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This page was older than Gehenna, but he was weaker, too. Astrophyllite could feel his inexperience in his power signature, and, remembering her orders, she'd gone after him, board raised and vicious. No more fraternizing with the enemy! She would be a good soldier. She would prove Zinkenite and Bischofite wrong. Avalon believed in her, and she needed to be good while Avalon was away--

She'd been chasing the page for some fifteen minutes now, and was confident she was about to seal the deal.The lieutenant leapt, following the man's attempts to escape, and swung her ouija board hard.

She missed, but recovered quickly. "I'm going to take your starseed back to the general!" she yelled. General Natron, that was. Avalon had given her a good review, but she still needed to impress her new commanding officer the way she'd impressed her old, and that meant--

And that meant--

That meant proving she could be hard. Astrophyllite swung her board again. "Die, alien scum!" she shrieked.

Aludra slid down the embankment at one end of the bridge and landed in a crouch. Now that she was aware of the ruckus she could make out the sounds of the fight; the yelling, the grunts of effort, the thud of the repeated strikes. It took only a few steps until she was in a position to finally see them and she mouthed a silent ‘oh no’.

The Chaos girl looked like she was only a few years older than herself, but there was no way Aludra could imagine fighting anyone with that sort of intensity. She couldn’t imagine wanting to hurt somebody that badly, especially an adult. It made her sad just to see it.

In some cases the Negaverse couldn’t be reasoned with, she reminded herself and somebody was going to have to intervene before book wielding man was more than just bruised. Whoever he was, or whatever his place in the war, she couldn’t stand by and just watch.

"Hey, hey you! Stop that!"

Don’t just yell, silly, use your attack.

"O-over here! I’ll show you to the right path!"

She nodded at the man, hoping he understood and then refocused her attention on the officer. "The One Path!" she called, pumping as much confidence as she could into the shout.

Then she turned her back of them both and walked away, an illusionary path winding long beneath her feet. Hopefully it would be enough to buy him some time.


[ The One Path : Aludra runs ahead, following a path that is appearing beneath her feet. You are compelled to follow her and ignore everything else. Time limit: 10 seconds. ]

Suddenly, the hitting stopped. Which was a really good thing, as far as Nazca was concerned. He peeked over the edge of his book, wondering what had happened, only to see the girl who'd been beating him, and badly, start to run off. After telling him to stay put, which was so not going to happen. This was the chance he'd been waiting for to get away!

It was weird, though. Why did she suddenly dash off like that? Curious, he glanced in the direction she was headed in. Once he saw what she was running towards, though, he froze.

A kid. A kid-kid, not just a teenager like this girl, or the one who'd attacked him before. She was probably still in elementary school. What the hell was she doing out here? It was late, and dark, and psychos wielding deadly ouija boards were running around. Her parents were probably worried sick.

Just like his were, he thought, standing up to his full height again. He hadn't been able to do anything to help Tara when she needed him. There was no way he was going to let another little girl wind up in trouble because of him. Not as long as he was still breathing.

"Don't you dare!" he shouted, chasing after them. His bruises were forgotten, his desire to avoid confrontation gone. All that mattered was that he intercept the crazy girl before anything happened. Which meant trying to ram her from behind, using his size advantage as a weapon, rather than the book that had done nothing to help him before.

So, like, the thing was - Astrophyllite didn't actually want to attack the little baby senshi. From the moment the girl promised to show her to the right path, all thoughts of violence fled from her mind. All she wanted to do was see where they were going and what waited for them at the end of the road!

WHUMP!

The page slammed into her from behind, and Astrophyllite staggered forwards. "Hey!" she cried out, stars blooming in front of her eyes. "Leave me alone," she said, tears brimming at the corners of her eyes. She threw an elbow at him, more keen on shaking him off than actually hurting him. "I've got to follow the path!"

She looked desperately ahead. The path was fading, and the girl from which it sprang was getting further and further away. If she vanished, then Astrophyllite would never find out where it went, and she didn't think she could live with herself if that happened. (Well. No. She would find a way.) The lieutenant jerked away from the page and made a mad dash for the fading magic.

"Where does it go?" she yelled to the little senshi. "Come back! Take me with you!"

Aludra stopped in her tracks and half turned to watch as the struggle began again. The path she had created was fading away into nothing and she felt a keen sense of sorrow as the Lieutenant still struggled towards her. "I’m sorry, but the path is gone now…" she said, not expecting to be heard.

Then her attack was done and the compulsion faded entirely, so that she was just a useless little girl again and it seemed as if she’d achieved nothing at all. Her attempt to end a fight had only prolonged it, though one could argue that now the right side was winning.

If Nazca wanted her to leave, it wasn't going to happen. Instead she was approaching again, hoping the Negaverser would take the hint that it was now two against one and would make a hasty retreat.

Her heart was beating in her throat, rapid and painful. The Lieutenant didn't want to fight anymore, that much was clear and Aludra didn't want to be a part of it either. It was as good as done.

I’ll show you to the right path.

Those had been her words and the chibi believed somewhere deep inside, that she could do that. They didn’t have to be enemies.

"Stop, stop! Don’t attack anymore!" She was moving forward, holding a hand out towards the older girl. "Come on, it’s this way. It’s going to be okay."

A quick glance towards the man with his book and she made a quick decision, hoping it was the right choice.

"You have to go home now," Aludra told Astrophyllite. Then she lifted a hand, pointing away to the west. "That's the way. That's the path you take today." If only she would take it and they could all breathe easy.

Nazca gaped. It was the one thing he'd gotten a lot of practice at, since becoming a knight. He gaped at the psycho girl, who practically skipped off like she was on her way to Grandma's House. He gaped at the younger girl, who had done some sort of magic hypnotism. Then he gaped at his hands, holding a book that hadn't helped him in the slightest.

What good was he, when someone half his age was needed to save his a**?

He turned to his rescuer, struggling with what he wanted to say to her. The magical knight in him wanted to ask how she'd done that. The pseudo-parent in him wanted to demand that she go home right away. The nice guy in him wanted to thank her for intervening. All three of them wrestled inside Nazca's brain, fighting for the chance to speak first, until one was victorious.

"Thank you." Odd, that the nice guy came out on top. "I really appreciate it." And then the other two parts elbowed their way in. "How did you do that, anyway? And, uh. I know I don't look like much, but can I escort you somewhere? Are your parents waiting for you?"