They came in legions, a rising tide of white armored soldiers, glowing with the burning golden radiance of their maker powers spilling like a torrent into the docking bay and leaking outward through the corridors: a rising tide of glory and power brimming with possibility for conquest and battle.
A tide: that was getting dangerously close to drowning Adam with barely contained rage.
Adam was not a jealous man, never had been. In fact, it had taken him nearly a decade to shed his status as a doormat and not be overly permissive, but this was crossing the line. Watching people take over his ship was simultaneously infuriating and heartbreaking all at once. Watching another, unnamed, Maker take the helm had been a knife through the heart, and seeing Maker Adham pass down orders to his newly established crew stung almost as much
The crew did not hide their displeasure.
The Bridge crew stood with impotent rage at the corners of the room demoted from their statons and relegated to lumps of flesh no better than discarded furniture. Looking at their faces, Adam could see a mixture of rage and indignation, one or two openly sneering in contempt and barely contained rage as they watched other entities take over their coveted stations, some of which the deck officers had taken the time to personalize.
The feeling was one shared by the crew at large.
Battalions of marines watched with indignation as their battlestations were taken over, and the engineering crew.... Well they threw a fit.
Adam was hardly surprised when Narobi came storming into the room demanding attention despite her grease stained jumpsuit. Fiery honey eyes ablaze with indignton, orange and yellow hair wrap coming partially unraveled in her fury. She marched right up to Adham cutting into one of his conversations and jabbing a finger at his chest, "Who the hell do you think you are."
Adham paused, almost taken aback but frowned, "I am Adham first man a-"
"I know WHO you are, that was not my question. I want to know who you THINK you are and why you think you can bring YOUR men into MY engine room fouling everything up."
Adham frowned, "This is not your ship, Alter. It was, in fact, stolen from the architect, and is one of our greatest weapons in the battle against apollyon, if we are to fight him, I certainly don't want a group of amateurs running the systems."
"Ametures!" the look of indignation on her face was certainly a thing to behold.
Adam leaned over to Sunny, "Here we go."
She stepped closer, "Listen here, I know this ship back forward up and down. I could navigate its systems in my sleep standing on my head in the dark, drunk, and I can guarantee you there is no better person to run the engineering systems than me,"
Adham almost looked amused, "You and your friends have had this ship for less than a decade. I am familiar with this ship for eons, so please go sit with your friends and elt us take this from here." His voice was soft and not unreasonable, but Adam knew what the Maker was thinking.
He saw them as nothing more than children, Nairobi's outburst a tantrum, and he did what any good adult would do, sending the kids out of harm's way and into the corner to play with their toys while the grownups did the real work.
By the time she walked over Nairobi was fuming, her beautiful face twisted into an expression of pure rage, rage that was about to be turned on Adam, who she approached, planting her feet shoulder width a few feet away from him and crossing her arms over her chest, "You want to tell me why the hell we are standing for this" She waved an angry arm at the interlopers, "After years of work, I had just gotten the systems how I like them, and now these assholes just storm onto the ship and take over."
Adam eyed the pilot, who despite SEEMING competent, Adam would have bet he just didn't have the fitness required to truly pilot the Empyrean like a pro. And, dammit, he thought the Empyrean felt the same way, her lights just a little dimmer, her reactions just a little muted. He reached out a hand to pat the bulkhead, "I know, I know, the last thing I want is them putting their mitts all over my ship, but at the end of the day, we did steal the ship, and as much as we might dislike it, we are going to need their help.
Nairobi did not look satisfied or convinced, but neither was Adam.
At this point the crew were all standing in a huddle at the very fringes of the room watching as others did their jobs pushed out of the way where they couldn't get into any trouble.
Eventually, after talking to some of his own men, Aham approached, "I have spoken with the others, and have found a palace for you to stay in the interim-"
"Wiat!" The protest fell from many lips, but Adam was allowed to finish as their spokesperson, holding up a hand eyes wide with indignation, "Wait, hold on just a second, you are not just 'dropping us off at the pool' while you go and try to defeat apollyon without us. He is going after OUR galaxy, and OUR people. MY children are back there, and nothing short of the total annihilation of my waking consciousness is going to stop me from protecting them, not you and not any bootleg angel who decides to get in my way. We came to you to get help, increase our firepower, not to sit on the bench and watch."
"You have no idea what you are dealing with, and no matter how petulant, angry, and childish you are going to be, I cannot allow your involvement." Adam opened his mouth to argue, but Adham held up a hand, "You have children, so you can understand where we are coming from. No matter how much they may want to come, do you let your toddler join the war."
