The hotel room fell away around them as Jane took them into her memory. Each became unaware of the other as she began to tell her story.
"Once, in a time before time, there was only one. We call it, the First Firmament. This being presided over only itself, by itself. After what you understand as millennia, it grew desperately lonely, and when loneliness finally defeated it, it created out of the depths of its despair, others. The purpose of these beings, at least for the First Firmament, was companionship. It was not long, however before a divide began to form amongst them.
Splitting into two groups, the first, loyal to a fault, had a common purpose of preserving the order their creator had established. The First Firmament called these beings, the Aspirants.
The second group, entirely different from the Aspirants, desired a reality where many different beings autonomously evolved through the cycle of life and death in constant pursuit of improvement. The ultimate goal was for this evolution to yield superior cosmic entities that could create universes of their own and for these universes to evolve with them. The First Firmament called these beings the Rebels. We would later become known as the Celestials.
We ended up in an all-out war against the Aspirants, very nearly destroying the first Universe. The Aspirants forged a weapon they called the Godkiller and with it, came close to wiping us, the Celestials, out of the Universe.
Our only salvation was that a rift had formed within the ranks of the Aspirants. This gave us the time we needed to launch a counter-attack that shattered the Aspirants and by extension the First Firmament and the first Universe.
The fragments of the first Universe imploded to form the first Multiverse and the second Universe. The First Firmament took what was left of itself and its loyal Aspirants and fled to outside of Reality. The Celestials took charge of the second Universe, and we began to execute our goal. We forged six gems and poured into them the primary powers amongst us so we could wield the strength of our collective even when we were apart.
We travelled in hosts to seed worlds with what was needed to catalyse evolution until one day, one of our own went missing. We searched the far corners of the Universe for him, and I was part of The First Host that came to Earth millions of years ago in search of him.
What we found was the long-dead remains of an Aspirant, one they called the Progenitor. He was infected by the horde, the locusts of the Universe, and died a lonely death on Earth when the planet was still forming, billions of years ago. His decomposing body seeded the earth with his complex genetic code, leading to the early sentient life that would eventually develop into Deviants and Eternals. The more significant majority of this early life was left without this gene, and most of my brethren of the First Host decided to leave it unchecked, but I was not convinced. Life seeded by the genetics of an Aspirant was destined to be as rigid and polar in its ethos and belief as the Aspirant from which it came. I judged to destroy this life and start over, but I was overruled.
Shortly after our arrival our missing brother, Zgreb, having heard that we'd found the remains of an Aspirant, arrived on Earth. He went mad on witnessing the dead Progenitor, and we learned that their energies were kindred and Zgreb had disappeared to try and find his missing mate. In his deranged grief, he began to destroy everything, digging into the earth to destabilise the planet's core. I wished to let him accomplish his task, but my brethren worked to stop him, leaving him in a state of suspended animation deep in the Earth, where he slumbers still as the Fallen.
We left Earth and millennia passed. The multiverse was destroyed and reborn several times before we returned as the Second Host. We came to judge and found that the Deviants had conquered the vast majority of the human tribes on what was known as the continent of Lumeria with their superior technology. The Deviants were preparing to wage war against their neighbouring continent, Atlantis. Just as I had predicted, the Aspirant genes had worked to create many rigid and uncompromising individuals.
We decided amongst ourselves that this was not to be and Eson the Searcher unleashed his destruction upon the earth through the power stone, burying Lumeria and Atlantis deep in the ocean. This apocalypse formed the Earth that you know today, leaving mostly human life with very few Deviant and Eternal survivors in our wake.
I have seen the destruction of many worlds and all who inhabited them by the power of the jewels we forged at our beginning. I was not always in agreement with the decisions of my brethren, and it caused great conflict amongst us. I became known as the Rebel Celestial.
There was a Third and Fourth Host that visited and judged the Earth, and a few of the beings we had seeded elsewhere in the Universe evolved to be just as strong as we were. One such group was the Watchers. They believed in non-interference, not only in the evolution of life but most things, and their hatred of how we influenced evolution sat unacted upon for aeons, until one day, everything changed.
A savage war ensued, and the Watchers judged and destroyed us as we did so many worlds. The Queen of Nevers, another highly evolved entity, stepped in to help us, but it was too late. All the Celestials were destroyed, save for one. Me.
I remember being bound for judgement by the Watchers and I remember my Celestial body being destroyed at the Rip now known as Knowhere. The Queen of Nevers pulled my etherial being from my physical form and split me in half, giving me a new body. A human body. It was young and weak, so she stowed half of me in a vial and entombed me in a crypt with a sacred rune.
She cast me down upon the Earth, and her last thoughts to me were to protect it from the danger of the Fallen, from the Horde and from any being that would seek to destroy it. This conflicted with what I believed. I still wished to cleanse the Earth of the Aspirant, so she left me here, hidden, for aeons, to contemplate my stance and so I remained until you found me."
The room appeared around them again as the memory faded. Everyone blinked at what they'd just seen and a long silence spread between them. There was ice in the air, and Jane knew what they were thinking. She stepped into the centre of the circle, nervous. She looked at each of them in turn, hoping that someone would break the silence.
"Holy shit." Breathed Sam.
Finally, Natasha shook herself out of silence.
"You wish to destroy us?" She asked, her voice pitching higher.
Jane looked at Steve who was adamantly staring at the ground, a deep frown etched on his face.
"I did. But I don't anymore."
"What changed your mind?" Steve's voice was like a reprimand on her skin.
She held his gaze and said: "You did."
Her words rippled in the air, and he was visibly caught off guard by them, his features softening.
