Chapter 359: Death's Confession

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

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24th March 2015, Dimensional Void

(Jasmine Sayre POV)

I looked down, with teary eyes, and murmur softly, "It's time for me to let go now. I want you to know that I love you all, and that I cherished the time we had together. We all knew that I was preparing you for taking over for me. I guess this is me saying tag, you're it. I hope you do it better than me."

I ended the message and made it so that it would be sent on the next day. With that done, I watched as the Earth slowly morphed into the dimensional chaos and I stepped forward. I slowly floated towards the end of my bond that was getting stronger and stronger.

With every second, it solidified, and the moment that I reached Hestia, our vows would become binding, and our marriage ritual would finally be completed. I would be free to make my own choices, to live as I wish, and perhaps to die as I wish. Oh, it wasn't even close to being perfect, but it was better than the alternative. I would be letting go of my mission, of the fated fight against Entropy.

I guess this is me saying Fuck You to everyone involved in my misery.

I could feel the golden realm of Olympus as I neared. My hand was barely a couple of inches away from it when everything turned white.

Blinking out at the sudden brightness, it took me a couple of minutes for things to come back to focus. My blurry vision slowly focused to a familiar place, limbo. I had been here a few times, often whenever a cosmic entity wants to speak with me.

That meant one thing. My little trip between dimensions had not been unnoticed. A cosmic entity had noticed just as I was finishing my ritual, just as my bond with Hestia was solidifying.

I was so close to being free of the pain, free of their manipulation. Now, I had to face whatever cosmic entity had noticed me.

I turned around and saw a familiarly cloaked figure, and I couldn't help but exclaim, "Oh, you have got to be fucking kidding me."

It was Death, again. Could she not leave me alone? Honestly, out of all the cosmic entities that could have caught me, I wouldn't have expected them to be Death. The Endless being had been circumvented by Hestia before, by complete accident. Death had no say in things that couldn't die, and Olympus was now a realm of the gods. She was only omniscient when it came to her domain, and Olympus was eternal, I had made sure of that.

She shouldn't have noticed my connection to Olympus, nor how I planned to use it. She shouldn't have known that I had tried to be free of her influence. But if she knew about my plan, why did she wait until the last moment to stop me? She could have done it when I first opened the portal. The blind spot was still there, she probably just found another way to find me.

With the rational explanation out of the way, all that remained was my rage. The cloaked figure just stayed silent, and I couldn't take it anymore, "Why do you always do this to me? Why have you always had to ruin every single hope I might have? Every single time, I try to escape this cursed life, you always refuse me. Why do you focus so much on making my life miserable?"

The figure just stayed silent, and I continued my rant, "You have bound me ever since I was a child, allowed space and time to bend just to hone your weapon. Staying in the same timeline when I landed in Atlantis wasn't a coincidence, was it? You made sure of it, just like you made sure that I was desperate enough to save my home, Atlantis, that I would serve you. You planned all of it."

Death didn't respond and I just kept ranting, "You knew that I would live a half-life all those years ago. For thousands of years, I have served you, obeying your every command. I killed and killed in your name, while having to live with countless constraints, so that the timeline would remain the same. You wanted me in this timeline, but you had to preserve it, didn't you? And I was the one that had to pay for it. You knew that my path would lead to nothing but misery and pain, and you set me upon it again and again, punishing me for any selfish action, until I was barely more than a weapon, your weapon, your puppet. And when I had the illusion that I was finally free, that the loop was over, you still found a way to bind me by getting my daughter to travel back in time while staying in the same timeline, something that was impossible, Darkhold or not, without a cosmic entity's approval. You allowed an entire worldline to be pruned just for the sick desire of seeing me bound once more. You allowed Entropy back in time, to cause even more chaos, while having the advantage of foresight. And you did it using my daughter, who died in my arms with tears in her eyes."

"I was willing to serve you," I exclaimed, "I really was. Death is a noble concept to follow. The impartial judge, the balance to life, it's a very interesting concept, and one that I respected immensely. I would have happily served you without a second's thought as your avatar. I would have massacred civilizations if you asked me to, and you knew it. Hell, you asked me to do it many times, but you had to push me, you had to stifle every freedom I had, you had to take away everything that made life worth it, so that my only purpose would be Death."

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The cloaked figure finally shifted slightly, showing me that she was being affected by my words. And yet, she did not speak. It was frustrating and I had to goad her into it, "Are you seriously so callous that you would allow Entropy to come back, after he was defeated? Are you so completely devoid of mercy that you would let an entire timeline to be destroyed? Not even destroyed, but pruned, lost to the chaos of indecision. Their souls were erased, not even having been granted the luxury of an afterlife or reincarnation. And you did that just because you want me to fight Entropy again? Is this what you want? To watch me fight an impossible enemy again and again, timeline after timeline for your own amusement?"

