I do not own Sailor Moon nor any associated properties.

20 minutes later, the Guardian of Time was descending the grand staircase, laden with a now empty tray of food, contemplating the conversation she had just participated in.

After her princess had so blatantly reveled she felt no need to fight or continue on in any way, Setsuna had been shocked in to silence, understandably, though not an easy task for someone who generally knew much of what was and is to come. Her princess had just continued to look as her, as though challenging her to respond to the revelation. Setsuna had no response though, possibly for the first time in her life. It had take her several moments to recover. When she finally did regain her thoughts, the wise older woman decided this would be a topic for another day, most likely saved for a larger group.

"Right, well, we can discuss that bit at a later date." Slowly, her normally calm and tender voice came back to her. Setsuna moved to point at the now half empty tray. "I really must insist you finish your breakfast though. I am sure you aren't at 100% and you can use any nourishment or vitamins it may provide."

Understanding the conversation was far from over or forgotten, the young blonde made her way towards the comfortable arm chair again. She really was still extremely hungry and the food had been delicious until the conversation had taken a turn. As she returned to eating, Setsuna began asking questions regarding her mundane life such as school, friends, family, what she liked to do in her free time. Usagi noticed that the woman was shying away from any questions regarding the senshi as well as any sort of romantic life. She had the feeling it was do the her previously depressing answers about the battle in the park. In turn, she tried to learn as much about the dark haired woman's civilian life, though it was clear she didn't like to talk about it.

Eventually, after the food was long gone, Usagi began to feel the call of sleep loud and clear. With a large yawn from the blonde, Setsuna moved to pick up the tray of empty dishes, instructing her princess to head to bed and rest as much as she needed to. This was how she found herself with dirty dishes on the way to the kitchen. Soon she started washing all of the empty plates and bowls instead of letting they pile in the sink.

"How is she doing?" A male voice came from behind her, nearly making her jump and drop a glass. Luckily she had been getting used to being snuck upon since the outers had found their new allies.

"Worse than we could have imagined." She replied calmly, "And really you need to control your habit of sneaking up on people, Kunzite, particularly any kind of friend." Irritated that the general continued to act as though the Moon and its allies were enemies and were spying against each other as they were a millennia ago. "No matter, we need to sit down and discuss the situation as all events before she wakes. I have how doubt she is as prone to wandering when board as she was in her previous life, and that could prove disastrous for us. Would you please gather everyone in the lounge, I am nearly done here."

"What do you mean? What is wrong?"

"Please, I would prefer to have this conversation once with everyone instead of several times over. Can you just wait 10 minutes, please?"

"If I must, but this had better be as important as you say. I don't like to wait for information." With that he was off to gather the others. Somehow he refrained from saying anything other than they were needed to discuss next moves. Once they were seating, discipline of centuries had them sitting in silence waiting for their final member, all terrified of the information they were about to receive.

This was the scene Setsuna walked into a few minutes later, 6 extremely grim faces, and she knew they were only going to become darker. Taking her time, she made her way to the last open seat in the circle, making sure to situate herself comfortably for the long conversation ahead. With one last look around at the gathered bodies, she took a deep breath to begin.

"Well, she is awake, or was when I went to see her. And other than being weak and tired, she seems very much the same girl we knew years ago." This statement caused a sigh to move around the group, releasing a bit of the tension they all held. Knowing their princess was recovering meant that not all hope was lost for the future. It was short lived however with the next statement.

"You were right when you brought her here. It is true that she did not intent to fight back that night. She has, or at least had given up on continuing on." Setsuna couldn't make herself look at any one around her with this last statement. She did however hear several shocked voices around her to no surprise.

"Fuck"

"Why… What could have made her?"

"God damn it!"

"Where were the inners?"

To the surprise of the woman, one of the few people she had expected a reaction from remained silent. Looking up, she saw Haruka across from her, frozen with a look of non-comprehension crossing her face. Sweeping her eyes around the group, she was unsurprised to see Kunzite sitting unsurprised almost bored at the news. She was sure he was terrified though, the warrior was simply to schooled to show the emotion.

"It seems as though a sort of rift has begun to form between the inners and their princess. She feels as though she is a burden to them." Michiru looked as though she was about to say something to this information but black haired woman shook her head and continued. "However, it would seem a much bigger separation has developed between Serenity and Endymion in this time." Looking between the four men present she finished her thoughts. "It would seem the he has expressly told her he doesn't love her anymore and that he feels obligated to stay with her. It seems like he believes that she isn't good enough for him, though I am not positive."

