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Work had been long and trying. With rehearsals coming up in two weeks the need for costume repairs was in high demand and unfortunately now that finals were over Melody’s intern had decided to find a part-time summer job elsewhere. To be honest she really couldn’t blame him; this was a high demand, and often stressful, job but it wasn’t without its rewards.

Eight days of work where the only break she got was to go home get something to eat and pass out on the couch, because lord knows that she nine times out of ten she wouldfall asleep with her half eaten plate of food on the coffee table, until it was time to rinse and repeat the same thing over.

Today, however, was different. For the first time in four days Melody was able to sneak out of the theater on time. 7:00 PM wasn’t bad, the sun was still out which was a bit of a surprise when she stepped outside and nearly blinded herself when a white car drove in front of her. Clearly the lights in the back studio were in need of replacement if natural light was this dazing. Nonetheless it did mean that home was not the first place Melody intended to go now that she was free.

How long had it been since she last visited her wonder. Three… four weeks…? Flipping open her phone she looked at the date and let out an undignified snort. “Yeah no… try more like two months. Where the hell has time gone?”

Melody turned off the engine and stepped out of her car. Two stalls away stood a sign that read ‘Gilman Interurban Trail’. It use to be a decent place to go on a day hike back when she was in high school by by the time she finished college unsavory people made portions of the trail their meetup place to do their shady businesses or set up tents to sleep in overnight. For a long while Melody avoided this area but since finding out she was a Knight and had magic of some sort this place did not feel as intimidating anymore and as of late served as her safe place to power up and down without much worry.

Only once she was positive that there was nobody nearby to see her change, Melody’s jeans and tank top were replaced with a full length lavender dress. The bag she had clung to with her taser was replaced with the golden tealight lantern and her hair which had been pulled back into a fish-tail braid now hung loosely behind her with a circlet of flowers wreathed around her head.

Despite wanting more than anything to run, just pick a direction and run from the overwhelming aura of the approaching general, Einhornhohle was no fool. In this dress she wouldn’t make it far at all. Increased speed be damned, meant nothing if she tripped over the hem of her dress and found herself kissing asphalt again. Though to be fair, the last time wasn’t entirely her fault.

Even so, powering down was quickly ruled out as an option especially knowing there wasn’t any place she could hide and well... with deductive reasoning it wouldn’t be hard to tell who the order signature belonged to with there being nobody else here along the path. Either way she was screwed.

Instead she crossed her arms in front of her chest mimicking the general’s posture and rose her chin up just enough to seem mildly unimpressed. “Can’t exactly afford a proper vacation so I figured I’d take a trip somewhere only I can go. It has been a while since I’ve visited my wonder you see...” Purple eyes watched the General keenly. “What about you Tinkerbell? What brings you out here?”

Einhornhohle eyed the starseed the General so fondly caressed. It had been a while but she remembered a conversation she had with Phact a few days after awakening. It was brief but the message was clear. Don’t let anyone stick their hand in your chest, if they manage to take your starseed you’re as good as dead. Not much more needed to be said beyond that.

Well s**t… Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place. A mouse trapped at the end of a long hallway with nowhere to run. I guess it’s a good thing I have two older brothers.

“My guess…” The Page unfolded her arms allowing the one holding her lantern to hang at her side. “Probably what a pain in the a** I was…” She stepped forward, closing the distance between them. Because lord knows I’ll go down swinging. The grip on her lantern tightened until her knuckles practically turned white.

At a distance the General had the upper hand with a spear as her weapon but maybe... just maybe… if Einhornhohle could get close enough then she could take a swing at the womans pretty little face; bonus points of she could take that precious seed of hers in the process. Stories had been told of the miraculous things Cosmos had done when a band of senshi and knights invaded the Negaverse and retrieved a cache of starseeds. Perhaps she could do the same thing since this one belonged to one of her own Knights.

All in all it was wishful thinking because while she was imagining this hopeful scenario; Ein knew there was a slim chance in hell that she'd be making it out of this alive.

“I-” Einhornhohle struggled to draw in a staggered breath. Air felt like fire in her lungs as pain radiated through her body until finally her knees buckled beneath her forcing the other woman to either carry the burden of her weight or drop her unceremoniously in a heap of lavender fabric on the ground at her feet.

Purple eyes glistened as tears clouded her vision of the cloudy sky. Not here, not now. Never would she allow the General to see her cry. “I’ll do it.” The page struggled to form even the simplest of sentences as the shadows of darkness feathered the edge of her senses threatening to take her into its cold embrace completely. “I’ll take you…”

With a pained expression on her lovely face the Page’s eyes closed and before her stood that which wished to escort her into the world of unconscious bliss. A hooded figure with a wide smile reached out towards her with its slender arm and claw tipped hands yet even here, standing on the edge of escape, Einhornhohle could not find the strength to accept its generous offer.

