Nephrite, Mercury had learned quickly, hated newcomers.  She decided his brain, confronted with a word too long for him like 'arrival', must have divested the term of its first two letters.

Well.  With his record lately, Nephrite might want to consider being a little more polite.  Mercury let herself smirk as she made her way through the tunnels she was just beginning to know, heading towards where she knew she'd find the Dark Kingdom whipping-boy.  There had been an audience with Beryl, and it would be easy to guess how it had gone from his attitude.  Partly hidden, she waited for him.

Her smile widened as Nephrite came storming into view, clearly furious...and clearly frustrated.  

"Why is he siding with Kunzite?!"  A fist formed at the shitennou general's side.

Even though the sailor-uniformed girl realized perfectly well that the sulking boy hadn't meant to be overheard, and even though she wasn't sure what he was talking about, she couldn't resist.  She took a step further into the light.

"If you want to do it, too, I'll ask him for you," she offered.  She gave him a look she knew was infuriating.

It was an intentional insult.  Even had Nephrite wanted to join forces with Kunzite to finally succeed at something (Mercury was sure he couldn't do it on his own), his pride would hold him back.  He glowered, and spat what she was sure was the only insult he could think of:  "Who'd listen to Kunzite's slave?"

That was different.  Mercury froze, eyes narrowing.  How dare he?  Her fighting outclassed his, her temperament outclassed his, her position in the Dark Kingdom already outclassed his, she outclassed him.  She was not a slave.  

She'd refused to be beneath any of them.

Then the girl smiled, and in the strange lighting of the cave it gave her face an eerie light.  There was no need to upset herself over a nothing like Nephrite.  "Good luck, then," she said.  The tone said the rest: You'll need it.  She'd given him his chance.

Still, she'd always secretly hoped the boy would finally make something of himself.  Her boots clacked lightly against the floor of the cavern as Mercury strode away, head held high in contrast to the slumped general still sitting on the ground.

***

The problem was, now Mercury was suddenly feeling things were going too far.  "Nephrite's nothing now," she argued with the stern, aloof man in front of her.  "It's not necessary."

Why was she trying to shield him?  No, she wasn't.  It was simply the truth.  Even if Nephrite wasn't willing to follow Kunzite, he also wasn't in a position to be any sort of threat.  She frowned.

Kunzite wanted everything, he made it clear the next moment.  “I didn't bring you here to help Nephrite,” the general responded.  He flashed her an arrogant smile.  “You're mine,” he reminded the girl.  She was here to help him with his schemes, including gaining definite superiority over his fellow shitennou.  He meant to rule.

"I hate that attitude," Mercury announced coldly.  A defiant lift of her chin.  That possessiveness, not just to keep her from others but as if she was no longer her own.

Kunzite eyed his sailor senshi.  She glared.  His look was a warning.  She  let the tension ease from her posture, but the sulky expression remained.  It made her look even younger than she was, no more than a teenager anyway, childish.  The shitennou nodded briefly, possibly approving of his pet's eventual acquiescence.

After all, Mercury considered, there was little reason to take the other one's side.  She looked away from the man in front of her nonetheless, lowering her eyes.  She hated that expression, that smugness, that insistence on rubbing her face in her position relative to him.  A slave she refused to be, but without his protection any of the others who hated her or were suspicious of her would have an easy time attacking.

“Well...” Kunzite conceded, drawing out the offer.  “With Nephrite out of the way, there'd be one shitennou missing again.”  Mercury immediately picked up on what he was implying.  In the very first moments she'd been in the Dark Kingdom, Kunzite had made the claim that she might be able to replace Zoisite, who had been defeated earlier.  Beryl had been angry, but willing to consider the idea if the new girl proved herself – until Zoisite had been resurrected by Metalia.

If Nephrite were really finally totally humiliated, she might still have that status.  Mercury liked that idea.  She smiled, a coy little expression.  It was best to comply anyway.  She nodded, mind made up, stiffening herself to do whatever it was she needed to.

“What's your idea?” she asked him, and her expression was bland, lacking the fire of a moment earlier.

“Beryl-sama's already starting to take care of it,” he smirked.

That, that was interesting.  She'd wondered what had happened at the recent audience.  She stood still, waiting for her informant to continue.

“He's out of time and out of her patience.  He just needs to commit one more foolish act.  Provoke it.”

Provoke it, provoke him, it was the same thing.  Mercury grinned.  She couldn't help it.  She might not enjoy Kunzite's attitude, but working with him could be fun.  Sometimes.

It looked like this was going to be one of those times.

***

Nephrite was not going to fall into line, Nephrite had to be removed.  The blue-haired senshi paced her room quietly save for the sound of her heeled boots.  They echoed, tapping out a warning as she opened the door finally and walked through the now-familiar tunnels.

Her time had come.  Nephrite, she knew, had failed again.  The ice beneath his status and favor was thinner every moment, and if she was planning to keep her word to Kunzite (she was), it was the perfect time.  

"Pathetic, aren't you?" she commented idly, turning to face the near-crawling injured man.  He was, like that.  He was like that.  She didn't bother staying, but turned to leave.  Something warned her to look back just in time.

