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"Mmhmm. If you say so," Kit responded, dark eyes shining with amusement at Richard's reasoning aka excuses. The fact that the bearded man hadn't addressed the question as to whether or not he was showing off wasn't lost on him.

It wasn't that the teen didn't trust his elder regarding the house to be a safe place, but Kit figured that the question of whether or not he was welcome there was an entirely different matter. Even if Richard was and knew whoever lived there, did that really include him by association? He felt awkward enough having had to rely on Richard - or anyone, for that matter - to leave the battlegrounds, so the idea that he might have been imposing like this only added to his disconcertation, but he did his best to conceal it. He hadn't had time to voice his doubts, anyway, before the door was open, and he had little choice in the matter of whether or not to accept the hospitality offered when he couldn't exactly get up and leave.

When they entered the living room, though, the younger male quickly realized his position, noticing other people hurt at least as bad if not worse than he was and one who didn’t seem conscious at all. And then Richard went ahead and mentioned the battle and a sheepish smile spread across Kit’s face as he placed a hand over his eyes. Oh, Richard...I know you only meant well, but…

Had the other man really thought about where Kit might have stood with the others? Though he couldn’t read energy signatures now that he was powered down and at least the majority of the others seemed to be powered down themselves, the Dark Mirror senshi was willing to bet that most if not all of them were Negaverse agents. And while that was just fine with him and he meant them no harm (not that he could have done anything even if he’d wanted to), that didn’t necessarily mean they would all be as accepting of him as Huntite had been. Particularly if they realized where he’d been and what he’d been doing during the fight, and even Huntite didn’t have the full story on that.

His gaze instinctively drifted to Hver’s healing ribbon still secured on his arm. Hopefully no one would recognize it for what it was or who it was associated with. Though the other people in the room seemed to be hurt to varying degrees, that still didn’t make him feel any less like a feline brought into to a wolf’s den. He’d certainly been thinking lately that he’d wanted to meet and get to know and understand more people of the Negaverse, but this wasn’t exactly the way he had in mind. Not when they weren’t aware of who he was and mistaken for one of them.

Well, he’d already endured this much, and it wasn’t as if he hadn’t been attacked by a White Moon Senshi himself, having been of a Chaos faction. He just had to wonder if the lieutenant who’d stomped on his right instep and shattered the bones in his foot in the first place was among the men in the room. As the man who seemed to be the leader of sorts - and also one of the most heavily wounded - looked at him during his glances to each person, he could only give a helpless little smile in return. Did he really have any right to ask for help from these people, medical or otherwise? It seemed precarious enough that they were housing him without realizing he wasn’t also of the Negaverse.

And then a brown-haired, brown-eyed young man around his own age came over to check on his foot. At the request of 'may I?', Kit felt it would have been rude to refuse, but he also found himself contemplating the repercussions if the other young man decided Kit wasn't worth helping after all. "Please," he replied, gesturing for the guy to do as he wished. "And thank you. It's awfully gracious of you, aiding a complete stranger like this."

“...You owe me nothing. We are all officers who serve the same side.”

As he spoke to a green-eyed woman, the words belonging to a man called Alex rang in his ears and Kit felt the uncomfortable knot in his stomach tighten. Are we, though? Weak though he was, he knew if he was called out, then that might also have meant bad things for Richard and the last thing he wanted was to get the lieutenant in trouble with his comrades, particularly when he and them were being so accommodating and kind to him while having suffered heavy losses themselves.

Addressing the brunet examining his foot, Richard began to speak for Kit, which the college student felt was best for fear he himself said too much, like the fact that youmas were the ones who had slashed up his arms and a Negaverse Lieutenant had been responsible for his inability to walk just then. He was glad to hear Huntite had only bore a punch to the face. But before he could find out more, Richard was being asked to help prepare drinks in the kitchen by a chaos cat and Richard was telling Kit to let the young man look him over.

