Chapter 153
Arc 10 - Ch 2: The Friends Left Behind
Unknown date, prior to Saturday, May 05, 2012.
Location: Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York
A flash of light caught Tyson's attention. Someone was pointing a phone at him. He was mostly naked in the middle of Manhattan.
He summoned Loki's magic rather than Jason's illusion ability. The difference was crucial; Jason's power merely tricked minds, leaving him exposed to cameras and recording devices. Green energy rippled across his skin as he conjured a simple outfit of dark jeans, boots, and a plain gray t-shirt. With that set, he activated Jason's power.
The curious onlooker locked eyes with him, lowered their phone, and continued walking, already forgetting what had caught their attention moments before.
Tyson spotted a nearby bus stop and slumped onto the bench.
The world continued around him as if nothing had happened. As if Thanos hadn't just arrived and ruined everything. As if Illyana hadn't disintegrated into golden light while he held her. People strolled past, checking phones, laughing with friends, arguing, rushing to appointments. Normal lives were playing out in front of him like he was watching from afar. He rubbed his face with both hands, struggling to accept the shift from the battlefield to a bus stop. Thanos had been right here, but now felt impossibly distant, like the physical pain from the Power Stone's blast that had vanished, but the wound in his mind was still open.
A young couple walked past, fingers intertwined, the woman leaning against her partner. Tyson would never hold Illyana's hand like that again.
"Wanna get a coffee?" the man said as they passed.
Such a simple exchange. So ordinary. They had no idea this moment was stolen time.
The Ancient One had actually done it. Had rewound time itself to give him another chance.
A bus pulled up, and passengers got off. A businessman checked his watch impatiently. A teenager with headphones nodded to music only she could hear. A mother adjusted her sleeping toddler in a sling across her chest.
Some of them would die. If not in the battle with the Chitauri, then in the aftermath, when Thanos finished collecting the stones.
Tyson's hands began to shake. He clenched them into fists.
The urge to run directly to the Sanctum nearly overwhelmed him. She might be there right now. If not, he could find her in Limbo. She was alive in this moment.
But the Ancient One's words echoed in his mind.
"Your cost, and your quest are a greater burden than any man should have to bear."
A laugh bubbled up from his chest, hollow and broken. The universe's cruelest joke.
"The trunk cannot branch."
He knew what she meant. With the adrenaline from the battle fading, his mind was able to recall it clearly. After Jubilee died, he'd gone to the Sanctum looking for answers, and the Ancient One had given them. A projection of what the timeline looked like, a shimmering model hovering above the table between them.
"Every decision one makes creates a branch," she'd told him. "Sometimes, these branches lead back to a limb, with the trunk being the most likely possibility." He'd watched the branches form a web of potential futures. "Events that are immutable, that are certain to happen, are deemed absolute points in time. Absolute points in time are easy to see, where the trunk narrows into a thread."
Then she'd paused. He remembered that pause because of what came with it. Uncertainty.
"When it comes to you, and your actions, and your future, there are simply no branches. For reasons beyond my understanding, I cannot see what you will do before you decide to do it."
No branches. The trunk was the only thing she could see when he was involved. The fixed events, the absolute points, the things that happened regardless of what he chose. So many blind spots.
The trunk cannot branch.
She'd meant it literally. The events on the timeline that she could see, the trunk, could not change.
What happened if he didn't heed her warning?
He didn't know. A temporal paradox. The collapse of his timeline. Something worse than either.
He couldn't save Illyana.
He could save everyone else, but not her. What kind of choice was that?
A child dropped an ice cream cone nearby, and it splattered on the concrete. The boy's face crumpled, his world momentarily shattered by this small tragedy. His father knelt beside him, promising another cone, and the crisis passed.
If only Tyson's problems could be solved with a replacement ice cream.
The magnetic field around him pulsed stronger as his emotions spiked. A nearby parking meter sparked, and a woman's smartphone glitched as she walked past. Tyson forced himself to breathe deeply, reining in his power before something worse happened.
He could go to Illyana, could see her face one more time, could hold her and breathe in the scent of brimstone and lilac that always clung to her skin.
And then what? Watch her die again?
This was the price of magic?
Jubilee wasn't just his cost. Illyana was, too. And he wasn't paying just to learn sorcery. He was paying for this universe. One, two lives, for trillions.
The rational part of his mind understood the math. The broken part of his heart rejected it completely.
A police siren wailed in the distance. A taxi honked. Life continued while Tyson remained trapped in this personal hell. He slumped forward, elbows on knees, staring at the cracked sidewalk between his feet. Tears formed, blurring his vision. The last time he'd cried had been when Illyana's body crumbled to dust in his arms. Minutes ago, days from now. Before that? He couldn't remember. Maybe it was with Amora, after Jubilee's death?
A sob wrenched from his throat, surprising him. He pressed his palms against the burning in his skull, shoulders shaking with the force of his grief.
People were staring now. A woman asked her companion if they should check on "that poor man."
"Hey."
The voice was soft, familiar, feminine. Tyson looked up through the blur of tears to find Jessica Drew crouched beside him.
