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 Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2015 12:55 am
After her talk with Chariklo and with her lost contact with both Amytis and Tantalus, Mintaka was feeling...desperate and broken. It didn't help that she had been part of a corruption, and that she still had yet to talk to Aurostibite about it.
She felt lost. And her only solace seemed to be when she could revert to Durumi and go home to Magiore and pretend everything was normal. That her life wasn't affected, at least in his eyes, by Chari choosing order over the court.
Amytis would leave too, and then Mintaka would only have Tantalus and Damocles left with her, and when would they leave her too? She would never know.
In the dark of the night, she took the form of Mintaka and, with a kiss to Magiore's sleeping form, she disappeared into the woods around them. She was moving to one of the mirrors she had hidden there, but doing so slowly. She wanted, at the moment, to hide in mirrorspace.
how long till Auro...Magiore realized that he had chosen the wrong side by choosing her? Mintaka didn't know, and it bothered her, that she was bothered still by Chariklo's decision.
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Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2015 1:02 am
He'd noticed she was off.
She tried to hide it, of course. Durumi's attempts at smiling and relaxing around him were almost convincing, had not Magiore been all-too familiar with her mannerisms, her smiles, the way she held herself. And there was something very, very wrong, something she was not talking to him about.
Magiore could not put a finger on what it was. He had not asked her, at least not straight out, not yet, but he would not let things just slide. Pretending that everything was all right when it really wasn't was not a way to get through things, as Magiore had long since learned.
Several moments after Mintaka slipped away, Magiore opened his eyes.
He could not follow her while he was powered up; she would notice his aura, and so he remained, temporarily, in his civilian form as he crept into the woods after Mintaka, silently moving through the underbrush. She was looking for something - a mirror, he discovered - and something in Magiore's heart clenched.
In a second he had powered up, and in the next he had leapt forward, reaching to grasp one of her wrists in a firm, yet gentle grasp.
"Stop," said Aurostibite quietly. "Where are you going?"
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Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2015 1:15 am
Her hand was slipping into the mirror when she felt his Aura, and she knew it was his because who else could it be? She made a small squeak sound as he grabbed her and then looked at him with huge, red guilty eyes.
"Aurostibite!" She looked around and then looked at the ground. "I was um..going to patrol...tonight?" That wasn't very convincing.
"And perhaps....er...find someone to.." Ah damn, she was never good at lying, and apparently Auro had been smarter then she had been.
"I just...have been spending a lot of time in Mirrorspace. Something happened. I didn't want to worry you."
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Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2015 1:35 pm
He only had a few seconds between powering up and getting to her, his aura flaring up. But it was a few seconds he made good use of, because Aurostibite's intentions were not to scare Mintaka, but to talk to her, understand why she was acting the way she was.
She was looking at him with a startled expression on her face, guilt written across her eyes.
His grip on her arm tightened a little, mostly to prevent her from moving, though it was not painful - he'd never hurt her. Aurostibite shifted a little closer, trying to see more of Mintaka's face, moonlight slanting across her form. It glinted over the mirror, refracting back and outwards.
A beat passed. He knew she was lying.
"Mintaka," said Aurostibite quietly. "You worry me more when you don't talk to me."
His other hand raised, took ahold of her other arm, gloved fingers against the sides of her shoulders so that he could face her straight on. Aurostibite's dark hair fell in waves across his shoulders, getting longer with each day, and it now fell most of the way down his back.
"Please tell me what has happened," he said, and it wasn't a command, but a plea.
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Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2015 3:56 pm
She knew she wasn't going to get far. He had both her and her hand and her still here. Her hand slipped from the mirror's cool inviting liquid and then fell to his.
"I'm scared." She looked away. "I thought..." She ran her hand through her hair. She couldn't look him in the eyes. It seemed like something happened to her, one after another. She thought her corruption was the answer to their problems.
And in some way, it had been the best choice. She just hadn't expected to be...betrayed by Chari...
"I was out one night." She pursued her lips. "I saw a corruption of a senshi into negaverse...of not her own will. And only days later, I saw Chariklo. Purified into a order senshi. She left me." Mintaka's voice hitched.
"I came here to be with her too, and she left me!"
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Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2015 5:30 pm
He felt a sense of relief as Mintaka's hand fell away from her mirror, though it didn't register on his face, only a small flicker that appeared briefly in his eyes. Aurostibite's stomach was not settled quite yet; he felt a strange sense of uneasiness that she had not confided in him, that she had tried to turn away from him.
