She’d lost energy in her fight with Iphigenia, and oh, that was just terrible. Asrophyllite’s fingers shook at the very thought of what might happen if she were short on her quota. She knew that Natron wasn’t a cruel commanding officer, but that wasn’t what she was afraid of at this juncture. No, what Astrophyllite feared was having someone stop and pay too much attention to her, to notice that she was struggling and slipping away.

It was so odd, she thought, forcing her fingers to be steady. Usually she would have done anything to win a superior’s care and kindness, but right now it would spell disaster. She just needed to recover her quota and then everything would be okay and she’d have a few more weeks to sort out her purification and-

The unconscious biker she was standing over shifted, groaning. Astrophyllite shied back, holding what she’d already pulled close to her chest. Then, he turned again and slept on, and she bent back down, pressing her fingers lightly against his neck. She would only take a little bit more here. He would never notice it missing, and it would buy her the time she so desperately needed…

I’m worse and worse every day, she thought, rolling the energy beneath her fingers. I’ve taken too much. No princess will ever want me.

Shibrogane
Elke was walking, alone. She wasn’t supposed to be walking, because it was--because it was exercise and she tended to do that too much, so much that her knees had turned knobbly and her wrists bony and small--dark out, and there were monsters that she was not equipped to fight. Nor did she know how to stop fighting them, at least the ones that looked like they held a human form.

It was most important to note that she was not looking for the Negaverse captain she found. She wanted to walk to the park and back, to lose some of the anxious energy that rattled around her rib cage, demanding action and something more. It demanded the glow of a senshi transformation.

The pink-haired Captain was so young, and for a few heartbeats she thought about leaving, but. “Get away from him,” she said, her voice clear and strong. She found herself grabbing the tall girl’s collar and bodily yanking her away, throwing all of her weight into it. Elke weighed a little over a hundred pounds soaking wet, so that wasn’t much, but--she tried. She’d make this work.


She didn’t feel the young woman coming, but she grabbed her with such intensity that at first Astrophyllite thought she was a senshi. The energy sphere tumbled from her fingers - she was already so shaky, and abrupt movement wasn’t helping. Astrophyllite flailed, pulling away from her attacker, and turned towards her, crying out, “Ow!”

She looked down, registering in shock that her attacker was a civilian. Astrophyllite was blind to her - there would be no helpful whiffs of energy to suggest her nature. “You shouldn’t be here,” she said anxiously. The energy sphere had shattered when she dropped it, pieces sinking back into the chest of the man she’d drawn it from. They were so fragile and - and her night was ruined.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” she begged. “But I have to - I have to hurt him. Just a little. I’m sorry. Please just go away.”

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She didn’t have to do anything, Elke thought, vision going a vicious red. This awful Captain didn’t have to do jack s**t--Elke knew their type, she knew how it was that they were excellent fakers. They lied as naturally as they breathed. They killed even easier. “The one who shouldn’t be here is you, monster,” she snapped, and she stepped forward into a sharp shove, the effort more tiring than it would have been only a year ago. “I know what you are and it is unnatural.”

The energy returned to the man on the ground. “What makes him different from me,” she said. “What makes him different from you?” Her voice was too loud. The world was too small, and the walls of the alley were closing in on her, sharp-edged and terrible. “Get away from him.”


Astrophyllite had never been confronted by a civilian this way, and she had no answers for the woman. She knew she was a monster. She knew she was unnatural. There wasn’t a lie there. “He-” she stammered. “He-” Camlann had told her to target people who wouldn’t miss their energy, people who deserved to lose it, but she’d been pushing the boundaries for weeks now. She’d chosen him because he was an easy mark and nothing more.

“I’m going,” she said, voice cracking raggedly. “I’m getting away from him. I-”

I want to disappear, she thought, staggering backwards. She’s right. I’m a monster, and I want to die.

“You’re so lucky,” she said, choking back tears. “You don’t know what it’s like to have to do this. What I wouldn’t give to be you.”

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The Captain was upset! There was a twinge of pity, ruthlessly extinguished. Good, the b***h deserved to be. Elke wanted to laugh, but it would’ve become a shout of despair more than the mockery she wanted. She choked it back and said, “I know what it’s like to be victimized by your kind.” Her entire body was weak with revulsion, knees trembling at the audacity of what she was doing. Oh, she was lucky to still be breathing. The adrenaline rush warred with her anger and disgust.

“You--” She couldn’t admit the crimes Astrophyllite’s kind had committed without outing herself. But she could stick to what was true. “--you killed my best friend. Your kind. You killed my brother and you say I’m lucky? You dumb b***h. True luck would be if your kind never saw the light of day.”


