After taking a day to decompress, I returned to my base with fresh eyes.
From my Storage I began unloading a number of stolen server racks.
I placed them around the MTAR, surrounding it like an Enchanting Table, all I was missing was a floating book.
The hookup process was stupidly easy. One of reasons I spent so much time lacing the room with runes and Vibranium wiring was for this very reason.
After a small bout of enchanting and modifying the power inputs, the server racks breathed to life. A subtle purplish glow emanating from their perforated panels.
I connected my laptop, pulled a chair from my Storage and got to work coding the foundations for R2.
Tony's simplified A.I's came in very handy. It was leagues easier to work off of pre-existing code, depending on the coder… Tony was thankfully clean and organized, or maybe it was FRIDAY? After hours of modifying, adjusting and fixing compiling error after compiling error, the foundations of R2 took shape.
I created a polyhedron of Vibranium, layered with runes that allowed it to connect with the greater array that spread throughout my base.
The polyhedron rested in the palm of my left hand, while my right hand hovered over my laptop.
I was going to take a page out of the Jedi handbook, Sith too I suppose.
The polyhedron was going to be the heart of R2. Acting as an emergency battery, data store and intermediary between the digital and physical world.
It was a giga-Holocron made out of the most versatile metal on earth, enchanted with runes and brought to life with Tony's modified A.I.
All fused together with the power of the Force.
I wasn't too worried about a potential Ultron situation, as the Holocron would be directly linked to me via the Force itself.
And that was ontop of all of Tony's failsafes and learnings post-Ultron.
The room filled with a hum as I worked. The air around me ebbing out in waves of intangible energy.
The Holocron began to hover above my palm, spinning slowly as I transferred over R2's code from my laptop. Small veins of energy began appearing across the Vibranium surface, runes flashed and sparked like the twitching of a brain.
For twelve hours straight I worked, sinking so deep into the Force I began feeling the Holocron awakening.
With exhausted, shaking hands I gently placed the Holocron onto the MTAR. A jolt of energy fluttered between the objects, causing the Holocron to softly rise into the air. It hovered, spinning like the cosmic motions of a star.
A voice filled the room, deep, resonant — a whisper that vibrated in my chest and soul alike.
[Hello… World]
—
"You've been busy." Tao mused.
She sat crosslegged, hovering in the air as waves of Eldritch energy wafted off her burnt orange robes.
"Clearly far too busy to visit your poor old Master… Tell me, have I been replaced? Did you find a new, younger, more lenient Sorceress Supreme on a recent mission?"
I stood behind her, scratching the back of my neck, a wry smile on my lips.
"Sorry Master… I know it isn't an excuse but things have been — hectic, to say the least."
Tao sighed, softly descending to the floor before standing, turning to me with narrowed eyes.
"Do you know what it's like to have only Mordo and Strange for company?"
"Uh… no?"
She clicked her tongue. Striding across the room as it warped and morphed into her favorite study. She sat down on her velvety couch with a sigh then lazily waved her hand, summoning her honey'd tea from the immaterium.
I cautiously sat across her, noticing that she didn't pour me a cup.
Oh shit.
Tao let out a tired, weary breath. "Riven."
"Yes Master?"
"What are you doing?" She asked.
My head tilted slightly as I tried to parse her question.
"Like, with my life?"
Tao shook her head. "Riven, you forget that out of every single being on this planet — you, and only you — escape the powers of the time stone." She glanced at me from the corner of her eye, before returning to staring at the orange flames, crackling in the transmuted hearth beside us.
"And while I may not be able to see what you're doing, the wider effects of your actions reverberate greater than you could possibly imagine."
I opened my mouth to speak, yet before I could, Tao raised a gentle hand, silencing me.
"Let me finish. A man who I'd seen die a million times — whose death would've been a catalyst of change, whether for revenge, or its prettier cousin, justice — is very much alive."
She tapped her chin, "A man who was supposed to live and face justice — is now dead. A man who was destined to retire, to never sit in cockpit again — will now fly again. A man who's death should catalyze a kid's—"
"—No."
My singular word drowned the room into a tense silence as I cut her off. The cackling fire the only solace to the quiet intensity.
Nobody spoke for an awkwardly long moment.
Tao's eyes turned to me. She was… surprised, offended and curious all at once.
"No?"
I met her gaze, my chest warming with a weird combination of resolution and… fear?
"I refuse, Master." I said, finding the words grating against my throat.
Her eyes narrowed, yet the corner of her lip ever-so slightly quirked.
"Refuse?" She whispered, "What exactly are you refusing, my dearest disciple?"
I had to look away, my eyes lingering on the tongues of fire endlessly dancing. With a wave of my hand, I conjured a cup and poured myself some tea. I could feel Tao's burning stare as I sat back, feeling the all too familiar warmth seep between my fingers.
I took a sip and felt the tea heat my chest. With a deep breath I met Tao's expectant eyes.
"Should, would, could — Master. I refuse."
Tao opened her mouth to speak but I raised my hand, silencing her as she scoffed.
I continued, my voice faint. "You told me to trust myself… " I whispered, "Out of every single being on this planet, Master — you, and only you — know me."
I waved my hand, gesturing to the universe as a whole.
"Nobody knows, likely never will. Even now I hide things, as if the moment the truth leaves my mouth I will cease to exist. My entire life changed in a single night; my very reality shifting because some… thing tossed a cosmic coin powerful enough to bend the laws of reality and birth me anew…"
I heard a plop, the noise like a record scratch across my burning mind. I looked down in confusion, seeing fading ripples in my tea's jade-waters — until another drop fell from my face, rippling across the surface once more.
