Words: 502 | Dated back to a week after Painite's mission against the city council

The house was quiet. His sister and his parents were asleep, had been for hours. His was dark, the only light coming from the street lamp outside.

And the starseed he held in his hands.

He probably should have given it to Painite. He'd given all the other energy he'd collected to her, just not the starseed.

He wasn't sure why he'd kept it. It was oddly warm in his hand, and burned at times almost. He would stare for ours at it, just watching it. Jarosite had taken it from a woman in that pisspoor mission in the council chambers. He could still remember her fear stricken face when his hand went into her chest. He could still remember his face when that happened.

A shudder rolled over him as he remembered the feeling of curling his fingers around the seed and feeling incredibly powerful in that moment. He wanted to caress the seed and corrupt it and destroy it until there was nothing left. He wanted that power...

And then his hand jerked out of her chest and she fell lifeless.

He'd killed someone.

He'd killed someone. Part of him, the chaos, whispered that it was okay. Her life would fuel whatever came next for the Negaverse. That it was okay for him to pull starseeds. It was just part of the process.

The other part, still bent on protecting the civilians, found it disgusting and he'd thrown up quite a few times when he realized that. How could he protect the civilians, the people he used to be a part of if he killed them? How could he? He couldn't... he'd be no better than those senshi.

His hand clenched protectively around the starseed. There wasn't anyway for him to put it back though. So then, why was he keeping it? Grey eyes looked down at the glowing object, mesmorized by what it looked like. It was a simple civilian seed, much like what his probably looked like before.

Before chaos had consumed it.

He wondered if he could do it to someone else. Specifically a senshi. Specifically a senshi he wanted nothing to do with but always seemed to find. Everywhere.

Albiero.

Could he corrupt her, as he had once been corrupted? Could he slide his hand into her chest, just above her bountiful chest, grip that starseed full of light and surge as much chaos as possible into that object and turn her to their side?

Could he corrupt anything, for that matter?

He wouldn't know if he didn't try.

Perhaps that why he kept the starseed. As a practice. Because nothing would happen if he corrupted this seed, right? Its not like... anyone would miss it...

He found himself unable to pour his power into it, however. Grey eyes closed and he sighed. Thankfully the General-King had not given him a deadline...

He slipped the seed back in his coat pocket and powered down.

He'd try again tomorrow.