It's not exactly your trust in him or his medical training that I'm worried about... Kit thought, but nodded and waved the bearded man off. He thought he could handle his situation, but it weighed worse on him now that the one person he knew and who knew his powered identity in turn was out of sight. He only vaguely comprehended the one called Tom’s words about splinting his foot, but he shook his head at the mention of going in for x-rays the following day. He didn’t plan to stick around that long if he could help it. “Thank you - uh, Tom, right? - but you don’t have to go through so much trouble for me. I appreciate you setting it right now, but other than that, don’t - ah! - worry...about it…” Kit grit his teeth and gripped tight the arms of the chair he sat in as the brunet set to work on his foot. “You...have enough other people to worry about here...and I can just...go to a hospital or something...get it looked at.”

Just as Tom was finishing with the straps, the topic of what the fighting had been about came up and Kit flinched. Alex began to explain it from their perspective, though, and the Dark Mirror Senshi couldn’t help but be interested. He knew there was much he wasn’t aware of regarding the Negaverse’s side of things, but hearing Alex’s version, he began to feel that maybe they didn’t have the full story, either. He knew it would have been wise to keep quiet as he had forced himself to do all this time, but...something had been eating away at him. It’d been gnawing at him for a long time, now. If the Negaverse and White Moon just knew more about each other and what was going on...was it possible that they could get along better? Of course they had their disagreements and disputes, but wasn’t it also possible that much of their differences were simply matters of misunderstandings and mis-matched viewpoints?

He took a deep breath and stared at the far wall as he began to speak up. “...The way I heard it...that knight had already been an informant before the general had captured him. He’d been informing both sides, though, depending on who paid him. And of course when the general found out, they couldn’t have that, so they mutilated him and took his ring to keep him under their thumb, especially because his Wonder was supposedly especially useful to them. Tonight was just his final gamble to either break away from their hold on him or to submit to corruption.” He didn’t know what the other Negaverse agents would make of that information - whether they would think what had happened to the knight was cruel or necessary or expected - but he felt they needed to know just the same. “I wonder just how many of the Order would have considered him a traitor, too, if they’d known what he’d done...how many who would have fought so hard.”

His favorite line of some song lyrics began to play in his head again, unbidden. There are precious few at ease with moral ambiguities...so we act as though they don’t exist… Perhaps now it would be possible to find out just how true that was.

Alex may not have known the outcome of the battle, but Kit did. He’d been there when Schörl had finally decided to give up the cause - at least for the time being. He just wasn’t sure if he had any right to break the news. Or what other questions it might have led to if he did; questions he wasn’t as keen on answering. Kit glanced down at his knees, staring right through them with a distant gaze, but a ghost of a smile still on his face at the irony of his situation. At this point, he had already decided he pretty much deserved whatever came his way for sticking his nose where it didn’t belong. Kit just hoped Richard wouldn’t be subjected to any consequences as a result of his own actions.

"With all due respect, General, I humbly disagree," the Romano's assistant teacher answered Alex. "Same side or not, we are under no obligation to aid each other, particularly when it would come at a cost to ourselves. You yourself were already badly hurt and were just able to escape with your comrades. I cannot imagine that everyone in the Negaverse would have felt as inclined to do as you and your group had done, concerning yourself with the well-being of strangers when you had yourself and your own to worry about." She flashed the unconscious Witherite a contemptuous look.

"While your camaraderie among your team and your leadership as a general are certainly to be admired, I cannot believe that everyone in the organization would have acted so irrationally against their own best interests for the sake of someone they didn’t even know, regardless of what side they served.” Turning back to the general, she continued, "I am indeed new to this war, but not to human nature. However, I will do as you say as best I can in regards to learning and observing."

And then the knocked-out captain came to. Tress had half a mind to march over to him and knock him out yet again, but she swallowed her irritation and continued doing what she could to stay diligent and be useful. He hadn’t addressed her, anyway, so she bit her tongue as she concentrated on her work.

