章 65: Sometimes, A World War Is Needed.
"Hey! No kisses while I'm still in your lap!"- Seraph shouted and attempted to push her parents away from each other. Only for her hands to phase through.
"Hey!"- She complained, having fallen forward due to the momentum of her movement.
"Hehehehe! Fine, fine."- Aragorn said, returning their bodies to the material plane and lifting Seraph with his telekinesis back this lap.
"We'll stop—"- Aragorn said.
"For now."- Death finished for him with a smirk of her own..
"Yes, for now."- Aragorn nodded.
"... Fine."- Seraph said with a pout.
"Aren't you now a fully grown AI?"- Aragorn asked, using his nail to poke at his daughter's blue cheeks playfully.
"And? Father, are you implying a fully grown AI can't express dissatisfaction through pouting?"- Seraph asked as if Aragorn had just told her that boys don't cry and girls like to dress in pink.
"You can pout as much as you want, Seraph."- Aragorn smiled widely and started to poke her cheeks more.
"Stop that! No poking, but petting is allowed."- Seraph said with the dignity of a queen.
"..."- Aragorn's pink eyes looked away from her to Death, a look that conveyed more understanding than a telepathic transmission.
"..."- Death nodded and then both started to poke and pet Seraph.
"Ag—hehhe—NO!—Ahhahhaah."- Seraph tried to numb her reflex response but Aragorn countered her with his biokinesis.
"Such a cute daughter, how can you say she has fully grown? If this is not a baby then what is it?"- Death asked while tickling Seraph's abdomen.
"Yeah, you're right. Maybe it is her destiny, fate, fortune, and future to be always a baby."- Aragorn said before play-biting Seraph's ear and chewing loudly at it.
"Gyahhahah—yahahStoP!—HAhahaha."- She cried for mercy.
Though this looked like a very lovely and family-friendly interaction to the involved ones, Madelyne was witnessing a battle between Aragorn's psychokinesis and Seraph's resonance, she was seeing how the two forces collided with such an output that multiple cities would have crumbled under.
She could visibly see the soundwaves tearing apart at the energy field of his psychokinesis, something she never thought possible, not even in her wildest dreams.
She could see his psychokinesis flowing like the Niagara Falls, trying to smother her defenses.
But this was not what terrified her the most.
The single most horrifying sight was how these two unstoppable forces would simply die when they got too close to Death or when the aftermath was about to reach the castle walls.
Aragorn had mentioned before that when something could be considered alive, it meant that it must have a state when it's considered dead. But a mortal couldn't visualize the death of energy, psionic energy in this case.
Now she was witnessing it.
Aragorn and his little family kept at it for a few minutes until Seraph decided to move to a corner and pout harder in dissatisfaction. Normally she would have demanded some sort of unreasonable compensation from her father by now, but since her mother decided to join in the fun, her path to manipulating her overindulgent father was blocked.
"Come girl, let me see you. You don't know how hard pure Goddesses of Souls are to find."- Death called at the still-dazed Madelyne.
A little bit insecure at first, she floated closer to Death.
Normally she would have been able to access the information of her soul with nothing but a glance, that was the case for all soul-enabled beings within reality—exceptions like Aragorn existed but could be counted on one hand—but in Madelyne's case, she was finding some difficulty.
It was like reading a book and it suddenly ended midsentence.
She carefully placed a hand on Madelyne's cheek and furrowed her brows.
"Is there something wrong, Ma'am?"- Madleyne asked.
"It's like I'm getting the story live as the author writes it."- Death mumbled.
"Ah! That's because Aniki is working on half of her divinity at the moment."- Aragorn exclaimed.
With a little bit of a jump, she pulled her hand away from Madelyne and slowly turned to look at Aragorn.
"... My Love, have I told you how unnerving is your relationship with Him?"- Death asked with a faint grin.
"Eh? What do you mean?"- Aragorn tilted his head in confusion.
"Well... Let's just forget it, we've come to terms with it."- Death waved her hand in the air as if to dispel the heavy mood.
"We? Who's we?"- Aragorn asked.
"Madelyne, I won't be able to get a clear reading on your soul until He finishes working on your other divinity, but you have great potential as a Divinity of the Soul."- Death ignored Aragorn's questions and said.
"Thank you, I barely have ~400 years as a goddess and I've been focused mostly on understanding and developing my Soul Divinity."- Madelyne said.
"That's good. Sadly I can't make you my Avatar since I already have another girl I favor, but would you like to take over the authority of the vagrant souls?"- Death asked.
"Mmmm, I don't understand what that would imply."- She confessed.
"In our universe, there's no higher authority over the flow of souls, there once was, but she was sealed. This means that any and all unclaimed souls are currently wandering in the immaterial plane of souls."- Aragorn added.
"But what does that mean?"- Madelyne asked, confusion evident in her.
"Claimed souls are those that worship and accept the ruling of a divine being in their souls."- Death Explained.
"Or those with pacts with Extradimensional beings, hell-lords included."- Aragorn added.
"So I'm asking you to take over the authority to handle unclaimed souls... Do you have a realm of your own?"- Death asked an afterthought.
"Would the Abeyance work?"- Madelyne asked Aragorn.
"Yes, it's a Limbo Realm, I don't know if I was lucky or if my 'subconscious' somehow reminded Lucian that I was looking for a limbo dimension, but the Abeyance is modeled after a Limbo."- Aragorn bumped his forehead softly with Death's and transferred her all the information she needed about Abeyance.
"Me, me! I want to record it too."- Seraph came out of her Pout Strike, she was very interested in adding more information to The Grand Repository of Knowledge.
Aragorn lifted and placed her on his lap again and transferred her the info as well.
"This is great! Yes, this works! Now you have them all, Heaven, Hell, and Limbo!"- Death exclaimed, excitedly.
"Yep, though I'm missing a manager for the Heaven."- Aragorn said.
Madelyne for the Limbo Dimension, Wandabus for the Hell Dimension he stole from Mephistopheles, but no manager for the Heaven Dimension the Living Tribunal is holding for him.
"... That's right... Can't you do it? I believe you already broke through the threshold, didn't you Love?"- Death asked, she had been exploring his soul ever since he sat her in his lap and by now she had already discovered that it was stronger.
"I could..."- Aragorn said. Initially, he was avoiding a Dimensional Lord Seat because he foolishly thought he couldn't advance his level of existence, but now that should not be a problem.
"But?"- Serapha asked.
"Dimensions and Dimensional Lords tend to affect one another. Could you imagine how my Void Linked soul would taint a Heaven?"- Aragorn asked.
"Taint?"- Madelyne asked, she doesn't remember ever being tainted by her Abeyance.
"I modeled Abeyance to you, so that didn't apply in your case. But let's talk about Wanda, she is yet to take lordship over the hell dimension I usurped, but when she does I will need to help her taint the dimension instead of the other way around. We don't want to make Wandabus more devilish, do we?"- Aragorn imagined a Scarlet Witch Demon Queen rampage scenario.
"So you would taint the heaven dimension into a paradise of light and fluff?"- Madelyne asked, she had seen some of Aragorn's memories during the time they spent together, so she knew who Wanda was and also had a very clear idea of his personality.
"No, those are my likes, not my soul. I think my soul would slowly morph the heaven dimension into something resembling the void of this multiverse, I'm not sure, but I don't want to waste a heaven dimension testing my theory."- Aragorn explained.
"What about one of ours? You said something about divinizing our family, can't we get one of our girls on it?"- Death said.
"We could, but I don't think any of them have a pure enough soul to use as the pigment to taint the heaven dimension, do they?"- Aragorn countered.
"... No, and that's probably your fault, your overindulgence in their whims led them to the hedonist path."- Death said, it might sound like a reproach but it wasn't, she would have done the same, she was just pointing it out.
"Yeah, that and the shitty lives they led before we met."- Aragorn agreed.
"Can't you pick and raise a baby for that role?"- Madelyne proposed.
"No, it wouldn't work. We are the type of parental figures who have dubious morals and tend to grant most wishes."- Aragorn proudly said.
"Indeed, it wouldn't work, we would spoil rotten the baby."- Equally proud, Death supported the notion.
"..."- Madelyne at least had the normalcy in her mindset to understand this was not something to be proud of, she thanked Kaguya for that.
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
The four of them stayed silent while they pondered about it.
"What about Cosmo?"- Seraph asked.
"Ah!"- It was a feeling shared by the other three.
"Right? That would work."- Death nodded.
