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It had been weeks, maybe months, since Alkaid had stepped foot in Destiny City itself. Her purpose had consumed her entirely but now, in the wake of her discovery and her inability to move forward with it, she found herself wandering aimlessly through the darkened streets instead. Somewhere, out here, or in the rift, were the answers she needed to know but, as with her search for the tower, she didn't know when those answers would come - or from who.

The biggest difference between the dark streets of the city and the rift was that the city was still teaming with life. It wasn't full of forgotten, hungry souls - only living ones that didn't know what they were living for. Energy signatures dotted the city around her, blazing like stars in her senses, every point a soldier on one side of the war. She didn't want to fight, not now, not when her head was so full of questions.

But she was curious about a bundle of dark energy close by.

With a practiced grace, the Ascendant General leaped from one building to the next, crawling like a spider across the flat rooftops of a middle class residential district. Town home after town home sprawled out in every direction down the mostly deserted streets, monotonous and blocky, each one almost unidentifiable from the next if it weren't for the metal numbers drilled onto the front doors.

A few blocks down and she found what she had been searching for - a corrupt senshi with a wave of hair the color of sea foam. The Birth of Venus, urban edition. She said nothing as she dropped to the ground with ease, springing with the fall to reduce the stress on her leg plates. If the senshi didn't notice her, she'd be aware, at least, of the explosion of chaos energy that always preceded her. It wouldn't take long.

The glimmer of a starseed drew Alkaid's attention even as the corrupt turned around to face her. For a moment, the girl didn't matter, only the shining point of light that signaled everything Alkaid ever wanted - energy, power, life. The struggle to overcome her hunger didn't go unnoticed, she wasn't an addict pretending the fool, but she also maintained an awareness of her appearance. Showing her weakness was reckless, especially when she was face to face with a potential candidate.

"General Alkaid," she responded, pulling a smile to her lips for the corrupt's benefit. Her citrine eyes slid away from the starseed slowly, a forced gesture, to meet the eyes that drifted across the very details of everything that made Alkaid who she was. She would have been more insulted by the reaction if she hadn't encountered it dozens of times before. This, by comparison, was a relatively subdued greeting. Those that stared at her in awe were always so much more interesting and the polite, respectful nod did not go unnoticed. In fact, it put this unknown corrupt immediately into a category seldom few ever fit. Respect meant a lot to her, especially from her own kind. Or, well, those who had once been her kin, at least.

"The one and only Ascendant Senshi, I should add, since I suspect that's the true answer you're looking for. Not exactly who, but what. Am I correct?" She didn't need the answer, she already knew. It was the answer they all wanted. Castor, Nemesis, Ate, Hematite. They all asked, every single soul.

The tall, regal blonde moved forward then, pacing a slow, half-circle motion around the corrupt that caused her shimmering cape to trail gently behind her over the asphalt. It was easy, practiced, but she kept herself to a respectful distance - not because she felt like she owed any formality to the corrupt, but because she couldn't bear to get one step closer to the shining starseed in her palm.

"And what should I call the little corrupt playing with starseeds in the dark?"

As Alkaid stared down at the awed Senshi, she wondered for a moment if she had once been so reverent of her Generals. Not for the first time, or the last, her mind thought back to the grace and power that had been Tanzanite as she stood regal before battles, as she addressed her troops, to every time that she showed the ranks why she had been so favored by Metallia.

Yes, she knew the answer to that question was a true and resounding yes.

Amphitrite, as she had introduced herself, could very well have all the makings of the next ascendant if the pale ascendant compared the two behaviors. Only time would tell if she truly had the will, though. Alkaid never trusted first impressions, they had failed her one too many times.

"Me?" A small, melodic laugh passed her lips, more graceful and benign than anything else about her presence. Her half-circling motion stopped once the corrupt closed a bit of the distance between them and her eyes swept from the glimmering starseed in her hand, to the way the more human creature bit her lower lip. An interesting series of gestures, Alkaid noted.

