19 Chapter 19: Fucked by fate and fucking with fate

[AN: I should be studying but I'm procrastinating... why do I feel like writing whenever I have to do something else? But seriously, this is the last one... during my midterm season.]

[???'s point of view]

Have you ever been fucked, screwed, and outright rekt over something you had neither knowledge nor control over? Because I have... Let me paint a picture, now close your eyes and imagine this... Actually, keep one eye open so that you can read this.

Imagine walking in a forest to run an errand for someone and you noticed something shining underneath some bushes. Now, since you are standing up, you can not see what it is so you crouch down and notice that it is something made of gold.

At this point, I am sure sixty-seven percent of you all would have already grabbed the golden object by now. The thing is in my case, I did not even know what gold was, I just saw a shiny object and got curious as I had never seen such a thing in the forest close to my home.

You can understand my surprise when I saw that the golden object was a three-red-eyed golden skull and before I had the chance to drop it after noticing the red flag and remembering my mother's warning, never stray from the path.

I fell unconscious and when I woke up, I ran to my village only to see it being torn by seven monsters. Before I could even process this, I got taken to a weird place with seven assholes who proclaimed themselves, those responsible to pass sentences against those deemed guilty of upsetting the cosmic order of the world.

They portrayed themselves as the good guys yet they did not even let me utter a single word before cursing me for a crime I did not commit, yes I freed those monsters but it was not intentional yet my punishment was as if it had been intentional... Hm? I guess staying vague will do no good, I should give you the full story.

I am a woman who came to be known as Pandora, I lived in ancient Macedonia, circa 8000 BCE. My son was very sick, and I was tasked with foraging for berries to make herbal medicine to cure him. My mother warned me not to stray from the path, as I had been known to explore.

However, I found a strange skull that released what is now known as the Seven Deadly Sins upon the world. I fell unconscious and did not awaken until nightfall. When I returned, the spirits had ravaged my village, distorting and perverting the people there in order to force them to murder each other. The spirit of Wrath, in particular, possessed my son.

I was teleported to the Circle of Eternity along with Judas Iscariot and a man of questionable origin. We were called the greatest transgressors mankind has ever known and were to be punished for their crimes.

I was punished last, forced to walk the world for eternity to experience the pain I wrought by releasing the spirits of evil upon man, as well as receiving scars on my face that would burn without relief. 

When I returned to Earth, everyone in my village was dead and their spirits were long gone. I buried them and sat among their graves until trees grew over them, then commenced to walk the world. Over the ages, I saw the effect the spirits had on people.

I attempted to save people from the destruction they wrought but soon realized that for every life I saved, the spirits would still kill many more. I changed to providing counsel for the people of the world, though I was often ignored. In all fairness, you would ignore the counsel of a scared lady if she came up to you and told you that all your problems came from spirits she released a few thousand years ago.

All the while, the spirits would appear to me periodically, mocking me by calling me their "mother" and attempting to turn me into supporting them. Deciding to fight the spirits directly, I began to learn different forms of magic and martial arts.

I had several encounters with a man who went by many names, I think he is currently going by the name Vandal Savage, another immortal, who offered me his friendship but I refused, disgusted by his love of violence and warfare.

I did hear some good news a few centuries ago, someone had defeated the Seven Deadly Sins and locked them somewhere far from human's reach though the effects of the Seven Deadly Sins were still present to this day.

After many centuries, the Wizard known going by Shazam came to me to apologize. He said that the Council was wrong in punishing me... that I was only a curious young woman. Do you have the slightest idea how Little that meant considering that the skull that started all of this came from them?

I lived long enough to learn the origin of the skull, though I was hoping to learn how to use it to trap the seven deadly sins when I started looking into its past. All I could find was that the skull contained something very powerful and many people fought, killed, and stole to obtain this.

Whenever it came to what was originally inside it, every text or piece of information I managed to find was missing that part as if whoever deleted that part did not want anyone to know about it outside of themselves.

Still, I managed to learn that the Council obtained it one day, and roughly afterward, the Seven Deadly Sins were known to have been sealed away in an unknown location... so you do the math. Anyway, you do it, the result is still the same, those fuckers left such a dangerous artifact in a forest.

They hid it underneath a bush. A BUSH! They sucked at hiding it and blamed me for releasing those seven deadly sins. No wonder most of them died by a champion they chose, with such a thought process, I am surprised they did not die sooner due to their mistake.

I naturally rejected the apology and only wanted to know how to destroy the Seven Deadly Sins, the curse that they had placed on me. According to the wizard, I could not destroy them only defeat them, and to do so I would need to open the Skull.

However, it was easier said than done. Many tried to open the skull but failed miserably. I only managed to do so because the Seven Deadly Sins wanted to get out but what needs to get out to defeat the sins does not.

The Wizard said that only someone who was "strongest" or "darkest" of heart could open the three-red-eyed Skull and bring that out. The Wizard remained tightlipped about what was inside it, he only said that whoever it deemed not worthy would risk death at best.

I searched and searched to find someone who had the strongest heart, I was not going to give it to the one with the darkest heart. I learned my lesson, I was not going to be the cause of yet another tragedy. For now, my safest bet is the hero known throughout the world as the strongest man, some even calling him a god... Superman.

