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 Posted: Fri Sep 19, 2014 6:58 pm
Kerberos could not get the image of slaughtered lieutenants out of his head. Castor and Pollux had murdered them for no reason, and it had him on edge. Part of him wanted to take revenge - to see if he could find some poor little Senshi and leave him or her for Order to find - but so far he had hesitated.
He was lost in thought, and so the aura near him that really sohuld have pricked his senses did not, in fact, actually draw his notice. (It was first-stage, he was second, he would be able to handle whoever it was.)
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Posted: Fri Sep 19, 2014 8:38 pm
Avalon had snuck out on this, one of the last nights before the flight, to say goodbye to the places she had come to love. Goodbye, bench in the north end. Goodbye, historical bus shelter. Goodbye, silly Victorian gingerbread house, and goodbye battleship cafe... Tonight, anticipating more monsters, she had tied her hair back in a messy bun that displayed her undercut as if she were proud of it. The delicate lines and insects and blossoms of her new tattoo glimmered wryly under the orange glow of streetlights. And ahead, she sensed something sickly sweet, like dead flowers on a windowsill... Or the fresh turned earth of a grave. Chaos. And with no Babylon, it didn't matter if it was human shaped or animal. It would just die. Avalon picked up the pace, long legs carrying her faster than her first-rank signature would imply, and when she judged herself in range, she threw a punch. He twisted and caught it, and she saw his face at the same moment she absorbed the long blue hair and the cracked hole of his forehead. "My boy," she said, a smile growing on her face. "You're the blue-haired boy from my dreams." Why couldn't she remember his name?...
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Posted: Fri Sep 19, 2014 8:44 pm
Kerberos had figured that when he caught the Page's wrist, he was basically being handled a free outlet for his anger, and so he spun fully ready to hurt her --
Until he actually saw her, and then he made a choked noise of horrified disbelief. His grip came loose on her arm, and he took a step back, shaking his head in vigorous denial. It couldn't be true - this couldn't be the very General he had been missing for so long. He had just begun to accept that she was gone, and yet no, here she wa,s standing in front of him - clearly alive, and worse.
Purified.
"Ava...lon?" It came out as a question, laced with pain.
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Posted: Fri Sep 19, 2014 8:52 pm
He wasn't happy to see her. Not everyone was. Nick and Marlo had been upset. Tallulah had been angry and Kaatje had shouted something about the Cosmos playing a joke on her. But she had had that dream, the blue haired boy looking up at her window with the pink haired girl, so often that she didn't quite understand. "I'm sorry," she said, reaching out. "Did I scare you? I didn't mean to. I just didn't realize it was you. I didn't know you'd be sick with Chaos." Which left her puzzled--until it all came together. Of course they would be sick with Chaos. She had been too, for a long time. Years. She smiled at him. "It's okay," she assured her boy. "Don't be scared. I know you're you now."
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Posted: Fri Sep 19, 2014 9:01 pm
"They told me you died," Kerberos said, "when you were in England." Why hadn't she come looking for him? She seemed to remember him, at least sort of - but, then, his experience with side swaps was Persephone, and she had admitted to not knowing anything of her civilian life before -- perhaps Avalon had been similarly scrambled.
"I'm not sick," he protested, but it was sort of quiet, faint. He knew, abstractly, how purification worked, and he knew you had to choose it. He had seen Vespa make that choice, and suddenly he was angry, because how could she. Avalon had known as well as anyone how much he had suffered the loss of Cait. How could she do that to him, again, without so much as a text message letting him know she was going?
"And the last thing I am is afraid of you. You abandoned me." It sounded angry and plaintive at the same time. "You were my General, and my friend, and I trusted you - and you ran off to Order! Even though you knew they took my sister from me!"
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Posted: Fri Sep 19, 2014 9:13 pm
"I didn't think I was sick either. That's what Babylon says." She tapped her chin, trying to be calm and hoping it would translate between them. Translate? Transfer? Transfer. "It's okay. You don't have to make decisions now." Avalon looked at him, unabashed and curious and yes, a little hurt. "I didn't mean to abandon you," she argued, because that much she was sure of. She must have said yes to her purification at some point. But Hvergelmir had told her of a woman trapped nj green crystal. "I... I got... Something happened," she said, "I don't remember but I was going to die and then I didn't. Cosmos saved me. She found me and she saved me but it took every thing I had, do you understand, I..." She took a deep breath. "You're the blue haired boy from my dreams," she explained, "but I don't remember anything. I didn't even know my name until Hvergelmir told m e and then Babylon made me pick. I'm sorry!"
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Posted: Fri Sep 19, 2014 9:33 pm
Kerberos shook his head, a fierce angry denial. No, no, no, he would never go running on bended knee to the people who had let his sister die. Even if...well, even if Avalon was there now. Alright, so it was obvious her memory was a little scrambled, but that didn't change the salient point here.
