Narrowing his eyes furiously as he watched yet another of his youma be destroyed by the trio of Sailor Guardians who had been making such a nuisance of themselves while he had been attempting to gather energy from the humans so that Queen Beryl would not seek to punish him for the failed efforts.

"That girl is becoming quite the nuisance," he muttered, knowing that if Sailor Moon hadn't been there to awaken them, neither of the other Sailor Guardians would have been present to trouble him, either. The sound of soft, mocking laughter distracted Jadeite from his musings, and he turned to glance back over his right shoulder as what seemed to be an enormous eruption of water resolved itself into an annoyingly familiar form behind him.

"Who would have ever guessed that one little girl could could make so much trouble for the great Jadeite?"

"Tetiz," he said, all the more annoyed to find himself actually in need of the aid that such a powerful youma would be able to provide to him.

"You remembered me?" Tetiz asked, sounding annoyingly satisfied at the prospect. "I'm honored, Jadeite."

"What does Queen Beryl's personal subordinate want with me?" he asked, in no mood to play the kind of games that Tetiz indulged in.

"You haven't changed much, have you, sir?" Tetiz asked. "Your responses are always so cold, every time I come to express my love for you."

"I have no time for your nonsense," he snapped, his patience having long since come to an end. "Get out of my sight!"

"Please listen to me," Tetiz pleaded; Jadeite's fists clenched, only the certain knowledge that Queen Beryl would punish him severely for any actions taken against one of her favored keeping him from at least striking the annoying youma. "I've come up with a perfect way to gather energy."

"What was that?" he demanded, stiffening, and then turning at last to confront Tetiz where the youma was standing.

"I can see I've finally managed to catch your attention, Master Jadeite," Tetiz said, an irritatingly amused smile on her face. "I call this plan, Operation Romantic Cruise."

Folding his arms, Jadeite waited for Tetiz to explain the idea she had been having to him; time would tell if there was any true merit to it.

~SM~

Leaning against Trevor-nii, as the pair of them relaxed for a bit before the both of them went to bed for the night, Usagi blinked as she watched the commercial that had just come on.

"Oh, that sounds like a nice thing to do," she said, leaning into Trevor-nii as he wrapped his arms around her, smiling softly as she tucked her head under his chin. "I've always wanted to go on a romantic cruise."

Trevor-nii chuckled softly, and Usagi turned to smile at him as the pair of them got up from the couch so they could head off to bed. There was going to be another day of school tomorrow, which she wasn't really happy about, but at least the weekend was going to be coming soon. As she and Trevor-nii went back to the room they both shared, Usagi yawned as she saw Trevor-nii making his way over to their closet to get his pajamas.

Stretching, once she'd dressed in her own pajamas, Usagi curled up in her bed, then turned to watch as Trevor-nii settled into the futon by her bed that he'd slept in ever since Mom and Dad had invited Trevor-nii to live with them as a part of their family.

~SM~

The next morning, when he and Usagi got up to go to school for the morning, Trevor found that he couldn't quite get the thought of the cruise being advertized on TV. By now, he'd seen enough of the traps that the Dark Kingdom and all of their youma had set for the people all around them that he couldn't help but think that this might just be their work. It wasn't something that he and Usagi could talk about in class, of course, but it was still something to keep in the back of his mind while he and his sister went about their day.

Turning slightly as he heard Naru-san talking to his sister about the romantic cruise the pair of them had heard about last night, Trevor chewed his lower lip as he listened to the pair of them talking. He was clearly going to have to talk to Usagi about his suspicions once the pair of them had gotten out of school for the day but before she could head over to where the lottery was being held for the pair of tickets that Umino-san had practically waved in his younger sister's face.

"Wait! Usa-ko!" he exclaimed, as his younger sister grabbed his right hand and pulled him out of the classroom.

He could only be grateful that school was at least over for the day; he didn't want to give Haruna-sensei any other reasons to yell at either him or Usagi.

Once Usagi had actually stopped running, Trevor looked around as he found the both of them standing in the Juuban Shopping District.

"Usa-ko, I don't think this is the best idea," he said, pulling her in close so that he could talk without too much of a risk of being overheard.

"What do you mean, Trevor-nii?" she asked, looking surprised as he pulled her back lightly from the line for the lottery.

