Author's Notes: …er, well. scratches head Fancy seeing me back here, eh? But…well, I have been struck with the urge to actually do something with this tale of woe, so here we go.

I have to apologise if it sounds somewhat off, as it has been nearly a year since I updated it. With that said, if you actually enjoy what is here, please let me know! Although I have always (at least vaguely) intended to finish this sometime, what propelled me back into action was several reviews I have had over the past two months – and the last two days, at that. In fact, being the sad individual I am, subsisting entirely on the sustenance reviews can provide, I had a window open with the reviews displayed and every time I drifted away from this MSWord window, I looked to that and then got back down to work. So, really, it's all your own fault in the end.

But I hope it's a good kind of fault. Um.

Ten:

Fault Lines

"…holy shit!"

Startled, Usagi managed to upend an entire dish of odango with all the grace of an elephant in a glass store. "What? What?!"

"Your damn friends. They're here!" Jadeite had pushed himself to his feet with his first words, and was by now pacing about the room as erratically as a gangly-legged spider on LSD. "I don't…this makes all of this very complicated."

Her legs felt the consistency of jelly as she stared at the man, and when she looked to her hands she found them trembling. "…why's that?"

Both gloved hands were pressed to his head as if it hurt, but there was now a strange rhythm entering his rapid movements. Still, when he stopped suddenly and turned to look directly at her, he nonetheless looked like he had one bastard of a headache. "Look, can you do me a favour, and not transform into Sailor Moon until I ask you to?"

"…why?"

"Because it's harder for Beryl to trace you, if you're not Sailor Moon. Your spiritual signature's more clouded in civilian form, if you don't know what to look for…or can't look for." Jadeite sighed, and ran his hand through his hair until a good half of it stood on end. "Dammit! This just…I didn't expect them to do this, for crying out loud. Are they nuts?"

"But what's going on?" she wailed, shooting to her feet; the look he gave her was startled, but she just couldn't hold back the words that spilled forth from her knotted heart. "They're my friends! And if they are here, they're in danger! I think I should know what they're up against – especially if you expect me to help you out!"

"I'm trying to help you!" he shot back, and then his eyes widened again – this time in dismay. "Put that thing away!"

At first she genuinely had no idea what he meant – it wasn't until she looked downward in some curiosity that she found the object her hands were clenched about was the henshin locket. For a long moment she could do nothing but stare; the coloured jewels set in its border twinkled like the hearts of her distant friends. All she wanted was to help them, but…but…

I have to help them, but…can I…I can't do it by myself. I need this man…I have to be stronger than this!

Usagi slowly sank down to her knees, the locket in her lap. She closed her eyes tight, took a breath, and then looked up to the shitennou on whose grace she depended. "…so what's going on, then?"

Jadeite sighed again, and surprised her by flumphing down in front of her. "I gave your friends all of the nijizuishou," he admitted, and her eyes went very wide.

"What? They have the ginzuishou?"

He raised an ironic eyebrow, and nodded. "So you see, Usagi-san, why I need you to help me out. I don't know what you remember of what happened way back when, but the ginzuishou—"

"It kills the people who use it." The words were dull, and felt like sawdust in her mouth. "Are…are they going to use it? I have to go to them!"

"Stop." But his hand was gentle on her arm as she tried to stand, and stumbled. "Please, if you can't do anything else, just trust me."

Usagi swallowed with difficulty, and looked down again to the locket in her hands. Four colours…blue was Ami. Green was Mako. Red was Rei. Did that make yellow the absent Venus? They had never met, not yet, but still…she would be a friend, too, wouldn't she? …of course she would be! And then the centre…the moon…was that the princess, or was it herself…?

But does it matter? She's the princess, and she…I have to protect her! And Mamoru-san…they deserve to be together, after all. They…they stood up for us all on the Moon, and if they can have the love they lost now…then it's all right, isn't it?

When she looked up again, her eyes were swimming with tears. But even through them, she could see the deep sincerity of Jadeite's own as he reached forward and closed his hands over hers, over the locket.

"Please."

"I don't know if I can," And her simple honesty humbled him. "They…don't you understand? These are my friends. I can't…I can't just leave them. I…I don't remember much about it, you know."

"The Silver Millennium?" he asked gently, not moving his hands from where they rested over hers.

"Yeah." She sniffed deeply, completely without any elegance – but then with their hands as they were, she couldn't have blown her nose even if there had been a handkerchief to hand. "But you do? You really do?"

"Yes." The smile he gave her seemed accidental, like he hadn't intended to give it away so easily; but that, coupled with the odd faraway look that entered his eyes, made Usagi feel better. It…it made it feel real. Like the whole thing was more than just moments from someone else's story. "Sometimes I remember it more than I wish I did. Sometimes more than I deserve."

She felt the tension in his hands over hers, and whispered slowly: "What do you mean?"

"It was never paradise, Usagi-san," he said finally, with a wry smile that somehow reminded her a little of Zoisite. It had the same feel to it, reminding her of the time she had once gone into the attic to find the spare futon and instead opened a box of broken toys from her childhood…beloved things she'd forgotten she'd ever even had. "Don't let anyone ever try to tell you otherwise. But…it was pretty damned close some days."

"So why did you leave it?" she asked, even though she knew somewhere deep down that he couldn't really answer that in any way that she could understand. "Why did…why did any of you leave it?"

"Zoisite doesn't remember, does he?"

She nodded, and tried to smile – and wondered why she couldn't. "He says he doesn't."

"Then he doesn't." His absolute certainty made Usagi frown, and he shook his head to see it. "Zoisite has always been one hell of a liar. I don't deny that. What I do deny, however, is the fact that he would be able to lie about such a thing to Endymion-sama's face."

"But you remember," she said slowly, and looked down again to where their hands rested over the locket.

"I remember," he said softly, and she wondered why he sounded so…so…sad…as he added: "You'll remember too, before this ends."

She pushed her chin up, looked him in the eye; she didn't quite intend to speak as she did, but the words were as simple and clear as the thousand facets of a diamond cut in the shape of a crescent moon. "Are you going to tell me I'm going to regret it?"

He didn't hide his own surprise at the strength of her words; after all, he remembered all too well the way she had been in the beginning – such a little girl, all long coltish legs and blonde hair…blue eyes bright with tears rather than the burning energy of the resurrected Princess of the Moon. "Don't you think you're going to?" he asked, curious.

