Chapter 16: Welcome back in advance!

~MC POV~

I was surprised to see the Eternals joining Steve's side since they remained inactive even when Thanos, a supposedly Eternal in the MCU, came to earth and wiped half of all life. It took some thinking but they likely joined Steve's side to get to me.

In hindsight that was the option that brought the least amount of attention. If they joined Tony and Reed's side, they would have to register which would hinder their order to not interfere with human history in the future as people would seek them as they did in the past.

I could only think of three reasons as to why they would be looking for me. First and most likely, Arashem ordered them to do it. Second, they come to kill me as Ajax might think I would stop the celestial from being born if I ever learned of it. That one was the least likely as from what they should know, I know nothing of their existence. I know that since I constantly listen to their conversations. Ajax might also have found that Mutant and Deviants are linked. In the third and last one, Ajax decided to betray Arashem as she did in the MCU but wanted to seek my help before telling the rest of the Eternals.

Hmm? You want to know how I know about the mutants being linked to deviants. Well, it is very simple. When I played the role of therapist for Rick, I used the time it took them to book an appointment and come to the said appointment to watch every MCU movie, that I had not seen, and a few Marvel comic books summary. I know about Eternity, his wish-granting legend as well as Uranus.

At first, I thought that building a city would be enough but from what I know. The city has a 41.3457% of survival without me guarding it if an invasion were to happen. I do not underestimate the other mutants whether they be X-men or from the Brotherhood of mutants, I simply know that with what could be coming they stand little chance. I could inform them but that would be after I made Mars completely secure.

It is in times like this that I love the fact that I hid my powers. If the Eternals knew what I was truly capable of and were still aiming to kill me, they would have gone for those I care about. If there is something I learned from the DC Injustice story is that no matter how much power you have, you can always lose if the plot is a bitch. That and it does take strength or 12th-level intellect to break the most powerful man on Earth. If Superman had been known to be weaker physically, Joker would have gone toward him instead of Lois.

Everyone will always go for the easier solution especially if the other option has close to zero chance of success. I knew that. That's why I make sure the other option is the one that "seems" to be the easiest one or at the very least achievable.

The good thing about this was that I could ask Odin about Eternity without being suspicious. I was planning on asking him that after fighting Hela. When he asks me where I heard that, I would simply say that there are Eternals on Earth and I have excellent ears. Knowing him, he would tell me on the condition that I give the space stone back. He would spin it in a way to make me believe that the journey can not be easy while trying to take the key I had. Again, I love the fact that I hid my powers. Odin would surely give me the correct map or directions if he knew that I could never reach Eternity, all the while I would still have the "key".

There was also the chance that Odin did not know about the "key" to reach Eternity. Even Zeus did not know what the "key" was else he would have reached Eternity first. I think the reason Gorr found what the "key" was is due to the necrosword giving him information. It is said that it can store the consciousness of its user. Well, the previous user or users must have known where Eternity was and after a lot of searching Gorr was able to find the missing "key" to this puzzle.

Either way, Odin was likely to give me the directions. I had a lot to ask Eternity, I knew that he would only grant one wish but I had thought of ways to circumvent that. Every time I thought about it I could not help myself but grin.

One of my most advanced Artificial Intelligence had been tasked to watch Advanced Idea Mechanics (A.I.M) with extreme care. Especially someone named Owen Reece, if he were to come close to malfunctioning equipment, I was to be informed at the same instance. He was one of the most broken characters in Marvel comics. He had the powers of molecule manipulation.

That might not seem as much but he possesses the ability to mentally control, transform, create, command, and manipulate the molecules, atoms, electrons, neutrons, particles, and quips and all reality, time, space, universes, dimensions, multiverses, ultraverses, extraverses, omniverses, realities, existences, worlds in all past, presents and futures and all matter and energy.

[AN: I took the description of his powers from https://ultimate-marvel-cinematic-universe.fandom.com/wiki/Molecule_Man]

Now you must be thinking that I could already do that with fewer work thanks to the infinity stones. Well, the thing was that my powers could be countered by two or three more pairs of infinity stones of the same powers there was also the change of them not working in a different reality other than this one and the DC reality I went before. With the powers of the Molecule man, I was guaranteed that those powers would work everywhere and every when. Even Captain America with the powers of the Infinity Gauntlet, along with all six stones, could not stop an incursion from happening but Dr. DOOM with the powers of Molecule Man could.