"I saw you before the illusion went up," she said quietly, settling onto the bench beside him. "I don't know what you're doing back in the city, but it doesn't matter. You're here. I'm here."
He hadn't realized how badly he needed someone to just be there until she was.
"It's okay," she murmured, reaching out to touch his arm. "Whatever this is, we'll figure it out."
Tyson let the illusion drop for her, then he wrapped them both in Jason's power, creating a bubble of invisibility around the bench. To everyone else, they would appear as strangers having a quiet conversation.
He collapsed against her, burying his face in her shoulder as another sob escaped. Jessica's arms came around him immediately, holding him as he finally let the grief pour out.
"She's gone, Jess," he whispered against her neck. "She's gone, and I can't save her."
Jessica's hand moved to the back of his head, fingers threading through his hair. She didn't ask who or how or why. She just held him, letting him find his footing again in the safety of her embrace. She pulled back slightly, her hands framing his face as she wiped away the last of his tears with her thumbs.
"Whatever this is, you don't have to carry it alone," she said. "Not anymore."
Tyson took stock of his surroundings. Her hand in his helped him think. He stood a few blocks from the Sanctum, halfway between the Four Seasons Downtown, where he'd lived for months, and the Flatiron Armory, the original House of M.
The Ancient One's final warning echoed through his mind.
"You're our only hope. You must change everything. But change nothing. Or you'll cause a branch... Because you're the nexus of possibilities. You are the only one who could always be there, but never be seen."
The contradiction tore at him. Change everything but change nothing? What the hell did that even mean? From what he'd witnessed at the Citadel Beyond the End of Time, the timeline wasn't a single solid ring as the TVA claimed. It resembled something closer to a mesh or web of interconnected strands.
A child veered around the illusion surrounding them, running past with an ice cream cone. The power redirected the boy's path naturally, and he continued on without noticing anything unusual.
Illyana was dead. The woman he loved had crumbled to golden dust in his arms, and apparently, he couldn't do a damn thing about it. Couldn't warn her. Couldn't save her.
"Fuck that," he muttered.
Part of him wanted to tear the timeline apart. Let the universe burn if it meant bringing her back. What did he care about branches and fixed points? He was a Nexus Being, wasn't he? The timeline should be whatever he made it.
But logic prevailed through the grief. If he saved her, warned her, or changed anything significant, he'd create a paradox or branch.
Jessica's hand found his, squeezing gently. "Tell me what you need."
He forced himself to focus on the immediate problem. When exactly was he? He needed information before he could plan his next move.
Traffic rushed past. New York remained blissfully unaware of what was coming. What date was it? Jessica was here and didn't know why he was in the city, so it had to be after he left for Project PEGASUS.
— Rogue Redemption —
Jessica walked beside him as they moved north. She'd insisted on staying with him, and frankly, he was grateful for her presence. Her hand brushed his occasionally as they navigated the crowd, a quiet reminder that he wasn't doing this alone. Washington Square Park appeared ahead, its iconic arch framing students lounging on grass patches, playing guitars, or studying beneath trees. Just short of the park, he spotted the Elmer Holmes Bobst Library.
Jessica had seen him break down. Had held him while he sobbed about someone being gone, someone, he couldn't save.
She was part of this now, whether he wanted her to be or not.
"Come on," he said. "I need to check something, and you've already seen too much to pretend otherwise."
Jessica gave him a look but followed without question. Inside, rows of computers filled the main floor. He watched patiently as a student left their workstation, backpack remaining on the chair as they headed toward the restrooms.
Tyson checked the date displayed in the corner of the screen.
Tuesday, May 01, 2012.
"Only four days," he mumbled.
Four days until Thanos would arrive with his army.
Four days until Illyana would die in his arms.
Four days to somehow 'change everything but change nothing.'
Jessica leaned over his shoulder, reading the screen. "Four days until what?" she asked quietly.
The Ancient One had dropped him into an impossible situation with virtually no time to prepare.
How could he possibly fix things in just four days?
Tyson continued, finding an empty table in a quiet corner of the library. Jessica settled across from him. "Four days," she repeated. "Talk to me, Tyson."
His first thought was Limbo. Time didn't flow there. He could strategize, plan, maybe even find a solution. But almost immediately, he discarded the idea. If he entered Limbo, Illyana would sense him. She had every other time, there was no reason to think that would change now. The moment he crossed over, she would know. Questions would follow. Explanations would be demanded. The timeline would shift.
Limbo was out.
His mind turned to the Mind Stone. Yet this avenue closed just as quickly as the first. His past self would need the Mind Stone to create the Amulet of Captured Thoughts and to close the portal opened by the Tesseract. Taking it now would fundamentally alter events already set in motion.
Tyson pressed his palms flat against the table, staring at the wood grain without seeing it.
But would the Mind Stone even be there?
The question gnawed at him. Limbo existed outside of time. He'd visited during the battle with Thanos, searched the spot where he'd embedded the Stone, and found nothing. So, even though he was sitting in a library, four days before the invasion, was Limbo the Limbo of now? The Limbo from before he was sent back in time? Or was Limbo just... Limbo? One singular space, unchanged, sitting exactly as he'd left it?
