When it came to senshi that he’d considered a paragon of devoted senshihood, Cor Caroli had one older entry saved on his senshi phone that he thought fit the bill.

He leaned up against the wall of the alleyway as he waited for his contact to approach, only looking up when he felt her shiny aura come closer. After staring for a moment, he realized something. “Did your markings change?”

“Yes, they did, thank you for noticing! Also, hi.” Megrez smiled as she approached, though something about it didn’t quite reach her eyes. “I’m glad to see you’re all right. I heard the Negaverse got you. They got me too, but we must have lucked out, because it looks like we both got let go.”

Cor gave a short, sharp chuckle. “Lucked out is one way to put it. How did you get captured? Transcendent or not, I don’t know why anyone would go for you.”

“I don’t think my old reputation is totally in the past,” Megrez said, some of the mirth slipping out of her face. “But I think this guy was looking for a quick capture and then didn’t care enough to do anything about it. Weird, but I’m not going to think too hard about it.” She paused, then added, “I also had two other senshi barge in and bail me out, but a Super and a Basic still might not be enough to scare off a General… still not thinking about it.”

“Sounds like you’re doing a lot of thinking for not thinking about it,” Cor quipped. “My guy… he didn’t have the guts to do anything with me, so he let me go. I feel kind of bad for him because who knows how his higher-ups are going to ream him out, but that’s his problem.”

Megrez tilted her head. “Did you get his name? If he didn’t corrupt you and it took him that long to decide what he wanted to do, I think he might be a candidate for purification.”

“Pff, yeah, but who’s gonna do it?” The barb fell out of Cor’s mouth faster than anticipated, and he tried to cover it up by offering his former captor’s name and description. “Paracelsian. Captain Paracelsian. Sorta darker tan complexion, bluish teal hair, grey eyes… his weapon is a dagger and he’s got a distinctive hat that he likes to tip when he’s greeting people.”

“That helps, thanks,” Megrez replied with a nod. It was unclear if the jab about missing purifiers got registered or not.

“He made it clear that the purification thing wouldn’t work, so maybe it’s best to leave him alone. He’s not the worst of ‘em, anyway.” Cor wedged in a subject change before Megrez could continue to pry. “Enough about that guy though. How about we go to your planet? You’ve always been super in tune with your past life stuff. Show me what’s so awesome about it.”

Megrez’s face scrunched up ever so slightly, as though the wording hit her funny. All the same, she took Cor’s hand and queued up her planet transfer. “Here we go.”

The transfer blurred the scenery and sent the duo across the universe, and they landed outside the cathedral Megrez had seen on her last visit. She took one step closer, and Cor quipped, “Nice building. Shame it’s all crumbly now.”

“What, are the buildings on your planet not crumbly?” Megrez asked, sounding mildly offended.

“No, actually, they’re more modern, made of some kind of metal,” Cor retorted. “Jealous?” A beat passed where he got the feeling that he was definitely being ignored. “Well, shall we go in?” Megrez gave an affirmative grunt and walked in, and Cor followed. Once in, he stared at the tarnished, broken walls of the former cathedral. They were nothing compared to his research compounds, but not every world could be as advanced yet oddly spiritual (if that was the word) as his was.

Megrez went off to the left. "I didn't go this way before, so let's see what's there." She led the way through a short empty hallway, stopping in front of one door in particular. The room contained what appeared to be the remains of overturned trunks and dressers. "What was this? Just storage?"

"I dunno, what does your magical past life vision tell you?" Cor quipped, only to wither under a hell of a glare. "Yikes, sorry."

"Don't be a smart a**, especially not in a place like this," Megrez grumbled. Her attention went to a series of drawers on their sides. She tried to pull one out, and it didn't budge. "This looks kind of like a filing cabinet." Trying again with more effort, the drawer scraped against the sides of its container before being yanked out with more velocity than she intended and sending her stumbling back a bit. "Hmm… empty." A noise caught her attention, and when she looked over to the left side of the room, a different sight awaited her. She held a cautioning hand up to Cor Caroli to make sure he stayed quiet during the vision.

