AN: Hiiiiiiii. I'm not dead (theoretically), just dead on the inside. Creative juice? What's that? The sad thing is that I had most of this sitting in my Google docs for literal months before I was able to tack on the last few paragraphs and call it good. C'est la vie, I guess?
Disclaimer: I still own nothing anywhere ever. Who could on a teacher's salary?
88888888
In the deepest watches of the night, Kunzite found himself on Venus' balcony, staring out over the Silver Palace's extensive gardens.
"Kunzite, come back to bed." Venus emerged behind him, draped only in a filmy wrap that left little to the imagination. "I find myself missing my husband."
"Husband?" he repeated, his voice little more than a low rumble in the darkness.
She looked up at him through her lashes, laying a hand on the mark newly emblazoned over his heart. His uniform was in an unusual state of disarray, pants low on his hips and jacket entirely undone. She traced the lines of her planetary symbol with the tip of her fingernail.
"I told you before. These ties are even more sacred to us than a ceremony. A soul bond is a rare and precious thing."
"I would not want to dishonor you by marrying in secret, Venus."
She laughed. "Dishonor me? My people would say a star-crossed romance with a foreign general, wedding in the dead of night to avoid censure, is no more than my due."
"A star-crossed romance? Is that what this is, Venus?"
Her finger stilled at the center of the heart. "No. You are my everything, and I would have you in any way I can before things go wrong."
"We have had no luck locating your coronal mass thus far," Kunzite reported. "Only traces too small to track."
Venus frowned. "It really is frustrating. The four of us do not possess earth magic, and your people do not have the technology to search for you. Mercury is helping Zoisite develop some of the gadgets we use as best she can, but even if he learns, your world lacks the needed infrastructure to support their use."
"I had thought to locate it through my stone sense, but it continues to elude me. Our best hope now is Nephrite's air and starsong, as Zoisite's water sense has a far more limited range. Without the prince…"
She nodded. "He will wake when he's ready. In the meantime, I'll send Jupiter to help. Her plant-sense may give you more direction until one of the Seers finds something of use."
"My thanks." He slid an arm around his newly bonded soulmate's waist, drawing her close. "Jadeite and Prince Endymion both said that their connections with Lady Mars and Princess Serenity grew slowly, yet I feel you in my mind already."
She smirked. "I'm not the incarnation of the goddess of love for nothing."
A faint smile edged onto the general's stern features. "It is… truly something. One begins to understand how the others could not resist." Kunzite took both of her hands in his and raised them to his lips. "I should return home before I am missed."
Venus tightened her grip when he began to withdraw. "Kunzite."
"Yes?"
She seemed to struggle for a moment before continuing. "I know we told you again and again that Endymion would wake when ready, but it has begun to worry us. It is taking too long."
The general frowned and faced her more fully. "What do you suspect is wrong?"
Venus bit her lip contemplatively. "The timing of this mass was… perhaps a little too convenient. Why would it emerge so suddenly and steer itself to Earth? Why now? Why does the prince not regain consciousness? I worry it knew Terra's magic was finally awake, yet unusually vulnerable. It might be keeping him asleep on purpose by poisoning the planet's energy."
"Then what should we do?"
"I don't know," Venus admitted. "Serenity has called to him through their bond, but she gets no conscious response. She only finds him in dreams, and those are clearly not enough."
"I do not –" He stopped.
"What is it?" she asked.
"I may know a way to wake him," he admitted. "Or a way to find a way, at least. Please do not ask me what it is."
Venus studied him. "All right," she agreed slowly. "Just be safe."
"I shall," Kunzite promised.
She began to button his uniform jacket for him. "Don't get used to this sort of treatment," she said wryly. "I would much rather be taking this off of you than putting it back on."
The general stood still until she was done straightening his clothes, then pressed a sweet kiss to her mouth just before he vanished.
88888888
As soon as he was in the safety of his office, Kunzite summoned Zoisite. The younger man appeared moments later, still in perfect order despite the late hour.
"Is something wrong?" Zoisite asked immediately.
He already knew that Zoisite would agree with his decision without question, but he also knew that he would be putting the younger man in an extremely delicate position. They were sworn to the prince first and foremost, but it did not negate the fact that they were still subjects of their king and queen, who had already delivered their decision on the matter. Going against one's sovereigns, moreso when those sovereigns were almost one's parents, was no small thing to ask.
Kunzite almost sent Zoisite away again in order to keep any blame on him alone. He opened his mouth to do so, but the steady, trusting look in his subordinate's eyes forced him to shut it again.
Slowly, he admitted, "I think you already know what I intend to say."
Zoisite blinked twice, surveying his leader. "You mean to summon back Jadeite, though I do wonder at the change of heart when you spoke so recently of it not being needed yet."
The eldest general could feel the small smile as it formed, even while he tried to keep it hidden. He had watched over Zoisite from the time he was little more than a babe. Seeing what he had become, the grace and wisdom he carried despite his meager years, was a little spark of light he could never resist. After a long pause, he chose to respond with the simple truth. "Lady Venus suggested to me that the prince's sleep is being prolonged unnaturally. We do not know how to awaken him, but Jadeite would be able to discern a solution."
The younger general nodded immediately, seeing his point. "Do you know where he is?"
