This work is a piece of fiction. While inspired by real events, cultures, and practices in human history, the story blends factual history with fictional characters, dramatizations, and creative interpretation.
It is not intended to promote, glorify, or encourage any illegal activities, substance use, or harmful behavior. All depictions of sensitive topics are included solely for narrative and historical context.
For the effects of the story, all characters are to be considered above the majority age.
Reader discretion is advised.
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With the end of World War II, Aragorn returned to the Isthmus to assist his family in the Great Moving. Rarely was he seen in the outside world, with only the occasional sighting of his draconic visage flying around the world.
It was only until 1962 in Cuba that he was seen reappearing on the stage.
After Fidel Castro overthrew the U.S.-backed dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, leading to a communist government allied with the Soviet Union just 90 miles off the U.S. coast tension between the capitalist and communist sides of the world escalated further.
The U.S. had placed nuclear Jupiter missiles in Turkey (bordering the Soviet Union) and Italy, which the Soviets viewed as a direct threat.
And with the head start that the U.S. had over the Soviets due to the early development of the Atomic Bomb, the USSR felt strategically inferior to the U.S. in terms of nuclear capabilities and sought to redress this imbalance.
"So stupid," Aragorn commented while lazily floating in his sea serpent form near the escalating conflict zone. "Capitalism, Communism, they are all failed systems. This is not but a dick-measuring contest between two ignorant powers of the greater truths."
The crisis unfolded over 13 tense days after U.S. U-2 spy planes discovered Soviet nuclear missile sites under construction in Cuba.
In response to this, JFK chose a "naval quarantine" to prevent further missile shipments, rather than immediate air strikes or invasion.
But tension peaked when a U.S. Navy destroyer dropped practice depth charges on a Soviet submarine, provoking a nuclear launch from the submarine due to a misunderstanding and the crew's limited communication.
"Well, maybe I should not go around with a holier-than-thou attitude," Aragorn commented as his wide perception caught nuclear missiles being fired away. "I'm sure humanity can learn... I'm sure."
The conflict exploded like a powder keg. It was a combination of factors that led to the hair-trigger mentality of both sides. However, the main factor was the thought that things would not ever go full extinction because civilians could always run to the safety of the nearest Obelisk.
So, with a scowl of annoyance, Aragorn halted all manner of ammunition in their trajectory and broadcast a message in the minds of all the involved: Cease.
It was simple, concise, and left no room for misinterpretation.
The message wasn't limited to the directly involved, it reached the minds of the higher-ups in Moscow and Washington.
However, locally, in the waters surrounding Cuba, Aragorn's massive serpentine form began to ping in all sonars. Above sea level, his imposing dorsal fins creased above the water surrounding all sides and moving about between all battleships. In conclusion, neither side could move nor act.
Aragorn issued no other commands, and a day later John F. Kennedy arrived.
'One of you is missing.' Aragorn's words rang in the president's mind.
"Mr. Abner—" He began but was interrupted.
'There's no need, just wait. He'll come, he has no choice in the matter, and your people will not lay a hand on him and his, you don't have a choice either.'
"..."
Two days later, Nikita Khrushchev, the premier of the Soviet Union arrived. Only then did Aragorn shift to his humanoid form and appear in front of both rulers.
"Nuclear Energy is the path for clean energy, but Nuclear Weapons are almost entirely useless; unless it's for creating a nuclear apocalypse, mind you," Aragorn said. "I have never stood in front of the progress of your species, my actions speak volumes of this."
It was an undeniable fact, one neither premier could argue against.
"But now you have the power to raze the surface of the planet and collapse entire ecosystems that have been since before the first of your kind wielded stones and sticks," Aragorn continued. "And you find yourselves in a volatile situation with a dangerous spark of fire in your hands.
"I believe, whether subconsciously or fully aware of it, the sense of security granted by my presence is clouding your sight from the obvious truth," Aragorn's eyes locked with both the tense men and their parties. "As such, from this day on, no human is allowed shelter inside my Obelisks."
His message reverberated in their minds and those of the entirety of humanity, and like so, the USA and USSR became the most disliked states in the world.
"If you're so eager to start a nuclear war, why don't you build your own shelters instead of taking advantage of mine?" These were Aragorn's parting words before he jumped back to the Isthmus.
Khrushchev and Kennedy didn't survive the fallout and it wasn't long after that that both of them had to resign their positions.
They were most certainly used as the scapegoats of the mess; it wasn't possible for anyone in the world aside from the Isthmus to call for judgment of the two most powerful forces of humanity.
