Stibnite did not like that she had left when she did but in truth, she knew it was better than the alternative. Those brats were traveling together which meant something really was going on. She would need to look into it more now than ever.
The first priority though was finding General Leucite. He had not teleported of his own free will so honestly, she didn’t have a clue where to start looking. After checking all the traditional places, and a few not so, Stibnite had returned to Negaspace and the one place she knew he would come to sooner rather than later.
If there was one thing Leucite was good about it was paper work.
---
Leucite was livid. His conversation with Cinnabar had been somewhat illuminating but he needed more information. More importantly though, he needed to be sure Stibnite was okay. If she had been hurt - or worse - captured during this farce…
… Suffice it to say Schorl would be answering some very pointed questions. But, all the same, he was sore and ached and was fishing his communicator out of his jacket as he opened the door to his office, about to com her to verify she was okay when his eyes found her leaning against the desk.
“Stibnite!” He said, almost jumping, his hand instantly closing the door behind him before he found himself moving across the room, pulling her into his arms, crushing her to his sore, aching body before kissing her forehead, her cheeks, and the finally her lips, holding her as if he feared letting her go would cause her to evaporate.
“You’re alright,” he murmured softly, sounding calmed, though the rage was there, just pushed away so he could attend to his wife-to-be.
---
Stibnite found the breathe she was holding escape as the door opened and there stood the big lug she was engaged to. But she didn’t have a moment to do anything else before he had her wrapped in his arms and against him. “Well I was until you crushed my spine…” Stibnite managed to get out, knowing she had tasted blood from a split lip.
Hands coming up, she pushed against his chest to get a bit of room between them. “Can I say the same about you? What the hell happened...I take off and you end up in the hands of a knight?”
---
As Stibnite pushed, Leucite relented, though only just enough to give her breathing room. He knew that if it had been any other time and place she might have been more forceful, but the engagement seemed to have mellowed them both to a degree, tempering them into a strong coupled unit.
Which would explain why he’d fared so poorly. “He was attacking an Officer I knew - I actually went after his pet first but he decided to intervene.” Leucite said with a grunt. “Only injured my pride, he’ll be lucky if he can walk, I stuck him good in the leg, but he was like some berserk animal.”
He reached up and ran a finger along his sore lip and pulled it away looking at the blood. “He got a lucky hit on me. Next time I’m just going to go straight for his vitals”
Looking at her he frowned. “Please tell me that they were at least able to secure the objective.”
---
“Next time you aren’t going alone.” Stibnite spoke, turning to his desk and grabbing a scrap piece of fabric to press to his lip. “I shouldn’t have left your side. Though I was able to kick a foolish child into action, I was targeted by those brats again…” She held it there until he either pushed it away or took it from her.
But her hand faltered at his words. “Well,...” Stibnite’s lips pursed and she stepped back. “I don’t honestly know because I don’t know what the objective was. All I know is not long after General Cinnabar teleported you out, General Schorl called the full withdrawal of our forces.”
---
“You’re right, I won’t make that mistake twice.” They would work as a unit, Leucite, knew better now. They could not stand apart. Not without a significant loss in their abilities.
He took the cloth with a nod, pressing it to his lips before a low grumble escaped his throat. “She could have called the withdrawal sooner - before we had two generals down.” In his opinion, whatever the goal had been he doubted it had been successful if she’d called for a rout.
“In any case, you ran into the group of senshi again? It seems they really are changing their tactics it's not a fluke.”
--
“It’s General Schorl. Pride is what drives her. We have both seen that.” Stibnite said as she stepped back and leaned once more against his desk. “Something was testing her until she couldn’t justify it anymore.”
But when he brought up the senshi, Stibnite shook her head. “Not all of them. It’s interesting. They were not a unit of four but only three this time. And the others I could see...many still seemed to be working alone but driven by emotion over something else.” She remembered watching those take on General ‘Titan’. “I think...I think this is the start of something. I don’t think it’s over arching yet.”
---
“We need to find out what is the driving force behind this revolution and stamp it out quickly.” Leucite said, shifting himself to also lean against the desk, his body was sore and tired but he wasn’t going to just fall apart into a chair.
“That or we need to shift our own thinking to compensate… Remind me that I need to do a class on teamwork.” They needed to drive home the point that they needed to work as a unit.
“Because if this gets a ahead of us, they might be able to counter and taketake back territory, and we can’t have that.”
---n’t afford for that to happen.”
---
“No. “ Stibnite disagreed, her eyes casting over at him with a heated look. “Or first duty is for you to stop licking your wounds and calm down.” She was eyeing him with a don’t lie to me look. He was her first, negaverse second. Stibnite knew that. But he was also a prideful man.
And she didn’t like him burying that.
“Because teamwork can wait if you are still about to explode.”
---
There were times that Stibnite was able to cut through his attempts to push aside his rage - knowing full well that it would only come back hotter and more wild than before if he let it fester. She was right of course. If he tried to teach a class with this unresolved it was very likely the students would feel a portion of this wrath that he bound up tightly in his gut wishing to be free.
It didn’t make admitting it any less painful though.
“You know sometimes I hate it when you’re right.” He said, reaching down to lift her chin a bit more up toward him, meeting her gaze as his own smoldered with his repressed rage. “I’ll be recovered in a few days from my physical wounds - they are no worse than any of my usual fights in the ring… The pride, I fear, won’t be soothed until I see that Knight begging for his life beneath my boot.”
