A/N: First of all, my apologies for the long delay with this chapter. Assorted real life things kept hitting me hard and I was simply unable to focus much on writing this last month. I believe things will start to improve shortly.

Second, I have now officially hit ten thousand views on this story, so I want to reiterate my thanks to all my readers and followers. I deeply appreciate all your support through this last year, I certainly wouldn't have gotten this far without all of you, and I want to say thank you to all of you for that.

"

Chapter 44: Family Is Still All

"This can't be real," Kasios muttered under his breath, staring up at the screen being projected on the blank white wall of his bedroom. A starmap was displayed from a tiny projector, showing the Earth and Venus, their orbit-lines around the sun, and a solid green line trailing between the two planets. "What is up with this guy?"

Endymion casually glanced out the back windows of Kasios's bedroom, feigning disinterest as Kasios started rapidly scrolling through more star maps, each one showing different parts of the solar system, and each one with a green line on it.

"What's the matter?" Endymion asked.

"This guy is a robot," Kasios said. "Goes from his lab on Earth to his lab on Mercury, goes to his lab on Uranus, goes to his head office on Jupiter, meets with one of his major shareholders on Earth, just...back and forth, back and forth between Galen installations and offices. He didn't flush the radiation for twenty days, twenty days I got to track his every move, and I've got nothing to work with. He never goes anywhere except where he's supposed to be."

Endymion shrugged. "I did...I did tell you that it was a bit of a long shot. Businessman and scientist like that, all that money, no point in messing around with the black market."

"No, no, this...I'm not buying it," Kasios insisted, still rapidly tapping through star maps on the wall. "Nobody operates like this. What, he just has no hobbies? Never goes to...to a casino, a club, a concert, just always back and forth between his facilities and labs? No way. What's the point of having all that money if you can't do something for fun every now and then?"

Endymion sighed. "Well, dad, maybe...Galen is a huge company, he probably doesn't have time for fun. Corporation that big, it probably does take every waking hour for him to keep it running."

Kasios shook his head. "What, he never blows off steam? Never just takes a night off? Remember, we met him that one night at the opera, so it's not like he never does stuff like that."

"Okay, so, he hasn't done anything like that for the last twenty days, maybe," Endymion reasoned. "But dad, really, I'm telling you, he probably doesn't have much time. From the time I've spent around him, he's very busy. It makes sense too, think about how big Galen is!" He shrugged. "I respect the fact that you had a...a gut feeling. I'm sure those feelings are right more often than not, but...I think it's time to look somewhere else on this one."

Kasios pinched his upper lip together. "It's too clean, son. I'm...I'm not convinced. Actually, no, I'm more convinced now, I'm more convinced that he's hiding something big. Why would a man as wealthy as Cronus live such a boring life? The only reason would be that he has something to hide."

"O...okay, okay. Maybe," Endymion stammered. "But what now? You can't take something like that to the Grandmaster, that's not evidence, so we're right back where we were."

Kasios gave an uncomfortable little grunt. "Right. That is true. But I'm sure I'm right, so I can't just do nothing." He tapped his fingers on the desk in front of him a few times.

"Alright, what do you propose?" Endymion pressed, starting to sound a little frantic. "You have no resources, no backing, nothing. What do you think you can do?"

"That's the hard part," Kasios admitted. "I don't have any great ideas. But I'm not walking away from this. I want to pull the inventory manifests for all Galen installations, see if their input matches their output. Maybe we can find some unaccounted materials."

Endymion's face wrinkled up. "D-dad, there are...dozens of Galen Laboratory locations in the galaxy, it'll take you cycles to go through all that data by yourself. Don't be ridiculous."

Kasios bit down on his cheek. "Maybe years." He squinted. "Gods, I'm the High King of the Earth, I sit on the high council of the most powerful entity in the galaxy, and here I am, like I'm some academy dropout trying to scrape together some rent money by playing private detective."

