Himself, Jadeite, Kunzite, and Zoisite; they had served Prince Endymion and the court of Elysion with the utmost dedication, until Queen Beryl had started preying on their fears of what might have been happening to the Prince; what that infatuation with the Moon Princess might have meant for him. Even his own divinations hadn't been able to save the four of them from falling; Kunzite had been the first he'd been aware of, and now without Queen's- without Beryl's influence pressing down on his mind, Nephrite could remember the way Kunzite – his own mind already overwhelmed by Beryl's power – had held him by the neck so that Beryl could inflict that same influence on him.

It had probably been just the same for Jadeite and Zoisite, as well.

Sliding open the door of Naru's closet, Nephrite looked out at the girl who had offered him a place in her home, even after everything he had done to her during his service to the Dark Kingdom and the woman who had enslaved him; truly, the human heart had a wonderful capacity for forgiveness. Still, there was something else he was concerned with. Jadeite, I won't allow things to remain as they are; even if I can't do anything else, I can at least save you .

Softly closing the door to Naru's closet, Nephrite concentrated for a moment and teleported himself back to the mansion that he had been using in his identity as Masato Sanjoin. He'd taken the precaution of heavily warding it from the influence of the Dark Kingdom; the last thing he needed was Beryl – whether she was working through any of the others or not – getting to him again. When he managed to fully materialize, Nephrite made his way into the main room where he had set up his divinations once more.

Stars, grant me your wisdom. A dear friend of mine, lost so long; allow me to find him again. Looking up into the window that the stars had granted him, Nephrite closed his eyes and opened his mind. He would need to contact Trevor Tsukino; much as he might care for Naru Osaka – though he wasn't quite certain if he could love her in the way she clearly loved him – she wasn't the one tied so deeply into this. It was best that she remained that way.

For her own good, as much as any of theirs.

~SM~

It was the first lucid dream that he'd ever been aware of having, but then Trevor supposed that that was why they were called lucid dreams in the first place. Walking through what seemed to be a garden of some kind of flowers that had been filled with mist, keeping him from seeing just what they might have been, Trevor wondered just what was happening.

"I'm sorry to call you on such short notice, Trevor Tsukino, but I need your help."

"Nephrite; this is a surprise. I hadn't been expecting to see you after I helped you heal that night."

"I know, and I'm very grateful to you for the help you've given me. But… I need your help for this, as well."

"What is it you want, Nephrite?"

"Jadeite is still a prisoner of the Dark Kingdom… I know I have no right to ask this of you, after everything I've done, but will you give me your aid in freeing him?"

He considered for a moment, but in the end there was really only one thing he could say: "I'll help you in any way I can."

"Thank you."

~SM~

Returning to his own mind and body, Nephrite breathed deeply to center himself once more. That hadn't been easy; only his need had allowed him to traverse the realm of dreams. Such had been the paths of Helios, but the Priest of Elysion had been out of contact with them since Beryl had forced them into her service. With his mind clear of the darkness that had once clouded it to all other things, Nephrite worried for him.

Still, at this point he could only afford one worry at a time.

Turning, Nephrite teleported himself back into the closet that Naru had allowed him to stay in while he was attempting to conceal himself from whatever agents that the Dark Kingdom might see fit to send after him. Even if it ended up being Zoisite and Kunzite themselves, the wards he had crafted both here and in the mansion he had taken up residence within would shield him. He'd simply made them more powerful around Naru's home; it would be a poor repayment for the kindness she had offered to him, to bring the Dark Kingdom down on her head,

Settling down to get what sleep he could with the thought of his upcoming journey to the Dark Kingdom pressing on his mind, Nephrite closed his eyes.

~SM~

He could only be grateful that it was a weekend; going to help Nephrite with his problem wasn't something that sounded like it could just be taken care of in the time that he would have between classes. Getting out of his futon as quietly as he could manage, Trevor carefully rolled it up and stored it away. He might have wanted to help Nephrite with his problem – since no one deserved to be a prisoner of the Dark Kingdom, not even Jadeite – but he wasn't about to leave his and Usagi's room a mess while he did it.

