Disclaimer: I don't own anything that doesn't belong to me.

"So, this is where you've been hiding. Why am I not surprised?"

Akira, who'd been gazing out at the ocean from one of the Orochimecha's observation decks, watching as the sunlight sparkled on the sea and glinted off the forms of some of the mecha of the other Sentai who had decided to fly to the island where Daimaou was sealed rather than take up Kyukogo's offer of a ride – an offer Akira had come very close to refusing – stiffened, her nails – more like claws now, really – digging into the railing she'd been leaning on. "Your Divinity."

"You can call me by my name, Akira," Kyukogo said, stepping up beside her. "After everything, you've more than earned the right."

"If you say so, Your Divinity."

Kyukogo gave her a sad look but didn't press the subject. "I remember this place. It's where you first met Kiba in the dream world, yes?"

"… Yeah. I'm… A little surprised it's actually here," Akira admitted.

"Amaiyume did his best to make the dream as accurate as possible," Kyukogo told her. "I imagine you had no trouble finding your way here, did you?"

"No, I didn't," Akira confessed. "We did learn a lot about the layout of your palace, you know. Might have been useful if we ever got a chance to infiltrate it."

"I knew that when I decided on that challenge," Kyukogo said. "I knew it would be a risk but did it anyway."

"Why?"

"Because I wanted you to be my friend more than I wanted you to be my enemy, and I was hoping that showing you things wouldn't be so bad if you lost would help with that." Kyukogo sighed. "It was a foolish, selfish hope, I see that now. Still… It wasn't a bad dream, was it?"

No, it hadn't been. "It was still a lie."

"Yes, I suppose it was." Kyukogo glanced at her. "Does being here make you feel closer to your sister?"

Akira tightened her grip on the railing. "No. I thought it would, but… No."

Kyukogo nodded sympathetically. "You've only met her the one time, and in a dream. And yet you still care so deeply for her… Growing up, I never had a relationship like that with my own siblings." Her expression turned downcast. "I had to kill most of them. I'm gratified that my daughters will never have to go through that kind of pain."

Akira sighed. "What do you want, Kyukogo?"

If the Hegemon felt any elation that she called her by name, she didn't show it. "We need to talk."

"I suppose we should come up with some sort of strategy-" Akira admitted grudgingly.

"That's not what I meant, and you know it."

Akira grit her teeth. "There's nothing to talk about."

"That's not true and we both know it," Kyukogo told her. "We are about to enter a very dangerous situation. We will need to rely on each other. To trust each other, and we can't do that so long as there is this discord between us."

Akira snorted. "Trust? That's rich, coming from you. You really expect me to be able to trust you again? After everything?"

Kyukogo closed her eyes. "This is about Justine."

"It's about everything, but yes, it's about her too!" Akira snapped, finally looking at the Empress. "What you did to her was bad enough, but it reminded me of what should have been obvious from the start: you're my enemy. You're beautiful and nice and you're also trying to enslave my entire planet and act like it's a good thing! You turned an invasion into a game, and we all got swept up in it, too busy having fun and fraternizing with the actual bad guys that we kept forgetting the fate of the world is at stake and brushed off the subjugation of thousands as, 'Oh well, we'll just have to do better next time!'"

She smashed part of the railing in her hand. "People kept claiming that we should have just fought you the usual way from the start, but we kept saying no, it was better this way, we were minimizing casualties. But you know what? Sometimes I wonder if that was just an excuse we made because we allowed ourselves to get too attached to you that the idea of fighting you, the actual bad guys, made us uncomfortable! That we should have just fought you the proper way the day you showed up!"

"You would've lost," Kyukogo said softly.

"Maybe, but we'll never know now, will we?" Akira snarled. Furious, she shook her head and looked away. "I let myself get so blinded by your beauty and kindness that I let myself forget that you're evil, Kyukogo. You claim you're better than your ancestors but you still go around conquering planets and enslaving people and getting surprised that people might not be cool with that and practically brainwashing them into being happy and don't you dare deny that's what it was-"

"I won't, because that is what it was," Kyukogo said solemnly. "I was brainwashing them. I was enslaving them. The fact that we needed to do so for sustenance isn't an excuse. We didn't need to live such extravagant lifestyles, we could easily have made do with willing worlds or the planets we already had, but we grew so accustomed to our lives of excess and luxury we just kept going and going and necessitating even more conquests to sustain the hedonistic civilization I'd crafted for us.

