Minako lay on the bed, pale and weakened, and looked up at Kunzite sadly as he brought her a glass of synthetic blood he had prepared for her. "Drink," he ordered kindly. "I will bring you someone to get actual blood from soon. I just want to make sure you're as comfortable as possible first."

When Minako only nodded, he looked concerned. "I thought you'd have something to say about that."

Seemingly out of nowhere to him, she said, "Remember when Rei overdid it healing Mamoru, and Usagi was so worried even though she knew Rei would be okay?"

"Yeah. That was a scary night all around."

She nodded. "I think I frightened Usagi even more than Rei did when I got hurt today."

Kunzite's hand trembled as he reached to take the now-empty glass from Minako. "I know I was in hell today." A tear tracked down his face. "I was sure I watched you get a mortal blow to the head with you so weakened." He turned his back to her to try to hide the rest of his tears.

Minako tried to reach out to him to get him to look at her. "I thought I was dying too. Without Rei's quick thinking and her power…."

With his back still to her, he said, "Will you listen to Usagi's command?"

"I have to," she then frowned.

Kunzite spun to face her. "You should listen to her! Your fucking brains were spilling out! If I lose you…." He looked at her as he cried. "She yelled at you because she loves you and was scared. How do you think that I felt?!"

Usagi was trying to get her shit together. As she did, she was standing in the living room facing the floor-to-ceiling windows and looking out over the city. At any other time, she would have found it hilarious that Mamoru was so uncomfortable as he tried to get everyone not to pry into why the furniture was broken. Right now, she wasn't finding the humor in anything.

She pressed her forehead against the glass and forced herself to close out the fear and anger swirling inside of her. Usagi knew it was beginning to overwhelm her again.

She blinked, and without turning around, she said, "Sapphire, you got your answer to the odd purchases Ruebius made. They stole the ashes of the dead and used them to attack the city."

He nodded. He then said, "Beryl is into similar things that my sis-" He paused before continuing. "Emerald was into."

Usagi rolled her eyes, "I think by now you don't have to distance yourself from your family for our sake. I do not doubt that you weren't on their side willingly." She then added, "Necromancy is a stupid branch of magic to get into normally. As you know, it corrupts the body and destroys the person from the inside out. I've met few who have ever found a way to mitigate the damage. Emerald and Beryl are two who have."

Ami asked, "How are you sure that Beryl has?"

"She remembers our former lives and wants Mamoru again. Beryl wouldn't risk ending her life too soon. She wants to live."

"How are you so sure?" Rei asked. "I haven't seen visions to tell me what she was like. Do you remember her?"

Usagi shook her head, "No. But it's easy for me to assume what she'd do. She wants Mamoru, well Endymion, to her, and I'd rip the world apart to get him if I were her." There was a quiet agreement that ran through everyone in the room. They all absolutely believed that Usagi would do anything to stand by Mamoru's side.

Mamoru pulled Usagi away from staring out the window and into his arms. He kissed her on the head and said, "You would never have to do anything. I will always be yours."

She rested her head against his chest. His words comforted her. "And I will do anything for you."

He chuckled, "I believe you. You already have done so much. Like threatening a pack of werewolves."

"You threatened them?" Makoto asked, confused.

Nephrite spoke up in Usagi's defense. "We had been working solely for Diamond at the time. Usagi was in the right."

Sapphire then asked what had been bothering him. "I never understood why you were. I knew from the moment your pack joined that you'd end up betraying Diamond. It's why I liked you all. It gave me hope. Why in the world did you ever work for him in the first place?"

It was Jadeite who stepped in to speak since Kunzite wasn't there to speak for them. What can four werewolves do in regular society? After all, our pack wasn't big enough to sustain ourselves in the countryside in peace. At the time, we were four young, hot-headed males who had incredible strength and no desire for a desk job. And to be fair, most of the time, Diamond made a move against someone, and to our knowledge, they were assholes. We didn't mame or kill anyone that was innocent, far from it."

Frowning, Sapphire said, "Yes, but everything you did got him more power."

"We didn't think about it that way. I'm not saying we were right. What we saw was that it got us more security. Our little pack was fighting to keep existing."

Nephrite added. "And Usagi coming to threaten us was a part of our journey to opening our eyes. Rei was another. While we all fell in love, Jadeite was the first of us to need out. He needed to be able to face the woman he loved. It was something we were all willing to do for him, and when Usagi showed up, he was relieved."

Rei blushed scarlet when she heard that. She then looked around in shock. She didn't know that Jadeite had discussed her with his pack like that.

Zoisite picked up where Nephrite left off. "Once we all heard about Rei, we were looking to get out of the organization. Usagi gave us the best way out. Working with her would ensure we all made it out alive."

Jedite added, "Well, with one caveat, she made it very clear that if anything happened to Mamoru, we would all be dead."

"Which was weird," Nephrite said. "It's strange finding out that the mythical vampire you've heard about is very real and is standing in your living room threatening you."

Jadeite said, "Not that we wanted to go against anything she said in the first place. We all liked Mamoru and Motoki and had no reason to hurt them."

It was Naru who said, "My guess was that Usagi was concerned that her involvement could put him in danger. After all, going to go after Diamond would mean collateral damage. That's how he works; he would use threats against Mamoru to try to stop her."

Sapphire pulled Naru into his arms. "And I would have hated passing along the order. I'm so glad he's dead."

Naru looked up and smiled at him. "And you're living the life you want to now. I'm so proud of you. Thanks for noticing the riot and getting everyone."

Nodding, Usagi said, "It was great you alerted us so fast."

"I was wondering," Ami said. "Why cause all that chaos? What does she gain?"

