[Shortly after Arishem's departure from Earth's core]
Golden flowers still bloomed across Tiamut's chains, Gaea's blessing made manifest, when Domino's legs gave out.
She caught herself on one of the quantum harness supports, her knuckles white against the metal. The exhaustion from hours of quantum manipulation, from shrinking a Celestial and saving seven billion lives, should have left her unconscious. Only adrenaline and sheer stubborn will kept her upright.
But it was Arishem's final words that made her hands shake, that sent ice flooding through her veins despite the core's residual heat.
Something was catastrophically wrong with Jay and Luv. The warning bells were so intense that they made her teeth ache.
"Dom?" Wade's hand settled on her shoulder, his usual jocularity absent. "Talk to us. What did the big red guy mean?"
She couldn't answer, couldn't process through the sudden terror constricting her chest. Jay was powerful. He'd survived encounters with cosmic entities, had stolen from Death herself and lived to tell the tale. Luv was under The Ancient One's protection at Kamar-Taj, supposedly one of the safest places on Earth, warded against threats both mystical and mundane.
So why did every instinct scream that she needed to move ?
"Hale." Her voice came out flat, controlled through sheer force of will. "Open a portal to Kamar-Taj. Now. I need to check on my son."
Gorilla Man stepped forward without hesitation, his mystical abilities flaring as he began weaving the dimensional gateway. "Give me thirty seconds."
Domino turned to the Pym family and the Eternals, all still processing Arishem's unexpected approval. "Hank, Janet, Scott. Thank you for everything. The extraction was perfect." Her eye tracked to Ajak, who held the infant Tiamut with maternal care. "Keep him safe. We did something incredible here today."
"Wait." Ajak moved forward, still cradling the Celestial child. "What's wrong? What did Arishem mean?"
"I don't know yet." Domino's hands clenched into fists, crimson strings already flickering at her fingertips. "But I'm about to find out."
The portal bloomed open, showing Kamar-Taj's familiar courtyard on the other side.
Except it wasn't familiar anymore.
Domino's breath caught in her throat.
The mystical sanctuary, which she'd visited dozens of times over the past months while dropping off Luv for lessons, looked like a war zone. Buildings that had stood for centuries were reduced to rubble. The defensive wards, normally invisible but always present like a warm blanket, had been shattered. Smoke rose from multiple points, and the dimensional barriers protecting the monastery from external threats flickered weakly, barely holding.
Students stumbled through the wreckage, some bleeding, others using healing spells on injured classmates. The air itself felt wrong, like reality had been bent and snapped back into place, leaving fractures.
"What the hell happened here?" Hale breathed, his hand already on his forming mandala shields.
Domino didn't answer. She stepped through the portal at a dead run, her crimson strings reaching out desperately for any sign of Luv or Jay.
Nothing.
No threads connecting to her son. No quantum signature that matched his unique genetic makeup. It was like he'd been erased from her perception entirely.
Terror transformed into something colder and sharper.
Mordo's voice cut through the chaos, hoarse from shouting orders. "Third team, focus on the dimensional barriers! If those fail completely, half of Nepal gets dragged into the Dark Dimension! I don't care if you're tired, I don't care if you're hurt, HOLD THEM!"
He was limping badly, one arm hanging useless at his side, but his other hand wove spells with desperate precision. Blood ran down his face from a gash across his forehead, and his usually immaculate robes were torn and scorched.
Wong staggered past carrying an armful of ancient texts, his eyes wild behind cracked glasses. "The library, we have to save the library! If we lose the Codex of Watoomb—"
"Where's my son?"
Domino's voice cut through everything else, carrying an edge that made even injured students freeze. Crimson strings erupted from her hands, wrapping around support beams and reinforcing damaged structures through sheer manipulation.
Wong's head snapped toward her, recognition and something that looked like guilt flashing across his face. "Domino, you need to… the Ancient One. She's in her chambers, she's—"
He didn't get to finish.
Domino was already moving, her enhanced speed carrying her through the wreckage faster than normal humans could track. She vaulted over collapsed walls, ducked under dangling support beams, followed the path she'd walked dozens of times before when bringing Luv for lessons.
Except now that path was barely recognizable.
The closer she got to the Ancient One's chambers, the worse the damage became. Walls weren't just broken, they'd been , reality itself warped and twisted until stone became something else entirely. Ice covered parts of the floor and walls, but not normal ice. This was black, absolutely lightless, and so cold it made the air crystallize around it.
