Finding himself staring up at the strange, low ceiling of the quarters he had been shown to by one of the creatures that Beryl had introduced to him as youma – and also stated were going to be his and Endymion's subordinates – Ikaros struggled for a long moment to understand what had driven him from sleep. The scent of something burning – something that almost smelled like meat – lingered in his nose for a long moment, before he felt a strange sort of coldness griping his mind. Ikaros' eyes fluttered, the coldness gripping his mind sinking deeper and seeming to force his body to relax back into the bed he had been resting in.

The flicker of movement in the corner of his left eye drew Ikaros' attention, but the coldness overtaking his body made it harder and harder for him to even want to move, and the figure only registered as a blur of motion as his eyes fell closed again…

~SM~

Narrowing her eyes as she looked down at the boy who had granted her such great insight into the lives of four of the five Sailor Guardians, though he of course no longer remembered even a single one of them. It seems there is still something of your past that lingers, Beryl mused, looking down into the face of the sleeping boy. Endymion was sleeping far more comfortably than this boy.

Queen Metallia will want to know about this, she mused, leaning over to brush her right hand over the boy's forehead as she forced him back into sleep once more.

~SM~

It was hardly the first time that Usagi had found herself being woken up by nightmares, and she doubted it would be the last, with Trevor-nii kidnapped by the Dark Kingdom and Mom, Dad, and Shingo-chan all worried about him. Even that wasn't the end of things, considering the way that Mamoru-kun had been taken right alongside him, and the both of them probably had ended up being brainwashed by Beryl.

She didn't like to think about it, but that was probably what had happened.

"It's not time to wake up yet, Usagi-chan," Luna-sensei said, patting Usagi's face with one of her soft paws.

"I know that, Luna-sensei," she said, reaching out to gently stroke the kitty between her soft ears for a little bit, before laying back down on her bed.

Usagi closed her eyes, forcing herself not to look down at the empty futon where Trevor-nii had slept ever since the day that Mom and Dad had brought him home from the hospital where he'd been staying for what felt like a longer time than it had probably been. Sighing, Usagi tried to push all of the worries about what Beryl might be doing to both Trevor-nii and Mamoru-kun out of her mind so that she could get at least some sleep before school. She wouldn't have Trevor-nii to wake her up in the morning, after all.

Waking up when it was actually time for her to go to school was both harder and easier than it had been; easier because she'd been having another nightmare, and of course harder because she hadn't gotten as much sleep as she would have wanted.

On her way to school for the day, Usagi found that she couldn't quite push the thoughts of what Beryl might have been doing to Trevor-nii and Mamoru-kun; how they might be doing, and what it would be like when she was forced to fight them again. She met Naru-chan on the way, and the pair of them continued on together. During the walk, Naru-chan seemed about as preoccupied as Usagi had been finding herself, but she tried her best to comfort Naru-chan.

Though Usagi sometimes wished she had still had Trevor-nii to comfort her, too.

Just as they were about to make their way into the school building, though, Usagi found herself spotting a limousine – of all things – stopping just outside the school to let off a trio of girls into the building.

"I wonder what'd going on?" Usagi muttered, looking from the girls to the butler-looking guy who'd just let them all out of the car.

"I guess you wouldn't have had time to find out, what with… Everything that's been happening," Naru-chan said, looking a bit sad, before seeming to force herself to smile again. "But, those girls are all attending the Princess Seminar at the Rose Mansion."

"Wow, you mean there's actually people who teach classes on how to be a Princess?" Usagi asked, finding that she couldn't quite keep herself from chuckling softly. "I bet Luna-sensei would love that. But, isn't the Rose Mansion where Countess Rose lives? I didn't know she taught classes."

"Yeah, I didn't either," Naru-chan said, as the pair of them continued on their way into their first class of the day.

I bet Luna-sensei would be all for those kind of classes, Usagi mused, feeling a bit more light-hearted than she had since she'd lost Trevor-nii and Mamoru-kun to the Dark Kingdom. Classes were as dull as usual, but more than a few of Usagi's seemed to be wondering where Trevor-nii had gone. Most of them were nice enough to be worried in the same way she was, or at least kind enough to keep things to themselves if they weren't.

Even Haruna-sensei was nice enough not to push Usagi about the homework she'd missed, considering everything that had happened, though she did comment that Trevor-nii seemed to have the worst luck; Usagi couldn't help but agree with her, so she didn't say anything in response.

The rest of the day passed in a lot of the same ways as her first class had, and Usagi found herself a bit overwhelmed by the well-wishes of so many people; more than a few of whom had seemed to think she was just a nuisance while Trevor-nii was still around. She tried not to think about that, though. When Luna-sensei met up with her, around lunch time, Usagi settled down beside the cat to talk to her about the idea she'd been having.

~SM~

Standing before the throne where Beryl was seated, Endymion found himself staring at a quartet of colorful youma kneeling between them and Beryl.

"Endymion, Ikaros, these four will be your subordinates," Beryl said. "The DD Girls are-"

"Ikaros and I will handle things on our own," Endymion snapped, folding his arms. "We don't need any help."

