Welcome to Gaia! ::

He stared down at the papers before him, one time she had been part of them, at one time she had been a general he admired a great deal. Possibly he had admired her more than anyone else in the universe. She had never unsettled him the way that Tanzanite had as she had progressed through the Negaverse, her brutality and thirst for violence had been something that made him more glad to have Lina as his General. She understood things the way he did, she played it as a mental game, angles and probability, tactics and strategy.

It was her who unwound him a great deal; people were more than notes on a page to be scowled at and assumed the worst of. He wanted her back; he hated Castor for taking her away, whatever the reasons since she had said it wasn’t because of love, because it’d been the ‘only’ option. There was a strong part of him that hated her for thinking that as well. If she could have held on just a little longer, then they, he and Tanz if no one else could have stood together in her defense as he had stood for Ever.

He pushed the papers across the table with gritted teeth and turned away impatient and frustrated. He remembered her in the surrounding, the look on her face behind the golden wall, he remembered her ‘lover’, Castor’s face and his actions. What he wanted to do to the man would only make her hate them more. He wished so very much that he’d finished him despite the promise but… no, the damage had been done.

He looked up to the sound of boot heels approaching the old heavy door to the war room; he had not
Expected company but neither was he quite ready to turn the visitor away without reason, not yet. Not until he knew who it was and what they wanted of him. He had a duty to them after all.

He nodded, it didn’t answer if he knew her, or if he simply knew of her but that his eyes said he was at least peripherally familiar with her. Enough so that his eyes flicked to her hair and back out of curiosity at the loss of the once blue sweeps of it, replaced instead by a vivid orange that suited her uniform if nothing else.

“Come in, close the door if you need.” He nodded her to a chair and moved away from the papers he’d been examining, one hand lingering, just the fingertips tracing a name that was consuming both minds, though he had no way to know that yet.

“How may I help you?” He said quietly, eyes turned to hers, puffy with tears.

“I think more people than will admit it, feel her loss greatly.” He said and moved closer to lay a tentative hand on her shoulder. He wasn’t good at ‘real’ comfort, at least not in his own estimation but he’d do his best. He felt her loss like a dagger every time he saw her. She’d left all of them behind, maybe it was true, maybe she would have been dead by now if she’d stayed but at the same time she wouldn’t have been –theirs.

He couldn’t even justify telling Petalite that she left because otherwise the Queen would have seen her dead, or that he hadn’t had the strength to protect her the way he wanted. His fault, he couldn’t even blame the queen, his fault because if he’d told her, if he’d let her put herself in danger so fresh after nearly dying she might have died WITH them instead of going to Castor. “I, cared about her a great deal…” He said softly. “If things had, if I had the strength then that I do now.” He started and stopped again frustrated. “If there is any way to return her to us, without…” He stopped he didn’t want to raise the very real probability that it would simply destroy an already abused star seed, that she’d likely become a youma. “If I could return her to what she was I would.”

“This…” He waved a hand at his uniform. “It should have been her.”

Hugging, tears and hugging, if the senshi had any idea that their greatest weapon, able to paralyze the little General King like a garden statue lay in hugging him close and sobbing on his shoulder leaving him utterly unsure of what was ‘safe’ behavior. Did he comfort her? Did he hold still? Did he offer words of re-assurance or hug her in return?

“I miss her too…” He confessed and carefully, very lightly on her shoulders so he wasn’t pushing her away, but neither was he prolonging the hug if she decided to disengage. “One day, one day maybe it will become possible, don’t give up that hope. If we keep fighting, then one day we may find a way to break the hold they took on her.” He offered quietly He believed it; to every problem there was a solution. If they looked hard enough there must be an answer.

He wondered if she knew the damage she had done, the hole she left behind that was slowly being filled with scars. The emptiness of her loss that would either be layered over with hate or new associations built on the ache of wanting her to return. Did it matter? The damage was done and for now his hands were tied.

“Quite alright.” He said in a slightly strained tone of voice as he fought not to sound too relieved that he’d been released from the ‘public’ display of affection that had dampened his shoulder. “More than enough layers between me and a little dampness anyhow.” He said trying to make at least a little light of it, and the layers of clothing he wore in uniform.

Her words made thin creases appear at the corners of his eyes, if temper could have made the power he gave off roil like flames it would have. Castor, the name was an irritation, an abrasion on his psyche that made his teeth grit. He was at once something that should be –beneath- notice, a double standard shallow petty ‘man’ whom had taken from them a precious thing, but at the same time he was the bitter needle that stuck under the fingernails of the Negaverse, an mouthy irritation, the first ‘prince’ among senshi for what that was worth.

“One day, Castor will get everything that he deserves.” He replied through gritted teeth. “That at least I can offer you “One day we will remove the irritating thorn that he is from the very universe itself, I think he would make a fine Youma if we cracked his star seed, let all that pain drag him slowly down and wash away what he was and then feed him to the others. “

Irritated with the thief who had taken Linarite from them? Not Zinkenite, well… perhaps a small grudge.

“It’s not as much effort as one might think.” He said quietly, an odd sort of ‘knowing’ in his words, a somber dark edge that resonated with the things that shifted and watched in strange corners down here in the Rift. He had a very good idea of what it took to become that, and how much it hurt as well, but the fate of castor was in more hands than simply his own weather he wanted to admit it or not.

“You’ll be General one day Petalite, don’t give up hopes that you won’t be part of his ultimate end.” It wasn’t pandering or lip service, if they found a solid plan he would do what he could to give her some part in that, if only because of what loosing Lina had done to her. “The hardest task before all of us, is patience, but in the end it will be worth it, in the end it is our greatest asset, as much our strength as our unity.”

“With Rare exception my door will be open to you Petalite, please consider that if ever you need someone to speak to. I would not see you lost to us, and I do believe things will be changing, soon, for the better.”