Welcome to Gaia! ::

Ezra lounged in his mostly-packed dorm room, bored out of his skull. He was going to have to move home for the summer soon, which would leave him a little less independent than he would like. Sure, he could easily spend his nights of pleasure at someone else’s house, but it was much easier to get away with things when he didn’t have to pass through a door his parents could hear and didn’t have to tell them why he wasn’t home the night before. His parents were open and accepting, sure (how else could he get away with being that openly gay), but he knew better than to think that he was completely free from being judged. While he was never directly asked about his escapades, he always had that lurking feeling that his parents would deeply appreciate it if he reined it in just a bit.

Sometimes he entertained the idea of perhaps being a little less of a rampant hedonist, of maybe saying no to the smuggled booze at parties and not being quite so determined to worm his way into the pants of every handsome fellow that struck his fancy. His opinion of the idea arbitrarily pitched back and forth between “maybe it would be good to be good” and “screw that, I do what I want.” It wasn’t like anyone had stepped up to tell him to knock it off, so it couldn’t possibly be that bad, though sometimes his conscience would get the better of him and he would feel an acute awareness that he was probably being judged from the shadows.

Today was one of his more indignant days. Who are they to call me a manslut or whatever, anyway? It was the end of the school year. He wouldn’t be seeing a good portion of the people he was around for a few months. He didn’t give a rat’s a**. He was bored, bored, bored, bored, bored, and he wanted a fix of something to ease the crushing ennui. Heck, it didn’t even have to be sex; he’d be happy with just going out and getting something good to eat with some good company.

He scrolled through the names in his phone’s contact list, making mental notes on who would be most likely to accept an invitation or respond to any text at all. There were a few good people in there, but then he bumped into a certain name: Rhys. He remembered that encounter well, all right. That was no ordinary one-night stand, he had concluded that much. There was something there, something inviting that made him want another go. With a small satisfied noise, he selected Rhys’s name from the list and started typing out a text.



With any luck, he’d at least get a response; an explicit “no” was better than the request being completely ignored. While waiting for a response from Rhys (or no response), he sent a similar request to a few other names in the list. “Don’t all respond at once now,” he mumbled when nothing came in for a solid minute, then set his phone down beside him with a disgruntled sigh. Yes, he was impatient and had something of an instant gratification problem, but he knew how to make things worth people’s whiles.

Was it really that bad to be a little naughty if everyone was having fun, anyway?

[Backdated to the 13th, before Ploutonion’s corruption.]

Ezra awoke sweating, panting, reeling from what his dreams had shown him. It was all he could do to keep from screaming, though a startled noise did escape. The images he had been shown remained clear even after waking up, almost as though they were memories and not from a dream.

Clenching his blankets, he remembered the situation as it began. He was an Order Eternal in the camp that served as their headquarters, working hard to cheer people up and keep everyone’s wills strong in those trying times. He gave impassioned speeches on freedom of choice and the power of a strong will to overcome nearly any obstacle. His powers came in handy both in and out of battle, giving people boosts to willpower and motivation.

Then came the escort mission, and those tough but happy times came to an end. Every single one of them, including the refugee being escorted, had been captured. Cor Caroli sat in a cell for a little over a week before General-Queen Sakuradite came in and shoved her hand in his chest. At that point, it was all over. The corruption destroyed him, obliterated his memories and taught him that all of his speeches were meaningless. There was no point in preaching about the power of will and choice when a force existed that could overturn both without pause. Even the will of the one who represented will itself could be taken.

The next two years were blurry, but one aspect was very clear: the despair. He remembered feeling beyond depressed, devoid of purpose, ghosting through his days just to get through them. He refused to eat, and paid for it when he collapsed. At that point he met that pleasant Lieutenant woman who cared for him and nursed him back to health. He remembered receiving muffins from her, feeling like he didn’t deserve any kindness. After eating all the muffins, he awoke the next day with keen satisfaction and guilt in equal measure. That event sparked a craving to be cared for again, despite his mind telling him he didn’t deserve it.

