Invasion

The Arbitrators fighter sliced through the clouds, its engines roaring low through the thin air at high altitude. Inside the cabin, Chen Tian stood before a holographic projection, streams of blue data reflecting across his stern face. In the projection, an ancient castle stood amid the mountains of Sokovia, the Hydra emblem flickering in and out beneath infrared scans.

"Intelligence indicates that residual energy from the Mind Scepter is hidden here," Chen Tian said calmly. "This may be Hydra's new weapons factory."

Steve stood beside him, his brow tightly furrowed. "Are we sure Bucky is here?"

Chen Tian's fingertip swept across the hologram, switching the image to a map of the castle's underground structure. Several red dots marked likely detention areas.

"Not sure," he said flatly. "But Hydra will not abandon any valuable 'assets,' especially the Winter Soldier."

2B stood by the hatch, her silver hair drifting slightly in the airflow. Data streams flickered in her pupils as she rapidly analyzed the terrain and possible threats.

"What's the plan?" Steve looked toward Chen Tian.

Chen Tian folded his arms, his gaze still fixed on the projection. "You and 2B will breach from the ground, clear the outer guards, and find where the scepter is stored. Secure the scepter first, then go find Bucky." He paused. "I'll observe the overall situation from the air and adjust our tactics as needed."

Steve nodded and reached up to adjust the straps securing his shield. "Understood." He tilted his head slightly toward Chen Tian. "Chen Tian, you're not coming with us?"

A faint curve touched Chen Tian's lips. "I'll watch the bigger picture. If anything unexpected happens, I'll join the fight."

Steve keenly sensed the deeper meaning behind Chen Tian's words, but before he could speak, the fighter's AI announced, "Arriving above the target. Hatch ready to open."

The hatch slowly slid open, and frigid high-altitude winds poured inside. Steve took a deep breath and looked back at Chen Tian. "Give me some time. I'll wake Bucky up and retrieve the scepter."

There was a hint of pleading in his voice.

Chen Tian merely smiled faintly. "Good luck, Captain."

2B gave Chen Tian one last look before leaping from the hatch. Her silver hair traced an arc through the wind. Steve followed close behind, his shield reflecting blinding sunlight.

The fighter sealed its hatch again. Chen Tian stood alone before the projection, his gaze fixed on a red dot deep within the castle.

"AI, descend. Maintain stealth mode," he ordered quietly.

The fighter slowly descended as clouds churned beyond the windows. Chen Tian tapped the display, switching it to a live surveillance feed—Steve and 2B had already landed and were advancing rapidly toward the castle.

"Steve, I hope you move a little slower," Chen Tian murmured, a chill flashing through his eyes. "Because I... won't wait."

Chen Tian's hair turned black and white, and his eyes transformed into the Heavenly Eye.

"Bucky Barnes..." Chen Tian murmured the name, his tone icy. "Sorry. This time, no one can save you."

Steve's shield sliced through the air and slammed heavily into a Hydra soldier's chest, blasting him several meters away. Alarms shrieked across the castle, and red warning lights dyed the corridors blood-red.

"2B, left corridor!" Steve barked, twisting aside from a burst of gunfire before flinging his shield backward to knock down three armed agents.

2B flashed past like a ghost, her silver hair leaving an afterimage at high speed. Her mechanical arm unfolded, and her slender fingers effortlessly ripped through a tank's heavy armor as though tearing paper.

Hydra soldiers watched in terror as the seemingly delicate girl overturned a steel behemoth weighing over ten tons with one hand, then severed their weapons in flashes of her blade.

"Targets eliminated." 2B's voice was calm, as if she had merely completed a simple data entry.

Castle Command Room

Baron Strucker slammed his fist onto the console, making the holographic projection flicker wildly.

"Just two people! What are you panicking for?!" he roared.

"Sir, Captain America and that silver-haired girl have breached the outer defenses!" The agent's voice trembled with fear. "The tanks we deployed... she tore them apart with her bare hands!"

Strucker's expression darkened horribly. He stared at the two figures moving through the surveillance footage as though no one stood in their way, ruthlessness flashing in his eyes.

"Go to the basement," he said coldly. "Release the twins."

The agent froze. "But Baron, their abilities are still unstable—"

"Now!" Strucker bellowed. "Send them to deal with the intruders!"

Outside the Castle

Steve and 2B stood back-to-back, surrounded by fallen Hydra soldiers piled into small mounds. In the distance, more enemies were setting up heavy weapons, their barrels aimed directly at them.

"Looks like they don't intend to surrender." Steve caught his breath and tightened his grip on his shield.

Data rapidly flickered through 2B's pupils. She suddenly reached out to stop Steve as he prepared to move forward. "Captain, abnormal energy fluctuations detected underground. Recommend delaying our advance."