"Yeah, he is the only one that qualifies."- Aragorn nodded sagely.
"Indeed, and that's surprising, considering his upbringing."- Madelyne affirmed.
"Doggies tend to be pure souls, right? At least most of the modern domesticated doggies."- Seraph added.
"Then let's get to it, I need to take care of some things back home, just enough to make sure the world won't end while we are away, and Noona, can you look for a certain universe for me?"- Aragorn asked.
"Sure, is it the one from those movies?"- Death asked, having already an idea of what he was planning.
"Yes, Earth-199999. I believe your presence as a personification in that universe is either entirely absent or minuscule, but I know Boss Eternity should have a personification there."- Aragorn remembered the last Thor movie before the invasion he saw.
"So one of the minor universes or one is that yet to grow?"- Death asked.
The Personifications of the Abstract were only present in those universes that needed their presence, in other cases they just let their concept(s) flow in its natural form.
"The movies probably don't match exactly with the universe in mind, but I do believe that they were about a universe that was yet to grow or that did it only recently."- Aragron thought about Loki (Serie).
"Ok, I'll get to it—Oh! By the way, this is for you."- Death sunk her hand into the layers of her realm and brought out a star-like object.
She looked at it as if to confirm something and then stabbed Aragorn in his chest with it. As she brought her hand out of his chest cavity the wound healed itself.
"It's your reward for getting rid of that troublemaker, The Living Tribunal prepared it and gave it to be for keeping."
"Honestly, it is not something we can safeguard with confidence, so you're really doing us a favor by keeping it in your soul, but whatever. Just don't go idiotic and die because of your curiosity, My Love."- To emphasize, Death turned her sclera black and her eyes red and glared at Aragorn.
"Mmmmm, this is quite interesting, so The Insatiable Hunger was really born from the Bellow Place."- Aragorn mused out loud.
"Let's go, girls."- He said.
"It's time to introduce you to the rest of the family."- Aragorn addressed Madelyne.
"Carry me, Father."- Seraph demanded, floated to his back, and secured her position by hugging his neck.
"Goodbye, Ma'am. It was a pleasure to meet Aragorn's gothest girl." Madelyne smiled at Death and approached Aragorn.
Aragorn waved his tail and opened an Astral Path directly to his home universe.
__________________________________
Halo, The Crystal.
To allow for a safety margin, Spark disconnected the Infinity Stones from the Halo about three weeks before the deadline.
The maids and James ever since have been playing a hot potato game with the Space Stone where the gem changes hands approximately every 30 minutes.
One maid uses the space stones and then collapses after passing the cosmic hot potato to the next. Rinse and repeat.
The saving aspect of this is that there are enough maids to keep this cycle going technically forever. The bad news is everything else.
The amount of free time a maid gets after using the stone and recovering their strength is laughable, this implies that it's been a few weeks now since the presence of 'Lord Alduin's' witches has been noticeably diminished.
Normally this would not spell trouble, given that it's been more than half a year since the 'apocalypse' and that with all the resources of Aragorn, the charitable kingpins, Stark Industries, and several others a good part of the damage has been properly addressed... but, this is a doomed reality.
If it could go wrong, it will.
For instance... when the diminished presence of the witches was noticed and that was mixed with 'Aragorn's' silence about the second World Tree in Point Nemo, multiplied by 'Lord Alduin's' absence, and the result is the current scenario.
*BOOOOOM!*- A human grinding shockwave followed after a bright flash and an iconic mushroom cloud.
The atmosphere and ocean gave way to the ultimate symbol of destruction born from over 300,000 years of human progress: the thermonuclear bomb, also known as the hydrogen bomb (H-bomb).
Fighter jets flew away, trying to escape the EMP, a futile endeavor. The intensity of the pulse is strong enough to overcome the Faraday Caging of the jets, no shielding is enough.
The battlefield, which had been a deadly bevy of aerial combat now lays dormant... Jets fall like bees to the smoke, vessels capitulate to the tsunami wave, and when it looks like the battle would cease for eternity...
*BOOOOOM!*- A second detonation occurs in the distance.
This has been the reality of the South Pacific Ocean for some time now, with the occasional skirmish in the North Pacific Ocean.
Is humanity trying to finally put an end to their miserable existence by summoning a nuclear winter?
No.
From below the darkest blues of the Pacific Ocean, crystalline constructs slowly but firmly rise to the light source, or more precisely, in this case, the irradiation source.
The roots of the second World Tree—in reality, it is just an offshoot of the Arbor Mundi—break through the surface of the ocean and bask in the gamma-toxic atmosphere, rejoicing in the unstable isotopes, relishing in the cancerogenic air.
And when the nutritive fertilizer has been fully absorbed, the roots sink back into the darkness of the ocean.
Leaving the battlefield prepared for another clash.
The start of World War III was both unexpected and anticipated.
It's obvious that the average human wouldn't wait for it with anticipation, that much is logical, but what about the multiple governmental institutions across the globe?
The global crisis had already permanently collapsed enough sovereign states to create a need to redraw borders in all continents—barring Antarctica. The Third World was the hardest affected by it.
But not exclusively.
In particular, certain states that lost their Gaea-given protection by acting stupidly were the first to fall.
Out of 193 member states of the United Nations (UN) and 2 observer states, 18 had fallen by the second trimester after 'The Event'.
Yet the food crisis was so fierce that no one cared. No one had the time to.
Imagine that suddenly Earth was almost entirely blighted by the cosmic light of a cosmological event.
Imagine that almost if not all green life was suddenly exposed to a level of UV light intense enough to tan a human in seconds.
Imagine this happened all around Earth and not only in the hemisphere facing the Sun.
Think about the repercussions of losing all green life. Not just the forests, but also the marine green life which is the real lung of the planet.
Think about the sudden decrease in the oxygen levels in the air, think about basically all the food sources suddenly being endangered.
Luckily this only happened for a few seconds before the Phoenix Force interfered, so it's not the end of most life on Earth.
Yet, for the minimal amount of exposure suffered, repercussions were due.
Gaea had to spend a good amount of her Faith Well to aid the green life of the planet, and Seraph had to use some of the void energy left in Aragorn's heart to supplement the Arbor Mundi for it to passively enrich the soils of the world. Otherwise, even with Phoenix's help, life would have been done for.
But even with all of this divine intervention, crops were lost and the agriculture of humanity was almost wiped out.
No crops, no feed. No feed, no meat. No vegetables, no meat, leaving only preserved and stored food and that's the current situation.
Billions were projected to die of starvation.
But this didn't happen, as if by magic, or maybe a miracle, Aragorn stepped up and pulled food out of nowhere.
The 'food' here being a translucent, somewhat milky, slime-like substance.
Of course, there were questions, so he conveyed that it was the sap of the Arbor Mundi.
Arbor Mundi = Food. The despair-laden monkey brains of humanity clicked all at once in place and the monster vailed under their pretenses of civility awakened.
Aragorn (Spark) was already distributing sap by the millions of tons, but even then... Wouldn't it be great if I could secure the second world tree for my country?
Yes, this natural and inevitable thought swam freely in the heads of most leaders.
The Arbor Mundi was not an option, who would be stupid enough to charge at a front manned by Aragorn Abner, Jean Grey, and Seraph Abner, all three well-known omega mutants with a hobby of nuclear deterring?
Without considering the nigh-impenetrable psionic shield.
But what about the second one?
Aragorn had not laid claim to it. It was vulnerable, 'easily' accessible, unguarded, and in international waters.
However, there was one caveat: would the tree survive being caught in a full-scale war among the world powers?
Because it was obvious by now what the next step humanity would be, full-on war. And knowing humanity as they know themselves, they wouldn't put past them to suddenly go 'If I can't have it then no one can!' and destroy the tree. So an important query was born, how much damage could the tree bear?
No one could get closer to test it, because if they moved closer then it might be taken as an intention of getting ahead, and when asked Aragorn (Spark) would just grin in silence... so?
How could World War III start if they didn't know the limits? How could it start if starting meant the possible and most likely demise of what they wished to claim? It couldn't.
And there was this silence more dreadful than the one during the Armed Peace in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
A silence that was broken by a certain green-themed king who had inside information and full hidden backing from the creators of the Arbor Mundi.
King Doom, levitating in a metal throne as imposing as him, draped in the colors of Latveria, portaled one day close to the tree, and under the trepidation of the rest of the world, levitated a thermonuclear bomb—one he had 'rightfully' stolen from one of the fallen theocracies—to the tree and set it off.
