Disclaimer: I don't own Ultimate Marvel

This chapter sees a potential look at the future of both my Ultimate Marvel series and the Redeemer series, what it is exactly I'm not saying. What I will say is things get better with this chapter.


Ultimate Aeon Origins: Reboot

Chapter 7: Hope

Mutation, before we thought it was a form of evolution, we felt that we were the next step in mankind's evolution, that we were the future. My friend and I Erik Lensherr started a machine, a machine that would change the world. We both had different names for it, he called it the Brotherhood of mutant supremacy, I called it the X-men. Things started off so well, Erik had his children and his followers, Toad, Blob and Mastermind, and I had my children. 'The children of the atom' my X-men, Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Beast, Iceman, Colossus and Storm. We accomplished great things...

"I'm sorry, I hate to interrupt this flashback/monologue moment you're having but I just want to call it, BULL SHIT!"

Charles Xavier looked at Sven Reilly, the fury on the young man's face that shattered his vision of his past. The astral plane was shaped by Sven's emotion, the black void turned into every failure and sad memory that Sven highlighted.

"Your own son becomes exactly what the world fears, a mutant with no control of his powers, Surprised? I can see everything now, every failure, every time you claimed to be a hero and lied through your teeth. You sent Wolverine to kill a boy who had lost control of his powers, he killed an entire town and you killed him so that the truth wouldn't get out, that mutants really are dangerous. Then you go back to lying and telling the world that mutants can coexist with them, you played the wise leader who always tries to do the right thing yet you were brainwashing your best friend. "

"Your children of the atom, they were just your soldiers, you sent them to fight and never inspired true loyalty, you never showed Dazzler that there was more to life then a fucking album, you never helped Rogue to control her powers to the point she started thinking that god was talking to her, you failed to teach Kitty Pryde true responsibility for her actions, she was so scared of the life she lived that she told everyone the X-men kicked her out, you never taught Bobby Drake how to reach his full potential, potential that could have saved lives like Peter Parkers, that even could've stopped Ultimatum, another failure of your doing in which your best friend tries to wipe out the entire world because his kid's had died, but here's the kicker Quicksilver was still fucking alive!"

"Your dream failed, even your favourite X-man Cyclops tried to abandon the dream, mutant and human coexistence...bullshit, straight after Ultimatum the world takes on Anti-Mutant laws and then the truth comes out...that mutants aren't evolution just an attempt to create super soldiers gone horribly wrong. People said mutation was a disease and those people were proven right, people line up to clinics to lose powers that had already cost them everything worth having because your dream failed. Because the world didn't want to understand or accept mutants, it wanted to lock them away, get rid of them or use them like property. The world you fought for was a world where a guy would murder his own daughter in her sleep, because he thought it was better than her living as a mutant, that's the world you created Charles Xavier so when you sit there and put images of your X-men into my head and tell me that they achieved great things I don't know what FUCK YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT!"

Charles tapped the arm rest of his chair and rolled it around Sven. A chair materialised behind the young man as he fell back, breathing deeply. The rant was clearly driven by Sven's anger, back in the real world he had become a rampaging giant after all. Xavier looked at Sven as if he was looking at and scolding one of his own students. In his place he didn't see the multitude of youths he had to lecture but Logan, AKA Wolverine, the grown man who had to re-evaluate how he saw the world.

"Are you quite finished?" he asked.

Sven looked at Charles with a glare in the corner of his mouth. Then he lowered his gaze, like a defeated child.

"I'm done," he said.

"Good because..."

"I'm done with all of it," Sven said. "This world is hell, but what about the world we came from, why should I settle for that world, why should I go back to that existence, a world where my best friend is in prison, a world where half the population is dead because of your best friend, a world that has faced threat again and again and the heroes haven't been the people they've needed to be in order to stop it, the best thing Reed Richards could do was steal a way to save the world from another version of himself, a world where the Ultimates were too busy fighting each other to worry about the hero who would have surpassed them all, where their best solution to stopping a convergence is to invade that Earth."

