Act 4

 

Quadlogue

 

The skyline smoked with the stellar flames of the iron needle, its glass shards reflecting the flames from their surface world  like a thousand miniature suns captured in mirrored fragments. The fires of the city below illuminated the great corporate headquarters of Baraka-Rev as if to pay homage to the shining master of metal and masonry, the city who had taken the reins of the once pitiful planet and brought them back to their former glory. Economically, technologically, it was the Premier's investments during the war that had lifted the world off the gutter in which it had been cast by the incompetence of it's former leaders. The planet was now a superpower of commerce and trade, a hub for the transportation of goods and resources to a system of planets throughout the galaxy, all of which had been developed by the Baraka family. Over a thousand factories were overseen from this one hub, and the war industry had pushed the pioneers of biomechanical science to create a new battlefield weapon- The Baraka Auto-Examinatatory Persecution vehicle, otherwise known as AXP Baraka Tanks. Baraka-Rev's headquarters, the skyscraper of Baraka-Rev, once stood as the center piece of the city, a beacon of power and strength in an already impressive city of light.

That evening its mighty dominion over the world was shattered as a terrorist incursion had set its offices aflame. The insurgents had gained movement over the past several months, bolder attacks, frequent sabotage of XU's critical military, economic and technological targets. The security measures over the office itself were already extremely high, the company's assets were under tight scrutiny, scrutiny that would no doubt intensify as five Starguard warship vessels were hijacked- meant to be protecting Baraka-Rev courtesy of Ursula, and instead slammed into the building's glass facade. Their impact caused tremors and shocks throughout the city, and in that one instant it was over. The building came collapsing down in a massive crash, crushed by the fiery explosions of the ships sent to guard it and reduced to an apocalypse of smoke and rubble.  Baraka-Rev offices were gone. Their files destroyed, their plans in pieces, their assets vaporized. It was the work of one saboteur, dressed in a military uniform and bearing the visage of mint-haired, blue skinned lady with red eyes and a sneer onto the world. She stood at the highest point of the wreckage, a mound acting like a podium onto the stars as she waited for every media feed in the galaxy to reflect her face. Stardust net disseminated her image rapidly, her latest in a series of highspeed attacks throughout XU. The future of XU's own destruction, and the woman whose sneer held the responsibility for it, she wanted them to know her face.

It would be Becca.

Diane folded her arms. With her guise, she could ensure that name would live in infamy.

 

Just three days ago she'd been on Vulcania. The city was one of the most beautiful sites in all of XU, a metropolis at the center of which rose a mountain- an old dormant volcano- that was at the time being drilled. The drillers were there to make use of the volcano's energy for power. Diane had opened up a portal from deep underground, sending lava spewing out into the energy extraction mechanisms and causing a massive pyroclastic flow and cloud to erupt. The blast had spread through the city, vaporizing everything in it's wake. From one of the nearby buildings, Diane watched on as the city melted away, her presence being one of the reasons Idola Byte had tasked her with such a mission.

Missions against meteor mining operations. Terrorist incursions into XU EPV War-assets. Sabotaging military assets. It was simple work. Each time she completed a mission, she had gained a new level of power over the galaxy's destiny. And per Idola and her master's goals, Becca gained new infamy. More and more people were starting to associate her with the terror attacks. She was the face of XU's future, the girl whose actions would make her the most powerful terrorist in the galaxy's history. Most powerful, save for the soldier perched upon Croix's shoulder, watching Diane from Croix's Starship- Zack. Zack was once part of a military force known as the Starguard, it would not be an exaggeration to say he formed the organization with the backbone of Paramour Frontier United, and his two sisters- Ursula and Croix. Sisters who now were going to war. Ursula from the sight of law and civility, the premised seat of power in XU. Croix, the leader of the Insurgency

Zack was their greatest agent. The master tactician and soldier behind the sabotage of the planet's assets and infrastructure, XU's most dangerous man.

It was his duty to ensure that Diane's presence as Croix's puppet was not exposed. Not only for tactical purposes, but in his blackest heart, sentimental ones as well.

As Diane looked upon from across the galaxy, knowing that he was watching, she flipped the bird. He was the one, after all, that had introduced her to this game. To this hell. And she would kill him. Like she promised to him the day they met.

From Croix's ship, returning to XU's galactic boundary from the far off reaches of Harvest, Becca watched the replay of her own face and self, her imagery on full display. Terrorist attacks, incursions, the face of XU's great rebellion. "We're on the edge of a new era", Croix said from the pilot's chair of the vessel, looking back her stonefaced brother and his trilby hat. Her enforcer, ancient mariner and mystic warrior of the desert sands Elysium stood on close sentry. Behind the 3, Becca stomped her foot. "The FUCK is going on?! Why is- Why someone imitating and framing me for that shit?" She yelled.

The 3 simply watched. "Hey, you assholes I'm talking to you!!!" She pressed her foot into Zack's back repeatedly.

Croix's features became one of steel.

Croix placed her hands folded down on the control panel in front of her. She turned her head only a smidge, not looking at the girl but turning to her sentry. "Elysium. Fill her in." Then turned back forward.

The mummified figure gave a 'hmpff'. Elysium's voice was calm, even monotone. "It's Diane. We tasked her with causing damage to XU's infrastructure, as well as a few sabotages. We're in an interstellar war here. Our enemies are in the shadows, but she's the tip of the spear." She saw Becca's rage rise, and interrupted before she could explode a single word. "As for why she's taking your guise, her shapeshifting abilities, teleportation and tactical abilities were invaluable. We couldn't expose her or risk the strategic loss if her true identity became known. We also believed that you were more suited for this sort of reputation and we'd benefit from creating a boogeyman or heroine figure, to be used in propaganda or media outlets as an example of XU's dangers. She also has a greater power, we believe, to act as a lightning rod for the populace. To be a beacon of hope or darkness." Elysium spoke.

Becca, against all expectations stood silent.

"No no. You don't get a say in that. Consent isn't a thing." She said, finally, looking away. "We're at the warpgate, Croix. 11 minutes to XU."

Becca grumbled. "I get to say how I'm perceived."

Elysium didn't respond. Croix did. "You're free to think what you like, Becca."

"It's a war, Becca, not a game. I'm not gonna sit here and make you enjoy this. But I need you to understand. What we're fighting for, we're fighting for the future. I do understand the emotional response, but the emotional is what led to this war, this very moment."

Behind Croix and Elysium, Becca looked over the scene, her head tilting down.

"That being said. I'd be a bad leader if I didn't offer my ear." Croix offered, going over and gently patting Becca's head. The girl had been such a gem during her circus, a fine and true acquisition. Becca folded her arms. "You're lying.."

"Of course. About?" Croix smiled.

"What you're fighting for." Becca said. "I don't know what, but sure as hell isn't 'For the future.' You think I'm stupid?" She said.

Croix looked on.

"You look down on everyone. Hell, it's what everyone feels and sees about you, what people are saying." Becca stated. "They don't buy that shit, do they. You're not some freedom fighter, it doesn't fit you. Now I know this big beast here is just a good soldier and does whatever the fuck he's ordered." She pointed at Zack. "But you? You expect me to think you're some leader and have things 'for the greater good'? What is your true motive? Why are you leading this rebellion anyway?"

Croix's lips were flaccid and still at first, but slowly rose into high arches, the amusement Becca provided sang her heart a swansong note. "You got me." She said. "Well, I suppose that's a matter of perspective, Becca. It's exactly as I said. You're free to think whatever you like."

Becca rolled her eyes. "I'm being real with you." She said. "You're some psycho, so don't give me that BS. If you're fighting a war, fight for something good. For me, it's about saving those I love. For me, I get out what I put in. This isn't about the future, it's not some 'greater good'- it's just 'My ass's good'. No fucking way are you and I some hopeful leaders." She said. "If you expect me to play along and play soldier or try to liberate XU or whatever, I don't give a shit. You're all killers, you're all psychos, and you're all doing this to be fucking powerful. Isn't that it? This is a power struggle, isn't it?"

Croix scratched her cheek, as if feigning curiosity or searching for thought. She shrugged. "You think I care about power? Please. I'm not my sister. I don't believe in war. I don't believe in power. I've seen power and I've seen evil, Becca. What do you think I'm doing here, right now?"

Becca paused. She didn't trust this woman at all, but in the moment her words seemed sincere as an oceanic surface, the waters deep enough that one could peer into eternity and still never find the bottom. "I'll tell you what. Play along a little longer.. and maybe someday, I'll tell you why I'm fighting this war."

Croix's eyes pierced through the heart of Becca. "Or you can leave when we get to Xi. At any point in time. Your choice. No strings attached, no chains." The heart that Croix could play like a fiddle. "I know you'd like your little bout with the new 'Domina', would you not? Fortunately for you, our goals align. If you stick around, I'll see to it that, with everything in my power, you do get your date with Goliath one more time."

"Goliath.." Becca paused. She said Goliath- not Nathan, not the Domina. How did this lady know his real name?

Becca rolled her eyes. "Yeah, if you want to 'win' the galaxy then yeah, you get me. But at the end of the day, I'm still going to fuck you over."

