Word Count: 659

She should have known better than to believe that everything would be fine. New Year's should have taught her as much. Her years as a Senshi should have taught her as much. “Fine” was not a luxury she could have in a city like this, where darkness lingered around every corner. “Fine” was for other people in other places, with less involved problems than those caused by a magical war.

The attack came on a clear spring night—the sort of picturesque evening one would not have expected to be interrupted by evil. The moon was silver bright. There was not a cloud in sight, and a gentle wind blew through the streets, swirling through leaves which rustled quietly. All was still and tranquil.

It was in the stillness that Paris's world tilted on its axis.

Paris left the Destiny City Theatre, turned the corner onto a side street, and saw Olivia Battaglia prone and unconscious upon the ground.

“Olivia!”

Two steps was all she took. Two steps and she saw him there, a Negaverse agent holding a starseed, standing above Olivia's inert form, and it was as if Paris's entire world broke into a million pieces.

She did not think her actions through but acted purely on instinct. One moment her hand was in her bag, fingers curling around the familiar shape of her pen, and the next instant she was calling upon her magic and transforming in plain sight.

A part of her knew how foolish it was. The rest of her didn't care.

She observed two things about the Lieutenant before she attacked. The first was that he was young. He could not have been too much older than Peter. In fact, he looked to be the same age Paris had been when she first became a Senshi, and he was likely as inexperienced because of it.

The second was that he had his eyes trained on her the entire time, and was therefore well aware of her identity.

But Paris was lost in the moment. She saw the starseed in the Lieutenant's hand, Olivia on the ground, and nothing else.

“Searing Passion!” she shouted, and the Negaverse agent was screaming, dropping to his knees and writhing on the ground from the pain of it. Ganymede rushed him and wrenched the starseed from his grasp, crawled along the ground in a desperate struggle to make it to Olivia before it was too late.

She brought the starseed to Olivia's chest and watched as it was returned to its proper place.

“Senshi,” the Lieutenant seethed. His glare was dark and murderous, and though he summoned his weapon, he was easily disarmed of it.

Ganymede tackled him to the ground. She saw red, lost to her own emotions. She took the Lieutenant by the collar, jerked him forward, and slammed him against the ground. He grunted upon impact, the back of his head colliding with the asphalt.

Ganymede thought of Olivia and the children she was carrying--her children—and she slammed the Lieutenant's head against the ground again and again and again.

Then it was the Lieutenant who lay motionless.

Ganymede released the Lieutenant's collar and stumbled to her feet. Her breath caught in her throat. She returned to Olivia's side and checked her thready pulse, touched her stomach but could feel no movement from within, looking between the two—the innocent bystander and the young officer—and tears collected in her eyes.

She went to the Lieutenant next, put her hand to his neck and was unsure whether or not she was glad to feel a weak pulse. Blood pooled along the asphalt from a wound on the back of the Lieutenant's head. Ganymede tore a piece of red fabric from her train, lifted the Lieutenant's head and wadded the fabric against it to stem the flow of blood.

She looked around and saw no one, just empty streets and silence.

And her entire world fell apart.