3 - Fics I Read 2.0

FanFiction.Net

Just In

Community

Forum

Godhood: For Dummies by intata

Movies » Avengers Rated: M, English, Adventure, OC, Words: 121k+, Favs: 8k+, Follows: 10k+, Published: Oct 6, 2018 Updated: Sep 5

2,390Chapter 3

A/N

To reiterate: I don't own Marvel.

Nathan had done exactly what he proposed.

After being so rudely dropped out of the magical complex, he had huffed and dusted himself off, then started over to the nearest hotel. Surprisingly, the language barrier hadn't been much of an issue since he landed. At least not nearly as much as he had anticipated. So far, there had been plenty of people who knew how to speak English; not fluent, but enough to get basic conversation through.

Sitting on the edge of his hotel bed, he reflected a bit on his meeting with the Ancient One.

Handing over the stone was going to be inevitable, as he had guessed, so he gave into it easily rather than fight against the flow. From what he knew of the woman, she wouldn't misuse it for her own purposes. She was too old and too powerful to care overly much about it, outside of trying to keep it away from nefarious hands. Hell, he expected her to treat it the same way she did the Time Stone: use it under the circumstances that called for it, and nothing else.

Not to mention that he didn't really want to use its abilities anyway. Agamotto's shield around the planet probably kept a lot hidden, meaning he might be able to get away with it on Earth, but he didn't want to risk it when he didn't have to.

Even without the stone, his own power gave him some control over the four fundamental forces by moving his energy around to mimic telekinetic abilities. If he concentrated hard enough he could influence the makeup of atoms. He could create something from his energy alone! Granted that took way too much out of him to be feasible, but he could do it on small scales. He couldn't do too much of that either, as without the Power Stone, he had no way of quickly refilling his reserves. It would go from zero to full in a few days by itself, and he could meditate to bring that down to a day, if he had the incling to mediate all day.

Point was; he could use his telekinetic abilities pretty regularly, but if he wanted to edit matter, he would have to cool it for a while afterwards.

After spending two days in a hotel and just exploring a few places in Kathmandu, he had gotten a little bored, which made him pretty excited about his return trip to Kamar-Taj. He imagined that they had an unending flood of interesting things happening there.

So it was at the agreed upon time that he returned to the temple, wearing an anxious grin. He probably should have been more scared of what the Ancient One saw in the future. He had no clue what would happen. Hell, he knew he was as corruptible as any normal person, so there was a small possibility that he would be a bad guy somewhere down the line. He never was very good at playing the renegade, though; always falling back on paragon because he felt bad. So hurting others for the hell of it was never really on the table, and he was kind of banking on that.

Well, whatever happens, happens. Worse comes to worst; they would keep the stone and Nathan would just jump back in his spaceship and abduct some cows to freak out the local farmers. He would still be able to use his own powers, regardless, which was still a major leg-up from where he had been just a year ago. He had been slowly working up his abilities for eight years, and now he was finally able to use them effectively, so forgive him for not really caring about the Power Stone. The Hype Train is fully loaded, and will be leaving the station shortly. Magic was to be learned!

A few seconds after he knocked on the front door, it was opened by an older woman. She looked to be about sixty or seventy, and wore grey monk's robes with an orange sash and belt. She just nodded to Nathan and opened the door further for him to enter. She didn't move to lead him further, instead turning to sit on a bench by the door, and began to read a book.

Nathan blinked, then shrugged before making his way back towards the room where he had met with the Ancient One before. The compound wasn't all that complex, all things told, meaning he remembered the way.

When he reached the small waiting area, Rahul, the short Indian doorman, just opened the door and waved him inside. The room was decidedly more vacant than it had been two days ago, the only initial occupant being the Ancient One herself. Said old lady - who looked like she could have been thirty - glanced up at Nathan as he walked in, and nodded toward the chair across from her; indicating that he should sit.

