“Love: A grave mental illness.”  - Plato

Deltaredon fought away tears that threatened to streak down her cheeks. Her hand reached toward “Scuttlebutt”’s’ helm console. She took note that her hand was trembling out of control. She pulled her hand away, abruptly, and cradled it in the warm embrace of the other.

The main lighting system within the immense vessel’s bridge had not yet been activated, and mimicked her darkened mood. It supplied an atmosphere suitable for one to brood and sulk, as she was doing at the moment. She felt no compulsion to activate the lights, nor did she feel it a necessary recourse, so she allowed them to be as they were when she had arrived.

She remained there in the darkness, the eerie emerald green light that was being emitted from the various displays before her giving the complexion of death upon her visage. The sting of welling tears, screaming to be shed, once more made their collective presence known.

She scolded herself for showing such emotional weakness. After all she owed nothing to Beta Ray Bill, the last living male Korbinite! He meant nothing to her, except as a means to an end. He was simply the means to repopulate and reproduce their now dead race, no more, no less! And she bore his children in her womb. There was no passion involved, no love; simply reproduction. Procreation of their race was the urge that drove her now, since she had been whisked away from Mistress Death’s chilling embrace.

Then why did she not recall ever dying? A distracting idea, forcibly swept aside to return to her thought process. Her line of reasoning resumed its course prior to the forgotten tangent. Reproduction was all that mattered to her! Both in her career choice, and now in her life choice.

Or... was that simply what she kept telling herself, over and over again, a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy, in the hope that she might ultimately come to believe the lie?

She lowered her head, helpless to ascertain her true emotions, her true innermost musings.

If what was said was true -- that the most powerful individual was the one who had power over herself -- then she must be the most powerless of all the creatures to adorn the proud name of Korbinite. That was how she currently viewed herself. Weak. Confused. And lost in a sea of raging emotions that she could not share with anyone.

She cursed herself under her breath, pulling herself together. The tears slowly faded, and she no longer felt their sting. She knew these feelings would remain a part of her forevermore, engraved into her very essence, however the course of action that she now embarked upon was right, and necessary for all those concerned.

Deltaredon reached once more toward the helm’s controls. This time her hand was not trembling at all. It was steady under her renewed will power. She gave a crisp nod of her head and with a deep breath of recycled air and the closing of her eyes, the Korbinite activated the ship’s engines.

The shuttle gently started to pulsate with life anew and she was satisfied to hear the roar of the engines chiming in her ears, much like a sweet melody being played softly.

Once this was done, she made up her mind on a course. After all, the course did not truly matter. All that mattered was the result: the distance between the two of them.

“Scuttlebutt”,” she said suddenly. Her voice, somewhat shaken, surprised even her.

“Yes?” the feminine voice of “Scuttlebutt” was forthcoming, not allowing a pause between the inquiry itself and the response it provoked. “How may I be of service to you, Delta Ray Dawn?”

She gave off a bittersweet smile when she heard the computer’s interactive voice adapt her name into the closest English equivalent. “Activate a personal log entry, to be filed and saved within Beta Ray Bill’s personal computer matrix within his alternate quarters on the “Star Master” portion of the “Township”.”

She owed him that much, at least. After all, he did brave Death’s Realm so that she, and more importantly their race, might live.

There was silence for a moment, and the slight hum of computer circuitry obeying its recently received orders. Finally the female voice once again was heard through the vessel’s intercom system confirming to her that the process had been carried out and that she could begin the recording.

She instinctively took a deep breath and forced her voice to remain calm, as she started her last address to Beta Ray Bill.

“Betarebil,” she started slowly, collecting her thoughts to appropriately phrase what it was that she felt inside, “by the time you hear the sound of my voice, I shall be some distance from both Sirus X and the 'Township'. And you will have also taken note of the various energy trails, leading away from 'Township', all with the exact energy signature that was produced by Scuttlebutt’s engines. These... phantom energy trails are all falsified, forged so to dissuade you from tracing me.

“Please, I implore you, Betarebil, Noble Spirit that you are, do not follow me...

“I do this for your own well being,” her voice became thick and hoarse, as if suddenly filled with doubt. She forced herself to complete her words. “Call me a liar if you must, but I do know that my intentions are pure, right and just in this matter.

“I feel I owe you an explanation of my logic. Since my arrival here, once more among the mortal realm, I have noticed something in your eyes, Betarebil. Hesitation, if I were to attempt to describe it, in your actions. You instinctively know something is the right thing to do when the situation arises, yet lately you have become hesitant, reluctant, and doubtful to act. I feel that it is my presence that has done this. You no longer act on what is the right recourse. Now you take into consideration my well being above all others’. You ask yourself: Will my actions adversely effect her or the chance of the repopulating of our race? And by answering these questions... by merely asking these questions... you lose precious time. Time that demands action not contemplative thought. And in that span... in the span of even the smallest of all fractions of a nanosecond that action was demanded of you, and your thoughts drifted toward myself and our soon to be born young... a brave soul may be forever lost... And I, for one, cannot live under that specter of damnation...

“My presence here... and the presence of our future brood… must not be allowed to hinder your performance as the proud Protector of the Universe that you are.”

She took a deep, rattling breath, and for some reason she found it difficult to draw in air.

“I know this pains you deeply... for you are a kind and gentle creature by nature... and I am saddened that I am the instrument of this pain.”

She mouthed the words “I love you”. Yet she could not bring herself to voice them.

For did she love him? 

She had feelings for him, yes. However, love? What were these feelings? A simple maternal instinct of some sort? Perhaps. A compulsory need to make certain that the one who had risked so much for her very existence was not hurt by her next actions? More than likely. But love... true love...

Love? Did she love the one who was Betarebil?  

She did not hold the answer to that question, nor would she voice such a phrase aloud unless she was certain of the answer.

She felt her neck tighten up slightly, and fought back the pain, once more scolding herself for such emotional lack of control that she was displaying even in her solitude. Her eyes took on a glazed over shine of tears, it was an expression of heartache... She composed herself once more.

“Farewell, Betareb… Beta Ray Bill.” And again, silently, “I love you.”

Time passed by, and she waited until those final words -- not the ones she had spoken, but the three she had mouthed silently -- echoed in the halls that made up her psyche, before she closed out the auto-recording and sent it toward Beta Ray Bill’s personal information matrix. Once she saw to it that the task was done, and that the “Township” would inform the bearer of Stormbringer of the message’s existence, she looked over final preparations for launch.

When all was in order a few moments later, she detached “Scuttlebutt” from the “Township” superstructure. She made certain that the falsified energy trails were in place, and that more would fire after her departure. She stared once more at the shimmering crystal orb of emerald that was Sirus X.  The “Township” was coming up in the observation port, slowly moving in orbit around the world that was once again in the clutches of Universal Church of Truth.

She turned from the sight, and once more made sure the correct course was laid in. With the activation of a few commands she initiated the ship’s powerful engines.

The roar increased, and moments prior to the ship lurching forward into the sea of eternal stars, she looked once more at Sirus X with longing, as if she could see Bill from across the void of space.

The vessel engaged the main drive and Delta Ray Dawn embraced the stars, the entire time saying to herself: No regrets, no regrets, no regrets...

In the astral distance, a shadowy figure savored Dawn’s anguish, and knew that his subtle manipulations of her psyche were bearing putrid fruition. His offspring’s distraction planet-side gave him all the more satisfaction. Soon, she would be his, and Mistress Death’s secrets would be peeled away one by one. And the mock-Thor could do nothing to stop him!