“Please…” She whimpered softly. “I’ll take you…”

Einhornhohle’s body trembled and for the briefest of moments she felt relieved that the General hadn’t immediately let her go because without the woman's strength holding her upright she would have collapsed on the concrete like a marionette doll who had its strings cut.

Nodding her head she grimaced at the sharp pain in her chest. Thankfully it was slowly ebbing into a dull throb but the discomfort was likely to remain for a while if only because of the anxiety inducing threat she received.

How the hell was am I supposed to convince her that she is worthy of redemption? Definitely a difficult task when not even she believed the woman was worth saving. I’ll have to figure it out somehow… But for now the first request had to be fulfilled, they needed to visit her wonder however to do so she needed her weapon which currently laid on its side next to her foot.

“Just… close your eyes and don’t let go.” The page instructed. Truthfully it probably wouldn’t have made a difference but she had never taxied someone with her before so why not at least sound like she knew what she was doing?

Either way she needed her weapon and so Einhornhohle summoned the lantern back to her hand knowing there was a pretty high chance that the General wouldn’t let her go to pick it up. Probably thinking that she’d make a futile break for it at the first given chance which would be a fair assumption but after that teleport stunt ‘Tink’ just pulled Ein knew there was no real chance for escape in this game of cat and mouse.

“I pledge my life and loyalty to Cosmos and to Einhornhohle. I humbly request your aid, so that in return I may give you mine.” Please don’t abandon me, let us come… In her heart she knew her wonder would not close itself off but there was still doubt that any of this would work when an Agent of Chaos, a General no less, wanted to visit.

Suddenly the stagnant city air was replaced by a salty sea breeze. The hard concrete path they stood on shifted into that of warm soft sand. When finally she opened her eyes, Einhornhohle stared out at a vast turquoise colored sea that stretched out beyond the horizon.

Directly to their right was was a stone cliff that had been chiseled away by centuries of waves beating against it. “Welcome to Einhornhohle… also known as the Unicorn Cave”. There, towards the base of the cliff was one of the entrances to the place she was meant to protect.

“Honestly, I didn’t even know the beach was this close.” Eyeing the General warily, Ein shrugged then held up her lantern. “I’m not really one to go exploring on my own. Especially in a cave where… go figure…Candle not included.”

“I knew the ocean was close though.” The scent of salt water had been overwhelming on one of her last visits. A tell tell sign of a coming storm so she wasn’t particularly keen on sticking around. It sucked because it meant that she had a while before her wonder would allow her to come back again but she didn’t exactly show up equipt to go on an impromptu camping trip either. “And that there was a third entrance somewhere I just hadn’t found it yet. To be truthful I kind of just wondered around wherever I arrived and figured I’d find it eventually.”

Einhornhohle for the distance between them no matter how small that distance was. It at least gave her a few moments to actually breath and get her bearings again. The pain in her chest had lessened, almost as if being here helped ease the comfort in some way; unfortunately it wasn’t gone completely.

“You don’t say…” Einhornhohle offhandedly commented under her breath as she ran her hands down the front of her lavender dress and took a seat a good five feet from the General.Just far enough to be out of arm's reach, not that it mattered knowing that the other woman could just teleport again; that is assuming she could do that here…

“I don’t get you.” The Page watched her as if she were trying to read a book but the lock on the outside refused to budge. “As someone who conscripted me into trying to convince you that you’re worth saving; I will admit you’re making it difficult.” Gloating about the things she’d done or could do as if it was a manner of pride or honor.

“I have no intention on keeping you here as a prisoner, that’s not exactly my cup of tea; but so long as you keep threatening me, I’ll admit I’m less inclined to go back with you either.” And I have work tomorrow so stop making this difficult Einhornhohle mentally yelled.This was supposed to be a relaxing trip of peace and quiet to just wind down from the day and this General did a fantastic job of ruining it.

“I want to believe that you’re the puppet and there is someone pulling your strings, making you do these horrible things. But…” She paused. Lifting up a fistfull of sand she let the warm grains fall through her fingers until none were left save for the small mound in the palm of her hand. “You need to help me to understand what pushed you to go this far, to murder people.” Lavender eyes fell to rest upon the starseed resting just below the woman's collarbone. “Tell me there isn’t a large part of you that wanted to kill me, that was daring me to say no to your offer.”

“You weren’t protecting anyone and I was no threat to you.” Which the General made abundantly clear. “So why? Help me understand so I can figure out how to help you.” There was no anger in her voice, despite feeling it so wholeheartedly her body nearly shook, annoyance yes but at least she was trying to stay calm.