The second Scott fell through the portal...he was gone. Yet he wasn't. It was like Schrodinger's cat, in a way. When he woke up he was surrounded by nothingness. He looked to his left, to his right, up and down, behind him…the colorless void of space. Even he couldn't see himself. As he tried to lay eyes on himself, he noticed that, where his hands or feet should be, there was also…nothing. What was he anymore? He could think, therefore he could panic, but it seemed like there was something more to this. Where was he? In an apparent ubiquitous universe, where he was everywhere, but nowhere at the same time…Is it even worth calling that he 'was' something anymore? What could he be apart from a consciousness scattered across the infinite space?
"Good morning, Saturn." A calm, familiar voice felt the need to make its presence known. It sounded like it came from everywhere.
"Great. I should've thought you had some kind of connection with this…What did you do?" Scott asked annoyed, surprised a bit that he could speak.
"This is your punishment. I couldn't bear the thought of having killed you, but you had to endure the dire consequences of your actions. You had been doomed to an eternity of being erased from existence. You are here, but you aren't…It's a philosophical statement in a way, as you humans would portray it."
"How droll," Scott said mockingly. "Why did you choose to spare my existence?"
"I knew you'd ask that, Saturn…This takes me back a couple of eons. You know, I have to manage a lot of worlds, right? And with that I don't mean tiny dimensions of the same universe. I meddle with so many realms, I can't help but get bored. After all, I am omnipotent, but I still have emotions, such as boredom."
"You lost me, Hyperion."
"Let me find you then. Do you think you're the only one of your kind?"
"What exactly is my kind? If it's humans, then…isn't that pretty self-explanatory."
"No, it's actually what you were told and picked to do. To restore balance where it is not, to bring equilibrium where entropy is inbound. Do you believe you are the only one we had picked for this meaningful…chore to us?"
"I've gone to your library that you forbad me to go to, remember? There were many books about my homologues from other universes…"
"Yes, those were our archives. Even though there is an infinite number of possibilities, there is a finite amount of you. Strange isn't it?"
"I assume that's because there are an overwhelming number of 'balanced' worlds where your intervention is not needed, what's more, it would even cause it to fall into anarchy, am I right?"
"Correct. I know you had read all the names, found out all the identities of your parallels. However, didn't it seem odd to you that your name wasn't there? That you were the only one missing?"
"How would I know there are none others missing, Hyperion? Omnipotence, doesn't imply omniscience? It's surprising you'd make such an easy mistake…"
"I make no mistakes. Your existence is the only one not listed in that pompous register. And because I am tired of rhetoric, I will spare you of my tedious questions. You are not there, because we made you something special…"
"How come? I don't feel special to all the other millions like me…"
"You are. You're the only one to go rogue. You are the first and perhaps last that didn't follow our orders exactly. You had something that the others spineless characters we had created lacked…You had a soul. The second we created you, we thought you'd renounce your humanity and become a cold-blooded, distant protector, a beckoner of shadows who serves and guards from the safety of invisibility…That marked the first time we were wrong…"
"You just proved my earlier point, old man. You said you made no mistakes and now you admit you were mistaken…Will you make up your mind already?" Scott was visibly uninterested by Hyperion's speech. He wanted him to either just get to the point, or leave him be.
"You grew obnoxious over the years. And that's why the council hated you, yet I cared for you."
"For I was different?"
"Precisely. The acts of my mindless servants, who blandly and tediously reported their deeds to me were…mundane. You, however, were a breath of fresh air. Your calculated plans were reckless to us. And, I've got to say, they were extremely exciting for an ageless being such as myself. You were the first to break the pattern we had created, and for the first time, I actually enjoyed it, unlike my fellow members…"
"So you saved me, because you like me? Aham, gotcha'" Scott said irritated.
"Exactly. How could I destroy the character I had so much fun with? How could I cut the only bit of enjoyment I had still doing my duty? The other had found many ways to entertain themselves. You were mine…"
"I am nothing but a joke to you, am I? Your humble buffoon, who exists for the sole purpose of fueling your need for cheap thrills. How did you sink so low, Hyperion, you the most elevated of all beings?"
"As I said, I have my emotions. We are omnipotent, not perfect, although they preclude each other most of the time. You were more than this to me, Saturn. I could even go to the length of saying I looked to you as an apprentice."
"An apprentice? I am self-taught, I did all my studies on my own, gaining knowledge as I saw fit. Where did you factor in all this?" Scott didn't really think this through. He was now dreading the answer.
"It was all an illusion, my boy. I was there, unconsciously guiding you through your journey. Why do you think you got so powerful? You are above all the others, Saturn, and I believe you owe me thanks for this gift I had bestowed upon you, but alas, your nature forbids this…"
"Amazing…"
"Your history also made you different. The fighters we had appointed were almost as if bred from birth. Programmable and controllable. This is what made them so boring. You, however were taken for granted, among few others. We didn't take in account your emotional state, though."
"Where are you going with this, Hyperion?"
"You were fourteen when we took you in. That is when the coming of age of princesses of Mewni happens. It's an incredible age for humans and mewnians alike. At that age you were…developed, more than you should've been for this job."
