SAINT ERYTHROS' HISTORY OF THE DARK KINGDOM
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PART THREE: THE ASTROLOGER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY
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There are no stars in the Dark Kingdom, which may come as something of a surprise to those persons who know a little something about the Four Kings of said Dark Kingdom.

I mean, Nefuraito-sama, the Second King, is an astromancer, fa Chrissakes. You'd think that without any stars, he wouldn't have any powers at all.

Yes, you would think that; and as I've earlier pointed out to you, darlin, you're absolutely gorgeous but you've got the IQ of the average brick.

Where the hell do you think you're going?

Oh, all right. I'm sorry. You're a goddam genius. Get back here and I'll tell you a story.

What do you mean, you hope this one's better than the last one? Honey, I only tell good stories. -- Oh, you mean you hope that this one won't depress the hell out of you. Ha. Good luck.

This one, darlin', is about Nephrite, born Nephrite Jonathan to John Heathcliffe, Marquis of Ayers, and his marchioness Anne in Silver Millennium Year 5498.

This story is about Nephrite, Prince of Oceania, third imperial viceroy of Endymion-mikadosama of Earth.

This story is about Nephrite: astrologer, astronomer, astromancer.

This story is also at least tangentially about that friggin' little bitch Zoisite, but that can't be helped.

Well, set ya self down and get comfortable, as I'm pretty sure that this is going to be a long one.

And we start, as well we should, with the kinzuishou, the Golden Crystal, the center of Earth and the center of the Shimmering Triad.

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The kinzuishou, Golden Crystal, the Crystal of Creation, the gift of Imperial Amaterasu Omikami to the line of the Endymions.

God, it's a pretty thing. Shines and glimmers like solidified sunlight, picks up all the available light and refracts it by tenfold. Once every year on the New Year, the Emperor of Earth will summon the Golden Crystal from its sanctuary of Illusion, deep in the heart of Elysion; and he will stand in the Hall of the Center of the Universe with the kinzuishou cupped in his hands, holding it high above his head so that its light pours down around him in a cascade of gold.

God, it's a pretty thing.

I really want one, but y'know they don't just grow on trees.

Anyway.

Nephrite's only fifteen when the kinzuishou singles him out, out of all the noblemen gathered in the Hall to celebrate the New Year with the Mikado.

Fifteen --! Imagine that, darlin'. This is the age when most nobleborn young men are still stuck in their barrels, sweating away braincells so's they can Succeed In Business, Win Friends, and Influence People. Fifteen's the age when most nobleborn are dancin' around with swords on training grounds. Fifteen's the age when most nobleborn are struggling to control Ping-Pong sized globes of chi (or of psychoplasm, if you like that gunk better).

Fifteen's the age when Nephrite of Ayers, heir to the Marquis of Ayers and Environs, has put his schooling behind him forever and has assumed the mantle of manhood. He completed his schooling in five years -- as compared to, say, Kunzite's fifteen or Zoisite's nineteen, or even Jadeite's nine. Mamoru Endymion completed the same amount of training in six and a half years; whilst Prince Cassiterite of Africa sprinted in at twelve years.

-- Look, sweetheart, I know that Kunzite had a slightly heavier workload. Don't interrupt me. Kunzite also kicked Nephrite's ass to hell and gone at sorcery, so what're you complaining about? Fine then.

See how Nephrite stands before the Mikado, sapphire eyes shining in awe and in wonder as the kinzuishou flares brilliantly for him, envelopes him in the golden light of Amaterasu's favor. See how Endymion-mikadosama reaches out with one hand, the hand not holding the Golden Crystal, lightly touches Nephrite's brow, tracing the lines of a symbol that has appeared there.

See the sign blaze on Nephrite's forehead, right over the spot that the mystics call the third eye. See the emperor frown as he considers it.

See the Golden Crystal flare so brightly that all are forced to close their eyes briefly; when the light dims again, the emperor kneels by the fallen boy's side. The Golden Crystal is gone, and the Mikado is both angry and afraid.

See the Son of Heaven yield the boy to the Marquis of Ayers, see the Regent of Amaterasu stand, frown, leave the Hall in the company of his six Princes.

See the six Princes of Earth recoil in horror as the Mikado utters one word, the same word symbolized by the rune blazing on Nephrite's brow in response to the kinzuishou's challenge.

"Jigoku."

The ghost-sign.

