March 22, 2016 — Remote Area
Nolan remained motionless.
Mark descended toward his brother without taking his eyes off him.
When his feet touched the ground, Nolan released the Immortal's head. It fell beside the body with a wet sound.
"Mark, you need to listen to me."
Mark didn't respond.
He crossed the distance between them and knelt beside Kai. He pressed two fingers against his neck.
There was a pulse.
Irregular, but present.
Mark raised his head.
"What did you do to him?"
"He attacked me."
Mark looked at Nolan's destroyed uniform.
At the blood covering his face and the number of bruises he had never seen on his father before.
The marks from blows covering his entire body.
Then he looked back at Kai.
"He tried to stop you."
"He wasn't thinking clearly."
Nolan took a step.
Mark immediately stood and positioned himself between Nolan and his brother.
"Don't come any closer."
The words made Nolan stop.
For a moment, neither of them spoke.
Wind swept through the devastated region, moving scorched leaves between the bodies.
Nolan wiped some of the blood from his eyes.
"I didn't want either of you to find out this way."
Mark clenched his fists.
Nolan looked at his son as though he were still searching for a way to regain control of the conversation.
"Mark, for the first time in your life, I'm going to tell you the whole truth. I didn't come to Earth only to protect it."
Mark didn't move.
"Viltrum sent me."
"I already know what Viltrumites do."
Nolan's expression changed.
Not much.
Only enough.
"What?"
Mark pointed toward the Immortal's body.
"I know you conquer planets. You send someone to prepare everything for the Empire."
Nolan kept his arms at his sides.
"Whoever told you that doesn't understand Viltrum."
"He understands enough. You killed the Guardians."
Mark pointed toward Kai without taking his eyes off his father.
"You almost killed your own son when he tried to stop you."
Nolan ran his tongue along the inside of his bloodied mouth.
"I didn't try to kill Kai. Look at him and look at me. Which one of us is in worse shape?"
"He's the one who's unconscious."
"He collapsed on his own."
Mark's jaw tightened.
Nolan pressed on.
"Something happened to his mind before he attacked me."
"After fighting you."
"Before that."
Nolan looked over Mark's shoulder.
"For a few moments, he understood what I was telling him. Then he changed and lost control. It must be something the GDA did to him."
Mark stepped forward.
"This has nothing to do with them."
"You don't know what Cecil was hiding."
"And you do?"
Nolan's expression closed off.
"I did what was necessary."
Mark laughed once.
Without humor.
"Of course."
Then he remained between Nolan and Kai.
"I don't want to hear it."
"You're going to."
Nolan disappeared.
The next instant, his fist struck Mark's chest.
BOOM!
The impact hurled him backward.
There was no patience left.
Mark plowed through the kaiju's corpse, rupturing plates and dead flesh before emerging from the other side. His body bounced across the ground, carved a trench through the destroyed trees, and disappeared into a rocky rise.
Nolan remained where he had delivered the blow.
He looked at Kai for a moment.
Then shot after Mark.
The mountain exploded from the inside out.
Mark emerged among fragments of stone and struck Nolan with both fists joined together.
The blow turned his father's head.
It didn't move him back.
Mark attacked again.
A punch to the jaw.
Another to the stomach.
A third to the chest.
Nolan took all of them.
When Mark prepared the fourth, Nolan grabbed his wrist.
"You're forcing me to do this."
Mark tried to strike his face with his free hand.
Nolan blocked it.
"I'm not forcing you to do anything."
A headbutt struck Mark.
His nose broke.
Before he could retreat, Nolan grabbed the front of his uniform and accelerated.
They tore through the mountain.
Rock split around their bodies.
Mark tried to break free, but Nolan threw him upward before they reached the other side.
The blue-and-yellow body burst through the top of the formation and continued rising.
Nolan appeared beneath him.
His fist struck Mark's back.
Mark plummeted toward the ground.
BOOM!
The forest sank.
A wave of earth traveled hundreds of yards, uprooting trees that had remained intact and sending fleeing animals scattering across the region.
Mark tried to stand.
Nolan landed in front of him.
"I spent years protecting this planet."
Mark braced one hand against the ground.
Blood fell from his face.
"Then you should have learned something."
"I learned that they can't be saved from themselves."
Mark launched himself from the ground.
His shoulder struck Nolan's abdomen.
The two tore through the forest, knocking down entire rows of trees before climbing again.
Mark struck his father's face.
Nolan spun through the air.
Mark advanced.
The next punch was intercepted.
Nolan grabbed his arm, rotated his body, and threw him toward the horizon.
Mark tore through the clouds.
For several seconds, only the wind accompanied him.
Then Nolan appeared beside him.
"You've lived for eighteen years."