Turning when he felt a rush of air across the left side of his neck, Trevor watched in surprise as Nephrite appeared in Usagi's room right behind him. He only had time to wonder just how the former Dark Kingdom general – Nephrite had implied that he and the other four had once had another name for themselves, but he didn't know what that might be – had managed to teleport into their room without waking Usagi before the man had gently taken hold of his right arm and they vanished once more.

"I'm sorry to be so abrupt, but I didn't want your sister to worry about us," Nephrite said, after having teleported the both of them to some strange, deserted-seeming room. "We're going to need to make our way into the Dark Kingdom without being noticed, and I think I know a way we might manage that."

"I don't mean to be too forward Nephrite-san, but where are we?" he asked, looking around at the large room the two of them had ended up standing in.

"This is the mansion I used to operate out of when I was still working for the Dark Kingdom," Nephrite's fists clenched, the expression on his face becoming one of rage for a moment before he managed to regain his composure; not wanting to be rude, Trevor didn't say anything. "Still, it remains a useful place to conduct my divinations."

"Divinations?" he asked, blinking in surprise; he hadn't known just what Nephrite was capable of when the man had been working for the Dark Kingdom, but at the same time he hadn't really wondered, either.

"Yes," Nephrite said, folding his arms and turning back toward him. "It was my role within Elysion: I searched the stars in order to determine if there were any pressing threats to the kingdom. However," Nephrite paused for a long moment, as though gathering himself for what he was about to say. "I was unable to shield us from what was to come."

It seemed like a painful subject, so Trevor wasn't about to pry into a thing like that. Looking around the large room of the mansion they were both standing in, Trevor turned back to Nephrite as he sensed a buildup of energy from the man's direction. Nephrite's eyes were closed, and he looked like he was concentrating on something, so Trevor didn't disturb him. What seemed to be happening now was that some kind of darkness – actual darkness, not just mist or smoke that had a dark color to it – was gathering around Nephrite as he continued to focus on whatever it was that he was trying to do.

Pressing his right hand against the center of his chest, feeling whatever power that Nephrite was drawing on also resonating within him, Trevor watched as Nephrite held out his hands and began to generate a portal between them. Trevor wondered if this was how he had gotten to and from the Dark Kingdom when he had worked for them, but he knew that he wouldn't really need to ask once Nephrite was finished with his work. When Nephrite opened his eyes again, looking a bit worn around the edges but satisfied for all of that, Trevor tilted his head slightly as he looked over what Nephrite had created.

"What is that?"

"It's our way back into the Dark Kingdom, Trevor," the former Dark Kingdom General said. "Thank you for volunteering to accompany me."

~SM~

When she woke up, just like she'd done every morning since she'd offered Nephrite a place to stay in her home, Naru went over to the closet to check on him. She'd offered to serve him breakfast, something that he'd accepted with a smile, and so she made it a point to visit him every morning to ask him just what kind of food he wanted to start the morning with. But, when she checked the closet, she found that Nephrite was gone.

Biting her lip, Naru turned away from the closet and made her way to the phone; if there was anyone who would know where Nephrite might have gone, it was Usagi. Since she was Sailor Moon and had fought against Nephrite when he was working for the Dark Kingdom. The two of them might not have been on the best of terms while Nephrite was working for them, but Usagi was a very forgiving person, so that wasn't as much of a problem as it might have been if Usagi had been a different kind of person.

Dialing her friend's number, Naru waited to be connected. "Usagi, do you think you might know where Nephrite went?"

"Nephrite isn't with you?" her friend asked, seeming surprised by what was going on. "That's weird; when I woke up, Trevor-nii wasn't there, either."

" Really?" she asked; that was kind of surprising. She didn't know what it was that could have drawn both Trevor and Nephrite away at the exact same time. "What do you think could have happened?"

"I don't know. It's not like either of them to just go running off like that," Usagi said, sounding worried. "Do you think that the two of them could be getting into something dangerous?"

"I don't know, but I really think we should find out," she said; it wasn't like either Nephrite or Trevor to just go out and leave the way they'd done, so there had to be something that both she and Usagi were missing about the situation.

"Right!" Usagi said, the same resolve that Naru had heard in her friend's voice when she was fighting against the forces of the Dark Kingdom audible over the phone lines now. Naru was glad to hear it. "Don't you worry! The others and I will figure out just what those two are up to! Just leave it to me!"