"What does that matter? You still dissected me and removed a lot of my parts in your…analysis."
"It matters, because of one principle, that your wisest of men had studied for ages…I believe you know what I am talking about, isn't that right, Saturn?"
"Yes, unfortunately…I also want to thank you, for adding insult to injury and reopen a wound, I had long cauterized. You are speaking of love, the subject of poems and writings and theses and hypotheses for as long as humanity existed. A plague for ones, a dream for others, a feeling whose purity was debated for as long as it was discovered. And how does that account in my…rebellious nature?"
"We can't erase love, Saturn. It is in our power, but we are bound by universal laws as well. Love has been an important part of cultures across many universes and it's a key component of balance. Should we interfere with it, we would break our own rules and we can't forgive ourselves for that, therefore we choose to let it be."
"Get to the point already. Your rambling is painful…"
"Fair enough. You loved that girl, Aurora. And she loved you. We took you away from her, presented you the situation, and forced you to join our cause. It was a mistake from our part, given the consequences it had…"
"Yeah…Do you want to know the full depth of them? Because I am sure you just grazed the surface with your niche assumptions," Scott raised his voice, suddenly enraged. "After I was done with my job, coordinating the colonization of Mewni, by the first ever princess, I returned to my home. It was only for a couple of years, that I was gone. No harm could've been inflicted upon my home, could it? Wrong. A nearby tribe had decided all of the sudden to pillage and loot our village. My family and their folk were brave people, not ones to give up without a fight, but alas…they were outnumbered. Their house was burned to the ground, all of them killed, no one was left. Those barbarians destroyed the only ties I still had with my humanity…That was my turning point…I became the cold stone you wanted me to be straight afterwards. I focused on my duty and my duty alone from that point on. The rest is history…I had done well hadn't I? "
"No, you actually didn't…and that is my next point, Saturn…You were supposed to be a balance keeper. After you see the damage those 'barbarians', as you put it, you had been overcome with grief…You swore to yourself that you wouldn't let something like that happen to anyone you knew, am I correct?"
"Did I do wrong?"
"Again, yes. You became a unilateral force of good, tilting the scales too much…This is why the forces of evil gradually increased in power and number…You became more powerful over time, and we had to take action."
"Why did you have to take action? Isn't that my job?"
"If you can't handle the situation, we must chime in. However, after the whole Eclipsa fiasco, we came to the conclusion that it's for the better that we let you alone…"
"You screwed up there, didn't you? In your conceited ways, you had inadvertently made another mistake…You just kept adding on evil's side and when it just fell out of balance, you let me clear up after you…I had to go through generations of princesses to repair the damage you inflicted upon my world and now, I can see that I had to be more careful…Toffee, who is, as you should know, the main antagonist of this generation, is more powerful than I am. This was never seen before…And because I broke some of your stupid rules, that you, yourselves don't follow you imprisoned me here, where I've been for God knows how much, and left the princess alone to fight the demon! Now, please elaborate…WHY DID YOU THINK IT WAS GOOD TO CHIME IN?"
"For the time being, it was good, but we can't possibly foresee all the consequences."
"That's the point of you existing, but fine, if you say so…"
"You must understand that we didn't…"
"Don't even go there, Hyperion. Continue your speech as if I didn't interrupt. Go on, I want to hear the rest of my sob story, I ache for it!"
"Very well…You had spent so many generation being the emotionless husk, you claim to be. But deep down, we both know that you cared deeply for the princesses you had protected. We both know the way you were betrayed by Eclipsa's change of heart. We both know the reaction you had training Aurora, the Generous…You couldn't even hear her name without having a mental breakdown, and about 300 years had passed from her namesake's untimely death…We both know the amount of effort you put in training the shiest of the princesses…We both know, how desperately you tried to convince Moon's mother not to send you to St. Olga's, and we both know how dismayed you were when you saw the end result. Your empathy made your world's principal force of good be the most powerful of them all. Earth and Mewni had more power than several other universes combined. The fact that you weren't just the silent guardian we made you to be, proved to be beneficial and it made the council rethink its ways for the first time ever…I was the one who initiated this new mode of managing our problems, but I was overwhelmed by the others' negative opinion…You see, Saturn, your 'humanity' behooved you so much in my eyes, but destroyed you in the eyes of the others, especially Enigma, the most ruthless and conservative of us all."
"I never understood why she hated me so much…"
"Our names are ironically put. Enigma, is the most straightforward being there is. She is so set in her ways and her desire for knowledge is so great, that she would stop at nothing that would stand in her way. You are human, a being resembling a nebula. Vague, undetermined and perhaps most important of all, unpredictable. The fact that your actions cannot be foreseen, drove Enigma insane…She couldn't wait for you to slip up, in order for her revenge to be justified…Every mistake you made, me and Paradox had to temper her and made the Council vote against her hateful will…But don't you think that we digress a bit?"
"Isn't it obvious that's what I want? You're predictable for me, Hyperion. I don't want to hear the last part of the analysis you are making of my relationship with the Butterfly family."
