914/The Plot Thickens

The Plot Thickens
Date of Scene:	24 January 2016
Location:	Plot Room #1
Synopsis:	A rather irate Moon takes her frustrations out on Kunzite. She yells at him, he makes her cry, Mercury shows up, Moon almost makes HER cry, and by the end, Kunzite's evil plots against innocent winter birds are thwarted.
Cast of Characters:	Ami Mizuno, Usagi Tsukino, Kunzite

---

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Now that she knows for sure Kyouko is safe, or at the very least alive, and since leaving the group of Puella Girls to...probably kill each other, Sailor Moon has nothing to latch onto in terms of Distraction.

Even the texts from Endymion have stopped, and she's left, once again, wondering if she should just move to France so she doesn't continue to mess things up.

Part of her is tempted, even half an hour after his last text, to just let him know she's just gonna lose his number.

Or maybe she could just destroy the phone and feel better.

But then...intel.

And TumblrKittens!

Curse you, Tumblr...

Still, she's managed to hang onto the cup that once held a froo froo machiatto. And it's crumpled and limp, so, perfect for throwing.

But wait. Her Kunzite-senses are tingling.

And finally, there's an outlet for her anger.

Sure, he could beat the crap out of her, probably even worse, but by darnit at least she'll feel better when (if) she wakes up.

Growling, she stalks toward the feel of that signature, pretty single minded in her goal. She's not even aware of any hinky things in the air, and even if she were paying attention to temperature, she'd probably warm back up with this grrrr.

Finally. Spotted.

"HEY!" She throws the coffee cup at his head.

Kunzite has posed:
Bitten by a radioactive Kunzite. Now there's an origin story that nobody wants, ever.

His powers have blanketed this section of Uminari city for the last little while, yes, but not in a way that's actually hurting anyone. Infinitesimal drain, just enough to give him an awareness of what's happening. Maybe half a degree colder. Maybe a little less cellphone reception; maybe a couple of people are complaining about their wifi. There's not even a blackout, let alone anyone collapsing. It's almost suspicious in its innocence. Or would be, if Usagi were putting the effort into thinking things through.

The ritual he was guarding is over. He could draw that faint layer of shadow back in. But if he did, he wouldn't be able to keep track of the presence that started moving with sudden intent. He finds a convenient vantage point, studying the traffic along a particular street, trying to --

-- a coffee cup being thrown at his head was not the greeting he was expecting. One hand goes up to ward it off. The bounce still spatters a couple of droplets to mar that white hair.

Kunzite's eyes narrow. "You're not Riventon." ... a statement so obvious it may well be an intentional insult.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
The look she flashes him is one-hundred percent teen, completely arrogant and annoyed and ticked, and very clearly says 'Gee, Einstein, ya think?'

She doesn't say this, or question why he was expecting Riventon. Instead, she charges straight on. "And you're lucky you have a new job, because you sure as hell suck at your old one!"

She doesn't mean whatever this is compared to the Dark Kingdom. She, of course, is referencing the Silver Millenium. Back when, you know, she didn't have to have to have absolutely disgusting (and terrifying) visions dancing in her brain 'THANKS, BERYL!

Kunzite has posed:
There are times when Kunzite briefly longs for a useful and hopeful conversation with someone reasonable. Like, say, any of the conversations he's had with Venus in the last several months. At the moment, those do seem to qualify, even the dangerous ones - that is to say, the ones where they weren't openly trying to kill each other, and were therefore able to do so much more damage.

This isn't a moment in which she actually needs him to say anything, or do anything, in order to get her to give him information. All she needs is a pretext. So he draws back in the shadows he was using to watch - now that he knows it was her he was noticing, he doesn't need them anymore. And then he folds his arms, and gives her a look that's irritably impatient, a little contemptuous, more than a little bored.

