"You...aim to purge emotion from the cosmos!?" Elsie's eyes were wide as Alexei explained his goal. Such a thing sounded absurd to her. Justice and Jigan were surprised as well, although the latter just thought...

"That's a buncha bullshit, ain't it?" Jigan said with a scoff. Alexei was just some insane person as far as he was concerned.

"Why would you aim to do such a thing!?" Justice asked.

"Emotions are what drive people, you can't just...!" Elsie and Justice were ironically on the same page. But...

"Exactly." Alexei's tone was calm, but that only made it ominous. "Emotions drive people, as I said before. However, those emotions drive people to do terrible things. Androids and humans alike are both slave to the chains called emotion."

"That's how we know we're living! Emotions let us know we're alive!" Elsie exclaimed.

"Alive?" Alexei looked to Elsie, his blue eyes peering into her soul with his cold, unwavering gaze. "Does being 'alive' mean having to endure the selfish whims of those in power? Those whose emotions control their every action? Shura intended to destroy every android in the Aoi Cosmos...Ziggy intends to erase humanity...even if those are the most extreme examples, emotion does nothing but cloud judgement. I will use mother's power to create a new universe. One devoid of emotion. One where every person, human and android, will be the same. There will be no war, no conflict...there will only be peace."

"That's..." Elsie could not believe what she was hearing. It didn't make sense. It was insane. A man like this could not be allowed to do whatever he wanted. He was effectively going to destroy the universe with that line of thinking! "So...tell me this...did the people of Midi...did their lives mean anything to you?"

"Hm?" Alexei quirked a brow at Elsie's question. "Whatever do you mean by that?"

Elsie's hand clenched into a fist. She was barely holding her anger back and Alexei's answer would determine everything. "You speak about changing the cosmos, but do the lives you destroyed to get there mean anything to you at all? All those humans and androids put to the wayside, and the planet you've endangered...!"

"This guy took out Midi? Huh..." Jigan was taking note of that.

"There is nothing I will not do to accomplish my goal." Alexei replied. "I am divorced from feeling such as happiness or sadness. I feel nothing. The lives of the few are inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. This cosmos will be rewritten...and the sacrifices made along the way will not be forgotten."

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Elsie heard enough. As far as she was concerned, Alexei had a blatant disregard for life that she would not excuse. It could not be forgiven. She traced her fingers along the air, several golden beams of ether shooting towards Alexei with violent intent. But as the beams raced towards Alexei, he waved his hand and they vanished. "W-What..."

"His Ether Gear in action..." Justice narrowed his eyes.

"Do you see what something as vague such as anger can do to a person? You lashed out at me with no plan of attack. When people allow their emotions to guide them, nothing good ever comes of it." Alexei stated firmly, but his words only succeeded in angering Elsie even more.

"I've heard enough!" Jigan wasn't going to sit around and listen to this. It didn't matter to him. The only thing that mattered was snatching that Black Moon Star shard that was rightfully his! So he wasn't going to waste any time listening to more of this nonsense. So with his new power, he immediately lunged towards Alexei at lightning speeds. "The only thing that matters here, is that shard you're holding!" And he threw a punch at Alexei, but in the split second between drawing his arm back and throwing it forward, Alexei was no longer standing in the same spot. Instead, it was Justice who took his place, while he swapped spaces with him. "Huh?!"

"Tch...!" Justice was only slightly prepared for this. He brought his arm forward to block Jigan's punch, but a shockwave of lightning still boomed out. Jigan was surprised, but he was also okay with this and aimed a kick at Justice, but he was able to avoid it with Meteor. "This is a mess!"

"There's only one thing I want from all of this." Jigan immediately disregarded Justice turned to Alexei, who was holding the Black Moon Star Shard still. Black lightning sparked around his hands and he slammed them into the ground, causing lightning to surge outwards in all directions. "Discharge!" Elsie and Justice had to evade the lightning at all costs and did so with Meteor, but Alexei was the only one who remained still. The lightning simply never reached him due to his Ether Gear, which pissed off Jigan. "What the hell!? Why can't I touch this guy!"

"You are in the way!" Justice zoomed towards Jigan and slammed his boot into his chest. The momentum Justice carried did cause Jigan to slide back a bit, but since Jigan was a large muscular man, coupled with his increase in power, he was able to withstand that hit pretty well. "What?"

