They stood in the quiet, sworn enemies now turned greatest allies. The architect's teacher's pet, and his problem children standing in one room. It occurred to Adam all at once that, perhaps the maker had been right to hide new Anima in construct boies. If he hadn't Celex might still be up to his old behavior instead of standing here with them. Beside him Celex must have heard the thought, turning his inhuman eyes over to look at Adam. In this shape the two of them were roughly the same height, and their eyes locked. Adam tried to dredge up the old maker memories, tried to find whatever feeling of annoyance or, maybe even hatred, that he might once have felt towards this man, but there was nothing there other than a kindred feeling of friendship the two of them had built up over many years.

Perhaps he shouldn't like Celex as much as he did, the man was a mass murderer along the lines of Darth Vader and worse because he was actually real. After all, he had blown up a planet Death Star style just to get rid of his cheating wife.... Which was distinctly un Darth-vader of him. By all rights he certainly shouldn't be friends with him.

He could certainly rationalize the decision.

Celex's actions had been purely cultural. Maybe as a human he wouldn't have blown up an entire planet, but as a Celzex, blowing up planets was certainly within the realm of possibility, and as far as Adam understood their culture, the Celex had only ever looked up to him for it. He was the greatest emperor their people had ever seen.

So he would ignore it for now and leave any moral dilemma for when they eventually met the architect.

Celex gave him a wry smile.

Adam chuckled

Celex was not ready to meet his maker yet, pun intended.

To their surprise, it was MItzen who broke the silence, his voice small in the vast room, his mind appearing even smaller as the world collapsed around him, "You... everything I knew.... It's a lie/'

They all turned to look at him, quiet and unsure as they stared back and forth between each other.

How to phrase this.

Sunny stepped forward first spear held gently in one hand as she looked down at mitzen, small, dwarfed against her natural height, "The world, this universe is not how it once seemed. All of us held inaccuracies to some degree, and the truth of the Makers and the forever war is..... The most tangible." Mitzen sunk lower, but Sunny held up a hand, "However, just because you have learned something new, does not make your past or what you believed pointless or a waste of time."

She waved her spear in a grand gesture about the room, though her eyes were fixed on mitzen, "Our beliefs shape us, make us who we are. It may be difficult to accept that the world you know is different than you once believed, but your past isn't a waste, your beliefs are not unimportant."

Adam was a bit surprised at Sunny's Sudden show of compassion towards Mitzen.

Not that she wasn't a compassionate person, she was, just not generally in a verbal sort of way.

Not that he minded of course.

Mitzen looked up at her, and though her words helped, Adam doubted that he would recover quickly.

Before the quiet could become too pronounced, the maker stepped forward, still keeping a wary eye trained on Celex and Conn, who now hovered at the back of their group like some sort of ghoulish wraith.

"Perhaps you teaming up is all well and good, but I do not intend to let my archive fall, like the polaris archive fell, and if you are here that means the void is not far behind."

"A riveting deduction, maker, and when I say rivitening, I mean completely useless."

The voice came from the shadows, echoing up and down the walls, and clinging to the very air around them like tar. It oozed and bubbled slowly, and languidly as it made its echoing pass around the room, before terminating back at the shadows once again. In response to the voice, their group turned violently towards the noise raising their weapons. Sunny's spear was in her hand fastest, followed shortly by the rest of them, as spears and guns were drawn in equal measure and pointed towards the shadows from which the sound emanated.

Adam stopped quickly in front of mitzen urging the confused alien back towards the maker.

Red light seemed to darken, as the shadows around the room sharpened, grew darker.

At least so it seemed.

The voice chuckled, and the shadows around them writhed like they were filled with squirming snakes.

Sunny sneered, "Spare us the theatrics mother nobody is impressed."

The shadows continued to churn angrily, but the laughter stopped as kazna appeared from the shadows ripping herself from the blackness like a creature ripping its way into existence. She didn't simply coalesce or pass through the darkness, but ripped herself away from it like a stick figure tearing itself from the page.

When she stepped into the dim red light, her body continued to writhe with shadows.

