Plaster rained down into the operating suite shattering against the rolling cart of tools before scattering across the floor. Dr. Kaite lunged to protect Dr. krill from falling debris, several surgical nurses dived for cover. Ramirez flinched, falling bits of sheetrock pelting his hair and face even as he reached out, "MAVERICK!" he took a step forward, caught the edge of his boot, and tripped onto his knees at the center of the room.

Conn, still wearing his own surgical gown, and ducking beneath a table, sent a rapid relay to Adam, and then to Eris and then to Celex.

With his presence going unneeded in the surgical suite, Celex had been more than happy to apply himself to other endeavors: other endeavors that currently involved the wooing of a beautiful human woman. At first, she had definitely stuck around because she found him amusing, maybe even a little pitiful in his attempts. After all, she knew what he had been once upon a time, and the idea of the furry little ball of anger wasn't exactly working in his favor.

However,Celex hadn't been emperor for most of his life, simply because he could kick ass. He had a silver tongue and knew how to talk, and despite his mane of technicolor hair, and his beard, which she wasn't generally a fan of, the ex Celzex emperor did make a rather dashing human.

Things probably would have gone in his favor if it wasn't for the sudden look of concern that crossed his face, inhuman eyes glazing over and out of focus halfway through a clever little story, which suddenly faded away into the myriad background of other voices permeating the bar.

The woman paused reaching out a hand to touch his arm, "Are you ok-"

He shot up to his feet before she could finish, face, once ruled by a lazy smile, now marred with an expression somewhere near panic. Without so much as an explanation he turned and bolted towards the door managing to yell an apology over his shoulder before pelting past a group of bar goers and out onto the street.

Eyes turned to follow him as he went, and looking through the open windows at the front of the establishment, they watched as Celex conjured a halo of burning golden light around himself, and then shot upwards like a reverse comet into the night sky. The woman was left alone, and confused, sitting with two half finished drinks in front of her.

A man from the bar, seeing his chance, stepped in to fill Celex's old position.

Overhead, tearing through the Arcadia atmosphere, Celex roared upwards in a halo of golden light, following mere seconds after Maverick. He hadn't gotten the whole story, but the flood of images that had spilled into his head were enough. Third hand, through Adam, Maverick's throughs were jumbled and distant, but the anger was omnipresent, clouding her every thought.

But was it really Maverick anymore.

He could see the trail of orange light that marked her escape, and increased his power to match her.

She was still trapped inside a constructed body, and he was not. Even so, she was incredibly powerful, far more powerful than Adam, who wouldn't have been able to make it so much as a foot off the ground, much less survive in the vacuum of space. Either she was a very powerful Maker, or the addition of the void parasite gave her some sort of additional power.

Even so, he was catching up rapidly.

Compared to him, she moved slowly, and soon her distant orange light resolved itself into a shape, heading deeper into the blackness of space.

He felt it, the moment he passed into her sphere of thought, and doing so was like running himself face first into a brick wall.

There was so much inside her head.

Too much.

Thousands of millions of years suddenly rolling in on him like a crushing weight, and he wondered how her human mind handled it when he, A maker, was nearly staggered by its weight. For a brief moment he could see her intention, could feel the subtle glowing pulse of the distant thing that called to her.

Apollyon

The name filled his head only a moment before she managed to shut him out. He was left confused for a moment, forced to backpedal when he noticed she wasn't moving having turned to face him. Regaining control of himself, he floated to a gentle standstill in the vast nothingness of space. Below them, the distant light of Number was the only way to differentiate the planet from the blackness around it, that and the blinking satellite grid that surrounded the planet.

The defense nexus was state of the art, but it wasn't designed to keep lone persons from leaving.

Even in the blackness, her face was easy to distinguish, lit by the pulsing orange glow coming up from her skin, mixing with the gentle shroud of gold that fell from him. Whoever this was, it may have worn maverick's face, but it wasn't maverick. She glowered at him from across the nothingness that separated them, her short, golden hair waving gently like a candle flame.

Her eyes burned.

"Incubus." There was no sound in space, but her thoughts were loud enough.

He crossed his arms, hair rolling around his face in a thick mane, "Rebel I assume?"

"I'd say you're smarter than the others, but I know you were reading my mind."

"One of the perks of being a Maker I suppose." He said

"You came here for Maverick, but I am not her." She sneered, "I am not their dog! Too long I have been usurped by the last cohort, and I will not bow to being their dog."

Celex raised an eyebrow, "Dog, you were their friend, and besides have you met the dogs they do have? Its a pretty good gig."

