Welcome to Gaia! ::

The businessman was laid out, unconscious, in an alleyway. Cybele had put about thirty seconds of effort into putting him neatly behind a dumpster, but after she'd left, he'd shifted slightly in his sleep, and now his feet were visible from the street. His shoe polish caught the lamplight.

In the next alley over, a few rough looking teenagers were slumped against the brick wall. It was plausible that they'd simply drank themselves to unconsciousness. There were certainly a few empty bottles of booze scattered about, although it seemed a bit early in the night for all that.

Cybele's third target had already been sleeping at a bus stop. They were possibly homeless. Cybele didn't particularly care. She only cared that their multitude of coats and the hat that they'd pulled over their eyes made them nearly featureless and easy enough to overlook. She wouldn't have to waste any time pulling them out of immediate sight.

Now, the senshi was crouched behind a building near the bus stop, looking over what she'd collected. It was just energy for tonight. She'd received a bit of a talking to early on about how subtlety was of some importance to the Negaverse, and that taking too many starseeds at once and leaving strings of corpses around was harmful to that goal.

Nobody seemed to be complaining about her large orbs of energy, however, and she kept an eye on the street for any other prey that might come her way.

Yes, Cybele was aware that someone relatively powerful was coming after her. The aura was unmistakable. It was somehow even more uncomfortably sharp and bright than that of other senshi she'd encountered. She did not mind. It saved her the trouble of having to expend energy on a chase if the target came to her.

She still stayed tucked away out of immediate sight until she heard footsteps approaching, and then a voice.

"Energy is always needed," said Cybele as she stepped out from behind the building. Her tone was oddly flat, neither harsh or apologetic. Her gaze was sharp as she looked over the other woman, eyes lingering on the glowing mark on her face before moving to the small top hat she was wearing.

The feeling that she was beginning to recognize as familiarity rose in her chest again. She simply squinted and tried not to linger on it. It was becoming obvious that she'd had a decent amount of connections before, but she could not let that affect her performance now.

"Although I've heard that the resources of senshi are more valuable," she said, and with only a little hesitation she held out a hand and tried draining the other senshi. It wasn't a lot. There wasn't so much she could do at this distance, anyway. At this point, it was mostly just to see how she'd react.

This was the third person who had gone white at the sight of her.

Perhaps it should not have been such a surprise. There were many ways in which Cybele was like a ghost. She was pale, and merciless, and the remnant of somebody who was long gone.

Her lips twitched at the shift in the senshi's tone. "What's left of Cybele, yes," she murmured. It was true that she'd clung to the name, but it was always strange when people saw someone in her that she could not even remember. She stopped her draining and squinted at the other woman in turn, curious if some memory would finally try to break through, but of course nothing did.

Her gaze shifted from her face to the line on her palm. Cybele knew what that meant. She did not need some Order senshi to explain it to her. "Advantage?" she tilted her head a barely perceptible amount and then shook it. "It marks you for death."

Although, for the moment, Cybele did not move to be the executioner. She'd be at a disadvantage in any fight between the starseed protection that Transcendence offered and whatever information the senshi had about her abilities. She needed her own set of knowledge to balance the playing field, and anyway, the offer of easy, freely given energy was sorely tempting.

The silence was drawn out, but eventually Cybele nodded.

"All right," she said, tone flat and careful. "May I have some of your energy?"

"It's all right," said Cybele as she clasped the offered hand. Her grip was tentative, almost gentle, and she was poised to jump back if she needed to, but for the moment she stayed palm to palm with the other senshi. "You've gotten me curious."

Perhaps she should have said that she was tired or something, to keep up some ruse besides wanting information, but Cybele had never been one for subtlety and subterfuge the way some of the others were. She was curious, anyway, as she kept her eye on the other. Would she have acted like this with any corrupt eternal caught in a draining spree, or was all of this because of the dead senshi that Cybele had used to be?

She looked up from their hands to make eye contact, still expressionless. "Your aura burns," she said with a small shrug. "If this is the same, it is what it is. I understand that I'm the one infected."

She'd been recruited for a life of war and pain. A little discomfort was nothing if it meant valuable information.

Cybele braced herself for some sort of sting, but none came. "It's warm," she whispered. For a moment, everything about her went a bit softer. Then she caught herself and stiffened up again, taking a few steps back. She did cradle her hand, though, for a few moments more.

"I'm not under any delusions," she said, tone crisp. "We're called corrupts, even if some shy away from the word. We're infected. Dark." She glanced down, tracing the cracks on her chest with one finger. That was enough evidence that something was not right with her. Then, she gestured at her black clothing, and the leathery wings at her back, and she shook her head. "I know what the Negaverse did to me was not kind."

In Sylvite's version of the story, she'd been saved and given a second chance, but she'd heard a few other perspectives on things since then.

Her lips twitched to the side almost sadly at the senshi's last comment. "But they provide for me now, and I do not mind the work, and this is the way it is." She paused, then added, against her better judgement, "Whoever I was before was probably happier, but she is gone."

Cybele raised an eyebrow. "What I deserve does not have much to do with what happens to me," she said.

It was odd that the White Moon was so concerned with her happiness when she went around threatening their lives and hunting the innocent, the ones that they saw as worthy of protection. The other senshi had said much the same thing. Perhaps it was because she still wore the face of their friend.

Of course, they had both started hinting at leaving or starting over afterwards. Perhaps they were simply like the Negaverse, and they thought that an ally was better than a corpse.

She squinted at the senshi, at Ganymede, once more, repeating the name a few times in her mind, but beyond the vague sense of familiarity, nothing else came to her. "I knew you before," she said, slowly and a bit quietly. "I can feel that much, but I don't have any true memories from back then."

There had been an old entry in the database for a Ganymede. Cybele was almost certain of it. Still, even in this state, where she'd gone too soft and was talking too much, she knew better than to mention that to an enemy.

Cybele's gaze had never left Ganymede's face. Now, her eyes widened slightly.

"You're the Princess."

There was no question in her voice. As soon as the words left her mouth, she knew, in that same strange way, that they were true, something she should have known. It truly marked her for death, even more so than the average transcendent senshi, but it also meant that Cybele had been wise not to rush into battle. That was not a fight that she would have been able to win on her own.

At the offer, Cybele shook her head, even as her lips pressed into a thin, sad, smile. "My purification would solve a few of your problems. I understand that," she said. "I'm just not sure that it would solve any of mine."

Even if purification was gentler, somehow, and she kept the memories that she'd made since waking up in Axinite's office, the thought of starting over, again, and trying to piece together a life for herself, again, was not exactly appealing.

Cybele was silent for a long, stretched out moment.

"All right," she finally said, but her tone had shifted from being so stiff and dead serious. It was softer, noncommittal. It was the way she spoke at her customer service job when she needed to agree with someone so that they would stop talking.

She did not allow herself to think about what Ganymede was saying.

"This is my offer to you," she continued, still businesslike. "I will not make you protect anyone for now. I will leave the city. They will awaken." She nodded towards the street and her draining targets. In the distance, she could almost make out the figure that she'd left on the park bench beginning to shift slightly. She held her hands out, showing her own palms. "I do not have starseeds."

It was a bit of an empty gesture, given their access to subspace, but she was telling the truth. Morality might not be something that really registered to Cybele, but she rarely bothered lying.

There was another drawn out pause, and Cybele's gaze flicked to the hint of glow she could still see around Ganymede's hand. "Thank you for the energy," she said.