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She could feel the chaos radiating from between her fingers as she stepped out of the mirror and into the empty ladies room of the park. It was dark, Though Navi couldn't have said whether this was the same night she'd entered the mirror, or the next. The passage of time had moved oddly in mirror, but if her fatigue was anything to go by, it had been long enough. Exhaustion radiated from the dark mirror eternal, not just physical, but emotional. It would have been so tempting to simply crawl beneath the covers of her bed and sleep away the next twenty-four hours, but that wasn't an option. The shard held safe in her hands still needed to be dealt with somehow, though Navi didn't know where even to began.

Leaning against the wall for a brief rest, she lifted the reflective crystal higher, parting her fingers so she could look at it again. "What do I do with you?" Unsurprisingly, it didn't provide an answer. Only that now familiar pulse at her core and the steady stream of chaotic energy. She could see herself in the reflective surface, fractured and fragmented over every side.

Maybe Leto knew, or Remarque...but Navi couldn't ask them. If they didn't know what she'd been up to already, she wasn't in a hurry to tell them. They were her friends, but would the understand like Lesath did? Or would they take it as a betrayal of their court? Navi didn't know, and she was in no hurry to find out. She wasn't afraid of them, not really, but...

No, it was just better not to even open that door.

But where then did she go to look for answers? God if she knew. Navi had been out of her depth for months now, just trying to carry on a day at a time. Survival, and carving out what small moment of happiness she could. Clever as she was, she didn't have a clue as to what she was doing, not for a long time.

What she did know, though, was that she could't just stay where she was. If she didn't keep moving exhaustion might just claim her, and that would be exceedingly bad. If she didn't want to be at the mercy of her own court, she certainly didn't want to face the negaverse, or any white moon soldiers that didn't know her.

If she wasn't afraid the thing would disappear on her, she'd have just powered down and walked home, but she had no way to be sure it would remain, and if it didn't, what then? And hiding out in her usual safe places wasn't a likely option either, not with addition of the shard's chaos.

Keep moving, keep thinking. Those were her options at the moment.

Heaving a tired sigh, she pushed away from the wall and headed out into the park.

Halfway across the park she felt it, an all to familiar taste of chaotic energy that froze her blood in her veins and sent the dark mirror eternal on the road to panic. It defied logic. They should have been equally matched for strength, but Painite possessed a ruthless viciousness that gave her the edge in most confrontations. The general aimed to maim, or to kill, or simply to cause as much mayhem and destruction as she could. Her victims just wanted to survive, and since killing did not come easily to most, it tipped the scales in the general b***h's favor.

Swearing loudly, Navi had a moment of frozen terror where no possible escape presented itself. This wasn't a fight she was going to win, not as worn as she was, and certainly not with the precious cargo she was carrying.
Then she remembered the mirror on the back of the bathroom door. Painite could chase her down, teleporting to cut off her escape, but she couldn't follow through mirror space! If the ginger could make it there, she could get away from her, travel across the city in a matter of seconds.

Turning on her heel, she took off running down the path she'd been walking down, heels snapping loudly against the cracked pavement. The bathroom wasn't far, she could see it just passed one of the picnic areas. A little further, and she'd be home free!

Except that evil aura was closing in too quickly. Teleporting, or simply faster, it was upon her just as she was rounding the bend in the past. The woman that haunted her nightmares, the one that had left her mark in the scars on Navi's body. The voice sent ice down her spine, but the sight of the woman, there on the path in front of her, very nearly brought tears to the eternal's eyes.

There was no point in answering, nothing she had to say would deter Painite from her awful vendetta. There was no plea, no promise, no threat. Navi knew that for a fact, she had tried it all when she'd been at the mercy of the crazy woman.

Backing away, she closed her hands tighter around the shard, holding it to her chest.

Of course Painite would notice. If not the additional aura, then the way the dark mirror was holding herself. The general was an evil b***h, but she was clever, or else she wouldn't have been able to survive up to now. Not with how many people she had hurt, someone would have killed her by now otherwise.

