The Four Lovers: Air On a Cosmic String
                             Ninx

 XII. Shadows In the Light

'Cause nothing stands between us now
 And I won't be denied
 And I will be the one
 To hold you down
 Kiss you so hard
 I'll take your breath away...
   --"Possession"

 You don't know me
 You know you never will
 Can't see inside me
 Lost out on that thrill
   --"Sparkle and Shine"

 So now I come to you
 With open arms
 Nothing to hide, believe what I say
 So here I am, with open arms
 Hoping you'll see
 What your love means to me
 Open arms
   --"Open Arms"

 When I want to see you, hey look
 The gentle night sky's crescent light
 Is always watching over us
 The goddess's love shower rain
 We may possibly fall in love
   --"Ai no Megami no How to Love"
      Glover Trans (thank you, kind sir!)



 "Priam," she whispered, face pale, eyes painfully widened, blue
within them completely frazzled with surprise.  Inside her mind,
PSerenity was, quite literally, freaking out.  Had one had the
ability to see the original Moon Princess, she would've been paler
than pure snow, and doing something as frantic as St. Vitus's Dance
in an attempt to cope with it.
 "Yes, my love, 'tis I," he replied, purple eyes dancing darkly.
 "Uh..."
 "You seem surprised," he commented dryly.
 "I didn't remember..."
 "I know, I know.  A millennia is a long time between visits,
but..."
 Inside Serena's head, Serenity shrieked again, and outside, she
jumped up from the chair and began to back painfully away from the
man.  She didn't quite know why she was, or the gesture that her
hands were making, but the instinct was to get away from
him...NOW.
 "Priam..."she whispered sporadically.  "No."
 "Now, love," he started, getting up.  "You don't need to fuss."
 Suddenly, Serenity welled up again, and Serena's mouth dropped.
"DEAD!" she shrieked.  "YOU ARE DEAD!"
 He stopped for a moment, face clouding, before he brought himself
under control.  "A fine looking corpse, don't you think?" he said,
turning so she could admire the fine lines of his body.
 "I watched you DIE! Right at my FEET! Stabbed by...by your lover,
even though..."  She stopped, and her skin turned so white it was
slightly tinged gray.  Inside, Serenity began to sob.
 "We were engaged?"
 "We were...engaged..." she whispered, crumpling to the floor.
"Priam..."
 He walked over to her, and gently knelt near her, hand brushing
her face softly.  She froze, and though he forced sympathy, anger
seethed within him.   came one blasted, blackened
thought, and it flickered within his eyes.
 "Are you all right, love?" he asked softly.
 "No...oh God no..." she whimpered, tears welling in her eyes.   she thought numbly.  
 He gently took her into his arms, her body stiff against his;
carefully, he skirted the edges of her mind, and his eyebrows
raised in surprise at the thought about to rocket off from it.  He
quickly blocked it, running his hand through her hair and softly
cooing.  His heart welled up for her as she sobbed against him, his
lovely Princess, his gem, his diamond, so
surprised...shocked...Endymion had something to do with this, he
knew.  Again his emotions railed against his cousin, and he vowed
black, black vengeance on his head.
 "Can you stand?" he asked softly.
 She sobbed again, his cold grip like a vise around her heart.  He
felt like the polar opposite of Darien, so formal and cold, even
when he was attempting to be tender.  For a moment, she felt
sympathy, a tender pity, but only a moment.  There was too much
shock for other gentle emotions to surface.
 Finally, she nodded against him, and he withdrew quietly and
helped her up.  As she looked at his handsome face, the strands of
sea foam hair that dangled near his purple eyes, she could feel her
memories resurface bit by bit, filling her in about this man...and
his violent death...and...
 "How?" she half-whispered, half-blurted out.
 "That, my Princess," he replied, raising one of her hands to
gently kiss it, "is a story that is complicated and hazy."  He took
her other hand now, and held both of them in a tight, warm grip.
"However, I can see this news has taken you aback, and I know how
fragile that leaves you.  I will let you retire to your chambers,
and we shall talk later."
 "Priam, it's all right.  I wish to know now how..."
 His eyes flashed, darkness worming within their flawed, purple
depths.  For a moment, icy fear swam in her veins again as the
malevolence of the moment swept over her; and then, he smiled.
 "As you wish, my love.  Though, I must admit, I am not used to
this sudden vein of independence within you," he said, gently
guiding her over to one of the chairs and seating her, then
himself.
 "The ground you walked on..."

 Darien lay crouched in a fetal position, attempting to warm
himself.  It was cold, so very cold, behind that shield, and he
could feel vain tears start again.  The cold would kill him.  The
cold would eat him up, piece by piece.  He would die, chilled to
the bone, completely alone.
 He hated crying more than nearly anything; it meant, to him, that
his emotional restraint had failed.  And if there was anything that
was sacred to him, it was his ability to tuck it all away, to store
it for moments when it would be better for him to let loose.  That,
and Serena, and once before, the little pink haired girl called
Reenie.
 Yet, now, they'd been stripped from him completely.  All of them,
one by one, until there was nothing he could do to help
himself...and so, he cried slow tears.
 Suddenly, light flashed at him from the other side of the shield,
and he uncurled himself slightly to see it.
 Selene smiled down at him.  "Hello," she whispered softly, a lash
of DF uncurling from her arm.  "I've been waiting to see you,
Tuxedo Mask."

