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What?! Nemesis had thought about how Albali had class, kept her cool, never lost composure but in the moment that Fallon stepped up and apologized for her wrongdoing, the girl all but fell off of the ruined piece of...something she'd been perched on. She wanted to think that she had mis-heard what her Captain had just said but somehow that seemed like a lie and a denial, two things that Eilian had quite the hard time dealing with. It was easier to accept and process the fact that Fallon was, suddenly, batshit insane.

It was the only explanation for it. It really wasn't about the fact that Birhan was a bad leader. All in all she wasn't terrible, stood her ground, and tried to make something out of a shitty situation. Really, Albali would have judged negatively even Nemesis had she been standing in the same place because she single-mindedly refused to follow anyone but the warrior senshi she had pledged her life and her power to. Eilian, as well as Sailor Albali, never went back on their word. Ever.

Standing on her ridiculous gold heels it shifted the cloak to fall back from her face, allowing her to see more. Though her eyes were a bit wide and expression somewhat betrayed and wounded, they swept over Fallon from head to toe. She looked like hell was the first thought and the second zeroed in on her henshin pen. Well. That explained what Gaia was looking so smug about didn't it? Still, it was a striking contrast, the civilian in the center of the overdressed peacockery that was a senshi gathering. It had quite the effect for dramatic flair she knew the other was known for.

It still didn't explain the apology. Ares had taken them further than any of the other senshi had ever gone. Yes they had done some questionable things, failed, and people had died. But they were in a war! Determined to speak up and say something, anything, she swallowed and spoke as clearly, casually as possible. "Accepted."

Of course, then Birhan had to open her mouth and say something so totally insipid that the Echoes senshi could have smacked her. The fact that she, as a member of the Inner Sanctum and Special Forces, had been left out of the initial punishment had had her screaming for blood so that her fingers pounded the keys of her piano long into the night with displaced anger. "She has atoned and apologized. I see no reason for further punishment when the lesson has been learned."

Fallon smiled at Birhan as she requested the pen back. Albali jumped up to stop the exchange, but Fallon waved away her defense. "I'm a big girl, Albali," she said quietly. "The lesson has only just begun."

The hand that held the pen remained close to her chest, but the other reached out to rest gently on her comrade's shoulder. "Birhan, I completely understand your position," she said, voice too sweet to truly be her own, "but I hope you will understand that doing that is not in the best interests of the Court, or Destiny City, or the senshi race, or the world. I have been living a lie since I set foot in this place, ever since I was ripped from the Black Kingdom, but we parallels have been living a lie much longer than that. A lie that began with the White Moon Princess." Her smile froze. "Your princess."

The nails on Fallon's hand squeezed lightly into the bare flesh of Birhan's shoulder, but the smile remained plastered on her lips. "Princess Serenity cursed my entire existence, and because of her, Queen Nehelenia is dead. But through that tragedy, I have been reborn -- and now we all can be too. As senshi, we are tearing apart the very universe that we love, and I am here to guarantee that we will no longer walk the road that was not meant for us. I can promise you that I will save each and every one of us." Her mind reeled back to the furtive whispers that leaked out of the black mirror in the hospital room.

Save them like Nehelenia never could.
Do not be blind to the lies.
Look inside your heart.
Find the truth.

And so she had.

In a flash, Fallon lifted the henshin pen above her head and mumbled the words to bring her powered form to life. Her shoulders bent backward, lace rippled, and a dark, malevolent aura burned inside the church -- darkly chaotic, but not simply corrupted.

And unmistakably parallel.



"In the name of Chaos."

Her nails bit into Birhan's shoulder, and Princess Ares threw the girl across the room. Her eyes roved the gathered crowd, eyes that, for their darkness, seemed to show love. "Now," she said, drawing the staff up beside her, "let me save you all from yourselves."

Birhan's jaw clenched as others spoke up against Fallon finishing out her sentence. Unfortunately, it wasn't Birhan's decision. The head of Special Forces was Gunn - she was in charge of internal discipline and she had been very firmly against Fallon receiving her pen back early.

Still, for Fallon to come here (Gaia, yet again, blabbing the location of the meeting after stealing the pen), and to speak as she had... Birhan wavered.

"Maybe I can speak to Gunn," she began, softly, but was cut off by Fallon's speech.

Birhan winced, not just because of the hand on her shoulder. She had long guessed of Ares' hatred for the Moon Princess, that it would extend past the living Prince of Earth to include the white Moon Princess, never mind that there was no proof Serenity was any less dead than Nehelenia. Birhan had approved of taking matters into their own hands, of owing no allegience to some girl they'd never met. But this sounded less like 'screw the princess' and more like 'kill the princess'.

Fallon threw around terms like being reborn and saving them all. "I don't understand -" Birhan began.

And then Fallon transformed. Her energy signatured overpowered all others in the room. Birhan's skin crawled where Ares still grabbed her shoulder. The aura pulsing right in front of her was not the Ares that Birhan knew. A dark, bitter taste flavoured it, something even worse than when Birhan had re-used a corrupted senshi's attack.

"Ares... no..." Birhan whispered.