Regardless, the ban on admission for shelter in the Obelisks was a monumental change. Since the oldest records known, aside from the North Scale, the Obelisks have always been there as an island in turbulent seas. Now, that changed.
The next time Aragorn was seen in public was in 1969, not on Earth though but on the Moon.
Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong stood in front of Aragorn in their extravehicular suits. Aragorn, for his part, was in his classical black suit—for him, not humanity; they still portrayed him in his A'Heelah outfit in their books—and his hands held a small data-storing device.
"This is the prize for this space race you've been having between yourselves," Aragorn said like a parent talking to their children. "I found it to my liking, especially when compared to your ongoing nuclear arms race. This race has brought about far more benefits in comparison."
His voice reached them despite the vacuum of space.
Eventually, the astronauts restarted and they received the small device.
During the day they stayed on the Moon, Aragorn accompanied them, and although their reports later contained this information, it was not published until decades later that while they were stumbling with their moonwalk in the suboptimal gravitational conditions of the Moon, Aragorn was making fun of them by addressing them as a parent does a toddler who was starting to take their first steps.
Aragorn also made sure to apply the same protection enhancements he used on important architectural structures to the instruments they left behind and the flag of the USA.
Upon their return, the USA made a big fuss about the 'groundbreaking' data handed to them. It was propaganda, there wasn't much groundbreaking data in it but topology studies of the Moon among other info Aragorn thought the people at NASA would enjoy having.
Still, Aragorn didn't call out on their bullshit, he didn't care.
Time moved on, and the Isthmus was nearing the end of its preparations for the Great Moving. The year was 1978 and Aragorn perked up in the middle of a 'heated' discussion with Kitty.
"What? What has you twisted?" Kitty asked.
"Visitors," Aragorn said, his eyes switching colors, locked in on something beyond the horizon.
"Huh? I thought they had given up in breaching the Isthmus," Kitty commented.
"Not the Isthmus, Kitty," Aragorn said. "Earth; Ego just arrived."
"Ah, that was the yucky planetoid that believed itself supreme, right?" Kitty asked.
"Yes, the same," Aragorn nodded. "But pay no mind to it, I'll remove his 'sperm' after he has served his purpose. Please continue your demonstration."
"Are you sure? We could go and jump the guy and trash-talk his mother," Kitty suggested, a cruel gleam in her feline eyes.
"No, his son will serve a purpose, he is not worth our attention," Aragorn shook his head.
"If you say so," Kitty shrugged. "Then let me continue where I left off. As I was saying, those meanies banded together to create a prison cell I could not escape from! Can you believe that?!"
"I'm finding it entirely feasible," Aragorn nodded. "Your mischief has brought just about enough chaos and progress through the years."
"Of course, you're welcome!" Kitty nodded sagely. "That was obviously my intention; to help Vlad in his divine domain of progress... Of course!"
"Right," Aragorn drawled. "Not even you believe your bullshit."
"Never mind that, stop distracting me," Kitty said. "Slava, that annoying wolf, she asked Daria, Steve, and Sarah for assistance in creating my prison cell!"
"Let's see, that makes it a divine prison under the domains of Truth and Sealing from Slava, Wellness and Stasis from Daria, Protection and Freedom from Steve, and Bonds and Dragons from Sarah, but I guess the Dragon domain was not utilized, right?" Aragorn asked for confirmation.
"It's as you say, I got caught by Master (Yao) on the orders of the Queen (Emma) because the Princess (Mindee) tattletaled on me," Kitty pouted and complained like a child to Aragorn.
"What did you do to annoy the Princess?" Aragorn asked.
"Nothing big, I was changing some parameters in the spatial coordinates of a few of our stars when she discovered me," Kitty offhandedly said.
"Were you... perhaps... attempting to draw a dick in the sky upon or return to Earth-5H1N3?" Aragorn asked.
"No, of course not!" She vehemently denied it. "I was writing my name with them and it would only be visible from my Cat's Eye System."
"I guess that's not as bad as I thought," Aragorn confessed. "Why did Mindee rat you out then?"
"Well... You know how it is—"
"I don't," Aragorn interrupted.
"—I was not up to date with the star map and my design may or may not have created a logistical problem in the transportation routes between a few of our star systems," Kitty sheepishly replied.
"That would do it," Aragorn nodded. "Mindee is in charge of that part of the Imperium."