Croix shrugged. "I understand, I know." She laughed. "I'd be bored out of my mind if it wasn't otherwise. Please do keep things entertaining." The lady's eyes became like diamonds, like she looked down upon the entire universe with her woeful, pitiful gaze. "There's no point in a bonfire if you cannot have a little fun."

Once upon a timeline, the entirety of the universe could've seen in Diane's eyes the same thing. She stood with the love of her life, Thatti as they watched their fleet burn to the ground. The counterforces, funded and lead by Dominique and Thatti's Orchid channels, assisted by White Nebula had done their best to stop XU's rise, to quell it's growth. The universe had had its chance. A chance that seemed now bygone.

When Thatti watched Nathan ascend to the throne, she didn't understand how a mere boy could feel such hatred towards the Flora Church. How they could decapitate their own mother. Thatti didn't see the same hate, though she felt a similar one for those who'd harmed Nathan, those who'd led him down a path of darkness. The Boy's Liberation Front swept through Orchid like weeds in a garden, choking all beauty out of its depths. From their universe came the rot and corruption that spread to Xi-, through the freeing of a dangerous woman named Ursula, who in a long and bloody war turned the tables against the Xistress. Universal timelines were often intertwined, as White Nebula explained- like a cosmic tapestry of knots, one weave of the universe's past and present and future would sometimes intermingle. As White Nebula explained to Diane, between distant universes and realities time could be apart, but within those interconnected by narrative and causality, events would mirror one another like a distorted reflection in a pond. Some event's effects may play out differently, but the roots of cause and effect could still be seen as integrated, consistent and true.

 

A timeline where Orchid's rebellion was one of blood and terror, a reflection of XU's own. A rebellion that led to the eventual ascension of Dominique, a leader that mirrored Ursula in many ways. Thatti's war, and Domina's own, both echoed the other, a reflection of one another- and in Thatti's mind, it was a reflection that could be changed.

But not this time. The resistance was crumbling. The 'White fleet' Dom had scrapped together was obliterated, Thatti's Orchid forces no longer able to resist the mighty Premier and the Domina. XU was a superpower, it's influence spreading across the galaxy and the forces of Xistress was but a whisper, a memory of old. Orchid's fate was sealed. Xi was soon to follow. Perhaps it was due to the corruption of Dominique's constitution- power hungry, narcissistic, unable to inspire leadership or confidence in the situation. A ruler of the populace more than the land. The people's trust in her was crumbling fast. Thatti for her part tried to inspire the Orchidians to fight back, but they were fractured, divided, and a populace of bugs and plants on their own could only withstand so much loss before they gave in. For her part, Thatti resolved her last act to take on Nathan directly and defeat her brother as challenger.

It would be a suicidal fight, one she could not win. And yet, Diane wanted her to refuse part of it. "Let's run away together." she told Thatti. "I know a good spot we can get away to, we'll be happy there."

"And leave the galaxy to tyranny?" Thatti said shaking her head. "I love you, Diane. That I'll always remember." Thatti said, with a smile. "As long as I live I will fight, and not flee. My last act as leader, I will be remembered for. "

Diane's eyes widened. "Thatti, no. We both know this is suicidal. You don't have to..."

She stopped her words halfway, knowing her love was determined to the very end. Orchidians were always stubborn like that.

Diane frowned. "No. It is to be your last act, yes." Thatti said. "But it will not be your last memory of me." Diane's eyes hardened. She took out a box and handed it to her. Thatti turned away, her back turned towards the woman as she opened it, taking out a ornamented staff. "Star-Striker?" She asked.

"A new Perceptcival weapon. I know that Nathan destroyed your last one, and I didn't think the makeshift you've been using would be enough. It's pretty strong, you might be able to nick him with it."

The Orchidian leader in Thatti observant as gravity across all inevitable surfaces, but then, her expression turned into a gentle smile filled with grace, her heart buried in the afterglow of her partner. "I love it. I love you."

Thatti's expression became softened, smiling, and Diane said to her, as they'd first met, "Run into the light."

Thatti drew the staff, the weapon which had been reforged from the ashes of a phoenix from AU. It glimmered in the darkness, a star in the sky, as her expression took the same tone as Diane's own. She said with tears in her eyes, "Besides, you know, Diane.. you've always been my light."

Diane nodded. Behind her, Petal, Pyra and the other gems stood nearby next to White Nebula.

"Starguard forces heading to our  location", the woman informed Diane. "Our fleet has been destroyed, our numbers will be decimated. This war is over. " White told them.

"Dominique's forces? Our fleet..", Thatti said. "Will she get here?"

"Dominique.. has already fled. Her remaining forces surrendered." White Nebula said. "It's just us.

"I'm not giving up. I just.. need to tell you one last thing. I.. I love you." Thatti said, wiping her tears. "I hope we see each other again. I.. I will always love you."

Diane smiled, a smile like light on her lips. "So will I."

Thatti took Star-Striker, Petal, Pyra, Maisma, Hyde, Nefriset and Bliss going with her.

Standing like a soldier was a blue gem, a male-appearing boy who was stone faced and determined in his stance. Chalcan.

The gem of Envy. Diane looked at him as he cleared his throat. "I came as well." He said, and without words, drew his blade. "I'd like to stay and protect you, if possible Diane." He said, understanding the agenda here was uncompromising suicide. Everyone was going to die, the war was ending. In his last moments, Chalcan wanted to make his feelings known, his dark tanned skin sweating with anxiety and blue gem directly atop his forehead. Diane sighed.

"You know that I'm Thatti's." She told him. "She's the only one in my heart."

"Yes.." Chalcan said, placing his blade back in his sheath, turning away as he looked down. "I'll see you, on the other side." He said, raising a smile. His voice became low and solemn. "I.. just wanted to say. I love you Diane."

Diane took the blade out of his sheath and placed it back in his hand. "I know." She looked at him. Hyde gave a slight grumble but looked away.

"Not to undervalue your confession.. but don't waste your last moments on someone like me." Diane told him. "I'm an inconstant light, not a star. There's no shortage of darkness in my life.. just as there's no shortage of light. I'd like to burn out bright however I can." She walked past him, spear held at her side. "I suggest you do the same."

She walked into the shadow of the base's lights and left Chalcan to catch their struggling flickers.

Everyone watched Diane leave, then turned to the exit where Nathan and Ursula's forces would be arriving soon. When Thatti saw Nathan fly overhead, she held Star-Striker with all the courage she could muster. Maisma, Petal and Pyra began to dance, forming their ultimate fusion- Alexandrite, growing in a glowing ball of power. Thatti shuddered. As she saw the light of her brother's arrival, she knew the battle that would be ahead of them would be a difficult one. She flew up, ready to meet death's embrace. "Watch me become a firefly, mom." She said, thinking of Lyras. She sped towards the light, thousands of ships floating through the sky like a parade of coffins to mourn the devastation to come.

It was time to bring an end to the war that she would lose.

Her heart heavy, Diane walked with White Nebula deeper and deeper into the base. The walls and ceiling were already shaking from the bombardment overhead, the battle tearing through the landscape above. Mountains shifting, the atmosphere covered in smoke, Thatti fighting for her life. Diane imagined it all in her head as she followed White.

Nebula walked with her down the halls, past the chambers, to the lowest point of the base where the power core was kept. A mystical egg White kept on hand. Diane and Nebula walked to the core, Diane's spear at her side and the woman in white glaring at it. She looked at Diane, taking the ornamented white orb off its pedestal and holding it to her. "Are you sure you want to do this? This is the last way out of the war we have.. You'll have to start over."

Diane looked on. "Do you remember the time Nathan told me that he was going to destroy me? He was so upset at the time, and I understood it. But he still promised to leave me alive, though he was furious at me. He was upset that he couldn't destroy me." She looked at Nebula. "He said that me and him are the same- that he fights for his ideals and the people he loves. I looked in his eyes. He was telling the truth. He was so close to being destroyed so many times, so close to that moment. Yet he was just so.." Diane looked at the woman, shaking her head, Diane's expression of sadness in her eyes. "Normally people, like Ursula or Lyras Nezura only fight for power. They fight for ambition or greed or some pointless self aggrandizing reason. They'll sacrifice everything for themselves. But Nathan was willing to sacrifice himself for everything and everyone. He was, virtuous and self-sacrificial to the very end."

She looked at her spear- the weapon she'd forged from her own sister. "I will curse myself if I cannot say the same. For me, it's exactly the same.. Keeping Thatti's dream alive, it's the only thing keeping me awake."

White blinked. "If you're with me, and if you want this to end.. then this is the only way." She said. Diane looked on.

"The war's over. Thatti's lost. I've already accepted this. The only thing keeping me alive.. is the hope for another day with my love." She took the Egg up and placed it on the pedestal, her spear stabbing very gently into its surface with a 'clink.' The tiniest of tiny cracks would appear in it as she drew from its power.

"Do you remember what I said? The advice I gave you." White said. "You need 'those 2'. They're the only way you'll be able to win the war this time around.

They're the only way that you'll truly be able to save your loved ones."

