One Month Later... at the Summit of the Golden Spire
It is been a month after the coup, civil war is in full swing. Queen Aurelia rules the world with an iron fist. She scoured the ranks of police and guards for loyalists to the old regime. However, resent quickly mounted.
First to speak out and break away was her former BASTION subordinates. They waged a guerilla war on the fringe territories and rallied dissidents across Earth.
In response, massive garrisons and walls began construction across the planet as the ruling elite began their move to Luna proper. Desperate citizens trapped between the fighting often heard rumours of underground passages to worlds beyond as freedom fighters in strange attires wielding stranger powers often appeared within the ranks of the resistance.
"Perhaps we can take more drastic measure against the rabbles. Let us scour both Southern continents. This would force their surrender or hasten their doom. We need not be concerned with their... lives."
"Proceed, and you are dismissed."
Aurelia looks over the Earth from her throne. This was her solution. The world needed a villain, so heroes may rise. In caging the people, she forced them to escape or die.
One day her regime will crumble alongside the world, but until that day, she will continue to play the part she is best suited. Because a villain is without remorse, a villain is without guilt, and a villain always die.
Where are you, Gentiana?
Are you at the Library again?
Again and again, Aurelia found herself back at the same road, repeating the same scenarios. Time rewinds itself to this day, no matter what. Every time it happened, the light of Luna grows dimmer, and the world itself loses a little more colour. Nobody else noticed this but her. Nobody else save perhaps another person.
Determined to find out the reason behind this unknown phenomenon, Aurelia headed toward the basement of One Police Plaza alone.
On a dead world, Aurelia finds Vona and her companions by a small encampment...
What are you doing here ." Calca steps in front of Vona, her blade drawn at Aurelia.
Although this would be the first time they truly met, Aurelia still remembers of all these fateful days atop the summit of the Golden Spire. Each time, they learn more of one another, and now, they are no longer strangers.
"It's okay, Calca. I know why she is here." Vona nods at Calca and turns to Aurelia. "Do you remember, too?"
"I do, and I think we both know why."
"Gentiana."
"But first, I need to return this to you." Aurelia takes out a glowing white crystal.
Aurelia took Vona through the heavy securities around the Golden Spire...
Their goal is to find Gentiana. Publicly known as Cid, she would likely be found at the Ministry-12 office in the Golden Spire.
Aurelia and Vona know it is a risky gambit to find the very person who tried to kill them in so different timelines. Would she understand the situation? Even if she does, there is no guarantee it would turn out any different. Not to mention, neither Aurelia nor Vona had any plans of what comes after finding Gentiana.
The only they can go on is that Calca is vaguely aware of the world being reset, with no clear memories of what happened to cause it. Only Aurelia and Vona remembered each time they fought, they died, and succeeded in stopping the event known as Lunatic Pandora. Each time they would find themselves back on the fateful day where it all began. The only difference is, the world grows dimmer and the next reset takes longer.
"The library is up ahead, I'm surprised you have never been here after all this time." Aurelia said, even though it is the first time either of them have set foot inside the Golden Spire.
"I wasn't particularly welcomed the few times I was here." Vona replied, placing a her hand on the ornate crystal railing as they head up a flight of stairs.
"Of course. It is strange that I remember roaming the library alone for weeks at least two times." Aurelia recalls the times when she was the only ones left in the Spire, struggling to find her next step, she would always end up at the library. The last parts, she only mentioned in her mind.
"It somehow, fits you." Vona nodded at Aurelia in approval.
"I'm not a particularly bookish person, I prefer doing something with my hands, or it'll drive me crazy. I made these, see." Vona flaps the flowing sleeves of her white robe.
"Do you enjoy making it then? I am not certain what I enjoy." The last part slipped out. Aurelia looked at her hand as she pondered.
"Kinda. I like designing clothes more. I know it's hard to imagine. But it's true, I went to fashion school and everything." Vona recalls. "It came in handy, I made everyone's clothes, it saved us a lot of gils over the years."
Aurelia looks at her own clothes. Receiving gifts sounded pleasant. But this conversation somehow is not. "What made you become a Warrior of Light?"
"I didn't have a choice." Vona paused to ponder. "No I guess I did. I saw a world ravaged by plague like mine and I couldn't just let it be. Next thing you know, everyone calls me Warrior of Light."
"Anywho, you are a lot quieter than I thought from all these times I've seen you." Vona makes a joke.
"And you are a lot louder." Gentiana brandished her gun on one hand and commands calmly into the phone on her other. "Guards to the Great Library."
"We are not here to fight." Vona replied, her gritted teeth and turned stance would suggest otherwise.