Not long after, he had to break that woman. He used his power on her to keep her from fighting back, not that she struggled all that much even at the end. A General stuck his hand in her chest, clearly intent on taking her starseed for her traitorous plans. The spark lit itself aflame, and he hatched his plan to be reunited with Ploutonion.

The meeting itself was especially vivid in his mind. He must have replayed that kiss a hundred times, focusing on different details each time: the feel, the taste, the scent. Each replay filled him with a keen sense of longing, of wanting. He kept feeling flashes of wanting Ploutonion, of wanting only him and wanting him now. The associated emotions were so strong that he might as well be there in the moment with every replay: love, lust, pain, pleasure.

He begged Ploutonion to kill him, and when he refused to do so, broke down and agreed to come with him to the camps and be purified. He woke up just as they left the scene, which left the question of whether they made it back and what happened after. He hoped that they made it back to the camps and the purification was successful, but unfortunately there was nothing to say what happened.

Ezra was left thoroughly unsettled and unsure of how to handle the swirling feelings inside him. He wanted to have someone, anyone beside him to hold and squeeze out the tension with. No, that wasn’t true; not anyone would do. He wanted Ploutonion, the feel of his skin, the taste of his lips, the scent of his hair. Rhys had not replied to his last text, but that didn’t discourage him from him next move at all. He picked his phone up off his nightstand and scrolled to Rhys in his contacts. Through bleary eyes, he tapped out a text:



Admittedly, whatever had driven them together in the dark future seemed to be missing from the current timeline; at this point, they had really only gotten together once and their tryst was more for pleasure than for intimacy. It didn’t mean that Ezra couldn’t try to make it happen, though, and that was his intent when he hit send. He wanted to meet Rhys, tell him about the dream, maybe arrange a few more meetings. It was odd; he rarely craved intimacy over physical pleasure, and yet here he was, pining away for someone he loved in a dream.

Ezra would have difficulty going back to sleep that night. Like he had done so many times in that dark future, he allowed himself to slip into fantasy, and spent the disturbed dark hours dreaming of touch, taste, and potent emotions.

[Backdated to the 13th, after Ploutonion’s corruption.]

Cor Caroli loitered on the outskirts of the park, rubbing his face and trying not to cry. He had lost something great today, of that much he was certain. When he saw Ploutonion captured, he experienced a flash of when he was corrupted at the hands of the Negaverse and remembered how miserable he was under their control. To imagine Ploutonion feeling that sort of worthlessness and purposelessness pulled at him painfully.

Glitnir’s voice came from behind him. “Hey, are you okay?”

“Mm.” Cor Caroli’s grunt was flat and ambivalent.

“I guess not. You did just see someone get captured for corruption right in front of you.” Glitnir sighed and stood by Cor Caroli’s side. “Was he one of your friends?”

It was hard for Cor Caroli to exactly define the terms of his relationship with Ploutonion. In this timeline, they had really only experienced a one-night stand, and yet he had memories of another timeline where they had shared so much more. “Um… kind of. Look, I’m going to tell you something, and you have to promise not to tell me I’m nuts, okay?”

“I’m listening,” Glitnir said.

“Okay. So, Ploutonion and I… we’ve only had one really strong moment. You know, some TMI stuff.” Cor Caroli watched Glitnir’s face for any signs of disgust or surprise; finding none, he continued. “But last night, I had this dream. It was this weird future where the Negaverse took over and was running the city. I was corrupted into the Negaverse, and I just remember being miserable. So miserable I wouldn’t even eat, you know what a big deal that is for me. But the thing is, I remember being in love with him in that future.”

“Wait, hold on,” Glitnir said. This story sounded familiar. “You’re not the only one who’s had this sort of dream. Bunches of people have had dreams about a Negaverse future. I had one, too.”

