more miserable. "I know it would be crazy to go running in there now, but if we have the ginzuishou…we'll stand a chance. I know it." Rei pounded her hand over her heart, her voice all but breaking on the next words. "Right here, I know it!"

"But we don't know anything about the ginzuishou," Ami said quietly, and though her words were sensible the tears standing in her eyes suggested that she hated that which she knew to be true. "Would it really be strong enough to protect all of us? And…and if we go in, Rei-chan, you know it wouldn't be just to save Usagi-chan."

"We'd have to get through Queen Beryl to do it," Mako said thoughtfully, and strangely she sounded less upset than the others did. "We'd…we'd be able to end all of it."

"If the ginzuishou is strong enough," Mamoru murmured, watching the conversation from the sidelines.

"It is." All attention swivelled to Zoisite, who hadn't bothered to sit up before speaking; his eyes were still closed and he in fact pressed the cold compress even harder against his forehead before continuing. "It is, if one knows how to use it."

"How do you know that?" Mako asked, unable to help herself.

He snorted, but still didn't open his eyes. "I've seen it done."

"We've all seen it done, at some stage," Minako said dully.

Zoisite's look was sharp as he looked to the blonde girl in the different uniform. "But it would drain the energy of the user to the brink of death – and most likely beyond. As it did Queen Serenity."

"She's the princess. It's her duty," Rei said, and though it was obvious she was trying to make her voice cool and clinical, her shaking hands betrayed she knew the horror of what she was saying. "As it is our duty to risk our lives for our friend, and for the protection of the earth!"

"I am not afraid of death," and the voice of the princess was soft; her sigh was like the last breath of summer being swallowed by autumn. Her head was now bowed, long golden hair falling over her face to conceal her eyes. "Your plan makes some sense, Rei-san, it is just…"

"Well, you could at least form the ginzuishou, couldn't you?" Mako said, uncertainly; she looked very much like she didn't really want to get involved in the argument. "But then…Usagi-chan's got the moon-stick, right? Do we need that for this?"

"Maybe we won't have the moon-stick," Rei said swiftly, staring at the girl, "but you don't really need it, do you?"

"It is a focus. It is simply more dangerous to use it without it."

Rei rolled her eyes, looked on the verge of kicking whatever was in range of her restless feet. "So form it already!"

"We have a big problem with that." When she looked up, her blue eyes were as clear as a summer sky, and as hard as stone. "I can't form the ginzuishou."

Zoisite sat straight up, his headache seemingly taking a backseat to this revelation. "What?"

"That's impossible!" Rei immediately countered, her frustration clear as crystal.

"I can't do it," and despite her power just a moment beforehand she seemed near tears now; her fingers were bloodless as she tightened them about one another in her lap.

The cat at her side looked troubled; he pressed one paw to her thigh, shook his head sadly. "Mina, you know it's not your fault."

"I know that," she said softly, despairingly; it might have been to herself or to the cat. Still, her next words were obviously directed at them all as she said strongly: "It wasn't supposed to happen this way."

"…why can't you make the ginzuishou?" Ami asked quietly, her gaze caught by the nijizuishou that winked and blinked like brightly coloured eyes in the middle of their circle.

Mamoru's voice was flat, his first real contribution to the proceedings. "Because she's not the princess."

Minako sighed, and the look she gave him held an apology that the others only half-understood. "I thought you might be the first one to know."

"…she's not the princess?" Rei said, not quite struck dumb by the revelation. Something in her eyes suggested, however, that she wished she had been. "But then who is?"

Zoisite rolled his eyes, flopped back down on the futon. "Oh, for crying out loud, isn't it obvious? Usagi is."

"…you're kidding," Rei whispered, although something in her frail voice said that she had realised it long before she could admit to knowing.

Mako whooped with sudden laughter, causing several of their company to look to her with surprise. "Oh, that's classic! Little klutzy Usagi, our princess! Right under our noses all this time! This is great!"

"Not so great considering where she is right now," Ami pointed out; of them all, she seemed to be taking the news with the most grace. "I agree with Rei-chan. We should go to her."

"Our princess needs us," Rei echoed, and turned her gaze to Minako. "Isn't that true?"

"Rei-san," said a quiet voice, and so surprised was she to be addressed by him that Rei looked to the cat without protest. "There is no need to be so cruel to Minako over this. Surely you realise that all she has done has been for the princess's safety. She has risked her own life and her own dreams to protect what Serenity's daughter wanted so much."