"Wouldn't you like it?" One thin brow rose as she asked the question, suggesting with her tone of voice that it was the action she would have expected. "Or have you not fallen prey to that addiction yet?" It was hard to tell, by her inflection, if Alkaid thought the addiction was a weakness. She closed the distance between them with a few strides of her long legs, treading with a grace only gained from a lifetime in heels. Or what felt like a lifetime, at least.

She stopped just before Amphitrite, so that she could stare down at the seed in her palm, some soul whose last moments were probably filled with dread and terror. Such was the way of war. To Alkaid it was strength, power, and the very root of life itself. What was it to Amphitrite, if she had yet to taste its true potential?

"You really shouldn't be afraid of it, you know." When she spoke then, her voice was gentle, imploring, the sound of a siren tempting sailors to their undoing. One overly warm, hardened hand reached out and curled Amphitrite's fingers back around the seed, holding them closed with her own.

At the words that passed Amphitrite's lips, Alkaid's face faded to a mask of blankness. It was a poker face, if there ever was one, but the lack of forced emotional reaction should have been a sign that Alkaid had crossed a thought that she didn't want to show any reaction to. In truth, she had only been reminded, again, how different the mindset of her comrades had become.

Dangerous?

She thought of Obsidian, instantly, and the beautiful, maddened gleam in his eye as he rushed troops of Senshi. He had been such a magnificent, glorious wonder.

"Perhaps you're right," the blankness in her face seeped away and was replaced with a gentle, curious look. Her eyes found Amphitrite's and the hand that had curled around the starseed, still gleaming and calling where it was held beneath the senshi's fingers, flittered up to tuck a stray piece of seafoam hair behind Amphitrite's ear. A useless, toying gesture meant only to charm the girl into trusting her. "We have become so focused on safety above power, these days. It's such a shame."

Then she turned away from Amphitrite, backing away from her and pulling the overwhelming signature with her, so that she could stare up at the sky above her with thought. Taste? Alkaid wondered exactly how to explain that.

"Like fire," it was almost a whisper as she searched the stars with her citrus eyes, "and life." Though her head remained turned upward, face washed in the pale light of the moon above, her eyes fluttered sideways to look at the corrupt again. "Have you ever seen anyone consume them?"

Research.

Alkaid wanted to laugh out loud as such a ludicrous thought, but contained herself for the sake of the corrupt. She knew there were always those more interested in the how and why because it had the potential to eventually, maybe, lead to something greater.

Alkaid had already seen something greater. She was something greater.

The thoughts flitted through her mind and passed with barely a narrowing of her eyes upon the limitless stars over her head. It had the advantage of not having to look at the corrupt while she dissected the knowledge, but it did make her appear disinterested. Ah, well.

"I'm afraid that they don't provide me with the same surge that they would others." Her gaze did fall then, resettling upon the woman trimmed in seafoam. "It would probably be much more beneficial for you to take it back to your.. Captain Umber, was it?" Another unknown name, like so many, always coming and going. How many had time claimed? Her head tilted slightly with the question, imploring as she examined the mix of emotions bundled up within the corrupt.

"What, exactly, does he do with them?" She was curious to know how many of these starseeds his research destroyed when Metallia, and the army as a whole, could benefit from them. The girl might not have the answers, she knew, but it was a place to start.

Whoever this Captain Umber happened to be, Alkaid was ready to admit that he had, at the very least, made some sort of impact upon the ranks. Though she didn't know Amphitrite well, it was clear there was a level of respect for the man she so readily served. If he could inspire not just obedience, but loyalty, then a meeting might be necessary. There was a long road ahead of her, obstacles she didn't even understand, and she was willing to admit she needed help from good leaders.

"That would be very nice, yes, I must agree." A smile curled her lips, small and perfect. An imitation of the most polite variety. Though it wasn't a terrible idea, she was disinterested in growing numbers in the face of her own goals. She needed only for the fledgling corrupt to believe her interest and nothing more, since Amphitrite was her best connection to a the person she was truly, if somewhat suddenly, interested in. "If you happen to see Captain Umber sometime soon, would you let him know I'm interested in a little chat?"

