Zoisite, feeling the shift in air pressure that meant someone had appeared behind him, automatically rose and spun toward it, even as the sensation was followed with the sense of his soulmate's presence. Mercury caught his fist and eased it back down.

"How is he?" the Senshi of Wisdom asked gently.

With a heavy sigh, the general slid back into his chair at the prince's bedside. "The same," he answered tiredly. "He dreams, I think, but nothing else."

"Serenity says they have been dreaming together. Dancing, mostly. The simple joy of each other's company, untainted by the troubles that follow them in the waking world."

"It sounds nice, but I still worry."

She offered him a sweet smile. "As would I, were our situations reversed. Nonetheless, Zoisite, you do not need to be afraid. He will wake when he is ready."

He looked at Endymion's sleeping form. "I wish I had known what would happen with the crystal. We might have done something to prepare him."

"There is no sense in fretting over the past."

"I know." He covered her hand with his when she rested it on his shoulder. "I am always glad to have you here with me, at least."

"And I am always glad to be with you, but I am afraid today's is not merely a social call. I bring a summons from the queen."

"Kunzite will be training with the troops at this time of day."

She shook her head. "She is calling for you, Zoisite."

"For me? Why?"

Mercury extended a small scroll. "The top scientists from all over the Alliance have been summoned to an urgent council. You were the only logical choice to represent the Earth."

He accepted the paper and broke open its seal, quickly scanning the contents. "This does not indicate the purpose of the council."

"No. That is, at least until the beginning of the meeting, being kept quiet. Will you be able to come?"

The general turned his attention back to the message. "I was to be on duty at the time listed, but I am sure I can ask one of the others to take my place. I will notify the king and queen immediately if you want to wait here."

Mercury shook her head. "I will come back for you at the appointed time, or you may teleport yourself to the palace whenever you are ready. As my betrothed, you are more than welcome at court."

He gave her a quick smile as she vanished, then turned his attention back to the resting prince. He hoped he would wake, but of course nothing changed. Sighing, he stood to locate one of the other Shitennou to take his place.

Jadeite was, while not exactly in disgrace, precisely that. He was too politically valuable, both as the crown prince of China and the fiancé of Princess Mars, to publicly chastise, but the king and queen had made their displeasure known over the handling of Endymion's condition and the attack it had resulted from. The remaining generals had not been told what exactly he had done to provoke their judgment, though of course Kunzite was aware. As such, Jadeite was away on "special duties" for the foreseeable future, and their leader was preoccupied with matters of state in his own home country. That left only Nephrite available to be of assistance.

The astronomer was in his observatory in the palace's highest tower, as he'd expected. While Nephrite was far from unsociable, he found the constant noise created by other people difficult to separate from the voices of his beloved stars, and so he would often choose to linger close to them in order to hear whatever wisdom they wished to bestow upon him.

The youngest general made sure to knock as he opened the door. They were rarely afforded privacy or time to themselves, so they all made an effort to be considerate if they did have to intrude on one of the others' personal space.

"Nephrite?"

The older man looked up from what seemed to be a star chart draped across his desk, vaguely bewildered. He had ink smeared across one cheek and looked like he hadn't been to bed for days. He blinked a few times before responding. "Zoisite? Need something?"

Zoisite frowned as he stepped around the desk to face him directly. "When did you last rest? You are utterly exhausted; I can see it clear as day."

"Can't sleep. Something's wrong. Gotta find it."

The blond looked him over with a healer's eye. The older man winced every so often, seemingly irregularly. His gaze regularly darted to the large windows across from his desk. The star chart he was studying was, upon closer inspection, one of Alliance make, and thus far more detailed than those created on-world.

"Is it a vision?"

"No. Yes. No." He huffed, pressing the heels of his palms to his eyes. "I don't know. Something's wrong. It's like the whole path got shuffled around and everything's loud."

Zoisite thought of Queen Serenity's mysterious summons, and the way that Sailor Mars had seemed so distressed during their last meeting in a way that far exceeded a reaction to Jadeite's strange wounds. He could well imagine that something had happened to upset the Seers of their respective teams.

When Zoisite didn't respond, Nephrite muttered, "Busy, Zoi. Talk more later." He then got to his feet and moved to his telescope.

