If anyone hasn't seen it, I posted another aside, "Even if it Kills Me." Set during their first night on Ego's planet, a meeting between Rocket and Nebula. I feel like the very ending of this chapter has a little more impact if you've read that first.
This chapter is titled from 'The Last of the Real Ones' by Fall Out Boy
I do not own GotG, it belongs to Marvel.
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Chapter 12: The Last of the Real Ones
"Eternity?" Peter echoed, glancing between the scowling Ego with a hand on Peter's shoulder and the one standing across the court with his hands shoved into his pockets and a wide grin plastered across his face.
"That is what most mortal beings know me as, yes," the grinning Ego answered. "I have been calling for you a very long time, Peter. It is such a relief to finally meet, face to face, and in your right mind."
"Why do you look like Ego?" Peter asked, thoroughly disturbed by being suddenly surrounded by two of his least favorite person in the universe. "And in my dreams, that was you, wasn't it, taking the forms of my friends? If your so keen to finally meet face to face, why don't you show me your real one?"
The grinning Ego, Eternity, tilted his head in amusement. The grin did not falter. "You are not able to comprehend my true form. You'll get there, in time, perhaps, but for now, I need a way to translate my form into something you can understand, so I have been pulling images from your own mind to use. It is easier to choose those who you share a strong emotional connection to; those who weigh heavily on your mind.
"Love is the simplest to work with, but hate will do just as well in a pinch. If this form disturbs you, I can choose another. Perhaps someone you love, instead" Eternity's body rippled and Gamora took its place, dressed in the more comfortable clothes and long leather jacket of his own universe, from before Thanos had rewritten time. This new body was still grinning that same smug grin that looked entirely out of place.
Peter shuddered in disgust as Gamora's chocolate eyes stared at him with a twisted expression of hunger and amusement.
"Eternity," Ego cut in. His voice was low and dangerous. "You are not welcome here."
"Oh, Ego," Eternity turned his head, Gamora's head, to regard Ego with a look of pity. "My loneliest child." Gamora's form rippled. "There are so very few things in this life you ever learned to love."
The hand on Peter's shoulder tightened into a crushing grip, but Peter barely felt it over the fresh wave of revoltion as Eternity's shifting form resolved this time into cascading golden curls and bright blue eyes. "M-mo-?"
"GET OUT OF THAT FORM!" Ego roared.
Meredith Quill's lips quirked into a smile and the musical trill of her laughter filled the air that was suddenly much harder to breath than Peter remembered it being. "Very well." Her golden curls darkened, the tips fading back to red. As suddenly as Meredith had appeared she was gone and Gamora once more stood in her place. "I didn't come here to upset you, so this form will just have to do for both of you."
"Do for what?" Ego snarled as Peter found himself speechless and struggling to piece together what was going on. "Peter belongs to the mortal realm right now."
"Exactly," Eternity answered. "As such, he is mine, -as every mortal soul in this realm falls under my purview- and that's just where I would like him to stay. In fact, it's where I would like nearly all living souls to remain, but I will need his help to achieve this goal."
"What?" Peter asked, still grasping around in his mind, but failing to pull out more than one word at a time.
Eternity's eyes locked with Peter's and it struck him how very much this didn't look like Gamora now that he had a chance for his brain to catch up. He wore her body, but the mannerisms, the eyes, they were all so wrong. "We are on the eve of a disaster the likes of which the galaxies have never seen before. A catastrophic event so great it could shift the balance of power in every other realm beyond. I have been calling you, Peter, because it's time for you to accept your destiny."
"Destiny?" Peter repeated. "What destiny?
"The destiny I have chosen for you."
"Yeah, um, no thanks." He took a step back, raising his arms slightly in refusal. "So far, all of my destinies have really sucked."
"I think if you give me some time to explain, you will find we want the same thing in the end."
"And what is that?"
"I want Thanos dead!" Eternity's grin somehow widened, waving Gamora's arms out like he was bestowing some great honor. "I want to help you kill him."
"You are more than capable of removing a Titan from existence," Ego accused. "Why not do it yourself?"
