Today was the very best day of the year! Not only was it the eighth of November, two very special things were happening on this auspicious date. Firstly, Nealite was absolutely out of commission. She'd even been replaced as Killingworth's secretary by those two creepy new senshi! If what had happened on the news was any indication, she was probably in absolute disgrace! It was truly a beautiful thing. Audrey was going to pay a little visit, to thorougly stomp on the feelings of said ex-pseudo senshi. She'd worn her brightest, cutest clothing, to make herself look as innocent and fresh as possible. She knew Nealite wouldn't buy it for a SECOND. However, it was also Audrey's birthday, and she was going to do whatever she wanted! Skipping up to the door, she knocked as nondiscriptly as she could, not uttering a word.

Everything hurt.

Everything hurt so goddamn much, and Ursula had no idea what was actually keeping her going these days. She'd been sentenced to resting, she'd lost her job, and now was literally just supposed to sit around and wait for mysterious orders to arrive?

Sent away from Hillworth. Sent away from the General-King. Damaged, bruised, ******** over both emotionally and physically from the past few days.

She wore only a long button down shirt, one of the many she'd swiped from Obsidian's closet when he wasn't looking. They were large and comfortable, but even better now to walk around in. Wasn't like he'd wear them anyhow. Her legs were covered with welts and bruises, her arms with scabs and marks. The less fabric they were forced to touch, the better.

The door knocked, and she shuffled her bare feet across the living room, letting out a hoarse, "Door's unlocked!" as she made her way towards the couch and hunkered down onto it, a painful wince spread across her face. Obby had finally made his way over here, so at least she could get SOME comforting assurance... right?

As the door slid open, Audrey's bow was the first thing visible. It was bright gold today, almost the same shade as her eyes. Blue curls came into focus, and then the nasty smirk that often graced the face of the disguised lieutenant when she was in the presence of her arch-nemesis. Closing the door quietly behind her, again she all but skipped over to stand in front of Ursula, eyes raking up and down. Really, she looked awful! This was probably going to be even MORE enjoyable than previously anticipated!

"Darling, you look TERRIBLE. What, did you lose your mirror along with everything else?"

She had expected Drew to waltz in, as he normally did. Or perhaps even dash in, concerned over hearing the news. She did NOT expect, however, for a female visitor to saunter in to her apartment and make her way in front of Ursula, a wicked grin staring back at her.

"Audrey!" was all that she could exclaim, the venom typically in her voice now nowhere to be found. She was startled, confused, and it took moments for her to collect herself. Her eyes had swollen significantly from the punches Castor had landed on her, but thankfully the swelling had subsided enough for her to be able to see out of them. Still, as fuzzy as it was, Audrey was unmistakable.

She wanted to yell at her. She wanted to scream and throw a tantrum and tell the little b***h to get out of her apartment, how dare she be there to begin with. Instead, she winced as she removed her legs from the coffee table before her in attempts to straighten herself up. Exhaustion still evident in her voice, she shook her head.

"What the ******** do you want, Linarite?"

That was puzzling. Normally, Nealite threw herself into the occassion to one-up the teenager, but this time she seemed almost deflated. Like the balloons that the bluenette would take so much joy in popping later tonight after the candles on the cake had been blown out. All seventeen of them! Smiling all the sweeter for the lack of tone, Audrey assumed her most innocent position.

"Well you know, after I'd heard about Nova and Tisiphone rousting you out of the office, and Astraea nearly KILLING you, I just had to come by and see how you were doing. I'm glad I did, as I said, you look really awful! Are they not allowing you outside at all? Not even a little bit? How terrible it must be!" Her own tone was playful, shocked, and absolutely disdainful.

There was something almost pleasing about seeing Nealite stretched out in front of her, battered and defeated. She was so damn high and mighty! Just because she was ******** hot, she got all the attention and it was like Linarite never had existed! She was supposed to be support for this b***h?! Apparently, being the frontwoman of the Negaverse wasn't so jolly after all! Karma really was a b***h.