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Hmm? Jigoku? Yeah, Jigoku is Hell. Dunno why the Golden Crystal reacted so strongly to Nephrite. I still don't know, after all these years -- I mean, after all, Nephrite is the only one of all the Princes of Earth to fight to the last against Beryl and her Dark Goddess. Even Mamoru Endymion died at Beryl's hands, while Nephrite fought with every iota of his being -- even during the Battle of the Moon, the final battle where Serenity the Martyr fell and the ginzuishou combined with the jakozuishou to end Silver Millennium, Nephrite broke free of Metallia's dreadful taint and actually cut down Jadeite as that man was fixin' to stab Senshi Venus in the back.

Hey, wanna hear a theory of mine as why the kinzuishou reacted to Nephrite and to no one else among that fateful sextet of Princes? Sure you do.

See, the Golden Crystal is the Crystal of Creation. Among the Shimmering Triad, the trinity of Crystals created by the gods of Celestial Millennium, the Golden Crystal has always stood as the balance between the ginzuishou, the Crystal of Preservation, and the jakozuishou, the Destroyer.

In the sextet of Princes, whose name do you always hear as the peacemaker?

Yachtzee. It's our boy Nephrite.

He's always the one to mediate between Cassiterite and Zoisite, between Mamoru Endymion and Jadeite, between Mamoru Endymion and Zoisite. He dwells alone for a long time, in his great fortress at Ayers (you oughta go see it; it's still there, and it's even got the same name -- Ayers Rock), and he is aloof, above all the petty li'l squabbles that spring up from time to time between the friendly rivals within the Imperial hierarchy.

Even as a fifteen-year-old, Nephrite gives off this aura of peacefulness and tranquility. The kinzuishou sees him as a potential master, since the line of the Ayers is a sideline of the Endymions -- on the wrong side o' the sheet, naturally; 'bout a hundred years ago, one of the Mikados had a very -- uh -- extensive harem. Had a lot of children runnin' around the Palace. Fucked anything with swayin' hips and a rounded bosom, is what I'm delicately hinting at. The results of one of the Imperial liaisons was Philip, first Marquis of Ayers; and the Imperial blood thus flows through the veins of Nephrite of Ayers.

So, right, the Golden Crystal sees another potential master -- besides its ultimate wielder, Mamoru Endymion -- and glimmers a bit to greet him.

And meets a certain resistance.

Hence the "jigoku" sigil. The kinzuishou, of the three members of the Shimmering Triad, is the one most strongly connected to Heaven; and it is as arrogant as only Heavenly things can be, arrogant and single-minded. If it is right, and you don't agree with it, then you must be wrong. If you don't agree with the kinzuishou, then of course you must belong to the circles of Jigoku.

Purest bullshit, you say. I ain't gonna let some hunk of crystal dictate my morals, you say. What's a fucking rock know about ethics or good or evil, anyway, you say.

Doll, I may take it back that you don't know much. You've hit the nail squarely on its you-know-what: crystals, even the Three Crystals of the Shimmering Triad, know jack squat about morals, or ethics, or whatever they call good plain manners these days.

Nephrite of Ayers, a fifteen-year-old calm-eyed nobleman, is no more evil than Mamoru Endymion, or the Mikado himself.

Not evil.

Different.

It's this difference that the kinzuishou senses, and with its tiny wee faceted brain, interprets as the calling card of Evil.

And, as you said, it's purest bullshit. To give the kinzuishou its due, it doesn't kill Nephrite or even try to knock him loopy. It just registers its unpleasant surprise and uneasiness at this difference in him by painting a big fat ghost sign on his brow, where the Senshi have their planetary sigils and the Nemesians have their clanmarkings.

Of course, this is just my theory, you unnerstand. And mind you, I was wrong about Zoisite all the way up until the very end, so feel free to make up your own theory. Me, I ain't an expert on the Shimmering Triad. I'm just here to tell stories.

Hmm? Well, thank you, honey. I thought it was a good yarn meself. But it's not finished yet. Hold on.

Anyway, the Mikado, His Imperial Majesty Endymion CV, has his own little theory: "He's going to be a Prince of Earth," the Mikado said bluntly, "and he's going to have to be the Third Prince, the Prince of Oceania."

Salaam, ekcetera; or as that sailor dude Popeye used to say, "Salami, salami, bologna." The Emperor Has Spoken, and Lo It Shall Be Done.