And now she wouldn't look him in the eyes. He took a small breath to steady himself and tried to focus.
He knew who she was talking about, though it had been a while since Aurostibite had seen Chariklo - and in fact, he couldn't recall seeing her outside of his own fuzzy memories of a future that had not yet existed in the world. But he knew how much the other woman meant to Mintaka.
His heart sank drastically, mouth open slightly, the only sign of his surprise before he pressed his lips together again.
"Did she tell you why?" Aurostibite asked quietly.
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Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2015 6:01 pm
She still couldn't hold her head enough for him to see. And she had thought by now, the tears would've ended. She had cried all over Damocles, and yet the pain of losing Chariklo seemed to great of a weight to bear.
She could feel the hot water, falling down her cheeks.
"She didn't. She didn't even give me a good excuse." Mintaka's hands clenched in her skirt, "She didn't give me anything. She said she wanted too." She sniffed loudly. "She was the one who offered me this court in the first place! She is a big reason why I chose this as my home, instead of...of just becoming a corrupt."
Her hands came up and snaked in his jacket.
"How long till you think order is better? How long until they all choose order?" What happened...if there was nothing left of the dark mirrors after this?
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Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2015 8:47 pm
He felt her hands in his coat; Aurostibite shifted one of his from her arm to cover hers, gloved fingers wrapping around her smaller, more slender ones. "That's not an excuse, nor a reason," he said softly, because what else could he say? Chariklo had turned her back on Mintaka, and the thought, rather than make him immediately angry, made him instead quite frustrated, terribly sad for the woman in front of him.
"There is no telling what has gone on her mind - or in the minds of others," he said, reaching to stroke his fingers over her hair in a soothing gesture. "They are blinded by the truths they cannot see."
It made no sense for Chariklo to have picked the Order side, no reason at all. She had brought Mintaka into the fold, then turned around and abandoned her? There had to be something behind it, unless Chariklo had merely been toying with Mintaka this entire time, but he couldn't quite believe that.
Slowly the irritation crept into him, followed on its heels by an anger that brushed at his thoughts, seeped into his heart.
"Why would she do this to you?" he muttered quietly, frustration lacing his voice.
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Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2015 9:02 pm
"It feels so personal. I tried to save her and Amytis, they were captured by the negaverse. And I was there for her. I helped fend off, so they could go in and rescue her. Leto, our princess, saved her. And...and she just...she just went to order. Because they are better?"
Mintaka shook her head.
"Because order is so much better? Because being a white moon senshi is so much better? The order side is a 1000 times worse the negaverse." Mintaka shook, "And if Chariklo leaves, then so does Amytis? And then I won't have the family that I came to be with." She hitched.
"Auro...Auro..." She rested against him. "Am I not good enough? Am I not good enough to stay for, or to be family with me? Am I terrible?" She felt stupidly young and betrayed.
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Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2015 9:51 pm
He could feel the air around them, thick and tense with Mintaka's grief, her pain. Aurostibite's hand loosened on her arm, but the other wrapped even tighter around the fingers clutching his lapel, careful to hold her steady.
"It's only better if they believe it is, not because it actually is," he said flatly. "There's no telling what sort of nonsense she was brought to believe, but simply because she's decided her loyalties lie elsewhere doesn't mean that they are actually in the right."
He closed his eyes briefly and then opened them. Aurostibite's arms went firmly around Mintaka's shoulders, drawing her against his chest, burying his face into her hair.
"Shhh," he said softly, breathing against her pale locks, eyes half-lidded. "Don't even try to tell yourself that you're not good enough, because there is no reason in all the world why you would not be good enough. There is no one with your heart, no one."
He pulled away and cupped her face in his hands, Aurostibite's gaze bright in the darkness.
"Do not let their betrayal teach you that you are in the wrong," he said fiercely. "You are nothing more than a victim of their selfishness and wrongness, you have remained true to your heart and your beliefs, whereas she's let the lies of the Order breathe into her."
His expression softened, one gloved thumb brushing under her eye.
"I'm still here," he said softly. "I will always be here."
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Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2015 1:18 am
"She was the one who offered the Dark mirrors to me? She was the one who wouldn't hesitate to fight order and now...now she's suddenly one of them? It's just..." Mintaka could feel the panic rising again.
"I can't, I thought I was good enough for Chariklo. I thought we were sisters." She clutched at Auro. "And they took her from me."
If she didn't have some sort of hate for order, she did a little bit now. Because they took so much away from her. And she was tired of it.
