A/N: Two more weeks to go until the finale! Read, review, and enjoy!

I do not own any of the characters in this fanfic.

Chapter 14: Citadel Siege

THE CITADEL AT THE END OF TIME – FEBRUARY 11, 2025

Magik opened one of her portals at the far end of the room. "In here, quickly. Before they start their attack."

"We can't run; the Daleks will just find us again, and then whatever universe we go to, we'll be putting everyone in it at risk," Sylvie said. "Whatever we do, we need to stop them here and now."

"You look like a Loki but you sound like a Thor," I remarked.

"I'm not planning on us heading to a universe." Magik gestured to the portal with the Soulsword. "It's called Limbo for a reason. Time works differently, faster, in there; we can go in, make a plan to stop the Daleks, come back, and barely any time will have passed."

"Sounds like the best idea we've got," Harley said.

"That place doesn't look…all that safe," Rose said. "I mean, look at it, it's all on fire."

"I can control it," Magik said. "Make sure it stays away from us." She leapt through the portal, followed by Harley. The rest of us followed with varying levels of apprehension. Once we were all in, Magik shut the portal behind us.

"Well, isn't this a regular slice of paradise you've got tucked away here," I said. "Flames on all sides. Red, rocky cliffs. Redder skies. Honestly, I'm surprised this is your place, Illyana. It seems more like the place you'd find some big bad fire-loving evil guy hiding out. Someone like Mephisto, or Trigon, or even Jake." I leaned over my shoulder at Magik. "You know Jake, right? That goat demon you ran off with so he could train you in the ways of witchcraft and wizardry?" Wow, three different pop culture references in one sentence. I am good.

"Stop. Calling me. A witch," she said. "I trained in the Mystic Arts, not witchcraft."

"Eh, maybe in your universe. Variants…you never know what you're gonna come across with them."

"We need to come up with a plan," Sylvie said. "We might have a lot of time on our hands while we're in here, but Illyana said 'barely any time' will pass when we're in here, not 'no time.'"

"She's right," the Doctor said. "Does anyone have any thoughts?"

"You first," I said. "You and Rose helped stop the New Dalek Empire last time. And also, how the hell is Peter staying asleep through all this?"

"I used magic to sedate him," Magik said. "He was getting…overwhelmed by everything that had happened to him so far today."

"By maximizing the Dalekanium power feeds on the Crucible. If these Daleks aren't in the same universe as the Crucible – and are made of vibranium now – that won't work."

"How could they have possibly used the vibranium they stole from Wakanda to reinforce their entire fleet?" Harley asked. "There's no way they had enough vibranium to do that."

"If they're capable of replicating the planegate's technology to travel across the multiverse, there's no reason to think they can't figure out the composition of vibranium and replicate that too," Sylvie said.

"So now's the time to take an inventory of all the OP'ed, deus ex machina-creating MacGuffins we have at our disposal," I said. "Let's see, there's the Book of Vishanti…oh right, but Scarlet Witch destroyed that. There's the Gates of Eternity…nope, Gorr already used that. Wait a minute, the Infinity Stones. Get them from some alternate universe and let's blow these Daleks outta the #$%&ing sky."

"The Infinity Stones won't work out here in the space beyond the multiverse," Sylvie said.

Buzzkill.

"Okay, so does anyone else have any sort of superpowered objects that we can use to destroy these goddamn Daleks, because I am open to #$%&ing suggestions here!"

"The Runes of Tal-Morugon," Magik said.

I turned to her. "For someone who claims to not be a witch, that was a very witchy-sounding thing to say."

She created a small portal pulled a thick, green book out of it, then shut it again. She levitated the book in front of her and flipped through it. "The Runes of Tal-Morugon are one of the most powerful spells in all the Mystic Arts. Legend has it that centuries ago, the Dark Lord Chthon, the first demon, invaded Earth with a host of his followers, seeking to corrupt all of creation with his powers. Tal-Morugon, the Sorcerer Supreme at the time, and all the Masters of the Mystic Arts led an attack on his fortress atop Mount Wundagore to stop him. One by one, all of them fell to the demons, until only Tal-Morugon himself was left. As a last resort, he cast the Runes, a spell he had recently created but never attempted before." The pages of the book stopped flipping, and Magik spun it around to face us. One page showed a drawing of a mountain with a massive explosion taking place at its peak, and several dark shapes around it being vaporized. "All the demons were destroyed. The Runes are said to cast a selective wave of destruction that targets only what the spell's caster wills it to."

"Gee, you didn't think to cast this the first time we went to the Machine City to destroy all the Sentinels?" I said.

Magik shut the book. "Tal-Morugon himself nearly died casting it, and no other Sorcerer Supreme since then has ever been able to replicate it. Even the Ancient One, who held the title for centuries, never became powerful enough to do so. And not for lack of trying, from what Wong's told me."

"And…what, you think you can pull it off, though?" Loki asked. "You haven't been Sorcerer Supreme for a fraction of the time the Ancient One was."

"If you'd been trained by Belasco like you were in the comics I'd have some hope you could do it, but I'm with Loki on this one," I said.

"I have to try," she snapped. "That's all we can do is try something."