 "And so the pillar captured your essence, and when the battle
came...you were taken along," Serena said, eyes wide.  Some color
had returned to her skin, and most of all, her blue eyes had begun
to sparkle brightly once more, though they were still rather muted
in comparison to other times.  It wasn't as if she wasn't afraid--
how could she not be, with PSerenity sobbing inside her head?--but
she was also worried sick about her love.  His mental cry seemed so
weak now.  However, the resurfacing of the Princess also brought
some of her more diplomatic talents to bear, and she was exercising
these as best as she could.
 Priam, on the other hand, found her vitality enlightening and
delicious, and soft, dark thoughts whispered in the back of his
mind, casting shadows in his eyes.
 "Correct, dear Princess," he replied, holding up a formally
decorated black and gold goblet casually in his hand as he half
leaned towards her, drinking in the sight of her with relish.
 "However, you weren't reborn as we were, but before...probably
about the same time as Darien," she said, eyes averted from him as
she followed her train of thought.
 "Is that what he calls himself?"
 "Hm?"
 "Endymion...now Darien.  It is strange.  I will always think of
him as someone else, someone very few truly knew."  Something dark
flickered within his eyes.  "As I think of you, my dearest
Serenity." He turned his gaze fully upon her, and she shrank a
little in her chair, unsure, and mostly afraid of it.
 "How did you know?" she whispered.
 "I wasn't quite reborn and rediscovered as you were," he said,
pausing to sip his wine, noting that she had barely touched hers.
"Does the wine not pleasure you?"
 "What?  Oh...I'm just not used to drinking wine," she replied,
taking up her goblet, a twin of his own.
 "More used to American drink, love?" he said calmly, taking
another sip and watching her expression of surprise.
 "You knew?"
 "I have tracked you since I knew of you, about the time I turned
twenty.  That was five years ago."
 "How did it happen to you?" she asked.
 "My change?  Simple, my dear.  Even as I grew up, I was always
aware of a keen difference between myself and the others around me.
I knew a different language then they did from the start, I learned
quicker, was faster, and smarter, than most of them.  Despite my
slight stature, I confess I was the one to intimidate my
classmates; they recognized my status as higher than theirs.  I
also had a keen inner knowledge of the occult, and practiced some
simple magic, mostly stray tricks and such.  And then, one day, I
hit upon the right spell...and memories filled me, as well as
power.  Immense power.  I could feel the pull of the Sea, and as
such I undertook a quest to probe my origins.  That was when I
found this."
 He pressed his palms together, and spread them apart, revealing a
five inch long crystal of a deep aqua color.
 "What?" she quiered, amazed by the play of colors within it's
textured surface.
 "It is the third of the crystals, the triangle of Earth and Moon,"
he said softly.  "The Crystal of the Sea.  Through it, I found out
many a thing about myself, as well as the Moon, and of deep space.
I also realized that I must find you, my love, and reclaim the
chance so brutally stolen from me by my pig cousin, Endymion."  He
shook his head.  "When I think of what he did, love, I want to gut
him.  Perhaps I will, though I am sure Selene will find more
pleasure in him than I would."  The crystal vanished with a
flourish.
  Serena thought, and quickly she gulped some more
wine in order to hide the fact that she was nearly to tears.  
 It was about that time that a headache, a screaming, searing
headache, pierced her brain.  As Priam continued to tell her of his
triumphs, of finding and conquering the Dark Trio, she nearly
choked upon her wine, yet managing to swallow it.  Swiftly she
picked up a napkin to wipe her mouth, and then another wave of pain
struck.  The napkin dropped as her hand hit the table, and she
squeezed the goblet in an attempt to pass along some of the agony
she felt.
 It wasn't working.
 Priam, noticing the sudden contortion of her face, and the white
knuckles of the hand that gripped the table, looked at her
curiously.  Carefully, he allowed his mind to stroke hers again,
and his eyes widened in anger and pain.  For the sudden distress
she was experiencing was not her own, but another's, and there were
only a few that he could think of.  In fact, truly, only one who
could...
 "Hielo!" he barked, simultaneously sending out, *Hielo!*
 It was but a moment before the man appeared, bowing slightly
before his Master.  "Yes, my Master?" he whispered.
 "Take this girl to the chamber adjoining mine," he said.  "Make
sure to block off her room with screens, for her pain is not her
own...I must attend to other matters."
 "Yes, my Master," Hielo said softly.
 Now Priam turned back to Serena, and looked upon her pained face,
tears pooling in her eyes.  He took up her hand, stroked it and
kissed it softly, quietly saying, "Soon, my love, we will be
without these interruptions.  Soon."
 And with that, he disappeared in a wash of dark purple power, and
Hielo picked up the girl, took one step, and vanished.