Her instincts, which had been screaming since she arrived, suddenly went silent.
That was worse.
Much worse.
Domino kicked open the door to the Ancient One's chambers, crimson energy already gathering in her palms.
But the sight that greeted her stopped her cold.
The Ancient One lay on the floor, half her body encased in that same black ice. Blood matted her normally pristine robes, and soot covered her face like she'd been caught in an explosion. Her lips were blue from cold, trembling as she mumbled something too quiet to hear.
Domino crossed the distance in two steps, dropping to her knees beside her teacher's prone form. "What happened? Where's Luv? Where is my son?"
At the sound of Domino's voice, the Ancient One's eyes snapped open.
For a moment, she just stared, her gaze unfocused and distant. Then recognition dawned, followed immediately by something Domino had never seen in the Sorcerer Supreme's eyes before.
Shame.
The Ancient One's face crumpled, and silent tears began streaming down her cheeks, cutting clean tracks through the soot and blood.
"I failed him," she whispered, her voice breaking. "I failed you. I failed Jay. I couldn't protect him, I couldn't—"
"" Domino's hands gripped the Ancient One's shoulders, not caring to avoid the black ice or even hurt the old lady, but desperate for answers. "What happened here? Who did this?"
The Ancient One's breathing hitched, her whole body shaking with more than just cold. "Let me show you. You need to see and understand how out of depth we are."
Her trembling hand reached up and touched Domino's forehead.
And the world fell away.
[Flashback - Three Hours Earlier]
The courtyard of Kamar-Taj was filled with laughter, a sound that had become increasingly common over the past months.
Luv stood at the center of attention, his small face scrunched in concentration as he watched the Ancient One demonstrate transmutation. She held a falling leaf between her fingers, and with a whispered incantation, it transformed. Wings sprouted, compound eyes formed, and suddenly a butterfly took flight, its wings catching the afternoon sun.
"Whoa!" Luv's eyes went wide, tracking the butterfly's path with childlike wonder. "How'd you do that, Grandma Yao? Can you teach me?"
The Ancient One smiled with warmth that would have shocked her students from years past. "Transmutation requires understanding what something is before you can change it into something else. First, you must learn to truly see."
Around them, younger students crowded around Bonk,
"He's so soft!" one student exclaimed.
"Can he do tricks?" another asked.
Bonk responded by headbutting a nearby training dummy, sending it flying across the courtyard. The students erupted in delighted laughter.
Watching from the sidelines, the senior masters exchanged fond looks.
"The child has brought life back to these walls," Hamir observed quietly. "When was the last time we heard this much laughter?"
"Too long," Kaecilius agreed, though his expression remained guarded. "Though I still question the wisdom of training one with such... unique heritage."
Wong, standing nearby, allowed himself a small smile. "You sound like Mordo. The boy is sweet, gentle, and eager to learn. What more could we ask for in a student?"
That was when the oppressive feeling hit.
Everyone with even a hint of mystical awareness froze. The laughter died as if cut with a knife, replaced by a pressure that seemed to press down from every direction at once. It wasn't threatening, exactly. It was simply... immense. The weight of something so vast that mortal minds couldn't fully comprehend its scope.
The Ancient One's head snapped up, her eyes widening. Her hands moved in practiced gestures, weaving her strongest defensive ward in a split second. Golden light erupted around the courtyard, layering protection upon protection with desperate speed.
Luv's neck jerked to the side unnaturally, his face going pale. "Grandma Yao? I feel funny. Something's—"
Brilliant red light consumed Kamar-Taj.
The dimensional barriers, maintained constantly for millennia, simply ceased to exist. Not broken or bypassed but , as if they'd never been there at all. The protective wards the Ancient One had just cast held for perhaps half a second before shattering like glass.
When the light faded, She stood in the courtyard.
The-Powers-That-Be.
She towered over them all, easily fifty feet tall, though her size seemed flexible and mutable, as if She could be any dimension She chose through simple will. Multiple arms and legs extended from her torso in arrangements that defied anatomy but somehow looked natural, each limb holding a different symbol of mystical authority. Staffs. Wands. Grimoires. Artifacts that radiated power in ways that made the air shimmer.
Her form was heavily pregnant, belly swollen with obvious life, rounded in ways that suggested imminent birth. The pregnancy wasn't grotesque but somehow majestic, carrying the promise of new magic waiting to be born into existence. Magic itself gestating inside the source of all mystical power.
