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[1 month later]
It has been thirty days since the day I encountered the Winter Soldiers and killed most of them, save for Bucky, since then I have eliminated eight bases, and yet Hydra has only increased their efforts to capture me, sending more and more agents, forcing Emily and I to be on the move.
This entire dilemma brought me back to when I tortured Mr. Wrodick a month ago, he was very vocal, very open about all things, and he sang the melodies I wanted him to sing, and some I did not want to hear and ignored at the time, on his unrequested symphony he went into great detail how Hydra would never… never stop hunting me for I had proven my value was beyond what they thought possible, that they would forever be in the shadows, waiting for me to lower my guard, that I would forever live looking upon my shoulder fearing the day I slipped up, such a miserable tune, one I wanted no part in.
This made me wonder, would my message actually do something.. Would me destroying their bases one by one actually change a thing? Or would simply encourage them to try harder and harder in the greedy attempt to own me and my powers, so far that seemed to be the case.
I didn't want that, but what else could I do, as it stood, I was around super soldier levels of power, at least their bootleg version, I had no real power to wipe them off, I had no tools to hurt them.
Eliminating Hydra was something well beyond my current capabilities that was something I knew, a disease I was not prepared to fully cure, a demon I was not yet ready to purge, but not all diseases or demons need to be eliminated right away, some… some can be controlled, and managed, into a livable situation.
Eliminating them by normal means was an impossibility, a fruitless endeavor that would never be completed, a quest that went beyond the span of a human life, and in reality, I really had no idea how long it would take to eliminate them, maybe years? Decades? Perhaps even more, It was simply time I did not have, and even if I did, well… who would want to spend an eternity by human standards hunting them? Besides that, I had Emily to take into consideration too, I had no idea if I was ageless or not, perhaps I was, but Emily was not, she was a human, a normal human, and a life of eternal fear was not one I wanted to subject her to.
So, I had to think outside the box. I had to teach Hydra, that I too, was an impossibility to deal with, a threat so big, they would prioritize saving their resources instead of wasting them on me, I had to become the Heracles of their mythos, I had to teach them, I could slay them.
I could always focus my time in trying to decipher the super soldier serum from the samples I got from the winter soldiers, but that would take time, time where nothing was a guarantee, time I could use in something else.
Like hunting another type of power, one easier yet arguably harder to acquire, the power the Ancient One had, what she knew would give me the tools to end Hydra you see, learning to open portals would be very… very beneficial, after all with that skill, all I needed to do was open portals in the hydra locations I had on my map, leave bombs inside the bases and burn Hydra with unavoidable attacks, I mean what were they supposed to do? There is no way to stop an attack like that, with a power like that, I would Amazon prime bomb on their asses, and who knows, Emily might have a knack for the mystic arts, it would certainly help her out in the long run, but that was me just getting ahead of myself.
So here I was, on my way to Karma-Taj, with Emily sleeping, her head resting on my legs.
As for Fury, well… I didn't tell him, I just... left him my number, in case of emergencies.
{We'll be arriving in Nepal in ten minutes} I heard the pilot say through the coms of the plane.
"I suppose this is for the best." I sighed, wondering if the Ancient One would give me a book or two, in the movies she seemed like a nice enough person, but this was not a movie.
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Once the plane reached the airport in Nepal, I took Emily and walked. If there was a good thing about my map, it was that I knew where most things were, of course, things like Karma-Taj were not exactly on my map.
So, I asked every person I saw. One would eventually lead me there, or have more information than I had.
Or so I thought, because one hour in after arriving at Nepal where I started to ask everyone about Karma-Taj, I encountered a door, a door with a tag floating above it, which was weird, only people had tags, aka their names and levels.
[Door… it's a door]
Funny enough the name was simply door… it's a door, no level, no awesome description, just that. But if I had to take a wild guess, that door had Magic, and considering the only ones with Magic around here are the sorcerers, and me now, but… it's a different kind of Magic, so… that was probably my entrance to Karma-Taj.
"Well here goes nothing," I sighed, walking to the door, Emily sleeping soundly in my arms. Once I was in front of the door, I pushed it open, feeling how said door took some of my mana. Inside I found myself in the same house Dr. Strange had visited after arriving at Nepal, the house where he met the Ancient One. "Well, that was easy." I muttered.
"It's not easy for everybody," someone behind me added, startling the crap out of me.
"Holy fuck," I jumped turning around, to see no other than the Ancient One. "You should really consider having a bell on you."
[The Ancient One - LV 219]
The Ancient One chuckled, her eyes piercing me with an unshakable gaze that made me feel nude, "You… You are very different, I don't think I have met someone like you before."
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The Ancient One circled me, her eyes giving a long scrutinising look, index fingers pressed to her lips, "You are very symmetrical.."
