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A/N: I was dissatisfied by all the half-assed/generic/over-used reasons for isekai, like 'Multiverse Gamer Lottery!' or 'Bob the ROB is bored' so I decided to try and mash together a different, albeit basic one.
How did it turn out? Meh, good enough for me I guess. And it can be used over and over again for different isekai stories, so I've got that going for me.
You can choose to skip this prologue. It gets mildly dramatic. Just a little.
I FINALLY wrote this damn Marvel SI OC fic after the longest writer's block, since summer 2019, if you're curious. I feel like I deserve an ice cream.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
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I vaguely recognized that I had lost too much blood. I was more focused on my lack of air and attempting to stem the blood pouring out of my jugular veins with my hands. And the tears flowing down my face. Desolate tears. Tears of hatred and of lifelessness. Tears that trickled down my neck and mingled with the blood that spread down my chest and my forearms. Tears that I knew in that moment would flow for the last time.
I was in my own apartment, wrists and ankles bound by duct tape, bleeding out in bathtub. I also had duct tape over my mouth. I knew my luck was shit - multiple examples of poor luck came to mind - but I didn't think a burglar would actually kill me. Must've been having a bad day, and I was collateral, which pretty much summed up my entire life. Collateral damage. That's all I was.
Some dude shooting at an annoying dog accidentally shot my parents' car as they was driving by his house, leading to a series of unfortunate events that caused their death and my emancipation at the age of sixteen.
Some chick I barely knew got in trouble with her parents for texting her friend about losing her virginity (which I think she was lying about because she said she had fifteen boyfriends, which I also think was impossible with her ugly face) so she pointed at me as her rapist, long story short I went to court with DNA test in my favor, about two dozen defending witnesses, and three favorable polygraph tests, but lost, with probation as punishment.
Some dudes decided to set off fireworks next to a hospital, and my younger sister, barely born, died from carbon dioxide poisoning in the delivery room. Those examples were already fucking shitty, but the list went on. It was like God decided to squat over my general location every time he needed to take a fat shit, not even realizing I was there. The more I thought about over the years, the more accurate the description 'collateral damage' sounded.
And now I was about to die at the age of seventeen and six months.
I choked on a sob and stopped trying to stem the blood. It didn't matter at that point. My limbs were starting feel cold, and more and more blood went down the bathtub drain. I completely resigned myself to death.
All my life I'd been fighting for myself, fighting for breathing space, fighting for a moment to relax, only to get body-slammed by Lady Luck... over... and over... again.
I didn't want to fight anymore.
I... I just wanted to...
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"Get up."
A full minute passed while I tried to force an answer through a sea of depression, before I gave up.
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It took me a few more moments to realize my surroundings were completely different. I was lying on a mat of some sort on my side. I didn't bother opening my eyes though. I didn't care enough. For once, I could finally rest, finally let my guard down. I would've been been beyond pissed if the dead couldn't truly rest in peace.
"You can't stay here."
Again, I didn't answer. I did, however, decide open my eyes and prop myself up on my hands.
My surroundings were pure white. Light seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere. It took me a while, but I realized it was a train station. Completely empty. Not even trains. Just the platform, some columns, and a single bench. And an ambient sound that was only just perceivable, and somehow calming, like the sound of outer space.
"Am I not dead?" I grumbled as I got to my feet. "Shit, I can't even die properly. Or... am I?"
The mat I was laying on was no longer there. It was just smooth white stone. I touched my neck, and found no wounds.
"I'm finally dead."
Grim satisfaction and relief overcame me.
"Not quite."
I turned around and found a person. Or rather, a figure. A figure made of not-quite-solid light, about ten paces away.
"Who're you?"
I could assume it was a higher being. But which? That I couldn't deduct.
"Greetings. I am Zoriel. Your guide through this... 'Limbo', if you will."
"I like it here." I said irritably. "Fuck all with Heaven and Hell."
"Alright." 'Zoriel' said agreeably.
"..."
I stared at 'Zoriel' suspiciously, then turned away and examined the train station.
"This is 'Limbo', huh? Anyone else here?"
"No. This is your personal 'Limbo.'"
"What's that mean?"
"Whatever you want it to mean." Zoriel helpfully supplied. "The meaning of things don't matter."
I looked back to the figure.
"You mean the meaning of things don't matter here."
"I said what I meant. The meaning of things never mattered."
I looked confusedly at the figure for a few seconds, then shook my head and turned away. I didn't feel like putting effort into understanding.
"I aspired to be you?" I snarked with my back to the figure.
"You aspired to fully know and understand."
"... Understand what?"
