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How long had it been? Super Sailor Pasiphae had tried to suppress such thoughts, but the solitude of her patrol, coupled with the stress of trying to balance the needs of her everyday life and her Senshi responsibilities, forced it upon her. It had been easy, at first, to slip back into her old routine as a teenager, especially when school started. Then... Harper had awakened as Sailor Nyx, the events of which left her with a stitched up arm. And then it had been the town meeting which had resulted in so much slaughter... and then the Surrounding and the battle against the Great Youma with even more slaughter... and things became so complicated. The Shame Senshi had tried to distance herself after that, tried to pull away from her duties and the war and just... be Penelope.

Except that Penelope had all the memories and experiences of Pasiphae (this incarnation of Pasiphae, anyway). So nightmares were shared, graphic images remembered suddenly, randomly, in the middle of classes and meals, panic simmering below the surface growing steadily even as she tried to suppress it. Months. Had it really been that long? It seemed far more recent in some ways... far more distant in others. She berated herself for her weakness. The Great Youma had been defeated. The Surrounding had been secured. Best of all, the civilians had been ressurrected... somehow, or at least so she had been told. But all the same she could not forget the death and corruptions she had seen before her eyes... and eventually, as it had today after school, it spurned her to henshin up and patrol for a few hours. She never expected to find anything in particular, but she felt that she owed it, in some way, to those that were gone... to be there, to give a presence, no matter how ineffectual. Some part of her hoped to find those she had seen during those darker times... to see that they were alive, to reassure herself that she and the Senshi had done something right... but so far, nothing of that nature had occured.

Pasiphae was so used to lonely patrols that it actually startled her to see a girl on the street beneath her. She paused on the roof and looked down, noting that the girl was a high school student like herself and alone. These facts, combined with the lateness of the hour, translated as "vulnerable" to the Senshi, and with all that had happened... she didn't feel that she could allow the other to walk alone. So, she spoke first to announce her presence before leaping down in front of the girl, "It's really late... and it can be dangerous to walk alone at night. Can I walk you home?"

Then she looked up... and what she saw made the Senshi freeze with her mouth agape. There were some faces that were forever seared into the teenager's memory even after seeing them only briefly: the boy who she had slapped at the comic book store, her mom's temporary intern who had been nice enough to give her a gumdrop when she was 5, and in this instance... a girl who she had tried to reassure right before she disappated into golden dust before Pasiphae's eyes. Her heart felt like an elevator, soaring high at seeing the girl alive, sinking low in rememberance of that horrible day, and she could only croak out two words, "It's... you..."

Whenever the other girl expressed recognition as well, Pasiphae could only smile and silently underwent whatever inspection the purple-haired girl wanted to give. ... Wonder Woman? Pasiphae's smile became more resigned; apparently, the nickname that Sessrumnir had given her at their first meeting seemed to have circulated farther out and showed no signs of dying out. Clearly her own thoughts about whether or not she deserved to carry such a name was irrelevant. She did not feel like a Wonder Woman... but if others saw her as such, all she could do was work harder to make sure that she was worthy of their high regard.

"If you're busy... I can wait until you're finished," Pasiphae half-stammered, motioning towards the bag into which the other girl had just dropped her cellphone. She laced her hands together and lowered them--if she had been sitting, they would have been resting daintily in her lap, but standing allowed her no such luxury. "I don't mean to interupt or rush you... I just didn't want
to risk you getting hurt walking home alone..."

She stopped at that point and looked down at the ground, a small blush on her face. It was... hard to say even these normal things to the girl before her, the purple-haired texter who Pasiphae knew nothing about beyond that she had been taken against her will, turnedinto golden dust, and then... restored, whole again, something that up until now had only been rumor. But the Super Senshi could not, and would not, deny the evidence before her eyes. But now that it was here... what did she say? Did she greet her? Formally
introduce herself? Apologize for what had happened to her? Pasiphae had no answers, and so she did what she did best. She waited to see what the girl in front of her would do... and hope that she didn't screw anything up.

Cartoon... magical ninjas? Pasiphae was not quite sure what Keren was talking about, but she did know what a forum was, at least, and the drama that could come with it--though rather than online experience, Pasiphae knew real life, political forums. She could reply to the later discussion more easily; Keren's sentiiments matched her own. "I'm glad to see you too; we were told that the students--that you--had been restored but I didn't know for sure..."

The Shame Senshi accepted the handshake, reaching out instinctively and not taking the time to remove her glove. If her body was a little stiff from her nervousness, her smile was genuine, and she replied, "I'm glad to meet you officially, Keren. I'm Sailor Pasiphae, Senshi of Shame." Her smile faded somewhat, as she could not reveal her true name or where she went to school or anything that the purple-haired girl had shared so readily with her. "I'm sorry that I can't tell you more than that... but I don't want to put you or anyone else in any further danger."

