49 Far Beyond Expectations

"So there's no TVA in our branch?" I asked, confused.

"As far as I know, there isn't. At least, not the way it exists in hers." Yao said, looking at me.

"If that's the case, how do you know these things? And how did I end up in a different branch?" Sylvie asked, furrowing her eyebrows in confusion.

She's starting to believe in us, but she still has many doubts, just like I do.

Yao crossed her hands in front of her chest with finger signs and then separated her hands, thus opening the Eye of Agamotto and revealing the Time Stone inside, illuminating the room in its mystical green light.

That reminds me, I have to get a new Eye of Agamotto for Stephen.

"This is the Time Stone. It allows me to see the past, present, and future of myself, and its various variations. Of course, it can do much more than that." Yao presented.

"Infinity Stones? I've heard of that, but it never stopped the TVA from pruning any universe." Sylvie looked at the stone without much interest.

"They are much more than you or the TVA can comprehend. But it's true that the stones are like paperweights to the TVA." Yao said, amused.

"Yao, if you can have all this future knowledge from the Time Stone, why can't other users of the Time Stone? They don't seem to know about the threat that Kang poses." I asked, confused.

"Oh? Who said they don't know?" Yao asked, amused.

"Huh? What do you mean?" I asked, not understanding what she meant.

"Do you remember Stephen fighting Thanos? Tell me, out of the millions of possibilities, why do they only win in one? And one with his sacrifice? Tell me, out of millions of possibilities, do they really only win that way?" Yao asked me seriously.

I looked at her surprised and began to ponder.

"Well, if he had warned Quill about Gamora, maybe he wouldn't have done that foolish thing and they would have won there. And if he had warned about the danger of Nebula going back in time, the victory would have been easy as well... wait, you mean!!" I analyzed and in the end, widened my eyes.

"They could only win one way because that's what the sacred timeline dictated. If they win in another way, they would lose when the TVA came to prune the branch. Most of the stones in the TVA are Time Stones because Time Stones are largely responsible for creating variants." Yao said with weight in her voice.

My eyes widened in surprise and incredulity.

"You mean he knew about the TVA, and he just didn't do anything differently because he knew that Kang and the TVA were an enemy they couldn't defeat?" I asked incredulously.

"And not only that. It was Tony Stark who had to die, as he has the potential to surpass Kang, and he had already begun to dabble in time travel." Yao finished with a somber tone.

"Damn it!" I couldn't help but swear.

'That son of a bitch! Haah! Breathe, Tony, breathe. Don't go looking for trouble when you're not ready.' I forced myself to calm down before I foolishly went to fight Kang unprepared.

Fortunately, Sylvie took my mind off the anger with her question.

"And how did I get here? I mean, another branch?" Sylvie asked.

"*Sigh* That was my fault. I was conducting an experiment with the space stones from two different universes and ended up opening a portal to your universe. Maybe it was lucky that appeared where you emerged." I sighed, finishing calming down and shrugging in response to her question.

"It wasn't a coincidence. The stones from one branch, used with the energy from another, actually opened a door in her universe purely by chance. But the door wasn't supposed to appear in front of her. There was interference in the destiny of the door, which led it to Sylvie." Yao explained the events more clearly.

"Interference? Who interfered?" I asked, narrowing my eyes. I don't like others playing games in the dark with me.

"Not who, but what. It was the multiverse itself that interfered. Kang locked the timelines and then created a loop, where there's a war, he wins, creates the sacred timeline, the sacred timeline revolts, he dies, and the war starts again, and the previous events keep happening in a loop. The universe hates this. It wants freedom, so it rebels. And you gave it a great opportunity to revolt by putting Sylvie in its way." Yao finished the explanation.

I widened my eyes. Now everything started to make sense.

Sylvie also looked at me surprised.

"Will you help me?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Uhhmm... Well, why not? But not now. In a few years. I have to prepare myself and I won't go out until I'm sure I'll win." I pondered and then nodded.

"Then, you are useless to me. Give me my TemPad, I have to go back and fight." She said, getting up from the bed and looking down in surprise.

She was wearing floral pajamas instead of her regular clothes.

"Who changed my clothes?" She asked, confused.

"It was Pepper, my other wife. Your clothes seemed uncomfortable, so we changed them. As for your TemPad, it shouldn't work here, after all, there is no TVA here." I explained.

"Then take me back the way you brought me here." Sylvie said.

I got up and walked up to her until our bodies were less than a meter apart from each other.

I raised my hands and before she could assume a fighting stance, my hands dropped to her shoulders and held her.

"Sylvie, slow down." I looked her in the eyes seriously, and she looked back at me surprised, "In your thousands of years of life, for the first time since your childhood, you're not being pursued, you're not in a place counting down to your end, and you can have some time to breathe. Calm down, and allow yourself a moment to breathe. What you have lived so far wasn't life, just a desperate struggle for survival and revenge." I said with a serious and firm look at her.

Sylvie looked at me with wide eyes and remained silent for a few seconds just looking at me stunned.

But then she came to herself and pushed my hands aside, stepped back, and turned her back to me.

"While we relax, the TVA will prune thousands of universes, thousands of lives. I can't and won't just watch that happen. And most importantly, I won't rest while Kang is alive and well dictating the life and death of an entire multiversal branch." She said solemnly without turning to me.

I approached and put my hand back on her shoulder.

"How about this? I really don't know how to put you back in your multiverse yet, and even if I repeat what I did, I'm not sure if I'll return you to where you came from. So I need time, and besides, time is relative, and I swear to you that if you give me time, I'll put you back at the exact moment you left, I just need you to give me time. And together, we will destroy the TVA and put your multiverse back in place. What do you think?" I said warmly to her.

This time she froze again. She then slowly turned her head to me and looked at me firmly.

"How do I know you're not lying?" She asked seriously, seeking reassurance.

This time I smiled at her with a charming look and said.

"For that, you'll have to get to know me better."