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It had been a little alarming to Kyanite when she was assigned to a capture mission with a Negaverse General. Usually, the battle-weak lieutenant was assigned to medical detail assisting others on patrol, or maybe assigned to a certain quiet block for patrols and information gathering. She very rarely got missions of a sensitive nature because she had proven time and again that she lacked the killer edge necessary for it. The only time she typically interacted with generals was when she was taking orders or attending large group training exercises. It felt incredibly strange to be one-on-one with one. The last that had happened it had been when she first joined the Negaverse and needed assistance in the field to keep from dying.

After everything with Bischofite and his lies, Kyanite was feeling more disenfranchised than ever. She had trusted him. She trusted all officers. But now? How could she trust anyone? She was willing to risk herself for the good of the cause, but now it seemed that people had their own agendas.

The only thing that made her feel remotely at ease was knowing the General Avalon had been the voice on the crystal that echoed what was in her own mind -- and that she had been the one who twisted the knife in Bischofite's treacherous heart.

Maybe she was different.

The pair were walking down a nearly empty street. Kyanite struggled to keep up, but tried to hide the extra effort. "Right," she said, fighting the urge to ask questions. She already knew she was weak; she didn't want to remind Avalon of it. "Do we have a photo of her?" Kyanite hadn't gotten a file on this. She had been pinged on her crystal and pulled to Negaspace without warning. So far, all she knew was that she was assisting Avalon in the capture of a senshi sympathizer.

What they did with the girl after capture was not something Kyanite cared to think about.

Oh. Kyanite sort of wanted to know what the target looked like too, but she trusted Avalon would lead them in the right direction. Besides, the lieutenant was just here to support the general, nothing more. She stayed close beside her, eying the bar and sighing happily when they turned down an alley instead. Kyanite hated being in large crowds as an agent; bad things could happen.

The ground was slick from an earlier rain. Her foot nearly splashed in a puddle, but she reacted at the last second, side-stepping it as she spotted the 'passionate embrace' just at the other end of the alley. While Avalon was offended, Kyanite was envious. How romantic~ The civilian beneath Kyanite had basically the worst taste in men and believed things like he is only mean because his past was so flawed and I can fix him.

Her mind snapped out of the reverie when Avalon gave orders. Nodding sharply, Kyanite summoned her weapon, wrapping the electrical cord around her knuckles. Avalon made her move, but Kyanite stayed planted. There was only one way out of the alley, and she was currently standing there. When the girl ran, Kyanite darted in her path. The civilian swung, but the lieutenant caught her hand and wrapped it with her cord. Then she wrenched the girl's other arm back and fastened it together, making a makeshift set of handcuffs.

Delivering a punch to her gut, Kyanite let her fall to the ground, catching her before her skull could hit the pavement. She held on to the electric cord and pulled, dragging the kicking civilian over toward Avalon. The girl began screaming, and Kyanite stopped abruptly. She punched the girl in the mouth. "She said no screaming. Didn't you listen?" Fighting a senshi was difficult, but civilians were relatively easy, especially when they were surprised and unarmed.

But hey! Look, they had the girl -- no muss, no fuss. Kyanite even looked a little proud of herself.

The plastic cord pinched in her hand as Kyanite held the civilian in place, waiting for more orders. She got a disturbing sight instead. Without flinching, General Avalon chose to end the life of the civilian in front of her. Shock pulsed across her features, uncontrolled. Why had she done that? Why kill this civilian for... no reason? They could have just drained his energy and let him keep living. It was such a senseless thing to do.

In her stunned sadness, Kyanite almost missed the next words that the General spoke. We made her a promise. A... what? No. No, this girl didn't need to die. "She is subdued, General," Lt. Kyanite said carefully. "The mission tasked us with a capture for questioning. With all due respect." Purple eyes fell to the civilian, warning her as best she could through the power of eye talk.

An order. Kill. For… no reason?


Even if she had been the kind of agent who could kill easily, the order would have bothered her. But she had been around long enough to know that it wasn’t her place to question orders. Perhaps it was the recent confusion of Operation: Das Gift, but the normally agreeable agent found it in her to dissent. Her conviction also was made easier by her strong belief she was incapable of doing what Avalon was asking, what General-King Zinkenite had told her she must do.

Lt. Kyanite opened her mouth and then closed it again. The girl caught in her electrical cord was struggling, tears streaming, but the powered up Negaverse agent was stronger. She twisted the cord, cutting off air to the victim. “She won’t scream again, I promise,” Kyanite said, averting eye contact with the General. The girl kicked feebly, the cut off of oxygen causing her eyes to roll up into her head. After a moment, the civilian fell unconscious, but remained very much alive.

Straightening up, Kyanite eased the girl back to the ground, but said nothing. There would be punishment, yes. She was not an idiot. But at that moment, the lieutenant did not see another option.

The scream curdled Kyanite's blood, but not as much as the sudden appearance of two hulking bouncers. Her brute strength was greater than a human's, even an extremely ripped human, but two on one wasn't necessarily easy. She could see herself in their eyes -- in a uniform of a terrorist, hiding in the dark with a cord in hand, standing over the body of a maybe-dead girl. One swore under his breath as they both began to run toward her, boots clunking against the concrete. A part of her knew she should run, but she was terrified of what would be waiting for her in Negaspace if she did teleport away. These guys could bruise her up, maybe kill her, but Avalon definitely could.

