Mamoru was waiting for them in a leather-upholstered booth when they got to the restaurant. He had a cup of coffee and a plate of waffles in front of him. Two menus lay on the other side of the table. Nephrite and Naru slid onto the empty bench.

"Thanks for meeting with us," Naru said. "I'm sure you remember Nephrite."

"Of course I remember. Though I have to say I wasn't expecting to ever see you again. Does your being here have anything to do with what's going on with Usagi?"

"In a way,” Nephrite replied. “I'm not causing the problem, but apparently I'm needed to help fix what's wrong."

"Why don't you tell us what's been going on with Usagi?" Naru asked.

"She just... she isn't herself." Mamoru sighed wearily. "She... seems dark all the time. Suspicious of everyone except the other Senshi. You know how she always was, the goofy dumpling-head, everyone's friend, never thinking things all the way through, always seeing the good side of things. But not any more. Yesterday she came home and was pacing all over the apartment muttering about how you had turned against her and you were siding with 'them,' whoever 'they' are."

"And this isn't something that would strike you as normal, considering everything she's had to deal with as Sailor Moon?" Nephrite asked.

Mamoru shook his head firmly. "No way. Even when things have been their worst, when people have died and it looked like there wasn't any hope, she always had this... sense of hope and optimism that just wouldn't be kept down. And things have actually been pretty quiet for a few years now. So, no, This isn't something I would expect.

"And another thing." Mamoru's cheeks colored a little. "She's been after me - I mean, browbeating me - to have a baby. Now. She's telling me she'll leave me and find someone else if I won't let her get pregnant. We can't afford it right now, I've finally got my business up and running but I had to run up a lot of debt, it's going to be a few more years before we actually have any money to call our own. She knows this, and up until... I don't know, maybe a month ago, she was fine with it. We know we'll have a daughter eventually, but the time just isn't right."

"Don't do it," Naru said. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to interfere in your personal life, but whatever you do, do not let her get pregnant right now. Not until this is all fixed."

Mamoru raised an eyebrow, questioningly. Naru went on. "The Silver Crystal has become corrupted, and it's starting to affect Sailor Moon and the other Senshi."

"How do you know -" Mamoru looked astonished.

As briefly as she could, Naru explained how the Silver and Golden Crystals had once been one, the Celestial Crystal and were now deteriorating because of their long separation; how she, the artist Yumeno Yumemi, and Thetis the former Dark Kingdom youma were the last remnants of the Order of the Celestial Crystal; and how they had brought back the Guardians to help purify and reunite the two Crystals. "I tried to talk to Usagi yesterday about putting the Crystals back together again, and ask for her help, but she wouldn't listen. She thought I was just trying to take it from her for the Dark Kingdom to use." Then she described to Mamoru how Usagi and the other two Senshi had controlled the monsters that were attacking her.

Mamoru dropped his face into his hands. "Oh, damn, this sounds bad."

"Do you think there's any way you could persuade her to turn over the Crystal, or even take it from her?" Nephrite asked.

Mamoru shook his head again. "I don't know. I doubt I could talk to her - She won't listen to me at all right now. Although, sometimes she wakes up in the middle of the night crying, still half-asleep, and tells me she's scared... I think that's when she's closest to being in her right mind, maybe that's when I can talk to her. As for just taking it, I think she would kill me if I tried that, even if the Crystal itself didn't. But I'll do whatever I can, for her sake."

"Thank you," Naru said. “Don't try to take it from her, then. We’ll do that, if that’s what it comes down to. But it would be better if she worked with us voluntarily. One more thing. Do you know anything about Helios and Elysion? We know the Senshi met him, years ago."

"Helios..." Mamoru said thoughtfully. "Helios... Okay, I think I remember. Our daughter was very fond of him." Nephrite and Naru gave him questioning looks. "Little Usa. Our future daughter. She was here from the future, and she became very attached to Helios. Only we knew him as Pegasus, and that's the form he took, a white winged horse with a blue mane and one golden horn. I don't know anything about Elysion, except that it's the place where people's beautiful dreams are protected."

