Prince Endymion and his beloved Serenity were dead. The Senshi were all dead. The troops defending the Moon Kingdom had been mowed down, as had most of the civilians in the Palace. Queen Selene, however, still lived, and it was imperative that Beryl's Lords find her and kill her to ensure the Dark Kingdom's victory. They stalked through the Palace, killing any stray survivors they found, trying desperately to find the Queen.

Nephrite turned a corner of the marble hallways to find a young red-haired lady-in-waiting standing in the doorway to a suite of rooms. He approached her, sword at the ready. The girl raised her own sword; though considerably smaller than his own, it was still too big for her and she clearly had no idea how to use it.

She would have been so easy to kill, and it was obvious that she was guarding something of importance, but Nephrite hesitated. For some reason, the sight of her tugged at something inside him. "Where's Selene?" he demanded, wondering why he was bothering to ask questions instead of just killing her.

"She isn't here," the girl said defiantly. But her eyes darted nervously to the side, as though she wanted to check on something--or someone--in the rooms behind her.

"Step aside." Nephrite took a step towards the girl, but she stood a little taller and squared her shoulders.

"I told you, she isn't here." Again, though, that nervous sideways glance betrayed her.

Suddenly, from beside Nephrite, another sword swung down, catching the girl at the juncture of her neck and shoulder. She collapsed in a spray of blood. Nephrite felt an odd, brief pang of sorrow at her death. "Fool," Kunzite said beside him. "Why are you standing there asking questions? Selene must be in here." With Kunzite leading the way, they stepped over the girl's body into the room.

They learned, very soon, that they were wrong...

Selene was on the far side of the ruined palace, from whence she unleashed the power of the Silver Crystal, to preserve the souls of her people for rebirth and to banish Metallia, Beryl, and their Lords to the depths of the Dark Kingdom. Later, Nephrite realized that the lady-in-waiting's nervousness had been a ploy to convince him that Selene was in those rooms, in order to give the Queen enough time to use the Silver Crystal. Surely the girl had known that she would die; she had been willing to sacrifice her life to buy the Queen a little more time in a hopeless battle. Nephrite wondered about the strange regret he felt at the girl's death; perhaps it was because of her courage and loyalty, qualities he still admired, though he had given up his own claim to them when he betrayed his King, his Prince, and his Realm for Beryl's seductive promises.

Regret and all other emotions were only for the weak, stupid humans, Nephrite reminded himself. He was a Lord of the Dark Kingdom. He was above such things. As the centuries passed, Nephrite's inexplicable sorrow at the lady-in-waiting's death blurred into his general bitterness at being imprisoned in the starless caverns of the Dark Kingdom, and her face faded from his mind.