Dark black armor covered most of her body, massive and imposing, and if Adam were to guess he might have said the whole set weighed more than a hundred pounds if not more, while her cloak swirled confused and indistinct behind her back. The spear she held was less of a spear and more of a small trident, with three separate points all barbed for maximum damage. As she stood the shadows around her pulsed.

She was barely distinguishable from the shadows even now,

Except for her eyes, glowing cool and golden from the shadowed heart of her visor.

Adam sneered at the eyes, Sunny's eyes.

This woman didn't deserve to have them.

He crossed his arms hard over his chest, "Ah Kazna, you are significantly less boiled than I would have hoped.

Adam watched as her golden eyes narrowed, "So sorry to disappoint you admiral."

"Me too." He said flatly.

At his side Celex had gone quite tense, his shoulders locking up like a steel trap waiting to be sprung, his lips pursed into a tight line. A ball of golden energy began to glow at his fist,adding to the dim red glow of the room.

"Did you come alone? If you did that seems like a rash decision even for you." Adam said shifting slowly to the side while Sunny did the same in the other direction.

Kazna did not move, "If you are allowed to bring allies, then so am I."

Both Adam and sunny paused, staring into the darkness behind her where other shapes were beginning to take shape in the darkness behind her.

Familiar shapes.

Captain Everette stepped up to her side. No longer did he lavor under false pretenses, and his body was swathed in a tight black uniform pulsing through with lines of orange void energy.

The energy derived from Anima souls.

Adam sneered.

And ten another shape appeared from behind her, and it was to Adam's shock that he recognized the face. He even heard Krill gasp in alarm, as the figure tore himself from the darkness and into the light.

"Dr. Kedd." Krill breathed

The mad gibb scientist chittered in dark amusement, "This moment was a very long time in common Dr. but I do have to say my patience has finally paid off... he paused, dramatically for a long moment before, "I told you so." he crowed in absolute triumph continued to chitter in amusement, "I told you there was something behind their eyes, now of course maybe I was wrong about some things. That it wasn't just humans, but I had the truth, bits and pieces of it, more than anyone before me ever had!"

Behind his back Adam was amused to find Krill....

Was not impressed.

He sneered through the glass on his enclosure, "What do you want, a medal?" Krill waved his hands dramatically feigning excitement, "Oh no Dr. Kedd was right all along , the soul really does exist, let's kneel at his feet and bow." WIth every new word, krill's voice dripped with absolute disdain and sarcasm, which worked handily at wiping the look of triumph from the Gibb's face.

Ramirez barked a laugh that only made the Gibb angrier. He leaned forward in rage and kazna held out a hand to stop him, "Control your anger, besides" She set the butt of her spear against the ground cloak of shadows fluttering at her back, "Do not stoop to their petty witticisms." She motioned a hand towards Dr. kedd, "You should be honored."

"I've been moree honored while sitting on the john in a public bathroom." maverick muttered

Kazna's head snapped up, "Keep your pathetic mouth shut betrayer. Even I know you are the last of your friends." Ramirez bristled and maverick went silent, her expression unreadable behind her helmet. Kazna straightened her composure, "As I was saying, "you all should be honored , Dr, kedd is a real credit to our operation." Beside her Dr. kedd simpered with pride, "After all he was the one who first developed the technique required to extract energy from an anima, the one discovery that will power our way to victory."

The hackles on the back of Adam's neck rose as he stared at the little doctor.

The mad scientist.

Behind him krill simmered with rage.

Adam didn't blame him,

"What now then, mother," Sunny began, "You know where this ends. You try to either talk us into joining you, or you try to kill us and harvest our souls. We all know that the first one isn't an option so we can just go ahead and skip it. I know for a fact we fight better than you, your dog, and your pathetic scientist, so we know where that fight ends, so you may as well let us skip to the part where we win."

A cool grin washed over kazna's face "Oh, I am not here for that."

Sunny's eyes narrowed, "Than what ARE you here for."

"To rid this world of an abomination of course."

Then she drew her hand back and launched her spear without warning.

Straight toward Sunny's open torso.