Yeah, whatever, right? So some kid manifests the ghost-sign on his forehead at the New Year, so you're automatically gonna slap him with a principality and a viceroyalty of Imperial Earth? Yeah, definitely whatever.

Hold on a minute, sugar; the Mikado has a point of sorts.

"Jigoku" means "hell," sure enough; but it also means "ghost," and ghosts aren't necessarily evil. Nor are they even bad. Hell, a ghost can be just a spirit, a lesser kami. People who associate with spirits and ghosts use the ghost sign as their calling card.

And there just happens to have been precedent for this: during the reign of Endymion IIC, fifteen Sons of Heaven before the current one, the Prince of Oceania had had a ghost sign on her forehead. You've heard of her, right? Omnis Orestilla, the Prince of Oceania who raised up Ayers Rock from the bedrock of Australia and flung that nasty critter the bunyip clear out into space when It started makin' some ruckus about eating kids?

Right, I thought not. After all, the only Silver Millennium heroes we really hear much about today are the Senshi and the few odds and ends like Merlyn, Arthur, Gilgamesh, Romulus, and that crowd. But Omnis Orestilla, one of the few female Princes of Earth, had had a jigoku character on her brow when she was presented to the Golden Crystal, and that was precedent enough for Endymion-mikadosama.

And so it is that when Aemilius, Third Prince of Earth, dies two years later, Nephrite of Ayers is crowned Prince of Oceania in his place.

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It has come to my attention that a lot of people don't know, exactly, why Beryl went around collectin' Princes of Earth when she might've easily just used Metallia's malign influence to fuck over Mamoru Endymion's karma so badly that he would've wished he were dead.

Well, honey, that's a good point.

Remember what I told you about how Beryl won the ArchDemon Metallia's influence? Of course you do. You remember that I pointed out that the ArchDemon has Beryl's heart and soul in Its keeping.

Since ArchDemons are evil, then this would tend to pull our Beryl-hime over to the side of evil as well, right? Right.

One of the lesser-known side-effects of evil is stupidity.

I'm not kidding, neither -- think of all the evil people you've ever heard of: Hitler, Himmler, Josef Stalin, the Marquis de Sade, Tomas de Torquemada, Nehelenia, Louhi, Bill Gates.

All of these people have been as dumb as Buicks. Hitler couldn't have passed an IQ test if you slipped him the answers. Himmler flunked seventh grade three times. The Marquis de Sade was like most French noblemen of his time: a beautiful brainless bully. Tomas de Torquemada, Grand Inquisitioner of Spain, was a Dominican, and that right there shows you what sort of intellect we're dealin' with. Nehelenia fell in love with Mamoru Endymion -- that ain't the sign of a genius, darling, and well you know it. Louhi, demon-queen of Scandinavian legends, went out and stole the sun because she thought it was pretty, and then wondered why all her people were freezing to death. Bill Gates -- you want me to list his stupidities, or do you think you know 'em by heart yet?

Are you convinced? Evil people are essentially brain-dysfunctional.

What's that you say, love?

Well, what about Nirriti?

Honey, Nirriti was the God of Evil in Hindu mythology. There are no stupid Hindu gods, which is why they packed up and scooted to another plane of existence when they heard that Metallia was coming for a visit. Nirriti is the only known exception to the evil=dumb rule. Surely you've noticed that even Kunzite, one of the most brilliant men in Silver Millennium, became rather -- how should I put it -- sorta booger-brained once he got evilized by Metallia. Proof positive, ne?

Now shut up and listen to the story.

Anyway. Even ArchDemons aren't quite stupid -- ArchDemons are as prone to kleptomania as anyone else, and this particular ArchDemon has Its eye on a coupla crystals.

Three Crystals, to be exact.

The ginzuishou, the Silver Crystal, the Crystal of Preservation. The jakozuishou, the Dark Crystal, the Crystal of Destruction. The kinzuishou, the Golden Crystal, the Crystal of Creation.

And, as the Crown Prince of Earth and Guardian of the kinzuishou is the key to taming the Golden Crystal, the surest way to the Crown Prince of Earth is through his Guardians.

Now you see why the ArchDemon wants the Princes of Earth?

Now you see why the ArchDemon feels it necessary to hem in Mamoru Endymion all around with traitors before coming in for the swipe and steal.

Now you've got it, darlin'.

And now you know why the ArchDemon goes through the Princes of Earth from strongest to weakest, from Kunzite through Nephrite on down. Metallia may be stupid, but there's just the slightest wee difference between cunning and intelligence.