"Yeah." Usagi sighed quite suddenly, and screwed up her nose; her eyes were again bright, but these tears were not those of a child. "I…I only ever wanted to be an ordinary girl. But sometimes an ordinary girl has to get up and fight, too. And I guess that's me. An ordinary girl who has to fight. Just this once."

It was so easy to wonder how he had never seen it before. "Anything but ordinary, Sailor Moon," he said, and took his hands away with a small shake of his head. How could she not know...? "So, do you trust me?"

"Rei-chan would yell at me," she said softly, but she was beginning to grin as she looked up, and nodded at him firmly. "But yeah. I do."

"Then we're going to help your friends." He pushed himself to his feet, and then offered her a hand. "But first, we need to wait. We need to see what Queen Beryl does before we do anything ourselves."

"But what…what if anything happens to them?" Her hands were tight about the locket again as she stated with absolute certainty: "I can't sit here and wait for that!"

"We'll go to them. As soon as anything goes wrong, I'll take you to them. I promise."

"Promise?" she asked, and then quite suddenly stuck out a firm hand. "Shake on it?"

He smiled, and took her hand. "I promise, Usagi-san. In the name of the Earth, I promise you that."

"You don't look so good."

Zoisite rolled his eyes at the tall senshi who was eying him with a wary curiosity most people usually reserved for sizing up injured rottweilers. "I don't feel so good."

"You're not backing out on us now," Mars said abruptly, looking up from where she had been examining an ofuda with a depth of concentration that would have baffled Zoisite, if not for the fact he was concentrating harder on just not puking his guts up. "There's too much at stake."

"Who said I was backing out?" he said, aggrieved. "I love a good catfight. And there will be fur flying tonight, that's for sure." With that said, he rubbed at his eyes and cast a look around the rag-tag group. Although they had split somewhat to gather themselves after the disorientating slip though non-space, they were by now all staring at him alone. "I was healed by the moon-stick that still bears the residual energy of the ginzuishou, remember? This…oh, for crying out loud, you of all people should know what it feels like."

"…you can feel it?" she asked, not bothering to mask any of the surprise she felt. She was bright and so red in the darkness of the cavern they had materialised in, and she hurt his head almost as much as this place itself did.

"Even at my worst I wasn't exactly the devil, Sailor Mars," he muttered finally. He then wondered if he ought to have tried to sound insulted as he said that, but then realised he didn't care; he was more concerned about the insistent buzz at the back of his mind, the constant prickling sensation of dark energy over his skin. It wanted in, and…he could cope with it now, perhaps.

But then it was only weak, here.

"I…never said that."

He grinned, even though he'd never felt less like doing so. "I felt this…darkness…even when I wasn't….like this…but pain can be pleasure." He took a shuddering breath, and wondered how long he would be able to mask himself from the worst of the malignant darkness that seeped through this place like cancer. "And sometimes the difference isn't so important."

"When is it ever not important?" she asked, but it was a strangely uncertain demand from the fiery senshi.

"Duty, maybe." He coughed, and struggled to take another deep breath before speaking. "Love, definitely."

"…um, guys, sorry to interrupt, but…do you know where we are, Zoisite-san?"

Mercury's voice was unsure, but strangely comforting for all that. Zoisite blinked several times before answering, though the dim lighting of the cavern they had emerged in couldn't have hurt even the eyes of a new-born child. "…no…well, yes, but no."

Tuxedo Kamen's reply was the consistency of dry wall. "Hands up anyone who understood that one."

"Oh, shove it," he replied, but there was a lack of venom to the words that left Tuxedo Kamen feeling strangely uneasy. "The Dark Kingdom isn't exactly a small Tokyo suburb, Endymion-sama. And it's not like I ever knew every damn corner of it anyway."

"But we focused on Usagi-chan," Mercury pointed out quietly, her gloved hands tight about her closed compact computer. "…surely…we centred on her? Somewhere near her?"

"Are you suicidal, Sailor Mercury?"

She reared back from the biting question, eyes wide. "What? No!"

"Well, neither am I," he replied caustically, and she blinked rapidly several times. It was that, more than anything else, which caused Tuxedo Kamen to open his mouth. Mercury was too…fond…by far, of his wayward guard, and by no means did that give him the right to make her cry.

"…and…?"

Predictably enough, Zoisite gave him a dirty look entirely unfitting of an exchange between prince and servant. "As long as you weren't planning on going charging into the fray in order to get filleted by the bitch queen from hell, we should be a reasonable distance from all creatures that mean us harm."

"…it's the instinct of self-preservation?" Mercury said softly, and looked sideways at Zoisite like she expected him to bite her head off again.

"Correct," he said shortly, but she still smiled. Just a little.

"Yeah, well, but standing here protecting our own hides sure as hell ain't going to do anything for Usagi-chan!" Jupiter cracked her knuckles, and gave the others a sunny grin that only just hid the fact that the thick air of the dark cavern repulsed her as much as it did them all. "I dunno about the rest of you, but I'm ready to rumble!"

"We need to think about this," came the quiet voice of Sailor Venus.

"What's to think about?" asked Mars, and her voice was even as she pointed out to the grave blonde as she had done to Zoisite: "It's a bit late to be backing out of this now!"

"I would never do any such thing," she returned, in a quiet voice that nevertheless still

held the strength of gold-plated steel. "But Jupiter has a point – we need to know where we are first. We need to formulate some sort of a plan before we go charging in after the princess, otherwise…" Her voice faltered, then strengthened once more. "Otherwise, we'll be of no use to her. And that is not what I am here for."

"…maybe we should have planned better before we came in," Jupiter said, and looked down at her loosened hands with a different expression in her eyes than before.

"Forethought for the senshi?" Zoisite asked, amused. "Now there's a novel prospect."

Tuxedo Kamen's elbow was sharp into his gut, although he pulled the blow before it could really do any damage. "Maybe we could have, and maybe we even should have. But our time is short no matter how you look at it, and…and I personally just want to make sure Usagi-san has time enough."

"Time enough?" Jupiter blinked at the man – she had to look up to do it, which was unusual for the Senshi of the Storm – and asked: "Time enough for what?"

"Everything." His words were simple, but held a strange light of their own even in the encroaching darkness of the outer Kingdom. "Everything she was put here for."

"…I guess Jadeite's as good a place to start as any."

"What?" Tuxedo Kamen asked, turning about at Zoisite's quiet, thoughtful words.

The only other male of the group, however, directed his reply at Sailor Venus. "Jadeite gave you the nijizuishou, yes?" When she nodded, he echoed the gesture; it was however uneasy. "I…there's something weird about him."

