So much for sleep… who needed it anyways? Sophia darts up the walkway to the mansion and knocks loudly on the door. Frantic, she paces the front step. She probably should have called, but hopefully, Val was home. She could hope for some kind of reasonable explanation or a mistake of some sort, but logically, she couldn’t think of one. The vision of the future remained carved into her mind, played on an infinite loop. There wasn’t room for failure evidently. However, she couldn’t imagine coming to blows with Valdis. It wouldn’t come to that, would it? She knocks on the door again, but this time more quickly and forcefully.

"Don't trust him huh?" Calls a familiar voice as Sophia sees Lance walk out from some shadows...well to say it was Lance was a bit deceptive. Instead of Lance's black outfit he wore a forest green coat that looked much like the one Lance had worn when they first met. And instead of black long sleeved shirt he wore a white collared shirt along with tan slacks and comfortable but sturdy leather shoes. He had a black pole with a wrapped up head slung over his back and had a calm casual smile that seemed entirely out of the realm of any of Lance's usual expressions.

"Well can't say I blame you. Even Lance doesn't think she's actually turned. I've got my doubts too, but wanted to come talk to her just in case." He says, chatting as if Sophia and he were old companions. He bends down to inspect her a bit. "So you're the one he values huh? I am amazed that a scion of discord would be drawn to a beacon of love, but then again I suppose Lance has always wanted to be saved." he monolouges more to himself then her then he touches the pole to the house and Valdis would head a voice in her room.

"Hey'yo it's Soma and Sophia here for a slumber party~"

"Oh I'm Soma by the way. Nice to meet you Sophia." he says extending his other hand.

There was a purple shimmer that appeared in the middle of her room, soon after a hunched over figure appeared on the floor. Training just got more difficult each time, she was about to pass our right there on the floor when a familiar voice ran out in her room. An audible groan escaped her lips…she just wanted to sleep. She stumbled up onto her feet and headed to the front door.

When the door was open a very disheveled Valdis would stand there, the smell of burnt flesh heavy around her. Parts of her hair fell out of a braid and fell into her face; her clothes which consisted of a black t-shirt and black sweat pants where in tatters in places, and burned in others. Steam rose off of fresh pink skin indicated there had once been a fairly large wound in various parts of her body. Her feet where bare and covered in ash. She leaned against the door way with her arms crossed across her chest, and one eyebrow raised.

”Such a shame I didn’t know about this earlier….I would have bought party favors”

Her voice was thick with sarcasm, and obviously less in the mood for guests. However they were here….for some god knows what reason. However if Sophia was bugging her this late then something had to be up…

Sophia blinks at Lance or something that seemed to be wearing his skin. “Trust him? Who?” The third person statements are a confusing until he introduces him. A light bulb goes off. Oh, there was three of them. Smiling, she shakes his hand. “We met before, but I didn’t catch your name then. Thanks for helping out during the Scorpio fight.”

Laughing a bit at the idea of a slumber party, “We’ll you weren’t around for the last one. Lucky you since you’ve been spared being put into a girl's yukata. However, you may want to brush up on the ghost story surrounding this place before you sign on to that.”

She looks back at the mansion, “As for Valdis, I don’t know. She showed us a possible future. What happened if we failed. I feel like a mistake was made or something unless she lost all hope in whatever the future held. I hope that’s not true though.”

“And as for Lance, he doesn’t need me to save him. He’s already a good person, but he doesn’t recognize it yet,” she says, “But I wish I could get him to see that life isn’t so bad. That people aren’t so bad. And life is worth more than just counting down the days until you die in a fight. I can’t say that the team has helped much in that regard though. I hope he knows that I value him as well though.”

Valdis arriving at the door in pajamas would have been normal. The fresh from battle look not so much. Sophia takes a step back, her voice almost a whisper, “What did you get yourself into?” Obviously, there was a lot going on that she didn’t know about. Speaking up, she says, “Lance says you joined the Covenant with him. Why? I mean, after everything you’ve seen. After everything you’ve showed us. Are we that much in the wrong? Is there that little hope for us? I don’t understand...”