Diane looked on, a small tear coming down from her eyes, and a moment later, a smile. "Yes.. yes I do remember. I promised I'd find and recruit them." She twisted her spear, a spiral beginning to emanate out of the egg and circle around herself. "..But I cannot keep that promise. I'm sorry White,  I have to keep my promise to Thatti.. no one can save her but me."

Nebula sighed. "I suppose I have no choice. You'll have to make your own path." The white orb would light up and shine a golden light, and into it Diane's spear plunged. She felt it's power- like a whirlwind of time, ticking through the ages and sucking her into its vast stream. This was her final act- to reset the clock and start from zero. The day she arrived in Thatti's palace, to see Thatti and the Orchidians free.

Diane would awaken in the distant past. It was time to fight.

Becca looked at Croix's eyes, looking down on the universe. Becca scoffed.

"You're saying that Diane is.. a time-traveler?" She almost broke into a fit of laughter. "That's bullshit. You're bullshitting me here."

Croix poured herself a glass of sherry. "It's not even me who knows. White Nebula knows. She knows everything. She was the one who told Diane about our time in the first place. She told me." Croix said. "Apparently in that timeline, me and Zack were not involved in that war. But seemingly, Thatti hadn't died so readily either." She shook the shrink. "Want a sip?"

Becca refused with silence.

"So, in this other timeline.. where was I?"

Croix leaned on her arm, curiously looking Becca back. "That is, the million dollar question isn't it?"

“XU Customs won’t greet us with tea,” Elysium said mildly.

Croix set the sherry aside, the amusement folded away like a fan. “Zack.”

“Brace,” he said, and then there was no time left to speak.

The soldier was already on the move, heading to the exit to arrive outside. The little greeting party that Ursula sent would be a light workout for him.

As the entire ship shook like a frigate in the eye of a tropical storm, gravity crushing the surrounding forces Croix merely rolled her eyes. She'd done this enough times that holding her martini without spilling a drop was a fine art to her, letting her sip through the locomotion. Elysium leaned into the deck and laid a palm to the bulkhead. Her bandages whispered, and the old warrior’s aura sank like an anchor stone, steadying the frame.

The second timeline for Diane was a much different one. Her efforts to prevent Nathan's rise to power were met with resistance, alienating Thatti somewhat from her and leading to a different war than the one they'd seen. Lyra’s death was prevented, leading to her at the helm to fight off Nathan and his Gaian followers. Against his own mother, Nathan faired much worse this time around against a competent ruler and strategist. But when Ursula escaped, one of the prisoners with her was not Satsuma, but Mosiac. It was a strange situation, where they were able to get into XU to prevent Lyra’s death, but not Ursula's ascent. As XU took rise, it swiftly declared Orchid a theocratic hostile state and began a war with them. Cornered between Ursula, one of her former challengers and Nathan's uprising on Gaia, Thatti was killed in battle before she could be put down the forces against her. Diane regarded this timeline as a failure, regardless of what came next. Her focus was on preventing the destruction of Orchid that her efforts had brought on, but next time she would focus solely on protecting Thatti.

Diane held the egg in her hand, tipped her spear into it and drew from its power, creating another tiny crack.

In the third timeline, This time, she drew a line and would not allow Thatti to be targeted or killed. She and Thatti flew across the galaxy, seeking out and destroying any sign of Nathan's forces as they came through. They succeeded in halting the war before it ever truly began, and by the time Nathan's challenge to Thatti's came, Nathan was already imprisoned and unable to challenge. Orchid's forces victorious and in control, Thatti and Diane's dream of peaceful leadership a reality.

And then the Diamonds attacked. Alarmed by the Holy Flora Church's extermination campaign, they immediately launched an insurrection, gems the galaxy rising up to seize Orchid. The Diamond revolt took the church by storm, and already spread thin from the previous campaigns against bois, were swiftly overtaken. Xi itself, in order to prevent such a force from threatening Xi closed off its borders and Orchid was on its own, abandoned by its own allies. Thatti was trapped with her forces and the war began in earnest. A new era of strife would arise.

That was a war that Lyras and Thatti did not win.

Seeing the Diamond ships closing in on them, Diane took out her spear and egg, and with a 'clink', rolled back the clock once again.

The 4th try, Nathan died early against his mother. But Mosiac and Satsuma rose up in his stead, having not been vanquished in this timeline and killed Lyras, competing together to became Domina. They killed a weakened Lyras during their challenge, and then they, the Gaians and Diamonds rose up after. Together they managed to bring down Thatti's own armies in short order. With Diane watching Thatti die at the hands of Satsuma, she could do nothing to prevent this. Her fourth try failed.

Her 5th try, Nathan was killed by Lyras early in his own campaign. Ursula returned this time with both Satsuma and Mosiac, and together used XU's power to gather every challenger, rival and enemy of Lyra’s, overwhelming the church once XU invades. Diane and Thatti rose up and fought against them, but they would fail.

The 6th try, Nathan lived and became Domina again. Satsuma and Mosiac returned again, betrayed Ursula and took XU for themselves, then went on to ally with Nathan against Thatti's fraction. Diane's 6th try failed. The 7th try, Thatti was killed and Diane fought against Nathan once more alone. The 8th try, Thatti's forces stood victorious against Nathan but still they were not able to prevent Ursula's arrival in XU when she finished her Llavalite supersoldier project. 9th try, some kind of incursion occurred from the Tower, Diane wasn't really sure what that was about, but it was disastrous.

13th try, Lyras and Ursula were fighting each other to the death in an interuniversal war. Thatti, having chosen to join the rebellion against XU became the counterpart to Nathan, fed her ideals and turned her against her own mother, just as Nathan did in Orchid. Two wars, two rebellions across separate universes led by Lyra’s children, tragedy was inevitable to ensure when Ursula had Gaia blown up, Thatti dying with it.

By the 48th try, Diane was getting extremely tired. Diane this time again had to fight Thatti- who had been taken in by Ursula and believed in some sort of XU ideal, saluting as she repeated the Starguard anthem and swore her loyalty to XU.  Her mind had been poisoned so thoroughly it was almost impossible to prevent it.

The 49th time, the Orchid church was allied with Bois against Xi, though their forces were being eroded down to nearly nothing. The 50th, Diane tried to be a part of XU hoping to prevent war, but they didn't want her. She tried again for the 51st and that failed. In the 52nd attempt, another version of Lyras from another universe appeared and kidnapped Thatti, fighting the Orchid version to a standstill. The 55th time, Lyras was not only loyal to XU but her wife convinced her to recruit the Set, together the two galaxies destroyed Orchid and shattered Thatti's dreams.

The 68th timeline, Thatti and Nathan fell madly in love. Diane caught them in bed together, left, and immediately reset the timeline.

By the 99th reset, Diane was feeling spiritual fatigue. She'd adjusted her approach everytime, but no timeline taught her anything about how to fix the next one or to both save Orchid, Thatti and end up together. She joined every faction she could find, she talked with whoever, she made adjustments left and right, her efforts just ending in failure everytime.

By the 124th time she began to think she was doomed. She tried all her tricks, she tried every possibility, she made every change she could think of. She found herself stuck in a place without the egg in it, a void, a void where she was just repeating the same things over and over again. How had she even ended up here? Then she remembered, it was a Yoxlfer or Yoxxie as the Xi'ans called them. Big, floppy planet-sized manatee like space aliens with 8 mountain-sized fins who could manipulate the rules of space-time. They floated through space for thousands of years, migrating and observing the cosmos, and had observed and recorded the history of the galaxies. This one in particular had just happened to be watching when the conflict had begun, and when Diane asked to reset the timeline to the very first one she remembered- but of course, when the time came, they refused to take her up on the offer. Diane was stranded.

She lay in the chirping forest on its back, insects flying about everywhere Diane couldn't change a thing- she couldn't be proactive at all, her efforts to prevent the escalation of war were stagnating.

This timeline Xi'ans were fighting Flora, and Flora and her church were fighting the Set. Ursula was killed early on when Mosiac ran to Black Nebula and had her own daughter assassinated, but in turn she pressed the Luminaries into fighting Orchid. Thatti was... had she decided to join Nathan's faction? Stay with her mom? Was her mom even alive now? She looked at the sky.

"Thatti!" She shouted. "THATTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTI." She cried out, throwing her spear like it was a stick into the void. "It's not possible!" she said. "It's not fair." She held her forehead. Diane had lost the egg, she'd lost Thatti, she was losing her mind. It didn't matter. Nothing mattered.

Every time Diane tried, Thatti was eradicated, in this one Diane was sure Thatti had died before she could do anything. It was a nightmare. Her soul was trapped in endless torture, and she had no way to escape. The only thing she could do was look at the night sky, and wait.

Trapped on the whale, she waited. For 3 weeks, she waited in despair. Finally a bright light shimmered, something arrived. It was, from her squinting eyes, a broom? A BROOM. "WHITE!" Diane shouted, waving her hands in the air like a flag. Before long, White Nebula flew down, the gem of Envy with her.

Chalcan, his bright blue hair and light cyan skin looked down at Diane and her de-saturated red.

"Diane." He said, and when he saw the way she was laying- her hands open to her side, her hair a matted and tangled disaster, he just blinked. His electric blue robes with golden trim flapped in the wind of the great space Yoxxie. "You aren't the same.." He said, and his heart ached. But there was no pity in his eyes, only concern. "Do you need to go home?"

