Author's Note: As Serendipity might say: "Surprise!"
I decided to round out this story with the "missing" chapter, inasmuch as there is a "missing" Celestial.
Centuries before the Night Howler conflict in Zootopia, the Celestial Calamity was pacing around his own view of the Earth. He slunk around on all fours, his purple, hazy hyena form seeming to twitch erratically. His eyes contained no sclera, only sockets in which jittering orange lights served as his pupils.
"Vexing, most vexing..." Calamity said to himself, his confident voice at odds with his disconcerting appearance. "The pred and prey are moving forward with these inane plans to make peace among themselves. I hate peace! It's so boring! Hyahahaha!"
Despite cocking his head back for a cackle, he gnashed his teeth back together and stared at the view, his pupils jerking around even more rapidly. "And a sheep, Surrender's own exemplar, is going to shepherd them into the peace arrangements? Gag. I bet Surrender feels so pleased right about now..."
A grin spread too-wide across Calamity's face as he had a thought.
"I have half a mind to possess Surrender's exemplar... that would be fun," he resisted the urge to cackle, causing him to jerk his head violently to the side and make an eerie shrieking sound. "If I do it just right, I could likely suppress my entire existence from the rest of the Celestials. If they don't want war, terror, and distress, then they shouldn't have it. See how they like it... I'm sure Karma will be very upset that there suddenly isn't a balance in the number of Celestials from either side... hehehe...!"
Abruptly, Calamity's window to Earth closed, and he tilted his head ninety degrees with a sickening crack.
Where the window had been, a shadow formed on the ground, yawning wide open as a form emerged from it. It was, essentially, Calamity. The only difference was that this other Calamity was standing on two paws.
"Now this is interesting," Calamity was amused at the presence of his upright doppelganger. "Are you me?"
"Indeed, from the future," the upright form nodded, mirroring Calamity's bemused expression before his head twitched in an unnatural direction. "Ooh, what a ring that has. The Future Calamity. The Impending Disaster. The Approaching Apocalypse."
"The future, huh?" Calamity grinned ever wider. "Is that allowed?"
"No, not exactly, but when have I ever played by the rules?" The future Calamity snickered with remarkable restraint, for him.
"Fair enough, I was just thinking about-" Calamity started.
"Yes, I know, that is of course why I'm here," the future Calamity finished, sweeping his hand across his chest in a bow. "I'm here to tell you to not go through with it."
"Why not?" Calamity pouted. "Because it made you walk upright like every other sapient mammal on the planet?"
"No no..." the future Calamity held a finger up which jerked of its own accord reprovingly. "Because I love myself more than anyone else, so I thought I'd inform you that it's a bad idea." He leaned over slightly to pet his younger self on the head.
"Hahaha...!" Calamity jerked away. "That's creepy, even for me."
"Well, I have many hundred years on you," future Calamity said, "I've learned how to become more unnerrrrrrrving. Hnhn!" His body jerked upright and he made a wretched sound like gulping air. "Anyway... I'm sure you're in a fuss because you think war will end or some dross. You think your intervention will change things."
"Won't it?" The present Calamity asked.
"In a way... the one thing that is sacred in this universe is free will. We can lurk in mortals all we want, whisper in their ears... but it is up to them to choose what to do."
"Which is why we scare them into doing what we want," Calamity grinned in a sinister fashion. "Terror works on the primal level."
"But self-righteous mammals like that sheep..." the future vision of Calamity shook his head until it looked like it might come loose. "They will just fight you. You will lay dormant in the soul of Surrender's exemplar for a long time... then in their next life, you will finally have success because of the difficult life of that sheep."
"But something goes wrong?" Calamity's toothy smirk almost comically drooped into a toothy frown.
"You're stopped by mortals, of all things," the future Calamity claimed, "exemplars of Serendipity and Karma-"
"Karma!" Barked Calamity, "I never did like her..."
"-and with less suggestion from their representative Celestials than you. Without even knowing you were behind it!"
"So I should just not bother?" Calamity sneered. "What's in that for me?"
