A few hours later, the group once again returned to Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters to offload more rescued mutants. This time around, however, the mood was much more depressing. Those who had seen and lived through the camps of the Friends of Humanity would probably never really get over their experience. And it showed. The torture was deeply ingrained in their minds.
Lifeless eyes stared back at the X-Men who were ushering the survivors to the dorms. Jean, with her telepathic gift, saw and felt much more sorrow than she ever needed to feel. After she was done with her part, she looked toward the Asgardian ship that still floated above the great lawn of the mansion. On it, Eli was softly stroking a majestic blue bird's feathers with a distant look toward the horizon. When she noticed the Asgardian's mood even after freeing so many people, she began to think about his words, his stance, and his actions once more.
Jean always wanted to do more but respected Charles' opinion on the matter too much to stray from the path he had laid out. And yet, just like Eli said, there was so much suffering for their kind. Hundreds of kids, who were tortured without the X-Men even knowing. Hundreds more reported dead through their research into the files they brought back. The team rescued so many of these children that Forge, an older mutant with a talent for mechanical engineering, started constructing extra temporary dorms. Now that they were back, he had enlisted Lorna and Quin to help. Their respective power over metal and sheer telekinesis sped up the process immensely.
"You sure you don't want to take a nap, at least?" On the ship Jean was watching, Anya inquired as she looked to Eli.
"I'm good. Thank you, Anya," Eli answered.
"Sure. But I made you something to eat. If you refuse the nap, at least eat something," Anya said as she placed a bowl with a greek salad next to him on the railing he sat on.
"Thanks."
Eli gained a small smile and narrowed his eyes as he picked up the salad. He silently enjoyed the food while Anya looked in the same direction as him, toward the slowly rising sun.
"I'll sit out a few of the next bases. You and these mutants probably want to vent a little as well, no?" Eli eventually spoke up.
"Yeah, sure. I could use a few punching bags." Eli chuckled at Anya's wording. He seriously hindered Anya from living out her battlethirst in the last few bases.
"And I'll be fine either way. You don't need to tag along out of worry. Want to take Tuuli on a little tour to see some of the beauty this place has to offer?"
"You sure you don't want to come along for that? Sounds kinda romantic for two, lonely for one," Eli mused.
"We still have a very long time to see beauty together. And while you need to calm your mind, I need a good fight," Anya countered while brushing his hair for a short moment. Eli contemplated with closed eyes for a moment before he nodded.
"Don't forget the earring. One little push of energy, and I'll be there immediately," Eli spoke as he stood up in the air and floated in front of Anya. 'I love you.'
Eli gave Anya a deep but short kiss with his telepathically conveyed declaration and shot into the air with Tuuli leading the way.
At the speed they raced each other, it barely took the two half an hour to reach an asteroid circling the Earth currently flying above the South Pacific Ocean somewhere between New Zealand and South America. Eli looked toward Tuuli in question and connected their minds so they could talk in the vacuum of space. Eli had his physique and helmet enchant to live there almost indefinitely, and Tuuli was likewise protected by her mythical physiology and a special gift granted by Eli.
A regular stormbird might only be able to live in space for a short while, but Eli had inscribed runes on some of her feathers. Not only to strengthen his companion but also to deepen their bond and to give her the same auxiliary enchantments his own gear held. Almost everything, from space helmet to increased and total invisibility when used in conjuncture with an invisibility spell.
After a short mental conversation, Eli learned that this place wasn't just a simple asteroid, though Tuuli didn't know what it was either. She was curious, though, because of the structures she saw on it. And that was why she led Eli here.
The Asgardian landed on the giant rock's surface close to what appeared to be a broken entrance of sorts and scanned his surroundings. There were signs of destruction everywhere, but it appeared to be a matter of the past.
Eli detected no life forms, no worrying amounts of remnant energy anywhere, and no movement other than drifting debris and the slow orbit the asteroid was on. So he entered and inspected this base carved into the spacerock.
