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Small And Mighty [REG36]

Fluorite had come here on the recommendation of another captain – the forest right outside Destiny City was rarely ventured into, and if you wandered far enough from the path, you were actually quite assured to not end up spotted by civilians. Sure, senshi could hunt by aura, but why would senshi go where there weren't people to 'save' ?

More like people to brainwash on their side, right. Psh.

It had been easy enough to find, and she'd gone here as her civilian self before finally powering up once she'd gotten off the path. This was a little chilling – this was, apparently, once of the spots the negaverse agent went to to bury the bodies of those who were unlucky enough to get their starseeds stolen from them. The thought was rather chilling, and she couldn't say she was upset she hadn't been there when stealing starseeds had been the norm. She wasn't sure if she had it in her to kill someone who had been completely unrelated to this whole fight.

To be honest, the through of killing senshi made her queasy, as much as she hated it. She knew she had to find it in her to do it, but... perhaps she simply wouldn't be sure until the moment she finally did it. Maybe she had to stop thinking of them as people and just... aliens.

But with one of her closest friends and her own brother being senshi... Well, it wasn't that easy.

But for now, through, there was one thing she needed to do – train. With her promotion came something truly amazing – a weapon worth something.

Two weapons worth something, even ! Which meant that hopefully her days of hand-to-hand brawling were over. The internet was quick to give her answers as to what her new weapons were actually – kunai, or more accurately, throwing knives.

She wanted to go somewhere where she wouldn't end up lopping someone's head off until she got the throwing part of the equation done, through. Ence this remote spot.

She walked for a good 10 minutes before she stopped, just to be sure she was nowhere near the trail, and finally summoned her two knives. The metal felt heavy in her hands. One day there would be senshi blood on these blades.

Before that, through, she had to learn how to truly use them. She picked a nice, big tree as a target, and got ready. How hard could throwing a knife be, right ?

The first throw didn't end anywhere near the tree. The second only came a little closer but was still wayyyy off mark.

It wasn't that easy to throw a blade, apparently.

A flick of the wrists and the two blades were back in her hand – at least she had that part down. She took a little more time to aim, then threw again. The first flew off somewhere that wasn't her target. The second hit the three. The three to the left of her chosen one, that is.

Fluorite groaned. This... wasn't working out so hot. Another recall, two more throws – and they weren't anywhere near better. What the hell was she doing wrong ? Ngh. Something wasn't right there.

Still, it would be more than an hour of failing – enough so that she'd ran out of recalls on her knives to actually have to go fetch them herself – before she gave up. Surely there was someone else with throwing weapons, right ?

She definitively needed help with this, and with an annoyed grump, Fluorite teleported out.

Like A Ghost In The Night [REG37]

Flashes.

Tiny little flashes, never stopping.

Flash, Alkaid destroying the first mirror, the rush of worry she'd felt. Where was her captain ? Where was the only person she knew ? Where was the person who could protect her ? How had she managed to lose him ?



Her teammates fighting each other, the frustration and worry she'd felt as she had done her best to make them stop. Hopelessness, when her words first seemed to do nothing at all.



Finding the switch, the wall, her hitting the wall, darkness. The nightmare, the sheer heartbreak of having lost everything she'd ever cared about.



Climbing her way back up, soaking wet, wondering how she had managed not to drown. Carefully carrying Hiro back up, only finding solace in the fact that the tiger-stripped cat was still breathing



Washing the lieutenant she had dropped fall, only to see him come back up again. Shame and relief rolling off her in waves. The lieutenant's face the only thing that she can truly remember, and yet never had she seen him again after that day.



Helicase's dead body. Pain. Pain. Only pain as she punched the wall, unwilling to take out her rage of those who stood at her side. Pain, self-loathing, hate. Rage. Then, emptiness. She took his body. It was cold. They had been way too late.



