Sophia whistles as she looks up at the tall building. Maybe she should have taken someone with her. However, if she had, she gets the feeling that this discussion would be less successful, less productive, and with substantially more blood involved. Besides, they were friends. He wouldn’t hurt her. He had never done so in the past. None of this could really be as bad as it actually looked, could it? Even if it was, they were still friends. And in a way,they were family through the connection of shared experience between all senshi and knights. None of them chose it, but they were born into it.

She comes armed with chinese food. Three separate dishes: lo mein, mapo tofu, beef with peppers. Also, enough egg rolls and dumplings in case of an emergency. Two egg custard tarts for her to leave on a good note. The files said he lived somewhere near the top. She gets in an elevator, and takes the long ride up to the top. When she find arrives at his penthouse, she gives a knock on the door. However, the door seems open. Opening it ajar, she calls in, "Peter? It's me, Sophia. I brought food."

Peter was asleep on his couch, and she could easily see him. His venetian red hair looked like a mass of blood from the soft light hitting him. As she entered, he opened one eye. The layout was spartan, though gothic, all the walls lined with bookshelves. Standing up, Peter was clad in a pair of black pyjama pants, and little else. She could see that his body was devoid of hair, and how pale he really was. "I did not think damsels willingly entered my lairs anymore. How are you Wyrmling?"

He smiled painfully at that, his glasses missing, his eyes staring into hers. He sniffed faintly at the air. "Ahh. I hope you will not be offended if I pick out the peppers. Come in, come in. The Zodiac will not arrive in my domicile. I take it that the bastard reincarnation of Endymion has informed you that Beryl took me into her service yesterday?"

At the sight of Peter on the couch, Sophia laughs a little, “I fall asleep on the couch all the time too.” She walks in and takes a look around. She somehow imagined that there would be more furniture. “Well, I can’t be a damsel and a wyrmling. You have to choose one or the other.”

She looks down at the food as he mentions peppers. “You know, I only met one other person who could tell the type of food by smell alone and that was Kenji. I’m kind of wondering how I can pick up that psychic food sense now.” She frowns a little as he asks about Kousuke, “Kousuke’s not a bad person. A little dense, but he saved my life once. But yeah, he told me. How are you feeling though? How are things with you? You disappeared when we were chasing Hanahi and her sister.”

"I tackled Taurus through that wall, and kept going, taking her as far from you all as I could. You all had Hanahi to deal with, and were drained from the battle prior. I used my greatest weapon, my poisoned words, and sold my soul to spare you. I serve Virgo now." He closed his eyes. "I am not Serpentarius yet, but close."

He smiled. "You are my Wyrmling, if you must choose. I adore you too much to sacrifice you unless my love commanded it." His eyes looked sad at even countenancing the thought. "I am sorry it had to end like this Sophia. But the light has abandoned me. Blues is all but dead, and my core has been nearly compromised. In a few days... Nothing will truly be left of me but Rau."

He chuckled about the food, tapping his nose. "I augmented myself genetically to be the peak of human potential. I am a Super Soldier of sorts, if you ever read Marvel Comics. Captain America is a good analogue."

He patted the couch next to him. "He is Endymion's reincarnation... Had Endymion chosen wiser... I would be a different man, and the world would be far safer."

“You didn’t have to… Not that I don’t appreciate you saving me, but I’d never have wanted for you to do that for me,” Sophia says, sadly. If only she wasn’t so weak, maybe what happened yesterday would have gone differently. There were so many things that if a single step was taken differently, none of this would have happened. “And I care about you. I don’t want them to hurt you. And nothing has to end at all.”

She sits on the couch next to him, “Why are futures dictated by the past so much? Not even our own pasts, but ones belonging to other people eons ago. Can’t we just let it go and carve out our way? Why do we have to pay for the grudges and mistakes of other people that we’ve never met?” She was getting tired of the fighting. She couldn’t understand it at all. She leans into him, “I wanted to ask you to come with me. To be purified by the others. And if you wanted to join the Covenant then, I suppose that would be your decision. Your mind would be unclouded, your decision-making unimpaired. I guess I would have no choice but to accept it. Not that corruption or being Covenant would end our friendship.”

"Because we use their power. A fragment of their past remains with us. I am doubly cursed, for I was once Pluto and am now the Moon. More than that, before I became either, I was born with a genetic weakness to the blessings of Chaos. My mother was from Nemesis. One of the exiles, who chose free will over the immortal slavery of the Moon Princess." Peter's hands balled into fists.

