Sailor Moon is the property of Naoko Takeuchi, Kodansha Comics, and Toei Animation.

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Rei was, predictably enough, the first one to enter the dim and gloomy hall of the so-called "citadel." Ami had to push Usagi to make her move forward, and the blonde girl sighed as she looked around the shadowy corridor. "What’s wrong with these people? Have they never heard of a sun roof? Or even windows, for that matter…"

"Stop your whining," snapped Rei, looking around in interest. "This place is really quite neat, don’t you reckon? Sure, it could use a little light, but…"

Ami put her hand to her head, like she was getting a headache. "You guys, we don’t have time for this…"

Rei nodded, and pulled out her transformation stick. "So, we should transform, right Ami-chan? I mean, if we want to kick the asses of these guys…"

"I might have worded it a little differently, but yeah, you’ve got the general idea," smiled Ami, but the smile was rather forced as she pulled out her own transformation stick.

Usagi just looked around and declared "It’s all dark and horrible in here!"

Luna began to wish she had stayed to argue with central command a little while longer, about finding these "other" Sailor Senshi it had mentioned. It certainly seemed a lot safer than running around a citadel that looked like the home of Dracula’s son.

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Zoisite hummed to himself as he observed the transformations of the three girls, and giggled slightly to himself. Now, this next piece was up to Nephrite – he scowled at the thought. Kunzite-sama had insisted on the fact that Nephrite be allowed to play with the star fields that existed within Kunzite’s little citadel. Kunzite-sama had explained that he had had Nephrite set them up a long time ago – "just in case." He had refused to elaborate further, and Zoisite knew better than to pester his teacher for further answers. When Kunzite-sama didn’t speak, he simply didn’t speak. "Nephrite?"

The King didn’t need to be mentally called by the little "sakura" king. He had been in the shadows of the internal balcony anyway, and he looked down at the three girls with an almost leering smile. "Aren’t they just kawaii?"

Zoisite rolled his eyes. "If your tastes lie with underage girls, then that’s more your problem than mine, I think."

Nephrite shrugged his shoulders, and sipped from his crystalline goblet. A spark glinted in his eyes. "At least my tastes don’t lie with young boys, ne?"

The little king glared at him, but the object of his annoyance soon changed as he pointed at the glass the older king held in his hand. "Getting drunk on the job, Nephrite?"

"Would you just relax? It’s not like I’m going to get plastered or anything…just, nicely drunk."

Zoisite’s eyes narrowed with ill-humoured sarcasm. "Define nicely drunk – is it vertical or horizontal?"

"Depends on who happens to be in the vicinity," chortled Nephrite, causing the glass to vanish. As he stepped past Zoisite, he chucked him under the chin. "But don’t worry, little sakura – I have no interest in you."

"I should damn well hope not," hissed Zoisite, stepping backward from the king with a repulsed look. "Don’t you dare touch me!"

Nephrite had to laugh at Zoisite’s general tetchiness, and looked down at the three girls again, who were staring around. He whistled. "I can’t believe Jadeite almost got his ass kicked by those three little girly-girls in sailor uniforms. And you say that drink takes my performance away!"

Zoisite’s snort sounded a little agitated. "I wouldn’t know anything about that, Nephrite-sama."

The other king had to smile at the title the little sakura king addressed him by. Only when nervous did Zoisite slip back into that. He probably wasn’t even aware he had done it. "Why did you all protect him from Queen Beryl-sama, anyway? He can’t be much of a warlord if three teenage girls can best him in a fight that was indefinitely fairer to him." He snorted. "I could execute those three quite nicely even when I was two sips away from being in an alcohol-induced coma."

"Probably because you’d be behind the wheel of that car of yours," remarked Jadeite sarcastically, warping into view. "Nephrite-sama, your faith in my abilities is astounding."

"Watch your tongue, Jadeite," hissed the auburn-haired king, turning to favour him with a particularly nasty glare.

Jadeite half-smiled, his deep sapphire eyes darkened by shadows. "Nephrite-sama, you have no jurisdiction over me or my life – you can’t do a damn thing to me."

Zoisite giggled, and Nephrite was a little startled by his abrupt mood swing. Earlier, he had been both highly irritated and almost unnerved by his presence, but the second Jadeite had appeared, he relaxed.

"Maybe you’d better do something, Nephrite-sama," remarked Zoisite, his emerald eyes gleaming. "Unless, of course, you want to antagonise Kunzite-sama by not living up to expectation."

