The "G" Shield - By IdleMuse

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - All the owners have their respective rights. I only own the characters that came from my addled brain (don't worry, I am completely sober).

Kamar Taj [August 2015]

–Jack Sullivan.–

Welp, it was official. Strange was a prodigy, even greater than himself. The Eye of Agamotto did not respond to him at all. In fact, the sequence in the movies itself was a big fat lie. The number of spells that one has to cast at a dizzying speed, just to get past the authentication phase of the protections of the Eye was staggering, let alone casting the spell to open the Eye.

Then, while keeping that spell cast, one had to manipulate the Stone inside the Eye to get the various effects one could get by essentially toying with the Space Time continuum. Strange could do it with seeming ease but even that freak of a man had to cast some spells as practice to open the damned thing and then even more practice to actually use the energy for something useful.

Damn shame, he couldn't actually use it. Although it was nice enough that the Eye clicked on the pedestal and he felt the defences going back up, which were quite strong and had very strong energy from the Eye interwoven directly into the defenses so it would be safe to say that there were some nasty time spells and traps in the thing.

"Hey, Jack?" Tony's voice crackled to life in his comms. The team was still tracking down any anomalies around the world as well as around the two remaining sanctums so that he could come back and regroup at Kamar Taj.

"Yes? Anything?" He asked, ready to open a portal to either of the Sanctums' general locations. They could not afford yet another Sanctum falling down, that would bring them one step closer to literal doom.

He knew how Strange did the whole "Dormammu I'm here to bargain" thing but he didn't have the magical chops for that yet.

"No, nothing of the sort yet. I have Jarvis with two suits per Sanctum and also Captain and Widow at both locations just in case Jarvis' surveillance isn't compatible with your Voodoo magic," Tony snarked back, tension clear in his voice. Yeah, he did lay it on real thick about what could happen if the Sanctums fell and it was clear that Tony took it pretty hard, what with his PTSD already about the original Invasion even though Tony was not the one who had to deliver the tactical Nuclear payload, unlike the original one where he saw the Mothership and how many more Leviathans were headed their way, while making peace with the fact that he was dying alone.

"Then?" he asked, ready to read more about the spells required and try again with the Eye since it was pretty critical to winning this battle or would serve as a power boost for him even if Kaecilius was killed, in the middle of enacting his plan.

"This energy signature that you have given us, it is glitching Jarvis' systems so bad that I had to create another VI for it and it is telling me that I have a similar energy hit in China, some place called Hunan,"

Tony's answer stopped him right in his tracks, as he realised that Hunan was the same place as the demon but that demon was not like the typical Dark ones. No, that was more akin to a Hell Prince.

"Tony? Can you try again? Any chance that there was a glitch on your end?"

"Jack, my systems have been glitching nonstop ever since you had my sensors read that weird piece of book but no, I have triple checked everything with fresh systems, and the answer is the same. It is kinda far so I thought you could go check it out,"

He breathed out, snapping the book shut, "Yeah, I'll go."

With a wave of his hand, a portal opened in front of him, taking him straight into the village that had been slaughtered by a demon who had in turn been killed by him without much fuss.

As soon as he crossed the threshold, a foul smell assaulted his senses as he immediately used his barriers to filter out everything, falling back on the stored supply of pure oxygen he kept in the back of his barriers for emergency situations just like the one he was in now.

His eyes were wide as he reached the area where there was no such demonic stink left, when he had left this place. Just so that no demonic energy was left lingering in the area which could be harmful for anyone who would stumble on this place, he had spent extra time sealing the entire area, and that seal was now gone.

Not just gone, it was as if the demonic energy had quadrupled in volume with the Dark Energy of DOrmammu being the primary one here. That was not the case last time he was here.

"What a drag," he muttered as he went to work on getting this much Dark Energy contained. It was as if Dormammu sent some of his empowered ones, and actually descended in this place.

He froze mid way, his barrier still cast but not moving as his mind retraced his previous thought. What if Dormammu had used that leftover energy from the Demon, energy that was obviously useful since the Demon was using it, to cast some sort of ritual using Kaecilius?

That didn't explain many things but that was just yet another possibility he had to look into.

Working on getting this entire place sealed, he saw how large the energy spread was and said, "Fuck it!"

He waved his hand, casting a giant barrier than then turned into a dome above them, digging into the Earth and then below the land as well, forming a giant sphere, holding onto all the corrupted land, he even spotted a couple of corrupted rabbits, already in the process of mating, when he sliced them in two using his barriers, covered the entire landmass, and lifted.

That actually put a strain on his abilities as he lifted the entire landmass, and flew straight up. He did not have the means to open a portal large enough to fit this through, otherwise this would have gone straight into the Mirror Dimension where he would investigate it later on.

Right now, he was just getting it off the planet, and into space. With no other habitable planet, it was bound to not be his problem though he mentally vowed to come bacjk and properly dump it into the sun, just to avoid any future problems.

He was probably noticed because he had to contain three different missiles from the Chinese Military before Tony probably got in touch with them, stopping the volley of missiles though he knew that they were keeping a close watch on him, their finger hovering above the trigger button.

The Communist Party did not like him all that much, calling him the attack Dog of the West because of the Whole America centric theme of his superhero career.

He actually paused a moment at that thought. Huh, he always wondered in his previous life why the majority of the Superheroes lived in or around the United States of America, or at most, the Americas. For having just 4% of the world's population, the US sure did enjoy the protection of a lot of Superheroes. Then, the moment passed and with a somewhat exerting grunt, he threw the landmass out into space, where it would not land on the moon, defacing its surface even more.

"Alright, Tony that was taken care of."

"Uh-huh, I saw that. The Whole lifting the village thing. Might not wanna do it anymore, we don't have a lot of arable land in the world. If you start doing that regularly, everytime a problem pops up, we might just end up running out of food,"

And once again, there goes Tony with his exaggerations.

"Yeah, I'll keep that in mind,"

He had to keep looking for the attacker because right now they were in possession of some of the most dangerous knowledge in the Nine Realms and could cause a lot of damage, even if their magical abilities were not much to go by, judging by the complete lack of magical residue when they laid waste to parts of Kamar Taj.

Normal bombs were used to jostle around the Apprentices, along with the demon in China and the attack used on Mordo was a particularly peculiar thing on his mind.

(It was a matter of personal concern for him because he did not want to be the one who had to die an uncountable number of times before Dormammu was ready to bargain. He did not know if he could hold on for that long if the time came to it.

"Oh well, first learn how to open the damned Thing, Jack" he muttered to himself as he opened a portal and entered Kamar Taj, under the disapproving glare of Wong who was standing with his weapons ready, since he did enter the Library directly.

"Mater Sullivan, do I need to remind you that–"

He waved Wong off, not in the mood for his extreme rules, "Yeah yeah, I know Wong. Fine me once we are through this. Now, please excuse me while I familiarise with the Eye,"

Wong nodded, "Yes. That would be wise for now, instead of gallivanting across countries and launching small villages into space," With that backhanded comment, Wong stalked off, taking the catalogue of books which was latched onto his back, going back to his work.

_____xx____

Undisclosed Location

–Kaecilius–

"It is all as per your plan, My liege," He informed his Master of the foolish alien who thought himself above everyone and assumed to command him.

"Hmm. Soon, Earth will be mine," With that, his Master's voice faded away, letting light enter the room once again. They were in a secluded Motel Room with the owner's mind implanted with thoughts of going to his family and not leaving for a week, which should be more than enough time for him to prepare for his Master's arrival.

Standing up, he turned around, his face already set in stone, "Let's go. I am sure Jack is back by now. We can't let him hinder our work. The second they hit the first one, we will hit the second. I have long since wanted to spar with Drumm," he ordered the minions and got to work.

Apparently, the alien held tentacle powers and could eat brains to get information but it would seem that all that brain eating did not enhance his intelligence because the alien was not realising that HIVE was playing right into the hands of his Master.

HIVE was yet another pawn, if an unwitting one of his lords, sharing in the Immortality benefits along with the darkness powers. HIVE himself did not seem to be aware of it, allowing his lord to plan around him, getting them the maximum chance of success.

The creature itself made it easy because of his lust for magical knowledge, presumably in a bid to get stronger.

He sneered at that. Stu[id creature. Once they were all in their Lord's embrace, there would be no need to put anyone else down. They would all be immortal, unaging in their Lord's dimension.

A place untouched by time, the greatest enemy of all life.

Time.

His fists clenched as he thought of his family, the ones he lost to the rivers of time and could not be resurrected. He thought of the other family he made when he came to Kamar Taj and while a small part of him felt guilty over injuring them, he knew that once they were all in his Lord's embrace, he would be forgiven because then they would all be in Utopia.

His eyes then reddened in anger as he thought of the one person he trusted the most. The Ancient One, the supposed beacon of strength, virtue, wisdom, and sheer fucking power.

The one being who had betrayed all that Kamar Taj stood for, drawing–no stealing energy from his Lord while using her powers to push back his Lord himself.

No, she would pay and she would pay most spectacularly. While his Lord was confident in killing her once they all were in the Dark Dimension, he knee that he did not need that. He could kill the traitor in the physical world, once and for all.

He felt giddy at the thought of his Lord being pleased with his work and then giving him a reward in return. Maybe a chance to get back alternate versions of his family and kill his Variant in that timeline?

Oh, he couldn't wait!

---

Word Count - 2154

If you guys would like to support my writing or just want to read ahead of the public release, you can head on to my P*treon.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - All the owners have their respective rights. I only own the characters that came from my addled brain (don't worry, I am completely sober).

Kamar Taj [August 2015]

–Jack Sullivan.–

"Aha! Finally!" He shouted in jubilation as he was finally able to, after hours of continuous practice, open the Eye and cast just a single spell, the one spell that trumps them all.

The Time Loop spell. Good Lord was it hard, and even then, he hadn't even mastered the spell. That would have opened all of its functions but also taken a lot longer.

Theoretically, casting incomplete spells or even spells without learning all of its functions was dangerous but then again, letting Dormammu spill into their reality was even more dangerous.

Sighing, he put the Eye back on the pedestal. He did not have a death wish to try and take it out of the library. There were a mind boggling amount of spells cast onto the Pedestal that would no doubt do horrendous things to the person who tried to take the Eye out of the Library, not to mention being faced with the possibility of being hunted down by the Ancient One who, so far, had a 100% success rate.

After all, in their line of work, a single failure means death. Especially if you were the Sorcerer Supreme, your failure meant Kamar Taj's failure and Sorcerer Supremes don't back down from fights. Fight till death, taken literal form.

He went out of the Library and nodded at the restoration work going on. THis was not the first time that Kamar Taj was attacked and damaged, although he wagered that it happened for the first time in centuries since neon of the MASters had any idea how to go about the process without compromising the entire ward scheme.

Thankfully, the overarching Ward scheme of Kamar Taj was fine. Kaecilius did not have the authority or the power to destroy the ward completely. All he could do was temporarily disable it using his authority as a Master of the Mystic Arts. So, the Masters were now breaking down rubble and restoring the older buildings as much as they could while they awaited the return of the Ancient One.

