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Leaping from roof to roof, Birhan Isat spied movement from the corner of her eye. She turned in time to see something move out of sight, their path taking them behind a taller building between them and Birhan. Landing in a crouch, Birhan stopped. She rose and stared. She had a better grasp on sensing energy now that she was a Super senshi, but she couldn't feel anything out there - not the faint warm light of another senshi, not the gut-twisting wrongness of a corrupted being, not even the faint blip of a youma.

She was tempted to write it off as a civilian.

'Civilians don't prance about on rooftops,' she scolded herself. Not outside of musicals, anyway.

Breaking off her pre-planned patrol pattern, Birhan took off after the mysterious figure. Once she was on the other side of the building that had blocked her view, she thought for a moment she'd been too slow. But then another flicker of movement drew her eyes in time to see a leggy figure rounding another corner. It moved fast, Birhan noted before springing into action herself.

Fast, and also agile. As she gave chase, Birhan had the opportunity to see the figure leaping and springing off anything in its path - less a senshi's enhanced speed and jumping, more like something out of those yourtube videos where people sprang all over walls and concrete landscapes with the grace of a cat. Parkour, was that the word?

If it was a civilian, Birhan was going to strongly suggest they choose somewhere else for their playground. (The rooftops were the major battleground between the light and corrupt powers in the city, after all.) But Birhan had been fooled before by Negaverse agents pretending to be civilians, so she wasn't going to simply let them go without checking closely. If it was a Nega agent, their speed wasn't a match for a Super Senshi. It didn't take long for Birhan to draw closer, to be able to make out details...

She stumbled the landing as she finally hit the same rooftop as her prey. Purple eyes flickered from the unexpectedly bare head, down, and then back up again. There was clearly no ears or tail, but...

"Zirconia?"Birhan blurted out.

Birhan took a step back, blinking in the face of Zirconia's ire. True, the Parallel Mauvian had always been reserved, perhaps even prickly, to anyone not also a Parallel, but she'd never spoken so harshly to the other BMC members, either. This was actually the kind of reaction that Birhan had expected when she'd phoned several of her old teammates. Their less hostile responses had obviously resulte din Birhan lowering her guard, to now be to caught out by an angry reunion.

She narrowed in on Zirconia's denial of being, well, herself. Somehow, this tied into the missing ears and tail, Birhan reasoned.

"What do you...?" Birhan trailed off as she recalled a hazy memory of being introduced to the ISS - in their civilian forms. For some reason Zirconia had also had another identity, though Birhan had only ever seen her feline form and her partially-transformed state (for a brief few moments, as it gave out a large energy signature). At the time, Birhan had had an image of Zirconia hiding her ears under a large hat, her tail beneath a fluffier skirt - for what purpose, she hadn't had the faintest idea. Now, though, Birhan had the feeling shed been terribly wrong.

" 'Zia' wasn't just a fake identity, was it?" she realised, speaking slowly.

Her face paled as the implications hit. Fallon had been Fallon before Ares' soul had arrived on this side of the mirror. It was something that had been easy to forget, because by the time Birhan had met Ares, Fallon was just Ares without senshi powers. Birhan had never thought twice about that because Birhan Isat was simply Ariana Knight in a more concentrated form, everything just more. It was suddenly very obvious that there hadn't been a cat, pre-Parallels, who then became Zirconia. There'd been a person, Zia Connolly, who'd been taken over by another soul - a cat, even, not someone of the same species.

In the years that Birhan had been a part of the BMC, she'd never seen a trace of an alternate personality for Zirconia. Much as Ares had consumed Fallon, had Zirconia replaced the original soul or personality of the body she'd taken? Only, this wasn't Zirconia talking now. Zia was still around. Zia, who still knew how Birhan was. Who had - oh god - been around for everything during those two years or more, but never able to get out and say anything?

Birhan pressed a hand to her stomach. Her legs felt unsteady beneath her, but she couldn't tear wide eyes away from the woman in front of her. Powering up had always been an affirmation for Birhan. If it had meant becoming someone else, an interloper taking over... She couldn't even imagine it.

"I am so sorry," she managed to force out. "You were my team mate, and I never even..."

Noticed. Guessed. Wondered. Take your pick. All terrible sentiments that left Birhan feeling ill and blaming herself for being blind to yet more problems under her nose.

"I -" Birhan flinched at the demand of where she'd been. Speaking of actions that made her hate herself more. Her gaze finally left Zia's familiar yet unfamiliar face, dropping to the concrete beneath her feet. "I was stupid. Took on Ares, talked a big game of how I wasn't running away any more. Nearly died. Then this happened." She ran a hand down in the air, along her side to indicate the changed fuku.

