On the Enemy's Side ------------------- by Blue In politics, what begins in fear usually ends in folly. - Samuel T. Coleridge We started off warring and found peace after it, but with peace we gained the traits of evil that comes when evil is concealed. Deceitful, lackadaisical, whimsical, simple-minded, meddling, troublesome, snobby, and many more names added to that list comes to mind when the people of Earth thinks of us - the rest of the planets that is within the allegiance. They are still within their own civil war, still living simply on necessity and survival, escaping the twisted grasp of peaceful, practical politics that had hounded us till the beginning of the Solar Wars during the Silver Millennium. They could not understand the extent of our corruption, nor do we of theirs. We are of different worlds, one warring and distrustful of forces without, and rightfully so; and one peaceful and distrustful of forces within, and rightfully so as well. Perhaps, had someone had enough courage to point out the pettiness of both worlds, we would have learned that the events to come was not built by destiny, but by politics, war, and by our own hands - our distrust, our hate, and our corruption - which only added to our own ends. There could be no peace when there is no trust, especially when the corruption, the lies, the fear and resentment thrived both on Earth and the Moon. The greed for power in both worlds, interwoven with a connection stronger than either side had cared to acknowledge until one side seized the opportunity that such things had to offer. It had brought a war - more malevolent than the Great War - one that was a disease and a virus that space and time could not stand against or at as barriers to. War is the cure. A burning, cleansing, purifying cure in its terrifying destruction, a reminder of why we live, a way to look at the smaller details of living, a way to end all miseries and create new ones in its place that needs to be solved by different methods, better than the old that had caused it in the first place. War is cruel, a curse and a blessing. It will destroy everything, and within war there is no good or evil, just the victor and the slave. Politics is war without bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed. - Mao Zedong The Four Warriors of Fate ========================= The Four Warriors of Might =========================== Part I - Earth -------------- Planet Earth: Hills of Azarh... "General Zoisite is here Sir." The man turned. His face was composed in an unreadable mask revealing nothing, not even the weariness of the nights that passed him by without sleep. "Send him in." The retreating steps of the soldier told him that the General had only just arrived and probably still tending to his own horse. "Damn the horse." He slammed a fist onto the table and sighed in frustration. The pain focused his somewhat tired and foggy mind. "Jadeite your division seemed to be fairing quite well so far." A calm voice reached his ears. "How long have you been there Zoisite?" He asked, his expression masked once more but his body was rigid with tension and anticipation. He should've known that Zoisite would not wait to be announced and teleport to his tent at once. "Long enough to know that cursing my horse is a bad omen for any General." The other man replied smoothly. "I take it that everything isn't going as well as it looks?" The inquiry made his form stiffen the more, if that was possible. "Everything is fine." He said through gritted teeth. He and Zoisite had been good friends for sometime now, but the war had put a strain on that friendship. Hell, all the Generals were on a strained relationship with each other at the moment! Not only because of the difference in reaction to the War, but also the different political views they've each taken up. "You did not light a camp fire to warm the soldiers?" It was a statement more than a question. He swirled around and faced the other man. The light-green eyes stared at him defiantly, as strands of blond hair curled around a pale face. Angular cheekbones and a narrow chin made him a favorite with the ladies who thought him beautiful and wanted to add the curly-haired General to their collection of beautiful things that decorated their rich and uneventful lives, but he was not interested in them at all. The High General Zoisite would rather spend an hour with a book in the dusty library, where his only companions where the dust-motes that danced in the single sunlight ray that peaked into the darkroom than a few minutes with the brainless women that pursued him to no end. All these women would only wish to talk about the weather, their clothes, and the latest gossip on anyone that they felt the slightest jealousy towards, which ended up as being mostly of each other. All of the hours were spent behind fluttering fans as they communicated in hissing whispers and soft vehement denials or agreements. "The soldiers can survive without fire tonight, we are in the open plains and it is best to not attract any attention to ourselves with bright things, such as fire." The General Jadeite was a complete opposite of the General Zoisite. Before the Solar Wars begun, Jadeite was carefree and wild, partying till dawn and usually waking