Nathan sighed. "You know, nobody has said a single word to me since I got here today. It's a little unnerving," he said while taking the seat.

Her lips tiredly quirked upwards. "I believe that there's a lot of that feeling going around lately."

"Touché." Nathan intoned. "You've made a decision?" he asked, noticing that the locket he left with her yesterday was still on the desk.

She nodded. "I believe I have." She paused for a moment, then continued. "I read about twelve million different futures in these past two days, Mr. Quill. Tell me; in how many do you think you become a threat to the people of earth?"

Nathan blinked. "Whoa. That's a lot. Um…"

While Nathan thought at the question, the woman across from him couldn't help but notice how expressive his eyebrows were. They seemed to move like a pair of scales with his thought process, as if he was weighing his own soul on one, and his past on the other.

"Well, considering I've been a space pirate for the past eight years… Uh, maybe about a quarter of them?" He shrugged. "I don't know, I don't really see why I would turn on the planet."

The Ancient One chuckled. "No, I suppose you wouldn't. We never do see life's twists and turns until they are upon us." She sighed and looked Nathan in the eyes. "I can't seem to tell if you're being modest, or underestimating your own sense of loyalty."

"Oh please let it be above a couple hundred thousand. I am not that much of a sap, am I?" Nathan interjected, a little desperately.

She straight up laughed at that. "I'm afraid you are, Mr. Quill. Out of twelve million, one-hundred-twenty-three thousand, four-hundred and eighty-six possible futures, you turn on the planet Earth exactly four-hundred and seven times." She paused, still looking him directly in the eyes. "That is three-hundred-thousandths of a percent. The chance is so close to nothing, that I had to do a recount. Twice. To put that into further perspective, most of the people here have about a four or five percent chance of becoming a threat in the next thirty or so years." She looked towards the door. "Young Karl is at about thirteen percent, himself."

"That seems like a lot…" The lady would probably lose her shit if she did one for Steve Rogers. Nathan would put money on that dude being a straight arrow in every single timeline... well there was the one that he spouts 'Hail Hydra', so maybe like three where he's evil. Max.

"You'd think so, yes, but out of twelve million possibilities, there are far more where these men and women are true assets to Earth. I believe the chance is worthwhile."

"And you had the inclination to put these statistics together for every student?"

"No, actually. I was just so surprised by your own number that I decided to check on some of the other apprentices. Even some of the Masters, as well."

Nathan sighed sadly, but then perked up. "Sounds Time consuming, eh?" Nathan said, throwing a 'nudge' motion with his elbow in her direction.

She looked at him, unimpressed.

He pouted. "You're the one who slapped me in the face with a Transformers joke two days ago. You don't get to act all high and mighty against my bad puns."

She nodded. "So long as you understand that they're bad."

"Hey!"

The Ancient One smirked, but sobered a second later. "For whatever reason, you being alive and on Earth has drastically changed the possible futures. For the better in most cases. I regret to say that I can not see everything, nor do I fully understand what I have seen, but I understand enough to know that you will be among Earth's allies, even if I turn you away today." She leaned forward. "Something to remember though; there are far-reaching consequences for any and all changes to the natural law."

Nathan threw his hands in the air. "Hey now, if the the 'Law' gets nettled, I'm not the one who did it."

She snorted, "True. We can't exactly blame you for being born."

Nathan gave a sideways frown. "I guess my only question here is; do you consider me to be too much of an unknown? There is a small chance that I will become hostile, apparently, and my presence alone seems to have screwed something up."

"Do you consider yourself to be my enemy?" she shot back.

The seventeen-year-old pouted. "I will if you keep answering my questions with more questions."

She chuckled lightly, "No, no I do not." She reached over and tapped the locket that held the Power Stone. "You'll forgive me; however, if I don't return this immediately. Not at least until you're properly trained."

Nathan's whole face lit up like the sun, completely bypassing the fact that she would return the stone at all. He was gonna learn magic! "So you'll train me?"

