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 Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2013 11:51 pm
In a stubborn sort of desperation, ********* cried out "NO! I refuse to believe that it has to be this way! It doesn't have to be me dying or you dying!" She pulled the grey starseed close to her, but jerked it away as she felt another crackle of the chaotic energy lash out at her body.
There weren't many options for what a guardian cat could do. Even in this form, she had limited abilities. The Mauvian could awaken senshi, and she could upgrade them.
With a hint of uncertainty, the girl attempted a cheery smile to comfort Nickeline, and more importantly, herself. "...If you can't find your way on the beaten path... then... then you just have to forge a new path of your very own!"
With that, the festively dressed girl pressed her hand over the starseed with a sort of possessive tenderness, covering it completely. She pinched her eyes shut, attempting to ignore the chaos eating at the tips of her fingers. ********* was going to attempt something. Something that she had no idea how it would turn out in the end.
With all of her concentration, she began to focus upon the starseed. She was a creature of order. With all of her hopes, she put all her efforts into attempting to unlock something within the gemstone hidden within her palms.
The results were not pretty.
As she surged a pulse of order energy into the starseed, it reacted like something straight out of science. The positive energy created an identical reaction of the opposing force to remain balanced. Where as the chaotic energy before had been present, but subdued, now the starseed crackled fiercely of chaos energy, fighting back against all that ********* attempted to course through the object. It was almost as if dark lightning was bursting through her fingers. Tears simply shot from ********* eyes from the pain and she let out a shriek of pain, but she stubbornly kept her hands clamped closed on the starseed.
We will find a way... I promise... I don't know how... but... we will... Nickeline...
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Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2013 11:57 pm
Nickeline didn't know what ********* was doing with her starseed but the pained expression on ********* face concerned the corrupt senshi enough that she stood back onto her feet in an attempt to retrieve it back from the cat. It was at this point that Nickeline felt pain like she'd never felt before. The pit of youma had been nothing compared to this! Normally it might have been a feeling in her chest but because her starseed was actually outside of her body she couldn't place the feeling of pain she felt surging all through her body.
She gasped loudly, feeling as if she'd used her own magic on herself. It wasn't long before she felt her body's desire taking over, her weight falling down until she was in the snow upon her knees. A heaving weigh, grey eyes looked upon ********* with pain and sorrow. Her hand reached out, a dire attempt to reclaim the starseed back, before it gripped her chest. She wanted to avoid hurting ********* anymore and simply take the punishment herself but now... now they were both suffering. Nickeline felt like somewhere Sassolite was smiling, laughing it up. This was like some sick and twisted plan right from the b***h Sassolite herself.
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Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2013 12:30 am
It had been a simple walk back home from training with Parthenope. The Eternal Senshi was feeling good after a good bout with the defunct not-quite-a-girl teammate of hers, making her usual pass through the park. Normally, there would have been no incident, but that did not seem to be the case for this evening. One moment, she had sensed a very minor aura of chaos, something which she would have gladly left alone for the evening, since she didn't feel like calling Parthenope back to pester him into taking on some DMC or Nega or anything of that sort.
However, a very sudden surge of energy was emanating from the park. For youma, it would have been like a homing beacon. However, for the likes of Iris, it had a slightly more important significance. Such energies did not parade themselves about in such a manner unless there was a dire need for such power. There was no time to call back up. The eternal senshi quickly filled in the gap between her and whatever the source of this energy was. It was almost like those mock wings upon the back of her Eternal fuku were causing her to fly.
Nothing could have prepared the blonde for what she found as she approached the snow covered playground.
"********* style="color: gray">The Mauvian could no longer remain standing, and soon enough her bare feet ceased to hold her body up. She still held onto the dear starseed, unable to ignore the pain that was now surging through her form, but now unable to abandon the source of the pain. Her body fell, but much to her weary surprise, she found herself caught in another's arms.
Weakly, she opened an eye, finding a familiar concerned face there to greet her.
"...Iris...?"
"*********, what the HELL are you doin'?!" Though the eternal senshi cradled the Mauvian in her arms, she still had a rough manner of speaking. Her gold eyes darted about, panicked at the whole situation. The Mauvian seemed absolutely worn, there was a dark suited senshi nearby only barely holding herself up at the knees in the snow, and whatever it was that ********* held was causing a surge of chaotic energy. Even now, Iris could feel a small blurred aura of the chaotic energy by just holding onto her guardian.
********* answer, though weak, was simple.
"...I'm saving Nickeline..." A subtle nod of the head gestured to the silvery haired girl nearby.
"You aren't saving anybody, *********!" Iris jostled the Mauvian, which only seemed to cause another surge of chaotic energy to pulse through *********. The cat-eared girl winced notably before the senshi ceased with the excess movement.
