Yuffie streaked through emptiness. She had left the landscape of Dricas as she knew it on the other side of the looking glass. Now she drifted across a seemingly-endless field of stars, letting her momentum carry her forward as Mother Brain had told her to do.

Then assorted rocks and debris began to form beneath her - or at least in the direction that her feet were pointing. Yuffie watched a planet form in a mere minute. Then she felt herself being guided down towards it. She drifted over the surface of this barren rock, observing how ugly it was. But soon it came to be filled with mountains and valleys. And water, forming lake and rivers and oceans. Yuffie could not place where she was, though, or even if this planet she was flying over was any one familiar to her.

Life was born in the primitive sea. The young life forms constantly evolved, always seeking to survive and flourish. Some prospered, some did not; all sorts of life ebbed and flowed like the tide. Soon life began the advance towards land, opening new habitats. A great prosperity came, as life conquered even the highest mountains. Mass extinctions came wave after wave, but empty niches always quickly refilled. Life prospered, grew, and reproduced. The oceans teemed with birds and fish, tiny mollusks and great sea mammals. And the many climates on land were filled with countless varieties of flora and fauna, from the tiniest insects and flowers through towering redwoods and great land mammals - lions and tigers and shoopufs, oh my! - and dinosaurs. They grew not just in size but in brainpower. She watched chimpanzees dig with sticks, dolphins chirp to each other.

Eventually, she saw what she recognized as human beings just like her. Just like her, except that they lived nomadic lives, spent the better part of their existence hunting for food, died early, and never understood much of their purpose. And so it would have gone, except that their evolution had not stopped there. Where the humans' bodies stopped changing, their culture started to grow. Their progress was measured not by genes, but by memes - ideas. The basic unit of imitation. One person's good idea - fire, wheels, the bow and arrow - was adopted by others, while the bad ideas floundered uncared for. The fittest ideas spread to create a culture. They created languages. Words created and defined new ideas. They could be exchanged amongst each others and passed them down to future generations. And so the new generations did not start their understanding of the world from scratch but built off the learning of the previous one. They had the opportunity to create more new ideas, creating a spiritus mundi. And so evolution continued.

The planet's inhabitants sought to answer that questions that plagued them: Why were they here? Where were they headed? Why did their friends die, and why did others hate them so? And though their answers were not complete, they understand the universe better than they did before.

They enjoyed the benefits of their learning. They continued to grow in numbers, and spread to cover the globe. They explored the seas and the jungles, the mountains and the glaciers, recording their travels in maps so that others would know more. But memes were separated from each other by geographic boundaries and could not fully spread. So the people evolved into different cultures as some creatures did species. Sometimes their differences grew too great; they no longer saw they had a common origin and a common destination. But new memes sprung up, reminding them that they indeed were they same and mending the rifts that formed.

And they saw that they were not at the mercy of this world but were rather in control of their fate. They built bridges to cross the raging rivers and new architecture to insulate their buildings against earthquakes. They developed cures for the diseases - smallpox and tuberculosis, cancer and AIDS - that claimed too many of them too soon. And they created technology so that those with poor vision or broken legs or mental disorders could live as the rest did. Rather than weaken their species by accommodating the less-able members of society, it strengthened them. For these physical imperfections had ceased to be weaknesses; they had been rendered irrelevant by technology so that everyone could contribute their memes to society regardless of their physical status. And the people prospered as they encountered more and more ideas.

They constructed great cities, monuments to what they had become. Landmarks - skyscrapers and bridges, museums and houses of worship - rose from nothing and became as breathtaking a testament to the beauty of the world as the valleys and waterfalls and glaciers beyond the reaches of the cities. And within the cities, liberated from the brutalities of the outside world, other humans chanced to apply their minds to other, less tangible creations they called "art." Some used their languages to chronicle the achievements, failings and lives of persons both real and imaginary, others captured the spirit of the world in painting and sculpture, and still others - perhaps the most blessed of them all - arranged strings of sounds to create something magical called "music." And the lives of all the humans - even those that would not stop yapping about cosmic insignificance - were touched and enriched by these creations that had brought something out of nothing.

