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"Goddamnit, Cosmos, if you won't put me out of my misery, I will take this universe with me!"
-The Credo of the Devourer, chapter 1: Fuck you too.

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The Emperor stood, stunned, as he took in the Enormity that was Cosmos, a being of infinite compassion.

Chaos snorted in disgust. Typical human. A pity, he'd hoped for more from him.
He took in the warning glance that the man gave him. Shrugged. "Oh. Yeah. Her." The distaste with which he mentioned her was so thick you could have spread it on bread and made sandwiches. "We sort of have an off and on relationship. I hate her, she tries to redeem me, this is how we troll."

He turned to her, that bitch, "What do you want, Serenity?" he hissed, furious beyond logic. "Here to goddamn troll me again? Oh. No. Wait. Perhaps you want to free the universe from my influence." his voice was dry, his eyes sardonically glaring at her. It was nice to be considered a hero, for once.

Nice enough that he'd miss it. But not nice enough to stop him from lashing out at her.

"No," She said walking past him, pure white cloak trailing behind her. She passed him, "I've come to see what I have lost." She had eyes only for the Emperor. Lambent with inner power, shaded with sadness.

What right did she have to act like that? What right did she have to say such things?

But she had been that man's child and if mother had lived...

He hurt. Again, he hurt, hand reaching up to grasp fiercely at his shirt.
It hurt.

He hated her for this. Because it hurt. Because she was gone.

"...I'll leave you two alone, Terra's in the other room." he said bluntly, turning his back on her. It was family. That was important.
...Warp, he sounded like a fool. An utter fool and he shouldn't. but...
She would have done it. He missed her so.

"He's not my family anymore, Chaos." She rested her hand lightly upon the Emperor's golden armor, each pearl on her fingers lumious with potential, stars and worlds. "You know that."

"You loved him once." Chaos says, flatly. "I'm not going to rob you of it." He left the room.

***
"He does not love me. He does not know me. You robbed me of that." Cosmos sighed. "My life was perhaps better, much better. But have you ever known me to trade my well being for the suffering of others?"

"I took what chances I could. Did what I thought I had to do." he smiles, feral, sharklike. "I have a daughter now." There was a bleak, perverse pride in his voice as he mentioned Beryl. Little Beryl, as broken as he was, but healing nicely. "I have to look out for her wellbeing."

"I am glad for you. I wish you did not have to suffer." She closed her eyes, moon glow gone, pain in the corners.

"I will suffer either way, foolish girl. Why did you not simply leave me to rest?" he snarled, turning on her, enraged enough to want to level a planet.

Except not here. Not where his daughter and her spouse and his family might see, and be... disappointed in him.

"We will fight. There will be a war and everyone will die, and then we will fight again, for the begining of all things."

"My function is not my choice. Your blindness is yours. You will be reborn again and again, unless I choose to damn creation into oblivion. We are all reborn. Your mother too." Cosmos seemed to be trying to placate him. He was in no mood for it, for her lies, her foolish spiels, her attempt at redemption.

He didn't want redemption. He wanted the universe to burn. He wanted it to scream as he screamed, silently, inside.

"...She was not there when I looked for her." the words are hissed out, cold, venomous. "I cannot find her."

"Across a hundred million galaxies, a hundred billion stars, and two dimensions." Cosmos, Serenity had the nerve to look at him with such pity in her eyes that it made him sick. "You never asked for help."
After a moment, she asked, "...have you stopped looking?"

"Help? From you, my enemy? What kind of fool do you think me to be? Always, we come into existence. Always we fight. This is the way of creation and I am heartily sick of it. Say your piece, Cosmos, and leave. I have fledgelings to look after." Mother would have approved.
He hasn't stopped. He misses her still.
Fuck you Cosmos, you galactic bitch. Fuck you and your resurrections. Fuck you and your messing with my work. Fuck you for not letting me rest.

"Your mother would have wanted to meet her grandchildren. You know I do not desire to fight you, Chaos." There she went again. He wanted to wrap his long fingers around that throat and squeeze until there was nothing left. Not breath, nor pity, nor pain.

An End. He would have an End to this.

"You can desire or not desire and it is all the same to me. For countless existences, you have trolled me, like the perpetual knife in the back. I trust you not. I like you not. I despise you. We are clear? Now stay the hells away from my kids, you bitch."
Perhaps he is harsh. But she is gone and this is all he has left. and Cosmos has no right to use her. No right at all.
He will kill her for this, or fall into nonexistence trying.