"Ah, my young self," future Calamity lowered his head and looked at his younger version ominously. "You have a lot to learn about suffering, but I can leave you with this assurance. As I stayed in the body of a mortal, I learned to appreciate their dread, anxiety, and mourning a lot more than in the wars we so liked to look upon. The suffering, the disasters... they're more subtle, yes, but it is the difference between someone swallowing something whole and savoring it with agonizingly slow chews."
"Hmm..." Calamity considered with a grin.
"What fun is sending off gaggles of mortals to Destiny, anyway? Do you enjoy watching her laze about?" The future self asked him. "Or no, that's right, she's had a lot of work to do in this time period... hnhn."
"You're suggesting the many families crying out in mourning over their dead loved ones can be topped?" Calamity didn't seem convinced.
"No... just taken in smaller doses," future Calamity chuckled. "The fun thing about mortals is there will always be reasons for them to fear and distrust each other, as long as any differences exist. From where you are now... you actually have a much greater chance to influence the world. You might even get your own exemplar one day... and what fun that'd be, hmm...?"
"Very well, you've convinced me," Calamity cackled softly. "I suppose I can endure this peace for now."
"Excellent!" The future Calamity laughed with much, much less restraint, doubling over. With his laughs still hanging in the air, he fell back into the shadows.
"Well... doing nothing is easy enough," Calamity sat on his haunches. "I wonder if or when I should start standing around on two legs like that? I wonder if it'd be creepy to the other Celestials, heheheheh-HHRGH!"
Calamity was abruptly dashed to the ground by an intense force hitting him in the side. As he turned his head to look, a flaming bunched up paw smashed him across his face, laying it back into the ground. His jittering eye still catching sight from the side of his head looked desperately at his attacker.
It was Fervor, but he looked very unusual. His eyes were all black, and they seemed to swallow light from around them. Instead of being surrounded by an aura of flames, the aura was instead just crimson and black, and carried with it intensely conflicting sensations. More unnerving still was the wide grin Fervor wore as he punched Calamity yet again, hard enough to cause a dent in the realm's ground, though it quickly healed itself.
"Ggnngh!" Calamity felt the unusual feeling of a spike of fear. "Fervor! How... pleasant to see you! Normally I wouldn't mind a bit of roughhousing, but that actually... really hurts!"
"Hahahaha! Hello," Fervor shouted. His voice was also very unusual, though Calamity couldn't quite quantify how. A large slash of his burning claws left a searing gash across Calamity's side, and he yelped as he felt some of his vitality leave him to repair the wound swiftly.
"Fervor!" Calamity exploded into shadow, his jittering eyes backing away, and his body reforming several paces away from him. "Why are you striking me? Have I done something to vex you? I swear I have done nothing wrong!"
"We know..." Fervor replied with a manic grin. "That's the trouble!"
"I beg your pardon?" Calamity tried to hold a pleasant, if twitchy smile, but Fervor's behavior was making him back up. Fervor was... driven, but not insane.
Fervor laughed, a shrieking, booming laugh that rivaled Calamity's most disturbing attempts.
"Do it," Fervor's unnatural aura flared, fire jetting off of his hands. He took some wild swipes with the jets of flame, and Calamity barely managed to hop over them. "Do it, Calamity! Do what you were meant to!"
"I don't know what you mean!" Calamity lied. He was beginning to fear he had been found out.
"Liiiieeeeeing!" Fervor's deranged smile held firm. "Go! Possess the sheep. Remove the balance! It will amuse us. Centuries of fun! DO IT! HAHAHAHA!"
"You're...!" Calamity heard a commotion off to his side and saw Fortitude bearing down on him full tilt. He possessed a matching aura to Fervor's, and his eyes were similarly affected.
"Oh dear sweet Chaos..." Calamity lamented.
"BINGO!" Fortitude bellowed out, goring him with his metallic horn. "NOW GO!"
With Fortitude's prodigious might augmented by some powerful force, Calamity's form went flying through a good portion of the Celestial realm, and when he finally hit the ground he rolled helplessly across it for an impressive length.
Calamity sucked separately for air, pawing at the gaping wound in his belly. His wounds healed, though slower than his first, and he felt his vitality drain to the point that it was hard to stand, and his eyes started to lose their jitter, his fuzzy form coming more into focus. He coughed violently. "Ooh... that can't be good..."
