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Predictably, Xavier (or rather, The Sound Emperor – shitty wrestler name, he knew, but it was all he'd been able to think up on a short notice) went out early – nearly instantaneously, even. He just was no match for a super-powered pro wrestler on a good day – even less so injured.

Luckily for him, he landed on his good side – and it didn't look like he'd even broke anything, since he had been thrown out before Don Diablos had time to build up his true rampage of the ring. Again, somehow, he was lucky in his misfortune.

Medics went for him, to make sure he was still in one piece – he tried to hide his cast the best he could. The next wave of throw-outs worked for him on that respects, as the team of medics went for those rather than keep on bothering with the young man who looked fine and stubbornly refused to be examined.

He slipped away then – it was easy to do so, with all the attention on the ring and the ongoing fight. He hid out, and waited. Watched. Hoped, against hope itself. He'd failed, but surely... Surely he couldn't be the only senshi that had been here. He was almost certain that the girl in the meadowview swimsuit was Tallulah, but it was hard for even him to tell for sure – he couldn't get a good look at her, with how much chaos was going on in the ring. And how would she even tell this was him, with his hair all pinned up in his helmet ? God damnit, it itched like crazy. That had taken more bobby pins and cusswords than a cheerleader prepping for a date.

Still, he winced when she was launched out, in turn. With no powering up involved, there were no auras, no telltale signs to be seen or felt. No hint as to who fit where. Nothing at all.

It all went down to four – a girl got the belt and then... vanished. Just like that. Just like Tallulah had said the negaverse agent that had gotten the crystal had. There was ultimately no way to tell – could Serenity pull them out to... whatever, like that ? But still, it didn't look good.

It didn't look good at all.

That was when he slid his way out – dumping his helmet in one of the trash can behind the lunchadrome, then doing the same with the zillion bobby pins. He didn't bother to put his hair back in a ponytail – then second the last pin was irritatingly worked out, he left the scene. The Sound Emperor's wrestling career was over.

And Sailor Themis had failed once more.

HEY, LISTEN !!!! [MEETING]

SNOW, ********> [REG21]

There was a parcel in his mailbox that morning.

This was a strange thing in itself – most of his mail was bills, and he couldn't remember ordering something on the internet lately... The only package he had expected in awhile had been his software from the company that Bell's dad owned, and he'd gotten that awhile ago.

Curiouser and curiouser. Xavier brought his package back inside, kicking off his sneakers and heading toward his base of choice – his couch – to investigate this strange matter. The tape was neatly cut through with a nearby pair of scissors, and the box opened neatly to reveal...

A snowglobe ? He hadn't ordered a snowglobe ? Oh, wait, there was a note...



...Oh. He must have entered some sort of raffle and then promptly forgotten about it. Completely typical of him. The card was abandoned into the box, and the box was then abandoned for the floor temporarily, Knowing Tempo, the box was going to make a fine toy to keep his curious feline companion away from the snowglobe as he examined it.

...The figure inside the globe... Now that he was getting a good look at it, it felt familiar. Sailor Themis had been out cold when the ancient queen had made her appearance at the ball, but there was still a sort of familiarity that he could not quite shake. This was important – the most time he spent as a senshi, the more that he realized that one of the only senses he could truly trust was his sixth. This wasn't a coincidence.

He turned the snowglobe in his hand, and it was then that he saw it – a tiny little key, well-hidden into the designs of the base. It took come careful working to crank the key as far as it would go, and then he let it down on the coffee table.

The melody that then came out was something he had never heard before – usually these kind of globes had christmas carols, especially at this time of the year, but not this one. Yet... yet the tune that came out was downright haunting, in a way he couldn't explain. It pulled at him, and he watched the tiny lady dance, catching snowflakes in her outstretched hands. The song didn't last long, though – all too soon it was over, the woman in the glove falling still and the last notes of the melody fading down into nothing.

The silence that followed was deafening.

Almost mechanically, the hand reached out for the snowglobe, cranking the key and letting it back down on the table. When the song ended, he did it again.

And again.

And again.

It was only an hour later that Xavier finally stopped, still as confused as he had been the first time he'd heard the music. This wasn't a normal snowglobe, though.... He'd bet on it.

