Welcome to Gaia! ::

There was a part of her that didn't know what she was doing on that same roof.

Was there a purpose? A point? Perhaps she was risking too much by waiting to see; she had made her decision, and every second she did not simply finish the logical conclusion to that decision was another second that the Negaverse could dig its claws back in, that the dust could clear from the Negaverse's victory and her superiors could call her back in -- though could they? She was eternal now, wearing the dark wings that called her out as the highest rank the Negaverse held; did any superiors even hold any power over her other than the general-sovereigns?

Of course, there were the general-sovereigns. And perhaps they would like her to start performing her own duties, in her own office, with her own subordinates -- the concept of a team other than the one she was on felt uncomfortable but was probably correct in the progression -- but it all felt uncomfortable, had since she became determined to shrug the sinking claws off her body.

But she had to know.

Nembus crossed one leg over the other as she sat down on the roof and let the guise of Nembus slip away to make herself less of a beacon when she realized she felt an aura nearby. In her place sat Delilah, hair brushing her shoulders as she looked across the district.

She would look interesting, sitting there, and she knew it. There was no easy way to get on the roof of the building she was on without access to the fire escapes.

Not that it mattered.

Delilah didn't care how the person she hoped to see saw her, just that she did.

But I can promise you, Nembus, that you’ll have all my strength at your back and all the support I can offer from as long as I have strength and support to give.

It was strange, looking out at the city like this.

She didn't quite know if she would remember it after she went to the luxury mall she had told Phaethon to meet her at, but she tried to burn it into her memory in hopes that perhaps it would remain. Didn't have her phone anymore; she had left it with Phaethon, too. She had bought a disposable camera with cash, and the quiet of the scene around her had her fishing it out as she waited.

The camera was tucked away when she saw someone approach.

A miracle, really, and she might have laughed for the perfection of it; perhaps something was telling her it was the right choice, perhaps it was a combination of perfect timing and ideal words that had been exchanged. She watched with caution, waiting to see if Cybele would approach her, and when she did to ask if she was alright, a smile ghosted across Delilah's face no matter what her mood had been.

"I'm alright," was her gentle reply, as she looked over Cybele. Was she alright? Had she been at the terrible ambush? She didn't necessarily appear to be in the greatest of health, but at the very least, she still wore white. Would have winced to imagine the concept of the Negaverse taking her back again; what would it have done to her memories? Her personality? Her starseed? Her--

"Well. Will be better." Delilah leaned forward which perhaps may have looked even more dangerous considering the circumstances. "Just trying not to draw too much attention. Aura usually takes up much more space."

Maybe she should explain herself before Cybele ran away.

"It's, ah," she looked away, "Nemb."

It would have been fair for Cybele to run away, and Delilah would have understood. It wasn't like she was someone who Cybele could necessarily trust; as much as she wanted to leave, she was still a member of the Negaverse, and still someone who had been unfalteringly loyal to some degree. A degree that was a degree of complacency, a degree of coasting, a degree of--

She was relieved when Cybele stayed, even if Delilah wondered if she was actually comfortable.

I was a bit worried, after--

So that answered Nembus' question, explained a bit of Cybele's mood, explained what Delilah had observed when she looked over her. She had been there. What had she seen? Had she seen what had happened to the one that was once named-- the image was in her mind and she swallowed it down, and she swallowed it down with the sound of Phaethon's manic cackle that tried to filter into her ears, and she swallowed it down with the way that black wings had sprouted from her back in a reminder of the thing she had never wanted, of the influence pushing and worsening and--

"The Negaverse is victorious, of course." Delilah didn't sound nearly as excited. "Ill-gotten spoils of more bodies with no memories left. Already working on deluding them into staying, I'm sure. Lost families. Lost friends. Lost realities." She shifted, holding one arm with the other. "It's uncomfortable. I spent a few days afterward self-reflecting, I guess."

She felt her toes flex in her shoes.

"I'm on a roof because I was hoping to see other connections I've made before --," her words felt short on her lips, "packed my life up. Current Nega databases that I was able to pull. Gave it to someone else -- ah, his name is Phaethon." Just in case she was found, just in case-- "Got a plan. Leaving."

The plan was just following Sedna's words, but--

All she had to do was want it, right?

Awful was, perhaps, a better word than uncomfortable. To gather people into a box, to purposefully trap them, to purposefully push something into them and at them until they saw themselves blink and warp and change and then disappear forever, becoming a shell of themselves -- it was nothing but awful. It was why she was against forced corruption. It was why she believed it shouldn't occur. It was why she had let things go; her team didn't seem to abide it. It was why she had brushed it under the rug; it was easier to pretend that she wasn't abiding by a repetition of what had happened to her if she just ignored it and stayed in her narrow lane--

"When Laurelite teleported us away -- took us back to celebrate. Said she was proud of all of us. Proud. I--"

Delilah shook her head. Pointless to focus on that. All she needed to communicate about that--all she needed to ensure she knew, that the others knew--was that the Negaverse was proud of what horrible things they had done, about how they trapped people and pushed on them and beat them up and tormented them until they broke and became something that couldn't even remember themselves--

The smile made it into her eyes even if it wasn't fully on her face when Cybele was already pulling for methods to help.

