Duality

Summary: His misery was the gasoline poised to set the world ablaze. Her love was the only thing that could suffocate the embers of his rage. They are both light and darkness and when put together they are balance. Double SI-OC

Prologue

A Soul for A Soul

Vormir

1984

The blue light of the Tesseract spat out the man known as Johann Schmidt upon a dark world. His mind had been in a daze ever since he made the mistake of touching that damned stone. His eyes took in the dark scenery around him as he began to run the new information through his mind. He had been spirited from the Valkyrie by the Tesseract for unknown reasons at this point. In his time studying the artefact he had never noticed such...behavior from the stone much less a capacity to transfer living beings from one planet to another. It seemed almost intentional that the stone stepped in his way in the face of his greatest triumph as if it was scared of the power he held while wielding the stone.

Why this world? What did the stone seek to gain by transporting him to a seemingly empty world?

It was then he felt a prickling sensation brush into his mind and the whisper of the words, "come here" somewhere close. Schmidt drew his Wather and stepped in the direction the voice called to him from. He could hear the voice echo louder and louder as he walked for an untold portion of time towards a giant cliff that overlooked everything for miles and miles. It was then that a pale ghostly figure hovered up from the edge of the cliff with long dangling hair that came from a non-existent scalp. He fired several rounds at the figure before he found his own body paralyzed and the gun dropped to the ground and turned to dust.

It was then the creature began to speak without opening her mouth, "Hello Mr. Schmidt, I've been expecting you for a long time." it's soft feminine voice echoed through his brain.

"What do you mean? What is this place?"

"This world is my home, many others like to refer to this world as Vormir: home of the Soul Stone."

"Soul Stone? The mythology is true! There are five other stones and once gathered they can control the very fabric of existence and mend it as they please."

"You desire them, don't you? You want to use the power of the stones to not only be a superior man, but a god. My sister told me as much when she sent you here."

"Sent me here? Your sister is the Tesseract? The stones are sentient?"

"You have many questions, Mr. Schmidt. We do have minds and avatars much like the one you see before you, but long ago our physical forms were sacrificed in order to create this universe. Appearing and speaking to you now is taking much of my energy and as a result my own sense of being dwindles with each passing moment. It is for this reason that I asked for my sister to send you here instead of shredding your very being for trying to use her as a weapon. As you can understand my siblings and I are considered to many men such as yourself as merely the tools in which a mortal man can ascend beyond the rules of this universe and rule like gods."

"You would do the same if you were in my position but you were created a god, you never had to deal with the struggles of what it meant to be something as disgusting as a human being."

"I disagree, I collect the souls of every sentient being in the Multi-verse and each time I embrace a new soul their life plays out to me like a motion picture back on Earth. Their lives are much shorter than many other beings but it's their capacity for overwhelming good and evil that makes their souls some of the most interesting in my collection. They are fragile yet strong, good and evil, brave and fearful, they are so beautifully balanced that I find myself...envious of them in a way."

"Envy? If you truly feel such a sensation then would you be inclined to switch positions."

"You would destroy the balance in this universe, Mr. Schmidt. You refuse to acknowledge the one constant principal of life, but you will learn."

"Rules? What could rules have any bounds on a deity?"

"Even deities have at least one rule, if we didn't then existence itself would be impossible."

"What is this rule you speak of?"

"That every action has an equal or opposite effect. Humanity applies this effect to motion but the truth is it is the very essence of life. With life there is death, with sickness there is health, with light there must be darkness. My siblings and I were born into the darkness as the sole bit of light in a lonely darkness. We still had each other but it was not enough, we were sick of living alone amongst the darkness and we were resolute to spread our light and gifts and create life, but in order to do so we had to relinquish ourselves. All that remained were our stones and our dwindling presence of mind. It is for that reason that you were chosen to be my protector."

"Protector? Why would I stand to protect you when I'd much rather use your stone to escape this world?"

"This was a one way trip Mr. Schmidt, my sister on Earth sent you to me and she is still on that world and my stone lacks the ability to warp space. Even if you could procure a ship you are millions of miles away from your home and humanity has already left you behind in the pages of history. Even HYDRA has moved on without you. You are trapped here Mr. Schmidt, nothing you can do will allow you to return to your life as you knew it. If you act as my protector you can lead others to the treasure that you desire, only if they are willing to pay the price."

