He Who Remains

As Alex stood in the control room of the SHIELD Helicarrier, the tension was palpable. The Avengers, visibly shaken but still determined, faced Alex, unsure of his intentions. Thor stepped forward, his gaze steady on Alex.

"Speak, Alex. If you truly come in peace, explain yourself. Why has the Illuminati taken over the Earth? What is this threat you claim to protect us from?" Thor's voice was firm but carried a hint of desperation. The room was silent, every agent and Avenger awaiting Alex's response.

Alex nodded, acknowledging Thor's question. "A few years ago, while traveling through the universe, I encountered a being known as the Watcher. I assume you know who that is?"

Alex pointedly asked Thor.

As for the others, he didn't think they knew about the Watcher's existence. And he wasn't even sure if Thor knew it either. He was just banking on the fact that may be Odin had mentioned about the Observer to him cause that would make it easier to explain to them what he was going to say next.

"Wait, now that you mention this, I do remember father telling me about this vaguely. If I remember correctly then Watchers were allegedly the first advanced species of the universe, committed to observing and compiling knowledge on all aspects of the universe without any interference.

Alex nodded, acknowledging Thor's question. "Correct. So as I was saying, the Watcher, he showed me glimpses of possible futures, timelines where Earth was decimated by cosmic threats far beyond what you have faced so far. Threats that not even the combined might of the Avengers could repel. The destruction of New York in the Chitauri invasion was only a fraction of what is to come."

"Then why not warn us?" Captain America interjected, his voice filled with frustration. "Why not work with us instead of taking control by force?"

"Because you are fragmented," Alex replied sharply, his tone taking on a hard edge. "The governments of Earth, the factions, the constant infighting—you would never be able to unite quickly enough to face what's coming. I didn't want to take control by force, but I was left with no choice. Time is running out, and Earth needs to be united under a single command."

"But what gives you the right to decide this?" Tony Stark, his Iron Man armor now fully formed around him, asked with an edge of defiance. "You can't just play god and expect us to fall in line."

Alex sighed, his expression softening slightly. "I don't claim to be a god, Tony. I am just someone who has seen what is coming, and I am willing to do whatever it takes to prepare us for it. The Illuminati is not about power; it is about survival. I spared the Helicarrier and you, the Avengers, because I believe you can still be a part of the solution. But you need to see the bigger picture."

Thor, still holding back, glanced at his teammates before speaking again. "And what is this threat, Alex? What could be so dire that you felt the need to overthrow the world's governments?"

"Incursion , which might and will mostly likely even elevate to a Multiverse War."

Alex said word by word.

"Wait, wait, wait! What the hell is this Incursion and Multiverse War you're talking about?"

Tony, unable to comprehend Alex's words was starting to doubt if the other party was just playing with them.

"Sigh, the Incursions are when two realities' Earths collide over an 8-hour period, resulting in the destruction of both Earths and their realities. This contracts the entire multiverse, leading to more collisions and the early death of the multiverse. It is possible to stop an incursion by prematurely destroying another universe's Earth."

Alex proceeded solemnly.

"As for how Incursion and the Multiverse War and our current situation are connected, for that you have to learn about a guy named Kang or more specifically Victor Timely."

"In the 31st century, Kang discovered the existence of the Multiverse and countless parallel universes on top of his own. At the exact same time, Kang's alternate selves from other universes started discovering the existence of the Multiverse as well. These alternate selves made contact and started exchanging technology and knowledge in order to improve the other universes along with their own.

A handful of the Variants decided to form the Council of Kangs as a presiding body.

However, one of the members, Kang the Conqueror, believed that their collective temporal meddling would result in the end of the Multiverse as it would eventually lead to Incursions and the collapse of all universes and timelines.

He ultimately came to a conclusion that the only way to bring the order to the Multiverse and prevent its demise was to conquer some realities while destroying certain others."

After saying this, Alex took a momentary pause to let his words sink in properly.

After all, the Avengers of this world are entirely new to all this Multiverse and alternate reality shit. So it's only natural for it to mess up their minds and cognition.

"Moving onwards, Kang the Conqueror sparked the war among all of his alternate selves throughout the Multiverse, which resulted in more and more of Kangs also waging war on each other, seeking to annihilate other realities to save their own from a ruthless conquest. This led to countless Incursions which threatened the stability of the Multiverse as a whole. Kang the Conqueror in particular brought destruction to countless universes, all in an attempt to prevent the ultimate demise of the whole Multiverse. "

"So this threat you're talking about, is this guy called Kang the Conqueror coming to destroy our timeline?"

Captain America asked, trying to organize his thoughts.

"Nope, and although that in itself is an almost impossible to survive situation, but it's way worse than that."

Alex replied with an ugly face.

"As the war continued, the ripples in space-time caused by the Kang Variants resulted in the creation of a trans-temporal entity at the End of Time, which became known as Alioth. He Who Remains discovered Alioth and experimented on him, studying his abilities to consume space and time itself. He eventually decided to weaponize Alioth and used his tremendous power to defeat his alternate selves and put an end to the Multiversal War."

"Wait a second, so you're saying that this whole scary Multiverse War thing is already over? Then all this build up was for nothing?"

Thor said with a deceived look on his face.

"Of course not Thor. So let me finish first before questioning me again and again. Now as I was saying, the Kang who emerged as the victor of the Multiverse War, he started going by the moniker of He Who Remains. "