The roof of Homura's building. Endymion's disappeared most of the beers and cakes in his subspace pocket for ease of carrying his stash back to hell, and now he's sitting atop an HVAC unit, swinging his legs and juuuust failing to actually clang his heels against it. He's back out of henshin, most likely because eating cakes with one's fingers whilst wearing gloves is uncouth. Unfortunately that means he's in his Infinity uniform and wearing the glasses that Mercury almost stole from him.
When Kunzite appears on the roof, he salutes the leader of his Shitennou with his beer. "Sorry I bailed on you. I checked on you like a minute ago, though. I didn't want to start the fight all over again by coming back in."
"No reason to apologize. It kept the peace - what was left of it." Kunzite already oriented on Endymion while the apparent-schoolboy was talking; he takes up a position that lets him scan neighboring vantages that the Dark Prince can't himself see. "Interesting evening. That wasn't the one I expected to break first."
To the roof!
Sailor Moon still has the punch bowl she stole from Homura. Apparently with 100% more spike!
Good. After that, she needs it!
She pauses, though, and sways a bit as she tries to focus. For one, beautiful moment, her drunken mind sees Mamo-chan. And then, of course, her heart goes and shatters and breaks all over again.
She makes a noise that probably sounds like a strangled cat, but walks forward, like she's supposed to be here.
She clears her throat as she stops to stand by them, setting her punch bowl on the ground.
"I figured, since the commotion has died down, I should apologize and TAKE IT OFF!" She turns to Endymion, crying again. "YOU'RE NOT HIM! WHY CAN'T YOU JUST BE HIM AGAIN! I--"
And of course, she's still drunk, and she does what she's wanted to for too long.
His lapels are grabbed, and in moments he has a Magical Girl crying, and kissing him as though he were breath and she's been underwater for far too long.
"Oh?" asks Endymion, blinking at Kunzite. "Who did you--"
But then there's a strangled cat sound, and Endymion looks behind Kunzite and freezes like a deer in headlights.
Sailor Moon. Is she going to throw the punchbowl at-- no, she's setting it down. Wait she seriously still has the whole punchbowl? Is she actually really going to drink all of-- she's still coming over.
The boy just stares at her, motionless, cake in one hand and beer in the other, as she finishes her approach and stops.
Endymion actually flinches when Moon switches to yelling in midsentence, and he looks dazzlingly bewildered. It's obvious he's waiting until she stops yelling to ask 'take what off', and his mouth is open to get the words in edgewise as soon as he has the opportunity, and he's set his beer and cake down next to him on the HVAC, and--
--abruptly he's being kissed, and
he feels like he's done this so many times before
for a half second, he's too startled to do anything
her brightness is overwhelming, and her tears are silver
and then he's kissing back, fierce and demanding and real, and the moonlight glitters on his own face as he leans down and reaches to cup her face in his hands. And oh, oh. His hands are so warm.
For a second. Two seconds. Into the third and she can feel that everpresent ache in her chest with the blank blackness behind it-- she can feel the pain lessen, she can feel that warmth begin to envelop her, she can see with senses that aren't sight that there's a patiently burning gold light in all the darkness, waiting and believing.
Kunzite can see it happen at the selfsame moment as Usagi can see/feel that patient and faithful light cut off suddenly, right before its knowledge of her can be turned against her-- at the selfsame moment that he pushes her firmly away.
His eyes are a bright, glowing red, and there's nothing behind them but cold malice. "Good. You're right here," he says, sliding off the HVAC and henshining at once, between breaths, into the armored navy blue uniform she met in the rain. "Where is the Silver Crystal?"
Too fast. Kunzite was watching for Venus, not for Moon. And the shouting made him think he had a moment. He didn't; and the moment she made contact, it was already too late.
He hesitates, holds his breath, waiting. Praying.
And then Endymion pushes Moon away --
All Serenity will see, out of the corner of her eye, is that the figure that was standing with casual near-unconcern has straightened. Iced over. Winter-cold, an unspoken threat, potentially lethal ... and nearly insignificant, in contrast to what's looking at her out of what ought to be Endymion's eyes.
It's him. For a moment, it's him, she can feel it, no matter how small. And the warmth, and that throbbing ache recedes just a little.
She pulls on the warmth, returning it with her own. She pulls that pain in her chest tightly to her, wrapping as much warmth around it as she possibly can, and this time the pain is a welcome one because for the first time she knows it's not broken, not completely.
And she's just as fierce, just as demanding, and she's reaching for that gold light.
She blinks, suddenly, when she's pushed away. What--?
Oh. Oh dear. This again.
She takes a few more steps backward, spine straight as she folds her arms across her chest.
His eyes are terrifying, yes. She's afraid, yes.
But she's also drunk and now has about fifty years worth of hope now fluttering in her chest.
"If we had it, don't you think you would know by now?"
Another step, and she uses retrieving the punchbowl as an excuse to get away, just a little. She picks it up, and takes an indelicate chug.
"And aren't there more pressing concerns at the moment? Like...Warpspeednot...thingy?" Ug. German.
She's trying to look casual, but her eyes are darting between the two minions of the Dark Kingdom.