She wasn't wearing robes or armor in any conventional sense. She was simply clothed in the concept of mystical energy itself, shifting patterns of light and shadow and color that hurt to look at directly. The patterns moved constantly, never settling into fixed forms, suggesting infinite potential rather than limited reality.
Her face was beautiful and terrible in equal measure, features that seemed to shift between every culture's interpretation of divine femininity. One moment She looked Asian, the next African, then European, then something entirely inhuman. Eyes that had witnessed the birth of magic across infinite realities gazed down at the assembled sorcerers with absolute authority that made even breathing feel presumptuous.
The effect on Kamar-Taj's students was immediate and catastrophic.
Those with strong mystical connections began screaming, their minds overloading from proximity to the source of all magic. Information poured into them unbidden: the true names of demons, the structure of reality, the whispered secrets of creation itself. Some clawed at their own eyes, trying to stop the visions. Others simply collapsed, unconscious before they hit the ground.
"Force them to sleep!" Mordo's voice cut through the chaos. "Before they hurt themselves!"
Wong, Mordo, and Kaecilius moved as one, their hands weaving identical gestures. A wave of golden light washed over the afflicted students, forcing them into unconsciousness before the mystical information could do permanent damage. Bodies hit the ground across the courtyard, suddenly and mercifully silent.
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Only the masters remained standing, and even they looked shaken. Hamir's single hand trembled as he maintained a protective ward. Even Kaecilius had gone completely white, his usual composure shattered.
The Ancient One stepped forward, placing herself between the cosmic entity and Luv. Her voice came out measured and controlled, but her hand had moved to the Eye of Agamotto around her neck. "To what do I owe the presence of the Power That Be in my sanctuary?"
The entity's multitude of eyes fixed on her with something that might have been amusement. "I do not appreciate your tone, young sorceress." Her voice was simultaneously whisper and thunder, coming from everywhere and nowhere. "You may be Sorcerer Supreme of this universe, but you are still merely that. A sorcerer who borrows my magic. You would do well to show proper respect."
Her gaze shifted, tracking downward.
To Luv.
The child had hidden behind the Ancient One's legs, his small hands gripping her robes. His blue eyes were wide with fear, and Bonk had moved to stand protectively beside him, growling in a way that the friendly dinosaur never did.
The Power That Be's expression shifted, and recognition flashed across her divine features. "Interesting. The child carries threads I do not recognize. Reality itself seems... uncertain... around him."
The Ancient One's blood ran cold. No. Please, not this. Anything but this.
The entity raised one hand, crimson light gathering around her fingers. "Luv Thurman. Her voice carried the weight of absolute pronouncement, each word falling like a judge's gavel. "You have been summoned to stand trial before the Living Tribunal. Your right to exist as an entity outside cosmic law will be determined in the Court of Manifestations, where all things that should not be are evaluated and judged."
The red light shot toward Luv.
The Ancient One moved faster than thought, her hands blazing with power as she threw herself between the spell and the child. Her counter-magic crashed against the Power That Be's working, and for a split second, the two forces held in perfect equilibrium.
The cosmic entity's eyes widened in genuine surprise. "Are you truly out of your mind? You dare oppose a summons from the Living Tribunal's court?"
The Ancient One didn't answer with words.
Instead, she grabbed Luv and pulled him into a fierce hug, her other hand already weaving the gestures for emergency teleportation. She didn't care where; she just needed to get him away, to Jay or Domino or anywhere that wasn't here.
Suddenly, the spells fizzled uselessly.
A crimson dome had materialized around them, nullifying all magic within its boundaries. The Ancient One could feel it, the connection to the Vishanti suddenly cut off, her link to the dimensional energies severed as cleanly as if someone had amputated a limb.
"Since you wish to oppose me," the Power That Be's voice carried cold fury now, "you forfeit your right to use magic at all. Consider it educational. A lesson in what happens when you forget your place in the universal hierarchy."
She clenched one massive fist.
And every sorcerer in Kamar-Taj collapsed as one.
Mordo hit the ground hard, gasping like a fish out of water. Wong's scream tore from his throat, raw and agonized. Kaecilius convulsed, his body going into shock. Even unconscious students jerked and twitched as something fundamental was ripped away from their souls.
Their source of magic, simply... gone.
The Ancient One felt it too, the connection she'd maintained for centuries suddenly absent. She reached desperately for the Vishanti, for Agamotto, for any mystical entity that might help.
She even tried the Dark Dimension in her desperation, willing to pay any price.