"Thanks, Usagi," she said, smiling even though she knew Usagi wouldn't be able to see her over the phone.

"No problem!" her friend said, just before she hung up.

Sighing as she set the phone back down on its cradle, Naru settled back down on her bed. She didn't know just what Nephrite and Trevor were planning – or else what Nephrite had talked Trevor into doing – but she at least knew that Usagi would be able to find out what was going on.

~SM~

When she got off the phone with Naru-chan, the first thing that Usagi did was head over to grab her communicator. She needed to talk to the other Sailor Guardians; Trevor-nii and Nephrite weren't the kind of people who would just go off and disappear without a good reason, and she was going to find out what it was! Speaking to Rei-chan, Usagi got her to call a meeting of the other Sailor Guardians at the Hikawa Shrine. If she was going to be able to find out just what it was that Trevor-nii and Nephrite were trying to do, she was going to need their help, since it was probably something that normal people like Naru-chan shouldn't be involved in, or else Nephrite would have told her what they were planning.

She knew that, after everything the two of them had been through, the bond of trust and love between Nephrite and Naru-chan was strong enough that he would have told her about it if he absolutely could.

Once she had managed to get Rei-chan to agree that they needed to meet at the Hikawa Shrine to find out just what Trevor-nii and Nephrite were trying to do, Usagi stood up and made her way out of her house. Saying goodbye to Mom, since she was going to be out for awhile to see just what it was that Trevor-nii and Nephrite were really doing, Usagi continued on her way to the Hikawa Shrine.

Once she made it to Rei's family's shrine, Usagi jogged down the path, up the steps, and over to the main building where all of the other Guardians were waiting for her.

"So, what was so important that you thought you needed all of us here, Usagi?" Rei-chan asked, as all of them gathered together at her shrine.

"Trevor-nii and Nephrite have both gone off somewhere," she said. "Naru-chan told me that."

"Well, I don't think we can just let things go at that," Rei-chan said, clenching her fists. "If they're going to go off somewhere, it's our duty to find out where they're headed."

~SM~

As the two of them made their way deeper into the cavern where he had sensed Jadeite's weakening presence, Nephrite reached back to pull the hood deeper over Trevor's head; the crystal clasp he had carefully fashioned for the young human was working well, filtering the energy the human's body emitted and disguising him as merely one of the many thousands of youma that served the Dark Kingdom. Yes, the two of them would still be in a great deal of danger if they were discovered – a human who had been specifically marked for capture by the Dark Kingdom, and one of those who had been named the Four Kings of Heaven such as him – particularly in this place, but that was a chance they were going to have to take.

No one who had been sent into the Deadlands of the Dark Kingdom's realm was capable of moving around; and even if they were, they would soon wish that they weren't.

Clenching his fists as he caught sight of the large, transparent crystal that Jadeite had been imprisoned within, Nephrite turned to hush Trevor Tsukino just as he heard the young human take a deep breath as though to speak. Shaking his head, he signaled for the both of them to continue moving forward. It wouldn't do if the pair of them were detected before they could even begin.

They were going to be in more than enough danger just acting to free Jadeite from his imprisonment, best not to compound it by speaking in a place that had always been silent. Still, the frozen form of one of his oldest friends couldn't help but draw out his own anger. After so long being enslaved to Beryl and being forced to take part in her schemes, Nephrite wasn't going to allow Jadeite to continue suffering the way he was. He could only hope to be able to help Kunzite and Zoisite someday, as well.

Directing Trevor to place both of his hands over Jadeite's left, Nephrite himself made his way to the opposite side and place his own hands over Jadeite's right hand. Signaling for the young human to begin channeling the energy that his body seemed to generate so naturally, Nephrite closed his eyes and concentrated on regulating and directing that energy while adding some of his own.

~SM~

The soft thrumming of energy through his body was the first thing that Jadeite felt, bringing his awareness back after so long that he'd felt that he'd never awaken from the sleep that Queen Beryl had condemned him to for failing her in such a way as he had. Those damned Sailor Guardians, defeating him after all he had done, causing him to be condemned to this eternal sleep! He hated them, one and all, and he would defeat them in turn!

