Disclaimer: Neither Harry Potter nor Marvel are mine
I watched Infinity War today. This is the result.
The air was cool against his skin, and was a balm on the deep wound in his chest. The dawn sun was warm as it graced the land before him. The golden gauntlet, deformed by the power of six unfathomable stones but still intact, was heavy and solid on his arm.
And at the edge of the cliff in front of him, the air warped.
He clenched his hand, ready to strike at whoever dared to infringe upon his hard won, so costly peace.
Space unravelled to reveal a figure and then wove back into place as if there had been no distortion. It was a man who appeared to be human. He was as small as most humans were, with pale skin and black hair. His clothes were black and unremarkable, composed of plain pants and boots and a shirt covered by an open, knee-length leather jacket. A few thin, faint scars decorated his hands, neck, and face. One the middle finger of his left hand was a heavy-banded silver ring set with a black stone; it was the only visible adornment.
Pale eyes—green—opened, and the man looked around himself. He took his time taking in his surroundings before eventually focusing on the only other figure present. His gaze fell upon the golden gauntlet set with its six jewels. "I see."
"Why have you come here?" he demanded. He was too tired to play such games now. But he supposed he could at least ask first, and then remove the man if he was yet another mortal seeking to defeat him. How pointless that effort would be.
The stranger ignored the question. "Tell me, what was the purpose?"
"The purpose?" What a question. He snorted. Fine. "Balance. The universe has long been out of balance, and I sought to correct it. So much suffering and misfortune, whole planets plagued with war and famine and death! Life shouldn't be this way. But the problem was that there were too many people. Too much life. The universe is not infinite, resources are not infinite, and the overabundance of lives was destroying it. I took up the task of fixing that, and finally made this." He flexed the gauntlet. The six stones set into the knuckles and on the back of the hand glowed faintly with their power. "Half the lives in the universe are erased, and now there can be balance."
"Balance? Truly?" The stranger started laughing. It was disbelieving, harsh laughter. "That's why you did this?" The sound, a mockery of happiness as it cut loudly through the silence, ended abruptly and left the titan who heard it feeling off-kilter. "Balance," he sneered. "Well, congratulations. The universe is in balance once more. Was it worth it? Was it worth half the life in the universe?"
A flicker. The man was standing right next to him now, touching the orange stone set at the base of his thumb. "Was it worth her?"
A snarl twisted his lips as his rage flared. The purple stone lit and—
Nothing happened. The man, back in his original position, was still there and had suffered no harm. Each stone lit one at a time, then they all lit at once as he stood and flexed the power at his command, and still nothing happened.
"Having difficulties?" His head was tilted slightly to the side, lips in a half-smile that did not extend to the eyes.
"Who are you!?" The land around them broke and burned, merged back together, but the man stood untouched by it all.
The grin widened but his eyes were sad. Pitying. "There is balance in the universe, but it wasn't brought about by you."
"You lie." How dare this man, this meager being, say such words to him!
"I never expected to see reality again, you know." He inhaled deeply and closed his eyes, as if savoring the simple air. "I missed it."
That was a strange thing to say. Surprised and confused, his anger cooled on the heels of those words and their nostalgic tone. "Reality?"
"Oh yes. I'm not normally allowed to exist, you see. Not like this." The green eyes opened again and looked at him with a wry expression. "I suppose I should thank you?"
He did not appreciate being mocked. Scowling again, he demanded, "Why doesn't this affect you? I have all the infinity stones; nothing is beyond their power!"
"You haven't figured it out, yet? The stones are why I'm here. Gathering them like this, bringing all six together, using them together... That was the key. You broke the pillars of existence and reforged them into one. You shook the foundations of everything."
He said it like it was so simple, but it didn't make sense. So what if he gathered and used all six infinity stones? What did that act have to do with this man appearing before him? A man who claimed he wasn't supposed to exist?
"Perhaps I should explain differently. When you look at me, you see a human, yes? A simple mortal man?" The stranger watched his eyes rove him up and down. "That's what I was once. Until the day I did something much like you, and united certain objects best left separated." The smile was gone now. He lifted his left hand, the back of it facing him, and looked at the lone ring in the sunlight.
"It wasn't clear at first, but I began to notice things. They were just little things: a bird flying backwards, fire chilling the air around it, shadows that weren't the right shape or in the right place." He dropped his hand back to his side and looked him in the face once more. "The strange events didn't stay small, and our world began to break around us. We gathered the most intelligent people we could to find the cause, to trace the widening cracks in reality back to the shatter-point.
"Eventually," he lifted his hand to his chest, "they found me." That sardonic look on his face created a twisting in his gut as he listened, captivated by the story against his will. "When I realized, I tried everything I could to fix it, of course. But what I did wasn't something that could be undone, and only one path was left to me if I wanted to right my wrong."
Those green eyes that seemed so mundane, such a boring, weak color, were sharp and terrible now. "I had to leave."
In the silence that followed, he struggled to understand. It was a terrible story, and one that left many questions, but only one that he cared about: "And now you're here. Why?"
"For balance. Don't you understand?" Something quaked in his mind and his heart. He tried to shy away from it, but could not. A revelation was coming, too great to be ignored or escaped. The stranger, not a man at all but only wearing the guise of one, stood beside him without moving and with no blink to cover the change of place. He lifted up the gauntlet on his hand. Six stones of six colors glittered, drawing the eye.
"I am the other side of the scales. Your balance." He chuckled faintly. The titan with the gauntlet was transfixed, and trembling. "Thank you for going to such lengths to make a place for me here. I truly missed existing."
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