The Ancient One stood in silence, her gaze resting steadily on Martin. After a long pause, she slowly opened the Eye of Agamotto on her chest. A brilliant green light shimmered through the chamber as the Time Stone emerged, drifting toward him.
"The Time Stone has always been one of Kamar-Taj's most sacred treasures. Letting it leave my hands… I don't know if it's right or wrong."
There was something subtle in her eyes, a complex tangle of emotion, with a trace of pity barely visible beneath the surface.
Martin frowned, unsettled by her stare.
With a gesture, the Time Stone flew into his outstretched hand.
The green glow blazed, and the Polarity Gauntlet on his arm formed a new recess, perfectly shaped to house the stone.
The moment it slotted into place, a shockwave of resonance burst forth from the three Infinity Stones now embedded in the gauntlet.
In an instant, the immense power of three Stones surged through Martin's body; blue, yellow, and green energy coursed through him like divine fire. The strain on his form was tremendous, but the power they offered was even greater.
The AllSpark at the core of his being erupted in tandem, flooding his system with enhanced vitality and mental force. The fusion of Cybertronian spark and cosmic energy pushed Martin far beyond mortal limits, allowing him to withstand the combined might of the Stones.
All around him, the mystical wards of Kamar-Taj flared to their peak. Ancient sigils, forged across centuries of magical tradition, ignited one after another to stabilize the energy surging from Martin's body.
The Ancient One stood unmoving, her long robe whipping violently in the storm of power. Despite the chaos, her eyes never left him.
Eventually, the storm settled into a breathless stillness.
Martin looked down at his gauntleted right hand. The three Infinity Stones shimmered in their sockets. A satisfied smile tugged at his lips.
"You kept your word, Ancient One. And so will I. I won't lay a finger on Earth, or Kamar-Taj."
His voice was calm, even cheerful.
Three Infinity Stones. That was enough to ascend beyond any ordinary cosmic threshold, he now stood firmly at sub-Skyfather level, if not higher.
At this moment, Martin had become one of the most powerful beings in the universe.
The Ancient One finally spoke:
"Martin, the Infinity Stones are unimaginably dangerous. I hope you'll wield them with wisdom, especially the Time Stone. Of all the Stones, it carries the gravest consequences. One wrong move could unravel the timeline, and erase you from existence altogether."
Martin's voice was low and dismissive:
"I know the dangers of the timeline better than you do. I don't need a reminder."
He willed the Stones' power to recede, slowly drawing back the unstable energies. Though the Time Stone was new to him, his memories from a previous life gave him an edge, a deep, instinctive understanding of the devastating butterfly effects that came with altering time.
Even so, Martin had never feared the collapse of a single timeline. Or even the death of a universe.
With the AllSpark at his core and the Apex Armor shielding his body, even the temporal inertia of cosmic correction posed little threat. Time itself would struggle to rewrite him.
He glanced at the Ancient One one last time. Whatever her true intentions were, or those of the Vishanti, the trinity of cosmic powers behind her, Martin didn't care. As long as he held absolute power, he could face any scheme head-on.
A swirling blue vortex opened before him.
"Martin," the Ancient One called suddenly, "Earth is heading toward an unprecedented catastrophe. I've seen countless futures through the Time Stone, and in 99% of them, there's nothing left but ashes and ruin. Even the rare outcomes that don't end in extinction… still lead to brutal war."
Martin paused. His face remained unchanged.
Earth, huh? A playground for cosmic anomalies. A never-ending stage for overpowered lunatics.
Business as usual.
"Who's the enemy?" he asked.
"I don't know," she admitted. "Whoever it is… they can veil themselves from time. They leap between dimensions, manipulate spacetime freely, and deliberately avoid every method we use to trace timelines."
Her voice was grim.
Martin nodded slightly, as if everything made sense now.
"So that's why you didn't just erase them with the Time Stone. You want me to handle it instead."
"Yes," she said. "Even if each timeline carries only a sliver of probability, I have to prepare for the worst. This is the last thing I'll ever ask of you: help prevent this apocalypse."
Martin gave a quiet, mirthless laugh.
"I'll make my own judgment. But I will see the future for myself."
He stepped into the vortex and vanished.
Mordo came rushing in moments later, his face full of outrage.
"Sorcerer Supreme, how could you hand the Time Stone to someone as dangerous as Martin?! Without it, what will Stephen use to face down enemies on the level of a Skyfather, or those with single-universe dominance?!"
"That no longer matters, Mordo," the Ancient One replied solemnly. "There's something far more terrifying on the horizon. We need a savior…"
She paused.
"Do you know what I saw in the Time Stone? Despair. An endless onslaught of unstoppable enemies. Not just Earth, but the entire universe drowning in eternal darkness."
Her voice was heavy with finality.
"We need someone who can rise against that. We need someone like Martin."
Mordo stared at her, stunned.
"But why him? He's brutal! Cruel! You really believe a man like that has the heart of a savior? That he would fight for anyone but himself?"
The Ancient One turned to him. Her gaze lingered for a long moment.
"Who says a savior has to be kind and selfless?" she asked quietly. "When the end comes for us all, who would you trust more, a gentle soul, or a monster strong enough to survive? In the end… this is just a desperate gamble."
She shook her head and walked slowly back into Kamar-Taj, her robes trailing behind her.
Only Mordo remained, stunned and silent.
...
Somewhere in deep space, Martin sat casually atop a drifting asteroid, the stars vast around him. He raised his hand, staring intently at the Time Stone nestled beside its cosmic siblings.
The power of time… He'd encountered temporal weapons before, like the Time Blaster, capable of freezing regions in temporal stasis. But this? This was different.
"Time Stone…" he murmured.
He closed his eyes.
Let's see just how powerful you really are. Let's see what the future holds…
In an instant, time bent to his will.
Futures unfolded before his eyes, countless timelines branching like a multiversal sea.
War, peace, rebirth, and destruction spun before him, a kaleidoscope of fate and possibility.
He observed them all with cold precision, tracing each one like a tactician scouring battlefields.
Until he looked further.
Deeper.
Past all the futures, past all the divergences and multiversal spirals…
And then, nothing.
At a distant point in every timeline, they all ceased. No light. No sound. Just utter, inescapable darkness.
A lifeless stillness. A silence colder than death. A future of absolute oblivion.
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