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Denebola was a seasoned war vet, even though she hadn't been active on the battle front in over a year. In fact, the only times she powered up as of late were the rare occasions that she was assaulted by a youma, but didn't have any objects nearby to use to defend herself or, as was the case on the cool fall night, to visit her homeworld.

It was a draining task, to prepare for the trip, and the Senshi of dragonflies had found herself a nice open clearing and slung a pack across her shoulders.

Vaguely, she was aware that someone was approaching her, the sensation of a nearby order aura washing over her but she was too close to, well, traveling that she ignored it.

Until they said something to her and placed a hand on shoulder right as she hit the home button on her senshi phone. Her eyes fluttered open immediately, jaw dropping so an incoherent yell could escape, but it was too late.

They'd been transported to her homeworld.

They'd appeared on the large stone platform that had been constructed for visitors in the past. There were broken slabs of stone littered along the platform, shattered trees and thick foliage stretching across the expanse of the planet.

"What the hell were you thinking?!" She yelled, whirling on her hitch hiker.

Denebola eyed her hitchhiker warily, folding her arms across her chest as she scowled at him. "Do you have any idea how dangerous that was?" She growled, clearly unimpressed with the blonde. "You can't just interrupt someone who's about to--" she trailed off, rubbing her temples as he pleaded that she not be upset.

"You said you're Altais?" Her mismatched eyes gave him a once over. He was a senshi, she knew that much, and she'd never seen him before--but that didn't mean much. She'd been missing in action for more than a few months. "I'm--" she hesitated, worrying her lip before sighing. "My name is Denebola and, no, we're not on Earth."

She looked around her desolate planet, a pang in her chest lurching her forward, towards him. "And this," she gestured to everything around them, stepping over a fallen pillar. "This is what remains of my homeworld." She sounded broken, sad.

"Yes--No. I'm not sure." Her words came out in a jumbled mess when he encroached on her space. She looked at him curiously, wondering if she'd been like him when she first came into her powers. It'd been so long ago that she couldn't say. "I've only taken people with me on purpose, not by accident."

They'd been lucky that he'd had a firm grip on her shoulder when she transported them. "Who knows what could've happened to you," she said after a beat, brushing her fringe out of her eyes. "You could've been lost in the transport, could have been splintered between Earth and Denebola. God, a bunch of things could've happened." She shook her head, letting him gather her hand in his.

Damn puppy-dog like expression. "You're okay though," she murmured, more to herself than to him, some of the tension seeping out. "My sphere is Dragonflies," she explained, following him off the platform.

"I've been here a few times, I've just--" she stopped, stomach churning as she thought about all the skeletons and mummified corpses that littered the planet orbiting her star. "I'm not so sure you'll find treasure." She took a sharp breath. "There's mostly broken buildings and the dead." Her tone was somber and her shoulders slumped slightly, but she turned to look at him and offered a weak smile. "But, there could be treasure or something. I get flashes of...well, a life that is but isn't mine."

She was spilling a lot of information on this senshi she'd barely met, but if he was as new as he said he was, maybe she'd need to give him a crash course. "Come with me, I can show you the temple," she informed him, straightening with resolve. If she was going to have a companion, she might as well show him what she knew.

She hadn't brought anyone with her since Remarque and her planet filled her with a sense of loneliness, of a life she couldn't remember. It was nice to have a bit of company.

"This way," she said, tugging him along behind her. "You should tell me more about yourself Altais, what you know at least. Don't tell me who you really are though, keep that closely guarded."

He told her not to worry, or that she worried too much, and he got a frown in response. Denebola liked to think that she worried precisely the right amount. "Just don't..." she hesitated, then forced herself to say it, "Just don't do it again, not everyone is as nice as I am." And that could be an understatement, depending on who he ran into.

He rattled questions off and she swallowed, trying to hide her discomfort. "No, there are no animals here," she replied quietly, purposely steering them away from the path that contained the most fauna corpses. "The vegetation seemed to survive the desolation, but the rest of the living organisms did not." She spoke practically, terming things in a slightly more scientific manner.

It reminded her of her days in school and her attempts at earning a degree in biology, a dream long since discarded.

"Not all memories are good ones," she replied, voice quieting and her grip on his hand tightening. Having that physical connection seemed to anchor her as they came upon the stone temple that rested on the outskirts of Denebola. The structure was vaguely similar to the temples of the Mayans.

She felt a flash of something where the image of the temple shifted, looking whole and undamaged, people filtering in and out of it.