A blow struck his ribs.
Mark changed direction in the sky.
"I've lived for thousands."
Another blow reached him before he could regain control.
"You cannot comprehend the scale of what I'm offering."
Mark blocked the third attack with both arms.
The impact still hurled him downward.
"You're offering slavery!"
Nolan caught up to him during the fall.
"I'm offering survival."
Mark struck his chin.
Nolan grabbed his leg.
He spun once.
The sky and earth traded places.
Then he released him.
Mark fell like a projectile.
He struck a highway.
BOOM!
The asphalt split open.
Cars were thrown to both sides. Some overturned. Others collided with the barriers or disappeared into the crater formed in the center of the road.
Mark raised his head among the wreckage.
Screams came from every direction.
A car had overturned near the edge of the opening. A woman was trying to release her seat belt while smoke escaped from the engine.
Mark stood.
Nolan landed in front of him.
"Look at them."
Mark ran toward the car.
Nolan struck him before he completed the first step.
Mark's body crashed through a truck.
Metal folded around him.
Its cargo scattered across the road.
The truck overturned, dragging other vehicles with it.
Mark emerged from the wreckage and caught the cab before it crushed a smaller car.
His arms trembled beneath the weight.
"Help them!"
Nolan remained standing among the destroyed vehicles.
"Why?"
Mark turned his head.
The truck continued pressing against his arms.
"Because they're going to die!"
"All of them will."
Nolan crossed the distance and struck Mark in the face.
The truck fell.
Mark was hurled down the highway, but returned before the cab struck the car.
He caught the structure again.
The metal stopped inches above the roof.
Inside the vehicle, a child screamed from the back seat.
Mark lifted the truck and threw it toward the empty side of the highway.
When he turned, Nolan was already in front of him.
"You still don't understand."
Mark attacked.
The punch struck Nolan's face.
Another followed immediately.
Nolan allowed both.
Mark attempted a third.
Nolan's hand closed around his fist.
"These lives end before you even notice."
He squeezed.
The bones in Mark's hand cracked.
"To them, a few decades seem like a long time."
Mark gritted his teeth and drove his knee into his father's chin.
Nolan released his hand.
Mark pushed him away and charged.
They left the highway behind.
The shockwave from their departure shattered the windows of the remaining vehicles.
They crossed fields, rivers, and suburban neighborhoods within seconds.
Mark attacked.
Nolan blocked.
Nolan counterattacked.
Each impact hurled Mark into buildings, bridges, and streets.
A residential building split open as he smashed through three apartments.
Mark emerged from the other side carrying a man he had found in his path.
He placed him on the roof of a smaller building.
Nolan appeared above them.
"You can't save everyone."
Mark rose to intercept him.
"But I can save some of them!"
Nolan struck him downward.
Mark tore through the roof where he had left the man.
The building began to collapse.
Mark held up part of the structure.
Concrete and support beams pressed against his shoulders.
The man crawled away.
Nolan hovered above the destruction.
"That is the difference between us."
Mark raised his head.
"I wouldn't abandon them."
"You waste your strength trying to prolong lives that will disappear in an instant."
Mark threw the structure aside and charged.
His fist struck Nolan with enough force to shatter the windows in the surrounding blocks.
Nolan moved back several yards.
For the first time since the confrontation began, the blow produced a reaction.
Mark advanced again.
Nolan grabbed his face with one hand.
"You think this means anything?"
He accelerated.
Mark was dragged through two buildings.
Rooms, hallways, and walls split open around their bodies.
People ran.
Some didn't have time.
They emerged amid a cloud of concrete.
Mark tried to break free.
Nolan changed their trajectory.
Ahead of them, a glass tower filled the horizon.
"No!"
Mark struck his father's arm.
Nolan didn't turn aside.
The two punched through the center of the building.
BOOM!
The facade exploded.
Entire floors split open.
Furniture, glass, and bodies were pulled outside by the pressure.
Mark managed to catch a woman by the arm.
Nolan struck him in the abdomen.
Mark's hand opened.
The woman fell.
Mark tried to reach her.
Nolan grabbed his leg and hurled him in the opposite direction.
Mark crashed through another building.
By the time he managed to return, the woman had already disappeared among the buildings below.
Mark stopped in midair.
His face went blank.
Nolan appeared in front of him.
"Now you're beginning to understand."
Mark attacked him with a scream.
Nolan dodged the first punch.
Blocked the second.
Took the third in the chest and grabbed Mark by the shoulders.
"Your brother managed to hold me back on his own."
Mark continued trying to break free.
Nolan tightened his fingers.
"While you can barely make me move."
Nolan hurled Mark through a suspended walkway.
The structure broke apart.
