“And that is why I will not kill you. The lives you remember taking and ruining, the cruelties you’ve inflicted on others, the arrogance and pride with which you’ve lived your life... none of that has actually happened,” Briggs continued calmly.

“Your history began nineteen days ago, and that is what I will judge you on.” The looming figure leaned forward ever so slightly as Doom stared in disbelief. “This is the beginning of the rest of your life, Viktor von Doom. All the tragedies and sorrows you’ve endured and inflicted upon others have not occurred. You have given up nothing, and many of your gains are but falsehoods.

“So, when I say this is the beginning of the rest of your life, I wonder what Viktor von Doom will make of it. Will I need to act again to save the world from his misguided genius, or will he truly be the hope of a brighter future?”

Behind the wry words there was a terrible iron weight hanging over him, and Viktor von Doom knew that despite everything said, he was standing under a Sword of Damocles, and the one who had placed it there had no hesitation at all in letting it fall...

This was not a mewling man like Richards, with his crippling morality. He had said straight up that he had killed Doom’s counterpart, and would likewise have no hesitation in killing him.

“I trust that if I seek to verify these words, it will not be difficult,” Doom hazarded by way of reply, turning his thoughts to the implications if they were true.

“You can track the line of your life through a fourth-dimensional mirror. It will go back to exactly that key moment you speak of, and no further. If you speak with some of the Entities you believe you have contracts with, it will take little effort to realize you and they do not actually have a contract in force.

“Furthermore, your magical knowledge is inaccurate. Time travel is not possible within this dimension, which, by TVA nomenclature, is titled as 1832, with no extensions. There are no alternate dimensions of 1832, von Doom, and no alternate timelines. The history you remember was spun full cloth out of nothing and given to you as your memories when you were recreated, like a red blood cell coming out of nowhere and yet knowing what it is meant to do. You probably noticed some difficulties with your magic, even before you entered my presence, and considered it disruption from another world with active magic use being here. Those disruptions are because you remember learning much of your magic from sorcerers of the past, and what knowledge you recall is subtly, yet completely wrong.”

Von Doom frowned as he weighed those words, and found them matching his experience. “Why,” he asked directly, “is my face unmarred?”

“If I were to guess, it is because the one who created you did not know exactly how it was supposed to be damaged, and simply created you as he knew you.”

Doom’s eyes widened again. “You know who was responsible for this?!” he exclaimed urgently. “Who dared mess with the life of Doom?!” he demanded immediately.

“Two alternates you know very well.” The schadenfreude in those violet eyes and deep voice were unmistakable. The primitive before Doom looked him square in the eyes as he said, “Your alternate, the Victor von Doom of alternity 616, destroyed the entire multiverse, save for 1832.” He paused, judging Viktor’s shock at the statement coolly. “Yes, everything but this dimension. In the end, despite having the power to do so, he had neither the desire nor the empathy to recreate what had been destroyed, and his power was awarded to the Reed Richards of 616, who did what von Doom would not, and returned all as it was.

“Reed Richards was likewise unaware that 1832 had not been destroyed. He recreated a world here that had never existed, and Eternity, for whatever reason, allowed it to manifest. Thus, you and your world came into being nineteen days ago, despite never having existed in this dimension, purely because Reed Richards-616 could not sense that fact.”

Doom grit his teeth. “So, this counterpart of mine... had the power to recreate All That Is, and failed to do so?”

“Oh, he created a NEW Realm... where he was God and Emperor, and none could defy him. Recreating the multiverse? Why would he do that, and relegate himself to being a mortal among mortals once again?” Briggs scoffed, clearly amused at the very idea.

Von Doom could not dispute that. Indeed, the idea of recreating an uncontrolled, chaotic multiverse where he was not in charge and able to adjudicate the entirety of creation was difficult to fathom.

Obviously, that was not the case for Reed Richards, and in so doing, he had even brought von Doom himself into being once again... and presumably across multiple realities!

“So, Viktor von Doom, newborn polymath, sorcerer in need of retraining, heirless ruler of a realm that will collapse without him... what are your intentions now?”

Viktor von Doom frowned at the weight of the question. The confidence behind it was too assured, and the displays of power too simple. He was indeed in the inferior position here, and it rankled him deeply.

He did not like feeling like a student in the presence of a master. Doom had no masters!

Yet the brooding threat across from him had once been one to his counterpart. “If my path is my own to choose, then I will choose it,” he replied simply, daring the other to react.

“Well spoken.” Not a trace of anger, hate, or surprise, as if Doom’s pride and arrogance was to be expected. “I will have but one request of you, then.”

That was unexpected, given the polite phrasing. “I will listen,” Doom conceded, but that was all.

“Do not be a useless genius, nor a useless ruler.” Doom blinked in surprise, as he considered himself neither. “You, like the Richards of your world, are largely useless Creative Geniuses. You make up great achievements and technological wonders, which the world cannot replicate. While this has the wonderful aspect of making your lessers dependent upon you, if something should happen to you, you may as well have not created any of those wonders at all, for they are useless to humanity and its destiny.

“Likewise your rulership of Latveria. Perhaps you mean to punish your people with the contrast between your being there to rule and not being there. Whatever the reason, if you are not there, your people instantly suffer for it, for the changes you’ve made and the power you leave evaporate without you. That means you are a useless ruler, leaving no lasting changes and uplifting them only by your presence, not your legacy. At least without you they would struggle to improve themselves and make themselves better, instead of being raised and crushed, raised and crushed again.

