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Years. Literal years since Castor had seen or heard of some senshi, he'd become resigned to the idea that many had either left as he had, or, were dead. Death unfortunately, seemed a very likely thing given the general atmosphere for senshi and their standing in society. It was worse now with the crime, and police had begun to come down hard, faster to draw their guns.

Now as he did a typical patrol through the part his mind was left to wonder- how many from those early days was still alive? How many had gone into hiding, or abandoned the cause? Too many. He hardly could remember them anymore, and in his heart, he mourned the fact. They had been children then.

They had no idea what they faced all those years ago.

The flicker of another force nearby and as his usual habit, he went seeking it out. It was only right he do so, as really, three years and he needed to branch. Either further his appearance of insanity, or affirm his place as a figure who could be seen to aid in the darkest hour.

Yet when his gaze hit a senshi he felt a flicker of recognition in he hesitated. Not because he knew, but rather that he didn't. He hadn't bothered back hen, and he felt a bit foolish to have let his own ignorance mkae it impossible for him to know who else might have survived as long as they had.

"You're from when it started aren't you?" He smiled, though it was halfhearted.
"Back when it was just Astraea and a handful of others- us against Charonite, then, Beryl. You're from back then right?" Back when things were simpler.
When it was more apparent just what holding back would cost.

A faint smile that was genuine warmed his eyes as he got closer, knowing that for once, he wasn't alone as he so often felt. Known or not, age, events- they could bond a person to another in a strange way. Shared history. Shared sorrows.

"Castor of Hail, though it's Prince Castor now." He said sheepishly, finding the title a bit much when you talking to someone who'd likely known you from when you run around in shorts.
"Not many remember their names- People forget the tyrants that started the crusades of old when all they see are the remains. Just like people don't remember the ones who stood up against the tyrants." 'And died' was unspoken. Vanished, no one ever sought to know just what had gone so horribly wrong.

"But no, not so young. Relative to the war, we'd be considered relics I think!" He gave a laugh, as halfhearted as it was. Yet he couldn't help looking at her and asking.
"How many?" How many had she lost? How many had simply been forgotten?

Corvus sounded familiar, but then names did when you wanted them to. He could have been tricking himself, it wouldn't have been new.

It had been a lifetime ago it felt like often enough with how things had changed, how they as a whole had changed.He didn't miss the way she shifted, the way muscles in er face moved and expressed a look he knew well enough.

Pain was like that, memories could be like that.

"Sounds about right." Was his response to her answer. Always too many, and too often the ones who's names were too close to the heart to pull away from. Still, he summoned his own phone, the old nearly relic flip phone, the grey pixelated face of a cat blinking back at him with the time.

"I chose not to call. I'm powerful enough that by simply being here, I am a signal enough. Others don't have that luxury." Looking back at her he knew it was not enough.
"I'm sorry." He couldn't offer a wisdom, only condolences in that he didn't know how to relate.

"We lost the most important ones before we were even woken; Even if I am not beholden to them, losing them just makes it easy for us to lose-" lips formed a thin line of their own now on his face, "-more."

Looking for a place to sit, a nearby boulder was enough for them both and he offered her a space on the rock.
"Have you heard anything since Astraea, Luna, vanished?" Anything, that might have given them hope.

He felt a little bit of himself collapse. Holding out hope, even while he knew it was foolish, a small part of him had hoped. A small part had wanted to think that just maybe-

"As far as know, Luna has vanished. Which leaves us without anyone to even lead the white moon senshi by proxy. Serenity's court and kingdom is a hot mess." He sighed shaking his head. Not that his was fairing any better.

".." He looked at her before he summoned his phone to his hand, the old clunky device a familiar weight in his hand, yet as he held her recalled it being bigger, but the truth was, he'd just grown, that was all.
"The surrounding was- good. But it was a patch job. The cats have been who they have always been like that though."

A cough, he wasn't sure how to approach the subject but- "You mean the negaverse, or order versus chaos?"

"I remember her yelling and scolding." He laughed, though it's tone was laced with a sadness. <********, I actually miss the cranky b***h."

"But yeah, I remember the meeting- which was her way I think of trying to placate us. We wanted answers she didn't have. But no." Decisive, he shook his head.
"I've come to a few conclusions since being royal, but in order to throw the negaverse off I've pulled the insanity plea. Now, I've got half the senshi and Knights thinking I am more insane and hungry for blood I might as well be another Charonite. Means that they won't trust me or my answers, which in a lot of ways, is better.The questions left are not so much who leads or any of that, it's more how to restore our worlds. Get off earth. A hot mess is what we got left with and what I came back to. Purification isn't going to solve s**t long term."

He sighed.
"A war is a war. A lot of people just don't want to accept what that means."

He gave a shrug, sitting beside her. There was little they could do, would be able to do, for the ones who refuse to see reality.

"They'll not like it when they get the wake up call. To be fair, that's what Luna tried to tell us, warn us about. We were just all too young and stupid to listen."

Sniffing, he rubbed his face, wanting to try and rid himself of the whole memory.
"Oh it worked. Too well. I've had to keep up most of the farce, and, I made a visit to a fanatical civilian to help with the idea. The goal isn't get them off my trail so much as subvert a key reason behind their idealism- that we want to be here. That somehow we have a choice. Sprinkle in enough reality, enough acting with actual pain and hurt? You can convince anyone of anything."

He wasn't proud of it in some ways. In other ways, he was.
"As much as I hate it, purification isn't going to save us. Not as we stand right now. We're too far gone and we lack the manpower not to mention, we have no way to convince the masses like they do. We're a skeleton army at best."

His jaw clenched as he finished.
"We're facing genocide at worst."

"I think it is possible." It had to be, but- "It would be a slow process, and a very careful one at that. But in terms of longevity-" He hesitated for a moment.
"Earth is not designed to sustain us. It's species, humans, hosts us, but the truth, the reality is that we once had our own races, species, on our own worlds. From a biological standpoint, us on earth does make us an invasive species just as much as the negaverse is. However, it is a temporary state, one which can be changed in due course. Senshi is not biological or species bound- we know that much, but same with chaos. It's metaphysical. Two different aspects working both with and against one another. Our loved ones, our friends, and families- those are real bonds. But in the future they will not matter. They will change with each lifetime, which is how I see it."


It was complex.
"Focusing on just this lifetime will not fix the future. It won't solve anything. Planning for the next rebirth cycle, for our futures? Without us, our worlds will die. It's possible those bound to us will die as well and never be reborn. It's not a kind line of thought, but it is a realistic one. Earth is the last place to host us. But it was not meant to be this way, it shouldn't be this way."

As he went on he grew more and more melancholy of it all. How many times he'd had such conversations now? Too many. Too many to count, and too many hadn't bothered to listen or consider it.
"We are united against chaos, but the methods which we seek to defeat them is flawed. It lacks the depth of knowledge and understand that we're facing extinction. If the negaverse has it way, they don't win. They will doom us. Our worlds, the very universe itself. Order and Chaos must have a balance, and right now we have none. purification is a nigh impossible course now to regain so much lost ground. United fronts are meaningless without commonality and consistency. Once it was easy, all we saw was an a*****e with purple dreadlocks."

He closed his eyes, the phantom pain in his ankle flaring up.
"Now we know it's just not one a*****e we're fighting. We're fighting a primal energy that threatens our very existences. It's an end none of us want- but at the rate we're going, that is the ending we are going to get."