"This Walpurgisnacht," the monster wearing Mamoru's beautiful face says, taking another deliberate step toward Sailor Moon, and smiling, and the smile is awful, and even Sailor Moon chugging straight from the punchbowl in front of him gets no reaction, "is a temporary problem. The only reason we will spend the energy to keep Tokyo standing is that it is more convenient than sifting through the rubble afterwards."
Then the red-eyed thing stops and looks thoughtful. "Ah. But you only want one thing as well, do you not? I propose a trade, if you should happen to find the Silver Crystal, Sailor Moon. Give it to us and you shall have him back."
Kunzite's eyes, his posture, betray nothing at all. Hands slightly lifted, not yet attacking but at the ready. Face as expressionless as when he first appeared in the orphanage - though this time his eyes are open, watching Sailor Moon, watching the monster's back. There is not something else looking through him. There's simply nothing visible to begin with. As much personality as a sword blade, and perhaps just as much a tool in someone else's hands.
Wallpurgysnack. Right!
She watches him come closer, and of course it hurts. It hurts more because he's not there, and he's being used. Her eyes glitter fiercely at the glowing red.
They widen, though, startled at the offer of a trade.
Is it tempting?
So very much.
And her eyes are bright, and she laughs, and for a moment it looks like she'd accept.
Instead, she just shakes her head. "No. My Mamo-chan wouldn't want that. And besides." She shrugs, and takes another gulp of the punch so she doesn't finish. Besides, I'm after the whole set, not just my prince.
Another gulp, and she looks at the punch bowl, and she gives a long, sad sigh.
"Such a waste..."
And she hurls the punchbowl at him, hopping to the HVAC, grabbing a cake, and bouncing out of sight. Because she just did a Very Bad Thing, she's sure.
And it smashes against him, his arm up and cape raised to shield him, and he doesn't get -hurt- by the breaking glass-- but it also splashes red spiked punch absolutely everywhere, and Dark Endymion is drenched and smells like a fruity distillery.
He stays like that for a second, and his arm lowers, and he's dripping and the punch pools at his feet are getting bigger, and he looks exhausted.
Wordlessly, he takes the cakes, still dry, from his subspace pocket. And he leaves them on the HVAC unit, and picks up his abandoned beer, and he looks at it for a moment.
Then he hurls it with explosive force at the next building over, and it flattens like it's been stomped on, beer splattering all over there.
After another long couple of seconds, he looks down, sees what he's wearing, henshins back to the school uniform in a fit of pique-- now the only damp on him anywhere is the tear tracks being silently renewed and ignored on his face. "I was going to ask her what she wanted me to take off. I guess she left. Let's go."
Gray eyes don't follow Moon's exit. Don't look to see where she's gone. Darkness does not solidify to bar her way, to cage her in. Kunzite doesn't move. Doesn't interfere.
Not till Endymion looks down at himself, banishes the cape, regains the glasses. That's when the ice is allowed to crack; Kunzite steps closer, comes to Endymion's side, bends his head a trifle and lets one gloved hand fall on the boy's arm. "Before her friends come looking. Yes."
Sailor Moon isn't gone. She's a bit too tipsy for that. However, she is shaking in her boots behind the HVAC, trying to get her pounding heart to not sound so loud.
She'd bungled things so bad, didn't she? She'd wanted to apologize for in there, sort of welcome them. Not in a 'yay new bestie' way, but to hopefully show she wouldn't attack them during the Walpurgisnacht thing. (Well, unless they attack first, outside of it, which they're usually t he aggressors anyway.)
Still, even though a part of her is upset this hadn't gone as planned, the biggest part of her is so happy it hadn't.
Foolhardy, yes, but the person kissing her hadn't been Endymion, it hadn't been...whoever that red eyed creepy Not!Endymion had been. It had been Mamo-chan.
Buried, he's still there, and she's determined more than ever to get him back!
She pokes at the bond, the thing she hadn't dared touch in weeks, and her hand clasps over her mouth. It hurts to do, but she can feel him, even only faintly.
She has to bite her glove not to make that happy sound bubbling in her throat.
He can't even let himself wonder why he's crying. Everything is broken glass and shifting darkness, and nothing is safe, and he has a job to do, and he has to-- Endymion has to get himself back to where he can do that job without...
He can't let himself think about that either.
Instead, there's a hand on his arm, and the boy takes a half-step closer and leans lightly against Kunzite for a second, closing his eyes, face crumpled.
He reaches up to take his glasses off and scrub at his face, and sniffs as he straightens again. "Yeah," he mumbles. "I need to-- I'll meet you in like an hour, okay? I just need to be in the sun for a little while."
He can't look at Kunzite, ashamed and apologetic, and he steps away and vanishes.
That second has one hand on the boy's arm, still, and one on his shoulder. Only that second; when he straightens, the second falls away, and the second is easily escaped with that step. "An hour or two," Kunzite agrees. "Take what you need." And a few moments later, the boy's gone. By whichever name.
