Welcome to Gaia! ::

Although she had washed her hands several times after patching Grant up and tucking him into her bed, there was still a small sliver of darkness under her nails. Blood that refused to be washed off. A constant reminder of the pain he'd had to endure at the hands of the white moon. Not just any mindless soldier of the false queen, but someone that was supposed to be her friend, her budding ally. Someone she had actually come to trust.

Ate had betrayed her. Betrayed the court that had been so willing and eager to invite her in. And Ironically, the Dark Mirror would still take her, perhaps now more then ever, because of the ruthlessness and skill she had exhibited. Navi wasn't sure how she felt about that, but she knew damn well how she felt about what the Senshi of Pollution had done to her dear Virtus. She was furious, hurt, and above it all confused. Why would anyone be compelled to brutalize the kindly dark senshi so badly? Every fibber of him screamed peace, kindness, resolutions, help. How could she have possibly thought him sadistic? Navi didn't understand, but she knew how to find out.

She just hoped her temper held long enough to get answers.

Ate wasn't hard to find, she never was. Anytime Navi ever needed to find her she only had to look as far as the park, and just as always, the white moon senshi was lingering around the same bench they always seemed to come to.

As the dark senshi approached she didn't immediately speak up, afraid her voice would betray the flood of emotions that hit her when she felt that familiar aura, saw the girl she'd come to call friend. Instead she walked quietly closer until she reached the bathing light of one of the lights along the path, there she waited for the other girl to notice her, and speak first.

It took an effort, more so then was pretty, to school her eyes enough to force them into the same neutrality that the rest of her features had fallen into. She almost lost it as Ate referred to her Virtus as 'that skinny kid' of her's, but after a long moment she actually managed a soft smile. One half gloved hand rose to beckon to the other girl, inviting her into the hug she seemed so desperate for even as she looked upon the dark senshi with fear. If her friend wanted a hug, then Navi would be happy to oblige.

"Ate, come here." Her voice, despite the burning fury swirling within her, was calm, almost friendly. "I've heard a side of things, but I came to hear the story from your side as well. What happened?"

She'd take her time in getting her answers, she'd actually listen to what her friend had to say, and then, when she was finished, she'd decide what she was going to do about it. Compensation would be had, but now it really was just a matter of figuring out how much, and in what form.

Besides, the twisted, chaos fueled part of her that had awakened in the Surrounding was giddy at the manipulation. No one among the Dark Mirror really pulled off the picture of innocence like Navi could. Least not simply in acting.

For an instant the hug was all it should have been. Familiar, even safe, and then that moment began to crumble around the edges as the memory of Virtus' blood on her carpet swam through her mind. Her fingers tensed, and she likely would have stepped away had Ate not chosen that very second to give her less then satisfactory answer to the dark senshi whom she claimed as a friend.

Oh the first few words were alright, but then that sweet voice began to harden, and with every jabbing insult the other girl addressed to her dear Virtus the Senshi of Tumbleweeds stiffened, serene expression growing darker.

By the end of it her hands had tightened where they had come to rest. One between Ate's shoulder blades, the other at the back of her head. Where she had wanted to get away from the other girl a moment ago, now she held on, the tips of her fingers digging into flesh and scalp. "That weakling is a healer of the Dark Mirror Court, he's not meant to fight as you or I," she hissed within Ate's ear as she clutched the other girl against her. "Further still, he is mine!"

Her nails dug into Ate's skin, but that was really the least of her worries at the moment. Without warning, with barely a tensing of muscles to betray her actions, the dark senshi called the slicing wind of her power to the hand pressed between the other girls shoulders. "Bitter winds howl."

Th force of the swirling air was enough to force her hand from Ate's skin, but between would form the ball of swirling, razer edged wind to bite and dig at the other girls back, and should she not manage to free herself in time, the ball would split, and three in turn would take the place of one as the howling currents of slicing wind ate at her skin.