“Bunches?” Cor Caroli asked. “Really?”

“Yeah. It’s like some weird mass-dreaming thing,” Glitnir said. “It feels like memories, doesn’t it? That’s the weirdest part. Anyway, go on.”

“That’s… really weird and you’re going to have to explain that to me some other time,” Cor Caroli said. “But that was kind of it. I remember feeling like I’d lost my purpose, and I remember being really, really in love with Ploutonion. It’s such a strong feeling, it’s like it’s trickling back to me now and I’m falling in love with him because of a dream. The thought of him going through what I went through in that dream… it’s killing me.”

Glitnir nodded as he listened. “You care for him, don’t you?”

“Mm-hm. I’m just… I’m mad. I don’t want him to suffer like that. If I could, I’d pull him back from Chaos right now, just like he did for me.” Cor Caroli started walking, his fists clenched.

“Where are you going?” Glitnir asked as he followed.

“To get some ice cream,” Cor Caroli said. “You can come with if you want.”

“Ice cream? Really?” It seemed like a very odd train of thought jump to Glitnir till he figured it out: Cor Caroli was going off to go eat his emotions. “You know, if you want to keep talking to me, you can.”

Cor Caroli shrugged. “Eh. We’ll see. I just want some ice cream right now.” He took a few more steps ahead. “Are you coming?”

“Yeah, just wait up. And don’t forget that we should power down at some point, too,” Glitnir said.

When they finally reached a decent ice cream parlor, Ezra tried not to cry into his ice cream (three scoops of cookie dough with oodles of hot fudge) and failed. He was furious and depressed and, ultimately, heartbroken. It didn’t matter that not much had happened Ploutonion in this timeline; the memories of the other timeline were so strong that he truly felt as though he had lost someone he loved. Silas’s hand on his back was soothing, though, and after several headfreezes, all he wanted to do was go home, go to bed, and not move for a very long time.

Ezra knew there’d been something he’d been forgetting.

Well, less “forgetting,” more totally ignoring. He’d spent some time as a senshi prior to taking a hiatus for school and other things, and sometimes he’d eye the henshin pen hidden in his top drawer and contemplate going out to patrol before deciding to do it another night. He had thrown aside his responsibilities as a senshi, and now he was bored. He got bored easily. Not as easily as he used to, but there were days when he wanted to do things and couldn’t decide what. Patrolling used to be his go-to when he couldn’t pick something to do that night, and he was kind of feeling the itch tonight. He needed to go out, refamiliarize himself with the lay of the land, check activity levels and all that.

So, Ezra powered up into Cor Caroli for the first time in a long time, and it didn't feel half bad. Even though his powers were painfully defensive (and he was aware of it for the first time in a while), it felt good to don the old fuku once again and feel the power. He carefully tested his aura senses; nothing came up on his radar, so he assumed the coast was clear. He started out with some rooftop platforming, and he was very surprised that he didn't miss even once. Something to do with latent learning or muscle memory, maybe? He was feeling pretty good about "rejoining the force" right now.

As he continued his metaphorical joyride, he became aware of a large, different Order aura somewhere in the area. It didn't seem to be moving, so he decided to approach. However, the second he did, he wished he hadn't. He knew the Knight laying in a pool of what was presumably blood. "Glitnir!" he called out, swallowing the urge to use his civilian name. He rushed over to the downed man. "Oh god, what happened? Actually, wait, no, don't answer that. I'll call 911 and get you to a hospital. That's the least I can do." Well, there was one more thing. "Wait. ...Strength of Will!" He called out, extending a hand towards Glitnir. He hoped that'd help him hold on a bit longer.

"Cor, they... they took..." Glitnir struggled to speak through the haze of pain.

