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The weather had decided to give Destiny City a taste of spring. Who knew how long it would last, but for the moment, Cybele had neither the excuse of the frigid weather that always cut through her airy fuku like nothing or piles of work or anything else to keep her inside. That meant she was out, powered up and prowling the streets, hoping to be at least a little useful for once. She was in a residential area, with plenty of apartment buildings and stores on the ground level attracting evening customers. If any youma or agents decided to target shoppers, then they would quickly enough become her targets. If she could find something to fight, then maybe she'd be able to sleep for once.

However, when she felt a Chaos aura nearby, it was not the familiar Negaverse feeling but the cold, murky gray of the Dark Mirror. She froze in the middle of the sidewalk.

Well. That was something she had not had to deal with in a while. Her old promise and her strange visions came to mind, and she considered just powering down and continuing to forget things. No. She wanted to know what was going on. She turned around and started scanning the rooftops and shadows for movement.

There she was, up on the roof. She was fairly easy to spot, too, with all the bright colors. Cybele crossed the street and stood on the sidewalk a few feet from the cafe's wall. Getting up on the girl's level would have probably been a better choice, but Cybele did not leave ground level if she could possibly help it. She was getting better at overcoming her fear of heights in emergencies, but this would hopefully remain a causal evening.

She did notice the mirrowraith, which she didn't exactly love, but unless the Dark Mirror had started making death traps and youma like the Negaverse, it wasn't something she had too much of a problem with.

"Um, hello," she called up. She was distinctly aware that this was very awkward. "My name is Cybele. I'm," she inhaled, considering her wording. "I'm a friend, I hope."

Cybele was a little wary when she saw the other senshi's posture. When she dropped down from the roof, Cybele shifted into cautious stance, her feet well planted in case she needed to defend herself. Her fists stayed down, though. She was still trying to make a good impression.

"That's what I wanted to ask about, actually," she said. "I've never thought about your court as our enemies, although I know that many of the White Moon do." She gave a wry smile thinking back on the various battle's she'd seen. "I could tell you some stories but they're all from... four, five years ago?" She mentally checked her counting and then frowned because wow, she was getting old and this war was not getting any better, although she supposed she should be grateful it wasn't getting any worse.

"It's been years since I've even seen a Dark Mirror, and I was wondering about... relations, maybe? So we're enemies." Well, this was getting even weirder, although she supposed she should be more used to it considering how many Dark Mirrors seemed aggressive until she explained herself. "We can fight if you want, but I don't mind the draining. I wouldn't mind just talking to you, as well. I'm Cybele, senshi of the Hunt."

So, she'd only been a senshi for less then a year and she was already walking around like she knew exactly what she was doing? Cybele focused for a moment on her aura, and yes, she was very much a Super. Did that mean that Cybele had gone from being experienced to being a veteran? It was good that the other senshi was was an adult. A younger face might have thrown Cybele into a full crisis about the whips and scorns of time.

Instead, she just sunk back against the wall with a barely audible sigh, uncurling her fists. Clearly, there were things going on in the present. Talk of secrets certainly piqued her interest, and she flashed Mithra a smile. "Oh, I can keep a secret," she said. "This kind of life sort of requires it." If it ended up being something world-threatening, she could always break her word. She had enough broken promises at this point that the thought of another didn't scare her, but she would still try.

"And, well, I suppose I could tell you some things as well." She straightened, no longer wallowing. "It's not a trade, just..." she trailed off and closed her eyes for a moment.

"The one time I saw your Court in battle, people from both the Negaverse and Order were trying to wipe it out, while people were trying to protect it, as well. That's why I've been confused. I helped then, but recently Dark Mirrors seem to immediately think I'm an enemy."

She shook her head. "Really, none of us have wanted to talk?" She was completely genuine and completely baffled.

Cybele was still holding that bit of tension between her shoulder blades the way she always did these days, knowing that things could go wrong in a matter of seconds, but for all that she was about as relaxed as she was going to get. The worst case scenario here was that she would get punched in the face. Today, she would not fail as a mentor or get her starseed eaten.

Therefore, she nodded slowly as the other senshi talked. "All right," she said. "I suppose we've been more or less enemies more often than not, but it still doesn't make sense to me." She sighed. "Really? Everyone else?" She had come to the point where she appreciated her Court, but they were still wrong about things sometimes. Often, even. "It's because of the energy draining. You're right, but you don't use it to pull nearly the same types of stunts as they do."

Unless the Dark Mirror Court was hiding a lot from them, which was entirely possible. They seemed good enough at creeping unnoticed by the other sides in the shadows. Still, it was difficult to compete with the Negaverse's sheer mass of carnage. She grimaced just thinking about it.

When asked about questions, she considered for a moment. "Hm. What about your goals? Are you still trying to get to space? That's the place where I never quite saw eye to eye with your Court." It had been years now. If they were still working on something so impossible, well, maybe she could see how all that energy they took was being wasted.

