The Celzex imperial cruiser wasn't designed to travel in-atmosphere, it was far too large, and the amount of energy it would have required to keep it airborne was impractical. Not like there would have been any place to park it in the first place. The Celzex imperial cruiser was large, almost as large as the Empyrean Iris, and together, the two ships took up almost half the docking station of the Arcadia orbital spaceport .

Back on the ground, waiting on the tarmac of the Arcadia spaceport, Adam could have wriggled out of his own skin in impatience. You would certainly think that years as a fleet admiral, and UNSC officer would have given him some measure of patience, but that was not the case at all. The older he got the worse it got. He paced up and down the tarmac outside the spaceport, watched by several "handlers". With Arcadia grown in size and influence on the galactic stage, it had recently become imperative to the citizens of arcadia, that their representatives remain whole.

That meant babysitters.

They called themselves bodyguards, but Adam didn't buy it.

James, the King of Sparta had taken to calling his own detail his "honor guard" which sounded cool enough, and Adam would have done it, but he didn't want to seem like he was copying the other man. He was just angry he didn't think of it first.

"We'd be more comfortable if you waited inside, sir." One of the women said. She was human with short brown hair and brown eyes. If you had looked in the GA directory for HUMAN , you probably would have found a picture of her. She was certainly the most human looking human Adam had ever encountered.

"I think I'm fine here, thanks."

He knew he wasn't making their jobs any easier. The whole job of a security detail was to protect their principal. They looked for security threats that he didn't notice, maneuvered him to safety , helped him avoid locations that might prove hazardous due to certain conditions. Adam tried to see things from their perspective, but after years and years of doing stupid shit just because he could, it was hard not to rebel against the idea.

Personally he saw the whole protection detail as pointless. Where were they just a week or so ago when he had been tossed off a cliff on the Kree homeworld?

They protected him from stubbing his toe at home just so he could chuck himself into he abyss on his away trips.

He sighed and paced in a tight circle.

Speaking of the kree, they had gotten the eggs back to arcadia without any incident, or more accurately, they had brought the eggs to a scientific facility on an asteroid in the same system as Arcadia, scanned them for signs of void infection and THEN they had been brought to Arcadia proper. The little guys were not incubating in one of the biolaboratories in the city. Yebb, their resident trichar and microbiologist headed the biology division of Arcadia's science program, and she kept him appraised of the situation. In the event that the kree children survived, they already had plenty of volunteers willing to come forward and foster the creatures.

As usual there was a lot going on.

On top of running a government, raising his son, keeping himself in fighting form, preforming acts of diplomacy and much much more, he was constantly worrying about the eventual void death of the universe, which was seeming more and more possible with every moment.

Oh yes and how could he forget the constant visits back to Anin to sit with Naktan on his holy mountain to try and meditate his soul out his ass, which was not working so well by the way. So far only Naktan himself had managed any progress, but he practically spent all day meditating and getting in touch with his chakras or whatever. Attempts on the part of anyone else had been bunk.

His doctor, Dr Krill and his associate Dr Riss warned Adam he was under a lot of stress. To which Adam had said "No really, I hadn't noticed." But in a way that was viciously sarcastic in every way possible. Basically if his hair hadn't already been white, it would be now. Ugh, only thirty years old and he already looked like he was seventy when viewed from behind, granted a very fit seventy year old, but still seventy.

As if that wasn't enough, last night he had received a call from Emperor Avex, who Sunny said they hadn't heard from in almost two years. The fluffy little emperor had requested an urgent meeting on Arcadia, saying that there was, "Something important I need to show you."

Adam wasn't sure why the little creature couldn't just tell him over a video call, but the visit didn't bother him so much. He was actually pretty excited to see his old friend.

He continued to pace in a circle until he was dizzy, and was then forced to lean back against the wall to regain his balance.

His babysitters kept a close eye on him.

Sunny would have waited with him, but at the last minute Kay had gone and gotten an upper respiratory infection of unknown origin. Due to his parental ancestry, the poor kid basically had two upper respiratory tracts, and had woken up absolutely miserable, dribbling from his nose mouth and neck, running a fever of 102, and coughing almost non stop. Sunny and Adam had decided pawning him off on a babysitter would hardly be fair, and kay wanted his mom anyway, so she had opted to stay behind.

Adam checked his notifications making sure there were none from Sunny.

That's when the shuttle appeared.

