Discimer - All the owners have their respective rights. I only own the characters that came from my addled brain (don’t worry, I am pletely sober).

  The Iween dimension [August 2015]

  –A One.–

  It was always cumbersome dealing with the Fae, in ways most frustrating because her advahat allowed her to effectively single handedly defeh, were meaningless in front of the Fae.

  Having overwhelming power in the universe meant almost nothing to the Fae who could casually set into motion a of events that would have evero of beings in the universe dead. Only those outside the s of fate could have a ce at defying the Fae and live to tell the tale. The ohat did live came out so broken that it would probably have beeer to die.

  Iirety of Kamar Taj, only she was uniquely capable of handling the fluage that belied the dangerousness of the versation that the Fae used as their primary on. A single word misspoken, a single phrase misuood could mean the differeween heaven and hell when it came to the Fae and their regur treaty signings that she had to because having Fae e to Earth uricted was a nightmare.

  Then there was the matter of the treaties. She was the signee from Earth’s side and the Winter Court usually sent a different persoime, to try and fuse her, which would have been fine if not for a siail. The timings of these treaty signis.

  They were, as far as her knowledge went, pletely random, without any rhyme or reason, at least on their side of the universe. Who knows what went on in the minds of the Winter Court? After all, they were the oo decide everything and while the Fae certainly did e with the siy to sigreaty as written, it did not mean that they didn't take every opportunity they had to add somethira to the writteies.

  That was why she had to be the oo read it personally, go over it multiple times, and show it to the representative of the Winter Court, who then veyed his thoughts back to the Winter Court, who theed amongst themselves and gave the representative either an agreement or instrus for another round of iation, usually the tter.

  All in all, it was a very tedious affair, one made even more inve for her because it was ducted in a dimension that was halfway to the Winter Court and halfway to Earth, in dimensional terms. It made tag Kamar Taj all but impossible, with the Sling Rings and the formation carved into the Shield building units of the Sanctum being the only thing that could reach her this far, allowio know the rough status of all the Masters in Kamar Taj and the status of the three Sanctum buildings, respectively.

  She was also not given much time to prepare Kamar Taj for any invasions and usually, the Time Stone did warn her about an unavoidable event, even though it could not accurately map the Fae so she usually did give the Masters in Kamar Taj a little advaice though this time, that was unnecessary because Jack was there. She was more than relieved that he was there because he was the stro one in Kamar Taj, even more so than her who was only this powerful because she was borrowing the power of the Dark One, power that would also render her useless if Dormammu ever mao make his way into the material universe.

  Her eyes narrowed as she saw the representative of the Winter Court’s hands almost twitch the sed she thought of the Dark Orue name. A bad feeling appeared in her mind as she once again said Dormmamyu. There! Her eyes narrowed as she once again saw the same thing happening.

  Sighing, she spoke up, “I suppose you are hen?”

  “What?” The Fae questioned her but she was all out of patie this point. A quick check had her eyes widening as she saw one of the Sanctums destroyed with most of the Masters intad alive. That sed part was fusing but the first part was much more damning, she had to get to Earth soon.

  “Nothing. Just this point will appeal to the Winter Court, I am quite sure,” She said while casting any and all spells she could to unicate with Earth, knowing that most of them would be useless without summoning an exorbitant amount of power. Power that would be misstrued as an act of aggression by the Fae, something that she would not stand for. It would just undo a lot of work and also put Earth in terrible danger, especially right at the edge of her leaving.

  It would just be unfair for her successor to deal with such a huge mess right in the beginning of their tenure. She still didn't have any idea as to who her successor was actually going to be. It was clearer when Jack hadn’t arrived in the universe but after he did so, it became so muurky, the Time Stone didn’t show her nearly as much of the future that it did before.

  As her thoughts ran wild inside her mind, she didn;t break stride in her iations with the Fae, only this time, knowing that there was a threat to Kamar Taj ba Earth, she abandoned a few of her objectives and made sure that the Treaty was signed quickly, something that the representative did not seem to like, if his reas were anything to go by.

  Ofcourse, it was a Fae, so the reas were not even visible to the untrained eye but she had dealt with Fae and more of their ilk far more times than they could have possibly imagined. With the aid of the Time Stone, she had spent tless years in tless timelines dealing with various Fae, resulting in multiple outes.

  In body, she might be a thousand years old but in spirit? She was hundreds of thousands if not millions of years old if she ted the time she spent living multiple timelines before returning to the main timeline.

  “Thank you for this,” She said to the representative before flig her fingers, sending a wave e energy that seemed to transd spad time, arriving right in the middle of the Winter Court, for the Fae to read. She smiled coldly as the representative paled at her a, well as much as the Fae could lose color, anyway. That should be enough for the Fae in front of her to be dissipated and then dismissed. After all, interfering with the dealings of the Winter Court, especially with an outsider, was a much bigger crime than ht killing another Fae which brought with it the death penalty.

  With the crimes itted, the representative would get something much worse than the death penalty, with the Winter Court using all their creativity and cruelty to deliver a truly gruesome fate on the Fae.

  With a mog salute, she pulled on her side of the tract, three pieces of paper appearing in the air before one of them flew to her. The sed her hand made tact with the paper which was more akin to energy, the dimension began shattering, as she was being pulled back to Earth.

  Seg the tract, she braced for the journey because the Fae always liked to leave her in a different pce every time. Sometimes, it ublic washroom, sometimes it was on top of an active volo and sometimes within as well, sometimes in the middle of a city, sometimes at the bottom of a ke or the o, she could never know.