********* face was flushed, and several cold streaks of frost had formed upon her face from the many tears she had shed.
"...she saved me... so I won't give up until I save her..."
Iris, one senshi who rarely let her tone get to the point of panic was frantically trying to reason with a very unreasonable Mauvian.
"You can't save her! You are the one who needs rescuing!" One of her hands attempted to snatch ********* within it, fingers attempting to press through the cracks to pry her hand open to release whatever it was she was holding onto.
********* smiled, appreciating the gesture, but she used all of her remaining energy to take her hand back, refusing what Iris was doing for her.
"...No... Iris... you want to save me... you have to save her..."
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Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2013 12:40 am
The nearby power signal hadn't even made it to Nickeline's radar but when you had other things to worry about such things seemed so trivial. In the past she would have rushed off to fight Iris in the blink of an eye but now things were different. She wanted to help *********, snatch the seed back and simply smash it here and now but her body defied her... only barely allowing her to keep herself from falling into the snow fully.
She felt like she was watching a scene play out from a movie as Iris made it onto the scene, catching ********* and direly trying to convince her of the same things Nickeline had tried to. She might have laughed if the situation had been different. ********* was so stubborn for such a small, fat cat though, and not even Iris could convince her differently. It was kind of nice though, having someone care to such extent about you. She hadn't experienced that since she left Greece, and it was a foreign warmth to her body in winter.
"Aa... aa... am... sorry," she said weakly, her voice cracking and her accent deep. Her body couldn't do much now. It might have been different if her starseed had simply just been removed but under the stress it was under and the influx of chaotic energy weaving in and out, her body finally fell back against the slide. She could see the sky again, only barely through the water the welled up there. This wasn't how she imagined power, this wasn't what she pictured when she accepted such a cause into her life. She wished things could have been different, she wished she'd met ********* first.
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Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2013 1:18 am
Iris remained quiet, once more taking a look at the situation. ********* ear weakly twitched within the hole at the rim of her hat as the corrupt senshi spoke, and the guardian smiled. ********* was in pain, she was crying, and even now, she was determined to ease another's suffering. How can she be so certain? The blonde pulled her hand back, away from the Mauvian's, and pressed it up against her own heart. ********* unwavering faith was admirable. She was selfless, and truly had more than earned her title of guardian in the past and present. Trust in ********* was a stray thought, but it was one that rang true in her heart.
Carefully, she set ********* down out of her arm, then stood herself up. Closing her eyes, she took in a deep breath.
I WILL save you both!
Within an instant, her fuku's skirt flourished into a long dress, momentarily glowing a warm white before fading to yellow. Her hair grew out in a manner in which perhaps Nickeline could sympathize with. However, when her wings forced themselves out of her shoulder blades, she let out a mild grunt. It was one thing she would probably never get used to.
When her eyes opened again, the symbol of her world shown upon her forehead, burning brightly.
"...Princess Iris...?"
The princess stepped forward, leaning over the Mauvian before kneeling down again to scoop ********* up in her arms. It might have seemed humble for the royal to carry her advisor, but Iris had learned her lesson long ago from her parents of another lifetime. A King, a Queen, a Prince, and a Princess, they are all just people. As she moved, her dress dragged through the snow, slowly forming a path to the slide where Nickeline lay.
With great care, Iris lay the Mauvian down nearby, so Nickeline's starseed was close to the guardian's protective fingers. With one hand, she ran her fingers over the star over ********* forehead. The other hand trailed her fingers over Nickeline's own forehead with the odd empty spot.
"...please... be at ease..."
Taking both of her hands back, she clutched them together as if she was praying before parting them again. Within her once empty hands was a crystal, which glowed gently of many colors. It floated up, almost weightless as Iris gazed upon it.
...this is for you, ********* closed her eyes tightly, and in a loud voice, she cried out "IRIS CRYSTAL POWER!!!" Her voice echoed through the mostly empty park.
The Iridian Crystal resonated, as if truly in sync with the Princess' heart. Rather than a giant rainbow appearing behind her, the crystal began to pulse, each pulse shifting through the spectrum of the rainbow. After reaching indigo, it pulsed one final time of a bright white before the gem seemed to take on a new form.
This new form had an overwhelming aura to it, and soon the Princess, *********, and Nickeline were washed in a warm light.
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Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2013 1:45 am
Frost had begun to kiss the corners of Nickeline's eyes before finally they closed softly when her body felt the vibration of ********* being placed beside her, and the resonance that her starseed made as it called to her body. It was suddenly so close (and yet so far) but her body would no longer move on its own, not even when the foreign touch of Iris met her forehead. The warm feeling from her touch lingering when she pulled away, time seemed to freeze for the corrupt senshi as eventually the warmth spread all over her body.