The Dark General stands silently for several seconds longer, waiting. Keeping a silent count. And when it's expired, he asks aloud to the darkness and the (ahem) apparently empty roof, resigned and faintly amused, "Just how drunk are you?"
He sounds so...sad! She wants to hug him, but she doesn't know if those red eyes return!
And then, Sailor Moon 'Erks!' because apparently she's been found out!
"Very drunk..."
She clears her throat and stands, looking like a child about to be scolded. "I made a mess of things, didn't I. Is...will he be okay?"
"Define your terms." -- which is entirely too confusing a sentence to use with a drunken Sailor Moon. Kunzite adds, "What do you mean by okay," and it's a little too flat to be a question. But not precisely a scolding, either. He turns toward the HVAC and the Senshi behind it. Studies one or the other. "Speaking of your friends. Where are they, I wonder? Venus came with you; but she's been gone a while, and you haven't checked in. They ought to be getting worried. Unless you have someone else monitoring. Mercury?" There's the faintest of stresses laid on that last name. ... but Moon is very drunk. It may well be missed.
She shrugs, and straightens out a little. "He sounded sad. I just want to know he'll be okay. Not, you know, okay okay, but okay for how he is now."
And then she straightens her spine even more, and succeeds in swaying only a little as she tries to focus on the two Kunzites. "Of course. And we are on Homura-chan's roof."
Then her eyes narrow a little. "Speaking of monitoring, Creepy Old Dude Watching Girls Sleep. Message received."
"On her roof. Yes. And the meeting may, for all we know, still be continuing in some form. Therefore the truce we agreed to still applies." Kunzite turns a gloved hand over, palm-up, spreading his fingers. "Which is fortunate for you, because if I were to encounter you this hampered in another setting - say, sleeping, for instance - my Queen's orders to kill you and your friends would take precedence. So. You might consider it wise to make certain that you are not the only one here, lest someone grow tempted."
Sailor Moon's shoulders slump. And then she pulls out her phone and texts Homura and Ami.
She probably makes no sense.
TXT Ami: I'm drunk because Endymion was here. On roof with Kunzite. DRUNK! Can you come? Oh I kissed him! Bad me...
See?
She looks up at Kunzite. "Thank you for adhering to the truce, then." Her eyes flicker back at her screen. "I'm sure it's in your best interest to do so at the moment. But...yeah. Friends. Yay."
Ami took the night off. She should have been to the meeting, but she was promised she could get the notes later. She's been busy. Overworking, overthinking, overdoing. She was supposed to be able to sleep.
Which is why when her phone goes off, she isn't fully awake. She grabs it from the night stand, glances at th e text, then sits up very suddenly.
"What."
Furious fingers immediately text back.
TXT Usagi: ... you kissed Kunzite!?
Given her friend has already admitted to being drunk, she pinches the bridge of her nose, turns her bedside lamp on, and sends out another swift text.
TXT Homura: I know you're probably busy, but I'm receiving some really strange texts from Usagi. She wants me to come pick her up because she's drunk, but she's talking about being with Endymion and kissing Kunzite!? Do you know what's going on?
TXT Homura to Ami: She's on the rooftop of my apartment. I'm pretty sure she just kissed Endymion, not Kunzite. She wanted me to get you for some reason. All I know is that I was trying to have a meeting about city-wide threats and there was a fight and a bunch of people left.
Ami stares at the response from Homura, then sighs. "That makes so much more sense," she mumbles.
TXT Homura: Oh. That is much less weird. She's on the roof of the apartment? I guess I'll be there in a few minutes. Can you check on her, please?
Kunzite shrugs, though with Moon's eyes on the screen, it's a wasted gesture. "Whether I think it's best or not, our prince agreed to it. Second-guessing his decisions is usually a waste of time. Besides. We will be there against Walpurgisnacht. Clearly it's to our advantage to take as few losses as possible, when that thing comes."
"Don't worry, Sir Kunzite. I'll make sure you don't lose people, too." It's a slip, of course. She doesn't even remember having called him that in her dream.
Her eyes widen at Ami's text, maybe even making a face of 'what ew no gross.'
TXT Ami: WHAT EW NO GROSS!!!
She looks up at him. "Just giving you a warning. Don't be around when I dehenshin. Your boots look nice."
Homura Akemi is suddenly here, standing next to drunk Sailor Moon, and... looking at the remains of her punch bowl.
Well that's hardly the most important thing she can focus on right now.
She looks between Kunzite and Moon, saying, "So... this hardly seems hostile. Is everything going alright? I mean... I plan on staying here until Mercury arrives, but still..."
Her expression is back to being stone cold. She's got a million things on her back right now.
"I'm certain your friends would be perfectly fine with my seeing what you look like out of uniform anyhow, and not at all be trying to stab me again or put out my eyes." Maybe if he never acknowledges she called him that, she'll go back to having forgotten it and never do it again. ... he's never that luck --
Both his hands are abruptly lifted, because what the fuck, Homura, ahem. Her and Endymion and those damned signatureless teleports. Obviously it was a teleport. Clearly. Kunzite exhales and lowers his hands again, slowly, carefully, and without anything untoward following the gesture. "Your presence is unexpected, but appreciated," he says to Homura. "And yes. We managed to avoid overt hostilities, for the most part." Except for the poor punch bowl. "In the spirit of cooperation, though - you might find it interesting to stay a few moments after. If you have nothing pressing." Like the million things on her back.