The woman nodded. "Before we get to that; though, I'd like you to follow me downstairs." She said while getting up from her chair. "There's something I think I should show you."

Nathan blinked, getting up from his own chair. "What would that be, exactly?"

She just wagged a finger at him over her shoulder as she walked away. "Patience is a virtue."

About two or three minutes later, the pair had nearly crossed the entire compound, coming up to a set of double-doors.

"This," The Ancient One began, opening the doors, "Is the library."

Nathan took a second to admire the room once they stepped in. Immediately, the first thing that drew his attention was an ornate table in the center of the large room. At said table were three young people in monk's robes with yellow sashes, avidly studying over a large tome. Surrounding that was a maze of simple bookshelves made from a lacquered redwood of some kind, and a sporadic placement of intricately carved pillars. From the entrance, he couldn't see much more than that, though. The bookshelves were in the way.

"So…" Nathan started, "Is this a tour, or are we checking out a book?"

"I'm afraid it's neither. Though you might be able to argue a portion of the former."

He blinked, then followed her as she lead him through the bookshelves.

Not long after, they arrived at a desk where a diminutive man sat, looking over a ledger and clicking a pen repeatedly. The Ancient One just nodded to him and continued onward towards another pair of double doors. This set was far more intricate than the library doors, decorated with a giant circle that linked the two doors with four curved lines intersecting it. The other difference was that this set was wide open, giving Nathan direct line of sight into the connected room.

The next room was circular, with another three connecting doors, each intricately carved out of some type of metal and stone, and each with similar circle as the first set, though the lines intersected in different ways. Up above on the ceiling was a stone dome with a beautiful, marbled representation of the night sky, and floating in said dome, was a perfect replica of the planet, slowly turning. Directly below that, which the Ancient One walked towards, was a stone pedestal.

"I believe you're aware somehow, but this" she said, gesturing to the pendant that was displayed on top of the pedestal, "is the Eye of Agamotto." She walked around and lifted the artifact from its stand, and showing it to Nathan.

"Yup." He clicked his tongue. "One of the most powerful ancient magical artifacts of all time. What about it?"

"Funny choice of words… I do expect you to tell me how you received this knowledge, but that can wait for now." She slowly lowered the thick cord of the necklace over her head. "Now I didn't see every possible future; there being a near infinite number of possibilities, but I saw plenty enough to know that what I'm about to do will have a decent chance of speeding up your ability to learn while in these halls." She looked Nathan directly in the eyes, while making a shape with her hands and 'opening' it.

"Now wait a fucking minute!" Nathan started as the room started to glow with a greenish tint, originating from a now open Eye of Agamotto. "Don't just open that thing out of nowhere!"

The Ancient One smiled. "Language. We teach discipline here, and such outbursts imply that you have learned little in that area."

"I was forced to be a pirate for eight years! Give me a break! Also, having that thing opened and pointed at me is fucking terrifying. Please stop." He said, backing away slightly.

She rolled her eyes. "Stop being such a baby and come here." She reached a hand down to the Eye, and flicked her fingers. Inside the pendant, a glowing green gem rattled and floated out in front of her hand.

Nathan stopped backing away. "Okay, now I'm just confused." The Eye couldn't do anything without the stone inside.

"In all of the futures that I've seen, there were a number where you would learn enough to open the Eye, and touch the Time Stone directly. In a few others, you manage to convince me to let you hold the Time Stone. In some of these futures this results in catastrophe, but I believe it's because all of those happen years from this moment, and you had no supervision." She took a step towards Nathan and brought the stone level with his eyes. "For whatever reason, you have the ability to hold the Power Stone, and I would hazard a guess that also holds true for the Time Stone, and all of the other Infinity Stones as well. The problem is that if we wait a few years, a chance is born that you forget how to handle them." She paused. "Well, that's how I make sense of it, anyway."

Nathan scrunched his eyebrows together. "So you're saying I should directly hold the Ingot of Time itself now, because I'll fuck it up later?"