 Katarina felt like her skull was going to burst.  Not only had she
screened Tux, but she'd felt him, tasted him, and now she had a
headache to rival the most powerful psi-shocks.
 She winced at even thinking of the word, and her memories dredged
up the horrible times when Selene had pressed Hielo's buttons, and
he had descended upon her, forgetting of the link that would hurt
all of them, not just her.  And so they'd writhed in pain, and even
as she had writhed, Selene had laughed and laughed...
 She cut the memory there, and then stood, looking out over the
edge of the roof.  She could feel the pull of the ground, but the
need pulled her with much greater strength, for her touch upon Tux
had only increased that great want.  It didn't scream at her, but
whispered incessantly until her fingertips went numb, and her whole
body shifted to the edge, the restless craving taking over her
slowly, until she could control it no more.  And control was so
important...she turned away from the edge, knowing she needed to
slake this sucker now.  Arches of purple appeared around her, and
she disappeared within them.
 In an instant, she stood in the storeroom, just before the shield.
Her lips pursed, she quickly scanned the room, reminding herself
that these were for her taking.
  she thought, eyes seeing beyond to the
form of Jadeite, who lay still and asleep, fists clenched.  She
smiled ever so slightly as she looked upon him, fingers itching for
the feel of his blond hair.
  she thought as she stepped through  the
shield and ascended to his level, and again looked in on him.  A
nudge on his mind, and he was awake; another nudge, and he looked
at her.
 "You..."
 She wanted to be careful with him, as she had with Tux.  But the
WANT was so great, and the NEED so awful, that instead of gently
touching him, she reached over and laced her hands in his hair.
Purple tendrils came from her, reaching down to sweetly lick him,
to taste and feed; she sighed softly, reveling in the first rush.
Then she pulled him closer as the WANT demanded more, control
slipping to the edges of her mind, for unlike the others, she had
only been fed by the Master for the longest time.  And she was
needy.
 And he...was hers.
 "This won't hurt a bit," she lied softly.  His eyes widened, and
then glazed, as she leaned over and clamped her lips over his.
*AHH, RAYE...RAYE! SERENA!*
 The message lanced across her mind, and immediately Serena fell
onto her bed, a scant affair that was, at least, soft where she
landed upon it.  Hielo barely afforded her a glance; he'd caught
the message before it'd reached her, amazed at the psi strength
this group exhibited.  Then, puzzling minorly over this, he'd gone
back to setting up the shields/screens in order to keep these
messages from her.
 Serena rolled about on the bed, which was soft all over, and held
her head, teeth clamping into her lips in order to keep herself
from crying out.  It wasn't as if screaming would've been a bad
thing; she just wasn't sure what would follow it.  Honestly, it was
Hielo she unsure about, for it had always been him that the
darkness had sent for her.  And what he did to Mars...
  she thought, exhaling
a soft breath as the mind send eased.  Tiny trickles of blood
welled from her lips, salting them; she wiped it with her hand
unconsciously, and sat up slowly in order to see what was going on.
 Hielo noticed her rise on the bed, but attempted not to.  He could
not allow the waves of emotions that flowed from her distract him,
even if they were...he shook his head, and went back to setting up
the dull green shields around the room.  Like all of the shielding
the Trio used, it was absorbent on one side, soaking up all and any
of the emanations it was tuned to; in this case, any mental ones
that would affect the Princess.  He concentrated for a moment, his
eyes flaring the brightest of bright greens, before beginning to
erect the shields.
 As Serena watched, a shallow green nimbus surrounded Hielo, and he
made a few sweeping hand gestures in front of the wall before
moving on.  The power that came off him was extremely potent; she
could feel it and the flickers within it even without the Silver
Crystal.  A funny feeling swelled in the pit of her stomach, and
suddenly she keeled over on the bed, dry heaving.  Hielo took no
notice, though if he had, he would've seen the illusion that Priam
had cut suddenly crack, and then shatter, all the tiny pieces of it
melting away.  This was the potency of the shield Hielo was
erecting, so much so that it was not necessary for any of them to
"touch," for the flow would continue uninterrupted without it.
This energy touched upon Priam's illusion and shattered it
completely, for such was the power of the Dark Trio.
 Serena slowly pushed herself back off the bed, feeling completely
miserable.  The smell and taste of bile coated her mouth and her
throat, and though she hadn't actually thrown up anything, the
upheaval made her feel as if she did.  She managed to get to a
sitting position, carefully sliding her legs off the bed as she
combated the wooziness that plagued her.  Looking at Hielo, who
stood on the opposite side of the bed, she felt a sudden spike of
fear punch through her.   she wondered softly.
 She swallowed, and that spike of fear within her
multiplied.
 "You are lucky for my restraint, Princess," he said in a small,
quiet voice.  "Had I been Selene, you would've stood no chance."
 "What do you mean, restraint?" she questioned sharply, holding her
stomach.
 He turned to look at her, eyes still glowing, but now a softer
green than before.  "The power of your mind is enough to catch our
attention, Princess, especially when you feel," he gestured toward
her now, as if he was unable to put the word into place, "that.
And since I am..."
 "Your name is Hielo, right?"
 He nodded.
 "Hielo..." she said the name as if testing it, then looked at him
in a sharp, understanding way that he found suddenly fearful.   his mind whispered.  
 "Hielo," she said again.  "What does that mean?"
 He swallowed, knowing not why, and replied quietly, "Ice,
Princess, for it is what I must be to do what I must do."
 "And what must you do, Hielo?" she asked, probing him.  On the
inside, her heart was beating at what felt like a million miles an
hour, and she could barely keep her breathing steady, but on the
outside she was as cool as...well, ice.
 "I must..." He quickly shook his head.  "Princess, I am done now.
I have shielded your room, and..."
 "Listen to me, Hielo!" she hissed.  "You have abused my friends,
and threatened me.  Can't you at least tell me why!" She pulled
away, and a sudden vulnerability washed over her.  "After what you
did to Mars..."
 "Lady Princess," he whispered.  "Do you want to know what I am?
What a demon I am?"
 "You're no demon," she began, but he cut her off.
 "You're wrong, Princess," he said softly.  "All three of us,
Selene and Katarina and myself, we are all demons."  He looked
away.  "Or so we were told."
 "By whom?" she questioned, voice soft.  Conflict welled inside
her, between compassion and blind hate; he'd been the man to savage
Mars, yes, and steal Amy...but she felt something from him that
didn't jive.  The youma she'd fought had been soaked in evil,
radiating it foully; he, however, did not feel this way.
 "By those who counted, Princess.  By those who counted," he
whispered, and softly sat on the edge of her bed.  For a moment his
face was constricted, as if fighting himself; and then, his mouth
opened, and out rushed the words.