He needed someone on duty in his place, but it was exquisitely clear that Nephrite was in no condition to be working, let alone guarding their vulnerable prince. He took the only option he could see, knowing the older general had no intention of resting of his own accord, and cast a simple sleep spell. Nephrite collapsed instantly, a marionette with cut strings, which only proved how badly his body needed to rest. A quick teleport took them to Nephrite's bed. Zoisite arranged him carefully under the covers before going to find Kunzite.

The eldest Shitennou said "Come in" as soon as Zoisite reached for the door, already knowing he was there. Like Nephrite before him, Kunzite was at his desk with a great many papers, though thankfully without the ink smear and the general air of exhaustion. He did, however, seem terribly overworked, and Zoisite felt terrible for having to put more on his plate.

"What do you need, Zoisite?"

The youngest general took a deep breath. "Nephrite has worked himself to exhaustion, I think, trying to See. Something has him quite distressed. I was forced to use a sleep spell on him so that he would finally get some rest. However, this is a problem as I have been summoned to a council with the Moon Queen and need someone to take over with the prince."

Kunzite finally looked up from the document he'd been reading and set aside his quill. "A council with Queen Serenity? Why?"

"That is, as of yet, a mystery to me. Mercury says that information is being kept back until the meeting but did not clarify why or even what it would be about, save that it would involve scientists from all over the Alliance."

Understanding that any further answers on that front were unavailable, Kunzite instead focused on the issue at hand. "I will stay with Endymion, then."

Zoisite hesitated, then spoke again. "Kunzite, we need Jadeite to come home. We are stretched too thin, particularly with dark portents on the horizon and the prince still asleep. You have far too much to do yourself without taking on my duties as well."

"I assure you, I can read papers just as easily at Prince Endymion's side as I can here," Kunzite said wryly, "but as it happens, I agree with you. I simply have no way to call him back."

"Is he on one of his spying missions, then?"

"He may well be, but that is not what I mean. The king and queen sent him away, and I do not have the power to gainsay them. They are deeply unhappy about what he did, and they well know that I do not disagree with him. They will not heed me this time."

"Should I speak with them? As I do not know the details of the situation, I cannot be accused of partiality, and the fact does remain that with Nephrite currently out of commission, we need more hands."

The older man rose and began neatly sorting his papers. "For the time being, I think not. We will do well enough for the moment, and it is best to save such pleas for a time when we are truly in need. I will guard our prince. Your task will be to attend this council."

A part of Zoisite wanted to argue. Being separated from Jadeite, particularly when Endymion's condition was so uncertain, caused him a great deal of discomfort and stress. Nephrite's agitation only increased that. He knew, however, that Kunzite was sincere when he said they would be able to manage. He had to trust that, if nothing else.

He turned to go to his own rooms and prepare, but paused in the doorway and looked back. "Jade is my best friend. He is utterly loyal to our prince. Whatever it is he did, the king and queen must know he believed it the right path. He needs to come home."

"He will," Kunzite promised quietly. "If it truly comes down to it, I will call Jadeite home and damn the consequences."

The younger man gaped. He didn't know if he had ever heard Kunzite swear before, not in all the long years he'd spent at the general's side, nor had he heard him openly espouse disobeying their rulers. "What did you say?"

Kunzite sighed. "Close the door."

Zoisite did as ordered before dropping into the visitor's chair across from Kunzite's desk. "You would defy the king and queen?"

"I will not tell you the full extent of what occurred, but yes. Jadeite was not at fault and does not deserve punishment for his actions. If I have to choose between disobeying an order and protecting our prince or our world, I would not hesitate to do whatever it takes. You are not the only one discomfited by the current going-ons. That Nephrite is distressed, and Princess Mars, bodes ill. I am no Seer but even I sense something stirring."

It was a strange comfort, to have someone else put into words the unease that Zoisite had carried for days. "You feel it too?"

"I do. Venus has said much the same when I spoke to her two days past. I suspect the queen's council will be related to the cause, whatever it may be." He finished gathering the documents he needed and straightened. "You will, I trust, keep this information to yourself."

"Yes, of course."

"Good. You should be on your way. I am eager to learn what you discover."

Zoisite met his leader's intense gaze. "Please call me if anything changes with Prince Endymion. Mercury assures me he will be perfectly well, but I worry."

Kunzite dipped his head in response, then teleported away as Zoisite did the same.

