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Another night, another patrol. Sailor Pasiphae was a bit tired from fighting so many youma lately... but the fact that there were so many youma out there, waiting to be fought, propelled her to go despite her fatigue. As she expected, it didn't take her long to find a strange energy signature exuding from the top of one of the homes near her own. Pasiphae didn't recognize this energy signature. It wasn't a Senshi, she knew that much--she had more experience now with what those energy signatures felt like. Ditto for a youma, although the signature she felt was certainly... dark. She couldn't put her finger onto why, exactly, but this new signature made her more uneasy than any youma she had ever come across... it reminder her, in a way, of the the javelin wielding woman she had met whenever she began as a Senshi... but she quickly pushed that thought out of mind as she made her way to the roof.

She clutched her cellphone in a gloved hand, hiding it from view by keeping it behind her back. Sailor Pasiphae had more confidence now when it came to talking with other Senshi, with defeating youma... but for an unknown situation, she still wanted to be able to call for help from someone better equipped if she found it necessary. She fixed her maroon eyes on the resting stranger, and she asked only two simple questions, trying to keep her voice from shaking. Partially out of fear for what the prone figure could be... and partially because (for some reason) said prone figure seemed to be sleeping... and losing his coat, "Who are you, and what are you doing up here?"

Pasiphae's eyes ran over the rising figure, and what she saw she definitely didn't like. A figure completely clothed in black and red, and definitely losing his long coat. Partial nudity, however, was the least of her concerns. Pasiphae's skin crawled and her heart literally ached at the sight of the black holes in the boy's head and chest. It was a visceral, uncontrollable reaction, and she actually took a step back before regaining control. She didn't know how anyone could survive such dire looking injuries... and then her stomach sickened as she thought that maybe these marks weren't injuries at all but something normal for boy. The energy signature was much stronger now that she was close, and now that she studied it, it felt... vaguely reminiscent, like some kind of horrible blending of Senshi and darkness. Was this... a corrupted Senshi, like Kallichore had warned her about?

The fingers gripping her cellphone trembled, keeping her from sending out a call for help. If the situation got to be too bad, she would call up her shield and dial, but the immobilization that would occur as a result prevented her from taking that course of action immediately. Pasiphae knew this house, the one whose roof she stood on; she had bought Girl Scout cookies from the little girl and chocolates so that her brother could go to Boy Scout Camp. She had seen the two of them playing in the yard, and they had always been polite and well-behaved in her dealings with them. She had worked hard to protect Destiny City to the best of her meager ability, and now that she actually knew potential victims... she couldn't risk putting them in danger while she waited for reinforcements.

So, she forced herself to display a confidence she didn't truly feel, holding her head high and meeting Carnelian's eyes directly with her gaze. He hadn't immediately struck out, but she still remained tense, ready to call upon her shield if it became necessary, "I am Sailor Pasiphae, Senshi of Shame, and I'm here to protect the people of Destiny City from the likes of you." A little overly formal, a little cheesy, and the effect was likely ruined by her earlier reaction to her adversary, but the resolve behind those words was genuine.

Sailor Pasiphae's eyes hardened, but she allowed her enemy to speak his piece if only because it contained information she had never heard before. Enslave the human race? Alien queen--Moon Queen? She hadn't the faintest idea what he was talking about--but he spoke with such confidence that it made her suspect that, if nothing else, he thought it was true. And the way he spoke, the things he said about what other people said... well, she didn't exactly believe him, but it still worried her. Where were these ideas coming from? Could... could they have any grain of truth?

She tried to steel herself and continue the conversation. The longer she distracted Carnelian, the longer the children were safe. That was her only goal, simple and straightforward as all of her judgments tended to be. So, despite how it raised every doubt within her, she continued to speak. She chose her words with care, her voice quiet and strained as she rebuted his truth with her own. "I'm not unhappy as a Senshi. I'd laugh at anyone that thought I was a terrorist. I've never damaged a place I've been fighting in if I could help it. Sometimes... sometimes it's unavoidable. Protecting people is my first priority. Things can be replaced... people can't."

She glanced away, trying to avoid looking at that gaping holes in the chest and forehead that came in and out of view as her opponent walked the rooftop, but she kept a watch on his feet to keep track of his movements. "I can't blame them for being scared... who wouldn't be scared, with this... this war going on around them? But we're not the ones they should be scared of. We're not the ones who go around and drain energy away from people. We're not the ones who use innocents as bait for traps and leave them to bleed. We're not the ones calling out the monsters. Senshi like me... we're trying to help them... protect them as much as we can. Because you'll hurt them if we don't."

When she glanced up again, it was to see Carnelian walking back towards her in his round of pacing. She had had to look far too long at that hole in his chest, in his head... dark, empty... it had to hurt. It had to be painful. And enemy or no enemy... Pasiphae couldn't bear to see someone in pain. Acting on pure impulse she tore off her back bow, mimicking a skill Europa had taught her. The Shame Senshi could feel tears wanting to rise to her eyes, but she forced them back as she offered the shimmering fabric to the Corrupted Senshi; her voice was pleading enough without tears. "Please... use this to bandage them? They must hurt..."

The off color comment about youma did catch the Senshi off guard, and on some level it upset her as her mind raced to catch the implication of what Carnelian said. If they only looked like monsters to her... then what did they look at to everyone else? Could they be... could they be human, like she was? No, it was impossible; she immediately dismissed the thought. She had seen a living storm, a giant ant, a moving shrubbery, a set of monkeybirds. Those things? Those things were not human; they were monsters. So, she was able to answer his question (mentally--it didn't seem required that she speak aloud): Yes. They looked like monsters to her. And, undoubtably, like monsters to those the youma attacked.

