Mordin Solus and Takhisis?

He had the opportunity to look outside the window as the cab made its way down the off-ramp to Outland.  It was from here that Mordin could get a clear view of what he was looking at…a vast flat land.  It did not curve like land would on a sphere, it was as flat as a table.  The world was flat, whatever world it was.  There were no hills, no valleys, no mountains, save for the single spire of rock that reached to the hazy, sunless sky above.  There, he could barely see a torus shaped object suspended above the peak, lying on its side like an old rubber tire upon the ground.  It seemed to rotate ever so slightly.  All around the flat land were spots of green, possibly grasslands, rocky badlands of rust and brown, dense forests of emerald green, sickly yellow swamps.  Small rivers divided the land.  

The ramp they traveled on was a peculiar one as well.  It was shaped like an overpass, but it was not suspended on top of anything.  Mordin could see the edge of Outland as it faded off into nothing, again also suspended in the haze with no support.  The highway behind them disappeared into the haze.  Down below, he passed over what looked to be a bustling city of gloomy gray and fiery red.  At the center of the city was a palace, twisted, sharp, foreboding.  But the form itself seemed to be one of order and rules, with each terrace having a logical purpose.

“Ribcage,” she said. “It leads to Baator, the Nine Hells.  My…old stomping grounds.”

“Stomping grounds?”

Takhisis turned her head, her lips curling into a cheeky grin: “You didn’t think I was a god of good, did you?”

Mordin locked his jaw and his big eyes blinked slowly.  He gulped, frozen in his seat, with only the slight bump of the road to move him around.  For just a brief moment, he felt fear, being in the cab with this powerful…and now admittedly evil being.  The tension was broken by Takhisis’ laugh.

“Really, you should look at your expression,” she said with a chuckle. “It’s priceless!  I really had you going there for a moment, didn’t I?”

“So, you’re not an evil…god?”

“Well, that part takes a lot of explaining,” she replied. “I was among the Powers of Darkness.  But I was put in there because I had an advanced view on how existence should be.  They called me the Queen of Darkness.  And the only reason I got that title was because I was a deviant.  But no, I wasn’t evil, just someone who didn’t like how the system was set up, so I revolted and got slapped with the title…Takhisis, the Dark Queen.”

Takhisis leaned back with a sigh.

“The Queen of Dragons, Serpent of Deceit, She of Many Faces, Many Colors, the Five-Headed Dragon…only fools would dare speak my name…the list goes on.  And as you may have guessed, despite my attempts at saying otherwise, the story is often written by the victor, so my story was told with a…bad tune.  They would say I did these horrible things, and these horrible things…so often time, I did…because I found out people didn’t want to listen to my side of the story.  Who wants to listen to a god who doesn’t want to follow the rules and create this horrid thing called evolution.  Who the hell is this Takhisis, who does she think she is?  The only proper way of creating life was mixing dirt and bat guano!”

“Life is made of dirt and guano…”  Mordin’s brow ridge twisted as he began to rifle though his mind about the possibility of creating life with that combination. “This does…require some further analysis…”

Takhisis reached out and placed her hand upon his shoulder: “I’m joking.  It’s…a very, very stupid…divine joke about how life was created.  It’s not even that funny.”

“Still, the joke must have originated from somewhere,” said Mordin. “The complex of creating life with bat guano.  In order to have bats, you would have needed to already create life.  But you need bat guano as the ingredient for life to begin.  A paradox.  It is the question of which came first, the chicken, or the egg?”

Takhisis grinned: “It makes my head hurt too.”

“Perhaps you got the bat guano from the universe that came before,” said Mordin, his eyes brightening with elation. “You must have saved some before the last universe was destroyed in order for you to create the new one.”

Takhisis broke into laughter.  She leaned back to comb her talon through her white hair.  Her other hand held her stomach as she spasmed in laughter.

“You figured it out, Mordin,” she said. “I got the bat guano from the previous universe.”

She slowed and looked to him as he tilted his head and looked around out the window one more time.  Mordin turned to the ceiling of the cab and then back to Takhisis.  He crossed his arms and nodded with a slight smirk.

“That was quite fun to figure out,” he said. “I believe I may have just solved the mysteries of the universe.  If only I had my omni tool to jot down my findings.  But I don’t suppose I took it with me when I arrived.”  He looked down upon his lap, noting that he was still dressed in the white and red armor he had when he died. “Despite coming here with the last thing I had on.”

Takhisis took hold of his left forearm and waved a hand over it.  A glowing orange gauntlet of hard-light particles flashed on.  Mordin softly gasped as he pulled up a screen on his omni tool.

“I did take it with me,” he said. “You know, I am going to start a journal.”

“Be my guest,” said Takhisis.