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Despite having lived in Destiny City for close on a decade, having a white Christmas was something that was still something of a novelty for Arian because it hadn't snowed anything near as much as this back in the UK.

Well at least not where he'd lived–

Although mayhaps that was just as well given it seemed that even a little bit of snow had always been enough to cause absolute chaos back in the UK - at least that was the way how he remembered it.

Christmas itself had ended up being a relatively quiet one, somewhat unusually given that Christmases at his Uncle and Aunt's tended to be something of a more boisterous affair.

Not that Arian was complaining mind you, because whilst the quiet had been different, it hadn't made it any less nice.

Tonight, however, he was back in the city and having powered up was now walking purposefully as Athene down a particular alleyway, as snow crunched quietly under booted feet.

It wasn't a part of Destiny City that he visited often, but Athene tried to make the trip at least once a year.

He was early this year, or late, depending on which way you counted - but Athene hadn't been able to make it out back in January and didn't want the year to pass before completing out this particular little personal tradition.

Booted feet stopped as he reached the familiar patch of missing pavement that was still there after all this time and paused for a moment, looking solemnly down at the missing piece of concrete before he carefully set the bunch of flowers that he'd been carrying down in the gap.

It was hard to believe that almost eight years had passed since he'd become an eternal, almost eight years since Painite had tried and come very close to succeeding in trying to kill him.

It was here that ********* had made a choice–

And it had been here that an unknown senshi had saved Athene's life at the cost of his own.

The wind ruffled his hair, cold and frigid - very much a December wind - as Athene thought back to that day. Of how Painite had toyed with him. Of how blood had stained his uniform as she had jabbed her spear into his side as she had wrapped a hand around his starseed–

And the conversational tone of her voice as she had casually informed him that she was going to kill him and how she was going to do the same for his friends.

An aura flared, distracting him from his thoughts, the deep cold chill of it unmistakable. The aura that of a Negaverse officer–

And it was strong, suggesting that it belonged a General.

Athene sighed quietly before finally looking up from the flowers and taking a careful step backwards.

"I..." and whilst he had no idea of just how close the aura was, had no idea whether the source of the aura was close enough to even hear him or just in general vicinity "I know that you're out there - but can we not fight tonight?"

Not that Athene particularly wanted to fight in general, but–

He particularly did not want to fight tonight.

Athene tried his best to hide the flinch as the General dropped down from above, the movement a little bit too much like the way that Painite had dropped down on him on that night.

Although unlike that night, at least there wasn't a spear - well at least not that he could see. .

Green-flecked grey eyes took in the General's pink curls from beneath the lenses of his semi-rimless glasses as a part of Athene noted the way that they picked up the pink in the pink and black of her uniform.

She wasn't one that he recognised, was neither one of the few that he (unfortunately) knew by name or had vaguely seen in passing over the course of his time as a senshi–

And whilst Athene wasn't about to underestimate her given the fact that she was a General, he was going to (tentatively) take the fact that she wasn't trying to swing at him on sight with whatever her weapon was as a good thing.

The question came a little out of left-field, the look of startled surprise on his face genuine as he said quietly "I uh don't think so? I mean I've always been like this."

He hesitated for a moment before adding "Well at least part of Order."

Athene wasn't quite sure what to make of the pink-haired General who had started off by asking him if he was a traitor - and neither had he really been particularly been volunteering himself for a chat - well at least he hadn't thought that he was volunteering himself–

But he also really didn't want to fight either, particularly not in this place where there was a chance that any fight could lead to misplaced feet which potentially end up damaging the flowers that he had laid for the senshi who had once saved his life.

"I can do that" he said at last, because a talk was so much better than some of the other more normal outcomes of crossing paths with a General–

Well at least based on his experience.

"I'm Athene" he said quietly, he wrinkled his nose slightly "Well I guess it's technically Sailor Athene, but Athene's fine" and whilst he hadn't given a rank, the General hadn't given a rank either–

Besides Athene had never really been one to stand on rank - and aura sensing kind of made it all a moot point anyway.

The question was as unexpected as the question about traitors had been and once again Athene gave Sylvite a look of genuinely startled surprise - but the pink-haired General seemed serious about the question, especially when she mentioned that all of her friends seemed to keep leaving - and well a serious question deserved a serious answer–

And whilst Athene wasn't sure if he was the best one to give that answer, he would just have to give what answers he could and do it to the best of his ability.

"I'm not really sure I can really answer that question" he admitted "Because I can't speak for those who have decided to leave and it's not like I have or want that personal experience myself."

He bit his lip for a moment "But I remember talking to a Squire who had once been an officer and he looked really miserable about what little he mentioned."

He hesitated before adding "I'm assuming that those who decide to leave the Negaverse do so for a variety of reasons" before continuing quietly "But from what I gather people can't just purify - it's something that they have to really, really want."