"Save the explanation for later. I need to make sure you don't die here," Cor Caroli said, taking a quick moment to power down to access his cell phone. A bit risky, but he didn't feel any Chaos auras around. If any were around, they certainly weren't close enough to witness the identity swap. He dialed 911 on his phone and began rambling away. "Hello? Um, I've got a guy here, he's bleeding really badly, I think he got attacked by one of those weird gang members!" There was, of course, no "I think" about it. A Negaverse agent had to be behind this. Following the wrap-up with the dispatcher, Ezra remained near Glitnir. "You might want to power down. It'll be hard to explain if you suddenly become a different person in the hospital."

Glitnir released his powered form with a groan. "Ez, they got Porrima," he said quickly. "My sister."

"Oh god no," Ezra said. However, he was so in the moment that he couldn't focus on what the fate of Silas's sister might be. Right now, he was just determined to keep Silas himself from dying.

Silas struggled, groaning more in pain. "It was a General... she went with him to save me."

"Dammit." Ezra shook his head. Order was going to lose another member tonight. It was times like these that he flashed back to those memories of that blasted dark future, where he had been one of the force-corrupted. Whenever he heard about another senshi being lost to the forces of Chaos, he wondered if that fate would come to pass after all.

Soon, the sirens could be heard approaching. "Hang in there, Si. They're almost here," Ezra said. Silas gave no response, but seemed to be trying his best to stay conscious.

The next section of time felt like a blur. Ezra rode with Silas in the ambulance, and before he knew it, he was sitting in a hospital room with the guy. Silas had a thousand-yard stare, the gaze of a broken man. "Ez... did you hear me earlier? A General took my sister. She sacrificed herself to save me. I don't know what to do."

"I'm sorry, Si," Ezra said. "I wish I could have helped." The lameness of the statement felt even stronger when he considered that the match would be between a weak Super Senshi with extremely defensive powers and a General who had wrecked a decently powerful Knight.

"I wish you could have, too." Clearly, Silas wasn't in the mood for woulda-coulda-shouldas.

"I'll help you figure out what to tell your parents." Ezra scooted his chair closer to Silas's bed. "I guess the mostly-truth would be a good place to start. You were attacked by members of that gang around town; they kidnapped your sister and left you for dead."

Silas shook his head. "Kidnapped implies that they could find her someday. They won't be able to if the General really did arrange for her to be corrupted."

"Fate unknown, then...?" Ezra felt phenomenally powerless in the face of his friend's loss. At least Chaos people didn't have to worry about their friends being kidnapped and forced to purify.

"I don't know." Silas's head lolled to the side, away from Ezra. "This is so messed up."

"It is." Ezra nodded. "I'll stay here with you for as long as you need me to. It's the least I can do."

There was a pause. "Go home, Ez."

"What?"

"You saved my life tonight. I owe you. But for now, I want to be alone. I need some time. You can come back tomorrow, just... give me a bit." Grunting, Silas turned over slightly. "Maybe I should ask about pain meds."

"You should." Ezra nodded again. He understood the need for space after trying events. "I'll see you tomorrow, then. If you need me at all, call or text and I'll wake up and come running, or at least answer you."

"Thank you." Silas mumbled. There was a pause as Ezra mulled over whether he should actually leave or not. "What are you standing around for?"

"Got it, got it, I'm leaving," Ezra said. He knew that it was selfish of him to think of himself when Silas was about to be in multiple worlds of hurt, but he was leaving with heavy thoughts on his mind. He was feeling increasingly unsure of his place in the world, and the time Silas needed to think his issues through was the time he needed for his, too.

[Word count: 1143. 2x solo bonus.]

How can I fight against something that can override even the strongest of wills? Even if I could fight off every advancing Negaverse agent, I couldn’t possibly stop them from teleporting or just yanking my starseed right out. And that’s only if they didn’t just corrupt me on the spot. Being able to fight better isn’t enough, is it? Something more needs to happen. Something needs to happen to keep me from being lost, or it’ll be that dark future all over again.

