Victor Von Doom sat in the domicile of the Watcher, a place he had claimed for his own since the death of Uatu. *

* (In 2099: Manifest Destiny - David.)

Few ventured this far from Attilan City, so the secret of his survival was currently safe. He felt the air blow against his bare skin. It had been many years since he had gone for great lengths without his armour, and these days he had renounced it. The scars he now wore openly reminded him he was not infallible.

He used to think that in the old days. Before 2099. Before Herod. Before the Phalanx. He sighed and focused on his mediational skills. To focus mind and body was his goal now, to become one with the arcane arts he had long ignored.

As he meditated he heard the approach of the one person to whom he trusted the secret of his return.

"Sarah," he said, not opening his eyes, his legs crossed in the lotus position, levitating above the ground.

"Doom," answered the Fist of Khonshu. "How are you doing that?"

"Magic." He answered. The answer was enough.

"I released Herod as you requested * ," she said. "How do you know he won't talk?"

* (See X-Men 2099 #6 for details - David.)

"Because," said Doom, looking at her now, "every time he thinks of me or Latveria he'll go mad with the pain I inflicted on him. Hypnosis is a wonderful tool, Sarah."

"You have a strange sense of justice," she said, uncertain. Khonshu, Eygptian god of the moon, had returned her to life as she lay dying of oxygen starvation after falling down a crater. Khonshu had restored her, to fight for justice in an unjust world for which the god was responsible.

"Justice is like beauty," said Doom, his meditation interrupted. "It's in the eye of the beholder. Look out there," he said as he walked to a window in the dome.

"What am I looking at?"

"Ignorance," said Victor. "2099 has drawn to an end. It is now 2100. The 22nd Century."

"So?" asked Moon Knight.

"See how things have changed. The Second Age of Heroes dawned on the planet, starting with Miguel O'Hara - Spider-Man. This year has seen the creation of a greater human empire than ever known. It has seen wars terrestrial and extra terrestrial. It has seen the greatest figures of the past come and go. It has seen the dawn of evils greater than any I have ever known."

"Doom?"

"Sarah, when you look out there, you see nothing but a lunar landscape?"

"The technology of the Watcher no longer functions."

"Not all of it," admitted Doom. "I have restored what I can, life support, gravity and such, but that isn't the point."

"I don't understand."

"Consider this. The moon is like the future. Vast. Unexplored and empty to those who do not see it. However in moments you will understand. If what we have accomplished in a year can be repeated in the next, and the next and the next, then the possibilities are endless."

"How can you speak of the future, when you know little of your past? Why did you flee Latveria? What are the dreams you used to have? Why did you come to 2099 in the first place?" *

* (Questions raised in Doom 2099 #1 - David.)

"You don't understand," said Doom, sadly. " The only way for me to find the past is to live in the future. I tried to live in the past. I retook Latveria from Tyger Wylde. I took over America if only for a short while * . Then I came to realise that was what the old Doom would have done. I am not that man."

* (In Doom 2099 #3 and #30 respectively - David.)

"Then who are you?"

"I am Doom."

"Doesn't explain much."

"My dear lady, it explains everything."

Moon Knight looked at him, her head cocked to one side. Doom was an enigma to her. On one hand he could be high-handed, arrogant and if what he did to Herod was an example vindictive. Then there was the man who was sorry for what he had done, the lives he had ruined, and the friendships he had lost whilst he had been here.

He was the ultimate man of science but had turned away from science to look at magic, and he saw a threat on Earth he was stealing himself to face. He could see a point where the truth would be revealed and that he would have to return to the planet below. There was a strange sense of family about him as well, as if she knew him from a time long ago.

She knew from Khonshu that the original Moon Knight had faced Doom before but this was different. She turned from Doom and looked out to the lunar landscape, trying to see what he saw, to gain an insight in to the mind of this brilliant man. Maybe he was insane as history had suggested, but he had made life in the past year exciting on the little blue pebble below.

