916/Lost & Found: King and Lionheart (Second Take)

Lost & Found: King and Lionheart (Second Take)
Date of Scene:	23 December 2023
Location:	Four Clover Mall
Synopsis:	CW: Abuse. The last of the Dark Generals faces purification. But what tricks does the most crafty of the Shitennou have in store for Princess Serenity, Prince Endymion, and Kunzite?
Cast of Characters:	Zoisite, Mamoru Chiba, Usagi Tsukino, Kazuo Saitou
Tinyplot:	Lost & Found

---

Zoisite has posed:
    The pocketwatch, and the golden thread that connects the Guardians to their Prince, direct the rescue party to Four Clover Mall whenever they pop out of the Gates of Time. Or thereabouts. It's a cold night, and the neon lights of store signs and futuristic-styled but very much modern era cars zipping behind on the road, leaving trails of red, stand out in the darkness. Snow is still falling, like it has been ever since a certain Yuki-Onna made her appearance at the park. Perhaps the snow has stopped at the park, and outside that hospital, but other parts of Tokyo are not so fortunate. It's piling up like crazy.

    It's the kind of weather disturbance that is inexplicable to science. The snow keeps falling and the temperature keeps falling regardless of availability of moisture to freeze and fall from the sky. Someone will have to deal with that eventually. It's still nothing compared to the world-wide chaos that is coming when Queen Beryl finally unleashes the Dark Kingdom's great leader. Distorted geo-magnetic fields, tidal levels, storm activity, seismic disturbances, not to mention the warping of the Earth's natural magical energy that has been gradually waking up over the past few centuries. Or millennia. Zoisite doesn't know, what does he look like, the Narrator?

    But he's there, in the area around the mall, doing something dramatic like standing on the edge of a roof or some other precarious location with his arms folded and no care spent for the freezing cold and the snow that is deflected away by his forceshield.

    He's just waiting, and watching the lights of headlights as they head in his direction, and the red trails as they drive away. It brings back memories. Bad ones.

    Wishing with all his might that his 'real family' would come get him, and save him from the awful family he had cleared been abducted or adopted into. He'd stay by his window, in a high-rise penthouse, watching for headlights of cars driving up the road into the expansive parking garage in the very exclusive district he was consigned to. He'd see the lights coming, his face pressed to the cold glass, with hope rising in his heart.

    Then he'd sink back into despair as the lights turned away, and he was left watching red trails of light, like monster's eyes mocking him for hoping, as they retreated back into the dark.

    Now he's the monster in the darkness. He has the power to do so much. Good or bad, or selfish, or anything at all.

    But he still does nothing, but wait for his real family to come find him, and rescue him from this Hell of not belonging.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"I don't want to split up," says Endymion, there in his armor in one of the mall parking lots, shifting in the cold, not wearing gloves and deeply regretting his henshin choices for just a moment. "But I don't know if he's in the mall or on it."

The snow's already making his hair damp, melting white into his black locks and curling them up a little. It's soaking into his jacket, it's beading up on his pauldrons, and then sticking into slush since they're colder than his hair and jacket, it's making his stupid metal boot armor colder... and then he says it. "This sucks." And then he yells it. "ZOISITE! THIS SUCKS! I hate being cold! Come home already!"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"If his mood is anything like those of Nephrite and Jadeite, he's going to be wherever he can make the most dramatic point," Princess Serenity says dryly. She's not as serene as her name suggests, having been through this twice already, and also being cold. She's not as vulnerable to the weather as she ought to be considering her delicate, wispy dress, nowhere near in danger of frostbite, but she's still cold and she'd rather be cuddled on a couch with Endymion on one side and one of her Senshi on the other and Luna in her lap and Naru offering her a muffin and -

The point is, she is unamused.

"I could try to purify the mall itself," she suggests after a moment, "It should pass through the walls. It won't hurt anyone who isn't filled with Dark Energy...?"

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
"So we can -" Kunzite starts, but he starts too late, and the words are overrun by Endymion's yell. One hand lifts - he wants to close his eyes and pinch the bridge of his nose, which may possibly be the first time he's had sympathy for Kazuo's teachers in that regard, but that would involve closing his eyes, and that's not happening. Not when he can see in the dark, and the others can't. Fingertips rest upon his temple for a moment instead, and he gives a slight sigh.

... and while he's doing that, he's watching. Casually watching everywhere at once, turning a little, to increase the field of vision. Watching for anything moving, or changing.

Ninety-nine percent of it will be people who aren't the one they're looking for. The chance of that one percent is worth watching for, always.