"Ah, no. I don't think so." Her voice was soft, but to her credit it came out relatively smooth, despite the subtle tremble in her hands. "I don't want to catch up." Especially not if catching up meant lots of mental and physcial pain on her part. She'd had her fill for one life time. Much more and she wasn't exactly sure she'd come out the other side as anything but broken.

Backing away further, she chanced a quick glance over her shoulder to make sure she wouldn't stumble off the path. A risk, but falling just wasn't an option at the moment.

Swallowing, she tried to force her lips up into something close to a smile, but didn't quite manage it. She could taste her pulse in the back of her throat, hear it hammering in her eyes. Whatever bravado she managed to muster up, Painite was likely to see right through it. Navi was a musician, not an actress. "They're around," she lied, pressing her palms into the edges of the shard. "We're meeting here." Another lie. No one knew where she was at the moment, because she hadn't expected to be there herself. Her trip into the mirror had happened on a desperate whim, and her return with whatever pulsing bit of chaos she held now had been completely unexpected.

"You can't have it." This, at least, came out firmer than all the rest. "It's not yours." It belonged to Navi. Even if she didn't know what it was or what to do with it, she knew it was her's. It had called to her in mirror space, and it's energy sang in her hands now. She felt it in her core.

"Ye-yes." Painite wasn't buying it, and Navi knew it. She swallowed again, pale gaze jumping to the side, looking for help, or possible escape routes. She didn't feel any other auras around them, and the only thing to see were trees and playground equipment. Navi was, undeniably, on her own in this moment.

And Painite knew it. Not that company would have kept the general from attacking. As if anything could.

The spear came at the senshi in a wicked arc, forcing her to jump back, but not before the sharp top traced minor cuts across both Navi's biceps. She winced, but they were superficial things, nothing to worry about. There was worst to come if she couldn't stay out of reach. Of that the girl was certain, having intimate knowledge of just how creative Painite could be when she set her mind to it.

Keeping her hands cupped around the shard, she retreated back two quick steps before turning and making a break for the trees. Out in the open she was a sitting duck, she had to get to cover, where there would be a lot less room to swing that damn spear around. It might not be much, but any little advantage she could manage would help buy her a little time.

Painite's voice traced an icy chill up the senshi's spine as she raced for the trees. She hated it. She hated her! Why couldn't she just die already? The b***h was worst than a God damned cockroach!

The kick was unexpected and sudden, and it tore a scream from Navi as she pitched forward and went tumbling head over heels across the grass, rolling to a stop against the trunk of an old oak tree. There was a handful of dazed seconds, time slowing, before she realized her hands were empty and everything snapped back into focus with an almost audible pop. She scrambled up on hands and knees, searching the grass around her, where she'd fallen. Desperately searching for the silvery shard. "No. No no no. Where is it!?"

Navi could feel the panic welling up within her--her pulse thundered in her ears, deafening, and everything had narrowed down into acute tunnel vision. She had to find it. Painte couldn't have it, it wasn't for her, she'd only break it. It mustn't be broken! Navi couldn't have said how she knew that, but she did. It fueled her forward, let her disregard the sound of approaching boots. it was here somewhere it had to be. Where was-

There! In the grass between them!

"Razor wind snare!" She screamed it as she dove forward, snatching up the crystal and diving to the side as powerful winds erupted around the both of them. Navi lay curled around her hands where they held the shard once again, wide-eyes glued on the general as her magic manifested. Wind whipped at her face, her hair, before condensing down to close around the general, trapping her in the bramble branch prison where it swirled and sliced at every awful inch of her.

This wasn't the first time. Navi knew it wouldn't hold her for long. She'd broken out before, back when she'd given the dark mirror the scar on her neck. Fighting with her bruised and fatigued body, Navi pushed back to her feet, heading for the bathrooms again, and the mirror hidden inside.

The cries of rage cutting through the quiet of the park were feral and terrifying, fueling Navi on faster and faster. She was almost there! Only a little further, then she could slip away through the mirror, out of the mad general's reach. Safety. The door to the ladies room loomed large before her, a few more feet, a few more seconds. The magic just had to hold her a few more seconds...