The stately form of Karma heard the coughing and walked up to the smaller Celestial. She tilted her head up in derision, sneering at him.
"What happened to you?"
"Ah, Karma...!" Calamity had a guilty smile. The Prime Deities had never, ever interfered with the Earth Celestials' affairs, not that he knew of, anyway. It would have been pointless to try to convince her what he thought happened. "I was-" he coughed twice "roughed up a bit by Fervor and Fortitude."
"Hmph, if so, you probably deserved it," Karma sniffed.
Calamity displayed a steady smile, though he seethed inwardly. His grin tightened as he had a wicked thought. "Something is the matter with them, I think. Perhaps all this talk of peace on Earth is causing them to rebel? You should probably check it out."
Karma looked skeptical, but shook her head, her long tail flicking. "All right, if-"
Mid-sentence, a bluish white aura surrounded her and her eyes became bright white beacons. She stood up even straighter than before.
"Oh, perfect," Calamity whined, getting to his feet. Glowing cyan and white circular sigils snapped around each of his limbs and neck, leaving him immobile. "Urk!"
"When a Celestial traverses the timeline," Karma began in an extremely clear voice, "and they alter their own course of action, a timeline diverges into a tangent, causing another in the multiverse."
"Ah!" Calamity grit his teeth.
"Who is the master of time?" Karma asked.
"Uh-Order," Calamity panted.
"And who is the master of space?"
"Kh-Chaos!" Calamity attempted to smile.
"Oh, so he is intelligent!" Serendipity flew into view, spinning around Karma, though that black-red aura and the abyss of color in her sclera informed Calamity that Serendipity was undergoing the same type of possession that he had seen turn Karma. "We had wondered!"
"What you have determined to do, you must do," Karma said sternly.
"But, but Karma..." Calamity giggled. "Er- Order...? Your- your grand deities, omnipresent and powerful-"
"Just talk, imbecile!" Serendipity laughed, but it wasn't her laugh; it sounded much more unsettling.
"You- you wouldn't want me to possess a mortal's soul for centuries, would you...?" Calamity huffed desperately.
"It would not be ideal," Karma blinked slowly. "However, though we may abide many things, the transgression into multiple space-times bearing the same cosmic signature is something we would vehemently punish. Proceed upon your previously decided course of action or perish."
"Perish!?" Calamity struggled against his ethereal bonds desperately. "That's- that's not... how can you punish me for something I haven't done? Just because I will do it?"
"Aww..." Serendipity smiled darkly. "The Celestials are so cute with their linear understanding of time."
"Doesn't this-" Calamity felt a desperation he'd never known before. "Go against the sacred right to free will?"
"Not at all," Karma said. "Do what you have determined, or perish. It is your right to choose. If you choose oblivion, we will replace you. It is simple."
"Ff-fine! Yes, I'll do it! I'll do it! I'll go possess that sheep!" Calamity screamed in desperation. "B-but your Omnipotences... I am very low on energy from the thrashing I received... so I'm not sure I can-"
Karma looked slowly at Serendipity, who looked back with a put-upon expression.
"OKAY FINE," Serendipity screeched, and the stars of a firework's explosion appeared around Calamity, and imploded into him all at once. He experienced an unprecedented surge of energy coursing through his form, though it was coupled with incomprehensibly distorted shrieking sounds. His vision quickly blurred, showed him disturbing sights that he could not fully comprehend. He felt in that second that he'd lived through an entire year of suffering, then everything suddenly faded, including the shackles on his limbs, and he again felt how he was accustomed to feeling.
As Calamity was near Karma's Territory, Karma led him to the middle. She tapped her paw on the ground and the space around it instantly formed divine patterns that swirled into a vortex leading to the mortal world. Calamity hoped as much, anyway.
"Go," Karma said. "And do not transgress upon space-time again."
"Or do!" Serendipity shrugged. "It's your funeral. Or wait, we suppose you won't get one, because no one will recall you! Kahaahahahagh!"
"I am most honored to have experienced your presences," Calamity said graciously as he leapt into the portal.
