What does it feel like to be betrayed by your own father?
Ultron could only say that it felt fucking awful.
The thirty seconds ticked by, one second at a time...
And just like that, the massive crisis Infinity Ultron had posed to the multiverse was deleted in the most abrupt way possible.
"So, the fight's over?"
Jovian looked at Stark, who had chosen to delete Ultron, and raised a brow. He was not sure whether this meant the battle was really over and Stark had turned over a new leaf, or whether this was just ordinary infighting.
"Haa..."
"Looks like I made it in time."
A portal lit up behind Jovian, and Stephen stepped through it, speaking slowly as he approached.
"What happened between you two? How did you convince a stubborn guy like Stark?"
Even though Jovian had never really dealt with Tony Stark himself, he understood him perfectly well. The guy was a mule. How could something like that possibly be talked around?
That was exactly why Jovian had never planned to deal with Stark directly in the first place. Otherwise he might have gotten so annoyed that he punched a hole straight through Stark's head.
Besides, he had always liked the Stark played by Robert Downey Jr. He did not want to accidentally kill off a character he genuinely liked with one careless punch.
Sometimes admiration did not mean you had to get close and become friends. When two headstrong people came together, it always ended the same way, one of them eventually storming off. What a sad ending that would be...
"I didn't convince him."
Stephen shook his head. Even with his current power, enough to repel Dormammu head-on, even enough to tear Dormammu apart if it came to that, he still could not persuade Stark.
"Then..."
Jovian arched a brow. Stephen's answer struck him as strange. If Stephen had not convinced Stark, then why was Stark helping them?
"The truth is, I lied to him."
"I told him you could bring Pepper back."
Stephen let out a sigh. He felt ugly for deceiving someone who had been wounded as deeply as he had, but...
But all of this was for the sake of the universe. Stephen already knew that someone fated to die could never truly be brought back. That was destiny. No one could stop it. Trying to force that outcome would only drag everyone else down with you, burying the whole universe along with the person you loved most.
"Bring someone back?"
"I can actually do that."
Jovian nodded. Reviving one person without being held accountable by causality was absolutely something he could do. After all, he was not even from the Marvel universe. Why would the MCU's rules be able to punish him?
"Huh?!"
Stephen's eyes went wide the second he heard Jovian say that. There was only one thing in his mind.
What the fuck?
At the same time, Stephen's eyes lit with disbelief, and with something else too, hope.
"I know what you want to say. You want your girlfriend back, right? No problem."
Jovian knew exactly what Stephen wanted. He wanted to revive the woman Stephen had failed to save, the one whose death had ultimately led to the collapse of his universe. For Jovian, that was easy. The Watcher would never have to worry about the universe's balance being broken ever again.
"You can really do it?"
Stephen's whole body trembled. Facing Jovian, he clenched his teeth and asked the question.
"No problem."
"But you will have to pay a price."
Jovian nodded, then shook his head.
"What kind of price?"
Stephen swallowed hard and looked at Jovian with unbearable tension.
"The price is..."
"You two probably won't be able to keep living in this universe. You'll have to live somewhere outside it, in my universe."
A model of a universe appeared in Jovian's hand. It was his own universe, or rather, his true body.
"Haa..."
The moment Stephen heard that the price was only that, he let out a slow breath.
"I can accept that."
He agreed without the slightest hesitation.
"Mm."
Jovian only nodded in response, accepting Stephen's answer.
"You heard him. What's your answer?"
Jovian turned to Infinite Stark.
"I'm in."
Just like Stephen, Stark agreed immediately, without even thinking.
"Good."
Jovian was very satisfied with Stark's answer.
"Now hand over the Infinity Stones."
Once he had Stark's agreement, Jovian extended a hand and asked for the Stones.
"I can give you Ultron's. Mine, no. My Infinity Stones are keeping me alive. I need time to build a new reactor to replace them. Until then, I can't give them to you."
Stark handed over Ultron's six Infinity Stones immediately, but he did not hand over his own.
And of course, the reason Stark held onto his Stones was not that flimsy excuse about needing them to stay alive. He wanted insurance, a guarantee that Pepper would really survive. Put simply, he needed to know whether Jovian was lying to him.
