The Executioners

Avengers Compound, main building, conference room.

War Machine, Falcon, and Wanda stood in a semicircle around Nathaniel, their weapons still raised.

The boy sat in a chair, his purple-and-blue armor's helmet resting on the table. He looked exhausted, with dark circles under his eyes. A scar deep enough to expose bone ran across his wrist, glinting dark purple under the lights.

Wanda stared at the scar.

Something was wrong.

An extremely faint energy fluctuation surrounded the wound. It was no ordinary injury.

War Machine opened his faceplate.

"You say you're from the thirty-first century and you're here to stop a catastrophe. Why come here? Why now?"

Nathaniel looked up.

"Because this is the last critical point. In my timeline, the Council of Kangs completed its first great purge of the Multiverse in August 2025. Starting from this point, they erased every timeline that threatened them, one by one."

"Why not go to Tony Stark?" Falcon asked.

"Mr. Stark died in my timeline." The boy lowered his head. "I detected an incredibly powerful force that had emerged in this timeline. I thought it might have a chance of defeating the Council of Kangs."

Wanda narrowed her eyes.

Everything the boy said sounded true. His emotions felt real, too.

But something still felt wrong.

That scar.

She looked at his wrist again. Tiny runes lined the edge of the wound, almost invisible to the naked eye, but she could sense them.

They weren't traces left by treatment. They looked more like a brand.

The air suddenly went still.

Everyone felt an immense pressure descend from above. It wasn't killing intent or a threat. It was sheer Presence.

Alerts blared through Rhodey's armor. Sam raised his shield on instinct, and Wanda's Chaos Magic formed a barrier around her.

Nathaniel went deathly pale and