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 Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2014 9:27 pm
Corrupt Eternal Sailor Chaonis was sitting on top of a building. As far as he knew, he was there because he had gotten tired during his wanderings and just ended up there. He climbed up to the roof and sat down on one of the railings up there. It was a community center of some sort, still in use in the day time, though by now the place was closed and empty. He was sure it was monitored and the Negaverse used it for something or other, but that was just the way of the world.
He did not really care.
At any rate, this was where he chose to take a rest, and he looked out over the city. It all seemed so familiar, but so far away. He imagined it had something to do with the way he was corrupted, but even the memory of that had faded. All he knew was what he was told, and that was only a very small series of names and descriptions from his new handler, Painite.
She kept him on a short leash, except in the recent for days. She was testing him to see what he could do, and he was trying to prove he was capable and just as Dangerous as he had presumably been before.
Painite told him about his father and mother, two knights, as well as his step sister that she had killed. He took mental notes of all the names, though he only sometimes got small echoes of recognition inside himself when he thought about them. She told him about a few senshi she knew he had hung out with, as well, and told him that if he found any of them, he was to kill them in the worst way he could.
No luck so far, but he was working on it.
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Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2014 9:47 pm
Pain had kept her away from community center for months now. It had meant so much to her, to them, and now she could barely stand to think of the place, let along visit it. The world had gone to hell in a hand basket, quite literally. The Negaverse and risen up, bringing destruction, and left lies and desolation in their wake. It had been awful, and yet, from that disaster, had come some silver linings. Life as they had known it had change, they had changed, adapted, to survive. What had been forbidden before, hidden from all, was encouraged. Secrets were abandoned, lives were shared. Navi had been happy. Truly happy, for the first time in a very long time. But that was all before. Painite has stolen away her princes, her Feyiro, her Chanonis. Nathan... She'd cried for day. A hallow void coming to form in her chest where only hurt and rage now lived. She wasn't sure what exactly had drawn her to the their old haunt. Nostoglia, perhaps. Some veiled hope that she would see him there, all shiny plastic and bright orange. Or the general that had taken him away from her. Something, or nothing. Either would have hurt, neither would bring peace. But still she had stepped through the mirror. The shock of a powerful aura struck her like a physical blow the second her foot touched the tiled floor, and she staggered, catching herself on a folded ping-pong table as she fought to breath around the sudden pang in her chest. She knew that aura. Not even the stink of corruption could hide him completely. The rabid climb to the roof was a blur, everything drowned out by the frantic beat of her pulse in her ears as she damn near threw herself against the door and spilled out into the night air. He was there, sitting on the rail and watching the city. She froze when she saw him. Helpless. Hopeless. Please God. Help me.
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Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2014 10:01 pm
Chaonis felt her before he saw her, turning and awaiting her appearance. It made him rise, standing from the rail and staring at the spot where he knew she would appear with his breath caught in his chest. He was not sure why, and when she did appear, he did not know her. But he did not breathe, either.
It took him a long moment before he remembered how, drawing a deep, slow breath.
"Who are you?"
He spoke quietly, since they were alone and the place was quiet anyway. There was no reason to yell and, really, he did not feel like he wanted to. Or like he could. He spoke as if he did not want to disturb the peace of the area around them. Between them. He watched her quietly, confused, his mind aching to find memories that were not there. Or if they were, they were well buried.
Something about her seemed... important.
"You're one of those Dark Mirror senshi. Are you on our side, or theirs?" He'd been told that some were traitors, though the way Painite said it, no senshi should be trusted. He got the feeling she didn't even like him, and looked at him like a toy or a belonging, but not a person or a fighter.
The bat wings did not suit him. He had chopped off the long hair he'd awakened with, keeping what was left slicked back. He looked a lot more like his father now, oddly, though he would not know it. His plastic armor was dark and jagged, looking like it had been torn by war, and no matter how often he powered down and back up it did not get fixed.
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Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2014 10:18 pm
She couldn't breath. Her throat was tight, chest aching, and she couldn't draw a breath, didn't know how. He stood across from her, tall and handsome, but waves of chaos that flowed out from him were just wrong. The clothing was different, darker, but of course it was, that was how this worked. Leathery wings at his hips instead of the pale stretch of white feathers. His hair was shorter than she'd seen him last, and she was grateful for that minuscule piece of normalcy. Her gaze swept over him, took in every inch, drinking him down, and when she met his eyes--eyes that had looked down on her with such love, such longing--she felt her heart breaking all over again. There was no spark of recognition for her in those dark depths. "Chaonis." Fiyero The name was a whisper, and as it passed her lips she remembered to breath, though it hurt, filling her lungs with jagged shards of glass. Who was she? "Navi." She swallowed, almost choking on the lump in her throat. His second question was easier, and with her answer came a sad smile. "I'm on your side." Feeling returned, and she took a step forward. "I have always been on your side, at your side." Another step. "I will always be at your side." A hand lifted, reaching between them, but she was afraid to touch him, afraid he was a mirage. Afraid he was too far gone to be saved.