Zoisite has posed:
    "How's kicks?" calls a voice from above. Zoisite is there, on the steps leading up to the pedestrian overpass across the busy street, linking some lit-up business or facility to the still Christmas-decorated mall on the other side. He's leaning on the handrail with his arms folded. One leg is half-bent as he taps the point of his shiny leather boot on a stair idly. He has his hair tied back, as usual, in a low ponytail. Still in his Shitennou uniform, but he seems fairly in-control. He has had time to replenish his Dark Energy reserves, but he hasn't overboosted them the way Jadeite or Nephrite did -- even if only one of them actually used that energy. His injuries from the Soryuu Shrine were minor compared to the ones at Hikawa Shrine, but they've likewise healed without a trace.

    "So, I know you have this infuriating and adorable habit of trying to take responsibility for everything, but I need to explain something to you. First, no, I wasn't really worried about the One Ring thing, that was just me making you think I was worried over something trivial and nerdy and stupid so you wouldn't worry about me as much. Second, shut up I'm still talking, don't you dare interrupt me! Anyway, second, you blame yourself for getting us into this, but you offering me a way out of the life I was living before I met you saved me. Maybe you'll never understand what I mean, exactly. Maybe you already do, because you're you again."

    Zoisite flips his ponytail over his shoulder as he straightens up, and hops onto the handrail and balances on it like a tightrope walker without so much as a wobble or slip -- though he fakes like he's going to fall off a time or to as he approaches the trio.

    "Third, even full of Dark Energy, even at my lowest after meeting you, I still had more hope than I did in the entire fourteen years before that. So please stop trying to be a martyr, your sister is just as insufferable about it.--By the way, did you already get to her? She went blank on my mental map of the magic people in the city that I could sense. I guess getting rid of her Dark Energy would have been one of the first things you did after getting her out of the shrine, huh?"

    Zoisite pirouettes off the handrail, spinning in the air like an olympic ice skater, and then landing a few meters away in a dramatic pose. Then he puts his hands in his pockets and smugly says, "Anyway, that's my monologue. Feel free to applaud at any time. It'll warm your hands, darlings." He also looks Kunzite up and down approvingly, giving a nod. It's good having Kunzite back with them. Even if Zoisite himself isn't 'with them' yet, it's close enough just to be able to call him Kunzite again. He does it just to amuse himself. Just to hear the sound and form the syllables on his tongue. 'Kunzite. Kun-zite. Kun-ziiiite.' he tries a few times, then shrugs with a lop-sided smile as if to say, 'yeah, I know I'm being ridiculous, deal with it, it's part of the package'.

    Then he extracts a gloved hand from his pocket to give a dismissive wave. "Go ahead, you can talk now, I'm done."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
With his cold hands tucked under his arms, Endymion listens, and he watches Zoisite's easy dance with his partners, gravity and air, with a fierce wistfulness. No: that's what he watches Zoisite with. The light movement gets only admiration. He makes predictably reactive faces at some of the things Zoi says, up to and including a little pinched face at 'I did it to make you stop worrying' -- and finally, he considers taking his hands out to clap.

He does not. They're warmer than they would be in the cold air right where they are.

"Okay. We didn't do anything to my sister, by the way, she hasn't had any dark energy for a while. Her mom killed a complicated story person, and my sister did something maddeningly self-sacrificial -- which I know is rich coming from me, I'm sorry, I panicked and thought I could tank it -- and now she's straight-up pure ghost again, so all bets are off," Endymion explains, perfectly reasonably. Then he chuffs out a tiny little laugh. "I'll stop blaming myself," he says. Then he asks, earnestly, "Do you still have hope? Because... I want you to come home. To us. To me."

He does take his cold hands out, now, and it's to hold one out to Zoisite, inviting, welcome. "Please? There are hope-compatible safeguards in place if you get mind-controlled and your hands can't help stabbing me, don't worry."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
So it seems that immediate purification on sight may not be necessary. There's the chance - the hope - that Zoisite will allow himself to be talked down. Given that, Serenity elects to say nothing, preferring to give Endymion and Kunzite centerstage, while she holds the Moon Stick in her hand, ready for the potential for violence.

Serenity isn't entirely sure of everything Zoisite speaks of, but she knows better than to underestimate him. He'd always been clever and her memories of Hikawa Shrine, Crystal Tower, and Soryuu Shrine all tell her that the power she remembers him commanding is still very much present and accounted for.

He speaks of hope and being saved, and it gives her hope - but she remembers death, too. So much, at his hands. The moment is too fragile for hope to fully blossom.