"It'll take more than that to knock me out! I'm at the top of the world right now!" Jigan said while slamming his fist into Justice's crossed arms. Justice was sent flying back from the impact and Jigan's ego rose. He knocked back an Interstellar!

"James..." Elsie wanted to assist Justice, but she knew he could handle himself, and he probably wouldn't care much for her help right now. So she focused on Alexei instead, who looked as if this battle didn't concern him despite the face he was the central figure. So she sped towards him while summoning a sword, rushing him down with her speed. Every time she got close enough to swing, Alexei simply warped somewhere else. It was an annoying game of cat and mouse that she didn't want to play. "Hold still!"

"As you wish." Alexei replied. He did stand still as Elsie aimed her sword at his torso, but with a wave of his hand, the sword vanished as she swung. Elsie's eyes widened and Alexei's palm slammed into her stomach, causing Elsie to freeze from the impact. "Vacuum Wave." A potent burst of exploding space erupted from Alexei's palm, causing Elsie to fly back and through a nearby building.

The moment Elsie was dealt with, Jigan appeared above Alexei with his hands raised over his head, locked together. "I got you now!" He slammed his hammer fist down on Alexei, an explosion occurring from the impact...with the ground. Jigan had a wide eyed stare as his sure fire hit was a complete miss. Before he even have the chance to question where Alexei had gone, he looked up and saw the man upside down above him, delivering a swift kick to Jigan's cheek that sent him spiraling backwards. However, in the next instant, Alexei used his Ether Gear to remove the space between himself and Jigan, effectively drawing Jigan back in to land another kick that slammed him into the ground!

This was bad. Alexei was making fools of everyone present. Justice immediately rushed towards Alexei with Meteor, planning to overwhelm him with speed. Justice struck from all angles, not giving Alexei any safe space to try and dodge. This high speed blitz was all he could manage. "Dance of the Meteor!" Such speeds would overtake anyone, but Justice was shocked when at the end of his assault, there was Alexei in front of him, untouched. "...!"

"You cannot touch one who controls space itself." Alexei's calm tone was demeaning at this point.

Justice jumped back and smirked. "Did you think that was all I aimed to do?!" He pointed his arm forward, multiple glowing lights appearing underneath Alexei. "I was also setting up the perfect trap! Grand Chariot!" Pillars of light exploded underneath Alexei and rose up into the sky. Justice was certain this was a hit, but he noticed how space itself distorted around the pillars of light, and they were swallowed into nothing. "No...that's not..."

Alexei then swiped his arm across the sky, space distorting in front of him. "Spatial Reflect." And from that rift, the Grand Chariot was fired back at Justice! It was coming too fast for Justice to avoid!

But to Justice's surprise, Elsie swooped him and carried him away from the incoming destruction before setting him down. "W-...Elsie!?"

"Sorry, James. You can yell at me for that later, but we've got a bigger problem on our hands!" Elsie said while channeling her Star Drain. Since Blue Garden was the planet of water, she planned to make use of that. "Star Drain: Blue Earth!" Up above, Elsie concentrated Blue Garden's Ether into a condensed sphere of water above them. This large sphere of water then dropped down towards Alexei to crush him. The water made contact with something and it popped like a bubble, a fierce wave of water splashing out in all directions. Alexei was nowhere to be seen. "Did that...get him?"

Alexei then reappeared from thin air, arms crossed behind his back. "How long are you going to continue wasting my time?"

"Impossible...!" Elsie couldn't believe what she was seeing. Was Alexei truly untouchable!?

"We can't land a hit on him. His Ether Gear allows him the free manipulation of space." Justice snarled as the some water washed over him from the aftermath of Elsie's attack. As much as he wanted to arrest Elsie right now, he could agree that Alexei was a more pressing concern. "We need to..." Before he could finish, Jigan blindsided him with an electric fist into his stomach. Since he was doused with water, that hit was extremely effective. "GAH!" He cried out as he hit a wall, grimacing from that impact. Jigan hit him hard...

"JAMES!" Elsie shouted in concern, turning to Jigan who laughed.

"Did you forget, it's not all of us against this guy! It's everyone for themselves! We all have one goal in mind!" Jigan pointed towards Alexei. "And that's the shard that man has right there! And the one who's going to grab it...is me!" Since the area was now wet with water, Jigan lifted his sparking hand up. "Thanks for giving me the perfect set up!" He slammed his fist into the wet ground, planning to shock everyone. But his fist only hit dry ground instead, which created a weaker shockwave. "Eh!?"

