Chapter 6


  Zoisite yelped as he moved too slow to fully dodge Nephlyte's blast. The
auburn haired man winced and began to drop his shielding. As he started
towards the blond man who had fallen to the ground and was slowly rising to
his feet he noticed Rowan's brief head shake. He had fully dropped his
sheilds and was only a few feet from the man who had finally risen to his
feet when Zoisite whirled and pointed at him. It was his turn to curse as
he flung himself to the ground. The ice crystal struck the far wall and
shattered leaving a fairly decent sized hole in the wall. Malachite frowned. 
  "I would almost call that cheating." He muttered to Rowan. 
Rowan sighed. "I'd be forced to agree but cheating doesn't count out in
the field. Besides, Nephlyte would pulverize him in a fair fight." 
Malachite nodded as he watched the taller man bring up a knee and launch
himself at Zoisite. He got a face full of cherry blossoms and he sneezed as
he landed heavily on the floor. Zoisite reappeared off to his left and held
up a hand. He gently blew something fine and powdery at Nephlyte. Already
suspecting that Zoisite wouldn't wait for him to get up Nephlyte sheilded
then decided to give the young man a taste of his own medicine. The powder
swirled about into a gale force wind and Nephlyte clenched his teeth as he
felt himself being shoved back despite his shield. He closed his eyes and
concentrated for the source of the wind. When he found the concentration of
power he shoved. The wind suddenly changed direction and Zoisite was flung
back against the wall. His head cracked against the marble where the
padding on the walls didn't reach. 
Rowan cursed in a variety of languages as he hurried out to see that the
boy was alright. The room hadn't been designed for attacks that sent the
oponents more then eight feet into the air but Zoisite insisted upon
floating instead of standing with his feet firmly on the ground. Rowan
didn't blame him, however. The gods knew he would float if he was Zoisite's
height and build. Zoisite blinked and shook his head rubbing absently at
the spot where his head had connected with the marble. "I think that's
quite enough for today." Rowan said as he helped the younger man to his
feet. Nephlyte was muttering as he tried to straighten his hair. 
Zoisite slipped the medallion from around his neck and handed it back to
Rowan as he freed his own hair from the green band he had caught it with at
the nape of his neck. Malachite fell in step with them and gave the blond
an odd look. "Where did you come up with that wind attack? I didn't think
it was one of the attacks granted by the meddallion." 
Zoisite shrugged. "It was something I picked up back home. If I think
about it I add petals to it but I was so busy trying to get him to stay
down I didn't add them." 
"And that was a good thing. I'm having enough problems with these knots
the wind added. The last thing I need is to picking petals out as well."
Nephlyte added as he joined them. 
Zoisite gave him a measured look before nodding and falling back a step.
Nephlyte kept walking unaware that he was now alone. Malachite watched
slightly amused as Zoisite floated himself up so he was slightly higher
then auburn haired general and held out a hand palm down over his hair.
Nephlyte cried out as his hair suddenly swirled upwards and became
intermingled with Zoisite's strong smelling petals. He swatted at the man
but missed him as Zoisite let himself drop to the ground. He collected a
small amount of star energy in his hand and flung it at Zoisite. Expecting
the attack Zoisite easily bounded out of the way but Malachite didn't move
quite fast enough. He snarled as the burst hit his hand and his arm went
numb. Sensing that he was about to be on the recieving end of hurricane
Malachite Nephlyte muttered a quick excuse about having an appointment with
someone or other and disapeared. Malachite turned to scold the blond for
instigating this affair but found him gone as well, three blossoms were
slowly floating to the ground. He sighed and hurried to catch up with Rowan
as he tried to work feeling back into his hand.

---<---<@

Zoisite sighed and lay back against the cushions of his chair. He absently
played with the leaf of one of his plants. He was enjoying his time here,
something he had been sure would never have happened a few days ago. He had
met with Endymion and found the prince slightly trying but fascinatig as
well. The poor man was thouroughly obsessed with Princess Serena but he found that
kind of sweet in a way. He was unsure around the other senshi but he and
Mercury had been spending more and more time in each others company. Of the
generals he was finding himself attached closer to Nephlyte then the other
two. Nephlyte was so easy going compared to the other two. He had already
helped to cover for one of Nephlyte and Naru's trists and he was sure that
wouldn't be the last time. It was actually kind of fun trying to mislead
the others. It was one thing he was good at. 
When he had first begun training Rowan had tried to get him to fight as
the others did, in full view and facing your opponent. Both Malachite and
Nephlyte had trounced him in a matter of seconds. Finally he had gotten fed
up with it and reverted to his own style. He hadn't asked to be a general
and if Rowan didn't like it he could go find someone else. There was no way
he was going to play by those rules at the risk of getting pounded into the
dirt every time he turned around. Once he had stuck to his own style he had
begun to turn the tables on the others and he was fully enjoying their
little sparing practices. On a few occasions he had managed to send
Nephlyte back to his quarters with more bruises then he had recieved. The
key to Nephlyte was you could anger him. The anger would give him extra
strength but it would also cloud his judgement. Zoisite played on this
merceaously. Unfortunatly that was also his weakness and Malachite had
learned to exploit it. Zoisite frowned and rolled over. He had yet to find 
Malachite's weakness and that was what bothered him. Everytime he tried to feel 
around for it Malachite would set him on the defensive and he never got a chance 
to try the aggressive. And the constant calmness! Just thinking about it
infuriated him. There had to be a way to break through that venere of calm.
Once he could do that he could manipulate Malachite just as he manipulated
Nephlyte, it was just a matter of finding the weakness in his wall and
striking it. And he was going to find that weakness, even if it killed him.

----<---<@
 


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