"Yep, and Master was too much for me to handle alone," she said with a tired smile. "So I was caught."
"Okay, and then what happened?" Aragorn asked. "How did you escape and end up here hiding from everyone?"
"Kakahahaha!" Kitty cackled evilly. "I channeled pure divinity into my adaptation and overloaded it. I changed my [Self] into a cat and that messed with a few of the security measures of the cell, it was designed for Kitty, not for a literal cat!"
"Wait... what?" Aragorn asked, befuddled. "Show me this instant!"
"Hahahah! I knew you would understand my genius!" Kitty laughed out loud.
Instead of wielding her divinities of Laws and Emancipation, she used domain-less divinity to empower her adaptability aspect. While doing so she used her intent to steer the process to her desired result.
Her body was covered in a gentle glow and then a purple-eyed cat of purple fur so dark that it looked black stood where she once was.
Aragorn, with bathed breathing, reached for the scruff of her neck and lifted her to his eye level. His eyes predominantly glowed golden and pink. "I think this is the most I have ever loved you, Kitty!"
He immediately sank his face into her tummy and tried to asphyxiate himself in her soft fur.
"Hahahaha! I know, I know! I'm a genius!" Kitty spoke through telekinesis.
"Have you tried increasing the size?" Aragorn asked, his face still buried in her tummy.
"Yes, I discovered that I can comfortably shift into three sizes," Kitty replied. "The first, as you have seen, hides part of my mass and makes me not much bigger than a normal housecat."
"I think it takes you the size of your gene parent," Aragorn clarified.
"Ah, so this is the size of the genetic sample you used for my evolution?" Kitty asked.
"Yes, bar the tails, it's the same species," Aragorn said.
"Okay, that makes sense," Kitty nodded her feline head. "The next size uses my mass without hiding or compressing it."
"So a Kitty-size cat?" Aragorn asked.
"Yep, almost like a puma," Kitty replied.
"So the natural transition of the transformation within the laws of physics," Aragorn concluded.
"Yes, that's what my divinity told me," Kitty agreed. "The last form is made by creating imaginary mass through the use of forces instead of particles. I didn't measure it, but I'm certain I was a couple of heads shorter than Peggy."
"Well, what are you waiting for? Become my bed!" Aragorn demanded.
Kitty giggled and after her body was covered in a soft glow, a giant cat remained.
Aragorn wasted no time, and as if trying to make snow angels in her belly, he dived straight in.
The giant cat purred. "Oh, I felt that with my entire body!" Aragorn exclaimed.
"Hahaha!" Kitty laughed. "So, how about it? How much are you willing to pay me to teach this to the others?"
"How many Favors do you want?" Aragorn asked.
"No, Favors won't do," Kitty declined. "I have enough of those, and that stupid rule of freezing the accounts of prisoners doesn't let me use mine to pay for my freedom when captured. I escaped this time, but I'm sure the next time even I won't be able to escape that prison cell."
"Ah, you want a 'Get out of jail free' card," Aragorn understood the underlying premise of her words.
"Exactly," Kitty affirmed. "I want enough to last until the Great Moving."
"That's not that many," Aragorn agreed. "On topic, you asked for until the Great Moving because you plan to take some time and join your family until their mortal deaths, right?"
"Yes," she sighed. "It's the conclusion I reached. My family, with how pious they are, won't accept any form of lifespan extension from us. They won't care about leaving me behind and the possibility that our relationship will turn sour because I dared to 'stand' in the same power bracket as Yahweh is real.
"Regardless, it's less than a century. I already set one of my Dark Elves as the head of my people to take the leadership position upon my return to the Solar System. I think, no matter if they hate me or not, this is what I must do to repay the debt of life I owe my family," Kitty explained.
"Mmm, so you'll return to being a teenager?" Aragorn tilted his head in confusion. "How would that work?"
"I'm not sure yet," Kitty confessed. "What do you advise, Aragorn?" Kitty curled forward and licked him like a pussy does her kittens.
"Which options are you debating?" Aragorn asked. He dismissed his clothing and shifted into a larger version of his honey badger form.
"There's the easy solution and the hard one," Kitty replied. "I could bring forth a version of my mind from the time before my departure with my current memories stored as knowledge and not experience."
"The easy solution," Aragorn said.
"Exactly," Kitty said. "The annoying solution is to raw dog it. I go in my grown body, shift to my teenager body in front of them—because otherwise, I doubt the government will recognize me as the same Katherine Pryor—and then try to get them to accept the 'new' me."