"It's not a good look for you," Endymion agreed.

He rolled his eyes. "I almost wish...it's just impossible to even imagine, but last night, a thought did occur to me." He twisted around in his chair to look up at his son. "Imagine if we tried to run a honeypot on him with you. Of course, it could never be me, he'd never buy it, but maybe he'd buy it if it was you."

"Honeypot?" Endymion asked. "Dad, I don't know this...agency lingo, I don't know what that means."

"I just mean, maybe you could pretend to approach him, like you're interested in...getting involved in black market imperium. Say that you want to invest in it, be a part of his operation."

Endymion pressed his lips together tightly in a neutral smile, slowly putting his right hand behind himself and folding it into a fist. "O-oh. That's, uh...fun to think about."

"He'd never buy it. Actually, he might buy it less with you than he would with me." Kasios laughed to himself. "But you're right, it is fun to think about. Could you imagine the look on his face if you, of all people, went up to him and said you wanted in on his illegal dealings?" He shook his head. "He wouldn't believe it."

"Probably, probably not, you're right," Endymion agreed tersely.

"Sorry, son, you're the only resource I have right now," Kasios muttered. "I'm just trying to figure out how to leverage it. Not fair to you, Gods, I don't want to mess up your apprenticeship there. So close to it being done, too."

"So, anyway, here," Endymion said, going over to the left side of the desk and depositing a round black chip on it, right next to his father. "Overview of the state of finances. Going as well as we could hope. To sum it up for you, Berenson Jewelers has seen growth of thirteen percent over the last two cycles, so that's an additional…"

Endymion trailed off on realizing that his father wasn't particularly listening, staring up at the star charts yet again.

"Um...well, you'll see it all when you pull this up," Endymion said quietly, tapping his finger on the chip.

"O-oh, sorry son," Kasios said. "Uh, great work, great work, w-whatever it is. You're doing great."

"You haven't even looked," Endymion joked with a grin, relieved to have gotten his father off the subject of him having involvement in imperium, no matter how tangential and hypothetical it may have been.

"W-whatever it may be, I'm sure it's great. You're doing great work, son, I mean it. B-believe me, I've looked at the statements you've been giving me, I think...I think we're actually just about out of the danger zone."

Endymion nodded mutely.

"Hey, power usage!" Kasios suddenly said, seemingly getting jolted with a sudden burst of energy.

"I'm sorry?" Endymion asked.

"No, that might work, think about it. Galen installations purchase imperium wholesale from the agency, it'll be easy for me to check how much they buy every cycle. And remember that environmentalist non-profit, uh, Terrans for a Clean Future? They got Galen and Soranus to sign their pact, so they've got those sensors outside the vents at all their Earth-based locations! Maybe I can cross-reference that, see if any of those structures are using more power than they should! I mean, a secret imperium laboratory should be a significant power hog, right? Maybe I can cross-reference that data and find something that doesn't make sense!"

It took all of Endymion's willpower to keep from sighing.

"

"He won't drop it!" Endymion hissed, leaning over like a hunchback over the plain wooden table, glancing up at Kunzite on the opposite side of it. "I can't win, it's like...he's convinced that if he can't find any evidence of Cronus's involvement, it just makes him even more sure he has to be guilty. Like, absence of evidence makes it more obvious that he's hiding something, and...I can barely get him to concentrate on the state of his own kingdom!"

Kunzite shrugged. "I mean, for whatever it's worth, he is right, Your Highness."

"I-I know!" Endymion groaned. "Believe me, I know, but I can't figure out for the life of me how he's figured it out so well! He's working with nothing." He leaned over a bit towards his guardian. "We need to get Cronus out of the picture, Kunzite. I guarantee you, if he gets wind of how obsessed my dad is with pinning something on him, he's going to do something about it."

"I'm working on it," Kunzite said stiffly.