Sailor Moon tilts her head to the side. "I think they won't be fine with it. What are you---Ohhhhh, I see what you did there! Very clever, Sir Kunzite, very clever!"
"Homura-chan!" An excited hug, as though she hadn't just been texting her. (Or, you know, that a guy who is technically her enemy is up there with them.)
Then she's sad. "I'm sorry about your punch bowl...he got those scary red eyes again. So I...punched him." Snort. Snort. Giggle. YES SHE DID.
"I took good notes on the Walter Splurge on Slacks! And I promise I'm going to try my best!"
"There's always something pressing," says Homura to Kunzite. "For the moment I feel I'm most needed here. Especially since my presence is... appreciated."
Moon gives Homura another hug, and Homura accepts and returns it. The more that happens the more Homura seems open to it. "Hey, Moon-chan. Don't worry about the punch bo--- did you really?"
Homura snorts, laughing. "Oh wow, I shouldn't be laughing at Mamo-kun like that but oh wow."
Homura nods repeatedly saying, "Yes, I know you will. You always do. Thanks for helping, Moon-chan."
Sailor Mercury arrives not with a bang or a sudden transfer of light. No, she bounds from the nearest rooftop nearby to this one, and lands lightly on her feet.
The blue-haired senshi narrows her eyes just faintly at Kunzite, then slowly approaches Sailor Moon and Homura with uncertainty.
"Thank you," she says to Homura, frowning at Kunzite just faintly. She knows the terms of this meeting, and although she didn't choose to attend she will still abide by them. For now.
"Mercury." Kunzite doesn't turn toward her approach, but he glances her way. "Your friend here has certain questions best answered in the presence of someone sober enough to remember the conversation in the morning. And in getting that, we're collecting enough people to attract attention. Would you be willing to address the problem?"
Yay! Homura knows she will! Happy hum. "And yes I justed. And that's okay, I punned about him, so."
Oh huzzah! "Mercury!" Cuddle snug on her pretty friend! "You're so pretty!"
And then she's whispering in Mercury's ear. She thinks it's quiet. Odds are everyone can hear her. "And the kiss. Have him tell you about it so I can remember that, too."
Homura flips her hair as Mercury arrives. "Of course. It's no trouble at all."
She fingers, for a moment, the black rose in her hair, pinching one of the petals between her thumb and forefinger before letting her arm drop.
Kunzite speaks, and Homura says, "Oh, if you just wanted some privacy, then I'll just take a moment..." She reaches up for her shield, grabbing onto the edge. Then she stops. Mercury apparenlty has a solution for this? Well, since Mercury isn't a Puella, her method is probably safer, and less expensive.
"...ooor we can do whatever Mercury is planning. That's fine. However you want to do this is okay."
Mercury catches Sailor Moon's hug with a faint sigh, and gently pets the back of her friend's hair. "Thank you," she says quietly to the compliment, then nods to Kunzite.
The senshi reaches up to gently touch Homura on the shoulder. "Save it," she suggests to the Puella. She knows the cost of Homura's powers. "I'll take care of it," she promises, then reaches out her hand towards Kunzite, and for a moment it looks like she might be about to shoot him with a laser from her palm, given the glowing green ball of energy that suddenly forms there.
"Hyperspatial Sphere: Generate."
That ball of energy expands outward, suddenly and swiftly. Gone is the rooftop and the skyline, gone the weather and environment. There is only the empty nothingess of a sphere large enough to hold them all.
"You have my attention, Kunzite," Mercury says, as she reaches up to activate her visor.
Just take a moment? Kunzite glances sharply toward Homura, with interest rather than any sort of reproof. Someone he actually has an ability to contact himself can do something like this? Interesting --
And then there's Mercury, looking like she might be about to shoot him, and he still doesn't raise any kind of defense. Only waits to find out whether 'might be' becomes an 'is' or not. And then, when it doesn't, closing his eyes for the space of two breaths.
Then he turns to the Drunken Sailor, though it's Mercury who addressed him. "You asked whether Endymion would be all right," he says. "I can't give you a certain yes, for that. When that thing manifests in him, he loses time - loses the memories. He reacts badly to that; his condition degrades. I'm not sure whether that's a consequence of his previous amnesia, whether it's because he tries to understand the problem and comes too close to invoking it again, whether it's because it's antithetical --" he's talking to a drunk teenager -- "opposed to his nature, or something else. This ... it was particularly strong, this time. But it's taken him over before, and that hasn't stopped him from starting to heal over time. So there's a good chance he'll be all right, as far as all right goes for him, for now."
He glances toward Homura, after. "I can speak freely for now, at least unless our Queen breaches the boundaries of this space. In which case, Mercury should be able to perceive it. You're his friend. If you have questions, ask; I'll answer what I can. I ask that you be careful with the information, and not spread it to people likely to be careless. But it's only a matter of time now before I'm found out anyhow, so I'm - perhaps less concerned."