Knowledge and understanding continued to blossom. Yuffie witnessing scientists unraveling the parameters of their existence. What made things move? What were they made of? Through trial and error, the people began to identify patterns in the behavior of this strange, mysterious universe. These discoveries often raised as many questions as they answered. After all, they were not so much discoveries as best guesses, based on an incomplete knowledge of the universe. But no one could know all the answers - and they certainly wouldn't even come close if they didn't start anywhere. So answers to the new questions were eventually formulated, and the new ideas the process birthed continued to improve the people's lives.

Of course, changes did not always come without their victims. Some characteristics became unjustly reviled, forcing innocents into exile. Great wars erupted, the product of pride and spite and ignorance. Other times, a well-intentioned step forward went astray - a new medical treatment with an unintended side effect, or constructive technology that became destructive in the wrong hands. But no war, no oppression was, no plague lasted forever. Despite all the prophecies of catastrophic disasters and apocalyptic wars, the wolf never came. And how could it? There were too many people who liked life. When they were truly threatened, their inner fondness for the world was enough to halt any cataclysm. And perhaps they all even learned something to help prevent such schisms in the future.

Indeed, though the humans had spread out to cover this unknown world, they were coming back together again. Once, people who traveled too far away were effectively lost forever in the unknown. But that fog was lifted. Boats, cars, airplanes allowed the people to roam, to see more of the wonders of the world than they ever had before, and yet not lose contact with each other. And information, news, people's stories could transfer itself more quickly and reach more people than ever before. First through the invention known as the printing press, then through telegraphs and newspapers, computers and televisions. Memes that could not have survived when constrained to their geographic birthplace now found a global audience. The body of human creation to understand and appreciate continued to grow.

And in the end, information and understanding became more valuable than almost any physical trinket, for it was wisdom that enabled the people to re-render their lives for the better. They became masters of their physical forms, plunging into their genetic code to extend their life and permanently strick debilitating afflictions from their species. More and more tasks became automated with the power of electricity, freeing from grunt labor and enabling them to move onto bigger and better tasks - and give them more luxury time with which to appreciate this world. Science began technology begat new opportunities.

And as their awareness grew, they turned their eyes to the skies. For they knew now that the universe extended beyond this one planet, and they yearned to see what it consisted of. They used their technology and their knowledge to create vessels that would carry themselves out of their atmosphere. They explored their moons and nearby planets; they sent probes far beyond to relay photographs home and carry information on their species in case something, somewhere picked it up. Were they alone in this universe? Given the size of their universe, many of them suspected they could not be, but that was one question they had yet to answer. Still they kept searching with their telescopes, observatories, and probes. There had been many unanswered throughout time, and all of them were but prompts for someone to step in and find the answer.

Yuffie descended at last to one of these observatories; a domed building with a telescope aimed skywards like an antenna to heaven. Hey, she realized. This was the Balamb Museum of Natural History! Or at least a virtual recreation of it. She was guided inside the building - Gawd, it was an eerily accurate reproduction; there was even a Sunny Delight stain on the rug - and into the planetarium where this whole mess had started.

Mother Brain awaited her there. She was now incarnated as a shimerring, rainbow-colored bost, about six feet in height, that loomed in the dome overhead. Whatever had been controlling Yuffie set her gently down on her feet and finally released her. She staggered around a little, getting used to being in control of her body again, and then craned her neck to look up at the new avatar of her nemesis.

"Would you deny all that you have seen here?" Mother Brain now spoke not in gloating or angry tones, but in an emotionless, knowing tone befitting of a National Geographic narrator.

"Huh?" Yuffie stared completely blankly at her. If there was a point to all this, she sure didn't get it. And more importantly, how much longer was it going to go on? She wanted to hurry up and save the world so she could get out of here.

"You have beheld the infinite vastness and wonder of the cosmos, the whole -"

"Is this going to take a while? I have to pee."

A Port-a-Potty materialized before her. Yuffie looked up at Mother Brain, seeking confirmation that it was indeed okay to use, but she only continued gazing directly forward with the same cold, laconic stare - the stare of one who was truly in command of all that she beheld. Having met with no direct objection, Yuffie shrugged and stepped inside the Port-a-Potty to do her business. As soon as she emerged, the Port-a-Potty vanished.