People fell with the wreckage.
Mark changed direction immediately.
He caught two of them.
Another fell past him.
Mark extended his hand.
He couldn't reach them.
Nolan struck him from behind.
All three fell.
Mark twisted in the air and shielded the two people with his own body when they struck the ground.
The impact opened a crater in the avenue.
Both survived.
Mark barely had time to release them.
Nolan tore him from the ground.
Mark struck his face.
"What about Mom? You said you loved her."
Another punch.
"Doesn't she mean anything to you?"
Nolan blocked the third.
Anger passed across his face.
"No. To me, she's like a pet."
Mark caught his father across the mouth.
Blood escaped Nolan's lips.
The response came immediately.
His fist struck Mark's chest.
The sound of breaking bones disappeared beneath the explosion.
Mark tore across the street.
Passed through a station.
Disappeared inside the underground tunnel.
Nolan followed him inside.
Chicago Central Hospital — 2:06 p.m.
The baby still hadn't cried.
One nurse held the small body between her hands while another adjusted the breathing equipment.
Elise lay reclined, pale, her eyes struggling to remain open.
Cosmic stayed beside her.
His hand held hers.
One of the doctors looked at the monitor.
"We're going to try again."
The nurse positioned the mask over the baby's face.
The wall exploded.
BOOM!
Mark tore through the hospital like a projectile.
The first impact destroyed the east wing.
Walls, hallways, and rooms disappeared before his body. Beds were thrown through the air. Equipment shattered. The floors collapsed beneath several stories.
Cosmic turned his head.
Light emerged around him before he understood what was happening.
A translucent sphere closed around his body.
The impact reached the maternity ward.
The room folded.
The ceiling came down.
The exterior wall was torn away.
The shockwave passed through Cosmic's field and threw him against the floor even inside the protection.
Glass, metal, and concrete filled the air.
Then the floor gave way.
Everything fell.
Mark tore through the rest of the structure and emerged from the opposite side, taking part of the facade with him.
The hospital tilted.
Columns broke one after another.
CRACK!
The central wing collapsed.
A cloud of dust swallowed the street.
For several seconds, nothing moved beneath the wreckage.
A white light appeared between the concrete slabs.
Cosmic pushed part of the ceiling away.
The field around him flickered and disappeared.
He stood.
The silence was interrupted by alarms, distant moans, and the sound of structures continuing to collapse.
The bed had been crushed.
Cosmic removed a beam.
Then another.
He found Elise's hand.
He pulled away the wreckage.
Her body remained motionless beneath part of the wall. Blood covered the sheet and ran between the fragments of concrete.
Cosmic pressed two fingers against her neck.
No response.
Beside her lay the broken arms of the nurse who had been holding his daughter.
Cosmic didn't move.
He remained on his knees.
His expression didn't change.
There were no tears.
No sound.
Underground Tunnels — Chicago
Mark struck the tracks.
The metal deformed beneath his back.
Lights flickered inside the tunnel.
He tried to breathe.
Pain tore through his chest with every movement.
Nolan landed several yards ahead.
Above them, the city trembled.
"Look at what your resistance is causing."
Mark braced one hand against the rail.
He spat blood.
"You expected me to agree to help you enslave everyone?"
"You will agree when you understand that you can't stop it."
A sound grew inside the tunnel.
Lights appeared around the bend.
A train was approaching.
Mark looked at it.
Then at Nolan.
Nolan advanced.
Mark tried to raise his arms.
His father's hands closed around his head.
Nolan turned him toward the train.
"No."
Mark tried to break free.
Nolan kept his face pointed toward the headlights.
"You still see these people as your equals."
"Dad, no."
The train drew closer.
The engineer activated the brakes.
Sparks appeared beneath the cars.
"They aren't."
Nolan pushed Mark forward.
The train struck his body.
BOOM!
Mark tore through the cab.
The engineer disappeared against his chest.
Metal, glass, and blood exploded around them.
Nolan continued holding Mark as the train moved forward.
One car after another collided with his body.
People were thrown through the air.
Seats broke apart.
Bodies struck walls, windows, and one another.
Mark couldn't close his eyes.
Nolan kept his head motionless.
Every person inside the train struck Mark before being crushed by the speed.
Screams disappeared beneath the sound of twisting metal.
The final car split open.
The train stopped.
The tunnel filled with smoke.
Mark remained on his knees amid the wreckage.
Blood that wasn't his covered his uniform, face, and hands.
Around him, nothing moved.
Nolan stood behind him.
"A hundred years from now, none of these people would have been alive."
Mark looked at a severed hand lying near the tracks.
"You killed all of them."
"They would have died anyway."
Mark tried to stand.
His legs failed.
Nolan grabbed him by the hair.