"Well, in order to be awakened... I was approached by a talking cat who gave me a magic pen and told me to call on the power of my moon," Pasiphae admitted somewhat timidly, unable to suppress a soft smile as she remembered her run in with ********* and how silly it might sound to someone else. It had only been May but it already seemed like it had been far, far longer--to the point that she honestly could barely remember what her life had been like when she was just Penelope Seneca and did not know that such things as talking cats and henshin pens existed. "There are also others forces of Order... knights, for example, but I'm not sure if they gain their powers in a similiar fashion."

It felt odd to talk for so long, to explain all of these aspects to someone else... but if anyone deserved to know the truth, in Pasiphae's eyes, it was the girl that walked beside her. She had been through so much... and she deserved to know what had happened to her. Providing an explanation also gave Pasiphae a chance now to correct mistakes she felt had occured from not fully explaining who and what she was. Most painful, to her personally, was that she had not told her best friend, Harper, everything she could before she awakened into Sailor Nyx... and their friendship had become somewhat rocky because of it. Worse, however, was the realization that the people of Destiny City viewed her kind as terrorists... and if explanations and straightforward conversation would help repair that tarnished image, than the Shame Senshi was willing to swallow back her own discomfort and reach out. Plus, she was still so relieved, so amazed to see Keren whole and well... that she felt she could indulge in these positive feelings.

The Shame Senshi was relieved to hear Keren's description of the events in the Surrounding, especially at how she tallied the good and the bad. She was content to listen to the girl talk, and once she had finished, Pasiphae chimed in, "I'm glad that you, at least, know the truth... I didn't even know, until the Surrounding, until the attack on the hall that the civilians really thought of us as terrorists. But... you need to be careful, too, because sometimes... sometimes the others will disguise themselves like us, say that they are us..." She trailed off again and looked down at her hands. Why was she mentioning this? Why was she bringing up what she would rather forget? Because Keren needed to know; on some level, Pasiphae knew that. "But... you've seen us, and you've seen them. I think... I think you'll be able to tell the difference, even in disguise..."

Pasiphae hesitated to tell Keren any more than she had already, not because she was ashamed or felt she did not deserve to know, but because she did not necessarily want to induct the purple haired girl into this war. Penelope Seneca had had no choice, she felt; she had been given this destiny, this responsability, to protect others. But with that responsability had come powers, abilities, to help her in her task. Keren had none of those abilities... and yet, even with her caution, Pasiphae did not want to upset her any further. She was already annoyed by whoever kept texting her, afterall. So, she licked her dry lips and explained, "I do patrol, yes, but I've never... thought of myself as a policeman or crimefighter. I'm mostly just trying to protect people, like you, from being hurt. I don't want you... want anyone to be further involved in the war than is necessary. I don't want anything... well, anything else, to happen to you."

"Even if you didn't go outside at night, there could still be danger," Pasiphae admitted, somewhat shamed by this admission. She had seen youma and agents of Chaos in the day as well as the night; no one could really let their guard down too much. But wasn't that true of everyone? Both Pasiphae and Keren were old enough to know that there were bad, dangerous people in the world who wanted to hurt others. Some part of growing up meant being told these truths, so really the only difference here was that the bad people had the ability to summon beasts and steal energy. She shifted one of the pearl bracelets on her wrist, releasing her own nervous energy as she continued to walk beside the other girl. "It's just a matter of being alert... being careful. I don't know much about internet drama, but... I hope it stays the worst thing you need to deal with."

The Shame Senshi blushed at such a suggestion as waiting to see Keren go through the door--she had had that kind of treatment from her mother before, and while she was concerned... she didn't think that such a small distance would matter. "No, I don't think that's necessary. I'm... I'm sorry if I'm making you uncomfortable or anything..." Pasiphae trailed off momentarily, before ending with a shy, sincere smile on her face, "I'm just... I'm glad to see you again, Keren, to see that you're well. It's a little... overwhelming. In a good way, I Mean, but... overwhelming."

Pasiphae only smiled at the other girl's confidence in her, a confidence that she did not necessarily feel in herself very often. She waved good bye for as long as she thought Keren could see before heading back to the safety of the rooftops.

The meeting may not have meant as much to Keren Della-Blue, but for Super Sailor Pasiphae--and perhaps, more importantly, for Penelope Seneca--seeing her alive and well meant the world. It was well enough to hear that the civilians she had fought to protect were alive, but to actually see one going about her daily life, concerned about normal, everyday things... it made the black-haired teenager feel, for once, like she had done something to make a difference in this war through joining her fellow Senshi in the Surrounding. Her own efforts had been minimal, she would readily admit, but... it was still something to latch onto.

So, for the first time in a long time, the Senshi of Shame felt no shame at all at ending her patrol and going home. Instead, she left with a rare feeling of peace.