Marvel-ous Ninjutsu

00018. Timelines, how do they work?

“He survived the fall into the canyon but lost his arm. Hydra saved him and gave him some type of . Replaced his arm and brainwashed him into the perfect killer. He is now called the Winter Soldier.”

“Are you fucking kidding me? Bucky Barnes, Captain America’s best friend, is the Winter Soldier?"

Ezekiel nodded his head as he said, “Seems like just the type of thing a group like Hydra would do, why are you surprised, Fury?”

Fury shook his head, but said nothing else. Steve finally looked at Ezekiel and asked, “How is he still alive?”

“They kept him frozen most of the time and only brought him out to kill a target, then they would freeze him again. As far as I know, his last target was Howard Stark on December 16, 1991.”

No one spoke for a while, until Peggy asked, “Why did Hydra send Bucky to kill Howard?”

“Howard had completed what he thought was the super soldier serum. Hydra wanted it. Turns out it wasn’t perfect and made the test subjects mentally unstable. So they put them all on ice, at a secret facility in Russia. I think Bucky is still there, since his handler is in charge of that base."

Peggy asked, “Howard really finished it?”

Steve stood up at the same time and asked, "Do you know where the base is? We need to rescue him!"

Ezekiel shook his head and said, "Like I said, he thought he completed it, but it had issues. As for the base I currently don't know its location, but it doesn't matter anyways. We don't have the manpower to take that base currently, but I have an idea on how we might be able to. I am just concerned if us taking that base will raise any flags within Hydra. Unless we place the blame firmly on someone else.”

Steve started to pace back and forth next to the desk as he said, “We can’t leave Bucky with them, I don’t want my friend to suffer under them any more than he already has.”

“I understand your concerns, Cap, but we need to be careful. Playing with the timeline can lead to worse outcomes than what I am trying to prevent and the more we mess with it the worse it can get.”

Fury spoke up and said, “But you said you can see the future, can’t you just see what is going to happen once you change something?”

Ezekiel shook his head and said, “No, I can’t. I had a pretty good idea what was going to happen to this universe before I was born. But since I was born the timeline has been changing and I don’t know how it’s going to affect the future. So I figured if it’s already different I might as well change it more and when an important event happens I will intervene to make it end better then it would.”

Everyone stayed quiet as they thought over what Ezekiel had said. Steve was the first to speak as he asked, “So you had an idea of what would happen. But since you have been changing things, you aren’t really sure what will actually happen any more and are hoping things stay the same anyways so you can change it? Am I the only one who is confused?”

Everyone, except for Hank, glanced at each other and kinda shrugged, before they looked back at Ezekiel and waited for an answer.

“Yes and no. I guess Dr. Pym is the only one who has an idea what I meant.”

Hank nodded and said, “I think you are talking about ?”

“That is correct. But it’s also different. Here let me give everyone some simple examples.”

Ezekiel's face shrunk down and a horizontal green line appeared on a black background on the display. As it did he started to speak and said, “Take this here as our current timeline, except that I was never born. But I want you to keep in mind this line is actually millions upon millions of timelines that are similar. Everything in them happens the exact same, till something doesn’t.”

Another line branches off from it and moves parallel to it. “Now this new branch is where I was born. But this is also millions upon millions of timelines also and each one is the exact same until…”

Another branch breaks off from the second line and it begins to run parallel to the first and second line. “This third branch is where I decided to actively interfere in the timeline, kinda where we are now. Now this one is the same as the others, millions upon millions of timelines and each one is the exact same.” Under that timeline the words appear, “You are here :D”

Another branch breaks off from the third line and it begins to run parallel to the other three lines. “This is one where I didn’t tell you about Bucky, but still decided to interfere in the timeline.”

Another branch breaks off from the fourth line and it begins to run parallel to the other four lines. “Now in this one I don’t tell you what I know about certain future events. As you can see, whenever I do something it will affect the timeline and make a new branch.”

Another branch breaks off from the fifth line and it begins to run parallel to the other five lines. “But in this timeline, Fury took the info I gave him and decided to act against Hydra earlier than I planned to and fucked my plans up. It’s not just me who can branch the timeline, anyone who gains knowledge from me and makes a decision they wouldn’t make without that knowledge can branch the timeline.”

