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A bleary-eyed Sylvite wasn't a super common sight, but she hadn't slept. She'd stayed with Cybele from the time she'd teleported her off the soccer field up until the last little bit of paperwork had gone through and she'd been able to come here. She didn't trust taking shifts. This was her project, her victory, her prize. She didn't want the corruption slipping through her fingers because someone else decided to be careless. Energy drinks, general sugar, and leftover adrenaline had worked great for the first few hours, but that felt like forever ago now, and even though she'd perked up a little hearing that it was time, she was still almost dragging her feet through the castle.

Also, she was carrying a senshi who was a good half a foot taller than her. That might have had something to do with the fact that she wasn't quite bouncy.

Cybele was sleeping, although not heavily. Sylvite had been keeping her drained. Even though she seemed more resigned every time she woke up, again, Sylvite was not taking any risks. On top of everything else, she had a nasty black eye from before the battle had turned, and that wasn't really something she wanted to do again.

Eventually, she came to a familiar office door, and she did her best to stand tall. Since her hands were full,, she shifted to knock on the doorframe with the heel of her shoe.

The door opened, and there he was. Just the General-King's aura was enough to make Sylvite feel tiny. She gave a quick respectful nod, but then she looked up, and despite everything, she was smiling.

This was the moment she'd been waiting for for weeks.

Sylvite held out the senshi like a present, and she seemed to actually steady a lot more after Cybele was taken and she only had her own weight to move around. It was even better when she made her way over to a chair and sat down. She still did her best to sit up super straight, taking as much advantage of the energy that was coming from this new piece of excitement. She was not about to fall asleep. Not here.

Her nose did wrinkle a little bit when she saw how surprised Axinite looked, though. "I thought I got all the paperwork in to bring her down here," she mumbled. Maybe that stuff didn't get this far up the chain of command, though. Maybe she'd missed something after all. That happened a lot.

Maybe he just wanted it in her own words.

"Cybele," she said, gesturing at the sleeping senshi. "Eternal senshi. High level threat in the database. She's tough, probably a killer based on the reports I've seen, and it sounds like she's been giving agents trouble for a long time. I've heard her normal magic is some kind of strengthening thing, and I know, like, personally that her Eternal magic is a nasty attack."

She gave the General-King a sober look through half-swollen eyes, although that wound was fresher. Cybele hadn't even needed her magic for that.

"She's also got some organizer or, like, leadership thing going on? I heard that she was running a training thing, and so I invited a bunch of people to ambush it, and it worked!"

A few rough punches aside, it had all gone pretty much as good as it possibly could have. "I think some other people got captured, too," said Sylvite. "but she was my main target. I thought maybe we could take their leader, and then all of that fight and fancy magic could be, y'know." She gave a sly smirk. "Repurposed. For us."

Her voice was pretty steady, but she was gripping the sides of the chair so hard her knuckles turned white just to make sure she could stay sitting straight.

After all of the jostling, Cybele stirred in her chair. She could hear voices, although they sounded as if they were far away, perhaps with a wall or two in between her and them. Something told her that this was important, urgent, even. Maybe if she could open her eyes, she would know why, but her eyelids were heavy. She didn't have the energy to lift them.

Sylvite, on the other hand, was a little more alert, especially when the baked goods showed up. She'd never been the type to say no to sugar and she wasn't about to start now, when she could probably use a boost. She made quick work of a cookie, but other than a quick, blissful smile to show her appreciation, she did her best to stay focused on the task at hand.

Her cheeks went a little bit pink at the compliment, even as she grinned. "Thanks," she said. "The ambush went really well, yeah," there was a slight pause, "But the fighting part, that was mostly other people. I had a lot of help." As much as she wanted to savor her fifteen minutes of glory, her friends and allies deserved their credit, too.

"It's been cool, though, to see how having the right information can lead to something as awesome as this, how it can lead to, like, victory." She'd needed help, yeah, but without knowing about the event, or about Cybele, there was no way they would be in this room talking about a job well done right now. "It really makes all those reports and interviews feel worth it."

Some of the usual sparkle came back into Sylvite's eyes. She was absolutely going to crash again in about ten minutes and she knew it, but the snack had been just what she needed and the shower of praise wasn't hurting, either.

"I'll see what I can do about bribing people to turn in their reports," she said with a grin.

Then she turned, glancing from the senshi to Axinite, her hands coming together at her chest. "I've never seen a corruption before," she said, "But I'll help! What do I do?"

