Welcome to Gaia! ::

Lyndin didn't quite understand the purpose of receiving the stick and requiring to throw it, but at Scylla’s request, he did.

Caedus watched the otter with far more interest; he looked like he was tempted to draw his knees up into the chair but he stayed sitting still and observing as he listened.

“No, that won’t be necessary,” Lyndin said; he had been unreadable during most of her questions, but Caedus’ brows would knit together. Even now, he looked incredibly wary of her crystal.

Naturally, Lyndin took the lead role in answering her questions.

“Technically, if the Source Stones fell into the wrong hands, anyone could collect energy with them. But, that being said, my Cadets won’t lose something like that. If they’re in danger, they’re supposed to recall back to the warp pad we have set up. And, even if they did fall into the wrong hands, I doubt it would be so simple to find the companion pieces to siphon the energy into. It’s like having a battery, but if you don’t have anything to plug it into, you can’t use it. I think that was all of your first question?”

He took a second to recall her other questions. “Our starseeds are different from yours. I think, you consider corruption as black and white. You need a power source to corrupt, don’t you? I don’t know how else to say it. Admittedly, we have not encountered much Chaos, but…” he gestured to Caedus. “A thousand years in the Rift, and he has no Chaos in him.”

Caedus’ eyes had gone to her crystal again; he blinked and seemed drawn from his thoughts when Lyndin spoke. “Oh. Yes,” he answered, but it seemed a bit airy.

“As for Archideus. I am certain there was never a Senshi there.” He spoke with absolute confidence. “It does not ‘seem’ dead. It is. Archideus was one of our moons. Cerideus, the other. Neither had any life on them. I watched them collide when I was a boy. Just before we left our world. I can’t give you a better way to confirm it beyond my word. We have old video footage. A few old records. Archideus is ideal for this because the crystal compounds inside of it react very well with our energy. It will easily amplify the blast and give us the power we need. Velenia is a shell of itself. Without a Senshi there to activate it, I fear it will not recover. But I am hoping there is another answer we can find here.”

Another pause, because she had many questions and he was doing his best to go over all of them. “I don’t think this plan can backfire in that way. I’m not sure how else to explain it, but the mechanics of it all would not allow anyone to grow stronger. But--if something were to go wrong, I think we could comfortably say we would help our allies on Earth. Velencya does not have the resources to support everyone,” he warned, “But we would take all that we could, if our allies were in danger. With help, we could build.”

Caedus let Lyndin answer but he nodded at this; he didn’t have to speak himself to remind Scylla how fond he was of this world or the people on it.

“Building is what we are best at,” Lyndin continued. “And researching, and surviving. I am not here to kill anyone if it can be avoided. Life is precious. I would not take a life worth sparing. My people know this, too. I believe there are many innocents trapped in places they don’t want to be. I don’t want to kill them. I want to save this world,” he promised, and his conviction seemed unshakable. “I want to save mine. I think this world would be better united under one banner, but I understand that there are many different views and positions. I am only here to help. I have been advised not to share technology, because members of your group don’t think they can be trusted with it, so I am at a bit of a loss to know who to trust. But it doesn't change the fact that this world deserves to live, and thrive. My place is not here, but I hope that my experience and advice can be put to use, at least. I don’t know what to do. But I hope to learn more and find out.”

Caedus was chewing on his cheek now, quiet but contemplative. He hadn’t looked up in a bit and his brows were knit as he thought deeply over all of these questions. He must have agreed with Lyndin’s answers; sometimes he nodded, and sometimes he just lost himself in the thoughts.

“Earth’s existing protection,” Lyndin began, “Is hard to put a finger on. The Surrounding is the most obvious, but the weak points are severe. It’s deteriorated significantly since the last time we were here. But I think you know this, Caedus mentioned concern to me before we left. It’s your first line of defense--especially if you don’t want someone snooping around on the other worlds, either. I understand you have Knights from other planets living here. If harm came to those worlds, it would pass on to them. The Surrounding protects all of you, together. If I were you, I would start there. If there is a barrier around these worlds, an outside force might decide it’s more trouble than it’s worth to try and break through. But, Earth itself is humming with energy. I don’t know that the Surrounding will be enough if something decides it wants in. I’m sorry, you’ve asked a lot. I might have missed something.”