It was a world cast in the light of Princess Iris' Rainbow Iridian Crystal, and there Nickeline's starseed returned to its owner as her thoughts began to cloud. For the first time in almost a year, peace had fallen over the corrupt senshi. There was no compulsion to fight, no survival to ensure, and instead just a calm numbness that spread through her. The memories of meeting ********* were the first thing to dance across her thoughts, warming the starseed in her chest quite tenderly before it disappeared in a breath of air. Air was so hard to grasp, and although she fought to keep that memory all the branches that had spread out from it began to die, taking both the pain and the bliss away.
Like how a plant could only grow and begin a new life after shedding the old, the branches of her memories did not end there. It began to sweep through Nickeline like a weed, overwhelming all the singular events in her life as it spread through her mind. Small moments in time that would never exist again were gone, and worst of all the few heart-moving memories such as the memory of Eunomia keeping her promise soon vanished as well. Nothing was saved from her life as Nickeline, not even something as simple as a fight. All of the fights disappeared into the air, until even Nysa had disappeared much like falling into the depths of the sea. Nothing was sacred, and nothing was safe as every dark corner of her mind began to erode as people and places began to divide and fade like her air on a cold night.
In the path of her memories, ribbons of black and grey began to fall off of Nickeline until it disappeared all together. Nickeline was gone, no trace of her existence left in her memories. All that was left standing there in her thoughts was Theodora before she'd made a deal with the devil. Perhaps she could start over from a time before she made such a deal but perhaps the universe thought that was too kind. The memories did not stop there, and finally family was the last thing to branch off.
A colourful history, sibling rivalries and most importantly love found itself at the core of Theodora's existence. A painful thing to wipe away, it wasn't long before her sisters took a leap off a mountain and disappeared into the wind. Now an only child, Theodora's memories weren't so kind. Two parents found themselves waiting at home for children that didn't exist to brighten up their bleak and grey world. It would never happen though, and in their sorrow soon they faded away.
At the end, it was just Theodora and her grandfather standing there in the darkness. Losing memories at an exponential rate, Theodora barely had time to recognize something had been wrong but as she stood there she could feel it. Something pulled at her, and soon memories of her childhood with him each flashed by one last time. Tying close to the emotion she was feeling now, a memory of her grandfather comforting her in a thunderstorm flashed before her eyes. He didn't need words to soothe her heart, allowing a simple gesture to do the job. A warm hand held hers before it disappeared, leaving nothing but the lingering warmth of his body.
The garden they built together was a constant background to many of her memories but as each defined itself one last time in her memory she found herself unable to connect the events. Celebrating her first archery placing, her 10th birthday, and even that one party where she forced her eldest sister to eat a snail. They had all been connected but now all of the threads had been cut as the garden itself rotted away. Nothing was spared and like a flower in the fall, each memory slowly died and faded until finally all Theodora could recall was how his back looked as he walked away. After that, she couldn't remember anything other than the name of the colour that his shirt had been.
In the darkness of her memories, Theodora was alone. Everything had faded away until finally even Theodora herself began to fade. Parts of her began to melt away like the ice in the spring until even her name was gone. As the light of Princess Iris' crystal left her, all traces of her past life had faded away leaving nothing but Super Sailor Psyche.
 Familiar grey eyes looked around innocently, unsure of everything her eyes fell upon. She didn't say anything but her face asked a dozen questions, some of them striking the keys: Who? What? Where? She didn't know where she was, who these two people were or even who she was. Her interest in these subjects proved themselves again as her eyes fell over her uniform and then as she lifted ********* hat off her head, looking inside before placing it on her head instead.
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Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2013 2:13 am
The light of the Iridian Crystal was soothing, and soon enough the chaotic pain that had been attacking her being had all but vanished. It had been but a momentary exposure to the true power of the Iridian Crystal, but it easily was able to eradicate the chaos inflicting the senshi's starseed.
********* stirred briefly, just long enough to see Iris, in all her glory as she embraced the power of her crystal.
The princess' energy had been spent quickly fueling her crystal. Within moments, her crystal returned to its usual form, then faded from sight. With her crystal gone, the princess' dress faded as well, leaving a very exhausted Eternal Iris there to fall to her knees. She didn't breathe for three seconds as she simply gazed blankly ahead of her.
Yet when the breath returned to her lungs, she finally took a moment to look the situation over.
********* was there, as well as a silver haired senshi. The tomboy managed to catch a good look at the newly purified senshi's face, and her mouth fell slack for a moment, forming a small "O."
"...Psyche?" Upon saying the name, the yellow suited senshi fell forward, barely catching herself upon her hands so she was on all fours.