Some weeks had passed since Cor Caroli’s last visit to his planet, and that meant that the cooldown on planet travel had passed. He would be lying if he said he had been totally patient over the course of the cooldown; he really wanted to learn more about his past self and his past world, and he was kicking himself for getting so overwhelmed last time. Sure, he had a lot of very impactful things to take in just from that one visit, but there was a lot more to dig into (assuming whatever triggered past life visions was feeling generous). Something was out there, waiting to reveal itself to him.

Also, it was his birthday. As far as he was concerned, he had free reign to explore and muck around on a day like this. He’d gotten a few nice things, but knowledge was going to be an awesome gift, too. (That was something he never thought he’d say.)

Cor Caroli repeated the ritual he had done before, and this time it came to him more easily. Pulling his senshi phone out of subspace felt natural, as though he had never stopped doing it, and when he listened for the song of his planet, it came to him as a clear tone. At least, if it were an actual sound and not some odd abstract feeling, it would have been clear. The world blurred around him, and he sailed off on another trip across the universe.

When Cor landed, he was in front of the same laboratory the previous visits had spat him out in front of. He guessed that his past self must have spent a lot of time at this lab, or the world transfer wouldn’t keep putting him here. Since he didn’t investigate it last time, he figured it was time to look again. He entered the laboratory, keeping an eye out for places that he had visited before. As he wandered, he found the old offices from the first visit and decided to peek inside them. Eventually, about three or so peeks in, he was rewarded by the sight of his past self and Alcene staring at a series of parts on a table.

“What are these supposed to be?” Past Cor said, poking a scrap of metal.

“Watch those fingers of yours,” Alcene said, firmly yet not too sharply. “These materials are fragile and sensitive. We wouldn’t want anything to be improperly calibrated because someone was poking something they shouldn’t have been.”

“They’re not the only thing in this room that’s sensitive,” Past Cor mumbled, a sly grin on his face.

“Eri,” Alcene grunted, with a sharpness that made both past and present Cor jump. “We’re technically at work. Don’t make those kinds of jokes here.”

Past Cor, now known as Eri, groaned. “You’re no fun.”

“Do I need to show you the appropriateness recordings again?” Alcene asked, and after Eri rolled his eyes, the duo disappeared back into the past.

Is he one of ‘those’ guys? Cor Caroli mused to himself, meaning one of those callow youths who walked around making innuendos everywhere. Kind of like how he used to be a few years ago. At least he had finally learned his past self’s name, which was nice. It sat well with him.

The hunt was on for the next vision. He was hoping that he’d get an explanation of what Alcene was working on at some point, but as he went further in, approaching an area that looked a bit like a science classroom or group laboratory, he got nothing. At one point, he pulled open a very rusty cabinet at a workstation to see if anything was inside… then pulled his head out of the empty cabinet to see Eri and Alcene across the table from him. That sight nearly made him jump, but he composed himself and watched the duo carefully. They were both looking at a strange red and black cube gadget that appeared to have a wire frame around it.

“It’s almost done,” Alcene said. “The casing is complete and the components are all installed. All it needs is to be attuned to a specific will for testing purposes. If we can get something that responds to one person’s will, we will have succeeded.”

“I see,” Eri said, cupping his chin thoughtfully. “So, who’s gonna be the test dummy for this thing?”

Alcene did not hesitate. “I would like to attune this creation to you, Eri Kria, Sailor Cor Caroli of Will.”

Eri’s eyes went wide. “What’s with the formality?”

“Because I wanted to formally dedicate this to you. I have my reasons, as you know. I don’t think there’s anyone else who would be a better fit for testing this creation.” Alcene gently nudged the cube closer to Eri, offering it to him.

“I-Is this a proposal?” Eri was using humor to deflect his own surprise. Alcene’s glare brought him back down to earth. “Anyway, yes! I wholeheartedly accept! I’d be happy to help you bring this thing to life. If it works, it’ll take will science leaps and bounds ahead. Yes, Alcene, I will help you make your science baby.”