Kyanite chose the lesser of two evils.

The men were within striking distance, but she tried to reason with them first. "Sir, sirs -- this girl needs help! She's been attacked by--" The redheaded bouncer grabbed her by her ponytail and threw her to the ground, silencing her words.

The other, a blond, started to check on the unconscious girl. "Girl's alive," he said. "Tarsyn, cuff her and we'll call the cops." The blond cradled the unconscious girl in his arms and began trying to wake her.

Tarsyn, the name of the redhead apparently, reached for Kyanite's wrist. She snatched his first and, out of fear, snapped it. "********," he screamed, crumpling to his knees. Kyanite jumped to her feet and kicked him squarely in the face.

"Don't get up and I won't hurt you!" she shouted.

A punch slammed into the back of her head, blinding her with white spots in the eyes. Kyanite pitched forward, her weapon went flying. The blond was on her again, bashing her head against the ground. She struggled with him, trying to avoid killing him at all possible. She'd succeeded in knocking Tarsyn unconscious with just a broken wrist, maybe it could work twice. Wrapping her legs around his stomach, Kyanite flipped him over, straddling him. She punched him once, twice, three times until blood spurted from his mouth and made her stomach pinch. This side of the Negaverse was still not something she struggled with. The blond nailed another shot at her ribs, but one more strike from her and he was out cold too.

No one died, no one called the cops -- it was going to be okay.

Then Kyanite heard the click of a safety being flipped off. The first bullet rang out, and the lieutenant barely dodged it. It clipped her left arm, leaving a sear of pain behind it. She spun in time to watch the once-unconscious girl fire the second bullet. "STOP," Kyanite ordered. But the girl didn't. She shot again, hit her side this time. When had she gotten a gun? Kyanite spotted a purse at her side, contents spilled. DC was a dangerous place; this girl apparently planned to have protection.

With a running leap, Kyanite soared through the air, landing on top of the girl. "Get away from me!" the girl screamed, struggling against the Negaverse agent. She managed to get the barrel of the gun between them, pressed against Kyanite. The lieutenant could feel the hot steel against her chest -- a shot she couldn't dodge. Panic lashed through her, her own lift flickering before her eyes. Kyanite's hand flashed out, punched forward. She felt it come into contact with heat, but kept pressing, kept forcing her hand to attack, attack, attack.

The barrel of the gun slipped from Kyanite's chest suddenly, slackened. For a moment, the Negaverse agent thought perhaps she had shot, and this was just the absence of feeling that death brought on. But then she looked at the girl's face, ashen and terrified. "Oh," the girl breathed, eyes wide with shock. Slowly, they rolled back into her head and Kyanite realized what she had done.

Her arm had passed through the girl, like a needle through cloth -- and on the other side, her hand clutched a still warm star seed. Kyanite recoiled immediately, drawing back her hand. The girl fell back to the pavement. Dead. Utterly dead. A shaky hand reached up to cover Kyanite's mouth and stifle the shock, but the other still held the pulsating source of energy, the starseed of her first and only kill ever in her life.

Lt. Kyanite had followed General Avalon's orders after all.

The rush of a massive, overpowering aura was the only thing that pulled Kyanite out of her shock. Normally, the presence of the General-King would snap the lieutenant to attention, force her to follow every protocol, but she was too numb. She didn't even turn to face him. It wasn't just the death anymore, the murder at her hands. It was this... thing. In her hand. With each pulse of energy, she felt an echoing pulse in her chest. It called to her, and her starseed called right back.

Before Zinkenite gave the order to consume the starseed, Kyanite became aware that she... wanted it. Chaos flared to life in her veins, the same force she swallowed down every day, and for the first time, the girl actually recognized it. Every day, Kyanite swore she was different than the other Negaverse agents, less violent, less cruel. But in this moment she felt exactly the same as them. She had murdered someone only moments ago yet the thought had already slipped. In its place was a desire to consume, to embody, to be powerful.

Closing her eyes, Kyanite placed the starseed gently on her tongue. She let it rest there, drinking in the flow of energy. Then she consumed it. The first crackle of energy was a head rush. Then it was like being hit by a wave. The sensation was so strong that Kyanite staggered forward, hands on her knees. She rode the feeling until it ease into a glowing power, like she could take on the world, like she could conquer anything. And something darker: she wanted to conquer.

Her starseed pulsed darkly, a shooting pain in her chest. A pain that hurt so sharply that it felt good to her muddled mind. It fed the darkness growing in her, changing her into something else.



When she finally straightened back up and met Zinkenite's eye, Captain Kyanite felt more different than she had before. "Thank you, sir," she said at last, clenching her fists to release some of the tension. "I will always do my best to serve the Negaverse and honor Marthozite's memory." With that, she teleported away with Zinkenite into the dark embrace of Chaos, leaving the corpse of the girl whose name she didn't even know behind and not thinking about it again until the next day.

And then, only then, did Kyanite come down from her high to face what she had done.