As Sophia recognizes him Soma give her a formal salute. "Enyo commander of the Eris Legion at your service...well I say that, but just call me Soma." He tells her with a wink. "As for the fight with Scorpio, it's saddening to see a potential like his wasted, but I suppose we each chose our fates. Though I wish I could have stepped in earlier, Oni isn't much of a teammate, but unfortunately Lance leans more towards him than I."

When Sophia says Lances doesn't need her to save him Soma smiles. "I don't think you quite understand, being a good person and being saved are two very different things. Getting him to understand people and helping him find his place would be an act of salvation that Lance would never consider. He thinks he can find a place in a society focused on violence and strength, but no world can exist on just those and he'll soon find himself adrift again."

Soma looks like he was going to say more but Valdis comes to the window. As she leans out Soma whistles softly and smiles. "Not a bad view, I think the disheveled look suits you." He tells her flippantly "Anyways, we're coming up before we get mauled by a dog or something." With that he kicks the head of his staff from the wall into an arc and steps upon a crescent of force, pulling Sophia up with him into the room.

"Looks like you've had it rough." He comments as his expression turns serious and he begins to sing a low hymn. As he does both Sophia and Valdis would feel their bodies course with renewed strength as he sits down and concentrates providing both of them with an energy boost.

Valdis ran a hand threw the stray hair, pushing it back out of her face; her eyebrow arched as Sophia stepped back and asked what the heck she got herself into…Did she really need to ask that? She was one of the ones who knew Valdis operated behind the scenes, and often dug her nose into things. Her eyes narrowed and a dark grin spread across her face as she reached out and slid and finger down the side of Sophias face.

”Little Mouse…I did not join with him; he joined after me….”

Her eyes slid over to Soma, or at least she assumed due to the tone; she gave him a wicked grin her fangs left over from her youma transformation still present.

”You have given me some competition; or at least one of your other parts has…I suppose you can come in…I’m here alone anyways…”

She stepped back and let them in; chuckling at the mauling of the dog comment.

”Irish wolfhounds are hardly guard dogs, unless I give them the hunt command they would likely befriend and intruder then attack them”

As they stepped in Valdis led them to a large living room, she flipped a couple of switches on the wall and a set of lights along with a gas fire place roared to life. She motioned to the leather couch and chairs and motioned for them to sit down. Soon she let out a happy sigh as Soma worked his magic, that felt a LOT better. The rest of the wounds seemed to heal twice as fast before just leaving clean skin. She plopped down in a chair, happy to sit down.

”Rough but necessary; I come home like this nightly; have been since I joined….Ironically the day that you tried to bring me to the castle…”

Her violet eyes slid over to Sophia.

”Funny how you never wondered where I went that day. Really took you till now to find out? I mean I called a Zodiac to the battle at the shrine…didn’t you notice him? Then again…I don’t think Granny noticed him either.”

Valdis sat forward in her chair, her gaze intensifying.

”I do not belong in your group…and as things stand at the moment….no the Senshi and the others have no hope. You’ve run out of time…”

She turned her attention back towards Soma.

”I have been meaning to ask you how much does Lance know”

Sophia frowns a little at the mention of Lance not having a place. Such a pessimistic outlook. She wanted to make him a part of the team, but that didn’t turn out well. Maybe she could find some way to make him feel apart of world around him. That was probably easier said than done though.

It’s strange to see something uncharacteristic for Lance come out of his mouth anyways. Shaking her head at the comment, she is reminded that the three personalities don’t have too much in common aside from inhabiting the same body and generally being alright.

She’s left speechless by Valdis’ behavior and looks pained at Valdis touches her face. Following Val into the living room, she takes a seat. However, she begins to feel restless with all the energy that she receives. She shakes her right leg, looking away into the fire. “Aglaea believed you were still on Earth. I had no reason to doubt her." While she was helping fight David's inner demons, it seems she left her friend to suffer unintentionally. That thought shakes her.