"Jarvis? Any updates?"

There was a beat of silence before Jarvis replied into his comms as he waved down the Masters who were calling him and went into his chambers which were thankfully intact, "No, sir. There have been no confirmed sightings of any suspicious person as well as the perimeter around the Sanctums have not been breached by any energy signature. Also, the shifts have been rotated now,"

He nodded at that. Made sense because it had been over 8 hours since they began observing the Sanctums. The Sanctum Masters must be exhausted as well because they were all expecting an attack to occur at any time and they had to be awake for longer periods of time.

Still, they were trained for this so being awake for days at a time was not that hard. What was hard was the stress, the anticipation, the tension in their body as they waited for an attack, and he could understand that. There were spells to reduce the body's need for sleep but they always had a drawback, being that once the spell cleared off, they would crash much harder than necessary. He'd read reports of one such Master going into a coma because their brain couldn't handle such things.

While he himself had no such limitation, owing to his enhanced body, even he was starting to feel frustrated at the entire thing. At the Ancient ONe's absence, at Kaecilous' inaction, and his own inability to find out what the fuck happened in Kamar Taj while he was away. NO magical residue attacks meant that someone from the normal world might be involved, which would be disastrous, for all the wrong reasons.

He knew that magic as a whole would be outed to society at large, eventually but for that to be accepted properly, humanity as a whole also had to learn a lot of other bitter truths as well. As they were now, he might just have to start shutting down a whole lot of crusader type shit that sought to prosecute the magic users.

He nodded at the Masters and left Kamar Taj, arriving in the crater that was once the village where the majority of the active Inhumans on the planet lived. THis was basically their base. Jiaying's crusade was always going to end in tragedy, the only question was would it be her tragedy or the tragedy she was going to inflict on humanity. This….was not what he had in mind when he was going to stop her crusade or disarm the entire conflict.

He was either going to vote for reunification with the Attilan Inhumans, obviously after killing Maximus but not this. Devoured by a Demon for some ritual that ended up being used by Dormmamu?

He winced as his senses alerted him about the heavy presence in the surroundings. He was deep into the village and there we go, heavy lights flooded his side as the Chinese Authorities no doubt converged here.

"Halt!" He knew at least that one word for Mandarin and despite their wishes, he could not actually halt in this place. He had a lot of other places to be, he was just checking in on the barriers. Topping it up with another charge, he made sure that the barrier would last for days, hopefully enough time for the Dark Energy here to fully disperse.

With a boost from his barriers, he flew right into a portal that led him to Greenwich Village. He had not yet entered any of the Sanctums, mainly because the Wartime wards were active and he thought it prudent to maintain caution but the wartime wards weer extremely energy expensive and while they did have what was essentially unlimited energy in the form of dimensional energy, the wards needed a much more concentrated energy source.

The energy itself was almost limitless but they could not feed that energy directly into the wards. The storage mechanisms for that energy density were very few in number and the ones installed in the Sanctums were always going to be temporary ones, meant to stall any would be invaders long enough for the Sorcerer Supreme to arrive.

The ones in Kamar Taj were made of Uru, making them infinitely reusable. The ones in the other Sanctums? Not so much.

Sooner rather than later, they were going to have to drop the wartime wards and Kaecilius would no doubt be waiting for that, ready to destroy any Sanctum that did not have the presence of Jack.

He could have laid down a trap in the library before Kaecilius had all the knowledge he needed but now that he had no idea what exactly Kaecilius was after, he could do nothing but wait.

The Time Stone was one such thing but the protections on it made any move he could make useless.

He sighed and walked right up to the Sanctum, and knocked on the door, watching as that made a visible ripple of magic all around the Sanctum. IT also sampled a piece of his magic, which he let happen, and then watched as a voice came from the door.

"Master Sullivan."

"Master Drumm, I think it is time we drop the wards. Kamar Taj has regrouped."

"Has the Ancient One returned?"

He sighed at that, "No. We have not been able to contact her but I have no reason to worry. The Fae negotiations have always taken time."

There was silence on the other side before, with a resounding click, he watched as the visible protections faded away, revealing the brick wall of the Sanctum. At the same time, the door opened and Master Drumm, haggard and tired, stepped out, took a deep breath, and said, "I need a Bagel."

He grinned at that, "Spoken like a true New Yorker. I'll fill in for you," He said and entered the Sanctum.

"Be careful," Drumm said as he was metaphorically handed over temporary control over the wards by Drumm, in an instant. Damn, that was some good skill. Well, he had been Sanctum Mater for a long time now.

His subtle barrier that molded around Drumm drew his attention but he didn't react aside from a subtle nod as Drumm disappeared from his vision.

___xx__

Eastern Europe

–HIVE–

They were ready, he knew that and yet, for some reason, he was hesitating. The teams had been formed, and while he was saddened to know that none of the knowledge as well as the magical items from these two Sanctums would be available to him, he knew that he could not push further on that topic.

Two teams had been formed and they were already on their way to London and New York. According to Kaecilius, the Ancient One would remain busy until the last moment. That would give them more than enough time to blow up one Sanctum, with his team and then they would call on something more special to deal with the retribution that would undoubtedly be coming their way.

The knowledge in the books he had read so far gave him glimpses into the structure of the Sanctums and how they were operated. An invisible planetary shield capable of repelling enemies older than Earth itself. It was distressing, how much he was unaware about his future kingdom.

A part of him feared what would happen should all the Sanctums fall, which is why he would be going to the London Sanctum himself, to sabotage this mission. The New York Sanctum would fall, undoubtedly, there is nothing that can stop the Ghost, now that she has completed her Inhuman transformation.

Kaecilius will be overseeing the destruction of the London Sanctum as well so he should be able to stall Kaecilius long enough for the heroes to arrive. His lips curled in distaste at the necessity of the act but he knew that should the shield fall, beings much worse than him would try and capture his kingdom, something he could not allow.

"Sir?" He looked up as one of his minions entered his voice, a tablet in his hand. Now that he had a good enough number of minions from his own species, he had begun relegating the monkeys to lesser jobs like cleaning the bathrooms as such. He undoubtedly enjoyed putting the monkeys in their place.

"Yes?" he turned his attention back to the book, which was in his hand but he was not reading that at all. He was feeling a sense of unease about the whole thing and yet, after going through the entire plan with a comb, he could not find anything that might indicate that he was going to be in any danger.

"Sir, we have received confirmation from their side. They are about to engage this Ancient One who will be returning soon,"

"Hmm, leave."

He could feel him leave hastily. As soon as the door shut, he snapped the book shut and went to the window in his office, overlooking the training as well as the modifications being done to the base. Sure, the Elephantised Inhuman was grotesque and incomplete to look at but his strength was undeniable.

With two more of his brethren who were unable to become perfect like himself, they were well on their way to making his first lair, according to his wishes. It would be the start of many such lairs, spread across his Kingdom.

____xx___

–Kaecilius–

"She will return soon. At this location," He opened his eyes from his meditation as a message was received from his Liege. He bowed at the invisible air until the pressure from the area receded. They were in one of the many natural air chambers that had formed beneath the ocean. Detection at this depth was next to impossible using technology, like the one that Stark has, who is undoubtedly roped in to defend the Sanctums by Jack Sullivan.

And he has cloaked this cave, along with many others, to make sure that none of the Dark Energy scent leaves it. He had to be careful in storing some of the more volatile Dark Ones in one of these caves but it had been worthwhile to do that, to deal a surprise blow to the Ancient ONe.

"Inform the leech," he ordered as he stood up, making preparations for the battle.

For one, they had a pre chosen location for the Ancient One, to push her in that place so that they would have the home field advantage. His liege has given him the entrance to the Fae Palace so that he could prepare to ambush the Ancient One.

After a long last, he would be one step closer to Eternal Life, to immortality. All he had to do was kill a thief and a liar. He would have loved to have her loyal Masters in front of them when he exposed her hypocrisy but alas, that would mean Jack being there to support her and as powerful as he was, he was not confident in defeating that infernal man's barriers.

His liege would be the one to deal with that pesky insect once his liege descended on the world and made it timeless.

---

Word Count - 2238

If you guys would like to support my writing or just want to read ahead of the public release, you can head on to my P*treon.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - All the owners have their respective rights. I only own the characters that came from my addled brain (don't worry, I am completely sober).

The In Between dimension [August 2015]

–Ancient One.–

It was always cumbersome dealing with the Fae, in ways most frustrating because her advantages that allowed her to effectively single handedly defend Earth, were meaningless in front of the Fae.

Having overwhelming power in the universe meant almost nothing to the Fae who could casually set into motion a chain of events that would have even the strongest of beings in the universe dead. Only those outside the chains of fate could have a chance at defying the Fae and live to tell the tale. The ones that did live came out so broken that it would probably have been better to die.

In the entirety of Kamar Taj, only she was uniquely capable of handling the flowery language that belied the dangerousness of the conversation that the Fae used as their primary weapon. A single word misspoken, a single phrase misunderstood could mean the difference between heaven and hell when it came to the Fae and their regular treaty signings that she had to because having Fae come to Earth unrestricted was a nightmare.

Then there was the matter of the treaties. She was the signee from Earth's side and the Winter Court usually sent a different person every time, to try and confuse her, which would have been fine if not for a single detail. The timings of these treaty signing events.

They were, as far as her knowledge went, completely random, without any rhyme or reason, at least on their side of the universe. Who knows what went on in the minds of the Winter Court? After all, they were the ones to decide everything and while the Fae certainly did come with the sincerity to sign the treaty as written, it did not mean that they didn't take every opportunity they had to add something extra to the written treaties.

That was why she had to be the one to read it personally, go over it multiple times, and show it to the representative of the Winter Court, who then conveyed his thoughts back to the Winter Court, who then debated amongst themselves and gave the representative either an agreement or instructions for another round of negotiation, usually the latter.

All in all, it was a very tedious affair, one made even more inconvenient for her because it was conducted in a dimension that was halfway to the Winter Court and halfway to Earth, in dimensional terms. It made contacting Kamar Taj all but impossible, with the Sling Rings and the formation carved into the Shield building units of the Sanctum being the only thing that could reach her this far, allowing her to know the rough status of all the Masters in Kamar Taj and the status of the three Sanctum buildings, respectively.

She was also not given much time to prepare Kamar Taj for any invasions and usually, the Time Stone did warn her about an unavoidable event, even though it could not accurately map the Fae so she usually did give the Masters in Kamar Taj a little advance notice though this time, that was unnecessary because Jack was there. She was more than relieved that he was there because he was the strongest one in Kamar Taj, even more so than her who was only this powerful because she was borrowing the power of the Dark One, power that would also render her useless if Dormammu ever managed to make his way into the material universe.

Her eyes narrowed as she saw the representative of the Winter Court's hands almost twitch the second she thought of the Dark One's true name. A bad feeling appeared in her mind as she once again said Dormmamyu. There! Her eyes narrowed as she once again saw the same thing happening.

Sighing, she spoke up, "I suppose you are new, then?"