Steve frowned. "What's wrong?"

"My shield system requires 3 minutes and 42 seconds to charge." 2B reported calmly while subtly shifting her position, directing Steve's attention away from the castle's core. "Recommend eliminating the outer firepower positions first."

Before she could finish, the ground suddenly shook violently. With a thunderous boom, a massive hole was blasted through the western wall of the castle.

"Damn it!" Steve raised his shield. "Tank unit!"

2B quickly scanned the battlefield. "Four T-90 main battle tanks detected approaching." She deliberately paused. "My shield cannot provide effective defense for the moment."

Steve gritted his teeth. "Can we break through?"

"Calculating the optimal solution..." Blue light flickered in 2B's pupils as she secretly prolonged the analysis. "Another 2 minutes and 15 seconds required."

From a distant tower, Baron Strucker sneered as he pressed his communicator. "Bring the Maximoff twins up. It's time the Arbitrators learned what real power looks like."

Meanwhile, on the third underground level of the castle.

Chen Tian moved through the corridor like a ghost, Hydra guards collapsing soundlessly in his wake. He stared at the flashing red dot on his tactical eyepiece, a cold curve rising on his lips.

"Found you, Bucky."

Azure cursed energy gathered at Chen Tian's fingertips. The power of Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue slowly rotated in his palm, radiating suffocating pressure. Fine frost began forming across the cryogenic chamber's glass, making Bucky Barnes's face look especially pale in the cold.

"Goodbye, Winter Soldier." Chen Tian's voice was as cold as polar wind.

Just as the cursed energy was about to erupt, his Heavenly Eye suddenly contracted—an ear-piercing sound tore through the air as a silver-white blur came hurtling toward him at a terrifying speed beyond the sound barrier!

Boom!

Chen Tian instinctively dodged sideways. The ground where he had stood exploded into a deep crater three meters wide. Amid the flying debris, Pietro Maximoff's figure gradually solidified, ionized sparks from breaking the sound barrier still crackling at the tips of his silver-white hair.

"Stop! Don't touch him!" Scarlet light pulsed in Pietro's pupils, his voice trembling with rage. "The Baron said that Winter Soldier belongs to us—"

His voice abruptly caught.

The moment he saw Chen Tian's face clearly, Pietro's expression froze. His lips trembled slightly, and the hostility in his eyes was replaced by stunned disbelief.

"This... is impossible..."

At the same time, hurried footsteps sounded from the end of the corridor. Wanda Maximoff rushed over, scarlet Chaos Magic swirling around her. "Pietro! What happened—"

Her question died in her throat.

The crimson energy froze in midair, and Wanda's pupils shrank violently. Her lips trembled, her voice carrying near-breaking shock. "Chen Tian? You... weren't you dead? By S.H.I.E.L.D..."

Chen Tian's fingers paused slightly, azure cursed energy slowly flowing through his palm. He narrowed his eyes and studied the speechless, shocked siblings before him—Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver...

"Apparently, we don't know each other." His voice was low, but the cursed energy at his fingertips did not dissipate. "Move aside. If you don't want to fight, don't stop me."

Pietro's Adam's apple bobbed, his voice dry. "But that explosion... we saw you ourselves..."

"Pietro!" Wanda suddenly screamed, Chaos Magic violently surging around her. "Watch out!"

The ceiling exploded, showering the corridor with rubble. Steve descended from above with the Mind Scepter in hand. His Vibranium shield scraped out brilliant sparks as he landed, fury blazing in Captain America's eyes.

"Chen Tian!" he roared, driving the scepter hard into the floor. "You promised to give me time!"

Spiderweb cracks spread through the cryogenic chamber's glass under the vibration of the impact. Chen Tian looked at Steve standing before it, his black-and-white hair drifting in the turbulent energy currents.

"Captain," he said calmly, his eyes settling on the scepter in Steve's hand. "It seems you found one of our objectives."

Steve stepped forward, glaring at Chen Tian. The Mind Stone atop the scepter began glowing with an ominous yellow light. "Bucky needs help, not execution!"

2B silently appeared around the corner of the corridor and took her place behind Chen Tian. "Sorry, Master. I failed to delay them."

"You've been lying to me all along?" Steve's voice trembled with hurt. "You had 2B deliberately stall for time?"

Chen Tian did not immediately answer Steve's accusation. Instead, he turned slightly toward 2B. "The situation inside the castle?"

Data rapidly flickered through 2B's pupils. "Master, 72.3% of Hydra's armed forces have been eliminated, including their leader, Baron Strucker." She paused. "The remaining 27.7% are gathering on the third underground level."

Chen Tian nodded lightly, turning his gaze back to Steve. "Captain, there are still Hydra remnants here that need to be dealt with." His voice was calm to the point of coldness. "I suggest you handle them first."

