Welcome to Gaia! ::

"I thought so." Jada had chosen the two she recited to him carefully, seeking to invoke an emotion in him- possibly the very note she heard in his approval. "I'm glad you approved."

Nodding her head in response to his diclaimer, she listened carefully to his words. She appreciated the fact he'd looked them all over carefully- none of the defects she heard sounded very pleasant. "Trapped in sleep. Like Tartaros?" Her voice was a whisper, possibly too low for him to hear, punctuated by a shudder. Or worse, trapped in nothing. A living body, but a dead mind. Like zombies? Or was she jumping to the worst possible conclusions? And, honestly, did she want to know? Constant fatigue she could deal with, but then that fatigue would wear and wear, as the crystal dr-

Nope. "I'm very glad you checked them out before passing them out. I plan to test it out, but would quite like to be able to stay awake and come and visit you again. I don't have many people to read poetry with, my sib-" she paused, then said carefully, "My siblings don't much appreciate poetry." It was vague. Many people had siblings. She'd been about to mention an age, not even thinking. "How will I know when the crystal is charged and ready to return to you? Will they be fully white?" As they had gathered, there had been that swirly mist...

She had so many questions about his world, and where he came from, but something told her to save those questions for a later visit. This one was just basics. Would using the crystal kill her, how would she know when it was done collecting... "How long do you think it will take to collect? Not everyone will aid you. Most of us who are older... we've survived betrayal by the skin of our teeth and dumb luck. Optimism is dying, slowly, and many will want more than words."

Scylla shook her head at Caedus. “You don’t need to reassure me,” her voice was slightly resigned. “Everyone has secrets and everyone wants something. You’ve been surprisingly transparent with your goals for someone who chooses to hide who he is away behind bandages and a cloak.” She leaned back to stare at the sky, a small smile playing about her lips. “It’s refreshing.” Sometimes it felt like she had to lie about this side of herself on the daily, with the hot topic being what it was.

“Honestly, I think that if you had wanted to harm us, you wouldn’t have revealed yourself yet, seeming so weak. Too risky, too easy to backfire. Even a carefully calculated one.” She gnawed on her lower lip, considering her words carefully. “Whether it is optimism, a gamble, or someone else calculating the risks, you’ll have help.” For example: Herself. Though which of the 3 options she presented was her reason, she couldn’t say.

“If I bring you the crystal every so often when I visit, will it help you heal faster? Or is the energy not for you specifically, but to power your ability to break through to the castle? Or wait, you may have answered that…” Scylla’s brow wrinkled as she tried to remember the minutiae discussed in the large meeting the night prior. It was, perhaps, an odd way of acknowledging the lack of an ETA.

His question gave her a pause, and her body tensed, then relaxed. Have you survived betrayal as well? “There are many kinds of betrayal, Caedus.” She breathed in through her nose. “Some just kill the body and others kill the soul.” She breathed out.

Her mother. Having an affair. Divorcing her father. Trying to marry her off like a cow at market.

Audrey. Daphne. Linarite. Murdering Jada's family in some last expression version of love for her friend.

Ares. Turning on her court for following the laws she had created. Leading the Dark Mirror.

She looked at herself and her viewpoints and her self-worth, and wondered. I am expendable.

“I’ve been betrayed,” she said after a minute of silence. “I’m not sure I’ve actually survived it.”

Both can heal.

It didn't slip her attention that he hadn't answered her question about the crystal, but she'd been a bit rambly, so she let it slide, and instead focused on the things he did say. "The last to remain? So there were others, then, from your time and before?" He said the universe would be better off without Metallia and her influence, and she strongly agreed. "We'll get it done." Nothing good came without a cost, but it would come.

He leaned forward, and Scylla shifted her position to something more comfortable and less prim. She hadn't meant to stay so long, but it was a good conversation, and he didn't seem to mind. "I woke up the next morning, and the world was still moving on." "There were still expectations, and people who needed me, and for almost four years I stayed a civilian and didn't power up except to spend time on my planet, or if I had no other choice. I didn't overcome it, I ran from it. The woman I trusted my life to was corrupted by power and vengeance, and my-" she paused, feeling the knot of almost-forgotten hurt and fury in her gut clench. "But the world didn't care. Days march on, and you move with them or get left behind. And one day the hurt scabbed over, and I just try not to pick at it, and remember to be optimistic."

She leaned back. "I don't know if it is overcoming it so much as... avoiding it. I... wonder, sometimes." Could she have fallen, like Ares, if she'd been offered.... whatever it was that she'd been offered? The evil promotion kool-aid?

"You, um, you said your world was synthetic. With no senshi. Why does that make you so seem so certain it can't fall to Chaos?" She wasn't trying to change the subject. "Believe it or not, the question is relevant to the subject at hand, just...."

So it wasn't the corruptibility of the Senshi that made his world less flawed. something in the way he spoke, however honest, sparked something in her. She couldn't tell if she was jealous, of if his species just had... ego. Which wasn't a bad thing. But if he tossed off that hood and he was a Tolkien elf under there, she might laugh a little and then cry.

"I... You talk about a synthetic world, but even our technology can fall prey to viruses. Flaws in craftsmanship. Exploits, and greed, and- A rock can survive in the middle of a stream for a long time, but eventually... Buildings that stand for thousands of years slowly crumble. A thousand years is a long time for Chaos to have gone mostly unchallenged. If something stood in her way, or stood alone, aren't you afraid they might have gone through it instead of around it? "

Her discomfort was clear on her face. This wasn't what she had wanted to ask Caedus about at all. Not tonight.

Jada stared at Caedus for a long moment after he spoke. He was so certain, and it seemed that it was so easy for him to say. I believe in my people. I have faith that they have persevered. She was envious. Could she say that her people would persevere? No. Because they were already fighting themselves. Fighting the same fight that had been fought.And what were the chances that in another thousand-

No. This wasn't a path she was willing to look at just yet. There was looking to the future, and there was looking too far to the future. She didn't even know how tomorrow might play out. And it was such a negative outlook, and she had been doing so well.

Scylla gave Caedus a smile, and if it trembled at the edges, she didn't try and fix it. "I," she cleared her throat, the tremulous smile washing away, "I should let you get some rest like I promised. Did you have any requests?"

Scylla inclined her head. "You'll see more of me than you want to," she promised. Stowing away the gifts she had brought, she showed him how to close the duffel bag. She figured he could probably figure out a zipper, but there were a lot of pockets.

Then she slipped off into the night for home, her mind full. She had some choices to make.

{FIN}