Rosa saw Cecil and Kain return to Sanctuary with a different energy than when they left. Kain's dark purple aura pulsed vehemently, and his rage was nearly tangible. It swirled and festered to where she could see it from across Sanctuary. Cecil's looked subdued, like he was so deep in thought contemplating something that he wouldn't be roused for anything. They weren't speaking to each other and to her it looked like they had an argument.
Out of curiosity, Rosa stood and walked over to them to greet them. She forced a smile even though she knew something was terribly wrong between them. "Welcome back!"
"Rosa," Cecil said dully, nodding his head to her in acknowledgment. He, at least, stopped in front of her. Kain kept walking past her.
"Where did you go?" she asked. "Cosmos wanted you both here with Warrior to plan our attack on the Emperor but you both left so quickly."
Kain snorted and threw his lance down into the pool. It clanged off the crystal and splashed water a foot into the air. "Ask Cecil," he said, pointing towards him.
Cecil frowned and rolled his eyes, turning his sour gaze away from Kain. He kept his eyes on the water.
"What? What happened?"
"Nothing," Cecil muttered.
Rosa blinked, flicking her gaze between the two of them despite the fact that neither would see her do it. There was something wrong with them, and she knew there was something wrong since before they left. When they reacted so negatively to Cosmos' order-
"This is about the Emperor, isn't it?"
Cecil winced as though he was in pain, but still refused to look up at her. Kain didn't answer either. He was working on his gauntlets, pulling at the clasps and tearing them off his arms.
"You two went after him, didn't you?"
After an eternity, Cecil sighed and lifted his gaze to meet hers. She saw the unspoken, half-ashamed 'yes' there in his still exhausted eyes.
Rosa wasn't immediately sure how to react. Her first reaction was mild anger. Not because they disobeyed Cosmos - she could understand. She remembered sneaking onto the Lunar Whale to accompany Cecil in saving the world. Cecil must have thought it important or he wouldn't have defied her. Kain would have done it for her sake as well. Her anger stemmed from them putting themselves in danger so recklessly when the reason Cosmos forbade them was to make a plan, to avoid putting themselves in danger. Her second reaction was relief that they survived the attack and seemed unharmed. Her third and final reaction was . . . apathy. She could say with cold certainty that she would not miss the Emperor, and his demise left no remorse whatsoever. At least the Emperor was a danger she no longer had to calculate for.
"Well . . . I can't say I'm angry about what you did - or your reason for doing it. I should probably thank you for taking care of him for me-"
Kain shook his head, slamming his gauntlets to the ground too. "We didn't."
His venom towards her made her instantly defensive. "I don't know what that means, Kain. And whatever you're mad about, I can assure you it has little to do with me. Direct your anger elsewhere-"
"Ask Cecil what it means," he said again, rolling through her deflection.
"What is he talking about?" she huffed, turning to Cecil.
"We discussed attacking the Emperor before we left, Kain and I," Cecil said. "But I ultimately decided against it."
"Oh," she said, unsure of what else to say. "Why?"
"Well . . . because I realized we were already planning his demise with Cosmos. I was only trying to keep him away from you in the meantime. Not to mention I have a moral compass that I adhere to." He looked at Kain when he said the last line. When Kain lifted his head and caught Cecil's eye he sneered and turned his back to them, working on the clasps of his chestplate. Cecil turned his gaze back to Rosa and his eyebrows were pulled together in concern, as though he was about to implore her to understand. Like he was about to plead his case before a judge. "I'm sorry-"
Rosa stopped him before he could. "It's alright! I know how important it is to you to do the right thing. I admire that you adhere to it even when it could be a detriment."
"You always take his side, don't you?" Kain said. "Don't you see that we had an opportunity to end him, and you didn't take it? He let him go, Rosa! Don't you want him gone?"
"Of course I do, but he's right! I didn't ask you to do it in this way! Not when Warrior, Cosmos, and Firion are actually planning the exact same thing, which would give all of us an edge. Of course I want him gone, but I'll not get angry over you both essentially doing us a favor on your own that went awry!" Rosa took a deep breath to calm herself down. She was far from angry, but she didn't want to fuel either of their fire by reacting poorly. "When we decide on a course of action - all of us - then all bets are off." She slashed her hand through the air to emphasize her point. "No holds should be barred against him. We will deliver his retribution without question then. That was always the plan."
"Be sure to keep Cecil away, lest he spare him again."
Cecil's defeated expression darkened to anger, and his shoulders tensed. "Have care how you speak of my graces, Kain. My willingness to forgive should not be something you question."
"Cecil, stop!" Rosa said. "That's not fair." She was surprised Cecil would stoop so low as to bring it up to Kain, but she supposed they were angry with each other and saying things they both didn't mean.
He paused. "You're right. I'm sorry, Kain."
He shook his head, and Rosa wasn't sure if he was accepting the apology or blowing it off. "I did it for you, Rosa, awry or not."