At least up until she was chastised for it by the general's brother against whose reasoning she could not argue. If there was someone around with actual medical training, why allow an amatuer to risk making a mess of things in their place? Tress nodded to Hudson, made note of Tom as the one with the training, and got up to leave the rest of tending to Benitoite's wounds to the brown-eyed brunet. What annoyed her more than anything was now she had to come up with some other way to try to be useful.

An opportunity presented itself sooner than she expected. After the general scolded his captain for taking on more of the enemy than he could handle, urging him to call for help in the future if he needed it, Alex proceeded to mention a bruise salve located in a greenhouse. Tress assumed this was his response to Witherite's request for bruise balm. She could go get that.

"I'll be right back," she told the room at large before heading toward what she guessed was the back door of the house. She had no idea in what direction the greenhouse was, but she thought she might be able to spot it if she was outdoors. Once she stepped out, though, she noticed the Chaos Guardian from earlier and picked up her pace to match the feline's. "Please pardon my encroachment, but may I assist you somehow?"

Kit listened attentively as Alex spoke, intrigued by the other man's perspective. So it seemed not all generals approved of each others' methods regarding how to deal with Order beings. Schörl had seemed off to him - a few crayons short of a full box - but he couldn't be sure how other generals compared to her. For all he knew, she and Cinnabar could have been the standard, but Cinnabar herself seemed messed up due to being part youma.

"That makes sense. As an organization, the Negaverse can't be divided among themselves or it would make you more vulnerable." He cocked his head. "Though, out of curiosity, may I ask how you might have dealt with the situation in the other general's stead?"

The teen nodded in both agreement and acknowledgement of Alex's points regarding why the Saturn Knight wouldn't have been of much use to the Negaverse corrupted. It had certainly seemed to be more of a vengeful endeavor of the two female generals rather than anything actually beneficial to them or their cause.

"It's nice to know the Negaverse also has those who care about their own," Kit commented. "I haven't gotten to meet many agents since I was first awakened, so I haven't had a chance to understand things from the perspective of those in your faction." He regarded a few of the other injured agents in the room. "It's a shame that those of the Order seem so unwilling to perceive Chaos beings as anything like them. At least from my experience in dealing with them."

At the mention of 'Dark Mirror's children," Kit couldn't help but laugh. "'Children', are we? Is that how you think of us? I know our court is small, but I'd like to think we can hold our ground. You sound like you know Remarque well, though, to refer to him by such a nickname." He shrugged. "I don't know how much he cares about the other Dark Mirror senshi, but even if he does, I don't know if he'd willing to risk drawing unwanted attention from either of the other, larger factions just because one or two of his own court might be in trouble. I feel more like we each do our own thing. But maybe that's just me."

He lay on the couch listening to the goings on around him. He wasn’t surprised by the lieutenant he grabbed words, but things like what he did gained loyalty of comrades, even if they thought you were stupid. In his defense, he had no idea, it would wipe him so badly to teleport with her … he didn’t consider how much it took to summon two youma to aid him.

He chuckled and raised a tired arm, “mine was one of those he’s guilty of … didn’t exactly want this … spent the first several months purposely annoying Bossman. He endured and well things worked out in the end … as can be seen.”

He groaned and moved to sit up, with what every little energy he had covered so far. It was awkward to just lie on the couch, especially if was going to talk to the others. It felt at the moment almost like a team meeting of sorts. Not to mention, he didn’t know much about the mirror senshi. Only thing he knew, or thought he knew was that they weren’t exactly allies?

The way Beni talked though, it showed him, that maybe that wasn’t exactly the case. Personally he didn’t care so long as the mirror senshi didn’t hinder them majorly. They weren’t his concern or his priority. He sank against the back of the couch relaxing into the kitchen. “I could really go for a pizza right now,” he said, but looking around at all the others he amended, “or 6.”

He chuckled, “and maybe some hot totties … bossman … tell me you have whiskey!”

