43 Chapter 39: Just a puppet

***A month later, Kamar Taj.

"We are about to receive a guest, make appropriate preparations." Ancient One walked out of her chambers and ordered the first person she saw outside. 

The young practitioner quickly nodded his head before running to inform the people that were responsible for making preparations. 

Ancient one kept moving in the hallway towards the central hall which didn't have a rooftop. Around 30 young students were performing basic katas in it at that moment. 

They stopped as soon as they spotted her coming toward them, bowing to her in sync. 

The master teaching them spoke without turning around," Why did you all stop? Keep going." 

"Greetings master" He finally bowed to her after that. 

The ancient one just smiled politely as she nodded at him," Greetings to you too, Anand.  How is the training going on?" 

"Just as usual, master. Some require more patience while some are already ready for the next phase." He calmly replied to her as they walked around a little. 

"Good, oftentimes normal can be the best we can afford." Ancient one said from experience.

"If I may, what brings you here today master?" Anand said, looking at his students diligently practicing. 

"Of course, you may. Be more considerate to yourself, my dear. I'm here to welcome a guest of Kamar Taj. " Ancient smiled as she looked at the sky in anticipation. 

"Someone that warrants personal welcome from the sorcerer supreme herself?" Anand asked with a little bit of disbelief. 

"He does deserve my attention. It appears he has arrived." Ancient one said as she narrowed her eyes. 

"I don't see anyone yet." Anand followed his master's eyes but the sky was still clear to his eyes.

Just then, Kar-el slowly revealed himself as his bodysuit turned off its invisibility starting from his legs.

The students followed their master's eyes and what they saw left their mouths agape. They could see a man floating in the air with a red cape fluttering behind him. He slowly descended to the ground as The Ancient one stopped the barriers from stopping him from lowering himself to the ground. 

"It is nice meeting you once again, Mr. Kar-el." The Ancient One greeted him as she walked up to him. 

"The feeling is mutual," Kar-el replied as he observed Kamar Taj for the first time. He must say that he was not disappointed in the least. 

"I hope you didn't have any trouble finding your way here." Ancient one questioned with amused eyes. 

"Not at all, there are not many places on this planet that I can't find the location of."Truthfully, Kar-el might have had trouble finding Taj if he didn't have access to the life equation. As an equation that literally defines the world and its working, it's obviously pretty easy to find a place in it if he strives for it. 

"Shall we?" Ancient one signaled that they should move to some other place now.

"Please, I don't want to disturb these people in their training more than I already did." Kar-el looked at the students as he followed the ancient one. 

"Nice suit you have there." Ancient one commented as they walked by some masters on the way. 

Kar-el was wearing a basic suit of Kryptonian lineage. It was basically Superman's suit in full black except for the cape which was red in color. 

Even though it was not as durable as the original, it overcompensates by providing the ability to basically turn invisible much in the same way as the helicarrier does. 

"Thank you. It's my first time wearing it." Kar-el replied with a hidden meaning. 

"It suits you." 

"That means a lot." Kar-el felt particularly proud feeling the crest of house El after so long. 

"It appears I was wrong in my assessment at first glance that you were in human form. You were not using science or magic to fly moments ago. That is not something a human is capable of." Ancient one signaled Kar-el to sit on one side of the table as she took the opposite side.

"Indeed, while humans and Kryptonians look the same from the inside, the difference becomes apparent when it comes to capabilities." Kar-el drank the tea that was served to him. 

"Let it cool down a bit." Ancient one smiled as everyone left them alone to give them privacy.

"It doesn't really change much. Just a month or so ago I was drifting beside the sun." Kar-el was honest about his remark.

"It does, the taste changes with the temperature." Ancient one shook her head. 

"Such things aside, the reason for you visiting Kamar Taj is?" She finally got to the point.

"I don't really know, I just had a premonition a few days ago that I should visit it and I couldn't ignore it anymore so I did." It all started when Kar-el was working on building a design for stellar pathways with Jane. 

It felt like something was wrong with how things were going and if he visited Kamar Taj, he might find a solution for that. More specifically, the time stone that resides with The Ancient One on Kamar Taj. 

"Hmm, interesting. Most premonitions are just a trick of the mind but considering that you are not a normal being, it might mean something significant. What does it imply? If you don't mind sharing it." The Ancient One seriously gave it a thought.

