Takes place February 24th

Ilmare nestled into the tree branch where she perched, frowning as she re-read the message from Laurelite. An ‘off world’ situation? What the hell was that supposed to mean? And exactly how bad was it that energy gathering operations were to be scaled back that much? Not that she minded. She’d happily skip out on all energy gathering if she could. But since she couldn’t without raising questions she couldn’t answer…

Well, enough to say that she was happy enough with that part of the message. But the rest. Forego hostilities in favor of information gathering, but use any means necessary? Ilmare knew what some people in the Negaverse were like. For them, any means would mean an outright license to torture. They wouldn’t care about hostilities.

But that was not her problem. She’d met some decent people on the other side and with luck, she’d made a good enough impression that some of them would be willing to talk to her. But how many of those would know anything worth reporting? Ugh, the whole thing was just a mess. Putting her tablet away, she was considering going home. But as she was preparing to leap from her tree perch, she felt a rapidly approaching Order aura and stayed where she was. She’d been ordered to gather info if she could, after all. And the person hurrying so obligingly in her direction might be willing to chat.

But, never in her dreams had she expected to see who she did racing through the park. The senshi’s name popped out of her mouth before she could stop it.

“Saiph!”

The girl below heard and skid to a halt, looking around warily. But when Ilmare waved to catch her attention, the wariness seemed to lessen ever so slightly. Not totally, but Ilmare would take what she could get. Jumping from her tree, she closed the distance and scooped the smaller girl into a bone cracking hug.

Saiph had wanted to do something, anything to help clear her mind from the weirdness she’d experienced only a day before. Patrolling the park had seemed the perfect task. She’d even felt a Chaos signature somewhere inside. As much as she would have liked to not have to fight, part of her just wanted someone who understood weirdness. If they weren’t super into hating senshi like her, even a Negaverser had the potential to give her a comforting sense of normalcy.

She’d followed the trail, mind wandering and recalling purple skies and lightning. She glanced at the arm that had been struck and shuddered. The mark and the burns that had been so livid when she’d gotten home had vanished completely. She’d fallen asleep shortly after making her report and when she’d woken up, they were gone.

She wished she could say the same for her aberrant magic.

Shaking herself, she ran on, feeling the Chaotic aura getting closer. When it had felt as if it covered everything around her, a voice had called out and movement had caught her eye. She hadn’t encountered that many on the opposite side. And only one or two knew her name. But she’d paused and looked and the cascade of hair the color of neon fire provided a momentary sense of relief. It was Ilmare. Ilmare was safe. Or she had been once. Saiph had no idea if that still held true.

Though given the speed with which the older girl came out of the tree and caught her up in a hug the likes of which she hadn’t felt since her Big Sis had vanished, Saiph decided that Ilmare hadn’t changed. Much. Feeling tears sting her eyes, she buried herself in that hug.

Well, she’d wanted someone who would understand. Who better than Ilmare?

Ilmare hadn’t expected her embrace to be so well-recieved, but when the kid hugged back, she felt a knot in her throat. She hadn’t been forgotten. And though Saiph had grown, she could still see the same little girl that she’d protected years ago.

“Oh my god, when did you shoot up? You’re not that much shorter than me now,” she exclaimed before holding Saiph at arms distance in order to really look at her. The girl was bigger, stronger and her uniform had changed. Well. Fair enough, so had her own. But this was Saiph. Cute, tiny Saiph who was still cute as a button, but not so tiny anymore. But pleased as she was, her sharp eyes noted how drawn Saiph’s face was. And while tears could be expected during a reunion, Saiph didn’t look happy. She looked strung out. Ilmare had seen that look before. And she hadn’t ever wanted to see it again.

“What happened? I can tell something’s wrong. Spill,” she ordered gently.

Saiph stared at the corrupt senshi for a moment, shook her head a little, though whether denying that something was wrong or at some memory, she couldn’t say. Everyone said that corrupted senshi couldn’t be trusted, but Ilmare had kept her safe. And promised to not tell her superiors about Saiph after they’d escaped the village. She had no reason to assume that Ilmare had broken that promise. But still…

“Okay, kid,” she heard Ilmare saying. “Seriously, talk to me. Look, my side’s already heard whispers of something weird going down. So if something’s happened that we would call weird, I wish you’d tell me.”

Saiph wanted to tell her. So very much. And if the Negaverse already knew something, well. There wasn’t that much harm. Was there? Besides, what if those storms hit Earth? Even Negaverse people had families they cared about. Or so she assumed. Everyone had something or someone they’d fight like mad to protect.

Thus justifying things to herself, she nodded a little. Shaking Ilmare’s hands from her shoulder, she reached for her phone and pulled open her Gallery. Then, she played the least offensive of the videos, showing the storm raging across the entire sky. Then, she turned it so Ilmare could see.

“Something’s wrong,” she said a little hoarsely. “I got hit by that lightning and… well. Look at the timestamp here.”

She closed the video and pulled up her picture of the snake mark on her burned arm. Turned it to Ilmare could see and watched as the older girl’s eyebrows furrowed. Then, taking the phone back, she held up her unblemished arm for inspection.

Obediently, Ilmare watched the video and hissed a little. That was one hell of a storm! She couldn’t tell where it had been shot, but she could see edges of Saiph in the video, so she knew it was real. She could even hear the lightning in the vid. And given how loud the recording was… “How are you not deaf if you were out in this mess,” she demanded, looking up. The kid was seriously spooked and while Ilmare could understand feeling uneasy during a storm, this seemed excessive. Then, another picture was thrust under her nose and she yelped in dismay at the burns on Saiph’s arm. Then, she saw the snake mark standing out vividly like a newly inked tattoo. Okay. Creepy and painful AF looking, but Saiph wanted her to see the timestamp. She glanced at the corner of the image. And felt her stomach drop as she saw that this had been taken just yesterday. Seizing Saiph’s upright and offered arms, she examined both. Nary a sign that anything had ever been there. And a burn like she’d seen in the photo should not have gone away within a mere day!

“What the actual hell, Saiph,” she whispered. Something in the girl’s face made her think there was more to the story, but she felt instinctively that this might be a case where the less Saiph told her, the better. “You know that I’ll have to report this, right? Where did this happen because I can damn well guarantee that there weren’t any storms like this here!”

“My… my homeworld,” came the whispered reply before the chibi senshi pulled her arms from Ilmare’s hands and backed up.

“Oh ******** me,” was Ilmare’s elegant and heartfelt reply. “Okay. I won’t give names because right now, that’s not important for anything. And I don’t want some overeager little rank-climber trying to ferret you out. But please be careful, okay? And if you can, find me if anything else weird happens. I want you to be safe, Saiph.”

To her surprise, the other senshi nodded before whispering, “There… is one other thing. After the lightning hit me… Well. See for yourself.”

She watched as Saiph turned and faced off into the deeper recesses of the park. Heard her whisper something like sounded like an attack. And then nearly fell over in shock as Saiph’s magic, the magic that she’d witnessed before as barely capable of tripping a monster, suddenly and remorselessly tore through the trees, leaving splintered trunks and shredded leaves in its wake. But, when she turned to say something to the chibi, the kid was already gone. She could feel the Order aura fading as Saiph got further away.

“Oh ******** me,” Ilmare muttered to herself. How in the hell would she explain this?

Ilmare Word Count = 960
Saiph Word Count = 578