Sven gripped his head as he fell to his knees.

"There's too much, all of these images in my head, these futures I'm seeing, I don't want them, I DONT WANT THEM!" he screamed.

Charles rolled towards the young man, placing a hand on his shoulder. Sven looked into Charles's eyes and saw the kindness reflected in them. He could see that the man felt his pain and sympathised.

"You're feeling what everyone feels, but believe it or not things will get worse, this Earth will cease to exist," Charles said.

"I know, I know that if Cap and Magneto don't end up destroying the Earth in their war, something else is coming to destroy it anyway, I just don't know what," Sven growled in frustration.

"Let me show you."

The telepath put his fingers over his forehead and closed his eyes. Sven, slightly shocked, backed away from Charles as his office began to fade. It was replaced by the darkness of space. Sven could see planets and stars in the distance. He looked towards the sun of a distant solar system. There in the distance he saw a mass of asteroids. He immediately realised that there was more to the rocks than they seemed, as they didn't move in random directions but on a set path that would correct itself. Sven looked through the rocks and saw tiny little machines, purple and silver in their appearance. They moved like locust swarms, together they had formed a single body like a fog that moved through the asteroid field.

"I know what those are," Sven said.

"Yes, you have been implanted with the history of the events surrounding the heroes of our Earth, you know of what can be, what will be, the Gah Lak Tus swarm," Xavier explained.

The last moments of thousands of dead worlds flashed before Sven's eyes. This universe was experiencing its final moments, as the Gah Lak Tus swarm, more hungry than ever moved from planet to planet, draining life energy from the worlds and then converting them into twisted versions of what they once were. Sven's sight flashed from space to the surface of the planets the swarm visited. He saw Kree warriors being turned into cyborgs, and the metropolis that covered their entire planet turned into a breeding ground of Gah Lak Tus technology. Alien species were altered, a race of bird like people known as the Shiar had their skin replaced with metal, and the armour of their protectors the Fraternity of Raptors changed to the purple and silver colours of the swarm. On a planet known as Korbon resided a species of humanoid creatures called Korbanites, their faces were long like a horses and they had three fingers and a thumb on each hand. Their cyborg protectors known as Rays were quickly turned by the swam, the Korbanites could only scream as their world was overrun by the swarm. Even a planet filled with no mechanised defence force fell, the purple skinned Strontians and their protectors, the gladiators fought well and hard against the swarm, but even they fell. One after another planets and their protectors fell, the Nova Corps of Xandar, the Space Knights of Galador, the Star Force of Spartax, the Brood and even the remaining Chitauri were made extinct, replaced by mere copies for the swarm.

Sven looked upon the fleet of ships that once belonged to their respective home worlds, but had now been turned into parts of the Gah Lak Tus fleet. But that wasn't even the worst of it, as Sven and Charles floated amongst the swarm and the fleet, they saw what they protected. Sven remembered seeing it in what his previous home dimension looked like. A gigantic 'man' covered in blue and purple armour, except the blue parts of his anger were now grey, his skin was blue and his eyes glowed red. He stood on a ship as big as a planet, numerous satellites flying around him. The satellites suddenly gave off different lights, Sven suddenly realised he wasn't seeing satellites. Charles afforded him a closer look, and Sven's imagination was once again baffled. They were people, all but one looked closer to human than any of the species their master had destroyed. In the lead, standing on top of a meteor stood a balding man whose skin, including his head looked as if they were made of granite. He wore black and purple armour on his chest and waist, with gauntlets covering his arms. The rock of his skin differed slightly at his chin and cheeks, they were darker, forming the silhouette of a beard. He was bigger than any man Sven had seen before and wielded a huge axe.

"Terrax, formerly a conqueror of his planet, he became a Herald of Galactus only so that he could gain the power cosmic and fight stronger opponents across the galaxy, every other warrior on his planet was dead," Xavier explained.