"I…" he chewed his lip for a moment, thinking about just how he was going to be able to say what he needed without all of the people around him – one of whom might have easily been a Dark Kingdom youma in disguise – overhearing him. "I think this might be one of the Dark Kingdom's traps," he said, leaning in close so that he could speak to his younger sister without the fear of being overheard.

Before Usagi could say anything in response, Trevor found something pressed into his hands, and looked down to see a plain white envelope.

"What's this?"

"It's a special raffle prize for all the people who came out here," the man running the lottery stall said, as he continued passing out the small envelopes.

"Ah, thank you, sir," he said, turning to leave along with Usagi as she sighed, looking down at the tissues she'd collected, as well as the envelope she was holding.

"Oi! Trevor! Usagi!"

"Rei-chan!" Usagi called, smiling as the melancholy that seemed to have briefly overtaken her gone just as easily as it had appeared.

"What are you two doing out here?" Rei-sempai asked, as the three of them made their way to a nearby bench where they could all sit down while they talked.

"They were holding a lottery to win two tickets for a romantic cruise," Usagi said, looking back down at the envelope in her hands, before opening it. "Ah, I got a coupon. What did you get, Trevor-nii?"

"Well…" he began, opening the envelope he'd been handed, blinking in surprise as he found himself staring down at what was obviously a pair of tickets for the cruise that Usagi had been so interested in.

"Wow! Trevor-nii, you won tickets to the romantic cruise! That's so great!" Usagi exclaimed, bouncing happily in her seat.

"This has to be a trap," he said, looking down at the pair of tickets in his right hand.

"What do you mean? Trevor-nii, this is a good thing," Usagi said.

"You think the Dark Kingdom is behind this?" Rei-sempai asked, before he could think of anything to say in response to his younger sister's clear disappointment.

"They've done so many things like this before," he said, looking up from contemplating the tickets in his hand so that he could face Rei-sempai more squarely. "And, well, there's no other reason that I should have ended up with these tickets when I wasn't even the one playing the lottery, and neither I nor Usagi bought a raffle ticket."

"Let's go investigate, then!" Usagi exclaimed, jumping back to her feet and grabbing his left hand to pull him up from the bench where the three of them had been sitting together.

"Don't think I don't understand what you're doing, Usagi," Rei-sempai said, her tone sharp as she rose to her own feet, folding her arms and frowning at his younger sister. "If we leave everything to you, you'll just forget it get lost in your own romantic fantasy. Trevor and I will have to go investigate this Dark Kingdom trap on our own," Rei-sempai said, nodding sharply as she made her way over to tug at his right hand.

The same hand that was still holding onto the tickets he'd been given when he and Usagi had gone to the Juuban shopping district for the lottery, and then ended up winning a pair of tickets even though Usagi hadn't been able to win the lottery itself.

"You don't fool me, either, Rei-chan!" Usagi snapped, pulling his arm as though she was trying to drag him to her side. "You just want to go on a date!"

"I'm not going to be dating your brother," Rei-sempai said. "He's my student, and we're just going to be investigating what is probably going to end up being a Dark Kingdom trap."

Usagi grumbled, and for a moment Trevor found himself wondering if he should try to talk to her about that, when Luna-sensei spoke up.

"Stop fighting, you two," the cat said, rising back to her four paws as Ami-san made her way over to where the three of them were all standing.

"What's going on?" Ami-san asked, looking from the three of them to Luna-sensei and back again.

"Trevor was given a pair of tickets for some kind of romantic cruise, and he and Rei are planning to investigate what seems to be another Dark Kingdom trap."

"Oh, that sounds like a good idea, but are you sure that you should be coming, Trevor-san?" Ami-san asked, turning a worried expression on him. "It seems as though the Dark Kingdom is particularly focused on you, so you would be in the most danger if you tried to investigate them."

"That's one of the reasons I should go, Ami-san: if I can keep their attention on me, Rei-sempai should be able to investigate without the risk of being caught," he said, biting his lower lip. "Or, at least she should be safer from being discovered, if they're focusing on me."

"That's a noble sentiment, Trevor," Luna-sensei said. "Though you should also think about your own safety, too."

"I'll do my best, Luna-sensei," he said, smiling softly.