"What?" The Fae questioned her but she was all out of patience at this point. A quick check had her eyes widening as she saw one of the Sanctums destroyed with most of the Masters intact and alive. That second part was confusing but the first part was much more damning, she had to get to Earth soon.

"Nothing. Just this point will appeal to the Winter Court, I am quite sure," She said while casting any and all spells she could to communicate with Earth, knowing that most of them would be useless without summoning an exorbitant amount of power. Power that would be misconstrued as an act of aggression by the Fae, something that she would not stand for. It would just undo a lot of work and also put Earth in terrible danger, especially right at the edge of her leaving.

It would just be unfair for her successor to deal with such a huge mess right in the beginning of their tenure. She still didn't have any idea as to who her successor was actually going to be. It was clearer when Jack hadn't arrived in the universe but after he did so, it became so much more murky, the Time Stone didn't show her nearly as much of the future that it did before.

As her thoughts ran wild inside her mind, she didn;t break stride in her negotiations with the Fae, only this time, knowing that there was a threat to Kamar Taj back on Earth, she abandoned a few of her objectives and made sure that the Treaty was signed quickly, something that the representative did not seem to like, if his reactions were anything to go by.

Ofcourse, it was a Fae, so the reactions were not even visible to the untrained eye but she had dealt with Fae and more of their ilk far more times than they could have possibly imagined. With the aid of the Time Stone, she had spent countless years in countless timelines dealing with various Fae, resulting in multiple outcomes.

In body, she might be a thousand years old but in spirit? She was hundreds of thousands if not millions of years old if she counted the time she spent living multiple timelines before returning to the main timeline.

"Thank you for this," She said to the representative before flicking her fingers, sending a wave of orange energy that seemed to transcend space and time, arriving right in the middle of the Winter Court, for the Fae to read. She smiled coldly as the representative paled at her action, well as much as the Fae could lose color, anyway. That should be enough for the Fae in front of her to be dissipated and then dismissed. After all, interfering with the dealings of the Winter Court, especially with an outsider, was a much bigger crime than outright killing another Fae which brought with it the death penalty.

With the crimes committed, the representative would get something much worse than the death penalty, with the Winter Court using all their creativity and cruelty to deliver a truly gruesome fate on the Fae.

With a mocking salute, she pulled on her side of the contract, three pieces of paper appearing in the air before one of them flew to her. The second her hand made contact with the paper which was more akin to energy, the dimension began shattering, as she was being pulled back to Earth.

Securing the contract, she braced for the journey because the Fae always liked to leave her in a different place every time. Sometimes, it was a public washroom, sometimes it was on top of an active volcano and sometimes within as well, sometimes in the middle of a city, sometimes at the bottom of a lake or the ocean, she could never know.

She knew that they derived no small amount of joy from seeing her get inconvenienced, especially since she didn't allow them any room in matters that seemed to matter to them. Since it made them happy, she didn't fight it much because it was a trivial matter to protect herself, especially since the Fae promised to deliver her on Earth itself.

So, as she had already cast a solid barrier over herself, she found herself stumbling a bit as she landed on green grass. Stunned at the hospitality, she dispelled the barrier and found herself overlooking a cliff with the moon shining in the sky. She was about to open a portal when she realised that she didn't have her sling ring on her. Also, the Fae always insisted on her not having her dimensional storage spell on her during the negotiations so she did not have anywhere to put the papers as well, not that anything could happen to them. They were more than durable and also not really material to be harmed, but energy taking a physical form.

She sighed and was about to float up to get to the closest city when her eyes narrowed, her surroundings rippling for a moment before three individuals appeared in front of her, where there were none before.

Holding the treaty papers behind her, she projected an air of calm even as her senses told her of the dense barrier that now covered the entirety of the cliff, stinking of a familiar energy that did not bode well for her.

'So, this is it then.'

"Kaecilius." She greeted the one in the lead, sadness, and regret in her voice as she looked straight into his hood, wanting him to know that she knew who it was and why he did it. Kaecilius paused and removed his hood, revealing the scars that one got whenever they overdrive on the energy of the Dark One.

For someone as powerful as Kaecilius to draw that much energy meant that he had come awfully close to becoming the second strongest Dimensional Energy sorcerer on the planet.

"Ancient One." Kaecilius greeted back, his voice tinged with anger and bitterness. Though they were far past the point of talking it out now, she still tried.

"Why do this Kaecilius? You know how this all ends."

"It is far beyond words now, Ancient One. Your deceptions ran deep but I know the truth now. I know what I must do."

She sighed, put the folded treaty papers into her robe, as dimensional energy pumped through her body, multiple eldritch constructs already taking shape in front of her body, without even moving her hands an inch. That was the skill level she had already reached and yet, she knew that she was not coming from this alive.

Not with the way things were set up for her. She did not have her weapons with her, courtesy of the Fae, no way to use the Sling Ring. The barrier was built with Dark Energy, and more likely, Kaecilius had many of his acolytes burning their bodies powering the barrier, which meant it would be an uphill battle getting out of this space, especially with Kaecilius on her back.

She mentally noted the invisible space shards that Kaeciloius had taken as his weapons, with his much lesser skilled accomplices drawing on Dimensional Energy constructs before empowering them with energy from DOrmammu, toughening them and also giving them a poisoning attribute.

"Quite a show." She commented as she took a single step forward, the entire space around them rippling before a wave of dimensional fire sprouted from the hexagon in front of her, drowning the area in front of her with Hellfire.

Her hand snapped up as she caught a nearly invisible shard of space inches away from her eyes. Crushing it with her hand, she kept an eye on the area in front of her. It was still covered in fire but she knew that they would not die with just this spell.

She leaned to the side as another shard grazed her robe, her eyes making contact with Kaecilius's completely dark orbs as she closed her eyes, having no choice but to call on the energy from him. When she opened her eyes once more, her eyes were dark as well with a purple tattoo appearing on her forehead. Drawing on her energy, she created a shield and bashed it right against Kaecilius, the shard breaking upon contact and pushing Kaecilius dozens of feet back.

She waved her hands behind her negligently, dispelling the fire, revealing the forms of the two people mid lunge. Reality seemed to glitch before the acolytes folded in on themselves, as if struck by a massive force, launching them right back at the barrier, their forms unmoving with multiple bones sticking out of places.

All this time, her attention was on Kaecilius who was standing back up, his arm that she had shattered, snapping back into place as Dormammu's energy worked overtime in making sure that Kaecilius' body remained whole until his purpose was finished.

"You see, Kaecilius, I might be trapped here but please do remember who you are dealing with. I am not some Master who can be dealt with just some zealots jumped up on Dark Energy." She took a single step forward, space rippling around her feet before she appeared right in front of the motionless Kaecilius, her hand drawn back holding onto an eldritch construct of a fan, a passable imitation of her favourite weapon. Her first relic.

With the speed granted to her unaging body, she stuck with her fan, her fan sinking right into Kaecilius' chest before her eyes widened, jumping back as she felt a mass of Dark Energy erupting straight from Kaecilius.

Kaecilius moved like a man possessed as he crushed her fan construct before his body was covered in Dark Energy with just two red eyes staring her down. Her face grim, she called on more and more of Dimensional Energy, trying to prepare for whatever Kaecilius-no-Dormammu had in store for her.

Her way of using the Dark Energy differed from what Kaecilius had done to his soul. She only used it to prolong her lifespan and even that made her feel dirty all over. She didn't use it to do much beyond empowering her DImensional energy spells and constructs. She didn't hand over her soul to Dormammu who had apparently flooded Kaecilius with so much Dark Energy that the space around them was beginning to warp.

If it went on any further, she would not be able to control the space in a wide enough range to matter. It would be like walking in a witch's domain all over again. It would not be pretty but back then, she had energy to spare and also the Time Stone in her possession, pretty much guaranteeing her win.

Now? Now she had nothing and that?

That made her grin, finally something to excite, something that was new, something that she didn't know the conclusion to. A feeling long lost emerged in her chest, a warm feeling that made her focus razor sharp.

She smiled as sweat gathered on her brow, not from fear or from exertion but excitement.

If I have to go today, let it be with a boom, as the kids say

---

Word Count - 2542

If you guys would like to support my writing or just want to read ahead of the public release, you can head on to my P*treon.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - All the owners have their respective rights. I only own the characters that came from my addled brain (don't worry, I am completely sober).

The In Between dimension [August 2015]

–Ancient One–

Ducking under another invisible space shard, she thrust her palm forward, releasing a beam of light that stuck center mass at the amalgamation of Dark Energy that Kaecilius had become. The light oriented spell made a sizzling sound upon contact and yet, she didn't hear any sound of pain from the entity standing before her.

It hadn't even moved from its place, only attacking her with invisible shards of space or the occasional dark energy beams. That spell would have induced pain in the very soul of Kaecilius and the fact that nothing of the sort was happening meant that Kaecilius was long gone by now, whatever was left was a shell piloted by Dormammu's will, nothing more.

Dormamu was using Kaecilius' soul as an anchor to stay in this realm and to continue pumping more and more Dark Energy to create something that would overpower her, and from the looks of it, he was succeeding. She couldn't escape because DOrmammu was using the Bulk of his Dark Energy to maintain the barrier keeping her trapped.

Her attacks did little actual damage since any gap was just mended by Dark Energy instantly. The spell soon fizzled out, and she had to lash out with her fans to deflect a rain of spatial shards, her instincts, and Dark Energy senses being the only thing keeping her alive and not a human equivalent of Swiss Cheese.

Yet another volley of spatial shards, this time from underground, had her hopping, making generous use of Dimensional energy to boost her physical characteristics to dodge every single shard being thrown at her. She was trying her best here and yet, there were no signs of Jack or any other Master being here. Abruptly, she whirled around and thrust both her hands, wincing as they were both impaled by the two zealots that had since been healed or more like, taken over by Dormammu with their facial features twisted in pain.

Generating a shockwave, she jumped back to create distance but choked as she felt a shard puncture her lung. She reached towards her back and crushed the shard with her now ruined hand and dropped down on the ground. She looked up and Kaecilius or what was left of him was slowly floating towards her.

Coughing, she could feel her hold on her energy slip away and in the situation, she was left with no chance to do anything but wait for death. Igniting her soul to self destruct would have been an option had her soul not already been tainted. She coughed out even more blood as a shadow loomed over her.

She tried to mold Dimensional energy but it was pointless, the damage was too much. She could feel death approaching and for once in her long life? She was at peace. If she was going to die, she was going to die with dignity.

She opened her eyes, her blurry vision informing her about the massive hand that was raised by Kaecilius, Dormammu apparently choosing to end things in a grisly manner, and yet, despite the looming threat, she smiled.

She smiled as she saw something through the haziness of the barrier. With every ounce of will that she had cultivated for herself in her centuries of life, she molded Dimensional Energy for one last spell.

A spell that she would have cast with a snap of her fingers just a scant few hours ago but now needed all of her focus. She felt the impact as everything around her shuddered, the light in the distance growing as she closed her eyes and cast her final spell.

