Time: 5000 BCE. Location: Mesopotamia.

‘Humans were fearful creatures.’ Janus thought alone in his laboratory with the Deviants’ carcasses. ‘Fear was their greatest enemy and their closest ally.’ With the help of Gilgamesh, Ikaris, and his clones, they were able to secure and bring the corpses back to the Domo. ‘Fear was a double-edged sword that can lead to conviction or despair.’ Janus was afraid of many things that would come in the future. The deaths that he would face throughout his immortality. The powerlessness against Arishem. The uncertainty of the future now that he has entered this world. ‘What did Loki like to say? I am burdened with glorious purpose? It rings true indeed.’ Janus knew that he could not stay idle and wait for the emergence to come. The clock was ticking, and he knew it. The key to his survival was in these Deviants and Sersi. Unlike the Eternals, who were designed to stay stagnant, Deviants could grow and adapt through consumption. In the future, they would be able to consume an Eternal and gain sentience as well. Sersi, on the other hand, broke through her limitations and gained more power than she had ever meant to wield. ‘How did she do that?’ Junas puzzled over the question as he split into four versions of himself, simultaneously heading towards the winged Deviant on the operation table. His maximum capacity was six clones, any more and his mind would be unable to withstand the processing overload.

His surgical knives cut into the strange creature against considerable resistance. Thena made slicing and dicing these horrors look easy. Anything from the creature’s muscle tissues and skins was resilient and flexible. Its bones were light, not surprising since it was able to fly. Janus-four explored into the creature’s organs past its rib cages. Just as he expected, a large air sac filled with gas helped reduce the weight of its entirety, along with its wide wingspan helped the Deviant fly. Janus-two found a flaw in its design. As powerful as the beast was, the wings lacked protection and density. The semi-transparent membranous wings would prove to be its downfall. If Ikaris aimed his beams to severely damage the wings instead of injuring himself. He could have trapped it on the ground while he leisurely attacked it from the sky. Unfortunately, Ikaris was overconfident in his strength. He used his instinct and body instead of strategies and brains. This was helpful to Janus. He would use this against Ikaris if he were ever to turn against them. A small slit in the armor. One by one, they would add up.

Janus’ crew of duplicates continued their research into the deviants’ bodies, constantly highlighting tactics to use against similar types of Deviants as well as the Eternals themselves. However, he only recorded the former into the Domo’s interface. He only wrote down a minuscule amount of notes for his immortal companions that anyone would notice during the short hours they spent together. Janus stopped his movement at the holo-image of Sersi. ‘How did she do it?’ According to Arishem, Eternals held in each one of us an infinite amount of cosmic energy, which gave us our powers and immortality, and yet as endless as it was, there were restrictions on their powers. On the other hand, Infant Celestials had to absorb an abundance of energy from the deaths of sentient life to grow and emerge out of the planet. ‘Why were there restrictions on our powers? What was this mystery energy? How can I utilize it?’ A puzzle was forming in his mind, but he was missing the pieces.

Janus heard footsteps coming towards his room, and he quickly switched the interface away from the heroes to the Deviants’ data. Unfortunately, the Domo was not safe for his secret research. He needed to find another place to build a base from prying eyes, but with his minuscule fighting prowess, If his clone were to encounter a Deviant, it would tear him to pieces. ‘A project for another time,’ He thought to himself.

Ajak strode in with her calm footings. “I thought I would find you here.”

“Prime Ajak, I was working on my reports of the Deviants we fought earlier in the day. I had found flaws in their anatomies which would help us fight against similar types in the future.” Janus replied, gesturing at the screens.

“You have been here for three days, Janus. The others were starting to wonder where you were.” Ajak commented.

“Goodness. Has it been so long? I was so occupied I did not notice. My apologies” To much of his amazement, he saw a smile adorned on Ajak’s face.

“You need not worry. There had been many like you before. Motivation is much appreciated, but you must not let it become an obsession. Fatigue comes to all, even immortals like us. We have time.” Her caring words gave him much to contemplate.

“You are right, Prime Ajak. I think I had let my work get ahead of me. Thank you for your teachings.” Janus took a slight bow in gratitude. He had an appearance to keep after all.

“You are very much welcomed. Now, Phastos and the others are teaching the humans how to build sturdier housing. Would you care to join us?” It sounded more like an order than a request, yet there were no signs of overbearingness on Ajak’s face, only concerns.

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“Yes, of course. I believe some fresh air might do me some good.” He didn’t need air to survive. None of them did, but the light of day would be a welcome delight to Janus.

He followed Ajak out of the room then towards the rest of the group. ‘She was going to die in the future.’ Janus stared at the Prime Eternal’s back, following closely behind. Her powers would be consumed by Kro, the Alpha Deviant. He needed to keep that in mind. He would find it one day and kill it before that happens. He was lying to them all, but he was going to spend the next few millenniums with them. He didn’t want them to die if he could help it.

