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The only plans that Hopeite had for the night was her cutest, comfiest, most adorable set of sunflower boyshorts and matching tank top, a stiff drink, and Shahs of Sunset with Amanda. Amanda loved Shahs of Sunset. Amanda loved everything. Especially treats. Maybe Hopeite would even splurge and pop out to get hazelnut chocolate chip gelato from the corner store near her house. After all, her pockets rattled with stolen starseeds and her quota was more than filled for the evening. She deserved a break and a reward. It wasn't often she was a good little soldier. She smiled to herself in anticipation as she wandered the backstreets on her way home.

To her left, someone had discarded an old full length mirror. Hopeite paused to admire herself. She had always been a slender gal, but since she had found her power, she had gotten lean. Muscles were beginning to show themselves along her thighs, calves, and arms. Her chest was fuller from the building of her pectoral muscles. Her face seemed more defined with her exertion. Hopeite's smile turned smug as she adjusted the bow in her hair and the cuffs of her uniform. Yes. This alter ego suited her very well.

And then she was somewhere else.

It took Hopeite several dizzying moments to realize what had gone on, like when she accidentally slept through her alarm and went from dead asleep to wide awake in microseconds. Her hand found cool glass as she steadied herself, certain that she was about to pass out from the sudden misplacement. Was this a white moon trick? As Hopeite's vision returned to her, she doubted that this was something as simple as the White Moon. All around her were mirrors, and not just full length mirrors like the one she'd been looking at before. No. This was line a fun house. The walls were the mirrors themselves, and Hopeite felt the all too familiar tug of energy being drawn from her.

"No... no no no no no no no NO."

It was like no was the only word that Hopeite knew. That and various other curse words that fell from her mouth. She began pressing on the mirrors, hoping, maybe, that they were not real somehow, and she could pass through them. Pressing turned into slapping. Slapping turned into hitting. Soon Hopeite was screaming and kicking at the walls, trying to break through but failing.

She was so wrapped up in her own rage that she didn't notice her prison mate.

Hopeite whirled at the voice behind her. She was cornered, wildly angry, and visibly shaken. She bore her teeth like a frightened animal. For a blindingly furious moment, Hopeite was certain that whomever had spoken to her was responsible for her entrapment. Her body was tense, coiled like a spring, and ready to attack. Her vision narrowed so tightly that it took a moment for the tunnel vision to clear from her eyes before she really saw who was standing in the room with her. But Harmonia wasn't capable for that sort of thing. Even if this was a White Moon trap, Harmonia wouldn't have any part in it. Say whatever Hopetie did about the girl -- she was one of the few who were inherently good.

She took a few deep, shaky breaths, and forced herself to calm down. It wouldn't do to lose herself with Harmonia... all of her work would have been undone. It took a moment of obvious effort, but she finally ritualistically smoothed her uniform and fixed her hair.

"If this is a negaverse trick," she mused, giving the wall before her one last good kick, "no one told me." Though with all the enemies she'd made, it wouldn't surprise her if she had been left out of the loop on purpose. The Negaverse didn't respond well to loose cannons like her.

"Whatever. You've got me here now. Once thing I can say about the negaverse... we have some neat tricks." Hopeite had never really tried teleporting before, but she'd seen other agents do it. How hard could it really be? She waved her hand with a sly smile and turned to leave. "You might want to follow," she tossed over her shoulder as she walked towards what was supposed to be the portal out but ended up being... a wall. Hopeite bounced off with a resounding thud. Her face contorted with a mixture of confusion and humiliation as she glanced over her shoulder at Harmonia. Had she seen? Hopeite waved her hand again and waited. And waited. And waited. She waved her hand a third time. Still nothing. Her scowl returned, deeper and darker than before. She couldn't teleport out. There was... truly... no escape... Hopeite could feel her temper flashing back to life, shaking with the effort to keep it in check. What did she do now? She found answers.

"What were you doing when you got trapped here," she asked suddenly, her voice perhaps a little sharper than necessary.

The sound of Harmonia's giggling almost made Hopeite whirl around and start swinging. Almost. It took another wave of visible effort to maintain control of herself. She had to focus. This was about getting out in one peice AND not blowing her cover. Hopefully the younger girl would chalk the strange behavior up to the situation and nothing else.

Instead of her temper and Harmonia's laughter, Hopeite focused on what was being said. A mirror? Hopeite had been admiring herself in one before she had magically been transported here as well. Was there some kind of connection? Hopeite had never heard about mirrors being magical, but then again Hopeite knew better than to rule anything out. She tightened her lips into a thin line as she considered first Harmonia and then the walls around her. They were white, almost blindingly so. Other than than... nondescript. It wasn't a warehouse where Hopeite would expect hostages to be held. It seemed almost... clinical. It was overly bright despite the absence of lights, as well.

So where... or what... was this place?

Hopeite returned her gaze to Harmonia and sighed, visibly deflating. Even if the mirrors that they had both been in front of when all this happened was to blame, it wasn't much of a lead. She cursed again and began pacing the circumference of the room, feeling the walls with her fingers for literally any leads as to how to get out of here.

"I've never not been able to teleport," she lied seamlessly. "And if it is a new kind of enemy, then we should spend some time strategizing how to deal with it. There is no reason to suspect that this isn't a holding cell for something worse. Against all odds... we seem to have ended up on the same side."

Hopeite had to turn away to hide the disgust from her face. Under normal circumstances, she would have taken Harmonia's embarrassingly easily in stride with a smile and maybe something flirty, but she just didn't have the patience. Instead she took out her rage on the wall before her, slamming her fist into its surface with the sickening sound of something breaking under the force of the strike. For a moment, she thought that she'd broken through, but the seerching pain in her hand soon after disproved that fact. There was another litany of curses as she rubbed the pain from her hand and took her pacing back up. Harmonia was right, of course. How did they try to defend themselves against an enemy that they didn't know?