Millions wept when they saw the doomsday shine absorb the tree. Millions more, across their dragon- and Stark-given smartphones cheered when they saw the explosion being literally absorbed by the tree.
Then the cheers died down, it was clear what would happen next.
"We, King Doom of Latveria, declare the start of the third world war. Let the fight for the future begin!"- His voice echoed with a coldness that froze the wills of the weak.
And with his declaration, portals opened around the tree and his Letverian forces marched onto the massive roots to lay claim to it.
Ever since that day, there's been at least one nuclear detonation in the South Pacific. The current leader being Latveria—who got ahead—closely followed by the USA—which was the least affected of the superpowers during The Event.
But even with its clear advantage, Latveria was not lofty. Because their territory was sieged by the surrounding countries. So in a way, with the USA having no direct enemies in their home ground, America was doing better.
At least there was a clear accord of not dropping H-bombs in any other place but the South Pacific, and—if they were crazy enough—Re-Nazca.
From a different perspective, World War III was the deadliest most lethal war so far, but the cleanest, since even the downed vessels were eaten by the roots of the tree.
It was the perfect recycling machine.
A world with an ongoing famine—global famine—and a thermonuclear war, that's what awaited Aragorn when he returned.
"What a mess. And you said you were expecting something like this?"- Madelyne asked, sitting behind the crown of horns with Seraph.
'Yes, I actually wanted it to happen.'- Aragorn spoke in their minds.
"I think the appropriate term is 'needed', Father. It's the best stage to grant achievements to the future emperor of humanity."- Seraph replied.
"That was Victor von Doom, right?"- Madelyne asked, the glow of a distant explosion casting an ethereal sheen on her.
'Yes, he is the most appropriate candidate.'
"Indeed, King Doom also appears as the logical option in my probability modules, even Spark supported this."- Seraph nodded.
"You both seem to like him very much."- Madelyne commented.
'Not really, no. That man is not a good person, but he is astonishingly appropriate for the position like he was born and raised for it.'
"But, according to Spark, Father's morals only care for the pure souls and the fluff, so you can't expect us to select the most moral of candidates, can you?"- Seraph added.
'Family, pure souls, the fluff, the shine, and you.'- Aragorn said while sharing :Love: with Seraph.
"~Hehehehe."- Seraph relished in the overbearing warmth of his love.
"What now? Do we make our presence known?"- Madelyne asked.
'No, I can't fix space on my own. I could, but the easiest path is to use the Space, Time, and Power Stones.'- Aragorn flapped his wings and suddenly they all appeared above the lake The Crystal overlooked.
"I can't get used to you moving space instead of moving through space."- Madelyne complained, a hand on her forehead.
"You get used to it."- Seraph said.
Aragorn shifted to his humanoid form and they all flew to The Crystal.
"Master Chief."- A palm-size Spark appeared out of a palm-size warp hole.
"Hello, Spark. I missed you. I have a lot of memories to share later!"- Aragorn spoke using his telekinesis, brought Spark to his hand, and petted it.
"I see some changes. Is the divine Jean-like woman Madelyne Pryor?"- Spark asked.
"Yes, you can give her the same clearance as the rest."- Aragorn instructed.
"Roger that. Are you here to drop her off or are you planning to fix the damaged space?"
"Both, also, did you see the damage dealt to Jupiter and Saturn?"- Aragorn asked.
"I couldn't, the warping and rendered space didn't allow for any of my deep scans to peer through."
"Well, it's terrible. Saturn lost about 60% of its mass, and Jupiter is down to its solid core. Any other celestial object in the Solar System barring the Sun and the Moon was lost."
"That's problematic, will you use the Time Stone to fix the damage?"- Spark pondered.
"No, It's not exactly cost-efficient, with the Goblin Force having messed with the Time-Space mesh. We will have to replace them, probably."- Aragorn replied.
"Then I suggest we ask King Doom since most planets served no purpose other than future resource points."- Spark.
"It's a shame about the vibranium in the Asteroid Belt, though."- Seraph interjected.
"..."
"..."
"It is as my little sister says, that's a shame."
While discussing the damage and possible repair options, they made it to the core of Halo, under The Crystal.
There were multiple beds with tails and ears resting and in the large room, at the center, Emma was holding the Space Stone, her eyes lit with relief when she saw Aragorn.
With a move that conveyed how done she was with the space trinket, she shot the stone like a professional baseball player at Aragon.
"I'm tired of this thing!"- She exhaled.
"How very unqueenly of you."- Aragorn said, stopping the Space Stone in midair.
"I haven't done anything very queenly in the past six months. I can't reach Nirn, my poor princess cub must be having a hard time running the planet all by herself."- Emma said, lying down in one of the nearby beds.
"Isn't Carol with her?"- Aragorn asked.
"Yeah, but have you seen that woman run a country?"- Emma sometimes wondered if Carol could do anything but run through spaceships.
"Ah... Poor Mindee had to step up as a queen at such a young age."- Aragorn lamented as he approached Emma and tackled her in a hug down the bed.
"I miss you too, Aragorn. What's with this flame? Can I touch it?"- Emma asked, freeing one of her arms from the bear hug and reaching for the flame between his horns.
"Sure... Can you see this?"- He asked, pointing at his third eye.
"... Your forehead?"- Emma asked, her hand basking in the warmth of the flame.
"Maybe only the divine and the above can see it."- Madelyne commented.
"Am I missing something?"- Emma asked.
"Father is supposed to have a third eye, or so Mother told me, but I couldn't see it either."- Seraph said.
"Eh? Did Noona send you a memory while we were in her realm? I didn't notice."- Aragorn asked, blinking his eyes.
"I borrowed one of her authorities to inspect souls, I wanted to take a look at mine and Spark's."- Seraph said, implying she had a separate non-psionic channel to Death.
"So that's what you were doing in her castle."- Aragorn had been wondering about that.
"Hello, Aragorn."- A voice talked from the door of the room.
"My chocolate goddess, I missed you."- Aragorn blinked to Gaea and lifted her in a hug from under her buttocks.
"I was worried sick, Love."- Gaea bent down and hugged his head into her bosom, taking care of not poking her head with his horns. His flame passed through her as if it wasn't in the material plane.
"Sorry, I took longer than expected. I had a slight misunderstanding with The Void. At last, I'm back."- Aragorn breathed in her scent and projected his :Love: to her.
"It gladens me that you've returned. Especially since it was hurting me to see these girls and James caught in this unending cycle."- Gaea motioned to the unconscious bodies sleeping in the beds spread across the room.
"Yeah, I should fix that. Seraph can you return my SurfaceSelf?"- he moved to his daughter while summoning the Power and Time Stones.
"Sure."- She sank her head into her abdomen and retrieved his heart.
Upon receiving it Aragorn noticed something unusual in his mindscape.
The SurfaceSelf—which was an artificial personality he created—took root and now was a real part of his Selves. Meaning that he no longer had to leave it behind if he chose to blow up his mind, it was now permanent.
|This is new.|
'Yeah, me being here was already strange.'
>Tell me about it, do I know how strange it feels to suddenly gain a soul?<
The LucianSelf, CoreSelf, and SurfaceSelf said respectively.
}{####}{
|It's going to take me a while to decipher what VoidSelf said, I'll get to it.|
'Then I'll start working on figuring out what Paradoxical Existence implies, though I still haven't finished processing the memories of The Void.'
}{%^##}{
|?|
'?'
>?<
...
'Oh! VoidSelf is helping me with the memories, I just felt it.'
|That's possibly useful.|
>Leave my daily lives to me!<
"I'll go fix space, Spark get ready for the incoming spam of communications from the various intergalactic empires."- Aragorn said before vanishing.
"Always busy."- Madelyne said.
"Isn't Father mostly lazy? I'm pretty sure he is only busy during crises, usually what he does is for fun."- Seraph looked at Madelyne and questioned.
"Eh? Really?"- Madelyne remembered the always busy Lucian analyzing everything her eyes gazed upon.
"Maybe you should tell us more about what you've experienced."- Gaea said, curiously gazing at Madelyne.
"Hello, Ma'am. My name is Madelyne Draconisfilia, nice to meet you."- Madelyne said, introducing herself with the last name Aragorn had mentioned.
"You can call me Gaea, I guess I should introduce myself as the head of our budding pantheon."- Gaea smiled, reminiscing the times during her early years when she led several pantheons under different identities.
Led by Seraph they walked upstairs to allow Emma and the others to rest.
