[A/N]: My bad guys, I accidentally uploaded the wrong chapter earlier š this is the correct one. As a little compensation, I've uploaded the full chapter without splitting it into parts. Enjoy!
"O' Universe tremble, for Mother Earth has birthed an unforgiving force. And it looks upon you Wanting."
Jay closed the broadcast. He tucked Loki's card into his breast pocket next to the Infinity Stones that were now also turned to cards. Two of the most dangerous objects in the universe, and a prince carried casually like loose change.
Then he felt it. The weight of thousands of deaths pressing against his consciousness. Every civilian crushed by debris, every first responder who'd taken a blast meant for others. Every hero who'd died before help arrived, every child, every parent and every person with dreams cut short.
Jay had seen each death in perfect clarity when using Franklin's cosmic awareness. Felt their last moments and knew their names. Margaret Chen, age thirty-seven, was crushed when her apartment building collapsed. David Morrison, age eight, was killed by shrapnel, and Maria Rodriguez, age sixty-two, died shielding her grandchildren.
Twelve hundred names, twelve hundred faces and twelve hundred lives that ended because Loki decided Earth was his to conquer.
The guilt finally came crushing.
He'd saved so many. But he'd been too late to save everyone.
His hands clenched into fists. The cracks across his body widened further. He was dying by inches as Darwin's adaptation could only do so much.
But these people deserved to live.
"Fuck it," Jay whispered. "What's the point of having godlike power if you can't save people?"
He reached deep. Past his failing body, past the fractured containment and past everything Darwin's adaptation had built to keep him alive. He grabbed the untapped reserves of reality manipulation still echoing in his cells.
Using Franklin's power one more time would tear apart what little structural integrity his body had left.
But Jay didn't care.
He snapped his fingers one final time.
'SNAP'
The sound echoed differently this time. Not across space, but through time itself. Death became a suggestion rather than an absolute.
And across Manhattan, impossible resurrections began.
A mother who'd been crushed by falling debris suddenly found herself standing three meters away. Unharmed with just a vague sense of dislocation, of something wrong that had been made right.
A SHIELD agent who'd taken a Chitauri blast to the chest gasped and now looked down at his intact uniform. His hands flew to where the wound had been and found nothing, just smooth fabric and whole skin. He'd been dead, he remembered dying. And now he wasn't.
A young boy who'd been trampled in the evacuation sat up in the shelter. Confused why his mother was crying. She grabbed him and held him tight. Unable to explain the sudden terror that gripped his heart.
Thousands of resurrections happened simultaneously. Each death was rewritten. The battle still happened; the invasion still occurred. But the casualties were erased.
Everyone who'd died because of Loki's actions, directly or indirectly, now lived again.
The psychological impact was immediate. People who remembered dying and People who remembered watching others die. All of it now existing in a quantum state where both realities were simultaneously true.
Some screamed, some cried, and some fell to their knees in prayer. A select few simply stood there, trying to process the impossible.
Across the city, the same realization spread.
"The casualties... they're gone. Everyone who died... they're alive."
"It's a miracle."
"No. It's more than that. It's..."
"Resurrection. Mass resurrection. More than a thousand people were brought back from death."
But to Jay, the strain was instantaneous.
He dropped to his knees. The cracks spread across his entire body. His arms, legs and face. There were fractures in his very being. His cellular structure failing, and his DNA coming apart at the seams.
Darwin's adaptation screamed in protest. Every cell tried to adapt and survive. But there wasn't enough left to adapt.
The containment around Franklin's power shattered completely.
Reality itself began to fray at the edges around Jay.
"No," Jay gasped. Blood poured from the cracks in his skin. "Not yet. Got to... get to Franklin..."
Blue energy rippled weakly around him. The teleportation was sloppy and barely controlled. Space folded wrong, creating tears that would take hours to heal. But it worked.
Jay vanished from Stark Tower.
Baxter Building - Medical Wing
Jay materialized in the middle of the medical wing, but six feet off the ground and fell, hitting the floor hard.
Reed and Sue looked up, shocked.
Franklin lay sleeping in his mother's arms. Peaceful and perfect. Just a normal baby, unaware that he'd been born with the power to make universes for fun.
"Jay?" Sue's eyes widened. "What happened to you?!"
Reed stood quickly. His mind immediately told every crack covering his body, and the pristine clothing vanished, replaced by his previous torn, violent shirt and jeans, revealing the state of his body for all to see.
"Dear God, you're coming apart..."