"I know you mean well, I know you are fufilling your purpose. I am truly sorry." Cosmos sounds... sad. She has no right to be. No right at all.

Warp damn her.

"As my daughter would have said. You can take your sanctimonious crap and shove it, up your ass, sideways, with no lube." he hissed, turning on her once more. "I will find her yet, or burn the galaxies down, trying." Viciously, he resisted the urge to shove her out a window. His kids wouldn't like it.

"And I don't need your goddamn help." he said, flatly. His final word on it.

Or it would've been, if she hadn't been able to take a goddamn hint and just leave the conversation. Bitch. Bitch. "You will."

He smiles, bleakly, terribly. "Oh, I won't."
"That cauldron will fall. Your kingdom too. I will have my revenge."
"But revenge can wait. I can wait. The boy my daughter chose is mortal, as is she. I can wait. Even until her grandchildren die, I can wait."

"I'm glad that you love. Goodbye Chaos, fight for the incarnations of those you love, I will defend their reincarnations." He snarled at her presumption even as she faded, all sparkles and white clouds.

"Bullshit."

{oOo}

The being that called itself the Emperor of Mankind had listened silently, analysing what he been said and what had not. There had been a possibility he would have known the woman? She would have been a powerful ally; he could see that. In a way, he resented being robbed of such power, of an equal.

The woman, he could at least understand. Compassion was something distant to him, but caring for something was not. Humanity must prevail: he had sacrificed all for it. He was born to shield and protect, to guide it to the stars and beyond.

The creature on the other hand, seemed to be focused on one person. Sentimental. Foolish.

What was one life compared to thousands? What were thousands compared to millions? Sacrifices were neccessary and all can be sacrificed. There was one goal and that goal must be achieved.

A new player in the game only meant more threads to followed and more intricate plans.

Sacrifce. Kill and destroy until humanity is at it's peak.

{oOo}

The being that called itself Chaos had an opposite agenda, a completely differing state of view. What were the teeming masses of mankind, of alien species to it, if not just another obstacle?

What were they?

They were nothing. Empty, Meaningless, wastes of flesh. They lived from day to day and were useless to it, helping it in its task without even impacting on its consciousness. Tools, like a moving wrench or screwdriver. Consuming and polluting and leaving waste, hastening its inevitable victory in their own ways.

Other than those few beings Chaos cared for, all was Dust. All was Ash. It was Ruin. It was the inevitable heat death of the Universe. It would be there at the end of all things, screaming in the dark, and no one would hear it.

Except Cosmos. And even then, that one was a being Chaos did not understand in the slightest. Often, it felt as if She existed only to thwart it in its duty. Often, it felt like throttling her for her foolish desire to keep bringing life back.

Why persist in bringing it back? It wanted to rest. It hurt. Humanity hurt. Human emotions hurt.

And that was why it valued only those few people.

Because they were shelter.

For a short, happy time, it had been... not alone. It had been one who was valued.

It wanted that again. Wanted it enough to doom everything else for just those things it desired.

After all, all will end anyway, why not?

The Emperor seized the being with an expression of infinite contempt. Chaos. Neither the Warp entities, nor this pathetic creature understood the concept. He supposed he couldn't blame them: the Ruinous Powers were embodiments of emotions and therefore limited. This being was far too focused on itself to truly grasp what chaos represented.

"You only care about your little Beryl?" he said, snorting. "Everybody else can die?"

The being understood nothing. It could care all it wanted about the girl, but it would never keep her happy.

"Oh, I know, you won't kill anybody she likes, won't you? But she will have children and she will want them to live and be happy after she dies. Will you against those wishes? Will you defile her memory like that?"

He paused. "And she does not want some people to be sad, does she not? Their happiness, however, is related to the happiness and safety of other people. Do you see the pattern now? How many people do you need to save over and over again, just to keep your precious little daughter happy?"

The contempt radiated from him almost like the glow that surrounded him.
"Do you think about your actions? Do you consider the consequences? Or are they merely short-time fixes? Soon enough you will accidently cause something that in the end will make her unhappy. And then what?"

He raised his power claw, a tip of one of the talons under the beings chin. "Do you know that order is born from chaos? Sooner or later a pattern will always emerge."

Ancient eyes regarded the creature. The Emperor saw merely a child, playing with powers it did not understand, lashing out at laws that bound it. It lacked understanding, it lacked a higher purpose.

"Each of your actions causes a reaction. Can you predict them?"

{oOo}