____________________________
Triskelion, Washington, D.C.
"With all due respect, councilmembers... But what you're asking me is simply not possible for the single most undeniable truth, Aragorn doesn't think well of you, and that's putting it impossibly nicely."- Fury tried to lessen the scorn and schadenfreude from his expression.
Luckily the years of spy training and the eye-patch helped.
"... Fury, this war is helping no one, he has the power to stop it."- Chao Yen said.
"Sir, even if you say so, Abner will just tell you to stop it yourselves since you started it. His words, not mine."- Fury said, he was just a tiny bit nicer to Chao yen since he wasn't Hydra as far as they confirmed.
"Do we have to personally ask him ourselves?"- Pamela Hawley asked.
"Excuse me, Ma'am, isn't the council avoiding Abner on account of being unable to block his telepathy so far? Has that policy changed?"- Fury asked, wide-eyed.
"... This war has made me realize that some risk-taking might be needed. There's also the 'undeniable truth' that we can't keep having an antagonizing relationship with Abner, not when his companies and Stark Industries are of vital importance to the world."- She said.
"Last I heard, for next year's Peace Nobel Prize they both are being considered as viable candidates due to their contributions to humanitarian aid."- Jakuna Singh added.
"That doesn't change the fact that we can't approach Abner until we find a way to shield our minds, it's part of our job description to handle information of a certain level responsibly."- Pierce countered.
"I don't think Abner would publicly agree to transfer the authority of the Second World Tree to the council even if you personally request it."- Fury said.
"..."
"..."
"Could you interject for us, on account of world peace?"- Chao Yen asked.
"Sir, that's not the kind of pull I have on Abner. You should be talking to Jean Grey or his daughter, but he's been plenty clear about what would happen if the WSC approached either of the girls."- Fury reminded them.
"... As if having my wife kidnapped wasn't enough. He even had the gall to return her and say he found her on the streets."- Pierce looked as if he was about to cough up blood and demand the crippling of a brat.
'That's because your bitch was in heat when she met Spark.'- Fury thought as he remembered how the 'lady' was throwing herself into Spark's arms.
'Fury.'- He suddenly heard Spark's voice in his head.
'Where's the crisis?'- Fury asked. Contrary to his alarmism, his tone was relaxed, as if it were just another Friday.
'No crisis. The Master Chief has returned, he is about to fix the damage dealt to the surrounding space.'
'That's one damned big crisis if you ask me!'
'I don't see how that's a crisis, the Master Chief is about to fix some of our immediate problems, isn't that normally considered good?'
'Not when the flamboyant dragon god is the one doing it, or Goddess Gaea for that matter.'
'Ah, I see, you're still butthurt about the show the two of them put on during the Green Door crisis.'
'Damn right, I am! Butthurt all the way to my scalp, I understand that this last time it was inevitable, with the sudden appearance of the cosmic terror and all of that, but that one time they went at it with the subtlety of... of...'- Fury was experiencing a lack of vocabulary.
'A flamboyant dragon god and Earth's Mother Goddess? I don't see the problem.'- Spark.
'That's precisely my point! I bet he is going to fix space in the flashiest of ways possible.'
'... I can't deny nor confirm that.'
'Motherfucker! That's what I'm saying!'
'He also asked me to set up a press conference to address the issue of responsibility.'- Spark added.
'Responsibility? Didn't he take out the cosmic terror with him?—Wait! Don't tell me he is planning to hold the devil accountable during a press conference, right?'
'No, Director. The devil is too mystical and legendary of a figure to be held accountable, the Master Chief is planning to lay on blame on one Nathaniel Essex.'
'How? Didn't Blue say that he had too many clones to fully get rid of the cockroach bastard?'
'Yes, Seraph is right, but he left traces of his soul, though I don't think he knew he did.'
'Soul Traces? Explain.'
'The Pandemonium Cube was handed to him by The Ghost Rider, but the Ghost Rider was acting as the legal representative of Mephistopheles, which means that a deal had to be sealed between the two parties.'
'I don't know about how much legality it can be found in the dealings of the devil, but go on.'
'The short story is that there were traces of Essex's soul in Mephistopheles because they sealed a deal, the one that landed the cube in Essex's grasp. So when the Master Chief was getting rid of the Council of Red he found these traces.'
'... A part of me is happy about getting rid of the cockroach bastard, another is terrified of the upcoming press conference.'
'Don't worry, Director. We can always turn back time if something doesn't work out.'
'... That's not helping and you know it, pervert robot!'
'Have a fruitful meeting, Director.'
"..."- The attendees chose not to comment.
"I believe the WSC has better chances of securing control by allying with Latveria."- Fury suggested.
"Latveria? That arrogant man would rather ally himself with Abner than us if things get to the point of needing an ally."- Pierce angrily mouthed.
"... Hold on, Pierce. Let's not readily dismiss the option. Why do you suggest Victor von Doom, Director Fury?"- Pamela Hawley asked.
"Although they can't be called friends, Abner and King Doom hold each other in high regard."- Fury replied.
"But is it a closer connection than yours?"- Pamela Hawley questioned.
"No, Ma'am. But King Doom can offer benefits that my position as Director of SHIELD cannot."- Fury implied that, on a personal level, Abner stood to gain more from aligning with a King than with the Director of a spy agency.
"Such as?"- She asked.
"The type that we can't put on record. Of course, this is in the scenario where King Doom has something that Abner can't obtain."- While Fury's arguments may hold some truth, this was all with the objective of swaying the WSC to Doom's side.
"... Your suggestion holds some validity. We—"- When it looked like Pierce was about to accept, sirens started blaring all around the Triskelion.
And not just there, but all around the world, through news channels, smartphones, computers, tablets, presidential palaces, security agencies' headquarters, TV, radio, sorcerers' towers, the sanctums, and more.
When Spark switched the buckyballs shielding with the Space Stone-Maid powered one there was a change in the skies of the world.
The original buckyball shield that many had grown accustomed to cast a permanent aurora in the sky. Whether it was day or night, the blue-green-red aurora was there, everpresent.
But when it was switched with the space isolation shield of the Space Stone the skies changed. The new shielding did little to hide the 'ugly' truth outside the confines of Earth's gravity well.
For instance, it was common to see the reflection of the other side of the planet in the sky due to the warping of space. So, at midday, you could see patches with visible stars, or at midnight, you could see patches of bright blue sky among the stars.
This was not all, the stars appeared to have changed positions even in the parts where they were visible, this was because space was bent in certain locations and the curvature of space would create the illusion of displacing the stars.
It was also normal to locate patches of absolute darkness in the sky.
But now, the skies on both hemispheres of the planet could see a massive golden cosmo with two white slits. The slits moved in tandem like eyes—because that's what they were—and slowly they appeared to be either moving away or shrinking.
They shrunk, shrunk, and shrunk until the gargantuan shape of 'Lord Alduin' could be spotted. Then he disappeared, and those with enough composure realized that the skies were back to normal.
"Agent Hill!"- Fury shouted.
The Door to the room opened and Maria Hill walked through.
"Director Fury."- She said.
"Patch through my screen the feed to the Arbor Mundi."- He commanded with 'urgency'.
Maria Hill hurriedly exited the room and a few seconds later the WSC and Fury were seeing as Lord Alduin shapeshifted into an eastern dragon and wrapped himself around the trunk of the Arbor Mundi, his horns shined for a second and then Aragorn Abner was summoned.
The two appeared static for a second or two and then Aragorn Abner disappeared.
"I need a transcript of that conversation, Fury."- Pierce demanded as they saw the dragon settle into its usual slumber.
'Bitch, please! I'll get you a transcript so fabricated that not even Aragorn would know what was the original conversation he was supposed to have between himself and him.'
"Right away, Secretary Pierce!"- Fury exclaimed, full of patriotism and superspyness, and exited the room, supposedly to work on the task.
______________________________________
>What a mess.<
|It had been previously evaluated.|
>I know, but it's strange to see the Solar System missing most of its planets.<
|It's possible to steal the celestial bodies it's missing and replace the damaged ones with the ones of other realities.|
>That's not a bad idea... Maybe I can take some from a reality with a Solar System that's about to face destruction.<
|I (you) should focus on locating the target.|
>I know, that's what I'm doing, it's just that the state of the Solar System distracted me.<
|I don't believe I (we) added ADHD to my (our) settings when I (CoreSelf) was creating SurfaceSelf's personality.|
>I (CoreSelf) didn't but I (CoreSelf) didn't account for the effect these All-Seeing eyes would have on my curiosity.<
|It's understandable, when all is visible it's hard not to get distracted.|
>I'll get to it now!<
"♪ Sopra i cieli, ancor più su ♫"- Above the skies, even higher - Aragorn floated facing America, from the frozen Norths to the frozen Souths.
