"Sorry, Piresei was being a mother hem again. Well, anytime that Zoisite gives the green light, our troops can come down here to fight the Queen."

"Um...same here. If I'm not mistaken, I Feel Malachite homing in on us. Come on." She grabbed Michiru's hand and strolled off to the nearby park. True enough, barely five minutes after they entered the park, something dropped from the sky onto them.

"Watch it!" Haruka yelled as Endymion's body plummeted down like a sack of potatoes. Serena followed next, and lastly, Malachite holding on to a very greenish Zoisite. The poor boy, he probably heaved all his guts out."

Michiru swore in shock. "You got the Prince and Princess? Queen Serenity must be spitting like a goosed cat!"

Zoisite managed a wan grin. "Well, yeah. Here comes the bad news. Jadeite and Nephrite are with them. 'Tit for tat, butter for fat' was the expression, I believe."

Haruka frowned. "How did that happen?"

"Look," Malachite spoke up. "Let's go to somewhere more private, shall we? And be damned if I'm hauling these two off on my back again. I'd sooner dunk them into the pond."

Haruka laughed. "Oh, no problem. Here's how you do it." She bent down, grasped Endymion's cloak and dragged him off towards a less frequented part of the park.

"So you're going to go back to the Palace and demand that she return to her Moon in exchange for Endymion and Serena?" Michiru asked, a slight frown marring her pretty features. "What about Jadeite and Nephrite?"

Zoisite looked sick to his core. "That is in addition with the exchange bit. Queen Serenity can have her daughter and future son-in-law back in exchange for complete freedom, which means no prisoners totally. But if she agrees to freedom and not the last bit, I'm afraid we'll have to leave Jadeite and Nephrite for the time being and wrest them back later. And if that doesn't work out, we have to go into war. That's where your help will be sorely needed."

Haruka surged to her feet. "In that case, with your permission, I'll call in my troops. We have enough magicians to teleport the entire army in."

A low voice stopped them. "That won't be necessary," Mizuno Ami stated coolly, stepping from behind a stand of trees. "The Queen has decided. She will allow for a solution with minimal bloodshed. We will return Jadeite and Nephrite to you in exchange for Princess Serena and Prince Endymion. And in a week of that exchange, we will meet you to Challenge you to the rights of this planet. If you win, we will withdraw. If not...we will allow you to swear fealty to the Queen, and all your powers will be locked away."

The two Outer planet Princesses were shaking with rage. "You issue a Challenge? That is not fair play, since each side requires six people." Ami met the protest with a look of withering scorn. "The Outer planets have a stake in this too, no? surely the two fabled Princesses have a drop of magic in their bloods? That makes six." She smiled, a sly smile that fell short of her eyes. "The gauntlet has been thrown down. Refuse and we march to war. I am sure Your Highness knows what a complete massacre it will be. All your soldiers are in the Palace."

Zoisite stood up and faced her, waving a protest from Malachite away. "We accept your Challenge," he said quietly. Ami grinned a grin of triumph, and she bowed mockingly.

"In that case, here are your people." She snapped her fingers, and the other two senshi stepped forward, the bound and gagged figures of Nephrite and Jadeite in their arms. She waved them over, and they threw the two men down. Endymion and Serena were exchanged in the same manner.

Ami gave them her parting words. "I've no doubt the Prince will hack your hair off in the same style as his. A week hence, in the Kings' Woods. I'm sure you'll find it...to your taste."

Malachite knelt beside Zoisite and helped him cut the bonds and tear off the gags. "I hope you know what you're doing," he muttered under his breath. Zoisite heaved a deep breath.

"I wish I knew too," he replied softly. "What have I gotten all of you into?" Haruka dropped to the ground beside him and caught his eyes. "A pot full of troubles. We've a week to teach you everything about your Gifts, and even then the senshi and Prince have lived with it all their lives. You're like a toddler to them. And there's one more thing the senshi of Mercury did not mention. Only six people leave the Circle alive once it has been cast. If we don't kill them, they'll kill us. Nothing is without bloodshed for them." Zoisite's vocabulary of swear words failed him.

Zoisite paced nervously around the room. Haruka had succeeded in bringing in two of her planet's magicians so that they had a one to one tutor, Haruka to Zoisite, Michiru to Malachite, and the two magicians to Jadeite and Nephrite. One week - so much to do and so little time. Some how, the public had found out about Zoisite and the assassination of King Lorien, which essentially was a delayed reaction, and a few feckless people had been killed for protesting in the streets. But more people joined in, and the death toll rose. The Queen had brought in her personal army from the Moon, and that army alone was a match for the combined Uranus and Neptune army. Saturn was still trying desperately to stave off collapse, and so could spare no one.

"These are fine odds," Zoisite ranted quietly to himself. "None of are prepared. And we have to go in what? An hour's time?"

Nephrite ghosted up in front of him. "Hey," the taller teenager said with a slight smile. "What happened to your sense of humour? The entire universe's not going to collapse on us! Give it your best shot, and have no doubt we'll give it ours."

From the corner, Michiru spoke up. "It's time to go and prepare at the site." Zoisite nodded. "If we get through this, I'll make sure I buy you a life time's supply of wine," he promised seriously.

Nephrite grinned. "If you can manage to keep Endymion from shaving your head, I'll pass over the wine. I can't believe I missed seeing him with that crew cut! Star fires, it must have been a beauutifuul sight."

