Zoisite & Zoicyte

Chapter 1

I've revised, and added to chapter one. Hope it's better then last
time.

Author: Dancing Moon dancing_moon@hotmail.com
Please come to my anime site http://www.fortunecity.com/rivendell/kender/1065
for more of my writings.

Thanks to my prereaders Hotohori no Miko, Felicia and Rei Hino ^_^
You guys helped me a lot!

Disclaimer: Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon belongs to Naoko Takeuchi and
Toei Animation. Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon belongs to Naoko Takeuchi
and *shivers* DiC.
Don't sue me, please. I'm only borrowing.
If someone wants to use my story, please ask first.

Note: One word - Parallel universes (HnM: Isn't that two words? DM: You be quiet! *Bonk* HnM: Itai, no da! DM: how many times must I repeat it? You are not Chichiri!)
Anyway, the two universes in this fic are based on the 'real' Sailor Moon, that aired in Japan, and the version created by DiC.

Also, Hotmail messes up my formatting totally. Sorry for all inconveniences.

C&C begged for.

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Malachite scanned the room after something that looked remotely valuable.
Unable to recognize anything in the chaos, he sighed and carefully moved a
pile consisting mostly of paper but also some other items best left
unidentified.
You have to wonder how Jedyte finds anything in here, he thought as he left the
hall and entered the huge maze that functioned as Jedyte's working areas.

A blond head peeked into the chamber, followed by a slender body. Zoicyte
emerged from a small door in the other end of the room, which seemed to serve as
a combined library and kitchen.
"Found anything, Lord Malachite?" she called.

Malachite shook his head. They had decided to search the young general's castle,
in case he had anything useful, while he was on a mission to Earth. But, just
as Malachite had predicted, it was a total waste of time. If Jedyte had any
treasures, a highly unlikely concept in itself, he had either hidden them very
well, or possibly just lost them somewhere in the mess.
"Can't we go home, dear? This is meaningless."

"I have to agree. You know what I just found?"

"No. Is it something worth to steal? That *was* the reason you wanted to come
here for, and I can think of better things to do then go through Jedyte's junk!"
Malachite said sourly.
He carefully moved an unwashed plate from a pile of books. Judging by the
thickness of the green mold on it, it had been lying around for a couple of
months. "Disgusting!"

"Can you believe the pervert has an entire heap of Playboy in there?" Zoicyte
said and shuddered.

Malachite blinked. Jedyte... and Playboy? In *here*? Now that was an image he
did not need. But on the other hand, maybe he could get something good out of
this meaningless excursion after all?
Looking back at Zoicyte, and carefully memorizing where she was standing, he
replied to her earlier statement. "Strange. I'd thought that such items belonged
more in Neflyte's quarters."

"Guess they're both perverts," the youngest, and only female, general in the
Negaverse said in an offended tone. She had never understood how come a kingdom,
ruled by a queen and inhabited mostly by female demons, could have absorbed all
the worst traits from Earth when it came to the general view on women.
Zoicyte noticed a handle, poorly disguised as a candleholder. "Aha, a trapdoor!
What have we got here?"

The door swung open, revealing a room filled with a swarm of black holes, moving
and twisting, almost as if they were alive.

"Cool! I found his portals!" Zoicyte said, grinning.

"About time we find something," Malachite muttered, "Now, let's see..."

They examined the dozen or so interdimensional gates. Most of them were
apparently used as extra storing places, and only connected to small pocket
dimensions.

"*More* Playboy? Yuck!" Zoicyte muttered as she stepped out from the second-
largest gate.

"Where did you find that?" Malachite asked, and tried to sound disinterested.

Zoicyte glared at her lover. "Why do you want to know that?"

"No reason, just... so we don't search the same gate twice," he said, swallowing
nervously. Zoicyte had *that* look again. Last time she'd had it, Malachite had
been sleeping on the couch for a week.

Zoicyte frowned, not fooled by his innocent look. "Don't you dare to go in
there! Besides, you have *me*!"

"Yes, dear." Malachite sighed. Of course, he had Zoicyte and he was very fond of
her, but sometimes... Well, she wasn't exactly perfect. Not that he could exactly
point out what was wrong with her.
"This one seems to be going to the Moon," he said, pointing at a small gate.
"And these lead to the Earth."

Without warning, a scream loud enough to burst your eardrums was heard over the
entire sub-dimension known as the Negaverse.
"YOU FAILED *AGAIN*!!!? HOW CAN YOU KEEP ON LOSING TO THOSE PATHETICAL SAILOR
SCOUTS!!!?"