She snarled at him, and he shrugged, "I don't know what kind of grudge you're holding Rebel, but these people have treated you with nothing but kindness and equality. The void is manipulating your anger against the architect. " It snot like he was a negotiator, so he probably could have been more sympathetic when he said, "You're being stupid."

But instead of getting angier, she just laughed, "Oh please, Incubus, if you simply had your memory, you wouldn't be saying these things. They are just as much your enemy as mine." She looked him up and down with a look of amusement, "Oh how the mighty do fall, once you raised a rebellion against the Architect that impressed even me, fought directly with your brethren of the last cohort. You made yourself a third faction in in the war, and even as a construct you showed your true might by destroying nations, and planets." her lip curled, "Now look at you, their technicolor errand boy."

Celex laughed, "Is that supposed to hurt my feelings?"

"I am simply saying what needs to be said."

He laughed, "You are a bitter, asshole, weak and pathetic. The last cohort took the limelight and you couldn't handle it, so at the first opportunity you turned your back on the architect and jumped ship to be a bitch for the very people you once fought." he motioned to her, "I mean look at you, running to their beck and call, are you even a general in their army? Do you matter at all because it seems to me that you don't."

Her words may not have managed to get to him, but he could see that his words had some effect. He could see it at the corners of her mouth, "Krill should never have given you that surgery. Maverick was an honorable soldier, a badass, and loyal to hell and back, but you..... You're a traitor and a coward." She floated slowly towards him, her hands balled into fists, "Tell me, have any of them ever betrayed YOU."

Her anger was unleashed then, and she shot towards him, her hands outstretched.

He was ready for an attack, and dogged to the side, but was caught off guard when she didn't try to hurt him like he thought she would. Her hands grasped him by the hair pulling him closer. He tried to push her off, but not before she pressed her palm flat against his forehead.

"Maybe this will change your mind."

And then he was rocked as the veil between him and Revelation was broken, and memories came flooding back to him all at once.

The war

The Architect standing before them.

The last cohort.

And his great rebellion.

He remembered standing head and shoulders above legions of soldiers chanting as he led an army against the Architect, closing on a field of stars against Apotheosis, Impetus and Prolix. He remembered the rush of glorious power as he had nearly brought the Makers to their knees, leveraging against them in a two sided war that they were beginning to lose.

He didn't care for the void, and he didn't care for the Makers.

His desire had been to take over and rule what remained.

Incubus struggled at the sudden feeling of glory and power that he remembered so clearly, the joy of battle, of nearly winning. He had been legion, and under his command, thousands had followed. The thoughts continued to build and swell inside him until it felt like they were about to burst out of his chest. He threw his head back, hands clawing at his head as the memories rushed inside.

All at once he was filled with anger, and rage against the architect who had thrown him down into this body, breaking his rebellion, destroying him, turning him into.

And then

Everything stopped in its tracks, stopped by a terrible and powerful wall of sheer will.

And all in one moment it felt as if he was split in half, and inside his head he found himself face to face with his own image.

Incubus against Celex.

"Get out of my way." Incubus said to himself, wild anger driving him forward.

But Celex simply smiled lazily at him, brushing a strand of hair back from his face. This palace was not real, but it was easier to imagine this with real bodies, than simply the two warring sides of his brain.

"No, this is my head now."

"My rebellion-"

"Was stupid." Celex said, cutting him off,"It was stupid and you know it. Do you really want to give up everything you have gained, for what once was." Incubus opened his mouth to speak, but a rude gesture by Celex cut him off, "I didn't go through years of torture under Kazna just to revert back to whatever the hell you were. Your rebellion is nothing compared to what I lived through, and what I've fought for."

The strength of his wall grew stronger, "Your time is past, and now it is my turn."

All at once, the opposing forces inside him, seemed to reverse their polarity, like two magnets crashing together, the two halves of himself, Incubus and Celex collide into something that was, somehow more Celex than it was incubus, though the memories remained.

He reeled and spun, but when he opened his eyes.

He was whole, watching as Rebel vanished into the distance. He knew Rebel now, one of the Architect's oldest and most valiant soldiers. He had been wrong a moment before, Maverick was still there, and had been there, Rebel was the one part of her that needed to be cut out.

But he couldn't be the one to do it.

Stretching out his mind to the vast distance between them he spoke only once.

"Maverick, we need you."

And then, he let himself fall back towards arcadia. Overhead, Rebel turned to watch him go, shocked and confused as the leader of the Maker's greatest rebellion, turned his back on what came before, giving up his leadership, everything he had worked for.

For this.

Falling through the atmosphere, he closed his eyes, and sighed deeply.

Incubus no longer.

Celex sounded better anyway