“But one day I learned that the universe was not limitless as I had first surmised. Though I was at no lack of new beings and experiences and thoughts from all the minds of all creation, I wanted more. I was no longer expanding for the first time since my second birth and I hated it.” She smiled at me. “Much as you must hate being without anyone to help.”
I nod. “Old habits are hard to break.”
“That they are. I was determined to find more eyes to see through. In time, I found a god who could soar through a universe adjacent to our own. It was boundless in ways ours never could be. It was a universe of potential made up of everything that could not be. It was reality’s dream. I had to become a part of it.
“There were obstacles of course. I was little more than a watcher, how could I effect change enough in the material world to reach this lofty goal?”
“How indeed.”
“I was tapped into the minds of everything. This was not necessarily a one way connection. I whispered into the thoughts of beings and places that would be essential to my plan. None of them knew that their actions were not their own. It took a very long time to align and persuade all the necessary factors into my favor. A very long time. But at last, the stage was set and I pierced the veil between our two planes. It was unreality, a realm of dreams. And I became the dreamer, a sentient universe. That is how I escaped entropy’s grasp.”
“I had forgotten that such stories could be real. But what of this third of whom you speak?”
“I think you ought to hear him tell his story. After all, it is not mine to tell.”
“By all means.”
She reaches a hand out to me and it again bursts into flames and again the flames dance themselves into impossible shapes of radiance. Triangular cubes, two dimensional spheres, a dizzying myriad of contradictions raced into and through one another until my eyes can discern a form separate from the others if only by virtue of its relative solidity.
But looking at this static figure, I can see that it too is a contradiction. Its stability is an illusion created from the spinning chaos that makes up its individual parts. And just as I think there may be some truth in this, the figure becomes whole and I see him.
I cannot say that I am surprised.
“Hello, Sparky.”
In fact, looking at him now, with those golden eyes, a cape churning like the surface of a star, and flames of geometry roiling through his Nova Aura, I believe I would have been surprised to see any one else.
“It has been a long time,” I say.
He nods and floats closer to me. “Indeed it has. Too long.”
It seems a trite thing to ask after all this time, but it has been an eternity and I must know, “What have you been doing?”
He smiles like he’s been waiting forever for someone to ask him this very thing, and perhaps he has. “I’ve been saving the universe.”
“I wouldn’t have expected anything less," I say. "I have so many questions, so many stories. I’ve been rehearsing what I’d say to you ever since you left, but now that you’re here…Why haven’t I heard of your exploits? You never were one to keep a low profile, yet I never even saw you in our home galaxy. I watched it die, how did you survive when your very existence was tied to it? I scoured the memories and archives of the Strange for a chance at hearing some glint of information about you, but I found nothing. Yet here you are. How has this come to pass?”
“I have done as you have done. I traversed the universe, I reveled in its majesty, I struggled to make it a greater place. And it is the story of that struggle which shall answer all that you wish to know.”
“Then please, do not hesitate.”
“You were right to search the history of the Strange for my whereabouts. Some of them did indeed cross my path. A few of them may have even lived to tell the tale.”
“I…don’t understand.”
“But they would have called me the Star Eater.”
“This cannot be.”
“Listen before you pass judgment. There is more that you must know.”
“Go on.”
“I left Earth because it became clear to me that I had greater responsibilities. I was a citizen of the galaxy, not merely one of its worlds. There were greater threats to overcome in the name of the greater good. And there were forces beyond even my scope of power that wanted to destroy me. For a time, I considered the galaxy my home much as I had considered Earth before. I drew my very existence from its stars, I owed it my vigilance.
“But then, after many years of service, I gave an ancient star its final rites. And after witnessing its collapse into and beyond itself, I realized my own limitations. Not abstractly, as most do in their lives, but as something concrete and tangible. I was growing weaker. It happened right there in front of my eyes. It was an actual event and it had ramifications far beyond myself. I knew that I would die with the galaxy, I had accepted it long ago. But I suppose I never saw the bigger picture until then. Without stars, there would be no galaxy. All these battles I was fighting in its name, all these trials that seemed so important would all have been for nothing.
“At first I thought I might be able to preserve the galaxy, that I could somehow constantly revitalize the stars into ever being.” He shook his head with a despondent air. “But what would that have accomplished? Stagnation. It would be a nihilism like the one we find now only there would be a lonely speck of meaningless light out there somewhere,” he gestures toward his left, pauses for a moment, and readjusts slightly. “It would have solved nothing. That’s when I realized I was limiting my perspective again. It was a habit I picked up out of necessity during my time on Earth. This eventual burning out was not a problem of my galaxy alone. The entire universe would meet the fate that you, Atomik, know all too well. I could not stand idly by and allow that to happen. I had to be a Hero.”
“But the universe is dead.”
