Welcome to Gaia! ::

The Page of Earth had very nearly bumped into his own son while both were sneaking out of the house that evening. Chaonis had powered up before leaving his room, hopping out the window with such a well practiced grace that he could do it blindfolded. Tony had opted not to power up until he was away from his house, and thus did not feel nor gave off any kind of aura.

He turned to see a shadow flitting away from the side of the house, having come out from the front door after he was sure Nate would be in for the night and Dogby was sleeping comfortably with her food bowl and water full. By the time he powered up, thinking it might be a threat, and peeked around the edge of the house the shadow was gone and too far for him to feel.

So he was off on patrol and feeling more edgy than usual. Which was substantial. He had been tense since awakening, to say the least, but now the idea that someone was already on to him was rumbling in the back of his mind.

Librarians weren't meant to really be knights, were they? How had all of this even happened? He was thirty nine years old. Was this a midlife crisis of epic proportions?

He was wandering through town with these thoughts in his mind, losing track of time and distance, when he felt a strong, less than friendly energy nearby. He shuddered at the intensity of it, and though he had thought it for every single energy he had sensed so far, this one was unlike anything he had felt before.

And of course his fight or flight instincts were jumbled, at least in a reasonable person's mind. He moved toward the feeling, gripping the edge of his shield with the opposite hand than it was attached to, his instincts set in his duties already, though his mind might still doubt.

If someone was in trouble, if he could get there and help them, then he had to try.

A normal night.

If ever such a thing existed in Destiny City, it had not been seen in the better part of two years. When once the City's darker hours might have been filled with drunken Prom attendees stumbling home, eager for graduation. One might have seen two young lovers taking a stroll, their young hearts aflutter in the warm air of an almost-Summer night. It was two such hearts, and half a dozen more, than lay quietly on the ground at Tanzanite's feet. Waves of energy still lifted from their bodies like small, shimmering flames, vanishing as they touched the General-Queen's skin.

A normal night? Never again. Not in Destiny City.

Now, all that awaited those few brave souls who dared to walk the dark streets was danger. Youma, corrupted senshi, Negaverse agents. Hell, half the time the deaths those powered individuals dealt was both more swift and merciful than one they would have found at the hands of the thieves and brutes in the Red Light district. Still, nobody wanted to end up one bloated face in a pile of corpses. Even finding yourself drained of energy and unconscious on a sidewalk was certainly a less that desirable fate. Unfortunately, that seemed all too likely for the citizens of Destiny City those days.

The familiar spark of an energy signature opened the Youma Queen's eyes, black with the energy she was harvesting. The energy hissed and fizzled as she snapped off the connection she had with their starseeds, and those black eyes fixed on the opening in the alley ahead. For all the crimes the Blood Moon Court had committed against the Negaverse, Tanzanite owed them a tremendous debt. For what did a woman who had been tortured to such severity have to fear from dark alleys?

Nothing went bump in Tanzanite's night anymore.

Though she hated the court with all her fury, Tanzanite smiled softly as she spoke: “I'm afraid I don't have time to play with children today.” Her voice was that same double tone that Arsinoe had heard before, a soft and feminine voice followed by the supernatural one. Black fingers flexed, and one claw extended until it pressed against the throats of one unconscious woman's body.

“Red rover, red rover," she said in a sing-song voice, "Send your senshi on over."

Damn it, it really was her.

He cursed as he heard her voice knowing now that she felt him and any thoughts about sneaking up on her were shattered. He hated that voice. Everything about it made his skin want to crawl off and hide somewhere but he woulnd't. He'd faced her down enough now that it didn't matter anymore. Those monsters had to be stopped and she was the worst of them all.

He thought about leaving, just leaving her in the alley to do whatever it was she was doing. He couldn't fight her, not with how strong she was now, and getting himself killed would be stupid.

It would have been a wonderful plan if he hadnt noticed the tiny spark of energy similar to his own near hers.

s**t

That meant she was either draining one of them or some newbie idiot thought they could take on Tanzanite. His fingers tightened on his lantern as he stepped around the building and into the mouth of the alley.

"What a surprise...." He stopped, frozen for a moment as he took in her new appearance. If only he'd been able to drown her in Elysion. "You look more and more like the monster you are every time i see you."

Tearing his eyes off the youma-corrupted woman he looked past at the man trembling on the other side of her. Not a senshi at least.

"You can't stop her you idiot! Just leave before she drains you too" And me for sticking my neck out for you "The civilians are already gone."

Camelot looked at the senshi that showed up, but it was only for a moment. His words echoed in the knight's ears, but he could not tear his focus away from the being in front of him for too long. He didn't even notice how badly he was shaking, or how icy the blood in his veins now ran.

At least he hadn't passed out.

He didn't leave, as the senshi said, but he could do nothing. Particularly when Tanzanite turned her eyes to him again, and he wondered for a moment if his heart was actually still beating, or if it had stilled in his chest by the look on her face alone. He steeled himself, face set in an almost glare.

She was right, he wasn't ready, but hearing her say it was no comfort. when she vanished it was like the green light on actually reacting had turned and he wobbled, nearly falling to his knees. He took a deep breath, his stomach doing a few flips as he looked over at the senshi.