Zoisite grinned back, a bit of his humor restored. "Just make sure you don't roll over laughing, knock your silly head on a rock and pass out, die of hysterics! That'll solve the senshi's jobs neatly."

The six left in procession from the hotel they were rooming in, and along the streets, people threw roses and flowers and little good luck notes at them. Zoisite tried to smile back, king to his people, with a confidence that he didn't feel. Malachite was expressionless, Jadeite was smiling nervously. Nephrite had a maniacal grin on his face, and the two Princesses were walking hand in hand, waving to the crowds as if they were the monarchs of the Earth.

They reached the Woods in no time, and Zoisite caught sight of a barren spot just within his field of vision.

"Why is that place so dead?" he whispered to Malachite. The General looked at him queerly.

"That was the place where your father fell when you were only a baby. Earl Priol took you out single handedly and raised you up. And now you've come back to complete your father's duty," he replied silently, bowing in respect to honour the hundreds who died there nineteen years ago to the day.

The five senshi and Endymion were already waiting for them. Queen Serenity was, not surprisingly, absent. If her senshi won, she'd be ready to swoop down on the Uranus and Neptune army waiting outside the Palace. Whatever Earth soldiers who managed to escape had gone straight to them, swelling their numbers by a bit, but against the Lunar army, that might not amount to very much. If her senshi failed...well, all she had to do was slink back to the Moon with her tail tucked between her legs and spend another few years plotting to take over the Local Neighbourhood and another circle of senshi. And then everything would repeat itself. It was a vicious cycle to say the least.

Prince Endymion took off the circlet he'd worn today and placed it in the centre of the glade as a symbol of the agreement. "Are we ready?" Serena asked rhetorically. The twelve took up their places, forming two semi-circles with a distance of twenty feet separating them. She raised her arms, waiting for Zoisite to do the same, but the teenager looked at her with an insolent grin.

"Since I'm not into indulging in theatrics and grand verse, let's just get to the point, shall we?" He waved his hand and a barrier of emerald flame sprung up from his half of the circle. Serena bit her lip and glowered at him, but did the same, and her barrier of shocking pink came up. It was a hideous colour combination to say the least, but now that the two barriers merged and sealed, only six would leave the circle alive, and either side was determined that they would be the victor.

It was a vicious battle, with each side giving as good as they had, and nary a thought for injuries. Zoisite's side maybe inexperienced, but they didn't lack for fire and spirit. But the deadlocked was almost broken when a sudden silence descended in the circle. The people outside couldn't see what was going on inside the circle, for the emerald and pink flames obscured almost everything.

Endymion and the senshi looked about suspiciously; Zoisite and gang looked around puzzledly.

"What manner of tricks did you indulge in?" Serena snapped at them.

"No tricks, Princess, just me." A tall form materialized out of thin air, holding an equally tall staff and radiating an aura of command and confidence.

"Setsuna?" Michiru gasped. Haruka looked shell-shocked.

The 'ruler' of Pluto and the Keeper of Time looked at them and smiled gently. "Yes, it's me." Her steady magenta gaze slid to encompass the other ten.

"I have come today and interrupted your little battle today because it has great repercussions on future generations," she said without preamble.

"Consequences so vast I've had to risk upsetting the timeline for a short time. The senshi and Endymion cannot leave this circle alive. I suppose you could call this a collection of your karma. The Earth happens to be the linchpin of this universe, however insignificant it may seem. Even Queen Serenity does not know the extent of her meddling. I have come to ensure that the Earth is not thrown too far out of Balance to be corrected."

Makoto interrupted her. "Listen, lady, I don't care who you are, or what you are, just get the hell out of here and let us trash these humans." She started forward, but Setsuna wielded her staff with remarkable precision and rapped Makoto on her head. The young senshi stumbled backwards into Minako. "I didn't come here to fight with you."

"Then what did you come here for?" Endymion challenged. Setsuna looked at him as if he was a particularly interesting insect to dissect.

"You haven't been paying attention, young man," she chided. "Now, you can either have it the easy way or the hard way. The easy way is for me to lead you past the time fields into what you mortals term as 'heaven'. The hard way is to die fighting. It won't be pretty," she warned.

"We don't give up without a fight," Ami snarled, stepping forward.

"Wait!" Zoisite called, breaking from his state of shock. "Why do they have to die? Can't you let all of us go free?"

Setsuna turned sad eyes on him. "Once issued, a Challenge cannot be broken until only one party is alive. Even I cannot manipulate the time fields enough to bring all you out. Even now I hope that I will be able to repair the damage I have caused." She spun around to meet Ami's attack, and slammed it into the ground before the senshi. Ami went down, frozen to death by her own bubble fog, her body showing the effects of extreme frost bite.

One by one, the senshi charged, each one thinking that they could take out the strange woman and her staff, and each one perishing by their own attacks. Finally, Endymion was down too, stuck full of thorny roses like a pin cushion.

Setsuna turned to face the remaining six one last time, bending to pick up the forgotten circlet and placed it in Zoisite's hands. "I'm sorry to have robbed you of your victory, but this was the only alternative I had. Like you, I am not above the consequences of my actions. Peace to you and long be your reign." She raised her hand in farewell and disappeared just as suddenly as she appeared.

Jadeite was the first to break the silence. "Your highness?" he called softly to Zoisite, but the teenager and King seemed lost in his thoughts. The barrier was breaking up already, the top dissolving in the strong morning light. And the people were cheering wildly, perhaps even mindlessly, their minds too impressed with the victory alone.

"Your highness," he called again gently.

Zoisite turned to him.

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