All copyrights apply where appropriate. Characters used without permission.

Note: In this story, Beryl's conversion of The Four (The Touch) does some drastic things to their personalities and tastes. So, in essence, I'm rewriting two characters together. Please send praises, flames, and how- the-hell-could-you-do-thats to utahraptor@hotmail.com and to the rest of you . . . ;P

Note #2: For a visual image of the Lifetrackers, mix Bronx from Gargoyles with a Terror Dog from Ghostbusters and sprinkle liberally with some very bad attitude, and there you are.

Note #3: (Aren't you getting sick of these things?) Some authors recommend mood music in the background. If you want, I recommend the music I was listening to when I wrote it. Gravity Kills, TOOL, and Marilyn Manson. Enjoy!

Time Reference: This series of events takes place just after the Healing of Prisma and Avery (Where the NA dub series ends)

Two figures walked down a dark abandoned corridor carved out of black rock. It was lined with doors spaced three paces apart. The corridor's walls were encrusted with mildew, and the floors covered with the dust of ages. Side by side, the two were an unusual pair. The first, Kessel, was a handsome, almost beautiful man, but his remarkable face was often overshadowed by his almost 7' height and nearly colorless eyes. The second, Drake, was shorter, stocky, and was olive-skinned with purple eyes and hair that appeared black unless seen in certain light. Kessel turned to his companion, "Well Drake, you're about to see the best kept secret in the Negaverse."

"Kessel," Drake sighed, "You've been leading me on about this 'Wondrous secret' for the past two months. Either tell me, show me, or shoot me." He said, ticking the statements off on his fingers.

"What do you mean I should 'shoot you'?" Kessel replied with an innocent look on his face.

"You talk constantly about this wondrous secret, and it's getting on my nerves! If you don't show me, you're going to have to shoot me, to put me out of my misery."

Kessel looked at Drake "Relax, why do you think I brought you down here anyway?"

Drake glared at Kessel, "You're avoiding the question." He shrugged, "You're lucky I'm in such an agreeable mood today, if you won't tell me what the secret is . . . How, by the departed greatness of Beryl, did YOU find out about it?"

Kessel stopped, turned, and looked down at his companion "An interesting choice of words . . ."

"Come on Kes! You know what the General's going to do to us if she finds us down here." Drake whispered. "Let's get out of here and to what you wanted to show me!"

"The General? Oh, the Iron Bitch. Don't worry about her. Only seven people know about this place, and you're about to meet the other five." Kessel said, an obscure smile on his face. "Here we are.", He said, showing a portal identical to every other one they had passed.

"How do you know that it's this one?" Drake asked. "It looks like every other one we've walked by in this corridor."

"Trust me. I've been here enough to know which door is the right one." He snapped. "Come on."

As they entered the large room, it was lit by a pale green glow coming from large greenish pods. There were two pods on each side of the room, suspended by attachments to the wall, and one large pod on what appeared to be a pedestal or an altar. Each pod appeared to be both organic and metallic, being made of a plant material shot through with veins of gold, copper, and platinum. Inside each pod there appeared to be a human form, but their faces obscured by the frosted crystal fronts of the pods.

Drake walked over to one pod, nervously trying to wipe off the condensation on the cover. "Kes? When are those other people you mentioned going to get here?"

"What? What other people? What're you talking about?"

"You said that there were five other people that knew about this place, right?"He replied. "So, when are they going to get here?"

"Oh! You misunderstood me, Drake, when I said that there were five other people that knew about this place." He sighed. "Drake, how many pods do you see?"

"Five, why?"

"And how many more people did I say knew about this place?"

"Five, Oh . . . I see, these are the other people."

"Yes, and they aren't just anyone either."

"Who are they?"

"Queen Beryl and the Four."

"What?!? I thought they were dead!"

"They were. These pods are a combination of the most advanced High Science of the Moon Kingdom, and the most powerful magic of the Negaverse."

"What?"

"These pods are the combination of most advanced scientific discoveries from the Moon Kingdom and the most potent magic from here in the Negaverse."

"Do they work?"

"Of course they work! You see people in those pods don't you?"

"Yeah, but they seem kind of young."

"What?"

Drake pointed at the first pod on the left side "Whoever's in there is fourteen, maybe fifteen years old. The four were all physically in their early thirties when they died."

Kessel walked over to where Drake stood, peering into the pod. "Ah. No wonder, That's Zoisite."

"Zoisite! But she's been dead for three years!"

Kessel nodded. "Yes, three years would be consistent with this much development."

Drake looked at Kessel. "How's that possible?"

"When one of the Four dies, their spirit, soul, whatever you want to call it, is drawn back here to be infused into a clone of their body. When the clone has developed to physical state it was at before death, then the person basically picks up where they left off."

"Really?" Drake asked. He looked up at Kessel, "Do you think it can be used for more than one person?"

"No, I don't think so, and I don't think they can be used more than once anyway."

"How's the development progress?"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"I mean, after the spirit goes back to the pod to get a new body, how do things happen?"

"Oh, well, first there's conception, the body has to be created and the subject's DNA infused into the developing clone. Talents are also infused at this point."

"Talents?" Drake interrupted.

"Yes, that's as close to a scientific term as I've ever been able to find. You know, talents, skills, abilities, those things that you can do, um . . ." he stopped, searching for another term.

