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It had been a difficult and long couple of weeks staying on the down low to recuperate. It was hard to wake up in the morning and keep herself from falling into the same old habits, such as cleaning her room or going to the city to run errands. It was even worse when the sun rested its final rays against the horizon and a crescent moon shown brightly in its place, smiling at Alba from her bedroom window. She knew it was for her own good, and she knew that Simon was only keeping her out of harm's way. Not everybody woke up from the coma, and she should be grateful she did and was given the gift of being alive again. She needed to take it easy.

It had been 14 days since she checked out of the hospital. 14 days of catching up and completing her missed homework assignments, and 13 nights of reading her favorite novels or setting up still-life arrangements to paint. 13 nights of not seeing her beloved teammates and doing their best to give the city a peaceful slumber. Alba realized that her presence wasn't a necessity when it came to that sort of thing; there were plenty of masked soldiers in the night fighting the good fight.

However, tonight was different. She could no longer sit still and just let life drift by. Alba is a young woman of action, of independence, of helping people for the sake of seeing them happy. She was accomplishing nothing sitting by the window sill and wishing that she were in a better situation. Two weeks is enough time to rest, and she knew if she were to try and talk Simon into letting her back, it would result in failure.

And so, Sailor Alcyone walked alone through the empty streets of Destiny City, her ribbons flying in the fall breeze. It had been a quiet start for patrol, as she heard nothing but the echoes of her own foot steps clicking on the sidewalk. The clicks were soon enveloped in what could only be described as a blunt thudding sound, repeating itself over and over like a metronome.

The noise harbored enough suspicion for her to turn around and run towards its general direction, the thudding becoming louder until finally, she came upon the scene. The lieutenant was accompanied by a pale, floating crystal, but she continued to torment the person that she took it from. Blood splattered as her firsts broke through skin; wasn't the crystal enough?!

"STOP!" Alcyone bellowed. It was unsure whether or not the victim was alive at this point, but something had to be done. "Can't you see he's had enough?"

At the very least, Alcyone had achieved her demand: the lieutenant, who now appeared to be extremely psychotic as she smeared her victim's blood across her face, had indeed stopped pummeling her wrath's target like the sailor scout had wanted. However, every action called for a reaction, and the negaverse agent's was to stand her ground and fight for what she believed in. This was no surprise; wasn't that the point to these patrols? While there were nights that ended uneventfully, there were just as many that resulted in the defeat of a monstrous youma, and not far behind were these one on one encounters with people just like herself, only with an opposite agenda to take care of. It had been a while since she's fought her last lieutenant, and even longer since she's fought alone.

She was confident, though. Sailor Alcyone was comfortable prowling the city in the night, and for good reason. It had been a year since she was chosen to become a protector, and while she's had her moments of failure, she worked hard to learn from them and come out stronger in the end. While she was alone tonight, she knew she had friends that cared for her tremendous (just as she cared for them), and that alone brought her strength. She was careful and quick to respond, her eyes unwavering from the beautiful mask that spun deadly in her direction.

Her body spun to the right, leaving the mask to lightly cut the topmost layers of her upper arm's skin before it returned to its provoked master. She had to get the leather-clad girl away from the crumpled citizen before she could unleash her own attack, and that meant doing only one thing.

"Is that all you have? A boomerang mask?" She taunted. "No wonder you were exerting such strength with your own body; you don't even have a proper weapon to utilize."

With luck, the lieutenant would charge in a blinded rage, and leave the body behind. Once there was enough distance between the two, Alcyone would be ready to unleash a storm like the like's of no other. If it didn't work, she'd resort into finding objects to fling at a distance to get her to react they way she wants her to.

It was almost too easy. A satisfied smirk spread across her lips as she patiently waited for Moonstone to step into her imagined boundaries. She should consider herself lucky that the agents of the Negaverse were in a constant state of irritation, otherwise, her taunts and jeers wouldn't possibly work as well as they have been, and she'd be left either battling it out with her own two fists or attacking anyone in range with whatever object she can find and throw. As the leather-clad girl drew closer to her trap, she let out a rumble of a chuckle, a sound similar to that of a cat's purr.

"All talk and no action? If it's action you want...." Her pupils dilated with excitement when Moonstone stepped into the invisible trap. It felt so good when things went the way she wanted them to! "Then it's action you'll get! FORCE OF WHIRLING TEMPEST!"

The lieutenant had no time to run. Already the winds were picking up in tremendous speed, and while the skies were dark without the sun's rays to light them, they became darker still as pin-p***k stars vanished out of sight. Thick black clouds rumbled and shook the very ground with their thunder, and not a moment soon afterwards did the rain come.