"Wait, wait, wait, I'm getting an idea," Harley said. "You said no Sorcerer Supreme since this Lord of the Rings-sounding guy managed to cast the spell, right? They weren't powerful enough?"

"Yes…," Magik said skeptically.

"Well, if we need a lot of magical power to cast this spell, we could get one person with a #$%&load of skill and power, or a #$%&load of people, each with less skill and power."

"Are you suggesting we have multiple Sorcerer Supremes from alternate universes cast this spell together?" Rose asked.

Harley turned to Sylvie. "What does our resident multiverse expert think about it?"

Okay, I sorta took offense to that. "Hey, I've been a multiverse expert since before she even had her nexus event."

"Well, since the multiverse, and thus your universe, and thus you, was only formed through a string of events that started with my nexus event…uh, no, you can't be more of a multiverse expert than me," she argued.

"Eh, many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view. Was Deadpool released in 2016, or did it only come to exist after the multiverse was created in Loki in 2021? We'll never know."

Sylvie ignored me. "Harley, that idea should work. Multiple Sorcerer Supremes pooling their energy to cast one massive spell…that's probably an idea I never would've thought of."

"II hear stuff like that a lot," Harley said. "But usually whoever's saying it calls me a dumb bitch in the same sentence, so I'll take compliments where I can get them."

"So are we taking a field trip across the multiverse?" I asked. I love heading to one alternate universe after another, trying to find the strangest realities I possibly can.

"There's just one problem," Magik said. "To do that, we'll have to leave Limbo. Time will be running normally for us again, and the Daleks are no doubt going to launch an attack on the Citadel."

"We won't be in the Citadel, though," Loki said. "We'll be fine."

"No, Illyana's right," Sylvie said. "The Daleks could've jumped straight from Earth-328767 to any universe to begin their invasion, but they came after us first."

"They want us out of their way. They're afraid of us."

"Daleks don't fear," the Doctor said. "But they're aware that we're the one thing standing between them and conquering the multiverse."

"If they attack the Citadel and find all of us gone, they're just going to come after us again, since they obviously have some way of tracking us," Magik explained. "We need to split up. Some of us go on this recruitment mission, some of us stay behind to distract the Daleks and buy the others time to complete their mission."

And now it was my turn to have an idea.

"So what you're saying is we need something that'll draw the Daleks' attention," I said. "Perhaps…a large ship leaving the Citadel, just begging to be chased? A large ship that used to belong to Thanos and has yet to be used on a mission by a certain Merc with a Mouth who now owns it?"

Sylvie sighed. "As much as you know I hate to agree with you, the Carlysle is our best shot at drawing off the Dalek fleet. Alright, so some of us will be heading around the multiverse recruiting several Sorcerer Supremes to help cast this spell, and the rest of us are on Dalek duty. All that's left is to figure out who will do what."

"I should be in the first group," Magik said. "They might be more willing to help us if it's another Sorcerer Supreme asking them. And not Wade."

"I'd complain about that but I want to be piloting the Carlysle anyway," I said. "With Harley there too."

"The Doctor and I should come too," Rose said. "We're the only ones here who have actually fought the Daleks before, aside from that one that attacked us in Deadpool Tower."

"Don't forget Loki," I added. "We don't know how many versions of Earth the Battle of New York happened in. People would recognize him anywhere; that wouldn't exactly endear them to our cause."

"Sylvie's a Loki too," Loki argued.

"Yeah, but she's a slightly more professional, blonde, gender-swapped Loki," Magik said. "I don't think many people are going to see this…." She waved her Soulsword at Sylvie. "…and think of this." She similarly gestured to Loki. "And I guess Peter'll come with us too. If the two of us are in different universes, I'm not sure if my sedation spell will hold up."

Which was a valid point.

"And what about the Reapers?" Rose said. "You were going to send them to erase Earth-328767. Is that still part of the plan?"

"Yes," Sylvie said. "I'll send them out once we get back to the Citadel. Hopefully the Daleks will be too focused on the Carlysle to notice them."

"Well, it seems like we have ourselves a plan," I said. "Let's commence Operation: Save the Multiverse from the Daleks."

"We are not calling it that," Loki said. "It's way too long-winded. How about Operation: Death to the Daleks?"

"Aren't things like this supposed to have some sort of cool codename that doesn't give away exactly what the purpose of the mission is?" Harley asked. "How about…Operation: Carlysle?"

"How about Operation: Nothing, and we just get on with it already," Sylvie said.

Buzzkill.

"I like that name," Magik said. She opened a portal back to the Citadel. "Now let's go before the Daleks attack."

We leapt (and Peter floated) through the portal and arrived back in the Citadel. And outside the window, the Dalek saucers were opening giant panels in their sides, allowing a tidal wave of Daleks to come flooding towards the Citadel. Oh boy. Good thing we had the Carlysle or we would've been #$%&ed.

Sylvie tossed me her TemPad. "Get going, and good luck. Illyana, let's go too." She then pressed another button on her desk. "Disengage spatial-temporal lock on the Carlysle."

I nodded to her, then input the Carlysle's coordinates, directly below the Citadel, and the orange portal opened next to us. Loki, Rose, the Doctor, Harley, and I all dashed into it.