Welcome to Gaia! ::

It was a usual thing for Navi, popping into the park from the Mirror she'd installed in one of the women's bathrooms. She did so most nights, and while occasionally she stayed to patrol, for the most part she was looking for the presence of a certain Order aligned aura. An aura that had been absent for the last couple of weeks. In truth Navi had begun to wonder about the other woman. Curious if she was keeping to her promise, worried that she wasn't. Also worried that she might have been hurt, or worst.

Like every night before, Navi stepped through the mirror, senses spread wide to take in every corner of the park before zeroing in on the familiar power signiture of Ate.

Within moments she had left the bathroom and headed across the frosted lawns of the park, nearly sprinting until she had come across the woman. Relief washed over the teen as Ate came into sight, and she slowed her pace down to a jog, then a quick walk before finally coming to a stop in a pool of soft light cast by one of the street lamps the lit the paths of the park at night.

"Ate." She sounded happy to see the Order Senshi, and she smiled, beckoning the older girl closer. "You're here." That alone was taken as a good sign. surely if Ate hadn't kept to her word she wouldn't have returned to their meeting place. But all the same she couldn't help the nervous fluttering in her stomach.

In truth, Navi hadn't heard much about Ate since their last meeting, but she had taken that as a good sign. No rumors had come back to her about any of her comrades having fallen victim to the Senshi of Pollution's impressive temper. Surely if there had been an incident, she'd have heard about it.

"News?" Curiosity coursed through the petite senshi at the mention, and she followed the motion of Ate's hand as it rose to touch her arm before falling back to her side. She'd expected a hug, she was a little disappointed when it didn't come, but she understood the other girl's hesitation. When they'd last parted it had been on very shaky grounds, and Ate had no idea where she was likely to stand with the DMC.

Mention of Virtus had freckle kissed features tightening, but they smoothed seconds after and Navi offered Ate a soft smile. "He's doing fine. We heal fast, so he's made a full recovery, and a couple of the higher members of our ranks have been helping him train." Virtus, if nothing else, was amazingly resilient, and it still amazed Navi that the young man's outlook on life and those around him never wavered. He would always look on the bright side of things and find the good in people. It was both a strength, and a weakness.

"Now what is this news?" There was a certain thread of weariness to her tone, but mostly she was just curious.

A half amused little sniff followed Ate's prediction that Virtus be able to beat her senseless if they ever met again. He might have been training, and gettting stronger, but he was still the same sweet, pacifist guy that he'd always been, and likely always will be. It was an amusing thought, but entirely unlikely.

When Ate sank down and patted the spot beside her, Navi moved to sit beside her, taking the offered hand and interlacing her fingers with the other girls, squeezing, both in reassurance, and to offer strength. The way she was acting, the hesitation in her voice, it occurred to Navi that whatever News Ate had to share, it might not be something she was in a hurry to share, for whatever reason.

Though with each passing second, and the increasing nervousness exhibited by her friend, Navi couldn't deny her own raising apprehension for whatever the white moon senshi had to say. She could feel her heart, her pulse filling the short stretches of silence before Ate gathered her resolve and began to speak. The phrasing, like a soothing balm to placate the dark mirror, came as a double edged blade. Both complimentary, but carrying the promise of what she was quite certain now was not going to be news she wanted to hear, and she squeezed Ate's hand all the tighter.

There were chances to pip up, to interject or joke, but Navi remained quiet, waiting with carefully slow breaths for her friend to continue. And then she mentioned the offer the ginger haired girl had made to Ate once upon a time, and Navi's hopes gave a sudden forward surge. Maybe she'd read her friend poorly, maybe this was a request to join the Darkness of the court of mirrors. Sitting up straighter, Navi nodded, hazel eyes wide, and far too hopeful.

I must abandon this court, Navi! Yes, YES! This was what she'd been waiting for, what she knew to be inevitable, had only needed to wait patiently for. Carefully neutral features began to brighten, lips turning up and parting as if she would speak.. but then...

"What?" That single word was so full of utter confusion and hesitant pain. Ate had looked away, and while she'd admitted to seeking out chaos, Navi did not understand what path she meant to take. It made her reach out, cupping the other girl's cheek to pull her face around so she could meet dark green eyes. "What do you mean?" In her narrow desire to convert the white moon to the dark mirror court, Navi had forgotten the existance of the Corrupted Senshi.

