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Hel hard started to move, scrambling off Merope, the chest opening revealing Hel dropping out from inside it scrambling towards the corpse. She saw Ares leaping, she knew what would happen.

"NO!" Was all she could shout as she stumbled towards the center of the battle preying someone could stop Ares.

The slap caught him across the face and he didn't even try and move. He just turned back to look at her, his bright pale eyes meeting her ageless deep brown.

"... Don't..." He said his voice an even deadness... "You can keep slapping me till you feel justified...you can hit me till I'm bleeding on the pavement if that makes you feel better. But you're the one who left her behind..." His voice cracked and his feet shifted as though he wanted to turn and walk away but he stayed... he stayed as a target for her.

"Seeing, living...breathing dying... not one thing you listed means you have been granted 'understanding'... just don't. You Left... you left us for HIM... I don't know what he did to you...but I'll find a way to help you..." he whispered.

He turned at last, trusting her at least with his back...that was more than he'd granted her for Tanz, the bird yoma fluttering to land on his shoulder as he moved with measured steps, reaching already for his smoke to defend what was left of Tanzinite, from ares...and from Lina.

But her words...they held a poison that sank deep into his heart. Questions that could only ever remain unanswered... where was the queen...

Where... was the queen.

Asclepius stood again after administering her restoration medicine to Requiem, and watched the girl go. Hopefully she would be alright on her own.... Well, all of them were supposed to be warriors, really, so she hoped the other girl would be alright. The thank you was nice, but she sort of wished she had been able to get a name, as well. Perhaps another, kinder time.

Gathering up her bag again, she zipped it shut but kept holding onto it, rather than putting onto her back just yet.

There was still something in the center of all that wreckage; somewhat entranced, the girl started to move closer. Cautiously, though, and not sure if she wanted to get entangled with the others still gathered around it. What was still going on?

HAH.Scylla's hand wrapped around the crystal, feeling it sing to her. It was beautiful, and it was hers? Really? She saw another hand beside hers, reaching out for the other Crystal, and she saw Zanazzite. She'd followed her all the way across the field? Really?

Ares' cry dragged her attention away from the other woman, and she saw her Captain fling herself at the cocoon that held the body of what had once been Tanzanite. "Ares!" she cried, and pushed to her feet, staring at the enemies moving to place themselves near her Captain. "Look out!"

She wasn't close enough to shield Ares with her body from what may come, but she could do something... right? If only she knew where to start.

"Justified? I go to sleep every night knowing that not one person died because of my greedy desires and selfish illusions. That's justification enough for me, Zinkenite. How do you sleep at night?" It was obvious that while things had been better for the girl who had once been Linarite, they would never be quite alright again. Normally she would have shrunk back behind some excuse, some lie, but this was the strength that had been borne from truth and purpose.

Two thinks that Linarite had always lacked.

"I left for myself. Castor is simply my solace. But that's alright...you don't understand now but you will one day. You'll all see. One day." Trusting her with his back was nothing now that she had lost the power and the desire to stick her hand between his shoulder blades and remove the broken life within.

It wasn't surprising that they would blame Castor for her abandoning the Negaverse. But she hadn't abandoned them and it hadn't been entirely for Castor. Audrey had begged for death and they had told her she couldn't have it. Making the best out of what life was left. It was an old argument that brought a sad smile to the girl's face. Tanz was always right, wasn't she?

It was selfish.

Ares ran for the cocoon, her bloodlust never sated. She was a woman on a mission, a warrior desperate to finish her crusade. To make sure the Blood Moon Court would never again know the wrath of the monster it had both created and defeated. She managed to dodge every attack, outmaneuver any obstacle, and stabbed the rod toward's the cocoon.

Ares, like so many others, underestimated the strength of the Negaverse. They power given to them by their own love from one another. The moment Wolframite’s hand rested upon the cocoon, he would feel every muscle tighten. Every limb suddenly went rigid, and he would feel a pull on the energy of his starseed, as though a tiny bit of that life was being taken by whatever lay inside.

Wolframite’s love and loyalty, his life was the spark.

And Metallia’s power was the fire.

The others would feel it, too. Those who had become youma would feel, and see, that dark energy drain out of them. Purple ribbons of light that flowed through the air and into the cocoon. They lit up the night, brighter even than the fires of the Phoenix.

That dimming energy signature suddenly sparked to life, the super nova of a dying star. It radiated out in a shock wave that blew the rubble further down the hill, enough to rattle both senshi and Negaverse off their feet. The energy grew, the power rising as it poured out of the cocoon and ignited the air around it in dark flames. It went beyond that of a youma to that of a Lieutenant, grew to overwhelm that of a Captain, and shattered the energy signature of the General who seemed to have died inside of it.

While they had never been given the name, any Negaverser could easily recognize the strange new power that practically radiated off of the cocoon. It was a part of the same power they had felt before they'd entered Elysion. Only a small fraction, a single sliver to push and nudge and set her servant on her desired path. This was certainly not Metallia, but there was no question as to whose servant had been awoken that day.

This was not Beryl’s pawn.

Not anymore.

A blackened hand shot out, and Ares’ wrist hit it as though she were hitting a brick wall.

“You thought you could break us,” the voice rang out calm and cold, and with a sharp crack Ares wrist was snapped backwards, the bones breaking like twigs beneath the fury of a hurricane, “Destroy us.”

“You call us monsters,” the words were a breathy hiss, as the torch was twisted back, the end of the rod pressed against Ares’ chest.

There was the gut wrenching grinding of metal on bone as the rod shot through Ares’ body, buried until that clawed hand hit her chest and shoved her away like a troublesome child.There was an explosion of energy, enough to rattle them off of their feet, and only Wolframite was spared the full force of the blast. The energy crackled through the air, and the spines began to whither and withdraw.



They peeled away from the woman within like a blossoming lily, and General Queen Tanzanite stretched her wings for the very first time.



“But if we are monsters, it is only because you made us so.”

Because the Negaverse had their own love.

It was Scheelite who has opened Tanzanite’s eyes to that fact. When he had been at the lowest of lows, it was to the Negaverse he had turned. The Negaverse, in turn, had cradled and supported him. Helped him return to his feet and find his purpose. He was the first to see them as a family, and that vision has spread. It had taken hold in Tanzanite’s heart the moment she’d seen the troubled boy, and awoken in her a protective strength she hadn’t had before.

Now, she would make sure that he never had to kill again. That he never had to watch as another of his friends died a bloody and agonizing death, as Primase had. The young man had given her a new reason to fight, and it was a favor she fully intended to return.

They had their own bonds, and they were strong. Torture had not severed them. Defeat had not broken them. They stood as one; a family that had come to rescue their fallen brethren. They stood in defense of the youma that had risen to aid them, and now? Now the senshi would see that those bonds were thicker than all of the blood that had been spilt during those two horrifying weeks, and such bonds could not be so easily cut.

It was to the Negaverses that Tanzanite first turned those bright silver eyes, a smile like a proud mother gracing her features. Her mouth formed two words, ‘Thank you’.