The portal dropped Arthur into his study at 5:47 in the morning.
New York was still waking up. Grey light crept through the windows, painting the room in muted tones. Somewhere outside, a garbage truck was making its rounds, the distant crash of metal the only sound in the sleeping city.
Arthur sank into his armchair and let out a long breath.
The adrenaline was finally fading, leaving behind a deep, bone-weary ache. It was a good ache. The kind that came from a job well done.
Kaecilius was going to be fine. Not today, not tomorrow, but eventually. The shadow of the Dark Dimension had receded, and for the first time in years, Arthur didn't feel the looming inevitability of his old rival's fall.
The man had heard his wife's voice for the first time in over a decade, been thoroughly scolded by her ghost, and come out the other side with something resembling peace. That was more progress than a decade of grief counseling could have managed.
And then they'd fought, which had been the fun part.
Arthur smiled, closing his eyes and replaying the duel.
—
Kaecilius had improved. Massively.
The Masters weren't exaggerating when they called him the strongest sorcerer below the Ancient One.
A decade of single-minded devotion to the Mystic Arts had turned him into something genuinely formidable. His dimensional energy manipulation was fluid, instinctive. His constructs were precise. His combat instincts were sharp enough to read attacks before they fully formed.
Arthur had caused the change, in a way. By being the untouchable rival, the benchmark that kept pulling further ahead, he'd given Kaecilius something to chase. And Kaecilius had chased it with everything he had.
The result was a sorcerer stronger than his canon counterpart had ever been.
It still hadn't been enough.
Not because Kaecilius lacked skill. He didn't.
In pure Mystic Arts technique, the man was genuinely world-class. But Arthur fought dirty. Not in the cheating sense. They'd agreed on rules and Arthur had honoured them. No wizarding magic and no chi. Pure sorcery.
But "pure sorcery" still meant Arthur's body was in the fight. And Arthur's body was a problem Kaecilius had no answer for.
Even without magic and chi, Arthur was still a superhuman. Enhanced reflexes. K'un-Lun martial arts drilled into muscle memory. Years of real combat experience against people way above Kaecilius's pay grade. Everything combined had given Arthur the edge.
Every time Kaecilius tried to create distance, Arthur closed it. At close range, even a basic Eldritch whip was devastating when the person swinging it could move faster than the eye could follow.
Kaecilius had compensated with creativity. He wove complex, beautiful, devastating spells that lit up the courtyard like fireworks. The trainees had watched with their jaws on the floor.
Arthur had countered with fundamentals.
Shields. Whips. Portals. The basics. Nothing flashy. Just simple tools used with absolute precision.
It wasn't because he couldn't match Kaecilius's spectacle. He could. Arthur knew every advanced construct and elaborate battle-spell in the Kamar-Taj arsenal.
But that kind of battle didn't suit him. His natural rhythm was built around chi-enhanced strikes, wizarding spells, and high-speed Apparition. Brutal, efficient, and direct.
All of that was sealed off now.
And he wasn't interested in trying to out-flash Kaecilius with pure sorcery. That would've been boring.
So he chose a different approach.
He turned the duel into a silent lecture for the wide-eyed trainees crowding the railings. A demonstration of the trap they were all tempted by: chasing the "big spells" before understanding the language beneath them.
Mastery isn't knowing the most complex mandala. It's knowing the smallest one so well that nothing gets past it.
And in the end, it was the small things that decided the duel.
A half-step faster here. A fractionally better shield angle there. A whip-strike that landed because Arthur's reflexes exploited a gap that lasted less than a heartbeat.
Kaecilius dropped to one knee, breathing hard, and looked up with a grin that held no resentment at all.
Arthur offered his hand. Kaecilius took it. The crowd erupted.
Walking off the platform together, Arthur noticed Kaecilius's steps were lighter than they'd been in years.
—
But sitting alone in his study, the strategist in Arthur couldn't leave well enough alone.
He'd changed the future. Kaecilius wouldn't fall to Dormammu now. That was a win.
But fate was stubborn.
The Ancient One had practically spelled it out. When she'd refused Arthur's offer to save her life - Do not rob me of my choice - she wasn't just being noble. She was telling him her death was fated.
Which meant Dormammu would still come knocking. The question was how.
Without Kaecilius, the Dark Dimension's ruler would need another path. Another crack. Another desperate soul to whisper through.
Would someone else at Kamar-Taj fall? Would Kaecilius relapse despite everything? Or would the threat come from a direction Arthur couldn't predict?
He didn't know.
And for the first time in a very long time, that was fine.
The events were years away. And after Mephisto... after fighting a Hell Lord in his own domain and winning... Dormammu didn't keep Arthur up at night. The Dark Dimension's ruler was powerful, yes. But Arthur had the confidence to fight and win against him now. Not arrogance. Just the quiet certainty of someone who'd tested himself against the worst and come out standing.
He'd handle it when the time came.
Right now, the time had come for sleep.
—
Arthur finished a glass of water. He checked the clock.
6:00 AM in New York.
The house was quiet, but it wouldn't be for long. Tristan and Elena were early risers, and after the excitement of the Hulk, the energy levels in the Hayes household would be nuclear.
Arthur rubbed his eyes. He didn't want to be "Dad" right now. He wanted to be a corpse for about eight hours.
He grabbed a notepad, scribbled a quick message: Went to the Hayes Manor to catch up on sleep. Love you. and left it on the kitchen counter.
Then, with the last dregs of his energy, he opened a portal to his manor in London and stepped through.
He collapsed onto the bed fully clothed and was asleep before his head hit the pillow.
—
Two Hours Later
BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.
The alarm didn't just wake him; it resurrected him against his will.
Arthur groaned, burying his face in the pillow. "Eve. If the world isn't ending, I'm going to rewrite your core programming with a rock."
