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Themisto found himself alone that night, sipping on a bottle of water he'd bought just before powering up. He'd been inspired by Denebola and Cetus to keep up his traiining and while they couldn't always join him, the newbie senshi tried to make a habit of going out to practice something.

He sat on the rooftop of a restaurant that was closed for the evening, hanging his legs over the side. Themisto was somewhat sweaty, wiping the moisture from his brow.

Themisto was actually quite surprised when another cat approached him. Last time this happened, it was Katya, a corrupted cat by Denebola's estimation. Katya gave him a great deal of information, sure, but still she harbored the wish to have him corrupt and switch sides. That meant losing all of his memories, forgetting people like Kari and Denebola. He just couldn't do that, regardless of his fears.

But this cat? Themisto had learned how to identify them by signature, just like a senshi or an agent. This one, thankfully, was on his side.

He smiled as the cat approached, offering her some water. "Just finished running around, actually." he said, pulling his shirt away from his sticky body to fan himself a bit. "This weather's real nice for training, you know? Anyway..." The senshi would have held out his hand to shake her paw if that were remotely appropriate. "I'm Themisto. What's your name, Miss Kitty?"

Themisto dipped his head to the cat and gave her a smile. "It's nice to meet you, Ember." He took a sip of his drink then, contemplating his panoramic view of Destiny City from this perch they shared. When she butted his hand, it seemed an automatic reaction to give Ember some good scratches. "It's weird." he pondered aloud, "I mean, I know you guys are cats, but you think and talk like people. Sometimes it's easy to forget and treat you like another person. Uh... not that you aren't but..."

Themisto sighed, defeated. "You know what I mean?"

Truthfully, hanging out with Ember, as coincidental as it was, was preferred to Katya. Ember wasn't feeding him terrifying visions of losing his friends and family, of being inducted into the military. Embed was soft and warm and vibrating, just like a cat should be. She wasn't trying to lead him astray, no pun intended.

"Anyway, I don't get to talk to cats very often. Are there not a whole lot of you guys? I mean, one of them awakened me and then... that was it. After that, I was kinda on my own." Not that his running away for two years had anything to do with it, no sir. "Do cats typically hang out wherever they want, or do you guys have a place to stay? I'm kinda... ignorant about the whole thing..."

"Boy, can you imagine?" asked the senshi, still absent-mindedly petting the magical, talking cat. "If dogs could talk, man, the whole city would be an awful lot louder. Cats are a good choice." Themisto was an animal lover and did really enjoy dogs, but the thought of having a magical talking dog made him realize stealth would be out of the question. YouTube already answered the question of what if dogs could talk?

The war would sound utterly ridiculous.

He chuckled to himself, looking over at Ember who had flipped over just like a house cat. "So cats aren't really organized either? It's just the Negaverse? How weird is that... why is that, Ember? You cats seem to know an awful lot, but there aren't that many of you. Is that why you don't tend to hang out with senshi on a regular basis?"

Ember admitting that she'd never awakened a senshi gave Themisto a sense of camaraderie and relief. "I'm supposed to defeat the Negaverse, or something but... nope, hasn't happened here either."

Themisto sighed at Ember's dialogue about defeating the Negaverse, sharing... Sharing? Themisto had nothing to share - he was a blank slate of sorts, stumbling around in the dark trying to suss out the edges of his powers, let alone his past. Something about that made the senshi's brows touch.

"Ember, when you say roots, do you mean like... our moons and stars and stuff?" His mentor-of-sorts Denebola had mentioned such things, that her own special place was a star in the Leo constellation. That said star once held a civilization that rode on giant dragonflies. Themisto knew nothing of his own spot in space. "Do cats have their own stars and stuff too?"

Seemed appropriate, being that they were magical, talking cats who could give people superpowers. Maybe they were from space as much as senshi were?

"Well, I haven't defeated any of the agents, either. One of their cats tried to, you know..." Themisto made a gesture and squinted, as if searching the air for a phrase to pluck from it. "...run a little PR with me, and try to make the military look like the best career choice for someone like me."