 On a planet far away was born a young man, a strong man, with dark
black hair and dancing light green eyes.  His name was not Hielo,
though that was what he was to be called; no, he was named in a
musical tongue, one that won't translate itself properly into
English.  And his fathers and mother were happy to have a son.
 That would come to change.  For on this world, where the people
fed off the energy of everything, off life and death and sun and
moon and wind and rain, this boy was born to feed off something
dreadful.  And so, as he grew up and away from the solid food fed
to him in the beginning, his Need grew.   Until one day, while
sitting beneath a golden tree with green leaves, he attacked a
young boy, his best friend, and fed from the emanations that came
from him.  He didn't know what he did, though when his parents
found them both, they soon diagnosed the cause.  Their boy, their
young man who was not yet called Hielo, fed on Fear.
 Vile this was to him, and so he left his home and went to an
Institution for people like himself, people who fed on the
disgusting side of life.  There he met two young others, two women,
one with pale blond hair and hazel eyes, the other with looks like
he had, though her eyes were a darker green.  They were not yet
known as Selene and Katarina, though they did know their feeding
preferences: for Katarina, the harshness of Loneliness and
Imprisonment; for Selene, the sharp crack of Pain.  Katarina, like
himself, had turned herself in; Selene had gone on a joyful romp
and been caught.  When they came together, it was like a bolt of
lightning crossed their path, and they found themselves possessed
of the most freakish traits, that of Telepathy and Telekinesis and
Empathy. Together they worked and perfected them.
 At the same time, resentment festered within them all, and they
soon escaped from the Institution for the wide reaches of black
space.  It was there that the three of them first bonded, the need
in them dying from a harsh roar to a low grumble, and bits of their
power were transferred as well.  From this bonding came a peculiar
side effect, the Dark force, the tar-like material they soon
learned to wield with exacting power.  They began to call each
"Brother" and "Sister" to show that they were bonded as family now,
even if they didn't act like it sometimes.  As they traveled along,
Selene's influence dominated the three of them, as did her evil
lusts.  It was in this condition that Priam found and subverted the
three of them.

 "And so, we are demons, Princess, striving only to slake our Needs
and serve our Master," he finished.
 Serena's mouth had nearly dropped during the dispassionate telling
of the tale; her own life may have been incredible and strifeful,
but she could barely imagine this.  Rejected by her family?
Institutionalized for some freak accident of nature?  It was
incredible, and so sad at the same time; she could almost see in
her mind the potential for that "young man" before his traitorous
hunger was revealed.
 She nearly felt sorry for him.
 "I pity you," slipped from her mouth before she could stop it, and
for a moment his eyes simmered storm green, as if he would attack
her that instant.  Then, he sighed, and looked away.
 "Know this, little Princess: I serve my Master and myself, and NO
ONE else!"  His eyes darted back to her.  "I can sense your
thoughts, Princess.  Don't think I haven't thought of those things
myself, and once I wished for a change.  However, I cannot fight my
nature, for I AM evil.  I am Hielo, I am Ice, and nothing, not even
your PITY," he spat out the word as if it was a sour worm, "can
change that."
 "This is so very Star Wars to say, Hielo, but I can't believe
that," she replied in a dreamy voice, watching him under shaded
eyes.  "You mention restraint.  Now tell me, what evil, vile, cruel
villain has restraint?"
 "The smartest, Princess," he replied, and then vanished.  She fell
back to the bed, thoughts in a tangle, unable to reconcile what
she'd seen with what she knew, unable to believe in his
nature...frustrated and exhausted and still a little frightened,
she fell into sleep.