He rattled off far too personal information and she was jolted back to the present. "Altais!" She cried, eyebrows arching in surprise. "You shouldn't just tell me who you are! That's very dangerous!" She whirled to face him, grabbing his other hand while concern flickered across her features. "There are really bad people out there, especially in Destiny City, and they will hurt you and your loved ones just because you're a senshi. Please, guard your secrets."

"I don't know if it's because of chaos or because of our own failures," she replied, a flash of something spreading through her as she tried to remember details of a life she only saw in fragments. "It seems, unfair, to fault chaos so readily when there isn't proof, but I do know this," she straightened a little, determination flaring in her eye, "there's no where for us to go, our homeworlds are desolate and Earth is just as much ours as it is theirs." Oh, how the ginger hated chaos's view on senshi and knights alike.

The talk turned to the temple and the corners of her mouth twitched upward in a fond smile. "It is beautiful and especially so before the damage. I think an earthquake ripped through the planet." She sighed. "It's hard to say though, from what I remember, I was separated from my homeworld." She didn't remember details, but she remembered being kidnapped. It was a vague memory at best, but it was all she had.

"I think you trust too easily," she told him, voice soft and fond. She pulled back, surprised when he pressed a kiss to her cheek, mismatched eyes blinking rapidly and the faintest hints of a blush touching her cheeks. "We can be friends, but you have to promise that you'll be more careful. You can't trust everyone you meet so readily," she informed him, squeezing his hand as she tugged him up the steps with her. "There are many with slick tongues who will manipulate them if you let them."

Denebola herself guarded her secrets very readily, because the last person she trusted with too much information ran and wounded her heart. She thought she was smart enough to avoid repeating mistakes. Trusting Corvus and Gehenna with her secrets had been hard enough.

"So tell me Sparks, what do you know about being a senshi?"

"Is it naive?" She asked cocking her head and pursing her lips together in thought. "It is so easy to blame our current enemy for past transgressions, but there is no tangible proof that the destruction of our planets or stars," she said, "or wonders, for the knights," she added quickly. "Isn't it easy to say that chaos is running amok and tainting the Earth, when we, as humans, were already doing that?"

Denebola didn't get philosophical often, but visiting her homeworld often brought about a pull of nostalgia and all of her school-learned knowledge came pouring out.

"I've not been to anyone else's home world, but I've been told that they all look similar, desolate and ruined," she sighed, thinking back to her first visit to space and her first visit to Denebola. "I'm sure yours would be in ruins too."

They came to the gaping doorway that was the entrance of her temple. A pillar had fallen across the opening, but there was still space to slip inside. She had a flash of another lifetime.

Purple, lavender, and the dark colors of a uniform filling her peripheral vision. Bright, gold eyes and a charming smile flash her way and a warm feeling of longing seeps through her frame.

Visibly, the ginger jerked back, pulling free of Atlais's hands, gulping down a gasp by covering her mouth with her hands.

She struggled to compose herself, shooting a panicked look towards the man's way. "Well," she spoke slowly, quietly. "There's much for you to learn then." She tried to calm the pounding of her heart in her chest. "Uh," she hesitated, looking at the pillar obstructing their path. She inhaled sharply and dipped underneath it. "This way."

Altais was enthusiastic and optimistic, Denebola had to give him that, but she feared that he was naive. Perhaps it was the bitter war veteran that resided in her chest that made her feel it so strongly but when she looked at him, she could feel her heart break.

He was so young, so untouched by the brutality of the war. He was but a babe and her heart ached for the day that his nativity broke him.

"Sure, we can go to Altais," she told him, distractedly. "I'll teach you." Going 'home' was easy, just required a lot of patience and concentration.

She took a minute to respond to him again, because there was a loud chattering of people that distracted her. She jerked her head, eyes sweeping across the temple's insides, gaze skipping over people she knew but didn't. People who existed, but only as ghosts.

She was hit with a heavy dose of nostalgia and she felt like Anastasia when she danced through the palace with ghosts that may not have been hers. Distractedly, she reached for her companion with one hand, but touched nothing but air.

"I'm okay," she breathed, feet moving instinctively deeper. She swallowed, "I'm just..."

"Elu!" A young man dressed in lavender chirped, bounding over to her with a large grin and messy dark hair.

She felt herself turning to greet him, mouth set in a frown and her eyes narrowed. She knew she was moving but she also knew that her movements were not her own. But then she's smiling and a name she doesn't know slipped from her lips. "Tarren."

The image faded and her heart lurches, aching for a boy she doesn't know.

Her knees hit the ground before she realizes she's collapsed and her face is wet, tears coming from nowhere. Blinking she looked over at Altais. "I'm sorry, I don't--" her cheek flushed with embarrassment.