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It was getting harder and harder to explain to her parents, her father in particular, why she was always running off to spend time with Jude and Grayson. Though not a suspicious man by nature, her father was pretty sure one of them was her boyfriend, and he was also pretty sure they were too old for her. He'd expressed as much and been vaguely insulted when Dani looked at him as though he'd grown a second head, insisted that he had completely the wrong idea, geez and flounced out of the house anyway.

It was become a routine for them.

It was, in fact, routine enough that as she was grabbing her jacket and hurrying out the door, she called over her shoulder, "I'll try to be back in time for dinner, okay bye!" and slammed the door on the last, discouraging any argument. She was going to hear about it later, but she was a little anxious to see Jude and Grayson.

Dani wasn't used to having people she missed seeing on a regular basis, and suddenly she had three of them. Due to the awkwardness between Grayson and Jude she'd done her best to give them both space, and she hadn't actually made time to hang out with Parker lately. She'd wanted to do that today, actually, but was now officially sidetracked by Jude. She figured that his problems were pretty intense, so if he needed her there, she'd bite the bullet and text Parker later.

Actually, as she made it down the walk, she pulled out her phone and fired one off. "Want 2 meet @ cafe on fri?"

She figured he'd either say yes or no, but considering it was her and considering it was Parker, it was likely to be yes.

Shoving her phone back in her pocket, she was working in zipping up her jacket as she vaulted into Jude's truck. It could have been really awkward between them, all things considered, but Dani didn't like awkward.

So, she buckled up and immediately asked, "What's up, Jude?"

It was as good a start as any.

Dani was well aware that Jude knew she'd spilled the beans, and so the question didn't surprise her. She simply placed her hands on her knees, pushed them together, and smacked her lips a couple of times in thought. It would be easy enough to tell the truth, and she liked telling the truth unless there was a compelling reason not to, but she was trying to decide exactly how to phrase it.

Most people would have been concerned that they were about to get yelled at for meddling. Dani was not one of those people. All of her "meddling" had been done in the name of Jude's best interests, so she didn't think he could rightfully be angry with her. Especially not considering she'd only told Barnaby, anyway.

"Well, I was talking to Barnaby about it. We were trying to come up with a plan, you know? Since we're worried about you." Still present tense. Still worried, Jude. Her tone didn't betray much of that, though; it was businesslike and crisp. "So we talked about it once with Grayson, and then Barnaby and I talked again without Grayson because we were avoiding each other."

She held up a hand, waving it slightly. "I told him that I no longer wanted to set you up because you'd gotten kissed by a dude and I figured you had enough on your plate. So we were going to try to come up with another game plan, but we ran out of time."

Her speech delivered, she went back to pressing her knees together, palms once again against the fabric of her jeans.

Dani was pleased to hear that Jude apparently had things handled, though she gave him a slightly skeptical look. In her experience, when a man said he had something handled, it either meant he'd pushed it under the rug or agitated it until he'd made it ten times worse. She hoped neither was the case, but didn't have the chance to ask just then. He was blaring the horn, and she wrinkled her nose a bit. "I could have just called him."

Still, she looked across the cab and pursed her lips, a bit curious. It seemed obvious she would have to scoot over and take the middle, considering the situation between Jude and Grayson, but she wondered if she could shove the gym bag off on the dark-haired boy. Probably.

When he questioned her about Barnaby, she gave him a very plain this is so obvious you are going to be embarrassed look. "Barnaby and I eat lunch together. We both go to Meadowview, and I sat with Grayson, who sat with him."

This was delivered with a faintly duh tone, and she looked up as Jude laid on the horn again. The foor door swung open, revealing a rumpled and agitated looking Grayson as he fought a jacket on in his hurry to get down the walk.

Had he been sleeping? The bed head seemed to indicate it. What, had he gone straight home from school to nap? What a lazy bones.

"Grayson is holding the gym bag, okay?" She was already unbuckling, her tone resigned to her fate. Stuck in the middle, ugh.

Dani scooted over, pulling her pigtails over her shoulders so that they wouldn't get pulled or sat on by anyone. She briefly wondered what was in the duffel bag, but decided to ask later, considering Grayson was opening the truck door with a supremely sulky expression and climbing in as she situated herself.

The cheek that she could see had red sleep-marks on it, like he'd fallen asleep on his arm and the fabric had pressed against it. His eyes were still heavy-lidded and clearly tired, and his hair was sticking up in several places that she was pretty sure he would not have allowed had he not been sleeping moments before. Poor Grayson.

If Dani had been the one not ready, she would have made Jude wait.

"Hi, Grayson." She smiled at him, and he grunted in return.

Well. Someone was grumpy.

