"I think we all have a few questions that need answering."

They all sat in a circle surrounding Lord Celex sitting in the middle. Over the past few months his human face had become something of a norm, older but well aged, framed by a well maintained halo of technicolored hair and a neatly trimmed short beard. Sometimes Adam found it hard to reconcile that with the fuzzy little ball of fur he had once held peace talks with. Had he known then what ht knew now, maybe he wouldn't have found the fuzzy little creatures so amusing.

WHen they had first met the celex, the fluffy little aliens had been no more than a joke, and celex himself hadn't exactly put the fear of god into anyone. To a human he was nothing more than a plush toy with a brain, but the more Adam was learning about celex, the more questionable things seemed to be.

"I don't remember it if that's what you are asking." he said, crossing his arms over his chest." In this form, the deeply tanned skin of his forearms were lined with muscle and the occasional wiery vein. When he blinked his very inhuman eyes glittered. At this moment it wasn't hard to remember what the man was currently capable of.

All around them, the others shifted nervously, all except for Sunny who had nerves of steel. She stood just to Adam's side, feet planted and both sets of arms crossed over her chest. WIth his ability now to telepathically connect with others, Adam knew that there was some measure of resentment in Sunny, for what pregnancy did to her. She prided herself on her aggression and warlike nature, and was struggling not to overcompensate for its temporary loss, though no one else was likely to notice. On his other side, Krill floated in a similar posture simply to used to stupid and strange revelations to care.

On his other side Maverick looked almost relieved.

It seemed as if she wasn't the only one with a sordid Maker past.

Adam, Ramriez, Nairobi and Katie found this all to be a little bit more questionable.

"How do you not remember, you're a maker again.

Celex shrugged, "I haven't been to revelation yet."

They waited for a better answer.

He rubbed his beard thoughtfully for a moment, "I have this feeling that, if I got there I will remember everything."

"Than why haven't you gone/" Nairobi asked, hands resting on the hips of her grease stained jumpsuit.

Celex paused staring down at his hands for a long moment before looking up, "Would you if you were me?" There was a long silence, "We don't know how any of this works. We don't know if we will be punished for our actions, perhaps we will, and if that is the case perhaps I am afraid to go back because I don't know what is waiting for me." It was a strange moment to see the man admit to being afraid of anything. In life he never would have done so, but his experience with Kazna and Kelly had really changed him. It seemed to be for the better, but sometimes, that was hard to tell, "And then if what kazna said is true, I have not always been an ally of yours or even of the maker. It seems I have consistently made the wrong moral decision for most of my life and undeath." His voice was thoughtful but not necessarily regretful. In any other situation he was not usually a man to shy away from the things he's done."

"Remind me again what exactly it is he did?" Nairobi asked

"Supposedly he-"

" started a secondary rebellion against the architect in order to claim his throne."

There was silence around the room until Ramirez popped upm "You got some big brass ones on you."

Celex gave a grim smile, "Not only that but I did blow up a planet during my lifetime.... I can't imagine that that is particularly laudable by maker standards."

Adam tapped his foot against the floor, "Why don't you fill me in on that, its not exactly a story we have heard before."

Celex sighed hesitating momentarily before finally choosing to speak.

"I was a young emperor then, fresh and hungry. No more than one of your human years before I had single handedly defeated the then Emperor in open combat. It wasn't difficult, he was a weak ruler and not much more of a fighter in his old age. During his reign he had allowed things to get out of hand, and a rebellion had sprung up on one of the outer moons. As emperor it was my first order of business to chase this rebellion down and snuff it out at the source." he ran a hand through his hair expression distant and thoughtful, "With the right pressure applied in the right places, It didn't take me long to find them."

****

Several Decades Ago

The emperor sat in the highest spot on the tallest seat on the largest ship, as was his want, and with him were surrounded by his bravest officers, the men and women that were most likely to kill him. He could see it in their hungry eyes held back from their desires by only his reputation and the honor guard that surrounded him. In order to avoid a conflict of interest, the honor guard of a Celex emperor could never claim the throne for themselves. They were given the second highest ranking of honor in the kingdom, and so wanted for nothing, with the only caveat that their rule as emperor would env3er be legitimate, which kept them from turning on him outright. Still he didn't trust them as far as he could throw them.

Overhead the communication module crackled, startling many of the celex in the room. It even distrubed a contingent of Celex's children who appeared briefly from their hiding spots, only to vanish away again as some of the female officers looked on hungrily.

Celex had no idea how many children he had. Never in the history of an emperor had anyone ever kept count. He had a couple hundred concubines and multiple wives, and each one of them was capable of birthing nearly a hundred children in one go, so keeping track of them would simply be pointless. Celex children weren't named until they could survive to adolescence, and by then the rest of them had either been eaten, squished or otherwise incapacitated. It was not uncommon for the ship sweeper to clean tiny Celex bodies from the ducts and vents where they had expired.

Looking down from his throne he was surprised to find there was one who had not followed the others into hiding.

It sat at his feet, appearing from somewhere Celex couldn't tell. The tiny ball of fluff had very mean eyes, and glowered at Celex without a hint of fear. Celex foud such an act of defiance rather amusing. Anyone else might have eaten the thing on principle, but he had never been into eating his own children.

Reminded him too much of his mother.