"You need to see beyond these lives."
Mark turned his face.
"I'll never be like you."
Nolan threw him upward.
Mark punched through the tunnel ceiling.
The streets split open.
Pipes, concrete, and vehicles were hurled into the air as he emerged in the middle of an avenue.
Nolan reached him before he could stop.
The next blow carried them out of the city.
The buildings disappeared behind them.
The sound of sirens was replaced by the wind.
Mark tried to attack.
Nolan dodged and struck his stomach.
Mark's body folded.
Another punch struck his face.
Then another.
Each impact carried them farther away.
Fields became mountains.
Cities became points on the horizon.
Mark tried to raise his arms.
Nolan knocked them aside.
Mark struggled to remain steady as he forced out his next words.
"You killed people to prove that they die."
Nolan grabbed the front of his uniform.
"No. I'm only trying to stop you from wasting your life on them."
Mark gathered his strength and struck his father's face.
The blow turned his head.
Nolan released him.
Mark fell onto the side of a mountain.
Snow exploded.
His body tore through stone and ice before stopping inside a crater.
Nolan descended slowly.
Mark tried to stand.
One arm didn't respond.
His left leg trembled.
Blood filled one of his eyes.
Nolan landed in front of him.
"You think this life is long because you haven't lived long enough."
Mark braced one knee against the ground.
"I've lived long enough to know you're a monster."
Nolan struck him.
Mark fell.
"I'm your father."
Another punch.
Mark's face deformed against the stone.
"I raised you."
Nolan lifted him by his uniform.
"I taught you how to fly."
Mark tried to focus his gaze.
"You taught both of us."
Nolan's fist stopped.
Mark continued, even though his voice was barely audible.
"Kai was there too."
Nolan drove another blow into him.
His body fell into the center of the crater.
"You're Viltrumites."
Mark tried to brace his hand against the ground.
Nolan stepped on it.
His fingers sank into the stone.
"It doesn't matter where you were born."
Mark released a muffled sound.
"It doesn't matter who raised you."
Nolan pulled his son up by the front of his uniform.
Mark's face was already unrecognizable beneath the blood and swelling.
"You will live for thousands of years."
Mark tried to open the eye that still responded.
Nolan pointed toward the horizon.
"Entire cities will disappear."
Another blow struck Mark.
"Countries will cease to exist."
Another.
"Everyone you know will die."
Mark fell again.
Nolan stood over him.
"Amber."
Mark tried to raise his head.
"William."
His fist closed.
"Your mother."
Mark looked at him.
Nolan's expression faltered for a fraction of a second.
Then he continued.
"Five hundred years from now, none of them will be here."
Nolan raised his fist.
"What will you have left after five hundred years?"
It took Mark a moment to respond.
Blood ran from his mouth.
He tried to look at his father even though he could barely open his eyes.
"You."
Nolan's hand stopped.
Mark tried to breathe.
"I'd still have you, Dad."
Wind passed through the crater.
Nolan remained with his arm raised.
Mark's bloodied face disappeared for an instant.
In its place, a boy ran across a baseball field.
The helmet was too large for his head.
Nolan stood behind the fence, shouting instructions Mark couldn't hear.
Kai stood beside him, leaning against the fence.
Shorter.
His dark hair disheveled by the wind.
Mark hit the ball.
He ran.
Nolan raised his arms.
Mark reached the base.
He looked at both of them.
Smiled.
Another memory replaced the first.
The twins, still small.
Then the crater returned.
Mark remained on the ground.
Broken.
Waiting for the blow.
Nolan's fist trembled.
He looked at the blood on his own hands.
Then at his son.
The anger disappeared.
Something inside his expression gave way.
Nolan released Mark's uniform.
He took a step back.
Mark struggled to remain conscious.
"Dad..."
Nolan turned his face away.
His eyes were wet.
He looked toward the horizon.
Toward Earth.
Somewhere far away, Kai remained unconscious in the middle of the destroyed forest.
Debbie was with the GDA.
Their house had a hole torn through its roof.
Mark could barely breathe in front of him.
Nolan closed his eyes.
The ground exploded beneath his feet.
BOOM!
He shot upward.
The shockwave passed through the crater and scattered snow, rock, and blood through the air.
Mark followed his father's body with his eyes for as long as he could.
Nolan passed through the clouds.
The blue of the sky darkened around him.
He didn't slow down.
He didn't look back.
The atmosphere disappeared.
Earth remained below.
Nolan continued forward until the planet occupied only part of his vision.
Then he left Earth's orbit behind.
Chicago Central Hospital — 2:16 p.m.
Cosmic remained on his knees amid the wreckage.
Around him, what remained of the hospital slowly sank as support beams gave way beneath the weight of the upper floors.