When Harmonia pulled out her cellphone, Hopeite suddenly remembered her own communication device. She pulled it out of her uniform with her good hand and clicked it open. Maybe someone was close enough that she could communicate with them. She poked through her applications with her mangled hand to try and find something... anything... that would work. Nothing. Apps would start up and then fail Contacts didn't even show up. When she tried to call out, the whole tablet closed down. Even her camera app looking like someone had stuck tape over the lens. She threw it away in another fit of mindless rage.

She froze as something small fell from her pocket with the soft, clear sound of a glassware shattering on the floor.

Well that was just ******** it. Honestly, in the heat of her panic and rage, Hopeite had forgotten about the supply of starseeds jingling around in her pockets. She had gotten careless. And now the proof of her weeks and weeks and months of lies rested comfortably in the palm of Harmonia's hand. Hopeite tucked her clearly broken hand to her chest and stopped her rounds of the small room that had become their cell. She considered Harmonia for a long moment as she circled, face dark and waiting. Waiting for the right words. Her first instinct was to drop all pretense and show Harmonia her true colors but then... all of that work would have been for nothing. She could end all of this right now and take Harmonia's seed from her too. What sweet irony to use that soul to heal her injured hand. But that would only satiate her in the mean time. Who else would she play with long term? No one else seemed quite as fun...

When she finally spoke it was with calm, deliberate words.

"We don't have the magic of a planet to heal us," she growled, eyes never leaving Harmonia as she circled like a vulture. "We have only our natural bodies and... those." She nodded to the seed in Harmonia's hand. "It's easy, really. Anyone could do it. Even you, if you tried. Like finding a light... and switching it off. As easy as blinking." With her uninjured hand, she reached into her pocket and pulled out the store of half a dozen other shards, glittering in all colors in the palm of her hand. "That's the easiest thing to believe princess. Eliminate the grey." The shards fell through her fingers, leaving a trail of broken glass behind her as she paced, a melody of bells harmonizing with the sharp clicking of her heels.

"You know I could have taken yours," she offered offhandedly, casting her eyes to the floor and summoning her most pitiful sounding voice. "You are a child, princess. Even with your magic, it runs out, and I am a patient woman. Never mind that I haven't." Her voice got quieter at the end of her statement. She let the silence stretch between them, brushing the seeds out of her path with her toe as she paced and paced and paced.

"You want a good reason," she suddenly asked, voice shrill with barely contained anger as she fell into her character. "Fine. Because I have to. Because when other people like you see me they don't give a s**t that I'm only trying to stay alive." The words came to her lips as easy as if they were her own true feelings. "They don't care that I either collect or I am collected. And those hospital bills tend to pile up, princess." She took a shaky breath as she willed moisture to her eyes. "They heal me when your kind breaks me. That's the good <********> reason."

Hopeite had long ago understood that Harmonia was a selflessly good person. One of the few who truly was so. But that still didn't stop the look of shock that came over her face as the young woman simply accepted Hopeite's case as fact without question. Harmonia would see it as shock over her forgiveness, but what it really showed was shock over how pervasive Harmonia's naivete truly ran. How much could Hopeite get away with? She narrowed her eyes as she considered Harmonia, mouth hanging slightly slack in her surprise. Was that all it took? Just a weepy story and a sad voice? How did that even happen? Had she never been hurt before? Has anyone ever betrayed her? Has anyone ever frowned at this girl before Hopeite sashayed on the scene?

She looked down as Harmonia pressed the small jewel into her hand and came back to her senses. She closed her mouth and cast her eyes away. Fall back into your character. Fall back into martydom. As Harmonia spoke, Hopeite kept her eyes averted until Harmonia's last statement when she scoffed.

"What like a back door out of this hell? Yeah right. This is my fate until someone decides that I've been of enough use and kills me. They know my civilian identity, I can't even hide from them there. This is it, Harmonia. This is all that there is." This was all she wanted. The character fit her like a glove, and she loved it. Harmonia curling contentedly around her finger. The power surging through her body thickened by chaos and her lust for... violence. but if helping in someway endeared her further to Harmonia than so be it. What could she do anyway? Change sides?

Purification? Hopeite parrotted the word with wonder clear in her voice. Just when she thought that she had a crystal clear image of the picture of her plan in her mind, it became impossibly sharper. Her lips spread into a smile and she had to try to keep it soft and sweet. In truth, Hopeite had been looking for some time for a way to keep Harmonia interested while she played with her. There was only so much interest a tortured villain could hold, after all. This new concept... purification... offered her that foothold. A project was always exciting, after all, and Hopeite could become Harmonia's new thing while Hopeite schemed and plotted.

It made that slimy twisted thing in her stomach writhe with glee.

"I don't think," he began slowly, "that the White Moon would take me. Not after everything that I've done..." She was cut off suddenly by the force of something wrapping around her. Hopeite went rigor mortis stiff with the sensation, her mind reeling to catch up with what had happened. Lucky with Harmonia's current position she couldn't see the look of confusion melting quickly into disgust on the older woman's face. She recovered from it before Harmonia released her, even managing a tear or two to her eye beforehand. She hastily wiped them away and offered another small smile.

"It doesn't look like we're getting out of here anytime soon," she mused, changing the subject suddenly. "Maybe we should rest." She left out the part where the area was slowly draining at least her. She had no way of knowing if it was also draining Harmonia. The effects were barely noticeable, but Hopeite knew them well enough. She slid down the wall nearest to her and gathered the starseeds that had been dropped around her, tucking them back into her pockets.

"What should we do with them?"