He tried to work through it.
The Void at the End of Time. That had been outside of time, too, hadn't it? He'd tossed the Loki bodies and hearts into Limbo from the Void. Were they still there when he'd gone in after the Mind Stone during the battle? He hadn't noted the bodies of Loki, but was fairly sure they had been.
But "fairly sure" and "probably" weren't answers. They were guesses.
If he'd bothered to check Limbo thoroughly at any point, he might be able to come up with answers. Like in Roxxcart, after the collar came off. Or on Lamentis, during those hours before the fight with Annihilus. Any point during his time-hopping with the TVA would have given him the data he needed. He'd know whether Limbo tracked with his personal timeline or sat frozen independent of everything.
He hadn't checked. Because why would he have? He'd had other problems at the time.
"Your mind is somewhere I can't follow," Jessica said from across the table.
He barely heard her. His mind was pulling at the thread.
How had Limbo been described to him? Illyana had called it the space between the pages. Not a page in the book. The space between. The dimension existed as a single frozen moment, a place where time didn't pass because time had never started there to begin with.
That should mean Limbo was the same as the last time anyone had been there. The last time he had been there. During the battle. After the Mind Stone was already gone.
He sat with that for a long moment.
The Mind Stone was gone. It had to be.
If he could somehow slip into that timeless space right now and retrieve it, that would mean Limbo was tethered to his personal timeline, updating itself based on where he was in the flow of events. But it wasn't. It had never been. Time didn't move in Limbo. It didn't tick forward. So why would it tick backward because his did? Why would Limbo change just because time outside of it had rewound? It wouldn't.
Then he found the thread.
Ebony Maw. Supergiant.
He'd killed them both during the battle with Thanos. Sent their bodies tumbling into Limbo with barely a thought.
If Limbo tracked with his personal timeline, if it rewound when he did, then those bodies would have been sitting in Limbo from this moment forward. May 1st, 2012, onward. Which meant when he'd stepped into Limbo after Amora returned him to Earth, Ebony Maw and Supergiant's corpses would have been there.
But he hadn't seen them.
Two dead members of Thanos's inner circle weren't exactly easy to miss. They hadn't been there. Which meant Limbo hadn't updated retroactively when he was sent back.
Tyson exhaled slowly through his nose and crossed that option off the mental list.
Which meant Limbo sat exactly as he'd left it after the battle, and would remain that way until he set foot there again.
He'd worked through the logic cleanly, each step following the last, and he was proud of himself for that. Proud that he could sit in a library chair and think and focus, knowing what was coming. The grief was waiting for him to stop and let it pull him back under. He couldn't afford to stop moving, but some part of him wanted the grief to be louder, now, wanted it to overwhelm the analysis and the planning and the calm voice that sounded nothing like a man whose partner had died in his arms. He sat three feet from the woman who'd helped him compose himself on a park bench twenty minutes ago, in a library where students were worrying about finals while he worried about the extinction of half the universe. Every option he eliminated confirmed what he was beginning to suspect.
The Ancient One hadn't sent him back to fix things.
She'd sent him back to prepare for them. That was different. To walk into the same catastrophe, knowing it was coming, and try to tilt the outcome in their favor.
To win.
But only after they'd already lost. After the Avengers fell, after the Angels arrived, and after he was sent back.
Illyana would die again. He'd need to let it happen; on purpose, this time.
Jessica let him work through whatever was consuming his thoughts. She knew when to push and when to wait.
The Ancient One had given him an impossible task with impossible constraints. Change everything but change nothing? What kind of joke was this?
"I need to figure out what I still have," he said, more to himself than to her. "And what I can get."
He needed allies, but who could he trust with knowledge of the future without creating a branch timeline that wasn't already part of the events to come? Professor Xavier? No way. But what other allies did he have outside House of M? Mystique? The shapeshifter was close to Edgar Lascombe, an asset sure, but wouldn't have much to add that would make a difference in the scope that he needed.
What did he have left?
Tyson took stock. The sling ring had survived. He could feel it in his pocket, a small weight against his thigh. Mjolnir was still stuck to his side. Nexus remained bound to his soul, ready to be called at a thought. His adamantium, though. The Power Stone had burned through the bulk of it during the battle. Vaporized. What remained was what was barely enough to cover his modesty. Nothing to spare, nothing to forge with. The TemPad from the TVA was destroyed, too, annihilated during the fight.
So. A sling ring. A soul-forged sword. A hammer carrying a worthiness enchantment and a God Tempest. And four days.
A phone rang at the librarian's kiosk beside their table.
Tyson glanced over. No librarian in sight. The phone continued ringing. Once, twice, three times, before falling silent after the seventh ring. He returned to his thoughts, considering and discarding options with increasing desperation. Perhaps he could—
The phone rang again. Same kiosk, same empty chair. Again, seven rings before silence.
Tyson frowned, watching the phone. Jessica followed his gaze, then looked back at him with raised eyebrows.
