It was well after midnight on a Friday night. The wind was blowing a chill through the air and the threat of snow lingered like an annoying friend. Her lilac eyes could hardly stay open as she sat high up on a billboard sign overlooking some random street. For once she didn’t have homework or her internship to worry about the next day, and it had honestly been way too long since she’d been out past midnight.

The girl with the heavy head of hair was nodding off haphazardly, possibly teetering with Yumi next to her to put a paw on her lap if she teetered too much.

“Honestly,” Yumi chided, climbing in Kepler’s lap completely. “If you want to sleep, just go home, Kepler. No one will mind it. You over work yourself so much!” The snowshoe cat nuzzled up against Kepler’s chest, which earned her a pat on the head. “I’m serious!”

“I know, I know,” she murmured, waving her hand in front of her face as she stretched out. Kepler yawned wider, making a soft noise as she did and then sighed, leaning heavily against the billboard, waiting to see if anything would actually happen. “In the next ten minutes, if nothing happens, I’ll go to home and sleep.”

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Amytis could feel an Order aura not far from her - a Senshi, for sure, and...maybe something else, though the second aura was weaker and not so easy to pin down. A cat, then, maybe? Cats had smaller auras. The Dark Mirror had to admit, she was...curious. So she jogged towards the auras, but stopped far enough away that she wouldn’t present as threatening.

“Um, hello?” She called, fiddling nervously with her hands in front of her. This was someone unfamiliar, which could be good and could be bad - and yes, there was the cat, she had been right. “My name is Amytis.”


The presence of another aura woke Kepler up enough to actually be on alert. She narrowed her lilac eyes and squinted out at the darkness until someone stopped close to her. Oh. This was a Dark Mirror Senshi. Right? Not necessarily an enemy so she’d hold off on attacking right away. With a little smile on her face (she hoped it looked not wary), Kepler nudged the cat off of her again and gave a bit of a wave. It was interesting the places they could meet up.

“I’m Kepler,” she said, hoping her voice carried in the wind that was blowing. “This is Yumi.” She patted the cat’s head to be sure Amytis knew who she was talking about.

Yumi, however, just nipped at Kepler’s hand and let her tail lash a bit. Honestly she didn’t trust anyone not on the Order side but this one wasn’t attacking immediately. It was odd.

Kepler rolled her eyes a bit and just waved her closer. “There’s room on the billboard edge if you want to come sit.”

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Amytis frowned. The cat didn’t look entirely friendly, but, well, at least the Senshi was - so she bounded her way up to the billboard and took a seat, just out of arm’s reach. “Thanks,” she said. The wind picked up her hair and whipped it around, which was sort of an interesting feeling. She enjoyed it, all things considered. And it seemed unlikely to her that this would turn into a fight - too much danger to both of them.

“Lovely to meet you, Kepler and Yumi,” she said, just as polite to the cat as she was to the Senshi, because she had a pretty good idea which of the two she had to win over. And because Guardian Cats deserved at least some respect, anyway, they were important to everyone.


Yumi literally turned her nose to the air and her body towards Amytis so her butt was showing. She wasn’t making friends with someone not on the Order faction, thank you very much. “Kepler, you shouldn’t talk to her,” she hissed out, not even trying to be quiet about it.

The girl just looked at her cat and frowned. She’d never seen Yumi act like this, but they didn’t talk to many that weren’t clad in white. Unless it was Kerberos, but she didn’t talk about him to Yumi because the cat wouldn’t understand. Rolling her eyes, she looked at Amytis and just shrugged. “Cats. Temperamental. You shouldn’t take offense to her. She’s ...Well she’s not harmless, but she won’t attack you. If you try to pick her up she might… But..” Kepler shrugged again before staring out over the vast city that was lit up like it was Christmas all over again. It was one of the sights she never got tired looking at.

All things considered, she was glad she didn’t have to fight tonight. Her energy was only high enough to keep her powered, it felt like. “So you’re not part of our faction… What’s your faction like?”

She prayed Amytis wasn’t as sad as Kerberos was. She was such a bleeding heart.

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It was sort of hard to not be hurt by the cat’s utter and complete rejection, and Amytis knew it had to show on her face. It sort of sucked to be in the Court sometimes, and this was one of those times. Everyone seemed to think they were horrible untrustworthy monsters, one way or the other, and it hurt, a lot.

But she tried to lighten up and smile, because at least Kepler was friendlier than her cat and that absolutely counted for something in Amytis’s mind. She could be friends with her, if not with Yumi, and that would just have to do, wouldn’t it? “Well, I won’t try to pick her up, then,” she said.

“I’m a Dark Mirror Senshi,” she said. “We’re Chaos, but we’re not the Negaverse. There are only a few of us and we’re really tight-knit, and...we have a Princess, and a Prince.” She smiled faintly, fondly. Certainly she didn’t like being Chaos, and her loyalties were wavering, but she still...she still loved those people.