"There are rules in place about this sort of thing. There must be, or the mortal plain would have been torn apart eons ago under the unbridled wrath or apathy of the Timeless and the Ancients. We cannot play such a direct hand in the going-on's on this side of the veil, but we can find agents; mortals and immortals who walk in this plain, to exact our will.
"My youngest sister already has such an agent, and she is drawing too near her goal. I have wasted a great deal of time waiting for you to grow strong enough to reach me."
"Wait, are you talking about Thanos? Thanos is an agent of your sister?" Peter asked. "I thought he was working for himself, bringing balance to the Universe or whatever..."
Eternity dropped Gamora's arms back down and gave an easy shrug. "It's likely he believes this is so, but I could not tell you with any certainty. My sister has always loved her games and whispering into the ears of her champions. I doubt he is even aware of her influence. The creatures of this plain are so caught up in convictions and beliefs, they will die upon these swords before they allow themselves to fail if they truly believe in what they are doing. We are running out of time, however, so for you, Peter, I must be much more direct and hope your love for your mortal friends will be enough to sway you to my side."
"Why Peter?" Ego growled. "He can barely control the Light. Why not myself or another?"
Eternity shook his head and tsk'd, Gamora's locks glittering as they bounced in the unnatural light. "It could never be you, Ego. I had thought, once, perhaps you could do, but you simply lack the heart. You have played your part. You created my champion, and brought him to the Light so that I could reach him, but you have long since outlived your purpose. It is only through my sister and her champion's meddling that you are here now. You were meant to be called back into the Light as all Celestials are when their work here is complete.
"I created the Celestials myself," he continued. "And I sent them across the empty void of existence to bring a new form of life to bear. The Celestials were created with a purpose, and when their job was complete, they all fell back into oblivion. You were my youngest son, Ego, with a unique purpose unlike any other before you; to create my champion." Eternity paused to catch Peter's eyes. "Something neither mortal, nor immortal, bound to the Light. This was always your destiny, Peter. This is why I drove Ego to wander the cosmos in search of a viable child." He turned back to Ego, who he regarded with much less interest he did Peter. He didn't even spare the celestial the same sort of quasi-kindness that he did his son. Instead Eternity was dismissive when he spoke to Ego, almost disappointed even. "Though it took you long enough to find your way to Earth, so caught up in your plans that you often ignored my whispers in favor of your own selfish desires."
The hand on Peter's shoulder was trembling and digging into his already bruised flesh, and when he risked a glance to his side, he was taken aback by the blind fury in Ego's eyes.
"You left me here," he growled so low Eternity tipped his head as though he couldn't hear what had been said, then, louder, he snarled; "YOU LEFT ME HERE WITH NOTHING!"
The hand on Peter's shoulder released him, shoving him roughly aside so Ego could step forward to face Eternity alone. The sky around them trembled and a strange energy hummed through the air. "GET AWAY! You are not welcome here. Leave, and keep away from my son!"
"In his own way, Peter is my final creation, and my son as well. You have no claim to him I cannot match." The chocolate of Gamora's eyes sparkled with endless stars as Eternity's eyes fell once more on Peter. "I will be back."
Ego snarled again and a beat later Gamora's body vanished. The night sky above them crumbled away.
"Who-?" Peter began as he blinked his eyes against the bright daylight. "Or what was that? What just happened?"
Ego moved his arm in a jerking wave and the basin they had been standing beside exploded, the shards skittering across the stone and bouncing off of Peter's boots before fading out of existence.
"That," Ego forced out between his teeth, his voice was tight with barely suppressed fury. "Was Eternity."
"I gathered that..." Peter said cautiously, not sure now was the time be poking at the volatile god. "But I don't know what an Eternity is..."
Ego turned to regard Peter with those burning eyes and Peter briefly wondered if he had pushed him too far after all. After an agonizing pause, however, the fury began to cool into a simmering rage and Ego released him from his stare to raise another large screen from the court. "It seems there is more to tell you of your origins as an immortal.
"Do you know what existed before time and space?" Ego asked.
"...The Infinity Stones...?" Peter tried with a small shrug, holding his palms out to show he wasn't trying to be sarcastic here. He just didn't know.