"I removed the water from this space." Alexei said. "Because your impeding actions would have admittedly been problematic."

"So you think I'm a problem, huh?!" Jigan smirked at those words. Acknowledgement of his power, finally. "Then you're about to have a really bad day! Thunder Clap!" Jigan clapped his hands together, the BOOM of thunder occurring as the sheer power of this attack uprooted the ground. The sonic waves moved towards Alexei who simply planned to dodge as always. He vanished from sight, much to Jigan's annoyance, and reappeared elsewhere, but the moment he did...

"HAH!" Elsie landed a kick against Alexei's cheek! She predicted his movement and landed a direct hit! Alexei flew back into a building from that attack and Jigan and Justice were wide eyed. "I got you!"

"How did you...know where he was going?" Justice asked, slowly recovering from Jigan's punch.

"...A little luck." Elsie admitted. "But there's a method to his warping. In a one on one fight, it looks like he'll just move to wherever is most advantageous to him and disadvantageous to his opponent! In a fight like this, it's easy to forget you're fighting more than one person. Since Jigan here made it clear he's not working with us, I used that to our advantage."

"You used me!?" Jigan snarled.

"If it's any consolation, you were helpful." Elsie laughed.

"I'm taking all of you down! So laugh while you can!" Jigan yelled.

"You'll be going to prison when this is over. All three of you." Justice was reminding everyone here what the real outcome was going to be. When this fight was over, he was taking everyone in. However, the conversation came to a halt when a pulse of power boomed outward. Everyone paused and looked at the building Elsie kicked Alexei into.

Alexei emerged with a bruise on his cheek He walked out and his calm, empty expression shifted. There was a faint hint of anger on his face. He turned his head to the side and spit out some blood. "..."

"What's the matter?" Elsie asked smugly. "Didn't expect your day to be ruined like that, did you? There's more where that came from!"

Alexei held out the Black Moon Shard in his grasp. He glared at Elsie, Jigan, and Justice. All three of them were in his way and he was tired of it. This was nothing more than a waste of time. His eyes flashed and the power of the Black Moon Star Shard began to surge within him. "I've had enough. I'LL MAKE YOU DISAPPEAR! DARK HOLE!" Combined with his power over space, a blanket of darkness began to cover to ground in an instant. It spread out across a large section of Blue Garden itself, as Alexei was tempering his power to only deal with the nuisances in front of him.

"W-What's happening...!?" Elsie asked. "What's he doing!?"

"Oh shit...!" Jigan knew what was happening. Alexei was using the Black Moon Star Shard to amplify his power...and a man with power as vast as space itself? "Shit, shit, shit!" As much as he didn't want to, he had no choice but...to retreat. Jigan's body turned into Black Lightning and he zoomed off into the distance.

"Get back here!" Justice yelled, but then, the darkness from the ground immediately started to swallow him. "Ack...!?"

"James...!" Elsie went to reach out for Justice, but she was faced with the same dilemma. The darkness started to swallow her whole. "W-What is this!?" Alexei said nothing as the two of them struggled helplessly. Before long, the two of them were swallowed into the black void. The void then vanished as quickly as it appeared, with Elsie and Justice completely gone. With Jigan choosing to retreat, and Elsie and Justice gone...the winner of the Battle of Blue Garden was the Galactic Fleet, convincingly so.

"...I let my fleeting anger get the best of me. I thought I got rid of that emotion." Alexei sighed as he calmed down. He turned and started to walk off. "When you return, Justice and Elsie...you will become a part of the new universe I will create." With his victory secured, and now two shards of the Black Moon Star in hand, there was only one thing left to do. "This is Alexei. Return to the Fleet this instant. We have what we came here for. This battle is over." With this broadcast sent, Alexei still had one thing left to do. He used his Ruler of Space to vanish and reappear in front of one very specific person.

Noah let out a sigh when he sensed Alexei's presence. He didn't bother turning around. "I suppose it was a matter of time until we finally talked, Alexei."

"I have no intention of wasting your time. I have only one question for you, Noah." Alexei crossed his arms behind his back. "Who is...Rebecca Bluegarden?"