"Please...Don't leave me. I don't want to be wrong. I needed you here with me..." She sobbed a little.
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Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2015 12:24 pm
The thought of anyone hurting her was all but devastating to Aurostibite, who couldn't bear the thought of Mintaka in pain. It was a strange concept; he'd fought his affections towards her for so long, repeatedly telling himself that it was a mistake, that the future they'd been a part of together was just a dream, just a fantasy with no meaning.
And now here he was, arms wrapped around her, with more feelings towards her than he could have ever imagined having. It had had taken him some time to understand that he could not bear to be without her, struggling with not only a sense of adoration towards her, but also a wariness and a fear that their loyalties would one day tear them apart.
But he wouldn't let that happen. He could not let that happen. Once he'd stopped fighting, slipping into his own feelings had felt like the most natural thing in the world - and maybe it was supposed to be. Maybe all this time all Aurostibite had done was try and pretend that something as natural as this was wrong, when it really wasn't.
His hands on the side of her face, he bent his head and kissed her soundly, his own eyes feeling a heat at the corners, fingers trembling. Aurostibite put his forehead against hers, breathing out a shaky breath.
"I will never leave you," said Aurostibite, and his eyes were closed as he gathered Mintaka against his chest, buried his face back into her hair, hating the pain in her voice, the anguish of losing someone so dear to her. "I will never leave you, because I..."
He hadn't said it before, hadn't been able to get the words out, but now, in their powered forms, where they had first met, where he had first seen her face, heard her voice, where he had slowly but steadily fallen for her -
"Because I love you," Aurostibite whispered, his heart clenching in his chest. "Because I will always, always love you."
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Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2015 3:55 pm
She was hiccuping, from her small bout of crying. Her heart was hurting so much. Without Chariklo, she felt lost. Though the woman wasn't everything, she was the one she looked up too. The one she admired and respected and yearned to achieve anything to be like.
The reason the dark mirrors made sense was because Chariklo had been there. Tantalus, Amytis, Damocles and Remarque? They were open to her, because she had been open to them, and open only cause Chariklo made it so.
And Order. The stupid white moon senshi. They were nothing. Liars and users.
She looked up at Auro, gazing at him. Though her eyes were red, she still felt...love, doting, comfort when she looked at him. He held such a important piece of her, her other half as it were.
And she almost missed what he said, because of her self loathing. She almost missed the most important words he could ever say to her, thinking of someone else. Thinking of herself.
"You do?" She asked simply and then sniffed. "Took you long enough to admit it." She sniffed again, wiping at her eyes. "I love you so much. I love you so much and hurts to think of what ifs. and I can't but help now, to think of what ifs."
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Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2015 4:10 pm
Chariklo had left her - had walked away without a backwards glance, had left Mintaka behind. Whether deliberate or unintentional, it had still happened, and it was raw and painful, ebbing into Mintaka's soul and her very heart. A dark anger had started to well in Aurostibite's stomach, a resentment directed towards Chariklo and the White Moon that he had not yet felt before - or if he had, he'd just buried it deep.
His hand stroked her hair, and the words almost frightened him, almost made him nervous. He shifted in front of her, from one foot to the other, and looked down at her with a pained, adoring expression on his face, his eyes glimmering a little too brightly, unshed tears of his own lightening his gaze.
"I do," said Aurostibite softly, and then gave a little watery laugh, cupping her face in his hands. "I'm sorry it took me so long, I was just...afraid of everything, I suppose, but I love you, Mintaka, and I love you, Durumi, I love all of you, every part of you, and I will never leave you."
He bent his head, kissed her forehead, stroked her cheeks with his thumbs, her own proclamations of love ebbing into him, settling warmly within him.
"There is no what ifs," Aurostibite said softly. "There is only right now. We will be together, no matter what happens. Chariklo may have walked away, but I never will, because you are far too important."
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Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2015 10:17 pm
"I know. I see it, I've seen it." She hiccupped again, "You love me the most. It's why I chose you. Even over family, over everyone. I was made for you." She laughed, "Durumi was made to be for you." Failyn had just been a distant memory, one she wanted to give up.
"They can't purify the unwilling, so I don't have to fear that." She laughed, "But order....just don't fall for their lies." She breathed in.
"Will you come with me then, I need to-" She stopped midsentence, feeling a pang so deep in her soul. A ache. "What..." She clutched at where her seed would be, and then...the pain just faded. Left.
"Somethings happened. To the Dark mirrors...." What could it be?
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