Hey, soooooooo here's the next part.


As the others left for the ball, Hermes watched Rei nervously retreat back to the parlour Quatre had prepared for her. Eros and Apollo both skulked off to Wufei's room as Apollo muttered weak excuses about healing him. Usagi and Zeus had run off to gods knew where, Usagi chatting Zeus's ear off about the colour red. He sighed, before deciding to chase after the lonesome fire wielder. He followed the scent of cinnamon to a room tucked away in the back of the mansion.

"That's odd," he commented as he walked into the room. Rei jumped a little, startled by his sudden appearance and his commanding voice.

"What's odd?" she asked, trying to make genial conversation with him before turning back to the fire.

"This room, it's meant for company is it not?" he asked, loftily taking in dark decor and low lighting. "Seems strangely dark and hidden away for a room meant for socializing." He walked around a bit, before settling into a dark velvet chair.

"I suppose," she said, still confused as to why he was there. "I guess anything would seem dark and lonely compared to the palaces you're used to. Mars has quite a few rooms like this for fire readings," Hermes nodded slightly, acknowledging her words.

"The Lunar palace maybe, but on Mercury it's more of a laboratory than a palace," he said, scratching the back of his head. He was fighting it, he was talking to her and he wasn't dead yet so that was a good sign.

"I don't know much about the Hermesian palace," she admitted. "But I remember Ami's room. Yes there were books and instruments everywhere," here she paused. "I know all those things were typical of your lives but I remember that her room was filled with art."

"Art?" Hermes asked. He didn't remember any art decorating the palace. The hallways were littered with scientific displays and descriptions of successful experimental trials.

"Ami's art," she said, eyes watching the dancing shadows in front of the fireplace. Heero let out a breath he didn't know he was holding.

"Ami drew?"

"Drew, painted, sculpted, you name it. She loved art actually. When she wasn't reading she was working on something or another. I'm surprised you didn't know," Rei replied, finally looking at him again.

"I didn't know anything about it," he said quietly. Hermes didn't like not knowing things, but this was a different kind of frustration. He looked at her back. "What else about Ami do I not know?"

"Well, what do you know about Ami?" she asked him, curious now. While Hermes had always been aloof, she'd assumed that he and Ami were closer than they let on. He contemplated this question for a while, his dark eyes narrowing as he started to gaze into the fire.

"Nothing."


"Eros, why are you watching me?"

"I don't have anything else to do," the brunette whined.

"It's a little distracting," Apollo grumbled, sweat dripping into his eyes as he focused on the task in front of him.

"Well what do you suggest I do?" Eros prodded, leaning forward to look into Apollo's face, a sneaky grin on his face as he moved closer.

"I don't know. Go take a nap or something," Apollo snapped, wiping away the sweat.

"It's already night time," the Venusian replied, resting back in his chair when Apollo glared at him.

"Good gods, Eros. Just leave me alone."

"You're snippy," Eros smirked.

"Cause you're distracting me."

"What happened to your good boy attitude?" The boy feigned surprised, his hand over his mouth as he gasped mockingly.

"It's called being annoyed."

"You never get annoyed."

"Eros!"

"Whatever," Eros said, finally standing to leave. He stretched his arms over his head and yawned. "Where's your sister?"

"I don't know where Usagi is, I think she's with Zeus," Apollo said, biting his lip as he tried to concentrate on healing the dark haired boy in front of him.

"Okay, I'm going to go lie down then."

"Good."

"Okay, I'm leaving now," Eros called, purposefully drawing Apollo's attention as he put one foot out the door.

"Be quieter, this'll go faster if he's still sleeping," Apollo replied.

"Going for real now," Eros said, stressing his words.

"Bye," Apollo waved him off. Eros huffed exaggeratedly and stalked back to his room. Pausing in the room's opening, he took in the sight of the cluster of felines that had taken over his room.

"Scoot over, Diana," he said, nudging her softly. As he settled in, she sleepily crawled onto his chest and resumed softly snoring.


"How's it going?" Usagi asked gently from the doorway.

"I'm almost done, where's Zeus? I thought he was with you."

"Oh, I think he was going to the bathroom, I told him I'd come visit you ahead of time so he should be coming soon," she said, stroking Apollo's head as he bent over Wufei's still body.

"Usagi, I don't know why, but doing this is really tiring," Apollo sighed, wiping his brow as they sat at Wufei's bedside. Usagi leaned down and hugged him from behind in encouragement.
"It's okay if you depend on me more, Quatre," she said.

"You have to call me Apollo here," he said, looking down solemnly as his hands dropped into his lap.

"Not when we're alone. I know you're worried about the other Quatre," she said, putting her hand on his shoulder. "I know you're sad to have to give up your name. Plus you're worried he's going to spirit away your sweetheart," she winked.

