This night, Zoisite was kept awake by the sounds of the house. The creaks in the baseboards made him jump, while the barely audible sighs in the corridor kept him from returning to a state of calm. He found himself straining to listen to them, ears tuned so unremittingly that silence became a noise as well, and his hands gripped the blanket tighter. Surely all houses made noises like this. In the Dark Kingdom, the sound of Metallia's breathing could be heard everywhere. Yet then, at least Zoisite knew where it was coming from. Here, it wasn't anything so patently ghostly- no voices or footsteps - and he found it very hard to close his eyes.

Some assurance came from Kunzite, whose warm heavy arm over Zoisite's waist promised him safety. But not peace of mind. For tonight, Zoisite was profoundly nervous. As soon as Kunzite was asleep, Zoisite was to seek Luna.

And now Kunzite was asleep. Finally working up his resolve, Zoisite sat up, carefully slithering out of his entrapments. Morally, this should not be happening, he thought as he looked down at Kunzite. Going off in secret like his. Kunzite had been pleasantly affectionate that evening, evidently disturbed by the damage done to Zoisite that afternoon. He hadn't said a word about it, though.

Zoisite reached toward Kunzite's hair, then stopped and withdrew his hand. Now was not the time for this.

He dressed silently, drawing on his pants and jacket, forlornly wishing for something different to wear. His leather boots sat near the door, collapsed in on themselves as though asleep as well. On an afterthought, he pulled them on. They'd make noise, but who was he to say he wouldn't need them? As he opened the bedroom door, Zoisite sent a glance in Kunzite's direction. The silver king usually woke at anything, as though never really asleep at all. But these past two nights, he had slept like the dead, his obliviousness allowing Zoisite his escape.

Out in the hall, Zoisite became wary. Luna had said to meet him downstairs, but if a simple trip to the kitchen had put him in those unseen hands, imagine what a trip through the sleeping house would do. To his right was Nephrite's bed chamber, through whose door no noise could be heard. Farther down the hall, Jadeite's door was cracked open slightly, revealing little more than the foot of his bed and the light of the night sky. His door had been left ajar on purpose; he also seemed a favourite target within this household.

Zoisite passed rooms by, his boots tapping lightly on the floorboards. His night vision seemed gone for good; he veritably blundered through the darker parts of the hall. He crept by the wash room, the squat form of the basin making him jump. Its ceramic gleamed in the light from the window, the shadows making it seem lopsided. Or melted.

He reached the stairwell, the huge windows of the foyer lighting his way down in blue and silver. From his vantage, Zoisite looked down to the main floor where the massive throw rug was sprawled. Though scuffed and faded, Zoisite had noticed from the very beginning the intricate pattern woven into it. It had appeared to be a web of curled vines, dark leaves and tendrils sweeping out to lock with others. From the ground, it looked confused and matted, too complicated to be of any aesthetic appeal. But now from the upper landing, Zoisite had a topmost view of it. What he hadn't noticed before was a softer, more secondary design in it. In pale shades of pink and gold, a figure bent among the black vines. Man or woman, adult or child, Zoisite could not identify for all the tendrils looping about it. They held the figure suspended, tangling round its arms and legs, obscuring its face in two bold stripes. It was dizzying to watch, and Zoisite lowered his eyes.

He took the stairs one at a time, the boards groaning under the carpet. He winced each time they did; this was too loud for his liking. Slowly, painstakingly, he reached the bottom landing. The foyer down here was dim, the blackness of the hallway entrances so thick it seemed solid. Zoisite avoided looking at them; any space that he could not decipher with his eyes held no good promises.

Quickly, head down, he scurried across the vestibule, through the wide archway that lead into the parlor.

"Where have you been?" a little voice hissed from somewhere on the floor.

"Don't do that, you little bitch!" Zoisite whispered harshly at Luna, placing his hand over his chest for emphasis.

"I'm a cat," Luna muttered indignantly, "not a dog." Her crescent moon emblem flashed in the window's light as she hopped up onto the sofa. "I've been waiting forever."

"This was the soonest I could be here."

"Perhaps had you not chosen entertain your Kunzite-sama beforehand, we might have gotten this over with earlier." Luna settled herself down on the embroidered cushion, pulling at the tassels with her claws.

For once Zoisite was glad of the dark, for his cheeks were flaming. "You -"

"I can hear everything in this house, Zoisite," Luna interrupted. "There's very little that goes unnoticed by me."

"That's rude."

