Chapter 89: Abandon All Hope, Ye Who Enter Here

[Scene: Zoi's hospital room. Zoi's mother is becoming completely hysterical]

Renee: [Shoves Chief Midori] Get away from me! This is all your fault! None of this would have happened if I hadn't sent him back to this damned place! He didn't want to come here! I had to make him go live with you! I sent him to this terrible place to die!

Dr. Mizuno: Mrs. Cappelli, am I going to have to admit you? Are you going to need to be sedated and given a bed?

Renee: [wiping her tears with shaking hands] Yes! I think that would be an excellent idea!

[Dr. Mizuno calls for a pair of nurses' assistants to help with having her admitted. Chief Midori follows her out.]

[Kunzite shakes his head sadly, as if to say "humans" and goes back to transcribing his equation.]

[Chief Midori returns a few minutes later.]

Chief Midori: Bad news. Renee absolutely refuses to leave Hen Tie without her son. She doesn't want him buried here.

[Kunzite just nods and continues writing]

Chief Midori: She's moving to Italy, and she insists she's bringing Zoi with her. That means she'll need for him to be cremated.

[Kunzite nods again, but this time he pauses.]

Chief Midori: I'll fight it any way I can, but when Renee gets worked up about something she can wear down a mountain.

Kunzite: After midnight it won't matter.

Chief Midori: You will call me as soon as you have some good news for me, won't you?

Kunzite: I'll have him call you himself.

[Chief Midori leaves and Kunzite goes back to his equation.]

[Later at Midnight: Kunzite opens a duffle bag to reveal a variety of items including a canister of salt and the dagger used in his wedding. He picks up a container of salt and pours it out to form a circle in the middle of the floor. Jeddy and Neffy appear]

Neffy: Is it showtime yet?

Kunzite: Only if you vow to remain silent and stay out of my way.

Neffy: Oh, we are about to witness history in the making. We wouldn't dream of doing anything that might screw it up.

Kunzite: And Beryl?

Jeddy: She can't bear to watch.

Kunzite: Because she's afraid I'll fail, or because she's afraid I'll succeed?

Neffy: A little of both, I think.

Jeddy: [rubs his hands together] This is so exciting. The first full resurrection performed by a Shitennou.

Neffy: Full pseudo-resurrection.

Jeddy: Hush.

[They take their seats and Kunzite steps into the circle of salt. He slices his palm with the dagger and holds his hand upward. He levitates a few inches from the floor and starts chanting in a long forgotten language as his eyes glow white and a strong windstorm seems to form, but only within the confines of the salt circle.]

[Neffy and Jeddy find themselves holding their breath as the lights in the room dim, making the formula on the whiteboard glow with an eerie phosphorescence. As Kunzite chants a vortex seems to open below his feet and an otherworldly howling rises as shadows flit around him.]

[The room continues to dim, and the symbols start to vanish from the board until the only illumination is the unholy glow of Kunzite's eyes and hair. Although the room's florescent tubes provides no measurable quantity of light, they are hissing and sending forth sparks.]

[Kunzite chanting quickens and the shadows multiply and move faster…but then Kunzite seems to waver. His chanting becomes slower and less certain, and his outstretched hand dips as if he is becoming too weary to hold up his arm any more.]

[When Kunzite finishes his voice is barely a whisper. As the lights come back on, his hand drops and he casts a despairing look at Zoi. He grabs the duffle bag and flings it across the room before he sinks to the floor and buries his face in his hands.]

[For a full minute Neffy and Jeddy just sit there on the edge of their seats in silence]

Jeddy: Did it work?

[Neffy smacks him in the back of the head.]

[Kunzite just sits there. He's closer to tears than either of the other Shitennou have ever seen him. After a while Neffy comes over and places his hand on his shoulder in rare compassion]

Neffy: What happened?

Kunzite: Nothing… absolutely nothing… it was just as Beryl said… he couldn't come back to me…or else he chose not to.

Neffy: Maybe he's behind some barrier, or just out of your reach. You just need to amplify the spell and then try again.

Kunzite: [rises to his feet, wild eyed] No…it should have worked…our souls were bound together…he should have been drawn like a moth to a flame…

Neffy: So what you're saying is you're just going to give up?

Kunzite: [numb but determined] No, of course not. I'll just need to try something else.

Jeddy: What else is there to try?

Kunzite: Time travel. I need to perfect time travel.

Neffy: Whoa! Whoa! No way! I was cool when you were just some crazy guy trying to bring back his dead boyfriend, but now you're fucking with the fabric of the universe!

Kunzite: I'm going to go back in time and make sure none of this happens to him.

Jeddy: How?

Kunzite: I'll go back to when he was a newborn and steal him from his bassinet.

Neffy: [laughs nervously] Now you are literally robbing the cradle…[puts his hand on Kunzite's shoulder again] Look, this was a good idea. But you can't expect something this complicated to succeed on the first try. Just get some rest. Do some more calculations…And then we can do a little research and try this again later.

[All three turn as the door blasts open]

[Metallia appears in full Naga fury]

Metallia: KUNZZZZZITE!

[Neffy and Jeddy back away, clutching each other in terror]

Metallia: [floats toward Kunzite] I SSSSAID HE'SSSS NOT TO BE RRRRESSSURRRECCTED! NEVERRRRR IN ALL MY EXISSSSTENCE HAVE I WITNESSSSSSED SUCH DISSSSSOBEDIENCCCCCE!

Neffy: uh…we had nothing to do with this.

Jeddy: yeah, bye Kunzite…you traitor.

[They vanish, leaving Kunzite to face their mother's wrath alone.]