I grimaced, my jaw clenching. I had to drag the words from my lungs.
"I somehow won that coin toss, but a part of me is terrified that I didn't, that the coin is still up there, spinning — waiting to land — the cosmic hand that placed me here, still hanging over my head, its fingers twitching to snatch me back up."
I looked up, barely able to see the softness in Tao's eyes through the wet blur of my own.
"So. I. Refuse."
,,,
Tao didn't say a word, letting my words fade into the fiery cackle of the hearth. I wiped my eyes against my sleeve and drank my tea. The taste of my tears souring the honey'd waters.
"I'm sorry." I said with a soft chuckle.
Tao's reply was quiet, a whisper I almost missed, "For what?"
I gave myself a weak grin.
"Because this dearest disciple will refuse to let you die."
Her eyes widened, face flickering through a million emotions in a single breath. I felt the Force quiver around her, yet even it was too muddled to give me a clear response.
"Trust me, Master." I pleaded.
Tao's mouth opened, words hovering on her lips as her brows furrowed. But the words never came. She shook her head, cupping her cheek as her face relaxed.
"I have such, foolishdisciples." She whispered with a badly hidden smile.
—
Tao and I stepped out of a portal, arriving in front of my house.
"It's so…" She muttered.
"Geometrical?" I finished for her.
"Ugly."
I gave her an offended look, my hand clutched over my heart in mock pain.
"Why must you wound me Master?"
She chuckled, "You're kidding, just look at it. Kamar-Taj is much nicer, why you would choose to live here can't even be discerned with the Time-stone.
I scoffed, "Master, its not about what's on the outside that matters—"
"--No. In this case, it matters." She cut me off, waving her hand and swaggering towards the door.
Is it really that bad?
I followed her into my own home, relieved to see her nodding appreciatively at the interior design. Especially the plants, though she could've been admiring my watering runes, who knows.
I gave her a tour of the rest of the house, her favorite room was quite obviously the study, and my subsequent enthusiasm over my big globe thingy.
Her least favorite room was the master bedroom, letting out a single, scornful word to encapsulate her professional opinion.
"Excessive."
I sagely nodded in agreement.
True.
Back down in the living room Tao sank into my large U-shaped couch.
"It's not half bad on the inside." She admitted.
I sighed, "Story of my life, but we're not done with the tour yet, we still have the basement."
Tao rolled her eyes. "Basement you say? How thrilling."
I held back a smug grin, refusing to give her even a hint.
I led her down into the cardboard box filled room.
"Impressive Disciple, you didn't even pack the boxes down."
I shook my head, walking over to the cabinet door.
"Like I said Master, it's not about what's on the outside that matters — it's what's inside the inside that matters."
"What?"
I rapped my knuckles against the door and a ripple of Force washed over its surface. In the blink of an eye the door vanished, unveiling a room that was far, far bigger than she anticipated.
Tao's eyes widened and a grin formed on her lips.
"Impressive Riven."
I laughed, "We're just getting started."
For a Master of the Mystic Arts, stepping into my secret base was akin to stepping into a sauna. The sheer density of energy in the air left an electrifying, almost coconut-like taste in your mouth.
The mixture of Vibranium and Eldritch Energies bathed the room in a soft purplish-gold glow, Tao's eyes gazed around my wards, nodding appreciatively at my work.
Then she stopped, eyes suddenly narrowing towards the center of the room.
"Riven, what am I looking at?" She asked with a tilt of her head.
I chuckled, striding over.
"Say hi, R2."
A voice filled the air, pulsing from the Holocron with an ethereal tenor.
[Hello there… grandmother Tao.]
Her eyes went wide, snapping between my badly hidden laughter and the hovering polyhedron of Vibranium. A wry smile graced her lips as she strode over to the Holocron, quietly taking in the fusion of technology, magic and my sheer, unfettered genius.
"Hello, R2?" She tentatively spoke.
The Holocron pulsed, [Hello. It's nice to finally meet you, Ancient One, Riven has told me quite a lot about you.]
She quirked a brow giving me side-eye. "Has he now? How surprising, since he rarely visits — I'd assume he wouldn't have much to say."
I rolled my eyes, "Master please don't try to turn my A.I against me."
Tao hummed, taking a closer look at the Holocron.
"Fascinating, I don't believe I've seen anything quite like it."
R2 hummed with a tangible amount of energy. [Thank you.]
Tao smiled, then turned to me. "Explain."
I grinned, "Well… R2's an A.I, though the term doesn't really do em justice, they're more than that — a fusion of technology, magic, and the innate, semi-sentient traits of my Force. For all intents and purposes, R2 is alive. An entirely new existence, unique across the multiverse."
I walked over and gestured at the Holocron.
"This, is what I call a Holocron. It's what makes the—" I wave to the server racks and runes all around us, "--magic happen. Allowing R2 to interact not only with the digital and physical world, but also the Mystical."
Tao was silent after I finished my explanation, her hand tapping her chin.
"Riven." She sternly said.
"Yes Master?"
"R2 is a terrible name." She bluntly informed.
I scoffed, yet before I could deny such a thing R2 chimed in.
[Agreed.] It said, already betraying me not even two days after its birth.
I sighed, dragging a hand across my face. Then I threw my hands into a mock surrender. "Fine. Fine, fiiiiine — if you have a better name feel free to pick one." I conceded.
Good lord… some people.