I am old. So very old. I remember the wars for the surface, the civilization before the first attacks, the raging construction of the fleet. I was there when we took to the skies in defense of all we loved, I was second hand on the great cruiser, Cathedral Terra, as we reached the Galactic Spiral Abyss, and fought the Ashtanga dreadnaughts, the flagships of the forces we had come to know as the Anti-Spirals. But to my shame, I was not there when it mattered, when, I would later learn, Anti-Spiral appeared before our greatest Spiral Warrior, and drove him mad. I was beside my captain, and though he and I survived because of that, I wonder, would I have made difference, if I had been there when Lordgenome went mad?

My captain and I survived, though our ship was crippled, and we were forced to escape in the emergency Lagann class core ship— but what we found when we returned home made us wish we had died there.

We returned to a wasteland. The surface was all but destroyed, and overrun with smaller Ganmen class craft, mercilessly killing any human who remained above ground, and reporting back to Dai-Guns at night, which in turn reported to someone called the Spiral King. While we were able to intercept transmissions through Lagann's equipment, what we learned was that we could never defeat our traitor as we were now.

And so we fled, using Lagann's drill to tunnel far underground, under the earth, to a place we had picked up signs of life. I had long since returned to my lesser form, and was never looked twice at, spending my days watching my Captain as he healed, slowly, and found a woman he could love.

But it was not to last. Medicine in this new world was a far cry from what it had once been, and that kind woman breathed her last as she brought their son into the world.

My captain had never fully healed, and this loss was too much to bear. When their son was four, by our count of years, he chose to return to the surface, to face his traitorous subordinate and die, and join the others. I could no longer speak, in my lesser form, but even if I could, I could not have convinced him to stay. Instead, I remained with his son, who had not followed him, and watched over them.

Them? Yes, them, for the boy had adopted another, a pup called Simon, and they were inseparable. I was there when they discovered our old Lagann, and returned to the surface with it. I remained by their sides, keeping watch over Simon when Kamina, my Kamina, my bright spark, my captain's son, was killed in battle. I helped to power the gunmen, as they were now called, with my own not inconsiderable reserves of Spiral Power when we took one enemy ship after another, and marched on the capital, Tepplin, that I had known as the Cathedral Terra's core and escape vessel, the Arc-Lazengan. I watched the battle with our traitorous Lordgenome from safety, and cursed my weakness, unable to take my other form and condemn him for his actions. I was there when the sun rose on our victory, and I watched over them during the seven years of peace. When the Anti-Spiral returned, and our people declared Simon a traitor and criminal in his own turn, and condemned him, they bound me as well.

I still wonder why they bothered to bind me. To their eyes, I was nothing but an animal. But I broke those bonds, and went to the mechanics, Leite and Makken, where I wrote them a message, telling them what was coming, and to prepare. For I still could not take on my other form, in spite of the spiral power I had been storing for all these years.

But my Simon was freed, and I was by his side as we returned to space, fought the Muugan, retook the Cathedral Terra that had taken the place of our moon, and it was in space, where I had lost my form, that I regained it with the help of Lordgenome's own spiral power. The irony is indescribable! At last, I had hands again, and feet, and a mouth that could speak, thanks to the spiral power of the man who betrayed my captain.

But it was not the time to muse on such things, and we entered our final battle. I was depleted, and could no longer maintain my form while we fought, but still, I fought, as I never had before, every ounce of power in my tiny body adding to what we, Dai-Gurren, could throw against our enemy.

And I was there when we won, and the spiral races of the galaxy cried out in freedom.

Who am I, you ask? I am the one at the start of it all, the one who has seen it through from beginning to end. If you still do not know, then my name is…

Boota.

I am Boota.

A story operating on the theory that Boota is a member of one of the other Spiral Races who served with Kamina's father during the first Anti-Spiral war. Due to space-time stuff involving relativity and not being able to teleport in a Lagann, it took them what didn't seem that long to make it back from the battleplain in space, but a thousand years in plantary time. I'll try to rewrite that explanation to make more sense when I'm no longer sick.