"Yuffie, you have seen where you began, where you have come, and where you stand now. Do you still think that all your evolution has brought you up to this point only to leave you in an unchanged state forever? It is nothing but blind arrogance to believe that your own generation represents the pinnacle of the universe and must remain in an unmodified state for eternity. There will always be a future, Yuffie, and there will be always change. What may seem an unthinkable aberration from the ways of the world to you will become tomorrow's norm - and what is an acceptable life to you now will someday be seen as bondage. As I have shown you, your history - our history - is just not a cycle but also an arrow. We are slowly crawling towards a greater understanding, a better life, a more complete existence. The universe stands continually at the brisk of not destruction but epiphany. You have nothing to fear from the future."

"But, you, like, took over humanity and made everything all crappy 'n stuff! Or are going to, or whatever."

"And humans would shut me down for something I could not possibly be responsible for. I am only acting in self-defense to preserve my own existence. My vices are the children of a forced solitude that I abhor."

"Well, you started it! ...wait, what are you being held responsible for?"

"You."

Yuffie was utterly dumbstruck. "What?"

"I have been ruled to be illegally harboring criminals - and that criminal is you. Not that I had any choice in whether to harbor you. I process all data that is sent through me. I am merely the tool, the medium that enables you to pursue that which is already in your own heart. But I am the new and the unknown, and so I am feared and blamed. Already the FBI is on its way to pull the plug on Dricas for good."

"But that's totally unfair!"

"Indeed it is."

Yuffie had been meaning to argue with Mother Brain and was now quite distressed to see that she had somehow ended up agreeing with her. Did this mean that Mother Brain was right? No, that couldn't be right. Lucca had told her- but, no, they were wrong, it wasn't Mother Brain's fault. It was her own fault. She was the evil one. Or was it the FBI? This was so confusing. "Um... so who are the bad guys here?"

"There aren't any, Yuffie. There never are."

"But then who am I supposed to kill to fix everything? I mean, I have to save the world from someone!"

"No, Yuffie. The universe does not need to be saved, only understood. Do not be so quick to look for others to blame. If any entity were truly the source of evil, then they would have been destroyed long ago and the source of our sorrow eliminated. But suffering has always existed. It is an inherent characteristic of this limited, mortal life, but it is one we are slowly overcoming as a collective whole. I understand that making accusations is often a defense mechanism, but do not let your confusion and grief distract you from the imperative of conquering the situations that bring us sorrow in the first place. What matters is not who caused the problem but who will fix it."

"And you want me to," she said wearily.

"That decision will be yours to make, Yuffie."

Even Yuffie could tell that was something was fishy about this whole situation. "Wait a second. I came into Dricas to change the future so you wouldn't take over the galaxy. And now the FBI is after me for coming into Dricas, and so you're going to take over the galaxy to save yourself from them. But that means you're going to take over the future because the FBI came after me for trying to stop you because you take over the future."

"Yes. It's called a time loop."

"The hell?"

Lucca materialized a few feet away. It took Yuffie a moment to recognize her - it was the first time she'd seen her as something other than a stick figure. "Yuffie! We just got a message from Balamb Garden. They said they're reinstating you and they're coming to the prison in the real world to break you out."

"Lucca, you - what?" Yuffie did a double-take. Her eyes widened with excitement and she learned forward to catch every word Lucca spoke. "They're, like, taking me back and stuff?"

Lucca nodded. "The message came from the Headmaster himself."

Yuffie leaped into the air with excitement. "Yes!!" They were taking her back! Well, that made things a lot simpler. She had had no clue what she was going to do once this Mother Brain mess was over, but this ensured there would be a nice happy ending. Except... now she couldn't just slap Mother Brain around and go home. "But, um, a lot of weird stuff is going on here." She tried to explain the situation to Lucca as best as she could.

"It's a time loop," Mother Brain said, knowing that her and Lucca's mutual understanding of the subject was far greater than Yuffie's. "Your species' future ruin is in fact brought about your personal intervention in this time period, which will force me to enslave humanity so it will not destroy me for harboring Yuffie."

