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Still! STILL! Scylla had spent far, far too much time of late in senshi form, wandering the city looking for a good signal. Tall buildings? Short buildings? The middle of the woods, clinging to a tree branch and holding up her phone to the sky and trying not to scream? Check, check, and uhhh... well. Check. (If anyone ever found out, she wouldn't admit to the last one. For obvious reasons.) She had even gone to Scylla itself, climbing up the World Pillar until her head grew dizzy and her breath grew ragged from thin air, and still... crappy signal. It was terribly tempting to try the Moon, next. Yeah, the Moon was closer to Earth, but if Caedus was aiming for a cell phone on Earth he probably wouldn't be aiming for her homeworld. And clearly the moon was going to get a better magical cell phone signal. okay, maybe not.

But the black-haired senshi was tired, and she was anxious, and she missed her glynd, longing to see him even more after having received the long text message from him only a few days past. Every time her phone went off her fingers twitched, every strangely-written message she tried to look for a possible contact number, or a way to hit reply before it vanished.

Her wisp twirled around her head, curling atop her dark hair like a tiara as Scylla glared accusingly at her phone yet again, slamming it into the palm of her hand as if hitting it would do her any favors. It would not . But it did make her feel better, which was something? And there it went again, the sound of a ringtone that she was coming to despise filling the air. As there was no real caller information, it wasn't Charybdis calling her.

And yet she answered it anyways, if only to stop the ringing, her face tired and annoyed. "Hello weird figure I cannot see or hear, I am once agai-" Yet the shadowy figure seemed to twitch under her gaze as the connection stabilized, then she saw something more than just the normal nothing, and her pulse rose. "GLYND!" She knew that face. "Caedus! It's you! I can see you." Oh, god. She could see him. There was a connection, and her voice rose, overwhelmed with a need to keep this connection going.

Seeing her darling friend, hearing his voice, seeing him in proper clothes instead of the dregs he could hobble together... "I've missed you so." her voice broke, and the woman beamed at her phone, blinking water away from her eyes. He might not be able to see how she traced the shape of his face over her screen with the tip of a fingernail, but if the connection was good enough he may be able to see the naked affection and joy in her eyes as she gazed at her screen.

"I've been well enough. Staying busy, occasionally fighting the good fight. Met some new aliens." the wisp on her head drifted down as though to introduce itself, obscuring the screen as it passed before her eyes, and she pushed it away the same way she would push away a naughty cat. "I did get your message. I have been so worried about you."

She tapped at her own earrings, eyes crinkling at the corners as she gazed at him. "You're looking quite different, my glynd. Your new clothing agrees with you, though you still look tired." her hands started to flutter, instinct telling her to fret over her friend, before she stilled, reminding herself that he was still in a much better situation than he had been. And his smile warmed her to her toes, bringing her comfort. She had thought of him frequently while he was gone, worrying and wondering if he had made it to his goal, if he was safe, or if he was once again... alone.

That feeling of being powerless to help him welled up from where she had shoved it down, in a tight little ball, and she huffed the feeling out in a puff of air. "I have missed spoiling you," she said, referencing his letter, "I'll have more to share with you, when you are back home." she paused, a smile playing around her lips. "So many new books are out, and all. A few new restaurants, too. Maybe a pillow, for a nice long nap?"

I will need your help again, the letter had said, and Jada desperately wanted to ask, but more than that...

"How are your people? You are physically well enough, of course, that's... obvious. But you said things are hard." oh, how she longed to reach out, to take her friend by the hand. "Is there anything I can do to help you now?"

Was she strong enough to help him? He had changed so much, worked so hard these last few years, and she felt so... stagnant… by comparison. What would he need? So many of her old contacts were gone... and yet, she supposed, here she remained, fumbling around protecting this small area of space.

Caedus' smile and the confession of something akin to missing her warmed Scylla's own heart. "Well that was an easy enough task to help you out," she teased the alien at the other end of the call, "I'll try not to expect any other tasks you have for me to be so simple." The wisp seemed to be trying to inch its way back in front of the camera again, and the senshi of the Kraken huffed and pushed it away. Again.

"Productive is good, often tired is less so. It helps to be awake to read, but when you return we will have time for you to take a nap before we reinstate our book club. Maybe, this time, we'll be able to hang out somewhere other than the woods? The luxury of a whole city for you to explore, my Caedus; Earth will seem even warmer than before."

His question about the other aliens she had met brought a faintly cross look across her face. "Almadel, he's a merchant. Crash-landed; apparently I've missed him visiting before. He was looking for wisps that had, apparently, escaped." Cupping her hands around the wisp, she let it ooze through her fingers. "I'm sure his search had nothing to do with the giant creature that came to visit Destiny City a few days later, that seemed to be able to bleed... wisps. This little thing attached itself to me after that night. So far it's been peaceful enough, just wants to hang around and play in my hair."

No one has attacked Earth?

"No attackers yet," Scylla assured him, "though Almadel did say something that worries me. He said the Surrounding, that's protecting Earth, is missing pieces. I'm not a magical architect, but that can't be good. And I don't even know where to start on how to fix something like that. I've got no idea how to contact any of the senshi who handled the Surrounding- I know a couple of the Knights are still active, but I'm not sure a Knight is an architect either."