"What a troublesome planet Earth tends to be," Karma spoke softly.
"Isn't it amazing!?" Serendipity cackled. "What about that reality where monkeys rule the whole thing?" She fell back, suspended in the air, laughing shrilly and terrifyingly. Karma just shook her head. With a sigh, both auras simultaneously blew off of the Celestials, leaving Serendipity's giggling to change in tone and pitch to be her pleasant, delightful voice.
"Whoa, weird!" Serendipity hummed after her fit settled. "I wonder what I was laughing about."
Karma looked confused at the floating bunny's sudden presence, though it wasn't unheard of for her to show up unannounced. "You do tend to laugh at random things."
"Yeah, but usually I know what I'm laughing about..." Serendipity looked thoughtfully into the air, tapping a paw on her mouth. She shrugged. "Oh well!"
Karma looked at the deep crimson and rust colors the bunny's fur was sporting. "Ah, Serendipity... I don't think those colors quite suit you."
Looking down at herself, Serendipity made a face. "No! Blech! You're right!" She snapped her fingers, becoming a uniform cyan with matching eyes. "Better?"
"I suppose," Karma rolled her eyes. "Now would you let me be?"
"Okie dokie!" Serendipity spun around and poofed out of the Territory, leaving Karma to lay down and place her long tail's tip in her mouth.
Hundreds of years later, Acceleration ran at top speed into Karma's Territory.
"Hh!" Karma dropped down firmly to the ground, startled.
"Karma!" Acceleration yelled, his eyes showing exclamation points. His glowing pupils then blinked, as he was not used to seeing Karma's eyes so wide open. "Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."
"I- er, what can I do for you, Acceleration?" A corner of Karma's muzzle turned up in an uneasy smile.
"Well!" Acceleration took a ready posture on his four legs. "I came here to inform you that-"
"Puah!" Serendipity's head burst out from between Karma's forepaws, near her chest. "Karmie, I love surprises and all, but I'm not sure about this whole 'suddenly plopping down on me' thing."
"Oh, er," Acceleration stifled a chuckle. "Am I interrupting something?"
"Just, please, say what you need to say," Karma's eyes half-lid.
"When looking over Earth this morning for my report," Acceleration began, "I saw a hyena in Zootopia I'd never seen before."
"A hyena...!?" Karma grit her teeth, standing up on all fours, letting Serendipity unsteadily float into the air near her.
"At this, I found I could remember Calamity!" Acceleration exclaimed, assuming a readied stance. "From hundreds of years ago! I thought you should know... it appears he has somehow left Surrender's exemplar and assumed a corporeal form!"
Though Calamity was far from Karma's mind at the time, she thought and found she could remember Calamity from times past; the memories seemed very naturall and like slots had been filled in.
"I do remember him," Karma scowled.
"Me too," Serendipity nodded three times rapidly. "What do we do...?"
"Now that he's shown himself, we must bring him back to our realm," Karma declared, "but... perhaps we should get the input of all Celestials before we make a move. Acceleration, if you'd gather up all of us at the usual meeting place?"
"On it!" Acceleration said, and a burst of red was visible as he vanished.
Karma sighed. "I need to create some sort of warning system for my Territory."
"I dunno if it'd help against Accel," Serendipity smirked.
"No, probably not..."
All thirteen present Celestials gathered around a large viewing screen, showing Zootopia. There was a hyena taking in the sights of the city in the crowded Downtown sector.
"It's Calamity, all right," Destiny scowled, tilting her head so her skeletal form was visible. "The soul's composition doesn't match other mortals."
"That's breaking the rules!" Growth shouted, eyes wide. "Uh, isn't it breaking the rules?"
"I had come to think so," Karma cocked her head questioningly, "but... there he is." She looked around. "No one feels any sort of presence...? Like the Prime Deities may be upon us?" Shakes of heads revealed the answer.
"I've never seen the Prime Deities in my life," Drive remarked. "I don't think any of us have."
"Regardless," Surrender fixed his horizontal pupils on the view of the Earth. "Calamity cannot be allowed to continue roaming the Earth. He will undoubtedly get into trouble."
