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Now she'd had a few months to explore, Cybele had a much better sense of where the streets of Destiny City led. She still got turned around in some of the darker alleyways that she'd thought might be shortcuts, but she could find her way between the major districts well enough.

She knew the park best of all. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that there were trees and twisting paths there the same as that otherworldly forest that was the first place she could really remember outside of the barracks. Perhaps it was something deeper. In any case, she kept coming back, and it served its practical purpose just as well as the winding streets. She always found people to drain there.

Although she did stop halfway thorough a draining when she felt the Eternal's aura nearby. Energy was important, but any lieutenant could gather it. Eternals were the sort of dangerous prey that she had been specifically recruited to hunt. She turned on her heel to track the aura at a full sprint, leaving a sleepy teenager gaping at her back.

After a short sprint, Cybele burst through a line of trees. "Kneel," she called out, her eyes flicking across the clearing, "Or you become-"

Her voice trailed off when she caught sight of him. She found herself staring at the distinct red of his outfit, at his hair, and then, for a longer moment, at his face. Something she couldn't explain caught in her throat.

She blinked hard and took a step forward. "Or you become my prey," she said, but her voice had lost much of its sharpness.

She'd been expecting defiance and battle. Some hesitation made sense if he was truly one of the ones she'd known well enough to get this sort of an emotional reaction, but she hadn't been expecting questions.

Was she okay? It wasn't something she'd let herself think about, even during the long hours in the barracks or the monster's cellar.

Her shoulders dropped a tiny bit. "I'm not sure," she said, and in that moment, the fight was gone from her voice.

Then the moment was over and the muscles of her face went hard again. Her lips pressed into a thin line as she followed his gaze to the patch of ground. "Metaphorically kneel. Submit. Join us," she said, and while her volume did not raise, her enunciation was much sharper. "It will still hurt and you will still lose part of yourself, so I do not think it is the popular choice, but I was told to give the option."

She held her hands slightly cupped in front of her, positioned for any bows that might be called into existence, but she did not use her magic. Not yet.

Cybele stared at him for a long moment, barely blinking. When he raised his hands, her gaze shifted to the center of his chest, where his starseed would be.

She did not strike. She did not sit down, either, but as he continued to speak, she folded her hands in front of herself. Violence was still not off the table, but the fact that he knew something about who she'd used to be made him valuable for the moment.

She'd been told to try to get information out of people.

"I am provided for," she said. "I do not have a baseline for what it means to be okay. That is all." She had thought about it, a little. She had been watching others plan for holidays with families and friends while she flipped through listings of shoddy apartments from the Negaverse barracks. She had not felt jealous of them, but she did not think she felt had felt happy, either.

She gave a small shrug. "You should worry about yourself," she added. "The Negaverse will kill you even if you try to distract them with sex jokes."

After only one more moment of hesitation, Cybele nodded and headed towards the bench. She perched on the edge of it, technically sitting, although her back remained stick-straight and her feet were pressed into the ground, ready for sudden movement.

"I am," she said, still watching him closely. "That's a good word for it."

She was still aware that she should probably take his starseed and be done with it, but it had also been months since she had really spoken to someone she wasn't contractually obligated to. She found that she kept talking.

"I got an outside job. There are a few things I'm thinking of trying once I save up a little. I get bored." she said, still careful not to give details. "Although I'm not sure. I am a tool of the Negaverse. I know I am a shell of a person. It feels strange to pretend to be anything more."

She did want to foster kittens. She didn't have to be anything to do that.

Cybele stayed stock still at the edge of the bench. Her eyes followed the other senshi as he shifted slightly, but that was all.

"They don't tell me in so many words," she said. "They bring me candy and tell me I am special and important, but they also gave me a list of people to hunt. I can pick up on some things." There was finally a hint of emotion in her voice, a bit of her old dry humor, and she raised an eyebrow.

"But I do not mind. The Negaverse takes care of their tools."

There was another moment of hesitation, but it was shorter than the others. She had settled in to sitting here and talking to him.

"I spent some time in a world where the Negaverse had less control," she said, voice flat again. "Within days, I ended up trapped inside of a cellar and I was not able to escape for weeks. I had to lick groundwater off of the walls to survive." Her lip curled at the memory, although she did not break her stare.

"So, while I do not know if I am good or even okay, I know that things could be worse. I will take the food and the bed and the clothes while I can get them. I do not see the appeal of going back to being passionate about justice and saving the innocent for nothing in return, especially as I cannot go back to my career."

Cybele looked down to where her hands were folded in front of her. "My work doesn't feel wrong," she said.

Perhaps it should. She had already taken a few starseeds. There were a lot of things she didn't know, but she was aware that hunting down people for the resources they provided was thought to be some terrible thing by much of society. She also knew that it didn't particularly bother her.

After all, the resources were important.

His question was easy enough to answer. "I used to be an actress," she said. "Fleur Willis. You can look her up. She's the one with people mourning her and her bright future all over social media."

She'd had a degree, and a resume, and a polished looking website. From everything Cybele could from her hours of combing through the internet, she'd spent much of her life in the theater.

That offer must have been what all of this was leading too. Cybele just pressed her lips together even more, her jaw tightening a bit.

"It's not just about what I want," she said, and before he could press her on that, she left her tenuous perch on the park bench and stood there at her full height, partially crossing her arms in front of her.

She looked down at him. "You ask a lot of questions, senshi," she said, something dangerous in her voice.

Although, she still did not attack him, nor did she turn away. She was back to being frozen, staring at him while she weighed her options.