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Although Athene as a senshi had never had a fixed patrol route, lately more and more he was finding that his evening patrols were falling into more defined patterns - then again that was probably a by-product of the fact that more and more he was patrolling with a partner, often Ida and/ or Liryn.

After all Athene had been around long enough to know that it was dangerous to patrol alone and given that he, Ida and Liryn all lived together and were team mates, it was both easy and convenient for them to head out on the patrol beat together.

This evening he was out on his own and alone it hadn't taken long before he fell into more familiar patterns, first stopping as Arian to pick up a cup of take out hot chocolate and then finding somewhere secluded to henshin up to Athene. He had taken along his little satchel, that had become something of a familiar companion on his patrols and with the weather now well into autumn had fished out the pair of simple grey gloves that he had eventually given in and bought for the colder months.

And then he had hit the patrol beat, only he wasn't really, head too full of thoughts to really be truly patrolling.

He wasn't too distracted, however, to miss the dark aura of a corrupted eternal when it pinged up on his consciousness after he'd been a while into his 'not-really' patrol and he glanced round warily as he tried to pin-point its direction in between contemplating whether he should message Ida for back up.

After all his encounters with the Negaverse had never gone well and the last encounter that he'd had with a corrupt eternal had been with Atë, who had had been in the process of trying to murder Liryn at the time.

He had even had his phone to hand, but then for some reason had decided to banish it deciding at the last to see what came, but would be on his guard. Even as he came to his decision, a part of Athene couldn't help but hope that 'what came' wouldn't involve fighting. Not that he wouldn't do it if he had to, but he didn't feel like fighting, not this evening.

As luck would have it Athene hadn't had to go particularly far to find the source of the corrupt aura - just a couple of alleyways and two rounded corners and there she was, a street light light glinting off the long hair that all corrupted senshi seemed to have.

Although he was probably not one to talk given that his dark hair was plenty long in its own right.

He stopped and waited as she walked towards him, the corrupted eternal not one he was familiar with. Although come to think about it mayhaps it wasn't that surprising given that he hadn't actually had that many encounters with corrupt senshi of the Negaverse. There was the red-haired one that accused him of things and attacked him back when he was a still a base rank senshi and unknowing that White Moon senshi weren't the only senshi, and the confusing white-haired one that he had met first during the Negaverse attack on the Dark Mirror Court and then again during the huge fight that had broken out the night that Vespa had purified.

The finally there was Atë, Atë who had been his first training partner and who he'd done a few patrols with and who now had no memories of him and had a grudge against Liryn.

The one approaching him was neither of those three, although it didn't stop him from watching her warily as he cradled the take out cup in his gloved hands.

It was a wariness that lasted until she cleared her throat and greeted him and then it was was replaced by open startlement.

Startlement or no, however she'd offered him a greeting and given that she wasn't particularly doing something there was no reason why he couldn't be polite back. "Good Evening" his voice was its usual quietness, although traces of the surprise that had been on his face was reflected in the tone.

The attempt at a smile was surprising and the mentioning of the weather even more so. Actually this whole encounter was surprising given how very different it was to his usual encounters with other Nega-corrupted senshi, notwithstanding his two encounters with Azurite who was just plain out confusing.

And if he didn't know better he'd say that... That this particular Nega-corrupt wanted to talk to him.

"It's hot chocolate" he said indicating his cup. "It's a habit I picked up from when I was just starting out as a senshi and my outfit was just a t-shirt and shorts get up" his quiet voice turned rueful. "Well the hot drink was at any rate." Although he liked hot chocolate, his choice of hot drink tended to vary although it was usually something sweet down to the fact that he had a sweet tooth. "I'm not sure who came up with senshi outfits but whoever did" and this was assuming that there was some sort of cosmic tailor "Didn't really take into account things like weather."

"And it's nice to meet you Albireo." It wasn't a name that he recognised, although that was hardly surprising given how few Nega corrupts he'd crossed paths with. "I'm Sailor Athene although you can use Athene if you want."

Mayhaps they shouldn't be talking. In fact going by their sides the two of them really shouldn't be talking, particularly given that Athene had been around long enough to see what the Negaverse was capable. But... And there was always a but, the but in this case being that Athene knew that Order was also capable of awful things like helping the Negaverse ambush the Negaverse's 'supposed' allies and slaughtering a bunch of Nega-Lieutenants just to send a message - and there was the fact that if Albireo had done terrible things then she didn't seem to be doing them right now.

And so if she wanted to talk he guessed that he could do that, well at least for a bit he could - after all his patrol was relatively young.

"It would be great if the magic could do that" Athene said, in answer to the corrupt senshi's comment about it being good if outfits could just change with the seasons. "Really great." His quiet voice was heartfelt in the way of someone who had spent many nights on patrol in an outfit that was much more suited for the summer months.

"And thank you," he continued on at her compliment of his name, his lips quirking up into a slight but brief smile of his own. "Albireo's a nice name too - it's pretty."

The smile faded into a thoughtful look at her next question and for a moment or two silence stretched between them as Athene did not move to answer her questions straight away.

