[Scene: Nephrite's wineceller under the O'Sama mansion. Zoi is greatly annoyed that the C'est La Vie Gang have intervened, standing on the celler stairs putting out a fire he lit to incenrate the seven manticores that are trying to attack him.]
Minako: What are we doing? What are YOU doing? I told you, you can't kill them!
Zoi: I was doing a pretty good job of it until you decided to interrupt. ZOI! [summons another fireball and tosses it into the pool]
Ami: BUBBLE SPRAY FREEZING!
[The flames die again and the monsters focus their attention back on Zoi.]
Zoi: ZOI! [Tosses another fireball]
Ami: BUBBLE SPRAY FREEZING!
Zoi: ZOI!
Ami: BUBBLE SPRAY FREEZING!
Zoi: ZOI!
Ami: BUBBLE SPRAY FREEZING!
Zoi: WOULD YOU STOP THAT!
Minako: Listen to me! You're the one that needs to stop! Those things attacking you are intelligent creatures! Burning them alive is inhumane!
[Zoi does not take his eyes off the monsters that are trying to nip at him]
Zoi: I hear what you're saying, and I absolutely agree with you. 100%. IN PRINCIPLE! However, what you need to understand it's a lot different when you're the one being attacked vs. the one doing the attacking!
Minako: That's no excuse! As Sun Tsu once wrote, "With great power comes great responsibility"!
Zoi: [snarls] That wasn't Sun Tsu, that was Spiderman's Uncle Ben, you peroxide-addled bimbo!
Ami: In actual fact, it can be more properly attributed to Voltaire, who wrote: Ils doivent envisager qu'une grande responsabilité-
Minako: SHUT IT, GEEKZILLA! THIS IS NOT THE TIME TO SHOW OFF YOUR SUPERIOR INTELLECT!
[Ami reacts as if slapped, then looks down, redfaced with shame.]
Ami: sorry...I thought someone might be interested...
Makoto: [rubs Ami's shoulder and glowers at Minako] We were, we were.
Zoi: So what am I supposed to do? Let these things kill me, just to prove I'm the bigger person?
[The monsters are becoming bolder, pushing at the splintered shelves to form piles they can stand on to better reach Zoi. Zoi zaps at the pile to scatter it, but they just keep working]
Minako: You can teleport away to safety, can't you?
Zoi: Yes, but you girls can't!
[Rei, Makoto, and Ami are startled, and look to Minako]
Makoto: You said he was a Shitennou.
Ami: You told us he's just an evil thing that is pretending to be Zoi Midori.
Minako: He is! Right, Rei?
[Rei puts up her hands and backs away from Minako]
Minako: He is! He's an evil monster! How do you think he's floating like that?
Makoto: Then why does he care what happens to us?
Minako: He doesn't! He doesn't care for us one bit! He's just trying to trick us in order to gain our trust!
[Makoto looks at Zoi, who is cowering close to the ceiling and focusing his full attention to keep the monsters from building the tower of debris.]
Makoto: Ami, you're the smart one. Tell me what I'm missing, because, to me, it looks like a lack of our trust is the least of Zoi's problems at the moment.
Minako: [red faced with fury] THAT IS NOT NOT ZOI MIDORI! ZOI MIDORI IS DEAD! ZOI MIDORI WAS ONE OF MY CLOSEST FRIENDS NOW AND HE IS DEAD! AND THAT THING HAS THE GALL TO WEAR HIS FACE!
[The others bavck away]
Rei: Whoa, bitch...Maybe you should excuse yourself from being the leader...just until we mange to get this stiuation all figured out.
Minako: ARE YOU PROPOSING A MUTINY?
Rei: Y'know...this isn't the first time you've let your personal feelings for a member of the Shitennou cloud your judgement...Just saying...
Minako: [stares at Rei in openmouthed outrage] OH! YOU just HAD to go THERE, DIDN'T you?
Makoto: Hey, someone did.
Zoi: [whistles to get their attention] Guys? Could you either help, or leave, because these things are getting a lot better at construction work...
[One of the manticores leaps at Zoi with its fangs bared. Zoi summons a crystal sword and drives it through the monster's open jaw, impaling it through the skull.]
[The monster falls to the floor and takes the form of the thirteen year old who ran away with her teacher. Only the corpse is of a young woman of about twenty and not a young girl.]
Zoi: [eyes wide with horror was he flings away the bloody crystal and clasps his hands over his mouth] Oh my god! That was a person? [To Minako] Why didn't you tell me these monsters are the missing campers?
Minako: I warned you not to kill them!
Zoi: You said something bad would happen! You made me think they would explode or something! Why didn't you tell me they were humans?
Minako: Because...honestly? I didn't think that would make any difference to you.
Zoi: Well, clearly, it does!
[Zoi teleports out the path of the other monsters, but is too dismayed by the sight of dead girl lying on her side trickling pool in the shallow pool of alcohol to pay enough attention to the other monsters.]
Ami: Zoi! Look out!
[Too late]
[One of the monsters lashes with its tail, Zoi moves away to avoid being disemboweled, but the sharp point of tail still catches him in the belly, ripping the bottom of his shirt and leaving a thin ribbon of blood on the skin underneath.]
Rei: [covers her hands with her mouth] Oh, shit! NO!
[Zoi is about to tell her that it's ok, the wound is not deep, and his natural healing ability will close the scratch in an instant. But that's when the tingling starts. Black threads spread from to the scratch through his veins as paralysis sets in, causing him to freeze up as if turned to stone. Unable to leviate, he falls to the floor like a stone, wine soaking his skin and hair, as the monsters growl and close in for a feeding frenzy.]