"You can't stop it, and this is unfortunately part of my plan, so I must continue…Last in line is Star Butterfly…"
"Do you really have to go there? Can't you just cut to the chase?" Nervousness was radiating from Scott's disembodied voice.
"This is the chase. For reasons I can't quite put my finger on, you cared about her most of all. At first, you treated her with the same apparent coldness you did with her ancestors. But over time, something clicked didn't it? You had become more empathetic, for the first time since your duty's inception. Do you want my impersonal style to expose what you're feeling, or do you wish to do it?"
"Amuse me, Hyperion. Let me see how an omniscient being who has been proven wrong three times in an argument redeem itself when matters of the heart are at play."
"Fair enough. This princess, Star Butterfly, reminds you a lot of Aurora. She is as playful as she was, as curios and funny, and the fact that she has had the same problems as you adds to your connection. Plus, the fact that she is different from all her recent ancestors, that were brainwashed by the, and now let me put it into your words, 'wretched medieval torture room, known as' St. Olga's School for Wayward Princesses, makes her even more like you. A breath of fresh air amongst a plethora of bland people. You've heard her every problem, hoping that she will never find your weak side, you helped her, hoping she will never help you back. When she read your diary, you weren't mad because you knew what was coming. The trial was unexpected for you, and you have to admit it. You were upset because you thought that she had read the last part of your opinion on her…You may think, I don't oversee some of your decisions, but I actually enjoy taking a break from time to time and watch you kids. I remember when Marco was about to read Star's part of the diary that revealed her feelings towards him. Don't you enjoy how cyclic and symmetric these things are?"
"You still haven't driven your point across," Scott said, trying to sound coy, whereas if he still had legs, they would be shaking now. For ages he hadn't been so insecure about anything…
"The point is, that you had substituted Aurora for Star, in your heart. Am I correct? Isn't it true that you love Star Butterfly? Isn't it true that after 1400 years you finally let yourself fall in the same net you were caught in the first time we met?"
Scott didn't answer his question. He was truly dumbfounded and left speechless. He had always believed that the council were just a group of emotionless beings, whose linearity was absolute. They were flat characters, never evolving never changing, but they were nothing like the image he had drawn for them. They had feelings, they were insightful, rather than just omniscient. They were almost human after all…Could he blame them?
"Why did you come here, Hyperion?" he asked, his voice trembling with a mix of anger and sorrow. "Did you come to gloat? To boast that you have so much knowledge, that I didn't have a clue of? Why did you feel the need to dig around my history and my feelings? You enjoy seeing the misery that you caused to a now disembodied voice, due to your faulty decisions? You wanted me to be damned to an eternal life of solitude and pain, my last reminder being this conversation?"
"I came to strike you a deal, Saturn."
"Why do I have the feeling that you are going to screw things over more than you already did?"
"Perhaps I will. But you will set them right again. I will give you back your life, your existence will be restored. You will be a force of good as you've always wanted to be. You will keep your powers, all of them, your immortality will not be restored as you wished. You will be free from your duty, and will not respond to us anymore. You will be 'sacked', so to speak and you will live life as you see it fit…"
"What's the catch?" Scott asked tired, knowing full well the downside of Hyperion's offer was going to be enormous.
"I can't just let you, an extremely powerful power of good, go free in a world where good is already overpowered. I must even the scales, therefore an equally powerful evil being must be released. Remember that when we first analyzed you, we had to remove something from you, right? Since humans have a never-ending desire for power, that drives them insane and makes them hunger for more…we had to take that part out of you, or else you wouldn't be able to be controlled…Little did we know then…"
"You want to release the evil side of me?"
"Precisely. Do we have a deal or not? I should also tell you, that should you not accept, you will be spending the rest of eternity imprisoned here."
"I should be a fool, not to accept, right?"
And as those words left his mind, his human body was forming before his eyes…He could see his hands, his legs and his senses were returned to him. Now he could express his grief with his face as well, rather than just his voice. Fixing the collar of his coat, he looked up, trying to visualize Hyperion.
"Anything else to keep in mind?"
"Actually yes. It's been about a month since you left Mewni and got locked up in here. This leaves you with 26 days until Toffee attacks, and an undetermined amount of time, until your evil self will come looking for you as well."
"That's it?"
"Nothing else has changed, apart from the aforementioned amount of time passing."
That's all Scott had to hear. He opened a portal, but before stepping in, he turned around and looked up once again.
"One more question, since this might be the last time we see each other, Hyperion…Why did you name me Saturn?"
"We gave new names to all of our fighters. You were no exception."
"But why Saturn?"
"Saturn is the planet in your solar system with the most moons orbiting around it. You'll figure it out, from here."
And with this last bit of information, Scott bid farewell to this part of his life. He forever left the realm of these ascended beings to return to Earth…He had to do something first of all. He spawned on a remote hill, four eroded stones casting a long shadow as the sun was setting. They bore markings on them, but the words were now unintelligible. A few letters were still readable, though, but Scott didn't need them to know where he was.
He bowed down towards the last grave and a black rose appeared in his right hand. He left it on the soft soil and then got up.
"I'm sorry for not being there…"