 Hielo appeared in the storeroom, unable to contain his fury at his
stupidity.   he spat at himself,  He felt
like spitting.  
 His eyes searched the storeroom, feeling the traces of Katarina,
and his features softened.  Katarina seemed to always be able to
lighten his mood, with her soft features...he found himself falling
into that old trap again, and shook it off.  To think that
Kat...
 At the thought of "business," the hunger in him surged again.  The
Princess's Fear was so delicate, so lovely, that he needed to feed
after her presence, or risk upsetting Priam mightily.
 Quietly and quickly, he floated to the shelves, eyes catching
Jupiter as she lay sleeping.  He admired her form for a minute, all
muscle and structure, bone and beauty, before reaching in.  His
hand touched her calf, and the two of them disappeared.
 An hour later he reappeared, carrying the unconscious girl,
thoroughly sated.  It had taken much more time to deal with her
than with Raye, but there was so much less resistance once the
first barriers were gotten past.  As he settled her on the shelf,
his eyes caught something.
 A piece of blond hair.  Piqued, he followed the strand up, and
saw...Jade.  The man who had called out to Serena in her shell, the
one who had expressed concern over Lady Mars.  He didn't look well;
very few did after Kat's treatment.
 He didn't even know what he was doing until he did it.  One
moment, he was looking down on the blond figure, and the next,
green energy was racing from his hands to the man's body.  Before
he realized what he was doing, the process was complete, and the
General...was whole again.
 He growled.   he thought, the name like a mental curse.
With that, he vanished.
*       *       *       *
 The storeroom was dark, quiet, softly pervaded by a feeling of
terror and hopelessness.  The air was dusty, motes swished in air,
swirling with the humidity, an oppressive ceiling of discomfort
that hung solidly over them.
 On one side, Jade and Jupiter cried silently in their fitful
sleep, the black thickness of their dreams as discomforting, as
sharp, as crunchingly painful as the reality their bodies slumped
in.  Nephrite, wounds painted in protesting blue and black and
purple, some ringed with the red of a "might be" infection, lay
sprawled in the darkness.  Even as his body was colored, it could
not heal, for the bits of darkforce that clung to him or were
inside him had slowed healing to a mere crawl.  Zoicite below was
huddled in a corner, trying to think, trying not to give into
Despair, who sat hunched before him, eyes aglow...
 In the corner, covered with dust and sticky in the heat, a body
suddenly went rigid, then relaxed.  With no cue, no beat, no
fluttering, the body's eyes flipped open and looked about...
 And they were blue.
 Great, gorgeous, aqua blue.
 Clear, aqua blue.
 She was out of her space like a rocket, a blue streak tumbling out
onto the cold floor.  She immediately came to her feet, looking
around like an unsure caged pet, slowly adjusting to her
surrounding but aware, very aware.  She flexed her arms once and
was surprised by the stiffness of her muscles, the raw snapping
pain in her arms as she clenched and unclenched her hands.  She was
still Sailor Mercury, and for some reason that didn't faze her one
bit.  She was, however, quite mystified and a little annoyed by her
surroundings, the dim, oppressive air seeking to crush her into
another mote of dust.  She felt drained; no, like she was being
drained, as if her outer core was being shucked off her body in a
casual, careless, exact fashion.  In this clearing haze she took a
few steps forward to lean against a step ladder, which shone a
blazing off white compared to the room.
 The sound of her heel hitting the ground ever so much ran like a
gong to Zoicite, even if it was the barest "clop" to her.  He
cracked open like a shell from his huddled position, craning to
see...whatever was out there.  A wash of fear and a trembling dose
of shaky terror surged in his body, particles of ice locking about
his heart.  In the shadows, Despair chuckled at him, claws sharp
and ready to tear out that forming ice cold depression in his
chest. Waves of haziness, of fuzzies, of those tiny prickles that
signal spurts of adrenaline and that light every nerve, all of
these sluiced down his veins and across his skin.  It seemed like a
clear, sticky substance, these feelings, one that smelt
like...like...dust.  Lots of dust.  And, very faintly,
strawberries.
 Strawberries?
 He stopped, fighting that urge to huddle back, face peeking out
from his shell in order to sniff the air, to taste it.  He felt
like it was a dream, that one tiny grain of scent that just
happened to invoke so much...
 A sigh echoed inside his hutch.
  his mind whispered with simple clarity.

