November 5th, Noon

There were so many people out and about. So many families. Calina watched them, her eyes hidden behind her sunglasses, and tried to ignore the happy expressions on their faces. They stared at her in her many layers and her dark hair as if she were a Martian, but she ignored those looks, wondering why she had to choose a Saturday of all days to go about her weekly grocery shopping. It meant more children were out and about, chasing each other up and down the streets, some with desserts in their hands, others with presents. She couldn't help but watch them and remember when she had been young, having the same look of excitement on her face as she leaned over the table, watching her parents and relatives pour all of their talent into their artistry.

However, she told herself quite plainly that the past was in the past. There was more than one sufficient reason why she could remember only flashes and snippets, as if they were newspaper clippings or scenes of a movie - events that happened in other people's lives. Frowning, she slid a handful of fruit into her basket and then grabbed some bottled water. She was going through the market more quickly than she usually did, but she wanted to turn away from the happy eyes of the families around her and return to her own life. The life she had to have that was nowhere near the lives of these innocents surrounding her.

With the smallest of sighs, Calina loaded her basket with a random assortment of fruits and vegetables, never sparing a glance for the sugary drinks and snacks. She needed to eat healthfully if she wanted to remain a member of the House of Ten, after all.

Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of a member of the Feet, standing next to the doors. He was monstrous, she supposed, with three eyes and a humanoid body. His skin was as blue as the sky on a hot summer day. However, that wasn't what struck her most. Her eyes fell to his weapon of choice. The most horrifying thing was that she recognized it. It wasn't the first time she'd walked into a store or a restaurant and noticed one of the weapons of her design being wielded by the Feet, but it was still surprising nonetheless. She took a single glance at it with wide eyes and knew immediately how deadly it was, how many people it could kill when fully loaded.

Abruptly, Calina turned away. Making weapons for the Regime... That, too, was a thing of the past. Something that she would do well to forget. Remembering it, wondering how many people a specific weapon had killed... Though she deserved it doing no good for her, she needed to hunt down those Regime members who had placed her in the factory. She needed to kill them, to feel her hands warm with their blood as it flowed from their jugular. She smiled slightly, envisioning the greed she would feel when one had been killed. She wouldn't be able to stop there. She would have to move on, to keep hunting for the thrill of the kill, the feel of others' blood on her skin.

People were staring at her with worry in their eyes now. She shook her head sharply and turned to the line waiting for the cashier. Now was not the time to dream about her blood lust being sated. Not when there were so many people near to see her drool.

As quickly as she could, Calina went through the line and paid for all of her groceries, grumbling when the cost came up. It certainly shouldn't cost that much for a week's worth of fruit. Sighing, she handed over her money and then walked out of the store into the bright sunlight. It was almost ironic, how bright the sun was in comparison to her mood. With another small sigh, she began to walk down the street, planning her weapons designs in her head, ones that would surely slaughter many White Regimists and protect the Alliance from the weapons she had created before. Even though the idea of making more, even more deadly weapons made her want to throw up often, the thought of killing a White Regime supporter... It was the only thing that let her sleep soundly at night.

Fate loved to keep some things a mystery. Even to Esuna, the guardian of all things unknown and mysterious and secret and unknowable, it loved to toy with what she was allowed to know and what she wasn't allowed to understand. All she knew is that there was a particular reason that she was there at that given moment – she'd been told, in that completely neutral voice-sound that was fate's will, that she was meeting someone. No indicator of if this person was important or not... No indicator of anything.

Luckily, she'd needed to go shopping anyway – she'd noticed the lack of good food in the refrigerator when she'd come back this morning and Gavin had only left her a peanut butter sandwich for breakfast. She smiled – her son was a life saver, in that respect. Those late nights that she'd come back and he was sleeping on the couch, waiting for her to return. She'd gotten over her past-life habit of somehow managing to open the door to that particular time in which she lived in mid-air... Hotaru had usually been kind enough to lay out pillows for her, when she knew she was leaving for the night, because she mainly ported back into the same spot.