Flying around Galactus, leaving a trail of flame behind him was a man composed of fire, wearing a yellow sleeveless shirt and red boots, he carried a staff with flame tips at each end. Even his hair was composed of fire.

"Pyreus Krill of Xander, a former member of the Nova Corps, once the corps realised they could not stop Galactus, Pyreus volunteered to be his herald to keep his planet safe, perhaps the only man with any honour truly left."

A blue light flew around Galactus, resembling the currents of a whirlpool. Suddenly a creature appeared, its scaled skin shining with the power cosmic. It had a single eye and fins over its head and arms and wielded a double sided lance.

"Stardust, formerly of a Watery world which had no name or defence against Galactus, this creature however offered itself as a Herald!"

Then a man whose skin and armour was a metallic purple appeared, flying around Galactus with a pair of energy wings.

"Air-Walker, another of the Nova Corps, he offered himself to protect the Xanderian fief Galactus targetted," Charles finished his explanation of the heralds.

But then a fifth herald appeared, flying past the others with a green energy trail. He wore glack and green armour, the helmet formed the subtle shapes of a mouth and eyes.

"Dominas the Wave Master, always the first to arrive, always the first to strike," Xavier explained.

"These creatures, I have to change the world back," Sven said.

"No!" Xavier said, shocking Sven.

"I don't understand, you've shown me a world that is heading towards its own destrution, a universe slowly being ripped apart by Galactus, his heralds and his swarm, either way this reality is doomed. But now you tell me that I can't restore our world to what it was before? What is the point of all of this then? What if I make a world that was worse than this one?"

"You may very well end up doing just that," Charles sighed.

"Then what is the point?" Sven asked.

"Hope Sven, hope," Charles said.

Sven raised his eyebrows before frowning and gritting his teeth together in fury. He took a step towards Charles, resting his hands on the arms of Charles's chair. Then he began the chair and the universe disappeared.

"I can see so many possibilities, none of them good," Sven snarled.

As he spoke the world changed around them, different scenarios flashed in front of the two men as they visited multiple worlds and events. They stood in front of the house of Peter Parker, witnessing his dying breaths in his Aunt's arms, feeling every emotion, the guilt of Bobby Drake and Johnny Storm, the fear from Miles Morales and the sorrow Peter's family and loved ones felt as he passed. Again another moment passed and the two men stood as New York was rebuilt after yet another catastrophic event, this one of the Ultimates's making. The fallen statue of liberty was being repaired and the super soldiers of S.H.I.E.L.D. worked on repairing damage they had caused. Drifting forward through time they felt the sorrow of Quicksilver as his sister died, as he deceived his father and his madness when he declared himself a leader of mutants. Charles looked towards his old friend Magneto as he fell to his knees in anguish.

"Charles, he would understand," the man said.

"Charles can't forgive you, and NO ONE EVER WILL!" Cyclops yelled as he beheaded the man with an optic blast.

"I bet you were disappointed in Summers, executing a man like that, but then again Scott Summers has always been the disappointing one hasn't he?" Sven asked.

"No he hasn't," Charles said.

Sven looked at Charles as if to ask 'really?' Then showed the man his student's final moments.

"We are here today because history is about to be changed. Freedom is about to be changed. A vote is being taken in the senate which will make it so all mutants must surrender themselves to the United States government or they will be hunted down and shot on sight!"

BOOM!

Charles looked away from his student as his skull was split open.

"They will be hunted down and shot on sight!"

BOOM!

"They will be hunted down and shot on sight!"

BOOM!

"Hunted down and shot on sight!"

BOOM!

"HUNTED DOWN AND SHOT ON SIGHT!

BOOM!

"SHOT ON SIGHT!"

"SHOT ON SIGHT!"

BOOM!

BOOM!