"Just listen once! Gentiana." Aurelia stood in front of Vona and Gentiana.
Gentiana stopped, but kept her gun drawn.
"We know about the world resetting and you are the cause of it." Aurelia blurted out as guards arrive. "The time between resets are getting longer!"
"My office." Gentiana sighed as she waved Aurelia and Vona towards her, ignoring the alarmed but confused guards.
The meeting was much more civil than Aurelia expected. She learned little she did not already know. Only that Ministry-12 was named after Gentiana, the 12th of the Firstborns. She is its founder and chief, since recorded modern history, once and always.
More disturbingly, Gentiana's massive political apparatus confirms Aurelia and Vona's own observations, that massive depletion of the ambient magic occurred with each reset, not only do the worlds Vona sought to save are in danger, Earth itself will wither and die soon.
As an overture of peace, Gentiana agreed to withdraw Earth troops from many worlds to stave off a possible cascade of worlds dying. In return, Gentiana will follow Vona to meet with Calca, the 1st.
Aurelia was ordered to return to her post at the meeting's conclusion as Gentiana left with Vona.
A short while later at One Police Plaza
Officers from other departments at the plaza appeared to be avoiding Aurelia ever since she returned from her "off-site meeting". Her own subordinates became notably indecisive and unproductive. If they weren't barging in on her, they were loitering.
"Enough, all-hands meeting now."
Aurelia bolts up from her seat after barking an order at the intercom after another BASTION officer decided to ask pointless questions. She doesn't have time to be concerned about minor details like loitering subordinates. On the other hand, they aren't like her. They can't survive without breaks and chatter.
However, as her officers piled into the conference hall, she decided the meeting was a waste of her time and her priority is to check on THOSE two.
"Everything is fine. Take your breaks then return to work. Dismissed." She walked away from the podium immediately and travelled through the basement Aetheryte left in evidence storage.
Weeks later... in a crumbling slum on another world
Aurelia finds Vona and Gentiana, alive and well with the rest of Vona's companions, Gentiana's disapproving glares aside.
Despite Gentiana and Calca's constant argument, Vona shared what she learned over her recent travels. In many worlds, history tells of giant monsters falling through cracks in the sky, laying waste to the lands and draining their magic.
The first records of Warriors of Light rose to fight the monsters. Where they fail, the world is robbed of all magic and dies. Where they succeed, Aetheryte forms out of the monster's core, forever linking it to a wider network of other Aetherytes.
The Warriors of Light were often assisted by a race of immortals hailing from the center of all Aetherytes. Led by Queen Cassandra, they traded their souls for magic and immortality and traveled across the Aetherytes to wage an eternal war against monsters they called Weapons. It was said they fight in order to protect their sleeping princess Sarah, who is locked away in a tower of shimmering gold.
The name Earth first appeared from these times. It describes a world that only the most cunning and most brave could reach across Aetherytes.
As quickly as they appeared, the immortals vanished without a trace. The immortals left behind glimmering spires that reached the skies and vast cities that blanked the planet. In their place rose a new people without history who spoke vaguely of twelve immortal creators watching over them from the sky. They know not of worlds beyond their own.
Then began Earth's campaign across many worlds. It would always be preceded by a plague caused by the slow draining of magic. Then comes the masked soldiers. For every that fall, ten would take their place. On many worlds, Earth's soldiers were likened to daemons and Weapons of legends, soulless creatures that sought only magic.
Generations of Warriors of Light rose to challenge them, but none were able to slow their advances until an orphan named Vona appeared with her companions. With every victory, came great sacrifice, but she fights on, no matter the enemy, no matter the odds, inspiring a new generations to stand up for themselves.
"The last two sentences were unnecessary. Much of that history predates us and ethnography has not been a priority." Gentiana replies as she returns the glare from Calca.
Calca was the first of the Twelve sisters to wake up on the Golden Spire. Followed by her sisters, one by one. The tower was entirely automated even then, with not a single person anywhere. There was no trace of conflict or evacuation, as if everything was reset.
Guided by the overwhelming drive to expand and create successors, the Twelve went on to create the next generations using the mammon machinery of the Golden Spire.
These first few generations would later call themselves Trueborns in an attempt to elevate themselves above the superior mass produced Replicants that came after.
As the Golden Spire was the main source of energy for Earth and Luna, the increase in population forced the Twelve to expand outward and harvest magic in order to keep everything running. This began a cycle of of constant expansion for energy that continued till recent days.
One by one, the Twelve left the Golden Spire. Calca and Brina saw the consequences of their drive to expand and resolved to stop the Golden Spire. Others simply vanished without a trace. With their departure. In the end, only one of the sisters remained - Gentiana.