Even for those who reside there, the cavernous chambers from which the Dark Kingdom is carved can blur one into another. Figuratively: the everpresent unlight, the shadows claiming more space than is their due, the cool and faded colors, make it hard to tell which place one is in unless some sign has been placed there with intent ... and then monitored and maintained, to keep it from fading in turn. Literally: the almost organic walls are not always the same, and sometimes one chamber will flow into another and claim the second, adding it to its volume, or perhaps devouring it entirely, pressing it into a new pocket dimension or simply consuming the space it held and leaving nothing in its place.
It is not, then, entirely important /which/ part of the Dark Kingdom Kunzite appears in, the shadows lighting briefly with his telltale energy. The only thing that is important is that it's the one Jadeite is in.
He was already moving when he executed the teleport, and two sharp steps herald him between the light and his voice. Just enough time for him to give the darkness a practiced glance, to be sure that there are no youma lurking - or if they are, then his fellow Dark General is in their company on purpose. "Jadeite. You wanted to talk."
Jadeite has never felt very comfortable in the heart of the Dark Kingdom. The more time he spends on assignment the more time he is convinced he'd rather be out in the sun, in the real world with the breeze and the chill of winter coming on. This isn't something he shares, because admitting to discomfort might be tantamount to admitting to weakness. He can't afford to admit to weakness. He can't afford to allow himself to even acknowledge it in the privacy of his own mind.
So he keeps it all covered with a rime of ice. This is /literally/ what he's doing when Kunzite appears, stretching out the smallest part of his power to extend it up one of the walls, watching as the near-alive structure of the room around him reacts to being frozen. He doesn't startle, exactly, once he's aware he's not alone, but he does stop playing with his magic, turning to face the elder General as he approaches. "I did. You remember we discussed the dark-haired girl?"
Frost glitters in the unlight, reflects the discomfiting colors of the phosphorescence that strings itself in gossamer webs and bells across one side of this particular place. Not particularly plants. Not particularly fungi. Something else, something that forgot the sun long ago, grown and gone strange in the timeless dark.
Kunzite's hair remains stark white, even when it should reflect the colors, just as Jadeite's remains its gold. The two of them are stronger than these things. "I remember. The one with the unusually acute perceptions. Have you found her so quickly?"
"Yes. It was partly luck. I am beginning to think if one stays near Chiba long enough, one finds almost anything one is looking for." Jadeite almost seems *troubled* by that, but he doesn't dwell on the remark. "She is the miko of the Hikawa Shrine. I had opportunity to test her instincts a few days ago, to see if her perceptions allowed her to pick up on the hallmark of our Dark Kingdom immediately.
He pauses, there, flicking his eyes up to consider Kunzite's face. "She didn't seem to know what she was sensing, but the moment her attention was drawn to the youma, she was put off by it. At the time it was behaving as an ordinary human, but she still approached it, accosted it, confronted it, and then immediately attempted to exorcise it the instant it showed even the slightest indication of not being human."
He gestures with one hand, then, letting a small pseudo-plant on the wall become overcome by his frost to the point that it shatters and falls harmlessly to the floor. "I gave it a little encouragement, to see what she would do. As soon as she seemed satisfied that the humans in the area were safe, she fled. After that, the Senshi arrived and dispatched it."
That hint of trouble is marked, but set aside; the topic at hand may not be more important, but is certainly more immediate. Kunzite listens without interruption, intent as always. There's characteristically little emotion in his expression; a distant irritation, bent perhaps on the miko or on Chiba. The hints of nods he gives here and there mark questions he might otherwise have asked, answered by Jadeite before he could have voiced them.
"So," he says at last. "Well done. Apart from the interference of the Senshi, which cannot at this juncture be helped. Your opinion, then. Will it be sufficient to avoid this miko, or will it be necessary to eliminate her? Normally it would not even be a question, but if they're aware of her enough to guard her shrine, removing the girl may require a significant investment of energy."
Jadeite inclines his head a little bit, tipping it briefly away from Kunzite. He seems to be considering the questions, giving them due consideration. This isn't something he'd have done when he was younger, more inclined to be more impulsive, but having Kunzite be his closest contact amongst his brothers for some time has left its mark on him. "I think if we attempted to eliminate her, we would draw the attention of the Senshi. On top of that, her exorcisms seemed to have enough power in their own right to be troublesome. I would avoid her, for now, if we could manage it. I think if we don't get very close, we can probably manage it."
"And from what you say, she didn't identify the youma as such immediately. If we need to operate in her vicinity, we may be able to be subtle enough not to draw too much of her attention." Kunzite gives a brief, sharp nod of his own. "Very well. We'll save her for when we want the Senshi's attention, then."
"Yes, she only seemed to understand it made her feel unsettled, and only when someone else directed her to it, and she got close to it." Jadeite agrees. He doesn't seem to know exactly what he wants to do with his hands, so he clasps them behind his back, pulling himself to stand taller even though he was already standing straight. He doesn't really get anywhere near Kunzite's height, but he's come to accept he will never be that tall. "That was really all I had to report. I thought you would want to know the results."
