Safaris with Serpents, Kaeda!!!!

Saturday, May 5th, 3 PM

Ouuuuuutfit!

It was with surprise that Riya discovered she had never once been to the zoo. Really odd, actually, given the way she loved animals. Nonetheless, the instant she realized this, she knew at once that she had to adventure to the zoo, to get to see all the wonderful animals there, odd ones from across the entire, big, wide galaxy. So she marched out on the first Saturday in May, determined to see all the strange sights that the zoo had to offer.

The first place she went was to see the seafaring beasts from Michaela's planet. She had ti admit, she'd never quite paid attention to the lectures about Neptune in school, so each new animal was both thrilling and terrifying to the teenager. She wondered for a while if she should have come alone. Maybe it would have been better to drag Raen or Ruro along with her? She wasn't sure.

The Neptune exhibit also an aquarium in addition to the outside areas where one could pet some of the less ferocious beasts. Riya immediately entered, though the area was a lot darker than she expected. Maybe it would have been better to bring Ota instead?

While she walked up to the first exhibit, Riya let her thoughts wander. They were fast approaching the trip to Venus, something that Khonsu seemed really excited about. After Mercury, though, Riya was less than enthused. She really didn't want to get stuck in a tight, tiny, claustrophobia-inducing hotel room where she banged up every inch of visible skin again. It wasn't really that entertaining the first time. But then she supposed that with them staying at Amina's and Zoi's homes, it would be quite a bit more spacious. And, there was the added bonus of Ruro coming along. It would be nice to travel away from the planet with him. She did have to admit that when they were too far away from each other to hear each other's thoughts, she did have a bit of a freakout.

Riya's thoughts were scattered, however, when she came upon the first exhibit. She was looking an eye. The wall was entirely covered with glass, and yet she was looking at a single, gigantic eye. She shivered almost uncontrollably, wondering what this animal was. The telescreen she'd gotten at the welcome center explained that it was a giant squid, once a myth on Earth, but proven a reality on the oceans of Neptune. The most distinguishing characteristic of the animal other than its size was that of its single, gargantuan-sized eye (go figure). Riya hurriedly shuffled along to the next exhibit, glad to leave that one behind.

The last few months had been difficult, to say the least.

The revelation of reborn senshi, living in their own time, here and now, turned everything upside down. With this knowledge, the Alliance hardly knew what it was working for anymore. People within the large, interplanetary team were divided over what to do with this information. Most agreed that, at the very least, it would be good to align with them in some way, as they shared a common goal, and the senshi had a magical force behind them.

But then there was the issue of what to do in a post-White Regime world. The Alliance had always worked to establish some kind of democracy, in the absence of the oligarchy that had controlled them for so long. But the senshi had a different mission, and that was to reinstall the Prince of Earth and the Princess of the Moon to their former throne-glory.

Was that even desirable? There was no debate that Crystal Tokyo had been a wonderful place, in its day, and never before that time, or since, had there been a greater peace among the planets that made up their galaxy.

But... a monarchy? Many were skeptical. Kaeda was. She hadn't made up her mind about the matter yet, to be honest. She had met Ruro, the supposed future king, only a few occasions. On the one hand, it was difficult, to imagine this mild-mannered man as the king of... well, everything. On the other hand, he seemed to have everything going for him, was truly the poster boy of unaffected perfection.

There were several who were interested in meeting this Ushriya Deva who, because of her unknown origins and her lack of affiliation with the Alliance, remained an enigma. They had been gathering stats on her. She was just eighteen years old, something that made Kaeda cringe a bit inside.

And fortunately, one of her secretaries had seen the girl wander into the zoo that day, giving Kaeda just the tip off she needed to get in a little closer, and explore this possibility.

The half-Jovian arrived at the zoo inconspicuously, clad in a simple tank top and jeans. None of the gatekeepers had noticed that her pupils were a bit dilated, from the TTP she'd swallowed not two hours ago. But then, no one ever noticed. No one but Beck.

