Welcome to Gaia! ::

Acubens was still on edge. The fact that she was in familiar territory didn’t help; in fact, it made it worse. She was constantly afraid that some chaotic signature will register. In her neighborhood. Worse. In her home. Acubens’ heart lurched, remembering what had happened – god it felt like a lifetime ago. Her hand unconsciously drifted up to trace the outline of her scar beneath her fuku. It was still there, rigid and unbearably smooth. Smoother than she expected a scar too be. For some reason, Acubens had expected her scar to be rough and strange but… warped as it was, the scar had always been smooth, even pleasing to touch.

The thought shocked Acubens out of her reverie, her hand flush against her side. No, this mark marred her horribly, reminding her that she had not only almost lost her life, but also nearly ended her brother’s life. And had she been there even a little bit earlier… just a second earlier… To hell with that noise, of Acubens hadn’t even powered up in the first place her life would be so much easier. And she’d been fool enough to think that now that she was back things might be easier.

Cue Bischofite.


Acubens’ face contorted at the memory of what he had done. To her. To those civilians. To her impromptu team. That monster. Acubens would never know what twisted him so horrifically, but then, maybe she didn’t want to know. Maybe it was best that no one ever knew. So that no one would ever corrupt another human so thoroughly. There only needed to be one monster in the world.

Wrenched once more from her musings, Acubens locked onto the signal of another. There was no tinge of chaos to them but… that didn’t mean they didn’t work for them. For all Acubens knew, this soldier was one kill away from corruption.

“Not my family. Not ever.

As Acubens neared the source of the signal, it stopped moving. That, in itself, was strange enough. But then, as she rounded the corner, it was not only stationary, but it was even quite benign. Or at least looked it. The senshi sat motionless on the back of the bench and she might have been relaxing had Acubens not had a clear view of the girl’s face. She knew that look; she wore it enough herself. And she knew those breaths. And she also knew that if she didn’t wrangle them under control, she was going to lose the fight with the attack she was having.

This poor girl was no agent of chaos. Or, if she was, then she was very good at her job, and so deserved every ounce of Acubens’ pity. Not that Acubens would put her money on that option. No. This was a child who had seen too much. She knew the feeling.

“Whatever you saw,” Acubens sighed, plopping down next to the other soldier, “Must have been pretty bad to get you in this shape.” She looked up, arm opposite the senshi extended along the back of the bench. “Wanna tell a fellow veteran about the horrors on the front lines?”

“Acubens.” She said it with a warm smile as she took the other senshi’s hand. She didn’t fault the other senshi for not sensing her, though were Ida is a better place mentally, she would have lectured her on the dangers of checking out. Just because someone was order aligned didn’t mean they weren’t looking for trouble. Now wasn’t the time, clearly. Whatever Ida had on her mind, it was bigger than Acubens knew. And if Ida didn’t offer, she wouldn’t ask.

But then Ida did offer.

And Acubens went stiff.

Yes, yes, Ida’s thoughts lingered on something far bigger than Acubens first understood. She had thought that maybe was a particularly hard youma, or even a nast nega but… Bischofite. Acubens’ face contorted, shoulder aching with the memory of what transpired on the roof. She opened her mouth to speak, but only bile rose. Had Acubens been perched like Ida was, she would have fallen off the back. Instead she leaned forward, unaware of her actions through the spinning of her head until she felt her forehead hit her knees. Yeah, had she been standing, Acubens certainly would have fallen over.

“Bischofite,” Acubens finally spat through the thickness of her saliva. “I’ve had the pleasure of meeting him, but he hasn’t felt generous enough to use that tactic on me.” Acubens should count herself lucky.

“That monster collected me and three other Orders up on a rooftop and killed off four out of six civilians. Well, five civilians. One was a youma that attacked us when one of us ran Bischofite off. I am… familiar… with Bischofite.” Try as Acubens might, she could not keep the tremulous edge of fury out of her voice. “Sounds like he gave us both our first tastes of death.”

Acubens waved Ida’s worries away, trying to still the pinning of her head.

“You’re suffering,” she croaked finally through the thickness of her saliva. “You deserve to be selfish. Hell, you put your life on the line daily, you deserve to be selfish just for that.” Acubens stumbled on her words just slightly, body trembling with the effort she had not exerted as the adrenaline began to take its effect. She hadn’t thought Bishcofite had had such a profound effect on her, and she hid her shame at the realization in her mounds of hair. She leaned forward for a moment longer as her stomach settled, the indignity if Bischofite’s humiliation making that very difficult.

Finally she sat back up, tossing her hair back over her shoulders in a flurry of wild red curls.

“I have not had that pleasure either,” she sighed, glad that her own scar didn’t show with the conservativeness of her fuku. “He only dislocated my shoulder.” It still sort of ached, but it was nothing she couldn’t deal with. Boxing hurt her just as badly.

“Everyone I’ve ever run into before this was… different. Sure, I mean I’ve been attacked by Negas but…” She’d never seen one so twisted. Bischofite was a new, terrifying experience. Something no longer obsessed with simply eliminating the senshi, but something else. Testing them?

“He deserves to die,” she moaned, head falling back as the world tilted again.

Honestly, Acubens hadn't considered killing anyone before Bischofite either. Of course, everyone else had just been a mild inconvenience at best. They were annoying and sure,t he sucked the energy out of people, but from what Acubens could tell there were no long term effects of that action. And besides that, Acubens could remove herself from the situation enough to understand that the taking of energy did serve a purpose, however malevolent that purpose was. It was a whole different story when someone was ending lives for the fun of it. It twisted her insides so hard that Acubens was afraid she was going to puke again.

"I could."

Acubens' simple statement event started herself. She almost looked around for who might have said such a thing, it was so departed from what usually came out of her mouth. She stared hard at the ground, wondering where that had come from. Wanting someone to die was one thing. Everyone had that one person they would kill without a second thought if they wouldn't get caught but saying that she would be the one to do it... that was different. What was even more alarming was that she believed it.

Acubens hugged herself and hopped off the bench, concentrating on the ground to keep herself from shaking too terribly.

"I... I have to go."

What had she started to become?