Welcome to Gaia! ::

Free was always better. In fact, even if he could but a pack of free organic cookies, the ones the bakery gave out for free at the end of the day always seemed that much better. Maybe the fact they aged well or something, but god, they tasted good, and cost him nothing. A perfect snack to grab before henshining and heading out to patrol. As the sun went down over the horizon, yellow and orange glows reflecting off the tall buildings and casting part of the city into bright fading light, The senshi of hail remained in the backroads, hidden in the shadows, not yet illuminated by streetlights or filled with criminals and those rushing to cut corners and take short cuts home before dark. To make it to safety before the city became the battleground for a war that had been fount for thousands of years in silent unknown.

In those shadows, Castor was idle, biding his time before the city's shadows would flicker with life unseen, terror hiding in plain sight, youma licking at the edges of light...licking and nipping at the heels of the life. On a back road, in the warm gray shadow of the supermarket, sitting on a curb, Castor waited.
Semi-stale organic cookies in the shape of rabbits left over from Easter in a brown bag, just waiting to be eaten as a snack to keep hunger at bay before he got home.

She was familiar to him, a short girl with pigtails and a sailor like himself. But this time..She wasn't the same. He knew she'd been taken, watched when she'd gon into the shadows, unable to do anything. He'd figured she'd become a victim, another loss. But as Castor felt her energy prickling, he felt the corruption. Swirling and flickering like a hungry beast under the skin, ready and waiting to consume. Lyra had been taken, Lyra had been slain. Now, what Castor was looking at was the doll, the shell of the bright girl he'd known as the senshi of nebulas.

Her question made his heart ache. She didn't know him anymore. Why would she? She was a part of chaos now, she was a corrupt scout, and no longer his ally. "You know what I am Lyra." He smiled a bit. "I'm Castor, senshi of hail, what else could I be?" The scent of baked goods rose in the air and the street lights illuminated the shadows. "You uh...got a bit of a wordrobe change going on, can't say I'm envious. Long hair on us guys is hard to pull off. I just barely manage to pull it off." Would she attack him? Fighting someone he'd considered gentle and sweet made his stomach churn. A silent curse at the negaverse for what they'd done. Corrupting anything they could. They had no regard for life in his eyes, no care for those they harmed. They were tools for darkness in the end. And eventually, like all tools...

He didn't want to think about such things. "I'm just sitting having some snacks. Want to join me?" He held up the bag. "Organic cookies, free and not yet fully stale."

"Yup. Well, technically Castor was only sort of distantly loyal, but now a days it's pretty much a given. But that's it's own little box of confusion." He shrugged. The past was the past, and half of those memories were jumbled and often confusing as hell. "But last time I saw you, your butt didn't have wings, your hair was shorted, and you didn't look like you walked off of a Hot Topic runway. Must suck not remember. You were cute in the old outfit." Er, derp, foot in mouth. "Not that you don't look cute now. Just..diffrent sort. Maybe gothic lolita. Ehhh....still, I'm a married man, I shouldn't focus on that s**t anymore." Daphne would slap if if he did. Thankfully when she was around he pretty much was blind.

Her reaction to the confectionery treats made him smile. She reminded him and a small rabbit, wary of strangers, but curious non the less. "Unlike a good chuck of senshi, I'm not exactly violence prone if it can be helped, plus I have a track record for getting away. If there was a medal for times escaped from the negaverse, I think I'd be crowned king-champion." He shook the bag at her. "Seriously, just take one, you already saw me eating one so they're not deadly. And as to why and how..."

He leaned back, a sigh as he thought about how he could attack her, how he should do it. But the image of the girl, smiling and innocent was hard to dislodge from his memory. "We were friends once. Not sure we can be anymore. Ammolite...is a facade. A lie, you were Lyra then, you are Lyra now. Tainted by the darkness, but you will always be a senshi in truth."

He shook the bag again. "Just like the fact these cookies never stop being ******** delicious, you won't ever be able to stop being a senshi."

Castor smiled as she took a cookie. Some part of her hadn't been stolen and sealed away in the darkness. She still had part of Lyra in her, even if she didn't call herself that. Castor would. "I've run before, and I'll run again. In a way we're always running. If from our past-" he took another out of the bag, "or towards our future. I have mine, and it keeps me moving."

She didn't like what she said and really he couldn't blame her. In the end, those brainwashed in cults or manipulated often never saw themselves that way. "Lyra." That was her name. He didn't want to call her by that false name they'd given her. "What truth do I not see? That before you were taken, you had a human name, a life, an innocence that showed in simple ways. That you had a heart shaped hair clip, blue ribbons with white gloves. A sweet as ******** cat and a love of free cookies. Now that is all gone. I see a girl with black wing like a small devil on her back, nothing like the spirit of who I saw inside from the past. That now white is black, and blue ribbons are a single thread of consistency. You hide behind another name that you know isn't true Lyra."

He'd not call her by that false name. That wasn't who she was. "You call me tainted, yet I have never killed an innocent for my own cause. I have killed for war, for self preservation, for the lives of others. I don't treat humans like cattle Lyra. I don't seek to rule, I don't seek to give earth a false sovereign. To put a pretender queen on a false throne made over a rejected love." He took a deep breath. "I want to keep those I love safe. I want to live in a world without fear of being attacked and killed by what lurks in the shadows. I want to be able to love Lyra."

Did she know? Or had they hidden such things from her. "I loved Linarite and the negaverse would have killed her for it. For love." He offered her the cookie. "It...makes me sad to know that now I must fight for you as well. I must fight for a friend and maybe-" He frowned. "I might have to fight you to remind you that before you were taken, that is what you and I were. Friends."

Castor looked at her and he laughed. It was that laugh you couldn't hold in when you thought the other side of an argument was so utterly ridiculous that all logic must have left them. Castor and Lyra were on two very far sides of a vast spectrum. Castor was just as bad as she was, yet would never see it that way. It was a normal everyday occurrence when such parties met. It was something totally human.

"Really? So you fight for a side that would kill children? That wouldn't give a damn for one person? That gets its kicks from torture and killing other living people?" He stood up, his full height allowing him to look down at her now. "Just how is that right Lyra?" He had no idea of the irony, the fact of just what some of his other senshi had done. He was no better then her. Judging them en mass over what was most likely just a few. It was a common mistake. It was a human mistake.

The cookie was retracted, as Castor's face had fallen. "You're right Lyra. Friendship...it isn't an option for us and that is what is truly tragic." He closed the bag and just offered it to her. "Love in the darkness if you can Lyra. Love with every fiber of your being. Even if the darkness has taken you from us, has taken your past, has taken our friendship-" Looking in her eyes he felt sad. Another price of this war. She was gone, and he couldn't bring her back. "Whatever happens, do not let that which you follow strip you of your ability to love. Know that you left behind those who love you, who love you still no doubt." The bag was set down, an offering.

"I loved you as a friend, and should we fight, should you fall... I will mourn for you. Because of that love and friendship Lyra. The love I had for a senshi of nebulas who was my friend. Never let the darkness take that ability from you." Another one, lost to chaos. "Never forget how to love."