He knew the shuttle design like the knew the design of most all spacecraft both human and alien. This was clearly a celzex troop carrier, one of the smaller ones. it was a lot of flat angles and pointy bits, possibly to make it more warlike and intimidating. As long as they stayed inside their ship, they might have been able to maintain that sort of façade, but since Adam knew what they really looked like, that was hardly an issue.

Celex were probably one of the most dangerous creatures in the galaxy, not physically of course. The average second grader could probably take one out with little issue. If Adam was good at ball sports, he probably could have punted one for a field goal. Unfortunally, a dishonor like that would likely lead him to an immediate and painful demise as his planet was glassed with great prejudice. Celex had the most powerful weapons in the solar system, and it was only out of the goodness of the Celex family that the little monsters hadn't chosen to take over the universe.

Architect knew they could, and probably would.

The shuttle landed not too distant from them, and Adam began his way up the tarmac, his bodyguards following doggedly after him, frustrated and annoyed at his continual insistence against safety. He had a drag handle on the back of his uniform, so they should be happen he had even allowed that much.

They were mostly forgotten as he stopped outside the shuttle just as the ramp was opening.

Light spilled out from the inside, and the first person Adam saw was the emperor himself.

As usual the little emperor was heartbreakingly adorable, a foot tall ball of fluff with huge eyes, a pig nose and little piggy ears. His feet were obscured below much of his fur, which was a good thing, because Adam had seen a diagram of celzex feet and it was actually quite horrifying. Just like his father, Lord Avex had a prismatic array of hair in multiple different colors, which sort of just made him look like a unicorn themed stuffed animal. Like his father before him, his fur leaned more heavily towards blue than any other color.

And just like all times before Adam had to fight his own inner instincts to hug the little creature. The overwhelming urge to pick him up and squeeze him was absolutely horrific, and he couldn't stop the massive beaming smile that took over his face. Even despite his instincts, he managed to lock them away and give a shallow bow instead, "Emperor Avex, it is a pleasure to see you again."

The Celzex looked him over with a critical eye, "And it is a pleasure to see you as well. I am only sorry I didn't seek you out upon your return. Your defeat of behemoth was most impressive. I daresay the most impressive defeat in the history of this galaxy."

"That's high praise coming from you."

"it is."

Adam still could not stop smiling, despite the little creature's formality, he still just wanted to squish him, hug him, and love him.

It was just a good thing that Celzex were not telepathic.

"So what is it you wanted to show me."

Celzex weren't really the types for niceties, they tended to get straight to the point, and Adam felt the same need.

"I have brought someone who plans to help us in our fight against the Void. I imagine they will be very useful." Lord Avex stepped aside, as if him doing that would matter, its not like he was blocking the view or anything.

Behind him two figures started down the ramp.

Adam recalled almost immediately upon seeing the second, his hand leaping for the gun on his side as he recognized the figure. A universe, in human form, the same shape that had tried to assassinate the GA chairwoman.

"Wait, don't."

Adam paused.

He didn't recognize the voice, though it came from the second person on the ramp. As Adam reached for his weapon, the man had placed himself protectively in front of the void figure, holding one of her arms against him like a bodyguard might protect a principal. Adam paused and lowered his hand, though he didn't relax.

He looked the man over eyes narrowed.

Fealty took control of his mechanical eye, and ran facial recognition, but there were no hits.

Adam hadn't seen this person before, and he was almost sure of it. This man was the kind of person you would remember. He was about as tall as Adam if not a little taller, with broad shoulders and narrow hips. That in itself wasn't all that odd considering fitness was basically a religion on Arcadia. It was his face that stood out to Adam as strange.

The man had no identifiable ancestry . his skin was darker than Adam's, the sort of tone you might get if you averaged humanity together in one conglomerate, and his facial structure could honestly have been from anywhere if you looked hard enough. He had a very strong, square jaw, and high cheekbones. But his hair and eyes were where it got weird. The man had short, neatly styled hair, and a short well-groomed beard. The look was somehow very kingly.

He managed to look imposing even when considering the hair of his beard, face and eyebrows came in all the colors of the rainbow. It was a hard look to reconcile, a tough military looking man, who honestly looked somewhere in his early forties, and the rainbow facial hair. His eyes weren't entirely human either, and it was looking into them that Adam was hit with a sudden, odd sense of familiarity.

He would have sworn he knew this man, but.

How?

"Don't try to guess, you won't get it." The man grinned at him, and the expression was rather.... Wolfish?