"Then this happened." She had to concentrate to call it. It was harder these days. That was what she got for leaving her team to continue falling apart, she supposed. But despite the resistance, it still came. In her hands, a small round mirror popped into existence. A golden chain was wrapped around it, something Birhan had discovered prevented Ares from being able to see through it or use it in any fashion. But it still freaked her out to think her senshi form had decided it needed a mirror, the symbol of the corrupt court Ares had formed. She quickly banished it back to wherever it came from.

"And then I ran away." Quiet, inaudible if they'd been on the streets below, but up here it was just clear enough to reach Zia's ears before the wind snatched the shameful confession away.

Birhan nodded as Zia spoke. She still felt sick to hear the tale. "And there was very little difference between Fallon and Ares, if any, by the end." Clearly that wasn't the case for Zia and Zirconia. Birhan didn't feel the need to mention something so obvious.

Her eyes closed briefly as Zia spoke of Zirconia, both the theft and the running away. Her heart ached for them both. Zia, who had lost her life to the invading soul for a number of years. Zirconia, who had lost all of her senshi - the ones truly hers, the Parallels. BMC members not nearly so emotionally invested in Ares had fled after her corruption, so it was no surprise that Zirconia, finding herself alone, would do the same. Only Zirconia wasn't the only one affected by her actions. Once again it seemed Zia was paying the price whether she wanted to or not.

"All of us ran, one way or another. Even our strongest left for other, easier roads." Birhan was just as guilty. She'd known the remnants of the BMC were crumbling, but despite her talks with Scylla, with Albali, and Zirconia herself, to pull the team together, Birhan had also walked away when she'd been offered an out. Hell, she'd left the city entirely, gone to another country where senshi and corrupted forces were only in her (very frequent) nightmares.

To hear Zia say that the mirror meant Birhan should have been Captain... She shuddered. Even more of a betrayal to have left, then. No wonder the mirror was so hard to call now. There was no team left and Birhan could only blame herself for that.

"I don't think I ever met her," was all Birhan could offer in the face of a Parallel name. She had the barest recollection of Nehelenia, a curvy girl in pale purple hues, but really all she'd known of the Parallels was Ares, Laocoon and Zirconia.

"Have you been in touch with any of the others?" she asked. Birhan might have been referring to the Parallels, to the BMC... perhaps even Ares and her dark court. It was possible that even Birhan herself wasn't sure. She left it up to Zia to interpret as she liked.

Birhan was about to ask if Zia remembered because Zirconia had met her in this dimension, or if it was just memories from their previous lives, but quickly snapped her mouth shut. That was probably insensitive. And not really necessary, since if Aphrodite had awakened here, she hadn't survived long. Huh. Look at Birhan finally developing some tact.

She wasn't surprised to hear about Scylla. Jada wasn't returning Birhan's calls. She'd gone AWOL before Birhan had left and it sounded like it hadn't been a temporary thing. Birhan could only hope she was still alive somewhere, rather than having been picked off by Ares or the Negaverse.

"We're not really 'hide in the corner' senshi," Birhan murmured. She didn't want to speak too harshly of Albali, who had better reason than most to be devastated by the loss of Ares, but that was far from the confidence the BMC senshi had always displayed. Besides, Birhan had never been fond of those cloaks. There was a brand on her thigh, proudly displaying Birhan's beliefs and history to all - she didn't need a cloak to remind herself, or others, that she was a force to be reckoned with.

Though she was a little surprised to hear Zia speak so poorly of Albali. Birhan would have thought those two would bond over their losses, if nothing else. But Zia wasn't Zirconia, Birhan scolded herself, and even if she had been, Zirconia had prized her princess and then Ares. Weakness hadn't been in the vocabulary of the BMC's Captain, or her former leader from what little Birhan had heard.

The list only got worse from there. Zia clearly wasn't happy with Maia or Kallichore, or the paths they'd taken. Birhan winced at the mention of a new cat.

And then Zia mentioned mirrorspace. Birhan's stomach dropped out. "********," came the quiet whisper as Zia kept talking.

Birhan didn't need to point out how dangerous that had been, for more than one reason. To be followed home, to be killed, to be corrupted...

... What had happened was almost the worst, option, though. When Zia took her more familiar humanoid form - as though Birhan required proof that Zia hadn't gone over to Ares, as though her utter misery at being abandoned wasn't enough - Birhan stepped closer. She reached out to place a hand on Zircon- Zia's shoulder.

'Ah, ******** it.' Birhan didn't know how to do polite sympathy or awkward comfort. She gave in to her instincts, pulling Zirc- Zia (she had to get used to using another name for this much more familiar form) into a firm, full body hug.

"I know better than most just how dangerous Ares talking to you can be," she said quietly. "You're stronger than most, to walk away."

Because it was tempting. To hear that Ares had missed you, that she still loved you, wanted you by her side; that everything would be forgiven, all would be exactly as it used to be, if you just chose to join her.

Birhan knew. Ares had tried. And for more than just a few seconds, Birhan had thought about how easy it had been to follow Ares, how right it had felt, how certain she'd been that they were on the correct path. But Birhan had also walked away, had somehow found the strength to resist the easy way out. It had been thanks, in no small part, to the power boost hiding inside her.