"I am damned by all angles. My sole blessing was when the Void Dragon saved me. It tore my DNA apart, devoured the darkness to empower itself. It knitted my genes together, leaving them free of that weakness, and imbuing me with hundreds of thousands of memories, a storm of thoughts. I was blessed. I can remember all the lives of my ancestors in war." He chuckled bitterly. "Much as that skill at arms has ever won me. The Senshi of my timeline banished me, after Endymion jammed the sword in my stomach."

He sighed. "Had it been Excalibur he had wielded, I would have died peacefully, slain by my forfather's blade. But it was not, and I clung to my love for Beryl, and my hatred of Endymion."

"..." Peter closed his eyes. And wept tears of blood. "I can not. That would break my covenant with Beryl. My soul belongs to her, and to the Goddess Chaos. If you are to purify me, you must overcome me in battle. My covenant, and my pride, allow for no less." He turned, and embraced Sophia, his arms having a strength to them like steel. "My Wyrmling. To have but known you before my parents died..."

“Is that what the future holds? Genocide, more destruction, tyranny, and enslavement?” Sophia says. She takes out her henshin item and for the first time, considers breaking it. Instead, she holds it in her hands, staring down at it. “Was I lied to this entire time about making this world a better place? I don’t want things to end up like that. I don’t to force people to live under my rule or any other of the other senshi or some Silver Princess with infinite powers that I’ve never even met!”

She closes her eyes, “Maybe we are all cursed… I’ve been called extreme because I’m all one-sided. I’m a person who wants nothing but peace, but was told I needed to fight.” She looks up at him, “Do senshi never believe in mercy? Do they not care? And if so, why am I one of them? Why am I here? I haven’t understood what I’m supposed to do since I gotten these powers.”

She reaches into a pocket and pulls out a tissue as he cries. Handing it over, she says, “If that is way it has to be. That’s always the way it has to be, it seems. I won’t let them hurt you. Not like the senshi of your timeline did. But never forget that your soul is your own. You can give someone many things, but that always be yours.” Hugging him back, she wonders if this will be the last time. “I’m just glad we got a chance to meet.”

"My father would say that this was also a problem of the division of classes. But he was a Socialist. Usagi was divided from the world, and when Death Phantom emerged, did what she could after being jarred from her paradise."

"Please grant the new generation your wisdom and knowledge, to create a better future than they may know..."

"She made the choices she had to, Peter. She did not have your wisdom, nor a man like you there to pull her back to Earth."

"I would fight Death Phantom so that Mother's people could come back, Father."

"So would I, Peter. But Usagi had to for us, because we can not change the past."

Peter's eyes gained a clarity then, and a warmth. "I can fix it. but you need to act quickly. And... I am going to need... Oh god. I can fix it all."

The whine of a buster, and a brilliant warmth. "No, but I love her. I... I can not betray her!" Peter was shaking, violently. His head hurt, this was strange. He had never felt something this painful in decades.

"I... I refuse to believe..." His body heat was spiking. "Blues. He's attacking... Blues!" His body was shuddering, he tried to control the thrashing. "Death Phantom. She... She purified them... To stop another... Death Phantom... I was not there. I was not there for Beryl. They are so alike... BUT I CAN BE THERE THIS TIME!"

"GET OUT OF MY HEAD!" His hands shook. "You have always been there! I have always heard you, heard you trying to tell me to kill them! That this world was not worth saving. Yet why would I do anything else if I am a Nephillim! I am not just a child of this poisoned world, I am also a child of heaven, in my veins flows the blood of Angels..."

I REFUSE TO ALLOW THIS! YOU AND I SHALL DIE BEFORE I LET YOU TURN BACK TO THE LIGHT!

"You have no business in my mind anymoe Rau. I will purge you by force if I must. I am the Knight of the Moon. And I am more than that." Peter's eyes shot open. They were slitted pupils. "I was the one who survived the Void itself. You took shelter in my shadow, hid in the darkness when Chaos herself appeared."

His embrace decoupled. "Get Amarissa, go. Bring her here. Unless you can get her to come here, then you need to link into my emotions. He is going to..." His body keeled over, and it was only inhuman physiology that let him take a lotus position, eyes closed, turning his eyes inwards. "I am going to try and give Blues some help. If he self-destructs there is no way I can hold Rau off."