And that wasn't a thought she wanted to deal with at the moment.

It took over half an hour of wandering, eyeing her surrounding humans carefully, until she found a girl that matched the description of the one she was looking for. Petite, blonde hair, pale features... innocent. Nothing about her appearance screamed 'Moon Warrior Queen'.

Kaeda carefully slid over to her, looking first at the giant squid before them. "Strange, the creatures they find in the oceans of Neptune, hm?"

The eye was really bothering her. Riya felt as if it was following her as she moved down the wall of glass. It was certainly a scary feeling. She kind of wished she had saved the aquarium venture for another trip... hopefully one with someone else who could tell her that she was being silly. Right now, however, she was left with only her own thoughts on the subject, and well, they weren't the most relaxing. She just knew she would have nightmares about a giant squid tonight.

Maybe it would be better to turn back while she was ahead? If this was what they offered first, Riya shuddered to imagine what might be lurking further ahead.

"Strange, the creatures they find in the oceans of Neptune, hm?"

The aquarium was kind of crowded, given that it was a Saturday, so for the first few moments, Riya didn't think the voice was directed at her. However, when no one else answered, she looked up and saw that another girl was watching her. She suddenly felt a bit more uncomfortable - first the squid and now the girl. She was going to be paranoid by the time the day was out.

Nevertheless, Riya smiled at the girl. "Strange? Scary is the better word," she said, giggling. "We don't really have that many scary sea creatures here, I think." She shrugged, then turned her body in the girl's direction, trying to look anywhere but at the eye of the giant squid. It was easier, putting on a brave front, when she wasn't look at it fully.

"I'm Riya Deva," she said happily, introducing herself. She nodded to the giant squid. "And I hope he doesn't get hungry any time soon. He looks like he could crash through the glass." She shivered at the very thought.

Well, she was a twitchy little thing, wasn't she? The immediate impression she gave was of a terrified schoolgirl. There was nothing regal about her, nothing dignified or brave. She was just... terribly ordinary.

Nevertheless, Kaeda kept the look of slight disdain and disappointment clean from her features. She was sort of an expert at this sort of thing, at playing the poker face she needed to interact with others, and to get information. From the looks of it, this would be a particularly easy opponent to tackle - and indeed, they were opponents, at least in mind and word, because that was always how it was; Kaeda's objective was to get as much information as possible, and the other's was usually not to give too much away.

So her expression remained neutral, friendly. For this purpose, she had selected a calming drug, one that would prevent the less-than-pleasant thoughts floating through her mind from showing. She supposed none of her superiors guessed that she was occasionally strategic about her drug selection.

Kaeda offered a hand to the girl. "Kaeda Korz. Nice to meet you." Despite the girl's fear, she was strangely upbeat as though the moment before was all but forgotten. There was also no hint of awkwardness in her approach, so she was not shy.

Briefly, her gaze shifted back to the glass, where the giant creature was imprisoned. She wondered if it had the ability to feel trapped, as she so often did. If it knew it was just as much a prisoner of the White Regime, here in this zoo, as they all were.

But that was impossible, right?

"I'm sure it's reinforced with Mercurian technology," she responded, offering a small grin.

"Kaeda Korz. Nice to meet you."

As she shook the hand she was offered, Riya smiled widely. It was always nice to see a pleasant new face, especially when she was terrified of ginormous, roving eyes. It kind of lessened the fear swarming within her stomach. "It's nice to meet you, too!" she exclaimed. "Are you here to look at strange Neptunian fish as well?"

Granted, fish wasn't exactly the word to describe the dozens of sea monsters she was bound to come across during her walk through the aquarium, but it was the best word she could come up with. Besides, the girl had addressed her, so she obviously wanted to strike up a conversation of some sort, something in which Riya was only too happy to help.

