Welcome to Gaia! ::

Midas let his anger and his words wash over her like a stone in a waterfall, drinking in the flawed smile, the wild look he barely contained in his eyes. Yet she did not interrupt him, she didn't even move until the last word had died on his lips.

"Thank you," she said at last, as he let silence fall and gave her a space to speak. There was no fear in her eyes as she looked up at him, up at a man who had been fighting so hard for something she could barely begin to fathom. Once, before Pythia had escaped the country to pursue her studies, they had sought to find out the kernel of truth at the heart of war. So long they had searched, in vain, and it had never mattered. Now there was this single person, one lone soul in a sea of thousands, who could put the war into perspective for her.

"I'm being completely honest when I say that I have cared very little about this war, but I also have not met anyone with more fear than awe to share." Not that she thought Castor was afraid but, simply, realistic. There were true, miserable outcomes that he believed might come to pass. "I'd apologize for making you be realistic with me for a moment but," she shrugged, "I'd rather have heard it than not. I don't believe in fighting for something I don't understand, for goals that I don't know."

A long, drawn sigh escaped her lips and she glanced from the intensity in his blue eyes and out beyond him, to the piece of Destiny City they occupied - deceiving in its silence, at peace now that the terror had been vanquished. Was this world really the last one left? A pang of guilt throbbed deep in her gut as she realized she had yet to visit the place that the Senshi of Midas called home. Among all her problems as Zoe, it had seemed unwise to add another factor to the pile.

It still might have been, but she looked back at Castor with that hint of curiosity still lingering in her bright, fuchsia eyes.

"Maybe this will all sink in, when I get the courage to see what is left." Although first, she knew, she had to believe that she was Midas - something more, something powerful. Zoe was too strong of a personality to be changed at the whim of a cosmic power.

The playful, jovial person that he had been when he first rescued her was obviously a farce - beneath his attempts to smile, the lingering sorrow and misery tainted him as thickly as any war veteran. There were things he must have seen, truths he must have known, that would never let him return to the age that he truly was.

He didn't seem much older than herself, and yet, he seemed ages beyond her.

"I think I would be more startled to find people alive, if I'm being perfectly honest, but I will trust that you know what it feels like to walk on soil more personal than Earth's. Honestly, I can't even begin to fathom it."

Her arms came up to cross her chest, bringing the sash that was connected to her wrists with it, so that it covered parts of exposed, tan skin.

"But I don't think that my world is something I can afford to give in to, not right now, despite certain.. curiosities that I have." She frowned and looked past him into the empty street beyond them, the unassuming night that wouldn't have appeared threatening at all - except that she had just been cornered and nearly bludgeoned to death by a great, hulking monster.

"I have a sister that has been drawn into this war, here and now. This city is more important to me than any city in the past, any relationship or loved one that might have been. She is the part of my world worth protecting." She had been granted some small reprieve due to Cassia's schooling, but what happened when she, inevitably, returned?

How safe would Destiny City be for Pythia?

"I will always want answers but, too, I want the power to keep those I love safe." Her eyes moved back to his, bright fuchsia meeting cold blue, locking into place. "My magic is nothing if I don't know how to follow it up and that, at least, I know without having to have it pointed out for me."

Although Midas could have argued that she would never consider giving in to chaos, to the power they offered and the protection it could provide if things went sour, she knew that wasn't true. Her loyalty to the Order side was shaky at best and Zoe knew she would do anything necessary to protect her sister.

Having Castor tell her, first and foremost, that accepting the power to protect her would cause her to lose her entirely? Midas carefully filed 'corruption' into the folder of her mind labeled 'last resort'.

"I understand," she said with eyes that saw not just him, the Prince, but the motives that lay behind his blue eyes. He knew what he wanted and what he was fighting for - and so did she. Her world might not be important - even her future reincarnations might not be important yet - but Pythia was. Cassia was. If she didn't care about Midas' future, she could at least agree that she cared about Pythia's.

There were no chaos signatures nearby and, secluded as they were in the side alley, Midas felt safe enough. Castor was an ally she wanted - unclouded by some superior idea of justice and good will. He had goals to achieve. Very suddenly she wasn't Midas considering Castor - she was Zoe Katsaros, the eldest daughter of a prominent family that already had power and sway over the social current of the city itself. A modern, Greek-American Princess.

"I'm not a powerful ally yet, but I know how to assess value." A hand ran up through her curly orange hair, brushing it back from her face now that there was no banded veil to keep it in place. "I want to know the war I'm fighting - but not by random encounters with these beasts. If my power has the potential you think it does, then I would ask you to consider involving me in your goals. Treat me as a protege if that suits our power difference in your eyes. I simply know that I will get no where without a little guidance."

It was Zoe's turn to laugh when suddenly there was no Castor, but a Prince of a different empire.

Elzo Xanis.

She would have been a fool not to recognize him from magazine articles and tabloids, as much as he would have been a fool not to recognize her.

"They'll think what they always do whenever they see a picture of me next to a man they don't recognize." As much as Elzo had been considered a womanizer, Zoe was known for inability to be tied down. Dozens of men, anonymous and well-known alike, had been featured next to her beneath eye-catching headlines - some were lovers, some were hopeful, but not a single one had been seen in her presence for an extended time.

Zoe Katsaros had never let a man tie her down.

"At least this time my Dad might be interested in the man staring back at him from the newspaper, hm?"

The smirk on her lips was playful once she set her hand in his for the shake, the seal of their agreement, but her eyes still retained that knowing intelligence that said nothing would be missed. She pushed herself away from the wall and nodded up the street.

"Let's go set the rumor mill ablaze then, Elzo."