Welcome to Gaia! ::

"I won't tell" Athene said simply.

He considered Remarque's question for a few moments "I've never really had any fancy end game" he admitted at last. "I'm not exactly soldier material or particularly brave and there's others out there who are far more eloquent with words then I will ever be."

He glanced up to look at the colours mixing in the sky for a few moments, before continuing "I wasn't a particularly impressive basic senshi and I wasn't much better as a super senshi, but one night when I was out on patrol as a super senshi I had the bad luck to run into a Negaverse General called Painite."

It hadn't been the first time that he'd run into her and nor had it been the last, but Athene left it unsaid, as he continued quietly "And I probably would have died that night, should have died that night - but the guardian cat that gave me my pen took a chance on me and another senshi gave his life for me."

His lips quirked up in a bitter smile that faded after a moment "And I spent the next few months afterwards trying to run away from it all, from everything powered."

He lifted his shoulders in a small self-deprecating shrug "But I learnt that being powered isn't something that you can really run away from."

A quiet sigh "I never knew the name of that senshi who saved my life, don't know anything other than he was a basic senshi who was brave enough and reckless enough to try and take on a General - and I was too weak to do anything for him" a determined note slipped into his voice as he continued quietly "And I know that I am only one person and that nothing I do will bring him back for his family - but I can try to help other senshi and knights who are new to all of this and at least try to make it so that they are not stumbling around in the dark like I and like maybe he had to."

Athene looked away from the sky, the firm note still in his quiet voice as he continued "There's people who I care about caught up in all of this and I won't leave them on their own in all of this, even if I can only do what I can."

He added "More than anything, I want this 'war' to be over - for those I care about to be safe - and not to have to worry about things like youma or those I care about turning up dead or worse - but I don't want to lose myself to it or let it turn me into someone who's not me either."

Athene wasn't sure what to say about Remarque's comment about him having been through the ringer - because whilst it was true that being powered hadn't exactly been a walk in the park, Athene also knew that there were others out there that had faced horrible things and some it was likely worst than his own experiences had been.

"I've survived" he said at last, because despite everything he had somehow managed to make it out of situations that frankly should have killed him - had even managed to live to see past his twenty-fifth birthday even though there had been a point when he was so sure that he wouldn't.

His lips quirked up in a small brief smile as he admitted "And it hasn't all been horrible - I've made friends - good ones" he glanced up at Remarque "Including, it seems, ones in unlikely corners."

The smile faded at Remarque's comment about youma, because it wasn't the first time that the blond had mentioned that he wasn't a fan of youma–

And truthfully it was something that the two of them had in common, as was the fact that Athene knew that he too would do his best to help and save those important to him.

He couldn't help but look a little bashful at Remarque's last comments, one hand absently fiddling with a few strands of his dark hair "I.. er... Thank you." Then again perhaps Remarque had known him long enough to know that he got flustered at things like that "I try and I'm going to keep trying."

Athene nodded "Thank you" he said simply, "And yes I plan to try my best to stay out of trouble."

Because running headlong into trouble was definitely more Liryn's shtick than his.

Not to say that he wouldn't face trouble if he had to, because facing trouble was something that was kind of part and parcel of powered life–

But it wasn't something that Athene personally tried to court.

"And thank you for listening to me go on - it helped" and he wasn't just saying it - because, surprisingly it had helped to voice some of the feelings that he'd been trying his best to bottle down.

"It goes both ways by the way" Athene added quietly, because he hadn't quite answered Remarque's question earlier "If I can help you then I will."

His lips tilted up in another of his small smiles as he added "And I still owe you a trip to my asteroid - I haven't forgotten - although I should probably warn you that Liryn likes to invite himself along when I go."

But either way it wasn't something that would be happening tonight.