"Oh yeah! I know what you're talking about. Anyway, you were saying?"

"Then the spirit enters the clone, and infuses the clone with its memories, feelings, et cetera. Then the clone is fast grown until he/she's old enough to receive The Touch."

"The Touch?"

"The Touch. It converts anyone who receives it into a loyal servant of Beryl. The clone has to be the same physical age when they received the Touch the first time, or else the clone goes crazy. Malachite was the first to receive it. His father was an agent for Beryl on Earth. According to rumor, he was inducted into Beryl's service at ten, and to become her most favored, murdered his father at fifteen."

"What? I never heard that!"

"As soon as it reached Beryl's ears, she had it effectively squashed."

"How?"

"After the first few people caught repeating it were executed, people's desire to gossip suddenly vanished."

"That probably explains it then."

"Possibly, but we're getting sidetracked. After Malachite disposed of his father, he met Zoisite. They worked together so well that he inducted her himself. They were quite a team, or so I heard. Their love affair continued until they died." Kessel looked around cautiously. "I even heard that he called out to her when the Sailor Scouts killed him."

"What? Really?"

"Yeah. Those two would have been the last two I would expect to love anyone or anything."

"Yes, but when did they meet the others?"

"Others?"

Drake sighed and looked at Kessel "Are you stupid? Is there some kind of defect in your brain? They were called the FOUR. When did they meet Nephlyte and Jadeite?"

"Ah, by this point, Beryl had decided to invade the Moon Kingdom, and she needed information on the armies of the Moon Kingdom and the Earth. So she ordered Malachite and Zoisite to enter the Earth military to gather information and possible recruits. They were in the military for some time before they met either Jadeite or Nephlyte. Jadeite and Nephlyte were both placed fairly high in the military hierarchy. Jadeite was an excellent tactician, and Nephlyte was a rising star in the special forces section."

"Special Forces?"

"Of course, how else would he have learned the physical skills that gave him his reputation?" Kessel looked around the pod at Drake. "Did you know he used to say 'Some things aren't afraid of fire, others welcome the cold, but a sharp edge hurts everything.'?"

"Really? It sounds like something he would say. Keep going. It's just getting interesting."

"Anyway, Malachite and Zoisite had to keep Beryl updated on their information gathering efforts. When they reported Nephlyte and Jadeite as possible candidates for conversion, Beryl personally selected them. I don't know why they didn't feel honored. Nephlyte remembered that Zoisite had selected him as a candidate for conversion. He's hated her ever since."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. After Beryl converted Nephlyte and Jadeite, she concentrated on the regular troops. Do you know the Moon Kingdom never figured out why whole legions of their troops turned on them in the middle of combat?"

"You're kidding. You have to be. No one's that stupid."

"They knew we were doing something, but since they didn't know what, they couldn't counter it. After Beryl had converted all the troops they threw at her, she conquered the Earth with no difficulty."

"Why?"

"The Earth troops were unwilling to harm people that had been their friends as recently as that morning, but the converted troops had no such obstacles. The remaining troops that weren't converted were torn to shreds." Kessel stopped talking as Drake walked over to the other side of the room.

"Kes? Come here, you have to see this." Drake said, watching the inhabitant of the second of the two tubes on the right side.

"What is it?"

"Whoever's in this tube is moving."

"What?!? That's not supposed . . . That's not possible! Who is it? Who's in that tube?"

"Nephlyte, I think."

"Probably just having the last of his memories integrated. He never did take being converted well."

"He didn't?"

"No, it took four warriors to capture him, and he had to be restrained during the process itself. After it was done, he locked himself inside his rooms for two weeks, and when he came out, he was the cold-blooded, manipulative, heartless killer we've all come to know and hate. Where was I?"

"Beryl had her converted troops tear the Earth Kingdom troops to shreds."

"Oh yes. After defeating the Earth, Beryl now had a power base to attack the Moon Kingdom. She launched her attack on the Moon after concentrating her hold on the Earth. The outlying cities and settlements fell with little or no resistance. Then, with the size of her armies multiplied exponentially, she attacked the Palace itself with strategies conceived by Jadeite, and carried out by Nephlyte and Malachite. They were perfect, and it would have worked, but Queen Serenity used the power of the Silver Crystal to seal us here for a thousand years."

"And that's when these pods were created?"

"Yes. Some of those that were converted were scientists and they worked with the most powerful magi to make these LifePods."

"LifePods?"

"That's what Beryl called them anyway, and with the limited energy resources they had to work with after the Seal was in place they were only able to make five."

"One for each of her generals and one for herself, right?"

"Yeah. Nothing for all the others who had served her for so long. But Beryl always was a fickle queen, lavishing praises on you one minute, ordering your execution in the next. There were always plenty of openings in her court."

"Not all of them were by her hand though. I can remember a few times when I . . . let's just say I took matters into my own hands."

"And all were willing to overlook those 'absences' so long as you were discreet about it."

"Yeah, I rid myself of a few bad commanders that way."

Kessel looked around the room at the pods, then struck his forehead "I hate it when I get sidetracked! Anyway, I brought you down here because I wanted you to know about this place because Beryl and the four will be waking up very soon and when Beryl sees what's been done to her kingdom . . . " Kessel said.

