[Ficlet] No Longer Hers
Summary: Poisonverse hostage scene.
Warnings: violence, very minor language
"I am no longer!"
Kunzite catches a glimpse of Mercury, her usual pleasure at joining him in battle dulled and dimmed by something that makes her smirking mouth a flat line instead and changes her dancing eyes to something he imagines is reproachful. She knows he will not forsake vengeance, no matter the cost. And he catches sight of Nephrite, eyes so wide and yet so blind but Kunzite knows what the witch has in store.
Nephrite holds his sword in front of him, its sharp tip poised and pressed against himself.
It is his choice: To save Nephrite and spare an ungrateful wretched life, or end the burning fever inside himself once and for all, piercing it through as his sword pierces the loathsome creature he once revered as his master. He cannot hesitate. There is no space for calculation, no time to reckon the costs and benefits to himself. There is only his heart.
He could spit.
Beryl raises her hand, fingers poised. It's as if she's holding another of her damnable flowers, ready.
The battlefield takes in a collective breath and holds it. He could swear he feels the planet itself pause as fate hangs in the balance of this moment, watching much as he's watched Mercury at every one of her waverings. Does she know, a detached part of him wonders, that this was always to be her other great work for him? And in that eternal second, he decides it will be now.
Kunzite's eyes blaze and his brows close ranks angrily as he lifts his head and growls out his decision. "Mercury! To me!" The barked order serves as his battle cry. Kunzite lunges at his chosen target, trusting Mercury to watch his flank and hold open his path.
His senshi does not disappoint him. She goes toe to toe and weapon to weapon against her foe. Blond hair and blue bend near to each other as Mercury and Jadeite lock weapons at close range. Zoisite hurries towards Kunzite to offer the aid of his dagger, a bid for a freedom he wants no less than Kunzite.
A sharp snap sounds above everything else.
Beryl's arm falls, a dead weight that swings sickeningly to rest; the unnatural angle proclaims Kunzite's success: the bone is broken. In the sudden confusion he's unleashed, she can't maintain her focus enough to maintain her control over them. He grins darkly. He was right to bring his own piece to this, the last move in their long chess match. The knight will take the queen.
Jadeite, still shaken from the scene unfolding in front of him and confused at being caught up as the witch's pawn when he was always loyal (let him have a taste of that betrayal, Kunzite thinks sourly), should not be a match for the fresh and currently clear-headed Mercury, but then it goes wrong. She has no help as Jadeite pushes her back, and Kunzite cannot reach her, would not reach her so close to his goal.
Suddenly, the pressure is released and Mercury looks up to see Nephrite, finally loosened from the stone stillness of shock. She stares openly. Something passes between them, and his old debt is repaid as he drives her opponent away.
Nothing stands in his way. Kunzite sheathes his sword inside the witch with a deeper satisfaction than even sheathing himself inside a woman could ever bring. Her death cries placate something deep inside him.
It's over. The sailor senshi retreat, leaving the Dark Kingdom to gather their wits. The shitennou, suddenly cut loose of their ties to Beryl, respond to the voice of command as Kunzite tells them to return to the castle. There, he will see what shape their views take now and decide his course.
"She even did it to me, too!" Jadeite will never understand, has no reason to try to understand, Beryl's loneliness. He will never again put her above his fellow shitennou. It is as it should be. Kunzite decides, this once, to forgive. He will need Jadeite for his plans to come.
"That bastard saved my life!" Nephrite burns with the shame of being so indebted to a man who's done nothing but antagonize him - and again indebted to Mercury! - but isn't it better to follow someone who saved him, than someone who almost killed him (no, made him almost kill himself)? Kunzite approves.
Only Zoisite remains silent except for the incessant notes of his piano. They remain quietly brooding and discontent.
"How long can you forestall the inevitable, Zoisite?" Kunzite mocks him after a particularly grating recital. Pale grey eyes turn sadly up towards eyes darkened in annoyance. Kunzite's next target is so obvious, and what will stop him now?
"Until my life ends." Zoisite must stop him.
Kunzite closes his eyes briefly. Even now, he can't relish the thought of seeing Zoisite's corpse again. If only they were not two such stubborn men, so opposed and so opposite, deadlocked in this battle of equal wills. His eyes open and turn on Zoisite coldly. "We'll see."
