9 Reveal
"You 𝘥𝘪𝘦𝘥." he whispered. Horrified. Andrew's memories seeped into his mind, the reason behind her death, the moments after. He can stop it, he has enough time.
The Ancient One's hands grasped onto his shoulders jolting him back into awareness. "Allen breath," he gasped in air, pulling his body back. He hit something- the cup- and heard it fall down the cliff.
He took his trembling hands and tugged onto her sleeve, "please don't die," he whispered, feeling so small.
She sighed. "I have seen my death so many times already. I have looked countless times into the future but they all end at the same spot." she sounded defeated.
"But I can change that." He was so sure. "I'll create a new timeline where you survive."
"Allen do you understand what you are trying to do? It will cause a time paradox. My death is predetermined. It will give Strange the resolve to defeat Dormammu." Then she paused and looked at him, actually looked at him. And there she saw a child. 6-years-old, so small, so skinny, big eyes staring right at her, looking so old and weary compared to his body.
"I just want you to die on your own terms…" he mumbled, sounding so young.
"Allen, you must understand, death is what gives life meaning. Without death, every important would not be as meaningful. You should not fight death." She sighed.
Allen stared at her, unconvinced.
"Take the cup for example. You saw the future of the cup, getting turned into a teapot and falling off a cliff. The cup although not turned into a teapot, has fallen off a cliff. It is the cup's fate to fall off a cliff."
"The cup didn't turn into a teapot, how do you explain that."
"Well, we may be in a timeline where the cup does not turn into a teapot. An outside factor. The cup falling, however, is an important event."
"What if your death is not an important event? What if your death is the teapot? A different point in the timeline."
"Allen, I have seen all the timelines. I will not survive."
"What about me? Where was I in your visions?"
"You-," she stopped. Then her brows furrowed. "You and I do not interact within any timeline. The time stone chose you- and that changed things."
"Let me look in the future again, maybe it's changed because of my decision", he brushed off the dried blood from his nose, closed his eyes and focused. On the possibility of the future. He sees a girl, with red hair, he can't make out her face but she's smiling at him. He focuses again, trying to see his master. Then it blurred to visions of a man, Tony Stark, ruffling his hair with a grin, then finally his vision settled into a forest. A snap echoed in his ears and he feels himself fading he looked at his hands, turning into fine dust. He's dying- he is going to die. He opened his eyes, tears mixed into the blood of his nose. He feels his whole body trembling.
His master placed a hand on his shoulder. He leant into it for comfort. After a few minutes of calming down, he opened his dry mouth, "I couldn't see it. But I saw my future- and…" his head is still pounding.
The Ancient One stood up, "From now on, refrain from looking into the future Allen, it has placed great strain on your young body. You may rest early today. I will inform your tutor for you."
"I won't let you die… not like that," he said, still dead set on saving her.
"Do as you will, we will see where it leads us. But remember Allen, sometimes things are- inevitable." She created a portal and stepped into it leaving him alone.
He felt his lungs tightening and choked out a cough, covering his mouth, only to feel something wet on his palm. He looked and saw blood. He stood up and wiped the blood on his pants and made his way back to his room. He won't be looking into the future for a while, but Andrew's memories were a different story.
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In his room, he lay staring at the ceiling. His mind catalogues the years and events that happen within the MCU movies.
2010 is Iron Man, the start of it all. Then Thor, Captain America and Iron Man 2, then Avengers in 2012. After that there's Ultron in 2015, Civil War, then Infinity War in 2018 and Endgame in 2023. The years and events in the memories are blurry but he's aware enough of the main events to prepare for it. He'll have until 2012 to get stronger. Then what? Allen can get stronger to protect himself from the alien invasion in 2012 but he can just... run? He knows because of the time stone, he'll be targeted, so he should get stronger for that. But there's no reason for him to intervene except for Doctor Strange. He'll save his master and wait until Infinity War where he could just protect himself. Dammit if only the stone wasn't fused with his body.
And just like that his hand heated up and with a tiny clack, the stone fell onto the ground. He stared at the glowing green stone, speechless. He reached his hand out and before he could pick it up it absorbed itself into Allen's palm again.
Ok, he's decided. He'll get stronger, hiding his usage of the stone, save his master then when Thanos comes knocking on his door he'll just give the stone to him and go on a holiday or something. New Zealand sounds nice.
He hopped into bed and settled. He closed his eyes and ignored that tiny feeling in his gut. The feeling that things are not going to go as planned.
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He woke up the next day feeling refreshed. After a nice meal (while ignoring all the looks at him), he made his way to the Ancient One.
"Master!" he greeted her, smiling widely.
"Allen, I see that you have recovered." she smiled back.
He titled his head, "Recovered?"
"Yes. You have been sleeping for a week."
He recoiled. A whole week? No wonder he feels so great.
"You overused your powers last session and to make up for it your body shut down, and for that, I must apologise." she looked guilty.
"It's ok, I know my limits now." he thought to last night- his last night and how he'd been able to release the time stone. Should he tell her? No. If she knew maybe she'll take the stone and won't teach him anymore.
"Allen, try aging this coin." Master's voice cut through his thoughts. He settled into the lesson trying not to think about it.
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A week later, at a training ground, Allen's body plummeted into the floor. Kiko standing over him.
He huffed," That's unfair, you used sorcery."
Kiko laughed. "I'm just demonstrating usages to you, you better remember this move for the future."
"Maybe I'll be able to use it if you finally teach me how to create a portal." he eyed her sling ring.
She followed his gaze and grinned. "You know what? Sure." she threw the ring at him and grabbed another from her belt. "Now, I know you've read all about it, but theory is sometimes different in practice, everyone learns at a different pace so don't be upset if you can't get it rig-." her eyes widened.
A portal formed in front of him. He hadn't even put the ring on yet. Before he could tell Kiko that, the Ancient One stepped through, face, perfectly neutral. In the corner of his eye, he saw Kiko releasing a relieved sigh.
"Allen, come, there is someone you should see." she stepped back into the portal and he followed her.
He looked around and saw colourful wallpaper and hand-drawn pictures pinned on the wall. There's also an assortment of colourful handprints of different sizes creating a border on a big flag, in the middle of the flag are individual images of children. They had wide playful grins and they were holding their name tag. A woman greeted them.
"The Ancient One," she bowed, "and you must be Allen White." she looked at him with warm eyes. Then she looked at the robes he was wearing and with a flick of her finger, it changed into a simple T-shirt and pants.
"Allen," his master looked at him. "This is a foster home." his heart clenched, is she going to abandon him? "Legally, this is where you are staying." Never mind all is well. "And your mother's- friend has insisted on meeting you. If you wish to meet them, they are behind this door." she pointed at an unassuming door.
'Mother has friends?' He thought. He's never met any of her friends especially when they were at their lowest point. He felt a bit of anger welling up. How dare they not help them. He mentally prepared himself and opened the door.
Tony Stark in all his glory was behind that door. Allen wanted to close the door and go back to training but Stark had looked up immediately when the door opened. He's got a bad feeling about this.
"Hey," Stark said, Allen notices him fiddling with one of those plastic cups.
"Hello," Allen replied.
"I'm Tony Stark."
Allen nodded. He knows that.
"And well- Allen, I am your father."
