Metalia-sama

Nephrite could barely focus on the group of ten guards that had paired off and were sparing with each other. These were the top men they had of the hundreds they commanded, and two of them would be selected as replacements for Zoisite and Jadeite. One of the most important decisions he and Kunzite had to make and he couldn't have cared less about it. It didn't really matter who they picked, they would never measure up.

Looking to his left, Kunzite had a blank look on his face as he watched the men, and Nephrite could tell that he was paying just as much attention. “This is pointless,” he said quietly to his leader. “None of them can do the job.”

Kunzite looked down for a moment, then back up. “No, they can't.”

Without another word, Kunzite turned and walked away, leaving Nephrite alone with the prospects. Great, what was he supposed to do with them? Letting out a deep breath, Nephrite had them break it off for today and to return to their regular duties until called for again. If Kunzite wasn't going to take this seriously, why the hell should he?

Going back inside, Nephrite decided to seek out the Master. He hadn't seen him at all yesterday, and had yet to today as well, and so the Tennou wanted to make sure that he was dealing well with the current situation.

He wasn't in his private chambers as Nephrite had guessed he would be, and very few of the palace staff had seen him either. Finally, one of the maids said that she had seen him with the witch Beryl a few hours ago, but not since. Using that as a lead, Nephrite went to the witch's chambers and knocked at the door.

It took a few moments to get a reply, but sure enough the Master was inside with the woman. “I just wanted to check in with the Master,” Nephrite said when Beryl asked what was wrong. “Everything is fine?”

The Master stood and agreed that everything was. “Beryl is just helping me suppress Metalia, she's been quite helpful.”

Nephrite nodded, but wasn't particularly pleased. Sure, Beryl had helped them lock Metalia away, but she was still a witch, and therefore was not to be trusted. “Will you be joining us for dinner tonight?” Nephrite pressed, not entirely comfortable with the idea of the Master spending great deals of time with the woman, as he was certain by this point that he had been.

“Yes,” the Master said in an apologetic tone. “I'm sorry I didn't last night, but I will be there tonight.”

Satisfied, Nephrite left the two alone again. He had considered requesting to be present while Beryl worked with the Master, but decided against it. Immediately his instincts told him that he would regret that decision.

---

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Beryl asked, returning to her seat in front of Endymion. The Prince knew his guardian was worried about him and would most definitely warn against this, but he needed to know.

“Yes, I'm sure.”

The regular incense burned, and it did have a calming effect on Endymion. He was going to make sure that he took some of that back to his room tonight after he left Beryl's company. After getting all the information that Beryl had to offer yesterday, she had offered something more today. A chance to recall the events that had happened while he was in Metalia's control. She said that she could use hypnosis to draw the memories forward, but cautioned against it, since they would be far from pleasant.

“In that case, let's begin.”

Endymion closed his eyes and listened to Beryl's voice. Not a difficult thing to do, as he had noticed he rather liked the tone she spoke in. She spoke in a calm manner, but there was a no nonsense way in which she spoke as well. She didn't hide behind her words, she said exactly what needed to be said.

When preparing the prince for this experience, for instance, she had said outright that he would see some disturbing images. He knew that he would be seeing from the first person, and that Metalia had been responsible for such things as taking Kunzite's eye, or beating Zoisite and Jadeite. He accepted this, and appreciated Beryl's forwardness with him.

He followed Beryl's instructions to clear his mind and concentrate on his breathing and her voice. Slowly she would bring him back to the time that he was trapped in his own body with no control.

It seemed to take an eternity, but Endymion was patient. He didn't know exactly how long it took, but finally he began to hear something.

“Master, please, you don't know what you are doing!”

“I hear Kunzite's voice,” Endymion said out loud to Beryl. “It's quiet, but I can hear it.”

“Good, concentrate on hearing what else is going on.”

“I know exactly what I am doing, punishing incompetence.”

That was his own voice, but he shuddered at the tone. It was followed by a cry from Zoisite.

“Master... please... don't...”

That was Zoisite's voice then, and he sounded like he was in pain. Endymion knew already what was likely going on even though he could see nothing.

“Try to open your eyes in that world, but not in this one,” Beryl instructed.

It wasn't exactly the clearest instruction, but slowly the scene came into focus.

Zoisite was on the floor, propping himself up on his elbow. His glove was stained red, and blood flowed from his lower lip.

Kunzite stepped in front of Zoisite. “What is wrong with you, Master? Can't you see what you are doing?”

“Get out of my way, Kunzite.”

“No. There is something wrong with you. It's Metali-”

In a swift move, one the prince would normally not have been able to pull off, he swung his leg around high and hard, colliding with the side of Kunzite's face, and sending the Shitennou leader flying to the side, landing roughly on the floor.

Zoisite stared wide-eyed at his leader, and then looked back up at Endymion for only a moment before his boot collided with Zoisite's chin. The Tennou's head was thrown back on the floor, and he only barely maintained conciousness.

“The next time I hear you playing that damned piano instead of working...” Endymion drew his sword and levelled it at Zoisite's throat. He waited for Zoisite to notice this before re-sheathing the weapon and letting the threat hang in the air as he left the room.