"Rude?" Luna squeaked emphatically. "You blow up my home in the middle of a ball, and you have the audacity to call me rude?"

"All right." Zoisite narrowed his eyes. "I didn't come here to debate the will and wanton of my queen. You said- "

A low groan, much louder than those of the nightly house shiftings, stopped him in mid-sentence. He and Luna sat silent, heads up, both listening long after the sound had ceased.

"You said you had something to tell me," Zoisite said, this time whispering.

"I do." Luna hopped off the sofa. "But not in here. Come on...." She trotted quickly, the bob of her black tail twitching like a flag. She lead Zoisite out of the parlor, across the foyer, and to the front door. "Open it," she said curtly.

"You want us to go outside?"

"Yes," she replied evenly.

Zoisite waited, mouth open, but Luna didn't elaborate further. Sighing, he gripped the big handle, chilled from the night outside, and heaved one door open. Luna slipped between his feet, pattering out of the house. Zoisite followed.

The moon was starting to half itself, no longer bright and full. Nevertheless, the light from it lit the clearing in front of the house, exaggerating every muddy bump in the snow, tangling the branches of trees together. It seemed that winter was on its way out; the air was cold but not bitter. Zoisite was thankful he had worn his boots.

"Over here," came Luna's voice. She had perched herself on the splintered stump of a tree, about fifteen paces away from the house. From the height of her roost, she could face Zoisite eye-to-eye. He came forward, leaning towards her, his manner as silent and careful as it would be indoors. Luna's eyes were glittering in the moonlight, the pattern on her forehead shiny as a coin.

"I had not been certain of this until yesterday," she began. "Though I had fears of it the moment we awoke here. This may sound peculiar, but I must start from the beginning." She paused, seemingly for nothing more than emphasis. "The truth is, you were not the first to attack the Moon Kingdom."

Zoisite didn't know whether he was surprised or not. Luna continued, lapsing into history.

"When I was not much more than a kitten, and Queen Serenity was enjoying the first days following her coronation, a huge cloud filled our sky. I did not know what it was, for I had always been told the Kingdom was far too out of reach for adverse weather." She smiled a bit, chuckling to herself. "Imagine my alarm to discover it wasn't a thundercloud at all. No indeed; it was Metallia."

Now Zoisite was surprised.

"Yes, Metallia had come to us once before she came with you. This first time, there was no Queen Beryl, no Dark Kingdom. Just Metallia and whatever human forces she could dredge up from Earth.

"She was young then, if such a thing could be called 'young'. Her power wasn't nearly as mature as it was when she took Beryl under her wing. Indeed, she made a mess; smashed a few towers, killed a few soldiers. But she was laughably outmatched, little more than a hurricane, really. Serenity took up that ginzuishou with such an authoritative air... I even fancied I saw her smiling...."

Luna was off in her own story now, barely noticing Zoisite who stood incredulous before her.

".... Serenity used the ginzuishou to 'diffuse' Metallia. Evaporated that thing into thin air, she did. At least, she thought she did, though I suppose a later attack would prove her wrong. However, for the time being, the demon had been defeated.

"Serenity, though, took pity on the humans Metallia had brought with her. Just misguided boys really." Luna paused and looked up at Zoisite. "She tried to help them - the ones who were left alive - to regain the memories that Metallia seemed to have wiped out. But nothing could be done; the dark energies had been infused within them, beyond reach." Luna looked at Zoisite again. "They were violent and cruel-tempered; some even carried a bit of Metallia's magic. When left to wander, they attacked the subjects. Serenity had no choice but to end this, and she called on her advisors for help." Luna looked wistfully at the ground. "I do wish Artemis were here; he was a year older and knew more about these dealings."

Zoisite shivered and folded his arms. He didn't see the point in all this storytelling, but patience told him to continue listening to the cat.

"From what I heard and what I saw," Luna said, "the decided fate of the humans involved the ginzuishou once again. Serenity used its power to send them far away - not to Earth - but somewhere else. Somewhere alone, somewhere isolated, where they could stay with food and shelter and never, ever reach anybody else." She lifted her head. "Somewhere a lot like this."

All the blood dropped from Zoisite's head as he turned suddenly, looking back at the house. "Here...?"

Luna nodded. "The same power I felt from them in Serenity's kingdom, I feel it here too."

"But..." Zoisite turned around again, feet slipping in the snow. "How did we get here?"

Luna chuckled again, this time with a hint of bitterness. "That... was a mistake."

