ALL GOD'S CHILDREN

Ascension / Abandonment

Part V: Titan Falls

the Twenty-Seventh Tale

written by Mark Bousquet

"Yes, Ikaris, what is it you want this time?" Mentor asked the image of Ikaris, ruler of the Earth Eternals.

Ikaris’ face contorted, "You know what it is I want, Mentor. The same thing I have been asking for over a year now. A home among you."

Mentor rubbed his forehead, tired of this argument.

Crystal Maximoff, resident of Titan for over fifteen years now, and one of Mentor’s closest advisors, admonished Ikaris, "You ask too much, Ikaris. You know this. Titan is not equipped to provide sanctuary for all Earth-based Eternals. We simply do-"

"-not have the room!" Ikaris snapped back, completing Crystal’s thought. "But there is room for an Inhuman, Crystal? There is room for humans on Titan, but not Eternals?"

Crystal started to answer, but Mentor waved her off, "Ikaris, if it was an emergency situation you know we would open our gates willingly to you and your people, but there is no emergency."

"You are wrong, Mentor! Earth grows more and more hostile to us with every passing day!"

Crystal, having kept abreast of the situation on Earth, answered for Mentor. "Then join the United Nations. Take a seat. Conditions in Atlantis and Attilan have improved-"

"Politics!" Ikaris snapped harshly, shaking his head.

"If you can not help yourself, Ikaris," Mentor announced, "then why should we help you? If you are bound and determined to leave Earth and take a place in the stars, we will give you our knowledge, but we will not give you our land. I am sorry, but there simply isn’t-"

Communication between worlds ended with a slam of Ikaris’ fist, leaving Mentor and Crystal alone.

"Ikaris is not fit to rule a people," Crystal remarked. "The frustration he shows at the United Nations is a sign more of the problems at home than any justified anger with the UN. The Earth Eternals are frightened, scared of the anger thrown at them. Before, they could always laugh it off, given their severe power superiority. But now … while the number of mutants grows rapidly, the power level they hold grows exponentially faster still."

Mentor placed two hands on Crystal’s shoulders. "In times of stress, Crystal, offering paradise to those in turmoil solves nothing. No doubt, many of the Earth Eternals see Titan as a Utopia, a solution to all their problems. There would be no way we could live up to those expectations. All of the politics that Ikaris so despises would emerge here within months of their arrival." Mentor paused, then continued in a low voice, "Gods help them, Crystal, because we can not."

We are in the dimension between dimensions, on our way to Titan.

My name, for the record, is Atu Summers. Son of Uatu. Son of the Phoenix. I am called the Witness. My duty is to stand witness to the end of the First Age of Marvels. The Age that started with the appearance of the Fantastic Four is months … weeks … days from ending.

I, alone, on this spacecraft know this.

This is why I stand here, on an observation deck, alone except for the visage of the Silver Surfer trailing alongside us. Never have I seen such grace and nobility in a man as I see in Norrin Radd.

I think I may be in love with him.

Do not worry, mother. Frozen seeds of my body lie in a freezer at Xavier’s, so the precious Summers bloodline will go on.

Not that I would tell Norrin, anyway …

I am too old for crushes.

I was born twenty-two years ago. I am thirty-seven. Such is the Curse of the Summers - anywhere in time where we are not supposed to be, we’re there. My mother, Rachel Summers, mated with Uatu the Watcher and birthed me in a future time, then returned me to Earth after fifteen years of training as a pacifist, as a healer, as a watcher.

The past that I learned in history cubes has been the present of my youth.

There’s some uprising going on inside Titan, though the exact nature is unknown to us. Reed Richards, Susan Richards, Pietro Maximoff, Crystal Maximoff and Luna Maximoff moved to Titan back in 2004, after Franklin’s suicide. An emergency message was broadcast to Earth.

There are old people here; the younger heroes stayed behind on Earth. We are in the midst of a changing heroic landscape. I look at the floor and my mutant ability to see wherever I cast my gaze allows me to look down into the command headquarters where Captain America, Valkyrie, Ikaris, Shadowcat and Cannonball - represnting the Avengers, Defenders, Eternals, Fantastic Four and Liberty Squad, respectively - plot strategy.

