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Somehow she knew that his answer would fall along those lines. The tool itself was not chaotic simply because it could be used in that manner. Her nose wrinkled and she seemed as though she might start scowling again sooner rather than later.

"Are they or aren't they the same technology used by the Negaverse?" she stated simply, interrupting the other two as they discussed under what terms someone should or shouldn't be left behind. Corvus agreed with Denebola, at least. If someone was abandoned, if a friend was lost, she would fight against anything if it meant bringing them back safely.

"Sorry, I just... Why now? Why suggest we go into the Rift now? And what of the younger senshi? You'll allow the little ones on this potential suicide mission as well? You ask us whether or not we would risk our lives to retrieve one of our own... And yet our lives are going to be at risk now."

Denebola didn't like any of this. Every answer she got from Caedus only increased her doubt and suspicion, it didn't ease her worries or concerns like she hoped it might and she could tell that Corvus wasn't happy about any of it either. "It's...worrisome that you do not blame your people for leaving you behind and yet -- " she paused, glancing at her partner before looking back at those soulless gold eyes. "You want us, those of us that fall beneath the White Moon kingdom, to go into battle for you without knowing much about you or where you came from."

The fact that he had no cats to suppress energy signatures and that their large gathering hadn't been noticed before was concerning too.

What strange magic did the stranger truly possess.

"So you sent children to fight your battles before too?" The question came out as a hiss, with more bite than she had intended but the idea that he was okay with risking the lives of children was infuriating. "You're damn right these are different times. Those children that keep getting awakened? It's by cats who don't know what they ******** they're doing." She didn't mean to swear but anger was building within her. "Contrary to what you might believe, we're not soldiers. We're not trained, we're thrown into the midst of things and I can promise you that those children you're willing to send into battle? They don't understand the gravity of the situation, the implications of what going into the negaverse stronghold means."

She shook her head, body trembling. "There are adults that don't fully understand the risks, how do you expect children to?"

"You are mad," Caedus said slowly, hesitantly. "I am struggling to understand how much of it is directed at me. I understood that your Guardian Cats were meant to guide you. I thought they would be qualified to judge when someone was ready. I do not know of your training procedures here. My experience with senshi is limited to those on their homeworld. With extensive training, regardless of age. Forgive my words if they were offensive. I do not understand human maturity. You are all so, so very young to me. And yet," he seemed to strain himself for a moment, thinking, "I could not have been younger than you when I first saw battle. It changed me. It left its scars, I do not deny this. But if I had been denied my chance to stand for what I believed in, I would have carried that weight heavier than any scars."

He seemed pensive.

"I do not ask you to fight for me. I ask that you fight for yourselves. If you do not agree with attacking the Negaverse in their stronghold, I would respect that decision. I would respect you for encouraging others to avoid making a strike. But I am not forcing anyone to do more than they want. I confess that I do want the Negaverse gone, but it is as much for my peace of mind as it is for the safety of this planet. It is wise to fear the Negaverse. But, please forgive me if I offended you. I did not realize you did not have training in the way they used to. I would not wish those unprepared to enter battle, no matte the age."

"The Guardian Cats of the past might have been qualified, but the ones that walk on Earth here with us now? I -- I can't say that they are. They might be. They might think that they are, but," Corvus shook her head, glancing off after her partner before shifting the blanket she held in her arms once more, drawing it a bit closer to her. She couldn't blame Denebola for leaving. She didn't know why she lingered on yet herself.

"My experiences with them have not been positive ones, other than those who have lent me their aide when it was time for my power to grow. One, a Cat born into this life as Astraea, the reincarnation of Luna, berated all of us for our lack of knowledge and did little to help us further it. We -- We are floundering. We fight our enemy because we have to. We fight each other because we disagree. We fight because it is the one thing that we know how to do without learning because it is for our survival."

Corvus fell silent for a moment, drawing in to her own thoughts before finally speaking again. "Caedus? Have you, in your travels, heard of the Makaiju Tree?"

"You may," she directed the conversation away from apologies, finding no sense in dwelling on them for the time being. They would change nothing in the long run. It would cause far too many problems to back out now when the offer to open a portal into the abyss had already been dangled in front of those ready to fight.

"Five years ago -- No, it's been nearly six now," the Eternal Senshi's brow furrowed as she thought about the night; late March, just getting into Spring, "a new enemy started showing up around town. We were used to fighting the Negaverse and their youma, but this was different. Each time we defeated a monster a card was left behind it -- they were summoned by visitors to our planet; aliens, as we would call them, who wanted to harvest our energy. They were not as polite in asking for it as you have been. Had they been we might have tried to help them, as so many of our ranks are now willing to help you."

She lowered her gaze to the ground, stormy eyes focusing on the glimmer of ice crystals in the snow as she continued. "It was a trap. Neither the Tree, who had brought its children to Earth to harvest energy, nor its children, who were only doing as they were told, knew that it would be, but it was. The Negaverse was drawn to all of the energy and the powered signatures and they staged a coup. We only survived because the Makaiju sacrificed itself to save those of us who had been trying to help it. We knew nothing of this tree or its children until that night, just as we still know so little of you..."

If there was a point to her story she had lost it somewhere in telling it, fingers grasping at the fleece blanket once more. "I know that you wouldn't know that story. You haven't been topside long enough to know that story... But the way the tree spoke made it seem as though it, too, had been around for a very long time; many cycles with many children. Do you know of planets, worlds, where the plant life is sentient and gives life energy to the other beings it exists with?"

"Sometimes even wise people can do foolish things." Corvus murmured idly as her gaze drifted down to the snow-covered ground. "There are days when all of this seems foolish; the war against Chaos, drawing power from the stars, the thought that there are so many other worlds out there than just this one. Every single one of us each had our own home, and yet we've forgotten it and this is our home now."

She paused, shuffling a bit of the snow with her foot before lifting her gaze to him. "Would you make Earth your home too if you were unable to return to your world?"

"Many of us have returned to our homes to find no one there... It doesn't stop us from wanting to know, needing to know. We seek knowledge just as we seek a place to rest and call home." Corvus closed her eyes for a moment, reaching up to lightly tuck a strand of blue-black hair back behind her ear. When she opened them again it was to glance over her shoulder in the direction that Denebola had gone off in.

"I should find her... Talk to her. I'm sure there are others seeking you and waiting for your time. Until we meet again, Caedus."