Driving all night certainly had its inevitable drawbacks. Martha was growing drowsy from the long journey.
When John noticed her condition, Martha had nearly fallen asleep at the wheel.
"Where are we exactly?"
"Sir, continue forward for six more hours to reach Sokovia," MOSS replied with constant availability.
"Sokovia?" Hearing this somewhat familiar name, John decided, "Time to rest."
Martha nodded drowsily, then slumped over the steering wheel and immediately fell asleep.
John silently observed Martha, who was still unconsciously pressing the gas pedal, and drew his wand to tap it against the car window.
Except for Martha's driver seat, all other seats began moving backward automatically, and the entire vehicle started expanding infinitely.
The originally cramped space became larger and larger with each magical expansion. Finally, it transformed into a comfortable area of ten square meters.
John raised his hand and remotely extracted the car keys with practiced ease.
Opening the car door, he discovered they were surrounded by dense forest. Driving further ahead, one could glimpse a distant city through the trees.
He stepped onto the soft grass, looking up at the brilliant starry sky as he walked forward thoughtfully.
Wild grass grew rapidly beneath his feet, weaving itself into a comfortable green chair behind him.
Martha slept soundly after her exhaustion, the steering wheel magically becoming as soft as a luxurious pillow.
The long-missed comfort made her unconsciously begin to drool.
The only unfortunate thing was that her seat had been stained with magic-inhibiting blood and couldn't be enlarged like the rest of the car.
"Slurp."
Just as the drool was about to touch the steering wheel, she startled awake and quickly sucked it back.
Wiping the moisture from the corner of her mouth, she instinctively reached for her glasses. Realizing she no longer needed corrective lenses, she rubbed her eyes in confusion.
"Shall we continue?" she asked the empty air.
She received no response.
Blinking in bewilderment, she looked around the spacious area with growing confusion.
Fortunately, she was already accustomed to these supernatural occurrences, so she peered out the window.
In this war-torn country, only the vast sky maintained its natural beauty.
Under the countless stars, John sat alone in peaceful contemplation. He wasn't doing anything particularly noteworthy, just sitting quietly in meditation.
The silver ring on his right hand appeared completely unremarkable. No one would associate this simple band with a world-destroying artifact at first glance.
Next to the silver ring, an oval emerald gem was far more magnificent and eye-catching.
Inside the translucent gem, a snake biting its own tail and rotating endlessly was faintly visible.
"Not going to sleep a bit more?" John didn't need to turn around; he could sense that Martha had awakened.
Martha sheepishly withdrew her hand that had been prepared to surprise him from behind.
"Don't you ever sleep, Mr. Wick?"
"I don't require sleep," John replied casually, raising his hand so that wild grass beside him grew rapidly, weaving itself into a new chair.
Martha sat down gratefully. Listening to John's matter-of-fact words, she thought carefully about her observations.
In her entire experience with him, John never seemed to have times when he actually slept.
Even when uncomfortable due to magic-inhibiting blood exposure, John only squinted his eyes without truly sleeping.
This wasn't Martha's first time meeting someone who didn't need sleep, but it still fascinated her.
She said with obvious envy, "That's really wonderful. You can live a full twenty-four hours productively."
"Wonderful?" John smiled mysteriously, looking up at the starry sky. "Don't you think that's somewhat strange?"
"Why would it be strange?" Martha didn't understand his perspective.
John explained thoughtfully, "Dreams are the cradle of human imagination."
"Unbridled thoughts, déjà vu scenes, glimpses of possible futures."
A brilliant meteor streaked across the dark sky.
"In the East, there's an ancient story called 'A Dream of Yellow Millet.'"
"Dream time operates peculiarly. Sometimes it makes you stay inside for what feels like a minute, but an entire day passes when you wake up. Sometimes you experience birth, aging, sickness, and death inside, but it's only an instant in reality."
John shook his head slightly with obvious melancholy. "People who cannot dream lose the qualification for imagination. What they see are only real things; what they hear are only real words."
"Look there," John pointed to the fading meteor. "At my alma mater, Hogwarts, there are traditional methods of observing star patterns for divination purposes."
"But I never use it for divination," John's voice carried deep sentiment. "I already live completely in reality; I don't want to know too much about the future."
Martha listened quietly, secretly turning her head to study that focused yet calm profile.
An old-fashioned person trapped within someone with a high schooler's youthful appearance.
It's just that many people's first reaction upon seeing him was to be influenced by his distinctive, commanding temperament.
He could be a teacher, a distinguished sir, or a powerful boss.
But he couldn't be a child, couldn't be a carefree youth, and certainly couldn't be someone requiring protection.
Because the dreamless are destined to abandon fantasy completely.
Martha stared at John in a thoughtful daze.
Her feelings for John were refreshingly simple and uncomplicated.
At first, she had just wanted to find blood food that would let her conscience rest easy.
This food source had been a wolf in sheep's clothing, but beneath the wolf's dangerous exterior was a genuinely good person who had made her human again.
She felt tremendously grateful to John. He had given her a precious second life.
And taken her in, allowing her to begin controlling her supernatural abilities at school.
John never demanded she give anything meaningful in return.
As if everything he provided was completely taken for granted.
Martha watched him intently, suddenly becoming dazzled by something bright.
She looked closer and realized it was John's ring reflecting starlight.
The ouroboros inside rotated like endless time itself.
"You're interested in this?" John's perceptive voice brought Martha back to her senses.
Her face reddened with embarrassment, and then, thinking that John could read minds, she felt mortified at being caught staring at his jewelry.
"Don't worry, it's not mind reading," John smiled casually. "I don't use Legilimency on people around me."
"A world that's too brutally real would frighten most people."
John removed the emerald gem ring and handed it to Martha with surprising generosity.
Martha was completely at a loss, staring at the valuable item.
"Just lending it for you to examine, not giving it to you permanently," John said with obvious helplessness. "I'm not quite that generous."
Hearing this clarification, Martha smiled awkwardly and carefully took the ring.
The ouroboros rotating inside the ring suddenly released the snake's tail from its mouth and began swimming freely.
"What's happening?" Martha was genuinely at a loss. It couldn't be that she had somehow broken it, right?
This thing looked incredibly expensive. She couldn't afford to replace it even if she sold herself.
She wanted to cry but had no tears.
John raised an eyebrow with interest. "That means your remaining lifespan isn't sufficient to make it rotate endlessly."
The snake coiled up and flicked its tongue playfully at Martha.
Though completely soundless, it looked unexpectedly cute and charming.
Martha tentatively touched it, and the snake angrily slapped with its tail, as if trying to drive her finger away.
For the first time, she found cold-blooded animals like snakes genuinely interesting.
"Sir."
MOSS's electronic voice rang out, breaking this somewhat warm moment between them.
John took out his phone, the red indicator dot lighting up on the camera.
"Mr. Stark and Mr. Banner are conducting a dangerous experiment."
John asked with growing concern, "What kind of experiment?"
MOSS was silent for a long moment, processing the implications.
"Creating another version of me."
Meanwhile, in New York
At Avengers Tower, Banner and Tony were working intensely on the stolen Regeneration Cradle.
They were carefully inputting JARVIS's preserved data into this body that had originally belonged to Ultron.
"Genetic coding is set at ninety-seven percent, so you need to upload that schematic in three minutes," Banner announced while monitoring everything.
The world's two greatest geniuses working together had doubled their efficiency.
It was at this crucial moment that Steve returned to the tower.
He didn't return alone. He had brought two unexpected people with him.
Two former enemies who would change everything.