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Wolframite would have teleported for them had he not already done so to get to Castor immediately during the fight. However, he should have considering how battered Tanzanite was and how adding on the drain of transporting 2 others had not helped her in the least. However, he had not expected to be pulled away at that moment by her, but had expected either a dramatic fight or a mad dash to get out of the Town Square that had been completely surrounded by senshi.

He would have been fuming about leaving Castor alive when they had been so close to killing him and bringing his starseed at a prize to their Queen had it not been for the look of pure pain and the scream of agony that he had as a reward and treasured memory tonight. Not only that, but the inspiring words of Tanzanite to strike fear to a full audience of senshi had made him feel nothing but awe and pride in his fellow Captain, his senior despite rank.

When they had left, they went from a snow-covered, frigid landscape surrounded by their enemies hell-bent on killing them (one had nearly punched him if they had not left seconds before), to a dark, warm room. It was such a startling contrast that he had to gain his bearings a moment (teleporting still made him sick), and take notice of where they were. In a house – living room by seeing a couch nearby. Was this where Tanzanite lived?

Before he could do any more looking around, his eyes went from a coffee table to the battered captain who, at that moment, changed into the woman he had yet to know outside of uniform. Seeing an officer battered was one thing, but a woman was another. You expected to see battle scars on a person dressed in uniform, who fought the good fight, but they seemed out of place on a grown woman who looked nothing but normal. Then again, from what he had seen only moments ago, she was anything but.

He was insantly on mother mode and looked about, trying to see if he could spot a first aid kit or if he should be going after any cloth to tear into shreads and make into makeshift bandages. Before he had that time, she spoke and he was instantly beside her, hands out but not touching. He never really touched a girl without permission and with the blood and large scraps, he wasn't sure if he would only hurt her more when it wasn't necessary just yet.

Her thanks was shaken off. "It was nothing. You needed help and I was more than happy to give it. I wish I could have come over sooner." He had. Kaguya was a royal pain, but he had rather fought with Castor any day. The hate for that senshi was unrivaled by any other and stirred the corruption deep inside of him. Humble to a fault, he was more than surprised by her compliment and instantly flustered. "Me? You did all the work. You not only taught Castor a lesson, but you sent a message to all the senshi present who were helpless to defend him. You did way more than I did. I was just another set of hands." And even then, he was just holding Castor down – which he was more than happy to do. Just being there to help in Castor's destruction was something he cherished and he felt the need to thank her.

"You were really amazing back there.' Of course Linarite was there, and he wasn't about to forget her. "You too. I notice the both of you fighting and wanted to rush right over." He looked back to Tanzanite (He didn't know her civilian name), and looked her over. "You should settle down. You're really beaten up. Where do you keep the first aid kit?" He wanted to help her right away. Blood loose could lead to shock, and with the exposure to cold they already went through, it wasn't going to help her any. It was probably being numb to the bone that kept her from feeling too much in pain – but not entirely.

Spotting a blanket on a nearby chair, he leaned out, grabbed it, and pulled it to her. She needed to get warm.

Aree laughed off her fellow Captain's compliments, once again impressed by his humility. It was a rare thing to be found in those who joined the Negaverse, where ambition and ego seemed the dominant traits. Kindness, gentleness, and a sense of lingering humanity despite the tasks required of them to restore the world to proper order were rare traits. Traits which Linarite and Wolframite seemed to have in abundance, but which Tanzanite found always lacking. What Tanzanite shared with them was a deep loathing for the Senshi of Hail. They had each lost something to the arrogant boy; an eye, an arm...

Aree's gaze momently lingered on Linarite, but she pushed the thoughts away. That was a discussion for a different time and a different place, and she hadn't yet even fully healed from the last time she'd crossed words with the blue-haired General.

“I'm fine,” she fussed, her words disproven as she once again tried, and failed, to stand. Whatever energy she might have had left from her fight with – or should she say, beating from – Castor had been used up in the teleportation. Still, it was not in Aree's nature to be taken care of, and for several moments she protested to any care they offered.

“It wasn't the water,” she murmured, hissing as Linarite took to cleaning the wound. It was enough to make her muscles tense, the black mass beneath her skin twisting grotesquely, The most useful thing about her strange appendage was it's versatility. It could spit out objects like an artillery rifle or swallow them whole, absorb the spines from her shoulder and shoot them off as weapons, but the more it exerted itself, the more susceptible it became to a senshi's magic.