He buckled up, then immediately leaned his head against the window. His voice was thick and sluggish when he asked, "What's the meeting for?"

To Dani's ears, it sounded more like "whassa meading for" but she decided to side with Grayson. "Meeting? Is something up?"

She didn't even think to question the team concept of it. They were totally a team, duh.

Dani bounded out of the truck eagerly, her legs having already grown a little tired of being crammed up due to sitting in the middle, and she looked at Jude curiously. It probably should have occurred to her to do something similar to this, though she hadn't thought of them as an actual structured Team. The capital T was important; if they were a Team, it meant she was really relying on people and longer working on her own, which had to grudgingly admit hadn't been doing very much for her as a late. What she'd assumed before, the lowercase team, was that they got together when it was convenient and still did their own thing otherwise.

Capital Team was a little more than she'd expected, but she'd see how it played out. "Okay, I'm game."

Grayson followed at a more sluggish pace, but he got there nonetheless, hands deep in his pockets. One was curled around his henshin pen, on him at all times, and the other one was just curled into a loose fist. His head was still a little foggy from being abruptly woken from a nap, but he was getting up to speed slowly.

He yawned, then rubbed his jaw. "Sounds good." If Jude had been expecting a more enthusiastic reception, he would unfortunately be disappointed.

She nodded slowly while he spoke, appreciating that Jude seemed to have a good handle on both her personality and work habits. She wasn't against working with others, exactly, it was just that she'd found so few she could tolerate like she did Jude and Grayson. Though they'd been all over the place in their fighting so far, she could appreciate at least that they had each other's backs as well as her own and weren't afraid to take their punches, which was the most annoying thing she could think of in an ally.

Though she resented the discussion on powers, it was less because it was coming from Jude and more because she found herself increasingly frustrated with her sphere. It seemed so... ill-suited to her, both in that it was clearly girly (and while she was capable of femininity, she was much more athletic and headstrong than most feminine girls) and that it was an escape tactic. Dani didn't escape from a fight -- or anything, really -- unless she had no other choice.

And yet, she was Magellan, senshi of powder. And she was learning to work with that, slowly.

"I understand what you're saying." She puffed her cheeks out, huffed out a breath. "I don't really like a lot of it, but it's true, so I can deal. Frankly, you guys are the least obnoxious people I've worked with so far, so I think that working together as a team would be a lot easier than not."

She was warming to the idea as she spoke, and she turned to Grayson, smiling. "Right?"

Grayson had listened quietly, as he usually did. While his attack seemed to have some sort of status weakening effect as well as blinding, it was true his was mostly passive as well, and he didn't like the idea of patrolling alone. He had gotten used to working with Jude and Dani, and when he got used to something, he was very reluctant to change that.

Sounding more awake, he said slowly, "I agree, Jude. We don't work together flawlessly just yet, but if we worked on it, we could be a strong team."

He offered Dani a small smile, then laced his hands behind his head.

Dani had no idea what the significance of Barren Pines was, but she was pretty sure she wanted to know about the Zodiac. The two that she knew seemed like pretty decent people, and their magical abilities were a lot stronger than hers, that was for sure. If there was the possibility of having more magically powerful people not against her, that was always a plus. She didn't even if care if they weren't working for or with her; she just didn't want anyone else against her.

So, she reached back in her memory, did her best to describe the senshi that she had encountered. She was sure she missed some details, and there was a lot of shame as he recounted some of the encounters.

"My first fight was against a youma. I had no idea what I was doing," she said wryly, and began to comb her fingers through her hair. "I was getting tossed around, getting my a** kicked, basically, and this mysterious senshi shows up. I didn't get her name or anything, she just blasted some power at her -- I don't remember what it was, but it was weird, like... something you wouldn't think would be an attack." Her brow furrowed. "But I don't really remember. She helped me fight it and we went our separate ways, and I haven't seen her since."

"Next I was out jogging, and I ran into this guy. My dogs freaked out and went running off, so we chased them down. Turns out this guy was stealing a starseed." She hesitated, cheeks flushing with shame. "I didn't really know what that meant then. Anyway, the Negaverse guy... he had long red hair and a huge wooden sword. We fought him, but the senshi, Thuban, had a weird power too. He... slowed things down."

She swept her hands out, brow furrowed. "So we didn't have anything to attack him with. We did our best and we ran," her voice was flat now. "I'm not proud of it. The man died. Oh, Thuban wears... a skirt thing. He's dressed like the Statue of Liberty," she decided, thinking that was the best way to describe it. "And he has blond hair, kind of short and in a weird haircut."

Quiet for a moment, Dani let herself mourn, let the ache and the shame of that squeeze her heart. She was never going to forgive herself for letting that man die. She'd been inexperienced, sure, but she could have still done more.