Cybele thought back to the recent circus and the way that the General there had swallowed a dozen starseeds, a dozen souls, like they were nothing at all. That thought brought her back to the first carnival, which was probably even after all these years the worst thing she'd witnessed. She could still see the bodies, and she grimaced. "Yes. They set up massacres, turn people into youma," she trailed off, trying not to go too far down that lane. "They're terrible."

She cracked a tight lipped smile. "Anyway, space. It's not what you would expect. There are actually some really beautiful things out there," she squinted, considering, "And I'm not sure how much the scientists will be able to find through the magic, but it is fairly empty. I'm not really the one to ask, though. I'm more interested in defending Earth. This is where we live. This is the best shot we have."

It was too late. She was getting emotional. "Well, we've kept the city from completely being the Negaverse's playground for a few years now. I don't know what's going to happen in the end," she said, standing back up to her full height. "I've tried just fighting for myself, though. It doesn't work." She considered bringing up the visions she'd had where she had been in the Dark Mirror Court, but that would sound strange, maybe even crazy. "You still get hurt. You still see the worst of things. You still might die, and for what?"

"Hm." Cybele closed her eyes for a moment as she considered. Then, she cracked a half smile. "Well, from my experience, it seems like a lot of you gear up for a fight the moment you see a White Moon senshi. If it's someone's first time seeing you, that may not give them the best impression." Her smile widened and softened as she thought back further. "The first Dark Mirror I met was Remarque. He was very nice about things, but he did have me doubting for awhile if the Negaverse was actually that bad. That almost got me killed a few times." To be fair, it was partially her own fault, as she'd sought out advice from her allies and then ignored it. For all the horrors, at least that was something she'd figured out at this point. "That's something I'll have to work out with him if I see him, but somebody else might hold it against your court."

She nodded somewhat blankly at the comments about space, which was very much not her area of expertise, when she realized that Mithra was talking about something that had happened recently. "Monument thing?" she asked, a bit of brightness coming back into her eyes.

The last bit was where Cybele felt like she was walking on thin ice. Did she even believe in the White Moon enough to speak for them, especially to someone from the Court she'd been inches from joining before the strange dreams of the future had changed everything? She couldn't just stay silent on this. "The White Moon does have its drama, but in the end I think we have the right goal. If we can hold the Negaverse back, or even defeat them, which, oh, that would be so nice," she'd never even considered the Negaverse just being gone before, the war being flat out won. "For example, people could go to regular public events without watching people getting ripped apart by youma or having their souls stolen." Thinking back to a few of those events was difficult, and the comment about being able to live with yourself hit close to home. Despite what she was saying, and even though she tried, it seemed like nothing that she did was ever enough.

Cybele took a deep breath. "Well, it seems that you don't like the Negaverse, but that you don't trust our goals either, but you're still out here, ready to fight and talking about purpose." she looked Mithra straight in the eyes and said in a soft voice, "What exactly are you fighting for?"

Cybele raised an eyebrow but cracked a small smile, like she was listening to something she wasn't supposed to hear. "I understand," she said. "Fighting doesn't seem like something that should be enjoyable, but it's sort of a rush, isn't it?" It was one of those little things that she'd learned to appreciate about those times that her life was in danger.

"In retrospect, yes, Remarque was a bit creepy." She couldn't hold it against him too much. It wasn't his fault that she'd been a newly awakened, overwhelmed teenager and that he truly believed in his court. She supposed he had been rather manipulative, but it wasn't something that had weighed on her too much recently. "But that was a long time ago. I think we were both different people then."

And now she was here, the opposite of bright-eyed. She took the news of yet another strange, probably horrible thing happening with only sucked in cheeks and a small sake of her head and an "Oh." A bit of a smile creeped back into her expression, not quite reaching her eyes. It was for the other sensih's benefit. "It's good that you got back, at least."

But all that was just small talk to compared to the questions she had been asking, and now, although she seemed to have been making Mithra uncomfortable, she did get a real answer. Cybele quickly backed off, taking a step back and to the side to give the other girl some space. She was sincere about not wanting to cause any trouble, even in this sort of way. It was still hard to swallow what she was saying. Ordinary people being just as bad as the Negaverse? Did that mean that the Dark Mirror brand of Chaos was warping her thoughts, too?

This time, she talked to a spot on the ground a few feet in front of her. "I don't think that there's any question that having the Negaverse gone would help things," she said. "Even if you're not the type to have much faith in humanity you should be able to see that. With no Negaverse, maybe there would still men who harass girls and the occasional murder, but not an entire army who can take a soul like that-" she reached out and grabbed an imaginary starseed from the air in front of her. "And no hungry monsters running around with no morals at all. If you mean corruption like some other form of Chaos, that's possible. That's something we'd have to fight as well."

She relaxed and glanced up. "Fighting for yourself is probably a more realistic goal. I think it's what most of us do a lot of the time, no matter what our ideals are." Although this time, it seemed a little selfish to Cybele in a way it hadn't in the past.