THE BEGINNING OF ALL THINGS
An Epilogue
the 85th and final tale of agc
written and created by Mark Bousquet
DAY ONE
INSIDE THE WHITE
These are the souls that Ben-Vell Parker rescued at the last:
Captain America. Dani Moonstar. Attumidunn. Angelica Osborn. Eshir Maximoff. K'Zan. Brono. Skrull 4. Kovar. Ash'lin. Glimmer Girl.
They were not the only souls he saved, for he tried to save as many lives as he could from around the world, but these were the only souls that he saved and sent forth into the new age together. He thought, after all they had been through, they deserved this. The rest of the billions of souls saved would have to find their own way, but the Voice had comforted him with the knowledge that these things tended to work themselves out. Faith, the Voice said, was a wondrous creation.
The souls of the Alliance floated for what seemed like days together. None of them could talk or touch but they took comfort in the fact that they were together. They were surrounded by the white magic of life, and they were peaceful.
After a while, they slept.
When they awoke they found themselves whole of mind and spirit once more, resting on a field of green. It was a warm night and a gentle breeze brought them comfort. Above them, they watched the cosmos expand, billions of spots of light moving outward, ever outward, to fill the Void with life.
They began to pick themselves up and look around. They were on the side of a small hill with an easy, barely noticeable slope, and the thick grass smelled sweet, as was as soft as any bed any had ever laid upon. It was green all around them, rolling hills of grass, spotted with comfortably large trees as far as their eyes could see in every direction. The night sky made them feel very small and that, more than anything besides being together, brought them comfort. After all they had been through, it felt good for the universe to once again be too large to comprehend.
The friends came together, happy to be alive and happy to be together.
Kovar and Glimmer Girl embraced easily as Ash'lin and Skrull 4 stood with them, shaking their heads.
Captain America and Dani held each other without speaking, their hearts saying all that needed to be said.
Only Brono stood alone and off to the side as Angelica, Eshir, Attumidunn, and K'Zan sat on the hillside and shared stories about Ben.
Angelica remarked that she could not believe he was gone, and Toomi smiled through her tears and pointed heavenward. A bright comet flashed across the sky and she whispered, "I do believe we will see him again." None of them contradicted her; it was the kind of anything where anything seemed possible.
That night, while they all slept on the hillsides and in the grass, the Alliance shared a dream for the first and last time together. It was a dream of Ben-Vell, floating above them in the night sky.
"I am dead, but I am not gone," he said warmly, his voice rich and resonant. "There is much work for me to do. I must tend to this Age in this, its formative period."
"You have become God," Dani remarked.
"No." Ben-Vell shook his head from above them. "Not God. There is One above me, whose presence I feel somewhere in the Darkness around us. I have a memory of a Voice, but it it is hard to remember if it was real, or a dream. If there is a God, it is He. Or She. But it is not I. I am merely the conduit from the last Age into this Age; I am Eternity, if a name must be given. There are Cycles to Existence. First was the Golden Age, followed by the Silver. Next came the Bronze Age, then the Modern, which was the age we called ours. Your new age is the Post-Modern Age, and these are the Caretakers who will plague and comfort this new time:
"I give you the Tribunal Warlock, and the three faces of Him, Adam, and Magus," Ben explained as an image of Warlock faded into existence to stand beside him on the dreamer's left.
"Next comes Order and Chaos," he continued as the large floating faces of Doom and Madcap stood to the left of Warlock.
"The Caretakers of Heaven: Stephen Strange and the mystics.
"The Caretakers of the Green: the Cotati.
"The Caretakers of the Metal: the Inhumans.
"The Caretaker of the Mind: the Hulk.
"None of this is permanent," Ben explained, turning his gaze towards the new concepts. "As of now, they are but shadows of the concepts that ruled the past age. Whether they take hold in this new age is up to you, and all those who live and dream and think. You are not beholden to the concepts of the past and I encourage you to build new societies, to find new philosophies. You are alone in the new age that you remember the age just passed. The rest of the universe's population will not remember where they came from, though they will remember who they arem and be filled with the excitement of starting over.
"In all of the new concepts, I have not mentioned a Hell. The Underworld is empty, but it shall not be for long," Ben said somberly. "Though you are now at peace, though new worlds rise to life from the atoms of Galactus and Green across this new Age, in time there will be those who seek power. They will make their way to the Underworld and fill the dark, stone halls with fire and hate. But those days are in the future, a future most of you will never see. You have been given a gift of a new life in the new age and while it may takes decades or centuries for your times to pass, even a millennia is a blink in the eye of Existence. You have a chance at peace. Make the most of it."
With that, Ben and the new concepts faded away, and the heroes of the last Age looked around, wondering if that was even a dream. In the morning, they would start to build the new Age.
This is a sliver of the world they built:
FOUR MONTHS LATER
Brono and Angelica are married. It is a small ceremony, performed by Skrull 4, mixing together elements from all of the Alliance homeworlds. There is no rigid rules to follow. It is attended by everyone on the small planet they call Home, nearly 200 people that they'd discovered over the past few months. All those who live on this small planet are refugees from Asgard.
Things such as these tended to work themselves out.