"Where did you go last night?" Interjected Shuri.
"I disappeared from here and appeared before the Queen of Nevers." Answered Jane.
"Well, what happened?" Shuri pushed further.
"I was given a choice." Jane's eyes fell to the ground. "A choice between staying with her and regaining my former power to stand by her side and coming back, to guard the Earth in my current form."
Steve's frown deepened again. "You chose to return here." It was a statement, but it sounded more like a question.
Jane turned and her eyes met his. "Yes."
"Why?" Questioned Nakia and T'Challa at the same time.
"I made a promise, and I wasn't about to break it," muttered Jane as tears welled in her eyes, still holding on to Steve's.
A silent shockwave went around the room. Natasha looked at Steve who'd taken a step back and hit the back of the couch.
Sam scrunched his eyes as he struggled with all the information she'd just given them.
"Wait..." he said, his one hand raised in front of him. "You had the chance to get your world-ending powerful self back, and you chose to be human?"
Jane said nothing but took a few tentative steps toward Steve. She knew this was a lot for anyone to take in, even though she'd given it to them very much condensed and censored. She had no idea what was going through Steve's mind. Would he still love her after learning what she was, what she'd wanted to do, what she'd done?
She came to a standstill in front of him, her heart in her throat. His eyes were cast down again, and she willed them to meet hers, but they didn't.
"Steve?" She whispered.
A chest full of air left his body in a measured sigh, and he swallowed before he finally looked up at her.
"This is a lot." He whispered back.
"I know."
A question was cutting the tip of her tongue, and she had to hold it in with every fibre of her being, the only question she wanted an answer to: 'Do you still love me?' But she dared not ask it for fear of the answer.
Natasha made quick work of the situation. "Maybe we should give them some space."
"But I have so many questions!" Shuri piped up.
Bucky nodded at Nat and T'Challa placated his sister as Sam wandered towards the kitchen and found a bottle of Whiskey.
Jane reached out and took Steve's hand gently and led him out of the room and up the easy hill. Nat closed the door behind them before Dog could follow.
They walked in silence, the bright, warm day surreal around them and before Steve knew where he was going, they were back in their room.
Jane sat down on the couch and motioned for Steve to sit down next to her, but he began to pace.
His entire belief system was called into question, and he was grappling with several life-altering questions at the same time. He kept pacing as he steadied his mind and decided not to be swayed by what he'd just learned, not regarding what he believed anyway.
"So you're a... Celestial." He hesitated to call her what she was.
"I am what is left of one."
"How human are you?"
"I am as human as you are, Steve, except my serum, is my Celestial soul." She answered.
"What does that mean?"
"It means that I can do things a normal person can't. I was told that I can bend space-time, but I'm not sure how. I'm much stronger than a normal person, my senses are enhanced, and I have power over matter. To what extent, I don't know."
"This Queen told you this?"
"The Queen of Nevers. Yes."
"Who... what is she?"
"She's a being evolved far higher than the level of a Celestial."
"The Celestials who are all dead?" he asked.
"All but me. Though she showed me Celestials that still exist that have been corrupted by the Horde. They are now Dark Celestials."
"What is the Horde?"
"The Horde are the locusts of the Universe. They seek to infect and destroy all in service of the Fulcrum."
"The Fulcrum?"
"The Fulcrum is the One-Above-All. He is the most powerful being in existence. He can be anywhere at any time, but few have ever encountered him. The leader of the Celestials was also called the One Above All, but this is not the same being."
"What was your real name?"
Jane frowned. "I forfeit the right to know my name when I chose to be human. I have been renamed the Dreaming Celestial."
"And you were buried in the Earth to guard the Fallen?"
"Yes and No." Began Jane. "The Queen of Nevers hid me here so that I would be forced to contemplate my stance on the destruction of this world and so that the Horde would believe all the Celestials were dead. They sought to infect Celestials to turn them 'Dark' to do the bidding of the Fulcrum."
"The guy that died here, long ago, the Aspirant, he was infected by the Horde?" asked Steve.
"There is a lot of speculation that he was and there is a lot of the Horde buried deep in the Earth. I am afraid that my awakening might stir them. It has drawn the attention of many cosmic beings."
"Is the Earth in danger?"
"More so now that I have woken."
"What are you going to do?" He asked after a contemplative pause.
"It's no coincidence that I have woken now. I sense a great cataclysm approaching. What my role is in all of it, I don't know yet. All I know is that when the Fallen stirs in the Earth, I have to destroy him or get him off this world before he destroys it, but I fear I may not be powerful enough to defeat him."
Steve stopped pacing and approached Jane. She stood up as he came closer.
"You said that I changed your mind about destroying the Earth..."
A sad smile crept onto her face. "I used to believe that choosing sides and believing in something too strongly was the greatest of evils, and I was not wrong, but you have shown me how powerful it can be for good. You have shown me what love means."
Steve said nothing, but ran his thumb gently over her cheek, catching a tear on its way down. There was a question in his eyes, one that needed to understand why she was crying.
She searched his eyes. "After all you've learned of what I was, what I've done, could you still love me?"
"Jane..." her name on his lips was less than a whisper. He gently took her face in his hands and kissed her, pulling away with a clench of his jaw at how it set his senses alight. He looked into her eyes.
"It doesn't matter who you were. It matters who you are. I know who you are because of the choices you've made, both before and after you learned the truth about yourself. A part of me can't believe that you chose to be human, that you chose to keep your promise to find me, but all of me is very happy that you did."
The promise of a smile shone in her eyes. "So is that a 'yes'?"
"Yeah, Sunshine. That's a yes."