It was quickly apparent this was a base that used to house humanoids, possibly even plain humans instead of aliens. There used to be an atmosphere sealed inside the rock, but a battle took place here that destroyed the foundations alongside whatever sealed this place's breathable air. The asteroid looked just about ready to simply fall apart.
Eventually, Eli stumbled upon writing and confirmed that his was a base for humans of Earth. Well, mutants, really. The broken base of a statue with just the feet remaining had a small plaque that told of this base called 'Asteroid M', and its founder Magneto. Naturally, that didn't tell Eli how this base was destroyed, but he still lamented the fact that mutants had managed to find a place of their own, and it was still taken from them. They simply couldn't catch a break.
He looked around for another hour but found nothing of value. All lab equipment was broken beyond repair. The computers were useless after being in space unshielded from cosmic radiation for so long, destroying all chipsets and any forms of data storage, and even a diary he found was unreadable. Years of radiation had bleached the pages and erased any kind of ink they used to hold. He still kept the diary because the spine of the diary faintly read Wanda Maximoff, and that was a huge coincidence.
Eli knew that Wanda existed in this reality and was also the Scarlet Witch. From what was publicly known, she owed her powers to the mutant gene as opposed to being granted her chaos magic by the mind stone. He hadn't met this Wanda yet, but what little he knew about her made Eli realize that the two Wandas shared a similarly tragic origin. At least so far, his reality's Wanda still had her brother and some form of normalcy in her life, though. This reality's Wanda appeared to be ostracised by both humanity and mutants.
Done checking everything he wanted to on the asteroid, Eli called over Tuuli in his mind, and the two descended straight down toward the ocean. Floating above the waters and experiencing the second sunrise in just a few hours courtesy of his fast travel time, Eli soaked in the tranquility of this place entirely void of society.
Twenty minutes into his silent contemplation, Eli's divinity picked up a wild cluster of chaotic energies. A very small storm of spatial energies raged on an island Eli didn't realise was even there a good 100 miles to the north of his position. As he flew closer, Eli was calm because his cosmic awareness didn't pick up on this small storm. Either whoever or whatever caused this storm and potentially used it to get here was vastly more powerful than him or much weaker. When he reached the skies above the island, the storm had subsided. By now, Eli, with his vast knowledge, recognized it was dimensional travel and not 'just' teleportation.
Someone or something came to this reality from outside of it, same as him. It intrigued the young Allfather. He picked up the lone human mind on this idyllic island and reached it moments later.
What he found was an unconscious, beautiful woman with long black hair and a warrior's physique. She appeared largely unharmed, but through a quick diagnostic spell, Eli learned that some kind of power linked to her lifeforce was missing, and all that remained was a seed of this power. A seed that was quickly withering. It appeared just before her arrival here, she was drained of her abilities, whatever they were.
Stemming the withering of this seed and the flow of lifeforce that was leaving her body from the metaphorical wound of her powers being ripped out of her with a spell, Eli started reading her mind. He quickly noticed it was harder than it was with regular humans, but it still proved to be easy enough.
First, Eli learned that this woman was a Utopian. A subrace of humanity created by the Kree in an experiment ages ago. It reminded Eli of the Inhumans of his reality his grandfather told him about during his time in Valhalla.
They, too, were experiments of the Kree. But even through all their enormous potential for power, Eli never sought them out or planned to do so in the future. Not only were their powers random, they were also contingent on the presence of a dormant gene, and awakening the powers was only possible through Terrigen Crystals. A finite resource unless he planned to go to war with the Kree and steal their research on this 'Terrigen Mist' the Kree had created. Odin also told him that they lived in a caste system with a sort of monarchy for over a millenia now. Which meant he would need to gain their true allegiance through conquest, subterfuge, and manipulation. It was just too much work.