"You used to say there was hope. And the others have never treated you like you didn’t belong. You were always accepted. What changed or was everything always a lie?” She turns to look at Valdis, trying to visualize her heart. She’s never done so before, but she never thought she had a need to do so. “What is actually true?” She wonders if she wants to know the answer to that. What if they were destined to fail?

As they came in and Valdis sat down Soma shrugs. "I don't think you'll actually get much competition from Lance unless you attack his area." Soma's smirk turns into a serious expression as he tells them. "Lance is serious about creating a neutral zone, he'll probably give both of you some leeway, Sophia more than anyone, but he'll defend that area to his death or the attackers."

Soma lets out a sigh as he finishes talking and then also sprawls out on a couch. "To be honest, I had hopped he would decide to try and climb the ladder, it would be much easier to figure out what the situation was if he was closer to Virgo, but I suppose that would be asking for too much."

As Valdis tells Sophia it's too late and generally tells her its over Soma flicks her in the forehead from afar. "What are you telling the girl Valdis. This battle isn't over, if it was you'd have adopted a different stragtegy by now." The energy from the flicks begins to disperse and surround them as he creates a barrier to prevent sound from escaping. "Hey Valdis, are you good enough at that telepathy thing to shut out Gemini? I'm going to shunt Lance and Oni into the gap for Taurus to deal with." He says as he lets Lance and Oni take up all the bandwidth of his link with Taurus. Though he decides to wait for her reply before moving on with the discussion.

”I don’t want land, he will receive no threat from me”

Valdis turned her attention back to Sophia when she went on, her gaze hardened as a frown was set on her face. She was about to respond when she felt an air flick or whatever upon her forehead, her gaze turned to Soma again with a nasty glare as she rubbed the middle of her forehead. Promptly fallowed by a casual flip off.

”I have adopted a different strategy; or do you pretend to know the inner workings of my mind? Even Gemini has given up on that”

A smile quirked onto her face, the question of her getting the hang of something amused her. She was naturally a perfectionist, if she had an ability she spent every waking moment molding it.

”Yes, I have a good handle on it, however since the night that Lance accepted the cows offer Gemini hasn’t tried to pry much….apparently I can out scar him in nasty mental images. ”

As she was talking to Soma, Sophia would look into her heart…She would be overwhelmed with a dark shadow. Thick clouds of despair , hopelessness for oneself, and pain…the pain alone would be overwhelming from years of torturous visions and loss. It was the pain of a heart that had been broken time after time after time. The feeling of having everything once loved ripped from her and the empty gap that it still left. Under that thick layer she would find fear, and overwhelming sense of dread of one who walked on death row fallowed by the sick feeling of acceptance of the end and deep regret for what couldn’t be. She would feel the heavy burden of knowledge of one’s end, followed by a grim determination solid as stone. If she was able to endure all the thick layers, and manage to see past them, she would find a deep deep set love. A strong love unconditional love that burned at her very core.

She continued to speak as Sophia was distracted.

”If Lance does climb the ladder keep yourself separated as much as possible in there….you will need to have an untouched core if you’re to keep your senses about you less you be chipped away like Scorpio. She’s like a poison in your head”

Valdis turned back to Sophia….there really was no hope for the Senshi if things were to continue as they were. There wasn’t enough time….If there was she wouldn’t have needed to change her strategy….If Sophia wasn’t here she might have passed her plans on to Soma. But the less Sophia knew the better.

”You cannot speak for the rest of the group Sophia; As things stand I am a youma. If the Senshi succeed then I would be banished with the rest when the Silver Crystal is used…I am a shame and a danger to my father’s image, and to the groups image; despite what you may feel the general population will differ…its human nature which will not be changed at the drop of the hat…..As for what changed….Time….our time window has changed. The president has been taken out, the military will be upset and practically turned upside down now that Libra has been outted….you will not be able to march on Sapparo in time. ”

Sophia would see in Vals heart that she believed it was true…that they had run out of time…but there was a dread with a grim purpose that would show her that she had not lost all hope within the Senshi.