Sailor Moon's shoulders slump a little. "He's done it twice that I know of. To...Usagi, once. And now." She looks up at Kunzite. "Who made that offer? Did you hear it?" She bites her lip. "So I just made things worse for him, then? Even if it's temporary?" She does Not Like the sound of that.
And then, she's clinging to Mercury's arm. Voice soft for realsies this time. "I was going to stop. When I realized it was spiked. But they were there, and then Kyouko. And Venus was beaming. And then she..." Her face crumples! She hides it against Mercury's neck. "She just left and I was with other girls but none of mine and she just left me."
Homura nods at Mercury, "Yeah... by all means."
Then she's in a hyperspatial sphere with two senshi and one dark general. Well, at least the senshi are on her side, right?
She gets the feeling that she doesn't know what she's just walked into, or been called into. The enemy wants a private conversation? This... doesn't really feel like enemy activity, regardless of what they were doing before. No, this feels more like... the kind of tension she gets when speaking to Kyouko.
And then Kunzite starts laying out the facts. Well, that answers more than Homura ever thought to ask.
As Homura listens to the rest of what Kunzite has to say, she frowns. "It's funny... that never seems to happen around me. The scary thing, I mean. Even when I grabbed him by the collar the other day he didn't seem all that aggressive. Frost Knight and Moon-chan on the other hand..."
Homura shakes her head, "I can promise to keep a secret, but I'm not sure what to ask about. What I really want to know is... how do we get him back? ... but I get the feeling it's not that simple, or you guys would've arranged that already."
Homura turns to Usagi, frowning. She feels sorry for the girl, but Moon said it herself, Homura's not one of 'her girls'. She still feels like she should say something, "It's okay, Moon-chan. Things just get rough sometimes. You'll get used to it."
Sailor Mercury continues to gently pet Sailor Moon's hair, allowing the clinging affection without even a hint of discomfort. "Last time Kunzite was in my Hyperspatial Sphere, he revealed that the Dark Kingdom is not nearly so unified as they would like us to think," she explains for Homura's benefit.
"He also revealed a few more things," Ami notes thoughtfully, "and I believe for the moment his word can be trusted. Your brother," she notes to Kunzite, "has been purified successfully. I am still researching how to handle your ... particularities." She wrinkles her nose a little. "But rest assured, regardless of whether Beryl reclaims your mind, she cannot have your soul. Unless you are utterly destroyed, we will find a way to get you free, as well, Kunzite," she promises. That's a bold promise, all things considered. But then, Venus isn't here to argue with it, this time.
"Which does bring up a few questions," Mercury says after a moment's thought. "Why did you leave your cloak at Mamoru's apartment? Were you simply reminding us that the location is unsafe?"
There's another question she wants to ask. A question regarding plane tickets that she and the other girls are scheduled to use the very next day. But she's not sure whether to tip Beryl's hand like that. No, best not. Hunches will have to be played out carefully.
"Not only to you," Kunzite says to Sailor Moon. "Zoisite triggered it waking, somehow. It was bad enough that he won't discuss the details." ... the laughing, mocking figure that took over the minds of a significant percentage of the city won't discuss the details. He gives Homura a brief nod, as well. "This is the first time I've seen it in person. It's not aggression that triggers the thing. It's certain questions, certain topics, certain thoughts. I suspect it's a failsafe mechanism; if he starts to come close to pushing the hold on his mind away, that thing steps in to resolve the problem. As for what it is --"
He shakes his head. "There are two possibilities. And Beryl wouldn't have offered to give him up for the Crystal; she set taking him as a higher priority in the first place. No. Metallia." His eyes flicker toward Mercury as he's talking, after that name's spoken, but he doesn't stop. "An aspect of her, or something she created. That's not good. I didn't think we had more than six months or so till Beryl finished waking her in the first place; if she's creating things with that much independent thought, we might have less time."
... how do they get him back. That's the question, isn't it. "I don't know," he says to Homura, straightforward. "He's damaged; he's recovering, or beginning to, but he has -- consider it the equivalent of having third-degree burns on part of his mind. I know that being on Earth helps. I suspect that being in Moon's vicinity helps, when she's not pushing too hard. I know that he's trying -- when he's not being ordered directly, and when he's not directly controlled, he's becoming more and more like himself over time. That's not entirely good. The less easy it is to control him, the more likely it is that Beryl will take further steps. She didn't take many precautions with Apatite. The more powerful one of us is, the more precautions she takes. Endymion is significantly more powerful than any of the rest of us. I don't know what she'd come up with to do to him. I have faith that you'll collectively figure out a way to solve the problem first."
That he has faith on the subject specifically because he was ordered to, he doesn't mention.
The news about Jadeite makes him close his eyes again for a moment. "Good. I hope that's enough." Particularities aren't specified. "I left the cloak for several reasons. Partly because it was faster than leaving a note, and there was someone else there; if it was Venus or Mars, I didn't particularly want to find out the hard way. Partly because I've left warnings about using that place before, and they've failed, one way or another. It needed to be something that would make her leave. I know you've been using the place; Kyouko stayed there after you freed her, for instance. When Beryl takes me back, I'll look, and if someone's asleep there then, they'll wake up dead."
