Disclaimer: I don't own Amneris, Radames, Aida or the Pharaoh. But everything/body else is mine. Including Mereb. Dude was left for dead, finders keepers baby!!!

A/N---This is really my first Aida fic, so please be gentle with me. Don't ask me about the title, cause I wont be able to give ya a good answer. And to you Two people who have reviewed me, in my first 24 hours, you guys rule. And I love you too Jenna Rose. Now, on with the fiction!! Read! Review! And be Merry! For tomorrow, someone shall die!!!!

"Mi'lady?" a soft masculine voice came from beyond the foyer and through the thin curtains. Amneris quickly wiped the tears from her face and cleared her throat.

"Yes?" Her voice was clear and strong, just as any royal Egyptian's should be, but inside she was collapsing. She would soon rule Egypt and all its people. How was she supposed to do that, when she had trouble just simply going through life the way it was now, no ruling, no orders, just fashion and breathing. And soon, soon she would be alone in the world. Her father was on his deathbed; she wouldn't be surprised if the slave outside her rooms, Mereb, had come to tell her of his passing. Mereb, the one person left from her past. Mereb had been His slave. More his friend than a slave, but more his brother than friend.

A month. She had changed from a child, with petty obsessions, and no concerns, to an adult with the weight of the world and the anguish of a broken heart in one month. And she had been forced to make the hardest decision of her life. He had helped the Nubian king escape, and His father had poisoned the pharaoh. What else was she expected to do? If she hadn't, the throne would have been taken from her and then there would never be peace. The Nubians would have continued to die and be taken as slaves. Mereb.

"Yes?"

"Mi'lady, is everything okay? I thought I heard screaming," the young man slowly limped into the room, his head hung in reverence. He'd had the limp ever since That night, by the river.

Had he really heard her? And yet he had the courage to come to the room of a raving murderer? That's all she had become. She had killed two innocent people, sentenced them to death, and then gave them the 'dignity' to be buried alive together.

This night she had woken up to her own screams and sobs, and to the last noise that was heard from the tomb; barely audible 'I love you.' That had haunted her dreams every night. His last dying breath.

"Everything is fine, Mereb," she said, forcing a smile, but receiving none back.

"You had a bad dream?" he asked.

"Yes," she said rubbing her temple with her right hand. "But nothing I can't handle."

"I miss them too. She was my princess, and he was my best friend."

"And I killed them."

"You had no choice."

"I always had a choice," she stood up and walked through the curtains to the balcony of her room. I always had a choice. I was to marry Him!! The boy I grew up with and the man I was growing to love. We were to rule together, and now. Now, how has it come to this?

As she gripped the railing of the balcony, she flung her head back to look at the Egyptian night sky. The gods certainly hadn't been looking down on her in favor lately.

"In your heart, you knew you had no choice."

A warm soft hand gently gripped her shoulder. She turned to see Mereb's hazel eyes gazing at her, the deep, soul splitting pain that clenched her heart mirrored in them.

She ran her hands through her ruffled hair. Her dirty hands, stained by two innocent people's blood.

"You are no more guilty than I am. You did what you had to do! There was no other way, you know that."

"But if I had stopped father from killing them-,"

"Then we would all have been sentenced to death, and a man no different than Zoser would have been crowned. Then there would be no hope for the end of this war. But you, mi'lady, you give us hope."

"Mereb. . ."

Slowly, the young slave took her slim, pale hand in his and pressed it to his lips as he lowered himself to his knees.

"I will not see one of the bravest persons I know be broken by a unfortunate, yet noble decision," he said, now pressing his forehead to the back of her hand.

"No, Mereb," Amneris gently took him by the shoulders and raised him to his feet as a steady stream of tears flowed down her face. "I am neither brave nor noble. They deserved so much better than they received." Small sobs began to rake her body. "It should have been me, in the cell, suffocating. Not them. They were meant to do things in this world. They lead lives of importance. My shallow existence pales in comparison to what they did, what they could have done if I had only-,"

"You were meant for great things in this life, they were meant for another, princess, where there would be peace," Mereb interrupted her, gently clasping her shoulders.

"Mereb," Amneris slowly shook her head. "It shouldn't have to be like this," she whispered, slowly lowering her head onto his shoulder. She closed her eyes as his arms, strong from hard labor, wrapped around her pale slim body, shielding her from the cool Egyptian night air.

"You're shivering, you should go back inside," he whispered into her blonde hair. But neither of them made to move away. Both were wrapped in each others embrace, looking at the map of stars hanging in the night sky. But only one of them saw the two brightest stars flicker in the distance.