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
There. Kunzite tips back his head to look up at Zoisite, distant flickers of multicolored light glinting off the crystal of his earrings, tinting the pale cascades of his hair and cloak. The first time Zoisite plays at near-falling, there's a twitch of a frown, a visible concern - might Zoisite still be hurt enough to actually have trouble with his balance?

No. No, and his mouth curves just a little the other way, and stays there. Of course not. Good.

(He is standing at an angle to the others, and his field of vision would give him an instant's warning if anyone or anything came at their backs, or dropped down from over their heads. Because it's Zoisite, and there is still something sometimes in his mind, and there is no telling what else might be in the vicinity, or perhaps that might not be truly Zoisite they're looking at, or perhaps the lights of the mall might be made to do something -- an infinite number of possibilities. It's not distrust, that absent level of care taken, that just-in-case watch. It's respect, and appreciation, and awareness that this one of all people always has a chance of surprising him.)

He says nearly as little as Serenity. Only returns name for name: "Zoisite." Not trying it on for size, no, but - this is the first time he's been able to say it properly, face to face, with both of them admitting that his own name fits. The sound of it is a warmth in itself. And with the little tilt of his head, it says in return: 'and all of the package is welcome.'

It's a deliberate choice to give up his watching, and to let the snow crunch under his own boots as he takes a couple of steps into those few meters of distance. Not closing in, but closing a little of the gap.

Zoisite has posed:
    Zoisite nods along with the explanation, giving an appropriate eyeroll at the further confirmation that these two siblings have an awful martyrdom complex. Or was it the other thing? Impostor syndrome? No, that's what Zoisite has. Well, whatever, what does he look like, a psychiatrist? He only played a doctor ONCE.

    He smiles sadly at the hand held out to him, and then looks towards Kunzite as he closes the distance a bit. Hope. Potential. Zoisite stepping forwards to close the gap as well. Then him saying, "You know it can't be that easy. I warned you that you might have to kill me to save me. You have the Silver Crystal now. Or she does." He nods in acknowledgement to Princess Serenity. Perhaps a bit more respectfully than might be expected. "You can make miracles happen. So go all out, end me, and revive me without that demon bitch inside me."

    "With you, her, and Kunzite present... There's no way you'll lose." Zoisite closes his eyes. "I've stayed out of combat more than the others, so I should have less corruption inside of me than Nephrite or Jadeite. Fewer chances to remake my body as a fucking youma. But I still bleed green. And, unlike Nephrite, she hasn't bothered trying to take direct control often so I've not built up a resistance or any kind. If that's how it even works." He opens his eyes and shrugs. With a mysterious smile, as if at some in-joke that nobody else here will get, he says, "I'm not a demonologist either, it seems."

    He pauses and then reaches out for Endymion's hand. "She won't let you have me without a fight. But I heard from the undead urchin that you're apparently a Diver. Whatever that means. So... Maybe you can fight inside my soul, so no one else has to get hurt." So that he doesn't have to risk seeing the sight of his Prince dead again, because he allowed evil to tempt him, and this same Moon Princess cradling him in her arms and lap before ending herself in turn. The Soryuu Shrine was a reminder he needed but didn't want, not ever.

    "The rotting rugrat did give me an idea though." Zoisite says, hesitating and withdrawing his hand. "She likes to sing. She said it's how she expresses the shape of her soul. Maybe with a proper tune to it, we can synch up easier." He pulls out a smartphone and a pair of ear buds. "Like we used to." He holds out one of the ear buds. There's already a song cued up on the phone. Obsidian brand, so the internet is legit. Hacked to hell and back with Zoisite's telemechanics so that it doesn't track or spy on him.

    Then he holds out his hand towards Endymion's again. Waiting.

    He had a plan to be rescued, and set it up in advance? That's Zoisite alright. Always surprising. Even if it means going counter to all of his actions and behavior so far, and putting everyone off-balance by being the Shitennou who doesn't fight.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Trust, but be cautious. Trust, but verify. Trust, but remember being told not to--

"I didn't forget what you said," says Endymion, a little smile crooking up one corner of his mouth, affectionate and equally sad. "I've been thinking about it. And no, yeah, Neph was constantly fighting it actively. He kept making it mad-- I'll tell you the funny part when we're done."

He's so close to taking Zoisite's hand when he withdraws it, another step closer and then it's a whiff, a miss. But it's all right, Zoi is still talking. He listens. He nods firmly.