 "There's no way I can go home now.. I lost the egg. I've failed every timeline. What am I doing wrong?"

"Ahem." Another voice said

A familiar tall woman with short white hair and dark skin looked down from the broom, her arms crossed and a light blue shawl with a darker blue hem over her chest. "W-White?" Diane said. White Nebula took out from her shawl the egg, now covered top to bottom in hideous cracks, looking like it would practically have fallen apart if not for White's intervention. "You've been overdrawing from its power." She told her. "It won't last many more trips now."

Diane looked on, her eyes sinking deep in her head as she closed them. "I don't even know what I'm doing anymore."

Chalcan's face looked concerned. "But Diane, you've given a lot. White told me about the deal you and her made.."

"Get up." White said, handing her the egg. "This is the last chance you'll get at another timeline. You'll probably fail this one too, but it's your last try. After that, it's impossible." She said.

"Then leave me alone. Just.. just leave me alone." She said, looking at the ground.

"Can you give us a minute?" Chalcan said to White, who folded her arms and got on her broom. White left the egg and flew a kilo away, sightseeing over the mantee's sea while the stars glimmered.

Chalcan never saw or acknowledged any changes, but Diane never told him how many times she'd failed. She often confided in him in some timelines or another- a gem boi who, to his own strange nature seemed to have a different backstory everytime. Some timelines he was born in Orchid, freed by Thatti. Other times he was a mere Xi'an who sympathized with her cause. He'd been with her, sometimes in a few timelines as long as she'd been trying. There'd never been a single one where he wasn't loyal or didn't grow infatuated with Diane. There were timelines where even the other Crystal Gems had sided with the diamonds, or Nathan or even Ursula, however Chalcan admiring her was temporal constant seemingly.

"Diane, listen to me." He said, kneeling down and crawling next to her.  His voice was a light whisper. "We need to talk about what you're feeling."

"I don't know what I'm feeling.. I'm trying to fix this. All I know is that the last time I had the egg it was different, it didn't end like this. I feel.. I feel like I'm going insane.." She put a hand to her forehead.  "I just.. I just can't do it anymore."

"Diane, you can't let Thatti die." He said. "You love her, right?"

She turned to him, eyes so sore they felt like they could bleed. "Why do you care? You never liked Thatti anyway, you've just always been riding my coattails. Don't you know how to keep your mouth shut?"

She closed her eyes. "Maybe I'm just done with all this. I just want to be done with it all."

"You can't." Chalcan said, rising up and wiping her forehead clean.

"But-"

"YOU CAN'T." He slapped her loud enough to leave an echo.

Diane's eyes opened. "You and Thatti.." He said. "Your history is not done yet, no matter how you think."

Diane glared at him. "What do you know? You don't know how many lives I've had to live thru.."

"I know about you." He said. "I know about your feelings, Diane. I see what you want. It's not me, and I've accepted that. But, this you right now isn't you! This, is you giving up. And that, I know that is not you."

Her eyes sank.

"I know you. I know about your mind, I know what you're trying to do, and I know you, Diane, I've seen a lot of you. The Diane I know, she never gives up. The Diane I know would kick and scream and stab and set the world on fire before ever giving up on what she wanted, on what she believes is right."

The girl grew abit irate. "So what? You think your shitty pep talk is going to change anything?" She pushed him away.

"Don't you care at all?" He asked.

"Not about you." Her words spit like venom.

Her spear glinted over by a strange blue-purple palm tree. Seeing it, Chalcan ran to the spear, then pointed it at his chest, the spear glinting.. "I wasn't born with regeneration like the other Sins. Of all gems, I always found that strange and depressing. But, you never judged me for it." He held it by the middle and turned it towards his chest. With a deep breath, Chalcan attempted to stab it towards his heart.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Diane yelled, tackling him and wrestling at the spear. He tightened his grip, the two struggling while he tried to stab himself.

"So w-what, if I die here, you just go back and this version of me never matters anyway. End of the road."

"Yeah? Then DO IT. I don't care about you!" She said, her eyes turning to green. "I don't care about you!" She repeated.

Chalcan looked at her in a cold shock. His eyes were wide, his lips parted, then shut. In another world, he'd have said something like 'fine'. But he never learned to be that brash or crude. He just looked at her, in complete and utter, terrified silence. She didn't need him to care. She needed him to not care. She needed the universe not to care, so she could lay down and die in peace.

And so, he just took the spear with no expression, no word, no tear, and he raised it. As he pushed it in, he looked at Diane.

She blocked it with her hand, bleeding her fist to keep it from going in deep. The spear failed to penetrate and she yanked it out of his chest, ruby red dripping from her fingertips.

"You're such a goddamn liar.." Chalcan said, breathing heavily. "You even lied to yourself, and fooled yourself into thinking you're giving up. That's what you did."

Diane looked at the blood on her hands, and held her fist against her chest. She looked at the droplets, falling away like rivers of hell from her nails. "But you won't let me die, or let the universe get destroyed or even a brat like Thatti get hurt.. because you're a good person, and to you seeing everyone happy and safe is the most important thing anywhere. Isn't that what a hero is?" He said. "If it's not, I don't know what is. That means you're the heroine of your own story, Diane. Only you control fate."

It was, just the two of them. Staring at each other in the strange cosmic abyss of space, in a world which had long since forgotten them. Half an hour passed in silence, the two staring out in wonder, letting their emotions sink in.

She never knew this about him. But White had, and this was what she chose to teach him. Diane never told him how many times he'd died with her. But it didn't matter. All the blood he'd shed, all the pain he'd felt at her loss or Thatti's.. all the pain he'd experienced at her loss or her pain at the loss of Thatti.. it would all be worth it to save them. "You're right about one thing.." She picked up her spear again. "I'm the heroine of my story." She stood up on her own two feet. "So, no matter what happens from here, I'm going to get it right this time.. I don't care what it takes."

A slow clap was heard from behind a palm tree. White Nebula came back. She picked up the egg from where she left it and began to walk to the two. "That's the spirit." She said.

"You have to forgive yourself." White told Diane. "Even gods can mess up. Done crying over your ripped valentine?"

Diane gave a slight 'hmpff.'

White nearly handed her the egg, but swiped it away before Diane could take it back. "Not yet." She said. "If you want to get it right this time, you have to do what I say. I know from the very first jump, you disobeyed me and abandoned your promise. Don't do that again."

"Hmph." Diane grunted.

Chalcan sat up, and looked up to the sky. "Hm.. promise? You two never mentioned that. What's that about?"

"Diane was never supposed to prevent the war or save any galaxy. Her only assignment was to save Thatti. As guidance for going back in time and fixing the catastrophe that unfolds, she was to recruit two individuals, and they were meant to stop lead the charge."

"HMMMMMMMMMMMMPHHFFF." Diane huffed so loud, she sardonically almost dunked her chest over backwards.

Chalcan looked at the egg, then Diane. "Oh." He said. "I.. guess you were still on your first jump then.. The others technically didn't count?"

White didn't comment. "Diane, you don't think I won't know when you fail to follow my instructions?"

"I don't wanna." She said. "Don't. WANNA." She threw the egg at White Nebula's head, who ducked. "Fuck them. She said, throwing her hands up in the air. "I'm not playing their game anymore. They can burn in hell, this time I'm only going to be saving Thatti, my way. DONE. DONE. DONE. Ka'piesh?"

"If you don't recruit them. Thatti can't be saved. It's that simple." White told her. "Do you understand that? Not won't be saved. Can't. Factual."

"You'll never win on your own."

Diane looked at Chalcan, who looked back at her. "That's what you believe." He said. "It's not true."

White put a hand on Diane's back and walked her away. "You're going to do everything my way now. You'll do what I say."

"Why the fuck.." Diane grunted, her head pounding. "Guh.."

White looked at her, and for the first time in a long time, she looked like she had a very specific expression. "This is going to be an ordeal, Diane." She said. "A painfully long one."

"Fuck this." Diane said, and grabbed the egg. "Fine." She said.

"Hold your arm out." White told her, watching as she did. She took off her own glove and with a greenish glowing glyph on her paw, placed it onto Diane's wrist. A heated exchange left a small mark embedded in. "You won't be able to timeline jump like you have, using the eggs power to siphon and power your spear. I'll let you move through time back and forth for this last try, but take note- If you fail to head my instructions or disobey this objective, you won't be able to do that."

"Noted." Diane said, her eyes looking at White, who she was sure knew exactly what she meant by that.

"Good luck, Diane. I know you can do it this time." He hugged her, and left her to hold the spear and the egg. With a weary sigh, Diane looked back at the two, then stabbed the egg, shattering it. Its remaining temporal energies transferred into her spear and the sigil on her wrist, lighting up her tattoos, powerful light enclosing her like a cocoon of wind, until even that dissipated.

It was the last jump. Diane was gone. They set off, White on her broom.

 

 

Diane would wake up in a desert in Xi, a far off planet.

There, she'd see a very unexpected visitor.