 He was beyond listening to rational thought or maddening emotion,
though, and so he moved forward on faith, faith in his soul and
himself to seek...
 ...and to find.
 Mercury felt rather than saw the shadowed form behind the screen.
Immediately, Panic tugged on her sleeve, and she could feel it seep
into her skin, could feel her body stiffen and prepare to lunge and
skitter away.  Yet she caught herself, wondering at the bizarre
reaction; well, overreactions was probably the better word.  She
reeled for a moment on the edge of her former Insanity, then
mentally pulled herself back, while physically she turned.
 The world swirled for a brief moment, and then all of it locked in
the eyes of Zoicite, privately Zachary Petal, privately at war with
himself.  It didn't take an instant for the two--though really it
was--but an eternity for the both of them to lock together.  Eyes
clashed, heated, sublimed and condensed as the fog of one brain
stirred the fog of another, reacting with the intensity of Cesium
and Fluorine, powerfully attracted, powerfully joined--by
explosion.
 In the pocket of Zoicite's uniform, a crystal silently began to
warm.
 "Amy," he said, voice weaning its way between their eyes, neither
truly hearing it.  Soul to soul was the important thing, and words
nearly downright clumsy to use.
 "Zoicite," she replied, and then something else surfaced in her
mind.  "Zachary?  Is that...you?" She stopped, and finally broke
eye contact to examine him.  He was as lean as Zach was, with the
same curly blond, only tied back--and those eyes! Just as
enchanting, though very different now, brimmed with scarring
emotion.
 He looked down, comically unsure, but then nodded.  "It's me,
Amy."
 She moved closer, amazed, her mouth opening slightly as her eyes
widened.  He stared back at her, amazed that she could be standing
her and holding a conversation with him, when but a day--two days?
time flew here--ago she was nothing.
 "Oh! Amy, are you all right?" he asked softly.
 "Well, yes, though I am quite dirty," she replied, looking down at
herself.  Automatically she moved to brush herself off, and a small
cloud formed from the scraping off her gloves, boots, bow, and even
hair.  His eyes widened at first, unsure if the dust cloud was
hostile or not...and then, realizing his paranoia, he began to
chuckle softly.
 "What?" she asked, pinning him under a frank gaze.
 "Amy-chan, I was so worried about you, if you'd be okay...just
now, I was afraid the dust was going to hurt you," he confessed
softly, a grin stealing over his face.  "I am so relieved to find
that you're all right."
 He didn't notice the small rosy stain that leapt to her face when
he called her "Amy-chan," but she quickly got a grip on it and
asked, "Why were you worried?"
 The grin slipped away, and a worried light appeared in his dimly
glowing green-gray eyes.  "Amy...do you know where you are?" he
asked softly.
 She looked about her, and suddenly the room wasn't just
oppressive, it was downright unfriendly, with shadows that crept
around and about her, shrouds in inky blackness.  She looked back
to Zoi with her eyes wide, and then to the room again.  Yet now it
was back to its original oppressive state, not quite friendly, but
really not dangerous.
 "No," she said softly.  "But it...I'm scared, Zoi.  I don't know
why, but this room, it...scares me."
 "Amy, you've been captured by the Dark Trio."
 "Nani!"
 He moved closer to the shielding, and the light in his eyes grew
so cold, even as it warmed her somehow.  "The last time we fought
in the open, you were injured.  Do you remember?"
 "Yes..." she whispered.  "You were there."
 He nodded.  "I was.  I put you in what I thought was a safe
place."  Now the coldness in his eyes seemed to turn inward, as if
he was aiming it at...himself.  "But it wasn't safe, Amy.  It
wasn't safe at all, because Hielo got to you, and he took you here.
Do you remember any of that, Amy?"
 She looked away from him, and then backed, as if unsure how to
remember.  "I seem to recall something," she said, struggling, eyes
narrowing as if trying to see it as well.  "About pain, and
then...then...oh my GOD!"
 "Amy!" he cried out as she jumped backwards from the screens, eyes
widening.  Maddening emotions swept over him, and his hand reached
out, longing to touch or hold her, longing to do something other
than just sit here and watch!
 For a moment, her eyes were frozen saucer wide, and her face was
contorted in fear, strawberry mouth slightly widened as if she was
going to cry out, hands up with fingers spread as if blocking
something.  Her skin pallor fluctuated, and it wasn't just the
dust.
 Then, as swiftly as it had come, it was gone.
 Looking at her seeing him, he watched a change wash over her face,
in her eyes.  It was as if she suddenly saw something about him she
hadn't seen before, and she wasn't sure how to handle it.
Tentatively, she stepped forward, and her head tilted a bit, eyes
fixed on him.  She came within inches of the shield surface, still
looking at him in that odd, measuring way; a bit of fear lurched
its way to the surface of his mind.   he suddenly thought.    He bit his
lip as she watched him.  
 "Amy?" he finally said, voice exceedingly soft, barely stirring
the air between them.  "Amy, are you all right?"
 She didn't seem to look away, but her expression changed slightly,
and her brow furrowed a bit.  To an observer, it would've all been
very cute, to watch her concentrate so intensely on something.
Yet, to Zach, it just caused fear to well in his stomach.  For an
uneasy thought had surfaced, one uneasier than that he'd just
thought of.
 