~SM~

That night, when she and Trevor made their way onto the cruise ship, Rei made sure to keep an eye out for anything that might indicate that this truly had been one of the Dark Kingdom's many traps. She also kept an eye out for Usagi, since it had been more than obvious that the younger girl had wanted to go on this cruise with them. And, as flighty as Usagi could be, there was no doubt in Rei's mind that she'd be trying to make her way onto the ship with her and Trevor.

"Have you managed to sense anything, Rei-sempai?" Trevor asked, once the pair of them had managed to split off from the crowds enough that they wouldn't be overheard talking.

"You were right: there is an evil aura around this ship," she said, narrowing her eyes as she looked around at all of the helpless, unknowing people gathered all around them; reaching into the right pocket of the skirt she'd worn, Rei tapped on her communicator, letting Ami know that the both of them had made it onto the ship and were going to be looking around.

"I had a feeling. Though I was hoping to be wrong," Trevor sighed, looking around at the people on the ship with them, a worried expression on his face; he really did seem to worry more about other people than he did about himself.

It wasn't the best thing for someone who didn't have the power that any of the three Sailor Senshi had, but Rei didn't quite have the time to talk to him about that; it might also be best if she brought Usagi in on whatever conversation they were going to have. She was his sister, after all, and deserved to have at least some kind of an input.

"Do you think we should split up?" Trevor asked, as the pair of them began making their way across the deck of the ship, following the sense that Rei had of the evil aura lingering on the ship.

It seemed to be everywhere on the ship as a whole, but Rei at least knew that there had to be someone from the Dark Kingdom overseeing this trap; one of their youma, at least, if not Jadeite himself.

"That might be the best way to find out where the Dark Kingdom agents are this time," she said, narrowing her eyes as she and Trevor fell into step with the crowd as more and more of them made their way inside the ship. "Still, you'll have to be careful: you're the one the Dark Kingdom is most interested in."

"I know," Trevor said, just as the deck of the ship lurched under them and he reached out to catch her before she fell. "I'll try to stay out of sight for as long as I can."

"I guess that's the best I can ask for," she said, leaning against one of the large windows in the corridor so that the next time the ship hit another wave she wouldn't end up on the ground the way she probably would have if she'd been alone on the cruise ship, searching for the Dark Kingdom's agents on her own.

"Yeah," he muttered, smiling softly, even as he looked around at all the people gathered in the ship; each and every one of them in danger from the Dark Kingdom and their plans. "Usa-ko would have a lot to say if I ended up getting myself in trouble here."

"So will I," she said, giving him a serious look for a long moment. "Keep your eyes open," she said, lightly gripping his right shoulder. "Pretend you're getting food, or something," she said, smiling as she gave him a light shove to get him moving.

"Yeah," Trevor said, smiling as he turned to make his way back through the room and out to the deck again; Rei, for her part, returned her attention to searching for the source of the evil aura she had been sensing since the pair of them had arrived on this ship.

~SM~

Looking down on all of the foolish humans who had chosen to offer themselves to the Dark Kingdom, not that any of the fools currently gathered on the ship she – Queen Beryl's right hand – had enchanted so well with her seawater magic, Tetiz caught sight of the little schoolboy who Master Jadeite had taken the time to describe for her before the pair of them had set about this latest mission of theirs. That is to say, Master Jadeite had described him in the most general terms, just so that she could pick him out of a crowd.

What Master Jadeite had failed to mention, however, was the uncanny resemblance between the pair of them. Truly, if not for the schoolboy's coloring, he would have looked like nothing more than a smaller, softer Master Jadeite. Moving smoothly across the deck of the enchanted ship, following the schoolboy's path as he continued on his way across the deck, Tetiz found herself smiling.

She supposed she couldn't truly blame Master Jadeite for not mentioning how much the schoolboy resembled him, since there were times when Tetiz found herself wondering if Master Jadeite ever realized how beautiful he was.

"How are you finding the cruise?" she asked, making her way up behind the schoolboy as he passed by the stairs she'd just come down.

"Oh. It's nice, I suppose," he said, turning to her with a surprised expression on his soft face.

"I'm glad you're enjoying it so much," she said, reaching out to wrap her left arm around the schoolboy's shoulders, guiding him closer as she made her way back up to the top deck where Master Jadeite was awaiting her.

Tetiz had made up her mind: once Master Jadeite had drained the energy that the schoolboy possessed, she would ask Queen Beryl for the schoolboy's body so that she could keep it for her own. She would use her seawater magic to change his colors, and even if Master Jadeite never acknowledged her love, she would at least have the smaller, softer version of Master Jadeite as her very own.