"Filed under 'empty threats,' Master," Eve replied, irritatingly cheerful. "And no, the world is not ending. In fact, quite the opposite. Director Fury has successfully concluded Operation Clean-Up. The internal Hydra purge is complete."
Arthur stopped moving. He opened one eye.
"Already?"
"He began eighteen hours ago. The Thor incident was the catalyst. Under the cover of restructuring SHIELD against alien threats, he executed simultaneous strikes on all flagged Hydra cells."
Arthur was already on his feet. "How clean?"
"Exceptionally. One hundred and fourteen detained. Thirty-one killed resisting arrest."
"Zola?"
"Eliminated. Miss Romanoff led the operation at Camp Lehigh and destroyed the server chamber housing Zola's primary system. Mr. Stark then deployed JARVIS into SHIELD's network to locate and erase every remaining copy of Zola's digital consciousness, backups included."
Arthur grinned. The exhaustion was still there, clinging to him like a wet coat, but the news was electric.
Hydra was gone. Zola was deleted. The cancer that had been eating SHIELD from the inside since World War II had been cut out in a single, surgical night.
"Where's Fury now?" Arthur asked.
"In his office at the Triskelion," Eve replied. "Mr. Stark is with him."
"I'm not missing this," Arthur muttered, swinging his legs out of bed.
He snapped his fingers. "Winky!"
POP.
The elf appeared, looking fresh and rested. "Master called?"
"Great! Winky, I need the Invigoration Potion," Arthur said, rubbing his temples.
Winky frowned disapprovingly. "Master needs sleep, not potions."
"Master needs to have fun and celebrate with Nick Fury," Arthur corrected. "Potion. Please."
Winky sighed but vanished. She reappeared a second later with a small vial of sapphire liquid.
Arthur downed it in one gulp.
The effect was immediate. A wave of clarity rolled through him, burning away the mental fog like morning sun through mist. The exhaustion didn't vanish. The potion wasn't magic, well, it was magic, but it wasn't a miracle. But it retreated to a manageable background hum. He had eight good hours before the crash. That was plenty.
"Thank you, Winky."
"Master Arthur should come back quickly and catch up on his sleep."
"Noted."
Winky gave him a look that said she knew exactly what his notes were worth, and vanished.
Arthur checked himself in the bathroom mirror. Passable. His eyes were clear and his posture was straight. The Invigoration Potion earned its name.
He opened a portal to the Triskelion.
—
SHIELD Headquarters – The Triskelion
Director's Office
The office looked like a war room after the war was won.
Files were scattered across the floor like confetti. Several screens on the wall were displaying code that was rapidly deleting itself. A bottle of very expensive, very rare champagne sat open on Nick Fury's desk.
Tony Stark was slumped in a chair, still wearing the under-suit of his armor, looking like he hadn't slept in forty-eight hours. Fury sat behind his desk, his one good eye bloodshot but triumphant.
"To the glorious cleansing of our national snake infestation," Tony declared, raising his plastic cup with theatrical flourish.
Fury clinked his own cup against it and grunted, "And here's hoping the next batch of snakes is stupid enough to slither in daylight."
WHOOSH.
Sparks flew in the center of the room. A circle of orange fire carved itself into the air.
Tony jumped, spilling champagne on his pants. "Son of a—"
Arthur stepped through, looking annoyingly fresh.
"Celebrating without me?" Arthur asked, surveying the room with a grin. "I'm hurt. Truly."
"JARVIS!" Tony shouted, scrambling to his feet. "Scan it! Scan the portal! I want wavelengths, I want energy signatures, I want to know what flavor of physics he's breaking!"
"Scanning, Sir," JARVIS replied coolly from Tony's wrist. "Sensors are detecting... nothing. Zero thermal variance. Zero radiation. It appears to be a visual hallucination that you can walk through."
"It is not a hallucination!" Tony threw his hands up. "He just walked through it!"
"Sit down, Stark," Fury sighed, not even looking up from his drink. "You're going to give yourself an aneurysm."
Fury looked at Arthur. "Invite you for what? We did the work. You walked through a hole in the air after the work was done."
"The work," Arthur said smoothly, "was done using intelligence I provided. The Hydra roster? Mine. The lead that let you even find Zola? Also mine." He gestured broadly. "You're welcome."
Fury's eye twitched.
For a moment, Arthur could see the retort Fury wanted to unleash, something involving Arthur napping while SHIELD fought a shadow war. But the Director shut his mouth, reconsidered, and defaulted to survival instincts.
Fury had learned the hard way: arguing with Arthur ended in one of two outcomes: Arthur winning, or Arthur winning after a longer delay. The smart move was to concede early and redirect.
"Sit down," Fury said, pointing to a chair. "Drink the champagne. Good intel. Good play."
"I win," Arthur beamed.
"Do not encourage him," Tony groaned, still waving a scanner through empty air where the portal had been. "JARVIS, re-run the sweep. That doesn't make sense."
Arthur settled into the empty chair and crossed his legs. "Give up, Tony. My portals don't play by science. You could dedicate six months and every processor you own to that analysis. You'll end up with a pile of data points that don't connect to anything."
Tony finally looked at him. Eyes sharp despite the exhaustion. "Everything can be explained by science. That's literally what science is."
"Your wish," Arthur replied with a shrug. "But you've been warned."
He let Tony have the last word. Some battles weren't worth the energy.
Arthur shifted his focus to Fury, the humor fading from his expression.
"So," he said. "Spill."
Fury leaned back. He looked exhausted—the exhaustion of a man who'd been fighting a shadow war for years and had just won a battle he wasn't sure was even possible. But somehow, he had done it.
"It started with Thor," Fury began.