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Despite the fact that she was now wearing black, Cybele didn't like the Negaverse any more than she had before. They had taken her home, plastering it in propaganda that disgusted her. Cybele hated the city now. They took her energy, too, leaving her tired and unable to focus on things very well half the time. She could have avoided the drainings if she moved to Mirrorspace or out to the forests, but she refused. She needed to learn as much about medicine as possible before they went into space, and the only schhols were in the city.

She endured it during the day, but once darkness fell and she powered up, she almost always came out here to the outskirts where the Negaverse's advertisements and auras were both less common. This was where she drained energy, mostly, unless she ran into someone, or sensed a youma, which she still hunted. She'd even brought a mirror out here and hidden it in the overgrown garden of an abandoned house. Tonight she had gotten particularly lucky.

There was a sleeping figure in the doorway of the house. Closer inspection revealed a middle aged man with clothing that was worn ragged radiating a fairly strong smell of alcohol. That sort of thing didn't really bother Cybele anymore. It just meant an easier target. Still, she had to be careful. She glanced over her shoulder, focusing on the auras she could feel. In another stroke of luck, the Negaverse seemed mostly off in the distance for now, but a nearby Order aura made her hesitate. Draining civilians tended to give the White Moon the wrong impressions. Since she didn't see anyone, she pulled a mirror shard from her ribbons and summoned her wraith.

Hopefully, she'd get the draining over with before they showed up. Then, they could talk.

Cybele whirled at the sound of a voice to see a familiar orange ponytail and fierce expression. She sighed as she collected her mirrowraith and returned the shard to her pocket. At least she'd already gathered some energy. "Don't, Megrez."

She leaped from the doorway, landing gracefully in the middle of the street a good distance from the White Moon Senshi, shifting into fighting stance. They weren't going to chat for long, but Cybele wasn't going to strike the first blow against her former friend. "Don't act like you're better than me."

Her voice was neutral, almost conversational, but her face was stony and heavily controlled. The word traitor still stung, though she'd heard it a few times now. Then, she remembered the brutality and hopelessness of the front lines of the Order Resistance, and realized she pitied Megrez for staying there more than anything else.

"Betrayed?"

Charging was just about the worst move, strategically, but Megrez was Eternal and she was fast and she could pull it off. "I promised to join the Dark Mirror if I ever found the White Moon wrong a long-" That was all she could manage, even talking at top speed, before Megrez reached her. She took the hit, gasping and allowing herself to stumble and then jog backwards. Her magic wasn't suited for close range fighting, so she wanted some distance between them.

"A long time before I met you. Hunter's Strike!" A giant bow formed in her hands, which she used to fire a flurry of arrows at Megrez without hesitation. She still liked the White Moon, and Megrez, really, but now that she was defending herself, she wouldn't hold back. "You kill people recruited by propaganda and force, and what do you win? Who do you save? The city is lost."

It wasn't the reaction that Cybele had been hoping for, and Megrez's words cut deep, deeper than the words of just anyone who might have acted like she was a traitor. Her mask of calm disdain momentarily shattered, she blinked at the other girl, then practically screamed, "It's not like that! I..."

There was another version of the story, one that would sound better to a White Moon Senshi and that was also closer to the truth, but although it formed almost instantly in her mind, she didn't have time to say even a single word of it before Megrez had caught up to her. This time, she wasn't prepared, and the punch was a direct hit to her face. She reeled, vision going blurry as a mixed result of the force and the tears that were welling up in her eyes from the pain. She blinked quickly, which didn't help much, but she managed to regain some semblance of balance pretty quickly.

Words wouldn't do any good here, anyway. Megrez heard what she wanted to. She had already ignored some of Cybele's accusations and would think her a traitor no matter what.

Cybele sent a high kick at her stomach since she didn't trust her aim with a punch. "No," she said, unsteady voice containing more than a hint of sadness, "You are one of them."

"It's not like I left your court without a good reason," Cybele snapped back, more as a distraction than anything else. She rarely used words to 'get out' of these types of situations, and now didn't seem like a good time to start trying. Their conversation and the emotions it had triggered had been sapping her focus. Now it was time to focus on fighting.

The fact that Megrez had paused to search for something didn't go unnoticed. It made Cybele nervous, as she didn't have anything tucked away in her uniform other than her mirrorwraiths, which meant she would be at a disadvantage, but at least it meant she had time to wipe her eyes and settle back into a proper fighting stance. That only took a few seconds, though, and afterwards, she knew she didn't have time to think too much or even to use her magic. Instead, she closed the distance between them in a few brisk steps and threw a fist at Megrez's face.

Cybele saw a flash of metal, but barely registered that it was a dangerous knife before it neatly sliced through her ribboned gloves and reached her skin. She leaped away with a hiss, then took a few steps backwards, trying to put some distance between them. Aiming for the arms isn't very good, strategically, her mind informed her, but it didn't make her feel better. Megrez had knives, which said a lot about her intentions, and she was also standing between Cybele and her mirror at the moment.

That was... really bad, as it meant she couldn't easily leave, not that leaving was her first choice. Even though she was emotional, slightly dizzy, and bleeding, she wasn't going to give up. She hated losing fights.

There wasn't a lot of time to think of a good strategy, herself, but her arm throbbed, so punching seemed out. She wasn't going to charge, either. Instead, she stood her ground, prepared to kick if Megrez got too close.

The pause in action was perfect, far better than a reckless charge which could still be dangerous. It gave Cybele time to breathe, and time to think. She let Megrez talk, giving no reaction to her taunts as she calculated the distance between them. It was far enough away that her Super magic probably wouldn't hit the other girl, maybe even far enough away for her Eternal magic to work, not that she was going to risk that.

"Yes, I fought Negaversers. I didn't run straight onto their knives for them, either." I'm not stupid, Megrez. "But, if you insist... Hunter's Deadly Grace!" She fired upwards before the bow had even finished forming in her hands, and sprang forwards before the familiar green light even surrounded her. If she was forced to charge, she was at least going to do it properly. Once the magic kicked in, she was moving at speeds faster than even a normal Eternal could achieve, focus locked on the knife. Once close enough, she sent a powerful kick towards Megrez's lower half.

Cybele wasn't out for blood, just for victory, which the sound of a weapon clattering to the ground told her she had achieved. Immediately, she stopped charging and stared at the fallen knife and Megrez scrambling after it for a split second.Then, it registered that just because her pride was satisfied didn't mean that she was out of danger for long. She had to get to her mirror.

Taking advantage of the last few seconds of her magic, Cybele sprinted past Megrez, then turned around to face her again rather than risk getting stabbed in the back.