Themisto gave a soft sound of understanding before returning to give Ember the scritches she so deserved. She was soft and warm and fuzzy, just like a cat ought to be, talking or no. He rather enjoyed her company. "Yeah, that's what I figured, but at least Katya told me how the whole corruption thing works." He would have made air quotes but Ember had ownership of his right hand at the moment. "And Denebola told me that you lose your memories if you go over to the other side. That's pretty terrifying."

And now here was a small, soft cat, filling in the missing pieces of the puzzle. Their homeworld, source of their past, was extremely important. It just validated everything Denebola was saying earlier. "So, someone else was Sailor Themisto too? Denebola mentioned we were reincarnated and something about a cauldron. To be honest, it was a lot to take in..."

Themisto looked up into the sky, wondering what the Themisto-of-the-past was like, and if he or she enjoyed their station. Back then, maybe the internet wasn't even a thing? He had no frame of reference as to when the past was. "She said she would bring me to her star, part of the Leo constellation, I think? Anyway, she said she would teach me how to travel to whatever Themisto is. I haven't tried it yet. No space suit, you know?"

The senshi chuckled, looking over at the feline who seemed perfectly happy to have on-demand pets.

Where Denebola was perhaps softer about corruption, more sympathetic to the reasoning someone might have, Ember was wholly against the whole thing. Somehow, even though their viewpoints differed slightly, Themisto found it comforting. Despite the fact that he felt utterly lost, he wasn't alone. Embed had found him, he'd stumbled upon Denebola purely by circumstance, and Cetus was helping to train him in martial arts. Maybe things weren't too bad.

He still lusted after a bazooka or eye-lasers though. He'd feel an awful lot safer if he received lasers when he powered up at night.

Themisto looked over at the cat and gently scratched behind her ears, following her gaze up to the heavens. "What do you think Themisto is, Ember? Is it a star? Or a comet or something? I've been kind of afraid to look it up. Heh, pretty silly, huh?" It's not like a Wikipedia page would jump out of his computer and punch him in the face. Still, it seemed like every step he took towards learning more about both himself and the war, the more steps he couldn't take back. "Denebola seems to really like space travel so maybe it isn't so bad after all."

Maybe there was something familiar up there, but a thought struck him then and he frowned. "Waitaminute, if there's like, stuff up there then why don't our satellites find it? You'd think it'd be all over the news."

Themisto dropped into his faux news anchor voice. This is Ace Buttface reporting live from NASA. Scientists have recently discovered ancient civilizations in the asteroid belt. Whole epic f***-tons of buildings and hi-tech race cars. Who knew??

He coughed then, patting Ember on the head. "Sorry, I shouldn't cuss in front of ladies."

The little black cat was right. Whatever "Themisto" was as a celestial body, it was his. He was named for it, drew power from it... somehow. Denebola seemed like a font of knowledge, as did Ember. Really, maybe staying on this side of the war wasn't too bad, all things considered. After all, if Katya was telling the truth, things may only appear better on the Negaverse side due to excellent public relations work. Underneath the organized, militaristic exterior could lurk a hideous underbelly.

"Maybe you're right - it's better that people like NASA can't see all the old stuff on the moons and comets 'n things. Can you imagine how many people would end up on talk shows and how the news would never let go of it? There'd be news crews crawling around here all the time... what a nightmare."

Civilians would be injured trying to get exclusive photos of powered individuals, newspaper reporters would be oozing out of the woodwork, social media would be ablaze with speculation. Themisto shook his head. The kitty was right - the fewer people who knew about senshi, the better.

Her encouragement at a possible career made Themisto chuckle. "Nah, I don't think I'd be too good at that. Truthfully, I dunno what I want to do with my life. It's kinda tough, trying to balance it all. It's crazy..."

With a soft sigh, he turned to the cat. "Do you have a place to go, Ember? I mean, do you guys get picked up by the pound or anything? You got a warm place to sleep at night?"