Time Stone.

Now before I go and demolish the psychosphere, I have things to make sure of.

After all, the process of selectively wiping out an entire world's collective consciousness while leaving the people unharmed is like try to peel a potato without hands while balancing on unicycle above a bottomless chasm.

A herculean task.

Thankfully, I'm no chump.

Hell, I can even confidently say that I am better than Rick now. In absolute terms.

Suffice to say, I can do it.

In time.

And while my A.I. works on the preliminary research, I had a laundry list of tasks to accomplish.

First was makng sure my kids were safe once I went and locked myself up in my lab for the next month or so.

Secondly, there's the problem of the Infinity Stones and Thanos.

Thirdly, the looming threat of Dormammu.

If the Ancient One is going to have a stick up her ass about him as an excuse for not handing over the Time Stone, I will just eliminate him at the source.

I have wasted too much time going easy on this place, trying to conserve valuable resources.

No more.

Let's start bottom up.

I stood up, and opened a portal to the Sanctum.

I exited the portal into the meeting room and the Ancient One flew in.

"Just the person I was looking for." I greeted.

"What do you want, Jay?" She asked, annoyed.

"What? Am I not welcome here anymore?"

"After trying to spark a conflict between the Sanctum and the Scarlet Witch? I'd say no. You are not. And as it is my hospitality has run thin." She replied, her voice laced with venom.

"See. That's what I was talking about. She's not a person to you, is she? No. She's the big, scary Scarlet Witch, bringer of doom."

"She is what she is. What matters is what she does with her power. And don't you act like you are not after her for the same reasons!" The Ancient One shot back.

"Touche. But, in my defense, she has more utility to me as a mobile, renewable source of entropic magic, and not as a weapon if mass destruction. For you, however? Tsk tsk tsk!" I wagged my finger at her.

She rolled her eyes, and circled around me, taking out her artifact fans.

"What are you here for?" She repeated.

"Ah yes. About that. I was wondering if there's a dark dimension, is there also a light dimension?"

"Yes there is. Why?"

"Could I get a peek at it. And the dark dimension too while we're at it. Just for some research work. And in return I'll solve a long time problem for you."

Her eyes went wide in realisation.

"You don't mean-"

"Atatatat! No spoilers. Keep the audience waiting. Let the suspense simmer a bit." I said.

"What are you talking about?" She frowned.

"Nothing." I shook my head, "Now come on. A little peek. I'll even throw in some more equipment for dealing with spiritual entities."

She looked at me suspicious for a solid minute before she relented.

"Fine. But you will not bring trouble to the Sanctum." She warned.

"Quite the contrary. You'll see." I assured.

"And if anything goes wrong I have teleport beams targetting every living soul in the facility and well as a separate beam targetting the sanctum itself.

If anything goes wrong, and it won't, I'll teleport all of this." I gestured around us, "To another location on the leyline chart you taught Wanda."

"So she has been teaching you, after all?" The Ancient One asked.

"Oh no. Not yet. But soon enough. I just asked for the charts as a matter of course. I prefer to know the lay of the land I deal with." I waved her concerns off.

"That is to say preparing countermeasures against magic." She scoffed.

"Precisely. But so have you, so let's not play these little games. Now. On with it." I ordered.

"Mind how you speak to me, Jay. I am being wholly respectful here. Do not push me."

"Oh? Have I pushed you?" I gasped mockingly, "Do so forgive me, my lady. It's just that yesterday, I had to look my son in the eyes and tell him that his mother was going to be sleeping for a long, long while. And it broke my heart to do so.

All because a certain 800 year old hag wouldn't hand over the Time Stone and croak already.

Now maybe it will help or maybe it won't but I won't know it until I try.

So here I am.

But, I won't be forceful or violent. You are not a bad person. I know that. I promised you, and we made a deal. So I am here to fulfill that deal. Right here, right now. I will deal with Dormammu. And you will hand over the Time Stone." I replied calmly.

Her expression softened a bit.

"I'm sorry, Jay. I didn't mean to-"

"I know, Ancient One. I...I just want to get this done with. I'm tired too, you know. And lately, these flashes of I don't know what...they just push me to-"

My eyes suddenly went wide in horror as I realized something and so did the Ancient One.

"Jay. Don't take this the wrong way. But I think you should let me examine you. These symptoms, they are not medical, I presume?"

"I am immortal so...no." I said, gulping in apprehension.

"Yeah, I think you should check."

The Ancient One drew closer, and gently placed a hand on my temple as a pulse of energy shot out of her hand, zipping through me like a seismic charge, shaking me to my core while she used her other hand to flip through dimension after dimension, trying to locate something.

Then, suddenly she stopped and opened her eyes, surprised.

"You stole the entire collective consciousness of humanity from another world?!" She exclaimed, rubbing her temples, "And you just dumped it in this reality, no questions asked. Ypu could have destroyed the human race!"

" But I didn't. I'm careful with stuff like this. But that you mention it..." I sighed.

"So it is the thought entity. And here I thought I had it contained."

"Yes. It's a part of you, it seems. Like a parasite.