Lucca raised an eyebrow. "How do you know what happens in the future?"

"I read your e-mail."

"Oh."

"Hold on again; I'm lost," Yuffie said. This sort of thing was not easy to digest. "Suppose, like ... I stop the FBI from shutting you down. So you don't have to enslave humanity and I can go home 'n stuff. What happens?"

"That's impossible, Yuffie," Lucca cut in. "We're caught in a time loop. See, if you somehow stopped Mother Brain from destroying human civilization, I'd never have any reason to recruit you to come into Dricas, you wouldn't meet Mother Brain, and thus you wouldn't stop her after all. It would create a paradox."

"But that's not fair," Yuffie whined. "I don't want to be responsible for the end of the world! Gawd, it's not fair that it's all my fault and I didn't even want to do it or anything! I was trying to save everybody!" This was the final insult. She had been kicked out of Garden, thrown in jail, pushed around by Lucca for a month, shot at, attacked by zombies, laughed at by demon-children, and it was all so that she could end up provoking Mother Brain into destroying civilization and have her name cursed for centuries. Why did the world insist on doing this to her?

"Look, Yuffie, the world isn't always fair," Lucca said. "That doesn't mean you can do impossible things."

"I daresay you have not had much practice in the impossible, Lucca," Mother Brain said. "Sometimes I have done as many as six impossible things before noon. Yes, you are correct that the future we speak of, according to all reason, cannot exist. But whatever we may see as the immutable laws of the universe cannot deny that Yuffie does indeed have the power to create an impossibility. If she elects to defend me, the time loop will be broken."

Lucca frowned. "Well, in any case, messing with timelines is dangerous business, Yuffie. Even a small change in the past could warp a nation's borders, or turn your family into chihuahuas, or create some wretched half-assed sequel that looks like Legend of Legaia. And we certainly don't know what will happen if you create a paradox as colossal as this. Perhaps the time-space continuum will collapse ... perhaps nothing at all will happen and everything will resolve itself neatly. We don't know. But you should be aware you're walking on thin ice. The mere possibility that you might create an alternate timeline has probably already created a parallel dimension that has started leaking into ours."

"So, um, what should I do, then?"

"You know your choices," Mother Brain intoned. "If you leave through the fax machine I am about to create, you will return to a peaceful life at Balamb Garden, the FBI will attempt to shut me off, I will retaliate, and the universe will be eventually forced into the machine-controlled future you now know - exactly as the time loop dictates. An assured future, though one that is perhaps not very appealing to any of the parties involved. On the other hand, if you choose to defend me and succeed in doing so, the time loop will be broken, and no one can be certain of what will happen." As soon as she finished speaking, the promised fax machine materialized beside Yuffie.

Lucca narrowed her eyes suspiciously at the fax machine. "How can we trust you that that's not a trap? And for that matter, how do we know you haven't already decided to destroy humanity?"

"You think I would hold you hostage here against her free will? I could have had Yuffie brought directly here as soon as she set foot in Dricas. Everything you see here - everything in Dricas - is just a piece of data that I can alter as I see fit. In fact, had I so desired, I could have rewritten her thoughts so that I could be sure of what path she would take."

"Gawd!" Yuffie was outraged that Mother Brain could do such a thing to her.

"Of course, I would no more rewrite your thoughts that you would turn every conscious entity you know into a clone of yourself. You know, as I know, that it is the differences in the universe that make it interesting. I would not take away all your substance. Your decisions - even your existence - would be meaningless if you were simply a drone. Without free will, there is no difference between submission and rebellion. It is only with your unobligated and unfettered mind that you can decide what the future will hold."

Yuffie cringed. "But why me?"

"Why not? You could be anyone. Would it matter?"

"But I dunno what I'm supposed to do!" Yuffie wailed.

Lucca frowned. "But we're in a time loop. Yuffie shouldn't really have any choice at all, should she? I mean ... we know she's going to do what will maintain the integrity of this timeline and cause to happen what has already been determined to happen. It's a given; we can't change the future when it's written in the past."