Again and again Sven showed Xavier his 'son's' death, in vivid detail, like an action replay. It came to the point when Sven seemed to grin over Charles's sadness and disappointment over the tragedy. But he didn't just stop with Scott's actions, he showed Charles Piotr Rasputin mercilessly killing a man out of revenge. The vivid detail, Colossus shoving his gigantic hands through a man's sockets and splitting his skull, the blood would have covered Charles if they were truly there. Again and again they saw Kitty Pryde running away, from the mansion, from Spider-man, from abused mutants and every time Jean Grey found some excuse not to help others. The effect seemed to hurt Charles as he sank further back into his chair.

"You never inspired loyalty Charles, you never bought out the best in people, so what good is it showing me the X-men, when I know that they have never given people hope!"

Sven's words echoed through the astral plane. He pushed the wheelchair, sending it crashing into a wall. Xavier fell to the floor, but showed no hint of pain. Instead he stood up and pointed into the scene taking place before them. Sven looked at the loved ones of Peter Parker, everyone who ever knew him. They were honouring him with a celebration of his life, probably the only celebration there ever was. Miles Morales and his friend Ganke were there, along with Gwen Stacy, Mary Jane, Kong Macfarlane, Johnny Storm, Peter's Aunt and Gwen and Mary Jane Watson, even casual acquaintances like Liz Allen and Bobby Drake. Sven gripped his head as they began talking of how they hoped Peter's life would have turned out. He saw from MJ a life where Peter had become an Ultimate, where he wore a red and gold suit and lived as the greatest hero on the planet. From Gwen he saw a life where Peter continued working in the shadows, fighting criminals on the streets and exposing their crimes against those the Ultimates often forgot, the people of New York. A hesitant and somewhat saddened smile spread across his face as he saw Bobby's hope, a world where Peter and his friends became the next generation of protectors. From Aunt May he saw a world where Peter lived up to his full intellectual potential and created new super heroes with his inventions. Tears began to fall down his face as he saw the friendship Miles had hoped to form with Peter, and the incredible love Kitty still felt for the fallen hero.

"Damn you," Sven snarled as he turned to Xavier. "Why are you showing me this? All of this pain, it's all born from people's hope and people's faith in your kind, WHY DO YOU SHOW ME IT!"

"Because Sven, that is our fate, our burden, to bear their pain," Charles said.

"Is that it?" Sven asked, shaking his head in disappointment. "Is that the best you can give me, some platitude about accepting a burden?"

"It's the best we can all do, accepting their pain and embracing it, using it to drive us forward, that's what hope is Sven, moving through our pain and towards something better, believing that things will get better even if it doesn't, that's what hope is," Charles explained.

Sven widened his eyes slightly as the world shifted once again. He was on the rooftop of a building in New York, looking up at of all things another Earth. Charles Xavier appeared beside him and gripped his shoulder.

"Hope can only exist when people are at their lowest, one has to find hope or be given it," Charles said.

Sven looked up and saw flying towards the other Earth, Iron man's flight platform, the one he had used against the Liberators. The Ultimates seemed to be going to war.

"Once again their first response is attack, how is the world supposed to survive if this is how it acts? How can the world survive when violence is the first and last resort of supposedly good men?" Sven asked.

"If you can't find hope in your world, look beyond it," Charles said as he pointed up at the Earth.

Again Sven looked up and yelled as the markings on his body glowed red. He saw a bright white light and felt as if he was flying. When the light stopped, Sven couldn't feel anything. He could see however, through the eyes of someone else. The person, whoever he was lied on the floor of a fresh battlefield. Pieces of debris were still crumbling around him. Sven felt a touch of sympathy when the man looked to his right and saw that the debris had crushed his right hand from the elbow. He could hear the teenager's pain.

"Damn it, I tried Sven, I tried, they're all going to die because of me," he said.

"No," Sven would have shaken his head if he could. "Get up, you can't give up," he said.

