Welcome to Gaia! ::

The answer got a raised brow. Then-

"You've given us a story. More, if you realize, you've given us seeds of truth. What we know was, is, based on fragments of a lunar projection from a forgotten era. Tiny morsels of a whole from remnants of souls who managed to survive- moderately. Beryl's death wasn't one I witnessed, but I can tell you, for your story- I can at least offer the summary of a conclusion from this era."

He sighed, wings lifting before fanning out, a tiredness seeping into his tone as he pulled up the memories. Told both to him, and the ones he'd live through, experienced.

"Once upon time seems s**t of an opener but it's accurate. Once upon a time, before we had been born and reborn, the moon princess Serenity and her court were reborn along with the prince of earth, Endymion. However, they died shortly thereafter. Few details surround their passing but this much as certain, they died before their time. Years past. Luna was reborn again and began to awaken us. As she did, so did the negaverse rise in shadows. Around the time I was awoken, a lieutenant who went by Nealite fell in love with the General King Charonite. For a while the man didn't seem to give a rat's a** about her. Nearly lost my starseed when I found out that diddy. But fact was, she was in love with him. As I figure it, he was in love with Beryl, or more likely, with the idea of power and whatever went through his purple haired head. Eventually, she caught his interest- and so Nealite eventually became the wife of the General king. But more than that? She became host to Beryl." Still remembered the sight of her, the power of her. The absolute fear and terror he'd known the moment he'd laid eyes on her-
"Who ever was the woman you knew was likely not the woman I met. She was alive, reborn using a new body, and wanted blood. Senshi blood. Didn't matter if we were of Serenity's court or not. Later, word spread that she'd disposed her old host and her general king. But as I've heard from enough officers, Beryl is deader than a door nail now. No one's given me details, but then I have a nasty tendency to kill before capture."

Another sigh he hated to admit that truth, but so it was. "The agents praise Metallia- openly, and if you want further proof? Their ascendant general, Alkaid, she confirmed it. Out of all their agents and creatures, she wouldn't lie. Not to me. Not when she wants what her mistress wants and has a personal note to be the one to rip out my starseed."

His wings rose and fell as he thought back to her face, the original face he remembered, shy and smiling. With tiger striped stockings and a blush when he'd been just a boy with all to many flirty remarks for an innocent girl. "She was a senshi once. My friend. But then they changed her. Now she's empty. A vessel for her mistress. Just as you say. Too far gone. To lost to save. I realize-" He licked his lips.

"I realize it's a lot to take in. A lot for you to believe. But you remind me of them. More than what you are. Something past what we know, can understand. I didn't face them down and live because I stayed to chat, but I did try to learn. What I have learned is that when a power feels old? It's something you treat with fear and caution, because often enough, it isn't going to lie, not when it can blast us to hell and back."

He quirked a smile.
"But I'm not a fool, and if you want to go home- You'll need us to do it. More specifically, help likely from the Zodiac court to make it out of the Sol system. Past that, the help of royals or several eternals. None of that matters however, if your world has a name."

There was a look to Caedus then pointed with it's fixation. Castor did not trust Caedus completely, but he was willing to listen. And, to barter.
"Who was your wold's senshi, and to what did they hold dominion over?"
The senshi of earth didn't exist anymore, and not without a particular ended that was all too pleasant.

"I might be a power hunger, vengeance seeking d**k of a royal from a long a** dead empire who wants nothing more than to kill those responsible for committing my people to wholesale slaughter, but I won't be played a fool. Not when you want energy outright, when we have other options. Your world's senshi, if alive, would mean you'd be able to get home without the aid of us as a whole. If not, we might have records of them, fragments we could use."

He claimed to be no fool.
But in truth, he was. He was the fool who fancied himself smarter. Wiser. He fancied himself clever some days even.

"You say we can get in but you need energy."
A flash of light blue, a small chilling wind and there in his palm, not but a few feet from the figure, did Castor hold up his royal crystal.
"So my other question- Is the energy so you can survive, or so you can give us what you offer?"