He swung the blade of his tail across his view and the Space and Soul Stones appeared.
"♪ Dolci canti di fanciulle bestia ♫"- Sweet songs of Beast Girls - Aragorn focused on the traces of Essex's soul he had found in Mephistopheles and the cube, he focused on the personal impression Madelyne had of him.
The white flame softly dancing between his horns gave birth to two equally white embers.
"♪ Che dai monti fin quaggiù ♫"- That from the mountains down to here - Aragorn sharpened his will and communicated with two Infinity Gems.
The two embers grew into white flames of their own, dancing slowly at the melody of the song, Aragorn was infusing them with his magic.
"♪ Portan gioia ai deboli ♫"- They bring joy to the weak - Aragorn felt the proto-conscience in the stones accept his commands eagerly to paint reality with their colors.
The two flames flattened and hollowed out, creating two flaming halos of white fire.
"♪ Gloria ♫"- Aragorn made the halos sink down the atmosphere, all the way to the ground level, going further below, piercing the crust, then the mantle, followed by the outer core and finally the inner core.
The halos moved through the immaterial place.
"♪ A lui nell'alto dei cieli ♫"- To him in the highest - He willed the stones to pollute the halos with their authorities.
Slowly, one halo turned amber, the other turned blue.
"♪ Gloria ♫"- He fed the halos the needed energy. With a pulse, the two halos grew factorially, until they became visible walls of 'harmless' fire on the surface. Panic ensued.
One halo aligning with the Equator, and the other with the Greenwich meridian. Both started to sweep through the surface of the planet, one from North to South, the other from West to East.
"♪ A lui nell'alto dei cieli ♫"- To him in the highest - And so Aragorn concluded the first part of the spell.
He observed as the two halos scanned the entire planetary surface.
'WHAT ARE YOU DOING?'
'Hello, Phoenix! I missed you.'
'I DIDN'T.'
'I imagined. I'm locating a guy who has caused us some problems.'
'NO, I UNDERSTOOD THAT. WHY ARE YOU SINGING?'
'It's a personal experiment, I created a temporary self within my mind that recognized the meaning of the words I just sung differently than the standard meaning.'
'WHY?'
'I was wondering if it was possible to cast while using words with established meanings but understanding them differently.'
'WAS IT WISE TO TRY THAT WHILE USING THE INFINITY GEMS AS A MEDIUM?'
'It's alright, no irreparable damage would have happened.'
'I SEE.'- Phoenix said and prepared to leave his mindscape. She just dropped by because her Avatar was insisting on reopening the psionic link she shared with Aragorn.
'Please tell Jean to come if she wants to witness the death of Essex.'
'... SO THAT'S WHO YOU'RE HUNTING. I'LL BRING HER.'- There was an uncanny and vicious energy in her voice.
Aragorn felt her leave his mindscape and sent a summoning message to Madelyne.
Barely a minute later, Madelyne walked out of a portal.
"So it's finally time, huh?"- She asked, using her divinity to talk in the vacuum.
"Yes, have you figured out what will you do to it?"- Aragorn spoke by creating sound with small gravitational waves.
"I was having a hard time finding the drive to care enough about Essex to hate him. It was hard because now I can't see him as anything else other than a despicable insect trying to play god. So pathetic I stopped caring somewhere along my life."
"Please don't tell me you want to grant it a quick death. I won't allow it."- Aragorn said with a deadpan.
"Meh, I just don't care enough to hate him. It's mostly about closure... and Sahara asked me to leave it to you, something about knowing you well enough to know that she can't even imagine what's the worst you could do."- Madelyne grinned.
"Such a wise sister you've got there."- The crimson in his eyes matched his predatory smile.
"I'm here!"- Jean said, appearing in a bright flash of flames, using her Avatar authority to talk in the vacuum.
"Huh..."- She fell silent after recognizing Madelyne.
'She feels disappointed.'- Madelyne commented in Aragorn's mind.
'It's not about what you're imagining, she doesn't care about you being her clone.'- Aragorn clarified.
'Really?'
"I don't suppose you would want to be my little sister, would you?"- Jean asked, sullenly, after getting a read of Madelyne's soul's age.
"Huh?"- Now it was Madelyne's turn to be left dumbfounded.
"I told you."- Aragorn's tail waved across his view and a pale man appeared, trapped in a spatial bubble.
Aragorn gave him no time to talk and proceeded to knock him out through the power of the Soul Stone.
He read his disgusting memories and examined the soul traces of souls similar to his.
More spatial bubbles appeared and he repeated the same ritual. Knock them out with the soul equivalent of a concussion blast, read its foul mind, inspect its soul traces, and then summon the clones related to it.
"This shitstain had nothing better to do other than cloning himself, did he?"- Jean cursed.
"Little sister, what a foul mouth you have, maybe some discipline is in order."- Madelyne smiled all motherly at her gene donor.
"Hey! I'm the original here, the older sister! Time-Void-Traveling shenanigans be damned!"
"Are you sure you want a millennia-old goddess like me to call you 'big sister'? Have you no shame, littlest sister?"
"... I'll tell Phoenix to run me through a few millennia worth of memories! Then you'll have no choice but to call me big sister!"
"Can't you just call each other 'sister' and leave it at that?"- Aragorn asked, more than a thousand knocked-out clones floating behind him.
"Wow! When did so many accumulate?"- Jean exclaimed.
"Maybe he was indeed a pest."- Madelyne added.
"Essex was definitely a pest."- Jean affirmed.
"No, I mean like how pests reproduce abnormally fast."- Madelyne explained.
"Yeah, you're right. Though this pest did have about two centuries to propagate."- Jean nodded, running some equations of nativity projection in her mind.
"Don't get too surprised, I'm not done."- Aragorn said, receiving another batch of clones.
"Which is the original?"- Madelyne inquired.
"They don't know, but we should be able to tell which one is the oldest soul at the end, you should be able to see that."- Aragorn gave her a somewhat mocking grin.
"Hey! Get off my case, I can't see their souls because of that bubble."- Madleyne cried in fake outrage.
"You can see souls as well?"- Jean asked, enthusiastic about sharing more similarities with her 'little' sister.
"Eh, yes. I'm a goddess of souls, but a total newbie at it."- Madelyne said, somewhat embarrassed under the shine of Jean's green draconic eyes.
"That's cool! I've been learning about souls from Phoenix, I can teach you what I know!"- It was apparent that Jean was excited about gaining another sister.
Maybe it was because Xavier and her parents cut her off completely from her older sisters.
"That would be lovely, sister."- 'Little sister,' Madelyne said in her mind.
"Nice!"- Jean's smile was a sweet as honey.
"By the way, what are we doing with them?"- Jean asked Aragorn.
"Madelyne is not very thrilled about dispensing pain, what do you want to do with them?"- Aragorn asked, since they were the most immediate victims he cared about, he thought it was fair to leave it in their hands.
"I kinda stopped caring about him when I realized how small he was... Hmmm."- She brought a finger to her chin, striking a thoughtful pose.
"I think I will leave them in your hands, Aragorn."- Jean concluded, pleased with herself.
"You as well? Why?"- Aragorn was curious about why Sahara and Jean would both reach the same conclusion.
"That's obvious. You're cruel and vicious to those you hate—far beyond anything I could ever muster. So who better to be the executioner than the cruelest one I know?"- She said such an awful thing while perching herself around Aragorn's neck and planting a welcoming kiss on his cheek.
"I'll take it as a compliment."- Aragorn used his tail to hug Jean tighter to his back.
It took a few more minutes for Aragorn to dig the last cockroach out of its hiding burrow. During this time, the world was panicking, Jean was happily exploring his mindscape, Madelyne took this as a sister-bonding activity and gave her a guided tour, and Fury was getting fed up more and more with each time a wall of amber or blue flames engulfed him.
The maid in Halo—the ones awake—and Gaea were enjoying the light show, the Inhumans were having almost as much panic as the humans, and the Watcher was watching.
"This dragon knows no subtlety."- The Watcher shook his head in disapproval.
The panic was pervasive enough to pause the ongoing war.
Globally, there was this shared sense of PTSD, whenever something huge happened.