"I’ll leave that over to you, little sakura," Nephrite shot back, turning back to the girls who were slowly moving out of sight. He grinned slightly. "Well, Jadeite, maybe I can see how you lost so often to those little girls. That ravishing view is highly distracting."

Zoisite and Jadeite both rolled their eyes, but it was, predictably enough, Zoisite who spoke first. "We always knew you had a little fetish for such things, Nephrite."

He smiled sardonically in return. "Well, I’ve always known that Kunzite had a fetish for little things, too." He raked his gaze over Zoisite swiftly, his smile growing more malicious with each centimetre gained. "Very little things."

Zoisite’s eyes widened in anger, and Jadeite sighed. He didn’t know how on earth these two had ever gotten started on their malevolent exchanges of nasty banter, but he was more than a little sick of it.

"Zoisite, where’s Kunzite?"

The little king shut his mouth, which he had been on the verge of using as a weapon of verbal abuse, and turned to Jadeite with an oddly sunny smile. Jadeite was shocked – he had never been able to get used to Zoisite’s mood swings. "I’m not entirely sure, Jadeite-sama. But I’m willing to come help you find him."

"Naturally," muttered Nephrite, and he vanished in a teleport, leaving the two youngest kings alone for the time being. Zoisite gave Jadeite another friendly smile, one that set him on edge. He hadn’t the slightest idea what he had done to incur Zoisite’s notoriously elusive good favour, but he wasn’t about to jeopardise it by asking.

Zoisite broke the mostly easy silence. "You want to see Kunzite-sama?"

"Hai," he replied, searching the young man’s now-open eyes. Usually shielded and guarded, but with the mention of the eldest king, they were softer, sweeter. Jadeite realised with a start how very beautiful Zoisite could truly be, when he wasn’t in his usual foul mood. "I want to ask him about what I can do to play with our sweet little pawns."

Zoisite raised an eyebrow, and laughed. "Oh, so now you too are interested in certain other talents of our young guests? Really, Jadeite-sama, the pair of you are going to give us a terrible reputation."

"As if you and Kunzite haven’t done that already," replied Jadeite, though he was a little worried when the words left his lips. He wondered if that had been such an intelligent thing to say.

However, to his surprise, Zoisite only laughed and waved a gloved hand in dismissal. "Really, Jadeite-sama, you don’t have to be so staid. Besides, our secrets are our own, and no-one else’s."

Jadeite smiled slightly. "Zoisite, if it’s supposed to be a secret, it’s got to be one of the most open secrets in the Dark Kingdom. Queen Beryl-sama might not say much about it to you, but I can assure you, she knows. As does most of her court."

"It probably gives the old bat something to be jealous of," Zoisite replied, looking down over the balcony, However, the three girls and their cat had vanished into the deeper parts of the citadel. "Lord knows, her sex life is practically non-existent, anyhow."

"Like you’d know," Jadeite muttered, and then glared at Zoisite’s presumptuous, knowing smile. "Oh, don’t you dare, little sakura. Don’t even think that."

"Think what?" asked Zoisite innocently, and Jadeite had to again marvel at the young man’s supreme control this morning. He was most definitely behaving himself – rarely was he so jocular and friendly – at least, to him anyhow. He was obviously like this around Kunzite, but he was rarely so kind to anyone else.

"Oh, so you don’t mean to imply that I would know anything about Beryl’s bed habits?" asked Jadeite, cocking a good-humoured eyebrow.

Zoisite laughed. "Why would I do a thing that that? But Jadeite-sama, you seem to be on better terms with the witch than I. Look, you called her Beryl instead of Queen Beryl-sama!"

"I’ll have you know that Kunzite does exactly the same thing," replied Jadeite steadfastly. This earned him a dirty look from Zoisite, but, to his credit, he didn’t say anything about it. He merely leant over the railing and smiled. "Let’s not."

"Let’s not what?" asked Jadeite, with a touch of suspicion.

"Let’s not ask Kunzite-sama for permission," Zoisite completed the sentence impatiently. He pointed to the direction that the Senshi had taken. "Nephrite should be finished playing soon – we’ll have a turn next. I mean, Kunzite-sama won’t care. He’s not even here – which means I’m in charge."

"No, I would think that would make Nephrite-sama the one in charge," berated Jadeite, and Zoisite snorted.

"Nephrite? That drunk couldn’t lead lemmings off a cliff."