The hand on her shoulder tightened and Birhan was tossed across the room like a doll. Her back slammed into the wall, knocking even the breath needing to cry out from her. Fallen to the floor, she gasped for breath. Birhan forced her head to turn, one eye pinned on this new, chaotic Ares, even while she tried to order limbs to obey her. Impotent fury surged through her. Another trap, organised by Gaia and who knows who else still loyal to Ares above anything else.

Oh god. Birhan wanted to cry. Ares, corrupted. Their leader, the best of them all. She blinked the tears away furiously, before they had a chance to fall. This wasn't the time. Birhan had to get up. She wouldn't just lie here while this new Ares wreaked havoc on the others.

Leto stared at Fallon in both awe and horror as she transformed into her new form. She stood up slowly and took a few steps forward, her eyes narrowed to slits- not in anger but deep in thought and interest.

"I will save each and every one of us."

The words rang through her head as she watched Princess Ares throw Fallon across the room. She swallowed hard and kept her mouth shut, as she didn't want to join her on the ground of the old run-down church.

In the name of Chaos.

Leto stepped forward again, getting closer to the Princess that was swelling with her chaotic aura. She felt drawn to it, compelled by the new power that she felt. It wasn't Corrupt, and it wasn't anything like the other royalty Senshi.

"What are you..." she whispered under her breath, before taking a step back as Ares drew her staff up beside her.

Ares was truly the last person that Nemesis believed would walk in through those doors. The leader of the BMC had been gone for so long that Nemesis did not truly know when to expect her back. But now that she was, Nemesis could allow a small sense of peace to settle over her mind. Things would go back to the way they were now, with the proper head of the BMC restored to her rightful place. There would be no Birhan lording over her, playing the holier-than-thou routine that Nemesis so despised. Ares was back, and she would restore the BMC to order.

The Ares now was far too apologetic for Nemesis' tastes, but she didn't care, because Ares was back. "Took you ******** long enough," she grumbled. There was still a note of anger in her voice, a roughness in her throat that followed her argument with Birhan. She was still pissed about it, and hadn't time to properly come down from her anger. So when she heard Birhan asking for Ares' pen back, she was throttled right back down that path of anger.

"WHAT?"

Nemesis had no idea that they had taken Ares' pen away, Ares' ******** identity. They had made Fallon exist powerless, unable to defend herself. It was something that would drive Nemesis mad. It was something that Nemesis would never sit back and accept herself. "What the flying ********!? What the ******** hell?" She was enraged by this revelation, but even as the words spilled from her lips things changed. Everything changed...

And Nemesis was not sure if this was good or bad.

Ares henshined up, and that power was unfamiliar, the darkness radiating from Ares was recognizable, but it was coupled with something deeper. Her blue eyes fixed on Ares, to the dark smoky wings spreading from her shoulders, the drape of her skirt around her legs, and to the bejeweled tiara upon her forehead.

"In the name of Chaos."

Those were not words that Nemesis ever wanted to hear, and they drove conflict right into the pit of her heart. She stood frozen, eyes transfixed upon Ares as Gaia stepped up to the leader of the BMC court. What the hell was going on?

s**t, s**t, s**t...

This was not how Ares' return was supposed to be like. Things weren't supposed to play out like this. Those who went to Ares were being forever changed, and that was not something Nemesis could ever agree with. The only person who would change her was herself. Whatever sway Ares had with the other senshi who went to her, Nemesis did not feel it. The loyalty that she had felt to Ares before was quickly being severed the moment she realized that she could not follow her. This was corruption, a different sort, but corruption nonetheless.

If it was join or die, Nemesis would fight. It was what she was born to do, fight against what she felt was wrong, and in this moment despite having considered Ares a friend, she was now an enemy. If Ares was going to threaten her life, Nemesis was not going to sit around and just let her take it. Her life was not one that was laid out on a silver platter for the person who was most eager to take and consume it.

Her knees bent, hands closing into fists even as blue sparks began to light at her fingertips. She would fight, because she had no other option. "Ares!" she called out to the ascended senshi. It was a challenge, a blind challenge, but Nemesis had always been known for being brash. She hardly thought there was a chance she could run, and there was no way in hell she was letting herself be shoved through a mirror. She would not be Ares' b***h. Not. ********. Today.

Everything was a blur in front of Albali's eyes. Ares was moving about the room on smoke-filled wings. Something happened to Sailor Gaia and she was different. This wasn't the beribboned ******** that had become Albali when she was a newly-made Super senshi. This was a drastic sort of different that had a new tinge to it, all from touching the end of Ares' staff. There was something about it and she couldn't figure out what. Everything was suddenly hyper-focused, colors were deeper.

She flinched, involuntarily, when Leto was thrown back through a mirror to shatter. Though more colorful, more vibrant than Sailor Gaia, the similarities between them was unmistakable. Their queen was remaking the court in her image, taking back what was hers, the apology false. The idea that Ares was unrepentant for what she had done even still was oddly reassuring to Albali.

She hated when people changed.

It never occurred to her to resist. The mirror would come for her and she would fall back through it without being asked.