"Please mind your language, Mr. Quill. Essentially yes, though you also had no one around that would be able to stop whatever catastrophe you might cause."

"I'm honestly surprised that you want me touching it at all." He blinked and looked up from the stone into her eyes. "What do you expect me to do with it, anyway?"

She nodded. "Using the stone in some futures, you manage to finagle out the ability to process things faster, condensing years of learning into months. You have the potential to do a lot of good, Mr. Quill, and with this method we might be able to consider you a Master when push comes to shove."

Nathan paused for a moment. The idea hadn't occurred to him, and it sounded pretty awesome, but he remembered something Mordo said in the movie that sort of contradicted everything she was suggesting. "I thought you guys were all about protecting the 'Natural Law'. Isn't this kind-of… I don't know; doing the opposite?"

The Ancient One smirked. "The very nature of the magic we use alters the Natural Law. We use the law to protect it, but in doing so, we incur debts. Some of the most powerful arts require us to draw from various extra-dimensional entities. Sometimes, just the fact that we draw on them is enough payment, as it is a form of worship; feeding their own power. Others; however, require different forms of payment else the very laws we protect turn on us. For instance, we have a rabbit farm in the Hong Kong Sanctum that we use for sacrifices." She held up a hand. "I know, it's not pretty, but it is necessary to even the balance sometimes." She turned to the stone that floated in her palm. "However there is no entity attached to the Infinity Stones. They are ingots of power that have no limit in their respective fields, though are so easily over-used. If one is not careful, Time itself could cease to be." She flexed her hand, spinning the stone slightly in the air. "So in this case, 'keeping the balance' refers more to using only enough power that results in the desired effect, keeping all other effects to a minimum."

Nathan thought about it for a moment, tilting his head to the side. "So in essence, we don't protect the Natural Law from being used, we just audit those who would incur more debt than the Earth can handle, and balance the books where necessary?"

She laughed. "I've never looked at it from an accounting perspective, but that would be accurate, yes. However that is just one facet of what we do, our main purpose is to protect the planet from external threats."

Nathan tilted his head with a small smile. "And people riding in on a spaceship with an Infinity stone qualifies, I'm guessing?"

"Of course." She replied. "I'm not sure if you knew this, but the stone you arrived with is more than capable of destroying the planet a million times over." She narrowed her eyes at him. "In a matter of seconds, no less."

"I was trying not to think about that, thank you. Oh, and you should probably repeat all of that to Karl. I have a… feeling that he takes the 'Natural Law' thing way more literally than you intended."

She 'hmm'd', looking at Nathan with a slightly confused look. "Well, moving on. I suppose I'll ask first; do you know if you can hold this?"

Nathan 'hmm'd. "Well, this stone is a bit more esoteric than the Power Stone. I understand the basics of the four fundamental forces of the universe, so it's a relatively easy thing to wrap my head around, meaning that using it probably wouldn't be that difficult." He paused, leaning closer to the green gem. "Time, though, is a much more complicated concept; one that we've barely begun to understand as a science. It's long since been theorized that gravity can affect the passage of time, as well as change as an object approaches the speed of light, but that's all I know about it."

The Ancient One blinked and repeated her question. "Do you know if you can hold this?"

"Holding it shouldn't be a problem if it's anything like the Power Stone. Using it could be a different story. There was a reason why I didn't use the Power Stone; there are beings in this universe that might be able to sense it. We are protected by Agamotto's shield, so the unfiltered power of an Infinity Stone might be safe from detection as long as we're here, but it's still dangerous as all get-out."

"Well, we'll take it slow, then."

Nathan eyed the woman. "Are you sure this is a good idea?"

She just smiled and shrugged. "One way to find out."

"You are not inspiring confidence," he huffed.

Her expression sobered. "In my experience, telling others the specifics of the futures I've seen never ends well, and I don't intend to repeat that mistake more than I have already done today, but suffice it to say that this is the best way to prepare you for what will occur, despite its risks."