"Everything."
I put my hands on my hips and looked at the ceiling.
"Can you leave?"
"No. Not as long as you're here."
"Why am I here?"
"To leave."
"And go where?"
"I don't know."
"How the hell can you be a guide if you don't know where I'm going?"
"It doesn't matter."
"Then why the fuck do you have to be here?!"
The figure said nothing, so I walked around, looking for anything different from the rest of the train station. Behind the columns, under the bench, the furthest platform I could sprint to in ten seconds - I found nothing. I slowly walked back to the figure, then veered off towards the bench, and sat.
"Why should I go on? It's nice here. No worries, no nothing."
"You wouldn't have asked that question if some small part of you didn't want to move on, so the reason I give you is your own desire."
I snorted, then rested my elbows on my thighs and interlocked my fingers. I sat silently for while.
"I should let you know that your previous life was used as a bad karma funnel."
"What?!"
I immediately straightened up, ready to kill something. I had no idea what that meant, except that it sounded bad.
"Your world in particular was particularly overflowing with imbalanced energy. You yourself had ridiculous amounts of good karma, and so it was decided that you would shoulder the excess bad karma."
"Who decided?!" I growled.
"It was a unanimous vote."
"BY WHO?!" I roared, jumping to my feet.
"You are understandably infuriated, but there is no way to change things."
I snarled, strode to the figure and backhanded it, only for my hand to go straight through the head.
"WHO DECIDED TO SHIT ON ME?!" I screamed. "WHY WOULD I DESERVE THIS?! YOU PIECE OF SHIT!"
"You did extraordinarily well at your task. By yourself, you single-handedly whittled down forty-three world cataclysms to simple life-changing events of a single person."
"ME!" I slammed my pointer finger on my chest multiple times. "THAT SINGLE PERSON WAS ME! WHY! IN GOD'S NAME WHY?!"
"To save the world."
"FUCK THE WORLD!" I screeched, spittle and foam flying. "FUCK! THE FUCKING! WORLD!"
I inhaled, clutched my head, then allowed a long, mindlessly enraged scream to tear itself from my throat.
Then I collapsed to my knees and slammed my fists against the stone floor, gasping.
A few moments later, I wiped my mouth and looked up at Zoriel with murderous eyes.
"Do you know what's happened to me?" I hissed, voice quivering wrathfully.
"Everything."
I stood up and shoved my face into Zoriel's, staring into it's eye sockets murderously. Oh how I wished I could gut Zoriel. I held the stare for a few seconds, then spat into the figure, and walked past it. Away from it. The direction didn't matter. Just away.
"I should also mention that your performance was viewed as outstanding by a few individuals, and is currently being presented to other individuals, after which the magnitude of your reward will be decided."
I stopped walking, then turned around. The figure turned to face me.
"... And?" I grounded out. "What else?"
"I don't know. That is for you to discover when you decide to move on."
I stared wordlessly for a minute, before giving a smile that was not at all nice.
"I'll do that, then. Besides, if I'm used like that again, I can just kill myself, and I'll come back here, right? 'They'll' find another person to shit on. Everyone's happy."
"You choose to move on?"
"Yes you dumb shit." I growled. "Now get me out of here before I find a way to make you beg for mercy."
"Very well."
The figure reached his right hand to his left and pulled off a Ring that wasn't there before. He held it out to me in his palm. It was a simple black-metaled band.
"Take it."
I looked at the figure. I didn't want anything from something I came to hate within three minutes of meeting, a record.
"Why."
"You must. You cannot leave without it."
I translated that as in the Ring was the mode of travel out of Limbo, so I grudgingly reached out. I paused my hand as a foreign slanted script faintly glowing blue revealed itself encircling the black band. It seemed to glow brighter when I moved my hand closer. I hesitated a single second, then grabbed the Ring between two fingers and held it up to my eyes.
"You must wear it."
I slipped it onto left ring finger and examined it. It was smooth, cold, and it fit perfectly.
"Listen now. I will tell you what is inscribed on the Ring to use it. You will remember. Do not speak the words lightly."
I nodded slowly.
"'I see the way forward.
I know the way forward.'"
I looked down at the Ring. It's light pulsed at the words.
"'I, in Light, in Dark;
I, in Life, in Death;
Born Unbridled,
Forged in Star Fire.
Unleashed, Endless, Limitless.
I know the way forward.
I am the way forward.'"
The blue light pouring from the strange script had intensified to nearly unbearable levels. It shone like a beacon, bathing the train station in blue light. It began releasing force pulses.
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"'I am Tyriel, the Boundless.'"
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I knew no more.
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