It's easy to put that expression on. All he has to do is remember any of a dozen squabbles he's had to sit through Zoisite trying to have with Nephrite.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Don't give me that look!" She's close enough now to jab his chest if she wants. She doesn't though, because she's pretty sure she'd break her fingers. And her voice is low as she speaks now. "You are supposed to protect him. I can handle the heartbreak every single time he looks at me and have him not know who I am. I can handle the whole pain of this, because it's mine. What I can't handle is watching him slowly lose his mind because of that thing. What I can't tolerate is your filthy boss doing whatever the hell she does to him."

Kunzite has posed:
There's an instant of dead silence. This time, he's not saying a thing for a different reason.

This time, he's not saying anything because he can't control his expression quite in time. Because the last weeks of knowing too much of what's been taking place - and knowing certain things that Sailor Moon does not - show, just for a moment, around his eyes. Flat, dead gray, unreactive. Cold and still and self-hating.

Nothing happens. And he forces the tension in his jaw to relax, and says a moment after, level and calm-sounding, "Did you want her to show up and start explaining?"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
And then she's wishing for that look again, and not the one she sees for just a moment. (She's seen it, shadows of it anyway, in the mirror when she forgets to be happy.)

His question at the end forces a rise of laughter bubbling from her throat, not quite sane even to her own ears. She gets the warning, understands it, but the words come out, fast, before she can stop them. "No, because then I'd get myself killed trying to rip her face from her skull."

Kunzite has posed:
"Exactly. Don't." If she gets herself killed --

They have a chance of coming back from anything but that. Anything.

For a moment he understands Venus again, far better than he had or wanted to. For a moment. Then he moves past it, because if they keep from risking her, they're just as doomed. He shakes his head, and adds a cardinal sin of teaching to the very long list: he doesn't follow up. "If she was watching me anytime in the last half-hour, it bored her enough she won't come back tonight. What happened."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
She jerks back a little, eyes wide, shock evident on her face. He didn't know? She stared at his boots, trying to sort through her bewilderment.

"Wednesday. At the Crown? He came. Or that thing did. And then she came? And the guy went through the portal. But it wasn't that thing anymore, it was him. And she just...and he didn't--and--" Her eyes are back on Kunzite just as all the hate, all the rage from that night comes back, shining in them. It should be obvious it's not directed at Kunzite. Or, at least later, she'll hope it didn't. "She paraded him like some kind of animal. And she kissed -- and his eyes didn't turn red but he wasn't there, he didn't want to be there. And after everything, she whispered that things and I don't think his eyes were glowing because I told her he'd never look at her the way he looked at me, and the way he just wasn't there like it's happened before and and I--" She's crying, of course, but they're the burning tears of anger. "I've never hated someone before, I've never wanted to kill someone before, but I do now, and I would destroy everything if it just gets him away from her and not having those eyes!" Her shoulders slump, then, and she's still crying. "And today he was just...What do I do? Kunzite, how do the seasons work?"

Kunzite has posed:
The terrible thing is that no matter how little sense her phrasing might seem to make, he understands it. Every word.

And he reaches out a gloved hand and rests it gently on her shoulder.

It doesn't last more than a few seconds; but in that time - it's different from the way the cape felt. While it's part of him, the energy isn't permitted to reach outward, isn't doing anything horrible to her senses. It's made to feel the way he remembers it should feel; it feels human, steady, almost normal.

"If you want full answers," he says quietly, "we need to know we're not overheard, not just guess." -- is Beryl listening? Is his hand going to be made to reach for her throat? ... no. Not this time. "Mercury. Maybe Mars. The Akemi girl, as a last resort, but it costs her. If you want answers, we need one of them."

Want, not need. What she needs isn't answers. What she needs isn't something he can give her.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
And it's a familiar touch, if not slightly off through death and centuries. And she's nodding, resting her forehead against his shoulder as she texts Mercury.

And she doubts she makes sense.

<PHONE> You text Sailor Mercury: Mercury. I need you...shield? I need...please?

<PHONE> A text from Sailor Mercury at Sun Jan 24 01:04:50 2016: ... shield? What do you mean?