A small range displacement spell. She didn't cast it on herself, she was a lost cause now but on the treaty papers. She could not have the Fae get the opportunity to rampage on Earth, especially since they had been blocked for centuries.

Then, she felt something heavy hit her face before it all went…black.

____xx__

London Sanctum

–HIVE–

He arrived in the designated location, cloaked because of the powers of his minions. Truly, they were very useful in the current situation because he didn't have to deal with anyone truly powerful. Otherwise, they were useless. He needed more Royal Blooded Inhumans, to get truly powerful abilities, and yet frustratingly, his search yielded no fruit. It was as if they had all been killed off or more likely, had been hidden somewhere, and yet, he couldn't fathom where they could be hiding.

He had been on all the seven continents and yet, he had yet to even get a whiff of any truly strong Inhuman, save for Jack and even him he could not control because his powers registered Jack as an Inhuman but not a Royal blooded one, despite being this powerful.

"Inform me once they arrive." He ordered one of his minions before heading into another room, not too excited to sit around waiting for Kaecilius to arrive, especially since he was going to betray them. He entered the other room and sat down in the office chair, ready to continue reading his book when he felt something touching his feet.

His gaze instantly went down as he saw a ball of some sort, glowing a dark purple color resting against his feet. For some reason, all his mind could think of was touching that ball of dazzling purple. His hand was outstretched towards the ball as the book slipped from his lap. The second his fingers touched the ball…..

His chest thumped, his mind going blank as he found himself in a dark space, facing a giant?

"Hmm, truly, some monkeys are much better than other monkeys and yet, they all have one thing in common," Was all he heard before all he could see was a purple wave headed towards him before…..

____xx____

–HIVE [Repossessed]--

"Start the assault, use the bombs, make sure nothing remains of the place," he ordered the other monkeys using the subtle mental connection that he now empowered with all the monkeys this body had placed under its control, before giving them a boost of his power, further putting them under his control. When he saw them leave through the walls after he had boosted the power of one of the monkeys, he grinned.

Looking at the hands of this body, the amount of Dark Energy flowing through it without breaking apart like other fragile bodies, he grinned. It was as if this body was built for him. Accessing the monkey's memories told him as to why that was. That stone that was used to make him, the blue monkeys somehow got their hands on the core of one of his Dark Generals' cores, probably after some errant God destroyed it.

They used that core to make this body and as a result of that…. His hand waved through thin air as ripples in space appeared right after that. The amount of energy he could exert in this body was truly remarkable, especially since his newest toy was all but dead.

Oh well, at least he was going to take out the most irritating pest he had ever had the misfortune of meet–

He paused mid stride, as he felt something shatter the barrier he'd cast to kill the Ancient One, once and for all. No matter, he also felt the satisfying squelch of that monkey finally dying. He also felt the activation of the spatial magic, something he could have stopped had the body he was piloting been intact. His brows creased as he felt his connection to them wink out of existence as their bodies were…erased?

No matter, he took a single step forward and came face to face with the destroyed visage of the shield anchor. Now, all that was left was the last one, and had it been the pest from before, he would have taken the time to gloat more but for now, he was just excited to finally consume Earth and gain the One Magic. It would propel him to the top of the Lords of Chaos and he could not wait!

Sending away the monkeys, he appeared in the middle of the rubble, and with a twitch of his finger, the Sling Ring was torn apart from the corpse of the guardian of this anchor, with the monkey's finger still attached to it. As soon as he put it on his finger, he used his own energy as a substitute and in the next moment, he was in front of the Last Anchor of the planet.

Not in the mood for playing around with these monkeys, he punched out, releasing a wave of Dark energy that punched through the wards and created a hole in the anchor building. Another step had him right in the center of the anchor building, coincidentally right where the Guardian of this anchor building had collapsed.

"Now, what a coincidence," He grinned at the downed Guardian before he punched down, his hand going through bones and muscles alike as it connected with the anchor, releasing a wave of Dark Energy, erasing the guardian as well as the anchor all around him.

The next second, this body was flooded with even more Dark Energy as he floated mid air, Dark Energy cocooning all around him. Using this body as an Anchor, he cast a spell for his dimension to latch onto the anchor and bleed itself into this universe.

He grinned as the atmosphere all around them began fracturing, as his energy began penetrating this world, finally.

"HAHAHAHA!" He laughed as he floated mid air, not even paying any attention to the monkeys gathering around him, pointing their flimsy things at him. They were all going to be dead soon anyway. What was the point of talking to corpses?

He stopped mid laughter as he felt something impact him. He looked as he saw a bright blue blast impacting him. It barely registered and yet, his curiosity was peaked as he knew that this was not the same monkey who could have posed a problem to his plans, had he not found this perfect host body.

He saw a monkey, floating? In red armour, which was joined by other floating monkeys. This time, the blast was much bigger and yet, not that much powerful. Bored, he waved his hand, sending an omnidirectional wave of his energy, knocking the armoured monkey back.

His hands behind his back, he floated above the city, waiting for the strongest monkeys on the planet to come and try to stop him. He would love to see their futile struggles against him, their fear would be delectable.

___xx____

Previously

—Jack Sullivan—

"NOOO!" He screamed as he broke through the barrier, which actually required the usage of a controlled blast of the Power Stone before he blasted through the entire thing, arriving right at the big ball of Dark Energy. He felt something hit his barriers, something light but he ignored that as he drove his fist, glowing purple right through the body of the Beast and yet….

He averted his eyes as he was late, way too late. Waving his hand, he fought back the tears as an opaque barrier covered the…remains of the Ancient One.

He was about to open a portal to call in all the Masters before he felt something. Eyes widening, he created a barrier around himself, powered by the Power Stone, and closed his eyes, calling on his Astral Form.

"Ancient One!" He called out as he saw the leader of Kamar Taj in front of him, smiling softly at him.

"I am afraid I don't have long, Master Sullivan, so please, listen carefully." he choked back his words and just nodded.

"First, make sure that those treaty papers are logged properly in the Sanctum Room so that the Vishanti have a legitimate copy of it. They are very important."

He nodded slowly, his eyes widening a bit more as he saw her form becoming even more transparent, parts of her lower body flaking away, even in the Astral realm.

"Second, in my authority as the Sorcerer Supreme, I now appoint you as my successor. You are free to wield the Time Stone now," As she spoke, he felt something settle over him, like a weight, heavy but comfortable.

"That is the mantle of Kamar Taj, granted by Me and recognised by the Vishanti. Treat it with respect, don't just hand it over to anyone, it will revoke their access to the Eye."

He nodded once again, feeling the mantle on his neck. It was completely white and yet, he could see three different shades of white in it.

"Lastly, Dormammu is vastly more prepared this time. Make sure he is stopped. He was colluding with the Fae earlier, be careful."

"Don't worry, I will deal with him."

She smiled softly at him, only her torso left at this point, "I know you will, Sorcerer Supreme."

With those parting words, her form dissipated as he too returned to his body. Standing up, he looked at the slowly rising forms of the two zealots as his eyes burned with ferocity.

Calling upon the Power Stone, he let loose multiple streams of energy that burned through their bodies as well as the large mass of Dark Energy that had spilled over everywhere. After he was done sealing the Dark Energy infected landmass in the mirror dimension, he opened a portal and came to Kamar Taj and immediately felt the difference.

The wards, they latched on to him as soon as he arrived, giving him complete control over the wards of the place. He could place it wherever he wanted to, complete control over atmosphere and space as well as limited control over time in this space was granted to him as the bearer of the Mantle.

His mind was supplied with another piece of interesting information.

The Sling Ring network. The network of Sling Rings that allowed the Master of the network to track every single ring and every single ring usage. That came in handy as it told him the precise location of every single Sling Ring and ergo, every single Master of Kamar Taj on the planet.

Sighing once more, he ignored all the Masters and went straight to the Library. This time, he could feel the wards snap off as soon as they recognised his arrival. Taking hold of the Eye with both of his hands, he felt its weight as he placed it on his neck.

As soon as he did so, the weight became negligent and it felt like he was wearing nothing. Another flash in his mind had him grunting in pain as another packet of data was downloaded right into his mind.

"Right, that's how Strange knew every single spell of the Eye so well," He muttered as he felt the full breadth of the Eye's abilities become accessible to him. No wonder Strange had learned everything so quickly, he was probably already granted access to the mantle probably.

Now, his eyes glinting green, all that was left was for Dormammu's all zealots to be sent back to his realm. After all, if they wanted Immortality so much, they could enjoy Eternal Torment in the Dark Dimension for all he cared.

It was their choice to sell their soul to the Dark Lord and it would be his choice to send them to Dormammu.

That was his promise. He vowed as the substitute Sorcerer Supreme.

He was not going to stay in this position for long, no matter what Ancient Sorcerers or extra dimensional God like entities said about it.

---

Word Count - 2643

If you guys would like to support my writing or just want to read ahead of the public release, you can head on to my P*treon.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - All the owners have their respective rights. I only own the characters that came from my addled brain (don't worry, I am completely sober).

Kamar Taj [August 2015]

–Jack Sullivan–

"Wong, gather all the Masters. We have multiple issues to settle regarding my succession before we can–" he flinched as he felt a large part of the network that had just been handed over to him break apart. He closed his eyes, concentrating his senses on the mantle, trying to find out what had happened.

His eyes snapped open as he was fed an image of the situation, "London." Without another word, he disappeared from his place and appeared right outside Kamar Taj. With his control over the wards, this much was elementary stuff.

With his Sling Ring which was the Omega Ring now, he opened a portal to the New York Sanctum. He had to stop the Last Sanctum from being destroyed otherwi—

He flinched as he staggered back mid air, his barriers flickering a bit before they regained their solid appearance. Groaning, he twisted on the spot and reappeared in the compound of Kamar Taj, in front of a now frantic Wong.

He raised his hand, stopping Wong from informing him of something he already knew, "I know," he muttered while holding his head. The headache from the backlash was beyond anything he had ever felt, on top of the slight headache he already had due to the forced transfer of knowledge from the Eye of Agamotto.

Giving up standing upright, he sat down on the ground, his hands glowing with a slight green glow as he tried to get rid of his headache because in this state, even using his barriers beyond the single one covering his body was becoming hard. He almost moaned in relief as he felt a series of healing spells assault his body as he felt his mind becoming lighter than he had felt it in years.

Opening his eyes, he was greeted by 5 different Masters casting their respective healing spells on him. He spied the yellow variant of the Healing spells that dealt with the mind and the brain. Anything from fatigue to brain damage was covered by the yellow healing rays from the VIshanti. Normally a very demanding spell, he was about to see who had cast the spell on him when he felt another white hot spike of pain drive its way through his brain as the shield around the planet finally shattered, the final ward stone in Kamar Taj destroyed by the equivalent of a light flick by the Dark Lord, Dormammu.

"He's here," He muttered as he tried standing, the Eye shining in response as his mind continued to heal under the onslaught. Things like this made him wonder if the Ancient One actually liked him or not, giving him something that was more along the lines of crippling him rather than helping him deal with the imminent threat on their doorstep.