Speaking of... Birhan released Zia. She gestured once again to her new outfit. "Did you have something to do with this?"

Birhan had never been sure how Zirconia would react to anything, and Zia was turning out to be no different in that manner. The unwillingness to be hugged, she could have guessed; the sudden return, not so much. She had no clue if Zia was angry or just determined when she spoke, but it didn't matter. There was only one possible response:

"I'm not going anywhere. You're the only cat for me."

It was true. Her senshi boyfriend may have suggested forming a new team, starting over, but Birhan had never once entertained the idea of looking for a new Mauvian. Zirconia, she knew and trusted. Granted, sometimes they'd been like fire and oil, but who else knew exactly where Birhan was coming from and what she'd been through with the BMC and Ares? Some silly White Moon cat was never going to be able to understand Birhan. Whatever else Zirconia, and Zia, might have been... they were family. And Zirconia had previously offered that Birhan could come to her for any Mauvian tasks, no matter if they were still a team or not. Birhan was fine with contracting out to an independent cat she knew she could trust.

"I wish Ares felt the same," Birhan said quietly. "She was the best senshi I knew."

Not to say that Birhan had agreed with every decision Ares had made. But she'd always loved and respected her Captain. She would have happily followed Ares for the rest of her life, if Ares hadn't decided to walk in darkness. A road of blood, Birhan could handle, but not one of Chaos.

It was a good (maybe?) thing Birhan's alter ego was used to the clubbing scene and being groped. There was a moment of utter confusion to have Zia suddenly hands-on with her cleavage, a minor jolt through her frame, but then she realised what Zia was doing - and what Zirconia had done.

"Sneaky," she said, one corner of her mouth twisting up into a grin. It smoothed out into a subdued smile. "You saved my life. Or my soul. Or, y'know, whatever you lose going corrupt."

Never let it be said that Ares did anything by halves. Die or convert. Thankfully, Zirconia had unlocked for Birhan the power for a third option: power up.

"Oh, no, actually, I'm quite sure you would've died," Zia said.

Birhan recoiled like she'd been punched. Her face clouded in confusion. The right words weren't coming to mind, so Zia got out her explanation before Birhan could ask for one. Zirconia - and therefore Zia - was undoubtedly this world's leading expert on all things Parallel, so when Zia said she'd been studying the Dark Moon senshi, Birhan paid attention.

The idea of a Parallel senshi not have two souls was so foreign to Birhan that it took her a while to realise what that actually meant. The original soul, belonging to this dimension, was snuffed out completely by the new parallel dimension's soul.

"They really do die," she realised. The new recruits... the original converts from the Blood Moon Court! Everyone except for Ares and Gaia were dead. Even fainter, Birhan whispered, "Ares, what have you done?"

Although it sounded more like a demonic or ghostly possession, or a changeling situation, Birhan didn't bother disputing Zia's claim of zombies. Whatever type of monster you classified them as, they were abominations.

Rage burned in Birhan's gut, but she tamped it down rather than let it burn out of control as she used to. Her voice was ice when she spoke, but fire remained in her eyes. "They need to be destroyed."

Death would be a mercy for them.

Birhan shuddered. Her family life had fractured as the stress of being a senshi became the straw that broke the camel's back - and that was with no extra or changed souls at all.

Once again, Ares was proving to be a threat beyond the Negaverse itself. Corrupt senshi and Negaverse officers all needed to die, of course. Birhan saw no reason to sit around in hopes of 'purification' - a dubious, rumoured process at best, more likely an excuse for the weak of heart. Death was a release, much preferred to living a corrupted half-life. But even that paled beyond what Ares was doing. A corrupt senshi at least had the remote possibility of being purified (if you believed the rumours). Someone whose soul had already been snuffed out? How was that even remotely fixable? There was no hope at all for the Dark Moon senshi.

Ares would no doubt be pleased to learn she had several people judging her as being far more dangerous than Tanzanite. It was just a shame that it was happening on the same side, rather than opposite forces in the war.

"Do you know how their 'awakenings' work?" she asked Zia. "Is there a way to stop them from creating more?"

Killing them all was definitely part of the plan. But if Ares was just constantly replacing her lost numbers, there would be very little progress made.

"I think I saw that during the meeting," Birhan frowned, pulling at her bangs absent-mindedly.

She didn't need to specify which meeting - the meeting was an obvious one. At the time, Birhan hadn't been sure of what she'd seen; Ares had thrown her into a wall first thing, after all. Between that and the smoke, Birhan had been doubting her memories of the meeting for days afterwards.

"Is it just any mirror, or a particular one, though?"

If it was just one, if they could find it and destroy it, it would change everything. If Ares could use any old mirror, they were pretty screwed on that front. Good luck breaking every single mirror in the world.