"Yeah, well, there would have to be something weird about a guy who tries to run over girls with aeroplanes."

Zoisite's lips twitched upward into a not-quite-there smile, as if he couldn't admit that not only did Sailor Mars have a sense of humour, but also that it was one he could actually appreciate. "…and weirder still, I'll tell you. But let's lay off the tabloid fodder for a while—"

"Aw!" said Jupiter, who had been looking rather intrigued by the story.

"—and go for broke with the idea that Jadeite possibly knows what he is doing."

"What, like he had a full frontal lobotomy or something?"

Zoisite raised an eyebrow at Mars's phrasing, but he knew it wasn't as if she didn't have something like a point in there somewhere. "…something like that, yeah."

"…you're suggesting he knows what he is? Was? Er…should be?" Tuxedo Kamen resisted the urge to smack himself in the head, but he knew it wasn't really him; the tenses were all wrong because this situation was all wrong.

"The past and possible never tense," Zoisite said, strangely amused. But when Mercury opened her mouth to ask what he meant by that, he waved a slender hand in dismissal of what was apparently a private joke. "Never mind. But yes, I think Jadeite remembers the Silver Millennium."

"Why?" Venus asked, although of them all she was the one who looked least surprised by his assertion.

"The two swords." Zoisite closed his eyes briefly, and wondered if the feel of the darkness pushing against his mind would only crush what little was left of his spirit if he went any further into his former realm. "He used them once, during a fight for the nijizuishou. I've…I don't think we could draw such weapons without remembering how we obtained them."

"Like your sword?" Jupiter asked slowly, and he nodded with a grimace of pain.

"Like mine, yes. They were given to us to protect the prince of Earth. Unless…if weren't acting in that capacity, they shouldn't come to us."

"Would Beryl know that?" Venus asked quietly, even as Tuxedo Kamen moved to ask the exact same question.

"Christ knows what she knows," he muttered, unable to keep back any of the scorn that poured forth into his words at the thought of her. Still, that scorn all but faded as he moved on to the next ruler of this place. "But Metallia would."

Mercury shivered abruptly, as if back in their own world someone had just stumbled across her grave. "…could…could she hear us? Here?"

Zoisite shrugged, more careless in the gesture than he was in his mind. "Possibly."

"That's not exactly comforting!"

He snorted at that, and rubbed tiredly at his left temple; the constant pressure of dark energy against his fragile mind felt to him like listening to high frequency car alarms on loop. "Put it this way, Sailor Mars – Metallia isn't in any way human. She's not constrained by the limits of a mortal body – but she is constrained by the limits of her immortal make-up."

"Meaning…?"

"Her consciousness exists in a giant chamber behind the grand audience chamber of Queen Beryl. She is within a cocoon that sustains her, and she cannot leave it in such a state as she is in." And you all ought to be damned glad for that, too. "But all creatures here are of her. She can see through the eyes of any one of them, hear through them what echoes in her caves."

"We're not of her."

"No." And he looked Mars straight in the eye, and repeated her own hesitant words with icy assurance. "We're not."

"She can't hear us." Zoisite turned sharply at the words, to see that Sailor Venus was watching them both with a strange light in her pale eyes. "She might see us, but can't hear us."

"Why's that?" asked Mars, but Zoisite waved a hand at her to make her shut up. She bit her tongue with ill grace, because she could see that Zoisite was cocking his head, and frowning, and it was all for an actual reason.

"…now where did you learn how to do that?"

Mercury began to busy herself with her small computer while Venus smiled faintly. There was no real hint of happiness behind the gesture, however. "I was taught to do it, when Artemis told me that to protect the princess I would have to draw her enemies away by taking her name for a time. It…it guaranteed me some protection from the lie of it."

"But what are you doing?" Zoisite asked, looking up and around them even though it was all cold stone and heavy darkness.

"She's distorting sound. Muffling it." Mercury looked up from behind the visor, a strange expression in her eyes as she peered at her fellow senshi. "But I really don't see how."

"Neither do I!" she replied, and her laugh was high and girlish. Tuxedo Kamen's head shot around, and for the first time he saw something else in the peculiar, pale senshi who had played at being princess. There was an odd lightness of heart to the way she clapped her hands, and grinned at them all like a child who had finally mastered tying her own shoelaces. "But I can do it, and it works. It's also pretty cool, huh?"

"…so…where would Jadeite be?" Tuxedo Kamen asked awkwardly, looking away from Sailor Venus with some difficulty. He had never thought she could be…like…

Perhaps it is not so strange she was chosen to pretend to be what Usagi really is, after all.

"…does he live around here?"

Venus nodded, and it seemed she had slipped back behind her mask again as her voice was even and her eyes calm as she asked: "Can you be sure he'll aid us? And that your theory is right?"

"You spoke to him, Sailor Venus. You'd know better than I would."

"…perhaps," she acknowledged, and frowned.

"Does anybody else have a plan?" Tuxedo Kamen asked, and looked around the pale faces of the four girls who had to save first their friend. And then the world. …damn, have they always been this young? They're just kids, for crying out loud! "Because failing that, Zoisite's is about all we've got."

"Your support is much appreciated," he thanked him dryly.

"And very grudgingly given, mind."

"Well, it wasn't like I wasn't ever your bloody tactician, was it?"

Tuxedo Kamen had to take a deep breath to steady himself – although such things were difficult in the oppressive atmosphere of Metallia's realm – and yet still snapped back: "Well, who the hell was, then?"

"Kunzite." And his flat reply would have stopped a bullet train in its tracks. It seemed hardly strange at all that it was Mercury, her words as careful as they were tentative, who broke the silence with a soft question of her own.

"…what did you do, then?"

"Made a lot of smart-ass remarks," he replied, though the words were more wry than irritated as he looked to the blue-skirted senshi.

"And tea, maybe?"

The snide look returned however, as he turned back to the man who had once been the prince of the earth – the man who was already regretting his words, and wondering why they just couldn't stop setting each other off. "Yeah, I was your little tea-boy, Endymion-sama. I went to all the finest schools and learned the master arts under all the greatest teachers of Terra in order to serve the prince tea." The sneer on his face turned strangely lighter, however, as he then added with odd relish: "And oh, was I ever good."

"…uh, are we like, planning to save Usagi-chan still?" asked Sailor Jupiter, looking between the two men as if wondering how long it would take her to physically subdue them both. And despite her next words, she certainly didn't appear to think the task beyond her. "Like, sometime today?"

