fiction | Part of the journey is the end

4. Peru

"So, you're saying we're basically fancy robots? And our past memories are stored somewhere in space?" Kingo said. The Eternals were sitting at the dining table at Thena and Gilgamesh's house.

"That's pretty much it," said Druig. He had a lot of awful information dumped on him within a few minutes.

"You should've told us, Ajak," said Phastos. "Even though I don't agree with you not telling us about the Emergence, I can still understand why you did it, but what was the point of not telling us that the Celestials created us? That we were synthetic beings? We deserved to know that much, but you've done nothing but lie to us for seven thousand years."

Ajak's heart sank. Phastos was right.

"And Arishem made the Deviants," Sersi said. "I'm sorry, Thena. You tried to warn us," Gilgamesh said. Sprite told Thena that something must've gone wrong the last time Arishem reset her memories.

"So Arishem can make mistakes," Natasha realized.

"Celestials make mistakes all the time. They're powerful, but they're not infallible," said Gamora.

"I thought we were heroes. Turns out we're the bad guys," Gilgamesh said. "We're not the bad guys, okay? We've helped the Celestials expand life across the universe. That's not what bad guys do. That's what good guys do," Kingo said.

"At the expense of billions of lives!" Sam exclaimed. "How many people have died for a Celestial's birth?"

"Billions will die, but trillions more will be born," said Kingo. "You do realize that for life to continue in the universe, new Celestials have to be created and they can only be born on a planet where there's intelligent life? In the grand scheme of things, human life just isn't valuable enough. If we stopped every Celestial from being born, then the universe would just come to an end. We have no right to interfere in the natural order of things. Maybe we can find a way to delay the Emergence?"

"Delay it until when? The Emergence is going to occur eventually and by the sounds of it, it's going to be soon," said Scott.

"Okay, say that you stop Tiamut's birth and kill him," Ikaris said. "Are you going to that for every Emergence across the galaxy? Because you will be responsible for the destruction of the entire universe if that happens."

There was an uncomfortable silence.

"How do we even know that Arishem is telling the truth? We were lied to for seven thousand years," said Druig.

"It's the truth," Ajak insisted.

"Sorry if I don't exactly trust anything you say right now, Ajak."

"Every time innocent lives have been sacrificed for the greater good, it turns out to be a mistake," Sersi said.

"Thank you! That's exactly what I think!" Steve exclaimed. "Every time someone tries to win a war before it starts, innocent people die. Every time."

"Wise words," Sersi agreed.

Some of the others didn't exactly agree, but sacrificing eight billion people was a bit of a different situation than sacrificing a handful.

Stephen had a mixed expression. During his entire career as a doctor, he followed one rule and it was a rule he followed extremely seriously—do no harm. As he became a sorcerer, that rule changed from 'do no harm' to 'harm only when it's needed'. He'd seen himself go off the rails and harm everyone, destroying universes, but he didn't want to be like Sinister Strange. In the grand calculus of the multiverse, their sacrifice meant infinitely more than their lives, but there was absolutely no chance he was letting his loved ones die. Clea's home was in another dimension so she would be safe, but what about the others? Wong, America, and Peter? Christine? In the struggle of saving everyone and how brutal the methods could be through sorcery, he'd lost sight of what was most important to him—he became a doctor to save lives, not take them, but it seemed like all he did as a sorcerer was take lives and it made his insides shrivel up with guilt at seeing how far he'd fallen.