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Diamohns are Forever	By : SailorSol Category: Sailor Moon > General Views: 22490 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

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EVERYONE HAS THEIR LIMITS

Kunzite walked into the quarters he shared with Zoisite, a satisfied smile on his face. He had managed to collect a great deal of energy without raising any suspicions or alerting the Senshi.

Since Soladite had been so successful at collecting ambient energy where humans gathered, he had sought such a place himself. He found an amusement park where humans of all ages released energy in large amounts as they went on rides, attended shows, and participated in various interactive performances. The rides, he found, generated the most energy. Beryl had been very pleased with the score of filled collection crystals that he had laid at her feet.

He hated that woman, but for Zoisite�s sake, he had to humor her until they could escape.

The disappearances of Quartzite and Hematite had troubled him, until he had performed a post-cognitive spell had discovered that Takara had assaulted not only Hematite, but Quartzite as well. When Quartzite went to Hematite for help, he had taken Hematite away. Kunzite could guess where, but he would not tell anyone, not even Jadeite. His junior Tennou wasn�t stupid or inept. Jadeite was just as good at the same kind of spell. Surely, he knew what had happened to Quartzite.

Lost in his thoughts, Kunzite failed to see the shadowy figure waiting just inside the door for him.

***** *****

At Chiba House, after an excellent dinner, Senshi and Kishi were relaxing and winding down. There had been a few sightings of Dark Kingdom generals, but no actual confrontations.

Most of the men were watching the news, which mentioned the sightings and the activities of the Senshi and Kishi.

ChibiUsa and the children that had been adopted had taken over another television in the enormous living room and were watching an old monster movie starring Gojira.

Some of the Senshi were engaged in completely ordinary tasks, such as needlework of one kind or another, while others played games or studied for distance classes.

Lucinda, Makoto, and Vincent were planning meals for the next several days.

After over two hours of unbelievable restlessness, Aster personally verified the wellbeing and contentment of every Senshi and Kishi, both planetary and satellite, before confessing to Lucinda, Usagi, and Setsuna that she simply had a feeling of dread and felt that something terrible was about to happen. She had been both in tears and angry enough to fight, both moods being unusual to her.

"Maybe it's just hormones," Usagi finally had said. "Try to ignore it and do something you like doing. If it's not just hormonal, we're watching for it."

"She's right," Setsuna said, surprising all three of them. "If something comes, we will be prepared for it. If it is just a side effect of your pregnancy, then we will know when it passes without incident."

"You're a fine one to talk about side effects of pregnancy," Aster mock-growled, smiling to show it was a joke. Setsuna had been nearly exclusive in her choice of bed partners before her pregnancy. As her hormone levels rose, so did her appetites, both for food and other things.

Setsuna smiled to show she knew it was a joke, then left the three of them to settle back down in her seat between her soul-bonded lover, Max, and one of her satellites, Chimei.

The other half of the Plutos, Takagi, sat nearby with Michiru, and Haruka, three of Aster�s five soul-bonded lovers.

Aster smiled as she thought about how things had changed, then she retrieved her Taipei set and challenged her cousin and future king to a game. Mamoru accepted and the two of them settled in for a long match.

Half an hour into the match, Aster, Lucinda, and Hiroshi, Mamoru's brother, felt a surge of power with the indelible stamp of the Dark Kingdom on it, which was followed almost immediately by a loud splash in the pool.

Aster had begun to rise to her feet when she felt the surge of power. Suddenly, she could not breathe. She could taste chlorine. She struggled for the breath to say something, and then for breath itself. She doubled over, hands at her throat.

"Someone take care of her!" Mamoru called out as he vaulted the table where their game sat and ran to the solarium that covered the pool. He heard Lucinda and Usagi both acknowledge his words while he stepped into the moist dimness of the solarium.

All around the pool, the tiles were soaked, mute testimony to something or someone landing in the pool with immense impact. In the middle of the pool a nude male figure with short silver hair floated in a spreading patch of green tinted water.

Without thinking of the possible consequences, Mamoru removed his medallion and earcuff, dropped them on a nearby table, and jumped into the pool and turned the unconscious man over onto his back.

He remembered Kunzite well from his sojourn in the Dark Kingdom, and he felt his blood run cold at the amount of deliberate damage that had been done to him.

