Uhura would be freeing up time for DiDi to focus on corporate and financial affairs and legal issues, while Uhura built up the company’s physical assets and labor, and helped with Isotope production.

She’d likely also be in the middle of coordinating Isotope production for the whole planet soon, but that was because me. It was just like DiDi, who was getting involved in New York City and State’s budgeting, because she was just so damn good at it, and could identify all the crap that had to be cut, all the unpopular stuff that had to be added, and could totally dominate the political arenas to do so if she had to.

Soon enough she’d be one of those consulted on the Federal Budget, as she relentlessly built power and influence.

-Well, I’ll leave you to your exciting time of trouncing evil-doers,- I /sighed.

-Given how much muscle is coming, I doubt I’ll actually be doing much,- she half-laughed. We were Twenties; if we really started throwing the muscle, yeah, not much for a lot of others to do.

How would I handle Set? The bastard probably didn’t think He could be Bound and Sealed, and He would rapidly learn otherwise.

But no, that’s not what Sama would do. She’d feed the bastard to Gaia, and I was sure the old snake would appreciate the irony. I imagined she and Briggs were some of Gaia’s favorite people.

Dragging a planetful of people into the next age was hard work...

----------

“The Hazareth Three.”

Doom was stepping into his own courtroom when the words swept past him.

They were not loud, but the floors and walls shuddered at the awful meaning in them, as if being vocalized by the owner made them far more dreadful than he could possibly have said them himself.

His heart actually skipped a beat, and he felt his blood run cold as he stood there, staring at the armored figure waiting on the dais, next to his own seat of power.

Pale violet eyes looked back at him. They were like chips of amethyst, lit from within.

His master was here, and in armor. Victor von Doom might claim to fear no man, but he felt his mouth go dry.

His fingers twitched, and then he felt the wind on the soul sweeping past, and the magic which might have come to his call was blown irresistibly, gently away, like a warm summer breeze had replaced it, and he could not grasp it at all.

“M-Master Briggs?” his wife gasped, stepping up beside her husband, her eyes wide. She also knew what seeing the Great Bear in armor meant.

“Lady Valeria, you have seen much of your husband’s works, and remained silent on them. Your Oath stands, but this matter now is beyond you. Withdraw.” The words were quiet, but firmer than steel, and she was withdrawing before she consciously made the decision to do so.

The doors closed softly behind von Doom. He looked after her, something crossing his face at the words.

“When I sent her back to you, she was your Widow. Yours, and no other. She has never breathed a word of what she has seen here in this place to any other, save by your leave. I am aware you’ve tested her loyalty at least fifty times, continually suspecting her. I also know she has never failed those tests, save if you forced her to do so by choosing between you and the safety of your son.

“She has never been my informer. I do not need her to know what you are doing, von Doom.”

His master was not calling him Victor. It was not a sign of respect. While others would incur Doom’s wrath by daring to do so, his Master called few people by their first names, a show of respect from him. Surnames were formalities, for the pretentious, his subordinates, or those below his respect.

Von Doom. As if he was a mere student once more.

“It did take six attempts to actually track back which mortal on Terra was dealing so readily with Mephisto’s subordinates. Both they and you are properly paranoid about being caught in your dealings,” Master Briggs went on.

Doom reached out to his computers, and although they all gave him indicators that everything was fine, absolutely nothing actually responded to his commands now. He had been locked out of his own custom computer network, or perhaps it was simply off-line completely, and false positives were being broadcast back to him...

“Once the connection was made, half a dozen different attacks through fourth and fifth parties on the Richards suddenly became quite obvious,” Briggs continued. “As well as direct dealings with Annihilus itself.”

Doom stared at his master, feeling his stomach lurch. Naturally he could get no readings on his master’s armor, but he was also one of the few people on the planet who knew how dangerous his master was without his armor. He did not know if the fact Master Briggs was wearing it was a sign of respect for the threat his student represented, or just an indication of how seriously he was taking this matter.

“Your nine Endgame Trumps have all been dealt with.” His master’s voice was very grim indeed, at those words, and Doom twitched. Spite, scorn, denial, cunning... they had been his gifts to whoever dared to remove him, his final surprises and means of evading the reaper. “All the tests I have given you, you have failed.” As Doom blinked, the Great Bear sighed. “There will be no more one more time. The Hag will not allow it.”

“Tests?” Doom finally spoke, the one word having many meanings. “What tests can Doom not pass that you have given me?”

“Moral and ethical ones,” Master Briggs replied grimly, and Doom almost sneered at him. “Yes, there is that expression. The one that says you may sit in judgement of others, and they may not sit in judgement of you, for you are above all.” His head tilted back, just a fraction of an inch, and Doom felt his knees start to shake, for his Master was looking DOWN on him.

