WC: 1132

She was desperate.

The memory of the world disappearing around her only to wake on the ground haunted Dubhe. Seeing Zeke - Susanoo - so terrified was... Enough., She didn't like seeing hjer cousin so upset. Zayne was already intensely distressed. Uncle Vincent was dfistressed. Zeke was shaken with the reality of the war and Dubhe couldn't stand it anymore.

She? She was able to henshin. To patrol. To look for those whom needed healing. She was perhaps an optimist yet still, but even then, Dubhe had enough. She knew what she had to do, and that was face her homeworld herad on, and pray that her past life had some answer, some trick, something to help balm her nerves and let her assuage Zeke's fear. And so, one night, she travelled instead of patrolled, and arrived at the steps of the Dubhian Palace, her arrival point since discovering it. Her heart beat stronghest her, some half-remembered memory craving to surface bubbling just below the surface every timer as Dubhe stood, looking around, and swallowed.

"I have to fix this." Dubhe murmured to herself. She had to change the way her world operated. She had to mend it -- she didn't know why, she didn't know how, buit she had to Fix this. Only plants seemed to survive the machine that lie broken and crumpled in the palace, shattered by her hands. And Dubhe watched the city in silence, every horror, every atrocity, she gzed out over.

"I have to fix this." Dubhe repeated, disappointed nothing came to mind, before the senshi closed her eyes, and turned, entering the Palace. She followed the halls aimlessly, before entering a room befitting a queen, and closed her eyes again, wondering. Was this her mother's room? A consort's? And, as if answering, the faintest edges of memory teased their way forth, soft and gentle, before she was deep inside it, and it unfurled, sharimng it's secrets.

She was crying, face buried in her pillow as Jolanthe wept, not for herself, but for what happrnrf.

She was clad in the finery of a senshi, of Sauilor Dubhe, leader of the Senshi Elites... And she didn't want to be. Her awakening was brutal an cruel -- all she wanted to do was help, but now? Now she was a prisoner of tradition and law -- she was a senshi. And senshi were soldiers.

The door opened slowly, and Tiberius Rex entered the bedchambers of his crying daughter slowly As Emperor, he learned of events swiftly. As her father, he was cloaked is distress and fear, but her msked that as the man approached his daughter.

He couldn't bear to see her so destraught. She was his only child, his small flower -- her mother died in childbirth, leaving hjim perhaps the gentlest, sweetest heiress in centuries, and.. Now it appeared the flower he so cherished was heartbroken and trapped, and all he could think of was how to mitigate harm. Dubhe would be allowed home, to inherit the seat of Empress... To live, instead of simply train. She'd still train others, but...

"Daddy, I can't -- I can't! I don't -- O won't kill anybody!" She wailed the moment he touxched her and Tiberius paused, sighing softly.

"I know, my treasure. I won't force you to kill, or fight... But you must train the others. I know you don't want to... But you must." Tiberios swalllowed thickly, kissing the top of her head - where her crown was to let her symbolically sense his love as her father, pure, and kind.

After all; his daughhter was possessed of his heart and goodness from the moment he first held her.

"I don't want anybody fighting, Daddy. I - I can't... Ask them to..."

"Then do it for their safety, my flower. Our enemies would be glad to attack and harm them -- and you, pet -- and you could perhaps help them protect themselves, my heart. You can help them, yes?"

"...I want them safe...." Jolanthe admitted, looking up. She was so heartbroken, and it broke Tiberius' heart as he pulled her into an embrace, closing his euyes.

"I swear on my very crown, my very being, sweet... You will never want for love or safety. You need not fight unless attacked, only heal. I will not let the military destroy her nation's real treasure -- you. I know your reign will bring peace and a better life than mine ever could." Tiberius know what her reign might be -- slaves, freed men and woman and other. The military organized to protect them. Peace, and a new direction, for his Jolanthe was incapable of war. Jolanthe too, knew she was far from a warrior. Unlike her father, she was born with the disposition of her mother's side, and then it was amplified significantly. Gentle, sweet -- Tiberius couldn't campaign when she was small, and when she was small, she bnrought him the wounded animals older boys, looking to be soldiers, wounded -- from fruggies to rabbuns -- even a canis once. Jolanthe adopted that canis and until his passing, Tiberius never saw an animal more loyal to it's champion. Food animals that could not be saved were killed humanely, but Tiberius saved their furs to make her coats for winter or cold worlds, gently explaining the circle of life.

And now she awakened as Sailor Dubhe to perhaps save another, his gentle, sweet, harmless child.

"Daddy... I don't want to fight..." Jolanthe interrupted his thoughts, but the Emperor did naught but rest his chin on her head, eyues closed as he remained close.

"I will not see you miserable, my shining star. I gave you my oath." Tiberius murmured. But for now, he was desired.

"This... This was your room, then." Dubhe said softly. She approached the bed, touching it lightly, and sighed. "Did you die here? Did your father see the end of the world, or did he die too?"

Dubhe sighed, approaching the mirror, and began to sob.

"What am I supposed to do? Zeke's so upset, and you didn't fight either. How do I do this alone, Jolanthe? I don't -- I don't want to die. But there's a war, and I'm in it. I don't want to fight. I want to save lives. I want to help people. I want to heal. I feel so lost though... Where do I start, when the enemy wants to kill or destroy your soul?"

A pause. A hand rising to her schest, and... For a moment, silence. She considered her scraps of memories, the state of Dubhe. She considered how barren it was, and then, at last, she sighed.

"I am a healer, like you, Jolanthe. I do what I do best. I don't fight. I heal." Dubhe sighed again, and turned away, departing Jolanthe's room, and walking out of the palace in deep introspection, eyes focused ahead as she at last breathed.

"I have to heal... Everything. Somehow. That's the only way. I heal. That's what I do."