"Franklin," Jay gasped. He stumbled forward as each step left footprints that glowed with residual energy. "Need to... give it back..."
He fell to his knees beside the medical bed. His hands shook violently as he reached toward the sleeping infant.
"What are you doing?" Sue's maternal instincts flared as she pulled Franklin closer.
"His power," Jay's voice was barely a whisper. "Been holding it... processing it.... Need to give it back before..."
"But you said you'd constrain it!" Reed protested.
"I did." Jay's hands found Franklin's tiny chest. The baby didn't wake, just made a small sound of contentment. "Dozens of locks and constraints. He'll grow up to have a safe childhood. Powers won't fully manifest until his mid-twenties or he's in mortal danger."
Cosmic Reality warping began to flow from Jay's body into Franklin's. The transfer was delicate and precise despite Jay's failing condition. Each layer of power was carefully constrained and wrapped in locks that would only release when Franklin was capable enough to handle them.
The baby glowed softly for a moment. Then the rainbow light faded as Franklin yawned, still sleeping. The infant was completely unaware that he'd just regained the power to reshape reality itself.
Jay, seeing his godson sleeping peacefully, collapsed. He fell forward, but Reed caught him before he hit the floor.
"Easy! Sue, look after Franklin. I'll get the medical scanner! We need to stabilize him!"
Jay's consciousness was fading. The cracks across his body had stopped spreading now that Franklin's power was gone. But the damage was done even though Darwin's adaptation and his Healing aura were working overtime, trying to heal him. But this kind of healing required a long time.
Outside the Baxter Building, Frank Castle's Gundam vanished, replaced with his old mech again. Through his comm, Frank's voice came. Tired but satisfied.
"Baxter Building's secured. All hostilities neutralised. Dr Richards, your wife and son are safe."
Reed's reply came back after they'd stabilised Jay in the medical tank. "Thank you, Frank. Thank you for everything."
"Just doing my job, Doc. Though I gotta say..." Frank's voice carried a note of wonder. "That Gundam thing? That was something else. Maria and the kids are never going to believe me."
The Punisher's mech stood vigil through the night. Watching over the building and his and Red's family, safe inside.
Across the City
Peter Parker landed on a rooftop near the evacuation shelter. He finally allowed himself to stop. His enhanced stamina was depleted, and his body screamed for rest. But his heart was full.
FRIDAY's voice spoke in his ear. [Excellent work, Peter. Final count: you saved an estimated four hundred and seventy-three lives today. Multiple news outlets are already calling you Spider-Man.]
"Spider-Man?" Peter pulled off his mask, gasping for air. His face was flushed, sweaty and streaked with dirt and blue blood. "That's... that's actually pretty cool."
[It's very cool. Would you like me to -]
The AI's voice cut off as his suit glitched and returned back to his original torn-apart suit.
Peter now walked back to his friends across the broken cityscape, now that those amazing suit and web shooters were gone.
At shelter 17-B, Gwen and Harry were waiting outside with hundreds of others.
"Peter!" Gwen saw him first in tattered clothes with soot and wounds all over him. She ran forward. "Oh my God, you're alive! We saw you run off and then everything went crazy and we thought..."
Johnny Storm landed beside Ben Grimm in the middle of a street filled with deactivated Chitauri. His flames finally extinguished completely. He was exhausted but exhilarated.
"We won, Ben. We finally won."
"Course we did." Ben's rocky face cracked into a wide smile. "We're the Fantastic Four. Winnin's what we do."
"Fantastic Four and a half," Johnny corrected. "The baby counts too. He's part of the team now."
"Kid ain't even got his eyes open yet and you're already givin' him superhero status?"
"Family tradition." Johnny grinned. "Besides, with his parents? That kid's going to be amazing."
They laughed, exhausted and relieved.
The nightmare was over.
In District X, the bunkers finally opened fully as thousands of civilians poured out, blinking in the sunlight. They were now relaxed enough to stare at the Morlocks who'd saved them.
Storm landed among them, exhausted but triumphant as her legs wobbled and blood still crusted under her nose. But she stood.
Callisto approached immediately.
"How's everyone?" Ororo asked.
"Every civilian we guided here made it," Callisto said. "Zero casualties in District X proper. Some injuries, minor ones, but amazingly, everyone's alive."
"Then we succeeded."
Luke Cage and Iron Fist stood in the middle of a street littered with unconscious Chitauri. Their bodies ached in places they didn't know existed.
Luke's supposedly unbreakable skin had bruises forming beneath it. Dark purple shadows that would take days to fade.
