Welcome to Gaia! ::

For a few seconds, nothing behind the dome seemed to move. In the very far distance, it appeared as if there were shadows moving, but the arrival of Caedus--and Lyndin next to him--was almost immediately and unexpected.

Lyndin wore a contemplative expression, like he’d already had a lot on his mind; Caedus was cautious but presented himself with a barely concealed hopefulness.

He knew Valhalla. He remembered his apology for his ‘passionate wife’. He did not greet him by name or with more friendliness than he would offer a stranger, just in case they were not supposed to know each other.

He knew Ganymede. He was glad Lyndin was there. Briefly, for a split second, Caedus looked like he’d considered going back inside.

“I apologize,” Lyndin said, as if their delay had been so substantial that it warranted any sort of grief. “We’re still figuring out the best way to be available without complicating things. It’s a bit messy in there but set-up is almost done. I’m afraid I can’t welcome you formally, but it’s good to see you. I was looking forward to more conversation.”

Ganymede felt very short.

This was not an uncommon occurrence at all, given that she was already fairly short to begin with. The boots of her Eternal garb helped somewhat, but even the extra four or so inches did nothing to change the fact that she had to tip her head up to look both Caedus and Lyndin in the eye.

It was infuriating. She hated to feel tiny and insignificant in front of their guests.

Perhaps she should have arrived at full strength, after all.

Regardless, Ganymede was able to plaster a polite smile onto her face — the sort she used at fancy dinner parties when she was stuck in conversation with someone she couldn’t immediately warm up to but didn’t want to seem rude.

“Caedus, Lyndin,” she greeted them in a way that implied, I don’t care what your titles are; you’re uninvited guests on our world and I’ll call you what I like.

She did, however, offer them each a coffee. Assuming they could read English as well as they spoke it, Ganymede ensured her civilian name was not on any of the order labels. When they made the order, the name she gave was “Princess.”

Drinks passed around, she began without further ado, “I obviously don’t need to tell you that you might have a hard time winning some of us over. I’m skeptical. Anything that seems too good to be true usually is. But you have experience with these sorts of things? Using energy and comets to tear open portals and destroy the Negaverse, or whatever alternative you might have faced in space?”

Ganymede took a sip of her Pumpkin Spice Latte, eyebrows raised in curiosity, eyeing Lyndin in particular.

Valhalla smiled brighter when Caedus seemed to enjoy the pumpkin spiced latte. At least for the first couple times of the season and then it got to be too much -- or at least that was what Paris always said during that time of the year. He sipped at his own while Lyndin spoke, taking it as an opportunity to process his own thoughts on the subject.

Lyndin certainly had an opposing figure, but Valhalla was glad that both he and Caedus, as well as the rest of the Vanguard, seemed to be allying themselves with the Senshi and Knights of Earth. It was a relief, really. And maybe exactly what they needed to help push back Metallia’s forces, even if the weapon of theirs didn’t work.

“There’s no one left on our Worlds,” Valhalla explained, his smile fading. “We must have been born here because it’s the only place that can sustain life right now. But. We’re working on things. It’s not enough to bring all of Ganymede or Jupiter back to life, and definitely not a place for families. We can only go there with a limited number of people and resources. We can’t exactly repopulate the worlds when there’s nothing to help people survive.”

Maybe one day, and probably only a few places at a time. Ganymede would be a logical choice, since the weather was more temperate than Jupiter. And there were other Knights that had Wonders on Ganymede. But it was still a huge undertaking and not many would agree to leave the comforts of Earth to face the unknown.

“I don’t think the individuals in the Negaverse are necessarily bad. Yes, there were those who tried to kill Caedus, but our lifespan is extremely short compared to yours. If you’ve lived over a thousand years. The people we are fighting… some are just teenagers. They only know what they’ve been forced into. If your weapon works and takes out Metallia, even if everyone isn’t purified, Ganymede can certainly help with that.”

He spared a glance at Caedus for a moment. He knew the other had strong opinions about the Negaverse, and they’d basically agreed to disagree before, but it seemed like this could help everyone, including the Negaverse.

Lyndin was visibly disappointed that there was no clear, easy answer, but he hadn’t expected one. Their answers gave birth to new questions of his own, but he had respect enough for this mutual exchange of information that he answered theirs first.

“I cannot begin to imagine Beryl’s motivations in many things. We have never been quite like Earth. We are practical. Her emotional investment in this war was a deterrent, but Earth was always more welcoming to us than the Moon,” Lyndin explained. “When we arrived in our time of need, the Moon shunned us. I wish I could say I do not blame them, but it was discouraging. We were young then. Holding on by scraps and willpower. We asked for assistance in reclaiming our world and were denied. And then, when we asked for assistance to fortify Velencya, we were told our synthetic world was ‘troublesome’. Caedus,” he looked to him briefly before returning his attention to Ganymede and Valhalla, “made such an effort. He had such respect for them.”

Even now, Caedus did not completely seem to want to speak ill of the Moon, but he relented a bit and said, “They were overprotective of their people. I think they thought we were dangerous. They did not understand us. We only wanted to survive. But I think they assumed the worst of us. Earth was more welcoming. They said they understood and encouraged us to rebuild, and to reclaim our world. Queen Beryl assumed power and it disrupted the alliance we had. She was a threat to our arrangement and we wanted to ensure we still had the resources that Earth offered. We did not want to get involved in their dispute. But she had requested our aid, I think to attack the Moon. We made excuses. Reasonable ones. They might have been unwelcoming to us but we did not wish harm upon them. We only wanted survival. Our meeting with Beryl was to secure what we needed. We had planned to leave this galaxy for a while.”