Finally, Death spoke up, "No, I do not."

I froze when I heard her voice. None of the previous arrogance was there. She sounded hurt, vulnerable, for the lack of a better word, human.

"Then why? Why all of this? Why manipulate the fundamental laws of the universe, laws that you helped put in place by the way?"

"Because it was necessary. I am not the one that decided that it had to be this way, but when it came to you, I am as constrained as you are," the figure answered.

"What could possibly constrain Death? You're one of the most powerful entities out there…"

The cosmic entity let out a bitter laugh, "Destiny, I suppose. You have a destiny one that is very important. Being my avatar was part of it, so is staying in this timeline, hence why the Council of the Endless worked together in making sure that you remain in the same world line. But it was never meant to come to this. It was never meant to end this way."

"And how was it supposed to end?" I couldn't help by ask.

The cosmic entity gave me a wink, "Spoilers…"

"What wasn't supposed to happen? Was it Entropy?" I questioned.

"No, Entropy was always supposed to rebel. You were always supposed to fight him and defeat him as you did in the last timeline. However, the way that you did was different than the one predicted. Something changed your destiny. Something stopped you from completing it. Something that was supposed to happen didn't, and it endangered everything."

"So, I wasn't supposed to die, then?"

Death gave me a bitter smile, "I will not give away your destiny, no matter how much you desire it. For when things are let out, the less your choices matter. But the final battle did not occur as we predicted, and we had to find a way to redo it, in the same timeline. So, when we found out that Wanda Maximoff, corrupted by the Darkhold, was planning on going back in time, we let her go back to her own timeline, so that we would have a new chance, to make what was supposed to happen, happen. We locked the dimension as much as we could to prevent any God, Demon, or Cosmic Entity from interfering once more, as it was the most common theory that emerged. Time and Fate stopped anyone from peering into the future, and we were ready to redo it."

"You wanted another chance, and you risked the entire multiverse for it?" I asked with an incredulous tone.

"Yes. We can rebuild a multiverse. What is created can also be destroyed. We would have contained Entropy, imprisoned him, and we would have restarted. But your destiny is critical not only on a multiversal scale, but above. What you were supposed to do would have been critical to the very concept of creation. It was supposed to reverberate throughout time and space, throughout the multiverse itself, in the past, and in the future, without that happening, we risked existence itself to turn into a paradox and that is far more dangerous than the multiverse being destroyed, hence why we are so insistent about your destiny occurring."

She took a deep breath and continued, "We tried being nice, we tried being harsh, we tried to be monsters, we tried to be angels, but nothing seemed to put things back together. The timeline was irrevocably changed because of Entropy's actions, and we didn't know what we were supposed to do. Fate was being thwarted, she was crippled in this timeline, and we had no guide. We had our clairvoyance, our omniscience, but nothing more. This timeline is a chaotic mess of cosmic energy. A cosmic storm would be more apt. We sent challenges at you, but you were different. You acted differently. We pushed too much on you, and you started rebelling."

"Of course, I started rebelling," I shouted, "You started breaking the very laws that you claimed to protect."

"We did, because we were desperate to preserve your timeline, to see your destiny fulfilled. You started to resent your destiny without even knowing what it was, and you wished to run away from it, to reject it. So much so that you almost chose to join Olympus. Which is why I blackmailed you with its destruction. You couldn't accept that offer, and I had to do what I had to do. I was desperate and I do regret it. I pushed too much, which brings us to this. You found a way to almost circumvent me once more. You came close, and this is me, putting the cards on the table. I need you to fight Entropy. I need you to defeat him in a very specific way."

I groaned to myself, "I'm just tired. Can't you get someone else to do it for you? Why me?"

"I'm sorry, but this is beyond me, beyond you. Some things are just set in stone. We need you to fulfill your purpose, after that you can do anything, you want. You could come back here."

"What if I lose, what if I don't defeat Entropy in the exact way you wanted?" I asked.

"Then we'll rewind time, and we'll start again, and again, until you get it right. If you complete what you're trying to do, I will not destroy Olympus. I will respect your decision, but the timeline will start over. The timeline will be pruned, and we'll start again. We are that desperate. Olympus might be a godly realm that is beyond my supervision, but it is still bound to time. It will rewind, and you'll start over. Someone will probably end up destroying Olympus to prevent that from happening in the next timeline. It won't be me, but I will not stop them if they do it. If you finish this decision, the timeline will be considered to be defunct, and we'll start over."

I paled at her with my mouth open. I could feel the truth of her statement, her resignation, her desperation.

She gave me a blank look, "So, Morrigan, my champion, now that you have brought Death itself to desperation, what is your decision?"

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