"And now it's all falling apart. Justine was right. She said that the lesser evil, the necessary evil, is still evil. I brought this on myself."

Akira was momentarily surprised Kyukogo was admitting it, but that quickly got washed away by a new surge of anger. "Then why the hell are we still doing this stupid game? Do you have any idea how much time I've been wasting doing this on a weekly basis? There's so many more important things I should be doing, like finding a safe way to become a dinosaur, or figuring out this Golden Dragon destiny thing, or stopping Kurohonema or the Children of Bakano, or saving Kiba-"

"Akira, I'm ending the game."

"And going on dates with my girlfriends and what?!"

"I'm ending the game," Kyukogo said. "I'll formally announce that I'm forfeiting tomorrow, after this latest disaster is over. I should've done it sooner, honestly, but I promised my daughters this planet would be theirs and this will be the first time I've ever broken a promise to them, and it's been entertaining enough to distract most of the Hegemony from the current woes we've been dealing with, and I guess on some level I hoped we could still make this work, but… No. I can't do this anymore. It's over. You win."

Akira's mouth opened a few times incredulously. "Are you… Are you fucking kidding me?! You can't… You can't just call it off like that!"

Kyukogo frowned. "No? Well, I suppose you're right, I could set up a sudden-death winner takes all final-round which you will be sure to win so both of us can save face and nobody will be disappointed by the rather abrupt discontinuation of the game. Perhaps an eating contest? I'm almost certain you would win that."

"That's… That's not what I meant!" Akira protested.

Kyukogo looked perplexed and more than a little irritated. "Then what did you mean, Akira? You were just saying a minute ago that this game was a mistake and that you had more important things to be doing than playing around while people's lives are at stake. This will mean the Youkaliens are no longer a threat to the world. You'll have saved the planet. Is your pride truly so great that you want to win the 'right' way?"

"No! I… I just…"

Akira didn't understand. Why was she arguing? This was the ideal outcome. This stupid game would end, and she could focus on more important matters. She should be happy.

Why wasn't she happy?

"If… If this is just another attempt to try and make me forgive you-" Akira snarled.

"Oh, honestly, Akira! I told you before, not everything is about you!" Kyukogo snapped, losing her temper. "Is this something I thought you'd like? Yes, of course it is! But I'm not doing it solely to get back in your good graces. I have important things of my own that need tending to. The Hegemony is teetering thanks to Justine convincing the Nonatheon to repeal the mental compulsion magic-"

"Good," Akira sneered.

"Yes, it is good!" Kyukogo agreed, startling her. "It's shown us just how horrible we really were, all these years! Do you know how many slaves we've had who we loved, whom we considered family, and thought felt the same way about us are suddenly saying the opposite?"

"A lot, I'd hope," Akira said unsympathetically.

"'A lot' is an understatement. Less than you'd think, but more than I ever hoped," Kyukogo said miserably. "There's been little change on our older worlds, where this has been the way of things for so long our slaves see no reason not to continue business as usual, though they do miss the little happy feeling they got from doing our bidding… But on many of our newer worlds, which we've only conquered in the last few years, or still remember a time before our coming?" She rubbed her forehead. "Rebellions are springing up. People are demanding we free them, and getting angry when we tell them, in all honesty, we can't. Families are falling apart. Many concubines or spouses are accusing their masters of raping them and I'm not entirely sure that's an incorrect accusation. None of my own harem feel that way, thank goodness, but… Do you remember Tsuruki? One of my children's nurses?"

It took Akira a minute to remember her. "The… Really beautiful crane woman you forced Justine to pretend to be the mom of?"