Despite himself, Alcene chuckled, and then they flickered out of existence… only for their voices to come from the opposite direction. Cor Caroli turned around, and he saw Eri and Alcene at a table behind him. The cube from before was floating between them.

“So you can’t make it move how you’d like?” Alcene asked, staring at the cube.

Eri shook his head, and the cube seemed to shake to follow the gesture. “No. But did you see that? It kinda… imitates me a little. That’s kind of cute for a funny cube thing with wires.”

Alcene made a thoughtful noise. “So, it wanders, and it reacts to your reactions, even if you can’t steer it yourself. Not quite what I was going for, but I think it’s a step in the right direction. Maybe it’s not sensitive enough, or the wrong kind of sensitive.”

Eri shrugged. “We can figure that out with the next prototype. Until then, I think I’ll keep this guy. He’ll be my companion cube!”

“Personifying a little, are we?” Alcene said. “Well, I’m glad you’ve gotten attached to it.”

With the result of the research revealed, the duo from Cor Caroli’s past disappeared once more. Cor couldn’t help but feel a little giddy, seeing that his past self had participated in some important research and gained a literal companion cube out of it. Seeing Eri so happy with the gizmo made Cor want one, kind of. Maybe he could make something similar if he looked around.

In any case, all the walking around was making Cor feel a little tired. He figured that he’d take one more pass around the laboratory, then head home for the night. With a slight spring in his step, he walked out of the laboratory area, keeping an eye out for anything that might be of interest. He didn’t see anything, but when he passed by a room near the offices, he heard something that made him do a double take.

Laughter. Kissy noises. Kissy noises?!

Cor peeked in the room and sort of wished he hadn’t. Were there rules that applied when walking in on your past self making out with his mentor? He wasn’t sure how to feel about this. Embarrassed? Vaguely turned on? Voyeuristic? Boy, whatever triggered past life visions had a hell of a sense of humor. Amazing. The gay transcends lifetimes. Happy birthday to me, and happy Pride Month, apparently.

In the end, he decided to give his past self some privacy, but he couldn’t hold back his laughter at the bizarreness of the situation. Before he knew it, he had buckled over laughing, because good lord, where else would you find a sort of-you making out with a mentor and… well, it was a doozy of a situation. He needed that. Besides, now he knew the nature of Eri and Alcene’s relationship. Hot? Maybe, maybe not. He peeked back and immediately felt bad for poor Alcene. There was no way to explain to him that his lover’s future self was watching him!

Just when Cor thought he was gonna explode, the flirtatious mumbling and breathing and thumping around finally stopped. “Oh my god,” he said aloud. “Get a room and make sure I can’t find it next time, you two!”

With his spirits lifted (and a bit befuddled befuddled), Cor entered the command to go home on his senshi phone. He was going to need the two-week cooldown after that.

Wordcount: 1523. 3x solo bonus!
Cor Caroli went to his homeworld on 6/6/18. He can return on 6/20/18.

[Backdated to after the tussle with Ceraskia, but using the standard two-week buffer.]

Cor landed on his planet and slumped over, thoroughly exhausted. The silence and desolation of his planet was a welcome diversion from the hubbub he’d just been through. He realized that he was in a grassy area, a change from the street he normally found himself on. Looking around, the area was enclosed by a building, or at least walls; perhaps it was a courtyard of some sort. He took a moment to lay back and stare up at the sky, wondering if he could see his fellow senshis’ stars from here.

The quiet was broken by Eri’s voice asking a question. “Alcene, what do you think about the Great Will? On a personal level, I mean, not a scientific or religious one.”

Cor turned to his side, and he spotted Eri and Alcene laying on their backs in the courtyard, much like he was. “That’s an odd question. A personal level encapsulates all levels, I’d say,” Alcene answered. “Could you be more specific?”