Mercury whirled around and caught the haft of Nephrite's weapon.  She hadn't expected it that quickly.  What a quick temper he had.  She leveled a serious look at him.

"Do you really think you can beat me in that state?"  It was easy, while Nephrite was so enraged, to duck and dodge his blows.  None landed.  Carefully, she avoided committing herself; she would not attack.  She was the innocent in this situation.  The idea tickled her fancy; she liked that thought.

Before their dance had gone on too long, Kunzite appeared, almost as if from nowhere but Mercury knew he'd been watching.  She backed away and smiled quietly to herself, watching them square off against each other.

"Have you finally lost your mind?" the arriving shitennou asked his fellow.  "That was a foolish act."

He just needs to commit one more foolish act, Kunzite had said.  Mercury watched until Kunzite landed a blow that tore part of Nephrite's cape.

If Nephrite could have defeated Kunzite, Mercury would have reconsidered.  Maybe.  It would have been acceptable to side with the winner, anyway.  She told herself this as the two men finished their fight (over her, a pleased little corner of her mind couldn't help adding).  She pivoted and turned to leave.

Still, that desperation... he'd been so panicked...

***

Within minutes, the shitennou were summoned before Beryl.  Rumors filled the pathways of the Dark Kingdom:  Nephrite has Beryl-sama even more angry this time.  Nephrite's going to be punished.  Nephrite's completely out of favor.  Nephrite won't be able to do anything.

As usual, she was watching.  The banished shitennou limped painfully by Mercury, and she watched him, just as she had that time before, without him knowing it.  Once he'd passed her, leaving behind the torn cloak, she picked it up, something she didn't even understand compelling her to the action.

Now, what could she think of to do with this?

For a few days, the cape stayed in Mercury's room untouched.  By the fourth, she suddenly picked up a needle.  It wasn't as if there were anything else to do, and she still remembered how to sew.

It wasn't being sympathetic, she told herself.  It had just gone too far, there was just something wrong about what had happened.  A mistake.  Her needle was easier to control than a pencil, the fabric softer than paper, the quiet sound of the pulling thread more reliable than speech.

She really had no idea how to say what she wanted to, how to express whatever it was making her feel this way.  (What way?)  A sulky expression came over her features, and if her next few stitches were uneven, hopefully Nephrite wouldn't notice it.

Once or twice, Kunzite jeered at her for her efforts.  She ignored him or shot back equal retorts, needle still moving methodically.  It was an act of defiance against him, too, an assertion that she was still her own person, would be kind or cruel to whomever she chose.

"Besides," she told him lightly once, "What better way to make Nephrite even more upset?"

Kunzite, who knew her too well, probably didn't believe that was her only reason.

***

Finding Nephrite was even easier now that he had nowhere to go.  Mercury's boots tapped against the cavern floor, their sound even louder in the echoing silence that only served to emphasize the emptiness they'd left him in.  She looked down at him.

"Sight-seeing?" the temperamental shitennou jeered up at her.  She made a face, and for her answer held up the repaired cape.  He blinked, stared.  Why would she do it?  She threw it down at him, unwilling to be drawn into some explanation.

"You being alone like that," she finally said, "Somehow, I don't like it."

That was all. She couldn't express the rest, her too-deep understanding of loneliness, the not wanting someone else to experience what she had, the odd feeling of kinship with Nephrite because he had been shut out like that, just as she had been before coming to the Dark Kingdom.  These were things it was foolish to say at best - and dangerous at worst.

For one thing, Kunzite would be watching her.

The senshi pivoted on her heel, turned, stalked away, leaving Nephrite to throw the cape to the floor, thundering complaints against the world compelling him to suffer pity from a 'sailor senshi'.

She should have known better than to think it would be appreciated.  Mercury had the vague feeling she'd done something wrong again, that he'd only hate her all the more when for some reason she didn't quite want him to.

The Dark Kingdom had alliances, hierarchies, deals.  Making a friend there really was impossible.

***

Epilogue A

Time had passed.  Ami had come to herself, escaped the Dark Kingdom and become Sailormercury once more.  She had also found Kunzite's sword waiting for her.

She still didn't know how to stand up to him.  She froze, wincing, bracing herself for the blow that never came.

Never came?  Sailormercury opened her eyes.  It was Nephrite, one of the shitennou, suddenly with his sword locked against Kunzite's, defending her, preventing the final stroke from falling.  what was this?

Kunzite retreated, and Nephrite gave the senshi of water a long look before following the rival he'd just thwarted.  For all their rivalry, she'd been kind to him once.

***

Epilogue B

Sailor senshi on one side, shitennou on the other.  But Sailormercury's eyes were drawn to the young, temperamental one on the far right-hand side from her perspective.  Nephrite.  

Suddenly all four of her supposed enemies, at a signal from Queen Beryl, pointed their weapons to themselves.  And Sailormercury could only watch in horror as Nephrite stabbed himself through with his.  She closed her eyes, pained.  For all their rivalry, he'd saved her once.

Ami couldn't fall asleep for a long time that night.  The last she looked at her clock, it read 2:00am.