 He wasn't speaking, of course, of her now.  He was speaking of the
Sailor Mercury of the past, that one that his own former self had
been enamored with.  The one that he had watched be struck down
time and time again.  The one who whispered her love, and in the
same instant condemned him.
 He wasn't sure if he'd know how to handle it, ever, though he knew
the issue would have to be addressed sometime.  Like themselves,
the Senshi's memories of the Moon Kingdom would return, and when
they did...he'd have to face it.  And though rationally he knew
that none of it was his fault, the blame for her former death still
beat at him.  He would dream about it occasionally, as if the pain
would not put itself to rest.
 "Zachary," she finally said.  "Oh Zach."
 "Amy..."
 It was then that she burst into tears.
 "Amy!?"
 "First...pain," she whispered as the crystal drops tracked through
that last layer of dust.  "Then...then he took...took..."  She
lapsed into crying again.
 Zachary's hand pulled back from the shield, and clenched into a
fist.  His teeth gritted, eyes blazing, and mentally he cursed the
Dark Trio in as many languages as he knew, trying to literally call
down fire from heaven upon them.
 "He pulled me!" she called out, voice slightly louder than before,
snapping Zach away from his hate.  "It...he...pulled every piece of
me out, and...and I was so afraid."  Her voice sank to a whisper.
"He was so strong...and the more afraid I was...the stronger...he
was."
 His eyebrows rose.   he
wondered.    "Amy, it's all right now," he whispered.  "He's
gone now.  You're okay now."
 She looked up at him, peered into his bright eyes, and suddenly
shivers wracked her.  She pulled away from the shield, arms
wrapping about herself, body contorting and pulling her torso
downwards.  Memories, more than just those of Hielo's feeding,
jogged themselves loose.  Memories from a time long past.
 Minutes passed, and she still stood there, trembling slightly.
Finally, in the smallest, hoarsest whisper, she asked, "How could
you?"
 His eyes widened, and his mouth nearly dropped; his heart fell,
and his soul keened.  He didn't need to ask questions to understand
what she meant.  He knew.
 She knew.
 "Oh God," he whispered.
 Slowly, she straightened herself up, and looked at him...but not
in anger.  Mystified sadness was sprinkled in her eyes, and an
extreme amount of pain, but there was no anger.
 It made him feel ten times as worse.
 "Mercury," he said, and though he was already Zoicite, he felt a
sudden surge in the ancient General.  Before he knew what was
happening, his own consciousness was falling away, into
blackness...
 "Mercury, my love," he whispered.
 She froze, slightly shocked, for the voice coming from the figure
she knew as Zachary Petal WAS not the voice of Zach, or even Zach-
as-Zoicite.  It was more like what the voice of the feminine
Zoycite would've sounded like had she been male, except without the
dose of evil that invaded that voice.
 A sharp tingle went up her spine, and swiftly came blackness.  She
mutely felt her body stumble, and then suddenly right itself.
 "Zoicite?" Princess Mercury whispered.  She moved closer.  "Is
that...?"
 "Yes, my love.  It is me."
 She looked down at her hands, and then up at him again, crouched
between the shelving.  "But how...?"
 He shook his head.  "I am not sure myself, love.  I just knew I
had...I had to talk..."
 They stared at each other in silence for a moment, and then
suddenly, he began to weep softly.  Tears as well slipped from her
eyes as she watched, and she muttered, "Oh, Zoi, Zoi..."
 "Ami, my heart, I...I failed you," he said, voice heaving and
shuddering, tears coming faster.  "Had I been there moments
earlier, I would've been able to dispatch that foul creature Beryl
had made from me, and saved you..."  His voice fell away.
 "Zoi, Zoi," she whispered.  "I am so sorry.  I knew, or should've
known, that you would never do those things."  She looked down.  "I
was in shock, Zoi, and I laid the blame on you.  I should've
known."
 "My love, Beryl tried to make these copies of us as real as
possible.  How could you have known?"
 "Zoicite," she whispered softly, "it was a women."
 The words hung between them for moments, and each met the others
eyes.  Slowly, a hint of a smile crept across both of their faces.
 "True, love, true," he said.  "It was a woman."
 "And she didn't kiss half as well."
 His eyebrow raised, a comic gesture, and the smile spread out over
her face.  He shook his head, and muttered, "She's also lucky she's
dead.  No one touches my Ami-chan."
 He looked up, and found Mercury's shining eyes on him again.  He
longed to reach out, to touch her, to hold her and perhaps kiss her
once more...but there was shield in the way, and a presence
screaming at him from the bottom of his mind.  So, they said the
words that would release them.
 "I forgive you."
 A dizzying moment later, Zachary Petal was in control of his body
again, as Amy Mizuno was in control of hers.  For moments, they
digested what had just happened, and what haze had descended upon
them...and found that each had a heart that was suddenly lighter,
and it was this way that they looked at each other.
 "It's settled," she whispered.
 "Finally, after a 1000 years," he said.
 "Actually, about 1006," she replied, and he smiled softly at her.
She couldn't help the giggle that escaped then, and soon the
oppressive darkness around them was pushed back slightly by the
bright grins on their faces.
 It was then that Zach's face contorted, and he let out a squawk of
pain and fell back.  Amy stared at him curiously as he fiddled,
finding the slim pocket of his uniform.  Reaching in, he pulled out
a small package covered in a small tan cloth.  His eyes widened,
and he pulled the cloth aside.
 Underneath was the blue-green crystal, touched with gray.  This
time, it was doing something highly irregular, especially for a
place where powers were supposed to be void.
 It was glowing.
*       *       *       *
 Mina looked about her, wind rustling her short skirt.  She hugged
herself as a chill blew through her, and slid down the soft sand
mound until she hit level ground.  The grit squeezed its way
between her toes, and she winced slightly as it rubbed the softness
of her feet.
 She began to walk.  The wind was softer now, but the area was
still fogged slightly, as if she had suddenly developed