Caedus was drawn from his distraction when Scylla spoke directly to him. “I am sorry. I am trying to keep up. You have a lot of concerns. I did not consider many of them. I am glad Commodore Lyndin is here to help. I find I still have many questions of my own.” He picked up the stick the otter had brought him, and though he didn’t quite seem to understand, he threw the stick as he watched the creature.

“I was thinking about crystals, and energy. And Chaos. And Metallia. My mind was lost in the Rift.”

Lyndin glanced at him and understood, to a degree. It wasn’t as if he and Caedus spoke at any great length about what he had experienced while he was imprisoned, but it was a prison Caedus still sometimes found himself lost in, when left to his own devices.

“It is a heavy conversation,” Lyndin reassured him. “If you need a break, you can go rest inside.”

“No, I am fine,” Caedus assured; he shook his head and seemed to try and focus a bit more. “I am here. I am sorry.”

For a few seconds, Lyndin watched him, and then he nodded and returned his attention to Scylla. “You had many questions, ah. Let me try to answer them all. You are a Senshi,” he explained to Scylla. “I am not. I cannot be ‘corrupted’. Our starseeds are our ‘life’. Our ‘self’. It would take a phenomenal amount of any power to influence our starseeds. They are stronger than yours, I should think. We are alive. We breathe, we feel, we bleed. But Queen Beryl did not ‘corrupt’ any of us. Caedus spent all that time in the Rift and there is nothing to show for it that I can tell. I take it that none of you were able to find Chaos in him, or you would not trust him?”

“I do not have Chaos in me,” Caedus confirmed. “I do not think, at least.” He looked at Scylla for confirmation when he could not tell, himself.

Lyndin continued while he did so; he pressed a few buttons on the wristband he wore and the screen appeared again. This time, back to the comet; the reports were strange--translated, but still so different from anything on Earth. “I tried to simplify it. You can see the composition of the crystal at its core, that’s consistent with our own. Because we use the same type of crystals in much of our technology, I know it will be compatible.”

There were a few general notes--the observed temperature was well below freezing, and the comet itself gave no indication that it ever had, or ever would, support life. “You can take a picture of this if it would help you,” he said, and made the screen as large as he could. “Or I can send you the information digitally if you tell me where to send it. You won’t find a Senshi by either of those names, Archideus and Cerideus were only satellites to our world. They never supported Earth, and I don’t see how they could have started after the collision. If ever they would have been able to support a Senshi, I doubt the universe has plans for such now. But, that being said, I’m not quite sure how we could test our machine against a youma. I would have to completely reprogram it and use a vast majority of our collected energy just to turn it on. I’m afraid that doing so would use far more resources than we have available. Especially given the reluctance to have us here, collecting excess energy. I am sorry, Scylla. But I do not think I have time to do that. This machine was not meant to work on a small scale.”

Lyndin laughed softly, quiet and with only slight humor. “You speak as if I am not in the middle of answering all of your questions. You have many. I will get to them all,” he reassured.

He was working on his wristband, pressing buttons, selecting features. Scylla’s phone pinged a few seconds later with the information displayed on the screen. That finished, he dismissed the hologram and returned his attention to her.

Caedus had fallen quiet again, guilty more so than tired, now.

Lyndin offered him no reproach; he did not speak of the attack on the Negaverse or criticize anything beyond that.

“Let me know if that’s gone through,” he said, but moved to her other questions. “I don’t know what your crystal is. We’d have to run tests on it to see. It’s certainly possible that it has energy that could be harnessed in moderation. I am sorry I cannot give you a physical sample. Nor can I answer for the Cauldron or Earth. I’m sure you can understand why the topic is of such interest to me. Velencya has limited resources. We cannot afford to risk overpopulation. We are a synthetic world. If our world has no life in it, maybe Cosmos does not see us as a viable world.”

He leaned back in his chair just slightly, briefly checking on Caedus before he returned his attention to Scylla.