  She khat they derived no small amount of joy from seeing her get invenienced, especially since she didn’t allow them any room in matters that seemed to matter to them. Si made them happy, she didn’t fight it much because it was a trivial matter to protect herself, especially sihe Fae promised to deliver her oh itself.

  So, as she had already cast a solid barrier over herself, she found herself stumbling a bit as she nded on green grass. Stu the hospitality, she dispelled the barrier and found herself overlooking a cliff with the moon shining in the sky. She was about to open a portal when she realised that she didn’t have her sling ring on her. Also, the Fae always insisted on her not having her dimensional ste spell on her during the iations so she did not have ao put the papers as well, not that anything could happen to them. They were more than durable and also not really material to be harmed, but energy taking a physical form.

  She sighed and was about to float up to get to the closest city when her eyes narrowed, her surroundings rippling for a moment before three individuals appeared in front of her, where there were none before.

  Holding the treaty papers behind her, she projected an air of calm even as her seold her of the dense barrier that now covered the ey of the cliff, stinking of a familiar energy that did not bode well for her.

  ‘So, this is it then.’

  “Kaecilius.” She greeted the one in the lead, sadness, a in her voice as she looked straight into his hood, wanting him to know that she knew who it was and why he did it. Kaecilius paused and removed his hood, revealing the scars that o whehey overdrive on the energy of the Dark One.

  For someone as powerful as Kaecilius to draw that muergy meant that he had e awfully close to being the sed stro Dimensional Energy sorcerer on the p.

  “A One.” Kaecilius greeted back, his voice tinged with anger and bitterness. Though they were far past the point of talking it out now, she still tried.

  “Why do this Kaecilius? You know how this all ends.”

  “It is far beyond words now, A One. Your deceptions ran deep but I know the truth now. I know what I must do.”

  She sighed, put the folded treaty papers into her robe, as dimensional energy pumped through her body, multiple eldritch structs already taking shape in front of her body, without even moving her hands an inch. That was the skill level she had already reached a, she khat she was not ing from this alive.

  Not with the way things were set up for her. She did not have her ons with her, courtesy of the Fae, no way to use the Sling Ring. The barrier was built with Dark Energy, and more likely, Kaecilius had many of his acolytes burning their bodies p the barrier, which meant it would be an uphill battle getting out of this space, especially with Kaecilius on her back.

  She mentally he invisible space shards that Kaeciloius had taken as his ons, with his much lesser skilled aplices drawing on Dimensional Energy structs before emp them with energy from DOrmammu, toughening them and also giving them a poisoning attribute.

  “Quite a show.” She ented as she took a siep forward, the entire space around them rippling before a wave of dimensional fire sprouted from the hexagon in front of her, drowning the area in front of her with Hellfire.

  Her hand snapped up as she caught a nearly invisible shard of spaches away from her eyes. Crushing it with her hand, she kept an eye on the area in front of her. It was still covered in fire but she khat they would not die with just this spell.

  She leao the side as another shard grazed her robe, her eyes making tact with Kaecilius’s pletely dark orbs as she closed her eyes, having no choice but to call on the energy from him. When she opened her eyes once more, her eyes were dark as well with a purple tattoo appearing on her forehead. Drawing on her energy, she created a shield and bashed it right against Kaecilius, the shard breaking upon tad pushing Kaecilius dozens of feet back.

  She waved her hands behind her negligently, dispelling the fire, revealing the forms of the two people mid lunge. Reality seemed to glitch before the acolytes folded in on themselves, as if struck by a massive force, ung them right back at the barrier, their forms unmoving with multiple boig out of pces.

  All this time, her attention was on Kaecilius who was standing back up, his arm that she had shattered, snapping bato pce as Dormammu’s energy worked overtime in making sure that Kaecilius’ body remained whole until his purpose was finished.

  “You see, Kaecilius, I might be trapped here but please do remember who you are dealing with. I am not some Master who be dealt with just some zealots jumped up on Dark Energy.” She took a siep forward, space rippling around her feet before she appeared right in front of the motionless Kaecilius, her hand drawn back holding onto an eldritch struct of a fan, a passable imitation of her favourite on. Her first relic.

  With the speed grao her unaging body, she stuck with her fan, her fan sinking right into Kaecilius’ chest before her eyes widened, jumping back as she felt a mass of Dark Energy erupting straight from Kaecilius.

  Kaecilius moved like a man possessed as he crushed her fan struct before his body was covered in Dark Energy with just two red eyes staring her down. Her face grim, she called on more and more of Dimensional Energy, trying to prepare for whatever Kaecilius-no-Dormammu had in store for her.

  Her way of using the Dark Energy differed from what Kaecilius had doo his soul. She only used it to prolong her lifespan and even that made her feel dirty all over. She didn’t use it to do much beyond emp her DImensional energy spells and structs. She didn’t hand over her soul to Dormammu who had apparently flooded Kaecilius with so much Dark Energy that the space around them was beginning to .

  If it went on any further, she would not be able to trol the spa a wide enough rao matter. It would be like walking in a witch’s domain all ain. It would not be pretty but back then, she had energy to spare and also the Time Stone in her possession, pretty much guaranteeing her win.

  Now? Now she had nothing and that?

  That made her grin, finally something to excite, something that was new, something that she didn't know the clusion to. A feeling long lost emerged in her chest, a warm feeling that made her focus razor sharp.

  She smiled as sweat gathered on her brow, not from fear or from exertion but excitement.

  If I have to go today, let it be with a boom, as the kids say

  Word t - 2542

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