For security purposes, the Prince and his most trusted guard had been trying to move their more sensitive conversations out of the palace entirely, and were conducting most of their business in one of Kunzite's many safehouses scattered all across Earth. Each one was about as plain and forgettable as the last, which was very much the point, little more than a generic living space, the most basic of amenities available. This one was just a single large chamber, mostly lounge space with a small kitchen on the right side, plainly decorated and colored, everything designed around pure functionality.

Endymion puffed a large breath out of his nose. "Less than a cycle until the year-long commitment I made ends. There has to be a reason why he only wanted me to commit for that long."

"I know, believe me," Kunzite insisted. "I have a lead on him, he's expected to be at one of the Soranus locations in two days to film a promotional video for employees."

Endymion was able to muster up a tiny smile. "A promotional video. Certainly something he can't reschedule."

"Your Majesty, I know it looks concerning, but I promise you, I'm putting every asset I can muster up into tracking him."

"Concerning," Endymion repeated. "I don't even know why I bother getting worked up over this. Between Cronus and my father, there's just no way I'm not either dead or in a prison cell by the end of this cycle." He looked up at Kunzite. "Gods, maybe...maybe you shouldn't be working so hard on this. Just forget about it, let it go, whatever happens happens. Just enjoy the rest of your life the best you can."

"Your Highness, I'm not going to—"

"I know, I know, you're not wired that way, you couldn't make yourself do that if you tried, I get it," Endymion said, putting his hands up in the air. "I understand, but really. If we've only got a handful of days left, you should focus on trying to enjoy it." He looked down at the floor to his left. "That reminds me. You're making a drop with Princess Venus today, aren't you?"

"Yes, today's the day," Kunzite replied. "And, Your Highness, let me just say, we do not have a handful of days left. We're going to get out of this, you're going to take the throne, and you're going to have a long, successful reign as King of Earth."

"I'm not seven years old, you know," Endymion muttered. The Prince made to reach down beneath the table to grab something, but halfway down rose back up. "Anyway, uh, before I make unfair assumptions about things, I guess I should ask first. These trips you've been making to give Princess Venus imperium." He bobbed his head back and forth a couple times. "That's not the only thing you've been giving her, is it?"

Kunzite couldn't mask the flinch that rippled across his face, his eyes widening and cheeks tightening a bit. Endymion just gave his guardian a curious look, tilting his head to the right.

"U-um, well, what do you mean by that?" Kunzite asked evasively.

"Kunzite, I think you know. And before you give me an answer, understand that I'm willing to accept a lot of things from you, but lying to me isn't one of those things," Endymion said in a low-energy deadpan. "Now come on."

Kunzite bit his lower lip. "If you need me to stop, I will immediately, and—"

Endymion silenced his guardian with a wave of his right hand. "The way I see it, Kunzite, we're both probably about to be dead because of the decisions that I've made. So who am I to deprive you of your fun while you're still here?"

Kunzite, still rattled by being called out by his charge, was pulled between the desire to express gratitude and continue to insist that their mutual demise was not going to happen anytime soon. "Um, t-thank you, but—"

"However, Kunzite." Endymion's expression hardened. "If things go in our favor. If we live to see our next birthdays. Then there might come a time where my goals and Princess Venus's goals do not align. And if that happens, then I need you to have no doubt about where your loyalty lies."

"Oh, you have nothing to worry about, Your Highness," Kunzite said, instinctively straightening up a bit. "I know who I serve, believe me, and I'm never going to forget it."

Endymion nodded. "Then have fun." He reached down beneath the table with his left hand and lifted up a square wooden box, setting it down on the table with a little dull thud, then pushing it forward to slide it over to his guardian. "And how about you share this with her while you're at it?"

Kunzite regarded the wooden package for a moment, then reached forward to push the front lid of it off, sliding it upward to reveal the contents. A fat, round glass bottle was nestled into a pile of hay, filled with a light yellow liquid and sealed with a wax-covered cork. The front-facing label had the royal insignia on it, but it was otherwise unmarked.

