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A look of pure shock flash across Sidouer's face as she watched another senshi jump in the way of her attack. His alignment hadn't yet registered which is why she felt herself compelled to reach out and stop him. Alas all she could do is watch as her attacked reached out, unable to stop it, and zap the s**t out of him. Her eyebrows knit in confusion when she saw the generals reaction, are they allies what the bloody hell was going on? If senshi and negaverse agents were here working together to kill their newly formed team... who was she suppose to trust.

Sidouer didn't for one moment miss the pissed off look she received from the blond haired general. His snarl laced threat caused the small hairs on the back of her neck to stand on ends. She wanted his attention didn't she? Well by the looks of it she got it. Better he focus his attention on her rather than the child, at lest this way she could get away.

Jade-pink eyes shifted between the two guys crouched down in front of her, one had their eyes locked on her, the other... horror stricken expression stared off at something transpiring somewhere to her left. Startled by the sudden touch of the chibi's hands around her own, trying to pull her backwards, Sidouer for a brief moment tore her eyes away from the general's predatorily gaze and looked in the direction both the dark suited senshi and chibi had been facing.

Oh god... "Biela" Blood, so much blood... wasn't anyone watching over her? Sidouer brought her free hand up to her face, covering her mouth in shock, the only thing she could do to keep from crying out. Persephone's order to run was all she needed to snap out of her stupor. Giving Aludra's hand a squeeze to get her attention, Sidouer crouched down so she was eye level with the young girl. Pulling her close in a tight hug she whispered "get ready to run"

Disregarding the threat she had received from the general moments ago Sidouer repeated her attack, "Static Shock." She didn't care whether or not it hit, no the only purpose of using it this time was as a means to get away despite the light of the fire illuminating the warehouse, it was better than nothing. As it stood, her primary concern was getting Aludra out of here safely, one way or another she wouldn't fail the chibi.

Dionysus sprang forward so as to avoid being stepped on by the rushing Persephone. When the greenette laid Biela down Dionysus actually sat at Biela's head and propped her head up on his crossed legs. "Do you ever stop talking?" Dionysus asked, though this time his words lacked the harsh, mocking tone that had accompanied them any time Biela had so much as glanced at him that night. Dionysus fumbled with his uniform before managing to untie the rope that formed his bow. "Here," he said passing it off to Persephone. "Snap it and use it to tie that down. Dion raised a thin brow, looking from Persephone's hands to Biela. "Your dad's coming?"

Biela smiled up at Dionysus, the answer plain enough to her- his third shift so that he could be there when she went to school and to pick her up, why he never suspected she was a terrorist, why she idolized him going out and putting his life on the line and fully accepted doing the same when that cat showed up.

"Fireman."

Persephone had moved her hands, so Biela lifted her own again, it looked like it took forever- slow as a snail. She beeped Dionysus' nose above her. "If I had a brother."

"I wish."

"He coulda been you."

And her arm fell.

Persephone, however, was sobbing desperately, tears rolling down her face. She didn't even try to hide it, as she moved her fingers to close the girl's eyes. She knew Biela was gone the minute the girl returned to civilian form, with torn bits of Persephone and Dionysus's fukus still around her middle.

"Dionysus," she said, since she could hear sirens in the distance, "can you wait here for everyone else? I'm going to...to give her back to her family. And then...and then don't look for me, okay? And tell the others not to either." She reached over to smooth his hair, and then pulled him into a brief hug, not really caring that she was smearing blood all over him.

She picked up the body and walked back to the warehouse, to the front, where there were gathered firefighters and EMS personnel, trying to get off the ground on putting out the blazing warehouse. Her eyes scanned for anyone who looked like the girl in her arms, and she didn't have to wait long - a firefighter spotted her and broke away, running to the tiny girl with the body in her arms.

She could see the similarities between Biela and her father. And it occurred to her that she didn't even know the girl's real name.

"No, no, my little girl, that can't be her...Mickey!" His desperate cry gave her the name she wanted, and she closed her eyes.

"I'm sorry," she said, "I'm sorry I couldn't keep her safe. I promised her that, and I failed, and I am so sorry she had to suffer because I was weak." And then she handed her off and fled into the night.