As he steadily regained yet more awareness of his surroundings, his eyes beginning to work once more, the first sight he beheld was a very interesting one: the fool boy that had managed to become noticed by Queen Beryl had all but handed himself over to them. He'd take the ignorant brat for his own, and Queen Beryl would welcome him back into her good graces! As the feeling came slowly back to his body, allowing him to become more and more aware of the things happening outside the crystal prison he'd been confined in for entirely too long, Jadeite was annoyed to note that Nephrite was standing just opposite the boy.

He wasn't pleased in the slightest, that he would be forced to share the credit for capturing the fool boy with such an arrogant man as Nephrite, but the thought of being able to finally escape from the prison in the Deadlands that he had been condemned to made the situation more bearable, even if only just.

As the transparent crystal all around him cracked and finally started to crumble, Jadeite forced himself not to leap for the throat of the fool boy who had been so obliging as to free him from the imprisonment that Queen Beryl had intended to be permanent. Instead, he turned his gaze to Nephrite, the troublesome man who had obviously freed him for some nefarious purpose of his own. However, instead of the mocking expression that he'd been expecting to see on the man's face, Jadeite found himself confronted by an unreadable one.

He didn't know what to make of it, so Jadeite made up his mind to simply be prepared for whatever he might find himself confronted by.

~SM~

When they were finally able to free Jadeite from his imprisonment, Nephrite knew that that wouldn't be the end of it; he couldn't help but know, after everything that he himself had done while he had been trapped under Beryl's lingering influence. There was really only one thing that he would be able to do for his old friend, and that was do get him to Sailor Moon and her fellow Guardians. That was the only way that Jadeite would be able to come back to himself after everything that had happened to them. The naked hunger in his old friend's eyes when he looked at Trevor Tsukino – who had been and still was one of the most desired of targets within the Dark Kingdom that Beryl ruled – was simply one more reminder of the kind of life that Nephrite was determined to see all of his old friends leave behind.

No matter what he, personally, had to sacrifice to make such a dream come true.

Once the three of them had made it out of the Deadlands, with Jadeite tagging reluctantly behind the pair of them – close enough that he would be able to make a grab for Trevor when the three of them had made it onto safe ground – Nephrite forced himself to act as though nothing were out of the ordinary. There would be little point in rendering himself useless with his tension, or indeed in allowing Jadeite to suspect that his intentions had been so transparent in the first place. Everything would have to wait until he'd made it back out of the Dark Kingdom.

The comm. device that Sailor Mercury had been generous enough – or perhaps he should say prescient enough – to provide for him would enable Nephrite to make contact just as soon as the three of them had made their way back to Earth proper.

From there, it would only be a matter of convincing Sailor Moon herself – Usagi Tsukino, who was the kindest person he'd ever met, aside from Trevor, though perhaps his perception on the matter had been affected by the fact that Trevor Tsukino had been the one to heal him after he had been attacked by the youma serving under Zoisite – to grant him her aid when the pair of them arrived back on Earth.

~SM~

She'd gathered the rest of the Senshi up at Rei-chan's shrine, waiting for Nephrite and Trevor-nii to get back from the trip they'd taken to the Dark Kingdom so she could yell at the both of them for worrying everyone by disappearing the way they had. When the both of them appeared in the warded room that Rei-chan had set aside for Nephrite to hide in when the Dark Kingdom and all their youma – or even Zoisite, since he was the one currently leading the youma for the Dark Kingdom – were actively hunting him, Usagi stomped up to them with her hands on her hips. The same way Mom always did when she was angry.

But before Usagi could think of just what she was going to yell at the pair of them, she noticed that Jadeite was standing between the pair of them. As soon as the three of them had appeared, Nephrite and Trevor-nii tackled Jadeite before he could attack them like he'd probably been planning to.

"Hey, what's going on here?!" she demanded, as Nephrite and Trevor-nii wrestled Jadeite to the ground.

"I'd been hoping to have your aid for this," Nephrite said, even as he grabbed Jadeite's arms and forced them behind his back; Trevor-nii covered Jadeite's mouth before he could say any of the really mean things it looked like he wanted to say.

Usagi could be grateful for that, at least, but she mostly wondered about what Nephrite had asked. "You mean, what happened to you happened to him, too?"

"It happened to all four of us," Nephrite said, a serious look on his face, even as he and Trevor-nii kept holding Jadeite down, with one knee each on his back to keep him from moving much.