Doom looked at Sarah. He knew her face from before she had removed her mask. The voice had given it away. A generation or so removed but it was there. He shook his head and wondered at the future. He was Doom and Doom always survived. Doom did as he pleased and be damned with the consequences. However the last time he had done so had cost him dear.

His identity, his armour, his friends, Xina. He sighed as he remembered the look in here eyes at his betrayal of the planet below. His betrayal to the Phalanx. She hadn't had the faith, the vision to see the bigger picture. He had loved her, he knew that now, and he had cast it aside for Latveria. His country, his people.

Xina had been unable to see the bigger picture because she loved him. He had ignored her, to defeat the Phalanx, and now she believed him dead. As did the rest of the world. *

* (As told in 2099: World of Tomorrow - David.)

He closed his eyes and sighed at what he had thrown away to defeat the alien invaders, and the price it had cost his soul. By doing what he had done he was no better than Hitler, the man who had decimated the Gypsy population of Europe. He had heard Mephisto's mocking tones at night, as the devil himself came to taunt him.

Being the next in line for the title of Sorcerer Supreme came at a price. Never before had he been unwilling to pay, and now was no different. However a pretender to the role was usurping the title and the powers. Doom sighed. It hadn't been this a hundred years ago. At least he didn't think so.

"Sarah," he said. "Look at me." Sarah did so, her hand reaching for the mask she wore removing it so it hand behind her head, her face becoming visible to Doom. The brown hair with a white stripe, the brown eyes that seemed so much more than brown, the small button nose. He knew who she was, even if she did not.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Sarah, I am Doom."

"You've said that."

"Silence, child. I said it explains everything. It does. Doom signifies change, signifies sacrifice, signifies evil, signifies hope, signifies despair, signifies choice, and signifies power. I am all of the above. Not just one but all."

"Evil?"

"Yes, I am an evil man. Evil in the fact that I do not consider others, evil in the fact that I act for the best interests of myself, evil in the fact that I hurt those I care about." He thought about Xina again.

"The woman?"

"What?" snapped Doom, brought from his thinking.

"I've seen her in that sphere you create. Watching her, with O'Hara."

"He is a good man," said Doom. "She deserves a good man."

"You give yourself too little credit," said Sarah and Doom smiled.

"It makes up for years when I gave myself too much."

"Why don't you visit her, in a dream, like you did with Richards?" *

* (In X-Men 2099 #6 again - David.)

"She has moved on. A lesson we should all learn. I didn't until recently."

"Nobody moves on, not completely. We cannot deny or forget the past, Von Doom, nor can we push it aside and ignore it."

"Sarah?"

"Is momentarily indisposed. I am Khonshu."

"I wondered when you would arrive. Why her?"

"Because a choice is made. You above all should know that."

"Why are you here, Moon God?"

"Because there is an injustice here. You must forgive yourself before you can move on."

"It is not that easy."

"It is, or I would not allow my Moon Knight to work with you."

"What would you have me do?"

"The future is open to you Von Doom. Live your life. Fulfil your destiny."

"Which is?"

"To be the unseen protector of the Earth. You think this all happenstance? That your arrival here was not planned? You have been used, Von Doom. Ask yourself this - if there was a barrier surrounding Earth, preventing it from alien invasion. How did the Phalanx arrive?"

"What?" That thought had never occurred to Doom.

"Doom?"

"Sarah?"

"What happened?"

"I'm not sure," answered Doom. "However I think that the 22nd Century holds more than I anticipated."

"So what do we do?"

"Look to the future and use it," said Doom. "Use it to protect the past." A beam of light came up and shone in to the domicile. Sarah looked at the coming dawn and gasped.

"I understand," she said, as the sun came up on the horizon. "The lunar surface was the present, dark and bleak but the sunrise is the future, illuminating the place and putting things in a different light. The bigger picture."

"Yes," said Doom, his head furrowed in thought. The light shone and the truth had been revealed in it's light. "The question is how long is the present before we get to the future?"