"I'm sure it's reinforced with Mercurian technology."

The girl, Kaeda, was smiling at her, and Riya's own smile only grew in return. "That would make sense," she returned, picturing a dozen or so Mercurians bent over a large pane of glass, working their science into it so that even a beast as great as the giant squid couldn't break through. It was a rather comical picture she'd formed though, and soon she was giggling, which probably made her strange in her new friend's eyes. Oh, well.

"Do they get much scarier, further on down? I'm not sure if I want to go on by myself if they get scary," Riya added, giggling slightly at her own silly fear. Then an idea struck her. "Do you want to walk with me?"

No, she was not there to look at Neptunian fish. The idea didn't interest her at all. But how did you go about saying that you were actually just there to stalk the potential future queen of the galaxy? Judging by how skittish this girl was, that wouldn't go over well. "Yeah, it makes a nice break from work," she said instead.

It was really difficult, resisting the urge to roll her eyes at the younger girl, who declared that she was too afraid to go look at fish by herself. Fish who were reinforced behind Mercurian-made glass, most of whom would die the instant they left water, should the glass fall through.

And this girl was supposed to grow into the woman that would lead them all? The single most important person in their galaxy? She almost snorted at the thought, but managed to contain herself. It wouldn't do, to let her know outright what her thoughts were on the subject.

For the moment, though, she was determined that this girl was unfit to rule. She was silly and ridiculous, which was fine. Not really qualities that Kaeda preferred in companions, but to each their own. What was not fine was that this girl was set to be a potential mover and shaker. Kaeda was convinced she wouldn't have any idea what to do.

"Sure, I'd love to," she responded, her smile warm as they set off down the path. "So, are you a student around here?" It was a safe guess, as she was about that age, and that was the thing ordinary girls here did.

Kaeda was so nice. Riya loved her instantly. She was sure that after this walk through the aquarium, they would be great friends, provided that she didn't pass out from fear. She might really hate it if they came across something was only present in horror films... Yeah, she was so not going to have a peaceful sleep tonight.

"So, are you a student around here?"

Riya nodded. "Yeah. I'm a freshman at TelU," she explained. "I think I might major in Terrestrial... but... I'm feeling pressure to switch it to something like leadership or political science." Was that the nice way of putting that a past life was demanding this with absolute sincerity? She wasn't sure. But it wasn't like political science interested her much more than Terrestrial did, so it didn't really matter. And then there was the little detail that she was supposed to inherit the galaxy from said past life. That might have a lot to do with matters.

Politics were heavily involved in ruling a galaxy, unfortunately enough.

"So where do you work at?" Riya asked, interested. "I bet it's somewhere super exciting!" She tried to imagine this girl as something tame like a doctor like Ruro or a lawyer like Esuna (though she had to admit, Ruro and Esuna weren't quite that tame...), but the thought failed her. It was much easier to imagine her as something that earned a lot of respect and was something seriously fun. But she she wasn't sure what.

Political science. Pressured. Oh, yeah. Probably her advisers, and maybe her friends, were pressuring her to learn something, to be something more than... well, average. After all, if she was going to somehow rule nine planets and a moon, she'd have to learn a bit more about her surroundings.

And Kaeda was willing to bet that she was fairly ignorant. The thought didn't cross her mind in a particularly derogatory way. It was just a simple statement of fact, one that floated through the forefront of her thoughts, that this girl clearly knew nothing of the world around her.

But maybe she was jumping too quickly too conclusions. Sure, she could say for certain by now that this girl was innocent and naive. But maybe, underneath it all, she was somehow smart, capable of retaining facts and knowledge beyond what looked to be average abilities.

And she certainly hoped that that was the case, or that she was somehow carrying some other trait that made her exceptional. Because as of this moment, she was pretty sure that this girl was even less qualified to rule than she was... and Kaeda was an addict, for goodness' sake.

