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Alkaid's heels hit stone and the sudden impact reverberated through her heels. She remained, crouched, over the bloody Prince - just as they had left it - and knew that Ida would have felt his arrival almost immediately. Alkaid's entire body stiffened, suddenly, at that thought.

Ida - who was not where she was supposed to be.

The ascendant rose slowly to her full height, casting a shadow across the crumpled man at her feet. Was he even awake? The bright, amber eyes slid up from his bloodied figure to the double doors that marked the entrance, and exit, of her grand room. There was no way that Castor would be able to budge with a crystal buried so deeply into his ribs, especially not a crystal that pulsed with so much strength. A pleased, faint smile tugged at her lips and she stepped around him, her cape billowing with the motion.

"Please excuse me, I have an urgent matter to attend to."

Heard or not, she slipped past him and through the doors. She couldn't tell exactly where Ida had managed to get to by her aura alone but she could guess what might interest the Eternal enough to make her risk the little energy she maintained. When she ascended the staircase and rounded the corner into the east wing, she was not surprised to find the door to her personal chambers wide open - and a weak, collapsed Ida sprawled out with her phone in hand.

A few, pointed clicks of her heels announced her arrival before she pushed the door open completely. It was hard to say if real fury would have been a more comforting sight than the blank, cold stare that settled over her features then.

"My patience is beginning to wear thin with you, girl."

In a single, fluid motion she closed the space between them, gliding across the floor on swift, graceful feet. Her hand enclosed the one Ida had wrapped around her phone, crushing the fingers beneath her hard digits against the reinforced material.

"Who did you call?"

It wasn't an answer that Alkaid liked. She didn't understand regular phones, let alone the gadgets that had evolved from the simple flip phone she remembered in her brief days with the order. The Ascended senshi couldn't remember how they worked, she didn't know what the small device was or wasn't capable of. Alkaid disliked the answer because there was no way for her to know if Ida was telling the truth or not.

"But you tried to, it seems?"

The worlds fell slow and measured from her lips as she leaned down over the quivering, emaciated woman. The hand not crushing her fingers into the sharp plastic of her phone was raised and placed delicately beneath the smooth line of her chin - lightly, at first, and then a suddenly sharp as her thin fingers dug into the bone and forced her head upward. The eyes that stared down at her face were wide and measuring, judgement contained in a single gaze. There was a decision being made behind those amber windows and if the way her mouth pursed was any indication, it wasn't going to be favorable.

Alkaid blew out a long, annoyed sigh and released her grip on Ida's chin. The hard tip of her finger drew a line up the plane of her cheek, brushed gently over her temple, and then tucked a stray hair (one of many, by now) softly behind her ear. It was oddly delicate and as the shattered woman leaned closer, her bright eyes dropped to stare at Ida's lips.

"I don't think you're telling me the truth, little flower."

The gentle hand was suddenly latched around her braid and pulling, so that her head had no choice but to yank backward with the motion. Her head dipped lower, so that her voice didn't have to raise much above a whisper.

"But I hope you reached someone, and I hope it was worth it."

The final words bit off in a growl as she stood and, with the grip on her braid, brought Ida partially off of the floor. There wasn't a pause as she turned and began a pointed march toward the door, dragging the Eternal behind her by the frayed braid.

And yet, it became clear almost immediately that Ida's room was not going to be their destination. Instead of walking across the threshold between the east and west wing of the crystal construct, Alkaid turned toward the descending staircase and paused at the crest. The hand that held Ida by the grip on her braid pulled upward, dragging the eternal off of the ground slowly.

"You should know by now, Ida, that nothing you say is going to spare you." The heated anger in her face had dimmed to a strained, but contained, smolder. The eerie calm had been regained and as she looked down into Ida's dark eyes, it was with all the hatred she could muster for the white moon kingdom. They were no less manipulative than the Negaverse and, for all that they wore their sickening, pure white uniforms, color alone could not absolve anyone of sin.

"For someone whose worth has so obviously waned, you still don't fear the consequences of your behavior. Your courage will not be rewarded here."

Without another word, she shifted her weight and threw it into the swing of her arm. As Ida's body slid up and off of the floor with the force of her inhuman strength, she released her grip on the braid, sending the eternal flying out and down the stairwell. Alkaid's eyes followed the wasted form as it descended in a crash, unblinking, from her perch atop the threshold. Once the ragdoll form had settled, her heeled feet began a slow, measured descent down each step with the hem of her translucent cape trailing behind her.

"This is the last time you will disobey me."

The smear of blood across the opaque surface below Ida's prone form was not missed, though she heard that hiss of air through ragged lungs and knew that, although injured, Ida had not died from the fall.