<PHONE> You text Sailor Mercury: Bubble, thing, I need Kunzite to talk to me, please, I can't keep...please?

<PHONE> A text from Sailor Mercury at Sun Jan 24 01:05:50 2016: ... where are you? I'll tunnel in.

<PHONE> You text Sailor Mercury: <Gives address>

<PHONE> A text from Sailor Mercury at Sun Jan 24 01:07:18 2016: Nearest is a quarter kilometer from there. Two minutes.

"Two minutes."

Kunzite has posed:
She's leaning her forehead against him. In the open. On the one hand, he has two minutes till Mercury gets there and probably kills him. On the other hand, at any point in those two minutes, Beryl could glance over and notice.

His left arm goes around Moon's shoulders. His right hand strokes her hair. Because with the shape she's visibly in, all it would take to trigger Beryl's wrath would be her noticing his not actively killing the girl. So there's really not any more risk.

Except for the possibility of Moon hitting him, which ... well. After Jupiter's ambush, that concern suffers in comparison.

And he tries not to think about a distant fragment of memories the gesture brings up, and the things she told him, and the possibility that Beryl might somehow have been watching back then, too.

Ami Mizuno has posed:
"Hyperspatial Sphere: Generate."

It's the only warning that Mercury has arrived, precisely one minute thirty-two seconds after she sent that text to Moon. Which puts her way ahead of schedule for anyone keeping a mental clock.

Very suddenly, Kunzite and Sailor Moon are no longer standing in the open winter night air. Instead, they are in a bubble of nothing; the dim glow of ambient light seems to come from everywhere and nowhere. And Sailor Mercury is standing directly behind Kunzite. "I'll give you ten seconds to explain this," she says, her voice low and filled with far more anger than Kunzite has likely heard from the blue-haired senshi, "before I drop Tokyo's harbor on your head and freeze it."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
There's a brief moment where her shoulders tighten, but nothing else happens apart from what is probably a very awkward hug of sorts from a highly on edge general.

Sailor Moon is...very much not aware of Mercury's arrival.

When she hears that icy cold voice, she jumps, and almost skitters behind Kunzite until she realizes that's where the scary Senshi is.

"Do you have any idea how long it takes this hair to dry in the winter?!" She's holding up her twin tails. "Don't get mad at him, I leaned first!"

This is a clearly upset bunny. And torn between anger and more crying and--

"He wouldn't talk to me unless we had a shield. I tried to type it but I couldn't see the keyboard. And and and I just need answers!"

Kunzite has posed:
"Go ahead," Kunzite is already saying as Moon startles - he lets himself be brushed out of the way of the jump, of her attempts to move. "It would improve my night."

He doesn't turn to address Mercury, doesn't even turn his head - he spreads his arms a little instead, so that his hands are where she can see them. Palms toward the ground, or where the ground should be. "She saw Beryl and Endymion together. At that damned arcade." He's never going to be able to think of it as anything else. "Where she thought of herself as safe." ... and she needs answers.

Ami Mizuno has posed:
There are words to describe the emotions crossing Sailor Mercury's face, but only when taken individually. Anger wars with sorrow wars with frustration wars with disappointment, all against exhaustion and understanding at the same time.

It takes Mercury far more than ten seconds to find her voice again, and when she does it is very quiet. "Moon-chan, come away from him. Kunzite is not healthy, and being so near to him is dangerous. Even if he is not intentionally a threat, his nature makes him an unsafe ally."

Not enough attention. Ami hasn't been paying nearly enough attention. "Damnit," she curses quietly. "This is my fault. I should be spending more time with you, and less buried in trying to cure Kunzite and find the stupid Silver Crystal. I'm sorry," she tells Sailor Moon.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
She wants to punch things again. She's already so angry. She looks at Mercury, and a touch of it's there in her eyes. "I'm not four." And there's that silent curse, and she feels...chastised, and the rest of she wants to say dies on her tongue.

