Chapter 93: The Caged Soul

[Scene: Zoi's hospital room. Metalia leaves and shuts the door behind her to grant Kunzite and Zoi their privacy.]

Zoi: Are they gone?

Kunzite: Yes.

[Zoi opens his eyeballs are complete black]

Zoi: Kunzite. [On the verge of tears] I'm feeling so unbelievably cruel right now. I want nothing more than to rise out of this bed and kill everyone in this hospital, including my mom and dad.

Kunzite: [pets his hair] It's ok. You're starving. You need energy. You'll feel better after you've fed.

Zoi: [panicked] I'm not sure I know how to do that without killing someone.

[Kunzite takes Zoi into his arms]

Kunzite: I'm going to kiss you now, and when I do, I want you to try to draw my lifeforce into yourself.

Zoi: [frightened] What if I take too much?

Kunzite: You won't. [Leaning in close] Take as much as you need.

[They kiss lightly and Zoi presses up against him, drawing energy. He breaks it off after only a few seconds.]

Zoi: You will tell me to stop before it gets to be too much, right?

Kunzite: [sly grin] Now where have we heard that before?

[Kunzite holds him close and they kiss gently. When Zoi opens his eyes, the whites are nearly white again, and the irises are a dark muddy green]

Kunzite: Better?

[Zoi nods.]

[He sits up straight and looks at his IV line and shudders]

Zoi: Ugh. Needles.

Kunzite: [smirks] Afraid of a needle. Sadistic space aliens, intent on torturing him to death, no problem. A sickminded Shitennou. He runs off and marries him. An IV on the other hand…

[Zoi rolls his eyes]

[Kunzite smoothes Zoi's hair back from his face]

Kunzite: You're here. You're alive. I don't understand how this is possible.

Zoi: Your mother. She elevated me. [caresses Kunzite's hand] I'm a Shitennou now. Just like you.

Kunzite: I understand that part. I just don't understand why it took so long. I was there when she raised Beryl and Nephrite, and it happened in an instant.

Zoi: [give Kunzite a sidelong smile] Yes, well, things were a little more complicated in my case.

Kunzite: Because they hadn't been…

[Kunzite stops himself abruptly and looks away]

Zoi: …dead for as long? [shakes his head emphatically] Don't worry. You don't have to watch what you say around me. I know everything that happened. As for why it took so long for your mother to elevate me…well…

[Zoi toys with his hair as he gives Kunzite a sly smile.]

Zoi: let's just say there is a big difference between me and the rest of you…

Kunzite: What's that?

Zoi: I refused to serve her.

[Kunzite's eyes open wide in horror.]

Kunzite: You mean, at first.

Zoi: I mean, at all.

Kunzite:…you…?

Zoi: Refused to take an oath of obedience.

Kunzite: But you're here, so you must have been very respectful about it, weren't you.

Zoi: [giggles] Oh no, I sassed her, big time.

Lunzite: [aghast] You little fool. I could strangle you. Do you have any idea what should have happened to you as a result of your teenage rebellion?

Zoi: [sniffs dismissively] It wasn't rebellion. She wanted to remove all of my affection for you before she elevated me. She said our love made you weak and sentimental, and my true loyalties should belong to her and her alone.

[Zoi smiles at Kunzite]

Zoi: She felt that if I was repulsed by your advances it would make me easier for her to manage, and it would make you bitter enough to go back to your old ways. I told her I'd rather be dead than not love you back. So she decided she had to kill me, after all. But first, to punish me for my impertinence, I had to watch you get over me and move on with you life, just like Beryl got over Endymion.

Kunzite: [heartfelt] I was never going to get over you.

Zoi: [smiles] Yeah, she finally realized that, and that why I'm here.

[Kunzite holds Zoi and rests his chin on his head.]

Kunzite: I tried to bring you back. I tried to summon your spirit back from the afterworld. You didn't respond to me.

[Zoi takes Kunzite's hand]

Zoi: I'm not sure I completely understand what happened, but I don't think I was ever really dead.

Kunzite: What happened? What do you remember?

[Zoi frowns and moves away from Kunzite and looks away]

Kunzite: You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to.

[Zoi shakes his head and looks Kunzite in the eyes]

Zoi: No… it's ok…It was just all so very frustrating… I was there. Chained to the post. I heard Neffy screaming and suddenly…. I was somewhere else. A few feet away and very low to the ground, and everything looked huge and distorted. I thought you'd teleported me to safety and something had gone wrong, but I turned my head and I could see myself, still chained the post. I heard screaming and gunshots and I saw myself get shot in the head.

[Zoi smiles a sad smile]

Zoi: I cried out for you. I had a voice but I couldn't speak. Everything felt wrong. Then your mother appeared and grabbed me, and shoved me into a cage. The door had no lock, just a latch. I tried to reach for it, but I had no hands…

[Zoi curls a lock of hair around one finger with his eyes downcast.]

Zoi: I didn't take long for me to figure out that she'd turned me into a bird, though I didn't realize I was a sparrow until you came in and told me I was one.

Kunzite: Ah. So Mother used a nearby sparrow as a soul jar? Clever.

Zoi: [frowns] I don't know what a soul jar is.

Kunzite: A soul jar is a container that is used to house a person's mind and soul in preparation for transference to another body. Or in your case, the same body, after it had been healed and resurrected…usually they are made with dark magic, but sometimes you can use a living creature, and house two souls in one body for a short period of time.

[Zoi nods]

Zoi: She told it would only be a matter of time before you moved on, but you didn't. The more time had passed, the more desperate you seemed to bring me back. Nothing she would say or do would dissuade you… She thought I would gloat about that, but seeing you hurting like that was more horrible than anything else she could have done to me. To hear you calling out for me while trapped and unable to respond…. I cried a lot. That's when your Mother and I discovered we actually do have something in common. Neither of us likes to see you suffer.

[Zoi sighs]

Zoi: Her change of heart came only a few minutes ago. I told her to make you stop loving me, instead me stop loving you. She laughed and said that since I was worth almost nothing without your love, that wouldn't accomplish a thing. I told her it would leave her free to kill me, and then you really could move on.

[Zoi giggles again]

Zoi: I guess once it was my idea, she didn't like it as much….Instead she explained how an unbreakable bond to an unbreakable bond is an unbreakable bond, after all, so we'd passed her little "test", like this had been her plan all along.

Kunzite: [pets his hair] Maybe it was. She wouldn't have bothered collecting your soul if she didn't have high hopes that everything would eventually turn out for the best.

Zoi: Maybe…I certainly hope so. She brought me back to life just now. She placed a dark blue stone in my chest, a tanzanite, I believe it was. Now I'm here… I guess you're supposed to call me Tanzanite now?

Kunzite: Uh…[emphatic] no.

[Zoi gives Kunzite a nervous look]

Zoi: And I suppose I should mention that she's holding you completely responsible for my actions now.

[Kunzite smiles fondly and kisses his forehead before hugging him close]

Zoi: Does this mean you're ok with that?

[Kunzite holds him for a while until they sense someone approaching the door]

Kunzite: I think your mother is coming back.

Zoi: [glum as he crawls back in bed] Oh, great. Now I get to hear about how this near death experience of mine has been all about her.

Kunzite: [smirks] She does have a point, you know. As far as anyone can tell, you just slept through the whole thing.