View source for Right Place, Right Time (BMC: Rubeus)

{{Cutscene Header
|Date of Scene=2025/01/22
|Location=Black Moon Clan's Ship
|Synopsis=Two parts of a conversation between Rubeus and Saphir of the Black Moon Clan, before and after Scene [[2262/Wrong Place, Wrong Time]]. The Black Moon Clan have a new plan.
|Cast of Characters=280,43
|Tinyplot=Black Moon Clan
}}
It's a peaceful day in Blue Saphir's lab when in bursts a terrible Rubeus. <br>

"SAPHIR! WE AREN'T <I>STUCK HERE</I>, ARE WE?" <br>

It's an unnecessarily loud roar, given that the entrance to the lab is thirty feet from the table Saphir is working at, but he expects such nonsense from Crimson Rubeus. Unfortunately, one didn't grow up with a person without becoming aware of their every irritating personal habit. <br>

That doesn't change that it's incredibly irritating <i>or</i> that a lesser scientist might have been so distracted by the uninvited noise that they damaged their experiment. Saphir - not a lesser scientist - merely exhales slowly and lowers his tools, straightening from his position bent-over his creation. A sequence is entered into the tabletop's touchscreen interface, and the droid powers down. <br>

"Hello, Rubeus," he says dryly, each pointed word a direct contrast to the bellowing he'd been greeted by, "Do come in, I certainly wasn't in the midst of critical experiments." <br>

The sarcasm is wasted on Rubeus. <br>

"Good!" Though Rubeus is still entirely too loud, at least he's no longer bellowing loud enough for his voice to echo off the walls. "Then you can <i>focus</i> on my question, then. It was your mistake that landed us here, you've made sure you can <i>fix it</i>, haven't you? You must have, if you're wasting time on dolls instead of ensuring we can return to the site of our victory!" <br>

Calming exhalations aren't enough. The only thing that would truly be enough would be blowing Rubeus' brains out and then rebuilding a better, quieter, more <i>respectful</i> version of the man. <br>

His brother would disapprove of that, however, so Saphir will hold off. <br>

For now. <br>

"As I have told you already, it was not a <i>mistake</i> which landed us in this temporal divergence, but a <i>choice</i>, to prioritize retrieving the Silver Crystal, and determine a path back afterwards -" Saphir regrets his choice of words immediately, because by the look on Rubeus' face, the irritating lout has picked up on exactly what Saphir had hoped he wouldn't. <br>

"<i>What do you mean</i> determine a path back afterwards? Don't tell me you don't know how to get us back!" <br>

"Wonderful. I won't do that then, and you can see yourself out -" <br>

"SAPHIR! HOW THE HELL DID YOU MANAGE THAT?!" <br>

Again with the <i>yelling</i>. "We traveled through a <i>storm in time</i> Rubeus, as you very well know. There was no plotting a course involved, only tracking the Rabbit's signature! There <i>is</i> a way back, I simply haven't... secured it yet." <br>

It grates on Saphir to admit it. <br>

Clearly, it grates on Rubeus to <i>hear</i> it." <br>

"What the <i>fuck</i> -" <br>

"Is there a reason for this racket?" <br>

At the sound of that smooth voice, Rubeus and Saphir straighten, their mouths shutting so swiftly the clack of their jaws is audible in the room. They turn, moving almost as one, and bow - Rubeus in a deep but swiftly finished gesture, Saphir offering a far more shallow one, though he holds his bowed stance for longer. <br>

The respectful silence holds for barely a moment after they've straightened - and then they're both speaking at once, words tumbling over one another.

"My Prince, I was just trying to get answers about -" <br>

"Brother, he was interrupting my -" <br> 

"Must I specify <i>one</i> at a time?" Prince Demande, well, demands, glowering at his two subordinates. He's a tall man of svelte build, with shoulder-length white hair. "You represent two-thirds of my command team, and I should be able to trust you to act like it. Rubeus, report." <br>

Frustration tugs at Saphir's mouth, tightens it into a thin line as Rubeus straightens yet more, radiating smug satisfaction at being called on above their leader's own <i>brother</i>. 

"My apologies, my prince," he begins, and those red eyes are focused and still, looking upon Demande, the rage that had lit them before tamed into obedient embers. "Both for my conduct and my temper. I was frustrated to learn that Saphir has not been prioritizing securing our return to our own timeline over his droids, despite our greatest priority - after securing the Silver Crystal - being the return to your victory over the Crystal Millennium." <br>

Demande merely nodded, before fixing those violet eyes on Saphir. "Well, brother? I'm sure you have your own version of the story." <br>

"My version of the story, as you put it, is that I was here, continuing my critical work on enhancing the capabilities of my droids, when Rubeus burst in here and created a scene, because it's only just occurred to him that it will take <i>time</i> to create a pathway back to our home dimension. Forgive me for my errant assumption that a fellow commander would be capable of basic logic." <br>