Catching the uncertainty in Ikaros' amber eyes, Endymion pinned him with a glance, shaking his head. He knew better than to show uncertainty in front of Beryl. The worry Ikaros was clearly feeling didn't show on his carefully-blank face, so Endymion was at least pleased to know that – in spite of how little time the pair of them had actually spent together – Ikaros at least knew the value of discretion.

"That's fine, as well," Beryl said, seeming completely unaffected by what Endymion would have thought she'd have seen as at least some kind of insubordination. "Just bring me Sailor Moon's corpse and the Silver Crystal, and the both of you can do whatever you want."

That hungry look he'd seen in Beryl's eyes hadn't gone away; truly, it seemed to have only intensified, and that only made Endymion more certain that he shouldn't trust her. More and more, it was starting to seem as though – for all that they seemed to be stuck in this place – he and Ikaros were on their own.

~SM~

When she made her way back to the Crown Game Center, and specially-programmed machine she used to maintain contact with Central, Luna had merely been expecting to make a report on Usagi's strange ideas about training to be a Princess, and the lack of any concrete leads as to where the Dark Kingdom was keeping Mamoru and Trevor. She'd hardly been expecting to find Artemis hidden inside the arcade cabinet itself, with only a pair of cans and a headset microphone to keep him in contact with her.

"Ah, I guess you caught me," Artemis said, seeming sheepish but not nearly contrite enough for Luna's taste…

"You mean you were the one giving me orders?!" she demanded, claws sliding out almost reflexively as her back arched.

"Yeah, I have," Artemis stammered, sounding even more sheepish than before, but still not nearly contrite enough for Luna's taste.

"Why didn't you tell me that?!" she demanded.

"Well, you never asked about it, and so I figured- I mean, I didn't think you'd be this mad about it!" Artemis tried to explain, front paws flailing wildly as he did so.

~SM~

In the end, Luna-sensei had proved to be just as curious as Usagi herself about the Princess Seminar, and so the pair of them had gone to investigate it. Well, not so much "investigate" as ask one of the girls attending it to tell her what it was like, but then again spies and police did ask people questions, so maybe it was like an investigation after all. The girl she'd been talking to invited her to come along, just to see if she'd enjoy it, and Usagi had smiled and thanked her.

As it turned out, the Princess Seminar was more like normal classes than Usagi had been thinking it would be, but Countess Rose really seemed to like Luna-sensei, calling her an elegant pet for an elegant young lady. Countess Rose was also a lot nicer that Haruna-sensei had ever been, even though Usagi really wasn't any better at learning to be a Princess than she was at learning anything else. Still, it was kind of nice, meeting so many girls who wanted to become Princesses, too.

It wasn't something she'd been looking for, but finding it with people who didn't know who she was – who she was going to have to learn to be – made Usagi feel more comfortable than she'd been expecting anything like that to feel.

Working with all of the other girls was nicer than being at school, since Countess Rose seemed to set the tone by being nicer to her than anyone in school at ever been. The other Sailor Senshi joined in, and Usagi found herself feeling more and more settled in the Rose Mansion. It was nice to have the rest of her friends close, and even nicer since Rei-chan didn't seem to sense any kind of evil aura around the Rose Mansion.

Usagi was glad to know that none of the other girls were in danger from the Dark Kingdom, but she was still worried; worried about when the Dark Kingdom would strike again, and worried about what would happen when she saw Trevor-nii and Mamoru-kun again.

~SM~

Even though Endymion had said that they were going to fight the Sailor Guardians all on their own, Beryl had been fully willing to support the pair of them with her scrying. Even after Endymion had all but snapped at her, in fact. Ikaros quite know what to think – just why Beryl seemed to favor Endymion so much, even as Endymion seemed to dismiss her more and more – but Ikaros pushed those thoughts out of his mind. He and Endymion had been given the location of the Sailor Guardians, and knowing where they were, they had been given a mission.

And, even though he wasn't quite sure what to make of the relationship that Beryl seemed to want to have with Endymion, Ikaros knew that it probably wasn't his place to ask about it.

"Should we begin the attack now, Endymion?" he asked, spotting the Sailor Guardians as they made their way out of the mansion.

"No," Endymion said, narrowing his eyes as the pair of them down at the gathered Sailor Guardians. "They're too close to those other girls. We shouldn't involve anyone in this battle who doesn't already know about it."

"I suppose," Ikaros said, looking from Endymion down to the group of Sailor Guardians that were slowly making their way away from the grounds of the mansion where they seemed to have been staying.

"I wouldn't expect a scholar to understand things like this," Endymion said, though there was a gentle sort of smile on his face as he spoke the words. "We should strive not to involve those who have no stake in this battle, Ikaros. There's no honor in it."

Nodding, Ikaros turned his attention back to the Sailor Guardians as they continued on their way to… Wherever or whatever it was that had taken then away from the mansion where they had been present for some reason or other. Keeping pace with Endymion as the pair of them tracked the Sailor Guardians on their way to whatever their next destination would be, Ikaros found the route they were traveling becoming strangely… familiar, somehow.