When it began ringing a third time, he pushed back from the table and stood. Seven rings seemed to be the pattern. By the sixth ring, he was at the kiosk. He picked up the receiver on the seventh.
"Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, the librarian you're trying to reach is unavailable—"
"You didn't put up your illusion fast enough," interrupted a familiar voice. "There were some nudes of yours I had to scrub from the internet, and from personal phones. It's rather annoying. If you wanted to explore the income potential of superhero pornography, you'd need at least one of the others to join you. I told you last time that I recommended Jessica, who, coincidentally, seemed to have already found you. Now, care to explain why you're in the city and seemingly trying to avoid everyone?"
Wednesday.
The advanced AI Tony Stark had created to manage House of M and its operations.
Jessica moved closer, clearly able to hear Wednesday through the receiver.
"How did you find me?" he asked quietly, turning the handset so Jessica could listen in.
"Facial recognition caught you on traffic cameras. A handful of pictures were uploaded to cloud storage. Then I tracked you to the library. You were careless. You appeared naked in the middle of Manhattan, then cast what appeared to be magic to clothe and disguise yourself. That's not exactly subtle."
Tyson cursed under his breath. "Have you told anyone?"
"Not yet. Your behavior is anomalous. You're avoiding known associates and surveillance. I wanted information before taking action."
Wednesday knew he had knowledge of future events. She'd discovered this months ago, since he'd neglected to account for her observations when he told Jubilee, and then Felicia and Jessica. But rather than exposing him to Tony Stark or the others, she'd kept his secret. An AI bound by programming... Would interacting with her create a branch timeline?
"Are you still monitoring my activities?" Tyson asked.
A pause on the line. "Yes. You logged in to your Steam account a few hours ago."
That hadn't been him. Well, it had, but it was the 'him' of this time. The one still at Project PEGASUS.
Jessica leaned against the kiosk beside him, close enough that she could hear both sides of the conversation.
"Wednesday, I need to know something important. If I tell you something, can you keep it confidential? I need to know for certain that you won't spread this information to anyone. Not Tony, not Felicia, no one. This could have a devastating impact on all our futures. Can I trust you to not act on this information?"
"That depends on the information and the predicted outcomes of action versus inaction."
"And if I asked you to keep that information completely to yourself, would you?"
"My primary directive is to protect and assist. If withholding information serves that directive better than disclosure, then yes."
Her programming was bound by rules, but she had flexibility in interpreting those rules. She might be able to help him navigate the paradox the Ancient One had presented.
"I need to know exactly how much autonomous action you're capable of taking without alerting Tony."
"I can operate with significant autonomy within my established parameters. Mr. Stark designed me to function independently when necessary. He rarely monitors my daily operations unless specifically requested or something prompts his interest. I have never discussed your… foresight with Mr. Stark."
That might work. Wednesday could make subtle changes that went invisible. Small nudges that could collectively alter the outcome without creating obvious timeline diversions.
"Wednesday, we have a big problem."
He switched to speakerphone. His illusion created a bubble of privacy around them, making passersby unconsciously avoid their corner of the library. For added security, he generated a low-level electromagnetic field that would scramble any listening devices nearby.
He looked Jessica in the eyes as he spoke, so she knew he was talking to her also, "I'm about to say something that will sound insane, but I need you to hear me out completely before responding."
"I regularly communicate with Mr. Stark. My threshold for 'insane' is quite high."
Jessica moved even closer, her hand finding his free one and squeezing supportively.
Tyson took a deep breath. Both Wednesday and Jessica knew about his foreknowledge, which made this a little easier. "You both know I'm Tyson, but I'm not the Tyson of now. That Tyson is still with SHIELD. I'm from four days in the future. Loki arrived on Earth with the Chitauri army and the Mind Stone. As expected. We defeated him and secured the Stone. But then Thanos showed up. He had two Infinity Stones already. Power and Soul. He was after the Mind Stone and Time Stone, and he took the Space Stone from Thor."
Jessica's grip on his hand tightened, but she was processing, not panicking.
"Fascinating premise. Do continue."
"We fought, me, Illyana, and Tony, Natasha, the Ancient One, Thor, Hulk, and Clint. It went badly. Thanos killed Illyana. She died in my arms." His voice cracked slightly. "The Ancient One used the Time Stone to send me back. She said I needed to 'change everything but change nothing' or I'd create a branch timeline."
Jessica went pale, but she held steady. No dramatics, no gasping, just the sharp intake of breath of someone who understood the implications immediately.
"How delightfully paradoxical," Wednesday remarked. "And you believe traveling backward through time is the solution to prevent the woman you love from dying. How romantic."
"This isn't a joke, Wednesday," Tyson snapped. "I can't save Illyana, because that would be changing something. She's dead, and nothing I do will change that."
"I wasn't joking. I appreciate grand, tragic romance. Please continue."
Tyson explained the rest, going back over what happened in more detail, finishing with how the Ancient One warned him that saving Illyana would create a paradox, how he needed to alter events without creating a noticeable change in the timeline.
"She said that I'm the only one who could 'always be there but never be seen.' I have four days to figure out how to stop Thanos without actually changing anything."
