Welcome to Gaia! ::

Cora was fiddling with the strap of her sling idly, clearly finding it more than slightly a nuisance. "Oh, absolutely," she answered. "I'm a quick healer."

Hero, a captain and a soldier, found it a bit distracting that Cora now stayed mobile while Dylan moved. He circled around her, and she stepped back in a slight pivot to watch them both. He closed the door to the room and locked it; Hero didn't even know there were locks on the doors here.

"You're a student from somewhere?" Corinna asked.

Hero nodded. "Crystal."

"A little inconvenient," she said. "I go to Meadowview, and Dylan's at Hillworth. Still, what do you think? She's nice. She's good." Cora wasn't talking to Hero.

Corinna lifted the sling over her head with a wince, and grabbed a compact out of it that she'd apparently hidden there. Hero felt a distinct chill riding up her spine, a familiar warning peal: danger, Will Robinson. The pair of them were -- menacing, a bit? But she'd just stood through a robbery with Corinna, and the stern-faced girl seemed to be genuinely a decent person.

All the same, Hero was reaching into her pocket, rubbing her fingers over her henshin pen when Corinna said, "She suits me."

What happened was unexpected -- "Cosmic Moon Power, Make Up!"

The senshi that stood before Hero a minute later looked unlike any of the others that Hero had met. She looked, troublingly, a bit like the corrupted senshi had both been described to her -- black-clad, serious, slightly radiant with energy. Then again, there was no vacancy in her eyes, nor the very conspicuous gaping hole the others had in their chests (given her fuku, Hero really wouldn't have been able to miss spotting a gaping hole below her collarbone). Hero wasn't ready to out herself as a senshi just yet.

"Ow," Corinna-senshi said. "I think I ripped a stitch."

In the other direction, Dylan had changed too -- gone was the hipster in the fedora; present, instead, was the archer from the hold-up. "Easily enough fixed," he said, but with a sympathetic look for his girlfriend. "This is a hospital."

Corinna-senshi looked, rightly, taken aback at what had come out of the mirror. But she gathered herself up into her usual, serious composure, and said, "My mistake." This sounded honest but not particularly intense -- the way 'my mistake' sounded if you accidentally stepped on the back of someone's shoe. You didn't mean to step on their shoe, but you weren't writhing in shame over having done it. Hero didn't take Corinna for someone who writhed often in shame, probably. She had a different sort of bearing.

"I'm Nehelenia, the first of my name, Queen of the Black Moon, lady regent of the Tranquil Sea, holder of the Marcasite Crystal, current bearer of the title of Sailor Selene, Soldier of the Mirror. This world is not my home -- I'm here to recover something that was stolen from me, and need my retainers by my side to ensure that that happens." Her face clouded over, eyelids pinching into a very obvious scowl. "I meant no offense to your king or queen -- I didn't know you were already committed. What court do you serve?"

"Soldiers," said the Cavalier. He had a soft and hoarse voice, like a chain smoker or a country star; he also had a habit of pacing, apparently, because he left his post at the door and circled Aries while he talked. "At least in the short term. That's what we were looking for in you, Soldier," he made a sweeping gesture to her with one black-clad arm, "but we hadn't accounted for a prior claim. We have the ability to choose our soldiers, you see. You demonstrated a few ideal qualities -- you might've heard us enumerate," he winked at her, "but, well, you know what they say. All the good ones are taken."

He bowed to her too -- in a flourish with his cape, not unlike the way Cavalier Kunzite bowed, though unlike Cavalier Kunzite he straightened with another flourish and a black rose in his left hand, which he offered to her. "Prince Alexandros, Prince of my Earth and heir to the Golden Imperium, Lord of Tartaros, protector of the Pyrite Crystal and Cavalier of Oblivion. We come here seeking thieves. A woman in black and a man with a crystal ball. Would you happen," he met Aries's eyes with his own, of a pale lilac color, "to have seen anyone of that description?"

