As a man fell asleep, thoughts muddled and doubt prevalent, a spirit from Solara flitted into his subconscious.

Hmmm. Looks like you're having some trouble. Big decision coming up, eh? Let's see what I can do…

The Solaran spirit that was once Bobby Pendragon contemplated how best to handle this. It was his job to offer perspective and help the people of the territories tackle their problems to the best of their abilities. He didn't influence – that wasn't what he was there for – but he did help them to clear their minds and look at a problem from every possible angle.

He had always been good at telling stories in life, and had taken to using this talent when helping the people of the territories. He sent them dreams. Never anything overt or misleading, just a little something to help them get moving in the right direction – even if their right seemed wrong to him.

Ok, how to start? Once upon a time? Nah. In a galaxy far, far away? Pfft, who am I kidding, you wouldn't even get that reference. Ok, you've been stressing way too much. What you need is to relax. Maybe a forest? Would you find that relaxing? I would find that relaxing. So long as it wasn't a forest filled with tangs or wolves or quigs -

He shook himself mentally. Not having a physically body, that was really the only way he could shake himself. Either way, he did not want to go in that direction again. Quigs. Ugh.

Ok, ok, what was I doing? Right. Forest.

In his dream the man felt young. Confident. He walked between giant trees that stretched into the clouds. As an ex-hiker, the atmosphere both relaxed and excited him, and as he began his trek, he left his doubts behind him.

Now that's what I'm talking about! Ok, how to build on this. Confidence is good. Maybe I can –

…Bobby?

A spirit from Solara was trying to contact him. Seriously? He had one job in the whole of existence, and whatever this spirit wanted couldn't wait until he finished it? They literally had all the time in the world! All the time in every world! Forever!

Uhhhh, I'm a little busy right now.

The spirit was insistent.

It's important. We need to talk.

The spirit named Bobby Pendragon sighed. Mentally. Obviously.

Look, I'm just going to go ahead and finish up this dream here. I have a really good idea about bolstering this dude's confidence by sending him on this –

The foreign spirit interjected.

I wouldn't be asking if it wasn't important.

This made Bobby cringe. Mentally. He had heard that line before. Nothing good had followed it. He knew that his anxiety was most likely unfounded, but hearing the words still brought back memories - memories he had tried exceptionally hard to put behind him.

On my way.

As the spirits drew away, back to their own ethereal realm, the man awoke with a start, not quite sure of what was happening. He did remember some of his dream though. He had been hiking.

The man yawned, then muttered, "Maybe I really should take a hike. It might help me clear my head at least. Maybe head up to Mount Kaija. Yeah, that's the way to go…" He trailed off, and quickly fell back asleep.

Bobby drifted across the incorporeal line that seemed to separate Solara from everywhere else.

Ok, what's up?

The spirit seemed a bit tense. That wasn't good. Normally he was as cool as a cucumber. The only time Bobby had ever seen him worried was when the entire universe – ahem, every universe – had been on the verge of total collapse.

Come on. Let's sit down for a couple of minutes.

The spirits of Solara almost never took on corporeal form. They had no need for physical bodies, since the only reason they would really need them would be to interact with other physical beings, i.e. the people of the territories. And they did not interfere with the people of the territories. At least, not directly. Still, it wasn't really harmful to take on a physical form in Solara. There weren't exactly people running around, waiting to be influenced. Solara existed as the realm in which the spirits of all intelligent beings could come together. It was like a sort of celestial crossroads from which all physical matter and spiritual guidance came.

It was here that Bobby Pendragon's spirit resided, as well as the spirits of everyone else who had ever existed.

As Bobby coalesced into the form that he had become most familiar with, a young man with messy brown hair and dark brown eyes, he saw another being drift into existence beside him.

"Hey Uncle Press. Long time no see." said Bobby. It was true. Although they often communicated via whatever psychic, spiritual connection all spirits shares, they hadn't had any occasion to use the physical bodies that they had become accustomed to years ago.

"Hey kid," he said, grinning. Uncle Press was a relaxed kind of guy. Normally. Not now, which kind of brought them to the point of their conversation.

Bobby shifted a bit uncomfortably. The place they had come to talk was nice – rolling green meadows as far as the eye could see. As relaxing as it was, the fact that they were there at all was what put Bobby on edge. "So…what's up?" he asked. He felt like he was about to be told that the trip to Disneyland that he had been waiting all year for had just been cancelled. Or that there was trouble brewing that could potentially be on par with the near-disaster that had almost destroyed sentient life as they knew it an indefinite amount of time ago. Since the chances of it being the Disneyland thing were pretty slim, Bobby was anxious to hear what had gotten his Uncle Press so worked up.

"Well, I sensed something strange while I was communing with the forces of intelligent life from the territories." (It was something that spirits did.) "When I went to take a closer look at what it was, I felt something…blocking me. It was as though some force had put up a wall, stopping me from looking into what had caused the disturbance." He seemed perturbed by the memory of it, and Bobby could see why. There wasn't supposed to be anywhere that the spirits of Solara weren't able to go. The entirety of existence was supposed to be open to them. Anywhere intelligent life existed, they thrived. As the sentient races flung their thoughts out to what lay beyond them, into the depths of space and down the threads of time, the spirits of Solara followed those thoughts, and in that way the origins of the universe were made known to them.

Uncle Press continued, "I managed to get around the force and take a look at whatever it was that I had felt, and I discovered something…intense. Something that should never have been hidden from us. The fact that it was is beyond my comprehension. We should have known about it from the very start…" He trailed off, concern flashing in his eyes, foot tapping in agitation. Whatever it was, it had gotten him very worked up.