"Heads will roll." Drake finished.

"Exactly, but Drake, suppose there were two warriors so devoted to Her Highness that they watched over and protected her in her moment of weakness?"

"A very interesting idea, Kes."

"Indeed, supposing these two warriors exist."

"Of course."

"How might Beryl reward such loyalty?"

"Generously."

"A most interesting idea, don't you think Drake?"

"Absolutely."

"Well, let us discuss this further over dinner. The possibilities of this situation require thorough consideration. Come, roast wolfen and blood wine await!" With that, the two conspirators left, to count their rewards and decide how to use this to their best advantage.

Meanwhile, inside the pod, Nephlyte was going through hell. He was reliving the memories of his life before and after Zoisite, Malachite, and Beryl had come crashing into it. He had been born in a small town called Ridge Run, about fifty miles west of the capital city Askari, the most beautiful city in Atlantis. Nephlyte could remember little about his life there though, except for one memory of his mother. He's seven years old, and he had just come home from somewhere and he runs into the house to find her. She's in the kitchen, baking. He runs up to her and hugs her, she smells like cinnamon, vanilla, chocolate, and a dozen other wonderful smells that have been gone from the earth for centuries. He fights to hold onto the memories even as they spin into unrecognizable fragments.

The memories clear and he's joined the military, but by then he's eighteen. He sighs in his artificial sleep as he mourns the eleven years of his life lost in that interval. In the military there was six months of basic training, plus another year for special forces training.

Groan.

Toss.

Turn.

Memory re-shuffle.

The military again, ten years later, captain of his own unit now. First time he ever saw Zoisite, she was an aide to someone important. One of those cushy political assignments. Malachite! He realized with a start, it was Malachite she was with. Zoisite probably had me picked out back then, but she was waiting for Malachite's approval.

Shift.

Spin.

Gasp.

Five years later still, six hours before Beryl inflicts The Touch upon him. He's in a War Council with King Endymion, Ruler of Earth, Zoisite, Jadeite, and Malachite. They're discussing the threat posed by Beryl's armies, the apparent rebellion of their own troops, and the safety of the King's son, Darian. Nephlyte wants to pull everything back to the Moon. He has led strikes against Beryl's armies, he knows that the threat is a real one. From the Moon they can control who comes in and who leaves. Malachite and Zoisite advise sending Darian to inform Queen Serenity and the Moon Kingdom of the situation. The King agrees with Malachite, and Darian leaves within the hour. Malachite pulls him aside after the Council adjourns for the day. He wants to see him that night in his chambers. Watching these events play out again, and knowing the results, he screams at himself not to go to Malachite's chambers. The hours until he is expected at Malachite's chambers pass by quickly. He screams and shouts at himself until his voice gives out and then all he can do is whisper. To no avail, he goes, and meets Jadeite outside Malachite's door. The door opens and they are seized by six warriors, Nephlyte and Jadeite are holding their own in the fight until Malachite summons six additional warriors. It ends quickly after that. They are bound, gagged, and carried through a portal of some kind. He recognizes it now, it leads to Beryl's throne room. They are dropped on the floor at the foot of the throne.

They quickly right themselves and look at the person sitting on the throne. She was beautiful, up to a point. She had a classical hourglass figure which was emphasized by the narrow strapless purple dress she wore. Her face was another matter, it might have been stunning, but the fangs that had once been teeth, the pointed ears, yellow eyes, and the greyish-white skin gave her the body of an angel, but the face of a devil. Of the two, her face reflected her true self more than her body ever could. Watching himself study Beryl, his gaze wanders to the floors, marble, as black, hard, and cold as his own soul would soon become.

He stares, unable to tear his gaze away, as Beryl prepares to inflict The Touch upon himself and Jadeite. Watching as Beryl raises her staff, he sees the ribbons of black energy race out of it to surround him. As the ribbons are absorbed into his body, he screams along with his past-self, experiencing again the corrosive corruption of that evil magical spell seeping into every fiber of his body. He feels himself falling for what seems like an eternity, lost in the endless blackness of his soul.

In this void, isolated fragments of memory drift like smoke on the wind. Every so often he would catch one.

Identifying the weaknesses in the Earth Palace's walls.

Leading the assault on the Palace.

Standing over Endymion's dying body.

Blood pooling around the corpse, and blood on his sword.

Arriving on the moon.

Commanding the assault.

The deaths of the Elder Scouts.

Celebrating victory.

Queen Serenity.

The Light.

Pain.

Oblivion.

He floated in the void, unsure if there would be any more fragments or would it be made up as he went along. Suddenly a cluster of fragments came at him. A girl, a redhead, a barrage of conflicting impressions about her. She was a tool, something to be used and discarded. No, she was a lure, to draw out a bigger fish. No, she was someone, someone special. Disjointed images.

Zoisite again. Taken the girl.

Three monsters, sisters.

Retrieval.

The park.

Binding my arm with her pajamas.

The Sisters.

A thorn, in my shoulder.

She tries.

Protecting the Girl.

Pain. My back.

The girl . . . No, Molly, holding me, crying.

Death. Mine.

As these images spiraled into a whirlwind of faces, images, acts and pain, he tried to do what was theoretically impossible. He fought back.