He looked over the body, wondering who was responsible, until he saw three parallel gouges on Kunzite's face. Each was deeper and wider at one end, tapering off in a straight line. None of them was deep enough to be serious, just deep enough to get through all the layers of skin.

Mamoru had seen marks like it before: two on Lucinda's face, one on Hiroshi�s, and one on Aster's. They came from the ruby ring that Takara owned.

Takara had attacked Kunzite and nearly killed him. Kunzite had come to Chiba House because he needed help that he knew Aster could and would provide.

Only one question swam in Mamoru's head as he drew his burden to the edge of the pool where others waited to help them out: where was Zoisite and what had happened to him?

~*~*~*~

Aster was still recovering from the sensation of nearly drowning when Lucinda helped Mamoru bring Kunzite in, covered with a light blanket from one of the lounges in the solarium.

She heard Lucinda ask for a futon couch to be lowered, and she obliged her sister with a wave of her hand and a tiny nudge of power.

She struggled to her feet and staggered over to the couch while Hotaru descended on him from one side, and Hiroshi descended on the other.

As soon as Kunzite was safely on the couch, Lucinda began examining his head to determine the source of his unconsciousness.

Taro, the Kishi that Zoisite had been copied from, went over to Vincent and huddled in his arms. Both of them shivered in horror at the sheer damage that had been done. He buried his face in Vincent's shoulder so he would not have to see the condition that the copy of his former lover was in.

In the side area of the living room, Usagi and her four best friends watched what was happening, first with suspicion, and then with more than a little sympathy.

"He's really been through the wringer," Makoto observed. "What happened to his hair? The last time we saw him, it was down to his ankles."

"You're right," Rei said, nodding. "I wonder who attacked him. I mean, to get the drop on Kunzite. . . . "

"It starts me wondering," Minako said, wrenching her eyes away from the scene before her.

She had always secretly admired Kunzite, if only for his sheer physical perfection. The thought that someone could be so brutal sickened her.

Since meeting Martin's eyes, she remembered nearly all of her life in the Silver Millennium, and she remembered times, when neither her nor Atlas� duties had been particularly strenuous, and they had spent hours pleasuring one another.

Rei and Makoto turned to comfort her, their own pale faces telling her that it disturbed them as much as it did her.

A cry of denial from across the room drew their attention and Ami bolted across the room with Minako in hot pursuit.

~*~*~*~

Lucinda was crouched over Kunzite's head where a livid bruise over one temple explained his unconsciousness. One slender hand was spread over the bruise, with her power and knowledge of physiology mending the damage under it. She was watching her sister with a anxious expression.

Aster, six months pregnant, had been feeding power into Hotaru so that she would not tire herself. One hand still rested on Hotaru's thin shoulder. The other hand was stretched over Kunzite's heart.

"No!" she cried out as she struggled to steady his faltering pulse. Too little an application of power would allow the heart to stop; too much would crush it.

"Don't leave me!" she begged the unconscious man. She closed her eyes and lowered her head until her sweat-dampened forehead rested on his chest, sobs shaking her body.

It was Setsuna that moved to Aster's side first, stroking her hair and murmuring words of encouragement.

The return of three out of four of Endymion's Guard had done much to steady the Senshi and Kishi, especially Uranus and Saturn. They all knew, by now, the story of seduction, and then torture, and then cloning that had fooled them all into thinking they had been betrayed.

Janus, Hyperion, and Oberon, representing the West, South, and East, had returned to their place with Endymion. Their guard partners Sailor Mercury, Sailor Mars, and Sailor Jupiter, were stronger and more confident in their power and their position. Terra and Pluto were happy to have their soul-mates again.

Still, the lack of Atlas, who they had thought became Kunzite, had kept them all just slightly off-balance, especially Sailor Venus, who felt inadequate compared to the others without him, and Sailor Sol, whose immense power and solar fire hid enough self-doubt and anxiety to paralyze a lesser woman.

Before them lay either the man they both missed, or someone who was close enough that neither they nor the others would know the difference.

Ami knelt on one side of Aster and Minako on the other, next to Setsuna. Makoto and Rei took up posts beside Lucinda. Together, they encouraged both sisters while Aster steadied Kunzite's failing heart and Lucinda drained the pressure away from the fearsome wound on his head.