Perhaps now was the moment to be frank with her. Kaeda didn't have to hide her Alliance affiliations. The tentative cooperation had been settled between the two groups, between vigilante organization and senshi. So in that sense, there was no secret to be had, in terms of affiliation.

Kaeda led her to a secluded spot in the aquarium, where they were far out of earshot from anyone else. Hazel eyes remained alert, vigilant, though the area around her was almost misty, sort of floaty. But she could easily focus through the haze of the drug, as she had so many times before.

"I'm a member of the Alliance," she stated quite simply, finally answering the girl's question. And now she waited, waited for a reaction that she was sure would be entertaining to watch.

Riya had the slightest misgiving as Kaeda led her into a secluded area of the aquarium, far from the earshot of anyone. Maybe she'd been just a bit too trusting of this girl? She wasn't sure, but now she was going to find out... Hopefully, if she survived this, Ruro wouldn't find out. The only thing worse than being murdered was perhaps another fatherly lecture from her boyfriend.

"I'm a member of the Alliance."

Her eyes widened. The Alliance? Of course, she had always known about the super secretive group; the White Regime published propaganda about them on an almost daily basis. Nonetheless, nothing could quite prepare her for the idea of meeting someone from the Alliance, right here, right now, and in this manner. She had to take a step back from Kaeda, not as if the woman repelled her, but because she needed to gather her bearings. She didn't really like surprises of this nature.

In retrospect, she probably should have been expecting it. After all, after Raen's little, uh, mishap with the pills, the two groups had become very well known to one another, and naturally, the Alliance would want to know the person who the Senshi wanted to place on the throne.

And so they found her.

What a disappointment that must have been.

Riya awkwardly shuffled her feet, wondering what the right thing to say would be. Hi? That's awesome? Um, I was beginning to think you were strange, so yay? I thought you were going to kill me, so this is better?

Somehow, those ideas didn't quite fit into the situation.

"Ummmm... Pleasure to meet you?" Riya said. To be honest, this was the first Alliance member outside of the Senshi and Shitennou that she'd met, so this was pretty... new to her. She wondered what the girl wanted to hear, what she should say. "I don't mean the Alliance any harm. I'm just... I don't know what say," she admitted, floundering.

The expression on her face was no less than what she had expected - that wide-eyed, girlish look of shock. The two of them standing together were paralleled opposites. There was Kaeda - strong, athletic, stubborn and proud, addict. Perhaps too world-weary for her own good. And then there was Ushriya - young, soft, incapable, innocent and naive. Woefully ignorant of her surroundings and the outside world.

At least they agreed upon one thing - the meeting was, indeed, a disappointment. Kaeda didn't know if she could find in her a single trait worthy of such an important leadership role, except perhaps compassion. And while she believed that to be important, and clearly something the Regime was lacking, there was so much more to being a leader than playing nice.

Kaeda allowed the awkwardness to settle between them, apparently not too bothered by Ushriya's level of discomfort. She got this distinct vibe that the girl had been protected all her life, and was still being further over-protected by her Alliance boyfriend and future partner-on-the-throne-maybe, Ruro Shoban.

At least he seemed capable. Kaeda didn't know if she liked the idea of a monarchy at all, but she wouldn't mind seeing Shoban as the leader of the galaxy, of a new free world. He was, like Ushriya, extremely compassionate, but also intelligent, cunning, and so many other things that made him almost an ideal candidate.

Unfortunately, faced with the prospect of the two of them ruling, her respect for Shoban increased significantly, but perhaps only by comparison.

"I have wanted to meet you for some time, as have many of my... colleagues. Ruro Shoban is obviously well-known to us, but you. You are an enigma," she concluded.

The silence from Kaeda did nothing to comfort Riya. She was sure that the Alliance member was sizing her up and down, deciding what she did and didn't like, tsking her tongue at the fact that Riya was no ruler. And while it really kind of hurt, she had to admit that Kaeda would be right. She wasn't a ruler. She wasn't prepared for this, not at all. Haiden's words from a few days before, that she just needed more training and time, rang through her head, but she just couldn't help her face burning with embarrassment.

