The desert stretched out before En Sabah Nur, endless dunes shifting beneath the fading light of the sun. The oppressive heat of the day was beginning to wane, replaced by the creeping coolness of night. It was a time of quiet contemplation for the boy, who had long since grown used to the isolation that came with life in the desert. Alone, atop a dune, his eyes scanned the horizon, searching for something he could not yet name.
He often wandered alone, far from the Sandstormer tribe that had raised him. There was a restlessness in his soul, a yearning for something beyond the world he knew, something that could challenge him, test his growing strength. The boy, though still young, had come to understand his uniqueness—his skin, gray and marked with blue lines, was only the surface of the difference he felt within. There was power inside him, more than any mortal could comprehend, and it demanded to be awakened.
It was during one of these solitary wanderings that he saw it—a faint flicker of light far off in the distance, hovering at the edge of his vision. At first, he thought it was a mirage, a trick of the heat rising from the sands, but it persisted, shimmering with a strange intensity. En Sabah Nur narrowed his eyes, curiosity piqued. There was something unnatural about the light, something that called to him.
Without hesitation, he began his march toward the apparition. The wind kicked up as he descended the dune, whipping sand around him, but he paid it no mind. His stride was steady, determined, each step bringing him closer to the source of the strange glow.
As he approached, the figure became clearer. It was no mere mirage, but the outline of a man, bathed in a ghostly radiance. The figure was thin, frail even, sitting in what appeared to be a strange contraption of metal and wheels. The image was unlike anything En Sabah Nur had seen before—a vision of a man from a time and place far beyond the desert, far beyond his understanding.
The ghostly figure hovered just above the ground, its head slightly tilted, as though observing the boy's approach with a calm, detached curiosity. Despite the strangeness of the apparition, En Sabah Nur felt no fear. If anything, the sight of the figure stirred something deep within him—a sense that this was no mere accident, that he had been led here for a reason.
He stopped a few paces away, his eyes locked on the figure. The ghostly man remained still, his form shimmering like a reflection on water. His face was lined with age and wisdom, his eyes intense but kind. Though En Sabah Nur did not know who this man was, he could sense the intellect behind those eyes, the weight of knowledge that far surpassed anything he had ever encountered.
"Who are you?" En Sabah Nur's voice was steady, but there was a flicker of curiosity within it. He rarely spoke to others with anything resembling deference, but this figure—this being—seemed beyond the mundane concerns of the world.
The ghostly figure made no response, at least not in the way En Sabah Nur expected. Instead, there was a faint whisper in his mind, a voice that seemed to bypass words altogether, communicating in thoughts and images. "I am Steven Haking. A seeker of knowledge, once bound by time and space, now freed from the limitations of the body."
The name meant nothing to En Sabah Nur, but the tone of the voice resonated with him. There was a depth of understanding here, a connection to the universe that mirrored the boy's own desire for power and control. Steven Haking was not a warrior, not a conqueror of lands, but a conqueror of ideas, of the very fabric of existence.
En Sabah Nur took a step closer, his curiosity growing. "Why are you here?" he asked, though a part of him already knew the answer. There was no hostility in the apparition's presence, no threat. It was as if this ghost had appeared for him and him alone.
"I have seen the threads of the universe", the voice in his mind continued. "The laws that govern reality, the forces that bind matter and time. You, En Sabah Nur, are a being not bound by the same rules as others. You seek power, and I bring knowledge—the kind of knowledge that can reshape the stars themselves."
The words stirred something deep within the boy, a hunger for understanding that went beyond brute strength. Power, in its purest form, was more than physical—it was the ability to manipulate the very forces of existence, to bend the universe to one's will.
En Sabah Nur reached out his hand, fingers stretching toward the ghostly figure. The apparition of Steven Haking remained motionless, his form flickering slightly in the twilight, but there was no sense of resistance, no indication that the boy should stop.
And so, he didn't.
His hand passed through the figure, and in that instant, the world around him seemed to collapse. There was no pain, no physical sensation, but his mind was flooded with images, equations, concepts that he could not begin to comprehend. The stars themselves seemed to explode in his vision, galaxies spinning into being, collapsing into nothingness, all governed by rules that Steven Haking had spent his life studying and understanding.
The apparition dissolved, its light rushing into En Sabah Nur's body, fusing with his very soul. He gasped, falling to his knees in the sand as the knowledge and power surged through him. It was as if his mind had been split open, expanded beyond the confines of his body. He could see it all—the curvature of space-time, the forces that held the universe together, the potential for infinite creation and destruction.
He was not just a being of strength and might—he was now a being of intellect, of cosmic understanding. Steven Haking's essence had merged with his, not as a separate entity, but as a part of him, unlocking a new facet of his power. The boy could feel it, a new dimension to his abilities, the potential to manipulate reality itself, not through force alone, but through understanding.
The whispers of the cosmos quieted as En Sabah Nur rose to his feet, his breath steadying. He could still feel the presence of Steven Haking within him, not as a guiding force, but as a part of his very being. The scientist's knowledge had become his own, a tool to be wielded in his quest for dominance.
The desert around him seemed small now, insignificant in the grand scheme of the universe. En Sabah Nur, once a child of the Sandstormers, now stood as something more—a being of unparalleled strength, intellect, and potential. He had the power of the ancients within him, and now, the knowledge of the future as well.
He would no longer be bound by the limitations of the world he had known. The stars themselves were his to command.
For he was Apocalypse. And now, with the knowledge of Steven Haking within him, there was nothing he could not achieve.