And that is why It chooses to strike at Nephrite-sama through what It judges his weakest point: his wife and daughter.

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When Nephrite is twenty-two years old, has been the Third Prince of Earth for five years, he attends his first Convocation of the Solar Powers.

This is pretty much of a joke; all the Convocations are are just opportunities for the rulers and Senshi of each planet to get together and gossip over who said what to Our Sharon and stuff.

But, as the guardians of the blue planet, humanity's birthworld, the Princes of Earth must be there and support His Imperial Majesty around the Emerald Throne.

It's at this Convocation that Nefuraito-sama meets the newly-appointed Senshi of Jupiter, the Lady Makoto. Makoto means sincerity and truth; it also means perfection.

Certainly Nephrite thinks so; and the lady -- tall, strong, healthy, as beautiful as the brown of polished oak, as beautiful as the green of dewy forest leaves -- is equally as taken with him.

The Third Prince of Earth seeks the Emperor's permission to wed the Senshi of Jupiter; the Emperor, delighted, gives his consent; and Nephrite and Makoto are married six months after that Convocation.

As a wedding gift he gives her earrings of a pale pink stone, carved into dainty roses. They suit her tranquil, strong beauty; and she wears them even in her Senshi guise. They are happy, well and truly in love; and a few years after the wedding, their marriage is blessed with a daughter. Her eyes are a mixture of her parents', a laughing green-blue; and her hair is again a mixture of theirs, Nephrite's auburn and Makoto's chestnut brown.

Her name is Naru; and her father adores her beyond all reason.

Not that I blame him, you understand; the kid's damn cute and bright and bubbly. Her mother's strength is in her, and her father's phenomenal energy. She isn't a magician nor will ever become one -- more's the pity -- but she's got such a wellspring of untapped power in her that she could easily serve as a vessel for a Senshi herself.

Nephrite, Makoto, Naru: they live in the vast fortress of Ayers Rock, and although Makoto must often leave for her duties as Senshi Jupiter, she always hastens home and is welcomed by her husband the astromancer and her daughter the lively sprite.

This -- Makoto's frequent absences and her frequent journeys around the solar system on the business of Jupiter and its Senshi -- never leads to any sort of rift within the family; Naru adores her laughing, brilliant mother as much and as fully as she worships her remote, scholarly father; Nephrite loves his sweet and wry wife unequivocally, and it doesn't matter whether she's six inches from him or six planets.

This, then, was the sort of family life enjoyed by Nephrite, the Third Prince of Earth during the last years of Silver Millennium; and it was wholly unique in all of the viceregencies of Earth at that time.

Kunzaito-sama, the Shogun of Earth and Second Prince, lived at his capital of Xanadu in Asia; and if he ever slept alone no records ever said so.

Jadeite, the Fourth Prince of Earth, viceroy of North America and lord of the great city Coronado, has sort of an interesting little system he's worked out, whereby seven girls rotate in and out of his harem at any given hour. One of them, the Lady Tetisu, managed to stay part of his coterie for nigh-on five years before he got tired of her.

Cassiterite-sama, Prince of Africa -- well, if he quit fucking around with whatever the hell it is he's building in the desert outside his outpost of Gizeh, then he might well settle down into the lifestyle of Jadeite-sama and Kunzaito-sama -- that is, fuck 'em and leave 'em.

Oddly enough, out of all the Princes of Earth, only Zoisite of South America and Mamoru Endymion of Lemuria, the Sixth Prince and the First Prince, come even close to Nephrite's preferred uxorious lifestyle: Zoisite loves and is faithful to his adored mentor Kunzaito-sama; and Mamoru Endymion has never thought of any woman other than his shining Serenity, princess of the Moon.

You see the pattern? The ArchDemon goes after Kunzaito-sama to ensnare Zoisite; after Serenity to grasp Mamoru Endymion; after Makoto-sama and Naru-chan to take Nefuraito-sama.

Bitch, isn't It.

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Australia is the loneliest of the continents of Earth, even in Silver Millennium.

There are very few things living on the great island-continent; and of those who do, about eighty percent of them are sheep.

Another fifteen percent consists of evil-minded poisonous snakes and downright bastardly poisonous spiders.

The remaining five percent of fauna are, as it happens, human beings; and Nephrite of Ayers is their lord. The Oceanians of Silver Millennium are known for their powerful shamanic magic; and Nephrite is one of the mightiest practitioners of the art to come along in centuries.