Pain. Sophia feels it with Valdis. It’s an assault of emotions that she isn’t prepared to handle. Her eyes well up. She digs deeper though. She always does. When she gets to the core, she feels love. This was the first time that she saw unconditional love in someone’s heart. It mirrors her own. “You don’t really feel that way. You are frightened, but you haven’t shut us out. Not yet.”

“You know damn well that I wouldn’t let you or the youma get banished to some distant world. That was never the plan. You aren’t afraid of what will happen when we win,” she says firmly. She’d probably join Lance in neutrality if it was. She didn’t feel like selecting the best of two oppressors.

Unfortunately, it did seem that time limits were in place. The end of the world was approaching. “What happened to your father? To Libra? What’s our time limit then? A month? Less than that? I don’t care anymore if knowledge is too much to bear, tell me what you know.”

Soma frowns at the irritable reply Valdis gives him and shakes his head. "Looks like something has happened. Well I can say it is not to late, I've seen something like this before and it has been beaten before, though the price was not cheap." he admits his eye focused as if on a far off place. Though when he looks deeper into Valdis's eyes he notices something and he speaks into her ear from afar.

"Do you have something to talk about?" he asks so that only she could hear it.

He looks at Sophia and inwardly sighs. He was pretty sure Lance would have tried to say something here but to be honest it probably wouldn't be wise to give any more information. However when Valdis mentions poison Soma gives her a wide mischevious grin.

"Valdis, you and he are already very poisoned, you don't think becoming a youma or eating their flesh leaves you unscarred do you? Well regardless, thank you for the warning, I'll pay heed. Though to be honest Lance is more likely to get himself killed than he is to climb the ranks short of murdering Zodiac members." Soma points out as he takes several deep breaths.

"Sorry about that, some is trying to get out. But enough beating around the bush. You two should speak plainly, what are your intentions?" He asks with a smile and a wide gesture.

Valdis let out a bitter chuckle as she looked over at Soma with a raised eyebrow; the price not being cheap was an understatement.

”You were not at the meeting, so I supposed you did not get to experience the lovely vision I shared with everyone else…So yes I suppose you could say something has happened.”

She looked back at Sophia.

”As things are even I do not believe that Youma and Human kind can live together, the ones without powers would live in fear…. They will still have all sense of power ripped from them….there will be no fair solution to this. I showed you what youma are capable of, there are those who do not have the mental capacity to understand even though they can eat it, it’s not prey. Yes some would be able to, but the majority of them will have to go…and this war…this war…it has made it so that only those who are a part of the covenant can even come close to living with the youma.”

Valdis stood up out of her chair and walked over to the fire place, and looked down at the flame, her back to the back of Sophia’s chair. She really hated it when that girl started to cry. Valdis pulled a small pouch discretely from her shirt and turned back to face Sophia’s chair. The pouch smoothly relocated to her pocket with a slight of hand. She slowly approached Sophias chair and propped her arms up on the back.

”Take your family, and the families who are fighting…..and the fact that Japan has been a so called safe haven? Now imagine a world with the covenant banished, no hierarchy to keep those who thirst for blood contained. Darwin’s law would be rampant…frankly it wouldn’t be as well directed as if the covenant won…but really it would just prolong the suffering….The Silver Princess….I guess she could just reverse everything but that’s just pressing a rewind button an once more everyone would have to live this hell all over again, really a mockery and insult to what has already been spent on this battle.”

She chuckled darkly as she pat Little Mouse on the head.

”I suppose your right, I have not shut you all out…but if you need a reason for this”

She held out her hand which had the mark of Gemini upon in front of the girls face.

”…blood is thicker than water, and I must do what I must to protect my own.”