Adam rolled his eyes so hard his entire head rolled, had he been able to see in the dark, he probably could have given his cervical spine a thorough once over, "That metaphor is bullshit. Unlike my toddler we have fought the void before and won plenty of battles that you and your people couldn't be bothered to involve themselves in. We have the resources, the tactics and the skill to help. I know a couple decades doesn't seem very long to you, but I've fought plenty of battles against things much bigger than me, and I swear, to your architect that if you try to keep us out of it, you will regret it.
Adham let off a huff of exasperation, "You just don't get it. Your resources are nothing, inconsequential, your tactics are nothing compared to eons of experience, your skill is negligible when you don't have the firepower to back it up. Your battles are no more than pathetic slap fight squabbles between siblings on a road trip. You may not be able to understand this, but you-are-not-ready."
"It doesn't matter if we are ready or not, if we don't do something apollyon will destroy us."
"I don't care how big and important the battle is, you would NEVER let your young children participate."
"Oh fuck off, where was that attitude when the void invaded earth, destroyed the kree homeworld huh? Where were our absentee parents then....?!"
The argument seemed ready to escalate into a fistfight, when the door opened at the far end of the room hissed open. Adam might not have noticed if it were not for the reaction of the Maker crew, who began to murmur in shock and confusion. The distraction was enough to halt their augment, and the group of them turned to find Celex standing in the doorway light spilling in from behind him. He cut a heroic figure for a moment, but the second he stepped into other room it was clear something wasn't quite right.
He took a step, staggered, wobbled, and almost keeled over.
Adam was on his feet in seconds, leaping across the intervening space and catching the maker by the shoulders even as one of his legs buckled. Adam took the full brunt of his weight, and helped to lower the other man to the ground, propping Celex up against his shoulder.
His rainbow hair hung in a wild tangle around his face, his eyes bloodshot, cheeks wet. The look in his eyes was somewhere between manic and panicked.
"Celex, the hell," He shot an accusing look at adham, "What the hell did you do to him."
Celex's head lolled absently against Adam's shoulder.
Adham looked just as shocked or even more shocked than Adam did, staring at Celex like he was some sort of ghost, with a mixture somewhere between awe and fear. He turned to look towards the door where one of the guards was standing in wide eyed shock, "Did he escape?"
The guard shook his head dumbly, "No, he's finished."
"What do you mean finished, " Both Adams said shooting each other an accusing glance before looking back for their answer.
"His penance, it is done."
Adam shook his head in disbelief, "It has only been a few hours."
The guard continued to nod stupidly, "Yes sir, I mean. He went in, stayed for thirty minutes and came out like that. I talked to the guards and said he, served his time."
"The whole billion years?!"
The guard gave a little shrug, "The whole billion in thirty minutes or less, sir."
Adham turned back to look at Celex still lolling absantly against Adam's shoulder.
Krill, who had been mostly silent though this interaction, made his presence known just then, barging through the group to kneel next to them. He ran one hand through his russet hair before pressing his hand to Celex's neck. Maker bodies are not simply shrouds placed over something else, but do in fact operate almost exactly like the construct they are emulating, this includes a working heart.
Pulling his hand away, he placed a hand on either side of celex's head and gently turned his head this way and that. Reaching into the pocket of his coat, he pulled out a small pen light and flashed it at the ex emperor's eyes whose pupils shrunk rapidly in response, "Celex, can you hear me." He pressed a hand against the man's forehead, "Cold, clammy, If this was medical I would say he was in shock." He turned an accusatory eye on Adham, who raised his hands.
"We didn't tell him to do that."
"Celex, hey, buddy can you hear us." Adam said resting a hand on his shoulder and gently shaking him.
"I'll call Riss."
"Go,... tell your boyfriend... to shrink someone else's head." The group of them jumped in surprise as Celex swatted away Krill's hand. His eyes were still glassy, still a mess, but his eyes were now responsive, moving between the group of them. Adham didn't seem to have the air to speak.
"Hey, I... what, are you alright." Adam asked again.
Celex didn't try to move or get up, "Fine." He mumbled, "Going to take... more than.... That to.... Take me out. Just give me a minute.
Adam turned to the crowd, spotting Katie hovering at the back and motioned her forward, "Kaite, can you." She nodded and hurried forward, Kneeling down to help support Celex as Adam got to his feet.
"This is-"
His voice was cut off a moment later as the world around them darkened.
One moment they stood in rays of golden light and the next the entire room had gone dark. Reddish orange light filtered up around them, shadows seemed to churn and writhe upon the floor like tentacles. An alarm began to sound, and the sound that it took was one that Adam would not dare try and describe, deep and low, like the call of a terrible creature, to large to be properly fathomable.
His skin went cold.
His blood turned to ice.
His heart turned to a lump of granite in his chest.
Adham's face was grim in the faded red light, his voice soft, "He is here."