"I'd say Jedyte is back." Zoicyte said, and hit her ear, trying to get some
hearing back. Blast it, Beryl could *scream* when she felt like it.

Malachite shook his head. He would become deaf one day, he just knew it.
"Yes, I'd say he's back and it appears though he didn't have much success this
time either. Maybe we should leave? He won't be happy to find us here."

Zoicyte shrugged. "What can he do? Jedyte is hardly a match for me, and he's
definitely no match for my big, strong, handsome, gorgeous, perfect Lord
Malachite!"

Malachite smiled at Zoicyte's affectionate tone. "He's not very strong, but
Jedyte can be more dangerous than he seems, or he wouldn't still be alive. Also,
he has great influence amongst the demons." His voice became a bit harder. "That
might have something to do with the fact that he does *not* use them for target
practise."

"They are only demons!" Zoicyte protested. "Besides, they don't like Neflyte
either!"

"No-one likes Neflyte." Malachite pointed out, looking through the last
dimensional gates.

"Now that I can understand!" Zoicyte grumbled. "I hate that bastard! He's so,
so... annoying, and stupid and lazy and everything! I hate him!"

Malachite sighed. The two generals' feud was famous, and since they had regained
access to Earth, the tension had only been growing. "I know you dislike him,
dear. But could you hurry up?"

Zoicyte nodded absent-mindedly, curiously looking at the last gate. Why was it sealed
with a red rope? And why had Jedyte put a 'DO NOT TOUCH' note on the wall next
to it?

"Are you coming?" Malachite called from the other room, quickly stuffing a bunch
of Playboy magazines in his bag. You never knew when you'd have a chance to get
his hand on interesting material like this the next time, especially not with
Zoicyte watching him every breathing moment.

"On my way," Zoicyte answered, enthralled by the random patterns of light
appearing inside the void. "Strange. I've never seen a gate that has so many
colors..." she whispered.
Slowly, hesitantly, the young general reached out to feel if the gate had a
texture.
I shouldn't be doing this, a part of her said. There must be a reason why Jedyte
is so careful with this thing. But, as usual, Zoicyte didn't listen to that side
of herself.

"Are you coming?" Malachite called again. "Zoicyte? Is something wrong?"

"Nuh. Hang on a sec..." Zoicyte quickly moved her hand the last inches, finally
touching the swirling surface.

<KA-ZAPP>

"Ouch!" Zoicyte shouted and fell on her butt. Nursing her burned fingers, she
gave the gate an evil glare. "Stupid Jedyte! Why is he keeping such dangerous
stuff around! Innocent people can get hurt!"

She rose quickly, but almost fell down again, overwhelmed by a strong dizziness.
Foreign images and voices *almost* familiar but not quite, came to her.
Dark Kingdom? Jadeite? What was this stuff?

Malachite returned to the chamber, an irritated frown on his face. "Jedyte is
coming any second! What's taking you so long?"

Zoicyte smiled, and tried to calm her shaking legs. She mustn't be weak in front
of her lord.
"Nothing, nothing, Lord Malachite. I just examined the last gate. But I don't
think it will be of any use to us. Come on, let's go!"

Malachite nodded and they hastily left Jedyte's castle before teleporting away.
If Malachite had been thinking of more than the items inside his bag, and if
Zoicyte hadn't been so shaken, they might have noticed a peculiar thing about
her reflection in the dirty mirror hanging beside the door.
It wasn't there.

---

Kunzite gently held his bruised lover, stroking that soft hair fondly. "I'm
sorry, sakura. I'm so sorry for everything."

Zoisite smiled, despite the pain. "I don't mind Kunzite-sama. Being with you...
dying close to you, makes me happy."
He closed his eyes. The Sailor Senshi, the damned Tuxedo Kamen who had proven to
be Endymion, it didn't matter anymore. Nothing mattered anymore, except the
white-haired man holding him.
"Can you please grant me my final wish?" he asked weakly.

"Of course. Anything," Kunzite answered, trying to hold back the emotions that
welled up inside him.
He was the Ice King, he never showed any emotion, he didn't *have* emotions
anymore. So, why did it feel like someone was ripping his heart apart?