Kunzite's forehead wrinkled as he tapped the front label with his left index finger. "Is this…"

"One of the gifts Queen Uranus sent me on my eighteenth birthday, yes," Endymion explained. "The only bottle of this particular concoction in existence. So they say, anyway." He shrugged. "Wouldn't be amazed if they've got a bottle of this stuff in every house over there, how would I know? But, they were quite insistent that this exact mix and aging process had never been used before and would never be used again."

"Are you sure you want to give this to me, Your Highness?" Kunzite asked, picking the bottle up and slowly rotating it around.

"Well, it's been three years, and I haven't even broken the seal yet. So clearly, I don't deserve it." He waved both his arms over towards Kunzite. "Come on, let me do something nice for you for once, after all the garbage I've put you through lately. It's yours, have fun with it."

With a tiny shrug, Kunzite replaced the bottle in the box and then slid the lid back in. "Thank you, Your Majesty."

A series of rapid-fire knocks at the door caused Endymion to frantically stagger up to his feet, as if he was almost scared of the sound, spinning to face the lone door into the room.

"I assure you, this safehouse is secure," Kunzite said.

"Oh, I know," Endymion agreed. "It's just, she's with them, isn't she?"

"Should be," Kunzite said.

"Alright, remember, nothing about any of this Cronus business in front of her," Endymion said, adjusting his outfit with both hands.

"I would never forget that," Kunzite assured him, getting to his feet and marching over to the door. Endymion continued to adjust himself in various ways, trying his best to make himself look like how he imagined someone in control and comfortable would look. "Coming!"

After a quick check through the peephole, Kunzite popped the door open, inviting Nephrite, Jadeite, Zoisite, and Princess Serenity inside, filing through into the room. Serenity immediately started spinning her head around, examining the room.

"Are you sure I haven't been here before?" she asked, looking up over at Kunzite. "I feel like I have."

"My safehouses tend to look rather similar, Your Majesty," Kunzite acknowledged. "You haven't been here before."

"What's the fun in having all these different places if you can't even mix it up a bit with the decorating?" Serenity wondered.

"Well, we all have our priorities," Kunzite said, going over to the corner nearest the door and tapping a large luggage container with his foot. The large case began to levitate a finger-length or so off the ground. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a delivery to make." The wooden box tucked under his arm, Kunzite moved to depart.

As Kunzite made his way back to the wooden door built into the eastern side of the room, he tapped Jadeite on the right shoulder, a gesture that nobody else noticed. The blond general followed his elder colleague out of the room, the case hot on their heels out to a stone staircase that led up to ground level.

Meanwhile, as the door sealed shut to keep the happenings within the safehouse private, Serenity quickly laid eyes on the collection of black rectangular cases laying open on the floor. Each one was filled to capacity with assorted gemstones, ranging from as small as a pebble to as big as Serenity's thumb. She slowly walked over towards the obscene collection of valuable rocks, hand beneath her chin as she thought.

"Right, then," Endymion said assertively, slowly walking over to the small square table positioned right next to one of the mattresses on the other side of the room. "Our targets for this cycle are bold, but necessary. Neptune is being insistent on the agreed-upon payment plan being kept to, so we have to meet that, but once we clear what we owe to them, I believe all of the immediate danger will have been cleared. My father is looking for any excuse to pass the throne on to me." The Prince bent down to scoop up a small stack of papers. "If we can meet this, I believe he'll have it."

"So...you get paid this much every cycle?" Serenity asked, looking over the figurative sea of riches in front of her.

"Every ten days," Endymion corrected.

Serenity swallowed down hard. "Endy, you do realize that you're making money about...thirty or forty times faster than it can be laundered, right?" She looked over her shoulder at her husband.

"I have some idea of that, yes," Endymion said patiently.

