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Bloodstone wasn’t available to accompany her tonight, much to the girl’s disappointment, and she hadn’t been summoned by Obsidian for any additional training. All of that meant that for the first time in a while, Hydra was out on her own in the wee hours of the night before time bled into what would constitute as early morning. It was a school night and she knew that she’d regret it a little in the morning, when she had to drag herself out of bed and off to school, but she still felt like she had so much to prove.

So there she was, trying not to shiver as the cold end of winter chills teased the bare skin of her thighs and shoulders.

Whatever cosmic force thought that short shirts and no sleeves was appropriate for all seasons needed to be slapped or something. It wasn’t like quotas would wait for things like the weather and she didn’t have an outfit that was inconspicuous. Hell, her hair was ridiculously long and drew plenty of attention in itself if one didn’t consider the cracks in her chest and forehead.

Hydra liked it so much better when she didn’t have to go alone, energy draining was so much harder because she was a small girl who didn’t look very threatening.

Ugh, this sucked.

--

It is said that predators hone their skills through practice, as with anything else. Natural instinct combined with repetition made lions and polar bears and orcas into the hunters they are known to be. Youma worked in a similar way, an unnatural, ancient instinct swirling in each monster’s gut, driving them to hunt whenever they were not cloaked in the protective darkness of the Rift.

Bazzite had become quite adept at finding food when sent topside to stretch his long legs. Noise, he found, would draw police to him (which, really, ended up as snacks more often than not) or, at worst, senshi. He could easily subdue most senshi and pages without much trouble, but the higher in rank the opposition climbed, the more difficult it was for the youma to find a decent meal.

The giant blue locust-man had crawled in through an open window of the apartment building he found himself near and made a quick, quiet meal of the occupants inside. Two single women, perhaps cousins or friends, who barely made a sound thanks to Bazzite’s large hands over their heads. Hardly anything else was touched until Bazzite’s bright blue eyes had caught sight of one woman’s jewelry box and CD cases. Trinkets! Trinkets that must be collected…

A purse would do nicely. While Bazzite collected various baubles without much regard to surroundings, the purse started to sag. Necklaces, rings, earrings, an iPad, seventy-six cents in change, six CDs without the cases, a car phone charger, two tubes of lipstick, four fluffy hair bands and fourteen Coach-brand leather keychains.

With a belly full of starseeds and a purse full of trinkets, the youma made a quiet exit, leaving the apartment to look like a sloppy break-in. He would climb to the roof with the strap of the purse in his mouth, claws etching their way into the stonework of the building with relative ease. Once a claw found the lip of the roof, the youma pulled himself over with a swift movement, purse dragging. He spied someone, a senshi, one of theirs, nearby. He hadn’t met too many of them.

”.....hmm?” The sound was tinny, almost metallic, very alien.

--

She felt it before she saw it.

The aura was strange, unlike the small blips she normally noted for youma, and Hydra didn’t know what to make of it. Simply, the energy signature was different and once again, the teenager wished that someone else was with her so that she could ask them for information rather than freezing up. Her body went rigid for half a second before she forced her body to relax, inhaling and exhaling deeply, before she turned.

Long turquoise strands of hair fluttered from the movement, shifting across the dirty roof top while jade eyes blinked slowly, mouth opening in an O shape as the very large, comparatively to her short stature, bug-man hybrid staring at her.

Oh. Well, this was mildly terrifying.

Chills ran down her spine, goosebumps making a home upon her bare skin, and she swallowed, jade eyes blinking before she took a tentative step forward. Her back was straight, almost rigidly so, with her chin held high. Even if she was literally shaking in her boots, she was going to pretend that she had this.

She was adaptable. She would be fine.

“Hello,” she said cautiously, taking a moment to look the creature over. “Are you a youma?” He felt like one, but didn’t at the same time. Her thoughts drifted to Oberon and her heart skipped at the thought of him. Maybe, if this was a youma, she could help with Oberon’s research…

“My name is Sailor Hydra. I’m - I’m part of the negaverse. We could be...friends maybe? If you are too?” Yeah, that all sounded good and was at least worth a shot.

--

Bazzite tilted his head oddly at the girl whose hair was awfully long. He remembered that seemed to be a feature of Chaos senshi, for whatever reason. Not many of them ventured into the Rift and if they did, they were always accompanied by a higher-ranking officer. For whatever reason, feral youma, which occupied a very healthy portion of the Rift itself, found Negaverse senshi to be particularly delectable. Standing up fully, purse-strap still in his mouth, he slowly approached the senshi. She was… quite a bit shorter than he realized.

Taking the purse from his mouth, the youma tilted his head straight downward and leaned over quite a bit to get a good look at Hydra. ”Mmmhmm.” came the first reply, though to which question was Hydra’s guess. He seemed fascinated by her hair, which was a lovely turquoise color. Bazzite did have a thing for blues. Hydra had the same tell-tale Chaos signs he’d seen on other senshi - the holes in the head and chest, and the black outfit. With a good sniff, the senshi seemed to check out just fine in Bazzite’s view.