"Maybe I'll give him your starseed as a welcoming gift, hm? Just so he knows I'm serious." It hadn't occurred to her that Ida hadn't felt the explosion of nauseating, pure energy that still pulsed brightly from within her throne room. As she finished speaking, she stepped from the last step of the staircase and stopped with the toes of her heels next to Ida's face. She loomed, for a moment, as Ida tried to recover from the shock where she had landed, sprawled at the foot of the stairs. It was a pathetic sight, if Alkaid were truly being honest.

"I've got a wealth of energy to draw on now and what's left of you, by comparison, is.. well," she offered an empty smile as she stooped and traced a finger along the hollow of Ida's throat. That smile was still in place when the fingers latched onto her neck instead, clamping down and crushing the connection to the little bit of air she could suck in.

"By comparison," she repeated, "you are nothing."

It wasn't enough.

Alkaid shook her head almost imperceptibly, if it weren't for the way her dreads swayed around her - and that was her first thought. She tried to drown out those last cries, the fruitless promises of a desperate girl. It was very human of her - transcendence did not, after all, alter them from their original nature much at all. That was unfortunate.

She had no use for another one like her when she had Castor - he was a power source beyond reason. Although, as she felt Ida struggling beneath her to catch her breath, she wondered how easy it would be to take his power against his will - at least right away. Ida was stubborn enough, if her pathetic wiggling wasn't enough proof, and Castor's will was..

All of a sudden, her hand released it's grip around the girl's throat and, instead, buried into the fabric of her collar. Glossy eyes seemed to refocus on the eternal's face as her mind came around completely to her sudden fear. Maybe a fresh sacrifice until she had Castor weak enough to submit to her will - though she had no intention of letting Ida ever walk away from her alive. She felt her mind racing a mile a minute down each path of what-ifs and maybes. She couldn't find the words to speak and so she didn't - her hand hauled Ida up by her collar, disregarding any coughing or sputtering or protest.

In seconds they had passed through the great double doors to her throne room, where the bloodied, slumped form of the Prince of Hail sat like a gargoyle. She drug Ida in close enough that she knew he could see her with little effort, then let her fall back to the cold, hard floor of crystal beneath her.

She stepped past Ida a few steps, her heels loud and echoing around them, and stooped just a bit toward him as she spoke: "I need your advice, dear Prince. Do wake up now."

Suddenly the choke hold around her throat released and with it, sweet air rushed into her lungs with a gasp that dissolved into coughing as pain bled out from the bruises forming on her neck. Stars were still going off in her vision when she was hauled up wards again, this time thankfully by her fuku and not by a part of her body that would cause her more pain. Her wrist still throbbed like knives stabbed through it, and it echoed in the ache in one of her ankles, to a lesser degree. The knock to the head hurt, but by now, there was nothing that didn't hurt any more.

But she couldn't let it overwhelm her. She needed to keep her mind focused, because it was going to be the only way to get out of this. Alkaid had released her, but why and for how long?

The room moved around her as Ida was dragged and it wasn't until they passed through a door way that she finally got a look at the owner of the powered aura she could feel. Only a glimpse before she was released and gravity gleefully took hold, sending her crashing to the floor in a broken heap. It was almost a familiar motion now, a familiar pain. Alkaid was never gentle... not unless it was a warning.

The small, almost delicate heels snapped against the stone floor and Ida heard the Ascended speak, the young woman shifting with a painful noise to get a look at what was going on and get her weight off her damaged wrist.

Castor... she recognized him from that time in the parking lot. The time he'd helped her dust a giant youma. He was a far cry from that pristine white uniform now... rather than a cocky young man, he looked like a war torn angel, weeping blood and run through with crystal. She wasn't much better though... months trapped on Alkaid being repeatedly drained the moment she had any significant amount of energy, the bare minim of food and water and lack of anything even remotely cheerful, had worn her down to bones and ashen skin, her hair a tangle of what used to be a neat braid. And now there was the blood and mottling of bruises, fresh mixing with old and half-healed.

How? How had Alkaid managed to capture him? Her own capture had been simple enough, but someone with Castor's power? Alkaid was even more dangerous than she had ever thought... and if she couldn't convince her she was worth more alive than dead once more...

Castor would be taking over her room.

Spite was Castor's bread and butter, and he purposely moved his wing abruptly, wincing as the pain lanced up his spine and down his lower back. He knew it was true, he'd just make things worse, but at this point, he doubted how worse things could get. Oh right, Ida.

The name sent a ring of clarity to his mind. He wasn't alone, and from the fact the senshi had survive 3 months was both a testament to her tenacity, and to Alkaid's skills at keeping a captive alive.