Endymion takes the earbud without hesitating, holds it up to his ear and puts it in, because it's like they used to. Zoisite knows how loud is comfortable for Mamoru. He confirms, "I can fight that way. I'm also going to be healing you. Please hold on tight, and remember--"

Endymion shows teeth in this grin, it's fierce. "You swore to me first, and I never let go. That demon's contract is bullshit. Null and void. And your lawyer has the Silver Crystal." A beat as he reaches finally take Zoisite's hand. "That sounded cool, right? I hope that sounded cool."

There's golden power in that touch now that wasn't there before, was masked, was hidden under layers of hardened dark energy tar. There's been only the suggestion of it, the breath of it, of the Earth's soul -- it was enough, before, to follow. Now it's so bright, so warm, and it holds in it the height of Everest and the depths of the Marianas Trench, it holds the vasty deeps and the snow-covered tundra, the bright beaches and the dark caves, root systems and bedrock and the electric veins of cities and bottled rivers underground. It holds breathless welcome-homes and the safety of a blazing hearth in the winter and the banked embers later on--

--and Endymion, Mamoru, is there. He's there, and he loves Zoisite so much, and it's right there in his touch. "Okay, Zoi, press play, and Kunzite please come with--" he holds out his other hand "and Serenity, if it goes wrong, you'll know."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Well, this isn't what she expected at all. Serenity - Serenity isn't sure what to expect, but she trusts Endymion,n and she will follow his lead. If there are earphones she can use as well, she'll be using them, Moon Stick in hand, the purifying power of the Silver Crystal ready to be put to good use.

"If it goes wrong," she echoes, "I'll know."

This is a moment for Endymion and his court, not her own. She'll wait, at the ready.

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
Hand clasps Mamoru's other hand, and Kunzite is there, as well. Some parts of him are the same. The constant alertness, quick as the dark. The steady foundation of absolute loyalty, of purpose, the capability for absolute pragmatism. Some parts are different; but that's to be expected: one of them waited at the window, one waited and searched, and both of them are marked by it.

The flavor of his underlying anger is - different. It's not that it's not a weakness in something like this. But it's a weakness he's aware of, and that makes it in his hands, like everything else, a potential weapon.

And there is something else in him. There is something bright and burning, already pure. It's not his fire. But the flavor of it is familiar, for all that there's no alien darkness in it at all.

Zoisite has posed:
    Zoisite's finger on the phone screen presses down as those who are coming along are going along. There's a rhythm to follow, it wends its way past psychic defenses, and layers of hardened Dark Energy, and other fragile and destructive things that are designed to break Zoisite if they fail to break his enemies. The song synchronizes them, and guides them, and those defenses become porous for Endymion, and Kunzite.

    The song that Princess Serenity hears is a strange one. Clearly older, maybe from the 90s, and in English for some reason. But Zoisite serves as the translator. The emotional content and meaning of the words transmits to the other three oddly-dressed individuals, linking them to the extent that they are willing to be linked and no further.

    It's a song of hope, and fear, and mourning, and doubt, and perseverance, freedom, being trapped, justified paranoia, and finally the painful but necessary decision to move forward and leave things behind that were once treasured.

    All of the Shitennou, among their many gifts, happen to be impressive vocalists. Zoisite's mind is focused inwards, and he is only singing quietly, but it is as pure and soft as silver bells and the snow around them. He sounds like a young woman trained for the stage.

    The world is opening up wide for me
    I can see all, but what is it that I see?
    My cage has opened; I've been set free.
    So why do I cling to the bars that have held me?

    As the tune drops, so does the Diver. Into an enormous cavern-like structure that represents the inside of Zoisite's mind. His soul is further down. But at least there's no water to swim through in here.

    Just pain.

    My chains have been unlocked. My body's been set free.
    But my mind, now my mind feels strangely like my enemy.
    How can I trust, when the traitor lives inside my soul?
    And the one I love's been taken far from me
    (Far from me)

    A young man, bare chested, covered in welts from a belt, curled up in a corner of a featureless white room, face hidden behind his folded arms, laying across his knees. The sound of chains rattling against each other and within whatever metallic housing they emerge and disappear into undercuts the song, trying to drown it out. But Endymion's soul is resonating with Zoisite's, and the song grows louder in response. Yoshi, Zoisite's civilian identity, trying on some girl's clothes that he bought with his allowance, spinning around in the mirror and looking at himself from differet angles. A genuine smile on his face, even if flushed with embarrassment. It's a happy embarrassment though. Pride in how he looks.

    Then a shadow looming over him, and Yoshi turns towards it, eyes wide in fear, face going pale, and then screaming and cursing and more beatings, the clothing being torn off of him, and then being dragged by the hair outside, to be returned to that white room.