The teen put a hand to his face and let out a yell as he began to pull, yanking his arm sharply. He twisted the bone and pushed his feet against the debris. His yell grew louder as he continued to pull, bashing his feet against the rocks to give himself a head start. When it was abundantly clear that he couldn't move it out he reached for a knife on his belt. Gritting his teeth together he stabbed it into the joint of elbow. Screaming in agony, he dug the blade in and bent it around the flesh, putting extra effort to disconnect the bones. Yanking it again he tore his elbow away from his arm.

"That's it, keep moving forward," Sven said.

The young man pulled a flare off of his harness and turned it on. He pushed the flare against his stump and screamed as it cauterised the wound. Throwing the tool aside he then injected adrenaline into his leg and began walking forward.

"That's what hope is, a force that will grant you determination, the determination to push forward even if defeat seems inevitable," Charles explained.

Sven opened his eyes and once again found himself in Charles Xavier's office. The older man was back on his wheelchair, looking at Sven as if awaiting a response.

"What did I just see?" Sven asked.

"The future of another world, perhaps all worlds, I'm hoping that it will grant you the strength to move forward Sven," Charles said.

"Is that it? Are we finished?" Sven asked.

"I am for now, I will return I promise you, but right now there is nothing I can do to stop the nuke Rogers is planning to launch at the city," Charles explained.

"WHAT! THAT'S INSANE!"

"I think we've already established this Rogers is even more of a brute than he was in our old world," Charles grinned slightly as he turned around. "Remember Sven, it's the greatest gift we can have, to bare their pain without breaking. Hope can make you stronger than you can imagine!"

Sven closed his eyes as he opened his mind to both the pain and the joy of his counterparts. His eyes turned red as the markings on his body glowed. He felt hands touch his back and looked at the people behind him. Standing there, with smiles on their faces were the people who had changed because of the hope they had. Whether they had lived or died, their lives and outlooks had been shaped for the better.

"With great power comes great responsibility," Peter Parker said.

"All you have to do is face your fears," said Miles Morales.

"And never give up," Kitty Pryde smiled.

"Even though things seem worse than what you once knew, it doesn't mean you should give up on it," Captain America said.

"Sometimes not everything is beyond changing bub," Wolverine huffed.

"There is always hope," Wasp said.

"So long as you can get back up and keep moving forward!"

The last one to speak bought a tear to Sven's eye. Faith and all of his friends, Kyle, Rick and Jack, his mother and sister, Peter Parker and his Aunt May and all the original heroes of the Ultimate universe. Xavier rolled through the crowds and smiled at Sven.

"Please...we need you to hope again!"


Benjamin Parker had been ready to give up on hope. He had been hoping things would get better for years. When his brother and nephew died, he hoped he and his wife could find some form of happiness. But then she died, and Ben was left alone, he tried to fill that loneliness by helping others and taking on wards. Yet as the days went by more and more Ben began to lose the hope he had placed within his brother, nephew and wife. The world had become so bad that a man like him couldn't do good anymore.

Jonah Jameson had personally written about some of the worst events in the recent history. He had witnessed time and time again potentially good men make the worst kind of decision. His childhood hero had been Captain America, up until the point Steven Rogers started acting like the common foreign opinion of America, he became a brute and a tyrant, whom used democracy and freedom to suit his own ends. He lied about liberty and democracy and time and time again proved that might made right, abandoning the principles he fought for in the beginning. Jameson never trusted men in masks, but he felt that if they had done something to prove themselves, not necessarily taking off the mask, but proving how heroic they were then Jameson felt he could trust those masked men and women. Instead Jameson's distrust and bitterness was stronger than ever. He saw himself as the last big of hope in this world.