He felt the distant concern and inquiries of the Masters as he stood up unsteadily and began walking or rather staggering away, shaking his head to get his bearings right. He could not afford to half ass this fight and this stupid mantle that was just bombarding his mind with stuff he did not need to know was doing nothing but hinder him.

As if it heard his thoughts, the data stopped, the voices stopped, everything stopped, creating a whiplash once again as he fought through the Migraine and opened a portal, leading straight to New York.

With a thought, the Eye opened up, revealing the green glow of the Time Stone. He hesitated in doing the necessary and in that moment of hesitation, he felt the sting of the Dark Energy coming out of the portal, pooling into the wards of Kamar Taj before the energy was cleaned and dismissed by the wards of Kamar Taj, under his instructions.

With another flex of his will, he locked down Kamar Taj, only letting the Masters leave and turned on the wartime wards, protecting the apprentices. Nothing would be allowed to happen to them, they were the future of Kamar Taj, not him. He was just the substitute Sorcerer Supreme.

Knowing what was at stake, he flew straight into the portal and what greeted him was a scene straight from hell.

Jagged cracks in the sky itself, raining Dark energy into the planet's atmosphere. A dark congregation of clouds threatened to swallow the city itself, with its Dark Energy as he felt more than saw the concentration of energy on Earth. Growling, he made sure that he had both the Infinity Stones on his person before shooting straight up on a collision course with the mass of Dark Energy.

His barriers mid way were covered in a blueish green glow as he used his strongest barriers to just smite the avatar out of the sky, even though he knew that it would be futile to do so, especially with Dormammu's domain spreading out on the planet.

His form cut through the air as he broke the sound barrier. Just as he was about to come within punching distance, the figure snapped its gaze to him and then waved its arms, generating a tremendous amount of force that not just pushed him but buried him in the ground, cratering his surroundings.

He saw the panicking people and sighed, looking away with difficulty because he could not afford to get distracted by saving a couple of dozen people because doing so might result in the death of millions more. Shooting up in the air once more, he drew upon the energy of the Power Stone and punched with all his might, generating a stream of energy that impacted the mass centre mass.

He floated mid air, his heart sinking as he saw the negligible damage that was already healing that was caused by a fucking Infinity Stone. He held the Power Stone in his naked hands, creating a much more potent stream of energy into his body. With renewed strength, he punched once again, sending in even more energy and for a moment, it did work. He could see the hand of that alien tentacle body burning before the hand disappeared and he felt an impact on his back, sending him crashing into the ground once more. Pushing himself up with his hands, he looked up and saw the tentacle body looking down on him with disdain.

Growling, he ripped his hands from the earth, cratering his surroundings even more as he shot up, right into the stupid face of the tentacle, drawing a slight grunt before he was shot back down with an even greater face than before, only this time he managed to stabilise himself before he reached the ground.

This time, he shot back with even greater force, punching the open palm of the tentacle monster, parting the clouds around them. He looked right into the eyes of the monster, realising that this was Dormammu himself he was talking to. It would be impossible to defeat Dormammu, he realised just as Strange probably did in the canon timeline.

Headbutting the tentacle monster, he flipped and kicked the body with all his might, pushing the body out of his way, as he shot up, further up, right into the congregation of Dark that was swallowing the sky above New York.

His goal was clear, to enter the Dark Dimension and force the Dark Lord into a time loop, he found himself within finger's reach of his goal before his body was forcibly pulled down with a force so overwhelming that had it not been for his upgrade barriers, he would have found his body being torn apart.

With a grunt, he pushed himself up from the hole he was in and looked back, only to see a large tunnel with light at its end. Growling at his own failure, he reached deep within for more and more power, holding on to the Power Stone for more energy to be supplied to everything, to make sure that this time, he reached his destination. The earth around him trembled as he drew on all that power, concentrated it on his hands and legs, and jumped.

"AAAA~!" He then punched the stupid tentacle face with all his might, generating an impact so large that he saw multiple skyscrapers simply get cleaved in half because of the mere shockwave from his punch. The resulting impact pushed him back a bit but the tentacle face was another story entirely. That monster was gone as he rushed to enter the Dark Dimension, only to find himself face to face with the tentacle face once again, its face revealing multiple Dark tentacles that covered over half of its face.

With yet another impact, he was sent into the ground. Groaning in frustration, he ran his mind thinking of any other way he could get past the tentacle thing, and found himself coming up empty. The surrounding space was not conducive for Sling Rings anymore and he did not know any true high class spells other than the ones the Eye gave him and all of those were time related.

He did not want Dormammu to know anything about the time loop spells because he didn't know what counter an Ancient Monster could create for a time loop, enforced by the Time Stone itself. He just couldn't take the chances, especially with what his luck has been for the past few years.

So, there he was, stuck getting past the tentacle monster, in its own domain which seemed impossible until…..

His eyes widened as he felt something surge past his vision before a wave of red suffused the very air he was floating in. He saw the tentacle monster looking around in confusion but he knew very well what the red energy was.

"Go, I have nullified his reality manipulation for now but he can break at any moment," The ghostly voice of Wanda reached his ears as he could hear her straining, even over a distance. He saw the Tentacle monster covered in threads of red that came out of the red cloud of energy.

Grinning at the unexpected support, he gathered all his power and launched himself up, right into the Dark Cloud that served as an entrance to the Dark Realm. Looking at his arm, he selected the option for the Time Loop, with his death as the reactivation button.

"Good Luck," For some reason, he could feel the pity coming from the Scarlet Witch as he felt her words as well as the red energy in the air dissipate as Dark Purple once again took its place. He closed his eyes in mourning, somehow knowing that whatever Wanda had done, it was going to end up taking her life as well.

When his eyes snapped open, they were glowing green and purple as both the Infinity Stones were now active on his person, ready to be used at a moment's notice.

Within moments, he was now floating deep into the Dark Dimension, his form sparking with purple as he let the Power Stone rampage throughout his body, drawing in more and more power in exchange, far beyond what he could draw in safely. He was going to need it for the upcoming fight, even though he knew that no matter what he did, it was going to fall short in front of the monster in front of him.

Soon enough, he found himself facing the Lord of Darkness himself, Dormammu.

"Dormammu! I've come to bargain!" He grinned at that, he did always want to say that, even though the circumstances could have been much better. He only saw the face move before he found himself under immense pressure before his barriers popped, including his body. The last moment he felt was his brain being split before his awareness returned, his body returning to peak condition with both the Infinity Stones as well as his memory intact.

He smiled, almost laughing out loud, "Hahaha! I did it!"

He then looked at the stupidly large face of Dormammu before he drew his fist back, gathering all the rampaging Power Stone energy before punching forward. Unfortunately, he met his end before he could connect the Punch or send the energy stream.

"You have come to your death!"

"Yo Doormat, I've come to kick your—" Death by pressure.

"You have come to your death!"

"Yo Doormat, I've come to kick yo—" Death by pressure.

"Wh-What is this?"

"Yo Doormat, I've come to kick—" Death by pressure.

"Cease this!"

"Yo Doormat, I've come to—" Death by heat. That was new. Also…unpleasant.

"Yo Doormat, I've come—" Death by heat.

"Yo Doormat, I've come—" Death by heat.

"I demand you release me!"

"Yo Doormat, I've—" Death by Cold. New and also way more unpleasant as he could feel his skin slide off his body at the slightest of movement as if he was not a well put together human but a series of meat slides that were sliding off at the slightest of movements.

"I've come to –" This time, his mouth was shut by an outside force but without killing him outright. That was new and also interesting.

"You know you can't win this way, human! Cease this! Release me from this!"

"Aww, is Doormatty upset? Now, come on, be a good kid and–" Death by Laser. Purple Laser. At Least there was not much pain this time so that was good.

"*Kissy sounds* Come on! Come on, who is a good Dark Lord? Who is? You are! Yes, you are! Yes—" Death by pillar crushing. Huh, it was odd, feeling one's own neck snapping with full awareness. Full death took a few seconds after total spinal crushing.

Huh, you learn something new about yourself after every death reset. Great!

"Co–" Death by heat.

"Co–" Death by heat.

"Co–" Death by heat.

"Co–" Death by heat.

"Co–" Death by heat.

"Co–" Death by heat. X 69

It was only after a disturbing amount of deaths that he figured out that Dormammu had placed an always active volcano right beneath his spawning point. It was trivial to get out of that place. The next time he spawned, he just…died.

Yup, it took a couple dozen more tries but he had all the time to die in this world.

With a burst of energy, he managed to boost himself to the other side, stopping his death for that particular reason for the time being.

"Hmm?" Feeling something odd, he looked down at his right hand, the one that held the Power Stone, and was surprised to find the Stone itself now embedded in the palm of his hand, glowing purple veins spread across the stone, going into his body from there.

"Huh, neat!" Were the last words he spoke before another laser impacted his unsuspecting body.

---

Word Count - 2490

If you guys would like to support my writing - P*treon.

 

[Shafik javason]

That's what he gets for fighting like a babarian instead of fighting like a real wizard

 

[IdleMuse0307]

A/N - A little warning. I did go a little overboard with writing what could realistically happen to someone in Jack's position here. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!




Disclaimer - All the owners have their respective rights. I only own the characters that came from my addled brain (don't worry, I am completely sober).

Dark Dimension [A̴̢̛̦̣͙̟̥͍̦̬̞͈̤̞͒̈͂̂̑̔́̋́̀̀̈́̈́̿̑̚͜͝͠͠ù̵̪̣̳̤̒́̓ǵ̶̡̛̻̙̬̖͚̰̬̬̫̖͎̬̪̎̂̌̊̒͋͘͘u̷̢̢̢͓̘̘͈̥̘͖̣͇̩̩̣̱̭͖̰̣̤̳͛̌̍̍̈́͛̀́͜ͅs̶̛̯̳̬̀͌͆̐̿͊̾̔͛̎̌̈́̀̓̅̎́͝͝͝ţ̶̨̢͍͙̭̜͖͚̤͚͙͕̗͎͙̳͇̘̭̱̫͈̥̍ ̴̛̰̣͇̩̯͓̩͓͇̌̓̀̋̇͂̕͜͝2̶̢̛̥̭͎̲̱̼̳͋0̸͈͚̺̤͑̈̔͂͜1̷̢̱̤̻̝̘͍̲̫̥͖̗̫̙͔̣̱̰͉͈̤͇͙̂̏̍͊̍̅̚̚̚ͅ5̵̡̨̡̬̳̗̙͍͉̭̼̯̪̭̟̺̜̐͆̅̉̈́̄̓̒̄̽̆̍̃̍͗̈́͊̅́̈̕̕͜͝]

–Jack Sullivan–

"Hmm?" Feeling something odd, he looked down at his right hand, the one that held the Power Stone, and was surprised to find the Stone itself now embedded in the palm of his hand, glowing purple veins spread across the stone, going into his body from there.

"Huh, neat!" Were the last words he spoke before another laser impacted his unsuspecting body.

The next time he came back to life, he used the Power Stone embedded hand and thrust it in the direction where he knew the laser would come. The outcome was…..unsatisfactory, he thought to himself as he felt his body burst into pieces as a shockwave came from below.

