All five of us sat in silence—well, sat wasn't quite the right word. Each of us activated our Akatsuki rings, and our thought projections flickered into existence inside the Council Chamber at Site-01. Five translucent figures materialized around the obsidian table, each glowing faintly with the mental signature of its owner.
These meetings never required our physical bodies anymore. Only our minds.
And tonight's agenda was simple.
Dangerous.
Contentious.
The Eye of Agamotto.
The Time Stone.
One of the six fundamental constructs of the universe.
And now it sat sealed inside a multi-layered vault deep inside Site-01, under so many failsafes that even thinking about it too hard sent security protocols rippling through the room.
Julius—O5-2, Sentinel—opened the meeting.
"Administrator, you called the council. Present your motion."
My projection leaned back in my chair, arms folded, the ring glowing faintly on my finger. "We need to decide who gets custody of the Eye of Agamotto. Specifically, who wields the Time Stone."
Five pairs of eyes shifted. Five minds sharpened. Five ambitions stirred.
Because no matter how disciplined we pretend to be, no one simply ignores the chance to control time.
Well—almost no one.
I already had the Reality Stone.
My needs were… different.
Julius spoke first. "Time manipulation would allow instantaneous containment responses. We could pre-see catastrophic SCP events. It should go to Security."
Cleopatra—O5-5, Treasurer—sighed and flicked phantom dust off her chair. "And have you accidentally erase our budget because you sneezed wrong? No. The Time Stone should belong to me—it directly impacts the allocation of resources, trade prediction, and the Ethics Committee's oversight of temporal interference."
Sun Tzu—O5-4, Factorum—cut in sharply. "The military needs it. Imagine perfectly timed pre-emptive strikes against spatial anomalies. Time loops to train elite squads. Temporal scouting before combat."
Arguments sharpened. Voices rose. Paranoia crept in. Everyone wanted it.Everyone except me.
I didn't even try to hide my boredom.
"I vote the Time Stone goes to The Watcher," I said, tapping my fingers on the table. "He earned it. He retrieved it. And quite frankly, time manipulation suits a master spy."
A few projections turned toward me.
Julius narrowed his eyes. "Administrator… are you being bribed?"
"No," I said, without missing a beat. "I'm simply acknowledging that The Watcher's… generous gifting of magical relics to my lab has nothing to do with this vote whatsoever."
Darius—O5-3, The Watcher—smirked. The man had the face of someone who'd never been caught doing anything wrong despite having done everything wrong.
Julius grunted.Cleopatra raised a brow.Sun Tzu rolled his eyes.
But the truth was clear: The Watcher was the most suited.
His nullification aura made him immune to temporal backlashes.His intelligence network spanned continents—even in the medieval era.And if anyone could keep the Time Stone out of dangerous hands, it was him.
Still, the vote wasn't smooth.
It was heated.
Accusations flew.Petty insults were exchanged.Threats of "I'm watching your budget approvals" from Cleopatra and "Try me, and I'll send your guards to mop SCP containment floors for a month" from Julius rang through the chamber.
But slowly—reluctantly—the council shifted.
"Fine," Julius muttered."Very well," Cleopatra sighed."Strategically acceptable," Sun Tzu conceded.
The vote concluded.
The projectors dimmed.
And The Watcher straightened proudly in his seat as the Eye of Agamotto materialized in the center of the projection table—just a hologram representation, of course. The real artifact lay in containment.
But this was the symbolic passing of authority.
Darius reached out with his projection and touched the image.
"Then I accept the burden of time," he said calmly.
The ring on his finger pulsed. The Council acknowledged the decision.
And with that, the Time Stone was his.
He didn't smile.
But I felt his satisfaction ripple across the mental link.
Tucked inside my coat, the Reality Stone hummed softly.
And I smiled to myself.
Three Stones mattered to me: Space, Reality, and Mind.
Time wasn't one of them.
So let the others fight over it.Let them squabble, argue, bicker, and battle for cosmic scraps.
I already had what I needed.
And now The Watcher had what he deserved.
The council adjourned, projections fading one by one.
Another step closer to the full set.
Another year, another anomaly.
Another victory.