Jesus Christ, could things get any worse? She knew the news would spread, but hadn't the faintest idea things would spread this fast. It was humiliating... but the worst part was, it was true.

Why this chickie came to bother her over it thou---well, okay, she knew why Linarite was here. Just as much as Nealite would be there to mock her, should the other slip and have a downfall. It was only appropriate, rivals treating each other as, well, rivals.

"I don't think I'd last very long in the outside world," she drawled sarcastically, one hand reaching up to tuck itself under her chin as her elbow rested on the arm of the couch. "Not in this condition, at least."

How miserable, how ******** embarrassing. There would be no way to get this little twit out of her apartment, not verbally or physically. Ursula was a goddamn trapped rat in her own house, the one sanctuary she had protecting her from the outside world, keeping her currently hideous form away from the cruel judgmental world.

Sucking in a breath, she moved her legs to lift them onto the couch beside the rest of her body, and forced down the tears that were threatening to well up in her eyes. ******** legs, ******** pain, ******** everything at this point.

May as well get this s**t over with; maybe Audrey would leave her the hell alone if she didn't fight back?

"Yeah, Astraea hit pretty hard, but she did it while I was already down." She half-laughed, a forced throaty sound, "Castor did the majority of the work when it came to destroying whatever was left of my face."

She hated mirrors. The thought of a mirror was disgusting to her. She was disgusting. Merely seeing her own reflection these days would sicken her, her stomach nauseous from the image she'd see staring back at her.

"And yeah, I was let go from Hillworth. Did you have anything else you wanted to say, Lina? I'm not going to go anywhere, I assure you, so you may as well say your piece, dear. I'd like to get back to, I dont know, sitting around in silence at some point, today."

That was the part that was puzzling her the most. From what she remembered of Castor, he was a punk kid who was more talk than action. Maybe she'd caught him early, but were they all really that bad when they woke up? At least she'd had an education on how to do things before she was sent out into the world as a Lieutenant!

As the words from Ursula's lips reached the ears of her nemesis, it took quite a bit of air out of the teen's sails. Why wasn't she fighting back? Nealite always fought back! No matter what had happened, they sniped and picked at each other until there was absolutely nothing left on either of them to pull at. Now, when there was so much meat that you'd never reach the bone, the b***h was going to just pull back and save her skin?

What the hell?!

Fidgeting and straightening her hairbow with an idle gesture, Audrey's face turned suddenly very serious. "Honestly, I don't think there's much to say. What could I possibly say? That you failed horribly? You didn't. But you were still tossed over for those goddamn senshi. What are we, some ******** substitutes until there are senshi to replace us all?"

Shaking her head, unsettled, Audrey crossed her arms and then winced slightly as her own healing wounds pulled. "No. I just wanted to come see for myself that you really could nearly die. I'm sure you can tell how pleased I am that you're houseridden. Now maybe I can get what I deserve!"

Her laugh was short, forced, harsh. Ursula's eyes moved away from Audrey to stare off to the side, her mind elsewhere. ******** substitutes was right, or at least seemed to be. By how quickly she'd been replaced at Hillworth only made Ursula wonder for how long Charonite had planned this, how long he'd been waiting for her to slip up so he could shove in his two new girls to take her spot. It was humbling, a new emotion Ursula was unused to experiencing. She was the top dog, she was the one to be teacher's pet, but now she'd replaced by younger more powerful girls.

Eyes made their way back to the bluenette, her voice letting out a soft "mmm" as she mulled over what she would say next. What really was there to say? She HAD ******** up, she obviously wasn't the Nealite she thought she could be, the Nealite she thought she was.

She'd been tempted to comment about the senshi, about feeling replaced and rejected, cast aside like yesterday's newspaper. But Audrey's last comments had her brain thinking in overdrive, made her actually think of herself (which was not uncommon for the typically vain Ursula)... which only could bring her to one conclusion.

