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Caedus seemed tired; his body may have been physically drained—and while Methone's energy was aiding him, his fatigue seemed every bit as emotional as it was physical.

He did not seem to like talking of his capture, and he had not enjoyed repeating the story. For a moment, he debated simply not answering Pollux, but his resolve for such was weak.

"Do not apologize," he said softly to the senshi providing him energy. He turned to her and offered a soft, "Thank you," before his gaze returned to the portal. "...You should conserve the rest. I do not know if you will need it soon."

The tiredness slipped into his voice, though he did not wish for it to. He just didn't have the energy to conceal it. Not for Pollux--not for any of them, anymore. "I was not taken captive. I was hunted, and I fled. I was trapped, not caged. They assumed me dead, I imagine. Lost, in the Rift, with all of those youma…?" he prompted. "It is not an unreasonable assumption to think me dead. That was the plan. Kill, not hold captive. They did not try to imprison me, they tried to murder me. My escape from the Rift I can only assume came from a weakening of the structure built to contain the youma. I was herded in with them. I do not think the Negaverse realized I was amongst them when they sealed them up. I escaped when the path was open, and I kept my distance from their city, and then I crawled out of that realm and into this one. It was not glorious."

He certainly took no pride in it.

Hvergelmir's sympathy was appreciated, but Caedus was too on edge already to properly thank her. He did not ask them to perform any particular task or ritual in honor of those lost; it was his burden, and it was one he inteded to carry alone. These people had enough on their plate.

Instead, he responded, "My people are smart. If we did not return from our meeting with Beryl, they would have known to leave. Perhaps it was not immediate, but I have faith that they would have known when something was wrong. None may enter our domain without use of our machines or crystals. Our supplies may not have been enough to sustain an entire community for as long as I survived, but I know that they would have managed. We were close to growing our own crops, but our limited spaces prevented it. We were working on satellites to grow harvestable goods, but it was still only a dream when last I heard. But they could have survived," he insisted. "They have to."

Worry overtook the previously cross features of the Page of Earth as Caedus began to struggle. Celliwig shifted awkwardly on her feet, arms crossing again least she do something silly like reach out to him and break his concentration. Her arms came up quickly to shield herself from whatever kick-back there might have been from the implosion. There didn't seem to be one, but --

Wait. Wait a minute? Celliwig stared at her arms as she drew them away from her face, eying the way her hands were glowing. "What the --- ? Maker's breath. Not again!" She could feel the pull of something calling to her and instead of letting it she stomped her foot firmly on the ground, crossing her arms over her chest as though that would hold her in place.

"No! I'm not going anywhere again. I'm not leaving Earth. You can't make me." Celliwig had been abducted once. The Surrounding had been interesting at first, strange the entire time and then she had died.

Sure, something had brought her back again, but she wasn't going to just let herself be abducted by aliens one more time just to test fate again.

The light around her started to fade after her display and she rushed over to Caedus, making sure that he wasn't glowing. "Caedus? What happened? Are you alright? Caedus...?"

Esquiline

Esquiline stood silent, leting those with stronger voices duke it out. She did see Caedus's increasingly difficult time keeping the portal open.


And then one by one, the crystals failed.


Her heart rate increased with each broken crystal, each one that dropped to the ground. She wanted to scream, but her eyes only widened in horror as she realized what this meant. The portal was going to close. They were going to be trapped.


And just like that, it was gone.


Esquiline couldn't breathe. Her brain shut down. It was like time stood still as she stared where the portal had been. The unimaginable terror that her friends were feeling right now came crashing, and she felt her eyes well up with tears.


But as the first one fell, she felt her skin warm. It took on a faint glow, and as she looked around, she wasn't the only one. Everyone seemed to be glowing except Caedus. She felt someone calling to her. Now that was an unusual thing. Feeling someone calling to you. She looked around, and realized that she wanted to go. SO she gave herself over to the feeling, and was gone.


Esquiline Out

Super Sailor Eros

Things had been tense the whole time they had all stood around here watching the portal all their people had gone through. The mood of the place quickly went frosty though, when the portal began to strain and then finally dropped all together. Eros's eyes widened, her lips parting.