Eri sighed at Alcene turning the question on its head. “Do you really think the Great Will exists, and if it does, do you think it would really be willing to regenerate the world if something happened?”

It was Alcene’s turn to sigh now. “Such a philosophical question. The short answer to both parts is yes, I do believe in the Great Will and its ability to regenerate the world, if not necessarily its willingness.”

“Why?” Eri asked.

“The Great Will created humans on this planet. By extension, it created you, our senshi, the one who would deliver the Will of the Species back to it. It’s a bit of a stretch, but I feel as though the senshi is the answer to a question of what humanity desires most of its world. The Great Will is waiting for you to come back and answer it when the time comes.” Alcene shifted and stretched after speaking.

“The part about its willingness… you don’t think it’ll be willing to do it if it talks to me, do you?” Eri sounded put out by the implication.

“Don’t think that way. That’s not what I meant,” Alcene said quickly. “I think that the Great Will will certainly listen to you. You have a bright, pure spirit. And, as your partner in this quest, I will make sure you are ready for the end and rebirth of the world, no matter what.”

Eri seemed to want to object to something, but the vision was gone soon after. Cor sucked in a breath and exhaled it heavily. There was the Great Will again. The idea of a great force waiting for his “answer” to humanity’s desires tickled him some and supported that growing sense of purpose inside him. And yet, as Eri had said in an earlier vision, it was a lot of responsibility for one person. Even if he survived the Negaverse’s occasional pummelings of him, would he have a strong enough will to really satisfy the Great Will?

He hadn’t felt doubts like this in a while, and it worried him. Suffice to say that he was discouraged by his near-death experience with that Corrupt. Not only was he worried about the doubts in his heart, but the way he wavered in his decisions every time he came up here. He went from so sure that he was going to corrupt to “save” himself, to so sure that his planet held the answers to his salvation, to unsure of what would happen to him. For all he knew, a third force could very well scoop him up and that would be that.

He wanted to have answers, or so he thought. If it were possible to get answers without looking too far into the future, he would gladly do that. Even so, he knew better than to think that the answers to his fate would come to him if he just sat there. He had to investigate actively.

Cor Caroli slowly pulled himself up and found the door that lead to the inside of the building from the courtyard. He wasn’t sure if this was the same building he’d been exploring before, one in a similar location, or a totally different building in a different region. Still, there was time to explore, and he was in no hurry to go back down to Earth. With some more effort, he got up and went through the door to the inside of the building.

The compound he was in seemed kind of boxy all around, with right angles being the only changes in the straight hallways. Cor picked the hallway to his right to explore. For a while, he saw nothing but empty, doorless rooms. In a room at the very end of the hallway, though, some ruined tables and shelves remained, covered in dust. Even those little things made a contrast between this room and the rooms before it. Curiously, on the other side of this room was one door that hadn’t been taken off at all. It appeared to be heavily reinforced.

At that point, Cor heard Eri’s voice from his left. “So what are these supposed to do?” He asked. When Cor turned around, Eri and Alcene were holding what appeared to be bright green, palm-sized, egg-shaped crystals.

“These crystals should amplify your natural ability to conduct energy,” Alcene explained. “They'll be vital in capturing the energy stream of the planet for our purposes.”

“I always wondered if it'd be bad to suck energy directly out from the planet to protect ourselves, but I guess if the world is going to be regenerated anyway, it might not matter that much,” Eri mused allowed. “So, this is how we'd attack and defend against the monsters that the Great Will would test us with, huh?”

Alcene nodded. “Yes. With your natural magic ability, you should at least be able to make barriers using the planet’s energy.”

“Just with these little crystals?” The skepticism was heavy in Eri’s voice. “I'll take your word for it.”

“You are the only one who can do this,” Alcene said.

Eri huffed. “That's a lot of responsibility.”

Then, the two figures were gone.

