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"It was Negaverse." She confirmed, hands shifting as her fingers flexed around the steering wheel. "The shots were being called by a Captain, up until things started going south-- He didn't seem to expect the level of chaos and he certainly wasn't expecting the youma. Richterite. His name was Richterite."

It was so strange to talk about everything with someone who hadn't been there. She remembered the night vividly, just as she remembered every other night that hadn't gone as planned.

When they made it far enough away from the airport she pulled off to the side of the road, turning her car off so that she could sift in her seat to look at Lucien. "... Luc, it was Rik."

"Worked for the Negaverse. He--," she swallowed hard, closing her eyes for a moment as she turned her head away from Lucien, uncertain for a moment as to how to proceed with the rest of the tale.

"It was one of ours who put him in the hospital. Richterite teleported outside with her to keep her from harming any of the team he brought into the club. She wanted to kill him-- Would have killed him. I couldn't let her. That's not what we do, Luc. We aren't them. We don't kill people. He lost consciousness and powered down and that's..." Again she paused, taking a deep breath and releasing it slowly.

"I brought Rik to the hospital and once he was stable and awake I gave him an ultimatum."

"We are better than them, Lucien, and that's why we give them a choice." She snapped back, shaking her head before sliding her fingers through her hair, pulling the scrunchie out of her hair before redoing her ponytail out of frustration.

"I gave Rik a choice. I knew his secret so I told him mine. He was still in the hospital; not in any place to do anything to hurt me, and I brought back up with me just in case he tried anything funny... You might not think so, but I tried to be smart about everything. I wasn't willing to risk the life of a friend, not if I didn't have to."

"The choice is to surrender or continue fighting. I transformed in front of him. I exposed who I was. The only options that left him with were purification or death." She realized how dramatic it all sounded and hated that she was now putting Lucien through the same mess that she had been through.

"He doesn't remember much, Luc. He can't remember anything about the time he spent with the Negaverse. He doesn't remember much about the past few years outside of that either. Some of the memories are gone from the purification. The rest-- Stars, the rest are probably from the head injuries. He's been pushing past it, though, even if it's meant everything's changed."

"A royal purified him, I just coordinated it." It had been more than that, so much more than that. He'd had to make sure that Rik would be safe once the purification was complete, that he had somewhere to stay while he'd readjusted to everything. Fiona had been such a big help with everything...

"He's a Knight of Cosmos, and you deserve better than to simply believe that he died. It's why I wanted you to come home instead of just telling you over the phone that he was gone for good." She glanced over to him, watching him for a moment.

"If you'd really rather just believe he's dead maybe taking you to see him isn't such a good idea..."

"The Negaverse finds you when you're at your worst and latches on to your weaknesses. If you're not strong enough that's when the darkness reaches in." She spoke as though intimately familiar with the situation because she was. On more than one occasion she had been faced with the temptation that came from the idea of being able to leave everything behind; to forget and belong all at once.

"I couldn't keep him with me no matter how much I wanted to. I was friends with Rik and if anyone else was looking for someone who matched his description it would just seem odd. He's been staying with a mutual friend of ours... You remember Fiona, don't you?" Her brow lofted as she looked at her cousin. "He's been staying with her and figuring out how to be a knight by spending time with another friend of ours."

"I've been visiting him at Fiona's and we've gone on patrol together a few times. He needs all of the support that he can get, Luc, from new friends to old ones... Just because he can't be Rikard Colby anymore doesn't mean he can't be our friend; that we can't still care about him."

She reached over so that she could take hold of Luc's hand, assuming he'd let her. "I don't want to save everyone. I know not everyone can be redeemed, but that doesn't mean I can't do everything in my power to save the ones that I can. If Rik had been that far gone I would have killed him myself..."