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He entered the room, an eager lieutenant close behind, to the sight of an eternal senshi tired and battered, but still glaring. “I would mind those eyes if I were you. You are in no position to glare. It will do you no good.”

The senshi continued to glare tight lipped and furious. She was chained to the floor like a wild animal, with a bit of balls to her left, which had become apart of the nightmares she endured in any moment she found sleep. It was a great effort to glare, but she would not be broken. They could ask anything they wanted, it was pointless, she didn’t have the information they wanted. She was being tortured for nothing. It only served to fuel her ire and intensify her glare.

“She doesn’t seem to be able to mind her eyes,” said the lieutenant, “figures the likes of her wouldn’t know a good offer when one is given.” He looked to his general briefly for approval before looking back to the eternal. He felt a little uneasy, but he tried to push it down. He wanted desperately to prove himself. He could be useful, instrumental in the war against the invading senshi.

“She indeed does not. It would be much harder for her to glare though should we take those lovely eyes.” He looked to her and gave a smile, sinister and honest before turning to the lieutenant. “Your weapon,” was the only thing he said before the young man was scrambling to action.

A moment later the eternal reared back as liquid blurred her vision causing her to cry out in panic. Her breathing quickened and her heart rate spiked so it was several moment before she realized the culprit was just plain water. “That was not funny in the least. These scare tactics will hardly work, will hardly help you to get any information, which I do not have. You tempt more flies with honey they say. This isn’t exactly a 5-star hotel.”

“That a pity,” started the general. “I thought the ball pit is a quaint touch. So much color to brighten your day. To bad it isnt a pool. I would far prefer to drown you repeatedly, until you talk. Maybe we will fill it for the next batch.”

He paced slowly eyeing her, “I find it hard to believe given your winged status that you know nothing. Tell me, girl. What do you know of the moon and why senshi apparently suddenly have the ability to go there? Planning to revive the moon queen or is she there biding time waiting for her army to grow, so she may take over the earth.”

The lieutenant went a little wide eyed wondering about what the general was saying. Was that possible. He certainly hoped not. The eternal continued to glare, but he immediately soaked her face with water making the girl sputter and feeling proud when the general smirked at him.

She coughed, but it didnt keep the glare off her face. She wasn’t an animal, did they plan to drown via spray bottle tonight. She was angry and indiginant, the tatic was humiliating and pointless. She was enduring so much and for what?!? “I do not know. I have never been to the moon,” she ground out, “as far as I know this moon queen you speak of does not exist. I’m not sure she ever did. Do you think we will follow her? Not likely.”

The general moved forward and have the senshi a languid pet, finger running through oily hair, grabbing tight after and moment and pulling hard. He laughed as the senshi cried out in her awkward angle. “The truth you miserable excuse for human being.”

“She’s not,” pointed out the lieutenant only to be glared at by his general, though the man schooled his features a moment later.

“That’s right, she’s not. She in a ingrate who needs to have her eyes carved out summoning what looked like a bow to his back. He grabbed an arrow and pressed it between the eternal wided panicked eyes.

“I swear,” she said changing her tone. “I don’t know anything about the moon, about Cosmos, about the senshi who glow, about anything. I swear. I swear.” Her cry were loud and frantic, but fear overrode her. Would she survive having her eyes carved out?

The general looked to his younger companion, “Do you still have what I gave you?” A nod was the only answer he received, “use it?”

The young man pulled out a vile and uncapped it, trying not to shake as he moved toward the senshi. If he spilled it, he would suffer, twice over. In physical pain, as well as humiliation and beratement. Standing beside the senshi, he say the fear in her eyes, silently pleading, her neck bent back. He frowned, but he knew what his duty was. He quickly poured the liquid over the girls eyes. Acid, that elicited a scream, a howl of distress from the girl that he jumped back in fright.

She screamed and thrashed, as her eyes burned and she was blinding. She cried and screamed, flailing in distress even after she was released. She would never see again.