"Are we just going to be laundering all of this for the rest of our lives?" She crouched down next to one of the cases, this one full of clear diamonds.

"Those kinds of questions are things you wouldn't have had to concern yourself with if you didn't choose to involve yourself in my business," Endymion said simply. "But you did. You were told that this could be a difficult and time-consuming endeavor, and you wanted to be part of it anyway."

"Is there any way you could get paid with, like...paper money?" Serenity asked. "Seems like it would be easier to launder."

"Not practical in these amounts," Endymion said. "Come on, Serenity, you've been placed in charge of a chain of jewelry stores, of all things. Be creative."

Serenity rolled her eyes as Endymion went over next to her, taking one of the sheets of paper off the top of the stack and holding it out towards her.

"

"Anything?" Kunzite asked, he and Jadeite standing a few steps up the short staircase that led back out into the outside world of Hectite City, Kunzite up just high enough to be able to see all around, making sure that nobody was eavesdropping.

"I mean, I told you to not get your expectations up," Jadeite said hesitantly in a hushed voice.

"So, no, then?" Kunzite inferred.

"I don't have friends back on Mars, Kunzite," Jadeite continued. "I'm really nothing like any of them, they never cared for me."

"Well, it was worth a try," Kunzite muttered.

"Not really," Jadeite retorted. "You know everyone over there thinks I'm a heathen."

"They think you're a heathen?" Kunzite asked suggestively.

"Well, okay, fine, they know that...from their perspective, I'm a heathen, doesn't really matter. I have no friends over there. If your ultimate plan was to get a bunch of psychics together and use them to cook up some scheme to get us out of this, then sorry, maybe it's time to go to the High King about this."

"Enough of that," Kunzite growled, again peering up to judge the surrounding area outside the side of the small safehouse. "We're not going to the High King. And no, this wasn't my last idea."

"Hey, it'd be a great time to bust out whatever you've got left," Jadeite suggested.

"I'm aware," Kunzite said. "Alright, that's all I wanted to know. Just...be ready to move when you're called, we're down to the last half-cycle maybe." He reached forward and clapped Jadeite on the shoulder, quickly jogging up the last part of the stairs, massive luggage container following on his heels.

"

Cronus rubbed his left temple with his index finger, staring over at Eudial, the two of them sitting on opposite sides of the passenger tube of the Class B starship. Neither of them could feel so much as a shudder even as the ship zipped through space, along the orbital line of Uranus, at speeds that approached the maximum possible for a ship of such size.

"How close do you think he is to finding something significant?" Cronus asked, voice tempered and even, still managing to be controlled enough to imply a great deal of power despite a lack of volume or obvious viciousness.

"The High King has been poking around in the power usage of our laboratories since about ten days ago," Eudial explained. "Every single one on Earth. He's been working with that environmentalist group. I'm sure he's trying to see if any of our locations have been pulling more power than expected. If he's persistent in his efforts, he will likely notice a discrepancy at laboratory twenty-five."

Cronus sighed. "Then he's too close. The Prince hasn't held up his end."

"I'm inclined to agree," Eudial said. "But what do we do about it?"

Cronus sighed, putting his hands together in front of his chest, tilting his head down. "I think we've pushed this out as long as we can. We've made enough money to secure things on Saturn. We're just five days short of the original one-year agreement anyway, this was always the plan. Now we just have to eliminate loose ends."

"Been waiting to hear you say that for awhile," Eudial said. "I know the others have been too."

"You ready to pass a message along?" he asked.

"Ready and willing," Eudial answered.

Cronus cleared his throat. "Have Prince Endymion and Kunzite eliminated on arrival at the lab tomorrow. But today, prepare for the possibility of having to do a fast and complete teardown on everything. We don't know what safeguards he might have in place in the event of his death. Once that's over with, contact your allies back on Mars. Kasios can't possibly have told anyone at the agency about his investigation into me, so we need to handle him before he can find something real he can take to them. We need to arrange for a hit on the High King, as soon as possible."