He gathered up the pieces of his armor and stormed away before anyone could say anything more.
The Emperor returned to his throne, and found himself caught somewhere between total apathy and absolute rage.
Ironically enough, the more he thought about Rosa the less he cared. When he told Cecil that he was done with her, he told the truth. He didn't want to waste any more of his time and energy worrying over her. The more he thought about how Ultimecia, however, the more angry he became. She had looked him in the eye and she had lied to him, telling him Rosa was dead. It could only have been to further her own anti-Imperial objectives. To usurp him and commandeer his goal of lording over the cycles. If he thought Rosa dead, he would let his guard down, and she would be able to make moves against him. She was probably orchestrating another meeting between him and Rosa. She probably wanted another confrontation, where she could watch once again from the sidelines while Rosa humiliated and destroyed him. She wanted Rosa to be the one to do it so she could smirk and jeer and laugh the entire time. The thought of her superior attitude burned his heart in his chest. She had no other reason to think she was better than him than if Rosa was alive.
Of course she lied, he thought. Of course she told him she succeeded when she had not. He need only think about what he had offered her and what it meant to her to rationalize it.
Time Compression and dominion over the world had been her goal since her very first arrival, just like dominion had been his goal since his arrival. And like him, she was looking for a way to inconspicuously dispatch Chaos so she could have the freedom to accomplish it. The Emperor had presented her with a tantalizing offer: he would do all the dirty work and the heavy lifting. He would destroy Chaos for her, remove Cosmos and all the opposition in her way. And in return she could have a portion of his dominion to do with as she pleased.
And yet, she lied. He drew blood from his palms before he realized he was clenching his fists so hard his claws were cutting into the flesh. He wanted to confront her. To catch her off-guard, and attack her so severely that she'd never think to cross him ever again. Better yet, destroy her completely. Make the pre-emptive strike that would wipe her from the face of the cycle. He very nearly took a detour to her tower to see if he could find her, but more rational thought rallied his senses, and he quickly abandoned the thought. Harming Ultimecia was dangerous if Chaos found out, and it brought him no gain whatsoever except for petty revenge. In his experience this cycle, petty revenge was not something he could easily deliver. He would not approach her.
Besides, he sighed, it was time for other focuses. As he told Cecil, he had far larger problems to occupy himself with. Ultimecia only hurt herself by lying. By not holding up her end of the bargain, he now had a reason to not deliver on his end. If she suspected that all was well with him and he was none the wiser, she had no reason to suspect that he'd be holding out on her-
With a jolt, the Emperor interrupted that string of thought. He forgot for just a moment that he was never actually going to deliver on his promise in the first place. It drew a small laugh out of him that echoed in the Lanes Between. He truly had lost his way in this cycle - that was the proof. Believing his own lie for a moment.
No, he would leave her alone. And, he thought, she'd leave him alone in return. She'd no doubt fear if he found out and would avoid him like a plague. She was officially an item he could scratch off of his list.
The encounter with Cecil and Kain had him concerned with other things, primarily the pacing of his goals. For the first time in a long time, he felt as though his scheming was amounting to naught. For cycles and cycles he had been planning and manipulating, moving pieces across the board and into place for the one strike that would set it all into motion. He inevitably ended up side-tracked. By other warriors, by Chaos, Garland, or by holes found in his strategy. He never had the chance to land that final strike.
He needed to change that. He needed to get his plans moving, and he needed to get them moving so quickly he could disregard those sidetracks and tangents. He wanted a plan that was straight-forward, and no longer required so many moves. He wanted a reconceptualization of this world and this war, and he wanted a clear dictation of his goals. He hoped it would help him simplify and coalesce his plan. He traveled straight to his throne, deciding he would tell Garland and Chaos he was attacked later. He sat down and propped up his feet, and started with the end goal.
He wanted unlimited and absolute power. He wanted to be the one that the warriors worshipped. He wanted to call them, watch them fight and die for him like chattel, and he wanted to gain power from their victories. He wanted to grow more and more powerful as he absorbed their energies, and he wanted to do so forever in the cycle.
The way to the goal was simple. He had to overthrow Chaos, and take his place as a god of this land.
His next thoughts were of his immediate obstacles.
"Chaos, first and foremost," he decided. "Chaos does not fear me, or my power." That, in and of itself, was not a problem. The element of surprise was a powerful ally that he was well acquainted with - it was why he spent so much of his time convincing them he was not a threat so they would spare him. "The problem is not that Chaos does not fear me. The problem is why he does not fear me. He does not fear me because I am not yet powerful enough to take him on. Not with how the cycles have been turning." Chaos had amassed so much power at that point from his cyclic victories that he more than likely had no clue what to do with the excess. The Emperor imagined he toyed with it on his throne like a bored child.
Or, he thought bitterly, he tossed his warriors around like rag-dolls and embarrassed them in front of their inferiors.
