"Now," muttered Wasshu, the self-proclaimed Greatest Scientific Genius In The Universe, "if I can just get the tri-phase unilateral tachyon capacitor to properly react with the variable frequency bradyon charge..." A hand reached out, and a switch was thrown. Since Masaaki Tenchi had become Emperor of Juraii, she had abandoned the juvenile form that amused her so much. Instead, she spent most of her incarnated time in a form closer in appearance to her spiritual form. As one of the three goddesses of Juraii, she was extremely beautiful, with spiky pink hair, and a tight lab coat that only accentuated certain physical properties she passed on to her "daughter", Ryoko. Small spectacles perched on the end of her nose, as she watched flashing lights and spinning gauges tell her about the state of her most recent experiment. "Excellent!" she exclaimed. "Now, to shut it off before the tachyon capacitor reaches its maximum containment and ruptures..." Before she could reach the off switch, a crackling Bolt of energy lanced through the air, slamming into her avatar. The force threw her more than thirty feet away, and mortally wounded her current physical form. Looking up, anger rising as she prepared to assume her full godly powers, she snarled, then began to ask a question. Unfortunately, that was when Time, itself, tore itself apart in her laboratory, snuffing the goddess's existence before she ever came into awareness. ********** "How much time before this... time wave... reaches Juraii, itself?" Emperor Tenchi had aged well, in the two hundred years since he had ascended to the throne. To be exact, he didn't seem to really age at all, just grow. His hair was still kept short, but the pigtail he wore was now long enough to reach his waist. He now stood a hair over six feet, and weighed about one hundred and eighty five pounds of lean muscle. His two wives, Ayeka and Ryoko, often spent hours watching him for no other reason than they loved him just as much now as they did when he believed himself nothing more than a simple human boy. Fortunately for the palace staff, they had grown to be dear friends, and only got into fights once a week. The events of the last eleven hours, however, had succeeded where two centuries had failed. Crows' feet marched their way across the corners of his eyes, and he caught himself checking in a mirror for gray hairs. The disruption of Wasshu's experiment had resulted in a temporal shockwave, ripping apart the very nature of time as it washed across the entire Empire. On a few worlds, the lucky ones, time ran backwards for a while, until it settled at some random point in its history. Most, however, were not so fortunate. On many worlds, time became "stuck", constantly repeating the effects of the last few days, or hours, before rewinding and starting all over again. Most, however, were simply torn apart by the conflicting temporal energies unleashed by an assassin's bolt of power. "About three hours," came the response from his aide. "And in another fourteen hours, the wave will reach the Sol system." "My daughter?" he asked. "She has made it to the Terran Lunar outpost, right?" "Don't worry, Ten-chan," purred Ryoko. "She'll be safe." Reaching out with both arms, she drew her husband and co-wife into a fierce hug. "She gets her skill and good looks from your side of the family, and she gets the pig-headed stubbornness and foul temper from yours, Ayeka-chan!" "Look here, you porcupine-quilled weasel! Our Saynami is as sweet as cream!" retorted her friend and rival, using a cliche that was old in Juraii when Yosho first left. "Exactly - and she left the dregs of the milk for mommy!" crowed the ex-pirate, grinning like a maniac at her two spouses. Ayeka humph'ed softly, and turned away, and Tenchi only sighed. "Sol Three," muttered the Emperor. "Our outposts - if there was only some way to shield them as they get hit by the time wave." Keeping hold of the two most important people in her life that remained among the living, the spiky-haired adventuress began to mutter to herself. "Don't worry, Ten-chan, Aye-chan... I'm sure someone will help the outposts there." Looking up to the sky, she added, silently, 'Sasami - help her!' A button was pushed, and a message was sent. Just under three hours later, Juraii was no more. ********** "And, so, we send our love. May Tsunami protect you, Empress of Juraii." Saynami read and reread that last line until she could bear it no longer. The word Empress was one she had expected to hear, but not for many Juraiian years yet. And her Empire would last no more than a few minutes more. "Goddammit, why?" she screamed to the uncaring stars. Emperor Tenchi had forbidden any contact with Earth until his homeworld was ready, but had ordered outposts built on each of the other worlds in the Sol system, as well as on Earth's moon. It was here that the last remaining citizens of the Empire waited for whatever dire fate would be their end. Unbeknownst to gentle Saynami, the last remaining goddess of Juraii watched, and prepared to do what she could. To the sight of Tsunami, the approaching temporal wave seemed like a growing cancer, soon to consume all she knew. Even a goddess had her limits, and if the temporal wave affected her before she became aware, as it had both Tokimi and Wasshu, then she would be as powerless to stop it as her people had been. Drawing on all of her power, she settled down around the last remnants of her people like a cloak of soft silk. The temporal wave collided with Tsunami, tearing at the very supernatural nature of her being. In agony, she drew herself tighter around her children, and screamed her determination to the stars. The pain was infinite, and lasted for eternity, but was over less than a second later. And Tsunami was no more. ********** The people of the lunar outpost looked around at each other, hardly believing their eyes. They were not stuck in a time loop, nor was time regressed. As far as they could tell, they were safe. Starting slow at first, a ragged cheer arose. Commlink messages confirmed the similar survival of the outposts on the other worlds, and all seemed right in the world, to them. Empress Saynami sighed. There was a realm left for her, after all. She turned to the nearest officer, and asked, "The Earth - how is it?" The officer glanced over his sensors, and shook his head. "I'm sorry, your majesty. It was regressed in time approximately three thousand years," he said. "I... I understand," she replied. 'Hm," she pondered, 'not much of an empire left. Barely a kingdom.' An idea occurred to her, and she motioned the officer back over. "Open a comms channel to all the planetary bases," she ordered. He rushed to comply. When he signaled her that the channel was open, she took a deep breath, and began to speak. "People of Juraii, this is Saynami, your Empress." She stopped briefly, and bit back a tear. "Our goddess, Tsunami, has saved us from the force that destroyed the rest of our people. We are fortunate, but we must never forget the billions of citizens that either perished, or are forever trapped between moments." Silence. "Below this lunar outpost, a world of over six billion people has been regressed three millennia. People who were thriving less than an hour ago now have never been born, and that world must bear the scars of lessons learned a second time. "I swear, they shall not suffer alone. When they look to the sky, the people of Earth shall not see a cold, lifeless rock, but a shining hope, and strong ally. "You are now the totality of Juraii, the last of the Empire. However, We are not large enough to be an empire, so I now declare us a Kingdom, even as I change my name to that which I wish for the people of Earth. "I am now Queen Serenity, of the Moon Kingdom. And, together, people of the Solar System, we shall guide the people of Earth into an age of silver, and purity."