Melantha stood in front of a mirror, adjusting a fancy new getup. "I will never get used to how this feels," she muttered. "The effort used on these fancy fabrics would best be spent elsewhere." As she watched Melantha wrinkle her nose ever so slightly, Megrez felt a bitter pang go through her chest. It was resentment, certainly. Something pulled at the skirt of Melantha's robe, and she reached down and scooped up a familiar puffball creature. "Hey there," she said, her voice softening. "Would you believe me if I said the chancellor wanted to bring you guys into this, too? I think he just thinks you're cute mascots, but there's no reason to involve you."

The puffski in Melantha's hand gave a questioning "buu?" in response.

Melantha sighed heavily. "I haven't spoken to Audriana in so long. I wonder how she and Buulinda are doing, and how this whole Archbishop thing will affect her."

Megrez became aware of Cor fidgeting behind her, and the vision vanished. "There, it's over," she muttered, trying to parse a new set of information and emotions.

"So, what did you see?" Cor asked.

"I think this world was going through some kind of religious reform at some point, and the people responsible wanted the senshi as a figurehead. Melantha, the past Megrez, was just a farm girl turned high priestess… but they were trying to make her the Archbishop of this new religion." Megrez sighed heavily after the explanation.

"Sounds intense, but I guess I can't knock it. Back on my home world, there was this whole thing about the senshi bringing the will of the people to a being that would regenerate the world after a calamity. They didn't call it a religion, but it was kind of like one." Cor smiled briefly, then suppressed it. "The world would be regenerated according to the good or bad will of the people, so the reboot could be worse than the original if everyone hated life."

"That sounds so cool," Megrez chirped, sincere as ever. "Have you thought about that much?"

Cor gave a nod. "Yep, lots. I've begun asking people if they think a regenerated world would be better or worse than it is now. Some surprising people think it would be worse."

"Well, that's disappointing." Megrez tilted her head. "I think it would be the same, maybe with a few changes here and there. There's too much potential for both good and evil to generalize one way or another. I'd rather people be able to make their own choices of who to be than be railroaded into black and white options."

"And that's exactly why I called you," Cor said with a chuckle. "With people like you around, Order people will be fine. Maybe you should talk to the Great Will instead of me."

"The Great Will?" Megrez put two and two together. "You know, when you talk about stuff from your homeworld, you seem proud of it. You ought to give it another chance."

"Maybe, maybe… yeah, it seems like it was a pretty cool place." Cor looked off to the side. "Dammit. Here I was thinking I'd just leave everything in your hands, but you have this way of restoring faith, just a bit."

"What's that supposed to mean? Were you thinking of quitting the powered life?"

Cor shrugged. “Yeah, let’s go with that. I figured no one would miss me. I’m not the best fighter and my powers aren’t useful for much more than a drive-by boost. Something’s gotta give.” The truth was, of course, that it was just the Order powered life he was considering quitting. The Chaos powered life was where he was headed.

“That’s fine,” Megrez said. “Being a senshi isn’t just about beating down Chaos. It’s about being yourself, the way you want to be, and having faith in the universe’s potential. If you can do that, then I think you’ll be fine.”

“You really don’t make this easy,” Cor muttered. He wasn’t sure what he expected from this whole venture, whether he wanted his faith restored or whether he wanted proof that Order would be just fine without him. “Guess I don’t know what ‘self’ I want to be.” Before Megrez could intercede, he added, “Can we go back home now? I kind of want to go to my planet, sorry.”

“That’s totally fine,” Megrez replied. “I hope you find something good up there.” She took Cor’s hand, pressed the transfer button, and soon they were back on Earth.

When they arrived, Cor bid Megrez farewell and wandered off to his own transfer spot of choice. He needed to conduct some investigation, urgently.

Megrez can return to her planet once more in this week period.