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What in the world was it about powered individuals that made them behave like overgrown children when they were trying to pinpoint an aura's source? Seriously! It was utterly annoying that everywhere she went someone, somewhere, no matter what side they were on were using a singsong child-call to try and find someone. Didn't it ever occur to people to just talk normally? Or perhaps not say anything at all to ambush? Of course not.

The fact that Albali stepped around the corner she'd been waiting around to see a Dark Mirror Requiem did not make her a whole lot happier. "Does your queen know that you act like an overgrown child when you should be just a smidge more efficient? I mean haven't you guys learned yet that the singsong baby voice is grating as hell and doesn't really get you anywhere? Geez." Hands on hips the Senshi of Echoes looked without fear on her now-corrupted former comrade. Actually she was being just a little hard on Requiem, poor girl.

Requiem had been taken with Ares when Albali had been left behind. It wasn't that she disliked the girl, she'd really barely known her and had originally had nothing bad to say. But why her and not Albali? It grated just a teensy bit.

Fists clenched into the material of her gigantic, hideous ribbons that she wanted to rip right off of her fuku and strangle Requiem with. Anger was quickly becoming a problem for Albali that she was trying to learn to control though it was thankfully only related to this single incident of anyone mentioning her abandonment by Ares. It was bad enough that she had to live with the cold shoulder of the Princess of Smoke but to have to take the open derision of people she used to boss around? No. That just wasn't cool. Instead Albali attacked Requiem's verbal choices.

"What in the world does common sense have to do with what Ares has or has not done with me? How in the world do you know whether or not I serve a greater purpose for our queen that you haven't been told about? Does Ares tell you all of her thoughts and secrets now Requiem?" It wasn't exactly a lie to say that Albali thought she had a greater purpose in remaning in the White Moon's shadow, collecting information and hoarding it like a dragon on her pile of gold. One day it would be useful because one day she would be strong enough to force Ares to take her. One day Ares would want her again.

"I'm not weak."

Strength equivalent of a cracker? Said the girl who probably hadn't taken a single taekwondo class in her entire life whereas Eilian was not too far away from getting the second-highest color belt in the discipline. She jogged every morning, patrolled every other night, and took her classes on those days that she didn't have patrol; Albali was a well-oiled ******** machine who just happened to have no magical power to speak of unless it was accidentally granted to her.

And Requiem knew it.

Reaching behind her the Super Senshi of Echoes grasped at the ribbons on her bow tearing them unceremoniously from the back of her fuku to toss them in the space between the two girls as she advanced slightly, just two body lengths apart. "Shut up Requiem, you know I hate the ******** things. We don't all get to pick our pretty little bloomers do we? But that's okay, I'm going to make you eat your lace." Feinting in with a punch was easy, typical, and she didn't mind it. Usually you followed up a feint with another punch.

Not Albali. This time she feinted in with a punch to follow up with a sweeping kick using the momentum of the feint, aiming straight in for Requiem's knees. Taking out her knees would put her head closer into a kick. A kick to the head and it was over.

Snorting derisively Albali flipped her hair back in a cocky gesture that was quite a lot of playacting. Everyone knew that this senshi, out of all of them, was one of the least likely to indulge in bravado on the battlefield. The difference was that Requiem was just annoying not threatening and neither of them were trying to kill the other. It was really a lot like sparring in the days of the early Blood Moon Court which actually made Albali a whole lot happier and comfortable than she'd been in a long time. "Cheap doesn't matter if it works. Doesn't matter if you're honorable if you're dead."

Ares had drummed that one into their heads, as if they'd needed the repetition. Some of them had in the case of Scylla and a few others but Albali had always agreed with her one hundred percent. "Why don't you stand still and just brace yourself? Make it easier on both of us and less painful for you when I finally land it?" Laughter eased through the threat, the first in a long time as swinging around the violet-haired warrior tried to punch Requiem straight in her nose.

Breaking it would probably end the fight but hey, broken nose!

Turning in midair the landing wasn't elegant but she was indeed on her feet in a crouch, sliding a bit of the way with a shrug as she stood. "It was worth a try don't you think? See how easily you give up and all." Touchy, touchy girl but the word 'weak' came out again proving that Requiem wasn't the only one being touchy, hands fisting again at her side. That word was rapidly becoming anathema, similar to a round oath in polite society in how forbidden it was to Albali.

"I don't have to prove myself to you. This is for fun, Sailor Requiem. Remember that." Resting on the balls of her feet for a long moment, Albali studied her opponent before flying back in with another series of feints, her knee coming up twice as she tried to keep the Burial senshi off of her guard. Three feint punches, one feint kick, and a punch came in low aiming for the solar plexus.

Hand to hand fighting wasn't easy when you all had inhuman reflexes and more than once the super senshi wished that she just wasn't so damn useless!

Mother. ********. Ouch! Being enclosed in the coffin hadn't really bothered Albali because hell, splinters were some of the least painful things that a girl could endure as a senshi. It wasn't fire, it wasn't lightning, it wasn't any of those incredibly painful and decapitating things that you couldn't recover from. And then, as Requiem knew, it was going to be her turn to get her a** handed to her in a damn coffin! Super senshi to super senshi meant that the morbid senshi was going to take a trip in her own box.

Until Albali's box went flying off the edge of a twelve-foot building, hitting the concrete with enough concussive force to shatter the box and knock the wind out of the girl inside. In fact the senshi of Echoes was rendered temporarily unconscious. Sitting duck in pretty colors for any officer or youma that might have wandered by, an easy meal or starseed ripe for the plucking due to her own idiocy for fighting Requiem on a rooftop.

War? Was it really war if you didn't want to fight the people you were supposedly up against? Albali wanted nothing more than to join them not actually fight them! Would Ares stand by idly and let her former partner be destroyed by her soldiers? That clutched at the young woman's heart more painfully than the fall or her breath when it was torn from her lungs. Standing up, staggering into a dark doorway, Albali gasped to get her breath back slowly.

Maybe, just maybe, she had to make more progress. Stronger, she had to be less weak, because maybe her time was running out. Maybe....