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It was probably not at all comforting for Ladon's superior to breeze into his office looking a bit like a sunbeam, covered from head to toe in the most buttery gold sundress that existed in her wardrobe. Even her head was crowned with a ribbon of similar color making her look precisely like a day at the beach with her ocean-blue hair and peachy tan skin; Audrey Collins was the picture of glowing health and vivre. The smile that had been plastered onto her face like a kindergarten teacher dimmed a bit as she looked her poor Lieutenant up and down, placing the bag slung over her shoulder on the stand next to his bed.

"Sorry to say, but you look a bit like hell Ladon. You're lucky I'm here!" The strap was flipped back to reveal a bag stuffed with several types of baked goodies, three books from the more popular genres, and an old Gameboy loaded up with a copy of Pokemon beneath a brand-new brush still in the packaging. "I brought you some essentials while you're trapped in here, lemme know if you need anything?" The cheery tone was almost unnatural though it fit her look, which dropped as well as soon as the girl was assured that the nurse was out of the room.

Holding up one slim finger the bluenette dragged up a chair and collapsed into it, propping sandal-clad feet up on the bed. "Alright lieutenant, I'm here to save you from death by boredom, but you have to tell me what happened. Did you actually lose an eye?" His text message had been pretty dire but well...the poor kid was in the hospital and looked like he belonged there. Audrey wasn't fond of being there at all - too many bodies and too many were familiar. Though the teen wasn't as cheerful as before her tone was still caring; Ladon was one of hers, and whomever had messed with hers was messing with her.

Linarite was about to have a new target, and God help whomever that was!

It was probably a good thing he hadn't mentioned her lack of ladylike qualities at the moment, because it was all the Captain could do from sitting up straight as a rod in her chair and being almost ruthlessly demanding of the poor kid. Her posture was all forced, all carelessness when all she could feel was a terrible urge to strangle poor Ladon for getting hurt like he had. Plain and simple was the fact that she was incredibly worried about him and his future now - how did someone with one eye keep fighting senshi and stay alive?! Two eyes obviously hadn't been doing them very good as while the city slept and they had an edge on senshi, it seemed lieutenants like Wolframite were dropping almost as fast - like Akhtenskite.

The bluenette was silent as she listened to his report, delivered with a wholeness and even tone that indicated he'd spent quite a bit of time on it. It showed in the thorough detail of it as it was played over in her meticulous mind. Chronos was the only princess they'd heard of in the city and word spread fast; even if one was hiding they would have felt her or heard about her. Princess and an ice fist...oh God. No. No no no. That forced casual pose dropped away as Audrey Collins' eyes burned with an awful light behind them, a hand reaching out to grab Ladon's and squeeze so that he might realize the import of her question. "Ice fist? Did he have sorta brown hair? Blue eyes? Attitude so hard you wanted to punch him into next week?" Now that ramrod posture was showing as tension flowed through her body.

Chronos and possibly Castor against tiny Wolframite and another lieutenant she'd never even met. He was lucky he was alive and had his Captain been any more demonstrative of a young woman she would have hugged him right about then. "You're so lucky, I'm actually rather proud of you for getting away. It's not about winning sometimes. Sometimes it's about surviving to fight tomorrow." Unbelievable! Releasing his hand to wait for his answer about the male senshi that had punched him in the eye with an awful dread in her heart, she paced the room with bare feet to cut down on the sound. Anything that alerted those damn nurses was bad, Audrey wasn't exactly feeling up to forced cheerfulness in that moment!

Eyes flicked towards the door which was shut with a quiet click as Audrey's silent stride made itself much more useful and her face was set in lines that were reminiscent of her Negaverse persona than the actual teenager. God, she hated the hospital! Also the news that once again Sailor Castor was literally punching his way back into her life was something that was more than disquieting, it was downright turbulent. Audrey did not want him around. Not at all! Alright, so maybe she was lying to herself just a little bit, but things were more complicated when Castor was involved. Complicated was bad.

Hands slammed down with a jolt onto the mattress as shoulders rolled and the Captain's face was grim with those lines. "You wanted to die? You think it's nobler to be dust on the concrete than to survive and have learned something? You now know that Sailor Castor - by the way that's who punched you in the face; is somehow guarding Princess Chronos. You've figured out what one of his powers are and you now know how to avoid them when we get you back on your feet. You were smarter than your partner who is unfortunately now aforementioned dust. You went against two powerful senshi and lived. Yes, I'm proud and you should be too. It's becoming harder and harder for us to survive, Lieutenant." The flat lines twitched into a scowl that bespoke how truly irritated Audrey was with this entire thing - nobody ever thought the same way she did and she really hated explaining herself. Couldn't he just be happy with the fact she wasn't going to punish him further for engaging someone so powerful?

Of course not. Wolframite was dedicated and like the rest of them hated failure. Hard to really fault him there and with arms crossed, she expelled a long breath and muttered for a long moment. "Listen. I understand you are angry with yourself and feel like you are responsible for the death of a comrade. You're not, you didn't kill him. You didn't take your own eye out. Learn where to place blame, or you're going to end up going mad with guilt. Be happy you lived, learn from your mistakes, hone your power. Get revenge." The front of her sundress puffed out as the bluenette collapsed back into her chair and stared at the ceiling.

"If anything, this is my fault." Eyes shut tightly as that night on the roof played over in her mind. Audrey could swear that her leg was throbbing, that she could hear again Castor's voice as he asked her to run away with him so they could be together forever. Ladon had lost an eye because of her weakness. ********. "I'm really sorry, Ladon." Let him think whatever he wanted about why she was sorry. He didn't need to know; that was another lesson. He had to just learn to accept s**t sometimes.

