The untold truths of this world are left to that which is lost. Humans have always desired immortality. The inability to never fall to illness or to the wave of time. The way to abandon the fear of death, and the pain of losing loved ones. Such a desire is commonplace and innocent. It is common belief that such a civilization would be filled with bliss, a paradise, a Utopia.
Is that truly the case?
In the culture filled, and innovated city known as Atlantis, such immortality was common place. People grew to years unimaginable and yet appeared to be in the youthful ages of teenagers. Their culture flowed with unique design, and inapprehensible technological breakthroughs still unknown to us today. The people were brimming with desire to understand and grasp the meanings of all things. They accepted the thoughts, theories, and findings, and would decide for themselves if it was truly correct.
Unfortunately, there did arise a powerful disagreement that split the city into two groups with nowhere in between. The two groups were known as the Luctus and the Vitam Ago. The Luctus had the unyielding desire to understand the creatures around them. The wanted to understand why animals would become attached, why they would mate and what the changes of expression meant. They had no concept of emotions, without sadness, they could never be happy. Without despair, they were never hopeful. Without impatience, they could never feel relief. Without agony, the concept of love was nothing but an otherworldly conceptualization. While time was indefinable, emotions were incomprehensible words.
They had desired to feel the loneliness and pain. The sadness and anger of the animals, the plants, the Earth. They desired… no, longed to feel the imprints of death and all ails. It was when those desires came about that people clashed. No longer was there peace and harmony, but chaos and discord.
The group that had publicly denounced ideas the Luctus had concocted, was the Vitam Ago. The Vitam Ago believed that the want to die was ludicrous. The thought that if a lower being than them had it then it wasn't of any use to them. That the lack of it is what made them superior. They were lead by Malae Tenebrae, a powerful priest, and high ranking government authority decided to re-educate the Luctus. They each were thrown into solitary confinement and were forced to listen to a recorded, droning voice, lecture on a repeating loop. This was a brainwashing technique they used on animals to instill obedience. If they desired to feel like the animals, they were going to be treated as such.
After a week or so of their solitary confinement a little more than seven-eighths had been convinced that their ideology was wrong and a groundless absurdity. The little one-eighths had been abandoned in their seclusion, with the exception of Pontus Fortuna, an ambidextrous scientist with a photographic memory, an abnormally realistic artist, and a charismatic leader.
Pontus Fortuna had used the well-known idea, modernly known as reverse psychology. After doing so, he used his artistic abilities to create a lot of masks of the guards, to allow himself to slip into the guards that checked on the other Luctus's ideas. As he entered each cell he stealthily, proposed they use the same method he used to be removed from the confinement.
After everyone had been let out he had arranged a meeting for all the Luctus to concoct a way to be rid of their immortality and took a number of certain security measures, mainly focused on disguises, and breaking and entering while leaving a note. At the meeting, Fortuna took the lead and helped organize the plan, with the help of his associate, the scientist, Fides. It was because of them that the Luctus had made enormous strides… no leaps, in biological, neurological, and a preposterous number of other varying sciences. Fortuna had become the Luctus's leader and eventually became the voice when their findings had some conclusive and productive data.
When the Luctus had presented themselves again, the Vitam Ago, responded with the burning of their research, which hadn't affected the Luctus at all. Fides had predicted that they'd do such a thing and had made what are now known as copies. These copies had been handed out by threes so that the copies would be stored throughout the city in areas that only the people that hid them knew.
The city had once again been split into two, and the two groups had butted heads once more. There was once again chaos and discrepancy. Unsure of what to do, the Vitam Ago's looked to Tenebrae for ideas and guidance. Tenebrae, unwilling to lose his position an acknowledged leader, or to let the Luctus do as they please, rejected their ideas and cut them off from all the laboratories and research facilities that the public was supposed to have access to.
Unwilling to give up, Fortuna arranged a meeting with Tenebrae. Due to the situation, they dressed in contrasting colors. Fortuna wore all white, whereas Tenebrae wore all black. As the debate dragged on, and on, the people earnestly awaited the news. When the doors opened and the two leaders emerged, the all clamored for the resolution the two had come to. However, there had been no resolution. Their confidence in their beliefs was astounding. It seemed to be more of a competition of whose resolution would crush the other.
