Disclaimer: All characters owned by DC Comics and Warner Bros.
Original story by Sebastian Olmedo Eguiluz
Have you ever woken up and believed that against what your memories tell you, you aren't who you remember to be? That the true essence of your being, the real experiences that defined you are the ones that you label as just a dream. That's what I feel every single day I open my eyes as soon as the sun rises at dawn.
Sometimes I wonder if I just suffer from schizophrenia, if what I think are just representations of how my mind succumbs to madness. I keep dreaming both asleep and woken up about me as an omnipotent being that guarded a place known as the Multiverse. Of how I had brothers and sisters who weren't too different from myself, of how I was known as the son of a demonic being named Mandraak and how I sealed his fate by uniting in battle with an army of heroes with both familiar and unfamiliar faces. I remember watching Superman, the world's greatest hero along with Captain Marvel, along them there were 50 other men with similar appearance but with slight differences, by my side I remember animals who looked taken from cartoons, next to them a group of Japanese teenagers dressed as superheroes confused of their reason for being there and in the background I see two final armies. One of them an army of gods and behind them thousands of people with the infamous Green Lantern costume.
Every single day I go to work, every single day I eat and go to sleep and every single one of them I have dreams of me as a Monitor that I could swear that they were memories from a past life. I walk across the street until a beacon of sunlight covers me completely and makes it impossible for me to see anymore. When I wake up I'm using the uniform of the monitors once again and I'm surrendered by the multiverse itself. It's truly a spectacle that surpasses the wildest of imaginations, a single organism conformed of the dozens of parallel universes that exist in reality, every single one of them next to the other but almost completely impossible to reach.
As I observe the beginning and end of the structure I notice that it is expanding on both sides, creating new universes in the process. I remember now that at the end of the last crisis that threatened the entire multiverse and after the fall of the God of Evil and the tyrant Monitor that I liberated the multiverse from the interference of my people, and by doing so let it gain back its original instinct for growing and expanding.
Worlds are born, and worlds are destroyed as the mass of the multiverse expands. I ride across the space and time like if it was a street of New York. I walk over stars and see the voids that the cosmos has to offer and that yet billions of creatures never learn about them. I pass over the barrier that separates each universe from the other like if it was nothing and see many variations of each other. Sometimes I see the world's greatest heroes, sometimes the world's greatest criminals. Vampires, Sex changes, different timelines, etc. Every universe is unique and none of them seems to resemble Earth-51, the Universe that I was set to protect until it was transformed into the battlefield between the Monitors and the army of Monarch. Countless lives were lost from both sides of that war, but most importantly almost every single living being in my universe was annihilated in a single moment when Superman Prime destroyed the armature of Monarch and unleashed all of his colossal power. The fury of Monarch's power when unstopped rivaled the one of the Big Bang, and just like one of those explosions created the universe, this one destroyed almost all life in one.
One single plant survived, a false omen that maybe life could one day return to my universe, that I hadn't completely failed but I should have known better. I leave my passage through the halls of the multiverse to return to the citadel of the Monitors, as I do such thing I notice that yet another universe has been done, for as much as the habitants of that universe can tell, time moves as fast as it should but I can see in fast forward how they evolve and transform to become a unique being. It takes me a few moments but later I realize that the new universe is basically a new version of the one I lost, both joy and hope take over my senses as I try to understand what I am witnessing.
Since it is a new universe, a monitor has yet to be attached as its protector and so I can freely explore this new world. I travel to the library of Metropolis to see the history records preserved there, I find out the story of this world and find it is just like my own. I teleport back to the space that surrounds this planet and in silence observe it, debating with myself if I should event attempt to solicit become the protector. Hours pass by and I have yet to reach a conclusion. I've saved the multiverse from the greatest threat it ever faced and by doing so saved thrillions of lives in the process, I have earned my forgiveness for my failure, yet I still can't convince myself.
I teleport once again into the world I long abandoned, carrying too much guilt and regret for any sole soul to carry. I land at the place where the plant I left a long time ago still resides, without water or someone to take care of it is has almost died. The single thing that represents the existence of life in this universe is about to cease to exist and I can't come to a choice like I expected.
A wise human man once said that in order for the bad guys to win the only thing that would be required is that the good men do nothing. I simply stood by and left my universe, my responsibility to perish due to a conflict that should have never took place. I gave sanctuary to Ray Palmer, and by doing so doomed an entire plane of existence. I have long considered my sins as also crimes, and justifiably I was put in trial and found guilt by my brothers and sisters. I was reinstituted as a monitor after the last crisis and forgiven for my past incompetence, by all accounts I'm a free man but guilt is still holding me back.
I need a new jury, one done by a single being that can understand better than anyone else the horror and tragedy of seeing a complete universe perish before they have any chance to fight back. "I summon from his grave in Earth-1 the one being that can understand my dilemma. I summon Kell Mossa, the superhero Pariah to be my witness and jury in this trial imposed by myself." A few seconds passed and then a body of bones emerged right next to Nix Uotan, it only took moments for that body to start regaining his flesh and reveal the face of the man he used to be before he was murdered by Deathstroke during the second crisis that brought back the multiverse.
