Answers - Submission

Let me weave a tell for you, girl, for all of you. The story of a lonely, overly confident boy, and the goddess he met. She bequeathed to him a larger role than ever before. His memories were returned to him. With those memories, he was able to gaze upon the stars themselves. With those memories, he was able to experience a billion-billion lifetimes. Time itself lapsed to its end and started over across an ever-expanding, infinite cosmos. So many memories did he inherit, that a life spanning thousands of years wasn’t enough to sift through it all.

One set of memories in particular have stood out against the backwashed memories of old. That is, but a single mission.

At the dawn of time, God’s body drifted throughout the void, devoid of meaning- That is, until her form began to unravel. Her body chipped away in portions and became the worlds. Her very blood formed the stars themselves. The thudding of her heartbeat created reality as we know it and her tears became life. Her loneliness became death and her anger became the Beta.

The Beta, as she called them, because they were the second amongst her children. The beings her tears developed were the humans and their ilk. They were the Alphas. Whereas they were prim and proper and filled with light and hope and sadness and despair, all in equal measures, the Beta stood apart.

They were vile and pustulated and hungry. They were the righteous anger of God, and her jealousy towards the humans and the bonds they shared, giving corporeal form. From the moment a Beta was born, it hungered forever. They posed a danger to the existence of the Alphas, but God was unable to simply destroy them, as they too were her children.

And like children, they followed their creator around in fervor. They devoured everything within their path. Some few would occasionally veer off, and find worlds and people of their own.

The Beta would feed off of the potentiality of the Alphas. The could-have-beens, the would-have-beens, eating away at their very fate, eroding who they are. In small numbers, the changes would be minor. It did not take God long to notice that which quickly became their go-to food source. As such, she realized she could never stay in one place for long.

Almost as soon as she was able to stop and smile down upon her Alphas, did the Betas quickly arrive enforce and would overwhelm every society they touched upon.

And so, the lonely god wandered forever, absent of any connections to her children, save the infantile base instinct of the Betas.

Given God’s divine mind, she was able to calculate the time required for a world to fall to the Beta. She then formulated a plan to spend just long enough in each world, across all of time and space.

In some worlds, her creations viewed her as the rightful God she was and she earned many names. Odin, Zeus, Ra, Elohim, Elah, and many more.

In other worlds, she was viewed falsely and under the guise of evil. Names such as Hel, Hades, Osiris, and Satan would stain her essence forever.

She came to realize, that the titles one bore mattered more than who or what they were. A king was no freer than a mere peasant. And a god could no more choose another life, than a hunk of earth could. The titles enforced upon us, create us. They own us and adhere us to paths we may not have otherwise desired.

Quickly enough, God learned the truth of the bonds all things shared, and understood she was no different. She lamented every world she had to leave behind, and the people she would never see again. And so, it dawned on her, what must be done.

She created the gods of Physics and the gods of Souls. The gods of Physics would control a constant variable that would bind all of God’s creations under a generalized umbrella, so no real deviation could occur.

The gods of Souls would create and outline events in such a way as to give the illusion of choice and freedom to all Alphas. Their plans were meticulous and perfect.

Chronos would keep stable, a universal constant to keep track of the passing of time.

Fate, was in charge of linking together individuals and designing their paths.

Together, the two would create entire empires that would span the universes themselves, all of which could crumble to the beat of a single lost love or a choice word. Their children were dedicated to all forms of other various intricacies.

Moderator would stay in charge of the lesser workings and going ons. It would keep all things in line.

Loyalty would never falter in obeying the orders of Moderator, always trusting its plan. Loyalty was its right-hand.

Mother would help raise and foster love and dignity.

Silence would simply do, never questioning.

Temper would question, and bring about new ideas to relay to Moderator.

Knight would defend at any cost.

Queen would lead the forces of the Beta, as a temporary guide. Never could it replace God, but it was able to distract.

Scribe would record all important events, though his role would not be assigned until much later.

With all the pieces on the board, but one thing stood in God’s way: Loneliness. She knew it was no longer possible to deal with the pain of loss and separation. And so she paired with her Divine Family and their children, to weave a tale as old as time: That of a lonely coward.

She would wipe her memories clean, unable to bear even a moment more of her despair. She would birth herself amongst her Alphas, and lead a life. Not a free life, but a life upon a stage. The Divine Family would follow the plans they made, and ensure that God would not remain present in any one world long enough to bring about its downfall to the Beta.

There were problems, of course, especially near the beginning. It was quickly discovered that the only way to ensure God did not accidently do something… godlike was to plant other actors along her path, ensuring she arrived at the desired location at the desired time- to recover her memories and leave the world just long enough to start over on another.

It was a slow process, and entire civilizations burned along the way, as the Divine Family were not so omnipotent as God. They sent God down a path in every world, carrying a small detour to find those worthy enough of being voluntary vessels of the Divine Family. One by one all the chips fell into place, and a smooth system was developed.

Eons passed, and God’s plan seemed perfect. That was, until one world was stumbled upon. Avatar, the denizens called it. “The real world,” they would say.

It was here, that events went astray, and their world began to fall. One onyx-haired woman declared herself the enemy of the Beta, and swore to cleanse eternity of them. She promised to her lover that they would be together until the end as she passed away within a lover’s embrace.

This lover, as you might have guessed, was God given physicality. It was unbeknownst to her, and she cried out for her lover amongst the chaos and the death of their world. She removed her lover's very soul and mingled her own with it. The being she created, was nearly as perfect as she, though human.

As the void itself opened, and the Beta devoured their world, the reborn Raven forged a blade in which to store her own essence. With her lover by her side, she reaffirmed her oath to eradicate the Beta, and swore she would be with her God-lover at the end of existence itself.

As the last light of the world was snuffed out, Raven hurled her blade into the void the Beta came from. The void, connecting all of time and space, split her sword, and thus her essence, into infinite pieces, allowing Raven’s oath to be fulfilled. For she would now, truly exist forever, as the eradicator of the Beta. She had no form of her own, she was nothingness given life.

She was Zero.

All at once, at the end of it all, God awoke yet again, with newfound memories of what transpired. Her despair had never been greater. Never before had she experienced a love so strong as to cross into forever. And her children, the ones she must run from, and never let harm befall, were now to be hunted by the person she loved more than anything.

Eternal children hunted by an eternal lover. God could never hurt either, nor could she control what was to transpire because Raven was now as much a part of her, as the Beta were.

She assigned the title, “Scribe” to the youngest of the Divine Family, ordering it to find a vessel and to never let a moment of Zero’s life pass by without being recorded.

God did not know how, but someone, or something had caused this to happen. Fate showed her blueprint, and this was not within it. Who or what could have power to do this, was outside the purview of God. But she would find the one responsible for these machinations, and she would devour it.

She could not find a moment to talk to her lover, for the Beta would follow and they would fight. Yet no matter how hard God was to run, Zero was always behind her. And so this tragedy was to play out, for the rest of God’s life.

Never was God to be free of her curses. Never was she to be able to hold her lover again; and never would she find a way to satiate her children.

And so the wheel of Fate kept turning.

What was the boy, from before, to do? There were now two of him. One who lived before and one who lived now. And so the boy became a man, and chose both lives, eager to have it all.