Soldier

NAME:	Zoisite
ELEMENT:	Energy (Healing & Purification)

Powers

• Energy Manipulation: Zoisite's manipulation and control over energy is something else. Not only can he use it to increase his attack power with his cane-sword but he can use it to deflect, shield, or flat out blast an opponent. He can also moderate the amount of energy it takes to increase his strength and speed beyond even his already superhuman abilities, minimizing the amount of power necessary to achieve maximum effects, so that he can outlast an opponent without running down. If he is feeling particular extra, his energy attacks can take the form of flower petals, fire, or ice. In a pinch, without his cane-sword, he can make use of a blade of energy to use. Sadly, this can be taxing on the body if he goes for an extended period. Needless to say: if he doesn't get food (or even rest) afterward he will be excessively hangry and irritable. Under Sailor Star Healer's instruction, Zoisite ability to sense the energy presence of others has been refined to help him detect more than just the True Star Seeds of other Knights but also the Star Crystala of Sailor Guardians.
• Chaos Resistant: Regaining his status as a Heavenly King, Zoisite has an innate sense for the corruption of Chaos. This makes him harder to corrupt once more with his nature as the knight of Healing and Purification working in tandem with the protection bestowed by King Endymion, strengthening his body's response to corruption and fighting back. It also tends to make lesser beings of Chaos, such as Youma, really aggressive towards him as they can sense someone who once served Metaria and has turned their back on her. With his zoisite stone resting near the Silver Crystal, this effect is strengthened both in his resistance to Chaos and presence to youma.
• Pretty Guardian Zoisite Make-up!: Zoisite is capable of changing his appearance, though he cannot mask his height. He can alter his hair, facial features, and create embellishments by using energy and holding it in a shape. As this heavily relies upon his ability to manipulate energy--especially to keep it going, finer aspects of the disguise, and to spoof the energy presence as best he can--not only will it slowly fade when consciousness is lost but Zoisite must dedicate time to 'transforming'. Although Zoisite could use this ability to appear as anyone, it is mostly used to double for the Queen, be it as Sailor Moon or Neo Queen Serenity. To become anyone else would require time and dedication to working out the disguise but similar features (hair color, eyes, etcetera) can speed up the process.
• Technopathy: Zoisite can manipulate and control any technology he can lay hands on, as well as instinctively understand it and gain knowledge of its uses and abilities within moments. Despite using it mostly to help him operate any piece of tech that comes his way, Zoisite is also capable of using it to create something as long as he has the components to do so. He cannot broadcast his consciousness into a system (though he could hijack a television station or video feed and broadcast himself that way), nor can he carry it out in a battle as it requires a level of focus that just isn't possible in the heat of combat (it'd just get him mauled).
• Weather Alteration: Due to his understanding of the flow of energy and otherwise within the world around him, Zoisite is capable of manipulating the weather. Since his revival, this power has not seen much use as causing storms or otherwise does not impact his opponents in a way he sees useful. However, should he not be mindful--and his mood poor enough--he can impact weather systems and cause it to turn without any warning by subconsciously releasing energy and draining himself. Of course, Zoisite can put things to rights but that takes time and means that spontaneous showers may still occur.
• Energy Barrage: Zoisite fills the area around him with what appears to be a near never-ending barrage of energy blasts that fire at his enemies. This is a last-ditch attack as it leaves him winded and open for an attack after it finishes.
• Energy Reversal: A defensive move, Zoisite can redirect the energy of an attack back at his attacker. He can block multiple attacks from weaker enemies and even attacks from stronger opponents, though should he become overwhelmed he can only redirect some of the attack to pull himself out of danger (even if somewhat injured).
• Energy Blast: A condensed bolt of energy, fired as a spike at an enemy. Often used when someone has gotten too close to him and he needs them to back off.
• Healing & Purification: An aspect of being the Knight of Healing and Purification, Zoisite cannot only heal the injuries of others but remove the foreign influences upon the body. This usually implies toxins or poisons but in the event he attempts to purge the influence of Chaos upon someone--not someone who is fully corrupted but only unduly influenced--Zoisite takes it within himself and it is slowly purified. Zoisite is not able to heal multiple people at once and must often rest between healings or risk his health and well-being. When his zoisite stone is near the Silver Crystal, Zoisite is capable of stronger feats of healing and purification (still within reason).