"So, you want my help for the rest of your friends, too?" Usagi asked, already having decided that she was going to help him, since what had happened to his three friends was really sad.

"Yes, Sailor Moon, I do," Nephrite said, and Usagi could only be grateful that he wasn't calling her by name.

She didn't know if Jadeite had remembered who she was after so long away, but she didn't want to let him know anything he might not.

"All right," she said.

Since Rei-chan had suggested that all of them should be transformed when Nephrite and Trevor-nii came back from wherever they'd been – which seemed to have been somewhere in the Dark Kingdom – Usagi could at least feel safer about standing in front of the three of them. Nephrite smiled softly, even as Jadeite thrashed against his and Trevor-nii's hold, and Usagi tried her best to smile, to comfort him and Trevor-nii.

She didn't know what she could actually do for Jadeite, since he hadn't been able to come out of the brainwashing that Nephrite had talked about on his own, but Luna-sensei came over to her, a determined look on her furry face.

"Is there something we can do, Luna-sensei?" she asked, looking down at the cat as she came up to stand beside her.

"There is one thing," Luna-sensei said, narrowing her eyes as she looked up at Nephrite and Trevor as the both of them held onto Jadeite, then the cat did the same kind of flip that had brought her the brooch she'd used to transform so many times before. "This is the Moon Stick, you can use it to heal things like this. Just shout Moon Healing Escalation."

"All right," she said, holding up the Moon Stick as she turned back to Nephrite and Trevor-nii, who were still holding Jadeite down with a knee each on his back. "Moon Healing Escalation!"

~SM~

It almost felt like the feel of the same warm, strange power that has always washed over him when he transformed, but it felt just that much stronger than any of the other times Trevor had felt it before. The sound of Jadeite's voice shouting "Refresh!" was a bit of a surprise, and Trevor quickly stepped back from Jadeite to let him stand back up again. Jadeite looked down at his hands for a long moment, before turning his attention to Nephrite.

"Nephrite?" he asked, looking up at Nephrite, the expression on his face seeming like someone who had just come out of a long, bad dream.

"Thank you, Sailor Moon," Nephrite said, bowing deeply to Usagi, before turning his attention to Jadeite.

Making his way over to where Usagi and the rest of the Sailor Senshi were all standing, not wanting to intrude on what seemed to be a private conversation between Nephrite and Jadeite, Trevor smiled as he saw the expression of happy relief spreading over his younger sister's face.

"I'm glad that we could do something to help," Usagi said, then she seemed to get worried again. "But, that also means that Zoisite and someone else is still under the control of the Dark Kingdom."

"Kunzite," Nephrite said, as he and Jadeite made their way over to where the rest of them were all standing together. "The last of our number is named Kunzite. He and Zoisite were in love, before the four of us were taken by the Dark Kingdom," Nephrite narrowed his eyes, seeming to be thinking deeply, but Trevor couldn't quite say what he was thinking about. "But, I don't know what's happened to them since then."

"Two of your friends were in love?" Usagi asked, looking sadder than Trevor had ever seen from her before.

"Yes," Jadeite said, speaking for the first time since he'd been freed from the Dark Kingdom. "Kunzite and Zoisite had fallen in love, but that was before Beryl came."

"Beryl?" Rei-san asked, looking more curious than he'd seen from her in the time they'd known each other.

"Beryl is the ruler of the Dark Kingdom," Nephrite said, folding his arms and narrowing his eyes.

His gaze also seemed to be drifting toward Mamoru-sempai, but Trevor didn't think it was his place to ask about that, so he tried not to think about it. As all of them started to discus where Jadeite might be able to stay – since Naru-san could hardly be expected to hide both Nephrite and Jadeite in her house – Rei-san offered to let him stay at the Hikawa Shrine.

"He already stayed there before," Rei-san said, folding her arms. "Besides, if the both of them are going to end up being targets for the Dark Kingdom, then it's important to keep the both of them in safe places. I'll add some more protective wards to Osaka-san's house, just to make sure that Nephrite's presence doesn't cause her any trouble."

"Thank you, Rei-san," Naru-san said, bowing deeply.

Turning to look at Nephrite and Jadeite, Trevor found that the both of them were looking at Mamoru-sempai again; he wondered about that, but he still didn't think it was really his place to ask.