With such an atmosphere, over time, the people of the grand city grew confused. There wasn't any clarity of what was right or wrong. Nothing that they could use as a justification or verification. Due to their habit to see the point of view from everybody's perspective, the two groups could understand one another's views.
Seeing this, Tenebrae took action to ensure the loyalty of all people belonging to Vitam Ago, made a declaration. He declared that they would kill all those who lowered themselves to the position as lowly as a varmint.
In a hasty and impulsive response, the Luctus commented that they'd take away the immortality of everyone to ensure the safety of their goals and lives. They had grown to be more determined and resolute than ever previously recorded.
Chaos ensued and the unique ideals were pushed to their limits. Persecution and maltreatment were thrown at them all. Research and progression had been exponentially decreasing. All growth for their civilization had been halted. It was indisputable that they wouldn't be able to continue their way of life if things continued on in such a matter. Yet they continued on nonetheless, neither groups willing to back down from their aspirations for the future.
Within the Luctus there were people growing ever more keen on being able to feel the wave and effect of time. There wasn't anything left for them in this unending existence. They had begun their project, A principio ad finem. The condensing of all of their immortality would be their new beginning.
The project utilized the soft glow of the moon to synthesize the unique light necessary. After storing up this light, they'd project it onto the whole city, using their advanced aircraft technology. This light would locate, and extract the compound that held the amino acids in an abnormally strong and flexible structure, leaving no extreme harm to the body. After extraction, it would be drawn in towards the point of which the lights vertex was located and be compressed together in a rhombohedral crystalline structure. In doing so they were able to denote the possibility of immortality for the future of their future kin and subsequently formed a translucent jewel.
However, the Vitam Ago, or more particularly Tenebrae, would not let it happen. During the compression stage, he tried to remove the forming jewel and Fortuna desperately tried to stop him. There was a large amount of destruction as they tried to restrain each other and they both ultimately failed. While the Luctus had succeeded in stripping away the immortality from everyone possessing it, they had failed to keep Tenebrae's hands off it. Tenebrae had grabbed the jewel from its pedestal before the crystallization was complete and thus the inner part of it was forever stuck in a state of equilibrium it would constantly shift and change.
Luckily the loss of immortality was too much for Tenebrae, it struck him like lightning. It felt like his essence had been ripped from his soul and his chest had been ripped to ribbons. He threw the jewel to the ground and as expected it remained in one piece. He looked up at Fortuna and Fides. His eyes were filled with an emotion not named at the time, he walked towards them with a murderous intent and grabbed them by their collars.
"Look at what you've done in ten years and you will hate yourself. You have just given us all a death sentence!" With that, he turned with a hardened heart and left the building. That was the last of him anyone saw. Fides picked up the gem laying on the floor and gave it to Fortuna. Fortuna took it and smiled at it.
"We'll finally live now Fides." Fides looked at his companion taken aback he had not expected the soft smile to cross his features. No one had ever worn one and yet he immediately found that his lips were turning up a bit.
"Yes. Yes, we will."
Ten years later
Fides had journeyed the world trying to find everything he could about the world and the emotions every experience made. He had been told to stop and be more reserved but his curiosity had gotten the best of him and while he had learned about the deepest and most penetrating emotions he found himself in a lot of trouble. Said trouble being the melodramatic women he'd fallen a bit too hard for. Together they traveled the world and had a beautiful child.
Fortuna had fallen for and married a beautiful yet intense woman and had two young children. One of them, the younger, was a bright, rather ornery boy who loved pranks and made people smile at the silliest things. Some would later say he was the very first comedian and others would say he has a trickster that hadn't learned any emotions because he was the second born to the man who was closest to the gem when it had taken immortality. It was said that his son was a curse for taking away their immortality. The oldest was a stunning blonde child. She was the most popular of the new generation she, unlike her brother, was a completely emotional child, some called her over emotional. Despite this, her empathy and sympathy accompanied by her high intelligence made her incomparable. She was everyone's pride and joy, and her name was Pandora.
Pandora had become the best of friends with Scarlett, the child most like people from today. She was average all around. Unlike the others of her generation, she had no outstanding traits other than being a friend to Pandora.
All in all, as Fortuna looked back on the last ten years like Tenebrae had told him to, he saw all the strife that came and all the blessings that came from that. He would never change any of it for the world.