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Bell wouldn't hear the floor creak, because she wasn't in the house. She was outside, taking care of the flowers in the window boxes, despite the dark dusk that had set in. It seemed to get dark so late now, and Bell had always heard it was better for the flowers to be watered after the sun went down, so the sun didn't scorch them....

The door opening made Bell swing around to look. Xavier wasn't here, and the only other occupants in the house were Cora and Ainsley.

Seeing her little sister exit the house, Bell immediately sat down the watering can and crossed her arms. Putting on her best parental tone, she asked, "Where do you think you're going, little lady?"

She'd probably scare Ainsley half to death, but there was no room for feeling sorry when you were catching someone so young sneaking out.

Bell watched the object roll, only noticing it when it hit the ground and got her attention.

Was that?

Oh~ Ooooooohoho, why yes it was. The expression on her face was oddly unreadable as she swooped down to pick it up. It was, indeed, just what she thought it was. If she found the cat that had awoken her little sister - still just a child! - well she would...she would.... Cora might want to go hunt mice in the city tonight. Or otherwise not be where Bell could find her. Not to mention it'd be cheap dry food for a month.

"No where is right," Bell said, still looking at the henshin pen.

"So, Sailor," Yes, that was right Ainsley, Bell knew aaaaaaall about this stuff, "Let's get back inside where we can deal with this privately...."

Ainsley was mighty damn lucky her sister wasn't a Negaverse agent.

Once inside, the door was closed and very audibly locked. Bell put on the menacing act well, but what did you expect from a theatre girl?

She circled Ainsley once, holding the pen in front of her, still examining it, while occasionally giving Ainsley a glance. Maybe she'd scare the girl in to thinking she was a Negaverser and that would be punishment enough. A heart-attack or close enough could do wonders, right. Bell would give it a shot. She'd played a villain before. A couple of times actually. This should be a cinch!

"So, my little sister is a Senshi. Well, I never would have guessed~" She finally came to stop in front of the little girl. I suppose it was rather easy to hide it though, all things considered. It's not like I'm the most attentive guardian... But it looks like the cat is out of the bag now," a smirk, then her voice dropped as she tried to put on her most evil tone, "I hope you enjoyed it while you could~"

"Has it ever crossed your mind that maybe, just maybe, you've reached the point of no return? That your pen just might happen to have fallen in to the hands of the enemy? That tonight might be the night you say goodbye to your starseed and you sleep - for all eternity?"

Bell certainly thought she made a good speech, and was doing a good job of scaring the hell out of Ainsley. So, she tossed the pen back at the little girl and backed a few paces, issuing a 'challenge,' keeping up the charade the entire time.

"Go ahead. Transform. Then you'll see just what I mean."

Bell must have forgotten Themis carrying around Hypnos in Elysion. There had been so much going on, so it was no wonder, so the tiny senshi didn't exactly fire off any familiarity bells. Still it was sort of interesting to see the glamour in action. Even thoug Bell knew the tiny senshi was her sister, her mind didn't seem to want to connect the two. Tricky, tricky glamour!

"Because," Bell began, crossing her arms behind her back, one hand sneakily shifting to grab her own pen in her own back pocket, speaking her own transformation words so softly they couldn't even be heard, much less much lip movement be detected.

The light came over her and in a flash the Eternal Senshi stood before her sibling.

"I've been doing this for a long, long time now."

As the buttwings would indicate.

"Bellatrix, Eternal Senshi of Fortitude, I-" Bell was about to go on about punishments, but then the chibi was playing with her buttwings and it was just all sorts of awkward.

The kid would probably go totally ADD if she ever sat Themis'....

Back to business!

"You shouldn't be going out alone. The cats shouldn't even be awakening children at all. It's dangerous."

It was more dangerous half a year ago. It seemed like now most of the negas she met were at least more willing to talk than to fight, unless you came across some of the really die-hard ones. She could only imagine how many chibi senshi had been killed in those first two years, when things had been... been much more bloody. But still, this was a war. It didn't matter how much 'less dangerous' it had become, it was still war. Children had no place in war, and surely the Negaverse thought them truly despicable for using them.

Then again, Bellatrix was becoming known for her conspiracy theories regarding the Senshi and the Negaverse...

"You've been lucky."

It was short, terse, and simple.

"This is a very real war, people have really died, and there are no happy endings."

Way to shatter a kid's world. But she was what? Ten? Somewhere around there... Surely by then kids knew these things. Or maybe Bell should give her a copy of the Grimm Brother's fairytales and let her read the 'true' stories, not the happily ever afters that Disney shat out.