Second, Eli learned that this woman was called Zarda Shelton, or Power Princess, and in her reality, she was the last of her kind. Technically, she was the last of anyone in her reality, at least in her mind. Apparently, her reality was destroyed, resulting in the woman being ejected into some form of splinter reality. It was a realm, a dimension, some kind of zone, Eli had never seen before and never heard of. All this place held was energy and white and blue crystals behaving in ways that defied all the various laws of reality he was taught about.
It intrigued him, sadly both Zarda's entry and exit to this realm were chance encounters she had no control over. All she saw was a vague blue silhouette in the far distance before she met another version of her. A version that tricked her and stole her powers.
Third, Eli learned about a sort of hero group called Squadron Supreme. A different reality version of the Avengers, though they were much more to Eli's liking. That group was closer to his Asgardian morals and actually killed mass murdering villains instead of imprisoning them only to have to fight them once more after their inevitable escape.
Who knew, maybe they survived the end of their reality too. Apparently, the group already had members with exactly that kind of origin. Powered people stranded in a new reality.
The last thing he learned from her mind before leaving it was her knowledge about a substance called Beta-Vibranium. It was a metal with largely similar characteristics as the regular vibranium Eli was familiar with. However, in Zarda's reality, there was a Utopian who could process vibranium in his body to create this Beta-version of it that was actually invisible to the human eye. He looked next to the woman, quickly felt around, and there it was. It was invisible to his eyes, too.
Eli brushed over the invisible metal with his magic to gain a deeper understanding of it and learned that it wasn't invisible to his 'magical' senses. He quickly extended those senses and managed to find a few remnants of this metal in the form of broken chunks. But only roughly enough to form two or maybe three more shields the same size as the circular Captain America-style shield Zarda had brought with her. The chunks, it appeared, had belonged to some form of plane-like mode of transportation Zarda was in at the time of the end of her reality.
Gathering all the metal and checking the surrounding waters for more, Eli brought forth a small cabin he had stashed in 'New New Asgard', or his All-Force. The cabin held two advanced Asgardian medical pods and a basic form of living space designed for two. It was supposed to be a last resort kind of habitat for Eli and Anya should they find themselves stranded and hurt.
After placing Zarda into one of the pods and casting a powerful healing spell on the dimensional traveler, Eli began to test the invisible vibranium. He left the shield alone and inspected one of the bigger chunks in the form of some kind of plating.
Three hours after informing Anya about his discovery and tests to conduct magic and imprint runes on the metal, Eli was woken from his concentration by Zarda stirring awake in the pod.
"Where is this?" The woman inquired with a weak but magnetic kind of voice. It was very pleasant to listen to.
"Earth, some random island in the Pacific Ocean. Though, you probably want to know more about what Earth, no?" Eli calmly replied, trying to sound as soothing as possible.
"Precognition, magic, or a mind reader?" Zarda asked a short while later.
"Technically, all three, but I did read your mind. I'm very sorry about your reality, Zarda. I'm Eli Thorson. And just like you, I am not from this reality. However I came here on my own volition with a spell. Traveling to gain more power to end a threat to my home," Eli narrated to even out the huge gap in knowledge between the two. He guessed 'Power Princess' would appreciate that.
"Why save me?" Zarda asked after short contemplation.
"Oh, the wound inflicted by your other self? It was in my means, cost me nothing but a little of my time and I happened to be floating over the ocean at the time of your arrival because my bird had led me to an asteroid that was orbiting Earth just around here."
"Bird?"
"Yeah, a really smart thunderbird called Tuuli. I think she's somewhere near New Zealand at the moment."
A silence hung over the cabin after that. Eli wanted to let Zarda rest, and the Utopian didn't know what else to ask.
"Tell me about this reality, please," Zarda eventually asked a few minutes later.
Eli acquiesced to Zarda's plea and told her what little he learned so far. From the Avengers to the X-Men. From gods like Thor to sentient bacteria influencing humanity for ages.