Christmas Caroling [REG23]

As soon as he had pressed the button on his phone, a pale blue light carried him away, away from space proper and to somewhere else.

Home. Home.

Suddenly, there was a ground below his feet again. There was a cold wind that hit him. Home.

He opened his eyes.

Sure enough, he wasn't on earth. There was no way this could be earth at all. The whole of his surroundings was surrounded by what seemed to be a thin layer of frost, if not outright ice – the 'road', in lack of better word, below his feet was ice. Some of the buildings also seemed to be made of a mix of solid, glittering pale blue ice and what seemed to be some sort of silver, wood-like material.

It was beautiful, but it was also undeniably very broken. The first building to his left was missing a roof. The one to his right only had one wall left standing, the front one, and the foundations (at least, he assumed the white ice at the bottom had been something akin to a foundation), and even the ice road below his feet was cracked, chipped in places, some chunks of ice outright thorn off and missing. Silver-barked trees, leaveless, glittering with the faint frost that covered them and yet barren and dead.

What... had happened here ? To be honest, Themis hadn't been sure what he would find at his 'home'. But it certainly hadn't been... this. Not an empty world broken into pieces.

“Hello... ?” He called out, his voice echoing in the emptiness of the air. Hesitantly, he took one step. Nothing, no one at all. The place was a desert town, a desert land, broken into pieces – and if the remains were to be believed, Themis must have been a rather beautiful land at it's peak.

He froze after taking that faithful first step, pale blue eyes darting to the ice path. He had heard something, and for a moment, the Senshi of Noise feared that he might have broken the ice below his feet. It didn't look like he had – another step created a similar sound, and so did the next. Now that he paying attention, it didn't sound like cracking – it sounded just like if the ice amplified the sound of his own footsteps, and even the sound of the wind if he listened closely enough.

It was better than the dead silence that had taken over this place – was the whole asteroid like this ? Or had there been survivors to whatever had happened here, whatever had destroyed this town, had they fled to some other place ? There was no way he could tell, though it was evident that he was the first living being to come here for... ages. How long ? Again, there was no sign, no hints, other than the vast devastation that surrounded him.

He wasn't quite sure what to think about all this. What had happened here ? Had the... past Themis failed this place ? How had he come to exist on Earth, if he had once lived here ? Had the senshi from before died ?

Sobering thoughts. Themis shook his head and kept on going, the sound of his steps echoing on the ice path as he went to look at the house that only had it's front wall remaining. The insides were broken as well, what looked to have been a table in the same pale silver wood that was prevalent both on the trees and on the building. What was clearly a chair, with three of it's legs missing. Translucent blue fabric, thorn to shreds. Themis shook his head and moved on, back on the main path. He could clearly see where it led – upward the nearby hill, where something akin to a castle stood. One of the large ice spires had crumbled, but the other two were intact. Or had there been four ? A triangular shape seemed a little odd for a castle, but then... Nothing made sense, not anymore. These buildings, these paths were made of apparently never-melting, solid, magical ice. Who was he to complain about the shape of the large building in the distance ?

He went on his way then, walking toward it, the sound of his steps following it all the way. He'd never heard ice do something quite like this. It was puzzling – maybe it wasn't even ice at all, but it was the first thing his mind snapped to upon seeing it. A little bluer than it should be, but... ice.

Maybe he should just stop thinking. It might actually help at that point.

Scaling the path was remarkably easy – a mix of lower gravity and senshidom, perhaps – and it only took the blonde a few minutes to make his way there, and he stopped in front of the door. It was large, indeed, and while there had once been a door proper, there wasn't anymore – only large chunks of pale silver wood left behind. It was easy for him to jump over the pile and make his way to the other side, and then he walked down the ice floor. The small hallway of ice, stone and pale wood led him to a wide, open area. It was the Themis equivalent of an open courtyard – frosted over grass, with a large tree similar to the barren ones outside, large and tall yet still overshadowed by the massive spires of pure ice.

Suddenly, it was more than that – still frosted over grass, but the tree was very much alive, pale frosty blue leaves all over the branches. The space in front of it was covered in flowers made of pure ice – at least, it was how they looked like. Bright white lights, akin to fireflies or wills of the wisps, were going from flower to flower without a care.