"As long as it takes," answered Sarah, though Doom could have sworn she spoke in the voice of Khonshu. "To see a sunrise that beautiful I would walk through hell itself. There's nothing more beautiful than a lunar sunrise." Victor wondered how to reply, with what he knew and what had been revealed. Only one thing came to mind, and he put an arm around her shoulders.

"How true. How very true."

We live in a new era. Welcome to 2100.

The Second Age of Heroes.

That's what everyone was calling the year of 2099. The Second Age of Heroes. And all because of me. Spider-Man 2099. Or at least, I was. Nic has that mantle now.* He's holding it well.

* (Nic Jessup, the new Spider-Man 2099- Tony)

A lot has happened this year, and I had time to dwell on it on the final night of 2099. First, I start the Second Age of Heroes by trying to cure my drug addiction.* It gave me amazing powers. Powers I used to become Spider-Man. I've faced the greatest evils mankind has ever known, such as Vulture, Venom, and the Phalanx.**

* (As depicted in Spider-Man 2099 #1- Tony)

** (Throughout Spider-Man 2099 and 2099: World of Tomorrow- Tony)

Now I'm the ruler of the free world. Chief Executive Officer of Alchemax. Holder of Mjolnir, the sacred hammer of Thor. It was given to me by Captain America just before he died.* Steve was a great man. I'm glad I knew him.

* (2099: Manifest Destiny one-shot- Tony)

I took the time to go out and wander that last night. Times Square was lit up like it almost always is on New Years. The flood didn't stop New Yorkers. Half of New York City is like Venice, Italy, in the old days, and the other half is partying like crazy. It was a great feeling. I decided to forego the webshooters that one night and walk through the streets of New York.

I ended up in Times Square. The Square is part of the flooded portion of New York, but city engineers set up floating platforms just for the celebration. I decided to join the celebration. There was dancing, food, drink. Drug dealers waltzed among the crowds, trying to sell their wares. I put an end to that.

I decided no scum like those dealers would ruin this fantastic night. The dawn of a new century. I was able to direct police towards them. Many were arrested. I gave me a great sense of satisfaction watching that.

Many people watched me. Followed. Ate what I ate, avoided what I did. I was being worshipped. I hated it. Mjolnir had many disadvantages. This was one. Another was the fact that I couldn't harness the mallet's great powers. That was something I aimed to change in this new year.

"Miguel!" That voice jolted me out of my thoughts. I was that of a good friend, Reed Richards. Reed and the rest of the Fantastic Four had been kicked out of Xavier City.* Xi'an had good reason, and I supported him. That was of no matter now. Reed was my friend.

* (X-Men 2099 #7- Tony)

"Hello Reed!" I replied to him. "Where's Sue and the others?"

Reed shrugged. "They're around. How's things?"

I thought back. My relationship with Xina had ended just before my encounter with the Black Widow.* My mantle was in Xavier City, worn by a new hero. I was trying to figure out the source of a clone. My life really sucked right then, but I said to Reed, "Fine."

* (Spider-Man 2099 #5- Tony)

I had to keep the facade up. I was leader of the free world. Then a mighty roar rose up among the crowd. The New Years Ball was dropping. A tradition for years in Times Square. I slipped away from Reed, and away from the crowd. The year of 2099 was ending. The year of 2100 was begining. And a new Age of Heroes had just gotten into full swing.

I returned to the Alchemax tower. I had quarters there now. I spent most of my time there anyway. I watched the ball dropp, listened as the robotic Dick Clark announced the countdown on the holo-nets. I muttered along with the rest of the crowd outside.

"Ten... nine... eight... seven... six... five... four... three... two... one."

And then 2099 ended, and 2100 began. A new century. I stood at the window and looked out. Even though I wasn't Spider-Man anymore, I was still the protector of this city, this nation, this entire planet. I picked up Mjolnir. I decided right then and there to remain a hero, despite the fact I couldn't go back to being Spider-Man at the moment.

"Welcome to the 22nd century," I said to the city.