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She was fine to be out alone.

That was what Cybele told herself. Her wound was healing quickly. It no longer felt like she was being stabbed all over again if she moved her shoulder.

It would have been nicer to have someone with her, with how much of a target the Negaverse had apparently put on her back, but the others that she knew were busy with their partners and their babies, while she had a few hours free to go make sure the city was safe before she returned to her own family.

She'd be fine, she repeated to herself with each breath as she stalked down the sidewalk, silver heels clicking on the concrete.

Although deeper down, she was very aware that she was already on her third chance and that luck was bound to run out eventually.

It was more of a relief than it should have been when the first aura she felt was an Order one. She all but ran towards it, faster than was strictly necessary, mint pigtails flowing behind her in the summer breeze.

"Hello?"

Cybele had to stop and think for a moment about the question of if she was being chased. Someone was almost certainly trying to track her down, but nobody was on her heels at the moment, which was probably all that mattered to this other woman.

"Not right now," she said, offering a smile that was polite, if slightly strained. "I just keep running into agents. It's," she sucked in a breath, "An entire extremely complicated situation." The bandages on the back of her shoulder told a bit of that story.

The smile softened a bit. "So I was just very happy to see that one of us was out, instead. Sorry if I worried you."

She was even happier that she'd run into someone else who was kind. She'd just come charging up, and Albireo was already there, worried about her well being and complimenting her clothes. Cybele raised a finger, thoughtful, to one of the flowers on her antlers, while she looked over the other senshi's outfit.

"Your tiara's beautiful, too," she said, "And look at our shoes!"

She pointed a toe, showing off her ribbons. "We match!"

They both had soft green in their outfits, and more ribbons in general than anyone else she'd seen. Cybele wasn't sure if that meant anything, but it was nice to have something in common.

"I'm Cybele, by the way. Senshi of the Hunt."

Did she dance?

It was a simple enough question, but Cybele had to go silent for several full seconds to try to puzzle out the answer. She knew from Fleur's social media that she'd been in musicals, but she wasn't sure how intense the dancing part of that had been. Then, of course, there was the question of if Fleur even counted as her at this point.

"I think so?" she said in the end, drawing out her phone to snap a picture of the other senshi in turn. That was an easier thing to do. It was always good to have more contacts.

"I'm not sure. I purified," she explained, since there was really no getting around it, and it seemed to be common enough knowledge that burning Chaos away took memories with it. "Recently. That would also be why people are after me." She glanced towards the bandages.

Cybele's lips twitched as the other senshi kept talking, though. "Trying to take your starseed is vicious," she said, voice low. It was worse than getting stabbed, certainly. Cybele would take her current wound over everything else that had happened to her any day.

"But yes, can we be friends?" The smile came back, even if it was smaller. Perhaps it was a forward thing to ask on both of their parts, but Cybele did not mind. Something about Albireo's earnestness made her chest warm."We can try dancing, and I'll punch them, too."

The kindness alone, the welcome home, made the warmth in Cybele's chest grow even stronger, and as far as she could tell, that meant that they were friends now. That would have been all it took.

Then Albireo kept talking, and Cybele's eyes widened. "Wait. You corrupted and then you purified?" She asked the question slowly and carefully, and then she blinked. "I'm the same, although I don't think it had anything to do with my personal problems. I was an Eternal, defying the Negaverse a bit too hard, and I ended up with a target on my back and a hand in my chest."

It was a heavy topic, but Cybele found her smile growing anyway, until it was bordering on a grin.

Then she caught herself and put on a straight face again. "Sorry," she murmured. "I know it's an awful thing to go through, but it's so, so nice to meet someone who I have so much in common with."

Right after she'd gotten out, Cybele had clung hard to the fact that at least she'd never wanted to be in the Negaverse. Her defiance was some tiny bit of her that they'd never taken away.

The thought of someone choosing to join the Negaverse, when it had been theoretical, had turned her stomach, but now that she was here looking at Albireo, all she felt was sympathy.

Like Cybele, she'd been taken advantage of. Like Cybele, she'd been preyed on when she was vulnerable. Now they were both here, trying to work out how to stay safe and who they could trust without the roadmap of their previous lives. It made Cybele's stomach twist with how insidious and disgusting the Negaverse could be.

"I understand the coercion," she said, smile going sideways. "Not to the same extent, perhaps. I never thought they were good, but I thought that they'd take care of me and value me, and so I served them loyally for a time. My General was into that theory, as well, about us destroying out own worlds."

It hadn't been a theory that she'd bought into, but she could see where someone might.

"It can be hard for people to understand if they haven't been there. I'm here for you now, though, if you ever want to talk. I can introduce my friends, too. They don't have the shoes," she raised an eyebrow, barely suppressing a giggle, "But they're very kind about it all." The smile grew again.

"They're helping me make new memories. Shopping, and spa days. Other than that, though, all I remember is part of my time in the Negaverse. Nothing before."

"We could gather everyone up, go to the mall and buy out the shoes," said Cybele, smiling much easier at that thought. "If we got the ones like yours, the pointe shoes, we could do the dancing, afterwards."

Cybele pursed her lips thoughtfully and glanced towards the distance for a moment.

"If we got my sister involved, you two would probably dance circles around me. She does ballet, too, but that's all right. I'd try."

She was finding that she liked trying new things, and with people who she cared about being around, it would hopefully turn out as a good memory.

"Or I could go up with you to your world sometime," she said, and nodded skyward. "I'm not one of those people who's an expert on space, but I know it can help to have people around when you're dealing with difficult things."

Also, after going to Scylla and Aokigahara, she was finding herself more curious about what else was up there.

"Yes, we'll all get together. You can bring your husband, as well. Make it a party." Her smile was bright.

She'd been trying to socialize, really. It was just difficult when five minutes into the average conversation, she had to make up some lie about her childhood. Meeting someone with a story so close to her own, but who also wanted to talk about things outside of just fighting?

It felt a bit like a miracle.

She focused for a moment, too, and the shoes and her antlers shifted into a sundress and much simpler flats. "My name is Brielle now," she said, "Or Brie, or Elle, if you'd like. Here."

The dress had pockets, and she fished out a cell phone and handed it over. "You can put yourself in my contacts. I think I check this phone a bit more than the senshi one." She pressed her lips together. "That would make us friends officially, best I can tell."

The warmth in her chest was only growing stronger.

“The baby name websites said it was French,” said Brielle, typing her name into Olivia’s phone.

“I only know so much about my old civilian life. It’s just what I could find online, mostly social media, and I really don’t know much about my old family. I think my mom was French, though. My old name was French, and I speak French, so,” she gave a small shrug, “It seemed like a fitting tribute.”

Although any thoughts about her past dissolved when she heard the name Ellie.

She blinked. Then she blinked again, not quite sure how to process it.

It was a nickname. It was a nickname that someone else had picked for her.

“Oh,” she murmured. “That’s so sweet! Yes, that’s fine.”

As they traded the phones back, she immediately texted, This is Ellie.