Seren got herself checked in at the hotel she had selected, grateful that they had a pet friendly room still available for the night, and headed upstairs with Remy. She was glad she had fed him before she left, and she had made sure to let him use the pet relief area the hotel had set up before heading in. She set a bed up for Remy, and changed, slowly, brain running at five million miles a minute about what she had seen, had learned tonight. She moved to the sink, picking up her skincare products, trying to get herself to do her nightly routine.

She could not do it, though. She had begun to shake, her terror and anger hitting her hard as the adrenaline that had carried her all the way here began to wear off. She almost dropped a glass jar of one of her more expensive products from how hard her hands were shaking, and that convinced her to set it back down in her travel case, for fear of breaking it. She stared into the glass, watching herself as her body reacted, trying to control any and all urges to give in to a true panic attack. This situation was bad enough, she did not need to end up curled up on the floor of the bathroom, sobbing uncontrollably.

Finally, she gave up on skincare entirely, and headed for the bed, turning off all the lights but the one by the bed, and making sure the curtains were tightly closed, before laying down and staring at the ceiling. She had started this evening anticipating going to bed in the arms of the love of her life. Now she was alone in a hotel, terrified about what to do with what she had discovered.

He was on the wrong side of the war, they were enemies. But she loved him... But they had fought several times, when Powered Up. How was she to resolve this? There was no way in hell she would ever let him even begin to try to corrupt her. She hated the Negaverse far too much for that, and she could never bring herself to be a member of that murderous league. And that thought... Her beloved had probably killed people, what with his job. He was definitely a General at this point, from what she had seen of him, and he would need to collect lots of power, she figured.

Hell, this was the man who had tried to defend his side by claiming their side was evil because Chibi Sailors existed. As if ANY of them wanted a child to need to fight? And honestly, if it was not for HIS side, this whole situation would not exist! They would not be fighting for the lives of all the innocents that the Negas fed off of, and the children would not be in a position to BE recruited before they were ready. And yet he thought it was the Moon's fault.

She sneered in anger, turning onto her side, looking in the dim light towards Remy, who just looked sad and confused in his little bed, clearly not understanding why he was not allowed to share with her tonight, since Nate was not there, let alone why they were in this strange room he had never seen before. She felt so bad for him and... Decided to get up and go to him. She considered her... Their boy... And picked him up, taking his bed and putting it on one side of the bed, before putting him back on it. At least he would feel like he could be with her tonight. She hoped that would help him, and maybe her too...

She lay back down, snuggling up to their wonderful boy, and giving him slow, careful pets as she thought. She remembered meeting Nate, for the first time. The accident, and how he had helped her. The second, where she had met their boy and helped him reunite with Nate.

She remembered all of the times they spent together, the quiet way their friendship and then love had built. The way he had introduced her to new things, like camping, and helped her learn new ways to exercise so that she was not just a runner, but more balanced in her build. How he had encouraged her to take the Aikido classes she had once taken. How he helped her when she got injured. Moving in together. All the moments of their lives so far, until he... Had started working all the ******** time.

And that put another spin on this. Was it really work all the time that had kept him so distant much of the time, or was it his 'work' for the god damn Negaverse? Had he let THAT come between their happiness together? Did he still love her? Was... Was this his way of telling her that they were over? She trembled at the idea of him leaving her and that... That hit a key note for her.

Even knowing all of this, the idea that he would leave her broke her heart. She froze, her hand on Remy's head stilling between his ears. That was the key. She had to find a way to fix this, but how?

What if... What if, instead of trying to end things, he was asking for help somehow? Or something. He had brought them back to where they had begun. What if he was willing to Purify, rather than wanting to corrupt her? She began to pet Remy again, calming slowly as she thought about this option. Finally, she nodded slowly. There really was only one way to handle this, then. She had to find him, again, and show him, in turn, who she was... And offer him the chance to come back to her, to join her side. Tell him the truth, that she loved him so much, and she needed him... But she could not continue living like this, with this knowledge. If he accepted, she would do everything in her power to help him.

If he refused... Well, maybe it would be time for a last battle, because she was not sure she could live with this knowledge.

(1043 Words)