    More scenes of abuse and alienation, from authority figures, students, and strangers who judged him for how he looked. Then meeting Hematite. Being reminded of who he was. Being swallowed up by Dark Energy. And not fearing anymore.

    Or at least not the shadow that had loomed over him before. He has a shadow inside of him now.

Zoisite has posed:
    What I fear is gone, and what I love has changed.
    But I feel, yes I feel the power is inside of me
    I can't run, I won't hide from the light I see in front of me
    You lose your soul when you won't find your destiny
    (Destiny)

    Memories of Zoisite and Kunzite during Silver Millennium. Others are there too. The Inner Senshi. Mercury very close for some reason. Nephrite and Jadeite. And their Prince. And the Moon Princess who loved him. And then a shadow fell like a curtain over his mind, and he couldn't remember making any deal, but the voice in his head assured him he had.

    I won't pretend to die for all eternity
    To close my eyes and wonder, just wonder
    Being empty
    Left all alone in a dreamworld would be
    Avoiding my truth!

    Zoisite, Yoshi, the core identity without names attached or relevant, dangles in a cage, suspended on a chain, above an Abyss. One likely uncomfortably similar to the one that one lay in Himeko's soul. But this one does not lead to the land of the dead. This one leads to a different sort of Hell. And the Demon is looking at Endymion, Kunzite, and Zoisite. She's right there. Enormous red eyes, floating in seething darkness, with jagged mouth spilling horrors in the form of whispers that circulate around and around the shattered mindscape, seeping into everything, cracking and crumbling it, leaving behind only blackened, calcified, cancerous stone. Hollow, fragile, ready to fall apart.

    The world is opening up wide for me
    I can see all, but what is it that I see?
    My cage has opened. I've been set free.
    So why do I cling to the bars that have held me?

    The lyrics end, though the song continues on for a whie longer.
    Outside, Dark Energy is burning around Zoisite, scourging the parking lot, sending snow flying in a vortex. But nobody seems to be getting hurt.

    Yet.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Every thing that they see or hear-- every bruise, every welt, every scream and threat, every moment of devastating loneliness and alienation-- none of it is a surprise to Endymion. None of it startles him. Maybe he didn't know the extent, maybe he knew on some level but didn't imagine details, but every last horror tracks.

There are absolutely things that are worse than being crammed with Dark Energy.

Every single thing strengthens Mamoru's resolve (does he have a name for his core identity? does he have a name beyond Protector, beyond Diver--? He is both right now, and he is also Prince, because that's part of what Zoi needs here) and every single thing makes him angrier. The anger doesn't generate darkness the way it did just last week: it burns clean and pure and bright, and it's well primed by the time they make it to the space above the Abyss.

(Why do I cling to the bars that have held me?)

Endymion sees that thing lurking there, that demon in the roiling abyss, and he calls out to the soul in the cage, "Hey Zoi! Check this out!" and gives Metalia the finger. But he's immediately, then, while still watching the demon, calling again: "Kunzite, keep him shielded, it should work the same. Usa's got our backs. Close your eyes out there if you have to."

He believes in Sailor Moon-- believes in Kunzite, believes in Zoisite. And he knows they believe in him. The music has them all in step, and Endymion starts to draw his sword--

--then sheathes it and pulls out a rose instead, smile getting very pointy indeed. He moves over to put his hand on the cave wall and does two things at once:

First, he pours golden healing light into Zoisite's mind, soul, whatever it is they're dealing with right now, building up the crumbling "rock" with golden quick-set glue, strengthening what's real so that it has a leg up on holding more solidly when the purification comes in.

Second, he throws that rose directly at one of the demon's eyes and immediately follows it up with another, aimed at the other eyes. "You're not qualified to look at us!" he yells downwards.

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
If the core identity of the white-haired one were simply Kunzite, then things would have gone very differently. His anger was a festering thing, a darkness, a route rich with potential for the creature's power to find its way in.

Other times, other voices. Their prince's being out of true woke that anger with a warning, and this time, this time, he listened, he pushed himself, he began to learn. This time, the pain they dive through does not wake a craving for vengeance in him. It wakes anger, oh yes. But he knows why the anger, now. That anger is a desire to protect, a fear of loss. There's still a danger. But as long as he sees those things clearly, as long as he holds that focus in mind --

The pride he feels in Yoshi's survival, in Yoshi's stretch to be himself, despite what happened to him - in the strength that it took to make each assertion, to get past each strike at him, physical and verbal, emotional, social - that resonates with the song, supports it with harmony.