Eudial, who had betrayed no emotion during the instructions being given to her, focused only on memorizing what was being dictated to her, couldn't stop herself from making a little verbal exclamation at this order. Just a little gasp and a jerk of the head.

"There's no other way," Cronus explained. "You said it yourself. If he finds a discrepancy in the power usage of our labs, the game is up. Clearly, he's completely convinced that he's right on this suspicion of his, or else he wouldn't be chasing it so doggedly. He has to be killed before he can pass something of value to the agency."

"No, no, I...I understand that," Eudial said breathlessly. "It's just shocking, hearing you say it."

"Now, obviously, the goal is to accomplish all of this without putting our operation in danger," Cronus continued, as if the matter of assassination the most powerful man in the galaxy was a trifle that warranted only a secunda of discussion. "I want to remain in my role as Cronus until the war is officially over. But, if we have to go on the run, then so be it. Just be prepared for anything. If we have proven one thing over the last decade, it's that we're highly adaptable, and that we're survivors."

"Yes sir," Eudial said. "I'll spread the word around as soon as we land."

"And I want to say, Eudial. Thank you for your years of service to me," Cronus continued, placing his hands on his kneecaps. "It hasn't been easy for any of us, I know that. But you, Tellu, Ptilol, you've never wavered in your loyalty to me, and have stayed with me every step of the way. Across multiples lives, really. All we've worked to accomplish, it could certainly not have been done without all of you."

Eudial cautiously measured her reply, careful to not say anything that might ruin the levity of the moment, something that had been in short supply recently. "There's nobody who I'd rather be working in the service of than you, sir. My work to see your goals achieved has been an honor."

"Once this is all over, we'll find some place to disappear for good. Whatever money we have left, we'll use it to make sure they never find us. Of course, it won't be as glamorous as you might remember back in the palace on Saturn, but there will be no more missions. No more jobs. Just freedom to finally relax. I think that sounds nice, don't you?"

Eudial squinted. "Do you think you'll ever be able to get over everything you lost?" she asked.

Cronus's eyes bulged, and his right hand instinctively rose up to wipe at his mouth as he considered the question.

"

Visitors to the Saturn Palace would sometimes say it felt like the royal house was in a permanent state of mourning. There was something inherently depressing and morose about the dull, dark colors that were used across virtually the entire massive estate, a mix of black and purple that just brought out the sadness.

When you lived in it all your life, of course, it didn't feel that way at all. The current presiding King of Saturn actually found other royal palaces across the galaxy to be gaudy and overly childish in their designs, sometimes to the point of hurting his eyes. He felt at home in the dark tones that painted the walls and ceiling. There was nothing sad about it to him.

However, there was a certain air of mourning around the middle-aged royal right now. Though he, personally, did not associate the inky, unlit environment with sadness, the mild irony was not lost on him.

King Saturn, a tall man with broad shoulders and short black hair, a pair of gold-rimmed glasses perched on the bridge of his nose, was leaning up against the side of a wooden crib, staring up towards the wall right on the other side of it. A small toddler was laying in the middle of the cradle, asleep, resting on her side with a pillow propped against her back. She had a mane of black hair to match his.

The King didn't turn to look when he heard the door on the other side of the room, at least forty paces from him, click open. He simply waited, counting what he imagined might be the muted footsteps of his aide might be taking.

"Is she alright, Your Highness?"

"As alright as she's ever been," King Saturn replied, a slight hint of bitterness in his tone. "I truly doubt she'll ever be alright, as the term is meant to be used."

His aide paused, no doubt fumbling a bit over his King's odd little expression of displeasure over his daughter's myriad of health conditions.

"How familiar are you with her ailments, Janus?" the King inquired.

"V-very," Janus replied, sounding a bit confused. "Of course I know all about them. It's part of my job, I've made—"

"Put my mind at ease, then," King Saturn asked. "Could you list them?"

