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Post-Universe Clarity

The Adventures of Bastian Falkenrath #1

By Bastian FalkenrathPublished about a year ago 11 min read
1

An entire universe had ended, only to be reborn in others. People, places, things, all scattered about and mixed throughout the multiverse. It had not been so clean as the party had envisioned it to be - the forces of the multiverse at large were swayed little - and yet so very much - by actions in one. Yet somehow, after it was all said and done, things had gone back to an almost jarring amount of regularity. He, his ship, and his crew; all were back where they belonged. Back to their home universe. Back to the seas that they had made and lost fortunes sailing. As if it had never happened.

All was not as it seemed. There had been an interesting complication - a wrinkle, one might say - to using the Infinity Stones in the manner that they had. It had worked; there was no doubt, they had figured out a way to save everyone in all of time and space... but in doing so, his counterpart had sacrificed himself. Such a... strange mirror he had been to look into. Both had a very similar start, yet he had been so different. They understood one another's thinking, and their personalities were not all that dissimilar. Still, where one had taken the path of an adventurer - one might even perhaps say 'hero' - he, himself, this self... had taken a path that transformed him from the son of pirate hunters, into a pirate himself.

He was not a good man. He was a shark among men, and to deny that he had ever been so would have been almost as bad as blasphemy. He had killed. Robbed. Cheated. Lied. A host of other wicked things and a plethora of vices. He had been a veritable Ruler of the Waves - a King amongst Pirates... first among "equals" of course. Of course. But ever since that fateful day he had returned, there was something extra there now. Something that would fight him at every turn. An instinct that he had not possessed since he was a child, fueled by memories that were not his own, but showed him what his life could have been.

It was one of these final memories that plagued him this night, as the sickle of a moon was high over the waves, and fog rolled over the deck of his Heavy Frigate, the Dauntless. The ship's lights were out, and the vessel buttoned up and anchored for the night. Her black hull let her disappear into the inky darkness that swallowed her. Her captain slept most unsoundly, tossing and turning in a bed that was large enough for more than one but seemed so empty on nights like this.

"You think you can stop me? What right do you have to challenge a being beyond the gods themselves? What can you possibly hope to do to me?" The great being had chuckled lowly, truly amused at the desperate plan that had been put in motion by the time-displaced party.

He could remember how it had felt to have that much power surging through his body. Even with all the preparation that he had, the training for how to use the stones, the vampirism that he had gained in an effort to put off a war, and amounts of backing the likes of which would have made the most powerful individuals alive envious... it had hurt. Everything had hurt. Like a million fire ants crawling across his nerves and biting in a mad frenzy, trying to hang on to something lest they be swept away in a maelstrom. He couldn't think. He couldn't breathe. He could hardly stand. He was going to die. That was the consequence of the plan. To do what he had to do in order to save the people he loved and give them a second chance... he had to sacrifice any chance of seeing them again.

They wouldn't even know he had done it. They'd never know that he had loved them so strongly. That he had cared so deeply for them all. Linene would never know they had met, that he had worked with her in that little shop in Phandalin, or bought the deed to that manor from her to fix it up... never know that he had courted her... proposed to her. He never had gotten to marry her, and he could only hope that some way, somehow, in all the years that had been stolen from them, she had forgiven him for disappearing. For being brought here. For having to do this.

And there it was - an emotion the Dauntless' Master knew well: Rage. Rage, and then a calm, quiet, focus. The sort of focus that any man might feel - a clarity - when he had but one path forward, and his fists clenched of their own accord. Worry and pain washed away, eyes blazing red as a rocket's glare in the night. He was going to die, but this *thing* was going to suffer far worse, and he would make sure of it. He stood slowly, his legs weak, aether winds howling in the space between spaces, a pocket between planes, removed from the universe in all but the most important ways - lines of magic and time that kept it firmly welded to the universe in which it originated.

"Stop you? No... I wish that were the case. It would make everything so much simpler. I could be happy if that was all I had to do. But... no. I'm here. And I'm the one that has to do this." He took a deep breath, then smiled, a little half smile like he so often did, when he was in a good mood and had just heard a bad joke - or perhaps a pun. Amused for it having been said, not so much for enjoying the thing itself. "I can do nothing to you. I know that. Everyone knows that. You're beyond the power of anything in this universe. Even these stones..." He sighed, and then that little half smile slid itself into a wicked grin as his posture changed, and a hint of fang was seen, "That's why I'm not going to do anything to you. I'm going to take something *from* you."

The being barked a laugh, "Take something? From me? And what do *you* think you can take from *me*?"

His eyes grew steely, but a malicious amusement touched the corners, *"Everything else."*

Once more the thing cast its attention upon him. He had come alone, and so was no threat, it was toying with him until now, playing with him like some cheap trinket. Now, however... now it took notice of the lack of fear. This mortal was actually serious, and somehow, that did not bode well. It could feel that. "And how do you propose to do *that*? My will is inevitable, *boy*. *I* am inevitable!"

He raised his hand that bore the sleek jeweled gauntlet up slowly, power drawing from them as he focused. The slightest moment of panic came when he realized he couldn't remember the list that the party had written out, but before he could register such on his face he found himself laughing. He didn't NEED to remember what was on the list! The list itself, the fact that it had been written, that it had existed, that it had been completed... that was enough. He gazed at the formless entity as it shifted and whirled about in its realm, agitation clear in its movements.

