[Carter Residence, New York – September 28th, 2010, Few hours Earlier]
[Living Room]
The sun had not yet begun to set when Didi finished telling them everything that had happened across the ten days they were gone. The room had been a good place for it, warm and familiar, all of them settled into their usual positions with drinks in hand, the kind of quiet between exchanges that only existed between people who were genuinely comfortable with each other.
When Didi got to Diana, Ethan’s expression shifted.
"She went after phisto," he said. The words ca out sowhere between a statent and a thought he was still processing.
’Of course she did,’ he thought privately. ’Ten days of honeymoon and my girlfriend decides to wage a one-woman war across five hell dinsions. I should not be surprised.’
Anna laughed from her end of the sofa, bright and entirely without sympathy for the demon lord’s situation. "I genuinely feel sorry for him," she said, not feeling sorry for him at all. "You went in there years back and destroyed half his entire hell. Now Diana shows up in that armour and probably finished off whatever was left."
Jean’s expression was more asured. She set her coffee mug down before speaking. "Don’t underestimate him. He is far older than any of us and considerably more cunning than his appearances suggest."
She glanced around at the others. "Reading about him in the Kamar-Taj library made that very clear."
Everyone in the room knew she was right. The books in Kamar-Taj had been thorough on the subject of phisto. Centuries of patience and deals constructed with precision, always on terms that served him and never entirely what the other party believed they were agreeing to.
Ethan turned it over briefly, then let it go.
’If he tries anything funny,’ he thought, and there was a quiet finality to the thought, ’I will end him with Genesis Fire. That will be short conversation with permanent result.’
He had complete confidence in Diana. The Ancient One had been the one to send her into those hell dinsions, and the Ancient One did not make decisions carelessly.
If his master had believed Diana was not equipped for that journey, she would not have opened the passage.
Both of them understood, with perfect clarity, what the aftermath of sothing going wrong with one of Ethan’s won would look like. Neither of them wanted to find out what that aftermath produced.
So he let the concern settle and release, and trusted the chain of decisions that had put Diana in the armour and the Ancient One at the other end of the watch.
Didi paused in the middle of her sentence. A thoughtful look crossed her face, like she was turning sothing over in her mind—unsure whether to say it now or let it linger.
She looked around at them all and then simply asked, "How was the honeymoon? Tell everything."
The question landed warmly and imdiately.
Anna and Jean exchanged a look that contained a full conversation in under a second, and then both of them started at the sa ti, which resolved itself naturally into Anna leading and Jean adding detail wherever the story required it.
The Solo Leveling world. Gates that tore open across the landscape of that universe without warning, dinsional ruptures that released creatures requiring specially trained hunters to manage.
A world that had organised its entire social and military structure around the managent of supernatural threat, with ranks and systems and hierarchies built on the foundation of who could fight and how well.
The monarchs at the top of that hierarchy, ancient beyond asure, the original rulers of the gate system, beings of genuine cosmic weight.
And Ethan, who had looked at those beings and seen their cores as gifts.
Didi’s eyebrows rose slowly as the story developed. Her attention sharpened into sothing genuinely curious. "He killed monarchs," she said, "and took their cores. To give to his won."
"He did," Anna confird, with obvious satisfaction.
Didi turned to look at Ethan with an expression that sat directly between amusent and admiration. "You stole power from cosmic beings," she said. "For us."
Ethan’s expression was entirely unrepentant. "They were not using their powers to anywhere near their full potential," he said. "That is a waste. I simply wanted to redistributed them to people who would actually appreciate them."
’A completely reasonable position,’ he thought. ’I stand by it.’
Didi shook her head slowly while smiling.
Elizabeth sat in her chair, listening—calm, attentive, and quietly absorbing every word. But when Jean gently turned the conversation toward her story, the room’s energy changed.
Didi listened in quiet stillness, as though fully aware of the weight of Elizabeth’s past and determined to honor it. When Jean finished, Didi looked at Elizabeth directly.
"You are here now," she said. Her voice was simple and certain. "Whatever ca before, you will not have to go through any of it again."
Elizabeth’s expression shifted. Sothing in her face opened slightly, sothing that had been held carefully closed for a long ti.
Her eyes grew bright at the corners and she pressed her lips together briefly before her smile found its way through. She nodded once, the gesture speaking more than any speech could.
Then ca the surprise Ethan had been holding back.
He stated it clearly and without embellishnt that Jean was pregnant.
Didi went still for a single mont. Then one eyebrow lifted in a clean, asured arc.
She looked at Jean, then back at Ethan, and her expression settled into sothing warm and genuinely pleased.
"Congratulations," she said, to both of them, without making a production of it.
Ethan studied her face for a mont afterward. ’If she could use her powers freely in this universe,’ he thought, ’she probably already knew the mont she saw Jean walk into the room. Death of the Endless has a particular relationship with the presence of new life.’
He kept the thought to himself.
The afternoon moved through the remaining topics at its own pace, and by the ti the light outside the windows had begun to shift toward the warm amber of early evening, they had covered most of what needed covering.