"I think he's less popular than Cad... er...whatever. Anakin." Anakin was easier to pronounce, and the hooded figure struck her as something that was equally unpredictable. At least this side of a badly scripted movie. Lots of threat, lots of potential, one mysterious package.

"Literally the queen of the moon, used to basically keep things peaceful. Ballard provided, weaving through ankles as he made his way deeper into the crowd, ears twitching. Something seemed to have caught his interest and it wasn't Caedus.

"Thanks, Ballard, that was... descriptive." Syrma snorted, wrinkling her nose as the cat and his absurd sweater vanished. "Try not to blind anyone with your radioactive fashion disaster!"

"Hey I offered to help you pick the outfit kid, no need to be jealous of my glory. I'll think of you when I'm walking the runways of Paris."

"It's my uniform, nerd! And I'm never wearing that polka dotted frilly disaster! Especially not with the leopard leggings!" Syrma accused the cats retreating tail, which gave one dismissive and particularly feline flick and vanished in the throng.


----------

Kairatos of Mars:
He squinted aggressively at Castor, imagining the prince of Hail going on one of his... 'mood swings' and attempting to blow away the stranger with that damn rock. And of course he'd know one of those damn doll creatures. He was pretty sure he'd heard the name Alkaid, sure he'd seen her once, and -carefully- avoided her. He also knew a bit of Zinkenite's obsession with getting Lina back. Trust Castor, he thought uncharitably, to be tied up with something that had struck him as a doll filled with razors.

"Some of the Transcendent folk can share energy, I think." He pointed out, but there was more than that he was interested in. " But are you saying you can get us into the RIFT? The...the place the Academy used to be? Damn I think a lot of us would share some energy for that if we could... well... some of us..."

That would be...

It would be incredibly dangerous. They'd draw down nearly every Youma in the place, but at the same time, a concentrated strike to the right place... surely there was something they could accomplish right? Or was that just wishful thinking. Metalia was all but a vague specter in the dark, her youma almost more real than she was, but...

"How would we get out again?" If nothing else, they deserved to know if it would be a suicide mission. "I don't think any of us knows if we could jump back to our wonders or worlds from there."

Damn though, if they could... The Academy, he thought he understood, was deeper in the Rift, further from places that might be frequented by anything, or anyone they could actually save.

Sailor Dorado, Senshi of Fish

Dan was practically quivering with delight. A villain. She knew from the very first odd sensation that pulled her to this spot that whatever was causing it was clearly up to no good. And now, this stranger mentioned needing energy???

Ha! A likely story!

"You're smart not to!" She hissed back at the taller senshi, her blue eyes narrowed to mere slits as she folded her arms tightly under her chest. "Why are they acting so stupid? They can't REALLY trust this guy, can they???"

Ohh, but she knew they could. Not everyone happened to be the great and mighty Dorado! Even that fancy winged man with his ridiculously shiny crystal paled in comparison to her!

"Why should we believe you?" She called out boldly, her hands propping on her hips as her body jutted forward, her posture an aggressive challenge all on its own. "It could be a trap! You're just gonna waltz up here and offer us a chance like that?" Dorado made a rude sound with her lips, rolling her eyes with exaggerated disbelief. Yeah. Energy. Of course he wanted energy.

Her lips pulling back in a sneer, Dorado started to march forward--only to have her shoulder snatched by Duhr. She struggled against the restraint, but Mags had enough strength to haul her up if she really wanted to... still, that didn't stop the senshi from calling out again.

"You try anything funny, and I'll knock your stupid teeth right out of your stupid head!!!"

Subamara listened quietly as the story slowly started to come out. For a moment it seemed that the strange eyes fixed right on her, as if he’d heard. The figure was not sinister any longer - the figure was frightened, and alone, and exhausted. If he was keeping secrets, then it was because he was afraid of them. She could count three royal senshi, two of them very vocal, not to mention the knights and eternals all around. She’d be afraid too, if such a hostile audience was assembled before her. But he’d called them. They hadn’t found him, he’d summoned them. She wondered if he’d expected them all to turn up, and what he would have done if they hadn’t.

