"What?" I exclaimed, "Im not asking for your left nut, dude. I just want one set of infinity stones. And I know you have a lot of them! So-"
Kang raised a hand to stop me.
"I'm not saying I can't give you the stones. I'm saying that there is no point to it because the stones don't work outside their own reality. As they are now, they're just shiny gems. They hold no power." He explained.
"Don't lie to me. Do you think it's a coincidence I chose this version of your reality to break into? Compared to the infinite other parallel versions out there?" I tapped my finger onto the desk angrily.
"No. I chose this version because I know for a fact that the infinity stones of this reality are unique in that they can be used even outside their universe."
"True. True." He wagged a finger at me, "But that is only true so long as this universe exists. Once this universe dies, the stones will shut off, wherever they are. You see the infinity stones are an aspect of their universe, deeply conceptually connected to it and the expression of their domain on their specific universe."
He opened a drawer on his desk and grabbed something.
"So, when the universe dies, the stones die with it.
The stones I have are from other universes, dead universes. I got them, collected them from my variants. And now, those variants, like their realities, their universes are dead. And you know what that means."
He opened his hand and cast the contents onto the table.
Six gemstones, dull and dark rolled out onto it, showing none of the power expected of the infinity stones.
I picked them up and examined them closely, my contacts zooming in on their insides.
There, only remained faint glimmering wisps of power shone deep within them, giving off a feeling of untenable stagnation, as if nothing could ever bring life and vitality back to them.
It was almost sad.
I sighed.
"So in the end it comes down to this anyway, huh?"
Kang just shrugged.
"Why did you even want the stones? Research? Power? Or something else?"
"A little bit of both. Maybe a little more. I was planning on using them backup generators and some such. The space stone could help with some of my ongoing experiments. Though mainly I was looking for some way to revive my wife."
"Ah, of course. The old dead wife story." He laughed, "Very common, much tragedy."
I smiled.
"When you put it like that anything will sound stupid."
"That was my intention, yes." He swiveled in his chair, before disappearing mid swing, appearing behind me.
"But I must ask...." He said, "Can't you just revive her with that cure for death you used on Dr. Banner?"
I snorted with laughter when I heard that causing him to look at me with interest.
"What's so funny about that?"
"The way she died was a bit special.
The thing is.....the cure is the reason she died. The early prototypes were a bit harsher on the body. And her species was allergic to one of the components. So when I injected it in her after an assassination attempt on me-"
Kang raised an eyebrow.
"Assassination attempt?" He asked, leaning over.
"Long story short, I was senator, tried to outlaw slavery, end a civil war, big corpos didn't like the idea of actually having to pay their labor force for work, and you know how that story goes.
Peace summit, assassination attempt, yada yada. She took the fall for me.
Some nonsense about destiny and a vision she had of my death and 'This is the only way..' and crap like that." I mimicked.
Kang chuckled at my charade and I continued.
"Completely stupid decision on her part, by the way. I have a forcefield generator on me at all times for a reason. It was totally avoidable. I get angry just thinking about it. She's gonna get slapped the first thing after I revive her. I'm a man of science.
I do not appreciate stupid heroic sacrifices and that destiny bullshit."
He gave me this smug look like a parent hearing their kid talk about their first crush.
Like he was seeing his own past in me.
"What? Don't look at me like that. As I said, a folly of my youth. I learned my lesson. Next time I see someone enslaving entire galaxies, I'll just look the other way, hide my kids in a safe place and come back to wipe them out instead of trying to negotiate peace treaties like an idiot. Those sorts of people only understand the language of violence and I get that now. Not going to make that mistake again. No siree!"
He nodded in approval, before something struck him.
"You will still help repair the timeline, yes?" He asked, finally finishing his apple.
"Oh yeah sure. It's interesting and I like a challenge every now and then. But in return..." I replied.
It was also in my interest that the timeline not collapse into a multiversal war while I'm here. But that part was obviously left unsaid.
The more cards I hold in my hands the better.
"Oh! Of course. The research notes!" He jumped and twirled, pointing straight ahead, "Follow me!"
He led me out of his office through a side door and down the corridor till we came upon two big, ornate doors made of what looked simultaneously like wood, stone and some exotic metal, with repeating patterns, fractals, carved onto it.
He twisted the knob on the door and threw them open, revealing a library, tiled in black and white alternating patterns, like a chess board, lined with shelves upon shelves, extending seemingly infinitely up into other floors and ahead on this same floor, with no end in sight.
My eyes perked up at the sight as I stepped back out and looked out a nearby window to check the dimensions of the room.
Nope. Still looks like a 12 m by 14m room from the outside.
Big, sure but nowhere near that big!
"A pocket dimension?" I guessed.
He smiled but made a so-so gesture with his hands.
"No? A space expansion engine?" I guessed again.
"You're getting warmer." He replied.
Then it clicked, as I stepped in and saw the room shift ever so slightly, another step, another slight shift.
I looked at the foot of the walls lining the room and saw tiny sensors, nigh imperceptible to anyone without technopathy and extremely sensitive contact lenses like mine.
"Oh! It's that fractal thing....what was it called again....." I snapped my fingers trying to remember the name.
"Where you tie a procedurally generated space to a set of coordinates and let it expand as needed with those sensors. And those books...the way they appear... it's like that magic thing where you pull on parallel possibilities to manifest more materials and energy."
