Welcome to Gaia! ::

It was late at night judging by the position of the moon in the sky, the way its silver light bounced from building to building in the clear winter sky. Bazzite was perched on the edge of an electronics store like a black gargoyle, wrapped up in his Negaverse-issue hooded jacket. His elbows rested on his knees and for the moment, he did nothing but watch his breath fog in the air. There weren't any signals nearby and his mind was more occupied with a particular white-and-green senshi he'd nearly ripped the starseed from.

While Bazzite had spoken to Aurora and made a solemn promise never to repeat that night again, despite any orders from higher-ups, he still wanted to bridge the gap between himself and Pandora. Apologize. Explain that it was an accident - he didn't mean to. Sure, he wanted to end the war as much as the next guy but killing? Couldn't it be done without killing?

And there he felt it, an Order signal flared up like a beacon somewhere off in the distance and Bazzite was off to trail it. The signal ranked lower than he did which meant he had a good chance of finding Pandora again. It wasn't like he knew all that many base level senshi anyway. Maybe she powered up? Bazzite had no way of knowing who was who based on the energy signature so he had to simply hope it was Pandora.

When he reached the park and couldn't see the person who bore the signal, Bazzite perched himself in a tree and waited.

It was Pandora!

Bazzite smiled to himself, at his success in finding her. But she looked downright terrified and his brow furrowed. He stayed out of sight initially in order to not sneak up on her and scare the daylights out of her but clearly his plan was having the opposite effect. Frowning to himself, Bazzite tried to decide between jumping down and reintroducing himself or staying in place and announcing his presence.

The latter seemed like the better idea.

"Umm... hi!" he hazarded initially, unsure of how to announce himself without sounding like an utter tool. "Uh... this is Bazzi. Can I... come over there? I didn't mean to scare you. I just kinda... wanted to stay outta the way, you know? Um... is that okay? Can I come down or should I just stay here? I mean I can stay here if you want! I guess."

"...sorry for scarin' you. I didn't mean to."

After a few moments, Bazzite intentionally rustled the branches around him to give Pandora a bit of warning before he jumped from his position high up in the tree. The little ninja landed at its base and stayed there, finding a few slivers of moonlight lit him up enough for the senshi to tell where he was. The captain looked nervous, uneasy. He wasn't sure what he was doing but knew it needed to be done.

"Umm... yeah, I'm alone. Nobody else here I can sense anyway." He scratched the back of his head, looking this way and that over his shoulders. "I mean, I didn't ask anybody to come here with me. I kinda... needed to do this on my one, you know?"

The boy swallowed the lump in his throat that had been sitting there for hours. "Um... so anyway, I uh... wanted to apologize." The admission may have come as a shock to Pandora, given that the entirety of the mission statement Chaos warriors were given was to eliminate the senshi threat and save the planet. Bazzite wholeheartedly believed in his cause, just not necessarily the methods used. "I.. didn't know about the whole starseed thing until... that night. An' I talked to a senshi friend of mine an'... an' I made a promise I wanted to tell you about."

He took one, small step forward. "Cuz... ever since then I can't sleep too well. I told 'Rora... nah, I promised 'Rora I wouldn't take anybody's starseed ever. An' I mean it. So... sorry. About that night."

Bazzite blinked in confusion. "You fought 'Rora? Why? She's real nice. I don't think she could hurt a fly, really. She's real nice to me, anyway. I like her." Sure, they were on opposite sides of the war but Virtus was a pacifist enough. Surely nobody would pick on Aurora or Virtus unless there was a damned good reason. Right? "She's the one I made the promise to an' I meant it. I don't wanna kill anybody."

Aurora was partially right as far as Bazzite knew - there used to be quotas but now he wasn't so sure anymore with the branch division the Negaverse was going through right now. "Um... I dunno." he tilted his head, admitting his lack of knowledge with all honesty. "I mean, before, if we didn't reach our energy quota or somethin'.... real bad stuff happened. I only heard about it cuz I got scared and worked real hard so the real bad stuff didn't happen to me. I dunno anymore though. I'll have to ask Beni."

Good grief, Bazzite thought it would be best to warn Pandora about Benitoite. "Beni's my General. He's a real nice guy but he really don't like senshi. He has a big staff, wears blue-n-black. Long cape. Blonde hair. If you see him, you should go. I... don't want anything to happen to you."