[Dr. Manhattan's point of view]

I came to this world because it was less complicated than my own. I tried to create my own multiverse using several of these worlds yet something strange and bizarre keeps happening. A singularity keeps appearing in every one of the fifty-two worlds I have collected into a multiverse.

I describe it as a singularity since no matter which variant of someone in the fifty-two multiverse, none are identically the same to such extent. The singularity's variants each have uniqueness of their own yet their mindset remains the same, filled with pride.

What truly piqued my curiosity is the power that each of the singularities possesses. The power to harness a core portion of the spark of creation, the formula of evolution, or what some could describe as the equation of equivalent exchange.

I have removed several of them throughout the multiverse I have created yet they reappear just as fast as I erased them. Taking away their past does not change the outcome of the reappearance. I have tried to study their power yet I am unable to use it.

No matter how I alternate their fate without erasing them completely, I still can not grasp the knowledge of their ability. I had forgotten of fun it was to not know something. To be frustrated at not being able to find the answer before your own thought finished the question you had.

I put several of those singularities through different trials. I had them witness the death of someone they loved, kill those they wished to protect, erode their conviction through facts and knowledge, and have them face those they once called friends due to the latter learning about the truth of abilities.

From what I gathered, it is only when they reach the final stage of despair that they invoke the core, the source of their powers to fix what they have lost though it is at the exchange of many lives. After witnessing this several times, as I saw my future self do, I will trace and follow the source of their abilities.

This latest variant of the singularity has spent a decade digging underground forming an intricate series of circles which I have seen multiple times with the other variants before they opened the door which leads to the source of their power.

I am trembling in excitement, I had forgotten the joy of finally learning something after being frustrated with ignorance. This variant had orchestrated massacres around the North American Continent. Going by what I know, he planned to sacrifice the whole continent for his goal.

*Snap*

As the variant had finished summoning the door, I snapped his existence away as I learned that only one person could go through the door per, as the singularities call it, human Transmutation. I went through the door and found myself in a white space.

"Looks like we have a guest."

A voice that sounded feminine and ended with a sharp accent said as I turned to face the one who spoke. I now face what could only described as a white, featureless version of myself with a wide smile sitting on the white ground and a four-yellow-eyed crow- no judging by its tail it is a raven.

"Caw!"

The raven answered as it flapped its wings white staying on my counterpart's left shoulder. The white, featureless version of myself, petted the four-yellow-eyed raven while keeping his wide smile that showed his teeth in full view. I noticed that there was a door behind me, the one I entered from but not behind it.

"I have com-"

"Caw!"

I spoke but was interrupted by the four-yellow-eyed raven. The white, featureless version of myself chuckled for a bit before speaking.

"You'll have to excuse my friend over her she can be quite... unkind."

He brought the four-yellow-eyed raven into his hand then to his lap and proceeded to pet it as if it was a cat yet the raven seemed to not mind it, neither did I as I proceeded to resume where I had left off.

"I have come here to understand how is it that you possess the core portion of the spark of creation."

My featureless counterpart kept his smile while speaking.

"Don't make me laugh, you have gotten arrogant after your powers suppressed your humanity. You view everyone as ants while proclaiming that you are no different from them outside of your self-awareness yet you view yourself superior to them by boasting of a self-control that you in fact lack."

I felt irritation for the first time in years, my voice laced with emotion, I asked one question which if Ozymandias was here would describe as my version of being enraged.

"Who are you?"

"CAW!"

The four-yellow-eyed raven flew back to my white counterpart's shoulder as he spoke.

"Who am I? One name some have for me is The World, or some might call me The Universe, or perhaps God, though I do not like that one, or perhaps The Source, or maybe The Truth. I am part of all and I am one, so of course this also means that... I am you.

You did not realize but as you were meddling with your own multiverse, being puppeteered by someone else, you touched upon what is mine and tried to acquire it, to use it, to control it, and in your arrogance, you did not once consider that you were being played as you toyed your way into arriving here.

You did not even realize that you had regained some of your human emotions while losing control of your abilities. You could not distinguish between your vision of the future and carefully placed illusions."

A shiver ran down my spine... this is a feeling I had forgotten in its entirety... fear. I was afraid. I am afraid. I will be afraid...

*BADUMP* 

 I heard the large door behind me open.

*BADUMP**BADUMP*

I turned... slowly to look at what was inside even if I had started sweating.

*BADUMP**BADUMP**BADUMP*

Inside the door was a giant eye that shook for a moment before its irises and pupils split in two.

*BADUMP**BADUMP**BADUMP**BADUMP*

Multiple tiny shadow-like black hands came out of the giant eye and snaked their way towards me.

*BADUMP**BADUMP**BADUMP**BADUMP**BADUMP*

I was frozen whether it be by fear or by the unknown I did not know, the shadow-like black hands ensnared my whole being and dragged me towards the giant eye as I now faced my white counterpart. I could only ask one final question.

*BADUMP**BADUMP**BADUMP**BADUMP**BADUMP**BADUMP*

"What are you?"

It answered as the door closed in front of me.

"I am the truth of your despair."

*CLAMP*