As a wedding gift, they are named King and Queen; in part, this is done for tradition, but it is also done because no one else wanted the position.
On another planet, on the very same day, Amora the Enchantress gives a double-birth of twins, the twin son/daughter of Ben-Vell and the twin son/daughter of Brono. Always scheming, Amora had taken both Ben-Vell and Brono to bed on separate occasions before the end of the last age, and dark, ancient, evil spells allowed her to become pregnant by both of them. Ben had laid with her willingly, but she had used spells to influence the mind of Brono in the days after the collapse of Asgard, finally convincing him that they should mate so that Asgardians would once again walk the world of life.
ONE YEAR LATER
Steve Rogers and Dani Moonstar have a child and both have gained wrinkles. Time now works upon their bodies, though they will live long enough to see all five of their children marry. They have, in order, a boy, two girls, and two boys. Despite his fears, Steve proves himself to be more than a capable father.
On another world, filled with magic, the kingdom of Excalibur flourishes with the Knight King Whitman at its head, Queen Crystal at his side, and the Avenging Archers, Clint and Jonas Barton, a pleasant thorn in the King's side. They live in the forest that surrounds Avalon Castle and rare is the traveler who fails to happily overpay in gold for a grilled piece of barbecued meat.
FOUR YEARS LATER
Kovar and Glimmer Girl depart for space, taking a small colony with them. Ash'lin does likewise, departing in the opposite direction with Sigurd, son of Thor. It is a sad day, but also a happy one, and many promises are made to see each other in the future.
The Orphans Eshir, K'Zan, and Toomi are given the task of scouting this new world by Brono and Angelica and they depart, glad for the adventure.
FIVE YEARS LATER
Brono and Angelica give birth to a son with white hair they name Vell. It is a hard pregnancy, and Brono fears that his wife may be the first to die in this new age, but she pulls through. Both mother and baby are healthy. There is much joy in the world.
SEVEN YEARS LATER
The Orphans return with plentiful tales and K'Zan is named this new world's Historian. Brono commissions a new library to be built.
TEN YEARS LATER
Eshir, feeling like a lost soul, has returned to his wandering and finds a cave hidden deep in the mountains. Curious, he enters the darkness, and not 100 meters in he finds a message scrawled into the rock: THIS IS A PATH TO THE UNDERWORLD. POWER AWAITS THE ONE WHO TAKES THIS PATH AND CLAIMS THE THRONE OF DEATH. Eshir shudders and leaves, blocking the cave entrance. He returns to the Center where he becomes a teacher. He marries Canticle and they will have two daughters and a son, and live a very happy life.
TWELVE YEARS LATER
On a distant planet the double twins of Amora come of age and find another Path to the Underworld. Amora is pleased by this, and they enter, seeking power.
FIFTEEN YEARS LATER
Returning home alone, Toomi is surprised to find Ben-Vell waiting for her. He offers her the title of Death.
"Why should I take such a wretched position?" she wonders.
"Because it means we get to spend the rest of time together. You are a Valkyrie at heart, leading the Death to the Promised Lands is what you were meant to do."
Toomi writes a quick note of explanation that Angelica's daughter will find in three days time, then takes Ben's hand. He takes her to the Promised Lands and they never spend another night apart.
THE FINAL SCENE.
FORTY YEARS LATER
The Great Hall. All the Orphans and their families, all the members of the Alliance, all those who had departed for space come together for a Great Feast in the Promised Lands at the home of Ben-Vell and Attumidunn and their newborn daughter. They name her Beta, after the man who taught them more than anyone, the man who was always there when they were children, the man who helped them become adults.
Age has crept into the bones of all those in attendance, though some have aged slower and some have aged faster.
All those present will remember this four-day celebration as the happiest time of their lives, even with the great tragedy that befell them. On the final night, Dani returned to her quarters to find that Steve had died in his sleep. He had known his time was at hand, for he had left his wife a long and loving final note, the words of which will not be repeated here. Not all stories must be made public.
Though incredibly saddened, Dani told the gathered friends to take heart. This was Steve would have wanted to go, amongst friends and families. She told them how much he loved all of them and wished them the best as their days moved forward.
They placed his body in a small boat at the edge of the Eternal Oceans, and watched and cried and held one another as a guiding Voice called Steve Rogers to the Great Beyond.
When all the guests had left, and Beta was asleep in her bed, Ben and Toomi held each other close in the dark and told each other how much they loved one another, and how, in the end, things had worked out quite nicely.
Toomi drifted quickly off to sleep. Ben kissed her on the forehead, and whispered, "I love you," then pulled a blanket over their bodies and let Sleep claim him for another night.
ALL GOD'S CHILDREN concluded.
YGGDRASIL
Comments to bousquet22@earthlink.net
To all those who have read this title over the years, my most heartfelt thanks. When I started this title I never really thought it would come this far, yet 5-plus years, 85 issues, somewhere around 900 pages here we are. Thanks again, to all of you who have taken this journey with me. I have gained many friends over the course of this project and there is something truly special in that. Stories are a wondrous thing. I will miss Ben, Toomi, Angelica, Eshir, and K'Zan a great, great deal.
Mark Bousquet
9 January 2004
Northern Bear Productions