An alarm sounded somewhere below.
Then stopped.
Cosmic didn't turn back to Elise.
He didn't try to call out to her.
His gaze stayed locked on empty space for several seconds, his face unreadable.
Then something vibrated beyond the hospital.
Beyond the city.
Beyond the atmosphere.
Cosmic leaned down and placed his daughter on Elise's chest.
He arranged one of her arms around the baby.
Then he stood.
The bracelet around his wrist flickered.
The human image of Noah Kells failed for a fraction of a second, revealing dark purple skin and glowing points beneath the dust. The disguise returned before another section of the ceiling collapsed.
Cosmic raised one hand.
He began to consume himself, increasing his own power.
Gravity changed.
The concrete slab stopped above him.
Other fragments began to rise with it, moving out of his way as he crossed the remains of the room.
Moans came from beneath the walls.
A doctor was still trapped under a beam.
Two nurses lay motionless near the hallway.
Cosmic passed all of them.
Not because he hadn't seen them.
Because he had already made the only decision capable of reaching them.
He exited through the opening in the side of the hospital.
He floated above the street covered in debris.
For several seconds, he observed the leaning building, the crushed ambulances, and the people running through the dust.
Then he shot forward.
The air exploded behind him.
BOOM!
Pentagon — Underground GDA Base — 2:25 p.m.
An alert appeared in the center of the command room.
"Object approaching at high speed."
Cecil didn't take his eyes off the last images received from the fight between Nolan and Mark.
"Identification."
The screen changed.
A silhouette tore across the sky, surrounded by gravitational distortions.
"It's Cosmic."
Cecil looked at the calculated trajectory.
The marker wasn't heading toward the main entrance.
It was heading downward.
Directly toward the containment levels.
"Seal access to sub-Z8."
Cecil touched his communicator before the operators could carry out the order.
"And no one fires. I repeat: no one uses weapons against him."
Red lights came on throughout the lower corridors.
Steel doors slid across the passageways. Magnetic locks activated. The central chamber's freezing system increased to maximum power.
Cecil tracked the silhouette advancing across the monitors.
He didn't know whether he was trying to prevent Cosmic from reaching the fragment.
Not yet.
First, he needed to know who had walked out of that hospital.
"Cosmic, stop and talk to me."
There was no response.
The base trembled.
There was no explosion.
The weight of the first doors simply disappeared. Structures designed to withstand military attacks were torn from their tracks and remained suspended in the corridor, slowly rotating as Cosmic passed between them, using more energy than he could sustain.
His human form failed with every step.
Cecil disappeared from the command room in a flash of white light.
He emerged in the sub-Z8 corridor.
Cosmic was already standing before the final door.
"Look at me."
Cosmic didn't turn immediately.
The door's internal mechanisms began to groan.
"Noah."
Cosmic's hand remained raised, but the structure stopped deforming.
He looked over his shoulder.
The human disguise flickered across his face. Beneath it, glowing points moved slowly across purple skin.
Cecil held his gaze.
"You just found your wife and daughter dead."
Cosmic's expression didn't change.
"I know."
"Then you also know why I won't let you touch that fragment until I'm certain you're still thinking clearly."
Cosmic lowered his hand.
The door remained closed.
"I am thinking clearly."
"Men in shock say that all the time."
"I am not a man."
Cecil didn't respond.
Cosmic looked back at the door.
"The destruction is still fresh. Its trace remains on the local membrane."
"Last time, you reconstructed seven bodies and nearly came apart."
"I channeled only a portion of the energy."
"Is that supposed to reassure me?"
Cosmic finally turned around completely.
There was no uncontrolled rage on his face.
No confusion.
The pain was there, but it didn't control his movements. Every word came with the precision of someone who had already calculated the price and decided to pay it.
"I know what the fragment did to my people. I know what it could do to me and to this planet if I lose control."
Cecil took a step toward him.
"You believe you can contain it?"
Cosmic remained silent and nodded.
Cecil understood the answer.
For several seconds, only the red warning light pulsed over them.
Cecil raised a hand to his communicator.
"Disengage the sub-Z8 locks."
An operator responded from the other end.
"Sir?"
"You heard me."
The red lights on the final door turned white.
The magnetic locks disengaged one after another.
CLACK.
CLACK.
CLACK.
The door began to open.
Cecil stepped out of the way.
"How far do you intend to take the reversal?"
Cosmic studied the chamber appearing on the other side.
"As far as necessary."
The containment chamber came fully into view.
At its center, suspended between magnetic rings and surrounded by freezing vapor, was the fragment.
The crystal was barely larger than a coin.
Violet, almost black.