Chewing on her lip, she decided she might as well ask. It hadn't missed her that Caedus had not answered her question on how his people were. "You said once that your homeworld wasn't... like ours. Do you think your people might have any information somewhere on something to help repair the Surrounding, even on a temporary basis? I mean, bonus points if they happen to have any books with step-by-step instructions on how to fix the thing for realsies, but..."

Violet eyes watched her silver-haired friend in the tiny, tiny phone screen, watching every brow quirk and mouth twitch, examining the shadows under his eyes and wondering if they were real or imagined, truthful or exaggerated by how small her senshi phone's screen was. "The more friends the better," she said at last, "It had been feeling of late like everything is just... holding its breath. The status quo has held for too long, and something is going to tip, one way or another. Something needs to tip."

Caedus' promise to bring her any answer he could find calmed her heart, and the way he said that Earth was precious to him- like her- brought a small flush to her cheeks that she hoped the connection wouldn't share with him. "Vynlen, Caedus. I'm going to start looking for some things here too. Maybe none of this will be a problem in my lifetime, but no point in putting off looking for an answer. If it's dangerous out there for others, it would be nice to maybe build up a safe haven for those who can help us, wouldn't it? If there's others willing to fight Chaos, and help protect their own homes, or... I don't know. Maybe there are people out there who can help restore pieces of the Homeworlds."

She lay her cheek on her palm. "I imagine the Surrounding is like a Garden wall. When it's whole, the plants inside can grow and flourish with the full attention of their gardeners. When it's broken, everything will be a shambles, and the gardeners will be too busy trying to keep the bigger animals out to tend to the weeds and the bugs."

I want to make sure you are safe. Earth is precious to me. Like you.

There was a COMFORT in his words, in hearing his voice again and the assurance that- to someone- she was... special. A valued friend, and for no other reason than being herself.

After a moment of silence, she asked- "Am I being foolish, do you think? Looking outward over a future problem with the Surrounding when Earth is still festering with Chaos? It just feels like a trap either way. Either the Surrounding is safe but Earth is overrun, or Earth's Chaos probelm gets handled just in time to get steamrolled by a Bigger Bad from the edge of space."

Jada hadn't realized just how relieved she would be to hear Caedus say he didn't find her foolish for her worries. Some small agreement that her worries were okay, she wasn't being overdramatic or pessimistic, and the hint of commiseration that he, too, had a growing anxiety for the pressure in the air. And that feeling of the other shoe about to drop. "Be careful, my friend." Scylla said at last.

Her gaze on his face, shadowed and lined by distance and the flickers of their connection, was gentle. "It isn't a bad thing." her agreement was firm. "They say being nervous helps keep you alive, and alive is definitely how I prefer you." her lips curved in a teasing smile. "Use good judgment in all of this."

She bit her lip, wanting to say so much more. "Thank you, Caedus. I feel better just hearing your voice and knowing that soon I will have an ally, and a beloved friend, back at my side. I wish I knew where to start on all of this, but as far as I know all of the Zodiacs are missing, dead, or done- tired of the war and seeking a peaceful life. That leaves needing to rely on you, because... I'm just Scylla. One small asteroid belonging to an angry fish in the middle of nothing. We had no magic, no technologies, nothing I can dig up to offer except myself. I'm sorry to put one more burden on you with asking for even more help when you're already mobilizing to return."

Not to say she wouldn't do what she could. Yet Scylla wasn't sure what all that could be. Not yet. She was still seeking the right direction in which to begin.

Scylla could feel herself choking up at that soft, supporting smile, and if Caedus had been closer she would have hugged him. I believe in you, he told her, and she believed him. Tears burned her eyes, and the bright smile she gave him wobbled at the edges- and then broke as she laughed as he called her likable. You can do anything. It was such simple words, an easy kindness from someone she so respected and cared for, and it hit her particularly hard for how she missed him.

As the screen glitched, Scylla panicked, shaking her senshi phone, face contorting desperately. "No," she breathed, "No no no, Caedus? Glynd?" And then he was back, as if nothing was wrong. And she relaxed, trying to look composed, as though she hadn't had any concern in the world about the dropped connection.

"Caedus." ah- there came the tears, hot and helpless, streaking down her cheeks. The wisp spin around her head in a tizzy, and she inhaled, trying to push away the tears that decorated her cheeks. "I can't wait to see you again. There's so much to show you that isn't books, or food. If we're all small, that makes a friendship like ours all the more important, doesn't it? In a universe this big, in such... strange, terrible circumstances... I found such a good friend."

Her phone was clutched tightly in shaking, white-knuckled hands. "I believe in you, Caedus, and I'm not going to let you down."

His smile was kind, and genuine, and as the screen froze Scylla tapped it lightly, knowing that with all the distortion their call was coming to an end.

It will be okay, Scylla. I promise.

As his image and his words faded away, Scylla let her cell phone drop to her lap. "I'm going to try and trust you on that, Caedus." he couldn't hear her, and now she could let her tired desperation bleed onto her face. "Because I believe in you, too."