“Strong,” she scoffed, shame clear in her voice, “I should have killed him when I had the chance, but I want him to suffer.”

Finally, she seemed to settle a bit, if only because her muscles refused to move so much as another inch. Her head fell back against the couch, lifted, and was slammed back again. Her gaze fell on the arm in Linarite's care, the way the black muscles twisted in pain and the voice of the thing hissed agony into her brain.

“He needs to suffer.”

There at least was a point they all agreed on! Especially when Audrey felt the weight of steel-colored eyes on the top of her head, knowing in that instant that not even exhaustion and the loss of her quarry would distract her from the words that Castor'd hurled at their general. The haze around her mind was fading faster and faster, leaving Linarite's human shell with nothing more than the screaming and a rising rage in her mind. Lightly resting Aree's arm against the couch and a tap on her forehead to stay still the teen rose to the sink again for three glasses of water.

"Mind wrapping that up Ladon? You're better with bows and knots and such and if you let her she'll do it herself. Don't let her." Trusting someone else to take care of Tanz? What? Every movement that she made seemed out of place for things that Audrey would have normally done. By now usually she was fussing and swearing that if her friend didn't lay still she was going to dig fingers into the wound and make her lay still. So far she hadn't been taken up on the challenge.

Things became somewhat clearer as the glass that she was drinking water from went heaving towards the wall with a strangled scream in her throat, fists clenching at her sides. "Six times. Six <********> times we've tried. Once I nearly died. Once he nearly died!" A hand flipped out to indicate poor Ladon, who had never seen his former Captain in this state. "Once you did die and were saved by the ******** grace of the Queen." Pale fingers curved into the back of the couch as if she would throw it out of the nearby window at any moment, or it was restraining her from running out the door and after the oh-so-lucky Senshi of Hail.

"We've killed senshi. It's not really that hard. Why can't we kill one bumbling idiot of a senshi?!" And why did she still care?! She had Elzo, it wasn't as if Audrey was lonely by any stretch of means. If there was no Elzo there was Victoria, or Aree, or Jada, or Pasha, or Zac, and the list went on and on. There was always someone for her to care about or obsess over.

Why Castor?

Releasing the couch, nails scratched at her palm absently to soothe the burn that never really went away, sliding down to sit again within reach of both comrades. "He needs to suffer but more than that he just needs to die. He has the ability to rally senshi just by existing and that sort of charisma is more dangerous than any sort of power. Maybe that's why that damn gray cat always saved him from Nealite?" The flash had spent itself and now there was just that hollow ache made of star seed cravings, anger, and confusion that lived perpetually with Linarite every day of her young life.

"He has another good point, by the way. Taking senshi attacks to the face really isn't a good way to handle things but I'm sure you'll come around in a bit. You're gonna have a really pretty shiner." A quick laugh snorted out almost soundlessly in the still air of the apartment as she tilted her head back to rest against Aree's hip.

"Guess that's just how it is for us, huh? Always so close but never quite there." Always, for them.

With Aubrey heading off, he took her place and set to work bandaging her arm, using only his slender fingertips to hold it up and then using a bit more force to wrap it up. He knew First Aid after taking a course in the local community center he once volunteered at (his hobbies had been pushed aside for the Negaverse as of late), and he wrapped around and around before tying the end, wishing he had had some medical tape instead. The arm was cleaned already, but he worried for it. It was deep and looked as if it would take some time to heal. Then, like so many of them, she would have a scar. One to possibly many. It seemed okay for a boy to have a scar, but for a woman, it just seemed wrong to him.

Right when he set to undo some band-aids to take care of a scrap on Tanzanite's fingers and a large one on her cheek, he jerked at the sound of broken glass. He first thought she had dropped it on mistake, but the force had caught his attention. It was strange and surprising to see the General, his team leader from the past, break down this way, and he wondered if he should step in to stop her. They had enough stress for Tanzanite to deal with, but then again, he had no idea what his superior had been going through. He hadn't heard her story, but he did recall the time he had been in the hospital recovering from his brush with Castor. The mention of the senshi had bristled her and he knew she was repressing a lot of anger and how she wished he would die. Even then, he knew she hated him, but it seemed far more than just normal hatred for a senshi. They all seemed to have their history, but Ladon wasn't the type to pry. The fact they all hated him was enough for him to feel like they were part of a team within a team. Even Nealite hated Castor, and for that, he wished he could have killed Castor as well. He missed his dear superior.