Steve's fists clenched with a cracking sound, the edge of his shield gleaming coldly beneath the scepter's light. "Answer me! Did you plan to kill Bucky from the beginning?" His voice echoed through the empty underground corridor. "2B delaying us, you acting alone... was all of this your plan?"

The Maximoff siblings stood to one side, at a loss as they watched the two suddenly begin arguing.

Chen Tian's eyes slowly closed, a flicker of scarlet passing through the Heavenly Eye. When he opened them again, his voice was so quiet it was nearly inaudible. "Sorry, Captain."

A blue sphere of energy slowly formed at Chen Tian's fingertips, and the air around it began to warp. The tiny orb appeared small, yet it seemed to contain the gravity of an entire universe, bending even light around itself.

Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue

As Chen Tian's icy voice fell, the entire underground space suddenly descended into eerie silence. Everyone felt their bodies grow heavy, as though an invisible giant hand had pinned them in place.

Steve grunted, his knees bending slightly. His Vibranium shield suddenly became unimaginably heavy, forcing Captain America to use all his strength just to keep hold of it. Wanda's scarlet hair stirred without wind as she struggled to remain standing, her Chaos Magic thrown into disorder by the immense gravitational field.

"...Damn it... Chen Tian... doesn't he use... a greatsword?... How... can he... do this?" Wanda gritted out, fine sweat beading across her forehead.

Pietro tried to move, only to find that his superspeed was completely unusable. His legs felt filled with lead, and even taking the simplest step had become incredibly difficult. "Damn..." Quicksilver's pupils constricted sharply. "My body... is so heavy..."

2B's mechanical core began to hum as her gravity regulation system operated at full capacity against the sudden gravitational shift. Confusion flashed through the silver-haired girl's eyes. "Master... this gravity field..."

No matter how much her core computer calculated, she could not figure out why her master's skill was affecting her as well.

Steve struggled to raise his head and saw Chen Tian standing at the center of the gravitational field, his black-and-white hair whipping wildly in the energy storm. Captain America's eyes were filled with shock and incomprehension. "Chen Tian... what are you doing?"

The cryogenic chamber let out a piercing metallic groan as it warped under the gravitational field of "Blue." Spiderweb cracks spread across the thick tempered glass. As though pulled by an invisible giant hand, the entire metal chamber slowly slid toward Chen Tian, carving a deep furrow through the floor.

"No! Bucky!" Steve roared, releasing his Vibranium shield without hesitation. Captain America lunged forward and seized the emergency handles on the side of the cryogenic chamber with both hands. His knuckles whitened from the force, and his combat boots scraped two scorched trails across the floor.

Crack, crack, crack— The metal handles began to deform beneath the opposing forces. Every muscle in Steve's body tensed to its limit, veins rising beneath his skin like coiling dragons. His temples throbbed, and sweat ran down his tight jawline, only to be shredded into fine mist the instant it touched the gravitational field.

The cryogenic chamber continued moving slowly. Steve's feet had sunk into the concrete floor, and several tears had been ripped across the back of his combat suit, exposing bleeding skin beneath. Yet Captain America clenched his teeth, a beastlike growl rumbling from his throat as he used nothing but physical strength to resist cursed energy powerful enough to twist space itself.

"Chen Tian... stop..." Steve forced the words through clenched teeth, his bloodshot pupils turning red. "Have you... gone insane?"

"Insane? No. These are necessary sacrifices." Chen Tian's voice was so cold it no longer sounded human. Within the azure pupils of the Heavenly Eye, a thread of red light coiled.

2B's pupils constricted sharply, data pouring down like a waterfall. As she stared at Chen Tian's cold, emotionless profile, waves of piercing alarms came from her core processor—this was not the master she knew.

"Master!" Her voice turned shrill for the first time, nearly tearing past the limits of her vocal cords. "Please stop!"

Ignoring the tearing force of the gravitational field, the silver-haired girl staggered forward. Her mechanical joints groaned under unbearable strain, and her artificial skin began cracking beneath the immense pressure, exposing metal structures sparking with electricity underneath.

"You said... you would create a world where no one needed to be sacrificed!" 2B's voice trembled, carrying a nearly human sob. "Is this the future you wanted?"

Chen Tian's fingertips paused slightly.

2B's voice was like a blade, stabbing deep into his chaotic consciousness. The scarlet light in the Heavenly Eye wavered briefly, and Chen Tian's expression went vacant for an instant, as if he were struggling within some distant fragment of memory.

"2B..." His lips trembled slightly, and a nearly imperceptible hesitation flashed through his voice.

But the next second, that scarlet light swept across his pupils once more like a rising tide. Chen Tian's expression became cold and unfamiliar again, as if that momentary wavering had never existed.

"Sorry, 2B." His voice was low and hollow, as though it came from somewhere far away. "This isn't a war you should be part of."

