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"General Cinnabar."

The voice was amused as it chimed out of the darkness, breaking through whatever thoughts had distracted the half-youma enough to miss the massive energy signature lurking close by. As the last syllable died on the air, Alkaid stepped out of the side alley she had hopped down into, showering her broken facade in the stark light of the street lamp overhead.

She didn't seem particularly threatening, but the look on her face was as close to smug as the broken doll ever got. She definitely knew something that no one else did and, if her conclusions were correct, it was something that the woman before didn't really want anyone to know either. Knowledge was power and the Ascended General certainly loved to have the upper hand.

"Spending a little time with the older Vaiphei, are we? I suppose I can't blame you." Her eyes drifted down the street, in the direction that Cinnabar had just come and the smirk on her lips drew into a wide, eerie smile. "He's got a certain charm about him, when he tries."

"My reputation precedes me again, it seems." At Cinnabar's correct assumption, she dipped her head politely, a belated greeting of sorts. Though it was mostly for show as she didn't particularly care if Cinnabar thought her polite, especially when she knew the conversation wasn't going to linger on trivial introductions for very long.

She was surprised to see how quickly her words hit home with the half-youma, watching as her smile faded the moment Kam was brought up. She didn't know enough about youma or their nature to make a conclusive judgement, but the woman before her did seem to show a certain.. feral inclination before she schooled it. Interesting and noted.

"Oh, not in the sense that you think. Kamboja is my charge and, dedicated as I am to his well being as a civilian, I can't help but notice how frequent your visits are becoming." The threat in her words was thin, but there, emphasized by her choice in using the term civilian. Kam was not to be brought into the Negaverse by herself, or anyone else, and that included the infatuated General that only came by to see him at odd hours of the night. The smile on her lips faded to little more than a polite curve of the corners and her eyes narrowed, challenging whatever stake Cinnabar thought she held here.

Though it was of very little interest to herself, Alkaid was not an idiot. She knew that most of her comrades sought out a certain degree of pleasure where they could find it and, if Cinnabar's precise timing every night was any indication, she had very little time to find it at all. That was all well and good - the amazonian General was not the only woman she often watched slipping in and out of the condo. What did concern her was the growing attachment - tonight was off schedule. It was a red flag. Even if Kam didn't appreciate Alkaid's scare tactics and rather hands on approach, it was necessary to put distance between him and the things he was better off not knowing. She couldn't risk Cinnabar ruining that peaceful ignorance if her promise was to be maintained.

A long, irritable sigh passed her lips as the half-youma reared to life - in a way that youma were wont to do. They always seemed so feral, even the ones dampened by the conscience of a human, driven by emotions in ways that Alkaid herself could never dream of.

"I'm going to be quite frank with you, Cinnabar. I don't care what you do with him inside those walls at odd hours of the night, but I'm here to tell you that when the times comes that you realize there's no place for such trivial nonsense in this war, he is to be left as. he. is." Her own bright eyes narrowed in response to the half-youma's words - Senshi born or not, in Metallia's eyes, she was as much a General as Cinnabar herself and she, for one, had given everything for that right. She was not going to back down to a little show of attitude from someone she considered to be new to the cosmic shifts she had endured for so long.

"It's not my will, I can assure you, because his bull headed attitude would serve me much better if it could be controlled by the authority of rank." The temper that had flared in her momentarily died down, schooled back to a careful neutrality. For all that she lacked certain emotions in the true sense, anger was the easiest to recall. "Don't respect my authority, if you really want to be so stubborn, but understand that I operate under the will of his next of kin. It's not your right to interfere with his brother's wishes, especially since I've been holding the promise long before you ever waltzed your way into the picture."

Though the words had ended with a snap, her narrowed eyes had softened and she was now staring at Cinnabar with a thoughtful eye. She was proud and strong, even if she was far too tempted by sins of the flesh, but Alkaid had more on her mind than babysitting a giant lug.

Alkaid's eyebrows lifted slightly at the way Cinnabar latched onto the news of Kam's brother, and instantly, she realized that there was enough between the pair of them that he had shared that part of himself with her. That was troubling, considering how few women even managed a second tumble with the dreadhead.

And if what she was starting to suspect was true, if he was who she was beginning to think, he was getting himself into a world of trouble just by continuing this attachment to someone he didn't even know, truthfully. She hoped Cinnabar remembered her words, if it came to it.

"So he's talking? Well, it is about that time of year, isn't it?" She sighed softly and crossed her arms over her torso, just beneath the wrap of her top, considering for a moment how much Cinnabar really deserved to know. She didn't think the woman would back down or take a flippant answer, not with how intense she seemed, but she had to hope that she was enough of a soldier not to share what Alkaid was about to tell her with Kamboja himself. It wouldn't end well.

