Eternal Encounters

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I would like to thank my beta, Akisu, for his help in this chapter.

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4th October 2012, New York City

(Jasmine Sayre POV)

I shook my head, "To live is to interfere with the others around, or you'll have achieved nothing but waste your years in solitude. But I am not talking about an event that threatens this planet. I know that you are quite willing to let it be destroyed without issues, but what I'm talking about is destruction on a scale never seen before. I cannot foresee Arishem disagreeing with my idea, because if he did, he'd be a hypocrite to his own purpose of creating life."

Ajak shook her head, "You do not need to convince us, you'll need to convince Arishem, and we will follow. We need to go, you're expected."

I nodded and prepared to meet Arishem the Judge, the leader of the Celestials. I truly hoped that things would work out.

In a blink of my eyes, I found myself in front of a giant spaceship. I recognized it as the Domo, the spacecraft that the Eternals used to arrive on Earth thousands of years ago. It's an impressive piece of technology, which probably had enough fire power to blow up the planet. I wasn't sure, but Celestial tech could make some very impressive and disturbing things happen. I will admit that I'm not even slightly knowledgeable in the technical capabilities of beings that are older than my planet.

I looked around, semi impressed and asked my two hosts, "So, why did you bring us here?"

Ajak was the one who answered, "We have a direct line of communication with Arishem from the ship. It's easier to use and it allows outsiders to speak to him as well."

That made sense, but there was also something that wouldn't leave my mind. Where were the other Eternals? They usually acted as an inseparable group for thousands of years before separating a few centuries back for some reason. I don't know how they operate, but I do know that they're a close-knit group that wouldn't make decisions without the input of the rest of their team, "And where's the rest of the gang?"

Ikaris gritted his teeth, "We did not wish to disturb them for such a trivial matter."

I snorted, "trivial? Arishem wanting to speak to an outsider is not trivial. No, you're the only ones here because something might be revealed that you don't want the others to know," I stay silent for a minute, thinking before gasping, "Oh, I got it. They still don't know of their purpose, of what they are. My conversation with Arishem might reveal something that they don't need to know. Thena is already remembering, isn't she?"

Ikaris' eyes started to glow, and I readied myself to redirect his optic blast, but I didn't need to as Ajak intervened, "Ikaris, that's enough," she then looked at me, "And I thought you were wiser than to bait him like this, Morrigan."

I nodded and shrugged, still feeling satisfied that I got under that asshole's skin. Honestly, for all the physical power that Ikaris has – being pretty much a discount Superman – he's not even close to being the most dangerous eternal. Funnily enough, it's Ajak that I consider to be the most dangerous with Phastos being a close second. The leader of the Eternals doesn't have much compared to the others in terms of fighting abilities, but her biggest advantage is her mind. In her brain is what I can only assume to be a cosmically powered quantum supercomputer that allows her to make inferences, find relationships and sometimes even make calculated predictions of the future. She could find out anything about anyone with a few glances, as well as any weaknesses that her opponents have during a fight.

Phastos, on the other hand, has an entire repository of knowledge of discount Celestial technologies. It's probably not even close to what Arishem uses, but for any other civilization, it was borderline magical. He could easily destroy the planet and would present an active threat to anyone if he was prepared enough.

Honestly, the rest weren't all that impressive. Sure, cosmically powered transmutation isn't anything to dismiss, but the rest of them have abilities that can be found practically everywhere in the hands of mutants. Sure, they might be a tad more powerful because they use cosmic energy and not the ambient magic that the planet generates, but outside their immortality, I can't consider them to be a bigger threat than Apocalypse or Magneto.

I followed the two Eternals inside the ship and into a large circular chamber which had a statue of Arishem.

Ikaris glared at me, "You better pray that Arishem is feeling merciful, Morrigan."

I just raised an eyebrow and waited for the two Eternals to leave. Immediately after they did, the room started to change. The walls disappeared, leaving the night sky around me. I was in an illusion. I guess that Arishem is using them to communicate instead of coming here on his own. Huh, he used an energy projection the last time he spoke to me, when I stopped humanity's life force from feeding the Celestial egg inside the core of the planet. It was probably because he didn't know if I would accept to come see him.

I turned around and saw the giant form of Arishem towering over me. He was large, far larger than any living being had a right to be. And the worst thing is that he is probably making himself smaller so that I wouldn't be talking to someone who's probably physically bigger than the sun.

The giant face with six glowing eyes spoke up, "You are different, Morrigan."

I twirled around, "Yeah, I've been trying a new look. Do you like it?"

"You are filled with cosmic energy, not unlike our kind."