"Are you just going to lead me through all of my decisions then?"

"Of course not. Like I said before; I don't know everything that will happen, I've only been able to see the events that I would be a part of."

He looked up at her, face blank. "Does that mean you can see farther than Strange fighting off Kaecilius, then?"

Her eye twitched. "... We're going to have a conversation when we're done here, but yes. Your presence on Earth seems to have extended my own time."

The seventeen-year-old ex-pirate snorted and stared back at the glowing gem a little longer. "Alright, well fuck it, then… I guess." He blurted out, then reached to grab the stone.

As he brought his hand closer, he started to circulate his Celestial energy in the same way he used to hold the Power Stone. The concept of holding the stone itself should be similar, if not the same, between the stones, so he wasn't too worried about that part, and he was right, too. He pinched the stone between his thumb and forefinger without issue.

He breathed a sigh of relief, bringing the stone in slightly closer. "Well that's step one. What's step two?"

"That would be finding a way to alter your perception of time, or possibly altering the passage of time in a specific area. There are ways to do this if we used the Eye as a medium, but we simply don't have the time to teach you the required spells."

Nathan looked up from the stone. "Why can't you just perform them instead?"

"To do that, I would need to spend all my time with you, and I simply can't do that. I am the Sorcerer Supreme. Which means that I only have so much time to devote to my students. The masters and myself have our hands rather full in defending the planet."

"You do realize that we're talking about the Time Stone here, right? If there's a way to create time to do that, it would be by using this thing." Nathan said, pointing to the gem in his hand.

"There are beings, Mr. Quill, that can transcend time's influence; that can and will attack the planet if my focus wavers. I cannot afford to commit myself to using such complex magics for extended periods, I'm sorry."

Nathan nodded slowly with a sad glint in his eyes. "Dormammu affects you that much, then? I suppose I'm stuck."

Her eyes narrowed immediately, looking guarded.

"Oh don't look at me like that. I won't tell anyone, and I know about him the same way I know about the rest of it. I wanted to talk to you about that when we're not busy, anyway." He waved his free hand dismissively. "So you want me to try and extend my perception of time? Make it so I can read a book in, like, twenty minutes instead of a few days? That seems incredibly complicated."

"Yes." The robed woman said slowly, reevaluating Nathan with a long glance, then shook her head slightly. "If you're able to do that, you won't have to worry about aging at many times the normal rate, like you would if you just changed the passage of time in an area."

"Yeah, that would suck."

"Quite."

Half a minute passed before Nathan spoke again. "Alright, here goes nothing, then."

He moved the stone from between his fingers to the center of his palm and clenched his fist around it. He had never actually used the Power Stone, so figuring out how to use the stone would be a little interesting. Thanos needed the gauntlet in order to harness the stone's power, and the dwarf smith had called it a 'device' in the movie, meaning that mortal beings lack the ability to use them directly. As Thanos demonstrated; however, mortals of certain races are able to physically touch the stones at least.

Nathan slowly began feeding his energy into the stone, tapping the edges and encompassing it. Something he immediately noticed was that the stone wasn't giving off nearly as much energy as the Power Stone had; making it decidedly easier to hold on to. Though that seemed to change dramatically when he breached the surface of it with his own energy.

The stone began to vibrate in his hand, and sporadic spikes of the stone's ethereal essence began seeping into his Celestial energy, seeming to meld with it. This started to quickly break down Nathan's defense against the stone, which ended up being what he needed to do anyway; he just didn't know it yet.

It had only been four measly seconds since he started when his defense against it cracked and shattered, prompting a giant green flash of light that emanated from Nathan's whole body. Holding something as non-definitive as the Infinity Stone of Time can make terms like 'immediately', and 'faster than he could blink' seem sort-of plebeian, but they were the only way he could describe how the Ancient One ripped the stone out of his hand. She cast a levitation spell of some sort; easily freeing it from Nathan's grip as soon as the room went green.