The general walked away heading for the door, “shut her up,” he said as he reached for the door handle.

The lieutenant kicked her trying to knock her out, but her howling only got louder. He didn’t like the idea of disappointing his general and in a panic he shoved his hand into her chest. She screamed out piercing the air , filling the hallway, but as he pulled her starseed, blessed silence.


The general hadn’t made it but a few more steps before his young companion came out with the seed twinkling in his hand staring at it in awe. He sighed and shook his head, making no effort to quiet himself, “Pity. She was useless anyway. Feed it to one of the other’s, than get rid of the body before it starts to stink.”

How long had Pisces heard everything?

Voices, screams, and every time she flashed back, not there but in Barren Pines, failing, failing again and again, and not she heard it again, the Zodiac Senshi trembling fearfully and glancing up briefl.

She was chained like the others, but even if she could use magic she couldn't imagine a way to help. Her normally ruffled and kept skirts were growing worn and dirty and at one point her ponytail tie had been removed or cut away, combined with her barettes gone, it left her looking more like a toy doll, ringlets forming all around her face, and in that Respect, in filth, fear, and her own silence, Pisces simply endured.

Was this punishment? Surely it must be. The Zodiac saw no other explination, but she didn't question. The normally pleasant senshi welcomed it, straining her ears to listen as faint conversation caught them. She didn't hear at first, but finally she could hear screaming, loud and shrill agony one, twice - the sound of one dying, and Pisces cringed, looking to the ground as she took blame in on herself.

Of course she was taken. Of course she wasn't escaping alive. The youngest Zodiac had failed her court, and surely they would do without her as they had before she'd come back, and there was a complete sense of despondant, dull aghony listening to the lieutenant's orders. Feed what to someone?

Did it matter? Did any of this make sense?

No, and she didn't dare vocalize or complain. At first she'd hoped for some sign of rescue, but the haunted echos and screams she could hear or barely make out make her quickly abandon hope - for the first time since becoming Sailor Pisces, she lost hope.

So the order came to feed them something and she didn't know what, and she simply grimaced, a soft sad sigh escaping her lips as she studied the ground and grime and chains, and murmured a tone of futility.

"What's the point in this?" She sighed. "Now what's coming?"

She shook her head, and expected no answer, closing her eyes and breathed deep, breath hitching and breaking, but no tears came.

She'd no tears left to cry. Not anymore. And maybe she deserved this. But she held out hope maybe someone would save the others.

Tabitha screamed when the unknown female started screaming, shaking so badly in her restraints that even those made nose. Sobbing loudly, she curled up as much as she could and cried her eyes out. Throat burning and vision blurry with tears, her body gave everything it hand then more.

The energy she had to cry was all she had and the effort to sob drained what little there was. The world went darker, like deciding into a water cave. The last thing she did before the world went dark again was sob pathetically.

In the dark, she had the golden threads, the hopes of the cat saving her, of find some good among these monsters. The brightest thread, the hope she'd wake up in her bed.

How many days had passed since New Years Eve?

Was her brother out looking for her? Was he one of the civilian casualties of the evening? Worse yet, did he live a secret double life and end up trapped in this hell as well? Or was he actually one of the Negaverse Agents that had brought them all here and visited them all with intentions of breaking them one by one, piece by piece?

How long had she been staring up at the ceiling? The darkness and silence was almost worse than when someone was in the room with her. At least then she could expect something, anything. She knew that bad things were inevitable. But laying in waiting... That alone was going to drive her to insanity.

Skadi lay in the darkness, her arms bound tightly behind her back, the rope cutting into the raw, tender skin at her wrists. Her typically ethereal fuku was dark, bloodied and torn and her braid was mostly undone by now. She figured at least that several days had passed, and still the young teen had no idea why she was here. Did they really expect a first stage Senshi to know anything? It must be a mistake. They must have grabbed her by mistake. But if it was a mistake... Why was she still here? Skadi groaned quietly and rolled onto her side, closing her eyes. Maybe if she willed it hard enough, all of this would just go away.

