Long, long ago. Longer than any creature in the known galaxy had been alive but himself. The planet Samarr floated over had been his home rather than a blasted ruin. The place he was hatched, among a few dozen of his fellow Rikk. He had known warmth, and protection. Then cold and darkness; and instinctive drive to devour; interrupted by the comforting grip of his mother, or one of her sisters.

In the days before words, his species would hatch into a clutch of dozens, and they would fight, with each consuming the others and only the strongest emerging from whatever cave or hiding place their mother had submerged the eggs. By the time he was born, they had grown soft. Each clutch was carefully planned; and the eggs were raised on their own, away from their siblings. No more fighting to survive. Consuming the life, the energy, of others was something only done to animals that were, generally, raised in captivity specifically for the purpose.

Samarr was relatively uncommon; he actually enjoyed the 'uncivilized' process, hunting other species. He wasn't the only one; but most of his kind preferred to remain peaceful, even as their species had slowly expanded out into the stars.

For them it only happened during battle; during the rare hostilities with other species. Until, of course, the... filth... had come.

As Samarr studied the containment sphere in front of him, for what was likely the billionth time, he took another good look at his... counterpoint. The sole surviving member of the species that had eradicated his own. It was a tall, lean, species; two legs. Two arms. A vivid green in fur color along its head and back. When he'd encountered this creature; the ruler of the race that had destroyed his own; it had been wearing a vivid, purple, suit of armor; and was, literally, infinitely powerful; one of a few dozen members of its species that no amount of harm could bring down.

The others had, like the hundreds of other similar creatures Samarr had encountered over time, been deposited in black holes to wait out the eternal clock. He'd determined long ago that, somehow, these creatures were intrinsically linked to extradimensional forces, and it would take an entire galaxy's worth of energy to destroy one; possibly even more than that. You would need to, at least momentarily, overwhelm a conduit funneling what seemed to be a whole universe into a single physical form.

This one... he would, eventually, make sure this one died. No matter what it took. It and the rest of it's species. For now... it would remain trapped in this stasis field.

He looked up at the sky of what was once his homeworld. Recalling its final days; the world blasted into a radioactive ruin. His people dying. Their colonies in ruins, their numbers dwindling. He had only seen one hope; and not for salvation. For vengeance. As the oceans boiled, he finished what the... filth had started, and killed his world. Ancient immortals who had been born before his people had carved stone tools, newborn hatchlings; all of them, he consumed, and he grew larger, stronger. Until... he could survive their weapons, and fly up to meet them.

It helped, to come back here, to this place, to this trapped monster, and remember why he did this. He looked up at the sky. This world no longer had an atmosphere; even in broad daylight, he could see stars; and he launched himself upward; and felt a familiar tingle in the back of his mind.

~My Emperor. Apologies for interrupting you. We have urgent news. A vessel claiming to have originated in the Forbidden Zone has entered Imperial space.~

He turned towards the station; part of a relay spanning thousands of light-years, one that included hundreds of worlds and could contact over a quadrillion beings within hours; and reached out to it, the space between planet and; a single tentacle pressing on the hull.

The creature that originated the message vanished; it's life absorbed into Samarr's own. The being knew the penalty for interrupting the Emperor's meditation; that it knowingly paid that price spoke well of its loyalty. Samarr would ensure its descendants lived comfortably, and had many children.

For a moment, the tiny speck's last vision played across Samarr's mind. He saw the incoming message about the arrival, and the fear of impending death. And, of course, the way it felt to have the life drained from the flesh.

He accessed the relay, studying the messages; paying attention closely to those relating to the death of the Jotun king.

They were impertinent subjects. If the previous king had not died in a foolish encounter with Cronos, the Emperor would have executed him for his temerity; he had considered simply eradicating the race at that point. When he first received word a few days ago of the message one of his relays had encountered, that the Jotun were spreading word of their king's death, and of the new name for their kingdom, he hadn't thought much of it. Now, however...

That message originated within the Forbidden Zone. And now, a few years later, a vessel holding creatures likely of Cronos's race had emerged into Imperial territory to investigate, flying in an unusually capable ship that exhibited a blend of unknown and Jotun technology.

The chain of events was obvious. The Jotun had, once again, irritated Cronos. Cronos had destroyed whatever fleet they had sent. And... Cronos had destroyed them.

In theory, Samarr could kill Cronos. But theories were useless in the face of a being that could obliterate galaxies, and whose advisors could foresee the future. His own meeting with Cronos was the only time the Emperor had been frightened of anything since the day he'd taken vengeance on his homeworld's killers. For someone whose only viable threat was an encounter with a black hole, someone who could casually turn any given pebble into one...

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

He'd actually, for some years, been briefly trapped by one, thanks to Cronos. If the alien had wanted the Emperor gone, he would be gone. The only thing Cronos wanted was for his kingdom; merely a single world; to be left alone. Establishing the Forbidden Zone was the obvious solution; and apparently Jotun had broken it.

Was Cronos planning to hunt down the Emperor, in revenge? Or just wanting to talk?

Technically, so long as those who had broached the forbidden zone were dead, the laws had been fulfilled. But if Cronos were angry, informing him that all of the offending species were dead may be of assistance.