The slow walk outside, each of them circling the broken but alive Wolframite, with Bismuthite holding him. They moved like a perfect unit, a perfect line, and she trailed the back, happy for what she was seeing and yet the weight of the body she was carrying making her unable to forget what had just happened. She cries in silence, hoping no one would see her, that no one would call her weak for it.



The surface, someone much taller and serious taking the dead body from her arms. The rage returns, and she rushes into the fray. She wants answers. She wants justice, for what she has just seen, and yet she is unable to understand how can something like this be done, and how many of them simply did not seem to feel even the slightest bit of remorse.

Then the flashes become too fast, too blurred, too disjointed. A black shape erupts out of nowhere, a large screech overcomes the air...



...And that where she woke up, eyes wide, her whole body in sweat, her breath erratic until she finally convinces herself that she is not back there, reviving the worst moment of her life. She is at home, in bed, and the large red numbers of her clock displays 4:30.

They are at least least frequent than they'd used to be. The nightmares. At first it was every night, after that night. She'd thrown herself in both her schoolwork and her negaverse work to cope.

Then once a week.

And now, there was no pattern anymore. They happened when they happened, and there was no helping it. Ashley sighed, moving to sit. The sheets are damp under her fingers, both from the humidity that clung in the air, oppressing like a senshi's aura, and the images her mind had just recalled.

Each time, she wonders if she would ever stop having nightmares of that night. She's not quite certain she ever would.

She sighed, got up, and in a flash, a familiar uniform replaced her pjs, as familiar as her own skin by now. Captain Fluorite knows that trying to sleep after this will be meaningless, so she might as well get some air, at the very least.

She was no longer as scared as she used to be, but she is certain those memories, those nightmares will always bring terror out of her.

So New [REG39]

It was early in the morning when Fluorite was done and left Alkaid's apartment. Nothing massive had happened, and she had spent most of the night keeping herself awake and killing time. When she was replaced, the sun was already rising and, oddly enough, Fluorite did not wish to go sleep.

Not after what she'd seen, and what she'd learned.

Instead, she scaled her way up a lengthy building, and crouched on top of the pointed roof, carefully sitting there as she watched the sun rise. It was a beautiful sight, but it failed to truly awe her. There was too much on her mind.

Alkaid was different. Not just the obvious. Something in the senshi's demeanour had changed, and even through she couldn't quite put her finger on exactly what, it was highly unsettling. Maybe because it was so sudden. And it got her to thinking.

Matthew was changing too. Not in the same way, but he was. This was obviously affected him, and in a way, it made her regret, through she knew better than to think he would never have gotten involved in all this. Not when bearing a senshi starseed so close to awakening. If he had to fight, then she had made the right choice in having his fight for the right side.

And she... She was changing too. There was no denying that she was already different than the girl she used to be before all this. She had seen, and went thought, things that no one her age should have to see and go through. And it was not over. Far from it.

If she lived to see the end of this war... How would she be like ? Would she even be able to go back to a normal life, after everything ? Or would she be hollow, empty ?

Was it wrong to hope that it wouldn't be the case, that she would go through this with some shard of herself still intact ? The fate of the planet was the most important thing, and there would be sacrifices to get to this goal.

There had already been sacrifices, but there would be more.

All because of the god damn senshi. It only made her angry to think about it. Senshi had tortured people just like her that had taken arm to defend their planet. All because they dared to fight for those who wouldn't.

The senshi were the reason why she had nightmares.

The senshi had almost stolen her own brother away from her, and had given her no choice but to take him by force, the remnants of that event still able to be found today. He had been saved, but he might very well never belong.

The senshi had destroyed Alkaid's life forever, first making her forget everything she had once been, and then made her clear skin shatter when she'd finally broke herself free, let go of the last ties that had bound her to them.

The senshi seemed to destroy everything they touched. Earth itself would be no exception, if they were allowed to take it.

Fluorite was only more determined to not let it happen by that realization. There was no way she would let her planet – her world – shatter by the hand of those monsters.

And if the price of that was herself...

So be it.

Heated Exchange [BAT11]