Her eyes looked up. "It cannot be.." The Red Reaper themselves walked across the sands, their trilby hat nestled on dirty dark hair, their boots stomping the ground with heavy tread, their red cape flapping in the wind, their capelet and shoulder strap a pure white like that of a saint.

"Zack?" Diane said, feeling like a knife to her tongue to even say it.

The man looked down on her. "Who the hell are you?"

Diane blinked, she couldn't believe what she was seeing. The gruff red reaper stood in front of her, his shadow casted like a midnight sun from where his glaze met hers. "I.." She swallowed the butterflies inside of her and braced herself. "I'm Diane. I've come from the future to.." The words were like steel wire to swallow, and an iron muzzle to fight against and say. "Recruit you." She said.

"Yeah, no shit? Join the club kid." Zack told her, clearly not too impressed with her presentation. He had a scar on his right eye, a red gemstone in the center of his shoulder and blue fireworks beneath his skin that looks like cold watery veins pulsating eerily, just barely visible behind his bandages. His aura was cold, but his eyes were warm.

"It's, XU. In the future-" "Don't get me started on XU." He interrupted. "If this is about my sister's claptrap, we already had the talk with every political wannabe picked last. If you think you can get me to join this stupid group of yours with some sob story, I'd be in the mood for eating lead before any of that at all." The glaze in his eyes became frosted, and the way he spoke became like a scowl.

Diane took a deep breath and spoke carefully. "Sir, I'm no idiot. I know the future's history in regards to XU, I've experienced it first hand. I just came to offer you an ultimatum. XU is going to fall, but it'll rise again. I need you and your sister-" The trauma with the name tasted like ash on her tongue as she whipped it out. "Croix, to stay alive and fight with me through all of it."

Zack scratched his head. "Stay alive? I don't think you know me very well." He came closer to get a good look at her, Diane's lithe but muscled and well-toned frame catching his attention.

"Why do you need us?" He asked.

Diane bit her lower lip, and took a breath. "Because.. this has to end." She said.

Zack looked at her carefully, as if he was trying to guess her age, her motives, her intentions, and anything else that could define her. In his head, he wondered. Is this a trap? Is it one of those deals where you do my bidding and then do your own? "Trust me girl. Nothing ever ends." He told her.

"Not here, not anywhere, not now, not ever. I don't think we should be in this together to fight against something that never goes away." He sighed, and she could tell that while he didn't believe in her, he was intrigued by her.

"The future won't be the same as you imagine it to be." She said. "I guarantee you that."

"It's always the same." Zack replied, eyes sighting the warm lights overhead that were fast approaching from the upper atmosphere. "War never changes."

His words sent an adrenaline spike into Diane. "No, it doesn't." She replied, her voice low and steady. "It just doesn't happen as it should."

Zack scratched his head again. "Why are you here?"

Diane shook her head. "I need you on my side, because I want to save someone I love."

"Why?"

"Because I'm trying to make something better." She said.

"No.. why are they someone you love? And why do they need saving?" He asked.

The gem gave pause. She didn't really have a response to that. She'd never even thought twice about it, it always seemed the most natural in the world to her. Pursuit of love, justice, passions to be embraced and the violence they bred. An instinct of virtue that seemed absurd to question.

Zack stared at her. "And if I said no?"

"You don't have to worry about the war then. I can just skip you in the timeline and find another way to get to what I want." Diane was lying, but she couldn't think of another way to say it. And she couldn't think of anything else to offer him.

"And you think that line of bullshit will convince my sister?" He asked, knowing how manic Croix could be.

"Why does my love need saying? Was that an actual question?" Diane said, independent of the dialog and past the conversation. "The truth is that sometimes a single decision, a single action can change the course of everything. I.. I want to be that decision. To embody that change. I'd like to set the course of the universe, if it falls on me. That would be my victory."

Zack shrugged his shoulders, but she was persistent. The buildup from the lights above became an industrial roar as a golden ship descended onto the sands. Shaped like a flying scarab, the gilded starship hovered, blowing a sandstorm as it landed. From its backside a wing ascended, revealing an exit. A figure stepped out and soon approached the two.

Lyras Nezura. Diane had less than her savory chemistry with this woman while staying at Thatti's, the woman whom she had to pretend to be a servant to her daughter. She looked younger, if not by age than more by experience- less cynical. She wore her hair pulled up into a bun, and looked as if she were ready for work, her hair and appearance looked more like an solder or a commander than a holy Domina.

Zack turned his head when she came and looked at her with suspicion. "Daughter of Orchid, it's good to see you." He said.

Lyras smiled. She was only a mere child when Zack first called her that.

"It's good to see you too, emissary of death." She replied, using an archaic title in Diane's absence. "It's been a minute since we last met."

She said.

"You're a pretty lively one." Zack said. "Odd to see you get out of the holy Domina's clutches."

Lyras scratched her locks, golden tips from dark brunette locks, as if her hair was dipped in honeyed gold. "She's not too happy with me, ever since your sister and I snuck off that day to watch the sunrise on Prospit and almost got caught."

Diane raised her eyebrows in surprise. The Domina, and- which sister was Zack referring to?

Lyras turned her head. "It's not a well kept secret. You and I and that foxgirl you used to take me to, we snuck out to the tower to watch rainbow sunrises of all sorts day in and day out back in the day.." She laughed. "Anyway, I got caught with Ursula. She was fuming for weeks after." She scratched her head. "I guess she cannot let past grievances be, unlike Ursula.”

"Sounds like my sister.." Zack mumbled to himself. "But Gaia declared war on us anyways. You two fought before, I don't understand how you still get along."

Lyras shrugged. "What's a few skirmishes and misunderstandings? We both understand the value of woman in charge. That's why I'm here, and you, too. It's not just you. The entire warband is down here. You know I don't like playing politics, and this is something where you'll have to do your part."

"You mean, I've been sent here to do XU's dirty work?" Zack asked.

"A modest goal. I'd actually like you do mine." Lyras said. "You've been in my stead in the past. I'd like to put an end to these, political failings. Your sister and I have had our differences, but we're willing to compromise. The Domina never will." She lent out a golden gloved hand to Zack. "I'd like you to join me again and help me take down the Domina and her entire entourage. It's been a long time coming."

Zack was hesitant to take her hand. "What makes you think I'll help you take down the Domina? Not that she's not worth killing. But she's not the real problem here. If anything she's-"

"Exactly. I know she's not the issue. We will all have to have a long conversation later, but I know you're a very good person to have on my side and that's exactly why I'm here." Lyras said. "Now, what do you say? Become my comerade in arms, and help me uproot the degenerate and bring in a new age."

He looked at Diane, the question still on his mind from before. Why are they someone you love? And why do they need saving? The question reverberated on his mind, Diane's flame-red hair shimmering in the light from the afterglow of the golden ship, as to look like an emulation of magma flowing through each silken strand. This girl was a gem, that wasn't lost on him. He'd remembered his conversations with Lyras before on the topic, he was well up to speed with her views. Zack lived as the razorblade to whomever became his hilt, on a good day he could be convinced, on a bad day being conscripted felt like a public execution.

 

He looked at Diane, and saw how passionate she was to save the woman that was dear to her. He knew his sister had no intention of actually trying to convince him of anything if he left with Lyra, she was probably trying to do some shady XU shit to get him involved. That's what XU always wanted to do, what Croix wanted and what Ursula wanted, it's what they wanted to do to him, and everything else that was critical to them.

Everything that came with having their hands on the reigns of power.

"What do you think, girl?" Zack asked her.

Diane swallowed. "I hope you won't regret it." She told him, her expression somber. Lyras looked at Diane confused, in this timeline she'd never known her, but she knew Zack wasn't a native orchidian. Talking to a gem for such a crucial life-decision was the height of indignity to her.

"No." Zack said.

Lyras blinked.

"What?"

"I don't think I'll regret it." Zack told her. "And I don't think she will either."

Diane stared at Zack. "What?"

Zack took her hand. "I think I'll have an adventure with this girl for a while. You'll keep me company, won't you?"

Lyras clenched her fists. "What? Why? You're a traitor, the emissary of death has betrayed me! This- this is treason, treason, it's an affront, an- an unforgivable-"

"Well it's something you'll have to forgive." Zack said. "But if you do, it'll be the only time. That's my ultimatum. You want a shot at the throne in Orchid, go at it. Just leave me out of it." He put a gentle hand on Lyra’s cheek, just like he did when she was a young girl lifetimes ago. The warm memories and  the love she'd once felt for him came back, her face brightened. "Will you forgive me?"

"I-" She took a deep breath. "Fine. You're free to go. And I'll accept this, our little arrangement. If you ever want to defect back to my side, or leave XU's, or whoever else you'd like to become a part of my church.. well.." Her voice was like a thawing icicle, still sharp and hard but dripping with glistening dew melting forth. "We have a place for boy's in our galaxy. Mud that forms the foundations," She started to walk away.

"Save the sentiment." Zack said. "It was cute when you were a kid. But you know I ain't nobody's man."

Lyras turned her head to him, working through her oedipus complex to deliver one final line. "You were once."

Zack went grim. "A long time ago." He folded his arms like a grump. "If you love somebody that went all skippy crazy.. best to forget about them."

