(AN: Chappie for the day! Thanks for all the positive and critic comments. Helps a lot. Enjoy!)
Alternate MCU 2012
On his 7th and final day in a 2012 timeline, Elias had the honor of being taught personally by Ancient One the whole morning.
The following morning in Kamar-Taj did not begin with a ceremony.
There were no gathered disciples, no formal announcement, no acknowledgment of what Elias had become the day before. The title of Master had settled over him quietly, almost unnoticed in the stillness of dawn, as though the place itself had simply accepted it without question.
Elias stood alone in one of the inner courtyards, the air crisp, the silence uninterrupted. He had been expecting this all night, and now he had been told only to wait.
So he did. It wasn't long before he felt her presence.
"You are early."
Elias turned slightly as Ancient One approached, her steps unhurried, her expression calm as ever. There was something different in the way she looked at him now, not approval, not surprise, but recognition.
"I don't really sleep the same way anymore," Elias replied.
A faint smile touched her lips. "No. You do not."
She stopped a few paces away from him, hands resting loosely behind her back as her gaze lingered for a moment longer than usual.
"Yesterday, you proved that you can fight," she continued. "That you can learn. That you can adapt."
Her eyes sharpened slightly.
"Today… you will learn control."
Elias didn't speak, but his attention shifted fully to her.
"Power is not what you lack," she went on. "What you lack… is limitation."
That earned a small reaction.
"…That's a problem?" he asked.
"It is," she said simply. "Because without limitation, there is no structure. And without structure… There is no mastery."
Then she raised her hand. The space around them shifted.
The courtyard folded perceptibly. The distance between them seemed to compress, the ground beneath Elias subtly warping as if reality itself had been adjusted rather than moved.
"Space," she said, "is the first illusion you must overcome."
Elias narrowed his eyes slightly, feeling it. She didn't cross the distance. It had been… erased? or was it folded?
"Portals are a tool," the Ancient One continued. "But they are not mastery."
She stepped forward and appeared directly in front of him, same as before, without crossing the space in between.
"Fold it," she instructed.
Elias didn't move immediately. Instead, he focused only on two points. His room. This courtyard.
Their connection to each other. Their alignment to each other.
He raised his hand slightly. The air shifted.
For a brief moment, nothing happened.
Then he stepped forward.
And reappeared behind her.
A faint pause followed.
"…That was faster than expected," she admitted softly.
Elias glanced at his hand, thoughtful. "It's… simpler than portals."
"Yes," she said. "Because you are not forcing reality to open. You are reminding it that separation does not exist."
"Again."
The world shifted once more, but this time it wasn't space that changed.
It was time.
"Do not move," she instructed.
Elias obeyed.
The Ancient One lifted her hand and flicked a small shard of stone into the air. It hovered for a fraction of a second—
Then dropped.
But as it fell, Elias saw something strange.
A faint duplication of its motion. A shadow of its path.
"…I can see where it's going," he said.
"Not where," she corrected gently. "When."
Her gaze held his.
"You are not predicting. You are perceiving what has not yet fully happened."
Elias focused again.
The next movement came faster.
The stone dropped again, and this time, he caught it before it fell.
His brows furrowed slightly.
"…That's not reaction time."
"No," she said. "It is awareness."
They did not stop.
The training flowed from one lesson into another without pause, each concept building upon the last.
Elias stood at the center of the courtyard as multiple streams of golden energy formed around him—Eldritch constructs, shifting, unstable at first.
"Form without purpose is useless," the Ancient One said. "Give them intent."
Elias extended his hand. The constructs changed.
What had once been simple shapes sharpened, elongated, transformed blades, spears, then something more fluid, more adaptive.
One moved on its own. Then another. They became autonomous.
The Ancient One watched closely.
"…You're not just shaping them," she observed. "You're… delegating control."
Elias didn't respond immediately.
"I don't need to manage everything directly," he said after a moment. "They just need instructions."
Her smile deepened slightly.
"Good."
The next lesson was different.
He felt it before she even spoke.
"Defense," she said.
A pulse of energy surged toward him without warning.
Elias reacted instinctively, raising a shield, but it shattered on impact, forcing him back a step.
"Too rigid," she said.
Another attack came.
This time, Elias adjusted by not strengthening the shield but changing it. It shifted as it formed, adapting to the incoming force, dispersing it rather than resisting it.
The impact faded. The shield remained.
"…It's changing on its own," he noted.
"Because you allowed it to," she replied. "A perfect defense is not unbreakable."
Her gaze sharpened. "It is adaptive."
By the time the sun had begun to rise higher in the sky, the courtyard no longer looked the same.
Reality had been bent, layered, tested.
And Elias stood at the center of it all, his breathing steady, his mind sharper than it had ever been.
"There is one more thing," the Ancient One said.
Elias looked up.
She studied him for a moment, as if weighing something.
"Your power," she continued, "is not borrowed."
He already knew that.
"You do not draw from other dimensions," she said. "You are the source."
"Use it," she instructed.
Elias frowned slightly. "I've been using it."