He closed his fists, and exhaled, there was a fine black mist that emerged with the breath. "You have dominion over Love. Just as I have it over Purity, the Soul, and Moonlight. Open the curtains, try to get the mirrors to reflect as much on me as you can. It... Might help. The Silver Imperium Crystal would make this easier, but I shattered that." He moved his hands slowly to assume one of the hand signs from Buddhism. He began staring inwards. "It is so much wreckage. Rau has been burning everything..." He growled, muttering a mantra of a sort. It almost sounded like... Frame Construction? He was describing materials, structure. "I always wanted... To make him in real life. To protect me after they died. I failed him so long ago... But I can save him this time. I have to..."

His hand tightened to balls, breaking the hand seals, the nails digging into his palms. Blood poured from his tear ducts, and hands. "Not this time. You would not... Die alone. Not this time. Not this time Proto Man. You were the first one, just like me." He held the seizures at bay, breathing in and out, keeping his temperature low enough, keeping it below that critical threshold. "Move the table, in case I go into Grand Mal. The windows and balcony are already open, so the breeze should help."

Silver energy began to form over his flesh. He actively called upon his powers of purity, over the soul. "I am nothing but the blade of Masamune, the blade of peace. My maker forged me to only cut when needed. My maker wanted to bring peace to the world, to create a sword that would end the need for swords." He inhaled slowly, and exhaled again, a bit of the black mist exiting with his breath. "If you wish to join in this battle, now is the time. You will need to attack the root of this corruption. Rau is a phantasm, my own misanthropy, and hatred manifest." He opened one eye, the draconic slit to them apparent. "Sophia. I want you to know something. AM hated mankind more than Rau. His hatred was to the mathematical limit, three point eight seven four four times ten to the one hundred and ninetyfifth power. But there was a greater love." Peter smiled, faintly at that. "God gave his own son for us, gave himself for us, because he was Love, and he was Infinite. I forsook him, but the Void is willing to embrace me again..." He was unafraid, as ever. "I am going to try and arrest the Taint. It has only ever been stopped once without the Silver Crystal... When I stood on the brink of the Void. I remember that empty absolute..." He breathed in, and exhaled another bit of the black mist. "I trust you to call Amarissa... And I am going to have to trust Amarissa to not kill me in this state. If I stop, I will have agitated it to much..."

His eyes closed. He ignored the world around him. "Do as you will Sophia... I have to focus on this fight..."

“Usagi? Is she the princess? If I was a princess, I’d travel. I’d travel everywhere to see all the people that I served. Living extravagantly when so many people don’t… I don’t think I could do that,” Sophia muses about the situation.

“Huh?” she asks as a revelation hits Peter. She looks worried. “Peter? What’s wrong? PETER?!” She’s not sure what is happening as he begins to shake violently. He begins growing hot to the touch. She’s not sure how to help with this internal fight that he is going through or if she even can do anything but watch.

She springs into action as soon as he tells her to call Amarissa Hiroshi. “Gotcha,” she says, reach for her phone. She keeps it brief. “Ama, I need you to come meet me at Peter’s apartment. It’s at the top floor of a large apartment building at X. He needs to be purified before the corruption tears him apart. Bring whomever you can. Hurry.” With that she hangs up and begins, flinging open curtains over windows and rearranging mirrors. She can’t quite understand what Peter is saying except for the instructions. However, she is able to piece together some things. A fractured soul, but not quite as divided as someone like Lance’s. “Just hold on. Everyone will be here soon. You’ve got this.” She frowns at the blood. That was a lot.

Her eyes go wide as he says he might have seizure. “WHAT?!” She pushes stuff out of the way. “You should lie down, so you don’t hurt your head.” At this point, she is thankful for the lack of furniture. Less stuff for him to potentially hurt himself on.

Sophia nods as he talks about love. “I didn’t think you understood…” She looks upset and can’t believe Peter is smiling despite all this. “We can get through together. No one is going to hurt you. I am light. The darkness isn’t allowed to take you so long as I am here…” She glows a little and grabs Peter’s hand, channeling some of her own energy into him.  Light and unconditional love with a hint of unbreakable steel.  He was still burning up. She breaks contact to run around the apartment. She flings open every closet until she gets to a linen closet and grabs some towels. From there, she dashes into the kitchen where she turns the sink faucet and drenches them in cool water. She takes ice and ice packs from the freezer, grabs the towels, and tries to arrange them around Peter to keep him cool. She makes yet another phone call to the seminary student, Sugiyima Itoi, that she met in the library. “Sugiyima-sama. It is Sophia. Remember when you offered to help with a friend? I need your help now. If you can, please come to the top penthouse of X.”