88888888

Zoisite hardly knew what to do or say. He had served as part of their diplomatic party when the Terrans officially joined the Silver Alliance, but he had never been their primary speaker or their sole representative. Standing as an equal at a table dominated by scientists whose knowledge and power vastly outweighed his own was a humbling experience.

Queen Serenity was the only person seated, reigning from a dais a short distance from the large crescent shaped table like the piece that made the moon full. "Ladies and gentlemen, gifted minds from across our beloved Alliance, this New Moon Council is called to order. Sailor Mercury, if you would?"

Mercury was the only other person there that Zoisite knew on sight, and he let out a tiny sigh of relief when he realized that she would be the one conducting the meeting. He knew she would not deliberately snub him or put him on the spot in the way a less Terran-friendly representative might, and that she would require the same from the other participants.

"First, as a reminder to our old friends and to help our new allies on Earth, I must insist that any information discussed at a New Moon Council is held in the highest confidence and is only to be disclosed to those others involved in the research or as the highest echelons of government. The material discussed is classified, and sharing it out of turn would be considered a serious breach of trust."

He gave a small nod as she shifted just enough to look at him directly, understanding. Whatever the urgent matter was, it was meant for the Shitennou and the royal family only. That was clear enough, and more than understandable if the reason for the summons could not even be disclosed to the recipients.

The Senshi began pressing keys on a holographic panel that had appeared under her hands, and a scale image of the Sun appeared in the center of the moon. It seemed all but covered in writhing spots. "Six days ago, our instruments detected an increase in sunspots. This is, in itself, not unusual, though it is somewhat concerning as it is out of phase with the solar cycle. However, during this surge in activity, we detected something else."

With a few more taps, the image narrowed to a particular cluster of sunspots. Zoisite was far from an expert on solar activity, but he frowned. It looked to him as though something were actually leaving the sun.

One of the other scientists, an older man from Uranus, spoke up. "A coronal mass ejection? Hardly cause for concern, my lady."

"Certainly under normal circumstances we would agree with you, Doctor," Mercury said with a nod. "A solar flare emitting a piece of solar matter is not typically a pressing matter of state. However, I would beg your indulgence and ask that you keep watching."

Zoisite returned his attention to the holograph again. His eyes narrowed as he saw the mass begin to veer from its original trajectory, then vanish without a trace.

A tangle of startled voices erupted at that, and he almost flinched away from the surge in noise as it startled him out of his own thoughts. Volume mounted steadily as people spoke over one another, the words too layered to make out. He tried to venture a query or two of his own, but his more even tone was instantly swallowed by the ruckus.

The queen got to her feet, and the room instantly went silent. "Sailor Mercury will give a brief summary of our current understanding of the situation. After that, we will be able to respond to any other questions and begin to decide on a course of action."

Mercury nodded. "As I said, we observed a mounting number of solar flares six days ago. When the flares grew particularly violent, all but covering the observable surface of the Sun, a coronal mass ejection came from one of the largest sunspots. It was not an unusually large or high speed ejection, and we were initially unconcerned as it seemed less abnormal than the normal of spots. However, after the ejection, the sunspots vanished. The mass, when tracked, began to change course and vanished from our equipment's readings."

"I beg your indulgence, Lady Mercury," Zoisite said politely before the others could dominate the conversation again, "but I am no astronomer. I gather, from what I saw, that both the change in course and its disappearance was atypical behavior. Was the mass within the gravitational range of one of the planets when it turned?"

Her pretty face looked grim. "It was not. The mass had already escaped the immediate influence of the Sun, but it had not yet reached far enough to be subject to the planets' pull. It also should have remained easily observable."

"What, then, may have caused the abnormal change?"

She met his gaze directly. "It moved itself."

As the general had rather expected, a second uproar came from the others gathered. Some asserted, loudly, that a simple coronal mass could not change directions of its own accord and her readings were simply inaccurate. Others were claiming that the mass had simply been consumed by a planet's atmosphere, again despite it not having been within range of any.

Though still quiet, Mercury's voice cut through the verbal melee. "We did get one other pertinent reading before the mass escaped our detection."

Another researcher, an older woman from Jupiter, looked down on her with a patronizing little smile. "And what might that be?"

Rather than answering aloud, Mercury threw a switch on the control panel in front of her. The hologram was washed with color radiating from the celestial bodies – Mercurian blue, solar orange, Earth's gold, and so on. The coronal mass, moved to the center of the view, did not share its source's colors. It burned a malevolent black and violet.

