1 The Beginning of the Real End

It was an early morning when a man walked in the middle of his lake house with everyone else sleeping. He went to the place where he considered it the last attachment with his previous long epic life as a genius.

He didn't want to return to such life ever again, however his soul, something there was aching, asking for revenge, driving him to wake up in the morning, and went alone into his small room.

"Play the model we played yesterday night," once he entered the room, and the central table lightened up, he said these words with a heavy face.

A hologram appeared in front of his eyes, with detailed construction of his idea, the idea that would revolutionize everything.

"The model is ready," a soft female voice came, replying to him, from no specific direction, as if she was a ghost speaking to him.

"Run the sim again, please," he requested, as he crossed his hands over his chest for a stressful moment, as he watched the AI running the simulation he saw last night.

"Processing," the response swiftly came, as the structure in front of his eyes started to rotate, upside down, freely like being uncontrolled by anything, while its surface kept fluctuating, indicating the minute adjustment being processed over it.

He didn't wake up this early, came down here just for that. He knew he had cracked everything, found a way to make everyone return back in time, change everything, save everyone.

"Is it worth it?" he turned, while muttering these soft words, as he glanced at the direction he just came from. He had already started a great life, yes full of pain, surely had many regrets, but at least he had pep and Morgan with him.

"Model rendered," the female voice came again, responding to his previous demand, "The model is a success."

He just watched it again, and the words his AI just said to him didn't even make him flinch. He already knew that his model was a success, and that wasn't the issue at all, however he was thinking about the dilemma he was staying currently at.

"I should at least bring it to them," he softly muttered, while looking away from the model, as he turned to leave, "at least this is all the help I can offer currently," he added as his steps took him outside the room.

"The analysis of project A45ET0 has been completed, do you want to show it?" the sound of his AI trusted assistant just came to make him freeze. He just woke up, didn't even have his breakfast or his morning coffee, and yet the moment he heard the name of this project, his face totally froze.

"Say again?" he demanded, as he returned back to the inside of the room, grabbing a seat and sitting just next to the hologram.

"The analysis of project A45ET0 has been completed, do you want to show it?"

"Is this the project that I tasked you with five years ago?" he asked, with a shocked expression over his face.

"Yes, it's, you have an excellent memory , sir," the female AI assistant replied again, making his doubts come true.

"That's unbelievable," he sighed, as he shook his head, before he squeezed his head with both his palms, trying to refresh his mind, reset everything inside, as he finally said:

"Bring it on, let's see what this secret recording holds for me."

"Right away."

He returned his back to lean more comfortably on his seat, before the hologram in front of him vanished, and a huge screen appeared in front of his eyes.

There were six infinity stones, the sources of all of his and everyone's misery, floating peacefully in front of his eyes, in the middle of the vast calm, yet so peaceful, universe.

"I swear I could still hear that magic show, assistant of the Doctor Strange, words in my ears right now," he mumbled, as he had seen this exact same picture before.

It was slightly longer than five years from now, when he was just having a nice day off with pepper, trying to convince her to have a baby. These moments before Thanos were really so peaceful that even remembering them hurt.

This was the moment when he was truly shocked, as his in depth, soul tearing fear that once traumatized him resurfaced, and strangely his soul felt the same fear again.

"Show me what you got," he simply muttered, as he still recalled what happened on that day like it happened yesterday. The first time he heard this doomed story about the universe and its original secrets, his Ai assistant had notified him of something she noticed.

There was an encrypted message inside the presentation he witnessed back then. That message was hidden deep enough that discovering it was literally impossible for any human.

However Tony Stark wasn't just a normal human, but a genius who always used the above edge technology as his strongest, most trusted ally.

Since that day, five years ago, his AI assistant kept deciphering the message. Now, from all days, she managed to break it, making this a really unbelievable coincidence.

English words started to float in the centre of the six moving stones, making them look like planets orbiting a sun, or electrons orbiting a nucleus.

"Read it loud for me, please," he squeezed his head again, and this time he modified his glasses to squeeze the bridge between his eyes, while his mind was trying to accept this was all just a mere coincidence.

But truly speaking, he never believed in coincidences, and this was such one that was so hard to believe!

The sound of his assistant came, while she started reading the lines, as they kept moving upwards slowly.

"Since the dawn of all ages, six stones held an infinite amount of power, and all beings came to know them as the infinity stones. Wars kept raging over the long line of time, with endless lives being lost during the search for some greedy sons of the universe for strength.

Brave warriors lost their lives trying to put an end to them, trying everything to destroy the stones, and throughout the long age of the universe, this only happened four times, with the usage of stones to kill stones be the only means to do so.

However, no one had ever realized the main issue, the core of all problems, these stones were born from the womb of the universe, never to be destroyed without the destruction of the universe as a whole.

As long as the universe remained standing, these stones managed to find a way to gather their dispersed energies, and form brand new stones, announcing the failures of everyone.

However…

In the distant future, a group of courageous heroes will try again to destroy the stones for the fifth time, and they will succeed, and one hero from them will be the only one able to finally put an end to all this suffering caused by these stones.

This hero will be the only one able to find my message, understand it well, and act by it. This hero uses the great weapon of his mind, creating a legend of himself, before falling as a martyr on the altar of battle against the greedy son of the universe.