"Yes, her. She announced, out of the blue, that she hated children, despised that she'd had to spend so much of her life tending to mine, and told them they'd grow up to be horrible monsters just like their mother," Kyukogo said quietly. "She's been helping to raise them for years. We considered her part of the family. And then she just went and said that to two little girls who loved her unconditionally. They were devastated."

Akira was stunned at this. While yes, she did think it was time the Youkaliens got a reality check, that hadn't meant she wanted the princesses to be treated like that.

And how many other children do you think have been traumatized at the sudden realization that their caretakers and parents may never have loved them at all? She couldn't help asking herself.

"I'm… Sorry that happened," she said finally.

"But you think it's what we deserve?" Kyukogo asked sharply. "This disaster, the looming energy crisis I've long dreaded, is justice for the crimes we committed in the name of the survival of our entire species?"

Akira flinched "I-"

"Because you might not be wrong," Kyukogo said, deflating. "We had no idea. We really thought we were helping them, all this time. And in many cases we were. But… All the rest…" She squeezed her eyes shut. "I hadn't realized I could be so hated."

Akira stared at her, struggling to figure out what to say. A part of her wanted to comfort her.

Another part, though…

"I'm almost surprised you didn't try to reinstate the compulsion," she said finally.

"That was never in my power to do. The gods removed it, and only they can reset it, and while some of them feel like they should, others…" She sighed. "They had no idea it was this bad either. There's no point in going back, now that we know the truth. Oh, a lot of other Youkaliens want it, of course. Quite a few blame Justine for bringing this about."

"She was right to do so," Akira said angrily. "After what you did to her-"

"I never said I was one of them," Kyukogo said abruptly, startling her. "I'm sorry. For all of it. Especially that I don't know if I'll ever be able to tell her as much, that she was right all along."

Akira blinked. "… What happened to her? A lot of people think you killed her after how she humiliated you at Kusarikokon."

"Do you think that as well?" Kyukogo asked.

Akira looked away. "… I don't know. Once I would've said no, but… I'm not sure if you were ever the person I thought you were."

Kyukogo nodded, disappointed but unsurprised. "I didn't kill her, Akira."

"Then… Where is she?" Akira demanded. "What happened to her?"

"I don't know."

Akira stared at her. "Bullshit. You're the last person who saw her alive."

"Yes, the last person. After her audience with the gods, they sent her elsewhere. Not to punish her, they hadn't even undone the compulsion yet," she said quickly. "As for where they sent her… I don't know. They haven't told me. They're too busy trying to handle the repercussions of all this on the cosmic scale to go into it. They said she went 'home,' but she's not in her hometown or Tāito or the quarters prepared for her here in the palace. I've tried scrying for her, but while she is definitely alive, I don't think she is on this planet anymore, or anywhere in the known universe."

"… Huh." Akira considered this. "So, if you saw her again… You wouldn't hurt her?"

"Of course not! I would never hurt a slave or innocent!" Kyukogo protested, before her expression fell. "Or at least, that's what I used to think. Clearly, I've been harming quite a lot of people over the years who never deserved it."

"So… If you saw her again-"

"I would apologize for everything and tell her she was right all along. She doesn't need to forgive me. I'm not sure I deserve it anyway," Kyukogo said mournfully.

Akira clenched her teeth. "You're making it really hard to stay angry at you right now."

"But you are angry," Kyukogo pointed out. "And that's fine. You have every right to be."

Akira didn't know what to say to that.

"So… What, you're calling the game because you're too busy trying to keep the Hegemony from falling apart, and because you're hoping it'll prove to everyone that you're not a bad guy after all?" She asked after a moment.

Prove to me went unspoken.

"That's not the only reason," Kyukogo said wearily.

Akira gave her a quizzical look.

"Light years from here, near the rim of the galaxy, there was a planet in the middle of a nebula. Due to their placement, they never saw the stars, and so never imagined there was life beyond their world," Kyukogo narrated. "Their world was abundant and prosperous, so they wanted for nothing and had no reason to engage in conflict with one another. Life was good and seemed like it always would be good.