Aaron Davis had lived a life of crime for most of his life. He had always believed that being a 'made man' or a kingpin was the only true path to success and happiness. His brother had always been the smart one, the one with a future. But even when Jefferson found that happiness, Aaron was still convinced that he could only live as a criminal. Whilst Jefferson married and had a son, Aaron went from one job to another, stealing for powerful men. When he had been contracted to steal a spider, Aaron's life changed when the spider bit him. His strength increased, he could become invisible and generate small shocks of 'bio-venom' from his finger tips. Believing that he could become the next big villain in a world where villains never lived long, Jefferson called himself 'Spider-man' and went to the streets. He killed a Mexican Kingpin known as Scorpion and even killed the American Kingpin Wilson Fisk. But their operations didn't automatically fall under his authority, and his actions drew the attention of the government. Rogers learnt Aaron's identity and took his brother's family into 'protective custody'. He publically shamed the family for sharing the blood of a criminal, deliberately making them a target. Aaron fought hard to keep his family safe, but in the end hundreds were dead, including Jefferson, his wife Rio and their son Miles. Jefferson died telling Aaron just how much he hated him. After that Aaron stopped hoping, he just worked as hard as he could to find some kind of redemption.

Howard Stark knew that the world was dark, he had been responsible for making it that way. The dark world he had created cost him his sons and his arrogance cost him his wife. She left and he continued running a company, and creating a legacy of bloodshed and hopelessness. He had no hope, only cold logic, that the world was destined to end and that only a few good people could be saved. His work with Magneto was part of that plan, that cold and logical plan to take away people who mattered, to build a new world and leave everyone else to die. For he had seen a vision of the future and it was an early end. Everything dies, that was a fact Howard accepted, even the universe had an end.

Sarah Rushman knew what her life was supposed to be like. She knew she was supposed to die, her dreams told her such. Every week since she was thirteen she had the dream, of a tattooed man ripping her heart out. When that dream first occurred, bone daggers shot out of her skin and killed her parents. She spent the rest of her days since then growing up bitter, angry at what the world had become. Even when she accepted Ben's kindness she was not completely convinced of the 'goodness in humanity' or hope for the future. She couldn't even be glad to be alive when she accepted the reality that in another world she would be dead. Other people, better people were dead over her.

Slade Reilly's greatest hope had always been his son. He always loved his son no matter what, no matter what mistake or choice he made he loved him. Part of him was ashamed to admit that he never loved his own daughter quite as much as his first born. He loved his wife once, he might have even been capable of loving Natasha once. Romanoff had only been a source of inspiration, the ruthless woman had convinced him to get rid of all of his useless possessions. The affair had just been the excuse Slade needed to leave his wife and daughter, but still there was Sven. He couldn't live without Sven being in his life. Faith, a mutant would've taken that away. Even if it meant turning his son into an alcoholic mess, Slade decided to kill Faith. But the hope faded, and only hatred remained. Part of him convinced himself that Faith and not he had been responsible for Sven's fall.

The entire city of New York thought that the day had come for it to be destroyed, to join Wakanda as a Necropolis. They saw the nuke in the sky, and they saw it explode. But they had not seen what Sarah and Slade had seen earlier. The monster that destroyed Slade's sentinel, crumbled to pieces and a light flew out of it. This light formed the silhouette of a person the closer and closer it got to the nuke. Thousands saw a red field envelop the nuclear blast, at convert it into red particles. Like a rain of dust it fell across the city, gentle to the touch and uplifting to the spirit. Thousands saw a winged shape in the sky, flying like an angel, yet far away. It was an unseen miracle that reminded each person of the miracle of life and the importance of hope.

That day, Ben Parker began to hope again, Jameson felt like he could trust, Aaron believed he could find redemption, and Sarah believed that she was alive for a reason. But more importantly, people saw what Slade saw the day his son had been born. They saw a light and a joy that bought out the best in them, that made them believe everything would be okay. Slade Reilly's hope was restored, and the hope he felt for his son passed to all of Earth 1610.

Next Chapter 8: Project Aeon


Hope everyone enjoyed the chapter, next time the heroes go to Project Aeon, where the identity of the man being held there is finally revealed.