The Mauvian's ear twitched freely, hearing the name which the eternal senshi had dared to utter. A pair of green eyes turned to look at the new super senshi, finding a familiar pair of grey eyes there, silently asking for guidance.
Psyche... Before, the name had meant nothing to her when she spoke to Iris on her asteroid. Now, without the interference of chaos, her own memory hazed in.
"...Psyche... Senshi of Breath.... and... one of my girls..." With a weak smile, she reached out and pointed to the super senshi (who had amazing fashion sense at the moment). For so long, she had thought she had found all her girls, and she had been wrong all this time. With the small amount of information she had gathered on this girl prior, she could only justify that the reason she couldn't recall the name until now was simply because she was too far away. Greece was quite a ways away from Destiny City.
Pushing herself to lift her head to face Psyche once more, Iris put on a strained grin before saying to the girl "I'm glad you've returned, Psyche..." With that, her arms buckled, and her body fell into the snow. Her fuku faded, leaving an unconscious Ellie Spectre in the white powder.
The Mauvian easily noticed how fatigued her team's captain was, and within a moment, she had shifted back to her feline form. The hat which Psyche wore upon her head vanished the moment ********* returned to her usual form.
"Sailor Iris?" She sprang from her spot to give the tomboy a good looking over before looking back to the super senshi. "...Psyche... do you think you'd be up for helping me get her home?"
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Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2013 2:24 am
The senshi of breath had no idea what all the excitement was about between these two girls but she seemed to enjoy the show, her hands folded in her lap similiar to the mannerisms of a child. A show and a hat, how simply wonderful! What was not to like about it? Maybe the temperature—it was simply frigid out and she was in a skirt! She shivered abruptly, trying to pull her skirt over the length of her legs in the progress.
Her head felt light, and then when she looked to see if the ********* had taken it back the senshi nearly flew off the slide. There was a frown on her face from the despair that losing the hat caused her but it was overruled by an expression of curiosity and concern with a hint of horror and surprise because THE GIRL TURNED INTO A CAT! Psyche nearly s**t herself and had a heart attack all at once, her breath heaving as if a panic attack was ready to set in. To make it worse, the cat turned and spoke. That was the final push to get the senshi off the slide but instead of landing gracefully like she would have normally the senshi put weight on her feet and slipped from the nature of the heels.
"Ah!" She yelped, landing in the snow bottom first. Well, there went her earlier attempts to warm up.
Memory of walking in heels? Gone. Her body was used to it, but the sudden surprise had taken both her and her legs by surprise. It took her a minute to stand back on her own and at that point the feline was not only looking at her but also talking. To her? She wasn't exactly sure about that yet. Her hands fell toward her chest, and she pointed to herself as if to ask if the cat was talking to her. She did this while she walked over toward *********, looking between the cat and this new girl. Where did she come from and where did the other girl go?
Questions, wonders, all so many facing her grey eyes.
********* was the first victim as Psyche's hands scooped the cat up, holding her at a distance from herself as she made her inspection. This had to be the weirdest thing she's ever seen but given her memory's current status she didn't have much to compare it again. She didn't have any memory of cats talking, but on the other hand she didn't have any of them not talking so maybe this was perfectly normal. It had just been surprising, yeah!
Hands loosening her already light grip, Psyche dropped ********* down into the snow and her attention flew to Ellie as she began to inspect her. Did the cat want something this girl has? She had no idea, actually, only urged on by the few words she could understand from what the cat had said: home and help. It seemed simple, but before she got to that Psyche found herself poking Ellie in the face, several times, before lifting Ellie off the ground a little. She didn't take her off the ground all the way before she turned her attention back to the cat that wanted help to verify.
"This?" She questioned, watching ********* make confirmation before struggling to lift Ellie up onto her back. It was surprisingly easier than she expected, leaving an expression of confusion lingering on the senshi's face, and Psyche didn't know why. She couldn't remember ever being that strong, or perhaps this girl was just really light? She pondered on it, walking a bit aimlessly until ********* gave her purpose.
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Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2013 2:36 am
The manx was picked up in the air, and soon enough the cat was getting a pretty decent look at the situation. There was something off with the way Psyche was now looking at her. The way the super senshi was acting almost seemed like the common reaction of many brand new senshi. Nickeline had encountered ********* many times now, so why would she suddenly...
...wait...
The manx was set down and Ellie was soon enough lifted up. Apparently Psyche still had plenty of strength after this whole ordeal.
An uneasy feeling was starting to roll around in her stomach, and though Psyche was able to make a single utterance in English, the Mauvian could only imagine that things would be easier in her native tongue.
With a roll of her head, the manx began to lead the way to a nearby bench meant for parents watching over their children as they played on the playground. From there, they could rest and ********* could contact the only girl she knew that would be able to assist.
Irene...
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