Jadeite sighed. "I don’t know what went on – or still goes on – between you two, but I will say one thing. There’s absolutely no point to it whatsoever."

"Point taken," remarked Zoisite dryly. "Though it isn’t any of your business, Jadeite-sama. Come on, let’s go make fun of Nephrite some more."

"If I can get a word in edgewise," Jadeite replied, rolling his eyes. "When you two get together, you seem to drown out the rest of the world."

Zoisite scowled, and then indicated the passageway that lead into the internal bowels of the huge dark building. "You coming?"

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Sailor Mars looked around with some interest, noting the peculiar structure of this foyer that they had stumbled upon after leaving the darkness of the corridor. They were in what appeared to be some kind of huge planetarium – it was a circular room, at least fifty metres in diameter. There were four double doors, one at every main point of the compass, a balcony winding around the top, just below the edge of the dome.

That was truly the most astounding construction in this huge room – the remarkable domed roof. It, at first, appeared to be black, but upon closer inspection as they stood craning their necks, the Senshi saw the multitude of changing colours hidden within it. It seemed that the longer you looked at it, the more colours would appear. This roof was many metres above the heads of the girls, and suspended from the centre was a large, golden sphere, ringed like the planet Saturn with silver and rose gold. Huge ivory stone beams lined the dome, supported from below by intricate gothic corbels. The golden orb was where they congregated, and also from here streamed a double helix of spiralling light. One strand was silver, the other golden, and they both bathed a central stone column with their amalgamating lights. Also sitting in this light, atop the pillar, was what one would call a tazza – a silver, engraved ornamental bowl mounted on a similar base. Mercury was instantly interested in it, but she turned to cast an appreciate eye over the golden arabesque carvings decorating the ebony walls. "This is extraordinary…"

"It is impressive, but in my opinion, I do think Kunzite overdid it a little. After all, he never uses this building for anything but entertaining guests. And as he keeps fairly much to himself, that is certainly very rare."

Startled, the three girls and the cat turned to find themselves facing a tall auburn-haired man, leaning against the door they had just entered through. It was now firmly closed.

He stood up straighter, and pulled a long, mock bow. "Oh, forgive me, ladies. I should introduce myself – I am Nephrite, the second of the Four Kings of the Dark Kingdom. No need to introduce yourselves, I know you well. Both your human and Senshi seemings, as it were."

"Geez, can’t anyone keep a secret these days?" muttered Sailor Mars, and the king raised an eyebrow.

"Ah, Miss Mars, you’ve been well known for speaking your mind. What do you do think of Kunzite’s little holiday villa?"

"Oh, maybe with some velvet draperies over the windows…maybe with some windows, for that matter…"

Nephrite laughed long and loud at that sarcastic remark. "Well said, I agree completely. But I digress – we’re not here to discuss Kunzite’s taste in decoration. As it happens, this room is one of my favourites. I can use this room to do almost anything I want – would you care for a demonstration?" He smiled as he moved swiftly to the centre of the room, his boots clicking relentlessly on the aquamarine coloured tiles lining the floor in an endless circle. "Who knows, there could be a Tuxedo Kamen at the end of it."

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Zoisite stood outside the doors to the east wing for a moment longer, continuing to listen to the auburn-haired man. He then sighed, fiddling with his long ponytail. Jadeite noted his restless fingers with surprise – he seemed to be so very easily agitated by the presence of the second king. He wondered why, and for not the first time, he regretted the fact that he generally worked alone. It seemed that a lot of interesting little tidbits lay in the lives of the other three kings. Tidbits he was not privy to, even though Kunzite and Zoisite’s relationship was the most open secret in the Dark Kingdom.

The young man started in surprise at the voice that permeated his thoughts, and turned malicious verdant eyes on the other king. Jadeite returned the glare coolly – even though he and Zoisite had never known each other particularly well, he had figured out that Zoisite was best handled directly. Leave the conniving games to the best player.

Jadeite decided to ignore the jibe and just play along. Who knew, the pretty little sakura could have a brilliant idea. No matter how impossible that sounded.

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Nephrite was by now quite enthused about this little game Kunzite had suggested. "Look, kids, I know that you three have a somewhat mutual bond with our friend Tuxedo Kamen, and I thought that we’d have some fun and try the strength of your bond to him. We can already see that he comes to your rescue whenever you need him…does this little fact work well in reverse?"