Drawn of out her reverie by someone's voice in her ear, she blinked, suddenly aware that she was at her stop. The public transportation system was her only way of travel – she didn't want to have a car. Things like that were too easily bugged – she wasn't even thinking as Sailor Pluto, but as Esuna Elian, attorney at law. She knew it was silly – she'd know if her home or vehicle was bugged long before it was actually bugged, but... At the same time, she didn't even want to take that chance. They lived less than three blocks from Gavin's school, so she just walked him there every morning and took the pub-tran to her office, and he could walk home whenever she didn't get out of the office soon enough. She knew that this was far more often than it should have been – her coworkers had been shocked to learn that she had a son.

You don't spend near enough time with him. Setsuna's voice was loud in her head, at that particular moment, as she stepped off of the tran and started the walk towards the market. This was the place... She'd been told that she would recognize the person immediately, some indicator that she couldn't miss. Perhaps it was finally time for her to meet one of the senshi – it'd been a week since she'd met Khonsu, after all. Maybe things were finally reaching that delicate point in motion where it was time for her to step in.

She wondered vaguely what each of them was doing – she'd seen enough of their futures that she knew names. Ushriya, Ruro, Amalia, Raen, Amina, Maka, Ota, Haiden, Michaela... And the shitennou, they'd been brought back as well. She'd seen much less of them. She sighed as she got her cart, stripping off her tan jacket and scarf and setting them in the basket where one would usually set a child. She kept a wallet instead of a purse, and that was safely tucked away. It wasn't until she actually got inside the store that she noticed that people were giving her odd looks – a glance around told her why immediately. Two Plutonians in the same store – she fought back the urge to exclaim “Le gasp!” as she would have, back in the times of Crystal Tokyo. The other Plutonian was certainly the one she was supposed to meet... Now the question was: Why?

She was surprised at the tension on her face and the flashes that Esuna was getting of the woman's bloody future. She couldn't tell if the blood was her own or the blood of others... Perhaps this woman was a future ally or enemy. She was going to speak to the woman, but the other made her way to the line and paid and left before she could manage. Esuna threw what she knew Gavin liked/could cook into the cart, paying little attention to price. She could cover whatever. She made it out of the store in less that two minutes, to the shock and horror of the Terrestrial man who checked her out. She couldn't help but laugh at the expression on his face. She grabbed her bags, replaced her cart, and started outside. The woman was out of her sight – fate intervened. Left. She swallowed, taking off and going left. Soon enough, nearly jogging, the woman came back into sight. She slowed down, but continued to walk fast as to catch up with the other woman. She finally did, and said the first thing that came to her mouth – ”Sweet heart, the only people I've ever seen buy that much fruit at once are those that are on a diet. And I must say, you do not look like you need to be on a diet, one Plutonian woman to another.” She smiled, her voice rich and deep as she spoke.

Outfit!

The feel of the paper bags in her hands was strangely comforting to Calina as she hurried away from the store, turning her eyes away from the sights of the children and families, heading back to her apartment. She pushed the thought of slowly torturing White Regime officials out of her mind and let her thoughts rest instead on her work. Though the very idea of creating weapons made Calina sick to her stomach, it also held a strange sort of appeal to her. As if each weapon that was created by means of her pencil was her sending a death wish to all of those who had wronged her.

As much as it destroyed her inside, it also felt strangely gratifying.

Perhaps it was this that scared Calina most of all. Had she made the full and complete transformation from innocent teenaged girl into a bloodthirsty monster? Had she finally become what the White Regime had always wanted to her to be (albeit for themselves): a heartless, soulless killing machine?

For a moment, Calina was caught in the web of memories, standing there on the sidewalk on that cool November day, her hands full of groceries. She remembered how she had lost her soul there, how it had been taken from her, twisted and mangled, and thrown away.

No, she would never be like them.

”Sweet heart, the only people I've ever seen buy that much fruit at once are those that are on a diet. And I must say, you do not look like you need to be on a diet, one Plutonian woman to another.”

The words brought her back to the present, out of the pool of memories in which she threatened to drown. Calina blinked several times, realizing that someone was talking her. Another Plutonian woman.

She raised an eyebrow. Plutonians were scarce anywhere outside of Pluto. Calina had come across only a few during her time away from the dwarf planet. Obviously, the woman thought that since they held the same heritage, they would have a lot in common. Obviously, she was mistaken.