"I want to die pretty." Zoisite said.
It wasn't true, no, he wanted so much more, he wanted to be alive, he wanted to
be free, he wanted to run and laugh and... And he wanted to hold onto Kunzite-
sama and never let go, but he couldn't. This was the final goodbye, and the only
thing he could do was to make sure that Kunzite-sama's last memory of him wasn't
the image of a dirty, blood-drenched young man.
A man who had reached for heaven and fallen, hard.

Kunzite didn't answer, but easily created an illusion of flowers and sunshine
around them.
Zoisite almost laughed. Sakura blossoms... how fitting.
He felt the fresh air and the warm sunlight, and it filled him with joy. But
even so, it became harder and harder to breath. He looked up at Kunzite-sama,
Kunzite and his hard, steel gray eyes. Everyone said they were the coldest
things in the Dark Kingdom, that even Metallia herself had more warmth than
those eyes... Zoisite had never understood that. For him, for him only, they
shone brighter and warmer than the Ginzuishou itself.
"I just wanted you to know... I have always loved you."

Kunzite froze. Did he just say? He looked down at the beautiful man in his arms,
his entire body trembling.
"No... No! Do you hear me Zoisite, I will not allow it!"

Zoisite groggily looked at his lover. Everything seemed so foggy, but what was
it that Kunzite-sama said? It seemed important, somehow.
"But... I do. Love you."

Kunzite hesitated for a moment, trying to choose. He could not afford to make he
wrong decision now. But how could he know what was more important? Zoisite or
his loyalty? He loved his sakura, but, he had struggled so hard and long for
this position...

Yet another precious second was wasted in hesitation, but then Kunzite shook his
head. There was no turning back now.
"I know. I... I love you too. And I will not let it end like this!"

"Eh?" Zoisite could feel his life slipping away so fast, only seconds left, he
needed more time!

Kunzite started to work his magic. "Don't worry sakura, just rest and everything
will be fine."
One spell to heal the broken body, another to slow down his internal clock,
buying him more time. And then, quickly, before Beryl came... a spell to place
him in a sub-space pocket.

Zoisite started to struggle weakly, feeling the different magics work on him.
"Kunzite-sama, what are you..?"

"Shh. Trust me, sakura." Kunzite said, smiling slightly. He would keep his
beautiful Zoisite with him, and together they would live, somehow.

"Trust you? Yes." He would always trust Kunzite-sama, no matter what.

"KUNZITE! What are you doing? Go and get me the Ginzuishou, immediately!"
someone shouted impatiently from the shadows.

"Hai, Beryl-sama!" Kunzite said, starting to sweat. Damn, he still needed more
time to finish all spells, but if Beryl saw them...

"KUNZITE! NOW!"

Hurriedly Kunzite completed his magic and sent Zoisite away.
Zoisite would come out from the small pocket-dimension tomorrow, and appear in
their bedroom. By then, he should be healed.
Kunzite rose and left to fight Sailormoon, or rather Serenity-hime. Suddenly he
remembered something important.
"Did I put up a separator-spell? If the magics somehow merge, he could- No, I
fixed that! I must have..." he muttered, trying to stop the fear growing in his
mind.

---

Malachite yawned and stretched lazily.
He looked at his lover, sleeping peacefully next to him, and smiled. Zoicyte
looked so innocent when she slept...
but the moment she awoke that particular illusion was swept away. Malachite had
yet to find a woman with a worse morning temper than Zoicyte, not that he minded
very much, since he often managed to turn her fierceness to more, ah,
interesting pastimes. He grinned, remembering some of last night's activities.
Doing a quick scan of the general state of consciousness amongst the higher-
ranking officers, he grinned again. They *should* have some time before Beryl
called.

The blond moved a bit, snuggling closer. "Mhm, Kunzite-sama. Aishiteru."

Malachite froze, for a moment sure he'd heard wrong. Zoicyte wouldn't look at
another man, no, that was simply impossible.
He grabbed hold of Zoicyte's arm, prepared to give her almost three seconds to
explain herself, before he fried her.

The blond yawned and looked at him through long lashes, winking seductively. "Is
there a problem Kunzite-sama? Want me to give you a backrub?"

"Who the *hell* is Kunzite?!" Malachite roared, completely loosing his cool.
He'd kill whoever dared to come close to *his* Zoicyte, but first he was going
to teach the bitch a lesson or two...
"How dare you be unfaithful! After all I've done for you!"

"Ano?" the petite person sat up, lower lip trembling. "How can you accuse me
like that?! You know I would never be unfaithful! You are the only one for me!"