The light inside it didn't illuminate the room. It seemed to consume some of the surrounding brightness before returning it in slow pulses.
The GDA had recovered it from Dry Gorge, where dimensional experiments had opened a region of space that shouldn't have existed within that reality.
Cosmic was the only being in that dimension who understood its structure well enough to use it.
The last time, he had channeled only part of the fragment's energy to reconstruct the Guardians' bodies.
Even then, fissures had spread across his body for weeks.
Cecil stayed near the entrance.
"If there is any way to come back from this, use it."
Cosmic extended his hand.
"First, I need to make sure everyone else does."
The magnetic rings began to vibrate.
Cecil didn't try to stop him.
The rings opened.
The freezing vapor was pulled toward the center of the chamber.
The fragment came loose.
It floated above Cosmic's palm.
The skin of his human disguise vanished completely.
The bracelet burned around his wrist and fell to the floor in two pieces.
Noah Kells ceased to exist.
Cosmic's original form filled the room.
His dark purple skin appeared to contain a distant sky. Glowing points moved slowly across his face, neck, and arms, like stars following the rotation of some invisible galaxy.
The fragment pulsed.
Once.
The entire base lost power.
The second pulse passed through the walls.
Cecil felt his bones vibrate inside his body.
Cosmic closed his fingers around the crystal.
His hand began dissolving into light and shadow.
The fragment passed through his palm.
It didn't break the skin.
It sank into it.
A violet line traveled up Cosmic's arm, crossed his shoulder, and reached the center of his chest.
His body arched backward.
No sound escaped his mouth.
The energy exploded.
BOOM!
The floor sank around his feet.
When he managed to raise his face, Cosmic remained at the center of the chamber.
Larger.
Not physically.
His presence filled the entire level.
The stars beneath his skin multiplied. Lines of violet light and darkness crossed his body like cracks, opening and closing as though unable to decide whether they revealed energy or absence.
The room began to lose depth around him.
The walls seemed close.
Then distant.
The ceiling folded in an impossible direction.
Cecil braced himself against the wall.
He raised his eyes.
A line appeared in the air.
Thin.
Black at its center and violet along its edges.
The fissure grew from the floor to the ceiling.
On the other side, the Chicago sky appeared above a cloud of dust.
Cosmic advanced.
The edges of the opening tore away part of his arm as he passed through.
Fragments of light remained suspended behind him.
The fissure closed.
The chamber was empty again.
Cecil remained standing before the place where Cosmic had been.
Sky Above Chicago Central Hospital — 2:30 p.m.
The fissure appeared above the destruction.
Cosmic emerged from it without slowing down.
The sky closed behind his body.
For several seconds, he hovered over the hospital.
The structure had collapsed even further since his departure. Part of the central wing now occupied the street. Fires were beginning to spread among crushed vehicles, severed cables, and broken pipes.
Hundreds of people were buried.
Some were still alive.
Most were not.
Cosmic spread his arms.
The energy around him expanded.
Not like an explosion.
Like a shadow passing through light.
A violet circle appeared in the air above the hospital. Symbols and lines belonging to no human language began rotating around his body.
The cracks in his skin opened.
White light leaked from one.
Absolute darkness from another.
Cosmic closed his eyes.
He felt the membrane of the universe.
He didn't search through the entire past.
Only for the mark left several minutes earlier.
The moment two bodies tore through the hospital.
The impact.
The death.
The local timeline still carried the scar.
Cosmic took hold of that scar.
And pulled.
The world trembled.
VMMMMM.
The dust stopped in the air.
Flames froze above the cars.
A drop of blood remained suspended on a paramedic's face.
Then everything began moving backward.
Slowly at first.
A stone rose from the ground.
Another followed it.
Thousands of fragments of concrete lifted at the same time, passing through the cloud of dust toward the hospital.
Twisted beams straightened.
The crushed metal of the ambulances regained its shape.
Broken glass leaped from the asphalt, crossed the air, and returned to the windows in a sequence of small cracks.
TRRRRCK.
The building rose.
Entire floors lifted as columns reconstructed their own structure beneath them. Open walls closed. Broken pipes connected again. Burned wires retreated from the flames and disappeared into the ceiling.
The destruction rolled back.
And the blood with it.
Red stains traveled backward across the floor. They returned beneath the bodies, rose into open wounds, and disappeared beneath the skin.
A patient's crushed chest regained its shape.
His lungs expanded again.
He drew breath.
A nurse emerged from beneath the wreckage as the wall lifted off her. Her bones straightened. Her neck returned to its proper position.
Her eyes opened.
A doctor who had been torn apart between two floors became whole again as the floor reconstructed itself around his feet.
Dead people began breathing throughout the hospital.
Not like the resurrected awakening from sleep.