Ego let out a long breath through his nose, but raised his hand again and the screen became the deepest black Peter had ever seen. "The Nothing came first. At least, that is how the story must be told to those who rely on the passage of time. Then, came the Light." One edge of the screen became a brilliant white, the light leaking across the canvas until it was a perfect gradient from one end to the other. "The Nothing and the Light were fundamentally incompatible, and where they met they warred, leading to a great cataclysmic event that gave birth to this realm." In the center of the image of light and dark, a globe began to form, shining back the light and casting shadow to give it a three dimensional effect on the flat canvas.
"The mortal realm exists as a bridge between the two incompatible realms. Seeing the potential this new form of existence presented, the four entities of Eternity, Infinity, Death, and Entropy, long before they were known as such, took a great interest in it. For a long while, they argued and squabbled over what should be done with it. This new plane of existence offered limitless potential, and they all wanted to have their say. Their fighting nearly destroyed it, and eventually, an agreement was found. They would all share the new universe, each controlling and benefiting from a specific aspect."
Ego waved his hand again, and four symbols that Peter didn't recognize appeared on the image, one on each side, one on the top, and a fourth on the bottom. They were written in a language Peter didn't know.
"Eternity and his sister, Infinity, took charge of creation. Infinity." The symbol on the top of the image shuddered. "Holds all the souls that will be, or could be, depending on who you ask, all the limitless potential of the future. Eternity." The symbol in the Light shuddered now. "Is all the life that exists now. He watches over and draws his strength from every living soul. He sent the Celestials to create the first truly mortal life for this reason." In the grey space around the globe, little dots like stars winked into existence. Something about this detail made it seem almost familiar, but Peter couldn't recall where he would have seen it before.
"Entropy and Death took on the side of destruction, completing the necessary cycle of this new universe." The symbol on the bottom shuddered next. "Entropy is the god of destruction. He ensures that things wear and break down over time, brings about great catastrophic cosmic events, and prevents the universe from falling into stagnation. And Death." The final symbol, the one buried in the darkness finally moved. "I suppose you could guess what role she chose. As Infinity holds the souls that don't yet exist, Death took on the souls after they had passed through the mortal realm."
"Hang on, like, and afterlife?" Peter interrupted.
Ego pursed his lips and rolled his shoulders into a shrug. "I don't know," he said in a way that sounded an awful lot like 'I don't care.' "Some sort of energy which was borrowed from beyond the veil is returned when a mortal dies. Whether or not any form of consciousness follows is beyond me."
Peter fell quiet after that, staring at the image before him. The feeling of familiarity would not leave him, but he had no memory of ever seeing this in any books or on any holo screen before. He'd never even heard of these supposed universal entities before just now.
"I've seen that before."
Nebula's voice broke through his thoughts, almost echoing them eerily, and he turned in surprise to find his friends coming down the pathway that lead to the court.
Most of the Guardians paused at the edge of the court, as though not sure if they were welcome to come further. It had been Ego's only rule, after all, that he not be interrupted when Peter was learning to use the Light. Nebula did not stop, however, and broke away from the others, moving confidently over the courtyard to stand at Peter's side, blatantly ignoring the look of annoyance on his father's face.
Ego quirked a brow at her as she came to a stop, but instead of rebuking her, his curiosity seemed to get the better of him and he asked, "Where?"
"In a book in my father's library," Nebula said, studying the image through narrowed eyes before turning to Peter. "Do you remember the book I told you about? The one with the section on Celestials?"
"Oh, yeah." Peter blinked. "It was some sort of encyclopedia of Titan powers or something, right?"
"Close enough," she conceded, turning back to the image above. "This image was on the cover of the section titled 'Celestials and Other Cosmic Origins,' but it's missing some pieces." She raised one hand to point at the symbol on the far left. "There should be a second symbol here." She moved her finger to point at each of the symbols in turn. "And underneath the others as well. And some smaller orbs along the center here."
Ego's annoyance was interrupted by a flicker of surprise. "Yes." He waved his hand again and just as Nebula had said, four new symbols, smaller than the original four, took form between the respective edges and the circle in the center. "These represent the Celestials, the Titans, and the Ancient Ones; the first beings of the new universe. Each of the Entities sent their agents to explore the unknown."