Pasiphae openly winced when the boy shoved his fiingers into his chest, horrified at the sight of the fingers seemingly leaving the realms of their physical universe. It didn't hurt; she didn't care. It was... it was so painful to look at. So... wrong, on a physical and a spiritual level that seemed to affect only her and not faze the being that paced in front of her at all.

The Senshi of Shame felt a part of her heart collapse into her stomach when he confirmed what she had suspected from first meeting him; that Carnelian was, in fact a Corrupted Senshi. If she admitted it to herself, she had known from the moment she had laid eyes on him: the dark aura, the hole in his chest... all signs that Kallichore had warned about when the two Jovians first met. But she hadn't wanted to believe it, to believe that someone chosen to protect people could fall and be made to harm them instead.

She clutched the fabric she had offered Carnelian tightly in her hand. Hot tears escaped freely down her cheeks now, and Pasiphae made no move to stop them or to wipe them away, demanding an answer to the questions that fell from her lips, "How could you... do this to yourself? How could you... abandon us?"

Us. An ambigious pronoun. Did the Shame Senshi mean the White Moon Senshi? The people of Destiny City? The human race in general? The answer was... yes.

Pasiphae stood perfectly still while the Corrupted Senshi explained himself. She didn't flinch, didn't object, didn't say a word until he had his say. The story disturbed her; how couldn't it? It was too close to the horror stories and news that her parents (see also: her mother) reminded her of whenever they wanted to make sure that she was being safe. It sounded like a horrible scene, and she couldn't change that.

At the same time... ss firmly set as Carnelian was in his opinion, the Senshi of Shame was just as sure that her side was in the right. She didn't doubt that the Corrupted had seen what he claimed--his own certainity was clear, and she hadn't been a witness. But flat out attacking a civilian, and in such a perverse way? No. No Senshi would do that. Kallichore had warned her about lies... maybe the boy in front of her had been taken in by one. She didn't know. All she knew... was that this story rang wrong. Pasiphae's voice was quiet, but firm, "I don't know who you saw doing those things... but I can't believe that it was a Senshi. I've never met a Senshi who has hurt anyone. But I have seen the Negaverse hurt people, and... I can't abandon this duty I've been given."

Pasiphae ran a gloved hand across her eyes to dry them, but her cheeks were still wet, signs of the immediate sadness and sympathy for someone who could've been an ally that still weighed heavily within her. All too often, even after months of being a Senshi, the dark-haired girl had doubts. Over whether she was the right kind of person to be chosen to protect the Earth, whether she had the strength, the ability, to keep up this job. Corrupted Senshi had been a story until now, but here, in the flesh, was proof that not everyone who was a Senshi could handle the responsability. And what did that mean for her? How far away was she from being where Carnelian stood? Her voice was genuinely sad when she spoke again, both for herself and for the boy that stood in of her with holes in his chest and head, "I'm sorry... I'm really sorry for what's happened to you, Carnelian. But I can't--I won't--let you hurt the people in this house."

Pasiphae couldn't disagree, immediately, with anything that Carnelian was saying. It was like listening to all of her own doubts about being a Senshi, only spoken to her by someone else and not simply her own inner monologue. Yet, as was often the case with her, even if the same ideas gnawed at her, she wouldn't let someone else get away with saying them uncontested. To do so would be to support their validity, and she didn't want to admit that maybe the Corrupted Senshi had a reason to feel sorry for her. "Other Senshi guide me, have guided me. Trained me to defend myself, taught me about who I can trust and who I can't... saved me from attack. I only want... to help them too, to work together and protect the innocent. No one explicitly told me that's what I'm supposed to be doing, but... I believe it's the right thing to do. I don't want anyone to get hurt... and whether you believe it or not, the Negaverse is hurting people."

She took a step forward, her heeled shoe clacking slightly against the roof. In truth, Pasiphae was just... tired. Tired from all of the recent youma battles, tired from putting her civilian life on hold... tired from all the insecurties that churned and raged beneath the surface, insecurities freshly awakened by the Corrupted Senshi's speech. She didn't intend to abandon her duty; she wouldn't back down from a fight, if one began. But she really didn't want to fight. So, she raised her fists without immediately attacking, speaking softly instead, "I don't want to fight you, Carnelian, but I will if you won't leave."

Pasiphae had hoped that their meeting would not result in a fight, but even she was surprised at how fast the Corrupted Senshi backed down. She ran to the edge of the roof to make sure that he was gone, and to her relief she couldn't see any sign of him. Good... the children were safe, and no one else had had to be hurt. All in all, a successful encounter.

Carnelian might have thought that the Shame Sensih was standing strong... but as she was certain he was gone from the roof she fell to her knees. Her hands went from tight fists to flat palms, and those she quickly raised to cover her face. She was tired... so tired. Too many fights, too much responsiblity, and all too quickly. This was the first Corrupted Senshi she had met, and she was shaken by just how... convinced he was that he was doing the right thing. That she, and those like her, were in the wrong, were hurting people. Pasiphae didn't believe him, but the fact that he believed it was enough. Throughout the encounter, she couldn't help but wonder how close she was to where he was, how if he could be swayed then so could she, potentially, under the right circumstances.

Still... no matter what her doubts were, no matter whether she was the right choice to be a Senshi or not... her neighbors were safe. She had managed to save them from Carnelian's attack, and that was enough to comfort the shaken Senshi into rising to her feet and heading for home. That... just had to be enough, for now.