A loud bang came from behind her, followed by the splintering and cracking of wood. Looking around, Setsuna saw Haruka with her hand half a foot wall. It seemed that her frustration with the earthly royal knew no bounds. Her next muttered statement did nothing to calm those in the room.

"I am going to kill him with my bare hands." She has breathing hard, trying to control herself and not simply go after the male now.

"Personally, I can't believe the prince could ever knowing leave the princess, he doesn't have it in him." Zoisite stated, as though it was the end of the matter. "He loves her with everything in him. I am not sure it is even physically possible for him to be with anyone except her."

"Zoisite, as much as we would all like to believe that, those are the traits of Endymion in the past. We don'e even know his identity today." Nephrite took no joy in presenting the sad truth. "He could be a completely different person this time around. And we know he was prone to asshole-ish tendencies in the past as well as a bit of a playboy before Serenity. It is possible that those were the characteristics that came with him to the present."

The unfortunate logic sounds, but it didn't make any of the Senshi feel any better. None of them had known the prince well in the past, outside of his relationship with Serenity, that what they all could tell, what half the kingdom could tell, was how devoted they were to each other. Setsuna in particular wasn't thrilled with this realization. While she was aware the child in this time was their future daughter, time was constantly influx. She supposed that as long as the young princess from the future was around, the couple would end up together, and she could continue to hold the secret of the girl. Still there was a nagging feeling that some aspect of the story was missing. The key holder would be keeping a closer eye on the timeline though. It was bad enough someone was coming through from the other end, now she had to worry about the changes in this time.

"I don't see how he could not love her. If we simply base the feelings on his reaction when we decided to bring her here". Zoisite continued to try and insert logic into the man's action. "He was completely desperate to get to her, anyone could have seen the panic on his face.

"That could have been because he was afraid of the princess being in your arms in particular. The last he knows, all of you were working for the Beryl." The outer senshi had known about the attack in past they had been defeated by the time the earth warriors had been "turned" and in the present, they knew the inners could, and needed to deal with the situation themselves. The three older woman had always been around, just in case the situation went south, but their slight worry proved wasted thankfully.

"It could be, but I truly believe it was do to his feelings towards her. You forget we do remember exactly how much of his heart he gave to her int he past. It was to a point near insanity." Zoisite continued to argue. "I would assume that if ANY of his past characteristics continued into this life, it would be that love, one that could easily span the ages."

"It doesn't matter how what his feelings are now. If he made her feel so worthless she wouldn't even fight back in a simple fight, I am personally going to kill him myself." Haruka was allowing any of the blame to be taken of the idiot royal. Kunzite had stayed quite for the entire discussion so far, though it seemed this sudden proclamation of hurt towards his true leader was exactly needed to pull him in.

"Haruka, while I understand your impatience with the man, that is quite the claim to make in front of his personal body guards. Especially while you are clear outnumbered." A frown emerged on the man's face as he continued. "I will say Endymion, past or present is far from perfect, and his mind was always primarily focused on Serenity once the two met. I wouldn't doubt he has his reasoning for distancing himself from her." Noticing several faces about to make explanations, as well as a loud scoff he rose his had to continue.

"I am in no way condoning his actions, I am merely saying we don't know both sides, so we should hold off on judgement." Then he looked the tall blond senshi in the eye. "But if he cannot produce an extremely understandable reason, then I am afraid you will have to get in line to inflict any type of bodily pain, if I personally leave him alive." This simple statement earned him a nod from the woman, a very large win.

There was also confusion on the part of the other Shitenniou. Kunzite had never mentioned nor implied he cared for the woman who had stole Endymion's heart. In fact on several occasions he was quite vocal about his distrust and dislike of the innocent thing. However, Kunzite knew how deeply the emotions between the two ran, as well as the fact that Endymion would easily die for the girl. He was sure of this. If the prince was one thing, it was loyal to a fault, especially with her. Breaking that loyalty would mean he was no longer worth the title he held. Something Kunzite would happily remind him.

Taking over the conversation again, Setsuna cleared her throat.

"Than we need to figure out the best way to proceed, starting with explaining to Tsukino Usagi, as I have been informed she is in this life, where she is and who is in the house. I am not worried about introducing her to Haruka and Michiru, there is no reason her memories shouldn't return as easily as they did with me. However…" she trailed of looking around.

"However, her memory of us is the battle when we killed her senshi on the moon." Kunzite finished, hoping to move this along.

"Actually," Michiru chimed in, "its worse than that. Beryl has already resurfaced in this time. Your clones where with her. They didn't exactly entreat themselves to the inners. Particularly Zoisite and Kunzite did not make life great for the princess in particular." When confused looks crossed both men's faces she continued. "It was your clones that lead to Endymion being injured near death, kidnapped, and brainwashed to work for the Dark Kingdom."

