Past and Future

The person who arrived at Nick Fury's office was none other than Coulson, who had just departed to deliver Wei Xiuming and the Blade Warrior to the Osborn Industries base.

However, compared to that Coulson, this one appeared older, with a face full of weariness and a receding hairline. His left hand was no longer original, replaced by a high-tech mechanical one.

To conceal his physical deficiency, this Coulson wore a black deerskin glove, but the connection between his sleeve and the glove still revealed the texture of a mechanical creation as he walked.

"Regarding this Clark Kent, what is your assessment? Is he truly on our side?" Nick Fury picked up a wine glass again, refilled his own, and then poured a glass for Coulson.

Coulson picked up the glass and took a drink without restraint, then said as gently as ever, "Sir, I cannot answer your question. In the past of my world, there was no one named Clark Kent, nor any trace of Xenomorphs, Shuka, Fang Vampires, or Amazon Cells."

Nick Fury said, "But these things have appeared in my world. They are real."

"Therefore, I believe Iron Man's theory is incorrect. Time travel is simply impossible. Where we go through the quantum tunnel is not the past of my world, but another parallel universe, or perhaps multiple universes," Coulson said. "Clark Kent's world, or the future of this current world, is far more dire than our world, so dire that it necessitates such actions even at the cost of disrupting spacetime order."

This Coulson had suddenly appeared before Nick Fury a few days prior. He initially thought it was an imposter, a mimic created by Xenomorphs or Skrulls, but the individual presented enough evidence to prove his identity, forcing Nick Fury to believe he was from the future.

"The powerful enemy from the universe, Thanos, wages war across the cosmos for his ridiculous concept of cosmic balance, collecting the six Infinity Stones to wield their power through the Infinity Gauntlet. With all six stones, Thanos can fulfill one wish with a snap of his fingers, a wish that turns half of all life in the universe to dust. Countless heroes who tried to stop Thanos and save lives fell along the way, and even Captain Marvel was powerless."

"After achieving his goal, Thanos returned to the planet he had prepared for his retirement, destroyed the six Infinity Stones, and died as a martyr."

"Five years later, Ant-Man, who had escaped by entering the quantum realm, returned to the real world and proposed the theory of quantum tunneling through spacetime. Then, Hulk and Iron Man joined forces to bring this concept to fruition."

"The Avengers, determined to save the lost half of life, resolved to collect the Infinity Stones again from past temporal nodes and then snap their fingers once more to bring back what was lost."

At that time, Nick Fury asked a question: "Did they succeed, or are they still carrying out that plan?"

Even Coulson, a seasoned agent of many years, teared up upon hearing this and said mournfully, "They failed. Otherwise, I wouldn't be standing before you."

"The time travelers were somehow discovered by Thanos in the past temporal nodes. He used someone's time-traveling device to arrive in the Avengers' era. Before the heroes returned, he commanded his army to completely destroy the Avengers' base, slaughtering all remaining personnel. The heroes who returned with the Infinity Stones found only ruins and the corpses of their loved ones."

Nick Fury, who had never seen his trusted subordinate so grief-stricken, also had a tear in his single eye. He could imagine the despair of that scene.

"The assembled heroes were no match for Thanos and his army. The lone Avengers were defeated without a doubt," Coulson said, wiping away his tears, his eyes regaining their firmness. "But we did not lose hope. As support, S.H.I.E.L.D. provided considerable assistance to the Avengers. Backup copies of the time-travel machine's technical data were made. We rebuilt a quantum time machine to reverse the future."

Nick Fury said, "What is the purpose of your visit?"

"One of the Infinity Stones, the Space Stone, which is now called the Tesseract. I need to take it to assemble all six and eliminate Thanos and his army."

Time returned to the present. Although Nick Fury believed Coulson, who had arrived from a parallel world, the Tesseract was not something he could easily hand over. Despite being the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. with great authority, S.H.I.E.L.D. was not his sole domain. Even appropriating funds required clever justifications, and the World Security Council constantly monitored S.H.I.E.L.D., this black hole of expenses. Relevant American agencies would not allow S.H.I.E.L.D. to solely control such a powerful weapon as the Tesseract.

The result of their coordination was that research on the Tesseract would proceed as usual, handled by S.H.I.E.L.D., but the location would be an underground research base of the American space agency, with security overseen by American personnel.

According to the theory of time travel, no matter when Coulson activated the device to return to his era, the time he would be in would be the second after he left. Therefore, he was kept by Nick Fury as an advisor.

According to Coulson's initial statement, time travelers could not reveal too much information to people in the past, as it would disrupt spacetime order. This aligned with Wei Xiuming's initial statement, and Nick Fury did not suspect otherwise.

As this Coulson learned more about this world, he discovered the vast differences between their worlds. Besides many people and objects having corresponding counterparts, this world had some additional elements compared to his own world at the same time period, leading him to suspect it was a parallel universe.

Coulson took another sip of wine and said, "However, one thing can be confirmed: this Clark Kent is indeed from the future. Although he didn't state it directly but used vague terms and metaphors, certain events have actually happened in my era. If one were to compare them, those who understand would surely find corresponding events."

"The person who fell from a great height due to a power system failure and fractured his thoracic spine. I communicated with him during the construction of the time machine. However, the differences between worlds caused some discrepancies in the details. His outcome after falling from a great height was not too bad. After surgery, his body recovered mobility, and with the help of assistive devices, he could walk normally. He could still be active on the battlefield wearing his armor, not solely limited to becoming a cyborg."

Nick Fury nodded slightly, but his mind recalled something Wei Xiuming had once mentioned—a certain existence: time-travelers who traversed time and plundered the past. How similar this was to the experiences of the Coulson before him.