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The simple fact that officers, wraiths, youma and the mirror senshi prowled around the Destiny University Campus made the liklihood of other learning institutions having infestations probable. Probable and inexcusable- though he wondered how much the Geneva Convention and other international warfare codices applied to interstellar, magical combat. It wasn't like they were using anti-aircraft guns on people, after all- just whatever fantasy attack came to the mind of the cosmos like flesh eating whipped cream melting their faces off or something.

It was something he would need to consider carefully. What law was in relation to their collective little 'war'.

For now, he settled on checking in at a school each night this week. For tonight? Meadowview. And as Thraen got closer, his lips curled from neutral into a snarl- Someone is here. Someone that feels wrong, holes in the Earth and in the Calm and Purity of this area.

He picked up from a leaping jog to a full sprint, closing distance between his own signature and the one of Chaos.

Thraen felt the signature start moving. It was closing too- they must have noticed him and decided equally that some sort of confrontation was up for grabs, though which was going to be in the air until they figured each other out.

Which took all of a hot second as the voice rang out clear in the dim light. It was a familiar voice. He couldn't place it straight off, but as soon as he pulled up, seeing the other senshi maybe twenty yards away, the image of the youth and the voice aligned. It was that Senshi he'd met, the corrupt one. Well, the only corrupted one he'd ever met, actually.

The one with the magical bees.

Thraen's sneer fell neutral, seeing the dark stars and remembering at least the notions that had struck him then if not Vespa's name- What lies brought you to this farce, this trade for unwholesomeness? A decision to walk in guise of malice instead of hope.

"We find each other again afterall. You still bear the dark marks of the Negaverse leash." There were no victims readily apparent, but they might have been abandoned before the other youth had come to meet him here. It might mean, at the least, they were still alive and would recover to groggily stumble off to safety. "What are you doing here? Schools are places for learning, exploration and growth. Not theft, destruction and stagnation."

"Have you hurt someone?"

"I am not mocking you." It was said with even, quiet tone as the other closed some of the distance between them. Does what works with real stinging insects work for him? If I stay slow and steady as a tree, an extended rose branch, the garden path, would he follow it a while?

There is only trying it. Once, at least, I should try. I will spare him, once.

"You are not so different from me. "

"Young. Eager and brave. Proud and fair, power in your hands and darkened light in your heart of hearts. This isn't about territory, faced with you of all the world." Thraen slowly lifted his palm and held out his hand, as though to catch a drifting milkweed, "Talk with me a while."

His initial impulse was to slap the other guy as hard as he could in hopes that the contact would induce a concussion and maybe, just maybe, the skull-brain impact would jump start function that weren’t related to just running at the mouth. There was no debate if the other person wasn’t actually listening. There was no point to raw arguments, nothing ever achieved but pain. “You say I am your enemy- why?”

Thraen kept still, leaving his hand out in extension towards Vespa, and sought the other's gaze with his own, “I can tell you why I fight you and the Negaverse. First, stealing energy and second murder. Theft, stealing, is the taking of another person's property without that person's consent with the intent to deprive the rightful owner of it- in this case energy. The negaverse sends out its agents every day to remove people of their energy without consent. That is stealing. “

“And taking someone’s starseed kills them. That is Murder.”
“So what are you fighting me for? What makes me evil, and an enemy that should be brought to justices at best, or at worst destroyed?”

“Why are you fighting me? We are both young men. We both have hope and dreams, jobs we want and love to pursue. We both have names outside of these uniforms, ages, and homes here in Destiny City.. We were both told we have these gifts, and to use them in a war we hardly understood. We both come out here, night after night. We both bleed. We are similar in every way, but one- my starseed remains white and yours is laced with dark, ‘corrupted’. “

Who is Queen Metallia? Save that for later, it isn't the point right now. He hasn't raised hand against me. We're trying. We're both trying against our better judgement. Come, words, I beg. Words that he will hear, and be the seeds planted in his heart that will stave back the dark. If not this night, then some other.

"Nega, from negat, the past participle stem of negare meaning 'to deny, say no'. Verse, presumably from Universe. So ...denial of the universe. No universe. You're trying to end everything that is and you're okay with that because someone else told you to do it? You're happy slaughtering because someone else told you to do it?" Thraen's eyes practically glowed in the dim.

"Your answer to any question is 'it's not my fault, someone told me to do it'? Do you honestly believe that you can absolve yourself of your free will somehow and that makes you not culpable for your actions? You still choose to follow their orders, to do their bidding. You choose to stand by those whose very name says they wish to deny life and choice to every person, plant animal and thing in existence. And that is fine with you?"

"And you'll do no more about it that say someone told you to do it."

"And when everyone else is destroyed or dead, where will that leave you and the Negaverse, Vespa? What reward does 'Nega' promise you that is so dear?"

"Niemöller's old poem, Vespa -
'First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.
Then they came for the socialists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for me,
and there was no one left to speak for me.'"

"Leave them Vespa. Walk beside me, who values you, your life, your wants and your choices- work to build something, with me. Wasps are as good of pollinators as other visitors to Gardens, and bring as many flowers and fruits to harvest time if they are given a chance to work with honest purpose. "

An explanation of cause is not a justification by reason, " Thraen shifted on his feet, moving weight from one heel to the other. He let his hand drop slowly to his side, "Nor does truth damage a just cause. "

"If you are fighting for an organization that threatens your very family if you resist, is that is the reason you stay, isn't that clue enough that they are not just using ill methods to a fair end, but actually are evil? Seek help, Vespa. There is help out here, powerful senshi and guardians and who knows what else that must have the power to offer you and yours protection. That can offer you peace, without threat to your friends and family that which is omnipresent in a place torn by shadow war. "

"If not from me, then someone. Someone you want to be accepted by, and you believe you can trust- before your family suffers. Before they no longer recognize you for all the enveloping dark. Before you're the one who chooses, or is ordered to cut that last tie to light and pure life."

It will have to be enough. Beating this further risks salting the earth.
"Think it over. "

"And don't steal energy from students? They need all they can get. You know how hard classes and tests are."

May it be a start, or enough. But he wasn't certain, which made him pull a wry face as he turned himself to go after Vespa's form was lost to the dim.

Will I be able to extend a branch again?

Or will I be willing?

Will you, won't you, will you, won't you...