Welcome to Gaia! ::

The young girl held the packet of papers to her chest, stopping for a moment to observe the sky in the paneled glass walls. An uneasy feeling slowly but surely enveloped her while staring at the hour of twilight, the hour where darkness approached and light receded. The skies was devoid of the orange and pink hues that normally bathed it in a welcoming light after a hard day of work. No, this particular sunset looked as though it it were stained with blood.

Somewhere, the hand of fate ticked across the axis once more. The die was cast. The decision or course of action has been determined and could not be changed.

She stepped back, her hand incidentally slipping to push the coffee cup staggered -- and fell with an alarming crash. "I-I'm sorry!" Lacie immediately apologized, bending down to pick up the broken ceramic. "I'll clean it up right away." She reassured, taking a proferred towel to wipe the dark liquid. It was unusual for her to be so clumsy.

Hours passed and the ominous warning was soon forgotten. She ended up staying far later than she planned. It was nearly midnight when Lacie had finally been allowed to leave, standing up and waving to her coworkers a farewell. She was more than ready to go home, to simply put this day behind her as she did with all the rest.

Like the senshi and negaverse agent, Lacie's gaze was drawn as well. "Uh.." Was this the time to wave? Or to leave? She did neither, staying where she was.

The sight of two people staring at her caused her to cautiously say, "If possible, I'd really not rather get involved." If it was a lovers quarrel, even more so -- It tended to be far too much trouble D: She wasn't a relationship counselor. Although they certainly did dress strangely in any case. She had heard stories of oddly-dressed terrorists but to be honest, Lacie didn't think to associate between the two together.

"I'm not entirely sure what's the story with the broom either but-" She held out her hands, shrugging it off. It certainly wasn't her business. Although in her opinion, he really was not getting paid enough!

... No, he certainly wasn't.

Her body reacted before her mind did, immediately taking off into a run. Her bag fell to the ground– forgotten in her haste – she couldn't run quickly enough as the negaverse fell farther and farther back. Only in the last moment, the pivotal second- speed only attained through her training, could she finally close the gap between her and the male.

Suddenly, there was a brutal squeezing grip, the only line between his survival and death. Both of her hands gripped onto the sleeve of his upper arm, "Goddamnit, why you are so heavy--" She began but thought better of it as the negaverser slipped a bit due to their difference in weight. She couldn't afford to divert her attention, any distraction leading him one step closer. "J-just wait." She was by no means a nervous person but when a life rested upon her efforts, she couldn't exactly be casual. Regardless of who or what they were, she couldn't let a person die in front of her.

Lacie had always been a practical person. If one worked hard, they would obtain results. As a result, there had never been anything that she couldn't do, simply putting forth more effort. But for the first time, she realized that no matter how much effort she put forth, there would be some things that would always remain out of her grasp. For the first time, Lacie felt helpless.

It didn't make any sense. They were strangers, people who had no connection before today. But still.. Lacie persisted. "You'll have to trust me." She said through clenched teeth though the effort obviously cost her. "I won't let you fall." If one looked at it objectively, it was an unreasonable promise. There simply was no way to counter the fact that Lacie and his weight was far too different. In the worst case scenario, she might fall as well. But she had no time to debate such things. What mattered was the here and now.

Focusing all of her strength in her upper body, she pulled him back by several inches. But she was already nearing the limit of her strength, her arms visibly trembling in their efforts to bring him back.

She flinched at the pain but at this point, she would have gladly given up her arm if it meant saving him. An arm was of little consequence -- "I won't. I promise, I won't." Even if she had to die trying. Those were the only words she could offer. However, words or even resolve couldn't prevent the inevitable. Her own boots slid across the concrete of the rooftop, not because they weren't textured but giving in to their differences. Her hand slipped, slowly but surely, every centimeter of fabric weighing heavier on her heart.

Until she could only hold onto his hand, the other arm bracing itself on the elevation of the rooftop. Pain streaked up her limb, white-hot searing pain, an overwhelming pressure rising up inside of her throat. She couldn't, she couldn't let him fall. "I-I can't, I can't-" She muttered to herself, his pleas stabbing her heart. She couldn't fail him. Not here, not now.

Helpless fear suffocated her entire being, "I don't want you to die!" Her voice shook with emotion- The heartfelt words emerged from the bottom of her heart. She didn't care that she hadn't known him before this. They were both humans, weren't they? He deserved to live just as she did. They were nearly the same age, weren't they? They both entertained dreams, goals -- goals that included the survival of them both.

For a moment, it seemed hopeful. She would pull him up and everything would be all right. And she would hit him for his recklessness, lecture him, and tremulously smile in relief.

But it wasn't meant to happen. Happy endings didn't exist in this word. His hand slipped from hers, Lacie's eyes widening in shock -- every second passed like an eternity. Tears pricked her ocean-hued eyes, nearly throwing herself off the rooftop to reach, her hand outstretched for his falling form.

