#light stone

The shadow figure remained silent and motionless, save for the few little wisps of pitch black smoke along the edge of his form that moved as if swayed by a breeze.  He held the vague shape of a human, but the features he possessed were hidden in his darkness.  The only feature that was distinct was the shape of his eyes, outlined by threads of starlight. 

He floated and hid in the interstellar medium, bent forward to watch everything going on below with sharp eyes.  Debating on if it was safe to hide in this universe.  One good thing about the multiverse was that it provided a lot of places to avoid unwanted attention.  Using the power he possessed, he searched for a particular life signature among the billions of residents on this timeline’s version of Earth, and his mouth watered at the sight of such life, which only angered him.  It had been so long since the shadow consumed anything that this part of him was practically starved.

A fitting punishment, he thought.  He deserved to starve.

Ignoring his power’s demands to consume the energies below him, he continued to scan the life signatures until he found what he was looking for, to his dismay, causing the smoky shadow to stiffen and growl his disapproval.

Nate’s down there.

One bad thing about the multiverse was there were a lot of variants of the same being, and when the variants were not only aware of each other but in contact with each other, one’s hiding places dwindled significantly.  Even in the multiverse.

The shadow figure huffed out a sigh before extending a clawed hand out to grab something only he could see, and in an instant, he was far away from that universe timeline, slinking in and out of the shadows the stars cast to travel through neighboring timelines.  Looking for another potential place to dwell should not be this difficult or take this long.  

Why couldn’t Kang be the entity who had no variant instead of him?  

Being on the run was exhausting, and he craved peace.  If only the Kangs would leave him be.  If only– he shook his head, willing the thoughts to subside.  He didn’t have the energy to mentally fall down that rabbit hole yet again.  It didn’t matter anyway.  The outcome was still the same.  The Kangs would not leave him alone, and depending upon which one you asked, his fate would vary.