It did not bode well for him, and as Alkaid went on to describe the situation, it wasn't good for Ida either. He was her replacement. Why keep a senshi you couldn't keep alive once their usefulness was at it's end. By her condition, Ida was likely taking more resources than she provided. Ida was old news, Castor was fresh meat ready for slaughter.
Leaning back to try and keep his body facing the ascendant general and her captive eternal, Castor wondered why she had kept Ida alive. For his sake? Alkaid was a puppet of metallia, and the prince didn't see a leader wasting an opportunity to gloat or show their dominion and power over others. Fear-

Blue eyes drifted to Ida and Castor vaguely could understand why Ida had been brought to him. She was his warning of his fate. He was her fear and embedding the reality of how helpless the eternal was.
Fear was to control them. Hopelessness to rob them of will. Ida- Ida from what he remembered had been disgusted at his display of brutality. Desperation or no, a transcendent was devoted to their planet, and by extent, those that would have been their people. Ida was buying time. She was trying to escape.

And Castor couldn't help the smile that came to his lips at the thoughts of Ida's determination to survive. Three months in hell. Three months to give in to despair and hopelessness. To give up the will to survive at let the darkness consume her and her life. Still, she had persevered, she had survived.

Alkaid sat in her throne and he felt himself drawn to her. Twisted as it was, even corrupted beyond any other, he could see glimpses of something human in her. A puppet did not cross their legs and lean. She sat for comfort, she sat like a human, not a mindless machine. Licking his lips, he looked at Ida, broken and seeing her fear, her state and her weakness-

He smiled still. Ida would fight to survive. He would bet on it.

"I think." His voice cracked and broke, the feeling of swallowing glass raking his mind.
"I think it would fail." He had to give her the change, small and fleeting as it was.
"She'd return, and her allies and friends would come en masse. They'd protect her. You can't barter for her. She'd not let them, and they'd not trust you. She's useless here."

He coughed harshly, spittle and small flecks of blood leaving his mouth. Using his crystal had robbed him and hurt him. The crystal in him was doing it's own damage, but he'd already damaged himself.
"The only thing she's good for is making them fear."

His head turned painfully to the one who would decide in part their fate. He wanted to fight, but it would likely kill him. Energy or no, he'd hasten his own death and likely Ida's if he tried. So he'd resist. He'd scorn and be defiant for them both.
"Though, I didn't think your mistress was keen on keeping pets."

It should have felt more daunting to stare down two prominent members of the White Moon Kingdom, even wasted as they were on the misfortune of their circumstance. She was judge and jury, warden and executioner, she held all the power and they were two simple hostages bartering for their necks. Without the strength of their numbers they were nothing but groveling humans.

The long, sharp nails of Alkaid's splayed hand drummed against the crystal arm of her chair and her eyes followed the mouths of her captives as they each plead their case. Was it really so simple as Castor tossing Ida to the wolves - did he truly think to buy himself more time if Alkaid simply consumed the starseed? Or was this a game he was playing? She never could quite tell with him, he had been making power plays before she even knew what real strength was. Others might have seen a headstrong fool but the bright eyes that measured him in that moment watched him as if he were simply another wolf in sheep's clothing. Castor was dangerous, even crippled and bleeding out slowly.

She was still staring at his ocean-hued eyes when Ida's voice chimed in, needy and begging, and the citrus gaze slid sidelong to look at the emaciated form of the eternal. Broken and beaten and still, somehow, impossibly, resistant to her own death. Was it Ida's nature that kept her from giving up, or the link transcendants held with their planet? Three months and she had still yet to decide what truly drove her - perhaps a second toy would be a good study after all.

The drumming of her nail tips ceased and she raised a hand calmly in the air, palm out, to signal their words to a close.

"She isn't very keen on keeping pets, this is all very temporary." The hand she had raised dropped back to the chair arm idly and her eyes slid up to stare at the open ceiling over head, where the great crystal columns rose to frame an open skylight. At this time of day (or night, it was hard to say) she could see her star above, almost perfectly center, raging with the angry, dark light of chaos. There was no one there to guide her, but she could feel the power of Metallia's dark energy in her veins, ever encouraging despite it's wordless commands. "That being said, I don't think I need to explain the rules to either of you - submit or die. It's really that simple."

The hand that was supporting her chin curled to a fist beneath the point of her pale jawline and her eyes dropped back to stare at her flower senshi. All bruised petals and broken stems.

"You know that I can't trust you, my little lost sheep. You've given me no reason to think that the idea of freedom will tame you." The hand under her chin dropped so that both of the cracked, frail palms met in the cushion of her lap. In that moment she seemed almost rational, explaining herself with logical reason instead of harsh hands and icy threats. The weight in her eyes was no less dangerous, but she hadn't moved to follow up her threat yet.

"However, a decision like this isn't mine to make alone. If you can offer what you say, it's my duty to let my fellow Generals know."