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{B}- Hunting the Hunter

Cybele, still pretty bitter about the carnival, seeks a fight and ends up getting pretty badly hurt.

{B}- Unpredictable

Cybele finally saves someone, but fails at something more important

{B}- Disrupting The Schedule

Cybele hunts down a Negaverser and makes her beg for mercy. The begging works.

{R}- New Memories

{B}- Das Gift Tier II

Cybele follows some Negaversers from the hostage situation to a bigger fight, but she's more interested in keeping Cora safe. Her henshin pen gets upgraded.

Solo- Heartless

Afterwards, she stared at his body for awhile. Then, she knelt and touched her fingers to his shoulders gently, as if she were trying to wake him up rather than to make sure he was dead. He didn’t open his eyes, which wasn’t a surprise. She knew he was dead. She’d known she was killing him when it had happened.

Hunting. She’d been hunting, but it had been different this time. It hadn’t been ‘hunting is what I call patrolling,’ but hunting in a truer sense of the word. She’d felt like a predator tracking down her prey. He was the one who came flying out of the shadows at her, though. Maybe it was supposed to be an ambush, but it wasn’t. She’d been tracking his aura for awhile, and she heard the footsteps of his heavy boots a few seconds before she saw him.

“Senshi,” he growled as he charged her, voice dripping venom. She knew how stupid charging was from experience. She stepped out of his way easily and then turned to face him, automatically shifting into a better fighting stance.

“It’s Cybele,” she spat back with equal animosity. There was a moment where they stared at each other. He was a bit taller than her with short, rust colored hair and a simple brown uniform. It wasn’t anyone she’d seen before.

“Cybele, fine,” he replied, then charged again, more successfully this time. His fist slammed into her stomach, forcing her back a few steps. It hurt, too. “There’s still no way in hell I’m gonna let you senshi destroy this city!” It was definitely one of the worst things he could have said. She punched him in the face.

“Shut up.”

He complied, mostly, only making a vaguely pained noise as he recoiled, rubbing his cheek. They were past talking now. He’d said enough, though. Cybele exploded before he could touch her again, sending another punch to his face before he could even properly recover, followed by a kick to his stomach, then his legs. Her mind was elsewhere, though, thinking about destruction.

One senshi came to her mind. One. She was very outnumbered by Negaversers, and their youma. Youma crushed cars, youma crushed people. The agents were less feral, but no better. They ruined whole buildings, haunted whole areas, and they had no more respect for life than their monsters. She remembered her brushes with death as she sent her wave of attacks in his direction. She remembered the feeling of hands on her throat. She remembered the feeling of hands on her starseed. She remembered the people who hadn’t been so lucky, the bodies left soulless on the ground, sometime dripping blood. One night was freshest in her mind, though. She remembered the fire, the hostages, and the violence, but mostly…

She remembered Cora.

Something burned inside of her at the memory of that cat’s innocent blood spilled, and at her own failure. Tears welled up in her eyes at the memories. Protecting the city, the Earth? Last time she’d heard that lie, she’d almost believed it. Now, it wasn’t just obviously false, it was infuriating.

His fist hit her shoulder and his boot grazed the outside of her calf before she could react. Ugg. She needed to focus. She was stronger now, or maybe he just wasn’t that good at fighting, but he could still kill her if she didn’t start thinking about the present. She backed up a step.

“Hunter’s Deadly Grace,” she called, watching her enemy balk a little as the ethereal bow formed in her hands. After she fired, one arrow flew at her with a familiar flash of light. The other two fell to the ground less eventfully. Suddenly, her emotions were fuel rather than a distraction. After that, he didn’t even get another chance to attack. She unleashed a flurry of punches and kicks. He’d dodged a few of her earlier ones, but with her magically enhanced speed, that wasn’t going to happen again.

Her next punch to his face was enough to make him stumble backwards and fall onto the ground. She kicked him in the stomach a few times. He made some gasping cough noises and said something that was barely audible. Curses, it sounded like. There was a moment when she could have hesitated. She didn’t.

“You know nothing,” she growled.

Her next kick was aimed at his head, and the one after that, and the one after that. After that, she stopped. His neck had snapped the first time.

A few seconds later, she knelt beside him. No pulse… he wasn’t breathing… Dead. He was definitely dead. I kept my promise, Thraen,” was her first thought, and she had. She hadn’t hesitated. For a moment, she felt satisfied. Then it sunk in.

She’d… she’d killed someone. Suddenly, it was less straightforward. He was never, ever going to kill or hurt anyone again… but what about her? She’d been right. He hadn’t known anything, and she had killed him for it. She’d killed him for ignorance, and for having a Chaos aura. New tears, tears of guilt, slipped down her cheeks. Was… was it worth it if it meant someone else would live?

Of course. That’s what she told herself, at least.

She also told herself it made her feel better when she crossed his arms over his chest and placed the flower from her hair in his hands instead of just leaving him there.

There was a starseed in his pocket, and she took it, but she didn’t even pretend that it made her feel better. It didn’t prove his guilt.

All it meant to Cybele was that his death hadn’t saved anyone.

Word Count: 949

{R}- [Moon] BlackWatch: Found or Fail?

Cybele finally goes to space, the moon, to be exact. She and a lot of other senshi discuss a large senshi organization. Cybele is not sure she approves.