She had a point, and Tuxedo Kamen did his very best not to skewer himself upon it as he looked to his former shitennou and said with all the grace he could muster: "…well. Lead on, MacDuff."

Zoisite snorted, and though he looked less than pleased Tuxedo Kamen knew damn well he could have taken that far worse. "Under the circumstances, Endymion-sama, I think we'd both prefer if I called you Duncan and not MacBeth."

"Malcolm." And he couldn't help but smile at the surprise that entered Zoisite's eyes. Surprise…and a strange flicker of something alien. Something foreign.

Something a little like hope, perhaps?

"…yeah." Zoisite's words were slow, but far lighter than they had been in what seemed a thousand years. "Yeah. All things considered, I think I'd prefer Malcolm, too."

Jupiter looked between the two, sensing the change in their air, and being nothing but bewildered by what had forced it. "…I don't get it."

It was Mercury who patted her shoulder, and grinned up at the taller girl when she looked around in surprise. "You don't need to, Mako-chan," she said with a grin, forgetting the senshi guise they all moved under. "Just know that the universe can never be set to rights unless the true king is in place."

"…er, so Mamoru's a king, now?"

Zoisite snorted again, but it seemed for once he was actually doing it as a form of genuine rather than sarcastic laughter. "Of a sort, I suppose so."

"But we're looking for the princess…?"

Tuxedo Kamen wondered why he was smiling so suddenly – and why he felt that, at least for now, he might just never stop. "So let's go find her!"

"How should we destroy them, do you think?" The smirk on her lips and the lazy play of long nails upon the arm of her throne, however, patently suggested that this was not a real question. "Slowly? Quickly?"

Kunzite stood before the dais of the dark queen with his pale head high, and voiced an opinion he knew was only rhetorical. "Perhaps we should separate the princess from the group before we attempt any frontal assault on her entourage."

The bloody lips curved, revealing a flash of ivory that tapered to a gleaming point. "Perhaps so," she acknowledged gracefully, and Kunzite felt an odd jolt. Her temper so often obscured her loveliness, yes, but it also masked the simple elegance that was so inherent to the long limbs and husky voice. Interloper and usurper though she might have always been, Beryl had always been born to be a queen.

"And the prince," she added lazily, suddenly; his attention narrowed to a point of its own in his surprise.

"…Highness?"

"We will not destroy the Prince of the Earth," she said softly, although her eyes were as steel. "He could prove…to be of much use."

"…I see," Kunzite replied, although he abruptly felt as if a brick wall had appeared. A brick wall that stood between him and the road before his feet that he had once seen so very clearly. The smile still upon her face, however, suggested that perhaps the road before her was even clearer.

"The way to separate them will of course be through Zoisite – you have the promised control over him?"

Her tone indicated the negative answer would prove no answer at all. "Yes."

"Then call him." She waved a hand in dismissal, her opinion of her last king as obvious as the dark bloodstains that never came out of the marble underneath both their feet. "I don't care how you do it, but you are to call him back to this chamber, and with him he must bring both prince and princess. No other result will be tolerated. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, my Queen." And the words were bitter ash in his mouth even as he asked: "Do you wish for me to launch the attack upon the remaining senshi after the three have separated from the group, or would you see to it yourself?"

"Jadeite shall do it."

"Jadeite?" he repeated incredulously, quite unable to stop himself.

"He has proved himself to be of some use since his pardon," Beryl replied smoothly, her lips curving about the word. "Against all expectation, perhaps."

"I see," he repeated, for there was simply nothing else to say – and her amused smile only acknowledged how true she knew that to be.

"Dismissed, Kunzite," she said, and there was a peculiar note that seemed almost gentle as she added with all the command of a true monarch: "Do your duty."

The pale king, highest of the shitennou under both prince and queen, then and now. looked to the stone in his hand. All he would need to do is push him. Plant a thought, encourage it to grow. Wind a thread about his mind, and just pull.

Kunzite pulled.

Zoisite stumbled.

"…hey, are you okay?"

"…yes." The word was muttered, almost hissed, but he clung to the offered arm of Sailor Jupiter with far more gratefulness than his tone implied. "Shit."

"What is it?" Tuxedo Kamen asked, although with less impatience than usual. The odd tone in Zoisite's voice left little room for their usual banter. "Zoisite?"

"Headache." He grimaced, and dug his long fingers into the hair at his temple as if trying to pull the dull ache from it with only his perfectly-groomed nails. "It…you feel it?"

"The heaviness of this place?" He nodded with only a little impatience, and resisted the urge to press at his own temple. "Of course. But it's not making me trip over my own two feet."

"Weird, considering those penguin shoes you're in."

The taller man snorted, and rolled his eyes skyward; they couldn't be seen behind the white mask, but everyone could feel him do it. They'd been around the pair of them long enough to know, after all. "You must be fine if you can mock my dress sense."

"A thrice-dead corpse would still have life enough to mock your fashion sense," Zoisite flipped back. His light words, however, didn't stop him from grimacing again. Nor from dropping Jupiter's arm to clench both of his hands upon his chest, above his heart.

"…Zoisite-san, I don't like this." Mercury swiftly came to his side, pressing him to sit down on the cold, damp rock of the floor even as she took off one glove. With this done, the other senshi as well as Tuxedo Kamen coming to stand loosely about them both, Mercury pressed her bare fingers to his forehead before he could even think to protest. "You're…cold. Not burning up, just…cold."

"Very cold," he said, and grimaced – whether from the cold itself or just the admission, he wasn't sure. "…I've never been this cold."

"Why's he cold?" Jupiter asked, and peered down at herself with some curiosity. "I mean, it's…this place is awful. But I don't feel cold, and look what I'm wearing!"

"This place is doing something to Zoisite," Tuxedo Kamen said slowly, and then looked to where Mars stood beside Venus. "How are the rest of you girls feeling?"

"The vibes this place gives off would make a mass murderer sick," Mars said bluntly. "But I can block my mind against it. It's…it's there, but not really. Do you know what I mean?"

"I know." Venus's voice was very low, but that odd smile of before – a smile that belonged on a girl whose greatest worry was someone nixing her high score on the racing game at the arcade, not saving the whole wide world – was obvious again about both lips and eyes. "A shield. Thoughts to place between our hearts and this place. Memories."

Usagi. Her smiling face was forefront in his mind even as he knelt quickly down, and said urgently: "Zoisite."

He had his eyes closed again, even as Mercury tapped away at her keyboard with the force of a hurricane. "What?"

"What did you think of the princess?"

