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Following some time after Free From The Chaos...
After moving through the vents to multiple rooms, the duo approached Polaris from above and Batcat lurched to a halt. Jupiter let out an airy growl as she steadied herself behind the creature, looking down into the heart of the Cave with a mix of disgust and tension. Just as Batcat was folding his wings and readying to dive from the vent opening they had stopped at, Jupiter threw out her good hand and grabbed a fistful of his fur. "
Is it down there?" she hissed, knowing well that it would be if her companion were ready to leave their safe system of travel. Batcat turned to her with a cocked head, but Jupiter released his fur before anything more could be exchanged.
"I'll follow in a moment," she said quickly, waving him off in a dismissive manner and staying behind in the vent as the the wingbeats descended.
It was bad enough she had spent so much time in the Cave among the Gembounds, but she had never come to Polaris. She could pass over it, mostly skirted around the edges; but never did she descend. Leaning out of the vent, her head craned toward the Spire. There, crackling with magic - their magic - it stood like a pillar of defiance. She clutched at the rock she held for balance, digging in to it with finger-like claws. There was nothing she could do right now - nothing she could do alone.
She would kill them. All of them. Just as they were killing—
A familiar cry broke the spell that had come over her and her attention turned back to her current goal. Shifting in the vent opening, Jupiter scurried over a bit of the ceiling before dropping down and descending over several obstacles. Batcat and its spawn were engaged in small back and forth when Jupiter finally arrived, but nothing terrible had happened at least. A guilty weight had always hung heavy in her stomach for Batcat. It was never her intention to leave him down here. When she created the others long after she left the Cave, he was supposed to be one of the ones to come to the surface.
"Stop it," Jupiter broke in, wanting to leave the riverside as soon as possible. She stomped with a foot to gather their attention, but the child was far from a good listener. It was anything but that - and in a sick, twisted way, it was exactly why Jupiter even wanted to come and find Batcat Jr. It wouldn't listen to her, and it wouldn't listen to Astraea; it wouldn't listen to the Gembounds or any other being that threw any promise or food or command at it. It would listen to one being, probably, and that thing wasn't here. Thankfully.
The only edge Jupiter had was her place in the world for who she was - what she was - on the surface, at least. She could talk to them up there. The wildlife. The creatures. Down here? It was worth a shot. And this thing wasn't exactly wildlife. "We need your help," she began, gesturing to its parent though she knew it couldn't see either. Its constant chattering told her that it was watching, at least. "You bite me, and I'll shove an arrow through your heart. But you can bite plenty of other things later, so you shouldn't be tempted." There was a heated silence and she kept a keen eye on its teeth, gauging its palpable aggression with her short arm readied at her bow.
After a moment's stand-off, Batcat Jr. let out a great warning cry but remained where it was. Jupiter couldn't scowl anymore than she already was and gestured toward Batcat to return to the vents. "Good. Come on, then," she growled flatly, turning away from the waters and heading toward the walls. With its parent already in the air, Batcat Jr. let out a choking hiss and some other aggressive sound that Jupiter ignored. Instead, she lifted an arrow from her quiver and waved it beside her as she continued toward the wall. "Arrow through the heart," she hissed, returning the arrow, "You're not one of my creations, so I have no qualm with killing you."
As she ascended, she heard the wingbeats of the other and snorted. Good. She felt awful about using Batcat as a weapon - if it survived, she had already asked for its safety topside. But the other? Just an aggressive mass of flesh in her eyes.