"I don't really know." Kar-el shrugged his shoulders. 

"I see, with time it will come to you. Moving on, since you are already here I meant to ask a few questions if you don't mind." Ancient one refilled their cups. 

Kar-el nodded. 

"You are not really a primordial being, are you?" She had been thinking about the encounter they had and after a lot of thinking, that was the only conclusion she reached. 

"Not yet. I'm not. " Kar-el answered honestly since there was no point in denying it considering she might find out anyway. 

He wanted peace between them, and deceit could never be a good foundation for long-term peace. 

"Not yet? You mean to imply you will become one?" She asked in return. 

"I do carry the necessary potential, so yes." He said as he put down his cup.

"Are you not afraid that I might try to end you before you end up becoming a primordial?" 

"Do you think I would have told to you face to face if that was possible? You can't end me unless you wish to face the consequences of destroying one of the singularities. I am the singularity that embodies and exemplifies the rules that make and govern this multiverse. " Kar-el smirked at the provocation. 

"That is indeed a problem. Second question, the borders between our realm and other planes of existence got stronger, do you have anything to do with that?" 

"Consciously no but it might be one of the undesired reactions to my complete awakening." It took some time for Kar-el to answer this question because he was not aware of it completely. 

"Okay, final question. What is your motive? Your end goal?" Ancient one got up from her seat as she asked him that. 

"End goal, huh? ..... It's something that you yourself wish to see happen but find it impossible to happen in any of the timelines." 

"What?" 

"We would need more privacy than this if we wish to discuss that." Kar-el slowly created a resonance between the life equation and the Time stone to create a domain outside of any of the timelines of the multiverse. 

By extension, they also became free from the observation done by He who remains, and any of his variants.

"The end of the puppeteer sitting at the end of time." 

"He who remains!!" Ancient one widened her eyes at that. 

"Yes, I'm the embodiment of rules, the thing that makes him so powerful.  When the rules themselves have an agenda of their own, he can't possibly remain on his throne for long." Kar-el knew from the beginning that Thanos was not the biggest threat out there. 

The biggest threat comes from beings that have power over creation and destruction on their own; and even though Kang is just a mortal, the control over timelines that he has makes him an even tougher opponent than the celestials. 

"You wish to win against him?" Ancient one asked with grave seriousness. 

"Yes." 

"You are fighting an already lost battle, I'm afraid." Ancient one shook her head.

"Don't you see it? He has already begun the process of you turning into one of his puppets." She continued.

"I think I get what your premonition was about. It was to warn you about him. Now that we are out of the timelines, he doesn't have any control over us." 

"Think carefully about your past actions that you have committed in recent years. I know for a fact that you are not a resident of earth, and you appear to be highly capable as far as knowledge is concerned. " 

"Why is it that someone as capable as you would just sit peacefully like a duck after you arrived on earth? Your actions do not justify themselves."

"Saving women that you stumbled upon is possible but you are not the type of person that cares about strangers after that. You seem like a person that only cares about a small group of people that you are associated with."

"You also seemed highly capable in various sectors of science then why is that all that you accomplished after coming to earth is to restart your A.I. assistant. What is the probability of all of this happening? " Ancient one asked.

"That's...." Kar-el had no answer to justify his actions now that he thought about it.

"Is it because you are lazy? I don't think so. Are you really lazy or has someone been manipulating your thoughts?" Ancient one kept challenging Kar-el. It was indeed true, he is indeed a bit lazy but not to this extent. 

He accomplished a mountain of achievements on Krypton, he was only second to Jor-el when it comes to science. No lazy person could achieve that. 

"It is indeed true that you can't be affected by the time stone as long as you resist but all that he who remains has to do to control your actions is to kill all the probabilities that he doesn't like so by default you only take actions that he prefers for you to take." 

"As long as you are a part of the timeline ruled by him, you can't defeat him. In the end, you would end up becoming just a puppet." Ancient one sighed softly. She herself felt weak against him even though she has the time stone to remove his control over her to some extent. 

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How do you like this turn of events? I was really excited about this chapter in person. 

I would also like to thank Sommo_Arcano for pointing out some constructive flaws in my book.

Most chad proofreaders in existence:

Mootje

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