"Um...weakened stomach acids causing digestive issues on certain food types, highly sensitive skin that dries out quickly, brittle bones and atrophied muscles, and aversion to light," Janus recited, rubbing his forehead. "Not the...technical terms, but...well, yes."

The King gave a tiny smile. "I suppose I'll trust the doctors to know the technical terms. I just wanted to make sure you were fully familiar with her conditions." He turned towards his aide. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to make you feel as if I think you're a child."

"Your Highness, I know it's frustrating, but she has access to the finest medical care in the galaxy. It will be little more than an annoyance, ultimately. I-Imagine if she was a middle-class commoner, with all of these health complications."

"Oh, I know, Janus," King Saturn said. "That's not even what frustrates me." He sighed, reaching down towards the baby and letting his finger gently stroke her hair. "What frustrates me is knowing that I'm not going to be the one who gets to guide her through all of it."

Janus wanted to offer his king some comfort, but knew it would be a waste of breath that would serve only to annoy him. He decided instead on considering more practical replies, focused on problem-solving.

"Royals have survived worse scandals, Your Majesty," Janus pointed out. "Let's just burn everything to the ground now, all the labs, all the...experiments, every bit of it. Just move on from it. We can bury it."

Slowly, the King stepped away from the crib. "It continues to confuse me. Society is perfectly willing to embrace certain kinds of progress. But not others. Some kinds of progress, they're repulsed by. And who can tell the difference until it's too late?"

"I couldn't agree more, Your Highness," Janus said, nodding firmly. "You're one of the finest scientific minds in the history of civilization. It's only being wasted by this backlash against your projects."

"How can that be so clear to people like you and me, and yet we're sitting here on the brink of having hundreds of millions of people storming the gates with pitchforks and torches?" King Saturn wondered aloud. "How can so much common sense be concentrated in a single room, while the entire rest of this planet just can't see it?" He shook his head. "Oh well. No sense in complaining about it now."

"We shouldn't give up, Your Highness," Janus reiterated, following his King around the room as he paced about. "This can be covered up. Human experimentation, real easy to make it go away. Destroy the documentation, destroy the facilities...frankly, most of the test subjects are already dead, so that's not a concern."

King Saturn shook his head. "It's too late. Too many people suspect it. A few hundred million people suspecting something makes it as good as true, they just have to keep talking about it. In a couple cycles, proof or not, it'll be accepted as fact. And I can't wait for that. The time to act is now, before they actually start trying to tear this place apart. Before they try to involve other planets in unseating me. I'm sure the line to help take the throne away from me will be long after my enemies tug on their heartstrings with stories of the 'horrible atrocities' of my work."

Janus winced, entire face rippling. "Your Highness, you should at least fight it."

"I will not spend the rest of my days inside a prison cell, Janus," the King explained. "Or allow self-righteous moral guardians to execute me. I have more things to do in this life. And I have no intention of laying down for anyone before I'm done with them." He turned around to look at his aide. "I've already decided. I'm disappearing tonight. I'll be taking some of our successful subjects with me to help establish myself wherever I end up. Control of the planet will pass to you primarily. You'll delegate responsibilities out to your colleagues. I trust you're prepared for that. Your goal will be to make sure that, when my daughter turns eighteen, she takes the throne as Queen."

Janus gave a barely audible hiss through gritted teeth. "Your Majesty. If you leave, that will just embolden your enemies to try to take control of the planet. It'll be viewed as a power vacuum."

"No one will feel any sympathy for me once everything comes to light," King Saturn pointed out, going back over towards the crib holding the young princess and looking down at his sleeping daughter. "All the galaxy will happily view me as a monster who must be removed from power at any cost." He nodded down at Princess Saturn. "But if I disappear, then people will see a frail little child, too young to understand anything happening around her in the palace, she will have defenders. People will see her as a victim of my crimes, same as some of my test subjects. Why should this sickly infant suffer for the acts of her monsterous father? That's what people will say. But only if I leave."

