Ami sat, as though she was chained into her bed, and thought desperately of a way to deal with this, then, she decided, that the only way would be call her bluff.  “That is exactly what Avarice said to me.”  She winced as she said his name and only hoped that Akiko had not picked it up.
        Luckily, she had not, “he was a worthless piece of junk.”
        Ami held herself in control as she heard this; it would do no one good to know of her suddenly developed feelings for the recently passed Avarice.  “Who are you?”
        “You know who I am.”
        “What are you doing here then?”
        “What do you think?”  She smiled at Ami, evidently enjoying the tortured look that flickered in Ami’s eyes.  “I am his lordship’s fiancé, a marriage arranged by the wishes of both our parents, not to be upset by an upstart like you.”  Her tone narrowed at the word ‘you’ and the hand which held the knife tightened.
        “I don’t know how I can help you then,” Ami said, as she swung her legs off her bed, so that she could run if she needed to.  “Might I remind you that I was brought here in captivity?”
        “Are you telling me that you don’t like it here then?”
        “I enjoy my lifestyle here tremendously, but I was not the one who initiated it, your fiancé did.”  Ami answered carefully whilst emphasizing the word ‘fiancé’ and waited for Akiko’s response.  While she was not exactly looking for death anymore, she wanted to see Akiko angry, angry people did foolish things, which could help with her escape out of this room, this deathtrap that she found herself in.
        “This is no joke, Mizuno, I will kill you.”
        “Then what are you waiting for?  Guards to come arrest you?”
        “Don’t play smart aleck with me,” Akiko’s face beginning to flush with rage as she clenched the jeweled knife even closer her chest, “I swear that you will regret this, I don’t like it when people fool around with me.”
        “I don’t like it when people threaten me.”
        “Get use to it, Mizuno.  Lord Takeuchi and I were meant for each other, you lured him to you, I can see the greed in your eyes, his kingdom is mine.”  She stepped forward, moving closer to Ami then it was comfortable for Ami’s safety.
        “The greed is in your eyes, Akiko.”
        “You will call me Lady Takeuchi.”
        “I believe that that title has been reserved for me at the present, don’t think of asking to be called by that until you have the express permission of his lordship.”
        Akiko eyes widened in horror, obviously, what Ami had told her had been foreign to her prior to coming to Ami’s room.  Akiko’s mind began a horrifying whirl as anger replaced rationality, and she stumbled forwards, holding the jeweled knife high in the air aiming for Ami’s heart.
        Ami stepped aside from the plunging knife, the wicked point missing her chest and heart by a mere centimeters but finding her left latissimus dorsi (the muscle on her back which allows her arm to move backwards, inwards and downwards) instead, Akiko immediately whipped around, taking the curve of the sickle with her.  The curve sliced through the wooden post of the bed with stopping, Ami once again shuddered at the thought of it touching any part of her.  Ami’s bed sheets twisted around the ankles of Akiko causing her to trip, falling on her chest, the knife tip dug into the luscious carpet, the curve catching firmly into ground.  Akiko struggled to stand, and pulled the blade from the ground, as the blade chaffed the floor, a vicious sound that came from the further sharpening of the knife whistled throughout the room.
        Ami looked around frantically, hoping that someone would come in the room if enough commotion was heard, but even the toppling of the vases did not signify to the guards the urgency of the situation.  Akiko staggered forward and caught her by the arm and she felt the movement of the air which alerted her to the forthcoming slashing knife. Ami first felt pain when the knife cut into her shoulder, she felt her left trapezius (shoulder muscle) being divided into two.  She twisted herself, wincing from the pain in her back and used her lesser body weight combined with momentum to pull Akiko off balance slightly as the blade made contact once again with the back of her wrist, cutting her extensors (the muscles there), drawing blood before Akiko was thrown against the wall.
        There was a crash as the mirror that hung on the wall at the foot of her bed smashed to the ground from the impact of Akiko hit the same wall, Ami prayed that the guards had heard that, but no avail, Akiko kept on coming at her.  Ami surveyed her surroundings, and found that to escape from the room, she had to first bypass Akiko, yet with her throbbing and numb arm unable to move, she had little chance to leave.  Her world began to blink, she had not yet recovered from the earlier illness, and the loss of blood was enough to make her sense begin to leave her.  Ami thanked God that Akiko was so enraged that she did not see straight, otherwise, the knife would have surely found its way to her heart by now, leaving a lifeless body in place of this panting and injured one.