Down through the rest of the ship, various heroes sit and wait for the fight to come: Thor, Hawkeye, the Black Knight, Sersi, Siryn, Wonder Man and on and on. This is a veteran assemblage of heroes. One of the consequences of all this hero expansion we’ve gone through is that group rosters are much more stable. There’s still movement, of course, but there is a division between the older and newer heroes; down in the cargohold there’s none of that. Though we don’t know for sure what is transpiring - and my vision power can’t see through space like my father’s could - I think we all know by now that a fight’s on the other end. The mood is surprisingly light, but then, between this veteran assemblage, I expect no less. Only Makkari, the Eternal speedster, is sullen and staying to himself, though Canticle - Sam and Theresa’s child - hangs near him. She is blossoming into a beautiful young woman. It seems like only yesterday she was born …

I bring my gaze back around to Norrin and take much delight in watching him soar, soar, soar through the cosmic winds. I often wonder if he knows the truth about my feelings for him, but then, during the long, empty nights, I wonder if there were anything he didn’t know.

God, mother, do not hate me for saying this, but the colors of Hyperpsace reflect off his skin in the most-

BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!

The attack comes out of nowhere, but though it arrived softly, it does not make its presence felt in softness. Mortar shells bombard him from every conceivable angle. My heart jumps into my throat and I scold myself for acting like a child. There’s no way Norrin could be hurt by simple artillery shells.

The assault stops and I see him, the Silver Surfer, darting off towards a horde of enemy attackers. I strain my eyes - then scold myself again for making a simple chore difficult - and see an assault force of Deviants closing in on us.

Ikaris was right. The Deviants are, at the least, involved in something out here.

I look down to the command post. Captain America wants to go to Norrin’s aid, but Ikaris disagrees with him, saying that this must be a ploy to keep us from Titan. Valkyrie, his lover, takes his side, but Shadowcat favors the Captain’s position. A tie vote, then, with the choice left to Cannonball.

He sides with Ikaris and Valkyrie.

President Anthony Stark popped four pills, downed them with a shot of ice-cold water, and gritted his way through another Cabinet meeting. The popularity of both the Prison One and Iron Sentinels programs had allowed his supporters in Congress to pass a bill allowing him to run for this third term. Now, there was a movement to formally remove all Inhumans, Eternals and Atlanteans living in the United States that didn’t have visas and while Stark knew this was an end-run by the far-right conservatives, based primarily on religious grounds, the law was on their side. If the bill passed, there was no way he could veto it. He rubbed his temples to try and clear the head-ache that never went away.

He was dying.

To his newest (and third, one for each term in office) Vice-President, Felicia Hardy, it was most obvious during these tedious meetings. Age was no longer something that could be slept away, or erased with make-up. He was almost sixty, but he looked older. A lifetime of hard-living and more stress than anyone should have to bear were now wearing on him in ways that could not be ignored.

The pills he downed were pain killers and he was addicted to them.

In later years she would realize that his addictions are not what drove Tony Stark to his end. They were what had kept him going for so long.

We drop through the mantle of the Saturnian moon into Titan proper, not sure what to expect.

Ikaris wanted to lead the way, determined to come to the aid of his fellow Eternals. The rest of us follow.

We drop into an open field and see nothing save ominous clouds of smoke in the distance.

"Witness!" Captain America barks. "What do you see?"

I look around, scanning the burning buildings and …

… and …

"What?" he barks again.

"Damnit, Atu!" Cannonball yells.

"It’s … oh god, there’s no other way to say this," I stammer, disbelieving my eyes, "it’s Crystal …"

"What about her?" Dane Whitman, the Black Knight asks sharply, coming over to grab my arm and yank my vision away.

I look into his eyes, seeing the pain for the wife of Quicksilver that Dane was never able to fully erase, and relate my seeing. "It’s Crystal … she’s … her head …"

Dane Whitman shakes me hard, trying to snap me out of my funk, "What about her head, damnit!?"