Smiling as she brought him to the cabin where she and Master Jadeite had were staying, Tetiz turned as she felt the schoolboy attempting to pull away from her, as though he thought that there was somewhere he thought he was going to go; somewhere away from the Dark Kingdom. It was a foolish idea, but for all that the little schoolboy resembled Master Jadeite, he was still merely a human.

Signaling for one of her servants, one of them who was carrying a glass of seawater enchanted to look like wine, Tetiz served a pair of glasses for the pair of them.

"Have a drink with me," she said, offering the schoolboy one of the glasses.

"I really don't want to impose," the schoolboy said, seeming as though he still wished to pull away from her.

She smiled. "Don't give it another thought," she said, pulling the schoolboy close so that she could pour the enchanted seawater into his mouth before he could close it.

Waiting for a moment as her magic took hold of the schoolboy's mind, Tetiz smiled as she guided his body into the cabin where she and Master Jadeite were staying. Sitting him down at the lone table in the room, Tetiz stroked his soft, black hair, thinking for a moment how it would look once she had changed it to match the color of Master Jadeite's own hair.

Tetiz truly hoped that she would be able to convince Queen Beryl to allow her to keep the schoolboy's body once the Dark Kingdom had drained the last of his energy.

Making her way out of the cabin, Tetiz hurried to find Master Jadeite so that she could tell him of her success in capturing the schoolboy with his rich stores of energy that the Dark Kingdom had been searching for for such a long time. She eventually managed to find him, yes, but there was another human with him. This human also resembled a smaller, softer version of Master Jadeite.

It was rather amusing, that there were two humans who resembled Master Jadeite so much; still, there were more important matters that the pair of them needed to attend to.

"Captain, it's nearly time," she said, smiling softly as she watched him extricate himself from the arms of the smaller human, and the pair of them set off back to the cabin where she had left the schoolboy.

"Well," Master Jadeite said, making his way over to the table where she'd settled the schoolboy down before she'd left the cabin behind. "Hello again, schoolboy."

"I'm glad I managed to serve you so well, Master Jadeite," she said, making her way over to the table so that she could stroke the schoolboy's soft, black hair. "However, that wasn't the only reason I called you here."

"Yes, it seems as though the romantic energy from the couples has reached its peak," Master Jadeite said, smiling as he made his way over to the sphere of enchanted seawater she was using to both store the human energy they were gathering for the Dark Kingdom, as well as to observe the vessel that she had enchanted to carry all of the foolish humans who were about to give their energy to them.

"If this plan of yours works, you'll have my praise for that, as well," Master Jadeite said, smiling as the pair of them went to attend to the rest of the foolish humans gathered in this place.

~SM~

With her hands clasped over her mouth, not wanting to make any sound that could have given her away to what had to be a pair of the Dark Kingdom's youma, Usagi ducked down away from the round window for long enough that she could at least be kind of sure the both of them were gone. Looking into the room, she sighed when she found it empty.

"Come on, Usagi," Luna-sensei said. "Let's go save Trevor."

"Yeah," she said, biting her lip as she made her way into the room where her older brother had been left alone.

She probably should have tried to catch up with him sooner, then he might have been safe from whatever had happened to leave him like this.

Breaking into the empty room, Usagi quickly transformed into Sailor Moon, when went over to the table where Trevor-nii had been left. Looking at him closely, she saw that his eyes looked glazed over, and it seemed like he couldn't even see her when she was standing right in front of him. Still, she'd managed to wake him up when he was sleeping, so there was at least something she could do to try to help him.

Pressing her hands to his chest, Usagi searched for the source of the strange energy that kept drawing the attention of the Dark Kingdom and all of their youma, Usagi felt it respond again. The sight of Trevor-nii's brown eyes, being cleared by the gold light that always showed up when Trevor-nii used the powers that had drawn the Dark Kingdom's attention for as long as the both of them had been fighting against them and all of their youma.

"Usa-ko?" Trevor-nii asked, turning to her once his eyes had cleared and he was awake again.

"I'm glad you're okay, Trevor-nii," she said, smiling as she leaned in to hug him tightly. "It was a trap, just like you thought. Now, come on! We have to find Rei-chan so we can stop this!"

"Right!"

