Notes: In June, I posted a writing meme on my LiveJournal. One of the requests I received was: "A meeting between Mercury and Beryl," and I quickly started thinking of a universe where the Moon came out victorious against Beryl's assault. I was told later that it wasn't actually what my friend had asked me to write, so I totally failed at following directions!

For Jess. Who didn't make me write a Ami/Zoicite cowboy AU. Though, I totally would have if you'd asked me to. :)

...

You Can Never Get Away From Where You've Been

...

There wasn't dirt or rats or stink or garbage in the moon's dark little corners of its kingdom. Just dust. Thick, chalky moon dust. When she lay on the floor of her cell, she could watch it curl in against the unnatural mornings of her incarceration and feel it coat her lungs. The Moon. It was choking the life out of her, one way or another. Her present, her future -- her love – they were all smothered in moon dust. She didn't yell or scream like the other prisoners. There was too much moon in her mouth already. But she could hear Nephrite crying from somewhere down in the depths -- screaming and screaming and screaming. Young, vital -- he'd be snuffed out eventually. Zoicite and Kunzite were silent or too far away to hear. The Addict and the Stoic. Did they already feel the injustice of their predicament or would her little spell save them the clarity of their betrayal to the very end in a way it would not save her?

Moon cells did not use keys, so there was no tell-tale jingle to announce the door of her little room opening and closing. It probably wouldn't have mattered anyway. She had lain down for the night long ago, uncaring of the extra dust collecting in the creases of her dress, and wouldn't have gotten up for anything short of the executioner.

"My lady, Beryl."

She opened her eyes. When was the last time someone had addressed her so politely? In the doorway, barely visible in the dim light, a small woman lowered the heavy fabric of her veil. For a moment, Beryl thought the Moon Princess had come to take one last viewing of the woman who had nearly ruined her kingdom, but the coloring was all wrong -- darker, bolder. She took a step forward, her face becoming a half-moon of shadow, as Beryl sat up.

It hurt to smile, her lips cracked and raw from refusing water, but she grinned anyway. She knew this girl. She knew her and she knew one of them would come, just as she knew they'd all watch her execution from their satellite cameras -- too angry or scared to face the real thing.

"Visiting your little traitor on the cell block?" she rasped, her voice hoarse and painful from disuse. She couldn't remember which of Endymion's guard this princess had snared. They had all been weak, falling for a pretty face and Alliance lies. Did it really matter?

Mercury didn't respond, but seemed to pass the next minute looking around the cell with a blank, clinical expression. "I've never been down here before. Our prisons see very little use," she said at length, her tone as neutral as her face -- like she was simply commenting on the weather. "You should be treated fairly, however. You can report abuse. It would be taken seriously, regardless..."

Regardless of what you've done, finished Beryl bitterly. "I have no complaints besides the obvious," she replied.

Seeming to steel herself, Mercury moved to perch on the opposite side of the room, looking painfully out of place on Beryl's small cot. Her dainty slippers left clean, oval imprints in the dust. Beryl found herself tracing the heavy iron bracelets they'd clamped around her wrists as she studied her own dirty feet. They had cut off what was left of her magic, severed her from her priestess-hood. Without the restraints, Beryl wondered if Mercury would have stepped into her cell just as easily. She'd seen enough of the Senshi to know she'd been right to wish them extinct – they were too powerful, too alien. They were an abomination. But she had not been completely helpless herself. The taste of dark magic still lingered on her gums. She clenched her fists. She had not been completely helpless.

And yet there she was, awaiting the summons that would steal her back to Earth. To... What? The gallows? Maybe the biting cut of a newly sharpened sword. Zoicite would definitely die by French rapier, she had decided. His pretty head deserved no less. Endymion would make sure of it. But what about her? The one that had loved him the most -- enough to kill.

"I will be honest with you, because there seems little reason for restraint," said Mercury after a quiet sigh. "The Princess is…" She faltered a moment. "...Distressed by your circumstance. You are guilty of treason and war-mongering, but you are also, by her majesty's understanding, mostly guilty of passionate love. I am here to offer you a proposition..."

"What could you possibly have to offer me?" asked Beryl, staring up through hooded eyes.

Mercury raised her chin. "We're not unfamiliar with your customs, and I sat with the committee that made the decision to return you to Earth. You will be executed publicly, like a hog at market." Though Beryl stood suddenly, mouth twisting at Mercury's bluntness, the princess continued. "This is a different galaxy we live in now. You will be made into an example."

"And what does your princess care for my troubles?" snarled Beryl. "She has taken everything from me! From Earth. We are second-rate citizens to your oppressive empire! Earth will never be free from Moon control now. You will come and you will take as you've done for millennia, but mark my words! Someone else will stand in my place one day, and they will succeed!"

Watching Beryl's consuming passion with a calm eye, Mercury folded her hands in her lap. "Possibly," she conceded. "But Earth may soon be linked to the Moon in an equal bond." Her eyes slipped slightly to the ground. "Earth may have grown exceedingly powerful, tied into the Alliance inseparably without your revolution. The Alliance is very much aware of Earth's trade values. It is culturally that we have found divisions, but give it a few hundred years of intermarriage and open diplomacy..." She opened her hands slightly, an offering. "We may truly experience a golden era of civilization."