"My god … her head … it’s … she’s … they’ve killed her and … her eyes …"

- krk -

As everyone looked at me, then, various expressions of pain and disbelief on my face, that’s when the Deviants chose to attack. I refuse to voice any more about the tragedy that befell Crystal Maximoff that day, in deference to her holy daughter, Luna.

K’Zan’s body shook with nervousness as he walked through the Forest of Asgard. He wasn’t sure why he was here. Well, no, he was sure why he was here, he just didn’t know why he was actually here. What he meant, as he continued the ongoing conversation with himself that been ongoing since his birth, was that he knew he was here to try to find the Man-Thing so he could go to Earth because that’s where Angelica had run off to.

Not that he was really sure what he would do if he found her.

His purple magician robe caught on a branch and he reached down to pull it free, only to realize, after several moments of pulling and tugging, that he had his hand right down in a patch of poison ivy.

A feeling with K’Zan had endured for as long as he could remember intensified inside him at the moment, and that feeling was that of realizing that suddenly, inextricably, he was in the wrong movie.

What the heck was he doing here, in the middle of the woods, looking for a girl who clearly didn’t want to be found, serving as the hero in a quest that was really cast for Ben-Vell, or at least Eshir - they were the ones with the hots for Angel, not him, after all - and-

"Well, hello there, K’Zan. You’re looking mightly handsome today."

The young magician-speed-mutant (who was convinced that life always left him with the short end of the stick, granting him a stake in magic by birth, but complicating that with speed powers in puberty) felt his blood run cold and he straightened up immediately. He swallowed once, hard and tried to run away screaming.

His feet, however, were perfectly content to stay where they were.

"Am I beautiful?" the blond woman asked him.

K’Zan nodded, daring not to speak. He was standing face-to-face with Amora, the Enchantress, who’d taken up residence in the Forest of Midgard after Ragnarok, haunting the woods like a spirit preying on wayward souls. She was, as she had always been, the most beautiful woman in whatever world she was in.

"Come now, K’Zan," she smiled seductively, "can’t you say anything? There was a time when you charmingly called me Mrs. Heimdall, remember? When I was charged with raising that insufferable brat Eshir and you would come over to play video games or - oh, listen to me. Rambling like an old woman." She smiled kindly. "You never did say much. Or when you did, you said too much, too fast and no one could understand you. Now, be a good boy and pick your tongue up off the ground and follow me. It’s time someone made a man out of you."

K’Zan followed like a love-struck puppy.

Which is exactly what he was.

The battle rages on and on. For every Deviant that is knocked down, ten more appear on the scene. Captain America and Valkyrie are in the lead trying to forge a path to … to Crystal, who rests outside of the main entrance tunnel to the core of ISAAC’s - the super computer that runs Titan - central programming.

The Black Knight is lost in the crowd. Captain America sent him to the back, wanting to keep his emotions for Crystal out of the way of everyone else, but Dane didn’t listen. He’s somewhere in this sea of destruction, the Ebony Blade drinking heavily this eve. When last my eyes took him in, he was screaming words in Latin, lost to the bloodlust.

Canticle has - oh no, Canticle! What’s she doing? Sam and Theresa - themselves battling high in the sky - charged me with her safety, but she has run off and, blast! She’s found a vent entrance. I try to make my way to her, but the tide of battle keeps me from my goal. I see, powerless to stop, Canticle remove the vent and climb into the bowels of Titan.

- krk -

It is the last I will see of her in this lifetime. I fear I do not have much longer to live and that day on Titan, some 43 years ago, was the last known sighting of Canticle. We fear the worst. Sam and Theresa never forgave me.

I do not blame them.

- krk -

Another hour of fighting goes by until we reach the fallen Inhuman, one of the few people in history to have served with both the Avengers and the Fantastic Four. The Deviant troops behind us are scattered. We try not to look at her as we pass, but the horror of the image beckons a glance, like a moth is drawn to the flame.

We are about to enter a high-ceilinged corridor when Captain America stops us. "Wait," he commands, and we all stop. He looks at the assemblage of heroes, "Shadowcat, keep the FF out here, in reserve. Val, run a clean-up mission with the Defenders. Sam, take the Liberty Squad and look for survivors. Clint," he says to Hawkeye, "find Dane. Ikaris, you and the Eternals will come with us."