Sailor Moon just...sort of curls in on herself.
She doesn't want to think any more, but she has to. This conversation is important. Her tummy hurts. Her mind is doing things.
So, of course, someone is more than happy to take over.
And this someone feels safe enough to do so, with her Mercury there. And a girl she feels is good. Even Kunzite, in this moment, gives her just an inkling of 'it's okay to come out.'
There's ribbons when she looks up, but instead of winter clothes on a young school girl, it's a dress far too thin for this weather and silver hair.
And it's not like Usagi isn't there. She is. In fact, Serenity herself is still mostly asleep, but there's still that nice film of detachment.
And, too, her head is clear. She's able to hear and process what Kunzite is saying. Her heart aches, even as it soars.
"We'll find a way." She looks up at him. "If it gets that far, would you be able to give us warning?"
She chews her lip a little and she looks down. How much to say in front of him?
No, some things are best kept locked, hidden away, just as that small, golden glow. At least until she can get Mercury alone.
"If what you say happens, and that...thing..." She studies Homura's shoes. "He won't want to live like that."
And she knows, even if it will shatter everything left in her, she'd kill him to save him.
That is plan she never speaks of. Because to give it words, spoken sounds and syllables, would mean it's more than just a worst case scenario. It would make it a possibility.
She shakes her head, trying to get away from those thoughts.
"I'm a nightlight again, aren't I."
Homura frowns, furrowing her brow thoughtfully. "Oh... The moment he insisted that he wasn't Mamo-kun, I guess I just dropped it. It wasn't worth arguing about at the time. I remember Apatite had similar memory loss so I didn't see the point in arguing. I guess that's why it didn't trigger."
Homura wonders... if he recovers on his own... that's actually a bad thing?
But then Homura hears something that really ticks her off. "Wait, so Mamoru's apartment isn't safe? What the--? Everything he owns just-- I can't accept that. I don't have to. I wont."
Homura reaches behind her head and flips her hair out. "Don't be shocked if his stuff suddenly vanishes one day. You wont see it happen. It'll just be gone. As for where it goes, well, I wont be telling the dark kingdom. His purified brother, maybe. His girlfriend, maybe."
Homura watches Usagi become Serenity. Seeing that brings back a bit of pain, remembering the last night she saw that, but her stony face doesn't betray it. When asked if she's a nightlight again, Homura says, "You always did know how to brighten up a room, Princess."
Ami senses, more than spots, the girl beside her begin to glow. The weight of the princess on her arm grows lighter, and inwardly she grimaces. But she doesn't show it outwardly. Instead, she merely shifts her arm to put it gently around Serenity's waist, drawing her closer, protectively.
"You are," Mercury answers Serenity gently of her glow. Then she looks back to Kunzite and sighs, faintly. "Where are Nephrite and ... the other one. Zoicite you named him? It was he who was responsible for the Silver Crystal discussion on television, wasn't it. Where are they? We would like to save all of them, but I can't work on a problem I can't see."
Then she turns to Homura and nods her head. "Actually, that's a good idea. I'm given to understand you have a lot of leeway with Mamoru's things. Much as it pains me to suggest this, and I'm certain Mamoru would not like it ... Homura, please do that. Please take his things from there. And then ... maybe we should ... sell it? Does he own it? Move his things to another place; one that the Dark Kingdom won't know of. We can ensure it is paid for, the same as the current is. But we need to stop treating that place as though it were a safe haven."
Logically, selling the place would be a good idea. It's a liability at the moment.
But...
Her voice is soft. "We can't sell his place, Mercury. It's his. It's his first own place. It's a strong memory. You saw it." She sighs. "Moving everything is a good idea. A brilliant one. But we can't sell the apartment. It needs to be there for him when he gets back, even if it stays empty."
It may not help Mercury's inward grimace that Kunzite is not at all surprised to see Serenity's change. He bows to her instead, quiet and calm. "I can't guarantee that I'll be able to give warning for anything," he says. "For a few moments earlier I didn't expect to still have my own thoughts by midnight. I'll do what I can, while I can. I can't promise more than that."
-- and then Serenity says what she says about Mamoru's not wanting to live like that, and Kunzite's expression actually changes outright. Open anger, just for an instant --
-- and it clears.
"He told me, while he was still himself, that it didn't matter if Beryl killed him this time. That you'd still come for him." Kunzite shakes his head. "I didn't believe him, then."
Homura gets a nod, thoughtful, to her explanation about not-arguing. "That might explain it. I've been trying to teach him some of the ways we worked around having topics we couldn't think about. Similar lack of stress."
To Mercury: "Zoisite wanders; it's not his nature to stay too long in one place. I'll try to have him at Walpurgisnacht's arrival, if he's calmed down enough to risk it. That might help Endymion, too, to have as many of us as we can in one place. Putting the pieces back together. Nephrite - we don't know where Nephrite is, or what happened to him. The last thing we know he did was talk with Mamoru, months ago. Beryl claims she can't find him. Endymion's certain he's still alive. We're looking. But we don't know."
