Welcome to Gaia! ::

Physically there was nothing wrong with her. After weeks in a cast and taking care how she even breathed she was healed. In body at least. Her mind, now that was a different story. What kind of trauma did a child go through watching their father die, knowing they had a hand in it? For the young blond it was actually cathartic. That man, that body, that had slowly breathed his last in that dirty alley had been no father to her. He had been a nightmare, a pluge, a dark figure in the night that promised pain and suffering. And she… she was finally free.

Antares shot of a quick text, a stipulation of her grounding being loosened. The senshi couldn't really blame them, she had run away with the intention of never coming back. She had run from the shadows of her past that had been reaching out to grab her, coming back to claim her. Who knew what would have happened if Shang hadn't have found her. Her father would have likely killed her… or she him.

With a mental shake of her head the blond senshi shoved the phone she had spaced out over in her sweater pocket. Summer heat was already licking at the east coast even if spring had barely started. Her uniform would be much better in the heat that the city released into the night but Antares still felt self conscious in the skimpy outfit. Still felt half dressed so an unzipped sweater was a mental compromise. Besides it allowed her to carry the required civilian phone, the electronic leash as it were. She might be on a mental lark but she didn’t have time to wool gather. She was standing here above a dead end alley for a reason.

Taking a bracing breath the senshi made her way down into the alley from the rooftops using a battered old fire escape. Nothing had changed here, the brick was still dirty and dingy, the light pale and watery as it filtered in from the street, grime covered everything, and the chain link fence prevented escape from the confined space. It was her that she faced down her father, receiving a broken wrist and several cracked ribs in the process. It was here that she confronted her past and beat it.... Quite literally. Had her father not run into that general he would have slunk out of the alley, his metaphorical tail between his legs, with a bloody face and bruised body. Antares had come out of that fight worse off but her father hadn’t been lucky. She was able to walk away, he had been left with the rest of the trash to be found dead later by some officials, not that it had mattered. He was already dead as far as she was concerned, at least metaphorically.

Right now though she needed to find it, that guitar pick. Ironically enough it was something her father had returned to her, one of the last vestiges of her mother, during his days when he was mentally tormenting Antares. It wasn’t those memories she wanted to keep with the return of the pick, but those of her mom. Loving memories, happiness filled ones, ones that made her smile. And that pick was some where here in the garbage strewn alley, hopefully. After basicly two months, even that wasn’t a guarantee.

Antares had been focused on scanning the ground. She really didn't want to go digging through the trash strewn everywhere for the pick but it seemed like that was what she was going to have to do. At least that's what she thought until a rather loud slap of folded newspaper landing on the damn ally pavement drew her attention. A cat. A guardian cat! One blonde brow rose in surprise when the fur ball spoke.

What ever he had just said sure as s**t didn't sound like any English she knew. Or at least only in passing. His question was pretty clear but the first part… not so much. It was like the cat jammed random words together with no real care. “Antares. What's a fluff butt like you doing here? Shouldn't you be with your senshi?”

Antares did a quick mental check and didn't sense another order fighter around. The cat was barely ‘pinging’ on her internal radar and he was right in front of her. Her eyes narrowed slightly as she took in the detris around the cat. “Hey, fur ball. You spot a guitar pick around here?” It was a long shot but maybe the guardian had spotted the yellow piece of plastic. It never really occurred to her that insulting the cat wasn't really the most polite thing to do, at least not when she was asking it for something.

“Its plastic you ball of fur-” She was going to snark out more when the cat mentioned her starseed, silencing any further acid laced comment. Absently her hand came up to rub the spot on her chest where she had seen the gaping hole corrupts sported, the spot where her seed resided. She frowned at the cat, her mind spinning too fast to really grasp what was going on. She didn’t really feel different. Sure she had come to terms with her past and with the death of her father. She had wrapped her mind around the fact that she had essentially signed her father’s death certificate. She was ok with it… wasn’t she?

Was that what the cat was talking about? “Whats wrong? I… I didn’t-” she didn’t know how to finish that question. She didn’t want to voice even the thought that maybe she had welcomed chaos into her seed by leaving her father to die. It would be the last ‘******** you’ he could do. A last, lasting reminder of him. Unlike the scars on her skin this one wouldn’t be visible but it would be felt every day for the rest of her life. Even with the worries bubbling up inside her she tried to hide the worry. She tried and failed.

With worried eyes and dread settling in her bones Antares watched in silence as the dark fluff ball did something. He closed his eyes and seemed to spaz out for a moment, going all tight and shaky. It nearly had her asking if he was ok, her mouth had opened to do just that, when something changed. It wasn’t like earth shattering, at least not at first. It was warm air, damn near hot, blowing against her followed by the warmth of the sun beating down even though it was the middle of the night. Antares didn’t realize that even though she felt the wind, nothing was moving. Her clothes weren't shifting, the trash didn’t eddie about the alley, her hair wasn’t disheveled by the tugging breeze. But feel it she did.