Unfortunately, that thought was ripped away and she was brought back to the harsh reality of the situation by the shrill screams coming from a room or two over. Her eyes snapped open and her own breathing seemed to quicken as she listened to her neighbour cry out. Her body curled in on itself, wanting desperately to wrap her arms around her knees and bury her face.

Then suddenly the screaming stopped and she could hear orders being given to a second person. Feed it to one of the others.

"No. No, no, no." Skadi began to sob hysterically. It didn't matter what they were feeding to one of the other living captives. All that mattered was that some part of a once living human was going to be forced upon one of them. The thought had Skadi dry heaving in between choked sobs. The bluenette's body shook violently and she began to thrash against her bonds until finally she just didn't have enough energy to fight and she went limp on the cold concrete. When she fell silent, she could hear the screams and cries of the other captives that very obviously heard the same things that she did. She tried desperately to listen past them and for footsteps of approaching Negaverse officers. Listening for her fate.

She would rather die in this awful place than endure whatever was coming next.

The lieutenants footfalls were soft as he wandered, but in the surely in the panicked minds of those who worried for what would happen, they echoed like the beat of a thousand drums.

A captain smirked at his and walked beside him. "I see you've pulled your first. Its invigorating, isn't it. Empowering. And that order. I have never seen what it might do to a senshi. Maybe the same thing it does for us, a boost of energy, so we can beat it out of them."

The lieutenant closed his had around the starseed and gave a somewhat nervous but excited look, "well we should find out shouldn't we. Need someone to hold the em down."

The captain took on a devious look and nodded, "there are ones that glow. One is like a road map, but the other's are more akin to roadmaps. You can't pull their starseed, so maybe it should be one of those who gets another."

The lieutenant nodded, he knew about the ones that had glowing skin. "We are close to one now."

"Yeah," the captain nodded, "the one in the cage."

"Hmmm," he said as the captain lead the way to the senshi. Entering the area where she was held captive, starseed glittering beneath the lieutenants fingers.

"Hello lovely," the captain started heading over and grabbing the cage door, "let's go. We brought you a treat. Far better than anything you have had this week. Something you will never forget."

He made a grab for Ganymede, fully intent on dragging her out and for her to her knees. He looked to the lieutenant and grinned, "Bon appetite, yes."

The lieutenant grinned getting more into this, "bon appetite ... unless you can tell us why you glow. Why the others glow? Why I can supposedly do this to you." He showed the seed briefly, a teasing flash.

The captain frowned hoping this one was a stubborn as the rest because if she answered he doubted the lieutenant would have the balls to feed the seed to her. If that was the case, he would do it himself. She would eat it, whether she answered or not.

Leave her alone… He couldn’t bear the agonized screams. It was as though he was being tortured again, as if each injury that was inflicted on the others was a new wound for himself. His heart and body ached with pain and grief. What was worse than not being able to move was not being able to do anything to help. If only he was freed from these chains he would…—

What…? What could he possibly do? Despite the threats he spat at their more violent captors, he knew there was nothing he could do to help alleviate anyone of the pain and suffering they’ve endured.

“Leave her alone…” he spoke out, barely more than a whisper as the screaming continued. Valhalla closed his eyes tightly, his head hung from exhaustion, his face twisting with anger and despair beneath the bandages he wore. What had they possibly done to incur such a punishment? Been born? That wasn’t a good enough answer for him. They were human too, despite the Negaveres’s convoluted beliefs.