Unable to focus his abilities within the pod, he lashed out with raw power. He attacked the atmosphere that held him in artificial sleep, the force fields that held him against the back of the pod, the pod itself. Under such an assault, it shuddered violently. A crack running the length of the pod appeared and slivers flaked off. The white mist that kept him in a stasis began to seep out of the crack, and fresh air began to enter the pod.

As the mist oozed from the pod, fresh air coming in diluted the atmosphere within. That dilution gave Nephlyte a better chance to focus his thoughts and his powers. He felt the change in this atmosphere as clearer thoughts, a better focus on his abilities. That was all he needed. His power gathered, and the shriek of tortured material echoed in the silent room as the cover of the pod exploded, sending fragments and splinters everywhere. With the mist and the force fields gone, Nephlyte collapsed. Sinking down to the bottom of the pod, he looked at himself. Not the adult body he remembered, this body was fifteen, maybe sixteen. Naked too, he looked at his right shoulder where the wound that had killed him had been. Only a flat, star-shaped scar remained of the killing wound. He reached up to the side of the pod to get himself to his feet, and he noticed his fingernails. Talons would be a more appropriate word, he thought. Spitting the bitten off ends toward the central pod, he examined the length of his hair. Two years had given his thick hair at least a foot of length and considerable weight, he reached behind him and took hold of it. The length surprised him, oh wonderful, he thought, I hate long hair, gives someone who's trying to get you something to hold onto. Have to get that taken care of, He thought. Standing up, he tried to walk out of the pod, but not being on your legs for two and a half years makes them a little weak. He landed on his hands and knees, wincing as the fragments cut into his palms. He raised his left hand and saw a large splinter sticking out of the muscle at the base of his thumb.

Grimacing at the pain, he pulled the splinter free and watched as green blood welled up in the hole left. To see how much damage the splinter had caused, he flexed his hand. It hurt, but he didn't think there was any real damage. Ignoring the splinters in his feet, he stood up.

He looked around. "I'll be damned. They actually pulled it off. Those stupid theories I heard about these things were all true! But if I'm alive, then . . . " He staggered over to the other pod on his side of the room and looked in. "Jadeite! You're alive too! Well, sort of, anyway. Want me to get you out of there?" he snorted. "Like you can hear me. Might as well try." He focused and sent a probe into Jadeite's mind.

Jadeite? Nothing. Jadeite? Can you hear me?

. . . Who? . . . Nephlyte? Is that you? What are you doing here? How can you speak to me through the crystal?

Jadeite, you aren't in the crystal anymore. He paused, trying to figure out what to say next. It wasn't often that you gave someone news of their own death. Beryl killed you two days after she sealed you in it.

Why?

Why does she do anything? She might have done it because she was displeased with me. She might have done it for some personal reason. She might have done it just because she's Beryl. Who knows, but it doesn't matter! We're alive!

What?

Do you remember those rumors we heard? The ones about the pods?

Yeah. Why?

You're in one.

WHAT?!?

Yep. One of those pods that we heard about, what'd Beryl call them . . . ?

LifePods.

What?

She called them LifePods.

Oh, yeah. Do you want me to get you out of there?

You're not in one?

I was, but things . . . got strange on me.

Ah, things got strange on me in here as well. How'd you get out?

When things got strange, I got pissed. Do you have any control over force?

Not really. Why?

Because to get out, you have to attack everything at once with force. The air, the pod, the covering of the pod, all of it.

Really?

I'm talking to you, aren't I?

Pause. Nephlyte?

Yeah?

Why? Why what?

Why are you trying to help me?

Because I want to, because you were dragged into this just like I was, I don't know, I just do. O.K.?

What are we going to do when we get out of here? Ripples of telepathic laughter rolled through Jadeite's mind with Nephlyte's answer.

Anything we want.

You know what I mean.

We are going to get you out of there and then we'll get us out of here. After that . . . we'll burn that bridge when we come to it.

Agreed. But how are you going to get me out of here?

We're going to shatter the cover of the pod. On my mark, I want you to hit the cover of the pod with everything you have, O.K.?

O.K.

Nephlyte felt Jadeite's power gathering inside the pod, and added his own to it. Are we ready?

Yes. Let's do it. Nephlyte moved to the side of the pod as their combined energies were released. The explosion was impressive. He reached around into the pod to grab Jadeite as the fields vanished and he fell toward the floor. As Nephlyte held Jadeite's arm, he got a good look at him. Naked as well, and he appeared to be in his mid-twenties. They looked each other up and down. "When they said fast grow they meant it."

"Yeah, how old would you say I look anyway?"

"Early twenties somewhere. Twenty-two, maybe."

"Yeah. What happened to you? You look like you haven't passed through puberty yet."

"Ha ha. Very damn funny."

"I think it is."

"That makes one of us then."

"Anyway, thanks for breaking me out of there." Jadeite said as he steadied himself on Nephlyte's shoulder. He looked across the room at Malachite's and Zoisite's tubes. "Do we want to help them?"

Nephlyte started laughing until he looked up at Jadeite's face. "You're serious. You really want to help them."

"Yes. I do."

He contemplated the pods of his murderer and her lover in silence. He looked up at Jadeite and said "I think it's a lost cause. I think they belonged to Beryl, may blessings rain down upon the hand that finished her off, long before we were brought into the picture."

"Beryl's dead?"