Pariah looks confused, he only remembers the moment before he passed away and now he is in the middle of space, being able to survive the pressure of this place without having any negative effect and next to a man he had never seen but yet looked really familiar. "Welcome Doctor Mossa. It's truly an honor to have you here with me." I greet him trying to don't make him too scared of the situation.
The man can't hide his fear due to the great amount of sweat on his face. "Thanks…why am I here?" he stammers no longer trying to hide his fear to my presence. "My name is Nix Uotan. After the events of your death the Multiverse along with the Monitor that protected it were restored to life, the Monitor then was divided in various versions of himself each one of them with the purpose of safeguarding a respective universe." I stop myself for a moment and then flop my fingers, moments later we are back to Earth and walking around the streets of Opal City.
"Nathaniel Adam, better known to the world as Captain Atom was corrupted by one of my brothers due to a let's call it 'Chess Game' with Darkseid himself and made him become the second Monarch. Upon discovering the existence of the Monitors, Monarch assembled an army with the strongest and most ruthless soldiers of the multiverse to attempt to overthrow my people from their position. This war had my Earth as the only battlefield, when it came to the end of the conflict; the energy of Monarch was released on my universe and destroyed any sentient life in it. I had long given up on the idea of returning to my universe, the exile imposed by my brothers and sisters due to my failure and the events that came after that being a primordial part of that decision. However I've come up with this world as the multiverse continues to expand. It's a perfect replication of my former one, I am now trying to come to a conclusion if I should protect it under my jurisdiction or if I should give up on my desires to make up for my errors and let it be protected by someone else. I have come to you Pariah because you were the man who saw the greatest tragedies of the original crisis, the absolute destruction of entire universes. In my eyes, you are the only person in the entire multiverse that can come up with the right answer to this dilemma." I explain to him, without realizing that in my attempts to answer his questions I have only confused him more and more due to my inexplicable desire to help people know as much of me and my intentions as possible.
"Show me. Show me the exact way that the universe died. Show me all of the players that took place in it and your participation in the event." He orders me, this request takes me by surprise, more than anything due to the great logic it has. I place my two hands over the head of Pariah and send him the recompilation of every single thing that happened before and after the big explosion. In a matter of minutes he is able to revive that experience with him as an intangible spectator unable to stop the events from happening, very similar to his role in the first crisis.
"You should not become the protector of this universe." Pariah notes as he finishes the visions, I can't help but to feel deception after hearing his judgment, even if I know that ultimately he is right, however the man that has witnessed death like no other makes yet another statement that I could have never seen coming. "You should return to your own universe and rebuild it". After saying these words he puts himself in a firm position and puts his hand on my shoulder. "You failed to protect your universe, but you weren't the one that destroyed it. The sins of the killings of so many innocents reside not on your hands but in the ones of Solomon and the Kal-El of Earth Prime. You have more power than any other Monitor in the entire multiverse, meaning that you more than anyone has the power to return the universe the way it should be. Don't patronize on your failures of the past, instead unleash all your power to make sure there is a future to look forward to." He explains to me in a serene tone, no matter how much I've learnt since I was born, I never fail to be amazed by the group of people that are referred as "heroes."
"Thank you". I say with a sincere tone and before I'm ready to bring him back to Earth-1 he interrupts me one last time. "I would like for you to return me to my previous state". Shock invades my face after such request, I desistate to do as he tells me. "Why? Why would anyone want to return to the dead when you have the opportunity to live?" I question him, now I'm also surrendered by curiosity.
He smiles and closes his eyes. "For too long I have carried a burden that I would not wish on any other being, the ability to be there at the exact time that life is about to cease to exist, I remember every single fearful scream and face I observed before life was eradicated and up to this day they keep resounding inside my head. It was only in death that I was able to find quietly. Please, I beg you." with that kind of argument I don't even attempt to argue as I too have felt that kind of pain and madness, I flip my two fingers once more and the flesh that covered Pariah starts to fade away and his appearance becomes the one of a pile of bones once again, moments later those same bones disappear on space and emerge once again on his tomb.
I close my eyes too one last time and teleport back into the Earth I swore to protect. I walk across the land until I find once again the single plant that is about to fade away. I remember the first time I noticed its presence and that the exact words I thought were "Where there's life, there is hope". I point with my finger towards the plant and it soon becomes green again, moments later it starts to transform into a big and strong tree like the ones that have lived for centuries. I then extend my two arms to my right and left and grass starts to emerge from the brown ground, as this happens more plants start to emerge from all around the recently created forest. I release all the power I have and so more and more creatures start to emerge, all of them the ones that were there at the prehistoric times, the process continues and in the end the creature that would in many many years become the homo sapiens starts to make his presence known.
I have been given a second chance to start over and do things right, it's only fair that humanity, or what is supposed to become humanity has the same chance. I start to take flight to have a better perspective and then with the shake of my fists I recreate the mountains and the canyons, and with the graceful movements I make I bring back to this planet the oceans, rivers and lakes that it had lost. Itravel to the stars and start to do the same process with different plants and creatures depending on the planet I am.
I am Nix Uotan. The judge of all evil and savior of the Multiverse. Today is the first day of the rest of my life.