Marvel Reborn: Gems Of Infinite Potential

The seven of us were gathered in the Covenant meeting room for the first time in months. While we all kept in touch, full formal meetings were quite rare.

"I called this meeting because Extremis has successfully passed Phase 1 testing and that means it is time to start making concrete plans for Ascension, but since it has been so long since we were all gathered together like this I feel that we should get any other business out of the way first before we start discussing Extremis and Ascension. Any objections?" I said, referencing the project name for the overall human improvement mission.

After a moment of silence in which no one noted any objections, Bruce spoke: "How does Stark's death change our plans?"

Elektra, Betty, and Maya all winced at the reminder that Tony Stark's convoy had been hit on the way back from a weapons test in Afghanistan and he was presumed dead.

Natasha was the one who answered though, "He isn't dead. I've been keeping an eye on him since before his convoy was attacked and will be right back at it once this meeting is over."

The four who hadn't known looked shocked but when Bruce went to open his mouth Natasha raised a hand slightly and continued "Obadiah Stane has been selling weapons to the Ten Rings for a while and used them to arrange Stark's assassination, but the Ten Rings decided to capture him instead - they want him to make them weapons. Stark almost died but thanks to a Doctor Yinsen, also a prisoner of that Ten Ring's cell, and copious amounts of surreptitiously supplied Life thanks to yours truly he survived and is in no real danger of dying from his injuries in the near future."

"And we're just leaving him there?!" asked Bruce, sounding appalled.

I went to speak but Alkasha cut me off with a raised hand before answering him "This is his catalyst Bruce, the moment that will - more than any other - define Tony Stark's life. If we deny him the experience then he would never become anything more than another iteration of his father, but if we allow him the experience then he will emerge as one of humanities champions."

"So you play God? Who named us the dictators of mankind's fate?" Bruce spat back.

I shook my head in the negative and said "We aren't god Bruce, nor are we playing god in this instance. Could we have intervened to prevent this series of events from occurring? Absolutely. Everything from assassinating Stane to having Natasha smash the Ten Rings and pull Stark out right now is, or was, within our power to do. But we did not encourage or cause these events to come to pass, all we did was choose not to stop them. Free will Bruce."

Bruce gave a bitter laugh "Free Will, Octavian? This from someone who has used mind control to accomplish his ends and regularly abused knowledge of the future to shape the outcomes that he d.e.s.i.r.es?"

"Of course, if I didn't believe in free will then the seven of us wouldn't be sitting around this table. We are here because I wholeheartedly believe in the survival and freedom of humanity at any cost, and freedom requires free will. But freedom also requires that humanity be able to survive, and so I will allow - or even engineer - events to increase the odds that humanity survives. Tony Stark having this life experience increases the odds of humanities survival, so I will not act to prevent it." I answered.

Bruce went perfectly still for a moment, visibly restrained his anger, and then said in a level tone "Just like you allowed me to become the Hulk?"

I gave a slight nod "Yes, just like I chose not to prevent the birth of an elder god with very strong ties to humanity and a willingness to fight for its defense."

Bruce roared, hulked out, and swung at me in barely a heartbeat but I was ready and so a portal opened in front of his fist and beside his head. As the Hulk was recovering from smashing himself into the wall of the chamber I opened a portal underneath him to the Mirror Dimension of Luna and hit him with a tracking spell as he fell through.

Everyone took a moment to recover from the sudden violence, and equally sudden disappearance of the Hulk, but eventually Betty said: "YOU KNEW?!"

"Of course I knew Betty, and I'm pretty sure that Bruce had come to that conclusion a while back. He just feared that I would tell him the truth." I replied evenly.

"And you let him become the Hulk just for his power?" she asked.

I nodded and said "Largely. The Hulk is, in many ways, the Earth's nuclear deterrent. Very few things in the entire universe could fight him and survive the experience."

"So you are just using him, just like my father wanted to. Just like everyone else wants to," she said bitterly.

"Just using him? No. But I am using him, just like I am using everyone around this table and am in turn used by everyone else sitting at this table." I said.

Before she could reply Alkasha twitched her hand and another portal opened up, this time between the meeting room and its Mirror, and Bruce walked through.

'Alkasha was playing games again.' I thought even as Bruce looked me straight in the eyes and I stared right back.

After nearly a minute he gave a slight nod and retook his seat "I'm not happy with you Raith and I doubt I will be for a long time, but the goals of our Covenant are too important to allow personal animosity to interfere. So I have one question for you and I expect an honest answer as I would consider a lie to be knowingly acting against me. Was my becoming the Hulk necessary for humanities survival?"

