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Night began to fall again, and Elke peeked out the door. Somehow she'd gotten Andeon past Hero, promising to gag him when they got back just in case he somehow dragged himself over to someone with his teeth. (She kind of thought Hero was being ridiculous with that. Andeon was too lazy to actually go around dragging himself to corpses to feast on them.)

She flicked on the flashlight, knowing full well she probably shouldn't be out at this hour; Hero would scold. More importantly, so would Serenade. But she hated sitting in there doing nothing, even though it was dark. She wasn't tired. The conversation with Sue still beat in her head: You attacked Piper.

I'll take you to pieces!

I am making this place into a ******** meat grinder.

What about Avery? What about Giselle? What about everyone who had the chance to come back? He couldn't murder them wantonly, he had to give Princess Chronos a chance to heal them. That was why she was sneaking out; she had to look for her friends. Had to see if there was anything Chronos could do. She had to know that there was no chance to save them. "It's nice to be outside," she confided to Andeon, "It gets kind of stuffy in there. I wish we knew where the thermostat was.

Her flashlight flickered over some bushes; nothing was there, and Elke felt obligated not to wander far. It felt like betraying the Princess's trust. But she did step closer to the shrubbery, stopping when the flashlight's beam pointed out a moving figure.

"Giselle?!"

Any historian worth their salt knew that a person who wielded power yet lacked control would not remain powerful for long.

Giselle knew, had known before she had become, for lack of a better term, undead, and knew now. Even though her mind was scattered, even though the hunger was trying to assert dominance over her body, Inner Giselle repeated the phrase like it was a mantra. Power and control. Failure is not an option.

However, no matter what her mind repeated, it was beginning to look like, yes, failure most certainly was an option. She had gotten lucky with the encounters she had, mostly, for lack of a better term, undead that she doubted she'd be able to best in combat. She had been able to force her hunger down, to choose her battles, but she hadn't met anyone weaker than her or living yet besides Elke. And Elke had been a close call, far too close. If she met someone actually alive, Giselle didn't think she'd be able to hold out as well.

Or at all, for that matter. Thus, when she smelled Elke (as she smelled her long before she saw her), she rasped "Run!" in the fiercest snarl she could, hoping whoever was approaching would heed her warning.

She couldn't find answers, she couldn't find a cure, but she'd be damned if she was going to stoop to letting her stomach take control of her. She wasn't going to relinquish the little power she had left.

Andeon paused. Zombie healing powers? What the hell was Elke talking about? He was just about to question Elke further when the voice came rasping from Giselle's throat. Andeon stared at her, slack-jawed, revolted by the sight of such a beautiful girl turned into such a monstrosity.

“Oh, Giselle...” He said, sadness soaking his tone. Normally this would be the time where Andeon would be screaming for them to run, but Elke's earlier comment combined with the sight of Giselle caused him to roll his eyes upwards towards the girl who carried him.

“Can you help her, Elke...?”

She paused, standing quite still. "I don't think I can," she clarified. "But maybe..." Not quite daring to hope, she shook her head; Elke knew Giselle wouldn't attack her. Not before, not now, not ever. So it would be all right to wait; if something bad happened, she could change over to Virgo. Who could Andeon or Giselle tell? Nobody.

That made her a little sad.

"I'm... a little different," she acknowledged to the monster-Giselle. "Human now. Um... I sort of did? Do what I was supposed to? I found out how to fix it... but..." Elke didn't know how it worked. Serenade and Chronos had dropped hints about a voice, about something only she could hear telling her to reach into Elke's chest and awaken Virgo. What if she got Chronos out here, only to find the voice was silent and nothing could be done?

That wouldn't happen. If Elke was suited to be a zombie-fighting-and-or-healing superhero, then so was Giselle. Caught up in her thoughts, she stared fixedly at her tutor's yellowish hair, which was all she could see through the bushes. "Come out, Giselle, please?"

Serenade had been worried.