"And then they were invaded and enslaved en masse. Their entire species was brutally tortured to death, their secretions and agony being used to create beauty cream for the leader of their executioners to suit her infinite vanity and arrogance. She barely even finished the first can before throwing her entire supply out after her beauticians/torturers discovered a new method to give her what she wanted with a .0002% increase in fur luster. An entire species wiped out to make her look prettier and discarded and utterly forgotten mere days later."

Akira groaned. "Kyukogo, if you're trying again to convince me how much better you guys are than your ancestors-"

"Akira, you misunderstand. This happened earlier this week," Kyukogo said gravely. "The others, the wicked Youkaliens I warned you about? The disruption in the Hegemony has convinced them we are weak and vulnerable. They're finally making their move. The moment I've long dreaded is almost upon us. There will be another war, and I'm not so certain I can win this time."

Akira stared at her, shocked. "Does… Does that mean you're leaving?"

"Do you want me to? Never mind, don't answer that," Kyukogo said before Akira could say anything (what that was, precisely, she didn't know herself). "And the answer is no anyway. While I suppose I should leave, thanks to Orochimecha I can run the Hegemony from pretty much anywhere in the universe and can orchestrate things just as easily here as I could back on the home world. In addition, there's quite a few messes here I feel obligated to clean up. Not to mention we've made more progress in finding a solution to our dependency on slaves for sustenance in the last month or two than we have in thousands of years of searching and I can't afford to put a stop to that, especially now. And…" She sighed. "I'm also being a bit selfish, because I just don't want to leave yet. I want to see Justine again. I want to show her that I've changed or at least I'm trying to." She hesitated. "The same is true for you as well."

"… Are you still going to keep enslaving people?" Akira asked, not wanting to touch on that.

"Forcibly? No, never again. Not here or anywhere else," Kyukogo promised. "However, if there are those who genuinely wish to serve us for whatever reason, we won't turn them away. Especially because… Well, Akira, you know as well as I that your governments have been trying to foist quite a lot of their population on us due to being considered undesirable for one reason or another – more, might I add, then we ourselves have taken since the game began, so it's not as if your leaders are completely blameless-"

Akira grimaced but did not countenance this.

"Most of those people are innocents whose only crime was being different or being born into the wrong regime. If they aren't safe in their own countries, if their own leaders don't want them, if I can truly provide them sanctuary and safety… Then, shouldn't I?"

Akira wasn't entirely happy with this but grudgingly admitted that there wasn't a lot she could do about it. Her job was to save the world, not radically reshape global politics and entrenched prejudice and discrimination.

Well, not yet anyway.

"Do you still intend to free everyone who doesn't want to be with you once this is all over?" Akira asked.

"Of course. I always did. Even more now, now that I know so many more people than I ever thought want to leave," Kyukogo insisted.

"… I'll hold you to that," Akira said finally. "I'm not sure you can call them slaves anymore, you know."

"I guess not," Kyukogo said reluctantly. "Not sure what we'll call them instead...eh, we'll come up with something." She smiled faintly. "So… Where does that leave us?"

"I'm still angry at you," Akira said bluntly.

"I know."

"I don't know if I can ever trust you again."

"I know."

"Kyukogo, I… I thought I loved you," Akira confessed. "But now, I…"

Kyukogo closed her eyes. "I understand."

They said nothing for a while.

"Akira, what was between us… Do you think it can ever be restored?" Kyukogo asked.

"I don't know. I honestly don't," Akira replied.

"Do you want it to? Never mind. Stupid question," Kyukogo backpedaled quickly.

Akira swallowed. "Do you?"

Kyukogo smiled sadly. "You should know by now, Akira… It's very difficult for girls to ever fall out of love with you."

"I-"

"I'm sorry. Forget I said that," Kyukogo said quickly. "You have enough on your shoulders already, I don't need to make things worse."

"Kyukogo. The others. Do you think they'll come here?" Akira asked abruptly.

She looked pained. "If they don't already know I'm here, I fully expect them to shortly."

