Despite her valiant efforts, there was rarely such a thing as disappearing into thin air without any sort of trace. It was easy to fade away, but quite difficult, in actuality, to be lost completely. Especially when one, in the end, was so truly close at hand.

Subject Zero hadn't been trained to be an idiot. If he hadn't been a cat who could endure any sort of thing that was thrown at him, Sayaka's experiments would have killed the skeletal tom long before. He was intelligent and strong, had to be for Octavia to have chosen him as a Luminary so long ago when Toxicity had become Absum Lux.

Rumors swirled about cats, and he lent his ear to them all, knowing how to coax information out of even the most stubborn of felines. Everyone needed something. Maybe it was a bodyguard, a certain cat dead, or even information of their own. The icy eyed Luminary was used to being a grunt, a messenger, obedient and quiet, but he was neither naive, nor so weak as to be overwhelmed by the sheer force of a cat, and it soon spread that he would provide service in exchange for the information he needed about her, that those who tried to con him would pay dearly, and often with their life, though he wasn't particularly the murderous sort.

This was yet another lead, by a shady sort of cat in a dark alley. Needed a fellow street cat killed, but in turn, had given an almost perfect description of Octavia, had pointed him in the direction she'd been last heading. Zero had a few friends watching the informant, just in case this search yielded nothing, but he'd been getting closer, he knew it. The night prior, he'd caught her scent, and his information was just too tauntingly good to be true, it seemed. If this was a success, there would be yet another cat's blood on his paws as he repaid cat for his good word.

And indeed, the cat seemed to have been telling the truth. All at once he caught her scent, stale at first but stronger going as he went. There was a companion at his side, and he gave a slight nod, telling the city she-cat to inform the tom his request would be granted, and that his enemy would be dead within the next two sunrises. It also served to him in the privacy he needed for this encounter by sending her away.

He almost passed the box at first, silent footfalls moving a few steps beyond the dirty sleeping place. He'd been following her scent, and for a fraction of a second, he had been so absorbed that he hadn't realized it stopped. Turning, he stepped back, peering into the makeshift nest and seeing a form curled within, his own Absum Lux scent invading her space, familiar, but likely unwanted.

"It's been a while, Octavia."

He hadn't expected much of a greeting from Octavia. With the rumors it became clear that she didn't want him around. Of course, there was the small hope in his mind that she would at least be somewhat receptive to his presence, but it seemed he wasn't so lucky.

Subject Zero leveled his own stare at her, meeting her eyes without hesitation. His expression, unlike hers, was neutral, reserved and nigh unreadable, though his tail gave the slightest twitch. There was no point in dodging the subject, least of all when she didn't seem interested in pleasantries. "Absum Lux needs you." He replied, his tone blunt.

If she hadn't noticed it before, it was readily apparent now. His fur seemed to hang more against his frame, ribs accentuated by his striped fur now actually visible, rather than just being seen as an illusion. Scars crisscrossed his body, more than their ought to be, even for a skilled fighter. Zero looked more like a starving rogue than a cat of the group the former Heda had created, and there was a sort of weariness behind his eyes she couldn't unsee, no matter how much the tom acted as if it wasn't a problem.

He didn't offer any further explanation, simply waited for her reaction. It would tell him all he needed to know; it would tell him if she'd truly given up on their home.

"That I have..." The tom hesitated then, seemingly searching for the words to explain. "In a sense."

He was relieved, inwardly, that she had not truly turned her back on them. Even still, that did not make his task an easy one, to explain what had become of the place she created. "Absum Lux, in recent times, has become weak. It's recent leaders have been cats not of the Coalition, and that has been to the group's detriment, though we believed in Wanheda's wisdom to choose our Heda. This latest one, Peach, who you may have heard whispers of, he was formerly SpringClan's leader, and his mate was Vera's son, formerly of the League. In even more recent times, a rogue group has been threatening us. Not that this is unusual, and Peach organized an attack on them. But we became so weak that we could no longer fight them. And then our Heda fled in the aftermath, after pushing the Coalition into a suicide mission. Those that survived have either fled, or hide in the church, starving as the rogues run rampant."

It wasn't a pleasant tale, given the tom's expression, ever more grim as the story was told. "The Coalition cannot rightly be called more than a band of survivors, clinging to traditions, names, and a sliver of hope that Wanheda will speak to them. I have stepped up to minimize the deaths, but none of us, not I, nor the High Sage, or even the Charged, have received a vision from the deity. She has gone silent, and though they often listen to me, I am no Heda. No, I have come to you, not to ask you to save the Coalition and bring it to glory. I ask you to return to destroy that which you have made, and save these cats from dying more needless deaths." This was most certainly not what she would have expected, least of all from Subject Zero. He, more than any other cat, knew that one could come back from many things. Even the brink of death. For him to go out of his way not only to find Octavia, but to ask her to let that which she made die... things had to be extraordinarily dire.