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Aidan stepped through a shimmering orange portal, leaving the sterile, futuristic hum of his laboratory behind and re-entering the ancient, hallowed silence of Kamar-Taj. He felt confident, even triumphant. He had just executed a flawless global power play, eliminating a dangerous enemy and cementing his company's benevolent reputation in a single, masterful stroke. He was not expecting an intervention.
He was greeted by Master Hamir, who looked at him with worried eyes. "The Ancient One has returned," Hamir said, his voice low. "She is waiting for you in the Great Hall. Her face… is not pleased."
Aidan's confident smile faltered for a fraction of a second. So she knows. He nodded to Hamir and walked toward the hall.
The atmosphere inside was heavy and still. Mordo, Kaecilius, and Wong sat at a long wooden table, their expressions a mixture of awe and deep unease. In the center of the room, the Ancient One sat meditating, a point of absolute calm in a room thick with tension.
"Master," Aidan said, bowing his head respectfully as he sat opposite her. "I'm here."
The Ancient One opened her eyes. They were not filled with the sorrow he had seen before, but with a sharp, profound disappointment. "We saw what you did on the island, Aidan," she said, her voice quiet but echoing with immense weight.
"I neutralized a global terrorist organization," Aidan replied, his tone confident. "And I did so in a controlled environment, with no loss of innocent life. I sent a message to the world's leaders—the same will happen to them if they try to cross me. I did what was necessary."
"Necessary?" the Ancient One repeated, her voice cutting through his justification. "You could have eliminated their leadership with a single, silent strike from one of your arrows. You could have had your agent, 'Alice,' dismantle their entire operation in an hour. There were a hundred cleaner, more efficient ways to handle The Hand."
She leaned forward slightly, her gaze piercing. "But you didn't choose any of them. You chose theater. You chose horror. You unleashed a plague and your own army of monsters not simply to kill them, but to make the entire world watch. You chose the method that fed your pride, that reveled in your own power."
"I am in control," Aidan countered, his voice hardening. "I controlled every variable. The virus was contained. The targets were eliminated. The message was delivered."
"That is what worries me," the Ancient One said, her voice softening into an almost sad whisper. "You have become arrogant in your power. Yes, this time you controlled it, and I see the satisfaction it gives you. But what about next time, Aidan? What happens when another nation defies you? When a new enemy rises? Will you burn a whole country to the ground to send your 'message' then?"
She held up a hand, silencing his attempt to retort. "You may think that would never happen. You may believe you are a master of control. But remember this, and remember it well: arrogance and anger are the twin paths that lead even the brightest souls into darkness. You are walking that path now, whether you see it or not."
"I am not!" Aidan insisted, his voice rising, a paranoid edge creeping in. "This was war! I had to respond!"
"This was not war," the Ancient One said calmly. "This was a massacre you orchestrated to stroke your own ego. You are blinded by the power you wield, and you are beginning to enjoy the fear it inspires."
"Me! No! Wrong!" Aidan sat up straight, his face a mask of defiant fury, his hands clenched into fists. He faced his master without an ounce of submission.
"Aidan, shut up!" Mordo snapped, standing from the table.
The Ancient One raised a hand, and Mordo sat back down. She looked at Aidan with a deep, penetrating pity. "You are like duckweed," she said softly, "adrift on an ocean of power, with no roots to hold you to the earth. You have never truly suffered, so you do not understand the true cost of the fear you so casually inflict. You believe you control your power, but you are becoming intoxicated by it."
She slowly got up and pointed a single finger at the air in front of him. The sound of a universe of shattering glass echoed through the hall as the very fabric of reality around Aidan began to crack, fracturing into a million crystalline shards.
"You believe you control your power," she said, her voice now a command. "But you are a slave to the pride it gives you. Stay here. In this dimension of pure thought, stripped of your technology and your armies. When you can understand the difference between a protector's strength and a tyrant's arrogance, you may find your own way out."
As the words fell, the world outside the circle where he sat twisted into an impossible, repeating geometry. The Ancient One, Mordo, and the others vanished.
Aidan was left sitting cross-legged, alone in the silent, fractured reality of the Mirror Dimension, his own furious, defiant reflection staring back at him from a million broken