He scratched the back of his head looking obviously nervous. Eyes darted around. "Jus'... don't tell anybody I told you, 'kay?"

Bazzi smiled at Pandora, clearly relieved. "Thanks. Beni's a lot stronger than I am an'... I've seen him do some pretty bad stuff to senshi. I dunno if I can. I'd rather just... I dunno..." The captain let his arms drop in frustration. Even going down this path made him anxious, nervous and sick to his stomach. What would he rather do? Capture senshi alive and drag them back to the Negaverse only to have God-knows-what happen to them? Just chat and gather info and run back to Benitoite like a tattletale?

What did he want?

If he didn't think about it, he could just follow orders with a smile and never have to worry about morality. Now he was being faced with a decision and a thought process that scared the hell out of him. Bazzi wasn't known for thinking because thinking got you in trouble. He wasn't mature enough, or rather, didn't have the skills and coping mechanisms to handle these sorts of thoughts. He was terrified. With a sniff, he sat down and brought his knees to his chest.

"I... I dunno what I'd do." he admitted softly. Would Benitoite punish him for disobeying a direct order to kill? If he killed, could he handle it? Could he sleep at night? Was killing someone without taking their starseed different? Was it less horrible? Bazzite had no idea. "I seen too much death already."

Pandora admitting she'd be just as lost as he if placed in the same position made Bazzite feel a little better. Part of him was glad the senshi didn't have the structure the Negaverse did. Or rather, didn't anymore. Bazzite heard some things about senshi with a military overtone but didn't know much more than rumors about torture. He didn't want to think about it.

And then Pandora asked another question.

"How it all started?" he parroted, eyes kept evenly on a car across the street. Sure, he'd asked. Benitoite would know better than anyone by his estimation. "Yeah, I asked about that but I dunno about anybody named Helen or Troy. I suppose maybe somebody in the Negaverse is named Helen or Troy." Bazzite cocked his head for a moment and continued. "Anyway, I asked about why everything started happening and Beni told me this...

He said that there was a kingdom in space and on Earth a real long time ago. I dunno how long ago. Maybe bazillions of years - I'm not sure. Anyway, the kingdom on Earth was real nice and peaceful, like Eden or somethin'. But one day the senshi in space started warrin' with each other and they blew up their own worlds. An' there was this queen in the middle of it an' everybody died. But somehow the senshi came back but since their worlds are dead, they came here an' they're tryin' to make a new kingdom for themselves here on Earth. An' we're tryin' to keep everybody on Earth free."

Bazzite shrugged.

Bazzite tilted his head as he read the text. When he was finished, he frowned. Clearly there were two sides to this story and, like faith, one believed what one felt was right. It was all very confusing.

"That's a nifty trick. Can you only do that with your phone or can you do that with you too?"

If senshi could teleport, the Negaverse as Bazzite knew it was doomed.

"I guess there's no real way to know the truth, you know?" Bazzite laughed bitterly. Since he'd already begun this descent, he might as well follow it through even through it was terribly painful and completely out of his comfort zone. What he wouldn't give to simply run home and bake a pie of Lily and Alex. Pies were exponentially less confusing and morally terrifying than the origins of the war they now fought in. "...cuz none of us where there. Like the history books they got in school. We dunno the truth cuz we weren't there but all we got was witness accounts n' stuff. Who knows? Maybe what they're tellin' us is all lies and Godzilla's the one who blew up the universe or somethin'?"

The Captain chuckled. His mind, however dense, was beginning to fracture. Bit by bit were small fissures beginning to show.

"I know this'll be weird but... you're a pretty alright senshi. I hope we don't hafta fight again. I don't really want to."

Bazzite looked down at her hand, then to Pandora, then back to her hand again. A truce? Would he get in trouble for agreeing to a truce from a senshi? Would Beni find out? Surely Beni would understand and comfort him through his confusion. Bazzite just didn't want to kill anyone... it was too painful. He'd seen too much.

Gratefully did he take Pandora's hand and gave it a firm shake. "Truce. I won't fight you an' I won't take any starseeds. I don't like it. I'm glad I learned now than later cuz... it coulda been a lot worse, you know?"

Of course Pandora knew - she was nearly killed or worse... corrupted. Not that Bazzite knew how to corrupt someone but his inexperience would no doubt lead to some lethal conclusion. Therefore he left the important things to the higher-ups.

"Jus'... don't tell anybody. I don't wanna get in too much trouble, you know?"