Strong and ruthless, those words certainly applied to the dark senshi standing above the other girl, but she wasn't always so hard. Not before she'd been abducted into the surrounding, and not even after she'd watched the deaths of those she'd cared about. Not until she'd accepted that she was going to die up in that battle, resigned herself to being obliterated. It was then the dark queen had found her, and the the rush of chaotic power that had been thrust upon her, that had been what source of her strength, the cold ruthlessness she bestowed upon her enemies. She had once been a soft girl, but no more.

She watched almost passively as Ate struggled to regain her breath, and the biting insults directed up at her for her attack only made her smile. Ate could belittle the hit all she wanted, but Navi could see the pain in her eyes as she fought for breath.

The smile disappeared though as Virtus was once again mentioned, and the soft hazel of Dark Mirror's eyes hardened as ginger brows narrowed. Her jaw closed with enough force to make her molars clack, and she had to bite her tongue to keep from screaming at the other woman as she pointed out what had been so obvious to her when she'd found her darling bleeding on her floor. She knew he hadn't been ready, but she'd done what she could before the boy had been required to fulfill his duty to the court by gathering energy. She couldn't argue that she'd let him down, inadvertently or not, so she kept her mouth shut.

At least until Ate accused her of the same blood thirsty crime. "Am I the same?" She called back, voice raising to cut off anything else the other senshi might have added. "Did I attack you when I first found you in that tree?" An old anger began to bubble up within the senshi of tumbleweeds, mixing with the new. That same old rage that had been born within her from the start of her new life. The damn White Moon, self righteous hypocrites. "The goal of the Dark Mirror Court is to awaken you misguided fools to the true court," her hands were balled so tightly into fists she could feel the bite of her nails biting into her palms. "We attempt to show you the light, we fight only when we have to. But you warriors of the false queen, you sense a little "chaos" and your first inclination is to eradicate us!"

She was so angry she was shaking in rage, screaming at the other girl, and at the end of her rant she'd strike once again. Dainty fist cocking back driving forward with all that frustration and fury lending speed and strength to her actions. She planted her heel as curled knuckles neared the other girl's ch eek, and at the last second she rotated her wrist, grinding her hand into that pale flesh to cause as much pain and damage as she possibly could.

If the hit landed, that is.

Her knuckles connected with flesh and bone, and a shock of pain raced up along the ginger haired senshi's arm. It hurt, a LOT, but it wouldn't be enough to keep her from taking another swing at the girl. Ate's words on the other hand would, at least for the moment. The dark senshi was furious, obviously, but she couldn't bring herself to silence the other girl, not yet. She couldn't say why exactly, maybe it was hope. Hope the other girl would apologize, say something that would explain her actions. Anything to make the pain Navi was feeling end.

But every time that pretty little mouth opened, more filth spewed out from it. Vile, hateful, and unfamiliar garbage, the likes of which Navi had never heard from Ate before. It was shocking, and did nothing to quell the anger that was raging inside her.

"Chaos is not evil!" It was a little surprising to hear the words, and in such a adamant tone. So many had called her court evil, had offered to show her, them, the rightful path. Help they had promised, but Navi didn't need help. "You have no idea what you're even fighting for anymore." One step back, and dainty fists balled at her sides. "I know what I fight for, I believe in my cause above all else. Can you say the same?" Navi already knew the answer to that, Ate had already told her.

If Ate bothered to look at Navi's face, she'd see just how badly her words had pricked at the other senshi. Another foe, no not foe, friend had confessed she and her ilk were nothing, less then nothing, deserving only of elimination. It was more then Navi could take in her over emotional state.

"You're no better, with your indecision and heartless brutality." Navi was all but shaking where she stood. "I at least claim a cause, what the ******** do you fight for?" Her patience broke, and her arms rose, palms mirroring each other before her. As she moved the wind picked up, swirling their hair around their faces and scattering leaves, circling the pair before racing to the Senshi of Tumbleweeds call. "BItter Winds Howl." It was barely a whisper, but whistle of wind as it compressed between her hands was loud enough to make up for it.

She stepped back, palms thrusting outward, and that singular ball broke into three, each barreling down on the kneeling girl on the pavement before her. They were small, but each struck with the same force as the first she'd driven into Ate's back. One aimed at the face, one the heart, the other her stomach.

