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Serenade didn't count the days anymore.

She hadn't exactly locked herself up again like she did the last time when the Opal Crystal was stolen and refused to talk to anyone. She would answer questions when asked, albeit short and quietly, and would still make her way to the piano room to resume her practice. She only played melancholy tunes however, and said solemnly that she wasn't in the mood to play anything cheery because it would just come out sounding all wrong.

But ever since Elke's death, she lost track of what day it was, and how many days it had been since her roommate had passed. She could hold those movers back no longer, and one day when she returned from her practice, Elke's things were gone, and the side of her room seemed more hollow than before.

They didn't get the bear however, which Serenade had hid in her closet.

After that, Serenade would take out the bear and christened it Elke in honor of her best friend and talked to it. The bear was tucked in every night in the bed besides hers and Serenade, with her hair pulled back into a ponytail, which was unusual for her, would speak to Elke the bear.

"My parents came home after the quarantine had lifted." She said that night, gazing out of the window at the stars. "Since their tour was now over anyway, and they were worried. They heard about you, you know. They wanted me to go back and live at home until this was all over." The girl stopped and sighed, propping her chin up on her hands, elbow resting on the windowsill. "They thought that if I stayed in the room we shared, it wouldn't be so painful to me. Everyone thinks it's painful to remember."

"But it's more painful to remember that you forgot." She continued. "Remember Barren Pines? I was devastated when I remembered Ally. I forgot Ally. I forgot everyone. I barely recognized any of you in there. It took me so long to remember everything."

"Aunt Serenity told me to be happy." Serenade murmured, reaching into her pocket and pulling out her henshin compact, where it had always rested and hadn't been used since Elke's death, since Hero's reprimand. "I just don't know how to be anymore." At this, her eyes raised up from the compact, cerise orbs fixing themselves on the moon.

The sudden sound jolted her out of her thoughts and Serenade gazed downwards to where the pebbles came from that clinked against her window, eyes widening as she noticed the figure on the tree and noted the familiar voice of Castor's. It seemed as though his outfit was different from when she last met him, although she did not think much of it then; just lifted up the window and looked down at the senshi she had met with Elke in silence.

"Give me a moment." She said finally, and retreated from the window, lifting up her compact once again before taking a deep breath to utter her henshin phrase.

One 'Chronos Princess Power, Make Up' later, the Princess, now in in her sailor suit form, emerged from the window, grim and ready to battle once again. At least now she was patrolling with someone else, and that would not result in getting Hero worried once again.

All that she could honestly think of was that she would fight. The Negaverse, who had brought her so much pain, and to her belief, was ultimately why she was hurting all over again, would suffer. It was easier to blame something. It was easier to blame the organization, who had the man at the helm Chronos so loathed. There would be no more hesitation, because Princess Chronos was more ready to do battle than ever before.

She was on one of the branches, and teetered on her heels before choosing to sit down, gazing up at Castor. "How have you been?"

It was indeed something to look forward to. While Chronos had resigned her love life to the status of 'Waiting for Eon Forever', she was gratified to see people around her be happy in their love lives. It would be extremely selfish of her not to want a happy ending for them, and Chronos was glad that she did not feel that way. "I'm still alive." She replied, taking his hand and hopping down from the tree. For now. She added silently in her thoughts. But not before she dealt blows to the Negaverse.

"I would be honored." She told him, her hand resting on his arm. Elke had always liked working with the Moon Senshi and had mentioned Castor as one of her Lunar friends every now and then. "The wings signifies your power." At least, that was what she had surmised. "It's more of a symbol, really, since it doesn't grant flight." She couldn't fly in her Princess form either; she had tried out of curiosity back then, way before Barren Pines, and had not succeeded, instead collapsing on the floor and giggling.

It was funny to look back on the days when she could smile so easily and more often. It was as though that part of her was something distant.

"It would certainly be nice to fly." Chronos remarked. Maybe gliding in the air would help her take her mind off things. Birds and butterflies always seemed so happy, being able to spread their wings and fly from here to there, without really having to care about the state of the city. It was strange though, to suddenly remember that Wiseman could fly and had taken her with him up in the air. It was more terrifying than relaxing, really.

"I have faith in you." She told him, a hint of a smile on her face when he tripped. "You have put in a lot of effort to get this far. Astraea must be proud of you, even if she doesn't say so."

