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It wasn't the loud ring that startled her from her studies, but the pixelated name that blinked on a small digital screen and greeted her as she reached out for her phone. Calls from Carter were few and far between for Alba, and almost always resulted in reserved aide for a patrol gone awry. She readied herself to hear the bad news as she flipped open the phone and answered, though for once, she was relieved to hear that her assumptions had been wrong. As she closed the phone and let it vanish into its subspacial pocket, she remembered thinking that the normally energetic and enthusiastic boy sounded un-charistically sullen.

The thought put a crease upon her forehead, though she continued to study for her exam until class started; worrying about it then wasn't going to help.

Thankfully, she was able to leave her classroom early after she finished her test and short essay with 45-minutes to spare. "Hmmm..." she hummed to herself, snapping the buttons of her pea-coat before she pushed the glass door to get outside. It was cold, almost unusually cold for this time of year, though Alba wasn't the right person to gauge this theory. This was only her second winter in Destiny City, and her second experience with snow as well; for all she knew, it was perfectly normal to feel as though your fingers were constantly encased in ice.

Which, in retrospect, made her think of Merope and how difficult it must be for him to use his attack in December. Alba was half-way to the park at this point, but seeing that she had a little time to spare, decided to stop by The Peaberry, a local coffee shop on the way and the brunette's personal favorite. When Carter finally saw her dark silhouette against the stark white snow-covered park getting larger, he'd notice her carrying two large paper cups with steam rising from the lids.

"Hey!" She called out, carefully waving a hand in greeting. "Sorry I took so long, I thought I had some time, and well....here," She paused, offering one of the cups. "I thought maybe you'd like to share some hot chocolate with me. How are you doing?"

"It's no problem." She replied as she handed him his liquid chocolate delight in a cup. There certainly wasn't anything comparable to hot cocoa in the winter time, aside from maybe a thick spoonful of gelato in the scorching heat of summer. Each season certainly had their pros amidst all the cons, and for Alba, hot cocoa was at the top of the list in winter. She blew at the steam that drifted from the mouth piece of the lid as she listened to Carter, hoping that maybe a little bit of cold air could make her drink tolerable to sip. Her lips formed into a frown, however, as she remembered the senshi meeting and the reactions she received from her speech.

There was no gray line about it. People either agreed or disagreed, and those that opposed were aggressively vocal about it.

"Yes, I do. ...though if you're unsure, maybe a walk could jump-start your train of thought. It almost always helps with me."

She began stepping on the trail in which, after a few winding hills and burrowing into the woods, would lead them to the closed cabin. "Shall we? Tell me what's on your mind."

At last, the cocoa was cool enough to drink. Alba sipped with gusto.

It was not a secret that Alba disliked the senshi of hail. The few times she'd seen him on patrol he was always reckless, loud, and hardly thought about his actions towards the rest of the senshi that were also congregated in the same area, for whatever trouble had arisen then. He had a flair for dramatics that she did not appreciate, and she wasn't sure if she liked the idea of Merope taking advice from someone who didn't even bother to group with a team. Castor's just a solo man, out to get the world that is out to get him.

The fact that he made Atlas very nervous most of the time didn't help her opinion on the matter, either.

"I don't understand how anyone would mistake you for anything but a senshi," she began, her footfalls muted with each step on the snow-covered ground, "The negaverse never wears such brightly colored blue." It was a poke and a tease at its best, an attempt to lighten up the mood with a bad joke.

Alba lifted her free hand and rubbed at the base of her neck, remembering a recent time in which a lieutenant nearly choked her to death. "Sometimes, there is no justice to be brought. Sometimes you try so hard to show them another path, a brighter light, and all you get is a near-death experience and more bodies that have been ripped apart to shreds."

She stopped for a moment, as though she could see the corpse she had found before in the middle of their path. "It's not just star-seeds. Sometimes you can't even see their faces, they're so mauled up."

Taking a long and settling breath, she began to walk again, but at a slower pace. "You can stop them, or you can continue to let them do that to other innocent people. They don't see justice, Carter. All they see is blood and reward."

Alba rolled her eyes at his response. "Well, they're not being very observant if that's the case. They can't go around attacking every senshi that doesn't sport a skirt...that's just inappropriate and unprofessional. There are even girls with shorts. Really." She waved her free hand in an exasperated flail to really emphasize her frustration. This kind of thing was exactly why the senshi as a whole weren't organized or considered successful in their quest to bring justice to the world.