There was nothing else for her here.

Both senshi of the Negaverse that he met outside rushed to his aid, which provided an overwhelming sense of relief to the temporarily blinded blonde. Regardless of how heavily he rubbed his eyes, the stinging sensation refused to vanish. Instead he saw the world in terms of vibrantly colored blurs, rushing about in a cacophony he could barely discern. Some voices struck him with familiarity, as well as the swaths of blue and blonde that greeted him soon after his most recent attempt to soak away the acid in his gloves. With the help of a few shreds from her outfit, however, he managed to blot away enough of it to witness a slightly more reliable interpretation of the battle occurring around them.

The girl who attacked him, who lunged into his side and stayed in close approximation to him, was shortly impaled by an officer he didn't recognize. The trident-like spear protruded from her stomach in grotesque clarity, marred with ichor and visceral fluid. Adonis blanched at the display, and he continued to rub the painful acid from his eyes out of sheer disbelief toward the scene he watched. She couldn't have been speared like that - despite being a war, it was a war fought with magical individuals, not guns or knives or weapons of mass destruction. Was death truly an outcome like this?

Would he return to this burnt-out husk of a warehouse days later, when police discovered the body?

The steady buildup of smoke reached him, and Adonis coughed roughly. Despite the throbbing and continual buildup of tears, he could see well enough to determine that an inferno would soon flare up due to the senshi's actions. This may as well have been a trap - did they lure everyone here to die, knowing that some opportunistic officer would call a few of their number here? Adonis didn't want to find out, nor did he intend to become a casualty. With a hand still covering one eye, he straightened up and spoke toward the two corrupted senshi surrounding him. "I really don't want to stand around and enjoy the show at this point, girls - we should leave." And after placing one hand on the white-haired corrupted senshi, he hoped she'd afford him enough dignity to leave the place with a modicum of guidance; he didn't trust himself to reach the door reliably.

Fire burst to life all around them, and he hadn't the wits to fully process the scene.




Persephone's call for retreat was met with welcome reception for Leda. She didn't want to stick around, not in a place like this - she understood plainly that they were outnumbered and largely without training, so they didn't stand much of a chance at all. Besides, two of their members were kids! They couldn't afford to stick around and entertain the Negaverse like this! With a rallying breath, Leda scampered to her feet and edged away from the bomber jacket lieutenant that sprung into the fray.

Luckily the appearance of a new Super Senshi provided ample cover and distraction for her to retreat toward Persephone, but her approach came too little, too late - shortly after she turned toward the scene, a general struck through one of their members - Biela, she thought, desperately thankful she remembered the girl's name. And Leda froze, petrified and shocked to her core, as she watched the spear withdraw from the senshi's body. Blood pooled outward at an unreal rate, and Leda thought for certain that the girl would bleed out before she even hit the ground. Yet, maybe by the power of her fuku, she managed to hold it together for a while longer.

But Leda was too stunned to help. She stood by uselessly as she watched Dionysus batter the door, as she watched Persephone escort the poor girl outside while the flames slowly took to the building. She simply stood and stared, uttering not one word.

For nothing came to mind. How could she react to something like this? It proved far worse than the carnival - worse than anything she'd ever endured.

Someone would die to this war - someone she knew. How could she live with that?

Once Persephone disappeared from sight, Leda found the meager strength to move her legs once more, and she bolted toward the door as quickly as her legs could sustain her. Cinders brushed against her cheek when she sprinted through the doorframe, and she caught herself wondering if the same thing happened to Biela - if the flames almost caressed her on her way through the door. And as she covered ample distance from the warehouse, she happened upon the very scene she never wanted to see - Biela lay motionless, her fuku melted away and glamour gone. She wouldn't have known her, save for the obvious puncture wounds from her midsection.

Leda never felt the tears fall.




Bischofite never fully understood Natron's explanation for his strange actions until the senshi's magic struck him - and the once-general immediately summoned and dismissed his weapon in a wholly consuming compulsion that left him maddened and disconcerted. What strange magics did they posses that could cause such a basic need to partake in this entirely circular and entirely futile task? With a seething sneer, he approached the white and pink senshi in question, fully intent on burying the boy's nose into his skull with a headbutt, when Persephone shouted from across the room - she sounded frantic, almost desperate.