"If I tried a direct confrontation at present, I'd most likely be destroyed. Not to mention Garland, who won't let me within ten feet of Chaos. I'll either have to kill him, or incapacitate him long enough to get to Chaos. That is, when I do gain enough power to attack," he added. For the time being, he could continue to circumvent them. But while he did so he needed a way to obtain enough power to destroy Chaos
At this point was where he always became stuck. For all his planning, he couldn't devise anything worth pursuing to either weaken Chaos, or strengthen himself. A direct confrontation, as he reminded himself many times, was out of the question. Forcing a loss by hunting down his fellow warriors and absorbing their energies was incredibly dangerous. Though he wasn't afraid of the warriors themselves, if Chaos and Garland discovered what he was doing, it would undoubtedly be a very painful end for him. Plus, it seemed counterproductive in the long term. Cosmos would very well become a direct adversary if he usurped Chaos, and he wanted her to stay as weak as she could be so he could destroy her, too. Handing her cyclic victories would only make her a more powerful enemy.
Demolishing Cosmos' side entirely was no new invention, but all that would do was continue to feed power into Chaos. As would destroying Cosmos outright. He couldn't find any way to twist it into anything that would help him.
"How do I obtain power without killing or alerting Chaos?"
The Emperor rested his head back against the back of his throne, inhaling deeply through his nose and blowing it out his mouth. He refused to admit he was stuck again. He wasn't meant to stop here. The entire cycle was meaningless to him if he did. "I refuse to be stuck," he intoned silently, willing something to come to him, anything. Some little stroke of genius, delivered from the heavens. He knew, he knew if it only came to him, it would be revolutionary. Either that, or he would make it revolutionary, no matter how small it seemed. Frustration bubbled up inside of him. For all his inventive and manipulative genius . . . nothing. He didn't plot the growth of his entire empire on Firion's world to get stuck here. He didn't sack town after town, each with different defensive positions, for this. He didn't design and blueprint the Dreadnaught warship, he didn't plan the replacement of Princess Hilda with the Lamia Queen, he didn't orchestrate Firion's arrival at the Colisseum, he didn't bring Pandaemonium to earth, split his soul, and lord over heaven and hell for this.
It was a slip of his tongue that sparked his revelation.
"There has to be some way to weaken Cosmos so I can absorb his power-"
It was the wrong god, but it was the stroke of genius he was waiting for. Absorb Cosmos' power. Become Cosmos. A new twist that he had never considered struck him suddenly. He'd been so focused on Chaos, on taking revenge and absorbing his power, that he hadn't for a second imagined he could do the same to Cosmos. He forgot there was an entirely separate god he could target. He chided himself on his ignorance, but not out of disappointment. It was elation. Pure exhilaration at finally having a shred of something he could work with. He sat up, inching to the front of his throne and resting his elbows on his knees. His leg bounced; he could barely contain his excitement. It seemed so simple! Surely, Chaos' hellish powers of destruction were far more powerful and intriguing to him, but any small shred of any power would help him - even if it was weaker, radiant power. Even at their weakest, the gods were a cut above them.
"And why would Cosmos be out of my reach? I was an Emperor of heaven. I harnessed divine powers of light once! Those powers are well within my abilities to wield. Going after Cosmos would be so perfect! She is weak enough as it is, and to thin her ranks further would not be seen as odd to Chaos. After I've drained her, I could take her on, and rather than kill her, I could simply absorb her divine energies of light as I planned to do to Chaos.
If it did not work, it was really of no consequence. Cosmos would die then, and her warriors would fade. Who could be mad at him? Chaos? Surely not. Destroying Cosmos would be the most complete carrying out of his orders he could ask for.
There was only one thing in his way if he decided to take this course of action: Rosa. But no matter. He could deal with her and all of Cosmos' warriors at once if he played his cards properly.
He needed some information on the warriors as a whole if he wanted to do this. He would need the Cosmos warriors' schedule, who they sent out and to do what. He would need the frequency at which they moved and what their warrior's strengths and weaknesses were. He had let his awareness of the warriors lapse in his time here. He felt delighted at having the chance to step back into his old role as strategist. It tantalized him to be able to use his talents again and to their full potential. And for his personal gain. Not for anyone's benefit but for his own.
He had felt directionless for too long. Now as his time to act, with a fresh plan and a new passion for the fight in his heart.
A/N: It's a turning point for the Emperor! I'm so excited to begin this new story arc and I hope it's going to be everything I imagine!
If you have the time, let me know what you think of this chapter, or Petal as a whole! I love hearing from you guys! Or, you can stop by my curiouscat and ask me anything about Petal!
www. curiouscat .live/keyblader41996 (Just take the spaces out of the URL.
Thanks to all that have followed Petal for this long!
~Keyblader
12/17/19 UPDATE: I went back and cut a lot of stuff from this chapter because I figured it was very extra and was slowing down the pacing of this entire next arc. Thanks for being patient with me!