Selene smiled kindly back at Aries, the sort of person, it seemed, who smiled when someone was behaving as she liked them to. There was definitely a royal quality to her -- to the both of them -- that came across in the looks that they gave her which casually underscored that they were always offering their approval or their disapproval. Or, well, their approval, at least. Aries had only seen disapproval from Selene when it was directed at the superette robbers; it was a warm and welcome relief to know she was acquitting herself well on behalf of her faction, in the eyes of people of the highest of stations. It had been a while since she'd had a prince or princess to offer their approval (or even their disapproval) other than her own. She had felt a bit lost, she realized. So many of the others considered courtly traditions to be frivolous and embarrassing -- save, of course, Kunzite, who was unfortunately Miriam -- and seemed to extend this flippant disregard to their opinions on leadership and routine and preparation, as well. Or so she sometimes feared.

Here was a pair. Here was a prince and a princess (well, a queen), and they talked to a captain as a captain might reasonably be spoken to.

"An alliance with your court would be very welcome right now," Selene told her. "One of my people, I think, knows your Gemini? My Gaia." She paused to smile at Alexandros. "Or your Gaia, arguably." Aries hadn't heard of a Gaia from either Andeon or Mackie, so she made note of the name and tucked it away to follow up on later. Perhaps they hadn't known they were dealing with a Great Court, or else they'd have told her. They did report things to her. She would ask.

Selene returned to the topic at hand. "If you have a guardian cat, the girl can be tracked," she said. "That would be the best help to us right now -- my guardian, Zirconia, is waiting to be called, knows the energy we'd be seeking, but I can't house a guardian as easily as I can a soldier, or Alex can a cavalier. I haven't found a compatible host." She looked forlorn about this, and a little tired -- Selene must have been looking for some time now. "Still, a cat could track her, if we had one. She's a senshi, and powerful: a moon princess from the distant future. She can be hunted."

The queen tossed a quick glance to the prince, but Aries couldn't tell whether he offered her some answering reaction before she stated confidently, "We'll be pleased to meet with your princess. Alex and I, and our two captains, if we can all be available. With Alexandros and I, and Zirconia, our two Great Courts combine at twenty-one strong -- but at the moment, we're just five. Six, if you'd worked out -- " She smiled almost cheekily at Aries, there. "It's too bad you're already spoken for -- you'd have fit in well with us."

Selene looked down at her shoes for the first time, suddenly, and then rather abruptly dropped her transformation. Corinna folded her compact away, into a pocket this time. Then she sat back down into the chair Dylan had brought over for her earlier, with the stiff, regal posture one usually reserved for a throne rather than a formica chair with one of its wheels slightly wobbly. "Sorry for not standing on ceremony," she said. "I'm a little tired."

Nobody looked less like a Hillworth student than Dylan Rasmussen. For a moment Hero -- melting back into the slightly dowdy-jacketed, hair-mussed form of her civilian self -- wondered how on earth he got there, but it wasn't worth dwelling on. He was a Prince. She was not a snob.

"Zodiacs traditionally don't bond with Cavaliers," she said after a moment. "The Lunar Court keeps them, lead by Captain Kunzite." Was there anything to say about Captain Kunzite? Should she have said anything about Captain Kunzite? "He's highly trained, very formidable. But the Cavalier numbers in this city are low at the moment."

The interview was coming to its natural end. Corinna Grant looked exhausted. Considering she'd just been in surgery to have a bullet taken out of her shoulder, Hero really wasn't surprised. The entire day had seemed like a slightly nightmarish fever dream. Cora was also looking up at Dylan and they were sharing the brief, soft-lens smile that some long-established couples were wont to share with each other, and that was a scene she felt she should leave -- "We can discuss that later. Could I have your phone number, Cora?"

There was the exchange of cellphone numbers, and Dylan scribbled down both for her on a piece of paper they found in the drawer. Queen Nehelenia. Prince Alexandros. Hero kept on repeating the names over and over in her head, Queen Nehelenia, Prince Alexandros, trying to recall their titles so that she could coach Serenade on them as well.

She stopped by the chair one last time. Cora gave her her hand: the handshake was as firm as it had been the first time, Cora's eyes no less blue or alert, and Hero found a smile coming briefly to her lips.

"Thank you."

Hero left them both there. It really had been one of her more successful days. Except that when she went back home escorted in Matron's car, she'd completely forgotten about the jellybeans, and Sacred Heart smashed Crystal Academy 10-7 the next day.