up in one strange place or another in the afternoon with a slight hangover that never lasted longer than an hour. He usually found himself in some noblewoman's bed or bedroom or whatever room they had conveniently landed in during the time when he was drunk on either wine or passion or both for that matter. Once he woke in a tub with a blond-haired girl draped across his chest and both of them wrinkled from head to toe from sleeping in the water that had cooled over the period of time in which they spent sleeping. After that time, he made sure that he would never take baths during the time that he was drunk or during a seduction. His flamboyant life-style had given him a reputation throughout the Earth as being a heartbreaker, sometimes even reaching to some of the other planets such as the Moon! And as worried parents tried to keep their daughters away from him, it only increased his charm and his fame. The Prince Endymion once joked that they should lock him in his room whenever a diplomat with a daughter or wife or any female companion arrives for fear of insulting them with Jadeite's own temerity. But Jadeite's charm and keen insight on people was what made him a brilliant diplomat, and probably the only reason why he wasn't locked in his room during the meetings and calls made by distant kingdoms Earthbound or not. That was before the Solar Wars. Zoisite, though always distant, had made himself even more reserved than usual. His shrewdness and cynical insights was sharpened by the War and had been one of the factors for the strained relationship between him and his old friends, especially the General Kunzite, who could not stand insubordination to orders or the defiant glint that had now made the General Zoisite's gaze hard and cold. Jadeite had calmed down from the blow of the War. His behaviors became so reserved and civil that the Prince Endymion worried over it for a month before calming down enough to not collapse from exhaustion. The very thought that Jadeite would sober under these conditions had never occurred to the Prince. Nor did he anticipate the change with great welcome for much of the light that Jadeite had brought to the other Generals during moments of crisis was now gone, diminishing the already low spirits. "Zoisite why are you here?" He finally asked. A strand of golden lock kept falling into his eyes as he pushed it away irately, his emotions were wearing thin and his exhaustion form the past few days of traveling and battles did not help to sooth the unease feelings he kept getting which kept him up at nights. The civil war on Earth had worsened after the beginning of the Solar Wars, sometimes he wondered if Earth politics and civilization would collapse onto itself from the pressure of inward and outward tensions. Everyone in the Solar System knew that Earth was not on good terms with the rest of the planets, especially the Moon. Before the Wars had even begun most of the already strained communications, but now it was all but cut off almost permanently and it was a miracle that the two planets weren't fighting a new war with each other! Circumstances that had strained the politics of the two planets before was now the only buffer that kept them out of war. At first Earth, separated into so many spheres of influences, that each sphere was - by its nature - too suspicious of both the other spheres and the other planets to pick any one representative to present the Earth at the Great Conference held on the Moon for each planet. They were even too suspicious to send one representative from each sphere to the Conference, while some wise spheres tried to convince them to go none went except eight kingdoms that made a pact with each other. The eight kingdoms sent their own rulers to the Conference, though thoroughly trained in the politics of Earth, the eight Kings found themselves ill prepared for the conference of the Moon where rulers of Planets of peace and prosperity came and made the Earth Kings feel more inferior and intimidated than ever before! The assassination of two of the Kings on the way back did not help the situation. Those two kingdoms collapsed and went under the ruling of one of the six Kings that remained and who soon broke the earlier pact and left. His untimely death brought his mistress, an obscure woman to the throne; something that had been unheard of at the time, but she had eliminated all the competition and had somehow got the army onto her side, installing fear in her enemies as she swiftly destroyed all opposition. The Kingdom of Kaul was born and as its new Queen, the woman begun her plan to bring peace into the long warring Earth, so that under her control she could finally represent it at the Moon's annual Conference. She called herself Beryl, a name she found in an ancient tongue that had meant Peace Bringer, she would not know that after her ruling the name would only bring the feeling of dread and hatred to those who had heard it, and that her kingdom would later be known as the Dark Kingdom. "I came to inform you, General Jadeite, The Second of the Four Kings, King of the West, that you are removed form you current post and relocated to be beside his royal highness Prince Endymion, soon to be King of Cryone and the representative of Earth." The