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Alkaid had felt him the moment her feet touched ground in Destiny City. She knew that she didn't need to seek him out, his energy drew closer with every passing second. He was coming for her, as he always did and as they all did if they were close enough to feel her, or each other.

When darker arms encircled her she found a smile, small though it was. There were few comforts an ascendant had left in this world but the knowledge that there was always someone with them, that was one that Alkaid had learned all over again. For so long she had been one bright flame, walking among peers who knew little of her. Hematite had always been her anchor, but now.. now she had a family. Brothers, sisters - they were extensions of herself. Though some parts of her could not be returned, she had learned what it was like to care about herself, and them, once more.

She leaned into his strong chest for a moment, letting a peace pass between them.

And I you, little brother, her thoughts flowed with no effort. She heard them as Alkaid, and as Haumea.

She untangled herself only as she remembered that they had a purpose here, standing in the center of a run-down part of town. Once, it had been beautiful but now there were boarded windows, burnt and crumbling roofs. It was truly a forgotten part of Destiny City on the outskirts of nowhere. The woods were threatening to take over the outermost buildings and furthermore, it was full of hide-aways and lost souls.

Your energy is low, the inflection she put on 'your' made it feel more like 'our'. She felt the lack in him as surely as she would have herself. Part of her wanted to be upset that he had abandoned his meal for her, but the separation was more overwhelming than the energy level. She knew. They all knew.

She stepped away from him and stared up at his eyes for a moment, then shifted into a walk. She didn't have to ask him to keep up or to follow, he knew. She didn't need to hear his footsteps to know he would be at her side.

As Haumea brought his memories to the forefront of his mind, surprise responded in his female counterpart. Her face remained ever impassive, belying the emotion he could feel echoed inside of himself.

No one should doubt Metallia's creations, he knew her words before she ever gave them form, that's blasphemy. They might seem harsh, but the feeling of heartache that poured out of her backed up everything she spoke of. Metallia was her creator, it was through her that they all drew power and Alkaid could not fathom anyone questioning her mother.

Her hand reached out for Haumea's while her eyes remained steadily forward, squeezing her warm fingers around his. They would make everyone know that Ascendants were nothing to be mocked, or doubted.

As they came to the mouth of the alley that Haumea had abandoned previously, Alkaid's eyes shifted up to the rooftop overhead. Without a word to him, she vaulted straight to the top and landed on the low roof. He could advance from where they'd stopped and she would follow form overhead. If the man ran, Alkaid would simply stop his path. No one could outmaneuver two sets of eyes acting as one, at least nothing so mortal and inferior.

Alkaid watched Haumea as he trailed down the alleyway after the drunkard, walking across the jagged rooftop parallel to the stalk. She was pleased with his progress, the way he moved effortlessly through darkness and caught the man before he could make a scene. Easy, it was true, but there were few things that weren't easy prey for her siblings.

Her pride thrummed through her, pouring from herself and into the space that existed between them, in them. She fell effortlessly from the rooftop and landed in a flutter of dreads and swishing fabric at his side. Her hand reached out for his outstretched one, curling his fingers back around the starseed he had claimed. She was first, but she always looked out for them above all else. They were one, their weakness was shared.

Take the strength for yourself.

Her hand dropped from his own and she nodded her head at the forgotten body at their feet. It was a husk now, nothing more to be gained from it as far as they were concerned - except, perhaps, as a means of antagonizing. They were hunters of far more than energy supplies and sometimes the best tool in a hunter's arsenal was bait.

In her mind, Alkaid brought forth the image of a sewer tunnel she had chased a pair of senshi into recently. Where better to leave a note?

Very well.

His insistence was so strong that she felt the urge echoed in herself, the stipulation rising from her own thoughts as surely as it did his. They would be doing nothing before she refilled her energy stores.

We'll find something along the way.

She headed deeper down the alley they had stalked his prey into, turning when it branched off toward a system of back pathways. There were few rules they had to live by, but discretion was generally one of them. The Negaverse was meant to be a friendly face and, well, their faces were anything but friendly. They were spiders, spinning their webs and claiming those too foolish to stay out of the shadows.

She felt his presence at her side as he carried their new found companion along but her eyes remained ever forward. The Ascendant general was keeping a close eye on their surroundings, watching for any little sign of human life. When she found it she stopped, abruptly, but needn't give him any signal to do so himself. He knew as soon as she did once she saw it.

Ahead of them a young man was defacing the side of an old, half-crumbled wall with a spray can. Through the darkness, it was hard to see, but she had no doubt that this one was of the spineless supporters of the resistance - or at least someone foolish enough to pretend that he was.

Perfect. One meal and one less nuisance. She offered Haumea a pleased smile as she slipped into a side alley.

When she moved, the ruffian never saw it coming. One warm hand caught him beneath the throat and the second arm wrapped around him, plunging into his chest. There was no sound, only a finger frozen on the nozzle of a spray can as it wrecked a crescent moon with yellow splatter.

As he dropped to her feet, Alkaid came free with a starseed - easy won from easy prey. The spray can fell to the broken asphalt with a metallic clink, rolling and coming to a rest by an old trashcan. The Ascendant General tipped her head back and swallowed it whole, relishing the pulse as it set her crystal veins on fire.

When her eyes opened, they shifted to look down the alley where her brother was guarding the exit without need of any command. He knew. They always knew.

A small smile stretched her lips and she bent down to grab the wide-eyed teen by the loops of his pants, hoisting him up easily into her arms. They were close now, no more than a couple of blocks.

Ready? her words chimed softly for him alone.

Haumea's question made Alkaid smile and she could only offer him a shrug as the pair strolled along the back alleys, like they were simply on the most casual of evening outings. Never mind the bodies in tow.

Probably not, her thoughts were laced with an underlying amusement, they never do.

No, the Order liked to hide on the sidelines and take cheap shots. The glory of hunting them down had been all but lost in the years since the Negaverse had begun to secure their hold on this realm.

It was not long before Alkaid made a sharp turn at the opening of an alley and followed a broken road behind a building. She was ever aware of her brother at her side, even as they began to wade through waist-high grass sticking haphazardly up through the jagged, broken asphalt beneath their feet. Ahead of them, half grown over by the weeds, a sewer mouth loomed where it stood at the top of a hill ready to spew its guts into the constructed valley below.

Mesh wiring criss-crossed the top of the opening and it was to there that Alkaid pointed.

Let's tie them up, shall we?

In the end, they had been all talk, no action. Alkaid had never doubted her choice to serve Metallia, but they had reaffirmed it with the way they tucked their tails and ran from her might.

We will get them all, one day.

She was soothed by her own words as she projected them, and the feeling, out for him. She was nothing but steadfast in her dedication to this and she would destroy them all or run them off the planet back to the depths of space - whichever came first.

For now she simply had a message to construct with her brother - a wicked, taunting message of failure.

The Ascendant General stared up at the meshed grating, then let her eyes drop to scan the surroundings. For a moment she had no ideas but, of a sudden, it came to her - and him in seconds. She reached for her cloak and began to rip away thick strips. The lucky thing about a uniform is that it simply repaired itself, much like the rest of her. She held a portion of them out to Haumea once she was finished - it was a nice personal touch.