You might say that since I have zero interest in looking at other realities and that I could make others do as such that an incursion would not happen, right? Well, that still does not stop the other morons from the other universe. For those that don't know an incursion is what happened when two realities collide with one another. It is not a pretty sight to see. I rest my case.

I was planning on letting a little bit loose after finding Eternity so I might as well get stronger while stopping two villains from ever being created. Plus Molecule Man is a ticking time bomb by some psychopathic beings known as "The Beyonders". They will surely notice me when I take the place of Owen but I plan to scare them to the point they will not even consider coming into this reality. I doubt people will keep underestimating me after I beat the likes of Hela even if I only help. Though it never hurts to always keep a few aces up my sleeve since the easiest enemy to have is the one that thinks he has already won the battle.

Huh? You are still not getting it? Okay, in layman's terms, I would be basically getting Dr. Manhattan's powers. Yeah, now you understand why I wouldn't say no to that.

Unless something urgent happens, I am not planning on leaving my cell unless Odin asks for my help, Steve breaks everyone from the Negative Zone, who only has me and the hundred guards or Hulk comes back and they beg me to fight him since Sentry does not exist here.

Hmm. It looks like Steve fell into Tony's trap. Let's watch the show.

~3rd POV~

The clone brought his hammer towards the sky aiming to throw it at his adversary but before he could, two yellow rays hit his chest sending him flying through the entire plant. Everyone took this as the signal to attack the other side. Steve's group now had a morale boost as they charged at the Pro-registration group.

Icarus flew towards Thor's clone. As he approached the hole made by the clone, Icarus received a hammer to the face. The clone had thrown it toward his opponent. This did not send Icarus flying but greatly disoriented him as Mjolnir was not something to scoff off.

Icarus fell to the ground with blood flowing down his open mouth. He managed to regain his sight, although still blurry, just in time to realize that the clone was swinging his hammer down to Icarus' head. It had the full intention of smashing Icarus' head as if it was a watermelon. Icarus, in a moment of adrenaline, flew towards the clone and body slammed the clone into the sky. This allows Icarus to evade the attack of the clones and bring the fight to his advantage at the same time.

Icarus had heard of the Avengers. He thought nothing of them except two. The first was Lor as they had similar powers and the second was Thor as he was the so-called "God of Thunder". Icarus was not sure if he could beat Lor since to his knowledge, their powers were nearly identical. No matter how he imagined it, it was only if they fought that he get his answers. For Thor's case, it was simple. Thor could barely fly with his hammer. It was straight lines at best. If Icarus kept the fight in the air while making sure that Thor could not use his hammer by either blasting him with his heat vision or hitting him, Icarus thought he would win.

As they flew higher, Icarus kept delivering a liver blow to the clone, said the clone had enough and decided to lift his hammer to strike his foe. Icarus heard the sound of lightning hitting Mjolnir. He knew what the clone was about to do thus he looked at the clone's stomach and fired a heat vision. This gave him the chance to evade Mjolnir but he could not evade the lightning that followed the magical hammer. He screamed in pain but managed to regain his bearing. He was the strongest Eternals on this planet, according to him, he flew toward the descending clone and slammed it to the ground with his heat vision and fists. They hit the ground.

*BOOM*

Icarus stood up and proceeded to beat the shit out of the clone. Right hook, left hook, right hook again then left hook once more. It continued as it gained the attention of some.

*KA-BOOM**KA-BOOM**KA-BOOM**KA-BOOM*

Icarus fired his yellow heat vision at the clone's face. It started to melt his skin. Although, Tony and Reed had succeeded in cloning Thor. They only managed to make a clone that was half as durable and as strong as him. They could not clone Thor's centuries years old experiences and only managed to make the clone worthy by implanting in the clone's mind the notion that the registration act would save billions of lives or at the very least keep them safe.