Akhtenskite’s intellect had been his greatest weapon before. And his temperament, his weakness. Not too long ago, he still prided himself on his average scouting skill, surveying patrolling senshi who could sometimes spend hours without doing anything – don’t these idiots have anything better to do instead of wandering aimlessly? Why the hell don't they do anything about the criminal gangs that were still present? – and attacking the weakest-looking ones, who always managed to kick his a** in benign ways.
Today was different. His girlfriend was in a coma, and he didn’t want to keep watch over the enemy. He’d done enough watching. It was time to beat the s**t out of them.
Wolframite was a pretty cool lieutenant in his opinion: he had experience, and basically agreed on the fact that the senshi who could heal should work at the goddamned hospital instead of humiliating him. The sight of the ribbons made Akh concerned about Wolf’s sexuality, sure, but that was not a big issue.

Akh looked in direction of the schools. “Crystal? Yeah, good idea” he replied calmly. He followed the green Negaverser, obviously in a ranting mood (which was his default mode). “I wonder how many senshi are studying at Crystal. How many of them are snobby bitches by day, you think? They gave hell to my sister for not fitting in, y’know. Well, so much for fitting in by night, with their skimpy stuff.”
The sound of his steps were accompanied by the clinking chain of the rapper collar he swung around lazily. What he’d never said out loud was that the Negaverse really ought to have a syndicate and ask Charonite to get decent weapons. He was still working out the kinks of killing people without strangling them with bling.
He was afraid this was all Charonite's brilliant idea, or Beryl's.

Akh couldn’t help but roll his eyes. “I thought as much, and I still wonder which ones of my friends are secretly senshi. Maybe all of them. Wouldn’t surprise me. I’m just so lucky.”
The taller boy enjoyed having an audience. It was not unlike him to regularly “kidnap” a fellow Nega and explain thoroughly his ideas on the matter, and how the senshi that shoots orange juice could help the starved, and when his cousin lost his job because of some sailor senshi – this particular tale seemed more and more embellished every time he narrated it – without caring in the slightest if his colleagues were even remotely interested. The only thing he wanted was an ear.

He let out a soft laugh. “She’s 21 now, at least she is done with the hardships of high school! Plus, I found one of her old bully.”
There was a meaningful pause, and a contemplative grin.
“Isn’t that wonderful? Her starseed...”

Wolframite’s whisper stopped him right in his tracks. He caught the revolving chain with his other hand, stopping the noise, and hurried to check with his teammate the disturbance. Next to Wolfram, he crouched and listened. “It’s all the way there… sounds like there’s more than one” he commented.
If they were of the opposite faction, the both of them could bring back some pretty nice starseeds which, there was no doubt about it, could make some powerful youmas.
There was another part of his mind however that wished very hard these were just schoolgirls, as the raising apprehension started to overshadow his motivation, and he didn’t believe in his personal luck.
“… what do we do now?”

Improved strength and supernatural agility were the most amazing thing about being a Negaverser; nonetheless, it was still difficult for Akhtenskite to wrap his head around all the possibilities he received upon corruption. A few seconds were needed for him to remember that yes, he could join his colleague on the roof in minimal time, and so he did.
As he looked at the two humanoid shapes below, the boy raised an eyebrow. Both silhouettes were special in their own ways; the female one seemed to possess intricate details he couldn’t quite distinguish, and the male one featured a suspicious shape on his butt.
Then, he scratched his head.
“Yeah. Yeah. Let’s get our job done quickly. Whatever this guy has on his butt, I don’t want to look at it for too long. It’s so much worse than bows.”
Akh’s confused face turned towards Wolframite’s. “No offense, Wolfram, but if I were you, when I get promoted, I’d ask for something else.”

Where was he again? Oh, right. Stupid sailor senshi and their confusing uniforms. His grip tightened on his golden collar. “’kay. Seriously, who do you think they are, strolling around like that? Whatever that guy does, he’s gonna be sorry for… for not doing whatever he should be doing tonight!”
Even if he turned out to have super-lame powers, he could at least punish him for not being a firefighter. That was his default response.
“Let’s go!” he said, right before jumping down in Castor’s direction. He intended to whack him with the collar wrapped around his fist before he had the time to react… but Akhtenskite lacked proper fighting experience.

Had the negaverse agent not been so talkative, he might have landed a strike on the Eternal scout, but alas, the chatter gave Castor enough time to duck out of the way. The 'Bling' didn't help either.

"WOAH." It was one of those moves that was just made on part skill, but mostly pure luck, twisting his body just enough so the bling missed. However, it certainly acted as a wake up call. "Well s**t." It took him a second to get his footing, but once it was found, Castor was in front of Chronos. She was a princess, so in his mind, she obviously shouldn't be fighting, (this showed Castor's lack of zodiac knowledge). He was also a few seconds too short to see an attack already being launched her way. "Princess, you okay?" He was focused on the negaverse agent in front of him. Judging by the weapon- "Oh come on. A lieutenant? Really kid, you should just give up while you're ahead." Castor's cocky attitude had never helped him in the past.

Doubtful that it would help now.