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Keiko's enthusiasm about space was thrilling to Encke, and Encke was willing to do anything he could to encourage it.

So when she contacted him about maybe communicating more about her plans for space, he eagerly went along, although today it wasn't without company. It wasn't necessarily company he asked for. He loved his guardian cat, really, he did, but she was mostly following him around because the recent ambush still had her on edge--

"Not letting you patrol by yourself."

"I'm literally meeting someone. I will literally not be by myself."

Viatrix huffed as she curled around Encke's shoulders. "Don't care." She knew her charge couldn't be corrupted, but that didn't mean she wanted to let him out of her sight at the moment... Although maybe she should be more worried about Sailor Ran, or Encke's Basiluzzo--

"Look," Encke jerked his head toward the small wisp that swirled around them as Encke walked to the meeting spot, "wisp's even here. Not by myself."

"Well!" Viatrix huffed again. "I should meet your senshi friends! Want to meet more of them. Too many of the senshi are just slipping off and getting corrupted. Guardians should keep an eye on them." She paused, frowned, and added, "Though I suppose none of the recent corruptions are by choice--"

Viatrix wasn't sure if that was worse or better.

Encke cut off Viatrix's mournful musings, waving to Keiko and offering a bright, "Kei!"

Encke had to assume that Keiko hadn't been at the ambush, especially with the way she asked how he was doing. Hadn't seen her, but he had wondered if he was paying so much attention to Caedus and the central machine that he had lost sight of the specifics of the people around him other than their uniforms were turning black--. "Alive," was his grim response, though he forced a smile back on his face afterward. "I'm glad to know you weren't there."

Still couldn't contact some of his allies after the ambush.

Honestly, every person who wasn't transcendent who was getting back in contact with him afterward was a relief, even if he had just seen them on the Moon--

"I'm so glad you're starting to get a place to stay up there! Have you started to see any signs of your planet stitching itself up-- oh."

Viatrix preened the moment she was noticed, lifting her paw and licking it before smoothing it over her head as if to make her just that much more clean and smooth. "I am! My name's Viatrix, and I'm Encke's guardian cat!" She hopped off of Encke's shoulders, quickly abandoning both him and the wisp to wind herself around Keiko's legs, pushing her head into them slightly as a way of both asking for attention and also being friendly.

"And you're Keiko, right? Encke has told me about you! Says you're interested in space too." She wound to the front of her, looking up to her with eyes that shined in the light of Encke's nearby transcendent markings and glowing outfit. "Tell me more about your planet!"

Something felt curious when she had pressed against Keiko's legs, but she wasn't quite certain what it was just yet...

The wisp bumped Encke gently as if apologizing for him being chopped liver--

Viatrix started purring the moment Keiko touched her, pushing her head into Keiko's hand to encourage the continued petting. Touching her directly made the sense a little stronger, but she wasn't quite sure what it was yet. Something was telling her she should know. Something guardian-related she was sure, but so much of her knowledge still felt like it wasn't instinct-- "Oh, I've not been to a snowy planet!"

Well, so far as she knew.

"You'll have to take me there! It suits your sphere really well, too," Viatrix eagerly curled right up to Keiko when she was picked up, purring even louder. Encke rolled his eyes, but summarily she ignored him. "I agree he's quite lucky. I don't know how he managed without me." She huffed, pressing a paw to Keiko's body briefly. "He awoke without me."

Encke pinched the bridge of his nose and would have reminded Viatrix that he was promoted to Eternal without her, too, but Keiko was speaking to him again and his expression softened.

Damn, she really didn't know.

It was almost a relief.

"Of course not! We're friends, right?" Encke shook his head and offered her a smile as Viatrix rolled her eyes this time. "No, Vi refused to let me leave without her. Ah, definitely can tell you weren't there now, but," he rubbed his neck, "few weeks ago, the aliens' attempt to blast Metallia? We were ambushed. By the Negaverse. Bunch of us were force corrupted. Only were saved by being brought to the Moon because the aliens' machine exploded. Viatrix just didn't want me going out alone."

Viatrix huffed. "And I got to meet one of your senshi friends! I'm always looking for more of those." And she had a feeling she was supposed to be there...

Viatrix thought this idea of bothering Encke at night of Keiko's was excellent. She would just have to figure out how to get in Encke's room at night before he and Richard locked the door--

-- Maybe she'd regret that and should just go with the little box --

"Yeah, it's something the glow will stop," reaffirmed Encke, nodding as an extra assurance. He felt the way his homeworld had called to him when he felt the Chaos pressing him, felt the way that his homeworld had helped him push that out and center him. He saw how those who had transcended almost stood as beacons in the night against the horrors that were happening around them. His belief in his homeworld had only grown stronger since.

