"What? A bounty for the Tesseract?"
Rowan Mercer set aside the half-finished arcane device in his hands and looked up, genuine surprise crossing his face as Professor Charles finished his report.
Charles had used his telepathy on the captured aliens, peeling through their memories one layer at a time. What he uncovered explained everything. The sudden surge of off-world intruders. The recklessness. The sheer number of them.
They had all come for the same thing.
The Tesseract.
As soon as he confirmed it, Charles had come straight to Rowan. As one of the academy's pillars, he was among the few who knew that the floating island's emergency power grid was secretly tied to the Tesseract itself.
"A billion-credit bounty to retrieve it from Earth," Rowan muttered after Charles left. "Who throws that kind of money around? The Collector?"
He leaned back, fingers tapping the armrest, mind turning like a quiet engine.
This wasn't something he remembered. Not from any version of events he knew. No scenes. No footnotes. No convenient hindsight to lean on. Which meant whoever was pulling the strings had stepped off the familiar path.
In the wider galaxy, there were only a handful of forces wealthy enough to post a bounty that large. Real powers. Empires. Monsters.
The Nova Corps and the Kree were easy to rule out. If they wanted the Tesseract, they would not bother with intermediaries. They would arrive with fleets and demands, not mercenaries and scavengers.
More importantly, very few people even knew the Tesseract was on Earth. Fewer still knew where it was hidden.
That brought him back to the same name.
The Collector.
Absurdly rich. Pathologically acquisitive. Willing to pay four billion for the Orb alone. Wanting another Infinity Stone would not be out of character.
And yet… Rowan shook his head.
No. Not him.
The Collector had dealings with Asgard. He knew Odin. He knew the Tesseract had been placed on Earth deliberately. Making a move like this would be a direct provocation, and the Collector survived precisely because he avoided crossing lines that led to divine retaliation.
More than that, someone as old as him knew exactly who watched over Earth. The Ancient One. The Sorcerer Supreme. If he were reckless enough to ignore both Asgard and Earth's mystic guardians, he would not have waited this long.
"Which leaves only one answer."
Rowan's eyes narrowed, the thought settling into place with uncomfortable clarity.
"Thanos."
In the original trajectory of events, Thanos had tested Earth through Loki and the Chitauri, probing Odin's limits and the planet's defenses before moving for the Tesseract himself.
Rowan's presence had disrupted that timeline completely.
But Thanos's desire hadn't changed. Outsourcing the job made sense. A billion credits to lure bounty hunters and raiders into acting as disposable scouts, softening Earth and maybe getting lucky in the process.
"Fine," Rowan said quietly. "Let them come."
He had no intention of acting on the suspicion. Any mercenary foolish enough to land on Earth would be dealt with, one way or another. Once the galaxy learned that Earth was not easy prey, the trickle would dry up on its own.
The academy alone could handle it. He didn't even need to step in.
The real problem was finding Thanos himself.
If tracking him down were easy, Rowan would have ended the threat at its source already. One Infinity Stone. One fleet. At this stage, the odds were firmly in Rowan's favor.
But the universe was vast, and Thanos did not sit politely on Titan waiting to be found. His fleet wandered. Miss him once, and you could spend years chasing empty space.
That was time better spent elsewhere.
Magic research. Alchemy. Preparation.
Unless someone could hand him Thanos's exact location, waiting was the smarter move.
Especially because Rowan's interference had already twisted the future. There was no guarantee Thanos would arrive with the same level of power as before. One or two Stones would be manageable.
Something worse would not.
The following days were spent cleaning up the aftermath.
The academy worked alongside the restructured S.H.I.E.L.D. and multiple world governments to hunt down the remaining infiltrators. Several intact spacecraft capable of interstellar travel were captured.
Interrogations followed. Controls were decoded. Flight systems were mapped.
Soon, the world's brightest scientists were tearing into alien weapons and starships, hoping to leapfrog humanity's technology far enough to expose any intruders still hiding in the shadows.
After the initial wave was crushed, late-arriving hunters grew cautious. No more dramatic landings. No more open attacks.
To the world's governments, these were historic events.
To Rowan, they were background noise.
If alien technology pushed Earth forward, that wasn't a disaster. It might even be necessary. Humanity had always united best when faced with something bigger than itself.
Knowing there was a wider universe, real wars beyond the sky, would do more to end petty conflicts than any treaty ever signed.
As for the dangers of contacting other civilizations?
Rowan found that concern almost amusing.
Compared to a planet that had birthed ancient gods, cosmic entities, and beings capable of unmaking reality, the rest of the universe might actually be the safer side of the equation.
After all, he strongly suspected this was the same universe once ruined by Dark Strange.
One man had nearly annihilated everything.
How many others could claim that?
Time passed quietly.
Magic experiments. Alchemical trials. Slow, steady accumulation of power.
A month after the alien incursion, the world had finally settled down when Charles's voice echoed in Rowan's mind.
"A few applicants came to the island today. Teachers and security staff. Their backgrounds look solid. First round of interviews."
"I'll take a look," Rowan replied.
He rarely interfered with student admissions. Graduates didn't always stay. Some wanted normal lives. Others joined outside organizations.
Staff was different.
Teachers had access to the academy's core systems and secrets. Support personnel were responsible for student safety. Every one of them needed to be vetted.
Charles could do it, but he avoided reading minds without consent, especially when dealing with potential colleagues.
So Rowan handled it himself.
And besides, a headmaster should at least meet his new staff.
When he entered the office and scanned the files Charles handed over, Rowan broke into a laugh.
"Seriously?" he said. "What is this supposed to be, the Galactic Spy Squad?"
The photos, names, and ability profiles were unmistakable.
Gamora.
Peter Quill.
Yondu.
Rocket.
Groot.
If they weren't already infamous across the galaxy, they soon would be.