That got his attention; his eyes were dark as he opened them, but surprising clear for all that. "What?"

"Do you remember what you thought of her?"

"I…no. No, I don't." One slim hand came up again to rub at his clammy forehead, and his eyes creased in both thought and in pain now. "I…remember her. But you know as well as I do that the memories I have are as fragmented as yours."

"But she's what I hold between myself and this place." He swallowed, and his voice was thick and vulnerable as he added softly, looking about the group: "And I think…it's the same for you."

The nods from the girls were quiet, but no less strong for their reverent silence.

"But…you…" His voice trailed off, and he, not for the first time, wished like hell he could have his memories of that time back the way they had been.

It was Mercury who spoke next, however. "You have to hold something, Zoisite-san," she said to him softly, and when he gave her an odd look, she smiled sadly. "Something beautiful. Something pure."

"Your princess?" His bitter tone made Venus frown, but Mercury did not see it, and nor did Tuxedo Kamen – their attention was focused entirely upon the fragile creature on the floor before them.

"Whatever makes you happy," Mercury told him, and without asking permission took his hand into hers, and squeezed it tight.

He grimaced again, but nodded; his eyes drifted down to where Mercury still held his hand, and he noted it was the bare one she had used to take his temperature. Slowly he wrapped his own fingers about it, and looked up to her. "I…I can try."

"Please." A faint blush was beginning to creep up her neck, but she smiled at him as she made to stand. "Can we go?"

"We can go," he said softly, and didn't let her hand go until they both stood again.

"But what do we do when we find her?" Jupiter asked, and when the others looked to her, she shrugged. "Usagi-chan, I mean. It's…we're here now. It's not like we can just leave again." There was not a shred of cowardice in her voice, however; it was merely curiosity. The strength of determination in her was as solid as oak, and just as long-lived.

"We won't leave," Mars said, her voice as unwavering as the path of a volcanic river.

"She needs to form the ginzuishou." Sailor Venus rubbed her own head, and then shook it. "We give her the crystals, and she forms it."

"And then what?" Jupiter asked.

"We go to Beryl." Venus was looking to the passage that was their next route as she spoke the first words, but when she spoke the last she looked to them all, and was as calm as empty deep space. "And then we kill her."

"Venus!"

"There's no other way, Mercury," she said, and even though those pale eyes were as cold as that same deep dark space, there was a tremor in her voice that was not quite faint enough to miss. "If we don't stop her now, there won't be any world to save."

"But…" Standing as close as she was to Zoisite, he could feel her begin to tremble like the last autumn leaf in the first storm of winter even before he saw it. "We can't…we…we can't just kill someone!"

"What did you think we were going to do?" he asked, and when Mercury looked to him he was startled by the betrayal he saw in those dark eyes. "This is a war, Mercury-san. If we don't win we lose, and that's the whole truth of it."

"…I…" Her voice was weak, but the knuckles of her hand were white where they clung to her computer like a lifeline. "I thought…maybe…we'd seal her powers away. Or something."

"Or something?" And he was more gentle than he knew he was capable of as he said: "You don't have a plan there in your little computer?"

"Not a plan to kill her!" she burst out, and turned to the other girls with a white face and a high, trembling voice. "I didn't come here for that!"

Venus shook her head, the long blonde hair shimmering silver-gold even in the dim light of the Dark Kingdom. "You came here to serve your princess, and that is what you will do."

"But…but…not that!" she said in that same strange, broken voice – and then she turned, and staggered away with her hands over her mouth. The sobs she tried to stifle, however, were as loud as screams in the heavy silence that had fallen over them all.

Venus immediately made to move after her, but a strong hand latched about her arm. "Let me."

"What?" she asked, turning to look at Zoisite with something between irritation, surprise, and reluctance. He couldn't understand why he shouldn't be the one to have the right to surprise, given that as things stood he'd known the blue senshi longer than she had, but…

But then, she was their leader in times past. Hardly strange that she'd be the same now, no matter how times have changed.

And though he knew he would still appear ghastly pale to the senshi, he put everything he had into his voice and made it strong. "Trust me."

"Let him."

She turned at the quiet voice, and stared at Tuxedo Kamen with her mouth open. "What?"

"We'll be right over there," Zoisite said, and quickly stumbled over to where the blue-haired senshi had gone. It was hardly far – it wasn't like they could (or would) separate far, not in this place – but he still felt strangely isolated as he came up behind her, and said softly: "Ami-san?"

"I'm sorry." And her voice was muffled, the fact she was crying not a bit hidden even though she had her back to him.

"You don't have to apologise to me."

That had her turning to him, her eyes both surprised and miserable as she looked over his shoulder to where the others stood. Although they were doing their best to not stare at her, they were desperately bad at it; she did have to wonder how much of it was concern for her, and how much concern that Zoisite might do something stupid. "Are they…are they angry with me?"

"No." And he sank down to the floor, nodding at the space beside himself as he did so. "They just sent me because they're sick of me."

"They're not." But as she came down to settle on the cold, damp floor at his side – she grimaced at the feel of it against her bare skin – she said slowly. "…er…are they?"

His laugh was self-depreciating, but still rather easy for all that. "Of course not. How could they be?"

She could have played along with him at that, but he found he admired her all the more when she did not…when she chose to tackle head on what she thought she could not. "…you must think I'm such a little girl," she said slowly, quietly; she drew up her knees and rested her arms and chin upon them. When she tilted her head to look to him, her eyes were sheened with tears both shed and not. "I mean…you were one of Prince Endymion's Guardians, weren't you?"

"Yes."

"You were a real solider." She looked away from him then, and to where the others stood in a ragged group. Mars and Jupiter now seemed deep in hurried conversation, while Venus and Tuxedo Kamen stood beside each other in what seemed the uneasy silence of former lovers. "And yet here I am. I can't even…I can't even do what is necessary to protect my princess!"

"Being able to kill a person doesn't make you a soldier, Ami-san." His hand was cold but still strong as he rested it on her shoulder. And the words that came out of his mouth…they were as strange as this situation. They weren't his, they were someone else's…and that vague memory felt as familiar as did the rest of his hand against her. "Knowing what it is you strive to protect – that's what makes you a soldier."

She swallowed back what felt like an ocean of tears, and still stared out into the dark caves. "I'm not strong enough, like Mako-chan. I'm not brave enough, like Rei-chan. And I'm not…I'm not devoted, like Minako-san." She turned to him again, and threw out one hand in frustrated temper. "I mean, look what she did for Usagi-chan! She…she risked her life every day she was Sailor V. She fought alone, and she pretended to be the princess…all for Usagi-chan!" And the tears returned now, although they were silent rivers that trickled silently from her eyes now. "And I can't even do this."