Malachite opened his mouth to give an angry response, but in that instance,
Zoisite stood up fully and pushed the covers away.

"Y- you're a, you're a..." he gasped.

"Hai, Kunzite-sama?"

"MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!"

---

Kunzite awoke to a horrible headache. He'd hardly slept anything the previous
night; his mind focused entirely on Zoisite. He'd been in such a hurry, if he'd
messed up with any of the spells... Great Metallia, he might have killed his
sakura!

He looked at the clock on the wall. It was the only (more or less) accurate
clock in the entire Dark Kingdom and had been imported from the Earth realm.
Unfortunately, it wasn't build to handle such harsh environments, and the
batteries had the annoying habit to stop functioning at the most inconvenient
times.

"Kuso! Now how am I supposed to know when he will return?" Kunzite muttered and
angrily dressed. "Could be anything from hours to seconds left."
Picking out some medical equipment from a drawer, just in case, he considered
his options.

In the ever-present darkness, there was no way to measure time naturally. The
usual ways was to 1) ignore the problem, which worked amazingly well, since
Beryl demanded all chores to be done *now* or even better, yesterday, or 2) use
an hourglass. But since they were manufactured by youma, they tended to look
like something from Salvador Dali's imagination.
Kunzite was still searching for an hourglass where it would actually take the
sand one hour instead of twenty-seven minutes or fifteen days to pass from one
end to the other.

To make things worse, the high level of magic twisted the kingdom, making the
entire place appear out of sync with Earth.
A day here could be a week there, but, it could also be merely a few seconds.

Before, he could've gone and looked who was awake at the moment, but since the
majority of leaders were currently more or less dead...
Due to the somewhat temperamental (not to mention homicidal) personality of your
average Dark Kingdom inhabitant, everybody went to great lengths to avoid
everyone else as much as possible.
Therefore, the amount of youma active was fairly consistent all the time and,
after a century or two, even the Shitennou had adapted these sleeping habits.
It actually worked, since mutual decisions could be taken care of during
'morning' and 'evening', and besides, anything that kept Nephrite and Zoisite
apart was a good thing.

Kunzite cursed again. He couldn't stay here all day; he had things to take care
of, and it was vital that no one suspected anything before they were gone.
But still, if Zoisite came back while he was gone and ventured outside the
castle... and was found! They would both be killed, but slowly this time.

Already depressed, Kunzite wasn't exactly optimistic about seeing his
retirement, not with all that had happened. If Beryl was in a good mood, she
wouldkill them, although slowly. If she was in a bad mood, they were likely to
join Jadeite on the shelf. Kunzite could just picture it, Beryl laughing that
hideous laugh while showing off her collection of frozen Shitennou to her friends.
Not that she had any friends, but the image was still gruesome.

Suddenly, he could feel the beginning of a teleportation somewhere close. Kunzite
held his breath, wishing fervently that it wasn't a simple youma coming
to rapport. His nerves wouldn't take much more.
As the magic stabilized, he recognized the energy patterns. Zoisite!

In a shower of light, his beautiful sakura returned to him. Without a sound the
young king materialized on the bed, seemingly unharmed.
However, one thing struck Kunzite as odd. The uniform had disappeared somewhere
along the road. Not that it mattered, but it was strange. But the moment Zoisite
moved, all thoughts about such irregularities disappeared.

"You're alive!" he said with a joyous laugh, and enveloped Zoisite in a bone-
crushing hug.
Finally, he had his sakura and no one, neither Beryl nor Serenity, would
separate them again.

"Ouch! Stop, Lord Malachite! I can't breath!"

Kunzite didn't listen, but held on to his beloved, when he felt something very
unusual about Zoisite's torso. It was... soft?

The young general pushed Kunzite away, angry at the sudden awakening. "Hey, be a
bit gentler next time, you're much stronger then me!"

Kunzite only stared dumbfounded, feeling the room start to kaleidoscope around
him. Of all the things that could have happened, this was the one he'd least
expected. And the one he least knew what to do about.
Finally getting some kind of coherent thought back, he did the only reasonable
thing.
He fainted.

The sight of her mighty Lord Malachite paling, and a moment later crumble to a
heap, scared Zoicyte out of her sullen mood. She leaped down beside him, and
started to search for poison or magic.
"Lord Malachite, what's wrong? Please, speak to me!"

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tbc...

Please send all C&C to dancing_moon@hotmail.com Thank you ^_^



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