This is probably what the kinzuishou had picked up on, Nephrite's phenomenal talent and gift; cuz his gift is so immense it doesn't just manifest itself in ordinary ways.

Nephrite of Ayers bursts into the scene as an astromancer.

There are all sorts of different "mancy"s, you know. There's necromancy -- which is nasty and all done up with dead bodies and such -- and nigromancy -- which is demons and worse -- and your lithomancy (magic with stones) and your areomancy (war-magic) and your crystallomancy (what Beryl and Zoisite do -- magic with crystals) and your gelomancy.

I have no idea what the fuck "gelomancy" is sposta be -- what the hell kind of Greek cognate is "gelo," anyway? -- but I think it has something to do with looking into buckets.

Yes, buckets. Shut up. There's no need to be snickering like that.

But Nephrite's gift is astromancy, star-magic, one of the rarest manifestations of the gift that there is; and he's so damn good at it that even Kunzite respects his skill and power.

Right. Stars. And Makoto's power lies in electricity and green things. Naru's power is solely in her charm and of course in her capacity to hold almost unlimited sorcerous power just waiting to be tapped from within her slender frame.

And one thing right off the bat -- just cuz Nephrite happens to be best at releasing his power through the medium of the stars doesn't mean he can't do it through other media. That's the mistake commonly made; and that's the point to which I was delicately referrin' at the beginning of this tale: the Dark Kingdom has no stars, and therefore Nephrite suffers a bit of a handicap in the Dark Kingdom, having less power than he does in the prime plane; but while in the Dark Kingdom he uses other methods, other magics; and if they don't serve him as well or fit him as comfortably as his beloved stars, they work well enough to suit Beryl and her Dark Goddess.

Besides, Metallia don't like stars; they're too pure and uncomplicated to suit It, too focused and bright and aloof for It to reach. The ArchDemon feels that perhaps it would be best that Nephrite leave his stars behind when he comes over to Beryl's forces.

Yes, well, honey, even ArchDemons are capable of cunning. It's, in fact, one of a demon's primary characteristics, cunning is.

So: that's the problem, it is. Pry Nefuraito-sama from his stars, his Emperor, and his world; and do it by dint of using against him his wife and his daughter.

Gorgeously simple plan, and brutally effective.

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It started with Kunzite.

I've told you about how Kunzite was snared into the ArchDemon's coils: by his own sense of duty and his dedication to the Celestial Imperium of the Endymions.

I reckon I've also told you that the lover of Kunzite was young and lovely Zoisite Enoara; and that the friend of Kunzite was Nephrite of Ayers.

It's lonely at the top; the only people with whom Kunzite can share the awful burden of a Terran principality are his fellow princes; and among those six worthies, Kunzite considers only Zoisite and Nephrite worthy of his attention. He is intrigued by Zoisite's golden beauty and viperish cunning; he's hella interested in Nephrite's analytical mind and astromantic flair.

Right. So when Metallia takes Kunzite and evilizes him, It also takes his memories and his thoughts, sifting through them to see if there's anything useful in them.

It deems Nephrite interesting. It deems Nephrite's wife, the Senshi Jupiter, very interesting.

It deems Nephrite's daughter Naru abso-fucking-lutely fascinating. If you were a power-hungry ArchDemon Who needed a helluva lot of raw energy to burst fully into this plane, wouldn't you think that sweet Naru, a sorcerous vessel of staggering capacity, was pretty damn intriguing?

Sure you would.

Sure Metallia does.

These, then, are Kunzite's objectives: get Nephrite. Kill his wife. Nab his daughter -- ditch Nephrite as a lost cause if you have to, but get his daughter, chummer, the Dark Kingdom wants results.

Kunzite the Shogun of Imperial Earth would've spat in the ArchDemon's face -- or at Its ugly red cocoon, same difference -- and said the occult equivalent of "Fuck you and the bitch you piggybacked into the world on; I ain't betraying my friend or a Senshi or an innocent child."

But that Kunzite is gone forever, blasted into oblivion by the pervasive influence of the ArchDemon and the pure concentrated evil that pulses through Beryl's veins; and only the demonlord Kunzite remains, silver eyes cold and pitiless and paler than death.

And Kunzite bows to his queen, beckons to his chainman -- y'know, only the person who acts as his orderly and lieutenant over the Janissary-youma, i.e., yours truly -- and says tonelessly, "Come."

I go.