"Wh... what was that?" he asked.

He looked at the people on the floor, moving to them, as if to distract himself. He wouldn't be getting that image, the look she gave him, out of his head in a hurry. What had he gotten into here? What was he, and what were others like him? Just what was he fighting, and how was he ever going to hope to fight it, when it was clearly so much more than he was?

Too many questions at the moment. He kneeled next to the nearest person, putting his hand to their neck to check for a pulse. His fingers were trembling.

Camelot pulled his hand back from the body, staring at it with wide, pained eyes. For a long moment he was left just looking at it, like he didn't know what to think. Or simply couldn't get his mind to move at all: thinking was out of the question.

He hadn't gotten here in time. It wasn't the first time, but it had never ended like this.

More than once he had arrived to find a Negaverse soldier draining someone's energy, or leaving them unconscious on the floor. More than once he had told them not to hurt anyone, challenged them, once as a civilian, more now that he was Camelot. More than once he had heard them defend themselves, saying they weren't hurting anyone.

It was a lie.

He looked up at the senshi, nodding his head slowly, at last. He got up and moved away from the bodies, though he couldn't tear his eyes away from them until he was near the senshi. Then his gaze shifted.

"What do you know about that woman? That... monster. She killed those people, but others from the Negaverse don't. Say they wouldn't. What is she?"

Maybe he was asking for his own ability to cope with the situation.That person, whatever she was, had taken lives without any regard. Just to play. How could he defend the idea of life 'for all' when there were beings like that? He justified killing youma: they weren't real, they turned into dust. But he was certain there was always a better way than killing a more human opponent in a fight, senshi, knight or negaverse.

But his convictions were immediately confused. If he confronted her some time in the future, had the chance to keep her from killing anyone else by taking her life, would he do it? Would he, in the end, be any different than the other fighters in this war, which he so desperately wanted to stop? He didn't know, not yet, but the more he learned, the better.

Camelot looked at the senshi in surprise. He had met a few Negaverse soldiers who hadn't seemed... that bad. He knew they were aligned to a dark force, and that alone was warning enough that they were capable of anything. But that did not condemn them, at least not in his mind, as being truly evil and something that couldn't be saved or help.

He nodded his head, looking back at the civilians one last time. He took a moment to remember their faces, one, he was sure, he had seen at the library before. He moved to that body, carefully, checking his ID for a name. He was respectful, leaving them quietly where they had fallen.

Something had to be done about this. He had to work harder to not fail these random strangers, not let them die in the middle of this struggle between two opposing forces they knew nothing about.

He followed the senshi, moving to the nearest building and motioning for the senshi to follow him as he climbed up to the roof as swiftly as he knew how. Not as graceful as some, but he was still new to it. Right now he couldn't dwell on it, though, just getting up to the roof as quickly as he could so he could speak again. He moved across the roof, to give them some distance. As he walked, he looked at the senshi.

"I don't believe that. That all of them are monsters at heart. There has to be something else to them. They're all kids, mostly, like you are. Some of them are... civil... they don't kill."

Camelot bristled, looking sad rather than angry.

Seeng death was not something he had experienced much of. He was not hardened to it, and at the moment he didn't think he ever would be. He shook his head, grimacing at the very idea of it becoming routine or normal. It was the very thing he wanted to work hard to avoid, after all. Senseless, useless death.

Of anyone. Civilian, Senshi, even the Negaverse. Though at the moment, all he could think about were monsters.

"Everyone is capable of it," he said, looking at the Senshi now, his green eyes difficult to read. "You are. I am. Capable isn't the point. Capable is an assumption that will simply lead to more of this. I... I believe there's another answer than just chalking it up to capable."

He shook his head.

"I know it's difficult to see anything in your enemies, but I just know that they are not any less deserving of a normal life than you or any of the other senshi are. And they are kids. Young people. Teenagers, college kids. It's just... I can't watch you kill each other. There has to be some other way: you don't have to fight this war like this."

Taking a breath, he steadied himself. "I'm Camelot, by the way. I should have... introduced myself before... things got a little complicated and quickly."

Camelot listened, but could not agree.

There had to be more than that. There were always extremes, always people who could or would not be saved, but it was never enough to lump everyone together. Not for Camelot. He knew, had met, some of the senshi and the negaverse soldiers who had that spark in them. That lust for a normal life, that fighting a war neither could win was stealing from them.

Who started the killing, who was still doing it, how the war was being fought now, it didn't matter. It all needed to be stopped. These were teenagers, kids, and they had the right to live normal lives, no matter what side of the fence they were on.

"That's just the problem. You guys get trapped in this war and you have to do what you think is necessary. But you're only teenagers, most of you. No training beyond a cat giving you a pen and whatever you can learn between fights. Through fights. The same is true of them, though the method is different. They might seem like the enemy, and in many ways they are, but there are souls there. People who want the same things you do, who are fighting because they're told to. I'm not going to give up on them any more than I am on you. There's another way to stop all this, and it doesn't have to be through fighting and craziness and murder."