A stunned silence followed this revelation. Even Kunzite, the usually emotionless leader looked as though nothing could be worse. A murmur cam from Haruka that sound something like 'figures' but no one chose to acknowledge it. The men were in complete and utter shock. The woman figure it was better to let them process the information internal before trying to engage them in discussion.

"No" was the first sound that came from Nephrite. It was though he was denying the information he knew in his heart was true. Jadeite stood closest to him looking as though he might break down in tears, shaking in complete disbelief.

"Not again! There is no way they will trust us now, even if we can convince them it wasn't us." Zoisite seemed to be trying to develop a plan to present the information to the girls, but couldn't figure out a way. "I guess that makes their reaction in the park much more sensible. They have already seen 'us' take someone they care about in this life. And now they think we have done it again."

Kunzite looked completely defeated. How could any form of him put his prince through such agony? How could he help brainwash his liege against the moon? There wasn't an evil bone in his royal body. And even if he had been taken, how had he succumbed to such tactics. As though hearing the question in his head, the senshi of time spoke.

"He was injured near death when he was taken. The clone of Zoisite had lured him into battle accidentally taking Sailor Moon as well. When it came time to start the dual, he tried to injure Sailor Moon, though Endymion put himself in harms way, this was the same night it was reveled they were the ancient royal heirs. It goes to show there has always been something between them."

Zoisite paled at this story. The inners and the prince believe he had tried to kill Serenity, and through cheating as well. Kunzite though did feel a bit better knowing the man had retained something of his former feelings. It may be he just needs to be trained better in this time, a task the general would happily take on himself.

"Now that our job became 20 times harder, how are we planning on accomplishing anything?" frustration was clear in Haruka's voice, likely from the lack of progress being made. "How about we continue with Michiru and I meet Serenity,"

"Usagi."

"Right, Usagi tonight, and we can begin trying to bring her around to hear your case?"

There was a general acceptance of this plan, so Setsuna agreed they could come with her the next time she took food up to the girl.

"What about the inners? What are we planning on telling them?" Nephrite inquired. "Shouldn't they know she is here and ok?"

"No!" Setsuna was emphatic. Those around her were taken aback by the strong response. "Usagi has specifically requested that we do not contact them. She does not want to feel like a burden to them. Though I believe it is in part that she does not want Endymion to know. In truth, it might be a good thing keep all of them in the dark for a while. It seems like they need some time apart. Maybe this will help them appreciate the princess, and allow his highness to figure out his feelings to keep him from leading her on."

"I agree but we must be careful. If he does have any feelings for her, and if any of his personality is similar to his past, god save who ever stands in between him and this love. Endymion will have no issue tearing this world apart until he finds her, and something tells me who ever he is in this life, a similar reaction would not be out of reach." Kunzite stated in a completely calm manor, though nothing could mask the truth of his words, and a shiver went around the group.

"Lets just hope it doesn't come to that." Michiru stood, "I don't thnk there is much more we can discuss before seeing Usagi. Why don't we all take some time and regroup tomorrow? I feel it is needed for most of us." She looked around at the men, who were still reeling from their realizations. With that everyone went their separate ways.

Kunzite stayed in the room though. He moved to the large windows that looked out on to the back grounds and gardens. A sigh escaped him.

"It's not your fault. You know that." Zoisite had also stayed behind and appeared at his shoulder. The pair stood in silence for several moments. A doe meandered across the lawn grazing here and there, but staying close to the edge of the woods.

"I should have been there for him. He needed support and guidance, but all he found was betrayal and death. How could he stand a chance in difficult situations?"

"You were killed. Its not like you could have told Beryl, 'Don't make evil clones and make it seem as though we have turned against our liege.' There was nothing you could have done. You taught him everything you knew. Its likely he still knows some of it today." Exasperation oozed from the blond's voice. As though he was exhausted of this conversations.

"Ultimately I think I know that but I may have been able to keep him from breaking that young girl. She was so broken the other day. You saw her."

"If you couldn't stop him from chasing her, I don't know what you could have done from leaving her. He needs to figure out what he wants, and how to handle his decisions as well as their consequences."

Silence took the room again. The doe had been joined by two fawns while they talked. The mother watched them play a bit before her ears pinned back. Immediately she nudge the young ones back to the woods. A quiet wind rustled the lawn as well as the leaves in the trees. Both men could sense something was coming. The question on their minds was who they would be fighting, and what would they be fighting for in the end.