Biting her lip to keep from crying out in pain, she moved her feet back down to the ground and stood up before the other girl. She was only slightly taller, give or take an inch or two, so her eyes stood nearly on par with the student's. One arm lifted itself up and rolled up one sleeve, the other soon to follow suit, both arms soon exposing nasty cuts and bruises scattered along pale soft skin. Her hands moved up to pull back her hair, revealing the small slices left behind from Castor's hail, the bruises and damaged cheekbone from his and others' attacks. Her legs moved apart, showing how damaged even her legs, her thighs, her feet had become from running away from the police, escaping attack dogs, hurled objects, and even one near-disaster with a speeding car.

Be as it was difficult to see, she forced her weary eyes to stare into the younger girl's, that pretty little b***h who'd decided to see just how wounded her opponent had become.

"Here. See for yourself, then. Near death experiences aren't quite the walk in the park, so I'd suggest, Linarite, that you be careful on your missions, less you be sent off elsewhere like I'm going to be. You'll get what you deserve, alright, especially if you aren't careful. I was careful, and look what the ******** happened to me. Are you happy now? Have I made your day so much ******** brighter?"

Everything was all wrong. Nealite wasn't screaming and/or weeping in the corner. She was cold, exhausted, absolutely downtrodden. Popular terminology would call her an absolute emo! Whatever emotional need Audrey had wanted to fulfill in coming on this day, of all days, was even more emptied by the encounter. Instead, both of their fears had come brimming to the surface, and the new seventeen-year-old wanted only to run home and hug her mother.

Clutching her skirt in her fists, worrying the material, Audrey tried almost in vain to not let her eyes fill with the tears she was certainly feeling sting the back of her eyes. She'd come to make Nealite cry, and the reverse was happening! How did Nealite always get the better of her?! What the hell was wrong with her?! She was smart, fairly pretty. Incredibly agile and not a waste of space. Certainly the General-King wasn't having to haul off and save her from death once a week, as with Nealite.

So what exactly was wrong with her?

Raising her chin, tears standing in her eyes, Audrey smiled once more. It was hard, and brittle, but a smile nonetheless. "I am sorry I bothered you. There was nothing to get from this, for either of us. I thought maybe being older would make things better. I'm seventeen today you know. Anyway. I'm sorry." With those last words, she placed her beloved bottle of Neosporin on the coffee table, and ran out of the room, door slamming behind her. She had to get out of the building, before she absolutely flew apart into a thousand pieces!

Her face hardened as she stood there, watching the girl stare back at her. She was a joke, she knew it; her pride had taken a painful hit thanks to the past few days and she was still reeling from it. Audrey's reaction, however was unexpected, but a relief. No words to mock her, no words to reconfirm the thoughts Ursula was already feeling about herself.

No response came from Ursula as she watched the younger woman say her final words before walking out. Part of her wanted to ask Audrey how being older would make anything better, but she held her tongue. It didn't matter, nothing ******** mattered now that her priorities, her goals were stripped from her. God, she had to get her act together, this was more than pathetic.

The door slammed, leaving the orange haired woman in the silent peace she'd prayed for since the moment the bluenette had waltzed right in front of her. Her thoughts, however, were anything but peaceful as she thought over what the girl said, how the girl was obviously disappointed in the results of her visit.

...no.

No.

She was NOT going to feel guilty for a little b***h who came here with the sole purpose of mocking her.

Thoughts betrayed her as Ursula thought back on her own birthday the previous month, and then back years ago when she herself turned seventeen. What an awkward age, a stage in life where everything was so uncertain, everything was still in the air. Hopes and dreams created, fantasies slowly coming to a close as harsh reality checked in.

A few moments of silence passed by, and then she let out a low curse. God, she was going to hate herself tomorrow for this.

"Grendel," she called out, her head shaking as she refused to dwell on what she was about to do, "Grendel, baby, I need you for something..."

And with that, she soon disappeared into the bedroom, a plan conceiving itself in her mind.