Bischofite liked her tone of voice.

Following that order came Natron's, clear and concise as the once-general would've wished. However, given his current preoccupation, his uselessness was utterly overwhelming - he might've had more success cheerleading Natron for finally giving orders instead of seeking starseeds from the enemy. But it would seem fate had other plans for him, as a familiar and acrid odor reached him with harrowing acuity.

Suddenly the cacophony deadened to an unnerving quiet, punctuated by the singular whine of a high-pitched ring. His vision clouded inward, as if smoke teased his peripherals away, and his hands went numb with a sudden cold sweat that felt nonexistent in one instance and ubiquitous in another. And no matter how deeply or desperately he breathed, no meager respiration managed to sneak air into his lungs - and he panicked from it, wholly and absolutely. His legs felt weak and useless, much like his existence as a lieutenant.

And he would burn for this. He would succumb to fire like he nearly did the day he taught Xenotime to shirk half-measures. Ghosts of those wounds cropped up along his chest and arms, and he scanned the room in his quickly-narrowing vision, desperate for some hint of an escape. Desperate for someone to stave off this sudden drowning in memories.

His beleaguered gaze fell on Benitoite, not far from him, and the black-haired lieutenant called for him - though his voice bore the taint of desperation, something he sought to eliminate to no avail. Initially his tone failed to carry, but a second (and more panicked) call toward the blonde managed something of a response.

The smoke, it peeled toward him with that same iniquitous hunger of youma.

The captain remembered the repeating compulsion of the now super's attack. He'd used it on her before, when he'd been nothing but a baby, fresh on the scene and so green, like summers sun through spring leaves. It seemed fitting that he would use it now, still glowing from the upgrade of power. Of course, it had been useless before, and it would be useless now. Xenotime's weapon, silvery bands of metallic sheen flashing along her knuckles, glinting in the soft light, in and out. She didn't need her weapon to break him.

Of course she still had the chibi to contend with. The hissing bundle of flailing limbs that struggled fro freedom, kicking at her shins until she'd finally just dropped him in impatience. He'd ran away from her, towards the green haired senshi, towards the aftermath of a scene Xenotime had missed. She stared at the blood soaked girl cradled in Persephone's arms with impassive eyes. Feeling nothing, except regret that it hadn't been her that'd drawn the first blood.

At one point in time the girl might have been moved by what she witnessed.

At one point in time she hadn't embraced all that it'd meant to be a part of the negaverse.

At one point in time..

Silver eyes narrowed at what came next. A cry for escape that was followed by the all too familiar acidic bite of smoke, curling up from one of the boxes, a prelude. Then fire, bright and consuming, it flared up and outward, spreading to anything it touched until an entire half of the warehouse was roaring with crackling flames.

And one more time Xenotime stood in the face of hell, and she heard a voice cut through the cacophony that lanced to the bone. If the captain was frightened of the wild flames it was nothing to what must have gripped her general, and she spun on her heel, searching through the chaos of fleeing bodies. "Bischofite!" Desperate and piercing, she screamed for him, spotting dark hair and golden eyes only as someone else had raced to his side.

Safe, he was safe.

Heat licked at the captain's back, playing in her hair in wavering currents, but she lingered long enough to watch the pair disappear. Then she was gone.

Sidouer's body tensed at the generals threat but at the moment his attention was pulled elsewhere she grabbed a hold of the chibi's hand and took off at a sprint towards the exit. Weaving their way through burning boxes, debris and beams careful to avoid close contact with the wild flames.

The would be green exit sign (if it were working properly) in sight, Sidouer slowed just enough in their retreat to scan the area for any allies who had not yet made it to the door. Just a paces off to the right she spotted one of the guys from the pre-meeting though his outfit looked... different. Not questioning the change in attire she veered off towards him, and grabbed his hand. "Come on!" she nearly yelled while jerking him into motion. "We got to get out of here!"