Damn them, he's trying to save them.
Warnings: violence, very minor language
"I am no longer!"
Kunzite catches a glimpse of Mercury, her usual pleasure at joining him in battle dulled and dimmed by something that makes her smirking mouth a flat line instead and changes her dancing eyes to something he imagines is reproachful. She knows he will not forsake vengeance, no matter the cost. And he catches sight of Nephrite, eyes so wide and yet so blind but Kunzite knows what the witch has in store.
Nephrite holds his sword in front of him, its sharp tip poised and pressed against himself.
It is his choice: To save Nephrite and spare an ungrateful wretched life, or end the burning fever inside himself once and for all, piercing it through as his sword pierces the loathsome creature he once revered as his master. He cannot hesitate. There is no space for calculation, no time to reckon the costs and benefits to himself. There is only his heart.
He could spit.
Beryl raises her hand, fingers poised. It's as if she's holding another of her damnable flowers, ready.
The battlefield takes in a collective breath and holds it. He could swear he feels the planet itself pause as fate hangs in the balance of this moment, watching much as he's watched Mercury at every one of her waverings. Does she know, a detached part of him wonders, that this was always to be her other great work for him? And in that eternal second, he decides it will be now.
Kunzite's eyes blaze and his brows close ranks angrily as he lifts his head and growls out his decision. "Mercury! To me!" The barked order serves as his battle cry. Kunzite lunges at his chosen target, trusting Mercury to watch his flank and hold open his path.
His senshi does not disappoint him. She goes toe to toe and weapon to weapon against her foe. Blond hair and blue bend near to each other as Mercury and Jadeite lock weapons at close range. Zoisite hurries towards Kunzite to offer the aid of his dagger, a bid for a freedom he wants no less than Kunzite.
A sharp snap sounds above everything else.
Beryl's arm falls, a dead weight that swings sickeningly to rest; the unnatural angle proclaims Kunzite's success: the bone is broken. In the sudden confusion he's unleashed, she can't maintain her focus enough to maintain her control over them. He grins darkly. He was right to bring his own piece to this, the last move in their long chess match. The knight will take the queen.
Jadeite, still shaken from the scene unfolding in front of him and confused at being caught up as the witch's pawn when he was always loyal (let him have a taste of that betrayal, Kunzite thinks sourly), should not be a match for the fresh and currently clear-headed Mercury, but then it goes wrong. She has no help as Jadeite pushes her back, and Kunzite cannot reach her, would not reach her so close to his goal.
Suddenly, the pressure is released and Mercury looks up to see Nephrite, finally loosened from the stone stillness of shock. She stares openly. Something passes between them, and his old debt is repaid as he drives her opponent away.
Nothing stands in his way. Kunzite sheathes his sword inside the witch with a deeper satisfaction than even sheathing himself inside a woman could ever bring. Her death cries placate something deep inside him.
It's over. The sailor senshi retreat, leaving the Dark Kingdom to gather their wits. The shitennou, suddenly cut loose of their ties to Beryl, respond to the voice of command as Kunzite tells them to return to the castle. There, he will see what shape their views take now and decide his course.
"She even did it to me, too!" Jadeite will never understand, has no reason to try to understand, Beryl's loneliness. He will never again put her above his fellow shitennou. It is as it should be. Kunzite decides, this once, to forgive. He will need Jadeite for his plans to come.
"That bastard saved my life!" Nephrite burns with the shame of being so indebted to a man who's done nothing but antagonize him - and again indebted to Mercury! - but isn't it better to follow someone who saved him, than someone who almost killed him (no, made him almost kill himself)? Kunzite approves.
Only Zoisite remains silent except for the incessant notes of his piano. They remain quietly brooding and discontent.
"How long can you forestall the inevitable, Zoisite?" Kunzite mocks him after a particularly grating recital. Pale grey eyes turn sadly up towards eyes darkened in annoyance. Kunzite's next target is so obvious, and what will stop him now?
"Until my life ends." Zoisite must stop him.
Kunzite closes his eyes briefly. Even now, he can't relish the thought of seeing Zoisite's corpse again. If only they were not two such stubborn men, so opposed and so opposite, deadlocked in this battle of equal wills. His eyes open and turn on Zoisite coldly. "We'll see."
Damn them, he's trying to save them.