Stephen's mind was still spinning.
He couldn't understand how the two people Professor X once described as "the most powerful humans alive" had started a fight over a few cryptic words, only to now sit calmly across from each other, sipping tea with polite smiles, as if nothing had happened at all.
Was this what the world of the powerful looked like?
Terrifying.
"Stephen," Martin said, rising to his feet. "If you want to heal your hands, Kamar-Taj is the only place that can help."
He clapped Stephen firmly on the shoulder, letting out a hearty laugh.
Stephen blinked, dazed, but nodded slowly.
A deal... had just been struck?
"You'd better start training Stephen as soon as possible," Martin added, glancing over his shoulder at the distant peak of Mount Everest. "I don't have time to waste."
The Ancient One gave him a subtle nod.
It was part of their unspoken agreement: the Time Stone would remain at Kamar-Taj, for now. But Martin would return one day soon to reclaim it.
And if they didn't hand it over?
He'd take it by force.
Kamar-Taj had better prepare for annihilation.
Martin departed with the ease and swagger of someone who feared nothing.
Mordo's expression darkened. "Sorcerer Supreme… are we really going to bend to that madman's will? He's power-hungry. Unstable."
The Ancient One watched Martin's silhouette vanish into the horizon. After a long pause, she said quietly, "Mordo… I don't agree with everything he believes. But some of what he said... might be true. At the very least, I know what I have to do now."
The Time Stone shimmered faintly at her chest, its glow laced with visions of countless futures.
In many of them, she saw doomsday scenarios, futures devoid of hope.
And within those bleak destinies… Martin was one of the few sources of light.
"Stephen," she said, turning toward the confused young doctor. "If you've come to me to heal your hands, you must first abandon your old beliefs. Medicine won't help you grasp the true nature of this world."
"I've let them go," Stephen said quickly. "I understand now."
The Ancient One sighed.
Everything's spiraling.
Without another word, she raised her hand and pressed it against Stephen's forehead, forcibly projecting his astral form outward. In an instant, his soul was hurtling through the surface layer of the multiverse, an overwhelming flood of dimensions and truths.
There's no better method than that.
"Mordo," she called calmly, "go find Wong."
"He's still tracking Kaecilius, that traitor," Mordo replied.
"Forget the chase. Kaecilius is protected by Dormammu, he's one of Dormammu's keystones for invading Earth. He won't die easily."
She looked at Mordo for a moment, her expression unreadable.
Every Sorcerer Supreme needed a capable second-in-command.
Mordo's rigidity… made him dangerous.
Wong might be the better teacher for Stephen.
A cosmic-scale battle had ended, one that shook the heavens and made even godlike beings take notice. Yet the ripples from that clash were already spreading far beyond what mortals could comprehend.
Many of the ancient gods, beings who had lived eons, had never seen the Infinity Stones in person, but they all knew the legends. Some had spent lifetimes seeking even a trace of them.
And now, thanks to the battle between Martin and the Ancient One, one that had nearly reached single-universe scale, those legends had awakened old suspicions across the stars.
"The Infinity Stones have fallen into the hands of someone... troublesome."
Thanos, the Mad Titan and last of the Eternal bloodline of Titan, lounged upon his throne in the Black Quadrant, his cold gaze fixed on the figure before him.
"Ronan," he said flatly. "Accelerate your search for the Orb. You know the price of failure."
Ronan grit his teeth but forced a respectful tone. "Of course. I will retrieve what you seek… in exchange for the destruction of Xandar."
But deep inside, Ronan harbored a different plan.
If he could obtain even one Infinity Stone, he wouldn't need Thanos.
He'd raze Xandar himself.
Thanos watched Ronan retreat with a faint, sardonic smile. "Kree…"
His hatred of the Kree was ancient. The feud between the Eternals and the Kree Empire stretched back over twenty millennia.
After the Eternals were nearly wiped out by the Deviants and forced to flee Earth, the Kree had hounded them across the stars. Many were killed. Others were captured and mutated, twisted into the Inhumans. Only a scant few escaped, ultimately settling on Saturn's moon.
But Thanos didn't care about the old grudges.
He hadn't been born on Earth.
He was from Titan, and Titan was already gone.
"This universe needs balance," he murmured. "Overpopulation and endless consumption will only destroy its brilliance. To save it… half must die."
He stood, hands clasped behind his back, gazing out into the endless starfield through the viewport of his warship. Distant suns blinked like diamonds against the black.
He had never cared what others thought of him.
His mission was all that mattered.
His ideal.
"...Hmm?"
Thanos frowned suddenly, turning his head.
He caught a flicker of shadow, a glint of death energy.
But when he focused… nothing.
As if it were never there.
"Again…" Thanos muttered, scowling.
He'd felt this presence before, when he was still a child.
A brush with Death herself.
But he'd never paid it any mind.
"Even if a true god stood before me," he whispered, "I would cut them down for the sake of my vision."
"This is the will of the universe. Even the cosmos wants me to succeed."
Thanos inhaled deeply.
He could feel it—death, finality, inevitability.
The universe was guiding him.
"The Infinity Stones…" he said, eyes narrowing toward Earth.
And he began to plan.
...
Back on Earth, Martin didn't concern himself with the melodrama of those around him.
Whether it was the Ancient One, Thanos, or any other self-proclaimed gods—
They were just a bunch of clowns telling bad jokes on a stage that didn't belong to them.
Martin returned to his Earth base, where preparations for his next move were already underway.
It was time.
Time to build a planet of his own.
A real planet.
Cybertron.
With two Infinity Stones in hand, forging a metallic world from nothing was child's play.
"Obviously, our world needs to be equipped with a high-powered planetary engine," Shockwave said, his tone mechanical and precise. "It must be capable of interstellar mobility."
He unrolled a projection of the Cybertron schematics, every detail optimized.
"Given our long-term objectives, this location is ideal for Cybertron's placement."
He pointed to the map.
The exact spot where Asgard used to be.
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