And then there's the argument about the apartment. And it does bid fair to become an argument. He lifts a hand, after Serenity's had her say. Mercury's visor will tell her that it's not charged with any more energy than it can help; will tell her sooner than vision would that it's not an attack. "She's right," he says. "If Endymion's comfortable living in the place, there's a reason. I don't know if he had conscious control of his landsense or not, but if it weren't important for him to be there, he wouldn't have stayed. He's also going to need all the stability he can get. Move the things as much as you like; they can be moved back when the time comes. But he'll need to retain access to the place. At the very least for the sake of his sanity - and it may well be much more important."
There's a moment of flustering until Usagi gives a sort of...curtsey in response to the bow. That's what she's supposed to do, right?
His look of anger is met with a sad one. And then her expression softens. "I'd always come for him." She doesn't ask if he believes Mamoru now. Her hand also clutches over her heart, because he'd been himself and she wasn't there and--
Fret later, Usagi!
And then she's looking at him, grateful, when he agrees about the apartment. It's nice to have someone else validate what she may wonder is silly, and childish. But more than that, this person knows him, even if only for the moment.
"Selling it is completely unnecessary," says Homura, nodding to Serenity, and then to Kunzite. "... and yeah, if it means that much to him, then there's no way we should ever sell it. We might not get it back if we do, and we don't need the money. We'll just have to... deal with..." Her eyes narrow, and there is a threatening sharpness behind them, "... a couple of problems before it can be used again."
Crazy timestop girl.
"... but we'll still need a place to put all that stuff. Another apartment will do. We can afford it, with our shared account, and the kind of money we have available to us." And if Homura can come up with more money if she needs it. She doesn't mention where that money is likely to come from. "My magic will make it easy, too. It's not something I want to do too often, but this is something of an emergency."
Homura shrugs, saying, "If we get him back while that apartment is still unsafe, we can just move him to the new place temporarily. It might not make him happy, but it'd keep him alive."
Sailor Mercury grits her teeth against a million arguments that come to mind: but none of them pass her lips.
Instead, she focuses on the matters at hand. And Kunzite. "May I have your cloak?" she asks him. "The last one you left behind was destroyed before I could analyze it. But I would dearly love to analyze one." Because this is a problem she can work on.
"Homura-chan," Ami says, turning to her, "I'll help you pick out a new place. We should find somewhere that Virtue can use as a safe-house, and you and your allies as well. And ... with Mamoru gone, for the moment, I would appreciate getting the chance to get to know you better. I feel like he was a lynch pin of communication between numerous groups. I would like to fill that role, until he can resume to reclaim it, if I am able." Yep, that's more work she's pulling onto her own shoulders.
Not a word from Kunzite. Most of the conversation is theirs, not his; what isn't -- he doesn't respond to Serenity. And Mercury just gave him an excuse to look elsewhere. A few moments later, and the cape in question is swept from his shoulders, offered to Mercury without a word. It looks and behaves like fabric in his hands, with no hint of the armor it acts like on occasion, or the crawling horror Usagi found it to be on contact once it was separated from him before.
Well. Once another one was.
If they're actually different.
Serenity takes a step that way away from the cape. She still has the heebies from the last time she's touched one of those.
Shudder, shudder!
She scrubs at her shoulders, because ew. Dark Kingdom Cooties.
"Oh." She perks up, but not with happy, but with something she's been wondering. She blinks and looks up at Kunzite. "I keep forgetting to ask. How are you?"
Homura turns to Mercury, and nods, "Yeah... well I think it's important that Virtue, or at least the Senshi, can access it. I don't know how many people should know about it until the right time. I... probably wont mention it to anyone who can't keep their mouth shut. I think Kyouko-san might flip her... lid... if she found out we were keeping something like that from her, but at the same time I don't really trust her to be rational about it."
Homura shakes her head, "I wouldn't hide things from her if she was just a bit more calm."
Looking back up to Mercury, she says, "... but we can get to know each other better, sure. Moon-chan already knows my address and phone number if you want to know how to contact me. I do want to ask you some things, but now really isn't the time for that conversation."
Sailor Mercury reaches out for the cloak, and then grimaces when it draws near enough to sense the energy. She takes it nonetheless, and it vanishes somewhere. Likely the same place she stored Endymion's cloak.
"He," Mercury says gently, "isn't. What we are speaking to is not Kunzite." She sighs and reaches up to rub at her nose. "It is a construct, created by dark energy. Which is part of why I wanted the cloak."
Then she takes a deep breath, and inclines her head to Kunzite's spectre. "Thank you for taking this time. We will find you," she promises. "And we will free you. But for now, please be careful. Every day that you remain free of her influence is another day you might find valuable information which can be used in our fight against that creature." And Kunzite may realise she doesn't mean Beryl.
"Princess," Mercury says softly to the girl. "Are you ready?"
The fact that Homura isn't willing to ask Mercury questions in front of Kunzite is oddly reassuring. The question that Serenity asks him is ... not. He gives her a blank look for a moment, as if that weren't something he had experience answering. Fortunately, Mercury takes care of it for him. More or less.