"What?"

"That's right," said Luna, "this was all a mistake. You four were supposed be locked away with Metallia and Beryl. I was supposed to be saved. But do remember that when Serenity was doing this, she was dying...."

Nephrite turned in his bed. The sky was still dark; he could sleep a little longer. He sighed and closed his eyes, trying to retrieve the dream he'd been having. It wasn't of Beryl, or youma, or the Kingdom at all.

No, tonight it was of a pale-haired woman - he'd forgotten her name. She used to hang about his father's farm during those distant days on Earth. Rather pretty she was; he didn't know where she came from nor where she went at the end of the day, but when he was out in the field, she'd be there watching him.

What a funny thing to remember at a time like this; it seemed as though his joining the Dark Kingdom had pushed away such memories. Evidently though, it did not. And he gratefully returned to sleep.

"Well this is fabulous, isn't it?" spat Zoisite. He kicked his foot into the snow. "What are we supposed to do?"

"I'm not finished yet," Luna said heavily. "These humans, we haven't just 'moved in' with them, you see. If that were the case, we'd be able to see them. Talk to them. Fight them. However, our arrival has had them... er...." She tapered off, then tried a different angle. "You see, the spell that sent us here- albeit by accident- is the same spell that sent them here. It required isolation, and above all, solitude. Which means, they were pushed out to make room for us."

"Pushed out to where?"

She became excited. "Don't you understand? This is all make believe! This place doesn't exist in any real word; it was made by the ginzuishou! Those humans, in being removed from this place, have been set free! Where they are now, they are able to go anywhere they want. The problem lies in that they don't know where to go. They have no recollection of Earth, no homes to go to. This is their home. So they stay here."

"And we are the interlopers," Zoisite put forth.

Luna paused, casting her eyes to the sky as though for strength. "I'm not sure it's so simple." She looked as Zoisite, measuring him from top to bottom. Then she cleared her little cat throat. "I think they like you, Zoisite."

Zoisite's eyes veritable launched from his head. "Pardon?"

Luna remained calm. "You're young and you're pretty. They haven't seen a woman in years, and quite frankly, you come very close."

Zoisite huffed indignantly, but chose to listen.

"You're vital, you're sensitive, you're everything they used to be. Whatever the reason, Zoisite, they seem quite interested in you."

"I know that." He rubbed a bruise on his arm.

"But their encounters with you never seem to last long. I'm not entirely sure why... but it most likely is due to the amount of power required to bridge the gap between their domain and our physical one. They have some magic, but not much. I do believe I know how they are solving this problem."

Zoisite paled. "How?"

"May I remind you that this is entirely my theory," Luna cautioned him. "Act on it and you may be making a terrible mistake."

"Just tell me."

"There are two people with whom you seem to get along. Kunzite... and that other one, Jadeite. Think first of what's happened to Jadeite. Since his arrival, he's managed to take an unprecedented dive off the stairwell, and choke on thin air in his sleep."

Zoisite's breathing grew short. "And Kunzite?"

"I don't know what is happening with him, but I can smell it when they attack you. That scent is all over him."

"What do you mean?"

Luna lowered her head, resigning at last. "I don't know. I can't explain this. I wish I knew how to get us out of this... I've tried calling out with every power I have, but no one answers. I just hope we're as much danger as I think we are."

Zoisite looked down as well. The wind came through the trees, chilling him as though he wore no jacket at all. Belatedly, he noticed the hole in his boot, and stopped wondering why his toes were wet. "Then what am I supposed to do? If Kunzite's not safe...."

"I didn't say that." Luna descended from her log. "Just be careful."

"So that's it?" Zoisite demanded, stopping Luna with his boot. "That's all you have to offer? 'Be careful'? I thought when you called me out here, you might share with me a plan. You aren't very helpful."

"What would you rather, Zoisite?" She raised her shrill voice. "Would you prefer not to know what is happening here? Knowledge is the first step to solution. I'd say we're doing mighty well for our second night. You just think yourself damn lucky that I was sent here with you."

"You should have told Jadeite this!"

"Do you think he'd believe it?" Luna said. "He's too busy convincing himself that this is better than your Dark Kingdom!"

"I'll tell him, even if you won't." He turned defiantly, intending to walk back to the house as though enjoying some victory, though what exactly he wasn't sure. He marched up the stairs, forcefully clasping knob in his hand. Then he stopped.

"What is it?" Luna asked.

"Knob’s hot."