Or preferably corrupted or dead - but one thing at a time.
---
His rage met her cold stare. She did not yield under his fire in any form or walk of life. “You can hate it all you want but get used to is. Someone has to call you out on things you don’t want to face.”
With a jerk of her face, she pulled her chin from his hold but returned her red eyes back to his face. “I know you. I know it will push you harder than anything and I don’t want to see it cost you in other ways, General.”
---
The push and pull of their dynamic was not so much of dominance as much as it was understand of each other’s emotional vexations. For Leucite, that was his rage, for Stibnite… well… the wood aloof was probably a very fitting description of her character. But where she pulled away - he pushed forward - and they eventually found a balance. Like now.
“Oh trust me, I’d rather have you pointing it out then to figure it out on my own after I have chewed out a recruit who didn’t earn it.” He said softly. “Or lashed out in other ways that aren’t befitting of myself.”
No, there was blood in the water now - and he would have to glut himself on it later when he had the knight under his boot but first.
“We need to find out more about this knight and his pet - see if we can track down where they patrol and ambush them as need be once my wounds recover - if not just capture his pet as bait and dangle her over a trap.”
---
“The Cosmos knight?” Stibnite raised a brow as she listened, turning slightly so she wasn't’ facing him directly but still watching him out of the corner of her eyes. “Well, Page. For as much as a monster as he appeared, she seems to lack...proper training. From what I could see, the sight of battle surprised her.” Something that she would either have to get used to or watch herself slip into darkness.
“Though watch it Leucite.” Stibnite felt her hand come out and she looked at her knuckles where she had punched that stupid little brat. “The Mars Knight is your prey. He’s little toy could have other uses….” And that was when her lips twisted into a smile. Her hand closed into a fist, slowly, one finger at a time. “She belongs to him now but...I think that could change. With a little…” Her fingers opened slowly again. “Motivation.”
---
Leucite grinned. “Yes, that one. She has no skills to speak of unless falling down is one. She did not at all know how to face me when I attacked her, and the Mars Knight quickly turned his attention to me to prevent me from at least pinning her down for later. That being said…”
He watched her hand move, watched her lips twist into a grin as she spoke. He nodded his head, his own growing wider. “We do need more bodies - this is true. And what better motivation than the life of the man she follows?” He could not presume their relationship though he was sure that the Knight claimed her as his woman at the very least.
“Maybe we can get a Lieutenant - and a General - out of this mess.” Not that he necessarily wanted to raise the knight to join them but… - bodies were bodies.
---
There were things Stibnite disagreed with. Corrupting a Page or a baby senshi, she could understand, though she would never trust the later. A page could be molded...shaped into something that could be useful. A Knight? No, he would be better off dead in her mind. Even with memories gone, he would need to be retrained and focused. Not to mention the resentment those in their world would feel…
But now was not the time to bring that up and she only watched Leucite with careful eyes. “I think we need to find out more about her. Her and the group of senshi we have seen before. Wardite and Piypite did not have much to add on the topic of them outside of ‘senshi are bad’.” That made Stibnite roll her eyes. “Useless brats.” She mumbled, pushing off the desk and stretching her neck.
“Far better choices out there for agents and yet we get stuck with them.”
---
“The joys of familial bonds,” Leucite said, pulling the fabric from his lip and disposing of it into his jacket for now. “But we do need to scout them both. The senshi and that page.” He thought for a moment.
“I think it is time we pull out the mission board and start outsourcing, maybe send some of the training corps out as well. As much as I want to devote our time to this fully we both know that’s not possible.”
Not without never sleeping or giving up their civilian lives for a time.
---
“I think that may be wise.” Stibnite admitted, if a bit silently. She was a firm believer in if you want something done right, do it yourself mentality but at this point, they were both being stretched thinner than she would like. “And it may help to build on that ‘team’ feeling you were talking about. Get them working together to achieve things.”
Stibnite’ shrugged as she watched his lip. Stepping forward, she took hold of his chin and turned his face so she could get a decent look at him. “What else?”
---
He hummed in approval, and as she grabbed his face and looked him over he chuckled. “That’s about it, I think.” He said. “We’ll need to track them all down and give them a good beating.”
He looked her in the eyes. “So, coach, am I good to fight?”
---
“Depends on what you mean by fighting.” Stibnite released him and stepped away. “You mean beating the life out of the Mars Knight? Not for a long shot. You mean getting in the ring and showing what’s his name a few rounds, well you better be because isn’t that tomorrow?” Stibnite’s brow rose. “And after the last fight, you need to come packing a punch. Some people started questioning your skills.”
---
Leucite smirked. “I’ll be fine for that, I’m not an old man yet.” He nodded his head though. His last fight had been iffy. He’d gotten sloppy, gave into a few bad habits from his fights as Leucite. He would not make that same mistake again.
“I’m shooting for a round one knockout - like always.” He said with a small chuckle. “But if that’s the case we need to head home so I can clean up. So we both can.”
---
“You always shoot for that. And it’s happened how many times?” Stibnite shot back with a grin. “Come on big guy. We need to head back and let the dog out at least. Then you are going to bed. I’m not wasting good money on a chance you could lose.”
---
“Hey, one of these days I’m going to get in a good shot.” Leucite shot back before moving over to wrap an arm around her and teleport the both of them back home. She was right though, he was exhausted and he needed the energy for the fight.
--- fin
Torvil