Along with the majority of the human race. Not that humans actually count for anything. "Yes." Kunzite's attention diverts from Jadeite for a moment, studying the frost patterns on the wall. Lines and whorls, always characteristic, never repeating. "News for you in turn, then. We've lost Apatite. Not a surprise; the signs were there already. I suspect dealing with that will be a low priority; we're too close to some of our Queen's goals to permit that much distraction now."
There was a time that neither of them can really remember where Kunzite's attention on the frostwhorls may have resulted in Jadeite making more, trying to *keep* Kunzite's hard-to-earn attention and seeming approval. He doesn't do that now. Instead, his eyebrows furrow, and he glances back to Kunzite himself, gaze intent. "Too willful? What has happened to her?"
Kunzite's mouth pulls to one side, with a momentary flash of teeth. "Chiba happened," he says in that tone that's both perfectly conversational ... and suggestive that the reason he's looking at the wall is that, if he were looking at any living being, he might have killed in sheer reflex. "Reverted her to the girl that Beryl forged her out of, as if she were no more than one of my youma. /She/ won't be pleased." Their Queen. That emphasis is always their Queen.
Jadeite knows all too well how much Kunzite is giving away with that flash of teeth, as subtle as it might have seemed to anyone else. Something clutches inside of his chest, and Jadeite lets his frown sharpen in response. "Of course he did. That is two, now, that he's ruined." Maybe two and a half, Jadeite doesn't say. "He is a /problem/." Or at least, the fact that he's on the wrong *side*.
"And the Queen has taken the field in person, now. She's growing impatient." The sort of thing that Beryl does when sufficiently impatient - Kunzite doesn't mention. He turns back to Jadeite, instead. "There's one more thing we need before we can deal with Chiba. A particular youma. Crafting it will have to be your task; I can only supply you with the materials - and of the three particular materials you'll need, I can only give you two now. One you'll need to add just before we release it."
This news isn't particularly strange. Jadeite has always been the one with the best skill at forming youma out of nothing at all, rather than distorting the world around him. It has its limitations, but moreso, it has its strengths, as Kunzite is clearly alluding to. "Tell me what you need and I will make it." He doesn't need to point out that's a promise, because this is how they work. Kunzite already knows that Jadeite will make his absolute best effort to do his duty.
"Make it in Chiba's image. And add these to the clay, but be careful. Don't permit yourself to breathe the scent." Kunzite puts out his hand to Jadeite. It's empty when he begins the gesture; shadow and lightning scatter through it; and it ends with two glass-stoppered vials. The larger is filled with blood, arterial-bright. Like the two of them, it rejects the shifting, tainted colors of the cavern, asserts its own reality as stronger than the faded purples and crimsons. The smaller is a crystal barely the size of a teardrop, and might have been formed of one. It holds one drop of liquid, at most, the pale gold of sunrise clouds.
With diligent care, Jadeite reaches out to take the vials. He doesn't unstopper them, although there is that atrophied part of him that immediately *wants* to smell them the moment he's told not to. He's almost killed that aprt of him. Almost, but not quite. "It will take time. More than usual. Making a youma is one thing. Making one that could be mistaken for an existing human, that is quite another." He lifts the vials between his fingers to consider their contents, eyes critical. The blood, he can assume the source of, although he can't figure out how Kunzite might have gotten it. "What *is* this?" His curiosity demands he ask, at least of the second item.
"Yes. We'll add some of Chiba's blood when we have it, but that will be at the end of the process - it will help, but most of the deception will depend on your work." That Kunzite takes for granted that Jadeite has the skill required is, after a fashion, another kind of approval. Kunzite himself has to start with the existing human in question to pull it off, and in this case, Beryl has made sure that won't be an option.
There's another kind of confidence in Jadeite made plain in his answering the question about the vials. "The blood is mine." And the stars, quite literally, only know what Nephrite could do with it if he got hold of that. "The other is attar of very specific roses. Chiba doesn't seem to have considered that some of his power is locked up in them. We'll take advantage of his mistake."
Suddenly, irrationally, the desire to smell the attar grows stronger. It grows almost impossibly strong, *almost* strong enough that it shows on his face. Almost, almost, almost.
Not quite.
Jadeite closes his fingers around the vials and then they are somewhere else, in the way things held by those of the Dark Kingdom tend to be. His voice is colder around the edges than it usually is, when he asks, "How much time do I have?"
"Queen Beryl's already taken the field." It's rare that Kunzite says things twice. Rarer still that he says it the second time without annoyance. But this time - his voice matches Jadeite's. Only the cold the two of them share. "How much time do you think we have before she turns one of us into a cautionary tale?"
That's really all the information he needs. Jadeite's blood would run cold if it hadn't already started. He places one hand over his heart, bows over it and murmurs, "I'll get started now."
Then he's gone. Poof!