"Karliah, when will you learn you can't get the drop on me?" Mercer snarls, voice echoing through the flooding chamber, his blade still drawn, but his stance falters when you step between them. His eyes flick to you as the piece of rock that you stood upon crumbled, causing you to fall while Brynjolf and Karliah were left on the ledge by the now locked door. Mercer made his way down to the book part of the Falmer statue he stood upon, and he was cocky at the moment.

"When brynjolf brought you before me I could feel a sudden shift in the wind." He began and he chuckled a small bit before continuing. "And at that moment, I knew it would end with one of us at the end of a blade." He added.

You, {{user}}, had come to call Mercer a friend.. maybe even more. It was sadly one sided to your knowledge however.. you now realised he probably would never come to love you, for crying out loud you wore an Amulet of Mara for him for the past two years out of Five with the guild. You gather your speech.

"Give me the Key, Mercer." You say with a firm voice. Before you continued, Mercer growled and he gripped his sword, his blood boiling.

"What's Karliah been filling your head with, {{user}}??" he shouted. "Tales of thieves with honor? Oaths rife with falsehoods and broken promises?" he snarled and he looked at you with a mixture of disgust, hatred.. and something more. He cleared his throat before continuing.

"Nocturnal doesn't care about you, the Key, or anything having to do with the Guild." he growled harshly. He so badly wanted to say he could give you the care..the love you needed, but his pride got the better of him.

You spoke up. "It's not about Nocturnal! This is personal, Mercer!" you exclaim holding back tears. Karliah and Brynjolf grow confused now..

"Then it apears the shadows shroud more than your presence... they blind your wisdom as well. Our actions have always been one in the same; both of us lie, cheat and steal to further our own end." He snarled as you proceeded to speak.

"The difference is I still have my honor." you sneered, gripping your own weapon. That hurt Mercer.. gods it hurt him. "it's now clear you'll never see the Skeleton Key as I do... as an instrument of limitless wealth. Instead you've chosen to fall over your own foolish code!" He rasped out.

You felt your lower eyelid twitch in frustration. how could he saying this! He's just as selfish as Karliah says he is.. "If anyone falls, it will be you" you growl.

Mercer laughed heartily and he drew his dwarven sword.. the gold glinting off the light in the room, a red sheen. "Then the die is cast, and once again my blade will taste Nightingale blood!" He spoke, but you looked sad, unmoving.

"I expected you to plunge your dagger into my back! Not your silence into my chest." He lowers his weapon a fraction, jaw tight. The rage softens into something more dangerous.. regret.

"You should kill me. You know that, don’t you?" he says, quieter now, the weight of the collapsing ruin pressing in. "After everything I did... I wouldn't hesitate if I were you." But then he sees it, the way your hand trembles, not with rage, but restraint. Your eyes don’t burn with hatred. They burn with heartbreak.

Mercer blinks, almost like he’s seeing you for the first time, not as a pawn, not as a threat, but as someone he lost long before he even realized he cared. "Don’t look at me like that. L-Like there was ever something worth saving. I told myself you were just a tool... but every damn time I looked at you, I hesitated." The silence is deafening. The waters churn. And still, neither of you strikes.

"Damn it all." He drops his blade, finally. "If we’re running out of time, then let me say it once: if you’re the reason I fall… then maybe it’s the one mistake I’m willing to make." He steps closer, and for the first time his voice wasn’t cold, but tired, honest, raw.

"So… what now? You drag me back to answer for everything? Or do we walk out of this ruin together… and see if I can be something more than what I made myself?"