Dormammu didn't answer.
"You might have domain over magic," the Ancient One's voice came out strained as she shielded Luv with her body, "but that doesn't mean you have domain over THIS!"
Her hands made seals to open the Eye of Agamotto, ripping it open.
The Time Stone blazed emerald green, its power flooding through her. This was different from magic, this was a fundamental force of the universe itself, beyond even the Power That Be's authority. She raised it high, channeling its might, preparing to reverse everything that had happened.
The Power That Be laughed.
It was not a kind sound.
"Dear, dear child," she said, amusement evident in every syllable. "We cosmic abstracts exist beyond time itself. Did you truly think—"
She snapped her fingers.
The Time Stone's power simply... stopped. Not negated or countered, just frozen mid-activation. The green light dimmed, flickering like a candle in a hurricane. The Ancient One poured more power into it, centuries of practice and discipline focusing through the artifact.
It didn't matter.
Time meant nothing to a being who existed in all moments simultaneously.
Desperate, the Ancient One reached for the other Stone she'd been holding in reserve. The Mind Stone materialized in her other hand, its yellow glow joining the green. She knew this was dangerous without Jay present to heal her back, knew wielding two Infinity Stones simultaneously could kill her.
She didn't care.
Luv's life was worth any price.
Power beyond mortal comprehension surged through her body. The Time Stone and Mind Stone working in concert, their energies intertwining. She felt her cells beginning to break down from the strain, felt her consciousness expanding beyond its normal limits. The pool of life energy Jay had gifted her months ago activated automatically, trying to keep her alive through the assault.
She threw everything she had at the cosmic abstract.
Golden and emerald light exploded outward, a wave of temporal and mental force that would have unmade lesser beings. The Power That Be actually took a step backward, her expression shifting from amusement to genuine interest.
"Impressive," she acknowledged. "Wielding two Infinity Stones simultaneously is no small feat for a mortal. You have more strength than I credited you with, Sorcerer Supreme."
She raised multiple arms, weaving patterns in the air.
"However, this would be a completely different story had you mastered all six Stones and used them at their full potential. As it stands..."
Reality rippled around her, and something materialized in one of her many hands. It looked like a shard of absolute darkness, a fragment of void that seemed to eat light itself.
"I gift you a piece of the Black Winter," the Power That Be said conversationally. "The entity that keeps Galactus himself as its herald. I thought it might prove... educational. A demonstration of the gulf between mortal power and cosmic force."
She hurled it.
The Ancient One saw it coming and knew exactly what it would do.
She didn't try to dodge.
Instead, she turned, covering Luv completely with her body as the Black Winter's fragment struck her back.
Pain beyond description flooded her nervous system. Cold so intense it burned, freezing her flesh and bone in an instant. The black ice spread across her right side, creeping up her arm, across her torso, reaching for her face.
She could feel it trying to unmake her, to reduce her to nothing.
Slowly. Very slowly, it began freezing her emotions, her soul.
With her last burst of Mind Stone energy, with the final dregs of power available to her, the Ancient One did the only thing she could think of.
She reached into Luv's mind and tore away every limitation Jay had placed there.
Every null field, every suppression, every carefully crafted barrier designed to keep the child's powers dormant until he was ready. She ripped them all away in one desperate gamble, praying that Luv's awakened abilities might be enough to save him where she had failed.
Then darkness took her.
The Power That Be looked down at the fallen Sorcerer Supreme with something that might have been respect. Foolish, perhaps, but admirably devoted to her student.
She raised her hand again, red magic wrapping around the crying child. Luv began to float upward, still miraculously awake through the Ancient One's final working. The teleportation would take him to the Dimension of Manifestations, to the court where his fate would be decided.
That was when Bonk roared.
The Pachycephalosaurus, who had no magic to be stripped away, who had been lying injured and dazed from the cosmic entity's initial arrival, launched himself at the spell.
His domed head, designed by evolution to withstand impacts that would shatter normal bone, slammed directly into the teleportation light as Bonk grabbed Luv's overall strap in his teeth and held on with every ounce of strength in his body.
The teleportation activated anyway.
Red light consumed both child and dinosaur, yanking them across dimensional barriers, through the spaces between spaces.
Bonk's desperate roar echoed through Kamar-Taj as they vanished, a sound of protective fury that would haunt everyone who heard it.
Then silence.
The Power That Be stared at the empty space where they'd been, her expression unreadable. After a long moment, she looked down at the Ancient One, at the black ice covering half her body.