"What?" Bobby demanded. "What in the world could possibly be so important that someone would feel the need to hide it from us? And who the heck is 'someone' anyways?" There really shouldn't have been anyone capable of hiding anything from them. Solara was once again united. The dark reflection that used to be had ceased to exist. There was no one else out there, nothing else out there.

Uncle Press paused before continuing. He took a deep breath, then said, "A new sentient race has evolved."

Bobby blinked. Whoa. He had not been expecting that. Well, he hadn't really been expecting anything. He hadn't known what to expect. But if he'd had expectations, a new sentient race wouldn't have been one of them. "But that's good, isn't it?" He said, "I mean, yeah, it sucks that it's been hiding from us, but new sentient life means…uhh…well, I'm not exactly sure what it means, but it can't hurt, right?" Bobby honestly had no idea how to process this new information. In fact, he was pretty confused that there even was new information. Since Halla was everything that ever was or would be, he thought that any sentient race that would ever evolve would have already been a part of it…or something. Man, he may have been an all-seeing, millennia-old spirit of Solara, but sometimes this stuff still made is head hurt. Mentally. Kind of. Oh, whatever.

Uncle Press frowned and said, "That's the thing. It wasn't hiding from us, it was being hidden. And besides, it's not only what I didn't find that bothered me, it's what I did find as well." His brow furrowed slightly. He continued, "What I expected to find was a new, primitive race, not much more advanced than, say, the Milago on Denduron. Instead, it's apparent that this race has existed for hundreds, if not thousands of years longer than that. I still don't know how long they've been around, but they're obviously more advanced than they should be. With the kind of society they've built, their intelligence should have been flooding Solara for centuries. Instead, they've evolved on their own, completely cut off from us." He finished speaking, and looked to Bobby for his opinion.

Bobby was stunned. He wanted to help, but he didn't understand any more than Uncle Press did. Instead of offering a suggestion, he decided to mine for more information. "So what kind of people are they? Humans? Klees? Gar?"

"They call themselves the 'Qi'xir', and the planet is called the same. They aren't human, or even very close to it. They look like…well… you'd kind of have to see them for yourself."

Bobby considered that. "Ok, well then, let's go check it out."

Press looked at him. "There's more," he said flatly.

Bobby, who had been getting ready to go all spiritual-floaty-cloud-of-light, paused and said, "Oh. Right. Such as?" He had been so excited to go check out this new race that he realized the information he'd heard thus far didn't add up to Press's anxiety. I mean, sure, it was odd that there was a new sentient race, and it was definitely suspicious that it was being hidden from them, but that wasn't enough to make Uncle Press act the way he was.

He began, "Every sentient species that has ever existed has had its ups and downs. Periods of war and periods of peace. Dictatorships give way to democracies, which give way to socialism and communism, then a revolution occurs, and the circle restarts until the people evolve past that. The point is, there's a balance. But on Qi'xir…" he trailed off.

Bobby felt uneasy. "On Qi'xir?" he prompted.

Uncle Press continued. "On Qi'xir it looks like they've evolved in a state constant dictatorship. There has been a hierarchy in place since their society began. They value strength and excellence and punish those that they feel are beneath them. People are given a role in society from the day they are born, and no one strays from their given path. Their destinies are handed to them, and no one who has tried to fight against it has ever succeeded. Freedom is virtually nonexistent. They have art and literature, beauty and comfort; in short, they have spirit, but their spirit is…" he paused again, looking slightly dismayed.

"Bobby, their society reminds me of Ravinia."

That hit him like a blow to the stomach. There was no way, right? Ravinia was dead and gone. The territories had moved past that point in time, chosen free will, and been put back on their rightful paths. That was the way it was meant to be. How could an entire territory have evolved that way? The only reason Ravinia had ever existed in the first place was because of -

No. That's not possible. He's gone. I saw it myself. I watched his spirit end.

"So you think that maybe – some spirit – could have started guiding this territory, and maybe that spirit managed to keep it isolated from Solara?" Bobby intentionally avoided saying the name that was on both of their minds. There was no point dwelling on it. He was gone, and he wasn't coming back. This was just someone that thought the same way as him, maybe one of the spirits that reunited with Solara after the fall of…that other Solara.

The one created by –

Uncle Press nodded. "I think that's a very likely possibility. As I was trying to gauge what had led them to evolve that way, another force found me – the one that had been trying to keep me out in the first place - and chased me off. It reminded me of the spirits who joined the other Solara; dark, negative reflections of ourselves, feeding off of the kind of energy that the Qi'xir seem to generate."

Bobby gulped. "Well, the only way to know what we're up against is to go check it out ourselves." He said this with a bravado he wasn't entirely sure he actually felt. The idea that there might be another force coming to power that could cause some real trouble scared him. He was remembering all too clearly the war they had fought, and almost lost, all those years ago. Presumably years. Time was pretty much irrelevant once you became a spirit. The point is, it had happened really, really long ago.

Bobby thought wistfully back on that dream he had been making. His spiritual existence was nothing like his physical one. It went so far beyond his old life that there wasn't much point in describing it; but one thing he did know was that it was purposeful. His actions had meaning. He helped people. He had always been the type of person who would help a person in need, and that was exactly what he was doing here. As he drifted into the energetic cloud of indefinable spiritual matter that he had become accustomed to being, he sighed. Mentally, of course.

Things can never just stay simple, can they?