The 7th Aeternus
The Journey continues

I arrive at a building and step inside the lobby. I find the directory and confirm... Afterlife.com... well, it’s a real place. I step into the elevator and ascent. I start to wonder if I’m doing the right thing, should I have done a bit of research? Maybe even called the authorities? The door opens abruptly—too abruptly... I’m not quite ready. I step out of the elevator and out into the hall.

“Hello Donna” I turn around to see a man standing at the end of the hall, standing by a door. He makes a summoning motion and steps inside. I hesitate only for a moment and follow, I step into the room where he is seated with his back to me. It is dark outside but I can still see the magnificent view of Manhattan. I stare out at the skyline suddenly feeling very self conscious...not exactly sure of what to do now.

As I stand there I notice his reflection in the mirror, I can see his face, I see him clearly...as I'm sure he can see me. I am transfixed, I continue to gaze at his reflection and feel a sense of ease come over me. There is something...familiar about him.

I begin to gather my thoughts and prepare to speak... “it’s good to see you Donna” he says, catching me off guard. Yes—I know who you are, he continues..further dumbfounding me. I stand there not knowing what to say. “It’s about time you showed up, I’ve waited a long time for you to come back” I don’t know what you’re talking about, I’m here looking for my father. “That’s not why you’re here” It’s not? I ask somewhat confused... not knowing what else to say.

“Donna, you need to sit down, this is going to take awhile”. I’m totally unprepared for this and again I find myself just standing there... wanting to speak... but I don’t know what to say, I walk over to the chair and sit. When I look up he is now facing me, he is smiling...a very happy smile...yes happy, I sense his happiness.

“Donna, you have to listen to me, everything I’m going to tell you will sound completely crazy and you won’t want to believe it but you must...lives depend on it. What the hell is that supposed to mean; suddenly my father comes to mind, “my father I yell, I need to know he’s okay”! “Calm down Donna” “No—he’s the reason I am here”. “He’s the reason for many things” “What??” “he’s the reason there’s a war being waged. A war between good and evil and the fate of mankind will be determined by what we do next”.

I want to tell him he’s crazy... but I don’t really think he is... I feel compelled to listen to him. “Everything you read in the book is true Donna” “What book”? I ask, already knowing the answer, he does not reply; I ask no further, unsure if I was believing everything I heard but totally fascinated by what he was telling me, part of me was hanging on every word—consuming everything he said, and though I sat there composed I could feel my adrenaline pumping and a sense of thrill.

He told me that everything I read in the book was true... for the most part. “There may be some discrepancies the information was passed down and not chronicled by the original source”. “And, you may have noticed Donna, that is not in chronological order as far as the time line”.

I tried to say I didn’t notice but could not speak, I simply sat and listened as he continued. “The original source.. the original immortal... the lone survivor of the battle of Atlantis was not only an aeternus warrior but the creator of the life serum”. That information is not in the book, nor does the book tell you how to create the life serum. It’s creation was achieved by a single scientist whose intellect was centuries ahead of his time. Perhaps he uncovered all the puzzles of the human body, unlocked mysteries of genetics, DNA, and sub-DNA. Maybe he perfected genetic engineering and created a world where humans could be “coded”... to exact specifications, constructed to be perfect in every way. With the ability to alter DNA this man would be able to introduce possibilities that existed only in other forms of life but had never been imagined as evolutionary adaptation for humankind. Such as regeneration... imagine that; losing an arm and almost instantly it grows back. Once you’ve reached that level of genetic manipulation, diseases like cancer and of course the common cold are no longer a threat to mankind. So, perhaps he accomplished that because he was a genius, or maybe he was just fortunate that he lived in a seemingly magical place where nature provided the right ingredients and he just stumpled upon them.

How incredible that must be, knowing you could alter life, that you could engineer a human body so that all its wondrous protective mechanisms are highly evolved and enhanced, totally void of all previous limitations. A human that would never know weakness, illness, or death... an immortal, a life that will never end because it has been designed to never die.

Now you must understand you couldn’t just be born immortal, otherwise you wouldn’t be able to control at what point immortality would set in— would you be a baby forever or would you become very old before the gene-thingy kicked in. “Gene-thingy”? Stay with me Donna—I’m almost finished. The way to successfully administer it was at a specific point of physical maturity in the form of a serum.

But you see Donna, for all his efforts he could not prevent the fall of his civilization, their home and way of life were destroyed, he spent the rest of his life preparing his seventh child to continue his quest to rid the world of the Maleficus.

In isolation he recreated his life serum and soon after achieved his greatest accomplishment ever, bestowing the world with the architect of the future, the 7th immortal. This immortal would assemble an elite force to battle the Malificus and forge a future where malice was nonexistant and people were content and peacefully co-existed.

Now here is the most important part of this story. This man is my father. I never really knew him because he left when I was a child. I grew up to be 32 years of age when my immortality set in, that’s how it is when you are the offspring of an immortal, it’s unpredictable you may just live a normal life or you may become an Aeternus, or a Maleficus, or even worse you can totally devolve and die at a young age.

These things I know because they were told to me by my older sister, who is perhaps the most powerful Aeternus among us. She sustained great injuries in a battle with the Maleficus that “tainted” her blood. She almost died, she slipped into a coma that lasted 2 years. When she awakened she had no recollection of her true self and oddly enough she thought she was someone else, I could do nothing but watch her leave. I moved quickly to create documentation to substantiate this life that her mind had somehow fabricated. I could only hope that someday she would return.

Suddenly I wasn’t sure if I believed anything else he had said or if it was really important. I was suddenly concerned about him, I felt bad for him and wanted to help. “where is your sister now” I asked. Well, up until just a few weeks ago she was living her assumed life when I suddenly felt an iunctio, which is a connection that all Aeternus have. It wasn’t a complete connection but it allowed me to create a mental image of events and characters that would slowly guide her here without totally shocking her system. Although I can now sense that although she does not remember who she is, her mind and body are at a level where she can sustain the type of shock that will perhaps “jar” her memory.

He then smiles and suddenly hurls himself towards me, I jump out of the chair but he grabs me before I can dodge him, in one continuous motion he slams us both through the window and in an instant the glass shatters and I feel the rush of air. As we plummet to the ground below us, I realize that I am strangely calm; he is holding me by the wrists, as I turn to look at him he says “by the way Donna, I’m your brother Ulysses—this is the shock part. It’s going to hurt but it won’t kill us. We are Aeternus.