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 Posted: Sat Feb 07, 2026 10:05 am
Takes place early January 2026 after the events at Northpoint. Rose hadn’t meant to power up so soon.
She’d been on her way to meet Riker—an entirely normal thing for her to do, and not at all related to recent events, though she was anxious to hear how everyone was doing. Attending a different school, where her obligations went beyond homework, meant her time with them was sometimes limited. There was only so much information she could get through text. Hearing it all from Riker’s mouth was more reassuring than reading it on her phone anyway.
It was probably paranoia; she heard rustling in the bushes, then in the trees. A bird, maybe. Or some other innocent critter. Nothing she would have worried about before she knew about monsters. She second guessed everything now. The compulsion had grown worse since that night in the abandoned building. Even as Dawn, she sometimes felt as if there were eyes on her, some menacing presence she couldn’t quite shake.
She powered up because, though it made it easier for enemies to track her, she felt better prepared to defend herself when she could run faster and jump higher. If there was anything of note hiding in the bushes, she wanted to be able to escape.
For a moment, Rose sensed nothing. All was peaceful. The wind blew a few loose leaves around her feet. Her hair swayed. An owl hooted further away. In the distance, a siren drifted out of earshot.
Then, along the edge of her senses, she felt them: one youma, two, three. Lying in wait, maybe? No, they couldn’t have known. They would have been wandering the streets, probably stalking some hapless victim. Rose thought of powering back down to avoid them but she wouldn’t be able to forgive herself if they hurt someone else.
She ran instead, heading toward the spot in the park nearby where she’d agreed to meet Riker.
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Posted: Sat Feb 07, 2026 10:06 am
It wasn’t that Riker felt anything. Not like he could feel auras when he was powered up. But there was something that didn’t settle in his chest. Like something was wrong. He’d been waiting in the park’s clearing, hands buried in his jacket pockets, trying not to think about why he was having trouble sleeping and didn’t have much of an appetite.
Then the air seemed to shift. Like a faint hum that always came before danger, like electricity prickling across his skin.
He powered up without letting the thought linger, immediately glad that he did. The next moment, everything happened at once. The noise in the trees turned into movement. Something was bounding through the dark, low and fast. Reims moved before his sword had fully formed in his hand.
The youma -- the dog-like creature that was too sickeningly familiar -- lunged straight for Rose, who was so close already that it only took a few seconds to reach her side.
His sword came down in a clean arc, the edge falling like shattered light through a cathedral window. The creature split, dissolving into dust before it hit the ground.
Reims reached out to catch Rose with one arm wrapped across the front of her front and shoulders in a protective embrace, catching her before she could run past him, keeping her upright in case she stumbled.
“You okay?” he asked, his voice sharp and concerned as he looked her over for any injuries. His heart was pounding hard enough that he could feel it in his throat. His ribs ached, but he couldn’t just do nothing.
He glanced past her, eyes narrowed into the darkness. He would have been a fool not to recognize the same type of youma from the basement.
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Posted: Sat Feb 07, 2026 10:06 am
“I’m okay,” Rose agreed.
She was breathing hard. The muscles of her legs burned with sudden overuse, but it was nothing a hot bath and a little rest wouldn’t fix later. She had outrun the first youma and Reims split it into dust. The glint of his sword was a reassurance. The strength of his aura was, too.
Still, springing to life at the edge of her senses were two more, then another.
“There’s more coming,” she said, though she knew it wasn’t necessary. Reims would sense them, too.
Her spindle wouldn’t offer much protection. Rose only fought with it when she had to—those rare moments when she was alone without a friend and had no choice, or something got too close to avoid. A wave of frustration washed over her, dousing her in doubt, making her question her worth, but she took a breath and pushed it aside.
She wouldn’t leave Reims to do all the work. Not this time.
When she’d recovered her balance, Rose jumped up into the nearest tree and snapped off one of its branches—thin enough to fit into her hands but sturdy enough to swing.
Two more youma reached them just as she landed, barring their teeth in almost identical snarls.
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Posted: Sat Feb 07, 2026 10:07 am
Reims didn’t hesitate when the second youma appeared. The next swing came easier than it should have. Muscle memory taking over. When the youma lunged, his blade caught it mid-air, sending another shower of ash into the grass. He turned, using his body to block Rose’s side, already preparing himself for the next.
And they kept coming. Not one or two, but half a dozen. Shadows and snarling jaws and claws ripping through dirt and pavement. It didn’t make sense. Not this many. Not all at once and so precise.
“What the hell…” he muttered under his breath, teeth clenched. “Why are they swarming us like this?”
He already had plenty of theories that he didn’t want to breathe life into. He braced himself again, staying close to Rose as they fought.
“You okay?” he asked, without turning back to her. “You’re doing fine,” he told her, hoping to reassure. When he did look, Rose was still holding the makeshift staff she’d torn from the tree. Not much against teeth and claws, but she was standing her ground, even as a Page with no magic to her name.