History

Before he became one of the Four Heavenly Kings, the knight of Healing and Purification, that served Prince Endymion in the Silver Millennium, Zoisite was the son of a noble family. As the eldest child, the highest expectations were placed upon him. Yet all that pressure had to be released and it led to young Zoisite being something of a troublemaker. It was in his troublemaking, especially in playing pranks and otherwise creating mischief, that he caused a horrible accident.

That same accident helped him realize his talents in healing, Zoisite using the power he discovered to help heal the individuals he had brought to harm. From that moment forward, Zoisite dedicated himself to studying to learn and understand his talents and to better protect the people. His desire to help, to do what he could, eventually lead to him creating a name for himself and into a position of power as a leader. While that might have been what brought him to Prince Endymion's attention, Zoisite could not say. Regardless, he was eventually chosen to serve the Prince and he did so with pride.

The only annoyance, of course, was that the Prince was trying to hide his secret liaison with the Moon Princess. In trying to keep an eye on the Prince, Zoisite met with the guardians of the Princess their Prince was so enamored with who seemed to share a similar frustration. He ended up finding a friendship with Sailor Mercury; their discussions were often intellectual debates, sometimes arguments that tested the limits of their intelligence. Soon enough, war broke out and nothing could be done to stop it despite wishes otherwise. Everything fell apart from there and Zoisite loathes to talk about the descent into darkness that followed. All that matters is that all that he cared for, desired to protect, was destroyed and lives were lost.

His own included.

Zoisite was eventually reborn as Jeremiah Mercer--in Lark Hill, Wiltshire, in the United Kingdom--and six minutes later, his fraternal twin sister was born. They were the children of Meredith and Piers Mercer, a family that held land and title (Countess) within the country. From an early age, Jeremiah was exceptionally bright (his sister was as well) and there was little that could keep him occupied. With little to challenge him, he would often get into trouble. Private tutors were eventually sought out, dedicated to teaching Jeremiah and his sister. His teenage years were mostly quiet, the only hiccup being that he went prematurely grey (a trait, his mother had assured, that occurred naturally in the Mercer line), and kept himself occupied with college-level studies. Eventually, he decided that he wanted to work on a degree, most likely in Comparative Literature (and get that coveted doctorate).

Yet he very quickly was beginning to realize that not everything was right. Everything came crashing down when Jeremiah and his sister were kidnapped. While they were eventually rescued, the ransom paid, it became clear that the reason was due to his father's shady connections to the underworld. Returned home, the horrors of the world were revealed to Jeremiah. There were many things wrong with the world, least of all his father's use of his mother's title to gain a position within Parliament and to push forward personal agendas, shady dealings, and other things that did not benefit the people. Jeremiah began to act out, doing what he could to counteract his father's ill-meaning political plans and more. It all led to an explosive fight that ultimately saw him leaving the manor and taking up residence in London.

There, Jeremiah finished his studies but found that he still was not satisfied. He was meant to be doing something more, to be helping the people ... Anything more than this. It was during this time period that he was found by Beryl who took advantage of his missing memories and the need inside him to be more. Jeremiah shed his name then and once more became Zoisite, not knowing that the Queen he now served was not who he was meant to be serving. In an effort to completely shed his identity, he made use of the powers he discovered as Zoisite and changed his look entirely. Jeremiah Mercer disappeared and only the blonde-haired, green-eyed Zoisite remained. Worse, he unknowingly trained and learned to use his power of healing and purification to hurt people all to further the agenda of the Dark Kingdom and rise within the ranks.

Somewhere along the line, he convinced himself of Beryl's lies and ignored the whispers in the back of his mind. Any moment there was indecision, he just reminded himself that these individuals--these Sailor Scouts--were invaders and jeopardizing the Earth. They needed the power of the Silver Crystal to make everyone realize the truth. Zoisite failed to realize he had become the exact thing he had fought back against being, mind entirely corrupted by Queen Beryl.