"Well," Nathan began, blinking the light from his eyes, "That was interesting." He paused. Something sounded off with what just came out of his mouth…

The woman took a second to also wipe the light from her eyes as well, before looking back at Nathan, Time Stone still floating above her palm. "I'm not entirely sure what you were… Huh."

"What?" Nathan asked, then blinked as he realized he was looking up at the Ancient One. Well, more 'up' than before, anyway; she had always been taller than him. Then he realized his voice a lot more high pitched than it was a few minutes prior.

He looked down at his hands and noticed immediately that they were tiny and pudgy. Also his clothes were huge, and didn't fit anymore. "You've got to be shitting me."

"Pfft!" The oldest woman on the planet just 'Pfft'd'. Nathan would remember the experience. It didn't take long for her to regain control of herself, though. "Language."

"French." Nathan replied, still looking at his hands. "Please pardon j'ai continué à parler: What. The. FUCK?!"

"Tu parle français?" The woman asked with a head tilt.

"Un peu." He looked up at her and deadpanned, "I'm three feet tall now. What the shit?"

She tilted her head slightly more. "I'd say more like three and a half."

Nathan growled and looked at the floating green gem. "Gimme. I'm gonna fix this."

As he reached up to grab it, the Ancient One pulled her hand up higher so he couldn't reach it. "Now wait a minute, Mr. Quill. Do you even know what you did in the first place to end up like that?"

"Not a clue. Gimme." He jumped, reaching for the stone and failing miserably, his pants falling away from his legs in the effort. It was fine though, as his jacket covered him well enough.

"You just made yourself a child, Mr. Quill. If you take the stone now to try again, how certain are you that you won't just blink out of existence?"

The literal man-child just pouted cutely, but stopped jumping for the gem. "So what, then? Will I just stay four years old?"

"Well," She paused to wave her hand, spawning a small golden glyph in the air. "You seem to be five years, two months, and three days old, now."

"Not really the point." The now-five-year-old ground out between his clenched teeth.

"I suppose so. Let's walk through it, shall we?"

Nathan huffed, but nodded.

"Alright, so what's the first thing you did? I must say I've never known of a mortal that can touch, let alone use the stones directly. I'm interested."

"Well, I'll tell you the whole story later, but suffice-it-to-say, I'm not totally 'mortal'" He began, using air quotes.

"You were born on Earth to a human. Which makes you human, aka: mortal"

"Or we can do this now, I guess." He sighed. "Mostly human, yes. Pops is a Celestial."

The Ancient One blinked.

Then blinked again.

"I'm sorry, would you mind repeating that? I'm afraid I misheard you."

"Ce-le-stee-al." Nathan sounded it out, counting the syllables on his tiny fingers, then held up his hand with a beaming smile as if he was proud that he could count to four.

She just stared down at him for a moment.

"Oh come on, you've dealt with weirder shit," he dropped his hand dismissively and rolled his eyes.

The Ancient One noted that those words coming out of a five-year-old were completely comical, but didn't let it show on her face.

"I have encountered Celestials only once before, Mr. Quill. I had been traveling the dimensions in my youth, trying to further my own knowledge of the Mystic Arts, when I came across a battleground on a scale beyond anything conceivable. Solar systems of wrent space and fractured suns. Planets that popped into existence, only to rupture or decay in seconds. It was the most terrifying and awe-inspiring sight I have ever witnessed, but that was just the battlefield; the battle itself was something else entirely.

"When I first saw the beings that clashed there, the planet I stood on cracked in half from the first blow. Nearly as large as the planets themselves, those armored titans unleashed horrors of power that should not be possible within any reality. They did not simply throw fireballs when they could throw suns instead. Supermassive black holes were nothing more than a distraction or minor inconvenience when the true weapons were capable of dispersing galaxies into naught but empty space. I barely escaped with my life, and I hadn't even been there for a full minute." She paused, staring Nathan directly in the eyes. "It wasn't until two years later when I discovered that these beings were not only known and feared throughout the multiverse, but that they were the closest things to true gods that I would ever encounter.