If her arms were empty, Calina might have crossed them or reached for her dagger. However, she forced herself to calm down, to realize that she was in a public setting and that this woman betrayed no apparent threat. If she drew attention to herself, the Eye would be on her like white on rice, and then she would do nothing but weaken the Alliance. Which she would not do.

"This is not diet food," Calina said simply, perhaps a bit awkwardly. She swallowed, and then turned on her heel to walk again toward her apartment, hoping the woman would get the hint. She didn't fraternize with anyone outside the Alliance, very rarely with those outside the House of Ten.

However, as much as Calina wanted to push away the thought of the woman, it stuck at her. The sight of a Plutonian, outisde of the Alliance, outside of the factory, looking happy and (dare she say it) innocent... it shook Calina to her very core. She would never admit it, but with that simple glance, she had felt jealousy so intense she could have spat poision with her words. The sight of the woman, looking so happy and full of life... It was an image of what Levitra might have been had she not been forced to use her skills for the White Regime's benefit.

If only Calina might look at a woman, see her with her arms full of fruit, and assume that she was on something as sinfully simple as a diet.

She'd known the reaction she'd get before she got it – even without her powers she would have known. After all, what sort of idiot would chase a woman out of a store to comment on her diet? Had she not been staring intently at the other, she might have rolled her eyes at herself. She'd had no time to think – that made her laugh – about what she said, so it just kind of came out as whatever the hell it had. She shrugged.

”I just needed a reason to start a conversation with you, that was all.”

And she'd said something stupid again. She didn't even know what the conversation was about, and yet she was commenting on starting it. She watched the woman start to walk away, and then everything hit her mind at once – this woman made weapons, and from what she saw in the somewhat near future, she was most certainly not on the side of the Regime.

So, an Alliance member, huh? Fate was using her to seek out allies in their fight? She would have been annoyed at being reduced to such menial work, but this was too interesting to be annoyed at. She fiddled with the sleeve of her jacket – lord, she wanted to take it off. It was far too hot out here to be wearing a leather jacket. She didn't understand how the other woman was wearing so many layers – the heat here was enough to make her sick.

She swallowed. ”I mean, that is... If you're not so busy that you wouldn't want to hear something... helpful to you in the future, then I'm more than happy to just leave. But... You [I]really ought to listen.”

She swallowed. She was supposed to tell this woman something – it was probably that the Senshi were awakening to regain their reign of peace over the galaxy. How would the Alliance take this? She knew that Ruro was involved with it, to a major extent, but she didn't know how his higher-ups would handle a bunch of dead women coming back to rule the planets. Oh, wait, yes she did.

She would have chuckled at her own mental joke, had the situation called for it. But no, she kept her face straight, watching the other woman with an 'I really don't care, do what you want.' face. She'd perfected it as Setsuna – now she could use it once more.

Outfit!!

Who was this crazed woman who had decided to follow from a grocery store?

Granted, Calina didn't have much of a right to go calling anyone crazy (after all, she was at least half a loon herself), but no one in their right mind tracked down a woman from a grocery store because of the shared heritage just to ask about a diet. Calina said as much with her eyes before directing them elsewhere. Why was she allowing this woman to take up so much of her time? She was a very highly respected member of the House of Ten, after all. (Well, probably the least respected member in the House of Ten given her tendency to stay cooped up in her room all day or her likelihood to spend more time fighting holograms than speaking with people.) Whatever the matter, Calina had work... work that, no matter how much she hated it, was still, in some strange sort of way important. And she would never shirk on it.

After a beat and the woman still said nothing, Calina was about to turn on her heel, offer a flip the only wrong finger of her hand, and walk away. However, before she could, the woman finally added something.

”I just needed a reason to start a conversation with you, that was all.”

Again, this was stranger than the last thing she had said. Calina frowned. What, was this Waste Calina's Time Day? Had it become a national holiday known to everyone but her? She sighed, pushing her hands together, watching the woman closely. Was she a spy for the White Regime? Should she report to the Alliance about this meeting with a random Plutonian stranger? Or should she pull out her dagger and take out the woman's heart right there on the street without a care for witnesses?