There still wasn’t a lie. Astrophyllite swallowed a sob. No princess will ever want you, she thought. You will never be a knight in the service of anyone. She called her club to hand - and offered it to the young woman, handle outstretched.

“So kill me then,” she said. “You hate me and my kind so much? Kill me. I never asked for this. I hate being like this - and you, you want me to die. We’ll both get what we want. It’s only fair.”

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Elke didn’t hesitate before taking the club. It was heavy, but Elke could have lifted a truck then, she was sure. She thought about talking about Chronos, her hand on the shaft of the Negaverser’s weapon. She thought about offering the possibility of purification. But there was no part of her that wanted to offer forgiveness, or absolution. The only absolution the Negaverse deserved was death. So she hefted the club, stance wide to distribute the weight better. “Kneel,” she said, pointing at the concrete.

“Or don’t,” said another voice, and Elke turned. A knight, she thought, white and black with an ash-lavender waistcoat. “Astrophyllite, stay put.” His red hair caught the light, and she frowned at him, the interruption giving her time to slow down, to think about what she was going to do.

Her breath caught in her chest. A cold sweat popped up on the back of her neck. There was still no guilt, but--she wanted to move past this. Becoming a vigilante wouldn’t accomplish that. It’d drag her deeper. She was an addict trying to get her fix, and she wanted to see this Negaverser’s blood paint the ground. No one was strong enough to resist that need. She steeled her resolve, hefted the club, and swung. The club slapped into the Squire’s hand, gloved hand wrapped just below the ball. “Go home,” he said. “She’s not yours to kill.”

Elke obeyed.

Camlann turned to Astrophyllite. Tears were streaking down her face, but he didn’t reach out to fold her into a hug. He knew her feelings about him, how she never wanted to see him again, but he couldn’t let her just die. She was misled. She could be saved. He tossed her weapon down with a clatter.

He stepped out of range, over the prone man’s body, and he ran a hand through his hair. “Are you alright,” he asked.


Astrophyllite had already gotten down on her knees when Camlann appeared, but she felt his approach - salt and iron and blood. She even hoped he wouldn’t come to her rescue - it would be better to make this quick, to not make him see her like this, but-

But there he was, and he’d saved her.

Astrophyllite got to her feet, and she tried to nod back her tears but her jaw just wouldn’t move that way. “No,” she said, choking on the word. “No, I’m not, I-” Why was he standing so far away from her? Was it because of what she’d said to him last time she saw him? No. No, she wanted a hug. “She was going to kill me,” she said, staring down at her club and imagining it smeared with her own blood. All things being infinite, there was an alternate universe where it had swung true. “Why couldn’t you let me die?”

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Why couldn’t he have let her die? She’d told him she never wanted to see him again. She’d attacked him when he was trying to help her, to reach out. Camlann had heard her ask the civilian girl to kill her--it was her wish. “Sestra moya,” he said, and that was it, that was the whole explanation. He cared about her. He’d worried about her. Even if she wasn’t his sister as the world measured it, that was how he thought of her. Beyond that, she was inclade, in the way that his wonder defined it. Kind, if not kin.

He didn’t want to get a knee in the groin again, but she was crying. On her feet, crying, and alive. Camlann stepped back over the man--sorry, comrade--and folded her carefully into his arms. If she wanted to hurt him, whatever. Bruises healed. “I want you to live and be happy someday,” he said, “and you cannot do that if you are dead.” He had attempted to kill someone for the crime of harming his inclade. A civilian wouldn’t get an exemption from his duties.

“I can call Castor to us, if you want to be free.” The offer came up without him consciously thinking about it. He hadn’t seen Castor in quite a while, but--he wanted her to be happy. Sestra moya.


Astrophyllite dug her hands into the front of Camlann’s vest and pressed her face into his shoulder and she sobbed. “He won’t want me,” she said miserably. “I’m too bad, and I-” She’d made plans. She’d wanted Hvergelmir to be there when it was time, and Colchis, and Aludra, and - there were so many people who had helped her, so many people who she wanted to see when she was finally ready and she wanted it to be perfect.

Maybe you’re just not going to get that, she thought, and, a moment later, what the hell are you waiting for you dumb baby?!

“Please,” she said, changing her tune. “Please. Please, Camlann, I can’t do this anymore. I’d rather die.”

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“I will call him,” he said, rubbing calming circles on her back. “You will love being a knight, Astrophyllite. I promise.” He certainly did.