"I have wanted to meet you for some time, as have many of my... colleagues. Ruro Shoban is obviously well-known to us, but you. You are an enigma."

An enigma? No one had really ever called her that before. She was pretty much an open book. What you saw was what you got. But Riya was sure that Kaeda was trying to look beneath the surface, and she was afraid that the woman would not like anything she found there. She wanted to at least pretend the part, say she was ready and that she'd been preparing, but she knew she'd just be fooling herself. She was nowhere near prepared, and this girl's gaze at her only reflected that. The Alliance wasn't bound to like her at all. She was way too young and immature.

She wondered how they felt about Ruro. Probably that he was the greatest thing since sliced bread, but that might have been her love and not her head talking. He was really powerful, though, and a lot more well-rounded than she was. He was a doctor, so obviously he had a head on his shoulders. They were bound to like him.

The piercing gaze was starting to get more uncomfortable, but she knew she had to stand her ground. This girl obviously didn't mean her any harm. If that were the case, she would have done something already. She had a feeling, though, that this was kind of important, her first glimpse into the Alliance, and their first glimpse of her.

She only wished they had a better view.

"Ummm..." She took a deep breath, trying to stop being so nervous. "What do you want to know? I don't want to hide anything from you. We are working toward the same goals, aren't we?" She laughed awkwardly. Well, this could be going a bit better...

And Riya's instincts weren't entirely inaccurate. She was sizing up this woman - no, this girl - determining whether or not she was a good fit. And so far, she really didn't like what she saw.

Kaeda was not a cruel person - at least, not unnecessarily. Apart from known enemies, she didn't like to hurt people, and it wasn't as if she even particularly enjoyed maiming the ones who truly deserved it. She was by no means a sadist, and though a hard life of addiction and brutal scenes had changed her, made her harder, she was still not an unfeeling person.

But she also wasn't going to sugarcoat the situation. In many ways, she felt sorry for this girl here, before her. But she wasn't going to lie to her and tell her she was perfect for the task, not when she suspected that too many others had been doing just that this whole time. She wasn't going to be one more person who said anything, at any cost, to spare her feelings.

As it was, whether she could grow to be a leader or not, the fact remained that she was entirely too sheltered, and she had all of her friends and senshi and her boyfriend to blame for that one. Sure, it hurt, to break the innocent. But sometimes, it was sadly necessary.

Now that they had met one another, she wasn't an enigma at all. No, sadly, she was startlingly easy to figure out. Though she had said little, she gave away so much. Her body language, her facial expressions. Kaeda could size her up in a moment, and tear her down just as fast, if she wanted.

Perhaps that was the quality in which she was most lacking - she didn't have a thick skin. Kaeda was convinced that a slight shove might send her into tears. Name-calling certainly would. A leader needed to be much, much stronger than that.

"That remains to be seen," she said simply. "Before we knew you all had been reborn, our objective was to establish a democracy across the galaxy," she responded, her voice level, though her gaze was piercing. "You can see how this presents a problem. We both want the Regime to fall," she added, lowering her voice further still, "But a monarchy? Dubious."

It was like a game of chess. Kaeda was moving her pieces around the board, finding the places where she was weakest, and Riya was just trying to survive. She wasn't sure if she should stand up to this girl or if she should just let the probing continue. Good relations with the Alliance were important, weren't they? But what if they didn't like her? Wouldn't that kind of defeat the purpose of good relations? Riya wanted to show them she was strong, but she just wasn't sure how. It wasn't like there was a youma to battle or anything.

"But a monarchy? Dubious."

