It wasn't far from the Gallo's house that Cybele saw her. In fact, it was right at the border of what was considered far enough away that one could power up without getting a talking to later about bringing war to the door. That was part of why Cybele had decided to go take a look at the source of the nearby aura. She knew that someone had helped Ganymede in an impressive act of defiance against the Negaverse. She knew that they'd purified after, and she wondered if that was why they were here, if they wanted to check in on the Princess, or if they needed help. Cybele was pleasantly curious, up until the very second she saw who it was, standing nearby.

It was Sylvite. It was Sylvite right next to her house.

Not that she'd be called Sylvite. Cybele's mind was processing the softer pinks of her dress, and the bright Order aura that had caught her attention in the first place. It was a slow process, one that involved many double takes and the imagined sound of fingernails on a blackboard, but after a few seconds, she had gotten to the point where Cybele could see that she was a Knight now, and that along with her new clothes, she probably had a new name.

It didn't change the fact she was Sylvite.

It didn't change the fact that she'd seen fit to corrupt Cybele, to strip away everything that had made her who she was and to turn her into a puppet of the Negaverse for months. It didn't change the fact that she'd stabbed her close to the heart once Cybele had found her freedom again, that she would have killed her if a kind senshi hadn't been passing by to drive her off and carry Cybele's bleeding-out form to the emergency room.

All that had happened, and now she was grinning like an idiot, and waving, and skipping right up into Cybele's face.

"Woah. You're so freaking cool," she was saying. "Like, look at those antlers! They're antlers, but also a hat? Like, what? Can I touch them?"

Then she was reaching up, starry-eyed, towards Cybele's tiara.

In retrospect, Cybele should have said something. She should have stepped away, or taken a deep breath, or thought about things.

In the moment, her instincts and memories took over, and she punched the purified Knight in the face.

The Knight screamed and jumped back, cradling her face. Her eyes were still shimmering when she looked back over to Cybele, but this time they were shimmering with tears.

Cybele gasped as soon as her knuckles hit. She froze.

"W-What?" almost-Sylvite choked out, and that was when Cybele managed to back away, step by tiny step, her hands palm up in front of her. Ugh, this was even worse than Lysithea.

"Sorry," she managed, her voice both quiet and flat. "That was an accident." She glanced up for just long enough to get another look at the younger woman's crying face, and she something twisted in her chest. "I just can't deal with you right now."

Then, Cybele was running away, shoes pounding against the pavement as her heart pounded in her head.