“If you want to exceed Reed Richards, be useful, not useless. Raise the technology of your people, and raise your people so that without Doom, they are still proud.” He leaned forwards ever so slightly. “You need not fear they will prosper without you. You are Doom. They will ALWAYS be better off with you. But your goal is something more akin to Wakanda, which does not rely on its king, but is indeed better off with him.

“You can crush Reed Richards in the eyes of your world with ease, because he is focused on his family before all, and the fruits of his genius merely trickle forth in tiny dribs and drabs. He can save the world, but he does not raise it at all. Even Stark does a better job.”

“Richards has no gift or knowledge of sorcery,” von Doom said dismissively. “He is not my equal!”

He was very disconcerted to see the slow, wide smile spread across the visage of the Great Bear. “You seem quite certain of that,” Briggs mused aloud. “Do you have empirical evidence that Richards cannot learn magic?”

Viktor von Doom found a tremble growing in his heart. “No! That is...” he trailed off, trying to hide his looming disquiet. While Richards could rival him in matters of science, his absolute superiority in magic was his one great power over his rival. If that were not true...

“The Reed Richards of this world is the most powerful hydromancer on the planet. He is also known as the Sage of the Seven Spheres.” Briggs tilted his head slightly. “He has devised and invented well over one thousand different new spells, and his name is known by mystical Entities from across the multiverse, from the Vishanti to the lowest demons. While he does not have the raw power to be the Sorcerer Supreme, he definitely has the intellect and breadth of knowledge to claim the seat, were it open.

“But he prefers his science.”

Von Doom stared, trying not to swallow at this foreboding realization. “How?” he whispered at last. “How did he come to learn sorcery?”

“It was a minor epiphany. First of all, his Elemental quantum nature actually makes him a natural for hydromancy. Then, it was his realization that he was being too smart about it all. He was trying to understand magic at its basic principle and foundation, which is fruitless. Magic is a thing of Law and Chaos, and has no such fixed foundation. So very much of it is dependent upon where it comes from and who is wielding it. He needed to back off from his great need to understand and realize that magic is just a code, a language, and a tool, and to wield it as such. The pure arrogance of treating such a powerful force as something so simple was his greatest impediment to learning more about it, you see.

“From there it was a matter of opportunity and practice.

“Amusingly enough, Richards is considered a great master and teacher throughout the firmament, for his spells are things that can be mastered by multitudes, unlike his technology. It is always far easier to use a tool than to create a working machine that makes one that you need, after all.”

Von Doom felt his chest aching badly. His desire to confront this Richards and challenge him was so acute he could taste it.

“You cannot travel to the past here to learn from the ancient mystics. If you try to learn from alien mystics in the current age, you are endangering not only your own soul, but those of this world and yours... and they are eagerly awaiting you, as the reputation of your counterpart precedes you.” The raised axe behind those worlds was unmistakable. “Your potential is terrifying, von Doom. You can help lead humanity to a great height, or you can destroy it when it will not follow or acknowledge you as supreme.” The Great Bear sighed, heavy and slow, but his eyes burned with a will and determination that Viktor von Doom recognized all too certainly.

“You may go now.”

Von Doom was about to say something, when he blinked and looked around.

The table and opposite chair were empty. He looked slowly around as he heard the clatter of metal, and his startled doombots swung out from their guardian positions in his very own throne room. Their challenges startled to echo forth, before their scanning systems recognized him as he rose to his feet.

There was nobody living around to witness this, or he would likely have had them killed for seeing his unmasked face.

He turned his face to the sky and another world on the other side of the sun, his thoughts dark and brooding as he contemplated his future.

------

“No chance of error at all?” Tony Stark asked urgently.

Reed Richards shook his head, and Hank Pym sighed in defeat. “None at all, Tony. We rebuilt this from the ground up with basic components. There’s no sabotaging of the results involved here, not that any of us truly believe it, anyway.”

“We all came into existence twenty days ago,” Pym agreed, shaking his head as he stared at the fourth-dimensional tracer. “There’s no temporal presence, quantum echo, or dimensional resonance traces at all surrounding the moment. Whatever force did this is at the highest levels imaginable, completely beyond our instrumentation’s power to detect.”

“Being thought or dreamed into being is an apt description,” agreed Reed Richards, considering the readouts while shaking his head, Tony looking over his own charts for some weakness he could seize on to disprove what we’d told them. “Extraordinary, but definitely not beyond the power of many beings we remember encountering, ranging from the Cosmic Cubes up to Eternity itself... and Dynamo informed us that this was a combination of all of those factors.”

“I know, it’s just... wow, to think we could just be thought up out of nothing...”

“It’s the same thing as parallel dimensions, Tony. Literally each one springs out of a single different decision, a single thought. Our thought was simply made by the multiverse itself, not some prior aspect of us.” Reed had contemplated the notion, reduced it to the proper context, and realized it simply wasn’t an issue. “The fact there’s an effective break in our timeline is the key part here. From 1832 and before, our world is the same as Dynamo’s. It’s the time period in between which is ‘not there’, and so we can’t go backwards, despite existing here and now.”