Pulling Trevor-nii along, Usagi heard the sound of an announcement, calling everyone on the ship to the reception hall for some kind of show. That had to be where that pair of youma were going to be draining all of the people here of their energy, so she pulled Trevor-nii along as fast as the both of them could run. Once the pair of them had arrived at the double-doors leading into the Reception Hall, Usagi destroyed the pair of what seemed to be youma standing in front of them so that she and Trevor-nii could make their way inside.

Rei-chan was the only one left standing, after all of the couples who'd been lured in had been drained of their energy, and Usagi glared at the youma who had clearly been responsible for it. Jadeite was there, too, but the youma was the one she was focused on. The youma was the one attacking her.

Yelping as she was suddenly tackled through the window she'd been standing in front of, Usagi forced herself back to her feet as the youma she was fighting stood on the railing of the ship in front of her.

"Be careful, Sailor Moon: that youma has the power to control seawater!" Luna-sensei shouted, and Usagi found herself forced to dodge as a pair of water-spouts slammed down on the place where she'd been standing.

"Fire Soul!"

"Mars!" Usagi exclaimed, smiling as she turned to see her friend and fellow Senshi appearing beside her.

"This was a trap," Rei-chan muttered, narrowing her eyes as she moved to stand beside Usagi "Sailor Moon, do it!"

"Right!" she said, nodding. "Moon Tiara Action!"

The youma vanished into what seemed to be just more water, but just as she was starting to relax, Jadeite himself appeared in front of them.

"I suppose I underestimated you, Sailor Guardians," Jadeite said, a smile on his face that Usagi didn't like at all.

"You won't get away with attacking innocent couples like this, Jadeite!" Rei-chan snapped, as the pair of them turned to confront Jadeite together.

"We'll see about that!" Jadeite said, grinning for a long moment, before he vanished into some weird kind of black portal in the air.

"What? What just happened?" she asked, not sure what to make of just what had happened.

"Where did he go?" Rei-chan asked, as the pair of them looked for wherever it was that Jadeite might have gone.

Neither of them managed to find him, even when they met up with Trevor-nii again and the three of them could talk about what had happened.

~SM~

Finding himself standing before Queen Beryl, surrounded not by the familiar environs of her throne room but the blank emptiness of somewhere that he had never been before; it almost felt like he had been abandoned in the Deadlands, of all places.

"Queen Beryl!" he exclaimed, seeing the expression on her face and knowing that he wouldn't be able to escape from his current situation with a simple explanation.

"You used my precious youma Tetiz without my permission," Queen Beryl snarled, glaring down at him from what seemed to be a far greater height than even the throne that presided over the residents of the Dark Kingdom when they were all gathered before her. "And you got her killed."

"She came to me!" he pleaded, knowing that his only hope now was that Queen Beryl would understand just how willful Tetiz had been when she made the fateful suggestion. "Tetiz was the one who made the entire plan!"

"I'll hear your excuses at the palace," Queen Beryl snapped. "Depending on your answers, you will suffer the consequences."

"Yes, ma'am," he said, even as Queen Beryl vanished from his sight. You Sailor Guardians will pay for this! All of you! If, of course, Queen Beryl even allowed him to survive her displeasure at all.

~SM~

The evil aura around the ship had disappeared, but it seemed as though that had been the only thing animating what had turned out to be some kind of shipwreck that had been salvaged somehow from somewhere.

"It looks like this was a trap," she said, folding her arms as she watched the Police boats unloading the couples that'd been lured to this place by the Dark Kingdom. "We'll have to watch out from now on: anything that seems too good might be another one of their schemes."

"Yeah, we'll have to keep that in mind," Trevor said, though his attention seemed to be taken up by all of the people being escorted down from the ship by the Police; he really did tend to worry more about other people than he did about himself.

Usagi seemed to have that same problem, as well, so Rei couldn't quite tell just who had been the bad influence on whom, seeing things from the outside the way she was right now.

"That's so sad," Usagi said, staring out at all the people being taken down into the Police boats, down and away from the shipwreck they'd all been standing on. "We won't be able to have any fun, without having to worry about what the Dark Kingdom might be trying to do."

"That's just the way things are, right now," Luna said, sitting up on the railing where the three of them were standing together. "Until the Dark Kingdom is defeated, you're all going to have to be careful. There's no real telling just where or when they will strike next."