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"Pssst, Bloodstone! Hey--hey---Hey, Bloodstone? You, uh, you're all kinds of intimidating. Anyone ever tell you that? N' also, is it true that you like - idunno - do doctor s**t outside of here? Like - for real? Or is that just rumors." Idle chatter that echoed vaguely off of walls that spiraled ever-downward along dark cobble. Albite wasn't sure if the shadows were darker here, or if it was a trick of the crystal scones and the way they cast off silhouettes in the gloam.

All his looks to bloodstone, side-eyed curiosity, like a partly spooked dog that'd narrowed in on something shiny from a great distance away. All these people that he'd seen before yet never spoken to. Shared neat little mission objectives with.

Rift parties and princess parades.

It only made sense to bug someone new to sate his endless, driving curiosity with. The rest were recovering - or something like that. Kama was in the wind, and Faustite was on fire, and Jet was busy being treated like the King he'd always been, by Aqua. Probably. Maybe?

Albite was sure of it.

That left Bloodstone to take him on an escapade to peer at the Princess. Like some wild, rare, thing. Like a near extinct being of old caught in a tiny bird cage. He didn't know if he'd ever get to see one up close again. Especially one so glowy!

"Oh, yeah. Also? Are there rules. I'm sure Laurels mentioned rules...or like - there should be rules?" Albite wasn't sure if he cared one way or another, he didn't know the plans for this one. Wasn't sure he cared. Knew what a grudge looked like when it was played out on another person -- alluvthis, screamed 'grudge' of the highest order. Screamed Retribution paid in full.

Albite was all for it, of course. Had played his part, and now? He wanted details, or at least to play tagalong and stare neat little holes in Bloodstones fancy coat. Cause it was nice - Generalhood and Kingship had all sorts of perks apparently!

“It’s the doctor today, is it?” Ganymede said, eyeing the General and his accompanying Senshi without a shred of curiosity.

She sat on the floor. With nowhere else to sit, the floor was her only option other than standing, and she could only stand for so long before her depleted energy made that a precarious task. Sometimes she moved around, went from one wall to the next, or stretched out her limbs when they grew too stiff, but for the most part she sat and waited for death.

Ganymede was certain it would come, it was simply a matter of when.

After pushing herself off the wall, Ganymede leaned forward and dug through the bag at her feet. She pulled out a plastic container of what looked to be chicken soup, a packet of bland crackers, and a ziplock bag full of blueberries.

She’d eaten worse since being placed in the cell. Still, she offered no thanks.

“Who’s your friend?” she asked, opening the bag of blueberries first. “Another corrupt Senshi to parade around in front of me? Is this Laurelite’s idea of torture? Honestly, I expected more from her. She must be losing her touch. I already know I’ll never save everyone on my own. She doesn’t need to throw it in my face.”

Her lips twitched into a sardonic smile as she greeted the Senshi, “I’m Ganymede, but I’m sure you already know that.”

Bloodstone had no idea why people felt the need to introduce him. First it was Roselite, who he could forgive because it was Roselite. But now this Senshi, too.

And really, it wasn't even that he had to use the door to get into the cell. He just wanted to do it for an excuse to try and shut it in Albite's face. Alas.

"She wasn't able to fly with them," Bloodstone answered for Ganymede, but ignored her own comments. He'd seen the reports of her assistance in attacking Negaspace. They were lucky only a couple Royal Senshi were there, otherwise they might have had more trouble pushing them back.

But more importantly -- if she was able to fly with them, she would have done so to keep out of their reach.

He didn't care if Albite sat across from her, or even if he stole her food. Bloodstone was there to make sure she wasn't dying, and she didn't look like she was dying, so he could probably just leave if he wanted. But if he had to suffer through Albite, then someone else should, too.

“What?! No! You’re not an animal in a zoo.” Albite thought it was hilarious enough to also be kinda appealing, like Gany was gonna tell him he’d sprouted two heads next. “I’m not gonna, like, throw crackers at you through the bars or something.” though he was sorry about the wings. He almost shushed bloodstone, because, rude? But also — Rude! The guy didn’t have wings last time albite’d checked….

*Unless he did….*

He wondered briefly if Bloodstone had vampires somewhere in his ancestry, or succuboys like almadel, or — vampires. *Mostly*.

It was a little unnerving. So he watched Gany eat her very blue berries instead, let his smile for her question grow.

“Okay! So I did some research, and I found out the coolest damn thing? You ready for it — you and me? We’re sisters!!”

Dramatic tadah - and he was finally talking to a princess, one way ticket to his own moon? Guaranteed. He wished he coulda seen hers even, or lysis, maybe in another lifetime?