At the word corrupt, Cybele's lip twitched. It was coming back to her in bits and pieces. She was remembering what had happened. She had an idea of where she might be. Her stomach twisted around itself with the inevitability of what was happening.

Not like this.

Not ever, if there was any other option, but if there was no escape, not even to the Cauldron? She would fight to the end. She would make her defiance known.

With every ounce of strength in her body, she opened her eyes.

Sylvite handled starseeds pretty often, and she was always gentle. They were bargaining chips to her, not fuel or trophies or whatever it was that they were to other people. They didn't do her any good broken.

She was still even more careful as she reached into Cybele's chest under Axinite's watchful gaze and wrapped her fingers around the little gem there. It had been way too much work to get the senshi back here alive for it all to shatter into starseed dust right now.

The feeling of fingers wrapped around her soul woke Cybele up more than anything else so far. It was something she'd only experienced once before, on what had been one of the worst nights of her life up until this point.

She did not think she was going to get off so easily this time.

Her tongue still felt like a stone in her mouth, but she could see the way the pink-haired captain was looking at her like a prize, and with whatever strength was left in that soul, she hissed, "No."

Sylvite got the feeling it was only going to be a matter of seconds before Cybele started throwing punches or something. She glanced over her shoulder. "Okay," she said. "I think we should do it now."

Sylvite nodded, her brows knitting together in focus. "Yeah, okay," she said, and then she stopped talking. The feeling of the energy running through her arms was weird and intense, but it didn't hurt like it would've if she was the one on the receiving end. When it got to her hand and she felt like she it was time to push it into Cybele's starseed, she did.

It hurt. It hurt terribly, but Cybele was no stranger to pain. She screamed, but it was rage. It was sorrow and mourning, all in one. It was one final protest against the Negaverse.

She would make their ears bleed if she could.

She did not relax. She fought with every muscle in her body and every thought in her mind against the Chaos that was burning its way into her soul. The black crept across her uniform anyway.

At least the pain was forgotten with the rest of it.

When it was over, Cybele's eyes went glassy for a moment and then seemed to refocus. Sylvite took her hand out of her chest and stood there grinning, even as she rubbed her arm, which felt like it had a bad case of static.

Cybele was still visibly exhausted, but the ordeal seemed to have shaken her awake. She glanced between the two people she'd found herself in a room with, no longer with anger, simply a vague curiosity. "Hello?"

Everything else might have been a blur, but when the drink was placed in front of her, Cybele realized that her throat felt like sandpaper. It took both hands to keep the can steady and several seconds to pull the tab, but she managed and took several long sips.

Sylvite nibbled another cookie, although her attention was still on Cybele. "Hi. Welcome," she said. She was definitely staring. It was weird to see her all calm now after how hard she'd been fighting all night, and even in the last couple of minutes. It was cool in a good way, obviously, since it meant everything had worked, but still weird. It still didn't quite feel real that everything was over.

"No caffeine for me," said Sylvite. "I think it's about time for me to sleep." She straightened all at once, suddenly remembering who she was with, and then she glanced over her shoulders to the General-King. "I mean, if that's okay. Sir."

Cybele's eyelids fluttered. Her body was heavy, her fingers shaking against the aluminum. "I think I should rest as well," she said. She still managed a quick look around, taking in the polished desk before her as well as the energy of the room. "If that's all right, of course. Am I needed for something?"

She looked into both of their faces, as if they should mean something to her, but nothing came to mind. "I admit I'm not quite sure what's going on." Despite her best efforts, her eyes drifted shut again.

Cybele kept her eyes on Axinite, even as she struggled to sit up straight. The hand that wasn't clutching her energy drink stayed folded neatly in her lap. She nodded at his request.

"Of course," she said. "I'll be back tomorrow."

Perhaps by then she would be more curious about what was going on. Now that the jolt of the corruption was wearing off, she found her gaze going out of focus, even though her eyes were on the General King's face. Everything felt fuzzy and far away.

Sylvite managed to get out of her own seat and put her hand on Cybele's shoulder. "It's okay," she said. "I think I'm gonna grab a nap at the barracks, too." Teleporting here with Cybele had been bad enough. She didn't think she could get home if she tried.

Lazily, she looped her arm around Cybele's neck. "Come on. I'll show you where the beds are."

It took some finagling, and a lot of Sylvite propping up Cybele's weight, but the two girls made their way out of the office. When they got to the doorframe, Sylvite looked back. "Thank you, uh, Sir," she said.