And the will to protect manifests itself as another kind of darkness. A sphere of shadow that cradles that core identity, inside the cage.

It does not matter if the cage falls. The one inside it will not.

The rest - even those eyes - he does not allow to matter to him. Whatever the rose does, it's his task to keep that brilliant self from suffering from the reactions. He'll trust Mamoru for the rest.

None of them are any good at keeping themselves out of Hell. But sometimes, sometimes, they can manage it for each other.

Zoisite has posed:
    A hammer coming down on his arm. A bully who had harassed him when he still went to school. Now just a nuisance. The power to obtain vengeance. Not even caring enough to bother.

    But for some reason, being wronged as Zoisite, by those he saw as equals, even if the wrongs were mostly or wholly imagined, earned his petty, everlasting bitterness. He would go to any lengths to get back at those who violated his sense of right and wrong, even when he was firmly in the wrong.

    Like that time when he impersonated Sailor Moon to trick Tuxedo Mask. Yes, that memory's in there somewhere too, and Zoisite will be very sorry later, but right now let's get back to the way he made others uncomfortable with his flirting.

    Being open with himself and his desires, or even just trying to needle people to make them uncomfortable, was something he couldn't have conceived of as a mere human. Now he had power, so he didn't have to fear. Even if he was rejected, so what? He was the one choosing to be forward, to make the pass, to not care if people react violently or with disgust, because He Can Handle It Now.

    Arrogance gradually creeping into his decision making, a self-image of sophistication tarnished by a sadistic streak. His personality becoming twisted the further he progressed in mastering his powers and recovering poisoned memories. And the more he was with the other Shitennou, the faster the poison spread. Reinforcing each other, strengthening each other, but along the wrong lines, in the wrong direction.

    Now that it's just him left, the poison can be bled. It can be extracted and destroyed like Hema--No, Mamo--Darien--Tux--Endymi--The Boy. The Boy is healing him, trying his best to replace the ego and psyche that have been ravaged by exposure to pure evil, just quietly leeching everything of value from him without him realizing it.

    Almost a walking corpse, unaware that he's dead.

    But still alive.

    He may only bleed green, but the scars, self-inflicted and received, are deep and everywhere. Dry furrows that don't bleed until they start to heal. Then the pain from withered psychic nerves is replaced by live, active, electric, searing agony.

    Zoisite screams out inside the sphere that Kunzite forms, and Metallia screams as well, as she responds to the roses by surging up out of the Abyss, filling the vessel she has so carefully hollowed out and made empty. The whispers of horrors that have lulled Zoisite into a false belief that she hasn't been controlling him, putting him a waking nightmare that he didn't even realize was all in his head, while she nibbled away at his soul like the vicious, infectious predator she is... Finally, they stop, replaced by the roaring that would deafen, destroy ear drums, rupture organs from the shockwaves if it were in the real world, but here is simply a representation of her own psyche, her power, shakes the chain that the cage hangs from wildly.

Zoisite has posed:
    Golden light builds and rebuilds just slightly faster than the curses take and dessicate and destroy. The Shadow is so vast. So deep. So much bigger than she looked when she was waiting in her Hellish pit and watching them. It's overwhelming evil. No wonder it had to be sealed away. How can anyone or anything be this malevolent, twisted, and full of pure cruelty and desire to Take and Take and Take until there's nothing left, and then go elsewhere looking for More?

    The image of a Throne floats through the cavernous emptiness within Zoisite.

    The Throne that No One must have.

    But it is only an image. A thought.

    If I had that, I could save everyone and condemn her to Hell. I'd have to stay there forever, just her and me. But she couldn't hurt anyone ever again.

    A foolish, self-sacrificing notion after ridiculing Endymion and Himeko for the same.

    The door of his cage swings open during the tumult. It's not even locked. The core identity of Zoisite, the Trickster, the Clever One, the Deceiver, the Knight, the Guardian, the General... So many titles. None of them correct.

    Zoisite looks up from where he was huddled. He sees through the darkness the walls of himself being rebuilt. Giving him the strength. The power to free himself, if he'll just take the step forward. The light is in front of him.

    He has the power to do something. Anything.

    But only if he stops doing nothing.

    Finally, looking back at Kunzite, at Kazuo, at the Core of the white-haired young man who he has been infatuated with for such a long time, but also admired as a pillar of strength, an example of what it meant to be charged with protecting the Prince, of responsibility carried out loyally, of the discipline necessary to carry out a duty, all without compromising himself...