“Leave her alone!” he shouted now, yanking hard against the chains, as if that time, maybe that time, they would be loosened and he would be able to escape. But as every time before, they simply bit into his already raw and broken skin from countless times he’d struggled against them. Never for himself, for he was resigned to his fate, but that didn’t mean he agreed with or wanted what the Negaverse was doing to the others. To Ganymede and Acrucis…

Over the days he’d learned other names, begged those who had shown him the smallest amount of kindness or compassion for the names of others there. And then there were those who sneered names, bragged about beating them and making them suffer. Hvergelmir sounded familiar, as did Kairatos, their faces vague in his memory from encounters with large groups of knights. Celsus was a name he hadn’t heard for a long time, but that meant he was at least alive, for now. Penthesilea and Mintaka he didn’t recall ever meeting, but Ganymede had mentioned to him an Amphitrite before…

There had to be others… four or five whose names hadn’t been mentioned to him in passing, but whose screams he could hear. Whose screams he could hear now he didn’t know.

Then she suddenly stopped.

He stopped as well, holding his breath, but only long enough to listen for if she would suddenly scream out again. There was nothing but silence. Valhalla cursed and tore at his chains once more, but there was no use. If they had killed her, that meant it was only a matter of time before they would start killing the rest of them. But this... this was something worse than death.

Valhalla always thought he could hear Ganymede’s screams more distinctly than the others, and while the Negaverse seemed to try to be careful about revealing too much of what they were doing, they didn’t seem to be taking any precautions in being quiet now.

They were going to one that glowed… one in a cage… to do what…? Feed her something… something that had silenced the other senshi… something that made her aura disappear completely...

“Leave her alone!” Valhalla screamed out now, hysterical in his pointless attempts to free himself from his chains. To do something. Anything. He couldn’t sit around like this, being weak and pathetic as others were being killed and forced to do horrific things. “Leave her alone!” he snarled again, desperate and pleading, although he knew there was no use.

There was no help for them now.

Footsteps never sounded so ominous.

Ganymede continued to struggle with her cage, but each of her efforts to free herself proved futile.

She could hear voices drawing closer. Her heart beat wildly in response; her breaths came in short gasps.

“There are ones that glow,” they said.

“You can't pull their starseed,” they said.

“The one in the cage,” they said.

“Oh my God,” she breathed.

She let go of the bars of her cage. She backed up to the other side, trembling. Her vision narrowed on the door ahead of her, the voices of the officers echoing loudly in her ears, repeating over and over in a hysterical mind.

Dimly, beyond the door, passed the officers drawing ever closer, she thought she could hear Valhalla shouting.

“Leave her alone!” he said. “Leave her alone!”

She wished she could call out to him, but her throat was dry and clogged with terror. When she open her mouth to try, nothing came out but a tremulous, terrified moan.

She thought she'd moved beyond her fear. She'd conquered it that evening in the graveyard with Laurelite. Now she could face battles like Elysion with a firm resolve; she could face up to her role as a Senshi with something akin to pride. She understood the dangers, but she no longer trembled in the face of the enemy. She'd stared Death in the face and walked away. She'd withstood everything they'd thought to do to her—the beatings, the branding, the isolation, listening to Valhalla being tortured, watching it with her own eyes, able to do nothing.

But she was afraid now. She was genuinely terrified, sick to her stomach and shaking like that young, lost, and powerless Senshi she used to be. They'd stripped her of her power, of her dignity. They left her with nothing more than her identity.

Now they were going to force her to take someone else's.

The door opened. A Lieutenant and a Captain walked into the room. Slowly, with a creaking and a groaning that sounded too loud in her ears, the door shut behind them. The Captain approached her cage, grinning.

“Hello, lovely,” he said.

There was a Captain she'd encountered once, years ago by the volcano in Elysion. He'd placed his hand upon her chest and made to reach in for her starseed, to snuff her out before she even had the chance to make something of herself. She saw him again in her dreams of the future—more powerful then, and more terrible for it. She remembered his voice most of all, the quiet timbre of it crooning to her just before he went to reach in.

Now she could add another voice to those she would never forget.