And together we sift through the Janissaries -- no, fuck, I can't call 'em "Janissaries" anymore; the Janissaries were the cybernetic shocktroops of Imperial Earth, and these empty-eyed, dull-faced critters ain't even remotely human anymore.

They're youma now, pure and simple; and I can't stand looking at 'em. Metallia's evil has corrupted them inside and out. The male youma are ugly enough, 'specially the seven Janissary Naibs whom their fellows now call the Seven Shadows; but the female youma are frankly hideous. Only I'm still even close to my human form; and my face is so deformed I have to hide it under a fuckin' ninja's mask.

I see that goddam smirk on your pretty li'l mug, don't for a minute think I can't see you snickering at me. A ninja's mask is a goddam sight better than what some of the female youma wear, believe you me. You don't wanna know what Corbiba thinks is becoming.

Anyway, what're we talking about here, my sartorial -- let us be pretentious -- splendor, or Nephrite's downfall? Right.

And at last Kunzaito-sama and I find our three youma, the three for the job; all of them still mostly humanoid, maybe only a bit more deformed by Metallia's evil than I am. I can look down on 'em; they're Metallia's slaves, but I'm Metallia's servant -- not by choice, true; but if I can still serve Kunzaito-sama, I don't much give a damn.

We take these three suckers; and we head to Earth, Kunzaito-sama using his link to Metallia in order to open a portal between the Dark Kingdom and the primary plane of Earth.

We blink as we step out into bright sunlight -- oh, gods of dell and mountain, it's gorgeous after so long in the dark and brooding sere of the kingdom...

We are in Australia; and far off under the cloudless expanse of silvery sky, over the vista of tightly-packed red grit, we can see the mighty fortress of Ayers Rock standing tall and proud against the sky.

It may be worthwhile to tell you a bit about Ayers Rock, the fortress of the Prince of Oceania.

Sucker's three miles long, a mile and a half wide at its narrowest point, and damn near two miles high. The only reason nobody calls it a mountain is cuz it's too damn ugly to be one. The stone is as red as the hard-packed desert around it; the interior is a warren of tunnels and corridors. All of 'em are chalked up and painted in the shamanic patterns so prevalent in Oceania during Silver Millennium; and over the Rock lies a powerful geas laid down by Nephrite himself, reinforced by the lightning of Senshi Jupiter.

Few people live in the Rock; only Nephrite, his family, and those servitors and staff he can't do without. You know -- like his secretaries, his chief of staff, his spymaster and his captain of the guard -- people of that sort. Certainly there ain't that many magicians; the only people of any real sorcerous strength are the Prince himself and his wife, a Senshi.

Well well well, you say. Goin' up against a Senshi is a pretty fair way to commit suicide, you say. Perchance this aforementioned booger-brainedness is taking effect on Kunzaito-sama a bit quicker than expected, you say.

Good point, honey; keep this up and I'll have to revise my opinion o' your smarts before long.

Even Kunzite hesitates at going against a Senshi in her full power; and before Silver Millennium falls, the Senshi are all at least in their Super forms. Even a magician of Kunzite's caliber -- and honey, sorcerers like Kunzite don't come along very often -- dithers a bit before setting his strength against one of the World Avatars.

But not to worry; Kunzaito-sama's got a few aces up his sleeve.

First off, Makoto-sama isn't home at the moment.

Secondly, even if she were home, Kunzite figures that she's got a certain handicap, operating on a world not her own; the Earth protests at having any other avatar than its own Endymion throwin' around levin-bolts or such. The only avatar it permits to manifest her full power while on Earth's soil is either Endymion himself or Endymion's soul-mate Serenity, Sailormoon herself.

And thirdly, now Kunzite's got the power of an ArchDemon behind him.

All very convincing arguments; and if Kunzite thinks himself good enough to take on a Senshi, then he can damn well take on Nefuraito-sama.

It's late morning, after all, and the stars won't come out for another six or seven hours.

We should be safe enough; we're youma with the strength of our dark queen and her shadowy master running through us, and we're led by the greatest general and areomancer in several hundred years.

As Alaric, King of the Visigoths, might've said: "Dude, we've got it made in the shade." -- Loosely translated, of course.

Since the Janissaries had little imagination before undergoing Metallia's brainwashing, and have even less now, they're pretty easy to keep docile when not in use; and our three are perfectly willing to keep silent and still for a good hour whilst Kunzaito-sama wangles his way through the geas over the Rock.