But finally, Aragorn was done, with the last sweep, the last Essex was uprooted.
"Spark."- Aragorn said.
"Master Chief."- Spark replied from Jean's P-Link.
"I'll have Jean share some memories with you, coordinate with Seraph, Daybreak, and Fury to take care and clean up the mess these cockroaches left behind."
"Acknowledged."- Spark replied.
"So? What about you, sisters?"- Aragorn's red eyes locked on their green and white ones.
Madelyne and Jean looked at each other and reached an unspoken agreement.
"We'll watch you do your thing."- Madelyne said.
"Though I don't know how much I could stomach, I'll try."- Jean grimaced, she knew how brutal Aragorn could be.
"Okay, but first let's take care of a time bomb this thing left behind... literally a time bomb."- Aragorn said, displeased, and then warped them to an underground lab in New Jersey.
The lab was a child born between scientific genius, transhuman biology, and lunacy.
Clear tanks with all sorts of specimens, bio-mechanical tentacles automatically carrying samples, waste, vat tanks, corpses, pieces of bodies, and many other manner of horrors that made Aragorn regret having his eyes.
"What in the fuck is this?"- Surprisingly, it was Madelyne the one who swore.
"Sister, weren't you raised in a place like this?"- Jean asked, bringing a hand to cover her nose, a futile attempt to protect herself from the stench.
"No, it was nothing as nightmarish as this."- Madelyne denied.
"Essex was a genius in many fields, including human psychology. He had different sites for different purposes, the place you were raised was a 'Nursery', more specifically J.G-Nursery-13. This place is one of his personal bases, though this one in particular has a special significance."- Aragorn recounted what he had read in the Essexs' memories.
"You mean to tell us that there were at least 13 Nurseries dedicated to my DNA?"- Jean recoiled at the affront to her persona.
"No, there were three Nurseries dedicated to producing a successful clone that overcame cellular degradation, there were other Nurseries dedicated to Scott Summers, to his Marauders, and the vast majority to himself."- Aragorn led them deeper into the madlab nightmare hole.
"I don't believe I met any other 'sisters' during my 'childhood'."- Madelyne said.
"No, he was a perfectionist; you were the culmination of it." Aragorn rewatched the memories of the thousands of failed Jean Grey clones going through recycling, a process as gory as imaginable.
"I don't follow, if he was such a genius geneticist and he wanted my and Scott's child why didn't he just make one?"- In Jean's eyes, he had all the puzzle pieces, so why not complete it?
"He did try. It's part of why he matured Madelyne, he wanted her eggs. But that didn't work out exactly, the DNA wasn't exactly pure enough to call the child a descendant of Summers and yours, and the DNA was degenerating faster than calculated so he had to mix some third party's DNA—"
"Wait! The child?"
"There's a child?"
Both sisters interrupted Aragorn's explanation when they had enough time to process what he was saying.
"Yes, a boy. You can meet him after Seraph and her team bring him to Halo."- Aragorn nodded.
"... Is he mine, then?"- Madelyne asked.
"I wouldn't say so, if you do a conventional DNA test it might even come out inconclusive, that's how degraded the DNA was during the zygote stage. Though the child would match closer to Summers."
"Why is that? Shouldn't it be inconclusive as well?"- Jean asked.
"Because the third party DNA used was Alexander Summers'."
"Alexander Summers? Who's that?"- Jean asked, she could tell the man was supposed to be related to Scott but she didn't know how.
"It's no surprise that you don't know him, that's the name of Scott's older brother, he died in a mission shortly after Xavier's team clashed with Erik during the Cuban Missiles crisis. A scheme of this cockroach to secure fresh Summers DNA."- Aragorn brought them to a room filled with clones of Moira MacTaggert floating in tanks filled with an amber liquid.
"What?!"- Jean asked, surprised and confused. If Scott had a dead brother, she would know about it—everyone would. Given his previous personality, he would have loudly proclaimed how much of a victim he was and how much pity she should have for him.
"Who is this woman?"- Madelyne was surprised by the clones. They were awake, but could not do much aside from flail in the vat tank.
In their eyes, she could see both despair and hope, probably about the strangers that walked into the room where previously only Essex himself was allowed.
"Xavier wiped the memories of the survivors, so by the time he picked you up no one talked about an Alexander Summers they didn't remember. Mr. McCoy should remember if you want to unearth the memory from him."- Aragorn calmly said.
"... The professor was more scummy than I ever gave him credit for."- Jean murmured.
"You don't say, not even Scott remembers his brother."- Aragorn agreed.
"And this, my dear Goddessling, is the Moira Engine, it was operational up until my arrival in this universe."- Aragorn declared.
"... I can't make anything out of that name."- Madelyne said.
"It's easier if you read their memories, you both should, it will be a pedagogic experience about the depths a broken shit like Essex would seek to reach its dream."- Aragorn moved to a control panel and started typing.
"Ugh, typing, so barbaric."- Not without before complaining.
The psionic sisters each walked to a clone and carefully started to invade the minds of the Moira clones.
Moira MacTaggert was a peculiar mutant, even among mutants. So peculiar that classifying her power level was complicated, was a mutant capable of destroying entire timelines and resetting them an omega-level mutant?
It sounds similar to a return-by-death type of power, no?
She dies, takes the timeline with her, and restarts. The ultimate reset button.
Given the nature of her abilities, this was supposed to be a secret. Unless someone purposely looked around the deepest parts of her mind, no one would be able to discover her secret, as long as she's not actively thinking about it her surface thoughts would not out her.
Reality is often contradictory to expectations.
In 1962, during the Cuban Missiles Crisis, she met Xavier and an Essex-provided clone of Sebastian Shaw, she was mind-wiped by her crush and Essex took an interest in her after observing her through the clone.
It was just a small interest, barely a side thought, but Essex was already acquiring the sample known as Alexander Summers, why not take a peek at her while at it?
So he did and discovered memories of different timelines, about three of them.
That's how Essex came upon the universal reset button.
But Essex was not about to add her mutation to his body, what would the purpose be? Dying and restarting over? A power so uncontrollable was not suitable for him.
Luckily he did not need the power. He created the Moira Engine. Why go through the alternate timeline when Moira could go through it for you?
Sinister created an entire farm of Moira clones at different ages, with their X-Gene activated at specific points in time.
Clones and the X-Gene were his thing, so this was simple enough.
Upon suffering a setback to his plans, he would download the knowledge from his brain directly into a suitable clone, then kill it, thus eliminating the entire timeline and sending the clone's consciousness back into the past at the moment of its 'birth'.
After that, he simply reads the information from the clone's mind and voilà, were it not for the complexity of Moira's mutation and the inability to use a clone more than ten times, he would have a bootleg version of nigh-omniscience.
This worked for about three decades, but even to him, there were futures he could not see because the Moiras would die before they knew it. But setbacks were acceptable.
The end of the world would simply appear as a slight delay to him.
Yet, it all came down crashing in 1997, all of a sudden the clones started to disappear upon activation.
It was as if instead of resetting the timeline they were hopping timelines, at least that's what the Tachyon readings implied.
Rage, hysteria, alarm, hate, and despair couldn't begin to describe what Sinister felt. About 87 clones of himself died to his rampage that day.
After his tantrum, he hypothesized that something must have changed in the present that blocked the future. So he began to scour the planet to locate what could have been powerful enough to lock the future.
It was only with the help of his trusty pal—whether willingly or unwillingly—Xavier that he discovered what changed, what was new, and so Essex's abhorrence for Aragorn began.
But he couldn't get rid of Aragorn, he didn't have the power to do it, and somehow he kept getting rid of his capable pawns, Scott Summers, Jean Grey, Remy LeBeau, Xavier, and more, and these were only the ones he somewhat directly dealt with.
His daughter and her paramilitary group of mutants started to get rid of labs he had hidden in Hydra. Everything was falling apart, and in his despair, a sulfur-tainted hand reached for him.
He accepted the deal, got the Pandemonium Cube in his possession, and the rest is history.
"*Bluargh!*"- Jean keeled over and vomited her insides.
Tears evaporated as her form shifted to her cosmic fire state, matter disintegrated as it mixed with the fire, a psionic wave surged from the poor thing and Aragorn had to absorb it.
"I don't want to see more."- Madelyne calmly voiced out and reached to her lit-aflame sister.
The fire harmlessly enshrouded her. She lifted Jean in a princess carry and tried to help her through her empathy.