The walls, the flowers, they carried and amplified the sounds of the courtyard – wild laughter. Two children, dressed in pale blue robes, chasing each other, playing tag. He looked to the left, to the ice wall that he was still standing near, the ice, fresher and more polished, acted much like a mirror. The man in the reflection had pale blue eyes, hauntingly familiar – and hair an ice blue, lighter than his eyes.

He was smiling.

Then he blinked at the courtyard was barren once more, and the dull ice refused to show him anything more than vague sploshes of color, of peach, black, and pale blonde. One hand went to his face, almost on reflex, as if to make sure he was even real. What... had just happened ?! This... this...

Nothing made sense anymore. He took the next few steps almost like a robot, without much thoughts backing them, until he had reached the tree. A thin, gloved hand rose to touch the bark. It felt papery under his touch, light. Right, in a way.

It was too much, it was all too much – he was frozen in place, not daring to take another step. What if that... hallucination happened again ? Did he want it to happen again ? Frighteningly enough, a part of him wanted it to happen.

You've all lost your way, and forgotten who you really are. Kurma had said. But now's the time to remember, you can't win this fight for good until you do.

It was too much, too much, too much-- his phone was swiftly summoned from subspace and he dialed Earth almost in blind panic.

With a pale blue flash, the asteroid named Themis was once more barren of all life.

His father had given him his credit card.

This wasn't exactly what Xavier had expected had expected to happen. Sure, he had loosely talked to his father about his plan, and he'd said he would help in passing, but he'd certainly not expected to be handed a credit card and to be told to go for it.

And also that he expected to meet said mystery girlfriend soon.

How embarrassing, though ! Even if it told wonders about the trust his father had in him – he'd just told him to do his thing and then give him back the card when he would go pick it up to get his cast taken off from the hospital. The date was creeping up and honestly, Xavier couldn't wait for it to actually happen. He didn't even use his sling anymore – and had limited use of his fingers thanks to the cast.

So the faster-healing bit was true, and... the itching like god damn hell was also very true.

As he entered the jewelry store, he couldn't help but remember how all this had even started – it has been the first time he had slept over at Bell's place. He'd woken up before her, and carefully slipped out of bed to make some coffee, and... well, he'd snooped around a little bit. Nothing too bad – just wanting to see when her birthday was. Some of her old theatre papers did the trick.

Then it processed to him that it was December 12, and he almost freaked out. How the hell was he going to make it when he hadn't been working for a month ?! He certainly couldn't let her birthday go unnoticed. That was just shitty. Showing up with just flowers also sounded exactly as shitty.

So he'd sucked up his ego, put on his big box boxers, and went to his dad practically begging. Sigh. He hadn't had to ask his father money ever since he'd moved out, and it was annoying, but he certainly was willing to take that blow for Bell. Some part of her gift he had already handled with his own money – the journal had been brought and the flowers ordered – but the main piece ? Oh, no way. Even if he just ate ramen for the rest of the month, there was no way he could have worked this out.

His first idea had been a ring, but... It was a little early for that, and beside, Jaimie had already beaten him to it. Then he'd passed this store when carolling with Ume and the others, and everything had snapped into place. This was what he needed. This was perfect.

All that was left was buying it, getting the whole wrapped, and then getting this god damn cast off, and all would be ready. He stepped up to the counter and asked for the piece to be taken off display, and his heart was racing. Would Bell like it ? He didn't know. He'd already gathered that it would probably make her uncomfortable if he gave her something crazy expensive, which worked out, since it wasn't like he could afford something crazy expensive. But he didn't want to give her something cheap, either. This felt nicely in between the two, and he couldn't help but weight the pendant when the box was handed to him.

It was a blue stone, a bit darker than her eyes, probably some kind of sapphire (or some imitation of, it wasn't like he could tell) in a silver setting, topped by a silver chain. It was big enough to be noticeable, but not big enough to be cumbersome – or at least he thought so, it wasn't like he wore necklaces on a normal basis. It looked nice, and he really, really hoped that she would like it.

He paid up with his father's card, and then went on his way, humming to himself. Xavier was a man with a plan, and nothing short of perfection would do.

Well, at least he hoped he would come close.

Welcome Back Comity [BAT13]