“Hello, lovely,” he said, a phrase that would haunt her for the rest of her life.

The Captain opened her cage. Ganymede darter forward to run but was caught before she could slip by him. He took her by the arms and forced her out into the room. She struggled wildly—flung out her fists, kicked with her legs, bucked like she could dislodge herself from his grip—but he held fast and forced her to her knees on the ground. He held her there, leaving no room for escape.

Ganymede looked into the Lieutenants face. She could not look at the starseed he hand in his hand. Whose was it? She hadn't recognized the screams as belonging to any particular person, though the sound of them had become familiar during her captivity. It could have been anyone. It could have been Ida or Auriga. It could have been Maia or Pasiphae. It could have been her cousin, locked up and chained as she was. Powerless. Defenseless. Another innocent life ended too soon.

“I don't know!” she screamed. “I don't know! It just happened! Avalon couldn't pull it! When Laurelite put her hand in my chest she was forced back and the markings appeared! That's all I know! I don't know what it is or why! I don't know anything! I've told you... I've told you...”

"Let me ask you something," Hvergelmir began slowly. "What is a starseed?"

"That's easy," Zippeite started. "It's uh... it's like this crystallized energy inside a person and if you take it out they die. Painite makes soul stealer jokes. When we eat them it's like a ton of energy orbs in one big blast."

"Okay, so -- " One hand rose to Hvergelmir's mouth in alarm, the other one clenched a handful of fabric at the front of her dress like she was afraid she might be sick. Her eyes betrayed her further, wide with horror.

"S-sorry," she said in a whispery voice, "when you what?!"

"Uh..." Zippeite shuffled on his feet. "People die with regular old energy draining too. When you take too much. But this is like, compressed all at once so it's not as time consuming but we're really not supposed to do it except in emergencies because you can't get any more energy out of a dead person. But they're good to have on hand. For emergencies. And stuff. When you use an energy orb it's a nice pick me up but a starseed is like this big shot of burning fire and a ton of Mountain Dew and it hurts but it feels good at the same time and I can see how some people get addictions because the sparks on your tongue are..."

It was here he finally trailed off, and his eyes darted around nervously.

"Maybe it's best if we just go back to Earth now," he said, bringing his hand up to give a little cough into his fist.

She stared at him for a few long seconds. She frowned.

"Do you see that bright light, off in the distance, just there? The star a little brighter than the rest?" she asked, voice soft, pointing to the brightest side of the sky, where the absolute galactic center lay. "That's called the Galaxy Cauldron -- and this temple is the closest you can get to it without permission from Sailor Cosmos and her senshi. That's where starseeds are born -- and it's where they go again when we die, until we're ready to be reborn in new lives." Hvergelmir lowered her arm back to her side. "A starseed's not just a little wad of energy. It's every lifetime a person will ever have."

The voices -- the screams -- were louder these days. If Hvergelmir had to guess, they'd taken mattresses off the outside walls, or piped things over loudspeakers, or something else. The funhouse was equipped to frighten and entertain, and this worked to good effect with its literal captive audience. Their ringleaders had a lot to show off.

She was selfishly glad when they didn't bring the starseed to her cell to be eaten. Glad it was one of the uncorruptibles, because that meant it wasn't her, wasn't Kairatos -- it was someone whose specific face she'd never have to see or imagine. Hvergelmir had no real expectation of seeing any friendly faces anymore.

And it wasn't Ida or Babylon. They didn't know about Babylon -- had asked only about a senshi with glowing marks -- so they didn't, couldn't have him. And it couldn't be Ida: safely off-world, where Hvergelmir had begged her not to go and was now relieved she'd went, untouchable by this ugliness.

It was someone else. She hoped whatever unlucky soul got this burden didn't blame themselves for it. It was a hard thing to carry, ending the full cycle of someone's existence.

She wept for fear and for sorrow, and most of all, for relief -- because at least it wasn't her, eating or eaten.