curly-haired General grinned, and the initial tension broke. "Congratulations Jadeite to the new allegiance of Earth. And hopefully, a peaceful end to this civil war once and for all." "Zoisite, you rascal you! You had me scared for a moment there with that solemn face of yours!" The tone of the blond General changed to a carefree melodious tone that had charmed many a ladies to his bed. The tension in his own body ebbed, he was glad that the civil war was ending, and perhaps the Solar Wars would soon end as well, and Earth and the Solar System would finally be at peace. "Prepare to leave tomorrow at dawn, your second in command should take over from now on." Zoisite cocked a brow, "Or would you prefer me to call Archellies, I know he would be quite capable of the job and he has been restless for sometime now." "And allow my army to be slaughtered because that man's need for glory?" He asked with equal amusement, but an annoyance for the other man seeped into his voice. "No, I'll summon Jaron, he is more than capable for this and would be cautious enough to be careful to not do anything too rash and shrewd enough to know when to strike hard." He rubbed his temple, the tiredness hitting him at full force. "I'll summon him, in the mean time, get some sleep." He smiled at the curly-haired General gratefully and nodded, the other left the tent. For sometime he dozed, as well as going through the events that was to come in this new change of proceedings, hopefully they would not fail for peace a second time like our fathers did, hopefully. Before the moon was high he was fast asleep and did not wake until the Sun rose over the horizon. It was the last time he ever slept so well in his army tent again. "Are you ready Jadeite?" "I'm always ready Zoisite. We better leave now or we'll be late." "We could teleport if it becomes too urgent a task Jadeite." "And tire ourselves out meaninglessly? Why the hell bring a horse then if you're just going to teleport?" "Well then, let's go!" Zoisite galloped away. "Good luck soldiers." With that he was off to chase after the other General. He never did look back to his division, probably because he knew that this was the last time he would ever see them again. Two days later the group was ambushed, all the soldiers were slaughtered and the head of Jaron was sent to him in a box. He had let one tear fall down his cheeks; Jaron was his nephew and he would miss him. He would never cry again after that he promised himself silently. It was promise he would later break, just like the one he had made to his sister before she died, for he was only human. They traveled through the day, passing the emerald-gold plains with grass so tall that it buried half of their horses' bodies. The softness of brushed at the sweaty brown and white coats, stretched over powerful muscles, tinkling the chest and stomach of the animals as they tottered by. The sun made the gold wisps in the lush-green plains sparkle like the precise mettle, as it wavered in the breeze. "It's really something isn't it?" The blond General asked softly as the two looked down at the great plains below them. "Hai." Silence fell upon the two as the curly haired General reined his horse, turning his back to the gold-green sea. "We better hurry, night is coming. It would be best if we found a safe place to camp before the darkness. The lands, even when this beautiful, can be deadly. You know that." The last statement did not go unnoticed, but it lacked the sardonic lilt that had characterized the General's earlier speeches. "Let's go then." He reared his horse around and galloped to the valley bellow, laughing as he felt the wind whip by him, pulling on his hair. The curly-haired General shook his head, but a smile lit his face as he watched in amusement as the other galloped ahead. "At least we can enjoy a little freedom for now." He said, but refused to allow a frown to ruin this moment of happiness. "Jadeite old boy, I'm not going to let you win that easily!" The two disappeared into the sloping dale with the soft echoing laughter remaining as the only evidence that they were ever there. Soon, that too faded into silence and nothingness. Royal Palace of Earth, the Throne Room... "Endymion old friend, you are a sight to see for sore eyes, and I bet you've been trying to steal my ladies away from me when I was away again!" The dark-haired Prince looked up with surprise, but his face soon broke out into a smile that drove the tiredness from within his eyes into the shadows. "Jadeite! I didn't know that you've already arrived!" The younger man grinned at the earlier tease. "And the ladies were an ease to steal, especially since they know a better man when they see him." "They wouldn't know how to put on their own clothing without help from the servants if that's what you mean." The sarcastic tone of voice from the curly-haired General did not go unnoticed as he entered the room. "Zoisite, I see you've loosened up a little." Endymion said with a slight frown but it soon disappeared. "Yes, I see it now, you have loosened up." "Of course he has! He was in my care after all." The blond General said with boastful smile, rocking back and forth on his heels as he puffed his chest a little. "I'm glad to see you're feeling better