Some great people changed the entire universe simply by existing. Ruby had always believed that.
She looked down at the shadowed side beyond the armored viewport. White armor plates were illuminated by rows of red-and-white collision lights. Several orange figures embedded with faint white lights crawled across the armor in a line, swaying as they desperately wriggled toward the airlock door like maggots in a vacuum.
She stared at one of them with contempt and mockery.
She knew who that person was. She could recite that person's name, and she even knew things about that person's biological parents that they did not know themselves. She had once believed Daisy Johnson was the one who could change the universe, because that street-level superpowered vigilante was powerful enough to shatter buildings and overturn vehicles with ease. Her mother, General Hale, had never known that the Daisy Johnson posters in Ruby's bedroom at the training base—or rather, her cell—were not acts of so-called Adoration, but observation and hunting. This strange philosophy of becoming stronger by defeating greater people and absorbing their traits had originated from records she had read about cannibal tribes in the Amazon Rainforest. Later, she had applied it to Hydra's ideas of Social Darwinism and the principles expressed through General Hale's harsh upbringing.
Daisy Johnson had been Ruby's milestone, her proof of herself.
Later, Ruby discovered that Daisy breathed, felt hunger and thirst, and even struggled to control her emotions. Other than possessing special abilities, she had nothing exceptional about her. So Ruby changed her target of observation and set her sights on the person who had sought her out. Yet, completely contrary to her unique philosophy, she had not defeated the Emperor to prove herself.
Although that person also displayed the physiological behaviors of an ordinary human, Ruby could