"No, but I will ask him momentarily. How is Nephrite?"
If it hadn't been against Zoisite's nature to do so, Kunzite knew the teen would have been rolling his eyes in exasperation. "He is still in his tower, of course, trying to make sense of the starsong as though it will miraculously resolve itself after days of attempts. If he does not turn in shortly, I will have to knock him out again."
"Go see to him while I summon Jadeite, please. I would prefer that you be blameless for Jadeite's return, as the king and queen have not yet swayed from their position."
"You know I agree with calling him back. It does not matter to me if I am also considered at fault."
"Yes, but you will learn that the burden of command also comes with the need to shoulder the blame if it should prove to be necessary. You have no choice in the matter when it comes to a decision I make, and so I would not see you punished for it."
Zoisite was ready to argue, but he knew his commander as well as the older man knew him, and he knew that there was nothing he could say to sway him. He nodded in response. "I will go tend to Nephrite, then. Please tell me when Jadeite is here. I have missed him terribly."
"I will. If Nephrite is not willing to heed you, tell him that I am ordering him to take at least six hours of rest before he is back on duty. That should prevent the need to forcibly render him unconscious."
His response came in a second dip of his head before the younger general vanished, teleporting to the high tower that housed Nephrite's observatory. Kunzite waited a moment just to be entirely sure that his subordinate was gone before reaching into the growing mental link between the generals and pressing against his tie to Jadeite.
Jadeite's gift was tied up in words, and his partner was psychic. It had been an incredible blessing when they realized that his soul bond had actually enabled him to have fully telepathic conversations with those he shared a link to, whereas the other generals were slowly developing the skill since the prince's inheritance and were limited by his inability to actively participate.
The fourth general's response was instantaneous. Kunzite? What's wrong? Did something happen to Endymion?
No, he immediately assured the younger man. His condition has not changed. It has, however, been brought to my attention that some outside force may be keeping him from waking. Right now, we do not know how that may be happening, nor how to reverse it.
I'll come right away, Jadeite said without hesitation. Right? You want me to come home?
Yes. Please. You are our best chance at identifying a cure.
The mental barrier preventing Kunzite from tracking the last Shitennou lifted, and he could see in his mind's eye where Jadeite was lingering. He had to restrain another smile when he realized that the blond had chosen to set up camp on a nearby island rather than attending to any of the tasks that could have easily kept him occupied during his banishment.
Don't laugh, Jadeite chided. Are you coming?
You were meant to be working while away, not napping on a beach.
I will have you know that I've gotten plenty of work done, thanks, he retorted. The nice thing about being a spymaster is that you are the master of other spies who can go and do the work for you.
The banter was refreshing after weeks of Jadeite's absence, but Kunzite had greater concerns at the moment. Rather than continue the conversation, he willed himself to his subordinate's newly revealed location. Jadeite, when he arrived, was already waiting.
"Let's go," he said urgently, already reaching for his leader's arm. "I need to see him."
"Are you already trying to discern the problem?"
"Yes, of course, but it'll be easier when I can see him. There are a lot of words, you know. Finding the right ones can take a while. And, honestly, I'm not so much looking for the problem as I am the solution. I don't really care what the problem is if I can just cut the knot and get him out of it."
The part of Kunzite that was a master tactician wanted to point out that the best way to find a solution was usually to understand the problem itself, but he could hardly fault Jadeite for his impatience. They had all been struggling under the weight of their prince's absence for too long; if he could find a way to wake him without understanding what had kept him away, more power to him.
He released Jadeite directly beside their unconscious prince's bed, where the younger general all but launched himself at the still form. A part of him doubted that the physical contact would provide any aid, given what he had seen of Jadeite's powers, but the rest of him could not begrudge him that comfort. He, out of all of them, had suffered the most over the prince's condition, unable to see him or try to help, forced to wait for secondhand news.
"What exactly did V tell you?"
Kunzite frowned. "You know of the coronal mass and its presumed arrival here on Earth, correct?" When Jadeite gave him a distracted nod, he continued. "She believes that it was unlikely to be a coincidence for the mass to come with the prince unable to respond to a threat, and that it might seek to keep him away by forcing his sleep to continue. If I recall, her precise terminology was something to the effect of the mass poisoning Earth's energy, and therefore poisoning Prince Endymion."
He watched Jadeite murmur the words to himself as though turning them over in his mouth, searching for impurities. His following expression wasn't quite a frown; it was more pensive than anything as he considered.
"She could be onto something," he said finally, "but it's hard for me to say without more information. My gift only extends so far, I guess. I'm going to have to work at it from the other end and focus on how to subvert the poisoning rather than tracing the cause. I think – no, I know – Sere will be needed. I just have to figure out how."
"Why would –?"
Jadeite, for lack of a better way to describe it, hissed at his leader. "Shhhhhh! I'm trying to focus!"
Rather than attempt to further the conversation, Kunzite bowed to the inevitable and took himself to report to the king and queen of Jadeite's return and to accept his punishment for defying their orders. He took comfort at least in knowing that Jadeite was determined to find the solution and free Endymion.
88888888
AN: The pieces are mostly in place, and we are ticking down to the end of this story. If you are at all familiar with Sailor Moon canon or the other works in this series, you know it's gonna be a doozy, so let me know what you're thinking. Till next time!