As the clone's skin melted, robotic features could be seen. Those quick-witted realized that it was not the real Thor. They had their doubts but this was the proof. As Icarus kept firing at the clone, he failed to notice a green slender fist approaching his face. As it made contact with him, Icarus was sent flying through the battle only to be caught by Goliath, a member of Stev Secret Avengers. He was of African-American origin and had the power to enlarge his body to that of a giant.

As Goliath caught the flying Icarus, he left himself exposed to Scott langs' attack. Both had grown big before they started fighting. Scott had joined the registration act as Tony had sweetened the deal for him to be able to get custody of his daughter after a few months of work for S.H.I.E.L.D. That was something he could not refuse especially since, during his fight with Yellowjacket, his identity was revealed. After asking Hank Pim for advice, both agreed that the registration act was right.

The two titans fought with their fists only as both knew that if either moved at the wrong time, they could crush their teammates. After receiving a punch from Scott Lang, Goliath stood his ground awaiting the next hit with his guard up but before the new Ant-Man could attack, Icarus' eyes start to shine yellow. Scott, seeing this put his guard up. The heat vision hit Scott's forearm as he screamed loud enough to stop everyone's fight. Scott's left forearm was barely hanging to the rest of his arm.

Seeing this gruesome scene made everyone, with rationality, stop even Icarus who had realized that he let his anger get the best of him. Sadly for everyone, the clone did not possess rationality. It saw that the greatest threat was distracted and seized the opportunity. The clone sent lightning with the intention to kill his enemy Icarus. The latter noticed it just in time to evade the attack but sadly the same could not be said for Goliath. The lightning strike killed him instantly. The giant hero fell with shock and horror still printed on the face of his corpse.

At this point, Tony was reminded of Lor's words.

"Remember to not lose sight of the objective."

Nobody could hear his shaken voice in his Iron-Man suit.

Tony: What have we done... What have I done...

Steve seeing this stopped his fight with Tony. He had been beaten up pretty badly as he was bleeding from every part of his body and his uniform was tattered.

Steve: Everyone retreat. Cloak brings everyone back to base.

Cloak, a new hero whose body was completely covered by a cloaked, did as such. Nobody in the Pro-registration act group stopped them as they were still too shocked to move. Goliath's body as well as his visible face prevented him from looking elsewhere. The clone on the hand was not going to sit by and watch. He prepared himself to continue the battle but before he could chase the retreating side, a hand stopped him by grabbing his Shoulder. The clone looked back to see that Vision had been the one to stop him.

Vision: Enough! This fight has gone on for too long. They will be no more fighting, at the very least not today.

The clone stopped in place as it looked at Vision. Vision seeing this sighed and looked at the corpse of Goliath. He had been for the registration act to prevent this kind of thing from happening. He was inwardly happy that Wanda did not participate in this fight. He also had some comments for Tony about this robotic clone of Thor and for Reed about the Sentinels that had been fighting the mutants that had come to aid the secret Avengers.

Vision: Such a-

Vision could not finish his sentence as his head had been smashed. What Vision failed to realize was the clone was analyzing whether Vision was for the registration act or not. He had fought with them thus he was for the registration but he had also stopped the clone thus aiding the criminal in escaping which meant that he was against the registration act. The clone saw Vision mourning the death of Goliath thus it meant to it that Vision was an ally of the criminal making Vision a criminal.

Tony and Reed had programmed it to "enforce the registration act". The clone wasted no moment to attack Vision with Mjolnir. Vision being distracted could not phase through that surprise attack, that he did even know of. The attack managed to smash Vision's head into pieces to the horror of everyone present. Tony, although too late, shut down the clone. The clone had already been immobilized by Mjolnir finding him not worthy and pinning his hand to the ground.

Tony: Thor stop. Order: Godhood-0613-Omega.

The clone stopped moving. Everyone looked between the headless body of Vision, the corpse of Goliath, and Scott who was being administrated first aid. They started to question their choice. What had happened was something even the villain questioned.

Days went by as people from both sides chose to switch sides or stay out of everything. The majority opted for the latter. The people on Tony's side discussed that he helped build a robotic clone of his friend who had used the fact that their teammates had been gravely injured to murder someone. Sue decided to take Franklin with her to the city of Fortitude after divorcing Reed.