Valdis leaned forward a little more so her head was resting on Sophia’s shoulder. A frown on her face as Sophia continued to push for answers…A sigh escaped her lips as her other hand opened the plastic pouch in her pocket and pulled out a small hanky. With the hanky in hand and in a quick motion Valdis held it firmly to Sophias nose and mouth and wrapped her other arm around Sophias front to keep her hands in place, and for good measure she sunk her still present fangs into Sophias neck. The girl would feel a rush of warmth as a warm fuzzy feeling enwrapped her slowly dulling her senses. It was a small dose but enough to disorient as the familiar smelling hanky took its effect. As she released her bite the punctures healed up on their own.

”You can’t handle what I know”

Valdis would release her as soon as she assumed she was out and turn back to Soma and crack her neck.

”Seriously…Speaking my intentions to her would be detrimental to her and the others…But yes to answer your question I do have something I wish to talk to you about..”

She walked back over to her seat and plopped down.

”She does not need to re see this, but I suppose I should fill you in”

With that the area around them dropped out and once more she played out the vision of the end.

”That happens in a week from now. Which brings me to what I want to talk to you about….the Mars Knight and I planned for me to go into the covenant to find a way in for the others….and to find out about the foundation of which the covenant is built on….My findings are more than a couple of the Zodiacs do not wish for this to be the result of their work…. They have been lied to and cheated….The older ones are the ones who are in the know, but not the rest…. With this information I do not believe the Senshi have as steep of a climb as previously thought. If only someone would lay the foundation down…But”

She motioned to the vision around them.

“All this is a matter of opinion. Some of them have human friends and family. Are you saying they wouldn’t welcome their return after being freed from someone else’s control? And who is to say there isn’t enough power in the crystals to give clarity and thought to the one’s without the capacity to comprehend. You’re being overly pessimistic,” Sophia counters. There had to be still some hope. “I don’t believe our futures are set in stone. I think we can decide what happens from here.”

Sophia looks up as Valdis pats her on her head. “I don’t want a reset button. You’re making assumptions. I just want everyone to be able to move forward.”

She doesn’t have time to respond to the glowing mark and Valdis’ last comments before the rag hits her face. If this wasn’t familiar… She struggles against Valdis, holding her breath, but she was always far weaker than the two. As Val’s fang pierce her neck, Sophia loses the ability to struggle. She becomes limp and mistakenly draws a breath. From there, everything goes dark.

Soma listened to Valdis's statements about humans and youma not coexisting and nods, he more or less agreed, Lance was the one who though that some kind of feltered coexistence was possible, Soma wouldn't speak out against it, but thought that at present it would probably fail. Though as Valdis said that undoing the fight made a mockery of it Soma couldn't help but speak up. "That one's not entirely true, generally the people who are fighting are doing so to try and make it safer for everyone. The reset achieves that, and to be honest prolongs it for a greater amount of time than most other solutions that have been tried." He says having seen various methods attempted before.

Though Soma's contemplation is interupted when Valdis bites into Sophia's neck. In that instant a roar takes place within Soma and the confident relaxed posture suddenly tightens as Lance rips control away from Soma and launches himself at Valdis. He takes a large swing, but it stops midswing and comes to Lance's face as Soma, who had taken back control lets out a sigh. "My my, touchy isn't he?" Soma says a note of amusement in his voice as he looks up at Valdis.

As the vision surrounds Soma a frown of distastes spreads over his mouth. "It's usually the same, but that does not make these kinds of things any more tasteful. It is a shame that you've been burdened with this kind of knowledge." He says his face becoming impassive out of respect for the atrocity.

Though as Valdis lays out her points he nods. "That's a sensible move. Lance will fight on the covenant lines for the confrontation, bu I am curious if he'll stay there once he understands what it means. Neither he nor Taurus want an end to the world, they simply care little for the status quo." He admits then with a look of concentration a pulse of energy emits from him. "I've shut Lance out, what do you want to talk about?" He asks curiously, he assumed Valdis knew he had his own agenda that was different than hers or Lance's, but at the moment they overlapped more than any other.