Mere seconds after the crystal shattered, the ominous aura of the Youma Queen filled the air. Any senshi within a mile could have felt it, and it sang like a death knell for the one who had fled the scene. Tanzanite's eyes turned to slowly follow the fleeting energy signature, as though she could see her through the darkness. A wolflike youma slipped from the shadows of the sidewalk trees, and its eyes followed the senshi as she bounded across the rooftops. Tanzanite raked her clawed fingertips gently over the creature's spine.

“Go now,” she murmured, and the beast took off after the senshi with a deep, baleful howl. The moment its foot touched shadow, the creature vanished. It shifted through the darkness in pursuit of the senshi that Tanzanite thought unworthy of her own attention.

She had her own people to worry about. One more senshi rat showing their true colors, their undeniably violent nature, was no longer large enough to merit her attention. Not while Antimonite's body lay broken and bleeding at her feet. The fragments of his shattered crystal were spread across the ground beneath him like a safety net that had been deployed just a moment too late. Tanzanite knelt beside the young man's body, and her human hand quietly covered those blankly staring eyes. She said no prayers, whispered no last rights.

Tanzanite believed in only one deity, and she was a living testament that Metallia had no mercy to offer the boy.

“You see what they do, Hiro,” the General-Queen stared down at the broken boy, setting the cat down beside her. It should not seem strange that Tanzanite had taken a liking to perhaps the least human member of their army other than herself. Perhaps she found some comfort in knowing that there was no need to pretend to be something she was not. Perhaps it was simply his cleverness. Whatever it was, Tanzanite seemed to have the guardian cat around rather often.

"They take life as though they have any right to this planet. As though they have any power to command me."

Tanzanite hadn't known the Lieutenant well, and that fact disturbed her. She had always made it her business to know every name and face in the Negaverse, both their civilian and uniformed lives. It had been far easier in the days when Charonite had led them, when Queen Beryl was only an ancient story and they had been a ragtag handful of teenagers blindly following. Now, she had the Zodiacs to contend with. A Queen with far too much power and far too little intelligence. Princess Ares and her Dark Mirror Court. A city - an entire planet – at risk of being enslaved, and Tanzanite felt as though the weight of it rested upon her shoulders.

When one falls... Marthozite whispered in her mind, echoing the sentiment he had expressed the night she had taken his life. The night he had given his so that she might live. It was only his memory that haunted her, for the General-King would never have clung so pathetically to the shadow of his life. He was Tanzanite's limited conscience and Metallia's will, and he silently directed her gaze upwards towards the face of a rather distressed looking young woman many stories above.

“Another must rise,” Tanzanite murmured in response, and a thought carried her up to reappear upon the roof.

Right between Lacie and the door.

She stared down, seeing the dim silhouette of the lifeless corpse -- alive only seconds before -- bathed in the moonlight. She remembered the sickening thud! as it echoed in her ears and covered her ears as if the sound had been too much for her. Acting upon self-preservation, her body staggered back a step, away from the perilous edge of the rooftop where she would meet her own fate if she were so clumsy to do so.

She took a step back, and collapsed to her knees, her gaze facing the ground, bracing her hands on the ground. Her fists clenched in frustration. Droplets of water began to stain the ground, tears trailing down the sides of her face. "I should have.." She bitterly told herself, remembering the way his hand had so easily slipped from her own. His pleading eyes which begged for help and she had promised. She promised. Why hadn't she tried harder? All the blame rested with her.

She used the back of her hand to wipe away her tears, showing a glimmer of pride concealed in the unassuming form. When she finally lifted her eyes to the strange pair, her eyes were filled with despair, anguish rather than fear. But a steely look underlain her nearly broken emotions. She registered their words dimly but their meaning wasn't getting across to her.

Instead of continuously crying, like any scared girl of her age, her teeth clenched as she fought to control her voice. It took only a few seconds before she was able to speak, with a semblance of composure, to direct her question to those accompanying the roof. "What do you mean?"

"You're only human," Hiro agreed. He let Tanzanite approach the girl first, then padded over to sit beside the two. Tanzanite made the first pitch. Hiro was just an echo. Reinforcement, perhaps. The General-Queen did a great job of seeming to care (and in her defense, she cared a lot more for her people than Beryl did, even if Tanzanite's emotions weren't always really there). But Hiro was soft and furry and cuddly (when it suited him). It didn't hurt the Negaverse's image to have him present for recruiting. Join us, we have cats for cuddling! We can't be all that bad if we're offering fuzzy hugs, right?

"But," he dragged it out, "you could be more."

One teal eye stared at the girl. Yes, he could definitely work with this. Guts, definitely. The urge to save could easily be turned into 'the urge to save her fellow Negaverse members' - not to mention saving the entire planet from the senshi invasion. They didn't always have to start with the crazy ones (they got there fast enough on their own, half the time).

"How about it?" Hiro tilted his head to the side, tail curling over his paws. "Want to be someone special? Someone strong?"