Yet there were flickers, here and there, and Zoisite suspected not all was right. In following Kunzite, he discovered the truth and his memories returned to him--to all of them. It did not matter, of course, because Beryl was prepared even as the Heavenly Kings fought back.

Memory was stripped away again. The only comfort that he had was that when he was finally struck down, Zoisite had his memories once more. All that remained was to remind the Sailor Scouts to move forward and protect their Princess. Prince Endymion kept their stones, despite the betrayal, and, for a decade, they served as spectral advisors when called upon.

It was a surprise in 2020 when they were brought back to life. Zoisite did not know what to think but at the Prince--no, King's--advice to be the man he knew him to be, he knew that this was the place he was meant to be. His loyalty assured, Zoisite threw himself into serving his King and Queen. Being alive meant reacquainting himself with his former life--with being Jeremiah Mercer once more--but it was no chore. In fact, it made things easier for him as an ambassador that he already held some sway due to his family name. Yet almost immediately it was clear that something was not right: the Dark Kingdom was reviving in the United States. Zoisite worked quickly as he could, helping to ease fears and concerns within Europe as he could, while also working with the other Heavenly Kings.

He has spent the last decade working as an ambassador, advisor, and generally trying to resist falling into old habits and trolling some of the residents of the Crystal Palace (because it's so easy sometimes). Zoisite has also been able to work on truly realizing his potential as the knight of Healing and Purification. Oh, he also managed to finally get that doctorate he coveted as a teenager and all it took was not sleeping properly for a few years.

Seriously, not even the Dark Kingdom reviving and Chaos rising was going to stop him. Now, however, he has concerns about what is going on, if something far darker lurks on the horizon, and works hard to keep tabs on the pockets of dark creatures and more than appear. If he can do anything to ease the worries of his King and Queen, then he will do it.

Writing Sample

The thing was that they had never really been dead. Oh, their bodies had been gone but what remained of them sat nestled in the breast pocket of their Prince--a King now, Zoisite reminded himself--until he had, for some reason he wanted to say he did not fathom but understood all the same, brought them back.

A handful of years later, ambassador to a land that had once been his homeland- No, it had been Jeremiah Mercer's this time around, and sometimes, he thought, it might have been easier if he was simply Jeremiah Mercer and not Zoisite. Yet the truth would always come tumbling to his mind no matter what: they were one and the same, two sides of the same coin.

He had not regained his memories when she found him. He was just Jeremiah Mercer, a young man who was searching for the thing that was missing; a piece of himself that was just out of reach, something to get rid of that feeling that he was not where he was supposed to be. With her words of you could be who you are meant to be and promises of I can help you find that piece, she had swayed him. Even more than that: Zoisite loathed thinking of how she had not only made him--them, the other Heavenly Kings, his brothers in arms--a pawn but that, in some way, she had corrupted his name.

When she had called him Zoisite for the first time something had clicked into place, something that had felt right for all that it had been wrong. Looking back provided him with clarity and the realization that he had been so painfully, astronomically ignorant. Working through the shame, along with the self-loathing and disappointment (because it happened twice), was still a process he had to deal with but it grew easier with each day.

As time passed he recognized himself more and more. Steadied his resolve so that if temptation came again, if she or another came, he would be not so easily swayed. It would be a necessity, he was certain, because the Chaos grew and somewhere deep within he knew that they would be tested. If he had his way, however, they would not fall again. This meant that the music that he played, when he took over the conservatory and the piano therein, was no longer so somber. Not that Zoisite--Jeremiah--would ever admit that his mood was so easily determined by something like the music he played.

Today, however, the piece he played slowed bit by bit until there was silence. Tilting his head, silver bangs falling into his eyes (the rest was pulled back, though notably shorter than it had been when he had been blonde-haired and green-eyed and not much more than a short ponytail), he glanced towards the doorway and the darkened hallway beyond it.

"Someone might think it rude," he spoke, accent markedly Upper Received Pronounciation (something that, when he had been corrupt, had been hidden away like so many other things about himself), "to not just come in. If I am playing for an audience, I'd much rather see them than sense them." Here, he paused, and then added with a wry tone of amusement. "It isn't as if I bite." Not anymore and not without reason because Jeremiah had manners.