"You are a curious lot, aren’t you?" asked Mars, almost bitterly. "Don’t you think it’s obvious, though? We’re the Sailor Senshi, we are friends. I guess someone like you wouldn’t understand that though, huh?"

Nephrite stared at her for only a brief second. "Spare me your lectures. I don’t need to hear what you consider to be the morals of your Earth. Trust me, the situation is a little different here, in the Dark Kingdom."

"Original name."

Mercury shushed Mars while Sailor Moon had to restrain a giggle. Sometimes she really wished she had Mars’s chutzpah. "Nephrite, what are we going to do?"

The king raised an eyebrow at the blue-haired Senshi. "Why, play a game, of course."

"Oh yes. How about Scrabble? Or even Jenga? No, I’ve got it – let’s play Trivial Pursuit. I’m just not going to be on her team," Mars replied tersely, jerking a thumb in the general direction of the Odango’d One.

"Mars, please," Mercury hissed, her eyes narrowing. She didn’t appear paranoid – Mercury actually seemed to be getting angry. This being a rare and special occasion, Mars celebrated it by smartly shutting her mouth.

Nephrite was watching all of this, wondering if it should be taken with a pinch of salt. Three warriors for peace and justice, who couldn’t even get along with each other. Not to mention a silent cat who looked like she wished she had taken early retirement leave.

Banishing a mental image of Zoisite – one that made his temper worsen considerably – Nephrite turned back to the girls, who had now involved themselves in an argument of even deeper issues.

While Mercury stood with her head in her hands, Mars shouted "You did too steal my new Sailor V manga!"

"I did not!" screeched Sailor Moon in the voice of a banshee.

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Oh, just shut up, Rei!"

"Why don’t you shut up?"

"No, you shut up!"

"No, you shut up!"

"No, you!"

"No, you!"

"Why don’t you BOTH SHUT UP?!" bawled Nephrite suddenly, startling the girls out of their petty little disagreement. Mercury looked relieved someone had had the smarts to see that this was going nowhere.

The silence reigned for about two minutes before Nephrite smiled tightly. "Arigatoo, little Senshi. Now, perhaps we can play our game. Before any of you can disagree, which I can see you are very fond of doing," – he gave Sailor Mars a pointed look at this – "I’ll explain the rules, and leave you to it. I don’t have time to adjust them to suit your personal tastes."

Stepping over to the tazza, Nephrite picked it up easily, weighing it in his right hand. "You know what this is?"

"Well no, I can’t say I’ve ever been here before," remarked Mercury coolly. "But if I had, I think I would have studied it if it’s critical to your kingdom."

"Nice to see you’re with us today, Mercury," replied Nephrite. "For a second there, I thought you were only the ignored peacemaker. Very nice to see that you can speak on your own behalf." He raised the tazza above his head. "Now, kids, this is water from the river of Phlegethon – the river of fire."

"I hope you had a permit to get that – disturbing the ecological balance of Hell could be hazardous to your health," Mercury replied, possibly still annoyed from Nephrite’s mild insult earlier.

"How do you know you’re not in Hell now?" asked Nephrite softly, with a glint in his eye. Then he went off on the other tangent. "Okay kiddies, let’s play." He tipped the pale, colourless liquid over the aqua-tiled floor, the water shimmering like mother-of-pearl in the odd lighting. It moved like mercury, from the centre of the room where Nephrite stood by the column, towards the Northern doors, where the girls stood.

"It doesn’t look much like fire," said Mars doubtfully, and since she was the most knowledgeable on fire of the lot of them, the other two didn’t dare question her judgement.

"Try this," Nephrite said softly, and with a single spoken word, the liquid ignited into a burning, molten mass. The three shrieked and leapt backward, falling through the door which had mysteriously opened. However, it opened onto a completely new destination.

They sprawled on the hard obsidian ground in an ungainly mess. Sailor Moon was the first to get up, probably because she was relatively unhurt for landing on top of the heap. Mars looked less than enthused to be at the bottom. "Get off me!"

Brushing herself off, Sailor Moon looked around. "What is this place?"

"Kunzite’s basement – yes, even Hell has basements," remarked Nephrite from where his illusion shimmered. "Look, girls, it’s simple. Tuxedo Kamen is down here somewhere, near the underground lake. The problem is, you can’t get to where he is without going through one of the rivers of Hades. Pick the wrong one, and – hey-hey, there’s going to a few fried Senshi decorating Kunzite’s trophy room. Or possibly mine, it depends on how messy you end up. Kunzite doesn’t mind gruesome, garish accessories, but I like to keep a little style in my chambers." With that, the hologrammatic projection of Nephrite vanished.

