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It was Wolframite's luck that he had not taken notice of the possibility of another crystal. Seeing once gone, his focus had went straight back to Castor. At the moment, he was paying attention to nothing else. To him, the energy signature was just that of a million senshi about him in one cluster and one crystal. The idea that two would show up at one time just didn't seem possible and because of that, he occupied with his present business of keeping Castor down.

His eyes did not wander to a dead corpse of a ice creature or the senshi further off fighting over a crystal. Those were out of his world at the moment. Right now, he was solely set on assisting Tanzanite on this one, this only task. This one, he knew, he was a possibility of helping in and success was just above the horizon. A horizon he had been looking too for what seemed like a long time.

Nothing could pull him from keeping Castor down and he would not let his eyes wander to just idly look about when he had just a rewarding view of seeing the Hail Senshi twisting under Tanzanite instead.

Fingers digging only at ice, Perseus was at least happy to see a Sailor-suited soldier grabbing the prize. That warmed her heart a bit, fingers bleeding as she turned away to go home and nurse her wounds before Christmas day tomorrow. It wouldn't do any good to have them be bandaged for her father to see.

Sludging through the remains of battle, she felt the presence of another power signature before she saw the deep blue glint of the crystal, lodged in the snowy remains of Kaguya. Perseus tried one last time to grab the crystal before leaving for home, after all many of the Negaverser's leaving would probably sense it too. If the senshi won this one, they would be even!

((Note: Roll was for Azzo trying to catch the crystal))

Azzo had been so close, but it seemed Tony and Marope might be closer. He frowned as he slipped in the snow and ice covered battle field. This was turning out not to be his day.

Here he was trying to help the senshi, which if it helped the senshi it wouldn't matter, but he ended up screwing it up. He was looking for Aurora hoping she'd have better luck.

---

Hugbell was distracted from the second crystal when she saw Castor being held by the two Negas, she felt tears well up in her eyes. They were going to hurt him! "Nooo!" She cried shaking her head. She was looking around for who's attention to get. They had to stop him from getting hurt!

But she was scared.... that arm.... the chibi senshi could only cry as she watched them. Someone had to help him right?

His inability to acquire the first crystal hardly phased Paris. He was a little miffed that one of the terrorists had gotten it -- they hardly deserved something so pretty and potentially expensive when they went around causing destruction and chaos everywhere -- but he wasn't crushed. Enough strange things had happened tonight. He would be happy simply to go home and sleep -- for days if he had to, however long it took him to recover from all this.

He stepped off of the fountain ledge, his heart still racing from all the action, but his mind already focused on one thing -- home. He could easily slip away now. The ice monster was gone, and the terrorists seemed to be absorbed in their own concerns. No one would notice if he made his way through the crowd and scurried down the street. He could be home in less than half an hour, warm and safe.

And then he saw it, sparkling amongst the snow, blue and beautiful and beckoning him with its radiance. Others had seen it, too; he knew they had. In the space of a single second, Paris didn't think -- he acted. He lunged forward and attempted to grab it, reaching out with his cold, numb hands.

EDIT IN LATER

edit latar~

There it was.

Tanzanite had imagined the moment countless times. The scene had changed, and those present had as well. At times Linarite was there, and in other dreams she imagined Queen Beryl watching as she pulled the thing from his body and watched every muscle fall limp and lifeless. Every imagined scenario paled in comparison to what she felt at that particular moment, though. Castor's starseed was not the bright, blazing beacon of goodness she had always imagined. It was pure, as pure as she'd seen in her years of ripping the things from innocent bodies, but it fluttered in her hand with all the fragility and gentleness of a butterfly's wings. It pulsed softly, and Tanzanite cradled it in her palm in a way that the monstrous arm seemed incapable of. The second crystal was ignored, as not even the power of such a relic could compare to the feeling of that coveted life in her hand.

Tanzanite's expression lost it's cruelty, it's pain and anger and malice, and softened to an expression of almost childlike wonder. It was almost magical, the way it beat against her palm like a trapped and injured bird, so very, very fragile. It was so painful, she knew that much from experience, just to have one's starseed touched, even as gently as Tanzanite now held his. He was screaming, but she seemed not to notice, even as the skin on her face began turning blue where his hand gripped her skull. Her head pounded, and pain blurred her vision, but she did not relent.

“I wish you could see it, Castor,” she murmured softly, and her lips curled in a smile that was neither malicious nor cruel, but truly happy. “It's...,” she paused, and exhaled in a peaceful sigh, “...beautiful.”

Her smile was cast to Wolframite, and her fellow Captain would see that rare moment in which Tanzanite was not the hateful, angry monster she had become known as. She was a young woman amazed by the beauty of life, fascinated that someone who harbored such hate for her could have a starseed so clean. That someone so strong could, at his core, harbor something so fragile.

“I'm going to give you a gift, Castor,” she whispered, her natural voice almost pretty when not edged with the echo of the youma's corrupted wail, “I'm going to show you what it's like to be one of us. I'm going to let you suffer, as we've suffered, so that you can understand. I'm going to give you this gift, Castor, and then...” and she leaned in, she pressed her skull into his threatening grip and got her face as close as she could. Her gaze darkened, her teeth bared, and the monster inside had suddenly returned.

“And then I am going to kill you, Senshi of Hail.”

With that, she squeezed. The blackened claws closed around that fragile, fluttering thing and squeezed as though she aimed to crush that baby bird. The pain was something only the Negaverse knew, something beyond human, something that came only from feeling darkness touch your very soul.

And it, too, was beautiful.