"She has to be, that pod over there" he pointed to the pod upon the pedestal, "wouldn't be functioning otherwise."

Jadeite looked at the pod then at Nephlyte, "Let's go take a look." They walked over to the pod, the oppressive silence broken by expletives and profanities as they found shards of crystal in their feet.

As they reached the side of Beryl's pod, they looked inside at the developing clone inside and the nightmares her awakening would bring. Jadeite and Nephlyte regarded each other, "We have to do something about this. She can't be allowed to rise from that thing."

"Agreed," Nephlyte said. "But how? Between what I burned up getting myself out, what we burned up getting you out, and the backlash, we don't have enough combined energy to swat a fly."

"The Sailor Scouts."

Nephlyte nodded "Sounds like our best bet. It's guaranteed that as soon as Beryl wakes up and she hears about this," he indicated the room, himself, and Jadeite with the sweep of an arm. "We're going to be past tense. After she's finished with us, she'll take on the scouts. But we're Negaverse. At least we were, and I don't think they've been informed of our change in status."

"When we see them, we surrender."

"Are you sure that thing didn't mess with your head? We walk up to the Sailor Scouts and surrender? I'm sure I'll have lots of opportunities to surrender when Sailor Mars is roasting my internal organs over one of her flames."

"Do you have a better idea?"

"No. Don't remind me."

"That settles it then. We'll go up to the Scouts and surrender."

"When? In the middle of a fight? Are we talking about reforming our new lives or ending them!?"

"We don't have to. You're their age, we'll just enroll you in their school and you can surrender for both of us. I'll tell you their real identities." He stopped outlining his plan as Nephlyte interrupted.

"Hate to interrupt your lecture, but I think we should get some clothes before this gets any further. I'm freezing." He said, and with that they left the chamber. They were prepared for anything except what they found. It was abandoned, the corridor looked like it hadn't been used in years.

"What? I would have sworn that there would be more people."

"Maybe not. Maybe there were separate factions trying to fill the vacuum Beryl left when she died, and there was a civil war. That could be what left this place so empty."

"A distinct possibility. I propose we speculate somewhere else though, with clothes and a reasonable amount of security that there won't be someone or something new around every corner trying to kill us."

"Why would they try to kill us?"

"Look down at those tracks." Nephlyte said, indicating the tracks left by Kessel and Drake earlier.

"What about them?"

"Someone's been in here recently, someone who knows about all of this, and would know that we escaped," he indicated the room with a wave of his arm. "What do you think the odds would be for two fugitives running for their lives from the entire Negaverse, or at least what's left of it?"

"Knowing that someone knows about the existence of those pods and the fact that we escaped from them?"

"Yes."

Jadeite sighed, "Not good, when Beryl wakes up, she'll be on the rampage when she hears that two of her precious four have deserted."

"Exactly. Let's get dressed, and get out of here!" Jadeite and Nephlyte snuck down the corridor, watching for anyone or anything, for fear of discovery. The corridor opened into a four-way passage, and then it dawned on them. They were lost. Jadeite looked at Nephlyte and said "You said someone knows about us, right?"

"Yeah, so?"

"Look at all the dust on the floor. Why can't we follow their tracks to lead us back to areas we would know?"

"It's so brilliant, I don't know why I didn't think of it myself." Nephlyte said. The tracks led them through the first four-way corridor, and to a right turn at the second. Following the tracks was so simple and mindless that Nephlyte's mind began to wander. He started to think about the realities of whether or not Jadeite's plan would actually work. If the Sailor Scouts were approached in their real identities, somewhere where they couldn't transform into the Sailor Scouts . . . It just might work! He lost his train of thought as he crashed into Jadeite's back. "What? What happened?"

"No more dust. But I know where we are now. We turn right here and my chambers are right down this corridor."

"If we were so close to your chambers, why didn't you know where we were when we first walked out into the corridor?"

"Because that would have involved wandering around at some point in the past, and you don't do that, at least not this close to the throne room." "Good point." They walked down the corridor in silence, not wanting to alert whoever might be patrolling the area around the throne room. Jadeite's chambers were reached without incident, and both breathed a sigh of relief when they were inside. "I'm glad that's over with. Now all we have to do is get some clothes and get out of here." Nephlyte said. "Yes, but I don't know where we're going to find clothing that will fit you. You're not my size, or the size of just about anyone else who would work in the Palace." Jadeite said, selecting blue jeans, a white button down shirt, a brown leather jacket, and white hi-tops from his closet. "Take whatever you can find that will fit you." "We need to stop by my rooms too." "Why?" "Clothing's good. We won't get arrested for indecent exposure. But we need something else too. Money." "How would you get money?" "When I was commanding the Earth Operations, I was posing as a millionaire. That money had to come from somewhere. It's all in my chambers, and there's some in what was my base on Earth too, but not as much."

"Ah, well, put something on and we'll go get it." Nephlyte had been rummaging around in Jadeite's closet and had come up with a shirt and a pair of shorts that looked like they were three sizes too big. Jadeite took one look at Nephlyte and fell over laughing. "You . . . *snort* . . . We . . . *heh heh* . . . Better clothes are a must for you."

"Jadeite?" Nephlyte said in his calmest voice.

"Yeah?" Jadeite replied between gasps.

