DivineSaturn
It took three days for Lydia to feel comfortable leaving the house.
Three days of coming up with explanations for a scenario she only half-understood, one she didn't really want to know the details of. Three days of explaining why her friend couldn't leave the house either, or call home, or contact anyone in any way. It was stressful, and unsustainable, and probably overkill, but none of that mattered. All that mattered was keeping her semi-amnesiac best friend out of trouble, and away from the Negaverse, until she had a better handle on things.
So she stayed in and explained, again and again, her stories full of half-truths and omissions that she hoped he wouldn't notice. She called in from work, and emailed her professors to tell them that she was sick. Her henshin pen stayed in her coat pocket, untouched since the night Cassidy Bresner had become someone else.
When she finally felt it was safe to step outside, without worrying about him following her, or calling his house, or any number of dangerous things, she didn't go to school or to work. Instead, she went to the park, using her pen for the first time in over a week. It was the longest time she'd gone without using it, and still it was shorter than she'd planned. But things were different now.
As her fuku settled around her, Sailor Irene shivered and waved her hand until her phone appeared in it. It was a matter of moments to type up a text message and send it off.
Please meet me at the park when you receive this message. There are important matters I must discuss with you in person.
~Irene~
~Irene~
With that sent, she settled down into one of the swings and, moving it gently with her feet, began to wait.
Ellie Spectre had been in a rather ruffled state since the day Zirconia had taken several individuals to Tartaros, then vanished for unknown reasons. She was easier to irritate than usual, which meant talking with her was like walking on eggshells. Hank had noticed, her parents had noticed, and the tailless guardian cat most definitely had noticed.
She had not patrolled recently, but rather unexpectedly she felt the urge to henshin up. Once she was in the proper suit of Sailor Iris, she soon enough figured out the reason why.
Her Senshi phone had a text message on it. With her rather oafish fingers, she typed out a response.
Heading out now
No fancy emoticons, no fancy squiggles. Just a straight-forward message.
Irene didn't have to wait very long, considering that Ellie Spectre lived just down the street from the park. Her teammate would hear the eternal senshi's heels clicking against the concrete as she drew closer.
"...So ya said it was important... so what's up?"
DivineSaturn
Though she heard the heels, and then the question, Irene didn't get up or turn around. She just kept swinging, her feet never leaving the ground. Ever since she'd arrived she'd been rehearsing what to say, but now that the time came, her carefully planned explanations seemed inadequate. This wasn't just a news briefing. She had to convey how important these events were, both to the cause they fought for, and to her.
"Did you know that knights can do purifications?" she asked, her voice chipper, her smile forced. "It makes sense, of course, but I never even considered it. I know I've been busy lately, but I think if that one was public knowledge, I would have heard it through the grapevine, you know?"
She was rambling. Nervous. There was so much to tell, and she was making a mess of it.
"It's just as flashy as when you do it. Perhaps flashier. I mean, a crystal sword is pretty flashy, isn't it? And not very practical. But it's certainly effective."
Before going on, Irene glanced at Iris, curious to see what the impact of her words would be. Surprise was practically guaranteed, but would it be surprise at the concept, or at the way she found out?
Iris stopped beneath a lamppost, leaning against the post as she listened to the rambling that escaped her teammate. She knew that Irene had been rather supportive of purification in the past, so hearing her chirp up on the same subject matter wasn't surprising.
However, the amount of information tumbling out could have been overwhelming.
Crossing her arms and still maintaining a certain degree of "cool" as she stood there, Iris eventually spoke up.
"I've heard rumors before 'bout some knights possessin' vast amounts of power."
The Silver Millennium had been chock full of rumors, it was almost like high school spread across the universe.
"...however... you need t'tell me what's goin' on." Lifting up a hand and making a rolling motion with her wrist, she mentioned "...none of this 'round about' sh*t, please."
At least she had said 'please.'
DivineSaturn
Interesting, that Iris had heard rumors, but chosen not to share them. Frustrating. Obnoxious. But then, Iris knew all sorts of interesting things. Irene touched the chain of flowers she wore around her waist, stroking one of the large petals. Was it some sort of princess parlor trick, to know something about everything?
