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It took him a second to register the presence in the room, another second to remember what had happened last time someone was there... and the burst of panic worked better than caffine.

It wasn't her again, and he wasn't on display like a piece of beef...though he was entirely unsure about the pink mist drifting from the crystal flower in her hands.

He wasn't even sure he could put a finger on her, but that might have been exhaustion from being drained, and the deep ache that hung over him all the way to his star seed... though if he wasn't entirely loosing his mind it was... less intense than it had been, fading even.

He narrowed his eyes at her warily, trying to shake loose the name from his foggy thoughts. She looked a little like Kerberos, but the hair was wrong, and she was... well... she. And no little flowers everywhere.

"Let me guess. You've got questions." He growled, his voice still raspy. What was this? Good cop, bad cop?

At least she couldn't have a youma with her, not that he knew of.

"Don't waste your time, I was done buying what the Negaverse had to sell a while ago."

She looked so upset, standing there, he actually felt guilty about the distrusting snarl, but he just didn't know]. SHE could have been behind it. It might be another trick, setting him up to be more vulnerable the next time she decided to carve bits out of his skin.

He felt like a kicked junkyard dog that had woken up from a dream of being in a safe home only to find himself back behind wire gates surrounded by rot and hate. It was already damn difficult to trust even the most gentle looking gesture, lest it be followed by a swift kick.

"Hvergelmer?" He jumped at the reference, clearly concerned.

Persephone? He should know that name, damnit. He was sure he'd heard it somewhere, and he didn't mean passing references to mythology. "How is she?"

If this one was a trap it was a good one, he jumped and couldn't help it. Even though she said it wasn't...

He was feeling better. Maybe it was the flower, and maybe it would cost later when all the hurts came back, but god it was a relief right now.

"Is she alright?"

"Fine." He snorted with wry laughter, not believing it for a second... but she was well enough to at least pass along a pleasant lie, and that was something. "I haven't lost sight of my North Star." He promised. "You can tell her that."

He hoped not to loose sight of it no matter what happened, but that might be excessive optimism under the circumstances.

"You'll understand if I ask you to tell her the same..."

It was too much to ask if she had a key, if she had... well...he doubted she'd use it anyway. She had no way of knowing if he would turn on her any more than he did of her.

"You could drop a hint next time you go out stealing energy..." he suggested, though his expression said he suspected he knew this was unlikely. Food sounded good... no... food sounded amazing, and he almost bit his lip just thinking about it... but what would it even do? fuel him to stay alive to be corrupted?

"...I'd offer to chip on on a pizza but I'm a little tied up at the moment." He joked wearily, trying to lighten the mood slightly, because he could, because he was exhausted, starving, and it was more exhausting being angry and afraid.

"No... no." He gestured vaguely from the wrist, with his limited range of motion to dismiss the pizza thing. No sense getting someone else lynched, especially with Schorl on the ******** loose.

"I... used to." He admitted. He remembered chasing Ixion through the underside of the seats. I'm the goddamn boogie man.

Yeah he'd had no damn idea what the hell the boogie man was like until this capture.

"Of course I don't remember this being policy either."

He remembered what had happened to those who had tried to put their foot down and refuse alliance with Ares though. He hadn't been among the tortured, but he remembered the eyes of people who had been. He wondered if his would look like that if he got out of here.

"I thought things were ugly when I left. Maybe I was the fool Zinkenite thought I was."

"I think they told you what you needed to hear." There wasn't a way to sugar coat it, and she didn't want that anyway. "When he he came to me, he came to a very angry man shaking his fist at the world and offered him the power to enact 'justice' for every wrong I imagined had been done to me. Then he turned me loose with so little idea of what I was doing that as a Lieutenant I directly attacked an Senshi Royal. He whipped an angry starved dog into a frenzy and set him loose to do as much harm as I could. I saw them punish people for not wanting an alliance with the freshly corrupted Blood Moon Court. I saw them throwing lives down a hole and nothing coming from it except a demand for more. The only thing true here is Schorl. She's everything the negaverse really is. Pain. Suffering. And Death, all for their own sake. But they wrap it up nicely and package it up so that it sounds like you're getting everything you ever wanted, and hope you don't notice until you're too far down it's throat for your little kicking feet to make much difference."