Metalia-sama

Endymion awoke with a start. It was morning, but it was a dream and not the sunlight that had woken him.

“How could you do this to him?” Zoisite asked. They were standing in the outer room of Zoisite's chambers. “Master, this isn't right. This isn't you.”

He slapped Zoisite, hard enough that the man stumbled a few steps. “I decide what is right around here, not you.”

Zoisite's fists clenched at his sides. His eyes blazing with emotion. “Master, you ra-”

Endymion punched him before he could finish the sentence. “I didn't come here to debate with you, I came for Jadeite. Where is he?”

“He's not here,” Zoisite said quickly, holding his jaw.

“You're lying.” The Prince grabbed Zoisite by the front of his jacket, readying a second fist when Jadeite burst out from the bedroom where he had been hiding.

“Stop it, please! Don't hurt him.”

Having found what he was looking for, Endymion released Zoisite with a shove and grabbed Jadeite's arm, pulling him along with him as they left the room. “From now on, you show up in my room at this time each night, do you understand?” When Jadeite didn't answer immediately, Endymion paused and then pushed Jadeite against the wall, holding him there with one hand. “Do you understand?”

“Yes, Master.”

As the dream began to clear from his mind, one thing was burned into his memory. The look of terror on Jadeite's tear stricken face as Endymion had held him against the wall.

“It was just a dream,” he told himself as he pushed himself off the bed. Saying the words out loud didn't seem to convince him of anything however. It hadn't felt like a normal dream, but much more like his trances with Beryl.

---

Kunzite awoke to bright sunlight coming in through the window. He covered his face with his arm and turned away from the light. Why was the sun up already? Why weren't his blinds pulled as he had left them last night?

These thoughts occupied him for a moment until cold water was splashed on his face. This time he sat up in his bed and looked around the room for the perpetrator. Nephrite stood against the wall, his arms folded, an empty water basin in his hand. “What the hell, Nephrite?”

“I could say the same to you. You were supposed to be in a meeting an hour ago, but apparently you slept through it.”

“That's ridiculous.” Kunzite pushed a few wet locks of hair off his face. “The meeting's not until...” The Shitennou leader looked out the window again, this time in realization of the sun's position. He had slept in.

“Up late last night?” Nephrite left his spot on the wall and walked out to the desk; it and the floor still littered with failed attempts at a letter.

Kunzite jumped out of bed and didn't care for the fact that all he wore was a pair of shorts laced just tight enough to not fall off his hips. “You better not have read any of them,” he warned, doing his best to appear intimidating in his current state.

Nephrite shrugged. “Nothing much to read. But if these letters are more important than your job, maybe you should think about retirement.”

“Like hell.”

“Then clean up, get dressed, and get your ass into that conference room.”

Kunzite clenched his teeth at Nephrite barking orders at him, but offered no rebuttal as Nephrite had every right to do exactly as he had done. Seeing that his job was finished, Nephrite left Kunzite alone to get ready for the day.

Kunzite was angry with himself, but at the same time he didn't particularly care about the meeting either. Hell, he probably should have just told Nephrite to put them in charge of the menial tasks that the Shitennou were charged with. Overseeing training of new soldiers, scheduling guard duty, that sort of thing.

He readied himself quickly enough and then made his way to the delayed meeting with his 'replacements'. He almost laughed when he got a look at the men Nephrite had picked out. One was a young man, probably Zoisite or Nephrite's age with dark brown hair that reached just short of his shoulders. The other was older than Kunzite himself, his short black hair was sprinkled with grey. They stood when Kunzite entered. The younger man stood a few inches taller than the other; both were shorter than Kunzite. He recognized them, but still didn't know which was which.

“Let's get one thing straight,” Kunzite said before sitting down. “You may be a sort of replacement for Zoisite and Jadeite, but you are not members of the Shitennou.”

Both men gave the standard “yes, sir” as Kunzite sat and then flipped through the files of both men while they waited. Excellent service records, etcetera, etcetera. No abilities with magic to speak of, they were running on their weapons training only. Wonderful.

“To start, you'll be getting some of the more trivial duties that Nephrite and I are currently doing double time on. In addition, you will be familiarizing yourselves with every exit, entryway, secret tunnel and underground cavern that this palace possesses. In the case of any kind of emergency, your first duty is to our Master, Prince Endymion. We stay by his side and get him out of danger as quickly as possible. Do you understand?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Good. Nephrite will supply you with the maps of the tunnels. This is confidential information, so if any word of it reaches ears beyond these walls, I will have your hides. Clear?”

“Yes sir.”

“Dismissed.”

The men within the palace guard, especially any of the higher ranking men, were more than familiar with Kunzite's harsh attitude. Just because these two had been promoted didn't mean he was taking it easy on them. He would absolutely not have them get comfortable with their new position.

“You're giving them our paperwork?”

Kunzite raised an eyebrow in Nephrite's direction. “Are you complaining?”

“Nope. I suppose it just gives us time to focus on our more important duties.”

“Exactly.”

Nephrite rested his elbows on the table and gave Kunzite a pointed look from across the table. “In that case, why don't you tell me where the Master's mostly been for the last twenty-four hours.”