She then waits and stands guard over him, watching his condition. Hopefully, the others would arrive soon.  "Help is on the way.  You just need to fight a little longer, and everyone will be here."

The liturgical cycle began in the evening for Catholics, and Itoi was preparing for evening Vespers with his brother seminarians when an unexpected phone call came through from Sophia. He had promised his assistance to her with her friend, and he wondered if she was about to call in on that favor by calling. He lagged behind his classmates for a moment to quickly take the call, stepping off into a dormitory doorway to keep a low profile as he listened. Her tone was urgent, and she sound panicked.

"I need your help now. If you can, please come to the top penthouse..."

Itoi wasn't sure if he was more confused by the urgency of her plea or by the fact that she was directing him to a penthouse. And now, he had a moral dilemma... Skipping out on Vespers was strictly forbidden, but couldn't he justify it by insisting that an emergency, someone needing him immediately for ministry, should supercede his obligation to the Liturgy of the Hours? It would have to... Something in Itoi's gut told him that this was very important. Folding up his cell phone, Itoi returned quickly to his room to gather up his supplies and headed out as quickly as he could.

----------------------------

Arriving at his destination, Itoi broke into a brisk run, which was a bit difficult wearing a floor-length cassock. He appreciated the traditional style of the priesthood, but moving quickly in that kind of clerical attire just wasn't convenient. Hurriedly, he pounded on the door of the suite, calling out to Sophia.

"Sophia... It's Itoi! What's happening?"

Amarissa received Sophia's message and called Kou and Kaguya. She knew she would need the backup and maybe Kaguya's healing abilities. Dressing quickly in jeans and a blue sweater, she grabbed her mom's keys and left to pick up Kousuke, assuming Kaguya could make it there on her own if she chose.

Once there, she hurried to exit and lock the vehicle. "We don't have much time, I think. This is an emergency," she said, looking around. Amarissa transformed into her senshi self and took hold of Kou's hand. "This will be fast and might make you dizzy," she warned, then closed her eyes and concentrated, reaching out to Peter's and Sophia's energies. Using that to guide her, she teleported them directly into the Moon Knight's Lair.

Releasing her hold on Kou, she kneels by Peter. "I'm here, don't worry. We're going to help you," she says soothingly. Gingerly, she places a hand on his forehead and the other on his chest and concentrates. Peter would begin to feel gentle, slow waves of her energy pulse throughout his body. She frowned, feeling the root of his corruption. "This will not be easy. I need you to trust me and I need as much help as you can give you me," she said, then turned to Kou. "Can you lend me your strength, Kou?" she asked.

Kousuke transforms into Kishin before Amarissa transports them there. "I forgot you could do this." He admits as he looks around. He was very aware that Peter was probably about to attack him and was really if it did happen. The knight's confidence did not seem particularly shaken after their last encounter, but he still needed to be careful.

"Sophia what's happening?" He asks. Though when Ama asks to give her some of his energy he nods and starts giving her some, but he waits to make sure there's no fight first.

Sophia looks relieved as everyone shows up. “First off, Itoi Sugiyima meet Amarissa Hiroshi and Kousuke Archer. They are fellow senshi and knights. Sorry that I didn’t get a chance to introduce everyone.”

She looks down at Peter. “I tried to talk to him before anyone else had any ideas of doing anything. I had wanted to see if would willingly be purified and reconsider defecting afterwards. I said something that must have sparked an epiphany. Right now, he is struggling with own corruption, trying to keep it bay long enough for him to be purified. I don’t think he can hold out very long on his own though. Sugiyima-san, consider corruption to be one’s own personal demons… however, with the way Peter talks about it, maybe a separate entity entirely. Peter is… or was… a catholic. I figured he’d benefit from your presence.”

She looks between Ama and Kou sharing energies. “Be careful… Kou’s energy might set him off. You’ve already heard his feeling on Endymion, and he tends to conflate past and present.”

There was a resonance as the energies of Love and Light entered his body. The Light seemed to be... Changed, as it passed into his body, becoming metabolized, before he inhaled, and exhaled, a larger gout of the mist passing from his body, and his skin was growing paler, so pale as to clearly see his ventrical network. The light eflecting off the mirrors is no longer golden, but the silver of the Moon.

As the others arrive, there is first a sigh from Peter, and he whispers the strains of something, just barely audible to Itoi. It is in perfect Latin, the pronunciation smooth, and easy, free of accent, as if the speaker had grown up speaking, and thinking, in that language. After the first few words, there is a pause, as he waits to hear if the man will join him, before continuing.