The two watched Lyras return to the ship, and then fly off in her extravagant ship. "I don't trust you." Diane told her, the way she would have if she'd known her in the past. "I never will. After what you did to me once, and that awful woman.." Her voice softened, bitter resentment towards Croix pushed past. "But, why did you refuse her?"

He watched Lyra’s ship become a mere star in the sky, then vanishing in a streak of light accelerating past the horizon. "Something you said to me.." Zack watched the cold breath leave his mouth like the steam of an engine. "You said you'd like to set the course of the universe, that it'd be your victory to decide the end." The man started to laugh hysterically, scaring Diane.

"It sounded just like the maddened words of a woman I used to know. A long time ago." He put his hand on her shoulder, warm and gentle. "You know.. I want to see the end too. To know my duty is over, that I can rest. I want to be relieved of my duty. Maybe that's all you did just now."

"What did I do?" Diane asked confused.

"I want to end this whole fucking war once and for all." He said. "If Lyras attempts to take the throne, it'll just be another civil war that I'm dragged into. Then Ursula will see that Orchid is vulnerable and try to get involved too. She'll have demands of me- I'll never know a day's rest. So I'm done." He said.

"You're not afraid?" Diane asked.

"Not anymore." He said, then pulled out a pistol. "You won't believe what I know. But you're never going to need it."

Zack had had this conversation with Lyras before, and had tried to turn her once. But the girl serving the holy church now was a far cry from the little girl Zack once knew.

Diane swallowed, eyes flicking from the gun to his face. “Zack..”

His hand pulled the trigger. It wouldn't be enough to make the end he dreamed of came true. She'd never see the result, his form blurring a glitching blue.

The sand around their boots began to tremble, soft at first, like a distant engine. Not the golden scarab ship this time. Something stranger. The air thickened. The horizon, stuttered. A ring of pale distortion opened behind Diane, and the wind that came through it did not smell like sand or metal or even exhaust. It smelled like.. starlight finding its target.

Diane turned and saw it.

A figure stepped out of the ripple, not walking so much as arriving, assembled from drifting pieces of light. It was humanoid only by suggestion. Its edges were frayed into streamers of white-violet luminance. Its face was a dark hole with a thin bright line down the center, like a slit in a veil. When its anthropomorphic shape frayed, it stretched and gained multiple limbs, its torso elongating like a centipede of light.

A Cascadasyte.

A spectral organism made of whatever lived inside the Tachyon Cascade, the kind of thing you only saw in corrupted footage and censored dossiers, the kind of thing people argued about until they died.

It didn’t speak with a mouth, but rather ripples in spacetime, the distorting creating airwaves which could be heard as sonic vibrations. Diane struggled to make them out- White Nebula. Stop. Don’t run. Don’t plead. Listen.

You came here to cut a thread, it said. To prevent a fall. To recruit a knife.

Diane clenched her jaw. “I didn’t come here to-”

"But that cut has already been mended. The timestream has diverged. The Cascadasyte drifted closer. The air around it warped like heat haze, only colder. Diane felt its presence scrape along the edges of her mind, not rummaging, not stealing. Merely wrapping around her, tickling her with a hundred glowing ethereal hands squeezing and gently caressing her. Soon she couldn't see the desert, or Zack or even the sky anymore. It's spectral words were another ripple to her pinged consciousness. Then watch what your desire buys.

Those were the last words she heard, before the arms and body merged like a cocoon around her and squeezed her out of the existing space-time. When it dissipated and let her go, she was no longer in Xi, but Orchid- in front of a large stadium.

There was a blond woman out in the ring, a woman that Diane had never once seen before. She had a ponytail and a sleeveless set of sleek robes.

It was the day before the war.  The announcer introduced this woman as Orion, whom had taken over Lyra’s position as Domina candidate after the previous Domina had fallen deadly ill- rumored to have been killed by her own subordinates. Satsuma and Mosaic stood on the opposite end of the battlefield as her foes, both of which Diane had recognized from the Orchidia dossiers. Croix also stood in the ring, in the center, dressed in a dark battle suit, staring at all three combatants. Her ire boiled, trauma returning by second nature. This was one of the woman White Nebula told her to recruit, in time, but here- something new was playing out.

Who was this Orion?

Before she could think, Satsuma Satori began with a blitzkrieg of attack.  Her right arm was transformed into a giant machete-like green razorblade made from leaves, a sharpened organic blade twice her size that would've cleaved through streel like a knife through butter. Astrid retaliated with a barrage of attacks, countering and blocking each of her enemies strikes with ease. Satsuma had a few seconds to recover, before she'd be attacked again. Her opponent had a good headstart and momentum, one of the two she was better at fighting. The other stood on the other side, Mosaic Vimiri.

Mosiac took out her deck of hards and let them float into a levitating gallery- a gattling gun of golden lasers and fired shots began spamming at Astrid, who did a swan song of a performance to dodge them. A laser grazed her right arm, but she spun at the last moment, her right leg striking at Satsuma's woman's stomach until it bled. Astrid twisted, her back arching as she leaped in the air and turned her staff into a golden blade that struck down Mosaic. The two were injured, but fought back.

The Satori woman, bleeding from the left waist side, picked up a rock and fired it like a small laser dart at Astrid's right shoulder, then leaped on the woman's back and struck repeatedly at her, until she was stabbed into the sand by a spike of red light. Astrid, bleeding from her left arm, struck Mosaic's right side, then dodged as a beam from a card came in. As she retaliated, she spun and fired at Satsuma with a golden beam that shattered her right leg. Satsuma striking with the green razorblade had lost her footing, but it didn't seem to phase her. Astrid shot up the golden beam with her staff like it was a ladder and clambered upwards against Satori's two pitcherplant hands, she parried both attacks from above while in freefall.

When she reached Satsuma's face, she leaped off the woman's face and struck the Satori warrior with her staff like a sledgehammer, sending the bloodied woman flying through the air. A beam of black light from Mosaic struck at Astrid's heart, but her reflexes allowed her to dodge. The two women were relentless, Astrid barely holding her own. The whole fight Croix watched amused, stopping short of chuckling as Diane approached from behind. The women's intuition had already sighted Diane coming close, intentions unclear but carrying gravity. "You don't look like the usual orchid sort, gem. I don't know who you are or why you're here, but could we enjoy the fight before you unload your business?" She said without so much as turning to look at Diane.

Orion was bleeding from both sides, her staff was broken, her other knees were injured as well. She wasn't in a good shape. Astrid was the better of the two fighters, but not good enough when swarmed by two of the former Domina's commanders at once. This was supposed to be a fight she'd go with backup from Lyras and without her, her stamina was faltering.

"Who is that women?" Diane asked, eyeing Astrid.

"My investment made manifest." Croix replied.

"But my investment is going down right now." She turned to the woman beside her. "Perhaps time for her own gamble to pay off?"

On the battlefield, Astrid was breathing heavily. A trickle of blood started to fall from her nose. Satsuma and Mosaic would've gotten the better of her eventually. This was why she'd chosen her. Astrid got on her knees and surrendered on the spot, pointing ahead. The two thought this point was towards them, a gesture of submission, but the crowd began to look onwards as a girl walked down the stairs in a white, gleaming latex carapace-like suit full of armaments and plates, a specialized combat regalia designed just for her. The leader of the FLORAL, 'Flora's Liberators' who professed kind and egalitarian treatment of bois and fought against the domina's tyranny had arrived.

"Thatti!" Diane called out.

The girl didn't hear her in the roar of the crowd.  The girl had a small wand in her hand,  encrusted with red crystals which emitted a soft light. It didn't look like one Diane recognized but she could tell it was a Glitterkiss Perceptcival device.

Thatti rushed towards the field of combat to Orion's aid. She kissed her cheek, then walked towards the two injured combatants- raising up a white letter. The seal printed on it, proving the mark of a chosen challenger. Slowly Astrid limped and returned to the crowd as the 2nd challenger arrived in her stead.

Croix looked at Diane.

"Beautiful, isn't it? Are you ready to see what fruit the seed bares?"

Diane didn't even get a chance to answer. The next second was a blur. Thatti's form became a flash of streaking light and rapidly assailed the two. The clash created a shockwave which lit up the whole stadium and temporarily knocked out Diane for a single moment. When Diane returned to consciousness, it was because the whole battlefield began to glow in flashing white light with three orbs spinning like pinballs around the battlefield, engaging each other in a contest of violence. Croix was standing on her feet and put both her arms out, she started to roar with laughter.

 

Croix was perfectly pleased. This girl.. she was a warrior. "I trained her personally at an academy my own. You think a Domina candidate I invested so much time in would falter? Astrid did great work conditioning her for this day aswell.." She told Diane.

The combatants began to fight each other in a different plane of existence, their blows colliding like a whirlwind of light. Diane could see the sparks of each battle like rain drops and the whole combat was like a lightning storm. But unlike normal fights, this one was like a whirlpool of energy and the arena began to shake, the energy radiating across the field. The fighting was a blur of blades, cards and beams.