"Not everyone," Janus pointed out. "At the very least, there will be many opportunists who will move to take advantage of your departure. If we attempt to hold the throne for your daughter, there will be a war. And not one we can be sure to win. I'm sure all the factions and groups that have opposed you for all these years will band together. And we won't be able to count on other planets to step in on our behalf, they'll be very hesitant to take sides in a conflict like this."

Eventually, King Saturn nodded. "You're right, of course. There will be a civil war. Every person on the planet with an axe to grind against me will just see it as a chance to take power."

"It won't be a war we're sure to win," Janus added. "At best, it'll be very costly."

The King audibly swallowed down hard, appreciating the gravity of the statement his top aide had just made. "I'll see to it that we do win, then."

"How?" Janus asked.

"Janus, you know me. You must know I have no intention of running away simply to hide. The universe needs my abilities, my brilliance. I'll find a way to leverage them in my next life. And I'll find a way to influence the war. Whatever it takes, she takes the throne when she turns eighteen. It'll be my final act as a father to her."

"How can you possibly influence a civil war involving this entire planet?" Janus asked. "N-not that I question your brilliance, of course, but..that would take hundreds of billions of creds."

"I have nothing else to live for but this, I'll find a way," King Saturn stated simply. "The throne is her birthright, she has nothing to do with my actions. Making sure that she gets what's coming to her is simply my duty as a father. Whatever it takes."

"I am sure I will not be able to change your mind," Janus said. "So I won't try anymore." He bowed his head a bit. "You will be missed, Your Highness. Saturn does not know, and may never know, how lucky they were to have you serving as King."

"I'll be gone by this time tomorrow," the King continued. "As far as the galaxy is concerned, I die tonight. When I'm reborn, however long it takes, you may recognize me. But nobody else will. So be sure to keep it to yourself." He gave a wan little smile at his aide.

"Of course. Truthfully, I doubt I'll be able to recognize you in whatever form you take next. I'm sure your ability to disguise yourself is as expert-level as everything else you do."

"Getting in one last session of brown-nosing before our relationship ends," King Saturn said wryly. "I suppose I respect it, but you must realize that after tonight, it won't be worth anything to you."

"I would never," Janus protested. "Well, Your Highness, I suppose all that can be said. I give you my word that I, as well as my colleagues, will do everything in our power to make sure that your daughter rules Saturn when she comes of age. However costly a civil war might be, it's a price we're all willing to pay."

"I know you will," the King affirmed. "Just keep the fight going, no matter how hopeless or endless it may look. If I have to pull Titan out of orbit to accomplish it, then so be it, but the kingdom stays in my family."

"I believe you," Janus said.

King Saturn stared down at his progeny, still blissfully aware of the extremely weighty conversation that was happening right next to her, asleep and too young to understand what was being discussed anyway. "You'll have to raise her to hate me, of course. It's the only way she'll garner sympathy."

"I'm sorry that it's come to this, Your Highness. No father should be deprived of the ability to raise their child."

"Oh, I'll still raise her," King Saturn countered. "When you're a father, you're always raising your children. Even if you're millions of haplouns away, using a different name, unrecognizable, despised and forgotten, blamed for all the misfortune in everyone's life. But you're still a father. And you still have the responsibilities of one."

"

"I don't feel as if I've lost as much as most people would probably think," Cronus said simply with a thin smile. "And the things I have lost were lost because of decisions I've made, that I stand by. I have lived as very few men in the history of the galaxy have. That's more important than what I may have lost on the way." He nodded. "Thank you, Eudial. Let's focus on what's ahead of us, not what's behind us."

Eudial quickly nodded, relieved that she hadn't crossed some line by bringing up the past. She was happy to end the conversation on that note, turning away, allowing both herself and Cronus to think about the immense challenge that the next several days would be.