This message is for the hero who is listening to my words right now, my name is Marvel, and I live in a time and place you won't be able to imagine or find a trace of at your current time.

I'm a great foreteller, who is blessed with the gift of seeing the future, and I have seen yours. I can see you now, sitting in front of my message, with doubt, disbelief, and extreme fear on your face.

Don't be afraid, life is just a journey, and you have already left a legacy that will continue for the end of the time. you will create another legacy, except you won't be able to see it through, not in your time, not in your life.

You will have the ability to collect every shred of energy dispersed from the stones when you will destroy them. You will find a way to create an imaginary world, where this infinite energy will be the core of it, creating a whole new universe by you, for everyone to live.

Your heroes will perish, and after two more generations your legacies will end. This will be the moment of completing all of your work, and your final masterpiece will be completed after that date.

Inside that new universe of your own making, you will be able to put threads of every single hero of your friends there, making others able to obtain them if fated to be, and a final eternal war will erupt inside your universe, where it will end with its destruction, and the destruction of all the stones with it, or the birth of a miracle, and a new savior will appear, a new guardian will take your place in the universe.

All of you will perish, all except one, one who will carry my own legacy. Trust this hero with everything, and I'm sure this hero will be up to the responsibility of guarding your work until the end.

Don't fret, don't panic, don't hesitate, this is your destiny, you know I'm true to my words, honest in my claims, and this will be the only way to get rid of the fear that haunts you, as it haunted mine, and many others before and after me."

The words stopped here, and the face of Tony was expressing how conflicted he was right now. "This isn't a coincidence at all," he murmured, as he knew for sure this was a touch of fate, a very rare one indeed.

He stayed in his place for hours, observing the calm picture of the universe with the six stones rotating in a circle without end. The words of that ancient being kept repeating itself inside his mind, the more he thought about it, the more he believed and doubted it at the same time.

"There is a primitive model inside the message, I just decrypted it, do you want me to view it?" the sound of the assistant suddenly came, startling him, kicking him out of the distracting thoughts. "Sure, show it on," he mumbled, as he took off his glasses and tiredly rubbed his face with his hand.

Suddenly a model appeared in front of his eyes, it wasn't a model, it was a shape of a galaxy. The moment he saw this his face froze, as he adjusted his body on his seat, and stared with attention on this model.

"Analyze," he simply gave the order in the middle of his attentive look at the model.

"Processing."

The galaxy he was seeing was so big, full of planets, suns, and many other celestial objects that he felt he dazed.

"Analysis is complete. The model here had some marks that are strange and unique than anything else," the sound of his assistant came to confirm his hunch. This wasn't everything, this was a fake screen to what the real model was.

"Isolate them and bring them together," he said, with some spirit in his tone, "and remove this model from my sight, shall you?" he added, as he knew this wasn't important to be seen again.

"Isolation process is done. Analyzing the isolated components, they are strangely fitting each other. Collecting them together now. The process is complete, the final model is presented now."

The sound of his assistant came like a music in his ears, and the next second a new model appeared in front of his eyes. He stood up from his chair, with extreme shock and great interest when he saw this model.

"It's a flat earth! It's a flat universe!!" the shockingly muttered while he started to touch this model with his hands, and rotated it, examining every single aspect of it. "Analyze this model, and start a new project," he said, with excitement that was long missed from his life.

"Analysis is complete, this model is very sophisticated, despite it's made of abundant materials on earth and in the universe, gathering them together require an extreme amount of energy that can't be produced currently with the known technology."

His eyes shone brightly, as he softly muttered, "but this can be glued together with the infinite stones energy!" he put his hand over his mouth as he was so shocked with what he just said.

This was, unbelievingly, matching the ancient words of that ancient being!

He retreated a couple of steps before falling his body over the seat from his shock. "What do you want to name that project?" his assistant asked, however his mind was busy repeating the words of that being.

"So, I will give the order for you to make the model applicable, and be there at the moment of the stones destruction to absorb their energy, and transfer it to you to use. One of us will be blessed with a long life and will be responsible for protecting you here, and after two generations of mine, you will complete everything, and during which every single one of us will have no heir! That means I have to collect others genes, and trust them to use them!!"

He replied, in a very soft tone, while his eyes shone brightly with brilliance. "Sorry, I didn't quite understand your meaning, do you want to name the project with all these names?" his assistant asked again, attracting his attention to her, as he finally muttered:

"I know what I have to do, I must not leave their side even for a single minute! I have to be there, witnessing the beginning of the real end!"

"Sir, please give me the name you want for the project!" the assistant insisted again, as she was programmed not to create projects without names.

"Give it the name…" he paused, as his mind was busy linking the dots. He had already figured out the identity of that one who would act as his final and ultimate project guardian, and he also knew how to collect the stones' energy. As for the name, he had a moment of inspiration here, as he added:

"Let it be named: Marvel Genesis Online! It will be a virtual reality game project where you will create a whole new universe using the energy of these stones."

He then started to add a long series of orders, shaping the distant future of his last, long, and ultimate project.

After he finished here, he left the house where he went to the garage, where a failed model was there waiting for him. he didn't hesitate to take it back to the office again, where he put it on the table and started working with his assistant, making the hand that would later on held the stones together before he would destroy them, sacrificing his life in the process.

And his legacy will be going on with the protection of the destined hero.