Their walk had taken them inside the forested area of Destiny City park. The trees were stark and skeletal, and occasionally dropped piles of snow from a quickly darting squirrel. The bundled pair were lucky for once: each pile fell to the side of the path, leaving them warm and dry as they walked closer to their destination. Alba stayed silent for a few moments, taking advantage of a few more sips of cocoa while she thought her words out. The last thing she wanted was to get on a soap box and pressure Carter into seeing her side of things, nor did she want to linger on the memory of that fateful night.

It was already difficult to keep it from her dreams.

In the end, she sighed. "It's a long story. I'm not sure if you want to hear all of the details, so I'll just make it brief: I ran into a lieutenant, who left her victim unrecognizable. She continued to show signs of regret by placing the blame on us for not stopping her in time. I tried to reason with her. I tried to tell her she had a choice in the matter."

She pulled at her scarf, loosening its warm, tight grip around her neck and revealing what looked to be a healing bruise. "I have this to remind me, for a little while longer. They are a lost cause, and if you aren't careful, they'll succeed in their mission."

This was precisely why she hadn't mentioned it before in the first place. Alba turned and wrapped her arms around Carter into a tight hug, careful to not spill a drop of cocoa from her cup. "Sssshh!" She murmured, trying to nurture and reassure her friend the best way she knew how. "It's okay! It's over. It's been over."

"I didn't call because it happened so quickly. It happened too quickly." She continued to hold him by the shoulders. "In the end, a guardian cat heard the ruckus and helped. I got out alive...that's all that matters now."

The comment about the cat should have clued Carter about when it had happened. It had been about a month since Alcyone had quietly raised in ranks of the senshi army, although she hadn't told anyone outside of Simon as to how.

"I didn't want to worry the lot of you. It was bad enough that I couldn't go back to my suite afterwards...I had to crash at Simon's. I woke him up so late and got him all anxious..." She allowed Carter to pull out of her arms and opted to slowly start stepping forward again. Better to keep them moving than to watch him in a tender moment, as it was obvious that Carter was keeping her from fully looking at him in the face. Alba suddenly felt guilty for not being upfront with her captain.

"I won't do it again. I haven't left on patrol on my own since, and I won't unless it's to meet up with one of you."

Once in step again, the frozen lake came into view below the hill. "To be honest, I was incredibly depressed when it happened to me. I thought I was a terrorist, cursed to create problems and be disliked by everyone."

"It took me a while to get used to it." She continued. "To try and make it better situation. I realized that I was the only thing keeping myself from doing something good with all of this, and that's about the time that Simon and I met you."

"It's dangerous, but it's still up to us to make a difference, and I will continue to fight for it. But....I'm pretty sure you didn't call me to just talk about my mishap. What's going on with you?"

While Carter circled around the empty cabin, Alba turned to face the iced-over man-made lake of Destiny City Park. There were still a few paddle boats frozen in place by the dock, either forgotten by the manager or simply didn't have the room to put them to into storage. In the spring, the lake was usually teaming with tourists or local boat enthusiasts, dotting the gentle waves with paddle and row boats. On days windy enough, some people even tried to sail, and it was always a joy to see those colorful stretches of fabric.

She knew she was lucky that her family was safe outside of the country. Alba wrote to them weekly, though never about her nightly activities. It was a worry, nestled like a lump in her throat on what would happen should she fall in fight. Her parents would hear the news from her abuelos, as their home was the address and phone number that she put down in her school's "in case of emergency" records. Her parents moved around too often to contact them, and international calls were expensive.

With Carter coming back, she focused her attention back to the cabin, and followed him inside. She was always puzzled as to why anyone would leave a door unlocked like the management clearly had in this case; they were lucky the senshi occasionally residing in this space weren't the kind to steal. She placed her nearly-empty cup of cocoa on the table and pulled up a chair to sit on, and gestured for her company to do the same.

"We are fighting for love." Was her simple statement. "I know that sounds corny, but think about it: we are guardians, doing our best to keep the Negaverse from harvesting energy with human lives. We fight to protect the people we love, the people we don't know, and even some that we don't like very much at all; all because we care enough that they continue to breathe and live each day."

"Many senshi are becoming restless with our shortcomings, and are beginning to form factions that better represent their philosophy. I know I have a strong opinion on the matter, and it's only from my own experience that I draw it from." She paused, take a final gulp of the cocoa that was left inside her cup. "It's a difficult philosophy to swallow, so to speak. I'm still not even sure if I can actually do the deed....so I'm training, and making myself stronger until that day comes."

Alba placed a gloved hand on Carter's shoulder, giving it an encouraging squeeze. "If you're confused, you shouldn't worry about what other people think. You should do what you think is right, and it'll come if you are unsure. And we'll all be there with you when it does. Alright?"