The bastard. He'd set Kunzite up. The Shitennou leader narrowed his eye, but knew that Nephrite had trapped him. “I don't know, so why don't you tell me, Nephrite.”

“With the witch.”

“And why has he been with Beryl?”

Nephrite shrugged. “Hell if I know. The only thing I do know is that I don't like it.”

Kunzite knitted his fingers and rested his chin on his hands while he thought about it. “Keep an eye on him, I want to know how much time he spends with her.”

Nephrite gave a bit of a scoff. “Not that I have much of anything else to do now, so what the hell will you be doing?”

Kunzite gestured to the door. “Giving Ito and Sato a crash course in protecting a prince.”

---

“Tell me about the dream,” Beryl asked, handing the prince a cup of tea.

Endymion recounted what he had seen, mostly focusing on the expression he had seen on Jadeite's face. “I can't find the words to describe how scared he looked, and it was because of what I did to him.”

Beryl sat in her regular chair across from Endymion with her own cup. “What was your relationship with Jadeite like before all this happened?” she asked.

The prince couldn't help but smile at the memories. “We were close. Our relationship was different from the other Tennou. They viewed themselves as servants to me, but Jadeite was more like a younger brother. We're... We used to be good friends.”

Beryl took a sip of her tea. “So he would have trusted you implicitly.”

This gave Endymion some pause. Maybe his treatment of Jadeite wasn't just physical pain or mental anguish, it was a complete and utter betrayal. Jadeite had looked up to him, idolized him. Whatever he had ended up doing to Jadeite had completely shattered that trust and bond they had once shared.

“I took Jadeite again last night.”

He could put the pieces together. He had the information he needed.

“How could you do this to him?”

It was more than physical pain that he had put Jadeite through. It was different from what he had done to Zoisite.

“Get your hands off of him!”

“I think I'm ready to find out,” Endymion said slowly. He knew that whatever he had done, it was not going to be easy to swallow, but it was about time that he found out.

“Are you certain?” Beryl asked, putting her cup on the table that lay between them. “There is no harm in never knowing.”

“No, I need to know.”

“Very well.”

Endymion closed his eyes and focused on the dream he had had last night. The image of Jadeite's face. Whatever he had done to him would have followed those events, so if he focused on them, he would remember.

He was still holding Jadeite's arm as he dragged the other man into his chambers and locked the door behind him. Roughly, he pushed Jadeite away from him, and the smaller man backed away from him a few steps once he had his footing.

“What the hell were you doing in Zoisite's bedroom?”

“Nothing! I was just...”

“Just what?!”

Jadeite flinched at the tone of the prince's voice. “Master, please. Don't...”

“Don't?” the Prince asked, advancing on his guardian. “I'll do whatever I want. You don't give orders, you follow them. Get in the bedroom.”

Jadeite hesitated, his eyes were closed tightly and Endymion could see the tears gathering. He grabbed Jadeite's arm again and dragged him further inside, shoving him onto the bed once he was close enough.

That face again. Jadeite knew what was coming and that he couldn't do anything to stop it. His eyes were wide and his body trembled. He was too frightened to move from where he had landed.

Endymion didn't like looking at that expression. He flipped Jadeite over on his stomach without much difficulty, letting Jadeite's legs hang over the edge of the bed. “You might as well get used to it,” he said, undoing and tugging Jadeite's pants off his hips. “It will be easier for you if you don't fight.”

While Endymion prepared himself, Jadeite buried his face in one of his arms while his other hand gripped at the sheets of the bed. His breathing was coming out in heavy pants and his eyes were squeezed shut, waiting for the inevitable.

When Endymion opened his eyes, he hadn't come out of his trance like normal, he had forced it to end himself. Jadeite's scream had been enough for him to break out. That gut-wrenching scream. Endymion now knew what he had done.

He tried to force back the sick feeling that was developing, but he couldn't. He ran quickly for the bathroom where he promptly emptied the contents of his stomach.

Once he was certain that he was finished, he slowly got to his feet and looked at himself in the mirror. His face was pale, his eyes were red. He felt weak and couldn't bear to look at his reflection any more.

“Endymion-sama?” Beryl had come to check on him, and along with her the now familiar scent of the incense.

“He has no reason to ever trust me again,” Endymion whispered.

The red-haired woman gently held his arm and guided him back to the sitting room. “Please, have a seat,” she instructed and then asked if he would like something to eat or drink.

The cooling cup of tea was enough for him, and he doubted that he would be able to stomach even that right now. “I can't believe that I...”

“You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to.”

He knew that he really shouldn't speak of what he saw to Beryl, but for some reason the words just came out. “I raped him. Why? Why couldn't I have just beat him like I did with Zoisite? I... I held him down and forced him to...” Finally he clasped a hand over his own mouth to keep from speaking further. He looked away from the woman as he started to cry and tried to stifle the sobs.

For some reason she didn't act surprised at his revelation. Instead she came to his side, sat on the arm of the chair, and gently coaxed him to turn his head and cry into her as she held him.