Welcome to Gaia! ::

October, the one month a year when Hekate could get away with being powered up before it was completely dark out. Many civilians passed by with a glance that suggested she might be too old for dressing up but she paid them no mind.

She meandered down the street at a moderate pace while her wraith loomed lazily in the shadows overhead where streetlights could not reveal it easily. Its form was more corporal than when they first arrived which was a prime indication it was time to head back to the mirror and call it a night.

“A successful evening if I do say so myself.” Her chin raised and chest puffed out in a show of pride but the Wraith remained unamused. Then again, in the last five-plus years she’d been at this whole war thing, she’d never once seen any Wraith show an emotion other than unamused disdain. “Always a one-sided conversation with you.” Hekate added before coming to an abrupt stop as a ‘familial signature’ approached rather quickly.

Winded from her sprint, the Dark Mirror Senshi had barely blurted out her words of warning when the creature briefly mentioned swooped down to keep her from fleeing.

Hekate jumped back, startled by the sudden yelp and flurry of large leathery wings keeping the bat aloft. Her heel collided with an uneven slab of sidewalk and soon she was stumbling backward against the large storefront window. Her arms swung out wide to keep herself from falling on the concrete and once she was more sure-footed, the Senshi of Jinxes looked up to the rooftop.

Still, that dispassionate gaze looked down at her as if the Wraith was waiting for her to do something so they could be on their way. Useless she thought to herself as she righted herself once more.

With conviction, she pointed an accusatory finger at the bat and yelled “Jinx” at it. From her hand a purple wispy trail of smoke-like magic snaked its way toward the creature, winding around its neck and wings before wrapping around its face where it was absorbed into it.

Hekate didn’t wait to see what her magic would do to it, just assumed it’d make it difficult for the thing to keep aloft or chase after them. Instead, she grabbed her companion's hand and gave it a rather abrupt tug.

“Lets go!” she pulled the eternal into motion, “I know of a place about three minutes that way!”

“Hekate!” she blurted and would have continued with that thought but instead flashed a rueful smile over her shoulder. It’d be nice to run and talk but she knew herself well enough to refrain from multi-tasking least she found herself tripping over some debris and sending them both head of heels in a summersault of tangled limbs and losing what momentum they had earned in their hasty retreat.

Without turning to look, the Senshi of Jinxes hoped beyond reason that the Wraith was hustling along with them. Unfortunately, they weren’t as useful as a Negaverse Agents youma, as far as she’d witnessed, they lacked any level of combativeness otherwise they might have been able to dispatch the bat or drain it, maybe, if that was even an option.

While she continued to tug Lenka along, Hekate tried to comb through her memories in an attempt to recall where, or when, she might have heard her name but eventually settled on the idea that it was her outfit that looked vaguely familiar, or bore some resemblance to one she’d seen in a Court meeting by chance. Then again maybe not, hard to tell when her focus was weaving past parked cars into an alleyway past tipped-over trash cans to a tree-filled area that had a small red-painted shed. Honestly, she had no idea and was too fatigued to think about it overlong.

“I don’t know what you did to make that thing so angry,” a brief pause to catch her breath and ease the growing pinching sensation in her side. “But goodness that thing has it out for you.”

The Wraith didn’t even spare her a glance before it passed through the mirror, to a place she could not reach on her own. Not yet anyway, someday maybe but today was not that day.

“We can split up here or you can take me with you. Either way, this is the only mirror I know of in this area.” Hekate would have spared a moment to look around but with low visibility, dark shadows, and a silent flying creature; it was pointless to try and spot something that had no aura to be sensed.

Hekate let out a surprised yelp as it was her turn to be tugged along. One step over the threshold and the cold night air was left behind as they found themselves in a place of their own.

Mirrorspace was so unlike any place found in Destiny City, or on Earth for that matter. Other than perhaps Salar de Uyuni, a large salt flat that when wet after a rain turned into the world's mirror. A part of her wondered if she could pass through it but knew she didn’t have that kind of time or money to test that theory and would forever just be mesmerized by the photos she’d seen in a National Geographic magazine several years ago.

Her legs felt like jello and rather than risk falling over unceremoniously, Hekate lowered herself to the floor to sit for a moment while she caught her breath. “Don’t worry,” she chuckled. “I believe you.” Creatures and the like needed no reason to attack other than because it was in their nature to see humans, powered or not, as prey.

However, the fruit bat comment did pull from her another laugh.

When the giggles were done, Hekate used her sleeve to wipe the tears from her eyes. “I’m the Senshi of Jinxes, by the way. My apologies, I was kind of struggling to add that in earlier.”

”Are you ok though, Miss Lenka?” Her expression shifted to one of concern as she reached out to fix some of the tangles in the eternal’s hair. "That bat really made a mess.”

Goodness. How many years has it been since I last found one of these? Hekate approached Lenka and the crystal she had found. Well over five years at least, she lamented with a sigh.

Crouching down beside the Senshi of Watermelon, she too broke off a piece of the grey almost stone-like cluster of shards. “I’m familiar with these and have at least a vague idea of what they can do,” she admitted quietly.

With a swipe of her hand, she opened her subspace pocket and withdrew three green ones with similar shapes and sizes, ones that would look familiar to Lenka if she’d already been growing grass. “I’ve been holding on to these for a long time now.” Despite her low rank, Hekate was not new to this war or the Dark Mirror Court as one would assume upon an initial glance.

“I never managed to make a friend that could bring me here to find more of them.” Her tone and expression mirrored each other in that they seemed to carry a measure of regret in them. “Until maybe now,” she then added quietly. The corners of her lips pulled into a small hopeful smile but apprehension still shone in her eyes. Almost as if she worried that this attempt to make a connection with someone also in the Court would end up in failure like the last handful of people with whom she no longer even remembered their names