"Sancte Michael Archangele,
...
...
...
defende nos in proelio;
contra nequitiam et insidias diaboli esto praesidium.
Imperet illi Deus, supplices deprecamur:
tuque, Princeps militiae Caelestis,
satanam aliosque spiritus malignos,
qui ad perditionem animarum pervagantur in mundo,
divina virtute in infernum detrude.
Amen."

Peter's own energies seem to recoil from Amarissa, her hands parting the silver aura that had formed, and yet with her very presence, the black mist he is breathing out burns away in spectacular Azure flames. The sight of them is strange, as they seem to linger in the air like Will of the Wisps, and even land on Peter's body without harming or consuming him for a few moments, before fading without smoke, or trace.

Peter's reflection in two full size mirrors behind him, on fourty five degree angles to his left and right is distorted by the light being cast off, and first is seen a Hooded figure within the one to his left, a sinister gleam of white eyes behind the blackness in the hood, with arms the colour of oilslicks in water, the multi coloured light of them seeming to grip onto a stone of some sort, crushing it within it's grip.

In the one to the right, there is a man in black armour, his eyes a gleaming, baleful red. Unlike the other, this one is recognizably Peter behind the mask and helm he wears, his body type and stance reflecting the Inquisitor's. His hands are both in fists, and there is a shield and sword made of purest darkness to either side of him. The void itself seemingly composing them.

After a few moments, both reflections fade, and Peter's own returns. One of Peter's eyes open, and his body, under the strain of channeling this much energy seems to be changing. His roots are going white, and the eye that opens in a eerie yellow, with a serpentine slit of a pupil.

"Astra...? Ashley...? When last we met... We crossed swords in Hikawa Shrine... It was you who cast me out from my world, and slew my dreams." There was no anger there, just soft resignation. "You took that blade, and twisted it in my side Ashley, just as Celeste and Kasumi struck me with Fire and Death..."

As he spoke, his eye seemed to glare through them group. And yet. "I am sorry it took so long for this... I forgive you. I met wonderful people... And they tried to save me. I suppose you have come to escort me to Gehenna." Whatever he saw, was not what was in the room. His eyes closed again, the purifying energies first burning away more and more of the taint he was dislodging before it could root in his body.

His henshin item was in his hands, and he had held it in a death grip, the brilliant malachite gem slowly turning black as the taint channeled into it, a deep crack forming, and then another, each preceeded by the sound of shattering glass. The golden and silver serpents on it seemed to turn to ash and burn away sadly, before it was left there, a reflection of the soul it was bonded too.

Links: The Man in the Left Mirror

The Stone

Azeria couldnt stand it.. She just couldnt. Each moment that passed that she could get in touch with Peter the more antsy she grey. She was in the middle of working out with Kaguya when she was overcame by a skull splitting pain and the urge to be with Peter. The feeling had only grown worse since this morning until it hit a climax and she turned to Kaguya with a small smile. It was there that she excused herself to the bathroom and quickly darted off like her feet were lite aflame. Running into the bathroom she reached into her workout bag and grabbed her henshin transformation item before going into the biggest stall.

With a cool calm she transformed and with her free hand grasped the chain around her neck before pulling it free and allowing the key to transform into her staff with glaive bottom. She disliked the idea of using her powers to go to Peters house of all things but, the overwhelming feeling of something about to happen was nearly tasted.

Concentrating on Peters apartment she took her staff in hand and opened a portal right in the middle of his living room wall where there was a small gap between bookcases. With a deep breath she looked through the swirls of mainly purples, and reds before stepping through. Nothing in her wildest dreams would ever prepare her for the sight at hand when she stepped out of the portal she held her head high as she looked around her gently glowing azual eyes drank in the sight before she reacted. Which, was with her holding up the glaive end of her key staff.

"Who are you all and wha- PETER!" At the sight of Peter in his current state her resolve went out of the window as her slitted eyes widened with worry before it began rolling off of her in waves. The portal behind her closed off as she ran to Peters side before dropping down to her knees, taking his hand in hers. He would feel her power radiating through him, Her strength and her love pure and unconditional.

"Peter, I'm here.. Please tell me how I can assist.. I grew worried when I didn't get a response back or even a 'get me dr.Pepper' barb." It was clear that she wasnt paying attention to anyone else in the room anymore, Her lovely azual eyes locked onto Peters face. It was almost as if none of them existed anymore or they never had in the first place.