Naru woke up in Nephrite's dark bedroom. The sky outside the windows was dark; had she really been asleep all day? She tried to sit up, but her head pounded and her entire body felt drained and weak. She fell back onto the bed again, curled on her side as she tried to will her head and stomach to calm down.

Nephrite came into the room with a glass which he set down on the single bedside table. "Do you want some water?" he asked, sitting down beside her.

Naru started to shake her head then changed her mind. "Please."

He held the glass for her. Naru noticed now that there was a faint wisp of steam rising up from it. "I put a few things in it that I thought might help, and warmed it up," he said. He put an arm around her, supporting her as she sat up, then held the glass to her lips.

She sipped, and tasted honey, lemon, and something herbal. "Where..?" she started to ask, then lost track of the thought.

"I went to the grocery store while you were asleep. They drained you almost completely empty. You've been unconscious all day."

Slowly, her stomach stopped threatening to rebel and the pounding in her head faded to tolerable levels. The morning's events came back to her all at once. "I can't believe Usagi tried to kill me!" Nephrite put the glass back on the bedside table and pulled her close against his chest. "She was making the monsters stronger on purpose! She thinks I'm her enemy, and she tried to kill me..." The rest of what she was trying to say was lost as she started crying.

"It's all right," Nephrite murmured, stroking her hair. "She isn't herself, you know that. It's the tainted Crystal; that's what's making her act like that. It's like the things I did as a general in the Dark Kingdom. I never would have done them if it wasn't for Metallia's influence. It turned me into a different person, I forgot who I was and became something else."

"What am I going to do?" Naru sobbed. "She won't listen to me."

"What are we going to do, you mean. We'll figure something out. In the meantime, I'm not going to let you be alone with her again. You're right, we can't talk to her now. Maybe if we talk to Endymion - Chiba Mamoru, I mean, he can help us with her."

"Why should he listen to us? Usagi's his wife!"

"We'll worry about that tomorrow. Right now... do you want to go home, or do you want to stay here?"

Naru's breath caught at the thought of staying. Then she remembered eight years of going nowhere with Umino, without any kind of specific promise or commitment from him. No more of that, no matter how much she loved Nephrite. "You'd better take me home. I don't want my mom to worry about me."

"All right," he said. "but dinner first, okay? I don't know about you, but I'm hungry."

As though it had suddenly been reminded of its own existence, her stomach growled. "Dinner first," she said, managing a smile.

Despite the snowstorm, Nephrite drove in his usual manner to the Juuban district, stopping at a little bistro they spotted on the way. Naru watched Nephrite devouring his steak and mushrooms, and wondered what it would be like to not taste food for eight years. Even if you were a dead spirit, it must be hard, she decided, especially for someone who liked food as much as Nephrite seemed to.

He drove her home and kissed her until Naru wondered if he was ever going to let her out of the car. "I said last night there are a lot of things I want to do," he murmured into her ear. "What do I have to do to get you to stay with me overnight?"

"Make me a real promise," she said. "No, more than that, I want an official commitment. I spent too long letting myself be dragged along with just vague promises and plans that were never going to come to anything because the other person never got around to doing anything about it. It was all up to me. Show me that you want a commitment as much as I do."

"All right," Nephrite answered.

She started to get out of the car, then he grabbed her hand. "I love you, Naru-chan."

"I love you too, Nephrite." She leaned across the seats and kissed him once more, quickly, then got out of the car. As she walked around the corner to the store's apartment entrance, she looked back once. He was sitting there, watching her. She knew he wouldn't leave until he was sure she had gotten inside safely.

The night was very cold, and, in spite of her heavy coat, Naru was shivering by the time she unlocked the downstairs entrance. But the apartment was warm, and smelled of the delicious dinner her mother had made. "Is that you, Naru-chan?" her mother called from the kitchen. Midori walked into the front hallway, holding a plate and a dish towel. "Are you all right, Naru-chan? You look awfully tired. Hard day at work?"

"I didn't go in today. Yesterday, either." Naru hung up her coat in the closet and replaced her black flats with her house slippers. "I've been meeting with those people from the gallery to work on our project." She followed her mother back into the kitchen so they could talk while Midori finished cleaning up.

"What sort of project?" Midori asked.

"Um, it's kind of hard to explain. Sort of a dramatization of a bunch of Yumeno Yumemi's paintings. Maybe if it works out I'll tell you more about it, right now it's just a bunch of crazy ideas and my part in it isn't that big a deal."

"Oh, okay. Well, I'm glad you've found some new friends and something interesting to do. But what about your job?"

"I've got some sick days saved up. That's no problem." Naru had debated whether to tell her mother about the new developments in her love life; she decided it was better to bring up the subject first, on her own terms, than to face questioning later. "By the way, do you remember back when I was in junior high, before I started going with Umino, that young businessman I had a crush on? Sanjouin Masato? He was kind of famous because he made a lot of money really fast even though he was so young." It would be best to emphasize Nephrite's young age, so that if her mother noticed that he still looked like he was in his mid-twenties it wouldn't seem so odd.

"Hmm. Sanjouin Masato." Midori looked thoughtful. "The name seems vaguely familiar, but I don't really remember anything."

"Oh, okay. Well, anyway, he's been out of the country for years, but he's back now. He knows these other people at the gallery, so I ran into him there, and he remembers me. And he's interested."

"Really." Midori thought this over for a moment. "Well, I can't say this is bad news. I'm glad you're broadening your horizons a little. I'm happy for you, Naru. Just don't forget to think about what's best for you instead of getting carried away with your need to not be alone."

"I'll be careful, Mama." Naru kissed her mother on the cheek. "I already ate, and it's been a long day, so I'm going to bed now. I'll be leaving early in the morning again. Good night."