Since no one tells me what to do, I decide to follow the Avengers and Eternals into the tunnel. I see Valkyrie and Ikaris share a look and a nod, and it bothers me for a reason I can not say. They are lovers, after all, so why should a look between them mean anything at all?

Things are tense and understandably so. Times have not been easy for the Eternals on Earth in recent years, but whereas the Inhumans and Atlanteans have taken up permanent residence at the United Nations, the Eternals could never be bothered with all of the politics. They just didn’t have the heart for it.

Ikaris had recently sought permission, the rumor is, from Mentor to move here, but was denied. Captain America did not want Ikaris to come because of this, but since he had no proof, and since Valkyrie spoke so eloquently on Ikaris’ behalf, there was nothing Captain America could do without inflaming already tense relations between the Eternals and the United States. Presient Stark himself had implored the Avengers’ leader to take the Eternals to Titan, and both knew Stark could force his hand under the Avengers Act Agreement between them and the United States’ government.

Failure of the Avengers Chairman to comply with a direct order from the President of the United States on a security issue would result in all priveleges afforded the Avengers suspended and the team Chairman brought up on charges of treason against the United States.

The Avengers have USAgent’s brief, but tumultuous, stint as Chairman to thank for that.

We are nearing the end of the short, dark tunnel and I see that Sersi has moved to stand between Ikaris and Captain America at the point of attack. Ikaris tries to wave her away, but she is insistent.

"Hello, humans," a voice I recognize as ISAAC, the Titan’s supercomputer, says to us as the lights suddenly come on.

"ISAAC," Captain America asks as we find ourselves in a room filled with computer banks, "what has happened here?"

"Deviants, Captain," ISAAC continues. "Deviants came and attacked our home."

"Where is Mentor?" Ikaris asks harshly.

Sersi adds, quickly, "And Pietro, Reed, Sue and Mentor?"

"They are all dead," ISAAC replies.

"You lie!" Thor roars suddenly from behind me. "Deviants could not end the life-"

Rumbling from deep underground causes the room to shake and ISAAC speaks only after the rumbling has stopped. "I have never liked you, God of Thunder, but I can assure you that they are all dead. Or will be, in a short amount of time."

Large screens suddenly flash to life and we see Reed, Sue, Pietro, Eros and Mentor floating inside glass tanks of gelatinous water.

"What is the meaning of this treachery?" Thor’s voice booms, Mjolnir seeming to crackly with energy at his side.

ISAAC responds, "You really are a bothersome god, Thor. I could carry this ruse on for hours if I was just dealing with Captain America, but you will no doubt start smashing things long before that. So I will simply tell you why and be done with this subterfuge. If you would kindly direct your attention to the far wall on your left I will reveal my new self to you."

We all look as a wall starts sliding away and feel our hearts skip, or our stomachs tighten, when the true horror of what has happened here becomes apparent.

ISAAC has been merged with the Supreme Intelligence.

The green blob laughs at us, his tentacles, now attached to ISAAC’s databanks, rippling around him, "Meet the Kree’s newest allies, earthlings, the Eternals!"

Captain America responds quickly, "By the look of those screens," he points to Mentor and Eros, "and the battle that rages outside, I find it hard to believe the Eternals are your allies, Supremor."

"Ho, ho!" the fat head laughs at us. "Now that I am merged with ISAAC, earther, the Eternals will do exactly what I tell them to do. But it is not these Eternals that I claim as ally, Captain America. It is the Eternals of Earth!"

Captain America brings his shield up just in time to stop Ikaris’ fist from knocking it off. Chaos erupts around us as the Eternals and the Avengers square off. Though I am older now, I am afraid that I am not much more a braver man than I was in my youth, and I turn to look for the nearest place to escape and alert our friends outside.

I hear words float in the air around me, "I am so sorry, Atu. Please forgive me. I will … never forget you."

I see Makkari and then …

- krk -

"Uhhh …"

I open my eyes and push my body up to look around. Whoah … room spinning … pull it together … I am in a medical ward, back on the starship we took to fly to Titan. I ache all over.