The idea of a democracy sounded promising. Actually, it was like a dream come true for Riya - she could give up the throne and let people who knew government better than she did take control. It was actually really tempting to tell Kaeda that she was right, that a democracy was a far better idea than a monarchy, but something held her back. The Senshi were all counting on her. Ruro was counting on her. Raen was counting on her. She couldn't take the easy way out the first moment it presented itself. No matter how tempting it was.

"I... I can understand that," Riya said slowly. "You have set up plans and intend to stick by them. That's really brave, admirable, even, what you're doing. I wish I were as brave." She wondered if she were saying the right things, but she had to say something. She couldn't just fall into silence and let Kaeda make her own assumptions... even if they were going to be the same ones later.

"I know I'm not the same I was before. I've changed a lot since the last lifetime. But so has the galaxy. I will promise to do my best in the time now. I think... I think we should focus all our goals on taking down the White Regime now, and leave the talk of government for later. There are too many things the White Regime has gotten wrong so far... Like-like Venus, for instance. And Mercury. But first we need to get rid of the larger of the two problems and set aside our differences for now... You may not want me as your ruler, and that's really good. I mean, I don't mind... We're all allowed our own opinions, and I don't want to jump in and take control of things if everyone thinks it would be bad... But I do think we should work together to overthrow the White Regime at least... if that's okay..." Admittedly, the little speech she'd given was ridiculously pitiful, but she felt she'd gotten her point across, at least. Kaeda could take from that what she would.

The first sign she'd had of being able to redeem herself was when she began to choose her words vary carefully, albeit quite obviously. Well, perhaps she was at least a little bit intelligent after all.

Kaeda didn't liked this unasked for praise, though. And she liked even less that this girl was apparently spineless. I wish I were as brave. Better to just be courageous, than to wish it. Life was hard, but that didn't mean you let your fear own you. That seemed to be one of the key differences between them.

In some ways, Kaeda, too, wished that Ushriya Deva could be brave. That she could be the second-coming of Tsukino Usagi, the woman who turned the galaxy into a crystal paradise. Because then, maybe the choice would have been easier. And maybe they'd have a better shot at actually dismantling the oppressive Regime.

But that seemed impossible now, the idea of this little Terrestrial standing up tall to accept her supposed duty. She was decidedly not Tsukino Usagi. Worst of all, she was kind of coward. Kaeda hated cowards.

And then, there was a spark of something more. Kaeda regarded her skeptically for a moment, though, really, she was impressed. "Perhaps there is more to you than there seems," she concluded after a moment. "You're right. For now, we focus on the immediate problem at hand. In this, I - and my colleagues, I assure you - are your allies."

She was blushing from her micro speech. She really didn't want to have to convince the Alliance she was trustworthy, at least. But then, how could they know to trust a teenage girl who was stumbling around under the weight of her responsibility? To expect something more would be unfair. She needed their trust as much as they needed to earn hers, but their end was already earned, she admitted.

"You're right. For now, we focus on the immediate problem at hand. In this, I - and my colleagues, I assure you - are your allies."

That was... a definite relief. Riya sighed with a smile on her face. She was surprised at the way Kaeda had said there was more to her than what met the eye - what did she mean by that? But it didn't matter, they were going to work together, and suddenly their task didn't seem so oppressive anymore. It seemed actually... possible.

Maybe it was the giddiness over being told she had allies, but Riya was really excited. Before when it had just been the Senshi and Shitennou, the prospects looked bleak. But now, now that they were working alongside the underground, well, it gave them more power at least. The Alliance had been at this forever, and so they knew everything there was to know about the White Regime. They would definitely prove to be good allies.

Which is why, in her excitement, Riya gave Kaeda a bone-crushing hug. "Thank you! Soooooo much!" she exclaimed happily. After she pulled away - probably to Kaeda's great relief - she went on to say, "This is really wonderful! It doesn't make the world seem so big. I hope that our working together doesn't end with the White Regime, though. If it does, it'll be a sad moment when allies are no more. But it's great that we can work together!"