Even with the 'please' thrown in, the harshness of Iris' request was grating. "I don't fully know what's going on," she said primly. "That's your talent, not mine. But I can tell you that I saw a knight perform a purification three nights ago. On an agent of the Negaverse. A knight, now. He used an extremely flashy crystal sword, and seemed to be on friendly terms with the lady knight who was there when you tried to help Mister Alois."
That was the bulk of what she wanted to share. The rest- that the knight was her friend, and was staying with her, and her own actions over the past several days- she really didn't want to discuss if she didn't have to. That was her business, not team business.
"Since this is an area of interest to you, I thought you should know. But I didn't want to discuss it over the phone." Her report may have been as businesslike as she could make it, but the matter was too personal to leave to text messages and voicemails, even those of the untraceable senshi variety.
"Hvergelmir," the blonde corrected at the mention of the lady knight. Even with the correction, it was a lot of information to take in and process.
However, when the yellow suited senshi managed to get a grasp on what was explained, her tone grew a bit more sour.
"...so... why th' f*ck were you there? And why wasn't anybody else on th'team with ya? This is th'first I am hearin' 'bout it... so I am kinda confused here as t'why ya were there..."
DivineSaturn
"Miss Hvergelmir, then," Irene conceded, once she figured out that it was a name. Helpful information, but not really the main point, was it?
Iris seemed surprised, finally. There was something satisfying about that, but Irene couldn't really enjoy it. Not with the question she asked, which cut through to the heart of the matter in a way that made her uncomfortable. She stopped moving the swing with her feet and looked away, unable to meet Iris' gaze for this part.
Scared of revealing too much about Cass, even to her captain, she chose her words carefully. "The agent in question was a friend. I didn't know." And that was still eating her up inside. How could she not have figured it out? "The plan was just to say goodbye, but I insisted on going along. I... I didn't want to be forgotten so easily."
That was grossly oversimplified, but it got the point across. "I wasn't trying to sneak around," she added, not wanting to earn Iris' ire. "There was no time to call anyone. They didn't even want to bring me along, but I couldn't... I needed to see it. To make sure things went well." Not that she could have done anything if they didn't. It was more for her than anyone else, and she knew that.
Iris could no longer remain her cool self beneath the lamppost. Uncrossing her arms briefly, she made her way to the girl on her swing via the backside, and rather suddenly struck her with a flat hand against the back of the head. It wasn't anything overly painful or hazardous, but it didn't make it any less insulting.
"Do ya know how dangerous that was?! In th'wrong company, you coulda' been killed!"
Rubbing the side of her hand a bit with the other, she then set her hands back down and wandered to a place where Irene could see her easier. She looked at Irene's face, even with the terrible angle as she avoided eye contact.
In a tone less scolding and far softer, Iris prompted "...this agent... must be important t'ya if yer willin' t'risk somethin' so dangerous, eh?"
DivineSaturn
"Ow!" Irene covered the back of her head with her hand, more surprised than hurt. What was that about?
Of course it was dangerous. But not, she thought, because of the company. She had met the lady knight- Miss Hvergelmir- before. Sort of. And she couldn't believe that Cass would ever hurt her, Negaverse agent or not. Not that he'd had any trouble fighting with Irene, but that was different.
"What was I supposed to do? Say 'thanks for the warning, have fun in your new life' and leave it at that? I was as careful as I could manage. None of them knows who I am, not like this." She gestured at her fuku, indicating that Irene's identity was safe. But Miss Hvergelmir did know she was a senshi. It was the only sort of guarantee she could give that she wasn't there to sabotage everything.
Dangerous or not, it was worth it. She still had Cass in her life, sort of. She would be able to make sure he was safe and supported through this ordeal, able to make good on his potential. That trumped everything else.
"Very important," she agreed. "I wouldn't have gone if it wasn't."
For a moment, Iris remained absolutely silent and seemed almost contemplative. After what almost seemed like an intense minute of the blonde staring at the darker haired girl, the eternal senshi cocked her head.