"Idealistic nonsense." Beryl turned her back. "I want nothing to do with your Princess."

It was Mercury's turn to stand. Slowly, she came to rest mere inches from Beryl's side. Her eyes reflected unnaturally in the lamplight. "But possibly you'd humor me for Endymion?"

Beryl turned her head sharply. "What of Endymion? He has abandoned me. He... He never wanted me."

"Endymion is a kind man," murmured Mercury. "He wouldn't wish to see you suffer. You have his compassion and consideration, just as you did when you served his court, but he can not risk the political ramifications of battling the Middle Kingdom's parliament and other Alliance members, some of whom think Endymion is already being too lenient in asking for closed trials for the Shitennou. If you will not consider your options on the Princess's behalf, then please think of his majesty."

Clenching and unclenching her fists again, Beryl did think of Endymion. His smile, his eyes, his hands -- stronger and larger than her own, and not caked in moon dust.

"What do you have to offer?" Beryl softly asked.

"Nothing more than a private, quick death. The finals rites. What little bit of dignity there might be to give."

Eyes narrowing, Beryl scoffed. Hope felt cold and foreign in her stomach. "Impossible."

"The Alliance is in a deep state of shock at the moment. Now would be the only time it would be possible. We would say you committed suicide – loosened your bonds and incinerated yourself. Something to that effect," said Mercury. "It's your choice. Once you are returned to Earth, no one can help you. Where you die, when you die, how you die… Out of your control. Maybe you could die peacefully in your sleep here? It just depends on how you want your last moments to be remembered."

"Would you be my executioner, then?" Beryl dryly chuckled, drawing to her full height. She towered over Mercury almost comically.

Mercury's expression was once again whitewashed. "The human body has a high concentration of water molecules. I can dehydrate you in a matter of seconds. It's not..." She fumbled again, eyebrows furrowed. "It wouldn't be painful."

Beryl was quiet for a long moment, studying Mercury's blank face and the equally blank walls of her cell. She thought briefly of the small reader her mother had recited to her as a child, teaching her to write in the margins of the page. A historical reader -- the first time she had heard Endymion's name. What would Earth children read of her in the years to come? What would be a good end? What would be her legacy?

"Your princess..." began Beryl slowly. "She asked this of you?"

There was a pause. "She has a soft heart, and you love the same man." Then, Mercury's mouth crumpled slightly. "...She is selfish sometimes."

Beryl's smile was crooked. "Maybe we're not so different then, she and I."

The silver kiss was soft -- nothing but cold fingertips upon her brow. Mercury had kept her word. Her body shriveled and died without so much as a whimper of protest, her nerves numbed and collapsing. The last beat of her heart was an earthquake. Endymion, it murmured.

And then there was nothing but moon dust and ash.

...

It should have been a cold morning. The solar cover had yet to lift entirely and a neutral dawn was just beginning to touch the top of the palace. Serenity wrapped her shawl more tightly around her pale shoulders, even though the air was becoming muggy and stagnant with each hesitant step closer to the waste pits. The fires had already been lit for the day and outlined in front of the jumping flames was a familiar figure, the sharp angles of the senshi uniform showing in sharp contrast. As Serenity fell in beside Mercury, she wrapped them both in her shawl. Her body felt like a live flame against Mercury's chilled skin.

"I told her I could give her a dignified death." Serenity glanced at Mercury's face, her stomach twisting at the bitterness she saw there. Letting the flimsy bit of material slide from her shoulders, Mercury clutched at the breast-plate bow of her uniform and continued, "And now she burns with yesterday's trash." Her eyes darkened. "Though I suppose that's more than what she would have granted us."

"It wouldn't have been right to send her back to Earth," murmured Serenity. "There would have been such unnecessary cruelty. There wouldn't have been a trial."

"Cruelty..." parroted Mercury softly. "What do you know of cruelty?"

Serenity shivered in the firelight, the blue of her eyes filling with hurt and confusion. A sharp silence cut between them.

"I had just thought-- I just wanted..." Serenity began.

"You just wanted?" Mercury finally glanced at her princess. Ash and moon dust smeared across her face and fingers like blood. "Yes, you just wanted... Wanted freedom. Wanted consideration. Wanted love. Maybe you just wanted more than the rest of us. Maybe we would have been spared our heartache and humiliation if we had just wanted as much you had." Her fists clenched. She looked away. "You asked me to do this for you, and I complied out of love for you. You will never ask this of me again. Do you understand?"

The shawl hung limply between them like a broken wing. Serenity nodded, words caught behind the bitter sob in the back of her throat.

"If... If that's what you want," she managed at length. "Of course. I... I never meant..."

Mercury simply shook her head. Ash fell like rain as the artificial morning began, a slight breeze blowing over the hazy landscape.

"You've never known what I wanted, Serenity," sighed Mercury, defeated. "But it just never mattered before."