He exhales once more. "Precautions," he says to Mercury. "I don't think Beryl will do this to him; that's the only good thing about her irrational attachment. But I'd rather not take the chance. I don't want to think about what it would do to the rest of the planet if she tried."
Serenity blinks, and deflates a little.
Mercury's asking if she's ready, and there's a moment of floundering. "Um....uh...."
There!
She takes the cake she stole earlier, plus what Endymion had left. Because cake.
"Yup! Now I am!" Happy smiles! "Thank you for coming when I texted, Homu-chan. I'll give her the info. And can I help pick out the apartment?!" Oh please!
But her skin is crawling.
Beryl's attachment.
"She's the one who killed him in the first place." Dark, rumbly mutters.
And a small smile at Kunzite. "Thank you. For..." She'd wave her hand if she weren't so caked. So she wobbles her head. "This. And...the...cape thing. ...Creeper..."
Homura sees that Mercury and Serenity are on the way out, and she turns to Kunzite. "Before he was taken... he mentioned you. He said you were like brothers to him. I'm starting to see what he meant by that."
"Take care of him, as much as you can, until we can get him, and you, back where you all belong."
To Serenity, she adds, "Sure, why not? I bet he'd like it that way."
Mercury gives Kunzite a look. Clearly something he has just said has given her an interesting bit of insight. But she doesn't explain what. Instead, she inclines her head, then notes, "You should probably leave, and quickly." Wouldn't want Beryl looking in at the wrong moment.
And then she raises her hand again, and the green sphere shrinks rapidly back into her hand, then vanishes, leaving them once again in the cold on Homura's rooftop.
"Go," she says to Kunzite, in a cold and angry tone. "Before I teleport you to the depths and freeze you there." Yet again, providing him an out. "Next time I see you, I may not be so willing to withhold my powers." Yeah, she might be overselling it a little. But Beryl's an even bigger overacter, right? She probably won't realise it.
All of a sudden, cold!
Serenity is shivering against Mercury, afraid of transforming in case she hurls, yet knowing she probably should because she can kind of land a plane right now.
"M-m-m-oooo-oon P-prism p-p-p-p-power make-up!"
Okay, fortunately, no hurls!
"Hmmmm, Mercury, you're so pretty!"
Creeper. Kunzite's mouth tugs at the corner, just for a moment - maybe more than a moment, given the glance he gives Homura - but in the moments before Mercury banishes the space, he says quietly to Serenity: "If you want to thank me - don't be too hard on Venus. There are reasons for the way she acts. I don't know if she remembers what happened consciously or not. But I'm almost certain she knows I slowed her down too much for her to reach you. And she doesn't want to let that happen again."
And then, a few instants later, he's changed - posture, angle of his head, his arrogant smile a slash across his face that seems as if it ought to be bleeding. "You'll be welcome to try, Mercury. But I think you'll have bigger problems to deal with." He sweeps a bow to Homura, complete with flourish of his cape. (When did that happen?) "Until the end of the month, then." And shadows swarm out of the dark to swallow him; and he's gone.
Homura finds herself on her rooftop, and glancing between Kunzite and Mercury.
Oh, right. Homura should probably be putting on a front right now.
So there's an RPG over her shoulder, pointed at Kunzite. It's just suddenly there with no explaination. "Yeah, end of the month. See you then."
After he leaves, the RPG goes away, and she turns to the two senshi. "Well that happened. Are you two good to go home?"
Serenity looks up at him, blinking. "It would have happened either way. It wasn't her fault." Spine straightens, chin tilts upward. "But I'm still here this time, aren't I? I'm stronger than I was before."
And then she's shivering and drunk and Kunzite is so scary!
There is an RPG only three inches away from Mercury's face. And for a very short moment she is actually terified of H omura. But then it's gone, and she manages to unclench and hug Usagi. "You're very pretty, too," she agrees with her friend, then nods to Homura. "We'll be fine," she says, then pauses and considers the girl. "Happy birthday, Akemi-san," she says.
Mercury raises her hand and murmurs, "Hyperspatial Tunnel: Generate." A doorway opens, and beyond is a girl's bedroom. It's clearly a girl's, because there are dresses hanging in the open closet, and a stuffed dolphin on the bed.
"Come on, Moon-chan. Let's go get you warm." And do some research on that cloak before it vanishes.
Sailor Moon waves and hugs and waves again at Homura, then HUGS her again!
She follows Mercury.
The last thing that can be heard is Sailor Moon wailing.
"Oh my GOD did I REALLY ask him to talk Nerdy to me?!?!"
"You do realise that I can 'talk nerdy to you' any time you want," Ami notes to Usagi as they vanish through the doorway. "All you have to do is ask." And then the doorway vanishes, leaving Homura alone on her roof.
Homura waves at the two senshi as they leave. "Take care, Mercury-san, Moon-chan."
As an aside, she adds, "Yes, you did. And he did. It was the cutest thing."
After a moment she, too, is gone. Though it probably doesn't take much thinking to guess that she just went back to her apartment.