Audrey had heard him, but chosen not to respond. It was fairly ironic that one of the few times in her life she'd been willing to take the blame for something, she was told that no it really wasn't her fault. But again, there were things that she would have to explain to make Ladon understand her point of view and those were things that never needed to see the light of day. In fact if they never saw the deepest shadows of midnight again, Audrey would be absolutely thrilled. Even speaking about the Senshi of Hail made her heart tight in her chest, the bluenette was forced to summon up other images of other people, focus on Ladon's new infirmity to remind herself that she had a duty and he was not a part of it.

Choosing to break the silence with information, the girl played with the potion hanging around her neck and smiled almost absently. "I've known Castor for a very long time. He was the first senshi I ever met, and he even beat up Nealite before she was the queen. Fought Tanzanite when she lost her arm, he was the bait." Her deep honey eyes were unreadable as they flickered up to see Ladon's intense fervor for the revenge she had mentioned. Good, he had spirit left. Spirit could get you through anything, in the Captain's estimation. "If there's one person on the side of the senshi that needs killing, it is Sailor Castor. Princess Chronos is troublesome, but she's not nearly as battle-ready as Castor. He broke my leg." The last was curt and short, a clipping of information that did not need going over. "Suffice to say that to bring in his star seed to the queen would net you all sorts of favors. But I hope you've learned that he is much too powerful to take on alone." The potion dropped and a hand reached out to pat the injured young man's own.

"Don't worry. One day we'll get him, and if I can, I'll make sure you're there. I'm sure the battle will be suitably destructive, so you should notice. Castor's everywhere all the time, you'll find him." It was why Linarite had been so very absent lately - she didn't want to risk running into him herself. Any remote chance of feeling a power signature that might be his was enough to send the girl running in the opposite direction. Her quotas were rather low lately.

Curls whipped around as the teen shook her head and spoke somewhat quickly. "No need to be sorry! It happened awhile back, when that weird tree was still in the park, and I was only in the hospital overnight. It was a light break, which turned into a weird sprain. We heal pretty funny, or I expect that losing your eye might've done a lot more than simply been upsetting." Sure, it was a lot more than simply 'upsetting' but most people died from injuries of such a magnitude. Ladon hadn't, and that was due to the Negaverse and his corruption. There were upsides to everything!

It was, however, harder than Audrey would ever be able to admit to think about the remote possibility that at some point, someone other than herself might pull Castor's starseed from his chest and devour it. The current policy she was spreading was that it should be taken straight to the queen as a trophy, but what happened if some rookie got lucky? Some stupid slick-fingered Lieutenant who ate first and asked later? No, the blue-haired young woman was not at all going to think about that, and instead focused on Chronos with a bit of a lopsided smile. "I think it's worth nothing that she was protected by a senshi not one of her Zodiacs. Why is that? Are they fighting? Did they get taken out? I definitely think I might have Zinkenite put out his information feelers on that one. Maybe he and Scheelite can beat them out of hiding, so when you're out of the hospital we can continue." The smile grew a bit wider as she reassured Ladon that given the choice, she would not continue without him.

Morale was important; nobody understood that better than Linarite, who made it her business to personally reinforce the ego of each and every one of her subordinates. Confident Lieutenants were productive lieutenants, and were usually not dead lieutenants, which only added to her success and her prestige. Hands clasped elbows behind her back and Audrey stretched onto the tips of her toes thoughtfully. "What would your opinion be on this, Lieutenant? There has to be some reason Chronos was out without her guard dogs."

The 'being a team player' thing was something that Audrey was still new and unused to, never mention Linarite who had absolutely no reason to rely on anyone but herself. Now she was one of the most powerful non-royal people in the Negaverse, two steps down from the crystalline General-King and legions down from the Queen. Nobody had power like Beryl and certainly Linarite was vehement on the idea that she didn't want power like Beryl. There were trade-offs with the territory that were not even remotely pleasing; no, Linarite was set and pleased to be an officer for Her Majesty. It was a good place to be!

So it was that the underlying message in Ladon's words about teams and being left out of things sparked an interesting notice in the meticulous mind that had not previously been there. Perhaps it was a moment of weakness being shown on her part, yet did anyone expect true teamwork from the side of 'all for one, and one for me'? "That's a good question, but I've heard very little from that scary magician since the day we met him; do you think perhaps he was taken by the coma as well? That would mean the Zodiacs might have had time to re-gather what was taken, or that's what they were out doing, thus leaving their princess defenseless. I agree though, I've met the Gemini and I don't see them voluntarily letting out their precious Chornos without a guard of their own choosing." That was a painful battle that Audrey'd limped around from for a week. Khal'd been better off, but he'd also been a lot more fortunate than her. b*****d.

Audrey settled back into her chair with a sigh and steepled fingers, drumming them against each other while she thought. "You have good input, I'm glad I asked. Yes, it's much easier to have one against us than a full team but I was rather hoping that Captain Tanzanite's group might have taken out at least some of them by this point. The idea was to kill her Zodiacs and leave her defenseless, but if she's made allies amongst the Moon Princess' court....it skews things a bit." Slim fingers combed through blue curls in a gesture of light nervousness, it was never good for plans to go awry for Linarite and it meant something wholly unpleasant for her: she was going to have to consult Uranophane.

God damn it.

Abandoning the talk for a moment, she reached out again and patted Ladon's hand maternally. Obsidian could b***h all he wanted about her coddling but she would bet that his lieutenants didn't have such keen observation skills, nor were so planned. Fodder was easy to train, but true officers? Not so much. "Don't worry. You'll get your chance to hit him back. Hopefully soon." Hopefully while she was not there. That would be unfortunate.