Johnny came with her as he was beyond livid to learn what happened after waking up from his comma. He had been attacked by a mob of angry civilians for what had happened with the New Warriors. He screamed at Reed and Tony. He insulted the for using the lie of a possible city being in danger to lure their friends and colleagues.

Those that wanted nothing to do with this civil war decided to move to the city of Fortitude. It consisted mostly of those that did not have a city to protect. Jennifer, A.K.A She-Hulk, was one of them. She had been for the registration at first but after seeing Vision dying at the hands of Tony and Reed's creation, she wanted nothing to do with this.

Those on Steve's side started to question his leadership since he had been acting strange for some time. Heck, even Icarus seemed more shaken by Goliath's death than Steve. Some people decided to leave his group and return to their city. Peter Parker was one of them. He had initially been tempted to accept Tony's offer and reveal his secret to the world but he remembered what Lor had said to Tony. Tony was asking him not to endanger his life but those of his loved ones.

Peter would never hesitate to risk his life to save that of others, even that of his least favorite fans also known as the inspiration for Omni-man design, but if it came to risking the lives of those he cared for Peter would never do that. His girlfriend, Kitty Pride, had even told him about the numerous times that they got attacked because villains knew where the school for mutants was. He joined Steve's side as he did not accept the registration act. Surprisingly, Jameson did not use him as a way to discredit Captain America. No, Jameson said that he was using this registration act to commit crimes as he wished and bring down the others to his level.

It was barely a day before S.H.I.E.L.D started to hunt him down. They finally managed to capture him after a week of the hunt. Tony and his group had joined in the hunt. They had been absent as they were attending the funeral for both Goliath and Vision. Peter was not the only one to be captured. Everyone from Steve's side that had returned to their solo act was captured along with those that Steve had failed to convince to join his side. S.H.I.E.L.D wanted to record the secret identities of their prisoners as every hero on their side was against it.

After learning people were getting captured, Steve's group decided to stop any more from happening by spreading into groups and lending a hand to those that needed it. The ones that stayed realized that Steve had stopped acting strange. He was now acting like the Captain America they had decided to follow at the start. Only Steve's close circle in the Secret Avengers knew that he suffered from memory loss. As he barely remembers the fight that had happened with Tony and the others. It was concerning but they decided to focus on the matter that was right in front of them.

One of their spies in Tony's group learned of the existence of the prison in the Negative Zone. It was the thing they were looking for. All those who opposed the registration act and had a bone to pick with S.H.I.E.L.D, with all of them on their side then would win the war. It was unanimously decided to storm the prison with a Trojan horse.

Cloak and Dagger would make themselves get caught on purpose as they were getting transported to the prison, they would wait until they entered it for Dagger to use a small range E.M.P to damper the ultra power-dampening collars. That would allow Cloak to teleport everyone from the secret Avengers into the prison.

The plan worked without any problems happening along the way. As Cloak brought the last of the secret Avengers, Tony and his group circled them again. Both groups did not look forward to what was going to happen. Though both groups were relieved when they saw that the other group did not bring their strongest fighter. After the last fight, Tony and Reed destroyed Thor's clone along with any research linked to it as they realize keeping it would lead to everyone else leaving their side while Icarus left Steve's group. He said it was out of guilt for causing Goliath's death but Steve's gut told him there was more to it than Icarus told them.

Seeing the increasing tension, Tony decided to try to lessen it with a joke.

Tony: Steve, don't you think we should stop meeting like this?

Steve: *Sad chuckle* I had the same thought, Tony.

Tony: Surrender Steve. We knew what you were planning that's why we let you get inside the prison. I mean didn't you think it was weird that neither of those two received a body search when they got caught? I knew you would try to rescue them that's why I let the rumor go about this prison reach you thanks to-

Steve: Your spy.

Tony: Huh? You knew.

Steve: Yeah, I knew that why I made a plan this simple as you would let us through if you thought you had us. You weren't the only one who had a spy.

Steve pointed his right index finger at Tony.

Steve: You may have outsmarted me... but I outsmarted your outsmarting!

[AN: I had to do it.]

Tony: huh? That doesn't make any sense-

As he said that, the cells all around the prison started to open. Tony understood what Steve meant now. His spy was Changeling and he had imitated Reed's voice to open every cell in this prison. As the cells opened, a fight ensued.