And his homeworld had only grown stronger since.

The other questions, though-- "I'm better than some," he admitted, glancing upward for a moment. "I walked away relatively okay. Saved a good friend of mine from having his starseed taken. But --," did he know someone who had been taken?

He hoped he didn't.

And yet.

"I might," he frowned, looking down at his phone, "but I didn't see anyone I knew as it was happening. I'm glad we're meeting, though. Let me know that you weren't one of them. The others can be saved if they choose to be. We'll have to convince them that they want to repurify. That purifying is what they want to do, that they want to take Metallia's influence off them. It'll be hard because being forced means they," he swallowed, "lose all of who they are."

Viatrix shifted to tap Keiko on the chin with her paw. "Well, one of the things you can do is get transcended! And keep fighting! Don't give in! You'll get stronger!"

Wait -- wait a minute--

Keiko's idea of just being kind to them and showing them that it was worth it -- it was sweet, and it reminded him of someone else he was close to. There was the faintest, distant smile on his face as he thought of his friend, Pendour, before he responded. "Freedom would be a pretty big argument for me," he laughed, faintly, before following up with, "but Chaos has a way of making people feel free. Being kind to them is a good approach, though. Make it harder to believe what they're being fed."

Well.

Until the Negaverse attacked or stole energy and lives and things they had no rights to take--

"I believe in your ability to transcend. You have the will for it--"

Viatrix grinned, confidently offering a, "If you glow, you'll be blue, I think! And I think I got something to help."

She figured it out.

"Encke, I told you I was supposed to meet your friend! Keiko, you are not supposed to be a basic anymore!"

Encke's eyes widened slightly in surprise.

"Okay, but the overpriced coffee chains can be good," Encke pondered this for a moment, "so long as you don't get the coffee, anyway. Have you ever tried any of the refreshers those places have--"

"Hush!" Viatrix swatted at him with one paw before immediately turning her attention back to Keiko. "Yes, absolutely! Of course I'm serious! Your starseed is calling out that it's ready for an upgrade, I think. If you can just give me your pen, I can get that all fixed for you--"

She beamed as Keiko loaded on the compliments to her as she talked to Encke, who mostly just looked a mixture between amused and dismayed that his cat was apparently better company than he was. She did have a charismatic way about her, though; honestly, he guessed he shouldn't have been that surprised. "I think she's just happy she gets to actually upgrade someone. Before she found me, I had already made it to Eternal." He shot a grin at his cat, who attempted to blow a raspberry at him.

It was minimally effective.

"Yes, well, now I can upgrade you, Keiko! And then you are welcome to pamper me. I will not stop you."

Encke rolled his eyes. The wisp wiggled in a way that might have implied laughter if it could laugh.

Encke pouted for a moment, but it was a fleeting moment as he glanced at Viatrix and decided it was time for revenge of a sort. "Oh, it's fine. She doesn't need me, clearly. Just snatch her away." There was a sniffle that followed, with a very convincingly emotional small tear welling up in his eyes, "Guess that means no more of Luke's cooking for you," a stunning display of why he was an actor.

Viatrix let out a shocked gasp. "First of all!" She turned toward Encke as she messed with Keiko's henshin pen, watching as it changed and altered in her grasp to let it unlock more power. "Luke would never deprive me! Second!"

Happily, she handed the pen off to Keiko, before turning that salty gaze back toward Encke.

"I can have multiple people pampering me, thank you! I would love a patrol partner that isn't such a sassy know-it-all."

Encke couldn't stop his snickers as Viatrix huffed and said, "Anyway," turning her attention very decidedly toward Keiko, "try it now! Try 'Keiko Asteroid Power, Make-Up!' I think you can also just, concentrate really hard."

Viatrix cheered when Keiko said her henshin phrase.

The senshi in front of her and Encke changed, and Viatrix was clearly excited about it, purring much like a motor and circling Keiko's legs once the magic settled. Encke, for his part, gave her outfit a once-over, made a joking whistle that was meant to riff of her earlier comment, before offering her a wide grin. "I like it! The little fluff on your arms there-"

He paused, considered for a moment, and then motioned toward the fluff to ask, "May I?" It looked soft. He couldn't help wanting to at least touch it to see if it was as soft as it looked.

Maybe it was a little silly.

Viatrix bumped Keiko with her head as another way to show her approval. "Oh, this is perfect! I can feel the increased power from you already. And I love your outfit, so-called slutty skirt and all." She tilted her head. "Do you feel stronger?"