"What are those orbs?" Peter asked, pointing at the smaller circles that had appeared among the false stars.
"Pocket dimensions. Planes of existence that are neither within the mortal realm nor without, but are able to support some form of existence within themselves."
"So the Titans had some connection to this Entity of... Death?" Nebula asked. She was pointing at the symbol on the far right and squinting as though she wasn't sure she had read it correctly.
"Death is the realm she chose to lord over, and the name given to her by the mortal realm," Ego answered. "She is merely an eternal entity as all the others are. There are more cosmic beings that prowl beyond the veil, and some do enact their influence upon this plane of existence, but these are the four who first took control of its workings. The Titans were immortals from the realm beyond the veil that migrated to the mortal realm to expand their species. In the time when the Entities were still warring over the new universe, Death, as she is named here, gave them the means to cross over in exchange for some measure of loyalty. Eventually, the war ended, and she had no more use for them, so she severed her ties and they were released from their deal to live out their existence in the new realm.
"But they retained the ability they had been bestowed with, and while the gift was rare in the later generations, it seems Thanos inherited the ability to cross between the veils and has used it to step outside of time."
"So he can just... change things... whenever he wants?" Peter asked, feeling a wave of hopelessness rise up within him at this confirmation of his fears.
"I don't know enough about Titans to say for sure," Ego said, "but I doubt traveling between the veils and outside of time itself can be achieved lightly. I would assume it would be quite some time before he finds the means to do so again. Time itself can also be a bit... volatile and unpredictable. Changing it, on a scale this large, can make it unstable and has the potential to create some rather unpleasant side effects."
"How do you know all of this?" Peter asked. Clearly, Ego had met Eternity before. He had recognized him right away, and didn't seem too happy to see him.
"Most of it I've gathered through my travels," Ego answered easily. His fury seemed to be cooling as he spoke. "Many civilizations mistook my appearance and powers as those of an eternal being, and called me by the various names they have been known by. Most often, I was mistaken for some variation of Eternity or the God of Creation. Sometimes, Mantis would be mistaken for some form of Infinity at my side." A small humorous smile quirked at the corners of his mouth. "Once, she was mistaken as the Goddess of Death. The natives sacrificed a beast to her, and she was so upset she was useless for cycles."
Peter turned to find Mantis, not sure if Ego was telling the truth. His friends had inched forward into the seafoam court without him realizing, emboldened by Ego's apparent acceptance of Nebula. When Mantis noticed his staring she ducked her head, biting her bottom lip hard enough to leave a small mark before she squeaked out an explanation.
"I did not speak their language, and they did not have translators, so I did not realize what was going on. They kept saying 'Hela' and then they brought me a great beast, it was shiny and soft and... and I thought Hela must be its name. And it was so sweet, so I pet it and they..." Her lip slipped between her teeth again and her dark eyes shimmered with horror and unshed tears.
"They slaughtered it for a feast," Ego said like this was something he had grown tired of repeating to her. "It was only a beast, and it would have died regardless."
Mantis just curled in on herself.
Peter swore he heard her whisper; 'I felt it die.'
"And the rest of it?" Nebula pressed the conversation on, either taking mercy on the obviously distraught Mantis, or growing impatient with their dawdling. Probably a little of both.
The wrinkles on Ego's forehead deepened as he glanced at Nebula as though he'd forgotten she was there. "The rest I learned from Eternity and the remains of the Celestials after I had been dragged back into the Light." Ego glanced up at the sky briefly and when he looked back down he met Peter's eye. "I believe we have wandered off-track. Take a break for now. Go play with your friends. I have some matters to attend to."
"Um," Peter felt something like a kid who had gotten out of a homework assignment because the teacher had grown distracted and forgotten about it. "Okay. What about when the Nova Corps call?" He really didn't feel like getting everyone blown up because Ego was in no mood to answer the phone.
Ego looked annoyed again for a moment, but offered, "I'll return when they send the hail. Until then, do as you wish."
-x-
The Guardians decided to return to the main court. Here, Mantis could continue her training and Peter would be close to the main building when the Nova Corps sent their hail.