Eri’s skepticism concerned Cor. He seemed to be the relaxed type, kind of like himself, but he seemed to be struggling with his responsibilities as the senshi, and with the idea that someday he’d have heavy tasks to handle when catastrophe came to pass. If he’d happened upon these visions earlier, Cor figured that he might have the same reaction. It occurred to him that perhaps he was romanticizing the idea of being an ambassador to a powerful being at the end of the world, and that by all means, the idea should be really damn stressful to anyone who just wanted to live their life.

Eri probably hadn’t asked to become the senshi in the first place. It wasn’t entirely clear what rank he was at from this vision, but there was no indication that he’d really grown into or gotten acclimated to his power and purpose, and perhaps that was okay. Just because Cor was gung-ho about having finally received a purpose didn’t mean that everyone would be that way, not even his past self. It kind of made his heart ache. It wasn’t so long ago that he was in that position, too.

In the silence that followed, Cor’s attention wandered to the door at the end of the room. Maybe he could force it open? He was very curious about what lay on the other side. He went up to the door and pulled on it with all his Super Senshi might, and while he thought he heard something give a little, he just wasn’t strong enough. Someone had put a lot of thought into making sure the door wouldn’t budge. Maybe, if Cor was a bit stronger, he’d be able to pull the door some more.

Maybe Eternal-type stronger?

Either way, he was going to have to come back later. He turned around and began making his way back down the hallway, hoping to explore the other angle of the boxy compound, when he heard the distinct sound of footsteps behind him. He nearly jumped into the ceiling, terrified that someone had somehow followed him up to his planet and that he was now at that mystery person’s mercy. However, he caught his breath as he assured himself that it was probably just another vision. Indeed, that point was proven by Eri and Alcene walking right through him.

“We sure do focus a lot on the apocalypse, especially up here,” Eri said, leaving Cor to wonder what ‘up here’ referred to.

“It’s true. Some say we spend as much time preparing for the end of the world as we do its life and rebirth,” Alcene replied. “What do you mean by ‘up here,’ though?”

“On the top stratum. I have a feeling that, if I stayed in the middle stratum, I would have gone for my entire life without hearing about half of the wacky apocalypse survival plans the government and the past senshi have made. Of course, being awoken as the senshi caused me to get kicked upstairs and be privy to all this information.” Eri sounded like he wanted to add something, but was unsure of what. It seemed to Cor that this city was divided into strata, and he hoped to investigate that more thoroughly later.

“‘Kicked upstairs?’” Alcene questioned the turn of phrase. “You sound awfully resentful.”

Eri shrugged as the duo reached the end of the hall. “Nah. It’s just kind of what happened.”

The two disappeared again before any further explanation could be given. Cor let out a heavy sigh, as though he was feeling the weight of Eri’s doubts. Somehow, even despite his own doubts, he just felt more determined to realize in the present what his past self had failed to do. He had to find out the truth behind the Great Will and see if, perhaps, it held any ability to influence the war in the White Moon’s favor.

He received an unpleasant reminder that he had, in fact, just been beaten up when one of his injuries started throbbing. Grumbling, he hobbled back into the courtyard and was about to just collapse into the grass when he thought he saw a glint of light somewhere on the ground. He exerted that extra bit of effort to investigate it, and he was rewarded with the very same crystals that Eri and Alcene had discussed, just lying in the grass. He picked them up, and he thought he felt a tingling in his palms. The sensation drew a grin out of him; it seemed that he might have found something very interesting indeed. He placed them near the door so that they could easily be found if he was able to return to this place. The crystals and the locked door provided a sense of mystery to this place, and he wanted to solve that.

Unsure of whether he wanted to spend the night recovering on a dead planet or not, Cor ultimately made the call to drag himself home. He was in pain, not really tired anymore. He’d make it home, but once he did, some rest was in order.

[Two-week buffer ends on 8/24/18. 3x solo bonus.]