"I... am... a Falkenrath." At that moment it came down to his desire, what he wanted the Snap to do, and such was simple - enforce the list. He didn't remember what was on it, and that didn't matter in the slightest. And, as the fundamental energies of the cosmos tore him and themselves apart through the use of so much power, so too did they remove the entirety of the universe from around the being that had threatened not only it, but the rest of the multiverse as a whole. Everything was taken. People. Places. Memories. Time. Space. All of it was gone with a snap of the fingers. That being could rule all that remained of the universe - itself, and nothing else, for all of an eternity where there was no time to pass and not even the smallest elements of matter to manipulate. For all that great power... it could do nothing.

It, too, had needed the stones and had wrongly assumed that like so many times before, it was the past that the party would try to change. If they had done so, it could have simply collected them at opportune moments. After all, it would know where the stones had been found now, and could simply move to whatever areas had them before the party could claim them. But he had figured that out, himself, and had pointed it out to the others. Instead, he had formed this plan. A plan which required his own sacrifice, as they had collectively figured out that he was the only one capable of wielding the entire set of stones.

And now, with everything else gone, and the stones useless gems in another universe... it would be alone, forever, in an empty, formless prison - where its power could do nothing but dwindle until it was gone.

Of course, such a death was a traumatic thing to remember, and the Captain soon found himself sitting bolt-upright in bed. He was panting and in a cold sweat. He threw the covers off him and swung his legs out, quickly putting on his boots, then standing to grab his coat. Before he had both arms in it, he was out on the deck, and by the time he reached the wheel had it fully on. He ran a hand back through dark hair, bright blue eyes darting across the fog-swamped deck, and leaned on the wheel, his right arm hooking around a spoke at the crook of his elbow.

It was some minutes before his first mate made his way over to him. "Captain..." The raven-haired succubus spoke at first, then let her voice take a more tender, rich tone, "...Bastian..." She said softly, "We... the crew and I... We're concerned. *I'm* concerned. What's wrong? This is the third time in as many days since we've been back."

It took a moment for him to look her way, "I..." He started, then fell silent, until her hand squeezed his shoulder, "I have his memories, Helena." He leaned heavily on the wheel, arms around the spokes as if he were hugging the ship itself to keep him on an even keel. "All of them. I remember losing friends I never knew. I remember loving a woman I never met. I remember losing everything I held dear. I remember a life that wasn't mine, and a death I did not die..."

He looked up, a mix of awe and misery on his face, as he raised his right hand. A spark of will was all it took, and the sword his other self had once carried - a silvered, enchanted rapier... Lightbringer - appeared in his hand. Another touch of will and the blade lit up bright as a flare, radiance burning away the mist that came too close. He could even summon the man's sword. He'd not even tried to attune to the blasted thing, but the moment he had the man's memories, it came with merely a thought. And, then, he sent it away in the same manner.

"It seems you inherited quite a bit, my love." She said softly, stepping up behind him, and moving her arms around him - followed by her wings. "I particularly like the fangs." She cooed softly, then lightly rest her forehead against his shoulder, and squeezed him tight. "But for the rest... it will probably take time. I just want you to know, I'm here for you. We all are. So don't even consider thinking you may have to face this alone."

He turned, first his head, then the rest of his body, his hands moving to rest on her hips as he kissed the top of her head. "Thank you, my love. I won't forget that." His right hand moved up, gently cupping her cheek to bring her gaze up to his, "I just... hope I'm still me."

Her arms moved up, over his shoulders, a hand moving up behind his head and into his hair, "Nobody is ever who they were, beloved. We're all changing, all the time. That's the fun of it." She smiled happily then, "Besides... what this means is that you were the man who had memories of this world... and you were the man that held memories of that one. Now, you simply were both. What you do with the knowledge you now have, and the experiences you've gained... that's for you to decide. And whatever you decide? Whatever you want to be now? Pirate...? Hero...? I'll love you, still, as I ever have... and I will *always* be there for you."

"I love you too." He said softly, drawing her into a kiss, long and tender, before releasing her lips, but keeping her near. "Thank you."

"Of course, Captain~" Helena smirked a bit then, "Now... should I be jealous?"

"Huh?" Bastian blinked, "About what?"

"Oh come on, are you going to try telling me that you didn't have at least a girlfriend in that other universe?"

He rolled his eyes, "Helena..."

She laughed softly, "What? I wanna know about my competition... I bet she was pretty!"

"Helena!"

"She was, wasn't she? You wouldn't blush like that if she wasn't!" The succubus smirked, "Come *on*! Tell me! I want details! I bet she was a busty blonde, wasn't she?"

"Oh god..."

"I got one part of that right at least! Your blush got deeper!"

He groaned, and the fiend wearing his ring playfully stole a kiss from her husband's lips.

AdventureFantasyLoveSeries
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About the Creator

Bastian Falkenrath

I've been writing since I was eleven, but I didn't get into it seriously until I was sixteen. I live in southern California, and my writing mostly focuses on historical fiction, sci-fi, and fantasy. Or some amalgamation thereof. Pseudonym.

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  • Bastian Falkenrath (Author)about a year ago

    I do hate those moments where I realize only after I post something that there's something wrong. Oh well. It's a slight alteration. I wrote "his way over" when it should have been "her way over". Oh well.

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