“Like, me and Lysi too? Isn’t that wild! Here I’ve got - just - a whole family of sisters that I’ve never gotten to meet before?! “

It was a shame - he loved his sisters half blood, full, stardust, celestial bodies - the other Senshi. Cybele included. It was just — it was just how it was, how he’d always felt, and to find out there was some validity to it? To feeling like a brother - even when they fought. Something poetic about all things coming from the same start and end.

“And yeah, the part where you’re probably slated to die kind of sucks? But it’s alright, you’ll come back eventually. N when I see you again, maybe next time it’ll be different?” and he shrugged like it was the most nonchalant thing to ever have been spoken, in the whole of the world.

Ganymede would hit Bloodstone if she had the strength, shove him away, throw magic at him until he screamed, but she had nothing to defend herself with here — except the one remaining protection her homeworld offered.

So she sat where she was, very still, and let the burst of energy do its work.

Shame he pulled back so fast and didn’t end up blasted against the wall.

Narrowed eyes flicked a quick glance over her shoulder, before she deemed him nothing more than a nuisance and turned her attention back to Albite.

“What are you talking about?” she asked. “Sisters?”

Her only sister was a nine year old girl who liked to dance, a sweet, gangly kid constantly losing baby teeth, who made herself feel more grown up by pretending Elsa and Frozen were no longer cool. The only others were those who became her sisters by choice, young women she’d saved from the Negaverse when the veil of Chaos no longer cast them in shadow. Cybele, Folkvangr, Cyllene.

Lysi, too, he said.

Did he mean Lysithea?

“Are you a Jovian?”

Since becoming an agent of the Negaverse, Bloodstone couldn't say he was ever really interested in Senshi or their worlds. Hearing that Ganymede and Albite and apparently Lysithea were sisters meant nothing to him.

Personally, Bloodstone thought it was a horrible idea to let Senshi know what their apparent real name was. Their star name, or moon name in this case. It let them be tied to something else. Gave them something to be curious about.

Albite by choice, he'd said. So what did it matter if he knew how many other moons of Jupiter were around?

"You're not siblings," he said simply as he unsympathetically ripped off the bandage over Ganymede's shoulder so he could clean up any infection that might be forming.

The look he shot bloodstone for his lack of gentleness, cause - "D u d e" soft little hisst of sound as he flicked ruddy browns between him and Gany; one step away from dragging bloodstone to have a seat with them. Poor guy was probably bored to death sitting sidelines on a convo. Clearly he didn't like being ignored. Albite made a mental note to give him extra extra extra attention afterwards; to make up for it all.

"All Senshi are my 'Sisters'." some severity to that, to the hardness that touched his words with meaning, but Albite wasn't about to explain sentiment to them - how feelings could be like colors and sounds.

Like his soul.

He had to have Sisters - it was some ingrained niggling thing that sat deep in his center. Even the ones he fought to kill, his friends, his enemies, his loves. So different from his own family on Earth; from his mother n' half siblings thousands of miles away. But also? The same.

A court - <********> - he'd had a court back then!! And a team? He felt like he should've known that -- like some part of him knew it. Always liked it best when he had others at his back, when he had a 'family' alongside - to fight for.

" 'Jovians' is a weird word for 'Family', Gany. I can just ******** see it though, man...We must've been amazing back then." the joy for living eternal, for wondering what one of his Selves must've been, her, him? Was she beautiful? Was he vicious? Had they conquered outlying asteroids - had they brought the surrounding ring of space that encompassed such a super giant to heel under their power.

He wanted to know it all - more - everything. He was Jealous. A new feeling ill experienced - she got to go to space and he didn't, she got her past and he....

No.

How oft had he asked and been rebuffed on that. How little did he care for a then he couldn't change except to view it as an entertaining slide show. He lived for death, and in the now, and only recently had he ever considered living for future things.

He was Praxidike, always, eternally. Except for all the ways he couldn't be. Space had changed, the universe as a whole, and he'd made a choice. "Hmm, okay, one? Lepidolite is hot as ******** - have you seen his hands - my god...Metallia's got one hell of a good looking army. There's like - no denying that. You could be blind n you'd see it." she'd asked though, not whether or not their Sovereigns were hot stuff, and he had nothing better to do then entertain.

So he settled up and scooted closer to her, conversationally, a friend in proximal space who wanted to be very clear -- even if it was all so damned confusing. He never had the words for it, not enough. Or maybe it was that he had too many but none of them expressed so succinctly what he meant?