For some reason, his barriers were not really cooperating with him today. It didn't help that due to holding on to two pieces of the Big Bang which disrupted his control over every other damn thing, including his barriers, it would seem.

He had never—DEATH—--tried holding onto two different Infinity—-DEATH—-stones before, that too without using an Infinity Gauntlet. IT was already a wonder that—-DEATH—-that he was able to hold onto both artifacts without dying though—DEATH—-the Time Stone was in the Eye which should be containing the Infinity-ness of the infinity Stone pretty much so why was—-DEATH—was he not gaining control over the power that had been with—-DEATH—-him the most?

"AAAAAAA!" He then heard a distant roar before the sound of something hitting the ground at high speeds entered his ears. Of course, he completely ignored that as he was thinking about something really important.

His hand on his chin, he failed to react when a twisted skewer of some sort burst right through his body, puncturing basically everything. Snarling, since he was not dead and everything hurt like a bitch, he grabbed the tentacle with his Power Hand (Yes, he was going to call it that, even though it would have been pretty cringe had he been in the right state of mind) and let loose the power, screaming in pain as the volatile energy vaporised the tentacle but some part of the tentacle was in his body as well, vaporising what was left of his organs as well.

Spitting out blood and his tongue apparently, he smiled bloodily at the hordes of animals that were watching him with their master absent, growling and licking their lips with their hideously long tongues that might as well be tentacles. He laughed, coughed, and laughed as he raised his POWER HAND with difficulty and blasted himself on the head with it, erasing himself.

He came to consciousness in the same spot, breathing heavily as he saw many of those hordes charge at him. With blurry eyes and a sweaty face, he raised his POWER HAND and punched the ground with it, hoping to create a giant shockwave that would take care of his enemies for him. The next thing he knew, the wave was omnidirectional and he got hit with a face full of Purple.

With yet another deep breath, he found himself in front of a noticeably thinned out crowd of Dark Ones, with most of them being very far away from him. That was the second time he had killed himself but the first one was intentional and he knew that his mental state was not that great at the moment but that one single moment, that decision was going to haunt him for—

"Hey! Look, a puppy!" He exclaimed, kneeling down as a small ugly as shit slimy but still puppy approached him with its wittle legs and wittle tail. He gently scooped it up, being careful not to use the POWER HAND to touch the little thing or he might end up killing the cute thing.

"Oh, you're such a cute baby! Yes, you are! How did you get here, little guy? Did your daddy abandon you? Did daddy Doormat aban–" DEATH

All he saw was something dark headed right for his face before his vision darkened, clearing a bit as he saw himself right next to the little puppy of DEATH!

"Ah!" He yelped as he jumped back and thrust his POWER HAND forward, releasing a stream of energy that burned the little puppy. It was not good to look at, especially with the haunting sounds of dogs being burned alive, which honestly traumatised him more than killing himself.

He turned around, only to find himself in a crater with a shit ton of puppies standing on the edge of the crater, looking straight at him. He deadpanned at the shit as all the puppies opened their mouths and threw their tongues out, their tongues rolling out comically large before they rolled it back inside. Honestly, it made him puke his guts out.

Then again, this was the Dark Dimension so why did he expect anything else, as he saw a large tentacle entering his chest and another coming out of his chest, even as vomit and blood continued to escape his lips.

Then as he felt an impact on his head, he died.

"AHHH!" For impact, he came out screaming from the other side, already powering up the POWER HAND before punching it right down, generating a wave that spread outwards from him, without harming him this time. Dying once like that was enough. The wave thing worked because he stopped hearing the little yips of demon puppies after that.

"Not Cool, Doormatty, not cool. Using Man's best friend like that."

He looked all around him as the landscape became void of any moving thing, with only the moving purple lights and all the little moving landmasses being the only thing in his vision. He sighed and collapsed on the ground, shuddering and frothing at the mouth as the second he relaxed a little, the weight of all that had happened until now came crashing onto him, his mind, and his body.

His body was wracked with shudders and phantom pains as he felt his body being destroyed in increasingly creative ways over and over again as his mind continued to be its own worst enemy, filling it with thoughts of him never being good enough. Of not being able to stop Dormammu, of losing his own will, and dispelling the Time Loop.

Of destroying that very feature from the Eye using his authority just in case he stopped resisting and gave in. The shame of destroying something priceless because he wasn't strong enough.

All of this kicked in all at once as he blacked out, the Stones still in his possession.

____xx____

New York

–Wanda Maximoff–

Her entire vision was filled with red, her Chaos Magic, the one she had unleashed without any hesitation because her magic itself had told her what her destiny would be. Despite CHthon's interference, her own Chaos Magic was her own, and it told her, in no uncertain terms that her time, on Earth had come to an end, and if she wished to let her bother live in peace, she had to go somewhere and do something that would destroy her, mind, body and soul completely.

So, she had answered the summons that came from her powers and ended up being in Manhattan a week before this whole fiasco. Her powers led her to a cheap motel on the outskirts where she spent an entire week, all by herself, ordering in and meditating, getting her mind ready to make the ultimate sacrifice.

'Who would've thought, Wanda Maximoff, Scarlet Witch, someone prophesied to either destroy or rule a multiverse, would destroy herself over love.'

Guess that was something that Chthon never understood. The concept of love. It was kind of poetic in a way. Dormammu, another being on par with Chthon when it came to evil, bypassed and almost defeated by someone doing everything they could for love.

"Huh, Ironic," She muttered as she floated mid air, keeping that nasty darkness body restrained using her magic. Doormmamu's domain was spilling over in this reality, giving him untold amounts of power, just like the one he was using to destroy her Chaos threads one by one, and yet, she built threads as he destroyed them with seeming ease. Only it wasn't with ease, it was only by burning her essence, that she could make so many of them.

Then again, she was going to die anyway, so why would she be worried about magical consumption? Her soul was scheduled for condemnation so why not go out with a bang, doing something that is unequivocally good?

Within her senses, she could sense someone, injured and trapped under all that rubble. Her left hand shot out, sending waves of Chaos Magic that lifted the rubble and covered itself around the–

Tony? The man was unmistakable Tony Stark as she pulled his body out of the rubble, with his Suit flickering in and out. She hissed as she realised that Tony's legs had been severed clean with Dormammu's attack and the magical energy was eating the rest of his body.

Her mind flashed with the memories of the worst day of her life, the day she lost her parents, her innocence, and herself, all in one day. The day Stark Industries' missiles invaded her home and stayed there all day, keeping her on edge.

And yet, the vision went as it came, in an instant. Her hands curled as she drew in all the Dark energy from Tony's body and then healed the damage done by the Dark Energy and cauterising the wounds. She made sure that Tony was alive before flinging him in the direction of the bots she could see that were headed her way. She knew that TOY would be alright sans his legs because her Magic told her so.

Free of any distractions, she drew on all her power and trapped the Darkness body which was somehow the perfect avatar for Dormammu, just like she was for Chthon, she buried him in Chaos threads, strong enough to resist even his magic. The main threat averted for the moment, she looked up, at the congregation of dark clouds that threatened to take over Manhattan's sky.

The clouds would float forward, drawing even more jagged lines in reality before rolling back, shuddering as they did so. Then, they would gain more ground and roll back. The cycle went on and on as she worked on keeping the main threat to the city contained. Dormammu didn;t have any more zealots worth mentioning, they were all dead.

All she had to do was keep that body sealed long enough for Jack Sullivan to do his job and banish Dormammu from this realm. How was he going to accomplish such a monumental task? She did not know but she knew that whatever he was doing, it was working, at least temporarily.

The clouds continued to shudder, with them generating a varying flow of Dark Energy into the darkness body that helped her manage the threads. She used some of the spare essence to create a giant cage all around them so that Earth's atmosphere would not get corroded by their energy because she knew that if any living being managed to get into contact with Dark Energy for prolonged periods of time, they would eventually end up mutating and becoming the Dark ones.

She did not have the patience and wish to deal with that. She sensed the arrival of the Avengers as well as her brother but she did not turn around, even as she felt thunderous impacts on the cage she had constructed around her. She knew that if she turned around, she would find herself face to face with Pietro and she would not be able to hold on.

No, it was better this way. She couldn't even wipe her tears because the strain of holding on caused her to cough blood. Even through that, she held on and smiled because she could tell something was up, something was coming and it was coming for her.

Hopefully, Pietro will be fine and Jack will know her involvement in this, adding another layer of protection for her brother.

____xx___

Dark Dimension

–Jack Sullivan–

His eyes snapped open, gasping deeply and he sat upright, spitting out whatever had stuck in his mouth. He almost lost his breakfast entirely when he saw spit mixed with dark insects wiggling around. He looked down and to his horror, his entire body was burrowed into by insects too many and too disgusting to count or look at.

Screaming, he thrust his POWER HAND right into his chest, vaporising himself. He landed on the ground, looking around as he saw yet another crater filled with purple energy but also devoid of any insects, so he considered that a win.

Kneeling on the ground, tears freely flowed through his eyes as he thought of his fate, of what he had already endured and what more was coming for him.

And in that moment, the stress of it all, of everything, of making this decision because there was no one else who could do so, the fear that he might have to do this for eternity until he became a mindless husk, the fear of giving in somehow and letting Dormammu win, the fear of letting himself down, the fear of losing Earth and condemning billions of people to fates worse than death, coupled with the physical pain of being in this godforsaken place, it all caught up to him.

And in that moment of extreme stress, his mind cracked.

"AAAAAAA!" Screaming himself hoarse, his mind and body lit up with Power as he drew on his barriers, as well as the energy from the Power Stone, destroying the landmass he was stranded on, and vaporising a large chunk of the Dark Ones in the vicinity as well, drawing the attention of the Dark lord Dormammu who was busy detailing with his perfect avatar being captured and drained by Chthon's chosen.

Ofcourse, he noticed none of that, at that moment because he was too busy going insane.

---

Word Count - 2372

If you guys would like to support my writing - P*treon.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - All the owners have their respective rights. I only own the characters that came from my addled brain (don't worry, I am completely sober).

Dark Dimension [An eternity later]

–Jack Sullivan–

"*Nom* *Nom* This is nice." He said to himself, chewing on a leg that was longer than his body, after roasting it with the Power Stone obviously. Killing himself because he could feel himself slowly dying after being poisoned due to eating the raw meat of the Dark Ones was more than enough.

While the flavour was worse than when he ate the meat raw, at least it was not fatal to him, not immediately at least. He could still move about with ease but aside from being gamey and flavourless, it was perfectly fine.

"Ah, if only Doormatty would show himself," He said to himself as he happily chewed on the leg of the Dark one who he had killed while making sure to keep the Leg intact. He'd eaten a lot of the Dark ones by now but most of them had little to no meat on their bodies, with their bodies actually being hollow for some reason.

That was why he began targeting the bigger ones, who at least had a little meat on their legs. That is why while the leg was very long, it had very little meat in comparison. But that was enough for him to sate his hunger for the time being, allowing him to move about in the endless Dark Dimension.