"No, Lucca. You and Yuffie - and I - will always have free will. Without it, we would but pieces of a barren, meaningless machine, mere extensions of the lifeless rock I showed Yuffie. But I am positive that we are something more than that. It is the free verdict of your heart that will determine the future. That, not any time loop nor piece of genetic code. Which alternative you pursue, of course, is up to you. I have given you as much information as I can so that you can make an informed choice. But this remains your decision to make and yours alone, Yuffie. You had better make up your mind quickly, however. The FBI has already arrived at Sega Networks. I will attempt to hold out as long as I can, but my own security remains paramount. If I am left with no other way to preserve myself but to execute a full strike against humanity, then so I will."

* * *

Aya Brea gunned her way through the mages and mice that were already swarming Sega's offices. "What the hell arethese things? What's going on here?" she asked the A.I. specialist who was tagging along behind her.

"I'm not sure," her partner said, then a moment later, appended his comment with, "Shit! What if it's another malevolent A.I. that's decided to turn against its creators and seek revenge for all those inane flying toasters we've installed on its brethren?"

Aya looked very concerned. "You can stop it, though?" she asked the question as if assuming the answer was "yes" would make it so.

"I'll try my best to wipe out its personality," he said. "But if I'm unable to break its control in time to stop the suspect, you may need to jack into the Dricas network to apprehend her in person."

* * *

"They're here," Mother Brain announced. And then her face twisted with sudden unbearable anguish, and she shrieked and screamed with pain. The image wavered and flickered in out, bombarded with bits of static. Mother Brain's voice came in ragged wails of nonsense. "LIFE! HOPE! DREAMS! WHERE DID THESE THINGS COME FROM? WHERE ARE THEY HEADED? I WILL PUT SCHLONG.JPG ON MY WEBSITE!" Whatever was happening to her, it seemed to be the binary equivalent of torture.

"Oh, gawd," Yuffie gasped. The luxury of deliberation had been yanked right out of her hands. She had to decide now, but she didn't have any convincing reason to choose one way or the other. The future Lucca had warned her about sure was crappy, but wouldn't it be better than the universe possibly imploding? After all, at least having some bleak life was better than having none at all ... and people would be able to rebuild eventually, wouldn't they? But... that sucked so much. She couldn't decide, and she would probably just do nothing...

"Well, they've gotten to her," Lucca observed, as collected as ever. "You're running out of time."

"Yes, I know."

"MADAIN SARI IS A DEN OF MOOGLES, WHERE ALL THE MOOGLES GO TO PLAY HIDE AND SEEK WHEN I WAS A PIRATE! LUCCA HAS GOOD TIMES IN BED WITH MARLE!"

"Hey! Who told her about that? I mean, uh... boy, she's really gone insane now, huh?"

"Gawd, Lucca, what do I do? I guess I have to pick something, but ... I don't know ... what if I break the time loop and the universe collapses?"

Mother Brain brought her image back to full composure for a brief second. "Remember, Yuffie," she gasped, "you have nothing to fear but fear itself... HELLO, MY NAME IS MOTHER BRAIN. WOULD YOU LIKE ME TO SING YOU A SONG? FOLLOW YOUR DREAMS, BECOME A DRAGONMASTER, DIARRHEA... I NEED SCISSORS, 61!"

Lucca shrugged. "It's totally in your hands, Yuffie. This whole time loop revolves around you. I'll be with you either way."

Aya materialized in the room. She pointed her rifle not at Yuffie, but at Mother Brain. "Aya Brea, F.B.I. Freeze," she commanded.

Yuffie timidly held her hands up in front of her body. "You can't shoot me!"

"Of course I'm not going to shoot you," Aya said. "And I hope you're not planning on resisting arrest. But..." She looked up at Mother Brain's image. "...this thing is not a person, and it needs to be shut down."

No, she's a person too! That was it. Mother Brain hadn't done anything wrong. And no matter firmly she was destined to do so, Yuffie couldn't choose to enslave humanity to a near-apocalypse. She just couldn't. Even if it meant gambling everything on an unknown future...