"You're defined by different things, you know," he said, and shook his head. One hand raised as if to wipe the tears away, but it fell back to his side before she could even see it had moved. "You forgot that Mizuno Ami is the most selfless and generous friend Tsukino Usagi could hope for."

"You don't mean that."

"Oh, don't get me started, Ami-san," he said, irritable even as he twisted a smile at her. "You know I'll bitch at the drop of a hat – particularly if said hat is Endymion-sama's and is dropping because I ripped the bloody thing off his head – but I don't make stuff like that up."

"Thank you." She was still trembling, as she placed one hand on his arm, but it seemed…different somehow. And her tears had stopped. "…he was lucky to have you, I think."

"What?"

"The prince," she said softly as she leaned closer to him, as if she had a secret to drop into his ear. "He was, I think."

"What, until I turned on him like a rabid dog?"

"I think it's more complicated than that," she replied with a frown, like she knew his belligerence was played out just so he could try to ignore the strange sensation of her hand still on his arm, the oddity of having her lean so closely towards him. "I remember you, I think. Walking in the silver-mirror gardens of the palace with roses in your arms and the captain of the prince's guard at your side."

He jolted, as if her fingers had forced a massive electrical current straight through his arm and straight to his heart. "What?"

"I can see it. In my head." And those eyes were so far away even as she leaned closer, and whispered: "You came to the Moon with him, didn't you? All four of you?"

"…I don't remember," he said, though as she began to smile he knew that that just wasn't true.

"But…I can see it." And yes, she was so far away now, far away from here and him and back in that place that they had all left behind them so many years ago. "You were so beautiful, then."

"So were you," he said, and he simply couldn't help himself. The eyes that dreamed while awake were hardly the eyes of a child now; there was something of the adult she had been there now, and he knew he spoke the truth even though he didn't remember it as he told her: "You were as much a soldier as I was."

"…Zoisite-san," she said softly, and then she blinked; she was before him now, this woman-as-a-child as she smiled and nodded, all tears forgotten. "I know what I have to do, now. What we have to do. We have to do this. We have to save her. Them. And we can, I know it."

He closed his eyes, but he could still feel her there. Still feel her by his side, her hand upon his arm, her smile upon her lips. "…I remember those gardens. Silver roses, all with shimmering petals just like hundreds of mirrors of moonlight. …her light."

"You remember?" she asked softly.

"I remember him," he said, and felt a frown tilt his own lips downward. "Beside me. Always beside me."

"Zoisite?" And still she leaned closer; he could now feel her breath upon his cheek, and the gentle touch of three fingers upon his forehead. "Are you all right?"

"…Ami-san…" he whispered, and the images in his mind wavered like warping mirrors. They were silver, the roses, but then so was he, and then the silver… "…Ami…"

"…what are you…" And she barely stifled a shriek as he suddenly clamped on to her like he was drowning; his fingers dug into her skin like knives into butter. "Zoisite-san," she hissed through her teeth even as she pulled back, and then said desperately: "You…you're hurting me!"

"…Ami…san…" he whispered, and then only held tighter. The look in his eyes had darkened, like he was hearing something she couldn't…something that was trying to pull him away from where he held onto her so tightly. "Oh God, it's…there's something…"

"Let go!" she shrieked, as she felt his nails break through her skin. "Zoisite-san, stop it!"

"What the hell's going on here?!"

His hands fell from her arms even as the other man reached forward to wrench them away; as she fell backward he looked up blindly at the other man, face contorted in agony. "Endymion-sama," he gasped, and clutched again at his chest. "Endymion-sama, I…I can feel her."

"What?" he asked urgently, even as something inside him warned darkly that Zoisite's colour and obvious pain could not signal anything good, despite his words.

"She's close." He sat up straighter with some difficulty, and then looked to both the horrified Mercury and then to the other senshi as they gathered hurriedly around them. "It's the princess. I can feel her."

"What do you mean?" Mars asked, an ofuda held to attention in her hand though she seemed unaware of the fact.

"The light," he said, and then he coughed again; his breathing was ragged as he looked up at them all and demanded with an unsteady voice that rose and fell like the spring tides: "Can't you feel the light?"

"How do we get to her?" demanded Tuxedo Kamen -- and even though he took in once again Zoisite's ugly colour and trembling body, all he could see before him now was the bright grin Usagi gave away so easily to anyone who asked.

"Carefully," he whispered, and then reached out towards him and one other. "Venus. Come…come here." He grimaced again, and gasped before speaking. "I need you both here for this."

"What do you mean?" she asked softly, but she stepped forward with the grace that had had them all believing she was Princess of the Moon and no-one else.

"The captain of her senshi and her prince." So blindly he reached for their hands; without quite realising they were doing it, they both reached back. For all that he looked like death warmed over, his grip was strong enough for them to see why Mercury now stood some uneasy distance from them all. "I need you to call her to us."

"…what?" Tuxedo Kamen asked, dumbly.

"I can call her to us, through you." Zoisite looked up again, and though his skin was still dirty parchment, his eyes had returned to some semblance of their normal snarky selves – along with his voice. "Transport her. Pull her through the little spaces inbetween."

"…and you just realised this now?" he asked, completely unable to hold back the irritation he felt – and completely not caring about it, either.

"I can't do it in this form." He was impatient now, and yes, this was indeed the Zoisite he remembered all too well from the last few weeks. Bold, sarcastic, and so bloody annoying. "At least, I shouldn't be able to. But…the moon-stick wasn't all that entirely successful, remember? And now that I am back here, back in this place, and she is so close…I can do it."

Mars's eyes widened, and she said, so slowly: "You…"

"I can still do some of what I did here." Zoisite sat up slightly straighter, with his hands still firmly clamped about those of his two experiment-buddies. "That's why I feel so ill. My body remembers this place, and it wants…" He swallowed dryly, and for the first time a real note of unease entered his voice. "It wants to do it all again."

"Would it be safe?" That was Mars again, and her voice was so strongly uncertain as she spoke. "Could you control it?"

"What do you think?" he asked snippily, although he knew that wouldn't exactly make him any friends on Mars.

"I think he could." Her voice was soft and yet strong; when Zoisite looked up, he saw Mercury was watching him through hooded eyes, her bare fingers wrapped around each other like macramé.

Mars nodded, and her ofuda lowered.

