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Another evening, another patrol and once again Athene had found himself heading in the direction of the park. He’d been at the park earlier, having found himself walking that way after dropping his contest entry off at the Garden.

Athene took a sip of the hot chocolate that he'd picked up from the late night diner. He'd brought some cinnamon cookies with him in case his path crossed that of ********* while he was out on patrol, but he hadn't seen the silvery-furred tail-less cat around.

Maybe it was the memories that kept drawing him back to the park – after all a lot had happened at this particular park. The dark-haired senshi had had his first encounter with the Negaverse here and had spent a great of his time stuck as a cat here too.

He’d had his first but not last encounter with a senshi from the Dark Mirror court here too, back when he’d been suffering from a runny nose of doom – a side effect of the awful bug he’d picked up from goodness knows where last year – and something that had thankfully not made a reappearance this year.

His steps slowed slightly as he sensed the chaotic aura. The senshi and knight meeting and the horrible events that had gone down there had left Athene wary of both the Negaverse and the Dark Mirror court and the chaotic aura he was picking up on was a strong one.

For a moment Athene had contemplated maybe trying to avoid the source of the chaotic aura, the brief thought had become a moot point however when he realised that the aura seemed to be heading in his direction.

The blond senshi that hailed him was familiar; for all that Athene had only encountered him once – then again he had been just thinking about the other senshi – well insofar as his thoughts down memory lane had recalled that that they’d had their first encounter at this park. “Good evening Remarque, I’m well thank you.” The dark-haired senshi’s newfound wariness of both the Negaverse and the Dark Mirror court wasn’t enough to override his normal politeness. “I hope you’re well too.”

“I guess patrolling with a hot drink is my quirk” Athene admitted. He’d been carrying one the night of their first encounter too. “But it also doubles as a pretty good handwarmer – at least while the contents are still hot.” Something that was handy now that the evenings had turned cooler.

At the Dark Mirror’s query about what he’d been up to Athene shook his head slightly “I haven’t really been up to that much lately. Just the usual – patrolling and keeping an eye out for youma.” He drank a bit more of the hot chocolate “I’m part of a team now too.”

Remarque seemed as friendly as last time, certainly not like the Dark Mirror senshi he’d seen killing Pages at the meeting and the dark-haired senshi was finding it hard to reconcile the two. "It looks like you've been busy though" he said referring to the black back wings that the taller blond now had.

“That’s true I guess” Athene said quietly. “I guess that’s what brings us all out night after night like this.” Although the dark-haired senshi didn’t see himself as having a big grand cause that didn’t mean that he didn’t try to do his own little bit – even it mostly took the form of dusting youma and giving what help he could to fellow senshi and knights.

“And I’m part of the Celestial Shepherds,” He smiled slightly as he admitted “I kind of shorten it to the Shepherds personally though. We’re not the biggest team and I’m still getting to know my fellow team mates better, but despite our differences I think we all have a similar outlook on things and it's nice not going it completely alone any more.” It was safer too.

“I guess new is relative” Athene said quietly. “But I guess we are pretty new – we definitely haven’t been together as a group as long as your Court seems to have been. We’re not that big though.” They were seven in total, although the dark-haired senshi had met five of the other members of the group to date.

He looked puzzled at Remarque’s anyone he should know query, having no idea who the Dark Mirror senshi would consider someone to know “Well we’re a mixture of senshi and knights” he said at last. “I’d rather not name names though – I know your court” he hesitated for a moment “Doesn’t like the knights.” Actually that was probably putting it mildly given that he had seen Dark Mirror senshi killing knights. He thought about it “Or at least some of them don’t” it seemed kind of rude to generalise.

“I’ve met Valhalla.” Athene had met the Page of Jupiter – well he’d been a Page at the time – during a not-so-fun encounter with a demon-horse type youma. He nodded in agreement at Remarque’s ‘nice enough’ statement. “He’s okay.” Although the dark-haired senshi had found Valhalla a bit on the bossy side, the knight hadn’t left him to face the youma on his own.

“And as a group, the Shepherds are about using our abilities to protect civilians.” Although unwilling to divulge the names of his fellow team members, Athene didn’t have a problem talking about the group itself. “Things like preventing them from having their energy stolen, protecting them from the youma – those sorts of things.” He gave a slight shrug his voice quiet “It’s a pretty good fit for me consider that I try to do those sorts of things anyway.” The dark-haired senshi had never hidden his opinion on energy draining or his dislike of youma.

“You’re right” Athene acknowledged “I know that members of your Court also steal energy from the civilians.” To the dark-haired senshi draining energy from the civilians was stealing – after all it wasn’t as if said civilians were being given a choice in the matter. “I found that out from another member of your court – Sailor Virtus. I also know now that Dark Mirror senshi are deliberately looking for Order senshi to join your Court” he hadn't made the connection at the time. “Not that I’m looking to join.”

At the other’s question about not showing hostility Athene took a sip of hot chocolate, waiting until he had swallowed the now lukewarm liquid before answering “To be honest if I’d stumbled across you taking energy from a civilian then I would have done my best to try and stop you – but you’re not” or at least Remarque wasn’t currently. “And I prefer not to fight if I don’t have to. Fighting just to do the ‘I fight, you fight’ thing doesn’t really change anything.”

Athene shook his head slightly “No, I’m not looking to join” he repeated quietly. Energy-draining aside, the Dark Mirror killing knights at the senshi and knight meeting wasn’t something that the dark-haired senshi could un-see or forget, nor was it something he wanted to be a part off.

For a while he studied the chocolate cup as Remarque spoke, but eventually he sighed quietly “To be honest I haven’t got a clue what the Negaverse’s purpose is” he said at last. “I’ve only ever spoken to two Negaverse agents.” As a rule, from the dark-haired senshi's experience they generally weren't exactly big on talking “The first seemed okay at first, but then went on about how senshi were out to raise some Queen to take over before poking at me with a paintbrush and the second dressed herself up in a glitter gone mad ballerina’s outfit, called herself Sailor Sparkles and killed civilians like the majority of other agents.”

No Athene’s encounters with the Negaverse had not been positive.