"Just because you don't remember doesn't mean I don't," he said. "I'm Sailor Kerberos. Maybe you'll remember better this time." His voice was stills harp and angry - and if anything, her calm was sort of pissing him off more. God, that cut deep. That of all the things purification had to take, it had reached in and scooped out her memories of her time as General Avalon, so that he was reduced to nothing more than a stranger in her dreams.
He started taking steps back.
"I cannot ******** believe - god, I hope whatever Order is giving you is worth it, because from where I stand it looks like it took a hell of a lot more than it could ever give back."
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Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2014 8:24 am
Kerberos... the name sparked no new memories, nothing came out of that shimmering fog in her head to make him more known to her, and her calm facade crumpled then. She had hoped--maybe--maybe if she had found them, then she could remember more. Their presence could maybe remind her of all the things she had lost, like finally blowing a hole in an old, broken dam. The memories would come faster than a trickle, as a raging torrent, and she would remember. But it didn't happen. And he was hurt. If there was one thing Avalon did remember, it was that she didn't want him to hurt. She took a step forward for every one of his, preparing to make a run for him if he tried to get away from her. She had to know, she had to, and if making him tell her was the only way-- "I was sick," she repeated, loudly, "I, I don't know what they're giving me, I don't remember how I got this way, I don't remember being Vanya or Tate or Avalon, I don't remember anything, why are you so mad at me? Why is everyone mad at me?"
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Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2014 9:16 am
The last thing Kerberos would want, normally, was to hurt Avalon, but right then his own pain was enough that even though she probably wasn't at fault - even though she had only said yes to save her own life by what she had described, even though she didn't even remember why seeing her like this tore his heart out... Well. He lashed out, like an angry dog that snapped at anyone who got near, good intentions or no.
"I'm mad," which seemed such a reduction of the blend of fury and pain that had welled up in his chest, "because god ******** damn it, Avalon, Order left my sister to die, and now you're one of them! Because I cared about you, looked up to you, you taught me everything I know about how to be a good officer, and you ******** went turncoat! How the hell am I supposed to feel?"
Grateful she was at least alive, he supposed, and a small, bitter part of him wondered if she could be taken back, but turning Avalon into a tug-of-war rope between Order and Chaos was cruel and he knew it.
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Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2014 9:42 am
Something inside her went still. There was no name for that sudden silence where even just moments ago she had felt anger and hurt and fear--it was a gaping darkness and it wanted to swallow her whole. A chip of ice, lodged in her heart. "If you knew me," she said, "if you did, you would know that I would never leave someone behind." Not even if she hated them. Not even if she was scared of them. Maybe if they were corrupt. "You don't care about me anymore?" There was hurt in her voice, but she didn't feel it. She only felt that great and terrible stillness inside her chest. It wasn't simply a hole, black and dark and hungry, but a song, drowning out the sea in the back of her mind-- you are nothing without us--we know you as none other. We love you as none other... Was it Kerberos bringing this to the forefront? Or was it just that she was... angry, and sad. "You used the past tense. Cared. I still care about you."
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Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2014 10:19 am
At any other time Kerberos would have felt horrible for making her hurt. He did still care about Avalon, or this wouldn't have hurt him so much - but right then he sort of wanted to see her hurt, wanted her to understand what she had done to him.
"I don't know what I feel," he said, his voice sharp, and then, "Asphodel's Regret." He blew the flower petals at her face, and he felt an upswell of love for his magic because yes, it could and would make her suffer, and maybe she would feel for a moment what he had been feeling for nearly two months, thinking she was dead and gone.
And then he called on that extra reserve of Chaos in him, and teleported away, because it was either that or attack her and even feeling the way he did, he couldn't raise a hand to Avalon.Asphodel's Regret! Sailor Kerberos cups his hands in front of his face and says the name of his attack, then blows. Asphodel petals fly out of his hands towards one target within eight feet of him. The target begins to feel a deeper, stronger regret, as well as a feeling of clinging hopelessness, though the apparent "reason" will vary from person to person, and may be something they wouldn't normally regret at all. The effect is the same no matter the target's rank. This effect lasts for 30 seconds. Sailor Kerberos can use this twice per battle.
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Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2014 1:43 pm
Avalon had just enough time to think but that doesn't make any sense before the nothing inside her was abruptly swallowed up by shame and a growing certainty that, that if she left the city, she would never come back. She would never, ever, ever come back, and then the war would be lost, and she would never find out what was wrong with Avalon--she wouldn't--and Kerberos would never forgive her, and she would--she would be alone. Forever. She sat down slowly and put her hands over her head, and there in the middle of the street, she began to cry.
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