He had never felt it like he did today. It took all his will to remain upright against his Master’s Presence, it had never felt so heavy as it did today.

“The first one was the malfunction of the machine you blamed on Richards.”

Doom’s concentration broke, and his armored knees crashed to the red carpet. “What?” he blurted out in shock.

“One of the monitors came to me, stating that one of the students at my university was dabbling in Summoning magic. They tracked down the effect to your room, and that technomagic contraption you thought would reach into Hell and bring back your mother.” Briggs’ voice only grew deeper with the telling, icier and more emotionless. “The device would have opened up a gaping hole into Hell, and literally unleashed demons and devils into the University, a breach that would have cost blood and lives to Seal.

“Amusingly enough, you were advised of the modifications that had to be made to tighten up the signal, albeit it still would not have succeeded in your cause. Adjustments were made to the device before it could rip the breach, and so naturally it exploded before the worst could happen. In your arrogance, you never even bothered to inspect the machine to find the modulation changes which destroyed it before you sacrificed your fellow students.”

Doom stared at his master. So, his master had known, he had always known, and Doom, Doom had not known the truth of who was responsible for his failure, blaming Richards... and he could not help his face twisting as his master repeated that damnable truth right to his face.

Richards had been RIGHT.

His armor creaked as he balled his fists and grit his teeth. “Why did you not tell me this?” he ground out.

“It was a test of your morals. You failed it miserably. Yet the device you used was ingenious, and was the foundation of the planar exchange technology we use today. In light of your proven genius, it was deemed safe enough to let you play, and see what happened to you. And so, we watched you leave, and paid attention to where you went.

“It should probably not surprise you that the Ancient One and I are old friends.”

No, it did not surprise him at all, although he had not been aware of it. His Master never mentioned his magical contacts, save the White Witches who were his subordinates, and the Black Scythes of Tchernoborg who went about their grim tasks.

“Why?” Doom rasped, staring at his master. “Why did you let me live, if I have failed you so much?”

“Because a driven genius like yours, harnessed on the right path, is a force of cosmic power when applied properly. The good you could do for the world was something I could not measure.” Briggs stared at him, his flat nose flaring slightly with long, deep breaths, eyes glowing in the shadows of his heavy brow. “But every time you have been tempted by power, you fail. Instead of making your own, and growing into a legend who will rock the destiny of humanity, you become a petty scavenger clawing after what is not yours.

“Again, and again, and again. Now, you even deal with Hell itself for more power, because you will not take the time to master your own magic properly... and you cannot cheat to make more of it for yourself.”

“You have Sealed Time itself for those living in this era,” Doom ground out slowly. “You have ensured that true seekers of knowledge cannot rise to equal those of the past!”

“And you are a fool,” was the casual reply, the pale violet eyes never leaving his own. “More Casters exist on this world now than ever have in Terra’s history, and their strength rises by the day. The science and alchemy being discovered every day is, in toto, greater than any that existed born of any human era, and begins to grasp that of the Celestials themselves, and the many alien empires that have come to our world unbidden.

“I know this because the knowledge is shared and available to all those who work together to improve it, and a thousand thousand minds tease at it and expand it.

“But you do not acknowledge the achievements of lesser men, save to steal them. Instead, von Doom, you go looking for the dead lore of the past and the uncovered secrets of the future, afraid to deal with and contribute to the present.”

“I am aware of your explorations into other worlds!” Doom coldly refuted him. “Your dealings with the realms of Limbo, and alien races!”

“And you think I am not aware of your own, when I am aware of your Pact with Hell?” Briggs asked archly, and Doom had no words. “Thousands of souls are involved in such efforts, good men trying to improve our world. But I will not endanger our present or future as a fool messing with causality.”

“Because doing so would kill you?” Doom hissed.

“No.” The denial was as abrupt and casual and honest as Doom did not wish to hear. “My soul would be born here, at that time, although the circumstances and place might change. Despite all the pain of my past, it is within the remit of no man or being to have the right to rewrite my past for me. As you think you have the right to mess with the past, I think I have the right to say you cannot.”

“Denying me the past gives you no right to sacrifice the future!” Doom immediately refuted again. “I have the technology to see the future! It is inaccessible here! There is no way to see it, and sift among the many possibilities to see the path to take! I had to go to another world entirely to see the possible futures there!”

Briggs nodded slowly. “And those worlds did not have a Great Bear, not a Golden Hag, did they?” he asked rhetorically, still unmoving, still looking down on von Doom. “You think I have not done similar tricks, von Doom? Tell me, what great insight did you gain, looking into the future on those worlds?”