"When Auro n Bob came to me, like, what? Three years ago now, four? They kinda laid it all out - Auro was smart like that, giving me options and knowing what I could be good for." he hadn't liked bob though, not one bit, but bob wasn't his to like. Had haymitch for that. His bestest little black starred kitten in a bellhop hat. "Like - uggh, ********. Don't be mad - okay? I'm sure I loved you then. I'm sure I'd love you now if I got to know you; even more than I already do." Cause she was a princess, she deserved good things - especially if she was dying. Someone should tell her that she was beautiful, and it'd be okay. She'd be born again-again-again-infinitely.

Whatever side she chose, there were endless chances to be had. Endless lifetimes to live out and play with. The ultimate freedom of a restart button lived in their very makeup.

"But 'now' isn't then. Paxidike, best as I can tell, The Moon? Is dead as dirt. N the way thing's looked when I was offered Albite - the chance between being Him as a man born on Earth, and being a Senshi, fullstop?...I had a chance at -- power, control, the ability to put bodies at my ******** feet and have a team to support me doing it. I live on Earth, I was born here - not on my moon - or amongst those other stars. I'm the Praxidike that is, not the one that was. N unlike him? I gotta pay taxes." vibrant even while trying to sit still, everything was something to fidget with though, the hem of a scarf, the wind of a long dread that dragged between fingers like a strange cats cradle. It was hard to impart the emotions of it all. He'd chosen *this*, he'd needed *it*, picked the winning side - except it wasn't even about winning - he'd picked what'd best benefitted him in at the time; it'd seemed like the most obvious choice. To be selfish for a single moment out of every other time he'd been utterly selfless.

He wasn't sorry for it. Not once, not ever, not a moment of sleep lost in the interim. Being Albite had served him so damn well. He loved it.

"I love them though, my people, my team." they needed him, he needed them, swallowed around that emotion and shot Bloodstone a grim sort of smile from over Gany's shoulder "Even the surly ******** who could use some bedside manners behind you..."

"There's no end of horrible s**t I'd do for them -- or myself, to be really clear. Like, mostly myself? You gotta -- well, damn, when you come back around next time? Hit up Cybele. You can chat with her about it, me n her got a real thing going...conversation wise...." the glint of vicious joy for that, fading under a long sigh. God he missed Cybele already. "Which sucks, cause sometimes ya'll look at us like some brain washed bitches fed cookies n sparkly dreams. I'm just a guy who want's to live the way I want, n this is how I'm choosing to do it. Morally questionable s**t aside -- Albite is who I wanted to be, this time." and he wanted to apologize to her, triple-fold. The same way he wanted to put her out of her misery, or ask her for a book with everything in it on all of the moons, and people of the past. Maybe she'd give that to him as a parting gift? Maybe she'd give him the imagery?

"I'm sorry Gany...d'you want a hug?" Did she need one? He couldn't've given her much, a swift end, a smile. A person to talk to. The promise of 'next times' wound round 'forever's'. Everyone died eventually - he was sure he'd see her again.

Ganymede stared at Albite with pity, with sympathy, but with understanding, too.

She didn’t know that she could believe that the choice was entirely his, not when she knew the ways Chaos poisoned and manipulated, but at least he seemed… honest. Aware, almost? About what he was, and what he could have been, and what kept him motivated now. Chaos fed on that, no doubt, the way it fed on everything, but there was something refreshing about his outlook compared to that of some of his allies.

She wondered how long it would last before Chaos warped him further. If circumstances had been different, perhaps she could have guided him onto a different path. Being born on Earth, with a dead moon elsewhere, and committing oneself to the world that was actually living, the only place they’d ever known, was a sentiment she understood very well. Once, Earth was all she fought for. It was what she fought for still, among all the rest.

“I need freedom,” she said. “A hug won’t give me that.”

It wouldn’t even give her much comfort, knowing Albite was beyond her help, knowing he didn’t want it, didn’t seek it, didn’t need it. She could not support his desire to remain in the midst of Chaos, but she found she couldn’t criticize him for it either.

Still, there was protectiveness in her — for a kind face that could have been an ally, if only Albite had made a different choice.

“No one will let him talk to me again, once you’ve submitted your report on this,” Ganymede argued, eyeing Bloodstone with a glare. “I’ve saved Jovians, and knights of Ganymede. I may be without magic here, but I’m not entirely powerless. Your superiors know that, I think. The truth is persuasive, and it’s all I have now.”

Ganymede shifted her attention to Albite, offering him a small, sad smile. “Thank you for your honesty, and your kindness. I wish we could have known one another under different circumstances. Perhaps some version of us will, one day.”