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"Oh!" cried Zoisite suddenly, taking his head away from the door of the basement. "I’ve got it!"

Jadeite regarded the younger man with that paranoid I-don’t-think-I-want-to-hear-this Look. "Got what?"

"What we can do!" he cried excitedly, almost bouncing up and down in happiness. Jadeite had to hide his temptation to laugh at this picture very deeply. Zoisite would probably not appreciate being called kawaii by anybody but Kunzite. Still, a bubbly Zoisite was very rare and highly amusing.

"Do tell," he said with a well-held straight face.

"We go and ruin Nephrite’s plan!"

"Oh, that’s a surprise. Wow, I think I’m going to have a heart attack and die from that surprise." Jadeite rolled his eyes. "Stuck with a psychopathic little sakura king with vengeance on his mind…on a Saturday night, no less! How did I get so lucky…"

Zoisite was watching him with his head cocked to one side, a smile playing on his lush lips. "Jeddy-sama, you’re just no fun. You’re almost as bad as Kunzite-sama! He never lets me do anything anymore."

"And you wonder why," he replied dryly, and then sighed. "What the Hell, it’s not like I’ve got anything better to do. So, what’s your idea?"

"Nephrite’s playing a game with the Senshi, right?"

"Right," replied Jadeite, wondering if Zoisite always repeated himself. Kunzite must be on the very end of his tether if that were the case. Jadeite knew the king was notoriously impatient, though he did it in a very controlled manner.

"And he needs Tuxedo Kamen to do it, right?"

Jadeite’s light-bulb went on – and his paranoia kicked in two seconds later. "You’re not seriously saying that…"

"Oh, so you get it?" asked Zoisite with a wickedly cherubic grin. "Jadeite-sama, come on! We finally get some excitement around here, and you pull out in the first leg of the race?"

Jadeite opened his mouth to say "I like my life, thank-you," but he suddenly shut it again. He didn’t quite understand why, but the little sakura was certainly a change of pace. He never had been one to fly in the face of his superiors, and Zoisite’s blatant disregard of his own betters was a refreshing change of pace. Though he did believe temporary insanity may have been an undesirable effect on his next words. "You’re mistaken, Zoisite. I’m not about to bail on this little idea of yours."

Zoisite smiled languidly, playing with a strand of his softly blonde hair. "It’s not often I’m wrong, Jadeite, but that’s perfectly fine in this case."

"Glad to hear it," mumbled Jadeite in reply, wondering how in the Hell he had gotten stuck with this for his companion…

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Nephrite was still in the upstairs planetarium, and with barely a thought, he dimmed the light of the planetary orb so that the room darkened considerably. The stars embedded in the roof come out to play, actually descending from the ceiling to suspend themselves in the air about him. He had planned to use the stars against the Senshi somehow, but truthfully…he much preferred this. The calming presence of his celestial companions made his growing headache diminish – he was incredibly glad he was never going to have children. Especially if they were like those Earthen idiot Senshi.

For a second he dwelt on wondering how the Senshi were getting on. Then he banished the thought, and let his mind drift quietly through the stars of the Planetarium.

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"Okay, so what are supposed to be doing?" asked Sailor Moon, as Mercury whipped out her trustworthy little compact lap-top. If you could call it that.

"He said that Tuxedo Mask was near an underground lake…well, my computer’s sensors say there’s a large body of water through the southern door of this room, which leads deeper into this weird little Hell."

"Then the northern door must be the way out, ne?" interrupted Sailor Moon excitedly. "Hey, let’s go, okay? I’m sure Tuxedo Kamen-sama will be all right on his own…"

"Nice display of logic, but no such luck," replied Mercury with a slight smile. "That door is warded and locked, the only way out of here is down."

"It always happens this way, doesn’t it?" sighed Sailor Moon.

Mercury continued to tap away as Sailor Mars opened the heavy stone door, and lead them through into a large, sulphurous smelling cavern. The dim lighting was in a shade of red, the place as silent as a necropolis. Which, upon reflection, it possibly was.

Sailor Moon’s eyebrows sudden flew up into her bangs as her eyes widened. "Uh, you guys? Where’s Luna?"

Mars opened her mouth to say "Right behind you, dummy," but the words never made it past her lips. She was wrong, you see. Luna was no where in sight.