Naturally it can take certain liberties with the host." She said, summoning a handful of books to her.

They floated around her as she used the Time Stone to speed read through them.

"It has ripped a hole between your Id and your Ego. Your baser impulses, your raw emotions are leaking into your logical half. This is dangerous. Have you felt intense sexual urges towards anyone recently? Uncharacteristic ones perhaps? Or violent thoughts? Sadistic ones?"

Ugh.

That rang way too many bells to be comfortable.

The lust I felt for C.C., the unnecessary torture of Frigga and Thor and them all, Thanos escaping because I wanted a battle, to crush his head with my own two hands.....

That bloodlust....

Shit!

"No wonder I was acting so aggressive and emotional and frankly stupid. I'm surprised I haven't destroyed this world already." I clutched my hand, my nails digging into my palm drawing blood.

"Stupid, fucking idiot!" I ground my teeth.

"I can try to heal it. It won't solve the problem but ot will patch it up for now. I will look for a solution in the meantime. And....I highly suggest learning magic if not from me, then at least from Wanda." She suggested, pity on her face.

"Yes, actually, I was already planning on it. Tommorow then." I said.

"The sooner the better." She suggested.

I looked up at her, and felt guilty.

How badly had I treated her?

And sure, it was because of the wound but.....

"Thanks. Honestly. Thank you, Ancient One." I said, my face buried in my hands, as she cast the spell over me.

"Don't worry about it. It is my duty to protect the world and that includes it's inhabitants." She smiled kindly, and it reminded me of my grandmother.

I nearly choked up but I held it back.

This thought entity, Akasha however.... it dies today.

I pulled out my mega seed juice and downed the whole flask in one go.

Slowly, slower than all the times before even, the world began to dissolve into equations and geometry, math and rationale, as my logical side took over.

It was severely impaired by that hole in my mind but ot also made me realize something.

When was the last time it had taken over?

Not since the immortality, that's for sure.

Shit.

Note to self.

Drink more mega seed juice.

I turned to the Ancient One with cold, decisive eyes and repeated my request.

"This might be awkward to ask right now, but I did indeed come here to get rid of Dormammu, so could you please open a portal to the Dark Dimension?"

She looked back at me and pursed her lips in worry.

"Are you sure? He is an eldritch god. Beyond time and reach. Even logic." She warned.

"But he still lives within dimensional space, right?" She nodded.

"100 percent then." I replied confidently.

She relented and extended her hand and began to circle it in the air, her fans floating around her, battle ready as a portal of burning, sparking gold, rimmed in muddied purple opened up before us.

"Are you ready? Because I will make this fast. The moment I say close the portal, just trust me and do it." I requested.

"What? Are you going to collapse the Dark Dimension's reality?" She joked.

But when she saw my smile, her face warped.

"You are going to collapse the Dark Dimension aren't you?"

I smiled wider, as I finished making my calculations for a dimensional strike, lining up a dimensional anchor into the Godslayer, reversing it's polarity and setting it to blow on impact.

A portal opened up inside the dark dimension, glowing neon green, and I raised my hand.

"Do it!" I cried out, snapping my fingers.

The Godslayer fired, and with a deafening boom, ripping through my portal.

My portal shattered into countless shards, dissipating into thin air, as if it had dissolved into the fabric of space itself.

Immediately, the Ancient One closed her portal, and the world itself shook, the mirror dimension popping into the regular one, shards of reality fluttering like a curtain in a storm, before as suddenly as it had appeared, it all settled down, collapsing in on itself.

Then, there was silence as we waited and watched, while the Ancient One flipped through the dimensions checking for extant damage, and we passed a few minutes in silence.

Till she broke it.

"The dark dimension is....in tatters. It won't pull itself back together anytime soon." She exclaimed.

"This will cause a profound imbalance in power across dimensions. More work for us."

"More than constant demonic incursions from the Dark Dimension?" I asked.

She gave me a deadpan look, and sighed.

"I suppose not. Still, you are a madman. You know that?" She looked at me with utter amazement in her eyes as a dark symbol faded from her forehead and she relaxed, falling into chair, sighing in relief.

Suddenly she seemed to age a hundred years, then a hundred more, wrinkles appearing on her face and she coughed, rasping like a cock in the morning.

I just smiled and waited for her to get it all out of her system and she leaned back into the chair, resting her newly aged back.

"You collapsed a reality!" She muttered, snapping her fingers, "Like that!"

"Satisfied?" I asked.

"Relieved. More than you can imagine." She said, removing the Eye Of Agamotto from her neck and handing it to me.

"Take it. As promised." She smiled, genuinely, for the first time in centuries.

"And what about you? Will you be okay? I have some de-aging serums if you want-" I asked, when she stopped me.

"Don't go soft on me now, Jay." She croaked, shooing me away, "I will find a way. Worry about your own problems. Go now. Do what you will with it."

I nodded and opened a portal back home.

Stepping through, I turned back one last time and bowed to her.

"Thank you. Truly."

She smiled back.

"I know."

_________________

Next extra chapter at 600 powerstones.

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