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With Saffy still at his Uncle and Aunt's house, slipping out at nights to patrol as his alter-ego Athene had stopped being an issue for Arian.

In fact without his cousin around Arian had found himself funnelling more time into patrolling as his senshi counterpart simply because he found himself loathe to linger around an apartment that seemed both far too quiet and far too empty. The battle with the Shade Fairy Queen and her minion Shades had cut down the patrolling somewhat as Athene had ended up taking a battering from some of the attacks launched his way and was trying to take things somewhat easier.

Although November was technically not considered winter, Athene's senshi outfit was better suited to the warmer months of Summer and it had become a regular habit for him to pick up a hot drink prior to finding somewhere to power up and tonight was no exception, with a large hot chocolate his drink of choice for the night.

The moon shone full and clear as he walked, sipping the hot chocolate from time to time as he tried to keep alert for any auras, youma or otherwise. It had been fairly quiet so far however and as Athene started walking in the direction of the park, the only relatively nearby aura was that of what felt like a Super senshi

He'd paused to scan his phone for messages when he noticed the pearl charm, full and shining like the moon up in the sky and a thoughtful look had flitted across Athene's face as he looked first at the Moon and then at the charm.

It had been bright the same way when he had visited the Moon with Polaris that while back and it seemed a pretty quiet night.

Besides a trip to the Moon would probably count as taking things somewhat easier.

His internal debate on whether to try visiting the Moon or just continue on with his admittedly quiet patrol was interrupted when he realised that the Super-strength was heading in his general direction.

Athene stayed in position, although he turned in the direction that he thought that the approaching aura was coming from, curiousity replacing the thoughtful expression that had been on his face, although he kept his phone to hand.

He knew that if he had picked up on the Super senshi's aura, then the other had certainly picked up on his aura, given that the aura of an eternal was strong.

Mayhaps it was a coincidence the other was heading his way, or mayhaps it was deliberate - the other was looking for a hand with something, or even some company for a quiet night. Either way Athene reckonned that he'd be finding out soonish.

He tensed as he realised that the steps were heading towards him at a run, a frown flickering across his face. Is there trouble? It was kind of was puzzling that he couldn't sense anything, but it didn't mean that there wasn't some sort of trouble - this was Destiny City after all - it was kind of synonymous with trouble, especially at night.

And then his voice was being called and Athene realised that he'd been a little off in his assumption of the direction of where the aura was coming from, turning so that he was properly facing the other senshi, a slight smile on his face as he recognised the taller senshi.

"Evening Thraen," his voice was as quiet as ever, mayhaps a tad tired, although his slight smile was friendly. "It's nice to see you again. Congratulations on your upgrade" for the moment the phone with its gleaming pearl charm sat forgotten in his hand, his eyes still slightly worried as he added "Is everything okay out?"

After all it wasn't that long ago that the Shades and their crazy Queen had tried to take over - although neither she nor her Shades had been seen since the battle that had had Senshi, Knights and members of the Negaverse team together to get rid of her and them. The same battle incidentally that was the reason behind why Athene was supposedly trying to take things easier.

"I think it's different for each senshi" Athene said quietly, his slight smile widening a little as Thraen mentioned *********. "********* is actually the guardian cat that brought me into all this," he admitted, a fond note in his voice as he spoke of the silvery furred mauvian. "She powered me up to Super and Eternal too." His smile faded as he admitted simply "I owe her a lot" his life in fact given that she had helped save it on the night that Painite had tried to kill him.

"It has been a while" he agreed quietly as he reached out to shake the other's offered hand, adding in answer to Thraen's question about his health "And I'm doing okay," before admitting. "Well doing better at least - I don't know if you know about the Shades running about for a while, but I ended getting pulled into some fights." None of them had been particularly easy, but the one against the Shade's Queen had been the one to take the biggest toll.

His intention had been to shake Thraen's outstretched hand, but as he made to do so Athene realised that he was still holding his senshi phone in it. For a moment there was a slight awkwardness as he tried to shuffle the phone into the hand holding the hot drink cup, but eventually he managed to free up a hand to shake Thraen's offered one by tucking the phone into his sash.