"When this is over . . . I'm going to kill you." That threat, combined with Nephlyte's ridiculous appearance, sent Jadeite into new fits of laughter. When Jadeite had recovered and both were dressed, they left for Nephlyte's quarters. As they passed the throne room, Nephlyte looked at the door and whispered, "Someone has to be directing things right?" Jadeite nodded. "Well let's see who it is." As they looked at the doors, preparing to console themselves with just listening at the door, they saw the door was open! This would have not been during Beryl's reign. The doorkeeper would have been skinned alive, if Beryl was in a good mood. They looked inside, and they saw a woman with black hair standing on Beryl's throne. She was giving some kind of speech and it was punctuated by cheers and shouts from the crowd.

"We must go!" Cheers from the crowd. "Go and avenge the death of ourQueen!" More cheers and shouting. "They must pay!" The crowd was reaching a fever pitch. She looked out at the crowd gauging her next statement. "Who must pay?" She screamed.

The crowd shouted back "The Scouts! The Sailor Scouts must pay!"

"Yes!" She shouted, fists raised toward the ceiling, black energy crackling from both hands.

Nephlyte and Jadeite looked at each other. "This is not good." Jadeite said.

"We could use this as a we-come-in-peace-so-please-don't-charbroil-us offering."

"We need to get to your quarters, grab some cash, and get the hell out of here." They backed away from the door, still hearing the chanting and shouting within. Racing up the corridor, they turned right and bolted into Nephlyte's quarters, slamming the door shut behind them. Nephlyte's quarters were just as they had been when he had left to reside in his base on Earth, only dustier. Looking into the rooms and finding that nothing had been stolen, he started to gather necessary items for their life on Earth. Nephlyte's chambers were farther from the throne room than Jadeite's, and they could breathe a little easier.

Gasping and coughing from all the dust, they worked quickly, gathering as much as they could while making as little noise as possible. After sorting through the take-with-me items and the leave-it-and-cross-your-fingers-someone-doesn't-find-it items, they were ready to go. Jadeite was carrying a small trunk, and Nephlyte slung a large duffel bag over his shoulder. They stood at the door, Nephlyte looking back into the chambers that had been his 'home' for the better part of a thousand years. Jadeite stood next to Nephlyte, trying not to laugh at something. "What?" Nephlyte asked, looking up at him.

"The first time I ever saw you, you were looking down at me for something. I've always wondered what it would be like to look down on you. I think I like it."

"What?"

"The first time I saw you, was at one of those balls the Earth and Moon Kingdoms were always throwing. You didn't just stand there, you loomed. You made everyone else fade into the background, and had every woman of marriageable age chasing you."

"Oh yeah. That was about two months before . . . " Nephlyte broke off as silence filled the room. Jadeite nodded, and they turned their backs on the room and the Negaverse. They walked down the corridor, not daring to speak. Speaking this close to the throne would be suicide, but silence filled the corridor, as the two are too lost in their own thoughts to say anything anyway.

As they walked down the hallway Nephlyte looked up at Jadeite, "I don't suppose you know of a way to get us out of here." He whispered, glancing around.

"Yes, I do. There's a gate that hopefully is still open and active." Jadeite looked around, orienting himself, "Now that I know where we are, I can get us to it. And, if it's open, we can get out of here." They crept down the halls and corridors, trying to make as little noise as possible. They were terrified that someone would attack them in their weakened state. "I hope we get out of here soon." Nephlyte whispered. "How much farther is it to the gate?"

"Not too much farther . . . Here." Jadeite hissed as he opened a door almost invisible in the gloom of the passageway. The door hissed open, spreading dust everywhere. They dashed inside, covering their mouths and breathing shallowly to avoid coughing in the dust-choked air. Inside the room was a low platform with a flat circle of crystal set in the ceiling above it. A panel with several rows of buttons on it was on the left-hand wall. Jadeite carefully set down the trunk he was carrying next to the door. He then walked over to the panel and began pushing buttons, "Where do we want to go?" he asked.

"You mean we have a choice?"

"Yes. This gate has access to anywhere in the Earth Dimension. Paris, New York, London, Tokyo, you name it, I can get us there.

"Hmm. Let's go back to where we were. We do want to talk to the Sailor Scouts after all."

Jadeite nodded, "True. Okay. Two one-way tickets to Tokyo coming up."

"One-way?"

Jadeite looked over his shoulder at Nephlyte. "I wasn't planning on coming back, were you?"

"Not really." Nephlyte said.

"Right." Jadeite reached over and pushed another button. A small sphere of black energy formed over the platform. Jadeite continued pushing buttons and a beam of white energy came from that circle of crystal. As the beam shone on the sphere, it started to grow. Occasionally, as it grew, an arc of purple energy would ripple across the surface of the sphere. Nephlyte stood there, watching the sphere. It became larger, and the crackling of the energy increased in volume. After casting a few paranoid glances over his shoulder at the door, he decided that apparently it couldn't be heard in the passageway. Though it couldn't be heard out in the passageway, its effects could be felt in the room. The hair on the back of his neck stood up, and his arms broke out in a rash of goose bumps. He watched as the sphere expanded until it really could no longer be called a sphere. It now appeared to be a rapidly spreading cloud.

"Is it almost ready?"

"Just about, give it a few more minutes . . . There." He leaned over and pushed two more buttons and the beam of white light changed to a blue haze surrounding the cloud.

