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It had been a good reason to move quickly and move on, the sensation that came with knowing there was another negaverse agent moving into the area...

He assumed they'd felt the combination of energy, Iris's signal registering as an Eternal, his as a mere Captain... and most likely decided to help boost the odds in favor of the Negaverse, but you couldn't be entirely sure, and he wasn't sure who it was, or what they had at their disposal. For all he knew, someone had a pair of binocular's and had seen more than they should. He wasn't sure what he'd do about that. No... actually... he more or less knew what the OPTIONS were, he just wasn't sure what the appropriate one was.

He supposed it depended on who the subject was, as well as what they'd actually seen. Of course lecturing himself that there was no sense in being tense didn't actually seem to be doing anything toward making him be actually less tense.

...And in this instance, even seeing Mariposite, who he had encountered once before... didn't make him even slightly less tense. He'd joked with the other agent, made a few... snide remarks about the brass, and suddenly he was afraid Zia might be right, that it might just bite him in the a**. What if Mariposite was a plant? The family structure that people talked about in the negaverse had never been there for him, but he'd seen it at work for others... for all he knew... for all he knew it was part of a larger web he could easily have fallen into. Spinning threads of intrigue and manipulation weren't his style..

He hoped that he didn't draw up short, prayed he didn't look somehow suspicious as he walked the motorcycle, now without the cat carriers that had been strapped to it, toward the other agent, half tempted to jump on and blast away at high speed, but that, even he knew, would be obviously strange, even if Mariposite was on the level.

"....Hey." He greeted, warily, trying to gauge the tone this encounter would take. So far he didn't feel any other signatures, but then, a GK could yank them to the Rift at any time... He couldn't wait to ditch that collar.

Realgar was relatively sure that his heart actually hit the pause button for several seconds when Mariposite approached him and started asking questions, confusion written on his face. When the questions turned into an unexpected relationship questionnaire, he let out a breath he hadn't even noticed he'd started holding and laughed, an edgy laugh with as much cheer as a pile of broken glass, but a laugh never the less.

"Oh... yeah... she's a... a feisty one." He forced another chuckle, trying to come up with a plausible lie. "She's uh.... pet sitting for me while I work on some New Years plans."

'It's all about the little surprises. Chocolate, flowers, safe words..."

OK he didn't know jack about that kind of relationship, but maybe i would keep Mariposite from volunteering to 'help' in any form...

Wait... he bought it? Wait. What? Wait.

Realgar's mouth opened, shut again, opened... shut... and he blinked, raising both eyebrows to the limit of their possible motion.

Was this a trap? It had to be a trap. He had to have Zinkenite on... he wasn't sure... some kind of Rift-Crystal version of speaker phone.

"I know." He floundered. "...About the knight thing. Camelot told me. Guy has an almost surreal level of faith in people."

As possibly did Maripo. Holy crap. It had to be a trap.... it couldn't be a trap. Even Zinkenite couldn't possibly think he was this...No Zink might think he would walk into that question. It was a trap. Maybe it was a trap? Maybe Mariposite was actually encouraging him to purify, but the wrong answer could get him killed. If it was a trap... if Zinkenite or another GK was somehow listening... he'd be summoned to the Negaverse and never get out... or used as a pawn to try and catch Iris.

How far could you possibly trust another officer? Camelot had reached out to him, but Camelot wasn't on a GK's leash, to be yanked in at a whim.

"'Romeo and Juliet' didn't work out for Romeo or Juliet, by the way." He pointed out, adding, tentatively "...Sounds like a sweet gig though doesn't it? Far as I've found out... Senshi have no hold on Knights. No one's yanking their leash."

He was still debating if he should point out that he'd been lying... or....'kidding' might be a better way to phrase it... about being involved with Iris. Mariposite seemed to be genuinely enthused for him. It was... it was... weird.

He supposed he maybe shouldn't have been surprised, but honestly you could have knocked Realgar over with a feather just then. No wonder Mariposite was so enamored of the idea, cross faction romance wasn't exactly uncommon, that he could tell. Hell it seemed to be one of the Negaverse's greatest tools in getting willing corruptions out of the Senshi... but he hadn't heard of someone wanting to go the other way since... well.

Since Zinkenite had gone through a lot of trouble to get his pet back.

"Of course it was TinMan." He chuckled, weakly, relief crashing over him like a wave. Mariposite seemed like just TinMan's sort.

The Templewhatsit thing was totally new though, and he wondered what had gone down since he'd last seen the man.

"No, I haven't seen him for a while. Last time we talked he was helping me get in contact with Senshi noble. To purify." If he was going to die tonight, Camelot would probably be proud of him for trying to offer trust to someone else. Zia on the other hand would probably kick whatever was left of his corpse and inform the body that he'd been a moron. This was assuming they didn't turn him into a Youma for punishment. He didn't know if you could purify that, and he dreaded the notion of wearing someone's collar forever. He'd sooner rip out his own damn starseed than live that way.

"It IS a Taboo subject." Realgar pointed out, emphatically. "Hell, man... you think they'd waste half a second more than they had to to kill anyone they thought might consider it? Or maybe just turn them into a Youma and keep them on a real damn leash as an example?" His voice raised just a hint, thrumming with emotion like an aggressively strummed guitar.

He ran his fingers through his hair, holding the motorcycle steady with the other as he floundered for words.

"Strength has nothing to do with it." Neither did virtue. He was not, on any level he could figure, the 'good man' Mariposite seemed to see in him, or that Camelot did. He didn't look to purify for noble reasons, or love...

"Neither does... love or any other noble purpose... Zinkenite doesn't give a flying ******** about me. None of the brass does, no one in the goddamn Negaverse does. They think I'm just an angry, stupid disposable weapon. Maybe I am, but goddamn it, I'm not their disposable weapon. I'm not letting some.... some s**t faced KID hopped up on a power trip throw me into the massacre so he can pretend to be a mighty leader, and mutter some... blithery s**t proverb about sacrificing pawns over my corpse. I'm not a good goddamn person, but by god, I'm gonna be a free person. If this war goddamn kills me, it will sure as ******** not be with someone's collar around my neck."

"I'm uh... not..really dating her." He admitted, realizing he was actually turning quietly red from embarrassment at his own outburst, a ridiculous, uncalled for power cord of emotional outpouring. "That's Iris." He wasn't sure if Mariposite knew what that entailed, but he was pretty sure the cheerful fellow agent, and apparently fellow future knight, would be able to figure it out.

He moved to get astride the motorcycle he'd been holding up, flashing a sinsere grin, rare outside the company of Camelot and Zia as he added.

"It's gonna feel great, Man. It's going to feel just like flying."

It didn't necessarily matter that Mariposite wouldn't understand the deeper cord that phrase struck with Realgar. They'd have plenty of time later to talk about it.

[Fin]