"Dimensional refraction phenomenon." Kang replied.
"Yeah, like that, only with science. You used the quantum possibility field for this right?" I asked, excited to see a new application of something I hadn't tried yet.
Rick was not a fan of quantum tech, suffice to say.
So I had to develop it all on my own.
Hence the fact that there were many things I had only theorized but never tried out for real.
This was one of them. A scientific version of Zelretch's Second True Magic and it's byproduct, the dimensional refraction phenomenon.
Then it struck me.
"You've met Zelretch?" I asked, surprised.
I hadn't thought he would have reached a Fate verse. I mean DC is one thing but Fate?
That's so far divorced conceptually from this....
Kang shook his head.
"No. Not me. One of my variants. He left his reality and ventured far. Really far. Got caught in a world line trap and met Zelretch. Helped fight something called the Crimson Moon? Don't know what that was about. But he was too kind. Too pure."
There was a sadness to his words as Kang spoke.
I nodded.
"The multiverse does not reward kindness." I replied.
"Yes." Kang continued, "He....we learned that lesson the hard way. By the time he returned, he was battered and broken. And what did he return to? A multiversal war among our variants. His reality destroyed. Still, he tried. Tried to get us to stop. Listen. Work together. Idiot." Kang wiped a tear from his eyes.
"He died in the war. Just like the rest. But I got my hands on some of his notes. Come let me show you." He said and grabbed me by the hand, leading me through the library pointing out various manuals and files he had collected over the years as he taught me how to navigate the library. Then we reached a section of the library that had been coroned off with a rope.
"This is what he had on him when I found him. A method for bridging cosmic forces, a research manual on something called a bounded field.
And this." Kang pulled out a book.
"Sanctification of birds? By that one....Lord of Black Wings?" I read the title of the thick feathered tome.
Kang nodded and pointed to a glass case with a pair of wings in it.
They looked burnt, and worn out.
"Couldn't make much sense of it. But apparently it let's you fast travel between locations." He added.
I opened the tome, and flipped through, catching a glimpse of some 'concept of migration' and 'innate knowledge of home'.
"Yeah I can guess how he did that. Conceptual enchantments. Like a bungee cord tying him to his home reality. It's a neat concept. Hard to implement scientifically though."
"Is that so?" He said, his shoulders slumping.
I raised and eyebrow, gently slamming the tome shut.
"Why? Did you want to go out into the multiverse too? After what you saw happen to this guy?" I asked.
"Before, no. I just planned on dying at the hands of Loki. But now....with you here. I think I can be free." He let out a hopeful sigh.
"It's boring, this place, this reality. I already know what's going to happen for this iteration and the next and the next.
And I can't stand it one minute longer. As soon as you finish the solution, I'm leaving this reality. I feel I need a holiday, a very long holiday, as I have told you before. Probably a permanent holiday. I don't expect I shall return. In fact, I don't mean to."
I chuckled.
"You're going to pull a Bilbo Baggins, huh? And where is your Grey Haven?" I said, setting the book back on the shelf.
"If you could repair those wings for me? Here. But now, I don't know." Kang scratched his head.
"I just want to enjoy life for once. One more time before I die. Some peace and quiet. I'll probably find a nice, beautiful world and settle down somewhere.
We'll see. But first, let's get that android of yours ready to take my place. It'll require some work too." He changed the topic, as he pulled out another apple from nowhere.
How?!
I didn't even see a portal.
Unless he has an automatic apple summoning program on his TemPad?
I shook my head.
I'll try that later when my android takes over.
"Yeah just a minute." I said, connecting to my android storage and began the upload of programming on it's systems when I noticed something odd on my
"Hold on. Is the time here flowing at the same rate as out there?"
"You didn't know? Isn't that why you told your kids to stay in the forcefield?" Kang raised an eyebrow.
"No. I did that in case I had to kill you and make the long journey back on foot. Keep the kids safe from....well whatever. I thought you'd at least put up I don't know...some time dilation.
That's why I didn't even shut off the live...stream."
The realisation struck me like lightning.
"Wait, have they been able to hear everything we said?"
Kang just shrugged.
I let out a long sigh.
"Be honest with me Kang....what are the chances Stark will try to break the reality barrier the moment I implement it?"
"He would have to risk a multiversal war and the destruction of this reality just to stroke his ego." Kang replied.
"So ..."
"Yeah he'd totally do that." I rubbed my temples.
Kang chuckled but remained silent.
I got the message.
I let out another sigh.
"You know what, I'll just kill him when I get back. Just to be safe.
I'll send over the android tonight and be back for the notes tomorrow or so. See ya!"
I stepped out of the library and opened a portal back to the roof of the Avengers tower, and flared out my tentacles again.
Time to kill Tony Stark!
__________________
The regular chapter for Saturday!
MC makes an oopsie and assumes no one would see the conversation due to time dilation.
MC is wrong.
Now he returns to the Earth and attempts to undo the fuck up that is Stark.
Next extra chapter at 600 powerstones but I can see that it's already 603 powerstones so I'll get right on it.
Writing that extra chappy now.
Till then, see ya!
Also, if you want to support me buy me a cup of coffee or read ahead go to,
www.pat.reon.com/goldenfingers