"Maybe she went to get help?" said Sailor Moon hopefully.

Mars shook her head, looking dazed. "She…she uh, must still be upstairs, with that jerk Nephrite, I guess…"

The girls fell silent then, and it was several minutes before Mercury broke it. "I think…if we go that way, we should run into one of these rivers." She stepped quickly forward, while the other two watched. Then they followed her, still quiet as they reflected on what could have possibly happened to Luna. The only time any of them could remember seeing her was when they had entered the Citadel.

"There!" cried Mercury suddenly, pointing a gloved finger at the distance.

"What? Where?" asked Sailor Moon.

"There!" repeated the blue-haired Senshi, still stabbing the air with her finger. The other two squinted – they were not blessed with Mercury’s VR visor – and soon made out what seemed to be two figures in the distance. "Who are they?"

"One’s Jadeite, the other is definitely Tuxedo Kamen," Mercury replied, pounding the keys with her fingers. "I’m jot entirely sure who the third figure is, my computer doesn’t recognise them."

"There’s three of them?" asked Mars, beginning to move forward. "Yeah…now I see it. They’re a little small compared to the others…hey, maybe it’s that little king who hangs around the important one – you now, the little blonde?"

"Zoisite," Mercury said absently. "Yeah, I think you’re right. Come on, let’s go over there."

"I wonder why they’re doing this," mused Sailor Moon quietly. "I mean, they asked us to renounce our mission, which we did, and now they’re forcing us to be the Sailor Senshi…isn’t it weird?"

"They’re up to something, obviously," Mars said darkly. "But let’s just get Tuxedo Kamen-sama and leave, okay? We can deal with this later."

________________________________________________________________________

Zoisite smiled as he pulled the caped man’s hair for the thousandth time. "Come on, take off the mask, dear Tuxedo Kamen-sama," and he giggled. "Pretty please? Just for me?"

"Stop it, Zoisite," Jadeite snapped. "I really get irritated with your silly-"

"Oh Jadeite, get a sense of humour," replied Zoisite lazily, moving to take off the man’s mask again. However, the magical force field he had encountered earlier was still intact. The man remained completely silent, as the three men rested on an upraised platform beside two of the rivers of the Underworld – the river Phlegethon and the river Lethe.

"Hey! Jerks! I am the soldier of love and justice, Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon!"

"And I am-"

"Oh, please," Jadeite interrupted, looking like he was getting a headache. "I’ve heard enough of your tacky little speeches to last me into the next century…"

"Release Tuxedo Kamen now!" demanded Mars, and Zoisite looked like he was going to take this the wrong way. He grinned wickedly at the irate Senshi.

"Mars, I am standing beside the river Phlegethon, and you tell me to release your Tuxedo Kamen-sama? Gee, you girls can not only poorly word your threats, your poorly worded requests are enough to make me cringe."

With that, he moved over to the side of the river, and seemed on the verge of chucking the man in. "Sailor Senshi, get out of here!" he cried suddenly, and Zoisite giggled.

"ZOISTIE! What are you doing?!" cried Jadeite, aghast. Zoisite jumped at this shout, his grip on Tuxedo Kamen failing.

He fell into the river, vanishing into the deepest depths of the waters. He didn’t surface.

"Tuxedo Kamen-sama! Oh god, I think you hurt him!" cried Sailor Moon in abject horror.

"I think I killed him," Zoisite replied matter-of-factly. Then he stared at them, and giggled. "I think I’m in a little bit of trouble now, actually. Jadeite, why the hell did you yell at me? This is your fault you know, you startled me. I wasn’t really going to dump him in the river…"

The Sailor Senshi stared at each other while Zoisite had a hurried, quiet conversation with the blonde king. None of the trio could hear exactly what was going on, but Mercury caught one name. Queen Beryl-sama.

"We’ve got to get out of here," Mars said quietly, keeping half an eye on the other two. "Is there anyway we can leave this hell-hole?"

"By ripping a hole in the fabric of timespace, yeah," replied Mercury in a low voice. "We’re in a different dimension, of sorts…we need to find some sort of already established gateway so we can leave. I don’t think we have the energy nor the power to generate our own gate."

"We could try," Sailor Moon said hopefully. "I mean, all three of us are here…how can we do it? I mean, you managed to hold a gate open, Mercury. Remember, with the buses?"

"Yeah," Mars replied quietly. "If you could hold one open, Mercury, perhaps the three of us together could open one."