Samarr turned into the darkness. The stars of the Forbidden Zone were not visible from here; occluded by other star clusters in the way. But... he knew the path. He focused for a moment. Space stretched. Time bent. And he began hurtling through space faster than any starship, aimed like a projectile at the homeworld of a certain errant species of crab.

***

On another world, one far more vibrant and alive, a very different Emperor stood atop a tower of steel and glass. A handful of bodyguards standing unobtrusively in corners and behind displays as he looked out over a massive city; one filled with light, sound, the bustle of millions of people; wearing a silk kimono, beautiful and carefully hand-stitched in reds and blues, one which for him had been free, but to anyone else would have been a terribly expensive investment.

Before the apocalypse, his nation had been dying a slow death. A self-inflicted one, but a death nonetheless. The sort of horrors the Chinese government had been performing lately, which were now their undoing? His own grandfather had done worse. The Empire of Japan had done things to its enemies, to those it considered inferior, with neither concern for morality, nor hesitation. It was difficult to think ill of a nation when it had been formed from such terrors as his people had inflicted on it; the Jotun, at least, simply killed their victims. He looked at the young couple seated on a couch, staring out at the city; the beautiful, elegant woman with vibrant green scales seemed to be growing closer to his nephew with each passing day.

People like them... would, if he had his way, not be here, on earth. They would be living on another world. In space. Japan would leave the roots it had poisoned behind, and blossom once again in the stars. It was already in progress. Some of his people were part of the colonies, out in the distant darkness; and his efforts had already started up dozens of stations and planetary colonies in the solar system. His nation was, slowly but steadily, emptying into the skies, leaving only the elder generations behind on earth.

Her grandmother had been a terrible person, and done terrible things. His own grandfather was a terrible person himself; and the two had even worked together on some of their atrocities. Right now, the war was on fire. He had dispatched what remained of the Japanese ocean-going navy to help the United States as they scoured Antarctica for surviving Jotun; but otherwise, these affairs on earth were none of his concern.

A young man in a simple black suit emerged onto the balcony, and gave a bow; as two of the bodyguards briefly examined him, letting him pass. As the young couple looked on in interest, the man approached the Emperor. "Your majesty. I bring word; South America has erupted into war. The orbital platforms showed numerous fires and troop movements before they cut off; Hephaestus seems to have deactivated them to prevent either side from using his equipment for military advantage."

The Emperor gave a slow nod. The vanishing of the Anzanian King. The United States movements against Antarctica. The civil war in China. So many events, all starting up at roughly the same time. Most likely, whatever army was invading South America was controlled by the one responsible. Which, given the only part of the world not currently involved in some sort of military operation was, paradoxically, the Middle East... narrowed down the possible assailants dramatically.

While here on earth, his official powers were deliberately impaired by agreements dated back to the second world war, these agreements had no impact on Japan's offworld resources; which were now greater than any other nation on earth by a vast margin. Soon, most of Japan's population would be off of this world. They would have hatched from the egg, as it were.

While they could survive without what was left of earth, he needed to ensure that his country survived til then. "Send the order. Launch the fleet. Even the ones that we've been pretending didn't exist. I want a ring of battleships in geosynchronous orbit over our territory with orbital bombardment projectiles prepared at all times from this day forward. Have the prime minister issue a formal notice of neutrality in any earthbound conflicts, aside from against any Jotun remnants. So long as they don't involve us, we simply continue as normal."

Where she sat, Emerald listened to the Emperor's words, barely paying attention to the conversation. He was... right about this. Eventually, in the far future, earth would sputter and die. If Japan's people flourished in space, while the various nations that remained on earth all died off to infighting... that would be fine. She looked up at the sky for a moment. Mars would be beautiful, someday. And she would likely live to see it. How would it feel to stretch her wings on another world? Even with all trillions of tons of water and rock they were adding, Mars would never go above half of earth's gravity. Would it be like floating on the clouds?

For just a moment, she considered that Eyeball was out there somewhere. She'd heard he had launched into space. She was almost tempted to call him before he left. But... no. The reasons she left were still valid. He was still a monster. A sociopath. A mass-murderer. Hopefully, he would never come back.

***

Buried deep within the earth, Almasi groaned as he finally managed to wedge the two rocks apart; and looked out into the darkness; when he pressed a light against himself, it refracted through his diamond flesh, giving off a glow to his surroundings; and letting him see that he was in yet another enormous cavern beneath the earth. He'd been climbing for what felt like eternity since switching from neutronium to diamond. But however long it took... he'd make it to the surface. Well. Hopefully. He couldn't remain in his alternate forms permanently, and if it took too long to get to the surface, he'd eventually have to return to normal... and then likely starve to death or die, surrounded by the darkness. He shut off the light to save battery; and started to climb.

He could hear the grinding and shifting of rocks; he had caused quite a bit of disturbance on his way down. How could he not have thought of what turning into Neutronium would do? Had he been so blinded by the possibility of becoming so tough, so strong, he could compete with the likes of Valkyrie, that he had glossed over what that would mean?

As he carved a groove in the rock with his fingers and pulled himself up just another few feet, only to repeat the process all over again, he looked up through the darkness towards the ceiling. This... was likely impossible. These caverns only existed, likely, because of him falling through. They would be re-sealed by the moving of the rock... and he would be trapped down here, forever.

Still. He at least had to try. He was going to be a father in a month or two; he needed to see those children with his own eyes, if it was the last thing he did. He would upend the world itself to be there for their birth.