"What's the likelihood of that?" Aragorn asked.
"Ugh," Kitty groaned.
"Right," he drawled. "Have you considered splitting your personality? The best of both worlds."
"Mmmm, won't they interpret that as me being untruthful while in their presence?" She asked.
"I doubt they'll ever meet you in our presence," Aragorn said. "Keep your family separate from us and that should do the trick, right?"
"Right... I don't know," she dragged her words. "I do what I like, move as I want, act as I please, and follow the principle of not lying to myself—"
"What a Kitty-thing to say," Aragorn interjected.
"—This feels like lying... It goes against my nature. I don't know why but, even if they are my beloved family, it chagrins me to compromise on their behalf. I know it shouldn't, but it irks me." Kitty grumbled while hugging Aragorn in her large forelimbs.
"Maybe it's a matter of pride," Aragorn suggested. "It could be about identity too."
"It could be, but, like you, I'm not overly prideful," Kitty said. "I just... I would prefer it if they could simply accept me, but at the same time, a small part of me finds the situation idiotic. I'm a goddess, Aragorn, and a powerful one at that; I have nine tails as proof. Yet, here I am lowering myself for such an idiotic reason."
"Your family?" Aragorn asked.
"No, not them. To the idiotic reason that they won't accept me," Kitty explained. "Maybe it is because I'm used to how open-minded the Imperium is, but I find matters arousing due to conflicts in acceptance utterly stupid."
"Why don't you try raw dogging it first?" Aragorn suggested. "If it doesn't work, then you can always try to switch or split personalities. Or, worst case, you'll always have a family in us. A family that loves you despite your criminal record."
"Hey!" Kitty exclaimed. "It's just petty crimes! Nothing too serious!"
Aragorn laughed and soon Kitty joined him. Slowly their laughter settled and then she said, "I love you."
"I love you too, Kitty."
They shared their :Love: through their empathy.
As the years passed, Aragorn kept track of Ego's exits and entries to Earth. It wasn't only his entries; he kept track of the increasing flow of Skrull-Kree traffic on Earth, but other than that he didn't make a move. He didn't need to.
In 1980, after he saw Ego plant a tumor on Meredith Quill before departing one last time, Aragorn cut out the chunk of earth around the 'sperm' he had left on Earth. He took the chunk of ground and glued it to an asteroid about the size of a freighter and then set the asteroid in an ejecting orbit around the Solar System. About a year later, the asteroid had passed Uranus' orbit.
Six years after that, on April 26, in Ukraine, Aragorn was sighted once more.
His towering form overflew the burst-out roof of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor plant.
(I'll use this one because the old photos are not good.)
"Escape or suffer radiation poisoning."
He landed softly near the burning structure and used his telekinesis to still the winds, to reduce the affected area of the radioactive spread.
"Escape or suffer radiation poisoning."
He repeated this message for all to hear in hundreds of kilometers around the nuclear plant.
Because of his vested interest in humanity following a path of clean energy, he didn't want them to dread nuclear energy. Hence, he was personally making a move to reduce the impact of the disaster; not to completely take care of it, humanity learned better from its mistakes.
The amount of press the disaster summoned blew out of proportion, not because of the death toll, but because of Aragorn's presence and soon the world knew about it.
Thanks to this, there was no way for the Soviet Union to keep the state of secrecy as they wanted, and the evacuation procedures moved about accordingly.
The spread of radiation was contained, but for the same reason, the intensity of it was higher. So Aragorn had the Isthmus assist them in the building of the sarcophagus over the burst reactor.
After this, the Duskari graciously shared some of their best designs for nuclear reactors appropriate to the level of humanity's technological level, designs that they had stopped using tens of thousands of years ago. Even so, humanity was grateful.
Two years later, the Ravager came to kidnap Ego's offspring, Peter Quill. And only a year after that, a massive explosion of Tesseract energy registered in his senses before a Kree spaceship escaped the gravity well of Earth.
"So much alien activity recently," Aragorn commented. "Suddenly Earth became the hotspot for alien vacationing."
1993 came and in March, the World Wide Web became accessible to the public.
"Now this is humanity!" Aragorn cheered. Indeed, like any modern human, during his days alive, one of his basic physiological needs was access to the internet. Otherwise, what was he supposed to do when not occupied?
Then came 1995 and a mess outside the atmosphere caught his attention. Carol Danvers, or as she called herself now, Vers, had returned, and with her came the Kree.
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{A/N:
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