However, Calina told herself she was being silly. She still bore the marks of her time with the White Regime, and she felt that if the woman across from had been involved with them on Pluto, she would have the same sort of haunted look. No, this woman was about Calina's age and deliriously happy. Which made Calina want to spit in her face. It also made her writhe with jealousy to see a happy Plutonian, free of the horrors that were being committed on their planet everyday. How would this woman look, Calina wondered, if she saw fit to tell her about what they really used the Plutonian countryside for? Unstable for healthy lifestyle, sure. They only built and stored their most dangerous nuclear weapons there. And Calina had helped them do it.

Damn. She really needed to stop thinking about this. The tears were coming more easily with each day. She should ignore them, force herself back into that hardened shell she had created at the factory, one that even the most painful attack could not penetrate. Why did seeing such happy, innocent faces always make her crumble?

”I mean, that is... If you're not so busy that you wouldn't want to hear something... helpful to you in the future, then I'm more than happy to just leave. But... You really ought to listen.”

The way this woman spoke was... interesting. The easy breezy tone of before had dissipated, and now all that remained was a sincere desire to spread information. Calina raised an eyebrow. Was this the kind of information she wanted from such an unreliable source?

Then the woman's expression changed, taking on a sort of look that said she didn't care what Calina might choose to do. The woman frowned. What was this strange person up to? Would it pay off for her to find out? Calina bit her tongue. What if it was an ambush planted by the White Regime to get her off her guard? She always needed to be ready for a surprise attack.

But something deep down told her that this was something she would want to hear.

Sighing, Calina relented. "Whatever it is, you better not be screwing with me," she demanded, an icy tone filling her words. Then she began to walk. "Follow me."

Esuna liked to think that she was pretty well versed in the ways of the worlds. She'd visited every planet in the galaxy for some amount of time, and having lived on most of them for a while, she knew how things ran. And yet she couldn't place the thing that was so off about this woman. She was giving her the eye – oh well. Esuna didn't really give a damn. It was only the fact that she was supposed to talk to this woman that had made her do so – if it hadn't been for that, she'd have left and never said a word. The fact that this woman's future was full of blood was also of interest to the Guardian of Time... Not that it really mattered, but that was something that would probably come in handy in the future.

She'd been about to leave before she'd commented. She could see it in her body language – Jupiter had taught her to watch for things like that. Her legs and turned slightly – but apparently she'd offered enough of an interesting tidbit to get the woman to stick around.

This woman didn't like her... Once again, oh fucking well. She wasn't here to make friends. She was here to tell people what to do – after all, what better could she do? She knew everything – well, almost... There were details that she didn't get until fate said so. Something about this woman was screaming, Hey, Pity Me!

Esuna wasn't going to do that, though. The woman was rude, blunt, and was involved in something highly dangerous – she probably didn't want the pity. Besides, she herself pitied very, very few people...

She'd spent thousands of years entirely alone, guarding a set of doors that no one save herself and her liege lady could open. She'd watched from afar as the people she'd grown to love had been slaughtered, then been reborn with them. She'd died for them, and come back for them, only to know the whole time that their stupid, gleeful happiness was going to be snatched away in a gory battle that she herself would die in as well. She had known the whole time she'd helped raise Hotaru – she'd known at Usagi and Mamoru's wedding. Every child born was another that would die, and she wasn't allowed to say a fucking word about it. She had her own haunting secrets – the fact that she had known the whole damn time was such a sin to her own mind that she knew that they'd all hate her when they realized. Well, didn't know... But they wouldn't like her for it.

The woman ordered her to follow – she did, not wanting to lose the chance that she had. She was supposed to tell this woman something, and it, from what she could tell, might save lives. Once the White Regime figured out what was going on, they'd crack down. The Alliance would be in greater danger than ever – if they weren't expecting that, then the Senshi could lose very valuable allies for the future. Their net was wide – should they chose to back the Senshi and mainly Ushriya in the future, they should at least know what they were backing.

She really didn't give a flying shit about her own identity. Worst thing that could happen was they go after her house. She knew people that would take Gaven, and he'd be fine. She could just go to the gates. She'd spent so long there, what was a little longer?

The entire event gave Calina such misgivings. However, she had already agreed to hear the woman out, and so she would. Even if this woman appeared to be as mad as a hatter. Sighing, Calina wondered where to take her. The Terrestrial Alliance Headquarters was definitely out of the question... Maybe Calina's apartment? Granted, she so rarely stayed there that it was probably covered in dust and looked as if it had never seen the light of day. But it would have to do.