So he let the small one stay, where it culled up next to one of his feet, dancing valiantly with death. He saw some of the guards side eyeing him, and vowed to kill them later for their insolence.

Overhead the monitor cracked again, and he was more than surprised to find a familiar face on the scree.

Below him the glow from the moon filtered in through the front view screen.".

"Dear husband." Said his first wife.

Celex's eyes narrowed, "You."

"Who else?"

Lady Minex was an evil bitch who liked nothing more than to eat her own children and plot behind the backs of others. He was not surprised to find her here, though he couldn't help the hint of betrayal from sneaking in. Their love had been hard and fast and jealous fighting had not been uncommon, but that's what made things interesting.

"Coward enough to plot behind my back instead of to my face. That seems true to type." he snapped.

At his feet, the small one inched behind him with a familiarity that was all too knowing. .

It seemed one of her young had survived after all.

Now that was a surprise

She scoffed, "unlike you I do not solve my problems with brute force. Intelligence and guile is where politics truly lie, and I have found myself the perfect conduit to do so."

"Funny seeing as I have found yourstupid little moon."

."And do what. You would kill your first wife?" She was partially right, that would be in bad form of him, but then again it was also bad form of her to stab him in the back like that. It had also been bad form for her to eat most of his children. It was at this moment that he was beginning to realize he had married his mother.

"Don'[t suppose we could talk this through. You could come back and we could..... Work thinks through." that meaning they could yell at and hit each other for a bit before being overtaken by passion.

That was how it usually worked wasn't it?

She sneered at him.

And in her expression he saw something.... Strange.

Something lacking.

Usually when they argued and fought there was still some hint of admiration in both of them, for the other's prowess or otherwise.

That was just how it worked but..

This.

Thai was odd.

He didn't see the old love they had once had. It was.... Completely absent.

"No, not anymore Celex. I have.... Found better prospects." He felt his fur rise up on the back of his body as he watched the camera. She stepped back and as she did he saw the other.... A large celex, quite tall with a veritable rainbow of fur in bright colors that made celex feel rather dim.

He wasn't used to feeling dim.

Lady Minex cuddled up to her new lover, who looked out at celex with stupid piggish eyes

"I have all my needs fulfilled right here."

There was a muttering around the room. Celex felt his ears flush with anger and embarrassment. This was no mere fight, this was a complete insult to his prowess and station. This was.... This was the worst thing she could have done.

How dare she!

She cackled when she saw the look on his face.

"What, don't like being made a cuckold. Not much of an emperor are you if you can't keep hold of your first wife. And." She cuddled up to the other Celex, once I am done here, I will take over the next planet over, and then the one after that." She examined her fur, picking a bit of lint out of t, "I don't want you dead Celex, just humiliated."

And

She was right.

He was humiliated. He could see the others laughing at him now. And he was.

Incredibly.

Hurt.

It would have been suicide to have admitted that to anyone but. He really thought they had had something, both of them of the same sort of mind. Why would she do this? What had gone wrong he.... Well he had actually loved her.

And that only made the bitterness that much more bitter.

He could feel the shift in the room around him as this one act of rebellion changed everything.

Anyone else and it wouldn't have mattered, but his first wife.

It was unspeakable.

She had gone and embarrassed him in the worst way she knew how,and now..... Well the kingdom would fall apart. The reason they had managed to keep the celex empire strong for so long is that there had only ever been one ruler, and now she was going to split them into war. Millions would die instead of the mere hundreds in challenges to the emperor's power. The system would devolve into chaos, their economy would collapse.

It would create a power vacuum.

"You stupid bitch." he snarled, "Do you realize what you are about to do."

"You mean what I have already done."

The empire would collapse and he would be the emperor under which it would collapse.

At the time, he could see no other choice. He tried to tell himself that there was no other choice, that he did what he did out of necessity, but he knew that was mostly a lie as soon as he pulled the trigger. She believed that being his first wife would save her from condemnation, that he wouldn't dare break their oath, and maybe he wouldn't have if she hadn't found a second.

Celex would always have said that it was for the good of the kingdom.

And not out of jealousy.

It was a lie.

But that moment of anger, and his access to powerful weapons in that moment were about to make him the most infamous emperor the empire had ever known, with the death of his first wife, her rebellion moon, and her bastard lover. Flames danced in his eyes as the surface of the planet cracked and burned and then began to crumble inwards.

And that was how Avex watched his mother die, and how the whole planetary system finally bent a knee.

****

"You did this all..... Because your wife cheated on you."

Celex shrugged, "The social politics is complicated. But to have your first wife cheat on you is the issue, and then to announce it publicly is even worse. She made a mockery of me."

"So then you nuked a planet?" Adam wondered glancing over at Sunny.

"It was a heat of the moment decision." He hedged.

Ramirez rubbed his temples, "Okay, remind me not to piss you off."

"You only have to worry about that if you marry me first."

"No danger of that." Maverick muttered.

Adam took a deep breath, "Okay.... thats .... Nnnnn. Going to take me a moment to process.'

Celex sighed.

It was Krill that finally brought up the last point, "Is that why you won't go back to revelation because you are worried what might happen when you meet your first wife."

There was silence around the room.

Celex grimaced, "Mostly its the architect I'm worried about, but..... She has crossed my mind on occasion....."

Personally, Adam could understand his hesitance. He wouldn't want to meet the woman after that incident either.