now." The relief in the young prince's voice sobered the occasion. "Yare yare." The tiredness returned, but it was from relief that the high-prince was alright for now and the nasty feeling inside him subsided. "I heard that we are going to visit the Moon. Old pal Zoisite here would only tell so much on the trip here, a curious and mysterious chap that he is." "Stop trying to sound like an old man Jadeite, it shan't work when you grin like an idiot." Zoisite retorted. "Hai, though we are having a Conference with the Moon Queen a month from now when we are due to visit, we are going to have an earlier Conference tomorrow in the Conference room with the Moon Queen's daughter, Princess Serenity. It seems that all is going according to plan and even Beryl has conceded to our urgings, we will have a three way conference with both kingdoms." Endymion said, ignoring the banter between the two kings before him. "Kunzite, how is he handling this?" The curly-haired General asked. "His your best friend, you tell me." The dark-haired prince said with a frown. "For he won't speak to me about his own worries, only listens and advises my own. The moment I begin to move into his personal life he freezes up like an ice-cube and finds some excuse to leave." The frown subsided to a soft smile as the high-prince laid his hands on the curly-haired General's shoulder. "Welcome back old friend, much has changed and I am glad you are back to fix it again." "I thought that General Nephrite was more than capable of handling such things when I left, that was why I recommended him. His father was a fine man and so is he I believe, from what I've seen of him and his reports." The blond General whistled, something so originally him that the Prince laughed and clasped the two men to him in a hug. "I am so glad you two are back! Things are just not the same without you two here, Kunzite is a great man but as soon as Zoicite leave and there are no one to needle him with sarcasm he turns into a boring old mule that is no more fun to talk to than a stonewall! And Nephrite, granted he is a brilliant strategist and almost up to the books as Zoicite! But he finds it more interesting to recite poetry to the birds and the morning than to converse with me. It has been terribly boring without you guys around!" The prince pouted like a young boy who had had no fun at all for years. "And spoiled you I see." Zoisite said with a frown. "We'll get you to be a top-notch warrior in no time, and I won't allow you to slack of on your studies as Kunzite is inclined to do when you start prying into his personal life." "Yes Mother." The prince said with a solemn face. "You'd be wishing for your mother when I'm through with you!" Zoisite said swing a fist toward the prince who quickly ducked behind the blond General. "Save me Jadeite!" Endymion cried melodramatically, eliciting a chuckle from him. "Oh no you don't Endymion! I'm not that stupid to get in the way of Zoisite when you insults his manhood!" Stepping aside, the chuckling General got a full force glare from the Prince before the latter turned and ran from the curly-haired General. "He has not grown up a bit since the last time you've been here." A soft voice reached his ears after the departure of a mad Zoisite on the Prince's tail no doubt. "Iie. I think he has grown a lot since I've last seen him, he has a weariness that we all carry because of duty Nephrite, you just have not witness the true face of innocence that once resided in that face." "Hai, perhaps you are right Jadeite. Ne, I have not seen the General Zoisite react like that till now either." The confusion was clearly there. "Gomen nasai Nephrite, we have forgotten you have only been with us a year. Zoisite has always been like that, but he is also very reserved to strangers." Smiling the blond General turned to face the auburn-haired man. "Given time, you would earn his respect and when you do, you'll know that you have earned a dear friend." "You are starting to sound like an old man Jadeite." The other General smiled. "Hai, I know." He turned, "There is a great war that may come if the negotiations with the Moon goes wrong, or that with Beryl. She is an unpredictable wench. Was the mistress of the vile King Olmea, who murdered two Kings and took their kingdoms, bringing Earth to the brink of a greater chaos than ever before." "You do not trust her I take it." "Never trust a woman in politics," he said with a grin. Remembering one of the greatest lessons his father had ever taught him. "They have so much control stacked up against you that it is best to be careful about such things, and Beryl has shown an extent of what she could do, I fear that it will not be her greatest triumph and if not, all of our lives are in trouble. It is the power I fear, the power that I fear that she will misuse and turn against us like the old King did in our fathers' time." "I did not know that the old King actually killed the two other Kings." "We made sure most people wouldn't, a lot of the high ranking officers don't even know it. If this gets out, some lunatic may think that they have every right to push for revenge and start another long and arduous war. Pleasing both the Moon monarch and this Beryl woman is in our favor at the moment." "I did