And then Thatti turned her hand and the fight stopped. Her right hand stopped its own attack and the three combatants halted. She raised her left hand in her fist, then raised it up and spun in a circle with the arm in a flurry, her wrist a blur like a tornado, the combatants caught and swept up into her motion. "Golden morning." Were Thatti's words. A flood of energy left her hand and the stadium exploded, a barrier from the operator's protecting the audience.

Its energy and the explosion of the arena began to warp the whole city.

The sky was a swirling cascade of bright blue and white. Diane saw through the distortion that Thatti, Satsuma and Mosaic were stuck in a vortex of light from the attack, but there was a clear difference- Thatti stayed lucid, commanding the wave thrashing over the latter two. The other two were like rafts capsized overboard in a maelstrom. When the attack dissipated, the two fell in a bloody splash towards the surface, Thatti landing on her two feet elegantly, giving a gentle bow.

Thatti had won.

Soon Astrid came to the surface to congratulate her and announce her as the new Domina of Orchid. Her Decade would begin, if anyone dared challenge her, she would be waiting at the holy palace.

Diane looked at the victor and noticed the bloodstains all across her uniform. It looked like she'd fought a hard fight, her own wounds were healing, but the stains wouldn't come off. "I remember now." Diane thought. "I wanted to see how her journey ended. I wanted to know how I.." The answer became clear to her. The question that Zack had asked her earlier, about love and fate coming to mind. "How I could play a part in it, and help her decide her course." She said, seeing the cheering crowd chant Thatti's name from on high in a celebratory gospel.

Suddenly Diane began to tear up, eyes leaking. She knew that this was a fight she had wanted and could've won, but that it was far more important for Thatti to win. She had her reasons, and they were much more important than her own personal vendettas. But in time.. She would find her own path. The question of love and fate that would become clear to her one day. Croix noticed her affect. "What's with the waterworks? Do you still want to kill me? Or perhaps, recruit me as he told me so long ago? I assume that's you, gem."

The gem of pride shook her head. "N-no, that's not necessary anymore. I'm done, you know. It's all finished." Diane's face softened as a smile appeared.

"You know it's funny gem.. my brother told me he was going to go with Lyras that day she appeared to recruit him on her crusade. Because of that she never undertook the rites of conquest. If he had helped her on her Decade, she might be here right now and Domina, instead of her daughter. It's such a shame to play to waiting or indecision, but I suppose it can't be helped sometimes. So, what does the future hold?"

"Don't know." Diane said. She just hoped it was full of stars. The fate of everything she'd aimed to mend, set course.

Later the next night, Diane followed Thatti to where the procession to start her Decade would begin.

The holy palace on Prospit sat above Gaia like a crown that didn’t trust the muddy skull of tyrants beneath it. Its towers were not merely tall, they were insistent, needle-straight silhouettes stabbed into the clouds, threaded with ribbons of pale light that pulsed like chanting. The city below was already in festival bloom, banners like long tongues speaking of Thatti's grace and strength, incense drifting off balconies in visible golden and purple plumes of smoke, crowds packed tight enough to share one breath, rushing to see the new Domina-to-be.

 

Diane moved with them, hood up, head down, blending into the press as the streets funneled toward the palace plaza.

The celebration was not joyous in a human way, or even gem way for that matter. It was reverent. And then she saw Thatti. Thatti’s suit was still stained in places from the arena, not because it couldn’t be cleaned, but because it had been kept. Proof. Relic. The white latex carapace gleamed under the lanterns, all segmented plates and sharp edges, like a holy insect made for war. The wand in her hand threw off a red glow that painted her gloves and the underside of her chin with bloodlust.

Diane expected, something else when she saw the crowned girl. But Thatti’s gaze skimmed the crowd the way a ship skims a shoreline. Seeing everything. Touching nothing.

Astrid raised her voice, ragged from the previous day, still proud.

“Citizens of Orchid. Witness the chosen.”

The choir inhaled together, like chitin clacking together from a thousand mouths as a single organism.

The High Celebrant, a woman going by The Seeress stepped forward, her orange robes trailing like spilled oranges melted and gilded across the ivory stairs. A bowl of shimmering liquid was carried out, something iridescent and thick, like melted wax. Her face was hidden by a veil, blond hair like silken golden strands swaying in front of her face and covering her eyes.

Thatti knelt. The Celebrant dipped two fingers into the bowl and pressed them to Thatti’s forehead, leaving a pale mark that did not drip. Rose looked at Thatti.

"Chin up girl. You've got a people to impress." She said.

Thatti gave an empty smile, before turning to the uproarious crowd.

And Diane’s chest tightened so hard she thought she might split. Because Thatti did not smile. Not even the smallest crack of a grin, not even the relief of a girl who had won. She rose with that mark on her skin like she’d always carried it. Astrid leaned close and murmured something into her ear, and Thatti nodded once, curt, almost impatient. Then Thatti lifted her wand. The sound in the plaza died instantly, like a throat cut mid-chant.

“Orchid,” Thatti said, her voice an austere calm of regality. “I accept.”

As the night went on, Diane followed Thatti into the procession's celebration room.

It was a long dark chamber, filled with galleries of white and violet and gold and purple and red. The whole plaza's atmosphere was a miasma, not quite of joy, but of reverence and pride and a quiet resolve that only a Domina-to-be could inspire. She watched as Thatti marched on and on in the wake of the other bugs of the holy church and elite class, the choir following with every step. The palace was a maze, winding halls of dark wood and gold-tipped lanterns and the sound of chanting and the scent of the perfumed air of the Orchid-people.

Diane snuck in from behind a purple curtain, clearing her throat and preparing to approach Thatti, only to accidentally bump into her.

Thatti didn't notice her until the choir went quiet. "You're still here." She said.

Diane took a step back. "What? How did you know?"

"Croix told me a gem was looking for me and interested. How quaint. I assume you're the gem she told me about. The girl looking for a recruit." She smiled thinly.

"Uh, forget about that recruit stuff." Diane said, wondering how she could begin to explain this. In all other timelines she'd managed to befriend and get close to Thatti again, with varying degrees of success and different roles, but none of them with Thatti as prospective Domina.

"I, came to offer my services? I'm from AU." She told the girl. "What do you plan on doing now, I'd like aid to you."

"What I do is none of your business, gem. If you're so interested, I'm sure you'll find some way to get close to me. Though I doubt you're going to do it, or I'd have met you sooner. The way I see it, you're wasting your time with this mission. Whatever it is."

Thatti turned her back to her and began to walk away.

Diane stood, stunned, shocked at the girl who had so quickly abandoned her like a ghost. The Domina-to-be who was now one of the highest class members of Orchidian society. She felt a sense of dread begin to crawl up her insides. She had so many questions she couldn't answer. What would the new Domina's reign entail? What sort of fate would come for Thatti, for Orchid? She took a step forward and followed her once more.

"Wait!!" She shouted.

Thatti did not slow down or wait for her. When Diane tried to touch her from behind, she sped up and grabbed Diane's wrist, almost pulling her to the floor forcefully. "Do not. Touch me." She stepped away.

The girl's eyes were steady, almost clinical. “Gems are useful,” she said. “Many are loyal. Some even believe themselves virtuous. But a gem’s loyalty is not a soul’s loyalty. It is appetite. It is need. It is imitation.” Diane’s throat tightened. She could feel her heartbeat in her teeth.

“Orchid will not be governed by the appetites of the lesser,” Thatti continued. “A gem may stand near the holy, but a gem will not touch it. A gem may serve, but a gem will not steer.”

Her may have heart stopped at those words. "W-what are you talking about!?"

This wasn’t the Thatti she knew. Or rather it was a Thatti she hadn’t been allowed to meet yet. A future Thatti, from this timeline. A Thatti sharpened into something that could rule. Someone who could reign supreme. The slow, clean, ceremonial turning of a person into a holy institution.

Thatti lowered her wand, an eye opening from it.

"Sis, what's the deal with that one? A gem giving you trouble? Shall I cleanse her?"

Diane almost shuttered, that voice- "N-nathan?!" A wet, lacquered iris that rotated once to gaze upon her.

“Oh?” Nathan said, amused. “It knows my name.”

"No brother." Thatti said to her wand. “Wasting such a holy artifact’s power on a mere gem would insult you.”

Nathan made a sound that might have been a laugh, might have been a small animal’s hiss.

“Insult me?” the eye blinked once. “Sis, you just called her ‘mere.’ That’s my favorite genre.”

Diane swallowed. “You’re, inside that? W-why are you a wand?” She looked between them, trying to find a crack. “Thatti, listen. I’m not your enemy. I know you.”

Thatti’s mouth twitched, a smile that never quite became one.

“Gems always say that,” she replied. “Right before they ask for something. Freedom, rights, independence. So needy, their greed never ceases.”

Diane flinched at the word again. Gem. The label landed on her like a collar waiting to be tightened around her neck.

“I’m not asking for a favor,” Diane said, voice sharpening despite her fear. “I’m trying to warn you.”

Thatti’s eyes narrowed. “Warn me about what? Give me one reason I should trust you?"

A hush passed through the nearby corridor. A couple of robed attendants had paused mid-step. A guard shifted his stance, just a boi occupying and escorting Astrid. She soon arrived to Thatti's side, stroking the girl's hair, putting her forehead close.