She heard the snapping of branches a second before Painite materialized to cut off her escape, and Nabi gave a startled scream. Digging her heels in kept her from colliding with the other woman, but the stop was too abrupt, throwing off her balance to set her down hard on the concrete. The impact sent a wave of pain up her spine from her tailbone, but she didn't dare let go of the shard, not even to break the fall.

Oh, but she felt him now, a split second before Painite. The solid blow from the senshi of danger damn near rocked The b***h off her feet. She staggered, stunned, and Navi could have cried with relief. He was here. He'd found her. Her knight in white plastic armor.

"Haddy!" And her newest little ally! "What are you doing here?" Palming the crystal in her right arm, she scooped him up into her arms, taking just a second to bury her face in the silky fur between his ears. "It's dangerous here," she murmured against his star, then struggled to get her feet beneath her again, wincing as her poor body protested the movement. She was going to be in a sorry state come morning, she knew it.

But at least she would be alive, and not at Painite's tender mercies.

Pale eyes turned towards the fight again as the battle intensified, arms tightening around the cymric.

What comfort the shaken senshi could take from the purring cat in her arms, she took. His presence helped to soothe some of her obviously frazzled nerves, slowing the trembling of delicate hands. We came to find you. They must have met, though Navi wasn't sure when. Not before she'd headed into the mirror, possibly during? Did it really matter? No. All that really mattered in that moment was that they had indeed found her, and not a moment too soon. Navi wasn't sure if she had anything left to throw at the general. "I'm glad you did," she finally murmured beside his ear, rubbing her chin back and forth between the soft points.

Least til his attention turned to the crystal in her hand. She blinked down at him as he shifted to nose at her hand, and very slowly opened her fingers. It looked like a starseed, but it was smaller, and looked to be made of mirrored walls. "I don't know what to call it, but..." Where even to begin? "It's mine. I retrieved it from mirror space." It hadn't been easy.

Hazel eyes flicked back up, brows knitting as she watched Chaonis lay intot he general. Blow after heavy blow, and each and every one felt validated, deserved. What should have been awful to watch was not. The Senshi felt very little for the beating she was witnessing save a dark sense of satisfaction.

Of course that didn't mean she wouldn't gasp when the woman teleported behind her prince, trying to drive her spear into his back, but Chaonis was quicker, grabbing the blade and using that grip to wrench the weapon from her hands and hitting her with enough force that Navi would have sworn she heard bones breaking. Though his or the general's was hard to say. It could have been either. Painite was gone before she hit the ground.

Grimacing, Navi watched the blood dripping from the senshi of danger's hands, though she did offer a wane smile as he smirked at her. "Are you alright?" They needed to get his hands taken care of. Ontop of the cuts, she suspected at least a few of his fingers might have been broken.

Navi regarded his hand with a dubious expression, frowning as he walked towards them. "It's not," she protested weakly, but let it go. He'd said Camelot was on his way, and if need be Navi could just make sure the knight insisted his son go to the ER.

Guilt welled up at the mention of how worried he'd been, and she stepped forward so she could lean against him, resting her head against his chest. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you worry." Now she knew she'd been been gone as long as she'd feared. "I went into mirrorspace last night. I just had...a feeling, a compulsion, I guess. I couldn't leave, not until I found this." her hand came up so he could see the silvery shard that lay on her palm.

The arrival of the royal knight cut off further explanation. The dark mirror looked up at him, offering a soft smile. "Only a little bit, and only because your son sent Painite running with her tail between her legs." The smile grew into a grin of pride. "You should have seen him."

That last question resulted in a perplexed twist of lips as she turned to hold the shard up for Camelot to see. "This. It's throwing off an aura. Do you know what it is?" Considering where she found it, the likelihood of him having any idea was slim, but it certainly didn't hurt to ask.

"I don't know what it is, but it calls to me. I can feel the pulse in my core."