There was one component to the whole puzzle of what Cor Caroli could do with himself that he had neglected entirely.

He knew, somewhere in the infinite, he had a planet that bore his senshi name, and while he had investigated it once, he knew he needed to put more into it. Whether or not he found anything interesting there could possibly persuade him to remain with Order’s bright sparks for a while longer. If it felt like just a fancied-up rock in space, then that would be it. He would go with a clear conscience. If there was something legitimately interesting there, though… well, he could put his decision off for as long as he needed to. Doing research was important.

It had been so long since he had done the little song and dance required to reach a senshi’s planet, or rather, his planet. Something something senshi phone, something something song of the planet, something something whooooosh? Something like that. He was surprised he even remembered how to pull the senshi phone out of subspace. Old habits died hard, he supposed. Once he tapped in the proper command on his phone, it all seemed to click into place. The world blurred around him, and he was flung across the cosmos.

Cor Caroli sucked in a breath and scanned the area around him. The large, blocky-looking building was definitely familiar; his last (and so far, only) trip to his planet had put him outside here, too. It begged the question of whether he should go deeper into the complex, or if he should explore something else. Surely, there’d be time to do both, wouldn’t there? Of course, there was no telling when he’d see a vision of his past self again. If he was unlucky, he’d spend a full day up here and not find anything interesting. Still, it wasn’t like he had anything better to do. He might as well take the gamble.

Still, he hadn’t answered the question of whether to explore this building again or try somewhere else. He ended up deciding to explore the smaller building to his right. The door was gone, so accessing it was not a problem. The entryway parted into different rooms along the side; when standing around for a few minutes got him nothing, Cor decided to enter the leftmost room. There was a table preserved in the middle of the room and not much else. Cor waited around some more, sat on the table for a few minutes, then got up and left the room. Now, it wasn’t like visions of the past would jump out at him if he kept grunting in frustration at them, but something had to give eventually.

Cor spent his time going in and out of rooms, finding nothing over and over again. Whatever had happened to this place had really emptied it out. Just when he was about to give up and go back to the main laboratory, a voice quite similar to his own made its way to him. “Alcene, there’s some things I’ve been wondering.”

When Cor turned around, he could see his past self sitting on a table in a room that he had abandoned. Standing next to him was the white-haired man from before, the aforementioned Alcene. Past Cor began talking again. “What does it really mean to be the senshi of Cor Caroli’s planet? What is the Will of the Species? What are we even trying to do here?” Present Cor noticed that his past self was in simple civilian clothes this time around, loose pants and a plain shirt.

Alcene gave a smooth chuckle. “So many questions that I am not entirely sure I can answer for you. I can’t quite tell you what it means to be Sailor Cor Caroli, as that’s up to you. As for the other two… well.” He leaned on the table as he continued. “Don’t tell me you don’t know anything about the beginning and the end of life on this planet as discussed in our legends.”

“Only what they’ve taught me in school,” Past Cor said. “But I want to hear you explain it.”

“As the senshi of this planet, you should really know about these things,” Alcene said, more sternly than before. “But very well. Humans on this planet came from the will and wishes of something greater, the Great Will. We were given the ability to express our own wills and wishes from this greater being. However, when the end of this planet comes, whenever that may be, that greater being will test the strength of humanity’s will. Not only must humanity survive the trials that the Great Will will put us through, but we must be prepared to make our own future by any means necessary.”

“What does that even mean?” Past Cor asked. “And doesn’t the legend split several ways from here?”

“I see that your education hasn’t completely failed you,” Alcene said, earning him a playful swat from Past Cor that he pretended to ignore. “But yes, that’s true. Here the explanations for making our own future vary. One version has humanity putting itself together with what resources are left after the Great Will’s test. The other two versions are more like a reincarnation of the planet. The Great Will will either restore the world based on the wishes of the one strongest will, or it will listen to humanity’s hopes as a whole and restore the world from there. Hence, the term Will of the Species.”

Past Cor made a thoughtful noise. “I think I like the last version best. Leaving it all up to one person sounds kind of dangerous, if you ask me. And I take it that, as the senshi, I’m either supposed to be the one with the strongest will, or the one that conveys the Will of the Species to the Great Will, right?”

“Indeed.” Alcene gave a heavy sigh. “You also help to keep others’ wills strong as well. Perhaps you should take your decisions and position more seriously. A weak-willed senshi could never possibly convince the Great Will to restore the world at all.”

“I am not weak willed!”

Alcene’s laughter seemed to echo throughout the space, and then there was nothing. It took Present Cor a moment to realize that he was staring at an empty space again. The vision was over. Still, it gave him quite some things to mull over. It was interesting to see some details about the culture of Cor Caroli itself, and it seemed to be more or less what he expected. There was indeed a great amount of focus on a person’s “will,” which seemed to be defined as their resolution or determination to persevere.

Cor leaned against the wall as he continued to turn over what he had learned in his head. Something in Alcene’s exposition had struck a chord with him. The senshi of Cor Caroli was a unifier, deliverer, and supporter of humanity’s will, and if the senshi of Cor Caroli had a weak will, there would be no coming back from catastrophe, period. It made him feel a bit pitiful for even considering corruption as a way out of his problems, or a way onto the “winning” side. That was an awful lot like getting scared and giving up, and if he was supposed to be the one who negotiated with some greater being for humanity’s revival, there wouldn’t be a chance for restoration.

At that moment, Cor Caroli tried to remind himself that he wouldn’t be the one negotiating with the Great Will, but that wasn’t true. The Cor Caroli of the past was him. The same soul, the same starseed. Different time, different body, different memories, but the same core. The same Cor, the same heart. That most likely explained why the vision resonated so strongly with him. There was no division between past and present.

The thoughts kept on swirling. Here he was being offered a purpose. Would he accept the offer, or would he continue drifting aimlessly, putting himself in one mode one day and a different one the next? The key to going on was right there, in front of him, and yet a certain fear kept him from reaching out and taking it: the fear of being subsumed, of having his will totally overridden like it was in that dangerous dark future he had dreamed of. If he went on his own, at least part of him would be spared.

But could he really turn his back on what was right in front of him?

The decision had only gotten slightly easier. The rest of the way, he was going to have to do his own legwork. He was going to have to talk to people and get their perspectives before making a decision. Something about this sounded familiar.

All that emotional reeling was exhausting. As much as Cor wished he could keep exploring, he needed to take a moment for himself and rest up before the next leg of his “quest.” By the time he was able to come back, he was sure he’d be ready for whatever the planet had in store for him.

Progress had been made. That was important.

Cor Caroli went to his planet on 5/6/18. He can visit again in 2 weeks, on 5/20/18.

1543 words, 3x solo bonus!