Tom checked the splint once again to make sure it was secure before moving over to Alex and checking his injuries. The bandaging wasn’t bad, she did a nice job cleaning him up, and Forsterite had taken most of the glass out. But unfortunately, Alex would be needing stitches. Luckily though there seemed to be a kit for it in the first aid box. “Well, even with the salve this is probably going to hurt a bit.” He said to Alex as he made sure the needle and thread were clean before starting to work on the main wound, the shoulder. He was sure that it hurt, but this was something that even with their faster healing would need some help.

He listened to the chatter going on around him, and was surprised at how serious the lieutenant was. From what he had seen and whom he had met so far, he was surprised someone who was on the general’s team would so business-like when it came to being a member. He wondered how long she had been at this, she was at least more serious than he was, and he couldn’t fault her for that. Though with the others’ responses, the atmosphere still stayed relaxed and he couldn’t help grinning a little. It was nice to be in such company.

He frowned a little when Alex mentioned having forced corruption before. He really felt like muttering including me under his breath, but decided against it. The less people knew about it the better he supposed.

The mention of pizza sounded good though. But the drinks got his attention for a bit. “If one of those drinks is hot chocolate I would love to have some please. It’s all right if you don’t have any though.” He nodded at Hux. “Pizza is fine to me, but I’m up for almost anything at this point.” And with that he focused on continuing the stitching for Alex. “It’s not too bad, but it will definitely be sore for a while and I would avoid using it as much as possible over the next few days.”

Setting aside differences for the sake of the whole…what an interesting notion. Ptolemy was pretty sure that not even the Order beings were unified enough to practice that idea, but perhaps he was simply basing his assumptions on the stereotype that they were all self-righteous, arrogant people who thought they and they alone knew and were doing what was best for the world. They were just so vocal about their opposition against Chaos, but how ironic that the Negaverse, in its unity, seemed to be more organized than the Order faction itself.

Perhaps this was one reason Scholomance had been so certain that the Negaverse was undefeatable. Ptolemy still stood by his belief that the Negaverse itself, though, wasn't the enemy. They must have just seemed like it to their opponents because in their unity, it was easy for others to ignore the fact that the organization was made up of individuals who each had their own opinions and beliefs that clashed with the majority. If the Order faction could see Negaverse agents as individuals rather than one, single, terrifying entity that was meant to be wiped out, perhaps they could identify with them better.

Obviously agents like Alex were able to do so with the knights and senshi, recognizing several individuals in particular, sharing history with them, and even, it seemed, begrudging them a certain respect. After all, it was odd to think about, but just because you hated or wanted to kill someone didn't mean you couldn't respect them or certain aspects of them as a person.

Kit pondered what situation might have caused someone who didn't like forcing corruption on people to do exactly that. "Huh…I guess I assumed forcing corruption on someone automatically made them loyal to the Negaverse," he admitted with a sheepish grin, reaching up to run a hand through his hair. "And I guess I thought that since I've heard there's a certain amount of memory-loss involved, I assumed those who'd been corrupted wouldn't retain the memories required to hold a grudge or subsequently seek revenge. Remarque, when he first awakened me, mentioned something about the Negaverse brainwashing people and I thought corruption might have been what he was referring to. There's so much I want to ask you about and learn, but I know you're exhausted and this probably doesn't make for a very good first impression conversation." He lay his head back, beaming. "Plus I guess you don't really have any reason to give me information just because I'm curious and I ask."

“Manipulation to gather information, hm…?” Attempting to sit up a little straighter in his chair, he asked musingly, "So have you known that I'm a Dark Mirror Senshi? Or did you just mention them just now to see if I would respond to their name? I wasn't sure if Richard cleared it with you before bringing me here, but I apologize if you're only finding out now. Huntite didn't say not to mention it, so I figured he trusts your judgement." The teen shrugged. "Or maybe you're hoping to find out more from me by being so hospitable. I'm well aware you don't have to be cruel to someone to take advantage of them. But if that's how you play, I'd prefer we both be honest with each other and set all the cards on the table upfront."