The wind, the heat, warmth… golden warmth seemed to fill her and her eyes drifted closed as her stiff body loosened. Like a cat basking in the warmth of a sunbeam Antares unconsciously relaxed, her face turning up towards the non existent sun. Even the grit, the sand, that felt like it started to brush against her exposed skin bothered her. Nothing could bother her at that moment. Nothing was a problem. Not her past. Not her future. She was at peace. Worry faded, strength replacing it, strength and contentment.

It seemed to last forever, forever and a day, but it was likely only a few seconds. A few beats of her heart, a few ticks of a clock, and then it was done. The warmth faded, the phantom breeze, the non existent sand, even the imaginary sun ‘set’ leaving Antares standing in the dirty, dingy alley in the middle of the night with a guardian cat standing right in front of her. The only thing that didn’t disappear like fog with the sun on a warm summer morning was the strength she felt. It was hard to describe it, she just knew that whatever the cat did she was stronger now. When her eyes finally opened and she took a deep breath Antares noticed two things, the first was that the alley smelled horribly… the second was that her uniform was noticeably tighter.

“The hell?” Shrugging off her sweatshirt, the jacket falling from numb fingers as she took in the new outfit she was now sporting. She studied the clothes, the jewelry, even the shoes seemed to be different. “Stronger. I feel stronger,” Antares answered the cat absently as she reached up and felt the new tiara she was now sporting. “And a bit strange. Like seriously, what the hell just happened?”

Faust was lucky that Antares wasn’t really listening to him, at least not at first, since she was still studying her new gear since she would have really snarked back with his comments that questioned her intelligence. Blue eyes focused on the cat when he mentioned her pen, she had been studying the new ring bracelet combo on her wrist but now she was studying the cat. The fluff ball seemed to know what he was talking about especially when he mentioned her pen. Maia had told her about the upgrades and the changes but the blonde hadn’t really thought about it. It had just been an abstract concept not the reality it was now.

Still feeling rather unlike herself the senshi just smiled at the cat as he basically threatened her if she went and got herself killed. Normally she would have scoffed and snarked back but still a bit awe struck and content Antares just nodded, “You will have to get in line behind my family.” Family… her family. Not of her blood but of her heart. The man who had died in this alley was nothing to her but a shadow of her past. Someone who helped create the woman she was today but not someone who controlled her.

Crouching down so she was more on the cat’s level she looked him over, really looked him over. After a moment of silence she asked, “You hungry? I’m hungry, I could go for some food? I think I could be persuaded enough to share if you're up for it.” She smirked a bit at the cat, inviting him into the joke. It was going to take a bit to get use to this new feeling, this new strength. She hadn’t forgotten about the guitar pick, just like she hadn’t forgotten about her past, but right then it wasn’t all that important to find it. The memories it held were all within her. The pick was just battered plastic, it was the memories that were important.

It felt odd to be so light and free of the past. Like the scars she beared and the history she carried had no connection to who she was right now. Reality would intrude sooner rather than later but for the moment she reveled in the feeling of being free. Maybe that was why she just smiled at the cat and added, “and newspapers to collect.” No matter how wrapped up Antares had been in her own thoughts and searching for the guitar pick she hadn’t missed the soggy bundle that the cat had dropped when she had shown up. She had no clue why he would want a dirty, gross newspaper but guardian cats in general were a mystery to the senshi, one she really didn’t care enough to figure out.

“Nope! But that's what google is for. If it comes to it pretty sure I can find something...” she trailed off as she fished the cell phone from the heap of her sweatshirt, one that now positively reeked of trash, and quickly searched for local sushi places. To her surprise there was one still open a few blocks away, it wouldn’t be open for much longer but long enough… long enough. “Go figure. A late night sushi place.” Pale blue eyes glanced at the cat and Antares couldn’t help the snicker at the idea of the furball striding into a restaurant and sit down at a table. He would imperiously order all their fish then be affronted when they toss him out on his furry rear end. “So I’m guessing like four orders of Salmon sashimi for you?” Her question was more hypothetical as she quickly put in the order, along with a few other things for herself and the cat. Gotta love how hands off the world has become, she mentally thought as she finished her order before powering down and standing up, snagging her sweater in the same move. “Your welcome to come with but it shouldn’t take me long to go pick it up.”

Without saying anything else Dessie hurried out of the alley before turning down the street towards the sushi place. It might have been a late night eatery but it wouldn’t be open all night. If the cat wanted his sashimi she needed to put on a little speed.