Fantastic Four: The Engineer of Eternity

Chapter IV: Oneself Against Oneself

        A few days ago.

"Are we ready, boys?" Sue asks as she finishes zipping up her flight suit.

"We are, honey." Reed suits up and prepares to travel.

Sue, Johnny, and Ben walk inside the teleporter. They're all zipped up with helmets on. Reed throws the switch on the panel and runs to the machine. They all hold hands and teleport.

Reed wakes up in a tube. It's hard for him to move. As if he hasn't used his muscles in a long time. He notices his reflection in the glass. He looks a tad older, with grey hair on his temples now. He looks around at his surroundings to find what used to be a laboratory. The walls have been torn down and there's broken glass everywhere. He notices a desk with a bunch of generators, vents, wires, and a monitor. This used to be somebody's office. He starts feeling around the tube looking for a way out, when a man steps out from behind a monitor. It's himself. Another Reed Richards. Dressed in a skin tight black leotard with an unidentifiable glowing symbol on the chest.

The Other Reed begins to speak, "I know you're probably a little more than shocked right now."

"What are you?" Reed asks in awe.

"Well... I'm you. Reed Richards. Just from a different Earth. I know you're familiar with the multiverse theory."

Reed looks panicked inside the tube, "Why am I here?!"

The Other attempts to explain, "You are the destroyer of worlds."

That phrase struck Reed at his core, "What?"

"You have ruined everything. Lost everyone you've ever loved." The Other goes on, "Or I guess I have. I'm trying to save the multiverse from the likes of Reed Richards everywhere. It's what we're destined to become. Ruin everything there is to ruin."

"But why? Why is that our destiny?" Reed asks.

"I discovered the meaning to all this. Life. Death. Time. What it's all meant for. It's a lot simpler than you may think. You actually answered your own question and you don't even realize it. But then I began to dig a little deeper. What I started to unravel along the way was truly terrifying. I acted. Made some decisions to keep my family safe and keep the world spinning, but I ended up... destroying my world. I discovered very quickly that I can't die. I'm adaptable. My role in all this is to survive and that's it. It's a very cold future. A very lonely destiny." The Other begins to think back to all that he's lost, "Sue..."

Reed looks angry, "What did you do?"

The Other doesn't respond.

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER?!" Reed shouts!

"I TRIED TO SAVE HER!" The Other's jaw expands as he shrieks. "Everything I did was for her! Not even that was enough because our destiny is to lose. Lose all things. Left only with ourselves."

"Ourselves?" Reed asks puzzled.

"The Reeds. One of them came to me. Told me we have to stick together. That all we have is ourselves. You see, he also got his family killed. Took me outside of space time. Away from my universe. To this planet that all the Reeds, all the failures, lived. I call this place Planet Zero. Fitting right? We're just destined to fail. Get our loved ones killed and destroy every world we step foot on. So, I did what I had to. I eliminated the common denominator."

Reed looks scared. He finally realizes what this other Reed is planning. "You killed them."

"I did what was necessary. You want your family's lives to go on? Well then... you can't be there."