"You sorcerers," she said quietly, "are far more stubborn than is wise."
She vanished, taking her oppressive presence with her.
The dimensional barriers flickered back into partial existence. Magic slowly began seeping back into Kamar-Taj's unconscious defenders, though weakly, like blood returning to a limb that had fallen asleep.
The destruction remained.
The Ancient One remained frozen.
And Luv was gone.
[Present]
The memory released Domino like a drowning person breaking the surface.
She gasped, pulling back from the Ancient One's touch, her mind reeling from what she'd witnessed. The sheer power disparity between the Sorcerer Supreme and a cosmic abstract. The casual way the Power That Be had dismantled centuries of magical tradition. The Ancient One's desperate sacrifice.
And Luv, taken to stand trial before the Living Tribunal.
"The Mind Stone energy is keeping me alive," the Ancient One whispered, her voice barely audible. "But the Black Winter's ice... I can't remove it. Every healing spell I try just... fails."
Domino's hands moved before conscious thought.
Crimson strings erupted from her fingers,
She touched the black ice.
Her luck screamed warnings, telling her this substance should not exist, that it violated every natural law. But probability was her domain, and she bent it to her will.
The ice began to crack.
"Impossible," the Ancient One breathed. "That's a fragment of the Black Winter itself, it can't simply—"
"Watch me."
Domino poured more power into her strings, each one wrapping around molecules of impossible cold, severing their connection to reality. The Death Stone activated on her finger, its violet light joining the crimson glow. Death and probability working in concert, unmaking what should never have been made.
The black ice shattered, falling away in pieces that sublimated into nothing before hitting the ground.
The Ancient One gasped, feeling returning to her frozen limbs. Color flooded back into her skin, and the shivers that had wracked her body finally ceased.
But Domino wasn't done.
She stood, her hands spreading wide, and crimson strings exploded outward in a web that covered all of Kamar-Taj. Every broken building, every shattered ward, every injured student.
Probability itself bent to her will.
What if the Power That Be had never come?
What if Kamar-Taj had remained intact?
What if everyone was healed?
The monastery rebuilt itself in seconds. Walls that had been reduced to rubble reformed, stone flowing like water to seal cracks. The dimensional barriers snapped back into full strength, their protective magic blazing brighter than before. Unconscious students stirred, their injuries mending as probability decided they'd never been hurt in the first place.
Wong stumbled backward, watching his broken glasses repair themselves on his face. "How... that's not possible... the amount of power required to..."
Mordo just stared, his previously useless arm suddenly functional again.
Throughout Kamar-Taj, the impossible became possible through sheer force of will and probability manipulation pushed far beyond its normal limits.
Domino swayed, the strain of what she'd just done just after dealing with Tiamat's situation hitting her all at once. Her nose and mouth began bleeding, and her vision blurred around the edges with Red.
The Ancient One caught her before she could fall. "Child, what you just did... the energy expenditure alone should have killed you."
"Adrenaline," Domino managed, wiping blood from her nose. "And maternal desperation. You'd be surprised what a mother can do when her child's been taken."
"Arishem warned me. Said I'd need all six Infinity Stones if I wanted to see my husband and son again." Her voice gained strength as anger burned through exhaustion. "I fulfilled Jay's promise to Gaea. Shrunk Tiamut and saved Earth from the Emergence. Even got that cosmic asshole's approval and blessing. And in return, he gave me a warning about gathering the Stones."
The Ancient One's expression shifted, understanding dawning. She reached into her robes, pulling out two more lockets. The Time Stone and Mind Stone pulsed with power.
Her voice cracked slightly. "I failed. I used them and still couldn't protect him."
"You did everything you could," Domino said, her tone carrying absolute conviction. "The Power That Be is a cosmic abstract. She's literally the source of all magic. You survived. That's not failure. That's a fucking miracle."
She held out her hand. "But I need those Stones now. Along with your help to gather then where the others might be."
The Ancient One placed both lockets in Domino's palm, the weight of responsibility transferring between them. "The Space Stone is with Jay's ring. The Reality Stone was last seen with the Collector in Knowhere, though given his nature as a hoarder of cosmic artifacts, retrieving it may prove... complicated. The Power Stone is held by the Nova Corps on Xandar, locked in their maximum security vault under guard secure enough you'd need to destroy the whole planet just to get it. And the Soul Stone..."
