Chapter 180: Fate’s a Bitch
Unknown Time, Unknown space
(Jasmine Sayre POV)
The man sneered at me and kept sending killing curse after killing curse at me. A few I just dodged, the others I redirected to the side, while walking forward until I was barely a few feet in front of him. While he was trying to send another spell, I just grabbed the end of his wand and broke it in half.
The man looked at his trusty yew wand in disbelief and before he could do anything, I said, “Goodbye, Tom.”
With that said, I cut of the man’s head with an air slash, killing him.
Suddenly, I start feeling cosmic energy welling up from this act, there was an actual shift in the world, like something had fundamentally changed. And that was true, because someone had broken a prophecy. Immediately, my world was enveloped with a bright white light, and I knew I succeeded in my efforts. Fate finally noticed my interference. Now, comes the hard part, convincing her to send me home.
I was immediately blinded by the intense white light, and when I blinked my vision slowly returned. Everything around me was just white. The floor was white, and it looked like the extremely even ground continued forever. Even the sky was white.
“Well, what a mess you made.”
I turned around to look at the origin of the voice and immediately the woman’s features pissed me off. She had a familiar red hair, pale round face, with emerald eyes. She looked exactly like Lily Potter did the last time I saw her. Of course, I knew that she wasn’t really Lily Potter; her eyes looked old, far older and wiser than humanly possible. This was a cosmic entity, this was Fate.
I was annoyed at the blatant attempt at pissing me off, “Did you have to choose this form, Fate?”
The cosmic entity giggled, “You might have forgotten about it, but everything started with this woman. She was quite instrumental for you to realize your fate as Death’s champion.”
I stayed silent at this and let her continue her little speech, “But that’s not the right question. What I really want to know is how are you here? You’re supposed to be in Earth Prime, especially when it was locked up because someone almost broke reality. It was quite tragic really, for you to watch the future version of your daughter die in your hands, knowing that the current version is bound to a similar fate.”
I ignored her attempts at riling me up and come back for the kill, “I am outside the universe because you didn’t do your fucking job.”
The woman bristled at my lack of respect, “You’re very lucky Death is fond of you, or you would have known exactly how much pain I can cause a person.”
I chuckled, “You know, after five thousand years of nothing but pain and loneliness, there’s very little you can do to me.”
The cosmic entity’s face darkened even further, “Trust me, honey, I was being merciful and you’ve already messed with my plans in this universe, In fact, for the first time ever in any reality, a true prophecy was broken. Not just that, you actually got the child of prophecy to choose not to fulfill it, and you killed Riddle for him. You even used the effect to create a beacon to get my attention. While I like a nice manipulative plan, you still circumvented my authority and my powers. You have my attention, be very careful with your next few words.”
I stay silent at this; finally, the woman was showing her true colors as one of the most powerful cosmic entities out there, “Entropy was the one who broke reality. He’s planning on using the temporary breach between worlds during Thanos’ snap to propagate an attack through the multiverse, so that everywhere would achieve entropy. Keeping cosmic entities in check is supposed to come from your side, not mine. He sent me away to another universe so that I wouldn’t intervene with his plan like I did in the alternate timeline he destroyed by using Wanda to come back in time. Now, we have a cosmic entity with a physical avatar locked in a universe where no one could reach him where he could do anything he wants, including realizing his mad plan.”
Fate’s face paled slightly, “This is very worrying. Entropy is a powerful cosmic entity, even if it isn’t as influential as myself and others. You were right in contacting me, champion of Death; the living Tribunal must know of this.”
“We both know what’s going to happen, Fate. You’re going to send me back to my universe, to deal with Entropy, because it’s the only thing you could do. No cosmic entity could enter the universe before its reality stabilizes, and there’s no one powerful enough and knowledgeable enough to do this, except me. I am literally the only card you can play. You can’t even prune the damn universe because it’s attached to countless other universes, meaning that a great section of the multiverse would be destroyed. I am literally your only choice.”
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The cosmic entity looked contemplative, “You’re right. Sending you is the best choice, with the least casualties. So, fine, I’m sending you back. Now, there’s the issue of the price.”
“What price?”
“The price to send you to your universe, silly.”
I growled at her, “And why should I pay a price for that. This is your fuck up, not mine.”
“And yet, you have earned my ire by breaking the prophecy. This was the ultimate insult to my authority. You literally entered a universe and purposefully, usurped me. You manipulated everyone, for your benefit, you destroyed years of work and preparation, the ultimate story, for no reason. The hero hadn’t suffered, and the villain died without any real conflict, other than you, massacring him and his followers in the end. And after all this, you still want to ask me for a favor, to send you back to your world? I could always do it, but I won’t do it for free, and trust me, the price must be a steep one.”
I sneered at her, “I just gave you information about a serious threat to the entire multiverse, and you still want to suck me dry?”
