-S.W.O.R.D. Headquarters-
"What are Strange and Natasha doing?" Fury squinted at the satellite feed, watching the two Avengers simply vanish from view.
"They've entered the Mirror Dimension," Hill explained, recognizing the telltale signs of Strange's dimensional magic. "They must be fighting the creatures in there—keeps collateral damage contained."
The problem was that the trees on the clifftop blocked the satellite's view of Christine Palmer's position. No one at S.W.O.R.D. could see what was happening to her.
"I'm going up there," Mysterio said decisively, already moving toward the exit. "Someone needs eyes on the ground."
"I'll take a Quinjet," Barton added, heading for the hangar. "We need air support ready."
-Mirror Dimension-
Inside the fractured reality of the Mirror Dimension, Kro found himself trapped with no escape route. The Deviant leader was forced to fight Natasha and Strange two-on-one, his intelligence making him dangerous but his isolation making him vulnerable.
Natasha circled the creature warily, respect evident in her combat stance. That regeneration ability was genuinely problematic—she couldn't afford a prolonged battle.
"I'll create an opening, restrain it," Strange said, analyzing the tactical situation. "You deliver the killing blow. I don't have the raw power to put this thing down permanently."
Natasha gave a curt nod and began spinning Mjolnir by its leather strap. The hammer accelerated, faster and faster, creating a vortex of wind. Energy gathered around it—not just Thor's lightning, but Natasha's own will channeled through the enchanted weapon.
"CRACK!" A massive bolt of lightning struck down from the Mirror Dimension's fractured sky, engulfing Natasha's entire body in electrical energy. She became a living storm, crackling with power as she launched herself at Kro.
The Deviant leader recognized the danger immediately. He dodged to the side, refusing to take that attack head-on, while simultaneously lashing out with his tentacles in a counterattack.
Natasha twisted in mid-air with remarkable core strength, her body contorting impossibly as Mjolnir swept out in a wide arc. The hammer connected with multiple tentacles, knocking them aside, and lightning followed the brief contact, invading Kro's body through the connection.
Kro's muscles locked up involuntarily, electricity disrupting his nervous system. But Ajak's stolen healing power activated immediately, compensating for the damage almost as quickly as it occurred.
The Deviant roared and lunged at Natasha, fangs bared, multiple tentacles extending from his body to impale her from different angles—
Crimson bands of mystical energy erupted around Kro, wrapping his limbs, his torso, his tentacles. Strange had waited for the perfect moment—when Kro's back was turned, when all his attention was on Natasha—to strike with the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak.
"Now!" Strange roared, his entire body straining to maintain the binding spell.
Natasha landed in a crouch and immediately raised Mjolnir high. The storm answered her call with another massive lightning strike. The hammer absorbed the energy, blazing so bright it hurt to look at directly.
She brought it down on Kro's skull with every ounce of strength she possessed.
The impact caved in the side of Kro's head, bone fracturing, brain tissue damaged. But it wasn't enough to kill him—not yet.
Kro's hand began to glow golden as Ajak's healing power activated, trying to repair the catastrophic damage—
Natasha struck again, interrupting the healing. Then again. And again. A relentless barrage of hammer blows, each one preventing regeneration, each one driving Kro further into the ground.
Strange poured more energy into the Crimson Bands, keeping them tight even as Natasha's attacks threatened to break them. If it weren't for the constant weakening effect of the binding spell, Kro would have been strong enough to fight Natasha on equal terms.
But trapped, weakened, unable to defend or heal, the Deviant leader had no chance.
Finally, after the twentieth strike, Natasha's hammer caved in Kro's entire skull. The Deviant's body went limp, golden energy flickering out like a dying flame.
"Well done!" Strange released the Crimson Bands, gasping for breath. Maintaining that spell against such a powerful creature had taken everything he had.
"What the hell was that thing?!" Natasha bent over, hands on her knees, breathing hard. She stared at Kro's corpse with a mixture of disgust and bewilderment.
"No idea," Strange admitted, shaking his head. "I've never seen anything like it in any of Kamar-Taj's texts. Not in the historical records, not in the bestiaries, nowhere."
The truth was that the Deviants had been nearly exterminated by the Eternals thousands of years ago. Kro and his pack were among the last survivors. Most civilizations had either lost all records of them or dismissed them as fictional legends.
"Bring it with us," Natasha said, gesturing at the corpse. "Maybe someone can identify it back at base."
Strange nodded and opened a portal. Kro's body tumbled through, falling onto a containment platform in a S.W.O.R.D. analysis lab. Then Strange opened another portal, and he and Natasha stepped through, exiting the Mirror Dimension.
-The Clifftop-
The moment they emerged back into reality, S.W.O.R.D.'s satellite operators spotted them.
"Sir! They're out!" an agent called.
Hill immediately grabbed her phone and dialed Strange's number, telling him they'd been unable to reach Christine for several minutes.
Strange's expression changed instantly, color draining from his face. Without a word, he shot into the air, the Cloak of Levitation carrying him toward the clifftop at maximum speed.
Natasha saw his face and knew something was very wrong. She took to the air with Mjolnir, following close behind.
They crested the cliff's edge and immediately saw two figures lying near the precipice. Christine Palmer was collapsed on top of the injured woman they'd rescued earlier.
"Christine?" Strange called out, his voice tight with fear.