Jean set her mug down and stretched her arms above her head. "Anna," she said, with the tone of soone who had already made a decision and was now executing it. "Let’s show Elizabeth the city tonight."
Anna’s face lit up imdiately. "Yes. Absolutely yes." She looked at Elizabeth. "New York at night is sothing you have to experience. There is no way to describe it properly."
Elizabeth looked between them with quiet delighted expression. But there was sothing more beneath it—a deep curiosity, a desire to understand this universe and experience the life she had missed all those years.
The three of them disappeared toward the interior of the house in a chorus of footsteps and conversation, Jean guiding Elizabeth toward the guest room that had been prepared for her, Anna already discussing options for the evening from sowhere down the corridor.
The living room settled into quiet.
Didi moved to the window instead of joining the others in the corridor.
And Ethan followed, coming to a quiet stop just behind her.
Neither of them made any effort to draw attention to it.
It simply happened—because they understood each other so well.
She turned from the window as he ca to stand near her, and a small smile crossed her face. "Nothing escapes you, does it."
Ethan smiled back. "If a man can’t understand his own won well enough to notice when one of them has sothing she wants to say privately," he said, "he has no business running a harem of beautiful girls."
Didi giggled at that but then her expression shifted into sothing more considered.
She told him about the Dead End Bar. About the elderly man who had co in, silver-haired and sharp-eyed behind kind glasses, who had sat at her bar and talked with her about life and people and her boyfriend.
Who had told her, before leaving, that her boyfriend was about to arrive with a very good surprise.
Who had warned her, as an afterthought delivered in the sa pleasant tone as the rest of the conversation, that soone was coming after her.
And who had, when she asked directly whether she was welco in this universe, answered her with the certainty of soone whose answer on that subject was the final one.
Ethan listened to all of it without interrupting.
When she finished, he was quiet for a mont.
’Stan Lee,’ he thought, and the certainty of it sat in his chest with a particular weight. ’The One Above All. The creator of this entire Marvel multiverse, sitting at a bar stool and telling my girlfriend she’s welco here and making sure her drink was good.’
Out loud he said nothing about who the old man was. He absorbed the information and moved directly to what mattered.
"The warning," he said. His voice was even but the quality of his attention had sharpened as he registered this as sothing genuinely significant. "He told you soone is coming after you."
"He did," Didi said.
A warning from the One Above All was not a casual observation. It was not the kind of thing that got issued without reason, and it was not the kind of thing that got ignored by anyone with the sense to understand whose mouth it had co from.
Ethan looked at her directly. "Then we deal with it together," he said. "Whatever is coming, I am here. We face it together."
Ethan thought he needed to stay vigilant, because if the warning had co from the OAA, then it was likely sothing serious.
Didi held his gaze for a mont. Then she stepped forward and put her arms around him, and he held her back without ceremony, his chin resting lightly against the top of her head.
They stayed like that for a while, catching up on the quieter things, the small details and the in-between monts that did not make it into the important conversations but mattered just as much as the ones that did.
By the ti Anna’s voice drifted back down the corridor announcing that they were almost ready, the light outside had deepened into the gold and purple of early evening.
The three of them appeared shortly after, Jean in a light dress with her hair loose, Anna in sothing that had clearly been chosen with the energy of soone who intended to make an impression on New York City, and Elizabeth wearing borrowed clothes that she was holding herself in with the careful and pleased expression.
Goodbyes were exchanged and the front door opened and closed, and then the house was quiet again.
Ethan stood in the living room and let his awareness stretch outward in a brief, passive sweep across the evening.
He had a nagging feeling that sothing was going to happen this evening. He didn’t know what, or when, or how it would unfold—but he trusted that his gut was right.
Then he looked at Didi. ’Whatever is going to happen tonight,’ he thought, ’it is going to happen whether I go looking for it or not. And right now, Didi is standing in my living room and we have not had ti alone together in longer than either of us would call acceptable.’
"Get ready," he said.
Didi raised an eyebrow. "For what?"
"A date," he said simply. "You and . Tonight."
The smile that crossed her face was slow and genuinely warm. They both went to their rooms to get ready.
...
[Kamar-Taj – Evening]
[Inner Courtyard Room]
The room was quiet and clean, the kind of quiet that ca from thick walls and deliberate architecture.
Diana sat with both hands wrapped around a ceramic cup of tea, her posture finally, completely at rest for the first ti in ten days.
She wore the standard monk dress of Kamar-Taj, simple and pale, borrowed from the order’s stores after a long and deeply appreciated bath. Her hair was still slightly damp at the ends. She took a sip of the tea and closed her eyes for a mont.
"This," she said, with the quiet feeling of soone tasting sothing that had been earned, "is genuinely wonderful."
Across from her, the Ancient One sat with amusent, she is soone who had seen many warriors return from many difficult places and was familiar with the specific gratitude that a cup of tea could produce under those circumstances.
"You have been fighting in different hell dinsions for ten days," the Ancient One said with a faint smile on her face. "Only now can you actually let your guard down. Of course it tastes wonderful."
