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Sailor Nova-- sort of-- had not heard of Kurma's plans. Had she, nothing would have changed from this terror scene playing out in front of her; she knew nothing about Elysion other than it was a holy place for Neo Queen Serenity's family. The Negaverse were strange to her too, though the power they came from was not-- had she heard Metallia's voice with the lot of them, she probably would have wet herself.

As it was, she was having a hard time keeping that bodily function to herself-- the surge of Senshi around her had stopped being a comforting mass, delighted in what they saw around them, and had turned in to a crushing horde of people STANDING THEIR GROUND. Have you ever tried pushing through a group of people determined not to be pushed through? It was like being trapped in a cage of bodies.

It didn't help that she recognized few of them, and had lost sight of Chibimoon almost as soon as they had entered Elysion. What was worse, she had lost sight of Kurma-- he should be hanging out overhead like some sort of messed up Peter Pan-- Hook's Peter Pan. Kurma was Robin Williams.

Slithering around some senshi at the edge of the crush, Nova finally found herself in the open and pretty much directly beside Kurma.

Who was uncharacteristically grounded.

"We really need to do something," Sailor Nova nattered beside him, clutching his arm.

Kurma passed her another bottle.

"No, we really need to do something."

Nova took a swig.

"Ra ra ra!"

Apatite cheered.

"I think..." Regulus snarled, feeling a burst of anger that had less to do with this particular nega-agent, and more at... well... it didn't particularly matter. He had this one here in front of him, and he was trapped. He was trapped, and Regulus was pissed, at the negaverse in general, at having lost fights, at having real life troubles, senshi troubles... name it. There was a considerable amount of bottled up frustration being taken out, with a nice cherry on top of soul stealing monsters telling him to 'go home' to an dead desert. He'd been born HERE Damnit!

"Noble Claws of the Lion!" Again with the powerful Super level version of his attack, blistering hot claws that could tear into flesh and cloth, and at a very unpleasantly close range, though had Gunn been in range, it would have gone rather badly for all three of them, being in any proximity to his fire-related attack.

He should save some of his super attacks for others, but this one was here now, and he wanted them to stay down or retreat.

Tanzanite was just about to launch herself into the fray when Serandite's voice snagged her attention, a single word of her sentence drawing Tanzanite's focus away from the battle and onto one red-headed individual.

Obsidian.

How she could have missed him in the cathedral, she did not know. She watched as he moved with the same predatory grace, cutting through through anything that stood in his way. Something about his presence made her feel somehow... safer. They had been only Lieutenants when they had met, back when Charonite still ruled and Nealite had simply been Nealite. Before the senshi's numbers had risen so dramatically. Before... well, before a lot. But that had been then, and this was now. Both of them, it seemed, had become weapons of the war they had been fighting for years.

“Obsidian,” she said the name softly, and it sounded strange even to her own ears. Now was not the time for old acquaintances, however, and so Tanzanite stuffed her last remaining shreds of sentiment back down and prepared to fight.

Just as she was about to launch herself down the hill at a sprint, her body froze. Tanzanite had been standing out of range, but there was a weakness that came alongside the power her arm provided her. Europa's attack was enough to make the General's body lock up, making her quite suddenly thankful that she had not thrown herself into the fray. Had she been standing there, amidst that, it very likely might have been the end of her.

As it stood, there was nothing she could do to avoid Saiph's attack, and the blow knocked her frozen body back quite a distance. She hit the ground hard, still unable to move.

“Alkaid,” she said, her lips and eyes seeming to be the only things capable of moving, “Please stall our dear old friend. I will be with you momentarily.”

**

Leopard's Eye was on Zinkenite for only a moment, raking sharp claws down his back. The smoke pellet found it's target, and the Leopard leap off of him with an angry snarl. Within a second, a young man stood where the wild cat had been, spitting soot from his mouth and trying to rid it of the foul taste. The smell of sulfur stung at his nostrils, but he seemed more angry than deterred.

“You will regret the day you stepped foot on this ground, Dark One,” the Eye said, hands balling into fists that sprung to life with Flame. The energy signature that Zinkenite could feel would tell him that the Guardian of Elysion was no laughing matter, his power feeling on par with the Generals and Eternal Senshi who fought around them.