It was a heavy rain, drops pelleting against Moonstone like a thousand blunt needles. Alcyone took a second to admire her work; this has thus far been her strongest storm, and she was glad to see that it had improved since she last summoned one. The beating rain, coupled with a wailing force of the wind, trapped the lieutenant in the center of the storm. While the storm itself didn't do much damage (especially if she were to put on her mask to protect her face), it was strong enough to keep her from moving forward. For the next few minutes, she was blockaded.

And so, Alcyone sprinted as fast as her legs could carry her around the perimeter of the storm. Her heart beat raced as she got to the corpse that lay still against the concrete, and she hoped for a minute that perhaps, maybe even a little bit, he was still alive.

She wasn't sure what Moonstone's White Rabbit-like tirade was about. Too late? Too late for what, exactly? Alcyone wasn't aware that she had fallen through any kind of rabbit hole, though at times it certainly felt like she did. Her heels scraped against the concrete as she continued to sprint towards the fallen body, laying motionless on the ground only a few feet away. Just...a little bit...closer....

When her eyes finally fell on the wreckage that was, at some point, a living human being, her body froze in mid-stride. She very nearly fell over the corpse from such a sudden stop, whose face had drowned in a pool of its own blood, and rendered unrecognizable from all the hits he had taken.

Not even in Camelot did she see such brutality.

She couldn't tear away her gaze. Any other lieutenant that she had come across were pretty quick about retrieving star seeds and leaving bodies be, but this monster? Alcyone could only hope that the beating happened while the person was unconscious, or already without a glow of life of his own. She wouldn't even be able to find who he was to alert his family or friends.

Just another face-less victim.

The rain began to feel less harsh as it pattered against the decorative native mask. Winds that were raging in high speeds were now declining to something more tolerable, and Moonstone should be able to feel a give. Should she take a step, the waning storm won't stop her as the senshi stood, frozen in shock, by her ravaged corpse.

"Too late..." Alcyone mumbled, repeating the very words that Moonstone had been hysterically screaming only seconds before. Those two words hung heavy like an all too regretful burden, hanging by a yarn-like string that tied itself around the pale wrist that once belonged to a living, breathing human being. It was a small connection to make, but her mind resonated with its brightness as she turned to face her opponent. Anger burned in her deep green eyes and vibrated within the marrow of her bones, and while the storm was fading fast, Alcyone stood with the confidence and determination of an overwhelming tempest.

"Too late!?" She repeated a final time, louder and clear as a bell. "There wouldn't be a too late if you had any sense of control! How DARE you blame his death on the late arrival of a senshi to stop your madness?!"

"If you're truly this enraged, why do you even kill? Why are you under the Negaverse's darkened wing?" It would be just like her to speak in metaphors during a situation such as this.

"You are a disgrace. You hope for us to intervene and save the lives of the victims you pick. How could you destroy a person's life like this? Why would you do something so terrible if you're wishing so much that someone would stop you?"

Moonstone, while weighted with wet leather, would no longer feel rain drops or the scalding touch of a cold wind. The attack had lasted as long as it could, and she was free to move as she pleased.

Alcyone stood her ground.

It had suddenly become painfully obvious that the lieutenant facing the senshi of storms was not entirely happy to be apart of the negaverse. There was a thick, bitter tone that dripped from her voice as she hoarsely yelled out her dilemma. The situation she has in mind was very one-sided, thought Alcyone, and she couldn't help but feel just a small amount of pity swelling in her heart.

Though in the end, it was just a little. With all that talk, it was hard for her to know if it was a twisted game of Moonstone's, and even if it wasn't, she was still very capable of completely obliterating one's life.

"Who said anybody needed to join the Negaverse to die?" She questioned, making sure that it was enough time after her opponent heaved so she may hear. "If you don't want to kill an innocent person, and you don't want them to join your faction, you can very well leave them alone!"

"You can leave them all alone!" She cried out again. "There is no need for all of this violence and for people to die."

Maybe, just maybe, there was a way to break through.

Kill or be killed? While she understood that the Negaverse was a truly evil organization bent on global domination, the sailor of storms still believed that if you had a choice to join to begin with, it could still be your choice to back out and run from it, or better yet: rebel against it. The latter option would be hazardous to one's family should Beryl and her generals know the mutinous lieutenant's loved ones, but even this was unknown to the soldier of justice. Willpower was a difficult thing to suppress if one had enough of it, and she believed this to the very core of her heart.

"If you loathe it so much, why did you join to begin with?!" Alcyone yelled back. "IT WAS YOUR CHOICE TO! And it's STILL your choice to get out!"

"They can't possibly own your freedom." A monologue began to swell within her throat. "If you let them, they can own your will and your soul, BUT ONLY IF YOU LET THEM!"

"If you are so disgusted by this, YOU CAN STILL FIX IT. IT'S NEVER TOO LATE. You can always stop. Your life should never be something so meaningless as to throw it away for them. You and your family can be saved, all you have to do is set yourself free."

All she was missing was a book, a brochure, and possibly a clipboard.