Before she goes over, though, she looks up at Kunzite with ernest eyes. "I'm sorry I threw the coffee cup at you and yelled, and I didn't mean most of what I said."

She goes over to Mercury, staring at her shoulder. "It's not your fault. You were all just so worried about me I just stopped...telling you guys things." And crying. But she already went over that with Mako-chan.

Kunzite has posed:
No protest to what Mercury says. No interruption of the back-and-forth between the two girls. Not even turning, as of yet, because Mercury appeared behind him for a reason, and that reason probably isn't over yet; and because it's the only privacy Kunzite can give the two of them in this place.

But Moon says something to him, and it deserves response. "Don't be sorry." Twice in twenty-four hours. "Whether or not you meant it, you were right." But it's calm enough, matter-of-fact enough, that it can be glossed over easily in favor of what she's saying to her Senshi. Which is far, far more important a matter to settle.

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Sailor Mercury recoils at Sailor Moon's words, and then she narrows her eyes. "No, no you're not," she agrees. "Nor did I think I was treating you like you were. I don't tend to take four year olds on expensive trips to foreign countries. Speaking of," she notes to Kunzite, "we saw your brother's palace. He seemed to like it there. Thanks for the tip."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
It's Moon's turn to recoil, and she looks as though Mercury had just physically slapped her. She steps back and shakes her head a little, wondering if maybe she should have gotten Homura. Her voice is quiet. "Don't worry. I'll pay you back."

She steps away more, and back, and turns, and circles around to the other side of Kunzite. Logistics, maybe. Or maybe just a bundle of being pissed off and hurt in every direction. "You said you'd tell me things?"

Kunzite has posed:
That's enough to actually get Kunzite to turn his head. Not the urge to shout at the pair of them; that he's restraining perfectly well. Something else Mercury said. "Palace?" he repeats, blankly uncomprehending. The Senshi aren't the only ones who have trouble talking right now.

He shakes his head a moment after, though; he's the one who's supposed to be giving information, not keeping it. "Where to start. You asked what to do. I can't give you an answer to that; I don't know. Endymion - Mamoru Chiba, rather - gave me instructions to operate under; I can give you his priorities. They may not be yours. And neither he nor I had solutions; he trusted the five of you to find those."

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Mercury opens her mouth, then closes it, then opens it again, then closes it, then hugs herself and falls very, very silent. She doesn't answer Kunzite's question; she just looks away and to the side, offering not another word to the conversation, for the moment.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
She scoffs a little, shaking her head as she looks to the side. The five of them? Really. Mamoru Chiba should really have invested in someone better than her.

"What were they? His priorities?" She wipes at her cheek a bit. "Do you agree with them?"

Kunzite has posed:
Kunzite glances over his shoulder at Mercury again for a moment. Then to Moon, watching her steadily. Silent for a few seconds. "He told me," he says, "that the four of us belong with him. That he needed us; that we needed to stay alive. Not to give up. Not to let go of each other. To have faith. Particularly in the five of you. To believe that you'd find a way, even when it seemed impossible. He told me that he forgave us. Whether or not what happened was our fault."

A brief shake of his head. "I ... think he's an idiot. I don't think we're worth the price he's paying. But Mercury's right. We need to change the story. And the only way I have of doing that is to do this time what I didn't the last. To trust his judgment."

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Mercury looks up when Kunzite addresses her by name--or at least title--and then nods her head just faintly. "We need the Crystal," she says quietly. "And I had an idea, but ..." she trails off, then clears her throat. "Well, I don't think we can do it right now." She doesn't explain why, though.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
She hears Kunzite's words, turns them over, and looks up at Mercury when the bluenette's name is mentioned, heres her talk. She starts to take a step forward, byt pauses to listen to the rest of what Kunzite says. She nods, then. "Right. Well. Excuse me for a moment. I'll get right back to you."

The Senshi of Water soon finds herself in a tight hug. Her words are quiet and frantic. "I'm so sorry, it's okay if you're mad at me, I deserve it, I know you don't think I'm four, I'm not mad at you, I'm so sorry." Several kisses to the cheek. More apologies. But no promises to be better, not yet.