"I was out patrolling another night when I met Polaris. Dark skinned, light hair. She was completely useless," Dani said with heat, still not having forgiven Polaris for kicking at the youma like a cat. "She has this ability to like, pick up metal objects and move them. So she could hurl stuff at the youma, but there was a small youma that came at her and she just kicked at it. Like, shoo." Her voice was disgusted. "She was taking forever, too, so I ripped the head of a stop sign off and she chucked it at the youma, killed it."

She was obviously getting more temperamental as she spoke. "Then Walkure. She's a total b***h," Dani said with feeling. "She's like, some viking woman. Long blonde hair, big chest, curvy. Her attack is like... punching." She mimed it, pummeling the air for a moment. "She loses her temper way too easily. She wasn't performing well so I called her on it, and she decked me. This was after the youma was defeated, so we fought for a while. She took a cheap shot, got me down, and we called a truce."

Then there was Celestine, and despite herself, she clenched her hands at her sides, clearly still infuriated by the situation. They'd fought fast and desperately, and she'd barely gotten away. Barely.

"Remember my arm was in a cast? Next was this guy, long white hair. He beat me with a fricking hockey stick," she spat, color in her face, eyes bright with anger. "I got some good hits in too, we fought, but it didn't last long. He broke my arm, I kicked him and slammed him into something, must have knocked him out. I didn't wait around to see, I just got out of there."

It left a bad taste in her mouth even then. "Later, I was present for Sailor Sirona's awakening. She's a healer, that's her ability. Long dark hair, an outfit like... a nurse, almost. A youma grabbed me and broke my leg, she healed it." Dani bit her lip, lifted her shoulders. "After Sirona, next I met you guys."

By the time she was finished, she was scowling deeply, clearly embarrassed by her less than successful exploits.

She'd tried. She really had. And she'd come out alive, every time, but sometimes, only just.

Chin held high, eyes daring them to criticize her, she finished with: "I don't have a lot of information, but that's what I have."

Grayson had remained quiet, and finally, all he said was, "You're brave, Dani."

She'd struggled since day one, it seemed, with both her role as a senshi and her lack of offensive power. He could tell she was embarrassed and angry, and see where she'd had conflicts with the other senshi. Even by the way she recounted her stories, he saw pride and ego, both badly bruised, by the admission of her near misses and outright failures. She had been even less prepared than he'd imagined, and he had to admire her pluck for continuing to try her best even when she kept getting slapped back down to the ground.

He looked to Jude, mutely asking him to take it from there. Grayson was tired of talking about Barren Pines. Plus, at this point, he'd told Jude all he knew.

Dani listened, though it was confusing, and there were several times she wanted to interrupt. She didn't, which was saying something -- whenever she wanted to, she chewed her bottom lip and shifted her weight from foot to foot. None of it made sense, really, but she had the feeling that most of that had to do with the fact that she was getting a lot of information at once. Or maybe it just didn't make sense.

It seemed strange to her that there was a place she had known at one point but now didn't even recognize the name of. Was something controlling her mind? She did not like the idea of that. If there was a being out there capable of taking memories away, it stood to reason there was one that could place false memories as well, and that was a frightening and dangerous thought.

No wonder Jude was keeping journals.

"I don't understand a lot of that, I'm not going to lie." Her brow was creased, and she crossed her arms under her breasts, swayed from side to side in thought. "Why were you all reborn in Barren Pines? And, like, you guys died? Multiple times?"

Grayson spoke up this time, his voice quiet and steady. "I've died twice that I know of. Jude as well, if I'm correct?" He sent Jude a questioning look, then nodded. "I'm not sure of the reasons for our rebirth, nor can I remember... much."

This troubled him, and his voice hitched a moment, lowered. "It occurred to me recently, thanks to Jude, that I can't remember before Barren Pines. It was a place that shouldn't have existed, and by all rights, I don't know why I was given a second chance at life there -- why any of us was. But, I can't remember before it, except for the explosion that killed me the first time."

It was troubling to think about much less talk about, but he looked into the distance, avoiding Jude and Dani's eyes both. "I must have been a senshi before, but I can't remember. I can't help but feel like... whatever had a hold on me, to make me believe in Barren Pines, still has some kind of hold on me, to make me forget before it."

He'd thought about it, hadn't wanted to admit it. While they were talking, though, he decided it was as good a time as any to throw that out there. He finally looked at Jude, a great deal of uncertainty in his face, worry in his eyes. Did he think the same thing? Was he worried, too?

If they were still under the influenece of what he only imagined could have been the Negaverse, what would they do about it? And how had the Negaverse been able to control so many minds at once, anyhow?