"Fear," Sapphire answered quickly. "There is bound to be video all over the Internet now of the hoard and what happened when we stopped them. They turned to ash. How terrifying would that be to you if you had no concept of the supernatural? And now that you know it exists, how powerless would you feel? How can a regular person stop one of those?"

Usagi nodded. "The city is on its way to being crippled. Diamond blew up the police station, and now there is fear of the unknown. People are going to be afraid to go out. How can they feel safe with a crippled police force and the walking dead out there?"

"But why? What is her end goal?" Zoisite asked.

"Endymion," Usagi said easily.

Mamoru blinked in surprise, and then it dawned on him. "She's trying to draw me out? How would she know that I would step in to stop this?"

"Your name literally means to defend and protect. Our personalities wouldn't have changed at all, and she would expect you to be there saving people. She wants to find you."

"And then to brainwash me into being hers," he added.

"How? How do you know?" Makoto asked.

Mamoru said, "Miran, the Oracle again passed along a message. We need to find a way to stop her."

"Wrong," Rei announced. "I need to find a way to stop her, and I will."

"Don't overdo it," Jadeite growled.

She rolled her eyes playfully, "Keep a close watch on me then."

"I will," he said, his voice dripping with seduction. He then said, "Anything else, or can I take Rei home?"

"Anything you think of that could help, please report it to us. Otherwise, you're dismissed," Usagi said. Three minutes later, the apartment only held her and Mamoru. Yamato was at work, and Luna was home cuddled with Artemis on his day off.

Mamoru turned to Usagi the moment everyone was gone. "You're not even a fraction as okay as you're pretending."

"No, but I knew I wasn't hiding it from you. Thanks for not calling me on it in front of everyone."

"I felt you when Minako was hurt. What was that?" He didn't know his powers or their connection enough to interpret her feelings –yet.

"Loss. I have been alive long enough to understand and feel when someone is dying. We essentially got her back from the dead. What you felt then was my heart breaking over her death. It was horrible."

He held her and he felt her trembling. "It was that bad?"

"Rei performed another act that has never been done before, and Minako was damn lucky. Not only should she be dead, but Kunzite should also be without his mate right now. That would have destroyed him."

Mamoru lifted her chin to make her look at him. "And that makes you think about the times I could have died?"

She nodded, and he was able to feel deep heartbreak radiating off of her this time, and it was overwhelming. "Yes. I feel like I'm drowning in fear right now."

He kissed her cheek. "Want to wreck some more furniture that I can be asked about later and be horribly embarrassed about again?"

She shook her head and pulled back out of his arms. "No, I want to talk about what you learned this morning. It was a lot for you to find out all at once. Are you okay?"

He looked at her in shock. "I can feel you aren't okay."

"And I can feel you're struggling too. What can I do to help?"

He shook his head. "That's not how this works. We were talking about your struggles."

"And you just found out about your parents' deaths. That takes precedence."

Mamoru shook his head at her in disbelief. "And I don't get to help you?"

"What are you talking about? I'm not selfish enough to go over my issues right now when you're suffering!"

"Same!" He yelled back. He pulled her back into his arms and held her there tightly. "My parents died years ago, and I can handle it."

"I don't want you to. I opened up this hurt for you by having Rei call Graham. I need to know how you are."

He chuckled for a moment. "We're fighting over helping each other. It's kinda funny."

She wrapped her arms around him. "Yes. But you'll talk now. The way I know it is that Minako is alive, and so are you. My issues are just fear over things that didn't happen. They will pass on their own."

Mamoru pulled her with him to their bedroom and laid her on the bed on top of the covers beside him. He faced her and said, "I feel safe right here next to you. Does this help you?"

"Yes," she said, smiling sweetly. "This helps a lot."

He nodded and then said, "I wish I knew more about them than just why they died. Something about my love for you makes me sure they were content when they died, though. I get that because I know what it's like to love you so much that I would be happy to know you kept on living. And they had the promise I'd find love. That had to have helped them."

"It's a burden too. Isn't it? You feel the responsibility to make your life worth dying for."

"Yeah?" he frowned and looked at the bedspread. "What if I'm not all they hoped I'd become?"

She caressed his cheek, "a brilliant, kind, loving, thoughtful, handsome man who became not only the first hybrid vampire-werewolf but also the king of the vampires? Yeah, you might be a real letdown," she teased.

He blinked and earnestly said, "But I became all of that because of you. You made me."

"I didn't make you handsome, kind, brilliant, or anything else you are. And you made me queen. I lived for centuries as a vampire and wasn't queen until you turned out of love for me. And I definitely didn't make you a hybrid. That was your father's ancestry and then Rei, who then kept you alive."

"I hear what you say, but I still felt like I had been drifting until the moment I saw you in the arcade."

Usagi took her small hand and pulled to untuck Mamoru's shirt. When she did, she placed her hand on his bare stomach. "And yet you were wonderful all along."

He scooted closer to her on the bed. He was thoughtful when he said, "You were right, though. As mean as it sounds, I admit it's kind of a burden. Two people died –my presents gave up their lives for my future. An amazing future with an incredible woman –but still."

"But your past, before now, was hard. You lost a lot, including obviously very loving parents. What you have now doesn't negate that pain."

"It doesn't," he admitted.

Usagi shifted him to his back and cuddled into his arms, "can you tell me what your childhood was like? I know it might be hard, but I want to carry that burden with you. I want you to feel I can understand what you went through."

They spent the next four hours with Mamoru, beginning to tell her everything about his past. He let someone in on how ugly and unwanted he felt for the first time in his life. Instead of feeling embarrassed, it felt like it began to set him free.