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Arian hadn't technically been planning to patrol as his powered counterpart Athene, but bad dreams had driven him from his bed and once it had become clear that a return to sleep wasn't going to be forthcoming it had been almost second nature to grab the satchel that he'd taken to carrying with him whilst out on patrol and slipping out of the apartment.

The satchel was a replacement, the original lost at some point during the night of the power outage that had blanketed the City and had turned out to be some kind of Negaverse operation, it was a night that had stuck in his mind - not least because Atë, who had once been a senshi of the white moon and one of two senshi at the very first training session he had gone to - had made a concentrated effort to kill him and had come even closer than Painite to succeeding, catching him off guard as he got caught up in trying to find the owner of the starseed that Liryn had discovered.

Liryn... Athene wasn't sure what to make of the purple-eyed guardian cat that he had met on the very last floor of the warehouse during that final confrontation with the Negaverse that night which had been set against a smoke and flame backdrop...

His senshi phone pinged, distracting him from his thoughts and Athene summoned it expecting the incoming message to be one from either Ida or Tsui.

It turned out to be neither, more to the point the name of the sender wasn't actually one that Athene expected - not given the way that their last encounter had gone back in last November, but curiosity had him opening up the message and reading it.

Afterwards he stared at his phone for a few moments. Thraen wants to speak to me? Face to face? To be honest, Athene would have thought that he was the last person that the Gardens senshi would want to talk to - after all their manner of parting hadn't really been conducive for future conversation and the two of them had managed to not talk to each other for about half a year.

Curiosity however eventually had him tapping back a quick message of his own.



He hit send and took a sip from the large black coffee that he'd picked up from a late opening coffee prior to powering up, it wasn't his usual choice of hot drink - he tended to prefer the syrup latte or cappuccino variety when it came to coffee, but he was tired from sleeping poorly and the black coffee would give a better caffeine hit - and he'd also doctored the coffee to within an inch of its life with sugar.

A response back from Thraen had not been long in coming and after scanning through the other senshi's message, Athene had made the short trip to the gardens and settled to wait. The gardens were quiet, unsurprising given the lateness of the hour and Athene had found himself contemplating the summer blooms as he waited.

He'd gotten about a quarter of the way through the contents of the coffee shop when he picked up on the approaching aura, although for a few moments Athene wondered if it belonged to someone else out and about as the aura was that of an Eternal.

Then the owner of the aura stepped into sight and Athene realised that the unknown Eternal and Thraen were one and the same.

It seems a lot has happened in six months. And it seemed that Thraen's path to eternal had been a long one if the scar on the taller senshi's face was any indicator. Athene wasn't sure he had any real right to ask about it though so after a brief, but solemn glance at it he nodded.

"It has," there was a neutral note to his quiet voice, but after a moment he hesitated and admitted "Although that was as much design as it was circumstance on my part." After all although it was true that their paths had never really seemed to cross that much, it was also true that Athene hadn't particularly tried to look up the taller senshi in the weeks and then months that had followed after their falling out. A part of him wondered why the other had chosen to break the pattern, although he hadn't had to wait long as Thraen didn't waste any time before explaining the reason behind his request that they meet.

He listened as Thraen outlined his ideas, remembering their discussions as they'd explored the library of books that they'd come across during their joint visit of the Moon and although he listened in silence, wanting to hear the other senshi out before he spoke, Athene couldn't help but nod in agreement during points of the conversation.

"I'm interested" he said once Thraen had finished speaking. "And I'd like to help if you'll have me." He hesitated for a moment before adding "My team and I try to do what we can to help out the new senshi and knights, to give them information about what they've found themselves in, so that they get more than a henshin pen and phone and instructions to fight chaos or even less" he sighed. "But we're only four and there so many senshi and knights out there, even with Ida's locator to help us - what you're trying to set up sounds a lot more organised."

Having the meeting on the Moon made sense and Athene nodded at Thraen's request even as he made a note of the date "I'm happy to help ferry" he said quietly, "Just let let me know what time you need me for. I'll speak to those I know too" he continued, adding. "I know a few Knights and I'll mention this to them as well." Camelot was the one he knew best and he made a mental note to maybe try the older Knight first.

"I was actually planning to speak to the PSSG about this anyway" he admitted at the taller senshi query about his team. "Particularly since Ida, one of my team mates has a locator that seems to be able to specifically pick up on the auras of new senshi and knights which might prove useful in something like this and whilst I can't promise that she will get involved, I don't think she'll say no." Ida was really nice and having worked with the Orchid senshi for a bit Athene knew she was as devoted to helping out new Order members as the rest of the PSSG.

He hesitated for a moment before adding "And if you need any more guardian cats," before correcting himself hastily "I mean mauvians, then I think I know of one who would be willing to help. He calls himself Liryn." And despite Athene's confusion over the guardian cat that seemed to have decided to plunk himself in his life, it had the side effect of meaning that the little tabby bobtail was pretty easy to find.

A thought occurred to him "By the way do you want me to bring anything with me, like a thermos flask or some biscuits or something on the 12th or is it ourselves only?"

A 3am meeting on the moon meant for a long day following, but Athene could get Thraen's logic and it wasn't as he hadn't been having long days propped up by lot of cups of coffee, in fact it was most likely far too many cups of coffee, but then again even if bad dreams hadn't been plaguing his sleep of late it wouldn't be the first such long day that he'd have to get through when back as Arian and no doubt nor would it be the last - long days seemed to come as part of the territory.

He looked thoughtful as Thraen pointed out that there was no idea to work out numbers of who would come on the 12th, but eventually he nodded "I guess so mayhaps I should leave the coffee until the Black Watch is up and running" his voice was rueful "I can't carry much in my satchel and it might look a little strange if I'm out and about with a hamper." Besides there was no real guarantee that he could take a hamper to and from the moon and even though it seemed at least possible since he could take people, July 12th was probably not the best time to try testing it out.

"By the way I'll message you once I've managed to speak to Ida and Liryn if that's okay with you," he said "Let you know what they say." And whilst he was asking around his contacts to see if any was interested in the idea of what Thraen had called a Black Watch, he'd try and message Pasiphae too - after all the Shame senshi and he had agreed to help each other out and share information and the Black Watch sounded like something that the other eternal might be interested in lending a hand to.

"I guess" Athene said, the words a rueful acknowledgement of Thraen's comment. "Although 3am's prob'ly a little too late to pass off carrying a hamper for a picnic." Or is it too early. Whichever it was, the end result was still the same and something he was hesitant to chance.

He nodded at the mention of the mass messaging "I think it should be possible" he said. "After all ********* managed to get a message out to us all during that stuff with those clones last year." Or at least Athene assumed she had, given the fact that that was how he'd heard about it. "And the cats are really smart" well at least the ones that he'd met had always come across as pretty smart.

"And there's no need to thank me, I..." he hesitated before continuing "Besides I should be the one thanking you for coming up with this and letting me be involved."

Athene bit back a yawn, suddenly remembering the coffee that had remained forgotten in his hand as they taked and took a sip of the remaining and now lukewarm contents before quietly adding. "I'll keep an eye out for any messages." Turning to leave he took a few steps before half-turning his quiet voice serious as he said "I don't know how the others will take this" and by the others he was referring to those who stood for Order as a whole "But I'll help you however I can."

For a moment he stood hesitant almost as if about to say something, but then he said slightly awkwardly "Keep safe yourself Thraen" the words honestly meant despite their awkward delivery. Turning Athene continued walking and this time he did not look back.