“Come then. The only reward you will claim this day is death.”

**

“I know we should do something,” Andeon muttered, having at some point apparently crawled off to lay down. As it turned out, he was laying right around Kurma and Nova, the beer they now shared having rolled out of his hand. Andeon was far too drunk to stand, but he did manage to army crawl towards the pair, planting his head down right in Nova's lap.

“But I'm just so drunk.”

No.

No no no no NO.

Helios whirled as that first cry from Tanzanite echoed to where she stood, blood freezing in her veins as the sight of wave upon wave of Negaverse agents began to flood over the horizon, choking her as tangibly as if that youma-hand was curled around her throat. This couldn't be happening. The fear that had first swept through her in her apartment began to overtake her again, her heart simultaneously feeling like it was both pounding and completely stopped gripping her chest painfully, wrenching a silent, devastated sound from her. This... this was her realm... the sacred place Endymion had charged her to protect... to protect with her life. Even as she watched as they began to flood closer, she could not move, gold eyes staring forever at them, the word 'failure' echoing in her ears over and over again. This was not Tartaros once more. This was worse.

Ultimately, it was a familiar voice that brought her back to her own consciousness, her eyes closing slowly as she turned around, blinking a little at the form that had approached. She recognized him immediately, although she knew she had never seen him in this life, and her eyebrows furrowed again, rage quelled momentarily. "Leopard's Eye?" She replied questioningly, knowing the answer before she said it. She knew her Guard instantly. For a moment she just tilted her head slightly into the hand that lifted towards her cheek, gravitating towards it like she needed the stability, the support. Elysion's Gate had fallen, against all odds. She needed her Guard.

His next words were met by a sharp nod, and she kicked off the ground to dash after him, her long white robes dissolving in a flurry of feathers into her Eternal Fuku, a blink of her eyes turning them from completely gold to a gold-flecked aqua. Although he was much more agile than she, his shoves kept the way cleared for her as they pushed forward, both scanning the area for negaverse.

Zinkenite's words rang above the others, garnering Helios/Pegasus', as well as Leopard's Eye's it seemed, attention.

"YOU SHOULD HAVE STAYED ON YOUR HOMEWORLDS... GO BACK TO WHAT YOU ALREADY RUINED OR -PERISH- FIGHTING FOR WHAT WE WILL NOT LET YOU TAKE!"

The Negaverse had forgotten one tiny detail.

"This IS my homeworld."

The sphere that hovered in front of her crossed arms grew almost instantaneously from the size of a golf ball to one 100 times that size, crackling with raw energy she so easily could draw from her own dream-realm. Anyone hit by the blast would be in some serious pain -- the negaverse best hope they could get out of the way.

"DREAM CONCUSSION."

"Same here," Nova-Cosmos replied bitterly; her powers had completely vanished ever since coming back from the dead, and she had doubts about whether or not she would ever have the same abilities again. But there was too much at stake for her not to fight-- and yet, too much at stake for the two of them to put themselves in danger.

"At least if I die here, lambda power is completely out of their reach,"

Cosmos had always been a bit of a pity party, so looking sadface was about as ordinary as you got with her. Kneeling beside Kurma, and resting her head on his shoulder, she hoped for their allies.

"I wish I could give it to you, but I can't. The Earth has always been a bit Terra-torial."

Apparently, when stressed, Nova gets punny.

The boy in her lap was oddly comforting, even if drunk. At least if they were attacked, someone had a chance of doing something other than throw up on their attacker. Or attack AND throw up, double hitter.

Europa had never seen Regulus so mad, and to be truthful it sort of frightened her. She was too intent on restraining Bismuthite to take full stock of who'd fallen under her pressure, least of all expecting it to reach all the way to the general on the hill. Her fingers were wrapped around the lieutenant's shoulders, holding him still while Regulus unleashed his attack. (She didn't really need to, he was frozen.)

Still, the timer was ticking down. They didn't have much longer with him immobilized like this. So, just to say she'd done something, she clocked Bismuthite in the jaw and took a step away. "That's all we get, Reg," she said. "Either- either finish him off, or let him be someone else's problem."

The lieutenant was coming out of it. She could tell. "Reg," she said, her hand on his wrist. "What's it going to be?"

She didn't know if she actually wanted them to "finish him off" or not.