As we descended into the lava lakes, the last of the Sea Dragon Leviathans made itself known, trying to see if we were a meal. Without hesitation I used a sonar blast to make it collide with a nearby wall - I was not putting up with this thing's crap.

Now to get into the Primary Containment Facility and-

'...What...are...you?'

...Oh. I guess the Sea Emperor had noticed me.

'You think?'

Did she contact you too, Viv?

"Yes, she did. I wonder how often she's gonna do that before we get into the facility."

'...Not...too much.'

WAAGH!?

'Do not...be scared. I am only interested...in helping you...though may I ask a question?'

Sure.

'How do you...know what I am?'

I froze up for a moment, before giving my response - one I'd made sure to practice since the last time I'd been asked a simialr question.

'I am acquaitances with one who observes various visions of the past, present, and fuure, and then describes what he sees as stories. I didn't know they were based on facts untila few years ago, though.'

'Hmm...Interesting. I assume, however, that you know what must be done?'

'Yes.'

'Good. Now please, come to me.'

'No objections there.'

XXXXXXXX

It wasn't long before we made our way into the Primary Containment Facility, and shortly after that, the Sea Emperor's aquarium.

Seeing the Sea Emperors was...humbling, to say the least. She was larger than anything alive in this universe, and quite a bit bigger than any of the aliens I knew from Spore, Gal Civ, and XCOM. Even more humbling was that she was a sapient being. At the same time, though, I could feel her pain - she was long past her prime, relying on strength of will to sustain herself, which was slowly slipping away. She only really had time left to try and allow her children to hatch, so that the plague that ravaged this world could finally be laid to rest.

As soon as she finished her statements and the PDA readied up the formula for the hatching enzymes, we set out to acquire the needed plant samples. I'd snagged a few ghost weed while we were in the lost river, while Ryley had acquired a sea crown from the aquarium the Emperor dwelled within, leaving the only plants we needed to find being the mushroom tree, eye stalk, and bulb bush.

Vivian had taken the precaution of bringing the needed supplies and equipment to manufacture a second PRAWN Suit, providing us with three exoskeletons that could be used to enter the remaining portals. I was initially planning to head to the Bulb Zone, but then Vivian claimed that destination, so I instead ventured over to the Crag Field, while Ryley visited the Mushroom forest.

It didn't take me long to find an eyestalk plant, which was good, because this place was terrifying in its emptiness. Every once in a while I had to turn around just to make sure a boneshark wasn't trying to sneak up on me. Ironically enough, the only bonesharks I actually saw were more interested in eating smaller fish.

I wondered how Vivian was doing - she probably had a more interesting time than I did.

XXXXXXXXX

Vivian's POV

As the warper was shot out of the bulb zone (and possibly into low orbit - my supercharged repulsion canon did have the power to do that), I wondered what we were going to do after we beat up everything in this universe. I mean, it's not like beating them would be hard, since we had the bullshit powers of the progenitors behind us.

Also, how had Celm's machines not recognized me as one of their creator's kin? Surely they should have been programmed to do so...unless he decided to make them not recognize me specifically.

Yeah, that made sense - he always did seem to not want to talk to me regarding our kind. Guess he still had bad feelings regarding us from the Progenitor Wars.

Back on topic, what were we gonna do? While I was certain that there were still threats lying around his hub, once we dealt with those, we were essentially home free. I suppose we could always travel to another universe, but leaving his children and my own alone was hardly a sign of good parenting.

...Actually, maybe it was time I looked over some of the offers that had been made to me.

You see, in preparation for sending my pawn hurtling across the cosmos, I had acquired some...incentives for him to achieve my master's goals. Namely, access to universes that had little to no conflict in them, but plenty of technology to acquire. Most also ensured that my former pawn would be focusing his efforts on genuinely making the lives of others better, with little expense toward himself. Jurassic World was one example - my joke about working with Masrani was not actually a lie - but there were certainly others he could enjoy.

But first we had to get off this soggy rock, and away from all these angry eels!

XXXXXXXX

When all of the materials needed to produce the hatching enzyme were acquired, we wasted no time in created the chemical and delivering it to the Sea Emperor. Shortly after, her babies finally entered the world.

They looked so cute...

Our reverie was cut short when the Sea Emperor's strength finally failed her. For a moment, I considered searching the Precursor base for any archived samples of this emperor, in the hopes of using the Resurrection Protocol to restore her to her prime, before I felt a mental nudge telling me to stop.

I appreciate your intentions, but my time here is passed. I am ready for what awaits in the next life, little one.

Letting out a sigh, I discarded my intentions. Time to leave.

XXXXXXXXX

I couldn't help but laugh when Ryley tried to outsmart the Quarantine Enforcement Platform's sample taker, only for it to beat him in the end. Still, that was enough to finally shut down the QEP. With that done, we could finally contact the Sunbeam, if only to advise them that it was safe to come down. Of course, it just so happened that the debris field was too thick to enter. Oh well.

It didn't take long to acquire the Neptune schematics. The Aurora survivors easily assembled four of the shuttles to allow themselves to escape in, while me and Vivian built a pair with some...modified coordinates. The Extinction had hidden herself under my orders, and it was time we rejoined her.

Also, Ryley gave me pet cuddlefish eggs. Yay.

I couldn't help but smile alongside Vivian as we watched our companions' four shuttles ascend to free, with the Sunbeam following them shortly after. Only once they were no longer viewing us did fire up our own rockets.

As we approached the Extinction, the Sea Emperor had one last thing to say:

What is a wave without the ocean?
A beginning without an end?
They are different, but they go together.
Now you go among the stars, and I fall among the sand.
We are different.
But we go... together.

Farewell, might Sea Emperor. May you enjoy your next life.

Now to focus on other problems. I'd already given the Altera survivors some contact information in case they needed help bailing them out of debt.

My focus now lay on a different strain of Kharaa - the one that men were fighting and dying against in another part of space.

Let's see how Natural Selection responds to a metallic invasive species, shall we?

XXXXXXXXX

AN: Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!