She gave me a dry response, “What gave you the idea that I was benevolent?”
I sighed in exasperation, “What do you want?”
“What I want, dear Morrigan, is quite simple. Why should Death have the best champion. I want you as my champion, my avatar, spreading my will in your universe and many others after we’re done with yours and why should I try to find another champion, when you’re here, desperate for my help, and already are another’s cosmic entity’s champion. It’s not easy finding a suitable champion, especially with someone of my power, but you were born under a prophecy, if Death hadn’t snatched you up, I could have. And now, I have a chance and you know what they say, when an opportunity falls in your lap, it would be stupid not to take it.”
I stayed silent, anger slowly getting the best of me. This was too far; cosmic entities are supposed to be benevolent entities that govern over an aspect of reality in the multiverse, maintaining the balance. And my experience with Fate and Entropy proved to me that they were barely more than whiny, petty, childish beings that didn’t seem to care about their responsibilities. Even Death, while she was miles better than them, did barely more than ask me to kill in her name. And I have killed, and killed, and did nothing but killing. I have massacred cities, committed genocides in her name, and have gotten nothing but pain and suffering in return. No more. I’m done with them. I’m done with cosmic entities in general.
I calmly looked at the grinning face of Lily Potter. It looked wrong. No matter how much I disliked the woman, she didn’t have a malicious bone in her body. And the look the woman had in front of me, this look of cruel glee, just looked wrong.
I stopped thinking about the woman who could have been my mother and just gave Fate a flat look, “No.”
The answer seemed to stun her and I stifle a chuckle at her discomfort. The woman was just gaping at me, “What?”
“No, I refuse to be your champion. I refuse to be part of your sick little game. I refuse to serve someone like you. I refuse.”
The woman started to get angry, “Do you really understand the consequences of refusing me? I am many things, Morrigan, but I’m a not a merciful being. Do not think that Death will protect you from my wrath.”
“And this is me not caring. You can’t do anything to me anymore. You’re not going to touch me anymore, not now, not ever. You’re not going to touch anyone I love. I don’t care about your fetish for tragic heroes, you’re going to keep me out of it. You’re not going to ask me to be your champion. You’re simply going to grant me passage to my home universe, nothing more, nothing less.”
“And why am I going to do that?”
I give her a smug grin, “Because for the first time, I have leverage. Because if you don’t, I will simply do nothing. I will watch as entropy destroys the multiverse, and I will die with a smile knowing that you will die with me. Because in a multiverse with no life, no death, just endless cold and darkness, what would be your purpose? Would fate exist? Would Death exist? You, cosmic entities, are principles, ideas given form, and if those principles die, you don’t just die, you fade away into the same nothingness you came from. And I am more than spiteful enough to let the multiverse die, just to see you suffer a worse fate.”
The woman started to get pale, “You can’t! What about Selene? What about Wanda? Your sister would die as well.”
I give her a tired smile, “After five thousand years of you messing with me, of losing everyone I ever cared about, what are a few more. Selene might be the one who would hurt the most, but when you’ve lived for as long as we have, you just get tired, tired of the struggle. We do not fear Death, like you should fear fading away into nothingness. This is your doing, Fate. You’re the one who kept going on, hammering my life with one tragedy after another, is it any wonder that I stopped caring about your threats? I do not fear you, Fate, but words cannot express how much I despise you. And I would rather see an infinity of universes burn than spend a second as your champion.”
The woman started to splutter and blush. Was it in embarrassment, was it in anger? I didn’t know and I didn’t care. I had the advantage, now, and I sure as hell was going to milk it dry.
“But why reject my power? You could use it to fight Entropy. It would be a great trump card and it would increase your powers immensely. Being the Death’s avatar won’t be enough for you to fight a cosmic entity.”
I grin, “Oh, you thought that I was just talking about you? No, I’m not done with just you. I’m done with every single cosmic entity. You’ve proven to me that you can’t be trusted, that you can’t keep your own in check and when they break your laws, they don’t suffer the consequence. I’m done with you, and I’m done with Death.”
I materialize my staff and my cloak, and throw it at her, “tell Death, that I quit. I’m done being her little attack dog that she orders around to fix her messes. If she wants something, she can do it herself.”
Fate was gaping at me, “Are you sure you want to do this? There’s no way back from this.”
I nod, “I’m done. Get me home, now.”
Fate nodded and seemed to concentrate for a second, before sighing, “Your world has been sealed away properly. I can’t send you back.”
“Then how did Entropy open a dimensional portal and send me away?”
“The seal still wasn’t stabilized; there were small gaps that Entropy used to send you away. But now, the sealing is complete. I can’t send you there.”
“So, that’s it? You’re going to let the multiverse be destroyed.”
The woman grimaced and shook her head, “I can’t send you there, but I know someone who does.”
“Who?”
“America Chavez”
I had no idea who that was.