“And we did,” Lyndin said afterwards. “When we left Earth, we left immediately. We didn’t want to be anywhere near what they were going to do. Beryl wanted our technology for weapons. She wanted to end the war before it began. I don’t approve of any unnecessary loss of life. A war is a war, and soldiers die, but they know what they’ve signed up for, and they’re willing to die for their cause. But civilians? Innocents? I won’t have their blood on my hands. I wasn’t going to risk her wrath. We thought we’d lost Caedus. We couldn’t risk losing anyone else.”

A shadow had crossed Caedus’ face--guilt, rather than anger. He did not blame Lyndin for being left behind, that much was obvious. And, he had been proud of him for keeping their people safe for so long. Caedus blamed only himself--and the Negaverse--for what had happened. He had listened to Valhalla’s words carefully, and though he seemed convinced that there was no good to come from the Negaverse, he did not oppose the plan to destroy Metallia alone, in an effort to rid the Chaos from the others.

If they could be freed of her influence, they could be given a chance. They were not the ones responsible for Beryl’s betrayal; they were only the remnants that lived in her stead.

Ganymede hid her frown behind yet another sip of her drink.

Even with more memories now than she’d had as a younger senshi, her opinion of the Moon Queen was… complicated. Not entirely negative, but not positive either. All paths seemed to lead back to the Moon — a place of refuge for them, surely, but also a place of mystery. Curse both Beryl and Serenity, dragging them all into a needless war. And for what? A man?

Please.

To Valhalla’s comments, Ganymede reacted with a brief flick of her eyes toward her husband. Many things were said during the initial encounter the night before. She could only keep track of so much of it herself; she was glad that Valhalla remembered that part of it.

“Sharing technology like that with anyone, even some of us, would risk it falling into the wrong hands,” Ganymede agreed. “As you could clearly see last night, many of us are divided. That was the case even before you came along. Some don’t have the stomach to do what’s necessary. Some yearn to do more than what’s necessary.

“For a long time, we weren’t aware there was much living out there,” she continued, lifting her pumpkin spice latte in a motion toward the sky. “I was warned recently of the great shadows of the universe, stretching toward Earth, and then you arrive with technology that can open portals into other realms, and potentially destroy Metallia. True, we’ve seen that before, in some fashion…” A nod of acknowledgement toward Caedus. “But it didn’t occur to me until last night what that technology could be used for beyond a way into the Dark Kingdom. With your stones and your energy, could you open a portal to anywhere?”

There was a strong part of Valhalla that didn’t want to know what threats lied beyond the Surrounding. It’s only a matter of time sounded probably every bit as ominous as it should. Something creeping in the depths of space. It sent a shiver down his spine.

He glanced at Caedus for a few moments. He was being quiet, which was fine. Valhalla assumed it had to do with bringing up the Rift. But part of him wondered how the conversation would go if they were just talking to Caedus. They only really knew Caedus, and not as well as he would have liked.

Did Caedus really trust Lyndin? The way he looked at Lyndin, and stood next to him and let him speak for him, and the way Lyndin glanced at Caedus with concern every so often made it feel like they did trust each other and cared for each other. Almost as if they were brothers. Although a thousand years apart seemed like a long time for each of them to change.

Then again, his own brother and father had been away from his life for many years, and he still cared deeply for them.

He glanced at Ganymede and her question about portals, and then at Lyndin, frowning at his explanation. They had technology that those on Earth couldn’t even imagine. But he had a degree in mathematics. Michael was an engineer. Peter seemed to know just about anything to do with Earthen technology, enough to even help him and Michael with their Knight rings.

“Does it have to work as a portal? Could it be reversed? Act as a shield?” If there really were others out there, and possibly not as friendly, possibly those who would just come to take Metallia’s place, then Valhalla wanted to make sure they had a good defense, rather than an offense.

Lyndin gave them both time to speak, though twice in the span of silent breaks did Caedus look to him. He hadn’t sipped at his drink again despite his clear interest in it, as though he understood that the importance of the conversation meant no little indulgences.

Lyndin held his still and had not yet sampled it only because he had understood such already.

“We have the ability to make shields,” Lyndin answered, and knocked on the glassy panel behind him. “This is generated from one of our machines. It’s not perfect, but we didn’t come here expecting to be attacked. Caedus informed us that you must operate with discretion, that this planet is oblivious to Senshi and Knights and the like. We didn’t want to give you extra hardship so we took the extra precautions. But, we’ve build a shield around Velencya, it’s never let us down. But the Surrounding is much larger. Even Earth is much larger. We generate our own energy and pool it into our world. I mean no offense, but…”

He looked between the two of them. “I get the impression that many of you are unwilling to donate your energy. Even excess quantities. I don’t know that we could power anything substantial unless there was an effort made to support it. You may have different resources on Earth though,” he reasoned. “I only know that on my world, we can only rely on ourselves.”

Caedus only now made an effort to contribute to the conversation, and it was when Lyndin had finished answering. “How do you know who to trust with what technology?” He spoke with genuine curiosity, and seemed apologetic even to have his own question when Ganymede and Valhalla were here for their own. “What if something does come? Velencya can move. It has defenses, but...Earth is lacking in such things. If something threatened Earth, would you want our help or to handle it on your own?”