The usual author's notes here. All Sailor Moon characters belong to the respective companies and Naoko Takeuchi. Well, it's my second fic, so do be kind to me. This fic's supposed to be read in a circle, i.e. the ends connect, but my literature's not very good. Forgive me! Thanks to Sarah for her comments, and Elanor Sun-star and others who have written to me to commend me on my first fic. It really boosted my confidence! On with the story then! Oh yes, there is no romance between Zoisite and Malachite here cos' I couldn't fit it into the plot without it sounding extremely contrived. And, I used Malachite instead of Kunzite cos' I'll see less of those irritating red scrawls from Mword then.

The Ourobos

Prologue


"Please, do not call me 'Your Highness'"...

The circle seemed seared into the ground, a black and ugly scar. Zoisite looked down at the crumpled bodies sadly, and then stared at the circlet in his hands.

"I wished it didn't have to end this way. How could the Queen sacrifice her own daughter like that? Not to mention other lives," Zoisite whispered to himself. "And I mislead my people into thinking I won the battle fairly. What kind of a King am I?" He was speaking in shock, the others could see it in his glazed emerald eyes, and yet, there was an aching spark of empathy in them - Zoisite really felt for the senshi and even poor Endymion.

The taller mahogany haired teenager placed an arm around his shoulders and tried to find words to comfort him, while the aqua-haired woman directed his gaze outside the circle with Death, trampled mud and dead flowers and leaves as it's friends.

"Look over there, all around you, your Highness," she said. "The promise of new life lives in everything you see. Life can only get better."

Zoisite nodded dumbly, his eyes staring off as if he could find another glade much like this one, somewhere in this same place. That glade would be still barren from the radio-active bombs that ravaged it. He could hear the beautiful, haunting song of a solitary nightingale in the distance, and other sounds that the wind blew in. He could almost hear what happened 19 years to this hour, brought full circle now...


Chapter 1


"Go! Leave this place and never come back! If not for my sake, then for the child's sake!" Around the two men, the shrill screams of men and the whines of bullets could be heard. Occasionally, the staccato beat of machine guns and a heavier thump could be heard, followed by an explosion. The sounds were getting nearer and nearer, becoming more and more rhythmic, like the beats of a fatalistic drum or heart.

The younger lord cradled the baby tightly against his chest and nodded, tears streaming down his face, the reluctance to leave his liege-lord clear on his face. He lingered on, not wanting to go.

"Go! Now!" the man roared in harried anger, brandishing his sword in a last ditch attempt to get his one remaining loyal noble to escape with his heir. The tactic worked, and the lord fled, not even pausing to turn around for one last look. He had barely ran for ten minutes when the final explosion sounded behind him, the orange glare rising high into the sky, and the billowing clouds of black smoke mingled with the air, sending a wave of heat and the smell of scorched flesh their way, and stinging their eyes. Against him, the baby started to wail in irritation and apprehension, and the lord tried to hush him.

"I promised his Grace I'll keep you safe, and I will," the man whispered softly into the baby's ear, "and you will avenge you father's death when you grow up."

The baby cried on.


Chapter 2


"Yo! Otama! Where ya going?" one of the village boys jeered, standing just out of reach of the younger boy's arms. The object of their unkind teasing stamped his foot on the ground and shook his fist at them in juvenile impotence. "Trying to scare us, otama? Try harder! Come and catch me!" another boy taunted, and ran off, purposely slow at first to play with the boy, giving him a false hope of catching him. "Gingetsu! Come back now!" a voice called out, stopping the younger boy in his tracks. A tall man stood at the door of a nearby house, quite handsome, with his dark hair just turning grey at the temples. His expression was stern, and under that gaze, the village boys melted clear. "Wimp, forever having his guardian bail him out," one boy muttered to the rest. "Hrumph!" was the response from the other boys. Gingetsu walked back slowly to where his guardian waited. The man had been his 'father' for as long as he remembered in his short life of ten years. "Come and study!" "But father, I just wanted to play with the boys for a little while," Gingetsu protested half-heartedly. The man reached out to ruffle his bright hair and sighed silently. Both of them knew that the village boys would never accept him into their 'gang', just as they could never fully integrate with the villagers. The minor Lord still retained many of his aristocratic behaviors and manner of speech, and hard as he tried to kick them off, he could never fully be rid of his former life. Oh, it wasn't that he put on airs or anything, he mucked out in the fields with the rest of the men, reaping the harvest every year just like any other villager, but that didn't help. So, he tried to impart a little of it to his ward, so that plans would work out, and when the day came, the boy could avenge his father. But coming back to the point about the boys not accepting Gingetsu... he'd never have expected the boy to turn out like that. His father had been tall and sturdy and handsome, but Gingetsu was small and slight and more pretty than handsome. Even his mother hadn't been this delicate looking. But then again, looks didn't account for everything. The boy had inherited his father's intelligence, and his mother's hair and eyes and something more... The ex-lord cracked a grin to himself. Gingetsu had a temper that would put an enraged bull to shame - he was like a self-contained tornado. Dimly, he realised that the boy was asking him a question. "But father, why do I have to study so hard? You're just ostracizing me even more from the rest!" Gingetsu knew, just from the look on his father's face, that that was the wrong question to ask, and examining his inner feelings, realised that too. "Gingetsu, we've been through this before. I want you to enter the Imperial Examinations, and be the top scholar so that you get a post in the Queen's Court. Surely you don't want to spend the rest of your life here, do you? I know that you're bored with life here, and you've only lived here for what? 5 years? Think of spending your entire life here!" Though that wasn't what Gingetsu wanted, he thought his father could think of something else as a motivation to study. He didn't blame the village boys for not wanting to play with him, hell-fires, no. He knew full well, with a maturity that far outstripped his youth, that he was different from them, and would always be different, no matter how much he tried to blend in. And having seen and experienced how wretched life was here...he would study and ace the Examinations, so that villagers like these might see a change for the better in days to come. Even though the boys hurt him, he forgave them freely, and dreamt that one day, their lives would improve. So, silently, he turned to sit at the crude table in the corner, and studied the worn, half-tattered books that his father had produced from somewhere some time ago.
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