As though death had never completed the movement.
The alarms returned.
Lights came on throughout the corridors.
Gurneys slid back into position.
In the maternity ward, the crushed wall moved away from the bed.
The concrete rose.
The beam returned to the ceiling.
Elise appeared beneath the wreckage.
The blood flowed back into her body.
Her broken ribs joined together.
Her crushed organs regained their shape.
Her eyes remained closed for several seconds.
Then her chest rose.
She inhaled.
Her daughter returned to the nurse's hands, where she had been before the impact. Her skin regained what little color it had possessed. Her heart returned to the weak rhythm it had maintained before the destruction.
The nurse began moving again at the moment local time reached the point Cosmic had chosen.
She positioned the mask over the baby's face.
Elise opened her eyes.
There was no destroyed wall.
There was no blood on the sheet.
For a fraction of a second, something seemed wrong.
The sensation of a fall that had never happened.
The doctor beside her checked the monitor.
"We have a heartbeat."
The nurse pressed the mask down.
Once.
Twice.
The baby's body contracted.
A weak sound escaped her throat.
Then came the crying.
Small.
Irregular.
But present.
Elise turned her head.
Her eyes moved around the room as though she had forgotten something.
"Where's Noah? Where's Cosmic?"
She directed the question toward a nurse.
Above the hospital, Cosmic heard her.
He didn't open his eyes.
The field continued to grow.
The hospital was whole.
But the destruction didn't end there.
The trail left by Mark and Nolan continued through the city.
Cosmic found the trail.
Buildings torn through.
Streets split open.
People crushed.
A path of death stretching for miles.
He moved his hands.
The violet circle expanded.
The edge of the field passed through the buildings surrounding the hospital and began advancing across Chicago.
The cracks across Cosmic's body grew.
Part of his shoulder opened.
There was no flesh inside.
Only light surrounded by darkness.
The reversal reached the first block.
A partially destroyed building reconstructed itself.
Bodies buried beneath the wreckage returned to their apartments.
A woman who had died beneath her own kitchen awakened on her feet, holding a plate that had never fallen.
The field advanced.
Asphalt returned to the craters.
Crushed cars regained their shapes.
A man who had been crushed between two vehicles reappeared in the driver's seat, drawing breath and bringing his hands to his chest without understanding the pain that no longer existed.
Cosmic continued.
The fragment's energy passed through his body faster than he could channel it.
The fissures reached his neck.
The left side of his face began to lose its shape.
He didn't reduce the field.
The reversal reached the glass tower.
Thousands of fragments rose from the streets.
The facade began closing from the bottom upward.
Destroyed rooms returned.
People who had been thrown outside reappeared inside the floors.
Some of them.
Not all.
But with every second, more people breathed.
With every second, less of him remained.
Remote Area — 2:32 p.m.
Kai opened his eyes.
The sky was empty.
He stood too quickly, and the world tilted around him. Pain tore through the inside of his skull, but urgency overwhelmed it.
He looked around. Hail Mary's corpse remained sprawled across the forest. The Immortal's body was still nearby, separated from its head.
Kai shot into the sky almost breathless.
He flew in circles above the region, extending his senses until they reached distant roads, mountains, and cities.
No sign of Nolan.
Then he saw columns of smoke rising between the buildings.
He moved toward them. Entire streets had been split open. Structures had been torn through as though something had carved a path across the city.
Wind pressed against the wounds on his face as he followed the trail of destruction.
He passed a highway covered in crushed vehicles.
Buildings torn open.
Rescue teams pulling bodies from the rubble.
The path continued toward his own neighborhood.
Kai slowed in front of the house.
Part of the roof was gone.
He descended through the hole.
Part of the bedroom was destroyed. Wood, plaster, and pieces of the roof covered the floor.
Kai pushed aside the debris and found the communicator where he had left it.
Less than two minutes had passed since he opened his eyes.
He activated it.
"Cecil."
The response came immediately.
"Kai."
"Where's Nolan?"
A brief pause.
"He's gone. After defeating Mark."
Kai ground his teeth, his fingers tightening around the communicator.
"Is Mark alive?"
"He's being recovered."
Kai passed through the opening in the roof and returned to the sky.
"Tell me where my father went."
"He left orbit in a straight line, with no sign that he intended to turn back."
Kai didn't respond.
Cecil continued.
"There's another problem."
In the distance, violet light crossed part of the city.
Destroyed buildings reconstructed themselves beneath it.
"Cosmic is using his own body to reverse the destruction caused by Nolan and Mark."
Kai turned in that direction.
"What?"
The transmission crackled.
"He won't survive."
Kai shot forward.
"Kai, listen."
The sky opened before him as he accelerated.