It seemed as if a good majority of Navi's rage left with that final attack, because she watched her former friend crash to the ground with an expression very close to hopelessness. Her anger had been her fuel, and without it she felt nothing but the pain of betrayal, and the exhaustion that came when adrenaline faded and nothing was left but your emotions. She stood staring, tears streaming in earnest down pale, freckled cheeks, and watched as Ate got back to her feet. And even with everything that had happened, the blood on the other girl's skin still made the dark senshi's heart heart.

She didn't need the white senshi's admission to know her attacks had been unguarded, it'd been obvious. In Navi's anger she hadn't cared why, now she did. The pale pink of her low lip dimpled as she took it between her teeth, biting down gently as she fought to just stay her ground, stay on her feet, and not collapse into tears or rush to her former friend's side.

Hazel eyes widened as Ate continued, and the Dark Mirror's breath caught in her throat. Talk of the pain she'd caused Grant still fanned the tiny spark of flame still burning within her, but it was her declaration before that that had Navi staring, expression unreadable. She let Ate say what she had to say, all of it, without speaking, without even moving beyond the slight tremble that seemed to have spread along her arms.

When she was done Navi's shoulders fell. She sniffed, hard, hand raising to rub along her cheek and nose, pale eyes finally looking anywhere but the girl before her. She honestly didn't know what to do at this point, logic had left her, and she had nothing but the mixed bag of emotions threatening to overwhelm her. But she had to do something.

After almost a full minute she looked back at the Senshi of Pollution, and steeling her expression she stepped forward. She tried to reclaim that lost rage, to continue what she had come here for. To get the revenge she had promised her poor Virtus. Her hand went back, fingers closing into a fist, but as it came forward she came with it, arm circling Ate's shoulders as she collapsed against her. She was crying, sobs muffled against the pale skin at Ate's neck.

She didn't know what to say. Hell, she couldn't even decipher what exactly she was feeling in that moment. She held onto Ate, hugging the other girl against her, and she cried out what remained of her emotions against the taller senshi's shoulder.

Navi barely registered Ate's shock at the hug. She was lost to great racking sobs that shook her small frame and drowned out almost anything else. Dimly she caught the apology, and those simple, stuttered words were made her breath catch in her throat, for just a second, before the tears continued and their crying filled the night air around them. Had anyone passed they'd have been baffled, but neither girl could have cared in that moment. She was sorry. Ate, her friend, regretted the terrible thing she'd done, and even if that didn't fully make up for the pain she'd put Virtus through, it was definitely a start.

As the white senshi's knees buckled, Navi fell with her, until they were just a jumble of limbs and emotion weeping together on the sidewalk.

Her sobs were quieting as the other girl begged for forgiveness, and for a long time Navi remained silent. It was hard not to simply blurt out that she'd of course forgive her friend, but at that moment, she honestly wasn't sure she could. She wanted to, with all her heart, but the damage.. It was going to take time.

Sniffing gently, the girl slid her hands around to cup Ate's cheeks so she could lift her head and look the other senshi in the eye. "I want to, but what's been done is serious. I can't sweep it under the rug." Fresh tears welled up in the pale teen's eyes, sliding down along the freckle touched buttermilk of her cheek. "It means so much to me that you are truly sorry, and if you really mean that, I need you to prove it to me so we can move past this." Hazel eyes jumped from one green eye to the other, searching. "Will you do that?"

The real question was how, but that wasn't one that needed to be asked just then. Navi had vented her rage, taken out her vengence and frustration on the source of her pain, and from that violence, against all expectations, they were once again on equal, if slightly shaky ground with one another. It would take a lot, but if Ate really wanted to win Navi back, she would. And the Senshi of Tumbleweeds sincerely hoped she did.

Before Ate could answer, the ginger kissed girl slide free of her grasp and rose to her feet, stepping back from the other woman. "I'm going now, it's a good note to leave on. But I'll look for you again soon." And by then, hopefully Ate would have something to show, and Navi would feel more forgiving.