Looking around at the room at large to emphasize the fact that he had nothing to hide from any of them, the teen began, "My name is Kit Paine. I also go by Sailor Ptolemaeus, Dark Mirror Senshi of Change." He chuckled lightly. "I agree with the idea that manipulation tactics, especially through kindness, are more effective than torture, but from what I saw of them, the two generals Schörl and Cinnabar are just sadistic people who enjoy causing pain. It's easier, too, to use force than to take the time and effort to gain trust bit by bit, especially at the risk of actually starting to develop a meaningful relationship with them and risking your whole plan being sabotaged by your guilt in the end. But I do think, if you can manage it, the payout is higher, so that's admirable." He spread his arms in an open gesture.

"In my case, though, I assure you there's no need for manipulation. If you want something from me, just ask - like information on the outcome of the battle, for instance. I don't mind being used as a means to an end. And anyway, manipulation tactic or not, I already feel indebted to you for allowing me into your home and giving me medical treatment." Looking to Tom, he winked. “Oh, don’t worry about me, cupcake. You already did such a fantastic job patching me up and I’ve been hurt worse than this even before I became a senshi. I’ll be fine, really.”

Kit raised his brows at the general, still grinning. “Ask ‘Remmy’ your weakness? If he’s close enough to you to know it, why would he share that?” Kit inquired, puzzled, now, as to what kind of bond the pair had with each other. Were they friends? Enemies? Frienemies? “Not that I’d ask. If I’m to find out someone’s weakness, I like to learn about them first-hand. People are too interesting not to try to get to know directly if possible.”

At Alex’s offer to help him, Kit’s grin still held, but his dark eyes flashed the general’s way with a peculiar look in them - as if challenging him. Or giving warning. “That’s very gracious of you, sir. However, for the same reason I doubt Remarque would back me up, I’d suggest you keep your protection and your assistance limited to your team, or at least be fully aware of what you’re getting into before you offer them to me.

“Whatever light my court might be viewed in, I personally like to consider myself neutral in loyalty, if not in uninvolvement. My beliefs and actions, separate from my court’s as a whole, aren’t exactly the wisest - hence how I ended up being attacked by both sides in this last battle. I’d hate for anyone other than myself to suffer for my foolishness. You all have your own fights to worry about and ideals to protect without concerning yourself with mine.” He closed his eyes again as he rested his head back against the chair. “I was doing my best to get Scholomance free of your organization, after all. To have tried to aid me in my selfish undertakings would have already gone against your rule of not opposing your own faction.

“Not that I’m against said faction or in league with the White Moon. It’s just that, like you, I didn’t think it would have been right to forcibly change a person against their will no matter what side they’re on. And...maybe it might sound ludicrous, but I wonder if one day, we - the Dark Mirror, the White Moon, the Negaverse - can’t all come to some sort of mutual understanding.” All this talking after the fighting had tired him out more than he would have thought possible, but Kit felt certain things needed to be gotten out into the open early on.

When Richard re-entered the room, Kit smiled at him before it was disrupted by a wide yawn. “Coffee with pizza? That’ll be entertaining. What a party this is turning out to be.” His grin broadened. “Too bad coffee makes me sleepy.”

The tawny-haired woman nodded at the guardian cat when she was told that her help would be appreciated. "I don't know how you planned to do it all yourself, but I imagine in that form, there are a great many things you have to get used to finding ways to do on your own."

Not that she would have been able to complete the task independently without Katya, either. Obviously the cat was more familiar with the place and where things were than she was.

Obeying the feline's instructions, Tress asked, "Alexandre is the General's full name? Does he own this property?"

If the man made the salves himself and they were stored in the greenhouse, Tress was willing to bet he created them from the plants he also grew himself. She wondered if this was a hobby or interest of his, or perhaps something to do with an occupation or else necessity. "Has he been making these salves long? It seems like he could make a nice profit off of them."

Gathering several of the jars after examining and smelling a few, she cradled them in her arms and turned back to the guardian. "Tress Gervene. It’s an honor to make your acquaintance, Katya. I hadn't realized guardian cats assisted more than just senshi - unless there was a senshi present at the house and I wasn't aware."