"So why did you guys come down to the court?" Peter asked from where he was sitting on the golden steps between Drax and Nebula while they watched Gamora show mantis how to perform basic strikes.
"There was a tremor through the ground, and the insect woman claimed your father was furious, so we came to see what had happened." Drax was lounging back on the steps, propped up on one elbow while he picked at a nutrition bar he had saved from breakfast. "I assumed your annoying personality had enraged him, and we thought perhaps you would need to be saved before he strangled you or buried you in the dirt."
"What did happen?" Off to his other side, Nebula was resting her chin in her hands while she watched the two women below with a bored disinterest.
"Those dreams I told you about? Turns out they were sent by one of those cosmic entities. The one called Eternity. He was taking on the forms of people I knew in my dreams, and I guess that included Ego, but it was Eternity the whole time, just stealing faces from my memories..." While Peter spoke, his thoughts drifted back to his dream on the Starburst where Yondu had appeared among the stars. "THAT'S IT!" he exclaimed so loudly Nebula flinched and Mantis and Gamora paused in what they were doing to shoot him a worried glance and warning glare, respectively.
"What's it?" Drax asked.
"The picture! -with the light and the dark, and the stars in between them- I'd seen it before, too, but not in any book or anything like that. I couldn't figure out where until just now. It was one of my dreams! After the battle on Traxxon III, before I woke up on the Nova Corps ship, I was wandering through space and then everything... changed... and I wound up on this pathway made of stars, standing between this gigantic ball of light and a dark void. I remember the light seemed to be singing to me, it was like, it was calling out. Eternity appeared behind me, he looked like Yondu that time, and told me I had to come back. He said, I didn't belong there." Peter's brows furrowed as he tried to recall the details of this dream. "But why would I dream about that?"
"Are you sure it was a dream?"
Peter turned to give Nebula a confused look and she continued.
"Think about it," she urged him, with uncharacteristic patience. "Ego said that mortal souls are absorbed into this, nothing, when they die."
"Yeah?" Peter asked, not sure where she was going, but feeling a terrible weight crawling into his chest at the strange expression on her face he had never seen before.
"And when a Celestial dies, they are reabsorbed into this Light? And you are both."
"So then-" Peter swallowed thickly around the tightness in his throat as he stared into her dark eyes. "So then on the Starburst I was..."
"You were dying, Peter."
End
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Chapter 13 Preview: "...No," Drax repeated. "I will not lend you my blades."
Gamora's lips pressed into a thin line and her shoulders stiffened into a pose Peter recognized very well; it was the same look she used to give the Guardians' when someone was being particularly stubborn or obtuse and needed a good tongue lashing, usually to be reminded that they were the good guys now..."
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If anyone's curious, I have a quick five minute sketch of the screen Ego made on my Tumblr; "ThereAreMonstersInTheDark"
So a few days after I posted the last chapter I stumbled upon the song 'The Yawning Grave' by Lord Huron while I was on my lunch break and nearly threw my phone on the ground. It was so perfect for that chapter. It killed me. It still kills me. The song is so perfectly Eternity. I will try to find somewhere to work the song in because. It hurts.
Anyways. Yes. I wanted really bad to have Hela be a part of this story somehow. The Infinity Wars movie did not at all go how I thought it was going to, and when it came out I had to scramble to change a lot of things in Book 2 and the plot to try to make this story agree with it. I had to throw out an entire major plot point with Peter and his connection to the Light and Nothing and Thanos's search for him, which I had been building to from the first chapter of Book 1, and am trying to smooth it out and still give it a sensible tie in. (I'm still a little bitter about having to give it up, but the movie Thanos is nothing like the comic book one, so it didn't make any sense with his current goals. xD) We still have a ways to go before it's all in place, but I'm hoping to be able to bridge the gap of Thanos's motives and the outcome and Hela being both a technical mortal (Asgardians do have a lifespan and do not live forever.) and an Eternal being, and have it be sensible and fun for you all. I also have a few hints at the Earth tie ins in this chapter, but they'll make more sense in retrospect.
I know this chapter leaves a lot of questions, and will try to get to the next ones quickly so you can get more answers(And cute Guardian bonding shenanigans).
Thank you for continuing to read and join me on this journey!
-OMaM