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It was drizzling, like it had been all day, heavy enough to be called rain but calling it that felt like giving the lousy weather more credit than it deserved. Still, it had been going on long enough to slick the streets down and gradually grow into standing puddles at the low spots. Europa hadn't wanted to go out in this mess, but she'd avoided patrol for a few nights now and she was starting to feel antsy. It was probably her imagination, but Tallulah thought she could feel her magic crawling under her skin when she went too long without powering up. It hadn't always been that way - just recently.

Probably guilt, she thought, pulling a light parka on over her uniform. It had been warm so far for October, but she didn't fancy spending all night getting increasingly soaked.

Europa took to the rooftops, moving carefully over the wet shingles. She knew that being high up didn't actually extend the range of her senses, but, like pressing 'A' when trying to catch a legendary Pokemon, she did it anyway.

After a few blocks, she caught the feeling of something bright and powerful - a knight. She knew fewer than she'd like, and it might be nice to have company for patrol. She adjusted her course accordingly and headed off, closing the distance between them quickly.

The knight was facing away from her, his head covered with a very weather-appropriate hood. He wasn't wearing colors she recognized - the pink could have been Chronos, but the symbol was wrong. The symbol was... Europa recognized it, but the implications of it were far bigger than she wanted to consider while she was standing here looking like a moron.

"Good evening," said Europa. "Um, I hope I didn't startle you."

Europa cocked her head to the side - this was a lot to take in. She hadn't recognized the knight, but seeing his face changed that. Slowly, she smiled. "I was hoping you'd get out," she said. Last time they'd talked, he'd seemed down but not out with the Negaverse's cause. She wondered what had changed. (Then again, that had been a year and a half ago - a while was an understatement.)

"That's a good look on you," she said, laughing gently. "When did you... um."

She pursed her lips, then cut to the chase. "The symbols. Those are Ganymede's. I know because we used to be close. I - I lost touch. Was out of town too often. I didn't know she was a princess."

All your friends are amazing and important, she thought, considering Polaris. And you're just little old you.

Europa laughed uncertainly. Had she - had she given that impression? "No," she said, pressing her fingers to the corner of her mouth. "I'm fine with her. We just haven't talked. Our lives went in different directions. Maybe you haven't noticed - I haven't been around much." She'd been sick, sickly, trying to get on with her civilian life and letting the senshi side fall behind. Being Europa felt like it had eaten up most of her adolescence. She'd been so devoted... but clearly, Ganymede was more devoted than she was.

"We're both moons of Jupiter, she and I," she explained. "So I guess that any knight of hers is sort of like a cousin to me. I know it's an enormous change to go through, but honestly, the symbols are a bit endearing." Maybe if she said that enough, it would prove true. Right now, it just made her consider her own failure as a senshi. If you'd only worked harder...

"You can still fight for Earth," she added. "Regardless of what you wear. I fight for Earth as much as any of its knights do. And Ganymede will grow on you - if you let her. She can be... overbearing, and a little bit self-centered, but she's also incredibly kind and incredibly generous, and if she's a princess... it's always good to have someone with a lot of power on your side."

Europa nodded. "There are carports in the alley," she said. "Follow me."

Once they were safely out of the rain, Europa lowered her hood and considered his other questions more fully. "Honestly, there weren't any repercussions to being involved with your plan besides that one time Sailor Gunn yelled at me. It may have turned out poorly, but you struck a nerve with people. I mean, you saw how many senshi you managed to rally. We were on your side for the night. We thought we were going to win."

And then they hadn't. Leto still lived - but she'd been damaged, put on the defensive. The Dark Mirror had been far less active since Wolframite's botched assault. Maybe they'd had a lasting impact after all. "I don't think it was all useless," she added, but didn't elaborate.

"As for my absence - I got married last summer," she said brightly, changing the subject. "Or - two summers ago? 2014. To another senshi. He had a... very prestigious career opportunity out of town, so we went to New Hampshire for basically like six months. I've been back for a while, but getting back into the superhero business is always... tricky. You leave for too long, and everyone advances their petty conflicts and leaves you playing catch up."

She laughed. "I am not the paragon of dedication that I once aspired to be."

She was trying very hard to be okay with that.

The more things changed, the more they stayed the same. Gevaudan, sans-hood, resolved into someone much more familiar - he hadn't really changed his hair since the last time she'd seen him. She eyed the ring. "I'm sure it was lovely," she said. "You always struck me as someone who had very good tastes. My ceremony was a justice of the peace in Norfolk."

She laughed. It had not been fancy. Maybe someday they'd redo the whole thing.

Then she realized that maybe laughter was super inappropriate. "Did your... partner... are you still with them?" She'd never exactly figured out Wolframite's sexual orientation, and she didn't want to assume.

In the end, it sounded like Gevaudan had stopped drinking the kool-aid all on his own, and that was heartening to hear. It meant the purification was likely to stick. If the Negaverse held no appeal to him, then he wasn't about to go sniveling back their way at the first sign of hardship. "Who brought you through?" she asked. "Ganymede? Cosmos? If it was Castor, then I'm sorry."

Well, in that case, Europa was definitely not going to mention that she hooked up with Castor on the regular. As insufferable as she found him, she'd never wanted to actually, literally kill him. Gevaudan, clearly, had a history.

She considered his eyepatch. She didn't think she'd ever gotten the whole story there - they hadn't exactly been friends before. She wondered...

"He got back into town about a year ago," she said. "So, obviously not him. Who, then?"

Europa followed him to the edge of their temporary shelter, crossing her arms over her chest. "Yes," she said softly, "but I'm not sure whose blood anymore. Ares's." She'd only seen Leto once since then, and it was clear to her that even though they hadn't killed her, they'd had an impact.

"Leto's broken," she said. "She's pathetic. I don't know if there'd be any honor in killing her - she's half-dead already."

Leto had only been following orders, anyway. She'd been swayed by a false queen, followed Ares into darkness and been abandoned by her for her trouble. "It wouldn't bring my cousin back. It wouldn't fix my family, wouldn't make my aunt start talking to my parents again," she said. "Leto's not a threat anymore. Killing her doesn't accomplish anything. We should focus on cutting down her court's numbers instead."

Europa bit down on her lips. She wasn't in the mood to argue with Gevaudan, who was intense in a way she was pretty sure only former members of the Negaverse could be. You could chase out the chaos, but the angst would remain. "I want Ares's head on a pike," she said, after a moment, repeating her earlier sentiment. "But that's not going to happen. No one knows where she is."

And she was unlikely to ever come back, wasn't she? But it was an old grievance, a festering wound. "And I would kill Leto if I had the chance. It wouldn't be sporting, but..." she shrugged. "I told you a little of this before, I think. About her being my cousin. Kat. Her mother is my father's younger sister. Kat died a long time ago. Leto's just her corpse walking around. Living. Breathing. Doing all the things it thinks humans do - but it's just this parasite moving her legs, making her arms twitch. Like that fungus that makes ants try to get themselves eaten."

She nodded, her jaw tight. "So to answer your question, yeah. I'd see them all burn if I could."

Gunn had been all about that life. Gunn had made Europa fiercer than it was her natural inclination to be. Europa missed her.

"Why?" she asked. "Do you have a plan? What color phoenix will we be this time?"