"...consider that..." she said as she pointed back to Irene's head "...yer punishment fer not followin' th'rules... I won't be so easy on ya next time!"
Pulling away from the other girl and turning slightly, Iris had to ruffle her own hair as she explained "Ya know... th'cat's pretty easy t'get in contact with... even if ya bring her... it's better than nothin'..."
From her current location, she asked "...so is this agent livin' with ya... or... what?" Based off her own experiences with the newly purified, they were very dependent upon others surrounding them.
DivineSaturn
A smack to the head was a pretty gentle punishment, coming from Iris. It still stung. Not because she thought she didn't deserve it, even though these circumstances were unusual, but because she knew she deserved far more. There were so many instances where she'd broken that rule. Just because she didn't call it patrolling didn't make it okay. Not when the last time, her wandering around alone had cost someone else his life.
Iris needed to know about that, before word got back to her some other way. Her actions might have had lasting consequences even beyond the death of a stranger. Irene knew that, but she couldn't bring herself to confess. That was a battle she was totally unprepared for.
She fielded the suggestion with a nod and a shrug. "There was no time. They didn't want to bring me at all. I may have forced the issue." By which she meant that she would not leave either of them alone until they agreed to bring her along. "Next time, I'll try to do better."
If there was a next time, which Irene hoped there wouldn't be. Purifications were good, of course, but she couldn't take it if all of her old friends turned out to be Chaos-infused psychopaths in their spare time.
And of course Iris would know what came next. "Yes, that's right. I'll need to focus on reteaching for a while. It's less of a blank slate than with Psyche, and at least there's no language barrier, but even so..." Cass couldn't remember anything about his life in the Negaverse, or anything that happened in the past several years. There was a lot of work to do. "Do you know why that happens? Going through such a drastic change is hard enough without losing everything you know. It seems so... so harsh."
As prices went, it was a steep one, but the commodity it bought- freedom from a force that seemed to twist your very being- was priceless.
Iris' body shifted back around so she was facing Irene again, but scratching her chin. Her answer wasn't immediate, which meant there was a good chance she might not have an exact answer for the purple suited senshi's question.
And then the answer actually came from the eternal senshi's mouth.
"I don't know fer sure..." At least she was honest. "...I can only guess shock? Probably rather sudden t'be stripped of all that chaos in one go, ya know? Somethin' has t'give I guess."
She shrugged her shoulders. "It sucks... but I don't know if it's all bad or not that they forget somethin'... I can't imagine they have good memories of the Negaverse if they wanted t'leave."
Casually she brushed the strands that framed her face towards the side before asking "...so... anythin' else ya wanna add, or are we done 'ere?"
DivineSaturn
Iris' answer made as much sense as anything else. Even if it was only a guess, Irene decided to accept it, at least until the truth made itself clear. Not that she was sure that day would ever come, or that she wanted it to.
Cass had done terrible things as a Negaverse agent. She knew that from fighting him, and was sure that little scuffles like those only covered the tip of the iceberg. Part of her wanted to know the extent of his actions. The rest of her knew that such knowledge wouldn't help either one of them. And if she didn't need to know, surely he didn't need to, either...
"That's the important part." Irene stood slowly, using the swing's chain to pull herself up. "But I won't be able to patrol until I have this situation under control. It's my responsibility to make sure that everyone stays safe during this period of adjustment."
No one had assigned her that job, but she assumed it willingly, grateful to have the opportunity to do it. Even if she was exhausted after only three days of chasing after him.
As Irene updated the blonde with her patrolling status, Iris simply nodded her head up and down slowly, accompanied by a drawn out "...understood..."
However, before she began to walk away, she added one more thing.
"Let me know if ya need any help with anythin'... I know that job is a handful at best..."
Iris did have some experience with a Greek girl who had more than enough energy to spare at times.
With that, she waved and began to walk off. "Bye!" was the simple word of departure.
DivineSaturn
Irene let out a breath. "Thank you," she called after Iris, allowing herself to fully relax for a moment. For the first time since Cass revealed who he was to her, she really felt that everything would be okay.
Then the moment was over and she began to walk home, wondering what mess he'd made while she was out of the house this time.
