[BAT] Being Prepared to Kill (Raite + Nova)

[Xaki]

The moon was obscured by the dark clouds as nearly all of Destiny City was devoid of their usual moonlight. In addition, the chill in the air carried along with it the scent of rain. The streets were empty, nearly all of Destiny City deciding that it would be best if they stayed home that night. Nearly all, was the key phrase. Raite stood on a deserted street, the lamp post flickering, his tonfas bloodied from the body remaining at his feet.

The past events, mainly their incompetence at the first battle within Elysion, had the older male thinking about the Negaverse. About Obsidian's fateful words. He had thought that as long as the Negaverse kept things interesting, he would remain. But he didn't know of the bitter sense of loss that came with it. And as a result, Raite resented his current state.

At least, the man was still alive. Their goal was no longer starseeds, but the energy of their victims. Killing gave Raite no joy nor dissatisfaction. Their queen could care less, as long as they continued to serve her in the manners she dictated.

"It's not enough." He couldn't satisfy the hunger inside of him. But what was it that Raite was looking for? For the first time, judging from the conflicted expression crossing his eyes, he didn't know.  

[natsu]

"It's never enough for you people," Sidra muttered quietly, hiding out of Raite's line of sight. The orange light from the street lamps shone on the dark pavement, and on him, throwing the grim sight in to sharp relief. The smell of blood was jarring, the metallic scent flooding Sidra's senses. Her teeth were chattering in spite of her every attempt to breath easily and low, trying to keep quiet, keep out of sight. The man was dead, the starseed nowhere to be seen, and though it broke her heart, she had no way to get it back.

Until the body on the ground grunted and shivered, and the whole battle plan of doing nothing changed.

She felt weak and defenseless, even though she knew the moment she transformed she would be betrayed as strong and capable. But she was nothing of the sort, not yet. She had no idea what she was doing wrong, but she hadn't fought because of it; she knew without having to try that it was purely useless, but that didn't stop her from transforming, and stepped out in to the open.

"That man needs an ambulance."  

[Xaki]

The power signature flooded all of his senses. Raite could easily tell that it was stronger than his rank of lieutenant or previous enemies, Flora or Taranis. In fact, it was comparable to Obsidian -- would their strength prove so as well? Regardless, Raite was never one to run from a fight.

He stood there, not even bothering to face the senshi. He was merely bathed in moonlight and the scent of blood. "An ambulance?" Raite repeated, as if he hadn't even considered that notion. He let his gray eyes, the color of ice, fall back to the eternal senshi, assessing her. She was different from other senshi. But if one cared to ask Raite how -- he probably didn't care.

Raite wondered what drove her to be a senshi. She wasn't a fighter. In fact, Raite sensed uncertainty and hesitance in her manner.

But it didn't stop him. "What's that?" He turned around, holding up his weapon. It was clear that he could care less for the injured man at his feet or an ambulance. "You're already giving up?" He wasn't interested in simply talking, or even her intention. WIthout sparing another moment, he was already heading towards her with his tonfa, intending to strike.  

[natsu]

Sailor Nova... or whoever she was, in this between state, struggled to reply.

"Never," her voice quavered in the middle, and she hated the fact that this Negaverse officer could tell that she was not as confident as she should be. Her steps towards him were not without doubt, as his weapon did not look like it was fun to deal with. Part of her wished that she had taken up some sort of self defense class in her spare time, karate or ju jitsu or even tai chi, using her chi to flow out of the way of the weapons.

The man on the ground was injured from wounds, not only because of his starseed being taken, and Sailor Nova wondered if he had fought back against the Negaverse in his own way, futile though it was. She wished she could have taken some confidence from his actions, but she just felt numb to the situation. As if this was supposed to happen, as if he was doomed to die on these cold streets.

It frightened her that she was even considering that this was a possibility that she could live with, but as much as she tried to keep the man in her head and her heart, she just couldn't. The boy in front of her was important though, and his confidence made her wish that she could have realized her newfound numbness to this starseed taking business prior to revealing herself.

All of this took place in a split fraction of a second, and Sailor Nova ducked as the officer came at her with what seemed to be a bastardized version of a billy club, moving to strike her in the face with the hardened steel. Sailor Nova side stepped the blow but came up too quickly, the first weapons twin catching her in the side.  

[Xaki]

Raite could feel the weapon making contact with her side, stopping himself in mid-step to skid and turn around to face her. His gray eyes wondered what she was fighting for. She had yet to talk of the morality and justice of the senshi, the indignation of the man who laid at their feet, or even her own ideals. One could say that there was no reason to her fighting. But people always fought for a reason, whether it was reasons of their own or of society.

Her uncertainty, his uncertainty. In a way, they were similar. They were both becoming people different than they were. Perhaps, that was the reason why he seemed intent on battle. He didn't need to think, merely to satisfy his bloodlust.