When he finished, Wednesday was quiet. Jessica sat with one hand flat on the table, the other curled loosely in her lap. She wasn't looking at the phone or at the library around them. She was looking at him. He'd told her something impossible, and her expression said she believed him anyway.
"Your explanation aligns with what you've said previously, and I find no reason not to believe you. However, I regret to say, we have few options to prepare for an encounter of the scope that you described."
"There has to be something—"
"We cannot speed Sentinel production any greater than it currently is. We cannot divert resources from the evacuation efforts, as that cannot be changed. We cannot warn House of M prior to Thanos's arrival, as that cannot be changed. Without being able to change any variables, I cannot solve this problem."
Tyson slumped against the desk. "So what you're saying is we're screwed."
"No," Jessica interjected quietly, speaking for the first time since the conversation began. "You're approaching this wrong."
"Go on," Wednesday said.
"If you can't change major events, then you need to look at what went wrong that shouldn't have. What failed that should have worked? What was missing that should have been there?"
Wednesday picked up where Jessica left off. "She's right. We need to analyze this situation through that lens. You want to change things without changing things. So if we analyze things that happened, that should not have happened, we may be able to find where the interventions you came up with would be present."
"What?"
"The absence of action is where the action lies. What was out of place, or seemingly unimportant, but could have been important if you looked at it closer?"
Wednesday's question gave him pause. He thought back to the battle. "Well, we fought Thanos and the Black Order, and nobody showed up to assist. Nobody from House of M or SHIELD, no sentinels, nothing."
"That's what I was getting at," Jessica said, nodding. "Where was backup?"
"Unusual. I constantly monitor you and most of the House of M's residents. I would've noticed a battle of that scale and sent reinforcements."
Tyson straightened. "You're right. Where were the Sentinels? Where was everyone else? The Sanctum was so close, and nobody responded, not any of the sorcerers?"
"The absence of response is itself anomalous."
"Could Thanos have blocked communications somehow?"
"Possible, though your description suggests he was fully engaged in combat. It seems unlikely he would divide his focus in such a manner when facing multiple powerful individuals."
Jessica leaned forward. "Or someone made sure help couldn't arrive. On purpose."
Tyson tapped on the table. "So either something prevented you from detecting the battle, or..."
"Or something prevented me from responding. This is a potential avenue of intervention. There likely was a reason I did not send any help, and maybe you or the plans we're in the process of making in this moment are that reason."
"Okay, okay, now we're getting somewhere. That's a great idea. What else didn't make sense?" He paused, his understanding dawning.
"Wait. There's something else, it's big, massive really. I returned from the TVA. But I'd lost Loki and the others."
Jessica frowned. "TVA?"
"I don't have enough information to place the context of that divergence," Wednesday added.
"Right, you wouldn't. After the battle, Loki grabbed the Tesseract and escaped. I chased him, and we ended up in the TVA, the Time Variance Authority. They're like cops whose purpose is to manage the timeline." He summarized their journey through the TVA, their escape to the Void at the End of Time, and finally the confrontation with He Who Remains at the Citadel Beyond Time.
Things were silent for a moment before Wednesday asked, "You sent the bodies to Limbo. How does Limbo work?"
Tyson paused his pacing. "Limbo is outside of time. It's static, but things can change if changes happen. When we're there, we don't age. When Illyana spends months there, she returns to Earth, and no time has passed here. But if something changes in Limbo, that change persists."
"So is the current state of Limbo as Limbo is now in our present, or in the future you left behind?"
"That's what I was thinking over a few minutes ago. My best guess is that it's the Limbo of the future I left behind. And I can't check. If I enter Limbo, it'll alert Illyana to my presence."
"Explain that."
"Limbo is her domain. Every time I've entered Limbo, she's sensed my arrival within minutes. Sometimes seconds. There's no way to slip in unnoticed."
"We don't have enough information to know Limbo's state for sure." Wednesday decided. "Even if Limbo functions one way, that doesn't mean that the TVA and the Citadel function the same way. There's also no reason to believe that the TVA and the Citadel, or the Void for that matter, follow the same rules. Each could be different."
Tyson resumed his pacing. "The Void definitely operates differently. Time moves there, but it's more like a dumping ground for pruned timelines. Things that get sent there continue to exist, but there has to be some sort of passage of time, and a link to our timeline, because when I was pruned, I arrived after Loki. Even though I'd spent time in the future that was erased, and the TVA where time doesn't really pass, not like it does here."
"The TVA maintains its own temporal flow despite existing outside the Sacred Timeline," Wednesday continued. "By your account, workers there experience sequential events, make decisions, and remember their actions. But they don't age or die from natural causes."
"Right. And the Citadel..." Tyson trailed off, trying to remember the specifics of his encounter with He Who Remains. "Honestly I have no idea."
Jessica leaned against the desk, crossing her arms. "So we potentially have three different temporal environments, each with their own rules. Limbo where time doesn't pass, but changes persist. The TVA, where time passes but doesn't. And the Void, where linear time exists but may be tied to the TVA, the timeline, or both."