Spider-Man fought Reed. He was a tough opponent for Peter as even when Peter webbed part of his body to the floor, it would stretch and continue to attack Peter. As they fought, Reed got annoyed that Tony have Peter in his own suit as Peter was already a tough opponent with his famous spider-sense. He understood that Tony had let Peter keep that suit as a way to spy on Captain America and it was the reason why Peter was captured as Tony had omitted to tell Peter about the existence of a tracker in the suit.

The two were too focused on their fight to notice Laura, A.K.A X-23, getting close to Reed. She easily injured Reed's back with her claws made of Adamantium.

Reed: AAAAGRHHHH!

He looked back to see Laura smirking. He realized that she was looking behind him, he remembered that he was fighting Peter. He looked just in time to receive a kick in the face from Peter. This sent Reed flying to the wall facing Peter.

Peter: Thanks, Wolverine 2.0!

That was Peter's nickname for Laura as he knew she hated but find it funny to see her enraged. His spider-sense told him that it was an act as they were friends and she had no animosity towards Peter. Laura knew that Peter was smirking under his mask and decided to get even.

Laura: No problem, that is the least I can do for a soon-to-be-dead man. After all, Lo is here and it would be a shame if he knew that you REALLY CHEATED ON SHADOWCAT!

Peter started sweating buckets of sweat.

Peter: K-keep it down will you! I did not cheat on her and you know it. Are you trying to get me killed? Damn you, Kurt, if I die I will hunt him for eternity.

Laura smirked before going to rejoin the battle.

Peter: Seriously, my joke was harmless while her might get me killed- WOAW Sneak attack isn't a very hero like Mr.Richards.

Reed had regained his bearing and resumed his fight with Peter. As everyone fought one another, only one hero noticed that the S.H.I.E.L.D agents were leaving the prison. Cloak managed to steal an earpiece from an unconscious S.H.I.E.L.D agent that had unfortunately caught the flying Reed Richard. All became clear when he started to listen to the conversation.

Maria: ... I repeat, I want every S.H.I.E.L.D agent out of the Negative Zone in T-5 minutes, you can stay but it will be at your peril...

Cloak looked at the agents evacuating the prison then he looked at everyone fighting. He realized that every one the registration act applied to was here. Maria was planning on locking everyone even those for the registration act and shut down the exit. She was planning on letting them rot in here while they were busy fighting each other. He decided to prevent that.

Cloak made up his mind to teleport everyone. He knew that this many people at the same time would affect his control but he had no choice. He knew that he could not stop the fight in time. Even if he did, there was no guarantee that Maria would not just close the dimension with her men still in here just to prevent anyone from leaving. Cloak concentrates and extends his darkness around everyone. It barely took a few seconds for his darkness to grab everyone and he teleport them out of the prison. That feat took every bit of strength he had, he fainted after they teleported outside the prison. He did not realize that he had teleported the fight in the middle of New York.

You would think the change of scenery would stop everyone from fighting but that only lasted a moment as everyone thought of using this opportunity to finish their opponents and end this fight. It was ironic that their will to end the fight restarted it.

As they kept fighting more and more buildings were damaged. Firefighters, Medics, and the Police were called all around the city as the heroes were fighting one another not realizing that they were endangering those they were supposed to protect.

As the fight went on, more and more buildings were demolished and on fire. The sound of destruction and explosions saturated the city. It was a live pandemonium. Tony sent a blast at Stev who used his shield to block it before throwing it at Tony. The Shield managed to hit Tony's right hand causing his next blast to hit a building behind Steve. The Shield ricochets off Tony's hand to the ground and back into Steve's hand.

Steve ran toward Tony before throwing the shield with all his might at Tony. The Shield managed to plant itself into Tony's armor as Steve hit Tony's helmet with his right fist before following with a left hook. Stev took back his Shield and proceeded to block Tony's beam that came out of his chest.

Neither spoke a word to the other as the fight had gotten too intense for small talk. They might not have looked at the surroundings but they knew that the fights were getting out of hand and they need to finish this. Once one of them lost the fight would be over. It was the only way to end this bloodshed in their minds. Tony's new artificial intelligence told him he had less than 5% power left while Steve had a couple of broken ribs and had lost a lot of blood. They were about to throw their last attack when Lor's advice rang inside their heads.