He shook his slightly at Thraen's mention of the message that he'd sent him "Honestly no thanks is needed, I don't mind being messaged - I just wish I'd had more information to give you and I haven't been able to find out what happens to the phones of senshi that corrupt yet." It had slipped his mind during the battle against the monochrome Princess Shade and he hadn't seen another cat since.

Although talking of phones... Athene found his eyes drifting back to the glowing pearl charm on his phone, for a moment a thoughtful look in his eyes as he absently fingered the charm, before he looked up at Thraen as he added "But I was thinking about taking a trip to the Moon since it seems pretty quiet." He hesitated before offering "I don't mind taking you too if want" before adding "That is if you wouldn't mind taking a small trip." After all for all he knew Thraen might have other things that he might want to do with his evening.

"I fought mine, but I had help" Athene admitted quietly. "And I helped Princess Iris with hers because ********* asked me to." He hesitated for a moment before adding "There was a big one by the park with the lake, I think she was their source" he hesitated again before admitting "But she was tough - it took all of us to beat her - not just Senshi and Knights, but the Negaverse and Dark Mirror too."

At Thraen's question about *********, Athene shook his head "No, ********* not my cat" he admitted with a slight smile. "And our paths don't even really cross that often - but she's somehow been there when I've needed the help."

He nodded at Thraen's second question, drinking some more of his hot chocolate before saying simply "I do."

The cup of hot chocolate was almost empty at that point, so he tossed it in a nearby trash can, shaking his head at Thraen's 'it's stupid' comment and apology, adding "Honestly no apology's needed - if you don't know you don't know" he hesitated, then continued "And it might not be in the primer because of what happened, although I can tell you what I know if you really want" he bit his lip and then said "I was there that first time" and then thought about it for a moment before adding "At least I think it was the first time." after all no one had ever mentioned travel to the Moon prior - at least none that he knew of.

Retrieving his phone from where he'd tucked it in his sash, Athene showed the taller senshi his phone - well more specifically the pearl phone charm as he shifted the subject somewhat. "Travel to the Moon seems actually linked to this" he said as he held up the brightly glowing charm for the other to see. "Although it doesn't always work." He added quickly "I think it will tonight though - since it did the last time that the pearl glowed like this." He hesitated and then offered the hand not holding the phone to Thraen, feeling a little silly as he added "You'll need to hold on to me though if it's to work."

For some reason it seemed to be the only way to take someone along.

Athene looked thoughtful at Thraen's question, looking first at the glowing pearl and then up at the sky "You know I think the last time it glowed like this was when the moon was full" he said at last. He glanced back at the pearl as he added "It was definitely a full moon the last time I went, although.." he hesitated for a moment before adding. "I don't know if it was a full moon the first time though" admitting "I was kind of in shock the first time round." And it hadn't all been down to it being his first time in space, although that had certainly played a part.

He shook his head at the question of whether moon travel costed energy "I don't think so," he thought it over before adding "I didn't feel tired the way I did when I visited my asteroid - it's weird and I know I'm probably not making much sense but it felt..." There was a slight bit of hesitation as he tried to find the right words before finally settling on saying "It felt different."

He'd felt a bit awkward sticking his hand out but Thraen's comment as the other took his hand was enough to startle a small but genuine laugh out of him, amusement flickering in his eyes as he commented "Well I think I tend towards pale rather than fair" before adding "And here goes" as he tried to concentrate on the shining pearl.

It took a moment or two, but the shift when it came was sudden - with one minute the two of them on the streets of Destiny City and the next their surroundings turning to the ruins of a large but ancient courtyard, the remains of ancient walls as Athene remembered - some standing and others shattered and crumbling. The vines and vegetation were the only real signs of life in the silent place, outgrowing their place from what may have once been gardens as they crept and clambered over parts of walls that crossed their path.

A castle could be seen further along on the horizon, with parts of it noticeably in ruins although the parts still standing stretched upwards towards the sky.

The whole place was silent, somewhat eerily so - with the night time sounds that had been present in Destiny City almost glaringly absent.

Athene shook his head "I don't think we have a Research and Development squad," a Research and Development squad sounded well rather organised - a bit too organised for the order side to be honest - at least going by his experience to date.