No response.
He flew closer, and his breath caught in his throat. His hands began to shake.
"No. No, no, no—CHRISTINE!" Strange's roar was filled with anguish as he dove down, cradling her body in his arms.
Her neck was bent at an unnatural angle, twisted beyond what any living human could survive. Her eyes were open but vacant, unseeing. She was gone.
Ajak, lying beneath Christine's body, had also died—her injuries too severe, her energy too depleted to recover.
"Oh my God." Natasha's voice was hollow with shock. She couldn't believe Christine had been murdered in the brief time they'd been fighting in the Mirror Dimension. Minutes. She'd been dead for minutes.
Natasha immediately activated her comms. "Hill, Christine is dead. Her neck was broken from behind—this was murder, not a Deviant attack. Check the satellite feeds. Someone else was here."
At S.W.O.R.D., Hill's face went white. She immediately ordered the satellite operators to scan the area for any human thermal signatures, any signs of who could have committed this crime.
Because Christine's neck injury was clearly inflicted from behind, with precise force. This wasn't done by a mindless monster. This was an execution performed by someone with combat training.
-The Clifftop-
Strange held Christine's lifeless body, his world collapsing around him. The narrator's words echoed in his mind: "You failed. The outcome of this battle is irreversible."
He'd thought that warning was about Thanos. About the Snap. But it had been about this—about Christine, about losing her again, about fate refusing to let him have happiness.
Rage erupted inside him, hot and consuming. He refused to accept this. Refused to believe in destiny or fate or any cosmic force that said Christine had to die.
"What are you doing?" Natasha asked as Strange reached for the Eye of Agamotto on his chest.
"I'm going to reverse time," Strange said, his voice cold as ice. His hands began moving in the complex patterns of temporal manipulation. A green mandala formed in his palm, spinning faster and faster.
Natasha frowned but didn't stop him. After all, they'd seen Thanos use the Time Stone to resurrect Vision. If Thanos could do it, Strange could too. She understood the desperation, the need to fix the unfixable.
Strange focused entirely on the two bodies before him. He held his breath, steadied his hands, and twisted his wrist in the precise gesture that would reverse localized time.
Green energy washed over Christine and Ajak. Time flowed backward for them and them alone.
Christine's broken neck straightened, vertebrae realigning, tissue healing. The death fled from her eyes, replaced by the spark of life. Color returned to her cheeks.
Ajak's grievous wounds closed. Her breathing resumed. Her heart began beating again.
In seconds, both women were alive once more, restored to the moment just before death claimed them.
"Stephen?" Christine blinked in confusion, looking up at Strange who was still manipulating time around her. She had no memory of dying—her consciousness was still stuck on the moment she'd been about to open a portal for reinforcements. "What happened? Why are you—"
Ikaris had been so fast, his attack so sudden, that she'd died before her brain could even process what was happening.
Strange immediately pulled her into a fierce embrace. "You're back. You're back." His voice was thick with emotion, hands shaking as he held her.
"What happened?" Christine wasn't stupid. She realized Strange had just used temporal manipulation, and on her. Which meant something terrible had occurred. "Stephen, what did you do?"
Ajak, as the leader of the Eternals with millennia of experience, immediately understood what had transpired. She'd died. Been murdered. And this human sorcerer had violated the laws of nature itself to bring them both back.
Her eyes widened with astonishment and growing respect.
Natasha approached Ajak, her expression serious, her hand still gripping Mjolnir. She deliberately didn't look at Strange and Christine's reunion—they needed that moment. "Who are you?" she demanded of the mysterious woman. "You're not human, are you?"
Ajak sighed softly, the weight of seven thousand years heavy on her shoulders. Of course she recognized Natasha Romanoff—she'd been watching Earth's defenders for decades. She'd never imagined she would one day be saved by the very Avengers she'd observed from the shadows.
"My name is Ajak," she said quietly, her voice carrying an ancient quality that spoke of ages long past. "I am the Prime Eternal. The leader of the Eternals."
Natasha's eyes narrowed. "Eternals? What the hell are Eternals?"
Ajak looked at the faces surrounding her—these humans who'd risked everything to save a complete stranger, who'd brought her back from death itself. They deserved the truth.
"We are synthetic beings created by the Celestials millions of years ago," Ajak began, her voice steady despite her weakness. "Our purpose was to protect emerging civilizations from the Deviants—those creatures you just fought. We have lived on Earth for seven thousand years, hidden among you, watching, waiting."
"Waiting for what?" Natasha demanded.
Ajak's expression grew pained. "For the Emergence. For the birth of a new Celestial." She looked at each of them in turn. "There is a god growing inside your planet. And when it is born, Earth will be destroyed completely."
Natasha's face went pale. "That's what the Ancient One was talking about. The Celestial child."
"Yes," Ajak confirmed. "His name is Tiamut the Communicator. And someone just tried to murder me to ensure I couldn't help you stop him."
Strange finally looked up from Christine, his eyes still glowing faintly green from using the Time Stone. "Who? Who tried to kill you?"
Ajak's voice was heavy with betrayal and sorrow. "Ikaris. My most trusted warrior. My greatest champion. He has chosen to remain loyal to the Celestials' plan, even if it means humanity's extinction."
She met Strange's eyes directly. "And he will kill anyone who stands in the way of the Emergence. Including all of you."