The name ‘Beryl’ rang exactly zero bells for her. It sounded like a name for an elderly aunt on an Australian soapie. The Prince’s story was new to her. She remembered Metallia, though, in the strange twisted way that the future memories took her. There’d been talk of a plan to attack Metallia. She thought vaguely that they’d chosen a different option, but they were all dead ends by then, leading to dead senshi. She closed her eyes for a moment. She didn’t *need* that set of unreal memories, they weren’t helpful to getting things done in the here-and-now. Things were different than she’d dreamed.

He needed energy. That could be taken so many ways, but it sent a shiver up her spine.

But he was asking. It wasn’t theft if it was asking. And Athene had told her energy-stealing didn’t seem to automatically hurt the drain-ee. If that was what it took to strike a blow against the Negaverse, to hit Metallia where it lived… but didn’t the Negaverse collect energy *for* Metallia? Subamara bit her lip, waiting to see what the stranger would do about the next round of questions. No point planning until they had the full picture.

Hvergelmir Knight of the Cosmos, near the front with Castor, Teide, Iduna, Maia

Hvergelmir listened quietly. There was much to dislike in what the figure, Caedus, was saying -- and not just because Hvergelmir was inclined to take Teide's warnings to heart, either.

I did not know her as well as the others. She was brought into the family.

We all fell. My brothers are dead. I can only hope they died before the monsters got to them.

What family? she wondered. What brothers? A literal bloodline, perhaps -- actual brethren by birth? Or knights, like many of those assembled here? Or a coven of sorcerers, if Beryl was brought into the fold -- and if Caedus had the power to survive a thousand years, without food or water, surrounded by youma, in the hellishness of the Rift?

… I will probably live a little longer.

Was he dying? And if he was dying, was it because he'd spent a thousand years in the Rift -- or because he'd left it?

"Caedus," she said gently. "I'm Hvergelmir. It's good to meet you. I should tell you that I -- that some of us here -- knew a man once, that claimed to his own people that he could open up a door to the Rift, if he had enough energy. He was . . . misled, in that respect," she chose her wording carefully. "And he had his own motives. But there's a lesson in his doomed experiment -- that a doorway in is also a doorway out. An opening to the Rift large enough to admit all of us, to get us in and back out again . . . what sorts of horrors might find their way out into the world while we're finding our way in? Can you be certain that Metallia's down there? Or that we're not opening up a portal that will let her, or a hundred Greater Youma, out into the world?"

Hvergelmir frowned at Castor's brazen display of his Royal Crystal. Was he always brash in all the wrong ways?

"Your magic is unfamiliar to us," she said. "How are there no Negaverse agents or Dark Mirror Senshi here? Do you have some magic keeping them at bay?"

Teide

All this talk of doors to the rift, imprisonment, and needing energy had Teide incredibly uncomfortable. If it was just those gathered here offering up energy, then she supposed it didn't do anyone any harm - but if Caedus asked them to go out and gather it, then how were they any better than the Negaversers they fought against?

There it was, she thought. The deal with the devil. The rot.

Fighting the tremor in her voice, she asked, "Caedus, you said they imprisoned you. How did you escape the Rift?"

She was afraid she already knew.

That door had been locked for a reason.

Maia, Eternal Senshi of Song, near the front with Castor, Hver, Tiede, Aptera, Induna

Maia had been silent and she had been watching him despite all the chatter it didnt escape her notice that he seemed to move away from them. Was he afraid? Was he no match for them, probably not? He looked tired, and it made her wonder what had it taken to get them all here.

He was speaking again, something of a fragmented story that she had heard before in different renditions, so when Castor spoke saying he gave seed of truth she felt that was right. Fragmented as it may have been it sounded the same.