It didn't take her long to notice that Elke had slipped out, along with Andeon, or at least, his zombie head. She still wondered how they had managed to convince Hero to keep him; Serenade had been all 'He's just a head! He won't hurt anyone'. In the end, Hero had grudgingly agreed after the two kept on begging her... with not much help from Andeon's remarks. Still, both of them were now gone, and she had peeked into all the corners that Andeon could have possibly rolled into and gotten stuck that she became worried. Where were they both?

Without any hesitation, Serenade headed to the door, transforming into Chronos as she did so. Even before Hero yelled out to her, Chronos did a hasty, "Elke and Andeon's gone; I've got to go find them, it'll be okay!" and promptly slipped out and ran, in case Hero came out to catch her and drag her back in. She wouldn't put it past Hero to do so, actually.

Someone screamed "SHOTGUN! SHOTGUN!" and she recognized it as Andeon. Panicked, the girl began running in their direction. Oh god, Hero was so going to kill them. "Elke!" She shouted. "Andeon!" The latter might not recognize her, but she was certainly worried for him as well; he was just a head. "What's going on?"

Elke, unbelievably for the situation, giggled. "You said what--"

She paused when she heard Serenade--no, it was Chronos. Pirouetting on one foot, she turned her back to Giselle and said, "Princess!" After a moment, she smiled, looking rather abashed. Well, she hadn't expected Chronos to come to them personally, without an escort of Hero toting a gun and looking down her nose at Elke for wandering off. With a talking head for company.

"Princess, we're okay. But... we found Giselle." She stepped closer to Chronos and leaned in to whisper (so Andeon couldn't hear), "I know if you don't hear the voice you can't do anything, but... I was hoping..." The bluenette had the good grace to look abashed for the selfish hope. "I know it's selfish, but..."

Giselle sunk to the ground and Elke spun around again, setting Andeon down so she could take a few steps forward and, cautiously, place her hand on her tutor's head. "Giselle, what's wrong?"

A bullet pinged off the ground near Giselle's head.

Actually, it had been meant for Giselle's head, but the dark secret was this: Hero Barrett could not hit the broad side of the barn. They were just lucky it didn't hit Elke (again). It was now a ******** melee. There was Hero, flanking the Princess, having run after her (who the hell did Chronos think Hero was) -- there was Andeon's head sitting around like a piece of furniture, who Hero still thought they should dig a pit for and throw him in it and throw some kerosene after to make sure it couldn't live again. There was Giselle, in a fetal position, clutching her head, Elke reaching towards her.

"DON'T MOVE."

Hero shouldered her way in front of the delicate form of Sailor Chronos, both hands on the gun, aiming it towards Giselle. She stared for quite a long time at the huddled, pale-haired form of the girl who had once been very close to her rival -- who had won the name Giselle. Her mouth did not move out of its grim line. Hero was pissed. When Hero was pissed, she tended to blow up like a flak cannon: and now her cheeks were read and she was having what Andeon might term a 'b***h fit'.

"YOU DO NOT GO RUNNING OUT HALF-COCKED," she bawled at Elke. "YOU DO NOT PUT YOUR PRINCESS IN DANGER. HOW DARE YOU?"

She levelled the gun at Giselle again. And she shot, with no hesitation. The bullet whistled over her shoulder and hit the dirt; Hero's mouth was twisted up in an ugly grimace.

Chronos. Again.

There was the voice in the Princess' head, apart from the tableaux that had been drawn up in front of her.

Do it. Like you did for Virgo. It will be all right. This form is temporary -- you can make them human again. Do it for Giselle. Be brave!

It's going to be all right. I told you so!

Hero watched again with all-too-itchy trigger fingers as Chronos, bordered by Elke (and with Andeon a bodiless peanut gallery) reached in to grab the star seed as she'd done before. It was, again, like viewing something that you weren't meant to see with human eyes -- she was a little ashamed to watch, as she had been the first time around. Giselle looked as though she were dying all over again. It took a while for Chronos to coax her fingers around the corrupted star seed, to tease it into the right position, and then that all-encompassing light --



Wait, what?

Giselle Petrova was a Zodiac?

Hero Barrett considered this a little sourly a 'crapshoot'.