"My point, Mr. Quill, is that yes, I have dealt with stranger things, but nothing will ever fill me with more dread than the possibility of facing down a single Celestial."

"... And they number 'as many as the stars themselves'." Nathan murmured.

The Ancient One felt like he was quoting something or someone, but left the man-child to ponder for a moment before he spoke again.

"I could tell you a lot about the Celestials, most of it would be theories, but it could put them into perspective. For example; Dormammu could be considered a type of Celestial, though his abilities differ, and he seems to be inherently linked to his own dimension, they're about equal in 'danger level'." He paused, just now realizing how ridiculous he must sound, spouting all this out while looking like a toddler. "We can talk about that later though, what we were talking about is what I can do. One thing I want to do while learning here is to explore how my own abilities affect the use of Magic; we can both learn something."

The woman nodded slowly. "Right you are. Then back to my first question: what was the first thing you did with the stone?"

Nathan nodded back. "Well, the reason why I started out with my heritage is that I have access to a certain type of energy that lets me do a lot of cool stuff, like create a barrier between the stone and I, so I don't explode." He paused, gathering his thoughts. "There seems to be two levels of interface with the stones. For instance, with the Power Stone, the energy output is ridiculous if you touch it directly, so just protecting myself from it is a bit difficult, but I can use the energy coming off of it as a sort of fuel reserve to charge my own energy. That's the only thing I've used the stone for since I got it, by the way.

"The second level is what I just tried with the Time Stone and didn't try with the Power Stone. I sort-of sunk my power into it to see what would happen." He paused, looking down at his hands. "The Time Stone is a bit different from the other one though. It was much easier to shield myself from its power output. I bet any normal person could actually hold it safely for a couple seconds, where the Power Stone will just blow you up instantly. What actually happened when I went into the stone, was that the energy started fluctuating madly and started to… Oh holy shit."

"What is it?" The yellow robed woman asked, looking more alert.

Nathan continued to look at his hands as he slowly brought out a bit of his Celestial energy, which he now had a lot less of due to his body shrinking. He'd worry about that later. "When I touched the energy in the Time Stone, it started to do something a little strange." With that, he brought his energy out fully around his hands, but instead of the blue glow that it usually held, there was a distinctly green tint to it now.

Nathan looked up at the Ancient One. "This is supposed to be blue."

A/N

Edit: 3/4/2019 - The fact that Nathan is now 5 years old, is not a nerf: It will have no effect on his abilities. It's explained further in the Author's Notes of chapter 5 and 6. I'm tired of people bitching about it, and just assuming (wrongly) that I'm trying to arbitrarily limit his power, hence this edit. If you were about to bitch about it in a review and rage-quit the story, be aware that you have a problem of jumping to conclusions, and you're going to have a lot of trouble finding a good boyfriend. Oh, you're a dude, mister hypothetical reader? Like I said: boyfriend. It's 2019. If you want to act like a total bitch, that's how I'm going to treat you.

/Rant

Not much really happened in this one, but hopefully it was still entertaining. We'll get into actually learning magic in the next one.

I am totally making up everything regarding how Celestial energy is supposed to work. I'm trying to stay as close to the comics and movies as possible though. I've watched Guardians Two over 50 times just trying to figure out what I could do with it. It's only gonna get more funky from here, but it's really the only way I see it as plausible. Trying to work out the science of a comic book is hard.

I don't need a new asshole. The one I have works just fine, so please don't rip me a new one with your crappy insults. However if you have actual constructive criticism, I will gladly accept it. If you don't know the difference, you don't have to say anything at all.

Please review! Even if it's just a word or two, I would like to know what you think.

Chapter 896 - 3