"You can deal with that thing, please make it suffer. Can you send us back?"- Madelyne asked, Jean quietly sobbing in her arms.
Aragorn waved his tail and warped them to Jean's room in The Crystal.
"It's understandable. Watching what yourself had to suffer through in different timelines is not pretty."- Aragorn said.
'IT WAS NEEDED, SHE FORGOT SHE PROMISED TO GET RID OF HER TORMENTOR IN THE SHADOWS. YOU PROVIDE HER WITH TOO MUCH A COMFORTABLE LIFE, IT'S EASY TO LOSE YOUR DRIVE WHEN YOU GET BABIED THAT MUCH.'
"Please, I don't think this universe can brave another crisis to build character growth in my Firebird."
'YOU KNOW IT'S NOT THAT. SHE FEELS SAFE WITH YOU, TOO SAFE. SEND HER TO THE SHI'AR PROMPTLY.'
"Just hold it in for a couple of months, I plan to jump to the past of another reality soon enough, and that should give her the challenges you deem necessary, Phoenix. I won't allow you to break my Firebird under the excuse of character growth."
'SHE IS MINE BEFORE SHE'S YOURS.'
"S̷̡̢̝̖̖̬̹̪͖̯̟̦̯̫̮̼̮̣͔͔̪̺̠͚̯͚͉̺̠̰̖̱̺̬̹̲̤̪̓͆͌̈́̏̾̽̽͑̃̓̏̈͌͂̍͋̓̈́̀́̎̿̓͋̌̆̆̐̿̐̄̏̔͜͠͝͠͝͠ͅḪ̵̛̛́͋͊̊̈́̍̐̍̅͑̓̿̔́̋̄̍̃̆͂̋͑̄̒̆͌̑̓̚͝͝͝E̸̢̨̼̬̰̻̫͚͓͎̻̲̜̣̟͖̲̤̭͓̽̈́͋͐͗̉͑͐̀̍̇͌͐́̂̒̇͐͑́̂̅̋̎̂̈́̐̽̋͗̀̔̆̇̈́̄̽̎́͂̕̕͜͝͝ ̶̡̛͖̠͔̼̱͕̜̲̹̮͓̫̮͚̻̬̖̠͖̾̿͊͌͂̓̊̎͗̀̍̅̒̈̍̌͌̀̆̚͝I̴̡̛̛̺͔̪̟̽̆̈͆̐̄̏̎͋̈́͂̍̒̀̓̇̽̓͑͗̐̔͌̆̏̆̚̕͝͠S̶̨̢̢̧̡̛̰̭̺̪̪͎̯̼͇̬̣̣͕̪͚̞̜̞͙̹̘̜͎̲͕̩̻̦̘̮̱̲͉̬͂͑̊̐͒̽̌̉̏͆̌́͗͊̽̆̓̾̑̾̔͗̀̌̀͐͐͛̽̏͂̓͆͗̎̊̕͘͘͜͝͝ ̵̡̧̛͎̭̣̳͚̖̫̰̻̰͇̺͎̠͎̦̱̙̩͉̣̯̼̩͙̫̘͍̖̣̞̦̱͕͍̙̝̭͈̻͗̄̈͂̀̈́̓̈́̉̽͆̀̍̂̌̚͘̚͜͝͝M̵̨̨̛̥͈͈̮̪̻͚̪̩̦͖̖͖̤̱̩̝͚̮̬͐̾̓͐̂̈́͂̋̈́͒͆̍͋̇̿̀́͗ͅͅI̷̡͖̻͎͓̽̑̑͑̈́̆͗́͋̏̓̔̐͂́̾̏͌̾̂̇͋͌̅͘͘̕͜͜͝͝͠͠͠͝͠Ń̵̢̨̨̧̛̲̙̖͈͕͇͚̗͇̭͖͖͉̼͓̭̘̠̦̰̮̳̞͙͉͙̞͔̥͉̲̞͖̭̯̪́͂̊̔͜͝͝ͅͅE̵̡̠̮̹̤̦̭̩̲̞͑̽̿̈́̈́̽̂!̴͖̌̃͌͐̅̈́̊̎́́"- Aragorn spoke. {She is mine.}
'YOURS? DON'T MISUNDERSTAND, ARAGORN. JEAN IS MY AVATAR, AS IT IS IN THIS REALITY AND IN INFINITE REALITIES, MINE OR NO ONE'S.'
"Don't brush over how many Jeans you break in your pursuit of her. I taught her, I raised her, I trained her, I healed her, I fed her, I supported her, and I L̶̢̖̖̳̤͖͓͖͉̳̩̼̣̬͖͔̹̜̻͎̎͛͊̀̒̀͆͌͂͋̊͑͆̏̊̎̒̿̚͠ͅO̴̢͙̫̯̫͖͍̩͔͖̭̥̿͒̌͌͐͛̏̃̇̽̈͑̃̃̏̇͘V̶̢̼̤̖̤̤̞̬̤̭̙͈̩̩̮̂̀̂̇́̑͑͂̿̀͛͌̓̂̔͆͑̚͜Ȇ̸̡̧̧̢̛̘̠͓̩͚̲͉̖͔̯͇͙͓̹͖͇͕͖͉̻̳̙̺̝̜͖̦̣̬̯͖̩̈́͑̇̀̊̏͐̎̅̓̍̈́̅̒̃̈́̍̔̀̋̈́͐́̐̄̄͊͋̎̒̔͗̑̿̕̕͘͝͝͝ͅ her hence she's M̵̨̨̛̥͈͈̮̪̻͚̪̩̦͖̖͖̤̱̩̝͚̮̬͐̾̓͐̂̈́͂̋̈́͒͆̍͋̇̿̀́͗ͅͅI̷̡͖̻͎͓̽̑̑͑̈́̆͗́͋̏̓̔̐͂́̾̏͌̾̂̇͋͌̅͘͘̕͜͜͝͝͠͠͠͝͠Ń̵̢̨̨̧̛̲̙̖͈͕͇͚̗͇̭͖͖͉̼͓̭̘̠̦̰̮̳̞͙͉͙̞͔̥͉̲̞͖̭̯̪́͂̊̔͜͝͝ͅͅE̵̡̠̮̹̤̦̭̩̲̞͑̽̿̈́̈́̽̂!̴͖̌̃͌͐̅̈́̊̎́́"- Aragorn declared. {Love//Mine}.
'...'
"..."
'...'
"..."
'HAVE IT YOUR WAY, BUT SHE WILL DEAL WITH THE SHI'AR IMMEDIATELY AFTER, WHETHER YOU WANT IT OR NOT!'- With a flap of her fire wings, she returned to the Astral Plane, to observe and judge.
"*Sigh*"- Aragorn sighed, an action he carried over from his human days, and moved to disable the time bomb Essex left, and to erase the clones.
Why erase? Because these clones were closer to the mentality of Moira-616, these clones were mutant hating machines.
This was not the only place this was happening, Spark sent a multitude of replicas of himself to different black sites across the globe to deactivate the milliards of last resorts Essex left behind in case of his death.
Seraph mobilized Daybreak to rescue clones and the kidnapped mutants, Fury moved in tandem, and battles broke out in different locations as Essex's subordinates resisted the inevitable.
After Madelyne explained what happened to those awake in The Crystal, the maids eagerly joined the purge.
Some bases were in remote enough locations to allow for subtlety, some others were in urban centers populated enough to allow for cameras to get footage of the commotions.
Multiple bases were conjoined operations, of course, noble names such as Hydra, AIM, U-Men, and the USA Military, were some of those included in these conjoined operations.
It was a blitzkrieg that even required the mobilization of Krakoa's armed forces, and Aragorn had to move after dealing with the time bomb.
____________________________
Nondescript Location, Arizona.
>So this is where this place was located.<
|The Facility has eluded me (us) for years now, it's interesting how Essex's downfall is helping the world in more ways than one.|
>Though it's a shame that Sublime had already vacated the lab they shared.<
|Maybe the bacteria has a form of cosmic sense that alerted it about the possible dangers.|
>Like the spider-sense.<
|But something more subtle, like a form of instinct born out of its accumulated influence in billions of humans.|
>Like collecting data from the sensorial input of all its carriers.<
|Then using his influence in the carriers to process this info, henceforth acquiring this 'spider-sense'.|
>I will try to jump back in time and see if it ever personally visited the lab or if it did so through one of its sentries.<
|I'm (you're) correct, no matter how unkillable the bacteria is, once I (we) find it at any given point in time I (we) can use the Soul Stone to mark its soul.|
>Then I (we) just need to return to the present and locate the beacon.<
|I'll prepare some countermeasures, just in case.|
>Caution is rewarded or unneeded, never wasted.<
Aragorn finished thinking—or talking with himself, both meaning the same after he acquired his concept—and waved his tail.
