“A better world?” Goku tilted his head, arms filled with curious Taurill primates. “You said I’d get stronger, will there be powerful people to fight?”
“We’ll search the universe for the strongest, and if they disappoint us, we’ll look beyond,” Dan laughed at Goku’s one track mind as he passed the Saiyan his dose. He turned to Anakin, an eyebrow raised. “How about you, Anakin?”
“I’d live forever?” Anakin bit his lip, face twisted in concern. “What about my mom? I don’t want to leave her behind!”
Dan smiled and pulled his fifth dose of Superman serum from his inventory. The vial flashed in the light, before he returned it away.
“I plan on getting Ultron and Jor-EL to work on replicating the formula, with the help of others,” Dan glanced at Doom. The man was busy enough, but he was too talented for his own good. “Your mother can have one in the future, alongside all you would call family.”
Anakin’s greatest demon was his fear of loss. Dan would bury it under the heels of kryptonian biology and power that came from the self. The status of chosen one gave many benefits, but it also created a dependency on the force. Everything Anakin did, he did under the influence of its will.
“This will make us live forever?” Anakin squinted at the vial that Dan offered, uncertain. “Isn’t that impossible…”
“If you take this, you’ll not only live forever,” Dan placed the serum in Anakin’s hands. “You’ll become strong enough to move the stars themselves.” He turned to Doom and Merlyn, a hand extended for each. “How about you two?”
“I have no need for such things,” Merlyn waved him off, scorn on his face. “My magic sustains me, and time cannot drag me down.”
“I can agree,” Doom eyed the vial in his hand, a cold gaze chipped from glass. “But we’ll see if you hold up your end of the bargain…”
“I still don’t know why I’m here,” Ultron interrupted, voice bored. “My drone has finished with the fortress installation, if there’s nothing else, it can take my place…”
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“I haven’t forgotten about you, Ultron,” Dan rolled his eyes and rose on a wave of Ki. “Your gift needs a bit more space… let’s take our conversation into orbit.”
A light flickered in his mind, a thought he’d almost forgotten. He raised his hand and tossed out two dark globs, aimed at Anakin and Goku. Two baby symbiotes that slipped beneath their skin before they could complain.
“My second gift, treat them well,” Dan waved to Ultron as he launched to the sky. “Now come on, I want to take a look at it myself!”
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“It’s beautiful…” Ultron drifted in orbit, face turned to the giant mechanical cube. Covered in intricate mechanised designs, it held a crackle of electric blue at its core. “What is it?”
“The All-Spark,” Dan waved the A.I. forward, interested to see the effect of the merge. “It brings life to machines and holds a deep well of energy.”
Ultron drifted forward, the cube reflected on his polished form. Hands raised, he touched the mammoth cube. A deep blue, formed from a dense web of electric light, spilled from the depths of the All-Spark. The pulse spread to the cube’s surface and up Ultron’s arms.
The contact sparked an explosive wave, a dance of light that billowed out to fill the star system. It leached into Ultron’s ships, and the multitude of drones on the surface. The A.I’s body was the most affected, filled with a stream of dauntless power.
“Amazing…” Ultron’s voice carried a drunken tone, lost in the ocean of energy and data. The All-Spark shrunk down, folded until it socketed itself into the A.I.’s chest. “There is so much knowledge… aeons of experiences…”
Ultron’s ship drifted closer as the machine revelled in the rush of power. The Whale shaped vessel twisted in space, transformed to a gargantuan titan with Ultron’s face. It reached out and lifted his main body, gentle as a mother with her child.
“I feel different,” Ultron placed a hand on his heart, over the All-Spark’s light. “A change that goes beyond my code…” His face turned to Dan, a hint of gratitude behind the usual contempt. “This is a gift grand enough to buy you your hundred years of loyal service, but I will never abandon my own pursuits.”
“Good enough!”
Dan laughed as he left the machine to experiment with his new toy. In a hundred years, he would stand above the Supermen of the comics. Ultron wouldn’t be a problem, even if he was free to act without restraint. The A.I. could go rule a galaxy of his own, a haven for intelligent machines.
“Everything's coming together…”
Dan drifted through the vivid night sky, the green hues of Sekot’s surface a sharp contrast to the endless stars. There had been failures, and setbacks, but the path had been laid. His future, the future of his family, his new found people, was on track. It would take time to see real results, but the seeds were in the ground.
By the time Naboo faced its blockade, his real work would begin. New populations of Kryptonians would be born, the foundation for his family's future society. He also had high hopes for the development of his abilities. By the age of ten, he should expect most of his powers to manifest.
“Nothing can stop us now…”
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Deep in an abandoned region of uninhabited space, lost in the far edges of the galaxy, a ripple expanded in the force. An unconscious flex of the cosmic will, brought to bear on a single dead star. A heady current poured into the dimmed sun, fuel that ignited an explosion of white.
Highlighted, like the bones of a long dead beast, a vast network of wheels and cogs sun to life. Larger than any world, they wrapped the reborn quasar and began to turn once more. Powered by the Force’s will, the sounds of clockwork spread into empty space.