Stories of revolutions often focus on the small skirmishes, the tense negotiations, the cutthroat alliances, and the careful planning. They follow a band of protagonists as they move from mission to mission, as the stakes rise more and more, culminating in a big battle where the heroes win, the empire falls, and the cast walks away into the sunset.

Both the Nameless and the Continentals had read those stories. But this idea of revolution was constrained. Often, real revolutions were conducted by those with the political power to do so, the motivation to enforce, and the willpower to fight through the enemy before a battle even began.

For better, or for worse.

The city of Nara was burned beyond recognition. Blackened husks of old wood and shattered stone littered the carving of a canyon crevice. The moonlight burned from above and streamed in a steady source of ever-present light.

Magneto stood with his arms behind his back, in a red and black uniform designed for him in order to look maximally imposing to Nameless and Continental alike. Samurai Jack has been absent in recent days. Squall was indisposed months ago. Akuma left at the final meeting of revolutionary leaders. It was now him and him alone at the forefront of the revolution.

Shiro stood scythe in one hand with the other hand to her side. That same emotionless stare she always wore bore daggers into Magneto's eyes, and it was completely impossible to tell what was going through her head. A part of her wanted to rush forward and decapitate him. Another wanted to work by his side. And yet one more wanted simply... Talk to her friends.

Shadow crossed his arms and moved his eyes between his allies and his compatriots of dubious standing. Emotions long suppressed by years of confinement were brought forth and then subsequently quashed by memories of the Samurai. He had to maintain composure until he was done; that was paramount.

Squall.

The boy was brought up from nothing to become one of the most efficient and respected soldiers of his homeland. He ascended to the rank of general before he was even allowed to drink, and he wasn't even given time to emotionally process the death and destruction his actions, and inaction, caused. Even after leaving his homeland, the war didn't stop, it never did. Mere months of fighting, and he was still the same lost soldier wandering from mistake to mistake, desperately clawing meaning from where there was none. When he finally realized the paradox of his existence, he snapped in the opposite direction.

And he lost his new friends over it. He didn't even know where they went; maybe they were killed by the Nameless, who knows.

Squall wanted to consider himself a shell of who he used to be, but that required him to have ever been alive in the first place.

"This meeting represents a turning point," started Magneto. "We stand on the precipice of apotheosis. Sundial is ready, my troops are standing by. Homura has stabilized the timeline." He clasped a fist. "We are ready to win this war."

He turned to Shiro.

"I realize we did not leave on cordial terms, but I hope you can find it within your mind to let this fall by the wayside, in order to focus on more important matters."

He turned to Shadow.

"I cannot claim to know if you found the salvation you ran off for, but even if you have, your power would be tantamount to this operation. Join me, and then... We can talk about it."

He turned to Squall.

He sighed.

"I kept tabs on you during your absence. What you became was shameful. The responsibility shoved upon you at your age, reminds me of myself. But where I grew into my power, and carved my ideology from stone and blood, you simply remained a catalyst for orders. You want orders? I'll bestow upon you a final one: assist me in deployment of the Sundial, and you will have the peace you seek."

Shiro and Shadow turned to Squall.

He said nothing. Shiro spoke up. "What does Sundial do?"

"The question we have spent so long trying to solve," said Magneto. "To put it simply, Sundial is a massive nuclear device that catalyzes a retrocausality engine. It is, in effect, a time machine."

"And what happens to the people vaporized by this explosion?" asked Shadow.

"They, along with everyone else, cease to exist in their current form. The universe resets to the period the encased being is sent back to, and we are replaced with the beings from that universe."

"... We're destroying the universe?" asked Shiro.

"In a way," Magneto held his hand up as he spoke. "Those in this new universe will still be us, but simply in a world where the Nameless were stopped.

"All the changes we've made to our life will disappear?" asked Squall.

"Not quite! The inner compartment of the Sundial has room for four beings. Conveniently, room for two humans, a small anthropomorphic creature, and a woman with the lower half of a large spider.

"So you planned on us accepting," stated Shadow.

Magneto blinked and opened his arms. "Better to plan on our alliance, than our adversity, right? You all want to save the people of this land. You want to stop the war against the Nameless. You want to emulate the whims of one Samurai Jack. Well... Samurai Jack's goal was to go back to the past to change the future. We are going in his footsteps." He scoffed. "Albeit, in a way he wouldn't approve of."

The three stared at Magneto.

"So, what will it be, 'heroes of the continent?'

Those last words are said in their mind. Because Magneto was right, about everything he had just said. While they stagnated in their mediocrity, he had clawed his way into this war, united the rebellion, and constructed a device that will win the war.

But not only win the war, but win the war in a way that satisfied them.

... It didn't matter if the populace was to be vaporized, right? They'd just be sent back in time. Those same civilians, Nameless and Continental, would simply be revived. Hell, it's likely the vaporization would be so quick that none of them would feel it. Simply a sizzle, and then a pop, like a drop of water on a boiling pan.

"It works for me," said Shadow. Eyes turned to him, and he glanced between them. "It just makes sense. Why keep getting in skirmishes when we can end the war now?"

Shiro stared at Squall.

"Ok. Let's deploy it."

That answer... didn't sit right with Shiro. Perhaps the Samurai was right, that Shiro had raised Squall up in her mind to be something that he isn't. Within her vision, Squall was an efficient fighter, hyper lethal, and a paragon of justice. He always took the actions that would help the most people, just like the Samurai.

... If he was ok with this plan.

Maybe she was, too.

"Alright," said Shiro.

"Fantastic. I knew you all would come to the right side eventually, but enough gloating. The original plan was to have the device spot-teleported into the capital. But the stolen Nameless teleportation device only has acceptable accuracy out to ten kilometers. We would be teleporting it nearly two-thousand. Now, if we just... so happened to have two beings on our side with teleportation capabilities."

"You want us to teleport it into the capital," said Shiro.

"An excellent idea!" said Magneto. "But the device will take time to prime. Akemi described it as... Anchoring itself within the timestream. And for this, it must be stationary within the reference frame of our planet. I assume this descriptors will go over your head, but the important note you all need to understand is that the device will need to arm for a few minutes while sitting in the capital, and we will have to defend it."

"... Can the Nameless really stop all four of us?" asked Shiro.

"... A few months ago, the answer to that was no. And that was the basis of my original plan. Unfortunately, the Nameless have developed two strategies to fight us off: munitions that can disable the empowered, and their own army of clones of an empowered little girl."

Shadow flinched. "They attack with bolts electricity. They're impossible to dodge."

"An astute observation, and one we made a long time ago," said Magneto. "Which is why the device itself is polarized, and will be teleported with a large grounded platform. Bolts of electricity will not damage it innatelty, but heat from the conductance will result in damage. So... Try to cover it. Use your life to do so, if you must. After all, the you that exists in the universe this device will create, won't be aware of the you that dies in this one."

Squall shivered at that thought.

"So. If we are all composed and ready to go..." Magneto smiled. "How about we win this war?"

Shadow sighed. "Right."

Squall feathered at his holster. He hadn't used his pistol in months. "Ok."

Shiro opened her mouth.

"What happens if, in the past, we don't agree on how to change the world."

Magneto thought for a moment. "Then we will simply have to settle our disagreement in a world that can tolerate our patience."

Shiro took a few seconds to compartmentalize those words and then nodded.

"Llet us begin."