The hesitance in Amphitrite's tone as she tiptoed around a question made Alkaid pause, drawing her full attention to the corrupt. Her pursuit of the stars was abandoned entirely in favor of studying the all too human gestures before her - a bitten lip, fidgeting fingers, tilted head. Just from the behavior, she knew where her question was headed before it had ever been finished. The polite, fake smile spread a bit wider, shifting the planes of her face so the fissures pinched together under the pressure.

"No, my path was not lined with addiction or," a hand waved dismissively as she sought out the words, "whatever it is that causes a soldier to become tainted. I never tasted a starseed until I ascended." A funny thing, considering that she had been pressuring the corrupt into it not moments before. Her gaze did flicker back up to the heavens above them then, but more focused, until she raised the same dismissive hand and pointed a finger without pause. "I gave Metallia my star."

A pause, and then, as her gaze drifted back down,

"Would you like to see?"

Awe was a reaction that Alkaid could appreciate and one she remembered very, very well.

The Ascendant turned to face Amphitrite completely, without another word spoken between, and took the few steps required to close the distance. It was becoming obvious that she never gave thought to the obscure notion of personal space. The hand that had raised to point at her star fell to Amphitrite's shoulder and curled over it, so that the two were linked. For half a breath, the chaotic aura pouring out of Alkaid grew dense and strong, collected around them like a focal point, and then they snapped out of reality - leaving behind only a smudge of residual energy.

When they reappeared, it was upon a terrain altogether different from the one they'd left behind. The hard packed earth beneath them was charred a deep black and tinted purple around the edge of planes that had been separated by a spiderweb of chasms. The outward appearance bore a remarkable resemblance to Alkaid's flesh, right down to the chaos that streamed through the fissures like smoke, undoubtedly a representation of what gave Alkaid her massive aura. In every direction it was the same dark, charred earth, though crystals (not unlike those found in the rift) had sprouted and grown from the core of the planet.

Above them, the atmosphere was thinned and reduced to little more than muddy, red smoke. A chaotic star shone through the haze like a dark sun overhead, dimmed and dying. Long bright tendrils of light lapped outward like solar flares from the center, flashing bright and fizzling out until they faded away.

In the distance one could see the only structure on the whole of the world, a castle made of crystal with spires rising so high that they scraped the wispy atmosphere overhead. Although many others mourned the state of her world, Alkaid always felt incredibly at peace. It was home, more than any other place in the universe. Where the wisps came in contact with her flesh, they curled like vines, and sank deep into the cracks along her body. Her world claimed her, no matter Metallia's influence upon it.

"Welcome to Alkaid," she said gently, letting her hand fall away from Amphitrite's shoulder.

While Amphitrite had been taking in all the little details of her world, Alkaid had simply been watching her instead. Her cool gaze followed every flicker of the corrupt senshi's eyes, the release of breath in her lungs, the overwhelming curiosity etched across her face.

It was always a wonderful thing, to see someone as taken with her world as she had always been. It was only a shame that she didn't have the ability to show them what had been before, so that they could truly understand the power Metallia wielded. Just thinking back to the sand and limestone buildings, the way bones crunched under her feet..

The all too human memory made her teeth grit around a sudden feeling not unlike nausea and she let her attention slip back to Amphitrite instead of following the path of her wandering thoughts. It had been beautiful, but it was better that it was no more.

"I wish I could take credit for it, but Metallia is the architect in all things." Then her eyes did leave the seafoam senshi, staring out at the castle beyond, as if to solidify the knowledge that the only thing that remained of Alkaid's past was the foundation. "The only question now is what will the other worlds look like, once she's gotten her hands on them? I have to admit my curiosity is killing me a little." A pleasant smile spread her lips at the admission, even if killing was a bit of an over statement. Without a word to Amphitrite, she fell into step, her path headed toward the crystal castle in the distance.

"Come with me, I'll show you the centerpiece.."