“Hey,” he said quickly, between breaths. “Cheerleaders are half the reason a team doesn’t fall apart. You think I’d be doing this well without one? Let me do my part so you can do yours. You’re not useless, and you don’t have to prove yourself,” he said, pausing just a moment to touch his free hand to her back in comfort. While he couldn’t read her mind, he could only imagine how she must be feeling. She wanted to do something -- she always did. She was good like that, always having his back, always being there for him. He valued her more than he could say, and keeping her safe was a privilege, not a burden.
The wave of youma might have been dying down, but he was not about to lower his guard.
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Posted: Sat Feb 07, 2026 10:07 am
Rose thought Reims gave her too much credit.
She fought alright now, wielding the branch against the sudden swarm of youma with determination if not precision, but her failures in the basement of the abandoned building still weighed on her. None of the others had blamed her. She knew they wouldn’t. They were kind and supportive, and had been in her shoes, once, when they’d been Pages. They understood what she lacked just as much as they understood what she strove for.
But the memories tormented her. Guilt ate at her, dampening her spirit. Her friends had fallen and she had given into fear instead of standing proud and defiant.
Rose wouldn’t let it happen again.
She swung the branch as hard as she could and struck one of the youma once, twice, three times in quick succession, easing up only when it was dust floating through the cold air.
“You need more than a cheerleader,” she argued when there was a lull in the action. A smaller youma, about the size of a pomeranian, stumbled out of the bushes and darted for their ankles, but Rose kicked it into a tree.
“Thank you for trying to make me feel better. You’re very sweet. It’s one of the things I’ve always liked about you,” she said in a purposeful tone of voice that meant she was trying to get an embarrassed reaction out of him. “But Lyon’s a Page, too, and newer than me. He fought and I didn’t. I can’t forgive myself for it. I know I’m not useless. Not really. That’s why I’m so angry at myself.”
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Posted: Sat Feb 07, 2026 10:08 am
Reims huffed out a breath when he was called sweet, his ears burning a little. He didn’t comment on it, his face a little too warm for how cold it was. He didn’t look at her right away, instead focusing on any other auras heading their way.
“You don’t have to do that,” he said quietly. “Don’t make what happened before into some kind of proof that you failed. You didn’t.”
He stepped closer, although no less guarded, resting a hand lightly on her arm. “Lyon’s Lyon. He jumps first and thinks later. That’s just how some people are. But you… you actually stop and look. You think about what happens next. We need both. Someone to jump, and someone to pull them back before they get themselves killed.”
He didn’t say that he needed someone to pull him back when things got rough, but he knew he tended to be reckless. He hoped she knew how much he appreciated her, and the others, who looked for secondary plans rather than just following through with the first motion that came to mind.
“You did fine tonight. Better than fine. You didn’t freeze, you fought, and you kept your head when things got weird,” he insisted, daring to glance at her with a small but genuine grin.
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Posted: Sat Feb 07, 2026 10:08 am
Rose returned the smile, but hers was small and edged with uncertainty.
“Youma are easy,” she said, and felt guilty for that, too, because she knew that wasn’t always the case.
Youma could be dangerous. They harmed people just as frequently as the officers and corrupted senshi did—if not more so, considering how often they roamed the city unattended. Youma were frightening in their own right. Most people who had no knowledge of the war would have a hard time believing monsters existed even if they were faced with one. Rose had been afraid when she encountered her first. If she hadn’t become what she was in the process, she could’ve easily lost her life to it.
“I mean… You expect monsters to be scary,” she explained, though she lacked her usual confidence. “That doesn’t mean they’re not dangerous, but after a while… You sort of build up a tolerance against the fear, I guess. But I’ve never—When it was a person…” Rose hesitated. She didn’t often stumble over her words. “It’s different. When you can look in someone’s eyes and know they understand what they’re doing.”
She took an unsteady breath. Violet eyes lifted to Reims’ face, staring between his own. Rose wondered how he could be so brave. Maybe the life he’d led before had better prepared him for it. She’d had such an easy childhood in comparison.
“We should tell the others,” she decided before the conversation could carry on much further. “About the youma. They’re the same…”
Already, another one of their auras flickered to life along the edge of her senses.
“They keep coming…”
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Posted: Sat Feb 07, 2026 10:08 am
“We’ll tell the others,” he agreed, his voice softening just a little. “And you’re right. It’s different when it’s a person. You’re not wrong for feeling that way. You shouldn’t have to get used to it, Rose. It’s not supposed to make sense.”
For a moment, his guard slipped. Just long enough to show how much he hated it too. But he hated more how some people didn’t deserve a second chance. Some would just take that chance and use it to cause more harm.
He moved a little closer to her, wrapping an arm around her in a quick hug and pressing a kiss to her forehead. “You’re safe with me, okay?” he murmured as he pulled back, looking her over to make sure she wasn’t injured.
Fin!
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