Endymion opened his eyes and saw Beryl across the room. He felt ill, but did his best to maintain his composure.

“What did you see?” Beryl asked after giving him a moment.

“I was a monster...” he replied quietly before detailing what he had seen. “I hurt them, threatened them...”

“But you knew this before we began,” the red haired woman pointed out. “We should stop for today.”

“No wait!” Endymion jumped out of his seat. “I'm fine, really. It was just strange to see it actually happen. I need to know more.” Beryl gave him a doubtful look before he pressed, “please?”

Beryl nodded her reluctant agreement, “but only once more for today. It's best that we take these thing slowly.”

The Prince nodded his agreement, and promptly closed his eyes again.

---

After leaving the hopeful replacements, Kunzite had more or less shut himself off from the world in his chambers. If someone needed him, they could find him, but for the most part he had been left alone, and for the he was grateful.

He had been looking down at a piece of paper for the past ten minutes. Blank, save for the name “Zoisite” written at the top of it. Kunzite didn't know what to write at this point. There were many things he needed to say to the man, but all of them seemed so insignificant at this point..

He attempted to write again.

Zoisite,

I hope the two of you have settled in your new home. I'd say that I wish you the best, but you know that I need you here. Nephrite is as good a replacement as I could wish for, but he's not you. Why did you have to run off with that

The paper was crumpled in anger, and joined several others just like it on the floor. Each time he began to write his anger spilled forth rather than what he needed to say, the point he needed to make. But somehow he knew that nothing he wrote on paper was going to bring Zoisite back to the palace, King's permission aside.

He pulled out a new piece of paper and wrote Zoisite's name again. He had lost count of how many attempts he had made, but he was about to make another when there was a knock at the door.

With a sigh, he took his time in getting to the door, enough time that there was a second knock before he answered. “Yes?” he said when he saw it was Nephrite on the other side.

“Just wondering what you want to do with the men from this morning,” Nephrite replied. “We still have to choose two of them.”

Really, this was the last thing Kunzite needed to think about right now. “If you had to pick two of them right now, which two would you pick?”

Nephrite shrugged and took a moment before answering. “Ito and Sato, I guess. Why?”

In truth, Kunzite did not know the names of any of the ten men he had been observing this morning, but it didn't matter who was picked. “Fine, we'll go with them. Let the King know, and tell Ito and Sato to meet with us tomorrow morning.”

“Wait, what?” Nephrite began to protest, but Kunzite closed the door. Thankfully, Nephrite did not persist, and Kunzite returned to his letter.

---

Zoisite knew that something was bothering Jadeite, and had been for most of the day. He did his best to not pressure Jadeite into talking, but he was worried after last night. He had caught Jadeite staring off into nothingness for long periods of time with a thoughtful and serious expression on his face. When he asked what he was thinking about, Jadeite always insisted it was nothing.

Finally, when Zoisite was preparing lunch, Jadeite came forward with it.

“Zoi, I want to ask you something.”

Picking up on Jadeite's tone, Zoisite immediately stopped what he was doing. He knew he would get some kind of answer now. “What is it?”

“It's about something last night,” Jadeite began, but quickly added, “but it's not what you think.”

Slowly, Zoisite stepped out of the kitchen and sat beside Jadeite on the sofa. “You can ask me anything, you know that,” he said softly, clasping one of Jadeite's hands in his own.

Jadeite nodded, and then began to stumble through his question “Well, it's just that... I know things weren't exactly normal for me, but... I guess I just thought that... the first time was supposed to... hurt.”

So that was it. He remembered Jadeite asking him if he was in pain the night before. Zoisite took a breath before figuring out how to proceed with this. “Maybe I should have told you this sooner,” he began, feeling Jadeite's eyes on his as he looked down at their hands. “I didn't mean to hide it from you, but... last night wasn't my first time.”

At first, Jadeite's expression showed confusion. This wasn't the answer he was expecting, and it became apparent quickly that it wasn't the one he wanted to hear either. His eyes widened in sudden realization, and then he looked away, down at his own lap. “You mean... someone else has...”

Zoisite remembered the jealousy Jadeite had displayed last night in the town, and knew then that Jadeite was not going to be able to deal with this easily. The young man pulled his hand away from Zoisite's, and when Zoisite reached out for him again, Jadeite stood up and walked away, turning his back on Zoisite and wrapping his arms around himself. “Jadeite...”

The blond man came to a stop near the doors to the balcony and spoke without turning his head. “Who was it?” he asked, anger seeping into his voice, “or has there been more than one?”

Cautiously, Zoisite stood, but didn't take any steps towards Jadeite. “No, there's only been one other,” he answered.

“Who was it!?” Jadeite shouted, obviously less than satisfied with Zoisite's partial answer.

Zoisite swallowed with some difficulty, surprised to say the least at Jadeite's outburst. He and the other man had sworn to never tell another person, and while Zoisite saw no real reason to hang onto that promise at this point, he knew Jadeite would not take well to hearing the name. “He's not in my life any more, Jadeite. It was a long time ago.”

“So you won't even tell me...” Jadeite whispered, just barely loud enough for Zoisite to hear, before he opened the door and stepped out onto the balcony.