Welcome to Gaia! ::

He led them from the crystal chambers of the dark kingdom, down through the great and ominous doors, carrying the poor unconscious girl past the shadowy figures and walking them directly into the war room, its heavy and battered door, the great heavy wooded table scattered with papers. Things shifted in the rafters, smaller things with peering eyes to up to and including Locke, the General-Kings personal youma, who slid, serpentine over an old wooden beam and them moved gecko like down the wall.

“Visitors.” The youma almost purred. “Later Locke, we will speak of it later. Stand guard for me…”

He indicated the window and the youma hissed, lashing its long tail and folding its great fox like ears back before grumbling about never getting to see the fun things and slithering out the great empty window that overlooked the very path they had traveled down, and down the wall.

He lay the young woman, Jade, on the table, carefully and then backed away.

“Likely you should wait till she wakes. It will mean she feels the transformation and that will be uncomfortable however. I think it would be more polite to at least give her the choice of becoming one of us or…” He waved his hand, the second option being unfortunately obvious. Buddingtonite’s civilian identity had been compromised. There was only one ‘other option’.

Perhaps it was the best for everyone that Jade was unconscious when Zinkenite was carrying her towards their destination. If Jade would have been aware of what was going around her she wouldn't have taken it lightly. Even the sight of one single youma would had made her more nervous than she had ever been before. She could hear them, but their voices muddled with her memories and mental images into a dream when she was resting on General-King's arms and later on his table.

But even though she was unconscious, she wasn't feeling calm. No, quite opposite. She was having an anxious, chaotic nightmare which mainly focused on the battle in the Surrounding. Couple times she squished her eyes tighter and gave out a sigh and her heart was beating quite rapidly.

So, Buddingtonite's pat was welcomed distraction to her.

"... I don't want to die again..." the unconscious girl mumbled silently, eyes closed, still sleeping. Her head turned to a side and she breathed heavily.

But it didn't take long for her to doubt truthfulness of visions she saw. She didn't feel pain, even tough there was situations in her dream where she should have. It was rather a chaotic dream too, making very little sense. Could it be a dream? To test that theory, she willed her eyes open, expecting to see a wall of her own bedroom or streetlights of the street she fainted at. But once her sight was enough clear for her to realize she wasn't in anywhere she has been in before, her eyes shot wide open. Silently she eyed at this new location, taking mental notes of every single detail that was in the room. Until finally, her eyes found the captain that had brought her into this mess.

Her initial reaction was a smile. A small, relieved smile of having someone she recognized here with her. But the smile faded pretty quickly as she remembered which organization he was part of. She swallowed and looked away from him, trying to hide her fear, her uncertainess, her sadness. For a moment, she pouted a little, counting her options until she carefully searched Buddingtonite's eyes again. But this time, her eyes reflected calmness, focus and maybe a little hint of curiosity.

No voice came out when her lips formed a question: Where am I?

((Sorry this took so long. *Kicks RL's a**.* And I most likely will be being very very slow for some while, until my RL calms down.... but yay, a tag.))

Her smile was contagious, as Buddingtonite's own smile deepened, even in lieu of her fearful words she muttered just moments before. The room they were in may not have been the very model of a five star hotel and he was certain that he wasn't the to die for hunk that most women dreamed waking up to, but he was certain that he was pretty damn close and her smile, brief at it may be, was proof of that. However, he wasn't here to stroke his ego and the night was still young, and when her expression changed, he held his breath for a but a moment, willing to allow Jade the time she needed to collect herself and her surroundings.

Not so eager to do so was Zinkenite, and Buddingtonite wouldn't make the General-King wait any longer. He may have known nothing about this 'surroundings' and what business the two of them seemed to have prior, but he wouldn't allow that to get in the way of business here.

He sought to take Jade's hand into his own, not only to help sit her up but to offer her some warmth, so that what he'd have to tell her would be easier for her to swallow. "As you know, I am Captain Buddingtonite of the Negaverse, and it would seem that you've already had a run in with General-King Zinkenite on a separate occasion. I'd love to hear about that some other time, but I'm going to go ahead and cut to the chase. I have a feeling you're the type that doesn't want to be toyed around with, and so I won't."

This method was so much more crass than he wanted, but with the General-King over his shoulders, as well as knowing that this young woman had such a strong spirit and would likely not fall for any sort of trickery or flattery after what she just experienced, he found himself speaking quickly, with a sense of purpose and urgency. "Destiny City is at war, whether it knows it or not, and we are the first and only line of defense in protecting this city and even the Earth from the invaders of the White Moon. I would like for you to help us, Jade."

“Funny… seems to me most of the casualties fell to the creation of the senshi wall, snuffing out so many lives we never laid a finger on. ‘Acceptable casualties’ I think they are called. I mean… they did start a war. But so long as you wear white, you look pretty… then. But yes… I’m afraid we couldn’t risk you telling them who he is out of uniform. ”

He shook his head slightly. “… I’m sorry, I won’t risk my people being subjected to torture again. So I hope you’ll join us. Because I can honestly tell you, in my time with the dark kingdom we have NEVER sunk to the level that the side of ‘Order’ did, and believe me, blood stains are all the more vivid on their pretty white uniforms when they cut throats, feed parts of my officers to –rats-, cutting them apart with glass… ROTTING them, over… and over.”