"What does that do?"

"That haze will stabilize the gate and shut it down after we've gone through." Jadeite looked at Nephlyte, "It's ready. Are you?" Nephlyte took one last look around and nodded. "Ok. This will set us down in the residential section of town, give or take a couple of meters." Jadeite pushed one last button, and walked over to where he had set the trunk. "Let's go." He picked up the trunk and walked up to the platform. As Nephlyte lifted the duffel bag and joined jadeite before the platform, he reached out one arm and touched the haze. It penetrated the haze, and it vanished up to the elbow. He pulled his arm back with a gasp, examining it for any permanent damage. "Relax, that's supposed to happen, or, haven't you ever used a gate?"

"I usually teleport myself. If time weren't to precious, I'd wait and just teleport over."

"A good idea, but time is of the essence, and we have to go." Jadeite looked pointedly at Nephlyte , walked into the haze, and vanished.

"I hate it when he does shit like that." He sighed and followed Jadeite. He looked at the gate, closed his eyes, clenched his teeth, and walked in. After he had entered the gate, he got the distinct impression of being in two places at once. He didn't like it. It was about to become unbearable when he felt a tap on his shoulder.

"You can open your eyes now. We're here." Opening his eyes, he looked around and saw that they were standing in an alleyway between two apartment buildings. The ever present smell of trash was unpleasant, but bearable, the main problem was the inch of snow that was covering the garbage. Going from the warmth of the Palace to freezing in the streets of Tokyo was not pleasant. "We need clothes." he said, wrapping his arms around himself.

"Let's find a place to stay for the night, we'll get clothing in the morning." Together they wandered off in search of shelter. After what seemed like forever, they came upon a small restaurant. It was on a small side street. They wouldn't have found it, except that their noses and their stomachs reminded them that it had been a long time since either had eaten. As they wolfed down the hot food, a sign advertising a hotel caught their attention. They were able to locate the hotel without too much difficulty, and soon they were soaking out the chill in a hot shower.

Jadeite was laying on one of the beds, and Nephlyte was drying off in the bathroom after a hot shower. Nephlyte walked into the main room and sat down on the other bed. "Jadeite?" he asked.

"Yeah?"

"We should give some thought to what our cover story is."

"Our what?"

"We can't tell everyone that we're two reformed Negaverse Generals, and we want to seek refuge here, now can we?"

"No. We can't. People would think we were crazy. You've been giving this some thought, do you have any ideas?"

"We could go with the obvious."

"Which is?"

"Brace yourself, Jadeite. We could be brothers, or maybe half-brothers would be better."

"An interesting idea. How would you explain the differences in our appearance?"

"Simple. I take after one parent, you take after the other. We'll have to come up with names too." Nephlyte said.

"Ok, which name do you like?"

"First name, or last?"

"Both." The debate raged for an hour. It bordered upon being a full-blown argument at times, but they were able to get it settled down to two names; Joshua Xavier (Jadeite) and Alexander Michael (Nephlyte) Scott. Then, relaxed from the shower, and full of leftovers from dinner, they went to sleep. For the first time in a millennia, they were untroubled by the paranoia that had dominated their lives.

Unfortunately, not everyone was resting as peacefully. Kessel and Drake were not getting any sleep. Kessel was pacing nervously, his feet crunching the shards of crystal scattered on the floor of the room containing the LifePods. He was trying to figure out where all of his plans had gone wrong. "I don't understand Drake, we had this planned perfectly. We would wait until Her Highness had awakened, inform her of the dreadful state her kingdom was in. And then we would reap the rewards of protecting her when she was most vulnerable. We should have been elevated above the Four! But no, Jadeite and Nephlyte are gone, headed for parts unknown. The others are still intact, thank Metallia for that small blessing."

"Maybe they weren't strong enough." Drake said.

"What? What do you mean 'They weren't strong enough'?"

"The backlash is still in effect, right?" Kessel nodded. "After they broke themselves out of their pods, they probably didn't have the energy to damage any of the other pods. If they did, Beryl's, at the very least, would not still be intact."

"So, for now, they are weak?" Kessel asked. Drake nodded an affirmative. "We should track them down!"

"Why?"

"They have deserted the Negaverse!" Kessel hissed.

"I say again, why? The others will wake up in a matter of weeks, and then we can watch as Beryl hunts them down." Drake said, trying to reason with his associate.

"Indeed, a very fine idea, but what if Beryl disapproves of us waiting so long to take action? If she's merciful, she'll kill us. I say we hunt them down. Dragging them before Beryl will undoubtably put us on her good graces."

"How? We don't have the manpower on our own."

"We could wake up the others. Malachite and Zoisite would be able to help us track them down." Kessel looked at the two active pods on the left wall. "We have to wait though."

"Why?"

"Look," He said, pointing to Malachite's pod. "At best, He's ten years old. I vote we wait until they're old enough to walk around and not attract any attention because they look too young."

"True, but how long will that take? We are on a bit of a time restraint here... We have to get them back before Beryl wakes up!" Drake said, pointing at the center pod. "When she wakes up and finds out that Nephlyte and Jadeite are gone, as you said, we'll be very lucky if she just kills us." He said, although it came out as more of a scream. "We have to find them Kessel. Either Beryl will kill us for letting them get away... Or the Iron Bitch will kill us for betraying her."