Val watches as Sophia slowly sinks into a sleep, she struggled a little, but that was mainly because Valdis doubted she was going to fall for the whole do you need a tissue bit again. Valdis raised an eyebrow when a fist came inches away from her face, her attention went back to Soma…this actually brought a smile of true amusement to Valdis’s face as a chuckle escaped her lips.

”Two of your personalities now have or have tried to deck me now, care to make it three out of three?”

She then looked back at Sophia, even though her finding out was unavoidable, it still wasn’t a pleasurable experience.

”You can tell him it’s kinder to knock her out in this situation, it’s unfortunately the lesser of two evils. May I ask that you bring her home after this, I believe her home is in your territory? Just tell her Dad that the youma in the group turned and knocked her out….that will probably keep her busy for the next couple of days. Paranoid parents….always an awesome distraction”

That would keep her away for a little bit, cause as soon as she woke up Val knew Little Mouse would be back…but she wouldn’t be around to be found. Valdis shrugged when he commented about the burden.

”I do not mind…it is something I can bear and it has been my way that I have been helping the group since day one. It was the only thing I had been useful for. This isn’t the first vision that I have seen like this… the first battle they did as a large group, that was the first one…and it was in that battle that I learned that my visions of the future are not set in stone. The smallest action can change the course of how the entire battle will go.”

Valdis nodded as he mentioned Lance was shut out….she was curious to know how much was known between personalities.

”I believe Taurus will fight with the Senshi if she sees how things are going with the covenant, this vision is not what she wants at all. She wants change….and I fully agree with her. The world how it was before the covenant was not a good one; otherwise I do not believe so many would have gone over to the covenant. I believe Taurus will be an ally we can count on, Gemini…I believe there is a slight chance he will be as well….after all I suspect he knows what I’m up to anyways and has opened up doors for me to do it….Even Capricorn…he seems like one that has a possibility on being on our side; I will have to hang out with him a little more, he’s amusing for the most part at least and…Aquarius, that one I believe you tried going up against well she’s my next target to get an idea of where she stands….and Libra….Libra is just a bastard we need to kill….however he’s going against other Zodiacs wishes, just like you have your contract with the cow, I have a contract with Twinsie. Mine was that my father come to now harm and Libra just freaking shot him. He’s in the hospital now…So as a warning to you, just because the cow says the other’s shouldn’t mess with you doesn’t mean that they won’t.”


At the mention of Libra her face goes into a snarl, there was a deep set anger in her eyes that said she was out for blood on this one. His name tasted foul on her mouth….she wanted to watch that bastard burn.

”The battle which you find the most help from the others will be against Libra…I think plenty would be happy to take him out.”

Valdis seemed to have still planned for even after the doomsday, and was relaying somewhat of what she had been laying out for the others to be able to utilize in the battles ahead of them. It wasn’t a sure thing but she was laying the seeds down so all they would have to do is reap them.

”However I’m getting ahead of myself, I’m not aware of your agenda’s with this whole thing although I would not lie if I didn’t say I was curious. However it’s my hope that after doomsday you will help at least get the message to the Senshi of what is possible….particularly to Sophia here. I trust her enough to know who to share the information to and not….I was also hoping that I was going to be able to hold this position long enough to find a way into the citadel for everyone; however it seems my end will be approaching much much sooner. Dooms day is happening in a week, the sixth to be exact. It will need all of the Zodiac present to activate…I’m fighting my way into the open spot, if I do not fail I will be a part of this ceremony….I will not be walking away from it. Kail has my last wishes, however I am asking you to see out my goal. Take out Sapporo’s obelisk while the Ceremony takes place, the Zodiac will be too busy to stop you. I will tell my father to give the orders to march; you will have the armies back up. With the power I waste and the obelisk taken down, I believe that will give everyone the time they need to prepare to march on the Citadel…however it will also make them a bigger threat. So things will defiantly get more dicey”