"What?" Rei asked, although she knew that was an answer she could have given to herself…if only she had the strength.

"Peace and happiness…on earth, if not in the Moon Kingdom," Minako said, and her smile was tremulous as she looked up at them all. "It was worth it. Every second of it."

"You're not the princess," Mamoru said, voice indiscernible as he watched her from across their circle.

She met his gaze evenly as she nodded, said the words. "No, I'm not."

The silence between them was long, and for a long uncomfortable moment the others did not know where to look themselves. Still, the smile that then crossed Mamoru's face was not really such a surprise. "But it's no wonder why you reminded me of her."

"Look, are we going to do this now or what?"

Mamoru turned from Minako to Zoisite, surprise in every long line of his body. "So you're in?"

He rolled his eyes skyward, the compress slipping to the floor as he threw his hands towards the ceiling in mock-frustration. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"Wouldn't have thought it was your scene."

"What else do I have to do? Sit at home cataloguing my shoe collection?"

Mako, sensing an impending exchange that would lead nowhere if not to blows, leapt in to the conversation with an eager: "So when do we go?"

Ami's reply, however, was enough to stun them all to silence. "What's wrong with now?"

The henshin wands were promptly pulled from their wandspace, and a rose taken from an unseen pocket; in a few short seconds, the remaining senshi stood with their tuxedoed guardian and a man who looked like he couldn't decide whether he was glad he didn't have to do the same thing, or if he just felt left out.

"You will have to go without us," Artemis said as he and Luna came to stand before the line. He had not consulted with the black cat, but she stood easily at his side and nodded as he spoke.

"We can't come with you," she agreed, although there was something hollow and miserable in her dark eyes. "It will be dangerous, and we will only hold you back."

"But…there's so much we don't know!" Mercury said, looking for all the world like someone had just threatened to confiscate her little computer. "Luna, we need you!"

"I have the feeling that where you are going, all barriers to your knowledge will fall," Luna said.

"And so possibly, will you," the little white cat added darkly, not quite under his breath.

"We're coming back. All of us." Mercury's words were not quite harsh, but spoken with enough force to have Tuxedo Kamen raising one eyebrow and a small smile cross Mars's lovely features. Still, most of note was the pointed look she directed at Zoisite, the way her fingers curled like she was only just stopping them from reaching out to him. "We fell once, we won't do it again."

"Yeah, right on, Ami-chan!" Jupiter crowed; the camaraderie had her smacking her so hard on the back she fell forward into Zoisite, who promptly caught her against his chest. "Oops, sorry!"

"…sorry," Mercury echoed as she struggled to find first her feet and then her balance; she was near-breathless as she stepped back from the slender man.

"Whatever," he said, with a little flick of his wrist; even though he didn't look at her, she still felt a small tingle slip through her as he stepped to her side, and said: "Is this it, then?"

A few murmurings later – with garbled instructions from Artemis that Luna didn't seem much inclined to believe in, even interspersed as they were with Venus's assurances and Zoisite's observations – they stood in a ragged circle, hands joined.

"…does anyone really think this is going to work?" Jupiter asked dubiously; she swung the hands of Mars and Venus, and frowned. "Do we have to click out heels together, or what?"

Zoisite snorted; his own form was far more elegant than hers. He stood to perfect attention, hands joined tightly to Mercury on his left, Tuxedo Kamen on his right. "Of course it will – but only if, of course, everybody believes in fairies."

"So I have to clap my hands?"

"Zoisite!" Tuxedo Kamen said, exasperated. He might have said more, if Mercury hadn't chosen that moment to speak aloud.

"I can feel it, you know…the power," she said in the voice of a sleepwalker; to the surprise of those who looked to her, she seemed to be glowing with a faint blue aura that grew stronger every moment. "The power of all of us."

Mars nodded; even as the others looked to her, the aura about her strengthened, appeared scarlet. "…I do, too."

Tuxedo Kamen sighed, his own aura coming into view as he did as the white cat had advised and turned his mind towards the vague shining light of a girl he'd once known, a girl he wished to know again. "It's missing something, isn't it?"

"Yes," Zoisite said, voice as hollow as stones filled with nothing.

"But that's why we're going in," Mars said, and looked to the girl who had played princess to save her life.

"For the princess," Venus echoed, and when she smiled at Mars her aura flamed brilliant orange. Mars could not help but echo both gestures back to the blonde, her aura making her appear as a phoenix ready to die and be reborn as many times as it took to achieve her goals.

"…for the princess!"

END CHAPTER NINE