"Well, magic got boring after a while, so I thought I'd try your thing. By the way, it really is cheating how easy it is to use cosmic energy. No wonder your kind are as powerful as you are now."

The Celestial stayed silent at my comment for a few seconds before commenting, "this is supposed to be impossible. The ascension of a mortal to a Celestial would require more energy than that of an entire galaxy."

I nodded, "Well, I didn't create the power, I simply altered what my previously magical core could absorb. It's not my fault that one of your kind kept leaving parts of him around like candy."

"Yes, the abomination. You killed him."

I nodded, "Yes, I did."

If he was surprised by my admission, he didn't show it, "He was an abomination, but he was of our kind. Killing a Celestial has repercussions, Morrigan."

I snorted, "Don't pretend like you care about him, Arishem. But let's pretend for a second like you did, I killed him because of his mad plan of destroying all life in the galaxy. I think that the Judge in you can see that it wasn't malicious in nature."

"There is no changing the fact that you killed a Celestial. One of the main balancers of life in this dark universe."

I couldn't help but laugh, "Ego? A balancer of life? All he did was stay in his little planet for millions of years while planning on destroying all life in the galaxy. You can't pretend to have the moral high ground here. And even still, you call him an abomination, and yet he was successful where you failed the most."

"Explain!"

I grinned, "You didn't even notice, did you? That mad little Ego was the first one to give birth to a Celestial hybrid. He impregnated a human, and the child that was born has the potential to use his powers. And he didn't even use a planet as an incubator and kill off an entire civilization in its emergence. Sometimes, madness has its uses."

"My methods are still superior."

"Sure, they might be. But they're so artificial. You need thousands of years to power the Celestial eggs that are of your design and wait for thousands of years for them to be born. Ego just needed nine months. And let's see how things have been working out for you. How many Celestials are still alive right now?"

I knew that this was a low blow, but I had to say it. The truth is that after the Celestial wars, there was barely a dozen Celestials left. And after a few conflicts over the years, the number of Celestials remaining could be counted on one hand. Throwing that in his face was a cheap move but he had to see my point.

The Celestial stared at me without even a single change in his expression, but I knew that I was getting to him, "There are still thousands of eggs incubating."

I let out a laugh, "You still don't see it, don't you? The more Celestials that are alive, the less life there is in the universe as a whole. And with the way Ragnarök is being crippled, should you hatch all of these Celestial eggs, there will be no life in the universe other than your kind. I already told you this the last time we spoke. Your will to save your race is admirable, but do not hide under the pretense that it's for life to persevere."

"You overstep much, Morrigan."

I shrugged, "Someone has to. Your plans are dooming the universe. Every generation, in every planet you added an egg inside, there are less births overall. Your power is godly which means that your actions have far reaching consequences. You need to take that into account."

"You could help with that. You are practically a Celestial, now. You could join us, make sure that we don't get lost in our ambitions."

I raised my hands, "Hey, I'm not a Celestial. I made sure not to ascend fully. I'll consider joining you if I happen to ascend, but I'm still happy as a mortal."

"Why do you wallow in mediocrity like this, Morrigan. You have the chance to do more, to be more. Imagine that your actions could reach entire galaxies. Your laws of life and death could be universal and not bound to a single planet."

I let out a bitter chuckle, "Believe me, this planet is troublesome enough on its own. But the truth is, that the fact that you don't see things the way I do is what's making me hesitant. Because you don't live, not really, you just exist, waiting, judging. You want to cultivate life in the universe and that's admirable, but how could you value life if you've never experienced it? The way you use planets as hatcheries is how you can see it. You barely see the universe as a flow of energy, nothing more. You don't mind destroying a planet with billions of lives on it, if it serves what you think is the greater good of the whole. Your work is important, I will not deny that, but it is also merciless and harsh. I have no interest to lose what makes me alive and exist for a purpose that I will never experience."

Arishem stayed silent for a moment before answering, "I will respect your choice, for now, at least."

As he prepared to remove the illusion, I yelled out, "There's still something I need to speak with you about."

He stayed silent so I continued, "Grave events are unfolding. And the entire universe, no, the entire multiverse, is in danger. I need your help, and you'll need mine."

"Celestials do not interfere in the matters of parallel universes."

"But that's the thing, everything is centered around our universe. The others will just end up paying for our mistakes."

In his usual monotone voice he ordered, "Elaborate!"

"The cosmic entity Entropy has taken a human form and is currently living in the universe. He aims to use the six infinity stones to propagate his essence throughout the multiverse to achieve the ultimate Entropy. I cannot stop him alone. I will need all the help I can get."