"If your power can do anything, now is the time."
The communication ended.
Sky Above Chicago
Kai found Cosmic above the hospital.
Fissures crossed his face and chest, leaking light and darkness. Particles broke away from his body and were absorbed by the temporal field around him.
Even so, the restoration continued advancing.
Concrete rose from the streets.
Wounds disappeared.
People began breathing again among buildings that had been only partially reconstructed.
Kai passed through the field.
The temporal pressure struck his senses like thousands of overlapping events.
He ignored it.
He reached Cosmic from behind and placed both hands against his back.
Cosmic opened his eyes.
"Kai?"
The Void responded.
The energy inside Kai passed through his arms and entered Cosmic's body.
The fissures stopped growing.
The part of his face that had begun disappearing regained its shape. The fragment's light stabilized inside his chest.
The restoration field began advancing again.
An interrupted tower resumed its reconstruction.
Another block began to return.
Cosmic looked over his shoulder.
"Let go."
Kai kept his hands in place.
Violet energy traveled up his arms.
Glowing lines appeared beneath his skin, crossing his neck and reaching his face. Blue filled his eyes until it nearly erased his pupils.
Through his contact with Cosmic, the fragment's energy touched the Void inside him and opened something beyond the layers of reality.
For an instant, Kai saw the Void in its true essence—not as absence, but as the point where every possibility began.
His entire body began to tremble.
"You can't sustain this, Kai."
Kai pressed his fingers harder against his back.
More energy was drained.
Pain tore through every scar inside his brain at the same time.
Kai screamed.
The sound spread across the city as the Void burned through the inside of his body.
Cosmic turned part of his face toward him.
"Kai, let go now."
There was no response.
The field pushed several more yards forward.
People crushed beneath a suspended walkway reappeared on top of it. Their lungs filled with air.
The fissures across Cosmic's body diminished.
Kai's began to appear.
Small energy lines opened across his arms and face.
Cosmic understood.
Kai wasn't only feeding the fragment.
He was taking the destruction in his place.
"You're going to die."
Kai continued holding him.
He only pushed more energy forward.
Cosmic closed his eyes.
The temporal field stopped.
The field hung suspended above the streets.
The blood stopped on its path back into the bodies.
Buildings remained trapped between ruin and reconstruction.
Kai tried to increase the flow.
Nothing happened.
Cosmic had stopped the restoration.
He gathered what remained of the energy around his own body.
Gravity exploded between them.
BOOM!
Kai was thrown backward.
He immediately tried to return.
Space curved around Cosmic.
Kai advanced, but the distance between them increased with every movement.
"No!"
He concentrated Blue in his hand.
The energy failed before it could take shape.
Cosmic remained on the other side of the distortion.
Part of his face was disappearing again.
He looked at Kai one last time.
Kai was hurled downward.
His body tore through the side of a partially reconstructed building and fell among beams and concrete.
He tried to stand.
His arms didn't respond.
Above him, Cosmic stopped resisting the fragment.
The fissures spread across his entire body.
His violet skin opened into hundreds of glowing points.
For an instant, his form resembled a constellation suspended above Chicago.
Then it collapsed.
There was no explosion.
Only light and shadow were being pulled into a single point.
The violet circle above the city went dark.
The suspended concrete fell.
Partially reconstructed structures stayed unfinished.
Kai tried to raise his face.
The lights in his eyes flickered one last time.
Then disappeared.
He fell unconscious among the wreckage.
Around him, sirens cut through the streets.
Newly restored people drew breath without understanding how they were still alive.
And above them, there seemed to be no trace of Cosmic left.
Interlude — What They Could Do
Guardians of the Globe Headquarters
The screen showed Invincible crashing through another building.
The structure collapsed behind him.
Before Invincible could regain control, Omni-Man was already upon him again.
Rex stood with his arms hanging at his sides.
"He's still trying."
Invincible managed to strike Omni-man.
The blow barely moved him.
The response sent him through another city block.
Monster Girl looked away from the fight and observed the smaller images surrounding the main broadcast.
Buildings split open.
Crushed cars.
People running through the wreckage.
"We can't help him."
Black Samson remained in front of the large screen.
"Not in that fight."
He picked up the communicator from the table and walked toward the exit.
"But we can save whoever we can."
Frost was the first to follow him.
Dupli-Kate split before she even reached the door. Shrinking Rae climbed onto one of the duplicates' shoulders. Monster Girl followed close behind.
Rex looked one last time at Invincible being driven into the ground.
Then he turned away.
Rudy entered Robot's armor.
The thrusters ignited.
When the headquarters doors opened, sirens were already echoing throughout the city.
The Guardians departed toward the wreckage.
It was all they could do.