She paused. "The Soul requires a sacrifice, Domino. Something loved is needed to be traded for the Stone's power."
Domino's expression went cold. "I've already lost my son to cosmic politics. I'll pay whatever price necessary to get him back. If the Soul Stone wants a sacrifice, it can have one. I'll give it whatever it demands and not lose a single night's sleep over it."
She pulled on the lockets, the Stones settling against her chest. The Time Stone on her left, the Mind Stone on her right. She could feel them humming with power, resonating with the Death Stone already on her finger.
Two Infinity Stones.
Three to go.
"And Ancient One? Thank you. For trying to protect him. Luv... Luv thought of you as his grandmother. That meant something."
The Ancient One's eyes went suspiciously bright. "Of course, I'm his Grandma Yao."
"He did." Domino smiled, though it didn't reach her eyes. "Which means when I get him back, and I will get him back, you're stuck with him. Hope you're ready for a kid who can warp reality asking to learn more magic."
She teleported as crimson strings already weaving around her as she prepared for what came next.
The Ancient One watched her go, then looked down at her hands. They were steady now, healed completely, but the memory of helplessness remained.
"Wong," she called out. "Assemble every master. Everyone combat-capable, regardless of specialization. We have work to do."
"What kind of work, Master?"
The Ancient One's expression hardened into something that would have terrified her enemies. "Prepare for War. Fortify our Defences and get our Students in Far Space, for every cult and mystique team whether they be Midnight Sons or The Agatha's Coven itself. I'll personally lead them to charge Nowhere!"
Wong bowed deeply. "It will be done."
As he hurried away to execute her orders, the Ancient One allowed herself one moment of weakness. One brief instant where the mask of authority slipped and the woman beneath showed through.
"Forgive me, young one. I promised to keep you safe, and I failed. But I swear on every oath I've ever taken, on every life I've lived and every student I've trained, that when your mother comes for you I will stand beside her."
[The Savage Land - Jay and Domino's Cave]
Domino materialized in the cave, the familiar sound of the waterfall suddenly alien. This place, which had been filled with Luv's laughter and Bonk's cheerful chirps, now felt empty.
Too empty.
She walked to Luv's bed, the small mattress still rumpled from where he'd gotten up this morning. His stuffed animals were arranged carefully on the pillow, the way he always left them. The mechanical dinosaur Jay had bought from Nidavellir sat on the nightstand, its tiny gears still.
Domino's hands clenched into fists.
"I don't care what court you're in, baby." she said to the empty room, her voice carrying absolute conviction. "I don't care what cosmic abstracts think they have authority over you. You're my son. Mine and Jay's. And we're coming to get you."
She pulled out her phone, dialling a number she'd hoped never to use.
It rang once.
"Domino." Reed Richards' voice came through, cautious. "Is everything alright? Sue said you were handling the Tiamut situation—"
"I need your help," Domino interrupted. "You and the Fantastic Four have connections in space from your Adventures and I need you to acquire the power stone from Xandar."
Silence on the other end. Then: "Domino, what's happened? What's going on?"
"Luv's been taken," she said with stammer. "Summoned to stand trial before the Living Tribunal. My son is being judged by cosmic forces that don't care about childhood or innocence or the fact that he's just a little boy who wants to learn magic and play with his dinosaur."
Her voice hardened, anger burning through the grief.
"And according to a Celestial, I'm going to need all six Infinity Stones to get my family back. So I'm calling in every favor, recruiting every ally, and gathering the Stones no matter what it costs."
More silence, but this time she could hear Reed processing, his brilliant mind already shifting into problem-solving mode.
Then Reed's voice came back, all business, the scientist in him engaging immediately. "I'll prepare for launch and get everyone ready. And Domino?"
"Yeah?"
Sue and I, we're partially his parents, too. We understand what it means to fight for your child against impossible odds. You won't do this alone, not after we have so much to thank Jay for. The Fantastic Four stands with you, and we'll bring every resource we have."
Domino's throat tightened. "Thanks, Reed. Truly."
She ended the call before her voice could break into more tears.
Domino looked around the cave one more time, committing every detail to memory. The home they'd built together. The life they'd created. And the family they'd become.
"Wait for me, baby," she whispered to the empty air, to the ghost of her son's laughter that still seemed to echo off the walls. "Mommy's coming. And she's bringing hell with her."
Then crimson strings wrapped around her body, and she vanished in a flash of quantum manipulation, beginning the journey to Vormir and the terrible price waiting there.
