WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Kang the Conqueror #5, available now from Marvel.
Kang the Conqueror has long been one of the most accomplished villains in the Marvel multiverse, although his most recent variant has spent nearly his entire life trying to overcome his villainous future. As unlikely as it might seem, it was Kang's seething hatred and unbridled ambition that initially drove his younger self away from him, as well as a woman that every Kang variant would come to love. Unfortunately, that has not prevented the latest iteration of Nathaniel Richards from living his own worst moments all over again, nor from coming face-to-face with the one heartbreaking figure who is truly capable of defeating him.
After embracing his place in the universe as Kang, Nathaniel Richards has finally met the "first" Ravonna, the princess of the last kingdom to stand against Kang's future empire. This Ravonna would also be the one who would genuinely love him, only for her life to be snuffed out for it. After seeing so many versions of her reject him or die, Kang was driven to pour all of his power into embedding Ravonna's very soul across the timeline. As seen in the pages of Kang the Conqueror #5 by Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly, Carlos Magno, Espen Grundetjern, and VC's Joe Carmagna, the plot gave birth to countless iterations of Ravonna throughout time, and while that is what the titular villain had intended, this would also lead to the creation of his greatest adversary - the Terminatrix.
First introduced as the Terminatrix back in Peter Sanderson and Rich Yanizeski's "The Puzzle" from the pages of 1992's Avengers Annual #21, this Ravonna lived a life identical to the variant Kang had initially encountered in the 40th century. When Kang attempted to change his future, he set in motion a chain of events where Ravonna survived while also driving her to hate him. Eventually the Terminatrix would defeat Kang before posing as him to keep his Chronopolis running, even defending it from the time consuming Alioth. While that same story would normally end with her dying during Chronopolis' destruction at the hands of Immortus, Kang's most recent manipulation of the timeline has added a new chapter to her life at his expense.
The Terminatrix turns on Kang as soon as she finds him, sacrificing herself to destroy his Chronopolis. Of course, that cost is more than worth it if it means giving some version of herself a chance to be free. Across the timeline, every Ravonna that doesn't die an untimely death spurns Kang's advances, often with force. Even worse, once he met the Ravonna who would truly love him, his actions would drive her to become his greatest enemy. Kang may have believed that his actions were made out of love, yet the kind of control he exerted over Ravonna's existence can only be called obsessive. The confrontation between these two has historically been a devastating one, but there was always some amount of mutual respect if not any more romantic interests. This time, Kang has gone too far by reshaping Ravonna's personal history as he sees fit. As the Terminatrix tells him during their confrontation, her name and story were not his to etch throughout time, and doing so was an act of control carried out by the worst kind of egomaniac.
Kang might not have found what he was looking for at the end of his journey, and he certainly hasn't made the timeline any better in the course of it, though there is the chance that his battle with Ravonna at the end of it could knock some semblance of sense back into him. When this Nathaniel Richards first set out on his quest to become a better version of himself, he couldn't have imagined the cruelty his future self would put on full display, nor the terrifying traits he would grow to inhabit on his own. With any luck, being confronted by the Terminatrix and seeing his life's work destroyed in an instant will be the kind of reminder he needs to rein in his ambitions and set out on a less destructive path. If not, she has at least let him know that there is always going to be a familiar face waiting to knock him down if given the chance.