Welcome to Gaia! ::

It hadn’t exactly been an easy decision.

Destiny City was the last place she’d wanted to go. She had horrible, horrible memories of that place. Being attacked by youma, by Negaverse agents, even by civilians when they realised she was one of those ‘troublesome senshi’. Early run-ins with Valleriite had knocked her confidence, and she’d just never really built it back up. Joining the Basterds had been nice, but it hadn’t given her what she’d needed. She’d needed help, and a lot of it – Europa had tried, and she’d been so grateful. But then the events of Tartaros had left her flailing in the deep end again, with nowhere to go but down. She’d been sinking before she’d properly learnt to swim.

Arizona wasn’t a place she wanted to stay, and Leon didn’t particularly want to either. They were moving away from here, that much was definite, but to where...well, back to Destiny City. Leon’s mind was set, and Selena couldn’t tell him why she didn’t want to go back. She didn’t want to upset him anymore – there’d been enough heartache in the family at the moment. Leon wanted a new start, but somewhere familiar, and Selena was game for that. But Destiny City wasn’t a new start – it was returning to somewhere she’d been hiding from, and for good reason.

There were good memories too. Sitting crossed legged on her stripped bed, she leaned over the edge and pushed her hands into the gap underneath it, pulling out a battered old shoe box. Sitting back up again, Selena placed it down in front of her, and lifted the lid. The box was neatly organised inside, with a small pile of photos covering one half whilst various trinkets littered the other half. She reached for the photos, drawing them out and flicking through them with a small smile. She’d grown up in Destiny City, from a tiny swaddled baby to the high schooler she’d been when she’d left. Selena had friends who she’d deserted, people who she’d ditched...part of the reason she didn’t want to return was because she knew there’d be questions to answer. Questions she couldn’t answer, because she didn’t even really know the answers herself.

A thumb stroked across the familiar faces in the photographs – childhood friends who’d travelled with her through school. There was a picture with Damian, an ex of hers. Pictures with couples she’d match-made – she wondered how they were doing, and if they’d been successful. Then came different pictures, however. They weren’t pictures of her, they were pictures of Sailor Eos. There were only a few, right at the back of the pile. One of her roof-jumping, one of her with *********, one of the Basterds...Selena’s grip tightened, and she hastily threw the photos back into the box with more force than she’d meant to. The momentum caused the box to wobble precariously on the edge of the bed, before finally toppling onto the ground and emptying its contents.

Selena sighed, begrudgingly untangling her legs and getting down on her knees on the floor, brushing the contents messily back into the box. She’d sort it out later – it’d all probably get messed up during the move, anyway. Her fingers brushed something solid and cold, and she frowned, wrapping her hands around it and drawing it out. Her expression softened a little at the sight of her henshin pen, gleaming dimly in the sunlight filtering through her bedroom window. She hadn’t held it since it had been put in the box, and that had been two years ago. Cautious fingers ran over the smooth surface, tracing the shape. She’d thought about snapping it, or trying to destroy it. She’d gotten as far as raiding her dad’s toolbox and stealing his hammer. But she hadn’t been able to bring herself to do it. And so instead it had been banished to her trinket box, cast in darkness under her bed.

Did that mean she still wanted to henshin up? That she wanted to fight?

No. It couldn’t.

Shaking her head clear of such ridiculous thoughts, Selena finished clearing up the mess and deposited the shoebox into one of the many other boxes littering her room. She’d just put it down when her dark-haired older brother walked in, a shy smile on his face. He slipped his hands into his pockets, glancing around the room and giving an approving nod. ”All packed?”

Selena smiled widely back at him – her brothers always cheered her up – and gave a small nod. She could try to be enthusiastic, but it would be a blatant lie. “Yep. It’s all ready for loading, I think.” She pushed herself up to sit on the edge of the bed, fiddling with her fingers. Leon sighed, and strode over to sit next to his baby sister and put a reassuring arm around her shoulder. He gave her a squeeze, ”It’ll all be okay El. We’re making a new start for ourselves.” Her own slender arms wrapped their way around her brothers waist, and she hugged him back tightly.

“I know.”

As long as they were together, they’d be okay.

A distraught Selena texts Tallulah after the incident at the rave, and goes around to talk about how she can't keep running anymore. A bed-ridden Tallulah goes through the basics, and agrees to help retrain Eos when she's better.