There was something about the way he spoke, it was like talking to a force of nature. He had the sort of confidence of someone who could not and would not be moved from any path he set out on unless he actively wanted to be moved.

It was hard to describe in words.

And when he spoke it was so..... so familiar. Adam swore he could.....

"Adam Vir, you remember my father, Lord Celex."

It took a moment to process the words that came from emperor Avex's mouth, and when they did, Adam felt like he had been hit by a train. His entire body stuttered for a moment, and if he was a computer he imagined they would have gotten a blue screen and a 404 error.

It took him a moment to reboot himself before shaking his head and looking at the man again eyes narrowed, "Um, two things..... the last time I checked your father wasn't human, and..... and that he was dead."

"When you no longer live in a construct, form is meaningless." The strange man answered.

Adam shook his head, but the more he looked the more he could.... See it? it was so strange, it was like the human part of his brain was rejecting the idea, but the Maker part of his soul was pretty convinced. There was something about the man that was just so familiar, his eyes, his hair, the way he spoke.

It couldn't' have been anyone else.

"But.... I thought you died." He finally managed to stammer out.

"Sadly yes, but I lived!"

Adam's mouth felt open gawping like a beached fish, "But.... How? And was that?"

Lord Celex tapped his very human skull, "Telepathy comes in handy these days."

"No shit."

They stood there staring at each other for a very very long time, and then when Adam's brain fainally accepted the reality of what he was seeing, he just couldn't help himself. With a bark of delighted laughter he ran forward, and pulled the ex emperor into a crushing hug. Oddly, now that Celex was human , the operation seemed appropriate. He would never have done this when he was a celzex.

But now too bad, if you're going to be human, than you get human treatment.

Celex grunted in surprise as Adam hugged him, but Adam was surprised when the ex-emperor hugged him back, until it eventually devolved into a contest of strength with the two of them subtly trying to crush each other, staggering down the ramp and onto the tarmac. Adam cheated and used his exoskeleton, and immediately yelped in pain when Celex opened up the throttle on his Anima as a power source.

"Yeah, I could crush you with my boot." Celex muttered into his ear, and Adam laughed, pulling back slightly though he kept a hand on Celex's arms to look him over more closely. He patted the man's face, "Wow, you grow a great beard."

"Thank you, I thought it looked rather distinguished." His face went suddenly serious and he turned Adam to look at the ramp where the void creature was standing quietly. As Adam watched it rocked back and forth gently on its feet, in a self-soothing sort of way.

Celex led him gently forward, a firm hand on his shoulder.

"Adam." He stopped just in front of the void creature. Adam shuffled nervously, "Kazna has been doing her best to corrupt the souls of anyone she can get her hands on. The more violent the death, the easier it is for her to manipulate. She's been using psychological torture and isolation to break some of her newer prisoners." he let go of Adam and walked up the ramp Gently taking the void creature by the hand and walking it down the ramp.

Adam stared in surprise.

He had never though Celex capable of compassion, but the man interacted with the creature with such gentleness it was.... Almost heartbreaking. It was like watching him interact with a scared child or a wounded animal, but.... More. There was an understanding between the two of them, the sort of love and understanding that only comes from shared trauma and hardship

Lord Celex had changed a lot since his death.

In life he had basically been an egomaniacal despot and mass murderer. Adam always had trouble remembering that part about his friend. Celex was probably the biggest war criminal to ever have existed, and it took a special kind of crazy to be like that, but here, now.

He was much different.

In all the good ways.

"I, hope you will find it in yourself to forgive her." Celex said, "she was confused at the time and Kazna had her claws in deep." Adam stood frozen as he came face to face with the void creature, "Adam Kelly would like to say she's sorry."

He almost cried, in fact he probably did.... Just a little.

It hurt, so much to watch, to look at. He felt like his insides were being steamrolled. His face and eyes burned as he remembered her fading away in his arms. The woman who gave him everything, gave up her own dreams so he could have his. He remembered her, proud and confident and hard.

Now this.

Quiet

Timid

A void creature almost ruined by Kazna. He felt a sting of hatred inside his chest, burning so hot he could have killed Kazna with a look, but he couldn't so, instead he reached out his hands and took hers.

They were so cold.

He fought back tears, but one managed to escape down his face. he looked into the starry expanse of Kelly's face imagining her eyes as he remembered them.

"Its ok.... Of course its ok.... I forgive you."