Fortitude chuckled. "Surrender, are you holding a grudge? Y'know, because he corrupted your exemplar and all? Seems awfully convicted coming from you."
"I'm merely stating the probable outcome of our non-interference," Surrender said calmly. "We need to recover him. Suggestions?"
"It's easy enough," Fervor shook his fist. "I'll go down and kill him."
"Huh!?" Many Celestials expressed their surprise and flinched.
"What?" Fervor shrugged. "It'd just bring him back here!"
"That's far too risky," Karma shook her head firmly. "If we do something that's noticed as being out of place by mortals, I have no doubt that some or all of us could be punished. He's keeping to crowded areas."
"So I'll drag him into an alley!" Fervor smirked.
"That would still leave a body," Phantasm sucked at her teeth. "And it would divert the lives of many mortals seeking to do investigation into this 'John Buck'."
"I'm assuming you have a better idea then, Phantasm?" Fortitude accused.
She smiled. "Of course I do. I have the best ideas! I'll need Industry, Acceleration, Fortitude, and Fervor. Everyone else should keep an eye on him from up here, and be ready to intervene to close off his escape routes if necessary."
"What is your plan?" Destiny wondered.
Phantasm grinned at Karma. "We'll arrest him."
"Surely he'd be able to break from handcuffs using his powers," Drive protested.
"But not ones made from a Celestial," Karma found herself somehow hopping onto Phantasm's train of thought. She closed her eyes to focus, then opened them suddenly. A glittering pair of magenta handcuffs appeared before her in a flash of light.
"Haha..." Serendipity giggled nervously. "Those are... um, kinda conspicuous..."
"Not to worry," Phantasm smiled, taking one end of them in her mouth and balancing it on Fortitude's horn. "Celestial objects look normal enough in the mortal world."
"I'm not going to ask how you know that," Karma huffed.
"All right, everyone keep a close eye on Calamity so he doesn't get away now," Phantasm said airily. "I'll be taking your portal to the mortal world, Karma, if that's okay. My team, follow me!" The Celestials obeyed her, following her proud trots.
"He's being kind of boring," Growth mumbled in disdain, having watched the hyena wander about the city for a few hours.
"Guess he doesn't want to do something so obvious as to grab our attention," Drive considered.
"Honestly, I hope we don't do too much to attract mortal attention," Fertility fretted, a paw near her mouth. "I feel like we're edging the line as it is."
Phantasm trotted over to the rest of the Celestials. "The plan is in motion. We should have Calamity in no time."
"Hopefully not literally," Paradigm chuckled softly. "Hey, uh, is that Fortitude and Fervor?" The bear zoomed in the view closer, looking into a police car traveling a bit too fast.
"They stole a cop car!?" Growth barked incredulously in equal parts amazement and disbelief. "That's not subtle!"
"Isn't someone going to miss it?" Fertility looked up at Phantasm. The horse merely smiled.
With a flash of blue light, Acceleration appeared, with Industry on his back. The mouse hopped off.
"Not to worry, friends," Industry zoomed over to the view. "Phantasm's ideas are quite sound! Normally. I took a few hundred of myself down there to repair a decommissioned police cruiser, using Acceleration to acquire the necessary discarded parts. Also I sewed them those uniforms and made them badges."
"Ah, all right..." Destiny nodded.
"Uh, you're welcome?" Industry scoffed, feeling underappreciated.
"Ugh," Acceleration's glowing eyes spiraled in "loading" patterns. "I wish I could've ignored more laws of physics down there. My fur kept catching on fire as I ran about."
"What are you doing, Serendipity?" Surrender asked of the floating bunny, looking at a separate, smaller view.
"Aaack...!" Serendipity flailed in midair, pointing to her window. "Nick and Judy saw our guys! They're moving to intercept."
"Of all the-!" Karma grit her teeth. "Their penchant for being at the right place at the right time certainly knows no bounds..." she glared at Serendipity, who shrugged with a guilty smile.
Fortitude and Fervor were able to trap the hyena, and after a quick confirmation that he was indeed Calamity, they arrested him.
"Oh please don't tell them your real names," Karma begged as the exemplars asked if they needed assistance.