"…Mars?"

"If Mercury believes, it is enough for me," she said, and nodded at Venus with all the great dignity she usually reserved for the undertaking of her miko duties. "I trust him."

"But do you trust yourself?" Venus asked, but she wasn't looking at Mars anymore. Her pale blue eyes – oh, so very pale and blue, like ice! – fixed upon Zoisite's, and she did not smile. "Do you, Zoisite?"

"My prince is here beside me," he said, the words spilling from his lips before he even knew exactly what they were. "I am here for him."

She smiled, and he realised for the first time that she still had the hands of a child as she curled her own fingers more tightly around his. "Then we'll do it."

The crystal was so warm now in Kunzite's hand, and he felt the bright bolt of heat as he sent the urgent thought again.

Come to me, Zoisite…come back to me.

"Do you think this will really work?" Mars asked finally; though she was standing some three feet distant from the group of three, she watched them with a closeness that assured all that she could whip out her wards and ofuda very swiftly should the need arise.

"…I don't think we'll get to Jadeite this way." Zoisite's voice was hollow, and there were lines of pain scribbled untidily over his pale face. Tuxedo Kamen, on the other man's left with his hand clammily held still, noted uneasily the fine sheen that had broken out over the delicate skin. "It's…it's getting darker. Beryl knows we're here."

Mercury started, and looked into the darkness behind them with real fear. "How do you know that?"

"The youma are getting closer."

"Youma?" Jupiter's spine stiffened, and her hands reflexively tightened into fists. "Where…where are they?"

"Why don't they just…appear?" Mars's voice was clear, but there was a definite strain to the words as her own hands began to move slowly in the pattern of one of her wards. "Like they do on earth?"

"Different strokes for different folks." Zoisite tried to smile at the puzzled look Mercury gave him, but instead dissolved into a fit of coughing. "They…they draw on the energy from those around them for things like that. While Metallia can afford to give them enough for the initial push out of this dimension, she won't do it continuously for them in this place. Drains her energy too much. On earth it's a non-issue because they use peripheral human energy for little tricks like that."

"Where will you get your energy, then?" Mercury asked; Zoisite in this state looked as if he wouldn't have the energy to flap the light gossamer wings of a butterfly.

"I don't know," he said, frustrated; there was force in his words, but she held herself upright. Yes, he had frightened her earlier, and frightened her badly. But before he had held on to her, before he had gone somewhere she couldn't reach, she…she had seen him. Seen him as he was.

And had known what he could be now.

"Your body could just be rejecting the energy of this place," she said softly, unable to keep back the smile that came to her lips as she realised the likely truth of it. "You can't use it, because it's…it's not you, anymore."

"I think…I think maybe you're right." Zoisite tightened his grip on the hands of both Venus and Kamen, and closed his eyes as tightly as he could. It had hardly seemed possible a moment ago, but he actually become more pale in the process. "It's like…there's a lock, or a door, or a gate or something. Between me and the matrix of the spell." He bit his bloodless lip, and hissed.

"…what does that mean?" Jupiter asked, looking to Zoisite, and then back and forth between Mars and Mercury, as if she couldn't decide who would be a better authority on such things.

"I can't…follow through." Zoisite grimaced again, and groaned. "My mind…can't respond."

"Would it help if I tried to add my power?" Venus asked quietly, tightening her grip about his hand even though it was obvious to all watching that Zoisite had to be all but crushing her hand in return. "If Tuxedo Kamen did?"

"No, I don't…you're too bright." He opened his eyes, and the look in them was both hunted and desperate. "It's dark magic, black magic."

"…but you just need energy, don't you?" Mars asked, and looked to Mercury for another answer; the blue-haired senshi, however, was caught between staring at her computer screen and at the struggling shitennou before her.

"I…no, it's…I think whatever Sailor Moon did to me changed me too much." Zoisite sighed, and then held up both hands with arms that could barely support their own weight. "I can't bridge the gap," he said dully, letting them all fall back down again.

It was Tuxedo Kamen who spoke at last, his words strained as he looked to where he still held the other man's. "Then maybe you shouldn't be trying."

"Maybe we shouldn't," Venus agreed quietly, and carefully extracted her hand from his. "Let's just…try another way."

Zoisite looked to them both with blurry eyes, and shook his head with sudden force. "No, it's not…I think…"

"What?" asked Tuxedo Kamen, although he took his own hand back at rubbed at it; Zoisite had been as cold as ice, and that had seemed to bleed through to him. Why on earth had he been so cold—

And then Zoisite screamed; his hands shot to his head and clenched about his temples with enough force to almost break the skin.

"Get out of my head!"

"What the hell?" And then he shouted as Zoisite's hand shot out like clamps; Venus's echoed gasp told him clearly that he had got a hold of her just as well as he'd gotten a hold of his former master. "Zoisite, let go of me! Right now!"

"I'm going back to him." And his eyes and voice were as wild as the sea as he turned a strange, burning smile upon the man who had been Prince of the Earth. Tuxedo Kamen's blood ran cold as he saw the desperate, merry triumph in those green eyes as he shouted to the dull stone ceiling above them all: "I'm going back to him!"

"Mars!" Venus's voice rose above his laughter, the unmistakable tone of command and power. "The ofuda!"

But she needn't have asked; Mars had leapt forward the second she had felt the darkness that had clustered about Zoisite from the moment he had arrived finally begin to seep back inside of him. With a shout and a flash of light, even in this dark place she called the bright blazing fire of her patron down to her. It ran through her blood, like a thousand burning rivers of pure power; it was so easy to pull it forth, and shower the whole cavern with the force of Mars.

But it wasn't right; there was another light here, but…no. It wasn't light. It was dark, and it was seeping into her now, covering her flame until it was only embers, only ash, and then…and then…

"Mars!"

She didn't know who called her name, but she couldn't hold the fire; it blinked out, plunging everything into darkness. Everything but the strange burning blue light about the oblivious Zoisite and his two helpless victims.

"It's…I…" She tried to step forward, and staggered under the weight of the darkness that poured forth from the slender man. "I…I can't…!"

"Oh, hell," muttered Jupiter, and then there was a thump, a scream…and then silence.

Ordinary light – at least, light as was ordinary in this place – was slowly returning as Tuxedo Kamen tried to sit up; his hand was burningly cold where Zoisite had gripped him in his crazed spell, but otherwise he felt relatively in one piece.

Or at least he would have, if some idiot hadn't just fallen on top of him. "Get off me!"

"…aw, I'm sorry! Did I…Mamoru-san?!"

