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 Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2011 5:58 pm
He knew her, he really knew her. It had been a shock to realize that, to see her there in the heart of the negaverse, a face he'd thought had vanished into the nameless ranks of senshi never to be heard from again.
Her white blond hair and striking eyes were no less so, but now the eyes were harder, sadder. The hair was twisted up into 'dreads', long twists that were knotted to keep them from dragging on the floor.
She'd saved him so long ago, at the time he'd thought it a wonder, and then he'd learned the truth about Senshi, he'd joined the fight expecting to fight his one time savior, never had he anticipated that he would meet her again like this.
He had to drop off his quota...so why not. Why not take that extra time to say hello...it would give him so much he could learn about Senshi whom had been...turned if nothing else.
"Excuse me..." He called to her, polite and quiet.
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Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2011 6:14 pm
Alkaid was doing what Alkaid normally did these days - reading, curled up in an uncomfortable chair in a harsh room with little decoration and a lot of cold air to spare. There wasn't much to the decor of the Negaverse's headquarters but she was honestly just tired of staring at the blank walls of her tiny bedroom. Considering that the halls were usually fairly empty unless something important was going on, it was just as easy for her to relocate to a different cold, blank room. Except today it didn't seem like she was going to get the luxury of privacy - not that it should have surprised her after the recent events.
"Hmm?" She spoke even before she looked up from the leather bound book in her hands, though once she realized who it was she set it aside quickly and stood up. She remembered him as the Captain that had been with Scheelite. Zinkenite was his name? Her first instinct told her that maybe something had gone wrong at the hospital, but she tried not to jump to conclusions or bombard him with questions.
"Is everything alright, Captain?" She was trying her hardest to not jump to anymore conclusions, but the battle and the aftermath had her a little on edge.
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Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2011 6:18 pm
"Yes... he'll be fine, thank you for helping..." He assured her. "They believe it can be repaired, just some recovery time." He paused and took a breath.
"... I was curious, if you remembered me." He said, laying out before her what was on his mind. "I... would have been a civilian at the time." he offered, though he did pause recalling that even he had not been able to connect Scheelite and Dem...and he had ROOMED with him.
"I ...could show you."
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Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2011 6:27 pm
She had just been about to express her relief when she realized that.. this conversation had nothing to do with Scheelite. She bit back the words that had bubbled up and instead listened to what he had to say - the expression on his face seemed really serious after all. Though what she heard.. was not something she expected.
"What?" it was barely more than a breath as shock rolled over her. She was stunned to silence for a moment as she tried her hardest to pick out details in his face and hair that might give her event the tiniest spark of a memory - but there was nothing. She didn't know him as a soldier of the negaverse, but then, he had said civilian.
"I," she cleared her throat when the word came out little more than a croak, "I don't know you like this, no. Not that I can recall." She tried her best to compose herself, to silence the sudden eagerness overwhelming her. Of course she wanted to see, but she didn't want to scare him away. "I might if you powered down though." It was said softly, with as much of her emotions stamped down as possible, but she couldn't hide the eagerness shining in her eyes.
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Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2011 6:30 pm
"This isn't...dangerous for you...is it?" He said suddenly cautious of her enthusiasm. He knew only certain things about 'liberated senshi', that they could not remember, at least not at first... but he was afraid he might trigger something of the brainwashing they must have done to her if he was too sudden.
"You'll pardon my caution but...someone clearly thought enough of you to help you like this, I'd hate to undo what must have been very hard for both of you."
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Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2011 6:38 pm
"I don't think it works that way," she said softly, the gloved fingers at her sides balling into fists simply from the tension. "My memories as a senshi, those come back - slowly, sometimes with really poor timing. It's the ones of my human life that are lost forever."
The subject was a sore one and most definitely the cause for most of her inner turmoil as of late, but she wasn't going to pass up an opportunity like this one.
"I think it might just be something.. the senshi have done to protect themselves, to keep me from being able to target them as civilians, but.." She stopped then, sighing and glancing at the floor. She'd thought about it for hours, tried to reason why it happened and after that talk with Spinel this was the only conclusion she had come to. "I can really only speculate. Whatever it is though, I don't think you're going to damage it?"
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Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2011 6:45 pm
He scowled at the thought. "They would..." He said through clenched teeth. "They won't stop till they have run everything to ruin like their home worlds... " he shook his head and added. "Present company...excluded... as you now fight with us." He gave a slight respectful bow before taking a deep breath and shifting for a moment into his civilian clothes.
"... I didn't realize you were the same Senshi...your hair rather threw me."
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Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2011 7:02 pm
"We certainly do not belong here," she said quietly, though the mention of home worlds was somewhat haunting. She'd seen Nemesis', she remembered the emptiness of it clearly, but she had never gone home to her own star out of fear. If the negaverse knew about the desolation, then surely that meant there was no hope for her home.
All of those thoughts vanished the moment that Zink powered down. The features she hadn't recognized suddenly fit into place and brought on a rush of two powerful memories. Whatever comment he was making about her hair barely registered - she was simply staring at him, her eyes wide and somewhat vacant as if she were not really seeing him but instead something else.
The memories were jumbled, crashing into each other and coming in flashes that made it hard to distinguish one from the other. She felt emotions surging with them, fear at first and then an overwhelming sense of grief. It hit her so hard that her eyes, even then, began to tear up at the memory of the boy splayed on the street.. so broken..