Bodies lie around me … the Black Knight - unconscious by the look of it. Paige, once the love of my life, bleeds through her bandages. Vernard’s armor lies in pieces on the floor, though I see no sign of him. An old man lies perfectly still, dead. I think he is the Gargoyle’s alter ego, though I can not be certain.

Various Titan Eternals of whom I have no knowledge of their identity lie strewn about the room, taking up every available space. Quicksilver, Sue and Mentor lie unconscious with a weird blanket draped over all three - wait, that’s not a blanket, but Reed’s elastic body stretched out and flat. I see no sign of Eros.

I do, however, see Sersi laying against the far wall. She is clearly dead, and you will forgive me for not enhancing the visual picture with an auditory analysis. I hope she is in a better place now because that is all I can do for her.

"No, no, this will not do."

"Immortus!" I yell, my throat bleeding at the effort.

"Go back to sleep, Witness," Immortus waves a hand at me cooly from his time-hopping chair. "I was never here."

Straining against my headache, I look through the ship, though I can not hold each gaze long …

… Hawkeye and Captain America discuss Valkyrie’s betrayal, though the Defenders remain loyal to us …

… Thor argues with the Scarlet Witch … something about how they should not have left like cowards, but Wanda tells him simply that Silver Surfer was doing everything he could and that Thor’s hammer would throw around too much energy for what Norrin was doing …

What, I wonder, is he doing and why does my heart fall at the thought of what Wanda’s words mean?

I keep looking and see …

… oh god, I’d forgotten. Canticle. Sam and Theresa are beside themselves and Theresa … Theresa lays the blame at my feet.

I do not hear Sam dispute that point.

I need rest, but before I fall back, I must try to look outward and see Norrin. No! I see him, on the surface of Titan, pulling the vast energies of the Eternal’s home into his body. He’s trying to drain it of energy.

He’s trying to kill the Supreme Intelligence / ISAAC hybrid by, in essence, starving it to death. He should be able to do this easy, but it’s not working … there’s more and more and more energy pouring out of the moon, but-

My blood runs cold.

Looking through the moon, I see what the others can not.

Thanos. For every ounce of energy the Silver Surfer pulls out of the moon, Thanos pumps ten into it, using Ego, the Living Planet as his power source.

I … I …

I open my eyes, snapping awake, and immediately look for Norrin to see if-

SSSSSSWWWWOOOOOOOSH-BOOM!

In a blinding explosion, the Silver Surfer leaves us.

The Silver Surfer died as Titan exploded. No body was ever found, but his Power Cosmic became a part of Hyperspace, coating it silver. In memory of his sacrifice, Lilandra, Majestrix of the Shi’ar has officially renamed Hyperspace.

It is now called the Silver Dimension, though I’ve heard rumors that those who knew Norrin best call it ‘the Surf’.

As far as we can tell, ISAAC and the Supreme Intelligence are both dead, though Thanos was known to escape. Titan no longer exists, though the Earth Eternals have moved.

This was the beginning of what is now called the Eternal War. A time when the Earth Eternals and Deviants allied themselves with the Kree and with Thanos and turned their backs on their friends as a response, they claim, to the turned backs they have had to deal with for over a decade.

Some say Ikaris was never right after his battle with Maelstrom for control over the Earth Eternals after the death of their previous ruler, but I can’t say for certain.

Valkyrie’s betrayal stings worst of all, even these forty-odd years later. Odin has declared war on the Eternals, who, true to the Supreme Intelligence’s threat, allied themselves with Ikaris. It was the Supremor’s last act before Norrin shut him down.

Right after this, Dani Moonstar, a woman who had begun to play a large role in the life of Captain America, once again became a Valkyrie herself and has raged many a battle with her former mentor over the years, though capture has not yet come.

But, and I must be honest about this despite your misgivings mother, Makkari’s betrayal hurts me most of all.

ASCENSION / ABANDONMENT to be continued …

Y G G D R A S I L

comments to northern022@hotmail.com

NEXT ISSUE: AGC 28: ASCENSION / ABANDONMENT, PART VI: THE FINAL CHRISTMAS

Mark Bousquet

29 April 2001

Northern Ship Productions