He looked up with complete and utter disbelief into two very confused, very blue, very welcome eyes. "…Usagi?!"

And as all save one descended upon the girl, Zoisite lay alone and unmoving upon the cold damp stones.

"Where is the girl?"

Jadeite looked up from where he lounged in his chair to the tall figure of the shitennou recently burst into his chambers. "She's not here, obviously," he said comfortably, seemingly not at all taken aback by the man's entrance – nor by his blazing silver demeanour.

"What have you done?" the white-haired man growled as he stalked forward; without thought he took Jadeite by his lapels and dragged him upward and to his feet. Most men should have been trembling to be under the furious gaze of a thwarted shitennou of ice; Jadeite, however, seemed scarcely aware of the circumstances of their conversation.

"What have you done?" he asked quite simply, not making any effort whatsoever to break free from Kunzite's grip. "I think you've broken Zoisite's mind."

"What have you done with Sailor Moon?"

Jadeite patiently waited for Kunzite to finish shaking him before speaking. "She got away from me," he said, and when Kunzite's pale eyes blazed silver, he couldn't help but say with an ironic grin: "I'm an incompetent, remember?"

In disgust, Kunzite opened his fists and simply let the other man fall. "The Queen will have your head for this."

Jadeite got back to his feet in his own sweet time, as if he'd merely tripped over his own two feet. "Been there, done that, didn't get the t-shirt. Still regret that part, actually. Ouch," he said, rubbing absently at his hip. "I regret nothing else, though."

Kunzite felt as if his world was turning itself but upside down and inside out as he stared incredulously at the man who had not only lost him the princess and her prince, but also the only creature he had actually wanted to capture within the webs of this dark place. Without even really thinking about what he intended to do, he closed his right hand tightly about the other's arm and started walking. "You are coming with me."

"Where are we going? The zoo?" Jadeite seemed not at all bothered by the punishing pace Kunzite chose to set, all but dragging his feet as they moved from his sparse chambers. "Didn't realise we had one here, actually."

"Shut up."

"Why? Do I remind you of someone?"

"When the Queen realises what you have done—"

"You did it, you know," he interrupted, and didn't stop even when Kunzite halted to turn the coldest of his glares upon him. In fact, the idiot just chose to continue. "You told Zoisite to fake the spell. Hardly my fault if you let him work it properly."

"…then the girl is—"

Jadeite shrugged. "Having a good old meet-up with her friends right now, I'd assume," he mused, and then he actually smiled. "Wonder if they're all going to go out for chocolate milkshakes afterwards?"

The hands of her friends were as warm against her skin as their tears. "What happened?" she asked dazedly, in the hopes it would make some sense of the babble of their desperate, happy voices. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to work…at least, not until Tuxedo Kamen knelt down before her and smiled.

…oh, why did he have to be so perfect? And so somebody else's…?

"The spell worked," he said softly, as the girls quietened down. However, their hands did not leave her. She'd never known before now that you could hold the hands of four people simultaneously, although she had to admit she actually wasn't too sure how she was doing it right now. "Or didn't work, depending on your perspective."

"What spell?" she asked, and then looked about her with increasingly wild eyes. "…and…where are we? And what…oh my god, what is wrong with Zoisite-san?"

The girls wouldn't let her stand to go to him, and Mercury's voice trembled as she spoke. "He told us he was going to work a spell to bring you to us." She paused to take a deep breath, and added hoarsely: "But I think it was actually to take Venus and Tuxedo Kamen away."

Usagi's eyes widened, and she stared at the still silent form with nothing remotely approaching comprehension. "But…why?"

"I don't know," she said, and she used her free hand to wipe away what Usagi abruptly realised were tears. "But…I think…"

"We should leave him here."

"Tuxedo Kamen-sama!" Usagi gasped.

"He's knocked out. Jupiter got him hard." That was Venus, and the girl ignored the startled look on Usagi's face as she suddenly realised that Sailor V now looked completely different. Her former fuku of blue and red, so different in style to that of the rest of them, was now orange and just…just like…

…what is going on here? She's the princess, and—

"Forget him for a second – we need you to do something, Usagi-san," the other blonde was saying urgently, even as Usagi's mind started to rebel against every little thing that was going on around her. "Right now."

"What?" she asked, stupidly; the faces around her seemed to blur as she realised that she was still in her civilian form, and they were all senshi. All but her.

And then Sailor V – but not Sailor V – poured a crystal river into her hands.

"You have to do it." And the other girl closed Usagi's shaking hands around the crystals, and held them tight. "Please, Usagi-chan! Do it!"

"…do what?" she asked, her voice high-pitched and alien even to her own ears.

"Make it," came another voice, this one deep and somehow…somehow…

…Tuxedo Kamen-sama, I always loved you, but…I can't…she's the princess…

His eyes were as blue as the sky of earth, of her home of this life; his voice was the echo of a thousand years lost as he commanded her so gently: "Call it back together."

"The crystal, Usagi-san." That was the princess again, her blonde hair the shimmering tendrils of the sun as she nodded. Her blue eyes were filling rapidly with tears as she added so softly: "The silver crystal of your mother, her mother before her…and her mother before her."

Usagi felt like the whole world had abruptly exploded. And she was surprised at how quiet it had been…how quiet it still was now. "But…you…"

"I pretended." She was smiling even as her tears spilled down her cheeks, even as she clenched their hands together so strongly about the crystals that Usagi felt a facet of one break her skin, felt the blood begin to well in the cut it left behind. "You are the one, Usagi-san."

"…no," she said, and turned from the princess – but not the princess – to see only Tuxedo Kamen smiling at her. Only Mamoru-san. "No, I'm not!"

"You are," he whispered, and she had to look away again.

"…no, you are," she said, blindly staring at the other blonde. "You're the princess. I protect you…don't I?"

The other girl still made no effort to brush her tears away as she looked to the still body of Zoisite, and drew a deep breath. "It heals, Usagi-san. And that's what you want to do, isn't it? That's what you are."

And Usagi could do nothing but burst into tears.

"Usagi!" And they all gathered around her, her…her senshi…her senshi; blinded by her tears she still felt them as they moved in closer to her; and there they remained with foreheads pressed together, and pressed to hers.

"Will you do it?" Sailor Venus whispered, and the others echoed her question.

"Please, Usagi."

Bewildered, Usagi looked first to the crystals in her hands, and then up at Mamoru with absolutely no comprehension at all. "…can't I at least have something to eat, first?"

END CHAPTER TEN