        Akiko laughed as she began to recover from the slam against the wall, “you will never escape me.”
        In desperation, Ami scanned the room once again, and came to the same conclusion, there was no escaping without a combat, and Ami was not about to win with an injured arm, against an equipped opponent.  Time began to slow down in her mind, as she saw the Princess Mercury in her begin to materialize in her vision, a soft voice echoed in her mind, “Princess, fight, use your instincts, use your power to the maximum potential, she has the sharper knife, but you have the sharper mind.  Think, oh gentle Princess of Mercury, you have used this weapon just before, don’t give up, think of what you are here to do, and the people you must save, gentle Princess, use your wisdom to save yourself.”
        The image dissolved from her eyes, and she saw Akiko running towards her, the knife poised to her heart once again, closing her eyes, she yelled out those precious words, “Mercury Planet Power, Make Up!”  To the untrained eye, Ami had simply disappeared from the world and in place stood SailorMercury, her fuku different from what had been before.  To the trained eye, the transformation consisted of the reality falling away to reveal Ami standing in fountain in front of the Mercury Palace, her naked form shielded by water from the edge of the fountain defying gravity, curving outwards like a ball and meeting over her head, as the water met, it streamed across her body while she transformed.  The streaming water melted the fake blondness and her hair returned to its usual blue tresses.  Her fuku had also changed with her new transformation, her navy blue choker now dangled the insignia of her home planet, made from a large dark blue sapphire stone and lighter blue topaz stones at the more delicate parts, and the bid of her bow at her chest also held by the same insignia broach.  Across the back of her neck draped a wide piece of ice blue silk, which ran to the front of her body, dropping between her arms and her body, resting on her shoulders, the tips only millimeters from the floor held fast by a heavy gold chain running on the edges of the silk wrap.  The rest of her fuku remained the same, save an identical gold chain that rested loosely on her waist holding a delicate holster, which, to her surprise was empty.
        Her mind fell back on the present, as Akiko continued to rush her as though nothing had happened, yet Akiko’s eyes held an element of shock and satisfaction from her transformation that she could not understand.  As SailorMercury, her instincts calculated the time remaining for her to react, using her right arm (as her left arm still could not move properly) she pulled the silk wrap from her body and flung it towards Akiko’s wrist.  The reflex movement of the wrap as SailorMercury pulled the wrap back, was the gold chain immediately chaining and restraining Akiko’s arm, as she tightened the pull downwards, the wrap pulled even more taunt, and forced Akiko’s knife towards the ground.  The pain from the chain pull, the wrap’s sudden impact and the swiftness of the action caused Akiko to scream and drop the knife, SailorMercury jerked the silk wrap to her left with a quick movement and Akiko’s body was flung mercilessly against her bedside table.
        SailorMercury looked at the struggling form on the ground, still restrained by the wrap, her instinct once again took over her as she yelled, “Double Shabon Freezing!”  The effect was the same as her old attack, except that instead of a large spaced attack, it became focused, the freezing action traveling down the gold chain.
        Akiko’s eyes widened as her wrested started to freeze and turn into an ugly shade of blue, but her lips twisted onto a grotesque smile, “welcome back, SailorMercury, so, the worthless Avarice was right after all.”
        SailorMercury released the chain in shock and horror, she had mistakenly given away the fact that not only did she remember her previous work against the Kuriverse, but that she had never given up her identity as SailorMercury.  She had just proven to Akiko that she was not the loyal subject of the Kuriverse that she had previously seemed to be.  She would have liked to dispose of Akiko entirely, but her energy had been depleted due to her illness and the blood loss, she seriously debated the merits of putting Akiko into eternal freeze since she knew her secret until a frantic knock on the door broke her attention as guards finally arrived. SailorMercury’s eyes returned to the place where Akiko had sat only moments before and found that she had already disappeared from the window.  Ignoring the commotion outside, she picked up the sickle, and held it in her hand, in the middle was an empty space that obviously lacked a precious stone, without thinking, she slipped the sickle into the empty holster finding that it fitted perfectly.
        De-transforming, she discovered a weakness in her knees, and numbness traveling throughout her body, something which had disappeared while she was in her senshi form.  In a second, her legs gave way and her body began to suffer from shock, Ami crumbled to the ground while her mind battled on for consciousness.  Her last memory was of her bedroom door splintering and Lord Takeuchi kneeling by her side, calling for the doctor as he tended to her horrific wounds.

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