She pulls away and turns to look at Kunzite. "His plan is the same as mine. You're important to him. I've told you how I feel about that already. But..." She shakes her head. "I don't think I can wait to try until we can get you all. I need to get him away, now. Before Wednesday, his t...conversations weren't so disjointed. Today, he looked like...half...broken."

She hugs her arms tight around herself, and walks back to him. Close, but not touching, she leans up to whisper in his ear, because she can't say them out loud. She tells him about the eyes, and exactly how they looked, and how they didn't. She told him what Moon said to Beryl, and she stutters on that this time.

When her heels fall back on the floor, she just looks at him.

Kunzite has posed:
The terrible thing, really, is that nothing that Moon says surprises him. His expression only closes in further on itself, showing nothing of his reactions.

"He's healing faster than he can build defenses," Kunzite says at last, tone flat. "It's leaving him vulnerable. But Beryl brought her hostage back. And Endymion found and rescued Nephrite the night before last. As long as none of us are with him when you take him back, she probably won't kill any of us out of hand."

He turns, finally, to face Mercury - turns toward the side Moon's on, so that he's not shutting her out of the conversation. "Nephrite was trapped in the personal subspace of one of the monsters the Akemi girl and her kind hunt. The longer Endymion was there, the more he was able to focus. He was able to tap into his own powers. He was able, for at least a few seconds, to use his healing. Beryl claimed she couldn't find Nephrite in that space. And the thing in Endymion's head didn't manifest for a moment. It's possible that it relies on a connection to --" He can't make himself say the name, this time. "-- its source."

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Mercury stiffens when Sailor Moon approaches her, as if worried for what Sailor Moon might be about to say. But then she's being hugged, kissed, petted, and apologized to, and the quiet self-doubt all melts away. "I'm sorry, too," she whispers, even if she isn't sure what she did wrong in the first place. At least she recognizes it was something. "Let's talk after this, okay?" She hugs Sailor Moon, then smiles and nudges her back towards Kunzite.

As the conversation continues, Mercury nods her head to Kunzite. "I don't think it," not she, "can find otherplanar spaces unless they are its own creations. I have a lot of running theories, Kunzite, including some interesting ones on how to cure you. But none solid, and none I can trust you with, when your future remains so tenuous. Please don't stop trusting in us. Sailor Moon and I will solve this, with the help of our friends. We really will change the story, this time."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
And just like that, she feels better. Not yet happy, but not as...wallowy as she was. Mercury hugs are a sort of magic thing.

A brief flair of hope rises in her chest. She tamps it down, but clings to it, tight.

"It...may be...somehow...I mean if we..." For a moment, she smiles at Kunzite. It's the same one as when a funeral for a cat was offered, in another life. "I won't tell you anything. And when nothing happens, you won't know a thing about it."

Then she looks down at her phone, fingers flying over it as she looks back and forth between the screen and Kunzite.

TXT Sailor Mercury: Can we make or or or find some subspace...thing? Something like that witch thing, but not?

Kunzite has posed:
"Be careful about that assumption," Kunzite warns Mercury. "It's easier for me to get into or out of a Barrier than it is to move from one place to another on Earth; that thing has more of an affinity with those particular spaces, not less. And there are other places I've been able to explore. If you can identify the qualities that make the difference, though..." Well. They won't tell him anything, and he won't know a thing about it. He hopes.

It's not a permanent solution. But it might buy them time to find one.

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Mercury's cell phone bleeps at her, but rather than opening it she instead opens her visor. The text scrolls across her view, and she blinks in surprise. Mentally, she commands it to send a text back.

To Sailor Moon: Zoisite's palace.