And if this woman proved to be an enemy, well, Calina was very capable of weeding her out. The dagger strapped to her leg was proof of that.

During the walk to her much-neglected apartment, Calina wondered what this strange woman might have to tell her. Even though she was filled with suspicions stretching from piracy to the White Regime, she couldn't help but feel as if this strange woman, so much more like her than the strange, short, pale-faced Earthlings, had something very important to tell her. However, she frowned. Calina didn't want to be told something important by someone who shared her origins, who was probably blissfully unaware of the White Regime's doings in the Plutonian countryside. She bit her tongue, writhing with anger or perhaps jealousy - she wasn't sure which it might be. However, whenever she looked at the other woman, she was filled to her toes with this strange, unidentifiable emotion, and it filled her mouth with bile.

However, there was also a part of Calina, a part that she very much tried to deny it existed, that was filled with a desire to ask. To interrogate. To see what had become of their planet, long ignored by her, since her departure. Maybe, just maybe, this woman might know of the once renowned Fiona family and what had become of them since they had returned to the obscurity of losing one's fame.

Fame and proceeds they might never have lost had Levitra never been stolen from her home that day.

Abruptly, Calina shook her head. She wouldn't ask. She wouldn't even dare mention the subject of their home planet aloud. Just seeing the woman filled her head with forbidden memories of Levitra's childhood. What would bringing up the subject do other than push Calina further into her pool of heartbreak and depression? Nothing.

"Y-your name?" she asked, changing her mental subject, trying to distract herself from the internal war she was waging. Nonetheless, her voice broke, and so the other woman probably knew that there was a little more going on than met the eye. No matter.

At last, they arrived in Treq. The apartment was rented under an alias. Probably Peneolopina Posham or something of that nature. Something that screamed Plutonian, but was obvious not her. Terrestrials were rather useful in that they rarely tried to look beyond but what was obvious to them.

Refusing to offer a glance in the direction of the muggings and drug deals occurring just down from her door, Calina dug through her pockets and pulled out her key before turning it in the lock. She remembered how when she had first come to Earth and taken up residence here that she didn't even notice the sound of a gunshot or the screams of a murder victim. Now, however, she was all too aware, and the only sign she gave that she heard was a slight frown. Had she not been a member of the Alliance, she might do something, but as it was, she had far too many secrets to hide to put herself under the White Regime's microscope.

It only took three attempts to turn the stubborn key before the door finally opened. Dust flew; however, Calina was unsurprised. She placed her grocery bags on the sole table in the room, offered the lone chair to her guest of sorts. "Now, what do you want?" she asked, leaning up against the dingy wall. "And keep it short."

She'd spent a good chunk of her life listening to people that thought they were in charge of her... And besides, explaining everything to this woman would take far too long. She'd rather just deal with the attitude than try. So she followed after the woman, quiet, refusing to speak unless spoken to. Finally, after a short while that might have seemed like eternity to other people, the woman asked her name.

She could have read into the voice cracking. She could have pretended that she missed it. She could have done a million things, but she simple settled for saying her name. ”Esuna Elian. Yours?”

She didn't get an immediate response. Oh, well. She really didn't care. All she knew was that this woman was potentially important enough to save lives. She followed her to the apartment, which would have raised questions, had Esuna not wanted to get out of dodge and meet someone less... short. She stepped inside after the other Plutonian, eyes scanning the room, nodding as she wiped the dust off of the one chair, where she took her place, crossing her legs. She could have a stare down, if that was what the woman wanted... But she'd prefer not to.

She nodded her head. ”First off, I know who you are and where your allegiances lie. I swear on my life and the life of my son that I am no danger to you. I've come on the order of a power beyond the comprehension of most to tell you that there are cosmic forces at work here – sooner than later, the Regime is going to find themselves with very powerful enemies. In their efforts to squash this threat before it becomes wide-spread, they're going to crack down on everything, and it'll cause you and your people to get caught in the crossfire.”

She'd always been good at telling bad news. That poker face that Setsuna had perfected long, long ago was coming in very handy – her body was entirely relaxed, her voice speaking as matter-of-factly as if she was a teacher. ”To put it to you very simply, miss... The powers of light are rising once again to take back what was stolen from them. We don't want innocent lives lost, hence me informing you of this.”