Me, I'm bored out of my fucking gourd; what do I know about high-grade sorcery, I'm just a kid from the south of Asia Province who happened to get picked up as the Shogun's chainman and then got my soul jerked around by a demon in the shape of a woman. Hell if I know what kinda sorcery Kunzite flings around as if it's a kiddy toy.

We're in. We go. We enter the Rock, indulge in some wholesale slaughter of whatever guards and staff we happen to find -- honey, do me a favor and please don't ask me how much blood I have on my hands; it's a lot and my own dear mother, whoever the fuck she might've been, would probably recoil from me if she knew how much.

The rest of it's kind of a blank -- the only memory I have of the time in Ayers Rock before we get to Nefuraito-sama and Naru-chan is a vision of Kunzite's dark face, silver eyes tranquil as he surveys a room where the floor is sticky with blood. He fastidiously flicks his cape out of the various puddles of sanguinary crimson.

The rest of my memory gets real clear, though, once we get to the innermost core of the Rock, the sanctum sanctorum of the astromancer.

I can hear a deep cool voice saying, "And this chart shows what, Naru?"

A bright chirrup. "Eridani Beta, papa!"

A chuckle. "Exactly. And this is --?"

"Sagittarius, papa! And there's Cassiopeia, and there's -- that's not a constellation, papa, that's the moon... That's where Serenity-hime lives, and that's where mama is."

"Yes again. Good girl. You may have your snack now, Naru."

"Chocolate parfait! Wai wai! Will you have one with me, papa?"

"Of course. A chocolate parfait with my favorite girl -- neither hell nor high water could keep me from it."

Well, he's at least half wrong; hell's here, in the person of the silver-eyed First of the Shitennou.

When the doors -- warded more thickly than anywhere else on Earth save the Imperial Palace in Tokyo -- burst open, and the shining demonlord Kunzite strides through with three youma (and me, don't forget me) at his back...

The look on Nephrite's face is priceless. Really. I wish I have some way of recording it -- really goddam funny, if you like that sort of thing.

Nephrite thrusts his small daughter behind him, pulls himself together, faces Kunzite coldly. "You are a demon and a traitor; you are unwelcome in this place and in all places of Silver Millennium," Nephrite says coldly; and I can just see him frantically tunneling through all of his possibilities. Even before the demonization Kunzite is stronger than Nephrite, in both body and power; and now that Kunzite has the dark power of Metallia in him...

Nefuraito-sama ain't got a chance, and he knows it.

Kunzite nods to one of the youma, a tall strapping bloke what looks sorta vaguely like a hybrid human and wolf, and there's a flash of gray fur. Nephrite's daughter is held fast in the youma's arms, wailing "Papa!"

Nephrite folds up right then and there, you can see it in his face: there's no way he can get his daughter back, not against three youma and Kunzite (and me, don't forget me).

"I am a demonlord and a traitor to the weakness of Earth," Kunzite says, unsmiling, "and if you will come over to the strength of the Dark Goddess willingly, I will spare your daughter."

Nephrite don't even hesitate: he says, "I accept. Let Naru-chan go."

Jesus fuckin' CHRIST! you scream. Doesn't he know Kunzite's lying? you say. Doesn't he know that demons tell the truth about as often as they play fairly? you say. What the fuck's the matter with him? you explode. What about his duty to Earth and the Mikado and the Golden Crystal? you say.

Again you repeat, what the fuck's wrong with Nephrite?

You sure ain't observant, darlin; think back over what you know of Nephrite, and then tell me what's wrong with him.

This is his way of fighting, the way of Quetzalcoatl, of Siddhartha Gautama, of Mohandas K. Gandhi, of Martin Luther King Jr.

Nephrite fights by passive resistance.

And Kunzite the demonlord doesn't know this.

Hell, I don't know it either until much much later; I don't even begin to suspect until the Battle of the Moon, almost ten years later.

Regardless: Kunzite, amazingly, smiles. He says coldly, "You submit of your own free will to the Dark Goddess Metallia, and to the rule of Her chosen avatar Beryl-sama of the Dark Kingdom?"

"I submit of my own free will," Nephrite responds. "Now let my daughter go."

It's right about now that things get interesting; because as Kunzite reaches out to Nephrite and with a sudden jab at the Prince's neck immobilizes him, as Kunzite opens a portal to the Dark Kingdom in preparation of taking back the unconscious Prince and the bitterly sobbing little girl, there comes a flash of pure light and a thunderclap of furious lightning.