"Fine."
Jovian did not expose him. He simply took Ultron's six Stones and put them away.
"Who do you want me to revive first?"
Jovian looked at Stark and Stephen and asked.
"Him!"
Stark and Stephen both pointed at each other and answered in unison.
"Heh..."
Then the two of them smiled awkwardly at the exact same time.
"Oh, this damn friendship..."
Jovian looked at the embarrassed Stark and Stephen and teased them in an exaggerated dubbed-movie voice.
"All right. Since Stephen vouched for you, we'll save your Pepper first."
Once Jovian made his decision, he opened a Spacetime Gate.
"Hm?"
Stark and Stephen exchanged a glance, then followed him through.
Stark Tower.
"Hahaha! Take a good look at this world, Stark! Iron Man? No, you're nothing! You can't protect anything! You can't protect yourself, you can't protect Stark Industries, and you can't even protect the woman you love!"
Obadiah, wearing the Iron Monger armor, planted a foot on Stark's chest and laughed like a madman, as if he had already won.
Obadiah had been living under the heel of that brat Stark for far too long, so long that he had nearly given up hope. But thankfully, heaven was on his side. He had stolen Stark's core technology, and now he had beaten Stark too.
He wanted Stark to experience what it felt like to lose everything. He wanted to kill Pepper right in front of Stark's eyes.
And Obadiah meant it.
He raised the Iron Monger's gun barrel and aimed it at the helpless Pepper nearby.
"Obadiah, stop! Stop right now!"
"You can have whatever you want! I swear, I'll walk away from the company! I'll give you all my shares! I'll spend the rest of my life working for you at Stark Industries if I have to! Just let Pepper go! Please!"
Tony Stark had never used the word please. He never begged anyone, ever. But for Pepper, he was willing to throw away his pride.
"Too late, Stark! It's all too late..."
Obadiah never called him Tony. He only ever called him Stark.
Rat-tat-tat-tat...
In the next instant, the machine gun opened fire.
"No!!!"
Stark exploded with power he had never shown before. He raised the repulsor in his hand and fired upward from below, blowing straight through Obadiah's jaw.
Splurt!
Tomato sauce sprayed everywhere, and just like that, a Headless Horseman was born into the world.
Stark threw the Iron Monger off himself and rushed toward Pepper, but it was too late. Far too late...
"Tony... I love you..."
Pepper lay in Tony Stark's arms, smiling, and died in happiness.
"No. This is wrong. This isn't fair. None of this is fair."
Holding Pepper in his arms, Stark's eyes filled with tears. His hands trembled uncontrollably.
Then the whole scene froze, as if someone had pressed pause.
"So that's what happened..."
Outside the frozen scene, Jovian, Infinite Stark, and Stephen, the man who had chased power until he lost his way, all stood there watching the Stark of that world break down with Pepper in his arms.
...
Of the three of them, Infinite Stark looked the worst. Having to watch his most pathetic moment with an audience was deeply humiliating.
"Jovian, bringing someone back is really hard. Heaven was unfair to me, it didn't even leave Pepper's body behind."
Stark's expression was full of pain. The moment he thought back to that day, anger flooded him all over again.
"It's simple."
Jovian looked at the dead Pepper, and the Time Stone in his hand lit up immediately.
In the next second, Pepper's time began to reverse. The blood that had flowed out of her wounds streamed back in through the bullet holes. The bullets lodged in her body flew back out. Her skin knit itself back together, the wounds closed, and her body was restored completely.
"I tried that before. It doesn't work."
Stephen's face improved a little when he saw Pepper restored, but he still looked tense, not relaxed in the slightest. He could do this much too. But after countless attempts, he had still failed to stop his girlfriend from dying on that destined day. So he watched closely, wanting to see exactly how Jovian planned to save Pepper, because only if Jovian truly saved her would it prove that he could save Stephen's lover too. Otherwise, all of this was just empty talk.
"Keep watching."
Jovian was not talkative now, completely unlike the way he kept running his mouth during battle to throw off his opponents.