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Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2014 10:33 pm
"Navi," he echoed, and the word reverberated in his head, sending a shudder down his spine.
He was sure this time, more sure than he had been since being corrupted and ferreted away by his new master. He knew this woman, and he could almost remember her. Almost, but there was a wall that he could not see through, could not reach through. It was solid and dark and though he was sure there was something important behind it, he just could not access what. Breaking down that wall seemed all but impossible.
And until that moment, he had not had the mind to even try.
"You know me," he said, summing up what she was telling him thoughtfully. He was straining to try and think of her, because he saw in her face that he should. He could see the pain of his not knowing reflected in her eyes, but he could not force himself to remember. And he could not bring himself to care more than his capacity allowed.
When she reached up to touch him he took a step back, watching her and now his eyebrows furrowed, his mouth straightened into a thin line. He was straining, his head starting to ache.
"How do you know me? Who was I?"
They were questions he had been wanting to ask everyone he met, but no one had the answers he wanted. Maybe this senshi would. But that scared him, because he suddenly got the feeling that he did not want to know what she had to tell him.
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Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2014 10:59 pm
Hazel eyes were wide as she watched him. Searching for anything, any flicker of understanding or familiarity. Wide to hold back the tear that stung, that threatened to fall at any given second, and she could not afford that luxury, not yet. Maybe not at all. "I know you," she echoed him, her hand drawing back by inches as he stepped away, but not falling. Of course she knew him. The question sounded so utterly ridiculous, but there was nothing even remotely humorous about it. Ironic, cruelly so, but not humorous. She knew the feel of his skin against her own, the softness of his hair through her fingers. The scratch of stubble against her cheek, and the warmth of his arms wrapped around her. The smell of his soap, and the smell of his skin. She knew his voice, the sound of his laughter, his anger, his rage, his helplessness and hopelessness. The feel of his lips, and the electric shock his kiss had always managed to spread through her body. A breath, in and out. Her thin chest rising and falling as she fought for control and held on, just barely. "You were Order, and justice, and vengeance. Fiercely protective, unwavering loyal." How did she know him? "I am your's." How else could she say it? Nothing else did justice to what they had been to each other. "From almost the first instant we met, and now. I would have changed everything for you, given up anything for you, and they took you away from me." Now a tear fell. Hot and scolding along her cheek, and she swiped at it furiously, rubbing the moisture from her eyes. " She took you away."
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Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2014 8:55 pm
Chaonis watched her, and he felt like his chest was going to collapse in on itself. Everything she said needed to have weight, have impact, but it felt like it did not. and he hated that feeling, because he did not have the capacity to understand it. He knew that there was something missing, but how was he supposed to know what? How was he supposed to fix it?
He could not remember her. He wanted to, he knew that much, but something was getting in the way. All he could do was stare at her and see the pain on her face as she spoke. He could not relate to it, and had nothing to offer her by way of comfort.
He wasn't even sure if he could comfort her.
"You were mine," he said, repeating what she told him, trying to make it mean something. He got flashes in his mind that he could not focus on, images that lacked memories. It was like viewing the world with his eyes half closed. He just could not absorb it all. He heard music, distantly, warped but he heard it. A piano, a mirror. He saw them, but it did not connect, not yet.
"I was corrupted. I know that. I don't remember who I was. She said there was a chance I would remember one side, when I power down or when I power up. I haven't yet. You say I know you... we were together? You seem so familiar, but I can't...I can't see it clearly..." He shook his head.
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Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2014 9:25 pm
He looked so lost, utterly puzzled as he tried to grope through his broken mind for any little piece of her that might remain behind to remind him of what they had. It just hurt to look at, but he was trying, at least, trying to remember, and that was better than cold indifference. When he echoed her woods she nodded, arms retreating back to crossover her abdomen, a shield, or just to have the feeling of somebody holding her. "You fought so hard against what she did to you." No wonder he his memories were so fractured, but it was cold comfort to her now, as it had been then. When he asked if they were together she swallowed, almost choking on emotion. "Yes. Eight years this October." A tiny, bittersweet smile touched pouting lips. "Engaged for," she frowned, recalling the date, and then frowned harder at the realization. "Not quite a year yet. Seven and a half months." They had colors picked out, had been mulling over locations. She'd picked out her dress... Her arms tightened around her, thin frame trembling now despite the summer heat. She felt cold. Had for months now, ever since he'd been taken away from her. his side of the bed was empty, the sheets were chilled. A piece of her was missing. "We have an apartment together." Maybe if she just kept talking something would spark a memory in him. A piece of a memory. A fragment. Anything. That bittersweet smile returned, strained. "You brought your piano, it's so beat up, covered in graffiti, but you don't want to replace it. Said it has character." The sheet music she'd given him ages ago never seemed to leave the little shelf above the keys. Nor did the sheet music for Wicked.