Eventually he said however "I have always been Order" his quiet voice was serious. "Ever since I was awoken as a senshi I've been Order." He had been 16 and relatively newly moved to the States when he had crossed paths with ********* and on his first and it seemed last (since he hadn't repeated the experience) visit to Summer camp. "But there are times when I haven't been proud of being an Order senshi." Sometimes it was because of things that his side had done - like the day that he had first come to the realisation that some Order senshi were as willing to kill as their Chaos counterparts, or the night that the Negaverse had turned on the Dark Mirror Court - their supposed allies and at other times it was because of his own failings. "But I've never been tempted to try and change sides." And Remarque had told him more than once that he would be happy to have him in the Dark Mirror Court. He had too many connections that he refused to give up on however and too many people who he wanted to protect.

"And I'm prob'ly not the best person to ask about why I fight" a rueful note had slipped into his voice as he spoke. "As I don't have a fancy reason and I don't keep doing this for any grand ones either - I never have." He didn't have fancy ideals or grand goals. "I just want to protect people that's all."

And to be honest Athene would prefer it if he didn't have to fight at all, although over the process of his senshi 'career' he had eventually learnt to the point where he would now do it to if he had to.

If Athene had known about the thoughts running through Albireo's mind then he would have pointed out that things weren't perfect in his life, that he had his ups and his downs and his in betweens just like everyone else. Mayhaps he wouldn't have done so in quite so many words, but he would have felt duty bound to correct her - after all he wasn't perfect - was far from perfect.

Mind reading however was not and had never been a skill he could lay claim to and so instead he had found himself musing on the fact that this was perhaps the longest conversation that he'd had with someone that was part of the Negaverse in a long time - since perhaps his run in with Lieutenant Benitoite, although that particular encounter had ended with said Lieutenant trying to poke him with a paint brush.

Albireo's next words had had him looking at the other eternal in startled surprise. It wasn't the 'could have been friends' comment, or perhas it was more accurate to say that it wasn't just her could have been friends comment.

No instead it was the words and specifically the words 'still on your side' that had him blurting out the words "You were part of Order?" in a surprised tone that most likely matched the surprise look on his face.

He managed to recover enough to shake his head before she could answer, his quiet voice apologetic "I'm sorry, that came out badly especially as I know that not all senshi who start off as Order stay as Order." Be it by their own choice or because it was forced on them, he had been around long enough to know that senshi changed sides. "Just as I know that it also works both ways. It's just..."

For a moment he hesitated and then he admitted "It's just I've only met two Negaverse senshi who started off as Order first and you're one of them."

Albireo wasn't coming across as all messed up like Atë was, instead she was coming off as pretty normal actually.

Given that he had mentioned that Albireo was one of two Order senshi that he knew had corrupted, Athene should have probably expected her question.

Probably... However it still took him a little by surprise.

"Her name is Sailor Atë" he said at last. "And if she regrets joining the Negaverse then she's doing a pretty good job of hiding it." He fiddled with the take out cup for a few moments before continuing "We met at a training session - she was one of my first training partners." A note of rueful amusement slipped into his quiet voice as he admitted "I was slightly in awe of her to be honest." Unlike him Atë had been so confident and strong. In fact she'd been kind of amazing. She'd also been kind of embarrassing, his cheeks flushed slightly as he remembered her picking him up and and swinging him around exuberantly after he, she and Pomona dusted the pig youma together.

Then the rueful amusement was replaced by sadness as he added "But it's like she's a whole different person now." The Atë that he'd known from before wouldn't have tried to hurt a child or try to kill a cat. "She..." His voice tailed off. He hadn't meant to share so much, hadn't even talked about Atë with his team.

He'd missed the 'too' comment in Albireo's earlier question, so her querying his earlier mention that changing sides worked both ways had kind of come left field, but as a subject change it made for a welcome if curious one. Because he didn't really want to talk about Atë or think about what she'd become now that she'd swapped white for black.

"It's possible" he said. "It's called purification and it can only be done by a Royal." He was quiet for a moment, two and then admitted "I don't know much about it" what knowledge he had came from the entry about it in the Senshi Primer. "But I know someone who's done it." He hadn't seen Vespa's purification directly but he remembered the white light that had lit up the park for one intense moment on day at the end of August followed by the dark aura of a corrupted eternal being replaced with the strong, warm aura of an Order eternal. "And I've heard a few of done so" again it wasn't something he'd heard about directly - but the Primer had mentioned that a handful of those once chaos had made the choice without giving any names.

His quiet voice turned serious "But from what I've heard it's something you have to really, really want" well okay Kallichore, the article writer had actually written that it was assumed that the person had to be willing but being willing was the same as really, really wanting something - right? At least he was going to assume it was.

The primer had mentioned one last thing about purification, but for a moment then two Athene hesitated, before adding "And there's a price and that's in memories - lost memories" because even though some might advise on leaving that bit out he figured that if Albireo really wanted to know about purification then she should know the good with the bad. "But if you want to know more then you'd probably have to talk to someone who knows more about purification" because he'd just given her the sum total of his meagre knowledge on the subject.

Whilst Athene hadn't sure how Albireo would take his admission, her actual reaction had still taken him by surprise, his hand reaching out awkwardly at the rawness of her admission before dropping to fall equally awkwardly by his side.

And whilst she thanked him with a tiny smile that was different to the one she had given him earlier, he wasn't sure that he had done anything to earn her thanks.

And perhaps he really, really should have kept quiet on the price of purification - but he didn't feel sorry that he hadn't - because if he'd been in the corrupted senshi's shoes then he would have wanted to know both the bad and the good.

She left, but he didn't follow, watching as she took a few steps before her feet broke out into an all out run, instead turning and walking slowly the other way as he resumed his interrupted patrol.