"That can't be right," an older Mercurian murmured, hand pressed to her throat.

"Like Nehe–" one of the others started to say before being elbowed in the ribs.

"The mass showed an almost overwhelming negative aura just before it vanished," Mercury reported coolly. "It began to change as soon as it exited the main solar sphere, and had reached what we would consider threat level power as its course changed. Its malevolence mounted even further, reaching this intensity as it disappeared. We estimate that if it continued to develop at the pace we were able to observe it will reach a level comparable to a Senshi."

"Can we predict where, if anywhere, it was heading given its heading and velocity at the time of its disappearance?" an old man of indeterminate planetary origin questioned in a querulous voice.

"We have the possibilities sorted by likelihood given what information we were able to gather, but we had so little that we were unable to conclusively eliminate any of our worlds. We think that both Saturn and Venus were unlikely, given their position in their orbit." The hologram disappeared and was replaced with a numbered list. "The most likely destination, which I must stress is entirely conjecture, would be somewhere in the asteroid belt. If that is accurate, we will likely not have a problem."

One particularly heavyset woman rumbled, "Our on-world sensors are far more sensitive than those exploring the rest of our solar system. Surely we would know if or when a mass of that power reached any of our planets."

Mercury shot Zoisite a very brief but pointed look, and his blood chilled in his veins. The Earth had no such defense, and its magical reserves were severely depleted after so many years without cultivation. That was the real reason she had personally carried the summons to him. She suspected, and very likely had reason, that the mass would come to Earth, where its negative energy could wreak untold havoc. He almost teleported home to spread the word immediately, but forced himself to play the diplomat and continue listening politely as the scientists compared calculations and debated.

88888888

He caught her arm as they were all filing out of the council chambers and whisked them both to a private corner of the lunar gardens.

"How much time do we have?"

She looked up at him, worried. "We do not know that it will go to Earth. Like I said inside, we really are talking about probabilities, and Earth is not the most likely target given the available data."

"Mercury."

The blue-haired warrior looked away. "Mars thinks it will go to Earth. If she is Seeing truly…. If she is right, the shorter distance means it would already be there."

Zoisite sat down hard and swallowed twice before he could talk again. "What will it do?"

"I wish I knew." She knelt in front of him, taking his hands in hers. "We will help. You know we will. You are not alone anymore."

"Is there anything we can do to… get ahead of the problem?"

She hesitated before responding. "There is no easy way to say this, so I suppose I must be blunt. If you mean to deal with the mass yourself, do not. It would easily overpower you."

It was like a fist to the face. He knew she was trying to be honest, to help, but it was hard not to feel betrayed. "You think so little of me?"

"Zoisite, no. Of course not. You have an incredible strength in you. I do not say this to hurt, I am not trying to insult you or the other Shitennou. I am giving you the truth, as best as I can. If my calculations are correct –" he knew they were "– then that thing is a match for a fully-fledged warrior who has honed her power. Even Prince Endymion and his Golden Crystal, should he awaken, would be unable to face it, simply because he is so new to his gift. Let the Senshi handle this. Do not throw yourself needlessly into danger."

"Needlessly?" he repeated in a flat tone. "You carefully do not say it, but we know that if it would have so easy a time with me, it would destroy my people. Even if we cannot deal with it, we cannot do nothing and leave innocents to die in our place."

"Zoi–"

"Mercury, please. You say we cannot face it ourselves, and though it pains me, I will accept that you are correct. Do not say we must do nothing. You and the others will not be able to dedicate all your time to this matter, and in the interim, who knows what damage may be wrought? My brothers and I can at least begin the search, if nothing else. We, I, cannot stand by."

She drew closer, and he did not push her away as she wrapped her arms around him. "I want to tell you no. I want to keep you away from whatever horror is in that mass."

"I can't."

"I know. I love you for it, but I am scared. Mars is not herself, and this mass has evaded every attempt to track or identify it. I can hardly stomach letting you go after it."

"Let me do this, Mercury. I cannot destroy this threat, but I have to do something."

"Be careful," she whispered.

It took a moment to gather his composure, but he managed to summon a true smile. "For you, anything." He rose, helping her up as he did. "I will keep you informed as to our progress."

"Please do."

Zoisite leaned in and pressed a gentle kiss to her lips, smiled once more, and vanished.