RE: Lost Genesis

NewGen! It was late 2012/2013 when I posted the final chapters for Broken Genesis, the story that serves as a dividing line for all of us creators to show that we've all improved at our craft since we first made these characters that we know and love. And now... a short story that could serve as a fun chain of events for stories in the future.

--- Part I ---

My world is gone.

My world is gone, and I’m all that remains of its ashes. I could not stay there, but it was not by my own agency that I had left. Perhaps fate is cruel, but it wasn’t by fate’s hand that I had been ejected from the life that I’d known. The wheels of time had come undone, and the concrete foundation of the past had crumbled away. Or, more accurately, reality itself had undergone a forced reset, and I am one of the few who know about it. It’s alright if you don’t understand, for I hadn’t either at first. I’d spent years in this strange existence, exploring lands that were both familiar and unfamiliar, meeting friends who never saw my face… I know I don’t belong here, but I don’t know how to leave. Madness likely would have claimed most that had tried to live a life like this, but madness is something I conquered long ago.

I call myself Beholder, for my old name holds no meaning in this new world – much like my old self. I have no place here, but I have nowhere else to go. The emptiness of my heart is a void never to be filled, not while knowing things are not as they once were. To say that I feel lost would be a kindness compared to the depths of emotion that I dwell upon at every moment that passes.

The genesis of the past had become fractured and reconfigured, and I distanced myself from it all when I learned that I had no place here. Now, I only observe the shifts and changes of this new world -- watch and document its conflicts and growths. There were some similarities to the world I’d grown up knowing, but… not enough.  I couldn’t make myself a place in it, and so thus I remain on its borders to watch its progressions.

I miss my friends.

Well, suffice to say, while I am alone, I was not the only one pulled here. There is one other that I know of; the one who set in motion the events that undid reality’s fabric as I once knew it. It’s funny that I once considered them a friend – family, even. But the reality is, a tiger can never change its stripes, and one’s morality can never truly change. A serpent had been let loose into our home, and it’d devoured everything that was held dear.

I’ve learned some facts about the rejuvenation of this universe – what the impetus for its birth was. An artifact of the Olde Universe called the Kronos Stone. Its ability to alter reality upon the desires of the one who holds it… such a power was unparalleled. However, what I know is this – someone (perhaps one who manipulates time) had placed the Kronos Stone out in the open for anyone to see, and the strings of history and reality came undone as a result. I’m sure it was the doing of that serpent. But how?

And why?

--- Part II ---

I am the Beholder.

But I was not always. Before I’d lost everything, I’d had a normal life – at least, for what the standard of normal was at the time. The world had felt so vibrant and colorful, with so much life and love that danced across its skies. Along with those that I held close to my heart, I fought to protect those who couldn’t protect themselves, and I’d found a purpose in life that was fulfilling for me. Adventuring through unknown places with friends and family, old and new… Compared to now, that life had been perfect.

But then, our world shifted. Floating away in the breeze, those whom I loved dissolved into ashes and dust as time and space warped around us. I remember how hoarse and ragged my voice had felt as I fell to my knees and screamed for the nightmare to end – to let their erasures be nothing more than a cruel nightmare that I could wake up from. But the nightmare never ended; not as the colors of the sky turned to white; not as cities crumbled away into dust; not as the stars fell from their place in the night sky; not as every dimension of reality burned a bright white.

Why was I the one that was left here alone?

To say that life is cruel and unfair is a quaint saying, for I am one who has truly lost everything. My very existence defines cruel and unfair, so do not speak to me of injustices. But perhaps I deserve it, for I knew the Stone that that damned serpent had sought after, and I had known their intentions. Choosing not to act is an act that I pay for… no, which our universe paid for. For a life of adventure is grand, but the constant threat of danger had been taxing. At that time, I’d wanted a simpler life without fear of death in combat. And my inaction to that end had cost us everything we’d worked for.

The flashes of faces of anguish still scar my memory, now a constant unwanted reminder of the aching loneliness that have become my chains. The weight of it all presses down on me every day, every hour, every minute. And honestly, I know not how to redeem myself, especially for those who do not know the meaning for my exile. There would be no point in trying to make them understand – this life is the only life that they’ve known. To acknowledge the existence of a prior universe which had spawned them? …Perhaps the breaking of genesis was their “Big Bang,” if they could understand such a concept. My mind always drifts and sifts between so many different memories of old, trying to cling on to any speckle of light that I can. But I can’t help but feel like they’d hate me for what I did. Or rather, what I didn’t do.

I hate the serpent for what they did, but I hate myself for allowing it to happen.

--- Part III ---

My world is gone.

My world is gone, and it was by choice that I set fire to its wretched, beating heart. These actions, like all that I’ve made in the past, were done with a purpose beyond the understanding of most. It was by my guiding hand that the universe had folded in on itself and expanded again – it was my actions that brought us the paradise that we now know. A multiverse of wonders never before possible under the old rules, and I am the one who put the Kronos Stone in plain view of the entire world.

Out with the old, and in with the new. And with the old universe gone, so is my old identity. I go by Beguiler, for I know I am one of the greatest tricksters of the now-christened Mosaic Cloud. What a cute name that is – I can certainly say that I approve. Honestly, it’s a much more charming place than the universe that bore it, with war and strife rampant across various star systems for centuries. I’d stopped aging, possibly due to my passing through the universe’s rebirth. And what a glorious sight to behold – brilliant white expanses as far as the eye could see, stretching far out towards infinity and beyond. It was a promise of a better existence, a fresh start to right the wrongs of the past.

The genesis of the past has undergone a metamorphosis into an existence much greater than before, and I’d welcomed its arrival with open arms. There I stood, on the dawn of a new age of reality, knowing that the plans and people that I’d nudged along had all fallen into place as planned. Well… except for one minor detail – an existence that I hadn’t anticipated to be a roadblock. A fool that had once been a colleague… a friend… a warm hearth and home from where I’d once felt I’d belonged to. But all good things are illusory and fleeting, and the true nature of reality reared its head – I knew I had to act accordingly.

I do not regret my actions.

That fool is also here, in this new land. I can feel it with every breath I take. They could be a problem, should they strengthen their resolve enough to oppose me. But we two are not the only ones who know of the old universe, for I have the greatest ally known in this, or any universe – Vein. I do not know if he has figured it out – surely he’s aware that the Kronos Stone did not put itself in plain view. And to an individual like him, hearing my birth name and seeing my face should be all the details he’d need to ascertain who I am and where I’m from. I doubt he’d have reservations about allying with me.

I am Beguiler, the one who set in motion the end of an entire universe, and the one who watched the dawn of a new one. Perfectly balanced, as all things in existence should be.