"And if you were to leave-"

"It wouldn't make a difference. They'll want to know why I spent so long here, what about this planet interested me so," Kyukogo confessed.

"Then they will come."

"Most likely." Kyukogo laughed bitterly. "There I go, making things worse again. Seems to be all I'm good for lately."

"If they come, we'll fight them," Akira said. "But not for you."

"I understand. Will you at least be willing to work with me to stop them? Just like we are working together now?" Kyukogo asked.

Akira nodded reluctantly. "Yes, but I won't be happy about it."

"That's fine," Kyukogo said. "Even if you still hate me, so long as I can stand by your side again, even if for a little longer… It means the worlds to me."

Akira said nothing.

"I'll go now," Kyukogo said, much to her relief, turning away. "I'm sure you have a lot to think about."

Akira did not reply.

The Hegemon left.

Akira absolutely did not watch her go.

"Not the way you expected it to go?"

"I don't know," Akira sighed, leaning against the railing and looking out to sea once again. "I thought there'd be a lot more yelling."

"You yelled some."

"Yeah, but she just took it. Almost made me feel like the bad guy for being angry with her."

"You have every reason to be angry at her. You don't need to forgive her."

"I know that. I'm not forgiving her. I don't know if I ever will."

"Do you want to?"

"I don't know." She sighed. "This would be so much easier if she really were a bad guy. But no, she just had to be so nice, and reasonable, and pretty, and smell so good…"

"Relationships can be tricky. The stories I could tell… I've had a few Kyukogos in my day as well."

"How'd that turn out?"

"Some worked out. Some didn't. Just the way it is."

"Yeah." Akira grunted. "I'm not used to heartbreak. The first time was bad enough, but this… This feels so much worse somehow."

"It was bound to happen again sooner or later. And hey, maybe things will still work out. You got back together with Fuuka, didn't you?"

"I guess."

"Well, don't fret. Once I'm back, I'll see if I can't help you out. What are big sisters for, right?"

"Yeah. Thanks, Kib-"

Eyes wide, Akira stiffened and whirled around.

But there was nobody there.

And yet she swore she could've heard someone whisper into her ear, "See you soon, little sis."

Kurohonema stood before the Seal Door, staring up at the massive gateway.

The skies above him were dark, sinister energies in the form of black clouds swirling around the floating fortress of Skull Mountain.

There was so much wonderful evil in the air. Practically intoxicating, really.

And once he opened the door, that evil would increase exponentially, enough to engulf the entire world. He was greatly looking forward to it.

Sandals crunched against gravel as his servant approached. "Master. The Sentai are on their way, along with the Youkaliens."

"Huh. So, the Hegemon seeks to prove she isn't a coward?" The Deathbringer murmured, mildly amused. "How brave of her. And stupid. It's certainly nice of her to save me the time of hunting her down. She can die with the rest here and now."

Beside him, Akabuto whinnied hungrily, and he stroked his steed's head.

"Shall we do anything about the ninjas who've been spying on us?"

"The Kakurangers?" As Akabuto gnashed his teeth together eagerly, Kurohonema gave this serious thought. "Hmm. On the one hand, if we let them live, they may interfere with the ceremony, which we really should start doing right about now if we are going to have everything ready by the time the others get here. On the other hand, if I kill them now, Daimaou will throw a fit that he didn't have a hand in it, and it's impossible to deal with him when he's like that. Perhaps…"

He snapped his fingers. "Ayame. Sakura. Suiren. Yuri. Ran."

Five colored streaks danced in the air before landing behind him on their knees. "The Flowery Kunoichi Team are here," Ayame declared. "How may we serve you, Master?"

"The Kakurangers are here. Go deal with them, would you?" Kurohonema said without bothering to look at them.

"As you wish."

They disappeared.

"Do you truly believe they can defeat the Kakurangers?" The servant asked.

"No, not really," Kurohonema admitted. "But they'll certainly keep them occupied for a time. Now, my dear," he said, turning to smile at her. "Shall we begin?"

She smiled, gazing out at the resurrected army of monsters she had already summoned loitering about the place, with more yet to come. "As you wish."