Rubeus bristled. Demande flapped a hand, dismissive, and the redhead settled, reluctant. <br>

"You could have given your explanation without the petty sniping, Saphir. Still, your point is fair. Logic dictates that if the journey to arrive was difficult and unforeseen, the journey home, to deliver us back to the time and place of our victory, will be all the more difficult. We will be breaking through the bounds of time and space once more. You can't begrudge if, in the process of developing such methods, my brother wishes to pause and work on other matters now and then." <br>

No, he couldn't. Not without disagreeing with his prince, and that, Saphir knew, Rubeus would never dare. <br>

"Of course, Prince Demande," Rubeus agreed, and dipped his head to better hide his clenched jaw. "You are correct. It's only reasonable that <i>Saphir</i> would need breaks, now and then."

It was Saphir's turn to clench his jaw alongside his fist, but he could say nothing, for Demande nodded sharply at that, and turned on his heel, cape whirling behind him. <br>

"Enough of this bickering. I will hear no more on the subject - if you must vent your frustrations, do it on our enemies. Go, Rubeus. Return when you're better company." <br>

A flash of energy, and Rubeus was gone, having duskported without another word. <br>

There was a new tension in the room, with him gone. Saphir breathed out, steady, and looked upon his brother's broad back. That was the obnoxious thing about his brother, their leader - when he wasn't being carried off by his whims, he was the most dreadfully patient, focused man Saphir had ever known. He would stand there, motionless, until Saphir could bear it no more.<br>

"Brother?" And with that knowledge in mind, there was no need to try and wait him out.<br>

"Rubeus may have been rude and abrasive, but he wasn't wrong, Saphir," Demande warned. "I trust that you'll find our route home, for you've never failed me. It doesn't change that dallying with your other projects instead of focusing on our most critical need ''will'' reflect poorly on you." <br>

"...of course, brother." <br>

And then Demande was gone, and Saphir was alone, with his droid, with his lab, with his <i>work</i> and the weight of expectations... <br>

For a mere half-hour, before the energy in the lab - carefully attuned, carefully ''maintained'' - bristled and roiled as Rubeus tears through the air in his return teleport. He floats in the air, dark energy crackling over his frame, <i>glitter</i> in his hair, clinging to his skin, and <i>falling in flakes to coat the lab floor</i>. Saphir considers, again, the satisfaction of blowing his brains out, and very reluctantly, puts that thought aside. <br>

"Ahaha, Nemesis' craggled ass, I needed that more than you can know, Saphir." Rubeus' words are more exhaled than spoken, the smile on his face cruel and satisfied. "You should have seen them. The Senshi, the two-bit knock-off equivalent Senshi - they were <i>pathetic</i>! Between Mars not even trying to broil me and Venus spending more time being launched in the air than trying to slaughter me... and the ''King''! Ha, he was the biggest disappointment of them all, faffing about with glitter instead of trying to take me off the census..." <br>

"So he's why you're littering my lab with sparkling debris. If you had such ''fun'' then why are you <i>here</i>, Rubeus?" <br>

"Because, wet blanket though you are, we're going to need your pet project soon enough." There's still that smile on Rubeus' face, pleased, edged with madness, but there's something fierce in his eyes, something confident. "Their sainted queen might <i>hate</i> dark energy, but get them riled enough and they'll drink from the well happily enough. None of that self-restraint bull, none of that happy thoughts of purification. Far as I saw, every last one of them was quick to succumb - ''especially'' the Rabbit." <br>

"...now that <i>is</i> interesting." <br>

Saphir takes a moment to imagine it - Sailor Mars, Sailor Venus, King Endymion, <i>and</i> the Rabbit, each of them embroiled in dark power, each of them in its full thrall. Compares that to the saintly visages of the Crystal Millennium, the holier than thou gods that purified the Earth and it's surrounding planets, that purged from humanity their capacity - and their knowledge - of the darkness' capabilities. <br>

And he too, smiles. <br>

"What are you planning?" <br>

"If lightly wrecking an arcade was all it took to get them after my head, what do you think a little slaughter and mayhem will do?" Rubeus floats to the ground, clasping his hands behind his back. When he walks, it's with the heavy thudding steps of a soldier, all the rage of before gone in favor of the new tactics brewing in his mind. "This isn't our time, but these ''are'' our enemies. The Sailor Senshi will always be our enemy, no matter what time, what dimension, we exist in. Their allies, too, should exist, the ones that were around for the calamity and it's aftermath." <br>

It's obvious, then. <br>

"If they were willing to kill you over an arcade, what makes you think won't kill your subordinates for the loss of their loved ones?" <br>

Rubeus' smile twists into a smirk, and he glances down, meaningfully, at the table between them, at the half-opened droid, with its human face, its moist eyes, blinking on programmed reflex to prevent drying. <br>

"They can always be replaced."