A Thousand Miles And Poles Apart

i'm gonna love the hell out of you

You all stood in silence as the five entities stared down at you. You knew it was pointless to do anything but wait. The Living Tribunal was the representative of The One Above All, the first and oldest of the multiverse. The other entities were second in power only to The Living Tribunal. And their sole purpose was to keep the balance of the multiverse. Even their existence was Yin and Yang. You did not realize stopping Tiamut would throw the balance of the multiverse off so much as to draw their attention. But even now, you couldn't bring yourself to regret saving Earth. Now, they would judge you for it. And as The Living Tribunal had said, their word was law.

Arishem was summoned. "Recount your accusation, Celestial," The Living Tribunal said.

"These Eternals have disrupted the balance of the universe," he said. "The Celestial in the core of the planet Earth was destroyed by their hand, and millions of planets will not be born because of their actions."

"That is a serious accusation," Infinity said. "The death of a Celestial has not occurred for many millennia, not since Exitar was destroyed for his betrayal. I see his creation stands before us. Perhaps there is more to this story."

You looked up. They meant you. You had been created by a different Celestial than the others, a Celestial who had imbued you with a piece of their soul in the hope that you could help him defeat the other Celestials. But you had rebelled and your creator was killed. Was that your creator? The Celestial Exitar?

"She carries the same disposition as her creator," Arishem said. "He too wanted to destroy the Celestials. It was my mercy that spared her his fate. Now I see the gravity of my mistake."

"I don't want to destroy the Celestials," you spoke up. "I just didn't want the Celestials to destroy Earth."

They all turned to you. "And yet for all your words, you destroyed a Celestial, throwing off the balance of the multiverse," Eternity said.

"There has to be another way for Celestials to be born," you said. "The only way can't be destroying a whole planet and all the people on it to create more worlds. What about Earth? What about the remnants of this planet we're standing on? People lived here. They loved here. And now they're gone. Not even ashes. And for what? The life of one Celestial?"

"Your impudent words show no remorse for your actions," Death spoke, a bored tone to her voice. "We should kill them now."

"Maybe you should stop talking," Kingo whispered to you.

"Why should a world be destroyed for that?" You ignored him. If they were going to kill you, you were going to try your hardest to direct their anger at only you. "Why should the people? Where's the balance in that?"

"One world for millions, there is no contest," Arishem spoke. "They should be destroyed for their betrayal."

The Living Tribunal had been quiet during this exchange. "Enough, I will hear all sides," he spoke. He turned to Sersei. "You are the leader, are you not?"

"I um I suppose I am now, yes," she said.

"Speak, Eternal," he said.

"We did it," she said truthfully. "We killed Tiamut, but we didn't mean to. We wanted to put him to sleep so he wouldn't destroy Earth. But we couldn't and now he is dead."

"You have been part of many Emergences and never interfered before. What was the reason for saving this particular planet?" Infinity asked. Sersei opened her mouth but Infinity cut her off. "I am not asking you." She looked at you. "It was your power that killed the Dreaming Celestial, was it not, spawn of Exitar? Tell us the reason."

You were quiet for a moment. You knew what was riding on this. It wasn't just your life at stake here. It was Druig's and Thena's and Sersei's and Phastos's and Makkari's and even Kingo's. What answer could you give to save your family? You knew you could only speak the truth.