Jurassic Guide

[drinkandforget]

She's been dreaming of Earth lately. Why she should be dreaming of that distant planet is not a question Sailor Lethe cares to consider too deeply; she knows it's said to be one of the last territories holding out against Galaxia.

There's no sign of that in the Earth she visits. The lush vegetation is almost tropical, vibrant ferns alongside tall trees. They grace the banks of a winding river, tranquil and quiet. Visible at intervals, small groups of dinosaurs go about their own business, largely ambivalent to her presence.

Lethe poles her small boat silently through the water. When she acquires an extra passenger, she shows no surprise, but be careful; passage is not free. Those in the boat will lose something before they disembark, whether as small and simple as a pen or as disastrous as an irreplaceable keepsake.

Comments

[histrionic]

He himself isn't angry; he has no reason to be, not with her. He's only curious, though he has a funny way of expressing it.

"Luxuriate?" He smiles. "Oh yes, I don't expect I will have long." He doesn't think he has any time at all, considering, although somehow he is still here. "This planet is named Earth? And what can you tell me of it?"

[drinkandforget]

She shrugs. She is from across the galaxy from this place; she knows little of it.

"This is one of the last planets still outside Galaxia-sama's control." This, like the rest, comes without apology.

"When the person who holds this planet's star seeds comes to bring a new battle, she'll find herself stalled at my river. That's the only connection I have with this planet."

So why is she dreaming of it?

[histrionic]

It doesn't bother him too much, this shadowy Galaxia and her nebulous conquest, even though he does wish to learn more about it, and he has an interest in putting an end to tyrants.

He's not sure what she's referring to when mentioning seeds and battles. "I know of the crystal at each planet's core, but what are these star seeds?" One cannot carry a crystal or remove it from where it lies without disastrous consequences, so this must be different.

"Why are you here, then? When there is no battle, no warrior?"

[drinkandforget]

They're easy to explain, if he knows of something like that. "You could consider them the crystal of each planet, carried within the body of that planet's chosen soldier."

Like her. Like Mnemosyne. Like the handful of other traitor true senshi mingled among Galaxia's opportunistic other followers who gained them... artificially.

"Their power is the only thing that is permanent."

[histrionic]

"Ah, this must be another universe, then, or at least a planet far distant, where the rules are altered." Kuja knows the crystals from his own universe well enough.

"The crystal at a planet's heart is similar, but the power is never given to any one individual. The planet itself is very much like a lifeform, and when it grows very old, its crystal will return to the cosmos with all the memories of the planet and its inhabitants."

He studies her, thoughtfully. "But why are you here, now? Where is the warrior of Earth?"

[drinkandforget]

While it is possible for the star seed of a planet to be influenced by the combined wish of all the planet's inhabitants, such a thing is extremely rare, in her world.

His question comes first.

"The star seed of Earth is already in Galaxia-sama's hands. The star seeds still on this planet belong to the ones who bring war and strife to this galaxy."

"Perhaps I'm here to find out where the rest are hiding."

[histrionic]

"Ah, the ones who bring war and strife, I see. How illuminating." That explains so much, except that it does not explain much at all.

"I myself was created to bring war and strife, but I doubt I am the one you're looking for, especially as I no longer fulfill that purpose, but only my own."

[drinkandforget]

He isn't anything she'd connect to the war at all. Nonetheless, his words make her pause, and give Kuja a second look.

"What manner of world do you know?" Lethe asks finally.

[histrionic]

It's true that he quite clearly has nothing whatsoever to do with the war or the senshi. He doesn't mind answering her question. Why should he? He has nothing to hide now, no more secrets to guard.

"I know two worlds, the older world resting like a dark secret inside the younger and choking it to death from within. Two worlds with two moons, one for each: one red moon and one blue moon. The older world was envious of the other's youth and sought to wipe out all its life so it could fill that fresh, new world with the souls of its own dead people, given new life on stolen ground. A selfish, greedy old planet."

[drinkandforget]

This takes a moment to understand, to decide whether she believes he means this literally, or metaphorically. After all, rumors of the Dead Moon, the nightmares of the dead who'd wanted to squash the light of the White Moon, have reached even the edges of the galaxy.

Ultimately, she decides that perhaps he means a mix of both.

"And so you chose to escape their battle?" He speaks as though he doesn't think much of it, now, as though he's separate from it. "How?"

[histrionic]

He holds up a finger, still floating in midair. "Ah, did I say that? No, I did not." For the most part, the story is literally true, in spite of Kuja's penchant for metaphor.

He shakes his head. "I was created to destroy the younger world." A pause. There's a great deal of story in that pause. "So I destroyed the elder one instead."

[drinkandforget]

She imagines trying to destroy Galaxia, instead of joining her. The trouble is, she already knows where that leads. She dreamed of it. It had been a quicker death, that's all. A futile death, with Mnemosyne also killed.

Impossible to accept.

"How did you keep safe from the ones trying to stop you?"

[histrionic]

"That's a question that can't be answered easily." In part because the answer is very complicated, and in part because he's only recently become aware of the cruelty and consequences of what he'd done.

"But I will answer as simply as I can. I bided my time. I played my part. I increased my power. It was only when I was strong enough that I struck out at my enemies. I destroyed them, or defeated them, outsmarted or overpowered them."

[drinkandforget]

There's no help for her in those words.

"What if they'd been stronger instead?" In her case, this is not a gamble. This is simple fact. Galaxia is the strongest senshi, legendary for that power, able to reduce the planets she turns against to dust with no more than a click of her fingernails.

[histrionic]

Kuja wouldn't recommend that anyone take his course. It had been bloody and ruthless.

"If I had been weaker, I would not have been me." Kuja laughs. He was never truly defeated, at least, not by another's power--only by his own nature. "They were stronger, at first, but I searched the world for ways to make myself even greater. It was no easy task. Freedom is never easily won, and it is a cruel prize to win, if the most rare and the most beautiful."

[drinkandforget]

She still has a measure of pride left, but not nearly enough to make her think she could surpass Galaxia's sheer force. Lethe frowns. It had been a stupid thought anyway. She chose this path, and now she must walk it. Only...

Is there truly peace with Galaxia?

"Peace is rarer," she says aloud, to Kuja and her own thoughts at once.

[histrionic]

"Oh, not at all, my dear. We come from peace, from nothingness, from the absence of toil and strife, and to that state we will all return." He pauses, with a smile, before quoting:

Peace is but a shadow of death,
Desperate to forget its painful past...
Though we hope for promising years.
After shedding a thousand tears,
Yesterday's sorrow constantly nears.

Kuja shakes his head. "No, it is freedom that is rarer, so seldom won by any being under the sun. You are not free, but someday, you will have your peace."

[drinkandforget]

Maybe. It hadn't felt bad when she'd been ready to die with Mnemosyne in their dream. It had felt like the end of a struggle. It had been a welcome relief, almost.

She turns it back around. "If you're so anxious to forget, you have only to drink from my river." The same applies to herself, if she should ever become troubled in that way; but she has never done so.