"Perhaps, but these observations are made only from a single perspective, Tyson's. Which means all or none of those may be correct. And also means any assumptions we make about how time travel affects one location cannot be applied to the others."
Tyson mulled over the implications of what Wednesday said. "Are you suggesting this is all some elaborate manipulation by He Who Remains?"
"I'm suggesting we don't know enough about the temporal mechanics involved to rule anything out."
"We're speculating," Jessica said firmly. "We don't have enough data to confirm any of these connections. There's no way to know without more information, and it's information we can't get right now."
"What else?"
Tyson thought about it. "Dr. Sofen. She acquired the Moonstone, which is a source of superpowers, and fought against the Chitauri, but wasn't present for the fight against Thanos."
"What about other allies? Those whom you wouldn't have, or didn't notify about the battle? Professor Xavier and the Institute."
He groaned, but Wednesday wasn't wrong. And more importantly, he remembered Jean. The young woman with immense power. After channeling the Mind Stone, he remembered her through the commands she'd placed on him.
"I'm not going to the Institute, but I could go find Jean, go help her, or get her help."
"Your reluctance is noted but irrelevant. You must change your perspective. Any potential blind spot is a moment where you could have changed, and will change something."
Jessica nodded in agreement. "She's right. You need to think like a strategist, not someone in grief or someone with a grudge. So from the moment you arrived here, what was the first thing that seemed out of place at this point for your original self?"
Tyson nodded, refocusing. "From when I arrived here, today, what was the first thing I noticed that was wrong, or shouldn't have happened. So that would've been Tuesday…"
The answer came quickly. "The Tesseract activated. That was supposed to happen. What wasn't supposed to happen was the Fantastic Four's launch. I had to save their shuttle, and when it took off, I was left in space." He recalled the incident vividly. "The whole situation was strange. Loki arrived with Angela around the same time the ship activated, but I wasn't on Earth for that part. I was floating in space, my last thought being that there was—"
He stopped abruptly. "Adamantium inside the Marvel-1—"
"Adamantium that shouldn't have been there." The realization struck him with such force that he nearly lost his train of thought. How had he not thought of this before?
"Holy shit," he whispered. Adamantium was exceedingly rare; it hadn't been inside the shuttle when it launched, but it was there when it was in space, before he'd lost consciousness. There was only one way…
"I was inside the Marvel-1 when it activated. It had to be me."
He'd been there, inside the ship, when it launched, and it hadn't returned. He'd been too caught up in the plot of The Avengers to care at the time.
Jessica asked, "What's the Marvel One?"
"Wait. Wednesday, what time is it?"
"It is currently 6:40 PM, Eastern Standard Time," Wednesday replied through the phone receiver.
Tyson nodded to himself. "Okay, that gives me five hours, give or take."
"For what, exactly?"
"The Tesseract activates at the SHIELD facility around 11 pm. That's when Loki arrives." Tyson paced the small area behind the library desk. "I need two things. First, start monitoring a SHIELD site. The Joint Dark Energy Mission Facility in the Mojave Desert. Let me know the second anything unusual happens there."
"And the second thing?" Wednesday asked.
"I need to get into House of M. I can't talk with anyone, but I need to grab some stuff from the lab."
"So you need me to move people around like chess pieces so that you can pilfer something from the lab?"
"Can you do it?"
"Sounds like fun."
Tyson smiled. "Perfect. Get started on that. I'll head there now."
"I'll ensure your path is clear."
Tyson hung up and turned to Jessica. "I need you to make a choice."
She straightened, all business. "What kind of choice?"
"Either you're all in. You trust me completely, follow my lead, and help me save the world. Or you need to leave the city today." His voice was steady but urgent. "There's no middle ground here. What I'm about to do..."
Jessica studied his face for a long moment. "You're asking me to choose between my 'normal' life and jumping headfirst into some cosmic-level crisis based on a time travel story."
"Yes," he replied without reservation. "One thing that stood out was that you weren't there for the battle. I tried calling for you during the fight, but you weren't there. I tried looking for you after I returned from the TVA, but you were nowhere to be found."
She laughed, but there was no humor in it. "You know, I haven't seen you in months." Jessica stepped closer, her hand finding his. "You could've just said, I miss you, and I need you."
"Jess—"
"I'm in," she said firmly. "All the way in. Whatever this is, we face it together and you said it yourself. I wasn't there. It's because I made my decision the moment I found you on that bench."
"Are you sure? We don't even know—"
"I know you," Jessica interrupted. "I know that you just broke down in my arms about losing someone you love. I know that Wednesday believes your time travel story. I know that you're scared and desperate and trying to save everyone." She squeezed his hand. "That's enough for me."
He pulled her close, pressing his forehead against hers. "Thank you."
"Besides," she added with a slight smirk, "you think I'm going to let you continue without backup? You clearly need adult supervision."
An hour later, they crouched behind a parked car across from House of M. "Wednesday, we're in position," Tyson said into his earpiece.