"We never betrayed her!" Kessel said.

"Not according to our terms, no. But on her terms..." he shuddered as he broke off the thought. They both remembered a short time ago when she had killed a high ranking official for making scouting trips into the Earth Realm (?) on his own. His death had taken three weeks. She did not encourage initiative. She had healed his wounds just to inflict new ones the next day. Torture was allowed, even encouraged, in some situations... But she took it to an extreme that most found distasteful, but were wise to keep their opinions to themselves, lest they find themselves the next recipient of her 'affections'.

"That will not happen to me. I will take my life first."

"Me too, but if she gets wind of this... We won't have time, all she has to do is raise one finger, and a few seconds later, we'd be on her favorite table awaiting her personal touch."He looked over at the two shattered pods, then at the two intact pods on the other side of the room. His gave wandered to the pod in the center of the room. "Kessel, we have to get them back."

Nephlyte's eyes popped open, again, as he always did, he thanked whoever or whatever gave him the ability to be wide awake as soon as he opened his eyes. He looked over to the other bed where his 'brother' Jadeite lay in the buffer zone between sleep and wakefulness. "You up yet?" he asked. "We need clothes... I'm not traipsing around in the snow in shorts and sandals."

"You're going to have to for a little longer. I don't know what fits you. Guess you had better see if there is anything in your repitoire that will help you resist cold." Jadeite mumbled with a dazed smile on his face. Nephlyte just glared as Jadeite turned over and went back to sleep.

Laying in bed, trying to decide if he should do anything to Jadeite, he threw back the covers and swung his feet on the floor. He was not relishing the idea of going out in this too damn cold weather wearing only a sweatshirt, and shorts. 'Oh well,' he thought, 'at least we're not in the Negaverse anymore.' He looked out of the window. It had snowed again after they had gotten into their hotel room. The flawless white powder was broken by the long black strip of road. His thoughts were interrupted by Jadeite standing behind his right shoulder.

"Pretty, isn't it?" he asked.

"Yeah." He looked at Jadeite's reflection in the window in front of him. His head leaned forward, resting against the icy glass. "Do you think the scouts will help us?"

"Regardless of if they will or won't. Do we have any other choice? I mean, our bridges are pretty well burnt, aren't they?"

Nephlyte didn't say anything to that. He thought back to the General they had seen standing on Beryl's throne. She was crazy. Take-it-out-back-and-shoot-it crazy. "I wonder, if she had known about us, what would she have done?"

"Hmm... If I was her, and in doing so sanity that may or may not exist is implied. I'd kill us, all of us. We represent a threat to her power base." At Nephlyte's confused look, he explained. "How loyal were your troops to you?"

"Fanatic."

"Exactly. Our troops would war among themselves, and we would war among each other, but our troops would never turn on us. Right?" Nephlyte nodded. "And if you resurfaced, what would your troops do?"

"Flock to me."

"Detracting from her power base. So, if I was in her place, I'd have us all dispatched, quickly and quietly."

"Pleasant thoughts." Nephlyte said, looking up and meeting Jadeite's eyes in the reflection.

"But, keep in mind, she's insa..... No. I think 'stark, raving mad' would be better." In the reflection his eyes were hard. "Serves them right." he hissed. Nephlyte nodded his agreement with Jadeite's words, "It would." he paused. "If the Negaverse didn't have a portal here..."

"We don't know when they'll get here."

"Or if they'll get here." Nephlyte interrupted.

"Nephlyte, you heard that crowd screaming. There's no 'if' about it, it's when she'll get here. And we have to be ready."

Nephlyte looked over his shoulder at his 'brother', "First thing we need to do is get clothing. We have to blend in." Jadeite nodded. "Second, we have to have a hole."

"A what?"

"A backup base of operations, or a place to run to when things get too hot. Third, we need papers. Birth certificates for both of us, a driver's licence for you, (Not sure about this one) social security cards for both of us, and some kind of credentials for you."

"Why?"

Nephlyte pointed to the trunk and the duffel bag containing their money. "Do you think that's going to last forever? Better to have the extra money now than to want it later. I don't have access to the unlimited resources that I did as Maxfield Stanton. What you see is what we've got. I can get us a little more, but not much. With this, I give us six months to a year before we have to start looking for work."

"Then you'll have to contact the scouts and set up a meeting for both of us and them." Nephlyte nodded and then winced as Jadeite said "We've planned enough for now, let's get some decent clothing for both of us." He nodded, sighed, and reached over for his sweatshirt. As he pulled it on he began to look for his sandals. Jadeite was still looking out the window at the snow. Nephlyte looked up from groping underneath the bed for his shoe.

"What?"

"I think I'm going to miss the Negaverse..."

"What are you going to miss?" Nephlyte asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "The deception? The paranoia? The constantly looking over your shoulder and sleeping with one eye open?"

"Not that, never that." Jadeite said. "But I may miss the respect, the prestige, you know..."

Nephlyte sat back on his heels "Yeah, I think I may miss that too... But you have to take it all together and the few good things were far outweighed by the bad things. I don't think I'm going to miss it that much."

"Nephlyte?"

"Yes?"

"Did you ever wonder what would have happened if the King had taken your suggestion?"

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