"I can hardly imagine that anything exists in this Universe worth an infinity stone."

"If man wishes to harness the power of my stone he must pay with the soul of someone he loves, a soul for a soul."

"What use could you have for me as a protector? I'm sure there are many more lesser beings in the universe more willing than me to act as a protector including the so called Captain America!"

"That is true but you, Mr. Schmidt know what it is like to crave the power of the stones and now you know the price that power costs. Thus you are uniquely suited to test the wills of those who seek the Soul Stone."

Red Skull scoffs at her. "I would much rather throw myself from this cliff than live an endless servitude to a being such as yourself. If you wish to have me act as an avatar you must put something forward to make this existence one that I will deem worth living."

"What do you want, Mr. Schmidt? Life as my protector is hardly one that allows for reprieves and luxuries that you might seek."

"Is Steve Rogers still alive?"

"Yes, Captain Rogers is still alive. He crashed your ship into the artic circle and lives in a state of suspended animation. The allies have been looking relentlessly for him. One day they will find him, I'm interested to see when."

The Red Skull fumed internally, how could a man burned by such trivial things such as love best him? Rogers was but an idealistic knock off that bound himself to his notion of humanity. The fact that he would be around long after his own demise fueled his rage.

"In return for my soul I am granted the powers of the stone, correct?"

"Depending on your request I can grant you one request before you offer your place as my protector."

"Does Captain Rogers have any children?"

"Yes, a son, but soon his family will grow larger as his wife is pregnant with another boy."

"Then I offer you my soul in return for converting the Captain's grandson into my successor and he will fight for HYDRA. That is my bargain, nothing else."

"Deal."

All of a sudden the skeletal hand of the Soul Stone's avatar extended forward and blinded Schmidt with a bright orange light and he felt...nothingness. He even felt like his form no longer held any weight at all.

The Soul Stone's Avatar then extended one hand in the air and a bright yellow ball escaped and shot off into the atmosphere, but it then raised the other hand and then another ball of yellow light shot up into the sky.

"What did you do?"

"I followed through with our deal. Those balls of light were souls that were once a part of me and are now going to Earth."

"Our deal only involved one soul; the one that would supplant the Captain's grandson with my own successor!"

"Mr. Schmidt, that deal threatens the balance of light and darkness of this Universe. What I did was simply the natural reaction to me allowing that dark dangerous soul into this Universe: I released another soul to counter balance the change you asked for."

"You lied to me!"

"It was only a lie to those who refuse to accept the Law of Equal Exchange. Perhaps you should get started by thinking on this law upon this law and understanding it's place within the Universe, Mr. Schmidt."

Thus here ends the Prologue of this story. I hoped you like it and next Chapter we will introduce the new characters that have been born as consequence of this deal to the Universe that we know and love from the movies as this story will contain not one, but two characters reincarnating from our world on opposing sides of the good and evil spectrum and focuses on their connection and how the MCU will shift in favor of both good and evil.

This Prologue was mostly written to create an in Universe Explanation for Reincarnation Shenanigan's as I like to call them. Most stories just skip past why the MC is special or why Reincarnation randomly happens and I figured that revisiting Red Skull and showing how he could have become the Protector of the Soul Stone while setting the stage for what was to come would be the most effective way that this story can feel a little less contrived.

Chapters will generally be longer than this, but at the same time the gap between each one could be long as College winds down into summer and then work will return. Rest assured, however that this story will progress and I hope that you will end up liking my two MC's and struggle with not only accepting the traumas and tribulations of living within the MCU but also the pain of their prior lives and the isolation that comes with being (as far as they know for now) the only person in the world who has been reborn within a fictional universe and knowing the fate of everyone around you.

This story will not have any Mary or Gary Stu's because trust me this story's main characters will have enough problems that even The Joker would say that they should see a therapist. (Only slight exaggeration.)

Pairing is already decided but will probably happen around the first Avengers movie.

Italics: Emphasis/Telepathic Communication.

Thanks For Reading!

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