"Not like this."
She raised her hand.
"Do not shape it into something you've learned."
"Let it take form on its own."
For the first time since the training began, Elias hesitated.
Then he followed the instructions, and he closed his eyes.
He reached inward. The energy responded immediately.
It was alive. All this time, he himself has been wondering. Were the powers given to him by the system only come to be because of the system itself? What would happen if the system were suddenly offline, like what happened right now? Will he still be able to use his powers?
Turns out, all the powers he was given. The battery to use them has been inside him all along. This was one of the reasons why he found it easy to understand the lessons here and why he learns faster than normal.
When he opened his eyes, it wasn't like before.
He could feel his connection to his powers. A simple deep breath made his presence more pronounced.
The Ancient One watched in silence.
"…Good," she said softly.
Elias stared at nothing, yet in his view, temporal motions appeared to him as easily as breathing. If he wanted to focus, he could easily perceive where the falling leaves would land. Every single leaf.
"…I feel different."
"Yes," she said.
A pause.
"Because this… is your true domain. I felt it clearly the moment you came to us. You are already a master of time itself. You simply lack genuine recognition of it."
The courtyard stilled.
And for a moment, neither of them spoke.
Then the Ancient One turned slightly, her gaze drifting toward the distant horizon.
"You are ready," she said.
"Come back to the artifacts room this afternoon before you go."
Elias cupped both hands; this time, he bowed.
"I will, Master."
Ancient One gave a knowing smile and returned his book, the Necronomicon Ex-mortis.
Elias actually wanted to leave it to her for safekeeping, but the Ancient One herself mentioned that it was useless in her hands. But the spells written in it did give Ancient One some inspiration for newer spells.
Elias could only accept it and return it to his inventory.
.
.
.
Alternate MCU, Year 2023
Agatha was about to bolt to the door since Wanda and Kristen broke through the wall of her room but Kristen summoned a Xenomorph with Abomination's blood at the door trapping Agatha. On one side were Wanda and Kristen, on the door was an evolved Xenomorph.
The moment the Xenomorph sealed the doorway, the room stopped feeling like a room and instead tightened into something suffocating. The walls seemed closer and at the center of it all stood Agatha Harkness. She was calculating faster than even her centuries of experience had ever demanded.
Behind her, the exit was gone in any meaningful sense, occupied by a presence that did not register through her centuries of knowledge. Yet the creature existed, its stillness more oppressive than any movement could have been, as if it understood that patience itself could be a weapon. It wasn't just any mindless creature or beasts, it has intelligence of a predator hunting its prey.
In front of her, Wanda Maximoff's hands moved ever so slightly as crimson energy curled and snapped around her fingers like restrained lightning. Beside her, Kristen stood in stark contrast: her arm shifting with a mechanical fluidity into that same weaponized form, its surface alive with a low, building hum that suggested something catastrophic waiting to be released.
Agatha exhaled slowly, her lips curving just faintly. "Three against one," she murmured almost amused. "And yet none of you understand what you're dealing with."
Her eyes ignited violet and power erupted from her.
It didn't surge—it detonated. Dark magic tore outward from her in a violent, crushing wave that fractured the floor beneath her feet and slammed into the walls hard enough to send cracks racing along their surfaces like veins under strain. The force struck Wanda and Kristen head-on, a deliberate attempt to disrupt, to overwhelm, to seize control of the rhythm before it could ever settle.
Wanda staggered under it, her chaos magic flickering erratically as the sudden pressure threatened to unravel her focus. Kristen's advance halted as her body locked itself into place, internal systems compensating instantly as the force pressed against her, her weapon-arm dimming for a moment under the strain.
Even the Xenomorph shifted—but only slightly, its form adjusting rather than yielding, absorbing the impact in a way that felt less like resistance and more like indifference.
Agatha moved the moment the opening existed.
Her magic split with precision, branching into multiple streams without hesitation—one lashing toward Wanda in a twisting arc meant to bind and disrupt, another firing toward Kristen in rapid, concentrated bursts, and the third, heavier and denser, driving straight toward the creature with enough force to test whether it could truly withstand what it pretended not to acknowledge.
The room collapsed into motion.
Wanda recovered first, her hands snapping forward as crimson energy surged outward in defiance, meeting Agatha's attack midair in a violent collision that warped the space between them. The clash churned, unstable and grinding, each side pushing, trying to overpower the other while the air itself seemed to ripple from the strain.
Kristen advanced through the chaos.
Her weapon-arm flared back to life with a rising whine that cut sharply through the noise before releasing a barrage of plasma fire, each shot precise, forcing Agatha to divide her attention as she redirected portions of her magic to intercept, deflect, or absorb the incoming assault.
Agatha's expression sharpened.
This wasn't brute force anymore—it was pressure from all sides, layered and intentional.
And then the Xenomorph moved with purpose.
It closed the distance in a blur of controlled motion, its speed unnerving not because it was sudden, but because it was so efficient. There were no wasted movement or telegraphed intent. One moment it stood at the doorway, the next it was already within striking range.