~*~*~*~

Nearly three hours after Kunzite's splash down, all four people working on him straightened up and sat back. Hotaru nearly fell, but Thomas had seen the initial movement and was there to catch her.

"He's out of danger, now," Hotaru said. "Thomas, I'm tired, and hungry,"

"You all will be," Usagi's voice made them all turn to look. She was carrying a tray with glasses of milk, and ChibiUsa was behind her with a large tray with several dishes on it.

Usagi firmly handed each of the four healers a glass of milk, and ChibiUsa handed each of them a plate of mixed cookies.

Usagi then set out other plates on one of the tables for everyone else, each one piled with the homemade cookies that all of the cooks competed to keep available.

While they ate the cookies, all of the Senshi and their partners discussed the immediate turn of events and what they might mean.

Just before retiring for the evening, Ami re-covered Kunzite, first with a sheet, then with another light blanket, and then with a thicker blanket. She was about to head for the stairs when she saw the look of fear and shared pain on Taro's face. She pulled Taro around to the far side of the futon, and lifted the edge of both blankets and the sheet together.

"Why don�t you get in?" she said. "His body temperature is going to be very low for a while. You can help keep him warm."

"If you really think so. . . ." Taro said, obviously torn between his desire to be with Lucinda and his desire to be with Kunzite.

"I'm staying down here, too, Taro," Aster said, pulling Takagi's chair over next to the futon and sitting down in it.

She smiled her thanks when Sean pulled the matching footstool over to her and Takagi picked up her legs to put them on it. Haruka brought her a quilt and fussed until she was covered properly.

Aster captured one of Haruka�s hands when the other Senshi started to turn away and pressed a kiss to the palm.

�Thank you, saiai,� she said.

"I will stay to keep you company," Lucinda told her sister. "I have taken care of you all of your life. Did you expect me to stop now?"

"No," Aster said. "Well, pull Mamoru's chair over, then. There's no reason to be uncomfortable."

"Yes," Mamoru said, shooing Usagi off of the arm of the chair and rising out of it. He lifted the chair and carried it over to Lucinda, then guided her into it when she sat down.

Aster smiled when Vincent and Kojiro put Lucinda�s legs on Mamoru�s footstool, and Usagi helped Makoto wrap Lucinda in a quilt. Then, her eyes moved back to Kunzite�s still form, and her smile faded as her humor was replaced by her concern for him.

***** *****

Zoisite looked around the quarters he shared with Kunzite in growing panic. Everywhere there was toppled furniture and disarrayed items that told of a struggle here. Soladite�s blue crystal rose lay in shards on the floor, with blood on the pieces. There were spots and sprays of blood in several places, and a terrible stain on the bed, whose covers had been thrown aside.

Trembling, Zoisite closed his eyes, raised his hands, and invoked a complicated post-cognitive spell to discover what had occurred in the room while he had been gone.

Silently, like phantoms, translucent figures replayed the events since Zoisite had left to do Queen Beryl�s bidding.

He saw Kunzite return from his own errand, tired but pleased, which meant success. He saw a dark figure strike Kunzite across the side of the head, rendering him nearly unconscious. He saw the ensuing struggle that ended in the unknown assailant striking Kunzite again in the same place, knocking him out.

As the figure lifted Kunzite and dragged him to the bed, Zoisite got his first look at the man's face. It was Takara, the man who had murdered Queen Metalia and placed Beryl on the throne.

Unable to stop the spell, now that it was in action, Zoisite watched unwillingly for what seemed like an eternity as Takara stripped his lover, bound him spread-eagled on the bed, face down, woke him, and proceeded to brutalize him in ways that Zoisite had only imagined in his nightmares.

He watched the man deliberately bruise, scrape, and cut his helpless captive, all while raping him with a methodical callousness that was unequalled even here in the Dark Kingdom.

Unable to bear any more, Zoisite buried his face in his hands and gave in to the horrible, wracking sobs of fear and anguish that were beginning to strangle him.

What seemed like hours later, when his tears and anxieties were spent, Zoisite looked up to find that the spell was still active, and that the attack was still continuing.

With a cry of horror and anguish, Zoisite fled the room, and went in search of Takara.