He didn't know what to make of it, but when he looked to Endymion, Ikaros saw nothing but the perfect focus that he couldn't help feeling that he should have been able to display. And so, as Ikaros continued to follow in Endymion's wake, he tried to follow the other man's example, as well. He tried to have the same kind of focus that he could see on the other man's face.

And, as the Sailor Guardians drew farther away from those uninvolved people who Endymion wished to keep from being caught up in the battle between their two sides, Ikaros looked to Endymion's actions to continue guiding his own.

~SM~

"Usagi-chan, I can sense a dangerous aura getting closer," Rei-chan said, and Usagi couldn't help but feel weirdly relieved.

It'd almost felt like she'd been waiting for just this kind of an attack, ever since nothing at the Rose Mansion had turned out to be anything more than Countess Rose's way of trying to make friends by sharing her interests with some of the girls in Juuban around Usagi's age. Turning, already prepared to transform and fight off whatever youma Beryl had sent after them, Usagi found herself freezing in place as Trevor-nii and Mamoru-kun leaped down from the roof in front of them.

"Usagi-chan! Usagi!" Rei-chan hissed in her ear, bringing her attention firmly back to the present.

As much as she didn't like the present, Usagi knew that she still needed to face it.

"Hand over the Silver Crystal, Sailor Moon," Mamoru-kun said, and Usagi couldn't help wondering what he was thinking, behind the blank expression that she could see on the uncovered parts of his face.

Even as she transformed beside the other Sailor Senshi, Usagi couldn't help wondering what Trevor-nii and Mamoru-kun were thinking.

Still, Usagi knew that she was going to have to fight them – after spending so much time talking to Nephrite-kun and the three other friends of his that she and the rest of the Sailor Senshi had saved from the Dark Kingdom, she couldn't help but know it – and so she shoved those distracting thoughts aside. Trevor-nii seemed to be taking his cues from Mamoru-kun, which reminded Usagi painfully of the way Trevor-nii and Mamoru-kun had bonded when the pair of them had first met properly.

Neither of them seemed to recognize their own names, and after Rei-chan and Mina-chan started to attack them, Usagi heard the name that Trevor-nii had had during his old life on the Moon for the first time.

Bracing herself, as Mako-chan and Ami-chan started to make their own attacks on Trevor-nii and Mamoru-kun, Usagi took out the Moon Stick and concentrated on the familiar energies that she could feel inside her.

~SM~

The sight of Sailor Moon, aiming what was obviously a weapon at him and Ikaros, drove Ikaros into motion, clearly before the young scholar could so much as think about where she had been aiming, or which of them she had been aiming at. Finding himself knocked to the ground, Endymion quickly forced himself back to his feet at the sound of Ikaros screaming. The fact that Ikaros had just screamed what sounded like "refresh" didn't matter in the face of the pain Endymion could hear in the young scholar's voice.

Rushing to Ikaros' side, even as the young scholar fell backwards, Endymion caught him and lowered him gently to the ground. Ikaros' clothes had changed into some kind of strange uniform that Endymion had never seen before, but more unsettling was the sight of the young scholar's eyes. The bright, clear amber of Ikaros' eyes had faded to a muddy brown, and when those eyes – hazy as they still were from whatever it was that Sailor Moon had done to him – he called out a name that Endymion had only heard from Sailor Moon herself.

Throwing his cape over Ikaros' prone body, Endymion snarled out a threat that even he barely heard, before teleporting the pair of them back to Queen Beryl and the Dark Kingdom.

"Sailor Moon did something to his mind," Endymion said, before Queen Beryl could even say a single word to him.

"Leave him to me, Endymion," Queen Beryl said, pressing the pad of her right pointer finger to Ikaros' forehead, putting the young scholar to sleep just as he had begun to struggle and shift in Endymion's arms. "I'll see to it that he recovers."

"Thank you," he said, breathing deeply for a long moment. "Those subordinates you were offering us."

"The DD Girls will be fully willing to support you in your future efforts, Endymion," she said, though Endymion found himself more preoccupied with the peaceful expression on Ikaros' face.

He knew that it was a false peace, something that Queen Beryl had induced, but it was still something of a comfort, all the same.

~SM~

When the five of them all returned to home to the shrine, Rei found that she couldn't stop looking back at Usagi-chan. The other girl seemed to be holding up as well as she could, considering everything that had happened to Mamoru-kun and Trevor-kohai. Before she could say anything, Nephrite-kun and the other three they'd rescued from Beryl and the Dark Kingdom came up to where they were all standing.

Apparently, Nephrite-kun's divinations had let him know what had happened during the battle, and so the four of them had come to try to make them feel better. Rei was as pleased as she could be, considering everything that had happened, and as she watched the rest of the Sailor Senshi mingle with their group, Rei allowed herself to relax. There would clearly be more battles after this, considering what had happened to Trevor-kohai and Mamoru-kun, but at least Rei knew that there was somewhere safe for them all to come back to at the end of things.

That was all they could really ask for, under the circumstances.