[A/N]: We hit 200 Powerstones, so here's the Second bonus chapter! The next goal is 400 Powerstones. If you're enjoying the story, please vote, comment, and share!
"Well played, Sorcerer! But this isn't over! Not by half! The boy's soul is still—"
Gone.
The demon disappeared mid-threat and was forcibly ejected.
Silence fell.
"Time to leave," the Ancient One said. Her voice was tired and empty as she'd pushed herself beyond her limits and was now running on fumes and will.
Blood still leaked from her nose, her ears. The Stones' combined power had taken its toll. It would continue taking its toll for months if not years. Wielding three simultaneously, even briefly, wasn't something even gods were meant to survive.
Her hands moved, shaking slightly. The three Stones blazed simultaneously one final time as reality tore open, creating a portal back to Earth.
With a single step, they materialized in the parking lot.
One moment in dimensional hell. Next moment in London, where physics applied and gravity worked, and the sun existed in the sky.
The setting evening sun hit Jay's face. The warmth felt wrong after the pocket dimension's oppressive heat. It was too pure.
Jay's enhanced senses went hyperactive, and the smell of car exhaust and fresh bread from nearby shops replaced sulfur and burnt ozone and the coppery stench of mass death. The sounds of traffic, of birds singing, of normal human life chattering in the distance, all of it obscene after the screaming and combat and carnage.
It was too normal. As if cosmic forces hadn't just clashed. Like Jay hadn't just nearly lost his soul to the Devil himself.
Bodies still littered the ground. Mad Jim Jaspers' bisected corpse, already bloating in the London heat, as flies gathered around it. The protesters cut apart by Selene's portal, their signs still clutched in dead hands, messages about Human supremacy now tragic and ironic. Blood painted the pavement in abstract patterns, drying brown in the sun, some of it still tacky and wet.
But standing guard over the unconscious Braddock siblings was Domino.
She'd dragged them into a defensive position. Brian and Jamie lay against a low wall, positioned where she could see all approaches. Her guns were out, one in each hand, tracking every shadow with paranoid intensity. Blood stained her clothes from wounds that had already healed, tacky patches of brown against black fabric.
She looked alert but exhausted.
But there she was alive, whole and waiting.
Finally, her eyes found Jay.
Relief flooded her features. Her whole posture changed. As her mouth opened, forming his name.
Then concern replaced relief as she took in his state. Blood-soaked from head to toe. Covered in cuts that were still closing, new pink flesh visible beneath torn clothing. Moving like every step hurt, and his body was one massive bruise.
"Jay—"
He crossed the distance in three strides, stumbling. His legs barely supporting him as adrenaline was finally crashing. The stolen life force still settling. Everything that had kept him moving was suddenly gone, leaving just exhaustion and relief and a desperate need to confirm Domino was safe.
He pulled her into a hug so tight it made her gasp. Made her ribs creak as his arms wrapped around her completely, crushing her against his chest. Face buried in her neck. Breathing in her scent of Gun oil, sweat and Domino. Confirming she was real and alive.
His whole body trembled from something deeper, from almost losing something truly precious.
Fear. Pure fear.
The memory of watching Jamie's reality-warping strings invade her body. Of hearing her scream as she was unmade and remade a thousand times in seconds. Of seeing the woman, he loved experiencing something worse than death. Of knowing he'd been too slow too late to stop it before it started.
It crashed over him all at once. The terror he'd been suppressing. The horror he'd been ignoring. The absolute pants-shitting fear that he'd failed. That he'd return from battle to find her gone, erased, lost beyond any power to retrieve.
"I'm sorry," he whispered against her neck. His voice cracked as tears nearly spilled from his eyes. "I wasn't fast enough. When Jamie caught you. After hearing you scream. I thought…I thought I'd lost…" The words choked off as his throat closed. He couldn't finish as he feared that voicing the fear would turn it real.
"Hey." Domino's arms came up, slowly. Wrapped around him just as tightly. "I'm here. I'm right here. Still breathing. It's fine, everything is fine." Her voice was rarely this soft. "Healing factor, remember? Takes more than that horseshit to put me down."
But she felt it too. The way he held her like she might vanish if he loosened his arms even slightly. She could only imagine what he'd gone through.
She held him tighter.
They stood like that for a long moment. Two people who'd just survived hell, literally, clinging to each other in a parking lot full of corpses and evidence that the world was so much darker than most people knew.
Around them, London continued to exist. Life was going on, completely unaware that demons and cosmic forces had clashed.
The normalcy of it all felt like mockery.
The Ancient One watched them with approval. Recognizing that some moments were private.
Then she turned, giving them privacy. The Mind Stone's light faded from her forehead as she released its power, the gem returning to dormancy in the newer eye. She carefully placed the Space Stone back in its card containment, sealing it away. Three Infinity Stones were three too many for one person to wield for long. Already, she could feel the damage.
The price of touching that much power was too much; she's confirmed it, sensing the changes her body was going through.
But it had been worth it. Her student lived, the devil was banished, and the External was contained. If this was not victory, what was?
"Come," she said to no one in particular. Her voice was tired. So tired. "We have much to discuss. But first, let these children have their moment."
She moved toward the Braddock siblings, her steps slower than usual, each one requiring conscious effort. Checking their conditions with care as her mystical senses probed for corruption that had taken root.
Brian and Jamie were alive. Both unconscious but breathing. The pentagrams carved into their foreheads had faded completely, leaving only scars.
And brave Betsy Braddock was well enough, but too exhausted. Though her other problems still persisted.
The sun continued its descent, painting the sky in brilliant oranges and deep purples. Shadows lengthened across the parking lot, mercifully obscuring some of the carnage.
In an hour, maybe two, someone would call the police. The authorities would arrive to find a scene that defied explanation. But for now, in this liminal space between battle and consequence, there was only silence and survival.
Jay and Domino remained locked together, neither willing to let go just yet. Two people who'd stared into the abyss and somehow made it back. Two people who'd learned, viscerally and undeniably, what they had to lose.
Still holding on.
Still grateful to be alive.
Still together, against all odds.
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