”I’m Bazzite, but you can call me Bazzi.”

He then rather suddenly sat down down next to Hydra, opening up the purse to inspect his haul of treasures from the apartment. When she didn’t immediately follow suit, Bazzite looked perplexed for a moment and patted the ground next to him. Crossing his legs, the youma spilled out the contents of the purse, picking up one of the tubes of lipstick to play with. ”I don’t get to talk to senshi very much. Are you one of Beni’s?”

The youma’s demeanor, while likely very strange to Hydra, was entirely non-hostile. Glowing blue eyes were occupied by the lipstick’s black packaging - it looked like a bullet, maybe? He was quiet for a few moments, and then, ”You have nice hair, Hydra.”

--

The creature’s mannerisms were fascinating, Hydra found, with her eyes ever leaving his form as he approached. She could feel her heart rate quicken, a rush of terror and adrenaline and excitement buzzing beneath her skin as he got closer. Hydra had to tip her head back to look up at him properly at some point and she bit down the question of why he had a purse in his mouth.

It didn’t matter.

She could not, however, keep the flush from staining her cheeks when the youma seemed to take an interest in her hair. The last time she felt like she had been under scrutiny it was with a certain boy scout looking boy who had called her pretty. This was different.

“S’nice to meet you Bazzi,” she said genuinely, smiling at him tentatively like she wasn’t sure that was what she should have been doing. Turquoise brows lifted as he plopped himself beside her and looked up quizzically.

What did he want?

The patting of the ground made everything click and carefully, Hydra sad down beside the bug man, shifting her hair so that she didn’t end up sitting on it. “I’ve never met...um...anything like you.” The fact that he could talk surprised her. “Dunno who that is,” she answered honestly, shoulders shrugging while she placed her hands in her lap. “So, no I guess. I - I was recruited by Aurostibite but....General Obsidian took me under his wing.”

She didn’t know who she formally reported to any more, but, because of her feelings for the redheaded general...she would pick him and felt as though he had chosen her too.

Bright eyes flickered over to Bazzi and she tilted her head, smile soft. “Do you want to play with it?”

--

With Hydra by his side, Bazzite had one ear on the senshi and two eyes on the lipstick bullet. ”That makes sense. Beni would have told me if we got a new senshi on our team. He’s little, blond. He got littler one day.” His ears twitched slightly, brows furrowing, attempting to recall who Obsidian was. That name sounded familiar, but the other, longer name did not. Obsidian… a sword, maybe? The youma nodded to himself. That sounded right, but it was a long time ago, wasn’t it?

Time was a strange thing to Bazzite. Without clocks or a sky in the Rift, the youma hadn’t the slightest idea just how much time had passed between two events. It could be a few scant days since he last saw Obsidian.

”I haven’t met anyone like me, either. Most of the time, they don’t talk. Just growl. Sometimes it gets real lonely, but Beni always comes to see me.” came a metallic reply as Bazzite turned the lipstick tube over and over in his clawed hands. With a frown, he inspected the bottom, which displayed a vibrant, cool pink color. He handed it to Hydra and went back to digging through the pile of treasures in his lap. ”I’m more of a blue guy myself. You can have it, Hydra.”

Bazzite chuckled then, a sound very baritone and multi-tonal, like two or three voices were all laughing simultaneously. His insectile wings twitched with the movement of his shoulders and he picked up a CD. Country. Ick. The youma made a face and tossed it over the side of the building. ”No taste, some people.”

--

Hydra was watching him with wide eyes, terribly curious and excited as she sat beside him. Her hands licked at the seams of her gloves as he spoke and she wondered what the proper etiquette was when it came to talking to youma. “Who’s Beni?” She asked quietly, wondering if this Beni person was the one that Bazzi was attacked to.

Aurostitbite had a personal youma, could Bazzi be someone’s?

Once again, the young girl wished she was capable of having a youma companion like that, but based on how most treated her, it was probably impossible. “Do you live in the Rift then?” It made the most, logical sense, but it also disappointed her, because that meant she would never be able to visit.

If things continued to go well anyway.

She accepted the lipstick, turning it over in her palm and peering at the shade before nodding. “Yeah, that doesn’t look like your color.” She tried to laugh, but it felt flat and she sighed, lifting a hand to tuck hair behind her ear. “Thank you.”

There were a bunch of questions she wanted to ask, but she didn’t know what was okay or what wasn’t.

She was so tired of being in a position where she didn’t know what to do. “Um. Have you always been like...this?”

--

”Beni’s my buddy. Benitoite. He’s about your size, I think. Has a spear, wears the floofy clothes. Jacket.” Bazzite nodded to himself, thinking this was enough information for Hydra to use to identify Benitoite, without realizing perhaps there were many more Generals than when he last counted. How many of them were also short and blond? ”He’s my General.”

