Supernatural Odyssey: Death and Rebirth

Chapter 25

It has been so long...in that time, planets have formed and planets have died. One day out of many, Death of The Endless decided to visit an old friend...

Sam hovered over a coffee table stacked with maps, drawings, and design documents, deeply immersed in his work. With his heightened senses, gaining from a million years of practicing magic, he felt her coming from a mile away. "Have you come to stop me?" He asked spitefully without turning around, "or perhaps to gloat?"

"No."

Sam clenched his fists in anger. "If you think you can persuade me--"

"I'm not here to persuade you," said Death, "I'm just visiting."

In a flash, Sam was before her. "I will exceed your power!" He had jumped to his feet, his arm shot out and his hand wrapped around her throat, pushing her back to the table. "Do you believe me?!"

He had expected an entire speech detailing why he can never exceed her. He expected arrogant taunts that he was weak. He at least expected denial. What he did not expect was a simple one word answer: "yes."

"Then are you afraid?"

"No."

"Then you are a fool!" sneered Sam, "one day, I will crush you."

"Perhaps." Death still showed no fear in him. "So...what are you working on?"

"You are my enemy." said Sam, "I would be a fool to reveal my plans to you."

"Really?" asked Death, "you may see me as your enemy but I don't see you that way. If I wanted it, you'd be long dead, and yet, here you are."

"Why do you want to know?!" Sam asked spitefully.

"I'm interested," she shrugged, "is that enough for you?"

Sam wanted to refuse, but deep down, he feared her and what could do...who knows what lay behind that friendly exterior? He waved his hand over the coffee table and a map appeared; the map the Sandman had shown him. "Since our kind first came to be, we all believed the building blocks of reality were positive matter and antimatter, right?"

"Maybe? What are you getting at?"

"But what if it's not?" continued Sam, flipping the map over to it's back, "worlds rise and worlds fall; we have all witnessed it all. But there's a problem; where do all the new worlds come from? At first, we theorized that the particles and forces that make up the Orrery of Universes are confined to three dimensions--except for gravity, which can 'leak' out into the extra dimensions such as ours. This gravity, in turn, causes instabilities in the Dimensional Superstructure, allowing for singularities of infinite mass to form, and eventually erupt into universes."

"And?"

"But there's a problem with this theory, see?" explained Sam, "you see? Quantum mechanics famously says that you can't predict with certainty whether, say, a radioactive atom will decay within a specified time period, even given complete knowledge of the laws of physics as well as the atom's initial conditions. The Quantum differences may seem insignificant, but on a universal level, even the smallest variable could lead to an entirely different world with an entirely different set of physics...yet, that doesn't appear to be true at all..."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"All the universes of the Orrery are too similar in nature to be generated at random." Sam slammed a finger down on the black backside of the map. "This leads me to believe there's someone pulling the strings behind their creation--a shaper--a World Forger. I believe in the existence of a shadow multiverse--a Dark Multiverse."

"All I see is the back of the map." Death murmured.

"Until recently, that's all any of us saw." agreed Sam, "everyone believed the building blocks of reality were matter and antimatter. But not long ago, my team and I discovered a third material--a dark, unseeable, untouchable metal. I only learned of its existence through molecular deconstruction of the N-th metal. From my research, I can infer that this strange dark metal is what gives the N-th metal its physics-defying properties."

"Interesting..."

"And here's the craziest part!" Sam continued, "if my theory proves correct, this dark metal and dark energy would actually make up the great majority of our multiverse, but as you know, there's a major problem here; this stuff we can't see or feel, meaning proving anything about this would be extremely difficult..."

"So what did you do?"

"I studied what I could," replied Sam, "I studied the N-th metal, and I discovered that there was a certain dark energy coming through it--and since we couldn't trace it to any known universe or dimension in the multiverse, meaning it has to come from somewhere else."

Sam tapped the black back of the map. "So now look at the map and imagine this unseen dark metal connecting us to a realm much vaster than ours; an oceanic subconscious realm our multiverse floats on. From what we know about the multiverse, there is a cosmic being that monitors each realm--the Overmonitor and Anti-Monitor monitor the matter and antimatter domain respectively. I think there's a third being--a World Forger--who exists to shape those worlds..."

"Sam, I'm warning you, if you're planning to do what I think you're planning--"

"See you around." ~BOOM!~ An explosion shook the house as the nearest wall shattered into millions of pieces, sending a blizzard of splinters raining down on them. Sam's hands and eyes crackled with power as he stepped towards the hole he just made.

"Fucking fool."

In a blur, Sam flew out into the vacuum of space, moving faster than he ever has...moving far faster than sound...far faster than light...far beyond any speed that was physically comprehensible. The universe which he has created shattered into nothingness, like it has never existed before. He was traveling back to the place of the tear...

Mere light years away,

The web of tears had mostly healed, but several of the deeper cracks still stretched across the multiverse...like any other reality-rip, man-made or otherwise, this web of cracks served as a gateway to another point in reality. Sam was going to take that gateway.

He barged through the tear, flying below the multiverse itself, into the deep shadows that lay beneath...his felt the very foundation of physics change around him the deeper he went; the laws that governed the 5th dimension were slowly warping away to be replaced by the new set of laws which governed where he was going...

He was a mere light years away from his destination--the crack--when suddenly, an infuriating barrier jumped before him in the form of none other than the Spectre. His chest materialized right in his face like a firm white wall. He had no time to react, to stop, or even to slow down. Colliding head-first into the Spectre's indestructible form, he felt himself ricochet back through the infinite barriers he had so recently sundered.

His forward momentum destroyed by the unexpected impediment in his path, he was stopped short by a rather awkward collision with reality. Immediately, his body fell to the surface of a nearby planet where he landed in a massive crater. "I'm sorry my friend," said the Spectre, "but I cannot permit you to go no farther."

"I don't care what you permit!" said Sam, "let me through or I'll fucking go through you!"

"There are rules that can be broken, limits that can be pushed. This is not one of them!" said the Spectre, "turn back now!"

"Screw you and your rules," said Sam. The Spectre glowered in anger. He made to lunge but suddenly, a portal opened in his face, sucking him away. "And screw you as well!" With a snap of his fingers, the portal sealed itself, locking the Spectre away in oblivion.

"Holy shit..." When he turned around, Mxyzptlk was behind him. "What the hell did you do?"

"I sent him to the core of a living, breathing micro world." said Sam, "the Spectre can't free himself without destroying all life on that world."

Onwards he continued. Into the Dark Multiverse he flew. There was nothing to fear in darkness. He learned that a long time ago.