Ezekiel looked at everyone in the room and asked, “Everyone is with me so far, right?”

Everyone nodded in reply. Ezekiel smiled and a red vertical line showed up running across and touching each of the green lines. “Now these red lines are events that happen in almost every time line. It doesn’t matter what I change in the timeline, the event is going to happen. Let's call them act’s of fate, if the whole universe wants something to happen it will happen. It might be completely different in each timeline branch, but it still happens. A good example of this would be you, Captain Rogers. In most of the multiverse you are almost always Captain America.”

Hank shook his head and said, “I refuse to believe in something like fate. It would make our free will meaningless.”

Other people nodded their heads at that as Ezekiel laughed and said, “I said call them act’s of fate, but it’s not really fate. Let's take the example I gave about Captain Rogers. The reason he is almost always Captain America is because of the choices he makes in each life that leads to it happening. If he makes different choices then it doesn’t happen. But someone else will step in to take the mantle in his place, causing a new timeline branch. But that red line event still happened, because the universe wanted it. Everyone still with me?”

“If this red line event is supposed to happen some way or another, then what about people who are supposed to die? You are trying to change things because you want to save people. But won’t these people still die, or just different people in their place instead?”

“Honestly that is a very good question, Peggy. I don’t think individual people's deaths count as a red line event. Red line events are normally things that can shape history or change the world or even the universe. I know the might be a little upset if I save people who were supposed to die, but I am not bringing them back to life so I doubt they would really care much at all. Which reminds me, don’t go overboard with Project Tahiti, that could really cause some issues.”

Coulson raised his hand and asked, “What do you mean by aspect of death?”

Ezekiel let out a sigh and said, “You can kind of think of them like a God, with a capital G. You know this would be so much easier if you were versed in magic, then I wouldn’t have to explain much of this at all.”

Around one of the empty chairs at the table the area around it started to shatter like a mirror and after a few seconds a woman with a bald head and wearing robes was seated there. Everyone reacted to her presence and pulled out weapons going on the defensive. Except for Fury, who just had a smug smile on his face as he looked at Ezekiel. Ezekiel studied the woman for a few moments before he said, “I didn’t expect to meet you for a while, . Although I was kinda hoping to meet instead.”

Fury looked around at everyone and said, “Stand down, I invited her here. I wanted to see how Ezekiel reacted.”

Peggy holstered her weapon, then reached over and smacked the back of Fury’s bald head as she said, “You do not keep secrets from us. We are all in this together Nicholas. The next time you want to do something, you consult with Steve, Hank and me.”

Fury glared back at Peggy but said nothing, everyone else tried not to smile at what just happened as they seated themselves back down. Once everyone was settled, The Ancient One said. “Unfortunately Yao decided to pass the mantle of Sorcerer Supreme to me almost nine hundred years ago and with it, all of its problems.”

“He didn’t stick around to help a little?”

She shook her head and said, “No he left right after to explore the greater universe and I haven’t heard from him since.”

Ezekiel laughed and said, “Looks like leaving your successor to fend for themselves after the mantle passes is a trait you both share.”

The Ancient One chuckled lightly and said, “Yes, I suppose it is.”

“Is there anything you would like to point out I might have missed or explained incorrectly so far?”

She shook her head and said, “Honestly you have done a fine job. How you came to acquire this knowledge concerns me, but we can talk about that at a later time. For now please continue, I just wish to observe for now.”

Ezekiel nodded, then looked over the rest of the room and said, “Great. So the original question about changing the timeline and still being able to change future events kinda makes sense now?”

Everyone nodded, but only Hank and The Ancient One seemed confident. Ezekiel laughed as his face filled up the screen again and he said. “Alright, so besides needing to find this base in Russia, we need enough people to take it. Or a few powerful people.”

Ezekiel looked over at The Ancient One and asked, “Would you like to help us? I am pretty sure you could toss all the base personnel into the . We could easily deal with them that way and not have to worry about them sending out any distress calls.”

She stayed quiet for a few moments and studied Ezekiel before she said, “I could agree to help if you meet me in person so we could talk.”

Ezekiel shook his head and said, “That won’t be possible for now.”

She smiled at that and asked, “Is it because you aren’t much older than two years old and think we wouldn't take you seriously?”