“I’m afraid I don’t know what you mean by ‘something worse’ than being Corrupted. But, I do not think this plan will fail. I don’t know what you would have to prepare for on our account. My people will persist, whether we have a Senshi or not. We are here to help Earth, and to learn if there is any other way to restore our world.”

Caedus’ eyes were on her, and for as distracted as he had seemed before, he saw. There was a quiet suspicion in his expression, compassion and worry.

“You are a good friend,” he said to her, both gently and reassuringly. He did not seem to understand when the change had taken place in her, or what had happened to cause it, but he saw it in her and he didn’t want to give her any chance to worry. “I am feeling restless.” He looked at Lyndin, who was already raising a brow at him, and then backed to Scylla. “I have not yet been able to catch up with you. Will you walk with me for a moment? If you are done speaking with Commodore Lyndin.”

Lyndin seemed to understand that Caedus was, in some part, asking for permission to have a moment with Scylla. He nodded understandably and pushed himself up from the chair. “I have things I can tend to inside. If you have any more questions, of course I’ll be here. Whenever you need. I’m very grateful for the hospitality you’ve shown us, Scylla. I look forward to working together. I hope we can reach our goals together.”

Commdore Lyndin had smiled and thanked her appreciatively as she took her leave, and Caedus was quick to hook his arms with Scylla, though he did seem to fall into a bit of a stoop to be a little closer to her. He started walking straight ahead; there was no path necessarily in mind, but he stuck close to the barrier and just walked.

When they were a good few steps away, he glanced at her with just the slightest tilt of his head.

“Are you all right, Scylla?” he asked, in a quiet, gentle tone; his voice was still a little gravelly, a little metallic, sometimes, but it didn’t seem to distract from the sincerity and worry.

Caedus nodded when she suggested Lyndin was nice, because he seemed to think so. But then, her smile seemed distant, and he was back to worrying.

“I am sorry. If it is worth anything, I think being human is a very special thing. And I do not think there is anything wrong with being young. I would like a few years of my youth back, I think. You have a different perspective than we do. I think that is advantageous.”

He watched her carefully, patiently.

“It is sudden though, I know. I am sorry for that, too. May I ask what you did expect?” he questioned, with only curiosity. There was no room for criticism in his tone or his question; he only seemed to want to understand.

Caedus did not understand her little otter creature, and watched it and its prey with a confused look. Scylla was far more important and his attention almost immediately returned to her.

“I have faith in them,” he answered after a few seconds. “...I am not very brave, I do not think. But I am very stubborn, Scylla. I do not think you are a coward for wanting to be prepared. Or for asking questions. You are allowed to be tired, and wary. I do not think you are weak.”

He squeezed her hand for emphasis.

“You can be experienced and prepared and still find things that are new and frightening. The universe evolves and we evolve with it. But there is no shame in meeting things changes with caution and concern.”

He watched her carefully and then said, “You give me hope. You have always given me hope. You have made a difference in my life. I cannot imagine you have not made a difference in the lives of others as well. I am sorry for putting you in this position. I thought you wanted the Negaverse gone,” he admitted. “...I thought...this would help you. And Earth. And all the others.”

Caedus listened and nodded, but it seemed like he was taking a bit of time to mull things over. “If it takes the Chaos from them...they are just people, right? It means that they are making their own decisions. I do not know what the goals of the Negaverse are beyond to consume and devour this world. Metallia...I do not think she cares for the Negaverse. I think she must care about what they can do for her. But she is not human. She does not have their needs. They are blind to the fact that they are her puppets and they are expendable to her.”

He was quiet for a few seconds more and then said, “If someone replaces her, maybe they will care. But I think...it is not bad to lose that unnatural Chaos. She tips the scales in a way that is unfair and unnatural.”

Caedus sighed heavily, like there was still some great weight on his shoulders. “If her Chaos Seed is destroyed, there will be no more power to tap into. That is what I hope for. And then, it is only a matter of fixing broken people and helping them find the way again. You are good at fixing,” he said, and squeezed her hand once more. “You are good at helping. I want to help, too. I will do whatever I can.”