Diana exhaled slowly and set the cup down. The smile faded slightly as the honest assessnt ca. "It was not enough," she said. "I could not solve it. The demons will keep coming. There are too many dinsions, too many sources, and ten days against that is barely a mark."
She looked at the nearby candle fla for a mont.
"But I made sure they know what is waiting for them if they cross over," she continued, "I, Ethan, and everyone standing with us will be there when they co to Earth. I wanted them to feel that before I left." Her expression settled into sothing resolute. "So I made sure they felt it."
The Ancient One studied her with calm, unhurried attention. "I am not so certain it was enough," she said.
Diana looked up, a small line of confusion between her brows.
The Ancient One only smiled. "You will understand in ti."
Before Diana could press further, the door opened and Wong stepped through, stopping just inside the threshold. He pressed his palms together in a brief bow toward the Ancient One, then straightened.
His gaze moved to Diana for a mont, brief and careful, and sothing passed through his expression that he did not voice.
He had a history with the won connected to Ethan Carter. It’s a violent one and a sufficiently morable one that his instincts had developed a specific kind of caution around anyone who fell into that category. Diana was new to the category. He was not going to make assumptions, but he was also not going to be careless.
’Best to be respectful and keep a safe distance,’ he decided internally, ’until proven otherwise.’
"I apologise for interrupting," he said, directing himself to the Ancient One. "We have located Kaecilius. A team was sent to track him down."
A pause later. "He killed several of them. So of his followers were also involved."
Monts later, another figure stepped forward—Baron Mordo, his posture marked by a precise, restrained intensity, as if he had been holding onto a firm opinion and was now finally presenting it to soone with the authority to act.
"We should end this now," Mordo said. His voice was direct and without apology. "Kaecilius and his followers are getting bold. You have the power to do this yourself. The order cannot keep absorbing these losses."
Diana looked between them. "Who is Kaecilius?"
The Ancient One was quiet for a mont before she answered, and the quality of the silence before the answer told Diana that what ca next was not a simple explanation.
"He was one of my students," the Ancient One said. "As Ethan Carter was. As Mordo is." She kept her voice even.
"His family was killed in an accident few weeks ago. The grief changed the direction he was moving in. He turned toward the ruler of the Dark Dinsion, a being called Dormammu, and what began as a search for aning beca devotion."
She folded her hands in her lap. "He and his followers are now working to open a gateway to the Dark Dinsion. If they succeed, the consequences for Earth would be total."
Diana absorbed this information into its proper place and already beginning to assess it. Then she looked around at all three of them and said, with genuine feeling, "Your universe has considerably more threats than mine."
The Ancient One did not confirm or deny this.
"It is not yet ti to move against Kaecilius directly," she said, like this is the finality of a decision that had already been made at a level that did not require debate.
She looked at Wong and Mordo both. "His ti will co. Until then, our responsibility is to limit the harm he causes. Protect the innocents. That is what we focus on."
Mordo’s jaw tightened slightly but he did not argue further. Wong gave a asured nod.
Diana sat with the information for a quiet mont. A thought moved through her mind, simple on the surface. If Dormammu was the source, removing Dormammu removed the problem. It was the kind of clean, direct logic that had served her well in warfare.
Then she thought about phista.
She thought about ten days of fighting across five hell dinsions. She thought about the monts in that last battle where the outco had been far less certain than she would have chosen.
She thought about what it ant to face sothing she was not yet ready for, she only survived thanks to the God Slayer Armour, So, she filed the thought away.
The Ancient One’s voice broke through her thoughts. "It is ti for you to go."
A golden portal opened at her gesture, its edges turning in the particular Kamar-Taj manner, precise and clean. Through it, Diana could see the corner of a New York street in the early evening, lit with the ambient light of a city transitioning into night.
Diana rose from her seat. She looked at Wong first, giving him a nod that was warm and direct.
He returned it with the careful respect, like he wanted to maintaining a safe and sensible distance. She looked at Mordo next, who received her farewell with a contained composure. Then she turned to the Ancient One and held her gaze for a mont.
"Thank you," Diana said. It covered more than the portal and they both knew it.
The Ancient One smiled and nodded.
Diana raised one hand, and the Requip magic Ethan had taught her moved through her without effort, the monk dress dissolving and reforming in the sa breath.
She now wore blue jeans and a red top, with purple-tinted glasses resting on her face.
She rolled her shoulders once, settled into the familiar comfort of ordinary clothing, and stepped through the portal.
The New York street received her without ceremony. The city was moving around her in its usual direction, taxis and pedestrians and the particular evening energy of a place that never fully stopped.
Behind her, the portal closed.
The Ancient One stood in the quiet of the room with the candles still burning around the room.
She wore a knowing smile, as if her expression alone was saying everything was unfolding exactly as she had foreseen.
’She will not be resting tonight,’ the Ancient One thought, looking at the place where the portal had been. ’So evenings simply do not allow for it.’
She reached forward and lifted Diana’s unfinished cup of tea from the table.
It would be a sha to waste it.
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