She stood up, intending to leave with that. ”Any questions?” She looked at the other dark-skinned woman, preparing to talk those few steps to free her from the dusty apartment.

For a moment, Calina allowed herself to be distracted by the dust in the room. Normally she never noticed such things, but she wanted to ignore the woman's presence in something that was her space. Not the Alliance's, but hers. Something she paid rent on every month even though she had no further use of it. However, the amount of dust and cobwebs said everything other than that someone was living there; it was probably obvious to the other woman that Calina rarely came by. She didn't mind, however. Better to leave her with more questions than answers.

”Esuna Elian. Yours?”

She actually considered answer the question for a brief moment. However, the name Calina Shossan, given to her by the Mercurians, might have been well-known by the White Regime; she wasn't sure. At any rate, she didn't want word spreading that the Plutonian member of the House of Ten was nearby. If that happened, her head would wind up in a spike sooner than she could blink.

And so she leaned against the dingy wall, watching the spiders as they wrapped their prey in their web, allowing the question to fade into nothingness. This woman wasn't going get the answers she desired from her side; Calina had far too much to keep hidden.

”First off, I know who you are and where your allegiances lie. I swear on my life and the life of my son that I am no danger to you. I've come on the order of a power beyond the comprehension of most to tell you that there are cosmic forces at work here – sooner than later, the Regime is going to find themselves with very powerful enemies. In their efforts to squash this threat before it becomes wide-spread, they're going to crack down on everything, and it'll cause you and your people to get caught in the crossfire.”

Calina raised an eyebrow. Her life and the life of her son, eh? She had heard White Regimists swear on many things, even their nonexistent children, but never on their own lives. Perhaps this woman didn't care, though. Calina was sure if given the chance to kill one of those who had wronged her, she would have sworn on anything that allowed her to put the blade at his neck. But would this woman gain by simply telling her that she swore on her life that she was of no danger? If she had wished to Calina, she probably would have tried it the moment she'd closed the door. After all, the White Regime either killed Alliance members on site or captured them immediately in order to torture and interrogate.

This kind of thing... it just wasn't their style.

And if Calina recalled corrected, she had never once met a Plutonian willingly working for the White Regime. If she had, that person would've been dead.

”Any questions?”

She frowned. "I will believe you for the time being," Calina replied grudgingly. She hated trusting people; it made her infinitely weaker. "However, you fail to realize one important aspect: we are able to take care of ourselves. We have since the fall of the Silver Queen. Bringing down the White Regime is perhaps our only goal."

Then she frowned again. Cosmic forces? What was it Lynora had said? That the former Queen had once been a guardian, protecting the solar system with her fellow guardians, with their cosmic powers? Surely it wasn't the same thing.

She turned back towards her fellow Plutonian at the grudging words that made her bite her tongue. She absolutely hated it when fate played with her life like this. To give her some menial task like this, then show her futures that made no sense with the events that were currently going on. Well, at least she knew better than to reach out and touch Calina – she knew already that the attempts would land her flat on her back a few times. She disguised the smirk that almost worked up by yawning. Entirely fake, of course, but she was an expert at these things.

She looked at the woman – staring, probably considered an insult on Pluto, she didn't remember. She sighed. ”Yes, Ms. Shossan,” she made it as clear as she could, ”You can take care of yourself. We know this. You've all done exceptionally well. Tell me, though... How well do you know the stories of the Silver Queen, Neo-Queen Serenity?” The information that she could learn, should she look in the right places and ask the right people, would be invaluable. Their leader had already figured a large portion of it out, she knew.

”Do you know of how the soldiers mindlessly slaughtered the people, the government? Do you know of how they killed the guardians of the Queen, who had never raised a hand against them in anything but self defense? Do you know of the agony that they felt?”

She wanted to say those things, but that would be giving too much away. She'd always had more information than anyone else – and she knew how to use it to her advantage. She looked at the woman with a quirk of her eyebrow, waiting for a response. She wasn't sure if she'd get one before she left, but standing there in the middle of a horribly dirty apartment that the woman had obviously not lived in in a very long time, if ever, with statements like this spewing between them like water...

”I'll be leaving now, unless you have something else to say.” She took two of the possibly five steps that she'd need to get to the door, slowly.