A prince and a princess. Kepler grinned wider, her interest perking up and waking her up even more. Which was probably what she needed, honestly. Otherwise she would fall asleep and slip to her civilian guise, and then what?

“Tight-knit with royalty.. I haven’t even met any royalty yet.” It shouldn’t be surprising, honestly. The Order side was really spread out and big. She felt at home there, but at the same time it was a bit lonely. If it wasn’t for Yumi, well, Kepler would be a ball of absolute confusion. She pet over her cat’s back at the thought before looking back at Amytis. “It must be nice, coming from a small faction, but… from the look of your face I take it it isn’t all perks.. I don’t.. know. I don’t meet many Dark Mirror senshi. I tend to just stick to a specific area, circle of friends. I want to meet more though.”

They couldn’t be bad if Amytis was talking to her, right?

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“I don’t know how Order does it,” Amytis admitted. “I would be so lost if I didn’t have Remarque and Leto.” And Tantalus, and Damocles, and Chariklo -- so many people who she would not have survived without. It felt a little traitorous to them that she felt so unsure of her loyalty to the court - unsure of a loyalty for the first time in her life.

“I, uhm,” she swallowed and stared down at her skirts. “The people who founded our Court were not...they made a lot of enemies. Almost everyone hates us, mistrusts us - because we’re Chaos, but we don’t fall into line with what the Negaverse wants. So they don’t like us, and a lot of your people don’t like us either…”


Kepler nodded a little bit as she talked, listening intently. “...I look up to Ida, honestly. She’s helped me out the most, save for this one.” She patted Yumi’s rear end and then laughed when she was glared at.

Yumi didn’t much care for this talk. in all honesty. She’d already said they were Chaos aligned and didn’t understand the Order, so what more could be said to the girl? The snowshoe locked blue eyes on Amytis as she hesitantly crawled back into Kepler’s lap. They honestly shouldn’t even be talking to her, but Kepler didn’t listen to her. She made her own decisions.

What good is it to have a Guardian Cat if you’re just going to ignore her? Yumi thought to herself, tail flicking in an annoyed manner.

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“...Well, I … don’t personally see why. Just because your Royalty made bad decisions and made enemies… That’s not every Dark Mirror Senshi’s fault. But it’s being going on hundreds of years, basing a whole culture of what royals do. I’m sorry it’s happened to you, honestly. I think you’re a good person. Otherwise you would have just attacked.”

“My wi - uhm, fiancee knows Ida really well,” Amytis said. It was strange to not be married yet to Chariklo, when she remembered being married so very, very well. But it hadn’t happened yet, in this world, and it might not for...who knew how long. There was too much to sort out.

She frowned faintly at the cat. “I don’t mean harm to either of you,” she said, insistently. “I really don’t. I don’t like attacking anyone, unless they attack me first.”

“I’m just glad that some of us can make our own decisions,” she flashed Kepler a smile, “and get to know who people are instead of just...what faction they’re in.” Ordinarily she would be trying to sell the Court, but she couldn’t, not now, not tonight.


“I… probably wouldn’t do this with a Negaverse officer, and honestly? You aren’t the first Chaos aligned senshi I’ve talked to.. I’ve talked to Keberos..” He was a sad puppy and she really wanted to help him more than she could. Honestly Kepler wanted to tug him to her chest and hold him and pet him until everything was fine and he was a happy person, but that wouldn't happen. She just hoped it got better for him. “Senshi I’m more open to talking to. Negaverse agents? Not so much.”

She wrinkled her nose at that and then rolled her eyes. She would never understand The Negaverse side of things. Not in a million years.

“It’s so late..”

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“I don’t know Kerberos,” Amytis admitted. He obviously wasn’t of her Court, or she was sure she would at least know his name, right? There couldn’t be that many Dark Mirrors she was wholly and completely unaware of. “But I’ve had...a lot of problems with Negaverse agents.” What with the White Phoenix ambush and all.

She glanced out over the city and considered, for a long moment, how many were out there. How many battles were taking place while she sat here and chatted?

“Maybe we should part ways for the evening? I‘d love to see you - and Miss Yumi, even though she doesn’t like me much- again, sometime, at a less late hour.”


“He’s corrupted, I think, not part of your faction.” That was really all she said on that subject. Kepler could feel her brain slowly starting to shut down and it made her yawn really wide, rubbing at her eyes.

Then she heard Amytis say they should part ways and then laughed. “I think it might be best,” she said after a moment, thinking about it and looking down at her cat. “I’m always around this area, if you want to chat again.” Taking a breath, she stood up, Yumi in her arms and squeezed her a little tighter.

“Come on, Yumi. Bed time.” She bounced the cat a little and looked to Amytis. “Until next time!” With that, Kepler bounded away, not quite the way home, but close enough. She didn’t want to give away her home position.