Agatha reacted just in time, violet energy snapping into place as a barrier formed between them, but the impact that followed was heavy.
The strike slammed into her defenses with a force that didn't just test her magic—it demanded it hold something tangible, something with weight and momentum that her usual defenses weren't designed to counter. The barrier cracked under the pressure, fractures spreading across its surface as the creature pushed forward unrelenting.
Agatha's composure slipped, just for a fraction of a second.
"That's not—"
The barrier splintered. Not completely, but enough. And Kristen didn't miss it.
A plasma shot slipped through the weakened defense and struck Agatha cleanly, the impact forcing her body to twist as her stance broke, her balance shifting.
The Xenomorph struck again.
This time, Agatha felt it—not just the impact, but something beneath it, something wrong. Her magic reacted instinctively, recoiling for the briefest instant as though rejecting the contact itself, as if whatever this thing was did not belong within the rules her power understood.
A sharp hiss escaped her as she lashed out violently, releasing a concentrated burst that hurled the Xenomorph backward across the room.
It rose in no time at all, like it wasn't affected at all.
Agatha's breathing deepened. Her hands lifted higher, fingers curling as she drew on something deeper, something heavier, her magic thickening as it gathered, darkening as it intensified.
The room responded. The walls groaned audibly now, the cracks widening, the air itself bending under the pressure of what she was forcing into existence.
Wanda was pushed back again, her feet sliding against the fractured floor as she fought to hold her ground, crimson energy flaring wildly before snapping back under her control. Kristen halted entirely, her systems recalibrating as the force pressed against her from all directions.
Agatha seized it.
Her focus locked onto Wanda, and without hesitation she unleashed a concentrated blast—faster than before, denser, lethal in its intent.
Kristen moved before Wanda could.
She stepped directly into its path, her body absorbing the full impact as the force tore across her form, the outer layer distorting violently as sections of it peeled back to reveal the metallic structure beneath. The energy pushed her back half a step.
Wanda saw everything and her hesitation disappeared.
"No one get to take from me, not anymore!" she said, her voice quieter now.
Her power answered.
The crimson energy surged outward. It moved, pressing back against Agatha's magic in opposition.
Agatha felt it. Her control wavered due to the strain in clash against Wanda.
And that was all it took. The Xenomorph was already behind her. This time, there was no warning.
The strike came from her blind side, sudden and unnoticed, driving from her back and exited through her chest. It was the creatures tail. It shattered her balance completely as the pain forced her to scream in agony. Her magic flickered violently, destabilizing as her focus was lost.
Wanda's attack followed instantly. Crimson energy collided with Agatha's punctured body. Her scream became unrecognizable.
Yet through all that pain she still tried to reach for her power, for control, for anything at all. Her centuries of experience made her endure and grasp anything at all just to survive.
But Kristen's raised her weapon, its hum rising once more.
Agatha's eyes flared one last time, violet light flickering as she forced what remained of her strength forward in a final, desperate surge.
Wanda intensified his attack, determined to not lose ever again. Kristen didn't bother firing multiple shots but charged one beam of energy from her core. While the creature didn't let Agatha escape the attacks from the other two.
Wanda joined Agatha's scream of struggle. Yet Kristen was silent as she fired a fully charge energy from her hand.
Agatha's dark energy and struggle was immediately dismantled. All the lights from chaos magic, dark magic and laser beam disappeared. Agatha was left groaning on the floor.
The Xenomorph loomed over her, its towering frame blotting out what little light remained in the fractured room, its elongated head tilting with a slow, deliberate curiosity as if studying her.
A faint, unnatural clicking echoed from within its throat, the sound sharp enough to cut through the ringing silence that had settled after the battle.
Agatha stirred beneath it.
A weak, ragged breath escaped her as her fingers twitched against the broken floor, her body refusing to rise anymore. The sound reached her through the haze, pulling her attention upward with effort, her vision unsteady as it climbed toward the thing standing over her.
For a fleeting second, something like recognition—or perhaps realization—crossed her expression.
The creature's jaws parted.
The inner mechanism revealed itself with a slow, dreadful precision, glistening in the dim light as it extended forward, poised with an almost surgical stillness.
Agatha tried to speak. Perhaps a spell. Perhaps a final defiance.
A sharp, brutal intrusion shattered the moment as the inner jaw drove forward, piercing clean through her forehead with a sickening finality. The force snapped her head back and the faint glow in her eyes vanished completely.
The Xenomorph held its position for a moment longer, the inner jaw retracting with a slick, mechanical sound as it regarded the lifeless form beneath it.
Agatha Harkness did not move again.
Wanda lowered her hands, her gaze fixed forward as the last remnants of crimson energy faded from her fingertips. When she finally registered the Xenomorph's form, her thoughts went to Elias.
Just what kind of man is he?
Kristen stood motionless for a moment before her form began to repair itself, the exposed metal smoothing over as the outer layer reformed seamlessly, as though the damage had never existed.
"Return for now." She gave a simple command to the Xenomorph as the creature vanished from where they are.
End of Chapter