”Yes, Ms. Shossan."

For a moment, it simply didn't register. Calina stared at the other woman blankly, as if at a loss for words. And, then, slowly, it started to sink in. The woman stared at the other one, just as rudely as the other was, before her senses returned to her. She cursed mentally - this was someone who knew more about her than she would like, and here she was, staring dumbly at the woman. If this were any other situation, her stupidity would cause her death.

In a flash, Calina produced a pair of daggers in her hands, pushing the other woman up against the wall, bringing the blade to rest against the other woman's jugular. "Who sent you?" Calina asked, pressing the blade harder with every word. She hid the fear well with annoyance and anger even though it was pressing on the folders of her sanity. What if they had sent this woman to kill her? What if there were more?

What if she failed in gaining her revenge because she was dead?

She was breathing heavily. Could it be more obvious that she was on edge? Calina tried to control her nerves, to bury them within her, to keep them from being too obvious. Showing her weaknesses on her face to this woman would be writing her own death warrant; she needed to keep her emotions to herself.

If she was being honest with herself, she had never killed another living soul before. Fights to first blood were her forte; death was not. As she stood there with the blade pressed to the other woman's throat, Calina wondered if she would have the strength necessary to kill her. What about taking her back for questioning? That was nearly an immediate no; the interrogations the Alliance put their foes under was nearly as bad (if not worse) than the factory where Calina had spent the majority of her teenage years. She would send no one there, not even her greatest enemy.

But the question remained. This woman knew too much. What should she do with her?

She could practically hear the ticking of the instants that passed. And then the blade was at her throat, pressing closer. She wouldn't die here – of course not. There were few ways that a lone human could kill a Senshi. And when that senshi happened to be Pluto... Well. You can imagine. She could easily just vanish from sight now, porting herself to the gates. She stopped, though, letting out a shallow sigh and feeling the steel of the blade cut into her neck just enough to sting.

”I understand your feelings right now. For all you know, I'm a Regimist with a hundred men outside to kill you. But...” She stopped, moving her eyes to meet the other woman's. ”I'm not. I'm every bit as Anti-Regime as you are. I repeat, I am no danger to you.”

She averted her eyes again, biting the inside of her lip. Not in anything resembling nervousness – it was humor that was trying to escape in the form of a smirk. There were few people that she'd allow to but a blade to her throat – she'd shattered a Jovian's shoulder for less before. But Calina Shossan was there, inside her personal bubble, a twist of her wrist all it would take to end her life.

”I can't tell you who I am yet. I can tell you, however, that I'm on your side. And as for who sent me...” She finally allowed a fraction of that smirk to show through. ”Fate. Fate sent me.” And then she stopped and waited – she was a very patient person. She always had been – at times it had driven her mad, but thousands of years had passed with her entirely alone. She was good with a poker face. The smirk remained still on her face, waiting for another comment or an indication that she should abandon this situation for the gates – she might know certain aspects of a journey, but how to get to those points was sometimes guesswork for her.

Calina stood there with of one of her blades pressed to the woman's throat. If this were a mock battle, just one slice on the arm, a few drips of blood, and she'd be declared the winner. Now, however, she was standing very close to another living, breathing person. She wasn't sure the last time she'd ever been this close to someone. When fighting, she usually made the far away jabs - they always left her vulnerable for a return strike, but but she was always good with her aim so a return strike often didn't matter. The last time she was so near a person like this for so long...

The movement was instantaneous and without a thought on Calina's part. She jerked backward, thrusting her arm into the counter top of the tiny, dusty kitchen, knocking over a bag of groceries.

For a moment, she was lost in the memory. The memory of something she tried so hard to forget, even though it was locked in the cusp of her most feared nightmares...

She rubbed her arms, trying to remove the echo. Then she blinked several times, just realizing how strange she must look to the other woman. She wanted to growl at her to go, to leave her in peace and never to return, but her voice wouldn't work. She knew how her eyes must look. Exactly as they had on that day, like a caged animal scrambling for even the smallest hole to scramble through, yet somehow knowing it was trapped.

Even though she had probably proven her weakness to the woman in front of her - something she knew that she must hide at all costs - Calina acted as if the entire action was a delusion. As if it hadn't happened.