Then a name bubbled to the surface, first simply 'Z' as she remembered herself saying it, but then a redheaded senshi whose name she couldn't place burst onto the scene and shouted it..
"Zac," she breathed, the tears in her eyes finally pouring down her pale cheeks and leaving behind glistening tracks. She felt weak, suddenly, at the memories and the emotions, even broken as they were. She reached back for the arm of the chair she had been occupying and sank down into it. She wanted to shut the memories out but, at the same time, she wanted to push herself and dig for more, for anything that might help her. But there was nothing left, she had powered down both times without leaving herself any more knowledge.
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Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2011 7:11 pm
'Zac' or Zinkenite... looked, well...like a cornered cat in the face of the onslaught of tears. "I..." He said looking like you were crying sulfuric acid.
"Did I hurt you?" He asked and almost out of fear was back in his Captain's uniform in the blink of an eye. "I didn't mean to...please don't..."
He knelt before her brows furrowed and anxious unsure what to do with her...like she were a china doll already half broken.
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Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2011 7:25 pm
"No, no," she was instantly shaking her head at his worry, though she didn't know how she was going to explain this to him. This wasn't something she could just put words to, this feeling. Not for the first time, she was cursing whatever higher being had destroyed her memories. She drew a deep breath and tried to steady herself so she could at least try to tell him what was wrong.
"It's not this," she waved a hand to gesture at him, trying to imply that it wasn't his civilian form that had caused the tears, not really. "I remember you, I remember being really attached to you even if I can't recall why, and the only memories I have are.." She stopped as she realized that he wouldn't remember her from when he was hurt, it would have been impossible. She thought about it for a moment and tried to decide if now was the best time. Better now than never, she supposed, she wouldn't want him to think she was withholding information if he somehow found out later.
"I saved you once, I remember that, but the second time.." She sighed and brought her gloved hands to rub at her cheeks, trying to just scrub away the tears that had already poured and using the gesture to try and hold back whatever others might still be trying to sneak out. She finally dropped her hands back into her lap and gave him a long, tired look. "You were already down, I was frantic.."
She trailed off then and shut her eyes, bringing a hand to rub at her temple as she often did these days. "I don't remember all of it," and she still managed to sound apologetic in her own misery.
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Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2011 7:40 pm
"Twice?" He blinked confused.... already down. the words ground and processed through his head and he knew.
Well... not know...he had read, he couldn't remember a few days surrounding that...time... or quite a few after. "...A....ah..." He said hesitant. "I had no idea..." He admitted. "I am...so sorry they did this to you, I'm sorry I can't remember that day either I... " He shook his head frustrated. "I am glad you are with us... It was bad enough knowing you helped me once...whatever your motives at the time... to know you saved me twice..."
He felt like they were just meeting, just getting to know each other, but what must it be like for her, feelings with no ground to pin them to.
his own span of days but spread over -years-.
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Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2011 7:49 pm
"It's not your fault this happened, please don't apologize. I feel bad enough about it to compensate for everyone." She tried to laugh, but it only manifested as a small smile - at least she was trying to lighten the mood, even if she was doing a really poor job of it.
As for her motives, well, Alkaid could only remember herself fighting the negaverse - what her goals had been for most of it were confusing, and probably wrong given all that she knew about the organization now. What her motives were during those occasions specifically, well, she had a better grasp on that given the recent memory jolt. "You were just important to me, that's all I can gather from it. I saved you because I couldn't stand by and watch." She sighed, for what felt like the millionth time, and mentally kicked her former self for leaving so little thought behind for her.
"I wish I could read my own mind." But even as she said it, she heard how ridiculous it sounded, and it made her smile again. There was a sad kind of humor in it.
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Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2011 7:56 pm
"...sometimes I wish the same." he offered, it was a small comfort. "as... someone who can't remember that day.. to someone else whom can not... may I offer you an outing for...tea?"
He said the last word cautiously knowing many prefered coffee.. he was learning to live with the bean brew, but give him a good dried leaf or chai any day.
"Better perhaps...to focus on where we shall all go from here, than what sadness the past has caused us."
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Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2011 8:00 pm
"That's what everyone tells me," she said quietly, though she knew in her heart that forgetting the giant chasm in her mind was much easier said than done. She tried not to dwell on it so much in the company of others though and that, at least, seemed to steer others away from chastising. For what is was worth, Zink had managed to say it the nicest way she had heard yet.
"Tea sounds lovely, actually, I rarely have a chance to get out of this place." She waved her hand at the dark, harsh walls and mostly empty interior of the room, letting their surroundings speak for themselves. It was intimidating, but not very comfortable to live in twenty-four seven.
She stood slowly from the chair, and with an amused smile on her face added: "you'll have to pick the place though, since I don't know any."
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Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2011 8:08 pm
He stood looking perhaps a little stiff though it was clear he was trying to cover the fact, and offered an arm.
"I am unabashedly proud of my knowledge of local tea houses." He said with a smirk that was just visible through the fabric of his mask, though after a moment he was polite enough to pull it down.
"Do you have any preferences for pastries?" he added after a moments thought, his brows lifted in curiosity.
"... I may... I may have to ask you, how it was you came to us...you see...there is someone whom I think will join us, but..." he trailed off unsure what direction to take that thought.
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