I winced slightly, bound as I was by the oaths we had all sworn I couldn't disassemble or shade the truth to anywhere near the degree I would like. "Absolutely necessary? No, but..."

I was cut off by Alkasha "But it did increase the probability that humanity would be alive and free to chart its own destiny two decades from now by more than 50%. Earth is reaching a crossroads Bruce and you will play a critical role in events that will shape not just humanity or Earth but the entire universe. Events eons in the making, some that even predate the very birth of humanity, are coming to a head and you will have a near unique ability to put your finger on the scales so that the end result favors humanity."

Maya spoke up next, if quietly and in a voice tinged with fear "What has you and Octavian so scared Alkasha? What is coming that justifies what we have done, and will do?"

Alkasha gave a sad smile even as I gave a head shake of negation "The Age of Man is ending and the Age of Gods is about to be reborn, but the details of what that really means need to wait until after a critical event occurs. Time, space, destiny, fate; call it what you will but it is approaching a shatter point. A moment where everything is in flux and the entire game board can be rewritten, and Alkasha and I are playing for that prize. One possible future out of the countless billions that could potentially be."

Natasha cut off whatever responses the others might have been inclined to make when she said "You don't want to know. I've gotten bits and pieces out of Octavian over the years and even that is enough to give me nightmares, trust that Alkasha and Octavian are acting in the best interests of humanity and be glad that you don't have to be the one who knowingly stands by and allows atrocities to occur simply because it is a net benefit in the fullness of time."

A long moment of silence passed before Bruce gave a slight, barely perceptible, nod of acceptance and then Elektra said: "So Extremis, I haven't had the time to keep up with all the details, what does Phase 1 testing being completed actually mean?"

Maya seemed relieved that we had moved onto less weighty matters and quickly answered "It means that we can successfully and repeatedly enhance humans to a level generally on par with Captain America. The healing factor is far superior to his own and there are a few other ancillary benefits but it basically means we have a survivable process for making super soldiers."

"Super soldiers? Not super humans?" Elektra queried.

Maya shook her head "No, we still have far too many questions we need to answer before Extremis is ready for civilian deployment."

"Like what?" Elektra prompted.

"Like whether or not Extremis enhanced individuals can have children. And whether or not the process is reversible, or even modifiable. And how the process interacts with certain genetic abnormalities." Maya answered.

Elektra blinked "Oh, that seems kinda important."

"Just a bit." I said sarcastically, if with a slight smile on my lips to indicate that it was a jest, before asking "What kind of timeline are you looking at for answering those questions, Maya?"

She shrugged slightly "Testing Extremis modification will be easy, we just inject some of the test subjects with a different variant and see what happens. The only reason I haven't done it yet is that I was finishing up phase one testing. As for the compatibility testing, I already have the computers running the models for every DNA sample that the human genome project ever gathered."

I noticed what she hadn't said and prompted "And the breeding issue?"

Maya sighed "That's harder, and we are looking at at least nine months to see what happens. I've done enough preliminary testing to be able to say that an Extremis enhanced female won't be able to have a child with a male who isn't Extremis enhanced; the woman's body will just destroy the s.p.e.r.m like it does any other foreign biological contaminants."

"And with an enhanced man?" Natasha questioned.

"I'm not sure. I can tell you that the enhanced s.p.e.r.m is able to survive inside a females' w.o.m.b and so should be able to fertilize the egg but I really don't have much of an idea on how Extremis regeneration will interact with pregnancy or what a child born with Extremis active in its body will be like." Maya answered.

"And Bruce's s.p.e.r.m?" Betty quietly asked.

Maya gave her a smile and a slight shrug "Who knows? Divine biology isn't exactly my specialty. I can tell you that when we injected his blood into some of the phase one test subjects it proved very hostile and actually overpowered the Extremis, resulting in the test subjects violently exploding as their entire bodies seemingly turned into gamma radiation. But given what Alkasha has said about how the effects of divine blood are contingent on what its source d.e.s.i.r.es, I'm not prepared to make any definitive statements."

"But I am. If you are enhanced with Extremis then you will be able to produce viable offspring with Bruce." Alakasha answered before Betty and Bruce could process their hopes being potentially dashed. "In fact, all it will take is for Bruce to intend for you to get pregnant when you have s.e.x and you will get pregnant."

Betty gave a broad smile to Bruce before turning to Maya "I'll be getting Extremis soon then."

Maya nodded with her own smile on her face "Of course, and Frank and I will be joining you just as soon as I've finished with testing the viability of overwriting previous Extremis variants."

I glanced at Natasha before saying "I'll hold off until phase 2 testing is done, but try and have it finished before the new year."

Natasha and Elektra both gave their own nods of agreement.