"Thanks," Naru said. "Yumemi is painting a picture of Elysion and Helios so that Kunzite and Zoisite can try to reach him. Her paintings can take people to different places and dimensions. It's the same thing we did to bring Nephrite and the other Guardians back. She's having trouble getting a clear image, so knowing about his other form might help. And remember, if Usagi gets pregnant before we can purify the Crystals and reunite them, your daughter will be born with the Crystal's corruption in her and, well, that won't be good."

Mamoru nodded. "I understand. Thank you for the explanation; at least now I know what's going on. I'll do whatever I can to help you, although..." He shook his head. "I just hope she doesn't end up getting hurt. But whatever we have to do to save her from this... Anything is better than the way she's been lately."

Naru and Nephrite got up to leave, Nephrite leaving a generous tip to make up for not ordering anything. Naru felt shaken by Mamoru's description of Usagi's condition; Nephrite seemed to sense this, and put a comforting arm firmly around her shoulders as they walked back to the car.

* * * * * * * *

When they got back to the gallery, Naru related what Mamoru had told them about Usagi's state of mind.

"Anything about Helios or Elysion?" the artist asked.

Naru told her about Mamoru's description of Helios's Pegasus form.

"He never told me about that,” Yumemi said. “I wonder if he could always do that, or if it happened after the war... Well, at least we know something now that we didn't know before." She went back to her easel and began painting a translucent white winged unicorn standing in the same space as the human Elios. It didn't take long, and when she was finished she brought the painting over to the table. "Are you two ready?"

Kunzite had been leaning back in his chair, feet up on the table, perusing a section of the morning newspaper. Zoisite was picking over a plate of pastries. "Can we finally get on with this?" Zoisite asked.

"You understand," Kunzite said, straightening up, "we're only doing this because we don't want to lose this chance to have our lives back again."

"It doesn't make any difference why you're doing it," Thetis said from her desk. "As long as you do it."

Jadeite was sitting in a far corner of the room, away from the light, straddling a chair backwards, his head resting on top of the chair back, covered with his arms. "Just try to be quiet about it."

Thetis looked at Jadeite and made a loud "tsking" noise.

Zoisite and Kunzite rested their hands lightly on the painting, Zoisite's mouth wrinkling in distaste as he touched the wet, sticky paint. The two Guardians' breathing slowed and their eyes closed as though they were going to sleep. They drooped forward and started to fade from view as though they were actually being absorbed into the picture.

Suddenly an explosion of dark greenish-gold light burst out of the painting, followed by a cry of pain and fear. When the flash of light was gone, so were Zoisite and Kunzite.

Yumemi had gone deathly pale. "That was... unexpected," she said, clearly struggling to remain composed.

"What happened?" Jadeite demanded.

Nephrite spoke up. "I think we can take that as proof that the Golden Crystal has become corrupted."

"Now what?" Thetis asked.

The full implications of what had just happened hit Naru. Both Crystals were out of their reach - the Golden Crystal in a corrupted dimension, and the Silver Crystal in the possession of Usagi, who was prepared to kill to keep Naru and the others from being able to get it.

After a few moments, Nephrite spoke again. "We step back and regroup. We're not going to be able to do this quickly. I'm going to train Naru to use her powers. I could use some practice too. We're going to need to be able to take on Sailor Moon and the other Senshi."

"What about the Golden Crystal, and Helios, Zoisite, and Kunzite?" Yumemi asked. "We can't just leave them there, wherever they are."

"Send Jadeite," Thetis said. "Hungover or not, he needs to make himself useful. That's the only reason I agreed not to kill him."

"No way I'm going in there," Jadeite muttered from his corner.

Naru thought of something. "Mamoru said that his and Usagi's daughter from the future was fond of Helios, or Pegasus as she knew him. What if we can get a description from Mamoru of the daughter and the future she came from? Yumemi could do a painting and we could reach her that way, then maybe she could tell us more about Helios and Elysion."

"Maybe," Yumemi said. "I've never used a Seeing to actually make contact with someone across time. And if the child's even being born is in question, it may not be possible at all. Even if we can reach her, Elysion may be corrupted to the point where it won't resemble anything she can tell us. But,” she sighed, “it's better than doing nothing. And you're right, Nephrite. We aren't going to solve this today. I'm tired; if I could think more clearly, I could See better. Nephrite and Naru, maybe you could talk to Mamoru again tomorrow. If you could get him to come over here to describe his daughter and the future she came from directly to me, that would make it easier. I hate to leave Kunzite and Zoisite where they are any longer than necessary, but I don't want any of the rest of us to get lost in there. Let's get some rest tonight."