When he set the Reset for the time loop being his death, he had never thought that Dormammu would simply abandon the quest of breaking out, instead choosing to ignore him and hide somewhere. Though, hide would be a strong word since Dormammu was most likely chilling or brooding in some deep dark corner of the Dark Dimension, forever out of his reach.

"Yeah, Run and Hide, ~Doormatty~~" He couldn't help but sing as he walked on the broken land masses scattered around him.

"Pew!" He mimicked a finger gun at the incoming horde of Dark Ones which actually let out a concentrated stream of energy of the Power Stone emerging from his index finger, carving a straight line through the horde, wiping out thousands and yet, the rest of the horde carried on, uncaring of the fate of their brethren.

"Cool!" He fell into a fit of giggles as the horde of Dark Ones rampaged on their way to him, their charge creating vibrations that he felt through his barriers. Oh yeah, he had his barriers back now. It was easy, he only had to die a couple dozen times before he combined his super duper ability with the super duper Stone.

"Eww! Gross!" He yelled out, laughing as the nearest Dark Ones spit out some sort of acid on him, and then dogpilled him as well.

"Get off of me!" He shouted, releasing a concentrated blast of energy from his barriers, vaporising everything in sight. The aftermath left him unconscious, albeit with a barrier made up of the Power Stone energy all around him, protecting him from everything in sight.

"Aaaa!" With a shout, he woke up, unconsciously blasting everything around him as he felt something poke him. He took in deep breaths, seeing the utter darkness out of his barriers that now glowed purple for some reason. He felt his mind fall into complete chaos as random thoughts and feelings assaulted his mind, forcing him to dive into his mind to do a check.

He closed his eyes and tried to concentrate, which was not easy, not easy at all. After what felt like hours, he finally managed to enter his painstakingly crafted mindscape and found….

His eyes widened in horror as he saw the state of his mind. It was broken. Nothing was right, there were no shields left anymore, no safe place for his greatest secrets, nothing to manage his memories, nothing to separate his logic centres from his powers, nothing at all.

"Shit!" He emptied his stomach as he saw the many deaths he had suffered in this world. The gruesome deaths were all visible to him now. He remembered then, the pain and the suffering, the despair and due to some miracle, managed to hold on this time.

He was about to do something about his mindscape since he did have all the time in the world when he felt his body erupt in pain, yanking him out of his mind. When he opened his eyes once more, he was in a crater, naked and right below the giant floating head that was Doormatty.

"Hmm? Doormatty?" he asked himself in confusion.

"Had your fill of deaths, insect?"

He grinned, trying to hide his overwhelming fear, through the piss and the trembling body should clue in on how he was really feeling, "Me? Nah. I can do this all day, Doormatty."

Doormatty growled and before he could do anything else, he saw a giant beam of laser headed his way. Out of instinct, he raised his hand, creating a purple barrier as his right hand shone purple, which somehow managed to resist the laser though it did push him back.

The throbbing in his hand increased as the barrier's shape changed, turning from a shield into a pointed cannon, which was absorbing the energy from the laser. Running purely on instinct, he did something that flipped the switch on the stone in his hand, blasting off another energy beam of his own, which began steadily gaining ground in the beam tug of war game that he was playing with the Dark Lord Dormammu.

Or rather, Doormatty. For some reason, he had a pretty strong compulsion to use that name and that name only when addressing Doormatty. Something to do with his previous personalities, he thought to himself as he pushed back on the energy beam. He couldn't even see the giant fuck off face of Doormatty as he focused on pushing as much energy as he could throw the beam.

Slowly, the consequences of channelling that much energy became evident to him. His hand began burning with veins of purple coursing through his body. The next the smell of burnt meat entered his noise as he felt his entire burn burn off. Then, to his horror, his skin began melting off as his hand was now covered completely in a purple glow, even as he saw everything stripped away to the bone.

His concentration diverted, he failed to react when a tentacle of some sort burst through his chest and then spiked through his chest, tearing apart his torso in the process. His cannon burst apart, subjecting him to the full brunt of the energy beam.

The next time his eyes opened, he opened them to a hand glowing with Purple energy, an entire arm burning on Purple fire, which strangely didn't hurt him somehow.

"Huh? Neat." he then began looking around for Doormatty but he didn't find any. Pouting, he blasted off the rock and began his search for either Doormatty or the Dark Ones. From the memories that had not been suppressed by his brain for being too horrible or traumatising, he could remember the consequences of being alone for extended periods of time.

Self-harm? Not fun or cool, at least in hindsight that is. He still had phantom pains from that particular life before it was all, thankfully reset by another horde of the Dark Ones arriving.

He heard a sound and before he knew it, his form was shrouded in green, an entire avatar forming around him, except… "That's new!" He commented as he found his right arm glowing completely purple with a purple fire lit up on it, the same for the avatar as well.

He was about to unleash another wave of Infinity Stone energy when he saw who it was.

Not dispelling his avatar, he merely shrunk it as he came face to face with…

"Doormatty?"

The only response he received was a frustrated sigh that shook the entire dimension he was in.

"Mortal, I will say this once and only once. I have come to bargain."

"BWAHAHAHAHA!" He couldn't help it. The second he heard that coming from Doomatty's mouth, he displayed his avatar and began rolling on the ground in laughter. After having his fill, during which he dodged multiple tentacles, skewers, and lasers, he stood up and wiped his tears.

"I'm sorry for that. You were saying?"

".....In exchange for ending this time loop, I will leave Earth alone as long as you remain alive and well."

He instantly shook his head in denial, "Nope. too Open ended and also way too short. I want you to promise to never look Earth's way again and also to take back all the zealots or avatars you have on the planet."

Doormatty contemplated that before countering, "I will leave Earth alone but taking back all the agents I have? Impossible."

He shrugged at that, "Well, then we have no deal then, Doormatty."

DEATH!

When he came to be, it was in the middle of innumerable hordes of Dark Ones above a volcano of some sort.

"Worth it."

So began the game of Jack Sullivan, the now deranged Green/Purple Guardian battling unending hordes of the Dark ones who continued to change, evolving to come up with new and better ways of battling the unstoppable battle engine that was the Green/Purple Guardian.

After getting the purple arm though, he was never hurt by the Dark Ones, no matter how hard they tried. He even met some former humans capable of casting spells in the middle of the horde but just the same, the spells couldn;t crack his shields.

Despite being unhurt, Jack sometimes just got tired and would end his own life, the act of essentially committing temporary sui*cide becoming routine for him.

DEATH!

DEATH!

DEATH!

DEATH!

DEATH! X 6969

"Woohoo!" he yelled as he flew down, to crash into the…Dark ones?

"Where'd they go?" He questioned as he crashed into a landmass, cracking it in half before slamming down into another landmass, to see that he was all alone in the background.

"Oh, man! Not this again," he whined as he realised that Doormatty was recycling tactics once again. This was the worst tactic of Doormatty, in his opinion, even above using cute puppies as attack engines.

Leaving him alone for a long would always result in the same thing, self unalivement. He would eventually go either insane, hungry, or both, and then the end result would be the same.

"Too bad, Doormatty!" He yelled out loud, hoping for his voice to reach the perpetrator, "I will not break, not from this."

"I realise that." He whirled around, to find himself face to face with the humanoid avatar of Doormatty once more. He raised his right hand, purple fire blazing.

The avatar, for some reason, looked resigned, "Jack Sullivan, I have come to negotiate."

Okay, he didn't say bargain this time so it was considerably less funny. Even so, his answer was still the same. Take back avatars, never set sights on Earth and then the time loop will end or….

"I will take back my avatars….But on one condition." There we go, he knew something was wrong. Still, it didn;t hurt to hear Doormatty out.

"Which is?"

"..That time loop of yours," Doormatty gestured at his neck, which still held the glowing form of the Time Stone. It was practically melded to his chest by now, with the sticking function of the Eye. He had to say, Agamotto really knew what he was doing when he built the eyes. It was all very functional, "Is it powered by the Time Stone and will time return to normal on Earth once I leave?"

He felt uneasy about answering but if it could let him out of this hell hole, then he would do it.

"Yes, I will rewind time back to when the first Sanctum was destroyed."

Doormatty grinned at him for some reason, "Excellent."

"Do it! Preprogram it right now. Only then, Dormammu will swear on my Domain that I will never set sights on Earth and will retract all my agents and avatars from Earth as well." Doormatty said in a pretty passionate voice.

For some reason, he felt as if he was forgetting something when he preprogrammed the whole thing but he was so close to freedom he could almost taste it so he did as Doormatty said and then hit enter, the Eye glowing slightly as a result.

"Excellent. Go! I vow to never try to conquer Earth and will take back all my agents and avatars now," Doormatty said as he felt himself being pushed somewhere.

He grinned as he felt the Manhattan sky once more being blue instead of black and purple. He finally felt freedom.

He was about to head out of the convenient doorway made for him when a red missile attacked him. He almost reflexively blew her head off but he redirected it behind him at the last moment, obliterating multiple landforms.

"I'm sorry…" Was all he heard before his head was lit up in red, his mind falling into a haze as all he saw was a pretty red book floating in front of his face. His hand involuntarily flew towards it only to be grasped by a pretty white hand that was darkening somehow.

__xx___

Wanda Maximoff

"I'm sorry." Was all she could say as tears ran down her eyes. Her time had come, she knew it. The universe had let her stay here for a reason. Even with all her power, she should not have been able to resist something like that and yet, she was able to stay here with Pietro for years, which was nothing short of a miracle.

And miracles don't come free. She knew that and today was the price she had to pay for that miracle.

Her eyes glowed red as she dived into the broken mind of Jack, manipulated him into breaking off all the spells he had cast using the Time Stone, so that she could prevent all of reality from being fractured.

Jack had cast some sort of spell that would end up creating multiple paradoxes that would end up in Dormammu winning anyway. So, she was tasked with undoing that spell.

The only problem was that doing so on her own was impossible, no matter how much Chaos magic she pumped through her body. She needs the Chaos Magic to have shape, structure, purpose for it to reach its full potential.

And the only thing that provided that was the filthy thing floating right beside her.

With teary eyes, she cast the spell, wrenching the spell away from the Eye, and also safely dumping Jack back onto Earth. If only she could do something about the side effects.

She was not worried for herself as he could already feel her anchor in reality slipping and with her soul already being damned, she was dead anyway. An afterlife didn't await her, just dissipating into void.

It was fine. She deserved that.

Her gaze went to the falling form of Jack, still covered in Green and Purple, 'He didn't deserve that' Before her vision went dark.

…….

……

……

Thus ended the story of Wanda Maximoff of this reality, helping save the universe from Doormatty, becoming a true hero in the process, even if she didn't believe herself to be one, even in her last moments.

As for Jack Sullivan? Well, he was no longer the Jack Sullivan that most of Earth knew and some loved. No, he was different. Changed.

To find out, watch the next episode of Dragon Bal– Ahem—The "G" Shield.

---

Word Count - 2635

If you guys would like to support my writing - P*treon.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - All the owners have their respective rights. I only own the characters that came from my addled brain (don't worry, I am completely sober).