"She's not mine," he grumbled awkwardly, shrugging her hand off. "Even if she's not interested in Quatre," he sighed. "Nephrite will be waiting for her once we defeat Beryl."

Usagi's expression saddened.

"Maybe."

Zeus stepped away from the door, he too had taken comfort in Usagi's words, but Apollo was right. Zeus felt the same weight of hopelessness as he walked away.


Eros lay back on the bed Quatre had prepared for him, eyes closed as he controlled his breathing. Diana slept quietly on his chest, his hand running over her fur periodically as she snoozed.

"If we call you Eros, does that mean you're Minako's errand boy?" Zeus deadpanned from the doorway. Diana shifted a bit on Eros's chest, stretching her legs.

"I thought we were friends," Eros replied sarcastically, raising a brow at Zeus's opening. Zeus sighed, settling onto the other bed in the room. He carefully arranged himself around where Luna and Artemis lay.

"Sorry, I think I'm just a littleā€¦" he trailed off, trying to find the right words as he stroked Luna's sleeping form. Eros sat up, carefully depositing Diana on the pillow next to the one he'd been laying on.

"You're on edge. I've seen how you look at my sister," Eros said casually. Zeus looked over at him, trying to hide his surprise. "You forget that I have the same powers as her," Eros tapped two fingers to his temple. "Not as strongly in tuned with love as she is, but when it comes down to it, she's the worst when it comes to herself."

"What do I do?"

"What can any of us do? Once the Shittennou are all fixed up, it'll go back to how it's always been," Eros sighed.

"You can't really believe that," Zeus said. "You haven't stopped grinding your teeth since Ami was assigned to go to the ball with Duo," Zeus frowned as the name rolled off his tongue. "That is so strange."

"What is?"

"Saying your name in front of you but in reference to the other version of you when regarding your straining relationship with said version of you."

"Uh, right."

"Man, you have it so bad."

"I could say the same thing about you," Duo smirked.


"While it's true that things may return to the way they've always been, I still don't quite believe that the Shittennou are right for my Senshi," Usagi said. Her voice cutting through the silence that had laid over the siblings after Apollo's dark words.

"What do you mean?" Apollo asked?

"It just never felt right, you know?"

"I don't understand. Their relationships are like yours. You and Endymion, Rei and Jadeite, Ami and Zoisite, Makoto and Nephrite, and Minako and Kunzite."

"Maybe that's why," Usagi said, her chin resting on Apollo's head.

"I'm sweaty, don't touch my hair."

"Why are you being so grouchy? I just want to help you like a big sister should. Plus, we grew up together. I can handle a little head sweat," Usagi pouted as she grudgingly complied to his request. She moved to sit next to him, pulling up a chair as she made to heal Wufei alongside her brother.

"Don't worry about it, I can handle healing him," Apollo said gruffly.

"Okay, you're being a complete grumpy pants now," Usagi reprimanded. "Just let me help you," she said, her eyes a little forlorn as she felt the distance growing between her and the blond sitting next to her.

"Grumpy pants?" he snickered.

"Don't sass me," she said indignantly. "He's almost all healed up, so you can go stretch your legs."

"Fine," he said, standing from the chair he'd grown tired of. "I might grab a bite to eat. I'll be back," he ambled off when Usagi finished off the remainder of the healing.

She hummed to herself, straightening Wufei's sheets when she finished. She stood to leave in search of her brother when she heard a beeping sound.

"What's that?" she mumbled to herself, checking her communicator and looking around the room to see if Apollo had left his behind. She noticed Wufei stir a bit, his arms reaching for his bedside table.

"You're awake!" she exclaimed, running from the doorway back to his side. She grabbed his wrist and began to look him over, nodding as the healing seemed satisfactory. "Apollo!" She continued to check up on him, not letting him go as she poked around at him. She was quickly realising how tired she was from the work she and Apollo had done.

"Oh good," Apollo sighed, glad to have Wufei all fixed up. His body felt heavy as he explained Wufei's healing and began to excuse himself. He grumbled an excuse and started walking back to his room. He noticed Hermes and Rei sitting in front of the fire as he stumbled past the parlour door.

"Emergency!" was all he heard as he collapsed onto the ground.


The shadows were quickly overpowering the group, closing in on them as they tried to protect the insurgents they'd knocked unconscious. There were ten of them, the five foreigners holding them off as the pilots tried to contact Wufei.

"They should be coming soon!" Duo shouted to the girls as they battled on. Hotaru finished one off as Minako and Makoto and Ares incapacitated two more under Ami's direction.

"Good, then we'll actually have a chance to get us all out of here alive!" Minako shouted back. She was feeling the hurt on her magical stores as they all fought to keep up with the monstrosities surrounding them. The boys quickly realised that explosives proved much better in terms of damaging the foe after Heero had pulled on out and thrown it at one of the shadows.