There was a terrible and passionate ring of truth in his words, but a confounding gentleness in his gesture as he offered a hand. His shoulders eased out of tension and he shook his head slightly.

“Join us…and help us make sure there will never be… another mass series of deaths, not like when they put half the city to sleep, or when they swept you all into space, to the strange places where they gain their power. Join us, and we can show you the trut, just as he says. We are outnumbered, for now. But with your help we are one step closer.”

And there it was. The confirmation to her fears. If she wouldn't choose to joining them, she would die. They couldn't take the risk of her revealing the captain's identity to the enemy. They couldn't take the risk of him ending tortured because of her. And honestly, she didn't want such scenario to happen. Not to him, not to her, not to anyone. But it didn't take away the fact her life was at stake. And that fact alone was enough to give her chills.

She looked at the hand the General-King was offering to her. Jade wasn't doubting his honesty, in fact he did sound very convincing but she was still hesitating. What she had experienced with senshi differed so much from what she had experienced with Negaverse. Could she really trust them?

Then it was Buddy's turn to talk. He spoke so gallantly how he wanted to save her from senshi, how he wanted to give her a change to control her fate. Like he would be the good one here. But Jade knew he wasn't as good as he pretended to be which made her a bit annoyed. "Buddingtonite," she said, turning to look at the captain. "Senshi has never threatened my life. And it was not senshi who killed me." Her voice was calm yet careful and a bit sad in a way. "It is you who are threatening my life tonight. And it was someone from your organization who killed me back then."

She slid down from the table, giving Zinkenite a 'one moment, please' gesture before walking right in front of the captain, her eyes keenly locked on his own. "And today I was attacked by your youma." Her eyebrows lowered a bit before she continued. "Buddy, don't act like a gallant knight when you aren't one. It is not senshi you want to protect me from.. It's your side. And you... You brought me into this."

All suddenly, the calm mask she had kept up was gone and the crimson-haired captain in front of her could see how deeply hurt she really was. "Why you had to...?" she asked, not being able to hide the pain in her voice anymore. But even tough she was hurt she refused to cry. "This is humiliating.. I'm at your mercy. I'm dependant of you....I don't want it. I don't want to be weak like this...." This was unusual to Jade, to be someone that other wanted to protect and being so dependant of said protection. She had always survived on her own. Yet now she was in the situation where she needed protection, where she was helpless.

She was helpless.

Jade let out a deep sigh and shook her head before pressing her forehead against his chest (and if he looked closely, he could see a nasty looking scar on the back of her neck, a reminder of her death two years ago). She breathed in and out, trying her best to calm herself and get her thoughts clear. Was all lost? Would she die here? What would the life in Negaverse be if she would choose them? Would she lose all her freedom? Neither option felt pleasant. She had never wanted this. She had never wanted to be part of this war. She had always wanted just a normal life, with normal problems. Apparently, that was impossible. Since the day she had appeared in the Surrounding for the first time she had been destined to become a part of the war between Chaos and Order and there was no escaping from it.

For a good while she was like this, her forehead against the captain's chest, keeping her eyes closed, her full focus on her breath. Little by little she calmed down, until she decided to push her away from Buddingtonite and turn back to face the General-King. She was no longer afraid of what would happen next.

"General-King Zinkenite. I'm ready."

When it came to playing the game, Buddingtonite thought he was well-equipped and prepared to win anyone over with his dashing good looks, his untouchable charm and sparkling wit. And he felt that he had done a good job, at least in his own mind he sounded perfect, so when Jade called him out on his attempt, he was left speechless. Part of him knew to expect this and that if it ever came rearing its ugly head, that it wasn't necessarily a fault of his own but only reflected the intelligence in the individual he was trying to lure in. In a way it garnered more respect from him and made them all the more desirable, but only to an extent. Now, though, was different. This wasn't a woman he was trying to lure to bed with him or take out on a date, but bring her into an organization that desperately needed members like her. He put forth his best effort in front of his General-King, and she exposed him, right in front of him. And that kind of shame was hard to hide, even when he once prided himself into having the perfect poker face. When one felt exposed, like this, in this setting, how could he possibly think to respond?

Because she wasn't wrong. He wanted to protect her, not just from the senshi, but those he worked with. He didn't want her to be a victim of their youma, nor their officers. He tried his best to fight down his shame and guilt, not once looking at Zinkenite in hopes of hiding the distress in his crimson eyes as she carried on. On a normal day, the feel of another pressed so close to him would have been comforting and would have likely triggered some sort of embarrassing arousal, but the tension of the situation as well as the sight of the scar on her back almost broke the captain completely, but he tried to hide it. Even with her this close, he was certain she could feel just how stiff he had become, as though afraid to move or even breathe, and a hand hovered close to her shoulder, wanting to comfort her, maybe push her away and tell her to leave, while she could, but it was too late. She pulled away on her own and turned to the General-King, and her words could only mean one thing.

She was offering her starseed to Zinkenite, and the Negaverse would gain another ally this evening. He wasn't sure if it was their combined efforts in convincing her or perhaps fearing death a second time that encouraged this decision, and in the end, should it have mattered? Buddingtonite held himself still and watched without a word, watching as Zinkenite pushed his hand into her chest and holding back the desire to wince. Tonight, the Negaverse would grow stronger, thanks to Zinkenite and himself... yet, he held little desire to rejoice, and the worst part was... he wasn't sure why..