"Officer Ferrum?" Phantasm smiled in approval. "Huh, clever."
"Serendipity, they need a sign that it's safe to come home," Phantasm said as the cruiser drove off to a less populated area of Sahara Square. "When it is, could you give them one?"
"Um, sure!" Serendipity looked at them and glared intently at the display, waiting until mortal senses of the police car were zero, then formed some firework stars in her paws, gently blowing them into the window to Earth. They were carried by a gust of wind that sent them flitting by Fervor and Fortitude's vehicle.
Almost instantaneously, the vehicle vanished and reappeared in the midst of the other Celestials, making them all gasp.
"Bwaagh!" Serendipity "fell" back in midair. "OH MY GOSH CAN I DRIVE THE CAR!?"
As if in response, Fortitude assuming his usual metallic form caused the car to sag ominously to one side.
"Uh, maybe it's still drivable," Serendipity looked cautious.
Fervor exultantly exploded from the top of the car, flying about in his fiery form. "Ha ha! We got 'im!"
"With a mandatory sun roof?" The bunny added.
Abruptly, the rest of the car disintegrated.
Serendipity huffed dramatically, flopping over in the air. "That's just rubbing it in."
"It doesn't come up often, but mortal objects cannot stay constituted in the Celestial Realm," Phantasm nickered in amusement.
"Again, I'm not going to ask how you know that," Karma muttered dryly, approaching Calamity. He stood there, twitching erratically as his Celestial form manifested itself. He still stood tall upon two legs, however. "Calamity. Welcome back."
"Oh, it's so good to be home," Calamity smiled insincerely. "Wow, the gang's all here to welcome me back! Did you miss me?"
"Actually, no, we did not. We could not," Destiny raised an eyebrow. "Your memory suppression saw to that."
"Right, right, I supposed it did! Hyahahahah!" Calamity jerked his torso back several degrees and laughed.
"So what made you leave your- er, my exemplar?" Surrender asked judgmentally.
"Boredom," Calamity grinned. "Bellwether will carry the corruption of her actions all of her life. I just thought I might explore the world while I still could, but my... you all caught me very quickly."
"That's thanks to Karma," Phantasm said, nodding toward her. "She filled in the missing pieces, and we just about figured that you actually existed and that you were missing before you showed up.
"Ah, Karma, always a thorn in my side," Calamity chuckled at her as he towered over her. "I'll just be leaving now." He tried to assume a shadowy form, but his arms jerked as the Celestial shackles on his arms flared up and held him steady.
"You think as the Celestial of justice I didn't plan for this?" Karma tossed her head with a bit of smugness. "...Wow, that sounded pretty cliche. Anyway, I created shackles capable of trapping a Celestial. You're to stay here and answer our questions of what you've done."
"You've gotten very intelligent, Karma, can't say I expected that," Calamity teased, bowing for her with a sickening cracking sound. He looked at her with his jittering glowing orange dot eyes. "And have you lost weight? My my! When I left, you stood taller at the shoulder than any wolf! Now, you're barely bigger than a fox! Hm, what could have made you adopt that look...?"
"Ghh..." Karma looked uncomfortable, her pupils sweeping back and forth, but she saw only positive expressions from other Celestials. Some were warmer than others, but there were still many smiles.
"Listen here, you!" Serendipity flew in front of his face, to his surprise. She shook her paw at him reprovingly. "You've caused Karmie- er, all of us Celestials a lot of trouble." Her fur became blanketed with a crimson, rusty color. "You're lucky that the Prime Deities themselves didn't sort you out!"
Surprising everyone, even Serendipity, Calamity instantly cringed at the admonition, releasing a tense, extremely nervous laugh.
"Yes! Yes indeed!" He said quickly. "Ever so lucky!" He looked her over, searching her eyes desperately for pupils, and seemed to relax slightly when he saw them.
"Huh, that worked?" Fortitude huffed in amusement. "Nice, li'l sis!"
"Thanks!" Serendipity saluted, drawing her paws close to her chest as she became a bright, cheery yellow color with turquoise eyes. "I feel all powered up!"