"You say fate sent you?" Calina asked the woman, a slight smile curling on her face in a twisted sort of way. Fate. She wanted to laugh. "Fate doesn't exist. People do."

She wanted to sigh, to go back to the Gates and stay there for a while. She'd been guilty of that while she was Setsuna – leaving someone else with her children and popping away for a few days. Here, though, her responsibilities were greater – and there was far more hinging on her inclusion. Calina moved away like she'd been shot, the movement causing an almost physical pain in Esuna's chest. It pained her to know that people had to live the way that the other woman had lived her life, but it had to happen in order for things to work. For every good, there was an evil. For every happy moment, there was a sadness. For Cosmos, there was Chaos.

It was just that simple.

She still didn't move after Calina had regained herself – the twisted smile curling onto her face somehow matching the twisted sadness in Esuna's eyes as she shook her head slowly. ”Oh, yes. Fate exists. And it's crueler than any other figment of reality. Fate is that thing that decides if a baby lives or dies through it's labor. Fate's the thing that drags all of humanity and everything else in this universe around like pets.” Myself more than anyone else. She thought sarcastically. It was true – fate used her. Used her and then forced her to stand back and let the world crash around her beloveds' heads.

She swallowed. ”Here's my palaver number. Just in case.” She stepped back as set the paper that she pulled from her pocket down on the dusty table, turning so that her back was facing Calina. ”It was a pleasure to meet you. See you next time.” She said, hand on the door knob with the slight hesitation as she waited to hear, just in case, if Calina had anything else to say.

”Oh, yes. Fate exists. And it's crueler than any other figment of reality. Fate is that thing that decides if a baby lives or dies through it's labor. Fate's the thing that drags all of humanity and everything else in this universe around like pets.”

Calina couldn't believe it. She didn't want to believe it. Like a child, she put her hands up to her ears, all but tuning the woman out. If fate really did exist... if what had happened was meant to happen, not only to her, but all of it... She shook her head spasmodically. No, it couldn't be. Not possible. That there was some predetermined timeline of the universe... She frowned, slowing removing her hands from her ears. People had their freewill; they weren't slaves to some unknown force. Those bastards who had locked her up acted of their own volition. There was nothing... destined about it.

She gritted her teeth, shooting a glare at the other woman, failing to note her discomfort. "Fate doesn't exist. If it did..." She trailed off, swallowing her words along with the tears that suddenly threatened to flow. She was losing her mind. "It just doesn't."

”It was a pleasure to meet you. See you next time.”

Next time?!

Calina groaned. "No. There won't be a next time. Just go," she demanded of the woman.

Nonetheless, something she could not quite describe compelled her to pocket the palaver number. Yes, this was it. Calina had definitely lost whatever hold she'd had on her sanity. But she couldn't keep herself from patting her pocket, ensuring that the paper was tucked inside in any case.

She was covering her ears – Esuna understood why. To realize with full certainty that your whole life had been at the whim of something beyond your comprehension, that all the pain and anguish you'd ever felt was the product of something else's need for entertainment... It was sickening. She knew that the other woman would understand one day. It would be a long process, sure, but one day...

The was quiet as the woman spoke, remaining silent until she'd finished. She took that last motion to open the door before turning back to look.

The sight of her there, surrounded in the dust of what might have been a normal life, was incredible. Fate had literally taken nearly everything from this woman, and yet she still lived. Esuna wasn't sure of the reasoning – maybe she was too much of a coward to die. She'd heard the stories, even knew of some of the future Alliance members who had lost their bravery and opted out.

But all the same, what had happened, had happened. What was happening, was happening. And what would happen, would happen. She couldn't ever argue with it, no matter how much she wanted to. Last time she had tried, it had cost her her life... And drastically changed the future as it was known. To her knowledge, that was the only factor that could have affected anything – and affect it, (she believed this with all her heart) it had.

She stopped to listen to the woman's final demand – and couldn't help the smirk that crossed her face. She was fortunatley not facing the other – there was no telling what might have happened if that expression had been seen. She turned back for half a second, looking again. ”As you wish.” And then she was gone, making sure to close the door just a little too hard - enough to upset some of that dust that was coating the walls - and glancing around for half an instant before vanishing into thin air with a wave of her hand, going to relax and blow off frustrations at the Gates before she had to deal with her son.