"SPARKLING... WIDE.... PRESSURE!"

"CRESCENT... BEAM!"

Senshi Jupiter's come home early... and it seems she's brought a friend with her.

"Holy snot," I mutter, and dive into the dark portal, watching from the safeness of the Kingdom while two of the youma go up in ashes. The one still holding Naru stands dumbly as Senshi Venus comes at him from the right -- "LOVELY CHAIN!" -- and whisks Naru safely away; he screams at last as Senshi Jupiter's levin-bolt sends him into oblivion.

Kunzite, with Nephrite's still form over his shoulder (not the right shoulder; no, he'll never be able to bear pressure on that wound as long as he lives), pauses and glares with cold silver fury at the two Senshi who face him.

"Unhand him," snaps the Senshi Jupiter, her green eyes as cold and as glimmering as poison. "Get thee gone, demon; and release the Prince of Oceania."

"As you will, Avatar of the planet of kings," says Kunzite, shrugging; and releases Nephrite into my waiting grasp. Jesus, Nephrite's heavy; he's been hittin' the chocolate parfaits a bit hard lately, methinks.

Kunzite steps through the portal, closes it just in time.

We have Nephrite, and of his own free will; and this is a mistake. Really.

We should've jumped him and beat him in submission or something; it's not good to take him of his own free will.

That just leads to trouble.

============================

As for Naru; she is taken by her stunned and shocked mother to the Moon, where the child is given a place in the maids of honor of the Princess Usagi Serenity.

As it happens, the attack on Ayers Rock is what it takes to declare a state of emergency over Imperial Earth: now the Mikado is frightened.

The kinzuishou now spends its time permanently being held in the hand of Crown Prince Mamoru Endymion; Jadeite of Coronado layers his domain in countless spells of protection; Zoisite Enoara yearns for the arms of his sensei Kunzaito-sama even as he carefully spikes the defenses of South America; Cassiterite of Africa hurries more than ever over his vast pyramid at Gizeh.

When the Princes of Earth get this nervous, you just know that the rest of Silver Millennium's gonna pick up on it; Jupiter, warned by its grieving Senshi, has already girded its loins --

make a smartass remark here and I'll brain you --

for war with some shadowy enemy of whom Jupiter-sama can only speak in whispers of the dark and of a vast shadow, mirrored in a pair of silver-pale eyes.

Makoto-sama is no dummy; she knows that anything that can subvert Lord Kunzite, anything that can seize her powerful remote husband Prince Nephrite, has to be something terrible and potent indeed.

She's right. Oh boy is she ever right.

She won't know how right until the Battle of the Moon ten years later, where Silver Millennium falls and the solar system goes barren; she won't know how right until her own beloved Nephrite, his eyes blank and glazed, puts a saber through her middle --

Hmm?

Of course Nephrite fights against the possession; he fights every day against Metallia's taint.

When he wakes up in the Dark Kingdom, Metallia's already moved in and settled Its black self throughout every cell in his body; he is dressed in the gray trimmed with red of his kingship; and Kunzite himself decorates Nephrite's shoulders with red and gold epaulets signifying Nephrite's high honor within the Kingdom.

He is given a citadel for his own dwelling, he is given six legions of the Janissaries-cum-youma for his own troops, and he is given an audience with Beryl-hime in which his new duties and loyalties are explained to him in detail.

The only time he speaks in those first days is to ask where his daughter is; when informed coldly by Kunzite that she is dead and her body given to the youma, he merely nods as if this is just what he had expected, and makes no fuss.

It's no wonder that we all think he's a bit of a dud those first few days; all of his attention is given over to resisting with too little left over to convince us of his badassishness.

See, this is why I think Metallia and Kunzite made a mistake, trying to win over Nephrite: Metallia crept into a relaxed, easy mind. It smoothed Itself over every bit of Nephrite's psyche, coated every aspect of his self in Its own black and bloody glory.

But this leaves the taint no room for judgment of exactly how tightly Nephrite can wind up. Since It seizes him while he's calm and passive, It can't possibly see how hard and how dirty Nephrite can fight.

This is why I think Metallia screwed up with Nephrite.

Certainly It didn't make the same mistake with Zoisite or Jadeite: both of them come to the darkness kicking and screaming, even if in Zoisite's case it's kicking with delight and screaming with joy.

But that's a tale for another time.

Same time next week, sugar?

See you then.