"It'll take more than defense to stay alive." His voice was quiet, cutting in their edge in the silence of the night air and their battle. She couldn't run forever. In this battle, there was no need for flamboyance or the power play that happened between senshi and negaverse. It was a battle that boiled down to a simple fact: Fight or die here.

With only the time to spare for his words, Raite once again jumped to cover the distance between the two powered characters, aiming for the left side of her body. He would force her to fight regardless of whether she wanted to or not.  

[natsu]

Breath catching, the Sailor Scout clutched at her side and staggered backwards, but the Negaverse officer pushed on, swinging at her with his steel weapons, forcing her back as she moved out of their way. She moved fast, but so did he, twisting the weapons as if they were a part of his own body. She caught a hold of one of them, trying to twist it from his hand, but he quickly moved to hit her with the other, and Sidra let go, crouching under his attack, and getting hit fully in the cheekbone in the process.

She skidded back on the slick pavement, a hand flying to her face. All she needed was to keep him busy, away from that man, enough time for the ambulance to arrive.

What good was emergency speed dial on her phone unless she used it?

"I've died more times than I care to think about," Sidra aimed a kick at Raite's junk, narrowly missing, "Death doesn't scare me. What you do in life, scares me."

Sidra struggled to her feet, and clutched her dull locket, wishing that she wasn't so impotent-- wishing she could just become what she was supposed to become.  

[Xaki]

She was fast. It was only through his dual weapons that he could match her current level. But Raite knew that she was holding back as she remained on the defensive rather than switching to offensive.

He had jumped back, only narrowly missing Nova's kick. "..scares you?" He repeated, waiting for the eternal senshi to regain her footing. When she made reference to him, he could only think of his blood-soaked hands, hands that had taken dozens of lives. He wasn't like other negaversers. Some killed for the fun of it, never realizing the consequences of their actions. They laughed, jeered, looked down upon, and mugged the dead. Others righteously believed in their cause believing in the necessary sacrifice. He entertained none of those ideals or foolishness. When he looked down at Nova, his glance was one of derision. He no longer regretted their deaths, coming to calmly accept it.

But he could agree with the senshi on one aspect. "That makes sense." He remarked, almost conversationally. It was a surprising agreement from the lieutenant. It was regrettable that they were not on the same side, Raite coming to agree and perhaps even respect Sidra's feelings.

"Superficial. Cruel. Revolting." He listed each one by one.

"The negaverse is everything you come to despise in a human being." But it didn't change the fact that he was a part of the negaverse. And he would fight.

He jumped back even further, until he stood above the unconscious man. He was the only reason why she would continue to stall, it wasn't a question but a statement; "Should I kill him?" He wasn't in the mood for half-hearted fighting, or mere stalling. One tonfa disappeared into the negaverse subspace as quickly as it had come, Raite kneeling down -- his hand impaling to pull the glowing seed from his chest.  

[natsu]

It was enough of a push.

Her brow furrowed, her fists tightened, and she leapt across the street, teleporting to the other side of the man's body. Pushing him back with all of her strength, she landed on his chest, holding his hands down to his sides for a brief moment.

"I don't accept his death, not tonight," Sidra's lip trembled, and she continued, shouting down in to Raite's face, "I loathe every one of you, people who just toe the line, do what they're told, and genuinely don't care what their orders are. Orders are orders, right?"

Sidra got off Raite, and shook out her shoulders, waiting for the young man to get to his feet.

"We all have a choice, and a hope for something better! Do you even hope for anything, anymore?"  

[Xaki]

"That's right. Orders are orders." Raite stared up at Sidra and for the first time, a cynical smile touching upon his lips. "So you finally spoke." His gloved hand reached up, brushing her hair back. Nova had finally snapped out of her self-imposed apathy, finally expressing her true emotions that just saying or doing what she was expected to do.

He stood up, dusting off his jacket. He regarded Nova with a direct stare of his gray eyes. "Choice?" How much like Flora. Did the senshi really believe that the negaverse had choices? First it had been Queen Beryl. The Metallia. Then Tanzanite. When did they ever have choices? He hadn't joined the negaverse by choice. "I never had a choice." He spoke quietly, and asked the same of her. "Did you have a choice?" Was she here because she wanted to be here? Did she want to fight? Or was it just to save the man she didn't even know? If she truly had made a choice, Raite believed that she should have fought for her choice.

"Hate me all that you'd like." It wouldn't make a difference. It wouldn't change what they were or what they had to do. "But don't make the mistake of thinking that I'll do simply what I'm told to do." His nearly feral grin showed that he wasn't as well-trained as the negaverse would've like their dogs to be. Raite may have been a loyal dog for the negaverse .. for now. There were only a few reasons that tied him to the negaverse which included his devotion to Laurelite. But he had no intention of staying beneath Beryl's thumb forever, servicing the whims of a queen who wouldn't hesitate to throw them away. He still remembered Nealite.. no, Ursula.

He had lost a friend that day.

His tonfa materialized in his hand, taking a swing at the eternal senshi.