Emily in my arms, I frowned, how was I supposed to answer that? "Thanks?"
"Never seen such symmetry in the mystical arts, it's rather vexing," The Ancient one added, a rather hard to read smile on her face, in fact, now that I think about it, every expression coming from her is rather difficult to understand on some level. "But enough about that, you must have a reason to be here, everyone has one."
"I do," I nodded.
"Follow me, Mr. Walker," The Ancient one smiled, her eyes closing into two thin lines, before she started walking, with me close behind, while I wondered, how did she know about me.
"You know me?" I inquired, my eyes on her as I did so.
"On a surface level," She answered, making no stop on her walk, "I know bits and such, nothing personal I assure you,"
Deciding it was best to take that answer, I nodded as I continued following her through the house into an empty room with two chairs and a teapot.
Looking at me, she took a seat pouring some hot delicious tea into a cup, and with a smile offered, "Would you like some?"
At her offer, I nodded, taking a seat on the only empty chair as she served me the cup of tea she had graciously offered. "Now," she said, handing me the cup, "What is it that you want,"
"You don't know?" I asked.
Taking a sip from her cup, she smiled, this time a less friendly smile, "I have an idea, considering your upbringing, but I would like to hear it from you, the source, so to speak." she finished, putting her empty tea cup on the table in front of her.
Blinking, I looked at the table that two seconds ago hadn't been there in surprise, before I replied, "I want to learn some things from you, if possible."
Unconvince with my answer, the Ancient One looked at me, her gaze piercing beyond the corners of my soul as she asked, "Is that truly all?"
"I suppose… the reason behind… all of this, is eliminating a threat that will never stop hunting me." If she knew about my upbringing here, there was no point of lying.
"Hydra, is it?" The Ancient One asked, her eyes on mine.
"Yes," I nodded.
"Why?" The Ancient One inquired.
Why? Because I would never be allowed to rest until they were dead, "Because as long as they… think I belong to them, I will never be truly free."
"You could," The Ancient One replied, a faint smile appearing on her face.
"Could what?" I muttered in confusion.
"You could be free, even without killing them," She finished with a small chuckle, standing up from her chair as she did so. "The question is… would you want to be free with them existing?"
"Well, let's operate under the assumption I could be free without killing them," I sighed, "I still would like to… erase them, they hurt others… and do things, things that will forever haunt me, haunt her." I muttered looking at Emily.
"I see," The Ancient One nodded, "Very well then, when can you start?"
I looked at her, perplexed with what was going on, by how the conversation was moving, I expected her to… kick me out, "You… don't find my quest morally incorrect?"
"I am not in a position to judge you, nor your goals, I do think you need to heal and mend the wounds they inflicted upon your being, but healing can't be forced, it happens naturally," The Ancient One said, her eyes on me. "You are the master of your own destiny, Mr. Walker, I am but a passenger you have invited, besides, in a way, your goals align with what we stand for, protecting the world, though, we usually focus on mystical threats, but we can't all face dark gods and demons can we?" she winked.
Was… was that a joke, "I'm sorry… It's just you are the first person not to… well, have a strong reaction to my goal, most either look at me like I am crazy, while some share my vision with anger," like Erik, he hated Hydra.
"Well, that's them," The Ancient One smiled, "All I do is help people heal, I help them to find a way to heal themselves, most find such help in the Mystic Arts, and I am happy to help,"
Nodding at her answer, I reminded myself she was one to always have a motive behind her actions, she was old, older than I could imagine, meaning she had experience playing the game, but… as people say, you scratch my back, I scratch yours.
"So, when do you want to start? Mr. Walker," The Ancient One asked again.
"Right away," I answered with a smile.
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[The Ancient One - POV]
Symmetry in the mystic arts was an impossibility, mana was free of such things, yet, there he was, a magically symmetrical being, it was as if his body was a computer perfectly regulating the mystical energies of his body in a vexingly perfect way, in all my years, I had never witnessed such a… thing, and I had witnessed many things.
Perhaps this was why I had seen him fighting alongside Dr. Strange during my visions of the future.
"Alright, as I see you already have so… rudimentary training in the mystic arts, I will start you with this," I said, tossing him a sling ring, teleporting his daughter to a room.
"Where is Emily," Alex asked, his tone holding a growl.
"I had a room made for her, yours is next door, now," Smiling, I opened a portal to the Sahara Desert, and pushed him inside tossing him a scroll with the information how to open a portal like he had requested, normally I wouldn't do such a thing, throwing him a scroll and such, but his readings were so symmetrical I felt like this was the best way to teach him, instead of expecting him to sweat on reflect. "Show me how much knowledge you have, and how you can use it." With that said, I walked through the portal back to my office, taking a seat only to hear.
"I'll be honest with you, I already learned what I wanted…" He… learned the portal, immediately. How fascinating.
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