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Arian had meant to head out on patrol earlier, he really had - but what with one thing or another it had been early evening when he had finally managed to slip out of the apartment, although with Saffy away visiting her girl pals for the holiday weekend at least he wouldn't have to hurry back.

It hadn't taken too long for him to find somewhere secluded to power up to his senshi alter-ego and then as Athene he was hitting the patrol beat.

Unlike when he had first powered up, the dark-haired eternal actually had a purpose when he hit the patrol beat these days - doing his best to try to keep an eye out for base rank senshi or page auras as he walked through the city.

It was a quiet evening, with not even one of the stray youma appearing to be about and Athene had found himself munching on one of the cookies that he'd snagged on the way out as he walked.

After walking for a bit, Athene had eventually found himself at the community garden where he'd first met Ida and where along with Tsui they had agreed to work together to look out for the senshi and knight newbies.

Not that Athene had sensed any auras around, newbie or otherwise.

It seemed that everyone was in, maybe even celebrating the long weekend - at least in this part of town.

Athene had not been planning to tarry about the community garden long, had in fact been in the process of leaving when he picked up on the aura of the other senshi.

It was strong, Athene had been around for long enough to distinguish between auras and the owner of this one felt like another eternal, the chaotic feel of the aura marking the other as an eternal of the Dark Mirror Court.

It was also closer than he'd realised, as the owner of said aura was pretty much on top of him by the time he realised that the aura really was heading in his direction.

"Evening Remarque" he called out to the blond senshi, who despite the whole opposite sides stuff had always come across as okay by his book. "It has been a while." Although that could be as much down to the fact that their paths had never seemed to cross particularly often as down to the three months or so that he had spent during his failed attempt to try and avoid the whole war thing that he'd been tossed into. "Life's been okay for me though. How about you?"

"This isn't really my usual grounds either" Athene admitted quietly. He quirked a slight smile as he added "Not that I particularly have usual patrol grounds." Even so, despite not having usual grounds, it was still only his second time in these particular gardens. "It has good memories though."

He'd met Ida here, a senshi who he'd come to see as a good friend and one of the few that knew of his alter-identity as Arian and it was here in conjunction with Tsui and Ida that the PSSG had been formed. "I get being busy" given that senshi duties were pretty much a night time thing, it could be hard to juggling with non senshi stuff. "But I'm glad you're doing okay."

And he honestly was. Despite his overall wariness of the Chaos side and the fact that his own loyalty to the White Moon meant that they were therefore on opposite sides, Remarque had always come across as okay to Athene on their few meetings.

No Athene wasn't about to attack Remarque, but neither was he about to ask the other Eternal for an invitation to join the Court - what he'd told Remarque on their last meeting still held - he wasn't looking to join. He had too many ties with the White Moon, ties he wasn't willing to give up.

"It is peaceful here" he agreed as he gazed absently up at the sky for a moment before sighing. "I just wish that more of my nights were peaceful."

He looked back at Remarque at the other's mention of taking days for himself. "Don't you get days off from the patrol beat?" His voice was curious turning the words into a question, before smiling slight, the slight smile rueful as he admitted. "I'm not sure I could do that - patrol every evening that is."

It was hard enough juggling the amount of patrolling he was doing with his university classes and making jewellery for the shop as it was and that was before he counted the sneaking in and out that he did on the nights he designated as patrol beat nights.

Athene was no longer in High School, but he still lived with his cousin which meant that he still had to sneak around although he’d had a fair deal of practice from his days of sneaking out while at Meadowview.

Sometimes he’d considered moving out, after all DCU had dorms but hadn’t been sure how to break it to his cousin, which left him still living with her - at least for the moment.

He looked slightly startled for a moment at Remarque’s mentioning of the Court finding their way into space, some of it finding its way into his voice as he said “Haven’t you visited space?” before looking apologetic, his voice its usual quietness as he continued “I’m sorry that was rude of me.” Somehow he’d assumed that all senshi would visit space - well make that their planet at some point and even more so those of the Dark Mirror - after all Athene vaguely remembered one of them mention wanting to return to space.

Athene had never been to the Surrounding, but he’d heard of it. He’d heard about the 59 missing civilians too, it had been hard not to - pretty much having to live under a rock hard - there had even been a city council meeting called about what to do about it. He shook his head slightly, not wanting to think on how that particular meeting had gone down.

"I've not really seen my asteroid" he admitted quietly as he looked up at the night sky, and by not much he had seen it all of one time - a trip he had taken with Polaris.

As he glanced at the stars part of him couldn't help but think that perhaps it was ironic that, going by what Remarque was saying, the Dark Mirror senshi didn't seem to be able to visit space given that he'd been told once that that was their aim - or at least one of their aims.

"But it had at least one city I think," albeit one empty and devoid of people, or animals just as the short trek up there had been.

Part of him had considered going back, thought maybe he should go back, but somehow or another it was something that Athene had not got round to.

"No I haven't seen much of it" Athene repeated as he shook his head. "I guess I.. I just haven't gotten around to it." He could blame it on there being a fair deal to do on Earth, after all between patrol, classes and other non senshi stuff, juggling things around could get pretty tough at times, but it wasn't the only reason and after a brief hesitation he admitted as much as he added. "I guess there's also that I haven't really wanted to wander around the place on my own."

Polaris had come with him on the first trip, but Athene couldn't ask her to do so all the time and besides he knew it was a pretty stupid reason not to visit the place from which he took his senshi name from, just as he knew that he'd get round to visiting his asteroid again - it was just a question of when.

Remarque's casual offer took Athene by surprise, a startled look openly showing on his face before he was able to smooth his expression.

It wasn't the taller senshi's offer of company should he want to visit his asteroid that had taken him by surprise, or rather it wasn't just the offer of playing travelling companion, no it had been Remarque's offer to be around that had taken Athene by surprise.

"Thank you, that's a generous offer" although his voice was its usual quietness, the words Athene spoke were genuine. He hesitated for a moment before continuing, open puzzlement in his voice mirroring the startlement that had briefly shown on his face as he added simply "But I have to ask why?"

After all for all that Remarque had never done anything to shift Athene's impression from their first meeting that the other was okay despite their respective sides, the fact still remained that they were still on opposite sides and in his own way Athene was as loyal to the White Moon as Remarque was to the Dark Mirror.

Nor was it wasn't something that Athene could simply or easily forget either, there being very few people in either his powered 'career' as Athene or his civilian life as Arian that had made such an offer.