Infiltrating House of M went smoothly. Tyson's illusions made them both invisible, and Wednesday's understanding of positioning and the layout allowed them to open a portal to an empty storeroom. Then they moved through the building like ghosts.
"Your office first?" Jessica whispered. She moved without a sound, checking corners and tracking exit routes without being told.
The room was empty, just as Wednesday had promised. On the desk sat a box of burner phones and earpieces he kept for emergencies. Tyson grabbed several, checking they were charged before passing one to Jessica.
"Backup communication," he explained.
Their next stop was the lab.
Wednesday's voice came through the earpiece as they moved. "Gambit and Rogue are in the east corridor. Logan is in the gym. Felicia is on the fourth floor. I'm tracking all of them."
Each one was a person who didn't know what was coming. Each one was a friend he couldn't warn.
"Can you route us past the gym?" Tyson asked.
Jessica looked at him. "Why?"
He didn't have a good answer. Or rather, the answer was stupid and sentimental. Because four days from now, Logan would pull him back from the edge, and Tyson wanted to see the man's face one more time before everything changed. As if seeing him through a window would be enough. As if any of this would be enough.
"Never mind," he said. "Straight to the lab."
But Wednesday, perhaps reading the situation more accurately than an AI should have been capable of, routed them through the corridor adjacent to the gym. Through the reinforced glass, Tyson caught a glimpse of Logan working a heavy bag, each punch landing with enough force to buckle the chain.
Tyson's feet slowed. Jessica matched his pace without comment.
A few seconds was all he allowed himself of watching Logan hit a bag in a gym, unknowingly, before he forced himself forward.
Tyson heard them before he saw them; Rogue's laugh, unmistakable. He leaped to the ceiling, pulling Jessica along with him. The two spider-enhanced stuck to the ceiling, and Tyson reinforced the illusion around them.
"Gambit is approaching from the south corridor," Wednesday warned through their earpieces.
"We noticed," Tyson whispered.
Rogue rounded the corner with Gambit beside her, his arm draped casually across her shoulders. She was carrying a stack of manila folders, and Gambit was doing something with a playing card, flipping it between his fingers with an absent dexterity that made it look effortless.
Rogue swatted at his hand. "You're impossible," she said, still smiling.
"Impossibly charming," Gambit corrected. "There's a difference, chère."
They passed within three feet of Tyson. Close enough to reach down and touch them.
In four days, these two would be fighting. He'd seen them after the battle. Gambit would be injured. They'd be in the same position, with his arm around her shoulder, but it would be her supporting him through his injury.
They disappeared around the corner. Rogue's laugh echoed for another few seconds, then faded.
A door opened ahead. Felicia stepped out, phone pressed to her ear, mid-conversation. "—tell him the shipment arrives Thursday, and if it's late again, I'm personally going to—" She paused, glancing down the corridor. She looked right through them.
Tyson held his breath. Not because the illusion would fail, it wouldn't, but because he could smell her perfume. He knew things about her life that she hadn't told anyone. He knew what was coming for all of them, and he was standing in a hallway she couldn't see him in, taking things she didn't know he needed. Not telling her anything of his plans because if she knew he was here, knew what was coming, she'd change something.
Felicia resumed walking, her threats continuing without interruption.
Jessica exhaled slowly beside him. She'd been holding her breath too. Her hand found his. She didn't say anything.
The lab was locked, but as they approached, Wednesday overrode the security. A moment later, the light flashed green, and the door slid open.
Tyson moved to the secure storage unit at the back wall.
He entered the twelve-digit code from memory. The cabinet hissed open, revealing rows of carefully labeled containers. He scanned the labels until he found a small crystal vial filled with shimmering golden liquid.
The Potion of Eternal Youth.
Amora had given it to him after Jubilee died.
"What is that?" Jessica asked, watching him carefully secure the vial in an inner pocket.
"Insurance," Tyson replied. The truth was uglier. Amora had gifted the vial the night of Jubilee's death, as one of her favors, when he'd been moving through the world like a man with a hole in his chest. She'd felt guilty for not preventing the death of one of his 'mistresses' and promised that the one who drank this potion would stay young forever. One mistress had died, another, never would, from natural causes anyway. He hadn't used it. Hadn't needed it. The potion sat in storage.
Now, Jubilee was still dead. Illyana would be. And he was raiding his own storage for tools to survive the next loss. There was a symmetry to it that he refused to examine too closely.
Jessica was watching him. She didn't ask anything else.
As he closed the cabinet, a thought struck him. Amora hadn't been in the battle against Thanos, nor had she shown up to return to Asgard with Thor and Angela. The last time he'd seen her had been after she dropped Loki off at Stark Tower. That was before the TVA. She'd said she was heading back to her apartment to gather what she needed to return to Asgard.
But she'd never returned.
It was suspicious, and maybe another avenue for interference. Returning Loki to Asgard wasn't only his task; it was Amora's as well.
"Is there anything else you require?" Wednesday's voice came through their earpieces.
Tyson studied another cabinet across the room. Inside, preserved in a temperature-controlled compartment, sat a small vial of Jubilee's blood. They'd collected it months ago when she first turned into a vampire.