"Although mayhaps one of the teams out there do" he said after thinking it over a bit more. "Although the two I'm in certainly don't. I guess there's nothing to stop us testing out the theory that this thing working is linked to the full moon," he stopped, hesitated a little. "I'm sorry, that was presumptuous of me" his voice was slightly apologetic as he hastily amended it to "I don't mind coming out on other full moons and trying to see if that's the link between the pearl working."

His hunch about the magic working at least for tonight had been right, his eyes solemn as he looked around the ruined courtyard that had replaced their previous surroundings, for a moment his mind caught up in memories of the first time he'd come here before he shook his head slightly, his own voice quiet as he answered Thraen's question "I've been to as far as the castle over there" raising a hand he indicated it. "There seems to be a fair deal of it that seems to be still intact, but I've not really explored much" admitting. "This is only my third trip here."

"I think it depends on the team" Athene admitted. "For my part I'm part of both the Shepherds, well Celestial Shepherds to give it its full name and the PSSG." Thraen may have recalled him mentioning the first when they had first met half a year back, although he had made no mention of the second - hardly surprising as the PSSG hadn't actually existed at time.

The second part of Thraen's question Athene had had to take a moment or two to think on. But eventually he said at last "I've heard of five mentioned, six if you count in the PSSG." There may have been more mentioned at the large senshi and knight meeting that Polaris had tried to organise, but it had been hard to get much information much less useful information due to the small, but noisy element that seemed to have turned up just to be disruptive.

He found himself shaking his head at Thraen's next set of questions before sighing as he admitted "I have so little answers to your questions, but you're right I should probably start at the beginning." For a moment there was a distant look in his eyes as he glanced around at the vegetation before he shook his head with a sigh.

"About a year and half ago, Princess Polaris had the idea of holding a meeting - a large meeting of senshi and knights" his quiet voice was solemn. "The idea I think was to try and share information on what was known, to find out information on the Knights from the source" he sighed again, the sound soft against the silence before admitting "But it didn't go well" actually that was kind of putting it mildly since it felt like the disruptive elements had pretty much hijacked the meeting before it had really started.

"The one thing that most people did manage to agree on however was that some of us should try approaching the Dark Mirror as well as some of the less extreme members of the Negaverse and it was at that point that they attacked us - the Dark Mirror and the Negaverse both." The distant look was back in his eyes as he continued to speak, voice toneless as he added "A lot of the people at the meeting died that night, although some they took alive - the rest of us though they left for the police." Athene had never forgotten the sounds of the sirens ringing or the splintering sounds of wood as the forces of law and order got ever closer to the position that had managed to survive the attack. "This silvery light suddenly appeared though and when it faded we were here - all of us - well at least those of us still alive and so was the ghost of the Moon Queen."

He sighed "I know it sounds pretty fantastical, but the Moon Queen's ghost was here - just over there" he indicated the part of the courtyard where he'd first seen her. "She saved us from the police, walked towards the castle and spoke to us a bit, then the silvery light took us back to earth and the phone charm's been on my phone ever since. It's the same for some of the other senshi that I know was there that night - mayhaps even for all of them." He bit his lip for a moment before hesitantly adding "And I don't know how you'd get a charm or if they're even obtainable, but I'd try asking one of the cats - mayhaps ********* - she was there that first night."

"I guess you're right about us living fantasy" Athene said quietly. "After all none of this is exactly normal." He'd been doing this for two years, no more than he realised with a pang - sometimes it was hard to believe that his life had been relatively normal before ********* had given a henshin pen back when their paths had crossed for the first time during summer camp.

He listened quietly as Thraen continued to speak, hearing the taller senshi out before he spoke again "I know that I can't speak for anyone other than myself, but I think you're giving some of us too much credit" his quiet voice was solemn as he added. "And I include myself in that number" he bit his lip before hesitantly continuing. "Status is something that has to be earned at least by my book and if having one of these charms is down to some sort of status then I don't know what I did to earn it because all I did was survive that night." And surviving was hardly a reason to have a charm bestowed - at least not to his way of thinking.

He sighed and shook his head slightly before looking towards the castle and at the way how the parts that still stood stretched upwards and towards the sky. "Did you want to check out the castle? Whilst we're here?" It was a change of subject and Athene knew it, but he found himself not wanting to think back on the ambush any longer, not liking the memories that it was dredging up.