"Good night, dear," Midori said.

* * * * * * * *

The next morning, Nephrite picked Naru up and they drove to the Crystal Sky Gallery. The elevator was filled with lawyers and bankers in dark suits; they had all gotten out by the time the elevator reached the Gallery. Although the hours on the door said that the Gallery didn't open for another two hours, Naru could see light coming from the office. She pushed the buzzer and after a moment Thetis walked out and opened the door for them.

"You haven't killed him yet, have you?" Naru asked.

"Not yet. He's lucky I make so much money from Yumemi's paintings; otherwise I might just ignore her when she tells me not to." She led them to the Gallery office, where Yumemi was standing at an easel in the corner, working on a painting that seemed to be mostly green. There was no sign of the other three Guardians.

Yumemi turned from her painting. "Good morning, Naru, Nephrite. How's everything going?"

"Not good," Naru said. They sat down at the table and Thetis brought them some tea. Naru the disastrous meeting with Usagi. Nephrite filled in his part in the fight, when Naru had been nearly overcome with energy loss.

"Let me get this straight," Thetis said. "The senshi were actually attacking the monsters for the purpose of strengthening them?"

"Are you sure?" Yumemi added.

"Yes, I'm sure," Naru said. "They did it twice, even though I tried to tell them to stop."

Thetis said some very inelegant words. "This is bad," Yumemi said in her usual mild manner. "They're not just being weakened, they're actually starting to use the corrupted power. I have a theory about these gray monsters - they always seem to appear in the vicinity of the Gallery, or Thetis's and my apartments, or near people connected with the Gallery - particularly you, Naru. I’m starting to think that they’re coming from the corrupted Silver Crystal, targeting anyone that the Crystal senses could reunite it with the Golden Crystal, in order to keep itself separate."

"Is that even possible?" Naru asked.

Nephrite answered. "My experience with magical crystals is that they can take on a life of their own. I made one once that was supposed to help me find the Silver Crystal, but it helped me find you, instead."

"If Naru is being deliberately targeted by the Silver Crystal, she'd better do some training," Thetis said. "I've never forgotten how to use my powers, but since she's in a new incarnation, she's going to have to learn all over again."

"I'll train her," Nephrite said.

"Besides training, what's next for you two?" Yumemi asked. She had finished adding some small yellow flowers that dotted the green landscape of her painting, and was now working on a man in a white robe.

"We're going to try to talk to Mamoru. Maybe he can get through to Usagi where we can't," Naru replied. "It's pretty clear that Usagi isn't going to listen to me."

"Good idea,” Yumemi said. “He'll be immune to the taint on the Silver Crystal, and I doubt he'll pick up any corruption from the Golden Crystal. As the Prince of Earth he might have a slight connection to it, but he was never directly part of the Order. He doesn't seem to have much in the way of powers beyond transformation and showing up in the right place at the right time. Ideally, he can help persuade Usagi to give us the Silver Crystal for purification. But if worse comes to worst, we can combine our powers to take it from her, although taking it by force might only make it worse."

Nephrite said, "I don't recall any detail, but I do remember that Beryl put a great deal of effort into getting the four of us to join her of our own free will. We were of more value to her if we were working for her voluntarily. It's likely that the Golden and Silver Crystals follow the same principle."

"I hope we don't have to use force," Naru said. "I don't want Usagi to get hurt." She turned to Yumemi. "Is that Helios that you're painting?"

Yumemi nodded. "Helios as I remember him. I'm trying to get a good Seeing of Elysion, but it's hard to get a sense of it. I can imagine what he would want it to look like, knowing his love of green places, but I'm not getting any accurate details. I'm hoping that if Zoisite and Kunzite can connect with Helios directly it won't matter if the surroundings aren't as precise."

Zoisite and Kunzite walked into the room, followed by a bleary-looking Jadeite. "Is it ready?" Kunzite asked.

"Almost," Yumemi said. She added a few details to Helios's robe and a golden circlet around his white hair. After a moment of staring at the portrait, she shaded his nose and chin a little. "That's better," she said doubtfully. "I still wish I could paint a clearer picture of Elysion."

"The Senshi met Helios," Naru pointed out, "so maybe they know a little bit about it. But they aren't talking to us."

"Mamoru," Nephrite said. "If Sailor Moon met Helios, then maybe he did too. And we need to talk to him anyway."

Thetis went to her desk and tapped on her computer. "Let's see... Okay, Chiba Mamoru, this should be the right number." She read the phone number to Naru, who dialed it on her cell phone.

"Chiba here," said the masculine voice on the other end.

"Chiba Mamoru? Tsukino Usagi's husband?" Naru asked.

"Yes. Who is this?"

"Osaka Naru. An old friend of Usagi's. I need to talk to you."

"Naru! I'm glad you called. I've been worried about her, and I wondered if you might know what's going on."

"Okay, when and where?"

"There's a café near my office." He recited the address; Naru scribbled it down on one of the scraps of paper that littered the table. "Can you be there in half an hour?" he asked.

He must have been really worried, to be wanting to meet that soon. "Sure. Is it okay if I bring a friend?"

"It depends on who it is," he said doubtfully.

"It's Nephrite," she said.

There was a loud clattering noise as though Mamoru had dropped his phone. A moment later he said, "Yeah, maybe he'd better come with. I thought she was making all this stuff up... Damn."

Naru didn't know what to make of Mamoru's reaction. "Mamoru-san, I want you to understand one thing. No matter what Usagi has said. I'm not her enemy. I still consider her my best friend. I want to help her. And so does Nephrite. Please believe me."

He hesitated. "I believe you... I think. Usagi, well, she hasn't been herself lately, and I'm just hoping you might be able to tell me what's going on."

"I think I can help you," Naru said. "See you soon."