"Wait! They're all... they're all still in there!" She gasped out, dropping her arms from behind her head.

This hadn't seemed like such a big deal, until it fell apart. Now the reality of what had happened was sinking in and the small senshi was starting to realize both how lucky she had been to stay here, and how tragic it was that everyone else had gone through.

Were they trapped now, in the Negaverse's... dimension or whatever it was? How were they going to get out?

Thank God Puck isn't here... was her thought before a glow began to seep from the people around her. Startled, Eros glanced down at herself, the light pouring from under her skin. There was a tug at her mind, a calling, and she gaped in wonder at it.

"What...?" She managed, before her natural curiosity got the better of her and she reached out to the call, the world around her suddenly dissolving as she disappeared.

"Something was calling us right now, pulling at us. I think it was meant to -- I don't know. I --" The Page of Earth looked just as baffled as their hooded companion sounded. She didn't know how to explain the feeling that had come along with the soft, white light enough to make herself not sound batshit crazy.

"It's alright." People didn't just disappear and not come back. Regina Hopewell, currently Celliwig, Page of Earth, was proof of that. Something, although she couldn't quite say what was giving her the faith to believe that things would still be alright. They didn't have enough information to prove otherwise.

Maybe it was some leftover crazy from the peaceful glow that had tried to pull her away only moments ago too.

She lit up after a moment, fumbling around before drawing out the softly glowing energy crystal that she had been too late to hand over to Caedus earlier. "I-- Will this help? You can have it if it helps. I meant to give it back earlier."

Sedna, Senshi of Ships

Sedna was totally still here the whole time it wasn't her fault she had a lame RPer, albeit incredibly occupied somewhere off to the side. It was a boat load of worry for Centisima who had gone through the portal, and then ten fold boat load of angst and regret that she maybe hadn't gone through the portal with him. Was she being irresponsible for not going with him!? She was so caught up in her thoughts and worries, she had ignored the calling entirely. So she fretted, and worried, and panicked, and also kind of shipped some of the knights and senshi that were around based on looks (because wow some of them would have the cutest babies) before her phone went off.

Relief flooded through her as she immediately typed back a reply:



Oh caps lock. Why would you never be enough to truly express how she felt?

Sedna's head snapped up to look towards the others, only to find that the group had incredibly dwindled. "H-hey, guys!" She waved her phone at them as she ran over to the group, none of whom she was familiar with, really. "I got a text from a friend who went through the portal, he's---" She suddenly went wide eyed. "...Okay..." Sedna stared dumbfounded. "Where's...the portal?" She'd been off in her own little world, and was a bit slow on the uptake.

"Uh---" She'd been about to ask something else when she finally focused on Caedus, taking in his condition, but was really set her on edge was to see all the gems scattered about. Something about that amount, and knowing what the gems he had given them were to be used...

"You...did you use all these? To collect energy?"

Pollux FITE ME MODE

Few things could get Pollux to unravel at the seems. He was typically calm and collected as he could contain himself to be. However, the second Caedus's portal had closed the senshi of frost had felt the rock that been resting in his throat drop into his gut. He gave his brother time. If anything, Castor was not one to simply die, not without saying goodbye or trying to piss him off one final time.

Yet the pull of something had sent him moving faster than he'd ever care to admit. A phone call to check on his, their, suite turned up nothing. No signal from Castor, Elzo's phone- and what was worse, is that there was no signal for the prince's magical phone.

Pollux had been ignored before, but to get no signal was new. Pollux was not a fan of the development to say the least.

Ash's mass text however had Pollux trying agian in silence. Again and again before he finally managed to speak.

"My brother isn't responding." Hard, fury filled blue eyes looked to the alien.
"No signal from his phone, and I still can't sense him."

He didn't want to think on his own mental bond. On that gut feeling he had over his brother. He didn't want to think of the possibility.
"You-" He wanted to hurt, he wanted to give into to all the things his therapist said not to. And all his anger and hopelessness was directed at the sole being that had led the call to arms.

"You've done this."