She wasnt sure about basically knocking on the negaverses door, but an advantage over the negaverse. It was an internal debate because ambush never ended well for either side and would he lead her friends, family, allies to their potential death for an endeavor that she doubted the succcessfulness of. It was something that required planning and they often couldnt even have a successful meeting. She sighed, her head turning to gaze at Castors crystal as he summoned it.

"Your crystal can give energy," she asked, "he looks tired. I imagine one would be if he spent 1000 years imprisoned int he negaverse hold."

She looked to Hvergelmir when she spoke and then back to the figure, but didnt know what to think of her question because that was a worrisome though especially if they failed to destroy metallia. There was a lot to think about and agreeing to this really wasnt something they should do tonight, in a night.

"I can offer him energy, if he is tired, if it will help keep him alive, so that he may go home to rest, if we can figure out a way to send him there," she said more to Castor and those around her than to anyone else.

To Cadeus she said ,"the mars knight ... forgive me, I not know your name," she said briefly looking to him (Kai), "some transcended can offer energy, but not all. I can provide you with energy, though I am very unsure about opening the door to negaverse."


She realized that she hadnt offered up an introduction, but it felt odd to offer as an after thought, so if he asked she would offer up the information but otherwise she figured it was fine for the moment.

"Caster's unease may not be uncalled for, but . . . I can't put my hand on his strangeness. . ." Niflhel was listening to the man and occasionally glancing at Polaris lofting a brow. He seemed to have spoke of death among other things but he seemed to be wanting to give them a way to at least damage the negaverse if not to get rid of them completely. His eyes were back on Polaris, "What do you think?" He asked cautiously, he also heard the man say he needed energy to that end Niflhel shifted uneasy and frowned. How were they to get that?

"Energy?" He pipped up towards the now named Caedus. Looking slightly confused, "Like energy from food? Because Polaris is a hell of a cook, our dishes maybe completely different than what you're use too but . . . I'm sure we wouldn't mind opening our home to you, to feed you food. Right?" Niflhel's offer may have come the intentions to see if they could gather more information in a smaller group. He hoped Polaris would agree, and hopefully be on the same page as the Knight.

Snowball on the other hand actually had objections to this, "We can't let him in the house . . . Well I mean surely we can feed him if he's hungry but what if he doesn't have ah . . . unpowered identity? He'd surely draw unwanted attention. I'd need a lot more help to mask his presence, so I wouldn't tire myself out."





Hugbell was watching him, listening. She shifted with some concern.The words he spoke, she didn't like them all. "I think, some of them are worth saving. They're not all bad. It sounds like Metallia could be some of the cause though . . . so . . . " Hugbell shifted she wasn't comfortable thinking about having to kill anyone, even as a chibi and now a normal senshi she understood sometimes these things happen, sometimes they have to happen. However, she stretched a little.

She paused when he said he needed energy and coughed slightly. Looking towards Caedus it seemed a lightbulb appeared over head when someone else offered to feed him, she still brought out a small bag, with supplies in, things for the cats, not to mention food and water for herself as well. She pulled the water from her bag and paused looking to see if she had anything that she thought the stranger might enjoy in terms of food itself. Finally choosing to pull her apple slices. Hopefully they would settle with him, she moved slowly forward through the crowd, stopping far enough away from him since the bear hooded senshi had seen him backing away from everyone else, "It's not much . . . but you can have these if they'd help . . . for now." She offered the water and the apple slices to Caedus though she stood still and didn't go any further than he'd seemed comfortable with, she'd finish walking close enough to hand it to him if he wanted or she'd let him move to take them.



Halley blinked owlishly as Caedus backed up but she didn't say much the basic senshi looked around before sitting down, there was a lot of people in the crowd but she sat, legs neatly folded waiting to see if she understood any of this. Still being new - despite having awoken months ago. It was the problem when focusing with studies and not this powered life. She didn't have many friends, "It sounds as if the planets are aligning for those of that fight regularly and understand what he speaks and whom he speaks of . . . " Halley sighed, perhaps she should've been more interested in this stuff, not just out ghost hunting at night.