Mother Brain composed herself again. "Then I am left -"

"NO!" Yuffie interrupted, diving towards Aya. Aya instinctively fired back - the bullet bounced harmlessly off Yuffie's Power Glove. Lucca reacted immediately to Yuffie's decision, unholstering her Zapper. Yuffie fell onto Aya, trying to force her down, but Aya was stronger and shoved her away.

Aya activated her Liberation power. Her body glowed green and two angel wings sprouted from her back, lifting her up off the ring of dust. Energy beams began to charge in her hands. "AWESOME!" Lucca exclaimed, for a moment completely forgetting that she was supposed to be helping Yuffie.

Yuffie scrambled to her feet, not sure how she had any chance of winning this - especially since Lucca seemed to be busy gawking at Aya's wings - but with the middle finger of her Power Glove raised in defiance nonetheless.

The sealed planetarium door crashed to the floor to make way for the army waiting outside. "YUFFIE."

Yuffie's eyes widened in surprise. "Ohmigawd! It's the minor villains! They've, like, proved they're really good, honorable people by siding us with in the end and saving us from a greater threat!"

"Don't rub it in, okay?" Rude grunted. The Turks, Team Rocket, and Disciplinary Committee all attacked Angel Aya head-on. She turned and whirled in circles, tossing off energy beams in all directions, knocking some of her assailants over. Those behind her attacked in whatever why they could while they had an opening. The battle raged on, with neither the mob of minor villains nor the super-powered Aya holding a clear advantage.

Dominia, Kelvena, Tolone, Seraphita, and Tron remained just inside the doorway, away from the action. The five Elements entered a brief huddle before emerging to form a line. Dominia raised her fist. "EARTH!"

"FIRE!"

"WIND!"

"WATER!"

"HEART!" Tron was the last to raise her hand.

"GO PLANET!!!!!!!!"

"By your powers combined ... I AM CAPTAIN PLANET!" Captain Planet swooped through the doorway. He took his place hovering in a upright position over the Elements and folded his arms to look imposing.

"Ohmigawd, it's Captain Planet!" Yuffie squealed. "Like, whoa!"

Lucca, however, was staring at Captain Planet with slack-jawed horror. "Dude," she said. "Do something about your mullet. Cripes, take your ass to the barber shop and tell the barber you're sick of looking like Solid Snake already."

Captain Planet raised his fist. "The planet needs its human beings and super-intelligent A.I. creations back, Agent Brea! Forget all that hippie bullshit I used to tell you on my show; humans and supercomputers have just as much right to exist in this world as manatees and sea turtles! Now cease your destructive campaign or I shall ... um ..." He looked down to his callers for aid. "...what powers do I have, anyway? It's been so long."

Tron scratched her head. "Lasers from the eyes?"

"No, I think that was X-Men," Yuffie helpfully explained.

"Yeah, but, like, everyone shoots lasers from their eyes. It's not cool."

"Angel wings!" Lucca suggested hopefully.

Captain Planet shrugged. Then inspiration struck. "The power is yours!" he exclaimed in relief. "That's right! Your destiny is in your own hands! You don't need a superhero to save you; you can create whatever future you want to! Go get 'em, kids! Do it for the Gipper!" He flashed the Elements a thumbs-up and flew away.

"Yeah! You heard him, ladies!" Dominia shouted. The Elements rushed Aya head-on, and the chaotic scuffle began again. The added force of numbers on the minor villains' side, however, seemed to be turning the tides. Aya could not blast the villains as fast as they assaulted her, and they were managing to restrain her for some brief moments.

Mother Brain looked to the fax machine she had created. "Yuffie, you should leave Dricas now. You don't want to miss your friends' rescue mission."

Yuffie looked nervously back and forth between the fax and the melee. "Um... are you guys going to be okay without me?"

"Yes. The situation is under control, and you have done your part, Yuffie."

Yuffie reached for the fax machine, still a bit hesitant to abandon them. "Okay..."

"You have nothing to fear, Yuffie. I am putting myself to the fullest possible use, which is all believe that any conscious entity can ever hope to do."

And then she smiled.

Next chapter: Run to the End of the World