Aubrey's words had only been depressing, and he shook himself from it. "We just have to keep going at it. Whatever luck he has, it will stop. That's why you need to stop putting yourself in jeopardy too. You won't get by every time." He said, glancing at Tanzanite. What luck Castor had would run out, and so would the girl's. They couldn't afford such risks when their numbers were so few and they had only several trained, skilled, experienced officers who could keep the senshi at bay. Ladon wasn't one to settle on being depressed. He was a goal setter, and he needed that to move forward. He had his moments of frustration and helplessness, but he was too thrilled at the progress they made tonight to feel that now. They lost Castor, but not without inflicting some injury. It just gave him hope for next time.

He looked at the blue-haired girl resting on Tanzanite's hip, and breathed out. He didn't like the scare she gave him in her angry flare up, but he was glad it passed. For now, he started to put the first aid kit away, done with the few additional band-aids he dotted on the girl on the couch and set it aside on a nearby coffee table.

Then, in the hushed quiet, Tanzanite whispered…and then laughed. The sound was strange in the hushed silence of the living room and he worried that she too had lost her mind a bit. When she looked at him, he did not get that same instantaneous message like she had when she wanted him to hold Castor down. Confused and clearly showing it, he dared to speak. "What are you talking about?" If Tanzanite was losing it, he was just going to them both girls go to bed. Maybe tonight's stress was getting to them.

“If only I could,” Aree sighed, her voice wistful in a way the suggested that she really would like nothing more than to slaughter Castor on public television. She briefly considered all of the ways it could be done, and for a long time she seemed to zone out with that wistful smile. The way Wolframite cared for her was foreign, almost alien in it's gentleness. She was unaccustomed to anyone but Linarite tending to her injuries, and the way Wolframite neatly tied off the bandages caused Aree to raise a curious brow. Where, she wondered, had he learned to do that?

“We need them off guard. Provoked, if you will. The senshi have dared go so far as to pretend to be among our numbers,” this fact clearly agitated Aree, and her voice took on an almost fanatical tone as she continued, “They dared to impersonate members of our Glorious Kingdom, and to attack police while doing so. They dare provoke us, incite us, to challenge us!” She was almost shouting by the end of it, her voice thick with enthusiasm, but was forced to reign herself in as she attempted to bolt upright and was rewarded with a dizzying headache.

After a moment, she continued, “It is time we respond in kind.”

“They've endangered us by turning the eye of local authorities onto us, and we are not immune to bullets. Wolframite, do you think you could make a few more bows,” she glanced down at her bandange, strangely impressed, “For myself, Audrey, and you? And I think,” she pondered going through the Negaverse roster in her head, until a smile lit up her bruised face, “Uranophane.”

Okay, so maybe that was just out of spite.

“We lie low for a week, let the senshi think that their little stunt has us running scared. And then, I think it's time we make a small public service announcement to the citizens of Destiny City.”

"She's certainly annoying enough to be a senshi." No, months of working together towards the same goal had not really done much to lessen Audrey's dislike for her schoolyard nemesis. Sure there was now just a modicum of professional respect in that she'd had the good fortune to make friends with an unawakened senshi and had her corrupted. And alright, Janice wasn't a total failure. The opposite really. Yet Aree got the desired reaction out of her friend with a wrinkled up nose and a look of disgust. "I would make them as ostentatious as you absolutely can. It seems that the more powerful a senshi is, the bigger the bow. You'd think they're compensating for something."

Remembering the wings attached to her favorite senshi's a** sent another lightbulb off. "Maybe even put some feathers in them if you can? I'm not sure how far your skills go, but I know that their top tier have those ugly wings. Or at least Castor did." Everyone had seen that at least.

The bluenette was smart enough to see where her train of thought was going, thought not the method of it. "So were you planning on wiping out the police as well, or are we just going to be incredibly showy and burn the mall down with people inside? I'm not entirely what sort of public you're hoping for, but I'm sure it's sensational." Alright so there was a bit of sarcasm there. So what?

Fingers tapped against her leg somewhat impatiently as her brain processed and shrugged eventually. It didn't really matter what Tanzanite had in mind, it was somewhat a given that Linarite would follow her into the fray. Now that she'd gotten her back for the second time, the general wasn't about to let her most valuable ally go into danger by herself. Tanz tended to die when Lina wasn't around to save her!