~*~*~*~

He found Takara in the throne room, seated on the top step of the dais. A long switch of platinum hair hung from his belt, down to his feet.

On the dais, seated on the murdered Queen Metalia's throne, Beryl looked down at him with a bored expression on her face.

Next to the throne, her paramour Prince Galaxite, Metalia's son and heir, gazed at Zoisite with a similar expression.

"What is it, Zoisite?" Beryl demanded.

"Great Queen," he said, bowing. "What is the law about abuse of one of your generals by another?"

"There is none," Beryl said coldly. "If one of my generals cannot defend themselves, they do not deserve their position."

"I demand Rite of Challenge," Zoisite said, drawing himself to his full height and pointing at Takara. "On him."

"For what reason?" Beryl asked, somehow sounding irritated and bored at the same time.

"Takara beat and violated Kunzite," he said. "The proof hangs from his person. I demand the right to pay him back for it."

"Denied," Beryl said, her mouth curving in a self-satisfied smirk that Zoisite had always hated. "There is no place for weaklings here. When Kunzite recovers, he can challenge Takara himself."

"He will be a long time recovering," Zoisite objected. "If he ever does."

"Perhaps he should not have struggled so hard, then," Beryl said. "You are dismissed, Zoisite."

"If I leave, I will not return," he said declared hotly.

"You have nowhere to go," she reminded him. "Your ties to anyone else were cut a long time ago. If you appear on Earth, the Sailor Senshi will find you and destroy you."

Beryl's words were meant to threaten, but instead they reminded Zoisite that there was somewhere he could go, someone who would believe him when he said he was not a servant of the Dark Kingdom anymore, someone who could convince his former enemies that he was no longer an adversary.

"You are wrong," he said, a plan forming as he spoke. "I retract my oath of loyalty to you, and I disavow all ties to the Dark Kingdom from this time forward, in my name and his. We are your servants no longer."

"Go then," Beryl said, laughing. "When you come crawling back, I will not punish you too harshly." Still laughing, Beryl let loose a blast of power.

Zoisite raised his strongest shield and turned somewhat and took the blast in the back, where only a fraction of its power affected him.

Even that fraction, though, was enough to burn through his tunic, and leave a large burn on the skin beneath. The blast would have killed if it had hit him at full power.

He teleported back to their quarters, hoping to find a clue as to Kunzite's whereabouts. The spell was still working, and it showed Kunzite moving weakly, dabbing his fingers in his own blood and tracing something on the headboard of the bed before dabbing more blood on a crystal ring on his hand and disappearing.

His temper still high, Zoisite settled for exterminating Takara in effigy by completely destroying everything in the room.

He then collapsed in the middle of the wreckage with tears of frustration and anger flowing freely down his cheeks. He absently rubbed his hands together, and then fingered a ring Kunzite had given him after their �defeat� by the Senshi. It contained a pair of Kunzite�s silver hairs encased in flawless crystal, imperishable for all time.

Now, as he caressed the smooth surface of the flawless stone, he felt a tingle of power that meant a spell had been activated. He watched in wonder as power flowed out of the ring and coalesced into a transparent image of Kunzite's head and shoulders.

"My dearest love," it said in Kunzite's voice. "If this has been activated, then something has happened to one of us that distresses you highly. In either case, we are apart, perhaps forever. If I live, the hairs in the ring give you the means to locate me, no matter where, even if Beryl has thrown me into her deepest dungeon." It paused to allow Zoisite time to absorb the information.

Zoisite sobbed in frustration.

"I'm no good at locater spells!" he whispered. "What was he thinking?"

"I realize that locater spells are not one of your strengths," the apparition continued. "They require a detachment you could never manage, and patience you simply would not develop. So, I have keyed a locater spell into the ring. Simply lift it to your lips and speak my name, and it will take you to me. Remember that I love you, my sakura, and nothing in all of space or time, or the wrath of a thousand queens, will ever change that."

Feeling himself growing weak, Zoisite moved to the headboard and discerned a strange symbol, but one he recognized.

It was a circle with a dot in the middle. It was the mark that had been on Aster's forehead when she was born, the mark that had identified her to Queen Metalia as the future Sailor Sol.

Certain of Kunzite's safety, and that he would find refuge with her as well, Zoisite brought the ring to his lips and whispered the name of his lover, leaving behind the only home he had ever known.