"How many grenades do you have?" Heero grunted to Trowa.

"Two. What about you guys?" Trowa responded, pulling out only explosives he had brought with him.

"Five more altogether," Duo said.

"Seven, one for each of the remaining shadows?" Quatre asked.

"Will that be enough?" Duo asked, anxiously watching the girls and Ares take on the gigantic alien threat.

"We have no choice," Heero said, quickly pulling the pin on a grenade and tossing it.

"Get back!" Trowa shouted as he threw his two at an approaching pair of shadows, effectively stalling them. Quatre and Duo quickly followed up with one each.

"How many more of those have you got? They're actually doing something," Ares shouted at them, capitalizing on the opportunity and taking down the creature Heero attacked in a mighty blaze.

"Two!" Duo called out as he they watched the girls finish off the other four shadows.

"Perfect!" Said Ami as she destroyed the incapacitated shadows the girls had left behind. "On my mark, throw them! We need to get them farther away from these guys over here," she said, gesturing to the pile of bodies in the middle of the hall.

"Sounds good!" Quatre yelled, readying a grenade as Heero picked up the other. They both took aim as Duo lifted his arm to signal when Ami said to let them off. Finally the girls pushed the shadows back toward the windows when Duo dropped his arm. Both boys pulled the pins and threw the grenades at the remaining two shadows. The explosions broke the windows and a flurry of magic destroyed their opponents.

"We're lucky you had those on you or we wouldn't have been able to make it through this," Minako said, smiling in spite of her dress being destroyed.

"Why didn't you henshin?" Duo asked her before looking around at all the girls. "Why is Hotaru the only one in her sailor fuku?"

The girls all turned to examine each other, not having noticed before. Ares's suit was also torn up, his Aresian armour nowhere to be seen.

"I don't know," Ami said, trying to initiate her henshin and frowning when it failed. "We can still use our powers, but they're draining fast."

"Is it because the boys are pulling at our stores?" Makoto asked, looking over at Ares.

"I can't henshin either," he said, holding his hands up as if absolving himself of guilt. "I don't know what's going on."

They all looked around the room, disgusted with the still pulsing lumps of their enemy lying on the ground. Makoto walked over to the group in the center as the first of the criminals began to stir.

"How did you sleep through all of that?" she asked incredulously.

"It's probably better that way," Ami said, checking their conditions as they waited for their friends to arrive.

"The military force should be collecting themselves and readying to enter the building. We have to go," Heero said gritting his teeth as he watched for the arrival of his doppelganger.

"Where are they?" Minako asked, getting concerned as she heard the sound of sirens getting closer to their location. Suddenly another portal formed in the ceiling. Usagi and several of the boys dropped out. Rei, Hermes, and Apollo nowhere to be seen.

"There you are!" Heero grumbled. "Now get us out of here, we need to go."

"Jeez, you could say thanks, you know," Usagi grumbled as another portal opened above them.

"How are you doing that, Usagi?" Hotaru asked, eyes widening as she studied the swirling black mass.

"I don't know actually, I just kind of ended up doing it," Usagi laughed, scratching her head. "It's actually easier for me than healing is, now that I think about it." Ami studied her sheepish princess, trying to figure out the meaning behind what was going on.

"Where is my sister?" Ares asked, his expression worried.

"Apollo collapsed, she's back at the house trying to see if she can divine what's wrong with him," Eros spoke up.

"And my brother?" Ami asked him.

"Something about staying because it's his duty to Apollo, blah blah blah," the boy said, swinging his hands behind his head as he walked up to her. The blue haired girl nodded in understanding.

"Right, of course."


"What are you doing here, Jadeite?" Rei growled, flames flickering in her palms. Heero stood next to her with his trident in hand and eyes blazing like the fire his partner wielded. They both looked nervously over their shoulders at the lunar prince lying prone in the bed, his brow furrowing as he perspired and moaned.

"Why isn't it obvious?" Jadeite drawled as his eyes zeroed in on her. He raised his hand, drawing their attention to the dark chasm swirling above them. "I'm here for you."


Thanks for reading!

Varee: I hope this kind of clears up a bit as to why I clarified what all the girls were wearing! Thanks for your input, I really appreciate you taking the time to review and talk to me afterward! :)

Venusian Angel: Trowa and Mina OPPPPPP

Also, not to be ungrateful, but if you're going to review please don't just say "update." That's the goal. I appreciate you taking time to say anything but it seems a little demanding and while I know this is a community website, please understand that I will update when I can.

All in all, I am writing this because I enjoy it and I want other people to enjoy it so honestly it's whatever you take away from it.

PS: Only my crossovers suck, mannnnnn. Don't say other writers suck cause that's just meeeeeee.

R&R if you feel like it's worth your time!