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If it worried him, it brought the General-King up short. He looked at Nealite a little suspiciously, as though trying to gauge where this sympathy for Hematite had come from -- looked away again to the crystal with the splotches of colour inside it, as though trying to draw some kind of inspiration from there instead. He had folded his arms across his chest. And he wasn't blasting Ursula through the wall or hauling her around by her hair (you know, this time!) so -- well -- maybe she hadn't said the wrong thing.

"Memory," he said. "Plagues him."

And he turned his face towards the Lieutenant again, though Hematite from his vantage point couldn't see this. "Ursula," he said, "I'm not interested in Lieutenants tattling on each other. I'm not into that bullshit. Not unless it's actual info -- and if it's actual info I tend to ******** know it already. But I want you -- " And there was that forehead vein, and he was talking in the way that she could tell his temper was on Waning Fray and he was trying to be calm. "I want you to tell me what he's said about his ******** memory loss."

Though he added: "And he can talk to you all he ******** wants if it'll ******** help, I've talked to him a million ******** times and it's been no ******** use." (This was more '********' than usual.) Was this actually a troubled parent trying to reach out for help with an equally troubled ward?

Naah, probably not.

"He's been a ******** ever since we came to this ******** city."

Hematite had been very careful to never bring up his amnesiac status with the General-King by himself. It was never very clear why or how he'd lost his memory, but Hematite (as Khaldun) simply had to keep up and learn as he went, with no explanations. It wasn't long before it became clear that this situation was far from normal, that it seemed like he was the only one around who was confused and alone in a world he should have already understood. He closed up, became secretive, tried to cover up that he remembered no school but Hillworth (and only a year of Hillworth, at that), just about no town but Destiny City, and no family but the Negaverse. And those circumstances were all that Khaldun Cilentani had to go on. Charonite of course knew ABOUT the memory loss, but Hematite had learned to avoid mentioning anything he wasn't asked about, regarding it. After all, it wasn't anything to do with the Negaverse - it was who he was before the Negaverse. It was like a huge mental itch, a gap, a chasm where something ought to have been. People, places, voices, experiences? Nothing. He'd given up ages ago on trying to restore it, and by now it was really only an issue when it was pointed out to him. Or when things DID come back to him, at inopportune moments. And, well, he'd had a recent reminder of why it didn't pay to ask Charonite to help fill in the memory gaps. So why the ******** did Charonite care now? Emboldened by his curiosity, Hematite edged a little closer to the doorway, trying to make as little noise as possible on the crystal floor.

Maybe he was mad about never getting a break from Charonite. Hematite would have liked to point out that 'talk' was not a word he could associate with the General-King. Yell, yes, bellow, definitely, hell, even hollering. But talk? Someone was giving themselves far too much credit.

And there went all his secrets, his most precious currency presented to the General-King like a handful of worthless bottle caps by Nealite. She couldn't have lied and said nothing? The General-King wasn't supposed to find out about any of this! He wasn't supposed to find out about how they lost the cat! Damn it! This could only come back to bite Hematite in the a** later, especially if the General-King was this pissed about the whole thing. Nealite's last comment elicited a sour reaction. He wasn't an idiot - he didn't need anyone else getting in his way. She didn't understand...

Mind racing from all the strange new information, Hematite was quickly forgetting about the part of the eavesdropping operation where he high-tailed it.

His reaction was unexpected, unusual. She'd seen him a different side of him that most lieutenants never got to see, but none of those other meetings had ever ended up so...strange as this one. It was unnerving and unsettling, and Nealite wasn't sure what to think of it.

She remained quiet and poised as she listened to him trail off to himself as he mused over Hematite's amnesia. Whatever was going on in Khaldun's mind was bothering Charonite, but it was not her place to inquire further. It was already apparent that the two had a deeper connection to one another than she'd originally assumed, so it would not surprise her if more secrets lurked in the duo's history.

An eyebrow rose at his request, but she said nothing, merely nodding as her response to his words. She would look after Hematite, just as she had been doing, though whether or not Hematite, no, Khaldun would listen to her was just as much of a mystery to her as it was to the General-King. She had her suspicions, though, that the child merely needed a mentor that... well, did more than just screaming and threatening. While Nealite had no qualms with following her General-King, she also knew he had little tolerance for the antics Hematite was prone to committing. She would watch him, for both of their sakes.

She'd thought that would have been the end of his meeting with her, but then his next comment caught her off guard. Her cheeks reddened, and she lifted her chin up proudly. Nealite knew she was weak, hell, that she was growing weaker. One too many run-ins with authorities and senshi wore down a body, and with Nealite not built to withstand physical violence to begin with, the damage had taken a heavy toll on her smaller form. But to stop her? When her work was obviously doing what needed to be done?

"With all due respect, sir, I can and I will finish out this assignment. You said it yourself, they'll bring in the snipers soon. It's nearly to the point where Sailor Nea is no longer needed, but until then, we both know how important this assignment is and that it needs to be carried out. Having the City turn against the senshi completely would push the Negaverse forward."

Her foot shifted, her weight feeling heavier than ever. The longer she stood there, the more aware she was becoming of how exposed she was to him, in all of her bruised and swollen glory. But there was no stopping, no, she refused to let him down on yet another assignment. He might not think she was capable of it, but she was damn well going to finish what she started or be taken out trying. She could depend on him, so shouldn't she be dependable in return?

"We need this."

Charonite had been reaching out to Nealite, with what could in an alternate universe in a galaxy far, far away to somebody hallucinating in a drug-induced batshit insane fever be, possibly, maybe, insanely, something a little like tenderness --

And then the noise of boots had hit the floor, and he jumped up from his lean-to position and sprinted to the door, grabbing both sides of the crystal archway that leant into the room. Enough to see Hematite's flight, and he bellowed, "<********>," loud enough to ring and echo all the way through the Negaverse's subspace. Hematite had disappeared, around some corner, wherever -- useless searching for anyone in that ******** labyrinth. "<********>" he bellowed, and when he looked back to Nealite his face was like a ********>" he articulated again. "Goddamnit. Get out of here. I didn't give a s**t about this five minutes ago. Meeting's over. Go. Go, already. <********. ******** it. ******** it all to hell."