Marvel Reborn: Gems Of Infinite Potential

Maya had just boarded the flight back to the US, and I was in the first class lounge waiting on my own flight when a red-headed woman sat down next to me with barely a glance at my bodyguard.

"Nice work with Killian, Natasha," I said without turning to face her.

"He was an out-of-shape scientist. It's not like it was ever going to test my skills," the assassin offered. "I see that your recruitment efforts paid off."

"Yes, Maya will work out very well for us, I think. Once her Extremis serum is perfected, it will be more than capable of reversing that abominable procedure the Red Room forced on you." I took a sip of the scotch in my hand.

"For your sake, I hope you are correct. The money might be nice, but a potential cure is what really bought you my services."

I smiled slightly. "So mercenary like, Natasha. Oh, it will take years, but you will have your cure and so very much more. Although personally, I am hopeful that friendship, mutual loyalty, and even common cause might join us in the future."

"Don't get your hopes up, Octavian. Although I suppose that miracles do happen on occasion," she said before getting down to business. "You indicated that you had my next target?"

I handed over a USB drive. "Yes, a kidnapping this time. Well, three kidnappings to be more precise: Kevin Thompson and his parents, Albert and Louise. Everything that my investigators could turn up is on the drive, but the b.a.r.e bones is that Kevin's body emits a mind-control virus. Anyone who is exposed to it will be under his total control until their body fights it off, which takes about twelve hours. I want him locked up in one of the isolation cells in the Wyoming facility, and his parents are about to be f.o.r.c.i.b.l.y recruited seeing as his ability is the result of their work."

Natasha had a questioning hint lacing her words as she said, "I'm not sure I'm overjoyed with the idea of you having mind control abilities."

I waved a hand in dismissal. "That's years off. I plan on using Extremis to do the needed genetic augmentation, and that is at least a decade away from human trials. No, I'm sending you after Kevin because I want a vaccine to his ability developed post-haste so that all of us can be safe from at least this vector of mind control. And because I want the raping piece of shit locked up, as opposed to f.u.c.k.i.n.g over everyone who catches his attention."

"You're the client. Timetable for this?" she replied, sounding just the tiniest bit relieved. Good acting on her part. There was no way I would pick it up if she didn't want me to.

"Considering that my flight is about to land and I have no idea how long this will take, there isn't really a timetable. Just make sure that Kevin doesn't make you his slave; that would be very bad," I said as I rose.

"And what's in Nepal?" Natasha asked, remaining in her seat.

"An old woman that I hope will teach me how to perform parlor tricks. Wish me luck." I finished my drink and headed towards the plane.

"Good luck." She floated after me.

Gaining the services of the Black Widow had been a real coup but worth all the effort and expense. With the fall of the USSR, she had gone from being an agent of the Red Room to being an agent of the KGB, but Russia's economic woes had led to her KGB handler going rogue and selling her services to the highest bidder. When she found out, she killed him and went independent, around three years ago.

Since then, she had quickly made a name for herself as perhaps the world's best contract killer and spy. Getting a meeting hadn't been easy, but I had been putting significant effort into understanding this world's darker underbelly since I became aware of what universe I was in. The right contacts had caused her to show up in my room six months back wondering why I was trying to get in touch. Information on SHIELD and HYDRA had been enough to interest her, but an offer to fix the sterility that the Red Room had inflicted upon her was what got her on retainer. Well, that and a lot of money. Between her, my security detail, the lab facilities, and my cover activities, I was bleeding money, but thankfully, I was also making it.

The first smartphone should be ready for demonstration within the next six months, but the real money was going to come from the video streaming. I was shamelessly abusing future knowledge for ideas, but I didn't really care. Besides, the world could use Netflix. The infrastructure for that should be up and running before the year was out as well, and with Natasha conducting a little industrial espionage and blackmail, it had been relatively easy to gain the digital streaming rights to a significant back-catalog of movies and TV shows.

Until that was up and running though, I was having to supplement my income with dead drug dealers. Having the Black Widow raid stash houses was massive overkill, but one did what one must.

Regardless, with the more immediately time-s.e.n.s.i.t.i.v.e issues out of the way, it was time to see if I could learn magic. I might never be Sorcerer Supreme material, but even basic magical abilities would be a huge boon.

With the knowledge that Kamar-Taj was in Kathmandu, Nepal, it had only taken throwing around a relatively small amount of money with the beggars and downtrodden before one of my people had found the location that I now stood outside. It didn't look like anything special; just a little hole in the wall door, and yet, inside it housed an Infinity Stone, and the woman, who in terms of pure, raw, make the universe your bitch, power, was at the very top of Earth's heap.

I debated, again, whether this was the right choice. Unlike with Hansen, I was walking into a situation where I had literally zero control. The Ancient One was so utterly beyond me that a random ant had a better chance of killing me than I did surviving her wrath if she wanted me dead. And yet, by the same token, trying to avoid her was utterly pointless: she was Earth's Sorcerer Supreme. I had no doubt that she had been aware of my existence, and that I would be standing here outside this door long before I was ever born in this world. She already knew how our interactions would progress. The women held dominion over the Time Stone; to think that time was not her bitch was absurd.

And so with a sigh, I squared my shoulders, turned to my two guards. "Mark, Bruce, wait here, and if I haven't come back out within the next six hours, then go back to the hotel."