***** *****

Morning came quietly to Chiba house. Just after dawn, Vincent led Kojiro and Makoto in through the side door.

Makoto was carrying clean clothes for Lucinda and some items for breakfast, Kojiro was carrying Jishin, and Vincent carried fresh fruit imported from Okinawa.

Eduard was trailing behind them, concerned for Minako, who had left, unable to sleep, in the middle of the night to check on Kunzite and never returned.

In the living room, Kunzite was still where he had been left, prone on a futon couch-bed with covers over his nude body.

Curled up next to him on one side was Taro, which did not surprise any of them. Taro had been Kunzite's lover for ten thousand years and would follow him until his death.

What surprised all of them but Makoto was that another figure was curled up against Kunzite on his other side, long golden hair gleaming in the early morning light. The sleeping figure was not Aster, whose soft singing could be heard coming from the kitchen: the woman curled up protectively next to Kunzite was Minako.

Curious, Eduard approached the futon silently, hoping not to wake anyone. He was very startled, then, when a feminine voice broke the silence.

"Don't wake her,"

Taro raised himself carefully onto his elbow, raising a finger across his lips for silence. He carefully adjusted the blankets, and then slipped out of the bed, moving with careful deliberation so he did not wake either sleeper.

He gestured for Eduard to follow him, and led him into the dining room, where he slid the shoji doors closed.

"She's had a rough night," Taro said. "Every time he shifted in his sleep, we felt it. Minako woke up every time; so did Aster. The difference is that Minako can sleep after the sun's up."

"I would not dream of waking her." Eduard said. Both men looked up guiltily at the clearing of a throat, to find Aster standing less than a yard away, a cup of coffee in one hand, and a bowl of tea in the other.

"Morning," she said, handing the coffee to Eduard and the tea to Taro. Then, she went back into the kitchen, singing softly to herself.

"She seems happy," Eduard said before sipping the coffee. It was exactly the way he liked it.

"Of course she is," Taro said. "She finally feels complete. You have your memories of the Silver Millennium, right Eduard?" He nodded at Eduard's nod, then continued.

"You remember how you felt when Minako and Rei were sent away?" Taro asked. "How it seemed to tear a hole in you that no one could see? How that hole just kept aching constantly?" Eduard nodded, and Taro continued.

"Aster bonded to Kunzite, just like she had to Atlas, when she was an infant." Taro pointed out. "We went to see her when she was only a few days old. It may have happened then.

�When he died,� Taro continued. �A part of her died, too, leaving that aching wound. She's carried that ever since. This is the first time she's been free of it except when she was in the Dark Kingdom."

"I see," Eduard said meditatively. "What about Minako?"

"I suspect that Minako is feeling the absence of her guard partner more, now that the other three have theirs." Taro said. "There is a lack in her that only he can fill. It's not because you are inadequate, Eduard. It's because you're not Atlas or Kunzite."

"I see, I think," Eduard said. "I will have to think about this to understand it."

"Of course you will," Taro said. "Minako loves you, Eduard, but she needs him like you need Rei. It's almost like the planet bond, or so Ami tells me."

He would have said more, but there was a loud gasp from the kitchen, a terrible pain burned itself into Taro's back, and there was a loud clatter of falling pans.

~*~*~*~

In the kitchen, Lucinda suddenly stiffened and gasped aloud. At the same time, her hands spasmed and she dropped the pans she had been about to fill with bacon and sausage. Vincent and Makoto were there immediately, and pounding on the upper floors told everyone that those who were not yet present would be shortly.

Usagi came pounding into the kitchen wearing nothing but a towel, her hair still damp from a shower. She threw her arms around Lucinda protectively, without even realizing why.

Mamoru was right behind her, but his face registered more confusion than alarm.

Minako came running in from the living room, but allowed Eduard to coax her to sit down.

Mamoru stood back, and Vincent allowed himself to be shooed back while Usagi and Makoto reassured Lucinda that nothing was damaged and tried to find out the cause of her alarm.

Only Mamoru and Vincent noticed when Taro left the kitchen and walked into the dim solarium. Silently, gesturing for Vincent to keep his eyes on what was happening, Mamoru followed Taro.

TBC
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Diamohns are Forever