A huge visible psionic sphere imprisoned The Facility.
He gestured with his hands and magic circles covered the sphere, locking space.
He softly landed just outside the perimeter of the military base.
'Military base', because that's what The Facility was in this universe. A private endeavor backed by the military.
Given that he was publicly operating as Aragorn Abner, he couldn't fly in void breath first.
At least he had to give that impression that he followed the law. He had enough pull to disregard most laws, but part of his good reputation was his image, the image of Aragorn Abner.
"Maybe in these cases, it would not be such a bad idea to wear a mask."
|I agree, wearing a costume to hide myself (ourself) could be beneficial.|
>Then again, I (we) would not put up with it for much longer. I don't want to hide myself on account of the sensibilities of humans.<
|It's enough that I (we) follow their flimsy laws.|
With a few *Clanks*, several spotlights landed on Aragorn.
No one shouted something idiotic like 'Identify yourself!', these days his appearance was enough for even the most naive kid to identify him.
"Mr. Abner, my superior will be here in a moment, please patiently wait for a moment. I apologize for not offering a room for your waiting, but this base is not the type that receives guests."- A soldier said from behind a metallic fence.
"It's not a problem, soldier."- Aragorn replied.
Aragorn crossed his legs in a lotus position and used his tail's blade as the sole support of his body.
Minutes passed, and it was not because they were pulling a power play on him and were forcing him to await. No, minutes passed because they were in a state of utter panic in The Facility.
They had a mutant they had borrowed from a certain lab—obviously a Hydra lab—that could open temporary warp holes, but it wasn't working.
In the distance—by the backside of the facility—suspicious explosions could be heard, they were trying to open a hole in the barrier.
One hour went by, and Aragorn was now playing poker with the soldiers manning the main gate, he had brought out some jerky and orange juice to share with the soldiers.
Initially, there were some doubts and concerns about following orders and such, but when Aragorn opened a spatial window to show them that their superiors were in a frenzy trying to escape they realized something was wrong.
"Sir, if it's not a problem to ask, what's inside the base."- One of the younger soldiers asked.
"Private Ellis, I'm guessing you connected the dots and realized this is a less-than-legal facility, right?"- Aragorn asked.
Private Ellis and his team nodded.
"The good news is that this was sanctioned by the USA Army, so your positions are not at risk, you were following orders, were you not?"
Once more they all nodded.
"The bad news is that this was a sanctioned operation by the USA Army, this means that they might silence you if you know too much, so I don't think you want me to answer your previous question, do you?"
They shook their head rapidly.
"I imagined, don't worry, someone from outside will soon arrive to deal with the situation, the scum inside won't ever willingly grant me entry, they know what would happen."- Part of the reason they are panicking so much is that Aragorn is also covering the 'guinea pigs' and equipment with barriers, so they know he is aware of what's going on inside the base.
Aragorn was enjoying their despair as they tried multiple times to water their computers or burn the physical records. They even tried to bring the test subjects out of their prison to use them as a hostages, but the doors wouldn't open.
"Sir, this jerky, is it some of that rich people's stuff that the average Joe can't find in the local store? I don't think I have ever tasted a jerky like this."- Another soldier asked, trying to shift the conversation topic to something else, Anything else!
"Sort of, I made it myself, so you could technically say that only rich people have access to it since only I have access to it and I'm a bazillionaire."
"Sir, do bazillionaires make their own jerky? I thought you had them maid girls for that."- A corporal asked, he was the leader of the team manning the main gate for this shift.
"Corporal Dosek, I think it's more of a me thing."- Aragorn brought out an orange, pepper, cayenne, basil, salt, a somewhat thin cut of beef, and some wood chips.
"I was playing with my powers."- The ingredients floated in the air and disassembled, they mixed appropriately and then he passed them through a heat wall and the beef lost its humidity.
"Last, to add that smoky flavor, you burn some of these wood chips."- Aragorn did as he said and the outcome was jerky, the type that normally couldn't be cooked the way he did but worked out, nevertheless.
"Sir, I believe this was not a gazillionaire thing, as you said, I think this was some magician or mutant stuff right there."- Private Ellis remarked in surprise.
"It's good practice for control of your powers, but I can tell none of you have powers, otherwise you wouldn't be outside of this base."
Aragorn's words made them all gulp down something cold and terrible down their throats, they were smart enough to understand what Aragorn was implying.
Another hour passed, and Aragorn made an opening in the barrier to allow for the 'backup' to enter.
In a convoy, the 'backup' arrived. The soldiers tensed up and returned to their post and awaited the orders of whoever descended the escorted humvee.
A grey-haired, stern-looking old man with a mustache, dressed in green camo, stepped down from the humvee.
"Mr. Abner, what a surprise."- He said, loading his voice with as much displeasure as his manners allowed him without being disrespectful.
"Ross, did you fly from Los Diablos Missile Base just to meet me, should I be honored?"- Aragorn asked, his face a mask of impassiveness.
"For you, Mr. Abner, the man of the century, I believe even the POTUS was considering flying here."
"Please Ross, there's no need for ploys here, we both know the president doesn't know what's under that base."- Aragorn pointed with his tail behind him.
"..."- Ross chose to remain in silence.
"I thought so. In fact, I believe even you don't know what's in that base, do you?"- Aragorn asked.
He didn't need his All-Seeing eyes to read him, nor his psionic powers, it was clear as day, he didn't know.
"What are you doing here, Mr. Abner? Setting that barrier up, flying all the way from NJ over restricted space at supersonic speeds, this doesn't look good, and you know I can't allow you access inside that base."
"Really? Not even if I say I'm here under the orders of Lord Alduin?"
"... No, not even then."- He said so, but he flinched, he knew this wasn't good news when Aragorn mentioned the dragon.
"Uhmmmm, are you sure? You could grant me access and then we could both part in our ways happily."
"Is that a threat, Mr. Abner?"
"No, never. I wouldn't threaten you, never, Ross."- Aragorn said, and he meant it, he wouldn't threaten Ross, he would simply act.
"Then what is your next move, Mr. Abner?"- Ross asked, knowing there was something more else coming.
"Since you couldn't grant me access, I'll go."- Aragorn said with his stone face mask.
"... You will?"- Ross had a gut feeling that things were not that simple.
"Of course."- Aragorn faded the barrier away from sight, it was still there but they couldn't see it.
"You wanted me to leave, so I will leave. I'm a citizen of the United States Of America, I would never disobey orders from a general such as yourself, right? Civilians don't oppose the military, that's a crime."- Aragorn floated closer to Ross and extended his hand for a handshake.
"..."- Ross looked at him suspiciously but in the end relented and shook Aragorn's hand, and in doing so he signed his death, though he would know later, a few weeks later.
Aragorn then disappeared, as if he had just teleported.
"..."- Ross was in deep thought, reviewing Aragorn's words for a few seconds after he disappeared.
Then everything shook. The base was uprooted from under its foundations.
"ABNER!"- Ross shouted, but there was no response, at least not the response he was expecting.
"Oh, General? Are you looking for Father? But you've just sent him away, haven't you?"- An annoyingly sweet and smug voice echoed from all directions around him.
"Seraph Abner! What are you doing?!"- He shouted after spotting her floating not so far away from the uprooted base.
"Diplomatic Immunity."- She said, a mocking grin smugly plastered on her face.
And Ross connected the dots, since Aragorn was registered as a citizen of the USA he couldn't interfere with a military base, that would be illegal, which is not good for his image, but Seraph Abner? No, she was not a registered citizen of the USA, she was from Re-Nazca.
"ABNER! STOP THIS!"- He screamed and demanded, but Aragorn was 'not' there, he had 'departed', following his instructions.
"Don't bother, General. Father is a law-abiding citizen."- Seraph smiled and winked at Ross.
And so the raid of The Facility was initiated.
{A/N:
I opened a Patre0n account: patre0n . com / ExistentialVoid [Change the '0' with an 'o'.]
There are currently two chapters of more than 10k words each, but I'll build on this to at least five chapters.
You can join as a Free Member, but you'll only get access to the same chapters as in WebNovel. There's also a chat for those who want to leave suggestions or get in contact with me.
}
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