Before his words had faded, Chen Tian raised his right hand and traced a dark-blue arc through the air. 2B's mechanical pupils abruptly constricted as she watched her data core begin to break apart uncontrollably into countless motes of light.

"Master... don't..." Her voice trembled as her fingertips grasped helplessly at the empty air, finding only coldness.

The silver-haired girl's outline began to blur, like a sand painting scattered by the wind. Dark-blue streams of data glowed beneath her artificial skin.

In the final moment before she vanished, an impossibly complex light flashed through 2B's electronic eyes—something no program code could define, a tremor belonging to the soul.

Her body became countless motes of light, like stars going out in the night sky. Before disappearing completely, those motes still stubbornly tried to piece together the silhouette of their master.

"I will... wait for you to summon me again..."

With that nearly inaudible whisper, 2B disappeared completely, leaving behind only a few drifting strands of silver hair and several drops of blue coolant on the ground, proof that she had once existed.

Chen Tian slowly lowered his hand, blue afterglow from the Summoning Art still lingering at his fingertips. His expression did not change in the slightest, as though he had merely shut down an unimportant program.

"Now," his eyes locked onto the cryogenic chamber again, scarlet light blazing in the Heavenly Eye, "it's time to end this."

The gravitational field abruptly intensified severalfold, making the entire underground space tremble. Steve let out a pained grunt. His arm muscles had already reached their limit, yet he still clung desperately to the cryogenic chamber.

"Chen Tian!" Captain America's voice was so hoarse it barely sounded human. "Wake up! This isn't you!"

But Chen Tian seemed unable to hear any voice. He slowly raised his hand, and the blue energy sphere began spinning at an astonishing speed, tearing tiny spatial fractures through the surrounding air.

"It's time to rest, Winter Soldier."

Just as the energy was about to erupt—

A long sigh suddenly sounded through the air, as if it had come from the distant end of time and space. It carried indescribable exhaustion and age, yet also a wisdom beyond the mortal world.

"Enough."

With that whisper, a circle of golden sparks suddenly appeared beneath Chen Tian's feet, rippling like water. The sparks spun and formed ancient, mysterious runes. Chen Tian's pupils contracted as he immediately tried to activate his technique and float upward to evade it, only to discover that an identical golden ring had appeared above his head at some point.

"This is—"

Before he could finish, the rings above and below contracted at the same time, completely enveloping Chen Tian.

The next second, the golden rings and Chen Tian within them vanished from the air, leaving behind only a few drifting sparks that slowly died out.

The entire third underground level fell into eerie silence, with only the cryogenic chamber's alarm echoing through the empty corridor.

In an instant, the distorted gravitational field on the third underground level vanished without a trace, as though erased by a rubber. The cryogenic chamber crashed to the ground, and Steve staggered back several steps, staring at the scene in shock.

Steve stood frozen in place, his gaze moving from where Chen Tian had vanished to the equally stunned Maximoff siblings.

"What was that..." Pietro's voice shook slightly as he unconsciously touched his neck, as if confirming he had not been taken away by the same magic.

Chaos Magic unconsciously swirled around Wanda, vigilance and confusion flashing in her eyes. "I can't sense any energy fluctuations... It's like, like he never existed at all."

Steve bent down and picked up his shield, his brow deeply furrowed. He looked toward the badly deformed cryogenic chamber, where Bucky's pale face could faintly be seen behind the shattered glass.

Within the golden Mirror Dimension, Chen Tian's figure suddenly appeared. He staggered and steadied himself, scarlet and azure light violently intertwining in the Heavenly Eye like two tides tearing at each other.

"This is..."

The buildings around him folded and twisted in ways that defied physical laws, while the sky formed strange geometric patterns. Chen Tian raised a hand to touch the glass curtain wall beside him, only for his fingertips to pass through its seemingly solid surface—everything here was an illusion reflecting reality.

"The Mirror Dimension?"

"Yes. This is the Mirror Dimension." A gentle voice sounded behind him.

Chen Tian's pupils abruptly constricted. He spun around and saw Ancient One step out as though from a shattered mirror, her orange-yellow robes fluttering softly in the windless space.

"Ancient One?" There was a dangerously hoarse edge to Chen Tian's voice, and the scarlet in his Heavenly Eye spread a little further. "You shouldn't have stopped me."

Ancient One did not answer immediately. She approached slowly, her gaze settling on Chen Tian's corrupted right eye. The once-pure azure had been stained more than halfway scarlet, spreading continuously like ink dropped into clear water.

"I have been helping you keep the Dimensional Demon God from discovering your whereabouts." Ancient One spoke softly, tracing a golden arc through the air with her finger. "But I never expected that one would still slip through the net."

"You... haven't slept well in a long time, have you?"