    Zoisite reaches out towards Kunzite, as his hair comes loose and flows out behind him. Flowing, golden. Like the light in his chest that illuminates him from within, and makes him want to do better, BE better. That bravery and resilience that none would guess by his frail, effiminate appearance. The heart that still hasn't given in to Metallia even now.

Zoisite has posed:
    The Lionheart leans out of his cage, grasping the bars with one hand, and reaching for the other man, as far as he can extend himself without letting go. And then just letting go, and trusting.

    The Lionheart, coming back to his Prince... And his King.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
It's a sickening feeling, finding out how fast and how thoroughly the poison spread, when Mamoru as Hematite thought that spending time together with each other would keep them safer, would keep them together to weather the harsh pressure of wrongness that Beryl and Metallia levied upon them all. Finding out that his impulse, his plan, was exactly the opposite of what they needed -- and knowing that he was so blind to it because of the darkness he was using as a shield for himself, to keep his power from bleeding where it could be seen and taken, to keep himself from being seen and taken.

But Zoisite told Endymion not to blame himself.

So he doesn't.

Endymion actively and energetically blames the one who deserves it, the one surging up from the pit to fill the cave he's strengthening, the one even now trying to take and keep people he loves and needs so desperately.

Oh does he blame, his fury burning bright and true, and now he draws his sword and holds it out into the billowing and raging storm of hatred and cruelty. It cleaves nothing, for now, only waiting like a bright needle in a hurricane.

He waits, teeth bared, until Zoisite takes that last step of trust; he waits, his hand gripping the wall and continuing to push healing energy in, giving Zoisite strength and sharing the home and love and acceptance, the safe space, that he needs so badly; he waits--

--and when that last step is taken, he cries out loud, "Serenity! Now!" and redoubles his efforts to account for the physical as well as the emotional.

The Prince-- the Boy-- holds that sword out like a reverse lightning rod, aiming to channel some of the immense power Serenity wields into precise surgical strikes at the monster, to burn the demon away from surrounding Kunzite and Zoisite first, to keep it from having the chance to hook further in and destroy any more of Zoisite like it did with Jadeite.

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
It hurts; it hurts terribly. It may yet hurt worse. They can't keep this from hurting Zoisite; sensation coming back to life so often hurts so badly, as months and years of alarms and blocked-off pain arrive all at once.

The darkness that envelops Zoisite does not whisper, does not hurt, does not take away from him. The cage shakes wildly, but the sphere of Kunzite's power within it eases that - cannot keep the cage from swinging as its chain is shaken, but can gentle the impact, absorb the jolts. Keep him from falling, when the door swings open.

(Of course the door was not locked. The cage did not hold him captive of her. The cage held him captive of him - held that center of him safer, after a fashion. A safety he could not flee from, and that was never entirely safe. But held that part of him out of the pit, for as long as its anchor could itself hold out...)

(And of course Kunzite has compromised himself. They all have, now. Even Endymion. None of them is apart from the others, that way; none of them is perfect. That only means that there is better still to do. And that - if they let themselves, if they let each other - they can understand.)

Gold reaches out to silver, and silver lifts his hand in return. And now that sphere of shadow moves - to hold Zoisite safe as he reaches. As he leans. Not making the decision for him. But when the Lionheart lets go -

- he does not fall.

Kunzite cannot spare attention for himself, or for Endymion; he trusts their prince, and their prince's princess, and holds his attention solely on maintaining that sphere. Blacker shadows lash against it, corrupt violet traceries of insinuation and degradation. And as he did with the thorns on the black roses at the shrine, where the demon's attacks try to take root, he combats them with fire - with the Lionheart's own fire, taken in at the studio, cleansed of its corruption, pure as if no part of its creator had never fallen.

That, those whispers, what those whispers say - that is not the truth of who Zoisite is.

This is the truth. This brightness, this burning, this bravery.

The clean darkness carries Zoisite where he wills to go, and Kunzite catches at his hands and draws him to stand with himself, with their Prince. And if the Lionheart permits, he gathers him in as Endymion calls to Serenity.

They can't keep this from hurting. But they can keep him from having to hurt alone.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Staying behind meant trusting Endymion and Kunzite, which was easy. It also meant watching their bodies, which was - less so.

Mostly because of the monstrous aura of Dark Energy that grew and grew and grew from Zoisite, a crushing weight of anger and envy and fear, negative emotion made visible - tangible - by the power of a tainted heart and a creature best described as a demon.

You know, normal things for an evening at the mall.

