Ruminations

Ruminations

May 25th, 2005

There were many things that she wanted to do right now, and only one of those things lead to a future she was willing to let exist.

While rei.bot did not make a business of time travel, she was more than aware that entire worlds could be changed by a single action. Even something so inconsequential as the beating of a butterfly's wings could culminate in a typhoon a thousand miles away. Humanity had names for things like this, of course- quantum alterations, chaos mathematics, the will of the Amida Buddha- but the effect was, essentially, one and the same. The more variables one could observe, the more precisely they could predict things to come.

She did not need time travel to forsee the course of the universe.

The validium-borne entity had taken residence within Magellan Castle within the past several years- or had come to be spending most of her time there, in any case. The Serenity line had never really come to trust her; she and her motives were just too self-centered, too alien for them to understand. The new generation that had come to replace the old was patriotic in extremis, and could not understand how anyone with her power could simply stand aside from the concerns of the galaxy.

rei.bot had all but given up on the new generation. Most of them had sought her out at one point or another, most of those youths intent on proving their worth against the single most powerful entity (save the current wielder of the Ginzushou) in the Crystal Imperium.

When she was feeling merciful, she let them leave without too many broken bones.

Too few of the new generation sought the wisdom and serenity that she had mostly achieved over the past few eons. She was all too happy to teach them when they sought her out; some of them, when they grew older, might have even made good teachers in their own right.

If they survived the horrors that had come.

The arrival of Galaxia Spear was not unanticipated. Far from it, actually. rei.bot had been subtly preparing for the arrival of this threat for some time, now. She had given advice to those who would listen, warning them of dangers; to those who would not, she had simply refused to give even the time of day. She had done everything she could to prepare the human race for this coming conflict.

And as she sat in meditation, forcing her consciousness to relax, she wondered who was eagerly awaiting her arrival in the fray.

There was a battle raging out there, in the vast depths of space. Forces lead by the second advent of Chaos had made their long-awaited strike at the only enemy who had ever truly stopped them. A terrible war was being fought on the cradle of mankind. Innocent and not-so-innocent, men and women, young and old, everyone who was even remotely in the path of the Spear was going to die.

She wanted badly to be in that fray herself. She had taken on a multitude of threats, enemies, unnatural things from outside this reality, and even her parallel selves, and she had proven victorious every time save one. And against that one foe... it had taken a Time Lord, plunging through hard vaccuum in a search for her components, to restore her.

rei.bot knew that if she joined the melee, she would be sought out by Galaxia. rei.bot knew she would win that inevitable battle; as powerful as Galaxia Spear was, rei.bot was stronger still. rei.bot also knew the contagion that lurked within Galaxia's mortal shell would seek a new host if it lost its container.

It had taken her total effort to purify the validium components of her body those long eons ago... and in those days, the supposed malign intelligence of the validium had been quiescent. While there were stirrings of its evil intent in her body when she first inhabited it, rei.bot had taken pains to purify what taint lingered within.

That did not change the fact that she had once shared her body with a primal power of the universe. Were Galaxia slain, Chaos would be free to seek a new host- and she knew it would desire her metallic flesh.

She was relatively sure she might be able to contain the corruptive influence of Chaos for a time. But, then again, Galaxia had accomplished this deed as well, and even the greatest warrior of the Sailor Wars had inevitably fallen to its taint. What's more, Galaxia's possession had only increased her power. If rei.bot failed as she had...

rei.bot had seen many terrible things in her existence. This thought, though, was beyond even her darkest power fantasies.

So, in the end, there had been a compromise. The time-energized woman had called upon her latent powers- one of the few times she had ever dared to do so- and had pulled the entirety of the planet Venus out of the time stream. When the eye of the Spear had turned away from Earth the rest of the galaxy, Venus would return to its place in the solar system, and rei.bot would resume being hated for not fighting.

Venus would be hated for not fighting for its Queen and its fellow human lives. Minako had wanted to fight very dearly, but this had been forbidden to the planet's ruler by factors beyond her control. Sakura would probably take her place in the conflict, somewhere- rei.bot could not stop her and maintain the Venusian isolation. Any other world would have hated her for dictating their destiny, and rei.bot knew she would have many things to do in the aftermath of this war.

Still, in the end, hidin was the only thing rei.bot could think to do. To spare the universe, she had to let billions of people die. For one so wise and terrible as she, the solution seemed hollow... but it was the best she had could come up with. If she hadn't been so resigned to this possibility, she might have cried.

As she stood in meditation beneath a volcanic lavafall, resting upon the surface of the planet, rei.bot reflected upon the fact that this had not been the first time she regretted she did not have tears to shed. It would not be her last, either.