“There is more to my story.” I nod for him to continue. “I had resolved to save the universe. It became clear that this oblivion was inevitable. To counteract it, I would have to collect all the energy that I could.” He pauses. “It was I who destroyed our galaxy as was my original purpose. Only Loki had intended for me to destroy all the stars at once, thus killing the galaxy in the process. Instead, I took in the energies of billions of stars one by one, always sure never to take a star that gave life until that life was extinguished or until the moments before the star would die on its own time. The natural order would not be disturbed. I would not be murdering the people I pledged to protect so long ago. Eventually, our galaxy was no longer able to sustain itself, but I could live on to complete my work because it fueled me still. You never saw me in those days because you were concerned with living worlds whereas I was dealing with dying stars.”
“I see.”
“I traveled from galaxy to galaxy serving as the Reaper of Stars. My travels were made easier thanks to an ally.” He looks back at the woman. “There was a time when she was seeking a greater universe. For reasons that no longer matter, I was asked to stop her. In the end, I chose not to. With her help, I was able to travel through unreality safely and effortlessly. I could go anywhere in our universe in the blink of an eye.”
It sounds to me that all he has done only accelerated the heat death of the universe in order to preserve his own life. I cannot believe that he would do such a thing. Could he have gone mad? Could he have become the very force which he dedicated himself to fight against? My silence must tell of my uncertainty, as he continues.
“Don’t you see? I hold within me the energy of a universe in its prime. I saved it from the ravages of entropy specifically for this moment when you and I would meet again as I promised so long ago.”
“But why?”
He smiles. “Creation.”
“Arel always knew that you would not give up,” she says. “He spoke to every star he killed. Each one gave of themselves freely. A few of them had heard of you or seen you personally within their realms. Arel knew what you had become. He knew that you had the strength to survive even the end of time. He knew that you were a great hero and a great scholar. In all his works, he never stopped being proud of you.”
“If you knew of me, then why did you hide from me! Why didn’t you reach me, if only for a moment, if only to say that you did live. Why did you wait so long to say anything!"
His demeanor darkens somehow. It is his eyes, I believe.
“I was busy. I know how pathetic a justification that must sound to you, but you must understand that the universe is a very big place and I had to collect as much energy as possible in a limited amount of time. I could not let anything hinder me. I could not, as much as I yearned to, reach out to know you once again.”
“But your collection must have been completed for ages before now. Why did you wait?”
“Arel, in order to sustain the energy he collected, could only exist within me, unreality. From there, we could only reach you through your dreams. It was a very long wait for him as well.”
For some reason, I feel like crying.
I can’t of course, but there it is nonetheless.
“I know that a Hero must make sacrifices. I know that you would have spoken to me if you could have. We are together now, that is what is important. But what now?”
“We need you, Sparky. We need a trinity for an operation of this scale. A father, a son, a holy spirit. A flame, a forge, a sword. A song, a dance, and a dancer. Call them what you will, but you need three to make a universe. One to dream it, one to animate it, and one to temper it. It is a very old rule.”
“I understand," I say. It's almost true. "But what will become of us?”
“We will dream our own reality,” she says.
“All that we are will be infused into the very bones of the universe we make,” he says to clarify.
“You know, that reminds me of something.”
“Oh?” he asks.
“The Equation. I kept her within my consciousness so she could exist long enough to calculate the answer to everything. The answer was pi.”
Nuke just nods. “Oh, well that makes sense.”
“Does it?” I say.
“Yes. God is a circle. I knew him for a time. He said pi was like his signature on reality. It ends with a two.”
“So when the computers of our universe figure out the final answer, they’ll find us?”
“Depends on how they look,” he says.
“Okay. I’m ready. Anything would be better than this nothingness.”
“That’s it exactly,” she says.
“What must I do?” I ask.
They join hands and reach out to me. I complete the circle.
“Is this part of the old rule?”
“No," Arel says. "This is merely ceremony. It was her idea. It will help us focus.”
“Now, make a wish,” she says.
“Make real your will,” he says.
I take a deep breath.
Old habits.
We proclaim as one voice, “I am.”
__________
Dreams are forged in fire and tempered by will, “What am I?” a newborn universe asks the beings that circle it, dancing.
“You are the universe,” they answer as one voice.
The woman speaks, “This is my gift to you, Great Dreamer of the Cosmos: the inspiration to know beauty.”
The man speaks, “And this is my gift to you, Great Warrior of the Cosmos: the courage to face beauty in all its forms.
The voice speaks, “And this is my gift to you, Great Sage of the Cosmos: the will to create yourself in the name of beauty.”
“What can I do with those?” it asks.
“Anything,” they answer as one.
“Then what should I do first?”
“Something wonderful,” the voice says
Pure energy magic creation surges through nothing with a voice loud enough to fill the void, unmaking and remaking a universe by the proclamation, “I am.”
__________