…

Time: 4950 BCE. Location: Mesopotamia.

Fifty years passed by like a blink of an eye. The once-rural group of huts had become a prosperous village under their protection. Ajak believed that the humans required a firm but slow hand at the beginning of their development. Excessive growth was not good for anyone. Phastos’ agreement to her plans came as a surprise for Janus. He thought that Phastos would be urging the Prime Eternal to speed up their progress by now. Maybe he would change after a few more millennia. Janus’ view had diverged somewhat with the current of time. In the beginning, he felt rushed. He collected anything he could, learned anything that was deemed important. However, everything was clearer now. Hastiness would not help his goals.

The decision allowed Janus some time to guide the humans. With the abundance of data collected by his drones, which were dubbed his “eyes” by the humans, he was able to provide information on best locations for hunting, the edible or poisonous plants in the nearby region, what to feed their cattle, where were the best spots to fish, and etc. The drones’ drawbacks were their need to be in close proximity to himself. It was an interesting tool that Arishem gave him.

Knowledge of agriculture did not get the approval of Ajak yet but Janus made preparations to educate the mortals on maze, wheat, potatoes and the like. Seed splicing was out of the question but he did tests on them anyway in his lab.

The years of drought and famine were tough on the humans. Janus and Sersi supported them through food duplications and water transmutation but there was only so much they could do. Death was a constant in the life of a mortal. Janus considered it a regular event, however, his mortal part, Jamie, was quite shaken up by the event.

…

It was time for his decennial check up on Sprite. Janus’ goal was to regularly monitor the other members for possible changes and a little bit of tab-keeping on their abilities and skillsets. He made the one-on-one appointments every ten years so as not to agitate the Eternals with his research. Furthermore, this way, he could orderly rotate the research subject every year.

“...You should have seen Thena’s face when I changed from Gilgamesh back to myself. I had never seen her so angry before. I can’t believe she thought Gilgamesh would bake her bread. Gil! Out of all people. That muscle-brain. Can you believe that?” Unfortunately, Janus was too focused on his most recent tests of Sprite’s powers that captured all his focus.

“Hey, are you listening to me?” It was incredible. She could not only mimic human movements to the teeth but also animals, insects, plant life, even things that he only showed her through his holo-projection once. Janus would have to spend hours and days truly understanding their anatomy, but Sprite could do so with just one look.

“Hey! HEY!” She yelled out.

“My apologies. Your powers are incredible. The processing speed of your mind alone is….” His thoughts returned to the conversation. Janus’ eyes moved from towards the smaller Eternal, but a conniving grin was spotted on his own reflection. His “double” was mostly naked, adorned with only a loincloth. He knew it was another of her mischievous jokes, and he would not play into it.

“Amazing! You could even project an image you had never seen before. I have to know how you are doing that.” Janus controlled the drone to record his double, aka Sprite, wearing an annoyed face. Although, internally, he was very much taken aback by the prank, thankfully, it was not possible for him to show any expression.

“Agh! It’s just not fun pranking you. I’m leaving!” The girl dispelled her illusions and made her way out of the room. He had learned that the girl adored pranks, but she would get bored if the target had no reactions. So he made sure to just ignore the act to avoid constantly being messed with by Sprite.

“Thank you for your time. I will update you with any new usages of your power I can come up with.” Janus said his goodbyes to his teammate. Despite his desire to learn more, he did not want to be pushy about it. Being on good terms with all of them was better than gaining immediate knowledge.

His relationships with the other Eternals had significantly improved, thanks to his overall politeness and helpfulness. Although, they built a conception of Janus as some sort of mad scientist who would get excited over any new statistics to the point of zoning out mid-conversation. He did not deny that, but the self-image of a sophisticated mystery mankind of went out the window at this point. At least they still thought of him as somewhat intelligent.

Spending more than half a century with the group allowed Janus to trust them a little bit more. He no longer withheld information that could support the team against the Deviants. Contingency plans were still being made, but he could not allow his fears to stunt their growth. Especially since Arishem already did everything to do so. Eternals were not created to grow. It was vital in the Celestial’s plans. However, this was prominent in more ways than he knew initially. Not only did they have a limit to their powers, but their mindsets were also skewed. The group had no desire to study and analyze their abilities better. The majority only cared about protecting humans or advancing their technologies. ‘Why is that?’ Janus made his guess. It was a method to maintain controls. If they didn’t want to understand themselves better, they would not ask unfavorable questions against Arishem. The ancient Celestial did not want the Eternals to discover their true origins. ‘Truly, it’s all about control.’ Janus thought.