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Some nights were worse than others to be out on the street. Pasiphae knew this from experience...and yet she came out anyway. Her patrols had dropped off for some time after the encounter with Bischofite... but like all wounds, this one too scabbed over. It would never go away, like the many other emotional and physical scars that she had earned over her tenure as a Senshi. It had to be this way. Someone had to protect those who could not protect themselves and... if she had failed some, she had to keep herself going due to the ones she had saved.

So, she ran towards the feel of a youma... and a Chaos agent not far behind. The exterior of the youma shimmered in the light of the street-lamps. For an instant she wondered if it had been formed of diamonds... but only for an instant. As soon as she drew near she wanted to shiver. This youma radiated cold. Its screams were horrendous, but really tore at the Eternal Senshi's heart were the human cries for a missing 'Lucca.' All the more reason to dust this monster quickly.

She leapt to punch at its stomach region, hoping to crack through the crusty exterior and get to its more vulnerable insides.

Pasiphae's head whipped up at the sound of the Negaverse agent yelling at her. Her answer was initally a pained hiss as one of her feet was coated with the watery insides that froze around the bottom of her boot. She struggled with it momentarily but the razor, crystalline limbs were a great motivator. She kicked her leg free and rolled away as quickly as she could.

Her aim was slightly off and sent her rolling into the side of a building. The girl oophed slightly but was, otherwise, undamaged. She pushed herself to her feet and only then could she answer the Captain. She remembered him as one of the four that had been involved with the large energy draining... that she had been unable to stop. The normally soft girl hardened, and she could not help but wonder if this 'Lucca' was a victim who had barely been able to escape his grasp.

"If I see her, or anyone else, I will keep them far from you," she spat. Normally, she would concentrate more on the Negaverse agent... but this youma seemed particularly nasty. It had already destroyed a nearby business by the looks of things... if this had taken place in the day instead of at night, many more could have been hurt! So she threw herself at the beast once more, aiming a kick for its previous wound.

Pasiphae had never heard a youma's scream that sounded as human as this one did. The fact that the boomerang-wielding Captain had abandoned a pefectly good shot was another suspicious matter. Observant eyes went from the destroyed shop, glinting with frost, to the beast before her. There seemed to be a clear path between the two... and the implications made her stomach drop.

Youma were monsters. They were not humans. She knew this to be true. ... but there had been that one, that one at Bischofite's public hanging. The one that had hidden as human until Sessrumnir flushed it out. Could... could this youma be... "Lucca?" It was almost a whisper, but it hung in the still night like a prayer. A prayer that the sick feeling would go away. That she would be wrong.

Frozen sickles surrounded her form, but Pasiphae was not afraid. No matter what the Negaverse Captain ordered, if youma was going to hurt her it would have done so by now. Icy water dripped down her hair and face, but she no longer shivered. The puffs of breath carried with them the final damnation of this situation. There was nothing more she could do for Lucca, whoever she was, or had been, now, then to give her what she wanted.

The only warmth came from the tears that welled in her eyes. She refused to let them fall. In a way, it was ironic. The Senshi would be following a Negaverse Captain's orders. Kill her, he had said. Yes, she would kill Lucca. Yes... because that was clearly what the creature wanted. She looked directly into the orbs that were almost the same color as her own eyes and said softly, "I'm sorry."

Her fist struck beneath the icy surface. She reeled back her arm the way she had in so many other battles, the way that Chaonis would have wanted her to, the way she had against countless other youma. And she punched again. And again. And again...until the youma crumbled and fine black dust mingled with her own dark hair, coated her hands, her arms, her face.

Then she croached in the ashes and finally began to cry.

Pasiphae mourned in the ashes of the youma she had slain, mourned for the Lucca she had never known. It seemed like there were so many to mourn with each passing day. Too many. How could she have time to adequately grieve and still continue to perform the duties that became hers the day she first henshined?

The tight grip on her hair jerked her vision up, but there was little of her usual kindness in her face "I haven't done anything to you yet," she hissed, pulling her head free from his grip. She could have summoned her shield at this point. The feelings of shame it would bring would be punishment, as it always was, and it would keep her safe. She could havre done that, and in most battle situations, she would have done that. But the memory of that whisper was too fresh, too tender to hide; instead she shoved him back. "But you want to know why you feel?"

The Eternal rose to her feet, her black-coated hands in fists at her side. Cold water dripped from her hair, dripping like black ink due to the youma dust with which it mixed. "Lucca is dead... because of you. I don't know what you did to her, to cause her to change... but she is dead now. Dead... and it's all your fault."

Pasiphae heard the sirens, but she did not flee. During the Ambush, the incoming police had been a relief to the end of a painful moment. Now? Now they sought to spare someone who did not deserve it. She had to make him understand. Understand what he had done, had forced her to do... why he would never find Lucca again.

She did not strike him, but she did grab hold of his shoulder and squeezed. The pressur was only meant to keep him from running away before she had a chance to have her say. The discrete girl had never been as blunt as she was now. "That youma was Lucca. You made her that way, into a monster. I set her free... the only way I knew how. You will have to deal with that for the rest of your life, Captain."

Now the Senshi of Shame's voice dropped. Saying her accusations aloud took the wind out of their sails and made her realize just how harsh the reality would be for him, if he had any heart. She wanted to stay angry, resentful, to lash out and cause pain... but she couldn't. It was not her nature; it never had been. Her softness lent her more to mercy. The touch to his shoulder became less harsh and eventually left as she whispered, "I truly hope... you will learn from this night. Otherwise... Lucca died for nothing."

With that, the Eternal leapt onto the top of one of the undamaged buildings and began to retreat before the authorities could get a hold of her.