astigmatism.  She shook her head and bent forward against the
breeze, the sand, the fog, and kept on walking.
 When she looked up next, the fog and the wind were gone, leaving
her on a sandy beach.  The sound of the waves crashing jerked her
back to life, and she turned in that direction, shading her eyes
against the soft redness of the sunset.  It flashed over the sand
and illuminated her, peach skin reddening, blond now shot through
with a deep pink, eyes a near purple color.  Standing in the stark
red light, she looked about.
 There was nothing for miles but sand and waves, each crashing with
a sonorous rush, cool water rushing up the shore.  She walked
forward to that and into it, letting the spray wet and wrap about
her bare ankles, wincing at the cold, then grinning.  She turned
about, arms spread wide, and the wind coming in took her hair and
whipped about.  She sighed, feeling free and relaxed.
 She opened her eyes facing the shore, and froze.
 His white hair was also stained with red, though it was muted with
the blues and greens that normally shaded the brilliant color.  He
sat on the beach in a pair of informal jeans and a large shirt,
leaning forward against his knees, feet bare.  Wires wrapped their
way from his ears to what he held in his hands; cocking her head,
she pieced together that he was listening to music.
  added a solemn voice of her own in her head.
 "What about?" she whispered softly, stepping forward, foam
gathered about her feet.
 "Why, you, of course."
 She spun on her toes, surprised, yet readying herself for combat
at any moment.  However, the person did not appear threatening in
anyway; she appeared more motherly than anything.  Her hair was
black as night, and framed a rosy cheeked, pale skinned woman with
eyes of a stunningly dark, icy blue.  She wore all black, and her
feet were also bare; the combination seemed to draw you right back
to her face, to her eyes.
 "Me?" A pause.  "Wait a minute--who are you?  And..."
 The woman put a finger to her lips, shushing her softly.
"Sometimes they call me Cuervo, now Fushigi.  I'm a friend of his,"
she chuckled softly then, "although not so dear as you are."
 "How do you know him?" she wondered, stepping back slightly, foam
swishing up to swirl about her feet.
 "I'll ask the questions here," she chuckled, still standing
farther up in the sand.  A larger wave came in, and the water
splashed up to her calves.  "Is that cold?"
 "Just a little," she admitted.
 "Why don't you come out?"
 "Because I like it.  I'm used to it, I guess," she replied.
 "I see."  For a moment, she stared at her, blue eyes sucking at
her mind unconsciously.  Then, "Do you know why he's been avoiding
you?"
 Mina's eyes widened.  "How did you know?"
 "I'll ask the questions, Lady," she replied, voice slightly
steelier now.
 Mina looked down.  "No, I don't know," she whispered.  "I wish I
did.  We were...getting close."
 The women, Cuervo or Fushigi, nodded.  "I know."  She turned
slightly to look at him.  "Do you know what a comfort zone is,
Mina?"
 She shook her head.
 "Speak up, girl."
 "No, I don't.  Mam."
 The woman looked back, smiling.  "I am too old and too young to be
called 'Mam'," she said lightly.  Her face drew back to
seriousness, and she explained, "Mina, a comfort zone is a place
where you feel extremely comfortable.  It's not necessarily
tangible, though it can be; it's a place of retreat.  Some people,
though, refuse to leave theirs at all costs.  They will duck
challenges and refuse to step forward in life rather than face what
lies outside their zone.  It can be a serious problem."
 "Are you saying...?"
 "Partially, Mina."  She took a breath, eyes lighting curiously.
"The night you went with Pluto--about two nights ago, right?"
 "Yes."
 "Do you remember that man doing something inside your head?"
 She shuddered in reply, and the woman, Cuervo or Fushigi, took
that as a yes.  "He played with you psychically, Mina, and then
sent you home.  Pluto tried to lull you to sleep, but often it is
not that easy, especially when it comes to interference with the
mind.  Kevin was there when you awoke..."
 "What did I say?" she cringed.
 "Nothing wrong, flower of Venus.  Nothing wrong at all."  She
looked back at him.  "He is just unsure of how to deal with it.
He's afraid to step outside his let's-move-slowly zone, take things
to the next step.  That's why he's on the beach now, listening to
his music and trying to figure out what to do."
 Mina took a breath, and looked at him again.  He DID look like he
was in thought, and it didn't appear to be a very happy thought at
all.
 "He's in pain," she said.
 "No, not quite.  What pains him is his indecision.  He's never
been like this before...he doesn't know how to deal with it."  The
woman's voice had dropped slightly, to a softer tone.
 "What can I do?" she asked.
 "Just be Venus.  And just love him...that is, if you do, and
decide to, Mina."  Her eyes bored into her once again, asking the
unspoken question: 
 "I..."
 She shook her head.  "You don't need to tell me, Mina.  I already
know."  With that, she turned, and walked away, waves almost
lapping at her feet.
 Which left no footprints.
 Swiftly, the world clouded over again, and the last sight she
caught was of his head coming up, and his lips mouthing her name...
 She found herself in blackness, a deep darkness, closing in on her
with its warmth.  She twirled within it, peering about her, and saw
nothing.
  she wondered, flipping end over end in an
attempt to move.    She shook her head.
 She thought
for a minute, not noticing the growing blackness.
 
she wondered.  She had no clue that the word was Spanish, or that
it meant "raven"; how could she of?  
 She yawned in the void, the dream details becoming hazier.
*sleep,* a soft voice simpered in her mind.  *sleep, little one.
sleep.*
  she thought,
her eyes beginning to close.  Her hair wrapped about her like a
cloak, a blanket, and she softly drifted within it.  
 *sleep, child...sleep.*
  she thought softly.  
 Her eyes came down, lashes gently brushing her cheek.  Finally,
Mina Aino was asleep, the name on her lips.  This time, though, she
knew what it meant.
 Mystery.

 The woman rose, her hand coming off of Mina's forehead.  She
looked about, and smiled softly.  Her work was done.
 "You owe me one, Kunzite," she told the darkness, and then,
vanished.

    Source: geocities.com/tokyo/shrine/1721