not know you studied the politics of these two kingdoms, being that you-" The other General caught himself and blushed in embarrassment. "Go on, say it." He commanded with a frown to the other man. "While you aren't always sober...a lot of the times, from what I've heard." The other General said uncomfortably. Jadeite was of a higher rank than he at the moment and had been in court with the Prince for most of the younger prince's life, he did not want the General to be his enemy nor his powerful kingdom against his own. It was politically inexpedient for him, but he couldn't lie, he was talking to a higher officer after all. The other man laughed, surprising the auburn-haired General. "What is he laughing about this time?" An irate voice reached to two men. "Kunzite, so glad to see you too." The blond General said with a smile but his posture went tense. "Jadeite, you arrived without announcement. That is very unconventional." "We arrived ahead of time, yes." The blond General replied stiffly. He and Kunzite never did get along, for Jadeite had always considered Kunzite to be too straight laced and rigid, boring and no fun at all. He had always thought that the other was not living enough of life and when he tried to draw the silver-haired General out of his isolated shell, the man rebuked him and the two never mended their differences. Kunzite on the other hand found Jadeite to be too carefree, wild and not responsible enough for his duties. He tried to make the other see that to be in such a high power, he should stop spending so much time on meaningless things such as the empty-headed women, any women, in the vicinity of the castle. But his attempts failed and only hurt the blond Generals pride, the two were always at odds with each other and their miscommunication had only worsened the effect. Kunzite though was pleased that Jadeite had indeed sobered in the last few years under the great crisis of civil war that had touched his own kingdom, and was dimly surprised by its affects. He was indeed pleased to see the man, for he had secretly missed the carefree air that eased his mind and sometimes even sharpened his senses that the other had. Jadeite had always cheered the high Prince as well, and the news of his arrival had brightened the younger man's mood, which had needed some brightening for sometime now. Zoisite has also arrived, and Kunzite was grateful for his genius friend back again. He had not seen the curly-haired General in over a year, and the stress of having no one to talk to, a fatigued and tired soon to be King, and a young upstart of a General who was still not used to the protocols of court was seriously straining his nerves. "I am glad to see you are safe Jadeite." He grudgingly admitted. The younger General's eyes lightened and smiled, which already began to sooth some of the tension from earlier comments, "Hai Kunzite, even you I've missed on the battlefield. It has been gruesome these last few years and the food not always good, nor the company of the soldiers always light." The blond General softened a little more, "You are better company than many of my men, which I fear is true no matter how I try to think around it." The glint of mischief returned into the light-blue eyes. The two of the clasped arms in warm welcome, there would be no embrace but the road to recovery from earlier years has already begun. "Nephrite, what do you make of the new change of events?" The silver- haired General asked with a smile and looked to the startle brown- haired General who had thought that he had already been forgotten. "I fear that he is still unused to your keenness Kunzite, he probably thought we've already forgotten his presence!" The two older Generals grinned and let go of one another's arm and turned to the younger man (in experience but not in years). "When you prove yourself Nephrite, you will have our highest respect as well as the Prince's, but till then there is much to learn that those textbooks that you bury yourself in would and could never tell you." Jadeite clasped one casual arm around the brown-haired man and together the three talked for the next few hours on the new strategies of war, the latest weapons that had been invented, the probable intervention of the Moon, the consequences of its political entanglements, and many other things that had less to do with politics and more to do with the events that had passed in Jadeite's absence. Half way through Zoisite returned with a triumphant smirk but none of them inquired where the prince was and they welcomed the missing General with great relief and joy. The four of the legendary Kings were assembled as Generals in the Great Hall of the Castle of Endymion and the fate of Earth and the Solar system rests now, partly in their hands; the other lay in the hands of four other warriors sunning by the beaches of Neptune, half a system away. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome to the beginning of a very LONG series. I hoped you enjoyed it =) You can reach me at: blue@icedream.f2s.com Disclaimer has already been put in my mother-of-all-disclaimers during my Memories Series, I'm not even going to bother with it for the rest of stories as I've already disclaimed all of the characters I did not create. Ja! Blue