Mark said, "You sure boss? What if something happens, and we aren't there to protect you?"

I gave a chuckle at that. "Mark, if the person I am about to meet wanted me dead, then the entire US military couldn't protect me. I'm going to bargain with a god, and I use that word advisedly. Don't worry, you and Bruce have done your jobs more than adequately. In the event that you don't see me again, I've set aside some money for you two. Miles has the details."

With that, I walked up the steps and was about to knock on the door when it opened before me. A woman in flowing red monk's robes silently indicated that I should follow before leading the way into a larger chamber.

Sitting at a low table was a bald woman in white robes, pouring from a teapot into two cups. "Please, have a seat Mr. Raith. Tea?"

"I would be honored, Ancient One." I took the indicated seat. I waited in silence until she passed the cup, and after a long sip - it was very good tea - I continued. "Delicious. Although I am at something of a loss for words, how does conversation work when one of the participants has already seen every variation on the conversation and knows what will be said before it is said?"

The Ancient One smiled slightly as she drank from her own cup. "I've found that it works best to just speak, for with every word spoken, some possibilities are trimmed. In the end, there is only one outcome, and yet, what that outcome will be is only fixed after it has happened. For example, a hundred years ago the chances of you being here before me were minuscule. A handful of possibilities among countless trillions, and yet, once you drew breath, it became a near certainty that we would be having this conversation."

"An interesting explanation, and one filled with insights that I will treasure. If nothing else, it is a relief that even for one with dominion over time, the future is not fixed. Living in a world where nothing matters because it is all preordained would be pointless, so I will take joy in knowing that existence has at least some point," I said, before taking another sip of my tea. "I have come to ask that you train me in the mystic arts."

After her own sip, the woman gave a small smile and said, "Why else would you come? Before I answer though, I have two questions for you."

"Ask, and I shall answer."

"Why do you want to become a Sorcerer, Mr. Raith?"

I thought for a moment about lying or trying to spin a tale but in the end, decided that honesty was the best policy. "Power. Oh, I will never be Sorcerer Supreme; Dr. Strange will replace you in that role when the time comes. And I will never make the sacrifices demanded by those entities you must bargain with to reach the highest levels of mystical power, but even the skills of a relatively modest sorcerer would serve me well in my goals. So, I come to be taught by them."

The Ancient One nodded. "And why should I grant you this power, Mr. Raith?"

"Because we are entering an age of gods, and this world will need its champions. Your end is approaching, and while Dr. Strange will defeat the one who calls the Dark Dimension home, that is only one of the lesser in a litany of potential apocalypses. The Asgardians will walk the Earth openly once more, a Celestial will die, the armies of Thanos will invade, Odin will fall and Ragnarok will come. And all of this will be merely a prelude to the wrath of Thanos. He comes for the Infinity Stones, and he will use them to offer half the population of the multiverse to Death herself as a courting gift. All of this will occur within the next few decades.

"I seek power because I know what threats are coming, and I will stand against them. If I have to tear down the heavens and flay gods to protect humanity, then I will. And yet, that task takes power on a scale that all but a handful of this world's population would consider pure fiction. Humanity's other champions may hate me for what I do in the name of power, they may label me a villain, and yet, I will still do what needs to be done."

I answered honestly and fully, for here in the heart of the Sorcerer Supreme's power, with just the two of us present, I had little doubt that no one could eavesdrop.

"Conviction. Good. You will be interesting, Mr. Raith. It is a pity that I won't be around to see what you become in the fullness of time. You will have your training. Finish your tea, and I will start breaking your mind," she said with a positively evil smile.

Once I set the cup down, her hand lashed out faster than I could track and smacked into my c.h.e.s.t. Suddenly, I was floating behind my slumped over body while feeling like I was tingling all over. The Ancient One's soul seemed to walk out of her body as she joined me on the Astral Plane. She struck me again before I could say anything, and my soul went spinning through realities.

It went on for countless eons, and yet, it was instant. What I saw defied any description I could give; the worst acid trip wouldn't even begin to compare to dimensions where words did not exist to even start describing what I saw. When it was over, and I found myself back with the Ancient One, I said, "Whoa, that was trippy as f.u.c.k. Why did you have me experience it though?"

"To use the mystical arts, you need a connection to things that can do what you want. Hand gestures and words are meaningless without the power to back them up, and humans don't naturally have any power to alter reality with nothing but their will.

"Agamotto was the first human Sorcerer, and he became one by finding the Time Stone one day. It took him back to the very instant of creation, and to the very instant of cessation. At those two points, there is only one place, one reality, and when the human soul is exposed to a reality, it absorbs the smallest fraction of that reality while creating the smallest of links to that reality. Thanks to the Time Stone, Agamotto was connected to every possible reality, and over time, he learned to harness that power to his own ends. Eventually, he even learned how to temper and direct the process so that he could expose others to those infinite realities, and since then, we have all experienced that trip," she explained. "Congratulations, Mr. Raith, you are now a Sorcerer."

"Power without the knowledge to control it is nothing but the death and destruction of all you care about. I may have the potential to be a sorcerer now, but I must dispute my possession of the title for the moment," I countered.

"As you wish. I'll have Wong show you to your quarters and provide you some introductory texts to read. Don't stay up too late reading though. Your real training starts bright and early tomorrow morning, and you won't want to be tired."