"You saved me to escape this darkness shrouding mutantkind, then?" Zarda eventually asked after another long silence once Eli was finished with his explanation. Zarda had no reason to assume Eli was lying, even when he told her about Sublime and gods being real.
She herself had seen and fought side by side with Hyperion, an Eternal in service to the Celestials, in her reality. After that experience, nothing ever truly felt unbelievable to her.
"Well, at first, you were a dimensional traveler, and that piqued my interest. And then, after reading some of your mind to figure out your origin, please excuse my bluntness, I felt pity for you. Your past is tragic beyond compare. All I lost were my home planet and a few loved ones with a way to get it all back in some form eventually, yet here you are. Losing even your entire reality. After all of that, you even got kicked in shin by fate some more and encountered an... evil? version of yourself in the most random encounter in some dimension I never heard about and had your powers stolen, leaving you stranded and dying on an uninhabited island," Eli explained. "It's the saddest thing I ever heard."
Zarda gained a wry smile that eventually turned to silent tears that evolved into full-on ugly sobbing. Eli consoled the woman by placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder and staying by her side. Some while later, she fell asleep, completely exhausted from her crying and her wounds.
After allowing the woman to sleep for a few hours during which Eli tested the alternate version of vibranium some more, he eventually gathered back the cabin and stored all of the metal he could find save for Zarda's shield.
Since she had nowhere to go and the island they were on was just a random island in this reality and not her home Utopia Island, Zarda followed along as Eli made her float next to him. With a quick spell, Eli teleported the two on the ship Anya, and the mutants used to go from base to base.
Currently, the ship was empty, and its crew was destroying a base under the name of Trask Industries. A quick check with his phone told Eli that this industrial park used to be part of Shaw Industries before its CEO's eventual demise at the hands of Emma Frost.
A check with his vast mental prowess told Eli that the team was currently destroying a laboratory used to build Sentinel Mark VIIs without the help of a Master Mold. Since there was nothing in the base that could stop Anya, Eli once again sat on the the railing like he did before he left and told Zarda to relax until his 'team' got back. Eli took out a string instrument from inside the ship's cabin and began to play some music to calm down his mood some more. He chose the soundtrack of an old game called Chrono Cross. It had been some time since he played old video game music.
A few explosions, a giant short-lived fire and fifty minutes later, the team consisting of mutants from all walks of life and the goddess of fire returned to the ship with only three rescued mutants in hospital gowns.
"You're back! And you brought back a pretty woman? Am I not enough for you?" Mystique yelled when she saw Eli sitting on the railing. The Asgardian didn't answer the question and just shook his head with a faint smile. He used his telepathy to fill in Anya on the origins of Zarda without having to speak his mind. He didn't know if the woman wanted her full secrets divulged to everyone.
"Calmed down?" Anya asked as she stepped closer to Eli and leaned in for a short kiss. Eli's response was a nod and a smile.
"We're due for another visit to the X-Mansion. Logan and Anya might be able to go still, but the rest of us need some rest," Storm said when they finished loading up the rescued mutants. Nobody had any objections.
During the flight back, Eli, for the first time, shared a conversation with Ororo. The white-haired mutant had learned of his divinity and was greatly amused. She asked if they needed to share names now and was generally a very pleasant person to be around.
Despite him 'attacking' the professor and apparently Jean, who she treated as a younger sister, she didn't hold much animosity. She could clearly see that Charles was in the wrong because it wasn't the first time she had seen him casually enter people's minds because he could. Especially if he thought it was the right thing to do, and even more so when it would serve the greater good. And what greater good was there than winning over someone as powerful as Eli.
When they landed, everything was going smoothly and Eli was about to retire for the day together with Anya after leaving Zarda in the care of Mystique who apparently found kindred spirits in each other during the short flight. But his head snapped in the direction of Africa all of a sudden. His eyes looked like stars as his cosmic awareness warned him of imminent danger in Egypt. It appeared a minion of Apocalypse has found an ancient artifact.