"Is this gem bothering you?" Astrid asked.

"She's just in need of education, is all." Thatti replied.

"Is enough time in the world ever enough? A person will take more than they deserve. And that person, is not a person at all." Astrid said to the gem. "You. You have no reason to be here.”

"But, your brother, and your Decade-" Diane spouted.

“That is not your concern,” she said, and it was so clean it felt like being erased. “You are a gem. You are below concern.”

Diane’s hands trembled. “That’s not who you are.”

Thatti’s gaze flickered, very slightly, to Diane’s hands. To the tremor. To the weakness. Then back to Diane’s eyes.

“That,” Thatti said, “is exactly who I am.”

Nathan’s eye blinked in her hold, bright with wicked delight as his power shone.

“Yeah, Sis,” he said. “Say it again. You’re doing the voice. The Domina voice. It’s hot. It’s holy. It’s terrifying. I’m proud.”

“Quiet,” Thatti murmured.

Thatti’s fingers tightened around the wand, not in anger, but in restraint.

“You are very confident for someone trespassing in my halls,” Thatti said to Diane.

Diane swallowed. “I’m desperate.”

"Desperation is for children." Thatti replied.

"You, uh.. are technically a child." Diane said.

"Don't remind me." She stepped around Diane as she spoke, slow, controlled, like a predator circling a wounded animal to find where it’s weakest.

Thatti stopped behind her. Diane could feel her presence, close enough to be dangerous, but not touching.

“Ooooh,” Nathan sang softly. “This is the part where she says she loved you in another corridor and we all pretend it’s not hilarious.”

Diane whipped around. “Shut up.”

Thatti’s stare hardened.

“You do not speak to my artifact that way,” Thatti said. "It may be a mere thing, but its more valuable than a thing as yourself."

Diane’s breath hitched. “Your, artifact? That thing is your brother-”

Nathan made a dramatic, offended little gasp.

Thatti glared at Diane, refusing to blink.

“You are confusing your indignation with moral clarity.”

Nathan’s eye widened with delighted anticipation.

“Sis?” he whispered. “Please say the word. Say ‘cleanse.’ I’ll do the pretty part.”

Thatti didn’t say cleanse. She raised her palm over, like a priest’s hand hovering above a sinner’s head, Instead, she lifted the wand just slightly. 'Freezie.' A single word. Diane's body went immobile. A simple magical restraint, cautious but gracious.

Thatti’s gaze stayed locked on Diane.

“You recognized him,” Thatti said quietly. “You called him Nathan.”

Diane’s voice shook. “Because I know him.”

“From where,” Thatti asked, and it wasn’t a question. It was a hook.

Diane’s mouth went dry. She could lie. She could invent. She could try to charm her way out. But she wasn't feeling so charming right in this moment.

“A different timeline,” Diane admitted. “A different outcome. One where you died- you usually die.”

"Well I'm quite alive right now." Thatti said.

Diane's heart hammered. "But you don't know how close I was to dying with you. It was like a.. like a chess game where everyone on the board was me. And I knew the moves. And I saw where you'd be placed on the board. But I could still lose and we'd all be dead, but if I.. could make the right move. I knew I could fix everything."

Thatti’s brow scrunched.

Thatti’s expression went distant again, calculating.

“Croix said a gem was looking for me,” Thatti said. "Normally I like to give the benefit of the doubt, but I won't have my procession ruined by your delusions. Speak with her, I'm rather busy. I've no time to talk to property." She looked at her godmother lovingly, and held Astrid's hand, who held hers in turn. The two began to walk to a bedroom lead in by a gleaming carpet. Diane watched the two begin to kiss. Her heart went wretched, her body shook. As Astrid felt up Thatti, her tongue against her cheek, gripping to her like a lifeline. Diane shoved her spear forward and screamed. Too sloppy, too slow, Astrid raising her own hand, a wave of pulse flattening her into the royal carpet. Thatti walked over her and looked at her with disgust, eyes fuming with the poisoned glow of a girl in the throes of a succubus, someone who would suck all love and loyalty out of her until she bled dry. Her heart couldn’t take it.

“So,” she said, “you have three problems.”

Diane swallowed. “Only three?”

Thatti didn’t smile.

“First,” she said, “you approached me like an equal, and brought your future into my holy night.” Diane’s stomach sank.

“Second,” Thatti continued, “you spoke my brother’s name.”

Nathan’s eye blinked fondly at the word brother, like it enjoyed being called that even while being treated like a weapon.

“And third,” Thatti said, voice softening into something far more dangerous than shouting, “and third. Do not ever, you dare touch Orion.” Thatti said, clinging to Astrid.

Astrid pet her head in turn, practically purring. Yes, this would do nicely she thought. She’d make her strong, stronger than anyone. Even her own mother, curse that horrible shrew. The sorceress decided she’d kill anyone that came in Thatti’s way, any challenger, anyone that even looked at her wrong. And than Thatti would become Domina, and she’d rule Gaia and command Astrid to do her bidding and praise her and call her a good girl and.. and..

What was she just thinking? Diane peeled herself up, seeing Astrid lost in a look of pure ecstasy. This was surely the worst outcome imaginable. “Thatti..”

Diane found herself allied with Nathan and Bois trying to fight back against the church, while Diane's real motive was to try to return Thatti to the kind girl she knew and loved. Her 14th try, Thatti was still corrupted by Orion, though Diane tried siding with Thatti from the beginning to see if she could make things work. "It's quite simple, if this one is a nuance? Simply rid of her. A shattered gem is unsightly, but we can remove her from the premise post-haste."

Astrid told Thatti to execute her, as a gem and so she nearly did, waving her wand and uttering an incantation. A blast of daylight shattered the hallway, sending Diane crashing down and tumbling down the stairs back onto the main foyer.

She was left behind alone, in a heap, in darkness. A heap of broken glass, a fallen gem who needed to get up. Diane knew she was in the worst timeline, and she would have to start over again. She was back at the beginning. She knew what she needed to do. She knew the right thing. She needed to redeem Thatti, to save her from whatever this was.

As she got up, arm bleeding, she saw a figure at the party sipping a wine glass with other guests who were murmuring from Diane’s crashout. She looked Diane’s way, a look that rendered Diane’s despair into rage and spite. Croix. She didn’t know how or why, but this was all her fault, the doing of that meticulous, inscrutable horrible women. Diane vowed under her breath that in every timeline, in any universe, at any point across the galaxy she would take her head.

The time loop that they were living, the endless cycle of party-goers, of war and desolation, time’s infinite possibilities, the universe’s ineffable potentials was all under Croix’s control. Diane now had one last chance, she could fix this. She could just murder this woman, she told herself, that’d be enough, her eyes were seeing red, simple minds, simple solutions.

Her legs balanced themselves to the surface, a little dizzy from that last blast. She started to slowly drag her feet towards that lady, grabbing a glass from a boi holding treys and breaking it into a nearby pillar so she could see the jagged edges align with Croix’s jugular. The closer she came, the more Croix watched amused.

“Aren’t you going to congratulate your victorious wife?” She asked. Croix raised an eyebrow and smiled, her teeth sharpened into shark-like points. “Of course, I doubt you were ever truly in love in any timeline.”

“CROIX! AGGGGGGHRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!” She screamed at the highest decibels she could and ran to charge at that woman. Croix easily sidestepped her and as Diane’s head slammed into a clothed table, Croix pulled the cloth and threw it at the gem like a bullfighter. Diane tripped and fell to the ground. The gem slowly pulled the cloth off, fumbling on the floor.

“I’ll give you, you are familiar with your passions. But that’s all there is to you.” She tipped her drink over Diane’s head. “You think you’re so strong, so powerful. You’re like a child, reveling in stupidity and mediocrity. You want to stand in my way? Tell you what, learn to tie your shoelaces first. Then we can have a civil chat.” Croix told her.

Diane watched her leave, the clack of her heels echoing as she walked away out the next exit.  This Croix was the same as the previous Croix. This was the same universe as the previous universe. This was the same Diane. She could do nothing to change any of it. The problem she faced here, that she had just run away from another timeline, and was now trapped in this one.

She didn’t have the egg anymore, and she goddamn would kill herself before she ever carried out White’s instructions.

Atleast, her quest was over. The looping would stop, the partygoers would stop, the entire universe would stop, because the loop was stopped. Thatti would become a Domina in her mother’s mold, without her. That would be her sacrifice, to die in this timeline while the girl who was her world rose above all else.

Her legs shook as she tried to steady herself up, she walked to a corner. Others had stopped murmuring and whispering, it seemed a gem making a spectacle of herself was a source of mockery, but little more. It all meant nothing in the end. Diane crawled into a fetal position and started sobbing. Her mind was swirling, she would just stay here forever, and her body would be just this broken, pathetic, helpless thing, forever. And she didn’t know how long forever was, but it couldn’t come soon enough.

Then a figure with wings flew overhead, staring back down at Diane.

The gem’s eyes went wide.

“Hermes?”

The Sentrimate paused, tilting his head down to look at her as she scrambled to stand up.

“How sentimental. Now get up off your ass. You’re not done yet. Not by far.”