"Born Khetal Vaiphei, known among our kind as Khaldun Cilentani, Charonite's ward, the General Hematite." She spoke with finality, like she was reciting the name of a soldier and nothing more, but the arms she had just crossed over her torso dropped and though her face showed no outward sign of discomfort, the constant movement of her hands was as close to fidgeting as the Ascendant General ever got. "He's in stasis."

The orange eyes drifted over Cinnabar's body language, noting the effect the words had upon her. Although it was hard to imagine the creature in front of her was ever satiated, the bristling seemed quieted for now.

"He suffered an injury too grave for us to heal by any means available to us right now. He's been crystallized until we can save him, if we ever can." A deep, unnecessary sigh passed her lips at the finality of her own words. There was never a reason to discuss Hematite with anyone because it had never mattered to others - until now, until the half-youma General go too close to all the secrets she had been pushing Kam away from. It was true that the city kept collapsing more upon itself, tangling webs that had once been so easy to keep separate.

"I've spent a long time punishing Kam's curiosity so that he'd stop looking in places that might get him killed. His misery keeps him safe, Cinnabar."

It wasn't an accusation, not exactly, but the words carried all the implications - I know you're affecting him, I know you care. She didn't care if Kam was broken as long as it kept him away from the Negaverse, like she'd promised so long ago she would ensure. It was obvious, in fact, that she would keep his spirit broken so long as it did help her achieve that.

A knowing smile spread across her lips at Cinnabar's recommendation. In all the years that she had been playing this game of cat and mouse with Kam, she had come to know him well - not in a way that a lover did, not like Cinnabar - in a way that only an enemy could. She had seen the darkness in his eyes, the fire, the intensity that was born of a soul with nothing else to drive him but his passion.

"Do you think that man would simply accept a death, Cinnabar? If I gave him a body to bury, do you think he would simply grieve and move on?" The smile faltered and her face resigned itself to a solemn mask. "He spent years trailing after Hematite while he was alive, while we carried out missions across the country, arriving just too late to catch him, always a bit closer to the truth. Years that he didn't sleep in his own bed, touch a girl, or even bathe properly, if I had to guess."

Cinnabar didn't have to agree with Alkaid's methods, but they were in place for a reason. He was already too close to the truth - he had needed to be beaten back and that was what she had done.

"He has always assumed that we had him and if he thinks that Khal died in our possession, or under the influence of our power, do you honestly believe that he would just roll over and give up? The idea that Khal is still alive, the possibility that he even could be, that I might have him strung out somewhere as a pet - that's the only reason he's tamed. His brother's ensured safety is the only reason he backed down." Even if safety was a generous term, since she was sure that Kamboja imagined the worst fates he possibly could. Even if he had the greatest imagination, there was no way he'd ever come to the real conclusion - that he was suspended in crystal stasis on a blasted planet hundreds and thousands of lightyears away.

"I don't know what you see in him as far as," she paused, waving a hand at Cinnabar's body, "this goes, but I know him well enough to know that I would not make a stronger enemy of him. I would not drive him to seek power from those that stand against us. Taming him with his own sorrow is my only option and I don't really care what that does to him so long as my promise is kept." A small shrug rolled her shoulders to emphasize her disconnect with the human emotion. She would do whatever it took, so long as he didn't die, or get himself drafted into the Negaverse.

"The only other option is to try and save Hematite, so that Khaldun might return to the city."

The amused comment earned little more than a raise of the brow from the Ascendant. Sex was not something she ever thought about - perhaps once, or twice, as a human but definitely not as a creature that was no longer had flesh to be concerned with. She understood it as a driving mechanism in the biologically inclined but much past a tool to use against those weakened by such sins, it was of little import.

"I said it was an injury too grave to heal by any means available to us now. That doesn't mean that we might not have the means to do so at some point in the future, should we develop the tools to do it." She hadn't missed the snapping, or the hiss, and not for the first time she felt herself growing tired of those ruled so thoroughly by their tempers and emotions. Though others often mourned the loss of her humanity, there was a clarity that came from making decisions without it.

"For us to evolve, we need Metallia's strength, and that strength comes from energy, as I'm sure you know. Starseeds and energy orbs are fine and dandy, but they're very little when compared to stars and asteroids and planets." One broken hand raised to cover the gaping hole of her own starseed, tracing the fine edge of the ragged plates. Then it dropped away and for the first time, she abandoned her inclination to beat around the bush with the hot-headed half youma.

"I need help, General, so that I can ascend other corrupts - so we can harness the power of these astronomical objects that are drifting just out of our reach. If every corrupt in our employ ascended, the energy we'd gain from that would be enough to do things we can't even begin to imagine. I have a project that, as much as it pains me to say, I can't finish on my own."