It was luck that ensured no one approached, even as asphalt cracked under the weight of all that Dark Energy, and the Silver Crystal glowed, beckoning, aching, pulling to be unleashed, and Serenity held herself back, kept that power on a tight leash, did not pour out all that she held within her even though it all ached to set right that which was wrong, to incinerate the darkness, to purge and scour and purify that which did not belong. It wasn't time, though. Endymion had asked her to hold off, had told her she would know when the moment was, and she waited, as the music played through their shared earphones, as the song and tempo shifted, as the Dark Energy grew and grew and -

NOW!

"Moon Healing Escalation!"

A circle of carved golden light, but it isn't carved from a distance - no, Serenity's skirts flare as she twirls around the trio, carving the circle around them, and when the pure beams of light flare and the glittering mists of scouring purification rise, they flare all around, filling all three - Zoisite, Kunzite, and Endymion - with the power of her attack.

For Endymion and Kunzite, it is a light shower, a buffer between Metallia and them.

For Zoisite, it is the inferno, the crash of the waterfall, the strike of lightning, the anchoring chain - it is like being back at that moment, in Hikawa Shrine, when every last one of the Senshi struck to ward him off, only this time there is no escape, and the rush of power is relentless. He is scoured clean. There is no room for resistance.

Zoisite has posed:
    It's funny that Jadeite was the one who wondered if pain was what made people real, when Zoisite is the one whose entire existence is defined by it. Whether receiving it, overcoming it, accepting it, spreading it, it's been a constant factor in every experience, thought, action, and emotion, in some way. Even now, it's the return of pain, the advancing into it despite knowing it's coming, the embrace of it just as he is embraced by his King in Silver. A field of Wild Roses as a person. Irrepaceable, thorny, beautiful, captivating, and strong enough to sever chains.

    Of course the Lionheart allows Kunzite to draw him in close. It's something he has wanted for so long, since before he even knew he wanted it.

    And as cosmic power and lunar light and love and courage and home and safety and acceptance and a glad heart all come spiralling through Zoisite's inner mindscape, scourging it clean of evil in fire, pushing back the darkness to its abyss to wait and watch one of her other slave-souls, Zoisite and Kunzite, and Endymion, stand again the darkness and endure the storm.

    There is already more than enough pain to go around. The cleansing and purifying light is a welcome respite as thoughts and feelings that had withered on the vine are brought back to life.

    All four of them are now connected. Connected properly this time.

    They will only grow stronger with each other now, reinforcing and healing what has been betrayed and broken, despite all attempts by Metallia and Beryl to erase them.

    The cavern still has a lot of work to be done before it resembles a thriving, living mindscape, but already it is brighter, and the Abyss's portal into his soul has been severed at the root.

    When the Dark Energy stops blasting out everywhere in the 'real world', a crystal appears on Zoisite's forehead, and shines brightly, cutting off the constant flow of evil.

    The ground stops breaking. Signs stop swinging wildly. Street lights stop flickering on and off. The snow stops falling, but only over the place where the purification happened.

    If Endymion wants to drive his sword into Metallia in those last moments before all of her tendrils are cut off, now would be the time. Otherwise... It's probably time to stop Diving and come up for air.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Endymion's sword, especially here, is a symbol of something he's not entirely certain he wants to be associated with in this life-- so it can be used as a channel or a shout, but it's demonstrably a terrible shield and it's an absolutely wretched distance weapon.

He does have one more attack, though.

Something that breaks magic, interrupts parting shots, is a great parting shot in and of itself, and most importantly is something bright and ephemerally alive--

There in the shadow-shield of Kunzite, keeping company with both him and Zoisite, Endymion sheathes his blade and pulls out one more rose from nowhere -- and it's pink like the petals that Zoi's used as an affectation, soft but crisp, thorns guarding instead of attacking. He holds it for a second and leans over to kiss the top of Zoisite's head, then flings it after the last vestiges of Metallia...

...and it vanishes into the darkness for a moment.

Then there's a rush on the heels of the silver light, chasing the golden veins of healing throughout the softening and growing life of Zoisite's returning mindscape, climbing the walls like a lattice -- curtains and fountains of roses in full bloom, vines strengthening instead of working to pull anything apart. A reassurance of living love, there as long as Zoisite needs or wants it, blocking off the Abyss like a temporary floor while the new one's put in.

When they open their eyes, they're certainly not just standing there like they were in the beginning -- they'll have to get up off the snowy, slushy asphalt, but at least Zoisite's right there between Kunzite and Endymion.

And Endymion looks plaintively at Serenity. "Can we go someplace dry now?"