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Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2014 10:53 pm
Chaonis frowned down at the floor, straining to remember. His civilian life, though, whoever he had been then, was gone completely. The only time he got echoes of memory, it was from his powered existence. It just so happened to be that both lives were very neatly intertwined, and though he could not remember either, he kept getting strong evidence for both. He knew who his father and mother were, and all his friends seemed to be senshi and knights as well as civilians. Even the woman he apparently loved was a senshi, a Dark Mirror one.
He wanted to remember her so badly.
"Were we happy?"
He was not sure why he was asking. If he could not remember, was it just torture to ask her about it more? She seemed so hurt by it, but he knew that he could not really give what was lost back to her. As far as he knew, he was not the man she knew before, and she would not even love him the way she had then. And he did not know if he was even capable of something like that any more. He felt so hollow, and he lacked the ability to understand why.
"Did you love me? Did I love you?"
They were important questions, in his investigation into who he had been. He wanted to know about the civilian life he had lost, because he hoped it would help him remember the side of him that was not completely gone. Maybe he held a sad, utterly silent and subconscious hope that he might be able to find that man again. The one everyone seemed so sad to have lost. Right now, he did not feel worthy of all the tears being shed for him.
In a way, he wanted to earn the right to be mourned.
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Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2014 7:37 am
She choked on a sob and ended somewhere in amusement and matched the watery smile that claimed her lips as she lifted a hand again to rub at her eyes. If she wasn't careful she'd just break down under the weight of all this, and that would do nothing to help him, or her, or them. But that question, everything that swirled up with it. Laughter and music and nights curled up on the couch watching tv. Were they happy? "Ridiculously happy." The questions kept coming, and she found herself moving forward again, though this time she didn't try to touch him. Her arms stayed curled around herself, holding tightly. "You loved me enough to go against everything you believed in just to be with me. I was supposed to be your enemy, but we could never quite get the hang of that." He hadn't really known what real love meant when he'd started caring for her. It had terrified him, made him do stupid things, made him run, but they'd overcome everything else. Every odd. Could they over come this? The past tense reference made her heart throb, and she gave a little shake of her head, coming to a stop just before him unless he'd retreated away from her again. "I love you." Not did, do. "You lost your memories, but you're still you. The pieces are there somewhere buried deep, I know they are." Had to believe it, had to keep on believing it, because without that hope what was left?
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Posted: Sat Aug 09, 2014 11:37 am
Chaonis watched her as she moved toward him and he winced, as if her being so near was hurting him. In a way, it was. His mind was burning, memories flaring up like a wild flame, and he could not get a grasp on them, each wisp burning through his memory as he tried to claim it, burning away but leaving lasting evidence of it being there. He was burned, pained, and struggling to get a handle of himself.
His brain was a damaged mess. That was the only thing becoming all too clear to him.
He hesitated, watching her as she spoke but letting her words sink in without fighting them. It hurt, but he was letting himself be burned, so to speak, because he felt like he needed to suffer it, to know what he needed to know. About himself. And her.
"How do you know you still love me? That I'm me? I don't feel like the person you say I am... I don't feel like anyone. I feel like I know you... and what you're saying... I want to believe you. It.. it's giving me a headache. But if I loved you... why can't I remember it now? Why did it have to be taken away, when you say it was so deep and serious and we were so happy?"
These questions weren't fair. She could never answer them, but he could not help but ask. He was beginning to feel overwhelmed, wanting to run away, but he was so drawn to her he was stuck to his spot.