The deep wells of rich emerald offered no answers to the questions os very clear on Navi's face, and it was with slow understanding that she came to realize just what Ate was planning. Corruption, not into the eager embrace of the Dark Mirror Court, but the Negaverse. In the grand scheme of things, chaos was chaos, but to Navi, in this situation, Ate's confession came like a blow to the chest.

"But.." How many times had she imaged this conversation? Countless, but never had it ended like this. Never in all the scenarios she'd played out in her mind had she ever considered Ate would take this path.

Ate's cheek was warm under her palm, warm enough to feel flushed, but it was the cooling of her own hand that made it so. Suddenly she could feel the chill of the night around them, and the kiss of a crisp breeze made her shiver, teeth beginning to chatter as she fought off the raising ache of emotions that were swelling up inside her.


The confession wasn't unexpected. Navi had known from their first meeting that Ate was not meant for the White Moon, but to join the Negaverse? "You belong with us," she countered, leaning forward. A hint of desperation creeping into her voice as she reached out with her free hand to catch Ate's shoulder, shaking her gently. As if she could shake away those crazy thoughts and make her see reason. "You'll have a family with us." she shook harder, tears now burning at the corners of her eyes. "You'll have me!"

The weight of Ate's decision was beginning to take hold. "Why do you have to forget everything, aren't there things worth holding onto?" Like her?

Her hands were shaking. Likely the rest of her too, but she was too numb to feel it at the moment, not with what Ate was telling her.

And the worst of it? It made sense. Ate hated the white moon, and what she did in the name of it. Hated it enough that she wanted to make all of it disappear. It truly made sense, and Navi couldn't find a single, none selfish, reason to dissuade her.

So why not be selfish? God, she wanted to.. Ate was he friend, and though their relationship was rocky, the thought of loosing her was, as always, heartbreaking. It was how she'd felt after she'd confronted Ate after the incident with Virtus, and it was how she felt now. Stronger, if possible.

She shook her head as the other girl asked if she was aware of what Ate meant, and only then did she drop her eyes to stare at the ground near their feet.

So she would allow the Negaverse to corrupt her, and in doing so she would loose those painful memories... all at once the Senshi of tumbleweeds had made up her mind, and almost angrily she swiped at the tears at her eyes and running slowly down her cheeks. "I won't let you forget me, Ate." Whatever she had to say, what ever had to be done, she would do it. She wasn't going to loose the dark haired senshi.

It wasn't entirely rational, but she leaned forward, catching the other girls' face, and captured those full, red lips in a long, lingering kiss.

Back covered fingertips lingered on Ate's chin as she drew away from the kiss, and she attempted a soft smile, though the tears still glittering in her eyes might have spoiled the effect. Still, she leaned into the warmth of the other girl's hand against the pale curve of her cheek.

"Nor will I forgive you if I can't tear some shred of recognition from you when all is said and done." It was said sweetly, but there was no hint of joke in her tone to suggest she wasn't being serious. If she had to lose Ate, then she would cut the other girl from her life completely. There would be no midnight meetings, no watchful hazel eye. Navi would let them be the strangers Ate would believe them to be.

She couldn't deny that the desire to share her real name wasn't there as her friend suggested it. It was there, at the tip of her tongue, ready to roll out so there would be no chance of them parting for good, but Navi knew, just as Ate did, that she couldn't simply share something like that on a whim. Chaonis didn't have her name, Ate wouldn't either..

"You follow your heart, and you cling to any shred of memory you can that might help me find you." What else was their to do? Gone were the excuses and pleas for the other girl to join the ranks of the Dark Mirror rather then the Negaverse. Gone were the tears. Now was for simply sharing each others company, and when they parted ways at last, remembering that Navi refused to let Ate go without a fight.

She smiled as Ate brushed a curl from her cheek, and pretended to believe the other girl wouldn't forget things so simple as freckles or hair. It was her friend's turn to cry new, and she watched as those crystal tears decorated het cheeks. Then she broke down into sobs, and for a moment Navi thought they were genuine, but then..

"Oh shut up!" Half gloved hands pushed at the other girls arm and side, and she rise swiftly to her feet. "You're such a brat." The tension that had stubbornly clung in the air around then had broken, and the dark mirror senshi was laughing as she offered a hand down to Ate.

Like her friend. Navi was seeking an escape before the humor left then and plunged the pair of them back into tears. If anything, this meeting should end on a happy note, not a sad one.