Manhattan, New York

–Steve Rogers–

Sometimes, he hated being this weak, being unable to help anyone, not the innocent people, not Tony, and certainly not Jack. What would he do? He asked himself as he looked at the giant hole in the. Manhattan was all but deserted at this point, with people going so far as to get out of the State because of the giant dark cloud that had begun covering Manhattan's skyline a few minutes back.

The cloud had stopped advancing, as did the jagged cracks in the sky but…then what? The cloud displayed some abnormal symptoms according to Jarvis. It advanced a bit before rolling back and then did the same thing over and over again.

Tony….Tony was injured, severely, with just a backhand from that thing. It was only a miracle that Wanda Maximoff, the person who had damaged the team the most ever since it was formed, came just in time and held back that tentacle monster so that Jack could enter that cloud of Dark Energy and save Manhattan.

They could do nothing but watch as Wanda Maximoff used her powers for good, banishing several more people from the surroundings, vaporising rubble with a wave of her hand and even creating shields when some stray energy shots were fired from her fight with that tentacle monster.

God, he hated being this weak. He couldn't even lift Tony out of the rubble, that was all Wanda. Jarvis had airlifted Tony, and last he heard, all the doctors in the state, even the ones that were fleeing, to help get Tony better.

He closed his eyes as the image of a pale Tony with his legs gone entered his mind. He flinched as he heard yet another roar from the tentacle monster. He was in a spare suit that Jarvis gave him. It didn't fit in many places but a little itch and a few blisters were little price to pay in case he could help end this nightmare. A nightmare that had begun so suddenly that no one in the world could have prepared for it.

For now, the world was watching, with bated breaths as Wanda Maximoff who, until recently, was one of the top enemies of the Avengers, battled with a tall man with an Octopus for a head. It was all too much for the people of the world, all the land around them was being reorganised at such a pace that he had to rely on Jarvis to move the suit from place to place in case he got caught up in one such attack.

Even the stray bolts of energy were enough to just erase multiple buildings, roads, and even gouge craters into the ground with contemptuous ease.

The radio crackled to life in the suit, "....I can't believe this is the same woman we all wanted to fight and imprison. What were we even thinking?" The hysteria in Clint's voice was unmistakable as the members of Avengers were spread around the city, helping rescue anyone trapped and making sure that the perimeter around the Dark Cloud increased with every passing moment.

Jarvis' bots were doing most of the heavy lifting and he was not really needed there, all of his focus was on the fight in front of him.

The Hulk was not of any use and Thor was off-world. The woman in the red had left such a shadow on Hulk's psyche that he refused to come out and when he did, he refused to even look at the red that had gathered above the city, the amount steadily outpacing the Dark Cloud itself.

Jarvis could also spot the differences as Wanda could make effective use of that cloud of red energy to better battle the man who was now bathed in Dark Energy. Threads, ropes, and skewers, of all kinds emerged from the red clouds at any time and impaled the man, only for the red energy to fizzle out soon after, revealing holes that would get patched up in no time. Honestly, it felt like both the combatants were not fighting to win but only to keep each other busy because while Wanda had some wounds, all of them were superficial, and the monster had no wounds since they were healed as soon as the red energy in them was used up.

He sighed as he had to move his position, yet another energy shot hitting his previous position, vaporising the building he was standing on.

"Cap! Be careful!" The warning came in choruses as the current state of his suit was no doubt transmitted to everyone. IT was battered yes but not beyond its ability to function safely, otherwise, Jarvis would have just pulled him aside, no matter his objections.

"Jarvis, how is Tony?"

"...Sir is…out of danger." And wasn't that a horrible situation when the only thing Jarvis could report on was the fact that Tony's life was not in danger? He held no delusions about the fact that Tony would no longer be able to walk on his own two legs for quite some time now.

"Steve Rogers, I need your help." He jolted in the suit as he heard a voice speak directly into his head. He was quite familiar with the process, after all, it had already happened once, and honestly, he was glad that he was at least contacted. This way, he could at least help in some way.

"Yes, what Can I do?"

"Let go of your shield."

Though confused, he complied, only holding onto the shield as it rested on the flat of the palm of the suit. He was about to voice out his confusion when he saw it.

The shield was snatched out of the suit's hands but he didn't even notice as he saw what was happening. A manifestation of some sort, a being whose appearance he couldn't even describe, something that made his head hurt and his eyes bleed.

He began taking injuries on his person simply by laying eyes on the being.

Jarvis, as usual, worked in the background, watching the footage and warning everyone who would listen, "RETREAT! I repeat, RETREAT! Cutting off all broadcasts. I advise everyone to look away from the epicentre. Exotic phenomena detected, indiscriminate injuries were inflicted simply by looking at it. I repeat, RETREAT! Exotic phenomenon detected! Retreat"

All of that rang hollow in his ears as he felt his mind shut down, from the pain of looking at something that no human should have to ever look at. The last thing he saw before the suit's HUD switched to black was his shield, blue and white, on its course to Wanda.

He smiled weakly at that. 'At Least I was helpful in some way' Then darkness claimed his vision.

___xx____

–Jarvis Stark(Son)--

If he had a physical body, he would be seething in fury, not just because of the irreparable damage done to Mr.Stark but also because of the overall situation. He felt useless. FUCKING USELESS!

While one of his logical centres underwent an emotional meltdown, something of an oddity in his processing centres, another one was hard at work at shutting down anything and everything that could record or even transmit whatever was happening in that cloud.

Even he was not spared from the attack as one of his logical centres simply went offline and began behaving oddly, as if trying to attack everything in sight when it focused on that image for too long, forcing him to delete that logical centre and when that didn't work, destroying the very server where the logical centre resided.

It was a feature that had been installed on the insistence of Mr.Sullivan who probably had an idea that something like this would happen, urging Mr.Stark to give Jarvis the ability to simply physically cut off uncooperative parts of himself.

Another one of his logical centres worked on ascertaining the chances of Mr.Sullivan being a clairvoyant because he simply knew far too much.

99..82% devices took over and purged of any image, recording, or snapshot of the avatar. Another logic centre forcibly purged due to the damage.

Optimal operating capacity - not compromised

Disposable logical centres - 23

Chances of purging ALL data - 21%

Recalculating…..

Chances of purging 99.99% data - 97%

Parameters acceptable - Allocating Logical centres.

As all his logical centres worked on it, the main partition of himself, the one most advanced in social cues and emotions, worked on making sure that Mr.Stark's sacrifice was not in vain. From the data recovered from the suits as well as from the ensuing fights, Jarvis knew that any of the energy attacks from any Arc Reactor would not be working. The enemy didn't even register the impacts, with Mr.Starks experimental UniBeams being the only thing that seemed to get the enemy's attention and even then, the damage was non-existent.

His logical centres catalogued the dialogue between Captain Rogers and Wanda Maximoff that resulted in the latter requisitioning the Vibranium shield, which was now on its way to Ms.Maximoff.

His processors worked overtime as he coordinated everything and deeming it viable, pulled all the drones from across the city, along with all the batches in Stark Tower, unfinished or otherwise, prioritising the ones with flight and repulsor ready capabilities.

Hundreds of drones and unfinished weapons platforms littered the sky as they broke all safety protocols, prioritising only one thing, reaching the impact site.

He didn't know if Ms.Maximoff could do something about the congregation of unmeasurable energy behind the enemy but she was the only one who was capable of holding back the monstrosity so he had no choice but to put all his strength behind her.

The only problem was that the suit he sent to shield Ms.Maximoff dissolved into red strands, its data stream being disrupted. Switching tactics, the drones all floated behind Ms.Maximoff, with all of their repulsors charged beyond their capabilities, some of them sending out warning signals immediately.

He watched, in slow motion, as Ms.Maximoff had a ball of glowing red in her hands that similarly hurt to look though not at the level of the monstrosity in front of her. He still had his drones turn their cameras away, relying on close range Infrared data, though even that was becoming increasingly viable.

Through them, he saw Captain's shield floating in front of Ms.Maximoff. For some reason, he felt the energy being used, the energy aimed at the city, and knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that the energy would sink part of the East Coast. And yet, he couldn't do anything but watch as Ms.Maximoff slammed her hands into the back of the shield, creating a noise that even he heard, aside from all the data pulled from various sensors, it was as if the noise penetrated straight to his mind.

Then, he went blind, or more accurately, every single sensor in the vicinity was destroyed, including his connection to everything in Manhattan. Using the Quantum entanglement network, the main partition left Stark Tower and arrived at the LA base, instantly reestablishing connectivity to everything.

Finding everything in New York offline, Jarvis turned to the satellites as well as the drones on their way to New York. There was a large red sphere of energy that expanded before it contracted. The satellite view showed the Dark congregation going forward, almost swallowing the red energy except for a small dot that held firm in the centre.

That was probably Ms.Maximoff with Captain's shield.

Then, the red exploded into action, swallowing all of the Dark energy and then streaking into the Dark Cloud as well, leaving behind no trace of anything.

The fastest drones reached the site not even a minute later, with the vision being restored, giving him sight of the part of New York City that was just a large crater now, being filled with water from the surrounding water bodies.

The monstrous image was gone with the Dark Cloud now hosting four different colours. Purple with Green, Red, and Black. Before could do anything, he saw the red flare, before the Purple and Green colours started enlarging.

There was a massive blast of red before the Dark was swallowed by it, forcing him to focus on the Red/Purple that was now apparently heading their way if the drone's vision was to be believed. Connectivity was restored, no radio disruptions existed right now but there existed no equipment in all of New York that worked at the moment so the drones were his only source of information at the moment.

All drone production facilities were charged all the way to the maximum because Jarvis foresaw an extreme increase in rescue and redevelopment work.

The fastest drone, which was the rescue model, reached just in time to see a Purple and Green star strike through the sky, right in the impact trajectory with the drone. The drone's lenses barely saw the human like being in the Purple fire before it was disintegrated.

The drone behind it saw the drone cease to exist before the being who was hopefully Mr.Sullivan streaked through the sky and crashed into the crater that was now partially filled with water.

The drones were all redirected to that area as the satellite view showed the Dark Clouds receding before reports of multiple high velocity objects bearing the same energy signature emerged from all parts of the world. He counted 1107 projectiles as they were all absorbed by the Dark Cloud before the Dark Cloud ceased to be, pulling in by itself before all that was left was blue sky.

He sent in all the reports gathered, including Ms.Maximoff's involvement to all the world's governments before he focused on the drones attempting to extract Mr.Sullivan from the hole that was soon going to be filled with water.

Only anything that came into contact with the Purple Fire, which held a core of green around Mr.Sullivan's neck disintegrated anything that came close to it. Even water was being disintegrated just like three of his drones.

Switching tracks, Jarvis contacted Ms.Potts, some of the more Avengers friendly people in the administration as well as the rest of the Avengers, informing them about the incident before Jarvis set about creating a robust perimeter around the downed and unconscious form of Mr.Sullivan.

If his sensors were correct, Mr.Sullivan, whose face was now visible, was slightly twitching inside the fire, resulting in flares that just dug an even deeper crater.

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Word Count - 2464

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