[Scene: A ziggurat in the middle of the desert. An army of youma stand nearby as Thetis, Dev and El enter the structure and approach the vault door. Many of the youma are carrying assault weapons while Dev and El have the God Gun.]

Dev: [puts his arm around his sister and address the crowd] Youma, before go any further I would just like to say how grateful we are for your help, and how touched we both are by your sincere devotion. It is as if you are instinctively aware that serving us is serving your own best interests.

Youma: All hail Emperor Devon! All hail Empress Eleanor!

Dev: [pulls El closer and whispers in her ear] You hear that? They sound as if they truly love us. I can get used to all this power and adoration.

El: [smiles and whispers back] I just want to kick the bitch's ass.

[Meanwhile: In the center of Metalia's Inferno. Metalia and Kunzite are playing Go in a lush green rainforset setting.]

Metalia: [not even looking up from the board] The two little monsters have breached the first round of defense.

Kunzite: Oh?

Metalia: Thetis bought off the monkey soldiers and have commandeered their weapons. And since Thetis is helping them, I can't see how your vault door will present much of a challenge.

Kunzite: We must assemble the Shitennou to deal with this threat.

Metalia: I don't see what good that would do. Your older brother is drunk off his ass again, the girl is going door to door at Seattle General asking pointless questions, and your other brother is merely flummoxing around at a total loss trying to dream up crazy schemes, as usual.

Kunzite: And Zoisite?

Metalia: Who cares.

Kunzite: Mother. The defenses. They must be fortified.

Metalia: Oh, calm down, Son. I never put my faith in your ability to protect me. [Looks up from the board and stares right into Kunzite's eyes] In the Age of the Titans, the gods served as slaves. We revolted, put down the titans, made ourselves unkillable, and then created all the lessor beings to as slaves of our own...Now, given that history, why would I choose to breed a new generation of Godkillers, to overthrow us and take our place in turn?

Kunzite: I would not presume to guess at your will, Mother.

Metalia: I am commanding you to presume.

Kunzite: Then if I may, perhaps you had grown weary of this existence, and set a plot in motion to bring about your own extinction?

Metalia: [nods] Spoken like a true slave. The correct answer is, I wouldn't have. These two little pests are not my heirs. If I had created them, it would have been as toys-a little boy doll and a little girl doll, to play with until I got bored, just like I elevated Zoisite to serve as a toy for you, until you get bored. My mistake, it would seem, was in not disposing of them properly after they failed to amuse me.

Kunzite: I'm never going to get bored of Zoisite.

Metalia: We'll see...

Kunzite: And if I may, might I suggest that you overlooked their symbiotic nature? Knowing you as I do, Mother, you would have amused yourself by pitting them against one another, in blood-sport, making them compete for your favor. It would have never occurred to you that these two would cleave to one another, refusing to fight, and instead turn their ire against the Goddess who created them to suffer in such a manner.

[Metalia lip twitches as she rises, upsetting the board and striking Kunzite across the face with her closed fist]

Metalia: Now you presume too much! Go back to being subservient!

Kunzite: [smiles, lowers his eyes and bows] Yes, Mother. I would much prefer that, too.

[Metalia calms and then uses magic to revert the game and the table and resumes the game as if nothing happened]

Metalia: The point I was trying to make, before you interrupted me, is that all toys have an offswitch, and with living toys, that offswitch is called death. You have an offswitch, and so does your little monkey, and these two little monsters? If I created them and imbued them with my essence, I would have made this offswitch very easy to operate.

Kunzite: Indeed, Mother.

Metalia: The very instant I lay eyes on those two little brats I'm throwing the offswitch.