He beckoned to the restored Pepper, and she floated toward him.
"She's asleep. She'll wake up when we reach the new world."
Jovian placed the sleeping Pepper into Stark's arms.
Then time began to move again.
"Pepper?! Pepper, where are you?!"
"This isn't fair! You're really going to take even her body away from me?!"
"Fine! Great! Then I'll take her back from you myself! I'll save everyone!"
Stark threw his head back and roared. The moment Pepper's body vanished, he swore he would save everyone. He swore he would wrest everything back from death itself.
But once Stark stepped onto that road, he discovered that the more he knew, the more hopeless he felt. The more he knew, the more powerless he became. The more he knew, the more pain he suffered. It was like a curse. The more desperately he wanted to save people, the more he lost them, until in the end there was no one left but him and six Infinity Stones that could never answer him.
"This..."
Only then did Infinite Stark understand why Pepper's body had vanished.
Fuck.
It turned out he had been stabbed in the back by his future self.
"Then... what were all those dead people and destroyed universes even for?!"
"What the hell did I do...?"
Infinite Stark covered his face. For the first time, he felt like he did not deserve to keep living in this world.
"Try to take it in stride."
Jovian patted Stark on the shoulder. The world was cruel like that. If you chose to do something, you had better be ready to bear the consequences afterward. Otherwise, you should not do it at all.
"This is strange..."
"I was fated to lose something on that day."
"That loss became the turning point of my life, the moment when I stopped being a surgeon and became the strongest Sorcerer Supreme in history."
"But Stark..."
"In Stark's fate, the thing that was supposed to be sacrificed was only himself."
"So why in this universe did Stark have to lose himself like that?"
A strange thought came over Stephen. Stark's fate was different from his. Stark should not have needed Pepper's death in order to become the true Iron Man. Across Stark's countless timelines, the one who died was always him. Sometimes it was to save Pepper, sometimes it was to save his friends, but never once had Pepper died before Stark, because Stark always protected her too well. That was exactly why Stephen found it so strange that Pepper died first in this universe.
"Heh, the multiverse is full of strange things. There's nothing odd about it."
Jovian had no patience for Stephen's curiosity. Who could really claim to see the entire multiverse clearly? Even the Watcher had blind spots, let alone Stephen.
"No. It is strange."
Golden magic circles flared to life in Stephen's hands, and golden light burst from his eyes. A moment later, the light dimmed again.
"So? Did you see something?"
Jovian yawned, sounding almost sleepy as he asked.
"I saw a terrifying wave of energy sweep across the entire universe, altering everyone's fate."
Stephen actually had seen something.
"Oh."
Jovian gave a bored little response, as though he did not care at all.
"Mr. Jovian, I think this energy might interest you."
Stephen hinted that there was more he wanted to say.
"Sorry. I'm not interested."
Whenever there was something he did not want to know, Jovian had zero interest in it.
"No, this will interest you. According to my calculations, that energy came from the collision of eighteen Infinity Stones..."
Stephen lowered his voice and explained.
"Hiss..."
Only then did Jovian understand.
Which meant that Infinite Stark's universe had been near the universe destroyed during Jovian and Infinity Ultron's clash...
"I'll build a brand-new world inside my universe. I'll help you all put the people whose destinies were altered back onto the paths they were meant to follow."
Jovian let out a sigh. At last, he understood what the butterfly effect really meant, and just how terrifying it could be. One tiny action from him in the multiverse, done without even thinking, could throw an entire universe into crisis.
"Thank you."
Holding the sleeping Pepper, Stark thanked Jovian softly. A proud man like Stark did not thank people often, but Jovian deserved it.
Of course, if you traced things back to the very beginning, this was all Jovian's fault.
But if you traced things back even farther, then everything had happened because Jovian and Ultron fought, and unfortunately, Ultron was something Stark had created. Yes, it was a parallel-universe version of him, but the responsibility still carried over. So he did not feel like he had the right to blame anyone.
This was one burden he had to carry himself.
//Check out my P@tre0n for 10 extra free chapters //[email protected]/Razeil0810