[Age Of Apocalypse] – The Start Of Something New

A few days later, in Cairo, Val, disguised as an official from the Egyptian Antiquities Organization, sauntered inside Apocalypse's tomb. He entered what he thought was the hallway of the ground floor. He looked around the place and noticed the hieroglyphics on the wall. He stopped and carefully read a part of the writing.

"The great Pharaoh, the first mutant, the first man to control the world, the Eternal One, the Eternal Pharaoh, Apocalypse, has risen. May the world tremble in fear at his feet, for his awakening is nigh. Soon, the new dawn will come, and the old will be swept away. He will rise again. He will be our new God. And, when he comes, we shall welcome him with open arms. Hail, the Lord and Savior, En Sabah Nur, Apocalypse."

Val stopped reading and cringed, muttering, "His followers were hardcore bootlickers and delusional like him. What a wonderful combination."

"And..," Val looked at the rest of the hieroglyphs and said, "Savior? I doubt it."

He turned around and continued walking down the hallway until he reached a stairway. He walked down the stairs and went underground, thinking, 'This is where I'll probably find what I seek.'

After walking through many staircases and hallways, he reached the lowest part of the pyramid and saw a wall that had a part of it blown apart... from the inside. He stepped through the broken wall and saw several S.H.I.E.L.D. and C.I.A. agents around Apocalypse's sarcophagus.

He quickly hid behind one of the pillars in the corner and blended in its shadow. He quietly observed the agents and thought, 'Hmm... some are trying to decipher the hieroglyphics on the walls, some are taking samples of what I believe is the Apocalypse's sarcophagus, and some are looking around for anything valuable. The rest are either patrolling the place or simply chatting with each other. I don't need to take them out to get what I need because... what I need is definitely NOT here. But...'

His eyes glowed golden, and he fell on the weird energy line emerging from Apocalypse's sarcophagus and escaping behind a wall, causing him to smile widely and think, 'I would find something here that would lead me to it.'

At the perfect moment, he ran, jumped out from the wall he came in, and followed the energy line while running around it. He twisted and turned a lot of hallways until he stopped in front of an inconspicuous wall. He put his hand forward and his hand phased through the wall.

Val excitedly thought, 'Yesss! This is it!'

He stepped through the whole wall until he reached the other side. He looked around and examined the surroundings. It was a normal room with several pieces of armor, gold, and jewels. There were a lot of statues of Apocalypse in the corners of the room.

'Hmm..' Val rubbed his chin and grinned as he thought, 'This is the treasure vault! Hehehe! I will wipe clean everything here, but that's not what I came here for.'

His eyes fell upon two glowing boxes placed on the topmost platform in the room and thought, 'This! This is what I came here for.'

He walked toward the boxes, one glowed purple while the other golden, and thought, 'So many years, so many times, I read about both of these things praised and hailed in the comics. Now... At last... I've got my hands on you, and I would see just how advanced the Celestial technology is.'

He opened the boxes, and the purple glow hit the left side of his face while the golden glow hit his right side. He exhaled a sigh filled with satisfaction and murmured, "Finally! The Celestial Seeds!"

He gazed at the seeds in the boxes and murmured, "I've got the Death Seed and the Life Seed. This... would be very helpful in the upcoming future."

His expression turned into disdain as he thought, 'No one has ever pushed these Seeds to the limits of what they could do. But I would. I've already done what nobody else did. I became the first Mutant-Inhuman hybrid. Now, it's time to try this. I don't care how long it takes, whether it takes 10 years or 100 years or even 1000 years, I WILL find out everything about these. I will be the first to decipher every secret the Celestials hide. I will learn everything. And, when I do... hehehe!'

He closed the boxes and looked around the room. His eyes fell upon one of the statues, and he fired a small energy orb at its face.

* BANG *

The orb exploded its face, causing it to break away from the wall connected to it, and began falling on the ground. However, Val slowed and stopped before gently placing it on the floor. He walked to the broken statue and used both of his hands to break the statue into two horizontally and hollowed it out.

'There!' Val thought and smiled as he looked around the room and used his powers to levitate everything that had the slightest bit of gold, diamonds, or any other expensive jewels on it and made it enter the hollow part of the statue. He did the same for the other statues and made everything in the room enter the hollow portions.

He wiped the room clean and glanced at the broken face of Apocalypse's statue, smirked and taunted, "Thank you for your generosity, O' Eternal One."

He carefully levitated the boxes containing the seeds and the statues, opened a huge hole in the ground, and entered it, followed by the statues. After the statues entered, the hole closed, leaving the room completely empty.

Meanwhile, inside the main chamber of the pyramid, S.H.I.E.L.D. and C.I.A. agents were working and trying to decipher the hieroglyphics on the sarcophagus. Suddenly, the earth started shaking, and everyone was on their toes, preparing for anything to happen.

The earth shook for a few seconds before stopping. After that, the agents sighed in relief.

"It's stopped." An agent said.

"Phew! That was a close one!" another one said.

"What could have been the reason for this? Another Starlance punch?" a third one asked.

"I don't know, maybe," an agent replied, "But let's get back to work. Director Carter has given us a tight schedule to complete."

"Yes, Sir!"

And they went back to work.

. . .

In a place beyond time and space,

Arishem The Judge stared at the scene of Val stealing the Celestial seeds with his gigantic eyes.

"He has found the seeds..." he murmured.

"Hmm... interesting."

Suddenly, the space before him twisted and turned until four beings emerged. They were none other than the creators of the seeds – The Celestial Gardeners.

One of them spoke up, "Arishem, what should we do? The Death Seed and the Life Seed have been taken. We must retrieve them before they are used against us."

Arishem stared at the beings, his eyes emotionless and void of any life.

"Let them go."

The Gardener, who was speaking, was surprised.

"W-What?!"

"Let them go," Arishem repeated himself.

"Why?!" the Gardener asked, "They are the seeds. Meant to enhance the evolution of a planet. Meant for the birth of other Celestials. Why should we let them go? They shouldn't be in the hands of others, and especially not HIM."

"Then," Arishem asked it, "What will you do? Fight him and risk awaken IT?"

"But, he-"

Arishem looked back at the scene and said, "He has IT'S mark. We know the events that would happen. We didn't create the timeline. IT did. We are powerless against IT. We can't stop IT."

"But," Arishem looked at the Celestial Gardeners and continued, "What we CAN do is make sure that he doesn't turn against us."

The Gardeners stared at him, and Arishem continued, "If we stop him, he will begin to hate us and do everything in his power to stop our plans. So, we must make sure that he is on our side."

The Celestial Gardeners nodded and said, "You are indeed correct."