Danny's hands were raw despite the Iron Fist's protection, and his knuckles were swollen.
They looked at each other and bumped fists.
"We're going to need a bigger office," Luke said. He gestured at the destruction around them.
"We're going to need a lot of things." Danny's Iron Fist faded completely. His chi was finally depleted as the golden glow flickered out. "Starting with about a week of sleep."
"Seconded."
Jessica Jones landed beside them with a thump that cracked the asphalt. Her flight was unsteady now, wobbling. Her clothes were torn, and her hair matted with blue blood. But she was grinning.
"You guys look like shit," she announced.
"You look worse," Luke countered.
"True." Jessica's grin widened. "But I feel amazing. Did you see that? I punched through a Leviathan! An actual goddamn Leviathan the size of a building! And it died!"
"We all saw it, Jess." Danny tried to keep his voice serious, but failed. "It was very impressive, but we are back to normal again. Now, can we please find somewhere to sit before I fall down?"
Across the city, newly arrived mutants were suddenly teleported back as suddenly as they came.
In Tokyo, Surge sat on her apartment floor. Electricity still crackled between her fingers as her hands shook. She'd been killed today. Aliens, yes, but living beings. She'd felt them die through the electricity. As he was processing what to think of this, her phone buzzed.
It was a message from an unknown number.
"Noriko Ashida. You showed great courage today. But courage without control is dangerous. The Xavier Institute offers training, community, and purpose. You're not alone in this. When you're ready to learn, we'll be here.
-Professor Charles Xavier"
Surge read it three times as her vision blurred with tears.
"I'm not a monster," she whispered to herself in Japanese. "I'm not alone."
In Lagos, Ngozi materialized back in her tiny apartment. She'd saved maybe fifty people today by using her newfound intangibility to pull them through debris, to shield them from weapons fire.
Her mother burst through the door. Screaming her name and pulling her into a hug so tight that the tired girl nearly passed out.
"You were gone, Nogi! Where did you go?!"
"New York, Mama," Ngozi whispered. "There was a battle, and people needed help."
Her mother pulled back. Staring at her daughter. "What has happened to you?"
"I don't know. But..." Ngozi looked at her hands. "I helped people, Mama. I saved them."
Her phone buzzed. Another message from Xavier with an offer of understanding.
In Brazil, Robert DaCosta looked at his hands, still glowing with absorbed solar energy.
His phone showed frantic messages from his parents. And beneath those, Xavier's offer.
"Your power is a gift, Roberto. Not a curse. Let us help you master it. Let us show you what you can become.
-Charles Xavier"
All across the world, the story repeated. Awakened mutants receiving guidance, offers of community and invitations to become more than they were.
Some accepted immediately, desperate for understanding.
Some ignored the messages, terrified of what they'd become and done.
Some saved the contact information but didn't respond. Not ready to commit, but not ready to be alone.
Jay's gambit had worked. He'd created thousands of new heroes in one moment.
The question was: what would they become?
SHIELD Helicarrier - Medical Bay
Agent Phil Coulson's eyes opened.
He gasped. His hands flew to his chest where Loki's scepter had punched through. Where he'd felt his life bleeding out. Felt the cold creeping in. Felt death's certainty.
But his chest was unmarked. Not even a scar. Just smooth skin under his torn, bloodstained shirt.
"What the hell..."
Medical equipment beeped around him. Suddenly going crazy. Alarms blared. SHIELD doctors rushed in. Their faces showed pure shock.
"Agent Coulson! Don't move!" The lead doctor looked like he'd seen a ghost. Which, technically, he had. His hands shook as he reached for Coulson's wrist. Checking for a pulse, he knew he'd find but couldn't quite believe. "This is... this shouldn't be possible. You were dead. Your body temperature had dropped. Rigor mortis was beginning..."
"Well, I got better," Coulson said. His voice was hoarse. He tried to sit up but failed as his muscles were weak but functional.
The doctor pushed him back down gently. "You need to rest, and we need to run tests. Agent Coulson, you were dead for six hours. Your resurrection violates every law of biology we understand."
Through his window, Manhattan's skyline was visible. Damaged but standing. Smoke rising from dozens of impact points, and Emergency vehicles swarming. The sun was setting now, painting everything in gold and orange.
Coulson thought about death. About the cold certainty that his story was over.
And about coming back. About being given a second chance.
The world had changed today.
Coulson smiled. Despite the confusion and not understanding how he was alive. He smiled.
Death, it turned out, wasn't the end.
And life? Life was better than the darkness.