He had been watching for a long while, men had come and gone with the years, so many a valiant warrior had fallen, so many a heart broken. Yet, as was the course of the Universe, life went on. It always would. Even in the sickest, most twisted ways, life thrived. Yet, no one man could decide what was and was not sick and twisted, because those who are dubbed sick and twisted are not really sick and twisted. It was like racism, deeply rooted through out the Universe, mostly with the Humans, who often judged others by their colour of skin, they also a long history of hating 'aliens.' Which in reality meant them as well, as they were aliens. One could view them as parasites, breeding, growing, spreading, and taking over, killing. But, most things were like that. The ironic thing was, none of them viewed themselves like that. For the most part, that is. The madmen, or the ones dubbed so, saw themselves as crusaders; the holiest of men might be the ones with the largest sins. You never knew.

By cleansing the Universe, as the self-righteous men often did, of the ugliest abominations, in their eyes, were they not making the Universe itself more ugly? How could one go through and slay all of one species, how could one announce that one specific gender was inferior to the other, how could one bear in mind that what they had just done, contradicted their intentions? By trying to make the Universe 'better' they were making it worse, perhaps they had killed the one beast who would later stop an entire galaxy from damnation, perhaps when imprisoning a woman for simple leaving the house, they had made sure that the soon to be witness to a heinous crime would, indeed, not witness the crime, and later that man, who had murdered another man over a few petty credits, would go on, and slay another. And another. Each time getting away, each time, leaving the officials scratching their heads, and asking who it was. When, if they had not been suppressing the women, the woman could have identified the man, and they would not eventually have to face the fact that their emperor lay on the ground, limbs torn, mouth cut ear to ear, eyes gauged out, tongue and eyes thrown against the wall, and his heart missing!

But, then, maybe the woman was properly put away, and the Emperor had been an evil man. He had brought unification to his world, to his galaxy, and was pushing for more rights for the women, for the workers, for the common man. Aliens and Humans, it mattered not the species, all were equal. Yet, perhaps that was unnatural, perhaps by some grander scale, they were meant to fight, after all, why else were they different? One who was bound to only one environment, meant a very obvious weakness, and the other, who could adapt to almost anything, was he not the superior? Or was it the opposite, that by being bound to one environment, underwater or to the desert climate, they never had the urge to travel, to explore, to run into unknown dangers, and those who could, would, meet those dangers. So many riddles of the Universe, so many paradoxes, so many complaints and requests, and so very few answers were known. And the biggest question, of all that had asked, since the 'dawning of time' when the Ancients gazed out into the infinity that was space, and so stars, lighting the sky up, all they could ask was, and is still asked, and will probably always be asked...

"Why?"

Ran'eni turned, calmly, gazing at the young headstrong Nagai, of pale white skin, deep black hair and eyes to match, dressed in a simple orange jump suit, with not point in life but to wander the galaxies aimlessly, until he met his demise, probably at pirates. Ran'eni knew it, and deep down, the Nagai knew it. Yet, neither said anything, for, what was the point? It was in the Nagai's nature to ignore such things; this was just another raving lunatic, who thought he knew something about everyone. The Nagai had no idea just how close he was to the truth. "Pardon?" Ran'eni's voice contradicted that of the Nagai's, which was sharp and ruff, his was...smooth, cool, and flowed perfectly. Soothingly.

"Why there?" Ah, such a simple question from what appeared such a simple man, but Ran'eni knew, that there was always something deeper to every question, even if the one asking did not realize it, or the one answering, as it was. Just by answering, once could tell the other's intentions if they were keen enough. What were his intentions? He had not thought deeply upon such a matter, he was always contemplating the galaxy as a whole, he had been taught to. He was bound by thousands of years, of tradition, to break such a tradition and thus his honour, would be the ultimate disgrace and hence, the damnation of the Universe. He had one goal, and it would probably not happen during his lifetime, he had to make sure that no one, not a group, not a clan or guild, empire or republic, or a single being, brought the doom of everyone upon the Universe. The ironic thing was, he could be that one. "The One," the one who would, could, bring such misfortune. Or was it fortune, to finally end everything?

Maybe Oblivion was what was needed.

"I don't believe you need to know," and with that, he walked down the corridor, and calmly closed the door. The ship would make it, the pilot had skill, Ran'eni knew that much, at least he thought he did. He had been trained to know the mind, to need but one glance at someone or something and know what would be its ultimate destiny, he was hardly wrong. He had been wrong only a few times before. And everyone in the Mastermind Empire knew of one of those mistakes. In a few minutes, the small transport ship blasted off to Mavaria, where it would drop off Ran'eni and the death sticks for the local dealer.