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Ophelia could feel it, and along with the realization came a sudden, hollow aching in her chest.

Another life, stolen.

She had come racing from halfway across the city, jumping over parked cars and damn near getting hit at many an intersection. There was no time to wait for the white flashing figure that made it okay for her to cross, no time to pay attention to screeching tires or cursing pedestrians. She bounded over icy sidewalks and through wet gutters, her tiny body racing towards the place where she felt it. Evil, the taint of the Negaverse, filled her senses. It was like having her mind dipped in tar; it stuck to her senses and fouled her thoughts.

Ophelia skidded to a halt, claws raking across the pavement, eyes narrowed angrily as two figures came into view. One lay prone upon the cold pavement, so peaceful as to look sleeping. The other... the other brought shock to Ophelia's features; she was.. she was no more than a child! As young as some of the senshi that Ophelia had run into over the past few days. She knew of the Shitennou, remembered them through memories that were not her own. They had been men, most older than this. Never women, never girls.

“Oh, child,” Ophelia said, stepping forward slowly. Her route was not to Serandite, but towards the man who lay there upon the ground. Soon to be lifeless. Ophelia never would have imagined feeling pity for an agent of the Negaverse. She had expected rage, anger, the kind she felt at knowing that Charonite was now stealing the souls of children. When she glanced up at the teenager, taking in her colorful attire and her seemingly innocent face, Ophelia could not help but feel an overwhelming sadness gripping her heart.

“Child, what have you done?”

Most would step more cautiously around an agent of the Negaverse. Ophelia might have stepped carefully were this girl a general or, dare she even think it, a General-Queen. However, a lieutenant posed little threat to a guardian cat; escape was rather easy when you were less than a foot tall and able to fit into small spaces. There were plenty of dark alleys in Destiny City, making slipping away from danger an easy task.

When that failed, there were always forehead lasers.

Ophelia had circled around the man's body, and was sitting beside his head by the time she glanced up to regard Serandite. Her expression was one of contempt, brought on by the sight of the man's face, mixed with pity. Contempt, because she held this man's life force in the palm of her hand as though it were a shiny trinket. Pity, because this child clearly had no idea what the hell that meant.

“Girl,” she began, tail flicking behind her, “Do you have any idea what happens to a person when you take their starseed? Did Charonite even explain this to you?”

“Of course he doesn't. Of course he doesn't” Ophelia snarled, a strange sound to be made by such a pretty voice. It was that deep loathing for the Negaverse, for evil as a whole, a trait that was embedded in her very core. It was who she was, both as a person and as a guardian. The way the very thought of Charonite made her fur stand on end and her ears flatten was a trait which Ophelia wore with pride. He, like the rest of the Negaverse, must be extinguished.

Perhaps this child could still be saved.

“You kill him,” she said plainly, returning her gaze to stare sadly at the man's face. So peaceful. So serene, “He might look like he's sleeping, child, but this man will never wake. Not without his starseed. In time, his body will give up on the hope of waking, and he will die.” Her blue eyes slid back to Serandite, and Ophelia struggled to remind herself that this was not just a girl. Not just a child. She was one of Charonite's creations, a victim of his corruption.

“Every person you have ever taken a starseed from has died, and all of that blood is on your hands.”

There was no flash. No pretty sparkles or fancy transformation. There was just a shift, sudden and smooth, that took Ophelia from her natural form to her human one. It was a mask for their kind, a way to make themselves more easily understood. A form that was more familiar to the human with whom they so often dealt. IIt felt strange to stand on two legs, looking through human eyes that could not pick up the faint shifts from light to dark. It was like being half-blind, half-deaf, an unnatural state of being used only when necessary.

As a human, Ophelia was pretty. Ridiculously so. With long blonde hair that fell past her waist and white dress adorned with pale gold ribbons, she was a vision of what she prided herself on being; good. Long strings of crystals, aqua in color, were draped over her shoulders, wrapped around her wrists. They glimmered in the dim light, chiming softly as she spread her hands. Her head, with two pale ears that matched her hair in color, dipped in a small nod. On her forehead, the gold star glowed faintly.

“My name is Ophelia, and I am a guardian of the Senshi you fight. The ones who act as guardians of the people you have slain.” She took a slow step forward, and extended a hand to the girl, “It isn't too late.” Her voice was kind, but firm, “Give it back to him, child. You can still let him live. He will never know.”

There was no doubt who she meant by "He". Charonite. Their General-King. The man who was now using teenagers, practically children, to do his bidding.

Ophelia could feel the corruption, like a thick oil that coated the young woman's skin as their fingers touched. It made her stomach tighten and twist. How, she had to wonder. How could a girl- she couldn't be more than fifteen, maybe sixteen – be corrupted? It was difficult to imagine even Charonite being so cruel, to take away her life as she knew it before she even knew what she was committing to? How many more were there like this? How many more had no idea what atrocities they were committing, what their loyalty to the Negaverse really meant? The very thought was sickening.

Ophelia pulled the girl into a hug, one hand gently smoothing her hair in the way a mother might. She had seen those tears, and was no stranger to such feelings. This one was not alone in her sadness; the entire city seemed to live on fear and sorrow these days. It was still so easy to feel alone, however, and Ophelia wondered if perhaps it had been that sense of loneliness, that gnawing feeling of meaningless, that had lead this child into the ranks of the Negaverse.

Despite looking fairly young, perhaps twenty-five or so, Ophelia gave off the warm, loving aura of a mother. When she pulled away, leading Serandite by the hand, her bright blue eyes seemed to have a new emotion. Pride, perhaps. Hope, most certainly.“I can show you how to put it back,” she whispered, “And you will be able to see his eyes open. You will be able to look at him and know that you gave him his life. Will you do this?"

“Of course not,” Ophelia said with a gentle, reassuring smile. One hand lifted to brush tears from the girl's cheek, “I would not betray you to Charonite.”

The thing about star seeds was that while they were not required for a body to live, they were required for a person to live. Without it, the man who lay before them was nothing but a collection of cells functioning without purpose or thought. His heart beat, his chest rose and fell with breath, but behind his closed eyelids there was not so much as a flicker of thought. No dreams. No life. He was just a body, soulless and condemned to a slow, wasting death.

Ophelia led the young Lieutenant to the man's body, where she knelt down beside him. One hand gently brushed his cheek, her smile faint. There was still hope.

“He will remember, but he will not know enough to do any damage. I will tell him what he needs to hear.”

Ophelia watched Serandite closely, trying to hide the suspicion in her eyes. There was hope, certainly, but the Negaverse was a treacherous society. This could all be a trap, and it wouldn't do to have her own name added to the list of corrupted Guardians. No, the senshi needed every ounce of help they could get until they found their Princess.

Silently, Ophelia prayed that day would come sooner than later.

“Exactly what you did before, only reversed,” she smiled silently. “It's that simple. Just place it back into his chest, and it will return his life.”

The Guardian watched with wide, hopeful eyes, fighting hard not to let a worried frown cross her face. The situation was so very fragile. One wrong word, one startling motion.. anything could mess this up, and then his life would be on her hands.