“Really, darling” Natasha Ivanovitch’s gravelly voice held a note of exasperation as she studied her niece. Since coming out of that terrible coma, she’d sensed something different about her Gabrielle. There was a determination, a grimness that hadn’t been there before. At least she woke up, the elder Ivanovitch thought, shuddering as she thought of all those she’d seen on her visits who had not.

“This lecture will have me away for a day or two at most. What is so important that you cannot wait that long to tell me?”

Gabbie sat across from her aunt and watched her through hooded amber eyes. Since waking up from her coma, since planting that seed, hell, since finding out that her boyfriend was a fellow senshi, Gabbie had done a lot of thinking. She couldn’t, in all good conscience, leave her aunt in the dark when it came to her... extracurricular activities. And that feeling had intensified since she’d managed to visit the star of her original birth. Her aunt needed to know certain things so that she could stay safe.

“Trust me, Auntie. This can’t wait. I have to tell you this now. And... umm... if we could close the blinds and drapes before I tell you?”

The girl was already up and closing them, her expression so full of concern that Natasha suddenly feared the worst.

“Gabrielle, is someone stalking you? Did someone threaten to hurt you?”

For a moment, those questions nearly undid Gabbie. She wanted to laugh and yet, she knew doing so would only make her aunt worry more. So instead, she turned and pulled her henshin pen from her pocket and before Natasha could question her again, raised it into the air and murmured, “Saiph Star Power, Make-up!”

As she felt the warmth of the power that enveloped her, she closed her eyes, only opening them when she heard a soft thump as Natasha collapsed sitting onto the couch. Saiph hurried over to the older woman and hugged her reassuringly. She wondered if she looked so outrageous in her fuku. Okay, she had to grant that the teeth and claws decorating her had to be un-nerving. And the raggedness of her uniform probably didn’t help either.

“Auntie? Please don’t faint on me. It’s all right, I’m still me, it’s just... I’m Saiph too. And I am not a terrorist, Auntie. Will you listen? Please? You have to know some of this stuff so you can stay safe.”

Gathering her aunt’s hands into her own and squeezing them reassuringly, Saiph was relieved to see her aunt’s eyes sharpen as she gave a brusque ‘Go Ahead’ nod. The Primordial senshi spoke uninteruppted for a couple of hours. She explained what her powers could do, what being a senshi meant to her, and what it could mean for her aunt. She told Natasha the truth about that first hospital stay, how she’d really come by those terrible injuries. About what she’d seen and felt when she’d visited her star. And it was there that she saw a wry grin flicker across her aunt’s face. It appeared that her fascination with dinosaurs and the like was explained. And last of all, she told her aunt about the boy that she’d helped kill and the Tree and it’s children that, in the end, she’d been unable to protect.

Saiph broke down then and felt her aunt’s lean, strong arms pull her close and hold her. Saiph shook for a few moments and then with a last sniffle, gently pushed herself out of her aunt’s embrace and met the older woman’s gray eyes with her own amber.

“This is something I have to do, Auntie. I still want to go to college and study as much as I can, but I have to be a senshi too. And you can’t talk me out of it. But you can be careful and stay safe for me. Right?”

Natasha nodded slowly. Now she understood the changes she’d seen in her niece. The girl had grown up with a vengenence. For Gabrielle’s sake, she would do all that her niece asked of her as far as staying safe. And for Saiph’s sake, she would be strong and try to not dissuade her from the path fate had set her on. And even as the girl smiled and promised not to stay out too late before sneaking unseen from the house, Natasha held in all the desire to beg her to stay home, stay safe. She would not cry, she would be strong. She was an Ivanovitch. And Ivanovitchs were nothing if not strong.