* * * * * * * *

Zoisite and Kunzite found themselves tumbling into a nightmare. The world around them bore a passing resemblance to the painting they had been looking at only a moment ago, but everything was distorted. Trees and hills were stretched into grotesque shapes, and the colors were all diseased-looking, tainted with a sickly greenish-grayish-purplish hue. The transition from the real world into this place had been jolting; Kunzite had felt as though his body was being ripped inside out. He hadn't cried out, but Zoisite's scream had been enough for both of them.

The ground beneath them, when they hit, was solid enough. Kunzite called upon his martial training and rolled to a safe stop. He anxiously looked for his partner; Zoisite was also curled on the ground in a tuck-and-roll a short distance away. He quickly crawled to the younger man's side and began checking him over for injuries. He had lost Zoisite once; he didn't want to lose him again so soon after they had been granted a second chance. "Zoisite, are you all right?"

"Kunzite-sama," Zoisite said, too weakly for Kunzite's liking.

"Are you all right? Are you hurt?"

"I don't think I'm injured. Just got the breath knocked out of me. How about you?"

"I'm fine." Kunzite looked around. "I don't know about this place, though. It looks like the Golden Crystal is pretty thoroughly corrupted. Assuming this really is Elysion."

"Well, we're not going to find out by just sitting here," Zoisite said. After a moment he took a deep breath and sat up. Then he stood and brushed bits of dark-colored grass off of his trousers. "I'm all right. Let's go."

The pair started walking, not with any destination in mind but just to get an idea of the lay of the land. "Those three trees right there," Kunzite said, pointing to a small group of trees in the distance, “let's call that north." They identified a few more unique groupings of tall, bedraggled-looking trees to use as orientation points, and set off on a more systematic exploration.

Though the air smelled faintly unwholesome, like rotting vegetation, it seemed perfectly safe to breathe. But the atmosphere was oppressive, hot and humid and strangely heavy. The two men found themselves sweating and gasping for air as they walked.

"There doesn't seem to be any water here," Kunzite said after a while.

"I'm not sure I'd want to drink it if there was," Zoisite replied. "Of course, maybe I'm just not thirsty enough."

"Let's sit down and rest for a while. At least we can keep from tiring ourselves out too much."

They rested, sitting against the trunks of a pair of trees in a small grove they had designated as "east." They had explored the area they had initially defined without finding anything of interest, neither Helios/Pegasus or any suggestion of where the Golden Crystal might be. Most likely, the two were together.

Zoisite grew restless; Kunzite remembered that he had never liked sitting when there was something that needed to be done or a problem to solve. It was Kunzite who brought patience to their companionship, Kunzite who always counseled Zoisite to wait, to be patient, to let others trap themselves in their own actions. Like Nephrite.

Kunzite still remembered the rivalry between him and Nephrite in the Dark Kingdom. It was a rivalry that Zoisite had encouraged; Zoisite loved power and wanted his lover to be the most powerful of the four generals. Jadeite, for all his skills and imagination, wasn't anywhere near Kunzite in sheer strength; Nephrite was very nearly Kunzite's equal in that regard, and his clever operations on Earth could have moved him ahead of Kunzite in Beryl's favor, if it hadn't been for Nephrite's arrogance and his excessive fascination with humans and Earth life. Zoisite's patience, letting Nephrite dig his own grave and then simply administering the coup d'grace, had been at Kunzite's urging. It had worked perfectly.

Except that now Kunzite couldn't quite remember why they had hated each other so much. The Dark Kingdom had fallen with Beryl and her master Metallia, and their evil influence on the four men seemed to have mostly dissipated. It was hard to tell how much of what was left was simply their own arrogant, ambitious personalities, but Kunzite found himself hoping that they could again develop a relationship comparable to the one they must have shared as acolytes of Helios and guardians to Prince Endymion.

But first they had to find the Golden Crystal and get out of Elysion. Kunzite finally gave in to Zoisite's anxiousness to be up and looking again. "All right, all right, I suppose I'm done resting now." Zoisite leaped to his feet and Kunzite followed him as they began exploring the unknown areas beyond the bounds of the trees.