Next came the Coach-brand keychains. One was a strawberry, one was a bird and one was a few yellow leather stars. Bazzite held it in the air by a claw, silver keyring glistening in the light. ”Yep, I live in the Rift with all the other youma. Most of them don’t talk, though, so it gets lonely sometimes. But Beni will call me up here to stretch my legs and get some food. There’s no tee-vee down there and no internet. Sometimes the Negaverse officers come down there but the lieutenants don’t come back if they don’t have a friend. Sometimes Captains don’t come back, either.” The way the youma explained it seemed very nonchalant for just how violent things could be down in the Rift.

Hydra’s next question made Bazzite’s ears twitch. The youma frowned deeply for a moment before his face returned to its resting state. ”Nope, I was a person once.” Part of him wanted to be upset about this fact, if only because Benitoite was so upset about it even now. Despite attempting to dredge up some kind of appropriate, distressing emotional response, the youma found he just couldn’t do it. ”I was a Captain once. Not anymore. But…”

The youma looked over his shoulder at Hydra, blue eyes bright. ”Beni takes care of me, so it’s okay.”

Turning back to the treasures, he lifted the iPad and turned it over and over, looking for the button he was supposed to push. He didn’t remember having one, but then again… he didn’t remember a whole lot.

--

“Never heard of him.” Hydra replied with a shrug, picking at the hem of her skirt. “But I don’t know many people,” she admitted in a small and sad voice. The young girl knew that the negaverse was full of people, but who she knew could be listed on a small notepad.

Being new sucked.

“I can’t go into the Rift,” she sighed, thinking about how the only time she had been close, she had been in the proximity of several other agents but when she had gone near it before. It was different then, there were others who would have shielded her. “What’s it like?” She was young and curious about this place she wasn’t allowed in. Maybe, if she asked, one of her superiors would take her, but she didn’t think she was ready.

Yet.

But - someday?

Tentatively, Hydra leaned into Bazzi, carefully lifting one of his arms so she could settle against his side. “I’m sorry.” She said, in that quiet voice of hers. “I can take care of you too, sometimes. When you’re not in the Rift?” Maybe she couldn’t have her own youma, but that didn’t mean she could be friends with one.

--

”You know me now.”

Bazzite didn’t seem phased at all by Hydra’s movement of his arm, feeling more than seeing her nestle against him. He was cool to the touch, skin dry but solid. He lifted his hand and patted the senshi lightly on the head, as Benitoite would do for him. ”The Rift is dark and dusty and full of crystals and youma. Lots of trinkets there, and dead lieutenants.” It could be surmised that the aforementioned trinkets came from the dead lieutenants.

”It’s dangerous there for not-youma. That’s why the little ones have to have friends, or they end up as snacks.” Why feral youma had a particular penchant for chewing on Chaos senshi, Bazzite wasn’t sure. Perhaps it was because they were unable to think and form plans and reason. Only a few youma could do that, and Bazzite knew he wasn’t the smartest one in the Rift. Not by far. ”The ones that can’t talk, those are the ones to watch out for.”

While Hydra’s offer to care for him topside was very heartfelt, the youma simply couldn’t feel that tugging of the heartstrings, and he seemed unaware of that fact. Bazzite simply patted Hydra on the head again. ”I’ll ask Beni to meet you. I don’t mind more people bringin’ me food and cleanin’ my wings.” He gave them a quick buzzing, a burst of vibration against Hydra’s back. It might even have tickled!

--

“Yup, I do,” Hydra agreed, nestling against Bazzi’s side, ignoring the dryness of his youma skin. As long as it wasn’t flaking, they’d be fine. Maybe these weren’t they types of friends a girl like her should look for, but she wasn’t going to turn away a new companion.

Bazzi was nice and maybe he’d be willing to help her later.

“Well, one day I’ll be strong enough to deal with it anyway,” she said firmly, believing that she was fully capable of reaching new heights in her potential. Training under Obsidian was proving to be extraordinarily difficult, but she was determined to be more capable.

She couldn’t help people if she didn’t get stronger.

“Okay, I’ll make sure to bring stuff for you next time then!” She didn’t know who this Beni person was, but she didn’t think that she’d mind meeting him if it meant that she’d get to keep Bazzi.

--

Bazzite’s non-verbal response rumbled deep in his chest. The youma gave a great sigh and looked trouble for a moment. A great blue hand reached over to pat Hydra on the head one last time. ”I hafta go now, Hydra. Gotta go home. Can’t stay up here forever.”

He made to stand up, but not before making sure Hydra was sufficiently untangled from his gangly form. Scooping up the trinkets into his new purse, Bazzite stretched briefly and almost… enjoyed the air one more time before turning to climb down the side of the building from the direction he arrived. ”Bye, Hydra. If you wanna talk again, find Beni. Maybe you’ll see him before I do.”

Long, honed claws dug into the mortar of the building and the creature started his descent, his form shifting and shimmering before disappearing entirely from view. He would arrive in the Rift shortly, the teleportation from one place to another a long familiar process.