"A Princess?"

Was that the one who --

No, no, no, she wasn't going to think about what caught her eyes whenever she turned her attention away from fleeing, away from Adorea--what had the Negaverse done to her when they realized she was going to heal people who were Order-aligned, she wondered--away from Phaethon--

"I appreciate that," Delilah chuckled lightly, "but I did have an idea. I've heard you can call on someone on the side of Order as a way to get out. Was going to meet Phaethon at the luxury mall and try." She paused, before looking down to her feet. "You can come, too, if you'd like."

Would it be better for her to go with the Princess option?

"I just need to flee as soon as possible. The Negaverse is distracted right now, you know? Got all these new," she winced at the harshness of, "baby magic cannons. Aren't paying attention to their newest corrupt eternal making a break for it."

Could the princess be available that quickly? Was she able? Was she worn out? Was--

Even if it wasn't necessarily the focus of the conversation, the rage toward the Negaverse's Queen was fully deserved. She respected it, she expected the way Cybele hissed about it, and she almost found a relief in it. Cybele didn't need to have been in a situation that would have had her rage spiking like that, but by the same token--

It was good to see that her connections hadn't found their allegiances altered by the pump of Chaos into their hearts.

Delilah listened to the way Cybele breathed.

Ganymede. Delilah was fairly sure she had heard that name at least once. That must have been the princess she saw at a distance-- "Worn from the battle?" she filled in, not encouraging Cybele to go on necessarily but giving an easy excuse. The princess had to watch what happened as much as everyone else. Couldn't imagine it felt any better from the other side...

Her eyes lit up.

Cybele said she meant it, and perhaps Delilah should have taken her at her word, but it felt so hard to considering the circumstances that had led to her no longer having contact with Sedna. She was tempted to ask, still, if Cybele had ever heard that name, but she held it behind her lips and instead offered a, "Yes. Today." Hopefully, the short notice wasn't minded "Told Phaethon to meet me in," Delilah sighed, "an hour? Or so?"

She didn't have a phone. Made it hard to check the time.

But not having a phone would make her considerably harder to track.

"At the fashion district's luxury mall. After close, so. ... Not terribly far from here. If you don't mind, I can teleport you."

To be honest, Delilah couldn't blame Cybele for her response.

It had been an offer made in good faith, but considering that Cybele was someone who was on the list that the Negaverse wanted dead, it made sense that Delilah's offer was rejected. The relationship she had with Cybele wasn't exactly the relationship she would have had with someone like Sedna, someone she had trusted in near totality.

And there she was, in any case.

She nodded in understanding, leaning forward again where she sat on the edge of a roof, not exactly making her position less precarious--

"Alright. Just figured I'd offer." Delilah's smile made it out of her eyes and into her lips this time, brightening up her face despite how she felt. The second question was probably a more valid one; how did she plan on getting down from there without henshining up? Getting on the roof in the first place had required it-- "Might just have to power up."

She shifted uncomfortably, pulling out her henshin pen.

"And just. Cautiously jump down."

After spending the last few days in her head, sometimes minor details like smart places to watch for people slipped.

"Not sure I thought this through, but I'll figure it out."

"I like the rooftops."

Perhaps she should have been afraid. Cybele was right; it didn't make it any less tall even if they were able to get down safely while they were powered. If she fell now, Cybele would have to scramble to catch her at best, and she wasn't entirely certain that Cybele would have been capable in her current state. That battle had not been so peaceful for most--

"Nice view. More isolated. People tend not to look up terribly much unless they hear a bird. So I can just sit and observe. Try to understand life again.

"But."

Delilah lifted the henshin pen, murmured the words that called her transformation to herself, and slowly came to her feet then as Corrupt Eternal Nembus, closing her eyes as she felt the way her hair blew behind her. When she henshined again after she was freed, this would be different. Shorter. She'd also no longer have wings. Sedna had lost a level, too, and they had met each other as the same--

"Can't just keep sitting up here, right?"

She closed her eyes, stepped off, and landed in front of Cybele, pressing her hand into the ground before coming back to her feet.

"I could have teleported down," it was said as an afterthought, "but I suppose I should get used to not relying on it. Don't have that on the other side, right?"

"If my reasons were flimsier," Nembus laughed, quietly, "maybe I'd turn back and stay for the teleportation."

She was clearly kidding as she brushed her legs off, briefly glancing toward the ground and the long boots and her three-tiered skirts. "Sedna said she missed it too. Suspect it's a common thing among us ex-corrupts, right?" Ex-corrupts. Nembus wasn't sure she could reasonably wear that title yet, but perhaps she could in spirit. She had the will, right?

It was enough, right?

More to life than observing felt odd but there wasn't much more to her life than the three and a half years she had scraped for and was about to lose. Maybe it would feel different with the Chaos off her back. Maybe it would be more of the same. Maybe she would forever be trying to understand the people in front of her and why some of them seemed so impossibly nice despite the circumstances they were all in.

"Yeah, let's head toward the mall."

Nembus turned back toward the rooftop as if wistful before turning back to Cybele, her smiling strengthening.

"Next time I go roof hopping, it'll be without any teleportation boosts, yeah?"