Or well at least that was the conclusion that he had always drawn from what he had read in the senshi primer.

This was definitely shaping up to be one of his stranger encounters with the Negaverse Athene decided - although that didn't mean that he wasn't going to take it–

Because it still was heaps better than some of his previous Negaverse officer encounters.

He listened quietly as Sylvite said that she'd been working hard to make the Negaverse better and she sounded passionate enough that he believed her - well at least that she believed in what she was saying.

But the Negaverse wasn't something that Athene would ever join. Not willingly.

"I can't really speak for anyone else - but the Negaverse isn't something that I personally would ever willingly join" he said quietly "And not just because of the cost in memories."

He gave a quiet sigh "And even though I know that Order isn't perfect," because Order was far from being perfect "I don't want to be part of an organisation where members have no issues with taking energy from people or their starseeds" he hesitated before continuing "Well at least some of them because if - as Sylvite said - she was trying to change things then mayhaps she did have issues with stealing people's energy or taking their starseeds."

Athene hesitated again before adding quietly "Did you know that there was once talk of some of us from Order trying to approach the Dark Mirror Court and the Negaverse to see if we could find some sort of common ground? We had a meeting - had even managed to come to an agreement about it."

"It was a while back, whilst I was a Super Senshi" Athene admitted, "Like 8 or 9 years ago - but I'm not sure that Order would manage to come to an agreement like that again..."

For a moment he hesitated at the way that Sylvite had said that she'd willing to try, that she'd be up for negotiations - because again she had sounded like she'd meant it–

And because mayhaps if there had been someone like her back then, then maybe things would have been different.

Maybe.

But 8 or 9 years was a long time - and too much had happened over the course of it.

He shook his head slightly before continuing quietly "We came to an agreement - but the Negaverse and Dark Mirror Court ambushed us before anyone could try to carry anything out and a lot of us didn't make it out of that ambush."

He bit his lip before adding quietly "And the Negaverse kidnapping a bunch of us 2 years after that didn't help either."

The starseed comment took Athene a little by surprise, because taking starseeds had always seemed to be a thing amongst the Negaverse officers he'd come across–

But he'd also been away for a while...

Although Sylvite hadn't said that the Negaverse had stopped taking starseeds altogether - which meant that they were still taking them–

But whatever the justification each starseed was still a soul - "was still someone's life" and whilst belatedly Athene realised that he had spoken that last part aloud, he didn't try to take them back because it was what he believed.

Instead he continued "But it's not like the Negaverse actually asks the people who they steal the energy from - they just take it."

He hesitated again for a moment before adding "If people had been asked and were willingly giving their energy to the Negaverse then at least it would be their choice."

But it wasn't as if anyone ever bothered to ask - well at least not amongst the Nega Officers that Athene had come across at any rate.

Sylvite hadn't asked and Athene hadn't pushed, because it wasn't really his way, but he had turned for a moment to look in the direction of the flowers he laid at the pink-haired General's question about energy draining before turning back towards her.

"My first introduction to the Negaverse's style of energy draining was during a city council meeting" Athene said at last quietly "It had been called because a bunch of civilians had gone mysteriously missing and people were worried."

Whilst he did his best to hide it, he couldn't help the faint note of bitterness that crept into his quiet voice as he remembered how Saffy had ended up getting hurt in that particular meeting due to the Negaverse's actions "But the Negaverse decided to gatecrash it for whatever the reason, barricaded the doors so that people couldn't leave and took energy and starseeds."

Athene paused as he realised that his hands were trembling and forced himself to stop "And then they set youma on the civilians there."

He paused for a moment before continuing "And that's not the only events with civilians there where the Negaverse turned up to energy drain, the latest wasn't that long ago." It had only been a few years back after all, at a theatre "And maybe the energy draining was harmless as you say, but it wasn't as if any of the agents there were giving the civilians there a choice - and it also meant that it was harder for people to run when the building that the Negaverse decided to barricade so that people couldn't just leave caught fire..."

He hesitated before adding "Not so very different from my first experience - the only difference is that they didn't set youma on the civilians."

Not that it made it any better.

"I... No you can stay if you want" Athene said.

He hesitated for a moment before continuing, "That city council meeting I mentioned before...? Someone that I am really close to got hurt in that meeting."

He added "Sh.. They" he stumbled over the near slip "Had their energy drained too - came out with a broken leg amongst other things."

Athene hesitated again "So I am never really going to be completely rational about energy draining." But then again he'd never tried to pretend otherwise.

"But you're not trying to energy drain someone in front of me and..."

He added quickly "Not that you have to stay or anything" because he wasn't saying that either. "Especially if you need to talk to that person that you mentioned."

For a moment Athene dithered, but then decided to come out and ask the question anyway "But would you mind answering one of my questions?"