Casting a look over at the engrossed kings, Mercury then nodded. "Okay, but we have to make it quick. No guarantees, and the possibility that those two will follow us is high…"

"They know where to find us anyway, Mercury," hissed Mars. "Let’s just do it."

"What about Tuxedo Kamen-sama..?"

Sailor Moon’s soft question caused a grimace to blossom on Mercury’s face. "We haven’t a choice – he may not be dead, but if we don’t leave, we’ll all die."

Mercury nodded. "I must concur. Okay, all we have to do is call on our powers, and then concentrate on home."

"And click our heels together three times?"

Sailor Mars ignored Sailor Moon, and pulled out her henshin stick. With a cry of "Mars Power!" a red coil of power shot out towards the ceiling. Sailor Mercury followed suit, her coil of blue energy wrapping around Mars’s. Sailor Moon yanked her henshin brooch from her fuku’s bow, and screamed "Moon Prism Power!"

The other two strands of power immediately converged on the brooch, the reflected light off it bouncing onto a wall. There, it dissolved into a bright, white gateway.

"Let’s move it! Quickly!" shouted Mars, and all three girls tumbled through the shimmering gateway which shut a moment later.

The two kings turned around to stare at the empty space, Zoisite’s jaw dropping. "Goddammit!" he muttered. "First that jerk capeboy, and now the little Sailors…" With an explosion of sakura blossoms, the little sakura himself vanished. This time it was Jadeite’s jaw that dropped.

"Zoisite! Dammit, get back here!"

He was talking to thin air, that much was obvious. He only pondered on Zoisite’s choice of destination for only a second – the fact that he had left at all was the real issue here.

The rush of air indicating a transport lightened his spirits somewhat. "Damn, you’re a pain in the neck, Zoisite. For a second there, I thought you really had gone to leave me alone with this mess-"

"What mess, Jadeite?"

Jadeite tripped neatly over his own words as he realised just who he was ticking off. "G-g-gomen nasai, Kunzite-sama…I thought you were someone else…"

His emotionless eyes continued to stare at him. "Obviously. Come to think of it, I haven’t seen Zoisite recently. Has he been with you?"

"Hai," he replied smartly, hoping and praying to any gods listening that Kunzite wasn’t about to pull him up on what he had been on the verge of saying. Vain hope, however. Jadeite knew full well that while Zoisite was capable of missing such blatant subtleties, Kunzite was capable of hearing the wind itself speak. Not to mention he understood it.

The unwelcome voice penetrated his thoughts with the gentle touch of a jagged razor blade. "Jadeite? What has happened here?"

For not the first time, Jadeite cursed the fact that Zoisite had larked off somewhere, happily letting the burden of blame lie on someone else’s shoulders, completely quid pro quo for the little king. It would have been one hell of a lot easier if he had stayed here, though. Jadeite had a shrewd idea that not even Kunzite would be able to stay angry with the infuriating sakura for long. Not if their relationship was all Zoisite seemed to believe it was cracked up to be.

Still, Zoisite was gone. He was alone.

"Kunzite-sama, there’s been…a slight…uh, delay in the plans."

Kunzite smiled without humour. "Oh? You mean aside from the fact that the Senshi are no longer here?"

Licking his lips in a tense manner, Jadeite averted his eyes from the penetrating demand of the silver king’s. "Hai…there is another slight anomaly…"

His voice dropped to an ominously low pitch, tinged with a thousand warnings – and even more threats of things to come. If the answer was not to his satisfaction. "Where is Tuxedo Kamen?"

The blonde king coughed slightly, his fingers winding themselves around each other in a gesture of nervousness. "Kunzite-sama, I…"

"How many times must I repeat myself, Jadeite? Where is Tuxedo Kamen?" His already irritated argent eyes narrowed further.

Jadeite shifted his feet uncomfortably, looking down to the tips of his boots. He decided to see if he could hedge a little more, but maybe, just possibly, honesty was the best policy…

"Ah, you see, well, Zoisite had this, you know, idea, that-"

Kunzite’s reply echoed around the citadel for quite some time.

"YOU DID WHAT?!"

So, does this make any sense to you so far? No? Well, join the club, I’m President of it. (Note to J: No, you can’t be Vice-President, Saffir already got that job. See what you get for not letting me prosecute…?! ^_^) Still, there is more forthcoming…so, I highly suggest you run for the hills.

No further comment, your honour, :P