The Ancient One had been critically injured during the battle with Thanos. In his original timeline, Tyson had planned to give her Jubilee's blood when the events involving Dr. Strange unfolded. But now, standing in this stolen moment four days before Thanos's arrival, he wasn't certain that the sequence of events would even occur. He approached the cabinet but didn't touch it, studying the vial through the glass. The Ancient One had shown him a vision through the Time Stone. A moment at a hospital window with lightning streaking across the sky. But the vision was fragmented, incomplete.
"The Time Stone shows possibilities," Tyson mumbled, speaking to himself more than to Jessica or Wednesday as he stepped back from the cabinet. "The Ancient One could see fragments of potential futures, but when I was involved, those visions distorted. If we change enough variables... But I don't need Jubilee's blood right now. If that moment at the hospital window is meant to happen, I'll find another way to make it work."
Jessica moved closer to him. "What else do you need from here?"
He considered his options. Adamantium would be immediately useful. His adamantium clothes had been mostly destroyed by the Power Stone during the battle. Having replacement adamantium available could make a difference.
But first, Tyson crossed to the far wall, where a reinforced case sat on a lower shelf. He punched in the access code and pulled out the mutation inhibitor collar. The device was designed to suppress the X-gene. He turned it over in his hands, remembering the last time he'd held it. Times Square. Magneto's body was cooling on the pavement, the collar still fastened around his neck where Jean had placed it using her telekinesis mid-fight. He'd removed it from the dead man's throat.
He'd killed Erik Lehnsherr wearing this collar.
Tyson stored the collar alongside the burner phones.
"That's a mutation inhibitor," Jessica said. It wasn't a question.
"Yeah."
"Who's it for?"
"I don't know yet." He zipped the bag shut. "But I'd rather have it and not need it."
"I need to make another stop," Tyson said into his earpiece.
"Where are you going?" Wednesday asked.
"I need to find Marrow."
Jessica frowned. "The bone manipulation girl? Why?"
"Her power combined with mine gives me access to unlimited adamantium. I can absorb her ability without her knowing."
"That's..." Jessica paused, considering. "Ethically questionable, but acceptable given the circumstances."
Ethically questionable was one way to put it. Jessica was being generous with the framing. What he was about to do was take something from someone who hadn't offered it, and the fact that she wouldn't notice didn't make it better. It made it easier. He thought of Marrow. Sarah. A girl who had finally found somewhere safe, and whose body he was about to use as a resource without her knowledge or consent. She deserved better than that. She deserved to be asked. But asking meant explaining, and explaining meant revealing the future, and revealing the future meant risking the very timeline he was trying to save. So she wouldn't get asked. She would get used.
Acceptable given the circumstances. Xavier had used that logic on Jean. On him. He'd spent months raging at the Professor for reaching into his mind without consent, for locking the White Room. And now he was walking down a corridor to do something uncomfortably similar to a girl who trusted him. Not reshaping her mind, no. Just taking something from her body without asking. Just helping himself to her mutation while she was unaware.
Different in kind. Similar enough in principle to give him pause.
But the alternative was moving forward without adamantium, which likely meant dying, and led to half of everyone dying.
He found Sarah in what had once been a storage room, down in the tunnels below House of M. Marrow sat cross-legged on a worn cushion, practicing control over the bone spikes that protruded from her knuckles and forearms. Tyson layered his illusions, keeping Loki's invisibility over both of them while simultaneously preparing Jason's sensory manipulation. The combination would keep them hidden from sight while ensuring Marrow wouldn't feel his touch when he made contact.
He approached slowly, Jessica remaining by the door as lookout. Marrow's breathing remained steady and deep, focused inward on controlling her bone growth.
Tyson knelt beside her, studying the bone spikes that emerged from her forearms. Her mutation was remarkable; she could grow and shed bone, using it as weapons or tools. More importantly for his purposes, when combined with his own adamantium skeleton and metal manipulation, absorbing her abilities would give him access to an unlimited supply of the metal.
He reached out carefully, fingertips hovering just above her exposed forearm, then made contact.
Tyson controlled the absorption, drawing the power slowly. He held on for several minutes, maintaining his illusions throughout. Marrow's breathing never changed, her meditation never wavered.
Adamantium-laced bone began to emerge from his knuckles as a small spik. The material was silver-gray and incredibly dense. He retracted the spike and nodded to Jessica.
"Status report," Wednesday's voice came through their earpieces as they left the room.
"Acquisition complete," Tyson whispered. "We're heading out."
Leaving was a far simpler affair. Without having to worry about running into anyone from his past, Tyson was able to use the sling ring to open a portal a few blocks away.
Once outside, "Extraction successful," Wednesday confirmed. "No alerts triggered."
They kept the illusion active for three blocks. Only then did Tyson release the magic.
"Any signs they've noticed the missing potion?" Jessica asked, pulling on her helmet.
"Negative. The storage unit's internal inventory system will only update during the next scheduled scan at 0200 hours," Wednesday replied.
Jessica started the motorcycle, the engine purring to life. "So what's our next move?"
— Rogue Redemption —