"Remember to not lose sight of the objective."

This momentarily stopped both of them. They noticed it and aimed to finish the other while he was distracted when both noticed something else. Stev noticed two young kids, one boy and one girl who he could only assume to be siblings, were going to be hurt by a big chunk of the building that was threatening to fall on them. Stev saw that it had started to fall. He threw his Shield towards the kids and his Shield hit the chunk of the building changing its trajectory at the last second and saving the two kids. Steve knew that Tony's blast was going to hit him, he could only put his hands up and brace himself but the blast never came.

Steve looked at Tony who had also braced himself for Steve's Shield. Both looked behind themselves at the same time. Tony saw the two kids next to Steve's Shield and a chunk of the building that was stuck inside the asphalt. It barely took a second after noticing the cracks on the ground to get the full picture.

Steve looked behind to see an old lady and behind her was an empty truck that had crashed into a store. Steve understood what had happened after nothing but the blast mark at the side of the truck.

~Tony/Steve POV~

He saved those kids/old lady. He knew that I would use the opening he gave me but still decided to save them/her. This shock managed to cool my head. I started to notice my surroundings. I realized that this city covered by destruction was New York. My blood froze from the horror. The closer I look the more I realized that we were the ones to cause all of this. This needed to stop. I hoped that at the very least no one had died.

I looked at Steve/Tony. We nodded to each other and went to stop the fights.

~End of Tony/Steve POV~

It took ten minutes but Tony and Steve managed to stop everyone from fighting and started to help those that had to suffer because of them. They did not stop even when people kept blaming them for this. They continued to save those they could in the hope of atoning for their previous actions. In the end, both sides faced each again but this time neither was willing to fight. Steve and Tony came face to face. Police officers were near them.

Steve: This has to stop. It has gone on for too long and people paid for something they shouldn't have.

Tony: *Sigh* Yes, we can both agree on this.

They looked at each other before giving another nod.

Tony: No one identified will be revealed.

Steve: Thanks, Tony.

Steve walk to a police officer and raised his hands showing that he wanted to surrender.

Steve: You are not arresting Captain America but Steve Roger.

They took Steve into custody and had a trial for him after two weeks. Sadly, when he was walking up to the courthouse, Steve was shot in the head by an unknown sniper. The heroes were shocked by Steve's death. Tony was left to deal with the aftermath of the fight as well as deal with Vision's death. Wanda had been put into a coma by Charles as she was going to kill everyone from the Pro-registration act after learning about Vision's death. It had been one of the few times Magneto was agreeing with Charles.

Magneto was one of the few people in the city that knew of Lor's plans. He, along with Logan, Ororo, Henry, Mystique, and Adam knew about project Mars. Lor had informed them that due to the recent events, Earth had been attacked for more than it should. Lor told them that the city needed a last security measure. He told them that in case the battle became too much he was planning to teleport the city to Mars where he was making it livable.

The city of Fortitude welcomed mutants and everyone that wished to live in peace. They knew that Mars was smaller than Earth and thus could not house everyone thus they did not object, they were realistic. If there was something that none of them could prevent at least this way the city would survive. None knew that Lor could "permanently" make Mars bigger.

They were not naive enough to buy that crap. They knew that Lor was making Mars livable to house the city of Fortitude. It would not take long before they needed to expand the city due to more and more mutants arriving as well as those that want to live in peace. They thought it was Lor's way of avoiding conflict with the other countries as they took territory very seriously. None of that was the real reason but Lor would not tell them that.

Tony and Reed search for Lor for weeks before checking the Negative Zone and finding him there. They had forgotten that his cell needed both their voice command to open. Cloak could not teleport him out of it, not that he needed help. Luckily, the food was automatically delivered to the cells.

While everyone was gone or looking at the battle. He even sent a telepathic message to both leaders to stop the fight as it was getting out of hand. Project Mars was already near its completion, the Civil war was not necessary anymore. After ending the war, he looked into the future and smiled.

Lor: It's about time. I was starting to wonder if you were ever coming back. Allow me to welcome you in advance...Bruce!