"I didn't say it can't get in," Mercury points out to Kunzite after the thought is complete. "I said it can't find them. But still, I won't mark that as a proven thing; just a working theory which requires further examination. Most importantly, though, I think there is one thing you can tell us. If we want to draw him out somewhere, how do we do it."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Sailor Moon doesn't have a visor. But she reads the text anyway. And she's reminded of the pictures Endymion sent, of old, sad buildings that were a little less sad when he was around. Would he like it at the palace?

Also, speaking of.

TXT Sailor Mercury: Remind me later, pictures, sad buildings. But yes. Will the birdie help, you think?

Kunzite has posed:
"Pull one of the four of us off the Earth for a little, and put him back again," Kunzite says. "Or possibly injure one of us badly enough to get his attention. But those invite Beryl's retaliation. Putting Moon into a genuine panic might do it; the bond between the two of them is starting to recover. Or..."

He gives Mercury a brief, tired look.

"You could try asking him. It works for the Akemi girl."

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Mercury's eyes twitch just a little at those words. "I see," she replies thoughtfully, then inclines her head. "Sailor Moon, is there anything else you want to ask him?" she asks, turning to her friend.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Sailor Moon winces and looks back at Mercury...oops...

"I can...do that...pretty easy..."

All she'd have to do, really, is poke it and just freak out about everything that's happened.

More questions for Kunzite? Of course there is. Why do places in the Dark Kingdom change or disappear? Why are the walls so gross? Why dark energy? Why, why, why.

Instead, she asks, looking him straight in the eye. "Will you try to take care of yourself? And the others?"

Kunzite has posed:
"Will you give Jadeite a message for me?" Kunzite replies to Moon, just as straightforward. "Venus convinced Endymion to try to have all of us on the field when Walpurgisnacht comes. Jadeite included. His cover seems to be holding, for now; I've given a reason he might not be able to be there, and Endymion's priority for him is still his staying safe. He should use his best judgment. But the more of us are there, even in Beryl's uniform --"

He glances back to Mercury, again. "If we're on the same field. If we're fighting on your side, or better, in some of your defense - and I've gotten him to agree to that. It might make a difference. If you haven't managed to pull him out by then." That he trusts the girls to use their best judgment, too, goes without saying.

He seems to think that's a valid answer to Moon's question.

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Mercury inclines her head to Kunzite, thoughtfully, then takes a deep and steadying breath. She waits a moment for her will to align with her intentions, and then the barrier drops. "Bubble spray!" she declares, sending a burst of frigid water streaking towards Kunzite ... just barely off target.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
She listens, and nods, mentally taking down the message, noticing his lack of response to her request and deciding it may be best he didn't answer. "I will."

It's on instinct, really, with Mercury's spray, that her tiara goes flying. Fortunately she had just enough oops to give it a slight twist at the end, crashing it against the HVAC rather than Kunzite.

Still. Property damage. She winces. "Oops..."

Wait! Fighting! Speech! "That will teach you not to go messing with innocent...winter...birds!"

She is bad at improv...

Kunzite has posed:
Just barely off target is enough for him to have his cape in hand, drawing it up to deflect all the same -- and the crouch he drops into is enough to let him master his expression, and find a suitable laugh. He holds up his free hand, and lets just a trace of lightning crackle around it.

... but not his lightning.

"Shouldn't you be worrying about what I did to Jupiter instead?" he taunts them, and kicks off backwards -- letting himself drop over the edge of the rooftop and out of sight.

Either he'll get enough time to get away, or at least one of them will start honestly trying to kill him. It's a win for him, either way.

Ami Mizuno has posed:
"Jupiter," Mercury says, eyes widening. "Moon, let's get to her," she says, then raises her hand like she's cutting through the air or drawing up a zipper. "Hyperspatial Tunnel: Generate!" Then she steps through, leaving the portal open for only a few more moments. Just long enough for Moon to follow through.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Sailor Moon blinks. What? Was he serious about that or--

But then the portal opens, and she follows close behind.

When they're on the other side, Mercury already has a clinging Moon at her side. "I'm so sorry." She says it again and again.

And again.

Because she'd made Mercury sad.