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Posted: Sat Aug 09, 2014 12:04 pm
He hadn't stepped away again, and she looked up at him, searching those dark eyes as she had done so many times over. All she saw was confusion, conflict, pain, and it hurt her heart to know she was causing it, but she couldn't stop. Not if there was a chance she could find him in that dark place his mind had become, and draw him back to the light where he belonged. Emotions flitting over freckle kissed features, she lifted a small hand up in a tentative attempt to touch the delicate tips of her fingers against his cheek. His questions fell like hammer falls on the nails that threatened to seal the lid on their life together, but she kept her death grip on that soft, flicking spark of hope, protected it from the storm of emotions that raged through them. The last of his questions were the easiest to answer. Through Ate, and others, she'd seen what corruption did to a person's mind. "If you had willingly gone to the dark, there would have been large chunks of your life missing, but there would have been something left to remind you of who you were. I've seen it." Her touch slid along her skin, brushing the stubble along his jaw line. "You weren't willing. She took you, forced this on you. I thought it would destroy you, tear your starseed apart, but you survived." A mixed blessing, if there really was nothing left of the man she loved. "I think that's why it's so hard to remember." As for the less logical answer... She sighed, and hazel eyes slid from his face, tracing the route her gentle touch and traced along handsome features, down his throat and over the spread of his shoulders. Then up, meeting that troubled gaze again. "What brought you here, of all places? Was it chance? A decision on a whim? A feeling?" Navi believed in fate. "This was our spot. Where we met, where we fell in love. This is our safe haven." Her touch lingered a second longer, then dipped, resting on his arm. "You're in there somewhere." The gentlest curve of a smile had risen as she'd spoken, but it sobered into something small and sad. "Memories are locked away in there, we just need the right key." A word. A phrase. An action. A song. Something would trigger a memory, she just had to keep trying.
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Posted: Sat Aug 09, 2014 12:34 pm
Chaonis eyes never left her face as she spoke, her eyes telling him just as much as her words were. In the end, there was so much information to absorb, he was not sure how he could handle it all. But he wanted to, because she seemed so sincere. There was something, as intangible and fleeting as it seemed to be, connecting the two of them in a way that he could not hope to understand in his current condition.
But he wanted to. With more and more intensity, the longer he was in her company, he wanted to.
"I'm like this because I was corrupted by force," he repeated, trying to understand what that meant. So far, he had been told multiple times, by various sources, that was loved and missed and he had been a loyal and strong fighter for the side of good. He had been dedicated, and torn away by force. Even Painite told him, with fantastic joy most of the time, that she had stolen him away because it hurt Camelot and Shalott so much.
But it hurt so many others, and he was supposed to willingly contribute to their pain. He was supposed to enjoy it, as much as Painite. Generally it had not been hard, because his mind was so empty, but now... with Navi... after speaking with all those others and seeing the truth in their faces... he was finally beginning to doubt himself.
"I don't know why I came here... I just ended up here, and decided to take a break. It didn't seem... important at all. But when you showed up... there was something. I thought I felt it. But I don't know what I'm feeling any more. I don't know what I am."
He touch made him wince, but he did not shy away from her. He watched her passively, his expression pained and confused. He put his hand on her arm lightly, holding on to her as if to steady himself.
"If I'm in here, I don't know it. I'm supposed to hurt people like you. The ones who say they're my friends or family. My handler told me to."
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Posted: Sat Aug 09, 2014 1:04 pm
When he echoed her words she nodded, her hand smoothing over the hard plastic that encased his arm, searching for the gap that was only a thin layer of light cloth between her skin and his. "Something inside you pointed you to here." She had no proof except her own desire for it to be true, and a belief that certain things in the universe were just meant to be. She avoided the community center at all coasts since his corruption, but here she was as well. That couldn't have just been a simple coincidence, she refused to accept that. Her other hand came up to rest over the one he'd placed on her arm, and she gave his fingers a squeeze as if she meant to steady him. "Do you want to hurt me?" Painite might have taken him away, but she couldn't keep him. Navi had made up her mind on that. If they couldn't get through to him, if he was truly the b***h-general's dog, then there was nothing left, and even if it destroyed her...Dead was kinder then being used a human weapon, surely. Would Camelot agree? Would Shalott? Did it matter? She didn't even want to think of it. Not yet. She wasn't willing to give up yet. Not until she had no other choice but to accept that he was really gone.
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Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2014 10:21 pm
Chaonis was almost willing to believe her. He had nothing else to believe, after all, and there was no reason to think his past life could not reach him now... even if he had completely forgotten it and was not sure if he was meant to remember. She, though... she seemed different. She was something he needed to know more about.
They were both there together... in this place she said she used to meet him. It had to mean something.
Or didn't it? Who was to say this was not all just a bunch of lies to get him to lose sight of his new goal. His new team? What if she was trying to get him to change sides again, just because she knew the white moon needed it? That did not make sense either, though, since she was not on their team, technically... The more he thought about it, the more his head started to hurt. He was confusing himself, and he just wanted to stop worrying about it.
It wasn't that easy.
"I was told to hurt you," he said, though that didn't answer her question. He shook his head slowly. "I don't feel like I need to. I don't want to, no. I don't remember anything... all this talk about what it all means... I don't know if any of it is real, or if you're just making me think it is. You seem to know so much about me, when all of that is gone. I'm not sure what it means."
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