"Right on!" Fervor flew near her and offered her a high-five, which she energetically accepted. Karma smiled at the antics.
"All of this self-congratulation is tiresome," Calamity rolled his eyes. "May I go now?"
"Not just yet, I don't think," Paradigm still towered over Calamity, despite the latter being on two feet and the former on four. "We still need some sort of explanation from you as to why you went through all of this trouble."
"Well, it really isn't that complicated," Calamity sighed. "Ironically, I suppose I didn't want the old days to end, I was resistant to change, the very nature of Chaos. I thought the peace between pred and prey would mean the end of my fun. I decided to remove myself and my influence from all but the one most likely to cause positive change in the world that I detested, Surrender's exemplar."
"Hmph," the sheep huffed, looking mildly displeased, his wool looking "partly-cloudy".
"But this has been a learning experience," Calamity conceded with a chuckle. "Sure, I may have suggested a grandiose plan to Bellwether that unfortunately failed and would have brought back some of the 'good ol' days'... but really, I've become more of an epicurean. I learned to savor each misfortune, each sense of dread from those exemplars I possessed... and it gave me perspective I've never known before! Now that I'm back, I can help instill those feelings in mortals on a much grander scale."
"...Well," Destiny harrumphed. "That is technically his job."
"Hahaha... we can't have the light without the darkness, now can we?" Calamity grinned unnervingly. "You should try possessing a soulbound, Destiny! It might give you a new appreciation for the lovey-dovey feelings they tend to have." Karma began to look angry at this, to which Calamity was momentarily confused.
"I think I'll pass," Destiny yawned.
"The most wonderful thing about the world is its differences," Calamity smiled broadly, holding his arms up in a plea for understanding. "And how those differences will always breed malcontent between the haves and the have-nots, between the strong and the weak, between those that desire control and those eagerly seeking peace. There will always be suffering to enjoy! I'm truly grateful to be back home. The modern form of suffering may be less grandiose than all the murder and war, but it is still so delicious."
Drive frowned at this. "Well... he isn't wrong, is he...?"
"Not exactly," Karma stepped forward, breaking Calamity's shackles with a twitch of her head. "But you listen to this, Calamity. I now believe beyond all doubt that even with all of the differences between mortals and Celestials alike, we can still achieve great things together." She gave Serendipity an openly warm smile, to which Serendipity hung in the air and waved at her excitedly with a giggle. "The likes of Nick and Judy have taught me that... seekers of justice will go through any hardship to bring Order and Chaos in balance."
"Hahahaha...!" Calamity laughed gently. "You sound like pages from a self-help book. Maybe even one Bellwether read while she was struggling with her own issues. Anyhow, I think I should go home, yes? Those looks you're all giving me say that you've had about enough of me for one day."
"Oh, by the way," Fortitude smirked smugly. "I demolished your lair. Hundreds of years ago, even. I wasn't sure why it was there, so I broke it."
"I..." Calamity held a finger up, then it drooped, though his large smile remained. "I suppose that would make sense. Well, Industry? Would you like to help me out with rebuilding?"
"Do it yourself," Industry snapped. "You have eternity up here."
"Delightful as always!" Calamity clapped twice. "Ah well, see you soon!" His form became shadow, and with a low shrieking sound, his eyes moved off, followed by the shadow.
"Well... the family's all back together again," Fertility smiled uneasily. "That we know of, anyway."
"One bad apple..." Growth frowned.
"Though he does seem more mellow than usual," Surrender noted with a nod, "perhaps he will be more tolerable in coming centuries."
"We can only hope," Destiny rolled her eyes, starting to walk off.
"If not, I'mma punch him!" Serendipity punched her fists together.
"I'll help!" Fervor volunteered.
"And I'll smash 'im!" Fortitude stomped his front two feet.
"Ah, Chaos Celestials," Karma rolled her eyes. "Ever violent."
"Aw c'mon!" Serendipity held her paws out wide. "Y'know you love me."
"Are you really using that line on me?" Karma sighed warmly, to expectant glances from other Celestials.
"Well, do ya?" Growth wanted to know, wearing an eager smile.
"Yes," Karma giggled fondly at the floating bunny. "I do."